I was browsing around the net trying to find a place that sells MDK 10. I ran across the web site osdepot.com who for I think 26.99 sells a few Training CD's that includes a cd of the new MDK 10. Question is, has anybody ordered from them before and if so satisfactory? Anybody have any experience with these Training Packs?

Thanks much...

hey man, if you gonna buy mandrake then why not support them directly and get it form them direct with all the manuals?

I would, and that is the first place I looked. But there were a couple of things that I was confused about. First being, I wasn't sure if I needed Discovery or PowerPack. I need to be able to run servers for HTTP and FTP and not sure if Discovery would do that. Second, I like that the stuff from osdepot.com came with the training material. That way I can have that for reference instead of keep trying to figure out some of the stuff that I am having trouble with.

discovery is more of a "newbies desktop" pack, doesn't have all the development tools and servers tools, powerpack is what you're after. The boxed sets from MandrakeSoft do come with manuals and will give you necessary information, but also with the boxed set you will get all the rpm how-tos etc etc... powerpack is excellent, im using it myself.

That is exactly what I was wanting to know! Thank you!!! The Mandrakestore.com page doesn't really explain what you are getting too well IMHO.

Yeah, I was a little apprehensive about it because it didn't really specify if it came with Apach2, ftp server, and smb server included.

Thanks much man...

What's the deal with this crappy Mandrake Store? (mandrakestore.com)

OK, so I decided to BUY Mandrake Powerpack 10 from the Mandrakestore. I am a newbie and was tired of fighting all the many problems I'm having with Fedora Core 1 so I thought I'd go for a nice "retail" package with documentation, etc, etc.

But after giving them my money and submitting my order they basically said "Thanks for your money... Now go away." There was no indication of whether the product was in stock, when/if it would ship, how to track, etc. When I tried their contact link I got a non-resizable, non-scrollable window where the important stuff was off-screen! I've ordered a bunch of stuff from lots of web stores and haven't seen such a flakey site in a long time. They since fixed their contact link but I can't seem to get them to reply with a meaningful and/or informative answer. It's been a week and a half now with no idea when if ever I'll get this product.

Any idea what's going on with these guys?

Thanks,

Utah

I am related to osdepot.com, so will be biased.

However, the main difference between a traditional linux manual and OSDepot training CDs is that-- they're training CDs, not manuals--i.e. they come with interactive, multimedia demonstration of different tasks which a traditional book or static PDFs can never provide. So, when you're buying the cds from OSdepot, you get more condensed, easy-to-digest materials, in simple terms.

And, I agree with the other poster that you can go ahead and support Mandrake directly, but if you're looking for fast, effective training to get used to Linux asap, please buy the training CD and Command CD bundle at osdepot.com

osdepot.com

In response to Utah's post.


I have seen similar things in Lindows, Mandrake, and even Red Hat--when they used to release desktop versions. They are hard to reach, and in case of a problem with your order, you wait for weeks. Sometimes they run out of this and that, and they never notify you on time, so that you could cancel the order.

At a smaller business, like other linux resellers, eg. osdepot.com , things are a bit different. We have personal relation with many of the customers who provide us with nice feedbacks from time to time, and we try to please every one of them with timely and professional service. We offer no question asked replacements for damaged and lost CDs at our cost--at many places like Lindows, you are probably stuck with a $50 coaster, if it doesn't work.

I am getting a bit promotional, so let me stop now. Any suggestions on improving the osdepot.com website will be gladly appreciated. We want to be different than big linux brothers.