[Sussex] reformatting a Linspire.

[Desmond Armstrong]

I have in hand a machine with Linspire installed.
As the system is locked to the Linspire at some cost we wish to reformat 
and to install a more sensible Linux. You  cannot install even 
OpenOffice.org.
The system does not accept rpm, very fundamental to any system.
I have so far failed in my attempts to reformat the drive  (200gig 
Maxtor SATA).
Has anybody encountered this problem? and is there some knowledge of how 
to deal with it?