Hi, After having tried to upgrade my previous box unsuccessfully, I cobbled up a new one: Athlon 64 X2 5600+ ASUS M2N322 SLI Deluxe MB 2GB Corsair xms2dhx memory PNY NVIDIA GeForce8500w video card 160 GB hd for WinXP 300GB hd for Linux Pioneer SATA DVR-212D dvd/cd writer/ Ultra XBlaster atx mid tower case/Ultra 700W Power Supply OK, so I can't afford a Ferrari. I'm neither an over-clocker nor a gamer. This combo runs cool and quiet, and seems solid. It's also pretty quick. The only distro I've been able to load successfully is 32bit fedora Core 6. Both Kubuntus choked and went into kernel panic, refusing to install. Xandros declined the honor. Fedora 7 seemed to install correctly but hosed the MBR and I could neither access WinXP nor Fedora 7. I'm still have the problem of Linux being unfriendly with the internet and not recognizing my email provider. Firefox connects readily enough with userfriendly.org, one of my favorite sites. But it won't connect to the links in UF's LOTD (Link Of The Day.) It times out trying to connect to Google and Bankofamerica.com. Thunderbird and Email steadfastly refuses to recognize my account at aol.com. (This is why I'm writing to you under WinXP. Please don't ask for long printouts from various features in Fedora. I haven't yet found a way to trf files from Linux to WinXP. (The other way round I can manage .)) Is it that Linux doesn't play well with SATA ? (Not SATA RAID, just SATA hdds and DVD-ROM's.) Is it that Linux doesn't play well with Qwest ADSL? That doesn't seem to be it, for it worked perfectly before my old box started to flake out. Is it the combination of SATA _and_ ADSL? I'm getting discouraged. I _like_ Linux-in-general. I _don't_ like what it's doing (or failing to do) right now. Bob Eaton --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss