Mandriva Ltd. Edition 2005

[hitest]

News Flash!

Mandriva Ltd. Edition 2005 is available today for those people who have Mandriva club membership. This version of Mandriva will be released for free public download at a later date.

Dang! Now tictoc will beat me to it. I'll have to sign up for membership

This version of Mandriva looks sweet. Check out the specs:

Mandriva website

[tictoc5150]

Dang! Now tictoc will beat me to it. I'll have to sign up for membership

You are correct, Sir...lol.....Started the d/load early this morning...pretty slow to start but has been increasing slowly as the day progresses.

It started out at less than 10KBps...imagine all 2.1GB at that speed...lol...safe bet you could get it mailed to you faster

Message from Mandriva Club team:

The new Limited Edition 2005 is already available to Mandriva Club members via Bittorrent. We are currently building the infrastructure necessary to provide HTTP access as soon as possible.

This was planned to be done in time for the release, but we encountered some problems with the change from the Mandrakesoft to the Mandriva domain name.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

Mandriva Club team.

[hitest]

Dang! Now tictoc will beat me to it. I'll have to sign up for membership

You are correct, Sir...lol.....Started the d/load early this morning...pretty slow to start but has been increasing slowly as the day progresses.

It started out at less than 10KBps...imagine all 2.1GB at that speed...lol...safe bet you could get it mailed to you faster

Message from Mandriva Club team:

The new Limited Edition 2005 is already available to Mandriva Club members via Bittorrent. We are currently building the infrastructure necessary to provide HTTP access as soon as possible.

This was planned to be done in time for the release, but we encountered some problems with the change from the Mandrakesoft to the Mandriva domain name.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

Mandriva Club team.

I'll have to wait until ftp or Http access is granted as I haven't paid for bittorrent yet. The new distro looks rock solid.

I'm looking forward to hear what you think of it, tictoc.

BTW, I haven't tried ubuntu yet, does it have a similar install routine to Slack? There wasn't much information about installation at the ubuntu website, I may give that distro a try just for the fun of it.

[tictoc5150]

I'm looking forward to hear what you think of it

My opinion usually doesn't mean too much...lol...If you remember, I didn't like MDK 10.1 in the beginning....I've obviously done a complete 180 from that.

The download finished up in about 24 hours, not too bad for over 2GB on BT.

I'll probably install on my laptop this morning but probably won't get too much time to play around...this boy works nights and needs some beauty rest, cuz man, he's gettin' ugly!...lol

I haven't tried ubuntu yet, does it have a similar install routine to Slack? There wasn't much information about installation at the ubuntu website, I may give that distro a try just for the fun of it.

Text based but holds your hand...you really don't have a chance to screw up on this one.

I only threw it on that machine because it seemed to act the fastest.

The only kind words I have to say about it is that it has the newest of everything (KDE 3.4, Gnome 2.8, Gimp 2.2, etc. etc.) and it is kinda quick....Gnome 2.8 seems to run more efficient than KDE 3.4, but both are pretty quick on a 1.8GHz Celeron.

I don't really care for the package manager....far more apps come up in the list for mandrake.

It also seems quite modular...Which I guess could be a good thing if that's what you're looking for, but I really like how Mandrake integrates alot of things into MCC as well as making KDE feel like it's more of a part of the OS as a whole, than a window manager.

Assessment=Good newbie distro for running the basics...I've even considered putting it on Mom's PC for her to toy around with...I'm a bit hesitant though since I'm still getting those tech support calls from her for Windows problems...lol

[hitest]

I'm looking forward to hear what you think of it

My opinion usually doesn't mean too much...lol...If you remember, I didn't like MDK 10.1 in the beginning....I've obviously done a complete 180 from that.

The download finished up in about 24 hours, not too bad for over 2GB on BT.

I'll probably install on my laptop this morning but probably won't get too much time to play around...this boy works nights and needs some beauty rest, cuz man, he's gettin' ugly!...lol

I haven't tried ubuntu yet, does it have a similar install routine to Slack? There wasn't much information about installation at the ubuntu website, I may give that distro a try just for the fun of it.

Text based but holds your hand...you really don't have a chance to screw up on this one.

I only threw it on that machine because it seemed to act the fastest.

The only kind words I have to say about it is that it has the newest of everything (KDE 3.4, Gnome 2.8, Gimp 2.2, etc. etc.) and it is kinda quick....Gnome 2.8 seems to run more efficient than KDE 3.4, but both are pretty quick on a 1.8GHz Celeron.

I don't really care for the package manager....far more apps come up in the list for mandrake.

It also seems quite modular...Which I guess could be a good thing if that's what you're looking for, but I really like how Mandrake integrates alot of things into MCC as well as making KDE feel like it's more of a part of the OS as a whole, than a window manager.

Assessment=Good newbie distro for running the basics...I've even considered putting it on Mom's PC for her to toy around with...I'm a bit hesitant though since I'm still getting those tech support calls from her for Windows problems...lol

Thanks for the updates on Mandriva 2005 and Ubuntu. Ubuntu looks like it's getting a real cult following. So if I read you correctly Ubuntu comes fully loaded, but, without the bells and whistles of Mandriva.

I really like all of the software that Mandrake 10.1 ships with. It also has Quanta, a very sweet web page editor. I like Slackware, but, Mandrake 10.1 is a more polished, complete desktop system. You have to fiddle with Slack to make it work properly......I like to tinker with it:-)

I'll be downloading Mandriva 2005 in the near future.

Wow. Everyone must be downloading it if the transfer rates are low. It sounds like Mandriva 2005 will be an awesome distro.

[tictoc5150]

So if I read you correctly Ubuntu comes fully loaded, but, without the bells and whistles of Mandriva.

Sorry, I should've said that all the latest software is available through synaptic (package manager).

It does come equipped with Gnome 2.8 but not all that much more...the basics, in other words...Hell, I think it's about the same size as Iccaros-Linux.

But yeah, without the bells and whistles.

I really like all of the software that Mandrake 10.1 ships with. It also has Quanta, a very sweet web page editor. I like Slackware, but, Mandrake 10.1 is a more polished, complete desktop system. You have to fiddle with Slack to make it work properly......I like to tinker with it:-)

Heh, I can't stand quanta...it'd be something I kill before installing...It doesn't get installed by default in ltd. 2005...screem does, which I also don't like.

Nvu is definitely my editor of choice.

I like to tinker around too but not for my main system...only "tinker boxes"

I've had a few hours to play around with Mandriva now and I can say, I HOPE it gets better.

Wireless laptop support seems to have improved (not that it was too bad on 10.1)...I still have to add a firmware file for prism 54 drivers to work but it recognizes it sooner in the boot and I get no errors in dmesg from it anymore.

They somehow b0rked the touchpad...have yet to figure out how to fix it...and if I can't, I'll be going back to 10.1 or maybe bail on Mandriva all together.

The install was pretty much standard Mandrake with the exceptiion of an ugliness to the theme.

The lilo boot screen is hideous...graphical boot seems impossible to get rid of, no matter what settings I try.

power management seems a bit quirky...doesn't shut down on it's own after exiting x...never had that problem before.

There are other issues which are mostly aesthetic but my first opinion is that this is 10.2 slapped with an ugly stick and rushed out the door before it's ready.

this is twice that Mandrake has failed to make a good impression on me, bugfixes and updates usually resolve some of the issues or I fix them on my own but I'm not so sure on this one.

The only thing Mandriva has going for it in my case is MCC...I like a control panel with access to all system settings.

Oh and I almost forgot...the system sounds remind me of early M$ sounds...ugh!!!!

[shanenin]

I'll have to wait until ftp or Http access is granted as I haven't paid for bittorrent yet.

what do you mean paid for it? bitttorrent should be free

[hitest]

I'll have to wait until ftp or Http access is granted as I haven't paid for bittorrent yet.

what do you mean paid for it? bitttorrent should be free

Hi shanenin,

Okay, maybe I'm missing something, but, I've only tried to use it once. Downloaded, installed the bittorrent client. When I ran bittorrent it "encouraged" me to donate 20 bucks to the founder which I didn't do. It wouldn't let me download ISOs bcause,I'm assuming, that I didn't pay for the client.

Maybe I downloaded the wrong one or it's mis-configured.

[hitest]

So if I read you correctly Ubuntu comes fully loaded, but, without the bells and whistles of Mandriva.

Sorry, I should've said that all the latest software is available through synaptic (package manager).

It does come equipped with Gnome 2.8 but not all that much more...the basics, in other words...Hell, I think it's about the same size as Iccaros-Linux.

But yeah, without the bells and whistles.

I really like all of the software that Mandrake 10.1 ships with. It also has Quanta, a very sweet web page editor. I like Slackware, but, Mandrake 10.1 is a more polished, complete desktop system. You have to fiddle with Slack to make it work properly......I like to tinker with it:-)

Heh, I can't stand quanta...it'd be something I kill before installing...It doesn't get installed by default in ltd. 2005...screem does, which I also don't like.

Nvu is definitely my editor of choice.

I like to tinker around too but not for my main system...only "tinker boxes"

I've had a few hours to play around with Mandriva now and I can say, I HOPE it gets better.

Wireless laptop support seems to have improved (not that it was too bad on 10.1)...I still have to add a firmware file for prism 54 drivers to work but it recognizes it sooner in the boot and I get no errors in dmesg from it anymore.

They somehow b0rked the touchpad...have yet to figure out how to fix it...and if I can't, I'll be going back to 10.1 or maybe bail on Mandriva all together.

The install was pretty much standard Mandrake with the exceptiion of an ugliness to the theme.

The lilo boot screen is hideous...graphical boot seems impossible to get rid of, no matter what settings I try.

power management seems a bit quirky...doesn't shut down on it's own after exiting x...never had that problem before.

There are other issues which are mostly aesthetic but my first opinion is that this is 10.2 slapped with an ugly stick and rushed out the door before it's ready.

this is twice that Mandrake has failed to make a good impression on me, bugfixes and updates usually resolve some of the issues or I fix them on my own but I'm not so sure on this one.

The only thing Mandriva has going for it in my case is MCC...I like a control panel with access to all system settings.

Oh and I almost forgot...the system sounds remind me of early M$ sounds...ugh!!!!

Whoa, thanks tictoc, for the review on Mandriva. It doesn't sound like it's ready for prime time yet. I wonder if Mandriva would install better on a desktop? Maybe the quirks are laptop related?

Thank you, you've given me pause to think about upgrading from Mandrake 10.1. I may need to think about this further. I'm not thrilled with the idea of doing a clean install only to have power management issues, etc. I know you're a big fan of Mandriva products like me, so your opinion means a lot to me.

That's weird that they'd bork this up, you would think there'd be improvements!

[shanenin]

Okay, maybe I'm missing something, but, I've only tried to use it once. Downloaded, installed the bittorrent client. When I ran bittorrent it "encouraged" me to donate 20 bucks to the founder which I didn't do. It wouldn't let me download ISOs bcause,I'm assuming, that I didn't pay for the client.

Maybe I downloaded the wrong one or it's mis-configured.

possibly misconfigured. As for donating, that is fully up to you. If you like the program and use it, it would be a nice suggestion to donate, but not required. I think even a small donation of $5.00 would be appreciated, $20.0 seems a little high(maybe I am just cheap).

[tictoc5150]

What do you think...Is this someones idea of humor?...prehaps the French?...lol

(I know, crappy pic but you get the idea)

Oh, and I'm not using Mandriva...maybe I'll take another look in the fall for LTD. 2006, after their faithful supporters have spammed them with hate mail.

There were just too many annoyances to overlook...from the very beginning with the pic above to a mandatory graphical boot theme that you can't seem to kill, a whacked out touchpad (yeah, hitest, this is definitely a laptop issue as a mouse works fine but the touchpad works fine in 10.1...grrr), rpmdrake acting a little screwy...blah blah blah

Back to using 10.1 and much happier

[hitest]

Hi tictoc,

Thanks for the very thorough review! Mandriva 2005 looks like a write-off. You're right it looks like they rushed to get it out the door. I'm also going to wait until 2006 Official comes out.

I just ordered copies of Slackware 10.1 (upgrading my slack box) and Ubuntu. You made me curious with your screenshot of Ubuntu. I went to the Ubuntu website and it looks like my unit will run it just fine, it could be fun. I like using Synaptic, a good package manager.

[tictoc5150]

hey hitest,

It's funny you should mention Ubuntu again...Shortly after I posted this morning, I decided to give Ubuntu a shot on my laptop instead of Mandrake 10.1...After tinkering around with it, making it what I am used to (more or less), I'm starting to take a serious liking to it.

Runs nice and fast, no hardware problems whatsoever (even my wireless card is config'd during install)

after adding some repositories to synaptic, the list grew to about the same size as mandrake...A couple apps that didn't show up, I converted from rpm to deb and worked like a charm.

I guess Mand(whatever) isn't the only game in town for me...lol

[hitest]

Hi tictoc,

Very cool, that Ubuntu installed flawlessly on your laptop. That's what I've read about Ubuntu that it's very good with hardware and that it runs very fast. I'm getting really pumped about it. I bought my Ubuntu CD from Discount Linux CDs they are a good Linux distro vender that I like to support. I think Ubuntu might turn out to be a favorite of ours. I might return to Mandriva if they get the bugs worked out.

I just read that Slackware 10.1 still ships with Gnome, which is good as Gnome runs better on my Slackware box. Also, Slackware 10.1 also ships with XFce, which is really sweet.

I'm looking forward to my two upgrades, lots of fun:-) I should get my CDs in 1-2 weeks.