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 ;)

Comments

Mandrake is cool, but surely Debian is better.

[Flabdabb Hubbard]

From an 'open source' perspective. Debian is the only GNU/Linux distro that adheres to RMS's definition of 'open source'. While Mandrake, and Redhat (based on Mandrake) are not open source, but are the more restrictive 'free software' as defined by Eric Raymond and Bruse Perens 'Open Software Definition'.

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.

Re:Mandrake is cool, but surely Debian is better.

[Flabdabb Hubbard]

Not a troll at all. The BSD license forces you to make your code available to all and sundry. The GPL and LGPL are less restrictive, since they allow you to remain free of commercial exploitation. Also, the BSD license is viral, and has a worm-like nature.

Had I been trolling, I would have said something like "linux sux my w2k box has been up for 1 year rock solid"

Re:Keeps getting better...

[Phork]

FIrst, i havent seen a distro in several years that you cannot setup an ext2 partition in the installer.

debian has all the faetures you mentioned(but they are targted to more advanced users).

a few days ago installed debian on my laptop with devfs and reiserfs root, and an ext2 /home(so i can share it with freebsd). now all admit it was not all point and click, I didnt use the standard debian install disks, i used the reiserfs install discs. And then i put a custom kernel on the disk, and a newer version of mkreiserfs on a seperate floppy, but if i had chosen, i could have worked off the regular reiserfs install floppys.

Debian has a software update utility, being aslashdot reader, im sure you have heard of it, apt-get. And debian does have custom managment utilitys, there called bash and emacs.

if i wanted gui configuration utilitys, and other things to hide the details from me, i would proably use mandrake, but i like editing config files, i like knowing exactly what is happening on my system. Thats why i use debian.

Re:Keeps getting better...

[MKalus]

SuSE does that just fine.

I deployed this week SuSE 7.2 on several machines all running ReiserFS happily (and that's a good thing as one of the new guys decided that to "move" a box he just "unplugs" it while it was still humming away.

Nevertheless: SuSE is pretty nice sind 6.4 and since 7.0 the ReiserFS is standard and works just like a charm.

Michael

Re:Where the KDE versions os Drake Tools?

[nathanm]

Something I left out of my previous post is the fact that porting to KDE would be completely useless. These tools can already be used by someone using KDE.

HardDrake, their hardware detection tool, is already a KDE program. The gnome version isn't even released yet, but available in cvs.

DrakX, their graphical installer, doesn't use any desktop. It's only used in the installation or upgrade of your system. Which is really only useful to someone putting together their own distro.

DiskDrake, their graphical partition tool, uses only the Perl/Gtk library for its interface, not gnome or any other desktop. Most distros (even the ones using KDE as their desktop) include Perl/Gtk by default.

Admittedly the suggestion might be more likely to be acted on if it were sent to Mandrake Forum instead of Slashdot, but I doubt that you've actually checked to see whether the above poster has sent the suggestion to Mandrake or not.

I didn't have to check. If the poster had checked MandrakeSoft's website, they wouldn't have whined on /. in the first place.