A while ago, I wanted to have a go at making one of the so called "power distro's" my main distro.

To cut a long story short, I installed gentoo, got it running and then managed to screw it up.

Now I've experimented before, but that's the first time I've concentrated on the one distro.

I'm now getting pretty tired of re-learning the linux wheel, so I'm reverting to what I know (well, a little bit anyway), Mandrake.

So, I've ordered the powerpack version of 10 official on dvd.

The question is, would it be best to install the 9.1 that I've still got (a powerpack dvd) and then do an upgrade to 10 official, when the disc arrives (which doesn't look likely over this next weekend) or would it be better for me to wait until I get the 10 official and just do a total fresh install ???

Idea's and suggestions much appreciated

regards

John

p.s. I've only got windows XP available/usable at the moment.

wait until you get the 10.0 OE and do a clean/fresh install. Upgrades have a tendency to be nasty, nasty, and even more nasty.

Why are they nasty?

They are nasty because...........well, I don't know. But, unless you have a virgin install with no adjustments, upgrades can lead to chaos. Having said that, I find it very interesting that "upgrading" with winxppro was also chaos, although windows simply told me that x,y,z,a,b,c,.... programs would no longer work! I would suggest that the closer one gets to a secure system, the less one can just "upgrade".

Everytime I have upgraded, stuff doesn't work. You know. complex stuff like a mouse, or a chipset, or configuration files! Go figure. Install 10 fresh, which is what I did.

Well after I posted the question,

I searched for upgrade (which I stupidly forgot to do before posting ) and ended up with the conclusion that you'd suggest waiting. So thanks for taking your time to reply (bloody shame that according to the parcel courier site, that my copy has got as far as Birmingham - which mean's Monday, at the earliest before it get's here).

Curious really, thinking about it, I'd still like to have gentoo as well, but with the luxury of Mandrake to fall back on. I get mega frustrated when stuff goes wrong and I can't fix it immediately (yes, I must be the most impatient person I know of as well! ).

It seem's such a waste though, I've got this bloody great hard drive (well it's pretty big too me @ 120gig's), and a 40 gig spare in the drawer, that's calling me. I can hear it now "install me, install me".

But to go with my impatience, I also suffer from indecisiveness. I know that with a little learning, linux in general can do SOOOO much, but what do I want to do with it, apart from meddle, get frustrated, change distro's, etc etc.

All those different app's that can do so much

About the only thing I have decided on, is that I want to build a website, and I'm sure that any really knowledgable types who read this, will say, "ha, all I need is a text editor", but when I started looking into it/reading the tutorial's at w3schools, I found this which was the 2003 personal website award winner. I also found that Joel Veitch who run's/manages/design's this also got the webby for best weird site.

And while I don't expect to attain those kind of standard's, I suspect that I'll need more than just a text editor, especially if I want to use a little bit of flash.

Ha, it ain't gonna be cheap. I mean, have you seen the price of studio MX 2004, even the student/teacher license is a shade under £200 ($300/$350).

Maybe that's what I should focus on? Hell, I don't know!

I suppose at least I've finally decided to use mandrake for my main linux requirements.

Ok, that's enough day dreaming. Thanks for the advice/suggestions, I'm gonna run with it, and instead of getting anxious waiting for the disc to arrive, I'm gonna invade France and Belgium later today on the trail of those evil sellers of cheap booze and cig's!

regards

John