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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."
A lot of linux distros do stuff like this though... I use fedora (although if I'd have had perfect knowledge at the start I might have chosen Ubuntu) and in that you can't read/write NTFS, you can't play mp3, you can't play comercial dvds... why don't they just say on the site that they are opperating under Russia (or a country with even less regulations about copywrite) law and then have done with it, making a really good, usable out of the box distro
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
The problem is that Fedora is distributed from the USA, which allows stupid things to be patented. In Europe and Britain, the MP3 patents are null and void; and it is quite OK to distribute MP3 playback and recording software in those places. {As an aside, if they ever do allow software patents in the UK or Europe, all the illegally-granted patents won't automatically come into force: patent holders will have to reapply for them, and may not get them on the grounds of prior art or obviety.} Likewise in Europe and Britain, if you own a DVD then you are legally entitled to do whatever is necessary to watch it on your own equipment.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
For me ubuntu has one big problem, it only comes on one disk. I live in South Africa and most people still use dial-up, so I try to avoid downloading packages. When you get mandriva you get 5 discs, or 1 dvd full of software. Granted there is a dvd for ubuntu, but most I know have only ever used the single ubuntu disc. When I introduce them to mandriva they normally thank me cause mp3 and videos work aswell. (Note: I don't use mandriva, but it was the first distro i used)
Incidentally, the reason I left Mandrake 4 years ago for Fedora (core 2, i think) was that Fedora had better Japanese language support. I also didn't like MenuDrake.. too inflexible, iirc.
Oh God!! I was't really prepared to wade through a flame war over distros this morning. What a bunch of freaking zealots! You distro fanatics make me want to puke.
I started on Slackware because someone said it's a good distro to use if you want to learn what's really going on. I stand by that statement today. If you want to learn Linux then don't use some mamby-pamby cute distro. If you want to be a user of Linux then use whatever most resembles whatever floats your boat. Some might argue it's best to use something that looks most like Windows. Some wouldn't.
I ran into an intersting discussion in the real world this week that I thought pertinent. The conclusion goes as follows:
From a practical point: most *nix servers that are not Linux based (HP/Sun/IBM) have little in the way of cute interface management tools. On these heavy lift platforms the configuration tool of choice seems to be vi more than a GUI. I don't think anyone has been able to surpass this customization and I'm not certain that it is a requirement that they do. If you don't understand the workings of the applications then a GUI interface will only permit you to do damage.
It's very likely that my proposed list of distro's will create a lot of controversy, but first consider where you sit on the spectrum between ultimate customization of the machine and "I'll take what I get" user.
Mandriva isn't the easiest Linux distro, anymore at least. Other distros like Ubuntu and SimplyMEPIS and PCLinuxOS have surpassed it in that regard. Mepis comes with all the proprietary stuff, and Ubuntu just requires a simple download of EasyUbuntu (no installing, just extracting) to get all the proprietary stuff going.
Using a package manager connected to repositories is certainly different from Windows, but it's not harder. If anything, it's easier, because you don't have to hunt around the internet for something and risk downloading a virus/spyware instead, and once you find it on Linux in your package manager, you don't have to fuck around waiting for it to download and then install it. It automatically installs itself without the inane questions that Windows software asks when it's installing. I've heard a lot of people complain about installing software on Linux, but I really don't understand it because Linux's easy install system is one of the reasons I converted from Windows.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
No disrespect to Mandriva, but their "model" doesn't sound that appealing. OpenSuSE will give you pretty well the same for free (fast downloads, too) while even the official version of SuSE with extra packages on the DVD is quite a lot cheaper than the Mandriva offerings. I hate to say it, but if I had to choose a distro that was losing out as the Linux competition hots up, it is Mandriva. That doesn't mean it isn't extremely good, just that its future looks dubious to say the least. The name changes, their financial situation and news of trouble at the top doesn't help either.
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I'd much rather a good solid Slackware-style distribution (preferably my own, of course, but there are other good ones, too). From what I've seen, they tend to be a hell of a lot faster, easier to configure – imagine a world without those horrible RPM's! – and probably a bit more secure as well. So far I've got everyone in my family hooked on my distribution, which is saying quite a bit actually since most of them were fighting tooth and nail just to keep Internet Explorer for a while...
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
Those same users would then obviously not have been able to install Ubuntu, so therefore the person that did install it would be able to copy and paste the commands for them.
(1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
Six months ago, I bought a Toshbia tecra S2 (it had a wicked 6600 Go video card!) and before I even booted M$, I installed Mandriva 2006 December edition (I'm a club member) Here's my experiences:
1. Boot it up, resize the NTFS partition; windows still booted afterwards.
2. Install the usual stuff.
3. Observe that the wireless NIC, the wired NIC, the video, the sound AND the modem all work under mdv2006.
No hassles, no "recompiling the kernel", no endless searches on line; install and go.
Yeah I can just boot-n-go with M$ but I happen to like Linux, I don't like windows.
If someone had the same laptop with a dead HDD, they didn't have recovery media and they didn't want to spend $150 on a new OS, mandriva would at least get their laptop functional.
This article is actually a good introduction to Linux, though perhaps not in the way it was intended. As a competent, grammatically correct translation from another language into English, but by someone who is not a native speaker of English, it has a certain awkwardness to it, requires that the reader take a little more time to figure out what it's saying, and leaves the reader with a feeling of discomfort about just how well-polished this Linux stuff really is. If someone is put off by that, then they probably shouldn't try Linux; if they're not, it might be a good move for them.
Understand: I'm not criticising the translator; his English is far better than any second language of mine, and better than a lot of translated-into-English I've read over the years. Just an observation.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
First of all, even on Ubuntu, which is the easiest I have found, it *does* take more than a few minutes, and who in the world knows how to write a script or even what a script is? If Ubuntu, Mandriva, et al. want to get an actual stake in the desktop market they need to remove "script" from all but their most advanced vocabulary. Oh, sure, if you are familiar with the documentation or know where to look on the wiki, then it just takes a few minutes copying and pasting code to make everything work. This is still a few minutes too many and does not include the time it takes to figure out that things aren't working, figure out it isn't in the included help topics that come with the OS and search the internet for a solution.
Having said all of this, tools such as EasyUbuntu and Automatix are really coming along, and this problem may be close to being solved. I agree with you, there should be an icon on the desktop when the system is first installed, and it should point to a installed-by-default version of EasyUbuntu or Automatix or whatever Mandriva alternative there may be.