Did I mention I like GNOME? Yes, it brought me to the beautiful desktop of GNOME 2.6. It's looks nice and clean, with the launch bar at the bottom, which I quickly moved to the top of the screen. When it was going through my POST checks I noticed my ethernet card failed to load and fired up a browser and sure enough, I cant surf. I went into the network section and disabled ACPI and my Ethernet was detected and I was surfing away. The default apps they give me is Kmail for a mail client, Mozilla, for a browser and Kopete for an instant messenger. OpenOffice.org was in my start menu as usual. This was ok, but clearly I wanted to make other choices. I've grown fond of Evolution for mail so I took my DVD loaded up my RPM package manager and selected it from a list. I clicked install and there it was ready to go. I then grabbed Gaim for IM, Firefox for the Browser and I was set for now. A new edition I havent seen before was Amarok. I took my music library off my other partition and loaded it into the interface. It works similar to Juk and iTunes. The strange part was the system didnt mount any of my drive volumes. I had to go in there and manually mount them myself. I know this isnt a big deal, but for a system that suppose to do the dirty work for you I was surprised. I placed a mount launcher on the panel for my drives and it could see my FAT32 and NTFS volumes with no sweat. I went surfing and I have to say this system is very fast and responsive. It recognized all my hardware and everything seemed solid as a rock.
Also included with the power pack AMD64 is Crossover Office. This is version 2.1.1 and not the new one that installs iTunes, but I managed to install Office XP, and Adobe Photoshop without a hitch. After the 30 day trial I think ill buy it. The system lets 32-bit apps and 64-bit work side by side. Although some plug-ins are not going to be compatible with a 64-bit system some folks might be able to live without it. Also things like Windows Media Player 10 is not to be seen, but this is a Microsoft problem or feature depending on how you look at it. I'm afriad of it becoming so popular that it will be required to watch online movies and such. Java and Macromedia plugins worked just fine under Firefox. Another thing I was surprised of is the system recognized my ATI card and configured it properly. I was able to play some 3D games such as Tux racer so I'm assuming OpenGL is fucntioning. ATI still needs to bring more 64-bit driver availability to the table for Linux, but to their credit I see this improving. There was Shore wall firewall available and also ClamAV anti virus. I loaded and configured those to secure my system and installed all the needed updates. I also registered my copy of the OS and I have 30 days online support with updates free. I think I just might join their membership.
There is a couple of things that Mandrake could improve on. Though this is not really a slam against them, more for all distros. DVD player support to play commercial DVD's is a must and this really needs to change. I did go surfing around trying to find libdvdcss.rpm needed for commercial DVD's to play, but most didnt work and gave me error messages. I went to Xines site and downloaded Suse's libdvdcess.rpm for their AMDx64 version and it worked. It simply must have needed it installed into the 64-bit libraries. A little hunting required, but I hope in the future developer's will follow Turbo Linux and Linspire's lead on making this a little easier for the less experienced crowd. Mandrakes desktop themes have always been kinda bland for my taste, but that is easily rectified by downloading more of them. A small complaint among tons of great praise here.
I have to say im quite impressed with Mandrakes offering this time around. Never have I used a more feature packed and useful distro before. I strongly suggest if your new to Linux and Suse is a little bright for your taste, give this distro a try. Download the Community Edition first before diving in or use their Live CD. I was delighted that for the most part it replaced my Windows XP system for work use. Mandrake Linux x64 is a smooth ride thats well worth the price of admission.
About The Author:
Scott Cabana has been in the IT business for 7 years and presently works for a major software company.He loves technology and spends most of his time studying it and playing in his rock band with dreams of success one day. He believes that all platforms have a place in this world, but of course they are not for everyone.
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