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MandrakeLinux releases GlobeTrotter


Darkelve
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Quote from the article (http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/04/08/26/1439245.shtml):

Gaël Duval writes "GlobeTrotter, a new product by Mandrakesoft based on the LaCie Mobile Hard Drive designed by FA Porsche, is set to change the way users think about mobile computing. GlobeTrotter is a USB mobile hard drive loaded with a specially tuned version of Mandrakesoft's award-winning Mandrakelinux operating system. Combined with the power and unique design of LaCie hardware, GlobeTrotter allows users to turn any computer into their personal Linux desktop - for just 219 dollars (199 euros). All informations are available online."

 

Or see Mandrake's page:

http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/globetrotter

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  • 2 weeks later...
I am using this drive and I consider it as one of the best purchases I have made in recent times. It works beautifully and is very convenient to carry while on the go. I did a review on this very drive, the link to which is provided for anyone who cares to check it out.

 

LaCie 40 GB Mobile Drive Review

 

Thanks! :D

 

Edit: nice review, but... I see no mention of Mdk in it? Were you only talking about the hard drive? :unsure:

 

What I'd like to see is an evalutation about how useful the Mdk product is for data backup and system restoration.

Edited by Darkelve
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Edit:.....I see no mention of Mdk in it? Were you only talking about the hard drive?

 

:oops::wall:

 

Sorry I forgot to mention that my review was done in June when this announcement was not existing,

 

I had reviewed the drive itself and my focus was on the drive only, I am trying to get the Mandrake installation from the same vender and if I can get hold of it I would update my review by adding my opinion on same. However, from my review you probably can get the idea of how good I found the drive to be.

 

Sorry for any confusing caused. I did not mean it that way.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

 

I'm quite interested in the Globetrotter. I would use it with my laptop from work to be able to work anywhere + to work in the living room without annoying my wife with the noise of my home desktop. Would use it on my desktop for all video editing, dvd burning and other stuff.

 

But I do have some questions:

1. How easy would it be to upgrade to 10.1? I suppose you cannot just install the new version like that (it must include some special SW that is not included in the standard MDL SW, which you would delete).

2. I only have USB 1.0, not 2.0. Would that be a problem?

 

Thanks for your two cents,

 

Sitor

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But I do have some questions:

1. How easy would it be to upgrade to 10.1? I suppose you cannot just install the new version like that (it must include some special SW that is not included in the standard MDL SW, which you would delete). 

2. I only have USB 1.0, not 2.0. Would that be a problem?

 

Thanks for your two cents,

 

Sitor

 

Sitor,

 

I cannot say with certainty how easy it is to upgrade to 10.1 but I am sure with the facilities already provided with GlobeTrotter it should not be a problem really.

 

USB 1.0 theoritcally is 12 Mbits/s compared to USB 2.0 which is 480 Mbits/s, hence according to simple calculation the difference is 40 times. In real world situation I tested it out a few time, and the difference was more like 25 times faster meaning what you can transfer with 2.0 in one minute will take 25 minutes with USB 1.0. Furthermore you mention about transfering video, with USB 1.0 you cannot transfer high quality video DVD, but only VCD quality.

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I cannot say with certainty how easy it is to upgrade to 10.1 but I am sure with the facilities already provided with GlobeTrotter it should not be a problem really.

Well, they mention themselves that it will be possible but not supported. I'm prepared to take my chances (I'm sure that the people her on the board will be helpfull enough if I run into trouble). Seems that if it does not work there is a recovery function that you can use anyway to go back to the initial state.

 

USB 1.0 theoritcally is 12 Mbits/s compared to USB 2.0 which is 480 Mbits/s
That in itself seems to be no problem to me. I would only store my mails and stuff on it. I'm only not sure that it would be able to boot a PC that only has USB 1.0. Would there not be any problems on HW level or something (I don't know much about this). For instance, this device gets its power via USB 2.0. Does that work then with USB 1.0 as well. If it doesn't, I would simply not be able to use it at all.

 

Furthermore you mention about transfering video, with USB 1.0 you cannot transfer high quality video DVD, but only VCD quality.
Well, the editing would still be on my desktop, so the video would remain on the existing internal HDD. I guess that once the PC has started up the software, everything is executed in the RAM and the video comes from the internal HDD, so the USB slowness would not have to be a problem for that. Or would the SWAP create problems? In any case the desktop will still be bootable without the GlobeTrotter (it already has MDL 10.0), so I can use it without GlobeTrotter for video anyway.

 

What do you think would this work?

 

Ciao,

 

Sitor

Edited by sitor
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In the mean time I contacted the Mandrake Customer Support service for the same question. Within half an hour I got following response:

Dear Sitor,

 

Thank you for your message.

 

We are informing you that the Mandrakelinux Globettroter runs with the usb

1.0

but it's slowly than the usb 2.0 due to the transfert rate of usb 1.0. So y

ou

will be able to have your Globettroter on your laptop ! :)

 

Please do not hesitate to recontact us for further information.

 

We wish you a nice day

 

Regards,

Not very detailed answer, but it is to the point and really fast. Most of the time if I do an online inquiry with a company it takes several days to receive an answer, if there is one at all. I heard a lot of bad things about Mandrakesofts Customer Care, but this was a very positive experience.

 

Ciao,

 

Sitor

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Sitor, if you haven't decided, let me recommend you NOT to do this. USB 1.1 speeds are, compared to a built in HD or USB2 drive, really very slow.

60MB will take one minute to load. About the size of OpenOffice (50 something MB's).

 

The customer support is right, it can work, but will be slow. They failed to mention it will not be a pleasure.

 

Why I know? Well, I have linux at work and at some point set up my system as a host for diskless workstations, with my office colleague as a test user. Problem: the 10MB/s network (very similar to usb1.1 speed). It was really a pain. Luckily it was doable since we mostly log on to Unix servers, but starting OOo was nasty. Even mozilla took quite some time to start...

 

So before you spend a lot of money on this, think about it...

 

That said, maybe you can get a well working usb2 pcmcia card,...?

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  • 3 months later...

I know this reply is 4 months late. However I have just purchased my Globetrotter. It is the best piece of equipment I have ever purchased. I decided to use the Globetrotter exclusively so that my data is always uptodate no matter where I am working. I use my desktop and laptop for backup. Unfortunately my laptop is only usb 1.1 but for running mdk 10 it works fine even suspend to disk works. On my desktop using usb 2.0 the speed difference is neglible.

 

There seems to be no easy way to upgrade to mdk 10.1. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know. I purchased a 40g LaCie drive as a second backup. If my primary Globetrotter drive fails I can restore on image that I created onto the second drive and be up and running. I tested this and it works.

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