Mageia 8 Linux OS Is Inching Closer To Release

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Mageia 8 Linux OS Is Inching Closer To Release

"The road to get Mageia 8 is winding, slow but steady," begins the project's latest status update...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mageia-8-Closer

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I'd be curious to hear from Mageia or OpenMandriva users what they feel the big differentiators are compared to other distros or just other reasons they are happy where they are.

[BronzeBeard]

I'd be curious to hear from Mageia or OpenMandriva users what they feel the big differentiators are compared to other distros or just other reasons they are happy where they are.

Just a little background on me,

I'm primarily a FreeBSD user now. But I do use a few Linux boxes for work and play, including Mageia on a few machines. I've been in and around the Linux ecosystem since Mandrake 7, but spent most of my time on Slackware and Arch before jumping to FreeBSD. I have used most recent and past mainstream distros and a few obscure ones no one has heard of (Yopper anyone?). I currently support software on any Linux distro with a pulse.

I have 6 FreeBSD machines, 3 FreeBSD servers, 3 Mageia machines, 1 Debian machines (switch to NetBSD soon), 1 Debian server, 1 NetBSD machine, a bunch of other irreverent to the question computers, and about 15 Virtual Machines of all different distros for work.

So I figure qualified enough for this question.

I currently use Mageia on three machines: my workstation (which will be switched to FreeBSD once bhyve gets gpu passthrough), family room TV computer, and my son's HP Stream 7 x86 tablet (running 32-bit because only 1GB of ram).


Compared to Ubuntus, you don't have the Ubuntu baggage. No mir, no unity, no embedded Amazon widget, etc. Ubuntu has gotten more tame with NIH, but then they do stuff like dropping 32-bit runtime support until the Steam and Wine backlash reverses that decision. Out of the box you get more options without having to install entirely different distros to get a different desktop environment. Mageia still supports 32-bit arch. Mageia Control Center, although a little buggy, keeps some common system setup tasks very simple. If you need more advanced options, you'll still need to dig into the config files.

Compared to Ubuntu-based, you're not toting around any baggage Ubuntu adds, such as removing 32-bit runtime support from 64-bit builds. Mageia supports 32-bit. Mageia Control Center...

Compared to Debian, Similar stable release system, but the software isn't outdated. Mageia's 32-bit live installer doesn't require 1GB of ram like Debian... URPMI has nicer syntax in my opinion. Mageia Control Center...

Arch, Mageia is not a rolling release. 32-bit support, don't have to set up everything yourself. Downside, is fewer packages in repo. Mageia Control Center...

Manjaro, Mageia is not a rolling release. Mageia has 32-bit support, but fewer packages in repo. Mageia Control Center...

Fedora, Mageia is not tied to Redhat, has 32-bit support. Mageia benefits greatly from fedora RPM work. I don't have much experience in modern Fedora though.

Slackware, Slackware is my preferred Linux distro, but Patrick has delayed 15 for so long, I had to jump from 14.2 to Mageia 7 a couple years ago. Mageia is a lot easier to setup stuff outside of the base install. But beyond that, I am a slacker... If I wasn't moving my workstation to FreeBSD in 1-2 years, I would switch that machine back to Slackware when 15 is released.

OpenSuse, amazingly, this is the one distro I haven't used in 20 freaken years, and I have never had a support ticket for it. I was going to install 32-bit tumbleweed on my son's tablet, but the installer didn't support 32-bit UEFI... So Mageia 8 Alpha it was...

Ultimately, all the Linux distros are fairly similar. It's really pedantic differences between them all. Mageia is a stable release distro with fairly current software. Mageia is an RPM based distro, which means if there isn't packages you need, you can probably use Fedora's. Mageia installer gives quite a few options that lets you hit the ground running with minimal setup. Mageia Control Center centralizes system and software configuration using a GUI. It's independent, so not beholden to anyone elses' work.

For me, it has been a rock solid choice for KDE and XFCE. I think the KDE setup, particularly the menus is a little more solid. Getting everything setup and going is a lot quicker than other distros I have used, especially if you need to quickly configure firewalls, Apache, parental controls, printers, configure smb, etc. It has become my go-to Linux distro for computers I don't want to tinker on.

The only downside I have ran across is a couple packages have odd flags set. For example, dillo isn't compiled with ssl support... (Don't ask how I learned that.)

I would compare it to a Mint or something similar. It's the type of distro you give to someone who doesn't want to, or can't mess around with tinkering or setting stuff up. It just works.

[Spooktra]

BronzeBeard, you should try MX Linux, it's as close to the perfect Linux distro as anything I have ever seen.