Good news first:

KDE 3.3.1 has hit the cooker mirrors- maybe they are smart.....

and the Bad:

STILL no Xorg 6.8 only 6.7

Only gnome 2.6


Fedora Core is kicking butt on the cutting edge
FC3 KDE 3.3 Gnome 2.8

I got this on google, I don't know if you are interested, but if you are ...

http://ftp.belnet.be/linux/pclinuxos.../RPMS.updates/

there are many RPMS for Mandrake linux, like Xorg 6.8.1 (xorg-x11-6.8.1-1tex.i586.rpm, xorg-x11-xfs, xorg-x11-Xdmx, xorg-x11-Xnest, xorg-x11-server, xorg-x11-100dpi-fonts, xorg-x11-75dpi-fonts, xorg-x11-xprt, xorg-x11-Xvfb, xorg-x11-cyrillic-fonts, xorg-x11-doc, xorg-x11-glide-module, libxorg-x11-6.8.1-1, libxorg-x11-devel, libxorg-x11-static-devel) and gNOME 2.8.0

Have Fun

Wow is Texstar back!

I see many rpm's from Texstar in there.

ok so fedora is on the bleeding edge, im a mandrake club member... does fedora include smartlink modem drivers? do they include nvidia drivers? is there mp3 support in fedora? is there ntfs support in fedora? NO, guess if I had to install fedora i'd be stuck trying to get it to work *laughs*

If your criteria for selecting Mandrake Club is that you can obtain the drivers, you are IMHO feeding into a very ANTI Linux type situational exploit on the part of the companies.

Technically Mandrake is repackaging Nvidia's, ATI & 3rd party FREEWARE drivers to make people buy these from them.

e.g. oops, community is broken, please buy a membership to obtain the "official" release.

I'm sure Nvidia, ATI and the freeware authors would frown upon this practice. This is a lawsuit just waiting to happen.

This also creates a very negative experience for the newbie who's first brush with Mandrake is usually via a downloaded community edition.

Mandrake should if anything post these drivers freely for everyone and opt for other techniques for revenue, including their alert service (good idea), early availability, special "snap in" modules for server use (which THEY write).

IMHO they are missing the boat on the latter.

opjose, if mandrake do not do what they do then how do u suggest they as a company (not some not-for-profit organization) make money? but i guess it is fine for Red hat / SuSE & Novell to do this? anyways, i dont have time to argue with u, u r completely arrogant. whatever :/

I don't think Mandrake repackaging any freely available drivers is illegal especially if they are in the public domain already. however, I don't really see the point of being in their club just so that you can have official drivers because anyone running any distro can get them freely and install them in a short space of time. Personally I think the club is a good idea, but is too expensive and the benefits are not much.

The reason that you have to pay for these drivers (by joining the club) is becuase they are closed source - full of IP. Mandrake would have paid a fee to package the files and so part of your club membership fee or retail price is to cover this. Please people, tin foil hats off - there is no vast conspiracy here.

The standard line applies - only pay for your distro isf you want to help that distro, want to help the community or want to.

I installed the powerpack dvd onto my wifes pc.

No hassle, after 30 mins (could have been less if I hadn't browsed the package list so long) I had a nice desktop in front of me.
With everything working: audio, nvidia (3d) graphics, mx700, network printer, network scanner, cups network printer, java, flash, you name it.

Only thing to add were libdvdcss and some codecs for full video/multimedia capabilties.

Doing all drivers etc myself would have taken over 30 minutes, and I know how to do all that (just read my own site - config page).

It is this comfort that spending a little money can buy. This extra service that you obtain.

If you don't care for it, no problem. I won't try to convince you otherwise. But don't tell others they shouldn't do it for your reasons. Let them decide if they think it's worth it.

The main problem with joining the club that I see is that people do it for the wrong reason (to get direct support and such). To me, the right reason is to get a bit more service in the driver and proprietary department, and to 'tip the waiter' so he'll be around the next time to service me.


Edit:
by the way, I don't know where x.org 6.8 packages are on the web, but they are on the dvd...

Heh, love to twist things around don't we re: arrogance.

Sometimes one's knowledge and years of experience appears to be arrogance to the uninitiated and young.


Nope actually I WANT Mandrake to make money and I believe that they contribute to Linux in general very well.

If anything the problem is that this technique of reserving drivers for the official release creates a twofold problem for Mandrake which is actually working AGAINST their sales.

The Community releases, as I mentioned are the neophytes first brush with Mandrake.

Since they have so many problems vis-a-vis driver issues, etc. using the community release leaves them with a bad taste in their mouths, and they go off to some other distro, without kicking money into Mandrake's coffers.

Mandrake should adopt the same business model that has worked so well for SUSE.

Do away with the community releases, or release them as SUSE does, as BETA's ONLY or as CRIPPLED finals.

(Oh horror, oh anathma!)

Yeah this does sound a bit horrific doesn't it?

But if coupled with a reduced price unlimited download of the Offical versions, it will act to their benefit.

Why?

SUSE has a wonderful reputation for ease of use and stability.

This reputation is caused by their only really labeling the FINAL releases as a done product. The final release is polished, clean and supports most hardware.

A newbie trying SUSE for the first time will either boot up the polished FINAL trial version or a purchased final version.

Their experience will be quite good.

There are soooo many people here having trouble with Community, simply because community does not include the pre-packaged drivers.

Many are altogether lost to Mandrake as a result, along with the revenue stream.

Sounds like very BAD business sense to me.

Community should ALWAYS be labeled nothing more than a RELEASE CANDIDATE and it should clearly state that this is a product which is NOT in it's final form, and that it is probably missing drivers.

Doing so will stirate Mandrake's output into only two flavors. Betas and Final (pay for) releases, the latter obtainable via Mandrake Club membership and/or boxed sets.

So, if you want official, you kick in 39.00 for an unlimited 6-12 month membership and download your ready to burn CD or DVD ISO's or pay a bit more for the boxed sets.

If you resort to community (which should be called RC's or BETA) then you know that this is an unpolished product.

Most of the newbies and people with problems don't seem to realise this, as witnessed by all of the complaints about Mandrake not "working".

Mandrake is hemorraging customers as a result... while SUSE is doing pretty well with a very similiar business model that differs in these rather small but ultimately KEY points.

Ah, but they are NOT in the public domain. That is part of the problem.

In effect Mandrake is taking someone else's work and making a profit by repackaging it... which is one of the reasons that I said that this is a lawsuit just waiting to happen.

EXACTLY!

That is why the Community release is SOOO problematic.

The people who are having problems think that Mandrake is highly problematic and end up walking away.

That or they end up trashing their systems with kernel recompiles, non-mandrake package downloads, etc.

While it may be a seemingly subtle distinction for those used to Linux, the newbie is the one that is plagued by the differences between Community and say the Powerpack release.

Heck, maybe Mandrake should only release the powerpack version for the end user.

From my point of view it's the best release they produce, for which I always pay for...

But what does the Club buy me over the Powerpack?

Unfortunately at the moment nothing and there is the rub.

Well it won't just be Mandrake then, coz a few other linux distros do it. I hope they have some form of agreement with the companies that release these drivers coz Linux could do without more litigation.

There is a BIG difference however from a company placing another companies non-PD drivers onto a disk and distributing them, versus effectively making people PAY for the same thing.

I'm sure Nvidia and ATI would have something to say about this... again lawsuits just WAITING to happen.

One thing is to take the Nvidia and ATI drivers and customize the installation for Redhat, Mandrake, etc., after all both companies freely distribute this stuff (but do not place it into the PD or opensource...).

It's a completely different thing, if say I made a change in Nvidia's drivers and started charging your for them at 10.00 a pop.

Oops, here come the legal troops.

Effectively this is what Mandrake does with their distribution and so do a few others.

SUSE forgos all of this by making you pay for all final releases.

Then they just happen to toss adjusted drivers into all of their release packages.

It's a subtle difference, but a key one.

Someone considering SUSE knows that they must buy it.

Someone considering Mandrake, usually looks at the Community release first, because of the cost of the Membership and Powerpacks.

If it works well, then they may sign up.

But again, oops, it doesn't work because of missing drivers...

Move up a level and you'll see a couple of threads by newbies who are in this boat.

They are bashing Mandrake because they downloaded Community and it doesn't work "out of the box" for them.

your tune is so boring...