Written with OpenOffice 3.0 Writer.
Composed by Robin T. Bixler
January 2009


This review is about the experience I had setting up Mandriva® Linux PowerPack 2009 on a dual boot Dell laptop with Windows® Vista.

I am running a Intel Celeron 2.13GHz processor with 2GB DDR2 memory a 120GB SATA hard drive and features the Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller and the Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller. It came equipped with the Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g wireless network controller and a Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E84040 PCI Fast Ethernet Controller. The external ports include four USB 2.0 ports, one firewire port, one video port, one RJ-57 port, one S-Video port, a SD card slot, two headphone jacks and one microphone jack.

Once the Windows partition was resized to make way for the wonderful Linux distribution I have been loyal to, the installation proceeded with ease accepting all of the prompts and licenses without any signs of any hardware problems. When the laptop rebooted and after logging in the window manager loaded without a flaw to the fresh new KDE 4.1 Desktop and loaded very quickly. There were no signs of any errors except the wireless network was not configured which is to be expected so I just used the Ethernet connection. I configured the software and update mirrors then downloaded and installed all the available updates with out a hitch telling me I have a good working Operating System ready to use.

I proceeded to test the external ports and found the USB ports, the RJ-45 network interface and SD card slot worked as expected but the rest I will assume work because I do not normally use them. I then found the sound was muted and had to install the alsa sound mixer module and a few alsa add ons to have sound which was fairly easy and then the sound worked wonderfully. I decided to configure the wireless network interface at a later time and explore the programs included in this install. I found some programs that were automatically installed in the download edition were not installed in PowerPack but were included in the repository on the DVD and installed them myself. I did find some new programs installed and will take a look at them otherwise I am very happy with the installation so far.

The next sequence in this installation was installing a printer, I used an HP Officejet J3680 all-in-one printer. After plugging the USB cable, power cable and turning on the power, to no avail the Mandriva® Linux system recognized the printer and asked to install the CUPS printing software automatically. Once accepting the package installation and entering the root password the system located the required printer dependences and software without any blips, I accepted and installed the packages. When everything was installed I printed a test page and the colors and print came out as expected then I printed something from the Internet and it printed with out any problem.

I then proceeded to test out the scanner function and did not have to make any configuration settings, it was all done automatically by Mandriva® Linux. Xsane was already configured and worked flawlessly with the HP control center scanning function. I scanned a test page and got the options of scanning a preview or a page plus had all kinds of output enhancement options.

My next project was to setup the wireless network interface and ran into a stumbling block and found my network interface adapter chip set was to new for the installed drivers and I had to download a hybrid Linux module from the manufacture and after installing the kernel module and configuring I now have a fully functioning Linux laptop. I give Mandriva PowerPack 2009 an A++ and I would recommend it to anyone.

I have allready installed 2009 on 3 different laptops, a custom desktop and a netbook without one hardware problem.
I would definately recommend it to a new user.

Mandriva is one of the big distributions that offer everything and even more but it can be still used with a LiveCD
It is multilingual
You have the choice between Gnome or KDE.
It is good documented and supported with various forums.
Just the internet wasn't detected automatically.
Once you know how to do it isn't difficult anymore but maybe this is a manco for beginners.

As a new user to linux, i found setting up usb wireless cars and various other devices a headache, with mandriva, it was a walk in the park.

using gui options i could get ndiswrapper to recognise windows drivers and install my usb connection. the system looks good and works well and is a good place to start for newbies like myself.

I am new to the Liux world, but, Mandriva Powerpack 2009 gave me more functionality than any other distribution I have tried and -believe me- I have tried about 20 distributions.

I have been playing around with the Mandriva one Gnome cd for a while. It is a great distro, so I am going to update my computer from 2009 to 2009.1.

have installed mandriva on several computers, always being dual-boot with msw. some computers have a problem with sound initially (but not mine).
wireless installs without effort, and works faster better than on msw.
if you install the "free" version, you have to download some hardware drivers separately, but this is done more or less automatically with an internet connexion. you would also have to download proprietory software (like quicktime and java). Most other software that you mignt want comes with Mandriva, either on cd/dvd or via internet.
The interface is friendly and efficient for both novices and experienced users. It is easier to use than msw, and for similar tasks is much more efficient. (the fan comes on for a few seconds from time to time, as opposed to almost all the time with msw.)
It is easier for experienced users to customise the installation, although the default is more than adequate for novices.
There are a lot of very nice/convenient features with the Gnome desktop that I usually install. (It also features the KDE desktop -- a little heavier -- and LXDE -- a very light desktop.
All in all, an excellent distribution.