Use this to browse ext2/3 filesystems under Win32.

Linux has no problems reading/writing to FAT.

Firstly - there's no headache with Mandrake Reading NTFS filesystems - there can be a headache with writing to NTFS however.

Second - Mandrake 9.1 can Read NTFS filesystems out of the box once they've been mounted - I suggest you talk to all the other regulars on this site and they'll tell you the same.

Third - Mandrake 9.1 can't write to NTFS filesystems succesfully - 9.1 contains the 1st NTFS driver and as such there's a chance of corrupting the filesystem if written to.

Correct.

By default it creates

Home
Boot
Swap
Root

partitions.

That's up to you - but again, Mandrake can mount and read NTFS filesystems with no problems - ( it just can't write to them succesfully )

"At this point I'm just curious - there's no way I'm gonna try a read-only NTFS partition."

I think you misunderstand. The partition itself will not be read-only. It is just that Mandrake should only access it in read-only mode. The partion will still be read/write under Windows.

lantern,

FAT is good... As a matter of fact, correct me if I am wrong people, it is the only filesystem that the 3 major OSs (win,mac,linux) can understand natively.

The reason that Linux, Mac OS X, and other UNIX type operating systems can't reside very well on FAT is that the filesytem uses one security ID to identify both users and groups. UNIX type filesytems like ext, ext2, ext3 and UFS use both an User ID and a Group ID to indentify uses. Obviously there is more to understanding this so if you go http://www.netapp.com/tech_library/1005.html#3.1 it should help a little. This site give a <i>brief</i> overview of what I am talking about.

The Mandrake installer does create a second /home partition by default. Default partitioning of a Linux distro is entirely up to the creator of that distro. Red Hat does it differently from Mandrake and Red Hat even does it differently depending on what type of system you tell its installer you are creating (server/desktop). If there is some advantage to having /home on a seperate partition is up to you. On a desktop install I don't seperate it out...

If I were building a file server system, or one that many people would be using as a desktop, I would seperate it out. But, because it is probably just you using the system, I don't see the need for it.

If you would like to know more, just email me...

Got you thinking, don't I? The way the name came about is actully kind of lame but here it is...

People describe me as being an extremely laid back person. My parents used to say that I was always just "dilly dallying" around because I never seemed to have any real purpose; all I did was read and tinker with things. Because of this my parents gave me the nickname "dillybutt".

I am also a Batman Fanatic...

Some guys I know just combined the two things...

Like I said, pretty lame...