Mandriva Linux 2009 Released

Adam Williamson writes "Mandriva has today released Mandriva Linux 2009, the new major release of the popular distribution. 2009 is a bold release which brings the new KDE 4 as the default desktop, along with a re-designed installer and Mandriva Control Center and many other new features. Other significant updates include GNOME 2.24, OpenOffice.org 3, Mozilla Firefox 3, and kernel 2.6.27. Key features include new graphical in-line upgrade capability, netbook compatibility, class-leading hardware support, and further improved support for working with mobile devices. For more details, see the Release Tour and the Release Notes. Get it at the download page, or go straight to the torrent list."

Wow, now that's a trick!

[djcapelis (587616)]

It includes a kernel that hasn't been released yet?

Wow!

Re:

[Kjella (173770)]

I guess they're pulling the same as Ubuntu did with Firefox 3, it's at -rc9 now and on monday Linus said: "If things go well, I might do a final release mid-week, otherwise it's
'next weekend' again." so it should only be a few days away.

Re:Wow, now that's a trick!

[AdamWill (604569)]

Shipping with 2.6.27rc8, final 2.6.27 will be provided as an official update when it shows up.

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[Zero__Kelvin (151819)]

Actualy it has been released, but never the less it is almost a guarantee that Mandriva is not using a kernel version released that recently, since Mandriva is very good about thoroughly testing things, and they wouldn't have had time to do so.

Here the proof that 2.6.27 is "released":

[zero__kelvin@bodhisattva ~]$ kernel
[zero__kelvin@bodhisattva linux-2.6.git]$ git pull
remote: Counting objects: 83, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (35/35), done.
remote: Total 58 (delta 29), reused 52 (delta 23)
Unpacking

Re:Wow, now that's a trick!

[AdamWill (604569)]

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Choosing_the_right_edition [mandriva.com]

Basically, One is a hybrid live/install CD which includes proprietary drivers and browser plugins. Free is a traditional installer edition (2xCD or DVD) which is 100% free / open source software, no NVIDIA / ATI drivers or anything (though you can add them from the non-free repository after install, if you're that way inclined).

Worth a spin...?

[zooblethorpe (686757)]

I had Mandrake installed some time back, and was happy with the package manager they had at the time since it finally dealt with some of the dependency hell issues that Red Hat suffered from. But at some point a software update and server migration went funny (on their end), and the package manager couldn't find the right site to update itself, and since I couldn't be bothered to dig into the internals to fix it (some of us use Linux to do other things :) and a reinstall looked like the easiest course, I opted to jump ship and tried out Ubuntu instead. But I'm curious to see what's happened in the intervening years.

Cheers,

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[dchamp (89216)]

It's been improved... the best way to handle your update repositories is to use the Easy URPMI site at http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ [zarb.org] - just click and it will automagically add the sources for you.

I've been running the Beta and RC versions on my laptop and a desktop, it's been working well. Gonna start torrenting the release version shortly.

I miss Conectiva

[mangu (126918)]

But at some point a software update and server migration went funny (on their end), and the package manager couldn't find the right site to update itself

Until they got merged into Mandrake, Conectiva was the best distro, IMHO. They had RPM with Apt, the best of both worlds. After the acquisition, they opted to drop that feature, keeping the vastly inferior Mandrake package management. Sorry, guys, I wento to Ubuntu, and never looked back.

The main thing I miss now is the Conectiva keyboard mapping. There are

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[Psychotria (953670)]

"Quality assurance"? Are you serious? What a load of cow pooh. What on Earth is "quality assurance" anyway? For quality assurance I would, at least, expect a Quality Management System. A certified (ISO) one. Debian does not have that. If there is not a quality management system, why should I belive that Debian offers "quality assurance"?

KDE

[Psychotria (953670)]

Really, I love KDE 4.x. The work they have done is magnificent and a great achievement. I cannot, however, use it (at the moment) day-to-day. At least Mandrake has waited for a while before including it (KDE 4). At the end of the day though how is it helping Linux? Supposing I was a new Linux user (I'm not, been using it since 1994 and Yggdrasil) I would have to assess Linux on it's "interface". Say I am interested: I will grab the latest "linux version" and install it. I will be presented with KDE4. As an average user, would I judge linux, overall, on the interface. Most LIKELY I WOULD. Distro's have to be current, yeah. But if we want to make linux attractive to joe six pack, we have to start deciding WHAT goes into a standard distro. Including unfinished stuff (IMO) is a show stopper.

This comment is not meant to detract from the great work the KDE people have done for 4.x. They are building a GREAT system and I admire their work.

Useless summaries

[Enderandrew (866215)]

Each distro includes OpenOffice.org, Gnome, KDE, etc. I can get Gnome 2.24 by upgrading packages within my existing distro. openSUSE 11.1 and Fedora 9 will ship with it. So what actually sets this apart? I haven't used Mandriva since it was Mandrake, and I'm curious.

I hear they got a great "Control Panel" that rivals Yast. What is it like? What unique features does the distro have?

Wouldn't that be the pertinent information to have?

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[AdamWill (604569)]

You might want to look at the Reviewer's Guide: http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2009.0_Reviewers_Guide [mandriva.com]

it contains a lot of that kind of information.

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[Enderandrew (866215)]

Yes, but when writing an article reviewing the distro, shouldn't they talk about the unique features rather than just states, "hey, our release has Gnome!"

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[PianoComp81 (589011)]

I hear they got a great "Control Panel" that rivals Yast. What is it like? What unique features does the distro have?

The Control Center (i.e. "Control Panel") is probably the best feature that Mandriva has. For me, it allows easy setup of just about everything - from NFS and SMB servers and clients to a backup feature that just works (so long as the hard drive has space - which they also deal with). Much of these things can be edited by webmin, but the control center GUI is easier to use than webmin. Anot

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[Enderandrew (866215)]

Some distros do have unique features. For instance Fedora 9 had kernel-mode setting if you had an Intel video card. At the time, it was only one of a few, if not the only installers to offer full disk encryption in the installer, etc. Ubuntu offers Wubi.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/9/FeatureList [fedoraproject.org]

That is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. When reviewing distros, write about what makes that distro unique.

Obligatory

[copponex (13876)]

But does it run on Ubuntu?

Re:Obligatory

[AdamWill (604569)]

Via VirtualBox or VMware, yes. Yes it does. :) And, of course, vice versa.

Concerned about Pulse Audio and older video cards

[Zombie Ryushu (803103)]

My major concern is going to be Pulse Audio. When 2008.1 came out, I migrated from 2008.0. I found out there were patches made to SDL that broke compatibility with many Linux games. It took weeks of "digging them out." to solve the problems. Now sound works the way it should. I'm frightened that it will mean more digging up bad patches in SDL to stop annoying crackling effects in games.

Also, not every computer I own has a "nice" Nvidia FX5200. A few of them have older Sis, Matrox, Intel, and my Cooker Box which has one of the 2009.0 release candidates on it has a Voodoo 3. The Voodoo 3 card crashes when DRI is enabled. Not due to a proprietary driver, but due to some older cards development falling by the wayside.

Once Upong a Time...

[Necrotica (241109)]

Once upon a time this would have been big news on Slashdot. Now there is only about 45 comments. Mandrake/Mandriva really lost their mojo when they decided to go commercial.

Re:Once Upong a Time...

[markdavis (642305)]

Um, Mandrake/Mandriva has *always* been a commercial company with commercial offerings. But they have also *always* offered free versions of the distro. And this is what Redhat did before they went completely commercial-only, and what SuSE still does.

http://www.mandriva.com/en/download/free [mandriva.com]

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[sayfawa (1099071)]

I recall a time when they *really* pushed you to buy their product (not that there is something wrong with that). And they did not allow the free download until weeks after their paying customers got to it. There may have been some other perks to paying as well. Anyway, the feeling I got was that if you were not giving them money, you were 2nd class and could not get the full benefits of running the distro.

This changed after Ubuntu and Fedora came along and they (Mandrake/Mandriva) saw that people were l

Re:

[AdamWill (604569)]

Mark is not actually correct.

There are no longer any paid Club memberships (we abolished that system last year). There's only the Powerpack subscription, which gives you no privileges, it's a simple product which gives you access to the Powerpack edition for 12 months; nothing else.

The only software that is exclusive to the Powerpack edition is software that is not only non-free, but commercial: that is, software we *could not legally include* in any edition that's free to the general public. Software that

Re:

[pembo13 (770295)]

Same for Redhat/Fedora stories. A lot of Slashdotters only seem to care about Ubuntu these days. To each their own I guess.

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[AdamWill (604569)]

There is no x86-64 One. Really, for most workloads, you may as well run i586 on x86-64 systems. If you really want a native edition, install x86-64 Free.

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[amRadioHed (463061)]

About a Mandriva release? Apathetic?