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Mandrake 8.1 Released

Posted by michael on from the 586-goodness dept.

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...

3 of 416 comments (clear)

  1. Linux bloat :( by ishark · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'm vey happy 8.1 is out, since I'm a Mandrake user (running 8.1beta right now :), but I can't close my eyes to the fact that the distributions are getting bigger and bigger and, what's worse, the demand on hardware are much higher.


    Even if Mandrake is very much desktop-oriented, this should not necessairly mean requiring a monster. I'm using a K6/2 350Mhz and the CPU power is fine. Not blazing fast, but ok. On the contrary, the 64Megs of RAM are way too little. I don't use GNOME/KDE (I prefer plain WindowMaker), but at the moment the situation is:


    total used free shared buffers cached

    Mem: 62240 60456 1784 1056 1124 15232

    -/+ buffers/cache: 44100 18140

    Swap: 66524 27508 39016


    27M of swap is not the end of the world, except that I'm using old recycled disks, with a throughput of 3-5 Mb/sec. And with this disks, you can FEEL the system swapping.


    What suprises me is that I'm running the same stuff I was using with the old releases, but nevertheless RAM usage is going up!!

    Even if RAM is cheap, I don't see any reason to go the Microsoft way. Featurithis is not a need.....
    Please keep this in mind, all you software developers...better many small utils which do stuff than one big monster....


    PS: I can't consider Mandrake a server distro, there's too much bleeding edge stuff. This is nice for the desktop, but stability is affected. I'd stick to Debian for a server.

  2. Take a look at the startup scripts by wiredog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're usually in /etc/rc.d and most distros start things that aren't needed. Also, if you have a hackish bent, go to the source directory and "make xconfig" to see how the kernel was built. Are there drivers compiled in that aren't needed? Bloat can be fought!

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  3. Re:A Bold Statement by gunnk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A think it is an accurate statement. Linux in general IS an alternative to Windows and MacOS. Certainly the systems have differing capabilities, but just as you named a couple of things that Linux may not do that Windows or Macs do, that doesn't mean the reverse isn't also true. There are lots of things I can do on my Linux box that I can't AFFORD to do from Windows. I make my graphics for my web page in the Gimp -- what dabbler could afford to buy Photoshop? Likewise, I can run my own Apache web server to host my page if I want -- with the ability to do gobs of CGI scripts to boot. Running MS's personal webserver on Win 9x is a poor alternative to that. The point I'm making is that the OS's are all ALTERNATIVES to one another. The best choice for you is the one that has the most functionality FOR YOU.

    A bicycle is an alternative to a car. No, a bicycle can't go 70 mph down the freeway. Then again, my car can't take me offroad through the woods. They are both forms of transportation, but the have different capabilities.

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