What Can Mandriva Linux 2006 Mean for Home Users? 278
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."
With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Insightful)
With all respect to Mandriva, I'd much rather just point them to ubuntu [ubuntu.com]
(I feel I should make an OS X reference, but I just can't be bothered)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Informative)
They claim they are just trying not to run afoul of USA law, but what they've really done is trash their own distribution. (At
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Spare yourself from the headaches (Score:3, Insightful)
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 n
Re:Spare yourself from the headaches (Score:2, Interesting)
First of all, even on Ubuntu, which is the easiest I have found, it *does* take more than a few minutes, and who in the world knows how to write a script or even what a script is? If Ubuntu, Mandriva, et al. want to get an actual stake in the desktop market they need to remove "script" from all but their most advanced vocabulary. Oh, sure, if you are
Re:Spare yourself from the headaches (Score:4, Informative)
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 [zarb.org], 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 [easylinux.info]. I found this link at "Mandriva Linux" entry on Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]. All is explained very well.
Peace!
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Insightful)
A better solution would be to have the package/installer maintainer live in Sweden. Make it his responsibility that things got packaged like that and then stop worrying about it.
I don't so much disagree with abiding by their local laws (since they usually are mine, too) but you can't claim to have a home user solution and not have it do basic things like write FAT and play DVDs out of the box. Those are basic f
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Informative)
FUD.
Where does it say you have to recompile anything to write to FAT? Anywhere near the bit that says "TIP: You can change this rather easy in the MCC in the partition management module. You go into expert mode (watch it!) and select umask=0."?
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:4, Informative)
The change in MCC isn't even a text edit, there's a check box with the label umask=0 and a description "Give write access to ordinary users". It doesn't get easier than that.
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Informative)
windows takes the approach of "fat volumes are wide open to all users (a pretty major security hole really)" linux takes the opposite approach of "you can't write a non-native filesystem unless root lets you".
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Informative)
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
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
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:3, Informative)
Since fucking when?
I do that DAILY! ALL my Windows partitions are FAT32! I save images, Web pages...
What the fuck is this on about?
And I haven't seen one show-stopping bug in Mandriva 2006 (other than their braindead menu editor, which sucks.) The only one they mention in the article is is Kat, which I haven't tried yet.
Oh, I see what they're talking about now - they're bitching that the
Oh, big fucking deal
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:With all respect to Mandriva.... (Score:2)
I just rebuilt my SO's system and built a new one for myself (64-bit AMD yummy!)... I ran her through Ubuntu, Mandriva and Fedora Core 5. She did the installs on her system, she did the configuration and she did the post install tweaking. Considering that she's was doing all this under protest (such a luddite), with little knowledge of computers and nearly 0 knowledge of linux (except how to use firefox on the old system). At the end of the day, she chose Mandriva.
In the end, I found that 64-bit
What can it mean? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What can it mean? (Score:2)
Re:What can it mean? (Score:2, Funny)
reminds me of another company that resides on the northwest coast of the USA
Those French! (Score:2)
"...and the idea that you're supporting a filthy French company."
I know, those damned French!
Did you know, the French flag used to be made WITHOUT the red and blue panels?
Re:What can it mean? (Score:2)
I must say I'm offended at your double standard of racism, statism, and overall bigotry. It's okay for you to say I'm bigoted because I'm white and American, but you don't consider yourself a bigot for saying so?
Bigotry is a form of ignorance. And boy, Coward, you sure display that in spades if you can't even tell when you're practicing what it is that you have denounced.
Nice idea but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Nice idea but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Probably not, considering a noob would probably be like, "What is this Linux thing? I heard of it before, but what does it do again?"
I guess I gotta ask, have you tried Mandriva? It is actually a good choice Distro for noob's, although I use Ubuntu myself on most of my machines, I still kick the tires on other Distros on other "test" machines. I just don't want to get that Windows elitist attitude about my choice OS being the "best", when there m
Re:Nice idea but... (Score:2)
Uhhhh, no it's not, not to say that Ubuntu isn't good, but Novell's SuSE Linux is the most polished and accessible distribution. Everything "Just Works" (tm) in Novell SuSE and they aren't all upitty about including binary only modules / plugins. As a bonus, you won't get laughed out of a meeting (or even better fired) for throwing the name Novell around like you will
Re:Nice idea but... (Score:2)
This is because the world needs fewer Whiney Distro Fanboys.
Re:Nice idea but... (Score:2)
You use Ubuntu, so Ubuntu is the best for you and your "first-time switcher friends", that's cool with me.
But for me, Mandriva is the best for me and for my "first-time switcher friends", as it is what I use.
Mandriva is very good for newbies and gurus alike:
next time (Score:4, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows software management Just Works? (Score:2)
Explaining the concept of package management to intelligent non-geeks is not difficul
Re:Windows software management Just Works? (Score:2)
What I meant by "more secure" is that you only need to decide to trust one site and one organization, instead of evaluating a dozens of download sites and hundreds of software producers and deciding who to trust. You also do not need to get familiar with dozens of different software update methods to keep your software updated, and to manually check the websites of the programs that do not phone home...
A single package repository is the equivalent of a centrall
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:5, Funny)
I'd say "NOT AGAIN!!"
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
I think you should try to get your revenge against Arthur Dent for that.
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:3, Informative)
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
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
I have a mac, and I have a linux box, I am forced to use windows at work. FOr me mac vs linux is 50/50 for some things I prefer linux, for other I prefer the mac. I would never in a thousand years buy windows or use it for personal use. It's just too much hassle and work. Every day it does something to annoy the crap out of me.
It's been my experience that people who like windows just don't know
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
What a lovely generalisation you've made there. Would you like to explain this comment to someone who's used god knows how many Linux distros and FreeBSD, but has chosen Windows because he can't be fucked to go fixing it every few days? How about telling me if "just don't know any better" is, as I suspect, code for "are complete retards because they don't use my favourite operating system"?
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
I really wonder what some people do to their systems. I've had my current Windows laptop for a couple of years now. I install and uninstall all manner of stuff on a regular basis, and as yet I've never had to rebuild it.
I've also got both a Mac and a Linux box (Fedora Core 4). I've never had to rebuild any of these either, although I do occasionally have to reconfigure the main menu bar on the Linux box when it seems to for
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:3, Interesting)
Using a package manager connected to repositories is certainly different from Windows, but it's not harder. If anything, it's easier, because you don't have to hunt around the internet
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:3, Informative)
It is called urpmi [mandriva.com].
For Debian users:
urpmi is apt
rpm is dkpg
rpmdrake is synaptic
Urpmi comes both in command-line [utexas.edu] and GUI front-end [google.com]. Urpmi also comes with a "WindowsUpdate-like" tool called MandrivaUpdate [mandrakehelp.com].
There is even an online urpmi configurator tool [zarb.org], where you can even select the program sources "forbidden" in the USA, as they contain pre-packaged programs and modules that will allow you to watch DVDs, have 3D acceleration with ATI and nVidia cards, and a whole bunch of programs that its legali
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
The thing is, once you have it setup, it just works. The only time I need to reinstall is when a hard drive needs to be replaced.
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
You are free to buy whatever
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
Re:Mandriva 2006 at home (Score:2)
What Can Grammar Lessons Mean for /. Users? (Score:3, Funny)
My eyes! My eyes are bleeding!
Re: What Can Grammar Lessons Mean for /. Users? (Score:2, Informative)
Overall, it seems he did a good job though.
Re: What Can Grammar Lessons Mean for /. Users? (Score:2)
That must be why you missed the pro's and con's.
And there's not much point directing anyone to this article, the whole server has disappeared. Hosted by a free server, so that was entirely predictable. Mirrordot only has the intro.
screenshots and i18n (Score:2, Interesting)
Incidentally, the reason I left Mandrake 4 years ago for Fedora (core 2, i think) was that Fedora had better Japanese language support. I also didn't like MenuDrake.. too inflexible, iirc.
Too early for Monday (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh God!! I was't really prepared to wade through a flame war over distros this morning. What a bunch of freaking zealots! You distro fanatics make me want to puke.
I started on Slackware because someone said it's a good distro to use if you want to learn what's really going on. I stand by that statement today. If you want to learn Linux then don't use some mamby-pamby cute distro. If you want to be a user of Linux then use whatever most resembles whatever floats your boat. Some might argue it's best to use something that looks most like Windows. Some wouldn't.
I ran into an intersting discussion in the real world this week that I thought pertinent. The conclusion goes as follows:
From a practical point: most *nix servers that are not Linux based (HP/Sun/IBM) have little in the way of cute interface management tools. On these heavy lift platforms the configuration tool of choice seems to be vi more than a GUI. I don't think anyone has been able to surpass this customization and I'm not certain that it is a requirement that they do. If you don't understand the workings of the applications then a GUI interface will only permit you to do damage.
It's very likely that my proposed list of distro's will create a lot of controversy, but first consider where you sit on the spectrum between ultimate customization of the machine and "I'll take what I get" user.
Re:Too early for Monday (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, "I'll take what I can get" is the mantra for Linux on the desktop.
I use Linux almost exclusively on the desktop (I clock about 3 hours/6 months on my Win2k partition), but there's a good number of things I have had to learn to do without.
Before you flame, consider these common (or inc
Re:Too early for Monday (Score:2)
Isn't it rather the mantra for desktops in general? As in:
"Why did you get Windows"
"well that's all that came with the computer"
or
"that's the only system that'll run this app I need"
In my case I don't mind that much having 40Gigs set aside for a Windows partition on one of my disks so that I can play games. I wouldn't do anything else while I'm playing anyway so it doesn't really matter that I'm in an unfriendly environment (
Re:Too early for Monday (Score:2)
I used I think DVD Author, or maybe QDVD, something like that and it worked fine. Acidrip works great to rip DVDs.
Re:Too early for Monday (Score:2)
Then don't.
It is Tuesday! (Score:2)
Mandrake (Score:2, Informative)
Then someone showed me ubuntu and I havent looked back, it does everything I've always wanted from a distro right out of the box with no tweaking necessary, at least in my case. I may
How long will Mandriva be around? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How long will Mandriva be around? (Score:2)
Nowadays though it's gotten fairly expensive both for domestic and small business users and I can't really understand what market they're after.
Nowadays, especially with newcomers like Ubuntu on the scene which have done much better on the "easy access" front, I'm not sure the future looks too bright for Mandriva. They'd have to either outperform Ubuntu or to recenter their efforts on the corporate market where
I got a better idea (Score:3, Informative)
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
auto-apt run command
Unless specified, the package in reference doesn't have to be already installed for these to work... but the database needs to be updated. You can update the appropriate database via:
apt-get update
or
auto-apt update
or
apt-file update
Re:I got a better idea (Score:2, Funny)
apt-get "That game with the spaceship, where you shoot stuff"
Even if the user had the nouse to type that at the command line, I doubt it'd work as they'd expect.
Re:I got a better idea (Score:2)
Re:I got a better idea (Score:2)
I used to have Conectiva, the "iva" part of Mandriva. They had a very interesting system, apt-rpm, combining apt with rpm packages. After Madrake took over Conectiva, they stopped updating Conectiva 10 and switched to Mandriva instead. As a consequence, I switched to (K)Ubuntu. Conectiva was a great distro, but Mandriva is clearly inferior. I think it's a nearly unanimous opinion that Ubuntu is the best distro for people who don't want to get too deepl
Re:I got a better idea (Score:2, Informative)
Download and install package:
urpmi package
Update urpmi's list of available packages:
urpmi.update -a
Upgrade all installed packages with upgrades available:
urpmi --auto-select --update
Upgrade to new distro, or in general upgrade anything available for update including core system packages:
urpmi --auto-select
Uninstall package:
urpme package
Search for a package like pattern:
urpmq pattern
Get information on ins
Dumbing down the entire system, for starters (Score:2, Interesting)
Joe Blow Windows Users (Score:2, Insightful)
Unfortunately, the average PC user running Windows Whatever doesn't even know what Linux is.
As user friendly as distros like Ubuntu and Mandriva are, I personally have not seen many people "making the switch". I am not the type who goes out and attempts to "convert the masses", but most people do know that I use Linux at home regularly.
The only person who has approached me for help with Linux is a fellow programmer who is learning we
Re:Joe Blow Windows Users (Score:2)
You must be using a bad distro if you are jumping through hoops to do web surfing or instant messaging. Firefox and gaim solve those problems nicely. Ubuntu, SuSE, and Mandriva are not that hard to set up.
I think people are also looking at the time spent learning and setting up as a problem. But the time is a lot less than the constant clean up of windoz. Why you don't help get a few peop
Re:Joe Blow Windows Users (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, my mother is currently using a ten year-old machine with a malware-ridden copy of Windows 95, and I've offered to upgrade everything. All she does with it is email, web, a few games (like solitaire), and occasionally edit a church newsletter with an ancient version of MS Word.
So she's visiting the other day, and I show her what I can do with Linux (I run Fedora with Gnome
Loose != (!gain) (Score:2)
Everyone has their internet spelling nazi pet peeve, this one is mine. Drives me crazy because many otherwise intelligent people seem incapable of spelling lose.
~Rebecca
It means... (Score:2)
Re:It means... (Score:2)
Re:It means... (Score:2)
Yeah (Score:2)
Oh sure I can bring it up
Re:Yeah (Score:3, Insightful)
Try downloading the latest Network Manager [gnome.org], which seems to be a lot better (I am gonna try this tonight)
On my new centrino notebook, everything worked. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
I have to comment on this.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I have to comment on this.. (Score:2, Informative)
My Wireless experience with Ubuntu was a bit challenging, but only because of WPA. The hardware support is there for Intel PRO Wireless, and some others, but it is spotty. The new Network Manager should help with this as well (I'll let you know, I am installing tonight). As for any other Wireless hot-spot that is open, my Linux machine connects right away.
I would equate
The article is a bit like Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
This article is actually a good introduction to Linux, though perhaps not in the way it was intended. As a competent, grammatically correct translation from another language into English, but by someone who is not a native speaker of English, it has a certain awkwardness to it, requires that the reader take a little more time to figure out what it's saying, and leaves the reader with a feeling of discomfort about just how well-polished this Linux stuff really is. If someone is put off by that, then they probably shouldn't try Linux; if they're not, it might be a good move for them.
Understand: I'm not criticising the translator; his English is far better than any second language of mine, and better than a lot of translated-into-English I've read over the years. Just an observation.
What Can it Mean You Ask??? (Score:2)
probably not (Score:2)
The people that will maybe someday ask me that question, are probably the ones that don't speak english very well
HAHAHA (Score:2)
What Can Mandriva Linux 2006 Mean for Home Users? (Score:3, Funny)
Mandriva 2006 vs PCLinuxOS.p92 (Score:2)
IMO, PCLinuxOS has better eye candy and is cleaner than Mandriva.
I also liked the fact that after I added a certain single app ALL video files, including the CNN videos, ran faultlessly. Every 3D app (foobilliard, csmash, crace, tuxracer, etc.) worked faultlessly. In my opinion, PCLinuxOS would make a perfect distro for Windows refugees.
But, I returned to MEPIS and installed MEPIS-6.
You say tomato (Score:2)
Everyone's Darling Linux Distribution of the Month, otherwise known as Ubuntu, can't even get through the early stages of installation. Gentoo won't either. Suse will install, but it will never boot again. Slackware installs, wil
the article is about Mandriva 2006 Powerpack (Score:2)
http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?produc
this is a double DVD edition : 32-bit and 64-bit for EUR 54,=
Robert
Start at the top, not the bottom (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Start at the top, not the bottom (Score:2)
will eventually work with CUPS to some degree, but it's often
difficult to understand why a printer is misbehaving or why
certain features are unavailable. If you're lucky
enough to have a printer that understands postscript, then
you can simply send it raw. If not, the difficulty of
getting this working acceptably seems to be related to your
karmic standing with the cosmos.
Configuring printers is the only part of setting up a Linux
desktop that still
For printers... (Score:2)
It's not free, but if you need to get Canon printers working under Linux, check out: http://www.turboprint.info/ [turboprint.info]
Cost is minimal, and the driver works nicely.
Re:Start at the top, not the bottom (Score:2)
Personally, if I were in charge of defining the average home PC user's needs, they'd look like this (in order):
1. Internet (web/e-mail)
2. Gadgets (d
Re:a couple of things.. (Score:2)
Wow, that Jeff Waugh is a really, really patient guy. You kept ranting about your own preferences, do not accept his well thought out answers and pretty much keep insisting that he's wrong. Through all this you insult him every few lines or at least use diminishing terms to describe their work... His attitude never slips from the professional -- very impressive.
No offence, but I hope I never ha
Re:Neutral (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly you don't need to "open a shell" to install Mandrake.
Well, go to a home banking website and witness what being in a fringe group means when they reject your not-so-IE browser (this is improving, admittedly)
Yes it is getting better. Here in Canada most home banking sites will work with Firefox on Linux. The Can
Re:2 days = too long (Score:2)
Re:I remain unconvinced (Score:3, Insightful)
Right now, for a casual computer user there isn't any. For me, the difference between Windows and Linux is in the shape of the "effort vs. results" curve. If you aren't a heavy computer user, Windows will give you results at a lower effort. But if you really need or want to use computers more, on a daily basis, then it pays to learn Linux. It may be something you don't realize at first, but the time you spend now and then in Windows trying to download drivers, an