Some people may not like it but this is what peak desktop interface design looks like.

I totally forgot XMMS, what a nice piece of software! Also I didn’t know Netscape was available on Linux

FWIW you can ‘recreate’ the environment you enjoyed on today’s distros. Here is one good solid option: https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE

Down the memory lane! At that time downloading a full distro with my poor 33.6k modem was an unfeasible nightmare, and I remember buying the Mandrake Powerpack box with several CDs, books… and stickers! I fondly remember how the included assistants (diskdrake and similar “drake” tools) tried to make things easier for newbies like me… and of course they only worked half of the time!

I remember this distro as having a good number of newer storage drivers (cpqarray, in particular) available when installing.

I started with Mandrake, I think 8.0, in 2001. I just looked at that website a few weeks ago and something is off. If I remember correctly, there were updates to the site in that year. I wonder if this is a snapshot that somebody re-uploaded?

edit: looks like maybe the website I remember was mandrakesoft.com -> https://web.archive.org/web/20010429194424/http://www.mandrakesoft.com/

That does look quite familiar and cool.

I started on Mandrake 8.1. I owe Mandrake a lot for starting me off on Linux over twenty years ago.

Oh gosh! I remember mandrake. I don’t remember version but do remember it. Was certainly an experience for me. Had no clue what I was doing. No idea how I went from that to gentoo. Stage 1 install was a nightmare I couldn’t forget. Stage 3 is a breeze now.

The window elements each have a clear purpose without “aesthetics” overriding those.

It’s beautiful.