Thoughts about Mageia linux?

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Thoughts about Mageia linux?

Postby malikben9 » Oct 8th, '20, 18:19

I'm looking into trying out this distro when I get some free time. In the meanwhile I'd love to here your experiences with it:

What's "special" about this distro? What sets it apart from others? In other words, why do you love it?

How's the KDE experience?

What are the current packages versions (kernel, plasma, kde apps, etc..) and how often are the updated? Thanks!
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Re: Thoughts about Mageia linux?

Postby xboxboy » Oct 9th, '20, 00:31

The 'special' thing for me is two main things:
A: It's Mandrake based, meaning our configuration centre, MCC (Mandrake/Mandriva/Mageia Control Centre) exists: View hardware, view, mount, format drives, set up samba/network shares etc etc Can all be done graphically. Sure CLI is faster, more powerful. But IT isn't my day job. When I want to format a drive, I want to be able to do it easily, quickly, without hours of googlefu. MCC allows that.

B: It's community owned: No cranky corporate interference (I am a capitalist: But the goals of a capitalist and their customer are two different things: With Mageia I am a customer, I want it to be functional, hassle free) So Mageia has a few things that you don't see with the big corporate sponsored distro's, and ultimately was probably why Mandrake/Mandriva was unable to be profitable. Our users (particularly in a business setting) don't have to buy 'support' to get things done.

And bonus C: The devs are very responsive. Once or twice I've found bugs or requested a package, and with in weeks it's sorted. Very cool group of people here, some of the smartest on the planet I suspect.
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Re: Thoughts about Mageia linux?

Postby benmc » Oct 11th, '20, 05:56

Mageia runs 2 versions, development and release.

most users run release, which has an approx 2 year life, and is ultra stable.
current kernel on this machine :
Code: Select all
uname -r
5.7.19-desktop-1.mga7

current plasma is 5.15.4.

development version (or Cauldron) is a truly rolling release, use with care.
but it does give the pretty late versions of (lts or esr )packages

kernel is 5.8.14
plasma 5.19.5
plasma framework 5.74.0

I understand that these will be updated soon.
System is available in 32 and 64 bit versions, and has proven quite easy to install on a variety of hardware, including 32bit EFI devices.
----------------------------------------------------------------
upgrading:
upgrading from one release to the next is straight forward, no need for complex CLI incantations.
3 options,
1/ wait for the icon in the system tray, usually occurs within a week of the new current release.
2/ just change your repos to the new current release and run the normal update command,
3/ download the new current release Classical Install media and use to upgrade your ssytem.
after your first reboot, you are likely to be presented with a large update package set as the medium used is only has room for a subset of a usual system.

these 3 upgrade paths are perfected before the new current release is available.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daily use.
this machine
Code: Select all
top - 16:20:22 up 11 days,  9:23,

last boot would have been for a kernel update.
does everything I need / want to do.
adding or removing packages via GUI is much simpler than synaptic. preset filters are easy to use
adding or removing packages via CLI is a simple 2 word command
Code: Select all
urpmi package_name
or
Code: Select all
urpme package_name
.
you can even "tab" the command after the first few letters of the package name and it will provide available "auto-fill" of packages. you then complete the command if more than one option presented

currently with 17 firefox browser tabs, 6 terminal windows open and 5 other applications open
Code: Select all
MiB Mem :   7894.2 total,   2558.5 free,   3456.5 used,   1879.3 buff/cache
MiB Swap:  10000.0 total,  10000.0 free,      0.0 used.   3593.2 avail Mem
.

not the fasted to boot up as a lot of service are initialised during bootup, but once logged in to the desktop I have experienced no lag on multiple machines.
Code: Select all
systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 6.308s (kernel) + 16.726s (userspace) = 23.034s
graphical.target reached after 16.715s in userspace

this is a HP Probook 4520s (core i5, with SSD & no tweaking as I cant be bothered)
Mageia easily supports the multiple Desktop_At_Once feature, just choose your preferred one for this session at login.

What makes it special for me is that "really, it just works!"

I have tried other distros but TBH, they really dont work for me.
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Re: Thoughts about Mageia linux?

Postby newmo » Oct 14th, '20, 19:45

I would echo benmc and xboxboy -

I like its stability
I like the the MCC
I like the fact that all the upgrades have worked a treat
I have great confidence in the community resources such as this forum and the wiki

In addition

I like the Mageia welcome applet which points to useful starter downloads such as codecs
I like the artwork!
I like being amazed at how this community-driven OS delivers so much - a real credit to all the devs and other contributors.

As for KDE, this was not a selling point for me. I thought it a bit of dated and not too pretty, but its a great environment for my main computer. I am a complete convert.
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Re: Thoughts about Mageia linux?

Postby gnumax » Apr 13th, '21, 09:21

Hello, my friend @malikben9, I am a new member in Mageia. I was a former Mandriva user, proudly, and Mandriva introduced me to KDE, which is my favorite up to today. Everything I had have already said very well by friends above (@xboxboy @benmc @newmo). However, my biggest admiration to Mageia is the documentation. Look at https://doc.mageia.org it is excellent. Not only that, the very documentation had a copy within Mageia operating system itself. Plus, it as a Wiki which explains everything technical. To me, it is comparable to Red Hat's, Ubuntu's, or SUSE's documentations just looking at it made me feel like home. This is from me.

Regards,

Gnumax
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