@iamaboringperson
wow! i just upgraded from mandrake 8.2(or 8.1 i cant remember) to 9.0, and i must say this is bloody good stuff indeed!
i try different versions of linux occasionaly & even *BSD, but when i first used mandrake a few years ago i fell in love!
mandrake 9.0 is A LOT better than i expected!
usually when you upgrade an OS, its a bit more bloated, a bit slower, and doesnt add all that much that is worthy of it being an upgrade
but mandrake 9.0 was different
it installed very quickly(from 2 CDs) without a problem, it booted very quickly, much quicker than the previous version, and just about every thing seemed faster
KDE 3.0 was new for me, before i used it i thought it would be bloated & slow, but it was actually very fast!
I've had a set of Mdk9.0 CDs sitting 'round here for a couple of weeks, but hadn't found the impetus to install it. Since reading your original post I decided to give it a try.
Installation was painless, with both NICs (RTL8029 for Amithlon & onboard Broadcom) being found as well as both sound outputs. (AC97 & SBLive!)
So far I haven't managed to make the networking work on either interface, even using the same settings as under Mdk7.1 that I'm using now. Mdk7.1 happily sees the rest of the internet through cat5 cable running to the Amiga which plays gateway under MiamiDX.
I also can't manage to get any sound from 9.0, but that's rather low on the list for the moment.
I do like what they've done with the latest KDE, but some of the functionality I'm used to under 7.1 has either been removed or replaced where I can't find it at all. All up, I'm not totally satisfied with the install, but I'll play with it for a couple of weeks before totally dismissing it.