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Mandrake 8.1 Beta1 (Raklet) Released
keegnotrub writes: "Mandrake just dumped 8.1 Beta on their servers. Along with updated software (KDE 2.2, kernel 2.4.8, etc) they have reworked their control center to include many new features." Word to the wise: there are some reactions to this beta -- as well as a list of known bugs and fixes -- at mandrakeforum.com. What I'd like to know is if a Wacom Intuos USB tablet will work out-of-the-box on 8.1, since I just bought a refurbed one ;)
Why are they using devfs? I'm not sure who was smoking crack on that one, but it's junk. It's never really worked, and it doesn't work with half of the drivers currently out there, so forget about it if you want to use things like ReiserFS or nVidia cards. Furthermore, you can't decide to not use it in the install, and switching back to dev afterwards is a major PITA.
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
ARGH!!!...if you check out the Mandrake site they have a link of their homepage showing how 8.1 is alot like windows XP. Is it a good thing that a Microsoft OS and a Linux OS have so much in common?
Oh, all the Linux zealots really want to use Windows, but they can't without losing their face. So they do want a Linux that looks like Windows.
while you might not like it mandrake is really good for those unfortunate souls who want to move from windows over to linux. dont worry though. there are always other alternatives for those of us who dont particularly like the microsoft look.
:). the point: there are alot of alternatives. if you dont like this one, dont use it.
see most people coming from windows are not ready for 'linux from scratch'. not everyone can be as elite as you and i
-- john
Best of all, Mandrake truly does have a great setup procedure. For example, name one other distro in which you can easily setup ReiserFS, JFS, ext3, and ext2 filesystems during the installation. And afterwards, you have such tools as the Software Update utility, which is a decent way to keep up with security updates. And don't forget the custom user, printer, and other management utilities.
I know many people call Mandrake a newbie distro, but who said that having an easy to use distro is a bad thing? Plus, even though it's "easy to use", I can still setup and configure it however I want. Mandrake seems to be getting better and better, and I wouldn't be suprised to see it take over as the Desktop distro for both newbies and experts alike.
If you believe in freedom, you are better off going the debian route, since that way you are ensured that your distro is 100% Open Source, whereas with mandrake, it is all 'free software', but some of it may be released under the highly restrictive BSD license which RMS has criticised in the past, since it allows huge corporations such as Microsoft to profit at the expense of open source developers.
They note all the improvements of 8.1beta1 over 8.0, but none of it seems particularly compelling. The latest versions of X, Y, and Z are de riguer at this point, and can be added to your existing install painlessly anyway. The improvements to their management tools are incremental (yes, I know it's a . release). I'll probably grab it when it's final just to see the new mgmt tools but my system (running Krud) has the latest Gnome/Evolution/Gimp/Gphoto/etc etc etc already so it's going to go on the guinea pig box basically to see if I should install it on my wife's computer.
this is getting old and so are you
blog
anyone know how i could get hold of the supermount patch they use? the official supermount patch broke with 2.4.4 and hasnt worked since - im using 2.4.9.
stuff
it seems like mandrake would like the reputation of being the most up to date distro. The release coincides with the release of KDE 2.2 very nicely. Some may not care for mandrake, but people on the linux for the desktop front should see this as good support for windows users looking to jump ship.
New Mandrake releases are like nose-candy for newbies. I've been hooked for a while now. I love Slack, and Debian is where its at. But I still love to get my hands on the latest ML releases just to see what new things they put in the distro. But it makes ya lazy, everything(generally) works right out of the box.(Some might consider that a feature;) Mandrake Forum seems to be turning into a little community. Kudos particularly to Deno for that site. There's lots of nuggets to ferret out of that site if you have problems.
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
When Redhat goes under, and all open source development moves offshore, you will only have yourselves to blame, just as we Americans have only ourselves to blame for the tragic failure of our auto industry. Do you really want to put the French in a position to declare French the official language of open source development? I certainly don't, but it looks to me that their greatest competitor might soon be German, instead of English, the language which made free software possible.
I urge all linux users to avoid MAndrake and SuSE distributions. They rob US open source business of vital funds, and will inevitably lead to the collapse of more and more linux businesses.
Denial isn't just a river in Italy
My solution to these problems was to wipe and reinstall. Most settings were stored in my home dir which I did not wipe and the rest of the programs were upgraded as a side effect. My RiserFS partitions were uneffected and when I was finished the strage problems I had went away.
I enjoy my Mandrake dist. but I'd caution those who are looking to "upgrade" via their installer.
or maybe it was some other distro
from the article... now it is your turn to make it become Good and Wonderful Release(TM), namely Mandrake Linux 8.1(Raklet). :P
spelling taco
first real post ??
use Signature::Witty;
Mandrake is into making polished linux distro's for Newbie users.
Mandrake releases buggy beta versions on their website.
Newbie uses download beta version and have major problems, and get mad at mandrake.
Bad descision guys.
I'm glad to see a new version of MDK so soon. I've a lot of problems since going to 8.0 from 7.2
I lost full video card support, couldn't update the kernel without killing the machine, and worse than all... my favorite xscreensavers wouldn't work.
I'm looking forward to this huge download, mostly because I would like to see the new 'Control Center'. Every other distro I've used never had a tool that worked so well.
I hope the software update is 100% working though...
Get your Unix fortune now!
They seem to always include the latest releases in there releases I seem to have more problems with mandrake then other disros but it's fun being on the bleeding edge
http://Lenny.com
Good thing I got it before the mirrors where /.'d. With the 'few' problems with the Beta, you might be better off with Cooker....
-- I care not for your foolish signatures.
Why hasn't Mandrake yet provided KDE versions of the Drake tools? Am I the only one who strongly feels the need for this? As a paying customer I feel it frustrating that I am not being heard. Mandrake, are you listening? Please port those tools to KDE and give your users a choice!
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
Once the few bugs get worked out - The whole Mandrake 8.1 sytem is really a Windows desktop replacement. I'm really excited to wipe out a secratary's Windows computer, replace it with Mandrake and watch what happens. My hunch is, after explaining to her that the Start button is now a "K" - and MS.Word is now called KWord, then she will turn to me and say "OK." And proceed to work as if nothing has happened. After a few hours , I bet she'll say :
"Wow, this new version of Windows sure has a lot of cool card games, Thanks!"
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
I suspect MandrakeForum is using the Mandrake PostgreSQL RPMs. They're built with a (default) 32 connection limit.
/home/www/mandrakeforum.com/html/mainfile.php on line 24
Warning: Too many connections in
Unable to select database
- James
For the vast majority of secratary-produced documents, tabs and tab stops are easier to use and easier to teach. I don't want them spending hours noodling with table setting and grid lines. I want them to get the damn document out the door.
If one needs documents of a lenghty nature - MS Word is not the answer. LaTeX is. You can have the secrataries enter the text, and have professionals do the layout.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Never seen so many -1s, especially now that I haven't seen TollTroll around for awhile.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth
um. First, if RMS (Richard Stallman) heard you saying Debian "adheres to his definition of open source", you'd be in for the argument of your life. RMS has nothing to do with open source, he will tell you so if you ask him about open source, instead letting you know that he crafted the definition of "free software" and it applies to all GNU software. Debian, which could be called the "FSF-sponsored Linux distribution", uses exclusively free software. A program could qualify as "open source", but not as "free software", in which case it won't be in Debian (well, it might be found under the non-free section).
Second, who told you Red Hat is based on Mandrake? its completely the other way around, and actually, Mandrake has been the target of many comments stating how they are just a Red Hat ripoff adding nothing except a lot of cutting-edge but unproven software.
Finally, the BSD license might not be of RMS's liking, but it's a free software license (at least the version without the advertising clause), and altough it's not recommended by free software advocates, because it gives up some of the GPL's protection against appropriation of your work, it's certainly more free (freer?) than a lot of licenses that are OSI-approved, but which won't qualify as free under the FSF's definition.
Perhaps you were thinking ESR (Eric Raymond) when you wrote RMS (Richard Stallman)??
They're still using the evil gcc 2.96, and not only that, the users in MandrakeForums want it that way. I am just not their market anymore, I guess. I see gcc 3.0 out with 3.01 coming, and my first thought is: "great, they can break free of Red Hat's crappy decision!" But the Mandrake users appear to want Red Hat compatibility even to the point of following Red Hat's bad ideas. Oh well. I was holding out for 8.1. I guess it's time to find alternatives.
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
In a recent discussion about another distro, someone posted a link to a great chart which showed the release numbers of all the major apps included in each distro. Can someone please post that link?
http://planetmirror.com/pub/mandrake/iso/i586/8.1/
btw, it's "Raklet" not "Rakel", from the filename.
cheers,
-jason
Check out the list of features and packages at www.distrowatch.com/mandrake.htm.
wm2 is way more 1337.
why the hell does anyone use bullshit bloatware like kde and gnome?!? they are slow gui pieces of shit, designed to be "user friendly". well, this is bullshit, because real unix users don't need user-friendliness! real men use wm2. one thing we don't need are these easier-to-use gui pieces of shit tempting normal people to think they can use unix. if you wanna use unix, RTFM!! this trend of inviting normal people onto the 1337 unix user bandwagon is why i switched from linux to freebsd (running wm2, of course). too many people are using linux today, only because some assholes have made it easier for them. this is stupid, because the only reason to use linux or some other unix is to be 1337 and different. i blame redhat!
redhat, mandrake, etc... need to distribute all their future releases to use wm2 as the desktop environment. they should also stop giving customer support, and replace the dumbass instruction books with pieces of paper that say "RTFM". linus should disable future kernel releases from using window managers other than wm2. maybe then linux will have a chance of being 1337 again.
I installed Mandrake 8.0, and I was amazed. Everything worked, and the install was easier than any version of Windows.
Sometimes bad hardware, or bad connections, can cause a difficult or impossible install. An adapter card that is not making good contact, for example, can confuse the install system. Bad contacts are cured by pulling the card or cable connector out a tiny amount, and pushing it back.
A spike in the power, if you are not using a battery backup, can put junk in memory. In this case, re-booting the machine and starting the install over fixes the problem.
Bush's education improvements were
The third time?
It was posted on mandrake's site on the 17th.
Posting anonymously cause i don't want to burn karma
Nope. And the entire business world disagrees with you, too. Finally, very few people outside the computer science and maths world use Latex for anything. Adobe's products are much preferred for that sort of thing.
I'm really a newbie. I'm not newest of the new, I can compile and have my own kernels/etc, but I still feel I have alot to learn before I can pull myself out of the newbie catagory, maybe low middle user or whatever...
I have used mandrake since 7.0, bought the power pack and upgraded since all the way to 8.0 every increment. Mandrake allways gave me a feeling of bloat and being unfinished. The install was nice, but all the setup and configure tools afterward seemed half done. They would work some of the time but not allways and not ever flawlessly. I allways ended up going and configuring everything manually. It also filled up my HD with programs that weren't documented or linked to anywhere. Just wasting space, not letting me know they were there or what they could do for me.
Also has anyone tried compiling a new kernel on a mandrake machine? It's a pain. They include all these extras in the kernel that if you give the system a new one it craps it's pants. I applaud their efforts in making a newbie distro, but I love my Slackware. The install is slightly less user friendly, but it is easy, quick and best of all it works. The system runs perfectly and it has just the software that I want and use, no crap . I have recompiled many kernels on it, mostly recompiles because I have forgotten something or another, and never have had any problems. It's also the little things, like having fortune run in the login script. It's just a slick and wonderful distro.As soon as anyone gets their feet wet with Mandrake I highly recomend using Slackware. The best distro.
WikiAfterDark.com It's a sex wiki, go now!
Absolute freedom is a logically inconsistent abstract concept used by self-serving libertarian nut-jobs. It is an argument used to oppose laws that enhance real freedom for real people.
I've made some suggestions and I'd like to see them come to fruition.
/dev/rtc, /dev/nvram or the major/minor 36 (routing devices) are standard and configured, but the devices aren't made with default MAKEDEV. This isn't really critical to the system, but it is messy AFAIK.
As a longtime Mandrake user, one of the major problems I have with them is their stalwart insistence on including the most cutting edge software with *all* options installed, and then the inconsistencies begin to flow.
Good examples include the following:
* By default on 8.0, iptables is installed (and not ipchains). portsentry is installed, but its default ${KILL_ROUTE} is to use ipchains. A minor, one line fix to portsentry.conf is all that is needed.
* Speaking of iptables, it's safe to say that one shouldn't include all options for iptables in a generic kernel. Some of the options aren't compatible with each other. Some of the options are from patches for various versions of the kernel. ipchains support and ipfwadm support are compiled in as modules, but the default ipchains package is, i think, statically linked, because it doesn't work when ipchains.o is loaded anyway.
* Modules for devices like
* I swear, some of the patches are doing crazy things with the spinlocks. On 7.2 and above, when I compiled the system with USB support, 'apm suspend system' would freeze. This would make going into PhoenixBIOS hibernation (which worked with 7.0/7.1, and redhat) freeze as well. Without USB compiled in, everything is dandy.
* Various minutia: when one installs VNCServer, it prompts for a password from stdin, but by default, Aurora is installed, thus capturing keyboard and mouse input. Thus the system blocks on input.
This is NOT me bashing Mandrake. I love mandrake. Repeat: I LOVE MANDRAKE. I think it's very customizable, I think it's very easy for the newbie but quite configurable for the non-newbie (it should be noted that I was able to solve all of the above problems with a little bit of tinkering). It's just that these little blemishes should be addressed on minor point revisions (most weren't between major point revisions 7.2->8.0).
Three Step Plan:
1. Take over the world.
2. Get a lot of cookies.
3. Eat the cookies.
It already got slashdotted:P
Don't knock newbie-friendly distros ...Thanks to Mandrake, I've been able to familiarize myself with Linux and am well on my way to being a full-time aficonado (I'm about 60/40 between LM 8.0 and Win ME right now). It's this kind of distro that offers entry to the non-Microsoft world for those middle-of-the-road pseudo geeks (like me) who've been disaffected by MS' strong-arming. No way would I -- and the thousands who will soon follow me thanks to the XP debacle -- find a comfort zone and embrace Linux if we didn't have the easy-install experience that Mandrake and its ilk provide. After we get our feet wet, guess what? You're gonna have a whole lot of converts to the cause. Call it Linux with training wheels if you want, but even Lance Armstrong -- and all of you /.ers -- had to start somewhere.
of gcc released at the time Red Hat made this decision (3.0 is even more compliant, but not as stable) yet).
It may not be "standards compliant" as in "what most others
are shipping", but 2.96 is almost fully ISO C99 and ISO C++ 98
compliant, unlike any previous version of gcc.
handle only a very limited subset of C++.
Earlier versions of g++ often had problems with templates and other
valid C++ constructs.
including ia64. No other compiler can do this. Having to maintain different
compilers for every different architecture is a development (find a bug, then
fix it 4 times), QA and support nightmare.
companies make you believe.
First of all, they affect dynamically linked C++ code only.
If you don't use C++, you aren't affected. If you use C++ and link statically,
you aren't affected.
If you don't mind depending on a current glibc, you might also want to
link statically to c++ libraries while linking dynamically to glibc and other
C libraries you're using:
g++ -o test test.cc -Wl,-Bstatic -lstdc++ -Wl,-Bdynamic
(Thanks to Pavel Roskin for pointing this
out)
Second, the same issues appear with every major release of gcc
so far. gcc 2.7.x C++ is not binary compatible with gcc 2.8.x. gcc 2.8.x C++
is not binary compatible with egcs 1.0.x. egcs 1.0.x C++ is not binary
compatible with egcs 1.1.x. egcs 1.1.x C++ is not binary compatible with
gcc 2.95. gcc 2.95 C++ is not binary compatible with gcc 3.0.
Besides, it can easily be circumvented. Either link statically, or
simply distribute libstdc++ with your program and install it if necessary.
Since it has a different soname, it can coexist with other libstdc++ versions
without causing any problems.
Red Hat Linux 7 also happens to be the first Linux distributions using
the current version of glibc, 2.2.x. This update is not binary compatible with
older distributions either (unless you update glibc - there's nothing that
prevents you from updating libstdc++ at the same time), so complaining about
gcc's new C++ ABI breaking binary compatibility is pointless. If you want
to distribute something binary-only, link it statically and it will run
everywhere.
Someone has to be the first to take a step like this. If nobody dared
to make a change because nobody else is doing it, we'd all still be using
gcc 1.0, COBOL or ALGOL. No wait, all of those were new at some point...
that older gccs accepted because they were not standards compliant - or, using
an alternative term to express the same thing, buggy.
A C or C++ compiler that doesn't speak the standardized C language is
a bug, not a feature.
In the initial version of gcc 2.96, there were a couple of other bugs.
All known ones have been fixed in the version from updates - and the version
that is in the current beta version of Red Hat Linux. The bugs in the initial
version don't make the whole compiler broken, though. There has never been
a 100% bug free compiler, or any other 100% bug free non-trivial program.
The current version can be downloaded
here.
after Red Hat released gcc 2.96-RH), fixes some problems, but introduces many
others - for example, gcc 3.0 can't compile KDE 2.2 beta 1 correctly.
Until the first set of 3.0 updates is released, I still claim 2.96 is
the best compiler yet.
Trolling for GCC 2.96
If you're not sure what the heck I'm talking about, here's a recent article in Linux.com that goes into some gory detail.
healyourchurchwebsite.com - WWJB?
Support is in XFree86. Just edit your Xfconfig. I had mine fully functional in about 15 minuets even though I tried to use SuSEs Sax2 first. Sax2 botched it so I reverted to manual as any good geek would. BTW I think the "a" should be a "u". I would recommend using "Absolute" as apposed to "Relative" for the pointers. Also note that there are a few bugs in the Gimp that can couse some strange behavior (unless the were fixed in the latest release that I haven't had time to install yet. I can not imagine Mandrake not including tablets in whatever GUI X configuration tool they have, but if they did, no biggy, its still Linux and not that other OS.
Since version 7.1 I had problems with app stability and core dumps and starting with mandrake 7.2 it became unbearable on my system. With 7.2 I had no modem, sound card, nic, and even cd-rom support on my system. I use standard parts like USR hardware based modem, creative labs awe32 sound card, netgrear nic, and a teac cd-rw. It was awefull. I even downloaded a later iso image of 7.2 hoping the bugs were fixed and still no luck.
I think your nuts to put that thing on a server! Hell even NT 4.0 sp1 would probably be more stable then any mandrake release after 7.1 and I am sadly serious too. Sure the linux kernel is stable but mandrake uses very alpha and bleeding edge apps and daemons.
An example is kde 2.0. It had alot of problems with the first release. If I recall mandrake finished their release of 7.1 or 7.2(don't remember which) just 3 days later with kde 2.0 included!
THen kde 2.1 came out and all the other distro's thought it was finally stable enough. Better but still buggy. Then kde 2.1.1 and then it was good. My point is that a distro with bleeding edge software and lots of bugs gives linux a bad name. Especially for those sick of windows and seeking alternatives.
Joe consumer: If kde crashes more then w2k, then why should I switch? Remember that ordinary users think if x crashes then linux crashes because they are use to thinking that the gui is the os. My cousin tried mandrake and switched to w2k sadly. Why? kde 2.0 and a few other apps kept crashing or were buggy and core dumped were generated left and right. Core dumps are everywhere and even NT can be fine for a week or two before it goes down or a bug here and there shows up. But thats not the case with mandrake.
I use to love mandrake alot. When I was a newbie I wanted the gui componets because I did not know the command line that well. After learning it I do not want to go back. I think most newbies would not trade stability for extra eye candies and nifty cool bleeding edge features and apps. I personally prefer debian or slackware because they are the most stable and use the most mature apps but I can't get good corporate support. Redhat has good support but a few of their apps are alpha like gvim. I might give mandrake a try just to "goof" with it. But I will not bet my job on using it in a server or any critical workstation.
Bleeding edge is not necessarily a good thing in a server/workstation oriented OS like linux/unix. Especially to corporate america curious about linux and checking its reliability and stability.
http://saveie6.com/
If your pad doesn't work out of the box in 8.0, try shutting down X and starting it manually. Hopefully they will have this problem fixed in 8.1.
What I really want to know though is, has anyone ever gotten the pressure sensitivity to work in GIMP? And if so, how? I'm using a USB Graphire and I am having no luck.
Here's a device that won't work under it:
Creative Labs Dxr3/Sigma Designs H+ DVD decoder card
Mind you, the author of the driver will probably include devfs (if devfs becomes popular) support in the future as he is aware of the issue, according to the readme.
I would like to copy the comment I've just posted to Mandrake Forum:
/etc/pam.d/sshd file which required the system-auth file. The result: I can no longer ssh to any of the upgraded boxes. At the same time there wasn't any upgrade for PAM available at the time, and the 7.2 rpm used a diffrent version of RPM so them were incompatibles, so I had to create /etc/pam.d/system-auth by copying it from newer boxes.
---
I didn't test this release, and I think I wouldn't even try mdk 8.1. I'm too tired from problems with Mandrake. Specially with upgrades, I've trashed my computer twice: upgrading 7.1 to 7.2, and later upgrading 7.2 to 8.0. Both times I ended with MANY problems, for example, with the upgrade to 8.0 you folks decided to change packages names, and didn't have any precaution with that. So, before the libs for some package came included in the "main" rpm and the development stuff came in the "devel" rpm. Now, the libs came in the "lib" package, so yada.rpm won't install because it required yada-lib.rpm and my computer didn't have that package before. So the system kept yada-old.rpm which won't run with new glibc and that.. So I had to install/upgrade about 200 rpms by hand.
Also, I had infinite problems with ReiserFS because you included it when it was WAY too beta in 7.1, and then never checked if the filesystems created under 7.1 would run with a kernel upgrade. Well, it would not. I had to spend many days in the reiserfs developers list to find out how to fix the problem. And I did the big mistake of installing mdk 7.1 with reiserfs on many of my servers at work.
For ending this long rant, I would comment that in 7.1 pam had a structure which didn't used the "pam_stack.so service=system-auth" trick. And when you upgraded SSH for a security problem, you sent the 7.1 upgrade with a
Mandrake folks: you made a beautiful and easy to use distribution, but you aren't paying any attention to reliability, nor upgradability.
I suspect many people now will have problems with XFS and ext3 as I had with ReiserFS.
PD: AND PLEASE: document in the package itself when it has non standard patches. I mean, specially, kernel. But also on others, for example CVS: nowhere it says that it has a shell script wrapper to pserver!!!!!!!!!!!!
yadda yadda
Will Mandrake support UDF from the start? Or do I have to do something before I can get UDF support?
...
I also have some problem on the sound. I'm using the onboard sound on Intel D815EEA2 motherboard.
If you would be so kind to tell me your experience with this motherboard
Oh, can anybody tell me what program I can use to watch VCD?
I have learned over the years that quality components make ALL the difference in the Wintel hardware world.
This is EXACTLY correct, and very important. Often cheaper components are being sold cheaply because they are somehow incompatible.
Save yourself grief. Buy the best hardware. Buy Intel motherboards with Intel processors, for example. The easy install with Mandrake 8.0 (two comments above) was with an Iwill motherboard and a Pentium 200 processor. At the time the system was bought, these were conservative choices for hardware.
I own a small computer dealership, and could have chosen any hardware on which to test Mandrake, but I wanted to see if the reports were correct. Is Linux fast on less powerful machines? It is.
The big hardware manufacturers want new software to be slow, because that causes customers to buy more expensive machines. Linux doesn't have this conflict of interest. It runs fast everywhere.
Good-quality hardware helps you avoid problems caused by a BIOS or OS programmer not coding for your particular hardware.
Once a friend bought a sound card for $12 from Fry's, back when sound cards were expensive. After several hours, we decided we would never be able to get it to work. That was the most expensive sound card I've ever touched.
Bush's education improvements were
Actually, phisicists and many chemists tend to use LaTeX too. More to the point, so do the vast majority of secretaries I know in the actuarial business: Which, as you may know, is hardly marginal. (hahaha getit? didn't think so. Damn teenagers on the site these days.)
My opinion is that Mdk 8.0 is very configurable and i afraid that newbies as well as experts can feel comfortable in diferents ways with this distro.
Hey,
I'm not sure if you guys figured how to get the tablet to work (the usb one intous), but after reading a few docs, etc..
i got it working, this might help some of you, and my setup is pretty common..
http://rain.prohosting.com/akbara00/xfile.txt
Let me restate your post: KWord doesn't support tables, so nobody needs them anyway. Selectric-style tabstops that force you to reformat your document every time the font changes are a better solution, no matter if the $12/hr secretarial staff knows better. Not that secretaries format documents, that job goes to some highly-paid LaTeX specialist in your strange reality.
I bet working with you is a kick in the head. That is, if you ever leave your parents' basement. With people like you advocating Linux, the enterprise is surely doomed.
I have been using Linux for a long time now. I love Linux-Mandrake because I can get everything up and going in a short amount of time AND STILL HAVE THE OPTION of editing script files to set-up things on my system afterwards. If I want to dig deep into my system, use the terminal to enter commands, not use X-windows or whatever us so-called power users like to do on a Linux system, I can still do it with Mandrake (and lets face it, those damn penguins are cute!). Mandrake does not "dumb-down" Linux like Windows. It lets power users and newbies use one platform. I also think that is very hilarious that Linux users would be arguing over how easy and less time consuming it is to configure and install their favorite distro versus another distro. This shows you how far the Linux distros have come to eliminating the myth that Linux is hard to install. Great work Mandrake team, Debian team and all other distro teams that have attacked this problem head on. As for Windows users, if you use your computer to do serious gaming, stay with Windows and wait for Wine to develop furthur before switching over. To all other Windows users, Mandrake is kicking serious MS butt!
Kelvin Miller
aka theKid
Well said - I'd mod you up if I could. :)
creation science book
WTF. I guess the moderator did not read the post let alone the artical.
With people like you advocating Linux, the enterprise is surely doomed.
What are you, some sort of deranged Star-Trek fanboy?
I live in Redmond area and I can't figgure out what group is more pathetic: The MS Outlook 'team' on their day out at the movies, or the Trekies on opening night. I'm stating to thing that the Trekies are the smarter ones - they at least have girls with them.
Buh-Bye
You havent restated my post correctly, as KWord 1.1 RC1 supports tables just fine. If you need help installing it, I'm sure your administartor will be happy to assist you. You might want to check out your local bookstore as well - they have all sort of books that can inform you on the use of your computer. Check out the books published by IDG - I'm sure they are on your level. Good luck!
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
So who do you go after? The Big Money - PHBs. But in general PHBs are considerably less willing to ditch what they know in favour of some upstart OS like Linux, so you need to appeal directly to them.
Now, believe it or not, M$ have actually spent a large amount of money in the past figuring out how to make stuff user friendly - even basic things like buttons illuminated from the top and _left_ rather than top and right were decided on by focus groups. But since M$ can't really claim to have been first out of the blocks with the WIMP GUI (I imagine Apple, and Xerox would have a lot to say if they did), it's difficult for them to lay claim to a lot of the desktop elements that they developed. Which means that companies like Mandrake can rip them off.
All of which makes their OS more familiar to those PHBs with fat wallets. But while the PHBs may have fat wallets, they usually have a big padlock on them too. And if, for example, their current OS vendors decided that they were only going to rent the new version of the OS to them, the PHBs might finally start looking around for a cheaper option.
Enter Mandrake, stage right, saying "Look, we look like XP, only we're all stable and won't cost you nearly as much". It's just business. And hopefully it'll improve the market penetration in the lucrative corporate desktop sector. If you want to stay 1337 then you can always use a different window manager (IIRC, Mandrake comes with quite a few in the default install, and nothing's stopping you adding more).
Blow me