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Your vision of Mandriva 2007/2008/2009/...


arctic
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First of all: I am sure that the developers at Mandriva will probably never read this thread. Nonetheless, I am interested in your vision on Mandriva, even from those on this board who don't use it anymore. What would you like to see in future releases? What do you expect from Mandriva 2007/2008/2009/...? What could improve this distro? Share your ideas and dicuss if certain things are useful or not, innovative or not, needed or not. I will post a list of some stuff I'd like to see in future Mandy releases later.

 

Please, do not let this turn into a flamewar but into a useful and fruitful discussion for everyone. If you want to point out what other distros did well and things that Mandriva could learn from them, post these things as long as you keep it civil.

 

And now, post your ideas/visions/hopes/suggestions. I am really interested in your comments. :)

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I expect nothing at all, so they surely won't dissapoint me, whatever they do...

But I bet you can think of some areas where it can improve, right?

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But I bet you can think of some areas where it can improve, right?

 

Quite rightly so, but since they won't listen what's the point?

I could wish Cooker (as I really don't care about the stable releases anymore) being more "bleeding edge"- especially kernel-wise, so one could get a decent and up-to-date Mandriva version, but since Cooker is just the vehicle to develop the conservative 12-month "buggy-but-stable" Mandriva release cycle, this is ultimately unlikely to happen...

Even in Slackware (which used to be by definition the most conservative Linux flavour, after Debian Stable) kernels and packages are way newer than Mandy official- while being much more polished/bugfree.

Edited by scarecrow
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Here is my personal wishlist for Mandriva 2007+. (I am wondering how much of that stuff will go into the next release :D )

 

1. Redesigning of the MCC. Some areas are great and easy to use, some however are less than optimal. Especially the networking wizard in the MCC seems to confuse many users. This is mainly due to lacking information. Include the new NetworkManager as an addon tool. It might make life easier for newcomers to Linux.

 

2. Redesign the Bootsplash. It can look better. Take a look at Ubuntu, SUSE and Fedora.

 

3. Do not write in big letters „FREE“ on a users desktop and don't ship a desktop with a penguin on LSD. A wallpaper should ideally have absolutely no text. Example: Mac OSX.

 

4. Redesign the whole desktop design. A simplistic approach is good, but simplicity does not mean that it needs to look dated/ugly. Galaxy is way past its prime and needs a real overhaul. First impressions are important on any operating system. A desktop that looks the same for years will not show that you are innovative in any way. On the other hand, do not throw something completely different at the user. Make some soft changes. Keep a familiar, distinctive look but do not shy away from improving the look either.

 

5. Laptop and Multimedia Keyboards often have lots of extra keys. Make them work by default. Ubuntu has shown that it is possible to enable support for Laptop extra keys by default. Mandriva should follow that path, just like almost every other distro.

 

6. Set up a default webpage that is actually useful. The one available right now is not informative in any way.

 

7. Place at least a link to some beginners documentation on the desktop or ship a full .pdf or .txt documentation for the user to read, so he will know where he can find more help and what steps he should take next (e.g. for setting up a wireless network).

 

8. Make use of easyurpmi or smart-mirrors to their best. It is unlogical that Mandriva does not have links to some mirrors or at least some information on how to set up update mirrors included by default. Fedora, Yoper and other distros are by default equipped with online repositories for smart / yum that allow easy installation and updating right from the start.

 

9. Improve the bootloader. It should by default find other Linux/BSD/Solaris distros and add them to the bootloader. Debian is very good at it already. Many distros fail in this area, which is sad.

 

10. If some packages are clearly broken and need to be fixed, then pleae fix them! A good example is e.g. the Gnome cd-player. The package is broken and has never been fixed. This is imho a no go. If e.g. users buy a powerpack edition, then they can expect that application to work or at least they can expect that there will be a patched package someday. It is those little things that make users angry.

 

11. Clean up the menus a bit. It is somehow unlogical that Games are placed in an „other applications“ section and that Gimp, Inkscape, etc. are defined as multimedia apps instead of graphic-tools.

 

12. Include KAT (for KDE) and beagle (Gnome) by default once they are stable.

 

13. Include SELinux. For those who want to run a server, this is a nice addon.

 

14.Set up a working firewall by default. The average users does not know what this is and how to activate/deactivate it. An activated Firewall is preferrable imho.

 

15. Let geeks like Scarecrow play with the latest and greatest, even if it breaks (If necessary, set up a "pre-cooker" repository for that or some community driven experimental repository)

 

16. And bugtesting, bugtesting, bugtesting. :)

 

I think that covers it all for now.

 

Oh, I forgot one:

17. Listen to your users. ;)

 

PPS: I just found one other thing I'd like to see: Better dependency handling. Nothing was really broken on my box, but... if I want to install Openoffice 2.0 on Mandriva, then I have to install also NVU or Thunderbird or Mozilla spellchecker, blowing the installation process up to a whopping minimal 429 MB. That ain't necessary. Other distros have shown that. B)

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Aye, I can agree with what Arctic says here.

 

Graphical:

* A new Mandriva theme (both QT and GTK) so people can hey that's a mandriva OS with first eyesight. Perhaps also an icon theme which are unique for Mandriva.

* Drop the star in the tab or redesign it. Properly redesign it.

* Cool Bootsplash needed.

* Wallpaper: Something pretty'n'nice which looks really good without distracting the user.

 

Mandriva OS itself:

* Newer packages is needed, to old to I bother looking at them.

* Less bugs. They have a whole year to implant and testing packages. Still there are amazing lot of bugs and taken into account it aren't the newest stuff.

* The package manager(s) needs to be gathered in one instead of seperated into 3 or seperated. Make a tab system if needed. Also doing something about the speed. It's to slow.

* Newer Gnome packages, I know I know...that Mandriva is mainly KDE, but it would be cool with a up-to-date gnome on Mandriva without compiling it yourself.

* I hate when I have to change mirror every second week, because someone likes to change it now and then.

 

Detection:

Mandriva hardware detection is good. hats off.

 

 

Critical:

The bugs are to many IMHO.

Edited by Artificial Intelligence
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My list.

 

1. Use a newer kernel to support additional hardware.

2. Stop heavily patching the kernel, what's the need for the bootsplash patch and supermount patch which stopped being developed in the early stages of 2.6.3 from what I see. Use autofs instead.

 

If these were looked at, even more hardware would be supported. Even if they don't decide on using new kernels, stop patching it. That way the user themselves can compile and install their own kernel without having to resolve issues because things now don't work.

 

We first found that bootsplash stopped after a 2.6.15 upgrade. OK, patched it, recompiled, sorted. Then we found that supermount errors were being generated for CD-ROM's, etc, being mounted. Can't find a patch, OK, we used autofs, and then sorted it that way. Unfortunately mcc stopped working for one reason or another, certain apps couldn't be launched.

 

Whilst this might not be major to some people, it can be for others when their hardware won't work, yet they could get it working with a newer kernel.

 

Also, later releases of apps, instead of having to wait for new versions of Mandriva to come out. Let us use the latest and greatest if we really want to. If you want to keep it separate, let's have an official additional repository for latest and greatest.

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Yep I agree with Arctic and Ian for the Boot splah, the "Free" bit, and a more professional look (Like Suse), although Mandriva is my next best Look-wise.

 

As a Newbie, I think Mandriva needs to take more care on what people look at first in a Os (I mean non-yet-linux-users-but-might-be-tempted). That is :

 

-Some easy to use Bluetooth connection to mobiles/PDA's. I know it works but you still need to play about to make it work.

-A list (on the Desktop would be fine) on applications that people will first look at : How to copy a cd/copy a DVD/transfer their films from a camcorder to DVD or HD, how to configure browsers to play videos... (like linux tips for free website!), download their photos from their camera etc

 

I am convinced one of the major things which make Ubuntu that succesful at the momment is their user's HOWTOS, really simple to follow.

 

For mandriva, thanks god there is MUB to help beginners like me!

 

Stef

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Here is my personal wishlist for Mandriva 2007+...

*******************************************

I agree with you in everything you wrote. The essence of this reply is to emphysize that Mandriva Linux is still the most friendly-user linux distro though the drawbacks you have already mentioned. I have given a try for Fedora 5 and OpenSuSE Beta 9. Fedora had failed to be a Linux Desktop OS. It is merely a good stuff. My second favourite linux distro, OpenSuSE justified to be a good linux stuff with up-to-date linux packages as well. So what is the problem with opensuse beta 9(RC1). Whenever i test opensuse beta x, i find that it is very difficult to set adsl network settings. In both Mandriva and Fedora you choose a network connection say adsl, type in the ISP name, your user account and the connection goes established. OpenSuSE Beta 9, as the previous versions does not play avi, wmv and mp3 video and audio files. In spite that i downloaded mplyaer and the requied rpm files from Packman website, and installed them i still find dependency problems. Simply Open SuSE Beta 9 has a very good eye-candy, KDE env., with the most up-to-date kernel ver.(2.6.16) but unfortunately is not a real competitive with MsWindows. After a lot of days with probing and experiencing opensuse beta x and fedora i return back to my favourite and adored linux distro, Mandriva.

Eventually i hope that Mandriva Linux management will take our considerations seriously as Mandriva Linux advocates and fans. Just keep in mind that folks who used to use MsWin in thier everyday life would never be allured to Linux as long as Linux distros do not respect and serve them. Linux distros are for the users and not the opposite. Long life Mandriva.

 

Fahd

Budapest

april 02, 2006.

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* The package manager(s) needs to be gathered in one instead of seperated into 3 or seperated. Make a tab system if needed.
That is a good idea. The tab system could make the whole MCC easier to use, I guess, but I don't know how this can be implemented in a decent way if you launch MCC from a non gui environment. :unsure:

 

Newer kernels: Agreed. Maybe it is even less work for the developers to simlpy release a new kernel, thus solving some problems, than patching the kernels over and over again.

 

Some easy to use Bluetooth connection to mobiles/PDA's.
Agreed again. I guess almost every Linux distro more or less sucks in this department currently. And the documentation thing: Yes, it is needed. One of the first things I hear from newcomers all the time is: How does Linux work, is there a quick-guide? The guide must be EASY, so everyone without any Linux knowledge will be able to understand it. Hire a good journalist for that task and translate the guide to all major languages (not everyone can read and write english or french).

 

Mandriva Linux is still the most friendly-user linux distro though the drawbacks you have already mentioned
I agree. Mandriva has many strong points and it is imho still the best choice for Linux newcomers. Mandriva needs imho to finally add the last polish to this distro.
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15. Let geeks like Scarecrow play with the latest and greatest, even if it breaks (If necessary, set up a "pre-cooker" repository for that or some community driven experimental repository)

 

Oh boy. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.

I am NOT a geek, factly I could never be a geek, as my unix/programming skills are very limited. I even hated CLI, before messing with Arch Linux- but things there were so freaking simple, that they made me confident using CLI instead of that glorious "control center" met in lots of distros.

I do-not-want Mandriva going CLI, but at least I expect Cooker going the OpenSuSE way, and being REAL bleeding edge. While SuSE has been the first (and only) distro I've purchased in the past, I will never use it again. Reason: read Ian's post. Complaining about cluttered, heavily patched kernels on Mandriva. He is absolutely right, but if he has tried SuSE in the past then he would consider Mandriva kernels being next-to-vanilla!

But Open SuSE is really bleeding edge, while Cooker is not- it's simply a collection of unresolved bugs, on already used and functioning software revisions. I'm sorry, but I do not have the slightest interest loading and using and bugfixing something that simply WORKS, in a wide variety of other Linux flavours.

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I've never used Suse no. I got put off it can't remember why now, must have been something to do with config files and lots of problems or something.

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Oh boy. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.
Hey, I simply tried to add some fun to the whole thing. I dunno if you are a geek as I don't know you well enough for deciding that. :)

 

PS: Marketing was mentioned. I guess this is a general problem in Linux. Apart from Red Hat and Novell, there is little marketing afaik.

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I just stumbled over this Tux Magazine issue. They have a "heavyweight fight" of the distros and Mandriva won the competition. :thumbs: I don't agree completely with them (especially on the "community" part), but some things they point out as positive features are definitely true.

 

On a side note: Read page 15, the "comment" to KDE and Gnome. Awful. Simply awful... :wall:

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