I am considering downloading a Linux OS onto a clean computer and was wondering which platform would be the best and also how much ram would be optimal.

Ive had the N800 for a few months now and I enjoy linux more than windows.

I've heard of a few names like Ubuntu and Fedora, but my experience is more with Dos and Windows, so this would be a first.

Any advice would be appreciated.


Paul

Ubuntu, 512M but try the "live" distro first if you just want to get a feel for it (these run straight from cd). Expect to have to learn a bit more "low level" stuff than you would on Windows but IMHO that's the stuff that provides a refreshing sense of freedom and control that you don't get on Windows. In my experience 99/100 times I have had a problem or simply want to "do something" GNU-Linux (to use the proper term) has the solution, if not several.

From the point of view of a non-linux person, I found Ubuntu remarkable easy to set up and use for a linux.
As to ram, well, linux can get away with less of it than windows but you know how it goes, the more the merrier!

It's too bad Ubuntu doesn't like my hardware.

Depends on what you want to do with the computer. For KDE + some office software, web browsing... even 256 MB RAM would be more than sufficient. But if you are buying a new computer anyways, 1 or 2 GB would certainly the better choice.
Nowadays hardware detection/support on Linux is *much* better than it used to be 3-4 year ago. Most hardware will run out of the box without problems. But with certain types of peripherals (e.g. printers, special game controllers, scanners) it's better to do some googling before, to see if a usable Linux driver exists.

I would suggest that you first download a Linux live DVD. This way, without installing Linux, you can have a look how Linux feels on a desktop computer, what the KDE desktop environment looks like compared to Gnome, how the hardware detection is working for your computer...
A very good Linux live DVD is Knoppix.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

If you are switching from Windows to Linux, you'll probably feel more at home with the KDE desktop environment instead of Gnome. Two popular distiributions which have KDE as default desktop are Kubuntu and Opensuse. So when installing Linux, you might want to have a look at these. Both Opensuse and Kubuntu also have live CDs, so you can also try them out before installing. Though these distributions are mainly meant for installation, therefore their live CDs don't have all the bells and whistles Knoppix has.
http://www.opensuse.org/
http://www.kubuntu.org/
For both (especially for Kubuntu) a very big community exists, so it's easy to find help in case any problems arise.
(In case you decide to use Kubuntu you should wait some more days, as the next version Kunbuntu 8.04 will be released end of April. Afair the next Opensuse version is scheduled for June).

Ubuntu is excellent. I, for one, recommend you try the Hardy Heron (8.04) release. It is not quite out yet, but ready enough (release in 4 days) that I would be delighted for it to be someone's first step into desktop Linux. It also comes packaged on a Live CD, so you can see whether it works (or you like it) ahead of time.

As for DOS experience, there is one thing I feel I should mention. DOS has given a bad connotation to command line interface, and has given people an assumption that it is bad; they simply do not expect the great features available in modern shells.

For example, the Dash shell used for terminals in Ubuntu has contextual tab completion for practically everything. If you enter apt-get, it will tab complete for one of the operations that program does, such as install. Then it will tab complete actual packages, depending on the operation selected. That shell is simply incredible, and most distros use either it or Bash.

Oh, and the GUI is nice, too

A good place to be bewildered by choice is

DistroWatch.

The overall most trouble-free Linux out of the box, for me, has been Linux Mint.

I have had mixed results with OpenSuse lately.

GreenOS ..... stupid too short message restriction

I second that Linux Mint is a great choice. It is based on Ubuntu, so you get the stable version without the ugly orange and brown. (Instead you get ugly green!)

The ubuntu.org forums are a great place to learn how to fix what you willl break. Kubuntu is not as easy to learn, and my experience was 60-75% of the apps I used were Gnome instead of KDE. I had 4.0 running on a clean install and I uninstalled KDE and tweaked Gnome. With Compiz.

I disagree that anyone new to Linux should install a recently released distro of Ubuntu. When released, they are barely stable.

FWIW, I am in my 4th year of Ubuntu only. I started out 10 yrs ago with RH 5.0 and then Mandriva (then called Mandrake) and debian apt-get in synaptic is waaaaaaaaaaaay easier than RPM was with disk drake.

I didn't even know that gOS was called GreenOS. Yes, a good one to try.

People with somewhat tricky hardware and not much expertise tend to try different Linux versions until they get the one that works well for them. That's why Live CDs, as mentioned above, are so popular. You can try most distros out before permanently installing them.