Just wanted to share a quick review on my attempt to replace Windows on my desktop at home. Below are the things I do with the computer and how well they translated to Fedora: 1) Email. I had some problems getting Evolution 1.4 to talk nicely with my RH 9 email server via imaps and smtp-auth over tls. I'm still working through that, but I got email working by allowing relay from the desktop box. My wife is getting used to the interface, but it's no big deal for her, so that's a plus. 2) Digital Camera. My wife has two digital cameras: - Kodak DX 3500. gtkam worked just fine, saw the camera and I could see all of the pics. The software's not as easy to use as the windows software that came with the camera, but I think I can get Kim to use it. - Olympus C-750 UltraZoom. I couldn't get gtkam to initialize the camera, no matter what camera I selected. The autoselect kept finding it as a C-2040Z, which would have been fine if it could have initialized the camera. I suppose I'd have to use one of those card readers, but I don't know if any of them read Olympus xD cards. This one's a deal-killer for my wife. I'll have to dual boot if I can't get this one working. 3) Office suite. We've been using Open Office at home for about a year now on Windows, so the switch to Fedora was a no-brainer. 4) Games. My wife loves tux racer. :) She wishes we could get frogger, but tux racer is okay with her. I haven't tried installing Neverwinter Nights on Fedora yet, but I hear that it works just fine, so games shouldn't be a problem. 5) Video. I couldn't even get my video off of my Canon Optura 20 camcorder and onto the computer with dvgrab. I've left a message on the dvgrab message board and haven't heard back these last few days. I found a couple of messages in archives that hint that ieee1394 isn't working properly yet in linux, so that may be why I had the problems. I could control the camera, but just not capture the video over the firewire port. Go figure. I may try again when I get the new motherboard installed. I don't think it's the board, though, since this works flawlessly in Win2K. I found a couple of video editing applications that look like they might be pretty cool, though I don't know if they'll replace DVDLab. However, since I can't even get my video, there's no way to tell. This one's a deal-killer for me, as that's one of the major reasons I've upgraded my PC, so that I could do home video. Bottom line: Fedora is almost there for my personal needs. Great look, good experience, but not all of the apps I need are working yet. For now, I may have to look at purchasing XP to take advantage of the SATA ports on the new motherboard. Hope this helps somebody out there. Ben
