Today, MandrakeSoft announced the immediate availability of Mandrake Linux 10.1 Community Edition. As usual, Mandrake is making this release available first to club members and those who wish to purchase media, and following a few weeks later, a general release. Mandrake 10.1 features KDE 3.2.3, Gnome 2.6, and Linux 2.6.8.1.
MandrakeLinux 10.1 Community Released
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Adam Scheinberg
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…and I really wonder why now they use “community” when they really want to mean “beta” (if you tried the previous “community” release you know what I mean).
what about gnome 2.8 / xorg 6.8.1 ?
its actually the quality of the RC2 releases that it rplaces. if u remember back before MDK 9. they use to do 2 betas and 2 RC releases. but i still think the new ‘comunity’ RC2 is stable enuf for the home users desktop.
terrible –
the urmpi corrupts its state requiring manual deletes if its cache.
the so called clever scripts to manage network profiles empty configuration files leaving me to manually reconfigure the profiles every time i swicth networks (i have a copy of /etc/resolv.conf for every network i use)
the badly documented (undocumented) and clumsy harddrake still fails on startup and empties my /etc/modprobe.conf every time i launch DrakConf even to adjust networking ..
and this is the stable official 10.0.
i think i finally see why people go for simple, non-clever, non-magic behind the scenes, systems like Slackware.
t
Why does it seem nobody in Linux Land synchronizes their releases with new versions of major Linux software? It seems every time a major distribution releases a new version, it’s within days of a release of a pretty major update to either the kernel or window manager.
Guys, do some planning. Go look at what your friends are doing that are putting your packages together. If a release is imminent JUST WAIT A FEW DAYS!
there is a case for linux systems which are not “released” but maintained constantly … as new software is released it is packaged up, tested, and added to the update servers … of course this would preclude much distro-sepcific magic .. but leaving that magic aside it is feasible. i think gentoo aspproaches this, they make available ebuilds after major software is released (gnome 2.8, new mplayer) ..
of course you can add such software yourself.. but if the system is designed for such use, then it won’t break distro-specific magic (DSM).
You’ve obviously never tried to make a distribution. It is not as trivial as you think it is. It is not just a matter of bundling software. What about packaging? Testing? QA? Integration? Etc. etc.
Frankly there’s a lot more I want to say but I’m sick and tired of having to explain this stuff over and over to ignorant people like you.
yes! I totaly agree with you! why even bother make a new release at this point. Not that has changed since the last one!!
Community gets updated so maybe it will get gnome 2.8 / xorg 6.8.1 Someone can correct me if I am wrong.
And about not including them now, people bitch when mandrake is too bleeding edge/ unstable, and now the same people bitch that it is not up to date enough.
Except that when you want to press thousands of CDs/DVDs, you need to order the service at least 6 months in advance ! And a delay means paying a fine to the company, per day of delay.
Some people don’t even realize.
Also, it is not because a software is released in a major version that it is thouroughly tested or complete. Take KDE 3.3 : it has still bugs, and moreover, a lot of languages are not complete yet. You can’t put it in a stable distribution yet.
“what about gnome 2.8 / xorg 6.8.1 ?”
Never will an rpm distro have the latest and greatest software.
KDE3.3 is included on he 4th CD !! I just burned it and saw a KDE3.3 folder with all packages (but some langueges may be missing). Sweet !
KDE 3.3 will be released as an optional update later, as you can read from Mandrake site.
XORG 6.8 is a great miss only for people waiting for HW acceleration on old chipsets (in my case, for ATI IGP) or new chipsets. I found rpm somewhere, so currently is not a major problem for me.
I d/l Cooker code this week, which seems the one being deployed as Community 10.1, but it broke kdm/mdk-kdm functionality. Logs show some permission problems on scripts being executed. I have to get to X through command-line using startx.
GNOME 2.8 looks ok, and I think metacity is the first WM with partial support for new Xorg 6.8 features, so it would be a welcomed optional package too.
I would not want KDE 3.3 , XOrg 6.8 nor GNome 2.8 as official packages because they are brand new releases, so probably the will have thigs to be fixed.
Example: KDE 3.2 is now at 3.2.3 release, so 3.2 required some fine tunning and bug fixing to be the very stable release we now have.
Mandrake could not afford be bleeding edge on its sell products if they are aiming for corporarte desktops or general users, because bleeding edge software usually doesn’t have enough testing. However, I hope they willl keep providing optional bleeding edge packages for users who understands the risks of using them.
“Mandrakeclub Members and contributors have download access to ISO images of this new distribution and to KDE 3.3 packages.”
-> non silver members have still access to commercial packages and KDE, but not on an iso. They have access as usual using the club media (using urpmi).
Except that when you want to press thousands of CDs/DVDs, you need to order the service at least 6 months in advance ! And a delay means paying a fine to the company, per day of delay. Some people don’t even realize.
——————————————————
nope. a decent company will do it within 1-2 weeks. pure FUD statement there. any company taking 6 months for pressing millions of cds will be out of business within few days.
http://www.cdforge.com/faq/index.html
“Average estimated turnaround time is 10-12 business days starting the day AFTER you approve your proofs.”
Except you don’t press only CDs, but also print boxes (that need to be glued), and manuals (nedding binding). And then everything needs to be sorted and reassembled.
Standard members have access to the 4 isos, and so have the KDE 3.3 packages on the 4th CD.
Silver members have also access to the iso with the commercial packages, standard members have not that iso but access to commercial packages through the club downloads.
I’m sticking with 10.0 and have manually upgraded to Xorg 6.8, KDE 3.3, GNOME 2.8 and Linux 2.6.8.1.
Mandrake disappoints me by not integrating KDE 3.3 because that has been out for a while now.
Besides, the pollute desktop environments as it is with their branding. Stock installations are better.
Then perhaps they should be more involved in the Gnome / KDE / whatever else major packages they are using. Be involved in the testing process. Be planning for integration as the development in these dependent packages progresses. Commercial software developers don’t sit around waiting for other development teams on the project to finish their work to begin thinking about integrating or testing. Work in parallel! Plan ahead!
Sorry I just had to respond to this since its wrong as anyone who has been using linux since the 90’s will tell you.
“Mandrake could not afford be bleeding edge on its sell products if they are aiming for corporarte desktops or general users, because bleeding edge software usually doesn’t have enough testing.”
Mandrake is well known for shipping bleeding edge pre- versions of kernels, Desktop Environments, key software libraries etc etc. In fact for years it was “the” bleeding edge distro who shipped whatever latest RC version they could stuff in their distro. The is a good reason why Mandrake has made little corporate headway. Part of the reason was of course the very open and public mismanagement that went on for years and the other reason continues to be QA to this day.
I’ve always loved what Mandrake used to stand for, ie a free, easy to use Linux. Up till 7.1 I was fairly happy using Mandrake. But their QA continues to stink and I won’t be going back to them anytime soon. Also and I know this will get some people’s goat, I can’t stand the whole “club scene”. Being treated like a Freeloader if you won’t join the club isn’t the best way to show you actually support Free Linux. Being made to click a link that tries to make you promise to pay money and join the club just so you can access GPL software is pretty cheesy as well.
“Why pay for this if you can download it for free??? ”
One word: Support.
I can’t infere from what u r saying, what was wrong with what I say…
I remember when I was running a Debian Sid system and Win4Lin stopped functioning. I traced the problem to a recent update to libc6, a central library for Linux, and sent a note to Netraverse detailing the issue.
I received a note back stating that a) they didn’t support Debian, and b) they certainly didn’t support Sid. It was too bleeding edge.
The next day I received an e-mail saying that the new libc6 was being incorporated into the “about-to-be-released” Mandrake, and that Netraverse would fix the issue.
So, thank-you Mandrake for being bleeding edge, although I don’t use you anymore. I tend to stay away from Sid, too. Sarge has been pretty stable. After using Linux for a while, I find myself valuing stability more and more. Who knows, when Sarge goes gold, I may just stick with it, satisfying my urge for newness with an occasional trip to Backports.org.
its a large scale community shakedown. if your commited about this distro then you grab the community edition, install it and then report any bugs you find. no amount of beta tests and RCs can reach the public like a full on release. basicly this is a feature freeze from cooker, shaken for major bugs by the beta testers and then leased into the wild. unless you have one version of every supported hardware comboed with any other supported hardware your not going to hit every bug there is for hardware support. and no amount of button pressing and option selection will show every software bug there is. only a large scale shakedown like this where people actualy use the software will small bugs show up. and if you run into a bug, hit bugzilla and look of any other person have ran into it. if not then report it and if they have then see if any fixes are suggested or check if there is some variations in triggering the bug.
this is for the community, the dedicated community, that wants to see the distro become better and better.
and tech_user, did you report those problems? dont expect them to be magicaly fixed while you sit here bitching about the problems.
Hmm Community was supossed to be the “Public Test” of the Official release to be tested by, well, community. Now the are selling the DVD at a full price ($60)?? I know there are commercial products in the DVD, but then, I think I do not understand the current rol & goals of CE…
“”Why pay for this if you can download it for free??? ”
Two words. No broadband. Why do some of you have this notion that the whole world has broadband?
“No thanks, this is like a patch work quilt built
by the monkey of madness himself…”
And this is different from Windows how?
I have Suse 9.1 which I installed a month before this release and I am running KDE 3.3 and X.org 6.8 right now on it. All with Suse supplied rpms.
I do not want to start flame wars but I moved away from Mandrake 10.0 precisely because they have so little interest in providing newer X/Gnome/KDE/OpenOffice etc. versions. I do have to pay for Suse 9.1 but I don’t mind it for the service I am getting – which is rpms for all major components a day after their official release.
Osho
I am going to agree with “Eu (IP:.209.42.38.dsli.com)”. Just look at the comments, one person is saying that he is “disapointed” in Mandrakelinux because they are not shipping the most bleeding edge software that just came out, that they have had zero time to QA. While a couple comments down another person is saying that Mandrakelinux is known for their shipping too bleeding edge of software, and not doing proper QA. COME ON!
Please everyone, EVALUATE FOR YOURSELF. Quite spouting the EXACT same drivel that you might have heard from some random person on the internet.
To address some boneheaded comments I am seeing here:
1. You can install KDE 3.3, X.org 6.8, Gnome 2.8, and a multitude of other software. If not right now, then eventually on the Club, and after that even if you are not in the Club. [1]
2. “Why even have a release, it hasn’t changed from the last one” I don’t know about you but I like to have a more polished and updated Linux distribution. I know for a fact that a major focus of Mandrakelinux 10.1 has been a much smoother experience for the user. I have been following cooker closely for a few years now, they are working on making things “just work” for this release.
3. “Why pay?” Well if you HAVE to be a freeloader than just wait your freeloading ass a few months and you can download for FREE the exact same distro (minus the commercial software) that everyone else has been enjoying. So don’t pay a thing, be a freeloader, or you can just “pirate” it, like people on this and other sites have suggested. Which there is nothing illegal about, it’s just pathetic.
4. “I am running $DISTRO with $BLEEDING_EDGE_SOFTWARE already, where is Mandrakelinux’s version?” I am running Mandrake 10.0 with KDE 3.3[2] and X.org 6.8[2] from contributor supplied RPMs, so what, there is nothing special about that. It’s making these packages work WELL that matters. I can say that I am extremely happy with the quality of the packages, but just like your SUSE packages they are not supported. Also see #1 about latest and greatest.
Hopefully this little rant reaches some clear heads and they think about what I have tried to say here, if not, have fun in your little ignorant world, I really don’t care.
1. ftp://ftp.free.fr/pub/Distributions_Linux/Mandrakelinux/devel/test…
2. http://rpm.nyvalls.se/index10.0.html
I agree with the poster above who said that the Club thing isn’t so good, and looks like it is in some way forced on you (a little too commercial attitude, indeed!): at the very least – and more appropriately – Mandrakesoft should include the full (not only trial) Club membership in the boxed Mandrakelinux product (and, maybe, also sell it as an independent boxed add-on, à la .Mac): a basic 1-year membership for the Discovery edition, and something more advanced for the other, more complete editions. To make the Club available only as an Internet purchase is not a good thing, IMHO, especially in countries where people aren’t still completely confident with online purchases – and, in any case, that form of payment should only be an option, the best thing being to bundle the Club with the boxed editions, as said before (thus raising the price? no problem, as the download edition is still available over the web, for those who prefer it).
As for Mandrakelinux itself, as someone other also said, it’s a good thing that it is essentially desktop-environment agnostic (even if KDE is the default, and was a revision ahead in 10.0, which only had GNOME 2.4 vs. KDE 3.2): but it would be even better if the Mandrake community would develop a unified look-and-feel across GNOME and KDE – something similar to the Fedora Bluecurve, but better. The current Galaxy theme isn’t the best one possible, IMHO, and could be much improved and integrated.
Anyway, I really look forward towards 10.1 final – which I might even purchase, if the Club were included, albeit at a higher price… 🙂
Nothing to get extraordinarily excited about, but it’s another step forward for Mandrakelinux. Gcc is 3.4.1, kernel is 2.6.8.1 with Mandrake patches.
Everything works, the default desktop theme is clean, the hardware is recognized, it’s fast, etc – the usual Mandrakelinux stuff.
As for the Club membership, as somebody else wrote, it’s about service. The software is free but services have to be paid, because Mandrakesoft has to pay the salaries of their programmers and support people. Club services are good and clearly worth it if you need some handholding or just want to stay current with a minimal amount of work.
I agree, Mandrakesoft should give a basic membership in the boxed versions.
Othre than that, if you are adamant that you will not pay for any support then Mandrakesoft are right that you should have to wait for the free versions.
And now its time for a gripe……
Mandrakesoft said 10.1 rc1 was out, so I downloaded it and tried it out. My initial thougts was that it was excellent. However, I did not like the fact that I had to set up an internet connection after every reboot. I expected the settings to be retained.
It did not umount the drives properly during a shutdown.
Lastly, it borked urpmi
I got fed up and decided to wait for 10.1 rc2 or the final 10.1 so I reinstalled 10.0, everything is almost back to normal. Urpmi still is not working, it is giving curl errors and wont run an update. Other than that I got big smiles again with 10.0
🙂
You consider that satisfactory ????
Did you try burning CDs ? It’s broken in 2.8.1 except if they’ve patched some fixes….
yes it is extremely satisfactory.
all I will have to do is run urpmi.removemedia -a
and then update the urpmi repositories.
simple stuff and far easier to fix than any cludge in windows
@ dukeinlondon:
I haven’t tried CD burning yet, but AFAIK Mandrakesoft have patched the 2.6.8.1 (you forgot the “.6”) kernel to fix this issue.
@ raver31:
urpmi has always worked well for me in 10.0 and I have tested it in 10.1 and it works fine – as usual.
Found a (true) bug in 10.1 Community? –> file a report at bugs.mandrakelinux.com
I think they patched that for the kernel-2.6.8.1-10 (or was it kernel-2.6.8-10?) Either way, it was pacthed at least a couple of weeks before the 10.1CE release.
Of course I reported the urpmi bug to mandrakesoft.
and you said urpmi worked fine for you in 10.1 hmmmmm
it is a well documented bug in 10.1, I can barely understand how yours works and no-ones does/did, (I dunno how far on they are at fixing the bug).
It could be that you are using rc2. as I said in my post, I was using rc1 and urpmi UP to rc2… thats where the problems started.
I am using 10.1CE from the iso images available from MandrakeClub.
I used urpmi to install a few extra packages. Smooth as silk.
10.0: I used the Official Edition for the last 6 months. Very stable.
Comparing 10.1 to 10.0, I would say that 10.1 is even more polished. Installation was simpler than ever. The handling of USB peripherals is just perfect now. Good kernel. Wireless support has improved a lot. The Gimp was upgraded to V2.
Haven’t tried everything yet, but what I did try worked well, no glitches.
Worth the upgrade, or at least a test-drive. It feels like a new BMW…
unsupported “contrib” type 3.3 packages are, as has been mentioned, being included in 10.1. The supported official release is still 3.2.
@anonymous (mindspring): packaging system has nothing to do with it. If you run Cooker, you get almost-instant releases of major components, just like users of Debian sid / experimental or Gentoo. The important point is whether you use a “rolling update” distro or a “stable point release” distro.
“there is a case for linux systems which are not “released” but maintained constantly”
cooker.
“Mandrake disappoints me by not integrating KDE 3.3 because that has been out for a while now.”
When 10.1 went into feature freeze, it wasn’t out.
“Then perhaps they should be more involved in the Gnome / KDE / whatever else major packages they are using. Be involved in the testing process. Be planning for integration as the development in these dependent packages progresses. Commercial software developers don’t sit around waiting for other development teams on the project to finish their work to begin thinking about integrating or testing. Work in parallel! Plan ahead!”
Why would “they” need to? At the time 10.1 development started the release dates for MDK 10.1, KDE 3.3, and GNOME 2.8 were all planned and published. A decision was taken at that point that 10.1 would use KDE 3.2 and GNOME 2.6. All three release dates were pretty much nailed. So what would have been the point in, in the intervening months, having been “involved”?
“Being treated like a Freeloader if you won’t join the club isn’t the best way to show you actually support Free Linux.”
right, unlike those other commercial distributions which provide completely freely downloadable ISO releases with absolutely no suggestion that you should contribute to their development…
…
wait, which were those again?
“(even if KDE is the default, and was a revision ahead in 10.0, which only had GNOME 2.4 vs. KDE 3.2)”
release cycles. GNOME’s is, as we have just seen, a month or so behind KDE’s. That release happened to split the two.
MDK isn’t “somewhat” agnostic. It’s completely agnostic.
not 2.6.8.1.6 – 2.6.8.1-6mdk. It’s rather an important difference; .6 would be the kernel team’s sixth release of the 2.6.8.1 series kernel; -6mdk is Mandrake’s sixth package revision of the 2.6.8.1 kernel.