Using Mandrake 9.2 4 May 2004 Ok, today I got my laptop home and run mandrake update. Installed ALL upgrades flawlessly, shut it down, went back to work. So far the once thing I notice in Gnome is that the menu now doesn't show all the applications it used to. But in KDE I can use a menu update program (MenuDrake) to fix that, which while KDE's menu also gets screwed up after an update, usually running this program fixes everything without a problem. But what to use in Gnome? Thought to myself "oh well, I'll try mandrake MenuDrake in Gnome, should be no harm if it's KDE menu, right? Wrong! Believe it or not, it worked fine, and the Gnome menu is now fully updated! I was very impressed. However, thoughts to this matter are why does it get screwed up from updates? (probably due to the updates modifying files that are in use?) And why isn't Menu Drake ran after updates to fix things? Also, can't they design a more low-power menu updater that merely goes with the last thing you told it in Menu Style, and just run a quick update to it? Hmmm, hints and thoughts. Slapping in the ethernet card (3com 575CT pcmcia, 10/100) today before turning on my laptop was a nice thing. Hard Drake found it automatically. However, for some reason the interface doesn't show up in the network/internet configuration thingy, which is where I went to fix the settings it had so I could get on the internet. It never did by the way. Is this a PCMCIA thing? For some weird reason, host name is "localhost" (NOT a good thing to call one's self on a windows network) and the DNS server is "....2", etc, no gateway, etc. I changed these all back to their normal settings, and then everything worked. At least the configuration agents work. However, Mandrake could probably do some good to develop some default scripts or something to fix such things so that the user doesn't have to. Now, granted, I'm not a newbie, and I actually get excited when configuration agents work when I use them. A problem to me isn't a problem if I can fix it easily. But for a total newbie, this would've made them angry, and since internet doesn't work, a total newbie would be totally helpless more than likely. True, this is why there's installation support for newbies, but still it deserves mentioning. What would their impression be of Mandrake if they downloaded the free version and ran into this? Probably to run screaming back to Windows, or switch distributions, or reinstall. For grins, I read the documentation on how to configure your network / internet connection. It was nice, but didn't provide any "if you're using <#include connection-type.h>, you probably want to use these generic settings:" areas. That might be nice, just in case. OpenOffice tends to mimic Word behavior in the Writer program. However, unlike Word, you must hold down alt key to access menus via keyboard. But while this takes some getting used to, it does prevent the "grr! alt key!" syndrone. When compared to Mandrake 10, Mandrake 9.2 seems better. Could be just the CD's, but here's a problem I ran into. I have a Synaptics touch pad (yes, manufactured in the year 1999, and still works fine). I love it, and I'm used to the tap-to-click and such. In Mandrake 10, tap-to-click does not work, so I must use the manual click buttons, which anyone who uses a laptop will tell you is very annoying after getting used to tap-to-click. From what I know, this is a PS/2 interface, and might have a little bit of electronics between it and the computer, or might not. Whatever the case, Mandrake 9.2 recognized it as a normal PS/2 mouse, but tap-to-click works fine, including double-tap-to-drag, etc, locking drags, etc. In Mandrake 10, none of these features work. Just a hint, MandrakeSoft, might want to set up a separate driver for touch pads or something. I'm not sure what the fix is, but this fact alone drove me to Mandrake 9.2. The other thing was the "XWindows resets randomly" phenomenon, but I experienced this yesterday with Mandrake 9.2, so I guess I could call both of them even in that area. Onboard video, etc, probably not Mandrake's fault, since laptops aren't very "standard", as well as onboard audio/video rarely working correctly, even on an intel motherboard. Intel motherboards are the best IMO in terms of complying with standards, but sometimes I wonder. Mandrake 9.2 on my Intel D815EFV works fine too, until last night XWindows also reset when playing a video. Both systems seem to do this. This laptop is 90% Intel in brand-name makeup, so it might be related, might not. But to pay for Mandrake 9.2 PowerPack and yet the resetting problem isn't cool. Still, I disabled all OpenGL on this machine and went with a generic XFree 4.3 driver -- I'll do the same on my home desktop soon. By the way, I can't wait to plug in my new computer I bought for my wife. Intel Pentium 4 motherboard and 2.4GHz processor, Thermaltake heatsink and fan for CPU, 512MB DDR400, AMS Clear Acrylic case. She was using a Tyan S2507T Dual Intel Pentium III Tualatin 1.13ghz (512k L2 cache each), 1.5GB PC133 ECC RAM, ATI Radeon 9000 Pro AGP 128MB machine, so I can't wait to use that as my desktop box! The ability to run only like 32mb swap partition alone will be worth it! (Or maybe totally without swap). I'm at 31 songs completed, all the while (for 7.5 hours) XMMS has been playing a cd of mine in Ogg format on shuffle and repeat. I'm impressed: it seems stable even when left alone. Now to load GIMP and XFig... so far so good.... OpenOffice keeps doing it. You set the entire document to a font size, go editing lines, press end key on keyboard to get to the end of a line, and it changes back to 12 point font, when you just set the entire document to say, 16 point font. This is quite annoying. Also, control + up arrow / down arrow doesn't work. I'd like this so I can step up and down a line at a time, or even a paragraph at a time, but it doesn't seem to work. I might go try to change keyboard mapping later. Decided to have some fun, running PySol. It's actually very nice. However, finding the "draw three cards" was difficult, but that's due to me now knowing the official names of solitaire variations, and not due to their program. I was impressed at what Python can do, and how this program feels different, yet better, than Windows Solitaire (I know, I know).... Windowmaker also isn't that bad, and I'll remember that in case I ever need to use some simple applications. Still, I could try OpenOffice on it. One advantage of Mandrake is that while there are separate window managers, they all seem to have the Mandrake menu. This makes choosing a window manager more based on preference to that window manager rather than which one comes with a nice menu. Anyone who's ever compiled XFCE on Slackware with KDE and Gnome being available on it knows that it's not fun creating a ton of shortcuts to your favorite apps on XFCE and/or remembering what they're called to use the right click -> Run ... dialog.... Window maker, as a first impression, seems more "snappy". I wish I had fluxbox on here, but I don't. Blackbox is ok (I've used it before), but not enough options / features / apps for me. If I was that hard broke, I'd use multiple shells rather than blackbox (unless I absolutely needed something graphical).