arctic

+ very cost efficient

+ flexible

+ relatively easy to learn and to use

+ completely customizable

+ not tied to one or two brands/vendors

+ rock-stable

+ relatively secure

+ it is not Windows.

 

- support from hardware vendors is in several areas still rather poor

- some of the gnu/linux-apps are not yet as good as some Windows/Apple apps (=lacking features)

You know the trick. ;)

 

Here is mine.

However, placing the line in any file in /etc/modprobe.d should also work, as all files in /etc/modprobe.d are sourced by modprobe.conf. In fact it's 'more correct' to create a new file in /etc/modprobe.d than the edit modprobe.conf , these days.

Good to know. :)

You are allowed to blacklist automatic module loading by using the following syntax in /etc/modprobe.conf :

 

blacklist <module name>

Arch, Gentoo and Debian testing / Debian Sid would meet your requirements. Upgrading Mandriva is not a big problem as long as you do not install too many third-party apps that have no newer versions available on the repos (Best way: uninstall possible problematic apps prior to the upgrade and reinstall them later). Sure, as mentioned, the one or the other thing might need some tweaking, but it doesn't take long to fix those things usually. I did an upgrade from 2008 to 2008.1 on two computers and only two things needed minor manual finetuning (my printer and my custom user-permissions which were screwed on some files (fixed with one command)).

 

I guess almost any distro can be upgraded rather easily nowadays. Yes, it was a hell of a problem some years ago, but the developers have worked hard on making the upgrade process easier and more stable over the years.

My approach is almost as easy as the above mentioned ones. First I install nano. Way easier to use and more intuitive editor than vi imho. Then I open a terminal window, log in as root on the command line and launch

 

nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

 

then edit the entries, save and exit. That's it. It is not more complicated than logging into a gui as root and it is more secure. Just give nano a try, I do believe that you will like it.

Just out of curiosity: is the first harddrive a SATA drive? I remember that some months ago, there was a huge problem reported with almost every linux distro when using PATA and SATA drives. Maybe the problem is located there. :unsure:

I was just curious if I missed something. I know that this is not about evangelism and that no one is pushing Opera down my throat. Thus: Everybody please relax. :)

I installed Opera in order to test it for a few weeks. We will see how it performs.

 

BTW: Safari is also not spectacular, despite Apple propagating it. (Yes, I have tested Safari).

1. It's fast - Same is Mozilla 3.0 and Epiphany.

2. Continue from where you left off after a browser crash - Same as Mozilla and Epiphany.

3. It's easy to edit site preferences - just as with any other browser...

4. It's beautiful in full screen mode - a no factor imho

5. Speed dial - what's that?

6. Good transfer/download manager - haven't seen a bad transfer/download manager on any browser (except perhaps dillo and links)

7. It can be configured and configured and configured again until you physically throw up - errm... I want to browse, not to spend my day configuring things. :P

8. One of my favorite features is "Fit to Width". Click on that button and a forum thread that is too wide because of an excessively long pasted url or large image automagically shrinks to fit. - never had such problems with my browsers... maybe simply because I use a widescreen monitor. :unsure:

9. I also like that you can type g, a search term, then hit enter and you have google search completed. I also type g, paste a search string from the clipboard and hit enter to initiate a search. - errm ... it is nothing new.

10. Zooming images is fast and works great. - Don't see any difference to other browsers again.

11. Opera is also one of the most secure browsers available. - Good point.

12. Opera includes a mail client. - not of any importance for me, I use a separate mail client.

 

I guess - as with most things - it's simply a thing of personal taste.

Mmmmh... might be off-topi, but what's so great about Opera? I installed it and haven't seen anything interesting in the package. Page rendering is not significantly faster or slower than on any other browser I use, startup-time is not a great deal better... so... what's the deal about the Opera hype? :unsure:

 

No, this is not a flame post. I appreciate any answers that will enlighten me.

Dunno, but then, you probably can never change your look/style/clothes, as your computer won't recognize you. :P

 

just kidding.

Please take a look here.

For a KDE desktop: http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desk...2008-spring-kde

For a Gnome desktop: http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desk...08-spring-gnome

 

It is as detailed as it can get. If you still have problems, please explain in detail where you are experiencing problems.

First of all: Make sure you meet all dependancies and that you read ALL the instructions that come with the package (readme file, etc.). And use e.g. pastebin or some similar tool for posting the output of the compiling process. This will make it easier to troubeshoot.

Just for clarification:

 

/ is the root partition where the system will install all files that it needs for operating properly.

/home is the partition where your personal files (Music, documents, pictures,...) will be stored.

/swap is some kind of virtual memory that your system uses if your RAM is used up and more memory needed.

 

Mandriva allows you to install the bootloader (as already pointed out) on the second harddisk, so you can switch the system using the BIOS. Simply install Mandriva on the second drive and your Ubuntu installation will remain intact. If you run into problems, don't hesitate to ask us. And first and foremost: If something (for you) unexpected happens: don't panic. Everything can be fixed. (Well,... almost everything.)

Current Desktop on one of my Mandriva-boxes. Not really spectacular but relaxing.

I've simply logged into KDE and installed the original rpms from the CD (copied to a new folder) using: rpm --Uvh --oldpackage *

You will need to cd /home/ xxxx to that folder first.

Just a note for those who don't know this already: In case the system refuses to install the older package, use

 

rpm -Uvh --force <packagename>

Okay, a quick

 

/usr/bin/evolution --force-shutdown

 

has solved it ... maybe temporarily. We will see.

Mdv 2008.1, Gnome.

 

When I start Evolution, it doesn't start. From the terminal I only get

CalDAV Eplugin starting up ...
** Message: 
Google Group Not found

and that's it. Back to the shell.

 

Errrm... what's that, pussycat? :huh: Anyone else experiencing this?

What I would like to see: A further improved way of upgrading the system from one release to another. The way it is now is already pretty good, but it can be improved, I guess. It would be useful to find a way to simulate or test in some way if the upgrade will work and then list up (.txt document or such stuff) where problems will/might arise (if e.g. X is expected to break).

 

This test and the following information for the end-user prior to upgrading would be very useful, as you can prepare your system perfectly for the upgrade path so that potential problems are minimized. E.g. you run the "upgrade-simulation-wizard"; it tells you "warning: package A will cause problems after an upgrade" (e.g. due to the used library or compiler or because it is no longer available on the repos). Thus you remove the package prior to upgrading. Violà, everything's fine.

Links is really cool and a wonderful way of old-school-browsing. B)

i didnt know about that install thing - that made things alot easier. i went to the avant website and got a whole bunch of stuff i looked like i needed to compile. i have no clue, how or what i needed to comile tho.

Compiling applications is only (!) done if no precompiled packages (like .rpm) are available for the installation process. Compiling is advanced stuff and you shouldn't bother with it before learning the basics about your Linux system.

 

The Mandriva repositories store over 16 000 software packages. The possibility that you actually have to compile software yourself is quite minimal. I haven't compiled anything during at least the last three years.

still, i couldnt figure out how to make the taskbar fatter, just longer or shorter = /

When you are at the taskbar-config-dialogue, there is an option to set the size of the panel (very small, small, normal, big, custom). It is the same window, where you can also define if you want the panel on top, on the left, on the right or whereever on your monitor. Just search a bit. You will find it. :)

Another lightweight option came into my mind. Rox. Really fast, doesn't eat up RAM and still offers a nice GUI. And then there is of course IceWM, which is available by default in Mandriva. ;)

I think it's perhaps the ghost from the past that's somehow hunting Mandriva in the light that people don't know it's changed (a kinda FUD?). That could be boiled down to non-existing PR.

I guess that this is an important factor. But I don't think that it can be corrected easily. First of all, the Mandriva community is not as vocal as some other communities. Secondly, it is always a tough job to restore your reputation, once it has taken a hit. And sadly, I do not see enough PR-Campaigns from Mandriva in order to correct things, but then, Mandriva was never a distro that excelled in marketing and the PR-department. A lot of good things were done by adamw, but he is only ONE person. :mellow:

 

I guess it would also be helpful if the whole Linux community would stop spreading this "kind of FUD". I mean... why appraise one distro and badmouth other distros at the same time? After all, they are all based on Linux. The better the reputation of every distro, the better the reputation of Linux as a whole. ;)

Have you considered filing a bug ( https://qa.mandriva.com/index.cgi )? Sounds like one to me.

Beg your pardon, but a 2Ghz Celeron with 512 MB RAM is more than enough for running Mandriva with KDE or Gnome. They need some 256 MB RAM for running properly, so it should be pretty fast on that rig. (Mine has 1,67 Ghz and 1 MB RAM and Gnome flies on it).

 

The PIII, 128 MB system can be used for e.g. XFCE, Windowmaker, FLuxbox, Enlightenment or another lightweight solution.

 

Fnentuning can be done by disabling services, by using the optimum swap and swappiness settings, by using e.g. Abiword instead of OpenOffice and e.g. dillo instead of Firefox. And reduce the eye-candy. ;)