Inside this Issue:

Top Story -- Mandrakelinux and Conectiva announce
In the Cooker... -- Mandrakelinux 10.2 Beta 3
Mandrakelinux in the news -- The media on the merger
Mandrakesoft Interviews -- Mandrakeclub interviews Wobo
Mandrakesoft news -- New Country Manager in ItalySoftware Update -- Protect your Mandrakelinux!
Mandrakelinux Goodies -- Get your retail therapy here!

Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter

Issue # 101 March 4, 2005

Welcome to the Mandrakelinux Community Newsletter - dedicated tokeeping you up-to-date with the latest Mandrakelinux-related news andinfo.
Inside this Issue:

• Top Story -- Mandrakelinux and Conectiva announce merger
• In the Cooker... -- Mandrakelinux 10.2 Beta 3 released
• Mandrakelinux in the news -- The media on the merger
• Mandrakesoft Interviews -- Mandrakeclub interviews Wobo
• Mandrakesoft news -- New Country Manager in Italy
• Software Update -- Protect your Mandrakelinux!
• Mandrakelinux Goodies -- Get your retail therapy here!

Top Story

The biggest news this week is the merger of Mandrakesoft with the #1South American Linux vendor, Conectiva. Mandrakesoft is buying all ofConectiva's shares in a stock swap which will create a new, trulyinternational Linux vendor. Conectiva's enterprise connections andknow-how in South America and particularly Brazil will give a strongboost to Mandrakesoft's enterprise development, and its research anddevelopment abilities will combine with Mandrakesoft's to produce astrong source of open source innovations. Decisions have not yet beenmade on the form of the product line-up that the new company willproduce, nor on the name it will take, but we'll be sure to bring thenews to you as soon as it's available. You can read the announcementof the merger here.
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/corporate/2539

In the Cooker...

The development of the new Mandrakelinux continues with the release ofMandrakelinux 10.2 beta 3. A third beta was not originally planned,but has been added to further ensure the stability of the release.Important things to test at this point include the automatic mountingof USB devices, and Chinese and Japanese input. You can read theannouncement on the Mandrakeclub here and get downloading by FTP orBitTorrent.
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=3394&mode=nocommentshttp://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/102beta.php3http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/torrent/Mandrakelinux-10.2beta3.torrent

Mandrakelinux 10.2 Beta 1 for PPC

PowerPC users don't need to feel left out of the 10.2 developmentprocess - thanks to the hardworking PowerPC contributors, beta 1 ofMandrakelinux 10.2 for PowerPC is available too! Lots is new withthis release, most significantly support for the new G5 Macs. You canread the release notes here and get downloading in the usual places.And anyone out there who's been tempted to try out the new Mac Minibut is worried about leaving their Mandrakelinux behind should behappy to know that both 10.1 and 10.2 run well on the little machine!http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/Mandrakelinux102PpcReleaseNoteshttp://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/102beta.php3

Mandrakelinux in the news

The Mandrakesoft / Conectiva merger has been widely and favourablyreported in the media. CNet says "the consolidation will help givethe combined company more heft". The UK magazine PC Pro remarked uponMandrakesoft's "Phoenix-like rise from the ashes" and said "The dealalso improves the company's standing in comparison with its biggerbrothers Red Hat and Novell's SUSE". The deal was reported on manyother high-profile sites including Linux Today and Slashdot.http://news.com.com/Second-tier+Linux+sellers+agree+to+merge/2100-7344_3-5588686.htmlhttp://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/69846/mandrakesoft-acquires-south-american-linux-distro.htmlhttp://linuxtoday.com/it_management/2005022401626NWBZMDhttp://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/24/1546209&tid=163&tid=147

Linux Format picks Mandrakelinux 10.1 for best distribution

The UK magazine Linux Format rounded up fifteen distributions for itsJanuary issue. The winner? Mandrakelinux 10.1! The article itself isnot online, but Distrowatch has a detailed write-up of the write-uphere. Mandrakelinux was picked out for having "the best installationand configuration tools on the market" and because "we can breezethrough a Mandrakelinux install with our eyes closed". We can onlyagree!
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20050117#1

Working on Mandrakelinux

The popular site NewsForge has been running a series called 'MyWorkstation OS' encouraging people to write in and describe theirfavourite operating system to work in. Gary Maxwell pickedMandrakelinux, and his article is here. His reasons? "For ease ofuse, excellent support, and up-to-date packaging, Mandrake is thebest desktop going."
http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/02/07/1856202

Mandrakesoft Interviews

Following its interview with Warly last week, this time theMandrakeclub interviewed Wobo - otherwise known as Wolfgang Bornath,one of the longest standing Mandrakelinux contributors. Find out moreabout his history with Mandrakesoft, his life, and his secret pastwith OS/2 Warp over on the Club.
http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=3310&mode=nocomments

Perl.com interviews Rafael Garcia-Suarez

In case you didn't know, Rafael Garcia-Suarez maintains perl and theurpmi tools for Mandrakelinux. As you can imagine, this makes himsomething of a perl guru, and perl.com decided to pick his brains forthe benefit of its readers. Rafael has a sharp sense of humour, too -when asked what tools Mandrakesoft uses to do automated testing ofgraphical Perl applications, Rafael's answer revealed the secret ofMandrakesoft's success: "Er, interns?" Read more shocking revelationson the life of a perl hacker here!
http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2005/02/24/mandrakelinux.html

Mandrakesoft news

Hervé Jezequel has been appointed as Mandrakesoft's new CountryManager for Italy. He brings with him more than twenty years ofprofessional experience in the IT sector, of which the last fourteenhave been with Prologue Software. Hervé has a strong background insales and international experience, including eight years ofexperience as Italian affiliate manager and ten years of experiencein channel sales development. Mandrakesoft believes that Hervé'sexperience in dealing with the Italian culture and developing channelsales, along with his presence in Italy, will allow us to have abetter feel for the market and help us be more responsive to theneeds of Italian customers. Good news for Hervé, Italy and quitepossibly the world! Send any questions about Mandrakesoft products inItaly right here.

Mandrakesoft at the Linux Days trade show in Germany

>From March 10th to March 14th, the Linux Days trade show will be heldin Lörrach, Germany (near Basel on the French / Swiss / Germanborder), and Mandrakesoft will be there. Mandrakesoft's TillKamppeter will be at the Mandrakesoft booth on behalf of Linuxprinting, and Wolfgang Bornath - alias wobo - will be at the boothpresenting Mandrakelinux and Move, including an early peek atMandrakelinux 10.2. Members of the Mandrakeuser.de community sitewill be helping out with the booth and installing Mandrakelinux forvisitors, and many products including Mandrakelinux 10.1 Official andMove will be on sale. Make sure to visit! You can read more about theshow on the official site, here.
http://www.it-linux-days.de/

Software Update

As always, regular upgrading is essential to keep your Mandrakelinuxsystem healthy and happy. Since the last newsletter, packagesincluding KDE, squid and PostgreSQL have had important securityfixes, so make sure to run MandrakeUpdate regularly! And of course,there's always Mandrakeonline for automated and scheduled updates.Laziness and security - who could resist that combination?http://www.mandrakesoft.com/mandrakeonline

Mandrakelinux Goodies

And finally, Christmas bonus still burning a hole in your pocket? Oris your wallet full of little red envelopes from the Chinese NewYear? Whatever the source, where better to spend your money than theMandrakestore? Currently, the GlobeTrotter - a Lacie mobile harddrive with Move preinstalled - is available at a special discount forjust 149.90 euro/$179.90! Hurry over to the store now to find this andmany other bargains.
http://www.mandrakestore.com