Mandriva Goes Out of Business

An anonymous reader writes: After struggling for the past several years, Mandriva has finally gone out of business, and is in the process of being liquidated. The company was responsible for Mandriva Linux, itself a combination of Mandrake Linux and Conectiva Linux. When Mandriva fell upon hard times, many of the distro's developers migrated to Mageia Linux, which is still going strong and just putting the final touches on its next major version (5).

Comments

The name didn't help.

[AuMatar]

Mandriva still sounds like a gay porno.

Re:The name didn't help.

[Anonymous Coward]

They changed the name because of the threat of litigation, and they couldn't afford the proper set of lawyers to tell the plaintiff to f*** off, but they should've changed their name to something that ended in "drake", e.g. "Sandrake." They did have an opportunity when Red Hat abandoned their consumer distro and their shrink wrap product (the two were actually the same) - Mandrake should've stepped in and taken charge. This is when you need a guy who has some marketing savvy (not talking about a business school guy, but someone who knows how to grab press like Michael Robertson for example). They should've said "we have a solution to the problem with non-free drivers" or something like that, even if it turned out to be a hack.

Re:The name didn't help.

[Anonymous Coward]

ManDriva - with GIMP!!!

Re:The name didn't help.

[rudy_wayne]

Mandriva still sounds like a gay porno.

You're thinking of Mangina.

Re:The name didn't help.

[KGIII]

Since the early day of Mandrake I have had Mandrake/Mandriva as my favorite distro. It is sad to see it go but this is not surprising. One thing I noticed was that their site had been very difficult to navigate in the last few years and their attempts to monetize was crude, at best. These two things are not the reason they went out of business but I do not think they helped in any way. They were my favorite. I am hoping someone forks and continues the project.

Re:The name didn't help.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll attest to the fact that they fixed many bugs in the redhat installer and other components.

It was a better RedHat in many respects.

Re:The name didn't help.

[unixisc]

I tried it once in the 90s, when it was Mandrake. It looked beautiful. Only problem I had - like most other Linux distros of the time, it just refused to recognize my network card. So I could use it, if I could live w/o any internet.

Re:The name didn't help.

[Misagon]

Mandrake was the only distro that I bought [i]boxed[/i].. but I never used it enough to remember what was so special about it. One thing stands out in my memory though: a post in the Slashdot comments to the name change from Mandrake to Mandriva.

Mandriva - Womenshouta!

Re:The name didn't help.

[spiffyspiff]

I used Mandrake/Mandriva from 2000 to around 2013. As far as I know, there are at least three "forks":

Mageia (which I use now: I personally think it's great, and a big improvement on Mandriva): http://www.mageia.org/en/

PCLinuxOS: never used it, so can't comment on what it's like: don't know if this is classed as a true "fork": http://www.pclinuxos.com/

OpenMandriva: again, never used it, so can't comment, and again, not sure if this is a "fork" as such: https://www.openmandriva.org/e...

Try Mageia: you may well find you like it!

Re:The name didn't help.

[KGIII]

I already downloaded and burned Mageia. :D I will install it tomorrow as it is late.

Re:The name didn't help.

[inasity_rules]

When Mageia started, I tried it. But I eventually ended up in OpenSUSE. Yeah, I sold out... Never could stomach Ubuntu and it's children.

Re:The name didn't help.

[Hognoxious]

Like the new name - "Moregayer" - is any better in that respect.

Re:The name didn't help.

[MachineShedFred]

My first linux box was Mandrake. A bit of a shame that they are now titsup.

That being said, everything I do is Debian-based now.

Re:The name didn't help.

[MachineShedFred]

In the 90s, practically every OS had these issues with NICs that weren't Intel 82559 or 3C509 based.

The world is much more networked now, and thus has far better support for networking.

#rekt

[Anonymous Coward]

-A- is shit.

F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

" Mageia Linux, which is still going strong and just putting the final touches on its next major version "

Strong? That's an understatement considering we're looking at +-1000 hits per day on average... compared to the 10s of thousand hits for Ubuntu, iOS/OSX, Windows, etc...

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you mean "overstatement."

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to understand the FOSS mentality. They are into affirmative action and think that some random Linux that 3 people use should be as well represented as the most popular (because it's the best) OS.

Face it, if Windows were a politician he'd be re-elected with a 90% majority every time, because Windows can deliver on his promises while Linux can't.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

because Windows can deliver on his promises

More like because Windows makes good excuses for having to reboot, reformat, reinstall to fix every problem. Driver support? The only thing that windows does better there in windows 8 is video drivers... where gamers have gotten used to hard locks until they've tried three different versions of the driver. Oh, but that one OpenSSL bug that was there for so long, it almost was there as long as the VBScript/OLE bug that's been in windows since windows had VBScript and OLE. (did that get patched in XP? I don't think so.)

Windows gets elected because he talks the big talk, tells everyone what they want to hear, and when it all crashes and burns, everyone overlooks the "mission accomplished" banners.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Face it, if Windows were a politician he'd be re-elected with a 90% majority every time, because Windows can deliver on his promises while Linux can't.

It's only really Linux desktop that does poorly. Embedded, mobile and server are fantastic. Desktop pretends to be (or maybe they actually believe that's what they are creating) a product for end users but is a product for admins and developers who are familiar and comfortable with the UNIX-like environment to use on their personal computers.

The Linux desktop community is a mess of hundreds of different distributions, various different protocols for doing things (how many freaking sound subsystems do you need?! ALSA, PulseAudio, FFADO, Jack, OSS, etc...) and all kinds of different UI paradigms, frameworks and toolkits. There's no consistency because it is all about choice. The problem with that is that the vast majority of computer uses do not want to choose every different option for every different part of the operating system so choosing a distro is a complete headfuck and hoping for consistent look and feel across applications is even worse. Great for (some) developers and admins, crap for the vast majority of other people (and the virtually immeasurable percentage that your anecdotal evidence -- yes i know you set it up for your grandma and she likes it -- represents falls outside the vast majority).

Linux itself is brilliant, it is just that thus far nobody has done a decent job at wrapping it in a desktop distribution palatable to the majority.

Re:F/OSS reality

[exomondo]

The only thing that windows does better there in windows 8 is video drivers... where gamers have gotten used to hard locks until they've tried three different versions of the driver.

Windows doesn't do drivers, the hardware manufacturer writes the drivers. If the driver is crashing that is the responsibility of the vendor.

Oh, but that one OpenSSL bug that was there for so long

What does that have to do with anything? OpenSSL runs on Windows too, heartbleed could be exploited on the Windows platform as well.

Re:F/OSS reality

[markdavis]

>"Strong? That's an understatement considering we're looking at +-1000 hits per day on average... compared to the 10s of thousand hits for Ubuntu"

Really? Because that is not what distrowatch shows. For last 6 months it has it listed as the 8th most watched distro and with 970 hits per day compared to Ubuntu's 1738 hits per day which is not even double.

In the last 12 months, Mageia is ranked 6th. And for the previous 12 months, Mageia was ranked 4th, with hits approaching Ubuntu. Mageia has longer release cycles, so when Mageia 5 hits, watch the current rank start to climb again.

Not that distrowatch is some type of scientific survey or anything, but it is something other than just wild rantings of an "anonymous coward".

Re:F/OSS reality

[LVSlushdat]

The only thing that windows does better there in windows 8 is video drivers..

I beg to differ on that.. I have a Dell Precision M4400 that I generally run Linux on. The laptop has Nvidia Quadro FX580M 512mb discrete video. I've *never* had a
hiccup on Linux, using the Nvidia "blob" driver. I did some work for a friend on his Windows install, and rather than pay me, he gave me a spare shrink-wrapped
retail copy of Windows 8.1. Just for shits/grins, I took a spare drive, popped it in the laptop instead of the Linux disk, and installed 8.1.. Figured since I'm the defacto neighborhood "tech support" I might as well get familiar with 8.1, since the last Windows I had any exposure to was Windows 7. The install went ok, and after the several reboots, the system *appeared* to be up and running.. No sooner did I get a local account created on the damn thing (don't want me no MS account...), the fucking thing blows a bluescreen.. the goofy new BSOD screen tells me its a "video_tdr_failure" in "nvlddmkm.sys"... Which of course is part of the Nvidia driver that MS plops on your system if you have an Nvidia card.. And of course, they've changed the way to get into safe mode... I screwed around with it for a while and then just said "Fuckit", and went back to Linux... Guess I'll peddle the package on Craigslist and see what I can get for it...

Re:F/OSS reality

[blippo]

I don't think that say Ubuntu is particularly more of a headfuck than Windows 8... Windows try really hard to hide some pretty fundamental facts from the user,
just to look simpler to use, with the result that it's *harder* to use the system since a lot of behavior is just inexplicable without the underlying metaphors.

Like the file system in windows for instance. Where are my files? Is the file system root the desktop? Or My Documents, or C:/ or my network drive?

(The driver support on Linux is a bit crappier though, since very few vendors spend time or money on linux drivers for their consumer-class stuff, especially l

Re:F/OSS reality

[Grishnakh]

Comparing the hits of any Linux distro to iOS/OSX or Windows is an apples-and-oranges comparison, and makes little sense. Everyone knows that desktop Linux has a tiny marketshare. It might make some sense to compare to OSX perhaps, but certainly not Windows, and definitely not a mobile OS like iOS.

What you should be comparing is how popular it is in relation to Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, Arch, OpenSUSE, and Slackware.

Re:F/OSS reality

[loonycyborg]

Don't be ridiculous. Majority will be using whatever OS that is pre-installed on the pc. Majority of users won't spot much of a difference between windows, linux and mac nowadays. Differences between them are insignificant for you unless you're a nerd.

Re:F/OSS reality

[exomondo]

Linux driver support definitely is a bit crappier, but it's a lot better than it was even say 5 years ago. Linux's biggest problem on the desktop is the lack of application support, the basics are there and there are a lot of admin/dev/poweruser tools but for workstation users it's pretty slim pickings. Most of the mainstream vendors don't provide Linux support for their biggest offerings - which are more often than not the industry standard - and that is the real issue.

Even if you don't have UI consistency that doesn't really matter once you have opened your programs because you aren't really futzing around in the OS much, you're working in the programs that you need to run. So in that regard from a UI perspective pretty much any Linux distro should be fine and even the Windows 7 to 8 switch isn't really a big deal, your programs still look the same. Linux vendors need to forget fiddling with the UI and all the OS shit that doesn't matter and focus on getting support from major vendors so the OS can do what an operating system's primary purpose is: Run the programs the user wants to run.

Re:F/OSS reality

[cavreader]

When a manufacturer is selecting which OS to pre-install the only thing that matters is which one will allow the average user to run the most applications. Believe it or not people use computers to run applications not just an OS. This applies to both personal and business users. If the FOSS OS evangelists spent more time pushing for more applications and development tools that help streamline application development then Linux in all it's variations might actually be used more outside the data center.

Re:F/OSS reality

[jbolden]

Linux driver support definitely is a bit crappier, but it's a lot better than it was even say 5 years ago.

My experience is that it has gotten worse. 5 years ago I could pretty much run an arbitrary Linux distribution on an arbitrary 1 year old laptop and have say an 80% chance of few if any problems. Today most interesting laptops have whole swaths of features not covered and many drivers not included. I think hardware got more interesting and the Linux community has gotten less focused on desktop (understandably) and the result has been a huge downgrade in terms of compatibility.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

As opposed to all of the hardware issues, lack of drivers, slow performance, constant kernel crashes and being forced to use an archaic command prompt because Linux doesn't have a GUI.

Re:F/OSS reality

[exomondo]

You're probably quite right actually, I was thinking in terms of the quality of the existing drivers - the NV and AMD ones seem to have gotten better as have the open source versions of them. But as far as breadth of hardware support goes yes the landscape has expanded and you're likely right that Linux may not have kept up.

Re:F/OSS reality

[loonycyborg]

No. For manufacturers only matter their anti-competitive deals with IBM, Microsoft and what-not. Also, there's no difference between OSes for majority of users so no reason to change..

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually he is absolutely right! You are the one who is wrong. For manufacturers it would be cheaper to use Linux and if the users didnt care about which OS was on it they would sell for the same price and make more profit by using Linux! But because, as he correctly points out, the primary concern is the OS that will "allow the average user to run the most applications" the more expensive option is chosen. We have seen plenty of major manufacturers offer Linux pre-installed on desktops, the days of OS exclusivity with OEMs were gone long ago. These systems were even for sale at places like BestBuy and nobody wanted them because they didnt run their programs.

Companies like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc would save billions of dollars every year in license fees if the users didnt care whether the OS was Windows or Linux.

Re:F/OSS reality

[erktrek]

I dunno - Windows 8.xx doesn't support some of my working older devices all that well - which is understandable as manufacturers can't or won't opensource their code and/or do not want to rewrite drivers for products they are no longer selling. I am running both Windows 8.1 & Manjaro (Arch) Linux and am fairly satisfied with both. I agree that newer stuff always seems to be an issue in Linux at least initially but things usually sort themselves out over time - usually it seems to take longer when there are large changes in pc tech - like displays etc. Overall I think there is actually a greater amount of compatible device drivers for the latest Linux versus the latest Windows.. but ymmv.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Grishnakh]

Desktop pretends to be (or maybe they actually believe that's what they are creating) a product for end users but is a product for admins and developers who are familiar and comfortable with the UNIX-like environment to use on their personal computers.

This is total BS. Lots of people who aren't computer experts use Linux desktops every day. My wife is one of them. I never have to do anything much with that computer, besides regular backups of course. Back when she was running Windows, I had no end of problems with it. I'm sure plenty of people here can attest to similar stories, of switching their spouses or parents to Linux and no longer needing to spend any time being their unpaid tech support.

What desktop Linux is, is a very good product for people who don't need to run any Windows (or OSX) applications. For home users who just surf the web, use Facebook, and do basic PC tasks like some basic word processing or whatever, Linux works extremely well. For people who just *have* to run Photoshop or whatever, obviously that's a problem, but not everyone is like that.

The Linux desktop community is a mess of hundreds of different distributions, various different protocols for doing things (how many freaking sound subsystems do you need?! ALSA, PulseAudio, FFADO, Jack, OSS, etc...) and all kinds of different UI paradigms, frameworks and toolkits.

You're completely overblowing things. Most modern Linux distros have settled on ALSA and PulseAudio (ALSA is the kernel-level drivers; PulseAudio is a userspace layer on top of that) and it works fine. No one uses OSS on Linux any more, and Jack is only used by a small number of people doing high-performance audio stuff. Different UIs aren't a big problem; people get along just fine choosing a desktop environment like KDE or Cinnamon and sticking with that. Different toolkits don't matter if you aren't developing software; you can run software written in one just fine in a DE written in another.

The problem with that is that the vast majority of computer uses do not want to choose every different option for every different part of the operating system

And they don't need to. Just download a copy of Ubuntu or Mint and be done with it. That's what everyone else does. This choice is generally made by the person who's computer-savvy, and the user doesn't question it. My wife uses KDE because I chose that for her since I prefer it and it works similarly to Windows, and she's never had a problem with it. She doesn't know or ask about Unity, Gnome3, Cinnamon, MATE, Xcfe, etc. People have zillions of choices when they buy a car too, but regular, everyday people don't have a problem there. They pick something they like and stop worrying about it. It may be a car their friend had, or they may have just stopped at a dealership and checked out a few things based on a salesman's advice. No one checks out every single model of car before making a decision.

yes i know you set it up for your grandma and she likes it -- represents falls outside the vast majority).

No, actually it doesn't (BTW, your sentence doesn't parse here). Most home users don't do anything terribly complicated with their computers, and these days they really don't do anything besides use it for web-surfing. This is why tablets have become so popular: people are sick of Windows problems, and tablets work just fine for using Facebook. Linux works fine here too, and better than tablets (since you get a real monitor, a real keyboard, real storage space, etc.). For the things most home users do, Linux does them extremely well. It can even play a lot of games now too, though that still works better on Windows because many games still don't support Linux (including anything that isn't on Steam) of course. No, it doesn't do TurboTax, but who cares: everyone's moving to web-based stuff for that. No, it doesn't run Pro/E, but how many home users do that. I've never heard of someone's grandma running engineering software. No, it doesn't run [random Windows software], but neither does Mac OSX, but I never hear of anyone saying Macbooks aren't viable alternatives.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Grishnakh]

(The driver support on Linux is a bit crappier though, since very few vendors spend time or money on linux drivers for their consumer-class stuff, especially l

The driver support is usually *better* on Linux because you aren't reliant on some stupid hardware vendor who doesn't feel like updating their driver for a new OS release. This happens on Windows all the time. Driver quality is usually better too; manufacturers are notorious for making shoddy and bloated driver packages with all kinds of extra crapware included.

The main problem where Linux drivers have problems is with video drivers, but most people seem to do just fine with Nvidia's proprietary drivers these days (no, they're not Free/open-source, but they do work and modern distros seem to manage them well enough by most accounts), and if your video needs aren't as high, Intel's drivers work great and are FOSS. A lot of people still seem to complain about AMD stuff though, so I'd avoid that.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Lots of people who aren't computer experts use Linux desktops every day.

Actually relatively speaking very few people do. Its in the low single digits in terms of percentage.

My wife is one of them.

Ah anecdotal evidence, if only somebody made the point about how that isnt representative of the wider population...oh wait.

For home users who just surf the web, use Facebook, and do basic PC tasks like some basic word processing or whatever, Linux works extremely well.

You are confusing the tasks that are common to most home users with the only tasks that most home users do. That is not the same thing.

This is why tablets have become so popular: people are sick of Windows problems, and tablets work just fine for using Facebook. Linux works fine here too, and better than tablets (since you get a real monitor, a real keyboard, real storage space, etc.).

Sorry this logic does not follow. If people are sick of windows and linux is better than a tablet then people would be switching to linux but the reality is relatively speaking nobody uses linux while almost everybody uses a windows computer and/or a tablet of some kind.

If you have some real evidence to back all these assertions I would be very interested to see it, but your one bit of anecdotal evidence is not sufficient.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent reply.

Minor nitpicks:

1. KDE is not more similar to Windows: it just is more flexible and can mimic Windows better than other DEs (even that is debatable as even Xfce can be configured similarly as 98/XP). IMHO, KDE is the most dissimilar to Windows considering the whole set of default apps and configurations available. Windows 10 is staging a limited attempt at copying some of the Linux desktop features.

2. We do our taxes over here in Linux. I've been doing it for many years now with a government provided Java program. It used to be a much better experience than the Windows counterpart, but they introduced things like "repeating last years' sources of income" and such things end up making Linux' advantages redundant (e.g. the select & middleclick paste feature).

It's worth mentioning that KDE can be tweaked to be a lot easier to use than Windows -- for instance, you can work with windows as papers on a desktop... you don't have to shuffle apps all the time like in Windows.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

If all you say is true then what is your reasoning for why Linux adoption is still in the low-single-digit percentage? Windows Phone has a bigger slice of the smartphone market than Linux does of the desktop market FFS and that is considered by many here to be an abject failure!

Linux ideal for a very small niche, also suitable for a slightly larger group and pointless or unsuitable for everybody else. Even with the major screwups of ME, Vista and 8 over the past decade-and-a-half this still has not driven people to Linux yet the apologists still crap on with their anecdotal evidence about how it is perfectly suitable for pretty much anybody and making more and more excuses that it must everybody elses fault...could it be that it is the fault of Linux distro makers? No surely not, we must be able to blame somebody else! It really is unbelievable how blind some of you are.

Another major problem is accessibility, with everybody using different application frameworks and doing things in different ways there is no coherent and reliable way for accessibility features to work, on Windows they arent perfect, on OSX they seem to be better (although font scaling is still annoyingly absent) but on Linux they are disparate and unreliable.

Re:F/OSS reality

[exomondo]

Support for cutting edge technology is usually better in Windows but support for ancient technology is usually better in Linux, that said my 10 year old desktop is fully supported in Windows 8.1. I suppose that is really the problem here though, you buy a new laptop with new technology and you want to use it, not wait until somebody has written a Linux driver for it.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Burz]

Desktop pretends to be (or maybe they actually believe that's what they are creating) a product for end users but is a product for admins and developers who are familiar and comfortable with the UNIX-like environment to use on their personal computers.

This is total BS. Lots of people who aren't computer experts use Linux desktops every day. My wife is one of them.

The obligatory Slashdot-Linux-enthusiast defense of "Desktop Linux for my relative" never ceases to make me chuckle. I can always spot the authentic ones, because they contain the "we have the Web so who needs a native UI or native apps" meme.

Re:F/OSS reality

[jones_supa]

The driver support is usually *better* on Linux because you aren't reliant on some stupid hardware vendor who doesn't feel like updating their driver for a new OS release. This happens on Windows all the time.

They don't have to update the driver. Even Vista drivers work fine in Windows 10.

Driver quality is usually better too; manufacturers are notorious for making shoddy and bloated driver packages with all kinds of extra crapware included.

Most stuff coming from Windows Update does not have crapware. These days even OEMs often provide junk-free installation packages. What comes to the actual driver quality, it usually is better under Windows, as all features are implemented and optimized, and the power management works properly.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Burz]

The reasons why GP is far from an excellent reply:

1. Anecdotes are not data. Doubly so if its someone who lives with you.

2. Native apps still matter because they attract a wide-ranging ecosystem of talented people who move between native apps and the Web, and...

3. ...That range of people between grandma and kernel developers form networks of support and advocacy. If the Power Users don't like your pile of bytes called an OS, the more creative ones won't start writing interesting apps for their non-techie friends and colleagues, and they won't recommend the OS either.

4. People depend on the 'look and feel' of software environments. Its what enables tech support staff to deliver *usable* instructions in a way that doesn't feel threatening to users, and also to get reliable answers from those same users. Having a well-defined GUI is important, but Linux is very slippery in this area.

There are many more reasons why GP represents nerdy myopia and wishful thinking. Perhaps the most important one is that Apple and Microsoft laid down, by example, a de-facto definition of what Desktop Personal Computer is. The FOSS community actively sabotages itself whenever it tentatively tries to reverse engineer the *concept* of the desktop PC; I think most of those numbskulls would define it as some kind of aberration that needs to be stomped out. Where "platform" is supposed to evoke (feature) stability and recognizable surroundings, the Desktop Linux crowd instead create this.

Re: F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux has been delivering on promises for a while. It's what underpins Android. If u meant GNU/Linux, the only reason it's had trouble delivering on promises is that that Windows politician was secretly tied to the mafia, rigging elections through ballot stuffing, gerrymandering, illegal coordination with Super PACs, using a Faux "News" Channel to disseminate lies, causing Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt in the minds of the electorate, many of whom are too apathetic to care either way, and have been indoctrinated into thinking a ballot with a default vote already recorded on it is a normal and acceptable thing, or too stupid to understand the nuances of the really important issues. In short, he'd be a GOP candidate. HA! Countertrolled, byatch!

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

For home users who just surf the web, use Facebook, and do basic PC tasks like some basic word processing or whatever, Linux works extremely well.

Most users do those tasks, but not only those tasks. I can see you have idealized your view of what a home user is to match your year-of-the-linux-desktop philosophy but the fact remains that this is not reality, despite your anecdote hobbyist home users actually do use programs like Sketchup or Mixcraft or Sketchbook.

This is why tablets have become so popular: people are sick of Windows problems, and tablets work just fine for using Facebook. Linux works fine here too, and better than tablets (since you get a real monitor, a real keyboard, real storage space, etc.)."

If this is all true then why has Windows usage share not decreased? And why has Linux usage share not increased? So the monitor, keyboard and storage space on tablets is apparently all make-believe, standard "no true scotsman" fallacy. Even if you have some problem with that you don't realize you can use the same display, bluetooth keyboard and -- on many tablets -- the same SD card or networked storage as you can with a PC?

but neither does Mac OSX, but I never hear of anyone saying Macbooks aren't viable alternatives.

Because Macs do run much of the software that people want to use whether they be home users or professional users.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Xtifr]

If all you say is true then what is your reasoning for why Linux adoption is still in the low-single-digit percentage?

A combination of: it's long-standing reputation for user-hostility, a general lack of interest in "geeky" things, fear of the unknown, and the fact that you have to go wayout of your way to get a copy.

True story:Iwas talking with a friend, who is a school-teacher, at a bar, and she mentioned how sad she was that the school was shutting down their Ubuntu lab. A while later, Isaid something about Linux, and she said, "Oh Ihate that." So Isaid, "if you hate it, why are you so sad the school is shutting down the Ubuntu lab?" And she replied, "Oh, is that Linux? Ihad no idea! Ithought it was that system where you had to type to make the computer do anything." :)

Re:F/OSS reality

[Dog-Cow]

You are wrong. OEMs charge money to preinstall software (trial-ware, most of it). They can do that on Windows, but not on Linux. Thus, it actually ends up costing more (in terms of opportunity costs) to install Linux over Windows.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Blaskowicz]

Windows has always been easier to use with multiple drives or partitions or CD/DVD drives.
You just go to D:\, E:\, F:\ etc. instead of doing a mkdir as root and editing the fstab, or living with poor defaults like /media/username/f907c92b-cc37-4207-aab7-90a526d154f2 (I shit you not), semi-auto mounted.

You can also go to Disk Management to assign drive letters, "deassign" them for partitions you don't want to see mounted and as far as the user is concerned : there's one file system root per file system.

Why isn't that simpler? linux is better is you want to do some shit like mounting a specific subdirectory (/usr/blah etc.) from a network share and Windows is rather more inflexible, but doesn't require expert knowledge to access data.
I also have that GUI component that pops to warn the system disk is almost full (that can be useful!). It offers to help me, and that launches a piece of software that does a recursive search to show me where space is wasted but as this is the / drive it searches all file systems, which is slow and useless.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Holi]

" Is the file system root the desktop? " I think that matters fuck all to most users as most users don't know what you mean by "root file system".

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

I can always spot the authentic ones, because they contain the "we have the Web so who needs a native UI or native apps" meme.

Did you ever consider that people advance this idea because it's true? There's plenty of people that JUST want email and the web. They don't care about native apps and never will. They use their computers to communicate with other people, and couldn't care one whit about doing their taxes on their computer, or editing video.

This is precisely the reason why chromebooks sell. All that Microsoft shit where it doesn't work and borks your computer constantly are GONE. If you don't think this is a common windows experience, you're not paying attention.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Burz]

The reasons why GP is far from an excellent reply:

1. Anecdotes are not data. Doubly so if its someone who lives with you.

2. Native apps still matter because they attract a wide-ranging ecosystem of talented people who move between native apps and the Web, and...

3. ...That range of people between grandma and kernel developers form networks of support and advocacy. If the Power Users don't like your pile of bytes called an OS, the more creative ones won't start writing interesting apps for their non-techie friends and colleagues, and they won't recommend the OS either.

4. People depend on the 'look and feel' of software environments. Its what enables tech support staff to deliver *usable* instructions in a way that doesn't feel threatening to users, and also to get reliable answers from those same users. Having a well-defined GUI is important, but Linux is very slippery in this area.

There are many more reasons why GP represents nerdy myopia and wishful thinking. Perhaps the most important one is that Apple and Microsoft laid down, by example, a de-facto definition of what Desktop Personal Computer is. The FOSS community actively sabotages itself whenever it tentatively tries to reverse engineer the *concept* of the desktop PC; I think most of those numbskulls would define it as some kind of aberration that needs to be stomped out. Where "platform" is supposed to evoke (feature) stability and recognizable surroundings, the Desktop Linux crowd instead create this.

Perhaps I should start using stronger words than "numbskull" for these true believers.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

That's actually incorrect. Windows ran a customized openssl that is not vulnerable. http://blogs.microsoft.com/cybertrust/2014/04/10/microsoft-services-unaffected-by-openssl-heartbleed-vulnerability/

Re:F/OSS reality

[Burz]

I can always spot the authentic ones, because they contain the "we have the Web so who needs a native UI or native apps" meme.

Did you ever consider that people advance this idea because it's true? There's plenty of people that JUST want email and the web. They don't care about native apps and never will. They use their computers to communicate with other people, and couldn't care one whit about doing their taxes on their computer, or editing video.

Its demonstrably UNtrue, otherwise Apple and Microsoft would not still be viable companies. "Plenty of people" apparently does not define the whole consumer electronics market.

That you think Chrome OS belongs in the Desktop Linux category is instructive... But Google doesn't even identify Chrome OS as Linux. They could switch to a different, closed kernel and hardly anyone using Chromebooks would notice or care. That's because a Chromebook is a type of mainframe terminal or client, not a personal computer (it may be converted to a PC, but that's not its design).

If you don't think this is a common windows experience, you're not paying attention.

The tragedy is that you can't even give a Desktop Linux distro away for free despite how awful that Windows experience has been.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Burz]

Desktop pretends to be (or maybe they actually believe that's what they are creating) a product for end users but is a product for admins and developers who are familiar and comfortable with the UNIX-like environment to use on their personal computers.

This is total BS. Lots of people who aren't computer experts use Linux desktops every day. My wife is one of them.

The obligatory Slashdot-Linux-enthusiast defense of "Desktop Linux for my relative" never ceases to make me chuckle. I can always spot the authentic ones, because they contain the "we have the Web so who needs a native UI or native apps" meme.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Spugglefink]

The real problem with Linux on the desktop, in my experience, is the first time a new user goes looking for software somewhere other than the distro repository.

Back in my foolish days of trying to change the world, one family asked me to fix their incredibly ancient old Windows 95 machine that was infected up the gazoo with malware, and had failing components too. I ended up giving them a much newer Pentium III machine totally free, with a highly customized Linux install I tailored to their tastes and needs. I offered this with free around the clock tech support. About a week later, I got a call asking how the guy's wife could get her emails back. Apparently they got some incredibly tantalizing piece of malware they couldn't live without installing, and the malware wouldn't run on Linux, so they hosed everything, including their emails, in the process of installing Windows on the machine. So they could install the malware, and infect the computer, no less!

That is when I finally accepted Linux on the desktop was a pipe dream. Both of my children eventually moved to Windows too, after growing up with Linux from the time they first started using computers. They wanted to play video games, and even though Linux has Steam, Steam on Linux is a joke.

I barely care myself anymore, but every time I think I'll just go with the flow and join the rest of the world, it only takes a few minutes to change my mind. If you haven't yet experienced a Linux installation on a brand new Windows 8 machine, you're in for a treat there. It took two hours and repeated Windows boots to negotiate my way to the damn BIOS screen to get it to boot something else. Disposing of that hideous garbage was a joy, but I am a weird freak, and I am in the 0.0000001% or something. Long live Windows! Hallowed be thy name!

Sigh.

Re: F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. I've been using Windows for over 20 years and the crap I read here says more about the quality of IT pros than the OS.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

You are wrong. OEMs charge money to preinstall software (trial-ware, most of it). They can do that on Windows, but not on Linux.

You might want to first have an understanding of what Linux actually is, it is an operating system that runs software and of course you can preinstall software on it! The idea that you can preinstall software on Windows but not Linux is completely ridiculous.

Thus, it actually ends up costing more (in terms of opportunity costs) to install Linux over Windows.

Citation, I would like to see the evidence that the billions of dollars in license costs are eclipsed by the fees paid to preinstall software.

Re:F/OSS reality

[exomondo]

That's actually incorrect. Windows ran a customized openssl that is not vulnerable. http://blogs.microsoft.com/cyb...

That's talking about the Windows' builtin services don't run OpenSSL at all, they use their own SSL/TLS implementation, the article you linked even says that. However you can run OpenSSL on Windows and if you ran a version that had the heartbleed vulnerability it is just as exploitable on Windows as on Linux.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you ever consider that people advance this idea because it's true?

But it is not true, that is the whole issue, if it were true nobody would need app stores or programs and there be very few local system security issues because nobody would be installing applications from the web. Everybody would just use a web browser and nothing else, but that is not reality. I would be happy to see some evidence to support your hypothesis but there doesnt appear to be any.

There's plenty of people that JUST want email and the web.

Demonstrably there are not, almost all users want email and the web, very few users want just email and the web.

This is precisely the reason why chromebooks sell.

And the reason they dont even come close to matching Windows or OSX sales is because the number of people to whom they are appealing is comparatively very low.

All that Microsoft shit where it doesn't work and borks your computer constantly are GONE.

Specifically what "microsoft shit" is it that "borks your computer constantly"?

Re:F/OSS reality

[exomondo]

If all you say is true then what is your reasoning for why Linux adoption is still in the low-single-digit percentage?

Because if what he says is true then the operating system doesn't matter at all. So long as you can turn on your computer and hit the button for the web browser you'd be set, you can do that on Windows and OSX already on your desktop so there's still no reason to switch to Linux and that's why its marketshare remains low.

If users only care about the web browser then what's the point of any of these Linux distros?

Re:F/OSS reality

[exomondo]

OEMs charge money to preinstall software (trial-ware, most of it). They can do that on Windows, but not on Linux.

You can't preinstall software on Linux? Why not? What would stop them from preinstalling the trial of McAfee or avast! or AVG linux trial products?

Re: F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

I would tend to agree. While there may be some expecting to win over the masses with desktop Linux, it seems more likely that desktops themselves are losing favor to the masses to begin with, and on top of that, the pandering to the masses has been what has been doing the most to undermine the Unix philosophy on Linux for years now.

Better to aim for support for hardware, and maintaining a good system that works for those who find it useful than to destroy the benefits of it in search of an OS apathetic majority while losing the favor of the already faithful in the process (who in many cases are already flocking to *BSD over the systemd debacle). More software support is always a Good Thing(tm), but we needn't get to hiding the system away from the user and hinder choice to get there.

Linux will win the desktop when the desktop usage is left at nothing but power users, with the masses having moved over to whatever flavor of portable has shown itself more convenient to their everyday tasks than a desktop machine. I don't have a problem with it moving along that timetable, and in the meantime, we're looking at Linux prospering on all manner of new form factor devices (often with novel functionality not offered by desktops). Linux is hardly failing; it is just succeeding at a different task than Windows and OS X have set out on.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason you got downmodded:

• -Even my wife/grandma/aunt uses Linux so my anecdotal evidence (see the term even has the word "evidence" in it so it must be admissible) shows it is suitable for the lowest common denominator therefore it is suitable for everybody.
• -You implied the Year of the Linux Desktop is not coming, but it has been coming for years so it must get here eventually!
• -You suggest native apps are still required but they arent because my wife/grandma/aunt only uses a web browser and therefore everybody will move to Linux because the operating system doesnt matter and they just need a web browser.
• -You assert that look and feel matters, but it doesnt as evidenced by the fact that nobody had any problem when Windows 8 changed the look and feel.

Now I just have to sit back and wait for the upmods! Seriously this is their ass-backwards logic, this is why Linux has pitiful desktop usage share and this is why we keep hearing "the year of the linux desktop is coming" yet no progress is ever made.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Hognoxious]

One one side we have all the schemes that Gates & Zuckerberg dream up to make every kid a computer genius.

On the other we have teachers who are as dumb as box of rocks.

Re:F/OSS reality

[Hognoxious]

IBM T40. No Sound or WiFi on Windows 7. Both work fine on Scientific & Kali.

Asus Eee. Everything works on both, but the touchpad configuration utility (which was excellent on XP) doesn't work on 7.

Clevo D900T: Had problems getting sound on both Win 7 and CentOS driver didn't install by default. Can't get WiFi to work on either. Can't find a GeForce driver that will install on Win 7, so only get full resolution on Linux.

So for me Linux wins more often than it loses in the driver game.

I used it decades ago

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems that I used that distribution decades ago (more probably "a" decade ago). First time I ever hear of Mageia. It seems like a minor project in comparison to Mandriva...

Re:I used it decades ago

[markdavis]

>"First time I ever hear of Mageia. It seems like a minor project in comparison to Mandriva..."

Not really. Most of the Mandriva user base, volunteer base, and contributors moved over to Mageia already, which accelerated the death of Mandriva. And I expect even more now.

I believe it has all the same number of packages and features of Mandriva, just completely community driven instead of by a [small] corporation. It is almost 4 years old now. The now defunct Mandriva even started using the Mageia distribution as a technical platform for their Business Server product in 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

Re:I used it decades ago

[KGIII]

I am downloading it now. I will see how it goes. I have a PC about a year old that I am not sure why I bought it (I think the i7 and 16GB of RAM for something silly like $400 was the reason - stupid NewEgg making me buy silly things I do not need) but it has never had an OS on it at all - it has never even been plugged in - so I think it will suit for a test. I should journal my results and I may but I may be too lazy for that.

Too bad to see them go this way...

[dewright_ca]

Back in 2002-2004 they were a great distribution; based on Red Hat, but using the optimizations for the 586/686 chipsets they made for a solid platform for LAMP powered systems running on last generation hardware. The support was top-notch for subscribers and when I started pushing out BEOWULF type systems for our computational systems they were right there making it flow.

Farewell Mandrake/Mandriva...

Re:Too bad to see them go this way...

[antiperimetaparalogo]

Yes, for early 2000 Mandrake (i never followed the later Mandriva route) it was a great distribution - the funny (or sad?!) thing is that i still have a cd with the distro from that time THAT I STILL USE!!! Seriously, is THE cd i use first when i sometimes try to bring back from the dead various ooold machines...

Re:Too bad to see them go this way...

[N7DR]

Yes; as you say, in the 2002--2004 timeframe they were great. My experience was that it all started to fall apart when 64-bit machines came along. For a year or more Mandrake's 64-bit repositories were full of broken packages that simply would not install. I kept with them as long as I could, through the change to Mandriva, but nothing seemed to improve very much so I eventually switched the up-and-coming shininess that was *buntu. Which was great for a few years, before their quality control went the same way as Mandrake's had done :-(

Re:Too bad to see them go this way...

[jbolden]

I liked them late 1990s (Mandrake) they were my favorite distribution because so many things "just worked" and their configurations were often more sensible. You started off far closer to a working system.

Didn't try the server product much though did use it once for a RAID product and it did a great job on defaulting the RAID.

Re:Too bad to see them go this way...

[mcrbids]

Having never left the RedHat fold, (I'm typing this on a Fedora 21 Laptop) I can't say with any honesty that I've missed them. At all.

Red Hat has been very, very good to me! My business is based on RHEL/CentOS and since Red Hat is quite profitable, I have a simple, economic assurance that my technology base won't disappear.

Feel free to use Ubuntu/Mint/Whatever as your hip distro; but Red Hat has carried a solid, economically potent and robust distro for decades.

Re:Too bad to see them go this way...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, they were the Ubuntu of the late 90s/early 2000s. Mandrake is what you gave to a friend who was curious about linux or that you installed on the machine you actually used on a daily basis, because it was pretty stable and it just worked. I haven't used it for at least a decade, but it's sad to see it go.

Re:Too bad to see them go this way...

[chowdahhead]

Mandrake 8.0 was my first distro. It was a good beginner's experience for new Linux users at the time. It's too bad they never really got into enterprise.

Re:Too bad to see them go this way...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. That really is amazing. You're 31337 d00d.

Sold at Wal-Mart

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought two Mandriva machines from Wal-mart back in like 2005-2007. MSI MB with a Duron 1300 CPU for somewhere near $199 I believe. They were for my pre-teen kids.
Mandriva stayed on one for about 3 months then I converted it to XP and the other for about 6 months and I converted it Ubuntu.

How sad

[sevenisloud]

My first experience with Linux was Mandrake back in 2003, when I was 16. I had to ask a mate to download the CD images for me because his street had ADSL and I was still on dial-up lol. Fun summer :)

Re: How sad

[sevenisloud]

Also my first experience of Frozen Bubble. Isn't Frozen Bubble awesome?

Re:How sad

[Anonymous Coward]

back in 2003, when I was 16.

Thanks for making a lot of us feel really old.

Re: How sad

[sevenisloud]

If it makes you feel better I made myself feel old as I wrote it.

Re: How sad

[youngone]

Frozen Bubble is very awesome. So was Mandrake. I used it for a while in the early 2000's as it was the only distro that worked out of the box with some cheap modem I had. The problem was the other distro's caught up with, and went past Mandrake.

Re:How sad

[LVSlushdat]

Good Lord... Kids.. 16 for me would be 1966...

Obligatory Hey_You_Kids_Get_Off_My_Lawn....

Re:How sad

[blippo]

OK, for your benefit.

My first experience with Linux was Slackware in 1993, when I was 19. I had to ask a mate to download 25 or so 3.5" disks for me because he had access to internet at the university, and the rest of the world did not. Since the disks where shitty and/or demagnetized by the train ride, it took a couple of weeks to get all 25 disks in a readable state. Fun autumn :-)

  I never even looked at Mandrake/Mandriva. I think I switched to Debian in 95 or so, when it got dpkg which was just really nice, and I saw no reason to change.

Re: How sad

[KGIII]

Dumb question time...

Does anyone recall the distro that had a game you could play during installation of the OS? You were a penguin who slid on their belly down through the snow and had to avoid objects and go through the gates like a slalom skier... My brain has seemingly fried that synapses. I can not recall which distro it was... It was not Mandrake which would have been the name at the time as this predates the Mandriva renaming/rebranding.

Opera spell-check wanted to change Mandriva to Mandrake. I am amused.

Re: How sad

[Anonymous Coward]

> You were a penguin who slid on their belly down through the snow and had to avoid objects and go through the gates like a slalom skier...

Don't know about the distribution, but you seem to be talking about the Tux Racer game.

Re: How sad

[KGIII]

That is very likely the name of the game. I am not an avid gamer so I played it simply due to the novelty of being able to play a game while the OS installed in the background. It may have been the installable Knoppix? It was not RedHat nor Suse. Mint was not out then. Ubuntu was not out then. Hmm...

Thank you - any other hints? My Google-fu has failed me. I suck and should feel bad.

Re: How sad

[Anonymous Coward]

The game you seek is tuxracer. It's available for nearly all distros these days, and you can create new maps with gimp by painting in greyscale.

Re: How sad

[KGIII]

Thank you but I am not seeking the game. I am just trying to remember the distro.

Re:How sad

[Anonymous Coward]

Smilie-face-making lol-tard, you write like you're still younger than 16.

Re: How sad

[bill_tvm]

I think Caldera had a tetris game available for playing while installation was proceeding.

Re: How sad

[Anonymous Coward]

That was the most forgotten and buried distribution: Caldera
https://lwn.net/Articles/33122/ by SCO ( yes, that SCO !!)

Re: How sad

[KGIII]

Cool, I may look there (though I do not recall ever using that distro) to see where they come from and whatnot. I may then find the distro I am thinking of. Thanks. Anyone else?

Re: How sad

[KGIII]

Was that Tetris or the Tux game though?

*Sniffles*

[Anonymous Coward]

Mandrake was my first Linux, and although I have moved on to other Linux distros, then finally to BSD I still hold a special place in my heart for that old distro.

Here's to you Mandrake, thanks for popping my cherry!

Re:*Sniffles*

[chipschap]

Shouldn't someone from the anti-open-source bunch be on here stating that this "proves" that open source isn't viable?

Oops, shouldn't give them ideas.

I more lament the demise of Crunchbang, actually. It was a pretty original concept. But distros come and go. There are market forces in open source, too. Commercial software also comes and goes, but when it goes, users are generally left with ... not much.

Re:*Sniffles*

[EmeraldBot]

Shouldn't someone from the anti-open-source bunch be on here stating that this "proves" that open source isn't viable?

Oops, shouldn't give them ideas.

I more lament the demise of Crunchbang, actually. It was a pretty original concept. But distros come and go. There are market forces in open source, too. Commercial software also comes and goes, but when it goes, users are generally left with ... not much.

You might be interested in Crunchbang++. They are basically a continuation of the original, with the same goals and values. I've been mainly a FreeBSD user since early 2005 or so, and that's my main OS for my workstation. However, when it came to my laptop, nothing could beat Crunchbang on that thing - hope the successor can be as awesome as the original.

Re:*Sniffles*

[KGIII]

Technically my first was RedHat and I could not get that fucker to install properly on any machine. Every. Single. One... The monitor would never work - multiple different monitors. It worked during the install process, damn it... I paid for that disk too! Mandrake is the first one that, well, just worked. I had used Sun before it but that was UNIX.

This goes in the category of

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't even realize they were still around.

Way back when...

[Kevin108]

In 1999, Mandrake was the first distro I ever got installed and running 100%. I've long since abandoned it, but it's a happy memory.

Re:Way back when...

[Rick Zeman]

In 1999, Mandrake was the first distro I ever got installed and running 100%. I've long since abandoned it, but it's a happy memory.

Same here. (Well, x86 linux because I had MkLinux running on a Mac, but that was almost idiot proof.) Getting the sound card going was quite a bitch, iirc. Not quite the "having to fiddle with interrupts and memory ranges" days, but it was close.

Re:Way back when...

[Kevin108]

I ended up pulling my SB Pro out to read the jumpers so I could run the config tool properly. The 33.6k modem was the real challenge. And that was after I upgraded from my US Robotics WinModem.

It's amazing how easy we have it these days.

Re:Way back when...

[WoodburyMan]

Absolutely the same situation. I still had dial up and bought a boxed version at Staples. 1999-2000. Set it up on a Pentium II system alongside Windows 98.

Linux is dying

[Anonymous Coward]

It is official; Netcraft now confirms: Linux is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Linux community when IDC confirmed that Linux market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Linux has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Linux is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Linux's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Linux faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Linux because Linux is dying. Things are looking very bad for Linux. As many of us are already aware, Linux continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

All major surveys show that Linux has steadily declined in market share. Linux is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Linux is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. Linux continues to decay. Nothing short of a cockeyed miracle could save Linux from its fate at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Linux is dead.

Fact: Linux is dying

Re:Linux is dying

[Anonymous Coward]

Heads high, ponies! Marching proud! All together now! Every one of you! No pony left behind!

Life is so grand in Our Town
We're always filled with cheer
We never have to look around
To know that we're all here

In Our Town, in Our Town
We don't have to wait
To find out that our destiny
Is just to emulate

Let's see those big, happy smiles!

Life is a smile in Our Town
Our cutie marks the same
Because we do not separate
Ourselves by more than name

In Our Town, in Our Town
We dare not compete
Winning only breeds the worst
Ego-filled conceit

You see? Now everypony wins!

Life is a joy in Our Town
We're all equal here
No one is superior
And no one shakes in fear

In Our Town, in Our Town
We work as a team
You can't have a nightmare
If you never dream

Other ponies argue
Do you ever wonder why?
When you think your talent's special
You don't see eye-to-eye
There's just too many differences
That lead to disarray
But when you learn to act as one
It's like a holiday

In Our Town, in Our Town
We don't complicate
When you learn to simplify
Life is oh, so great
Join in our utopia
Come out of the dark
Banded by equality
By our cutie mark!

Re:Linux is dying

[markdavis]

>"It is official; Netcraft now confirms: Linux is dying"

Let me guess, you are somehow related to Microsoft...

Your "facts" are very wrong by the way.... Linux is on many orders of magnitude more than 1% of servers.

Go away, anonymous coward...

Re:Linux is dying

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be new here.

But it was free! How can you not sell free?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a paradox for sure!

If I stand on my street corner and hold out a sign, they give me money! And I don't even have to se!! How can you give away an entire operation computer system and not make any money?

This is a crazy world, Arthur Brown. A crazy world.

Mageia

[markdavis]

I made the move to Mageia years ago and never looked back. Still happy. Since it is not a business, it should theoretically not go under. Retains all the spirit and functionality of Mandrake/Mandriva but is completely community driven. It is a great desktop distro.

Re:Mageia

[Anonymous Coward]

Awww! I found the one user of Mageia. I really want to like Mageia, but it's hard. I haven't actually bumped into anybody using it. It feels very rough around the edges from the little I've tried it.

Re:Mageia

[emaname]

I also have had an extremely positive experience with Mageia. It's a stable, very finished distro. Been using it for 4 years and no complaints.

Re:Mageia

[PianoComp81]

Yep, I still use it. I tried openSUSE over the weekend, and gave up. The package management wasn't as easy (I like the meta packages Mageia has like "task-printing" that just installs everything I need; openSUSE didn't seem to have those). The configuration tools have been biggest reason why I've stuck with Madrake/Mandriva/Mageia since about the summer of 2001. I've tried other distros, but I keep coming back.

Re:Mageia

[Anonymous Coward]

The meta-package thing you are talking of is called a pattern in OpenSUSE speak. They are their own citizens and not packages, so you install them a trivial bit differently.

Configuration is pretty simple too with YaST, just like druids or whatever they're called. Try googling for equivilences before wandering around... otherwise you'll only do what's familiar to you.

Every distro has it's problems but I think suse conquers package management and mixing overlays of prebuild packages better than all the rest over all... the OBS it's built on is used by a few different agencies. SuSE tends to have more newer [versions], more official, properly packaged packages than any distro I'm aware of... any overlay of repositories I know of has worked without a hiccup or minimal issues at worst with the sole exception of LLVM... since xorg uses it so much.

Re:Mageia

[pnutjam]

If you have a basic SuSE install, you can go to http://www.opensuse.org/ click the "get it" button. Then you can search for any package and install with a 1 click installation. It will also give you the option to add the repository so you can get future updates.

They do have the most available packages, and the best hardware support, IMHO.

Will be missed

[sconeu]

Back around 2000 or so, Mandrake was THE distro for newbies. It was a straighforward simple install, and it Just Worked(tm). My first distro that I was able to really get working was Mandrake 8.1

The funny thing about Mandrake distributions was they had their own "only use version 3 of MS whatever" rule. Basically, it was "Use the x.1 version. x.0 and x.2 suck."

They started going downhill with the Mandriva name, and when they ran into financial trouble, I - like many others - switched to Mageia.

Still a damned shame to see them go, though.

Re:Will be missed

[jbolden]

They ran into financial trouble as Mandrake. The distribution was moderately profitable but they lost their shirt on an educational software venture that failed.

Re:Will be missed

[KGIII]

At risk of being pedantic, I believe it was Mandrake in 2000 or so. I think 8.1 was still Mandrake at least, but my memory could be fuzzy so I won't bet on it nor state it authoritatively. I am also too damned lazy to look it up. Google is so far away...

Re:Will be missed

[sconeu]

They became Mandriva somewhere after the Mandrake 10.2 release. I think it was around 2005 or so. They started naming the releases by year around that point.

And yes, in 2001 it was Mandrake 8.1.

PCLinuxOS

[Anonymous Coward]

I started using GNU/Linux with Mandrake 9.1, but as soon as I did it changed to Mandriva, so did I.

Yes I remember the new hardware kernel configs for joystick, camera, ati graphics, nvidia soon after, for me. And 3g wireless modems(vodafo..)

I moved to Mageia when Mandriva got to heavy and seemed more concerned with selling something blindingly attractive but less substance.

The things I loved about the Mandrake and Old Mandriva were disappearing, like, being able to stop the boot process and plug something else in,

Being able to Change the graphics and check the logs for a black screen/ text console.

No I use PCLinuxOS, it is very similar to Early Mandriva, works really well, and I can still interrupt the boot process and read the logs to see what did or did not load.

RIP Mandriva, the most sparkling Distro I ever used.

troolkore

[Anonymous Coward]

the abo7e Is far

You'll *NEVER* believe I'm saying this... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: It's going to live on in servers, & yes desktops too but MOSTLY on smaller devices like phones + routers & modems - why? It keeps "per unit costs" down, & it works (and it's EASILY customizable since it's "Open SORES").

* It's not going anywhere soon (as in 'death'), far from it...

(I tried it back in Slackware 1.02 in 1994, pissed me off for lack of a vidcard driver for my then 'screaming' "Windows Accelerator" card, a Diamond Stealth 24 - I couldn't even get a GUI, so I dropped it like a rock (I did enough VMS & UNIX variants commandine work in academia, didn't want anymore of that, I wanted 'X' & couldn't get it). So, I waited. Tried Redhat 6.x around 1999 iirc, & it was lacking in apps I liked & games - so, I waited again until Summer 2010 while I toured europe & THEN, I once more decided to "see how the other 1/2 lives" on a laptop... KUbuntu 10.10 64-bit was PRETTY DAMN GOOD (updating's come a LONG WAYS along with app selection imo) & *IF* I didn't have a valid Windows 7 64 license? I'll actually be HONEST here & say this: I'd be on Linux like 'white on rice': Why?? Same reason as device makers - low cost & works as I said earlier above...).

APK

P.S.=> Besides, who'd I "kick around" then, if not for the occasional "Pro-*NIX Penguin trolls"? Oh yea, that's right: I'll *always* have my 'naysayers' vs. myself on custom hosts files (vs. myself as "The Lord of HOSTS", & undefeatable on that note!)... apk

Re:You'll *NEVER* believe I'm saying this... apk

[KGIII]

Holy shit... I thought you were dead or something.

Re:You'll *NEVER* believe I'm saying this... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps the spirit.... ....:glasses on: Found another HOST

YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

systemd

[Curunir_wolf]

And another systemd distro falls...

Re:systemd

[Anonymous Coward]

shots fired

Re:systemd

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps in a year or two there will be only one distro; GNU/systemd.

FINALLY!

[thedarb]

Been waiting for this to happen ever since they pulled a bait and switch on the StarOffice deal many many years ago. Glad to see these charlatans shuttered. Victory!!! Take THAT, you lying jerks!

Re:FINALLY!

[thedarb]

Sad you folks consider it a troll. They really did do that, and left many of us really upset over it. Upset enough to stop buying their product and switch to other distributions.

And so it begins.

[Anonymous Coward]

The 2015 tech bubble has officially begun to burst.

Hold on to your butts!

Re:And so it begins.

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux distros are like Hydra. Cut off one head, two others pop-up.

My first distro

[Anonymous Coward]

Mandrake 6.2 was my first distro. It was great for newbies because everything just worked. Moved on to Gentoo for a long time after that. Now I'm using Ubuntu LTS cause it makes life easy.

looks like Mandrakes power has fizzed out

[ozduo]

Or maybe his eyes have cataracts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

You must not go to the same /. sections I do

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been "alive" here MORE THAN EVER actually than any forums in my entire time online since 1994 (2005 to present, man) - I am surprised you've never seen "APK" and "Hosts Files" here then actually, lol!

* :)

(Do I know you?)

APK

P.S.=> Anyhow, see subject - it's probably that (I tend to stay around 'security of the internet' related topics, hence the hosts file stuff above since they are a great aid to that & I've written a program for that I tend to 'pimp' a bit here (lol, more than a bit - wherever they apply to help stop the threat involved OR wherever "Almost ALL Ads Blocked" fan sockpuppets congregate since hosts are so much more efficient & better doing more, for less, for more security, speed, reliability + even anonymity online than adblock does by FAR, & for less resources consumed, by FAR also))... apk

Re:You must not go to the same /. sections I do

[Anonymous Coward]

P.S.=> Anyhow, see subject - it's probably that (I tend to stay around 'security of the internet' related topics, hence the hosts file stuff above since they are a great aid to that & I've written a program for that I tend to 'pimp' a bit here (lol, more than a bit - wherever they apply to help stop the threat involved OR wherever "Almost ALL Ads Blocked" fan sockpuppets congregate since hosts are so much more efficient & better doing more, for less, for more security, speed, reliability + even anonymity online than adblock does by FAR, & for less resources consumed, by FAR also))... apk

Says the man with ads on his site.

It's not over.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing is over.

The distro is the same, present in the daughters OpenMandriva, in Mageia and in ROSA/POCA. The distro is not over, though the forks are just starting to diverge.

The developers are still there, the users are still there -- and above all, Linux is still there. It's not even like when XP reached its EOL. One just has to pick a distro and go on.

The developers are great people. If you try so hard to make it happen, that can only mean you have a strong heart and courage to face the odds. What they lack was Marketing skills. Other Linux distros, if they're smart, are probably contacting these guys because Mandriva had an excellence which I witnessed several times these last years. Or hardware makers, if they need e.g. embedded Linux for, say, a phone... *wink*.

Because the Mandriva guys were thoughtful, the user community has already another place to go, OpenMandriva. BTW, thank you, fellas, you did think about us even in your darkest hour. Not so many are that nice in this world we live now. More than once you saved me. Thanks for being awesome!

Some even opted for Mageia long ago (like me). And ROSA looks another good option. For those who want traditional desktops, there's also other similar distributions, though for hardware support and configuration probably just a few can rival Mandriva.

Actually, there was some wise juggling behind the stages and we now face the demise of just the part of the company which was supposed to offer enterprise services and products. With players like Red Hat, SuSE and Oracle, I think this is a somewhat hard to enter fight. Any other competitor would face difficult odds in that arena.

It's not the end, too, because I bet these people will still offer professional services, either personally or they might join others coming from Mandriva, or from one of the daughters, or still being hired but already existing service providers.

I was much more worried the first time they sank :-) I hope they get reunited in the future, after they perfect their ninja skills to fight again and I hope next time they pay more attention to Marketing -- if nothing more to devise a minimally acceptable name -- even Mageia and OpenMandriva names suck majorly and ROSA, well, ROSA is OK but the logo is blue when it should be rosy! Ever imagined Red Hat's logo in green?

At last, it's not the end, because... it ain't over till the fat lady sings! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_ain%27t_over_till_the_fat_lady_sings

Re:It's not over.

[Anonymous Coward]

Back around 1998 or 1999 IIRC I was running Mandrake. I remember it as a fantastic distro. I do hope they continue on and have success even if the entity Mandriva died. These days I'm not using linux for my desktop. I'm mainly using CentOS and SuSE on the server side. Sadly a lot of the stuff I do requires Windows and Active Directory. There's a lot of good linux distros out there. As much as I complain on one hand about all the fragmentation and wish there was more standardization in the core platform, the diversity at times can also be a strength. I just don't have time any more to play with a different distro every month.

Rock Solid

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

I used various versions of Mandrake up through 10.x or so. It was rock solid and a great workhorse. Fond memories.

What the fark is up with the formatting?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell is there so much indentation? This is absolutely awful and sucks to read.

Re:What the fark is up with the formatting?

[Blaskowicz]

I can adapt to it fine, except for when it ends up like this http://imgur.com/QQojrbG

It IS bullshit, isn't it? apk

[Anonymous Coward]

I noticed it also, see subject...

APK

P.S.=> Probably @ the behest of the REAL "masters" here, or on ANY website & forums: The ADVERTISERS (while they still last that is, adblockers galore are stomping them into the GROUND every second of the day) who hold the pursestrings - call it an "educated guess", since it doesn't require an education to realize WHO really runs the show on forums (& I strongly suspect the coders or former owners of this site would NOT do something this stupid - after all: They NEVER did before this, so go figure on what I said... makes you wonder WHAT their real motivation for it is)!

LOL, ever see the old, Old, OLD "victrola" records with the dog listening to the thing? "HIS MASTERS VOICE" comes to mind here also... apk

AdBlock = Inferior + 'Souled-Out'... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit:

http://start64.com/index.php?o...

(POSTING THAT AS A "TESTING 1,2.3" to see if the link shows AFTER my std. title)

APK

P.S.=> Just on a 'hunch', I *could* be wrong, but in about 2 seconds I am going to post this & see if that link still shows after my std. subject title for those posts... apk

Well, "sonofagun"!... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

For once, I was WRONG here http://linux.slashdot.org/comm... but then AGAIN?

I *may* have given "some people" some ideas they can use too... oh well!

APK

P.S.=> However, I absolutely KNOW I'm not wrong, here http://linux.slashdot.org/comm... ... apk

Re:Well, "sonofagun"!... apk

[dave420]

Please stop spamming Slashdot. It shows a great disrespect for everyone who reads your posts. It's also counter-productive to your cause, as it is advertising your system can not block, but your competitors can.

Re:Well, "sonofagun"!... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Seeing you troll apk it's obvious you don't use 'em, you're lying. Take your pick Mr. Advertiser.

Brings back memories

[Chewbacon]

I remember popping the disk out to make sure I didn't put a Redhat disk in by mistake when I saw "REDHAT LINUX" across the top of the installer. No, it really was the Mandrake disk.

No surprise

[x_t0ken_407]

It was a sinking ship before I ever started using Linux -- Mandriva 2009 was my first ever distro, and it made me fall in love with Linux. But the writing was on the wall for that company, well documented in the forums I used to frequent back in the day. These days (and since roughly 2010) I'm an Arch Linux user, so I never got on the wagon to Mageia, but back then I so desperately was ready to take on a huge role with the community-based distro that we always talked about.

He's not dead

[Anonymous Coward]

No he's not dead, but every reply he gets is another nail in his perch.

Re:He's not dead

[KGIII]

I hadn't noticed him in a long time. I figured dead or in a psyche hospital.

Corel Photopaint & Mandrake 9

[Sattwic]

Once upon a time, it was possible to install Corel Photopaint on Mandrake 9.x and it was fantastic.
Only Apple Macs ruled the designer world roost and this was a rebellion in its on right.

I was there ...

[sgunhouse]

Shame really. I picked up a copy of Mandrake 7.0 in July of 2000 at the local Staples (office superstore chain), at the time their version numbers were 1 higher than Redhat. They created a host of software tools (all with "drake" in the name), at the time hardrake was the best Linux hardware detection library and was used by several other distros.

A couple of years after that I reported a bug with the installer of the then-new version (8.0). When they wrote me back they asked if I needed help with the bug, I told them that I'd worked around it in terminal mode, so they asked me if I'd like to be a "crash tester" and I said "Sure." They sent me a free copy of 8.0 (which I obviously already had) and a black and yellow shirt featuring a cartoonish penguin crash test dummy. I worked with them for 3-4 years, until they stopped supporting my old hardware. After trying half a dozen other versions, I settled on OpenSUSE for about a year and a half. Once I finally upgraded my hardware I went back to what was then Mandriva.

When Mageia released their own 1.0, I installed that. The next version of Mandriva included the Rosa desktop and was trying to do too much for my system to handle, so I reluctantly said "farewell" and have stuck with Mageia since.

So they left me, a couple of times ... but I'm still sorry to see them close down.

Don't *have* a site... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: Others host my wares for me (MalwareBytes' hpHosts' site admin, their "top man" in fact, does -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & he highly recommends it above others like it for doing the job of taking custom hosts file data he & MANY others in the security community produce...) - I don't see ANY ads there (but then again, I use a custom hosts file to stop them from infecting me with malicious script OR from stealing the bandwidth I payout monthly for too). If you mean where I showcase it here as well APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-1 32/64-Bit http://start64.com/index.php?o... I don't see any ads there either (see above as to why).

* :)

(... And, "there ya go"...)

APK

P.S.=> I wouldn't be aware of ads on *ANY* site, as I never EVER see 'em & get the MOST out of what I pay for speed-wise in my internet connection's bandwidth that's ALL MINE, not stolen by advertisers (& I certainly do NOT get poisoned by them in ANY way either) - how about you, fool? Apparently, you do get those downsides after your statements here, I don't... apk

Nobody notices you

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject, it's true: They do me via APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-1 32/64-Bit http://start64.com/index.php?o...

* I give others more speed, security, reliability & even more anonymity (to a lesser extent on the latter) for FREE + it works better than ANY single "so-called 'solution'" for all of those things from 1 single file, doing more with less, vs. ANY 1 inefficient slower usermode browser addon (vs. hosts in kernelmode as a filter for the IP stack itself) that are EASILY DETECTED FOR & BLOCKED by native browser methods... hosts aren't.

APK

P.S.=> You lose & fail on ALL accounts noted - I never noticed you for those very reasons above, troll (live your life under your "registered 'luser'" name here & see where it gets you (you'll languish in TRUE anonymity is what)... lol! apk

LMAO: From disgusting worms like you?

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: I absolutely KNOW not, "ne'er-do-well"...

* :)

(Little truly anonymous fleas like yourself really make me laugh since you're "ne'er-do-wells" & nothing more...)

APK

P.S.=> You KNOW it, I know it, & certainly anyone else reading that's a normal human being with 1/2 a brain even does also - you lose/fail (but then again, that's just "how you roll"/what you've done with your life, now isn't it? Yes)... apk

Re:LMAO: From disgusting worms like you?

[Anonymous Coward]

I absolutely KNOW not ... I know it

Make your mind up.

Re:LMAO: From disgusting worms like you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Partial quoting apk proves you're a ne'er do well troll as apk said.

Re:LMAO: From disgusting worms like you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Self-contradictory ... hypersensitive to criticism ... no a sense of humor ...

Hmm. Let's see what google says: www.google.com/search?q=self+contradictory+hypersensitive+criticism+no+sense+humor

Certainly a bummer

[Anonymous Coward]

I used Mandrake for awhile back in the day. I found its colors and artwork a little too corny for my tastes, but it was the first Linux distribution where I installed it and 99% of it just worked. No messing with XFree86, the sound card was configured, the modem was ready to go, etc. At the time (round the turn of the century) your other standard distributions (such as Slackware or Debian) were a bit more work to get the system up and running, at least for someone new to Linux.

After having a useable system that I could access the Internet with, I learned enough about Linux to be able to handle Slackware and Debian (and later FreeBSD). But I credit Mandrake for giving me the opportunity to get over those first hurdles.

fairwell

[CosaNostra Pizza Inc]

How sad. Mandrake was the first Linux distro I tried, years ago.

Which 1 of these 5 = you?... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: Dave420's 1 of 5 types failing @ "getting the best of me" - they can't, or they would've LONG ago):

1.) Advertisers
2.) malware makers &/or botnet herders
3.) webmasters (I held it back for them in fact, it was done, in 3 parts though in tty mode, as far back as 2003 here but when malvertizing went out of control, out the door she went to 'the masses' for the absolute good, since any idiot knows being destructive = easy, but doing good NEVER is, but it's worth it imo)
4.) An INFERIOR competitor (e.g. - AdBlock, Ghostery etc.)

* Doesn't 'take a brain' to realize that - after all: THEY'RE THE ONES WHO GET "HURT" by it.

THEY have been hurting others bandwidth/speed, security, & more for DECADES!

They certainly CAN'T get the better of me by validly disproving my points on hosts files' mulitiple nigh ubiquitous value to end users...

Yes, that "Almost ALL Ads Blocked" payoff from Google goes a LONG WAYS to sockpuppeting trolls, now doesn't it?

Too bad it can't prove ME or truths/facts I use, wrong eh? Not.

Dave420 (hiding behind his 'registered luser' name, lol)?

His favorite color = transparent, since I see RIGHT thru him per the above... it's "ok for adblock sockpuppets" to do it? Yea, the payoff money from GOOGLE goes a LONG ways to that, now doesn't it? Yes sir, you're LIVING proof thereof.

APK

P.S.=> I'd WAGER per #4 above Dave420 = Wladimir Palant (AdBlock creator) who wrote me by email, 1st, saying "hosts are a shitty solution" - well, when I confonted him in email reply to show me that "Almost ALL ADS BLOCKED" can do MORE than custom hosts? He RAN like a scared rabbit - ESPECIALLY after this study showed how massively INEFFICIENT in RAM (5gb usage) & HIGH CPU USAGE AdBlock is https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth...

Dave420: Quit cryin, prove me wrong, ok? apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Can adblock do 16 things hosts do for speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. malicious sites/servers (beyond malicious ads: See 2-10 next)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnets + stop communication to C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (adds reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam
9.) Protect vs. phishing
10.) Protect vs. bandwidth caps
11.) Get you past a dnsbl
12.) Keep you off dns request logs
13.) Speed up websurfing by adblocks & hardcoded fav. sites
14.) Work on ANY webbound app (think stand-alone email programs) multiplatform.
15.) Give you easily texteditor controlled data for the above
16.) Do all that & block ads (better than addons) more efficiently in cpu cycles + memory usage

* ANSWER ="NO" to each above on AdBlock doing it as well or at all!

APK

P.S.=> AdBlock does FAR less than hosts do & FAR less efficiently - hosts by way of comparison, do MORE w/ less + Hosts start w/ the IP stack before REDUNDANT inefficient addons BEGIN to operate (as 1st resolver queried):

AdBlock's 4++gb & 100% CPU usage flooring inefficiency -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... + ClarityRay defeats it + it 'souled-out' & is crippled by default paid off to not do its job http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/... & ABP too http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...

AdBlock adds complexity/room for breakdown/exploit + from a slower mode of operations (usermode = more messagepassing overheads vs. hosts in kernelmode).

For the BEST hosts file?

APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit -> http://start64.com/index.php?o...

MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

... apk

What do I say to Google? Prove me wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

GOOGLE PAYOFF MONEY WON'T HELP NOW: SEE SUBJECT - Criticize material below validly, good luck!

Can adblock do 16 things hosts do for speed, security, & reliability:

1.) Protect vs. malicious sites/servers (beyond malicious ads: See 2-10 next)
2.) Protect vs. fastflux botnets + stop communique to C&C servers
3.) Protect vs. dynamic dns botnets + stop communique to C&C servers
4.) Protect vs. DGA botnets + stop communique to C&C servers
5.) Protect vs. downed DNS (adds reliability)
6.) Protect vs. DNS redirect poisoned dns
7.) Protect vs. trackers
8.) Protect vs. spam
9.) Protect vs. phishing
10.) Protect vs. bandwidth caps
11.) Get you past a dnsbl
12.) Keep you off dns request logs
13.) Speed up websurfing by adblocks & hardcoded fav. sites
14.) Work on ANY webbound app ( like stand-alone email programs) multiplatform.
15.) Give you easy texteditor controlled data
16.) Do all that & block ads (better than addons) more efficiently in cpu cycles + memory usage

* ANSWER ="NO" to each above on AdBlock doing it as well or at all!

APK

P.S.=> AdBlock does FAR less than hosts & FAR less efficiently - hosts by way of comparison do MORE w/ less + Hosts start w/ the IP stack before REDUNDANT inefficient addons BEGIN to operate (as 1st resolver queried):

AdBlock's 4++gb & 100% CPU usage flooring inefficiency -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... + ClarityRay defeats it + it 'souled-out' & is crippled by default paid off to not do its job http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/... & ABP too http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...

AdBlock adds complexity/room for breakdown/exploit + from a slow mode of operation (usermode = more messagepassing overheads vs. kernelmode hosts).

For the BEST hosts file?

APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit -> http://start64.com/index.php?o...

MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

... apk

Re:What do I say to Google? Prove me wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

Grandiosity, unrealistic expectations ... www.google.com/search?q=grandiosity+unrealistic+expectations

Oh and self contradiction is automatically wrong. QED.

"Rinse, Lather, & Repeat"... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

It's exactly what I'd say to Google, or anybody http://linux.slashdot.org/comm...

* Nobody EVER manages it - so perhaps YOU are for once, right: My expectations are too high that ANYONE actuall COULD PROVE ME WRONG (lol, no way possible)... & it works!

(Truth's like that, so is fact!)

APK

P.S.=> "Onwards & UPWARDS"... apk

Re:"Rinse, Lather, & Repeat"... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

That made not one iota of sense. But the subtext speaks for itself: www.google.com/search?q=unrealistic+unattainable+%22last+word%22

But, but... Year of the Linux Desktop!

[FlyHelicopters]

Wait, I thought that any time now we'd have the "Year of the Linux Desktop!" It has only been promised to us for 20 years now.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/2...

That was from 2004.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

That is from 2005, but has some interesting observations from years past

http://linux.slashdot.org/stor...

That one is from 2007, it asks "Is 2008 the Year of the Linux Desktop?"

---

NO IT IS NOT AND IT NEVER WILL BE. Yea, yea, a few techies use it and will probably always use it. It will run millions of servers and continue to do so. And 10 years from now, 95% of desktop and notebook PCs will continue to run Windows.

Re:But, but... Year of the Linux Desktop!

[shentino]

If Microsoft has its way with Secure Boot, it will be 100 percent.

Re:But, but... Year of the Linux Desktop!

[FlyHelicopters]

You think so? My understanding is that Secure Boot can be turned off in the BIOS.

I also thought that you could get a "secure boot" version of Linux.

If I'm mistaken, please let me know.