Here are some easy tips to make your Linux desktop run even faster.

• Give up the wallpaper Try right clicking on the desktop and selecting the "Configure Desktop" to find an option to use a plain color instead of a photo wall paper. Ubuntuclips.org has a video walk through of this task.
• Disable File Previews UbuntuClips shows you how to do this for Ubuntu.
• Avoid OpenOffice OpenOffice is powerful and easy to use. It's also a memory hog. Consider Abiword for basic word processing and Gnumeric for spreadsheets. You could still install OpenOffice, but only launch it if you need it. In Ubuntu, the abiword-plugins package adds support for more file formats, making it easier to work with Word and OpenOffice files.
  

Firewire are USB 2 offer high speed ways to connect to devices, making them ideal ways to connect to external hard drives or digital video cameras.

For Linux Laptops, the Zonet ZUC2700 FireWire/USB2 PCMCIA card is recommended for laptops. In Mark's testing with Mandriva 2006, the card Just Worked by plugging it in, no special drivers or configuration were required. It includes a port plug in an additional power adapter. It's not needed for low-power applications like flash card readers, or when the external drive supplies it's own power, but may be need for an external drive that depends on USB for power. No power supply is included, but ZoNet support reports that the kind that should be used with it is: "a 5v, center positive, DC power adapter".

Modems can sometimes be a sticking point with Linux. Locally, Mark recommends the Best Data v.92 USB modem, available at OfficeMax.

The vendor, Smart Link, has a clue and provides Linux drivers.

However, at least with Mandriva Linux you won't need them-- they are included in Mandriva Discovery disc set.

To start using it, simply plug it in, and go through Mandriva's wizard to set a new modem connection. It will lead you through installing the needed software from the Mandriva CDs if necessary.

General buying advice for wireless cards

For best security and forward compatibility, choose a wireless card that supports the WPA2 standard.

However, when connecting to public "wi-fi hotspots", typically no encryption at all is used, and a cheaper card may work for that.

Besides WPA, there is an older standard called WEP that provides some encryption, but is no longer considered secure.

The following recommendations are for WEP cards, which are lower cost and may still be of interest to some home users, as well as those primarily using the cards at public wi-fi hotspots.

Unlike Windows and Macintosh, there are many distributions of Linux software. You can think of each one as a separate brand, which packages things a little bit differently to create a unique identity.

This creates innovation as the different distributions push each other to be the best, but it can make a difficult choice for a potential Linux user.

Ubuntu is currently most popular over all, and seems to be most popular around Richmond, Indiana as well.