Mandrake 9.1 PLF

[ptesone1]

Should I be using the Beta or Rc1 version?
Does anyone know which one is most recent?

[bwkaz]

PLF?

If this is just Mandrake 9.1, don't use either the beta or the RC version. 9.1 final is out, and it's newer than both of them.

If PLF is something different, then it is generally true that RC versions are newer than beta versions. The release cycle for things like the kernel (which is pretty typical) go something like this:

2.4.20
2.4.21-pre1 (this is beta 1, sort of)
2.4.21-pre2
...
2.4.21-pre9 (or whatever)
2.4.21-rc1 (release candidate)
2.4.21-rc2
...
2.4.21

The kernel people (actually, with 2.4.X, this is just one person, Marcelo Tosatti) release "release candidate" (-rcX) versions until they're decently satisfied there aren't any obvious bugs. If there are bugs, they fix them and release the next -rcX version. If there aren't, they release the current one as 2.4.21 (or whatever).

Kernel releases also do the same type of thing on a larger scale:

2.2.whatever (stable)
2.3.1 through 2.3.X (development versions)
2.4.test1 through testX (sort of a beta of 2.4, the next stable release)
2.4.whatever (stable)
<repeat for the 2.5 development version, and 2.6.testX, and 2.6, etc., etc.>

A lot of distros do the same thing -- RedHat, for example, did something like 8.0, then 8.0.99-betaX (the betas for RH9), then 8.0.99-rcX, then 9.0 final.

[ptesone1]

wow! Hey, thanx for the info. . .I knew there was a certian pattern for releases, now I know it well. . .

I know the Mandake 9.1 went legit but I was wondering about the 9.1 PLF ISO CD. . .It's a CD put out by these guys:

http://plf.zarb.org/

that adds multimedia apps and other cool things that they normally don't bundle with regular Mandrake distros. . .It's just nice to have. . .

Again, thanx for the info! -good stuff

[bwkaz]

Oh... no idea, really. At a guess, I'd say to go with rcX on that one, though.

[ptesone1]

already there. . .THANX DUDE!