Wow, I'll bet there isn't one of us "Linux Investigators" that hasn't struggled with the question of "which Linux distro is right for me ?".
I?ve been dabbling in and out of Linux for about 6 years now. I?ll be the first to admit that if your computer needs go no further than Microsoft Office / Internet Surfing / Emailing / Listening to music and Photo Editing, to me there?s little reason to pay the hellishly high prices Cousin Bill [Gates] is demanding these days. Then, when you add product activation, yearly licensing fees, etc. to the Microsoft carta, one has even more reasons to embrace Linux. I?ll tell you, running any variant of Linux with the KDE 3.3 desktop / OpenOffice v2 / GIMP v2.2 / Mozilla Firebird & Thunderbird is super combination that would put a smile on the majority of Windows XP user?s face !
So my first point is ask yourself "which software do I want to run ?" Then, obviously, make sure the Linux distribution contains it.
You can?t beat Knoppix for a Linux distro that will run entirely off a 700-MB CD. It?s incredible, and, a fantastic way to sample what Linux is all about WITHOUT screwing up your hard disk. It?s a tad slow, as you would expect from running entirely from the CD, but it?s still very tolerable. Knoppix is up to version 3.9 of Knoppix now, and it has no problem accessing my wireless network / working the printer & scanner / my digital camera /etc. Mepis Linux 3.3 takes second place in this category. With Gnoppix, Mandrake Live, and SuSe Live rounding out the top 5 in my opinion. I?ve also tried ?Dyabolic Linux?. It too runs entirely off the CD, but what might make it interesting to you is that it?s geared towards ?Music Enthusiasts?. (and I don?t mean just ?listening? to music. But editing and manipulating it as well. Kind of like AcidPro / Sound Forge etc.)
In the full blown category of Linux, (the ones that install on your hard disk and require you to repartition it), again, I?ve sampled numerous distributions. The winner ? SuSe 9.3. Second place goes to Mandriva 2005; with Fedora Core 3, Ubuntu 5.4 and Slackware 10.1 rounding out my top five in this category. What I like about SuSe 9.3 is it?s simplicity (for a Linux OS !!). Installation of the Operating System and application software is almost on par with Windoze. (and let me tell you, installing software on many a Linux systems can indeed become a nightmare FAST !)
Video drive issues with ATI cards has always been my biggest challenge with any Linux distribution. Followed by Scanners issues as it tries to install the ?Camera? as a ?Scanner?.
Long winded answer... hope it helps.