Hey folks,

Ok, I currently know of only two Gnome specific distros - Ubuntu and Fedora. And I know SuSE does come with Gnome, and you can really put Gnome on any distro providing you have a fast internet connection.

Although my question is this: Are there any distros out there which come with propriety software (or basically software that distros like Ubuntu and Fedora don't come with out of the box) however are Gnome only?
NB: Obviously I don't except the distro to be free.

Thanks all

mandrake

you can specify which desktop you want during the install process, gnome or kde or enlightenment or icewm or xfce etc

the official version, if bought, has java, real player, acrobat reader and so on

Check out Xandros . I think that's how you spell it, they come with codeweaver ( to run windows apps) .. I think Santa-fe linux also does the same. I think gnome is default on both of those, but you can certainly use all wm's ..

I don't know if there is another bigger draw than codeweavers as far as "paid" or proprietary componnent goes, and codeweaver is not "flaw-less" it doens't run outlook very well and a host of other "desirable" applicaitons. For it's price ($40 or so) I don't think it's not worth the money !!

All these distro's are about $80 .. in retail

Xandros' default desktop environment is actually KDE. Although I could download Gnome and use it, I've only a 56k and therefore am unable to download the latest Gnome. I've heard Xandros is very good, however to be totally honest, I really don't like KDE.


Although you can use Gnome in Mandrake, it is still a KDE distro per-se. For example, Gnome isn't that polished in Mandrake; nor is it in SuSE. However in for example Ubuntu and Fedora, Gnome is really polished and Gnome is concentrated on more than KDE is.



What I am really looking for, is something like Ubuntu or Fedora however also like Mandrake or SuSE in the fact it's really Gnome based as opposed to KDE based, however has some proprietary software.

I use always GNOME. I love it.
For that reason I went to Debian. Immense Gnome support
Everything works. Nothing to tinker. Even gDesklets

Although Debian isn't commercialised such as Mandrake and SuSE - Which is really what I'm after: Something like Debian/Ubuntu however commercialised (IE: I can purchase, comes with manuals & support and boxed version).

just wait a month or 2 and get yourself libranet 3.0. It got support, no official preferences towards gnome or kde, and a great forum.