Dear Mandrake's lover.

I've been using Mandrake for 1 weeks.
I wonder what is the distinctive Mandrake's feature that
you can't live without (especially compare to Redhat).
I've found some:
* On installation, the partition utility is awesome.
Resize, moving, etc is a snap. I can forget the Partition magic now
* The firewall manager.
* The dialup and proxy server manager.

Please add my list, but please be objective.
I don't want a flame war here.

Thanks.

Urpmi, without a doubt. A great package manager, makes it almost too easy to find applications, install applications, remove them, upgrade them, whatever. Learning to use urpmi made Mandrake such a better experience for me, it's amazing.

Redhat's update is a pain in the butt. Urpmi is so easy that I actually handle server updates and such with it.

I made an RPM that sets up sources and then configures the box to automatically update everything at night from a specific source. All I have to do is drop the updated file to be installed in a directory in my user directory and then run a script that executes genhdlist and then rsyncs the files over.

The best equivalent I've found for redhat is making an NFS share with all the files and manually running rpm on each (or with a script again).

Other defining features are the unified menu system (yes, I know debian has this) and the great user community (yes, I know debian has this as well too).

Mandrake has all the tools to entice a newbie, and yet keeps the ability to run several large servers. It's this which keeps me happy. It doesn't lose features as tools are introduced to make things easier.

And yes, diskdrake is/was a godsend when it was introduced! I love that tool, I don't think I'd have done linux if that wasn't around when I first started (Mandrake 7.2).

Urpmi is great, has a bit of work to go, but is truly a great tool and I wish it would get out and about more (into RedHat and such).

I love the Mandrake Control Center and it's good on screen documentation. It's integrated well, and has easy to understand terminology for each section.

As mentioned above, the community is great, and does not seem to have nearly the amount the 1337ists one has come to expect from some of the other communities. It knows it's there for the newbies (as well as the guru's, but the guru's tend to ask less questions ) and being as such, does a great job tailoring to them.

It's the closest thing to a bridge between Linux and Windoze that I'd consider truly a good, solid, working, long-lasting one.

Cool

what is the Mandrake tool that resembles partition magik, and where do you find it?

thanks

> what is the Mandrake tool that resembles partition magik, and where do you find it?

On the installation CD.
Boot from the CD and you will find it.
I don't know if there is a standalone program

It is called diskdrake. You can open a terminal, su root and run diskdrake, or open up Mandrake Control Center and find it in there (I think it is under 'hardware' - not at my Linux box at the mo).

Things I love about Mandrake.

1) the community.
2) urpmi
3) the various other Mandrake tools
4) the "assumptions". Mandrake strikes a _great_ blend of stability and current software. Mandrake strikes a _great_ blend of security and usability. Mandrake strikes a _great_ blend of making good choices (for example KDE) while not forcing you into any particular choice (switch to Gnome if you want).
5) the community
6) the community
7) the community