Mandrake 9.2 RC1

RabidChipmunk writes "Mandrake 9.2RC1 is out. Go get it with bit-torrent and speed up my download. I like the idea that posting to Slashdot could actually speed up a download. It seems so wrong." If you're on a slow pipe, don't underestimate the throughput of the postal system. Mark Walker writes "Mandrake Linux 9.2 RC1 is appearing on mirrors as I type this. We're currently downloading it from Mandrake, for http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com."

Comments

is this an advertisement?

[dnotj]

No content in the links....just a link to the .tor's and some cd seller. Hello editors?

Good news for Mandrake users.

[Meat Blaster]

It was one of the distributions I tried after deciding to move off of Slackware a couple of years ago. Looked like it would be nice and simple for people who were just starting out with Linux but didn't really want to learn that much about it, but unfortunately all that only gets in the way when you're actually trying to do something meaningful with your installation. Lots and lots of stuff in the commercial pack to play around with if that's your bag, though.

I have to say that after trying all of them (Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo) that only Gentoo really seemed to be a power-user distribution. Course that means you spend more time fixing than getting done, but boy is it fast once you get the system up and running.

Re:Good news for Mandrake users.

[deathcow]

Without a lot of experience with various distributions I cannot agree or disagree, but I can say this:

We are using Mandrake 9.1 to push (finally) into some Linux installs at work in a classically Windows only environment. Overall, it has been a success.

We have two basic flavors of machines we build with Mandrake 9.1: "surveillance" boxes, and LAMP servers.

Surveillance boxes have 6 to 8 LCD monitors and are running icewm, or KDE (not decided yet), with Xinerama enabled. These boxes are replacing Windows NT machines that used Exceed to run X applications. Now they natively run on the Xfree86 server, and they work great with Xinerama and all those monitors. POW! No more Windows licenses! POW! No more Exceed licenses! These boxes use a single (AGP) Matrox G550 running two heads, and then four to six (PIC) TNT2 cards to bring the machine up to six or eight monitors total. These machines are appliance like, if one dropped, we build another to replace it, lickety split.

Our LAMP servers are more simple.. built in (single head) motherboard video, networking, and a single IDE hard drive. Cron'd rsyncs back up our data off the LAMP servers and onto another Linux box for "up to the hour" protection.

Installing Mandrake is interesting! You can do the same sequence of events on different motherboard types, and end up with different packages installed on the machine. (I kid you not.) "Ummm, no rsh this time!" etc. So, we have carefully written installation procedures which also check that every package we use was installed, and install if it not.

Overall, I've got to give Mandrake Installer a B+ or A-, it does work, it's fast. Just gotta watch which packages get put on. By the way, we dont let Mandrake install the LAMP stuff, we do that manually after the machine is up and running.

Re:Good news for Mandrake users.

[HiThere]

I suppose that:
1) you include only what you want
2) you compile it for the processor on your machine
3) ???
4) speed-up

I understand that this used to be really significant, but I haven't heard many such claims recently. Personally, I wouldn't trust my choices of what to staticly link into the kernel vs. what to have dynamically loaded to be better than that of an expert, say the people who put together Mandrake, or Red Hat. If they don't think that the kernel really benefits by being compiled for a pentium rather than a 386, then maybe it doesn't. Mandrake said it did, Red Hat said it didn't... and when I compared how they felt on the same machine, Red Hat felt faster. Of course, Mandrake had all these extra bells and whistles... but then that's the point, isn't it. The compilation speedup can easily be totally swamped by the choice of applications.

Mandrake is my best friend - at home

[Goyuix]

So for home use - Mandrake has always been the sweet spot - excellent NTFS support out of the box as well just generally very user friendly interface... not the heavyweight server backend that other distros are... My 2 cents...

Buy Direct

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't say I like these leech-cd companies very much. Even when they donate to the projects, it's still at the cost of a direct lost sale that would have supported them a lot more.

If you care enough about a project to want it on a professionally replicated CD, you should at least be willing to buy it from an official outlet.

Signed,
An Official Outlet

Re:Buy Direct

[WNight]

There's a big difference between paying $2 for convenience and paying $49.95 for a boxed set of a distro I may just be vaugely interested in.

I use Debian and Mandrake enough to warrant paying them something, the rest of the distros I try out, but it's just to see what they have to offer. If I buy a CD they get paid something, maybe $.25, and don't pay for the gig or two of bandwidth. If I download it they get paid nothing unless I really like it, and have to pay for my bandwidth.

I think these cheap-CD places are a good thing, especially if they pitch in some money.

Pay for what you use

[nuggz]

Yes if you want to support Mandrake give them money.

But if you want to support the various apps and projects give them money directly.

I think the work done on gnome, kde and X are more likey important to a typical user.
If you want that to improve put your money there, not on the guys making a distribution.

Re:Message from http://www.budgetlinuxcds.com

[amcguinn]

How is it any more an advert than the main story itself, which is an advert for Mandrake?

Slashdot frequently runs stories about new products of interest, from gadgets to applications. Both Mandrake's new release, and budgetlinuxcds copies of it fall into this category

If I try it, will I like it?

[ewanrg]

Tried the distribution some time ago. Seeing that a new one is out, I'm tempted to give it a run. But will it work in my situation:

Could someone review the following and tell me which pieces are going to be problematic (or impossible):
Computer: Compaq Presario 1720US Laptop (PIII 1 GhZ, 384 Meg RAM, 60 Gig HD, ATI Radeon Mobility Video, Built-in DVD/CD-RW)
Attached Ethernet (Wired) to a Windows machine without monitor (need some way to run that in a virtual console)
Attached Linksys Wireless Card (11b) in PC Card slot which is the only Internet connection
Attached Firewire HD (LaCie 360 Gig)
Attached Firewire DVD Burner (4xDVD-R)
Attached TV via S-Video TV/Out
Shared Printer/Scanner - Lexmark X75 PrinTrio

So, is this going to be a worthwhile investment of my time, or is some/most of the above going to stop working? While I'd like to get off my MS Habit, I have this need to use most of the above that keeps pulling me back :-)

Re:Tired of hearing this nice and simple line...

[Zoolander]

I've used Mandrake a few years before I switched to Gentoo, and I liked it in many ways. What i didn't like was the way they moved things around and put in 'mdk' directories, so you didn't know where to find things.

If you're like me and like to edit the conf files by hand, so you see how they're made and what options you have, this quickly becomes a nuisance.

Also, I felt that because they moved stuff around, many HOWTO:s became much harder to follow (at least when I was a relative noob, which is where you usually use HOWTO:s the most).

Sure, all distros have their specific way of setting things up, but I felt that they just went too far in their obsession to put the 'mdk' mark everywhere.

But hey, I haven't used Mandrake since 8.1, so what do I know? Maybe they've changed that!

Why not DVD's?

[skSlashDot]

Speaking of budget Linux CD's, is there a reason that few if any of the regular CD vendors offer DVD-R's? Not that I don't love getting a whole stack of ten (10) Debian CD's in the mail!

I expect the next version of Debian will need to ship on a spindle pack, OR maybe more companies will offer DVD's instead!

Mandrake has a DVD available, but it's not free or even budget-priced, or wasn't the last time I checked. I don't really need all the extra non-free stuff they bundle in; I just don't like swapping discs.

Debian has a DVD available, but you have to install their funky little tool in order to download it. Not worth my time. Somebody, please just sell me the stupid disk!

BSD looks like it has a DVD, but it's also non-budget priced.

I haven't checked any other distributions yet, but would welcome recommendations.

Why aren't there more DVD distros out there?

A MANDRAKE HOWTO The Complete Step-by-Step Gui

[mandrakewilson]

New web site up on how to set up mandrake 9.1 to ease the configuration pains of the new linux user. Written and catered for the moderate computer user. It covers how to get and install mandrake and add in most of the needed applications. Covers most of the major software included in the distribution, other freely available applications, newbie command line tutorial, how to handle some common and annoying bugs peculiar to each application.

PART I
1. Introduction
2. Indispensable Tools for the Linux User
3. Useful links

PART II - Mandrake Installation
1. Getting Mandrake 9.1
2. Installing Mandrake 9.1
3. Going through the install sequence
4. Using Mandrake
5. Nice things to add easily
6. Configuration with Mandrake Control Center
7. Configuration with Gnome Control Center
8. Important Configuration of Menus and MIME Types
9. More Advanced Configuration

PART III - Linux Shell and Apps
1. Navigating around terminal
2. Shells -- bash, csh, rsh, sh
3. Environments and Paths
4. File Permissions
5. Editing files
6. Linking
7. Finding Files
8. Using grep
9. Basic bash scripts knowledge
10. Running Remote X applications
11. Mounting Remote File Systems
12. Language setup for man pages
13. Handling Print Jobs

PART IV - Software Packages
1. What are packages?
2. Specifying Sources For Online Downloading - Mandrake Mirrors, Texstar, PLF
3. Packages to be installed from Mandrake CDs - Mesa, mplayer, Timidity, pan, gaim, mozplugger
4. Packages to install from Texstar - Macromedia Flash, nano, Real Player
5. Mplayer and Codecs
6. Other essential packages- Open Office, Sun Java, Adobe Acrobat 5, BitTorrent
7. Setting up SMB share for Windows
8. Using vncserver for remote desktop applications
9. File Sharing - p2p networks - Limewire, edonkey, lmule
10. Running M$ Office under Linux.
11. Games - SNES, MAME, WineX

PART V - Advanced FAQ
1. How do I get DRI 3D acceleration to work?
2. Mandrake Fonts Deuglification and Anti-aliasing
3. Email Clients and Web Browsers (Handling mailto: and http:)
4. Full Mozilla Plugins Configuration (Quicktime, Java, Flash, Mplayer)
5. Konquerer Plugins Configuration
6. X Windows xmatrix screensaver
7. How to adjust the sound volume permanently

This HOWTO is my first contribution to the linux user community, and since I have found documentation sorely lacking for the total newbie, I have decided to write one myself. It is based on my experience in the past month trying to install everything from scratch. This HOWTO will be short, brief and to the point. Further information can be found in documentations on other websites, this one is just for the impatient, and users who want to reduce their startup time. Why Mandrake? Firstly, it is easy-to-install, and the first distribution that I've tried that has come very close to the ease-of-use of windows. If you can install and customize windows, you will not have much trouble with the Linux installation. Who is this HOWTO written for? This document is meant for the average user who is at least accustomed to tweaking and customizing their own OS. It will definitely not be a tutorial on how to point and click or use GUI interfaces.

Since such blatant advertising is now allowed...

[davmoo]

...I'm sure that the powers that be at Slashdot will not mind it at all if I mention that I have also been making discs of the betas available for sale at http://www.getlinuxcheap.us.

In reality, I highly object to such blatant advertising disguised as a supposed "news" story. But I'm posting my url here because, simply stated, if Slashdot sees nothing wrong with plugging that site, then as a loyal Slashdot member for many years I expect to be accorded the same treatment.