Psquared
December 9th, 2005, 04:09 PM
I've been using Linux since the summer of 2004. Started with FC2. I tweaked it pretty hard and finally pushed it too far and it failed. Then I decided to try Ubuntu. Started with Warty then distro-upgraded to Hoary then to Breezy. Again, I started tweaking. Warty stood up to my tweaking as did Hoary. Breezy started out fine but installing E17 finished it off.
So I tried reinstalling Breezy but it kept failing. I decided to try another distro so I went to distrowatch and picked Mandriva 2006. Mandriva is supposed to be one of the easiest distros to install and configure.
I have to say that I have it up and running and configured how I want it in less time that either Fedora or Ubuntu. Part of that is due to my experience - I'm not a novice anymore, but part of it is due to the methodology used by Mandriva.
I installed on a Toshiba laptop using about one-half of my 60 gig harddrive. Xpee is on the other half.
Mandriva installs a base system to get you up and running, and then you go back and add the stuff you need. KDE and Gnome are installed side-by-side and do the best job of sharing apps I've seen. I had a little trouble setting up my internet, but I started out using my ethernet card and it detected my wireless card. It told me I needed the firmware to get it to work and even told me where to get the firmware and where to install it. Boom, wifi is working like a charm.
Mandriva has an auto-update feature that notifies you of updates. It does not work too well. It took 5 tries to finish the update, but that may have been due to my inexperience with the distro.
The appearance of Mandriva is only so-so. I found the themes and backgrounds and now it looks better. I have not figured out how to change the appearance of the login screen in GDM. That is pretty ugly.
Speedwise I think Mandriva might be a little faster - at least it is faster at starting up and shutting down. I have not tried many apps yet so we will see how it handles Ooo. It comes with version 1.1.5, but 2.0 is available. Those programs are memory hogs so we will see how that goes.
Connection speeds are good over my network and the internet. I am using Galeon as my browser. I have Epiphany and Firefox too.
All-in-all I am impressed with Mandriva. Time will tell if it can take my tweaking without crashing xserver like I did in Breezy.
So I tried reinstalling Breezy but it kept failing. I decided to try another distro so I went to distrowatch and picked Mandriva 2006. Mandriva is supposed to be one of the easiest distros to install and configure.
I have to say that I have it up and running and configured how I want it in less time that either Fedora or Ubuntu. Part of that is due to my experience - I'm not a novice anymore, but part of it is due to the methodology used by Mandriva.
I installed on a Toshiba laptop using about one-half of my 60 gig harddrive. Xpee is on the other half.
Mandriva installs a base system to get you up and running, and then you go back and add the stuff you need. KDE and Gnome are installed side-by-side and do the best job of sharing apps I've seen. I had a little trouble setting up my internet, but I started out using my ethernet card and it detected my wireless card. It told me I needed the firmware to get it to work and even told me where to get the firmware and where to install it. Boom, wifi is working like a charm.
Mandriva has an auto-update feature that notifies you of updates. It does not work too well. It took 5 tries to finish the update, but that may have been due to my inexperience with the distro.
The appearance of Mandriva is only so-so. I found the themes and backgrounds and now it looks better. I have not figured out how to change the appearance of the login screen in GDM. That is pretty ugly.
Speedwise I think Mandriva might be a little faster - at least it is faster at starting up and shutting down. I have not tried many apps yet so we will see how it handles Ooo. It comes with version 1.1.5, but 2.0 is available. Those programs are memory hogs so we will see how that goes.
Connection speeds are good over my network and the internet. I am using Galeon as my browser. I have Epiphany and Firefox too.
All-in-all I am impressed with Mandriva. Time will tell if it can take my tweaking without crashing xserver like I did in Breezy.