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Mandriva Linux 2006 Beta Underway
linuxbeta writes "Distrowatch is reporting that 'The beta testing process for Mandriva Linux 2006 is now officially underway. All the new features, which are not yet all included in this first beta version, will appear in the next test versions. You will see changes in the network management, especially WiFi, in security, on the desktop with the new versions of KDE, GNOME, new version of the kernel, GCC....'. Screenshots are available."
Sigh. ISO downloads instead of bit-torrents. Maybe they figure the beta won't be popular enough to get lots of downloaders at once, but they still ought to be efficient about it.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
of a new version of KDE when it looks like the last several versions?
You forgot "This is a dupe of story _________" or "This store will be duped in _______ hours"
I'm sure it is somewhere.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Or another UI concern - if you're going to support 2 different window managers, why restrict it to the coke/pepsi of window managers? KDE and Gnome are now full-featured enough that providing both is basically just doubling the workload of the package maintainers for little gain - you have to make sure all your apps and config tools get along with both. More sensible would be to pick one of the big, modern, heavyweight WMs and also include a low-resource WM for use on legacy boxen.
Of course, even distros that do include Ice or XFCE don't actually set up their tools to work with them, so using a low-resource WM just gets you a GUI-aided command prompt and not much else.
Will this contain support for Atmel and Prism built in or will we have to go and get Prism Drivers or Atmel Drivers? The only problem without having built-in support is that for the Atmel you have to patch the kernel(only 2.6 and greater) and recompile it(takes awhile on a 1.7Ghz). It would be major convience for built-in support for these commonly used chipsets. I hope that this new distribution includes full WiFi support.
Fallout 3 will suck.
This is going to sound like a troll, but really it's not. Now, with all the talent and resources the linux community has, why can't someone come up with a beautiful default icon set for both KDE and Gnome? I don't care what anyone says, but those icons do not look professional and they are UGLY! First impressions matter, and to me, my first impression when I see a screenshot like that is, "What a POS". And before you say, "Well then, make your own icons", be assured that I would if I had the talent.
Now, it you want to see some examples of professional _and_ attractive icons, go to gnome-look.org and take a look at the Exquisite, Edge, or d3a icons.
My opinion below is not exactly on topic for your question, but the end result is that I would recommend Ubuntu. They make a great distro and support it well without being focused on money the way Mandriva has become. And now for the rest of my rant...
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In my opinion, Mandriva is no longer a viable option for anyone who wishes to try Linux for the first time. It has gone the way of many of the main distros in that they want money before you try. The problem with that of course is that if you decide you don't like the distro, you're still out the cash. Try three or more distros that require payment first and Linux quickly becomes prohibitively expensive for a single user. There is suppose to be a free, limited download of Mandriva available through the Mandriva club (and there is) but good luck finding it on their web site. I finally had to write to their tech support requesting they send me a link to the free "limited" version. Unfortunately for them, by the time they sent me a link to the limited version, I had already installed Ubuntu. Ubuntu works as well as any distro I have tried so far (in fact, better than most) and the Ubuntu community is MUCH less pushy when it comes to financial support.
The bottom line is, with many distros requiring payment up front, Linux is becoming at least as expensive as Windows, if not more so. I personally would not recommend anyone use any Linux distro that requires payment up front, no matter how good it is. If the distro is good, users will support it. If not, they won't. I believe this is what explains how Ubuntu has skyrocketed to the top of the distro popularity list. It is a great distribution and they don't ask for support until after you expect to stick with it. As it should be.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
I've never had that library issue you're talking about with compiling so I can't help you there.
As for RAM, it's a python-based graphical installer, what do you want? Text based is available if you need to stay slim. It's not like it uses that much RAM anyway. top resports it using 37 megs right now.