I wanted to give 9.2 a go since I was a bit concerned with the direction Fedora was going -- I used Red Hat in the past but didn't like the new FEDORA idea and the Big R is getting a bit like the Big 'Bill' -- only interested in Corporate Server and huge moneybags stuff.

SUSE with the Novell takeover might be going down the same road - I liked SUSE but Novell was a "going Nowhere" company so this might be a marrage made in Hell.

I tried this distro 9.2 and have junked it on my laptop (The download version)

for these show stopping reasons

1) DRAXHARD seems to be missing -- if you use the control panel when you configure the network card there is only 1 line for DNS (name servers) -- I don't have DHCP so have to set up NIC manually -- it's not a network problem but software. -- I have to have both name servers in the setup.
(SUSE allows you even to enter 3)

2) PCMCIA -- when starting PCMCIA services computer hangs unless you specify EXTERNAL PCMCIA first -- fiddly if you are a Newbie which I assume is what 9.2 is aimed at

3) once you get PCMCIA working you get zillions of Unsupported Card (what Cardbus OZ -- whatever -- it's one of the most common laptop Cardbus interfaces of all) and MEMORY ??? type of messages being issued all the time that you can't do any other work and the /var/log gets really large quickly.

This might be fine for people who have a lot of time -- I consider myself reasonably computer literate ( I have to use them a lot as I'm a photographer and use digital imaging everday as part of my work)
but -- please no offence here as I'm very greatful there are loads of people who work very hard in their own time to make linux work and without the cost of "That very well known other product" -- but I would expect a product to "essentially work out of the box " with only a few issues (like Wireless Networking on Laptops) still to be resolved if it's being targeted as "Ease of Use". In other words you *SHOULD* be able to get a reasonably functioning system right out of the box after you've made a few selections.

Sorry Mandrake on this one -- For Linux to replace 'Doze' it just HAS to work properly on Laptops as well. I don't have an issue on a desktop -- it DID work right out of the box but I want the same OS on ALL my machines -- please.

So I'm back to SUSE for now.

Any developers out there -- PLEASE PLEASE note the Laptop market is HUGE -- for Linux to be a real replacement to 'Doze it just HAS to work on these.

k