Linux has a lot of variations and what I looked at here is a variation of a variation. It is the red-hat variation of Linux but it is the Mandrake Variation of Red-Hat Linux. Checking the documentation in the box, it said that it was manufactured by Macmillan Digital Publishing USA with a website at www.macmillansoftware.com.

Okay, Linux is Linux and it being an open operating system, one variation should work the same way as the other would. So, why a variation from within a variation of Linux Red-Hat ?

To find out what the answer was, I went to our local computer store here in Toronto and told the salesman, I want to install Linux on my computer and I asked him, which among the variations of it he will recommend ? He recommended Linux, Red-Hat by Mandrake. The store having a good reputation of having honest to goodness sales people, I relied on him and purchased his suggestion. Now I had to find out for my self why Red-Hat by Mandrake is the one that sales person recommended.

These are the following add-ons for this particular variation:

1) It has the Star-Office Suite 5.1 personal edition. Which means I do not need Microsoft Office or an Office Suite package because Star Office has the functions of all the Microsoft Office productivity tools and Star Office can read Microsoft Office written files. This saves me about 200 dollars.

2) It contains a copy of Partition Magic and Boot Magic. These are tools that would make it possible for me to make space for Linux without having to repartition my hard drive which means uninstalling what I have and go through all those re-installs of software, drivers, etc. With Partiton Magic, I do not have to delete my existing Windows 98 System. I just have to use available space wherein I will put my Linux OPerating System. With Boot Magic, I will be able to boot to Windows 98 or to Linux. This saves me about 75 dollars for the programs and about 2 days of downtime.

3) It contains three useful books related to Linux. One of the books included, Learning Linux in 24 Hours can get you started right away in exploring this operating system.

4) On the add-ons on the operating system side, the best thing I have seen there is the install add-ons. In addition to Red-Hats already easy to install screens, this version has an install that if you just want to use the defaults, it is just easy as hitting the enter key. This is especially helpful if you have no idea on what components your PC has. It tries to detect it and on a normal machine, it is quite accurate.

As a side note, I mentioned it that detection is fine on a normal machine because what I noticed is, it is not as friendly to machines with proprietary hardware like Microchannel Machines, unsupported video cards, some SCSI controllers.

5) They have a good technical response line but it is just via email. The advantage of this is you can get help on weekends without paying for anything more. They have a 24 hour turn-around period but I got answers from within 2 hours (on a weekend).

Seems like this variation of Red-Hat is a good deal. I can use my old pentium 90 and load this operating system and no need to buy those expensive Microsoft products. Guess our local sales person is right again !!





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