Hi all, Sorry if this is probably best posted on the social list. Linux on the desktop as a serious contender to M$ is now a reality - IMHO. What has been holding Linux back on the desktop is the learning curve required to install and get it up and running - which is often seen as a major problem to the newbie, together with the availability of the necessary hardware drivers. Well - after nagging a friend of mine for months (a retired headmaster) who was always having problems with his win98 setup - he finally agreed to have a dual boot machine with Linux on to 'try it out'.

So we ordered Red Hat 7.2 from cheep linux (first point scored - price : £9.99!!) And off we went to install it onto his second (spare) hard drive. The installer auto-detected everything (Soundblaster 128 PCI Soundcard, Diamond Stealth graphics, even the Hansol Monitor). Within 1/2 an hour we had a beautiful looking 1024/768 GNome/KDE/FVWM/Enlightenment Desktop (second point scored : choices-choices), playing midi files through Timidity, ripping CDs to MP3 with GRIP, KOffice etc etc. He was gobsmacked!! Grub is an excellent bootloader, the highlighted list of installed OSes makes even the simple LILO prompt idiot-proof. The only problem (albeit predictable) was that the PCI Modem (a motorola something or other) wasn't detected. Haven't looked into this one yet but it may be a winmodem or there may be a driver for it. Of course the old caveat still applies - and will for some time - use an external modem or one which you know works under linux. The best moment of the entire evening however was that after rebooting to Windows, (He had to see that Windows hadn't been broken) his first comment was how naff the Win98 desktop actually looked!!(Game Set and Match : Linux LOOKS BETTER).

Having spent months getting into the nuts and bolts of Debian (which is excellent - though not for the newbie - yet) and some 4 years as a linux user generally, I have to say that with this release RedHat is so difficult to beat. After half an hour we had a system up and running that I am still miles away from with my Debian installation after months of messing. In fact I'm going to dual boot to RedHat 7.2 myself now. I would recommend to anyone out there considering giving Linux a go, spend the tenner at cheep linux or get someone to burn you a copy - or even support Red Hat and buy the boxed version, you too should be gobsmacked!!

Cheers Earl

[earl.brannigan@lindenhouse.co.uk] www.lindenhouse.co.uk Intellectual : Someone who can spend a whole day locked in a room with a tea cosy without once thinking of trying it on. Highbrow : Someone who can listen to the entire William Tell Overture without once thinking of the Lone Ranger.