I have just bought a acer revo 3610 which is loaded with Linux (Linpus Lite) I have never used Linux before & am confused by the names. Are all the Packages Distributors?the same or do they perform in different ways

The various distributions ("distros") of Linux vary in

1. The programs they provide. Some offer more than others, and Qimu (for children) is not going to offer the same selection as Scientific Linux.
2. The "house-keeping" tools they provide: that is the installation program and the tools for adding and removing programs.
3. How frequently they are updated. Ubuntu comes out every 6 months, CentOS every 2 years.

But a program is the same, where-ever it comes from. The only difference between OpenOffice in Linpus and OpenOffice in Debian is that the first was compiled from source on a machine running Linpus, while the other was compiled on a machine running Debian. That way the distributors can (hopefully) make sure that everything they offer works happily together. That's why it's important to get extra software from your distributor's repository, whenever possible.

Linpus is a company in Taiwan that has made a selection of suitable programs from the Fedora distribution especially for your Acer.

Dear David Thank you v much for the info.
Does this mean that if I can't find Linpus I can use Fedora wwhen info is required. Is linpus any good
Alistair

Most information is common to all distributions: stuff on the command line, using various applications, the Gnome or KDE desktop. Information about Fedora things for installing software, like rpm and yum, should do for Linpus also.

Linpus has a website with a very small FAQ section, so you're going to be using this site for any help you need. I don't know much about it, except that it's customised for netbooks and similar small devices.

Looks as though it may be a long hard slog. Thanks for your help
Alistair