"I switch distributions every now and then so that I
can get a feel for what they have to offer and how they differ. For
the past few months, I've run SuSE 7.2 and KDE. It was time for a
change, so I took advantage of an offer of a review copy of
Mandrake Linux (PowerPack Edition) 8.1. For the past few days I
experimented with the installation, the platform, and configuration
issues specific to my machine.
My desktop machine has a 1-gigahertz Athlon processor with 512
megabytes of RAM. In addition to two Western Digital IDE hard
drives, I have an HP 9100B cd-writer, and a floppy drive. I'm using
an Nvidia GeForce2 DDR video card with 64 megabytes of memory, and
a 19-inch ViewSonic PF790 monitor. I also have an HP 5200C scanner
and a Lexmark Z52 ink jet printer attached. I connect to the
Internet via an RTL 8129 PCI Ethernet card, which is plugged into a
cable modem.
I used the second hard drive to backup my /home partition before
starting the installation. A backup before an installation or
upgrade is always a good idea. In this particular case, it was a
blessing. I strongly encourage you to do the same. Back up data you
don't want to lose before playing distribution bingo.
The Mandrake 8.1 install is slick, and when it works it
literally turns the process into a no-brainer. Installing on my
Sony Vaio laptop, for example, took about 30 minutes and was
flawless. On my desktop machine, however, it was a different
story."
