CDR Distros

[Timothy L. Miller]

Just been doing a lot of downloading and burning lately, since I've just gotten my new laptop and my 3rd computer up and running. I've burned off a bunch of distros, so if anyone wants a copy of them, I'd be willing to send them to you for cost of shipping only (within continental US it's just a couple bucks)
Distros that I have are:
Mandrake 9.0 (disc 1 & 2 only)
Arch 0.4
Gentoo 1.4rc2 Athlon XP
Gentoo 1.4rc2 i586
Vector 3.0
Vector2
Vector 1.8 (good for older, sub 133 MHz processors)
YOS 3.2.1rc3
JAMD 0.4
Ark 1.0a5, downloading 1.0a6 as I type...so I'll have both for a while.
Knoppix 3.1

[BFK4ever]

I don't want any, but thx anyway!

Once you install Ark tell me if you like it better than J.A.M.D. They are both basically the same thing, but J.A.M.D. is cooler from what I have seen! (Havn't tried ark so I can't really judge)

[Timothy L. Miller]

Well, I haven't actually installed JAMD yet. I did use Ark 1.0a5 for a while, just to try it out. I really like the installer, best I've seen yet for ANY OS. Seemed quick and stable from what little I used it. I'll probably be installing JAMD sometime this weekend, although I'm not sure what computer is going to get to be the guniea pig for it yet...probably my (2nd) laptop since it's currently OS-less.

[Timothy L. Miller]

Well, I just installed JAMD. Comparing it to Ark as asked:

Both were installed on the same KDS Valiant 6370i Laptop with a linksys wireless NIC, attached via network to a Brother HL-1440 laser printer. Laptop is P3M 700 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive (dedicated ENTIRELY to whichever distro I was putting on), onboard ALI sound, and 0MB (+ 4 shared system) Trident Cyberblade graphics.

Installer-Arks better looking, but both get the job done quite well. I don't like having to pass the clearsystem option to boot JAMD, but since it's geared to newbies, I can see where this would be a VERY good thing.
Hardware support-Again, I liked Ark better. JAMD didn't even have PCMCIA support in it. Had to have the drivers for PCMCIA on seperate floppy. So none of my PCMCIA devices are even recognized. Neither was able to set up my NIC automatically, something that Libranet 2.7 and Mandrake 9.0 were both able to handle, therefore I didn't test installing the printer.
Installation-Tie. They both are a VERY "hands-off" installation.
Install speed-They're so close, I really can't say.
Looks when it's up and running-Ark. By very little though.
Software-Tie. They both include all the same things of what I use.
Overall-For general DESKTOP usage, either of these is good for a newbie. They don't overload you with too many choices for things (ala mandrake and it's 20 terminals, 50 messengers, and 140 different browsers), and the setup is basically fully automated, so even a monkey could install it with a couple lucky clicks in the beginning. Neither of these would I recommend to anyone wanting to put it on a laptop.

[BFK4ever]

So the question is which one do you like better, and why? :D

[Timothy L. Miller]

Well, I like Ark better. It at least has PCMCIA drivers, so that would be one less thing I had to install(I like lazy). It's installer is nicer looking, and the default desktop is slightly better looking(personal preference here, I just don't like the background JAMD uses...other than that they are very similar). Software doesn't come into play, and neither does speed, they are both very comparable in that department. Which is a good thing, since they're both quick. They both seemed stable in my (admitedly VERY minimal) usage.