- The virtues of Mandrake are well known to most: easy to install, up-to-the-minute packages, well-optimized, and generally solid. Brian Proffitt says Mandrake 8.0 continues that tradition, but notes that the distribution is attempting to straddle a line between bleeding-edge software and the need of newbies for stability that may prove harmful to the distribution's long-term success.www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/3346/1