In process of building a computer and am looking at using Mandriva. I'ma linux newb, and I was just wondering if there is any tips or advice that you guys can give me when I am installing Mandriva?
I am using a intel i7-2600 processor, still have not picked a mobo yet but I know I want a Gigabyte. Can you guys possibly help me to choose one? I will be using the computer for everyday computing, watching hd movies, streaming video, editing photo and movies, and of course learning more about Linux. . When I'm installing Mandriva, do I get to pick the desktop that I want to use or do I have to use Gnome? I want to use KDE.

Thanks everyone..

Hi eric, yes you do get to pick kde, gnome or other.

Mandriva has all the programs you need and more, and

is a great secure platform to learn from.

All the best, Cheers Glenn

edit,

If you get the chance, make a new partition (or three)
/ (root) (this will contain all of you system files.)
swap (size about equal to ram)
/home (Largest)

GlennsPref,

Thank you for the response. Sorry if this is a dumb question, like I said I'm a newb, but why would I want to do make those 3 partitions versus having them all on one?

Thank you
Erik

If for some unlikely reason you need to reinstall, or change distribution,

your home files are safe.

Most/all Distributions I have tried require formatting / and /usr

therefore, if you have files you want to keep, use a separate partition for /home

no worries.

Oh, and the swap partition is usually created automatically, just beware of the extra space it uses (small drives)

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You can also try mageia, a variant of mandriva.