First look at Mageia

[psycholonewolf]

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I have been looking at a lot of different distros lately due to my unhappiness with my current distro. I normally stick to Ubuntu/Debian/Mint derivatives, but downloaded and ran Mageia 8 XFCE just a few minutes ago. The first thing to hit me was the amount of memory used to present the desktop. Running Live off a DVD, I was using about HALF of the memory my current distro uses. I'm kind of tired of bloated distros that take nearly a Gig just to present the desktop. Yes, memory is cheap, but using nearly a Gig just for the desktop seems like a real waste of resources to me.

So, I'm VERY interested in installing Mageia on my spare laptop. I do have a couple of questions before I'd do the install. I have a few apps I really prefer and I didn't see them in the Software manager while running live. There is the first thing I'm going to have to change, and that is the package manager. I'm very use to Synpatic and I know I would no longer be able to use that. Here are apps I would REALLY like to have installed if I decide to give Mageia a full try out. Can anyone tell me if these apps are available for Mageia?

Brasero - I know Xfburn is installed by default and I could use it, but kind of prefer Brasero
GIMP
Pinta
Converseen
Mirage
jExifToolGUI
SimpleScreeRecorder
Rhythmbox

And then Firefox and LibreOffice completes my list of preferred apps. If any of these are not available for Mageia, is there a real alternative I could use? Thanks in advance to anyone willing to offer assistance.

[doktor5000]

Hi there, most of the apps you listed are available.
If you only looked in the live version, probably there was not a complete set of repositories configured.
Have a look at e.g. https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installing_a ... g_software

The following are not available for Mageia:
Mirage - you could use nomacs instead, or use the appimage for it
jExifToolGUI - although this is java-based, you can just download and run it, or use the appimage for it

You can also check https://madb.mageia.org/ if you're not currently running Mageia - although by default it also only shows graphical applications, but you can switch to "all packages".
For alternatives in general you can check https://alternativeto.net/

Changing the package manager, that's not something you can just change. There's dnf available as alternative, see https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Using_DNF
Also synaptic is not a package manager, it's just a graphical frontend for apt* and it's not available for Mageia. Even it it were, there wouldn't be any use for it.
See e.g. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6375

[psycholonewolf]

I'll check out the links you provided. I'm not so inflexible that I couldn't find a suitable alternative to one or two of the apps I like. Yeah, I realize Synaptic is just a front end for apt and I know it's not at all compatible with Mageia. I have no problem using a different package manager. It's not that steep of a learning curve. I was more concerned with the apps I use daily for stuff I do. If most of my preferred apps are readily available, I'm prepared to do an install on my spare laptop and give Mageia a whirl. Thanks for the reply and the links to check out. I appreciate it very much.

[doktor5000]

You could also try out the release candidate for Mageia 9 - the final version will become available soon, and most packages are quite a bit newer.
See https://www.mageia.org/downloads/prerelease/

[psycholonewolf]

OK. Thanks for that tidbit, as well. I'm downloading it as I type this. I might as well have the latest release if I install it and decide I like it well enough to go ahead and make it my daily driver.

Excuse me if I'm a little slow in responding to anyone. I'm preparing for what is now being called "probable" surgery, as opposed to what the docs originally called "possible" surgery. I'm running around getting lab work, X-Rays, and an MRI. I'm taking little bits of my time and reading the links provided and will now fire up Mageia 9 to see what I think.

Thanks to you guys for replying to my questions.

[morgano]

Welcome to Mageia and our forum

For more on alternative ways to install programs, see
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Ways_to_install_programs

If you want to test drive, use a Mageia Live put on USB stick - which you then also can use as a portable system
With persistence, it remembers configuration, updates, new programs, user files...
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Persistent_live_systems

Best wishes for your (probable) surgery or other improvement!

[psycholonewolf]

Thanks for those two tips. I'll have to play with a Live system. I've never run any Live system that is persistent. That might be something I can play with to amuse myself. LOL!

[psycholonewolf]

I'm still around, guys. I've been tied up with doctors' visits. I tore the meniscus in my right knee and will be seeing an ortho surgeon in about 10 to 12 days. Not a lot of time for playing with distros.