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Seriously. Mandrake is easy to install, has excellent hardware detection, and passed the "my-non-techie-mother can use it" test. Once you set up the urpmi system (a lot like apt-get for Debian, and has a graphical front-end for it as well), updating and upgrading is straightforward and simple.

• Windows is known to have poor security - it's all over the internet
• Windows costs money and the licensing scheme is designed to enslave the user
• Microsoft is a known liar - even under oath. What are they hiding from their users?

• Linux has better security - it's all over the internet
• Linux is free. Free to download, run on millions of computers, keep and give away. The license guarantees it.

• Windows is known to have poor security - it's all over the internet
• Windows costs money and the licensing scheme is designed to enslave the user
• Microsoft is a known liar - even under oath. What are they hiding from their users?

• Linux has better security - it's all over the internet
• Linux is free. Free to download, run on millions of computers, keep and give away. The license guarantees it.

Get a fast, powerful, free, and aesthetically pleasing operating system, that can do much more than WindowsXP could ever hope to do, without being enslaved by a ridiculous Licensing scheme.

Download it now at Mandrakelinux.com

You'll thank yourself later =)

you might be interested in this PXES. version 0.9 was released yesterday but never mind that.

this will not provide you with a thin client but with dummy clients. meaning that the client boots from the network via a pxe enabled card (most modern nics support this) and therefore you can disable (or remove) the floopy drive, the cdrom, the dvd, and the hard disk.

translation: the user cannot physically access the operating system except thru the network.

its pretty simple to setup and can even be used with windows terminal services but i do not recommend that legacy OS. in fact, i will recommend mandrake linux for several reasons:
1. draksec will sandbox your users very fast without much interaction from you (if required)
2. if you are not able to set up the server side on pxes. employ drakTermServ. mandrake's dummy terminal solution that comes standard with its distro.
3. it comes with kde which has a kiosk mode available (you will have to do your own research i m afraid)
4. it comes with openoffice.org meaning that your users can also read and write word documents, excel sheets, powerpoint presentations, adobe reader pdf (write!) and flash swf among other nice stuff.

did i mention the dummy clients wont have an operating system? meaning that you will only administer the operating system from the terminal server.

furthermore, (2 or 3 years ago) largo florida has a similar setup for 400 pc running of a 1gb ram dual p3-900 server or something like that

and if you are really stingy with money go get the hp d441 4 monitors, 4 keyboards and mice and 1 pc.

enjoy

Whaooo....
a new reason to upgrade my graphics card to some thing upto date instead of being content with always using crap that's 3 years old.

Now when I upgrade to Longhorn I'll just have to buy an new *eww* pre-built computer just to be running the latest and greatest OS on the Market.

</sarcasm>

I mean Windows. I shall now go throw out my 15 versions of Linux on CD's (like MandrakeMove and P.H.L.A.K.) and go pay Microsoft every penny they deserve for 4 years of hard work the put in to making this wonderful OS

</kissing_M$_a$$>

I make it most of my life giving new life to old hardware. I use Windows 2000 Professional as an OS of choice. I personally use a 700mhz Intel Celeron (Coppermine) processor( though I prefer AMD) and a ATI Radeon 7500 Dual-Head. I get most of my hardware for "free". I've paid for a graphics card and a hard drive for my own personal machine. All the extra hardware i get i refurbish and give to those know need a computer.

This just burns me when I know that I have to upgrade to be anywhere near safe. Scratch that. Unless a firewall and common-sense about network security doesn't protect me in 2006 on the internet, I don't know why I'll even use it casually except for "Google"ing whatever, placing Holds on books at my local library, and updating my drivers/software/OS

Yah gotta love oligopies and near-monopolies

If you still have doubts, try to use your linux desktop for a few days WITHOUT opening up a console window ever. Be sure to see if you can get software installed, updates downloaded, media played and whatever else you do.

Well unless you left something off or I missed something your chipset is listed as supported. I used a Vortex based card myself for years (Monster) under Linux (I use SB now for the easy support).

Here's a link to the original project (it was merged into the ALSA project):

savannah.nongnu.org/projects/openvortex/

Its also listed in the ALSA matrix as supported:

www.alsa-project.org

My advice would be (and you'll probably hate this) to NOT use Gentoo unless your idea of a relaxing afternoon is digging into the heart of how things work. I've been using Linux for at least 5 years now and I prefer Mandrake because (aside from MandrakeSoft making all their additions GPL) it has great auto configuration and hardware detection.

Before you go crazy at me, you can always try one of their live disks (MandrakeMove) out first and see if it works okay for you.

MandrakeMove

Sometimes easier isn't lame, its productive.

Who cares about viruses we don't get? Who cares about zombie spam machines when we have SpamAssassin?

The community is not ready to support [Linux] at the consumer level

Oh dear. You don't say that it has a CD-ROM so MandrakeMove, Knoppix, and PHLAK are all out of the question. *sigh*
And they are so easy to use too... :'(
Oh well.....A USB-CDROM boot option in the BIOS looks promising.

Slightly older manual for Mandrake. Definately written for some one converting from MS Windows with things like "Where is my Start Menu?".

Suggestion: Set-up your computer to Dual-Boot Linux with Window.

Step 1: Install Windows with extra unpartitioned drive space (about 3-5 GB should do, depending on your system). Step 2: Install Linux.

I'd suggest either Mandrake 10.0 or Xandros Desktop OS Open Circulation Edition.

Mandrake is very user friendly and Xandros is aimed at Windows users.

Step 3: Configure LILO for Dual Boot. (Easier than it sounds)

Alternately you can download Knoppix 3.4 and boot directly from the CD.

A3) Where do you have to _promise_ anything ?

Before downloading our products, we ask for your support by joining the Mandrakelinux Users Club.(my bold)

The link in the parent wasn't too clear on what MandrakeMove actually was, so here is a different link about it that describes what it is a little better (the original link is to the download page).

This isn`t a dupe at all. Don`t listen to the answers already given, there was a "Community" release in April, thats what the stora you linked to is about. Now its`s "Offical and there are boxes with CDs/DVDs now ,too (since a week actually.) Read this for full information about the difference between "Offical" and "Community"

If your dad's box is hardly good enough for Win98, I very much doubt it will have enough resources for Mandrake 10.

Mandrake 10 hardware recommendations

Other than that I would definitely recommend it, although I haven't tried reading my digital camera on it yet.

but does it have a Live CD sampler?

Yes. Yes, it does. Mandrakemove is a cd distribution designed to specifically to run from a cd. Buy the boxed edition and it stores your settings on the included usb key.

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/mandrakemove/

OK, so the fans of the various distros are all comparing how big the penises of their favorites are. It's a fun exercise, but not what the guy asked about. I'd suggest that someone new to Linux look at: Mandrake, Xandros, Lycoris, SUSE, or Linspire. Each of these has a company behind it that's placing a high priority on making their distro accessible to new users, and that sounds like your top priority as well.

Echoing some of the other posts here: It depends what you want to get out of Linux.

If you "just want to use it" (i.e. you just want a nice desktop system that isn't proprietary, or just want to try out some Linux programs) I'd recommend (roughly in order of preference):

1. Knoppix - don't even need to 'install' to try it out
2. SuSe (Or is it SuSE? Or Suse? I can never keep it straight). They've always seemed like a reasonably decent distribution, and now with Novell's apparently-earnest-and-sincere backing, I tend to think of them as "the new Red Hat" (in that they'll be a 'default' distribution in the near future and thus useful to be familiar with).
3. Mandrake - I personally didn't much care for what I saw of Mandrake, but many people do, and this one is often suggested for "newbies".

If, on the other hand, you actually want to learn Linux:

1. Slackware - my personal favorite. It seems to be the most "generic-Unix-like" in general style. I think that although it's fairly "manual" in terms of setup, it's not difficult. But that's my opinion. It's probably the easiest-to-install-and-configure "nerd" distribution.
2. Gentoo - takes forever to install initially, because it actually compiles (most) of itself directly from source. You can configure it for the best compiler optimizations for your hardware and have, theoretically, the fastest-possible system. Maybe a bit of a steep learning curve to start with though - although if you're up for it, it may be worth it.
3. Debian - Possibly one of the most obtuse installation procedures (at least, last time I tried it), but once installed it's amazingly easy to maintain. ("apt-get" really is as cool as they say it is). Debian's one of the "big" famous distributions also, so if you find yourself working with a wide variety of Linux boxen, it's good to be at least a little familiar with it. Debian's other downside (apart from the initial install procedure) from my perspective is that by default their software versions tend to be quite old, though you can get around this by reconfiguring your system to pull updates from the "unstable" and "testing" branches.

Those would be my suggestions, anyway.

Umm... Mandrake gives the community it's "shitty" version and yes I know it is shitty because I've tried it. Then forces you to pay for anything worthwhile.

Sir, you are grossly uninformed.

Mandrakelinux provides Mandrakelinux Community as an "early preview" of the next version. It should be expected to find problems in a "preview such as Mandrakelinux Community.

Also, if you cared a single bit, you could have updated your Community to Official using urpmi/rpmdrake. This would fix most/all of your troubles.

Mandrakelinux $ANY_VERSION (Community, Official...) rpms are available to everybody from Day 1. The ISOs are available first to MDK Club members first. Later, the ISOs become available to everybody. This means that if you pay, you can get the ISOs early, before the servers get "slashdotted". You pay to get a beneffit.

But, again, the rpms are available from Day 1. And, using urpmi, you can upgrade your Mandrakelinux version from the ftp servers, without a need for ISOs. Pretty much like Debian with apt-get.

You ara probably dissatisfied with Mandrakelinux Community. Well, this is (was) the "preview", a testing vresion of the "Final" 10.0 version.

MandrakeSoft explains how their development system works, and what a "Community" and an "Official" thing are here.

Peace

That's what I was going to say, but something more along the lines of:

What's the big news? A patch for Win98SE has been available here for quite some time now.

I think it is reasonable to ignore the GST.

Yeah!! I say let's ignore taxes... if only I could ignore income tax.. *sigh*.. damn them for deducting from my pay before I get it...

$553

Still more than $499... ;)

And I think you can do much better than buying from Harris

I agree. But businesses do buy from them, and theirs was the first website that came to me, so I used it as an example.

Still, I think paying $0 (excluding ISP charges, and the price of three blank CD-Rs) is a better price for an OS.

First off, from a practical matter of the US DoD, this discussion is irrelevant. The military is so dependent on civilians and outside contractors for their software development needs that any requirement to "keep it inside" would be crippling. If they can't pass it back and forth to MITRE and TRW, then they may as well not have it.

They have a number of attorneys in their organization. When it comes to interpreting the GPL, I'll take their word over yours.

I might too, if there was any indication that an attorney had actually written that FAQ. Unfortunately, I don't see a name like "Eben Moglen" signed to the bottom of it.

I also might grant that answer some credibility if it actually tried to explain the reasoning behind its position, instead of just tossing it out there unsupported.

If they're part of the organization, they're not contractors. That's the definition of "contractor."

No it isn't. But the definition of "organization" is the one that actually matters here. And the word "organization" has a very broad meaning. Almost any group of people qualifies as an organization. For example, can you deny that the previously mentioned
Unitied Space Alliance is an organization? They sure act organized! But look at the membership: all contractors, who keep wandering off-site and back.

I should note that corporations are just one kind of organization. The legal boundary to becoming a corporation is higher than for forming an organization, but it's easily met with a few $100 in fees. Other kinds of organizations include schools, clubs, associations, and even countries.

However, if you give them a copy to take off your site and back to their site, that's a distribution.

If you give them a copy at all, for any reason, and they carry it 2 meters away, that's distribution.

But let's suppose for a minute that you were right; that one programmer in an organization can modify a GPL program for use by all the other members, and that the leader of the group can order them not to share it with outsiders.

If that were true, then a loophole would be created sufficient to deprive the GPL of all its strength. A company wishing to sell a modified GPL program with typical for-profit licensing could simply require prospective customers to join a club before making a purchase. From then on, they're members of an organization, so they can be sent binary software with no right to request the source code.

"Distribution for internal use only" would be a fatal loophole in the GPL- if it actually worked.

Check my profile.

C++ skills, eh? I hope you put those for use in your job... it'll save taxpayer money from high-priced defense contractors who do most DoD coding.

Man, take your grey, dried out, tough ribeye and stick it. I'll take a nice, bleeding T-bone. Just chase the cow through the kitchen, that's about right.

The Club access to early 'private' torrent links and bonus cds is seperate to the new distro release process.
Basically the Community release was as the 9.2 final release, but a few months later a new Official release is generated from the Community+new bug fixes/updates, and is intended to be even better and thus worth the wait and effort to test the Community release by all (it's public links are posted a while after the Club members get their early viewings).

Can't you download it here? Or is this a different version?

The torrent being here.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference between Community and Official?

• Silver members can download the first three ISO images from the latest PowerPack along with its numerous proprietary drivers and plugins.
  
  
• Full access to commercial applications which are normally only available in retail packs. Over 130 high-quality packages built & tested for Mandrake Linux can be installed with a single mouse click. Applications include easy-to-use web browser plugins, Java, powerful commercial applications and demo versions, software drivers, and lots more
  

Mirror for the patches.

(Sorry couldn't resist)

In Mandrake 10, configuration is split in to two control centers. "Configure your desktop", to configure desktop stuff, and "Configure your computer" to do the dangerous stuff, which requires root password. Mandrake is one of the most usable linux distributions out there, with millions of satsisfied users, plus its secure! So the answer is : Usabillity dosen't equal insecurity. Just run Manmdrake update once in a while to keep up with the security patches. For those who want to see the usabillity magic of mandrake 10, download the iso files here. This ask slashdot question is nonsense, if slashdot employed competent editors this question would of never been posted!

I'm glad that they like "OS" software, because my latest attempt at installing some OS software (pun intended), didn't go over very well.

I suggest checking out the major GNU/Linux distros that use the RPM system. Mandrake looks particulary good for someone abandoning Redhat.

Of course, I use Gentoo; so this is pure speculation. ;)

That's not too difficult.

Why do people mark these comments flamebait, at least the post is speaking some level of truth.

Thanks for having my back. I'm not trashing Mandrake. I have it on one of my machines and happen to think they are excellent in several UI areas.

But they do REALLY push you send them a check. Here's the link:

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3

Surely there's a way you can express your displeasure with MS products to your friends with a little more tact?

U
S
E

L
I
N
U
X

I guess that means US citizens can finally submit patches, and that distributions like RedHat/Fedora can now include it in their distribution.

Ahh, u mean ze citisenz of ze USA can finally have ze same freedom as ze French Bastardz have had for yearz ?

Linux is great because it's free

• 
  1. My mouse was uncontrollable. XP has both a speed and acceleration option that is great for mouse control. The mouse options box in Mandrake didn't have these options and it was frustrating to use the mouse, even after twinking these settings for an hour.
  

• 
  2. By far the biggest problem: Installing programs. In XP it's as easy as double clicking an icon and picking a directory. Not so with Linux. You can read my post on the newbie forums
  here.
  I have no idea where anything installs to, nor the best way to uninstall things. Inevitably I have to use the command line. Even as an X-MSDOS user I found it very frustrating.
  

urpmi <rpm file>

• 
  3. Despite claims of stability, Konqeror crashed repeatedly. I can not say why.
  

• 
  4. After installing a program, finding where it installed to would be like pulling teeth. Making a shortcut would be even worse.
  

urpmq --list <package>

which <command>

• 
  5. Installing the correct driver for my soundcard was very complicated, even after reading the INSTALL file. I eventually gave up.
  

• 
  6. I got a sync out of range message when I first tried running Mandrake. I left the monitor settings on default during install. This took hours to discover and fix.
  

• 
  1. My mouse was uncontrollable. XP has both a speed and acceleration option that is great for mouse control. The mouse options box in Mandrake didn't have these options and it was frustrating to use the mouse, even after twinking these settings for an hour.
  

• 
  2. By far the biggest problem: Installing programs. In XP it's as easy as double clicking an icon and picking a directory. Not so with Linux. You can read my post on the newbie forums
  here.
  I have no idea where anything installs to, nor the best way to uninstall things. Inevitably I have to use the command line. Even as an X-MSDOS user I found it very frustrating.
  

urpmi <rpm file>

• 
  3. Despite claims of stability, Konqeror crashed repeatedly. I can not say why.
  

• 
  4. After installing a program, finding where it installed to would be like pulling teeth. Making a shortcut would be even worse.
  

urpmq --list <package>

which <command>

• 
  5. Installing the correct driver for my soundcard was very complicated, even after reading the INSTALL file. I eventually gave up.
  

• 
  6. I got a sync out of range message when I first tried running Mandrake. I left the monitor settings on default during install. This took hours to discover and fix.
  

all of them?

No, you have to apply this patch to fix all of them. Which is quite a large patch as you guessed.

• Trying linux
• Using Linux on another PC
• Demoing Linux to other users
• Recovering a Windows Machine covered with viruses

• Knoppix
• MandrakeMove
• Gentoo Live

• Knoppix
• Mandrake move
• Gentoo

This should explain it:

What follows is the development process for our next major release, Mandrake Linux 10.0:

1) After the traditional debugging of several Beta and Release Candidates, the final version of "Mandrake Linux 10.0 Community" will be released in February/March. This version will be available for download and as a DVD-set through e-Commerce.

2) Then a Mandrake Linux 10.0 Stable branch will be opened, based on Mandrake Linux 10.0 Community. Security updates and bug fixes will be applied to this tree and will be publicly available in real time.

3) Two or three months later, in April/May, "Mandrake Linux 10.0 Official" will be created from the Mandrake 10.0 Stable branch. It will then be packaged for several products such as the Mandrake Linux PowerPack. Mandrake 10.0 Official ISO images will also be available for all contributors and Club Members; then, after a short delay, Mandrake Linux 10.0 Official Download Edition will be made available on public FTP mirrors.

You know, I really think Mandrake is a nice distribution. I even considered paying for a membership, untill I saw what they offer.
One thing is the level system in general, giving special access to those who pay more, but when I see what they are trying to tempt me with:
Silver members can download (...) PowerPack along with its numerous proprietary drivers and plugins.
Their bold, not mine. Whoopeedoo, pay extra to ENCOURAGE prorietary drivers. They are also proud to present "commercial applications which are normally only available in retail packs", various other discounts, "Direct-trading program for MandrakeSoft stock, plus access to real-time trading information", and with a GOLD membership (600 Euros a year) you can even see their webpages WITHOUT BANNER ADS!

It is of course good they are able to make some money to PAY people for the good work they are doing, but it should be possible without turning the whole thing into something ugly.

Doesn't this force those users to go out to CompUSA and buy a copy of McAfee or Norton antivirus?

That's maybe the reason why they created a new development scheme, with two versions:
"Significant change in Mandrake Linux Development Process"
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/pr-releaseprocess. php3

I think this can really have a positive effect on the quality of final products.

That's not necessarily true. Mandrake set up CUPS and just about everything else I've needed with no problems at all. It's all about what you're doing. For some programs under some distros you need to be a programmer to install and / or set them up. Under other distros, and with other programs, it can be a breeze. (Just look at how well Knoppix does!)

I'd call it Mandrake 10! Coming soon, download the beta today from Mandrake!

Even if you've never used a Linux based operating system before, you won't be disapointed!

From other MDK users I've heard that the 2.6 kernel with mandrake is working great, and though I haven't tried RC1, it's fairly stable at this point. FYI the reason they released RC1 was because of the XFree86 4.4 -> XFree86 4.3 reversion. I'm thinking they should do a RC3 this time around; it seemed kind of quick to go right to RC1.

Not just knoppix. So if you're concerned about mandrake compatibility with your system, download the MandrakeMove cd (bittorrent or the download page) and try it out on your machine!

Not just knoppix. So if you're concerned about mandrake compatibility with your system, download the MandrakeMove cd (bittorrent or the download page) and try it out on your machine!

Though more likely is the fact that their 'itch' is likely internationalization/localization issues which we [dumb Westerners] don't care about.

There are plenty of i18n/l10n projects out there. Gnome, KDE, Mandrake, OpenOffice and Mozilla all have active projects going. The FSF has the Translation Project. Get out there and localize!