By Tina Gasperson –

The Unofficial Mandrake Linux page provides clear, step-by-step instructions for performing a variety of tasks on your Mandrake system, like setting up ethernet, installing rpms and tarballs, and compiling source code.As someone who is still in the process of learning a new operating system (and face it, do we ever get to the end of the learning path?), I am constantly scouring the Internet for useful resources. I’ve been through several installation attempts on my main desktop system, working on trying to get Windows and Linux to live together in peace.

Now, I am the proud, hopefully long-term babysitter of an HP Omnibook running solely on Mandrake 7.1 (a company-supplied laptop). I enjoy getting in there and digging around to see how everything works. There are a lot of sites with how-tos and tutorials, but the Unofficial Mandrake Linux page is the first site I’ve seen that keeps those who are less than ubergeeks in mind when explaining things. (I’m sure there are more – if you know of any others, please email me a link.)

Interestingly enough, I didn’t have to search far and wide for this one. It came to me through my local LUG mailing list. Just goes to show you, if you’re not a part of a user group, you’re missing out on a lot of valuable information.

The best thing about the Unofficial Mandrake Linux site is that it doesn’t try to get all fancy. Though I’m not a big fan of black backgrounds, which this site has, it is mercifully bereft of any graphics. Just the facts, ma’am.

UML provides links to all the major Mandrake destinations, including the main vendor page, the Mandrake forum page, the Mandrake FAQ, Mandrake ISOs, and the link to the Mandrake 7.2 ISO. (Which, I’ve heard from reliable sources, is a bit buggy and not worth your time just yet.)

The UML page, as I mentioned above, also explains how to do lots of cool and useful things on your Mandrake box. The most entertaining for me was removing the “shop,” “search,” “myNetscape,” and “security” buttons from the tool bar in Netscape, and adding a “find in page” button. Trust me, it couldn’t be any simpler than this guy makes it.

Also very handy is the “dos to Linux syntax” reference — great for people who are familiar with the dos shell. The page also provides an enlightening look at the Linux file system, and the purpose of the various directories, plus a brief introduction to writing bash scripts.

The Unofficial Mandrake Linux page is well worth a visit or two. Check it out.

If you know of an Open Source-related site that deserves to be featured in a Newsforge review, let us know.

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Linux Journal has a programmer’s article describing how to use clone(), a low level system call in C. Though the article is essentially documentation, it makes the point that low-level programming shouldn’t just be for the programming gurus.

CNet News is reporting that Virgin, a company that gave out free computers in exchange for targeted advertising, is askings its customers to return all their equipment, that the deal’s over.

MSNBC claims Microsoft has vaulted security into the top spot on its priority list, following several recent highly-publicised security compromises at the proprietary software giant.

ZDNet reports that Compaq is denying earlier reports that the company does not want to use Transmeta’s Crusoe processor in its mobile computers.

Joe Barr of LinuxWorld describes his experiences installing and using Gimp-Print to reproduce photographs on an Epson Stylus Color 880 printer.

PSINet came under fire from anti-spam organizations after CNET News.com obtained an electronic unsigned copy of a so-called pink contract between PSINet and Cajunnet, a marketing firm based in Slidell, La., that freely admits its spamming practices.

The Register reports that the Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer is the latest high-profile site to experience a cracker attack in recent days.

From a story at MaximumLinux.com: Microsoft and Texas Instruments today announced plans for the 2.5G smart phone solution, an integrated wireless platform that will support 2.5G GSM/GPRS-enabled wireless handsets and advanced mobile computing devices. This should allow for the consolidation of multiple communications and multimedia features, resulting in the creation of small but intelligent wireless mobile devices.”

The Scots Valley, Calif. software development tool vendor has changed its name back to Borland after two relatively unsuccessful years as Inprise. From a report at TechWeb.