This week the former Mandrake Software, now named Mandriva Software (http://www.mandriva.com/) after their merger with Brazilian Conectiva have released a power user Linux distro, the Mandriva Limited Edition 2005 (http://www.mandriva.com/products/limited-edition).
As I still have 50 days left on my Mandriva Club subscription, I'm allowed to download the full commercial DVD image, containing software that they only put on the paid packages. Obviously, as the OS was just released this week, the download is painfully slow, but finally I'm at the 78.5% of it and should be getting the whole thing by tonight.
I'm then thinking on splitting up one of my hard drives to install the OS directly on my laptop, instead of a virtual machine. I have many bad past experiences on installing Linux on this laptop, as it is quite unusual.
My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 5200-902, bought in mid-2003. It is a wonderful machine, powered by a Pentium 4-M 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, GeForce FX 5600, 1600x1200 TFT screen, two internal hard drives of 80GB each, DVD burner and integrated WI-FI + Bluetooth.
What makes this machine special, is its APM system. It has a very advanced software controlled APM that allows it to run all the machinery listed above with a 6000mAh battery for more than 3 hours, which is remarkable.
Linux never had built-in drivers to support all of it and even following all the blogs and documentation on the web that could allow me to something near a good result it all failed. Now Mandriva says that this is the version of Linux supporting most hardware in history, so I would like to see if it can really install and configure my machine seamlessly.
If it does configure well, I will pose myself another challenge: I will use ONLY Linux at home for 60 days straight. All my normal home usage will be on Linux and it involves CD burning, music, video, web browsing, e-mails, banking and all the other stuff you expect someone doing at home. This is to see if I can really run Linux on a personal box with the same productivity and enjoyment I have on Windows.
I will let you know more details! Cheers!
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