"Kier" <vallon@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in post
pan.2005.03.11.21.11.39.118421@tiscali.co.uk on 3/11/05 2:11 PM:
snip
The free distro versions aren't that different from the paid ones
except
in the ways already mentioned, and they are mostly trivial, IMO.

Then why do people pay?

Then why do people pay?

In article <BE575F82.9081%SNIT@CABLE0NE.NET.INVALID>,
Snit <SNIT@CABLE0NE.NET.INVALID> wrote:



And before that you created an entirely new thread based on your
erroneous absolute statement that it wasn't free. Have you bagged up so
much glue today you've forgotten that already?

Snit wrote:
First, thanks to all the people who suggested I look at Mandrake. Decided
to download it today.

Here's my suggestion:

Go here and download slackware

http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=17


Then go here and download dropline

http://www.dropline.net/gnome/

Depends very much on the user.

Fair enough - I am thinking of terms of the non-techy new users... they type
I see all the time in classes and work with as clients.

Mandrake would still be a pretty good option. A paid version would be a
'safer', simpler option, perhaps, but it would depend on what help they
could call on if anything went wrong. Set-up aside, Mandrake isn't hard to
use. Certainly no harder than XP, and lots of people seem to manage fine
with that.

The latest SUSE would be another reasonable choice, IMO.

I agree... which is one reason why most of the free distros of Linux would
not suit the needs of the new user.


You may now tell us why White Box,Fedora, Ubuntu, or the community
Mandrake does not suit the needs of the 'new user'.

Do you believe those are "most" of the free distros, Rick? Let's start
there, and then we can look at the details of those distros.

You may now tell us why White Box,Fedora, Ubuntu, or the community
Mandrake does not suit the needs of the 'new user', if you can.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:43:23 -0700, Snit wrote:


Read the Mandrake pages.

I suspected you would not have anything to add... again, you do not show
you know not a think about Linux that I do not.


You said:

"makes me wonder how popular the paid for version is and why..."

I told you where to go to get the information. what the hell else do you
want?

Rick wrote:
On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:43:23 -0700, Snit wrote:


Read the Mandrake pages.

I suspected you would not have anything to add... again, you do not show
you know not a think about Linux that I do not.


You said:

"makes me wonder how popular the paid for version is and why..."

I told you where to go to get the information. what the hell else do you
want?

Perhaps he wants you to write it in your own words so he can nitpick
what you wrote with what he's read on a web site.

Perhaps he's trying to string you along and he's just trolling.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:45:22 -0700, Snit wrote:

"Rick" <none@trollfeed.com> wrote in post
pan.2005.03.11.21.08.31.622846@trollfeed.com on 3/11/05 2:08 PM:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:31:44 -0700, Snit wrote:

"Kier" <vallon@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in post
pan.2005.03.11.17.50.14.480553@tiscali.co.uk on 3/11/05 10:50 AM:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 10:22:35 -0700, Snit wrote:

First, thanks to all the people who suggested I look at Mandrake.
Decided
to download it today.

Until I realized that Mandrake is not free.

Of course it is, if you get a download edition. Or a covermount. 10.1
Official is out on one of the magazines, and the community editon has been
on a couple of others recently.


Here we have what I understand is one of the most popular distros of
Linux,
and people are paying for it. What happened to the idea that the free
ones
are just as good? And for the $50-60 Mandrake would cost me, it does not
even come with a media player... though more expensive versions do. And
that is if I download it and burn it myself. If I want a boxed edition I
am
sure it costs more...

Where did you find that $50-60 editon without a media player? On the Linux
Magazine DVD of Mandrake 10.1 Official, I find listed under Multimedia:
Xmms and noatun, both of which are music players, and Xine and Mplayer,
which are DVD/CD/vidoe file players - you might need to download a few
codecs, or libdvdcss for DVD playing, but that's all. And once you set up
urpmi with the mandrake repositories, you have access to all the Official
distros software.

http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/101/comparison

The list there does not have a check mark for the cheap version.

The free version is available on Mandrake's mirrors and with various
magazines.

Way to go... I already said I found the free versions. Again - do you know
*anything* about Linux a newbie like I does not?

Idiot.

You do realize that some posts are read before others? No?

If you pay for a boxed set, it shouldn't cost you the earth, and it will
come with a few nice extras, that's all, plus some manuals and support.
You're basically paying for the support, the manuals and the extra, some
of it proprietary, software, plus drivers like the nvidia drivers, all
conveniently put together.

Much of which you get when you buy XP or OS X.

Yes? So?

No answer?

What am I missing? If the free Linux distros are as good, why is
Mandrake
so popular? Is there a free way to download Mandrake that I missed on
the
site?

Don't get what you're driving at here. It's popular because it's good -
excellent for newbies, especially.

I have been searching for a good distro of Linux that will work for
newbies... and now I am finding that for newbies Linux may not be free...
depending on their needs.

Mandrake can be DLed for $0 by anyone, even though they really want you to
join the Mandrake Club.

OS X and window$ is not legally $0 for anyone.

No answer?



Haven't seen the site lately, I got my boxed retail set elsewhere,
slightly cheaper, and before that I used magazine covermount versions of
9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 10.0 and 10.1. You won't get Realplayer or Flash, or Java
from a covermount, but they can be added quite easily afterwards.


Do not get me wrong - for a relatively small amount you still get quite
a bit - a whole OS, graphics editing package, office package, etc. But
something just does not add up here...

Sure it does. Mandrake as a company is trying to make a living. But they
still give you the option of obtaining the distro for free. I'm sure
someone will be able to point you to a download site.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:44:15 -0700, Snit wrote:

"ray" <ray@zianet.com> wrote in post
pan.2005.03.11.21.08.49.540694@zianet.com on 3/11/05 2:08 PM:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:31:44 -0700, Snit wrote:

"Kier" <vallon@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in post
pan.2005.03.11.17.50.14.480553@tiscali.co.uk on 3/11/05 10:50 AM:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 10:22:35 -0700, Snit wrote:

First, thanks to all the people who suggested I look at Mandrake.
Decided
to download it today.

Until I realized that Mandrake is not free.

Of course it is, if you get a download edition. Or a covermount. 10.1
Official is out on one of the magazines, and the community editon has been
on a couple of others recently.


Here we have what I understand is one of the most popular distros of
Linux,
and people are paying for it. What happened to the idea that the free
ones
are just as good? And for the $50-60 Mandrake would cost me, it does not
even come with a media player... though more expensive versions do. And
that is if I download it and burn it myself. If I want a boxed edition I
am
sure it costs more...

Where did you find that $50-60 editon without a media player? On the Linux
Magazine DVD of Mandrake 10.1 Official, I find listed under Multimedia:
Xmms and noatun, both of which are music players, and Xine and Mplayer,
which are DVD/CD/vidoe file players - you might need to download a few
codecs, or libdvdcss for DVD playing, but that's all. And once you set up
urpmi with the mandrake repositories, you have access to all the Official
distros software.

http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/101/comparison

The list there does not have a check mark for the cheap version.

If you pay for a boxed set, it shouldn't cost you the earth, and it will
come with a few nice extras, that's all, plus some manuals and support.
You're basically paying for the support, the manuals and the extra, some
of it proprietary, software, plus drivers like the nvidia drivers, all
conveniently put together.

Much of which you get when you buy XP or OS X.


What am I missing? If the free Linux distros are as good, why is
Mandrake
so popular? Is there a free way to download Mandrake that I missed on
the
site?

Don't get what you're driving at here. It's popular because it's good -
excellent for newbies, especially.

I have been searching for a good distro of Linux that will work for
newbies... and now I am finding that for newbies Linux may not be free...
depending on their needs.

Please define 'free'. If you have a broadband connection you can indeed
download, burn the CDs and install for free. If not you can get it pretty
damned cheap at linuxCD.org. You can do a 'free' install (download or ftp
install) of virtually all the major Linux distributions -
www.distrowatch.com will help you find out where. You can order a two disk
set (Live CD + install CD) for free (no shipping costs either) of Ubuntu
Linux from the ubuntulinux.com website.

Then why do people pay for Mandrake? What is the advantage?

They get manuals.
They get support.
They get the satisfaction of financially supporting Mandrake.

"Rick" <none@trollfeed.com> wrote in post
pan.2005.03.11.21.56.10.237143@trollfeed.com on 3/11/05 2:56 PM:

I agree... which is one reason why most of the free distros of Linux would
not suit the needs of the new user.


You may now tell us why White Box,Fedora, Ubuntu, or the community
Mandrake does not suit the needs of the 'new user'.

Do you believe those are "most" of the free distros, Rick? Let's start
there, and then we can look at the details of those distros.

You may now tell us why White Box,Fedora, Ubuntu, or the community
Mandrake does not suit the needs of the 'new user', if you can.

You are stuck in a loop.

I talk about "most" of the free distros... you point to *four* distros.

Even I, a new user to Linux, am well aware that there are far more than four
distros of Linux.

Not only, Rick, is there no reason to think you know a thing about Linux
that I do not, you have just shown that at least in this one area you know
less than I do.

How long have you been using it?

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:44:15 -0700, Snit wrote:


Then why do people pay for Mandrake? What is the advantage?

They get manuals.
They get support.
They get the satisfaction of financially supporting Mandrake.

In article <pan.2005.03.11.21.53.05.293491@trollfeed.com>,
Rick <none@trollfeed.com> wrote:

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:44:15 -0700, Snit wrote:


Then why do people pay for Mandrake? What is the advantage?

They get manuals.
They get support.
They get the satisfaction of financially supporting Mandrake.


It's funny that people have criticized people who choose Macs, using
that logic as an argument.

The accusation is that Mac users allegedly care more about Apple's
profits than their own needs. Oddly, I can't think of a single Mac user
who ever took that position.

Here we see the Linux fans actively admitting that they are sending
money to their OS company out of the kindness of their heart.

Amazing that it's a terrible thing when Mac users allegedly do it (even
though I can't remember a single case where it's actually happened), but
it's a great thing for Linux people to do it.

"Kier" <vallon@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in post
pan.2005.03.11.21.58.30.6192@tiscali.co.uk on 3/11/05 2:58 PM:

Depends very much on the user.

Fair enough - I am thinking of terms of the non-techy new users... they type
I see all the time in classes and work with as clients.

Mandrake would still be a pretty good option. A paid version would be a
'safer', simpler option, perhaps, but it would depend on what help they
could call on if anything went wrong. Set-up aside, Mandrake isn't hard to
use. Certainly no harder than XP, and lots of people seem to manage fine
with that.

The latest SUSE would be another reasonable choice, IMO.

Perhaps I am asking for too much... something easy enough for a non-techy
user, something that is as consistent as OS X, something that is free...