Mandrake 9.1

[gabbman]

At the risk of being dissappointed yet again, after a long list of 8, and 9 mandrake disappointments, I thought 'Why Not' give it a try.

Now there are many other folks who have done reports on this release, and I won't even try to do another one. Most of us who have been around linux any length of time know what they want and how to fix it if it's not quite right.

For those who are into 'must have apt' the urpmi works as dependably and efficiently. If you've never used it before the folks at PLF (http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/urpmiweb.php) make it real easy to set up.

I took it one step further and installed Codeweavers Office and Plugins, as well as Netraverse (http://www.netraverse.com/) Win4Lin. I was surprised that they had the kernel patch so quickly for a new release. That too was almost too easy to install, even the kernel patch was all done through their installer.

This now 'drives' as effortlessly as xandros, but with the uptodate packages it makes you feel like your instep with the rest of the linux world.

I think I'll give this distro a chance and a good hard drive around the block a while to see if it has the stamina to go with the flash. So far it would definatly be one I would not hesitate to have a brand new to linux person give a whirl.

A couple of Screen (http://www3.sympatico.ca/gberta/mandywin4.png)

Shots (http://www3.sympatico.ca/gberta/mandyrealplay.png) in action.

I should also mention the folks at PCLinuxonline (http://www.pclinuxonline.com/index.php) as well, with the effort of Texstar (http://www.pclinuxonline.com/donate.html) make this an even more enjoyable experience, and one most would not be disappointed for the effort of giving Mandrake 9.1 a try.

[TRN]

Thank you for the information :)

Just to update on my test drive of Mandrake 9.1.

Since my install earlier this month, I have discoverd that Manrake has made my conoscan fb330 scaner able to work. The only linux distro to accomplish, what canon (as they don't support linux) can't do.

Apt and synaptic are far more stable and reliable then in mandrake 9. As good as any debian flavoured linux I've run.

In four years of trying many, many different versions of linux, and many different beta and stable builds, this one has run flawlessly for 3 weeks. The only cli I have needed to do to date, is #urpmi apt, and #urpmi synaptic, everything else has been gui, including the install of the nvidia drivers and the xf86config file all edited automatically, and a small idit to enable xsane to allow me to use the scaner as user, rather then root.

There is so far, nothing that I did with windowsxp or 98, that I can't do with 9.1

This version of Mandrake is now my new 'benchmark' for the other distro's I test and like to use.

[gabbman]

the 'guest' comment above is mine, and still I don't understand how I appear to be loged in under the 'Satistics' window on the front page, and be a guest in the forums, come kinda kookie thing is not right.