linspire/lindows- any good? i have questions?

[liteonrules]

does anyone use it and do they like it? please tell me a few things about it.

there are few things that are important me if i decide to download it and use it
1. burning dvds w/ shrink and nero plus burn reg. cds
2. verizon dsl internet
3. microsoft word and excel for work

thanks

[Matt]

does anyone use it and do they like it? please tell me a few things about it.

It's a pretty and simplified linux distribution based on KDE.

1. burning dvds w/ shrink and nero plus burn reg. cds

Nero is a Win32 app, there are several other DVD apps for linux, but they aren't Nero.

2. verizon dsl internet

Most hardware DSL routers support PPPoE so getting that to work shouldn't be a big deal.

3. microsoft word and excel for work

You can buy something called "crossoveroffice" which permits you to run MS Office on Linux, or you could use one of the open source packages which has pretty decent office compatability called OpenOffice.

If you do go with linspire, I would recommend subscribing to their click-n-run service as it lets you very easily install other open source software that they test and package up so you don't have to fart around with config scripts, package managers, and dependancies. Once you become more familiar with linux, you could use the apt-get [see debian how-to] to pull down the packages.