Hi folks
This is some sort of an attempt at a review of MandLinux 7.0 and it may well
turn out to be long..
The machine which incidentally
500 MHz PIII
128RAM
4.3+8.4 GB HDDs with existing Win98
SVGA 15''--Samsung
3D AGP Open GL support
The installation autoboots from the CD on restarting, but the promised
graphical DRAKX tool never started(this was also seen on 2 other installs,
though the distro promises it, of course-maybe some probs with the h/w). Then
it drops you into the Redhat type blue-screen install and asks for all the
nonsense about your keyboard, then type of install-and here, you run into the
first glitch, says "No partitions detected". So, Mr/Ms Installer, exit
install, and partition the disk for a swap(in my case 32-hough not necessary)
and a native /.
Restart, and the installation proceeds all over again, I chose the Custom
install and then Development, package copying starts (sit back and wait for
close to half and hour). Then asks you to set the root password, then add
users[the num lock was on during the install, AFAIK, RHL 6.1 does not enable
NumLock during the install and it can be easy to key in passwords]. Create a
boot floppy, install LILO.
Then add your printer, it autodetected mine, and then the most daunting, X
installation, it reported a problem with its autoconfigure and gave a screen
to choose from all options, monitors, refresh rate, etc....After selecting the
correct settings, X started at 1024*768 24bpp.
Then save settings, and installation over, system, reboots.
And DID it run!! It boots directly to X and default is KDE, though you have a
choice to change to so many that it was a welcome change...Everything seemed
to work fine, so ran sndconfig, set up mail, connections to the net, and
connected....no problems...it comes bundled with NetscapeComm4.7x. TOTAL
INSTALL TIME < 1hr. So great
Then what....perhaps best for new users is the Automount feature hda1, hdb1
CDROM, fdd...WINE comes bundled with the distribution and when MS Word was
turned on, it was fast enough--it feels like you are working under Win98(if
that should make you feel any happier)
Now for one of the goodies(my favourite), XEmacs, What is it!! For anyone who
has used Emacs and known its ripping power, this is a surprise and
well....this is better, I won't say any more...
The nagatives--the GUI install DRAKX never materialsed, then during the old
GUI install, some lines appear and stay on screen, so it does not look neat,
otherwise, fast and efficient. Not many more
Concluding, ML7.0 is for the new user taking a plunge, inslallation is easy,
pretty much all the hardware is supported, even the naggling SiS--tried the
6215 and 6326 in the machine after the install, the first one works fine and
so does the second, but with 6326, Linux recognises 4MB Vram, so u have to
edit the config file and set it to 8MB, then in works better)For the slightly
older user, many many pluses, Pentium optimised kernel and specially
recompiled applications, so everything works faster and better, then different
security levels from *low* to *paranoia*...On the whole, very significant and
welcome changes over RHL 6.1.
Right now my friend(whose m/c the distro is installed on) is feeling her way
around, she has no techie background is computers and is completely new to
Linux, she's enjoying it, we have a new convert:)
TIA
Sthitaprajna
PS>> Some days back there was a post on XEmacs, I would need some help there,
so can users get back??
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