OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

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OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

Post by wove »

I was reading about OpenMandriva and did not realize it was a fork of Rosa Linux, which was itself a fork of Mandriva. Didn't Mandriva itself come from Mandrake? At one point I sort of liked Rosa, but at least for a while they seemed to fall way behind the rest of the Linux world.

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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

Post by crosscourt »

Mandriva split at one point and yes it was originally Mandrake. Part of Mandriva ended up becoming Mageia and the other became OpenMandriva which eventually became a fork of ROSA Linux which as you said was also forked from Mandriva. OpenMandriva is no longer based on ROSA
PCLinuxOS was also forked from Mandriva and was based on it for a time but is independent now.
ROSA is still around and was quite good for a time but recently has fallen behind.
I used Mandriva for a long time and really liked it but recently these distros have had many issues and odd dev decisions. Mageia 8 for me is probably the best of this group.
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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

Post by wove »

I read today that OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 will be supporting the Pinebook Pro. The RC image is available for download, but the darn thing is 5.6 GB in size and that is a hell of a big download on my slow and pathetic internet connection. However there is nothing I have tried that really gives a great experience on the Pinebook Pro, so perhaps one night before I go to bed I will try the download.

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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

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OpenMandriva has been a bit of a mess the last two versions. Typically they have a smaller installation version similar to what Mageia does, so you might want to check. 5.6gb is ludicrous for an iso.
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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

Post by wove »

Arm devices do not really have installers. The functional system is created and distributed as an image which is then written to the device typically using either something like Etcher, or just using "dd". Typically the images that are distributed are heavily compressed. Though even with compression they tend to be in the 2GB size. Those images when decompressed are five to six GB in size. Etcher automates the decompression and writing, while using dd requires you to decompress the image first.

All the most recent images when first booted go into an OEM setup/first run, where you create a user, location, network configuration etc, all done from the console. It then reboots to the user log-on, and takes you into the stock desktop. This setup is very different from common desktop installs, but is a reflection of Arm's heritage of typically used in devices where the system is stored in ROM.

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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

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Already aware of the nature of ARM devices but being able to avoid 5.6gb for a smaller image was the point I was trying to make.
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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

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Ill be giving this a try this week. I kept hoping for a good distro and it would be fun to be using Mandriva after using it as my first free distro.
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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

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Installed it tonite on my Dell E6420 and its the best version theyve created and is an excellent distro. Installation was simple, welcome center greets you at GUI and allows you to install some apps right away that you might need. Discover came up and I updated the install but DNF Dragora is also available.
They have a tool so you can set what repos you want to use but its not as large as the one with Mageia. Control center is still there but has been totally revamped into a really nice looking design, no longer using the older graphics of past years.
Selection of apps is excellent and they use the falkon browser as default. LibreOffice is there and the KDE version is 520.4 with the 5.10.3 kernel.
Codecs were already installed and multimedia tests went fine. They use Elisa as the music player so you may want to install youre own choice. K3b wasnt installed either but VLC is there.
The iso was 2.2gb so no issues with large downloads. Resource usage is 450mb at GUI so thats good as well.No hardware issues at all.
Overall looks are well done and the distro has a polished feel to it.

Absolutely one of the nicest distros ive tried this year and it may very well become my daily driver but Ill post back once Ive used it more.
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Re: OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 RC released

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I tested it on the much older E4300 and it runs extremely fast, spotted the older hardware, even the wifi and its working fine. The network manager is the typical KDE version, not Net Applet used with Mageia and PCLinuxOS, which I prefer. Im impressed at this point and its nice to have a nostalgic alternative to Ubuntu/Debian based distros.
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