ral

Actually, I am a cheapskate when it comes to PC hardware... I actually have a XP1700 Palomino on a ECS K7S6A... but since are aleays buying new pC;s for hte shop... I was thinking of sending over my current Mobo/Proc/Memory to the shop and using one of the XP1700 Thoroughbred's and DDR333 memory we just purchased.... I am planning to use a Epox K8HAL+ (thats a $55 KT266a which unlocks the multiplier on Athlon XP's and is able to accomodate DDR 333 memory thoug offficaly it is ony rated at DDR266) or maybe a KT400... NForce 2 looks good, but a bit pricey still....

Will be reinstalling MDK this weeked :)

This is not really Linux specific but I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to adjust the multiplier of an XP1700 as follows: Current: 11*133 = 1467 to 9*166 = 1494. The main reason is to run both my memory (DDR333) and FSB at the same speed which should result in a performance boost. At the same time I would not be running to far from Spec. speeds so stability should be okay.

I forgot to mention with RAID 1 you loose 50% of your total drive space. With RAID 5 the loss is as follows: 3 drives = 33% 4 drives = 25% 5 drives = 20%

I think your looking for RAID 5. You need to have three hard drives and a raid controller to so this. Each drive should preferably on spearate IDE cables. Data is written to all drives and both read from all drives. This also results in data protection. If one of your HD's should go down, plop in a new one and it will reconstruct the broken one from the data in the other two. RAID 5 does not mirror or duplicate your data but rather provides writes parity data to allow it to reconstruct a damaged gard drive. You will loose 33% of you total storage space though. If you have only two drives you may want to try RAID 1 instead. Each drive should preferably on separate IDE cables. Identical data is written on both drives drives and both read from all drives. This results in data protection. If one of your HD's should go down, plop in a new one and it will reconstruct the broken one. This results in faster read but slower writes. You can use a RAID 1 solution using either hardware or software. Hope this helps.

Yup agree: "Some people just don't have the time to relearn a new OS, even though it is better and free. But you can make the Windows OS as secure and OpenSource as possible by installing mozilla for browser (a lot safer than that wormhole known as IE), using OpenOffice instead of MS Office, making sure they don't install SP3 and Windows Media Player 8 and above, installing a working antivirus software (usually gotten for free, heck I have a few antivirus software lying around just for buying a new motherboard) etc. etc." Win2K SP2 with Moz, OOo and Grisoft Antivirus (there is a free version for home/commercial use outside Europe)... Go into admin make a few tweaks and its pratically as good as Linux. We have a Win2K running as a server on a PIV 2.0 and its been doing so now 7/24 for about 7-8 months without a reboot. Of course Linux can do the same for a lower cost... provide you go the freebie route.

An easy to use GUI... Our clients are happier with Bluecurve Gnome than Mandrake LInux KDE (remember most of these people dont own a PC) so a simple interface or in this case a simplified menu makes life easier. But, the real reason is this penguin is too scared to try the more hard core Linux disto's. Suggest one and I'll try it. Please remember none of us have an formal IT training. But we do maintain 80+ machines (altough I only maintian 12)... and we actually now build and sell customized PC's. Besides all my partners prefer Windows, I am the only Linux advocate in the group... and RH recent actions... well they left me like a sitting duck... Anyway Mozilla is now or standard browser and OpenOffice sits on 2/3rds of the Internet PC's. So OpenSource is helping us cut costs without pirating. I think we are the only internet cafe in the country which still run's Win95 on some of our PC's (being Phased out now by WinXP over the next 12 months or so)... I was hoping Linux could be used in this PC's instead... But now RedHat is less cost effective than sticking with Windows. So I am making my stand with Mandrake again (where I was 5 months ago)... but the RH EOL and now the update thing, well... justified the arguments given by my partners for just sticking to Windows.

I have to admit that I dual boot... I type on OpenOffice on Linux and print on OpenOffice on Win98... my Canon S400 works with Linux but not without problems. No opreblem though with the HP printer. But this is were EOL will hurt. It takes longer for Linux drivers to come out. Short EOL's means that by the time the new driver is out, that product is almost at EOL.

By they way ramfree... we don't mind paying license fees for Linux... ...but windows is pretty cheap hear Php 4200 (US$80) for WinXP Home and Php 7200 (US$140) for WIn2K or XP Pro, so the $60/pc a year fees being asked for by RH for its basic service are pretty costly. Mandrake is looking a whole lot better now.

About Php 2700-2800 if I remember correctly. Pretty good deal expecially since it beside a Php 7,800 RedHat 8 Pro (near as I can tell a ML PowerPack = a RedHat Pro). I don't know whether I can hack Slackware or Debian or Gentoo... Maybe we could use SuSE. We are Windows people. We have years of experience on Windows... Using RedHat or Mandrake was already a difficult transition... We use it for business. If it becomes too difficult... than TCO goes up.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29542.html As soon as I have time (this weekend) I am going to dump my RedHat 8 install and overwrite it with Mandrake Linux 9. First, EOL and now this. As soon as I do that I am going to buy that ML9 PowerPack I saw at Datablitz (under US$60)... this should ensure that they will order at least a few copies of ML9.1. If MandrakeSoft starts acting like RH... I am going back to Windows.

Will try to grab it on the weekend. Thanks for the heads up.

ral... ... despite all his Mandrake/RedHat/Linux ranting promises to purchase a 9.1 Powerpack... actually there is an 9.0 available... maybe I should just pick that one up and download 9.1 (on the theory that if I buy 9.0, the local reseller will place an order for 9.1). From what I have read so far... the guys at Mandrake did a good job. The 18 month EOL is reasonable (that means that you can always be one version behind and still get a years support)... Joining the club... somehow I don't like that idea... but who knows. Maybe MandrakeSoft could charge for support past the first 18 months... now that would be worth it I think.

You will need to be able to access the space your ISP gave you via FTP. I don't know a single code of HTML, but Mozilla's Composer lets me get around. Create a single page like you would create a text document and name it "index". Just create one with the words "Under Construction" or something and upload it through your favorite FTP program. When that's done, lets check it out and move on to another topic. You'll be creating decent pages in 4-5 days. :) Tell me when your done.

Well, I guess we are coming from different places. Linux is getting fairly well entrenched in the US and some parts of Europe. Other countires are looking at it and making a commitment to it. But it is still a Windows world. One day I hope that hardware makers support Linux at a parity level that they do with Windows. That is still not the case. IBM and HP do the job of getting Linux working on their boxes. People like us, well we get stuff of the shelf that we can get at a good price. The current EOL, makes it harder for us to market it. Its not like there is a great demand for it here right now. Some posted here about enabling DMA in Mandrake 9, others are having problems with other parts of their hardware. It will be a nightmare for us to have to keep updating ourselves everytime a new version is released. We support our PC's for three years, now if we pushed through with it full upgrades would have to be included as part of our support. Anyway, look like SuSE may be able to help, though they have no distributor here yet, and who knows they may announce an EOL too. But so far they seem like a nice group of people to deal with. The other option we are looking at is getting someone to update RH8 for us after EOL, for a fair price of course. As for the distributions including a lot of apps, for the desktops they will ship with a lot of OpenSource software even if they run on Windows. But I should apologize. I am just frustrated. I had to push my partners to agree to do this... and now, it looks like its going to be too much trouble. Especially for a startup like ours.

Pzatch: Sorry, but I frequent two fourms which do not have too many common members. Counterspy: Well, but they will give 6 months more support for security and the like. And six months is a world of difference where Linux dirvers for the more exotic hardware can take 9-12 months to show up. Got a response from SuSE in Germany. They have no local distributor... Looks like I am stuck with a pair of distro's with limited support. Importing, SuSE from somewhere else in Asia... maybe its not time yet to push this here.

"http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/61/29330.html" "You get what you pay for"... clearly the $179 RedHat Professional (at 15% higher than XP Pro or 2K Pro OEM) is not worth what you get. The $39 version still is (so I don't feel that I was suckered out of the $25 I paid for it here) .. and even businesses may find it hard to shell out the $800 (basic service) for the RedHat Advance Server. Similarly a lot of the high end Mandrake products are less attractive than they used to be, but to its credit, 18 months is a big improvement over 12 months. $80 Windows XP Home Edition (OEM) - Patch support 5 years $140 Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP Pro (OEM) - Patch support 5 years $700 Windows 2000 Server with a 5 client access license (OEM) - Patch support 5 years I hope that Mandrake and RedHat come up with products with 5 year support which will be priced competively with MS products. Companies do not UPGRADE THEIR SOFTWARE ON A YEARLY BASIS... the cost of doing so will make Open Source an expensive option. RedHat looks like it is content to servcie the high end Market only. Look like I will be moving back to Mandrake or over to SuSE or I might just install Windows 2000. Anyway, our Linux server/workstation project (tentatively named PenguinPC) is now dead for the moment. But since all the work is done and having spent hours talking to suppliers... the first "PenguinPC" to be offered for sale this March will be a Intel Pentium 4 2.4/256MB DDR 333 SDRAM, Intel 845G/Twin 40GB 7200RPM Hard Drives (RAID 0/1), Mobile hardrive racks, HighPoint RAID controller, Rounded IDE and Floppy cables, CD-ROM, 340 Watt PSU, Enlight casings and one year warranty onsite service support with a 24 hours response and resolution commitment (if we can't fix it in 24 hours will give you a replacement unit till we get yours fixed) will machine to be made available in Server or Workstation configuration for $900 (without a monitor, but with Keyboard/Mouse/Speakers for the workstation) will come bundles with Open Office, the GIMP, VNC and Windows 2000 Proc (XP at lcients option). I am ranting... but after all the Open Source advocvating I have been doing down here... I am going to look like a fool. People are going to say, see it was too cheap, you get what you pay for. Well, I am going to have to take the ribs...business is business so we must go on building the PC's for resale. Anyway... hope SuSE can help or Mandake comes up with a version with at least 3 years support for $80. Well OpenOffice will save us tons of money... will still use Linux for myself... but for the business part... hello Mr. Gates, I'm back (writing this after just having purchased a copy of Windows XP for the shop and ordered two more copies... the clients seem to like it better than 2K).

"$100 combo (US) with the motherboard and XP2000+" Thats a steal :) Don't worry once they are running well they run well for a long time. My own personal PC runs on a K7S6A with a XP1700 and have had that for a few days short of a year without incident. At the shop, we have four 1.1 Durons running on a KS75A, K7VMM (not recommended) and two K7SEM's. Had to RMA one K7S5A.... but after that everything is working perfectly.

No that board should be able to use 512 SDRAM... maybe you need to RMA the thing. Have used several ECS boards (K7SEM, K7S5A, KS76A and K7VMM)...good value but sometimes they brokem out of the box.

"I have to open a console and type Code: #whoami gd #vncserver :1" Where do I type this?

I would imagine that you need to reinstall. Changed video cards and mice... and I had to make the changes to the system setup manually. With a motherboard I don't think that would be possible. Best to back up data.

Actually, I have done a lot of reading on the matter (and got myself terribly confused) :) Seriously. It seems like a few years back when we were running 64-126MB and 200-500MHz, hardware RAID was the best way to go. But several articles seem to indicate that with todays CPU's and memory, software RAID might be almost equivalent to hardware RAID... but I have not read seen any comparison tests with new equipment. Planning to use it on a Celeron 1.7 and a Pentium 4 2.4 with 512 and 1GB of RAM respectively. One advantage of software RAID with Linux is you don't run into driver problems. I plan to run on RAID1.

Thanks, by the way would it matter if the highpoint RAID was built into the motherboard? Seems like the cheapest hardware RAID solution I can find (Epox 4G4A+ Intel 845G w/ built in video, sound, LAN and HP372 RAID).

How does the perforamnce of software RAID compare to hardware RAID?

Does Mandrake 9 support Promise or Highpoint RAID controllers? Can't semed to find Mandrake drivers for these evices.