Ever since I tried Mandriva 2007 I felt that it was well ahead of other Linux distributions, and the same feeling has sprung upon me today with the new Mandriva 2008. After looking at all of the features I couldn’t help but think that this is HOT! My 694MB download hasn’t finished yet, but I’m sure once you read through the list of features below you’ll probably start downloading it as well. 
A completely revamped website also accompanied the new release, and I give props to the Mandriva team for making it a lot easier to find what I’m looking for. The new site actually reminds me a bit of Mozilla’s site.
–Mandriva One vs. Free–
One of the things that had always confused me about Mandriva are the two different versions of the operating system that they offer. The two editions that are available, One and Free, both don’t cost a dime. So what is the difference between the two?
Mandriva Free does not contain “non-free software packages like proprietary drivers, closed-source applications or plugins.” Why is that such a big deal? There are a lot of diehard Free Software fanatics out there that don’t like running any of the proprietary stuff…even if it might make the user’s experience better. I’m not one of those people, but I definitely support those who do feel that way.
Mandriva One, on the other hand, does have proprietary drivers, plugins, and software to help make sure the user has the best out-of-box experience possible. A big benefit by running this version is that it can also operate as a Live CD, and can therefore be tested before you install it. This is the version that I always run, and what I recommend to anyone trying Mandriva out for the first time.
–Mandriva 2008 One Features–
- Quick and easy installation
One’s fast installation system lets you install the complete system to your hard disk simply by answering a few questions. Just click on the ‘Install’ icon after you start One. You can even browse the Internet or play Frozen Bubble while the installation is in progress. - Try Mandriva Linux safely
Running One in live mode lets you try Mandriva Linux in complete safety: nothing is installed permanently to your system, nothing will be written to your hard disk, and you’re safe from viruses and spyware.” title=”Running One in live mode lets you try Mandriva Linux in complete safety: nothing is installed permanently to your system, nothing will be written to your hard disk, and you’re safe from viruses and spyware. - Effortless 3D desktop
One includes full 3D support for all the leading graphics cards and makes it easy to enable full 3D-accelerated desktop effects. The latest 3D-accelerated desktop system, Compiz Fusion, provides both amazing visual effects and innovative new features which make it easier to interact with your desktop. - Coming from Windows? Don’t worry!
Mandriva’s exclusive migration tool makes it easy to import your documents and settings from Windows to Mandriva. Unlike many other Linux systems, One lets you read from and write to all your Windows drives – even NTFS drives – with no manual configuration. Mandriva’s font configuration tool lets you import all your favorite fonts from Windows to Mandriva. One’s simple menu system makes it a breeze to find all the applications you need. - The best tools
Dozens of Mandriva-developed tools help you access Windows and Linux machines on the local network, share your files and printers with others, keep your system secure, back up your important data and more. - All the applications you need on a single CD
- Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird to browse the Web and manage your e-mail – with Java and Flash support.
- OpenOffice.org for office tasks, with the Liberation font set to match fonts commonly used in the workplace.
- The famous Google Earth world viewer (additional download required).
- Picasa (additional download required) and GIMP to store, manage, view and edit your pictures.
- Amarok and Kaffeine for music and video.
- Kopete, an instant messaging application which can access MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM and ICQ together.
–Mandriva 2008 One Screenshots–
–Mandriva 2008 One Requirements–
- CPU: Any Intel or AMD processor, 1Ghz or better – dual-core supported
- RAM: 256 MB minimum, 512 MB recommended
- CD-ROM drive required
- Video Card: NVIDIA, ATI, Intel i8xx and i9xx, SIS, Matrox, VIA.
- 3D desktop features requires NVIDIA GeForce or later, ATI Radeon 7000 or later, or Intel i810 or later
- Sound Card: Any Sound Blaster-compatible card and AC97 (please note that Creative Labs X-Fi cards are not currently supported)
- Minimum hard disk space: 3GB for a smooth installation – 4GB if you plan to use KDE 4
- Serial ATA: Most controllers supported in non-RAID mode and some in RAID mode
Looks very nice. I may have to try it out.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about this new release, so I’m sure it is worth giving a shot. A lot of my friends have even said that they’re switching from Ubuntu to this, which means it has to be good.
I started out with Mandrake back in 2000, it’s nice to see how far it has come. But ever since I switched to Ubuntu, it’s really hard for me to use any other distro.
I prefer Mandriva’s look, but I like the way Ubuntu is built. You can’t have it all, I suppose…
Iam going to try the live-cd. Will see whether i can replace my kubuntu installation with this one.
I’ve been using Ubuntu for over a year now but I’ve always been tempted to try out another distro. This one does look good. Ubuntu 7.10 will have some of these features too like NTFS support and Compiz but I still wouldn’t mind testing out the Mandriva live CD
Well actually you can…sorta…why not try out Kubuntu ([kubuntu.com])?
Nice review, Ryan. I am downloading it right now and plan to use it as a live cd for a while to test it out. Maybe I’ll swap out the openSUSE 10.3 I’m in love with.
That’s about the same time that I tried out Mandrake. It was nice, but at the time I went the OpenSUSE route. That’s one of the reasons I’m such a big fan of OpenSUSE is that I’ve always had it installed on a system since the first days I was using Linux.
Mandriva definitely has the look down pat, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the same community behind it like Ubuntu has. If it did then it would be really stellar!
I always look at Linux like trying out chocolate. You can never really say one is your favorite until you’ve tried the other kinds of chocolate. Thanks to the Live CD’s trying out the other operating systems is a piece of cake, and something I highly recommend people do before settling in on one choice.
I’m in love with the OpenSUSE as well, but this is pretty nice. I don’t think I’ll be giving up my OpenSUSE installation quite yet (mostly because I’ve always had it on one computer or another), but I think Mandriva has earned a portion of my hard drive as well.
No, thanks.
I actually tried Kubuntu before moving on to Ubuntu. I just don’t like the way Kubuntu looks.
The interface is what I like most about OpenSUSE. However, OpenSUSE does have some drawbacks:
1) It doesn’t detect my wifi receiver, which of course means I can’t access the internet.
2) I don’t like the way the software management works. From what I recall, it’s way slower than Ubuntu’s apt-get system.
3) I’m not sure how their updater performs compared to other distributions. How long does it take to roll out security updates via their update system as soon as developers release them? (I still remember that Ubuntu scored quite well on that test.)
The software management system definitely isn’t as nice as what Ubuntu has. That is OpenSUSE’s biggest downfall. And no, it doesn’t push out updates quite as much as Ubuntu, but they are still pretty on top of things.