-> MM> Wish I had the guts to load Linux! But, getting too old for
-> MM> this dog to learn new tricks now. :-(( 

->  CA> Download one of the free Linux livecds such as KNOPPIX CD ISO image
->  CA> file and burn it to a CD. It operates from the CD and a virtual
->  CA> drive (no install) and comes up with a rather nice GUI display. :-)

-> Everybody I see talking about this stuff over a bunch of different mailing
-> lists and online forums all seem to agree with this,  that knoppix is a good
-> place to start.

I was chicken the first day and it took me just over an hour to get
online.
A day or two later I moved it onto the hard drive.
A query in the Linux echo's helped me setup access to sound and 
modem in the safe user mode rather than as root user.
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