Okay, here we go again!

[brainsoft]

I've installed and run Linux a few times and I'm a quick study, and I think it's time to give it a more serious thought. Hopefully I'll be installing a distro in the next few days (*crosses fingers*) and get down to setting up VMWare so I can still do stuff I haven't learned in Linux yet.

Here's the inevitable problem though! WHAT DISTRO TO RUN? I've INSTALLED Redhat, Mandrake, FreeBSD and Solaris 8 before, but the only one I've used for more than a few days is Mandrake. What ever I use MUST be able to mount Win2k through VMWare, and be able to run the new Gnome desktop manager, Ximian Gnome (my dad's got it, I'm going to roll out the RED CARPET).

Those are the initial requirements, but there is more I'd like to know, for further down the line.

Burning Software. I need powerful pre-mastering software if possible, but a MUST is a CloneCD-ish program, something that can make EXACT copies of my retail games, including full subcodes (for back up purposes only). For the time being, I can just burn in VMWare, but I don't want that to be a long term solution.

I'm thinking I'm going to go with Redhat 7.1 to start it all off. I've got 3 drives, a 3gb, a 4 gb, and a 30gb. I want to keep the 30 for cd images and games and my ftp server ideally, and have the actual operating systems on the small drives. Which to put where though, and is there a better way? (if one of you says scrap windows all together, and can't tell me exactly how, so help me god...pow!. )

I'm sure I'll think of more to say later, but... ANY HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS?

 

[PostCode]

Mandrake will do just fine. The disto itself dosen't decide the burning capabilities. cdrecord is the program most burning softwares under Linux use to burn cd's. That and mkisofs. As for the burning software, there are a few choices. XCDRoast adn KreateCD (for KDE) work great for copying and creating CD's. I don't use Gnome myself, but XCDRoast is not KDE app. It's a X app that will run under either of these desktops. VMWare won't work. You cna't record under VMWare. It's not supported and I'm really not sure if hey ever plan on supporting it. However, XCDRoast should be more than enough for your purposes.

I pretty sure Mandrake has a newer version of Gnome than RedHat does. RedHat likes to stick with the stuff that works whereas Mandrake likes to be cutting edge. Regardless, the desktop itself shouldn't matter. Either of these will work fine with cdrecord and mkisofs. You can check here for a bettter listing of CD recording software for Linux. These are mainly just frontends for cdrecord and mkisofs. I have heard from a few people that ECLiPt Roaster is another good one to try. I haven't used it myself yet though.

Here is the site for cdrecord. Check the supported drives and such for compatibility. It support IDE and SCSI drives as well. For IDE drives, it uses emulation, but it's pretty easy to setup. I know that Mandrake 8 and RedHat 7.1 will both setup you CDRW for you during the installtion of the OS. Eariler versions you had to manually setup the drive, but it's pretty easy to do.

Hope this helps brainy. got any questions, just fire away.

 

[brainsoft]

Now, when you say "unsupported", do you mean they won't promise it will work and won't help you if it doesn't (like Intel and SMP Celerons), or it just doesn't work at all in any way?

I am going to need a program that can make exact copies, like CloneCD and BlindRead/BlindWrite can, with sub-codes and everything. Have you hear of anything that does that?

I'm used Mandrake before, because it offered KDE 2 right outta the gates, but no distro offers Ximian Gnome yet. With more major companies starting to pick Gnome over KDE (hp and compaq, etc), it seems as if Gnome is going to become the default Desktop Manager.

Ximian overs new tools like the Nautalus browser and Red Carpet, Red Carpet is really cool! It connects to numerous places and checks for system patches and updates, downloads the ones you choose, and installs them all. It also updates/removes any previous versions. It is so cool.

Any suggestions about the drive layout?