I have recently been given a copy of Mandrake 10.1 x86 and I have installed it on my PC. (Dual boot) (still struggling with Linux - not yet convinced) I desperately want to get rid of Microsoft and if I can crack this Linux stuff, I'll want to put it on my old PowerBook 550 so I've got a common platform. (and free software) (and a mini network - always wanted a mini network)

If I've already got Mandrake on my PC, should I install Mandrake PPC on the PBook as well? I've heard good things said about YellowDogLinux, Gentoo PPC and Ubuntu PPC on this forum. If I'm using the KDE gui anyway, on the surface, it would look like the same platform, wouldn't it? How different are the different distributions for everyday running?

Another probably dumb question (only dumb if you already know the answer, I guess) if I run Linux on the PPC and the PC, so I have to get different software for both computers? ie; would my copy of OpenOfficeOrg (on the Mandrake CDs) work on the PPC version?

Be gentle, I'm still new here.

I haven't made the plunge into PPC yet but I have been thinking about it. The only thing I can tell you is that PPC binaries are different from x86 binaries. So to answer your last question, yes, you will have to get different software for different architectures.

I would guess(and only a guess) that YellowDog is pretty good with PPC since thats what it is designed for. I have read a lot on the Gentoo PPC forum and people seem to have a high rate of success running it there as well.