At 02:04 PM 2/08/2004 +0200, you wrote:

>Hello and thanks Helen,
>
>Mon, 02 Aug 2004 21:42:40 +1000, Helen Borrie <helebor@...> wrote:
>
>HB> You're talking about "ultra-new" + "ultra-new" here. Try googling
>HB> "Mandrake" + "nptl" (NOT NTPL!!)
>
>Yeah! When I start mixing letters in acronyms, I try to be consistent in
>my erroneous useage. ;-)
>
>"ultra-new" : well... I asked some people around me about which Linux
>distro I should install to get something decent (reasonably easy /
>reasonably complete / reasonably not out of date). They suggested me
>Mandrake. Went to the website, signed up for a membership, downloaded
>the one currently available (v10) without checking if it was old by 15
>days or 15 weeks. Nothing nor nobody warned me Mandrake 10 was a beta.
>Or very fresh unstable. To my eyes, it doesn't look so at least.

I think the commercial distros are final - I'm sure I saw an announcement
on slashdot about a week ago.

>I remember seeing mentions of these NPTL (see, I got it right! :) builds
>recently, and before installing any version, wanted to get info from
>here. Seems Mandrake 10 has those libraries. So I guess those builds
>should be the right ones. But are they really needed to fix critical
>deficiencies of the classical builds when run on those NPTL based oses ?

Not absolutely essential, AFAIK. Provided you do the tweaks described in
the v.1.5.0 release notes, you can make Linux use the old threading model
(for RedHat 9, at least...)

>Or are they just an icing sugar not really required ?

Only the most recent Linux "big name" distros have implemented the
NPTL. My conservative view is that something that new is bound to give
trouble. :-) In fact, someone else today reported troubles using the NPTL
build with Fedora Core2.

>This machine with that Mandrake 10 is just for experiments and some
>development. Not meant as a workstation or server where security /
>stability is required.
>
>HB> Here's a fairly broad, general article, with today's dateline:
>HB> http://www.apcmag.com/apc/v3.nsf/0/A23F41AB58E001E6CA256E98000A4D65
>
>Read that, didn't bring much info, as my install of Mandrake itself was
>a smooth and rewarding experience. I just stopped before installing FB
>in order to go to the 'right' build straight.

I confess it's not a decision I have to agonise over right now. My two
Linux servers are RedHat 8 and Mandrake 9.1. :-)

/heLen