Mandriva Linux 2010 GNOME – Solid and Sweet

Posted on November 30, 2009 | 7 Comments

I had a quick look at the Mandriva Linux 2010 GNOME edition and it turned out to be great. Having used Mandriva Linux 2009 and 2009

Desktop

Mandriva Linux 2010 - GNOME Desktop

Spring GNOME, I was certain that this release is going to be as solid as stable as it ever was. The GNOME edition provides one of the best, stable desktop experiences. If KDE stands for innovation and glittering eye candy, GNOME is all about stability. It just gets out of your way when you work. Of course, you can also get all the eye candy by enabling Compiz. There is also new artwork in Steel blue and Mandriva has introduced a new Steel theme for the window decoration to go with it.

Here is a quick look at the other stuff.

Software

The 2010 release comes with the following software and more.

  • GNOME 2.28
  • Firefox 3.5.3
  • OpenOffice.org 3.1.1
  • GIMP
  • Empathy Instant Messenger

Pidgin has been left out in favour of Empathy. I am still not so comfortable using Empathy. Other than this, there are no other surprises. Mandriva’s control center is still the one stop shop for admin needs.

One problem I faced is that I could not install any Adobe AIR apps. They seemed to be failing and I was not sure why. This happened on the KDE edition as well and so nothing specific to the GNOME edition.

Conclusion

After running Mandriva Linux 2010 GNOME for a couple of days, I could say, Mandriva Linux 2010 GNOME edition is as stable as its predecessors with newer versions of popular software and makes a great desktop experience.

Screenshots

As usual, here are a few screenshots.

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7 responses to “Mandriva Linux 2010 GNOME – Solid and Sweet”

  1. Pingback: Capnkirby » Blog Archive » Mandriva Linux 2010 GNOME – Solid and Sweet

  2. Pingback: Links 30/11/2009: KDE 4.4 Preview, VirtualBox 3.1 Released | Boycott Novell

  3. shamil | December 2, 2009 at 6:59 am | Reply

    “If KDE stands for innovation and glittering eye candy, GNOME is all about stability.”

    If you will say that, then i will conclude with my bias that you like to use a DE that holds your hand. Learn how to write a review instead of a few short paragraphs of bias.

    • Bala | December 2, 2009 at 2:38 pm | Reply

      @Shamil,I would suggest you read my previous post on the KDE Desktop so that you realise I am not biased towards any DE or any distro for that matter. I use whichever DE or distro that works for me with minimum hassle.

      I have used KDE right from 2.x and now looking at KDE 4.3, it is a lot better, but, I can say for sure it is not so stable as GNOME. The plasma desktop crashed on first login in openSUSE 11.2 and in Mandriva One KDE, which I use currently, the “desktop process died unexpectedly” on several occasions while logging in.

      That is not my idea of a stable desktop.Frankly, I have not seen something like this on the GNOME desktop in a long time.

  4. shamil | December 3, 2009 at 8:40 am | Reply

    That’s fine, but your review doesn’t reflect anything of this.

  5. tanclo | December 9, 2009 at 5:45 pm | Reply

    Helpful. Thank you

  6. Pingback: 2010 in review | B Space

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