Mandrake, AKA Geoff Harrison, is a heavy contributor to the enlightenment project and has also left his mark on Gnome, XFree86, and a bunch of other excellent free software projects. In real life, he works for VA Research as (surprise!) a software developer. Mandrake is, without question, one of the leading lights of the Linux and free software development communities. Check his Web site, and post any question(s) you have for him below. Answers to most or all of the highest-moderated ones will be posted Friday.

hasse wrote in to tell us that Mandrake, co-developer of Enlightenment is meeting with Amiga. Amiga Central quotes him saying "So sometime next week I'm going to meet with the VP of Engineering at Amiga. That should be interesting. I wonder if I can get them interested enough in enlightenment that they would be willing to donate programmers to the project. "

g.macdonald wrote in to send us news of the new Amiga GUI based on QNX. It looks very perty. How long before we have a GNOME and Enlightenment theme that mimics it.

drdink wrote to let us know about a SlashNET forum with Mandrake of Enlightenment fame. It will be at 01:30 UTC (9:30pm EDT) today in #forum. Open discussion about the forum will be held in #forum.d. If you're new to SlashNET, irc.slashnet.org will point you at a random server, and us.slashnet.org will point you at a random US server. Hope to see people there!Update: 06/14 12:50 by H :Get the log here.

sRparish writes "Rasterman has made it to California, and has posted a very interesting article entitled: Post Mortem and Deliverance " He expands somewhat on things you've already read here, and compares his experience at RH to jwz's at Netscape.

Raster emailed me to send some clarification about his recent announcement that he is leaving Red Hat. I've attached his email below so you can form your own opinions. But essentially he was unhappy with his manager at RH, and simply got fed up with it. I s'pose most of us have been there. Anyway, his email is attached below.

poohbear_honeypot wrote in with the full text of Raster's letter to the mailing list, which is below. Essentially, Raster has left Red Hat for greener pastures, and (surprise, surprise) is headed West. He asks that people hold off on e-mailing for the next week or so. For the gory details, click below.

Andrew Shapiro has written a new book that almost perfectly -- and presciently -- captures the big idea about the Internet right now: In "The Control Revolution," he describes how the Net is putting individuals in charge of their lives and changing the world.

Enlightenment Philosophers battled for a revolutionary freedom beyond what they called "The Holy Circle" that dominated their culture. The wall-busting Net, it turns out is also busting up the "Holy Circles" of our time. The Net isn't just one revolution, but a series of social revolutions. More and more, it's beginning to look like the first Enlightenment never ended, but just took a breather until the Digital Age arrived. Second in a series.

For centuries, the faithful have been seeking the New Jerusalem, the city of radiance adorned with jewels, where God himself will wipe away every tear. For years now, more and more pilgrims think cyberspace is that radiant place. In a new book, Margaret Wertheim struggles to relate this powerful and ancient idea to the Internet. Is this the Promised Land?

More and more, scholars, academics and scientists are comparing the rise of the Internet and the rise of the Digital Age to periods like the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Comparisons are being made to the discovery of fire and the printing press. And you know what? The parallels hold up amazingly well, from a universal embrace of freedom right down to the fear and hostility that greet new ideas:

It's official: After approximately 17 years of delay and hype, Raster has released Enlightenment DR 0.15. Get it and check out tigert's new theme. Look at the ripples. Play with all the little gizmos. Waste clock cycles and memory with reckless abandon. Its fun.

The Internet is a World Without Walls rising up in the midst of a culture that's criss-crossed with them, and whose most powerful institutions -- politics, business, education, media -- depend on walls. The Information Architects of the Web are creating new kinds of wall-less, linked structures never seen in the world. In response, battles over walls and the Internet are breaking out all over the place, from MP3's to domain names. This collision is going to be a head-banger, one of the bruising economic and political tussles of the coming decade, perhaps beyond.

Tal Cohen sent in a 3 part review: The Tao of Programming, The Zen of Programming, and Computer Parables: Enlightenment in the Information Age. All of these were written by Geoffrey James, and while the first book Tao is one that has been around, the other two are interesting reading as well. Click below to find out more.

Fear and greed -- technology's historical buddies -- are stalking the Net. Analysts are still reeling from all the cash raked in by online Xmas retailers. And technology stocks have reached surreal, almost frighteningly unrealistic levels. In response, new phobias about the Internet and work, taxes and the value of property itself are popping up all over business and in the press. Once again, technology seems to be scaring the hell out of everybody. Will we all get rich or crash and burn together? The experts sure have no idea. This might be time to control your own technology.

Roxus wrote in to send us a nifty article about Raster and Enlightenment. It's a cool little piece, although I suspect he was fibbing about his fashion sense. Anyway check it out, and drool with the rest of us waiting for DR15 (/me wipes spittle off chin)

JenH writes "Linuxpower.org has a review of the Enlightenment Window Manager in CVS. There are some comparisons between E. 14 and the upcoming E .15 version. You can find it at here. Has a lot of screenshots too. "

Booker writes "I'm just wondering... did anyone notice that Enlightenment DR 0.15 was released with the Gnome 0.99 stuff? It's over at ftp.gnome.org, under the gnome directory. RPMs and debs, as well. The E page isn't updated yet, so perhaps this isn't the 0.15 release?" update Apparently, although LinuxToday also published this story earlier today, readers are stating that this is just a CVS snapshot of what will be DR 0.15. Oh well. Updated title accordingly. update 2: Mandrake has confirmed this is not DR-0.15. Updated title again.

bradburn wrote in to note that The Enlightenment Webpage has received a significant overhaul. Still no DR final release of DR15, but if we got everything we want, what would we have to look forward to?

A new book and some Slashdot e-mail makes it clear why people like me have to learn how to use Linux and help spread its message beyond the Rarefied Geek Enclave. And also just what a nightmare that's going to be.