Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter – Issue #22

This Week’s Summary: LinuxPlanet review of 8.1 Gamers Edition;
Discussion about the Software Manager; Business Case of the Week;
Spotlight on OpenOffice; New “Controlling SPAM” article at
MandrakeSecure.net; This Week’s Poll: Does your online banking service
work with Linux?; Top Stories from MandrakeForum.

Mandrake in the News
----------------------------------------
LinuxPlanet.com --  Out of the Box: Mandrake 8.1 Gaming Edition.
Brian Proffitt reviews the new Gamers edition of Mandrake 8.1 and 
reports: "After this brief step, The Sims will launch in all it's 
full-screen glory. Sound, animations, and input responses are perfectly 
fine. In fact, I found the game to be so robust and responsive, I plan 
on getting a Windows copy of the game just to compare the play of the 
game on each platform. Until then, take my word for it, this game runs 
without a hitch on Linux."

As part of LinuxPlanet's "DistributionWatch" series, Brian Proffitt 
will continue using Mandrake 8.1 for at least another month and report 
his observations, so watch his column!
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/3940/1/

For more information about the Mandrake Linux Gaming Edition (plus 
screenshots), please see:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/81/gaming-edition

Order your copy at MandrakeStore:
http://www.mandrakestore.com


What's Cooking at MandrakeSoft?
----------------------------------------
Over at MandrakeForum, Denis Havlik hosts a discussion about the much 
improved Mandrake 8.1 Software Manager. Since the Software Manager will 
most likely undergo some changes for the next release, what has your 
experience been with this program? Should it be changed/improved?
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1462?=en


Business Case of the Week
----------------------------------------
"Cinema Clock" powered by Mandrake Linux.
Syspark Inc., a Montreal-based company that provides e-service 
solutions, shares a very interesting story about how they use Mandrake:

"CinemaClock.com publishes the movie information for all theatres 
across Canada. This information includes interactive fully searchable 
movie showtimes, top 10, list of upcoming movies, movie descriptions 
and images, and a unique voting system which lets visitors write movie 
reviews and rate the movies they've seen."
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/article.php?sid=227

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


Spotlight on OpenOffice
----------------------------------------
OpenOffice is a full-featured office suite that runs on most major 
platforms (Windows, Linux, Solaris, and now being ported to Mac OS X). 
OpenOffice.org recently released a new Beta version -- 641b.

Don't be worried about its status as beta; most of the features are 
already fully functional -- the recent emphasis has been on improving 
the user interface which has resulted in a nice, clean working 
environment.

This latest release offers improved compatibility with third-party 
Office suites, online help, spellchecker, enhanced printing and much 
more. OpenOffice includes Writer (a word processor), Calc (a 
spreadsheet program), Impress (presentation software), and Draw (a 
drawing program).

If your Internet connection can handle a 75MB download, go ahead and 
give OpenOffice a try. The program is very easy to install (even for 
new Linux users); just extract the archive and click the "setup" file 
located in the "install" folder. Once the installation is complete, 
click the "soffice" file in the "OpenOffice" folder that was created in 
your home directory.

OpenOffice 641b is available as a free download.
Linux/Intel, Solaris, Windows:
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/latest_build/latest_build.html#binaries
Linux/PPC:
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/latest_build/latest_build.html#ppclinks


What's new at MandrakeSecure.net?
----------------------------------------
New Feature: Controlling SPAM under Mandrake Linux.
Vincent Danen has posted a new article titled: "Controlling SPAM under 
Mandrake Linux". The first part of his article discusses implementing 
RBL (Realtime Blackhole List) in both Postfix and Qmail. The second 
part explains some client-side SPAM prevention/tracking techniques and 
a tutorial on configuring and using TMDA, an intuitive and powerful 
anti-spam package.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1464?=en


This Week's Online Poll
----------------------------------------
Online banking and Linux?

My bank supports Linux!
No explicit support for Linux, but it works fine
My EX-bank insisted on Windows
My current bank insists on Windows
I don't use online banking!

Cast your vote in the Voting Booth and check the results:
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/pollBooth.php?op=results&pollID=22


Top Stories from MandrakeForum
----------------------------------------
Online banking and Linux.
"garethwi" tells a story about his father abandoning Linux because his 
online banking service requires Internet Explorer on Windows. A very 
lively discussion ensued about which online banking sites are 
"Linux-friendly". Personally, I've used Netbank.com for almost two 
years with Linux and it works great.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1455?=en

-- 

Interesting times.
If you're looking for some interesting short stories to read, Denis 
offers some highlights of several Mandrake-related topics.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1460?=en

-- 

Getting started with a DNS server?
"iamcndn" asks for help with setting up a DNS server, and receives many 
helpful responses from other users.
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1452?=en

--

The stuff reviewers forget about.
Some of the nicer features of Mandrake Linux often go unnoticed. Deno
mentions a few, can you think of more?
http://mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1422?=en

-- 

Negative comments can be constructive.
"gerryg" raises the topic of "constructive criticism" versus "bashing".
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1446?=en

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

----------------------------------------