[Dxspider-support] Mandriva 2005 question

[Dirk Koopman]

On Thu, 2005-06-16 at 23:04 -0400, Steven H Sawyers (na0ia) wrote:
> If I am only interested in running DXSpider, what is the advantage of the 6 
> disk set over the 3 disk set?
> 
> I am in the US and need a set of install CDs for Mandriva 2005. Does the 
> purchased DVD have the CD ISO images on it?
> 
> What is the best way to get either the CDs or the DVDs?
> 

The only real advantage of the 6 CD set is if you have hardware that
needs needs one of the 'commercial' drivers. Having said that, if you
are really only going to use the box for dxspider, it is unlikely that
you will need any of these special drivers. 

Even nvidia stuff can be downloaded and installed or there are free
equivalents that are good enough. 

The commercial DVD is a 6 CD set anyway. The DVD is bootable and you
install from it directly. You can't (AFAIK) actually produce the 6 CDs
from it (there is a script for doing it the other way around CDs->DVD).

The DVD is, IMHO, the best choice if you have a drive that reads it.
However, I believe if you look on one of the mirror sites such as:

ftp://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/mandrakelinux/official/iso/10.2/i586/

You can obtain the free version of either the DVD or the 3 CDs. As I
say: I recommend the DVD.

As an aside, I am a member of the Mandriva Club. It costs me about EUR
120 a year, I think it represents good value for me (but then I am a
professional computing person that is installing linux all over the
place and writing programs most days). The big advantage is that you get
the latest stuff a good month or two before everyone else and the DVD is
available much earlier than it appears anywhere else. You also have
access to the torrents that distribute these images.

Dirk