MandrakeSoft co-founder Gaël Duval has announced the release of 64-bit Mandrake Linux 10.1 Official. It's available for pre-ordering now ($119 EUR) and should be available in the retail channel in a few weeks.
32-Bit Mandrake Linux 10.1 Official was released less than two weeks ago and the Community edition of Mandrake Linux 10.1 was released on 16 September 2004.
Overall Mandrake 10.1 is a nice Linux distribution. However, for the reasons discussed further on in this article, we are not recommending Mandrake 10.1 at this time.
According to the 10 November, 64-bit Mandrake 10.1 press release,
Mandrakesoft has just released Mandrakelinux 10.1 for x86-64, a version of its Linux Operating System that runs on AMD x86-64 and Intel EMT architectures. Linux has always been ahead of the competition in this area: it was the first operating system to support 64-bit architectures. This new release of Mandrakelinux, featuring EVP [Enhanced Virus Protection] and mixed software support, will help ensure Linux is the only reasonable choice when it comes to 64-bit -- the future of computing . . .
Mandrakelinux 10.1 for x86-64 is compatible with the following CPU's: AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon 64, Intel EM64T.
And to us, Linux is the only reasonable choice when it comes to 64-bit is for the most part tantamount to saying migration from Microsoft Windows to Linux.
Mandrake has been doing more than its fair share of making Linux suitable for converting Microsoft Windows users to Linux for some time now. Mandrake 9.x already was a Linux distribution that out of the box was very suitable for migrating from Microsoft Windows to GNU-Linux.
Moreover, Mandrake's Gaël Duval has been a great and enthusiastic evangelist for the GNU-Linux operating system.
In the Mandrake 10.1 Community edition press release, MandrakeSoft CEO François Bancilhon stated,
The wonderful thing about Linux is how fast and how regularly it keeps on improving, while other systems stagnate or even regress. We pride ourselves on being one of the forces behind that. This new release shows how far Mandrakesoft's continued commitment to an open development process can bring our products.
However as mentioned above, Mandrake 9.x already was a Linux distribution that out of the box was very suitable for migrating from Microsoft Windows to Linux.
We have been using the 32-bit Mandrake 10.0 PowerPack+ on our Pogo Linux Altura64 Workstation for an applications-testing and hardware-testing platform for several months now. The Pogo Linux Altura64 Workstation is built around the AMD Athlon64 64-bit processor. It runs both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
Along with our Mandrake 9.0 installation running on a 1-GHz Pentium 3 (P3) and our Mandrake 9.1 installation running on our 1-GHz, P3, HP OmniBook 6000 laptop, we also have been using 32-bit Mandrake 10.0 PowerPack+ running on the Pogo Altura64 for many day-to-day productivity, Internet, and multimedia tasks too. And we have recommended these previous 32-bit versions of the Mandrake Linux distribution.
We have not tried 64-bit Mandrake 10.1 yet. However, we now are doing our review of 32-bit Mandrake 10.1 Official on the Pogo Linux Altura64 Workstation.
Overall 32-bit Mandrake 10.1 Official is a nice Linux distribution, although we have been encountering some problems with it. So far, the biggest problem we have found with 32-bit Mandrake 10.1 Official is that you cannot switch from a right-handed mouse to a left-handed mouse using the KDE Control Center > Peripherals > Mouse panel. If you are a lefty and use the KDE desktop, you might want to stay away from Mandrake 10.1.
[Just to be clear, we are not talking about right-handed and left-handed mice hardware-wise. This discussion is about using the left mouse-button as the primary clicker for right-handed people and using the right mouse button as the primary clicker for left-handed people. ED 14 November 2004.]
The switch to a left-handed mouse works in the Mandrake 10.1 GNOME desktop. However, we have experienced other problems using the mouse when in the GNOME desktop on Mandrake 10.1.
We have been experiencing problems with XMMS in Mandrake 10.1.
Another 10.1 issue is that it does not include KShowmail -- even in the Power Pack+ edition. We think it should include KShowmail (a very nice KDE tool to manage and read e-mail).
On the plus side, the Mandrake developers have put the KDE Control Center > Information > Storage Devices panel back in. That's a very good move.
Looking over the information about Mandrake 10.1 and adding that to our hands-on experiences with Mandrake 9.x and 10.0, Mandrake 10.1 Official ought to be a product that will help to promote the migration of MS Windows users to GNU-Linux. Please see our article Gaël Duval Tells Why Mandrake Linux Is Better Than MS Windows.
However, considering the assortment of problems we are encountering with Mandrake 10.1 we are not recommending Mandrake 10.1 at this time. We do hope to have a first look review of Mandrake 10.1 soon. We will let you know more about Mandrake 10.1 in that first look article.
Perhaps the most important change might be in the X Window system from XFree86 4.3 in Mandrake 10.0 to Xorg 6.7.0 in Mandrake 10.1. The X Window system is what is used to provide graphical display for the graphical components, including keyboard and mouse functionality, of the GNU-Linux operating system such as the GNOME and KDE desktops.
According to the 64-bit Mandrake Linux 10.1 Web pages and the 64-bit 10.1 press release, 64-bit Mandrake 10.1 includes:
- Linux Kernel 2.6.8
- Xorg 6.7.0 (Mandrake10.0 uses XFree86 4.3, thus a major change from Xfree86 to Xorg.)
- Glibc 2.3.3 with Native POSIX Threads Library (NPTL) support
- GCC 3.4.1
- Apache 2.0.50
- Samba 3.0.7
- MySQL 4.0.20
- ProFTPD 1.2.10
- Postfix 2.1.4
- OpenSSH 3.9p1
- KDE 3.2.3 and 3.3.1
- GNOME 2.6.2
- IceWM 1.2.16
- OpenOffice.org 1.1.3
- KOffice 1.3.3
- Gnumeric 1.2.13
- Mozilla 1.7.2
- The GIMP 2.0.4
- XMMS 1.2.10
- LinNeighborhood 0.6.5
A word of caution, 64-bit Mandrake Linux requires a computer system with a 64-bit CPU. That means an AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon 64, or Intel EM64T.
For more detail about the nuts and bolts of 64-bit Mandrake Linux 10.1 Official, please check the 64-bit Mandrake Linux 10.1 Official features Web page.
