Shoutbox

Years ago I tried Mandriva (well when it was Mandrake.. must've been about 2003-2004?)

Anyways I've grown tired lately of Microsoft, Windows et al.. e.g. have been using OpenOffice and am really intrigued by ReactOS..

Anyways I'm looking at putting Linux on my laptop (probably as a Dual-Boot)

I want one that has a simple GUI.. probably the only good thing I liked about Windows.. preferably one that is not too dissimilar to Windows to be fair.

Not worried about what softwarre comes with the distro, i mean I can download that but want something that will nigh on replace need for Windows..

What I've found so far is: Lin/Freespire, XandrOS are supposed to be near XP in their style..

Any ideas? I don't have CDs large enough to burn the ISO images so I will have to pay the small fee for a distribution so would like one I won't regret!
Edit/Delete Message

Ubuntu ftw!! http://www.ubuntu.com/ get a cd of it for free, or download it. and add Beryl onto it, and its great.

openSuSE is kinda similar to Windows GUI-wise.
Uses its own modified KDE menu bar which is nice. Sure you can find plenty of screenshots

and its pretty customizable too. i would say its one of the best for a computer thats going to have more than one or two users. very child friendly.

It's probably not the answer you were looking for, but seriously -- consider switching to Macintosh.  With OS X, you will get a UNIX(FreeBSD) OS with an outstanding and consistent GUI on top, a good selection of apps, and all of it will just work. 

The "just works" part and consistency have always been the weak spots for desktop Linux, mainly because there are competing solutions for everything (e.g. GNOME vs. KDE).  When you start to mix and match,  that's where maintaining a desktop Linux system becomes a full-time job.

rps did a good job!

quote:

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Originally posted by Voldemort
rps did a good job!

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Actually, rps had nothing whatsoever to do with me switching to a Mac. 

quote:

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Originally posted by Adeptus

quote:

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Originally posted by Voldemort
rps did a good job!

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Actually, rps had nothing whatsoever to do with me switching to a Mac. 

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unless rps stole your windows laptop :------o

meh, its all the same these days. anything goes.

hehe thanks anyways.. i didnt want to wait up to 6ish weeks or ubuntu so ordered a cd from a supplier on ebay, 1.49 wasnt too much i thought so ya know..

and yes it is hijackers lol