Sarissi

I am using a Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe Apogee and love it, at least for Mandrake Linux. When they Deluxe, they mean it! It comes with: 4 CDROMs, 2 are Thiz Linux 6.0 CBOX - 4 USB 2.0 ports, Mic, and Headpones. Fits in 3.5 inch bay Single Floppy drive cable (FDD controller only supports One FDD) Two rounded ATA133 cables (dual drive on both) Rear Audio riser Cmedia 6 channel 4.1 Surround Sound (works fine in Mandrake and Windows) 1 AGP 3.0 8X slot 6 PCI slots NO AMR, CNR, or other wondoze funky slots Via KT400/vt8235 chipset Header for Card Reader on mobo Builtin 10/100 ethernet nic (works fine in Mandrake and windows) 2 Serial ports 1 Parallel port PS/2 Keyboard and mouse ports 6 USB 2.0 (2 in rear and the other 4 are handled by the CBOX) Max RAM is 4 Gigabytes DDR333 Max CPU is Athlon XP 3000+ or 3200+ 333 Mhz FSB (mine is running 2500+ Barton core just fine) 2 ATA133 channels This is the first mobo I have had, that Mandrake actually turned OFF the computer, when I told it to (no need to use the power button to turn the stupid thing OFF). This mobo was built with Linux in mind.

Well, with the 'issues' that show up after release, this makes perfect sense.

Yup. There was an old hard rule in advertising: NEVER EVER mention the competition!!!! (Don't give free advertising to your enemies) Burger King's blatant anti Mcdonalds Ad campaign of years ago, turned me away from Burger King, until BK stopped the Ad campaign. In fact this Ad campaign had a negative impact on BK's sales. (No surprise to me) Negative advertising generally has the opposite effect of what is intended by the advertiser, particularly when the competition is mentioned.

Good points, VeeDubb. Microsoft's Grandiose scheming for Global Absolute Power is greatly threatened by Linux. This makes me wonder about the MyDoom and its variant(s). IFF Linux users can be blamed (perception), then MS has a better chance of having Linux outlawed in the USA. Remember that in politics, Perception is everything! Facts get in the way. hehehe Anyone who has kept an eye on Microsoft, knows that when they start sweet talking something: Watch Out! I hope we will see this scheming fall apart at an accelerating rate.

I am no professional, yet I got curious about Linux when I first saw Redhat boxed sets in Software Boutique, in Columbus, Ohio, back in 1998. When I finally got on the Internet, I did some research on Linux, found it wasn't ready enough for me, and I bided my time. When Mandrake supported nearly all of my hardware, I decided to give it a try (7.1 or 7.2) and bought the Powerpack Edition. Despite some annoying bugs, I was hooked (and remain hooked).

Good news, indeed!

The more money MSFT spends to deride linux, the more it is hurting their OS sales. For an analogy, everyone knows how difficult it is to get rid of a cockroach infestation. (GRIN) This is exactly the problem Microsoft faces now. They don't have any way of exterminating Linux, since their Modus Operandi cannot be used (no single company to squish). The GPL prevents them from stealing the source code (I think this is the REAL reason that the GPL exists - to prevent MSFT from doing a SQUISH). IBM does not readily gamble finances on something. IBM is conversant on many Operating Systems, with long experience. I am certain that IBM took a long, hard, look at Linux before they decided to make that $1,000,000,000 investment in Linux. They found it WORTHY of their support. It had to be equal to or better than what they were using (AIX), or nearly so.

The Dlink 530TX+ works fine with Mandrake. Make sure the onboard controller is disabled (mobo) from BIOS. Make sure you internet connection is connected to the 530TX+ before you boot or install!!! If there is a problem with the internet connection, linux boot WILL say eth0 FAILED. It has happened to me with Roadrunner (if the DHCP server goes belly up or something else). My physical setup is Cable -> Toshiba PCX1100U Cable Modem -> eth0 Don't forget to turn your cable or whatever modem OFF for 5 minutes to let it reset completely (MAC addy changes with different NIC)!!!!!

Very Interesting. Remember that SCO claims it ALL is theirs, even XFS (IRIX).

ASRock K7VT2: works well, except for power down in mandrake. It can take up to an Athlon XP2400 266 FSB Max of 2 GB RAM, etiher DDR266 or PC133 (supports high density PC133). I love that mobo, and need to get another one, for Win98SE box. Has ATA133 controller, AC'97 sound and LAN. Plays nice with real Sound Blaster cards. Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe Apogee: Real Sweet with Mandrake. Downside is that it does not play nice with Real Soundblaster cards. Comes with Thiz Linux 6.0. Mandrake actually turns the power off with this one (that IS a first for me!). Supports up to Athlon XP 3000+ 333 FSB, and max of 4 GB of DDR333. 8X AGP 3.0 slot, and 6 PCI slots. I stumbled across this one on eBay. Both of the above have 6 USB 2.0, sound, LAN, and ATA133.

Think of emulators as OS translators, whether it is a full blown OS like windows, or an embedded and dedicated OS, like for nintendo or atari. The ones that work well, are not for games, but for productivity applications.

What IDE controller does your mobo have (ata66, 100, 133, etc.)????? Also you may need to have LBA mode set in BIOS for that drive.

Bvc, got the updates for mandy 9.1 powerpack (including reiserfs). Got all types - patches, bugfixes and security. Thanks for the warning.

The only thing I didn't like, is the partition sizing in sectors or clusters, rather than in MegaBytes. It did not take me long to figure out the bootloader placement options. Not having it in MBR and not having hdb1 as Active Primary are extremely important to me. I use System Commander as my boot manager, in case I have to re-install Windows.

well, the cds from 12penguins.com (linuxrocks100 on eBay), work just fine, without trashing my mandrake, windows, or System Commander. I wound up installing from all 5 cds. If i read the online update right, i installed Apache, which i don't need. Well, this is a first time install of Suse for me. It was painless enough, though the partitioning part nearly gave me another heart attack (had major heart attack in November 2001 and bypass surgery). I did the manual (sort of), and the sizing part is strange, cause i am used to thinking in megabytes, instead of sectors. I think I will be doing another install of Suse 9.0 Pro. This time i will use Mandrake install to redo the Suse partitions to my tastes, without actually installing mandrake again. Need separate /home. Online update worked (never had luck with Mandrake's at install time). I'm in Suse now and need to reboot into mandy to update some things. I can see why Suse is so popular.

I am not a C programmer, yet I understood it. Of course, being around computers a long time helps. ;)

So I see Microsoft's FUD campaign is getting louder.

You need to know what they mean by 'desktop' to understand. I have been following the Destop Linux thing for a while now. Time for some definitions: linux is used in several ways: Servers Clusters (aka Beowulf Linux) Desktop Many think of the GUI as Desktop Linux. This is NOT true. Desktop Linux is almost exclusively focused on the Enterprise (business). Desktop is doing things like using Microsoft Office, which is what all the Whining is about. In the Enterprise, the desktops are the computers that are usually connected to the servers, or stand alone systems. I will use myself as an example. I do not have a LAN here and only have one computer right now. I use Linux on the Desktop, even though my desk is a partial sheet of plywood with custom legs (one side has 2 shelves for reams of paper, and the other is for my full tower case. Eight legs in total.).

Interesting article.

I decided to see what was listed on eBay for Suse 9.0 Pro, and found a seller that is selling 9.0 Pro 5 cd sets, DVD, and a PPC version. The PC CD sets are $9.99 shipped in the USA. No manual(s) or support from Suse. However, I feel that this is good enough for evaluation purposes. I ordered one set, which will be shipped today. I did not want to shell out $72 + shipping and maybe sales tax for the boxed set, just to learn that it won't play nice with my hardware. (don't know yet, folks.) Since I have been reading good things about Suse 9.0 here, I figured it is worth a try. If things work and I really like it, I will purchase the Pro boxed set.

My mobo isn't listed in Mandrake's hardware database, yet is fully compatible: Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe Apogee. Asus ASRock K7VT2 is also compatible. This Chaintech mobo is the first mobo I have had, that Mandrake 'turn off computer' actually turns off the power!

Nice clean, decent contrast between foreground and background. Nice job!

I have a Maxtor 160 GB in my system and even had it partitioned as one huge 160 GB /home, with no problems. I do use ReiserFS. My mobo is a Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe Apogee with ata133 and the hdd is ata133. Wondoze 98 SE and ME fdisk refuses to see more than 29 GB on that drive, though Partition Commander has no problem with it. I don't do BIOS flashing, as I consider that very dangerous. If it works, Don't fix it. :D

I am currently using a Chaintech 7VJL Deluxe Apogee motherboard, Athlon XP 2500+, and 768 MB DDR333 (to match the cpu). I am using the onboard sound, though not the onboard LAN at the moment. Both are compatible with Mandrake 9.1. This motherboard comes with Thiz Linux 6.0. and a bunch of goodies. The only reason I am using 768 MB on this, is that I have win98se installed as well, for my windows games. No kernel patching needed for this one, and it uses the KT400/vt8235 chipset. Sound is 6 channel surround. Also incuded are the CBox, which has 4 USB 2.0 ports, Mic, and Headphone jacks, and fits in a 3.5 inch bay, and a nice headphone. Some things I ported from my old motherboard, for now, since I will be having a secondary system. I got the mobo, cpu, and ram via eBay.

I just recently (a couple of months or so) got around to installing 9.1 Powerpack. I had to go from 8.2 Powerpack to 9.0 Powerpack for my new printer (deskjet 3820). Surprisingly, all 3 of those run fine for me, on different motherboards. Granted 8.2 doesn't recognize the the newer Via southbridges. I guess I am one of the really lucky users here. I haven't gotten around to getting 9.2, and I may or may not. It may be 10.x or even 11.x before i upgrade again, considering that I still have some major outlays for hardware, yet to go.