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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."

33 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. wow by dotpavan · · Score: 3, Funny

    and then we would have another story once the beta is out.. but with the same links and screenshots, what we call here a dupe!

  2. Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by goldspider · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Figured this would be as on-topic as anywhere...

    I'm thinkin of dropping Linux on a somewhat outdated computer I have lying around. It's a Celeron 533 w/ 256MB of RAM.

    Which user-friendly distribution would be more friendly to that kind of hardware? And God help anyone that says Gentoo..

    --
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    1. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by codesurfer · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'd go with Ubuntu...I've run it on less, with no problems.

    2. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by XanC · · Score: 3, Informative
      Actually Gentoo can be really good on low-end machines, because you can leave out everything you don't need.

      You'll probably want to do the actual compiling on another machine, though.

      Overall, though, I'd recommend Debian Stable. Fire-and-forget.

    3. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by spaztech · · Score: 3, Informative


      I'd say Ubuntu. I find that it runs better, has better hardware support out of the box and is easier to manage than Mandriva. However, I'm sure this is not always the case so your results may vary. Try them both, they're free and you'll learn something in the process.

      Be sure to mess around with Nessus, nMap and Metasploit. They'll teach you a great deal about securing your systems.

      --
      /. spaztech ./
    4. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by XanC · · Score: 2, Informative

      hmm, in that case, I'd probably do either Ubuntu or maybe even Knoppix (which you can install on the hard drive). Something user-friendly but Debian-based, just because I like Debian. :-)

    5. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by Mad_Rain · · Score: 4, Informative

      Depends on what you want to do, and if you have a preference for Gnome vs. KDE and/or apt-get .deb files vs. urpmi .rpm files.

      I'm going to presume you want a little desktop/fileserver type thing. Mandriva, once all cds are downloaded, supplies you with everything you need (and plenty you probably won't). The setup is pretty simple, hardware detection in my experience has been good, and is pretty stable. They include their own little GUI configuration tools for hardware detection, server setup, etc., and it can help you transition away from windows. It's default setup is for KDE (although you've got plenty of choices on the CDs) and uses urpmi and .rpm files to download and install new programs and update stuff.

      Ubuntu is a little different - the download is only one cd, and it only offers you Gnome as default. (The Kubuntu project, also one CD, offers KDE, and is a "apt-get install" away). Because it starts out so simple, you have to be alittle more knowledgable about linux and how to go about setting things up. Ubuntu also uses apt-get and .deb files to install/update programs, and is much easier to use than urpmi in my opinion. It's also harder to "screw up" since it offers you some limited ways to mess things up.

      And on that note, both distros as I recall , offer livecds to test-drive your system with. Try downloading those and checking them out if you have the time/bandwidth. (But if you don't, go with Ubuntu - they'll ship you cds for free!)

      --
      "What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
    6. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by rainman_bc · · Score: 2, Informative

      Honestly, drop KDE and Gnome for something lighter.

      Xfce is awesome for slower computers. There's tonnes of other desktops and WM's out there that are way more efficient than Gnome and KDE.

      IMO they're just as bloated asp XP.

      --
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    7. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by MirrororriM · · Score: 2, Informative
      Personally, I had used Mandrake since somewhere in the 6.x era. I only recently switched to Ubuntu which was a snap to install, but I miss a few things about Mandrake (which are still configurable in Ubuntu). I find that "apt-get install" is just as easy as "urpmi --update --auto --auto-select", but things tend to not get broken like they do with RPMs. Using Synaptic is just as easy as using Mandrakes package manager (can't remember the name offhand) for comparison sake.

      I'm also in the process of switching my web server (my last machine using Mandrake) to Debian. I have to say IMO that Debian/Ubuntu has a much larger package selection than Mandrake does (Debian's package list vs. Mandrake's package list) and I'm quite happy that I made the switch. I especially like the fact that I can use the most current Debian version (3.1) for my two Sun stations (one single-processor and one dual-processor) vs. using a way outdated (and not really supported) Mandrake 7.2.

      Overall, it was experimenting with Ubuntu that turned me on to Debian even though I had been using Knoppix (Debian-based) in the past. What turned me away from Mandrake/Mandriva is the fact that they're turning into a Redhat-type organization. Meaning "For $$ we have the enterprise-level edition, and for free, we have the cut-down, shaved-off, download version". I don't forsee Debian doing that any time in the near future.

      Just my 2 pennies.

      --
      Content Management System: A pretentious way of saying "text editor."
    8. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by It+doesn't+come+easy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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...
      --
      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.
    9. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by rbochan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The laptop I'm typing this on is a Dell Latitude CP 233/128 cirica 1997 running Debian Unstable (Sid). It's also running KDE 3.4.1 - not by any means quickly, but the machine's rock solid other than the crappy pcmcia NIC I have.
      I'm running Sid because of the later KDE packages than Sarge (Stable) has. This latest version of KDE is considerably better on the overhead than the 3.3.x versions, imo, especially if you minimize the eye candy you use. I could certainly be running a [sic] 'lesser' window manager likde Icewm, blackbox, or even XFCE, but my main desktop machine runs KDE and I like to be able to use those same apps when mobile. Since this laptop is what I've got to use for work, it's got KDE 3.4.1.

      I have zero complaints about usability. Things take a bit longer to start up than on my P-III 800 at home, but it's nothing I can't deal with. The only thing that pains me to start is OpenOffice - I like to have a good book nearby if I fire that up, or take that opportunity to hit the bathroom.

      I did try Ubuntu on this machine, but I wasn't satisified with their package contents in their repo's. And yes, I know I can mix in Debian's, but I prefer to stay supported when I can. I personally haven't seen an advantage in using Ubuntu, but I'm sure others (w)could argue with me about that until we're blue in the face. Ubuntu uses a bit of a modified Debian Installer, so if you can install Ubuntu, you can install Debian.

      I can't say anything about Mandriva as I've not gone near them since a support fiasco way back with Mandrake 8.2. I haven't trusted them since then, and its likely I won't again.

      --
      ...Rob
      The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
    10. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by markdavis · · Score: 2, Informative

      >they want money before you try

      BZZZT! Wrong! Mandrake/Mandriva have ALWAYS had both a free and commercial version. The free version is *EASILY* obtained from COUNTLESS mirror sites. The only difference between the two is that the commercial version includes support and copyrighted (non-GPL) packages.

    11. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by Penguinshit · · Score: 2, Interesting


      I loaded Ubuntu on a machine here at work (it's our "electronic receptionist") because the machine wouldn't be heavily used and I could afford to horse around. I found the installation and configuration to be brainless and painless. I had the system up and running in two days, complete with the "receptionist" program (Apache running a local version of our Corporate website with a big "Please Sign In" on the front page).

      The thing is an old PII-400 with 256mb RAM and it's solid as hell. If the machine goes down, BIOS reboots as soon as power is applied. Using the desktop manager I set the "guest" user to login automagically and fire up the brower set to the internal home page. It took me longer to configure the IPTables script than it did to configure Ubuntu once I got it all loaded.

      Given this, I'd recommend Ubuntu for a beginner.

    12. Re:Ask Slashdot: Ubuntu vs. Mandriva by ReinoutS · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I can't say anything about Mandriva as I've not gone near them since a support fiasco way back with Mandrake 8.2. I haven't trusted them since then, and its likely I won't again.
      That must be an awful long time ago. Regardless, I never needed any more support for Mandriva than the free newsgroups, lists and fora offered. Besides, the technical qualities of the distro have nothing to do with the level of support from the company that produces it.
  3. entire conversation: by databyss · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Mandriva Linux suxorz! The best distro is _____ biznatches!!"

    "Yeah well all linux suxorz! Windows is teh roxorz!"

    "Hey guys wait! MacOSX is linux and it's the best thing god ever handed down to humans!"

    "No n00b, MacOSX is BSD."

    "Yeah well all BSD's suxorz! Windows is teh roxorz!"

    --
    Hmmm witty sig or funny sig? Maybe elitest techy sig!
    1. Re:entire conversation: by aywwts4 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      -A Test-

      I personally like windows, it does what I need, and it isn't an OS on training wheels or a system for the programmers by the programmers. I spend the vast majority of my time being productive on my computer instead of maintaining it; and with some basic knowledge and tweaking (Tweak UI, some new drivers and some Regedits) a windows box runs very sweetly. The blue screen of death jokes are quite a dead horse, I have experienced a blue screen on three occasions since XP came out and that includes all five of my boxes. Once was because of a beta sound driver, another was because I tried to put in a video card for 98 only; and the other was a poorly made video game. Other than that most application crashes and gentle and no information is lost, The application that crashes most often (and even that isn't frequently) is Firefox; (its probably because of the extensions I have installed) I can't remember a time that I lost what I was typing or the work I was doing. I do my professional video and graphics work on a windows box, and I play and relax on a windows box; I have been a windows user since I tried an as yet unreleased on my grandfather's computer at Compaq. And to those that say windows has stopped progressing, go back and try 3.1.1 try 95; and try to say nothing has happened.

      Windows gets its bad name from users who don't know to put up a firewall and current AV software; who willingly install Kazza or Hotbar or whatever Trojan horse of the day. And from poor software written for windows, doing what poor software does best. Crash.

      Sure it has security problems, But with proper precautions taken I have never experienced them.

      -A Test-

      --
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    2. Re:entire conversation: by noamsml · · Score: 2, Funny

      hey, your'e not playing fair! that was a blanaced and sane!

  4. First "Where are the Torrents?" whine! by billstewart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  5. And the winner is... by RelliK · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and the award for the most ridiculous Linux distribution name goes to... Mandriva! Hounorable mention to the runner up, Kubuntu.

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    ___
    If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
  6. Re:All the new features.... by Pxtl · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  7. What about WiFi Chipset support? by WindozeSux · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    --
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  8. Yawn by snorklewacker · · Score: 2

    Queue up more boring screenshots on OSDir's clunky image browser. Possibly the most telling image is how they put GNU Emacs in the KDE Kicker and didn't configure any reasonable default colors for it matching the theme (those are the out of the box for gnu emacs). The rest are just bog standard desktop shots.

    --
    I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
  9. Ugly fscking icons by lakcaj · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Ugly fscking icons by snorklewacker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No accounting for taste, I guess. The icons for d3a look promising, but have pretty terrible contrast. Edge is elegant in its own minimalist way. Exquisite lives up to its name, though it's fairly noisy, but why on earth does everyone have to create such "shiny" icons? By that I don't mean bling, I mean all the specular effects. I'm sick of my desktop looking like it has a million candlepower spotlight shining on it.

      Many of the icons in the screenshot (such as the gnu for emacs) were application-supplied. You just can't have a theme that accounts for everything.

      --
      I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
    2. Re:Ugly fscking icons by moranar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, you're one of the few who doesn't like the Crystal theme. I'm not hot for it, but I don't find it "a piece of shit". Actually, if I wasn't able to do my own icon themes (and I am not) I'd watch what I say about them. Who knows, maybe you wouldn't like your own work to be called "What a piece of shit".

      So you find Exquisite, Edge and d3a beautiful. Have you thought of filing bug reports on their inclusion into mandriva (or your distro of choice)? Perhaps they have some problems that void their use.

      Like, what do I know, Exquisite is just the apple icons, and any commercial distro would be sued to bits if they included them?

      Like, d3a has serious usability problems: it's too gray and silver, it's not very readable by people who don't see that well.

      Edge is a bit too black n' white for my taste, apart from the fact that it imitates the apple icons too.

      So, basically, you want a Mac and OS X. This is Mandriva Linux.

      --
      "I think it would be a good idea!"
      Gandhi, about Internet Security
  10. Re:why even bother posting screen shots by lphuberdeau · · Score: 4, Interesting

    KDE 3.4 has a lot of visual improvements. But from what I saw in the screenshots, the distribution is nothing more than Gnome and KDE with all their respective logos replaced by a yellow star. They should have placed the focus on their custom management applications and such. Looking at all those KDE screenshots is a waste of time once you've seen them before.

    (I really like KDE, I use it every day)

    --
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    PHP Queb
  11. A Microsoft Beta for "Winix" by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Funny
    This is an "MS oriented" beta, deigned to demonstrate to Bill and Steve the attractiveness of Mandriva as an aquisition target over the rumors of a RedHat buy-out, earlier this summer.

    This would be in line with past MS behavior. Microsoft often chooses "sloppy seconds" or "also-rans" as aquisition fare. This is a product of price conciousness, concerns of anti-trust action for snaring market leaders, and a disdain for anything not originating in-house. Past indicators ere were Great Plans Accounting, Interix,Connectix Virtual PC, RAV Anti Virus and Giant Anti Spyware. Mandrake/Connectiva/Turbo, with their miniscule commercial share (they are a sliver of RedHat - which is a fraction of a sliver of MS) is ideal.

    The Winix Beta will not yet include Avalon or Indigo subsystems, although a rudimentary transplant of the .NET CLR and frameworks are rumored to be in the works once Redmond fully grasps this beast by the tail. Much of this work has been done on the BSD platform, and reputedly the internal Micosoft build - project Marklar - runs the Avalon-based Windows Dodge Colt Vista interface as flawlessly as XP.

    --
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  12. Punch! Sock! Pow! by jrutley · · Score: 3, Funny

    Doesn't it look like Tux just got a beating?
    http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?re lease=388&slide=22

  13. Re:filesystems by moranar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You mean I've been using something else for four years? I mean, my partitions have been reiserfs since I can remember, all the way from at least 'drake 9.2. And it hasn't changed with the latest release: you can choose between ext2, ext3, reiserfs, at the very least. Maybe you were thinking of Fedora?

    --
    "I think it would be a good idea!"
    Gandhi, about Internet Security
  14. Re:I probably won't bother with it. Too bad. by damiangerous · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Assuming they're broadband connected systems, Easy UUrpmi will solve that problem.

    I've never had that library issue you're talking about with compiling so I can't help you there.

  15. Re:Mandrake on my laptop... by damiangerous · · Score: 2, Insightful
    You can't really blame Mandrake for the sound problem. The Latitude sound chips aren't well supported by any distro, the CP anyway. They claim to be, but you have to tweak them all.

    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.

  16. Re:All the new features.... by markdavis · · Score: 2, Informative

    That is exactly what Mandriva does. They were one of the first distros (or THE first) to support *ALL* the desktop enviornments seamlessly (Kde, gnome, ice, blackbox, fce, etc) and all the configuration tools work the same in all of them. Icing on the cake is Mandriva's menu manager which automatically creates a standard "start" menu for every desktop environment and keeps them all synchronized when you add or remove software.

  17. Re:Honest question... by i_should_be_working · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Most distros just use the default Gnome or KDE theme. Through laziness or maybe they think it actually is the best default. I don't know.

    Most people theme theirs though. It doesn't matter to me what the theme is that comes wih a distro; I'm going to change it. Some distros probably realize that we do this and don't bother putting an effort into the looks.

    A few distros look different, like Blag. Hmm, that's not very pretty. Maybe that's why distros should stick to the KDE and Gnome default themes.