[CLUE-Tech] Mandrake -- Hype or Cool?

[Jeffery Cann]

To answer my own question, Mandrake is definitely cool!  I plunked down US$30 
for 8.1 'Standard' edition and was pleasantly surprized at the ease of the 
installation.  I think those windoze users who want to switch may like this 
distribution.

Specifically, here's what I liked about the installation:

+ It worked.  Several times I have tried other distributions (RHAT 4.x, 5.x, 
SuSE 6.x) and each time there was some serious problem that prevented the 
installation from working.  This is one reason I continued to use Slackware 
-- Slackware _always_ worked for me - regardless of my hardware or release.  

+Using Slackware, I could install and configure it in about 30 minutes.  
However, this included manual steps that I had done so many times, I didn't 
think about it.  Mandrake did literally everything for installation and 
configuration.   Definitely more user-friendly, especially for new Linux 
users.

+ The graphical installation is cool (RHAT has had this since 6.x) and 
Mandrake's is similar -- especially in the 'tree' package selection.  The 
ability to change theme during install is cool but probably useless.  They 
had other nice touches such as ability to store installation configuration 
onto a floppy during install.

+ Disk partitioning.  Since I was installing over a Slackware install, I 
needed to keep my /home partition.  This was simple in the 'expert' mode 
where I could choose my mount points for each partition and exclude 
partitions like /home from formatting.

+ Install manual.  Good enough for the new linux users - covers good 
new-to-linux topics like 'how do I do stuff in KDE / GNOME / CLI?'

+ Install detected all of my peripherals and everything looks and works great 
-- except my soundblaster - not sure what's up yet.

+ Printer installation.  I have a windoze printer -- an HP 722c that is only 
supported using a utility called 'pnm2ppa'.  For the past 2 years, I have to 
configure this utility myself.  Well, using CUPS and the Mandrake 
installation, my printer was configured during installation -- including a 
test page that worked perfectly.  Pretty sweet.

+ Database installs -- Mysql and Postgresql -- Normally, I would again 
configure this myself.

+ KDE menus -- some folks on mandrake news group complained that they are not 
standard KDE.  I agree and I like the changes *much* better because they are 
more orgainized.

+ Networking -- I have the ATT cable modem service.  At the same time I 
installed Mandrake, I purchased a Siemens SpeedStream 4-port DSL/Cable router 
(also includes a firewall and printer server).  So, I am running my own LAN 
and the Siemens router has DHCP.   During installation, I set up networking 
with my Linux box as a DHCP client.  Upon reboot, I was up on the internet 
with no problems (most distributions feature this during installation).

My only compliant about the installation is : better error reporting.  I 
tried to install Mandrake onto a HDD that I had lying around for a while, not 
installed in my Linux box.  Not knowing the HDD was bad (first time no bad 
block checks during installation), I installed Mandrake 3 times (twice in 
'expert', once in 'recommended).  The error reporting was weak and there was 
no way to change over to another terminal where I could check a log file 
(like I can in Slackware).   I tried the usual <ALT> + <F2> and various other 
keystrokes without success.

So, I tried to install Slack 8.0 and found out the problem right away, once I 
<ALT> + <F2> to another terminal to scan the installation log output.   I 
went back to my previous HDD and the installation worked perfectly.

Hopefully, there is a way to get better error information during installation 
of Mandrake of which I am unaware.

The installation manual has no 'troubleshooting' guide.  They direct you to 
Mandrake's web site (probably because a lot of Mandrake users are windoze 
converts, who still (why?) dual boot Linux + Windoze.  What happens if you 
have not internet connection?  The guide is no help!  If I were a newbie with 
a bad HDD, I would have had no idea how to solve the problem.

At this point, I will stick with the Mandrake 8.1 installation and recommend 
it for those new to Linux (as I have recommended RHAT for the past 2 years -- 
since 6.2 when they finally got the installer working more consistently!)

The only thing that is probably a little daunting is the package selection.  
I like RHAT's idea of selecting either a 'workstation' or 'server' 
installation (if you are a newbie) and clicking 'install'.   Mandrake gave 
additional configuration groups, which I loved but those new to Linux may be 
intimidated.

Later,
Jeff