I considered myself a geek because I am quite experienced with the Windows OS, but mastering a "plug & play" OS is child's play compared to Linux. I thought I was up for the challenge Linux provides... I was wrong! This is way out of my league! I'm going to have to wait for my 17 year old son to learn this stuff to complete my conversion to Linux! Getting Java to work in Firefox or my Wacom tablet to work at all is a completely foreign concept to me. My hat's off to all of you who understand this stuff!

This is the best way to learn. You said it "it's all a foreign concept". Well that's the explanation. You need to do a Google search and find a howto on installing java runtime with Mandrake. Read the stuff carefully and try to get to grips with the terminology. The main difficulty is that most people are not used to the file systems and the way things are constructed. I use Debian which is much more complex than Mandrake but if I remember correctly the Java runtime install for Mozilla (firefox) was fairly straight forward when I did it a few months ago.

I reckon its impossible to learn the whole thing - you have to concentrate on what is actually relevant. Because all the source code is there, learning Linux fully would mean understanding all the algorithms for the kernel and GNU tools, not to mention the abundant body of user programs and hardware dependant device drivers. I'm fairly sure theres nobody in existence who can claim they know all that.

You've got to draw the line at what you need to know, otherwise you'd go crazy!

Having said that, its remarkably easy to get up and running with new software once you know what you're doing. And the best part is, if you don't like the way a program works, you can change the source code!

I work with windoze os all day 6 days a week (prior to that msdos) but you are never too old or too young to learn something new...don`t depend on your kids to do the work for u......I`m 44 and my 18 yo and 16 yo are still with windoze having passed all sorts of `exams` for IT and ICT and pc repair and they still come to me for help.... get stuck in to ur linux os and show the kids what ur made of!!!!!!
ps u can always sneak off for help from the forum without the kids knowing lol!

It did not matter that lots of other cities had been built and fallen into ruin long before, Rome was still not built in a day.
Perhaps you should have a beer...

and if the last post was not gauntlet throwing in its full glory then I don`t know what is!

mmmm... beer

Thanks to all for your encouragement. I haven't given up on Linux, I'm just stuck at the moment. The installation was very trouble-free, it's just "kernel" & "compiling" that have stopped me cold. As I write this reply, my 17 year old son is installing MDK 10 on a spare HDD on his computer. I have no doubt he will have me sorted out in no time. mermxx, I too work with windows (my business is in-home service on Windows based PCs) and have used computers since before hard drives (I'm 10 years older than you! ) For whatever reason, the DOS-like code in Linux has caused a brain-block to form in this tired old noggin of mine! I'm sure once it is adequately explained it will all make sense. Beer? Sounds good!