Hi,

When reading these message boards users may often get the wrong impression on the usability of a piece of software/hardware or gadget, therefore I wanted to post some positive feedback about what works for me in Mandrake 10.1 compared to let's say RedHat 8 or9.

I have used RedHat since 4.x and it was a major contributor to my scientific career, but I must say, over the past few years it has been increasingly difficult to add new features. To constantly hack is endless fun, but it is also nice to have an OS that just works baby, I have other things to do. At work I use an iMac G5 to run our Beowulf cluster (128 dual Xeon processor nodes), at home I can't afford such luxuries, after all I am only a Scientist, not a plumber who makes real money.

Mandrake just works. Okay, there are some "marketing" issues I have with the way that the "open-source" code is being sold, whereby if you buy the "power" version all the hardware issues work themselves out automatically (including proprietary drivers etc.).
You can purchase the "power CD" set over the internet for ~$12. If Mandrake wants to make money, put some cute linux toys and clothes on your website and I'll buy some, but I refuse to be falsely cornered into paying for open-source software.

I downloaded the 3 CD 10.1 set and used this list and others and I have easily gotten sound, NVIDIA, video, and DV capture, CUPS print serving my collection of printers to all the computers in the house, etc. all working in one day.

I can now burn CDs, DVDs, VCDs, etc. without the cumbersome RedHat 8/9 ide-scsi and endless hardware issues. Although, I did download/compile/install the newest K3B (0.11.20) to fix some DVD burning speed issues.

The most useful site for me was when I was installing Mandrake was:

www . mandrake . tips . 4 . free . fr / configuration101 . html

(extra spaces to get the url listed in this post!)

that guy rocks . . . what is his paypal contribution account???

The only newbie/oldbie hangup I had was dealing with modprobe.preload (put in nvidia, sound, raw1394, dv1394, and sis900 for my ethernet card) to get things to work after booting (yes I am new to the 2.6 kernel). For my camcorder project, I had to move /lib/modules/2.6.8.1-12mdksmp/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/eth1394.ko.gz out of the way to get digital video to work (this module is for IP over ethernet) and I put

mknod -m 666 /dev/raw1394 c 171 0

in the bottom of rc.local since I believe udev won't take care of this automatically. Now I can capture DV and play with it without being forced by Apple to spend $2000 to get the particular model that allows you to have a DVD burner and iMovie. Yeah, okay you can use a mini to do some things now, but at a slower, albeit better engineered and quieter/cooler pace. Rant, rant, rant.

Using urpmi to load software is a breeze.

On the scientific front I have installed all of my usual tools and everything works as it did before. Heck, buy that newer bigger/faster hardrive/CPU/whatever and switch to Mandrake, you'll be happy ... it is like having Mac OS X on your PC.

Like I said, Linux is wonderful and I have other things to do. Thanks to Mandrake, I can do them now.

Cheers,

Clotter

p.s. buy a Zalman CPU fan and a newer CPU case (aluminum with large fans) it will keep your box quieter and you can think again. I am using the Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu on my P4S800-MX ASUS motherboard. Installing the Zalman was easier than installing the Intel P4 standard heatsink/fan combo. Using lm_sensors my CPU is always less than 50 C. I would buy the "all copper" Zalman fan if I could turn back time, it keeps the CPU a few degrees cooler according to the Zalman manual; my kids wanted the 7000"B" version for the blue light (which didn't show up in my Amazon order!).

Although, I am not endorsing the ASUS board (no PCI IDE card or USB booting).

Here are the "important" parts of my XF86Config file for Nvidia folks. If you move the video card from one slot to another use lspci and switch the BusID option in the Device section below to point to the correct card (otherwise X won't boot). If you get stuck just use Ctl-Alt F2 (or any F# with # < 7) and get a different tty and login and use telinit 3 to stop X (of course after you edit the XF86Config file use telinit 5 to get X back without rebooting).

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx" # 3D layer
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corp."
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce2 DDR (generic)"
Driver "nvidia"
Screen 0
BusID "PCI:0:09:0"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Yeah, whenever someone says to me that linux isn't ready for the desktop, I tell them to try Mandrake.

My beef is with the company, not its product. I purchased 9.2 powerpack directly from Mandrake's website. The boxed product was riddled with bugs, including one that would destroy LG CD-ROMs and another that would make all menu icons disappear. Mandrake released 9.2.1 which fixed all those issues but it was available only to club members via download. Being on a slow dialup connection, downloading from the club is a lesson in futility and as a retail purchaser not being offered another option made me a little irate. I won't buy another version of Mandrake until somethng changes. Either I'll get broadband and join the club, where I can download retail versions for free, or Mandrake is going to have to start offereing the same benefits to purchasers of boxed copies that club members get. Either way, Mandrake hasn't gotten a cent out of me since 9.2... and that's a pity, since the distro is great; it's their management team that sux.

Clotter, I'll agree that all you ever see are people complaining about Mandrake (or RedHat, or Debian, or ...), but that's the nature of the internet. If you search for Windows help sites, you will see people complaining about how this or that doesn't work properly in Windows.

Still, it's nice to see someone say something nice about Linux and/or a specific distro. I have played with Mandrake since about version 4.0, but 10.0 was the one that convinced me to quit Windows altogether.

And Crito, my only complaint with your complaint () is that the LG thing wasn't a bug in Mandrake, it was a bug in LG. Mandrake coded something according to the standard. LG "misappropriated" a low-level ATAPI command for their own use, thinking no-one would ever use it. (LG used the command to erase the firmware.) Of course, Mandrake had to "fix the bug", even though the problem was with LG.

clotter - Which modem model are you using as I am assuming it worked out of the box? Just curious as I have yet to get a modem to work with Mandrake yet.

The menu bug was offered as a bugfix early on and available to all

The LG CD-ROM drive issue was NOT mandrakes fault nor was it a bug. It was due to LG not adhering to the ATAPI protocol.

But i agree that after having paid for something these little things can be annoying and off putting.

Cheers

Hi,

I'm sorry I don't have a modem, so I can't comment on your problem. If you have a WinModem there is plenty to be
said about them and Linux on the web, it wouldn't be a Mandrake only issue as far as I know.

Clotter

The menu bug was a locking issue with the RPM database. The LG bug wasn't Mandrake's fault, but none of the other distros destroyed the drives, so it's Mandrakes fault for making an unnecessary change to the kernel and then not testing that change adequately.

Anyways, in my final analysis, I really don't care whose fault it was/is. I PAID FULL RETAIL for the powerpack and expected to be treated better than people who have never bought a boxed copy. All Mandrake seems to care about is selling club subscriptions which, as mentioned previously, I have no use for, being on a slow dialup connection.

So, to conclude, there's no doubt in my mind Mandrake is the best desktop distro. Unfortunately, having a good product isn't nearly as important as having good management, and that's something Mandrakesoft lacks IMHO.