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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...
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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.
My father-in-law lives in Japan and is very interested in breaking free of M$. The one thing that is really slowing him down is easy, out-of-the box Japanese support. That is to say, he wants to be able to create word processor files in Japanese--he's American, so he understands English just fine, but getting KWord or Star Office to understand Japanese text has not been easy for him.
He also has an ATI Radeon, which the beta version of 8.1 didn't seem to catch.
:Peter
I'm not a lazy user, but Mandrake is the first Linux distro that I have been able to use without calling a friend every 5 minutes to figure something out. I first installed 7.2, then 8.0, and I have been able to use it for most things. Now that I am getting familiar with it, I am starting to learn to compile my own apps, and set up some not-so standard hardware, like my scanner and sound card. I started as a newbie, but I am learning more and more about it all the time.
Mandrake is a great distro for beginners, but they don't hide everything, so that if you want to learn stuff more in depth, you can.
Lazy? No. Lack of knowledge because I have used Windows for so long? Yes. Learning more everyday about Linux, but I was still able to get the basic system up and running without help. Now instead of editing a stupid text file for 10 hours with no luck, I can go-back and figure that stuff out on my own time, instead of ripping my hair out.
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!
Life is short: void the warranty.
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.
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!
Best Slashdot Co
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.
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
oh please no...
i think any version of linux becoming defacto standard (like red hat), would be a disaster. choices and competition are good. they all have their place, none have their place being the standard, not even my favorite (no i don't want a flamewar, i'm not saying which one it is).
add to that my personal opinion that mandrake is far to windows like and does way to many things without asking...
-------
"don't smoke, don't drink, don't fuck
at least i can fucking think"
Minor Threat
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.
Life is short: void the warranty.
Could Slashdot please quit doing this. Those of that read this site generally know where to go to get downloads of linux distros. All you are doing is killing the site.
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.
1. Do they check dependencies well?
/usr/local), both can co-exist. I guess they'd be equal here.
Well, no, not really. Mandrake is known for being 1st to market with new apps and new versions, sometimes there are problems with dependency checking. Generally, though, someone will send in a fix sooner or later.
2. Sometimes I like to compile from source, which distro is that more likely to break things or cause trouble on?
I've been compiling certain things from scratch without breaking the system (evolution, for example) on both RedHat and Mandrake. If you're careful (install into
3. Which one installs more stuff in total, RH or Mandrake?
Mandrake was started because RedHat didn't ship some useful apps. So, I think Mandrake wins here. Mandrake is also usually the 1st with any new app and the 1st with major (or even minor) upgrades.
Is it at all possible to use apt-get on RH, Mandrake easily? I know its been done but is it more trouble than its worth?
I know it's possible, but I've never tried it. Mandrake has a very nice tool, urpmi, which is very similar.
Citizens Against Plate Tectonics
GODDAMMIT! I downloaded the isos for 8.0 last night and installed it this morning. At the end of this install, the pc boots, I login, test the network connection by trying to go to slashdot. Set the gateway, get to /. and see THIS as the first story. Just wonder-fucking-ful. Oh well.
Linux: The world's best text-adventure game.
An important point here
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
One thing that I have never understood about Mandrake is why all the graphical setup tools are written using GTK+ rather than Qt?
It's plain that Mandrakesoft have tried very hard to make them look the same as the KDE Control Center, using a very similar theme to the KDE default highcolor style, and with KDE as the default desktop, I don't understand the choice of GTK+ at all.
Using Qt would make it far easier to integrate these setup tools into the KDE Control Center and provide a completely consistent look and feel across the whole desktop. Perhaps more importantly, it would reduce bloat. GTK+ is not a small library, and having to load it in addition to the Qt that KDE uses increases total memory usage quite considerably. If the setup tool used Qt, then they would use the same shared copy of Qt as KDE.
Both SuSE and Caldera (both of which also ship KDE as the default desktop) have Qt-based graphical setup and configuration tools, and they integrate seamlessly into the KDE Control Center, giving users a single place to look for all their configuration settings. Why is Mandrake different? From an engineering (and consistency) point of view, the choice of GTK+ just doesn't seem logical to me.
Well I dick taken this reply with we a voice and left me tell you, it's grape! Now I kin speak things at have the speed I can type them.
m00.
Only read if you completely understand the following rule.
I AM NOT TRYING TO START A FLAME WAR!!!
All will admit (ALL!) that Mandrake is the best of the lot. But for some reason I find Debian to be cleaner and quicker. But out of the box, Debian has no journaling fs support or support for my ATA100 card. Can this be done in Debian? Of coure. I don't think anything can not be done in Debian. But if I have to spend two days doing it.... then it just aint worth it. Hopefully SID release will resolve some of these issues, so for now....Mandrake it is.
It's alway this way. Mandrake has excellent hardware support, but it's loaded. Debian is clean...but less out of the box hardware support.
Such is the troubles of a geek.
Kudos to the two best OS Dist available.
Mandrake and Debian!!!
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
Until nVidia offers them, you can get them via MUO.
tom (mandrakesoft)
--
"Just believe everything I tell you, and it will all be very, very simple."