You dont need to buy the complete version since you wont use the phone support
anyway. Sometimes they do come with extra goodies (RedHat used to come with
MetroX included) but its all extras. FTP installs work fine if you have the
badwidth (Im assuming you are on campus?) CD's are nice to have tho. CheapBytes
has a good (I think its $10?) set of a copy of all the latest distro's. Good
for jumping around and trying others.
Mandrake is basically RedHat with some extras. (KDE 1.1) I've installed it a
few times now and for some strange reason its given me a few problems. I think
it has TOO much with it. (I had the same issues with SuSE, WAY too much bonus
stuff for my liking) But it was a solid distro and a good choice.
Also while Linux is the forfront of this group - CheapBytes also has a the *BSD
cd's as well. (in case you are curious)
Has anyone messed with Debian m68k linux? I have a Mac here that i'd like to
try. (Centris 650)
-Nick