Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 9th Oct 2008 20:22 UTC, submitted by AdamW
Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris Mandriva has today released Mandriva Linux 2009, the new major release of the popular distribution. 2009 is a bold release which brings the new KDE 4 as the default desktop, along with a re-designed installer and Mandriva Control Center and many other new features. Other significant updates include GNOME 2.24, OpenOffice.org 3, Mozilla Firefox 3, and kernel 2.6.27. Key features include new graphical in-line upgrade capability, netbook compatibility, class-leading hardware support, and further improved support for working with mobile devices. For more details, see the Release Tour and the Release Notes. Get it at the download page, or go straight to the torrent list.
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Pre-download Questions
by sb56637 on Fri 10th Oct 2008 02:49 UTC
sb56637
Member since:
2006-05-11

Hello all,

I have two questions before I download:

1. What is Mandriva's policy on updating or backporting applications? I am currently a fairly satisfied Ubuntu user except for one major gripe: I really find it irritating to wait 6 months for the next release in order to upgrade to the latest version of my desktop applications. The Ubuntu backports are almost worthless, they are very slow to upgrade and only care about the most popular packages. In the case of a more obscure app, you're out of luck until the next biannual release. Is Mandriva any different?

2. How modular are Mandriva's packages, especially Gnome? I like to run a very minimal Gnome desktop that I install from scratch with only Nautilus and gedit and the panel and the a few utilities. With Ubuntu, this works very well. With some other distros, a just installing the Gnome panel pulls in gstreamer, Totem, gnome system tools, any many other "required" packages that aren't really necessary. What about Mandriva?

Looks like a nice release. Thanks for the help.