Howdy, Mike! Glad to hear things are running for you, and it sounds like you
are having fun.

I will say right now that the 747 analogy is a good one - but I find Linux to
be more like your regular old run of the mill car. It is nice and purdy, it is
easy to use, and it need not be intimidating. However, if you want you can a
copy of the service manual THEN you can really do some cool stuff. 

Don't let Linux intimidate you. It really is easy. Yes, it does have a lot of
fancy schmancy powerful stuff in it, but to be honest, you really don't need
some of the stuff that is under the hood, however if you ever need to get at it
you can rest assured it is there. 

It sounds like your lock up was a KDE problem. Try hitting CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE
and see if you could kill X. Another thing to do, if that does not work, is
swtich consoles by using the CTRL-ALT-Fx keys. You can always log in to one of
them and kill the errant task that way. They are handy to use for other things
too.

When it comes to the learning curve, I think the best way to do that is to hang
out on the lists. Visit linuxnewbie.org and participate. If you are wrong about
something, people will tell you so - which is a good thing. Read web pages and
participate. And above all, USE THE OS! No amount of reading will ever be a
substitute for hands on experience. 

Also, it is a good idea to keep a notebook handy and jot down notes. Ya never
know when you are going to need something again.

Randy

On Sat, 11 Mar 2000, Mike McVey blabbed:
> Thanks to everyone for the little bits of advice I have followed that 
> now have me up and running with Linux.