Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter - Issue #81

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               Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter

                 Issue #81  Thursday, 10 July 2003

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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 -- CEO Message about MandrakeSoft's Status
 * Product Announcements -- Mandrake Linux 9.1 available on HP desktop
   PCs; The 'Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake Linux' 2nd Edition
   released; MandrakeSoft introduces "MandrakeClustering"
 * Mandrake in the News -- Slashdot.org; HP.com; New Zealand Herald
 * BizCase of the Week -- Construction/Mining: Intellimation uses
   Mandrake on 75% of servers
 * Software Updates -- unzip, xpdf, ethereal, more
 * Headlines from MandrakeClub.com
 * Dutch Newsletter Translation Now Available


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            This week's sponsor: Thawte -- "It's a trust thing"
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Top Story
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Message from CEO about MandrakeSoft's Status.
MandrakeSoft CEO François Bancilhon provides an important announcement
to all users, customers and partners:

"Many of our customers, users, contributors and partners have been
asking about our status since MandrakeSoft applied for Chapter 11
protection at the beginning of the year. So, I would like to take this
opportunity to update you on our current situation and my beliefs for
the future."
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/briefs?n=/mandrakesoft/news/2425


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Product Announcements
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Mandrake Linux 9.1 is available on HP desktop PCs.
"HP announced today an affordable, high-quality desktop PC for small and
medium businesses (SMB): the HP Compaq Business Desktop d220 Microtower,
which offers a choice for operating system between Windows or Mandrake
Linux 9.1. It's the first time that an industry leader publicly
announces the availability of Linux on a desktop PC.

This is the result of a worldwide agreement between MandrakeSoft and HP.
The Mandrake Linux 9.1 operating system is now available on a complete
range of HP desktop PCs. This includes (or will include) the following
machines: HP Compaq 220, HP Compaq 230, HP Compaq 325, HP Compaq D330
and HP Compaq D530."
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/briefs?n=/mandrakesoft/news/2426

--

The 'Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake Linux' 2nd Edition has been
released.
"As a follow-up to the successful first edition of 'The Definitive Guide
to Using Mandrake Linux 9.0', MandrakeSoft announces the immediate
availability of a new '2nd Edition' which has been thoroughly updated
and expanded to cover the recently released Mandrake Linux 9.1.

'The Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake Linux' contains everything
needed to install, understand, and use this popular Linux distribution.
Perfect for computer users who are new to Linux, as well as for experts
who need quality reference documentation, this new edition of 'The
Definitive Guide to Using Mandrake Linux' is available now for
pre-order at MandrakeStore.com."
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/briefs?n=/mandrakesoft/news/2422

--

MandrakeSoft introduces "MandrakeClustering" -- a complete HPC solution.
"Continuing a long tradition of simplifying the use of Linux for an
extensive range of tasks, MandrakeSoft today introduces a new product
in the field of supercomputing: 'MandrakeClustering'. Designed to meet
the high-demands of clustering solutions inside research laboratories
and other compute-intensive industries, MandrakeClustering is provided
as a complete solution, which includes the software product plus
various support options."
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/briefs?n=/mandrakesoft/news/2424


Mandrake in the News
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Slashdot.org -- MandrakeSoft's Status Update.
The popular weblog discusses:
"MandrakeSoft today posted an update letter from its CEO about the
company's health. Among other things, it's interesting to learn that
the company seems to be on the good track to go out of the 'chapter-11
protection' before the end of the year, that it's taking part to
several publicly-funded research projects, and that Mandrake 9.1 is
having a good success. They also thank for the warm support they
received from the community. Worth a read for all Mandrake fans, like
myself. Viva la Mandrake!"
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/01/225223&tid=147

HP.com -- HP Delivers Affordable, Reliable Microtower PC to Small- and
Medium-sized Businesses
"HP (NYSE:HPQ) today introduced an affordable, high-quality desktop PC
for small- and medium-sized business (SMB) customers: the HP Compaq
Business Desktop d220 Microtower."
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2003/030702a.html

The New Zealand Herald -- Praise the PC god and Linux open-source
apostles, I'm a believer.
The IT Director of the New Zealand Herald receives a welcome surprise
when volunteers at a local 'Install Fest' install Mandrake on his PC:

"I was amazed by the number of applications that came with the
installation. So many that I felt spoiled for choice. Not only could I
choose the graphical interface - from odd names such as KDE, Gnome and
IceWM - but there was also a sea of applications. Word processors,
spreadsheets, imaging software and just about anything else you could
think of was installed to explore - all for free. It's quite liberating
to try out three different web browsers - Galeon, Konqueror, or Mozilla
- until you find one you like. I think I'm becoming a believer."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3509550&thesection=tech


Business Case of the Week
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Construction/Mining: Intellimation uses Mandrake on 75% of servers.
Intellimation is a Johnson Controls - Authorized Building Controls
Specialist. They perform design, planning, installation and
commissioning of HVAC, Fire and Security control systems. Chad
Vogelsong, the network/systems administrator, writes:

"Mandrake is used on 75% of our servers company-wide. It is also used on
several user machines for development & everyday use. [...] We have 40+
employee's and 4 servers."

They use Mandrake Linux for:

1) Firewall / Router / Gateway - iptables
2) File / Print Server - samba / nfs
3) Groupware - phpgroupware
4) FTP - proftpd
5) Backup - tar / samba / nfs
6) Web Server - apache (advanced extranet)
7) CD burning - cdrecord / eroaster / web based gui
8) VPN - FreeS/WAN
9) DNS - bind
10) SSH - sshd
11) Database - mysql
http://www.mandrakebizcases.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=543

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


Software Updates
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9.1 software updates have been released for:

* unzip -- fixes vulnerability
* xpdf -- fixes arbitrary code execution vulnerability
* ethereal -- fixes multiple vulnerabilities
* reiserfsprogs -- fixes bugs and provides enhancements
* initscripts -- fixes boot loader detection

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


Headlines from MandrakeClub.com
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Write better PHP code (4 & 5).
In the fourth and fifth installments of Deno's ongoing series of PHP
articles, he discusses how to optimize PHP code, and offers ways to
make a site proxy-friendly, thereby lowering the bandwidth
requirements:
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=1005

Discount Summary!
Stéphane Gustin -- now in charge of 'MandrakeClub Customer Care' --
contributes his first article about the current discounts available to
Club members:
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=991

Configuring and using MIDI with Mandrake Linux.
Deno posts an article written by Larry Short that explains how to get
MIDI up and running on a Mandrake Linux system: "Contrary to popular
opinion, MIDI is neither dead, nor obsoleted by combination of big hard
discs and mp3/ogg file format. Apart from the size argument (MIDI sound
files can easily be 100x smaller than mp3/ogg equivalents!), there is
another and IMO much more important reason to assure MIDI works: there
is practically no way to actually produce (as opposed to passively
listen to) any music on your computer without MIDI support."
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=979

Read these and other stories at MandrakeClub:
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/


Dutch Community Newsletter Edition now available
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Reinout van Schouwen has generously volunteered to translate the
Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter into Dutch. If you prefer to
receive the next newsletter in Dutch, please select the appropriate
link at the bottom of this page.

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