When I first found this mail group, I was about to receive my copy of 5.3. I wanted to see what was going on in the SuSE community since I had become deeply frustrated trying to gain aid from those in RedHat land. No offence to them as a whole, but some very rude individuals roam the newsgroups, ostensibly to help but really just lying in wait to flame inept newbies. I fit that definition to a couple, so I stopped asking any questions. I could see that RedHat 5.1 was broken and I wasn't in a mood to try and salvage it amid flame wars. I have enough experience in my past with chat to understand beyond need for reminding when to quit speaking publicly. Here, when I first received 5.3, I appeared to have been the first on this continent, quite literally. I simply placed my order before it was released. I don't know why some are still waiting. I was told it would come in the first week of Sept and it was here last Monday. Scott Winterton at SuSE was very helpful and kept me informed. I admit, however, that I probably bugged him until he sent it by overnight express, when they did. :) To the point, this group feels very comfortable. There is a wealth of experience here and compassion. I saw a couple of rude remarks about someone's leaving, but not from those who write daily. For me, Michael, your wisdom would have been sorely missed. Thanks for peering back inside. I don't know what everyone else thinks and I won't pretend to guess. My desire is to build a computer devoid of Gatesware, period. Linux looks like the best alternative to me, although I guess I could simply buy a Mac. I was brought kicking and screaming to this conclusion by my most recent experience with Microsoft IE40 and Outlook Express when I allowed what I thought was a benign upgrade of these two programs by the Microsoft website. Perhaps nobody cares, but if you have read this far Microsoft virtually turned my box into a Windows 98 lab rat with that maneuver. It does everything but splash the Win 98 logo. Now IE40, which used to be superb compared to NS (seriously, I think it is far better) is subject to the most bizarre faults and crashes. I won't go into it all here, this is not a forum. I just wanted to say that I really feel welcome in the SuSE arena. I feel they have the best concept of what a Linux user will want in their OS and you people (many more names than those that I have included) make it easy to continue trying. Even when I ask really stupid questions. Hope I haven't waxed too maudlin for you. Thank you all. Steve <A HREF="http://www.millsphoto.com"><A HREF="http://www.millsphoto.com</A">http://www.millsphoto.com</A</A>> - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e