Talk:Mandriva Linux

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Contents

[edit] PCLinuxOS

The info on PCLinuxOS I added was recently deleted again. It is very much related to Mandrake and as such deserves mention IMHO.--ReinoutS 21:47, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I would agree that any distribution which is based on Mandrake should get a mention on this page.--Gadfium 03:51, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)
It would be nice to talk aboyt PCLinuxOS review 6, the latest and in my opnion the best version.--PCLinux13:57, 30 Mei 2004 (SET)
I completely agree that PCLinuxOS should be mentioned. Maybe some refactoring of the article is needed to make it fit in well. What about moving MandrakeMove and GameingEdition to a section called offsprings? Ppareit 12:44, 30 May 2004 (UTC)
I disagree: PCLinuxOS is one of numerous Linux distributions related to Mandrakelinux, and I can only see this entry as self-advertisement. It needs separate entry in the Wiki.


[edit] Marginalized

I heard that lately Mandrake has been "marginalized". What does that mean? Any insight? TheCoffee 17:52, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

What do you mean by that? Where did you hear it from? Either way it sounds like someone's opinion, not a fact and therefore won't be put in this article. LinuxAdmin

[edit] I dont know

I think it could mean that it is forced to not do as much as it used too. But thats a wild guess. Erebus555 09:01, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Confusing sentence

regarding text: The Free Edition contains some advertisements in the form of bookmarks in the web browser and slides during installation, as well as is available for download later, to help cover the costs of producing the distribution...

--I don't understand this sentence. Does this mean it downloads ads everyday (like "adware") as you use the operating system?

I have changed the sentence to reflect what it should mean. It is to do with the release cycle - the free edition is released a little later to the public than other versions are to paying customers. --Localzuk 13:48, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Screen Grabs

Why are the screen grabs on the article those of a gnome desktop when the majority of support in Mandriva is KDE based (it is a kde driven system and has been since it was created)? I would understand the weighting of the images being towards kde but as it stands, 2 to 1 in favour of gnome doesn't seem right.--Localzuk 13:44, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Agreed, I'm removing the older screenshot of GNOME.--Chealer 10:04, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Processor architeture

I chaged the sentence "[...] followed by i586 (Intel) and x86_64 (AMD64) images [...]" to "[...] followed by i586 and x86_64 images [...]". Readers would think that i586 is a Intel-only arch an x86_64 is an AMD-only arch.

[edit] Free Edition

I moved the following out of the Latest version section. That is not the appropriate place for this. Additionnally, I don't think that Free Edition exists anymore. --Chealer 12:23, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

The Free Edition contains some advertisements in the form of bookmarks in the web browser and slides during installation, as well as being released for public download later than the other editions, to help cover the costs of producing the distribution.


We need info on the free edition (and on the other versions) - the free one is called Mandriva One apparently [1] Secretlondon 15:41, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moved Features sections

I don't consider that the following moved sections are pertinent or valid features. Brief justification: Software: Mandriva Linux *is* software, so it's at least badly worded to say that software is a feature. Community: Community is definitely not a "feature". Constant development: not really a feature neither. Optimization: Optimization needs to be in contrast with something not optimized. Obviously Mandriva should be faster on classic Pentium than i386 Fedora Core, but there's more than Fedora Core, and the difference should be marginal. Statistics would be needed to justify a long section like that. --Chealer 12:45, 21 June 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Software

Mandriva Linux comes with several thousand software packages including many varieties of games, office software, servers, and Internet utilities.

[edit] Community

Mandriva Linux has a large community of users, that provide help, support, and software to the users of Mandriva Linux.

[edit] Constant development

Mandriva Linux is constantly in development. A development version of Mandriva Linux, known as the "Cooker" is publicly available, but it is not recommended for use in a production environment because of the constant changes going on in it.

Next to that, community members provide RPMs for the latest packages of popular software.

[edit] Optimization

From the ground up, Mandriva Linux was compiled for Pentium-class processors. As a result, Mandriva Linux provides more optimal performance to this CPU Architecture at the cost of being unusable by the 386 and 486 processors, a problem that rapidly faded out due to current CPU power and memory requirements of latest versions of the popular software.

The provided kernel and glibc have enhancements for more recent processors. For example, the glibc will load libraries from the special directory /lib/i686 if the detected processor is compatible.

[edit] Image update

Shouldn't the image be updated? --Emx 11:02, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Done... AndersL 18:46, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] October 2008

While waiting (and waiting ...) for Mandriva 2008 to be released, I've edited the "Editions" section. I changed back to present tense for 2007.1 and future tense for 2008, hoping that 2008 will soon be present tense. Many of my other changes relate to Mandriva changing to just three editions of their distro:

  1. the "Free" edition, a free download, will be pure free / open source software edition, without any of the non-free packages bundled with other editions.
  2. the "One" edition, also a free download, "will be an installable live CD integrating the latest proprietary drivers".
  3. The Discovery, Powerpack and Powerpack+ editions will be replaced by a merged Powerpack edition, with a novice-friendly installer and default desktop plus options for experienced users to

I'm a little puzzled by Mandriva's English-language announcements about "One". They're clearly dropping the free-as-in-speech variants, but I'm not sure whether they'll continue to have both KDE and GNOME variants.

I've also edited the Mandriva article. Among other things, I removed the following, which belongs in this article, not there:

Features
As Mandriva Linux 2008 marks a new basesystem, it includes a new kernel revision. The biggest new feature visible to end users is the new Devicescape (mac80211) wireless networking stack. Compiz Fusion, the result of the re-merge between the Compiz and Beryl 3D desktop technologies, replaces Compiz and Beryl in Mandriva Linux 2008. Mandriva Linux 2008 also includes X.org 7.2, which has the XrandR 1.2 framework, vastly improving support for multiple displays and display hotplugging. The latest stable KDE 3 release, as well as the KDE 4 preview are include.<ref>http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandriva/2008.0/What's_New</ref>

I haven't put this text in this article yet.

Cheers, CWC 12:47, 3 October 2007 (UTC) Checks email. Bah, still no announcement.

(1st November 2007) I've now updated the article further. "One" now has just two variants, for GNOME and KDE,[2] but the GNOME variant is harder to find. I still haven't put that "Features" para in.
The Clustering product has apparently been discontinued (clicking "buy" on this page gets "product not found", so I moved it into the "Discontinued Derivatives" section. Did I guess right? If so, we should say when it was discontinued.
Cheers, CWC 18:03, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Media Codecs and LinDVD

As far as I'm aware the Mandriva Linux Powerpack 2008 is the only commercial Linux distribution that includes licensed software which allows users to legally watch CSS encrypted DVDs in the United States (LinDVD). It also includes Fluendo codec packs which grants provides similar licenses for MPEG 2, MPEG4, MP3, and Microsoft's WMV. As most other distributions either promote the use of unlicensed players/codecs or ignore them altogether, perhaps this is a unique enough characteristic to include in the Features section? --Dl036 (talk) 22:33, 15 December 2007 (UTC)


   I would think so.  JpPasnak (talk) 07:33, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gaël Duval's firing

I'm not sure the comments about Gaël Duval belong in the lead section of this entry. Perhaps in a history section somewhere, but it's not really relevant to a current general description of Mandriva Linux. As I understand it (based on his own postings) Mr. Duval hasn't been involved in the actual development of the Mandriva distribution for some time now. --Dl036 (talk) 18:57, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Support?

How long is a typical release supported? How long will the current release be supported? These bits of info should *always* be included in articles about distros, IMO. --88.149.235.162 (talk) 14:34, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Table

The table on this page stating versions should contain support dates and be colour-coded like so:

Colour Meaning
Red Old release; not supported
Yellow Old release; still supported
Green Current release
Blue Future release

Altonbr (talk) 03:18, 25 February 2008 (UTC)