Edit: Mandrake 7.1/XFree 4.01, installed nV drivers and can't load X

[BenSkywalker]

"Sorry to hear that. It's by pure accident (dead CD-ROM) that I got my burner, but the Speakeasy SDSL has been terrific (I must've downloaded 4+GB over the last few days without line problems, at 80KB/sec). BTW, don't regular stores sell Redhat and Mandrake? If so, you could probably get RH7 relatively cheaply and quickly (and with 60 (?) days' support)."

I also have a CDRW, but broadband is not available where I live(for a better understanding, they won't deliver the mail to my house) until they finish wiring for cable modems(yes, I'll have cable modem before the USPS delivers to my home:?) If I get very ambitious, I'll rip out my CDRW drive a half hour to my sister's house install it in her PC and then download(DSL). But, even at DSL speeds, dling multiple GBs is a bit beyond reasonable.

I did pick up Mandrake 7.1 at a store, cost me $29.95, but none of the stores around here have RH 7.0 in stock, I've asked repeatedly. At this point, Mandrake 7.2 when it hits final release is looking to be what I would want, built in native XFree 4.01 is my biggest concern, and the bug reports on RH7.0 make me a bit nervous about it(I'm hearing that Mandrake 7.2B3 is in fact more stable), particularly considering I wouldn't know the difference between a bug and something I screwed up. It would be very frustrating to spend ten hours trying to "fix" something that is a known bug. Windows by comparison feels comfortable, I know how screwed up it is and in which ways, and I know a bug from something being out of whack. Linux I have this completely dumbfounded feeling in, I don't know that the he!! is going on(even though my "basic" driver install gave me a nice crash course in some of the basics🙂).

 

[Leo V]

Ben,
DSL seems fine for downloading distros--it may take a couple hours per CD, but that's no big deal.

Windows makes recognizing bugs easy: blue screen=MS fault; hang=MS fault; corrupt OS files=MS fault; incorrect version DLL=MS fault, and so on. 🙂 There are definitely stable, mature Linux distros if you need those, they're just less updated with less hardware support. Apparently, any distro can be completely customized if need be, however. Once I have enough know-how, I may want to build atop the proven-solid Slackware.

What you said about RH7 makes me wonder if I should return to MDK7.2beta. In the end, perhaps I should just follow the Slackware do-it-yourself plan--a difficult but rewarding journey, or so people say.