whats so good about mandriva.

[adamogardner]

I have it on my virtual box. I'm trying to understand the differences . I'm just trying to understand why do I want this? What makes it a special and unique distribution?

[DarkStarAeon]

Well, I like Mandriva, but not as much as Ubuntu. There are more packages and more options in Ubuntu. However, Mandriva does work really well, and it's hardware detection is excellent. The installer for Mandriva is like Ubuntu's, really straightforward and easy.

That said, Mandriva on my laptop just flat out died about an hour ago and I have to figure out why and how to get back in. lol

If I had to choose though, I'd choose Ubuntu.

[AdamWill]

Hardware detection and configuration, the Mandriva Control Center and drakwizard (these provide a lot of tools most other distros don't have), wide choice of supported desktops, Eee compatibility, Windows Mobile synchronization support, the /backports repository system...

Lots of interesting info at http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2008.1_Tour and http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2008.1_Reviewers_Guide .

[ryaxnb]

Their KDE implementation (of KDE 3.5 at least, haven't tried 4) seems way better then Kubuntu, so if you like KDE 3.5, I'd recommend Mandriva.

Their distinct features:
* Codecs included in PowerPack - legally.
* Game support in PowerPack - proprietary software.
* SUperb KDE support
* Decent GNOME support
* Control Center is friggin awesome - best utility for configuration ever, beating out Windows Control Panel, System Preferences (maybe), YaST, the GNOME tools in Ubuntu, etc. Server setup tools also included. Seriously, this is the reason to consider Mandriva.
* Great HW support.
* Friendly interface.
* Handy-dandy multiple edition setup: One - Excellent LiveCD/Installer hybrid, like Ubuntu; Free - mostly open source software, comes on DVD, installs to HD; PowerPack - costs around $80, comes with codecs, Cedega, proprietary software, three months of support, training.

[Vorian Grey]

I used Mandriva for a while and it's a great OS. They probably do KDE as well as anyone. The Control Center is the best out there. Package selection was excellent and package manager was decent. I'd easily rated it as the #2 noob distro out there. My only problem with it was it ran really slow.

[dwr50]

What makes Mandriva 2008.1 good is the fact that it recognized my WiFi and sound cards when None of the Buntu's did. All the Buntu forums kept trying to explain how to install ndiswrapper ect to fix the WiFi and it never worked for me. Turned out that Mandriva uses Madwifi instead of ndiswrapper and my computer works with Madwifi. I still don't know why my sound works with Mandriva, but when I learn more about Linux I'm sure I'll know the reasons. To date I've tried 10 different Distro's of Linux Live CD's and ONLY Mandriva 2008.1 Spring worked correctly with my computer.

[dca]

What makes Mandriva 2008.1 good is the fact that it recognized my WiFi and sound cards when None of the Buntu's did. All the Buntu forums kept trying to explain how to install ndiswrapper ect to fix the WiFi and it never worked for me. Turned out that Mandriva uses Madwifi instead of ndiswrapper and my computer works with Madwifi. I still don't know why my sound works with Mandriva, but when I learn more about Linux I'm sure I'll know the reasons. To date I've tried 10 different Distro's of Linux Live CD's and ONLY Mandriva 2008.1 Spring worked correctly with my computer.

Mandriva uses a patched 'madwifi' to make it compatible w/ the eeeeeePC which could have the same mini-PCI WiFi card you have in your laptop. My Acer shares this as well...

[ibutho]

For me personally, its the hardware detection and configurations tools. Ubuntu doesn't have a central place to do system configuration like Mandriva Control Center and YaST, so for some tasks you have to end up using the CLI. This is okay for people who are comfortable with the CLI, but newbies can be put off.

[dwr50]

Just tried the newest Suse and Cent5 Live CD's. Neither would recognise my WiFi or Sound Card. I think hardware detection IS the best feature of Mandriva. Anyone need a set of 12 Linux coasters ? lol

[dca]

Just tried the newest Suse and Cent5 Live CD's. Neither would recognise my WiFi or Sound Card. I think hardware detection IS the best feature of Mandriva. Anyone need a set of 12 Linux coasters ? lol

Could've told you neither would recognize that WiFi out of the box... Mandriva is the only one because the patched madwifi package is in their repos for all Mandriva variations to benefit from. If you want to use the Ambit (Atheros AR242x) w/ other distro(s) you need to d/l & compile the patch from madwifi.org website...