Author: JT Smith
Users Club Update; Introducing the MandrakeSecure website; Mandrake in
the News; What’s Cooking at MandrakeSoft; Business Case of the Week;
Software Updates; This Week’s Online Poll; Top Stories from
MandrakeForum.Product News
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Mandrake Linux 8.1 for Itanium.
On Dec. 3rd, MandrakeSoft announced the availability of Mandrake Linux
8.1 for Intel Itanium architecture. The Itanium is a high-performance
platform commonly used for servers and advanced computing. This new
product offers the same features as Mandrake Linux 8.1, but has been
optimized for the IA64 architecture.
Mandrake Linux 8.1 for IA64 is now available for free download at
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3#ia64, and will soon be
available for purchase at MandrakeStore.
http://www.mandrakestore.com
Support plans and professional consulting are available:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/range/support
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/consulting
Top Stories
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Mandrake Linux Users Club: Preparing for the first session.
A new web site dedicated to the Mandrake Linux Users Club should be
open in less than one week. The website will provide detailed
information about the features/benefits of the Club; report about club
activities; and also allow the opportunity for members to provide
feedback.
If you’re a happy Mandrake user who wants to ensure that the Mandrake
Linux distribution keeps going in the right direction, join the
Mandrake Users Club!
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/club/
—
Introducing MandrakeSecure.
In order to concentrate all Mandrake-relevant security information in
one location, a new member of the MandrakeSoft family of websites has
been launched. The new site, MandrakeSecure.com, is devoted entirely to
security. It provides new mailing lists on security topics, an online
discussion forum to discuss security with others users around the
globe, and valuable links to security resources available on the
internet. It also features articles written specifically for Mandrake
Linux users to help them understand security, and why security is
important.
MandrakeSoft Security Specialist Vincent Danen adds:
“Currently, there are two documents on the site that may prove to be of
immediate interest. The first is using sudo to lock down permissions on
your system; invaluable for multi-user environments. The second is a
piece entitled “The Black Magic of Updating” and explains the why and
how of updating software in Mandrake Linux, the importance of reading
advisories, and the not-so black magic of updating kernels, which may
be of particular interest for those of who have not yet taken the step
to update to the latest kernels provided via Updates. These two
articles are, of course, merely the beginning, and you can expect to
see many more feature articles on the site in the future”.
http://www.mandrakesecure.net/
Mandrake in the News
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CRN.com — Constructing a Windows-Less Office.
This week’s cover story is an article about replacing Windows with
Linux-powered desktops in a typical small-business environment.
“The advances in the KDE interface and the easy system maintenance
provided by both SuSE and Mandrake provide a solid client desktop that
Windows clients can’t touch.”
http://www.crn.com/Sections/CoverStory/CoverStory.asp?ArticleID=31793
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Netcraft.com — Web Server Survey.
Denis Havlik was browsing the Netcraft survey and noticed the “Advanced
Extranet Webserver” was recorded on 48,114 web sites last month —
that’s more than a 300% increase from one year ago!
http://www.netcraft.com/survey/Reports/0111/byserver/Apache-AdvancedExtranetServer/
The Advanced Extranet Webserver is a high-performance version of the
famous Apache webserver found only in the Mandrake Linux distribution.
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/demos/Demo/Mandrake8.1/QuickLook/pages/features14.php3
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PCmag.com — Get Started With Linux.
PC magazine hosts an article about setting up a web server with
Mandrake Linux. “Linux is a compelling choice when you want to take a
break from Windows or run your own Web server. We’ll help you get
started.”
http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s%253D1481%2526a%253D18524,00.asp
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ZDNet.com — Travel ASP rides Linux to success.
Viata is a Hawaii-based ASP (Application Service Provider) to the
online travel industry. When they needed a low-cost but effective
technical infrastructure, their solution was to use Mandrake Linux as
the desktop and server OS.
“Viata saved about $170,000 in software costs during the first six
months of using Linux, according to Phillips. Viata also saved on
hardware, as it was able to avoid purchasing the high-end machines it
would have needed to run Windows. And administration is cheaper, since
most functions are performed centrally and can be automated.”
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2825019,00.html
What’s Cooking at MandrakeSoft?
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Hot topics from last week’s Cooker mailing list include discussions
about hackkernel, Nautilus build requirements, %makeinstall rpm
building macro, and Higher resolution for i810 chipsets during the
install. Read the Cooker Mailing List Archives at
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=mandrake-cooker&r=1&w=2
—
SNF code merged to Cooker.
The “Single Network Firewall” administrative interface has been adapted
to the 2.4 kernel and merged into Cooker. The next step will be to fix
bugs and add new functionality. Join the discussion at MandrakeForum
and provide your opinion about what new features should be added to the
next “firewall” product.
http://mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1427?=en
Business Case of the Week
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ASUAF: Mandrake Linux used for everything in our Information Services
Department.
The Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (ASUAF)
represents students to the university, as well as providing legal
services, a Student Saver program, online classifieds, and personal web
site hosting. They use Mandrake Linux for the web/database/email
server, as well as on their workstations.
Joshua Kugler, the Information Services Director, says “We have been
very pleased with Mandrake Linux and would recommend it to anyone
looking for a Linux distribution on which to base their enterprise.”
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/article.php?sid=213
Every “bizcase” counts; please share your story by submitting it to
MandrakeBizcases.com
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/submit.php
Software Updates
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wu-ftpd — fix potential remote root compromise
postfix — fix potential remote DoS
apache — fixes a number of vulnerabilities
View the entire list at:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/security/
This Week’s Online Poll
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Which processor(s) do you use with ML?
AMD Athlon
AMD Duron
Intel Itanium or Xeon
Intel Pentium 3 or Pentium 4
Intel Celeron
Other i386 compatible processor
PPC G3 or G4
SPARC
Alpha
Others
Cast your vote in the Voting Booth and check the results:
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/pollBooth.php?op=results&pollID=21
Top Stories from MandrakeForum
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Mandrakesoft Advent Calendar
.
Deno writes: “Tomorrow is the first day of Advent, and (Christian)
tradition says that during Advent (4 weeks preceding Christmas) one
should have a calendar with surprises. Each day one little door gets
opened; each day a new treasure comes out. This year, Mandrakesoft will
have its own Advent calendar online”.
Due to overwhelming results from our business survey, we have been
adding dozens of great stories to MandrakeBizCases.com; so every day,
there will be at least one new story on the MandrakeBizcases site, and
we’ll try to put some very special stories out each Sunday.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1440?=en
—
Mandrake and Win4Lin maker NeTraverse forge partnership.
Desktop Linux reports: “In the relationship agreement, MandrakeSoft
will be integrating and marketing the NeTraverse products with its
market-leading software, offering NeTraverse’s Win4Lin desktop product
directly through its online store”.
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9662188217.html
Deno adds: “Our role is to make sure that people actually get Win4Lin
with the distribution, and that they can easily buy licenses for it
through MandrakeStore. FYI, the first “update CD” for ML 8.1 ProSuite
is almost ready, and I hope it will contain the updated version of
Win4Lin which works with updated kernel. This CD is primarily targeted
at Pro-suite buyers (these get it shipped free of charge), but I
suppose it will be available on MandrakeStore too.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1433?=en
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PPC Cooker – A hands-on guide.
For any Macintosh users who are interested in testing the future
version of Mandrake PPC, George Hartlieb has put together a small guide
of some of the tricks he’s learned along the way. And since the first
part of this document describes how to setup a local mirror of Cooker,
it’s also informative for all would-be Cooker testers, not only those
who own a PPC machine.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1432?=en
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Who owns your data?
Steve Litt, the editor of Troubleshooters.com, switched to Linux a few
months ago; he describes how & why both he and his company did the
transition in the April 2001 issue of “Troubleshooting Professional
Magazine.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1428?=en
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Oracle 8i release 3 (version 8.1.7) on Mandrake 8.1
“Anonymous” shares some tips on how he successfully installed &
configured the Oracle database on Mandrake Linux 8.1.
http://mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1434?=en
Read these and other stories at:
http://www.MandrakeForum.com/
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Category:
- Linux
