VeeDubb

You make a valid point, and if you search around, there is at least one if not two commercial DVDplayers currently in the works. It's just a matter of waiting for linux to take enough desktop share to make it proffitable.

WRONG. At lilo 'knoppix desktop=xfce' Welcome to knoppis running XFCE. There's a couple of other desktops installed as well. Not sure which one off the top of my head. However, after looking around, I agree that peanut might be a good way to go. The reason I discouraged mandrake is that there is just way moer in mandrake than will be usefull on that system. Even the current kernel is bloated for a p200.

Don't be too sure it's a winmodem, well actualy, since you sound new to linux, let me start at the begining of what you need to know. 1. most computers these days use "win-modems" which are not real modems. That is to say that they don't actualy convert the data to an analog signal and transmit. The data is converted by a software driver and sent to the modem for pumping onto the phone line. 2. Most external SERIAL modems and a handfull of pci ones, as well as most ISA modems if you have an older PC, are "real" modems. Usualy refered to a 'hardware controlled modems" 100% of hardware controlled modems work with linux. 3. USB modems are about 70/30 hardware/win in my experience. So there's a god chance that it's hardware, especialy since My modem is a Creative Labe Modem Blaster serial and it's hardware. TheUSB is probalby the same guts with a USB cable. 4. Linux does not use drivers for hardware modems. You need to figure out what comm port linux thinks your modem is on. That can be tough with a USB modem, maybe someone else can help you with that. Once you find it, you need to make a link from it to /dev/modem and then programs like kppp and wvdial (your standard linux dialer programs) will be able to find and use it. If you have questions after all that (likely) go ahead and ask and I or someone else will try to help

Well, first, if you mean 72k of ram, no opperatin system that I know of will even boot. Chances are, with a p200 and a 3GB hdd, you mean 72MB, in which case, there's several versions of linux that will work very nicely. Mandrake will be 'do-able' but you'll have to use XFCE or some other less resource intensive desktop than kde or gnome. HOever, I think mandrake is a mistake. If you look around, there's a lot of distros that are specificaly built for older systems to do just the sort of thing you want. I'm sure that someone ehre with a little better knowledge of the various distros can tell you something more usefull. Either way, you should come back and lut us all know what you went with and how well it worked. Good luck

Dell has a history of laptops playing well with linux in general. For best results, look for laptops with nvidia chipsets for video, and avoid internal 56k modems as they are very hit and miss. There are numerous websites dedicated to the use of linux on laptops. Just google for linux laptop and you will find everything you want to know and more.

I'm basicaly the same, but since the .2 releases always seem to be the best, I'll probably wait and buy 10.2 oe when it finaly comes out some time next year.

I guess you and I have a hugely different idea of what is 'economical'. As far as I'm concerned, the mandrake club is a horrible waste of money. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for supporting Mandrake, but that is a the worst way of doing it I know of. By joining the club, you get access to a slow and crowded forum that is far less helpful than this one, access to RPM's of software you could install yourself, and the ability to vote in poles which completely fail to have any effect on what rpm's are actualy included in the distro. You can do just as much support by purchasing a licensed copy from mandrake or a mandrake reseller, and at elast then you get a nice manual which may contain usefull tips and some nice CD's instead of CDR's. Also, if you're a cheapskate like me, you can get the fourth CD by buying the CD's from http://www.cheapbytes.com for less than $10.00 Also, there's more versions than that. There's Discovery, which includes only 2 CD's. The free download includes 3. The Club/CheapBytes set has a fourth CD which contains a bunch of extras. The powerpack has 6 CD's or is available on one DVD. Then there's the powerpack plus, formerly known as mandrake pro and it includes 8CD's and 1DVD. On top of all that, there's three or four Corperate flavors. The next time I buy a copy, I'm gedtting the powerpack DVD. I think it's the most bang for your buck and having it on 1 DVD would make life much simpler.

Also, if you have a contrib mirror, there are TONNS of plugins for the gimp out there which extend it's functionality.

You might also check out Crossover office from code weavers. i think it supports PSP. Also not free, but likely to work and there's a free demo and best of all, it doesn't require a specialized kernel just to run like Win4Lin does. I've never been able to test Win4Lin for anything because it so pointlessly difficult to configure. IMNSHO, commercial payware should be easy to install and should NEVER require a custom kernel. nVidia can figure out how to get their kernel modules isntalled without patching and compiling a new kernel, win4lin's method is just unacceptable if you ask me. And this probably isnt' what you want to hear, but have you considered trying The GIMP instead of PSP (I'm assuming PSP is Paint Shop Pro, if not forgive my stupidity and ignorance). I've found it to be VERY complete and highly functional, even for doing serious graphic design like skins for games (an old hobby of mine)

yeah, as others have said, there's several way to get the job done. let me expand on the subject just a little, because i'm boared. for games, Cedega is you only option. http://www.transgaming.com Membership is $5.00 per month and required to download their software, but once you download it, you can use it forever. Wine sucks. No 'ifs', 'ands' or 'buts'. don't even bother unless you've tried everything else. Bauchs is preported to work well for many things, but I've never had any sucess with it. Same with Win4Lin. they're just too hard to install and configure. VMware is a snap, but divide all your system specs by 4 and you'll have a pretty good idea of how things will run. I know you are probably interested in games, (since you posted in the games forum) but for things like MS office or photo shop one of the best apps is Crossover Office. It's kind of expensive (by my standards at least) but it works realy pretty well since it's purpose built. And lastly, for the record, this should realy be in the emulation forum because all of these things, while only half of them are true emulators, are considered emulators by most people. But let's not open up that debate again.

You will be very unhappy with point to play. It installs each game on it's own virtual hard drive, which makes expansion packs and updates useless. It installs it's own seperate instance of cedega and reduces performance noticably. There is absolutely nothing that P2P will gain you that you can't do without it. i strongly suggest you follow my last suggestion by going to http://www.transgaming.org/forum There is a rather active forum there that discusses nothing but cedega and p2p and I can guarantee you with absolute certainty that you are not anywhere near the first person to have this problem, and I can say with 98% certainty that point2play will not fix the problem.

Don't feel bad, friend of mine had the EXACT same problem a few months back.

i won't bother flaming about p2p, I'll just say again that it's crap and move on. If anyone cares why, start a different thread and I'll rant for a page. Well, since that didn't work, what iwould do is head over to http://www.transgaming.org/forum and search there. I know you are not the first person with this issue. Not by a long shot. And don't forget, you realy should go to transgaming and get the MScore fonts installer just in case. After it installs, you run the cmand 'tg_font_install' from a command line.

i have to add another vote for k3b. Of course, this is all personal preference. You see, unlike windows, there's realy only one set of cd burning programs for linux. And anything you can do through any X program can also be done through the command line given a certain minimum level of skill. What does that mean for you? Well, it means that the only real differences between burning programs are how many of the possible command line functions are covered, and how well you like the interface. I find that k3b has just about everything and as several other have pointed out, it looks and feels a heck ofa lot like nero, which IMO is a very good thing

Ed is dead on target. If the incorrectly displayed fonts are ones that the game supplies for you, you should either copy or link them to the directoy he listed. That "should" fix the problem. However, I have to tell you that I have experienced consistent and fatl font related problems with certain games. Good luck. let me know how it comes out.

FIrst, I, and many others think that point to play sucks ass. You can get the microsoft core fonts installer WITHOUT p2p. Also, you can figure out what the name of the font the game is using is, and set up a font alias in your config file for it. I could explain how to set up a font alias, but it's easier for me to tell you where they are, and I'm sure you can figure the syntax out for yourself. look at the text file /home/'username'/.transgaming/config read through that file and you will find a section with font settings and some common font alias's set up allready. Just make a new one for the font the game uses. Actualy, there's probably a font alias already, that points to an ugly font. Anyway, you'll figure it out when youlook, and if not, come back and let me know.

It's about percentages realy. There certainly are some ATI cards that work great in linux, but not all of them. If it says nvidia on the box, it will work with linux. ATI and nvidia made a choice. ATI chose to support certain models on linux, and nvidia, chose to jump head firt into the linux pool and provide support for every single thing they make. That's why I 'choose' to use nvidia

ACtualy, for the DSL, how you do it depends on the hardware you're using. Some ISP's give you an internal DSL modem, and your computer handles the ADSL connection. In which caqse, as spiedra said, let the mcc set it up for you. Most DSL ISP's in the US however, like mine, give you and free standing internet gateway. They might call it and external DSL modem or a DSL router. In any case, with something like that, you just set up a standard networking connection and connect that way, and mandrake doesn't even need to know that it's an adsl connection. Browsers. If you're using kde, you can't remove konqueror, it's iuntegrated the way ie is integratedinto windows. It is the same program that serves as your file browser. To choose which one is default, you can find that sort of stuff in the KDe control center. That's NOT the same as the mandrake controll center. go to starmenu>system>configuration>configure your desktop. Not sure how to do it in gnome. For the shut-off problem, the 'logout' button in the start menu should have three options, end session only, turn off the computer and restart the computer. I fyou log-out menu does not have those three, something is wrong beyond my recconing.

for the record, there are some nvidia GeForceFX6800's out now, and they will run circles around basicaly anything that isn't an FX6800

This is realy a wasted reply, but I agree with everyone else. For 'simple' stuff, kpaint is great, as a are the numerous other MS paint type apps out there. And IMNSHO, The GIMP is simply awsome. Far better than photo shop for many things.

Dragonmage is right, that's what it is. You have to be very carefull with version numbers as we see here, 10.0.2 is TOTALY different from 10.2 which is what you asked for. And like DM said, if you have 10.0Official(or community for that matter) and you've fully updated it, you have everything but the mandrake club packages which you probably don't need.

If you need you ask, you probably are! LOL :P :lol: :D :P :lol: :D

Well, first of all, I'm pretty sure, unless I've realy missed something, that there's no such thing as Mandrake 10.2 The current 'release' version is 10.0oe, and 10.1 is now available as an alph, or maybe it's beta now. If 10.1 beta is what you want, you might try using the 'cooker' mirror from EasyURPMI as that's still where you'll find 10.1 as far as i know, though i'm unsure as to the exacct method. All that being said, i reccomend for the best, and most accurite experience that you go ahead and download the ISO's. Well actualy, for the best experience you should avoid beta software like the plague, but if you insist on running a beta, the ISO's are probably the easiest option.

For me it was mandrake 9.0 and all the crazies here that helped me switch. Now I'm using 10.0 and i AM one of the crazies. on the subject of crazy, you know what's crazy? trying to learn a new OS by dual booting with you old one. If there is any way you can manage it, just dive in head first. Back everything up before you dive, but just go for it. At the very most, I reccomend you dual boot untill you have confirmed your ability to access the internet through linux. Then format and re-install without windows. You could get rid of windows without the format, but i think the second run at instalation is probably worth the experience, and gives you the chance to screw up a completely diferent set of things. :lol: Anyway, by doing it that way, you force yourself to learn faster. It's a bit like teaching a second language by emmersion.

tyme, lot's of people have griped repeatedly about how steam totaly fails to meet any reasonable expectation of functionality. You should check out http://www.transgaming.org/forum That being said, a new version (minor version update, 4.0 to 4.0.1) came out about a week ago, and they claim once again to have new and improved support for steam.