[Gloucs] 'home' users of Linux: sources of help

[Steve Greig]

Hi, I enjoyed the LUG on Friday. Thanks for putting it on. Unfortunately
I live too far away to come to them regularly.

I have just been doing google searches to find help with sorting out
problems with my Linux lap top and have not managed to find a site which
seems to be pitched at the right level.

This particular problem is that I can't record sound: I open up 'sound
recorder' plug in the microphone and start recording but when I play
back I don't hear anything.  I have tried raising and unmuting all the
volume controls (hoping that this won't be wrecking any other
applications that may use them for example Skype).

Over the year or so that I have been running Linux I have struggled to
solve problems like this and still have not found a really good source
of tutorials aimed at the sort of level I am at.

As well as solving the specific problem I would be really interested if
you had any suggestions for good sites for explaining Linux issues to
people who have a very limited ability to use the command line like me
and are a bit out of their depth but want to continue to use Linux.

There are many things I don't do like connect directly to other people's
computers; use video; record sound; print from the gimp; OCR scan etc
etc simply because initial attempts to sort them out have failed (many
things have worked!)

I am really reluctant to go back to Windows or Mac but I really need to
be pointed to some good information for my level of use if I am going to
be able stick with Linux.

Sorry for the length of this. Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

Best wishes from Steve