As promised this is reporting back on installing Linux for an MP, it also relates to the thread about Linux friendly retailers.
This afternoon / evening I finished setting the computer up and introduced the MP to using it. I ran a risk and installed Mandrake 10.0 community edition. Main software chosen KDE, Ximian's Evolution, Mozilla and OpenOffice.org. The install of Mandrake 10.0 went very smoothly (from disk 1 no less). But I later went back and decided to install Gnome - that was a mess. So far the only problem in KDE that I have encountered is setting up file associations. I purchased new computer parts from The Computer Broker. At their recommendation I purchased a more expensive case as it was supposed to be quieter - if that was quiet I would hate to hear noisy! There was no reset switch. There was no power cable included (on returning to the store I did get one). Their recommended motherboard on powerdown didn't. I mentioned this to an assistant in the shop and was told it was a bios setting. Either I am really thick (entirely possible) or there was no such setting. I felt fobbed off on returning to the shop. I spent more than 3 hours converting m$ Works 3.0 files. Microsoft don't provide any converters this far back - not even for m$ office (not that I could legally put it onto this machine). Works doesn't have a macro facility and Windows95 doesn't have scripting so I couldn't figure out how to automate the process at all. If you ever wondered if open source software and open standards are worth the hassle - they are! Connecting to jetstream just worked! I couldn't believe it. Importing outlook express folders to Evolution happened smoothly. But to import the address book I needed to export as csv from outlook express. Import the csv file into Kmail. Export from Kmail in vcard format, which I then imported into evolution. The MP is, I think, impressed with the system and was immediately able to work with little instruction on my part. I will be following up with at least one further training session to answer any questions that have arisen. Thanks again for the group's assistance - Ian Laurenson
