Mandriva Linux 2010 – Perhaps The Best Linux Release All Year
Mandriva Linux 2010 was recently released and brings lots of nice improvements to an already nice system. Mandriva has a long and distinguished history in the Linux distribution arena. They began over a decade ago using Red Hat as their base and quickly became the preferred choice of the new Linux user.
Although many changes have occurred to the company over the years, and ultimately they’ve lost their crown, Mandriva Linux remains a solid choice in an alternative operating system.
2010 Improvements
For those familiar with Mandriva this release brings some great improvements. The best two so far have been the increased stability and performance. Mandriva may have had a reputation for being a bit crashy in the past, but it appears those days are gone. In the several days since a fresh install only one application crash has occurred here, and this application is known to be unstable across distributions. This new-found stability comes with even better speed as well. Not only does Mandriva boot quicker, but desktop performance has improved noticeably. Applications open and function faster, including the two heavyweights OpenOffice.org and Firefox. There is virtually no graphic artifacting and redraws are immediate. In addition, the 2010 graphics are just beautiful.
This really is a banner release for Mandriva. It’s been a long time since I could recommend it too much, but it’s moved way up my list with 2010.
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Eh..
Nice Review..but for me personally, I've never really been a big fan of Mandriva. As you stated in your review, it has been known (at least in the past) to be a bit crashy and buggy. However..from my experience..this release didn't seem much different.
In the first 20 or so minutes after my install I encountered a few strange bugs..one involving the Control Center. For some reason... nothing would work. I'd click on a module (say Install software) and nothing would happen. It was a quick fix..simply exiting out of the center and relaunching it made things work again..but none-the-less, it WAS a tad bit annoying.
Secondly, after I added the software/update sources.. programs appeared in RPMDRAKE that simply weren't on the mirror. For instance..I tried to install the Bespin style for KDE4 (which appeared in RPMDRAKE even after updating media sources)..yet when I went to install it, I received an error saying it didn't exist and could not be installed.
Okay..a bit frustrating..but I guess should just change the mirror in which RPMDRAKE uses. Well..that took about 30 minutes to figure out..since it appeared that there was no graphical way to do this..and being unfamaliar with Mandriva, I didn't know what to edit. Even though I got it working.. I'd expect a distro such as Mandriva to have some sort of graphical option to change the mirror priority or something. Especially since it has such a fancy Control Center.
Anyway..it IS pretty..and the KDE implementation is nice..but I still found it to be a bit buggy..and for whatever reason..it never quite sits right with me. I guess it's just one of those..not my cup of tea type of things. I myself, much prefer Opensuse..which is from my experience (with the newest release) both pretty, easily configurable, AND bugless. For me, I find Opensuse 11.2 to be beautiful..and the KDE4 implementation is in my eyes, nearly perfect.
re: Eh...
Secondly, after I added the software/update sources.. programs appeared in RPMDRAKE that simply weren't on the mirror. For instance..I tried to install the Bespin style for KDE4 (which appeared in RPMDRAKE even after updating media sources)..yet when I went to install it, I received an error saying it didn't exist and could not be installed.
Okay..a bit frustrating..but I guess should just change the mirror in which RPMDRAKE uses. Well..that took about 30 minutes to figure out..since it appeared that there was no graphical way to do this..and being unfamaliar with Mandriva, I didn't know what to edit. Even though I got it working.. I'd expect a distro such as Mandriva to have some sort of graphical option to change the mirror priority or something. Especially since it has such a fancy Control Center.
Oh yeah, I got that too at first. I went and checked the mirror and sure 'nuf the package wasn't there. I figured the mirrors hadn't sync'd fully. Which is why I added repos manually and that worked fine for several days until I woke up saturday to it trying to upgrade me to 2009.1. I deleted all the repos and let it configure new ones and it's worked great since.
But you can configure them in the gui clicking Add, and replacing the variable $mirrorlist with your preferred url. I had used urpmi.addmedia to add mine like the old days, but now I'm just using the one it auto-configured.
But yeah, I'm installing openSUSE 11.2 tonight after I get the leftovers posted. I'm gonna write an article for LWN and a shorter overview for MUO on that one. I always like openSUSE too. It's been one of my favs since it was first opened up.
I actually haven't cared too much for Mandriva myself the past five or six years. But this release really impressed me. I haven't had any trouble at all except that one glitch with rpmdrake. I guess after trying so many distro's KDE 4, it's nice to find one that works so good.
I was having good luck with PCLOS but it's Xorg is so old that Prey wouldn't play right, so I've been using Mandriva since its release. But tonight I'm off to openSUSE!
Good point..Mandriva really
Good point..Mandriva really did a great job of implementing KDE...and it surely has its own look. I definitely like it.
But I think the fault of the mirrors is that it was so new..they were simply trying to catch up with the new release (or something). I just thought it was odd that these files showed up in RPMDRAKE if they weren't there.
Easy enough fix though..and you're right, all seems well now.
As for SuSE..I really love the new release (as always). I'll be looking forward to your article
..oh and on another note, have you tried the Kubuntu 9.10? While it may not be the most beautiful/original looking..from my experience so far, it is really stable. Not as feature-filled as openSUSE, but another good KDE4 Distribution..and really solid. No troubles for me yet, either.
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The best
Shuddup Taylor Swift, this is the best Mandriva release of ALL TIME!
re: best
gg: Taylor Swift <enter>
country singer. hmmm, don't get it.
Smiles
country singer. hmmm, don't get it.
Did you see me on MTV awards?
pppfffth
I ain't even watched MTV in 20 years!
Why? Wha'd she do?
Here ya go...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d8S_9PZ56M
oh, ok
dang, lay off the sauce kanye_west!