Back in September of last year Shuttle released a joint press release with MandrakeSoft announcing a new partnership. In the future, all of Shuttle’s barebone Network Appliance XPC products would ship with a free version of the popular Mandrake Linux distribution. Shuttle’s chairman, David Yu, said at the time,

"Bundling Mandrake Linux with our Network Appliance XPC’s delivers reliability and power - the exact formula today’s savvy users want".

Mandrake’s technology officer, Regis Wira, went even further saying,

"Shuttle’s barebone Network Appliance XPC product line is the perfect platform for delivering and using Linux ... Putting these two best-of-class products together is a natural evolution of the PC. The synergy offers a stunning new level of performance and value."

Strong claims indeed, and something that until today has gone largely unnoticed amongst the online media.

Unless you’re a close follower of Shuttle press releases, you may wonder what defines a Network Appliance XPC - and indeed the definition does seem somewhat fuzzy. The common feature tends to be the inclusion of one or more "server" features - such as Gigabit LAN, or dual PCI, or dual LAN or RAID support. The current range of Network Appliance XPCs includes the SB52G2 (featuring the Intel 845GV chipset, Gigabit LAN and two PCI slots - reviewed by SFFTech in March 2003 here), the SB62G2 (featuring the Intel 865G chipset, SATA RAID, dual LAN adapters and the subject of today’s review) and the SB75G2 (featuring the Intel 875P chipset, SATA RAID and a single Gigabit LAN adapter - reviewed by SFFTech in October 2003 here. Linux is well known for its successes in the server environment, so bundling it with their more server-orientated machines makes clear sense. However, the question on most people’s lips will be whether Linux is yet "ready for the desktop" - and if it is, do you still need to be a bearded geek with sandals in order to get it running? We hope to address this comprehensively in today’s review.

Shuttle originally made the decision to start shipping their Network Appliance XPCs with Linux at the beginning of 2003. [Hmm - just after SFFTech completed its popular four part series on the Shuttle XPC and Linux Revolution (see Parts 1, 2, 3, 4). A coincidence or what?! - Ed.]. Shuttle then approached the major Linux distributors to discuss the venture and chose MandrakeSoft as a result of its enthusiasm and its distribution’s excellent user experience - from installation, through set-up and into the end user experience. The partnership involves more than just throwing a couple of CD’s into the XPC box, however. Shuttle and MandrakeSoft work closely to ensure compatibility, with MandrakeSoft testing Shuttle hardware, both systems and accessories, for compatibility. At the time of writing, the SB75G2, SB62G2, SB52G, SB51G and SS51G have all been certified compatible with Mandrake Linux - as well as Shuttle’s wireless LAN module and a number of other accessories. Shuttle also has plans to submit various future XPC models to MandrakeSoft for accreditation. Kudos to Shuttle for showing such a commitment to Linux!

Mandrake is one of the more popular Linux distributions and has rapidly gained a reputation as being one of the most user-friendly distributions available. Its hold on the desktop market can only have been strengthened following Red Hat’s recent announcement that they would no longer offer a desktop distribution, choosing to focus instead on the more lucrative enterprise server market. Shuttle currently ships the latest Mandrake 9.2 Discovery Edition with their machines - which costs $39 if you were to buy it separately. Of course, Mandrake offers a free download version of version 9.2, but this lacks many of the commercial drivers, applications and browser plugins offered with the Discovery edition. Mandrake describe the Discovery Edition as "the package you need for getting started with Linux. A simplified installation procedure plus a customized interface allows any beginner to quickly get started with a complete full-featured Linux Desktop. The Discovery Pack includes office, multimedia and Internet applications all in highly attractive and easy-to-use graphical desktop environments."

Hype aside, many people are tired of hearing from Linux enthusiasts about "how easy Linux now is" only to find themselves faced with command-line configurations and kernel recompiles in order to access the most basic functionality of their machine. We’ll therefore be paying close attention to see how easy Mandrake 9.2 really is, and comparing the installation experience to that of Windows XP Home Edition.

next >

---

• Shuttle SB62G2 Specifications (1 of 6)
• In the Blue Corner - Windows XP (2 of 6)
• In the Red Corner - Mandrake Linux (3 of 6)
• Welcome to Mandrake Linux! (4 of 6)
• Applications Galore (5 of 6)
• Conclusions (6 of 6)