For the most part, the installation went smoothly. everything was
autodetected with the exceptions of:
Video Card - I have a Trident Cyber 9525 CDT - I was forced to install
to Runlevel 3 and then use XF86Setup to configure the video
Ethernet - I have a PC Cardbus ethernet card, and I was forced to
install without network support, download and install the latest card
services, then I could configure. The included pcmcia-cs RPM was
useless. I can't say that I understand why the card services included in
Mandrake did not work, but it wouldn't even run either from the init
script (/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia start) nor from the command line
(cardmgr).
Enough of the bad stuff, here's my praise.
The USB support ROCKS!!!
Your distro has support for the sound card on my laptop (ESS Maestro 2E,
not expected until 2.4 kernel).
Kudzu detected and configured my audiocard without user interaction.
The straight install is fairly fast and easy, but the upgrade took
forever.
The workstation/development/server options work fairly well, with minor
exceptions
1. Server install does not install the kernel source and headers - I
personally must have that for any server I install, but RPMDrake took
care of
that easily.
2. The server install didn't install sufficient development libs to
compile and install Apache. Again, RPMDrake to the rescue.
The security level settings are amazing!!!!
The encryption/SSH/SSL support during the install is killer!!!!
Synopsis:
After experimenting with RH6.1 and all of it's broken hardware
detection, this was a terrific breath of fresh air. The
application/hardware support was groundbreaking. I have been a Mandrake
proponent since 5.1, and I have yet another reason to sell Mandrake to
my clients. Under RH6.1 my laptop was unable to boot unless I disabled
APM in the BIOS, but under Mandrake it booted right up with full APM
support. The USB interface that I thought I would have to wait a while
for is now competently available.
I just have to say that this may not be the easiest Linux I have
ever installed, but the combination of eas-of-use in conjunction with
the included features is unmatched. I have seen easier installations
(e.g. EasyLinux), but they are usually missing key components (e.g.
Apache, GCC, etc...).
Thank You!!!
Deven Phillips, Cytronix Computer Services, Inc.
http://www.cytronix.net/
