All righty, I'm thinking of killing Mandrake 10.0 and installing SimplyMEPIS 2004.4. Any particular faults with the distro that I'd notice coming from Mandrake? Does it have GCC installed by default and work well with PPPoE connections, neither of which Mandrake does? Just wanna make sure I don't get surprised by any weird stuff like that.

you could try SimplyMEPIS before u install it as its a livecd

You want Pro Mepis rather than Simply Mepis if you want development tools. Pro Mepis beta has just been released.

thanks for the responses. the live+install-cd is pretty darn spiffy. i'll check out pro mepis and decide if installing a beta os is something i want to do, or if i should just install gcc with simplymepis, which i'm sure was a whole lot easier than the "rpm hell" i had to go through with mandrake dependancies.

I'm all for it . We shall try out everything out there before picking some distro to "stay with". Trying something new is always great and you get to learn a lot. However, you should not run into "rpm hell" with Mandrake if you get urpmi well configured.

Just to chime-in on the SimplyMepis2004.0x issue...

I've run a bunch of different distros over the years. Some I like a lot, and some I like a bit less than a lot.

I finally settled on SimplyMepis as my primary desktop OS for home and work for a myriad of reasons. You'll probably have your own differing reasons for selecting a DT OS, so I won't muddy the waters in that venue.

Read over this article:
http://plugintolinux.ca/simplymepis_review.html
...paying particular attention to Reason #6

I can offer you this:
I have tried SimplyMepis2004.01, 02, & 04 on a vastly differing collection of hardware, and have yet to find a machine that won't digest the 2.6.x kernel. Running dual mice is a breeze, and dual monitors (Matrox video card) only requires minor modifications to the Xserver configuration file. Nvidia appears to be even easier with TwinView.

Network attached printers will automatically be detected and configured for you, and you'll be up on your DSL or dial-up connection in nothing-flat.

Mepis has just enough, but not too much, installed; with the ability to install and update to your heart's content.

Do take note that, as far as I have been able to ascertain, Mepis is a one-man show. Warren is the development team who has brought Mepis from nothing to an award-winning distro in something less than two years.

It is certainly worth your serious consideration.

Oh yeah, #6 is definitely my primary reason!
SimplyMEPIS = Debian for n00bs, which is definitely the category I fall into, hehe. I've tried working on urpmi, but still have issues sometimes...And now to top it off Mandrake doesn't like my printers...So it's time to add a new distro!

Mepis all the way!!!!

I'm also a n00b. So go with Mepis (Perfect Desktop) As I hear and read.
If you have a fast pc, you might want to look into Kanotix or Mepis would be a good choice since they are both actively and doing good, I use them both .

hmm well seeing as i plan to keep mandrake and windows, Kanotix will have to be really good for me to set up a quad-boot or to replace MEPIS, hehe...what's the basic premise of Kanotix, or what makes it stand out? Debian, live-cd+install..anything MEPIS doesn't have?

Edit: Hmm...seems it comes with the captive driver built-in... I might be interested in that (although a little spooked), but I bet it would be simple to add that to MEPIS...dunno.

Well, I recommend Mepis or Kanotix over mandrake

I'm a newbie myself, but luckily I am not a newbie in Windows. Just in linux. I've tried lots of distros probably 20 and only have 1 month testing different ones. I have on my good pc Amd Athlon XP-M 2800+ 768mb ddr 30gb Windows XP installed, but I have vmware and I'm able to install Linux there, at this moment I have Sam (Mandrake based) installed and gonna install Kanotix since I have before, I had Mandrake but it wouldnt work after installed. On my linux pc is a old desktop Celeron 635mhz 256sdram 20gb. Lately I had it partitioned in 4 , hda1 Mepis, hda2 Beatrix, hda3 Kanotix hda4 Swap. and Kanotix was my grub loader and I had to edit it and add Mepis and Beatrix to the list.

You should visit the irc channels (irc.freenode.net)
#Libranet, #Kanotix, #Mepis, #Mepislovers really helpful.

Mandrake runs too slow on my celeron so i dumped it after many installations and tons of cds wasted. I did it via net-intaller.

So again if you only have 1 pc, I installed Kanotix before here on my laptop and I dual-booted and it perfect, it detected my windows and stuff. So you should give Kano or Mepis a try over Mandrake. Although Debian distro is harder than Mandrake but hey thats what help is for

Hmm..I'm not a newb, or atleast don't think I am . I'm a slackware user...and love slackware...but, as usual am in the mood for experimenting. I have had some problems with slack...minor...but odd performance issues. I'm on the live CD of mepis right now , and am quite pleased. It seems like a rather nice, solid distro for everyday things like music, email/internet. I'm debating with myself (lol) if I should install this or not...it seems very smooth...and it's perfomance is quite fast..even running off the CD.

Should I install this?

Yup