Mandriva has released a new live CD and called it One.
The CD is based on Mandriva 2006. It can be used as a live CD or
installed.
This is quite a change.
A full install of Mandriva is usually at least 3 CDs or one DVD.
The CD has been getting road tested by Mandriva Club members for a
little while and has been getting good reviews from the members.
Now its on release to the mirrors for anyone to
download.
The CD comes in 4 versions for different languages.
Requirements for the disk are as follows.
256mb ram
AMD or Intel processor (pentium)
Nvidia, ATI intel i8xx i9xx graphics supported
Soundblaster and compatible or ac97 soundcards supported.
A friend had to format his drive recently and wanted to install
Mandriva back on it as well as his XP setup.
What better opportunity?
The live CD comes with a wide range of programs installed to make your
life easy.
Apart from the background picture the screen looks the same as the 2006
install disk.
The difference is that it simply loads as a live disk.
Once up and running, it all looks familiar to anyone whos seen Mandriva
running. KDE as the window manger and the icons are familiar.
I should mention that these screens are from the Mandriva site (I
didn't think to grab them when I did the install).
The live disk works smoothly, and has a basic range that should suffice
for casual users. Open Office is included, plus browsers, Kopete and
Shorewall for a firewall.
I found the install quick and easy. Click the icon to get the above
screen. Simply follow the wizard and , in a few moments, you'll have a
Mandriva setup on your computer.
The install will partition your drive to your own requirements.
Mandriva has always been one of the easier distros to have installed
with a good hardware recognition. My friends internet connection was
set up with a minimum of fuss and I configured
Easy URPMI
for him as well. It then was a simple matter of choosing additional
packages and downloading them.
I found this install was the usual easy Mandriva setup and with the
benefit of what is really a stripped down version of the full distro.
This meant that a lot of apps that he didn't use weren't installed so
he ended up only with what he wanted.
Mandriva has also launched something else alongside One. It's a new
tool called
Kiosk.
This is a "one click" tool which will install apps on your distribution.
Mandriva 2006 uses KDE 2.4.3. With Kiosk you can download and install
KDE 3.5 which won't be included until Mandriva 2007.
However, Kiosk isn't free. They appear to have taken a leaf from
Linspire's book and charge for the use of Kiosk similar to "C'n'R" on
Linspire.
Kiosk is (just) under 30 euros for a year, it's free to Club members. Remember
Club members already pay for the privilege of being in the Club.
If you run Mandriva, its a simple way of updating your distro, and at around
£20 isn't all that expensive. It will be interesting to see the take up of Kiosk
especially since Mandriva appears to be heading into choppy financial waters
again.
Kiosk has a range of packages ready for download and it might well end up that
people will stick to their present distro if they can just upgrade the packages
they want like the new KDE or Gnome.
