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

With all respect to Mandriva....

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Next time you have someone asking you questions about Linux not knowing whether they should try, you can just direct them to this article."

With all respect to Mandriva, I'd much rather just point them to ubuntu

(I feel I should make an OS X reference, but I just can't be bothered)

Re:With all respect to Mandriva....

[ElleyKitten]

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

That would be SimplyMEPIS. Seriously, it's Ubuntu with all the propietary stuff.

I personally don't care, becaue i don't think it's hard at all to enable MP3s, DVDs, etc. Just a couple checks of EasyUbuntu, or some copy&paste from the Ubuntu wiki and you're all set.

Re:With all respect to Mandriva....

[ajs318]

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.

Re:With all respect to Mandriva....

[ajs318]

Some do. We seem to be a nation of masochists, hanging onto ridiculous things as though they mattered. I personally love Europe -- I'm just practising for when we get kicked out of the EU. But this is spiralling further away from topic.

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.

Nice idea but...

[wirah]

That article is rubbish. Ubuntu is obviously the choice for first-time switchers, and is the most polished and accessible distribution for newbies and gurus alike. The article doesn't seem to have much of a grasp of the concepts of Linux, or say who would switch and why, and what they'd encounter. And as for paying for mandriva so that you can play DVDs. What the hell? Who wrote this crap? Sorry, nice idea, but better articles have been written before. I think a windows->linux wiki written by past, present, and future switchers would be a much more interesting idea.

next time

[illtron]

Next time you have someone asking you questions about Linux not knowing whether they should try, you can just direct them to this article."

Oh, if only I could get back the time I've spent explaining Linux to neighbors and grandmothers! I've thrown away my life! I'll never get those preciouos 43 seconds back!

Mandriva 2006 at home

[Nuffsaid]

Linux Mandriva 2006 _is_ my home PC main operating system, i.e. the one that gets booted by default. That said, if this is one of the supposedly most "desktop friendly" distributions, i can't be very optimistic. For starters, 3D acceleration does not work. It's an ATI card, ok, but you can't dismiss what nearly half PCs use just by saying "buy supported hardware". You can blame ATI more than Mandriva, but it's a fact that the same hardware under SuSe worked with ATI drivers (other minor things didn't work, like booting reliably and not freezing). Then there's the myriad of little (and not so little) annoyances, like the KDE Control Center becoming suddenly empty. What would you say about Windows if the Control Panel icons randomly disappeared for no apparent reason? And how do you explain to your non-geek (but not illiterate) relatives that in order to download and install software it's not sufficient for the site to say "RPM - for Linux", but it must be pulled "automagically" from some repository holding just the right kind of RPM for the specific Mandriva release? IMHO, 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.

Re:Mandriva 2006 at home

[iogan]

"What would you say about Windows if the Control Panel icons randomly disappeared for no apparent reason?"

I'd say "NOT AGAIN!!"

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.

What Can Grammar Lessons Mean for /. Users?

[Anonymous Coward]

Next time you have someone asking you questions about Linux not knowing whether they should try, you can just direct them to this article.

My eyes! My eyes are bleeding!

Too early for Monday

[tacocat]

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:

• If you want a great GUI, use Mac OS-X as there is nothing even close to it.
• If you want a simplified server then you can choose from RedHat, SuSE, or a dozen others.
• If you want a highly customizable server then you can choose from the less pretty distros of Debian, Slackware, Gentoo where changes are tightly controlled and lightly managed by the package manager.
• If you want to have a workstation (any OS) that is both a simplified interface and ultimately customizable then you won't find it.

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.

Start at the top, not the bottom

[Solo-Malee]

I generally agree that Microsoft has the monopoly and consequently it is very hard for Linux to mean anything to the home user but...

Lose the Microsoft Office Applications off of the Windows platform and the home user suddenly has less and less reason to be sitting on a MS platform. The Opensource movement can make a serious impression on the Microsoft world by pushing hard the alternatives like OpenOffice.org that the home user can really make productive use of.

Make a couple of apparently insignificant 'baby steps' away from the Microsoft applications and all of a sudden, you begin to wonder why you need Windows. I made the move to OpenOffice back in November 05 and I am now beginning to see the light and the possibility that within the next few months I may not need Windows at all. Without MS Office, there is almost no need to have Windows!

There are only two things that need to be fixed in the Linux world in my view for even greater acceptance:
* Vendor support for Printer drivers (eg: Canon)
* Mainstream publisher support from all the top games vendors.

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

On my new centrino notebook, everything worked.

[gukin]

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.

Re:Yeah

[s31523]

I can't blame just Mandriva, Wireless networking moved too fast for the Linux Distros and all of them seem to be "klunky" when it comes to Wi-Fi, but things are catching up.
Try downloading the latest Network Manager, which seems to be a lot better (I am gonna try this tonight)

Re:Spare yourself from the headaches

[ladoga]

Not only should you warn your friends:

Those games you love to play on Windows? GIve them up.

Im in quite lucky position since the game i most played in windows was Targetware, which as i noticed runs much better on linux (better fps, lot smoother) It made me really wish more games would be made for linux due to obivious benefits of better memory management (you need less physical memory for similar performance as windows tends to swap too easily). So i want to add in what you say. Very likely, but not necessarily.

But also:

Those mp3s and DVDs? Don't expect them to play out-of-the-box. I'm serious.

It doesn't take more than few minutes (or few seconds using a script) to get them working and it's not really that hard. Installing codecs is overall easier than installing additional audio/video codecs to play most DivX and Xvid content on windows platform.

Though it would be good idea for ubuntu devs to add the script on desktop of new ubuntu install so users could just click on "Add non-free software repositories & Install commercial codec support" icon and be done with it.

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!