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Mandrake 7.1 Beta Ready For Download

Posted by Hemos on from the come-and-get-it dept.

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.

1 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Mandrake strong points... by ninjaz · · Score: 5
    Mandrake's primary strong point is that they seriously push the envelope when it comes to "Real User" stuff. The linked download instructions to 7.1 provide some details of what's in 7.1 -

    Some highlights:

    • If Windows is also on the computer, DrakFont gives the user access to his Windows fonts under Linux.
    • Enhanced USB support for modems, printers, Zip drives
    • i810 based video cards now supported
    • ATA 66 (UDMA 66) interface
    • For professional environments, now shipping ReiserFS, a new journalized file system
    • All Helix Code GNOME improvements incorporated

    Some of the stuff in the previous version (7.0), was framebuffer support, SuperMount (which automatically mounts removable media), security levels (eg., 4 & 5 default to no externally accessible services - you have to turn them on yourself), and DiskDrake, which allows you to resize fat/fat32 partitions at install time (and is FREE!).

    They've always been pentium-compiled and have always had a strong focus on shipping with a slick KDE desktop. They also appear to have more solid releases than Red Hat, and release often, so you can run stable-but-recent (as opposed to Debian, where you've got a years-old stable release system or recent unstable system).

    There's a good article at LWN - http://lwn.net/2000/features/Linux Mandrake.phtml and, of course, information all over Linux Mandrake's website. ;)