Thank you all for your answers YankDownUnder I really appreciate the time you took to share your experience.
I think I may give Mandriva the chance. While sending this e-mail I'm currently installing 8.2 (which I got from a magazine) to play with it for a bit.
When will 2006LE be released?
If I decide to go ahead and get 2005 without becomming a member, do I get some kind of discount for 2006?
If I decide to work on a 2005 -> 2006 scenario, should I go for an "upgrade" or installing from scratch?
Buying a box, I'll get some kind of nicely printed documentation (I guess) which I think won't be available becomming a member, right?
YankDownUnder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
G'Day, Ricardo Rodriguez!
A combination of 1's and 0's
created the following on Wednesday 28 September 2005 03:06 am:
> I am planning to come back to Linux arena after been away for about 2
> years. I used to be a SUSE user and a very happy one.
>
> I am considering either: "Get Mandriva" or "Wait a few weeks for Suse 10"
> and still not sure which product best fit my needs.
>
> Me:
>
> Home user running a laptop HP Pavilion zt3000. Any feedback on this
> product for running Mandriva? Will Mandriva recognize my DVDR and both
> NetworkCards (one of them wireless) from defacto instalation? Can I
> download Mandriva 10 trial somewhere? I currently got Mandrake 8.2 included
> in a magazine and haven't finished install it yet but would like to try
> your latest version.
>
> Bef ore deciding for Mandriva, which would be the best product for me? I've
> read you have a Discovery, PowerPack, Desktop1.4_Gold_Edition, which one
> should I start with?
I'll make my statement from a real world perspective.
We've worked with SuSE and Mandriva here on many different types of computers
for many different types of uses, and have found that although SuSE is clean
and crisp and solid, there were many things that were either difficult to do
under SuSE or had to come with a work-around.
From a customisation standpoint, I found it harder to customise SuSE due to
the nature of where it stores/keeps it's programs relative to different
window managers and desktops (/opt/gnome, /opt/kde and etc) and maintaining a
customisation throughout the different "desktops" along with GTK2
applications was a bit of a nightmare - especially in choosing icons for
items and the likes. I also had some issues with doing some simpl e program
compiling - libraries that Mandriva had already installed and setup were not
necessarily already installed nor setup in SuSE and I had to dance around
that one a bit.
Between myself and my wife - who is a picky person to please when it comes to
her linux distro, we've come to the conclusion that Mandriva really did give
the best "bang for the buck" and came with the most "stuff" on the initial
installation - not to mention the huge amount of applications/programs there
were available AFTER a system was installed and configured.
I'd personally prefer SuSE for an office/corporate workstation as that is
basically what it was meant to be for and what it's been "tweaked" for all in
all.
Mandriva 2006 is due out shortly. We're running/testing/playing on 2006rc2 at
the moment and find that it's performance is amazing (we don't have top of
the line cutting edge hardware here - the fastest machine is a 1.8ghz In tel
boxen with 768mb of RAM and a 64mb NVidia card) and the package selections
from the onset are mind boggling - especially for someone starting in "first
time" - you get quite a nice workstation with all the right tools - and
that's BEFORE you start to add stuff available from the net.
Granted that I'm partial to Mandriva, we've also tested the RC's for OpenSuSE
10 and still have to stand by our opinion so far...
We've also tested Fedora - found it to be not only lacking, but still
seemingly stuck in the "RH" rut - aimed more at RH'ers than anything else
with a dreadful "out of the box" selection of applications and tools and
still appearing as those it's "Gnome or nothing" - rather like RH9 on
steroids with the same basic graphics and such. Ubuntu was nifty for a short
while, but still "too geeky" for first time users. PcLinuxOS - we weren't
impressed. Knoppix - well, yeah, great, but still not for a first timer
un less they just want to use it to boot to play and get the feel of it. DSL
is still a "geeky" one as well, and Debian - well, both of us still think
you're required to have a validated "rocket scientist" ID card to use it.
The feature set of Mandriva 2006 will cover your laptop quite well - from the
onboard ethernet to the wireless and beyond - the DVDR and all the rest is
gravy. I will state that the wireless might require a slight bit of tweaking,
but after that, it's all downhill. The first time you slap in a DVD to play,
well, I think you'll see the beginnings of what I was talking about in the
first place.
Now bear in mind that is merely my (and the wife's) opinion based on what
we've played with and what we see day in and day out - so take it as you
will, but hopefully this will give you some insight as to what you have for
your choices. Cheers!
--
YankDownUnder aka stephen kuhn
#mandriva channel op - irc.freenode.net
Mandriva Official IRC Support
YankDownUnder -at- Mandriva -dot- org
-----------------------------------------------
Running Mandriva LE2005-2.6.11-12mdk
Registered Linux User # 267497
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"She's a (spirit) medium. Well, more a small."
(Reaper Man)
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