Time to take the plunge....

Re: cdrw XXXX

Jacko,

Looking forward to your fully functional rock steady Linux setup.

Speak to you in 6 months time when it's all sorted.

DP.

:lol

cdrw XXXX

That was because the drive manfr didnt implement the ide standard properly. They had used a standard command to indicate a firmware upgrade, so when mandrake tested the drive capability the drive zapped its own firmware. - Only affects a single brand - cant remember which, but it will be on the mandrake site.

Jacko - FS seem to have pulled the linux drivers from their site - I thin kbecause the newer machines use centrino and intel have not yet released the drivers, so the old machines would have looked to have more functionality than the new ones.

You shouldnt have any probs though.

I don't have a CD-RW on my laptop, so that's ok.

I just hope I can still watch my DVDs.

I think original version of Mandrake 9 was destroying (physically!) certain CD-RW drives - dont jump into that hole Alice, you might be falling far deeper than you think

Re: macs

Let us know how you/she gets on...

macs

I understand tjhey have now sorted the hardware problems.

Given the current $£ exchange rate it must be tempting to pop across and buy one. Mrs S has a conference in the US later this year and I am tempted.

Re: re

"The point is, that over the life of a machine, the Mac is a viable alternative."

I have to agree with that.

Re: re

The point is, that over the life of a machine, the Mac is a viable alternative. Macs don't cost as much as they used to and are comparable in price to many leading PC brands.

Re: re

I'm looking for areasonably priced alternative to M$, OH.

Thanks for the advice tho'.

Re: re

I suspect you will want to get the towel pretty quickly.

Buy a Mac and get both. Get a fast one and you can have emulated MS as well.

re

I had mandy; I got rid of it because I needed space for multimedia and windows is best at that. Everything apart from the sound card set up was easy - it even recognised my network card which windows 2000 couldn't. Why don't you download it for free? Oh, and bear in mind Mandrake is half french so it may be a tad stubborn at times..

Well I've thought about it and with this MS fiasco I'm going to make the plunge.

Mandrake Linux Discovery 9.2 (39 euros) here I come.

*pumps up rubber ring, prays that drivers don't spring a leak and heads in the direction of the penguins...*