Mandriva 2007.1 Spring

DarkFoss

Spring will be released soon.
As a club member and early seeder I was able to download and install the Powerpack i586 version last Sunday.
IMO this release is the best Mandriva I have ever used. Granted I've only been using Linux since Mandrake 10.0

If you want to try it out and can't wait for the release the mirrors are already configured for 2007.1. You could install RC3 then configure urpmi by going to smart-urpmi or easy urpmi and point to 2007.1 Official or do an ftp install if your familiar with how to do that.

I like it so much that I've wiped XP off my comp

*edit I forgot to add Mandriva has now added a non-free repository so even those that do not belong to the club can have access to Mandriva's rpm's of ATI/Nvidia drivers Flash ect.

DudeBoyz

Good to see 'em updated it, though the club thing is a bit annoying.

Hope this release holds up better against OpenSuse 10.2, which I think is about the best distro out there right now.

I'll have to try installing this latest Mandriva under a Virtual Machine with Parallels on my Mac.

DarkFoss

Yeah, there was some discussion about what the club offers. Some of us, me included, suggested that withholding something as vital as graphics drivers really did more harm than good. Many potential Mandriva users were lost because of such policies. All we did was point out all the threads in the Graphics card section of the forum.. most of which ended with problem solved switched to new_distro x..

Experienced users of Linux might take the time to get the drivers running but new users will simply move to a distro that just works..

I think for awhile Mandriva feared that they would lose their club base or downgrade their membership because of a percieved lost of value. A discussion in yet another thread eventually ended with the admission that club membership really is more about users wanting to support the distribution than Great value or easy access to 3rd party rpm's or .. which there are still quite a few but mostly those that are not free such as BitDefender Cedega ect.

Imo, those 2 threads made them rethink their stance. I think it's a win win situation now giving Mandriva the potential for more club members, as well as for those using the free versions a better experience right out of the box.

coldfrontt

Good easy install...everything worked right out of the box....not many distro's can say that. (JMicron support anyone?). I do seem to have a problem with finding update sources to resolve some dependancies. Is this because it's a release candidate, or is it a club thing?

DarkFoss

Sorry I should have included the links you can use either smart-urpmi or easy urpmi to configure the mirrors.. I prefer smart-urpmi because you can easily check the status of the mirrors and speed if they take to long to load they may be at their connection limits. I use the script provided as well it saves time rather than entering them one at a time via command line.
Mandriva patched their kernel for JMicron support awhile back. Hope you enjoy it

Don't select the test mirrors btw

coldfrontt

Thank you. Mandriva, Sabayon and Xandros are the only distro`s I`ve been able to install. It`s easier for a beginner like me to try and learn how to use it when everything gets properly configured at the start.