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Mandriva Businesses Linux Business

Mandrake 9.2 RC1 355

Posted by timothy from the speed-up-the-slowdown dept.
RabidChipmunk writes "Mandrake 9.2RC1 is out. Go get it with bit-torrent and speed up my download. I like the idea that posting to Slashdot could actually speed up a download. It seems so wrong." If you're on a slow pipe, don't underestimate the throughput of the postal system. Mark Walker writes "Mandrake Linux 9.2 RC1 is appearing on mirrors as I type this. We're currently downloading it from Mandrake, for http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com."
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Mandrake 9.2 RC1 More

Mandrake 9.2 RC1

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  • Message from http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com (Score:5, Funny)

    by mattrix2k ( 632351 ) * on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:25PM (#6806897)
    The following message was presented by http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com for all your budget linux cds!

    "Mandrake Linux 9.2 RC1 is appearing on mirrors as I type this. We're currently downloading it from Mandrake, for http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com."
    I'm sorry, but this is a blatant advert. Why did the editors include that?
    --matt from http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com

    Go to http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com
    Thats right folks, http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com
    Don't forget, http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com
    • It's ok. They'll be /.'d to hell and learn not to advertise here.

    • Re:Message from http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JTunny ( 653851 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:41PM (#6807044) Homepage

      Not everybody is on broadband and not all advertising is evil.

      If I was on a slow connection, $2 a CD [budgetlinuxcds.com] would seem an absolute bargain/life-saver.

      • ...not all advertising is evil...

        What you say?!

      • It is... (Score:5, Informative)

        by siskbc ( 598067 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:03PM (#6807242) Homepage
        Not everybody is on broadband and not all advertising is evil.

        ...when it's masquerading as journalism.

        • Not at all. If Intel releases a new chip and someone prints their press release, that's news. The news is that there's a new product, features - according to the manufacturer as follows, that I should be informed of. Or, if you wish to see it this way, it's news that Intel thinks it's got a newsworthy product.

          This Slashdot article said "Mandrake is 9.2rc1 is out! If you wish to get it without downloading, we're happy to provide that service." Both parts of that are news. That mandrake 9.2rc1 is out is news

          • No, it's an ad. (Score:3, Insightful)

            by siskbc ( 598067 )
            Not at all. If Intel releases a new chip and someone prints their press release, that's news.

            Journalists tend not to blindly run press releases. Even then, they're clearly tagged. This one wasn't.

            Or, if you wish to see it this way, it's news that Intel thinks it's got a newsworthy product.

            By that incredibly low standard, there's no commercial that's *not* news. So it defeats the purpose of having a disctinction. I'm not buying it.

            That mandrake 9.2rc1 is out is news, and that there's a company th

      • But all dialup is evil. Sometimes those of us in Canada (or those in South Korea) need to get reminded that there are still people who have to use dialup... I bet that it would also shock some that there are people who (hold on to your hats) choose to us dialup.

        *shudder*

    • Buy Direct (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I can't say I like these leech-cd companies very much. Even when they donate to the projects, it's still at the cost of a direct lost sale that would have supported them a lot more.

      If you care enough about a project to want it on a professionally replicated CD, you should at least be willing to buy it from an official outlet.

      Signed,
      An Official Outlet

      • Re:Buy Direct (Score:3, Interesting)

        by WNight ( 23683 )
        There's a big difference between paying $2 for convenience and paying $49.95 for a boxed set of a distro I may just be vaugely interested in.

        I use Debian and Mandrake enough to warrant paying them something, the rest of the distros I try out, but it's just to see what they have to offer. If I buy a CD they get paid something, maybe $.25, and don't pay for the gig or two of bandwidth. If I download it they get paid nothing unless I really like it, and have to pay for my bandwidth.

        I think these cheap-CD pla

    • How is it any more an advert than the main story itself, which is an advert for Mandrake?

      Slashdot frequently runs stories about new products of interest, from gadgets to applications. Both Mandrake's new release, and budgetlinuxcds copies of it fall into this category

    • Never underestimate the bandwidth of three CDRoms sent via snail mail.

  • is this an advertisement? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dnotj ( 633262 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:26PM (#6806906) Homepage
    No content in the links....just a link to the .tor's and some cd seller. Hello editors?

    • Re:is this an advertisement? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:28PM (#6806934)
      Seriously. What are we supposed to talk about in this thread?

      • easy (Score:5, Funny)

        by SweetAndSourJesus ( 555410 ) <JesusAndTheRobot&yahoo,com> on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:38PM (#6807019)
        We're supposed to bitch endlessly about how this is an advertisement.

        Discuss amongst yourselves.
      • I think we're supposed to sit back, laugh at, and talk about the bit torrent downloaders because most of them will finish downloading about the same time as the cheap cd would arrive...
      • Mandrake Linux 9.2 Beta information page. Beta 2

        We would like to thank all those who are already contributing to the beta testing process and we invite everyone to participate in 9.2's development. To make sure testing the next Mandrake is a pleasing experience, Beta 2 include new versions of software.

        Corrections from beta1 include:

        • Rpmdrake now functional
        • Upgrade from former versions now fully handled
        • New windows are now conveniently centered

        Urpmi and rpmdrake still complain about missing key. Th

        • Not a 9.2 review, but a recent experience with Mandrake...

          I installed 9.1 over the weekend. Yesterday a big storm hit and the machine shut down without a hint of grace once my UPS ran out.

          I booted it up, and my ext3 partition was missing all sorts of files. This surprised the hell out of me, because I've never seen a filesystem actually lose files it wasn't currently altering during a power failure.

          Maybe Mandrake 9.2 will come with "NOW, %50 FASTER FILE LOSS" feature ;)

          Yes, I know it's not Mandrake's
          • I usually like XFS, but its not really a good idea without a UPS and unattended shutdown (why wouldn't you have that if you are on a UPS? try apcupsd), but I think the same comment goes for ReiserFS. You were probably only doing metadata journalling.

            If you aren't using that UPS time to shut down the machine cleanly, a journalling filesystem that only journals metadata isn't going to do you a hell of a lot of good.

            • Yes, I'll give apcupsd a look, I was planning on hooking up their USB control cable, but hadn't gotten around to it.

              But you still havn't answered my other question:

              Why would ANY filesystem, provided it's not currently being altered, lose files JUST BECAUSE you did a non-graceful shutdown? In concept, you should only lose uncompleted cached writes and writes in progress, correct?

              Can you explain it with anything other than "must be a bug"?

  • reviews? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sujan ( 464326 )
    are there any previews of this? Screenshots?

    Used mandrake few years ago, it was too bloated for my taste but I'd recommend it to anyone willing to try linux.
    • Mandrake is still fairly big if you do a default install, but it's nicely integrated and comfortable. I prefer redhat, but that's just cuz I run a minimal machine (firbird,openoffice,netbeans and perl stuff)

  • If you're downloading torrents on Windows (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Try the Burst! [dyndns.org] client. It is great.

  • RC1 ?? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AftanGustur ( 7715 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:29PM (#6806943) Homepage


    RC1 = Release Candidate #1

    Usually followed by RC2 etc ...

    I know Mandrake absolutely rocks, but isn't this a bit to much, making a /. story out of the first RC ??

    • I also am outraged! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Bistronaut ( 267467 ) * on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:43PM (#6807061) Homepage Journal
      If the /. editors keep this up, Slashdot will loose its reputation for only reporting on important social issues and touching human-interest stories!
    • Mandrake is probably the most-used distro by people on Slashdot (the single most, not that over 50% of the Linux users use it) so this is directly relevant to many people on here.

      There's also the issue of getting the pre-release versions tested. If these things don't hit Slashdot, fewer people will know and thus fewer people will test.

  • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by toupsie ( 88295 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:29PM (#6806945) Homepage
    What's new with Mandrake in this release? I didn't see anything in the story brief and I am too lazy to search for the info. I don't follow this distro (Im a RedHat user) but I would like to know what warrants a RC release story on the front of Slashdot. Is there some sort of whizbang feature that I don't know I need to have? Enlighten me!

    • Changelog (Score:5, Informative)

      by nstrom ( 152310 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:33PM (#6806980)
      Changelog is here: http://www3.mandrakelinux.com/en/92beta.php3 [mandrakelinux.com]

      Corrections from beta1 include:

      - Rpmdrake now functional
      - Upgrade from former versions now fully handled
      - New windows are now conveniently centered

      Urpmi and rpmdrake still complain about missing key. This issue should be fixed in the next beta.

      Improvements:

      - First version of Netprofile, the new network profiles manager designed for users who connect to multiple networks. Feedback is highly requested for this newly introduced feature.
      - Complete rewrite of userdrake (user management) in Gtk2
      - New bootsplash (graphical boot) with graphical design not completed
      - Improved localization
      - New font support for Indian
      - Enhanced drakTermServ (terminal server configurator).

      New software versions:

      - KDE 3.1.3
      - GNOME 2.3.5
      - Evolution 1.4.4
      - Openldap 2.1.22
      - kerberos5 1.3

    • I would like to know what warrants a RC release story on the front of Slashdot.

      I'd say the rationale of announcing a first RC is along the lines of letting people who use Mandrake know they should start going out to test it, because the next release is almost ready.

      The more -RC testers, the more system configurations it gets tested on, the more bugs reported (and hopefully fixed!) prior to release. I think Slashdot is doing its job nicely by reporting this.

      Usinng Mandrake myself, I'll be happy just

    • Many in the Mandrake community help by sending in bug reports during the RC process. It's important that we know when this process begins.

      I for one appreciate this story.

      • Many in the Mandrake community help by sending in bug reports during the RC process. It's important that we know when this process begins. I for one appreciate this story. If you are in the "Mandrake community" why would you need Slashdot to inform you of the release. I assume you would follow their website, forums, mailing lists, etc.

        I wasn't "dissin'" Mandrake, I was curious why an RC was a good story for the homepage of Slashdot. I was hoping that it was something really cool they failed to mention i

        • "If you are in the "Mandrake community" why would you need Slashdot to inform you of the release. I assume you would follow their website, forums, mailing lists, etc."

          I, like most people, split my time among many projects etc. I don't live and breath Mandrake but I use it. I am still part of the community and participate in the RC process.

          This /. article was the first that I knew of the start of the RC process and I am therefore glad that they ran it.

          "I wasn't "dissin'" Mandrake, I was curious why an R
    • All I know is, I just downloaded Beta 2, and burned the cds...and then they come out with RC1. Sheesh. I didn't even have time to install it! They release very fast. It's cool though, I'd rather have fast releases than vapor-releases.

      Also, Mandrake is probably the easiest for Linux Newbs, so it's always good to see new developments. I don't know if it warrants slashdot frontpage, but hey, it's a slow news day =)

    • I would like to know what warrants a RC release story on the front of Slashdot.

      There is no SCO news today, and Slashdot is trying to provoke some crazy press release about Linux RCs from the Stolen Code Organization.

  • Please join the mandrake club. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HanzoSan ( 251665 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:30PM (#6806949) Homepage Journal

    Dont just "steal" Linux, join the club and help pay for development of future versions of Linux Mandrake.

    This company is in serious financial trouble right now and they NEED our help, so if you download and like Mandrake please join the club! By joining the club you are helping yourself, you are going to get better higher quality software so consider it an investment in your own future.

    • Pay for what you use (Score:5, Interesting)

      by nuggz ( 69912 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:43PM (#6807065) Homepage
      Yes if you want to support Mandrake give them money.

      But if you want to support the various apps and projects give them money directly.

      I think the work done on gnome, kde and X are more likey important to a typical user.
      If you want that to improve put your money there, not on the guys making a distribution.

      • Re:Pay for what you use (Score:5, Informative)

        by slux ( 632202 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:33PM (#6807472)
        Mandrake develops many GUI administration tools under the DrakXtools. I personally haven't seen anything that matches them in any other distribution except SuSe, but Yast2 isn't free software like all the tools Mandrake has developed (they are under the GNU GPL).

        All their documentation is also under the GNU FDL.

        And lastly, distributions often contribute directly to projects so when you're paying to Mandrake, you're also paying the salaries of some developers working on the various major free software projects. I don't think Mandrake has any "big" names like Red Hat (Alan Cox) or Conectiva (Marcelo Tosati) for example but they do some important work just like all the other popular distributions.

      • I think the work done on gnome, kde and X are more likey important to a typical user.
        If you want that to improve put your money there, not on the guys making a distribution.

        Distribution vendors need money too you know. All those great administration tools that Mandrake developed cost them money. As did all of the integration work.

        Of course, if you insist that distribution vendors don't deserve support as much as the application developers, you are welcome to invest in only applications. But let's see yo

    • Re:Please join the mandrake club. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rude Turnip ( 49495 ) <valuationNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:53PM (#6807167)
      Please don't use the term "steal Linux," as it implies that anyone who potentially downloads it is a thief. It is very insulting and moreover an incorrect term to use in this context. "Freeload" would be a more apppropriate term. Even then, the company knew what it was getting into when it decided to try and sell a product that could be given away freely, so a "freeloader" in the traditional sense it not necessarily abusing the system.

      That said, I've purchased two Mandrake retail products (@ USD70 each) in the last couple years. I'm not very social and clubs are too touchy-feely for me.

    • Re:Please join the mandrake club. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Vann_v2 ( 213760 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @03:04PM (#6807752) Homepage
      Why should I join the Mandrake club? It provides nothing I want and would amount to nothing but a donation for me. If you want people to donate to Mandrake, shut up about this "stealing" nonsense and say, "Please give money to Mandrake." And I mean "give" in the strictest sense.

      I refuse to pay for goods or services that aren't worth their cost.

  • Good news for Mandrake users. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Meat Blaster ( 578650 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:30PM (#6806950)
    It was one of the distributions I tried after deciding to move off of Slackware a couple of years ago. Looked like it would be nice and simple for people who were just starting out with Linux but didn't really want to learn that much about it, but unfortunately all that only gets in the way when you're actually trying to do something meaningful with your installation. Lots and lots of stuff in the commercial pack to play around with if that's your bag, though.

    I have to say that after trying all of them (Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo) that only Gentoo really seemed to be a power-user distribution. Course that means you spend more time fixing than getting done, but boy is it fast once you get the system up and running.

    • "Only Gentoo"??? But you used to use Slackware! Ooh, I'm telling Bob Dobbs!

      But, seriously, though...

      Don't you think that Slackware is as close to a pure-geek Linux as you can get? Small, clean, up to date, low memory and disk requirements, fast as hell... I haven't tried Gentoo, but leaving Slackware out seems kinda harsh, doesn't it?

      Come on, man... Show some slack! ;)

      • I believe that our good friend Meat Blaster was talking about distroshe tried after making the decision to move away from the aging Slackware. Your description of Slackware applies to Gentoo as well; Gentoo just makes things slicker with the portage system. You set up your compiler flags, and just run emerge on the package to grab up-to-date source and compile it optimized for your machine. It even requires you to build and configure your own kernel, which can be fun if you have extra time on your hands.

    • Re:Good news for Mandrake users. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mickwd ( 196449 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:10PM (#6807295)
      "Looked like it would be nice and simple for people who were just starting out with Linux.....but unfortunately all that only gets in the way when you're actually trying to do something meaningful with your installation."

      Eh?

      You're not compelled to use all of Mandrake's GUI and command-line tools all the time. If you find the GUI tools restrictive, then use the normal vi/emacs/iptables/ifconfig/whatever...... provided in exactly the same manner as on every other Linux distribution.

      Mandrake's tools are provided in addition to the standard unix/GNU/Linux utilities - not instead of them.

    • Tired of hearing this nice and simple line... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by msimm ( 580077 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:25PM (#6807400) Homepage
      I don't get these types of posts. First its as if there's a presumption that Linux should be hard to use in order to be taken seriously. Then there seems to be the insinuation that because its easy(er) to use its somehow lost the 'power' of other less user friendly distributions.

      I'd be curious to hear what exactly are the lacking features? I've been using Linux since 1998 and tried quite a few distro's before deciding on Mandrake (Redhat, Debian, Caldera *long before SCO*, FreeBSD, Gentoo, etc). They all function basically the same. My desktop has always been Blackbox, bash is set and gcc is standard.

      If your don't like Mandrakes configuration tools you've got all the standard tools: XFree86configuration, Netconf, Vi. I'm not sure of a single package that you can get on another distro that you can't on Mandrake and you can certainly compile anything else you'd like.

      To me Mandrake is simple a better thought out distribution, but with all the flexibility of a Linux distribution it can be as full featured or as limited as you'd like.
      • I've used Mandrake a few years before I switched to Gentoo, and I liked it in many ways. What i didn't like was the way they moved things around and put in 'mdk' directories, so you didn't know where to find things.

        If you're like me and like to edit the conf files by hand, so you see how they're made and what options you have, this quickly becomes a nuisance.

        Also, I felt that because they moved stuff around, many HOWTO:s became much harder to follow (at least when I was a relative noob, which is where you

        • I'd have to say (as you've mentioned) just about all distro's are/have been guilty of this. I'd hope the LSB has adressed that, but I don't honestly know (I've been on since 7.2 and since 8.0 pretty much solely). I can say I've been using Redhat on a (remote) dedicated server and haven't had any trouble finding everything where I expect it and I have been doing a good deal of configuration by hand (ssh, no X, with Pico).

    • Re:Good news for Mandrake users. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by deathcow ( 455995 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:30PM (#6807451)

      Without a lot of experience with various distributions I cannot agree or disagree, but I can say this:

      We are using Mandrake 9.1 to push (finally) into some Linux installs at work in a classically Windows only environment. Overall, it has been a success.

      We have two basic flavors of machines we build with Mandrake 9.1: "surveillance" boxes, and LAMP servers.

      Surveillance boxes have 6 to 8 LCD monitors and are running icewm, or KDE (not decided yet), with Xinerama enabled. These boxes are replacing Windows NT machines that used Exceed to run X applications. Now they natively run on the Xfree86 server, and they work great with Xinerama and all those monitors. POW! No more Windows licenses! POW! No more Exceed licenses! These boxes use a single (AGP) Matrox G550 running two heads, and then four to six (PIC) TNT2 cards to bring the machine up to six or eight monitors total. These machines are appliance like, if one dropped, we build another to replace it, lickety split.

      Our LAMP servers are more simple.. built in (single head) motherboard video, networking, and a single IDE hard drive. Cron'd rsyncs back up our data off the LAMP servers and onto another Linux box for "up to the hour" protection.

      Installing Mandrake is interesting! You can do the same sequence of events on different motherboard types, and end up with different packages installed on the machine. (I kid you not.) "Ummm, no rsh this time!" etc. So, we have carefully written installation procedures which also check that every package we use was installed, and install if it not.

      Overall, I've got to give Mandrake Installer a B+ or A-, it does work, it's fast. Just gotta watch which packages get put on. By the way, we dont let Mandrake install the LAMP stuff, we do that manually after the machine is up and running.

    • According to tests Slashdot has posted here before, Gentoo is no faster than other distros. The important thing to compile is the kernel. Everything else doesn't matter all that much.

  • If you'd bothered looking on Mandrake's website... (Score:4, Funny)

    by adrianbaugh ( 696007 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:31PM (#6806961) Homepage Journal
    This has been out for ages. I would have played with it over a week ago but I couldn't face grabbing ISOs over a 56k line :-) Actually, I'd just be finishing about now...

  • Mandrake is my best friend - at home (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Goyuix ( 698012 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:32PM (#6806969) Homepage
    So for home use - Mandrake has always been the sweet spot - excellent NTFS support out of the box as well just generally very user friendly interface... not the heavyweight server backend that other distros are... My 2 cents...

  • A question.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dutchmaan ( 442553 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @01:40PM (#6807036) Homepage
    So what does this story have to do with Apple!?

    If you guys are gonna run a mac site you need to run Apple stories!

    (for the humor impaired, that was tongue in cheek)

    • Re:A question.. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by slux ( 632202 )
      Mandrake is also available for Macs (LinuxPPC), isn't it? ;)

      You see, there's still an Apple connection! They probably should've mentioned in the story to avoid confusion though, but you know how the Slashdot editors are.

      Now just hold your breath to see if the next one is also a Mac story.
    • well, i was gonna start it, but i'll follow this comedy with a serious question.

      there have now been (at least) 2 non-releases of Mandrake 9.2 for x68. I can't seem to locate the PPC ISOs. There are only two possibilities.. they are unable to respond, they are unwilling to respond.. sorry.. damnit.

      1. there are none because they are not doing these pre-release releases for PPC
      2. I'm a total choad and i'm just missing it.

      I loved Mandrake on my POS AMD k2-500.. but my brother in law needed a machine, so
  • From news.com.com

    Linkage [com.com]

    Looks like they have ACPI support!

  • Linux Mandrake (Score:2, Informative)

    by Solosoft ( 622322 )
    The last time I tried linux mandrake was the 8.0 series back when I just got linux. I guess I can't really be off topic since there is _no_ topic.
    The one thing I did like about mandrake is the usablity. I found it easy and "fun" if you would call it to use. Now I ran it on a 166MMX with 128mb of RAM. Memory wise mandrake wasn't too bad, but CPU wise the system would just sit there almost "frozen" at 100% CPU forever. Then when I installed 9.0 it was so bad I gave up and tried Debian. When I did this I was
    • Just because a distro has KDE and 100 services, doens't mean you should start them all on your 166MMX.

      In general, no distro is faster or more bloated than any other (some compile with fewer features, and thus may have a slight edge, until you need the feature ..), you could have tried a minimal Mandrake install and done your configuration manually, and been up and running in under a day ...
  • suspicious.

    plus I just downloaded beta2 and am about to burn the iso's. ffs.

  • maybe they paid slashdot to post the story? (Score:4, Funny)

    by joeldg ( 518249 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:19PM (#6807361) Homepage
    with the blatant advert in that post I am wondering if they paid for the post?

    Hrm.. that might be a new marketing angle from slashdot..

    News for nerds, stuff that people paid 'us' for 'you' to look at.

  • is mandrake still viable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by b17bmbr ( 608864 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:45PM (#6807580)
    i have used drake since 7.0. i have bought 7.0, 7.2, 8.0, and 9.0 so feel that leeching an iso or two is not horrible. however, are they still viable? i love it. i can just use it like a mind numbed idiot, or use it like a geek, and not have to worry. and urpmi is awesome. but with RH snarfing up most of the server biz, and suse seeming to get most of the rest of the press, is drake commercially viable. deb, gentoo, slack will always be around. but their not "commercial" distros. drake does such great jobs with their wizards and hardware, but is investing time and effort into drake pissing into the wind. i hope not, since i've used drke for years. but...
    • Well, 9.1 was good. I had a few bad experiences between the 7.x series and 9.1, but no problems with 9.1. I think they've got QA under controll again.

      It was probably the fiscal problem that their "aggressive management" got them into that caused the technical problems, and the signs are that they're on their way back up.
    • I'm a Mandrake Club member to help support the cause. Even if Mandrake goes under I don't think it's a waste. Their apps (AFAIK all of them) are open source. Anyone can keep the core distro going. It's the commercial apps that might have to be dropped because they're kept in the distro by Mandrake's purchases of licenses. But all the good stuff is open. So paying their developers pays for things the community can support later.

  • If I try it, will I like it? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ewanrg ( 446949 ) <ewan.granthamNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @02:51PM (#6807636) Homepage
    Tried the distribution some time ago. Seeing that a new one is out, I'm tempted to give it a run. But will it work in my situation:

    Could someone review the following and tell me which pieces are going to be problematic (or impossible):
    Computer: Compaq Presario 1720US Laptop (PIII 1 GhZ, 384 Meg RAM, 60 Gig HD, ATI Radeon Mobility Video, Built-in DVD/CD-RW)
    Attached Ethernet (Wired) to a Windows machine without monitor (need some way to run that in a virtual console)
    Attached Linksys Wireless Card (11b) in PC Card slot which is the only Internet connection
    Attached Firewire HD (LaCie 360 Gig)
    Attached Firewire DVD Burner (4xDVD-R)
    Attached TV via S-Video TV/Out
    Shared Printer/Scanner - Lexmark X75 PrinTrio

    So, is this going to be a worthwhile investment of my time, or is some/most of the above going to stop working? While I'd like to get off my MS Habit, I have this need to use most of the above that keeps pulling me back :-)

    • have you tried any of the live cd distros(most notably knoppix)?

      knoppix can work quite well as a 'will linux work on it it' test(though, i could guess there would be situations where it fails while it is still possible to get linux running on it easily, and some features might need some tinkering like tv-out..) but it's so easy to test it doesn't matter all that much, just burn and boot.

    • Re:If I try it, will I like it? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by catenos ( 36989 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @07:21PM (#6809588)
      So, is this going to be a worthwhile investment of my time, or is some/most of the above going to stop working? While I'd like to get off my MS Habit, I have this need to use most of the above that keeps pulling me back :-)

      If you "just" want to give it a try, please, PLEASE, don't install the RC, but wait until the final release is made. Even better, wait some weeks (2-3) after final release for the most important glitches to be known and read the errata before you are going to install.

      The RCs aren't for "newcomers" to try out. They for are testing and bug fixing by people willing investing the time to do so.

      But if you want to get the best chance that the final will support as much as possible on your notebook and you are willing to invest some time, then by all means, install it, test everything that matters to you and report any bugs you find (but be sure to look beforehand if the bug is already known).

      So, whether the investment of your time is worthwhile depends on your view. If you are not willing, are not interested or simply don't have the time for testing/bug reporting, the RC isn't for you. Well, it wasn't ever meant for you.

      Else, now is the time to get involved before it is too late (for getting any updates in before the freeze gets to freezy - they are already in version freeze).

  • Good News (Score:4, Informative)

    by pastpolls ( 585509 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @03:29PM (#6808002)
    As a casual linux user I like Mandrake. It supports everything on my laptop (including my Sony R505 - IEEE1394 DVD-ROM drive) right out of the box. It is great for anyone who is thinking of moving to Linux but does not know where to start (or have time dealing with compatibility issues that can pop-up). We all know it is bloated, but I don't have the time to work some of the other compatibility challenged distros.

    For now I cannot go to linux all the way because of what I do for a living (anyone want to talk to Avid about porting XpressDV to linux), but I love it for all of my "office work" and emailing. I will give RC2 a try, and I support Mandrake as a company. To me they are they closest to "Linux on the Desktop". They support the latest packages and builds along with good hardware support. Last Friday I had over 300 SoBig.F viruses in my inbox before I got a chance to filter it out with my host's email server configurator (hosting service thing). I did not fear downloading them at all. I pop-ed them, then trashed them, while my co-worked was freaking out trying not to get infected... can't beat that with a stick, thanks Linux... Mandrake made this possible for me.

  • ISO install == waste of CD+time (Score:5, Informative)

    by Merlin_80000 ( 529027 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @03:36PM (#6808084) Homepage Journal
    personally, I almost never burn a CD anymore for linux installers.....too much hassle. its much easier to me to create the network install floppy and pick a mirror(now a torrent-based install floppy would be uber-cool) the most complicated thing about this is writing down the server host name and the URL that contains the RPMs. once that's done, you begin the normal install process and you're only downloading exactly what you need in order to get a proper installation. creating the floppy is easy, just download the images/network.img (pcmcia.img for laptops) and use dd (winrawrite for windows) to create the boot floppy this is a very old practice, I know. but I'm mostly writing for those who don't. so conserve plastic/aluminum, bandwidth, and time and use the network install instead

  • Supporting Mandrake (Score:2, Informative)

    by Artifakt ( 700173 )
    Mandrake added native support for dual monitors in their 9.0 series distro. (9.1 if memory serves). Even if you don't use Mandrake Linux, that's a selling point to encourage that 5% of MS Windows home users that have multiple monitors to try Linux. Since these are some of the most techno-literate of MS users, a higher than avarage percent will probably listen - this is a place where Linux can win market share.

  • A MANDRAKE HOWTO The Complete Step-by-Step Gui (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mandrakewilson ( 686178 ) on Wednesday August 27, 2003 @10:28PM (#6810625) Homepage
    New web site up on how to set up mandrake 9.1 to ease the configuration pains of the new linux user. Written and catered for the moderate computer user. It covers how to get and install mandrake and add in most of the needed applications. Covers most of the major software included in the distribution, other freely available applications, newbie command line tutorial, how to handle some common and annoying bugs peculiar to each application.

    PART I [cjb.net]
    1. Introduction
    2. Indispensable Tools for the Linux User
    3. Useful links

    PART II - Mandrake Installation [cjb.net]
    1. Getting Mandrake 9.1
    2. Installing Mandrake 9.1
    3. Going through the install sequence
    4. Using Mandrake
    5. Nice things to add easily
    6. Configuration with Mandrake Control Center
    7. Configuration with Gnome Control Center
    8. Important Configuration of Menus and MIME Types
    9. More Advanced Configuration

    PART III - Linux Shell and Apps [cjb.net]
    1. Navigating around terminal
    2. Shells -- bash, csh, rsh, sh
    3. Environments and Paths
    4. File Permissions
    5. Editing files
    6. Linking
    7. Finding Files
    8. Using grep
    9. Basic bash scripts knowledge
    10. Running Remote X applications
    11. Mounting Remote File Systems
    12. Language setup for man pages
    13. Handling Print Jobs

    PART IV - Software Packages [cjb.net]
    1. What are packages?
    2. Specifying Sources For Online Downloading - Mandrake Mirrors, Texstar, PLF
    3. Packages to be installed from Mandrake CDs - Mesa, mplayer, Timidity, pan, gaim, mozplugger
    4. Packages to install from Texstar - Macromedia Flash, nano, Real Player
    5. Mplayer and Codecs
    6. Other essential packages- Open Office, Sun Java, Adobe Acrobat 5, BitTorrent
    7. Setting up SMB share for Windows
    8. Using vncserver for remote desktop applications
    9. File Sharing - p2p networks - Limewire, edonkey, lmule
    10. Running M$ Office under Linux.
    11. Games - SNES, MAME, WineX

    PART V - Advanced FAQ [cjb.net]
    1. How do I get DRI 3D acceleration to work?
    2. Mandrake Fonts Deuglification and Anti-aliasing
    3. Email Clients and Web Browsers (Handling mailto: and http:)
    4. Full Mozilla Plugins Configuration (Quicktime, Java, Flash, Mplayer)
    5. Konquerer Plugins Configuration
    6. X Windows xmatrix screensaver
    7. How to adjust the sound volume permanently

    This HOWTO is my first contribution to the linux user community, and since I have found documentation sorely lacking for the total newbie, I have decided to write one myself. It is based on my experience in the past month trying to install everything from scratch. This HOWTO will be short, brief and to the point. Further information can be found in documentations on other websites, this one is just for the impatient, and users who want to reduce their startup time. Why Mandrake? Firstly, it is easy-to-install, and the first distribution that I've tried that has come very close to the ease-of-use of windows. If you can install and customize windows, you will not have much trouble with the Linux installation. Who is this HOWTO written for? This document is meant for the average user who is at least accustomed to tweaking and customizing their own OS. It will definitely not be a tutorial on how to point and click or use GUI interfaces.

  • Since such blatant advertising is now allowed... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by davmoo ( 63521 ) on Thursday August 28, 2003 @01:13AM (#6811334)
    ...I'm sure that the powers that be at Slashdot will not mind it at all if I mention that I have also been making discs of the betas available for sale at http://www.getlinuxcheap.us [getlinuxcheap.us].

    In reality, I highly object to such blatant advertising disguised as a supposed "news" story. But I'm posting my url here because, simply stated, if Slashdot sees nothing wrong with plugging that site, then as a loyal Slashdot member for many years I expect to be accorded the same treatment.

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