[ Thanks to Phil
Lavigna for this link. ]
*********************************************************************** 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. *********************************************************************** 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 ---------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------- To subscribe to the weekly Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter, please visit the MandrakeSoft website and enter your email address into the "Sign in" box located on the right side of the webpage.