Hi all, New to Christchurch and to this list, so hello all!
I'm in the process of buying a new machine and wondering whether or not to get XP with it. I don't really want to spend hours and hours struggling to set the machine up with Linux. I've spent considerable time in the past partitioning drives, installing Mandrake 8.2 and running Win98 on the other partition. So, three questions: 1. With a reasonably new machine, can there be issues with drivers being available for all the hardware? Haven't got all the specs with me at present, but the motherboard will be an INTEL D915GAGL UATX LGA775 MOTHERBOARD, will be a Philips LCD and DYNALINK 56K INTERNAL PCI MODEM. But, just in general, how much time and effort would generally be needed? I know Linux distributions are getting more and more user friendly these days. I'm a programmer and not really a hardware person. If some of the setup is not straightforward and requires editing configuration files I'd rather instructions on how to do this. Have no desire at all to try hacking config files :o) 2. I am sure there are many opinions on this, but a good Linux version to start with? I'd rather not a bloated OS with bits and pieces I may never need but would prefer a minimal installation where I can keep tabs on everything I've installed and install extra software as needed. So, yeah something crisp and easy to maintain! Initially I'll be looking to use the machine for web-based programming - PHP with an Apache webserver, MySQL database... Maybe one day I'll look at doing some graphics programming. 3. Where can I get a hold of the necessary installation cds? Thanks for any thoughts... Cheers Matthew
