[N3WBI3]

Linux is at that point, I have installed Fedora on countless machines without reconfiguring anything.

Gator where you were having troubles was running AIM on Linux instead of GAIM which is a native product with the same functionality.

The dependency issue is solved by YUM, or APT. If you try to pick and choose RPM's yes you will hit them. If you install with YUM or APT (which comes on every distro I have ever used) they solve the dependency issues for you.

[usgator]

The point is the average user would not know these things.  Luckily for me, I had you, and others, to guide me thru.  I am using Kopete for AIM and it's okay, but I liked the AIM interface and a few more things that make it more user-friendly.

I did not try Fedora, but I did try Suse, SlackWare, RedHat 9.1 and Mandrake.  So far, I like Mandrake the best and, like I said, it has tremendous potential.

Unfortunately, I develop, exclusively at this point, in MS (VB, .NET, ASP & C#).  If not for that, I probably could make the transition to Linux much faster.

And you are the exception, n3wbi3, I've looked around on other help sites and most Linux "gurus" give very generic, non-specific help.  Typical answer: "I figured it out and you can too".