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I agree that SuSE's KDE stuff was pretty sleek.
If I were you I'd have have a look at Kubuntu or Mandriva - both were pretty KDE-centric last time I checked them out.

The Kat Desktop Search Engine

Yeah you ahead, compare to slack and debian because they are the best representatives of the distros business, first time people etc. are directed to.

Put this in your pipe and smoke it:

http://www.novell.com/linux/suse/
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
http://www.mandriva.com/
http://fedora.redhat.com/
http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/

* Documentation:

Aside from being in the form of rmps (look for mandrake-doc-* packages), you can fin documentation here:

  - http://www.mandrivaexpert.com/index1.php
  - http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/fdoc.php3
  - http://www.mandriva.com/products/faq/beginners
  - http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/Mandriv aLinux2005Errata
  - http://www.mandriva.com/security

* Bugzilla:

  - http://qa.mandriva.com/

Hope this is enough for you.

Cheers

* Documentation:

Aside from being in the form of rmps (look for mandrake-doc-* packages), you can fin documentation here:

  - http://www.mandrivaexpert.com/index1.php
  - http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/fdoc.php3
  - http://www.mandriva.com/products/faq/beginners
  - http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/Mandriv aLinux2005Errata
  - http://www.mandriva.com/security

* Bugzilla:

  - http://qa.mandriva.com/

Hope this is enough for you.

Cheers

* Documentation:

Aside from being in the form of rmps (look for mandrake-doc-* packages), you can fin documentation here:

  - http://www.mandrivaexpert.com/index1.php
  - http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/fdoc.php3
  - http://www.mandriva.com/products/faq/beginners
  - http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/Mandriv aLinux2005Errata
  - http://www.mandriva.com/security

* Bugzilla:

  - http://qa.mandriva.com/

Hope this is enough for you.

Cheers

* Documentation:

Aside from being in the form of rmps (look for mandrake-doc-* packages), you can fin documentation here:

  - http://www.mandrivaexpert.com/index1.php
  - http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/fdoc.php3
  - http://www.mandriva.com/products/faq/beginners
  - http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/Mandriv aLinux2005Errata
  - http://www.mandriva.com/security

* Bugzilla:

  - http://qa.mandriva.com/

Hope this is enough for you.

Cheers

I think you haven't heard about Mandriva's bugzilla :

http://qa.mandriva.com/

On the wiki, you'll get a big amount of information (there is for instance an rss feed for latest packages uploads) :

http://qa.mandriva.com/wiki/

You can even see how to use your hardware and validate if it functions or not. Using TESTZILLA, a set a pre-ordered procedures allowing anybody to improve easily the distribution's work.
Using this procedures will allow you to follow a guided way of making your hardware work (thus eradicating wrong manipulations) and doing an automatic bugzilla post in case of any problem.

You can find this wonderfull tool on bugzilla's main page (http://qa.mandriva.com/ section Testzilla.

If you want to test a component, just create a bugzilla account, perform a test (Perform any test) and you're done !

Doc may be missing -a little- but saying nothing is available seems -a little- exagerated.

(My ./ account is still not opened, so i post this as anonymous)

Stef

I think you haven't heard about Mandriva's bugzilla :

http://qa.mandriva.com/

On the wiki, you'll get a big amount of information (there is for instance an rss feed for latest packages uploads) :

http://qa.mandriva.com/wiki/

You can even see how to use your hardware and validate if it functions or not. Using TESTZILLA, a set a pre-ordered procedures allowing anybody to improve easily the distribution's work.
Using this procedures will allow you to follow a guided way of making your hardware work (thus eradicating wrong manipulations) and doing an automatic bugzilla post in case of any problem.

You can find this wonderfull tool on bugzilla's main page (http://qa.mandriva.com/ section Testzilla.

If you want to test a component, just create a bugzilla account, perform a test (Perform any test) and you're done !

Doc may be missing -a little- but saying nothing is available seems -a little- exagerated.

(My ./ account is still not opened, so i post this as anonymous)

Stef

I think you haven't heard about Mandriva's bugzilla :

http://qa.mandriva.com/

On the wiki, you'll get a big amount of information (there is for instance an rss feed for latest packages uploads) :

http://qa.mandriva.com/wiki/

You can even see how to use your hardware and validate if it functions or not. Using TESTZILLA, a set a pre-ordered procedures allowing anybody to improve easily the distribution's work.
Using this procedures will allow you to follow a guided way of making your hardware work (thus eradicating wrong manipulations) and doing an automatic bugzilla post in case of any problem.

You can find this wonderfull tool on bugzilla's main page (http://qa.mandriva.com/ section Testzilla.

If you want to test a component, just create a bugzilla account, perform a test (Perform any test) and you're done !

Doc may be missing -a little- but saying nothing is available seems -a little- exagerated.

(My ./ account is still not opened, so i post this as anonymous)

Stef

I have been using Mandrake/Mandriva for years and my Netgear MA311 has worked since around 2002. This is a Prism 2/2.5/3 chipset card.

In 2005.0, for some reason the wifi drivers for such chipsets was defaulted to hostap rather than orinoco. Due to driver bugs this meant that the ncessary extra magic did not ncessarily make it into modules.conf causing wifi to fail to come after first boot until the necessary line was added. See this Mandriva bugzilla bug.

2006 now appears to default to orinoco and required no extra prodding to get working in my tests of the Beta releases. Of course I don't have your exact machine so no one will be able to tell you for sure.

As others have said, make sure that your DWL 520 really is prism based. That model of card has been through lots of chipsets (upping the model number each time would have saved the world a lot of pain but I guess marketing and cost to reprint stuff won over).

There is bugzilla and a wiki.

There is bugzilla and a wiki.

Sure you can downloand 95% of Mandriva gratis on easyurpmi.

However, doing so contributes _nothing_ to the cost of development and QA for the Mandriva distribution.

Instead, you could consider getting a Mandriva Club subscription and downloading the full version via http://club.mandriva.com/ and thereby help ensure the on-going development and support of the distro.

Frankly, the only reason to get through all this idiocy is if there is a laptop manufacturer there waiting to start shipping Linux as an option on their laptops. Wonder who this is...

Mandriva already has a deal with Dell to sell Laptops with Mandriva pre-installed. http://www.mandriva.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/pro ducts/2567

Regards

If you are planning to run it, you may consider a quick look at: The Mandriva 2006 Twiki Page. It has links to the Errata Page, Release Notes and the Distro Changelog

My first impressions:

• Very Fast. Boots fast (see the link above). It runs very fast, I guess because of the use of gcc4. Very, very responsive.
• Sexy. Fonts look great, KDE 3.4.2 looks fantastic. It also is very useable, again, mainly because of KDE in my setup. The Mandrake tools are, as always, greatly appreciated, including urpmi. Haven't tried using s.m.a.r.t. yet.
• No Kat, No ACPI. YMMV, but Kat brings my desktop down ot its knees. It takes way too much CPU usage. I uninstalled it. And there is a know bug (follow the links above) in X org that they will try to fix soon, but the quick workaround is to disable ACPI. Please don't bitch, if you can't live without it (like if you have a laptop), just wait a couple weeks for the fix and then you install
• OOO 2.0. I am running the Open Office 2.0 from the contributed packages, it runs great, I am really loving it. Point your software manager to the Contrib medium and install (or join the Club and everything will be even easier). There is a nice ooo-kde package to integrate (not perfect yet) with KDE. Sweet.

Cheers,
Don Inodoro

Beagle:

Office: OpenOffice.org 1.0 (SXW, SXC, SXI, and more), OpenOffice.org 2.0 (ODT, ODP and more), Microsoft Office (DOC, XLS, PPT), AbiWord (ABW), Rich Text Format (RTF)

Standard: PDF, HTML, Plain text

Documentation: Texinfo, Man pages, Docbook, Monodoc, Windows help files (CHM), Application launchers

Multimedia: Images (JPEG, PNG, SVG), Audio (MP3, OGG, FLAC)

Network: Evolution mail, calendar, and addressbook, Gaim IM and IRC logs, Firefox/Epiphany web pages (as you view them, through browser extensions), Blam and Liferea RSS feeds, Tomboy notes

Kat:

Office: OpenOffice.org 1.0 (SXW, SXI, SXC, SXM), OpenOffice.org 2.0 (ODT, ODP, ODS, ODF, ODS, ODC), Microsoft Office (DOC, XLS, PPT), Rich Text Format (RTF), Gnumeric, KOffice (KWD, KPR, KSP, KFO), Lyx, Tex, Device Independent Document (DVI)

Standard: PDF, PostScript, HTML, Plain text

Documentation: Man pages, Debian Package (DEB)

Other: BibTex Bibliographic database (BBL, BIB), Molecular Database Limited Molecule (MDL), DocBook Document (DBK)

I dunno... but unless it's just not rendering correctly for me,
http://kat.mandriva.com/ has to be the *fugliest* web page I've
laid eyes on in quite a while. It's sad. Really.

What is called tenor here is already existing albeit in a very rough state as kate.
It isnt really very functionnal yet, but it will be included in Mandriva 2006, which you can think of as a mistake from mandriva or as a gesture of trust and commitment toward that application and what it will become:
http://kat.mandriva.com/

Personnally, I removed it, but I'm also glad my favorite distribution is doing this kind of choices. After all, they included KDE by default when it wasnt very popular to do so, and it was quite a good choice in the long run.
When I see the kind of interactions that will be done later with a good data miner engine behind the desktop, i understand why they did that.

Here you go

http://www.mandriva.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/cor porate/2564

I use linux daily and enjoy it, but is it really ready for your standard mom-and-pop windows users anyways?

On and off for five years, I've seen a range of people from grade schoolers to retirees come into the library and use various linux distros without noticing. For a few years now, the distros are set up to detect and mount floppies and flash drives automatically. Unmounting the drives is actually easier than on MS-Windows.

Try it. I recommend Mandriva or Ubuntu for that purpose. Linux distros are there. The only thing lacking is either 1) OEM installations on new machines and/or 2) consumer awareness. And you know the obstacle with those already ...

I have no idea how your post was marked interesting.

The difference between Microsoft and Linux is that it's FREE. If you want a single distro to do everything M$ can, go to a site that will provide just that. I suggest this one or possibly this one. Both are just fine as distros go.... And interoperable. If you want more, go pull it from the distro that has what you want. Not many are selling 'licenses' for basic Linux distros ATM, and they're CERTAINLY not going to sell you ten versions of the same thing - if you pay for it, you get a LOT more and that includes support.

Yes, considering that you can download and install any(*) of those Linux distributions for free, and that both Linux and Windows (and Mac OS and BSD...) are operating systems, doing basicaly the same thing... How exactly Windows qualifies as monopolly?

It's not that anyone forces you to use it, just download/buy any of the alternatives and use it.

So if you say that MS has monopolly on Windows OS market, I'll say that Linux has monopolly on..um... market of OS'es using Linux kernel?

(* not all of the Linux distributions are "completely free", and please don't start this "free as in this vs. free vs. that" argument)

I take your point, but it seems to depend on context. The major Linux distros, for example, seem to be seeling pretty well from my local PC store at around 30-40 pounds (I'm in the UK), which is a pretty significant fraction of the asking price for Windows XP Home.

Said distros are sold that price for price of the support and documentation that come with them (support you don't have when you buy WXP Home), and sometimes for price of paid softwares bundled in the package, not for the distro itself.

I guess it's all about convenience. Whereas things like Firefox or OpenOffice.org can usually just be downloaded from the project's web site, it's harder to find a "pre-fab" version of SUSE Linux for example.

Ah yeah, really hard, I mean you have to click on links to Novell from suse.de, really really hard walli walli walli

and everyone clearly knows that one can't find any freely downloadable distro on teh intarweb

The GNOME project has some open source accessibility tools that are very easy to set up and use; the major Linux distributions such as Mandriva already include them. See the Gnome Accessibility Project pages for a good overview.

There is an on-screen keyboard; there's also Dasher a predictive text entry system which some people find useful and which can be used via a pointer device.

I'll also mention that there are pointer devices that use a dot on your forehead, so you move your head, which can be useful for people who have tremors in their hands; another option can be foot pedals. The Dasher page mentions use of an eye-tracker.

As others have mentioned, voice-over-IP can be useful, and tools like gnome-meeting and an always-on webcam might be worth considering.

The World Wide Web Consortium also has some resources about accessibility.

Hundreds of vulnerabilities discovered in Linux since the release of a distro: http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?dis=10 .1

Hundreds of vulnerabilities discovered in Linux since the release of a distro:

http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?dis=10 .1

But of course, that's not newsworthy because it doesn't involve hating Microsoft. This ain't a troll; it's an attempt to show that BOTH systems have pretty lame security track records, yet all we hear about is Windows.

Look at that list above. Given 300 million clueless users running that Mandrake instead of Windows, don't you think there'd be exploits for that plenthora of holes too?

Still freely available - just look at their page.

The Enterprise level doesn't have additional packagaes over the Mandrake Club Version. The Mandrake Club Version only has extra binary/non-free packages added.

To clarify, the Enterprise version is just a garunteed stable version, much like Debina stable. They also garuntee support for it for 5 years. There is nothing in it that you don't get with the regular version, except only security updates get applied to the Enterprise one for 5 years. For the small time user, big whoop.

To download the free version click here. It was like three clicks to find it.

I personally have found that Ubuntu does not have as good of hardware support as Mandrake/Mandriva. It is also a good idea to check the errata first as well.
EasyURPMI is a nice resource to add additional sources for packages.

I wrote about this earlier today on bitsofnews.com. I'll save you the click and paste my thoughts here.

I am not sure how MS expects to keep pushing this down people's throats.
Most people don't want to be treated as thieves, and I can see some general backlash coming to MS from this.

I really don't see how this will, in the long run, benefit MS. Most people in the 1st world buy a computer from a major distributer, and use the (usually) legit copy of Windows from that. I'm guessing that that one-third number includes nations like India and China, where people can't afford the 1st world pricing scheme of Windows.

Oh, wait, silly me, why don't these poor people just use XP Starter Edition? Right. That's the ticket.

Do they seriously think this will decrease piracy in the 3rd world? All they've really done is cripple their product. They now have several issues to deal with.

This "Genuine Advantage" program is tantamount to legitimizing "pirated" XP. To many, I suspect it sends the message: "Ok, use pirated XP if you want, we'll just give special benefits to those who pay us." It's almost like a "shareware" model of distribution. Seeing how they are trying to push "XP Starter Edition", I seriously doubt this is their intent -- but it looks like they've emasculated that product entirely.

Simply, Pirated XP Home/Pro is still less crippled than XP SE. So for the 3rd world market, it's a choice between paying for a highly crippled OS, or getting a slightly crippled OS for free. I don't see many people paying for the privilege of less features.

This is also a potential gold mine for alternative OS's, such as the newer GNU/Linux systems pushing ease-of-install; Ubuntu, Mepis, Mandravia, Fedora spring to mind immediately, and there are many others.

Given the choice of a super-crippled SE, a somewhat-crippled XP Home/Pro, or a fully-functional GNU/Linux, GNU/Linux becomes an increasingly "no-brainer" solution.

Just so you know Mandriva Bought Lycoris after they bought Conectiva.

http://www.mandriva.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/cor porate/2556

I've used (formerly Mandrake) Move, Knoppix, SLAX, and Mepis. Most people I know who have heard of the live CDs have heard of all of those, and a bunch more.

Or what Mandrake charges.

I wonder why an OEM vendor shipping Linux pre-installed on laptops only signals "The Future of Linux on Laptops" when it's Debian^WUbuntu ?

HP first started shipping Linux preinstalled on NX5000s with SuSE.

And, Mandriva ships pre-installed HP laptops (looks like an NX9030) in Europe

I point out that Mandriva 2005LE does everything (at least on my HP NX7010) this apparently "highly configured system designed especially for HP notebooks" does out-the-box, including:

-LAN (8139too)
-WiFi (ipw2100 in my case)
-Modem
-Sound
-Bluetooth (I use it with a Logitech MX900 and my Nokia 6600)
-Graphics adapter (fglrx or radeon)
-Battery usage meter (ie acpi)
-Suspend to disk
-Hotkey configuration (new in 2005LE, keyboarddrake should choose the right keyboard layout )

I don't have any Firewire devices, and I all the IR devices I have have a faster medium (bluetooth or cable), so I haven't tested them, but the firewire modules get loaded fine.

(On the download edition of Mandriva, you would need to download the firmware for the ipw2100, you would get the radeon driver, and the modem may not work out-the-box ... but that's the price of Freedom ... Ubunto isn't Free!)

So ... I see this more as Linux becoming more mature in support of features we all want working out-the-box (which previously requried manual setup).

Because unfortunatelly and for the embarrasment of the Linux community. Suse is hardly seen as a distro with good customer support.

However many Linux users are more than willing to spend their free time to help you out migrate.

First thing buy a few cheap Live-CDs to find out which distro picks up the wifi.
Check the wifi itself is OK.

There one of many online shops that sells cheap Linux CDs - like OSDisc.com
They cost about few dollars each.
Make sure you include a few classic Live CDs such as:

* Knoppix
* Kanotix
* Slax
* Mandriva - old name Mandrake (know to be good at hardware detection)

Check out forums:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/

Check out a Linux User group near you:
http://www.linux.org/groups/

If you end up liking Mandriva, their support is better and for a small subscription fee you can join their "Club" to get help.

Commercial distros such as Xandros specially and Linspire are known to have very excellent customer support. But I've never had direct experience this is what I keep hearing.

For Debian systems Libranet is known to have very good customer support also.

If all this is confusing, just make a list of what you need and I will try my best to help you out.

My only complaint is that they can be a little too bleeding edge. They shipped the 2.6.8 kernel with 10.1 and it totally sucked. 10.2 (now Limited Edition 2005) ships with 2.6.11 and has been very stable. I run it on everything from multiproc boxes to my laptop.

http://www.mandriva.com/

Not unless it is the livecd Mandriva Move
(The live cd previously known as Mandrake Move)

ANYONE could simply take Redhat Linux, rebrand it as something else, and sell it or give it away for free.

You mean like Mandriva (formerly Mandrake formerly MacMillan) or White Box Linux?

Doesn't seem to have deterred RedHat.

Or on the purchase details. Looks like maybe someone mixed up x86-64 support and XBox?

Edit: ...it's never mentioned here, the official feature list.

Flash Newsletter: Mandrakesoft Announces Name Change!
It's been in the air for a few weeks...
After spending weeks balancing pros and cons, Mandrakesoft has decided to change its name!
The name change will apply worldwide to both the company and its products. The management team sees two good reasons for this change:
1. The recent Mandrakesoft - Conectiva merger calls for a new identity that better represents the combination of two key companies and their global presence.
2. The long-winding trademark lawsuit with Hearst Corporation has reached a point where we decided it is more reasonable for us to move forward. By adopting a new name, we eliminate the liability attached to the Mandrakesoft name and we can focus on what is important to us: developing and delivering great technology and solutions to both our customers and our user community.
We will endeavor to build even stronger brand recognition in our new name. So what is the new name?
The winner is ...

M A N D R I V A

Why Mandriva? This new name, simple and efficient, is the synthesis of Mandrakesoft and Conectiva. This will further a smooth transition and will build on our existing brand recognition in the IT world.
* Company & Products
Mandriva is the new name for the company. Mandriva Linux is the new name covering products.
Additional derivations follow directly: Mandriva Club, Mandriva Store, Mandriva Expert and so on.

* Websites
Our web addresses become accordingly:
http://www.mandriva.com/ for the corporation
http://www.mandrivalinux.com/ for the community project
http://www.mandrivastore.com/ for the online Store
http://www.mandrivaclub.com/ for the Club
http://www.mandrivaexpert.com/ for the web-based support platform


We encourage everyone - users, partners, and the media - to start using the new name as soon as possible. In particular, Mandriva users are encouraged to update their bookmarks ASAP! New Mandriva logos are now available on our website at:

http://www.mandriva.com/company/press

* Mandriva Club Contest!

Help the new Mandriva name to spread everywhere and win many prizes such as a HP laptop!
A big contest has opened on Club, learn more at: http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=3589

The Mandriva Management Team

Flash Newsletter: Mandrakesoft Announces Name Change!
It's been in the air for a few weeks...
After spending weeks balancing pros and cons, Mandrakesoft has decided to change its name!
The name change will apply worldwide to both the company and its products. The management team sees two good reasons for this change:
1. The recent Mandrakesoft - Conectiva merger calls for a new identity that better represents the combination of two key companies and their global presence.
2. The long-winding trademark lawsuit with Hearst Corporation has reached a point where we decided it is more reasonable for us to move forward. By adopting a new name, we eliminate the liability attached to the Mandrakesoft name and we can focus on what is important to us: developing and delivering great technology and solutions to both our customers and our user community.
We will endeavor to build even stronger brand recognition in our new name. So what is the new name?
The winner is ...

M A N D R I V A

Why Mandriva? This new name, simple and efficient, is the synthesis of Mandrakesoft and Conectiva. This will further a smooth transition and will build on our existing brand recognition in the IT world.
* Company & Products
Mandriva is the new name for the company. Mandriva Linux is the new name covering products.
Additional derivations follow directly: Mandriva Club, Mandriva Store, Mandriva Expert and so on.

* Websites
Our web addresses become accordingly:
http://www.mandriva.com/ for the corporation
http://www.mandrivalinux.com/ for the community project
http://www.mandrivastore.com/ for the online Store
http://www.mandrivaclub.com/ for the Club
http://www.mandrivaexpert.com/ for the web-based support platform


We encourage everyone - users, partners, and the media - to start using the new name as soon as possible. In particular, Mandriva users are encouraged to update their bookmarks ASAP! New Mandriva logos are now available on our website at:

http://www.mandriva.com/company/press

* Mandriva Club Contest!

Help the new Mandriva name to spread everywhere and win many prizes such as a HP laptop!
A big contest has opened on Club, learn more at: http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=3589

The Mandriva Management Team