Linux masters of the universe: i need your input

[ArnoldaTermintr]

i want to rebuild the custom WinXP system i had done a few mos ago. But i'm not into Linux enough these days to know the hot distro. Here's what i got & what I want to do:

80GB laptop drive
WinXP+SP2 Corporate Ed (latest Nov07 driver pack + patches to Nov 6 '07)
20gb various windows apps
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Edition Corporate
5-6gb various linux apps
windows 98SE + unofficial upgrade pack (final) + various apps
stack of DVDs & CDs various games, apps, mp3s

Can i put together a tri-boot system, so it gives options for XP+SP2, Win98SE & a linux distro?
Which distro should it be?
Want something the biggest computer dummy can understand (will torrent this as soon as final ghost image is done). A boot manager for dummies would be perfect.

it's a Gateway 7215GX laptop specs page,and most/all the drivers seem to work on Linux. WiFi, no bluetooth. USB 2.0 ATI IGP 320M Graphics, 64 MB shared VRAM.

A few suggestions on the proper linux, whether GRUB or a custom loader shoudl be used, etc. would be helpful.

oh yeah, and a name for this customized Tri-boot OS is appreciated. The old version was called Chinese Democracy 2008. After locking down 99% of various settings in Group Policy, Registry & scripts, this will be the most secure Windows ever.

[Panda Man]

Yup. I'd highly recommend ubuntu, it's very friendly towards people new to the linux scene.

(Assuming XP and 98 are installed already) Get a partition manager like swissknife (or the one I'm going to PM you =D ) to free up about 20 gigs at the end of the drive, and create a 19.5GB "ext3" partition (make sure it's a primary partition) and a 512mb linux swap partition. Then pop the ubuntu DVD (I really recommend the DVD over the CD, if for nothing else, to use a text only install) in and tell it to install text only (much easier this way) Go through the wizard, and when you get to the disk setup portion, make sure the ext3 partition is set to "/", or root. When it wants to install a boot loader (GRUB) it will detect other OSes installed, it should detect both XP and 98. If it does, go ahead and install the boot loader. If it doesn't you will have to edit it later manually. Hope this helps =D

[ArnoldaTermintr]

i'll try that. Anyone who has some rare apps to submit, can pm me with the details. After spending hours...no i mean days looking around softpedia, freewareapps, oldversion, free-codecs & others sites this is it. Unless you include the few adobe trialware apps, the entire OS is GPL & freeware. Not bad. Unless someone hates learning new stuff. in that case, they can throw away GIMP & Virtual Dub, in favor of Photoshop & Premiere. Which of course is stupid, because the average user will never use 80% of Photoshop's features nor about 90% of Premiere.

Another question. Would an autorun .exe listing all the apps be more appropriate? Or just a webpage they can reference before or after auto install? I used Winborg 5 & Black XP as a reference for the slipstream. Tiny XP never worked on this laptop for some reason. But it's also damn good for a custom install.

[Panda Man]

Another question. Would an autorun .exe listing all the apps be more appropriate? Or just a webpage they can reference before or after auto install? I used Winborg 5 & Black XP as a reference for the slipstream. Tiny XP never worked on this laptop for some reason. But it's also damn good for a custom install.

erm, what is this for exactly? Without knowing I'd have to say the web page.