@nina_kali_nina I don't remember who put that Corel Linux CD in my hands. Icouldn't have downloaded it myself, it would have taken a lifetime on dialup, and we didn't have a CD burner. I guess one of my parent's friend who was a relatively early Linux adopter gave it to me? But I didn't think of asking for help then (and my parents were annoyed that I removed Windows from the machine with my experiments)

@nina_kali_nina at least you have the kde bar on screen. One of my first attempts to install Linux was Corel Linux, and our computer at the time would run in 640x400 with KDE thinking it was 640x480 somehow. This resulted in the bar being offscreen.
"Safe mode" had 640x480 display, but the keyboard didn't work.
It would take a few more years, another computer and the help of a school friend before I could finally get a working setup (with Mandrake Linux)