Newbie Frustration

["Walt Black" <wblack@fgi.net>]

Now that I have SuSE 6.1 installed and running my frustration level is
increasing rather than decreasing!  My first mistake was in buying a book
last spring that got me started with Linux. "How to Use Linux, Includes
Caldera Open Linux Version 1.3 Software".  I struggled to get it working on
my old 486 66MHz box.  Ben Story was home from school at the time and he
helped me get it going and also mentioned the LUCI goup was having a meeting
the next night.  I made it to the meeting and didn't have the slightest idea
what people were talking about altough I had used MSDOS and Windows for many
years.  That night Steve was handing out the "trial" version of SuSE Linux.
I didn't install it though as Best Buy had the commercial version with all
the "bells and whistles" including Corel WP8 for only $29.95.  I tried
installing it and of course had even more problems.  Months passed and I
missed the LUCI meetings as I had other commitments.  Finally in October I
attended another LUCI meeting and got help with getting it working.  Now I
have been trying every thing I know to make the damned thing print to my
Panasonic KX-P2135 Printer.  This printer has an Epson emulation according
to the manual.  YAST supposedly sets up Epson printers to use apsfilter and
ghostscript.  I can get the x windows and KDE working but I can't seem to
print from any program.  The manual with SuSE 6.1 sucks bigtime!

It seems there are dozens of different distributions of Linux which is a
"free" software except for the manuals and the setup programs.  What nobody
tells you until you have bough the other packages is that unless you bought
RedHat, the most expensive of the distributions, you are screwed!  Why would
anyone want to spend a  MS Windows price for "free" software?  Windows is
easy to install and it works and is understandable.  Whew, I guess I'm
pissed, so maybe I better cool off and ask for help.

1.  How do you make Linux see a printer with Epson emulation?
2.  The best I can figure is that I can't load individual programs off the
CDs but have to install large packages of many, many things I don't need to
get the programs I do need.  How can I find what programs I have loaded?
Without a working printer it is too overwhelming!
3.  How do I get rid of the programs I don't need that are just taking up
space on the computer?
4.  I can play audio CDs with Linux but cannot figure out how to read the
contents of a CD with Linux the way I can (easily) with MS Windows file
manager.
5.  If there is a meeting Tuesday evening I intend to be there.  I hope
someone see this message before then and that I see if there is going to be
a meeting or not.

Walt Black

Damned frustrated, but still willing to try to get Linux working to my
satisfaction!


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