Ladies and gentlemen, your writer today is a Linux virgin. That means that this review of SuSE Linux 9.1 isn't your traditional piece, contrasting it with other Linux distributions and arguing its relevant merits. No, instead it's taken from the angle of someone who has been using Windows in its many guises quite happily for ten years, and was willing to try something new.

SuSE Linux 9.1 gives first-timers a bit of a safety net. It comes on a two disc set, the first of which allows you to run the operating system directly from a CD to see if you want to install it proper. This way, it doesn't touch your existing system, but it also runs quite slowly. A bit of a double-edged sword, there. Your scribe scoffed in the face of such safety, though, instead choosing to install it alongside an established Windows XP Professional installation that had been happily working on its host computer for a good eighteen months.

Things started well. The installation was a breeze, sucking up fifteen minutes of lifetime once its recommendations - all of which were customisable - had been accepted. This included establishing another partition on the main hard drive, which worked second time round once a shed-load of clutter had been removed. Throughout, you're teased with slides outlining some of the features of the OS, and in seemingly little time, it was all ready to rock.

Upon reset, an option appeared allowing a choice between booting to Linux or Windows XP and gamely we plumped for the former. Booting from here took roughly half the time of the XP installation, and the desktop screen gave a mere hint of the flexibility and options lying under the surface.

It became apparent within minutes that, if you're not going to be playing the latest games on your PC, Linux really is a viable, effective and cost saving option. Included in this SuSE distribution was a full office suite, a powerful graphics application, solid media playback centre and an e-mail application that happily brought in Outlook Express data with the minimum of fuss. In short, it's genuinely everything you need to run an office system, in a package for under £25. Outstanding value for money, frankly.

The SuSE distribution tries hard to appeal to those who are familiar with Windows, and so its graphical user interface follows a similar style. However, there are differences. By default, you have more than one desktop layout to play with, changeable by a simple click of the mouse. Likewise, one click will also hide the menu bar, from which applications are launched. It's a fantastically intuitive interface, and one that makes a migration that bit easier.

However, Linux isn't without a couple of problems for those making the jump. In this particular case, the operating system happily set up and recognised most of the hardware in our test system, although it struggled with the sound card. And that's when it hit home. After ten years of Windows, your scribe had a moment where, frankly, he didn't know what to do.

In Windows, it's a doddle to fix such issues, yet moving over the Linux takes a little bit of learning, and just as importantly, a little bit of unlearning too. It's not insurmountable, of course, and a quick check online found not only a quick resolution, but also an army of people falling over themselves to help.

In short, if you've always been tempted to have a go, or are fed up with the prices of Microsoft's Office and Windows software, then for £25 - less if you shop around - SuSE Linux 9.1 is a good starting point. Dedicated Linux users will tell you - and they'd be right - that if it didn't quite suit your needs, there are numerous other distributions to pick from. But if you're overawed by the options out there, this is a good place to start. An excellent package, frankly.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. For a Linux newbie, this is a tremendous value box of tricks that's remarkably simple to get up and running.