OT: Mandrake 9.0?

[Alex Martelli]

Fernando Pérez wrote:

> Aahz wrote:
> 
>> Mandrake just sent me an offer to upgrade to 9.0 (I currently have 8.1)
>> for 15% off if I pre-order.  Anyone have an opinion on whether I should
>> upgrade now or wait for 9.1?  I'm a tiny bit leery because I had some
>> problems installing 8.1 in the first place.
> 
> The reviews have been so far very positive. Why don't you download it and
> install it? If you keep it, subscribe to MandrakeClub for the amount you
> would have paid. That actually gives Mandrake _all_ of your money (no

Actually, it gives Mandrake only a few tens of dollars (or Euros) -- you DO 
get to keep most of your money even if you join the club [just playing on
the startling way I first read Fernando's sentence...:-)].

I must have been born under a lucky star, because I never had serious
problems installing or upgrading Mandrake (except that fonts are a
recurring annoyance) -- 8.0 to .1 to .2 -- I'm a club member and I do
definitely plan to upgrade to 9.0 because I'm keen to have the latest
release of KDE, which I've found too cumbersome to build and install
from sources.  Maybe it helps that I configured my main working PC with
an eye to working smoothly with Linux, researching existing drivers a
bit as I put together the hardware.  OTOH, the Mandrake 8.2 I installed
(admittedly with an experienced sysadm's help!-) on the repartitioned
HD of my Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop seems to work just as smoothly (as
soon as we updated the nVidia video drivers).

Most pieces of SW for which I'm keen to stay updated (Python and
sundry extensions, VIM, PostgreSQL, Qt...) I build and install from
sources, anyway (KDE being the notable exception -- I tried, but
it stumped me).  But keeping the underlying distro upgraded (if it
can be done without traumas, and so far Mandrake has given me that)
still seems a good idea to me -- ensures you have decently recent
kernels, glibc, etc, which some things seem to expect / require.


Alex