What Can Mandriva Linux 2006 Mean for Home Users?

sitor writes "What can Mandriva Linux 2006 mean for home users? is an article giving an extensive explanation about the pro's and con's of using a linux distribution such as Mandriva Linux 2006. It was written with people in mind that are in doubt whether linux might be something for them or not. It aims to inform them in a neutral way, understandable to newbies. Next time you have someone asking you questions about Linux not knowing whether they should try, you can just direct them to this article."

Comments

Re:Mandriva 2006 at home

[jozi]

[...]these are the kind of things that keep lots of people from using Linux on their home PCs, where things either "just work" or they are not worth fiddling in order to make them work

I am not very interested in playing around with computers or operating systems. I think the computer is a wonderful invention just as I think the car is a wonderful invention. I use a computer and I use a car but I am not really interested in how they work or why things doesn't work, I just want them to work, like you said. I have had a Linux installation once and most things kind of worked but there are still too many things that doesn't. I want the majority of applications and games that I can see and buy in the store to work on my computer, not a reason why they will not work. I want to be able to exchange documents with others without having to think about formats and why the document doesn't look the same when I send it to the majority of my friends/colleagues who uses Windows and MS Office.
I want my internet bank to work on my computer, just as I know it will under Windows and no, I do not want to switch to a different bank.
There are people who love computers and operating systems who will gladly work around all these problems by dual-booting, downloading some obscure instruction about how to make things work or by any other way they can figure out but I am not one of them.

The problem is that there are millions of people like me who are not really interested in computers and they will not switch until they know that things will work the same or better than it does with MS Windows.
The majority of people like me are not windows advocates, we just want things to work.

I got a better idea

[N8F8]

http://www.phildev.net/linux/apt-quickref.html Below is a quick reference to cover some of the most commonly needed apt uses.

Download and install package:
apt-get install package

Update apt's list of available packages:
apt-get update

Upgrade all installed packages with upgrades available:
apt-get upgrade

Upgrade to new distro, or in general upgrade anything available for update including core system packages:
apt-get dist-upgrade

Uninstall package:
apt-get remove package

Uninstall package, and its config files, and don't leave it in the database as 'uninstalled':
apt-get --purge remove package

Search for a package like pattern:
apt-cache search pattern

Get information on installed package:
dpkg -s package

Find which installed package file belongs to:
dpkg -S inetd.conf

List which files are in package:
apt-file list package

Find out what packages provide file:
apt-file search file

Run a command (such as ./configure or make) and have all necessary packages installed as needed:
auto-apt run command

Unless specified, the package in reference doesn't have to be already installed for these to work... but the database needs to be updated. You can update the appropriate database via:
apt-get update
or
auto-apt update
or
apt-file update

Re:With all respect to Mandriva....

[Jaqui]

"It also talks about some of the most common linux features (ability to write to FAT partitions) that are disabled and you have to compile from source to change it."

funny, editing a configuration file is compiling from source? since when?
I thought it was using a text editor to alter the contents of a file..like opening a word .doc file in ms word and changing the contents.

actually, it's easier than that, change the default security setting to the next lower level and the access is granted..this can be done during the INSTALL.

Re:With all respect to Mandriva....

[Proud like a god]

As stated below, it's a feature of the selected security level. Access to non-linux filesystems is restricted to root in Standard security mode (there's 1 lower level and 2 higher levels iirc).

The change in MCC isn't even a text edit, there's a check box with the label umask=0 and a description "Give write access to ordinary users". It doesn't get easier than that.

Re:Spare yourself from the headaches

[opkool]

Hi,

Considering the hoops that I had to go through to make Mandrake do multimedia AND DVDs, your friend might as well be as skilled as 'Mr. decss' Johansen to get video or music playback.

I am not as skilled as Mr decss Johansen. Nevertheless, I got multimedia AND DVD reporduction very easily.

One option, is to buy the boxed version, which comes with support for all the proprietary stuff. I don't know if you know, but "Mandriva Free" only includes free (as in Freedom) software by design. This option (boxed version) works great for people not that expert in Linux.

Another option is to do what I did:

I went to Easy URPMI website, selected the PLF repositories, configured follogwing the instructions on that page (copy&paste), launched the GUI install program, searched for "codecs" and all the other files that had "mp3", "ogg", "dvd" , etc in the name , installed them all, and presto!:

* multimedia works like a charm: mp3, ogg, avi, mpeg... (using amaroK and gmplayer), even web-embeded content.
* I view my legal (read, protected) DVDs easily, with gmplayer or kaffeine or...

It is very easy, really. Even I can do it :)

I used the info found in this link. I found this link at "Mandriva Linux" entry on Wikipedia. All is explained very well.

Peace!