Six years ago when I attempted the first move to Linux I used Mandrake 7, but with no outside help,I buckled and went back to Microsoft.
I recently converted an old IBM laptop running Red Hat 9, but can't seem to get the wireless card to work. I have read several sites saying that Red Hat 9 is an old system running an old kernel, and I have Mandrake 10 and am wondering if I should switch to that instead.
I am just using this for right now to view the internet, mail, office, and that is about it for now.
Should I make the move to Mandrake? Or is there another line of software out there that is more suitable?
Thank you
Timmahhny

mandrake 10 is gonna have newer...well, everything, and you'll have more luck finding things to add to it, and configuring it. red hat 9 has been out for a few years now...and has actually morphed into fedora core which is on release 5 now, to give you an idea of how outdated red hat 9 is. go for the mandrake, give it a try, if you don't like it, you can always go back, right?

also, mandrake is known as very user friendly, and liked by many new users of linux.

If you think you like Red Hat, I'd give the Fedora Core 5 detpenguin mentioned a try, too. The best option is to try at least 2 or 3 distros and make up your own mind which one suits your needs and tastes best. Good luck with it.

Mandrake 10 is also very old not as old as RH9 but still old enough to have problems. It also was a very buggy release. I'd get Mandriva 2006 to get the latest version.

Actually I guess I have Mandriva 2006; sorry for the confusion.
I installed it on the Dell Latitude Laptop but was confused because
I was trying to run something (can't remember what it was) and I kept getting
what I think was an error message something to do with "meant for i586 kernel".
I un-installed Mandriva because I thought that I downloaded the wrong "version" for my
laptop.
I reinstalled Red Hat and made some changes and managed to get my mouse to run to recognize my 1 gig flash drive. I have since been trying to use the ndiswraper but not sure how to use that. I heard that Mandriva was better for the drivers; but still can't seem to get the wireless card to run. May have to buy one that is supported by Linux, just didn't want to spend the extra cash.

If I have the correct version of Mandriva I will reinstall it on the laptop.
The laptop is a Dell Latitude running a pentium 3 (I think 750) with 128 megs of ram.
If the laptop can run Mandriva I will switch to it, or maybe I will download the fedora release.
Thank you all for your input and very quick reply.
Look forward to reading what you folks have to say in the future.
Tim

Mandriva 2006 is the latest version of the distro once known as Mandrake. http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mandriva Make sure you download the version for i586 machines.

Several things to think about:
Don't go crazy solving problems on outdated versions of a distro if a free upgrade is available.
Don't assume that switching distros will solve a problem. Especially, don't assume that PAYING for distro will make it better.
Don't get locked in to the big names--Try Arch, or Ubuntu, or Slackware (all free)
Don't take ALL of the advice you get in these fora.....

As a long-term Mandrake user, and one-time club member, I have been disappointed with Mandriva 10.1 & 10.2.
Installing kubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) was a revelation: Everything worked, once I'd installed the usual culprits (libdvdcss2, win32codecs etc). Please give it a try.
Also, remember that there is no single "best linux distro" - it all depends on how you like to work, what you use your system for, and how much eye-candy and glitter you desire or can tolerate.
Linux seems to be evolving at an exponential rate: Keep a distro you are happy with for functionality, and dual-boot some others. Eventually you'll find that you like one of the new ones so much, you'll move over to it.

Well I removed Red Hat once again I am going to miss my score in poker.
I am reinstalling Mandriva i586; now that I know that this is the right version for my machine.
I just signed up to a linux group that meets once a month and it seems that they are using UBUTU (?)
I am not going to give up this time and will stick with Linux until I figure it out. I am impressed with all of the help and advice that I am getting right now.
I will try several different linux models as most have already suggested, in case Mandriva doesn't work out for me.
I am only going to use the laptop for checking email, open office, and other basic stuff. I have done some programming with Visual Basic,Java, and very little C, but for the most part I will not do any programming just yet.
Again thank all of you for you quick responses and input. I look forward to seeing what you all have to say in the future.
Take care and have a great night
Tim

joining the linux group is an amazing idea...ubuntu is a debian based distro which is noted for user friendly/working right out of the box on almost any maching distro. you might wanna give that a try. stick with it, and before you know it, you'll have that poker score above and beyond....good luck!