hp netbook webcam suse 10
 

I have just brought a hp netbook. It has got a webcam but being a total newbie to linux I am unsure how to access it or what to look for.can anyone point me in the right direction.plz

vlc (www.videolan.org) would be a starting point
this would be an implementation of v4l (video 4 linux), which is supported by any modern kernel, so you wont have to install anything to get v4l to work, it already should, you just need to learn how to use it ;)
http://www.linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index.php/Main_Page

vlc supports v4l devices so as long as your webcam is compatible with v4l it would be just a matter of using a program like vlc and knowing what to tell vlc to do with it ;)