TrakerJon

There are actually 5 CD's but 4 & 5 are only available through a purchase or membership. There is a Russian site that has the 4th but it's a very slow connection... http://ftp.linuxcenter.mu/iso/Mandrakelinux-10.1-Official/

Once again Bill Gates proved that Microsoft is no match for Linux. Microsoft Serach crashed eight times on the opening day. Give it up Bill, Winblows just can't cut it.

Mandrake 10 - A Newbies Review Mandrake 10 has been out for a couple of weeks now and from what I've seen most people seem to like it. I'm running it right now as a workstation and in my humble opinion this release was thought out much better than 9.2 (although compared to 9.1 it misses the mark a little). The fact that you have to manually install Mozilla and Evolution is a pain in the arse. Mandrake was smart enough (this time) to include the current releases of popular software (good job guys) but when are they going to start including Sun's Java VM, Flash and RealPlayer in the community release?!!! They were nice enough to put some of the icons back on the KDE panel and the application start menu is organized a little better than 9.2. In general I give it a "A" for effort with the suggestion that there is some room for improvement. Hey Mandrake...the standard workstation install should include: 1. OpenOffice 2. Evolution 3. Mozilla 4. RealPlayer 5. MPlayer 6. Sun's Java VM 7. Gaim 8. XMMS 9. GTK-Gnutella 10. Macromedia Flash [Edited by TrakerJon on 2004-03-20 08:37:32]

HOW TO SET UP PRINTING ON KNOPPIX Be sure you are booted into KNOPPIX and sitting at the default KDE desktop. 1) Open up a terminal (the little "shell" icon on the panel). 2) Type 'su' to switch your user to root. 3) Run the following command to enable the CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) daemon: '/etc/init.d/cupsys start'. It will print "Starting CUPSys: cupsd." And return you to the shell prompt. Now, there are two methods of configuring a printer. Either through the KDE tool, or through CUPS's web interface. I recommend using the CUPS web interface, as it will be common over all Linux computers you encounter. Not all systems will have the KDE utility. Both methods are covered in this HOWTO. KDE Printing Manager: 4) Start the KDE Printing Manager. KMenu->Settings->Printing Manager. 5) At the top, below the toolbar, is a menubar with "Add, Printer, Print Server, Print Manager," etc. Click on Add, and go down & select "Add Printer/Class..." 6) A wizard will pop up. Click Next, and you will be given a choice of what to install. If the student has a printer connected locally (either via the parallel port or USB), select Local Printer. To set up the LPD IP Printing, select "Remote LPD Queue". Alternatively, if they have a different setup (possibly printing to their roommate's printer via a SMB share, select that. I cannot guarantee that the following steps will work on methods other than LPD printing though. The local printer should be relatively simple. 6) You will be given a field to enter the Host IP & Printer Queue. Enter the appropriate host for the dorm you are in. Same IPs and Queue name as on the Windows LPR printing setup. Click Next. 7) Select the printer from the list. Select the manufacturer, HP. And the Model, LaserJet 5Si. Click Next. Leave the Driver as the "recommended" option. NOTE: If printing does not work, selecting a different driver from this menu might fix it. Click Next. 8) You may if you want print a test page. Click Next. 9) Leave the banner selection as No Banner. Same with the Printer Quota and Users. 10) For the "General Information" section, enter useful information. Name, Location and Description. Click Next, and Finish. You should now have a printer in the KDE Printing Manager. CUPS Web interface: 4) Open a web browser (either Konqueror or Mozilla), and go to: http://localhost:631. 5) Click on Printers -> Add Printer. 6) Enter the Name, Location and Description. 7) From the drop-down list for the device, select "LPD/LPR Host or Printer". Optionally, if you're setting up a local printer, select the appropriate device (USB, Parallel, etc). 8) Enter the Device URI. For LPD printing, it will appear as the examples given. lpd://ip-address/queue. For example, lpd://129.210.8.101/Alameda-Q. 9) Select HP as the "Make". Select "HP LaserJet 5Si, CUPS + Gimp-Print as the Model. 10) It will tell you the printer has been added successfully, and you will be taken back to the Printer list. You should now be able to open OpenOffice and print any needed documents.

Hmmm XMMS does seem to be quite a problem with Mandrake 10 unless you include it with the initial install. I don't mess around with my NTFS partician while using Mandrake but if that functionality is something you need that may be another issue as well. Ok, Mandrake, what other surprises are there?

Here's the goodies... GTK-Gnutella - http://gtkg.swimmingnoodle.com/pkg/ Gaim - http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=235&package_id=253 Flash - http://ruslug.mutgers.edu/macromedia/site_ru.html Sun Java VM - http://java.com/en/index.jsp RealPlayer - http://forms.real.com/real/player/unix/unix.html?src=031104realhome_1_1_2_1_1_2

Ok, I admit I've been a little hard on Red Hat in the recent past but I have to say that the final release of Fedora Core makes a passing grade. I used to use Red Hat 7.3 until I found Mandrake was more reliable for a workstation user. My biggest complaint with Red Hat 8.0, 9.0 and the beta releases of Fedora Core were that Sun's Java VM wouldn't work with the Mozilla browser. After relentless bugzilla reports and complaints they've resolved the issue (make sure you install the jre 1.4.2_3 rpm and the plugin symbolic link as root) with the final release of Fedora Core. Including Open Office 1.1 was a good move, Red Hat update seems to work without issue and the OS appears to respond quicker than the beta releases as well. I'm a little disappointed with Mandrake's 9.2 release, they hosed up their install since 9.1 leaving out Mozilla and other formerly default applications along with tool bar links and such. I hate having to manually install apps that should already be included. Looks like it's a tough call to choose between the two now.

Seldom do I see a distribution that has it all for the workstation user like Mepis. I've been testing out quite a few live CD's lately (mainly because I don't have a computer at work that I can install linux on without the boss telling me "it's a non-standard OS") fortunately I ran across Mepis. It's a Debian based OS with lots of goodies (that normally have to be installed by the user). Mepis installs by default RealPlayer 8.0, Sun's Java VM 1.4.2_02, Macromedia Flash 6.0, Mozilla 1.5 and Open Office 1.1. The live CD works great (disk one of two install disks), check it out for yourself. Mepis can be found at http://www.mepis.org/node/view/2 Note: Mandrake better watch it's back, Mepis has more current software and it doesn't require a lot of tweeking. Enjoy! Visit NetJones's Home Page at http://home.comcast.net/~netjones/index.htm Live Free or Die - Boycott SCO http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php...71&forum=35

I like KDE, Gnome always has been a little problematic for me. KDE seems to be the most user friendly with easily recognized applications and utilities.

Morphix is pretty cool, I'm not sure what's up with the poll freature, it doubled my entries and messed with your entry. I'll send an email to the webmaster.

Mandrake 9.1 has very good support for what you're trying to accomplish.

Mandrake 9.2 was released to the general public yesterday and overall it was worth the wait with a few reservations that I will soon mention... First the "Good", as usual Mandrake included just about everything but the kitchen sink on their three 9.2 download ISOs. Now, having said that, they could have included Mozilla 1.5, XMMS 1.2.8 and the final release of OpenOffice 1.1 for as long it took them to finally get 9.2 out but I guess the LG CD ROM thing was their main concern. Now for the "Bad" (assuming you already know about the LG CD ROM issue) there are some setup issues that can be a bit of a pain in the arse. Mozilla, Mozplugger, Screensavers, XMMS, MPlayer, XPdf, Evolution and Xine all should install by default, unfortunately you have to add them manually. I found it's better to include these while installing Mandrake as opposed to after. If you use Mandrake Update or install software from the Configuration then Packaging menu it may hose up your KDE application menu. If you run Menudrake choosing the Environment menu, select All Environments followed by clicking Save on the toolbar then it's fairly easy to correct this issue. It would have been great if Sun's Java VM was included with the OS along with RealPlayer too but they both work without issue after downloading and installing the RPM's (no biggie). The "Ugly" is definitely the silly house icon for "Home", other than that MPlayer is still choppy with streamed video and they really do need to include some better background along with KDE's (these old ones are getting very tired). Like I've said before, Mandrake is probably the easiest distribution to install and use for the average newbie. Version 9.1 is less buggy than 9.2 and if I wanted to be a little more criticle I'd say 9.1 is a better release simply because more useful applications are installed by default (leaving Mozilla out of the default install was a dumb move). One parting thought, Fedora (Red Hat) still doesn't measure up to Mandrake in my book, very little has changed except the name. My main complaint with Red Hat is that Sun's Java VM usually doesn't work with their OS and any release of Mozilla (since Red Hat 7.3) even after many bugzilla reports to Red Hat on the issue by myself and others.

Mandrake does have support for a lot of ATI video cards, unfortunately yours is not listed as one of them. These are the closest to the 9700 Pro I could find...no guarantee they will work. The ATI site might have some solutions for you. http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/linux...mp;submit=GO%21 http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/readme0328.txt ATI Radeon 64MB DDR ATI Radeon 32 MB SDR ATI Radeon 32MB DDR ATI Radeon 7500 ATI Radeon 8500 ATI Radeon VE

Hmmm maybe not but they do include Nvidia drivers.

Wow! This is actually more fun than I thought possible from a Live CD! Be careful though, you'll have full access to your Windows partician (assuming some of you still use that Microsoft stuff). Debian based, KDE desktop, Linux 2.4.22 with Mozilla 1.5, OpenOffice 1.1, XMMS 1.2.8, Sun Java VM, and a ton of other things packed into one CD! I've tried both Gnoppix and Morphix as well but the current Knoppix distribution seems to include just about anything you would want or need including a variety of utilities as well as office applications (sans Evolution which would be a plus if they could figure out how to include it). Download this jewel and try it for yourself, I think you'll be impressed. http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html If you want to set the root password to install more stuff... Ctrl+Alt+F2 and type passwd at the prompt, enter the new password, confirm it, Ctrl+Alt+F5 to get back to KDE. Note: Printing wouldn't work for me (maybe you'll have better luck) other than that a great Live CD.

The easiest way to see for yourself is to download the Gnoppix Live CD from http://www.gnoppix.org/

Gnutella - http://sourceforge.net/projects/gtk-gnutella/ Sun Java - http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html RealPlayer 8.0 - http://proforma.real.com/real/player/unix/unix.html?src=downloadr,000814rpchoice_c1 Macromedia Flash 6 plug-in - http://sdc.shockwave.com/shockwave/download/alternates/ GAIM - http://sourceforge.net/projects/gaim/ F-Prot Antivirus - http://www.f-prot.com/products/home_use/linux/

After reading a few reviews on both Mandrake 9.1 and Red Hat 9.0 I set out to see for myself which one of these distributions was the easiest to install and use. Mandrake's new installer gave me immediate and logical customization choices (even for a novice such as myself) whereas Red Hat has standardized installs by default, if you want variations it requires selecting the custom install option followed by some ambiguous selections to be made. Mandrake and Red Hat both did a fairly good job of hardware recognition and there were no apparent software application configuration problems or errors after a post install reboot. One noticeable difference I found using the KDE desktop with Mandrake was that it seemed to load a lot faster, applications lanuched quicker and the default sound volume was just about right (the folks at Red Hat must be a lot more patient and have very sensitive hearing). Mandrake’s menu layout was a bit more involved than it probably should be but when it comes to included applications and utilities Mandrake took the show with the most current versions of OpenOffice and Mozilla (a big plus in my book), system utilities that make sense (without requiring some docs to read unlike Red Hat) and native MP3 support was a nice touch as well. Sun's j2re (java runtime environment) 1.4.1, RealPlayer 8 and Macromedia Flash 6 were instantly recognized by Mandrake. Mandrake's anti-alias and font conversion features are nothing short of awesome (making it somewhat of a threat to Windows XP in the near future from my point of view). I give Mandrake an "A" for effort and Red Hat a "B" for better luck next time

Gtk-Gnutella can be found at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4467

I've installed a lot of different distributions over the years, some good and some quite frustrating. My favorites have been Mandrake, Debian, SuSe and Red Hat. The latest release of Mandrake though really does stand out from the pack. I'm totally impressed with the quality of the hardware recognition, how easy the utilities are to use, software installations come off without a hitch, the included applications are very current, online updates are readily available, the font conversion tools are awesome and in general when using the KDE desktop the OS is quick to respond and very fun to use. Good-bye Windows!!!

Well blueworm, needless to say Gentoo is a good release but for the average newbie Mandrake is easier to install, the utilities need very little instruction (if any) and I have yet to find a system that it didn't like when it comes to hardware recognition (unlike Gentoo or SuSe). The 2.4.20 kernal that shipped with 9.1 works just fine for me, RPM's install without issue so far and I've yet to have a problem with the automated update. The more I use it the more I like it...I haven't used my Win 2000 box in weeks.

Well, for hardware recognition, ease of application installation, configuration changes, multimedia and networking I'd say Mandrake wins by a long shot for home users (Debian for server setup).

Hmmm I'm assuming you're talking about VNC, check your firewall settings and you might find these links helpful as well. Personally I don't like running client's like this on my home boxes for security reasons. 8) http://www.tjansen.de/krfb/ http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

Ok guys, I've tried this every way from Sunday with Red Hat 7.3. I've pointed the Netscape plug-in path to the various 4.0, 6.0 and 6.2 java plug-ins and I've copied the plug-ins to the Netscape plug-in folder after installing the RPM from Sun v.1.4.1 successfully. The plug-ins either don't work or they crash Netscape/Mozilla. Suggestions or solutions please!

Thanks guys...your replies are appreciated. I opted out of Red hat 7.3 for Mandrake 9.1 that easily recognized Sun's jre 1.4.1 within Mozilla's 1.3 browser without issue.