encyclo - 7:01 pm on Mar 10, 2005 (gmt 0)

StupidScript, I use CrossoverOffice to run Internet Explorer under Linux and it works well. It should be just fine with Wine too (you can get the IE install stuff from the Evolt browser archive) and it might fix your banking issues. I assume that you can't just fake the user agent in Firefox? (I would change banks, myself, but that's not always possible).

I am trying to find a distribution that is easy to install but doesn't baby me by being a windows clone.

The "Windows clone" part comes more from the choice of Window Manager rather than the choice of distribution. Personally, I use XFCE (4.06) which is very lightweight (perfect for an older machine) and resembles more the CDE environment found in Solaris (however it is much better than CDE). KDE is the most "Windows-like" WM. The best bet is to choose a major distribution which includes a wide range of packages. I use Mandrake, but XFCE 4 is not included so I had to compile it from source, but Debian (testing/unstable), Gentoo and Fedora offer it. Fedora is the easiest to install of those three. Once you've picked your distro, stick with it and learn its foibles rather than switching all the time - they're all good, just in different ways.

[edited by: encyclo at 7:04 pm (utc) on Mar. 10, 2005]