"I'm running the newest linux kernel and can't force my machine to even lock up, never mind crash.
using mandrake, which is bleeding edge software, the most unstable linux distro available."

I am sure the folks at Mandrake are working hard to make sure you don't get bitten. I suggest you look at the kernel developer mailing list before making assumptions about the inherent stability of the system. The 2.5 IDE system is so broken that many developers have backported the 2.4 system to it and by Linus's own statements the SCSI subsystem is seriously out of date and unmaintained for years.

"Ehh, since there is no proactive maintainer for SCSI, I don't have much choice, do I?

SCSI has been maintainerless for the last few years. Right now three people work on it to some degree (Doug Ledford, James Bottomley and you), but I don't get timely patches, and neither does apparently anybody else." - Linux Torvolds

Obviously it is possible to have stable Linux systems - I administer several of them. But there are serious issues that must be taken into account to assure that - the OS itself is not inherently more stable than it's competitors and certainly no advance over 2K/Xp.

"when I got free corel photo paint for linux it actually started / installed a stable version of wine windows emulator, so I can run wine and then run windows apps with it now."

Wine is an impressive hack, but hardly ready for prime time for many applications... and the folks that work on it will be the first to say that. it works OK for specific applications, but it is far from a general solution and the project itself has interesting internal dissent issues. Again, the mailing list for developers has some interesting information.

"and, since the insmod boot errors seem to have locked out the printscreen function somehow, I can't get screenshot to show the KDE gui that comes with all linux distributions now, on top of gnome and around seven other guis."

To be honest, there is really only one GUI - the X-Windows system. Gnome and KDE are more accurately termed "window managers" and certainly do some really, really cool stuff. The problem is that much of the basic functionality is still not available in a consistent way. Heck, COPY/PASTE is not universal across applications.

I really like KDE - Gnome is visually interesting but the underlying framework is showing it's hodge podge development history. It really is down to Gnome or KDE these days - while there are any number of little window dressing managers (heck, even I wrote one at AT&T way, way back) the reality is that they don't matter very much. BTW - here are some KDE screenshots... this one is my favorite. Of course, it is fairly easy to radically customize windows too ... look familiar?

*"I do boot into command prompt, by choice, as there are times the console allows you to accomplish something that otherwise would require a full install to fix.

win 95 and up starts removing that option for you. 2k and xp both do not have the option at all."*

You are incorrect, in both 2K and XP I have the option to boot into a command prompt if need be to fix a problem preventing the GUI from loading.

Enjoy :)