Begin quote, and I don't want to modify anything as by > line prefix. There are some strange characters at the start that arouse my curiosity:
Ô( system for DOS stuff. This MMX-233 system will remain pristine, and Arachne will be used for all e-mail applications. I've been assured by some that there *are* "safe" e-mail programs out there for dozerware, but I prefer Arachne -- it is well behaved. As to Linux ... I really don't have time for the learning curve. I can no longer use Arachne for 90% of the stuff I do on the www; I'm forced into dozer ware or Linux with some X-box of some sort AFAIK. I can more or less handle dozerware; I cannot handle Linux. If I were to skip Win98SE and go straight to Linux, there would be a too long period of my not being able to do what I want/need to do on the web. I am dependent upon my computer ... I shop via computer, I get telephone numbers and maps to businesses [I can't justify paying $1.99 for 00=Information], I buy on eBay, and soon will be selling off collectibles and family heirlooms so I can get work done on my pickup truck and set aside a little bit of emergency money. I cannot not have web access. After I have the dozerware working well enough, I can then start looking into PM & mulitple OS boot options. When I get a handle on that, I then can finally learn Linux. Why on earth a 60yo dame who can't hold a job feels the need to learn a new OS may be a valid question ... but I want to learn it. <G> For one thing, I want to set up a better network here than the "hub to cable modem, no proxy" setup I'll have to begin with. And if Linux finally starts to get an edge on M$, I might actually be able to make a few bucks if I've learned enough ... Hey, anything is possible! <G> l.d. ==== (end of quote) I noticed some strange characters including an ASCII 4 on the first line of the message body. It reminds me of one message I got when I was using Ultimail Lite in OS/2 Warp 4. I saw a face character (ASCII 1 or 2) when viewing that message, but only some of the time. I am not the leading guru on safe e-mail programs for dozerware, but Pine and Perl scripts come to mind. What I've seen of Win32 is very limited and leads me to believe it's no easier than Linux. I'm a command-prompt junkie, which probably puts me in good company on this list. I think Slackware (http://www.slackware.com/) might be one of the easiest to install and use, but there are several windozy distributions that put you in a GUI. There are newsgroups and emailing lists, including this one, that can help with Linux. You would need to configure X Windows to run Netscape, Mozilla or other graphic web browser. Good luck! While you're in DOS, you might have use for Lynx386 (http://www.rahul.net/dkaufman/) which has https support but no Java or Javascript. Tom Mueller
