The installation of Linux (see post below) has been a resounding success, and incredibly easy - I have never installed any operating system (Windows or Mac) with such ease. All the dire predictions by others - for instance, that only geeks could install Linux - simply were not true.
Before I started, I backed up all the files on the computer that I wanted to keep (they fitted on a floppy, as I had pretty much given up using the machine).
I restarted the computer, to check that it could boot from the CD player. (If you need to do this, press the F2 key as the computer is starting, and it should show that option as the default. If not, you just use the arrow keys to move that option to the top.)
I inserted the Freespire disk in the CD drive, and restarted the computer.
From then on, Freespire did the lot. It detected all my hardware, installed the operating system and new drivers for the sound card, video card and USB ports, and chugged away happily while I did a Sudoku puzzle. It asked me a couple of questions, like which language did I want, and which world time zone? There was absolutely nothing in the basic installation I did not understand - it was all plain English and totally user-friendly.
The process took about 25 minutes, and at the end not only did I have an attractive desktop, sufficiently similar to Windows that I could easily find my way around, but the extension speakers and the USB ports all worked (which they had ceased to do under Windows 98), and the desktop resolution was far superior.
A good range of essential software was automatically installed, such as OpenOffice.org (the Linux equivalent of Microsoft Office), Firefox browser and Thunderbird email program. And there are thousands of other free programs available for anything else required.
The only thing I have left to do is network to my main computer. And that only awaits me working out where to plug the network cable on said main computer.
Linux, I love you!
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