[H-GEN] Question from a wannabe Linux newbie.

[Rick Phillips]

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> I think that if he wants to try a Mandrake-based linux
> without having to
> install anything, VirtualLinux 1.1 is good. Boots off a cd
> and looks very
> nice. I had a play with it myself a couple of weeks ago. It's not a
> substitute for a nice installed customisable distro, but it
> does give you a
> very good idea of what you're letting yourself in for. Being based on
> Mandrake, it will also detect most hardware (only thing I
> never got going was
> my AC'97 soundcard. I have this going under Debian now --
> thanks to all who
> assisted at the last meeting. Solution is i810_audio module)
>

Mandrake 9.0 "does" AC97 "out of the box"

> I must confess to being a debian bigot too. I think the main
> reason is, I
> like to fuss over it a bit to get it up and running, and I
> like to be able to
> maintain and keep up to date with apt. Also, now that I've
> been using debian
> for a few years, I'm very comfortable. About a year ago I
> installed Mandrake
> 8.x and I found that I just couldn't live with rpm. However I
> know this isn't
> the case for everyone and I don't hesitate to recommend
> Mandrake to my
> linux-noob friends and acquaintances.

I "fuss" over my Mandrake installs as well RPM is quick and easy but tar
balls are a cinch as well and you can always edit those conf files if you
like.  I do them all and Debian is not needed for any of that.

The main _plus_ for Mandrake is that for a newbie - its install is not
"brittle" as someone commented about Red Hat but very simple and robust.
Its rescue option is excellent to and has saved my bacon a couple of times.
Mandrake is right up with hardware and is _the_ newbie choice.

Rick
>
>



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