Customer Rating: 
Summary: Simple, easy, for Newbies to Linux.
Comment: I have used some version of Linux on my home computer for about two years now and I can honestly say that Linux, to include Linux Mandrake 7.1 has come a long way. Linux Mandrake 7.1 provides the user with one of the easiest installs and setups. Compared to Suse's YAST2 and Caldera's Lizard - Mandrake has configured a good setup tool. Linux Mandrake 7.1 also provides several good programs and applications that will help the new Linux user get accustomed to the world of Linux. New users who are coming from the Windows OSes will feel a bit easier using Linux Mandrake.
On my machine I tired several different installs, using different cards. I swapped out my Voodoo Banshee card and threw in a generic 8MB video card - it found the card but there was a huge difference in the display quality of my installation process. I then re-installed it using two different sound cards, a Sound blaster Live! and a ESS Generic sound card - both were found but the ESS had more support and installed easier.
Partitioning was the easiest it has ever been - gone are the days of having to learn the commands of FDISK or partionmagic. The partioning of the Linux Mandrake also makes it easy to install DOS/WIN partions.
Although I liked Mandrake 7.1 and I would recommend it for novice users - I found that an install from Suse 7.0 was cleaner and provided me with the applications, especially the server applications and programs, that I use on a regular basis.
Mandrake 7.1 is a good place to start. The price is amazingly reasonable and there is more support in publications for Red Hat compatible products -so it is a no brainer for newbie Linux users - go with Mandrake.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Linux-Mandrake is the best of both worlds.
Comment: I have tried 2.1, RedHat 5.0, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, Corel Linux 1.0, Caldera OpenLinux 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, and Linux Mandrake 7.0 and 7.1. Of all these, Linux Mandrake 7.1 is what got me to settle down and actually start using Linux instead of playing with it.I had to get rid of the cruddy winmodem I had just bought, but it was a pleasure to experience Linux fully once I had rid myself of it and bought a real modem.
Linux Mandrake makes things easy. I don't want to spend hours configuring everything right off the bat. My aim is not to become a Linux guru. I just want a decent OS that works. As time goes by, I'll learn the rest, but for now I just want to be able to boot up in a reasonable amount of time, and not crash constantly, and not cost an arm and a leg for a bug infested waste of time, money and disk space like Windows.
If you feel similarly, and you can read (there's books, web sites and documentation all over the place if you have a question), then Linux Mandrake is for you.
The price is reasonable. It works. It comes with everything and then some. It's easy to use. It handles more load on the same hardware. It's much faster. And you don't need to reboot unless you want to. Nuff said.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What a difference!
Comment: Tired with all the trouble of Windows I wanted to take the risk of changing for a new OS. A friend recommended me Mandrake since I've never used or seen Linux and I was amazed how easy it was. First it recognized all my hardware, even my HP CD writer. Also using it wasn't hard or complicated. I strongly recommend this product to people that have no idea of Linux. It has never shown an error or illegal operation, as Windows constantly does.
I even want to get in the developer stage but that will take some time. Thanks for bringing us users a strong and confident OS.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy to Install, easy to use
Comment: Mandrake 7.1 installs nearly everything automatically. Its configuration tools make updating your system pretty easy. One caveat is that if your monitor is not in the monitors database you will learn more about your monitor than you wanted to know. If you have an inexpensive win modem you will want to get a full hardware modem. If they plug into a PCI slot they're Win modems, if they plug into an ISA slot they're hardware modems. Best Data and Creative labs both make 56K ISA modems that work under Linux.
The installer will resize a windows partition and set up linux partition for you. You can also use lnx4win which will make a linux file system inside a windows file. You can then install without changing any partitions.
There are many excellent How-To documents included.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great distro for the new and experience user alike
Comment: As a long time RedHat user I decided to try Mandrake which is built upon the RH distro. I was pleasently surprised and I'm now a convert. The installation process is straight forward and includes an easy to use GUI to do the dirty work. Once I installed it I found that a lot of the goodies I've collected over the years was already installed! I've installed this on several desktops and on two laptops without a hitch, I highly recommend it.
