Mandrake 8.1 Released

Loke and several others wrote in with notes about Mandrake Linux 8.1. Release notes are available, or download an .iso, or just order it. Looks like it includes KDE 2.2.1, which is pretty impressive...

Comments

More details about the release...

[joestar]

Mandrake 8.1 is called "Vitamin". It comes with a bunch of new features such as MandrakeFirstTime that lets users centralize their Internet parameters and subscribe to the new MandrakeOnlineServices (personalized updates advisories, depending on your system). Also this is AFAIK the first Linux distro to offer the journalized file-systems XFS, Ext3, ReiserFS at the same time! Last but not the least it offers the beautiful KDE 2.2.1 (with antialiasing in standard) and GNOME 1.4.1. While the previous releases were very oriented to end-users, this new one offers excellent features for server use.

Mandrake is a really nice distro

[gunnk]

I've been running 8.1 RC-1 for about a week. Yep, I've had a few bugs (the graphical login makes me login TWICE before it lets me in on my ThinkPad). However, KDE 2.2.1 is sweet, running XFree86 4.x.x is a HUGE improvement, and the whole thing feels more integrated than other distros I've dealt with such as RedHat (i.e.: the software packages are more likely to "play nice" with each other). Yes, it IS easier for novices to use, but that doesn't make it any less powerful than the distros that are a pain to install, configure, and maintain. Contrary to the view of some folks, Mandrake is not producing a "beginner's version". Hats off to Mandrake for a great distro!

Re:A Bold Statement

[brunes69]

Dunno about he other issues, but DrakFont lets you just click the "Install windows fonts" button, and it finds and installs all fonts on your windows partition... Can't get much easier than that. I believe you can also choose a specific directory to install them from if you want.

Re:Alternative Distributions

[fcrozat]

If you don't like our menu structure, run menudrake and choose Action/Menu Style/Standard menu and you'll get KDE/GNOME original menus.

And nobody forces you to use Mandrake tools :))

Very nice, but still something missing...

[mnordstr]

I've been using Mandrake, loved it.
I've been using RedHat, loved it.
I am using LFS, married it.

You say something is good in this distro, something is bad in that distro. Make your lives easy and get the most out of your machines. Make your own distro! I did it and now I'm running the very latest, the very best, and only the things I want to run. Nothing more, nothing less.

Re:Japanese support?

[deno]

CJK support in LM 8.1 should be much better than in 8.0, but chinese was the primary target, rather than japanese.

Unfortunately I don't speak any of CJK languages, but if/when you give it a try, please drop a note on mandrakeforum.com.

thx!

ATTENTION Ximian Desktop Users!

[Zero__Kelvin]

An important point here ...If you are a Ximian Desktop user, do not upgrade yet. Ximian has install for up to Mandrake 8.0, but no 8.1 yet. When trying to upgrade to 8.1-RC1 I had to install ximian desktop to get Gcombust working for some reason, so I could burn the .iso images, and I was blown away by Ximain Desktop . Alas, I upgraded without checking to see that Ximian was not supporting 8.1 (which I should have figured anyway, since 8.1 was still in beta, but you never know.) I am now anxiously awaiting Ximians 8.1 support, because my life will never be the same again until they do 8^{ Just a friendly FYI!

nVidia RPMs for 8.1

[belbo]

Until nVidia offers them, you can get them via MUO.

tom (mandrakesoft)