Critical Mageia review from Dedoimedo

[zugunder]

The bottom line is: "confusing".

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/mageia-1.html

[wobo]

Well, he did good in sparing out any option for comments!

Just one simple example:
He complains about the notice about not yet configured media for software manager:

While using the distro, a few more weird messages cropped up. One of these was a warning about no medium found and that I must add some media through Software Media Manager. I honestly pretend I don't know what this is all about, but I guarantee that most people will not be able to handle this elegantly. And why should they?

Most people I know (including people who never came near a computer in their life) would read "you must add media" and would push the button which says "Add media". But obviously there are people who can not match such challenges.

I do not want to criticise the whole article, some words are true. But such as the example above are just too much.

[PiElle]

I don't agree with the opinions expressed in that review.
My experience with Mageia is radically different.
I had no particular problems and nearly everything worked right out of the box.
The installation process went smooth.
Installing flash and multimedia stuff is incredibly easy.
May be he doesn't like Mageia ...

[Max]

His complaints seem to be rather niggling.
The first time he tried to boot there was a problem, and it was obviously his hardware at fault, since the same ISO booted from a CD. He shouldn't blame Mageia for that.
The questionnaire when booting has been addressed over and over again.
The full hard drive message is not Mageia's fault either but his own.
The complaint about the KDE menu is stupid. Right click and Switch to Application Launcher style.
Mageia does have codecs available out of the box, just not MP3 codecs. This also has been addressed quite often. You still want them? Fine, go to the package manager, add Tainted repos and get them. Not too difficult.

A slightly more intelligent critical review that I (and clearly many others) saw on DarkDuck.

[pmithrandir]

Well, he did good in sparing out any option for comments!

Just one simple example:
He complains about the notice about not yet configured media for software manager:

While using the distro, a few more weird messages cropped up. One of these was a warning about no medium found and that I must add some media through Software Media Manager. I honestly pretend I don't know what this is all about, but I guarantee that most people will not be able to handle this elegantly. And why should they?

Most people I know (including people who never came near a computer in their life) would read "you must add media" and would push the button which says "Add media". But obviously there are people who can not match such challenges.

I do not want to criticise the whole article, some words are true. But such as the example above are just too much.

On my side, I perfectly understand what he means by that.
Honnestly, sometimes mageia should decide to answer the question before releasing the distribution.

What media do you need should be set up with a default installtion when you install you computer, not after.
Is it not possible to choose between all nexts options during installtion :
- keep the instalation as it. (dvd media added)
- security updates (update media addded)
- software and security updates (more media added)
- last software version.(backport)

tainted would be enable by default in all country wher it is legal to do it.(we answered the question in the installtion process)

Most of the users would understand it more I think.

he is quite right on the geecky side of mageia for the moment.

Regarding the live CD, a simple question : where do you live ? should be enough for 99% of the users.
Usually, a french guy in france speak french, has a french keyboard etc...
It should be easy to ask this simple question only, and to allow the user to go in an expert mode to define some specific configuration.

[doktor5000]

No, it's just not that easy. Some people prefer only updates media, some people want non-free and some want tainted.
Some want backports, some not. So we can't force ANY choice on the user without making other users unhappy.
This is why it is like it is.

[wobo]

On my side, I perfectly understand what he means by that.
Honnestly, sometimes mageia should decide to answer the question before releasing the distribution.

And how could Mageia do that? Let's look at your examples:

1. Setting up media
What if there is no internet connection during installation time?
What if the user wants a dedicated server instead of using the random mirrorlist?
What if the user wants no tainted or non-free?

2. Enabling tainted by default in all countries where it is legal
Yes, nice. Oh, do you know what is legal in Bokinafaso or Taiwan or the Bahamas or Peru? To do what you suggest would mean a research in all 200 countries (don't know the exact number) for their legal situation. If you want to do that for Mageia 2 you are very welcome.

3. The simple question: where do you live? answers some others but not all. In Germany we have a choice of different keyboard layouts, same in Belgium, Switzerland and many other countries.

All in all: it's not that easy as it looks from your personal point of view.

[pmithrandir]

Honnestly, mageia know it's mirror list, so mageia could create a script that choose one from all.(depending on the localization ?)

There is 2 type of users :
the newbies, who can't change stuff, and who want everything in good condition without questions.
The advanced users who can change the settings.

So, let concentrate on newbies and the advanced users would choose different stuff if they want.

There is no 200 countries for 99% of users... maybe 10. It should not be hard to find the information online. BTW, ubuntu say "fuck you" to these think and they release everything everywhere witoiut any problem since years. And who is going to attack mageia to receive.... no money because you are poor.. And you can still change the setting if someone complain.

Mostly users want :
Free, no free, tainted if possible and updates mirrors.

And for advanced users... they can change that default behaviour in seconds, and they know how to do it.
You can even ask the question during installtion as microsoft do for windows update.(do you want to have updates or not, and which type of updates)

Mageia has the same default than Mandriva... it's a distribution for newbies, that a newb can't understand without coming on the forum.

[ElderSnake]

I just joined up as I have to say, my experience has been totally different to that review as well.

Mageia has been a real surprise packet so far (and I come from Arch Linux!). The only thing this distro has done wrong for me was straight after installation it wouldn't detect my proper resolution of 1680x1280 and instead kept defaulting to 1400x1050 or some strange number (using the NVIDIA blob). But you know what, I applied all the updates and the problem went away.

Other than that, everything has worked a breeze (KDE is wonderful and snappy here by the way) and the amount of packages in the repos even pleasantly surprised me. I think you guys are on to something wonderful. Or dare I say it... magical

[wsams]

I too have had a very different experience

I moved my office and my home networks to mageia before cauldron came out stable. The Beta worked that good

I upgrade online, I find all the software I need, my commercial accounting package works great in mageia

I like having the core repositories set at default, then I come back and add some of the others as I need something from them This allows me to get the basic desktop running then add extras

the same with all the basic settings basics first then customize

Once Mageia came out with the first stable release, for me , there is no other distribution .

support forums do a great job from my perspective



wsams
the fist thing to look at when your computer breaks is the loose nut between the chair and the keyboard