New hardrive, new OS

[Colonel C]

So today my shiny new seagate barracuda ATA 200GB (7200RPM) HDD arrived. Now I have an 80GB Maxtor ATA HDD + the seagate. I plan on uninstalling XP from my maxtor tonight when I install my new seagate. Then I'll install XP on the 200GB HD (for games etc) and then I plan on installing linux on my 80GB Maxtor.

I was wondering what version of linux would exactly be best. I've used SUSe 9.3 pro before (on my brothers computer) and I found it to be nice, but not very user friendly at first (since I've been using windows for so long). However, I've heard good things from Fedora core 3, and fedora core 4 is coming out soon.

So my questions are; Will having two operating systems on the same computer whilst being on different hardrives have any affect on performance and, what version of linux should I get?

 

[imported_Phil]

No effect on performance.
Fedora's nice, but Ubuntu would possibly be easier for a first-time user as it's simple to set up and play with.

 

[spherrod]

i would go with Ubuntu - I've found it very nice to setup and use

 

[BlueWeasel]

Ubuntu is a good choice, and I'd also recommend PCLinuxOS.

Most of the popular distros now have a LiveCD that you can download, burn to a CD, and boot into Linux off the CD. I'd pick a few that you are interested in and use the LiveCD to see if it's one you want to stick with. That way, you don't have to spend the time installing each distro every time.

 

[LBmtb]

I have Fedora 3 and like it. There is a learning curve but that's just cause most of us are used to Windows. Once you get used to Linux it feels more straightforward then Windows.

Fedora, Susu, Mepis, or Ubuntu would all be good choices. Chances are you'll end up trying out several distros eventually.