Actually, all of the hardware you listed is supported. You just have to make sure you don't buy a cheap so-called "winmodem". The downside to that, is a real modem costs a little more. US robotics Sportster's are a good modem that work fine with linux. SB Live is supported with the emu10k1 module. Add this line to your /etc/modules.conf file: alias sound-slot-0 emu10k1 The Voodoo 3 works great also. http://dri.sourceforge.net should have all of the info you need to get that working. Most distributions will set all of this hardware up automatically, at least Mandrake is fairly good about it. If you still have problems, just come to an installfest and someone will help you. As for you asking what distributions are the best... I think you probably just started a flame war. :) I like Mandrake for desktop boxes, and debian for servers. I haven't used Slackware in a long time, so I don't know how they are, and I don't really like RedHat, it seems to suck for a desktop system, and for servers it works OK, although it installs tons of unnecessary crap. Jay > -----Original Message----- > From: Matt Waters [mailto:thefishyone at hotmail.com] > Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 8:08 PM > To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org > Subject: [TCLUG] New to linux > > > Hello. I just subscribed to this list last night, and am very > new to Linux, > so I preemptivly apologize if I ask a stupid question. > > Anyway, I used to run a redhat box on an i686 but took it > down because I > could never figure it out. After several months of cussing > out my windows > machine (I switched to Win2k, and although a massive > improvement over Win9x, > is still very buggy) and at the recomendation of a friend's > father who is a > huge UNIX guru, however, I decided to give Linux another try. > My 3 major > problems with getting Linux up and running are the fact that > I can't find a > modem anywhere that will work with Linux, my Voodoo3 and SB > Live cards don't > have drivers written for them that I know of, and the fact > that I have > virtually no experience with UNIX. If any of you would give > me the name of a > good, relatively cheap modem, point me to some Voodoo3/SB > Live drivers, or > give me a few pointers on how to learn Linux, it would be > most appreciated. > > Also, I know it's fairly subjective, but what distributions > do you guys > think work the best, based on your experience? > > The Fishy One's Infinite Wisdom #28: "Life is anything that > dies when you > stomp on it." > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > _______________________________________________ > tclug-list mailing list > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >