Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter – Issue #56

This Week’s Summary: Beta 3 Released; Summer Special at MandrakeStore;
Mandrake Receives LSB Certification; Financial Corner; The Latest
MandrakeClub Activities; Star Trek Actor Wil Wheaton Recommends
Mandrake; Business Case of the Week; Software Updates; Headlines from
MandrakeForum.

Top Story
----------------------------------------
Beta 3 has been released.
The third Beta of the upcoming Mandrake Linux 9.0 for x86 is now 
available for download & testing.

Some of the highlights of the new beta include:
 * WebDAV can now be configured in DrakX
 * The first version of DrakCronat is introduced
 * A new & improved "DrakWizard" for configuring servers
 * New GCC with all C++ apps recompiled
 * Drakboot can now configure the bootsplash
 * X starts as a service

Cooker has now entered its first "frozen" state. This means that new 
versions of packages will not be accepted unless they fix critical 
bugs. Lead MandrakeSoft developer 'Warly' says to expect Beta4 or RC1 
by the end of this week or beginning of next week, then a new RC in the 
beginning of September (subject to change).

Read the complete Beta announcement:
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/90beta.php3


Summer Special at MandrakeStore
----------------------------------------
Don't miss this special offer! Order anything at MandrakeStore during 
August 8 - September 8 and we will ship the order anywhere in the USA, 
Canada or the European Union for FREE. Customers in other countries 
receive 50% off shipping.

This is a great opportunity to purchase MandrakeSoft products, 
third-party products, and Gifts & Goodies at a special price.

Stop by MandrakeStore today:
http://www.mandrakestore.com/


Mandrake Receives LSB Certification
----------------------------------------
On August 2nd, Mandrake Linux became the first Linux distribution 
certified by the Linux Standard Base (LSB). LSB Certification verifies 
adherence to community and industry standards. This important 
accomplishment has been achieved for the Mandrake Linux 8.2 ProSuite 
Edition plus the first "Update CD".
http://www.opengroup.org/lsb/cert/cert_prodlist.tpl?CALLER=display_product.tpl


Financial Corner
----------------------------------------
Increase of capital continues.
MandrakeSoft board members recently voted to extend the Warrants 
Operation (BSA) until October 31st, 2002 (barring any unforeseen 
circumstances). As soon as the available warrants are purchased, we can 
close the operation and focus our energy in the continued development 
of the distribution.

If you would like to become a company shareholder, there's still time 
to act:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/investors/bsa


MandrakeClub
----------------------------------------
Below are the top-10 applications now in "testing" phase:
 * wine (8.2/i586) -- an implementation of MS-Windows APIs for Linux
 * NVidia Kernel and GLX -- display driver for nVidia graphics card
 * Apache 2.x -- the latest version of the Apache webserver
 * gphoto2-2.1.0 -- program for downloading pictures from digital
   cameras
 * checkinstall -- removes programs that were compiled and installed
   from source
 * mjpegtools --  for video recording and playback
 * SpamAssassin -- a mail filter to identify spam
 * Quanta plus -- a web development tool for KDE
 * Maxima -- computer algebra software
 * LICQ -- a multi-threaded ICQ client

People are needed to test these new packages and provide feedback so
that we can release "final" versions to other Club members.
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=RPM

Final packages can be found in the "/unsupported/MandrakeClub/" 
directory of your local Cooker mirror.

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


Mandrake in the News
----------------------------------------
NewsForge.com -- Ex-Star Trek star "world's number one Linux 
cheerleader".
Wil Wheaton, of movie and TV fame, writes in his personal weblog that 
he recently received a Lindows computer as a gift; but when Lindows 
took a dump, he went straight for the real thing -- Mandrake Linux 8.2:

"This install was the easiest thing I have ever done, and there wasn't 
one single problem. The only glitch came when I was trying to get my 
soundcard to work, which was hammered out quickly and painlessly, 
thanks to the monkeys in the soapbox."

"I'm using Gnome, and I've never been happier. I am now going to become 
the world's number one Linux cheerleader."
http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/08/15/208231.shtml?tid=23


Business Case of the Week
----------------------------------------
Tri-Pacific Software uses & recommends Mandrake for server & 
workstations.
Tri-Pacific Software - located in Alameda, California and Dallas, Texas 
- is a business that provides tools for performing schedulability 
analysis of real-time systems. The company has 15 employees and various 
versions of Linux installed on a number of systems.

"Tom" from Tri-Pacific Software writes:
"My first Mandrake version was 6.0. I was immediately impressed with 
the way the product was packaged and the administration tools that had 
been added. I had been using RedHat versions prior to this and felt 
that Mandrake was doing a better job of providing something that a 
typical end-user would be able to work with."
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/article.php?sid=354

For many more examples of Mandrake in the workplace, please see:
http://www.MandrakeBizcases.com.


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

bind -- fixes buffer overflow
sharutils -- fixes local file vulnerability
xchat -- fixes dns command insecurities
glibc -- fixes buffer overflow
libpng -- fixes buffer overflow

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


Headlines from MandrakeForum
----------------------------------------
Mandrake Linux has been LSB-Certified.
Gaël writes: "Mandrake Linux is one of the three first Linux 
distributions to become Linux Standard Base (LSB 1.2/IA 32) certified. 
Isn't that great?" 
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2379

Mandrake Linux 9.0 Beta 3 available.
Thanks to many helpful suggestions and reports, Beta 3 contains 
numerous corrections and improvements to the DrakX installer and 
assorted software. New features, such as webDAV file system support and 
koffice 1.2rc1, are also in the plate for testing. 
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2378

Updates are now available for xchat, sharutils, and bind.
Vincent Danen writes: "Updates are now available for xchat which 
corrects some insecurities with the "/dns" command; sharutils which 
corrects some insecurities with the uudecode program; and bind9 which 
makes available 9.2.1 proper (9.2.1RC1 was in the previous update and 
didn't correct the vulnerabilities it was supposed to have corrected), 
and also provides a patch to fix the buffer overflow in the resolver 
libraries."
http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?lang=en&sid=2377

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