i agree this guy should have picked PCLOS not kubuntu

I tend to forget and forgive all the problems with MS OSs

even currently XP Prof. Why? Because we (at least I ) tend

to just workaround the problems and forget. I don't

even think about the problems as my fingers execute the

workaround. Linux hard to install? I sent a friend FC4 CDs

that he installed quickly and learned how to do almost

everything XP Prof does! This install would have been worse

if it had been FC6 with SCSI HDs. Unusual hardware can stop

a Linux install. Under FC6 the sound card is detected and

the correct sounds emanate form the speakers, but I cannot

play a CD. No problem, I can play a CD other ways!

If nobody to call for help, keep a working computer with

access to forums.

MS support? Useless! When I installed XP Prof, I sent in a question

asking how to avoid the MS Messenger popups (now a thing

of the past). I got a message from a chinese support person:

"disconnect from the internet".

Another solution: Take a sledgehammer to my computer!

Can't argue with your opinion of Vista. I tried the RTM for almost two weeks and I couldn't take anymore so I put XP back on my system.

It's going to be hard to find a distro that 'just works' for every computer but I understand your frustrations. Linux is going to have problems, pick one that you liked the best and work through it's quirks.
I really should take my own advise. I can't stick with one distro for more than a week or two and then I'll go months without ever touching Linux.

Download and install switchdesk and switch to KDE

switchdesk kde
reboot

I've got the download instructions for those interested

This can make the difference with FC4,5,6

I think some of the main distributions should really focus on making things easy for non-technical people, even more than they already have.

But as a Linux user, I recommend you just learn the guts of the system. Then it doesn't matter what distribution you install, you can do whatever you want with it. I may play around with LiveCD versions of new distributions, but I don't intend to reinstall Linux on my current hardware ever. I'm happy with what I have, and if I want to change almost anything with my current install, I can do it.

I keep meaning to stick with one and learn it. I guess there are several reason I haven't. My first distro was Mandrake 3 (maybe 4, I can't remember) and hardware recognition was almost non existant so I started to learn it but then I ran into 'dependancy hell' and decided that was too much trouble. Tried other distros over the years since. I hated RPMs and tarballs. I am horible with commands, my first computer was Windows 95 so I always had GUIs. Over the years I stuck to Debian based distros because I did like Apt, also tried VLOS (Vida Linux based on Gentoo) and though Portage was great but the full Gentoo install was beyond my ability.

Ultimately what always kills it for me is in my opinion, a severe lack of good software. I would dual boot and would constantly have to log back into Windows to get to the apps (or games) I need/use regularly and since I was already in Windows it was easier to just stay in it and use the software that works for my needs. I would certainly be more inclined to use Linux if it had what I need/use software wise, like if Adobe ported its CS2 (or CS3) suite would certainly help along with a dozen or so others apps. From a technical standpoint I know the OS is superior but from a user standpoint the software isn't.

Also after solving computer problems all day I really don't want to come home and fight with driver installations anything else. It's bad enough I have to undo whatever my wife and daughter do to their computers constantly, don't want to fight with mine too. When I get home I just want to be a user, not a tech.

Still, despite my month long breaks away I always come back and try agin.

and then switch to KDE

then use

yum update

to update

many posts in this forum are way too technical

Like you I want to get on with programming NOT admin of a sound card

Might I suggest using what just works for you? Sure, there are a lot of headlines about Linux these days. So what, its not for everyone. Use whatever you have better luck with.

If I did what was best for me and just forgot the people

trying to get Linux running from a newbie state

what would I be?

We must increase our numbers not argue about what is OS optimum

Well, I decided to install for newbies a distro that seems to just work out of the box. I know alot of people will not like it or their reasoning for it but for brand new newbies to linux, I will install Freespire.

Why, because most everything works out the box and for newbies to linux that doesn't have a Windows install cd when their computer is full of viruses, etc.

It does just about everything the user will need/want.

Just my opinion.

I'd like to try something.

With my "pitiful" DSL 40 megabytes/second I downloaded Fedora Core 6 FC6

requiring 25+ hours (when I had cable at 2 megabytes/second, it was >MUCH< faster).

and burned the DVD image onto a DVD multilayer (cost me $4 at the time

and now I see sales $1.60).

Let me mail you FC6. Let me know if it isn't an easy install.

If you like it, reimburse me for the DVD and postage or send me a new blank or 2.

FC4 and FC5 seemed to be without initial problems.

Helps greatly to download and install switchdesk and switch to KDE.

Having reached that plateau, one can gain the courage to go farther.

Also request my text howto.txt for quick Linux/vi commands.

This info gives you a fast start.

This thread has gone somewhat off track and back on a few times, but it has been amusing and informative all the same. I figured I would toss in my own 2 cents incase it helps convince the original poster that sticking with Linux seems to be the best thing to do.
I'm also in the Windows Power-user category (er.. I was, anyway, till WinXP killed my HD dead). I went and got a giant new HD (320Gb), made a whack of partitions on it, and after calculating that on my slow-as-heck dialup connection it would take me 45+ hours to download a modestly-equipped Linux distro, I asked a good friend to download FOUR different Linux distros for me via high-speed, so that I could see what the story on Linux would be.
So, I'm a total Linux newbie, and came into Linux with 2 pre-conceptions: 1) Linux is not user friendly; and 2) Windows is the only decent/usable desktop-environment OS for PC out there (Despite the LONG list of things-Windows about which I could complain).
It has been less than 3 weeks since WinXP ate and spit out my old HD. To date, because I am on dialup, I have not completely reinstalled my WinXP to s very usable condition, even though I have a recently slipstreamed bootable install disk; there are just too many gigantic packages and pieces and required components missing from Win for it to be very useful out of the box.
Of the 4 Linux OS's my friend sent me, THREE would not install the first time around, or the second or third time either. Not very encouraging for a newbie with NO working OS at all at the time, but I didn't give up. Gentoo and OpenLX were the least-likely-looking to install, and Slackware 11 was making my monitor turn off and on by itself endlessly once the install was complete so I had to hard-reboot to stop it. Ubuntu installed flawlessly but as someone mentioned earlier, IMO it kinda sucked and doesnt work with dialup, so I was displeased after less than 2 days of it ( hey look, another discovery-- by missing the delete key, I discover that PRINT-Scrn key works by default in Slack, unlike Win which requires an application to Print screen)..
So, also discouraged at having my Linux OS finally boot up to a command prompt and spending 2 days trying to get it to do anything useful, I got on another puter and went to Goooooooogle, read the Slack Support page about Xorg config, and presto, figured out how to get the KDE desktop to fire up in Slackware. I STILL havent repaired my Win OS, and don't miss it either, though I am working on Wine to use some of my 'needed' apps. My stupid Win-modem would NOT work with Slackware, so I traded modems with my roomie, and after some fiddling I got it working. My key-repeat cuts out intermittently, and I dont know why...YET. My system clock is usually wrong by 4 to 24 hours (lucking I have nowhere to be much of the time). My root account was hanging the puter on logout because of some glitch with the sound system, but who cares!? Don't ask, but the answer is in these forums (thanks guys) so I disabled all fancy gizmos on my root account, and its good as gold now. I could go on and on about little tiny things that my new Slack 11 OS does or doesn't do 'quite right' but I gotta say, I LOVE it (The HD sitting peacefully all the time is very pleasing, unlike Win constantly churning away at something of seemingly gargantuan proportions in the background every time I turn around---hmmm looking back, Win really did run my HD into the ground) , and it is in my nature to learn and tweak and fiddle and mod etc, and I am and will keep learning everything I can about the ins and outs of Slackware, now that I've settled on it...
Ya, I am rambling, but my point is this: If you want a good OS, that USES the facilities that your PC has to offer it, keep trying at Linux-- don't give up Experiment, and maybe install 2 of the same distro on the puter once you decide on one you like; you have one you build on and keep, and the other to learn how to fix the keeper when it gets weird.
I plan on still installing Gentoo and OpenLX at some point, just to say I did it! and to see what they do/can do, but I don't think I'll bother with Windows until some day when I have High-speed, and can leave the automatic updates running all night. And even then, why bother? It's just taking up valuable Linux-able space on my HD :P
SV
PS-- I should mention too, one GREAT thing about Ubuntu, IMO, it Gparted, the partition editor; makes Ubuntu worth keeping nearby at all times, if only for Gparted.

Wow, actually I'm kinda amazed this thread is still going. I've been happily using ubuntu for a while now, and it's actually becoming a lot more workable as time goes on. One thing I've noticed about Linux, you can never quite get it perfect. No matter how much you search for anwsers, I think pretty much everyone's system ends up with some unsolvable annoyances. However, the more things that come together and start working, the better things get. And as you learn how to deal with problems that come up, subsequent problems get easier and easier to solve. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, the more you accept Linux isn't perfect the easier it is to see that it's still a big improvement on Windows. ...unless you like gaming, but that's what dual booting and XBOXs are for. Incedentally, regarding Print Screen in Windows, it's actually a common misconception that it doesn't work by default. What Windows actually does, is it copies the contents of the screen to the clipboard. In order to do anything with the result, you have to paste it into an image editor. I'm sure a lot of useless Print Screen utilities have been sold as a result of people not knowing that...

Haven't had that problem. Mine works perfectly, and I'm not kidding.

I wanted to respond to this thread, to say that I am almost in the SAME position as the original poster.

I also just read about all the Machiavellian Digital Rights Management stuff they're putting in Vista.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut00...vista_cost.txt

And after reading that article, I started making plans to lessen my dependence on Windows! So far, I've uninstalled MS Outlook (I only miss the feature where you can save thousands of hilighted files to a single text file -- any ideas how to do that in Thunderbird?) and started using Firefox. That way, when I switch to Linux it will be less painless, I figure.

I also converted all my WMAs to MP3s, so it will be easier to play my music.

Now I'm looking for a good Linux distro that won't require a hard drive. My computer has a CD/DVD drive, 1 GB of RAM, and a 1 GB USB key. That should be sufficient.

I also have tried many different Linux distros, and I have seen a lot of progress made since 1999 when I first looked at Linux. Linux is getting there! But a lot of volunteer programmers still have some work to do. The computer is a complex machine -- that's just how it goes.

Matthew