guppetto

Sorry for double posting this news!

I'm not sure how many of you have been following the poll Lenovo put up asking which Linux Distribution would users most like to see supported on Lenovo hardware, but for those that haven't, go check it out and vote. The good news is that Mandriva is amazingly in second place behind the wonder kid (Ubuntu) and really cleaning house. This is very significant because we already knew Ubuntu would win, but Mandriva has such a significant representation (4000 Votes ahead of Debian) with its current second place position, that it may get real consideration from Lenovo. Just being truthful, if a software engineer where to take the time to actually install the latest offerings from Mandriva and Ubuntu to do some comparisons, I have no doubt Mandriva would rate higher hands down. That's not a knock on Ubuntu, but Mandriva already has the admin tools that aren't quite there yet in Ubuntu, more polish out of the box with the look and feel, just as much software readily available, and the best hardware support available from any Linux distribution. I'm typing this up on my Thinkpad T60 (Intel & ATI components) running 2008 and everything works great, so I'd love for users of Lenovo products to have a similar experience with Mandriva. Also, some may not have noticed, but comparing the latest reviews of openSUSE, Ubuntu, and Mandriva from various locations around the Web, Mandriva has received the best rating across the board from most, which is a very interesting change in direction for the company as a whole. Fedora Reviews haven't been conducted yet, but Mandriva has definitely done a lot with 2008 to restore some luster to its reputation which has taken a few hits the past two years. http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=98

Since installing 2008, while I have sound from my Thnkpad T60, Pidgin IM is totally mute and i'm not sure why. In KDE Amarok works fine playing sounds and I can preview sounds in Konqueror, but Pidgins notification sounds won't play. I've tried to enter the command "play %s" as an option under the preferences but that doesn't work either. ls -l /dev/dsp yeilds the following: crw-rw---- 1 cdc audio 14, 3 2007-10-28 14:39 /dev/dsp Any ideas why Pidgin refuses to play any of it's notification sounds?

I once thought the 3D desktop was a gimmick, but I've changed my thinking these days. If you start using the 3D desktop in Mandriva 2008 from day one and really use the cube, expose, ...etc, you'll discover that the point and click paradigm isn't as productive as we all make it out to be and that a 3D desktop can really improve your computing experience. Sure the window effects are pure eye candy, but even they effect the perception of the experience your having. Instead of configuring everything to my specific taste for the 3D desktop i selected the random effects check box and man, i must say, I have a total new found respect for what a 3D desktop adds to the total user experience. Windows folding into paper airplanes don't make me work any faster, but I don't really feel as though I'm missing anything when I see news of Apple and Microsoft releases. In fact, my coworkers huddle around me from time to time just catch a glimpse of what OS I'm using. Linux has always been for power users, but It's never had that killer look at me appeal until now. If most of us are honest much of our attraction to the Mac OS is attributed largely to the gee wiz aspect of the OS. Unix is UNIX or as some say, you can put make up on a pig, but it's still a pig. They do a great job of KISS (keep it simple stupid) but the fact that it's so pretty is their #1 marketing tool.

Well, Arctic just described me perfectly. I've got far less than a hundred post, but I've been using madrake since version 7. I'd say there is no problem i couldn't technically solve by myself I've been using Linux so long, however, i always seem to come and ask questions just becuase the community has converted me. I once hated seeking out help, until i started helping others with the info I picked up visiting forums ike linuxforums.com, this forum, the Mandriva Forums, openSUSE.com suseforums.com, ..etc. Once you start helping you see the value of that help and how it's just easier when you know there are people that can get you on the right track. In my early days i loved Linux just because I knew it would be a challenge to get all the hardware to work. Windows was kind of like that, but I masterd it fairly quickly and needed to test myself (I suppose it's just the Computer Engineer in me). I'll never forget compiling my first kernel to get a scanner to work. I can't even imagine having to do that today Linux has come so far. Stick with us and the mandriva community will take good care of you. Hell we solve problems with other Distrobutions just as much as we solve mandriva/Mandrake problems, so don't be afraid to bring up those questions either. You don't realise it, but Mandriva was once what Ubuntu is today. it was cutting edge and the must have OS for people looking to take the Linux leap. If you think the community is solid today, man I wish you could have been around in those days. The software wasn't as rock solid as it is today, but the community could basically have any questioned answered in less than half a day no matter how complex.

Well, everyone has a different experience when it comes to installing Linux on their hardware, but in all honesty, this version of Mandrake/Mandriva is by far the best I've ever used and I've been running it in some version since the 7 days. I have an IBM Thinkpad T60 with Intel and ATI components and everything on that laptop works like a dream. The package management is much more streamlined than ever before using the configuration tools and the over all feel of the distro is extremely polished. Now I always have a habit of installing SMART to handle package management, regardless of which distro i install (OpenSUSE, Mandriva, Redhat, etc) but I've found myself using it less and less with 2008 because the update applet just works. Now I will admit that some of the 2008 Mirrors have behaved somewhat strange from time to time, but it's not much of a show stopper, because you can delete all the mirrors and re-add new ones with minimal fuss. No distro is perfect, but i must say that aside from playing musical chairs with the mirrors I haven't had to do anything outside of just use 2008. The 3D desktop worked great out of the box although I wish the fusion plug-ins were installed by default along with Compiz and the Wireless setup and Hibernate/Resume features work just as well as they do in Windows now. 2008 is the perfect balance between user friendly and Power user. There's nothing the system won't let me do, but there's also little reason for me to go off and start hacking away. Perhaps it would be nice to have the fusion-icon sitting in the systray, but we all know it starts Compiz automatically, which inherently conflicts with the Mandriva scripts which does the same thing when logging in. Maybe a modification to the python script would quickly solve that issue so i suppose I'll contribute and try to hack it tonight and get some packages together. Ubuntu and openSUSE will get the spotlight, but having used openSUSE 10.3 on my Desktop I can clearly say it's solid, but a step below Mandriva in over all polish and out of the box usability. I'm saying this even though I've used openSUSE 10.2 since SLED was released. I can't praise this release enough, because it really is what Mandriva has needed the past few years. There no slowing down Ubuntu at this point, but comparing Ubuntu to Mandriva is like comparing an 8th grader to a High School Senior. Mandriva has already solved most of the problems Ubuntu is just starting to cope with. if Mandriva could get it's public persona back in the good graces of Linux users I have no doubt that it is more than a match for Vista and Leopard. I like the Forum changes, but I still think it needs a makeover that gives it a more whimsical appearance like the new gimp site. Mandriva has one of the greatest communities you'll ever find, but we need to look like a leader if we're to bring the followers back. Eye candy goes a long way to reshaping perception. I also like the fact that Mandriva included the proprietary components in the box (ATI drivers/ Fuendo multimedia codecs). While it conflicts with the pure open source philosophy, it's the just make it work solution that has been needed by the distro over the last few releases. The codec package has made a believer of some of my Ubuntu friends even though they know the multimedia support is just a few clicks away. It never hurts to have things work right out the box. Thanks Adam for showing up all over the Internet in just about every Mandriva forum I can find. From Os News, to here, to the Mandriva forums you've towed the line and been there with never ending support for the Distro and I really appreciate that. Mandriva won't get the , "It can do no wrong" reviews that Ubuntu or Leopard will get, but that doesn't mean that it isn't the creme de la creme of the 2008 distro releases. Anyone know how to get FreeNX to play nce with a Lynksis router. I can get through to my desktop, but I'm having some trouble getting to other boxes sitting behind the router from my Office Windows XP machine. Perhaps I've got the port forwarding screwed up but if anyone has any articles that might help I'd really appreciate it. Remote computing is a great way to have unencumbered internet access with all the restrinctions that most work environments place on the internet use these days.

Does anyone know of a software program for Linux that makes it easy to add images to mp3 tags. Easy tag supports adding images to tags but it doesn't have an integrated online search for image files (Amazon lookup) and apps like amarok don't embed downloaded album art into tags. I've found plenty of programs that allow me to change the files meta data but not a single program that easily adds the ability to add album art permanently to the tag. I'm looking for tagging software that makes this process as easy as using software like Media Monkey or iTunes. Media Monkey has a great interface to Amazon for looking up albums and tagging files with text and image data. Does anyone know of a program that comes close to Media Monkey for Linux.

I'm pretty sure we already covered that ;) - and you're trying to send a guy who isn't sure how to get java installed off to install/configure wine? :unsure: Anyways, to get java installed you should try this FAQ. I suppose you're correct, wine is exactly for the faint of heart , but I think there are rpms availible now so actually configuring wine isn't really necessary. :D

Install wine and once that's set up, get a copy of the utorrent .exe. uTorrent is in my oppinion the best Torrent Software hands down. If by chance that doesn't work for you, ktorrent is also pretty good, and if all else fails, you can grab Azurous, but it is a resource hog at times. To get Azourus working you will need java istalled, becuase it is a java application. uTorrent's Linux client doesn't come anywhere close to it's windows client, so just run the windows client on Linux and get the best of both worlds.

If you use IEs4Linux, you don't need Virtual PC for Mac OS or Linux; you can run IE 4,5, and 6 natively. It definitly comes in handy for checking web pages. It also includes flash 9.0 so all of your web content should be displayed just as you expect it. IEs4Linux

I started using Linux once in my mind Windows got boring. I felt like I reached Jedi Master status in Windows and needed to move on to more chalenging pastures. I bought Mandrake 7 and left it in the box for 6 months, but one day I just said I'll just install it and if I can't get it working, I'll go back to Windows. I had no clue at the time that the boot manager would conveniently set up the dual boot environment. As an engineer, a good chalenge is always a good thing. Well needless to say, Mandrake 7 was pretty interesting. Some things worked perfectly, others not at all, but surprisingly most of my hardware was complient. It didn't matter though, because as long as the internet conection was working, I knew I could get the rest working. What really amazed me most was the fact that when I installed Linux I discovered this whole other world on the internet of Linux and Madrake and Red Hat Users. :huh: I bought the Linux Administrators guide which focused on Redhat, but surprisingly everything worked with Mandrake also which I learned was the result of Mandrake being based on Redhat at the time. From there I noticed that every question I asked got answered and people were genuinly excited to help you. They ended most of their responces with things like we're a communitty and we have to stick together, so share whatever you learn as much as you can so that we can get things working. It was kind of like they were happy to see they weren't alone in discovering the wonders of a Linux and they wanted to get the word out. Back in those times, the distro wars wern't raging, although the desktop wars were (KDE vs Gnome). I started on Gnome because it had the Guerilla icons and it looked prettier at the time, but we used kde at school, so I got confortable using both. Needless to say Mandrake 7 turned into 8, 9, 10, 2005, 2006, Redhat 7, Fedora 3, Suse 9, Debian, SLED, OpenSUSE, and by the end of the week Mandriva 2007. I noticed that there wasn't much of a virus threat when using Linux, and as a computer engineer, Linux was a programmers dream world. Mostly the thing I liked most in the early days were the constant challenges of getting everything working. Then, something new would come out and I'd rush to install it, destroy my perfectly working setup and start the quest to restore everything all over again (especially new kde releases). Today I've probably forgotten more than I know when it comes to Linux, but most everything just works now for the most part anyway and there are so many communities that every answer you need in out there. There are more fanboys today (Ubuntu), but I suppose I was the same way at one time singing the wonders of Mandrake, so i suppose Ubuntu is doing a great benefit to the Linux community by expanding the user base even if they are somwhat different from the earlier Linux adopters I remember. I still try to come around and answer questions when possible and I still primarily use Linux 98% of the time. Now that Wine is pretty stable, i can run Macromedia Studio, Photoshop, office 2003 and Utorrent from the windows world when absolutly necessary, but I don't really use those much with the exception of Dreamweaver and Utorrent. Gimp is comming along so I try not to use photoshop just for the challenge when possible and for everything Else, Linux has outstanding alternatives. Linux is the playground of the tinkerer, but with each distro release, I'm finding it harder and harder to work up new chalenges for myself, because the open source communitty is a highly skilled bunch hat takes competin with Apple and Microsoft very seriously. I still keep an XP partition around to help family members, but I've converted my girlfriend so all in all, i'd say i use Linux, because it accomplishes everything i need it to do and every now and again it forces me to learn somthing new, which is always a great thing!

Thanks, this is great and just what I needed. And now the path to the darkside begins! :huh:

Where can one find this guide, because I'm itching to take a stab at trying to use Gentoo.

Your right! I just completed my OpenSuse/SLED experiment over the past month and I must admit that I was very impressed. To insure that I really had to learn a thing or two, i also switched from KDE to Gnome (my true roots anyway) and forced myself to operate by not even installing KDE. SLED/OpenSuse is very polished, and you can clearly see that they have a lot more money to put into their distro than Mandriva. However, there is somthing about Mandriva/Mandrake, that keeps pulling me back. Yast/APT/YUM/ Pure RPM/Portage and a host of others are effective and they aren't difficult to learn if you're commited, but urpm and smart on a Mandriva system is hard to beat. Many people point out that the Mandriva configuration tools duplicate the work of other tools, but those tools always seem to work for me when I use them, so that can't be a bad thing. Truth is, i wanted to extensively try out Gentoo and power tune my AMD 64 box, but after two days of going through the instilation manual, i quickly saw that after the initial install, I was in a for a real learning experience. I know more about computers today as a result of my extensive learning experience with Mandrake, but Gentoo put a little waekness in my knees, and I'm not sure I have the time to put myself through a real hell weak while learning a distro that is signifcantly different form my bread and butter (Mandriva) RPM based distro. All and all, maybe I can't shake Mandriva becuase it was my first linux distro. However, the truth is that the Mandriva community is hands down the best to me. Mandriva has just about every piece of software you can imagine in it's repositories. I can find answers to problems faster here than anywhere else. Heck, i can even find answer to other distro related question faster here than most places. Sure we tease the noobs a little bit, but we always answer their questions, and the solutions work. Gentoo is a tweakers paradise, Ubuntu is cool (though the fanboys irq the hell out of me), SLED is just palin sick with a stable version of XGL, and Debian is as rock solid as ever, but Mandriva is like putting them all in one. I can get really creative with a Cooker install, I can get a rock solid setup with a base install and all the updates, or I can mix and Match the two. Also, I can install Mandriva from the DVD in 12 minutes. SLED takes 35 minutes with the DVD and Minimal software selections. Mandriva defintely has a lot of work to match the polish of some of these other distros, but it has all the experience and the community to do it.

Opera is very lightweight, fast, and it has so many keyboard features, that really don't need a mouse to use it. It's definitely my favorite browser