If this is your first ever computer, you probably bought it in a store with Linspire pre-installed so the hard work is already done for you.  If you didn't buy it from LinspireNetwork, don't worry, we won't tease you too much about it.

If you bought smart, and the computer came with a book called "The No-Nonsense Guide to Linspire", you are twice lucky.  It is the best resource that I know of to help new users get started with Linspire.  Start on Chapter 2 and follow along on your computer.

If you didn't get this guide, I highly recommend it.  You can purchase it in the Gigastrand store.  

In the mean time you will have received a blue Linspire reference.  Start at page 8 and read it then go back and check out the first 5 pages (you can skip the installation part).  Reading it in this order helps you get a more complete picture It is only 20 very short pages and will help you get some of the basics down.

Don't like to read?  Who does?  Another great resource is built into Linspire itself.  You may or may not have seen it when you first turned the computer on.  It called the How-To Tutorials.  You can actually watch them like you would watch TV.  To bring them up, click on the orange life jacket icon next to the start button.  This will bring up a menu and at the top of this menu you will see the How-To Tutorials.  Click on that and you will bring up the tutorials.

The Self-Running Demos, just below the How-To Tutorials are another way to get basic information  about Linspire.

For you self-starters, my advice is start small.  Click once on the Launch button on the lower left hand side.  A menu will popup.  Without clicking, move the mouse over to Run Programs.  Another menu will pop out of it.  Then move the mouse over Games.  You guessed it, another menu.  In this new menu find either Solitare or Video Poker (whichever you prefer) and click on it.

This will bring up the game you selected.  Start playing.  Get used to the way the mouse moves and explore the various controls and menus.  Once you are playing with proficiency, move on to other programs.  I give this same advice to all