Via Simon, maybe I'll give Ubuntu Linux a try.
A while ago I went through installing Gentoo, but when I got to setting up X Windows it kept crashing. I think it was some AGP issue, and I never got a chance to go through the full gamut of possible settings to figure out what was wrong. I've wanted to get my Linux install working, but it's a huge disincentive knowing that when I want to start working with it it's going to cost me hours to first try to get X-Windows working correctly (and that's before configuring Gnome and everything else). And even after spending hours I'm still not guaranteed to get it working.
So, I'm BitTorrenting the LiveCD iso and I'll try Ubuntu out. If I like it well enough I'll likely just scrap my Gentoo install and start with a working Ubuntu system. I was kind of psyched about possibly squeezing a little more life out of my 5-year old computer with Gentoo by having everything compiled specifically with optimizations for my Pentium 3, having the kernel only have exactly what I need, configuring X specifically for my video card, and so on, but none of that means anything if I'm still stuck using Windows 
Before I install Ubuntu I'd like to check out Gentoo's "easy install" of X Windows to see if that'll get me going, but if I like the Ubuntu LiveCD I probably won't even bother. I just hope the Ubuntu installer will let me keep my current GRUB setup (and partitions, etc.).
Note: LiveCD (625MB) downloaded in ~26 minutes with BitTorrent.
Update: /. is on it, and one of the readers recommends the Ubuntu starter guide at http://ubuntuguide.org/
Friday, April 8, 2005
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Been there, done that. And that's a major reason why I use Windows on the desktop (another major reason is the much greater availability of much better and polished software).