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Thanks for everyone for replying to this - especially Stinga and Clare :-) - sorry for any contraversy my question caused. In short (and sorry if I am also generalising) the consensus seem to be that it is the fact that people (male and female) are not good with change concerning their PC's unless they have a particular interest in IT, they have no choice and / or one of us is standing over them with a lump hammer saying "use this". Also, they will continue using what they are familiar with, even if it causes them lots of problems. Therefore, (I am being a bit flippant here) I conclude, that we need a Linux distro called something like "Free Windows" or, in fact, how about "Windows 2008". It can run on Debian, be a Ubuntu or Mandriva or any other variant - it doesn't matter. The important thing, is that the user interface and software provided is almost identical to Windows XP / MS Office / Outlook. In fact, you would barely be able to tell the difference. This could be the first step recommended to any Windows user who we have persuaded to try Linux. What they would then get is all the benefits of using Linux without any of the disadvantages of having to learn new things. In the most recent LXF, there was an article about Windows addicts. This Windows Linux could work like methadone / nicotine patches as a first step to curing them ! On a more serious note, I have emailed Becta about educating schools on the subject of open source software and also about getting more women into IT. I will let you know if there are any positive developments. -- regards viv -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html