if aunt lilly has never used a pc before then there shouldnt be a problem. Windows has it's own set of annoyances. And the learning curve is more or less identical for a first time user.
I have a scanner that's about 7 years old and Windows will NOT see it or use it or even acknowledge it exists.
It's less than ideal to buy a Linux OS without checking your hardware against the "supported hardware list" first though.

Fair comment Sal,

But who's or which supported hardware list are you refering to?

I ask this, because although it's been a while since I, checked out mandrake HCL, when i did, I was pretty amazed how limited it actually is.

And ther's also the ??? of different ID nomenclature used on the different continent's. I mean say in the UK the "box" is called dogsbollox1, whereas US, the same device/box is called mutznutz1000 and back in the rest of Europe, it's call le ChienZoot xtreme.

I seriously doubt that mandrake could ever stretch to the kind, or level of test facilities that would be available to "billy boy" and his M$ money machine.

I know one thing. If/when I buy any further hardware, I definitely gonna post here at LQ on the HCL - not because I know what I'm doing, but I want to try and be helpful, out of respect to those who have gone to quite incredible lengths to help me (MasterC for example, who even did screen shot's and gave me annonymous access to his server, when I didn't even know how to do icon's/links to applications - shame he lives in Utah, otherwise, i'd have invited him over and partaken in large amounts of beer by way of thanks).

regards

John

p.s. Are you adventurous with linux distro's?, if so, I'd recommend you give gentoo a try. The only downside being, that because it's source based, it can take a while to install - but once you've got it up and running it's brilliant. The joy's of such easy system management - with just "emerge whatever" and what ever that app that you emerged, installing itself, dependencies and all - absolutely amazing.

p.p.s. also have you tried the RC1 of mandrake 10 yet? I've just looked up that errata page you posted before and it seems that there's now

http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compat.php has the best HCL. I tried submitting info here but everything has to be mod approved and I don't like wasting my time. Also, there are companies like KeyLabs that certify Linux hardware, much like MS' HCL lab; they just need a cute "Designed for Linux 2.6" logo or something. Anyway, I've had just as many (if not more) hardware problems with Windows. My Sony Superstation tape drive stopped working when I upgraded from NT 4 to W2K. The winmodem in my Compaq 1270 laptop hasn't worked since I upgraded from 98SE to ME... etc.

i'm on 56k dial up and so getting hold of the mandrake10 rc1 is out of the question

there is someone who occasionally can spare me the time and bandwidth to download three cd's, but I'm not exactly a priority on his list


one day...


gentoo

not tried it

I read somewhere that they've done a live eval cd
if i can find a magazine with it on the cover i might give it a try

am happy to be adventurous

Shame, I figured that cos you're in Brum, you might have adsl access.

The last mag front gentoo I saw was on the front of linuxformat (I get the dvd copy, as it's usually less hassle with just the one "mega disc").

Not sure, however about live eval versions of gentoo i.e. whether they're pre-compiled or not. The "live" cd version at the gentoo mirror's is a bit of a misnomer.

It gives you the option of "stages 1, 2 or 3" the quickest way then is what they call the stage 3 GRP - the "GRP" packages are pre-compiled, but obviously not as up to date as if you get from the net. E.G. the kde on the disc is 3.1.5 (I think), whereas if you got it online, you get 3.2 the only downside being that if I do "emerge kde" (which get's the lot, dependencies and all), it will download and then compile the packages 1 at a time (good, since it compiles them for my version of my system, but annoying because even though the my connection is adsl, into a 2 gig pentium 4 with 768 meg of RAM, the entire process, can take up to 15 hours ).

The other excellent thing is that once you've had the hassle of the install/download/compile is that everything else is a relative breeze.

Hence, I say that if you get the chance/time, give it a go.

Anyhow, if mandrake 10 is now at RC1, any idea's how long it usually takes to go final ?? (just trying to decide whether it's worth the effort of the download/burn/install??)

regards

John

the mandrake site says May

not all that long really

so i figure there'll be 2 cd sets out on the magazines come june/july

Just for info, an e-mail that turned up in my inbox, mandrake 10 community hit the mirror's for club members last night.

So I'll probably download it this weekend.

regards

john