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"Which not even I could figure out"? You make it sound like I'm some kind of absolute authority on everything Linux, and that I was such even when I'd not even used Linux as a primary OS yet...
Jarrad, you flatter me. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Anyway, drivers not existing are, to my understanding, problems with poorly compiled, or old, kernels - and alot of distros use 2.4.x kernels. The first version of Ubuntu (which I have around here somewhere) comes with kernel 2.6.9 by default (newest stable in the 2.6 branch is 2.6.11), and according to PC Authority, it's hardware detection o install found everything on all of their test systems - including an AMD64 box. I have heard of only one person having problems with Ubuntu's hardware detection, and that is to do with a particular wireless network card causing an infinite loop (and the installer apparently wouldn't let him Ctrl - C).
I, personally, have had nothing but problems with Redhat based distros: Mandrake has (had? - might be fixed in the newer, huger, versions) no decent package management, Fedora core I've not ever even managed to install... Which is why I recommend Ubuntu if you want a GUI centric distro. If you had a decent internet connection, and a day or four (depending on the speed of the computer, the internet connection, and which software you want) at your disposal, I would recommend installing Gentoo from stage 1... everything compiled for your system, to your liking. Just follow the documentation, and don't be fooled by the fact that some mirrors have a '2005.0' release folder, 2004.3 is the newest out (I think).
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