Hi everyone and thanks for the Norwich area meeting info Syd - appreciate it.

I first stumbled onto Linux with a SuSE 7.2 box set from a book shop a couple of years ago. Installed it on my 300MHz Celeron IBM Thinkpad 240 laptop but a buggy version of XFree (so I found out later) and my inexperience resulted in me giving up on Linux for another 6 months. Since then I've experimented a lot, installing various distros including MDK8.2, 9.0, RH8.0, Lycoris, Slackware & a partial Debian install (I gave up half way as I became confused & bored with all the questions). After dual booting on my self-built 1.4GHz Athlon desktop for a while with Windows, I became fed up with MS OS problems, freeze ups, crashes, expensive software, etc. and so finally settled and went 100% over to Linux with SuSE 8.2 Pro - no probs since. SuSE is still on my desktop now but last night couldn't help myself but to install MDK9.2 on my laptop - just to have a look. Mmm its OK'ish on first glance. Noticed a couple of glitches but never have got on very well with MDK on that laptop. But I will carry on with it for a while.

My Wife, who isn't particularly good or interested in computers, made the switch from Windows to Linux with only about 15 mins training from me, and happily e-mails, surfs and writes letters with no problems. I also became fed up of fixing my Mother's MS Windows problems and she now also runs SuSE 8.2 (Personal) and I hardly ever get called out to fix problems anymore - thank goodness.

I've always wanted to program and Linux sure does give me the freedom to learn and play in this respect. I am currently learning C++ together with QT. I am a deck officer (navigator) in the merchant navy so my first and current project is a navigation/passage planning program. Haven't actually seen any similar software for Linux but if anyone knows of any links please let me know. Also reading (but not coding yet) books on PHP & MYSQL/Postgre.

Anyway that's all the guff about me out of the way. Will try and contribute something more interesting in future but am enjoying the mailing list digest very much indeed. Thanks all.

Martin