Bonum Certa Men Certa

Off Topic: Mandriva 2008.1 Recommendation

Verdict: Excellent Distribution (Mandriva 2008.1 with KDE 3.5.x.)

At one stage in the past, this Web site gave Mandriva a hard time, but only due to cautiousness, due to doubt. We'll return to this in a moment and present other concerns at the end.

In practice, Mandriva turns out to be a wonderful GNU/Linux distribution that makes computing a totally CLI-free nirvana. The developers should be proud.

Background



Having received a new computer a few days ago, I tried a variety of distributions on it (both 32- and 64-bit). The maturity of GNU/Linux was demonstrated by the fact that, in all cases, everything worked right 'out of the box'.

I don't consider myself qualified to write a comprehensive review, which would also require time and dedication. But in any event, this is just a note to say thank you for the Mandriva team, which put together a wonderful product.

Time will tell if it will stay this way, at least in the sense that a lifetime of a distribution and it success cannot be measured based on just a few days of regular use. I used Mandrake on two of my PCs before, but never used Mandriva. The loss was mine.

The Positives



Package management: super (so far, so good)

KDE integration with Mandriva's tools and branding: good

Hardware support: based on a single test, all is great

Installer: better than (or on par with) any of the others that I tried

The Negatives



None so far. I just don't fancy the default wallpaper, but that's easy to take care of. ;-)

The Possible Snag



There is still a level of caution when it comes Mandriva because of Manbo (Turbolinux has an intellectual monopoly deal with Microsoft and it swaps code/RPMs with Mandriva). This should not be an issue, according to Alan W. and others in Mandriva, including the CEO. We also asked the FSF about it.

Time will tell, but I don't want to end up like I did with SUSE. I used it at home and at work for years prior to the Microsoft/Novell deal. It goes back to S.u.S.E. days.

The Beranger Take



Mandriva dreads Beranger, a renowned Linux guru who comments constructively without much mercy. In my correspondence with Beranger, who is intimately familiar with this distribution, some interesting points came up. We share them here for completeness:

"I hope you meant "KDE3", not KDE4," he wrote. "Mandriva has different set of bugs twice a year. Was it "Mandriva 2008" or "Mandriva 2008.1 (Spring)"? Try the other one and you'll see different bugs out of the box!"

Regarding support, he shared: "All Mandriva Linux editions are supported for twelve months (desktop packages) or eighteen months (core packages) for official updates from the product release date. The Mandriva Product Lifetime Policy describes the supported life for Mandriva software products."

"But they can barely fix the bugs for the current release," he argued.

"Mandriva 2009 will have KDE 4.1, and they'll only have KDE 3.5.9 in "contrib". That means it'll be less supported, specifically "contrib" gets NO security fixes!!! So this (2008 Spring) is the last Mandriva with KDE3, in real terms."

About "contrib": "These updates are not tested, signed or supported by the Mandriva security team; they are built and issued by the maintainers of the 'contrib' packages. We do not guarantee that all maintainers will issue security or bugfix updates, but we provide this media for those maintainers who choose to do so."

“All in all, Mandriva 2008.1 has been a wonderful GNU/Linux distribution so far.”"They had a Mandriva Corporate Desktop 3.0 (KDE-only)," he told me, "and they claimed to have issued a Mandriva Corporate Desktop 4.0 (KDE-only too), but they're now both unavailable from the online store!!! Actually, MCD4 was never available in the store!!!"

He concluded with: "Too bad, Mandriva can't afford to maintain a Desktop distro that would have been supported for years... and it was a KDE3 distro!"

The debate here seems to revolve a lot around updates, which is probably not a huge concern anyway. In Free software, upgrades rarely involve much trouble, or even a payment. So, that last bit is a rant to be taken with a grain of salt but not to be ignored. All in all, Mandriva 2008.1 has been a wonderful GNU/Linux distribution so far. Consider giving it a try.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October