MANDRIVA, or Mandrake as it was back in the day, was the first Linux distribution I ever tried.

It wasn't a great first date.

I was a Windows 95 user at the time and was baffled by Linux terminology and particularly the way Mandrake handled software installation, via the RPM package system.

After stumbling around in the dark for a few months, I gave up on Mandrake and, if I'm being honest, that initial Linux experience probably soured me toward the company.
It's now around ten years since that early Linux adventure and so much has changed.
I've probably tried every one of the top 20 distros in the Distrowatch rankings – and a good few outside it - and I have to admit that few have impressed or surprised me as much as Mandriva 2008 Flash.

It comes on a 4GB USB stick, around 400MB of which is taken up by the operating system – although you can expand this if you plan on installing a lot of extra applications - leaving plenty of storage space for your files.

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