Linux Mint Forums

Make a list of the components that make up your computer, such as, the video card, processor, memory, etc. Then search the Linux forums for each device to see of there are any major install or setup problems listed. Print off or take notes of any changes you might need to make during or after the install to make a component work. Pay close attention to your video card and try to make sure it is supported. If you are going to have a major problem pre or post install it will most likely be your video card driver.

If you have a second computer I would download a "Live CD" of the distro you are interested in and burn it to a USB thumb drive. Perform the live install and locate the "System Information" or it's equivalent and see what video drivers was installed by default. You can also see if all the other devices have been identified correctly.

If you are using a windows box to download and make the USB drives I would use unetbootin to make the bootable drive.

Make sure you take your time and evaluate each distro. You will read that there are slight differences with each distro but that just isn't accurate. Each distro is very different in the look and feel and how applications are linked into the underlining OS.

Good luck

Concerning the original post, What is the difference between the /home partition and the three data partitions?

Are they the same thing as the home except the data is split out into three different partitions?