I have installed Linux on many PCs and noted that current distributions are terrific but, annoyingly, lack some basic configuration. Most applications will work out of the box, but some won't. Moreover, I have noted that the same questions crop up on c.o.l.setup over and over again.
To try and remedy this situation, and to have a memorandum for fresh installations, I wrote a do--this--and--that list that I later expanded to become this HOWTO. Here you will find a handful of configuration examples for the most common applications, programs, and services, which should save you a fair amount of time and work.
A few of the examples outlined in this HOWTO are somewhat distribution dependent. I only have access to Red Hat and Caldera OpenLinux machines, so don't take any of my tips as gospel if you have Slackware, Debian or other distributions. In any case, reading documentation and the HOWTOs always pays off, so you're advised to do so anyway.
There can be endless hardware configurations for a PC, but in my experience one is quite common: a PC fitted with a large HD split into three partitions (one for DOS/Windows, one for Linux, one for the swap), sound card, modem, CD--ROM drive, printer, mouse. A parallel port Zip Drive is also becoming commonplace.
This is the hardware I'll assume you want to configure, but it's easy to adapt the following tips to different configurations. It's implicitly assumed that you'll be root when editing/fixing/hacking.
And now, lads, sleeves up.