Deciding on an OS

[Peter.Cort]

So I have my laptop that I'm currently on until I get my gaming pc back up and running. So my thing is I don't like Vista whatsoever, mainly because none of my periph's work on it so that is a hassle for doing school work. So here are the things I want to do with my laptop:

Get really good battery life (maximize it)
Internet
Use OpenOffice
Music + Videos
Light video and photo editing (Sigs and Gaming Montages)
Maybe some light gaming.
AIM/MSN/XFIRE

thats about it. My two options are some version of linux, or windows pro/home. so what should I go with. I mainly am concerned with battery life

 

[KSoD]

Well you already have your answer. You already know what OS you need. Jsut use google to search for who has better battery life. XP or Linux.

Better battery life XP or Linux - Google Search

 

[forrestcupp]

You didn't really say what your specs are for the laptop. It looks like your specs listed are probably for a desktop.

What kind of video chip does it have? What kind of wireless chip? Those are things to check into before you go with Linux. If you have a Radeon video chip and you want to do anything 3D (especially Compiz), I'd go with Windows. If your wireless chip is anything other than Atheros, make sure you check into compatibility before going with Linux. There is a lot more to it than just battery life.

But if you choose Linux, the new version of Ubuntu is pretty good about getting things to work out of the box.