Mandriva Desktop 2011
Getting closer to the release of Mandriva Desktop 2011. The first release candidate was made available June 30, 2011. I do not like to review pre-stable releases, so this is not going to be a review, but a short preview. Out of curiosity, I wanted to find out if there has been any changes to the installer. And there is, or there are. For one, btrfs and nilfs2 are supported. I have written several guides on installing Linux distributions on a btrfs file system, but none for nilfs2.
That is because no major Linux distribution has out-of-the-box support for it. I think Mandriva Desktop 2011 will be the first. Nilfs2, by the way, is a log-structured file system with support for continuous snapshotting.
Another change I can see is the installation now takes place in two stages, just like with Fedora. The system is installed in stage 1, while keyboard detection, time settings, and user accounts are configured in stage 2.
Since Fedora is mentioned in this article, you might be interested in the questions and answers on Fedora posted by visitors like you on this website.
Ok, time for a few screenshots.
This one is the installation progress indicator. Cool graphics.
And this is the login screen. Nice touch.
And the default KDE desktop. Me likes!
Talking about likes, you are going to love the menu. It’s really cool. Is it really a menu anymore? This, by the way, is the default view, and it occupies the whole desktop.
And this is the applications view. It takes a lot to please me, and I am pleased – with the “menu.”
I do not really know what this view of the menu, but I can hazard a guess. Do you know?
And this is what happens when you use the search feature. Nice and smooth.
Let’s not forget the KDE Plasma Netbook Interface. The best of one of several such interfaces.
The Mandriva Control Center is the still the name.
That is enough for now. I think users are going to like Mandriva Desktop 2011 plenty. Check the main website for a full review when the stable version is released. Better still, how about subscribing to the main website by RSS or email, for automatic delivery of the review to your Feed Reader or Inbox? And while we are on subscriptions, you might also want to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email. The short articles, questions and answers by visitors like you, and other blogs posts, will also be delivered automatically to your Feed Reader or Inbox.
Luthfi Emka on Jul 10, 2011
wata good review, altough it still RC1, but i think it can be the comeback step of Mandriva soul… Now, i’m installing Mandriva Desktop 2011. Salam dari Mandriva Indonesia
Eugeni on Jul 06, 2011
Hi,
great review!
But I have two small things to suggest to you which are a bit hidden by default… If you activate desktop effects, you’ll have a completely different UI. Everything changes – panel, widgets, theme, colors, and so on. This should be more obvious by RC2, let’s hope we’ll be able to properly demonstrate it by that date.
And besides the old MCC, if you open KDE control center, there are some new icons there, provided by the new mandriva-control-center, which is fully rewritten in python+qml and following the MVC idea.
@Csaba this is not true about btrfs-progs in Mandriva, I was the one who imported it back in 2010, and it certainly exists and works. Also, I have no idea why you think that btrfs is not in 2.6.38, it is in main kernel since 2.6.29!
finid on Jul 07, 2011
Thanks for stopping by. I have RC 1 installed on real hardware and in a virtual environment, and just installed an update to drak3d. Will post screenshots as soon as I have them ready.
Csaba on Jul 05, 2011
Btrfs? Really? I did not have to time, yet, to test the RC1, but as far as I know and as my colleagues at Mandrivausers.ro told me, MDV 2011 comes with kernel 2.6.38 which does not have btrfs support. Even more, there are several bugreports that btrfs-progs does not even exist in MDV 2011. So, not that you can’t install it on a btrfs root filesystem, you can’t even mount or format any other partitions as btrfs.
So, please tell me where did you see that it can be installed on a btrfs filesystem?
finid on Jul 05, 2011
Do a search for “btrfs” on the main site and see what comes up. You might especially be interested in http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2011/06/22/install-mageia-1-on-an-encrypted-btrfs-file-system/
By the “main site,” I meant http://linuxbsdos.com