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Linux Mandrake 6.0 Released
The Linux Mandrake team has released version 6.0 of their
award-winning distribution. The new release includes software so new it's almost
scary - kernel 2.2.9, KDE 1.1.1, and even GNOME 1.0.9. To go
along with the new version, the guys have also redone their web page. Comments?
You can get the ISO at
ftp://ftp.ciril.fr/pub/linux/mandrake/iso/
Has anyone else had troubles with RH6? For me it's been so bad I've decided to go Debian.
nope.KDE is strewn all to hell and gone across the hard disk instead of all under $KDEDIR (which they make /usr).
All Redhat from redhat.com install in /usr as do most debian packages. Traditionally /local and /opt are for local and optional software installed by the user.
To make matters worse, you need to install KDE from source to install it under /opt now since KDE is no longer making RPMs.
this too is wrong. KDE.org still has rpms (version 1.1.1 is the latest) and they install toFYI
/usr to
1)
KDE in RedHat can be relocated from
wherever you want it to be with the relocate
option from rpm. See 'man rpm' for details.
You might need to set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH
so that the libraries can be found.
2) RedHat does not ship KDE 1.1.1 but a pre-
release. I haven't checked but I assume that
mandrake has done the 'Right Thing' and
included the real KDE 1.1.1 release.
For people who want to use KDE, Mandrake is
a better choice than RedHat.
Cheers,
Waldo Bastian
bastian@kde.org
How about trying the link Justin provided in this posting to find a few things different from stock RedHat or just changed from Mandrake 5.3? Compare lists of rpms (rpm -qa > file on a Mandrake 6 and RedHat 6). I haven't yet downloaded everything to install Mandrake 6, but I see several things that weren't in RH6 just by perusing their web site. It really wasn't that difficult to find the information; it just took a little effort.
I wasn't directing that post to you, but to ill who said how people hate RedHat because it is commercial, and only tends to the people that pay for it. I've heard some RH folks talk at conferences, briefly talked with them myself, and I don't see them as he paints them, only out for a quick buck, or that their sole motivation is what will bring in the most money.
And seeing what ill wrote just before your response, it proves my point. Too many of these people just paint these evil scenarios in their minds and then come here to spread their FUD and state their hallucinations as fact. This is what is hurting the Linux and Open Source communities more than MS or any team they form.
Many non-Linux people I've talked to see so many of these fanatics when they look into what Linux is in newsgroups, here on Slashdot, etc. I have to do more work convincing them that there is good in this community and Linux is not just about these wackos, then what it took for one of these people to type their FUD in their post.
We're killing ourselves here folks, wake up and spread the good word.
I know there is a mirror list, but does anyone know where i can get an ISO image yet ? It can take a while to synch up but i dont have the patience to wait till next week.
Yeah, Slack is slow to increment version numbers... I've got a Slackware 4.0 CD on the way; it'll be replacing the Slackware 3.0 CD I've been doing installs off for years. Slack 3.0 was 1.2.13-based, Slack 4.0 is 2.2.7-based... so they apparently didn't consider the change from the 1.2 series to the 2.0 series to be sufficient cause to change the major version number...
In the same time, Red Hat has gone from 2.0 to 6.0... and, y'know, I never did figure out what the big difference was between 4.x and 5.x that made them increment the version number...
Their blurb says about there being optimized UDMA IDE drivers as part of the distro.
How do they do that. DO they just mean that they are using a later kernel which may/may not have better support for IDE disk transfers (although the difference between 2.2.9 and 2.2.5 can't be that great ?!?!).
Or have they applied patches from else where to the kernel ??
Anybody know ??
Iggy
They remove all the minor annoyances in Redhat. In
particulal, they have true type font server, fonts, all the latest goodies like themes and much more.
They are also more responsive to user requests. There are several Bero* applications which are superior to normal applications.
In short, it not just Redhat with KDE. It is Redhat done right for the average joe, who just
wants to get his PC working the way he wants.
rh 4.x is libc5, while rh 5.x and up are libc6
Just for the record -- the default font server shipped with Red Hat 6.0 does TrueType. A minor point, but I was glad to see it.
I have been using Mandrake 5.3 for a while, and was delighted to hear that RedHat was going to include KDE in RedHat 6.0. I assumed that RedHat was going to take notice of the usability enhancements of Mandrake but I must say I was a bit disappointed when I installed RH6.0. It's still a great server distribution (I make my living with it ;-) but for the beginning user, I like Mandrake better. For instance:
;-)
/etc/fstab to make this work under RH6.0
- Everyone using KDE should run Appfinder after installation. Point is, RedHat *broke* the Appfinder.
- KDE 1.1.1 instead of a prerelease
- More KDE apps and toys bundled.
- More icons on the desktop, such as Netscape, GIMP, CD-ROM, floppy etc. Nicer backgrounds
- With Mandrake, if you click on the CD-ROM or floppy as a normal user, it gets mounted automagically. I have a hard time explaining new users why they have to edit
- Mandrake distributes ISO images. I screwed up a CD-R while making a bootable RH 6.0 image. (I wanted to add KDE 1.1.1, various contrib junk and crypto stuff from ftp.replay.com). My own fault, of course, but still, CD(-image)s are a boon for new users.
-------
Warning: Slashdot may contain traces of nuts.
RedHat must be making a killing off of me, since i have started using it from 4.2 to the current 6.0. Wait a sec! i never paid a dime for it! Something must be wrong... Oh wait, i remember, i downloaded the files and burnt it to cd. Wow, poor RH i guess they didn't know i could "warez" their cool software. What? you mean it was free to download all this time? Okay... geez, i almost felt bad about it.
Do you see where i am taking this? I have never paid a cent for RH, and i don't plan on it either. Why? first of all, i don't particulary care to go out and buy shrink wrapped software, nor wait for stuff to be mailed to me. Plus i like to keep my cd updated by keeping a local image on my hard drive and updating it with new stuff. Plus its my choice. If you don't like RH, don't use their stuff.
Remember, its all about CHOICE...
oh, and i have downloaded everything by myself on my modem.
Its spelt "L-I-N-U-X", but pronunced as "Free Beer"
A lot of them are, but debian is at 2.2 and slask, one of the oldest distros is still at 4.0,I think it mostly looks that way because all the hundreds of RedHat-based distros are going 6.x as well as some others.
You are both right... It would make most sense if /opt was a symlink to /usr/opt - still conformant to the Linux FHS but mapping onto the /usr partition to keep root small. Of course, if /opt is a separate partition the symlink should not be created.
:)
Personally I have a single huge root partition that has everything, but I may live to regret this
It uses the latest stable kernel. Everything has been recompiled with pgcc. There's better language and font (truetype) support, more applications and goodies. Etc. And the best part: it's distributed as a iso cd image.
What's really scary is that a CompUSA ad announced
"discount pricing for the new Linux 6.0".
They moved /opt (where KDE is located) off / and into /usr. I like this. (DISCLAIMER: I have not installed RH6. However, earlier mariner/venus Mandrake betas had /opt in /.) Keeps / small and tame. I followed it in beta, installed it 8 or 10 times in the last week. Mostly it is Current. 229 is nice & fast. Lots of RH6 bug fixes rolled into it. Full install puts 1148 Megs in my /usr. / was around 28 - 33M and I keep /var in a separate partition.
It became popular prior to RH6 because it was RH +KDE. It has worked well. I am running it on my Thinkpad 600 and on a K6/200/Abit IT5H. Installing Linux on the Thinkpad has been a bit of a chore but RH seems to have figured it out.
The install took less than 20 minutes not including Sound config...
...TGIF!
Adults are obsolete children. - Dr. Seuss
Use symlinks stupid! ;->
ln -s /usr /opt/kde /usr/bin /usr/share/bin
ln -s
RedHat puts everything under /opt/kde in /usr (e.g. /opt/kde/share -> /usr/share), with exception to the binaries themselves. Binaries (normally in /opt/kde/share/bin) are now in /usr/bin.
-- BitMan
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
Independent Author, Consultant and Trainer
It's there to help keep newbie users from deleting the entire drive. Don't laugh, I've seen it done. It's the difference between rm -r /junk and rm -r / junk (one space).
/root/.bashrc and remove the alias "alias rm='rm -i'" or 2) type unlias rm at the command line whenever you intend to delete a lot of files.
If you are positivie you know what you are doing, you have two choices. 1) Edit
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
I can't tell from the webpage (admittedly, I didn't look too hard) how much they've merged with Berolinux. Do they have pentium/k6 optimized distributions like Bero did? I never actually got Berolinux to install. For some reason the boot image was over 2MB. What's with that? I guess I'll stick with actual Red Hat, recompiling the SRPMs for now (though Stampede is looking very, very nice; we'll see if I'm too lazy to learn a new packaging system).
Yes, it takes RedHat as a basis, because you have to start somewhere. But here's what makes the big difference:
- Pentium uptimizations (5-30% faster)
- Updated packages, latest versions
- UDMA optimizations
- Pre-configured applications
- Almost 100 RH6 bugs fixed
- *REAL* KDE 1.1.1, not a pre-release
- KDE Themes, more KDE apps
- True Type fonts
- Internationalization (accents, man-pages...)
- Apache 1.3.6 with PHP3.0.8 integrated
Now, what do you want more???
JM
If you read the news you will know that Bero merged with Mandrake in mars. http://www.berolinux.za.net/merge.html Regards
is everybody going 6.x now?
It seems that all Linux versions
seem to be around the same area lately interesting
if anything
P Kueth
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
After testing out several other Linux distros, I have to say that I was most pleased with Mandrake in getting a system setup properly (haven't tried out Debian yet, and Mandrake 6 will probably make me hold off on that now). From the information on their website on the new release, I think that Mandrake will continue to reside on my computer. It's really nice to find a distro that caters to people like me that just want to use Linux, not hack into it (although that's probably the fun in using Linux for most). Eh, the Festen release made me stay in Linux much more than Windows, and it will be interesting to see the effect Venus will have on me once I install it. Kudos to the Linux Mandrake team.
Demona's Law - "User data expands to exceed available bandwidth." ("User data" being pr0n, mp3's, vob's,
Hmm.. well, maybe it goes beyond the software itself and instead the decisions of the people who develope it. For example, redhat tries to make money off of their software and leans to making it more commercial. This is kinda why some people don't care for it, like myself. Instead, I would rather run a distrobution put together by someone who isn't money-driven, but tries to make the software the best it can be, instead of tending to the people who are willing to pay for it.
> They moved /opt (where KDE is located) off / and into /usr. I like this
/opt, if they want their distro to be interoperable.
This is stupid, they should use the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, which includes
Most of the distros are already doing this.
I'm getting sick of all the closed-minded people on /... its another distro, which has a purpose of making linux accessable to people who may not have as much computer expertise as others. Yes, its a 'redhat hack', but its simplified enough for less knowledgable people can install it, but not enough that they dont learn anything. calling anyone 'lame' for using it is pretty lame in itself, and pretty much a waste of posting space =P
"Short, tall, fat, skinny, from the highest king to the lowest man, everyone uses the potty." - Brak
I dont exactaly believe this.. redhat makes updates for software public, and they've done quite a few things for the linux community other than just their own financial gain. No question, they base a lot on their financial gain, but thats more in marketing.. I bet if slack were to get commercial success, and get 50 bucks a pop for a boxed set, the author(s) would leap at the opportunity. Redhat is just the one that has caught the brunt of the commercialization of linux
"Short, tall, fat, skinny, from the highest king to the lowest man, everyone uses the potty." - Brak
once again, further proof of my point. linux is linux, wether its debian, slackware, redhat, suse, turbolinux, roll-your-own, or one of the many redhat clones. Think of it as music. if you like, say, techno, but you dont like, say, punk, do you trash everyone who listens to punk? no, you let them listen to what they choose, and you listen to what you choose. all that distrobutions are are a choice of what 'breed' of linux you wish to run. no version is any better than the next.. it all depends on the admin =)
"Short, tall, fat, skinny, from the highest king to the lowest man, everyone uses the potty." - Brak
The Reason Venus (Mandrake 6.0) is version 6 is they are matching version numbers with Red Hat, due to the fact that Mandrake is a modified version of Red Hat, it helps to avoid confusion IMHO.
Did anyone try an upgrade from Madrake 5.3 to 6.0?
Were there any problems with the switch from 2.0 to 2.2? Any KDE user setups lost (e.g. kppp)?
First of all we put in kernel patches for support of some additional chipsets, like the rather PIIX4 chipsets (used in a lot of Pentium II/III mainboards).
Second, we automatically added hdparm -c 1 -d 1 to the init scripts, which is a big speedup for some drives, a small one for others.