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Mandriva Linux Fails to Deliver!


Guest stu8_UK
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And you just have to put into this picture the influence Adam has had on those last 2 releases to understand all this is connected to the user base through the club forum.

From using the club forum I have really enjoyed the help from Adam several times. He's doing a great job. It's hard for me to compare 2006 with the 2007 versions because I have never used the 2006 version but judging from his effort in the forum I believe that his influence on the 2007 versions is a very positive thing. I can only judge from the experiences I have with both 2007 versions and actually I can't praise those enough. 2007.0 and especially 2007.1 (in my opinion) are the very best Linux distro's I've used so far. 2007.1 is a great product. I use it every day and I really enjoy it.

 

I will let you judge what is good and bad management from that, I don't have the personal knowledge nor the whole picture nor the numbers to really do it. It seems to me it is going in the direction you're talking about.

It's hard for me to judge this. I just get the feeling that things are improving but things need to improve further e.g. what I first disvored when coming to Mandriva: the "search" function in the club forum REALLY needs to improve a lot. Your involvement in answering the posts in this forum (and the thread about this forum and Mandriva working together) does show me that Mandriva is focusing on the importance of great customer care + a real good forum and that they DO listen to the users.

 

If Mandriva can reach the same level for support as people are getting with the product itself, then I believe it will become the obvious no. 1 choice for a lot of users. Especially newbies and Windows converts.

 

Anyway. Congrats on the Spring version. Great product.

Edited by opvask
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I'm a club Silver member, and that is essentially just to support the distribution. However, as such I can post messages on the Mandriva forum and I do get excellent responses from A. Williamson.

 

Also, it does let me get the new versions a bit earlier as an early seeder (and then brag to everyone else that I already have the new thingie. :cheeky: )

 

I actually get most of my "support" from this forum.

Edited by RVDowning
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You can install the newest version right away any way, just install the final release candidate (or was it cooker), and then, after the newest "gold version" is released, just configure your urpmi to think that the new main is the source for updates,

run update, and voila - you have the new Mandriva on the release day!

Edited by solarian
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I'm a club Silver member, and that is essentially just to support the distribution. However, as such I can post messages on the Mandriva forum and I do get excellent responses from A. Williamson.

The club forum is open to anyone, not just the users supporting Mandriva like it used to be a long time ago.

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The club forum is open to anyone, not just the users supporting Mandriva like it used to be a long time ago.

This is the result of not advertising free membership: nobody knows about it.

Not to mention that free membership has 3 different names: Alumni (in the forum), Alumnus (club login) and Aluminium on various places. That's really confusing.

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Alumni (in the forum), Alumnus (club login)
:huh: Ones plural the others singular :lol2:

 

I believe those two are for people who have been members in the past, but are no longer subscribed. I can't seem to find any reference to the free membership anywhere on the club pages.

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I haven't read the blurb for ages but I think the point is Mandriva seem to have a knack for making the simple complex.... and requiring a lot of reading to understand what is what....

 

In some ways its the way they go about explaining it.... kinda like mandriva wizards or one of the many distro choosers in that they try and guide you through the choices... corporate/home.... expert or n00b... etc. so sometimes these predefined choices seem logical ....but they leave you without any real understanding of the overall structure....and where the "choice" you were given fits into that structure.

 

I think they are trying to make something easy too easy... to the point of dumbing it down and so when you try and understand the choices you just get lost??

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You can install the newest version right away any way, just install the final release candidate (or was it cooker), and then, after the newest "gold version" is released, just configure your urpmi to think that the new main is the source for updates,

run update, and voila - you have the new Mandriva on the release day!

 

This is the exact way I do things and it works great.

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I'm a club Silver member, and that is essentially just to support the distribution. However, as such I can post messages on the Mandriva forum and I do get excellent responses from A. Williamson.

 

Also, it does let me get the new versions a bit earlier as an early seeder (and then brag to everyone else that I already have the new thingie. :cheeky: )

 

I actually get most of my "support" from this forum.

 

Like IMR mentions this is avaiable to all users. I don't need a membership for this. When I become a member then it will also mainly be to support the distribution.

 

I do agree with dexter11 and Gowator though. Mandriva needs to make things a bit more obvious and understandable. It's not a good thing when people do not even know that they can use the club forum, even if they are not a paying member. On the Mandriva site it's also a bit confusing to see the possibilities of starting out with a free version without being a member. I think they need to improve the information on the site to attract new users. Many of those "freerollers" are likely to become paying members once they get a good experience with the product itself. When starting out with Mandriva I was very insecure about what I was getting when downloading the "ONE" version. I found the whole free versus non-free deal very confusing, but I was patient and basically I now get access to the same as with non-free versions, except bundled software like Cedega, which I do not need.

 

In my opinion Mandriva should make information like this more clear (the information is somewhat there, but way to "blurry" and confusing):

1. The OS itself is basically free and so is the use of the club forum. More focus on the free versions.

2. You can buy "bigger versions" with bundled "non open source" "non-free" software. Buying them for other reasons seem irrelevant to me (Only 1 mounth of membership included). Being a club member is a far better deal.

3. There are advantages of being a club member. Mainly, earlier access to "new OS versions" and free downloads of "bundled versions"

 

Mandriva could and should be inspired by the succes of Ubuntu and it's community. In my opinion Mandriva is a far better product (remember this is MY opinion not a fact) but Ubuntu has better info and a brilliant forum! Clear lines, everyone basically gets the same. Informing, guiding and supporting the user must be the very reason for Ubuntu's success.

 

A big step in the right direction would be to improve the club forum (mainly the "search" function) which would make the work of the likes of AW easier and more efficient. It would prevent people from posting new threads about issues already covered in other threads and help users in supporting each other. As of now it is almost impossible to do a efficient search, which is a big problem. A specific "HowTo section" could also be useful. The club forum seems to be a forum where Adam and Admins help people solve things. Compare this with the Ubuntu forum. It has way more "users helping other users" which is a BIG support resource. Just like this forum.

 

In the end these are just suggestions. I do NOT mean to criticize the effort of the Mandriva staff (imr, adam etc.) and neither do I want to criticize Mandriva or the product itself. On the contrary, I really like the Mandriva OS and I just want to "help" it improve and gain users.

 

EDIT: I have to "eat" some of my words. The Spring download page is very intuitive and easy to use. Especially if you compare it to many other Linux distributions. Nice job.

Edited by opvask
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  • 1 month later...
Guest JR-13

I have also been waiting for my boxed version of Mandriva 2007 Powerpack (not Spring!) to arrive. When I go to check my order, it says it's "still being prepared", so I contacted Mandriva and Melissa told me she's still waiting to hear from her platform in California. It's not Mandriva at fault per se in this scenario, but it's the fault of whoever Mandriva transferred the order to to be shipped to my location in the United States. I ordered it on May 16th and it's now May 31st. The money has been taken out by Mandriva, but I'm still waiting for the merchandise. Anyone else have problems like this other than the original poster, and if so, were they resolved? Did the original poster ever get Mandriva delivered?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest JR-13

Figured I'd update this thread and let everyone know I got Mandriva 2007 Spring shipped to me - even though I ordered 2007 (wanted Cedega and LinDVD), so now my new problem is in trying to figure out how to get onto the Club site and download the 2007 version. It got here June 8th.

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Figured I'd update this thread and let everyone know I got Mandriva 2007 Spring shipped to me - even though I ordered 2007 (wanted Cedega and LinDVD), so now my new problem is in trying to figure out how to get onto the Club site and download the 2007 version. It got here June 8th.

you go there https://my.mandriva.com

and you register your key that gives you silver membership.

 

Then as root, execute this line in a terminal:

urpmi.addmedia --wget "club.commercial_x86-32_2007" https://myemail%40myisp.com:MYPASSWORD@dl.m...mm/2007.0/i586/ with hdlist.cz

( replace in the command line myemail%40myisp.com and MYPASSWORD by your club logins and password )

 

Now you can download cedega and lindvd

 

I suggest you remove or disable this mirror then and go to the club site, logs there, go to this page:

http://club.mandriva.com/xwiki/bin/view/Do...s/MirrorFinder2

and do the same procedure but for the 2007.1 real mirror.

Edited by imr
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