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Neil Winchurst wrote: > My brother now lives within a mile. He uses Windows, of course, but has > expressed interest in Linux. I have been using Mandrake/Mandriva for > several years, using KDE not Gnome. > > I know that there are several versions of Linux which my brother could > try without actually installing anything on his hard drive, that is > which will run from the CD drive. > > However I don't know much about any of them. Any suggestions, warnings, > comments, recommendations etc would be gratefully received. > > TIA > > Neil Winchurst > As your subject is Kubuntu I will assume you are interested in distros which have the KDE desktop. I can only comment on the distros I have sampled in the last 6 months. Kanotix (http://kanotix.com/) I've been using Kanotix as an installed system for approx 18 months. It's based on the Debian unstable release. As live CDs both the Easter and the 2005-04 edition load quickly and have truly excellent hardware detection. The 2005-04 version has Openoffice whereas the Easter edition uses KOffice. After installation:- The user forums seems to have lots of willing and knowledgable help (which is clearly necessary with a distro base on Debian unstable). Also the Kanotix-Update-GUI tool allows easy (IMHO idiot prooof) package, kernel and distro upgrades plus installation of 3D drivers. Kubuntu (http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/6.06/) Kubuntu 6.06-1 LST and 6.06 LST (as a live CDs) seem to take ages to load to a usable system. It has OpenOffice. After installation:- Kubuntu 6.06 LST seems buggy to me. eg Installed an Epsom Stylus Color 600. Changed driver to A4 from Letter and printing no longer functioned. 6.06-1 LST's only virtue seems to be that it has a patched kernel enabling it to use SATA drives with mobos that have the notorious VIA vt8251 chipset. This virtue will disappear when the 2.6.18 kernel is released (approx 1 month). Kubuntu and Ubuntu have an enormous user forum. Keith -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html