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Conectiva Linux 9 Review
JigSaw writes "Here's an english review of a popular Linux distro in the Latin American countries: Conectiva Linux 9. Jason Prince investigates its installation, the desktop usage, the package manager (synaptic) and some of the problems he met on the way."
Sean spent all his waking hours on IRC; he was a well known "operator" of the homosexual "chat room" #slashdot. In fact, Sean possessed great power over his IRC subjects, for not only did he operate #slashdot, he was an IRC operator as well. Sean smirked gleefully when he thought about his power over the IRC rabble, and took great pleasure in kicking them off and "K-lining" them. K-lining had become a masturbatory ritual for Sean--the banning of an innocent user coupled with subsequent jacking off gave him sexual thrills of the highest variety.
Sean had spent the past few hours in his daily ritual of scouring the internet for child pornography while desperately trying to seduce young boys on Yahoo Chat. Suddenly his computer beeped at him.
"What the fuck," he stuttered in his high-pitched, feminine voice, tinged with his genetic speech impediment.
His IRC window was blinking. He moved his kiddie porn half way down the screen and looked to see a message from a gay lover.
Sean quickly deleted the #crapfloodchan group, and went into to #kuro5hin.org, the official Kuro5hin channel.
And with that, Sean deleted and banned #kuro5hin.org. This excitement made Sean very aroused, and he quickly pulled his pants down to his ankles with his bony disfigured arm. His penis stood at full attention, a scant 3 inches, thin and curving violently to the right. He began to rub it with his withered, deformed hand, whispering a litany of curses against kurons and their ilk. His excitation grew and grew; as he reached his climax a pitiful droplet of semen dribbled onto his finger.
Then, Sean's boss walked in.
"Oh Sean, can you take this to the.. OH CHRIST! NOT AGAIN!!!!!" His face turned red and he immediately turned to face the wall once he saw what Sean was doing.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! YOU'RE FIRED! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T DO THA
Linux could take hold as a cheaper os inthe relativley pooer countries...maybe we should focus more on these places
Here's an english review...
Oh thank god! I was expecting something in a foreign language.
This review was posted earlier on Freshmeat. It had a cold response there and I imagine it will have the same here.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
It's otherwise inferior
No matter how good Linux is and how bad Windows is, people first have to know what Linux is. Once Desktop adoption in any country is over 10% or so, then it is a very slippery slope for MS. That is one reason why they are fighting so hard to keep >99% or so of the i386 desktop.
Aquí está una revisión inglesa de un distro popular de Linux en los países americanos latinos: Conectiva Linux 9. El príncipe de Jason investiga su instalación, el uso de escritorio, el encargado del paquete (sináptico) y algo de los problemas que él resolvió en el way.
Conectiva Linux, desarrollado por Conectiva S.A. del vendedor brazilian, es la distribución más popular de Suramérica, así que está sorprendiendo absolutamente que no hay más revisiones de sus productos en línea. Esto está sorprendiendo realmente absolutamente - mientras que usted pudo no haber oído mucho sobre Conectiva Linux sí mismo, usted conoce casi ciertamente absolutamente mucho cerca de tres de sus contribuciones más importantes a la comunidad abierta de la fuente - el sistema del icono de Conectiva, la conveniente-RPM, y el sináptico cristalinos. Conectiva Linux, Página 1/4 Conectiva Linux 9 es el lanzamiento más reciente Conectiva S.A., salvo algunas inspecciones previoes de la tecnología y los primeros dos betas de su versión próxima 10. Vino originalmente en cuatro CDs, pero en el centro del año pasado Conectiva tiró de un sistema enorme de actualizaciones juntas y lanzó la actualización 1 en otro CD, llevando el total cinco. Cuando está remendada del CD de la actualización 1, la distribución incluye un sistema respetable de los componentes de la base, incluyendo el núcleo 2.4.21, de Xfree86 4.3.0, de KDE 3.1.2, del Gnomo 2.2.0, y de OpenOffice 1.0.3; y, por supuesto, conveniente y sináptico. La detección del hardware es proporcionada por el kudzu Red Hat's, que es generalmente excelente. Tres idiomas están disponibles para elegir de: Español, portugués e inglés. Instalación La utilidad de la instalación de Conectiva, milla (para el instalador modular) es una poco diferente a los otros programas de la instalación de Linux que he visto sobre los años; aunque lleva una cierta semejanza en la construcción a Debian. Algo que me impresionó grandemente sobre la milla era la capacidad al torbellino de la hélice las actualizaciones a la derecha en la instalación principal, en vez de tener que instalar la distribución baja, siguió por las actualizaciones. Usted cargador justo inmediatamente el CD de la actualización 1 en vez de la instalación original CD1 - el proceso es exactamente igual, pero pre-se remienda el sistema que resulta. (como lado-nota, usted puede también utilizar el CD de la actualización 1 para remendar una instalación existente de la versión 9.0; esto es tan fácil como el comenzar sináptico, seleccionando acciones, agrega el CD-ROM y el siguiente de los avisos, y entonces chascando el botón grande de la mejora de Dist seguido cerca proceda - sináptico hace el resto. Muy me impresionaron cuando intenté esto.) Una vez que usted consiga más allá del proceso inicial del booting, el proceso entero es gráfico por defecto; un instalador basado texto se proporciona como reserva. Usted selecciona una lengua, lee las notas del lanzamiento, y después configura su ratón, teclado y red. El ratón generalmente se detecta automáticamente, y usted apenas tiene que chascar el botón siguiente, mientras que los diálogos del teclado y de la red son también bastante que se explica por sí mismo. La tabla de la partición entonces se inicializa, y usted puede seleccionar un perfil de la instalación. Por defecto, usted no consigue seleccionar los paquetes individuales, que es una buena cosa para la mayoría de los usuarios. Le entonces incitan crear las particiones necesarias para instalar Conectiva Linux 9. El primer mensaje que usted conseguirá si usted no tiene cualesquiera unpartitioned el espacio libre es que el repartir automático ha fallado, que es muy unintuitive para los nuevos usuarios. Si usted tiene algún espacio libre, el partitioner procurará crear una partición del intercambio (si es necesario) y una sola partición ext3 para los archivos. Esperaría normalmente que la partición del intercambio fuera creada en el extremo de la impulsión o del esp
www.peoplesprimary.com has a great review of Connectiva 9 up too!
Conectiva Linux 9 is already rather old...
The 10th release is arriving soon.
They were the first with apt-get for rpms. Pretty cool distro.
Linux SUCKS. It SUCKS long and hard, and will always SUCK until you pathetic lunix geeks learn what it's i\like to be an adult. we live in AMERICA, not some COMMIE LAND. Microsoft is the spirit of american innlovation, linux is COMMUNIST.
Ad-free version
Conectiva Linux 9 - The Latin American Distribution You Should Know
Posted by special contributor Jason Prince on 2004-04-15 06:12:20 UTC
Conectiva Linux, developed by Brazilian vendor Conectiva S.A., is the most popular distribution in South America, so it's quite surprising that there aren't more reviews of their products online. This is really quite surprising - while you may not have heard much about Conectiva Linux itself, you almost certainly know quite a lot about three of their most important contributions to the open source community - the Conectiva Crystal icon set, apt-rpm, and Synaptic.
Conectiva Linux, Page 1/4
Conectiva Linux 9 is the most recent release from Conectiva S.A., barring some technology previews and the first two betas of their upcoming version 10. It originally came on four CDs, but in the middle of last year Conectiva pulled a huge set of updates together and released Update 1 on another CD, taking the total to five. When patched from the Update 1 CD, the distribution includes a respectable set of core components, including kernel 2.4.21, Xfree86 4.3.0, KDE 3.1.2, Gnome 2.2.0, and OpenOffice 1.0.3; and, of course, apt and Synaptic. The hardware detection is provided by Red Hat's kudzu, which is generally excellent. Three languages are available to choose from: Spanish, Portuguese and English.
Installation
The Conectiva installation utility, mi (for Modular Installer) is a little different to the other Linux installation programs I've seen over the years; although it bears some similarity in construction to Debian's. Something that greatly impressed me about mi was the ability to slipstream the updates right into the main installation, instead of having to install the base distribution, followed by the updates. You just boot straight off the Update 1 CD instead of the original installation CD1 - the process is exactly the same, but the resulting system is pre-patched.
(As a side-note, you can also use the Update 1 CD to patch an existing installation of version 9.0; this is as easy as starting Synaptic, selecting Actions, Add CD-ROM and following the prompts, and then clicking the big Dist Upgrade button followed by Proceed - Synaptic does the rest. I was very impressed when I tried this.)
Once you get past the initial booting process, the entire process is graphical by default; a text-based installer is provided as a backup. You select a language, read the release notes, and then configure your mouse, keyboard and network. The mouse is usually automatically detected, and you just have to click the Next button, while the keyboard and network dialogs are also fairly self-explanatory. The partition table is then initialised, and you can select an installation profile. By default, you don't get to select individual packages, which is a good thing for most users.
You are then prompted to create the necessary partitions to install Conectiva Linux 9. The first message you'll get if you don't have any unpartitioned free space is that automatic partitioning has failed, which is very unintuitive for new users. If you do have any free space, the partitioner will attempt to create a swap partition (if needed) and a single ext3 partition for files. Normally I would expect the swap partition to be created at the end of the drive or free space, not at the beginning, but there doesn't seem to be a problem with the reverse approach. Other than this, the partitioner is fairly standard, if a bit dated; like Red Hat's Anaconda, you aren't able to resize existing partitions.
Following partitioning the installation of the base system begins, which takes about ten minutes. When the base system has been installed, the installer exits without warning, something that gave me a considerable jolt when I first saw it. The installer displays an ascii logo of Tux while it remounts the partitions in some way and then starts the graphical front-end again. Once restarted, the packages you chose earlier are installed.
Synaptic is
Was really nice see this review of Conectiva 9 even now near release of next one. For everyone interested in help with next release development, go to https://moin.conectiva.com.br/TechnologyPreview ( English link ) and see download directions to latest test release.
You fat fucking cunt
Any expert opinions??
As an actual link: Connectiva's Technology Preview Page
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
- Seneca
Seems like all the major distributions now are either solely KDE based or a KDE+Gnome combination. Anyone know of a Gnome only distribution? I currently use Fedora but I am concerned that Redhat doesn't have much focus on the home desktop market.
Absolutely brilliant. This can only be a good thing, the latest numbers I saw indicated that a large amount of spam came from rooted linux boxen. Make it easy for those noobs to be patched, and they will be. Make it hard, and they won't bother. I wonder how much spam it would save us all if all the major distros did something like this.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
I installed apt-get and Synaptic on my laptop running Fedora 1. I absolutely love them, everytime I fire up my machine and the RHN applet tells me I need to upgrade, I use Synaptic to do it. Easy, painless, and fast.
It's informative, I think.
Man, i'm about as fucked up as a football bat...
Look at Eugenia's Loli's user page. Notice the story submissions at the bottom? That bitch has numerous aliases she uses to pimp her shitty website. Here's the ones I know of: Gentu, JigSaw, and Reader.
...why go with Linux? There's nothing worthwhile to run on it!
Seriously. I'd thrown on a pirated version of Windows before Linux any day. You're not gonna make Linux headway in countries where EVERYONE pirates stuff. It doesn't matter that Linux costs nothing, so does Windows, for all practical purposes. And since both are equally free in cost, it makes beter sense to go with the one that has the real apps written for it.
Linux will only be attractive in places where licenses have to be bought. And with Linux insurance now being something business must seriously consider, this makes Windows use even more attractive.
Face it, OSS has lost the game. In the short and long run, Windows is cheaper.
You may commence to crying.
Also like to wish a happy belated birthday to Maynard James Keenan. Keep on a-rocking me baybe! I'm listenening to every track I have with you on it to celebrate. Pong while you download?
How can I trust it when he is overlooking something so obvious as the 'Find' option in Synaptic?
I quote: it won't let you search the apt catalogues using natural language queries. For example, searching for 'word processor' returns no results; a more experienced user would know that they had to search for 'OpenOffice' or 'Abiword' to display the packages they were seeking. It would be great if Synaptic could search the package descriptions, as well as the title.
Now, in my Synaptic install (Debian unstable) I see the following: in the right top corner is a search box that does an incremental search on package name only. In the Package menu I find an option named Find (shortcut Ctrl-F, as a Windows/IE user would expect it) which allows me to search on all fields of the package. By default the search dialog that comes up searches on both package name and description.
Otherwise I would say, Synaptic rocks! It is the nicest package manager I have ever used. I still do apt-get install for individual packages, but for finding packages and just browsing the tree, I use Synaptic. The daunting aspect the reviewer notes is due to the sheer amount of packages available, some 5500 on Conectiva, and some 14000 on Debian.
Just try it. Get synaptic (and if you're on an rpmbased system, apt4rpm) and give it a whirl. You won't go back.
Mart"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
Enjoy
As a south american geek i have to say that i have never meet someone who use Conectiva. I've use Linux for.. i dont know... 6 years, and in my personal experience RedHat and Debian are the most common distributions- at least in Chile.
Conectiva is well-known -as in TurboLinux well-known-but-not-much-used.
Please listen to this message now!
Click here to read what's up and coming
For details on what the developers are planning for Conectiva 11, read the dev plans.
Or mccullmw@clarkson.eNETdu ???
Linux seems like a good choice at first because the basic premise of Linux which is free software initially sounds like a great idea. But unfortunately like most things that seem too good to be true at first, Linux is yet another dismal failure.
Failure you say? How can Linux be a failure when so many big names like Walmart, IBM, various Government agencies and so forth are using Linux?
This is one of the dirty little secrets that the radical Linux movement does not want you to know about. The converts will flubber on and on about how Linux is making inroads in many major companies. While there is some truth in that statement, what they don't tell you is that Linux is being used as a server operating system and in most cases is replacing UNIX, NOT WINDOWS.
The same thing goes for Hollywood and the film industry where Linux is either being used as back office number crunchers or is replacing high end Unix rendering systems. One point that is ignored is that these high end programs cost just as much for Linux versions as they do for Unix versions, however the HARDWARE needed to run Linux is much cheaper than that needed to run REAL UNIX. IOW, it's all about money and NOT free applications and Windows isn't even really in the picture.
So why are many third and semi-third world nations converting to Linux? The answer is quite simple, the ability to plant whatever spyware they want right into the software before it is sold.
Having the source code is a two way street and while an end user can look at it, most don't care and wouldn't know what they were looking at anyway. The point is that these nations, like China, have a track record of oppression and spying on their citizens and Linux makes it so very easy for them to insert code that will report back to the authorities any odd behavior by the end user.
It's the perfect crime.
So where is Linux on the desktop? The truth is Linux is nowhere. Linux may, and I am being generous here, may have 1 percent of the desktop market but that is stretching it quite a bit.
Walmart is selling Linux machines, but how well are they selling and what kind of return rate do they have?
Do you know anyone outside of the computer science community using Linux? Does AOL work with Linux? Do all of those games on the shelf at Fry's work with Linux? Does Linux support modern hardware? Can Linux interface 100 percent with other Windows applications like Quicken and Microsoft Office?
The Linux cuckoo will say that WINE is a great way to use WIndows programs under Linux. The truth is WINE is a pile of garbage. It does not run Windows applications very well and in truth proves the fact that Linux is lacking in the area of applications that many users need.
Speaking of applications, this is the weakest part of Linux. Sure you get 100's of applications with a typical Linux CD, but who really needs 25 editors, compilers and a collection of games right out of 1985 circa TRON.
How about time?
Do you have any idea how long it takes to set up a Linux system properly using an editor like emacs?
It's a horror show.
Security?
Linux is one of the most insecure operating systems on the internet. Take a look at all of the alerts issued by any Linux vendor and you will see all kinds of stuff the cuckoos don't want you to know about.
The obvious conclusion is that Linux is a waste of time and should you not believe me take a trip over to: www.linuxiso.org and see for yourself.
Make sure you back up your system first though because when Linux installs it goes on a seek and destroy mission and will wipe out all of your Windows system including your data.
After all Linux is better, right?
NOT!
That would seem to be a good way to sell it--don't they have less silly vocal homonyms than English? Right! Not left? No, right!
-I am an elective eunuch.
Doesn't the climate make it difficult for them?
Hey fuckhead, it isn't very nice to put someone's email address in the SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR COMMENT when that person has taken the TIME to put in their USER PREFERENCES THAT THEY WANT SPAM ARMORING!!!
Too bad you posted that as an AC, or I would feed your address to the Google bots too.
In case you're wondering, Google doesn't index low-scored comments, so some negative moderation would help here.
Asscork.
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
Here in Venezuela i don't know anyone using it either. The prefered ones seem to be:
:)
Mandrake, Debian, Suse, Slackware, Gentoo, and Knoppix.
And i personally love FreeBSD
Artix
Your Linux, your init.
There's a banner at the top and a sidebar ad or you can hit the "printer friendly" link and get a version with no ads.
These ads arn't objectionable.
(Note: I don't see pop-ups and anybody who wants to block those can do it with exactly zero technical know-how, so if there are some they don't count.)
It's a troll, I understood. :)
Bless you,
need a hankie?
Conectiva is quite well known in Brazil. I think this is because of the language barrier. While Spanish and Portuguese are similar enough that reasonably intelligent speakers of the two can communicate with each other, there are significant differences.
However, the size of Brazil's population and its economy make it the most economically important nation in Latin America. It is a nation of 190 million people with a large and rapidly growing economy. Many economists believe that the nations that will dominate the 21st Century economically are the so-called "BRICs:" Brazil, Russia, India, and China. I mention this because I'm sure Mexicans will get upset seeing me say that Brazil is the most economically important nation in Latin America. Anyway, even if Conectiva were to only have its distro widely installed here in Brazil (and I'm not sure if that's the case), it could still be the most popular distro in Latin America. Consider that even though all the nations of Latin America except Brazil speak Spanish, a majority of people in South America speak Portuguese (the population of Brazil is larger than that of the rest of South America combined). I believe that Portuguese is narrowly not the language of the majority of Latin Americans because México has a large population.
Anyway, I am in the process of founding a company for industrial production of food (I prefer not to be more specific right now), and I intend to use Linux on our computers-- not just the servers, but the desktops too. Because of its native support for Portuguese (developed by native speakers too... heh) and because of the presence of Conectiva right here in São Paulo, I am almost certain to use the Conectiva distro. Yes, people like my office manager, who know only Windoze, will have to learn to deal with a new GUI, but she's smart enough, and I am planning for training of all workers who will use computers. The cost of that training comes out cheaper than paying MS licenses.
I am trying to build a "Values-Led" business, and I like that we will be supporting another Brazilian company and keeping the profits from our software expenditures here in our community instead of sending them to Redmond. It's also nice that the technical support will be from people here in our city (M$ phone support in Portuguese is reached by dialing a toll-free number here in Brazil, but the people who answer are Brazilians working in Redmond... strange but true). I love that we will not be treated like criminals by our software suppliers and will never have to undergo a license audit. I also love that my employees will be able to take Conectiva CDs home or download the images at home and be able to install exactly the same software at home as they use at work. Even if we upgrade the machines at work, the employees who use computers at home will be able to keep pace. Contrast this with the Windoze situation, where people use Windows 2000 or XP at work, but typically use Windows 95 or 98 at home.
It's also cool that some well-known kernel hackers have worked at Conectiva, including Marcelo Tosatti (he left and is now working elsewhere, but he was at Conectiva when he was asked to maintain the then-production kernel) and Rik van Riel.
--Mark
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too." --Eugene Wigner
One of the things that stops Joe Sixpak from using Linux is its inability to run decent games.
Is it possible that Linux will become the professional OS and Windows will be religated to being for hobbiests?
it's like buying a couch, obviously the $300 one at the brick is a bit better than the 10 year old ripped up cum stained couch in a back alley. it's the same with windows and linux. but im sure you already knew that if you knew anything at all.
But it's penguin cum, and that makes a difference!
Vote for global prefs bug
As a a geek living in latin america, I can tell you I've never seen or heard of anyone using Connectiva Linux.
Everyone uses redhat, lots of debian, etc... just like in USia
Don't marginalize spanish. Despite brazil's population, there is still every other country in central and south american toconsider... even if brazil had twice the population, this wouldnt' change.
To imply that brazil speaks for or represents all of latin america because it has more people than the rest is rediculous. Brazil is Brazil... and as cool as it is, it's not Colombia, or Venezuela, or Nicaragua, or Costa Rica, or Argentina.... and the people in those countries still speak Spanish.
It's great that this software is locally made and used... but that's not the same thing as saying it's used in all of latin america.
tha'ts like saying that because China has more people than the US, a chinese version of some cookie is "preferred" among the two.
Conectiva is just bad, and that's pretty much a consensus in the brazilian Linux community. If that wasn't enough, their solutions are overpriced, and they're pulling political levers to get government contracts instead of Microsoft - even though their product is _more_ expensive than what Microsoft produces.
Just a few months ago, they got the current left-leaning party to push for a change in public contractor law that put a "priority for Free Software solutions" above other criteria in public contracts.
I mean, they're just out to leech out taxpayer money with some lame nationalistic excuse.
My attempts to get this on the frontpage keep getting rejected, but the brazilian distro to watch is Kurumin, a noppix variant that fits on a mini-CD and includes just SO MUCH fucking software in 180 megs, and so much functionality.
This might seem overstated in bandwidth-abundant America, but it's way easier to download 200-odd megs to try out this new-fangled kool linux thang than the 4x600Mb downloads the new distros have been requiring.
Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated with Carlos Morimoto or the Kurumin crowd. Yes, I'm a brazilian taxpayer.
I've know about them since their first version, which was RedHat translated to Portuguese. The main reason for its popularity in Brazil was and still is the Portuguese language. This makes it popular with people who don't speak English and don't want to learn - which is simply a stupid move for someone working in IT.
Conectiva has undoubtedly matured in many ways but they're not as easy as Mandrake or as popular as RedHat (even in Brazil) or as power-user oriented as Debian or as Unix-like as Slackware.
It is a fairly popular distro in Brazil, but mostly among domestic users. Not many corporate users. AFAIK their biggest client is the state government of the state where they're based and it usually makes sense for a state government to favor local companies.
About the translation, it's extremely heterogeneous. Since it was done by contributors and not very well edited or verified, you find everything from great translations to simply incomprehensible ones. As a consultant in Brazil, I have come across a few companies using Conectiva over the years and more than once I've had to open the original RedHat man page alongside the translated Conectiva just to make heads and tails of it.
My genral impression has always been that Conectiva is a good way to start using Linux if your only language is Portuguese and if you know nothing about Linux and Unix. I don't know of any mission critical or big private companies using Conectiva.
What people use here is Red Hat/Fedora, Mandrake, Slackware and (sometimes) SUSE. Conectiva, people never heard about it.
I am aware that Conectiva is fairly well known in Brazil, but Brazil != South America. To call Conectiva "...the most popular distribution in South America" is quite a stretch,and nothing but a stupid marketing hype statement
-- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
There is a explanation for conectiva and linux scuess in Brazil: the fight agains piracy. We had a tax os 90% until the 80's, now the tax is just a big above 50%, mostly of domestic users, in the companies the rate is much more like 20 or 30%. This let to some companies start evaluating linux because they simply can't afford windows licences. Conective did a big help in this transformation, they even had a nice ad "seja legal, use software livre" - "be legal (legal means nice in portuguese too), use free software", and give support for companies changing to linux. Now, the fear of using linux is motly gone in Brazil, and people simply try it and see if it works for them. Conective is a very smart and nice company, even that I don't like their distro.
I'm tired of reading always the same stuff.
What's the point of grabbing articles from OSNews and Newsforge? Aren't there less known journals and web logs ?
There are so many other good articles that are not published here. Anyway...
Regarding Conectiva, I think that in Brazil people use it because it is in Portuguese basically. People who use Conectiva many times don't install it, IT people do it for them, whem it's used for call centers for instance. Then, why not just installing better distros with the default language pt_BR, it would be just better, and when you work with IT if you don't read English you're out of the race.
I have seen a lot of red hat, fedora, mandrake, suse boxes but never one with connectiva
I believe that the point here it's that, compared to Brazil, the other countries in South America are rather irrelevant economically speaking.
> I don't know of any mission critical or
> big private companies using Conectiva.
We chose Conectiva 9 for a roll-out (of servers designed to offer some desktop functionality) last year because of the flexible package support, the ability to run on ridicously underconfigured hardware and apt-get.
It has exceeded all expectations - I can't say fairer than that.
It was the price of a download for someone lucky enough to live in bandwidth-rich Europe.
Can you get access to free software (e.g. distros) in public libraries in Brazil? Not a troll - a genuine question.
Ok, according to
http://www.penguins.cl/penguins-region.htm
there are 5 million pairs in Antartica, and 3 million in Patagonia, and I don't see any sizeable populations anywhere else, so I was wrong that Patagonia rules the world in penguins, but it surely shares the honor with Antartica.
I am a Conectiva user since 2000. The first distro I tried to use was 5, the first I actually installed and used was 6. The reasons why I am still using Conectiva are manifold:
;-) And about languages: it isn't true that Conectiva only has three language options (pt_BR, en and es). These are the installation options. After installing you have all the languages that are available to any distro, and with the same completeness.
1) It was the first distro I managed to install by reading the documentation (others simply lacket it or were obscurely documented).
2) It is usually less resources-demanding than "bleeding-edge" distros (Mandrake is especially heavy) and my computer is an AMD 450 with 196 MB RAM.
3) They've got apt-get and synaptic. I got addicted to them and cannot bear using a distro that lacks any of them. I even used Mandrake for 4 months, but when the updates piled up I gave up and returned to Conectiva.
4) Their package repository is quite big (now).
However, I realise that many people hate them because:
1) There are programs (abiword one of them) that you simply won't run smoothly, even if you compile them yourself. Some important packages are missing and are usually uninstallable (pyGTK-2.0 is one).
2) Their mailing list is full of clueless newbies making silly questions and pretentious gurus giving rude answers. And good questions sometimes are not answered at all.
3) Conectiva has merged their desktop and server solutions, now their distro is "more-or-less" for both uses.
4) Some packages are not updated often (mozilla the most painful one).
5) Some of their packages are broken (I had to compile my own fontconfig to stop having strange output in my font selection boxes).
But in the overall I think that they deserve more attention and I will give them a 9.0 mark. It will be very sad for me if I eventually am forced to use another distro.
Spanish speakers of Latin America, please: don't bash Conectiva only because it's a Brazilian distro. Brazil does not want to colonise you; US does.
P.S. The Brazilian government will compare prices before buying -- and it is unlikely that they'll hire a company to do the whole job: there are too many "brains" working for gov institutions, like Unis and Tech Centres. They'll probably make their own distro, like China. That's why the government is switching to Linux, it has nothing to do with funding Brazilian companies, but with restarting autonomous technological development.
Excuse me, please, for the long post.
I installed it once just to check it out but I didn't like it. By then, I was a RedHat user. Now I only use Debian since it fits my needs (often).
I recommend Knoppix and Mandrake for end users here.
http://arhuaco.org/
Would you want to help the BSA, or whoever, crack down on software piracy here if it forces people to seek out alternatives?
One of the earliest cases of a company in the U.S. switching entirely away from MS was Ernie Ball. The BSA raided them, and discovered that they did not wipe the drives when moving engineering PCs to secretarial work, so there was much loaded but unused and unlicensed software. Rather than giving the company notice and some time to clean up, the BSA handed them a very large bill, and talked to all the news outlets about it. Ernie Ball settled for $100,000, and then removed all MS software from the company.
The story is here. I like this part:
QUESTION: But there's a real argument now about total cost of ownership, once you start adding up service, support, etc.
ANSWER: What support? I'm not making calls to Red Hat; I don't need to. I think that's propaganda...What about the cost of dealing with a virus? We don't have 'em. How about when we do have a problem, you don't have to send some guy to a corner of the building to find out what's going on--he never leaves his desk, because everything's server-based. There's no doubt that what I'm doing is cheaper to operate.
The BSA is our friend. They make businesses think of MS as the enemy.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.