Linux wont work on my notebook!!!

why not try a live disk first? I doubt there's anyone here with your exact laptop running that distro.

Ok, here are just my 2 cents.

CentOS is nothing but a spin-off from Fedora Core and as such, it will behave in a similar maner. That said, I don't recomend Fedora Core because it is known to be a bit on the laggy end in terms of speed, performance, and hardware support (at least in my experience).

I would try a more speed-oriented, or more "supportive" distro, also possibly a more popular distro that will give you a bigger support base.

So here is just my brief list of recommendations:
Ubuntu - Fantastic hardware support out of the box, HUGE user base so if you need any help there is always somebody around.
Yoper - its the fastest RPM based distro around. To go any faster you'll have to go with Gentoo (its been proven to be faster than Vector from what i've seen). The out of the box hardware support is also pretty good. The downside is that the sources for apt are lacking at this time.
OneBase - great binary/source hybrid distro. its fast, and clean, i liked it from my experience. the net-install always seems to have bad md5 issues however and thus requires creative thinking to get it installed.

(example of bad md5 error).
I was trying to install onebase on my desktop last weekend doing a binary (b/c that comp has a 866mhz P3 and source will take forever) install with KDE (gnome is an option). So it installed the base packages fine, installed teh kernel fine, but KDE had issues, that is the qt package had bad md5, so what i had to do is install qt using source install first, and THEN install kde from binary (i guess i could have tried gnome as well, but i thought kde would be easier to use for my dad...i was wrong, just as myself he favors gnome)

I though CentOS was nothing but a copy of RHEL, not Fedora.

Maybe I'm confused.

you're right, CentOS is RH based, but you know, RH, Fedora, essentially the same thing.

that said, livecds, that depends. Not all distros offer live cds, and in many cases just because something runs on a livecd doesn't mean it will run when installed. I speak from experience.

On my laptop i ran the Mepis live cd perfectly, but after the install things started to go VERY WRONG, VERY FAST! On the flip side, the Ubuntu livecd crashes and burns on my laptop but I am using an installed version right now without any problems, in fact it has the best hardware support for my laptop of ANY DISTRO out there. Similarly on my desktop the Ubuntu live cd runs fine and dandy but when you install it, hell, it freezes on start up (i assume its a xorg issue but i am not sure).

Same could be said about Kanotix running in livecd on my lappy but installing pretty poorly.

That said, livecds are a hit or miss, so are installs. your best bet is just to try a few diff distros and see what you like best. I would set up different types too so you have a general spectrum of things.

here are a few suggetions.

by the way, try gnome and kde, as well as some of the lighter guis to see which one you like best. i prefer gnome myself, but some people can't stand it, so try the VMs and see which one you like best for yourself.

ok, now for the distros:
Category : Name : Why

Debian spin-off: Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu: Has a huge user base (ubuntuforums.org) and fantastic hardware support generally. It also gives you the power of Debian's apt-get which is in my opinion the best way to get software, PERIOD!

Source Based: Gentoo: What can I say, the choices are few. if i were you i'd go either Onebase or Gentoo. Gentoo will be faster than onebase, and it does have a larger software library and a forum that is always filled with good ideas.

RPM Packaged : Mandrake 2006 : Better hardare support than Fedora, and hell, 2006 is FAST. yes older Mandrakes were pretty slow and urpmi does suck (compared to apt-get) but its pretty fast at least in terms of boot time.

Slack-based: Vector : Based on rock-solid slackware, but fast as a mo-fo.


for mroe ideas visit distrowatch.com

I use Kanotix live cd to browse on a Toshiba "winmodem" which Kanotix picks up with no problems. Kanotix is a Knoppix clone that seems to be built for laptops. Kanotix can be downloaded for free and you can then burn the "ISO image" to a cd(in windows) for use.

Kanotix is not a bad distro at all. Its based on bleeding edge debian + kde structure and is very solid. Unfortunatlly my hardware doesn't like it (or it doesn't like my hardware...take your pick). The best part is taht its a live/install cd on 1 cd.

I had an HP laptop, and although there's a steep learning curve using gentoo, I love it and will never enjoy an os as much if I don't compile everything from source. The forums are extremely helpful also.

to each his own with gentoo.

i can't really stand waiting around for as much as hours for a program to install (emerging OOo took 8 hours...i know there is a bin, but thats an example, firefox and thunderbird took just under an hour). That is why i am a big fan of apt-get. That said, I do have VidaLinux on my desktop right now, and i can't complain about portage, except for really long wait times.