Hello all you linux users!

A few minutes ago I got my very first introduction
to sitting in front of a LINUX machine, and I am
glad to say that I LIKE IT! I got the $6 knoppix
cd in the mail, put it in my cd and punched it,
and, wow, it did everything automatically and I
was there staring at what looked like a variation
of a windows-type GUI desktop. I browsed around
a bit and I am very much impressed. Now I want
to go ahead and install a full linux system and
get into linux and out of windows (finally!!!!)

My first question is to help me decide which distro,
but I am really leaning towards suse, but, I am not
prejudiced, so I plan to condsider this a bit and
then just go ahead. I am a programmer hobbyiest,
and I have mainframe experience (MVS and VM), plus
I have been a DOS and windows user since the beginning.
My 440bx 1g PIII PC has 1/2 gig memory and a bunch of
decent 40 and 60 gig hd's, so I think I have the h/w
for a good linux desktop. I was thinking suse because
I read somewhere that it is geared towards programmers.

2nd - is there a way to run "standard" DOS and windows
programs? For example, I use the old standby SPF/PC editor
(a really good DOS clone of the mainframe SPF editor),
and I would really really like to be able to run it
on LINUX (that would be truly programmer's heaven).
Is there a DOS type emulation and where do I get it.

3rd - and this is very curious, I noticed that knoppix
was able to see my win98 fat32 harddrive WITH NO PROBLEMS
and that just floored me. The GUI (KDE) reported the whole
shebang, and it behaved like windows by just letting me click
on files and then letting me pick which app to associate with
it (LINUX is really getting good - this is fantastic!).
The curious thing is that I have a handful of DV-format
AVI files, and when I chose XINE to open these with, XINE
actually did go ahead and open each AVI I selected, and it
went ahead and actually played one, or a few, frames
(I can't figure out HOW XINE decoded these since the
DV codec is probably not included on the KNOPPIX cd),
but then it froze. What is going on here? XINE had
to have some way to decode the first part of the DV
AVI file (they are NOT in plain raw format), and I am
really curious about this. But, what I really want
to know, is, does the LINUX world have all these codecs
up and running (DV, DIVX, cinepak, indeo, mpeg, mpeg2, etc.),
and where do I go to download the most codecs I can,
especially the DV format?

4th) I wanted to ENLARGE the fonts used in the file browser
windows, and I did find properties under control center and
changed them to 14 pt, but it didn't effect the file browser.
How do you do that? ALso, when I brought up BASH, I also
wanted to make it a larger font, but, well, how do you get
linux to give you a larger font?

5th) I am sure the answer is yes, but, will linux offer me
true OPENGL compatablility with my leadtek video card so
I can not suffer any degradation in graphics programs?

Any other thing any of you LINUX users who can relate to the
worries a long time windows user has is appreciated. I have
at least two, maybe more, current friends who are windows
users who are waiting to see how it goes for me with LINUX,
and they are ready to bolt if it works out good for me.

Thanks to all - I am really starting to get interested in LINUX,
and, what is really hard to believe - IT IS FREE!!!!!!

Littleberry