smaller OS
 

What is best software to use for Linux as far as the OS. I heard Mandrake was good but does anyone know of a smaller OS

By OS i think you mean distribution. If you are concerned about that you have too download 3 cds, you can choose too just download the first and then get the rest over the net, or choose f.ex. redhat or debian, which have a bootfloppy that you can download, and then get the rest over the net.

If you are talking about diskspace used, when it is installed you can ghet mandrake down too 60 MB (as far as i remember), other distros can go even further.
Check www.distrowatch.com for more info.

ok THank you the only problem is the computer i am installing it on has no internet connection so I am looking for something small enough where I wont have to carry around a lot of disks.

i wouldn't suggest running debian for you however there are distros like knoppix which run entirly on cd's so you can test them out all there via a cdrom.

or you can go to your neighborhood store and get a copy of redhat linux, suse linux or mandrake linux.

get mulinux from...

mulinux.sunsite.dk

fits on just 1 floppy

it has heaps of stuff in it, if you use 2 floppy disks you can even have X windows.

If you are a newbie and if you dont want to get bogged down in problems, your best chances of success will be with Mandrake, SuSE, or RedHat.

Have a look at www.distrowatch.com