With the release of version 9.1, MandrakeSoft once again attempts to raise the bar for desktop Linux distributions. Ease of use for newbies and configurability and stability for power users have always been the focus of Mandrake Linux. TinyMinds.org investigates if that trend continues with this latest (Download Edition) release. OSNews posted the first review of Mandrake 9.1-Standard a few days ago.
Mandrake 9.1 Review at TinyMinds.org
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
If you are going to be doing a review, and then be making judgements from the review, I would think you might want to do some research.
” It seems as though someone forgot to include the kernel-source package. It’s nowhere to be found on the 1st and 2nd CDs and I don’t assume that it is on the i18n CD.”
Well if he would have even *LOOKED*, he might have noticed the fact it *IS* on the third CD.
Wow pretty shadey if you ask me.
smeat!
> Wow pretty shadey if you ask me.
Maybe not. I made the same mistake of thinking I didn’t need the 3rd CD when I installed one of the betas (and by the time I realized it, a new beta was out and the dependencies for the later beta package would’ve pushed me to upgrading way more than just the libqt-mysql that I was trying to install [I eventually gave up and downloaded all three CDs for RC1]). With this being a final release, the packages/isos won’t just go away like they did for me, but it does seem like not enough emphasis is given to the fact that the 3rd CD is more than just Internationalization.
Jeez, I’m a rank begginer in Linux and even I know the source is always on the last CD.
..I think the first poster’s point is that this guy wrote up a review and published it. You made an “user error” and eventually found the thing. TinyMinds ranted repeatedly in the article about this and even deducted the score for it.
Some sense of journalistic completeness would have been useful here.
Yeah the Internationalization CD should really be renamed to the Internationalization/Devel CD. Almost all the devel packages are located on the third CD. When I say devel I mean stuff like packagename-devel, not GCC.
Still doesn’t excuse this review though. I mean all he had to do was look at what was on the third CD.
smeat!
look at the screenshots in the review
someone who can look at “ireaq propaganda” and “chest chest chest” shots …
and someone who reads/writs vile tripe in his wordprocess ..
obviusly has a tiny mind.
reviewer discredit i think
Not trolling, but I just got the 1st iso down today morning. It’s about perfect, and really kicks Redhat 9(RH 8 was my fav before this). The only hardware problem I saw was that the audigy driver was selected for my Creative Live! card. Since many people have the Live!, I hope this is corrected somehow.
The only thing that bugs me about Mandrake is that urpmi is really not that intuitive as apt goes. Why is there 4 options to control packages, instead of the one main program that used to be there in previous versions?
Does anybody know of an easy way to get ALL the urpmi sources for Mdk 9.1? (including Flash, Java…)
Another review. Good. we need them. On with the important topic.. the fact that Mandrake 9.1 is a waste of time. I am infuriated. I installed it only to find out that when you boot into gnome.. the friggin’ pam-panel-icon sits in the middle of your screen.. not in the notification area.. and when you go to close it.. it re-appears over and over again.. Quite the HUGE bug to miss don’t you think Mr. Duval?
On top of that.. the theme looks sketchy at best (galaxy.. ) and i was totally unimpressed.
Waah.. we need financial support.. and then we’ll dump some crap on you and expect you to be appreciative.
Whatever Mandrake.. yer as good as gone.
> Does anybody know of an easy way to get ALL the urpmi sources for Mdk 9.1? (including Flash, Java…)
Sure, join the MandrakeClub.
Or failing that you can get the non-commercial sources here:
http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/urpmiweb.php
smeat!
Wow your bug reporting method has to be the best way to get something fixed I have ever seen. </sarcasm> Maybe you should go to http://qa.mandrakesoft.com and report the problem you have found. I am willing to bet it will be resolved in short order.
I personally like the galaxy theme. I don’t like how you can’t change the colors in KDE and have it reflected in the GTK theme. I talked with the Mandrake developers about this and they have their reasons for not enabling this feature, that I respect. However the default colors are very nice in my opinion.
Reference:
http://archives.mandrakelinux.com/cooker/2003-01/msg08617.php
smeat!
I expect that bug is because it’s using the KDE2 system tray protocol, which is different to gnomes. Not hard to fix. Bugzilla is the place for it. I agree it is a rather large oversight though.
> On top of that.. the theme looks sketchy at best (galaxy.. ) and i >was totally unimpressed.
I almost always change that type of stuff around immediately. For instance, I really dislike Blue Curve. Its nicer than Keramik which is too gawky/childish, and prettier than BC which is just plain hard on the eyes.
> Waah.. we need financial support.. and then we’ll dump some crap >on you and expect you to be appreciative.
> Whatever Mandrake.. yer as good as gone.
I dunno about that. I’ve always been willing to pony up to support OS products. I even joined the silly mandrake club, because I didn’t want to wait to buy the CD’s in the store. Its been up for a couple of days now, and I’m very impressed.
BTW: What’s crappy about this release other than the obvious fact that it took them this long to do it? 9 should have been what 9.1 is. Mandrake 9 did suck. But this is impressive.
I think red hoe and suse need to watch out for mandrake, and my desktop box has a beta of ark linux and its pretty nice, although VERY beta.
I give Mandrake 2 thumbs up for this release.
To quote 2thumbs “No I didn’t since that CD is supposed to contain the internationalization packages. However, someone informed me via email. So I shall update my review
”
He’s updating the review. He didn’t download the 3rd disc, because it wasn’t labeled as something he’d need. But oh well.
I’m glad that everyone knows that the kernel-source package is on the internationalization CD. Cute. Up until now, it has never been on that CD and downloading it always was a waste of time in my case.
“Jeez, I’m a rank begginer in Linux and even I know the source is always on the last CD.”
— This was the case when Mandrake still supplied the actuall SRPMs on CDs (like in the boxed version of 7.0 for example).
“someone who can look at “ireaq propaganda” and “chest chest chest” shots …and someone who reads/writs vile tripe in his wordprocess ..”
— Using that one might have been a mistake, but I was merely following the conversation with passing interest, and I didn’t check to see what was in the buffer when I took the screenie. Mind you, you weren’t there, so you have even less of an idea (and a complete lack of context) about the discussion.
> I mean all he had to do was look at what was on the third CD.
Where is the list? I’d prefer not to have to download each ISO and burn it/mount with loopback to find out what is on them. And the non-ISO tree structure is to put everything in a single directory, so that doesn’t help either.
Is a members only download mirror for ISO’s. It took me less time to get a warez copy of Longhorn.
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<snipt>
Anyone got a cached copy of the review?
Unlike the OSNews review, this author mentioned the NTFS resizing. This is a huge boon to people that don’t own an expensive programme like Partition Magic and don’t want to scrap their Windows installation. This is a feature that people pay for with Xandros. How OSNews forgot to mention the fact that Mandrake had broken down one of the greatest barriers to consumer Linux adoption for those with Win XP is beyond me. This is huge!
My review mentions both FAT32 and NTFS resizing.
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3116&page=2
And now, you can quit the trolling and say “sorry”.
I used to hate older Mandrake Distribution, even though I would use their font configuration tool it wouldn’t work for me.
But I must aesthetically these new screenshots look much better to me than the old and looks like a theme a Professional home user would like.
I totally agree with Eugenia when she said that this new widget set is really nice.
Also for a cool effect, get the screenshots load them up in an image viewer that can edit pics, and do the following.
Swap Colors:
RGB -> RBG
RGB -> BGR
RGB -> BRG
RGB -> GRB
RGB -> GBR
It might give themers a hint in a way they might alter the look a little and stick it on kde-look.org
kernel-source was on CD3 in 9.0, too.
but yes, there are those who agree the name for CD3 is silly. we’ve moaned about it. we’ve been ignored. whaddaya gonna do? =)
btw, whoever keeps pointing people at qa.mandrakesoft.com…your diligence is good, but quit it
. bugzilla is for bug reports for *Cooker* only. it was the right place to report bugs on 9.1 while 9.1 was in beta / RC state, but it isn’t any more. send them to the expert mailing list, or something. Bugzilla is for people running Cooker only (betas and RCs count as Cooker, in case you’re wondering, while they’re current).
>> Bugzilla is for people running Cooker only (betas and RCs count as Cooker, in case you’re wondering, while they’re current).
What if you downloaded your RC3 ISOs before they renamed them 😉
Didn’t see it. I wasn’t trolling, but I wanted to make sure that people knew it was there. It’s a HUGE deal. C’mon, this allows people to install Linux without wiping their Windows system or resorting to expensive utilities.
You didn’t mention it in the installation part (which is where partition resizing is most important to consumers – and Mandrake is meant as a consumer Linux) and only said “You will find tools for partitioning and NTFS/FAT32 resizing, ZeroConf (called ‘Rendezvous’ by Apple), printing, internationalization, networking, firewalling, internet connection sharing, monitor and gfx card configuration and a bunch more tools” kinda as just a minor thing.
Wow I can’t believe that someone would get so nasty about a screen shot of an IRC channel. Then trash a review over it. Well since I was one of the persons in that channel apperently you can’t get a grip on people talking about UrT and pure political bull crap. Hardly anything to diss a review for. I will be ordering up my COMPLETE Mandrake 9.1 from the Mandrake store here this weekend. Unlike some who bag on a distro release that they just freeloaded I pay for mine. Using Drake 9.0 right now. very happy with it. Paid for it too. From what I have heard form other Drake users who are on the mandrake cooker. 9.1 is a big move forward with a whole new installer with marked improvements. Since when haven’t you needed the 3rd CD in a Drake install. Since about 7.0 I think.
The only good bot is a dead bot
Actually, I’ve been wondering why cbs shows iraqi propaganda and reports it as news, too. Same goes for most of the channels, the only ones who get it right are Foxnews. And just to pull this back on topic: I’m submitting from Mandrake 9.1 right now and I have to admit, it’s very nice. I’ve tried all the versions since 8.0, bought most of them as well and been very dissapointed in all of them. This one may change that. We shall see…
Eugenia wants the -visitors- to stop trolling. There’s the pot calling the kettle black for you.
By the way, folks, if you’re looking for a source of Linux news that’s actually..oh, I don’t know..accurate, try one of the following:
http://lwn.net Linux Weekly News
http://www.userlocal.com Largely Slackware based
http://www.distrowatch.com Keeps you updated on about 120+ distributions
Of course if you’re looking for OS news in general you might have to look a bit harder. But if you enjoy being censored, harassed by ignorant staff members, broken English, and generally not getting any content worth waiting for the site to load, OSNews is the place for you!
It might be an awsome distro but I lost all interest because it’s a French company. I support US invasion of Iraq fully.
Slightly off topic.
Given the now steady and short term treadmill-alike release status of many OS’s, would you not be better off buying a wizzbang PC, and using VMware
Forget NTFS resizing and all the Lilo and Grub pain, use VMware.
AdmV
mdk 9.1:- kde/gnome lovely, but xfce broken: titlebar fornts do not render, right-click-on-bkgd menu doesn’t render (very long boxes). this is before and after nvidia drivers. mdk 9.0 worked perfectly.
so while i wait to find a fix i’m using mwm – and that broke -its windows would refuse tomove, and the bkgd menu failed to open.
so – is all the effort now on gnome and kde, leaving xfce and the others to fall by the wayside?
t
not exactly, but xfce doesn’t have many MDK champions afaik so it isn’t the most worked on of the non-GNOME/KDE desktops. You might have more luck with fluxbox or icewm, they seem to be slightly more active in MDK.
“It might be an awsome distro but I lost all interest because it’s a French company.”
Why would you punish the Mandrake people for something they do not control at all?
[waiting to be modded down]
Boycotts are stupid. The French will be, well French.
Mandrake conrtibs are from all over the world.
Boycotting is very stupid it doesn’t hurt the lame governments that prevoke them just the persons who have expressed no opinion one way or the other. Governments lead the poeple follow no matter what you might think.
hey guys, does anyone have installed it on nforce2 board? any good or bad experienced?
what’s is default os loader in 9.1? is it lilo or grub? because last time i installed 9.0 it using lilo by default and the grub one is ugly…….
some cookers have used nforce2. It’ll mostly work. basic features will work. the in-built network port will work if you compile the nvnet driver. the audio will work with one of the existing audio driver, i810_audio or something like that. you should definitely be able to get it going.
yes it works, but uhmm how to make my rear speaker work?
alsamixer seems broken
[bahamot@localhost SearchRescue]$ alsamixer
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory
any idea?
thx in advance
Ah you donot like french ? For me citizens of USA are tipical zombie. And i hope USA will have exactly the same destiny as Rome Empire.
ah, does anyone like the french? Uman, take a bath and get a life.
as for boycotting mandrake, that does no good to the OSS. mandrake has nothing to do with the U.N. or the war in general.
does alsamixergui work? if not, maybe you don’t have all the necessary alsa packages installed, somehow. maybe alsa-libs. If I remember the cooker discussions correctly, you really can get all the channels working, but the channel names they have are *bizarre* to say the least. I think you actually have to mute a channel with an entirely unrelated name to get the rear output to work. try searching for “soundblaster” or “live” or something in the cooker archives and try and find the relevant threads.
not supporting your fave distribution because it’s french?
that’s dumb
thank God the French see this whole Iraq situation for the SHAM that it is!
we should THANK the French for standing up to us here in the US, and know when Bush is taking the world for a ride
all the more reason to support the French
and you techies who use Linux, shame on you for allowing this political situation stop you from supporting a good company making a quality distribution!
just download it, pay for it, and ENJOY it; and get over this war SHAM