Mandriva Linux
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Mandriva Linux (formerly Mandrakelinux or Mandrake Linux, and a merger with Conectiva) is a GNU/Linux distribution created by Mandriva (formerly Mandrakesoft). The first release was based on Red Hat Linux (version 5.1) and KDE (version 1.0) in July 1998. It has since diverged from Red Hat and has included a number of original tools mostly to ease system configuration. Mandriva Linux is also notable for compiling its packages with optimizations for Pentium-class and more advanced processors which are incompatible with older CPU versions such as 386 and 486. Mandriva Linux (at those times named Mandrake Linux) was originated by Gaël Duval, who was also a co-founder of Mandrakesoft.
Mandriva logo
MandrakeScr.png
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Features
The major features of Mandriva Linux are:
Internationalization
Mandriva Linux supports over 74 languages
Installation, control and administration
Mandriva Linux uses the Mandrake Control Center for administration of Linux rather than using a text editor to change settings. It has many programs known as Drakes or Draks, collectively named drakxtools, to configure many different settings. Examples include MouseDrake to set up a mouse, DiskDrake to set up disk partitions and drakconnect (previously known as draknet but forced to change its name after a company of the same name complained) to set up a network connection. They are written using GTK and Perl, and most of them can run in both graphical and text mode.
Software
Mandriva Linux comes with several thousand software packages including many varieties of games, office software, servers, and Internet utilities.
Community
Mandriva Linux has a large community of users, that provide help, support, and software to the user of Mandriva Linux.
Constant development
Mandriva Linux is constantly in development. A development version of Mandriva Linux, known as the "Cooker" is publicly available, but it is not recommended for use in a production environment because of the constant changes going on in it.
Next to that, community members provide RPMs for the latest packages of popular software.
Optimization
From the ground up, Mandriva Linux was compiled for Pentium-class processors. As a result, Mandriva Linux provides more optimal performance to this CPU Architecture at the cost of being unusable by the 386 and 486 processors, a problem that rapidly faded out due to current CPU power and memory requirements of latest versions of the popular software.
The provided kernel and glibc have enhancements for more recent processors. For example, the glibc will load libraries from the special directory /lib/i686 if the detected processor is compatible.
Desktops
Mandriva Linux is geared to use KDE or GNOME as the standard desktops, but includes others such as IceWM, Blackbox, Window Maker and Twm. A unique theme known as "Mandrakegalaxy" provides consistency between applications and desktop environments. Mandrakegalaxy debuted in version 9.1 and Mandrakegalaxy II appeared in 10.0. A variant of Mandrakegalaxy is "Mandrakegalaxy Squared", which uses square window buttons rather than round ones.
Package manager
Mandriva Linux uses a package manager called urpmi, which functions as a wrapper to the RPM package management system. It is similar to apt-get in that it allows seamless installation of a given software package by automatically installing the other packages needed. It is also media-transperent due to its ability to retreive packages from various media, including network/internet, CD/DVD and local disk. Urpmi also has an easy-to-use graphical front-end called RPMdrake which is integrated into the Mandrake Control Centre.
Although web sources for urpmi are not added on the installation of Mandriva Linux, they are available at EasyUrpmi (http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/) or through an option in the Software Sources Manager in versions above 2005LE (10.2). This functionality allows the user to choose some or all of the various software repositories available for their version of Mandrivalinux and can greatly expand the amount of software that the user can install through the urpmi system.
Name changes
From its inception to version 8.0, Mandrake named its flagship distribution Linux-Mandrake. From version 8.1 to 9.2 it was called Mandrake Linux.
In February 2004 MandrakeSoft lost a court case against Hearst Corporation, owners of King Features Syndicate. Hearst contends that MandrakeSoft is infringing upon King Features' trademarked character Mandrake the Magician. The word Mandrake is not unique to the King Features character, and MandrakeSoft is appealing the decision. As a precaution, MandrakeSoft has renamed its products by removing the space between the brand name and the product name and changing the first letter of the product name to lower case, thus creating one word. Starting from version 10.0, Mandrake Linux became known as Mandrakelinux, and its logo changed accordingly. Similarly, MandrakeMove became Mandrakemove.
In April 2005 Mandrakesoft annouced that after the corporate merger (http://www.mandriva.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/corporate/2539) of Mandrakesoft and Conectiva, and the legal dispute with Hearst Corporation, the new company name would be Mandriva, and that Mandriva Linux would be the new name covering products.
Versions
Variants of the same version
Prior to Mandrakelinux 10.0, there was one central distribution which was marketed to consumers and made available for download over the Internet (besides the offspring, detailed below). The development tree of Mandrakelinux has always been known as Cooker. When stabilised, this tree becomes the successor to the current version.
Latest version
The latest version, Limited Edition 2005 was released to Mandriva Club members and on Mandriva Store 13 April, 2005. Free downloads of ISO CD images for the PowerPC platform were released on 29 April, 2005, followed by i586 (Intel) and x86_64 (AMD64) images on 3 May, 2005. This is in line with Mandriva's new strategy of making releases available first to paying customers.
The largest changes from 10.1 includes: use of KDE 3.3 instead of 3.2 and GNOME 2.8 instead of 2.6, replacing Mozilla by Mozilla Firefox, transition to GIMP 2.2 and GCC 3.4, and changes in the Mandriva Control Center.
The Free Edition contains some advertisements in the form of bookmarks in the web browser and slides during installation, as well as is available for download later, to help cover the costs of producing the distribution.
Table of versions
| Year | Number | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 5.1 | Venice |
| 1998 | 5.2 | Leeloo |
| 1999 | 5.3 | Festen |
| 1999 | 6.0 | Venus |
| 1999 | 6.1 | Helios |
| 2000 | 7.0 | Air |
| 2000 | 7.1 | Helium |
| 2000 | 7.2 | Odyssey (called Ulysses during beta) |
| 2001 | 8.0 | Traktopel |
| 2001 | 8.1 | Vitamin |
| 2002 | 8.2 | Bluebird |
| 2002 | 9.0 | Dolphin |
| 2003 | 9.1 | Bamboo |
| 2003 | 9.2 | FiveStar |
| 2004 | 10.0 | Community and Official |
| 2004 | 10.1 | Community |
| 2004 | 10.1 | Official |
| 2005 | 10.2 | Limited Edition 2005 |
| N/A | N/A | Cooker |
Offspring
Distributions that are based on Mandrakelinux, some by MandrakeSoft itself, others by independent projects. Some maintain compatibility with Mandrakelinux, so that installing a Mandrakelinux RPM also works on the offspring.
Firewall
Linux Mandrake 7.2 had a version tailored specifically for use as a firewall, known as Single Network Firewall (SNF). Its successor, based on Mandrake 8.2, was titled Multi Network Firewall (MNF). The third iteration will be based upon Mandrakelinux 10.0.
These firewall distributions are designed to provide security for computer networks, and can be administered remotely via a Web browser based interface or ssh. There are two versions. The Download Edition contains only free software and is freely downloadable via the Internet. The corporate version has added functionality and comes with support from MandrakeSoft.
Gaming edition
Mandrake Linux 8.1 had a Gaming Edition, which was a game oriented Linux distribution. It had a port of The Sims and used the Transgaming WineX technology to support some games produced for Windows.
CLIC
CLIC (aka Cluster LInux pour le Calcul) is a dedicated version of Mandrakelinux created by MandrakeSoft specifically for clustering environments.It was sponsorised by the RNTL, others partners are ID-IMAG, Bull and Mandrakesoft. This project's aim was to produce a HPC Linux Distribution for 32 & 64 bits processors.
The objective of project CLIC is to allow the realization of large scientific computers while being based on software known as "free" (i.e. under licence GPL or comparable). The objective consists of the realization a GNU/Linux distribution for clusters of machines, meeting the needs for deployment, administration and programming of clusters within the framework of exploitation for intensive calculation.
It features an automated installation of a full cluster using the Ka tools, urpmi and the clusterscripts.
This project was finished on 1 December 2003 and Mandrakesoft decided to continue that project with a product called Mandrakeclustering.
You can find more details on http://clic.mandrakesoft.com
Mandrakeclustering
Based on the CLIC project, this distribution allow you to setup a cluster in a few hours. This product includes Drakcluster (GUI) for a better ease-of-use.
This product is dedicated to the HPC market but it could be use also (with some modifications) to all kind of clusters (High Availabilty, applicative, grid, ...). This platform give you the tools you need for a day-to-day administration of hundreds of nodes. Parallel commands (bash, copying tools), deployment (disks), software upgrade/downgrade (urpmi parallel), monitoring (ganglia), etc.
Mandrakeclustering is available on x86 & x86-64 architectures.
More informations at http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/clustering
Mandrakemove
A LiveMove is the set formed by a LiveCD and a bootfloppy or USB key.
Mandrakemove is a MandrakeSoft product that benefits from a Mandrakelinux LiveCD which doesn't need to be installed to run on a computer, and a USB key that automatically records bootloader, hardware configuration and personal data.
The first version of Mandrakemove was released in December 2003 (but only distributed to customers in January 2004, due to production delays - a problem very common to Mandrakelinux releases, unfortunately). It brought two main innovations compared to competitors:
- ability to eject the cdrom if the machine has 256 MB of RAM or more (Knoppix also can, but needs to copy the whole cdrom into RAM, therefore needs a machine with 1 GB of RAM or more), and continue to operate in a "downgraded" mode allowing only to play multimedia files
- transparent save of any user modification of his/her own files and system configuration files, if operated with a USB key
The new version of Mandrakemove, now simply called Move was released in October 2004. Hardware support and stability have seen much improvement.
GlobeTrotter
GlobeTrotter is a LaCie mobile USB drive loaded with a specific version of Mandrakelinux. Like Move, it can boot most PCs into Linux without installing first. The 40 GB hard drive makes it a convenient way to carry a Linux workstation around. GlobeTrotter was launched in August 2003 and can be ordered through Mandrakesoft's online store.
See also
- List of Linux distributions
- Comparison of Linux distributions
- Comparison of operating systems (security)
External links
- Mandriva Linux (http://www.mandrivalinux.com)
- Mandriva Linux Limited Edition 2005 features (http://www.mandriva.com/products/limited-edition)
- Mandriva Linux wiki (http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/twiki/bin/view/Main)
- Mandriva (http://www.mandriva.com)
- Mandriva Linux torrents (http://www.solidz.com/torrents/)
- Clic (http://clic.mandrakesoft.com/index-en.html)
- Move (http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/move)
- GlobeTrotter (http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/globetrotter)
- Urpmi.org (http://www.urpmi.org)
- Shareholder newsletter regarding the Hearst lawsuit (http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/investors/newsletter/sn040214)
- http://www.mandrakeclub.nl (MandrakeLinux Dutch website)
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