Since about the time of the K5, introduced in the late 90's, AMD has had a distinct advantage over Intel in three areas.

1. Clock for Clock performance.

2. Power consumption per clock cycle.

3. Work done per dollar value.

As the heat beats down during these dog days of late summer, you may want to chill out with a couple of cool programs.

One of these programs is for the hardcore Windows user who like to try experimental or alpha quality software. The second is for hardcore Windows users who like to try ... er ... experimental and beta software... Both are free and both are remarkable in their own way and are most definitely worth trying out.

(osn_blue BB4Win theme by "Steven")

If all went according to plan you should have rebooted your computer and are now sitting in Mandriva's new "Login Manager" window, MDKDM (Mandrake's modified desktop manager). To login, simply type the login name you created during the install, then type the password and click OK (or simply press the "enter key" on your keyboard). 

First Run Wizard

OK, so you have your shiny new CDs and are itchin to get going. We can't say as we blame you as you are about to embark on a journey of fantastical discoveries as you enter the modern Linux world. Before we go though, there are a few things you need to think about. We are, as previously mentioned, going to make certain assumptions and you need to make sure you understand what we mean.

The first thing you need to do is go get yourself a copy of Mandriva 2007. There are many mirrors available and a variety of ways of getting the distribution. For now we will be describing the process of acquiring and installing the ISO version, which is the image you need to create a self-booting installation CD-ROM.