On Thursday 10 May 2001 23:00, you wrote: > HI, > > I've been on this list a few days and decided to say hi and introduce > myself. I'm utterly and totally a newbie as far as Linux goes (I've been > running a machine with Windows as the OS since 1995). I've researched a few > companies and decided to go with Mandrake as my distro. > > A few questions . . . I'm torn if I should buy 7.2 now or wait until 8.0 > comes out as a box set. I'm running a 500 Pentium III, 128 meg RAM w/ an 18 > Gig HD. I plan on buying an external modem and wonder what brand of modem > would be a good choice. Any suggestions? Thanks. > With regard to choice of release, as I see it you have 2 options. If you feel you need the manuals you can either buy a boxed set of 7.2 now or wait for a boxed set of 8.0 when it is released. The alternative if you want some fun and possibly learn more in the process is to get the GPL (download) version of 8.0 from someone such as cheapbytes, install it and find your own way round it, search the newbie archives for subjects you want to know about and ask questions here. The choice really is yours, you know how knowledgeable/adventurous you are and how soon you want it. Have a look through the newbie archives as well for posts about any problems with hardware you may have i.e. sound/graphics cards, printers etc, that way you will have the answer before the question arises. As to choice of modem *nearly all * external modems work (but not USB as I understand it) , a lot of internal modems either don't work or need to be made to work, so an external modem would be the easiest option - just make sure that it is a 100% hardware modem, (I think the other term is Hayes compatible but I'm not sure, so wait until someone flames me for bad advice if I'm wrong here :-)) > > > Michelle
