I few days ago I sent an email to mandrake regarding shipping and handling the software to Oklahoma City like how soon will they delivere the softwre, etc., , and so far I have not got any reply. On the other side, I was at Barnes and Noble this weekend, and oh boy! Books about Red Hat they are all over. As matter of fact Barnes and Noble has a rack full of books about Red Hat. I just thought, Red Hat must be doing some good compare to the poor Mandrake distro that they don't even reply the emails when someone is trying to buy their software.

unfortunately, Mandrake is notoriously lacking in their customer service departments. it is a comman gripe about Mandrake & it doesn't appear that it's getting any better as time goes on. i'd suggest downloading the free edition on Mandrake, install it, then if you decide you like it & it's worth throwing some money Mandrake's way as a show of appreciation, do so by joining the Mandrake Club or just making a donation. as for support, again you'll probably find that lacking with them. but, there are many fine (free) resources for support, such as this forum & several others out there.

please note to all, this is my own opinion based on first hand experience in dealing with Mandrake & not a bash/flame on Mandrake. i love the distro & swear by it. but if any of you had any experience with their ordering/shipping/customer service/technical support procedures, then i'm sure you'd agree with my statements above, so please don't start any debates/wars on the subject here.

otis

Heh, I didn't have any trouble with them.
I sent emails off to Mandrake, SuSE & Xandros support asking a few questions about each distro, prior to making my decision about which one to go for. I got a reply from Mandrake in 4 days. SuSE took a month and I'm still waiting on Xandros.
I do find it a little odd though that both people (so far) with problems from Mandrake reside in the US....

Not had a problem with Mandrake's Customer Service here either, but again I'm not across the Pond, France is just on my doorstep