Mandrake Linux

I just installed Mandrake Linux 10.2 on my mom's old machine (Pentium II @ 400MHz, 512MB RAM, generic video, IBM chipset of some sort) and I love it. I have decided to use a Linux workstation for every task that it will do.

I can't do all of my work, though, because a lot of it must use a PPTP connection to work, and I haven't found that yet on this distro. Besides, we use MS Office at work, and OpenOffice.org doesn't exactly match.

I inherited this machine last week when my mom got a new computer from Dell. I decided that it's time I start practicing what I preach. I tell a lot of my customers that they really only need a simple distribution of Linux to get their e-mail and surf the web. Linux isn't vulnerable to a lot of what's dangerous out there, especially with all the new spyware and adware being released into the wild.

The interface feels just between Windows and Mac OS X. It's really nice, and it's pretty fast. The games are pretty challenging, too, and interesting. Plus, there are more games to choose from (if you can find them).

I also like to program. I'm currently working on a program that effectively tests a cable modem, and I can do that easily with PERL on any popular Linux distribution.

Oh, yeah, and it's free. All you have to do is get an older computer (probably no more than four years old) in working condition, download the images, burn them to disk, and install Linux. It is very easy, and installation today took me about an hour on this old clunker. E-mail me if you want to know where to get the images.