By Nik Rawlinson, VNU
Net
A commercial version of the open-source OS, with an ease of
installation that makes it worth every penny.
Earlier releases of Mandrake’s variant of the open-source Linux
operating system have received acclaim right across the board.
Perhaps its greatest asset is that it’s based on Red Hat, reckoned
by many to be the best Linux available. But rather than simply
re-badging an existing product, Macmillan Software has taken things
a step further and effectively out-Red Hatted Red Hat. This latest
version is based on the 2.2.14 kernel, which is currently the most
recent stable kernel, although 2.3.99 is now in alpha.
In the best tradition of Linux benching, we decided to test it
on a system with fairly low specifications – a two-year-old Cyrix
based PC with a 233Mhz processor, 32Mb of RAM and a tiny hard drive
of not much over 500Mb. This had previously been running Corel
Linux, so we were keen to see whether Mandrake would be lazy and
install into the existing partitions or show a little initiative
and define its own. As it turned out, it opted for the latter,
although it still gave us the chance to maintain the disk state as
it was. In the end, we hit the button to clear what was already in
place and then asked Mandrake to define its own partitions. For
easy identification, these were colour coded in the onscreen
diagram.
This was just one of 15 steps, each of which sits beside a
traffic light that turns from red to green to indicate your
progress. While 15 steps might sound a lot, it isn’t really when
you consider that things like adding a user name and password takes
up a step, as does installing a printer or telling the system in
which time zone it is to be used. Of course, this is still more
involved than the default process for Corel Linux, but this method
gives you far more flexibility.
We liked the way Mandrake handled package installation. We were
using a small drive, so had no chance of installing everything we
might have wanted. We were therefore able to select broad package
categories along the lines of ‘communications’ or ‘office’ and
then, after a warning that we would not be able to fit everything
onto our hard drive, use a sliding bar to select the size of
installation with which we would be happy to proceed. What we ended
up with was a working installation that, although a little sluggish
because we had put it to the test on a machine that did not quite
meet the required specs, would make a competent office or home
platform.
Linux Mandrake Deluxe comes on a mammoth collection of no fewer
than six CDs. The first of these is bootable, but if your BIOS
doesn’t allow you to install in this way you can revert to the more
common boot floppy.
If you’re new to Linux it’s worth paying for a retail package
like this for the bundled support. In this instance that support
comes from Linuxcare, which guarantees to respond to any enquiry
within 24 hours, provided certain system information is sent with
every problem.
When you consider what you would have to pay for an equivalent
‘Windows’ installation, Mandrake comes out as extraordinary value
for money. Three of the additional CDs include more than 900
applications including Star Office 5.1a, Corel WordPerfect 8 Lite
(one step down from that found in Corel Linux), everything you need
to access the internet, the IBM ViaVoice SDK and a whole host of
applications for running a web server.
The documentation is extensive. As well as the usual disc based
manuals, you get a chunky user guide and reference manual. We did
wonder at times in which language it had originally been written,
especially with gems such as:
‘What is Samba? You must tell, an implementation of an exotic
dance for Linux. What does this mean, indeed? No, it has nothing to
see with the Brazilian dance, it is a server for SMB clients
…’
Such nuggets of pure nonsense are few and far between, though,
and the documentation is, on the whole, comprehensive and easy to
follow.
If the only thing stopping you installing a Linux distribution
to date has been the fear that it’ll be beyond your technical
ability, perhaps this is the time to give it a go. You no longer
have to worry about manually mounting drives, and an automated
update utility ensures you are always running the most up-to-date
system.