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What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Dec 30th, '16, 11:00
by VoiceOfReason
Hi everyone, hope you all had a good Christmas. :)

I've had this question brewing in my head for a while now, and finally made an account here to ask it: Considering how similar OpenMandriva and Mageia are in their goals and history (forks of Mandriva), how would you (the Mageia community) feel if the OpenMandriva project wanted to officially merge with Mageia?

In this hypothetical scenario, would you be alright if their wallpapers, icons, themes, etc, were integrated into Mageia as an optional thing during install? Would the OpenMandriva developers be welcomed by the Mageia team?

It just seems that at the moment, having OpenMandriva and Mageia as separate entities is an effort in duplication for no real benefit. If we can make good distros alone, just imagine what we could make if we combined forces!

I am eager to hear your opinions on this. ^.^

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Dec 30th, '16, 19:07
by rbrick49
I say go for it

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Dec 31st, '16, 12:35
by filip
This is a legit and a reasonable wish. AFAIK there are already some packagers that package for both distros. But I guess if you want that all OpenMandriva developers join Mageia community you should ask them. If you're talking about the whole OpenMandriva project it's the same. Being also an elected council member I would probably vote for it. I can't write 100% yes as I didn't see the request and it's details yet. I can't say for other council members tough.

Anyone is welcomed in our community assuming that she/he follows our code of conduct. Of course packagers also have an apprentice "program". Similar is for other teams.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Jan 4th, '17, 20:03
by liaoliao
good theorical question

but mageia is almost dead now

openmandriva survive better but a merge with mageia will slowdown it too much

loook at mageia 6 delay and think yourself: you want same delay for openmandriva?

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Jan 6th, '17, 13:59
by filip
liaoliao wrote:but mageia is almost dead now

openmandriva survive better but a merge with mageia will slowdown it too much

loook at mageia 6 delay and think yourself: you want same delay for openmandriva?


Are you sure that you know the Mageia community?

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Jan 7th, '17, 00:22
by xboxboy
liaoliao wrote:good theorical question

but mageia is almost dead now

openmandriva survive better but a merge with mageia will slowdown it too much

loook at mageia 6 delay and think yourself: you want same delay for openmandriva?


Dead??? Far from. Updates are still pouring through, almost daily.

The mailing lists are buzzing: https://ml.mageia.org/l/lists

And there is plenty of development going on: https://ml.mageia.org/l/arc/dev/2017-01/thrd1.html Yes, 10 pages of topics on the dev mailing list this month, it's only the 7th of January!!!!!

So no, it's not dead. That's an insult to the hard working guys and girls who work for FREE on building mageia.

Yes, Mageia 6 is running late, but there's several reasons, some unpredictable (personal health, family concerns for key people) and some huge technical bumps with new major versions of software. Mageia 6 is going to be a huge step forward, in terms of software and system structure. If it's as stable as Mageia 4 and 5 have been, I'm more than ready to keep updating 5 until 6 is ready.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Jan 7th, '17, 01:04
by alf
OpenMandriva more vivid than Mageia? Have a look at their releases, their forums.
If anything is in lethargy, it's OMA :(

Besides that, no one in OMA is interested in a merger or join.

jm2c

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Jan 7th, '17, 11:11
by Bequimao
@ liaoliao,

You see Mageia is extremely user friendly. It is even friendly to help vampires and trolls :D

Bequimão

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Oct 21st, '18, 22:02
by ca-on-adam
Bequimao wrote:@ liaoliao,

You see Mageia is extremely user friendly. It is even friendly to help vampires and trolls :D

Bequimão


You got that right! I love this community.

Also, since I've read that Mageia is moving for the dnf frontend to the package manager, I assume that OpenMandriva will continue using the URPMI suite primarily while Mageia will continue progressing with the dnf software.

But even if I am wrong on that, I bet there are other differences in goals and plans that will keep each distribution distinct in what it offers.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Jun 21st, '19, 18:12
by Weatherlawyer
But it is hardly a social media is it.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Sep 15th, '19, 17:19
by suspiciousmilk
PCLinuxOS has more users than Mageia and OpenMandriva combined.
They have a smaller team; but (at least) they have a clear vision.

If any devs/users of a Mandrake descendant OS were to "join forces" with another, you should probably look at the most popular branch (the PCLOS forums have ~100 times more users active at almost any given time).

Even PCLinuxOS will eventually dwindle its userbase with their current strategy/vision. They seem to just really hang on to the past as hardcore as possible, and sometimes that's okay (it's userbase thinks so!). But like Slackware, it'll be a long slow death to irrelevancy.

OpenMandriva's vision/path seems to be happy as a repackaged leftovers of the corporate ROSA which itself is not hugely successful. Not sure why Mageia would look there for inspiration.

Mageia needs to UPDATE it's website (the Forums and support channels should not be multiple clicks away; one click on main landing page ****duh****). "Stable, secure operating system for desktop & server" is a p!ss poor statement of vision/direction. It's too generic (WHAT DISTRO DOESN'T want to provide that????). Don't really think it's being widely used as a server OS either. Focus on desktop.

How about instead of a cheap alternative to RH/Fedora/SuSE Mageia actually lead from time to time? They take no chances. How about some new defaults ...

RUNIT or OPENRC should replace SYSTEMD ;;;
LibreSSL should replace OpenSSL ;;;
Mageia ALREADY runs better on some lower hardware than most distro's; capitalize on that strength. LXQT and Cinnamon should be the top two/main supported DE's. ;;;;
Update the control center to config things USERS are using/needing and easier (non-terminal) solution like zram/zswap. How about single-click easy for n00b encrypt folder option. Many more tools could be added to set Mageia apart.
ZFS or XFS as defualt <--these things indicate an actual direction ;;;
FOR GODS SAKE ROLLING RELEASE ALREADY (does not have to mean more rapid updates) ;;;;

Mageia despite it's lack of leadership and direction, is still a solid distro and works better on "netbook" like hardware than other disto's that supposedly specialize in that. It's slow updates are advantageous for me to use it on hardware I use infrequently. But some serious changes in it's core vision and direction are needed before it would ever be my daily driver on my main rig.

Just the 2 cents from a part time user; who is glad Mandrake still has a legacy.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Sep 16th, '19, 20:32
by doktor5000
suspiciousmilk wrote:How about instead of a cheap alternative to RH/Fedora/SuSE Mageia actually lead from time to time?

You do realize that a major part of the work on those distros are being done by fulltime paid developers? And here at Mageia we have exactly 0 of those, everything is being done by voluntary contributors.

But as you seem to be pretty enthusiastic and know what should be done, feel free to help: https://www.mageia.org/contribute/

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Sep 16th, '19, 21:17
by benmc
suspiciousmilk wrote:FOR GODS SAKE ROLLING RELEASE ALREADY (does not have to mean more rapid updates) ;;;;


ok, ok, no need to shout.

as an aside, Mageia is in, reality a multi system release distro.
It has a stable release (7.1), both 32 and 64 bit, similar distros are getting a bit thin on the ground.
rock solid, the sort of thing your grandmother can use, without any hand holding.

It has a real rolling release (Cauldron) if you are adventurous enough to take it on.
TBH though, it appears to be just as stable as the stable release, (so far!) but I am sure that will change.
It can be installed via the net install medium or by upgrading your present Mageia system, just by changing your mirror.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Sep 17th, '19, 01:09
by suspiciousmilk
doktor5000 wrote:
suspiciousmilk wrote:How about instead of a cheap alternative to RH/Fedora/SuSE Mageia actually lead from time to time?

You do realize that a major part of the work on those distros are being done by fulltime paid developers? And here at Mageia we have exactly 0 of those, everything is being done by voluntary contributors.

But as you seem to be pretty enthusiastic and know what should be done, feel free to help: https://www.mageia.org/contribute/



Yes I realize that (not the exactly the image the landing page maintains, hence one of my suggestions).

No need for sarcasm or snarkyness. Does Mageia want USERS or just contributors? Not sure from your statement. If just contributors, then why solicit input on a public user forum? Private forums are thing too. Sorry you don't like my opinion, just trying to provide some input that's honest.

Some users cannot contribute due to various circumstances (life, time, finance, skill level, motivation, etc etc). If you don't want or value their opinions (the 1st step on the road to contributions for EVERY single contributor ever), you should really have that in a mission statement or something.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Sep 17th, '19, 01:12
by suspiciousmilk
benmc wrote:
suspiciousmilk wrote:FOR GODS SAKE ROLLING RELEASE ALREADY (does not have to mean more rapid updates) ;;;;


ok, ok, no need to shout.

[...]



Lol, I get excited!! I've never tried Cauldron; but have considered. How would it compare in stability to say Fedora? If anyone is experienced well in both?

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Sep 17th, '19, 01:39
by doktor5000
suspiciousmilk wrote:No need for sarcasm or snarkyness. Does Mageia want USERS or just contributors? Not sure from your statement. If just contributors, then why solicit input on a public user forum? Private forums are thing too. Sorry you don't like my opinion, just trying to provide some input that's honest.

Some users cannot contribute due to various circumstances (life, time, finance, skill level, motivation, etc etc). If you don't want or value their opinions (the 1st step on the road to contributions for EVERY single contributor ever), you should really have that in a mission statement or something.

Wasn't being snarky nor sarcastic. Also your logic is a bit off, every contributor is usually always a user, no ?
And we don't really have private forums/mailing lists except for moderation / administration purposes, usually all communication and input is public. Why should it be in private, what's the benefit?

And I 've never said I don't like your opinion. Although just providing your input and also making suggestions like openssl > libressl and systemd > runit/openrc will only achieve so much by itself.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Sep 17th, '19, 02:05
by benmc
benmc wrote:TBH though, it appears to be just as stable as the stable release, (so far!) but I am sure that will change


I have previously run Cauldron7 for months without any issue, then one update killed the system.
I was able to recover by rolling back the update (via image restoration) and carefully applying small groups of updates unit I located the offending package.
took another system image at this time.
then excluded that update package until several updates later, when it was ok.
so caveat emptor.
If you are able to recover your system from a complete bork, then cauldron is probably worth a look at.

regards Mageia Cauldron vs Fedora, unable to comment.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '19, 10:07
by omnio
suspiciousmilk wrote:RUNIT or OPENRC should replace SYSTEMD ;;;


That's THE BEST thing that can happen to Mageia. And it would attract a lot of users (and probably devs). No need to be a copycat of Fedora.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '20, 12:24
by mijarena
Well, I am a new member, but experience Linux user.

Let me tell you a little about my following conclusions to this.

I startet with Linux with SLS, Kernel 0.96 on 10 3,5 Floppy disks. I used a lot of Distributions in my time but came always back to SUSE, where I also worked a couple of years.
Why did I came always back? Well, because it was clean with nifty little things. Even today you will find a link from zypper to yzpper... file conflicts in packages almost never happens. I had a lot of them in Mageia. From this perspective SUSE is superior to Mageia.

But.

The quality is goning dow for many years now. Things start to not wor correctly anymore or as expected or you don't find them anymore.

That is why I was in search for a new distribution. And, as I new the ancessor of Mageia back in the 90th, I had the choice between openMandrive or Mageia. And I found a new home in Mageia.

Good documentation, also good documentation for contributors. And: Only community-driven, therfor possibilities to do thinks without the need of companies. So, as suspiciousmilk wrote above, a chance to do something different, something good.

because of this, from my point of view Mageia has a good chance, to overtop SUSE and others.

As a base,
it is a good RPM based distribution
and a good Control Center

What to do:
cleaner packages
improvment of MCC
really good BTRFS support from installation on
OH YES: RUNIT or OPENRC should replace SYSTEMD ;;;
Yes, roling release would be good, and it is not Cauldron, Caudron is unstable, Tumbleweed is stable
and a better package management system, zypper would be good urpmi has some little advanteges but is outdated and has a bad solving. With zypper dup an update of the system is much cleaner (And zypper can already do yast repositories, yum repositories, and plain repositories, and some more and is extendable with plugins)

To conclude
No to a merge with openMandriva
Yes to improve and to not look at all costs to compatibility to fedora or to "history"-build-up facts

For me, Mageia is a successor of Mandrake and not of Mandrive.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '20, 21:25
by morgano
SuSE was one of the three distros that i managed to install, when i first tried some in late nineties.
I ended up with Lindows/Linspire (for me it just worked, plus great forum. Heck, my printer could do more tricks using Linux than MSWin )
Linspire went downwards and I switched to Mandriva 2006 when i also left MSWin as main OS.

Like Mandriva grew by joining Connectiva to Mandrake, i think if more manpower could be assimilated to us, we are stronger together :)
All, if only people over there wants to of course...

Regarding package manager we have had people working much on DNF integration.
It is even in working state if you like to try, search our Wiki on DNF.

This is not my cup of tea, but if changing at all, i think continuing that work would be the best.
That said it is very seldom i find any package handling problems.
Also it have been debated much.
Basically: why change things that are working, and we are used to, and we lack manpower.

Some current statement and links at end of
Bug 20131 - Migrate package installation engine to DNF

Regarding what other program packages we support I wrote a summary on Ways to install programs on Mageia.

Re: What if OpenMandriva wanted to merge with Mageia?

PostPosted: Oct 15th, '20, 22:46
by mijarena
Well :D
DNF is also good, it uses libsolv which is developed and maintained by SUSE for zypper ;)

I do not want to start a new discussion, but here some facts as far as I am informed:
DNF is python modules only - Zypper can have modules in multiple languages
DNF works on yum repositories - Zypper on Repositories: SUSE, yum, plain directories

So, a switch to DNF means a switch to yum-Repositories which zypper can handle also.
DNF is a small Zypper? ;)

But that's also the nice thing, by switching to yum repositories with DNF, users can freely choose between DNF or Zypper.

--
I see the point with manpower. But I also think, that it there are complete different goals.
But perhaps there is another idea. Why not joing "partitially" Lets say, a common package base which is build and maintained together but other things might differ.