Very nostalgic! I remember downloading the two-CD Mandrake set using a "fast" internet connection at my dad's workplace. Took most of two days. Then I had to learn how to burn a CD. Then I had to learn what this "BIOS" thing is, and what it means to boot from CD. Then I clicked a bunch of buttons that I didn't understand. Then a bunch of weird text scrolled by on the screen, and then I was running Linux![1]

Thanks for all the fun, Mandrake!

[1] It wasn't till later that I discovered that clicking random buttons has a tendency to wipe out other operating systems on the hard drive. Like my parents' Win98 installation. Whoops...

Mandrake was the first Linux distro I actually used for any period of time and I have fond memories of it. It was quite slick for someone who didn't really know what he was doing.

My first attempt at Linux though was installing off of a full set of Debian Woody cds. I remember fondly booting up into an ancient version of KDE and feeling very pleased with my technical prowess. IIRC, I ended up torpedoing the bootloader and had no idea how to restore it and ended up wiping the drive. I cringe thinking about how easy it actually would have been to fix if I had known what I was doing.

well, there is mageia, which is very much alive and have been in the top 10 on distrowatch for as long as i can remember

mageia is also community driven, which some consider an advantage over other distros driven by commercial organizations

Mandrake was my first distro as well...this does make me kind of sad to see it end this way. That is really too bad.