Travler

Ubuntu is a pretty well thought out distro. I forget the name of their hardware configurator<--new word) but it gives you a chance to set your screen resolution during install. The thing with linux is you have to take your time while installing and it is a much more interactive process than Windows. As I said earlier...I use Mandriva, which has a pretty easy install process and ,using the 3D desktop, it acts like Vista with the wobbly and bendable windows and all the other fun bells and whistles. Check here if you want to investigate all the different distros and download them.

I have my system setup with a dual boot configuration. WinXP and Mandriva linux. I have tried Ubuntu. Linux is easy to use if you just want to use the internet or play the preinstalled games. Different distributions have different features. Most have a standard set of games , utilities, graphic programs and office suites that install with the distro. There is a project called Wine that is building a Windows emulation environment that runs in Linux. It is becoming more popular as they are working the bugs out and some distros are actually including it in their install. A word of warning....if you want to do anything like upgrade device drivers or install programs from scratch, change login features or anything else you take for granted in Windows...be prepared for total confusion and frustration as you realize you need to be a Unix/Linux geek to do any of these operations

I don't know if you got this fixed yet but...If the monitor works until Windows kicks in, it could be the Windows video settings. You say you see a latent image. If you can see enough to do this...right click the desktop then go to PROPERTIES in the menu that pops up. Then go to the SETTINGS tab and press the ADVANCED button. Find the tab that has your video card settings and search for the Brightness control. If thats not it, try to see if you borrow another monitor to hook up to your computer, if that works you should get a new monitor. The next thing would be the video card.