Mandrake Linux community newsletter #42

This Week’s Summary: Incident-based Support Packs at MandrakeStore;
Latest MandrakeClub Activities; Business Case of the Week; Mandrake in
the News; KDE3 Packages for 8.2 PPC; Spotlight on DrakX “Kick Start”;
This Week’s Online Survey; Errata Updates for 8.2 x86 & PPC;
Security-related Software Updates; Headlines from MandrakeForum.

MandrakeStore
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MandrakeSoft Support Services -- Purchase support as you need it.
Perfect for people who require support for Mandrake products after the 
complimentary support period has ended, MandrakeSoft now offers an 
incident-based program that provides quality web-based technical 
assistance that scales easily to fit your requirements. Support can be 
purchased in convenient packs of 1, 5 or 10 support incidents.

For product information and pricing, please see:
http://www.mandrakestore.com/


MandrakeClub
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Getting Started with StarOffice 6.0.
A new article shows how to get started with the StarOffice 6.0 office 
suite. Readers are welcome to share their own StarOffice tips & tricks 
by posting comments at the end of the story.
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=26

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The recent article "Ask Mandrake: The future direction of the 
distribution" is now closed. We are currently sorting and grouping your 
comments (over 200!), and will present them to MandrakeSoft executives 
this week. Thanks for all the thoughtful suggestions.

Not yet a Mandrake Club member? To learn more, please visit:
http://mandrakelinux.com/en/club/


Business Case of the Week
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Belgocontrol - the control center for Belgian air traffic -- uses 
Mandrake Linux on workstations and servers.

Their current deployment includes:
 - Server Compaq Proliant: Mandrake 8.1 enterprise
 - 20 development workstations: Mandrake 8.0 
 - Multiple firewalls: Mandrake 8.1 enterprise
 - 2 monitoring workstations: Mandrake 8.1
 - 1 print server: Mandrake 8.1 enterprise

Eric Bogaerts of Belgocontrol quotes some statistics:
 - Number of daily crashes: 0
 - Number of insoluble problems: 0
 - Number of serious problems: 0
 - Ease of implementation: too easy
 - Time to install the current configuration: 15 days (including net
    stability)
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/article.php?sid=282

Every "bizcase" counts; please share your story by submitting it to 
MandrakeBizcases.com.
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/submit.php


Mandrake in the News
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TuxPPC.com -- Review: Mandrake PPC 8.2.
TuxPPC, the popular website dedicated to Linux on the PowerPC platform, 
offers a complimentary review of Mandrake Linux 8.2 PPC:

"All in all, I think Mandrake has done it, the first PPC distribution 
that installed perfectly and automagically on my iBook. I didn't have 
to manually correct one single setting. And I think that's quite 
amazing, as it eventually makes a Linux install as effortless as a 
MacOS or Windows install.

Therefore, I believe there can't be any better distribution for 
unexperienced PPC Linux users than Mandrake PPC. It's worth every cent 
you spend on it."
http://www.tuxppc.com/plain_page.php?caller=imaclinux.php3+record=95


What's Cookin' at MandrakeSoft?
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MandrakeSoft PPC developer Stew Benedict has recently uploaded over 340 
new packages to cooker-ppc. He also reports: "The bulk of 
KDE3 built for 8.2 PPC should be up on the mirrors now, in the 
'contribs' section."

KDE3 packages are intended to be installed in parallel with KDE 2.2.2, 
which makes it possible to use KDE 2.2.2 applications that haven't been 
ported to KDE 3.0 yet. For this reason, the KDE3 packages are installed 
into /opt/kde3.

Please note: These packages are unsupported and are intended for users 
who enjoy the "bleeding edge" -- use at your own risk. For all the 
details, plus installation instructions, please see the following page:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/mdk-kde3.0.php3


Spotlight on the DrakX 'Kick Start'
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Have you ever installed Mandrake Linux on multiple machines, but wished 
you didn't have to sit in front of each computer filling in the blanks, 
picking this and that and hoping that you correctly remembered the 
selections from a previous install? Then you're in luck. Mandrake user 
David Eastcott has extensively documented the 8.2 "Auto Install" 
feature (a.k.a. Kick Start) and makes it available from his website.

An Automated Installation is ideal for situations where the same 
'Install' set is to be conducted on multiple computers. This extensive 
how-to provides an overview of the complete process, plus details about 
the Install disks and the configuration files which drive the 
installation process.

Chapters include:

* Getting Started
* Anatomy of the files
* Advanced Features
* Creating an Updated Installation CD Set
* Setting up a Simple NFS Server
* Network and Connection Examples
http://members.shaw.ca/mandrake/


This Week's Survey
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The cute penguins were removed in Mandrake 8.2...

* Good!!!! Hope they never return.  [:-)] 
* I want them back!!!!  [:-(] 
* Who cares?
* Penguins? Gone? Eer... ?:-O 

Cast your vote in the Voting Booth and check the results:
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/pollBooth.php?op=results&pollID=33


Website Updates
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Errata pages, which describe known problems and how to solve them, 
are released simultaneously on MandrakeForum and on the Mandrake Linux 
website to make locating solutions easier.

Mandrake Linux 8.2/PPC errata.
Some users have encountered problems installing or using the 8.2/PPC 
release due to specific configurations that we did not have an 
opportunity to fully test. Topics include:

* Error -39 while unpacking the BootX installer package. 
* The BootX installer package doesn't work with languages other than
  English. 
* Black screen on iMacs with Riva128 video 
* Sleep issue with Radeon TiBooks 
* Unable to boot NewWorld system after successful installation 
* Troubleshooting potential video problems
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/82errata-ppc.php3

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8.2 errata additions for x86.
Just added to the errata page for Mandrake Linux 8.2:
* XFree86 unstable when using KDM with some graphics cards
* Problems installing on K6-2 systems with an SiS530 or VIA MVP3 chipset
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/82errata.php3


Software Updates
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Security-related software updates have been released for:

libsafe -- updated md5sums

View the complete list at:
http://www.mandrakesecure.net


Headlines from MandrakeForum
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Mandrake on a Wal-Mart OS-less PC.
Denis discusses a NewsForge article where Rus Pavlicek describes buying 
a Wal-Mart OS-less box and installing Linux, including Mandrake. Deno 
adds: "...at least one guy (Tim Bergen) acknowledged that he already 
bought one of their boxes, and that it works fine with MandrakeLinux."
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2105

Beyond Advocacy - Promote and Advertise.
Mandrake user 'treeg2' posts several good suggestions for effectively 
promoting and advocating Mandrake Linux to Windows users.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2103

Crappy hardware.
'Anonymous' writes: "I have a problem, and I've been asking for help 
for a while and nobody could come up with a solution. I have a very old 
notebook, 386 processor with 4 MB RAM and floppy is the only input, 
which linux would run with this limited hardware, and where to find it?
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2102

Advantages of club membership for a computer hobbyists association.
Deno presents a possible way of introducing student discounts, and 
making "Corporate Club" membership attractive for non profit 
organizations at the same time. What do you think of it?
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2099

Read these and other stories at MandrakeForum
http://www.MandrakeForum.com/

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