I have several different distributions at home (Debian 2.2r3, RedHat 6.2-7.1, Mandrake 6.1-8, Stormix, etc...) . Of all of them, Mandrake stands out as the easiest to learn with and install. I started out with Mandrake 6.1 and went from there. I totally recommend it to the complete linux newbie. I still use Mandrake today for servers and networked workstations, I have a machine with Debian installed on it and I use it for tinkering with applications and the kernel, but my main computer at home boots to Mandrake and Win98.
I was finally able to get to the site to check out the article. It seems that many/. readers have totally missed the point of this article. Here we have a Linux user who has installed XP and noticed more than a few similarities. It appears, to the author, that Microsoft has "borrowed" a few ideas from this particular distro. Nothing more, nothing less. That's all that's being said here folks. Even though I use Mandrake (7.2 and 8) as my primary distro alongside Win98SE, I cannot comment on the validity of the author's comments since I have never (and will never) installed WinXP for a number of reasons (one of which is that Win98SE does exactly what I want it to do). The article seemed light and a bit silly. I think it was meant to be that way.
Oddly enough, Mandrake work better on MY particular laptop (minus Sound, of course)- an IBM Thinkpad 760 XD. In Windows 98se, my PCMCIA modems (I have 3 to choose from) all get detected and setup twice at each boot. Eventually (say, after 2 reboots) the machine will lock up hard during bootup, causing me to power off/on, enter safe mode, clear out all of the modem entries in dev manager, and reboot again. Mandrake 8 does none of this. It detected my 56k card, configured it, and left it alone. I know I can always use Mandrake if I need to get up and running on the net without any hassles. Windows just doesn't give me that.
Now if IBM would only write sound drivers for the MWave device I'd be rocking.
Here's what I've spent since I've been using Linux (Jan 2000).
Linux Mandrake retail - $30
FreeBSD 4.0 - $50
After that, I've downloaded all of my distro's (Debian (2.2r2/r3), Red Hat (6.2-7.1), FreeBSD (4.1/4.2), and Mandrake 7.0-8.0.
I've purchased and OEM Windows95 OSR2 from a local retailer for $69.
I guess the question that SHOULD be asked is how productive are you after you purchase either Windows or a Linux distro and do you need to purchase additional software afterwards. For linux, the answer is almost always no (in my case anyways). I've purchased 2 games for linux, but that's it. No need for development enviroments, Kdevelop takes care of that. No need for office apps, Star Office handles that. To achieve this in Windows costs far more $$$.
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I use a set of Bose Roommates with a nice 10" DVC subwoofer rigged up to 'em.
I have several different distributions at home (Debian 2.2r3, RedHat 6.2-7.1, Mandrake 6.1-8, Stormix, etc...) . Of all of them, Mandrake stands out as the easiest to learn with and install. I started out with Mandrake 6.1 and went from there. I totally recommend it to the complete linux newbie. I still use Mandrake today for servers and networked workstations, I have a machine with Debian installed on it and I use it for tinkering with applications and the kernel, but my main computer at home boots to Mandrake and Win98.
I was finally able to get to the site to check out the article. It seems that many /. readers have totally missed the point of this article. Here we have a Linux user who has installed XP and noticed more than a few similarities. It appears, to the author, that Microsoft has "borrowed" a few ideas from this particular distro. Nothing more, nothing less. That's all that's being said here folks. Even though I use Mandrake (7.2 and 8) as my primary distro alongside Win98SE, I cannot comment on the validity of the author's comments since I have never (and will never) installed WinXP for a number of reasons (one of which is that Win98SE does exactly what I want it to do). The article seemed light and a bit silly. I think it was meant to be that way.
Oddly enough, Mandrake work better on MY particular laptop (minus Sound, of course)- an IBM Thinkpad 760 XD. In Windows 98se, my PCMCIA modems (I have 3 to choose from) all get detected and setup twice at each boot. Eventually (say, after 2 reboots) the machine will lock up hard during bootup, causing me to power off/on, enter safe mode, clear out all of the modem entries in dev manager, and reboot again. Mandrake 8 does none of this. It detected my 56k card, configured it, and left it alone. I know I can always use Mandrake if I need to get up and running on the net without any hassles. Windows just doesn't give me that.
Now if IBM would only write sound drivers for the MWave device I'd be rocking.
Here's what I've spent since I've been using Linux (Jan 2000). Linux Mandrake retail - $30 FreeBSD 4.0 - $50 After that, I've downloaded all of my distro's (Debian (2.2r2/r3), Red Hat (6.2-7.1), FreeBSD (4.1/4.2), and Mandrake 7.0-8.0. I've purchased and OEM Windows95 OSR2 from a local retailer for $69. I guess the question that SHOULD be asked is how productive are you after you purchase either Windows or a Linux distro and do you need to purchase additional software afterwards. For linux, the answer is almost always no (in my case anyways). I've purchased 2 games for linux, but that's it. No need for development enviroments, Kdevelop takes care of that. No need for office apps, Star Office handles that. To achieve this in Windows costs far more $$$.