Since you're new to Linux, I suggest trying out virtualization before you dedicate a box to it. That way you can try several different distros in a week just to get a feel of it, and then start worrying about dedicating hardware for it once you're committed.

VirtualPC from Microsoft is easy to set up but usually screws up Linux installations. Maybe you can try VirtualBox.

Oh yes ofcourse, volt, try VMware Player, it's free and you can easily download a free openSUSE, or Ubuntu VM.

My experiences with VMWare, which was a fair bit of time ago, was that it was nowhere near as easy to set up as VirtualPC. I believe the newer VMWare Player is probably much easier to set up though.

I've successfully managed to set up Ubuntu and OpenSUSE amongst other distros in VirtualPC, thanks to google. However, some of these VirtualPC installations have just died suddenly without proper cause :B

And I much prefer Windows 7.
</offtopic>

*cough**cough**cough* noob *cough**cough**cough**cough*......

+1

Linux on a my phone YES
Linux on my servers YES
Linux on my laptop NO.

I have to laugh always at my coworker that has many of those little annoyingly problems when developing on his linux based laptop...

<offtopic>
Windows is for closed minded people who cant see outside the vision created by some nerd M$ engineer.

For people who want PC to behave like THEY want it and DO what they want - that's where Linux kicks in.

Whenever I have to do something on Windows PC, I can't stop frustrating myself. It's soooooooo darn limited (it's getting worse with every new version)!!!

Let's be honest - Linux on desktop is NOT for everyone (unless you're ubuntu user and want only basic things).
</offtopic>

I hope that 4 years from now we can say the same thing about N900!!!

The validity of this statement is:

false.

Nah, windows is cool. It's easy. It's all about having the easiest possible interface in a family environment. It's not for closed minded people. It's for people with children, who want to play games and go online easily, by clicking the big blue e or globe with a fox. 7 year olds have a certain difficulty with command line interfaces. Even more so when spelling is not their strong point. Windows aint all bad.

I have W7 x64 build 7600 on my gaming rig at home. It's lightning quick. I've turned off all the crappy User Account Control things too. It doesnt give me grief. It saved all my data from a borked HDD by warning me that a fail was imminent. My Mrs can even get on Facebook on it!

Now thats worth paying that kinda money for....

<offtopic>

Sorry. The previous post was <off topic>

</offtopic>