Comments on: LugRadio tests the latest distros http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros scratched tallies on the prison wall Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:05:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Adam Williamson http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99774 Adam Williamson Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:59:10 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99774 Not sure what was going on with the package installer (rpmdrake) - I just checked running it here, from the MCC (run MCC, choose Software Management tab, click "Manage software"), the command line ("rpmdrake" as root), and the default menu entry (it's on the top level of the system menus as "Add / Remove Software"), and it just launches straight into the manager, doesn't ask me any questions. Do you remember the exact text of the question by any chance? That'd make it easier to figure out what was going on, I guess. There is a 'which version of Mandriva is right for you' - http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Choosing_the_right_edition . I'll ask if we'd want to link it from the download page. Not sure what was going on with the package installer (rpmdrake) - I just checked running it here, from the MCC (run MCC, choose Software Management tab, click “Manage software”), the command line (”rpmdrake” as root), and the default menu entry (it’s on the top level of the system menus as “Add / Remove Software”), and it just launches straight into the manager, doesn’t ask me any questions. Do you remember the exact text of the question by any chance? That’d make it easier to figure out what was going on, I guess.

There is a ‘which version of Mandriva is right for you’ - http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Choosing_the_right_edition . I’ll ask if we’d want to link it from the download page.

]]> By: Adam Sweet http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99773 Adam Sweet Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:09:55 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99773 Adam: Straight-off, my bad. Yeah I picked the Free edition. Had I not been getting a bunch of other isos at work (more than just the ones we reviewed, as we planned to play with a load of others if we had time) and doing it while I should have been been working, I might have absorbed the words 'Free Download' next to the Mandriva One download. My mind assumed the Free version was the free version and the One version was a Club membership required version and well, I didn't want to mess around with 'yet another thing which requires my web contact details'. This was of course an error in my thinking and I guess you have been unfairly reviewed because of it. I'll do my best to make this error clear in the next show. It would be especially helpful if you were to email the show to remind us (me) of our (my) gross negligence. Feel free to throw in liberal insults. Sadly I can't even blame Jono for this one. Regarding the rest of the review, yes KDE made me itch like I was in a bath of cockroaches, but I'm a Gnome guy, I chose KDE to get what most people would choose when installing Mandriva, at least from a historical perception. I tried Gnome briefly and I did find it very nice. The package installer annoyed me by repeatedly asking me if I really wanted to install or update software and I didn't like the Control Centre too much (I'm an Ubuntu/Gnome guy...), I couldn't find what I was looking for for a few mins (I forget what I was looking for now) and I think things went a bit strange when I managed to open 2 Control Centres at the same time. But on the other hand, I did find Mandriva a well put together distribution, I understood how to do what I wanted (discounting searching the Control Centre for whatever it was and my mistake by choosing the Free edition), the Gnome desktop seemed very nice and the bluetooth stuff seemed to work very well. And things could have been far worse, you could have been OpenSUSE (and reviewed by Aq ;) I admit that most people when choosing which version of Linux to download would pay more attention to what they were choosing than I did, but it might be useful to make a big "Which version of Mandriva is right for you?" thing out of it. You kinda did, but it wasn't distinct enough to override the ambiguity of naming something Free (as the name of the distro it's a proper noun and so will always be capitalised) and my ignorant mind which happened to be on auto-pilot at the time. I really am sorry about that so mail in to the show or leave us a voicemail and we'll set it straight. Adam: Straight-off, my bad. Yeah I picked the Free edition. Had I not been getting a bunch of other isos at work (more than just the ones we reviewed, as we planned to play with a load of others if we had time) and doing it while I should have been been working, I might have absorbed the words ‘Free Download’ next to the Mandriva One download. My mind assumed the Free version was the free version and the One version was a Club membership required version and well, I didn’t want to mess around with ‘yet another thing which requires my web contact details’. This was of course an error in my thinking and I guess you have been unfairly reviewed because of it. I’ll do my best to make this error clear in the next show. It would be especially helpful if you were to email the show to remind us (me) of our (my) gross negligence. Feel free to throw in liberal insults. Sadly I can’t even blame Jono for this one.

Regarding the rest of the review, yes KDE made me itch like I was in a bath of cockroaches, but I’m a Gnome guy, I chose KDE to get what most people would choose when installing Mandriva, at least from a historical perception. I tried Gnome briefly and I did find it very nice. The package installer annoyed me by repeatedly asking me if I really wanted to install or update software and I didn’t like the Control Centre too much (I’m an Ubuntu/Gnome guy…), I couldn’t find what I was looking for for a few mins (I forget what I was looking for now) and I think things went a bit strange when I managed to open 2 Control Centres at the same time.

But on the other hand, I did find Mandriva a well put together distribution, I understood how to do what I wanted (discounting searching the Control Centre for whatever it was and my mistake by choosing the Free edition), the Gnome desktop seemed very nice and the bluetooth stuff seemed to work very well. And things could have been far worse, you could have been OpenSUSE (and reviewed by Aq ;)

I admit that most people when choosing which version of Linux to download would pay more attention to what they were choosing than I did, but it might be useful to make a big “Which version of Mandriva is right for you?” thing out of it. You kinda did, but it wasn’t distinct enough to override the ambiguity of naming something Free (as the name of the distro it’s a proper noun and so will always be capitalised) and my ignorant mind which happened to be on auto-pilot at the time. I really am sorry about that so mail in to the show or leave us a voicemail and we’ll set it straight.

]]> By: Adam Williamson http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99772 Adam Williamson Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:43:49 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99772 yep, I hit the bullseye. Okay, the error message sucks. Sorry about that :(. You don't need to be in the Club to get ipw3945 firmware. You need to either a) install the One edition - which is the default, basic, stock edition, as I just pointed out - or b) set up the normal repositories (which include the official non-free repository, where the firmware package lives) and re-run the network setup tool. Yes, I realize this is a bit difficult if you have no wired connection, but Free is, well, *free* - it doesn't include any non-free stuff. And Intel firmware is non-free. yep, I hit the bullseye.

Okay, the error message sucks. Sorry about that :(. You don’t need to be in the Club to get ipw3945 firmware. You need to either a) install the One edition - which is the default, basic, stock edition, as I just pointed out - or b) set up the normal repositories (which include the official non-free repository, where the firmware package lives) and re-run the network setup tool. Yes, I realize this is a bit difficult if you have no wired connection, but Free is, well, *free* - it doesn’t include any non-free stuff. And Intel firmware is non-free.

]]> By: Adam Williamson http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99771 Adam Williamson Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:33:52 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99771 ...and now I'm listening to the show, didn't get into the actual reviews yet, but I'm disappointed already - you say you tested what most people would consider to be the stock, default media for each distro, yet you tested the Free edition of Mandriva 2008. This specifically is *not* the stock, default edition - if you go to www.mandriva.com , whack on the big green 'Download' button, and download the default selection, it's the One edition. not the Free edition. One is a single-CD edition which includes all proprietary drivers and firmware. I am betting you're about to give Mandriva a kicking for not making it easy to get these. Sigh. …and now I’m listening to the show, didn’t get into the actual reviews yet, but I’m disappointed already - you say you tested what most people would consider to be the stock, default media for each distro, yet you tested the Free edition of Mandriva 2008. This specifically is *not* the stock, default edition - if you go to http://www.mandriva.com , whack on the big green ‘Download’ button, and download the default selection, it’s the One edition. not the Free edition. One is a single-CD edition which includes all proprietary drivers and firmware. I am betting you’re about to give Mandriva a kicking for not making it easy to get these. Sigh.

]]> By: Adam Williamson http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99770 Adam Williamson Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:53:37 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99770 I've done both (connecting to the Internet and transferring files) via Bluetooth, on Mandriva, but it did require some chicanery and it was on GNOME (you'd probably have tested KDE, I didn't listen to the show yet). KDE's Bluetooth stuff seems to get a lot more work than GNOME's does (GNOME still has two different Bluetooth applets, ergh), but it also gets broken quite a lot... I’ve done both (connecting to the Internet and transferring files) via Bluetooth, on Mandriva, but it did require some chicanery and it was on GNOME (you’d probably have tested KDE, I didn’t listen to the show yet). KDE’s Bluetooth stuff seems to get a lot more work than GNOME’s does (GNOME still has two different Bluetooth applets, ergh), but it also gets broken quite a lot…

]]> By: sil http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99769 sil Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:55:57 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99769 Karl: they sound like fairly serious bugs. You've reported them, I imagine? :-) Karl: they sound like fairly serious bugs. You’ve reported them, I imagine? :-)

]]> By: sil http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99768 sil Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:55:29 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99768 Bastian: well, the idea behind the test was that we'd try "transferring files via Bluetooth" or "connecting to the internet via Bluetooth", but nothing actually got far enough that those tests were even doable... Bastian: well, the idea behind the test was that we’d try “transferring files via Bluetooth” or “connecting to the internet via Bluetooth”, but nothing actually got far enough that those tests were even doable…

]]> By: Karl Lattimer http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99767 Karl Lattimer Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:50:43 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99767 Until gutsy can get by without erroneously detecting sound cards as lin modems and putting the i386 kernel minus important modules as the default on upgrading my machines from feisty I think fedora will still have my heart. Until gutsy can get by without erroneously detecting sound cards as lin modems and putting the i386 kernel minus important modules as the default on upgrading my machines from feisty I think fedora will still have my heart.

]]> By: Bastien http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99766 Bastien Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:11:03 +0000 http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2007/11/05/lugradio-tests-the-latest-distros#comment-99766 What on earth does "connecting via Bluetooth" mean? Is it similar to "plugging in via USB"? Because you can connect easily with any distro, you just can't do anything after that. What on earth does “connecting via Bluetooth” mean? Is it similar to “plugging in via USB”? Because you can connect easily with any distro, you just can’t do anything after that.

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