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Come on...
It's just history repeating:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/mdkfuture.php3
Selling some extra workstations won't help much - is just a drop in the sea.

I think IBM asked Novell to buy SuSE in order to prevent Red Hat from becoming a sole provider of enterprise Linux (IBM couldn't have done that directly so they had to act thru a proxy).
Aparently that wasn't enough as (it seems to me) SuSE is not doing much better than before. They have solid but not very exciting products (think Benz).

Even Red Hat is slowing down (fewer new subscriptions (128K vs 132K in the same quarter last year, IIRC)). I wonder if the whole model of selling support and services is as scalable as Red Hat and Novell would want us to believe.

Budget limitations being what they are, we had to go with bottom of the line Dells (2.2GHz Celerons, 256M , 20G, internal Broadcom Wifi)....Initially, of course, I wanted to run Linux, but after 25-30 hours of various misconfigurations, I gave up, reinstalled XP Home, and everything just works.

Unless your time is worthless you would have been better off putting some money into a decent laptop with a wireless card from a vendor that doesn't solely provide windows-binary drivers and no specs as Broadcom does. Especially if linux was the goal of the hardware.

It's hard to buy hardware with no linux support from a linux-hostile vendor and be surprised when linux is hard to get working.

I've heard good things about IBM and Toshiba laptops, though I use an Apple myself (who unfortunately uses Broadcom in their newest wireless cards). Mandrake and Redhat have searchable databases if you want actual recommendations.

For the definiton of active that means "hasn't had a release in a year and a half"? This fixes that latest major release at 11 April 03.

Do yourself a favor, run Linux or get a Mac

Easy. He might be after this nasty little one

I just did a raw install of MDK 10 official last week (I'm a silver member) on my work laptop since I get so frustrated using windows I want to hit things.

Anyways, I was at a conference and borrowed an Orinoco wireless card, slammed it in the side and powered up the laptop. It detected a new wireless card, asked me for SSID type stuff and came right up.

Mandrake also supports hotplugging of network interfaces, so if there's no carrier on your built-in-ethernet it doesn't try to bring it up.

As for the dlink card, you might want to check here and see if they list it.

good luck

http://fedora.redhat.com
http://www.gentoo.org
http://www.debian.org
http://www.linux-mandrake.com
http://www.slackware.com

Linux is great because it's free

Mandrake is free as in beer? In fact its the only polished commercial distro that is and I give them huge props for doing that (and dollars because I believe good free software is worth money). I'm not knocking any of the distro's your mentioning, but you need to get your facts striaght before bad mouthing a (rare) honest distro.

But Linux runs just fine on PowerPC?

Do they still develop for PPC? It seems like all we get is gentoo these days.

And Yellow Dog, and Debian, and Slackware, and Mandrake, and SuSE, and...

Ahh, poor Gentoo fanboys, their minds are so narrow. Go back to your silly portage, little boy.

Many, many, MANY users switched to Linux-Mandrake six years ago and have never turned back. Even through all those financial worries.

ssh -l root xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
urpmi win32-codecs

Doh! Its Debian. Helping her find her way around the same disto your using would probably be a lot easier. And not to be preachy (I do a lot of bad things, I'm no preacher) but the fact that Mandrake doesn't only make their distibution available for free, but their software and improvements are free too. That really rules.

Mandrake was the company that made RPM work, via urpmi . Obviously they recognized its weaknesses and made the improvements they believed necessary. That's how open source works and is a fine reason to maintain that respect you mentioned.

Last but not least, all software written by MandrakeSoft is publichsed under the General Public License (GPL).

You can set up a GNOME desktop under Darwin, but it'll be a pain and probably won't work as well as under Linux. Darwin is mostly a development platform and isn't really meant to be user-friendly. Try installing a pre-configured Linux distribution, such as Mandrake or Yellow Dog. It should be much, much easier to set up.

Don't get me wrong. Most of what I know about GNU/Linux I learned on Mandrake. Implying that it's the last of the free software distros is comical though.

The downloadable version is free, as in unencombered. Thats important. I think its also important that as much as we complain here about everything we try to give credit where credit is due. Heres a simple quote from the Mandrake website:

"All improvements and add-ons introduced by MandrakeSoft are published under the General Public License (GPL)."

So I think calling their software free isn't very missleading at all. Including packages with none OSI certified lisences is nothing to crow about when they've made both their distribution and contributed code free.

This is the only company I know of that actually puts its money (and its business model) where its mouth is (and it might even work).

Microsoft Windows(TM) might be able to run on intel emulation, that will allow Microsoft Windows to run on it, but frankly, who cares except Microsoft, Intel, AMD and maybe a few others?

If windows doesn't port to this processor, I am sure some other OS will take over, and everything will be rewritten for that OS. Alternately, you might go with an existing OS easier to port, like Mac OS, NetBSD or GNU/Linux. (URLs in the of this post)

A silly OS and its platform dependence isn't gonna stop development that much.

Kind regards,

/Spam .

URL's for possible alternatives goes here, I am sure I miss a lot of them:

Mac OS:

Mac OSX

GNU/Darwin

NetBSD:

NetBSD

GNU/Linux:

Red Hat GNU/Linux

Debian supports several platforms.

SuSE GNU/Linux

Mandrake GNU/Linux is a distribution from France.

Slackware GNU/Linux is a classic.

Some will charge you for GNU/Linux, and give you support or written manuals, silver-CDs or something in return. I probably missed a lot of links, but to mention some of the commercial distributions I missed, here is a comparison on price.

I've had success installing Mandrake using the network install floppy. Here are some simple instructions, but the gist is that you download the network.img and note the location of a rpm mirror for when it asks you. It downloads a 45mb cramfs image and uncompresses it to memory so you should ideally have 90+mb of ram, or mount a swap partition from one of the other terminals.

I would recommend doing a very minimal install consisting of nothing but GNOME or KDE and any servers you wish to run. Then after the install, use urpmi to install any other packages. With 9.1 I would get lynx and use it to grab a list of mirrors from Easy Urpmi. I recommend using Texstar's repository whenever he starts packaging for 9.2. The page currently only has 9.1 and earlier sources, but expect people pestering him from this link to illicit an update.

I think this is what he's referring to. This certainly sounds like begging to me.

I've chatted to other Mac (being one myself) users and most would be more than happy to move to Linux/x86 without any hesitation, however, they need the likes of Photoshop, Studio MX, Quark etc etc for their day-to-day work.

You really should check out the Mandrake Linux 9.1. Power PC Distribution. It includes support to run Mac Applications on Linux in an X Window at Native Speed.. It's called Mac on Linux and would let you get the big name support you so desire while running Linux on a Mac.

Now, to answer your question, I don't think that the G5 is supported yet by any of the distributions. Just give them some time (Yellow Dog is very diligent when porting to new models, and the rest follow naturally). I may be wrong on this, since IBM plans to use the PPC970 on some of their products and they would probably want to launch them with Linux.

there are a ton of anti-Microsoft people out there who would love to see Microsoft go down in flames, and Linux take its place.

So... exit Microsoft Corp, stage left; enter Linux Corp, stage right? Have I got the picture?

But Linux isn't a corporation; and Linus would happily agree that Linux isn't a person. It has, in its enemies' words, "no centre of gravity", no central bastion to attack. It has no war-chest, no lawyers, no production facilities. If it is distributed from France or Germany, it isn't because of some strategic global plan, it's just where the distributors happened to live.

In short, while you can happily replace MS-Windows with Linux, there is nothing to replace Microsoft itself.

Yeehah! (-:

Redhat
Debian
SuSe
Apple
Linux-Mandrake
Gentoo
FreeBSD

How many times does it have to be said that RPM is not comparable to apt?

RPM is the package format, like dpkg (.deb). You should compare apt on Debian to up2date, Red Carpet, YaST, URPMI or even apt for RPM.

I am tired or Debian or (help us) Gentoo users raving about "RPM hell" out of ignorance. Debian with apt has some nice things going for it, including the amount of software available in "testing" and "unstable" (as compared to what is offered by RedHat through up2date or Ximian through Red Carpet). The same is true of Gentoo and portage. But please, people, give up this tired "RPM hell" argument.

On a Mac, I have:

• Mac OS X (who knew?)
• BSD via Darwin or OpenBSD if you prefer.
• Linux (Suse, Mandrake, Yellow Dog and probably more that I've missed).
• BeOS for PowerPC
• And, of course, good old Virtual PC which, despite being now owned by Microsoft is still a great product, and allows you to run *any* x86-compatible OS on your Mac. And since most of the other OSs you mentioned (OS/2, AtheOS etc) are either old or low-resource, there will be negligible speed hit

In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Mac is the most-compatible platform out there. Personally, I have six different OSs on my Mac right now (Mac OS X, Mac OS 9.1, 9.2.2, Mandrake Linux, Win98 SE and PC-DOS). And that's not even breaking a sweat.

if I could get one that ran Windows or RedHat (or Mandrake) I'd think about it

Slackware is aptly named; it's for people who want things to work simply and without a lot of effort.

Ok, I must be missing something. Every so often I read something like this, and I think, "I'll give Slackware another try, maybe in this new version things work better".

What am I missing? I can't install things easily at all - I have the same stupid problem that I've always had - you want to install package X? You better go download packages Y and Z. Oh, but Z depends on A and B. You have B, but it's not new enough. Can you upgrade it? Maybe. What if C depends on the old B? How do you know? Do you upgrade B or install the newer one along side of the old one?

Confused? So was I, so I never get very far with Slackware. I hated RPM-based distros for this game too, until I found urpmi for Mandrake. Yeah, it comes with it, and it's like apt-get for RPMS. I would have used Debian because it handles all of this too, but I was already used to RPMs and Mandrake, and once I found urpmi, I was set.

What is so appealing about Slackware? Maybe it makes a good server distribution where you keep track of everything you install, and you never install much, so you don't need to worry about this. I just never understood it.

Using Slackware, to me, is like having to think about salivating before you eat, so the food doesn't stick in your throat. Who wants to micro-manage things like that unless it's a mission critical server? (Which may be the only place Slackware makes sense...).

Does anyone have an answer to this?

I have an A7N8X Deluxe and I have Mandrake 9 running just fine on it.

It took a few minutes of searching the web, but the sound fix is on Mandrake's site.

Oh! after a little googling, I found NVidia has mandrake specific drivers that apparently work like a rested engineer.

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_nforce_1.0 -0248

Anyway, here's the patch that worked on my system incase the new NVidia drivers work like a monkey on acid:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/errata.php3#nforc e

Hope this helps.

You can run easily run a powerpc native linux distro. VC is nice to run the occasional windows app or pc video game.

Try debian, gentoo, or if ease of use is important suse and yes mandrake. The only thing Powerpc linux can't do is good java support. I think java 1.1 is still in beta.

You can also use darwin or a rootless X server in MacosX and run unix apps that way. Apple is also working on running aqua and X apps side by side in the next version of MacOSX. Apple will introduce its own X server.

Well, I'm pretty partial to Red Hat.

1) I like RPM. Yes, apt-get is cool, but apt4rpm helps even the odds.

2) I like GNOME - Red Hat is a bit more "tuned" to GNOME.

3) They're well catered-to. They've very popular, so a lot of OSS and commercial projects alike target Red Hat as one of their supported distros.

4) They're sane. I think they tend to make some of the best strategic decisions for Linux, both short term and long term, and it's reflected, for the better, by their distro.

5) Use of spooky, mysterious logo reaffirms my masculinity. Can you REALLY feel like you're the Alpha Male when your distro has a logo like this?

Ummm... Someone should tell these guys:

http://www.linuxppc.org

and these guys ...

http://www.yellowdoglinux.com

and these guys ...

http://fink.sourceforge.net

and these guys ...

http://www.debian.org

and these guys ...

http://www.gentoo.org

and these guys ...

http://www.linux-mandrake.com

Each of them either produces a PowerPC-based Linux distribution that runs on iBooks (as well as iMacs, Powerbooks and other PowerPC systems), or in the case of fink, ports common Linux apps to the OS X platform.

You might try looking here or here or maybe even here.
On second thought, you're right. No "corporate" distributions even support any sort of scripted / unattended install.
I'm going to sleep now. Check my journal.

I may work for HP, but I don't speak for them.

I may work for HP, but I don't speak for them.

Anyone else find it just a little cheesy when a for-profit corporation is soliciting donations?

Maybe they're taking their cues from Mandrake?

If you downloaded Mandrake Linux, then I suggest you join Mandrake Club to support futher development:
Mandrake Club

How are membership fees used?

* Membership fees are primarily used to directly fund the development of the Mandrake Linux distribution. Membership fees also pay the salaries of employees who often contribute directly or indirectly to "external" Free Software projects such as the Linux kernel, KDE, GNOME, Prelude, and others

* Fees may also be used for the development of community websites such as MandrakeLinux.com, MandrakeUser.org, MandrakeForum.com and the development of Internet services specifically for the benefit of Club members

Isn't he a former MandrakeSoft CEO who has been thanked from Mandrake 18 months ago for having tried to convert the Linux company into a e-learning company?

As it seems Poole didn't know anything about Free Software when he joined, it's great to see the months he spent with the Mandrakians converted him to Free Software anyway! Free Software: a real virus ;-)

Check out the Starter Guide & Everyday Applications Manualonline. You can Download them too.

Excerpt from the index:

Migrating to Linux from Windows®

Where's my...?

Start Menu
My Applications
Control Panel
DOS Shell
Network Neighborhood
My c:\ Drive
My CD-ROM
My Floppy
My Documents

Check out the Starter Guide & Everyday Applications Manualonline. You can Download them too.

Excerpt from the index:

Migrating to Linux from Windows®

Where's my...?

Start Menu
My Applications
Control Panel
DOS Shell
Network Neighborhood
My c:\ Drive
My CD-ROM
My Floppy
My Documents

Check out the Starter Guide & Everyday Applications Manualonline. You can Download them too.

Excerpt from the index:

Migrating to Linux from Windows®

Where's my...?

Start Menu
My Applications
Control Panel
DOS Shell
Network Neighborhood
My c:\ Drive
My CD-ROM
My Floppy
My Documents

I particularly like Mandrake's demos. I checked them out before switching to Mandrake. They give potential users a nice overview of the power and ease of modern distros. In addition, rather than a book, I would recommend people to buy a damn boxed set which includes useful manuals. Both Mandrake and RedHat have great manuals (Mandrake's are more newbie-friendly IMHO). Show them a nice shiny box with pretty manuals, that's more sexy than home-made burned CD's ... and helps keep distros healthy ;-)

Mandrake (9.0) gives you the option in the installer.

I'll never forget my first boot into the 1.x series many, many years ago.

From that day on, I never looked at a computer the same way. Whenever friends would talk about the latest cool games or case modifications, I was never really interested; what truly grabbed my attention was exploring the depths of the Linux kernel and just learning, learning, learning.

The rest is, as they say, history. I've gained a lot from using Linux, moreso than any other person or thing that I've used so far in my short life. With that being said, I decided to donate, once again, to Linux and its related movements just as a simple "Thank You" for all the time and dedication that so many, like Linus, put into the Free/Open software movement.

Here are some quick donation links:
- FSF
- Mandrake
- KDE
- Apache

Why don't you eurotrash just come up with a better desktop OS? Sorry, I can't comment anymore. I am laughing too hard.

Would that be SUSE Linux or Mandrake Linux you are referring to by any chance?

Id say try out the Mandrake distribution (Linux-Mandrake.com) as its very good for making the hop from Windows to GNU/Linux.

Ive tried Red Hat but personally prefer Mandrake 9.0. Checkout Linux.com & for any hints tips / tutorials Google is always the best bet.

Do we have to pay for stability next? Uh-Uh!

Stability is free. The Blue Screen of Death, now that's expensive.

I think I'm going to initially recommend that they look at using Linux 8.0

Also worth checking out are BSD 1.6 and UNIX 9. Besides, Linux is already up to version 9.0.

Sun needs a transition plan to make migration from the low end Linux/x86 based desktops and servers to their Solaris/Sparc based high end workstations and enterprise servers. Otherwise they will not be able to bring as much sales up to the higher tier. There are two ways to do this. One is to run Solaris on x86 hardware as the middle tier. The other is to run Linux on Sparc hardware as the middle tier. One of these approaches leaves Sun subject to the whims of another CPU maker, which has it's own plans for 64-bit domination. The other leaves Sun subject to the whims of a huge open source software community and a few choices in Linux distributions (such as Debian, Mandrake, and SuSE) as well as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Which way do you think would be better for Sun?

> I don't know how long it may have taken a genius like you...
>...freeloaders...
> Schmucks like you ....
> You schmucks ... Warez...

Hey ! Wash your mouth out and consider the following instead of being abusive:

The Mandrake download page requires you to either:
A. Have previously *paid* them a minimum of $60
OR
B. *State* you *will* pay them a minimum of $60 in future

There is no other option that allows you to download their software.

What's to stop them hiking this 'download price' from $60 to $1000000?

Sec 2.b. of the GNU license states that packages based on GNU-licensed software must also be licensed "as a whole at no charge to all third parties". What they are doing seems to violate this section, and Section 3 as well. (though I cannot say for sure).