Which is the best distro in your opinions? What I am looking for is something that should have gimp installed or be fairly easy to install, user friendly and been run from usb drive ? I know their are a few out there that can run a live image, but do they have the ability to save the documents and such inside the live image?

Also if I install the os on my computer would I have to choose the OS I want to use each time I boot up or is there a easy way to switch between OS's without rebooting?

I think you'll find it hard to find one with Gimp already installed these days. Ubuntu use a software center to download and install software making it easy for people like me who hate technical stuff. I think Fedora has something similar. Don't know about the other distros, but Tux is pretty knowledgeable on the subject, maybe he can help. I don't think you can save documents inside the live image but Linux can read Windows folders, so maybe that's a temporary option while you make your mind up, but you really need a proper install to get the best out of your OS. If you use Wubi, you can install Ubuntu inside Windows very easily and just uninstall it if you don't like it.

What you are looking for is persistence.

A couple of references to get you started

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/casper-rw- ... m-windows/

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multi ... b-creator/

YUMI is not a bad usb-from-iso creator, works from windows although unetbootin is the more usual tool.

Best bet probably one of the ubuntu basted distros. Which ones include Gimp, most of them, especially the DVD sized ones but check them out first at http://distrowatch.com/ there is a listing of applications and version numbers for each distro.
example http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distri ... untustudio

best of luck.

Unetbootin works well - that's what I used, but I had to upgrade my bios first to allow USB boot and I have to press F12 every time I want to boot into Fedora. As far as I know, you cannot install any software when live - you need a proper install. Well, there are plenty of distros to choose from - good luck!

I've been using the latest ubuntu for a couple of days and i'm pretty happy with it.

Fedora 17 is scheduled for release next month and it will contain GIMP 2.8 as the default in the software repositories. It will also run from a USB thumb-drive.

As far as which is best, that's a personal preference but you can't go wrong with the any of the top distros.

Distrowatch is a good site that ranks Linux distros by popularity and provides info/links for each.

http://distrowatch.com/

Currently there are many distros that are "the best". You should try at least about five from LiveCD or LiveUSB and choose the one you like. I think choosing a desktop with you to feel comfortable is more important than choosing a particular distro.
In Ubuntu (or derived distributions) you can install the latest versions of Gimp from PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~otto-kesselgulasch/+archive/gimp

If you do, I recommend disabling the repository after installing Gimp, because the packages are updated almost daily.


I use the KDE desktop (Kubuntu)

This is like asking "What is the best car" IMHO.
Switching between OS's w/o rebooting is not possible.
There is a very simple reason for that:
Each OS has it's own "kernel" that is loaded into RAM.
Besides the kernel there is a lot of supporting software that'll be different.
The difference between Windows and Linux is enormous.(That's why Linux is a lot more secure).
Gerard.

I think I will stick with win7 for know but you all have brought in some good insight. THANKS!

ZWard117 did you read the comments on that article?

I have been using Linux for over a decade,I used the same password for root all the time.
And another one for user during the same time.
Never any problem.
BTW did you know that more than 60% of servers use Linux ?
Gerard.

So on another note, I guess I finally got tired of windows, and I've been using ubuntu for the last few days now...

It's so refreshing to not have to be bothered by stupid firewall notices and antivirus popups every 5 minutes, and not have to wait for ages just to boot the computer... a lot of people seem to dislike the unity desktop but I kind of like it. I already compiled gimp 2.8 RC1 and it works better than the windows version. Colour management is still wonky but otherwise it works better - the chunky panning effect is gone, for one thing.

I really don't even see any reason to boot to windows anymore...

Good news dd. The only reason I don't like the unity desktop is because those buttons look too big and plastic to me. I prefer not to have buttons or icons because they look untidy. It's just a matter of taste.

Unity is not really a desktop. It is a Shell for GNOME desktop. Anyway you can use GNOME Classic or GNOME 3 on Ubuntu.
If you want all the benefits of Ubuntu, but you will not use GNOME, you can try Kubuntu, Xubuntu or Lubuntu.
I recommend try with KDE 4 (Kubuntu or other KDE distro), and you spend some time in learning to use it. KDE is highly configurable.
If you try Kubuntu, download 12.04 beta (daily) version:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/

You can adjust the size of the buttons in unity. I also set them a bit smaller than default, looks much nicer.

Well I just lost all of the post I had, which was around half a page in a word doc. Oh well.

You've never tried stuff like VMware or even a VirtualBox.

Now, IMHO dual-boot systems are useful only when several persons use the same hardware but want different OS, or for very unfrequent and specific work. Keeping both systems in sync for regular stuff (navigator profiles, mail...) is to much of a hassle.