hello all, i have SuSE v8.1 personal installed. i'm just curious about how a current installation handles new hardware. i come from a windows95/98 background, and i know how win9x handles new hardware being thurst on it cold turkey. i've done this more times than i'll admit, for family and friends and at work, but you can change out a video card, or sound card and win9x will still function well enough until you can install the new drivers. i've changed out motherboards and win9x is ok with it. shoot, i've taken hard drives with win9x on it from one computer and stuck it in another computer with different hardware and windows will still boot, figure out that you changed everything, and allow you to install the drivers for all of the new hardware. win98 is the end of the line for me with windows, and i am reading everything i can get my hands on concerning linux and SuSE, but...... i'm just curious is all... [[ and i would of course make sure that all hardware ]] [[ was fully compatible first with SuSE linux]] can i pull out a video card, stick a new one in, and my current installation of SuSE would be ok with that and allow me to configure the new Xserver needed? can i yank out an old motherboard and put a new one in using the same processor and memory, but a different chipset, and my current installation of SuSE would be ok with that and not cough up hairballs? are floppy drives and cdroms so generic now-a-days that they are interchangable in a current installation of SuSE? [ i am assuming yes on this one ] [ but 3rd party confirmation is always nice ] could i buy a new computer system, minus the hard drive, take my current hard drive with SuSE on it out of my older computer system, stick it in my new system, and expect SuSE to be ok with it? or........ is it just better to backup, re-format and re-install anytime i do a major hardware change with SuSE? are there any basic general guidelines to follow when changing out hardware on a computer with a working linux installation? my experience with linux is rather limited right now, but if i have some idea what to expect, then i can plan properly for it. and i am rather curious, since these areas don't seem to be talked about much. i am also the "computer guy" for a lot of people and they are starting to ask about linux, and in some of these areas, i don't have any idea what to tell them. especially, since i generally help people roll their own computers. thanks in advance for any input. michael hallsted -- Michael Lawrence Hallsted home: mailto:tbhccs@cal.net http://www.hallsted.com/index.html http://www.softcom.net/users/mikey719/index.html work: mailto:webmaster@jfmco.com http://www.jfmco.com/index.html