Mandrakelinux 10.0 Community is Available

joestar writes "The new 'Mandrake Linux 10.0 Community' release has just been announced. It provides many new features including Linux 2.6.3, MagicDev, KDE 3.2, GNOME 2.4, a new Mandrakeonline service and others. Download ISOs are available through torrent for Club Members and 10.0 developers. A 10.0 DVD is also available at MandrakeStore. This a first step for this new exciting Mandrake, because in May, an Official version will appear, and both versions will officially be supported. Happy downloads!"

First major distro with 2.6 kernel release

[oldosadmin]

I've never used Mandrake, but I am very happy to see a major distribution pick up the 2.6 kernel for regular usage.

Here's my question: Are 2.6 kernel changes going to affect "Joe User"?

That's what UserLinux is for

[Burz]

To ensure a minimum level of functionality and consistency between distributions.

I have long thought that Linux needed an analog to Microsoft's once very-useful MultiMedia PC standard.

Might be worth a look...

[carlmenezes]

..to check out the new 2.6.3 kernel considering the major changes needed to upgrade from a 2.4 kernel to a 2.6 kernel if you've compiled your Linux system from source like I have.

When are non-member ISO's....

[DeionXxX]

going to be made available? 1 week? 2 weeks?

-- D3X

NeoX3.com: The One Site for Free Adult Entertainment [neox3.com]

Which version of KDE 3.2?

[dzym]

Is it 3.2.0? Because the KDE devs basically told all packagers that it was buggy shit and "don't use it" and to instead wait for 3.2.1, which was released to distro packagers only a few days ago.

Seems awfully fast for Mandrake to have already included the 3.2.1 fixes (multimegabyte).

This is one of the reasons I like Debian, even if I have to wait longer for some (major) things than bloody edged distros like Gentoo.

Where can non club members get it?

[sp00]

Download ISOs are available through torrent for Club Members
Any torrents for non-club members?

Re:First major distro with 2.6 kernel release

[skiflyer]

This comment comes from a linux intermediate, but from what I've seen so far, it's helping out quite a bit for those with laptops.

DVD?

[Anonymous Coward]

Will there be a download version of the DVD, or some way to build it on a non-Linux-but-still-nixish system? It would be a lot more convenient if I could hand people a single bootable DVD instead of a stack of CDs.

Read/Write Support for NTFS?

[Puchku]

From: http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/10.0/100PR.php3 Server deployments also benefit from interoperability with MS-Windows(R) systems thanks to enhanced support of Windows' Logical Disk Manager and new read/write NTFS support. Last time i checked, the NTFS write support was not mature enough to be used fulltime. Has anyone used this? Is the write support completely reliable? This is an imporatant issue, because it had the unfortunate tendancy of causing the windows install to get screwed. (sometimes, not all times) Thugh of you who have used write support successfully, please comment.

lvm1-lvm2

[crazyharry]

What I would like to know is have they provided and easy upgrade (ie automagicly) from 2.4 lvm1 to 2.6 lvm2?

Re:Which version of KDE 3.2?

[King Elessar]

Yes it includes KDE 3.2. Maybe some have noticed Mandrake's recent press release regarding their new development model. The plan is to release a "Community Release", and then a month or two later release the "Official Release" which will be the retail version also.

In this way, they are offering the best of both worlds, the Community Release, which is fairly stable, much more so than cooker; or for those who need a rock solid release that's been tested for several months, there's the Official Release.

I'd expect to see KDE 3.2.1 updates available shortly, and then of course it would be in the 10.0 Official Release.

Re:First major distro with 2.6 kernel release

[theantix]

If Joe User has anything like my experience I'd suggest it will affect him quite a bit. I've not yet got 2.6 to recognize my PS/2 mouse without a kernel patch to restore the old-style /dev/psaux functionality after trying with debian, fedora, knoppix 3.4, and kernel.org kernels. Hopefully these issues have been fixed for Mandrake's release, because it's preventing me and others from adopting 2.6.

x86-64 support?

[-tji]

Will they have an ISO with x86-64 support for my Athlon 64? If I'm making the jump to kernel 2.6, it might also be a good time to jump to native 64 bit mode..

Re:Read/Write Support for NTFS?

[c4Ff3In3 4ddiC+]

Regarding ntfs write support, you can only write to existing files and you can't change the size of the file.

Re:Noteworthy....

[gregarican]

What I do is check out Linux software books from my public library. They typically include CD's with full distributions on them. That's how I got Red Hat 8.0. Beats paying for supposedly free software or having to watch hundreds of megs crawl across the wire...

wasn't there only 1 RC before the final?

[mrscorpio]

Judging on the quality of the final release for 9.2 after 3 RC's and the fact that this is the new "non-official-ala-fedora" release, I'm kinda skeptical on the quality of it. In fact, judging from the comments I read on RC1, THAT release was probably more like the last beta and THIS one is probably more like a release candidate. The one people want is going to be the "official" version in May, I think.

Chris

Re:First major distro with 2.6 kernel release

[Joe Tie.]

In my opinion, yes. Especially with the combination of KDE 3.2. I primarily use Debian Unstable, but like to give the more priminant desktop focused distros a run every now and again - both out of curiosity and to know what to recomend to people itnerested in making a transition from Windows to something like it in Linux. Mandrake's always been a little faster than Debian on my installs, but not enough to convince me to patch and recompile the kernel in Debian to make it a bit more like Mandrake's layout. But when I tried out an early relase of Mandrake 10, it impressed me to the point that the first thing I did upon booting back into Debian was to install 2.6 and upgrade to kde 3.2. While I wouldn't call the combined improvement mindblowing, it was significant enough to convince me to undertake a somewhat lengthy upgrade process - and I'm more than happy with the end result.

Re:Read/Write Support for NTFS?

[AKAImBatman]

I'm pretty sure that Mandrake is using the wrapper for the NTFS.sys driver. Read and write work because it's real windows code running. I don't think you can format however.

Re:The All New Mandrake 10!

[ajs318]

I'll reply, rather than mod you down, because I want to contribute elsewhere in this discussion. If you're a Slackware user then you probably know enough to handle that. But Mandrake is a different animal altogether -- it is intended for less advanced users. And I see nothing wrong with that; after all, everybody needs to start somewhere. Mandrake was my first X11-based distribution {though I'd been tinkering about on the command line with Debian for some time} so I'll admit to a liking for it :)

Slackware is more a geek's distro, whereas Mandrake is pitched more at n00bz. Slackware is good for customising {if I was being unkind, I'd say you have to customise it to make it usable} and runs well on less powerful systems; whereas Mandrake is purposely designed so that you can just slot it in and go, but it needs a fast machine to show off what it can do.

The sort of person who installs Slackware is probably an old hand with several years' Linux experience; more likely to be mellower and less outspoken than the first-timer. Mandrake is a good choice for a beginner, and it has a very loyal and vocal band of followers.

But just because Mandrake is aimed at the newcomer, it is no less powerful a distribution -- and it doesn't compromise on security. In its own way, it's a very hardcore distribution {there's one for the apostrophe nazis}: everything in it is open-source {unlike some distributions *cough* SUSE *cough*} and there is a real emphasis on community members helping one another with their problems.

Re:This is a strength!

[ajs318]

-Standard packaging system (no more .rpm, .deb. .tgz... just one type)

There is one package standard: source .tar.gz. Everything else is a more or less ugly hack to try to fit one particular idea of how Linux should be set up. Today's typical hardware is generally up to the job of compiling things from source -- that may not have been the case a few years ago. With auto-detecting configuration scripts and good use of environment variables, it should be possible to adapt to many different setups. Pre-compiled binary packages save time auto-detecting system setup, by making certain assumptions; but the assumptions differ between distributions, so SUSE RPMs may not work properly on Fedora or Mandrake.

Compiling everything from source has traditionally been a ball-ache. If someone can find a way to alleviate that, then they could be on to a winner; but I get the feeling that the market for a user-friendly but source-based distribution will be very fragmentated at first.

Re:My experience with Mandrake

[burbs]

Gah, that commentary is so overused. Were did you resurrect that from?? It always seems to resurface whenever Mandrake announces a new distro.

Mandrake....It just works.

[bigdadro]

Mandrake is the best desktop distro I have encountered. The installer is tight and hardware support is excellent. I installed 9.2 and everything worked even my cheap TV Tuner card. KDE ran perfect. I run debian on my servers and love love it for that but it just doesn't compete on the desktop. People shouldn't have to fiddle and diddle for three hours just do get their video card to work under X. I use a computer to accomplish work. Why the hell should I waste time getting it to work?

I'd imagine 10.0 will be a step even further in the right direction. Mandrake is leading the way in the desktop linux environment. This is good for other distros because it raises the bar.

Slightly OT OOo Speed

[HawkEye4077]

As you were complaining about OOo speed ( I assume boot up) I thought I'd share this that I found on a newsgroup the other day. "make sure OOo is not running, open your favourite file manager and navigate to ~/openoffice/user/psprint and delete the pspfontcache file. Now start up OOo and immediately shut it down again. You should see a new pspfontcache file. Make this file read-only, either using your file manager or with the command line: chmod -w ~/openoffice/user/psprint/pspfontcache" Hope this helps Neil

Re:The All New Mandrake 10!

[yamla]

I agree with what you are saying. What I'm about to say is not a contradiction, I am simply explaining why I use Mandrake.

By most counts, I'm a power Linux user. I first installed Linux on a system back in 1994. I've contributed a kernel patch. I have installed at least five distributions, two of which are Gentoo and Linux From Scratch.

In the end, both for my home computer and my work computer (where I develop Linux and Windows software), I settled for Mandrake. I got tired of having to deal with config files and having to install drivers when I plug in new hardware. Mandrake handles this all pretty seemlessly for me, moreso in fact than Windows does. These days (though this was less true in the past), the software packaged with Mandrake is fairly recent and quite stable. That said, I did install KDevelop 3.0.1 from source rather than from Mandrake's packages.

I still run Debian for my email/web server at home. In fact, I really like Debian. Its dependency resolution still has everything else beaten. But it doesn't offer such features as the Mandrake Control Center and other such happy Mandrake tools. As a result, I'm quite happy with my Mandrake installations, at least for desktop and workstation systems.

A friend of mine pointed out that he switched operating systems (to OS X, in his case) because he wants something that just works. He doesn't want to spend time reformatting, reinstalling, and dealing with configuration files, at least no more than is absolutely necessary. I find Mandrake offers me this now and that is why I use it.

Re:The All New Mandrake 10!

[DFJA]

It would be 60% if the survey was of readers of Linux Format, as they put all the major Mandrake releases on their cover disks. This was how I got my first Linux distro (Mandrake 9.1) and although I'm not currently using it (my old PC was _very_ slow and took about 10 minutes to boot Mandrake!) I'll probably try Mandrake 10.0 as I was impressed with the 31/12/03 Cooker snapshot that I installed. They do an excellent job of bringing in newbies (who are of course tomorrows gurus) by aiming at the less technically experienced.

Long live Mandrake!!!

Re:Mandrake is back in managerial trouble

[Choron]

What kind of link do you have then, trolly ? I'm getting 178 kB/s. right now (on my 24 Mbps ADSL link), and I just began downloading 30 minutes ago. That looks quite good to me, only 3 hours to go and CDs are go !