I am currently using Suse 64 bit. on a 17" HP Laptop. Suse is the best for novice and pro. I use to run VMware a long time ago....now just Suse and XP64 bit dual boot. I would not trade on VMware back then...it may be more stable now. Any time you trade on winblows ...its asking for trouble ---lol. Winblows is now in the chubby bunny club. XP64 Bit is their best version...and it was never offically released ---LMAO!...Instead they came out with that crap Vista.=lol