I am a newbie to linux, less than a week and i totally wiped out windows...jus tjumped in head first and i have had my share of problems...lots of things not working right away and just having to relearn how to do tasks which were automated on windows. For the most part, everyone has been extremely helpful, i mean extremely(thanks guys), yet a note to the "oldtimer" Linux guys. Big business does not care if you don't buy their product , they could care less if linuxGuru1087 continues to use photoshop and windows media player. The do, on the otherhand, care if Joe Public stops using their software. Software giants have said they will take linux seriously when it captures 10% of the market. So what does this long post mean? It's just something to think about when i ask stupid questions over and over again. Who's money does microjunk want, your's or mine!!

Signed,
Newbies United!!!

I think you'll find that software companies will make far more from businesses than individuals. However if more end users were comfortable using linux then there would be less reason for compaines to stick to Microsoft based solutions.

i agree, but people that think newbies ask the same stupid questions over and over again, should have some patience with us newbies...i read a comment earlier on a linux forum about this guy that was frusterated with linux, a "linux guru" wrote a kinda smartas* remark

I know what you mean and I agree but I also know that it can be frustrating when people think that problems only ever happen to them and that they are the only once who could possibly recieve a specific error message.

lol....i get lots of error messages, and i'm sure i'll be getting lots more...it doesn't bother me b/c i don't have anything else to do...and like i said....most of the people i've come across have been very helpful, sometimes a lot more than i would expect

and also even though it is frustrating for the victim of the error or whatever it may be, it also does get frustrating to some longer members that see the repeated question over and over again, where the person asking the question could of simply just tried to do a search on the fourm relating to their problem....i know theres not that many fourms that you see that don't have the search option....i mean yah your right you don't have to be a smartass when answering a question, and all you have to do is either give them a simple answer, or just tell them to search the site cause its a common problem, but i think if new members just do a search relating to their problem, then ask the question if there was no luck then so be it...this would cut down on the smart remarks i think....
but i dont' want to label this as only new members, as all people may it be a guru or a newbie, you should always search before asking...

i know what you mean...but it's a lot easier to ask the question and get the answer...lol..why go look ..it is just totally diff linux vs windows and i myself have had some probs that i have printed out 50+ pages of "answers", but to no avail...still same prob...i'll just keep looking (printing it out at work!!) lol..but some people may just be tired of looking.
Besides, if i keep posting, i'll be a GURU!!!! lol

well, i agree that sometimes it gets annoying to answer the same question over and over, so it's been a wonderful surprise to see how helpful people on this site tend to be! sure, you get an occasional smartas remark, but generally it gets lost among the myriad of helpful posts offering advice or simply redirecting the question to a url. honestly, this place is awesome!

as a related thing to the initial point of this post, there's a very interesting link i found the other night in one of my sleep-deprived amblings around, i recommend checking it out, newb or guru.

http://lists.fifthvision.net/piperma...ay/027591.html

let me know what you think, i'm sure there are a lot of you out there much more familiar with open source idealogy etc.

New to Linux but not computers
encountered USB support problems in Mandrake Linux 9.1 but using 9.2 RC1 and finally proud to be part of the community.

If anyone can suggest a good media player that supports .mov, .avi, mp3 and wma, also is there any support for DivX under Linux ??

thanks for your time

Lox...
yes there is divx support and the best video players are:
mplayer
and...
xine
and if you liked winamp, then you will like xmms (which should be already on your system) to play your mp3s

both zine and mplayer can be made to play just about any format, incl. divx, if you install the right packages. Look for the xine and mplayer packages in PLF:
http://plf.zarb.org/
I recommend using easy urpmi (a link is on the page) since urpmi is one of the greatest features of mandrake

The answer, neither.
They make plenty from OEM Windows sales and Windows OS and MS Office to companies/corporations.
They really don't care if anyone complains. But they will destroy any company that sucessfully challenges their software monopoly.

Microsoft's cash cow? - Office.

my 2 cents: this place is AWESOME!

Thanks again to everyone for all the dedicated support.
I haven't had any threads yet that wasn't unanswered - I must be one of the lucky ones..hehe