Which linux distribution is right for you?

The one that works the best out-of-the-box.

I have spent a great deal of the week attempting to get openSUSE 11.1, 11.2 RC6, Fedora 12 Alpha, and then finally Kubuntu to run on my new laptop (Dell Inspiron 1545).

Firstly, the wireless chip on the 1545 is the wonderful broadcom 4312 for which no open source drivers exist. Thus a third party tool is required for all distros to get the chip working. (There goes 3 hours of research and experimentation)

Next, the intel graphics chip (945GM) is a stunner. It is one of a few that work very poorly with the intel graphics drivers that basically every distro runs as standard at the moment. New drivers fix the problems, but new drivers are only available on very new distros (which led me to 11.2 RC6).

As this is getting boring I will summarise with a chart:

So after 6 months of openSUSE (and a year of Mint prior to that) I've now switched to Kubuntu.

I use linux because I find that for every day computer use it is prettier, easier to use and more reliable. However, the install process can still be a pain for people who haven't mastered google.

So what should I have done? Find the distro that worked best on my laptop, or stick with openSUSE, get 11.1 or .2 to work and put back into the community with my knowledge on how to fix the problems.