The ability to interact between computers using tools such as ssh and scp at the command line is incredible. Especially if you ever have to do it over a bad link where remote desktop is painfully slow.

@Gadgety

you may be interested in wubi the windows installer for ubuntu
http://wubi-installer.org/

In a word: everything

Including:

• Completely explore and customize the operating system
• Fully understand how it works - this is essential if you want to be able to produce hacks instead of just consume them
• Most probably reformat and repartition the device at some point in the future
• Make automated backups
• Create custom notifications in case your device is stolen (e.g. a script that takes a photograph and sends it to you using mail along with the GPS location)
• Hack it in other mysterious ways :-)

EDIT: Sample

I like that idea. lol

What distro is best for you depends on how much you would like to learn about Linux and how much time you want to initially invest in it.

If you just want to try it out and see what the fuzz is all about, I would recommend Linux Mint. My girlfriend uses the KDE version of it and she is way happier than with Ubuntu/Kubuntu which she had tried before. I have to mention here that it is an advantage to use a Debian based distribution if you plan to do development for Maemo (Maemo is Debian based and the SDK is made with Debian based distributions in mind).

If you are eager to learn more about Linux actually works and you are not afraid of the command line, I would recommend Gentoo or Arch. These are considered "advanced" distributions and they have a steeper learning curve, but it is not as bad as it sounds. I use Gentoo and did not have a lot of problems when I first started (~7 years ago btw). The good thing is that these distributions have very elaborate installation instructions and you will learn a lot about how a Linux system works just by following the instructions and trying to understand what you are doing. They also give you more freedom. For example, if you go with Ubuntu your window manager will be Gnome and you will need to install Kubuntu if you want to try KDE. In Gentoo, you can install Gnome, KDE, XFCE,... at the same time and use whatever you like.

One thing you should be aware of is that Gentoo is a source based distribution, i.e., everything will be compiled on your PC and then installed. This can be a problem if you PC is slow, otherwise compiling is quite fast. Being source based also has advantages, for example USE flags in Gentoo. Many Linux programs have features which can be enabled or disabled when the program is built, USE flags allow you to control what features programs have on you system. For example, if you enable the "qt4" USE flag for VLC, the Qt 4 GUI will be built, otherwise it won't. Another advantage is that it solves some problems with patent restrictions. In Ubuntu you have to do some hacks in order to enable MP3 decoding, since they are not legally allowed to ship an MP3 decoder without paying licensing fees. In Gentoo, they don't give you an MP3 decoder, just the source code of it.. and it is perfectly legal to do so without paying licensing fees .

Well, anyways, this post got way too long, probably because it is Sunday morning and I'm hangover from last night. Choose whatever distribution looks most appealing to you, it doesn't cost anything (except time) to switch distributions later on.

Good luck!

My situation is similar to yours except I changed my computer OS from Windows to Linux first, and that made me want a phone/handheld that also ran Linux.

There are endless opinions on what's the best distro. As someone new to Linux, my opinion is that you will find the Ubuntu forums to be invaluable. You can probably get some support there for almost any Linux-related question, but obviously getting support for Ubuntu will be easier. The Ubuntu community alone is reason enough for a new user to choose Ubuntu. I speak from my own experience.

That said, I personally really like openSUSE KDE 11.2 too. (The openSUSE users disagree with me, but I do prefer Debian package management like Ubuntu has, even though I think openSUSE is great.) I installed openSUSE on my laptop and the experience was so good that not even Windows could match the out of the box experience. openSUSE is polished, refined, user friendly, easy to install and the KDE is second to none IMO.

Speaking of Debian package management, Ubuntu is Debian-based and the compatibility is awesome. If you are thinking of Debian, go with Ubuntu at first. If you want to switch to Debian later, it will be easy.

After several years with Ubuntu, I'm thinking about switching to sidux on at least one of my computers. sidux is also based on Debian. It definitely has a higher Linux experience requirement, and I'm not 100% sure I'm ready for it, but I am interested in it because it is a great Debian experience with a really good KDE integration.

BTW, Open Office 3.0 works really well for me. I have people emailing me Word docs, PowerPoints, and Excel spreadsheets all the time. I haven't had any problems yet.

Here are my computers. All servers except the web server are in my garage.
N810 - Maemo/Linux of course
Thinkpad T61p - openSUSE 11.2 KDE
Desktop - Ubuntu
Web server - Ubuntu
SageTV server - Ubuntu
File server - Ubuntu
MythTV server - Mythbuntu
backup server - Ubuntu
test box - currently has Mythbuntu installed

Every one of the servers as well as my desktop and laptop used to run Windows. There is no way I would want to go back now. The Linux experience is so much better. But it is different, and I did have to endure some pain while I learned the basics. I'm still learning (somewhat slowly because technology is not my job and I don't spend that much time messing with my computers). But the learning is much easier now because I have a foundation that came from using Linux for a while.

I would highly encourage you to make the switch to Linux

Not to hijack this fine and informative thread but which would you recommend to learn the art of command line?

You can learn the command line with any distro. Makes no difference.

If you are serious about learning linux, then do actually use it. When I learnt (quite a few years back now, and most days after) I didn't multi-boot, This way you are forced to make it work for you, but modern distros allow you to stear clear of the cli to get hings done. If you want the best from it though...do try to learn it.

A little thing to note though, is that guis are easy to recall, and the command line is more difficult to remember.

But good luck, and don't start with gentoo or arch, try a debian based distro or a release of fedora, they should ease you in, once you get productive within the environment, you will start to love...

I'd just like to recommend against using WUBI. It's very immature, and none of the IRC/forum geeks you'll be relying on for free support use it, thus, they don't know how it works or how to fix it when it breaks. Which it seems to have an annoying habit of doing.

But definitely go with Ubuntu.