The last time I put in Mandrake, it was a 45-minute installation. I got a KDE desktop so full of icons I couldn't find the background color for three days. There were apps for everything, five text editors, three browsers, four ftp clients, stuff like that. The kind of thing you get nowadays from full-installing KDE3 and Ximian, but with every app having its own icon onscreen. It installed Gnome, KDE, Blackbox, Windowmaker, AnotherLevel, Enlightenment, and they were all available on the login menu. It was Gorgeous(TM). It was hailed as the "desktop user's Linux", as it is now.
At that time, there were *.mdk.rpm packages that I was required to use (it's been a while, this might have changed), and I was limited in where I could get common OSS packages. I tried upgrading some things with standard Red Hat rpm's, hearing that Mandrake was "a Red Hat-derived Linux distribution", and it wouldn't work. I ended up going back to Red Hat, forsaking the Gorgeous(TM) desktop experience for a system that was streamlined, lightweight, and easy to maintain. Let me contextualize that last statement by saying I tried MDK 6.5 and 7.0 in and around the Red Hat 6 generation, and I went back to Red Hat 6.1. I'm not referencing SuSE or Debian or Slackware in this comparison of "lightweight" or "easy", so don't even light THAT flame today! Even Solaris with lxrun and AIX 5L now accept standard rpm's, so I will NOT consider MDK an "enhancement". I said all that to ask this question. Since when is Mandrake considered "the desktop user's Linux"? I found it slow, disk-hungry, hard to maintain, way behind the curve on rpm packaging. Granted, it was pretty and full of apps, but who needs five text editors with separate icons on the desktop? Who in the world of Windows desktop users ever wished they had five editors to choose from? Heck, they gripe that my HTML resume "isn't a Word file format"! I'll readily admit I've seen corporate Windows desktops with icons for EVERYTHING on them, so that aspect of MDK was probably engineered for familiarity's sake, but people never use all of them. I, on the other hand, use Red Hat 7.3 with Windowmaker as my default desktop. I upgrade my packages from redhat, not from Ximian, which used to give me NIGHTMARES on dependency versions, or from source where necessary. My dock has icons for OpenOffice, XMMS, Gnomesword, Mozilla, aterm, and a couple monitors. Most everything else on the box is either command-line or not in my daily routine. My click-menu was generated by genmenu.pl, which I **LOVE**, then tweaked for my own preferences. I've got ready access - with or without a mouse - to about 15 GUI apps, and I never, EVER find my daily routine lacking. It has a memory footprint of 2 MB, and it starts from the *dm login manager in about five seconds on a P2-266 notebook. THAT, to me, is all I'd want from a mom-n-pop appliance or a corporate workstation. Am I in a tiny little minority here? -- -j John Beamon On Wed, 19 Jun 2002, Nashid Hasan wrote: > Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 11:28:30 -0500 > From: Nashid Hasan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [brlug-general] Mandrake on Microtel systems at Walmart.com soon > > This time its Mandrake...... > > > As early as next week, Walmart.com will begin selling Microtel PCs loaded > with the Mandrake Linux distribution. > Keep your eye on Walmart.com for new Microtel systems bearing the Mandrake > logo. The systems will sell alongside the newly announced Lindows-based > PCs, say sources. And continue to look for more online retail > envelope-pushing from Wal-Mart's online wing, of all places. > MandrakeSoft CEO Jacques Le Marois confirms the news this morning, and > company spokeswoman Margaret Waters says, while a contract with Microtel > has not been finalized, the company is working on getting Mandrake > certified to run like clockwork on the Microtel systems. Waters is hopeful > that the dotted line will be signed and PCs up for sale by the end of next > week. > Walmart.com and Microtel are getting a lot of press lately, mostly because > Walmart.com is the first major retailer to offer something other than the > standard Windows PC. With Walmart.com taking the first leap, it's possible > that other stores will follow in selling bare systems and those with Linux > preloaded. > Walmart.com has a few well-placed electronics buyers who are savvy to > Linux, and a management team looking for ways to reinvigorate stagnant > computer sales numbers. The combination has resulted in innovations like > the Windows-free Microtel line and has generated strong sales and low > return numbers, a trend Walmart.com may hope will continue with the > introduction of Linux systems. According to sources, the buyers chose > Lindows first because of perceived user-friendliness. > But the move to Mandrake may be seen as a better one for the Linux world > and for people who want to purchase the Microtel systems with Linux, > because Mandrake has been around for years, is already on the brink of a > 9.0 release level and has an established reputation for providing support. > In support of LindowsOS, however, Rich Hindman of Microtel says that as of > Monday, June 17, the version of Lindows that lives in the systems sold > through Walmart.com is LindowOS 1.1, not the beta SPX mentioned in a quote > from a Lindows PR spokeswoman in Tuesday's report. > A source close to Walmart.com says that Lindows itself is "ready to roll," > and that drivers are the only hold up. The Walmart.com units contain > special custom drivers written specifically for the Microtel project. "The > only way someone can get Lindows 1.1 is to buy a computer with it > pre-installed," says Hindman, vice president at Microtel. > There has been some disdain expressed in the Linux community over the > perception that Lindows has been reluctant to release source code under the > terms of the GPL. Brad Kuhn of the Free Software Foundation expressed some > concern that Lindows was going to market at Walmart.com without a fitting > EULA. "We have promised [Lindows CEO Michael] Robertson a rewrite of his > EULA, and it is waiting for time from our general counsel to write one. We > do wish he'd told us in confidence that this Wal-Mart deal was imminent; we > could have expedited the work on the EULA if we'd known." > > > --Nash > > > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://brlug.net/mailman/listinfo/general_brlug.net >
