Excerpt of Mandrake Linux 9.0 Beta 3 Long Announcement -- Continued

Packages:

Of course you will find the latest & greatest versions of the main packages, including:

• kernel 2.4.19 RC1
• XFree86 4.2, which supports many video cards previously only supported in 3.3.6
• glibc 2.2.5
• Apache 1.3.26
• Evolution 1.08
• KDE 3.0.2
• GNOME 2.0
• Galeon 1.2.5
• Mozilla 1.0.0
• GCC 3.1.1
• and much more

We've prepared a few sample screenshots to make sure nobody downloads the Beta just for the sake of "knowing what it looks like".. leave the bandwith to REAL men (and women).

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/demos/Demo/Mandrake9.0/Beta/

Known issues with Beta 1:

The developers caught up on their sleep last weekend, therefore the following problems weren't corrected before the Beta was released into the wild:

* CDROM access as root does not work properly with supermount

Reason: devfsd does not create the /dev/hdX link as user pam access to /dev/ide/*/*/*/*/cd to set user ownership makes devfsd create the link.

* Java support is broken.

Reason: The currently available Java is not compiled with GCC 3.1 and therefore does not work with our packages.

* DRI does not work properly with i810 and X doesn't respawn correctly. To fix this, do not activate 3D acceleration with i810 based systems.

Reason: The kernel module for i810 suffers some problems.

* CD switching during the installation causes some problems. When a new CD is requested, clicking the "cancel" button may lead the installation process into an infinite loop.

Editor's Note: Our article about the Mandrake 9.0 beta 1 release included a most interesting interview with Mandrake's Gaël Duval. It is repeated in the text-box below for anyone who might have missed it. The Resources section with Mandrake Web site and download links and lots more handy links is immediately below the Gaël Duval interview text-box.

Previous Interview with Mandrake's Gaël Duval

Gaël Duval is the founder of Mandrake Linux and co-founder of MandrakeSoft SA and MandrakeSoft, Inc. In an e-mail discussion, Gaël Duval told MozillaQuest Magazine that Mandrake 9.0 is planned to be released in September.

We also discussed Mandrake's involvement with the Linux Standard Base (LSB) project, non-involvement with United Linux, and Mandrake dropping Netscape from its Linux distribution and replacing it with Mozilla 1.0. Although Mandrake 9.0 will not be fully LSB compliant, Mandrake is moving in the direction of full compliance with the LSB. Mandrake will not participate in United Linux. And MandrakeSoft has dropped Netscape from its Mandrake Linux distribution.

Gaël Duval: Of course, that's our goal.

However, there are technical issues that remain to be resolved. So, Mandrake does not have a precise timetable for achieving full LSB compliance. Gaël Duval mentioned that Mandrake might publish a special "LSB" release in the future, maybe with updates, to make sure the product is as solid as possible.

MozillaQuest Magazine: Why do you feel it is important for Mandrake Linux to (eventually) be LSB compliant?

Gaël Duval: It's not only Mandrake; I think it's important for all the biggest Linux distributors to provide LSB-compliant products. Then it makes life easier for software publishers and users - and it finally gives more power to Linux to dominate the market and go mainstream.