I've had some instances in the past where Linux has proved to be quite a pain. I had problems with my graphicscard with several distros (GeForce3 Ti200), the problems that I encountered could probably have been solved by a more experienced Linux-user, or if I had had the patience to read endless forum threads. But I am kind of lazy, so I of dismissed Linux for a while. Until yesterday, when I read about Knoppix on a online newspaper.

It seemed simple enough. One cd, no installing needed, so I decided to give it a try. I did not have high hopes when i popped in the CD and rebooted the machine. I expected the same problems with my gfxcard to occur.

The kernels loads up, I start seeing names of my components, the laser in my optical MS Intelli 3.0 Explorer blinks eagerly. 2 minutes later I was sitting there, staring at a linux desktop, not a error in sight. Not entirely beliving this was happening, I decided to check if another problem I experienced with the other distros would come back to haunt me, namely the soundcard.

I Started up XMMS, loaded in a mp3 or two, pressed play and sat there gaping as music flooded into my ears. The nightmarish problems of the past just weren't there! I tried playing some DivX files, accessing my MS-drive, tinkered with the desktopsettings, everything worked smoothly.

To get my broadbandconnection up and running, I expected to go through some hellish configuring. "That ain't happenin'," knoppix said. Mozilla loaded up and there was the internetconnection all set up, and the web of the world at my feet. (I am connected through a router, so it probably isn't that amazing, but cool none the less :)

Needless to say, I am impressed with this thing. Everything I had a problem with in the past, was not a problem any longer. I even played a videofile with some obscure codec that I had to search for hours to find for windows, no problem what so ever.

Maybe I am going a bit overboard, but I am just so glad that there are no problems with my hardware, and that everything is working just fine, it's almost too much for a humble newbie. Next thing I will do is install this thing permanently to my hard drive. Long live Knoppix and Debian

Oh I forgot to mention. I had one problem; the desktop clock wasn't displaying the correct time...nuff' said. :D