I have tried OpenSUSE 10.2, Fedora 5 and Ubuntu 6.06LTS and 7.04, all of them on dual boot machines with XP Pro and Server 2003. Using M$ VM was not worth it, very slow and sometimes did not even install certain distros. If you want to run in VM go with Parallels or VMWare. All were pretty easy to install along side XP/Server 2003, with Ubuntu being the easiest. OpenSuse had a nice feature that it allowed you to use your Windows Domain login. Fedora was ok, but I think still needs a lot of pollishing. Ubuntu would have to be my hands down favorite. Easy to configure, with WiFi, the interface and printing. Had most of the commonly used apps installed. Ubuntu also offered a really easy to use software installer and keeps all the packages up to date. It automatically recognized all my hardware on standard PC and an IBM T40 notebook, including all networking. I was able to use the internet, all network peripherals and shared folders, within 10 minutes after the full installation. Ubuntu also allows you to boot from the CD, without installing just to make sure your machine is compatable, well worth it. Brian