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Mandrake 9.2 ISOs Available

joestar writes "Since LG has released updated firmwares and a recovery procedure for all so-called ATAPI LG cd-rom drives that were "destroyed" by a feature of Mandrake 9.2, MandrakeSoft has publicly released the set of Mandrake 9.2 ISO images which are now available on a number of FTP mirrors. Mandrake 9.2 is one of the few remaining 100%-OSS major Linux distributions, so considering a MandrakeClub membership or joining Cooker - Mandrake's open development version - is certainly an excellent idea." Here's the feature list.

57 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. I love their phones... by j0keralpha · · Score: 2, Funny

    But their computer components leave something to be desired.

    What im grappling with is whether this is actually some form of Hardware Darwinism...

  2. Good Bye Redhat! by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Redhat doesn't want my busness anymore, so it looks like a perfect time to try mandrake.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    1. Re:Good Bye Redhat! by AppyPappy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Drake is the easiest to install and use. It's fat as a hog and eats memory like a PacMan machine but it will get you where you need to be. I do all my unix stuff on consoles at work and all my X stuff in Drake at home. I find it to be a perfect fit. I refer to it as Newbie Linux.

      --

      If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem

    2. Re:Good Bye Redhat! by mahdi13 · · Score: 4, Informative
      Redhat doesn't want my busness anymore, so it looks like a perfect time to try mandrake.

      or Fedora
      or Gentoo
      or Debian
      or SuSE (ftp install)
      or Slackware
      or Vector
      or Knoppix
      or one of the thousands of others
      --
      "Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
    3. Re:Good Bye Redhat! by The_Unforgiven · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What business?

      Your usage of bandwidth?

      I mean, I use redhat too, but I'm not under the illusion that I'm doing them a favor in doing so.

      The $60 I spent on one release (7.2 I think) hardly makes up for the Gigabytes of data transfer I used when I downloaded about what? 3 other releases?

      --
      http://wsulug.org
    4. Re:Good Bye Redhat! by nocomment · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whatever you do, when downloading, don't use the esat.net mirror. It's uhhhh the worst one.

      --
      /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
      /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
    5. Re:Good Bye Redhat! by Ozric · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Redhat was never a good desktop distro. I swithed from Redhat to Mandrake because KDE back in the 5.1 days. Anyway I run Gentoo now and am very happy. YMMV but Mandrake is a WAY BETTER desktop IMHO. Redhat is good for servers tho, but I am leaning to Gentoo for that as well these days.

    6. Re:Good Bye Redhat! by Cipster · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm a raging heterosexual. usually having 2-3 women at once...
      You realize multiple display monitors don't count.

    7. Re:Good Bye Redhat! by Jagasian · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Out of those listed, the top 4 distros that will appeal the most to Redhat users are in order with most appealing as #1 and least appealing as #4:

      1. Fedora (aka "the distro formally known as Redhat Linux")
      2. Mandrake
      3. Suse (beware it has closed proprietary parts)
      4. Knoppix (everyone has a copy of Knoppix)

  3. OSS distributions? by Rinikusu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Pardon me for the stupid question, but what does that comment regarding "few OSS distributions remaining" mean? I can see how "few remaining COMMERCIAL distros" would apply, but last I checked, there are thriving gentoo, debian, and even LFS communities out there, not to mention slackware, all those debian based LIVE CD distros, and hell, even FEDORA. What exactly is the poster's intent by that comment?

    --
    If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
    1. Re:OSS distributions? by mahdi13 · · Score: 3, Funny
      What exactly is the poster's intent by that comment?

      Probably still bitter that SCO canceled Calandra...
      --
      "Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
    2. Re:OSS distributions? by jonbryce · · Score: 2, Informative

      He means one of the only 100% free software distros remaining. The only other two I'm aware of are Fedora - not yet at release stage, and GNU/LinEx, a spannish distro.

      Most of the other distros contain things like Pine, Netscape, the Flash Plugin, Real Player and Sun's Java packages. None of these are free software.

    3. Re:OSS distributions? by joestar · · Score: 2, Troll

      It's very easy: Red Hat has dropped support for it's Free Software Linux distribution, and wants Fedora to be the replacement for Red Hat Linux as you know it. SuSE is not an OSS Linux distribution. Slack is dying :-( Now your choice for major Linux distribs is: Debian or Mandrake. And maybe Knoppix in the future.

    4. Re:OSS distributions? by Feyr · · Score: 2, Informative

      which they explicitly state is not part of debian, but merely using their facility for the sake of convenience.

      right from their social contract:

      Programs That Don't Meet Our Free-Software Standards

      We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of programs that don't conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We have created "contrib" and "non-free" areas in our FTP archive for this software. The software in these directories is not part of the Debian system, although it has been configured for use with Debian. We encourage CD manufacturers to read the licenses of software packages in these directories and determine if they can distribute that software on their CDs. Thus, although non-free software isn't a part of Debian, we support its use, and we provide infrastructure (such as our bug-tracking system and mailing lists) for non-free software packages.

    5. Re:OSS distributions? by RPoet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Gentoo may be great (I actually think saying otherwise is a federal offence), but you can't evade the fact that it pretty much doesn't care about software freedom. It's so easy to install unfree nvidia or ATI drivers (the ebuilds are all integrated), and I think even the install docs hint at how to install them. This complete lack of division between free and unfree is one of the things that seriously drove me to Fedora. I sleep better at nights now. (So what, laugh at me, go on)

      --
      "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    6. Re:OSS distributions? by msimm · · Score: 3, Informative

      Don't get me wrong. Most of what I know about GNU/Linux I learned on Mandrake. Implying that it's the last of the free software distros is comical though.

      The downloadable version is free, as in unencombered. Thats important. I think its also important that as much as we complain here about everything we try to give credit where credit is due. Heres a simple quote from the Mandrake website:

      "All improvements and add-ons introduced by MandrakeSoft are published under the General Public License (GPL)."

      So I think calling their software free isn't very missleading at all. Including packages with none OSI certified lisences is nothing to crow about when they've made both their distribution and contributed code free.

      This is the only company I know of that actually puts its money (and its business model) where its mouth is (and it might even work).

      --
      Quack, quack.
    7. Re:OSS distributions? by joestar · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm afraid you're not aware of what Open Source Software/Free Software is. Please read the definition of Open Source software: "Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code."

      And of course Free Software.

      Never flamed about Qt license in the past? ;-)

  4. Re:How about a .torrent? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.mandrakelinux.com/download/MandrakeLinu x-9.2-DOWNLOAD-3CD.torrent

  5. OSS Linux Distributions by amcnabb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Mandrake 9.2 is one of the few remaining 100%-OSS major Linux distributions.

    Whatever happened to Gentoo, Debian, and Fedora? The only major distribution that isn't completely open source is SuSe.

    1. Re:OSS Linux Distributions by Rex+Code · · Score: 2, Insightful

      100%? Really?

      I was going to mention Slackware, but that includes Netscape so it's not 100% open source (if you want to be picky about it). I was under the impression that -no- distribution was 100% open source (even Debian provides "non-free" packages from various FTP sites). Is Mandrake really 100% OSS, or was the submitter mistaken?

    2. Re:OSS Linux Distributions by mattdm · · Score: 2, Informative

      Fedora is actually 100%. Even stuff with borderline licenses, like pine, is out.

    3. Re:OSS Linux Distributions by jonbryce · · Score: 3, Informative

      The download really is 100% OSS/Free Software, ie no pine, netscape, flash etc.

    4. Re:OSS Linux Distributions by bfree · · Score: 2, Funny

      Anacronym hell! OSS = Open Source Software. OSS = Open Sound System which is in itself OSS .... my head hurts!

      What I really wanted to say was that RedHat always struck me as about 95% OSS becuase they used things like commercial OSS drivers ... ok that's it, I'm going to lie down!

      --

      Never underestimate the dark side of the Source

    5. Re:OSS Linux Distributions by catenos · · Score: 2, Informative

      According to Mandrake's site, they provide Mandrake Packs of Acrobat, Flash, Real, nVidia drivers, and other non-OSS software. Not 100% OSS.

      That are the commercial boxes, e.g. the PowerPack edition. Yes, they accomodate people who prefer a commercial package for ease of use (no need to handle nVidia drivers etc. yourself) or other reasons.

      The "100% OSS" applies to the Download editition (a comparison).

      The latter is the one you can download for free. The former has been made available for download only for MandrakeClub members (silver and higher) and contributors as of ML9.2, and is sold as boxed set, too, of course.

      But I doubt that Mandrake itself would use the 100% OSS label. IMHO, it's not really technically correct. They don't require all licenses to be OSI approved. AFAIK, they require the license to allow the software (source and binary) to be (re-)distributed freely on the the download edition. Which basically boils down to: the licenses usually fit into the OSI spirit, but aren't necessarily officially OSI approved.

      --
      Keep an eye on which arguments are silently dropped in replies. Not always, but often times it's very telling.
  6. Whew, Mandrake did not need that black eye... by Fux+the+Penguin · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm so glad they got this fixed, and I hope this whole sorry incident can be swept right under the rug. I've always said that Mandrake would be the distro to cause MS users to seriously consider switching. I started my Linux oddysey on Mandrake (hell, I still use it!) and fully believe that it offers the widest spectrum of a Linux experience.

    The average user can get it working right out of the box (or download). That's something you can't say for most Linux installs -- or even some Windows installs. The hardware support is phenomenal.

    And the ease of use doesn't have to detract from its power -- Mandrake gives you plenty of choices, from a fully-loaded, app-laden KDE or Gnome interface to light, fast WMs like Fluxbox. And best of all, it's Linux, pure and simple, so that all our favorite apps are still there.

    I originally switched away from Mandrake because of the poor package management they used to have, but the implementation of urpmi in 9.1 convinced me to scrap my Debian install for Mandrake. Package management is a breeze once you get your sources configured. It's still not as developed as apt, but at least it doesn't break things the way apt is wont to.

    Mandrake is Linux's best hope for widespread adoption, but not if it's screwing up people's cd rom drives. Thanks for the speedy fix, guys.

    1. Re:Whew, Mandrake did not need that black eye... by buchanmilne · · Score: 2, Informative

      While I agree with most of what you say, I honestly feel that "Linux's best hope for widespread adoption" will be a live CD which allows people to boot up, see that things are going to work and then allows them install it from the liveCDs gui.

      I really don't consider this a good way of installing, for a number of reasons (like increased minumum hardware requirements, greater possibilities for someone to trojan the installation, limitations on what you can choose or not choose, etc).

      IMHO, Live CDs are currently limited because they aren't tailored more to the target audience, and that is why I have done some work on the mklivecd stuff in Mandrake. If you want to demo a solution to someone without having to remaster Knoppix (which is quite a bit of effort), you can install Mandrake 9.2 and:

      # urpmi mklivecd
      # mklivecd livecd.iso

      (there are some issues with the release in 9.2 contrib, we hope to get a newer release out soon with the fixes and features we have in cvs)

      but no community nor Mandrake are building one that I know of

      One has already been distributed at a conference (based on 9.2). Another one has been ditributed privately. Another one is in the works. I have a few of my own which are used for internal purposes at work, though I may consider releasing one (if I have time and bandwidth to spare). Plus, there is another one coming as a surpise.

  7. 3 cheers for usable software! by dowobeha · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think other distros need to look to Mandrake as the leader it is in making free software easy-to-use. Mandrake's distro isn't perfect, but it has come a long way in helping me to enjoy my Linux use.

    Off to join MandrakeClub... :)

    --
    I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
  8. BitTorrent by Youssef+Adnan · · Score: 5, Informative

    BitTorrent link from Mandrake. It's located on the download page right before the FTP mirror list:
    http://www.mandrakelinux.com/download/MandrakeLinu x-9.2-DOWNLOAD-3CD.torrent

  9. Installer by S.I.O. · · Score: 5, Funny

    1 LG CD-ROM drive detected.
    Would you like to pray for it?

    1. Re:Installer by CFBMoo1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Registration Wizard:

      Now go and sign up for the Mandrake Club you silly computer user or I shall taunt your CD-ROM a second time!

      *Open and Close the CD door a few times to rasberry the user*

      --
      ~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
  10. They weren't compliant. by buchanmilne · · Score: 4, Informative

    The drives re-implemented the FLUSH_CACHE command to update the firmware. The standard allows either to implement it (and do nothing on a CD-ROM drive) or to not implement it (resulting in an error), but not to use it for something else (and they chose to do something potentially catestrophic with it).

    So, drives with older firmware aren't compliant, and their degree of non-compliance results in the drive erasing it's own firmware (I mean, they could instead have re-used the command to open the drive tray ;-)).

  11. Re:Mandrake by Carnildo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Destroying the firmware wasn't a bug in Mandrake, it was a bug in the CD-ROM firmware -- the company decided not to implement the ATAPI "clear cache" command, as very few CD-ROM drivers use it. Instead, they decided to re-use that command for uploading firmware -- not a good idea.

    --
    "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  12. Now taking bets.. by rylin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot headline in 20 minutes: Mandrake 9.2 ISOs No Longer Available.

    1. Re:Now taking bets.. by ShadyG · · Score: 3, Funny

      The more likely headline:

      "Mandrake 9.2 ISOs Available"

  13. Re:Where's the firmware? by jm2morri · · Score: 5, Informative

    Go to http://us.lgservice.com/ and click on "Device Driver".

  14. Re:mandrake by MindStalker · · Score: 3, Informative

    They have a 9.1 release for PPC but no 9.2 sadly.

    http://public.ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/mandrake- is o/ppc/

  15. Running it since day 1 by tickticker · · Score: 5, Informative
    As a club member, I've been running it on several machines of various configurations. Here's a brief take of the 30 installs on 10 machines:

    - I can't unplug my Dell 5800 laptop while running or it locks up, same with plugging it in while running. Working on the cause.
    - BE SURE to check your MD5 sums. I've had more bad disks with this release than the last 3 or so releases combined. One bad disk would not only fail to install a package, but would break and remove several others unless the offending package was removed. Then voila! the broken packages return to the menus and functionality.
    - Handles 3d hardware acceleration fine for my ATI 9500 card, but no 3d for my 9700 pro (5 install attempts and dozens of fixes) I will not give up... Must..get...CWET...working.
    - K3b is the default burning software, so just change your cd drives to ide-scsi and save yourselves some headaches over "unusable" drives
    - Mandrake-galaxy is a theme that actually appeals to me. And I generally can't stand themes no matter the platform.

    Other than these major points, I think this is the best Mandrake yet. I can't wait for kde 3.2 and the 2.6 kernal. I'm just not feeling that adventurous yet.... but i will soon.

    --sigs are like giraffes, they can look cool sometimes, but they don't make any noise.

  16. Get with the BitTorrent, folks... by Eosha · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's the torrent:

    http://www.mandrakelinux.com/download/MandrakeLinu x-9.2-DOWNLOAD-3CD.torrent

    Make with the downloading...I'm only getting 160k/sec so far :-)

    --
    I have a girlfriend whose name doesn't end in .JPG
  17. Mandrake user confusion... by DeionXxX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a "power-user" I really don't like how Mandrake hides so many settings from me. Like I installed Mandrake on a laptop with a USB Network dongle and I needed for Mandrake to wait until the laptop had loaded the drivers for USB before doing the network settings. I could not figure it out though! No where in the settings could I tell it to wait and tell it when to set up the network. Each bootup I had to go back into the CLI and type in ifdown eth0, ifup eth0 in order to get my network up.

    Its just little things like that, that need to be ironed out of Mandrake and I think it'll be a great OS. As a Windows user, I sort of expect stupid crap like that to work correctly. I love the power *nix OS's give me, but I'd rather not have to deal with these silly configuration issues. I think thats the biggest drawback with Mandrake and all other Desktop *NIX's. When dealing with server software like Apache, PHP, MySQL, Perl, etc... everything seems to work together seamlessly, but in the Desktop... it feels like each piece of software is in a different universe.

    :-)

    -- D3X

    NeoX3.com: The ONE, the Only, the First truly FREE Adult entertainment site... [ I'm Serious ]

  18. Re:100% oss by jonbryce · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Free Software Foundation have a list of approved free software licenses. The Open Source Initiative have a list of approved open source licenses.

    A 100% Free/OSS distribution is one where all the software in the distro is licenced under one of these approved licenses.

  19. Re:If you mention Gentoo one more time by KilobyteKnight · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hear using Gentoo would would help reduce the stress you are apparently suffering from. Gentoo also cures headaches, purifies water, makes a great floor polish and desert topping. I added a quart of Gentoo to my car, drained the oil, and have been driving it for nearly a million miles. Recent scientific studies indicate that Gentoo cures cancer , brings the dead back to life, and adds spice to any decor.

    Try Gentoo... it's not just for Gentoo zealots any more.

    --
    When will Windows be ready for the desktop?
  20. Boot with nolapic by buchanmilne · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can't unplug my Dell 5800 laptop while running or it locks up, same with plugging it in while running. Working on the cause.

    Broken local APIC. Boot with 'nolapic' to workaround it.

    Handles 3d hardware acceleration fine for my ATI 9500 card, but no 3d for my 9700 pro (5 install attempts and dozens of fixes) I will not give up... Must..get...CWET...working.

    There are updated ATI driver packages on the Club, you may want to try those.

  21. Me too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    5.1, 5.2, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 8.0, 9.0

    I bought all of those shrink-wrapped boxes, because Redhat Linux was a lot easier to set up and use, than if you were to do a Linux From Scratch setup. Redhat is still free (as in freedom), but it's a little more expensive now, because people like me who support quality, supported free software have to pick up the slack for the freeloaders. This whole thing is bad news for the freeloaders, who are now left with the orphan child that is Fedora (or they can move elsewhere), but it's good news for Redhat. They're not sorry to see the freeloaders go. Freedom. At what price? Is it worth it? For $60 a pop, it sure was to me. For $180 and up, no, I don't think so.

    I have the Mandrake 9.2 Power Pack DVD (I'll support Mandrake now, and hope that others do the same, so that they don't disappear or go the way of Redhat. I can play DVDs and play Frozen Bubble, all without having to muck around, searching for the right RPMS or find out where to get Perl-SDL, or whatever I need to compile Frozen Bubble. I'm sure it can be done, but like Redhat says, this is not the sort of stuff Grandma wants to be doing ("eh? Make? Configure? What's this you're talking about, sonny?"). Mandrake takes care of things like this for you, while Redhat never did. Makes me wonder why I didn't switch to Mandrake earlier. I just hope that all the freeloaders will reconsider their actions, and consider giving Mandrake some money, if they like what they have to offer.

  22. I think he meant.. by msimm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Major commercial distribution. Gentoo, Debian and Fedora are great, but for a commercial player Mandrake has been a surprisingly upstanding member of the OSS community. Not only in keeping Mandrake free (as in beer and freedom) but actively using alternative funding methods in an attempt to reasonably sustain that freedom (in a commercail marketplace).

    I've got a lot of respect for that.

    --
    Quack, quack.
  23. Dying?!?!?! by Sqwubbsy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Slackware dying?
    Who are you? Stephen King?

  24. Re:Mandrake's fault as well. by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Informative

    RTFA. The problem affected a few specific revisions of the firmware that shipped with a few, specific CD-ROM drives only - CD-R/RW and DVD-* drives were apparently not affected.

    When was the last time you bought a Dell (or any other name-brand PC) that shipped with a plain CD-ROM drive?

  25. One noobs experience with Mandrake by Punchinello · · Score: 2, Informative

    I am posting this because, believe it or not, there are a lot of /. readers that have no experience with Linux but are curious to try.

    I am one if the inexperienced Linux users. I tried several distros and the one that was hands down the easiest to deploy from the noob prospective was Mandrake.

    My first try was with release 8.0. I loved the installer and the docs available for learning to setup my machine for dual boot and proper Linux partitions.

    The installer is a work of art. It made the installation as easy as *gasp* Windows. It walks you through the proper options to choose so you get the setup you want (in my case I wanted to try workstation, not server). I had no trouble with my systems hardware being compatible.

    My plea to anyone who has never tried Linux but is curious is to try Mandrake. It's the most noob friendly distro around.

    --

    Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=

    1. Re:One noobs experience with Mandrake by nate+nice · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "My plea to anyone who has never tried Linux but is curious is to try Mandrake. It's the most noob friendly distro around."

      The funniest thing about this is that so many Linux advocates are too arrogant to admit this, as if Mandrake doesn't heighten their nerd level enough. Mandrake is a great thing. It really is Linux....made..easy! And after you install it and get things running, feel free to rip it apart to suit your needs if you are a 1007 H@X0r.

      I agree with you 100%, there is no shame in running Mandrake. First off, it's Linux with no hassle (and I know many of us actually enjoy this hassle, but some of us don't...anymore at least), secondly if you pay for it you are supporting a Linux based company, something most of us don't do enough (not everything can be free nor should it) and lastly, everyone talks about how we need to make Linux more desktop friendly, etc.....hello!!, it's here!

      --
      "If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ..."
  26. Re:Am I missing something here? by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but since we can't see the code, who knows?

    And that's the key point. Since we can see mandrakes code, we know for certain that it's not doing anything unreasonable. And so mandrake carries greater credibility than microsoft.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  27. Re:If they aren't ATAPI what are they by Jacer · · Score: 2, Informative

    The reason they broke is because the weren't following the ATAPI specification fully. When Mandrake tried to use a function that works with the standard, the drives choked. After the firmware upgrade, they seem to be fine. According to the article anyway.

    --
    --fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
  28. Former Mandrake/KDE user by stonedown · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've used Mandrake for about 4 years. I was a member of Mandrake Club, and I really thought Mandrake was easy to use and a very complete distribution. I still would recommend it to anyone who wants to get started with Linux. However, after spending so much time with Mandrake and KDE, I found that I liked GNOME better. To me, KDE vs. GNOME is essentially quantity vs. quality, and I'll stick with quality. Most of the KDE apps are just plain inferior to their GNOME counterparts. Konqueror vs. Galeon? Puh-lease. (OK, so Galeon isn't really part of GNOME. Picky, picky.)

    Mandrake is committed to KDE. They don't cripple GNOME, but I felt I'd be better off with a more pure GNOME desktop. (I was right. I'm much happier having switched.)

    I thought about Ximian and Red Hat, but I went with Gentoo after reading about the distribution and the philosophy behind it (I would paraphrase it as "power and simplicity"). I had tried to install Gentoo before, but the compile time wore me out. Now, there is a Gentoo Reference Platform, which contains binaries for a fairly complete installation. I personally chose not to go that way, because my computer is a 2.2 GH P4, which is basically fast enough to bring the compile time down to something reasonable (GNOME compiles overnight - I didn't check exactly how long it took). But, the GRP seems like a very reasonable way to quickly get Gentoo on your system.

    I've been very pleased to find that I'm learning much more about the system, by reading the excellent Gentoo docs, and by asking the occasional question at the #gentoo IRC channel. I am not a Linux guru, by any means, but I'm not a newbie either. Somewhere in the middle.

    I'm amazed at the breadth of software available. Yeah, it's a bit of a hassle installing from source, rather than from binary packages, but I feel like I'm closer to the metal. And once I get all my favorite stuff installed, I can update them all to the latest, just by typing "emerge --update world". I can easily download and try the latest unstable kernel, if I want, or get the latest Mozilla Firebird, to see if a bug has been addressed. Or I can shoot back to an older version which is known to work. I guess I could have used Cooker with Mandrake, in order to experience the bleeding edge, but I never gave that a try. Somehow, I doubt it is as simple and easy to use as the Gentoo portage system.

    In fact, I would compare Mandrake vs. Gentoo in the same way I compared KDE vs. GNOME. Mandrake is "quantity" of tools, but Gentoo is "quality" of tools. There seems to be a great deal of thought behind the Gentoo architecture and tools. They're typically command line - no GUI whiz bang stuff, but they just work.

    The Mandrake GUI config stuff didn't always work properly anyway, and I'm finding that I enjoy editing the config files and learning how to make my system work the way I want it to.

    If you're a newbie, stick with Mandrake, but if you're a little more advanced, and you can afford to initially spend some time learning and problem-solving, I highly recommend Gentoo.

    The #Gentoo IRC channel almost always has tons of people on it, who are more than happy to help a new user figure out what's going on with their system. Try to find your answer in the user docs first, though, so you don't waste someone else's time.

  29. Core Dump by DeadBugs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well since Fedora Core 1 failed to load, I will happily dump it in favor of Mandrake.

    As far as why Fed would not load, it failed to regonize my Kyro video card & onboard Ethernet.

    This system was running Mandrake 9.0

    Viva Le Mandrake

    --
    http://www.kubuntu.org/
  30. Mandrake 64 bit desktop too! by Marcus+Erroneous · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hmmm, where is the Dell, Compaq or HP 64 bit desktop? Oh, that's right, M$ won't be shipping a 64 bit OS until next year. Some call that "freedom to innovate".
    Where do I want to go today? 64 bit desktop is where I want to go TODAY. SuSe and Mandrake will let me use my Opteron desktop machine now. I can choose from several open source, new technology solutions now, or wait for "innovation" to catch up when it gets around to it. If that's innovation, guess I'll have to settle for freedom and choice.
    Okay! :D

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    You must be the change you wish to see in the world - Ghandi
  31. I use it by praedor · · Score: 2, Informative

    I just upgraded from 9.1 to 9.2. First thing, it is still nice but there are some bugs in the system right off the bat, primarily concerning KDE. You will immediately want to download the updates to fix them. You will likely experience some problems with kmenu items. Updating fixes it. If you have an LG cdrom, download the fixes from the mandrake website. It apparently isn't mandrake's fault, this problem, but they have a fix.


    There are a LOT of updates. If you have a modem connection...it's going to take a while. I downloaded all the updates to my laptop over my job's ethernet connection so they would be on hand immediately after installing 9.2 on both my laptop and desktop. I suggest something like this for others with modem connections at home.


    After the updates, no problems at all.

    --
    In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
  32. Best server distro? by carbon3C · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It seems like most people here are concerned about desktops. Which distro is the best if you want to colocate a web/mail server with a database backend? I really don't care at all about KDE and GNOME.

  33. Re:What business? by vsprintf · · Score: 4, Informative

    I wouldn't equate Mandrake and Lindows. Mandrake will be secure out of the box unless you tell it otherwise during installation. Lindows runs as root by default and should not be promoted by Linux users, IMHO.

  34. Re:Slack is dying? Really? by Pharmboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    I am not an authority on Slack, but I will give you my impression from using it just a few weeks, after using RedHat for many years, and having SunOS and Solaris shell accounts for MANY years.

    Slack seems more Unix like. Things are in very standard places, where you would expect them to be on a real Unix system. This is still a little confusing to me because I am used to them being in the wrong places with RH, but my SunOS and Solaris experience helps. I found it to be quite easy to install Slack 9.0. Some parts are a little confusing, but only because they are different, not necessarily harder. Unlike many, I prefer a menu based text based install, which Slack has. After roaming around it a few minutes, it all made sense. My second install took 10 minutes to get started, and then I just walked away while it copied files.

    It handles groups differently, it doesn't just create a group for every user independently (which I never understood why RH does). The security is a bit more important, and you will find it defaults to a bit more secure of a systems, especially compared to older RH distros (7.2 and older). It does require some getting used to, and I am still not ready to commit the servers to it (looking at Debian also, waiting for a new MB to arrive for testing). But its in the hunt.

    I can easily see that Slack is NOT for people who just want to click pretty widgets to configure their systems. My experience with pretty widgets on Linux is a mixed bag, from linuxconf trashing an install (on RH 6.1 default install) to all the crap included with Gnome (which I don't like) and KDE (which I do like, but dont use the widgets). I can see why real hardware/os minded people like Slack, because of its elegant simplicity, power, and security.

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    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!