Cindy I understand Exactly how you feel. I am also running Win98se and two weeks ago began my quest to convert to Linux. So far I have successfuly installed MANDRAKE,BESTLINUX,COREL LINUX,and Failed at about 3 more. one trick I have learned for getting around the Promise IDE controler I have is to unplug my second hard drive and plug it into a the second port on the motherboard next to the one that your cdrom's are plugged into. I have found that some if not most Linux distro's do not like to deal with the Promise Ultra IDE66 controler.
And there is a likelihood that if your hard drive is an ultra66 instead of 33 you may have trouble. I liked very much the BestLunux distro but it would not support my HP Photo/Smart Printer. The Mandrake Did and I could use my burner,CDROM,Floppy. I was going to try the RedmondLinux and could not log on to there Mirror sight. I have a fast DSL Modem now and down loading 600mb is not nearly so painful as it would be with a 56k modem. Be thankful that you do not have a winmodem because as a general rule Linux will not support it. If I cannot try the Redmond Distro, I think that I will go back to the Mandrake Linux 7.2 at least I could use printer and I am certain that I can get my DSL Modem to work. Then maybe the Wine Windows Emulator (This program can be found here http://linuxberg.mv.net/index.html) can help me with the camera Microdrive WingMan Extreme USB hub etc....
Scott Suggested I purchace the Running linux/3rd Edition I have purchased it and have read to page 41 this book is very informative well over 600 pages of informative but you may also need to purchase another book from O'Reilly called Linux In A Nutshell for more information on codes. I will say that your probably not going to learn Linux by the Hunt and peck method that I was hoping to use. This method of leaning works quite well under windows but If you try this under Linux you will likely become frustrated quite readily.
I Think the best way to learn is going to be reading the above mentioned books and the manual with whichever distro you decide to purchase. By all means if you purchase A distro USE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE the Tech help for real stumpers. I would have never found out how to get the Corel Linux to load if I had not contacted Them. I might add I thought I would like the Corel Linux Distro the best but found It to be anything but user freindly. Nothing like it's review's and nothing like there add. So Far the ones I have liked the best of the ones I have tried are as I stated before the BestLinux and Mandrake 7.2 the Mandrake 7.2 is the distro this sight seemed to lean tword for those that were beginning. It is cheap and it may be a little intimidating at first but trust me they can get much worse. I still would like to try the RL but May not be able to. this sight is a great place to find and get access to free downloadable distrobutions. (http://www.linux.org/dist/english.html)
Best of Luck.
ANDREW


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Delighted and Intrigued by things unseen.