There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

[Phantom]

Mandriva contains both a lot of opensource and proprietary software and drivers. When I was trying to find a linux distro for my laptop, the only one that worked for my wireless card was Mandriva. So if you're worried about driver support, try them. Also when trying linux best thing to use is a Live CD, it runs completely off your CD drive without making any changes to your computer as well.

 

Me i'm a big supporter of open source, even though i do regretably have to use microwaste on my desktop

[rknapp]

I might try a dual-boot setup.

 

That way, if I need Windows for something, it's not far away.

[Phantom]

I might try a dual-boot setup.

 

That way, if I need Windows for something, it's not far away.

 

That's a good idea, though I do have to warn Windows users that in my experience it gets a little bit picky when it's dual booting with another OS. If you are to go that route install windows first then the Linux OS, because if you don't Windows will make sure its the only OS that boots.

 

On another note, should you choose to dual boot, pay attention to the boot options. By default, linux sets itself as the default OS to boot to with 10 seconds to choose from, IMO I used to make sure I had at least 30 seconds to choose and had windows as the default (because at the time, windows was the only OS i could use that would connect to the internet).

 

Another things is don't fret when it comes to wireless. Take a look at the forums if you run into any problems setting up your card. I just had this happen to me when I installed openSUSE 11.0. All it took was looking at the forums, and seeing that my wireless card was installed under the wrong drivers. Oops. :wacko: Also if you're in a situation like me, make sure that to solve a driver problem like that, that you do have a connection to the internet so you can download the right packet to rectify the situation.

 

Well, I said enough, off to watch some more Degrassi