I would like to DL mandrake distribution but when i get to the web site it says that we have to pay. Maybe I made a mistake but is there a way to get this distribution free?
Thanks. A newbie in Linux system.

Well, if u are finding something like that....

here's the link for you to download mandrake 10.1 free
http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=29

Make sure you have 3 CD's and CD-RW Drive to burn!

A download edition is available from the Download page.

Note that this is a cut-down version in that it doesn't include closed-source software such as accellerated nvidia graphics drivers and multimedia plugins; you will probably have a lot of downloading and installing software to do if you want to get a cutting-edge system out of it.

I do not understand well what you are telling me sorry. The 3 cds for DL do not give me a full version of the mandrake distribution, is it what you are telling me? I precise that i am totally new in Linux and to be honest i will prefer a system where everything is already installed instead of one where i will have to do a lot of installs..

I am french speaking, also i undderstant petty well english, but i would prefer to get help for tecnicals matters in french . Are there fench forum and help on the mandrake distribution?

Thanksa lot again

It looks to me like the download edition linked to earlier is the full version. It just doesn't come with the commercial disc (which I assume has software that cannot be distributed for free).

Hope that helps.

Zack

The download version is 3 CDs worth of stuff and doesn't include commercial software and many development tools and libraries. Its aimed at the home user so it still does include internet software (web browsers, instant messaging etc.), office, mutlimedia (sound and video players) and all that stuff.

Once you've got this go to http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ and setup your software repositories. You will then actually have all the software that comes with the full boxed version plus a lot more. I've downloaded these repositories to my hard disk (main, contrib, jpackage, plf-free, plf-nonfree) and they amount to 2 DVDs worth of stuff.

So in this way you can get it all for free.

ftp://ftp.u-strasbg.fr/pub/linux/dis...iso/10.2/i586/

download the isos you need and urpmi anything that is missing... but this is a full linux distro from mandrake that is free.

Regards
Richard

No, this is not true. The download version comes with *almost* eveything. It has a huge amount of software and much more can be download / updated from easyurpmi as has already being pointed. It just doesn't come with some stuff like nvidia drivers but then no other linux free (as in free beer) distro will come with them either.

And you will want to download the 3 CD set cd and for the newest version: 10.2 Limited Edition 2005.

Here is the official download link:
http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/ftp.php3

it is a full distro unless you are redefining the words. Mandrake offers closed source, that does not make it any fuller because there is an option to have ISOs containing proprietory apps. By that definition, there is no 'full' distro...

Regards
Richard

Hey rkettle
do those downloads of Mandrake
at ftp.u-strasburg
contain Java, nv drivers etc etc

because the ones at linuxiso don't

floppy

To me, a full distro is something that I burn the CDs, put them on my computer, and it will install and eeeeverything will work. I will never end up in a situation where I cannot do X, because I did not buy de full version, but I would be able to do X if I had installed another free (free beer) distro. And by that definition Mandrake download edition is a full distro.

I've never used the paid version and yet I have all the software I want (actually more). I can download anything else free available to linux, just like any other distro.

It does not come with Java (firefox comes with javascript thought) .... so why not download and install it??? I don't own a nvidia card, but since there are plenty of how to's out there, I think that I could make it work anyway.

I would have to do this if I was installing Debian either, since debian dislikes proprietary software. Would Debian not be "a full distro"??? Of course it is a full distro.

Hey noobs the download version (3 cds) is a full version of open-source softwares... It have mozilla-firefox, gaim, bittorent, developement tools, and other stuff. There is, too, a payed version 4 cds which the 4th cd have the rpm of nvidia/ati drivers, flash/java plugins and Real player rpm and some non open-source softwares. Those softs are compiled by mandriva to make them 100% operational with their distrib. that's why that some of you who haven't read the damned pages of mdk' site so go buy some glasses and then return to the sites.

so setlec_seta
do you get paid to be rude
or is it something you aspire to

floppy

My tuppenny's worth:

The only thing you should be careful of here is the where someone says “You can do XXX with YYY distro”, and they mean a commercial version of YYY that packages closed-source software, e.g. the accelerated nVidia drivers. Someone else then gets the free (Beer) version of the YYY distro, after being told that it is “a full distro” and complains bitterly because they can't do XXX out of the box. After all, do they not have “a full distro”?

This is a big problem with cut-down distros like SuSE Linux Personal Edition, which doesn't even ship with a C compiler, thus limiting you to what's on the CD or to even more huge downloads.

Conversely, there is an argument that says that using closed-source software is against the spirit of Free (Speech) Software, so we should not be using accelerated nvidia drivers and so on anyway (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html).

Another argument is that no distro is full unless you can do anything with it, out of the box, with no programming. I've yet to see a version of any OS that can control a real-life Mars Lander, for example. It really all depends on what you mean by “full”.

I'd have to agree with floppy on this one, try to keep it down and not get personal. These types of comments you need to leave to yourself please.