Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter - Issue #72

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               Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter

                  Issue #72  Friday, 27 December 2002

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Welcome to the Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter -- dedicated to
keeping you up-to-date with the latest Mandrake-related news & info.

In this issue:

 * Top Story: MandrakeSoft's Future
 * New Product Release: Multi-Network Firewall
 * Upcoming Event: Desktop Linux Summit
 * Mandrake in the News: UnixReview.com and OFB.biz
 * MandrakeClub: Interviews -- Thus spoke François Bancilhon
 * BizCase: Donato's Pizza completes Mandrake Linux rollout
 * Tip of the Week: Easy URPMI configuration
 * Software Updates: MySQL, wget


** Happy Holidays from everyone at MandrakeSoft! **


Top Story
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MandrakeSoft's Future.
Despite the financial challenges of maintaining a fully open
source business model, MandrakeSoft has always followed the Free
Software approach, and will continue to do so. After strenuous efforts
over the past 12 months, MandrakeSoft's business model is more solid
than ever with a number of new announcements and exciting
developments on the horizon. But while the medium and long-term
prospects for the company are very good, we are experiencing short-term
cash-flow difficulties which are impacting the progress of the upcoming
release.

What can you do? If you haven't yet signed up for MandrakeClub, now is
the perfect time to do so. The MandrakeClub offers great value with
special services such as Java, Flash & StarOffice downloads, discounts
on product and services, access to hundreds of commercial programs,
plus much, much more. Please see the following link for a detailed
description of Club benefits:
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/club/

We're also trying to complete our Increase of Capital. Please take a
moment to read this important message at the Mandrake Linux website:
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/future.php3

We hope you consider purchasing a Club Membership for yourself or as a
gift. With your help, 2003 can be a  great year.


New Product
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Multi-Network Firewall has been released.
MandrakeSoft's new Multi-Network Firewall (MNF) is one of the most
feature-rich firewall products currently available on the market.

This all-in-one, easy to use package offers high-end features such as:
- Firewall
- Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- Intrusion Detection
- Traffic Management functions

Learn more about the Multi Network Firewall:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/products/2403
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/mnf

MNF is available now at MandrakeStore:
http://www.mandrakestore.com/


Upcoming Event
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Desktop Linux Summit.
MandrakeSoft is proud to be a sponsor of the upcoming "Desktop Linux
Summit" which will be held in San Diego, CA from Feb 20-21, 2003.
Produced by the good folks at desktoplinux.com, the summit is billed
as "The First Conference devoted to Linux on the Desktop."

The Desktop Linux Summit is the inaugural multi-vendor event that was
developed to serve the informational needs of those exploring a switch
to Linux on the desktop - for corporate and home users. This group
includes IT and business executives/managers, academic leaders, open
source community members and home users. This conference is geared to
decision makers who are currently evaluating Linux for use in their
home, schools and businesses.

Learn all the details at:
http://www.desktoplinux.com/summit/


Mandrake in the News
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UnixReview.com -- Review: Mandrake Linux 9.0.
The famous Marcel Gagné takes a look at 9.0:
"It is easy to install, easy to use, and friendly. With its great
collection of games, desktop productivity and office applications, as
well as 3D and multimedia support, it makes the transition from Windows
pretty painless."
"For the businesses out there, the friendliness of the Mandrake desktop
makes it a great transitional tool. Given that Mandrake Linux is Linux,
it's also an excellent server solution."
http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=7459/uni1040142232705/

OFB.biz -- Duval Clears Up MNF Controversy.
The "Open for Business" website hosts an interview with MandrakeSoft
co-founder Gaël Duval:
"Timothy R. Butler: What would you say are the key advantages of MNF
over other firewall solutions such as Smoothwall or SuSE Linux Firewall?
Gaël Duval: Compared to both these products, Mandrake Multi Network
Firewall is a more up to date technology. For instance, it's based on
Linux 2.4, not 2.2. The MNF also comes with VPN and proxy in [the]
standard [setup]."
http://ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=186


MandrakeClub
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Interviews: Thus spoke François Bancilhon -- CEO of MandrakeSoft.
Recently posted are the responses to your questions from last week's
"Ask Mandrake" session with François Bancilhon.
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=221

Donators are dead, long live alumni!
MandrakeClub recently introduced a new category of users called
"alumni". Alumni users are MandrakeClub members who don't renew their
membership. All former members can now keep their alumni membership
as long as they keep coming to MandrakeClub from time to time. Merry
Christmas from MandrakeClub!
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=209

Not yet a Mandrake Club member? To learn more, please visit:
http://mandrakelinux.com/en/club/


Business Case of the Week
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Donato's Pizza completes rollout of point-of-sale applications.
At Donato's Pizza Inc., a 150-restaurant chain based in Columbus, Ohio,
the cash registers, along with the terminals used to take phone orders,
have been running Linux since February.

"Early in 1999, the pizza chain began testing the Mandrake distribution
of Linux. 'When that passed with flying colors, Donato's ported its
homegrown point-of-sale application to Linux, a process that took two
programmers a couple of months', says Randy Cuckler, Donato's manager
of technical services. He said that they have just completed a rollout
of their point-of-sale application on MANDRAKE Linux. They purchased
the package at a retailer in the US, and decided to use it for their
new platform. Service calls have been reduced by 75% per day with the
new Linux system."
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/article.php?sid=464

For many more examples of Mandrake in the workplace, please see:
http://www.MandrakeBizcases.com.


Tip of the Week
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Easy URPMI configuration.
Have you ever wanted to add a new source of Mandrake packages, but
weren't quite sure of the exact commands? An automated web-based tool
is now available to give you the correct syntax for setting up URPMI
(the automated software management system).

1) Head on over to http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/urpmiweb.php
2) Select your Mandrake system version number (7.2 - 9.0)
3) Select a source (official and unofficial packages) and a mirror
4) Press 'send'
5) The exact command for adding the package source is displayed at the
bottom of the page
6) Paste the command in a terminal (after logging in as root with the
'su' command) and hit 'Enter'
7) Open the Software Installer in the Mandrake Control Center and
browse the new packages that are now available for installation
8) Have fun!


Software Updates
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9.0 software updates have been released for:

MySQL -- fixes multiple vulnerabilities
wget -- fixes directory traversal vulnerability

View the complete list at:
http://www.mandrakesecure.net

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