[ Thanks to Phil
Lavigna for this link. ]
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Issue #35 Wednesday, 20 March 2002
Welcome to the Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter -- dedicated to
keeping you up-to-date with the latest Mandrake-related news & info.
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This Week's Summary: Mandrake Linux 8.2 Available; A Note from the
Developers; 8.2 PPC Status Report; Latest MandrakeClub Activities;
Mandrake in the News; Business Case of the Week; Security-related
Software Updates; "First Look" at Mandrake Linux 8.2; Headlines from
MandrakeForum.
Top Story
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Mandrake Linux 8.2 has been released.
On March 18th 2002, Mandrake Linux 8.2 became available for download
and pre-order. Encrypted filesystem, "Enterprise" kernel, redesigned
Mandrake Control Center, support for "hot-plug" devices, 65MB minimal
installation mode, RFBdrake, the latest KDE and GNOME, task-oriented
menus, completely rewritten MSec (Mandrake Security Levels), and lots
more.
Place your pre-order today at MandrakeStore.
What's Cookin' at MandrakeSoft
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The MandrakeSoft developers would like to thank everyone who helped
test Mandrake Linux 8.2. An extra long testing cycle and hundreds of
reports allowed us to squash numerous bugs to create, what we believe,
is the best Mandrake release ever. If anyone discovers a bug in the
Final, please report it to the Cooker list so we can add it to the
errata; important bug fixes will also be made into a future update or
the next Mandrake version. And as always, keep an eye on MandrakeForum
for breaking stories and discussions about Mandrake Linux 8.2.
--
While the x86 version of Mandrake Linux 8.2 has been receiving all the
headlines lately, MandrakeSoft developers have also been hard at work
preparing 8.2 for the PPC platform. MandrakeSoft PPC developer Stew
Benedict gives this update:
"Thanks to the beta testers on cooker-ppc, a number of issues have been
identified and addressed with the Beta1 8.2 PPC release. I've also
received a lot of good feedback and made some refinements to the
installer which should improve the status of the graphical installation
on various machines. All packages have been rebuilt and are now current
with the main distribution. This week I need to have some Rage128 users
test a new XFree to address the crash issue with these cards, then we
should be ready to do another beta or release candidate. Thanks again
to all the folks that have been participating in Cooker PPC."
To participate as a beta tester, please subscribe to the PPC mailing
list by sending an email to sympa@linux-mandrake.com with the words
"SUB cooker-ppc" in the body of the message.
MandrakeClub
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Interviews: Thus spoke Frédéric.
Frédéric Bastok's answers to February's "Ask Mandrake" series is now
online. Any Club members who would like to continue the discussion can
post comments and Frédéric will try to respond.
--
8.2 ProSuite Special for MandrakeClub members.
Club members can take advantage of a special price -- $20 off -- on the
Mandrake Linux 8.2 ProSuite CD/DVD-only set. The ProSuite is the
top-of-the-line package that contains 8 CDs plus 1 DVD loaded with
thousands of the best Open Source and commercial applications.
--
Due to popular request, Club membership can now be paid by wire
transfer from anywhere in the world, and also by check if located in
the USA or Canada. The various payment options (visa, wired and check)
are all handled during the registration process. This system also
applies for transactions at MandrakeStore.
Not yet a Mandrake Club member? To learn more, please visit:
http://mandrakelinux.com/en/club/
Mandrake in the News
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LWN.net -- Leading items and editorials.
The Linux Weekly News front page editorial for March 14th talks about
MandrakeSoft's recent Club membership drive:
"MandrakeSoft is perhaps the most community-oriented of the large
commercial distributors. The company's openness to its users and
commitment to free software are unparalleled. If MandrakeSoft were to
fail, or to change its community-oriented approach, the community would
suffer a great loss. It will be a sad sign if a company that builds
such high-quality products and that is so responsive to its customers
were not a viable operation.
But, then, perhaps it is appropriate that the user community should be
asked to support this sort of corporation directly. Mandrake users
derive a real and substantial benefit from that distribution; it is not
too much to ask that they help fund its development. Making donations
to support the software that one uses makes all kinds of moral sense.
It is hard to see a viable way for users to contribute to all the
developers of all the free software they use. But helping out a
community-oriented distributor seems like a good start."
Business Case of the Week
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Senior Scientist uses Mandrake Linux for desktop.
"As government contractors, we are finding a growing demand for Linux
applications and my operating environment provides a great testbed as
well as a good working environment for my day to day business.
Platform neutrality is becoming more important and if the "web-based"
application of the week won't run from my machine, it isn't web based."
For many more examples of Mandrake in the workplace, please see:
http://www.MandrakeBizcases.com
Software Updates
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Security-related software updates have been released for:
rsync -- fixes multiple vulnerabilities
zlib -- fixes double free vulnerability
View the complete list at MandrakeSecure.net.
Website Notices
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If you haven't yet had the opportunity to preview 8.2, the Mandrake
website offers several "First Looks" at the new release:
A quick overview of some of the new features;
A complete walkthrough of the updated graphical installer;
A look at the 8.2 desktop;
First steps with KDE (updated for 8.2);
Getting started with GNOME (updated for 8.2)
Headlines from MandrakeForum
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Linux And Kids.
Tom poses an interesting question: "What role does (or will) Linux play
in the education of your kids?" Many readers voice their opinion:
Updating Mandrake Linux From The Command Line.
A reader asks how to upgrade the packages on a system from an FTP
source without upgrading any kernel-related packages. Tom gives some
valuable tips on using "urpmi".
Internet Keyboards and KDE.
Mandrake Linux user Linegod writes:
"After reading a helpful post on the expert mailing list about
keybindings and KDE, I decided to expand on the information provided by
this article in the Linux Gazette and bascule's post to the list, and
came up with a way to not only set the current keys to actions, but
also to map the keys that are not currently set."
Read these and other stories at MandrakeForum.
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