Mandrake 9x


Subject: Mandrake 9x
From: Jan Zumwalt (jwzumwalt@neatinfo.com)
Date: Mon Dec 16 2002 - 00:41:28 AKST


I just purchased Mandrake 9X (power pack) from best Buy. This is the best
version (7cd) that Mandrake sells except for the server addition. I will be
donating a copy to the Aklug club for any that may want a copy of it.

I have a couple things to say about it:

1) I switched from Suse to Mandrake because I like to do development and
Suse violates some very important library location standards. While I do not
think Mandrake does this, I was surprised to see the OpenGL development
libraries missing - Ugg! Of coarse Opengl runs just fine - you just can't
compile or develop it. Am I expecting to much for a $70 distro?
2) The next gripe is I haven't been able to find a way to open up terminal
sessions while in Xwindows. For example Alt-F9, etc.
3) They deliberately handicap the root xwindow session to discourage it's
use as root - who's the boss, them or me?
4) Mandrake is well known for ease in the install. But, it failed to
recognize my SB Pro sound card. You can't get more generic than this... The
error message gives two utility names for manually installing the card - the
first sndconfig is apparently not included in the distro, and Harddrake does
not seem to allow a manual configuration.

Am I beginning to see the distro wars start to pump out software before it
is tested just so some lame Penguin can make a buck?

The good news is it is a very well behaved desktop solution. The Open Office
and commercial programs have not locked up so far, unlike Suse. I pretty
much did a full install and ended up with 3gb of hard drive space taken. The
Suse full install would have been closer to 6gb. I noticed the Mandrake
install was lean and mean - perhaps a little too lean - Suse tends to be a
too fat with a lot of worthless programs. Nearly all the programs included
with Mandrake work as advertised while Suse tends to include a lot of
programs that simply no longer work do to quirks in the original compile
method (such as SVGALIB).

I have not contacted Mandrake's help department yet on the above issues. I
like to play with a distro a couple weeks before I start the clock ticking
on the 60day support. If there is anyone else using mMandrake and they would
like to pool their resources and expertise regarding this install, please
feel free to contact me. I am foreging on with hopefully the ultimate
graphics development work station:-{)-+<

Jan Zumwalt

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