Sounds as if these bits should be reasonably easy to set up then Geoff.

I like Yast, IMO, none of the other configration tools on other systems I've tried are as easy to use or as easy to find (ie. with Yast you have a central control panel). Some tasks that you might think complicated are quite easy with it, eg. through the software management and some system service and firewall settings, I could have a functional Apache/Php/MySQL server running without too much effort. Some things though do take more time and/or need actions that Yast can't manage.

If it is possible, I'd suggest you are at a point where it would be nice to try a hard disk install. Apart from having to set the items mentioned up each time when you load the live CD, there are additional software packages you would probably want to install for an extended trial.

On OpenSuse, you would probably want to go to Software/Community Repositories and add Packman, VideoLan and possibly some repositories for proprietry drivers, eg. nVidia graphics drivers.

The ones I mentioned all have items not included in the main repository for licensing reasons. VidoeLan contains libdvdcss - needed for playing many dvds. Packman, amongst other things has support for mp3 and different versions of programs like K3b (cd/dvd burner) and media players which are not as restricted as the std OpenSuse ones.

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Re Amos' comments, it's horses for courses but Mac isnt for me - it's like having to buy a MS computer as well of a MS OS. It probably is a great machine and OS but it's a move further from the freedom I want.

Linux once set up is pretty good. Once things are set up, they tend to stay that way - you don't usually get the "this was working yesterday, it's broke now and I didn't do anything/nothing happened to account for it" that seemed to happen to me a few times with Win.

After a couple of installs, setting up your own PCs with Linux gets easier.

Personally I think it's worth the extra effort it can take to get started.