Mandriva Joins Ubuntu With a Linux For Netbooks

Slatterz writes "Linux publisher Mandriva has unveiled a version of its platform designed specifically for the new breed of mini laptops. Mandriva Mini features a fast boot-up, comprehensive connectivity support and multimedia codecs, and is adapted to work on key netbook platforms such as Intel's Atom. Mandriva previously offered a customised version of its 2008 Spring release for the Asus Eee PC, and was a distributor of Linux for Intel's Classmate PC initiative."

Re:when?

[davmoo]

Actually, its 2009.0 that will be (or is at least scheduled to be) released in October. 2008.1 has been in release for some time now.

Re:Mandriva usage multiplication

[fishyfool]

Not true. While it doesn't have the penetration of Ubuntu, It's still consistently in the top six or seven downloaded from distrowatch. http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity [distrowatch.com] Try it. It's way better than SuSE. I have The 2008 PowerPack, It includes LinDVD already set up, it has nVidia and ATI drivers avalable on install, it's the only distro that picked up my no name StarLogic 1680x1050 monitor and set the resolution correctly. Mandriva is flat out slick.

Re:Mandriva usage multiplication

[markdavis]

Mandriva is a very strong distro. It has a long history, great hardware support, nice GUI install, refined GUI and text admin tools, a huge repository of packages, and several versions to meet just about any Linux need. They were the first (besides Debian) to have automatic package dependency resolution, the first to have 586/686 optimized kernels, and they still treat Gnome and KDE as equal citizens within a single distro without splitting things up. It isn't as popular as it used to be, but that is not because they are doing anything "wrong", there are just more strong players in the "market" now (which is a good thing).

Distrowatch has not been proven to be a reliable indication of number of users of any distro... although it can be a useful statistic. Personally, I known more people that have gone from Mandriva to some other distro (like Ubuntu) and then returned to Mandriva, than those who have left and stayed gone.

As for a "netbook" specific flavor of Mandriva- I think they did the right thing at the beginning, which was to just have the mainline iso (2008.1) adapt the install when it senses it is being installed on a netbook (like an EEE). Adjust screen res, adapt the draketools, change sync strategy, etc. I am not sure having a separate iso just for a single type of install is a good idea. It is more to maintain, more to download, etc.

Re:Mandriva Spring 08

[AdamWill]

ext2 is (and always has been) an option in the MDV installer, it's labelled "Linux native".

Re:Mandriva usage multiplication

[AdamWill]

Thanks for the support, Mark. :) The Slashdot story actually missed the most important thing about Mandriva Mini - there isn't an ISO. Well, not for you to download, anyway. This is an offering intended for OEMs, not end users. We want to sell Mini to system manufacturers and redistributors to be the pre-installed distro on the system. We're not targeting it directly at end users. The idea for end users is still that if you as an end user want to install Mandriva on your netbook, use the main distribution, as you suggested you thought was the best idea. We continue to set a high priority on customising the kernel and MDV tools in the main line distribution to work well with the most popular netbooks (2009 should work well out of the box on all currently available Eee models, the Aspire One, and the MSI Wind, to name a few).

Re:Too little too late

[AdamWill]

2008 Spring was in fact the first major distribution to be specifically designed to work with the Eee (701) out of the box. Mandriva was ahead of virtually every other distro.

Re:Mandriva usage multiplication

[timbo234]

Their website, mailing lists, documentation and most of the forums on the Mandriva club site are all in English. There are some French forums on the Mandriva club site (along side the English ones) but that's about it. There're also plenty of 3rd-party English speaking sites, eg. http://mandrivausers.org/ [mandrivausers.org]
I don't speak or read a word of French and I've never had a problem.