hi,
I had a system that had Fedoracore 5 on it.
So I upgraded.
I know it was old.
The top half of the dvd had ubuntu on it which I tried to install.
The installer routine refused to install on the second drive. /dev/sdb.
On the second side of the disk was Mandiva 2010 so away I went. It was so easy. It even made a separate /home directory.
The new gnome looks like the old gnome.

n

The new Gnome shell isn't being used by default yet.

nigelc : Welcome to what must be the most user friendly Linux distribution which seems to go from strength in terms of usability. To my mind it beats Ubuntu hands down.

Tony

Your experience today mirrors mine a dozen years ago. When I started using Linux, I tried installing RedHat 5.1 around the end of 1998, and failed miserably. A week or so later, I saw Mandriva Linux (then packaged by O'Reily press) at BestBuy. I got it, and it installed with little effort. I have tested other distributions between then and now, but I keep coming back to Mandriva, usually for the Mandriva system management / configuration utilities (MCC). Mandriva seems to just work on all the computers I have used from then to now. In about another week or so, I look forward to installing Mandriva 2010.1 (Spring). I hope your experience matches mine .

+1

I was lucky enough to choose Mandriva as my first distro 3 years ago. I've tried several others, but am back to Mandriva for this system. Mandriva is the only distro I've found to be completely "plug and play." Install it, update it, and you're basically finished.

I only wish it was a "rolling release. I've been using Spring 2009 for almost a year now, and will have to reinstall come October.

PClinuxOS is another fine choice if you want a tightly controlled rolling release distro.

I have used PCLOS in the past, still use PCLOS LXDE on my old thinkpads, but I prefer Mandriva to PCLOS in general, at least for this system.

I just wanted to add that I too have found Mandriva to be an excellent distro. I am a long-time Debian guy - started with potato - and I still use Debian and think that it's one of the best distros available. It's still my choice for building up a Linux box from just the base system. But in 2009 I was experimenting with Ubuntu and trying distros that installed easily and I decided to try Mandriva (which I hadn't used since Mandrake 10). I was amazed at how easily it set up and have been running my home server with it ever since. IMO, it is clearly the best distro for "install and go"!

This is the first time I haven't had to edit any files.
No Xorg.conf, no grub.conf, no fstab etc.
It seems to boot much faster too.
And all the missing dependences.

Rolling release(?) Try cooker,

It has updates most days.

Mandriva 2010.1 (spring) is due out, about now.