Submitted by “Mandriva Linux has a history of inconsistency; one release will be superb, and the next one will be so bug-ridden and feature-weak that it’s unusable. The only commonality among all releases are the excellent system configuration tools, which have continued to evolve over the years to match an increasing level of complexity in the desktop software stack. True to form, Mandriva 2008.0 is an excellent release, following the terrible 2007.1, and the just as excellent 2007.0. Some of the important things that were dropped from the previous release (Cedega, LinDVD) are back, and some of the problems (huge K menu button, cluttered menus) have been mitigated.”
Overall, I find the review one made by a very strongly opinionated individual who raises valid issues about Mandriva.
That said:
“the desktop switcher needs to go down to two (or none — do people really use multiple desktops all that frequently?) from four”
The author should try using multiple desktops. Once you’ve gotten used to them, going back to a desktop that lacks that functionality is a huge pain in the rear.
“The author should try using multiple desktops. Once you’ve gotten used to them, going back to a desktop that lacks that functionality is a huge pain in the rear.”
Amen to that, the rear cases when I have o use windows I feel like I’m all tied up – only one desktop
I normally run 8 desktops, at 2048×1536 virtual (1600×1200 physical).
When I had to deal with a single-desktop machine with 1600×1200 physical only, while my machine was in the shop, my productivity dropped by about 30%.
FWIW.
Mine too.
My employer switched me and my colleages to Windows due to Office lock-in, from Unix (IRIX, HPUX) and Linux (Redhat).
Now I have to work on several projects, all on one desktop. And all of those add-on virtual desktops you can get for windows are either painfully destabilizing the machine, or don’t integrate into the task bar and clutter my desktop.
And the reminder popup windows from the calendar do not span multiple desktops. Yuck!!!!
I want to have multiple desktops, I feel chained with only one.
“…the rear [sic.] cases when I have o use windows I feel like I’m all tied up – only one desktop..”
Windows has MSVDM (one of the MS PowerToys) which works very nicely tho’ you’re limited to 4 desktops. Or you could use the GNU licenced Virtual Dimension – http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/ – which works better and has more.
I don’t use Windows anymore but its really boring when Linux jocks slag off MS for not having features that are there all along.
Mac
I just added Virtual Dimension to my flashdrive. I’ll be using once I confirm that it does not crash the system or required anything more than what I copied from the install folder befure uninstalling it again.
This will replace MultiDesk which has been terrible but then I’m using a version dated long ago so it may have gotten better.
You can also try VirtualWin – http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/downloads.php – which is also good and has a whole slew of optionally loadable modules some of which are quite cool.
Mac
I use 99.99% of my apps maximized, so I always wondered what difference is to have multiple desktops than to have multiple windows opened. At any time, i can only see the maximized window. Or i’m missing something?
You are missing something, definitely!
The main advantage of having several Desktops is, to show only the applications from one desktop in the taskbar.
You can in such a way organize your taskbar much better.
If you have for example 20 Windows open, then the taskbar is already very cluttered, even if similar applications are grouped together. And 20 Windows are for me just to handle the everyday office stuff plus one project I work on.
I usually have not only one project to work on, but 3 or four. so I should have open somewhere between 40 and 60 Windows to work efficiently.
On Windows, I currently have 5 file explorer Windows open, and I never can remember which file explorer belongs to which project.
If I had 4 desktops, I would have one for office, and 3 for one project each. I can keep track of which project is on which desktop more easily, than remembering that the the 3rd explorer, the 4th and 7th console and the 1st to 3rd excite window belong to project one, and explorer window 2,4 and 5 belong to project two.
4 desktops is just one level of organization more, if you don’t need it, don’t use it, nobody forces you into this, but for others it’s absolutely necessary.
But to make this experience, you would have to switch your taskbar settings so that it shows only the windows of the currently selected desktop in the taskbar.
You can use a desktop per task for thigns like GIMP which use multiple windows. For things like browser/ftp/email, those are indavidual window programs so stack them all on a desktop and sue alt-tab. In the case of terminals, four terms in a 2×2 block are nice since you can use one for reference while typing in the other (paths on a remote system curing scp, man on a second term when mucking with a new command, README |more’d in a second term while installing or compiling some such thing.
It really depends on the task grouping per desktop.
The problem for me is being at work for 8 hours infront of a winXP box with only one desktop and an average of 11 or more items in the taskbar. “grouping” sucks rocks for my needs so it get’s cluttered quickly.
At home, 4 desktops minimum. one for browsing and current tasks, one for email and system details, one for VMware console and rdesktops into VM windows boxes and the last for my four standard Eterm windows. (why email and system stats ended up on the same desktop; who knows.. just did).
I expand the Mandriva taskbar to “normal” size and make it hide itself to keep out of the way and make that line of four desktops into a 2×2 box. I also adjust the key commands to change desktops in the four directions for when I don’t want to touch the mouse or raise the hidden taskbar.
As someone else mentioned; once you get used to multiple desktops, one is a crude way to work.
It looks like Mandriva might actually be worth trying out. I use Gentoo on all my computers as I haven’t found a good binary distro to settle in as my second OS but reading through the review I might try Mandriva Powerpack . A binary distro on my laptop would just be a lot more useable than Gentoo in the sense that this has quite little storage space, and is not exactly too fast..(Compiling stuff takes years) Oh, and I gotta say that it’s nice to see a distro which by default installs all the necessary stuff to play most types of media.
Desktop effects — Metisse and Compiz Fusion — are just as horrible in Mandriva 2008.0 as they were in previous releases and in all other Linux distros that they rear their ugly heads in
I still use Beryl and I have to say that it works pretty good
It has a few bugs but they aren’t too severe and certainly not show-stoppers. And well, I disagree with the author’s opinion that they (Mandriva) should just drop support for any kinds of 3D desktop effects. I find them useful, the desktop feels more fluid and it also looks prettier.
Avoid the KDE4 preview — it’s so bug-ridden and non-functional that I have to wonder how the Mandriva developers could have possibly thought that it would make a good optional package for 2008.0
people might start to know why now fedora decided against ijncluding KDE4 in Fedora 8
again, why you would want Matisse when you got compiz-fusion beats me,
Edited 2007-10-17 11:33 UTC
> why you would want Matisse when you got compiz-fusion beats me
Why not. Metisse, compiz … are just for the fun.
they’re both useful, although in very flashy ways
Why dont people just chant OS/2, its the OS/2 of the Linux world. Ubuntu is all anyone needs of course the 5 users of Mandriva may not agree.
read the special issue n° 32 of “GLMF” about viruses in Unixes :
The threat is real. They show several examples.
http://ed-diamond.com/produit.php?produit=505
The best protection ?
Diversity.
The more different systems are spread around, the more difficult it is to write an efficient virus.
My conclusion is : Use Mandriva Linux ! (or Debian, suse, slackware, LFS, Gentoo etc… )
regards
glyj
Edited 2007-10-18 02:41
This may be a bit off-topic, but the link you gave is in french and doesn’t seem to be much more than just the cover? So I decided to post a few bit more useful ones:
http://librenix.com/?inode=21
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/06/linux_vs_windows_viruses/
Anyway, I don’t really think Linux viruses will ever become such a huge widespread problem as they are on Windows. Oh, maybe Vista will alleviate the problem on Windows side of things a little.
The argentina people has a very funny way to talk. Grey doesn’t exist for them. Everything is always the worst ever or the best ever. Black or white. No grey in between.
That’s what this guy looks to be doing. I’ve being using mandriva for 4 years now. I jumped from SUSE to RedHat and from there to Mandriva and never looked back.
And I have no feeling that one edition is much better that another. I’ve never got this feeling. I don’t understand the reason why people says Mandrake 10 was better or worse that Mandrake 2006.
In fact I simply don’t think they get it. Mandriva is as good as the software it adds up is.
There are distros that give you old well tested software. There are others that give you state of the art software.
Mandriva is one of the second ones.
So Mandriva 2008.0 is “stronger” that Mandriva 2007.0 only because KDE 3.5.7 is much stronger that KDE a year ago, after a long year of frozen development.
And Mandriva 2009.0 is surely going to be less strong because KDE4.1 is not going to be that strong. But we mandriva users want Mandriva to release KDE4.1 by default. If we wanted only well proven old software we would be running stable debian branch.
What applies to the desktop environment applies to kernel. This Mandriva 2008.0 solves some problems I had with some of the machines on my Office but only one of them is probably a Mandriva fix. The rest are kernel improvements.
That has nothing to do with linux or Mandriva. It has to do with the fact that Hardware manufacturers don’t check linux working