Funny you should say that...

What I'm finding to be a royal pain is a result of moving to desktop Linux...the UNIX Admin method via shells I'm so used to is getting buried under a GUI which they now try to startup upon reboot by DEFAULT. Drives me nuts!!!

In terms of becoming a "desktop" OS...it's not so bad now. Been experimenting with Ubuntu Linux on a PPC...I'm impressed...they have three versions...one called edubuntu...with an educational flavor.

1. The GUI (Gnome) is not so bad.
2. Mouting floppies/cds is a piece of cake.
3. And you can now browse Windows Network shares using a gui network browser or a gui mounted filesystem browser...and it doesn't feel any more difficult or easier than doing the same from within 2000/XP.

4. OpenOffice is pretty good. Exports to PDF if desired - no royalty there.
5. Plus it comes with free IDEs for C/C++/Fortran/Java/HTML/PHP/ASP etc.

One area where Linux still really really really sucks...SOUND/AUDIO!!!

In other words...don't give up...

Stick with the retail version of Mandriva, Debian-based distros or the latest Fedora. They are pretty good.

Slackware is server/shell oriented. Save it for server setups...

=8-)