for some ppl , linux means "learning"...
for others it means getting a stable sytem...

Exactly what I was trying to say, but was too retarded to do so in legible manner

That's very true...but I can't stand that some people seem to think that the two are mutually exclusive. Ie: Don't use Mandrake if you want to learn because you won't learn anything.

For me to get into linux, I first needed a system that was stable enough for everyday use (relatively anyway) or else I'd just boot into windows and be done with it...when Mandrake 7.1 came out, that was the first time I found myself setting lilo to boot into linux by default...then when 9.1 came out it was the first time that I wiped out my win98 partition completely.

I think mandrake goes a long way to give you a stable system so you can get 90% of what you need done...the other 10% will come along...nothing's perfect..and 90% of what you LEARN will be while you're working to get that other 10% working

Few hours. Just installed the dam thing (9.2) and already i'm in Windows trying to find out why both ethernetcards dont work. Luckily my 3D-acceleration works perfectly cant wait to be able to play CS in linux.

I installed it when I won the 9.0 power pack here. Thank you.

I can now answer Mandrake questions better than I could without running it.

I really hate to burst your bubble with that but since valve released Steaming pile o poo, it's not gonna be easy for you (unless you are sticking with 1.5 for now). There are some good guides out there how to get steam running on linux through Wine, it can be done, but I spent hours trying and did everything. Steam kept freezing when I ran it :/

Here:

Guide for installing Steam on linux through Wine

and another guide

Another Guide


All I can do is wish you could luck.

Hello Mandrake users:
I've been running Linux since Red Hat got their news coverage years back with 5.2. Machines I own ran 5.2, 5.3, 8.x, 9.1 and MandrakeMove. I give bootable Move CDRs to people about once a week to prove to them Linux can work great in place of M$. I've used Peanut, Knoppix, Suse, Debian, Corel and others long forgotten.
As far as flavors go, it's like Beta versus VHS, diesel versus gas, vinyl versus digital: They all accomplish an equivalent task (some better than others of course). I run 98 SE, 2K Pro, ME and DOS 6.22 at work (M$ is not my first choice!) as well as Mandrake. So my suggestion is: drive whatever car suits your needs, be it foreign or domestic, economy or luxury. It's all about choice. Just be sure to support the Open Source folks with a $ donation, since Big Bad Bill isn't writing them checks. And too, approach those newbies carefully, since no one likes to feel as though they're an idiot. Take it from a Tech Support Manager.
Onward and "Openward".

To answer the original question, I have used Mandrake Linux with only a few short experimental excursions since Linux-Mandrake 6.0.

My first Linux distro was RedHat 5.2 which nearly convinced me to not bother. Then a few weeks later I saw Mandrake at the local BestBuy for under $30.00 [US], so I got it, installed it, and most everything worked out of the box! I had to do isapnp tools to let linux detect my sound card, then run sndconfig to get it working. This took a few posts to the Newbie mailing list Mandrake provided to learn how to do all that.

I now use MandrakeLinux 10 Community because I want to help locate any remaining bugs and squash them if I can.

I have tried Debian, both the stable, and the testing versions, as well as Knoppix installed to HD [a Debian flavor]. Knoppix is not bad, but I had no control over which packages are installed. Debian [the stable branch] feels outdated to me, and the testing branch is too unstable for normal use. These are my personal opinions, and are not intended to detract from the excelent work Debian is doing.

My real reason for sticking with Mandrake, is I prefer their system management tools. I am a Lazy Penguin, and a GUI kind of guy. I think visually, and I am more comfortable working with GUI tools as a result. I can work at the command line, and I use it to test the logic of bash scripts I create, but it is not my idea of how to get things done day to day.

My starting distro was Mandrake 8.2 - about two years ago. After that version, I've used 9.0 and 9.1. I switched to Slack about three months ago, 'cause I wanted a more hands-on experience and be more flexible with upgrading the kernel. I still recommend Mandrake to people who wants to start using Linux, though. It's a really nice distro

AMEN!! Although I'm not a computer illiterate, I think that one of the mayor problems about Linux is that people just won't see anything good besides what they have. Sure Microsoft has taken ideas and good thing from Unix and Linux. Why not do the same thing backwards? Windows DOES have some good things which would make Linux even better. Why not go ahead and implement them?

Give some examples as I haven't found anything in Windows that would make Linux better. I haven't missed anything about Windows except for the lack of cussing since I switched to Linux.

I actually thought my Linux system had crashed once, but it was a new screensaver I hadn't seen before.

I've not consistently used linux, but have been playing with distros since around 1997/8. I started with Redhat 5.2 but was so frustrated by the installation not being simple and the soundcard on my old IBM Aptiva not configuring, I got hold of Mandrake 6 (which had just been released) and tried that. It worked like a charm and it was much easier than straight redhat. At the time, Mandrake was literally an optimized version of redhat with an easier install. Over the years, I've tried at least one of every major version number to see how both Mandrake and linux as a whole had progressed. When I saw what 9.2 was capable of, I was so floored, I started to prepare my system for a permanent migration to linux. I have run each test version, RC and now am on Mandrake 10 community and it is tremendous. I love KDE 3.2. My only complaint about Mandrake is that urpmi should be able to automagically config itself by pinging servers and getting the closest high-availability mirrors. That is one thing that is a pain that most newbies are probably put off by. I will say that I fully intend to subscribe to the silver level Mandrakeclub in about a month because I have to wait til after I take care of taxes and such. Mandrake makes all my computing tasks more enjoyable by providing a reasonably "cutting edge" distro with a focus on the desktop user. I will be running a fedora core server at my new job soon, but Mandrake will be the desktop distro of choice when I get my new IBM T41 laptop for work.

Oh, one other thing...I wish people compiled new RPMs for Mandrake when new kernels release and for new releases of KDE (such as 3.2.1 which squashed a lot of bugs in 3.2.0). If I understand correctly, Mandrakeclub membership already takes care of that, so I guess I just need to pony up some cash. :-)

Oh, and on Mandrakeclub, I emailed them about setting up monthly billing instead of requiring a $120 up front and they said they are working on that for people like me on a tighter budget.

Since i got 6.0 on one of them free CD's that came with a mag.
My first distro was Caldera 1.3 and that one really make me sweat beafore I was able to do anything.
When I got my hands on 6.0, I thought it was a gift from God!
I've been on Mandrake ever since. Yes, I'm that lazy... :-)
I even tried the "flagship" - RedHat. I hated it, too much work. Gotta type /sbin/ before a command... what's up with that?


I really loooove my 10.0 -NOT! Here's why:
- 2.6 kernel will give you NTFS write support - bulllflop, only if the file is the same size, yeah right, how often does that happen?
- my 'dumb' NEC crt monitor is not recognized as a plug and play monitor. Even worse, I can pick it from the monitor list, but it's still 640 x 480 (virtual screen). And no, it's not a configuration error. "Not DDC compliant.. #@%@%"
- eth0 won't start at boot, but it will after an ifup eth0. I guess it needs warmin' up or finally decides to stop searching for an IPv6 router...
- ide-scsi is now obsolete, I suppose. I added it during the install, only to find out that K3b crashes with it.

Still, I'll keep trying. It's the 10.0 release, not the candidate or beta. That's why I even looked at it.
So far, "Worst version ever"

1) The picture preview embedded in the Windows XP explorer. It's a BREEZE to go through pictures with it. Konqueror doesn't have it embedded by default. You have to use GQview or something like that.
2) In linux almost every tool is more explicit under console. That shouldn't be. There should be equally explicit tools under console and under X. This is a VERY important point. In windows you can configure almost everything withing a GUI, in linux that isn't so, or it's very limited.
3) Software installation. In linux once you get the hang, it's all good. But installing stuff on windows can be a lot more easier.
4) Driver support. Not exactly regarding to linux itself (rather the manufacturers), but even getting a webcam to work properly and with all of it's options can be frustrating.
5) Criptic help system. There's no unified help system on linux (actually it's a project I'm thinking of starting...). You HAVE to have access to forums. Actually windows isn't really good at this so this is more of a general suggestion
Making a system easier to use is BETTER. That's what many Linux zealots just won't accept. They think that because they can burn a cd from the console, no one should need a GUI when actually the result is the same but one is a lot easier.

Different design philosophies make some things easy, some things difficult.

I like the Linux concept of one tool, one job, myself, so I use a file manager to manage files, a picture tool for pictures, audio tools for audio, etc. Nautilus does the pitcure preview and file management thing, so you might like Gnome better than kde for that feature. You may even be able to run nautilus in kde (I use fluxbox).

Here is a good article: Linux and the Tools Philosophy

Comparing the Linux help to Windows help, again I give Linux a thumbs up as I could actually find help that made some sense (LDP and forums). I gave up on Windows help as it was no help at all.

Driver support I find to be less buggy in Linux than the Windows drivers (or is it the underlying OS, there is no way to tell), but the latest nvidia driver finally got Windows to working (mostly) for me, but I only play games with that OS.

Making a system reliably do what a user wishes without crashing and harder to screw up unknowinly counts more in my opinion rather than the difficulty of the first configuration which I think you may be referring to.

I actually use a gui to burn CDs, but in an x-terminal. I copy a command from a text file, paste into the terminal, edit anything needed such as path, etc. and press return. I find that much easier than dragging and dropping stuff and answering a half dozen clicks about it.