[CS-FSLUG] Mandriva 2008.0 disappointing.

[Vincent Danen]

* Nathan T. <celerate at gmail.com> [2007-12-21 23:31:20 -0700]:

>I paid for a copy of Mandriva 2008.0 because I've always wanted to give 
>back to the company that helped me cut my Linux teeth; however, I found 
>the finished commercial package to be a let-down.
>
>The pros: Mandriva advertises that they include a legal, licensed codec 
>pack & legal DVD playback. Firefox can be made to look decent with the 
>gtk-qt engine, the KDE desktop looks reasonable and is stable.
>
>The cons: Where's that codec pack that was supposed to be included? 
>Multimedia support was non-existent in the x86_64 version I installed, 
>even streaming MP3s off a web site or file server didn't work. Gnome 
>apps used to open video files in KDE, there appears to be visual 
>distortion with the i810 (and up) display drivers, the sound defaults to 
>having no volume every time I log on again. The default Mandriva theme 
>and default icons for KDE had some unattractive elements, the update 
>sources needed to be modified because the software didn't automatically 
>add some of the ones I needed and it wasn't apparent until after I 
>searched the internet that I was missing a required source for a 
>particular samba update to work. The fonts are not as crisp as in 
>Windows and the kerning needs work, overall the legibility of the fonts 
>needs improvement.
>
>Mandriva 2008.0 shows potential, but it hasn't changed the fact that 
>Mandrake Linux 9.1 was still the last good (and perhaps the best) 
>release I can remember. It could be fixed by someone who wants to invest 
>the time and effort into it, but I wouldn't say it's ready for the 
>masses at all. I don't feel any desire to invest more time into getting 
>Mandriva to work the way I want; if it were a better fit for me then I'd 
>have no problem, but I feel too much of it failed to make a positive 
>impression and I wasn't getting all the features as advertised.
>
>Anyone else have something to say about it?

Wow, it's too bad your experience was so bad.  Mine was awesome.  2008
was much better than 2007.1... 9.1 the best?  Naw... that would go to
10.2.  Rock solid.

2008.0 is probably one of the best if not the best release since 10.2.
Yeah, it has some issues, but on my HP tablet laptop, I have finally
gotten *everything* working on it, including the touchscreen.  Fonts
look great here.  On the multimedia side of things, I don't know... I
use linux for functionality and the Mac for entertainment.  =)  KDE I
don't use, but I could see some unattractiveness about it... it's KDE
after all (not a big KDE fan here, currently using E17).

No problems with sound here either.  Works peachy.  Oh, and FWIW, Ubuntu
wouldn't even boot on this thing; Mandriva got it all right (unlike
2007.1 where half of it didn't work).

The software update thing is problematic.  Those sources should be setup
for you automatically (although some may not be enabled by default).  A
trip to the Mandriva Control Center would probably fix all of that right
up.

It's too bad you had such an awful experience with it.  Although, mind
you, despite having an x86_64 laptop, I still use the i586 version.  I
find things work much better on the i586 side than x86_64 (nothing wrong
with the architecture, but when it comes to desktop-ish stuff, I find
the i586 works better, so all my 64bit machines are running 32bit
Mandriva (or 64bit Annvix for the servers)).

DISCLAIMER: I am slightly biased.. although my primary
workstation/desktop is a mac, I do work for Mandriva.  I am disappointed
that you're not seeing more favourable results from it tho; it's been
working quite well for me here.

-- 
Vincent Danen @ http://linsec.ca/