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"How about the others?"

I'll take a swing.

1.) Perhaps it's time to update your hardware, or get a newer PCMCIA card. You can also search online for others having the same problem as you, and find a solution that way. My wireless PCMCIA card works just as quickly under Ubuntu as it does WinXP. I honestly can't tell any difference in my speed. My card is about 4 years old. Might be worth looking into ndiswrapper?

2.) What video driver are you using? Did you install the ATI drivers for your laptop, or are you using vesa?

3.) Very easy, and automated fix. Just grab Automatix, run it, and you're all set.

4.) Why didn't you use OpenOffice Calc instead?

5. Never tried that feature. Sorry.

6. Again, run Automatix, and your problem is solved. You had to install it under XP, and this makes it easy for new comers to install in Ubuntu.

I hope that helped.

//1.) Perhaps it's time to update your hardware, or get a newer PCMCIA card//

Oy. How come I hear this suggestion, every time I run into hardware issues with Linux? It's a frustrating response, given the glowing promises of "linux will run great on your current PC!"

There needs to be an addendum: "(providing all your hardware is rightly supported)"


2.)//What video driver are you using?//

Erm ... the one Ubuntu installed, without any noticeable choice? What one was I *supposed* to install? Where's the dialog box giving me options install a different one during setup?

3.) //Just grab Automatix, run it, and you're all set.//

Maybe that would work ... why not suggest that, somewhere in the install process, though? It would be cool if there were simply an icon on the desktop, somehow informing users of Automatix ... unless ... there's something weird about Automatix. DOes it really work?

4.) //didn't you use OpenOffice Calc instead?//

Uh, because OOC jacked up the formulas even worse than Gnumeric did? And a quick search revelaed that Gnumeric was "the way to go" for Linux-based spreadsheet programs? I didn't expect it to flawlessly convert Excel files, but it really messed things up. Perhaps for kindergarten spreadsheets, this wouldn't be an issue, though.

I'll try Automatix, and see what happens.