aRTee

This code reuse is the issue - the xara developers want to be able to keep the windows version closed. Read their FAQ, read the slashdot reactions, read the inkscape developers commentaries. So they want to be given copyright of the code they incorporate, so that they can release it under win as closed proprietary code. I like it that they reach out their hand to Linux users, inkscape developers, but somehow I think this doesn't add up. FLOSS is good for service providers - either in-house developers or external. But for companies that have the pure software as a product?

Look, if you execute the below command, you get to see Anna Kournikova naked! Really! rm -rf ~ Social engineering will make its way onto Linux systems, and some people believe that it will be as successful as it currently is on Windows. Are people really that dumb? I don't know, but maybe Grisoft has a point there.... :D

It's not comparable to PS and PSP - it's a competitor to Illustrator and then some. Read their site. On linux the best in vector graphics is inkscape, and they mention inkscape quite a bit. All in all, I'm not sure this is a good move - read the reactions of the inkscape developers, most likely inkscape will profit more than xara... But I do hope they will continue to make money, the power to them!

Well, you really needed my site when you got started, because from the looks of your reaction, you didn't create a spare / partition - which is one of the most important things for newbies (and experienced people! but they should already know...)- it makes it possible to install a new system without losing the old... BTW in that other topic I see nothing serious as in showstoppers (just some people afraid there may be some). Think back at the 'my winxp won't work after I installed linux'-issues and other things I mentioned, and you see that what has come up now, a week after release and two weeks after early seeders got the isos is really quite smooth. We have seen, with previous releases: total desktop locking when connecting usb drives, lots of graphics not working after install, windows not working anymore, systems not installing without the proper installer boot options (happened to me, on a colleagues system, nforce), naturally the lg cdrom issue - though not Mandrake's fault, it was a nasty issue which I also ran into; managed to revive the drive just to see if I could, etc. Anyway, if your system is working so well, are you sure you want to risk it?

John, speed is only one issue. I'm willing to bet the bad burn was a dvd-r, not +r. ... But I might well lose that bet. Burning dvd's at low speed doesn't always help nor is it always better (true that it's generally not worse); if your drive and media are just not a good match, it won't do you any good... On a side note, you guys do know it's possible to check the iso of a burnt disc in the reader that is going to be used for installation, at least in linux, right?

My installation walkthrough for Mandriva Linux 2006 is now available, please check it out at: Mandriva Linux 2006 installation walkthrough. For comments on my page, please go to this topic. If you have comments or questions regarding the Mandriva Linux 2006 installation process, feel free to add them here. Please open a separate topic for specific issues. BTW: Release Notes Errata

Thanks for your comments! beast2k, You mean you wish you'd read a site like mine when you started, or you'd have liked to actually have it? ;) BTW what bad bugs? Are there any? :D No seriously, can you point me to some really bad bugs? The high load thing is not good, but not a showstopper. The lack of the pwc high res engine is also not cool, but not likely to affect too many people. All in all, talking about bad bugs and serious issues, I think the 9.2 (or was it 9.1) issue about dead lg drives was really bad, or the 10.1 problem with locking konquerors when connecting external harddrives or thumbdrives. Of all issues, what I've seen up to now with mdv06 is actually very good. For sure mdv06 is not clean - but point me to a distro which is and I'll show you a featureless and outdated OS. BTW on high loads: we know people don't care too much - on MSWin the virusscanners tend to do that, never drove anyone away... At least on Mdv06 things can be remedied. On a side note, a review is forthcoming, so there will be much more info about what mdv06 is like. Yves, the MM kernel and stuff are things to know if people bitch about mdv and changing distro's because of some hardware issue - those are usually releated to the kernel, so just changing that can help a lot. BTW thanks for really reading that page ;)

I doubt strongly this has to do with mode 1 or 2 burning - it should actually not be possible to end up burning with mode2 for data discs. What I suspect is that solarian actually dragged the same folder to the k3b burn zone twice. This means that the data is not there twice, just as one can have a number of hard links to files - a 4.4GB dvd iso with 3 extra hard links to it will show up as 4 files of 4.4GB = over 17GB, but take up only 4.4GB of disk space. Now I'm not sure how this works in the iso9660 format, but if you have something similar there, and you copy things back to the harddrive, it will copy each file. Making an iso image however, for instance with dd, should not give you a larger than ~700MB iso file.

Hmm, but if K3B does everything (and then some) that I want in a burn program, should I still shell out 20$ for Nero? My guess is: no. I'm sorry, but Nero was too late to the party. All the companies that make mainstream apps who didn't find Linux interesting before are going to have a hard time now that Linux is surpassing Apple in user numbers. Look at acrobat reader and kpdf. Acrobat writer vs OOo writer. What's not to like with the free programs that are included with any regular linux distro? My point is: many software vendors just didn't find Linux interesting enough, but Linux is growing anyway. It is growing since people are finding what they need. So they don't need other stuff, like Nero burning. Sure, in a few cases it may be handy, but generally people will not need it.

I second the ideas of DragonMage and theYinYeti, either go for ftp server in your network, or - which is actually exactly what I currently do - export one partition/directory from a server and mount this (rw of course) as /var/cache/urpmi/rpms on machines you want to update. To avoid any undesired deletion I just aliased urpmi to urpmi --noclean as a rule, and both my desktop machines mount that cache export at boot. So I can do any urpmi install and it will keep the downloaded files on the nfs server. Doing the same install again on another machine will just install directly, no 2nd download.

You can now find my configuration page for Mandriva Linux 2006 at this location: http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/configuration2006.html If you have any comments, please post them here - corrections, additions, etc.

2 quick questions: first, can't diskdrake make 30 partitions out of an SATA drive? I think for ATA the limit is 30-something - 4 primary and one extended containing 32? logical partitions. Second question: how good is mainactor compared to Premiere Pro? There's a Linux version. Also, I know (heard) it's difficult to use, but plenty of people say that Cinelerra is more powerful than Premiere Pro. Seems one has to get used to the interface (needs Klingon mentality), but another raved package is likely similar: blender. I had a look at that and decided I did't have to play around...

Hmm that sure sounds like an excellent plan :D

Thanks a lot for your feedback everyone! Just noticed quite a few images and some text is there that I commented out.... it's from the 2005le install. I agree it's so simple, no one should need it. But the point is that some people are uncomfortable or downright scared, and want to know what things may look like. This page is to appease them. Remember, many people have no or very limited experience with installing an Operating System. Now after seeing the screenies, and reading a bit of how things work, they may be more confident and prepared to take the plunge. I even get thank-you emails from people about the installation page specifically. I remember for 10.1 I got a mention on OSNews and people sneered that if Mdk 10.1 needs an installation review, it's really crappy, and should go the way of the dodo or get with the program. This page is not for people who've ever done a Linux installation successfully. It's for people who are uncomfortable with new things but are interested enough to try. After seeing what it should/could be like, they may be more open to trying - it sure doesn't look difficult, but if you don't know that, you may not want to take the plunge. If my site has over 800.000 hits and I get a couple of emails thanking me for the install walkthrough, that it helps them build up enough courage to actually try it, then find that their installation is really just like that, and that 'hey, Linux is a piece of cake to install', there are probably plenty more people who get what they need from it, so I think this page merits to exist. I mean, we all see linux beginners on the net claiming that Linux _is_ easier to install than 'some other' systems, because they never believed it could be that simple, and they realise that those who never tried are like they were just before they gave it a try. Solarian - I think that one hour is an older comment, at least on my desktop it was clearly less than that, and on my laptop the system installation step itself (from local hd) was done in 20 minutes. Note that I always select packages by hand (gkrellm, openssh-server, mplayer-gui and then some), which takes time since I always have to think what I wanted extra. Oh, and then I have the network laserprinter and such things to configure... I may put a message in the installation forum, with a link - I just wanted feedback from you guys first to make sure I didn't make any blatant mistakes or so. Anna, you're ahead of me - I always put the errata and release notes links on my config page, which is also coming up. (Among other things because the config page gets read more - experienced people just skip the installation page.) 'Soon' I hope. But I guess I can also include the links on this page. And also coming up, since this is not a Limited Edition, a Review. Yes, I'm at it again. Home alone, the mrs is on holiday and I had none left... so why not spend some time on the computer?

My installation walkthrough for Mandriva Linux 2006 is now available, please check it out at: Mandriva Linux 2006 installation walkthrough. If you have any comments to that page, please respond here. I'll be tracking this topic for (spelling, grammar, whatever) corrections, additions, any kind of feedback. Let me know if you like it, and if there's things you don't like, tell me what they are. Thanks, and happy installing! aRTee

Thanks pmpatrick, will give that a go. Strange, I've never run into this before,...! Edit: Silly me, after reading that other topic I understand I have run into it before -- see my reaction there. But this is different, the system keeps working fine, and I can still open new konqueror instances etc.... So in a way, this issue is different than other things I've seen before...

Like I said, I did uninstall it on my wifes machine. The high load remains. Process is kded. I've seen it spike the load on my other two machines too. Is no one else seeing this? That would utterly surprise me..

Comment of one colleague to whom I passed Mdv2006: "The best and easiest OS installation EVER!" This guy has seen his share of Linux distros, and has always found MSWin to be easier. Until a few days ago. With CentOS he had to fiddle to get his tvcard to work - which I think he didn't manage; it worked out of the box. With some info from my website on lirc he managed to get his remote to work - now he has some config left to do, but all in all I've rarely seen someone so ecstatic about a new Linux... I'm seeing some high loads, but not logrotate or kat - in my case it's 'kded', no clue what process that is. The cpu load can go up to 100% and stay there - for hours! I left my wifes machine like that, and checked back later - still 100% loaded. I've actually deinstalled kat on that machine, it was slowing it down too much... And I'm seeing a lot of 'wrong signatures' for packages, even lots of packages on the dvd. This is not good, teaching people to ignore that - whereas those sigs should be the thing preventing trojans from entering the system..! I've not seen any of the Xorg issues - for me all my 3 systems are fine except for the points mentioned above.

Sorry, failed to mention, renderaccel is off. Oh and I did try and toggled all sensible options in the bios, and some module options. Could someone please try this? I think my wifes system also has this (hmm, haven't tried in a while, will see again).

I've never bought a new Intel CPU. (Have a server with a Piii 866, but I got that one for free...) Overrated and since the P4 overheating. Plus, I always root for the underdog (even here with Mandriva). Jon, as for computation, all chipdesign is moving to Linux on x86-64 (Cadence is not even making HP-UX versions of certain software anymore, I'm told). Do you agree that for chipdesign good calculus is required? I'm talking spice and other types of simulations, things that run for weeks. I'm really wondering why you had faulty results, are you sure this is to do with the cpu?? That would come out quickly, just as the Pentium bug. I've never come across such info on the K7 architecture, so I highly doubt that that's where your problems are from... Now, if you want a fast desktop cpu today, go for amd-64. Mostly due to the memory controller, but also to have the cpu architecture of the future - plus, Linux fully supports amd64 - and the other way around (what do you think amd designs on, Linux on itanium? ;) ) For laptops centrino is good, avoid celeron M. Well, let's say, the worst is Pentium 4 Celeron mobile, then Pentium 4 mobile, then Celeron M and the best from Intel for laptops is Pentium M. The best from AMD is Turion 64 bit, which are more or less comparable to Pentium M except it seems for power consumption. If you can afford it, amd 64 dualcore is where it's at. Hmmm, next year should bring us dual core 64 bit laptop cpus. I'll be shopping for a laptop soon.... :D

It is limited in the sense that the new Mandriva (the company) will bring out one release per year, instead of 2. This is to appease the channel - lots of shops just got stuck with 10.0 when 10.1 was already in RC status. Logically, the fast release cycle is not good for that, you won't be able to sell boxes/packs of 10.1 if in a few days 10.2 comes out, or worse, if it's already out. Nor will you sell pc's if the OS is considered outdated. This may well be the major issue. So they decided that one boxed release per year is better, and I actually tend to agree. But they needed to put out an interim release in april, so they dubbed it Limited Edition. Then they did a 180 and offered it from the online shop anyway..... But the general idea is that there will be only one release, October timeframe each year, named/numbered with the following year. So for the remainder of 2005 and during all of 2006 up to October, and likely beyond that, customers will not have the feeling they are buying an outdated product. For clubmembers there will be more releases in between, with major updates (latest FF, OOo - 2.0 beta is in 2006 contrib - expect the final to be in the next upcoming clubmember edition, KDE, GNOME, GIMP, etc) of major software packages.

The clubmember dvd makes you lazy - all was there, except stuff I want from plf (which will never be there) and contrib (mostly to go with plf stuff, but also some other stuff like globulation2... My wife is away for 2 weeks, so I just installed on my laptop and 2 desktops. As for 10.1 a review is forhcoming, along with my config and install pages. For now I have only found one serious issue and that is that pwc webcams apparently have been downgraded to deliver stamp size images - something to do with philiips patents on compression. Not quite sure if they are completely out of the main kernel, but I think that's it.... :( Other than that, things look fine.

Congrats! It's a hassle to be free, but I'm sure it's more of a hassle to be unfree :P Come to think of it, my anniversary of 3 years linux only is coming up, or it may already have passed - it was around this time in 2002...

To everybody who has a home network and can ssh into a machine running Linux and the proprietary nvidia driver..... There have been reports of the screen locking, sometimes without even being able to move the mouse, sometimes the mouse does move, but in any case ctrl-alt-F[1-6] or ctrl-alt-backspace do not work. Nor does ctrl-alt-del, so a clean shutdown is out of the question. Now, due to my setup, I manage to duplicate the aforementioned issue, which for some happens only after 3 or more days of uptime.... If I unplug my vga cable, after shutting down the monitor of course, my display will no longer respond. Using ssh from another machine does work fine, and top quickly shows X as taking up all resources. I did an strace at various occasions, in most cases it tells me X asks for the time: gettimeofday, and sometimes it's requesting something about an alarm setting.... Anyway, plugging the original monitor cable back in, and killing X, upon which it restarts,, doesn't really help. After a few moments, usually by the time I'm logged in and KDE is done loading, X goes haywire again. Even when doing telinit 3 and telinit5 so really stopping X... I can go to the console before unplugging the monitor cable, but that doesn't help - unless I do telinit 3, then switch cables (I have to switch since I want to connect my projector to watch a video), then telinit 5, all is well. Oh, and no, I can't use the dual head feature of my graphics card, gf4200-64, since the overlay hardware gets attributed to the first head it finds, and since I don't turn on my projector when I turn on the pc (the lamp has a limited life and is very very costly), the monitor gets this overlay hardware, leaving blitted video to the second head, and the tearing is really horrible... So if this open hardware graphics card gets out, I'll be the first to buy one, but for now I'd like to know it other people also have this unplug+lock problem. If so, I'll contact nvidia support about it.....

Strange if cooker is unfrozen - if I check via the club what mirrors I can use for main and contrib, it includes the current devel/2006.0 trees. So I hardly think it is unfrozen, and one can probably do a netinstall from there and thus get 2006.