MANDRAKE... Good to Begin?

[//siddhartha//]

After UBUNTU, well my next question... Actually, I gave my frnd who has a CD writer my DIGIT DVD containing UBUNTU (my previous string : UBUNTU: Good to Begin?) , but I found it was only a CD-WRITER and not a combo drive.. SO, I could not begin my sail on LINUX... So, I hve ordered UBUNTU from its site.. But I cannot sit still , So I have asked my frnd to e-mail his MANDRAKE CDs to me.. Now, I wish to know is it easy to begin and use? I hve heard its the easiest DISTRO?
By the way, what is a distro?
Will I be able to use it along with my WIN XP SP2?
How much hard disk space would MANDRAKE 10.1 take up?
God, I am so confused..

[demoninside]

hey buddy i think Mandrake is the best one for new ones
(Pls don't go in wrong direction coz i hvn't tried UBUNTU)
so go ahead nd istall it,

Yes u can use ur WinXp afterwords,
nd i think disk space totaly depends on ur needs of softs,
but i guess 5GB should be enough.

[tuxfan]

I installed Mandrake 10.1 a few days ago and it is good. It even recognised my USB card reader automatically (win98 didn't). USB issues seems to have been sorted out. I will try my USB scanner and printer soon.

But internal modem still remain an issue. It wasn't recognised.

[h4xbox]

Even knoppix recogonizes my flash drive (USB) .. in
/proc/bus/usb/ i think..

I think knoppix rulez

[hafees]

hi sidhartha...

linux is actually a free kernel(heart of the OS). and a linux distro (distribution) means the entire thing packed with applications, games etc ...

You can install any linux distro in 2 GB (unless u want all packages & appz). You need unpartitioned free space to install most linux distros. (read help of the distro or post ur doubts here)

the feb issue of digit contains the mandrake 10.1 distro with 3 CD images. (u dont need to burn the images - ask here how or refer www.thinkdigit.com)

mandrake is good. it contains all the applications including divx support. this is great when compared to fedora core which doesnt provide even an mp3 player (u ve to download additional players/plugins). if u ve external modem then no problems.

Hope u find it useful.

[hafees]

if u 're really a first timer with linux then try KNOPPIX . it is a live linux distro. that means u dont need to install anything. insert it into ur CD drive and just boot from it.

Knoppix include many applications & games (the march issue of digit contains Knoppix). if u ve 256 MB + RAM then Knoppix works better.

[h4xbox]

@ Hafees : Gr8 j0b m8 !! You read the siggy somewhere like shiv kera's book .. anyway thts the fact...

[//siddhartha//]

OK, so a DISTRO is evrythng including apps, gmaes, etc... Now, LINUX is open source, right.. Which means even I can hack its code.. Can I by learning something, change its code and then use the changed code as my own O.S. and/or distribute it to others...
Is LINUX like WINDOWS? What extra do I need to learn to use LINUX... ? ? ?
I am so confused...

[GNUrag]

Originally Posted by //siddhartha//

OK, so a DISTRO is evrythng including apps, gmaes, etc...

distro is a collection of all the tools and utilities including the kernel.

Originally Posted by //siddhartha//

Now, LINUX is open source, right..

Wrong. Linux is Free Software. There's a lot of difference between OpenSource and FreeSoftware.

Originally Posted by //siddhartha//

Which means even I can hack its code.. Can I by learning something, change its code and then use the changed code as my own O.S. and/or distribute it to others...

Yes. You are legally licensed to change and redistribute the sources and binaries of your custom distribution, as long as you also make the sources available.

Originally Posted by //siddhartha//

Is LINUX like WINDOWS?

No.

Originally Posted by //siddhartha//

What extra do I need to learn to use LINUX... ? ? ?

Read this ebook and you'll be pro with using the gnulinux os.
http://db.ilug-bom.org.in/lug-author...2004-12-30.pdf

[tuxfan]

If you are confused with the definition of word "Free Software" go to http://www.gnu.org for clarification. Free doesn't mean financially free. Its all about freedom not price.

[KHUBBU]

Originally Posted by demoninside

nd i think disk space totaly depends on ur needs of softs,
but i guess 5GB should be enough.

Going by the standard installation mandrake 10.1 offers, 5 GB was less in my case atleast, go atleast for 6 GB.

[vignesh]

Mandrake is one of the best i used so far .its easy to use for linux newbees

[//siddhartha//]

OK, I wish to install Mandrake on E:. Please guide me during the installation during partition. As for Knoppix, I shall definitely its Live CD..

[//siddhartha//]

Hang on. I will try to install it by the way given on THINKDIGIT.com. But it is for Mandrake 9.1 Will it work for mandrake 10.1 ? ?

[tuxfan]

The setup steps are more or less same and don't change too much with versions. There may be some minor changes, but not too much. So go ahead and do it man!!

[shwetanshu]

Today i installed MANDRAKE 10.1 on a 19 GB Partition. Now after i installed it and i rebooted, it shows 5 options :

1) linux
2) 2427-0pre21
3) Windows --> starts recovery(compaq computer)
4) Windows 1
5) Failsafe

Wenever i choose linux, it starts loading in a DOS like thing and after sometime a screen comes up with all blury display, i cant understand a thing.

I had set the screen rsolution to 800 X 600 @ 16 Bit. I have intel 845 GL Chipset. Pls help. How can i rectify this???

Also can i set it to display only Linux and Windows 1???

[tuxfan]

Originally Posted by shwetanshu

a screen comes up with all blury display, i cant understand a thing.

What is there on that screen? Can you take a screen shot with a DigiCam and post it here?

Also, how is your HD partitioned? What OS are there on it?

[shwetanshu]

I have Windows XP Home Edition wid SP2
HDD is partitioned is like this
c: windows drive 32 GB
d: Recovery Drive 5 Gb
both r on a single 40 GB HDD
e: 50 GB
f: 25 GB
g: 15 GB
h: 40 GB

and i was left with 19 Gb of unallocated space so i used it for installing LINUX and i dont have any DIGICAM, but the screen comes up with lots of multi colored lines

[pradeep_chauhan]

press ctrl alt F1 all together and see what comes on the screen post what you see.

[Maverick340]

i installed mandrake too...i didnt get any blurry screen ...but ya my modem doesnt get detected(internal)...Any help there