NP8180 - What version of linux do you use

Hello everyone, i have an Sager P180 from mythlogic and i am looking at dual booting it to some version of linux.

My hardware is as follows: I7 - 2670QM, 6990m's in crossfire, Bigfoot Killer wireless N 1103, 8 GB of ram.

The main hardware component im worried about finding linux support on is the wireless card, has anyone had experience getting this to play nice with linux?

Im installing linux to use for mostly work, where one of the engineers overseeing my project really highly prefers linux and is advocating for us to move towards it. My worker has had some issues getting linux going on his new samsung laptop, hes trying to use ubuntu. Are there versions of linux you would recommend besides ubuntu?

 

Ubuntu is actually one of the better "flavors" of Linux for those new to it. They have excellent community support too, which you can find here Ubuntu Forums The last time I checked, someone had a great fix for the Belkin USB wifi adapter to get it to work in Ubuntu.

Other Linux distributions I would recommend are OpenSUSE or RedHat as either of those types of distributions are used on some business enterprise level networks (SUSE Enterprise or RedHat Enterprise) so they should have better support than most for end users as well.

 

Here are the Linux Distributions (Distros) I'd recommend:

-Ubuntu
-Linux Mint
-OpenSUSE
-PCLinuxOS
-Fedora

You would probably want to stick with one the most popular distros while you are learning. Chances are, if you run into a problem on the common distros, you'll be able to find an answer with your favorite search engine.

Once you get comfortable, then you can move to another distro that might better fit your needs.

 

Note, that there are ~three main kinds of linux these days.

Debian based, Slackware based, and Redhat based.
Personally I like Debian based ones.

Here is a SHORT list of some of each type:

Debian based:
Ubuntu (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and all other derivatives)
Linux Mint (Actually a derivative of Ubuntu)
Debian Mainline (not very newb friendly)
Knoppix

Slackware based:
All versions of SUSE linux
Slackware mainline

Redhat Based:
All rehats
All fedora
Mandrake
CentOS
Yellowdog
TurboLinux

See this graphic for lots of details

In that graphic you will see that there are hundreds of other distro's, including some entire tree's of distros that are totally separate from the three main ones above.

I'd highly suggest you stick with Ubuntu though.

 

I don't know how USEFUL this is, but it's interesting to be sure. Here's a list of different distros and how they're related to one another.