[ Thanks to Phil
Lavigna for this link. ]
Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter
Issue #81 Thursday, 10 July 2003
Welcome to the Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter — dedicated
to keeping you up-to-date with the latest Mandrake-related news
& info.
In this issue:
- Top Story — CEO Message about MandrakeSoft’s Status
- Product Announcements — Mandrake Linux 9.1 available on HP
desktop PCs; The ‘Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake Linux’ 2nd
Edition released; MandrakeSoft introduces “MandrakeClustering” - Mandrake in the News — Slashdot.org; HP.com; New Zealand
Herald - BizCase of the Week — Construction/Mining: Intellimation uses
Mandrake on 75% of servers - Software Updates — unzip, xpdf, ethereal, more
- Headlines from MandrakeClub.com
- Dutch Newsletter Translation Now Available
This week’s sponsor: Thawte — “It’s a trust thing”
Top Story
Message from CEO about MandrakeSoft’s Status
MandrakeSoft CEO François Bancilhon provides an
important announcement to all users, customers and partners:
“Many of our customers, users, contributors and partners have
been asking about our status since MandrakeSoft applied for Chapter
11 protection at the beginning of the year. So, I would like to
take this opportunity to update you on our current situation and my
beliefs for the future.”
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Product Announcements
Mandrake Linux 9.1 is available on HP desktop PCs
“HP
announced today an affordable, high-quality desktop PC for
small and medium businesses (SMB): the HP Compaq Business Desktop
d220 Microtower, which offers a choice for operating system between
Windows or Mandrake Linux 9.1. It’s the first time that an industry
leader publicly announces the availability of Linux on a desktop
PC.
This is the result of a worldwide agreement between MandrakeSoft
and HP. The Mandrake Linux 9.1 operating system is now available on
a complete range of HP desktop PCs. This includes (or will include)
the following machines: HP Compaq 220, HP Compaq 230, HP Compaq
325, HP Compaq D330 and HP Compaq D530.”
The ‘Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake Linux’ 2nd
Edition has been released “As a follow-up to the
successful first edition of ‘The Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake
Linux 9.0’, MandrakeSoft announces the
immediate availability of a new ‘2nd Edition’ which has been
thoroughly updated and expanded to cover the recently released
Mandrake Linux 9.1.
‘The Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake Linux’ contains
everything needed to install, understand, and use this popular
Linux distribution. Perfect for computer users who are new to
Linux, as well as for experts who need quality reference
documentation, this new edition of ‘The Definitive Guide to Using
Mandrake Linux’ is available now for pre-order at
MandrakeStore.com.”
MandrakeSoft introduces “MandrakeClustering” — a
complete HPC solution “Continuing a long tradition of
simplifying the use of Linux for an extensive range of tasks,
MandrakeSoft
today introduces a new product in the field of supercomputing:
‘MandrakeClustering’. Designed to meet the high-demands of
clustering solutions inside research laboratories and other
compute-intensive industries, MandrakeClustering is provided as a
complete solution, which includes the software product plus various
support options.”
Mandrake in the News
Slashdot.org — MandrakeSoft’s
Status Update The popular weblog discusses:
“MandrakeSoft today posted an update letter from its CEO about the
company’s health. Among other things, it’s interesting to learn
that the company seems to be on the good track to go out of the
‘chapter-11 protection’ before the end of the year, that it’s
taking part to several publicly-funded research projects, and that
Mandrake 9.1 is having a good success. They also thank for the warm
support they received from the community. Worth a read for all
Mandrake fans, like myself. Viva la Mandrake!”
HP.com —HP
Delivers Affordable, Reliable Microtower PC to Small- and
Medium-sized Businesses
“HP (NYSE:HPQ) today introduced an affordable, high-quality desktop
PC for small- and medium-sized business (SMB) customers: the HP
Compaq Business Desktop d220 Microtower.”
The New Zealand Herald —
Praise the PC god and Linux open-source apostles, I’m a
believer
The IT Director of the New Zealand Herald receives a welcome
surprise when volunteers at a local ‘Install Fest’ install Mandrake
on his PC:
“I was amazed by the number of applications that came with the
installation. So many that I felt spoiled for choice. Not only
could I choose the graphical interface – from odd names such as
KDE, Gnome and IceWM – but there was also a sea of applications.
Word processors, spreadsheets, imaging software and just about
anything else you could think of was installed to explore – all for
free. It’s quite liberating to try out three different web browsers
– Galeon, Konqueror, or Mozilla – until you find one you like. I
think I’m becoming a believer.”
Business Case of the Week
Construction/Mining:
Intellimation uses Mandrake on 75% of servers Intellimation is
a Johnson Controls – Authorized Building Controls Specialist. They
perform design, planning, installation and commissioning of HVAC,
Fire and Security control systems. Chad Vogelsong, the
network/systems administrator, writes:
“Mandrake is used on 75% of our servers company-wide. It is also
used on several user machines for development & everyday use.
[…] We have 40+ employee’s and 4 servers.”
They use Mandrake Linux for:
- Firewall / Router / Gateway – iptables
- File / Print Server – samba / nfs
- Groupware – phpgroupware
- FTP – proftpd
- Backup – tar / samba / nfs
- Web Server – apache (advanced extranet)
- CD burning – cdrecord / eroaster / web based gui
- VPN – FreeS/WAN
- DNS – bind
- SSH – sshd
- Database – mysql
For more examples of Mandrake in the workplace, see MandrakeBizcases.com.
Software Updates
9.1 software updates have been released for:
- unzip — fixes vulnerability
- xpdf — fixes arbitrary code execution vulnerability
- ethereal — fixes multiple vulnerabilities
- reiserfsprogs — fixes bugs and provides enhancements
- initscripts — fixes boot loader detection
View the complete list at MandrakeSecure.net.
Headlines from MandrakeClub.com
Write
better PHP code (4 & 5) In the fourth and fifth
installments of Deno’s ongoing series of PHP articles, he discusses
how to optimize PHP code, and offers ways to make a site
proxy-friendly, thereby lowering the bandwidth requirements:
Discount
Summary! Stéphane Gustin — now in charge of
‘MandrakeClub Customer Care’ — contributes his first article about
the current discounts available to Club members:
Configuring and
using MIDI with Mandrake Linux Deno posts an article written by
Larry Short that explains how to get MIDI up and running on a
Mandrake Linux system: “Contrary to popular opinion, MIDI is
neither dead, nor obsoleted by combination of big hard discs and
mp3/ogg file format. Apart from the size argument (MIDI sound files
can easily be 100x smaller than mp3/ogg equivalents!), there is
another and IMO much more important reason to assure MIDI works:
there is practically no way to actually produce (as opposed to
passively listen to) any music on your computer without MIDI
support.”
Read these and other stories at MandrakeClub.com.
Dutch Community Newsletter Edition now available
Reinout van Schouwen has generously volunteered to
translate the Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter into Dutch. If
you prefer to receive the next newsletter in Dutch, please select
the appropriate link at the bottom of this page.