Mandriva 2009 was released a few days ago, and I just finished installing it on my Asus Eee PC 1000H. The latest version of this open source operating system comes with KDE 4.1, and up to date software including OpenOffice 3.0 (although for some reason it includes GIMP 2.4.7, even though GIMP 2.6.1 was released a week or two ago and OpenOffice.org 3.0 isn’t officially due out until today).

One of the other exciting changes in Mandriva 2009 is improved support for netbooks. Mandriva was one of the first Linux distributions to add out of the box support for the Eee PC 701 earlier this year. Mandriva 2009 supports additionaal Eee PC models as well as other netbooks. In the official product announcement, Mandriva claims that the new version will auto-detect low-resource systems or netbooks and install a GNOME desktop instead of the more resource-hungry KDE. But either I did something wrong or Mandriva 2009 doesn’t recognize the Eee PC 1000H as a low resource device. Either way, I wound up with a KDE desktop when running from the LiveCD and it stuck around after I installed the operating system.

Overall, I have to say I’m fairly impressed. This is my first experience with Mandriva, and while I’ve read that the install process in the past has been a bit tricky, Mandriva 2009 was a breeze to install. There are very few questions to answer and the whole installation took just a few minutes.

Read the rest of this entry »

For the last few days I’ve been puzzled by a press release announcing that Mandriva had launched a new version of its Linux distribution specifically tailored for netbooks. Puzzled because for the life of me, I couldn’t find a download link. But after doing a little more digging (and waiting for Mandriva to post a more thorough release on its own site), I think I’ve figured out why I can’t download Mandriva Mini and slap it on my Eee PC 1000H. I’m not supposed to.

Mandriva Mini is a customized version of Mandriva Linux that the company is targeting at computer makers looking for an operating system to install on netbooks. It’s not really geared at end users (unless you count the fact that end users will ultimately the folks who umm… use the software in the end). Thus, no download link. But you will soon be able to pick up a netbook with Mandriva Mini pre-installed. The first netbook expected to run the operating system is the Emtec Gdium.

So what sets Mandriva Mini apart from other versions of Mandriva? First, it’s designed to provide fast boot times on supported hardware. Like 10 to 40 second boot times. It also offers power management features to prolong batteyr life, ships with major mulltimedia codecs, and supports various forms of internet connectivity including WiFi and 3G connections.

Like Linpus Linux Lite, Asus’s custom version of Xandros, and Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Mandriva Mini also has a custom interface designed to make it easier to launch programs and perform other tasks on a computer with a small screen. I found the picture of Mandriva Mini posted above at French site Clubic.

Read the rest of this entry »