Mandriva Linux 2008 Now Available

AdamWill writes "Mandriva Linux 2008 is now available for download on the official site and on the network of public mirror servers. In 2008 you will find KDE 3.5.7 and the new GNOME 2.20 already integrated, a solid kernel 2.6.22.9 with fair scheduling support, OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, cutting-edge 3D-accelerated desktop courtesy of Compiz Fusion 0.5.2, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6, and everything else you've come to expect. We have integrated a reworked hardware detection sub-system, with support for a lot of new devices (particularly graphics cards, sound cards, and wireless chips). There is a wizard to import Windows documents and settings, a new network configuration center, and a set of improvements to the Mandriva software management tools. Read about the new features in depth in the release tour, or view the release notes. The One installation CD is the recommended download: it comes with a full KDE desktop and application suite, NVIDIA and ATI proprietary video card drivers, Intel wireless firmware, Adobe Flash and Sun Java browser plugins, all included."

Compiz Fusion

[bostons1337]

Seems to be most new linux releases are adopting Compiz Fusion in place of what they had/didn't have before. Ubuntu's new release (Gutsy Gibbon) will be using Compiz Fusion by default also. Hopefully Compiz Fusion isn't too buggy, its on the newer side, or there are going to be alot of angry Linux users.

64 bits?

[N7DR]

Their wiki says: "Mandriva Linux 2008 is available in three editions: One, Powerpack and Free, for both i586 and x86-64 architectures", but so far I have been unable to find the 64-bit version of either One or Free (One is the "free + proprietary" version; Free is the "free only" version).

I can't tell if my inability to find the 64-bit version of One or Free is due to their confusing site design, my incompetence, or because those versions don't actually exist. Several places on their site say that all versions are available from "the official download site": http://www.mandriva.com/archives/ [mandriva.com] But there's no indication there at all of how to get the 64-bit versions (at least, not at the time I'm writing this). I can't say that I'm impressed by the apparent lack of internal coordination on their website for this release: several links point to the Spring 2007 edition as still being current.

I hate to draw the conclusion that this is (yet) one more sign of Mandriva's decreasing relevance, but I would be very surprised if Ubuntu's upcoming release exhibited any of these kinds of quirks.

I hope this isn't the same as RC1

[kwabbles]

RC1 was out what... maybe 1 month ago? I tried it and after countless bugs, widgets/controls that didn't work, and other annoying nuisances that I didn't feel like fixing - I dropped it. I was surprised to see a final version released so soon.

Improvements?

[multisync]

and a set of improvements to the Mandriva software management tools.

I hope by "improvements," they mean returning some of the functionality the software management tools used to have. There was a time when the software manager would give you basic information, like the total number of packages selected and their sizes, overall progress etc. Then, a couple of releases back, all of that info disappeared. There may be a way of getting "verbose" output, but the default is decidedly minimalist.

Default desktop is extremely ugly

[QCompson]

While the feature-list and included packages is very impressive, the default KDE desktop is truly hideous:
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/uploads/9/9a/2008-kde-desktop.png [mandriva.com]

I realize this is a matter of personal taste, and that one can easily alter the look of the desktop, but still... I challenge someone to claim that the taskbar and menu-button look nice. Even the easter bunny wouldn't pick that light pastel blue as a default color. First impressions do matter.

Re:64 bits?

[GreggBz]

A great percentage of the complaints against Mandriva stem from their maze of homepages and subverted, hidden or missing download links. It's just not completely obvious where to get Mandriva. It should be.

I've been totally impressed with the 2007.1 (Spring)

It's a little more complete then Ubuntu, is closer to the Red-Hat we use where I work, and has a much improved package management system.
Also, the ATI drivers are good and the hardware compatibility has been at least as good as Ubuntu in my experience. The media support and embedded player in firefox has been about flawless, something I did not have with Ubuntu. The updates also seem speedy and have worked flawlessly.

I think my biggest beef with Ubuntu is the RootSudu. I understand the whole disable root login notion, I just can't get used to it. I work faster when I'm really root. I'll just use a strong password.

All that being said, Ubuntu is still very good, and you're right, Mandriva is so damn hard to download. I usually end up cribbing the mirrors listed in the installer and poking around the the ftp/http directories when they release a new version.