I'm always grateful when I'm looking for the answer to a technical problem and I find the answer in a "how-to" published by some kind person. How-to's are all over the Internet. Thank goodness. And thank the kind authors.

The same goes for all of the swell utilities that folks put out on the 'net for anyone to use. Many are free and many are priced way below "reasonable" (and double or triple below "what the market will bear".) From the simplest batch files to boot disks to CMOS directories, burners and fixers; the generosity of the kind people who made these things is quite wonderful.

I think that I'll start a list here of handy how-to and utility sources. Not sure how far it'll go. If you know of some that I should add, please send me a note. Hmmm... this would be an excellent use of a wiki, wouldn't it.

How-to sources:
Rimu Hosting has a swell how-to list at http://rimuhosting.com/support/howtolist.jsp

Utility sources:
Bootdisk.com has emergency bootdisk images for every imaginable OS. Only a donation requested otherwise free. http://www.bootdisk.com/

Linux "distros":
Ubuntu is one of, if not the, coolest human-oriented distros on the planet. Meant to be installable and workable for non-geek humans and it gets very, very close. (You can see the misses if you search the Ubuntu wiki, but otherwise the Ubuntu folks really close in on their goal.) Find it here, free and easy: www.Ubuntu.com/welcome

FYI:
"Distro" is geek jargon replacing the dry expression "distribution package". To speak of a distro for Linux is to speak of a package of software that includes some particular version of the Linux kernel with a particularly chosen and assembled set of the necessary extras to really make the given distro a useful operating system.

Each distro has a reason for existing that sets it apart from the others. Sometimes the differences are subtle but they can be quite significant. Don't give yourself a headache looking at all the distros but do make sure that you're getting one that does what you expect Linux to do.