Linux Mandrake 9.1

...give a balanced view of Linux and the Mandrake distribution in particular. In my experience, Linux tends to bring out an almost evangelical streak in techies who often forget that others may not find it entertaining to work late into the night refining their computing environment. I am often guilty of the same, but today it is my intention to leave my anorak on the coat peg. Forgive me if I lapse from time to time. I have tried to make this as short ...
...a few things about what Linux is and what it is not. Linux is what is known as a kernel - a program that can communicate with the CPU, PCI cards, IDE controllers and whatever other bits of hardware make up your PC. It also communicates with applications that are loaded once the kernel is running. The kernel together with it's modules take up a little over 20MB of my hard disk. This is Linux. The remainder of the three installation CDs is taken up ... more

MOTIVATION

My reason for writing this review is to try to give a balanced view of Linux and the Mandrake distribution in particular. In my experience, Linux tends to bring out an almost evangelical streak in techies who often forget that others may not find it entertaining to work late into the night refining their computing environment. I am often guilty of the same, but today it is my intention to leave my anorak on the coat peg. Forgive me if I lapse from time to time. I have tried to make this as short as possible, but it is a big subject, so please also forgive the length of this piece.

WHY MANDRAKE?

In order to understand why distributions differ we need to understand a few things about what Linux is and what it is not. Linux is what is known as a kernel - a program that can communicate with the CPU, PCI cards, IDE controllers and whatever other bits of hardware make up your PC. It also communicates with applications that are loaded once the kernel is running. The kernel together with it's modules take up a little over 20MB of my hard disk. This is Linux. The remainder of the three installation CDs is taken up with applications that run on the Linux kernel. These are not Linux.

All Linux distributions have one thing in common: They all include the Linux kernel. Where they differ is in what other applications are included and how they have been packaged up. In some cases, these differences can be trivial, but in others they could mean the difference between an easy installation and days of frustration.

Most Linux users have a favourite distribution and are very keen to defend their own choice, but it is important to remember that they are all underpinned by the same kernel, so whatever can be achieved under one can also be achieved under any other. However, if a distribution has been aimed at the server market, it is likely to require more effort from you to tweak this into a good desktop PC setup. Mandrake, I think it is fair to say, has been aimed to a large degree at desktop computing and this is why it is the distribution of choice for me and has been since version 6.

FIVE REASONS YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY LINUX:

1) It is free. You can download it without having to pay any license fee (preferably by broadband or better because the full distribution takes up three CDs). Alternatively you can purchase a boxed standard distribution (which most likely includes support), pull it off the cover of a computing magazine, etc.

But why, you may ask, since PCs always come with windows pre-installed? With hardware becoming cheaper all the time, the windows license takes up a proportionally larger part of the price. There are real savings to be made if you buy a "naked" PC (no OS).

2) No viruses. Yet. Viruses and trojans are almost exclusively written to exploit windows applications like Outlook, Word, etc. There is a simple reason for this: The majority of users in the world use Windows and this ensures that a virus has the best possible chance of propagating. I can view virus infected emails with impunity (not that I would want to) because none of them are capable of infecting my system. This may not always be the case. After all, the more people who start to use Linux, the more likely it is that malicious individuals will start to write viruses and such like for it. Right now though, I am in virus free heaven, and this represents another cost saving: No expensive anti-virus software.

3)Free office productivity software. This is called OpenOffice (StarOffice is based on the same code and costs approximately £45) and with it you can do word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and html documents. This is functionality that will cost hundreds of pounds if you want the equivalent Microsoft products. You may be forgiven for thinking that this software is second rate because is is free. You would be wrong though. It is of a very high quality as are many of the applications that you will find included. Strictly speaking, this is not a reason for changing to Linux because Open Office is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris.

4) Most digital cameras, printers, scanners, etc. integrate seamlessly with Mandrake 9.1, so you should be able to use your Linux PC for everything that you use your Windows PC.

5) Cool anorak. Err, well, the less said about that the better.

INSTALLATION

I don't intend to cover this in huge detail, but will include some links for resources at the end of this article.

One of the reasons that Linux has a reputation for being more difficult than Windows is because of the installation process. This, in my opinion, is pure prejudice. If everyone had to install Windows themselves rather than have it pre-installed by the OEM then this perception would evaporate. In my own experience, it took a week of re-installs to get a stable implementation of windows '98, whereas I installed Mandrake 8.1 in little over an hour. The Mandrake 9.1 installation is more streamlined still.

There are a few things though that will need to be considered before attempting an installation. If you have just got your brand new naked PC home and your installation CDs then just steam right in there. You will find it a breeze. However, most first time users would prefer to feel the water fist and are not so bold as to wipe Windows of the face of their PC. So, how do we overcome this problem? By creating a dual boot PC, that's how. Linux can be configured so that when the PC is switched on, you are presented with a menu from which you can choose which OS you want it to boot into. Be warned though, this is not trivial and usually involves resizing your Windows partition along with all the anxieties about losing precious data. BIG LESSON here: Back up any data that you value before you do anything.

Assuming that you now have a few GB of free disk you can begin the installation. One of the first things that may cause you to hesitate is the section on disk partitioning. If you are building a dual boot system, do not choose the automatic disk partitioning option. Instead, you will need to select the space that you have just freed up and configure you Linux partitions manually from that.

The next big step will be the selection of packages. The installation screen lists all the workstation options down the left hand side and all the server options on the right hand side. If desktop apps are what you are interested in, and you can afford just over 1 GB for the installation, my advice is to check everything in the left hand column. This way, you can be fairly sure that you get what you need.

If you have dial up access to the internet, it is worth noting that most internal modem are what is know as winmodems, contollerless modems or software modems. Not all of these work with Linux. Please see the links at the end of this article for more information.

The graphics system on Mandrake (and most other distributions) is called Xfree86 (or X for short). Most Graphics cards and monitors will work straight away with no problems. LCD monitors are a possible exception to this and may require some additional tuning of the X configuration file. Another exception is nVidia graphics cards. The installation process will install a driver for these, but if you want to take full advantage of the graphics acceleration that these cards offer, then you will need to download the Linux drivers from nvidia.com. They also provide very comprehensive instructions which is a good thing since further tweaking of the X configuration file will be required.

Towards the end of the installation process, you will be asked to enter a root, or superuser password for the system. Take care to remember this because you will need it if you want to make certain changes (adding new software, for example) in the future. You will also be asked to add regular users. I have added one for each member of the family. One of the benefits of this is that it is impossible for my son to accidentally erase any of my files, or any system files belonging to root. This is because, unlike Windows, the Linux filesystem has ownership and permission attributes.

Once the installation is complete, the system will reboot and you will be able to log into the system using your username and password. You will have a choice of the KDE or Gnome desktop. They do the same thing pretty much so pick either one. I use Gnome, but that is as much a matter of habit than anything else. You now deserve to congratulate yourself.

CONCLUSIONS

- Don't be fooled by people telling you that Mandrake is a beginners version of Linux. If you have never installed an operating system before, you won't find it plain sailing all the way.

- There are real cost savings in going with Linux. My latest PC, a cute little Mini ITX system the size of a shoebox cost me all of £270 including VAT to put together. You could put several hundred pounds on top of that if you had to buy commercial software to run under Windows, but I have all of that functionality included in Mandrake.

- You will not need to worry about viruses and trojans (for the time being).

- Once you have got your Linux system up and running, you will have learnt much about the way computers work and if you are like me, you may never look back.

RESOURCES

Mandrake Homepage:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/

Installation HOWTO:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO/index.html

Installation strategies for dual boot PCs:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Install-Strategies/x164.html

Index of Linux HOWTOs:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/index.html

The Linux Document Project:
http://www.tldp.org/

How to get your modem working:
http://www.linmodems.org/

Linux Technical Forum:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/
 

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