I just got a new computer (Dell XPS M1530) which is amazing! However it has Windows Vista on it and I've heard many bad things about it. Personally I havn't had this computer long enough to experience any bad sides of it.

Well recently I've been thinking about installing Linux on my computer. I know I can install it side by side but is it worth taking up the hardrive space?

If I do install it, which ones should I look into? I would mainly use it for my graphic/advertising design and possibly some web page design. Also for photograph editing.

Please give me your input. I'm looking for lots of opinions! The most helpful one will be chosen as best. Than you in advance!!!
The first guy (Turner) said Linux does not work with wireless...

does he mean interent. Also how does internet work with Linux. Is it all the same. I have a wireless card installed for internet on this computer.

1. 99% of the complaints against Vista are udder (as in breasts) FUD. I switched to Linux for reasons totally unrelated to Vista's compatibility or performance.

2. Linux is a good learning experience, especially if you like to try something new. Linux does not take up much hard drive space. Depending on the distribution, it takes up between 50 MB and 4 GB. Vista, by comparison, takes up a minimum. of 9 GB, and more realistically 15 GB.

3. You should look at ones which have great community support. These would be Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, and OpenSUSE. These people can guide you through any problems you might have.

http://www.opensuse.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://www.kubuntu.org/
http://www.linuxmint.com/

4. All of these, and others, have tools available for design and photo editing. Programs include Nvu, GIMP, and Blender.

http://www.nvu.com/
http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.blender.org/

Turner is incorrect. Many wireless cards work just fine in Linux, and the rest can be fixed by using "ndiswrapper" and the Windows drivers. Dell laptops are great with Linux; Dell even sells some with Linux.

The internet works exactly the same as it does on Windows. You get a web browser (Firefox or Konqueror; Opera is also available), email clients (Thunderbird, Evolution, KMail), chat clients (Kopete, Pidgin), etc...

Hi, the best is openSUSE, its the most polished, stable and innovative and bug free.

http://en.opensuse.org

Here is my suse blog:

http://snake1990.wordpress.com

In 24 days then new version opensuse 11.0 is coming out and here our its screenshots:

http://en.opensuse.org/Screenshots/openSUSE_11.0_Beta2

Its also the best looking

If u have any questions contact me, and like with any distro always join its forums.

http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de

Good Luck and take care!

Edit:

If u want to try ubuntu go ahead, be my guest, but once u try suse u r going break the ubuntu cd in half. OpenSUSE is the easiest version of linux to use ever, it has GUI tools for every little thing. In Ubuntu u should get ready to learn the command line. Go use crappy ubuntu, I can't believe I got all these thumbs down for telling her to use my favorite distro rather than that ugly unstable crap.....whatever.

Anyway if u have to use do professional graphic design and stuff as well as web page designing then u should really have got Mac OS X.

Edit 2:

The first guy is just saying crap, don't listen to him.

Visit my blog and it has some great stuff to give u an idea of how linux works and believe me u will need to learn all that stuff at some time.

In openSUSE we have GUI tools to configure everything from wifi to dsl and just about everything.

Our GUI control center is called Yast. Oh yeah we have firefox, opera and many apps u have on windows r there for linux, internet is the same on all platforms.

I hope u use kde, its a way better desktop compared to gnome and then u will have konqueror as a file manage and a browser as well, it is what safari of mac os x is based on, again read some of the beginner stuff in my blog, it will really help u get started, don't walk in to a new operating system blindly.

Most likely there is no big deal what *nix you use, about all software is free and updates are regular.

One of most user friendly Linux is Ubuntu, what is somewhat of a child of Debian. You can also test it without installing on live cd. For your main use, it probably will depend on software you would use rather then Linux distribution. Ubuntu most probably has the Best packet software maintainer, so it should fit to any newbie needs.

"Graphic/advertising design and possibly some web page design" - if your completely new to Linux i recommend 32bit version of the OS you pick. You can run IE (as well lots of software like you might have - Photoshop, Aftereffects, Adobe Air, Silverlight, Flash, Dreamweaver) in wine, if you need to test compatibility or just develop stuff.

if you use wireless then do not use linux it does not work with wireless devices

You should definitely download Wubi and give Ubuntu(the most popular version and known as the easiest Linux distribution to use) a try. You should be able to find most of the programs already in Ubuntu that you'll need. Plus, Ubuntu is nice because you really don't have to worry about viruses because nobody makes viruses for Linux! And did I mention Ubuntu and everything in it is completely free? However, you might encounter a few problems with Ubuntu since you plan on using it for work. Ubuntu does come with GIMP which is somewhat comparable to Photoshop. However you might find that you will need some programs only made for Windows. If so that is OK because you can "Dual Boot" Windows and Ubuntu very easily. Dual Boot means you can have both operating systems installed on the same computer(Ubuntu only takes about 4GB to install so it hardly affect hard drive space on modern computers) and then choose which operating system you would like to use at startup. This makes it really easy because you can do most of your work on Linux, but when you need a Windows program you just simply restart your computers and go into Windows to do that work. You can find much more information about comparisons if you just google "Ubuntu vs. Windows" I hope I was helpful!