Kernel Version: - 2.2.17
KDE Included: - No
KDE2 Included: - Yes
Gnome Included: - Yes
XF86 version 4.0.1
MandrakeSoft has reached version 7.2 of it’s popular Linux distribution. The new version is geared towards making Linux more user-friendly - especially system administration.
Henry Poole, the Chief Executive of MandrakeSoft said that he expected the new version to convert more Windows Me, 2000 and NT users to Linux - not that it’ll be difficult.
Well... thats what they say about it, but how did it shape-up on our test machine ?
I started the installation at 2120 with the help of a cup of strong, black coffee. Booted off the CD into the graphical installer. Three options for installation were available. “Expert”, “Customised” and “Recommended”. I chose the “Recommended” setup and off we went merrily partitioning and formatting my 6.4G hard disk.
Relevant help was always displayed at the bottom of the screen as well as a helpful progress indicator down the left hand side.
Then I was asked to choose the software to install, either Recomended, minimum or Complete. I chose complete and off it went, I was a bit surprised when after a few minutes, it spat-out the CD and asked for CD number 2. I was using a magazine “cover” disk so I just pressed cancel as CD3 and 4 were also asked for.
Now it was time to configure things. I told it to obtain an IP address using DHCP as my Smoothwall Firewall box runs the DHCP server, I set the timezone to London and gave it a root password. The user manager was then started which enabled me to create any normal users.
It was now 2146 and my coffee had gone cold, I had been so engrossed in the installation and now it was time for its one and only reboot (Windows eat your heart out) A couple of minutes later I had a graphical login and then a KDE desktop.
I could then explore the software which my new installation had given me. Office applications were well catered for with the choice of “Kword” or “Abiword” word-processors. The remainder of the Koffice suite included “Kchart”, Kspread” and “Kpresenter”. Gnome with the “Sawfish” window manager was available as an alternative to KDE and Netscape 4.75 was also there.
System administration is an absolute joy using the “Drakconf” tools. I played with all the settings and things mostly worked as they should but after several attempts, I could still not get my network printer to work. Its nothing wierd or wonderful either, just a bog-standard HP4050 with a JetDirect card. (Note. I later bought the full version and had no trouble in configuring both a network printer and a shared Windows printer).
Mandrake do say that this version is not for server use and indeed, many of the network deamons were missing. No telnet of ftp daemons so remote access from another machine was not possible. I guess these are available if you buy the full, boxed version ? (they are!).
I was most impressed with Mandrake7.2 The range of software provided on the single CD was very well thought out. Configuration was an absolute breeze and whats more, I liked it so much, I installed it on my laptop too, where things like my PCMCIA network card and modem presented no problems.
In short, its just great. If you want a server then get Red Hat or SuSe, if you want an workstation thats easy to install and configure, get Mandrake.
