this will show my newbieness (newbieness?) i would like to download mandrake 8.0 from the web site, but i not for sure what to download, is it 8.0/i586 or 8.0/i586 ISO . and what will i miss or not recieve by downloading instead of buying the cds?

If you have a CD writer you want to download the ISO images of the CDs, which you can then burn to disk and they will be identical to the ones you'd buy (bootable etc), otherwise you'll need to download the files that would be on the CDs along with the directory tree to somewhere on your hard disk, then make some boot disks and install that way.

I think you will miss out on the tech support from Mandrake, and probably an installation guide, but thats about it. Its the same software. You also won't be supporting the people who produce the distribution, but if you want to do this you can always buy a proper copy later, or when you next install / upgrade.

HTH

Jamie...

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