I agree I just installed Ubuntu on a laptop at home, and it was a pleasant experience. Except that on installation, it hit a snag because the disk was fragmented, and I had to defrag several times before it would partition properly. The thing was, it took a fair amount of searching to find out the problem, and it would have been nice if this fairly common problem had been addressed either in the literature, or in the installation programme itself. Once I sorted that out, the installation was a dream. Very impressive, given that it's free. It found everything, and my wi-fi, CD-ROM etc are all connected. Well, the wi-fi doesn't work with WEP, but maybe I need to work on that. And it's true, if you just want to do the basic stuff in Ubuntu, it's all there, and the updates are automatic, and it probably would just work. I would consider giving this setup to my mother. My problem is that now I want to do things like connect up my camera, and my phone, and my PDA, and it suddenly becomes a lot harder. I need to start digging around to find the script that manages the serial ports, and set up sync programmes, and work out what is the internal address of my syncML server. I'm used to having software that just does this for me - it detects hardware on the port, and works out what it is, and tells me what to do. Now I'm aware that I paid nothing for Ubuntu, so I shouldn't be ungrateful. But what I would really like would be some more guidance about where to start. The Linux for beginners sites that I have found, tell me how to use the mouse, modify the desktop, and use the software that I have. The next level up just gives me a lot of complex information, that is a shade too complex for me. So I heartily agree that Linux, and Ubuntu are OK for beginners, and for experts, there is a need for more support for the person who has already begun. That said, in the do-it-yourself spirit of the Linux community, maybe I should do it myself!