Charlie Kuss wrote:

Paul & Listers,

  I'm getting really sick of IRQ conflicts (dispite MS's plug & pray) in
Windows. Even Windows 2000 Pro gets flakey after a while. I'd like to learn
more about switching to Linux. I have an old Suse 6.1 edition that I've
never even opened. Could I start with that and upgrade to the newer version
7.x   OR would I be better off just going down to CompUSA and buying a
newer edition?  Any suggestions on which distribution to use?  I need
hardware support for the following:

FIC 503A motherboard (VIA chipset with onboard sound and USB)  (I also have
a Creative AWE 32 ISA sound card)
AMD K6-2 450 mhz CPU
512 megs PNY PC 100 memory
40 gig ATA 100 Maxtor hard drive (5400 RPM)
3Com HomeConnect ADSL Modem (PCI)
Actiontec 56K PCI modem  (I found that this company supplies Linux drivers
for their products, as does 3Com)
Nvidia based  TNT2 M64  AGP video card   32 megs
Hewlett Packard DeskJet 812Cse  printer  (parallel port)
Umax  Astra 2100 scanner (USB)
Hi Val 16X10X32 CD burner (ultra DMA)
LS-120 Super drive (120 meg optical floppy drive)

I'm also looking at building a new machine based on:
ECS K7S5A motherboard  (SIS 735 chipset) with SDRAM & DDR support
AMD Athlon CPU  (either a 1 gig Thunderbird or a new XP1500)
512 megs DDR memory
Nvidia based GeForce 2 MX400 series video card (64 megs)
60 gig ATA 100 Maxtor hard drive (5400 RPM)
3Com HomeConnect ADSL Modem (PCI)
Actiontec 56K PCI modem
same scanner, burner and LS-120 drive listed above

Am I going to have problems getting drivers for the above hardware? What
other issues will I have to contend with?

Charlie Kuss

Linux is not for the faint of heart Charlie. There are still bugs in NetScape
mostly. There are a few work around that I have developed. Having said that 
what I would go for is RedHat 7.2. RedHat is good about updates. They have 
developed update and program installation utilities that work very very well 
in my experience as I have first hand knowledge on it. 

Besides that RedHat 7.2 has Star Office for free not to mention
a zillion other useful programs. Also I can help you to a certain extent but 
I am far from a Linux guru. We have guys on here  that are however.

If you speak and read German and like Ikon gui's (KDE)  S.U.S.E is supposed 
to be very good. Once you start with something however it is hard to
switch to another distribution unless you want to start over. I started with
Caldera four years ago and a friend of mine convinced me to switch to RedHat.
Caldera was absolutely bug free but it was an old version of Netscape
without a spelling checker and data base which I really needed.

Also I highly recommend getting a CD burner for backups. A low cost way to
go.

Win modems won't work as far as I know. I use a US Robotic's external modem.
I am sure Russell Kent can give you more and better advice.

Paul Lamar
 
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