I've been using Linux off and on for about 2 years. I can't seem to find the distro that fits me best. I want things to "just work" and don't like working in the terminal (although, I want the option to be there). I've tried SUSE 9.0 - 9.3, Fedora Core 4, Linspire, Ubuntu, and Knoppix. So far, SUSE has been my favorite. It's just too buggy and easy to mess up. I've given this a lot of thought, because my hatred for Microsoft and Windows has grown. Would Mandriva be a good solution for me? Also, when's the next version (2006 Limited Edition) going beyond beta?

Thanks,
Richie

My guess? No. If SuSE, Linspire, Ubuntu, etc. didn't do it for you, I highly doubt Mandriva will. Honestly, though, if you have the time, a broadband connection, a blank CD, and a CD burner, why not give it a shot?

What exactly do want to "just work"? If it's hardware detection, maybe your hardware is just no Linux-compatible. If it's codecs and stuff, Blag, Mepis, and Linspire should have all that stuff. In other distros, you'll need to enable it.

BarfBag: I am a simple linux user - that is - I'm probably one of the few people who read and reply to these forums who isn NOT in some way involved in IT, programming, or the like. I have been using various versions of linux (SuSe, Debian, Red Hat, Fedora Core, Scientific, Yellow Dog) for awhile and finally settled on Mandrake (now Mandriva). I too value a system that "just works", that is, I can browse the internet wihout a problem, print, do spreadsheets, presentations, reports, look at pdf's, burn CDs & DVDs, etc. And of course, I dont want to have to spend hours getting all my hardware to work. Mandriva does all that for me. Although I wouldn't suggest that you do it, I upgraded to the 2006 RC1 and it does it even better than 10.1 or 10.2 did. But, you do have to use the command line occasionally with any distro you get. I can appreciate how nice it was to install everything and have it work without a lot of configuration. I still have to tweak some stuff occasionally, but overall, Mandriva is the easiest, most user-friendly distro I've tried.

You can check here to see when 2006.0 comes out. Also, there is usually a post on slashdot whenever a new distro comes out.

Thanks for the replies guys.

What you just said is exactly how I feel. I will defently look into Mandriva. Thanks.

Glad to help out! Let us know how it turns out!

One more question.

How does their system of numbering work? On the Products page, I see 10.1 Official. What's with the "Limited Edition" version? And how often do they update the official version?

well, the latest version is Mandriva 2005 LE, which is actually 10.2. The next version coming out will be 2006, and it should have been out on the 20th but it's running late. I don't really see a pattern there, so I see your confusion!

as far as how often - i'm not sure, but i'd say a couple times a year with a new stable version - just a guess.

The old numbering system was when it was Mandrake. They merged with a different company and changed the name to Mandriva. After this they switched to releasing a version about once a year, which is what the 2005/2006 is referring to. I guess 2006 is coming out a bit before the year actually starts.

I thoroughly enjoyed using Kubuntu distro. With the massive wealth of info at http://www.ubuntuguide.org/, I got a lot of things up and running which might have otherwise taken hours of 'net searching and forum-trawling.

Have to echo on Mandriva. Have loaded Mandrake 10.0 on 3 generic PCs and 3 homade Pcs and MDK 10.0 had drivers for everything except a Canon C555 printer and an HSP56 modem. ( should use external serial port modem for dialup anyway)

Here is a list of hdwr that Wme, W2000 or Wxp DID NOT have drivers for:

Canon C555 multifunction printer
Microtek C6 USB scanner
Cmedia onboard audio
Epson 880 printer
SiS on board video
Matrox millenium G400 on board video
Canon MFC3000 all in one printer

So you see MS DOES NOT have a lock on drivers. Always check the Hardware Compatibility Lists (HCL) just like you do with Windows when you're making sure your not trying to install a MAC product.

Just loaded Mandriva 2005 (10.2) and it seems very solid. I will try to trash it in the next few days to see how it holds up. I loaded it on an HP Vectra that originally had W2000 using up the whole HD. MDV 2005 chopped the NTFS partition, gently placed W2000 in its own little place ( biting nails), made me a new FAT partition for sharing files, and saved itself a partition for root, home and swap AND loaded itself automatically. Start to finish was 33 minutes.

Slackware has a very good feel to it and seems very solid, slick and fast. It has never hung or crashed on me but I don't have enough experience with it to give advice. It seems to be a hackers distro, though , as there are something like 12-15 console editors in the menu.

On the down side, be aware that linux in general hardly supports any software modems, and that certain protocols like "mail to" are dicey. Also, some download versions of linux including Mandriva do not include some browser plugins or certain video drivers.

You have to check the HCL's
Good luck
Go Linux!

There were a few things that annoyed me about mandrake/mandriva but these were mostly petty personal pet hates.

I only moved away from mandrake/mandriva recently - initially to SuSE 9.3, because I didn't want to go through the hell of trying to get the latest KDE working. SuSE works similarly to mandrake/mandriva (which I started with at version 8.2).

It's a little less hassle though, as it's a lot easier to set up the update/install repositories with mandriva (just see easy urpmi and if you managed to get external repositories set up, you'll know what I mean).

I also had a look at Kanotix, which is like knoppix inasfaras it's debian based, a little more polished and based closer to "proper" debian sources. It had the latest KDE and a lot of other stuff (like knoppix). You can also run it as a live CD version or install to hard drive.

Though personally, I've ended up with Gentoo - which, as long as you follow the install handbook religiously, is reasonably straight forward i.e. not as hard as people would have you think. The "stage 3 + GRP" is the quickest way - stage 1 and 2 can take a while (days ???). I had it set up in about an hour.

The only moan that some have with Gentoo, is that because it's source based, it can take a while to install new stuff i.e. it downloads the package and then compiles it, so if it's a big package, it can also take a while (my worst was installing my updates to the newly installed version - Just over 24 hours, but I still got to use the system in the meantime, the install/compile carried on in the background).

Plus it's very up to date. VVV easy to manage, but it makes you learn as you have to do a fair bit of config stuff manually (via CLI, which I hate ).


regards

John

p.s. Mandrake + Connectiva = Mandriva. They were in the middle of "prepping" 10.2, when the merger happened, so they released it using the new naming convention, and had enough time to change some of the major bits of branding - you can see where it wasn't changed if you install the 2005LE version. Plus they also changed it so that it was an annual update/release.

If you like Mandrake you will love PCLinuxOS. One live/install cd download with most everything you need. Software management by Synaptic and it works better for Pclos than it does for any other distro I've tried.

I seem to recall that "Texstar", who used to do all those rather nice bits of "eye candy" for Mandrake, ended up as something to do with PCLinuxOS - and having previously had his themes/iconsets/etc etc installed (think it was about when mandrake 9.1/9.2 was current) it should be "nice and pretty" if nothing else.