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>>Each generation has been an improvement. And since I moved from Win98 to W2K, forced reboots have been rare. I can't help be think your current situation with W2K is not the norm...unfortunally a total reinstall is the only way to fix these problems (I know. It's a beating).
>
>You must have worked as an MS support person (Reboot or reinstall) :)

hehe...that is quite an insult :)
Actually, I owned computer a service/support business. So I have quite a bit more hands on experience than the typical MS support person. I can't tell you the number of times I beat my head against the wall for *hours* trying to fix bad Windows installs, bad drivers, or trying to clean up machines that had too many rogue applications installed (like more than one anti-virus program, or all the junk that comes pre-installed on most retail purchased machines). Perhaps someone smarter than me can get these machines back to good running order, but I always found it more efficient to install the bare minimum, and go from there. Along with a slap on the back of the customers hand telling them quit installing every $10 program they can get their hands on *grin*.

This is actually a commentary on one of the advantages of Linux/Unix. The MS registry concept is a joke (IMHO *g*). With Linux, as you are well aware, all configuration is in text files, and I think that is a plus.

> From my experience the instability increased significatly going from Win3.11 to Win95.
>

Win95 Rev A had its problems. I'm not so sure it was less stable...perhaps it had different problems. Win95B was certainly more stable than Win95A.

<snip>

>I had use WordPerfect 8.0, but have switched to SO 5.2 because of all of its features. It loads in about 15 secs on my box. (1GHz-512MB RAM),


15 seconds to launch? That is a lifetime...why does it take that long?

>and just like Word, I know where the land mines are and how to avoid them.


I ran across landmines in StarOffice just trying to type a simple document. I think it is *much* more difficult to find a landmine in any version of Office since Office 97.

Also, printer setup was a chore the last time I did it in Linux (I think it was RH 5.2). Perhaps SuSE (?) is better in this regard, or maybe things have improved overall in this area.

<snip>
>But, I eventually plan to switch totally to KOffice. I use KMail mostly, along with KNode (news). KWord is getting very nice. So is KSpread, and the others. The best WP at reading Word docs is AbiWord, which uses an XML format.
>

I would like to check out KOffice. I would like to see Linux thrive, but it is a tough road (at least on the desktop).

Thanks for the info!