Mandrakesoft, a France-based company, is responsible for Mandrake Linux, which originally came about as a variation of Red Hat Linux.
Instead of the Gnome desktop, KDE was the choice, and the system was compiled and optimised for Pentium processors. It wasn't long before the distributions began to move in opposite directions, but the similarities and differences remain apparent. Mandrake Linux is aimed more towards the home desktop market, but this new 9.2 release is heading into the corporate desktop territory.
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Mandrake Linux has always tried to be a user-friendly distribution, and is often cited as the best for beginners. Unlike competition from Lindows and Lycoris, Mandrake is still firmly and clearly Linux, and is a large system.
The installation looks a little dated in comparison to some, but it?s quite well designed and intuitive. The first choices are for language and keyboard, followed by a general security level for the system. Next up is the disk set-up, where you can manage your partitions and choose where to install the operating system. The software selection offered has a good variety of categories, like games, development tools and servers. Next, a summary of options for the system is given and on our test PC, the printer, onboard network card and graphics card were all correctly configured. Finally, the system password and a standard user are created. The system then offers to update itself before the reboot.
After the reboot, the Nvidia screen indicated the correct graphics drivers were installed and, upon logging in, a simple wizard popped up to configure a few settings. Mandrake naturally prefers KDE as the desktop, and has gone to considerable effort to configure it well. The theme is Mandrake's own Galaxy, a blue and grey design that works well.
It's here on the desktop where Mandrake excels. The latest version of KDE is provided, which itself gives excellent usability for common desktop tasks. Also supplied are recent releases of many applications and utilities. Video support worked fine with mpeg4 and other formats, and double-clicking on the common audio formats launched a suitable player. In fact, this was the case, with double-clicking on most major file types. Other partitions on the hard drive are found and mounted, and the 'supermount' utilities take care of managing the CD or DVD-Rom drives.
Web browsing is through Mozilla or Konqueror, and the usual plug-ins for Java, Flash and Real Player were working. For productivity, Open Office 1.1.0 is supplied, with the capable Kmail for email. The distribution installs all the popular applications, which are laid out well on the menus. Also available are many lessknown programs arranged into categories making them easy to find and install.
System administration is performed through Drakconf, a centralised configuration application similar to Suse, though it offers less functionality. Here you can update and install new software, configure the network, users, hardware and more. We were able to update the system in no time, as well as add fonts from the Windows partition; Drakconf automatically found and configured these.
Mandrake 9.2 contains lots of new software, and is itself a recent release. The distribution isn't as solid as one like Red Hat, but we encountered few problems. Drakconf has improved since past releases, and now you can configure aspects of the system suited to corporate needs. Mandrakesoft also has a reputation for providing enhancement updates in addition to security and bug fixes.
The distribution is available as a free download. This comes with no support and doesn't include commercial software. There are several boxed releases, including the Discovery and Powerpack editions - which includes 60 days of email installation support, seven CDs of software and a useful manual. It?s also available in a DVD version and without the manual. The Discovery edition lacks development software and some server software, and includes 30 days of email installation support.
Look out for the DVD edition of Personal Computer World June 2004 (on sale - 22 April) which will include a copy of Mandrake 10 Community.
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