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Mandriva 2007 RC1 Released 142

Posted by Zonk from the try-before-you-buy dept.
boklm writes "The first Mandriva 2007 release candidate (codename Mona) is out. The final version is due soon. 2007's new features include Gnome 2.16 with New 'Ia Ora' Mandriva Theme, parallel initscript (for faster boot), 3D desktop (with both AIGLX and Xgl to support more graphic cards). Installable Live-CDs including Gnome or KDE are available in different languages, and because it is a live-cd it is possible to try it without installing. Don't forget to report bugs if you find them, in order to get a solid final release."
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Mandriva 2007 RC1 Released More

Mandriva 2007 RC1 Released

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  • Seems like everyone is coming out with a release candidate for next year.

  • Mandriva's 3D Desktop beats anything from Vista (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Conorb ( 443598 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @01:47AM (#16079099) Homepage
    There was a time, when Linux distros were measured by how close they were to in terms of functionality to MS Windows. Now they are inovating like crazy and this 3D desktop from Mandriva beats anything that will ship in Vista.
    • Why am I getting such a weird feeling that they are copying Mac OS X?

      • Re:Mandriva's 3D Desktop beats anything from Vista (Score:4, Insightful)

        by kestasjk ( 933987 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @03:08AM (#16079300) Homepage
        Well OS X got Widgets right out of KDE's Konfabulator, and Finder and Safari's tabs out of Firefox (which got it from Opera, which got it from ...). Good ideas spread around, get improved upon and integrated with other ideas, which spread around further. This is a good thing, and it's not one way.
        • Another better example came to mind just after I posted that; OS X's Spaces. Many X11 WMs have had workspaces for ages, but who isn't glad to see Apple's take on the idea?
        • "Good ideas spread around, get improved upon and integrated with other ideas, which spread around further."

          Yup. Once the patents on the good ideas expire. :-p

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Dan Ost ( 415913 )
            This is an excellent reason for open source projects to publish early and often.
            Get as much prior art out there so that there are fewer ideas patentable by the
            private sector.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by orasio ( 188021 )

              Get as much prior art out there so that there are fewer ideas patentable by the
              private sector.


              If you meant _proprietary_ sector, you should know that free software is mostly created by the private sector. It's not a government thing.

              It's analogous, if you meant to refer to the closed source - open source disctinction. There are even proprietary software projects that are open source (OSI compatible).
    • Stuff like this has been around for a long time (I remember playing with spherexp years ago) but your average windows user doesn't typically use virtual desktops, and your typical linux user doesn't need all the special effects when switching virtual desktops. Things are now not only measured up against windows by newer users, but also mac os x. And with os x pushing all their eye candy features, I'm sure we'll see more special/neat gui effects.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by afd8856 ( 700296 )
        I wouldn't mind extra eye candy on my Dapper desktop. Eye candy is good as long as it doesn't slow the desktop and it doesn't keep you from getting work done just as fast as before.
        But, for example, I find that shadows on windows are extremely important when dealing with lots of small windows, at it makes them easier to distinguish.
      • I think "special effects" are definitely a plus when used nicely.

        For example, I like the:
        Cube effect of a virtual desktop, to make it easier to distinguish between them
        Window drop shadows makes it easier to see the "layers" of windows, especially when working with many small windows
        Minimize effects, like the Genie effect in OSX, so you can "see" your window minimizing, you know where it's gone
        Scrolling effect on drop-down boxes and menus are nice, fading ... meh.

        Of course, things like wobbly however are jus
        • I agree on all of that above except the minimize effect...I like it to just be gone instantly...I know it is gone because I cant see it any more. Same with menus, I simply want them to pop up and be there. I like windows drop-shadows except for I want to turn them off on my desktop icon text. The text looks way better without it (you can catch a glimpse of what it looks like without them whenever you change a display setting and it takes a second for the shadows to kick in) but if I turn it off, the text

    • Re:Mandriva's 3D Desktop beats anything from Vista (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ZakuSage ( 874456 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @03:22AM (#16079323)
      Unfortionitely, until they start working with ATI's proprietary drivers, roughly half of all computer users (myself included) won't care about AIXGL or XGL since they won't be able to run them.
      • XGL works OK on my ATI laptop. It did take a bit of annoying fiddling to get it started six months ago, I imagine it's easier now.
      • Actually the Club version of Mandriva will automatically detect and use the proprietary drivers for both ATI and NVidia. That is in addition to Acrobat Reader, Flash, etc.
    • I have played with the 3D stuff, and it is quite impressive. But it is also not very stable yet (at all). Plus, KDE's kwin doesn't "do" 3D yet, so you have to use an alien window manager, causing other issues.

      Unfortunatly, I think it will be another year before the 3D desktop option will really be ready for general use.

  • Mandrakes place in the Linux world? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cloricus ( 691063 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @01:49AM (#16079103)
    As a long time user of Mandrake till about two years ago I'd like to ask a very simple question; what is its place in todays modern Linux desktop world?
     
    This isn't a troll or a flame as I enjoyed using MDK back in the day though really it is still as bloated and confusing as when I used to use it (I've played with the latest version extensively). Ubuntu and Novell SLED seem to serve the purpose that Mandrake used to fill far more effectively and I can't help but think that those still working on the free parts of Mandrake are wasting resources that could be more effectively used to help other areas in more up to date (philosophy wise) distros...Like decent GUI tools for wireless networking!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by RuBLed ( 995686 )
      I agree with you... I would prefer good functionality + decent UI than a "cube" screen interface on a 2d monitor. Maybe I would install this when they release "cube" monitors... (hey, had anyone filed a patent for that?)

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by dbcad7 ( 771464 )
        I am happy with my current setup, but I am downloading the live CD iso anyway.
        I figure blank disks are cheap, and if it is too annoying, I dont have to install it if
        I don't like it.. Probably won't install it permently anyway, because I'm an apt man.
        But I thought it was interesting enough to try it out.

        ("I'm an apt man" now there's a t-shirt phrase !)

      • I don't get it... How would a cube / 3D monitor help you here.
        With a 2D interface, you have to rotate the metaphor for a cube, with a 3D interface, you have to rotate the real thing.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by at_slashdot ( 674436 )
      "I can't help but think that those still working on the free parts of Mandrake are wasting resources"

      I can't help but think that those people would not work on some tools if there would be some other free tools that did the same job, the same way, so if there's a need for those tools than it's a good thing that somebody works on them, moreover, being free anyone can use them so is not really a waste.
      • Anything that could be salvaged by another project would not be a waste, granted, but there is a heck of a lot that is just plain duplication. Testing/Bugs/QA, distro-specific documentation, packaging -- those things are largely wasted if the poster was correct that Mandrake is a dead end it really would be a waste of effort.
        • Anything that could be salvaged by another project would not be a waste, granted, but there is a heck of a lot that is just plain duplication.

          Exactly. It's the same with car manufacturers. They all go off and develop their innovations separately - Different traction control systems can work by either cutting the ignition, reducing fuel or braking the wheels, for example.

          Now it's true that each has advantages and disadvantages, but if all car manufacturers standardised on the same system it would reduce

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by also-rr ( 980579 )
      Like decent GUI tools for wireless networking!

      Linux already has a decent GUI tool for wireless networking, nm-applet being rather more slick at handling mixed wired/wireless and roaming environments than OS X.

      It was however mostly polished after the last round of distro releases and so it'll probably be in more of the next generation released in the autumn.

    • Re:Mandrakes place in the Linux world? (Score:5, Informative)

      by toddbu ( 748790 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @02:32AM (#16079226)
      I'm with you on this one. I ran Mandrake / Mandriva for a long time, but finally gave up last year and switched to Ubuntu. One huge problem for Mandrake is that they've never been able to put out two good releases in a row. That wouldn't be so bad if you could just skip every other release, but at one point their end-of-life policies didn't cover the last stable release. At that point I just gave up and switched distros.
      • A better comparison would be Kubuntu, not Ubuntu. Talk about silly though, the two projects (K/non K unbuntu) SHOULD have been merged together. It is just silly to have to do a separate install, just because you want a nice KDE environment or Gnome environment. Mandriva addresses that MUCH better (and always has... and long before any other distro did with as much elegance).

        In any case, you are correct that Mandriva faces stiff competition from not only Kubuntu, but also SuSe and Fedora. They all have t

        • Talk about silly though, the two projects (K/non K unbuntu) SHOULD have been merged together. It is just silly to have to do a separate install, just because you want a nice KDE environment or Gnome environment.

          Why is it silly? If you know which one you want, just download that one, and then you don't have to wait for the only one to download (and given how big gnome and kde, including both could easily push Ubuntu to two disks...). If you want to try them both, you can either download both live cds, or

          • Hit the nail on the head right there...

            Mandrake was my start into linux (other than trying to shove an outdated debian onto an even more outdated 486 laptop and a bit of the early early knoppix) and while I got along with it just fine (and it still did a few thigns better at the 2006 release on my laptop than the current configuration) I eventually switched it to Ubuntu. I wanted KDE so I did the kubuntu-desktop install and used automatix which accomplishes the same goals as using easyurpmi to add the PL

            • I must admit though, I much prefer the feel of kubuntu installed over ubuntu. When my harddrive died a few months ago I went with a straight kubuntu install and it never felt right.

              I'm the same way. I tried installing kubuntu straight a couple of times on my old machine, and I never liked it. Then somehow my gnome got corrupted on my main computer, so I did kubuntu-desktop as a temporary fix, and liked it so much that I never did go back and figure out what happened to gnome. I still like my gnome apps,

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Bronster ( 13157 )
          aptitude install kubuntu-desktop

          Description: Kubuntu desktop system
            This package depends on all of the packages in the Kubuntu desktop system

          It's really not that hard to pull in a complete kubuntu system on your gnome install, then it's just like the real thing[tm]. The only difference is which packages are on the livecd and installed by default.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Budenny ( 888916 )
      Mandriva is still one of the only distros one can install for a naive user, and be sure that any issues that come up can be handled by you and him/her over the phone - thanks to the drak tools. Its the real strength. Backup, printers, networking, everything is available simply and immediately.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by BeeBeard ( 999187 )
      What is Mandrake's place these days? That's a tough question. It didn't used to be much of anything: Mandrake originally started as a file-by-file Red Hat clone that included KDE, back when Red Hat Linux in all it's RPM glory was the hottest thing on the block. Seriously. There were some misunderstandings with the old Qt licensing (that have since been resolved), and Red Hat made the logical choice of backing its own pony by putting Gnome in their distro instead. But there was a problem--people still l
    • maybe it's not a troll but the effect is the same. Just use mandriva and find out. Perhaps install it under VMware.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by mavenguy ( 126559 )
      As have some other repliers, I feel the same way. I've used mdk from, IIRC, 7.x and have upgraded since, up to 2006. At the time it was a great distro for someone who lacked the skill set to run a more "hardcore" distro, but allowed me to, on a very selective basis, get into the guts for study, and modification. It offered a great install that (mostly) ended up with lots of things "just working" (well, again, mostly). I was rather enthusiastic, and decided to support the Mandrake effort, even through their

    • Re:Mandrakes place in the Linux world? (Score:4, Informative)

      by opkool ( 231966 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @07:56AM (#16079983) Homepage
      As a long time desktop Linux user, I have tried recently Kubuntu, SuSE/Novell SLED and Mandriva, and I still like Mandriva better over the others.

      For one, Kubuntu feels so dated and so empty of configuration tools... feels like Mandrake 8.2 all over again.

      Then, I like better a 1 year release cycle. I want to WORK with my Linux. I don't want to be installing Linux all the time: is extra work and I'm lazy.

      Yes, RHEL/CentOS have a long life. But then RHEL/CentOS for me doens't cut it. up2date/yum are awful, it's a horrible multimedia station and it's a pretty bad desktop overall.

      Fedora, well, it's a joke. Not useful as a stable desktop for a lazy Linux user that doesn't want to install a new reease every 3 months and, if you bink too much, your release is out of support.

      Sure, SLED is prety good. Mostly. But then I find it to be a slow distro (compared with Ubuntu and Mandriva). And the fact that Novell is more or less trying to ditch KDE is not good for me:

      Novell: "KDE is not included in SuSE anymore!"

      (Users scream in horror)

      Novell: "Well, we'll include KDE"

      (Users cheer)

      Novell : "Actualy, we'll kinda include it on the OpenSuSE version"

      (Users give up German distros and go to get a German beer instead)

      Peace

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Air-conditioned cowh ( 552882 )
        Agree with all that!

        Mandriva's control centre is what sets it apart. Most other distros have a similar looking desktop (if they're KDE based), a bunch of apps etc but if the auto-hardware-detect of these distros can't tell what monitor you have then you only get 1024x768 and there is nothing short of editing your xorg.conf file to fix it. And what do you do to get your WLAN card and DVB tuner working?

        This is why I settled on PCLinuxOS which is Mandriva based but seems to be more polished and uses Synaptic i

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Reziac ( 43301 ) *
          That is indeed one of the things that made me prefer Mandrake -- oh look, I can futz around in here and get my sound card and modem working that it didn't recognise during install, and I can try different settings without winding up stuck because I have no idea how to reset 'em, etc, etc.

          So... what advantages does this PCLinuxOS have over Mandrake? (I can't get broadband so can't just download 'em and throw 'em at the test machine :(

          As to Ubuntu ... I've messed with v5 and v6, and it's going the right way f
    • I like mandriva because: - lots of packages updated in cooker which has lots of mirrors - it is not biased towards any desktop environment - has zshell well configured that boost productivity in shell, as opposite to ubuntu that seems more of a MS invention to keep people out of their keyboards that are a great power of linux - penguin liberation front - in 2006 release the kernel was compiled by the intel compiler giving the fastest boot time i ever seen on a distro - makes great use of dkms to install ker
    • I still use it and recommend it. I've used just about every Linux distro out there at one time or another, starting with Slackware back in 94. I've used various BSDs, SunOS 4, Solaris from 5-10, Windows, MacOS 6-9 and OS X in several releases. Mandriva gives me a useful desktop in the default install that I don't need to tweak nearly as much as other distros or desktops, recent ubuntu/kubuntu included (I currently have kubuntu installed in VmWare to play around with.) A few reasons off the top of my head:

      I

  • It's too hot (Score:5, Funny)

    by 12ahead ( 586157 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @01:50AM (#16079108)
    Man, I ran it on my Macbook Pro and shit it got hot....

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by RuBLed ( 995686 )
      The article was just posted... you just made one of the fastest download and installation of a new linux OS on a Macbook Pro and run it long enough to make it hot.
      • Well, the article on the Mandriva blog was posted two days ago. Unless this guy's on a 14.4 modem, I think it's pretty possible. But that's irrelevent. This is the funniest Slashdot comment I've ever read.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 70Bang ( 805280 )

        You forgot to point out the problem Macbook Pro seem to have with non-Apple OSes [in general].

        That would have been better deserving of the Insightful mod you got.

        Both reported this weekend, no less.

        First, this [slashdot.org], and now this.

        Wow.

        Let's hope all of the standard eBay sales of special software to cool off your PC are redirected to deal with this problem with Macbook Pro until it can be fixed at the root level.

        Does anyone know if it gets any better after six weeks of boot camp?


        (please tell me I
    • I just laughed my ass off at this. Should be modded up. It helps to show what a stupid article it was about how RC1 of Vista heated up a Mac laptop more than OS X.

  • Release candidate == final release (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BadAnalogyGuy ( 945258 ) <BadAnalogyGuy@gmail.com> on Monday September 11, 2006 @01:59AM (#16079137)
    A 'release candidate' is equivalent to a final release in all respects except name. It is a candidate for release. The development team believes that this build is as bug free and featured filled as it needs to be and is branded a release candidate. It is then sent over to testing (or to users as is more frequently the case) where it undergoes final testing. If it passes final testing, it is rebadged as RTM, but THE SAME BITS GO INTO AN RC AS TO AN RTM. This isn't a testing release or a beta release where you are expected to find and squash bugs. The bugs are expected to be worked out of the system or are so uninteresting as to not warrant further development time.

    If you find a serious bug in an RC, someone, somewhere fucked up royally.
  • By the time their final release is ready we will have Ulteo to play with. http://www.ulteo.com/main/ [ulteo.com]

  • Crappy video (Score:5, Insightful)

    by also-rr ( 980579 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @02:10AM (#16079172) Homepage
    While their video does show (some) of the things that the 3D desktop can do, it's actually *far* smoother in real life. Possibly they recorded it on a machine that was too slow to run the app and xvidcap at the same time.

    Up to this point it's been a bit of a pain in the backside to set up but now distros are integrating it the next batch of releases should make it trivial.

    Compiz and co are really slick and I find it rather amusing that everyeone *except* the world's biggest software company has managed to get their next generation desktop released prior to 2007.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by MBC1977 ( 978793 )
      "I find it rather amusing that everyeone *except* the world's biggest software company has managed to get their next generation desktop released prior to 2007" Hmmm... well lets see, is the world's biggest software company trying to target as many users as possible (considering they are the "world's biggest"
      [your words not mine])? I would guess it just might take a while. Wouldn't want to rush anything out the door, ya know.

      I find it amusing that the final release isn't out yet and so many people a

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by howlingmadhowie ( 943150 )
        you know, microsoft is targeting people, just as apple is. these are both companies that see a financial benefit from selling their products.
        linux isn't targeting users to the same extent, linux is about making the best possible operating system. and for this reason, linux is steam-rolling a path through the competition. we have a situation now, where a shoe-string project started in the early nineties is technically light-years ahead of anything else.
        i imagine in the future our idea of the relationship b

        • Tell that to the users of Xandros; there is no OCE with version 4 and it features full-fledged product activation, ala Windows XP. I kinda feel like you're right about a lot of distros, but not with a few others. Many have a "deluxe" or "professional" version for sale and claim that they charge for it to cover their costs, but then they keep jacking up their prices -- like the Mandrake community, memebership in which costed more on a yearly basis than Lindows CNR (which went down in price and is now free).

  • US$20 for the modem driver first please (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I would like to see how far Linux has come since Redhat 5.x (my last test-run) but I see that to use my dial-up modem beyond 16k I first need to get the US$20 driver for my chipset. The instructions to get it working are unnerving for a soft, indulged, undisciplined XP user like me. Thanks but no thanks.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Shawn is an Asshole ( 845769 )
      If you're still stuck with dialup (which I unfortunatley am in this damn area), buy a 3com 5610. It's a full hardware modem and works out of the box and every distro I've tried. It's a bit of a bitch to get working on Windows, though (2000 at least).
    • If twenty dollars matters that much, to each his own, although I'd just upgrade the modem and sell the old one.
      The money I've saved by not buying Windows over the years would easily pay for a few computers, let alone a card or two.

  • come on (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by ImTheDarkcyde ( 759406 )
    This has to be the worst way to release an iso ever, the downloads page has everything you need.. EXCEPT for the download link. So does anyone have a torrent to the install dvd?

  • Mona? (Score:3, Funny)

    by giano ( 1001702 ) on Monday September 11, 2006 @03:23AM (#16079325)
    Mona means "c**t" (female reproductive organ) in an italian dialect...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AxminsterLeuven ( 963108 )
      I have a theory that every word in any language refers to some part of the human reproductive system in some other language. This of course works the other way around as well: 'cunt' probably means distribution in some language or other, so that's okay.
    • Mona means "c**t" (female reproductive organ) in an italian dialect...
      I know, I'm from Venice. We don't giggle when the word comes up in other languages or in a Renaissance context, because we know it's a medieval contraction of the word "madonna", itself coming from the Latin "mea domina".

      What would make me laugh would be the face of Miguel De Icaza discovering that in some other language "Mono" means "male reproductive organ".

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