A few days back, Mandriva released the newest version of its operating system, Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring. As I had already taken a
Mandriva Logo
look at the Release Candidate 2, I know pretty much what was in store. I wanted to setup this new release and get it running as quickly as possible even though the previous version Mandriva 2009 was working like a charm on my laptop. It was by far the most stable OS to have run on my laptop.
Live CD
I downloaded the Mandriva One GNOME Live CD. GNOME has been my default desktop for a few years now and that is what would eventually reside on my laptop. I also downloaded the Mandriva One KDE Live CD to see what changes have gone into KDE 4.2. The Live CD booted pretty fast. The speed bump was already visible in the RC and I was glad to see it stayed that way.
Installation
The installation took about 12 minutes on my laptop. This machine is a 2 year old, Dell Inspiron 6400, with an Intel Core 2 Duo clocking 1.73 GHz, 1 GB RAM and an Intel 945 GMA graphics chip and an Intel 3945 Wireless. I chose the new ext4 file system for the root and home partition. The post installation step of updating the media is where I met my first stumbling block. It seemed to take forever to download the media, but once I pulled my ethernet cable out, things proceeded smoothly. I had to update the media later.
Boot Time
I timed the boot with a stop watch. It took me 36 seconds from the grub menu to the desktop. I don’t have any complaints here. I can see that a lot of improvement has gone into the boot process and it really shows. I guess the ext4 file system would also have helped in this regard, though I have no means to measure it.
Desktop
There is no denying the fact that Mandriva has one of the best looking default themes around. I rarely changed the theme or the window
Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring - Customized Desktop
decoration on Mandy. The only thing I change is the icon theme, since the default GNOME icon theme has become old and boring. Carrying on the tradition, the desktop was slick. The fonts were crisp and have been improved from what existed in the previous version. An idle desktop after boot, consumed about 285 MB of RAM. I also did not install AWN since the auto hide feature did not work well and ended up being intrusive at best. The Mandriva Control Center remains one of the best control centers on the Linux desktop and serves as a one stop shop for all configuration requirements.
Applications
Mandriva comes with kernel 2.6.29.1 and a regular array of software that comprises of the GNOME desktop. However, here are the specifics for a few of them
- GNOME 2.26.1
- OpenOffice.org – 3.0.1
- Mozilla Firefox – 3.0.8
- Pidgin – 2.5.5
- The GIMP – 2.6
Flash is available in the One edition. However, Java runtime, audio and video codecs have to be installed as is the case with most distributions. Additional software is a always a couple of clicks away in the Install and Remove Software section.
The KDE Edition
I also had a quick look at the KDE edition. Last time around Mandriva’s KDE implementation was very polished compared to the rest. This
Mandriva Spring 2009 KDE Desktop
time too I would say the same. They have also put the desktop which everyone is used to – where one kept files too – back into KDE 4.2 in quite a clever way by using Folder View. The KDE desktop also uses the default Mandriva theme instead of the KDE default Oxygen theme. This edition comes with the regular KDE applications, Kontact, Konqueror, Kopete, Kwrite to name a few.
Conclusion
One of the biggest improvements in my opinion is, I never had to consult the Errata. Also, never once was I required to visit the terminal (command line) for any accomplishing any task whatsoever. Almost all the things work the way they should. The One CD image was only 633 MB for the Africa and Asia edition. The available CD space could have been packed with something useful. On the whole, Mandriva Spring 2009 is a solid release with a great blend of stability and polish.
Screenshots
Here are a few screenshots of Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring – GNOME
time user of Box.net, Dropbox, with both web based and an installable client interfaces, was just right for me and provided everything I wished for from the free service of Box.net. Of late, I was trying to install Dropbox on my Mandriva Spring 2009.1 system but ended with a failure each time. Finally, with a little help from here, I managed to install Dropbox and am happily accessing and syncing my files from various locations. So, here is a nice screenshot of Dropbox running on Mandy.
B Space 