Counterspy

To answer the question of what it costs in C$, it's 312.83. Counterspy

Both the layout and the content are the reasons I did not post the complete reviews and put up a link instead. Counterspy

This makes it sound like you don't get the full source code but only the GPL material they have used. Counterspy

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973...3,640913,00.asp Counterspy

http://linuxtoday.com/ Xandros Desktop Is Launched Oct 22, 2002, 14 :30 UTC (42 Talkback) (6479 reads) In weak economic times costly software and hardware upgrades can directly impact a corporation's bottom line. Xandros today announced the availability of the premiere version of Xandros Desktop--the industry's first true alternative to Windows--which can potentially save corporations millions of dollars as well as lengthen the lifecycle of their current computers. This innovative new operating system offers all the benefits of Windows--including ease-of-use and full compatibility with the most popular Microsoft applications--without the expensive and frequent hardware and software upgrades, system crashes and susceptibility to viruses for which Windows other operating systems havehas become known. Xandros Desktop also features CodeWeavers' ground breaking CrossOver technology, which allows users to run both Windows and Linux applications simultaneously without the need for the Windows operating system. In 2001, Xandros acquired the Corel Linux Business Division's award-winning software development team with the objective of developing Xandros Desktop. This new operating system is a fraction of the size of Windows; extremely lean requirements provide Xandros Desktop users with dramatically better stability and reduced operating costs. This feature alone stands to prolong the life of an average computer from under 24 months to more than six years, and offers corporations millions of dollars in potential savings on expensive hardware upgrades. According to a recent report by the Gartner Group, Microsoft's new licensing program will cost an average-sized company with 500 to 2,500 desktop computers an additional $900,000 to $1.6 million dollars respectively in software costs alone. In contrast, Xandros Desktop is significantly less costly: It is conservatively priced at $99 per user, with corporate and OEM discounts available. "The Xandros Desktop will change the way people think about desktop computing on a global basis," said Frederick Berenstein, Co-Chairman of Xandros. "We are proud to bring to market a complete solution that will allow businesses, governments, and schools all over the world access to affordable computers and software." Additional benefits of Xandros Desktop include: Compatibility: Xandros Desktop offers seamless interoperability with existing Windows, Unix, and Linux network environments, allowing for easy commercial deployment. Xandros' powerful new file manager allows file sharing between local Linux and Windows computers, networked Windows clients, and a wide range of peripherals. Ease of Use: Xandros Desktop installs in just five mouse clicks and offers dual boot functionality with Windows. Users already familiar with Windows applications have virtually nothing new to learn; Xandros applications look, feel and operate much like Windows. Better Security: Based on Linux, Xandros Desktop provides better security than Windows because its fundamentally superior code structure makes it less susceptible to viruses. In addition, the open source nature of the code allows for constant testing and improvement by an international team of elite programmers. Network Updates: Xandros Networks provides users with system upgrades, security patches as well as new applications, games and utilities. While Linux-based operating systems have long been the standard for servers and large scale applications, desktop Linux-based operating systems have been difficult to install, cumbersome to use and incompatible with Windows--until now. Startling research by the Gartner Group predicts Linux desktop operating systems will grow from five percent of worldwide PC users to about 30% over the next four years, due in part to innovative solutions such as Xandros Desktop. http://www.newsforge.com Xandros Linux: "It just works," even with Windows stuff Tuesday October 22, 2002 - [ 08:01 AM GMT ] Print this Article Topic - GNU/Linux - by Tina Gasperson - The "premier release" of Xandros, formerly known as Corel Linux, is being released today at the Xandros.com Web site. Individual users can pick up a copy for $99, and corporate/enterprise users will see a discount price for multiple licenses. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Xandros to play around with. This distribution is Linux through and through, but it could just be the Linux that will truly snag a market that is looking to escape from the confines of Windows. Xandros came in a real box, with a real 220-pages long user guide, and a single installation CD. As Roblimo would say, I popped the CD into the beverage tray. The first thing that came up was the Xandros Installation Wizard. "The wizard will help you to install Xandros Desktop." Next was the license agreement. It was one of those (quickly-becoming typical) EULAS that mention the GPL stuff and then the proprietary stuff. Interesting about this license: There was no license to read BEFORE I opened the box, no shrink wrap or seal on the package, and yet the final paragraph of the EULA states that if I don't agree with the license and haven't broken the seal on the software I can return it for a refund. Oops! Too late. Of course, this is a review copy -- perhaps yours will be shrink-wrapped with a copy of the agreement on the outside. The next screen presented a choice between an express install and a custom install. I chose the custom just to see what I could fiddle with. This brought up a screen that lists all software available, with check marks next to the defaults. These include Crossover Office and Plugin, plus all the usual included-with-your-distro software, including OpenOffice, games, Palm utilities, editors, and Adobe Acrobat reader. I simply left the defaults in place. Next I could choose whether to use the free space, take over the disk, resize a Windows partition (including NTFS and FAT 32), or "manage disks and partitions," something Xandros recommended for experts only. I ultimately told it to take over the disk, but peeked into the expert mode and found a disk druid like utility that would allow me to resize current partitions, delete them, reassign them, and choose to either format them or leave them as is. Next I was asked to choose the root password, or administrator account, as Xandros calls it. There are also options to "enforce strong passwords" and "make user home folders private," all things that should make most security-conscious Linux people happy. Then, just as in most Linux graphical installs, I was given the option of creating user accounts. Xandros recommends creating at least one user account. Even without strong passwords enforced, it still required a six-character password for a user account. Next was the installation summary, and because I had opted to "take over disk," Xandros gave me a blinking red warning that all my data would be destroyed. I noticed that Xandros thought I had no network interfaces, though my PCMCIA NIC was firmly in place and plugged into my network. I clicked on "Finish," and Xandros went to work installing the files needed. After 16 minutes, Xandros said it was done and I restarted the computer. While it is booting up, the messages look just like the Lindows start up messages, an eery reminder of the history between Xandros and Lindows and Crossover, a current partner with Xandros. Then came the login screen. I typed my name and password, and the KDE desktop, with a Xandros logo substituted, booted. The desktop is familiar graphical Linux stuff. A "First Run Wizard" greeted me and led me through most all the options you'd normally fiddle with when installing Linux, such as setting which hand I would use the mouse with, setting the time and time zone, and setting up a network connection. Now, my network card was recognized, and connecting was ever so simple. I just accepted all the defaults and was online in about two seconds. Then I could set up my printers, tell the desktop which Operating System to simulate: UNIX, Windows, Apple MacOS, or KDE (which isn't an operating system, but it was an option nonetheless). UNIX looked just like a standard KDE desktop to me; Windows didn't look much different; Apple MacOS was cool. I flipped it back to the default for the purposes of this review, but would probably go with the Apple look if I decide to keep running this distribution. Conspicuously and happily missing was the X configuration stuff, which is almost always a pain in the rear, especially on laptops. Xandros just detected the hardware and employed what it considered to be the best settings. Works for me. Next was the registration screen. You'll have a choice to register online or skip it. That was it for the "First Run Wizard." One really, really interesting feature of Xandros is the ability to switch users mid-stream, or to have two users logged on to the same computer simultaneously, simply by selecting "Switch User" from the launch menu. This option can be set so that you have to re-enter your password when switching back to your desktop, or you can leave it so that no password is necessary. For family groups using the same computer, this will be a very convenient option for a quick email check -- no need to log out, just switch users. And being that Xandros is based on Debian, you're still able to run apt-get from the console to pull down any applications you want or need. Of course, with Crossover Office and CrossOver Plugin installed by default, you'll also be able to install your Windows programs. Let me tell you: Internet Explorer 5.5 runs beautifully in Xandros. I've used Crossover to install Explorer on Mandrake and SuSE, with only partial success. But everything about Explorer is right this time: the fonts, the javascript, the layouts, the speed -- everything. In fact, everything that Crossover has said is solid in its products is also solid in Xandros. You won't have any problems installing MS Office, or Quicken or Lotus, or any of the myriad plugins Crossover normally supports. Having said that, you need to know that Crossover is not supporting the version that comes with Xandros. For support, you'll have to pay extra. The nice thing is, you probably won't need any support. "It just works," is what Xandros CEO Michael Begos told me. Now that I've had the chance to install Xandros and run it, I have to agree. Xandros is touting the control center, which looks just like the control center in Windows, including the display setting options, and the fact that users can access Windows files and share printers with Windows on a network. The menus are grouped logically; there's a "Launch" button where the "start" button usually is in Windows; the default taskbar icons are helpful: switch user, volume, the typical Windows-like connected computers icon for when you're online, the Mozilla browser, logout and lock screen buttons, the file manager, and mail. Everything that is installed works. The only problem for Windows users I would foresee is the lack of a major graphics manipulation application like The Gimp. They're probably not going to know how to get a copy of that and install it; and CrossOver Office doesn't support any graphics apps like that yet. Xandros seems to be what Lindows could have been if it had stayed true to its Linux roots, both product-wise and philosophically. I like Xandros; I like the ease of use combined with common-sense security options and configurability; I like that it reaches out to Windows users without alienating the Linux community; it may just end up becoming the main distribution in my house. End of Review Counterspy

In the absence of anything better from an experienced network person, you could look at the Server Quick Start Guide under Documentation>Mandrake from the Main Menu on your desktop. My apologies if you have already done so or the information is not there. Counterspy

It would seem to me that you would need to change the Mandrake default desktop wherever it is and change it to achieve what you want. Look at the .kde file in the user's desktop the way Mandrake configures it and work back from there. Counterspy

That is wrong. Also disable supermount with supermount -i disable from the command prompt. Here is the part of mine relevant to removable devices: /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom auto codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1,noauto,nosuid,ro,umask=0,user,nodev 0 0 /dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom2 auto codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1,noauto,nosuid,ro,umask=0,user,nodev 0 0 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,sync,unhide,noauto,nosuid,umask=0,user,nodev 0 0 /dev/fd1 /mnt/floppy2 auto iocharset=iso8859-1,codepage=850,sync,unhide,noauto,nosuid,umask=0,user,nodev 0 0 In each case there was a number of spaces after the /dev/device entries. I suspect the spaces are where supermount once resided. Counterspy

Supermount is indeed screwed up. Disable it with supermount -i disable from the command prompt. I don't know where you might find the answer to the largest ide drive question, but you could start with the Mandrake documentation in the main menu on your desktop. Next I would try MandrakeExpert or the newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandrake. Counterspy

Redhat support is mainly through newsgroups. See linux.redhat.* in the list of newsgroups in your news reader Counterspy.

The users with the greatest risk of being hijacked are those with high speed internet access turned on 24/7 with a static IP address, although it is remotely possible for others . Some firewalls support a limited range of ports in the low numbers because these are the ones that are the most freqently compromised, so it is silly to put in a second firewall that does the same thing and risk the interference with each other reducing your protection in the process. In any case, because the firewalls for Mandrake Linux can be configured to block what ever ports you want since they are basically graphic front-ends to the basic firewall, iptables. One properly configured firewall will meet your needs. Beyond the issue of firewalls in control of permissions. Look up old docs right here at the top of the page to learn about them. I suggest you spend some time on Google looking up such things as vulnerable ports and then you can decide what you need to block. If you are running a single user machine with the only a network connection to the Internet, your needs will not be what is necessary for multiple networked machines. There are a number of helpful How-To's on your desktop under documentation and there are many sites on the Internet that discuss security and firewall issues in detail. http://www.thlp.org and http://www.linuxsecurity.com. Counterspy

Moonchild, you absolutely correct. Mandrakesoft seems to be incapabale of learning from their mistakes. They still haven't done anything to let users know that supermount is broken again. On the cooker list, a number of posters there emphasized the necessity of letting people know about this problem, particularly new users. In addition, 136 bugs are currently posted on bugzilla. And here we go around, around, playing the circle game. Counterspy

I always thought that reviewers were supposed to be opinionated. In the case of Broadway and off-Broadway plays, at one time one reviewer had the power to shut down a production after one performance if he gave it a negative review. Counterspy.

That is the nature of reviews and reviewers. To use another example, consider movie reviews. People go to movies regardless of the reviews. With computer software it is probably the same. Nevertheless, it is information that maunfacturers in highly competitive market like Linux should pay serious attention to. In that review, Diskdrake takes it hard and probably justifiably. If Paragon, Partition Magic and Ranish can figure out how to move partitions without destroying data, then maybe Mandrakesoft can figure it out also. Counterspy.

You found correctly that the problem is supermount. It is broken. If you want auto mounting, you can copy autofs from your install disks. Note that it requires command line configuration but once done is highly reliable. If you take advantage of search you would have found a post about supermount being broken, although not with the consequences you have described. COunterspy

You should consider that attempting to get even with the hackers/crackers could violate your terms of service and get you kicked off your ISP. Counterspy.

When I was installing 9.0, there was a new file, in Configuration if I remember correctly, that accommodated the HP multi-function machines, scanner/fax/printer. You might try that, or look at HP's site and at another distro such as Redhat, or another that supports LSB. Also you might look around to see if anyone has created a USB<>Serial converter like the USB<>PS2 converter. Counterspy.

AFAIK, there is no way to convert PDF files to Wordperfect except possibly the full Adobe Acrobat Program for Windows at a cost of several hunded dollars. If you could follow the suggestions above for getting a PDF file into HTML then maybe you could copy the HTML to Wordperfect. There is still Wordperfect 8 for Linux floating around on the net, possibly on Simtelnet, but even after you download and install it, you need an activation code from Corel, which is probably an impossibility. Counterspy.

IIRC, the enterprise kernel will support 2 Gb. Counterspy.

You can specify the processor but I have seen it discussed mostly in relation to kernel compiles in the newsgroup. People there report both significant improvement and others, no change, so I suspect good results may depend on hardware other than just the CPU. It may make a difference on processor intensive applications as well but that is not widely discussed either, so your mileage may vary. You might consider a Google Groups search on the newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandrake with athlon, duron etc. as the keywords. To answer your other question, a src.rpm is source code packaged as an rpm instead of gzip or tar.gz, etc. and still needs to be compiled. A noarch.rpm is a program where it does not matter what processor is being used including alpha, etc. Counterspy.

Thanks for the information guys. Now I will wait yet a little longer. I was hoping to get ready for DVD+-ROM when the winner is declared and the price comes down. Counterspy.

There are several market research companies who attempt to keep track of such things so I would use Google Advanced with the keywords "Linux market share" and if you want to pursue it further try "Mandrake market share". Counterspy.

One place you might look is in the Mandrake documentation on your desktop menu. There are several manuals there that might have the answer. Counterspy.

Since ext3 is already supported in the kernel, I don't think you will need to make all of the changes described in the article. I would check lilo or grub just tomake sure. In any event follow the mini-How-To here: http://www.symonds.net/~rajesh/howto/ext3/toc.html . Counterspy.

It works through the home directory and file share. Right click on it and you'll see what I mean. Counterspy.