Mandrake 10 on IBM

[Ruciz]

I was curious if this is the best to setup for reliabiliy, ease of use and stability on a laptop. (IBM A20m)

The computer can definatly handle it as it is a 500 Mhz system with 6.4GB space and 128 RAM. It has a LG CD-ROM drive though, and I don't feel like frying that, so did Mandrake fix the problem of the dead drives in this release?

Another question is will java work well on it?

Also if there is a program that works well with MSN/Yahoo networks that allows voice conversations?

And how secure would it be? any firewalls/antivirus software required (it will be behind a router)

Thanks for the help :D

[markwolfe Veteran]

500MHz will be a bit sluggish or even downright slow if you use Gnome or KDE. I woudl recommend flux, icewm, twm or any of the simpler Window Managers. KDE and Gnome are considered Desktop Environments (some people call that a fancy term for bloat:p).

Java will work well on Linux. After all, Sun writes Java, and they are supporting Linux fairly well now...

The Mandy problem is fixed. Even if you have a problem drive and use software that blanks your CD-ROMs flash, there is a simple procedure to reload your CD-ROM.

I'm not sure about the MSN/Yahoo IM and voice thing. I do know that although Yahoo supports Linux enough to make an IM client for Linux, it is sorely lagging when compared to the Windows version they offer. I think GnomeMeeting will interface with Microsoft NetMeeting, if you want to go that far...

As for security, it will be as secure as you make it. A Linux box can be more or less secure than your average Windows box. I feel that if you crank up security on either OS, you will be OK. Security is a process not a product. However, it will be easier to look at, maintain and tune your security on a Linux box, in my opinion.

Anti-virus software? Only if you use it to serve mail to Microsoft PCs! If that is your situation, it will be a good move to filter out those things for your poor hapless MS PCs. ;)

And for firewalls... If you just maintain your ports, and make sure that the only ports open are the ones you need (and the only services running are the ones you need - no Apache or sendmail if you don't need 'em) you should be pretty well-off. And, for your router, it is good advice to remember to maintain that periodically, and verify settings haven't been altered from a remote hack - it happened to my Linksys router! They have firmware in them, and can (usually) be updated with new releases from the manufacturer.

[Ruciz]

wow, that was even more information than I was expecting! thank you very much and I think I will go forth and try to setup mandrake with one of the window managers you told me about. I just want to setup a clean and easy to use laptop for someone who knows little about computers but want something fast and reliable for their current setup!

[wickedlester]

I don't think it is a good idea to install mdk 10 beta 1. I recommend waiting till release if you are wanting something reliable and you know little about computers. I would even wait a little while after release so they have time to fix bugs,etc. Betas are never a good thing if you want reliability and I doubt beta 1 from mandrake has most of the software included. Just my opinion.

[Ruciz]

very true, I just need a good solution software for a slow laptop because windows 2000 and XP are not worth keeping on it because they take too long at loading and freeze too much so I was thinking for what its used for linux may be a good solution, but Mandrake has a LG bug which kills CD-ROMs.

[wickedlester]

They have had that bug fixed for awhile now. I am almost positive that the isos on the download site have the bug fix included. Might google it to be sure.

[JadeWolf324]

why would u want to use 10? too buggy to be considered reliable to me...id use 9.2 if i were u.

[Ruciz]

9.2 will fry the CD-ROM drive JadeWolf324. Is there any way around this so I can have a reliable Linux distro on a lil laptop?

[markwolfe Veteran]

9.2 will fry the CD-ROM drive JadeWolf324. Is there any way around this so I can have a reliable Linux distro on a lil laptop?

No. :no:

Mandy 9.2 had a problem with this (because of the LG CD-ROMs). It's been fixed.

And, if you are SUPER paranoid that you will somehow download an older version with the problem, then you can always FIX IT! It was not a permanent issue. Just re-flash the CD-ROM and be happy! :)

[CaKeY]

9.2 will fry the CD-ROM drive JadeWolf324. Is there any way around this so I can have a reliable Linux distro on a lil laptop?

Update your drives' firmware. http://us.lgservice.com/

[Ruciz]

I didn't know they fixed it up in 9.2, I thought they were going to wait for 10 to issue that becaues they were not sure of the problem causing it. Thanks for the information!

Also how reliable would WINE be for emulating MSN/Yahoo? anyone tried this with any success? Last time I got ICQ I think to work with WINE but it was limited and freezing but that was also with ICQ 2001 I think.

[markwolfe Veteran]

Do you need to use wine to emulate MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger?

(I half-heartedly tried MSN once, and it didn't work out-of-the-box)

aMSN works very well to replace MSN Messenger. Yahoo offers a Yahoo Messneger for Unix. (The Yahoo offering isn't very impressive).

But, options for the Windows versions of these products will not be able to use the voice/webcam or other advanced features with wine. Linux handles things like webcams differently than Windows does (so I am told), and it just will not work the same if running MSN messenger in wine.

gaim is a product that can do AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ (among others), and a lot of people recommend it. I use it, but I still prefer to use aMSN for MSN, and Yahoo's official unix port for YM.