Problems with using FC2 as Windows Desktop Replacement

[Tony Perrie]

I'm attempting to use an FC2 desktop to accomplish everything that my 
Windows 2000 used to do, but I'm coming up short in several areas.  I was 
wondering if there exists software to accomplish what I need.

		Windows 2000	Fedora Core 2	FC2 Problems
cd2mp3		CDEX		Grip       	- Doesn't handle two cdrom
						  drives well
						- Track listing changes
						  aren't preserved e.g.
						  if I change it, and 
						  reload the disc, it auto-
						  loads from cddb

dvd player	ATI DVDPlayer	gmplayer	- Layer transitions are 
						  choppy
						- Mouse doesn't work on 
						  the selection window
						- Doesn't use ATI hardware
						  support for iDCT or MC	

divx2vcd	Nero		??????		- Transcode + xcdroast?

binary news	XNews		??????		- I tried a ton of readers
reader						  glitter, BNR, Gnus, etc
						- Nothing seems to accomplish
						  what XNews on W2K is capable	
						  of e.g (auto yencode/decode,
						  auto uudec, GUI auto-
						  auto-threading and combining
						  of multipart archives)
						- Glitter seems to be the
						  state-of-the-art reader,
						  but on FC2 I get a strange
						  error about IO::Handle

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, 

Tony