Mandriva has released the
planned schedule and technical specifications for its next release, Mandriva Linux 2009. These can be found on the Mandriva Wiki. The schedule calls for a first alpha release on June 25th, with the final release set for early October. Planned features include KDE 4, Firefox 3, OpenOffice.org 3, a new design for the installer, a live distribution upgrade mode for MandrivaUpdate, and improvements to many of the Mandriva tools. Take a look and see what you may find on your system when the final Mandriva Linux 2009 release is available.
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Member since:2005-07-06
"And then there is the update issue. No, we do not want to go through a total clean installation every time we have to update, with results which are basically going to be unpredictable."
Well, if you read the article, you'd see:
"live distribution upgrade mode for MandrivaUpdate"
Member since:2008-04-18
Really?
I installed Mandriva 9.1, 9.2, 2007, 2007.1, 2008 and 2008.1 on many machines and I never ever had any problem. Can't wait for the first alpha. Let's start the testing season!
Message to all whiners out there: Seize this opportunity to complain about bugs. Later, when the stable release will hit you, you won't be able to find many opportunities to complain :-)
Member since:2006-11-17
Actually Mandriva is using a new build system and the whole distro is rebuilt at each release (since 2008 or 2008.1 if I remember correctly. Many random bugs you had may be fixed by their new build system. Debian is a great distro of course. With Mandriva, you can get (paid) support as well.
Member since:
2005-10-12
I really want to like Mandriva. It was the first distro I got real comfortable with for everyday regular work use. And after some fairly uncomfortable experiences with one or two earlier versions of the last few years, like they just would not install, or having installed wouldn't run properly, I was persuaded by rave reviews to have another go for a client with 2007. The reviews, and as usual, we were seduced by the fact that there is a very complete user guide, and that great GUI administration centre which does everything you will ordinarily want, very simply and intuitively.
We have put in three installs. One is very slow but works. One has had some mysterious hiccups after an upgrade - X just vanished. It was probably due to having lapsed into using proprietary codecs - this was the One KDE version. We fixed it, but have not upgraded again. The third one is also basically OK, except that it refuses to mount some USB sticks. Just some. Which mount fine on other systems. No idea why. And also from time to time it hangs while booting. Always of course when the machine has been switched on by a committed windows user. Again, don't know why.
And then there is the update issue. No, we do not want to go through a total clean installation every time we have to update, with results which are basically going to be unpredictable.
So, do we go for 2008? Sadly, we're going to take them all to Debian Lenny. Debian is going to be much harder for the client to administer, but they probably will never need to do it. Keeping up to date is going to be much simpler. And it will never hang while booting, and USB sticks will always mount. Don't know what would surface if we went to 2008, but something would. Something different of course.
Wish it weren't so. But that is just experience. It doesn't always disappoint, when it works, its brilliant, but it does disappoint often enough that you come to the end of it.