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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?
FYI
/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
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.
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...
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.
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
Perhaps it means this:
2 5/]
/sbin/hdparm -c 1 /dev/hda (or hdb, hdc etc)
/sbin/hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda (or hdb, hdc etc)
/sbin/hdparm -t /dev/hda (or hdb, hdc etc)
/sbin/hdparm -k 1 /dev/hda (or hdb, hdc etc)
[http://www.linux.com/tuneup/articles/19990518/
2x performance increases have been reported on massive disk I/O
operations (like cloning disks) by setting the IDE drivers to use DMA
and 32-bit transfers. The kernel seems to use more conservative
settings unless told otherwise.
The commands are
#
to use 32-bit I/O over the PCI bus. (The hdparm(8) manpage says that
you may need to use -c 3 for some chipsets.)
Use:
#
to enable DMA. This may depend on support for your motherboard
chipset being compiled into your kernel.
You can test the results of your changes by running hdparm in
performance test mode:
#
When you've found the optimal settings, you should consider doing a
#
to keep these settings across an IDE reset. I've seen the kernel reset
the IDE controller occasionally and if you don't set -k 1, the other
settings will be reset to defaults and you'll lose all your performance
gains.
The -m option can be used to change the number of sectors transferred
on each interrupt. You may get additional gains by tweaking this, but it
didn't do anything for me.
Author: Kenn Humborg (Obtained from TuneLinux.com)
-- v --
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,
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