old system/Drivers/distro

[COMPUNEOPHYTE]

I have a copy of Mandrake 8.0 AND 7.0. My wife has an OLD computer. How old you ask? Hewlett-Packard / Cyrix M2 old. But it runs. Ok it runs with windows 98. Roughly translated, that means it runs, crashes, I reboot and the cycle continues. I would like to wipe the HDD clean, install Linux and continue my computer learning experience.
I am still not convinced that Mandrake is the copy I want to install / learn tho. I would like an easy learning curve, BUT I also want to "LEARN LINUX". I say all that to get to the real question. If I get a newer version of a Linux distro, will the drivers for a system that is 6-7 years old be included on the disk(s) or am I going to need to tear the case open and figure out what's inside, then try and find drivers?
:confused:

[2damncommon]

I would like an easy learning curve, BUT I also want to "LEARN LINUX"
Mandrake is fine for both an easy learning curve and "LEARNING LINUX"

[Sastraxi]

Mandrake is pretty good about backwards-compatibility. At the start, you can pretty much get it to hide everything unix-like from you. But, when you start to get into things more advanced, you can start to do them in "hard" ways (ex. fdisk) rather than "easy" ones (ex. harddrake). In this way Mandrake (and many other distributions geared towards the novice) is able to give you more access when you want it. Eventually you'll find the command-line ways give you more power and are more "rewarding" (believe me, you'll know what I mean).

[pauper]

While I would agree with the ease of installation of the Mandrake distro, I would recommend using the sysinfo tools in win98 first and make a list of everything that is found - make a special note of the video card type and model (if you can get to it that way) and also any settings for the modem etc.
A list of what interrupts and dma settings are in use would also be helpful.
Your next step would be to do a web search on the various cards involved and find out as much as you can about them (unless you have the user manuals for them). ie: with the video card, how much ram does it have, what (max and min) resolutions will it support etc., what types of ram will the motherboard support, how many slots and how many are empty.
This will give you a very good list that you may or may not use, but it certainly makes life a lot easier when it comes to configuring things if you already know what you're dealing with! I just installed RH8.0 a week ago - first time in my life I've ever had to look up the refresh rates for my monitor!

If you should come across anything out of the ordinary in your list, just check with the linux compatibility list which will very quickly tell you whether or not its supported.

I have several puters at home, and each one of them has a list of this type taped to the inside of the main access panel or cover - saves me no end of grief!

[2damncommon]

am I going to need to tear the case open and figure out what's inside
Check the HP website for possible info on the HP computer you have.
They probably won't have all the specs you want but should be a start.