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Mandrake 7.1 Beta Ready For Download
I've gotten the word from the Mandrake folks that the beta version of 7.1 is ready for download. You can check out the details from the source as well. The current name for it is Hydrogen.
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I was wondering if anyone would care to comment on the strong points of Mandrake... how does it compare to some of the other distros like Redhat and SUSE?
Also where are they heading with each release? More server related, or desktop?
Thanks,
Ryan
"Don't nargin your MEX files!"
Not joking.
I'm impressed. Reiser is a very nice journaling file system; it doesn't need more space than ext2fs and runs measurably faster. Check out ReiserFS at http://devlinux.com/projects/reiserfs/
Devolver's Homepage... more fun than a box of crackerjacks.
This really is a great distro, if you are a RedHat user and haven't tried it, check it out...
IMHO, it is all-around better than RedHat. There tend to be some surprisingly cool packages installed, such as colorgcc, and supermount support is in the kernel. The install program is neat too, allowing you to download secure crypto packages from some european sites during the install. I believe it uses fbcon instead of X windows (a bit of overkill for an install program).
The system configuration tool is also nice, and the update-finder also seems to work well.
It also came with the BlueSteel E-theme, and lets you choose enlightenment without gnome from the kdm/gdm login without any extra configuring. It is actually usable out of the box...
I am speaking from the 7.0 release, haven't tried 7.1 yet, but I plan to.
I too agree: these version numbers are getting somewhat inhibiting. If I was new to Linux and reading, I'd think that Mandrake was the "latest & greatest" and that might give this distro. a leg-up.
Also, can someone finally rationally explain the case/goodness in Mandrake vs. any other distro? I've heard + read that it comes with some "ad-ons", but RedHat has been more than enough for myself & others...
Well, windows is at 2000, so logically they are the best, right?
Version numbering has nothing to do with anything.
They DON'T relate any more than Slackware v.X relates to Debian v.Y. That's the whole point. Starting with Mandrake 6.0 they started to diverge and Mandrake has proven to be a standout distribution based solely on its own merits. So let's see.. Slackware 7.0, Mandrake 7.1, Red Hat 6.2, Debian 2.1. I don't see anything similar other than the funny fact that Slackware jumped version numbers "because we felt like it". :-) Unfortunately Linux seems to be suffering a worse fate than 386BSD's code forking into FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc. in that we now have dozens of distributions that are almost exclusively all using different versions of "current" libraries, utilities, etc. The only thing software houses can do if they want to support Linux is to shoot for the biggest target (Red Hat probably) and build to that and hope the other distributions provide compatibility with the libraries that Red Hat makes available in its current distributions.
I thought the major difference between the two distros was the fact that Mandrake's x86 version is compilied with all the optimizations for pentium architecture?
Mandrake is great, but one question is on everyone's mind... and it's been a while since I used mandrake so forgive me if this is common knowledge, but ...
Does mandrake still have that ugly as sin ansi art in the issue file ( or maybe it was motd ).
Ok, so this question really sucks, but I'm still curious.
When can I expect some distribution with these features?
1) XFree86 4.0 (How can the Mandrake page get away with saying their 3.0 is the "latest"?)
2) Journalled File System (any of the contenders)... I know this is still very much up in the air still, but I figured that someone on Slashdot would be able to give a good date estimate for when to expect it in a mainstream distro)
3) Complete support for the DRI (Direct Redering Infrastructure?)-- perhaps this is directly involved with 1..
4) GOOD sound support-- How come even with Creative Labs cards I still have trouble getting sound to work, Redhat included? Does everyone else have the same troubles?
Thanks for any answers!
Slackware rocks if you like BSDish systems or are a true unix die hard. I Run it on my laptop as well as my parents box.
Debian is a good full system and if your a Purist as many of the Nviidia post seem to be then its for you.
Redhat is nice for Newbies but every relase after 5.0 has been buggy as all hell.
Linux-Mandrake is simply put the Redhat that works. Plus its got a tun of other cool stuff.
I've used other distros plus *BSD's but for most people I think Mandrake or Slack is the best bet
Free Unix? Free Windows. http://www.reactos.com
The last time RedHat vs. Mandrake came up, RedHat was bashed for having some older packages that were a revision or two behind.
Simply put, unlike Mandrake, RedHat actually takes care to make sure their OS is stable. If this means using somewhat older, less cutting edge but tried-and-true stuff, than so be it.
I can't have any respect for a distro that's putting X 4.0 into any sort of release. Despite the fact that it's versioned as an actual release, the general consensus is that it's still beta quality w.r.t stability, and it definately is missing support for numerous cards, such as the I128s that are in the lab where I work on my current research project. Including X4 in a distro at this point is stupid. (Even a beta - why have your beta release held up until whenever X4 catches up to X3.3.6 in stability/card support? Who knows when that's going to happen?)
Also, on a similar note, if you have the slightest bit of flakiness with your hardware, Mandrake will die, and die badly. One of my friends was trying to set up IP Masq, and was using Mandrake. It was doing some sort of "ide optimization" crap that did only one thing - render the system unusable/unbootable. (hung during init cycle). Gave him a copy of RedHat 6.1, installed and ran like a charm.
Mandrake's got some impressive things going on. But they take too many risks for a distro that's supposedly targeting newer desktop users - they're just asking for a support nightmare.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
1) XFree86 4.0 (How can the Mandrake page get away with saying their 3.0 is the "latest"?)
From the mandrake website:
Now includes brand new XFree 4.0 servers, with new modular architecture.
-- "Tradition is the illusion of permanence."
Now includes brand new XFree 4.0 servers, with new modular architecture.
Hmmph! I must have looked at the wrong page!
Still interested in answers to the other questions though...
blarg.
Click here for a great web site on mullets!
[Connection closed by foreign host]
Read my post up above - I've had NUMEROUS occasions where Mandrake was far less stable than Red Hat, mainly due to their insistence of including packages that are not yet stable. (Such as X 4.0, which supports fewer cards than 3.3.x and is less stable, they should wait for it to stabilize. Also some voodoo IDE optimization crap that is likely to fail as it did on a friend's machine on which RH 6.1 ran flawlessly.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Sorry for the mistaken post
This page was what confused me... It is the page linked to by the "Features" button in each page's header... I found what are apparently the most up to date release notes on the download page...
2. It's now shipping with RieserFS.
I feel that Mandrake is a great distro. I have tried suse, redhat, slackware, and finally made the changeover to linux when I encountered Mandrake. The fact that they compile everything with pentium optimizations was what struck my curiosity and prompted me to give this distro a shot. It feels exactly like redhat, but I could do more. The installer was much better and hardware was suddenly relatively easy to manage. (I cannot say this for the ide-scsi stuff in 7.0, though. Hopefully they have some of this worked out in 7.1) Supermount liberated me from having to use the mount command to read a floppy. I mean, I absolutly love linux, but I really feel that you would have to be a serious geek with the intention of making life hard if you enjoy using the mount command to access a CD-Rom, Zip, floppy, etc - (I can see an advantage to this on a server environment, though) All I am waiting for now is DGA support for my ATI card, linux 2.4 and KDE 2.0 (oh yeah, and a verion of mozilla that actually slams IE5.01) but time will eventually provide all of that. Even though mandrake is my distribution of choice, I am still interested in trying Debian and even reading up on how to roll my own linux distro so that I can achieve a better understanding of how the library system and environment in general work. One thing is for sure: there will never be a linux distribution that will please everyone. That is the very beauty of linux (and unix in general) We cannot please EVERYONE with just one product - therefore we can create several variants to appeal to different preferences and needs. Hell, we even mold what we have to conform to what we want - Mandrake is targeted for the desktop, but I run two servers just fine with it.
Mandrake offers versions of their distro for x86 processors and also for sparc and alpha. No one is limited to a pentium or greater. Usually the non-pentium compiled versions are released long after the pentium version though.
You apparently don't read the Mandrake site, ever. If you did, you'd notice this:
March 24 2000 - Mandrake 7.0 for i486. It's been requested and awaited for a long time, now it's available: Linux-Mandrake 7.0 ISO image for i486 and compatibles machines can be downloaded from Tucows. You can now use your old machines again!
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fnews.ph p3 will take you to the news page. Click on the download button on the nav bar for a list of mirrors which have the i486 ISO for download.
Also, you can get Mandrake for Sparc and Alpha too.
No sig is worth reading.
Okay, I do not think that you are understanding the situation perfectly.
Pentium optimised distros will provide performance boost on any intel or non-intel pentium-class or higher CPU, including the AMD K5, K6, K6-2, K6-3, K7, as well the the Cyrix 6x86, M-II and M-III.
Now, the only CPUs that won't benefit from pentium optimisation are lower than pentium CPUs. Those are 486es and 386es. How many people want to run a graphic-intense distro on such CPUs ? Not many. The thing is, mandrake is aimed at users with powerful machines, not at users with old junk they're looking to reuse for free.
Same with the floppy friendly nature of distros. I think that floppy friendlyness should be an afterthought. I mean, who wants to install a linux distro from floppies, and why ? It doesn't make sense, as most machines out there have got a CD-Rom drive. Those without a CD-Rom drive can either go with copying the files over the network, or taking out the HD for installation on another box.. but a floppy install should never be required, nor should it be something developers waste time on when doing a distro. It's waste of time, it's boring work..
Linux isn't just for the old machines you don't want of anymore. It's for the brand-new K7 or P-III you've got as well.
Just wondering if X 4.0 is stable enough for every day use. I heard the original release was not quite there yet, but it got better since then. So, can anybody comment on stablity?
___
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
I disagree. I think it's a great thing. I also think that Alpha and PowerPC optimized distributions would be great things as well. The nice thing about having many Linux distributions is that each can cater to a specific niche. My favorite feature of Open Source software is that I can tailor it to my own needs; optimizing a Linux distribution to a specific processor seems like a natural outgrowth of this feature.
(I wanted to state this more eloquently, but I've been helping a friend with her laptop all night, and I'm beat.)
I'm sorry, this kind of attitude of competing version numbers really annoys me. I mean, look at how M$ jumps through layers of version numbers just to catch up with its predecessors when its diving into yet another market niche.
In the ancient world, mandrake root was used as a talisman for fertility. In fact, they're mentioned in the Bible for that purpose (sort of) - Genesis 30:14-16.
OK, to start this off and burn lots of karma (if I had any to burn) - I am not a serious linux user. Whoa! look at that karma burn A few weeks ago I installed Linux mandrake on my computer 'cause a friend asked me to, I put the CD in, rebooted my computer, and much to my surprise IT WORKED INSTANTLY, all I had to do was say how I wanted my hard drive partitioned (4GB Linux, 128MB Swap, 16GB FAT32 (far all my Windows games)) yes, I use windows - there goes more karma - why do I use windows? because I want to be able to break things and kill people without having to learn more stuff about computers Anyway, back to the story, I partitioned my hard drive, said yeah, ok, I'll take the recommended install, and let it do its stuff, a while later it had detected and set up all my hardware, Voodoo3, Creative Sound card, Intel Network card, etc with no intervention from me, all I had to do was stuff around with my IP address, point it to our webserver and it was working, well it was working until about half an hour ago, I brought my computer into work (mainly to pick up the LOTR quicktime thingy I downloaded at work), and turned on my computer (with a few of the microsoft worshipers looking on) to show off the beauty of linux, I am running mandrake 7.0 (I think), I got just past the colorful ascii-art penguin which comes up just before it switches to GUI - then - the screen went blank, the litle orange light came on which means no signal input, after a few seconds I figured out why, the resolution had switched to 1600 X 1200, my 19" monitor at home can handle this, a puny 15" monitor can't, Linux didn't detect that there was a different monitor which windows would detect(much to my disgust, and Bills evil Acolytes delight (who were looking on)) How do I switch resolution without access to the GUI???? mandrakes reputation is at stake(at least to 2 or 3 people)!!!!
You are not me, therefore you are not important
Godamnit, why doesn't my Ferrari get 35 miles per gallon!
Mandrake is specificly targeted as a pentium optimized, latest & greatest desktop distro. Don't complain because it isn't targeted for low end hardware. There are many distros & mini-distros targeted for such things.
Scuttlemonkey is a troll
I saw that during the install with NO explanation whatsover about what it does. I simply didn't check it and told it to do a "developer install". Now I'm no coder but I like to be able to compile at least SOME packages without playing a game of let's find the missing header file. It works great on my K6 200, ATI All-In-Wonder, IDE drive setup.
...you have a stange definition of flattering
You are not me, therefore you are not important
Maybe they should try something inert - like Helium =)
My understanding was that the optimizations only helped on P5's, and that for Pentium II or III they didn't help at all because of better pipelining or somesuch. If that's so then aren't these "optimizations" just hype?
i actually use mandrake as my primary distro now. Why? well, i need redhat compatibility (ie, rpm) for certain hardware-specific issues on my box, so i used to run redhat. but when i found mandrake 6.1, it converted me. i never liked mandrake's admonishment that they were the "easiest to use" && the "linux for beginners" because they sell themselves short to those who are linux professionals. Mandrake, in my opinion, is Redhat with all newer packages, better adherence to the "release early, release often" addage, and simply more good packages than redhat. want Xemacs rather than emacs? with redhat, it's a download. with mandrake, you choose one or both at install. the new install is pretty dang good-i'm a die-hard text-mode install fan, or at least i was, but the mandrake install in 7.x is wonderful. the only problems i have with it are 1. the pesky tendency of myself to click on one of the heading package categories and selecting the *whole* category (sucks if you accidentally click on "libs"-but i finally learned that the right button is handy during this procedure) and 2. there's a bug in the installer where during package selection, every once in a while you lose visual in the package window. by scrolling up and scrolling down you get it back, but it's annoying. other than those problems, the installer works wonders.
one of the things that irked me the most with RedHat 6.2 and its contemporaries are their tendency to include an *old-school* version of Enlightenment-redhat 6.2 comes with E bloody 0.15.5! mandrake 7.0 came with 0.16.3, and i believe 7.1 will have 0.16.4. i usually find every time i am about to do some package maintenance/accounting, Mandrake releases either a new version or a new beta. it's wonderful.
i do like debian, don't get me wrong, i'm not a mandrake-only person, but for my desktop box right now, Mandrake is simply the best choice.
oh, and by the way, the hardware detection is *exquisite* for a linux installer. got everything first try for me, and for my friend's box, which has the most diverse selection of parts i have seen in some time. Mandrake gets bonus points for this.
Umm... Then don't try installing Mandrake on anything other than an Intel machine. :) There are others. But if you *do* have a P5 and above, the optimizations are GREAT.
As for detecting CDROMs, I've installed Mandrake on dozens of machines, some even having the dreaded funky old Creative Labs CDROM connected to the sound card trick. (I have a lot of OLD hardware) And when none of that works, I always have a network card it can detect for a LAN based install.
Pentium optimised distros will provide performance boost on any intel or non-intel pentium-class or higher CPU, including the AMD K5, K6, K6-2, K6-3, K7, as well the the Cyrix 6x86, M-II and M-III.
This is untrue. Anything above the pentium leve (ie, P2s and P3s, PPros, newer AMD chips, etc) will *not* benefit from Pentium "optimizations". Clone chip performance is usually below normal.
Even on actual Pentiums, the real-world performance increase is usually negligible. Only a few programs get a real speed increase.
pgcc (which is used for these Pentium "optimizations") doesn't compile all programs correctly, including at last check the kernel (which is interestingly enough reliant on some assembly bugs to compile).
What it comes down to is that this Pentium optimization crap is over-hyped and fairly ridiculous, and is generally perpetuated by people who want to seem like they really know their shit but who don't actually have their facts straight.
you have too much time on your hands.
nice work, though
-Andy Martin
-Andy Martin
If y'all don't like me, blow me.
#1: I don't think so. I'm currently using SuSE 6.4, and it's still using 3.3.5, however, it has 3d acceleration for my V3, so it's an improvement over older versions, however AFAIK, no DRI (answer to 3)
/boot partition (a good idea anyways) as E2FS, or it pukes on you.
#2: SuSE has ReiserFS support, though you need to make a small
#3: See above
#4: Most current distros have support for the SBLive series (I've got one myself, kick@ss card), and for the older ISA cards, the distros usually have a tool to do the voodoo to get everything working. I've had probs with a few audio chipsets not working, but those are more cause the vendors have closed specs than anything else.
Take it from a guy who's used probably every major distro at some time during the past year (RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, Corel, Slackware, etc), hardware support has gone from basically nonexistant, to mediocre, to pretty decent in the past few years.
Best of luck!
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
Both of the above, plus back in the 40s and 50s there was a comic strip called "Mandrake the Magician." I tend to prefer this interpretation for two reasons:
1. Mandrake-the-distro's motif is a magic wand and top hat. Well, Mandrake-the-Magician didn't have a magic wand (he "gestured hypnotically") but he did have a top hat. It wasn't blue, though.
2. Mandrake-the-Magician had an assistant named Lothar. Mandrake-the-distribution includes a program called Lothar which bills itself as "the hardware central configuration tool." Superficially it looks a lot like Windows 98's Device Mangler; I haven't tried it to see how it works.
--
Someone you trust is one of us.
I remember compiling some arbitrary precision c++ code I wrote with various -O(some number) flags using pgcc, and getting differing behaviors with differing optimization levels. I wonder if this would still be the case with a current version of pgcc...
If you hate to sound like a jerk, why spout such drivel? slashdot-terminal is a highly paid sysadmin who is trying to make use of PC's in his network that only need to run in text mode.
or maybe hes trying to donate a usable computer to someone who can't afford it. Not that you care.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
Oh, great. I started downloading mandrake 2 days ago, and now when I'm 64% done, they tell me there's a new version. Dang.
Mandrake Linux and the people who run it have real balls. They dont fsck around like a lot of companies.
:) Flame at will.
ResierFS? Pentium Optimizations.
Yes.. They do this. Good Bad? Who knows at least they have the kahunas to step up to the plate and give these products a chance on their distro. Do you see this? They are willing to push their distro to the limits
Okay... Everyone else is staying a bit more conservative right now. Not Mandrake. Give emm a little respect. Not to mention I hear Mandrake is pretty nice (office mate installed it recently) Okay.. I just wanted to say that
Jeremy
The whole point of having a multitude of Linux distros is that they are targeted to different uses/users. Linux is different things to different people, and highly configurable. Revel in that! Versatility and variety are strengths, not weaknesses.
Mandrake's distro happens to be targeted at newer x86 boxes with bootable CD-ROM drives. If that's not what you have, then Mandrake may indeed be a poor choice for you. But where does the "cheating" part come in? Who gets hurt?
---
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Anyone know if this will ship with bochs, since mandrake is now funding them?
>I really think that the concept of having a >pentium optimied distro really cheats most of >the people in the computer world who either >don't own a pentium level x86 machine and or >don't own an intel machine.
:)
>PPC is nice but what about the plethora of other >processors?
Mandrake has ISOs for Alpha, i486 and Sparc.
Nobody is hurting for non Intel linux distrobutions. Red Hat supports Sparc and Alpha. Etc...
What else is there? Z80?
Thanks to all the people who replied to my original post, I couldn't figure out how to edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config file, but while reading thru it I saw this line about disabling "CTRL + ALT + -", the solution was pretty easy to find then...
You are not me, therefore you are not important
I just tried to install 7.0 and now after futzing about for half an hour I see there is a new version available. 7.0 failed for me cause it couldn't find a partition... Well it never even asked me how to partition the drives. Most likely having both IDE and SCSI drives in the system confused it. This has seemed to confuse other releases. Hopefully in this version they got their install scripts working properly.
To avoid whining dumb fucks hanging around.
There is no way to program the fourth button useful AFAIK. it's not the same button as fourth. I use a MarbleFX, couldn't get it working.
for a color postscript, you can get buy.com Lexmark Optra 40.
as of other stuffs, go read how-to's. i.e. RTFM!
install everything you asked.
D U H !
I remember installing Slackware back in 1993 using floppies on my parent's 486sx33. It only took a few floppies and you were up and running. I didn't put a CDROM in it until OS/2 v 3 came out. Slackware 7 still has some floppy support so you can get a base install up with networking.
I still have that machine (sitting in the closet) and with Mandrake's 486 release I think I'll see what that old machine can do today. Of course I'll have to use a boot floppy.
A lot of work has been in the creation of update packages (MandrakUpdate is nice-ish), so why each time there is a point release of a distro do we have to download the ISO or buy the CD.
What I'd like to see is the possibility of upgrading using only the package differences.
Okay, everyone has there preference for one or the other distributions. Why can't people use that choice as its intended ? i.e. obtain , try , keep or try another .. All of them have their merits and pitfalls , sometimes I wonder that some people don't wish to put the effort in and expect one install to be the "be all and end all".
I'm using XFree 4 since it was out, and I have yet to get it to crash... It also has many advantages over 3.3.x like: .rpm)
- Truetype fonts support out of the box (or out of the
- 3D support, including DRI and if you have a voodoo3, you can now get 3D in a window (at last)
- It's fully modularized: One example, when X Free starts up, it loads a module for scanning the PCI bus to find graphic cards, and when the scanning is complete, it just unloads the module... So memory usage is lower than 3.3.x and it also has the effect that X starts really faster...
BTW for those of you using a SuSE distro, rpm updates are available on ftp.suse.com
100 pages about the ins and outs of LM, a user forum, an offline edition and a news letter.
cu
tom, MUO-webslave
--
--
"Just believe everything I tell you, and it will all be very, very simple."
I too have had the 7.0 crash on installs, but that was only on one (maybe 2) computers, thats a result of a bug that was fixed for 7.0-2
Frequently Mandrake crashes at the shutdown, this occured in both 6.1 and 7.0 for me
The other problems you've mentioned though, i have not had any problems with personally, however some of them may very well be a result of a frankenstien system. Then again, my system is made from various parts as well.
Actually, I think it would just have to be too
stuborn, as you can get a pentium system for $100
or less (I know, I just picked up 2 IBM P133
systems to fill out some specific functions on
my home network)
.technomancer
.technomancer
Wait 'til they actually release 7.1 final and not just the beta, and then check out EverythingLinux. It'll be there ASAP - CDR for about $AU 10-15 I imagine. Or have a look at the Mandrake mirror at aarnet which I imagine will have a download soon.
Man, I think Slashdot needs a new feature, a "Peanut Gallery". It could perhaps be a slashbox or something like the top 10 posts box. I think we really need to save the hilariously worthless posts. The ones that are so stupid and meaningless that they are actually funny. I'm not sure if it would work just to take the /lowest/ scoring posts, because then you'd get tons of completely irrelevant and humorless posts...but the unique and mind boggling non-sequitors and detritus need to be captured I think in some sort of bin people can gawk at. Throw this guy in. Throw OOG in. Throw Natalie Portman's petrified first post grits in.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
It's not better or worse than Red Hat, Slackware, or any other linux distro, it's just different, and that's why it's so good :)
Now, the only CPUs that won't benefit from pentium optimisation are lower than pentium CPUs. Those are 486es and 386es.
That's not entirely correct - I've done some benchmarking (computationally intense SW), and at least on AMD K6-2 and Celerons (the two I tested), compiling with -march=pentium, pentiumpro or K6 all resulted in slower code than without these switched (egcs 1.1.2, gcc 2.95.2)
I'd hate to be pro-MS here but they had a good idea with the "Year" versioning scheme. However their execution was terrible. (win 95 in 96?!?)
I say the verion numbers should be year.month of actual release. So if mandrake releases "7.1" in June the version should be "Mandrake 2000.6".
I know it looks weird at first but at least to me it makes perfect sense. From the version numbers I can tell which distribution was released last.
IE Mandrake 2000.6 VS. Redhat 2000.3
But that will never happen,
Sigh
Ex-Nt-User
SuSE - the power of German engineering - not only for your car! ;-)
They started listing two.
Now it's dropped to one, and it's hammered.
Are there any mirrors of the 2 ISO's ANYWHERE at the moment? (Yes, make your own insturctions may be avalable, however it is much, much easier to download one.)
Thanks to any intelligent replys in advance.
PS: (I'd like to "thank" the people in #linux on EFNet on this subject, you people were ALOT of help. Quite honestly, #linux on EFNet is what's wrong with the Linux community atm).
I can't have any respect for a distro that's putting X 4.0 into any sort of release. Despite the fact that it's versioned as an actual release, the general consensus is that it's still beta quality w.r.t stability
Funny, that reminds me of another window system.
Will I retire or break 10K?
So, Oprah's got Oxygen, Mandrake's got Hydrogen, at least Red Hat had the guts to name theirs after the best South Park character (Cartman, of course)!!!!
lf.o
First, I despise the bad grammar, mispelling, you made one mistake in your post so you must be full of crap replies. Sometimes the person is a complete moron and needs to be corrected. However, for the most part, those sort of posts appear for the sole purpose of turning attention away from the topic at hand.
:-> all this distro infighting is silly. It is all about choice. Some people like the changes, "optimizations" and things Mandrake has done. Good. I like SuSe. Other people like Red Hat and swear by it. I can not tell you how many posts on the merits and problems with distros I have read in this group of posts echo one unifying characteristic. They reflect the user's own experiences. The most opinionated people had a bad experience with Mandrake and stuck with RedHat or they had a bad experience with RedHat and Mandrake had something they wanted. We all need further the Linux/GNU OS and stop bickering among ourselves over the little things.
Also, why in the world insult people from the south? The Research Triangle, the Atlanta Business districts(ie GA TECH), and Austin are all bastions of higher technology. There are ill-educated idiots in every part of the country. Southerners are famous for the accent and the bad grammar but I have heard people Jersey and Boston accents that are almost as thick.
There are a lot of beer drinking, pickup truck driving, country music loving, good ol' boys living in the South. However, it is not a requirement for being born and raised in the Deep South. It is hard to believe but true.
Finally, (just to keep this from being marked off-topic)
ACK
This is JEFFK! I know it is. If anyone else wants to know what I'm talking about, check out:
Jeff K's website
I am virtually certain that this is the same guy.
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a funny comment: 1 karma
an insightful comment: 1 karma
a good old-fashioned flame: priceless
this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
I really think that the concept of having a pentium optimied distro really cheats most of the people in the computer world who either don't own a pentium level x86 machine and or don't own an intel machine.
Linux-Mandrake supports: i486, i586, k6 (unreleased), alpha, ultrasparc, and ppc.
KDE vs. Gnome: While both distributions include both desktop environments, Mandrake puts most of their effort into developing KDE and writing configuration tools using the KDE framework. Redhat, on the other hand, writes most of their tools nowadays using the Gnome Framework, and works primarily on making their Gnome desktop useable. The upshot of this is that if you prefer KDE, you might prefer Mandrake, but if you prefer Gnome, you'd likely want to go with RedHat.
Minimalism vs. Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Redhat has taken a fairly minimalistic approach to creating their distribution. They've cut some of the packages they used to include out of the distribution (moving them to the PowerTools CD, often). They focus on making sure the core packages that they do include work well together and form a solid base platform which can be extended. Mandrake, on the other hand, adds new packages with every release, packaging just about anything that desktop users frequently download and install themselves anyway. The upshot of this is that if you like a distribution that is basic and solid, you might want to go with RedHat. On the other hand, if you don't like downloading and installing software and you want as much as you can get on a CD, you might prefer Mandrake.
Older, tested packages, with compatibility from minor relase to minor release vs. Bleeding Edge.: Redhat is relatively consistent from minor relase to minor release. Many users complained that Redhat 6.2 didn't include the latest Enlightenment. This is because Redhat wanted their default Gnome/Enlightenment desktop to behave in a very consistent manor as 6.0 and 6.1 did. They didn't feel they could achieve this while including the latest Enlightenment package. With RH 7.0 being a major release, this won't be a factor any more. Redhat often waits for packages to become tried-and-true and tested before including them. With new major kernel releases, they usually wait until 4 or 5 updates before using it. Mandrake, on the other hand, usually includes the latest releases of every package on their distribution, sometimes even including pre-release or beta versions of packages. The upshot of this is that if you prefer stable, well-tested with time software, you will probably want to go with Redhat. If you want bleeding edge, flashy software with lots of new features, you'd probably want to go with Redhat.
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Celebrate the finer things in life
Uhh, that's not true. Redhat has caught flack many times for actually releasing with "pre" kernels !! They've released a new version with a kernel that was not officially released yet more than once.
I've seen news about new releases from Microsoft here before. It's just that there is only one microsoft, and many linux distros, so they generate more news.
Trust me, if Microsoft releases a new OS, you'll hear about it here. Now, some of the comments might be biased, but that's life.
Yeah, Supermount is built into the STANDARD kernel, but I installed the high security form of 7.0 and it seems Supermount support isn't built into that kernel. Sigh. (Is there a good reason for this? And the fact that
Mandrake doesn't seem as thoroughly tested as other distros, but I still use it on my workstation machine 'cause it's got so much cool new stuff... Of course, my server's another story.
/* The beatings will continue until morale improves. */
Which version(s) of Redhat were released with a pre-release of the kernel? I don't recall any.
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Celebrate the finer things in life
The redhat 6.0 and 6.1 kernels, at least, use stable kernels, but with numerous (over 30!) patches, some of them from pre-kernels. Most, I suspect, are back-ports from stuff that came out shortly before they were going to release, but still...
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
rm /etc/motd :)
Hmmm.. a "medieval plant"? There aren't too many of those, most plant genera exist for longer periods of time.
The Mandrake root is a focus of superstition and mystery in European and Asian cultures from the dawn of recorded history to the present. Supposedly this is because the root looks like a human being, and in fact this may have once been true. It's occasionally true today, but all the mandrakes I've ever seen had more than two legs. On the other claw, the crabs in Shimonseki strait all seem to have the faces of drowned Samurai on their backs - because the ones that don't have such markings are eaten by the local fisherfolk. Perhaps most mandrakes were once bifurcate, and human gathering practices have selected away from any strong resemblance to a human profile. I dunno.
Now, the real definition of Mandrake, for linux geeks - Mandrake is a shortish, grizzled oldtimer with a slight accent (when speaking English) a pleasant manner, and a high degree of technical expertise. He puts out the GNU/Linux Mandrake distribution, which was originally based on Red Hat but has diverged recently due to the incredible number of advances made in the Open Source software community - Red Hat and Mandrake have differing ideas (hooray for that!) about what should be in their distributions, and we the consumers of pre-packaged GNU/Linux are the winners in that we have two choices for high quality distros.
Go learn to use a search engine, and you can find out a lot more about mandrake roots, linux distributions, and related topics. Start at Dogpile, which is a meta-search engine, and that will provide you with links both to your topics of research and other search engines.
--Charlie
We were all newbies once. Except me, of course. I was born with a silicon chip up my nose.