When you get a bit older, every kind note, every helpful person taking time to notice and care about a need I have, is a great encouragement.  Instead of being alone behind a screen and trying to figure out how to use this tool to keep in touch with family and friends, I made even more friends… whom I now consider family.

I love all of you kind and handsome Linux people!

If you were here, I would invite you in for a nice warm cup of hot cocoa and some of my fresh baked tasty scones.  Or perhaps you prefer some of my lemon my lemon tarts

I’m sorry I am rambling again.  I want to share with you one of the easiest and most fun Linux experiences I have ever had.  You know that back in the early days of my adventures, I began by using Fedora and later Knoppix.  It was something useful that my son Jason installed, but it was a bit tricky for me to figure out all of the different terms and phrases. 

Once I got the hang of it, I realised that it was not much different than using Windows.  And the little Gnome who handled my pictures and screens was very easy to learn. 

The Dilema

A year later my computer died.  It was a natural progression as it was plenty old.  However, it completely cut me off from my daily fun and activities, as well as my desire to keep in touch with family! 

Then my son came over and setup another computer for me.  It was such a nice gift.  And it wasn’t even my birthday!  He told me that he was going to install a new and improved Linux that would be very easy for me to use.  He said it was called: PCLinuxOS.

I grew nervous.  Would I have to relearn everything again?  I think I am too old for that!

But instead of installing PCLinuxOS, we just ate some pie and talked about many things.  The time slipped passed and he did not install the disc that he brought over.

All By Myself

That night I did something I never thought possible. 

For some reason, I felt an adventurous spirit in me, and picked up the PCLinuxOS disc and decided to try it myself.  How proud I would be if I could do this without any help. 

Sadly, I could not figure out how to start the disc at first, and had to call Jason.  He told me to press F9 on my computer and that would allow me to start up using the disc instead of my hard disk.  I didn’t know this little trick, but after that, everything else was easy.

Within a few minutes I was looking at the most pretty scenery.

I tried some of the programs and fell in love with Frozen Bubble.  But after some time, as I explored this wonderful and easy new design, I found this cute little button:

Installation?  That’s what I wanted! 

I wanted to get PCLinuxOS nicely installed into my system and then I could start using it.  My son later told me that I was already using it -- as something called a Live-CD -- right from the disc with no effort at all.  It didn’t matter.  I wanted to install Linux for myself and it was the easiest thing I ever did.

The steps were easy because the Installation Help guide (found right beside the installation tool) is written clearly and concisely.  Even an old lady like myself can follow each step without having to understand all of the technical jargon.

The easy steps included typing in a password, choosing my Hard drive, and choosing that it install to the entire drive so I could skip a lot of the complicated partitioning details, and then letting PCLinuxOS format and install to my system.  The final step was easiest.  Pressing the restart button on my computer and letting PCLinuxOS begin!

In about twenty minutes everything was finished.  But by that time it was already very late and I decided to turn off the computer and continue more the next morning.

What a Beautiful Morning

The next morning I woke up and had an urge to try to contact Jason and tell him I figured out how to do it all by myself!

I started my computer, turned on the internet connection box [dsl modem] and waited patiently.  There before me was that wonderful picture.  Now I quickly opened the internet browsing tool and access my emails.  He would not believe that I had done it all by myself.

Later that morning, I also began using a number of the new tools such as the use of OpenOffice.org Writer, which helped me to create this article!  It was easy, and exactly like my previous experiences.  Not much new learning at all.  Just a few different pictures to click on and they were prettier!

I was also amazed how many other nice tools came with the PCLinuxOS.  I used Amarok to listen to my music CDs.  As I hummed along with my favourite tune, I enjoyed a few rounds of KMahjongg.  I have to admit that I used Hint a few times, but it was all so enjoyable and easy. 

Thank you Mark Kretschmann and the whole Amarok development squad for making such a useful and yet easy music playing tool.  I also want to thank Mathias Mueller, without you I would never have known how fun the ancient game of Mahjongg could be.  Oh, and of course I would not forget my dear friends who created Frozen-Bubble, probably one of the most addictive games I ever tried.  You can really get stuck playing this game for hours and hours!

Of course, I would not forget to send my love, hugs, kisses and thanks to the team who created KDE, probably one of the richest interfaces, while also being a whole lot easier and logical than my previous Windows gobble-de-gook. 

Am I rambling again!  Goodness, I am sorry.  But it would be so foolish of me, now that I am so happy and enjoying Linux to forget to send my great love and enthusiastic support for Texstar and the team at PCLinuxOS.  Thank you for putting together such a nice Linux version, because it is truly easy to use - - even a Granny can enjoy it! 

Finally, I thank my son Jason.  I can not believe how incredibly easy Linux is.  I am also astounded to find that one single disc contains so many programs and fun tools!  The last time I recall Jason installing Linux, it took him four discs and a very long time, and a lot of technical terms I didn’t care for.

Today, with PCLinuxOS, I can proudly say I did it myself by reading the simple and easy instructions and letting the tools do the rest. 

For those of you who are new and don’t want to spend any time learning, but just getting to the good stuff, PCLinuxOS comes with the following programs automatically installed and ready to use:

Amusements

Applications

Graphics Tools

Sound Tools

And it comes with plenty of other tools such as MPlayer to enjoy your movie DVDs, and the Konqueror, Mozilla Firefox, Nvu and Opera web browsers! Don’t forget that it also comes with the full and complete OpenOffice.org program suite too.

Everything I listed above was preloaded with the installation.  I did not have to configure, download, or setup anything to use any of these programs right away!

Oh my goodness, I have spent far too much of your time.  Sorry that I ramble a bit, but I wanted to share my joy with you!  I hope you have a very nice day.

Love,

Granny