What should I get I've heard RedHatand Mandrake are best for beginners,if so what version? Thanks in advance.

The latest is usually the best. For Redhat this is 7.2, for Mandrake I think this is 8.something... I'm not sure.

Redhat 7.3 is out, as of May 6, 2002. Press release at http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/2002/press_seventhree.html

Red Hat 7.3, and Mandrake 8.2 are the latest versions I believe. Other popular distros include Slackware 8.0 (One of the older distros thats still around), Debian (Debian works closly with the GNU project), TurboLinux (Dotn know much about it...), and there are several others, basicaly do some research and pick the one you like best.

SuSe is a very good distro for complete beginners.

You should use Mentalinux Debian GNU/Linux! At least after I finish making the install disks and find someone to host my build server...just use Debian GNU/Linux, it is a very nice distribution. The install isn't difficult--you just have to remeber what hardware you have. And actually, it can autoprobe your graphics card driver, so that isn't a big deal--leaving you to do what? Tell it you have sound card foo and a realtek ethernet adaptor? Jeez, people are so lazy.

hey unknown, is mentalinux your own distro? if so, what does it contain? how big is it? can it run on a FAT32 file system? can it run from within windows?

I need a good distro that can run from within windows as my parents wont let me get rid of it or dual boot :(

Mentalinux (http://mentalunix.sf.net) is my distro, yet. Note how there has been no activity in over a year. It died miserably, and deserved to die because I came up with the idea before I learned about Debian (which basically had all of the stuff I wanted MentalUNIX [renamed to Mentalinux after quite a few people on /. after my interview pointed out that UNIX is trademarked by AT&T...] to have). But now Debian 3.0 (woody) is about to be released (right after they make rbuilder work)...but it has a few large problems. Mainly the installer sucks (for a new user who doesn't know their hardware well), it is missing packages like KDE 3, Guile 1.6, and XFree86 4.2, and there isn't a way to install the system with no user interaction...so I've started the project back up again (the other two original developers are also with the project again) and am building the first install ISO now (using pgi). If someone would donate a few gigs of space and let me run the Debian auto builder, I could get the project running again more quickly...(does anyone have a spare server lying around :P)

get mandrake. dont ask why, just get it.