Mandriva Linux 2008 RC 1 Released 182
AdamWill writes "The first release candidate of Mandriva Linux 2008, codenamed Galilee, is now available. The release notes are also available via the wiki. A guide to major new features (some of which are not yet implemented in this release candidate), and the detailed technical specifications are also available. This release candidate is available as a three CD or one DVD Free edition (containing no non-free software or drivers) for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures, with a traditional installer, and as a mini-CD edition for both x86-32 and x86-64 architectures. A One combined live / install CD edition will be released in the near future (problems with unionfs prevented the One edition from being release at the same time as the other editions)."
Hopefully (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hopefully (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Hopefully (Score:5, Interesting)
I can tell you why I switched to Kubuntu after six years with Mandr[ake,iva]:
1. 64-bits was relegated to very-low-priority (an inordinate number of supposedly-supported 64-bit packages had dependency failures)
2. A large percentage of bug reports would lie untouched not just for months, but for years. I have within the past couple of months received acknowledgements for bugs that I filed nearly two years ago -- and those acknowledgements basically came down to "this bug report is filed against a version that is no longer supported".
3. When a bug report was acknowledged in a timely manner, it was almost always to the effect of "this bug does not exist in 32-bit version; unable to test 64-bit" (or the fact that it was filed against 64-bit was simply ignored)
4. Official update mirrors would disappear for weeks at a time
5. Security updates would be made available weeks after exploits became known.
My experience with Kubuntu has not been painless, but I have found none of the above to be true for Kubuntu. It was with considerable reluctance that I switched, but in any case those were my reasons.
YMMV, of course (and probably does).
Re:Hopefully (Score:3, Interesting)
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No linux distro has ever entirely caught me, but to date my favourite was Mandrake v7.2.
Same boat... (Score:3, Interesting)
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I too used Mandrake / Mandriva for years (it was my first full-time distro), but wandered away a few years back. I lost track of the company once Gaël Duval left. Partly, I was disappointed by the website, which I never quite understood (perhaps I should have studied harder in French :-). Partly, I kept falling into dependency hell - when I tried Ubuntu, installing new packages Just Worked, and I couldn't bring myself to return to my first love.
But I remember Mandriva fondly, and wish them all the best with 2008.
Re:Hopefully (Score:3, Interesting)
This is now done interactively from the package manager, you just click "add" and it gets a list of mirrors over the internet, you choose one, and your medias are automagically configured:
main + contrib + non-free which countain most of the stuff and their respective updates, backports, testing directories. (backports and testing being ignored by default without you having to configure anything).
So all this is transparent to the user now.
2. Downloading the updated package info.
there has been for years a synthesis version of this which is just a few Ko heavy.
With the procedure above, the synthesis version is chosen by defaut, you can choose by media to use or not the synthesis version. So info updates takes only a few seconds unless you really want the extra infos that are in the complete info file.
All this is of course possible from the command line too.
Re:Hopefully (Score:3, Interesting)
There is one thing that is better in Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Package installation. The repo is a bit larger, Synaptic has a lot more in the way of search and filtering than RPMDrake, and apt has suggested and recommended package relationships as well a required.
Other than that, Mandriva is better in every way. Configuration, in particular, is way ahead of Ubuntu, and more ahead of Kubuntu.
Re:Hopefully (Score:3, Interesting)
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This problem has been solved since the release of 2007.0, which introduced new media on the mirrors, and at the same time changes to the build system allowing maintainers to easily submit testing and backport packages from cooker.
At present, selection of packages to backport is mainly done by the maintainer, but requests are often taken on IRC and mailing lists.
IMHO, there is almost no advantage Ubuntu has over Mandriva (besides hype).
Re:Hopefully (Score:3, Interesting)