ReiserFS is a new journal filesystem for Linux. Journal filesystems differ from regular filesystems like ext2 in the they use the transaction concept that modern databases use. All filesystem operations are logged and in case of any errors, the operation is rolled back without any changes being made to the filesystem. This also allows faster recovery from a system crash or if your system goes down unexpectedly. No lengthy fsck checks at boot. Other features that are flaunted are a maximum file size of 4GB vs the 2GB for ext2. The criticism against ReiserFS have been that it's not as mature as ext2. We've used this for several months on a few machines - root, usr, var, everything - and we've never had any problems. We don't guarantee 100% safety of your data. It worked for us. Your mileage may vary. If unsure then stick with ext2.

With all selections over, the install began. It took over 2 hours and both the CD's to install all the packages. The first time we tried it, it crashed with 10 minutes to go. We then tried to update it, which resulted in another 30 minutes and a very buggy install. So we tried it again! This time it seemed to go off smoothly but took almost 3 hours for a complete install. This problem replicated across several machines. Maybe it was a bad ISO that we used or maybe there is a major problem with the installation. Either way, we'd like some feedback on this one.

Configure Network

If you are on a network, you need to fill in the details, or else you can go on to install the modem. You can specify type of modem, ISP details and even test your connection at this point. The new Kppp gives you the option of either PAP, Terminal or script based login. You can also enter multiple telephone numbers for the same ISP.

Time zone: Select your country or nearest timezone.

Printers: Specify whether direct printer connection or through a network

Adding root and users: Mandrake has added more choices to this routine step. You can specify which user to start up at default with a choice of GUI's. But the most amazing part was that it actually gives you a chance to avoid a password for root. We don't recommend this because this is not the way Linux should be run.

Boot disk preparation: For safety you should create one but the bootable CD should do in most cases.

Install Grub or Lilo: Mandrake offers you a choice of both Grub or Lilo to boot your system. Both are very good but GRUB is the better option and we feel this should be adopted by more distributions.