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After trying Kubuntu Intrepid, I’m not sure anymore how great the Mandriva KDE 4 implementation really was. It was the first KDE 4.1.2 I tried, and I’m beginning to think that is where the magic was.
Kubuntu 8.10 has been every bit as fast, and rock-solid.
Written by jaysonrowe on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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I say that with absolute honesty too! It was nice meeting you. Honestly, I knew part-way through the weekend it probably wasn’t going to work out. I was hesitant to jump ship too quickly, because I really wanted it to work out, however there were a few things that kept coming up that I simply wasn’t able to overcome. To everyone at Mandriva, I do think you all put out a nice distro, and I look forward to keeping up with your progress, and I’ll surely check out 2009.1, but honestly, after getting past the KDE 4 bling you initially provided me, I simply wasn’t comfortable. It was kinda like staying at a hotel - it’s nice for a while, but after a few days you just wanna go home!
Here are some of the issues I ran into:
First - from the time I first installed, something weird was going on with your mirrors. I have a 10+ Meg pipe here at my house, and my net install took 3 hours to complete - probably because I was downloading from a European mirror. I didn’t complain at the time, because I figured since it was release day, all off the mirrors were not synced up yet, and what mirrors were on-line, I assumed, were getting hit pretty hard.
THIS would have been OK - I can understand something like that. The situation got worse, however, instead of better as the weekend went on. Part of this was my fought, part of it wasn’t. To start with, I think I screwed up my mirror-list by trying to get more localized mirrors on there. I then read that I should remove all the sources, and just add them back with the automagical button. This did not work - Error 1. I then read that I should do it with “Easy URPMI” - well, it gave me Cooker repo’s that I had been using unknowingly. Finally, I was able to manually add them back from the command line, but it kept defaulting to some butt-slow mirror in Germany. Hey, I’m in the US, why can’t I use kernel.org? They are a Mandriva mirror! I get good speeds from there - I don’t get good speeds from Germany. I then kept reading that in previous versions of Mandriva you could manually select which mirrros that you want, but this ‘feature’ was removed and ‘improved’ with a process that automatically selected the best mirror for you. Well, news-flash Mandriva guys, it doesn’t work - put it back the way it was! In short what ended up happening was I couldn’t install ANYTHING - I kept getting that stupid “Error 1″. I simply wanted to edit a text file, in my favorite CLi editor, nano (which I’m still shocked wasn’t installed by default), and I couldn’t install it. “Error 1″. I’m beginning to think “Error 1″ was installing Mandriva in the first place!
Secondly, in several areas, there were quite a few areas that lacked professionalism. I noticed misspelled words and grammatical errors in a couple of places, and anywhere that the release was being criticized there were people coming back with “The Mandriva Dev team is overworked - it’s so small!” “Our KDE Team is very small” (I thought you were a KDE distro? Was I wrong???), “We knew there were problems but we released anyway”. IMHO there was a little too much of this. Some of the things I read on the official forums, and in the IRC room were more akin to something I would expect from a small “one-man” distro, not a big company like Mandriva. Huge lack of professionalism in my opinion (but again, this is just my opinion).
Most of the community people I’ve seen seem friendly, but often overly pushy or defensive of the distro. Adam W. comes to mind (I’m seriously not trying to offend you Adam). But, Adam, you show up everywhere the word Mandriva is mentioned on the internet, and put in your $0.02. Often, I don’t think you fully read the context of what you are commenting on (perhaps because you’re the only one trying to read all of the reviews for Mandriva - you are an employee - correct?). I personally found your comment on my blog regarding the Server Kernel being installed by default very unprofessional. You clearly didn’t read what I had written - you simply scanned it, and then fired off a comment basically giving me the impression that you didn’t think I knew what I as talking about, and Mandriva couldn’t do anything wrong. After I corrected you, finally you replied that “Oh, yeah. That IS a bug - it was fixed once but we broke it again before release - I don’t know why really”. That doesn’t sound professional for me.
This overall lack of professionalism (and integrity) is what turned me off to Mandriva the last time I tried it. Let’s have story time 
A while back, there was a magazine (I can’t remember which one) which had the 2008.0 Mandriva Power Pack on the cover. I thought that was a great deal, however after I bought the magazine, I was told by you, Adam W. on your forums that I couldn’t have any of the proprietary software that came with the Powerpack because that wasn’t in the agreement with the Magazine. So, if so, why let the Magazine “advertise” the Powerpack, $59 Value? I didn’t get a $59 value, I lost the $15 I paid for the magazine, and I got nothing more than I could have gotten with Mandriva One (I couldn’t even get x86_64 media!
I gave Mandriva a ton of publicity this weekend on my blog, and I only hope that you fix many of the problems currently in the final release since I know over 3,000 people read of me recommending your software - I don’t want my readers to have a bad experience. I fully expect the entire Mandriva flock to descend on my blog and comment away, but I was pretty ticked off this afternoon when I couldn’t install a simple application.
Someone was looking out for me tonight, however. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do - but on a whim I downloaded the “daily-live” build of Kubuntu Intrepid - burned it, said a prayer and rebooted. Finally, after weeks of trying X started on my system. I went through the install, and although I don’t yet have fglrx, I have X and everything is running nicely on the open-source ATI driver. Call me a fanboy if you want, but (K)Ubuntu is the best Desktop distro out there (and becoming the best Server Distro, imho), and even in pre-release stage Kubuntu 8.10 is very polished and professional. Jonathan Riddell and team have done a great job with this release so far, it’s just that due to ATI, this is the first I’ve been able to see of it. I’m not sure what changed, or what got updated, but finally it works, and I can ride it out to RTM. Ubuntu/Kubuntu might not have the fancy control center, but at least I understand how it works, and how to fix it if it breaks. Also, there is absolutely the largest and most helpful community surrounding it if I do run into something that doesn’t work.
Written by jaysonrowe on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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Written by ShaDow on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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Today was a surprise for many, depending on who you talk to. Microsoft chose a low key but effective channel to announce the final branding for the next version of Windows, Windows 7. We in the Windows Enthusiast community have been accustomed to codenames then a final christening sometime during the products technical testing. I have been discussing the moniker for Windows 7 for a good while now and others in the community such as Ed Bott brought the topic up just last week.
I have had my personal views on the topic. Back in late August I shared my thoughts on a post by Mary Jo Foley All About Microsoft, titled: You say major; I say minor - Windows 7
Let me just quote what I had to say, you can see the entire post here
Quote
“My Thoughts:
I hate to say it, but Windows 7 client is beginning to sound like a minor release indeed. With both the Server and Client expected to RTM the same time, it pretty much adds up that Windows 7 will actually be version 6.1. The reason I am hearing for the code name is because Steve Sinofsky likes whole numbers, but at the same time, it just does not add up why you would call the codename 'Windows 7', unless the Windows Team is considering it a 7th release of the Windows product, not technically a 7th 'version' of the NT kernel itself. We must take into account, Microsoft stop using the NT version in its branding with the release of Windows 2000 which was 5.0, XP 5.1, Server 2003 5.2.
Here is the problem I just discovered after writing the above, Microsoft could not use that logic, since it would mean that XP was the 6th release of Windows, Vista the 7th and 7 being the 8th.Microsoft needs to explain themselves. If it continues with the 6.1 version by Beta 1, its definitely a Vista R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 releases.
Another thing about versions
I will admit, I have been reading the releases wrong, but I did point out the possible way Microsoft has now decided to communicate Windows 7.
Some persons are looking on Windows XP 5.1 as a major release that discredits Windows 7 as being a 7th release, it would in fact make it the 8th release. Lets go back down memory lane:
The versioning still needs to be questioned, since the kernel version still remains 6.1 and Microsoft considers this a major release as XP (5.1). The discrepancy in marketing is highlighted when you look deeper at Windows 7. Logical reasons for this naming has been suggested, but the reason why Microsoft has retained the kernel version has been noted by Microsoft – Compatibility.
“Furthermore, Windows 7, despite it’s rather pretentious sounding code name (a result of Sinofsky’s like of big round numbers) is NOT Windows NT 7, but rather 6.1(current builds are numbered 67xx as a direct continuation of the longhorn codebase). Put simply, it is not a big jump as a codebase revision and the new changes, on both the client and server, will be focused on user features, not core OS components. The big core OS changes are WDDM 2 and a kernel scheduler update to remove the simple bitmask enumeration of processors so that the OS can schedule more than 64 concurrent threads."
Microsoft wants to ensure compatibility is not a problem with this release, and 6.1 as the NT kernel ensures that. A lot of people are calling this release minor, but please, understand, its not, its actually major and there will be a whole lot more to be revealed. Windows XP itself was considered a major update that introduced many changes such as the Luna Theme and the updated Start menu in addition to being first consumer version of Windows based on NT.
Resources:
Written by Teching It Easy: Windows Vista & 7 on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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Yes people, it has been confirmed today on the Windows Vista Team Blog by Mike Nash. Windows 7’s final name is the codename that has been in use since since it was revealed:
Quote:
“The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.”
Read the entire post here
This was quite unexpected but not astonishing. Windows debuted on the market with numerals identifying the different versions, 1, 2, 3, 3.1. Microsoft moved to a dating approach with the release of Windows 95. Windows XP introduced the first ‘aspirational’ moniker.
Just last week, Ed Bott of ZDNET Blogs brought up the topic of Window 7’s final name:
Windows 7 is having persons asking questions about its real name or identity. Ed Bott brings up the topic of whether Microsoft will keep 7 as the final name, which I personally don’t have a problem with, but as Ed notes, this will bring about compatibility issues for applications, unless developers utilize the Windows 7 testing cycle resolve any issues if it is incremented to NT 7.0 by PDC 2008.
Written by Teching It Easy: Windows Vista & 7 on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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Hi there, Mike Nash here.
For me, one of the most exciting times in the release of a new product is right before we show it to the world for the first time. And that time is right now.
In a few weeks we are going to be talking about the details of this release at the PDC and at WinHEC. We will be sharing a pre-beta "developer only release" with attendees of both shows and giving them the first broad in-depth look at what we've been up to. I can't wait for them to see it.
And, as you probably know, since we began development of the next version of the Windows client operating system we have been referring to it by a codename, "Windows 7." But now is a good time to announce that we've decided to officially call the next version of Windows, "Windows 7."
While I know there have been a few cases at Microsoft when the codename of a product was used for the final release, I am pretty sure that this is a first for Windows. You might wonder about the decision.
The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.
Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7" just makes sense.
We are very excited about the opportunity to tell you more about Windows 7 in the coming weeks, and show you how we have continued to build on investments begun in Windows Vista to deliver on the next release of the Windows operating system.
I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming weeks and months.
--Mike
Written by Mike Nash on October 13th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on WinHEC 2008 and PDC 2008 and otherSoftware and windows 7 and Windows and Announcement and Featured News.
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