>I don't know how true this is. Mandrake is notoriously bleeding edge. >No company is going to want to install their product for normal usage.
Ah, but that's where Mandrake has succeeded where others, especially Red Hat have not. Mandrake just inked a deal with HP to provide two versions of 8.1 (I think) for the vast majority of *desktop* systems HP sells. Mandrake being on the bleeding edge has put them into the position where they could accept this contract. Their system is the most complete, GUI-based Linux distro there is. Literally no feature must be edited from a text editor. No critical application is only accessible through the console. They're all there, its just that Mandrake has practically eliminated the need for the CLI tools. And don't think that this is _not_ what people want. They most assuredly do. No matter how slick and shifty MS was (and is), if Windows simply sucked so bad as to be nigh unusable, people would stop using it. Now, we all know, regardless of how much we hate M$, that the thing does work... to a degree. This is enough for the average user and won't change for some time, or until something easier and cheaper and 100% compatible comes along. The Mac was there, but it succumbed to poor management, a 'hippy' mentality, and an accomplice factor that causes them to lump in with MS instead of compete. If Apple was really serious about competition and not just making easy money riding on MS' anti-trust coattails they would have been building dull beige models of the iMac and G3/4 systems all along to sell into corporations and not spend all their time on candy colored operating systems, regardless of how truly bitching it may be. Next comes Psion/Symbian. I know, this doesn't make much sense, but its a reality. EPOC32 and the Symbian OS (which are really quite similar) is very compatible with Windows and MS file formats, is extremely scalable (from phone to desktop), and handles Java and TCP/IP with native aplomb. Psion's inability to properly market handheld devices to the consumer and keep a steady flow of new, evolutionary devices coming did, however, clearly indicate that it will take longer to get to the desktop. Last, and certainly not least, is Linux. Even Red Hat, the self-appointed champion of the Open Source and Linux movements, has been unable to achieve the ease of use and GUI integration of Mandrake. There are few distros that come close to matching what Mandrake has been able to offer the desktop user. Combine Mandrake's Control Center, Mandrake Update (skip the kernel upgrade unless you've retained the stock kernel in your install, though), and Ximian's Red Carpet and you have a powerful GUI-based technology currency system in place. AFAIK, other than Red Carpet, the Mandrake tools are not present elsewhere. Tyler --- Tyler Regas PHM Editor-in-Chief [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.pdahandyman.com _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list - http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Archives,and Digests are located at the above URL.
