[TriLUG] Mandrake

[Tanner Lovelace]

Rock Roskam wrote:
> I am new to the current Mandrake and I have some questions about it.  I am 
> not willing to join their club as an individual but definitely would 
> contribute to having a trilug account.
> 1.  This club mantra is very annoying.  In order to access the main forums 
> you have to be a member.  So far I have been going to mandrakeusers.org 
> for answers.  Is there a better repository for getting answers?

Why is it annoying?  There has to be *some* benefits for membership
and the club forums are part of that.  You can choose to join or not.
There are plenty of other websites you can also check.  Look at the top
of any mandrake page and you'll see something like:

MandrakeSoft MandrakeStore MandrakeClub MandrakeExpert MandrakeBizCases
MandrakeSecure MandrakePartner

Click on one of those links to go to the appropriate site.  Only the club
one requires membership.

> 2.  The urpmi seems to be tied into the club mantra.  Are there sources to 
> go to without club status.  I have found PLF sources but want to be 
> certain I have found all the sources I need. 

While the club does provide it's own urpmi sources, there is *nothing*
about urpmi that ties it to the club.  Go to http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/
to fill out all the sources you could ever want (it will give you the
*exact* commands you need to do so).

> 3.  Will cooker sources corrupt my urpmi for 9.2?  I wanted tuxpaint for 
> my kids RH9 via apt-get or yum could not handle this.  But a cooker source 
> gave it up to install and run.

As with any *experimental* distribution you should absolutely know what
you're doing before attempting to run it.  Basically, if you would feel
comfortable running Debian Unstable, then feel free to try out cooker.
If not, then don't.  Installing packages from Cooker onto a stable release
may or may not work.  What you can often do, though, is take the src.rpm
file and rebuild it on your stable workstation.  Google for links on how
to do that or see the slides from the presentation I did for trilug.

> 4.  Why does maelstrom under windows try to access the firewall?

Are you sure you're on the right list? ;-)

> I feel a little lost and listless with Red Hats change.  I like the look 
> of Mandrake but the pressure for the club may be too much.  I am not ready 
> for a monthly fee for linux.  I do not feel ready for the challenge of 
> Gentoo or Debian against my hardware.  

Who says you have to have a monthly fee?  Install mandrake, try the
url I gave above for urpmi sources and be happy.  You absolutely
don't have to be a member of the club to use mandrake very effectively.

Cheers,
Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace | lovelace(at)wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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