I wanted a mandrake or a Red Hat

MSI K7n2 delta 2 lsr (motherboard)
GeCube ATI RADEON 9550 Extreme Edition (video card)
Samsung CD ROM
Sony Floppy Drive
Kingston 256 ddr 400

I haven't use linux before and I really wanted to use any linux flavor but I prefer a distro for beginner like me.

I already search it in Mandriva website (Mandrake) but the processor is only thing that I found

You hardware should work ok. If you intend to install Redhat, use Fedora because Redhat 9 and below are now discontinued products and there are no more updates for them from Redhat. Fedora is the project that replaced the old Redhat Linux.

There's a site that lists what hardware is compatible with Linux. Unfortunately I can not remember what it's called.

It's called HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) and it is found at various locations on the net. Maybe you could try searching the LQ.org HCL list first and then expand your search for exotic hardware to other HCL's on the net.

To start off with this. Your ahrdware should work without problems. It's only that if you want to play games, which I presume you do (Radeon 9550 Extreme edition) you will have to work at linux for some time before (and if) you make it work.

For the basic work in Linux, your hardware should work without any problems. By basic work I mean OpenOffice, Watching Movies, Using The Internet and such. Even playing some Linux Games...

Go for it. It is an experience that changes you. Go for Fedora 3 or you can wait until June 8 to get Fedora 4 from fedora.redhat.com

whenever I see threads like this, I get an urge to deliver a sales pitch for my favorite distro, so here goes:

Get Debian. Really. It knocks Mandrake's socks off. Why?

Oh, let's see. You don't have to pay for getting package update (last time I checked, that was the case with Mandrake). Installing programs is easy. and I mean really easy. Point-Click-Click-Wait-Click-Done. You don't have to compile anything yourself (but you get the option, of course), you don't have to resolve dependencies manually.

I've been hanging around these forums for a while. I regularly see posts titled `(problem | how to) install foo in [not Debian]'. I never see them for debian. Ever.

Some people say that the installer is hard. They are wrong. While it isn't straightforward, there's excellent documentation, and I'm sure that all the folks that post to Distros - Debian will help you.

I managed to get it up and running without knowing much about linux. I had used RH 6.2 when that was new (and 9 is ancient now...), for about two months. Then I quit because I couldn't get Starcraft to run (or something like that).

Also, you only have to go through the installation procedure once. From then on, it's a breeze.

I wish you the best of luck with choosing the right linux for you.

--Jonas

I must admit I started with Mandrake 10.1 community (Mandriva or whatever it is now), and whilst mandrakesoft did have a pay-based update system, there is also URPMI, which i found very easy to set up using Easy URPMI. This is pretty good for newcommers, but i do personally prefer APT, having used debian-based distros. Depending on how good your patience is, and how good your net connection is, get a few "easy to use" distros. Things to look into (with my personal experiences):

Mandrake (Nice, reasonably stable, very easy to use. Nice installer and bootscreen)
Fedora - the new Red Hat (This was good also. Much like mandrake)
SuSE (although updates were quite poor and hard to set up IMHO, but nice installer. Incredibly easy to use, more so than mandrake.)
Debian (nice)
Mepis, Ubuntu (nice, based on debian: but still rough around the edges)
Knoppix-based live cds (although installable) are nice also, one to look for is XFLD. I haven't tried knoppix but XFLD detected almost everything, and worked fine with my troublesome wireless adapter, the netgear WG511).
Gentoo- maybe not a beginner system, but you do actually learn a lot even from a failed install, which will help you with most distros.

Whoah there's a lot there. Another one (which i am about to try) is Slackware. I've heard many recommend this for newbies despite it's allegedly complex install.

The best advice i can give is try a few. I checked out distrowatch for a while, although to be honest this wasn't that helpful. It's a hard choice. There is tonnes of choice, too much really. One thing i found odd compared to windows, which i am assuming (maybe wrongly) you came from, is that with a live cd such as mepis; it is odd to be instant messaging whilst installing an operating system. Maybe it is just me, but with a live cd, time I would have wasted can be used to explore it. It also benefits from being debian based, and so it features APT.

As marghorp rightly said, "it is an experience which changes you." But get a distro you like. You don't know if a distro you haven't tried is any better. So try it (subject to your connection being ok). Not even six months in, and i've tried many distros (more than 10). :s maybe there's something wrong with me.

You may also be interested in the LQ HCL. Good luck with it. -- J.W.

Simplest way is to get a bootable cd distro. Knoppix is a favourite although there are many others. Vesy useful as it can be installed onto the hard disk if you like it. Or you can refer back to it if your chosen installated distro is having problems setting something up you can see what module are being used by knoppix and go from there.

Tim

HCL list for Red Hat is available at http://bugzilla.redhat.com/hwcert/