Goineasy9 wrote:

And there's always the Live CD's. If you aren't able to find the info you're looking for, just download a Live CD and test it on your netbook. A broad range of drivers are included on the Live CD's and if your driver is not included, you can use the setup option to see if it's included in the repos. You can even download it into the live session and see if it works before installing the distro to the hard drive. BTW- since many netbooks don't have a cdrom drive, that same LiveCD can be transferred to a USB stick and booted from there.

He's right, that's always a good idea before trying the distro. I did that to make sure my USB to LAN converter worked.

On apps that aren't KDE native (ktorrent, koffice, konqueror, etc...) I've noticed that the theme is a very basic Windows 95 type of look. I'm sure there has to be a way to change this, because it really bothers me that it isn't pretty and everything is square. Just so you know what I'm talking about I attached a screen shot of a menu that's doing that in google chrome. I'm running slack 13.0, but it's a KDE problem. If I run firefox without a theme it looks like windows 95. Is there a way to have the KDE theme applied to non-kde applications?

I added one of firefox too.

or are you asking how to partition your 80GB hard drive on an ubuntu intsall if you plan on running the operating system as a file system?

There is a program in Linux called GIMP that mirrors Photoshop functionality. It's the best alternative to photoshop there is on linux. Personally I dualboot almost solely to use photoshop because I just can't get the hang of GIMP, but I'm sure I would be good with GIMP if it's where I started.

I've heard that Photoshop CS2 and CS4 will run under Wine in linux, so that may be your best chance.

If you're set on using photoshop, dual boot or use Wine. If you are just trying to get into to photomanipulation or don't mind learning something new GIMP comes pre-installed on Ubuntu and is a great program.

I have to add a quick note about Linux Mint. It's based off of ubuntu 9.10, but it's a little bit more windows friendly with a bottom menu bar. It's great if you really like ubuntu. I'm a KDE fan myself despite mint using gnome though.

I don't know the best distro for what you need, and I'm sure some people on here will be in to offer some helpful advice, but I just wanted to note that when you create users you can create users that need root authorization to do much of anything but use the desktop. Ubuntu should even ask for root authorization for program/hardware installation. To edit those settings, go into the control center and go into edit users, where you can adjust their permissions.