I said STOP!

You *are* going to back up your *irreplaceable* files before you go installing an OS. Right?

Seriously, I have installed OS’s *hundreds* of times (all Wins and *many* linux’s) and Linux is a *very* well behaved OS to install, but don’t make us listen to your bitching if *you* hose your drive.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s get a little systematic. This is going to be an earfull.

First your desires (pure GPL distro) are in conflict with your requirements (proprietary codecs), so since you have already decided which is more important (codecs) we can eliminate pure GPL distros.

Next start by realizing that *many* people will come and tell you what the best distro is, and they are all right. It is the best distro, for *them* at *that moment*. The GNU universe is so diverse and evolves so rapidly that 10 different people really will find ten different *best* distros.

You have Linux friends so I know some of this is known to you but I am going to act as though you really don’t know anything.

Some of the most important upfront questions are:

0) is my hardware supported
1) what desktop environment
2) what method of software management
3) what is more important to you, system stability/few essential application or widest range of leading edge applications
4) how much wet work (set-up, modifying, troubleshooting) are you willing/able to do
5) equivalents to your windows applications

Starting at the top. Most distros support the same hardware as each other but not *always* so LiveCDs of the distros you are thinking about will ensure a reduction in headaches. Your hardware list looks pretty well supported, camera and on-board sound, etc. are the things to check for, so check now before you get to your experiment.

Next, desktop environment. Gnome KDE, XFCE, other. As a general set of rules.

Gnome is more similar to OSX.
KDE is more similar to Windows.
XFCE is lighterweight (as well as most others Fluxbox, IceWM, others).
You can install any, and as many, desktop environments as you want on any distro and choose between them at log-in.
The default desktop environment (DE) for a given distro will give the most polished least problematic experience.

I generally steer people who are coming from Windows toward KDE, it is most similar to Windows and so is a good place to get oriented. Later once the culture shock is over and a person has their equilibrium they have an easier time exploring, as long as they have a safe known setup that works for them to get back to. So the first goal should always be to get to a comfortable productive place as quickly as possible. The DE and apps you settle on are ultimately available on any distro, it’s just a matter of how much wet work.

Next, software management. You probably have heard of the two main types, RPM and Deb, I recommend Deb. For a Windows user I consider this the single most important make or break consideration. This topic usually isn’t emphasized strongly enough and it is also one of the most foreign concepts to windows users who only have one way that they traditionally think of for installing software (although there is another). Installing software in Windows (when it works) is *simpler* but installing software in Linux (when it works) can be far *easier*.

In Windows the first way you install software is with an .exe or .msi, a program that comes bundled with all of the supporting libraries it needs, and the second is with Windows update. Generally speaking RPMs are like exe’s *without* the required libraries bundled with them, the installation of which would often generate errors stating that the missing library was preventing install. This was such an obnoxious problem it earned the name “RPM Hell”. In response to this RPM began to evolve additional layers that try to automatically find and install the required additional packages. The Deb system has always done this, the Deb system is like Windows update but including the OS *and* 3rd party software. There are online repositories that hold literally *thousands* of applications and their supporting files. You have a simple text file on your computer that has a list of multiple repositories and you run a GUI that presents all those apps to you for possible install.

Imagine that, imagine if *every* application available for windows were available through Windows update and to install it all you had to do was put a check mark next to it and hit install. Imagine if whenever the program was updated you would get a little notification in the taskbar asking if you wanted it updated now, For every program installed on your computer, that is what the Deb system is. Honest to God once you experience a Deb system hooked up to good set of repositories it will *blow* *you* *away*.

This is a good point to address what devnet said:

“Tell you what…if you want something ready out of the Box…DON’T use Ubuntu. Use SimplyMEPIS or PCLinuxOS. The rest of the distributions out there DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT fit this bill. You’ll only have a good experience if you use these distros.

Anyone touting Ubuntu is full of crap…I only recommend Ubuntu to someone who’s used Linux before. You haven’t. So I have to recommend those others.”

This is an incomplete oversimplification and it needs to be elaborated on. The whole “out of the box” issue generally relates to a small handfull of items, items that relate to your “I’d like a fully GPL system, but if it’ll be a royal pain in the posterior…I don’t want it” statement.
The items are generally

DVD decryption
MP3 playback
Windows/Apple/Real Media playback
3D video driver support
Java
Flash

That’s mostly it, when people talk about user friendly distros or working out of the box they are almost *always* talking about that set of items being preinstalled. Now I have done two installs of Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE instead of Gnome as the DE, kubuntu.org) in the last 24 hours and to install everything on that list *except* DVD playback all I had to do was put a check in a box next to the item in the Deb GUI frontend and hit the install button. I don’t agree with devnet’s statement. SimplyMempis and PCLinuxOS are both good (KDE based) distros but SimplyMempis is in the process of switching over to Ubuntu as *it’s* base, it’s important to understand why.

Debian (hence the Deb software install system) is the GrandDaddy of the Deb side of Linux, and you can think of it as a tree, Debian is the trunk. Distros based off of Debian ( K/X/Ubuntu, SimplyMempis, Xandros, Linspire/Freespire, many others) are like parts of the tree further up they are both smaller than and dependent on the lower part of the tree, they grew from it. Ubuntu was started as a variation on Debian that could be more rapidly developed and standardized on more cutting edge versions of applications, among other things. As Ubuntu became more popular folks wanted variations with different DE’s, KDE and XFCE and most recently Fluxbox so we now have Kubuntu, Xbuntu, Fluxbuntu all working off of the same base. Distros have two essential elements, software and people, the people both make and support the software. The more people the better the software, some distros have hundreds of people in their communities, some thousands and a very few tens and hundreds of thousands. The “buntus is/are one of those very few, up there with Fedora/RedHat and Debian itself, Suse/OpenSuse runs a distant fourth. This is why more and more Deb based distros are switching their base to “buntu.

So what this means practically speaking is that if you have a question odds are one of the *hundreds of thousands* of ‘buntu users have already solved it. If you are looking for software *not* in the ‘buntu repository it is increasingly likely someone has made a deb for you and if there is a feature you wish existed in the distro it may show up sooner rather than later. Compare these advantages to the disadvantage of having to go through a couple extra steps to install a handfull of packages that you will have to do only once. This is what devnet failed to explain.

And there are many more advantages that the ‘buntu’s offer as well, it’s all about critical mass.

If you want to see the Deb install system made so easy your grandmother could do it look at cnr.com developed by Linspire/Freespire (which is switching to a ‘buntu base) they are going to open Click-N-Run to other distros and they are starting with
• Debian
• Fedora
• Freespire
• Linspire
• OpenSUSE
• Ubuntu

Once you have answered these questions you have narrowed things down quite a bit. The next couple of questions just fine tune things. If you want *absolutely* rock solid look to the farthest upstream distros, Debian RedHat, ‘buntu LTS (LongTermSupport), Suse, Xandros or if you want more current applications any of the community developed distros.

If you really don’t want to lift a single finger to get the proprietary stuff working, look at SimplyMempis, Freespire on the Deb side, PCLinuxOS uses a hybrid Deb/Rpm system. But I think you would be doing yourself a favor if you throw Kubuntu in the ring for consideration, keep in mind the proprietary stuff won’t work on the liveCD but would be easy enough to add once you install. Additionally there is a third party tool called Automatix (not ready for Feisty yet) that gives you a GUI to install all these applications (and more) that folks always complain are so hard on ‘buntu.

Honestly though if you are a coder you are going to have far bigger fish to fry than getting the small handfull of proprietary apps working and I would not base my choice of distro on saving those few steps.

As far as the apps go

Eclipse for Visual Studio? (I am no coder and cant speak to Python support)
I agree, after you try Amarok you might wonder how you ever got by with WMP.
Gaim seems to be leader for IM
I personally like Azureus for torrents
For video editing you could try Kino, Avidemux, Cinlerra (quirky but advanced)
I use KGet for downloading (several others I haven’t tried)
I second OpenOffice
You will find enough editors to bury a small nation
Your biggest issue will be an IDE you like.

a few other suggestions

virtualbox.org, run windows inside of Linux if you want (it’s a nice backup while you get used to things)
DigiKam will be good for your camera/pics
Google picasa works great
GDebi is really handy for installing downloaded Deb packages not in your repositories

Honestly once you try Linux to actually succeed in a *new* environment rather than just a different Windows environment it offers so much, and it is growing so fast.

I have read two separate reports of Microsoft internally estimating that GNU/Linux usage could exceed 50% within the 6-8 years.

@devnet: Of the Live CDs I’ve used, SimplyMEPIS is the one that came close, so I might just use that. Ubuntu was horrible the last time I tried, but maybe the new release will be better…

Hope something useful comes out of this…

Anyone touting Ubuntu is full of crap…I only recommend Ubuntu to someone who’s used Linux before. You haven’t. So I have to recommend those others.

- Your hardware seems to be no problem. Everything should work out of the box. On the first start Ubuntu might ask if you want to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers but it will work without them, too.

- NTFS read/write: ntfs-3g is what you are looking for.
Should work out of the box in Feisty. In the current version you have to install it and configure it over a simple GUI with exactly 2 checkboxes(!), so no problem here either.

- Firefox is the default browser in Ubuntu, no need to learn something new. When installing ubuntu will ask it should get your personal data, IM logs, bookmarks, etc. from your Windows patition. Seems to be quite easy.

- I don’t really know much about blogging, but there are plenty clients available which support many different blogging APIs.

- WMP11: Use Amarok. WMP is a joke compared to it. It’s the best Audio player/library application known to man.
It fetches covers, lyrics, information about the author, album and the song automatically, has an music-shop with full-length high-quality previews without DRM, supports iPods out of the box and plenty other things I can’t remember. Oh yes, and of course it can play music

- Audio and video support: If you try to play an unsupported the first time a wizard will pop-up and select the needed packages in your package manager for you. Click OK and the necessary things will be installed.

- Cleartype: Font rendering was much improved in Feisty, for me it looks much better than MacOS or Windows, but you might need some time to adjust yourself.

- Office: OpenOffice.org 2.2 should be in Feisty which supports the new next-generation ISO-approved OpenDocument Format

- Skype: It’s available for Linux, too. But to be honest: It really sucks! For the rest: GAIM which is installed by default handles them all.

- uTorrent: kTorrent (but there are many to choose from)

- Windows Movie Maker: Depending on what you need, look e. g. at Jokosher, Cinepaint, Blender and some others, there are also some commercial applications.

- PowerShell: You’re joking right? Coming to the Linux world and asking for a shell …

Regards

Steve

Office 2007: OpenOffice is the closest you will get.

Well, actually that’s all I know. I just find myself wanting to say “Good Luck” with a gigantic smirk on my face for several things (Movie Maker, IDE with Intellisense, Powershell, Cleartype).

Regarding germ’s comment: for a product to go mainstream it generally requires that geeks think highly of a product and recommend it. So if Yuvi here likes it, he might recommend it to all of his friends/family members, brining it that much close to “mainstream.” However, it is quite unlikely it will be able to do all of the things he expects a computer to do, and I can sense that you know it.

Nonetheless, this should be pretty interesting.

You need o define what “ready for the mainstream” is before you start. Otherwise you can claim that it fails after the fact regardless of the outcome.

Also, beware that if you conclude that it fails to be “ready for the mainstream”, then all other operating systems fail to be “ready for the mainstream” if any one user had similar problems with it.

Cheers