Win User wanting to learn some Linux n need help/ideas

[IFMU]

Ok Ive been (and still am) a Windows user for some time. I have tried different Disto's of Linux and each always seem to seriouslly tick me off so I end up dumping it till I get calmed down enough to give it another shot.
I have tried RH, Lycoris, Debian, Mandrake and Undead Linux (Evil Entity). Not sure on which revisions anymore. If I had to say, I would go with Mandrake 9.1 (or 9.0?) RH, 6.4, 7.? and 9 and no clue on the others.
With using all of those the best layout I liked was in the Undead Linux. I beleive the layout (?!) was called Enlightenment. Just liked the feel of it better then KDE or GNome.
I am willing to play and learn, but if I have troubles I get annoyed and ditch it. I want to be able to load everything on my system without serious hassles. I dont mind some editing, but too much and I get annoyed. LoL
Now, my hardware.
MSI K7D Master-L (Duallie)
GeForce4 Ti 4200 w/128
WinFast TV Tuner
Muse XL 5.1 Snd
And pretty much standard elsewhere.
I want to be able to use this hardware so adaptablity is a must. Big time, I hate rebooting all the time just so I can do something in Windows that I cant within Linux.
I have everything ready to get a version installed, just need to decide on what distro it will be.
Running dual without having to "recompile the kernel" is a serious bonus. I dont want to have to do this just to run a dual.

I am Looking for something I can play with and still be able to run my music, TV, browser, F@H and chat progs without getting some rather annoying problems. I know most now have ... MX ? some prog that will play MP3's and GAIM. Which is a good start, but I need some input.
I am on cable, so downloading and burning to a CD is no problem.

So... anyone willing to share what may be a decent distro to give a shot with?

Any help would be (and is) appreciated.

TIA

IFMU

[Smizack]

Red Hat 9

And from what I understand you can use enlightenment with it. I haven't tried it yet though.

[sjohnson]

Still a big SuSe fan here. RedHat makes it tough to *selectively* patch your system IMHO. Add to it the one free update account per email address and it gets cumbersome unless you buy a corporate license.

[Smizack]

Originally posted by sjohnson
Still a big SuSe fan here. RedHat makes it tough to *selectively* patch your system IMHO. Add to it the one free update account per email address and it gets cumbersome unless you buy a corporate license.

But if you knew some of IFMU's past with Linux and getting along... You'd sayd Red hat.:D

[IFMU]

Originally posted by Smizack
But if you knew some of IFMU's past with Linux and getting along... You'd sayd Red hat.:D

That aint no SHI!!

But Im pretty much ready to run in utter and horrible terror just at the thought of installing RH again...

Wonder....Nixphobia....... bet Id end up with it...................

[TheDude]

I just started using SuSe and it looks very promising so far...I'm still learning something everyday and I still have a windows pc running for when I get frustrated to switch to until I calm down again. ;)

[sjohnson]

I can understand the frustration. Ask Dale - my first few installs of SuSE in getting ready to help him were miserable.

Turned out I had to do a non-ACPI install and SuSE 8.2 turned from an ugly beast that refused to work to a docile little kitten.

Once I figured out that SuSE and ACPI weren't going to get along on my rig the install was a total no-brainer.

[TheDude]

LOL...yeah you had more problems setting it up than I did. Hopefully you can get me thru these updates and some other basic stuff and then I can pickup the rest over time. Thanks for the help Steve. :D