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Flash Newsletter: Mandrakesoft Announces Name Change!
It's been in the air for a few weeks...
After spending weeks balancing pros and cons, Mandrakesoft has decided to change its name!
The name change will apply worldwide to both the company and its products. The management team sees two good reasons for this change:
1. The recent Mandrakesoft - Conectiva merger calls for a new identity that better represents the combination of two key companies and their global presence.
2. The long-winding trademark lawsuit with Hearst Corporation has reached a point where we decided it is more reasonable for us to move forward. By adopting a new name, we eliminate the liability attached to the Mandrakesoft name and we can focus on what is important to us: developing and delivering great technology and solutions to both our customers and our user community.
We will endeavor to build even stronger brand recognition in our new name. So what is the new name?
The winner is ...

M A N D R I V A

Why Mandriva? This new name, simple and efficient, is the synthesis of Mandrakesoft and Conectiva. This will further a smooth transition and will build on our existing brand recognition in the IT world.
* Company & Products
Mandriva is the new name for the company. Mandriva Linux is the new name covering products.
Additional derivations follow directly: Mandriva Club, Mandriva Store, Mandriva Expert and so on.

* Websites
Our web addresses become accordingly:
http://www.mandriva.com/ for the corporation
http://www.mandrivalinux.com/ for the community project
http://www.mandrivastore.com/ for the online Store
http://www.mandrivaclub.com/ for the Club
http://www.mandrivaexpert.com/ for the web-based support platform


We encourage everyone - users, partners, and the media - to start using the new name as soon as possible. In particular, Mandriva users are encouraged to update their bookmarks ASAP! New Mandriva logos are now available on our website at:

http://www.mandriva.com/company/press

* Mandriva Club Contest!

Help the new Mandriva name to spread everywhere and win many prizes such as a HP laptop!
A big contest has opened on Club, learn more at: http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=3589

The Mandriva Management Team

How? - simply: it's people like myself, who have identified them as having a proper business model (Mandrake Club subscriptions + a well established support community + very good paid support + products which fit every requirement I had, in time, and within costs (e.g. latest being the 64-bit CPU support among the first distros), who have then - provided the finacial support they needed (as a result of their services, of course)
... and when the US economy got derailed but its leadership, a small migration of my money, from US stocks, into MDKFF stock, came to prove to me, in time, that they also knew and know HOW to make money ;)

The hardware issue I had is offtopic. The same laptop has run Fedora, Gentoo, Suse, Ubuntu, and Debian without issue, but it is still offtopic.

Here is a script I made to install firefox(one for thunderbird and sunbird too)1.0PR or Nightly on linux.It really easy to use.

http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules.php?op=modload &name=Splatt_Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=26413&foru m=11&start=0

If you are a MandrakeClub member then there has been access to a well packaged version of firefox throughout the 10.0 (the good news is that there is a recent version of firefox in Mandrake 10.1 contribs now). Feodra also had a well packaged version for it over at Fedora Extras. The moral is that if you break away from your distro specific packaging, expect problems...

I made scripts to make installing firefox,thunderbird, and sunbird nightly's easy.Get them here..

http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules.php?op=modload &name=Splatt_Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=26413&foru m=11&start=0

But that irc log was hilarious. Just thought I'd point out that Manrdrake Club includes things like community RPM voting, so if you really think application/feature X is the best thing since sliced bread you can add it, then the other users will vote on it and finally SOMEONE (maybe Mandrake Soft, maybe community member) will put it through the paces (testing > release..possibly). Mandrake seems to be a lot of what Fedora wants to be, only it is, already. And don't forget they release ALL their software under the GPL. Thats pretty amazing for a commercial project.

I think you are misinformed in some way. waht webpage did you read this?

Here is the sites comparisions.
Here is the official club day
And here is from my e-mail:
- Silver Members and above: Immediate access to 5 Mandrakelinux 10.0
Official PowerPack CD ISO images which includes three Install CDs plus
two additional CDs of extra applications


- Gold Members and above: Immediate access to 7 Mandrakelinux 10.0
Official PowerPack+ CD ISO images which includes three Install CDs
plus four additional CDs of extra applications. This offer includes the Kolab groupware server.

It sounds like gold gets the power-pack+ while silver is simply the desktop version of power pack. Where am I wrong on all this?

I hope to see more and more features and advantages for club members in the future, to encourage not only nice people who want to say "thank you", but also many other people to join ...

If you really can't use BitTorrent, please ask for a HTTP/FTP access, please use our form
and please be patient, you should receive special login and password on your main email address within 4 working days.

What is BitTorrent ? How it works ?

The Mandrake Club idea has always advertised itself as primarilly a way for people to give something back to Mandrake.

They have, have they?

In my Preferences page at MandrakeClub.com, I see this.

Club Benefits

* Access to MandrakeClub.com -- a place where your voice will be heard (Emphasis mine)


There is an article on MANDRAKE CLUB which states that this hasn't been the case for several months, if not a year.

Many MandrakeClub members have asked for private FTP servers, as they are PAYING CUSTOMERS of MandrakeClub. I don't mind if Mandrake uses torrents for truly free downloads, but when I'm paying a company to be a member of their club with purported benefits, a kludgy slow product delivery system really isn't a way to keep me happy. I'm not alone in this sentiment, and I'm sorry the parent got modded as a troll, but ever since 9.1 club members have been asking, nay begging, for private club-access only ftp servers for distro releases. This has been summarily ignored, and instead a kludgy torrent system is used to further piss off loyal customers.

So now they switch to Bittorrent, and now you'll have to wait at most a few days to get your ISOs, and they save serious cash.

What you meant to say was that now they switch to Bittorrent, and now their loyal paying customers are not renewing, and they lose cash.

I've given Mandrake more money in the last two years that I've given Microsoft in the past 5 because I truly believe they have one of the best distros, and I want to contribute to the success of the distro. However, when I'm mistreated and lied to by the management of the company, I'm simply not going to give them any more money. And I'm not alone in this feeling. It's truly a shame, because 2 years ago when they were going belly up, I joined to help them survive. And they have, for now. But this past year (since Deno left. FWIW, Deno was awesome) has given me insight into why they likely got into the situation in the first place, and why they're likely to end up back there.

In the mean time, I'm going to look for a different place to financially support Linux in general and perhaps a distribution in particular.

Yea, who would do something stupid like subscription operating system updates?

Mandrake 10.0 (which has a RC already) will feature the 2.6 Kernel.

It appears that Mandrake has their distro-specific 3.2 RPMs up as of yesterday.

Simple, its the best SRPM eater and fastest RPM producer around. Just look e.g. on www.rpmfind.net and search for that favorate package. Mandrake and/or Mandrake Cooker editions always show up.

They have a development engine which rockz :

Thread model: posix
gcc version 3.3.1 (Mandrake Linux 9.2 3.3.1-2mdk)

Basicly IMHO Mandrake 9.2 is just latest redhat _without_ corporate intervenance...

I tried Mandrake 9.2RC1 AMD64 on a ASUS K8V board with that AMD Athlon AMD64 3200+ CPU , which is running 2200MHz/1024kb cache. And also their x86_64 development platform rockz. All i386 based SRPMS it just compiled with warp-12 speed into *.x86_64.rpm's.

read e.g. :

http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules.php?op=modlo ad &name=Splatt_Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=16806&foru m=9

Robert

For your information, Cooker provides Linux 2.6 as kernel default since december. ISO snapshots are available here [mandrakelinux.com] for download, with also a preview of the new KDE.

that is a 2.6-test kernel... not the same thing as the 2.6 kernel itself.

Sure, they've gotten better.

Mandrake has, during some version cycles, binned a lot of the bugs infesting Mandrake's semi-good releases from about 7.2 (when I started to get to know Mandrake) until 9.0. I am now running Mandrake 9.2, and, except for some rarities with the installation choosing the correct CDs, cannot say that there are any very remarkable bugs. The control center works great (to the extent that I am using it, which is little), and I think it's very understandable. Even my mom uses it out of the box.

In addition, if you sign up for MandrakeClub, you get a bunch of extra RPMs and commercial software. And, if you buy the boxed stuff, you get a lot of nice features like digital camera automounting (which pops up a desktop icon).

There is a QA, and it covers bug testing through Cooker (Mandrake development version). I've also noticed that they update the release ISOs when there are extra annoying bugs that might slip through.

All in all, Mandrake has matured while still keeping the user friendliness that they focus so much on. The releases, in my opinion, mostly look great. Configuration utilities ease with time, and I presume that in one or two major Mandrake releases (now for 10, might get to 11) we'll see a wonderful system that works for anyone.

As of the fonts, Mandrake is good at keeping this up to date. The fonts in Gnome and KDE are antialiased, and OpenOffice look good if you're using the "replacement" fonts for Windows fonts. If you have a windows install, Mandrake autogets these fonts and installs them.

http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules.php?op=modload &name=Splatt_Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=16806&foru m=9 some CPU info :

# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
stepping : 8
cpu MHz : 2199.873
cache size : 1024 KB
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext lm 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips : 4390.91
TLB size : 1088 4K pages
clflush size : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp
#
# openssl speed rsa
OpenSSL 0.9.7b 10 Apr 2003
built on: Tue Sep 9 14:19:06 CEST 2003
options:bn(64,64) md2(int) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,16,int) aes(partial) idea(int) blowfish(ptr2)
compiler: gcc -fPIC -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -DOPENSSL_NO_KRB5 -DOPENSSL_NO_ASM -DL_ENDIAN -DTERMIO -O2 -pipe -Wall -Wall -DMD32_REG_T=int
available timing options: TIMES TIMEB HZ=100 [sysconf value]
timing function used: times
sign verify sign/s verify/s
rsa 512 bits 0.0004s 0.0000s 2588.5 28043.6
rsa 1024 bits 0.0018s 0.0001s 543.8 9775.9
rsa 2048 bits 0.0112s 0.0003s 89.0 2952.3
rsa 4096 bits 0.0761s 0.0012s 13.1 845.5
#

can anyone beat those 28043.6 512bit rsa verify/sec??

Robert

The club has three pricing levels, each with slightly different benefits. What I get from the club is their community RPMs, and discussion boards. Silver members get DL access to their PowerPack ISOs for free as well. Club members get to help shape what goes into future releases, and have early access to Mandrake RPMs of new releases. Mozilla, NVIDIA Drivers, etc. Don't see an RPM you want, vote for it, and someone will probably generate it.

Anyway, if you think that MandrakeSoft is doing right by the Linux community, this may be a nice way of sending them some cash, while getting a little more use from the distro you're probably already using.

and it usually does a better job finding the user's hardware.

Kind of makes you want to become a member.

- I can't unplug my Dell 5800 laptop while running or it locks up, same with plugging it in while running. Working on the cause.
- BE SURE to check your MD5 sums. I've had more bad disks with this release than the last 3 or so releases combined. One bad disk would not only fail to install a package, but would break and remove several others unless the offending package was removed. Then voila! the broken packages return to the menus and functionality.
- Handles 3d hardware acceleration fine for my ATI 9500 card, but no 3d for my 9700 pro (5 install attempts and dozens of fixes) I will not give up... Must..get...CWET...working.
- K3b is the default burning software, so just change your cd drives to ide-scsi and save yourselves some headaches over "unusable" drives
- Mandrake-galaxy is a theme that actually appeals to me. And I generally can't stand themes no matter the platform.

Other than these major points, I think this is the best Mandrake yet. I can't wait for kde 3.2 and the 2.6 kernal. I'm just not feeling that adventurous yet.... but i will soon.

--sigs are like giraffes, they can look cool sometimes, but they don't make any noise.

People started noting this a week ago:

9.2 FRIED my CDROM drives

Well, with MandrakeSoft's financial situation in mind it's this alternative or no distro at all. If more people signed up for the MandrakeClub maybe it wouldn't have come to this.

Ciryon

InfoWorld recently compared Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE, and Turbolinux for a use inside a corporate environment. The result was that the 4 all products were excellent, but the Mandrake Prosuite 9.1 ranked first with the best overall note. Additionnally the ProSuite is by far the less expensive product (around $200). You'll find this 3-page article at InfoWorld. And the Mandrake 9.1 ProSuite is available for purchase directly from MandrakeSoft at MandrakeStore (Mandrake Club Members usually get rebates on most Mandrake products).

You mean something like this? binary distribution of errr RealPlayer for errr Mandrake Linux.

Next time, think before typing.

Join the Club! It's 60 dollars that go 100% and directly to Mandrake. When you're buying the box, only sth. like 50% will go to Mandrake.

MandrakeClub is wonderful. You can vote for your preferred packages and the ones with the most votes get packaged by Mandrake. You'll get a lot of discounts for books, commercial software, etc. Silver members can download StarOffice for free. That alone is worth half of the yearly price.

It's really worth it AND you support Mandrake's future! (I don't find that the boy offers any real value.)

MandrakeClub Homepage.

Bye egghat.

The figures are available at MandrakeClub.com:
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules.php?name=Membe rs_List

The page states: "We have 15883 registered users so far."

As an analyst in a company entirely dependent on spreadsheets and some half-ass implementations of Crystal Reports (which is a severly limitted package, in itself), I'd say that most of my time goes to coding (Bash, Perl, Mysql, all on Linux . . . you get the picture). No, IS doesn't support Linux, but my boss turned over a sony vaio laptop (department owned) a couple of years ago, so it doesn't really matter.

Instead of running an excel filter, copying, pasting to another sheet so it can be summed, copying the sum to another sheet, deleting the pasted data, changing the filter again, repeating until you lose all will to live (I know a guy who has been doing this for 10 years . . . what a waste), I use powerful Open Source tools to do my job faster than some mindless drone. And I have realized that programming makes all tasks, no matter how mundane, exciting and interesting. There is always a better way to program a task and infinite ways to solve the same program. Programming is really starting to become a significant means of expressing myself and has made me satisfied with my work.

However, non of this would be possible without Open Source software. I have an Economics degree and am becoming a CPA. It would be VERY difficult for me to justify the need of expensive proprietary programming tools to my employer because my background is unrelated. However, functional programming doesn't require a genius or any kind of formal education. Anyone can learn enough to become more productive. I see Open Source as the only economically feasible way to provide all the tools (not just compilers, but documentation, examples, IRC, etc . . . ) necessary to allow anyone who is interested in learning the chance to learn how to program enough to become a more productive worker.

So to conclude this rant, I see proprietary software (selling bits) as the old school way of doing things where people are stratified into their respective groups according to some powerful person's agenda. Open source, on the other hand, is a petry dish of software tools that lets all those with the will to thrive, creating a structure so complex that only god could take credit for its existence.

A side note, it is a well documented and known economic fact that as economies develop, a larger portion of the economy becomes devoted to services. Maybe we are just experiencing the development of the software industry?

I am a Mandrakeclub member.

Read the Urpmi howto
and check out the huge MandrakeClub rpms repository

If you order 9.1 right now, you can also track the shipment on the MandrakeStore.com website. The other thing to note, if you have broadband and just want to download the distros, The MandrakeClub is nice to get all those closed source additions, like java and flash and realplayer.

Join Mandrake Club. You'll be able to download things faster, too.

Subscribe to the Mandrake Club, and you'll get access to an extended list of mirrors. It also offers other great features such as the instant download access to 50,000 Mandrake RPMS. There is also a feature in 9.1 that gives access to most 9.1 applications available at MandrakeClub (should be linked to the 50,000 packages stuff...!), just by entering login/password in a wizard... I tried to play with this feature today and it's a new way of experiencing an operating system, really. Need a new software? get it in the list, click to download and install, you get it...

Urpmi howto
the urpmi sources
The MandrakeClub rpms repository

All new purchases from the Mandrake store and new release box sets will come with a one month complimentary subscription the MandrakeClub.

Luckily, even non-members can view the Voting results page. Amazingly enough, it seems that even among the "geek"-biased club, many votes are for multimedia-related applications. Whether this may be due to important non-multimedia applications being labeled as vital and automatically included, or through a real shift in the users of linux.

Even if this doesn't work out for Mandrake, it'll still serve as an interesting sociological experiment and good precedent for other linux distros to design and improve accordingly.

Then go check out some recent statements from thier new CEO.

Basically, thier problem right now is that an investor that was suppose to come up with 2 million, has failed to do so, so far.

While most commercial distributions are turning partly-proprietary, Mandrake has always followed the all-GPL/FDL route. Of the commercial ones, only Red Hat and Mandrake remain as really free(dom) operating systems the way the GNU project intended. I don't think they're out of line asking for support when they provide you a free distribution. Look at it as a service (we all know where free software companies should be able to make their profit, right) - you pay for the development of the software. Mandrake is in distress because it's users are mostly desktop users that don't need any support services because they can get the help they need from other places.

The Club also provides services for Mandrake users, you do get something in return for your money. I don't know of any other place you can have discussions/get help/read news about Linux and Mandrake in particular in almost 20 different languages such as Esperanto (!), Japanese and Finnish. There is the RPM-voting system for packaging new versions of software the club members request, the discounts for various products (not only Mandrake's), and some other smaller things. It's also nice to have our very own MandrakeSoft employee answering questions, being generally helpful and continuously coming up with ways to improve the service. Thanks Deno! :)

Recently the members got to interview the new CEO, the article gave insight to what Mandrake could develop into if it survives. The answers are only available for club members currently but some interesting tidbits are that they're going to focus on providing even more services for the club members, making Ximian GNOME part of the distribution as suggested by a club member (which I think all distributions should do anyway, instead of coming up with tons of different looking GNOME desktops) and developing new software on demand.

I suggest you take a look at the MandrakeClub site and look at what it offers before putting this down as "Charity".

signed,
A happy MandrakeClub member

Check out Mandrake Club

It's not precisely a dedicated update server, but it does offer packages that aren't on the install CD's plus a few other goodies.

Raven,

I'm the guy who came with idea of the MandrakeClub in the first place, and I'm the one who developed it from "idea" into the status you can see today, and I can tell you one thing: MandrakeClub is NOT a charity. It's a busines model which has been used in various sectors for a long time, with more-or-less success, and which can work well for Linux because of the internet. Let me name a few sectors which have similar financing schemas:

- churches
- public radio stations
- Non-governmental organisations

Last but not the least important, there is a long tradition of "street music", which happens to be very strong in Paris, and which has given a name to this type of busines model ("Street performer").

The fact that this model has not been used in software busines until recently is completely irrelevant, unless you want to apply for a "bussines patent" in US. But, I'm transgressing, let's go back to Club...

You are right in one aspect: benefits one gets with MandrakeClub are peanuts compared to the value of MandrakeLinux distribution - which everyone can download free of charge.

This isn't a secret, nor have we ever tried to hide this fact - In fact, this is clearly written on the front page of MandrakeClub site:

As explained in the announcement, your membership in MandrakeClub is, above all, a sign of your financial support. Membership
fees are directly used to cover the costs of developing the distribution and the various services that are offered free of charge to
all Mandrake Linux users. The Club isn't meant as a replacement for paid support or similar services -- you are here because you want to help make Mandrake Linux become even better in the future.

Nevertheless, Club members do receive certain privileges and benefits.

etc.

However, you are also wrong: MandrakeClub is NOT a charity, and even the direct/short term benefits are getting quite interesting with a time. Indirect and long-term benefits (most notably the influence club members have on future of MandrakeLinux) on the other hand are enormous, and yet many people tend to dissmiss them as not interesting, like you did.

Let's take just the example of "RPM-voting" system which you were so quick to dismiss: this system gives you a chance to get new RPMs built because you asked for them. There is a testing stage, in which the folks who asked for a new pack are supposed to report problems, and in the end the system produces higher quality RPMs than what you'll usually find outside of the main distribution. RPM-voting system is now about one month old, and there are still some rough edges to streighten out, but it's quite clear that it's quickly developing in a right direction.

That's a direct/immediate benefit. There is also an indirect benefit, which may be even more important: RPMs Club members ask for will eventually be given higher importance than those noone asks for, and thus the Distribution will change...

The problem is...

Now the problem is: You say that you don't feel ripped off, although you don't find the direct/short-term benefits attractive, so I assume that you actually understood the value of the long-term/indirect benefits, and that you may in fact be ready to remain in the club next year.
At the same time, you discourage others to join the club by writing a comment which will be interpreted as "MandrakeSoft is lying about MadnrakeClub, don't join".

This is sad. :-(

We are not lying to anyone, and Club idea is clearly presented everywhere withouth any exaguration (on the contrary, I'm from Central europe, and can't stand false advertising - therefore Club benefits are rather deemphasised than emphasised), so why do you have this urge to present it in such a bad light?

I like Mandrake but your comments regarding them not caring about the license is just plain wrong. 8.2 no longer includes Netscape. The next version will not include pine because of license issues. Mandrake has made a large attempt to remove all software that isn't free software from the GPL CDs. The only way to get anything else is to belong to the MandrakeClub or buy the PowerPack.

OpenOffice is the open-source equivalent to StarOffice (I'd say 'version' but I suspect that they will start to follow divergent paths from now on).

Sun is attempting to make StarOffice into an attractive alternative to people who would not otherwise even consider it ("It's free? Then it must be junk!!"). Sun can also include proprietary additions that cannot, for legal reasons, be made available as part of OpenOffice.

Saying that this was long-planned is probably true, but that doesn't change the fact that Sun only announced it recently. Mandrake, at least through the ZDNet story, claims that the decision to release StarOffice as proprietary was unexpected, which could be true (unlikely, but certainly possible). They also state that there are other factors to be considered that are why StarOffice is only available to Silver level or better members. Details are available on MandrakeClub. It's interesting that the ZDNet story and the MandrakeClub explanation don't jibe on several important points, so take that as you will.

Finally, OpenOffice is freely available in the standard Mandrake 8.2 release (it's on CD3 of the download edition, as somebody has already pointed out), and there's no requirement whatsoever that a user needs to acquire StarOffice 6.0, unless they specifically require the caapbilities offered in the proprietary release that are not available in OpenOffice. And really, how many home users need the database functionality? Some of the additonal file filters would be nice, but I'd hardly say essential. Now for a business ...

Personally, I feel that this is actually a fairly minor thing that has been blown out of proportion by an over-enthusiastic media. But that's just my opinion ...

That Mandrake is going to pass along the cost of Sun's charging for StarOffice 6 only makes sense from a financial point of view, especially given Mandrake's recent money troubles.

It doesn't bother me a bit though, and I am a club member, though not at a level high enough to download StarOffice for free. I gave my $60 to Mandrake, not expecting anything in return, even though benefits are offered to club members. I gave my money because I think Mandrake is the best distro around, and one that has a real chance of making a headway against the MS dominance on the desktop.

So don't be upset that Mandrake is charging its customers to cover the cost of that which they are being charged for themselves. That's how a business is run. And unless Mandrake stays profitable as a business, this great distrobution might not be around in a couple of years.

If you enjoy or appreciate Mandrake's work, why not join the club yourself today?

I am a member of the Mandrake Club and although I understand some people beeing pissed at Mandrake going back on it's words. I can understand Mandrake's view.

The question is weather or not to give access to SO at all, after all, Mandrake will have to pay sun for it and as we know Mandrake is kinda short on cash

There realy are just two options, ignore SO completely, or pay sun and give access to it. If Mandrake is to survive, they have to make reasonable choises, and not giving away SO to everyone might be necessary.

Yeah, yeah, I know my splelling is not so good.

I'm (was:) getting 550KB/s from this mirror:

ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/Linux/distributions/mandrak e/iso/

Don't forget to join MandrakeClub!