On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 16:00:37 GMT, Bit Twister
<BitTwister@localhost.localdomain> wrote:

>On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 16:37:36 +0100 (CET), starwars wrote:
>> I am thinking of giving Linux a try, and have a few questions, which I hope
>> the experts here will answer.
>>
>> I'm looking for a version of linux that is easy to install. If it could be
>> as easy as windows 98 to install, that would be ideal, but I'm willing to
>> do a little work if I have to.
>
>Mandrake or Suse. Here look at Mandrake
>http://doc.mandrakelinux.com/Mandrak..._Startup.html/

Mandrake is my reccommendation for newbies at home, though here's a
link to the main page (the link Bit Twister gave you is for the 9.1
startup guide, which is still useful, but Mandrake is on 9.2 now).

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en-us/

>> Standard office apps are available for linux, if I have it right, and so
>> are email clients and browsers, but I'm wondering how difficult it will be
>> getting linux to recognize my network card. Will there be any problem with
>> the CD reader and the CD burner?
>
>You may want to read http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>We cannot see what equipment you have from here.

Mandrake has a database of hardware that has been tried with their
software at http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/hardware.php3

The only CD-ROM I ever had a problem with was extremely old (early
1990s)... I've never had a problem with a CD-RW.

<snip>
>> Any idea of the best way to acquire the OS - download or on CD?

That depends a lot on your needs and situation and patience. I
usually download what I need because it's cheaper, but I have paid
copies of Debian (ordered because at the time I had dialup), Mandrake
9.2 (because I was impatient, didn't want to d/l it, and wanted the
book that came with it).

<snip>

Any other questions? Just shoot.

Susan