arctic

Don't know where you've got that from, arctic, I've never heard of this phenomenon.

Well I read about it on several webforums and newssites (OSNews e.g.) and some years ago at the university. :mellow:

Sometimes I have this special feeling that some people don't use Mandriva because they feel ashamed of using it.

 

- Which distro are you using?

- Me? Debian of course. It is the only real thing. (You can replace Debian with Ubuntu, Slackware, Fedora,...) And you? What do you run on your system?

- Well,.... Mandriva

- Oh ....

 

*silence*

 

- Ever considered using a better distro?

 

:huh:

 

Quite a few times I have seen/heard/read similar conversations. The result is almost always that many people that use Mandriva suffer from an instant inferiority complex (IMHO). They switch as fast as possible to another distro and claim afterwards that they

1. never used Mandriva because it sux and ain't free (three lies in one sentence. Cool, eh? B) )

2. used Mandriva once but it was "horrible, nothing worked" (although in reality almost everything worked well)

3. used Mandriva, but it was soon too noobish for them

 

Ouch. How can it be that people tend to bind their self-consciousness to a distro? How can it be that people feel ashamed of using a distro that definitely offers a good working environment?

 

First of all, I'd like to tell you (those that don't know me that long) that during the last six years, I have used all major and an uncounted number (50? 60?) of smaller distros. Although some distros (well,... some of their users) suffered from the same inferiority-complex as some Mandriva-folks, most people are proud of their distro, which is especially true of Ubuntu, Gentoo, Debian and Slackware-users. People claim that their system is either easy to use, rock-stable, bug-free, only for real geeks, bleeding edge, offers a great look, customizable, lightning-fast and some more.

 

Let's take a look at what Mandriva offers:

- Since years, it is considered as one of the easiest to use and administrate distributions available. It has been acknowledged in several reviews and hundreds/thousands of users

- Mandriva has thus made it easy for many people to switch from Windows to Linux without frustrating them

- Mandriva offers a bleeding edge yet very stable operating system, just like Ubuntu, Debian Fedora, Suse, Gentoo and others

- Mandriva offers a flexible distribution. You can use it as a KDE or Gnome or Fluxbox or ... centric distro

- It allows to use graphical tools for administration and also allows you to configure everything through the cli (the latter one is apparently important for many geeks)

- Mandriva offers a good looking and fast distro.

 

All good things to have. And what does it lack?

 

- Upgrading from one release to another one is not 100% safe, but no distro available right can offer a completely safe procedure. Even rolling releases can break.

- Marketing. While other distros have learned that marketing is essential for success, Mandriva still lacks in that area (financial reasons?)

- For some time it lacked a vision. The company made some grave marketing-mistakes with the 12 months release schedule, as the"bleeding edge messiahs" don't like 12+ months release cycles (as you might remember: they left the ship in search for alternative distros that stick to a six months release cycle)

 

So, what does Mandriva offer? Taking all things into consideration, the distro is from a technical point of view a very solid product that works with most hardware you throw at it. Unpleasant things happen now and then, but the same applies for every other distro.

 

Now ask yourself, considering all this: does anyone have to feel ashamed of using Mandriva? I'd say no. But still more people flock to Fedora, Ubuntu or Suse. Is it all marketing? Maybe, maybe not, but I really wonder why so many people tend to ignore Mandriva, which offers a great product and why many people develop this inferiority complex.

 

I have given many distros a try. Most of them, including Mandriva, are really good. No need to feel ashamed. ;)

 

 

Feel free to discuss it. Are/Were you ashamed of using Mandriva? Why might people feel so?

The benefits of the newer kernel are - as always - bugfixes and security-fixes as well as improved hardware support.

I'd check if the crashes also happen when you use a different browser.

Welcome aboard. :)

The attitude of "stealing" the thunder of other versions is largely what is wrong- dead wrong - with Linux. It's like a race to be the most ElItE of the elite. A "My distro is better than yours" childish attitude.

Yes, this attitude exits - among end-users. Developers are a different breed. They actually cooperate quite a lot. Mandriva cooperates with Red Hat, the Debian and Ubuntu community also share their ideas, everyone benefits of Red Hats kernel programmers etc.. It is only some end users that actually have this elitist attitude.

Perhaps variety is the spice of life, but to many spices spoil any dish - completely.

If this were so, then there would not be hundreds of different car models and manufacturers, there would not be several camera models, there would not be different airlines,... Variety can help to produce even better goods or offer even better services.

Many think that Linux is ready for the desktop. Well it is, and it isn't.

It is just as ready as Windows and OSX for the desktop. What isn't perhaps ready for the desktop is some people that lack intelligence.

Most people have no desire to be systems administrators. They just want to use the computer, and Linux is simply not ready for that level of use. No distribution is, including Ubuntu, but then again, Ubuntu is the closest, and will doubtlessly get there first.

Now ask yourself: How many people can administrate a Windows system? Very few can. Let two persons who are not technically savvy, who are just the "joe averave" install Windows and Linux, Solaris and OSX. Chances are pretty good that they will be unable to install ANY operating system. Do not pretend that Windows is easier to install. Most people simply forget that they get a computer with Windows preinstalled (and configured). If you'd get a Linux-system preinstalled (and configured) on a computer, then there would not be any "install-problem".

So far, I'll stick with XP, because it is a good - not excellent - OS, that doesn't take constant futzing around with.

That's a joke, isn't it? Tell that to our sys-admin and he will die laughing. He constantly has to fix things on the Windows server and the clients while his RHEL system runs like a swiss clock.

 

PS: Do not confuse "stable" with 100% Windows-compatible. Stable means: it is almost impossible to crash the system or its applications.

I seriously doubt if any serious Linux user would ever touch Ubuntu again after a thorough Debian Sid experience (either via Sidux, or by other means).

Or, as they said some years ago, Ubuntu is an ancient african word which means "I can't install Debian"

I used debian for a long time and ... use ubuntu now. :P

 

And please stop fighting each other, otherwise I will close the thread.

Compared to most other distributions, Ubuntu is still the new kid on the block/blog, thus there is more enthusiasm for it and a more "auditive" community filling blogs and newspages and forums with news and propaganda about Ubuntu.

 

If you take a look at the folks at Debian, Centos, Fedora or Suse, they are more quiet because most of their users are long time users who probably don't see any need for cheering about their distro, that don't think that they need to start any new "hype-projects". They are happy with what "their project" has achieved and many really don't see any need to propagate e.g. Debian and to worship it and to convert other users to their distro. Or they became lazy (just like me).

 

If someone is unsatisfied with Ubuntu after some time, they will look elsewhere and might end up with e.g. fedora. People will flock to other distros sooner or later - out of curiosity, out of boredom or because of problems with distro X.

 

I remember that when I first used Red Hat 7.2, I was overly happy and cheering and one of those "stoopid linux-evangelists" (without even knowing it!). After some time, it became absolutely irrelevant for me which distro I use, as long as it allows me to do my job.

 

I guess in maybe three years, much of the "Ubuntu-hype" will be gone and another distro will be the new "in" distro with the "most active community".

If you want to use beryl, you should only use the 2008.1 rpms on an 2008.1 system, as it has significant dependencies. You should check if there is a working rpm for 2008.0 available through the easyurpmi mirrors ( http://www.mandrivausers.org/easyurpmi/index.php ). You can also use the easyurpmi tool for upgrading your system to 2008.1, although it is not 100 percent safe and might require some manual tweaking later. I suggest you read this: http://wiki.mandrivausers.org/index.php/Software_management

Yupp. The hdd is most probable to fail.

How old is your harddrive and how old is your motherboard? This sounds as if a device is nearing its death. But before you start to panic, check if the IDE cable is attached well and do a thorough harddisk check with a diagnostics tool.

Hello and welcome aboard. :)

 

Basically, the auto-setup that Mandriva provides works excellent. If you want to set it up yourself (in order to have total control over the partitioning process), do the following:

 

1. Defrag Windows (in order to make sure that you won't erase some important files) and make a backup of your data.

2. Once you have booted the install-CD/DVD, select the custom-partitioning mode

3. Resize the Windows partition so that you have e.g. 20 GB of free space (it is just an example. the size can be bigger or smaller. Your choice)

4. On the free space, create three partitions: One for the base-system and the applications that it will install (e.g. 5 GB size, ext3 mode), one /swap partition (twice your RAM = rule of thumb if you have less than 1 GB RAM. If you have more than 1GB, 1GB swap is more than enough) and finally one /home partition for your personal files (formatted again in ext3 mode, size: As big as you want)

5. Accept the setting and continue the installation process.

 

And: Check this link: http://howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_mandriva_2008.0

It explains in detail how to setup Mandriva. (With pictures! :) )

 

Good luck.

Errm.. have you checked the trash can already? As you deleted the icon, it should have been moved to the trash first, before you finally kill it.

Could you please stop this IMHO rather useless discussion? Let's simply continue the work on the new forum and see how it evolves. ;)

Home system: 100% Mandriva

 

Work-laptop: Sadly Windows XP Pro (due to Canon EOS utilities, which do not run under Mandriva/Linux but which I need for my job)

Hehehe... How things change... Now it's Home system: 100% Ubuntu

Which package shoould I download for Mandriva: *.rpm or the tarball and how to run the program - e.g. Avast?

 

thank you.

Download the rpm file. It should run with Mandriva.

 

rpm = Mandriva, Suse, Fedora, RedHat compatible

deb = Ubuntu, Debian, Sidux compatible

tar = tarballs are compatible with all linuxes but are only the uncompiled version of the software. You will need some applications (like make) in order to install tarballs on your ystem. This way is more complicated and should only be taken into consideration, if there ain't no other option available (or if the user wants to use the tarballs for specific reasons)

 

If you install a rpm, you should get a menu entry/shortcut to the application automatically.

Go to Extras -> Options -> Language settings and check the setup. Maybe there is a wrong selection as default.

 

Other option: remove the temporary OOo folder in your user directory in order to create a clean configuration. Then check if it happens again.

How about sorting by date? Might make it easier to find all the bits and pieces.

Heh... well. As I just installed the system, I only have a default Ubuntu desktop right now. Not really worth posting a pic of it, is it?.

Okay... I upgraded my Mandriva system to 2008.1 and it gave me some weird problems which I was unwilling to fix during the next days step by step. Yeah, I am lazy. Thus I did a clean install of Ubuntu 8.04. I think it's time to give it a serious try again. :)

Uh.. I work too much and miss too much. I haven't seen Distrostop before. *click*

 

Who cares?... Not me!.... Hehehehehehe.....

Just typing from 8.04 in Live-Mode. Very impressive release so far.

 

hmmm... now I am in trouble: upgrade to mdv 2008.1 or to ubuntu 8.04?

Congratulations for another LTS release. I guess I will give it a try anytime soon.

 

I like that one:

This tour will help you discover this for your self.

I always wanted to know who I am.

Please check the "Tips&Tricks" section of this board on disabling IPV6. It might be able that the your system has problems with the IPV6 protocol or that your used DNS-Servers are error-prone.

Home system: 100% Mandriva

 

Work-laptop: Sadly Windows XP Pro (due to Canon EOS utilities, which do not run under Mandriva/Linux but which I need for my job)