I recently decided to test some different Linux distros on my work computer. I was going to do it at home, but my work computer is much faster and I don't care if I mess it up (did I say that?).
I experimented with NimbleX, Ubuntu 8.10 Release Candidate, Mandriva, and . I installed all of these in Windows XP using Sun's VirtualBox software.
Now, if you've read any of my previous posts, you'll probably know that I don't like Windows and prefer Ubuntu Linux and you might be wondering why I did this on a Windows computer instead of my Linux machine. Well, my work computer is much newer (2007 model w/ Core Duo tech) than my home computer (2001 model w/ P4 tech) and much faster. I can install these OSs, play with them for a few hours, take screen shots, and write a post much faster than I could on my dinosaur at home.
Anyway, all of these installations were set up on a Virtual machine that consisted of 512MB of RAM, 8MB of video memory, and an 8GB hard drive. I also opted for the gnome GUI on all of these OSs as I'm more familiar with that setup than KDE. I'll start with Mandriva.
Mandriva is very similar in looks and functionality to Ubuntu. It has good picture quality and come preloaded with OpenOffice.org 3.0 and Firefox 3. There were a couple of things about the OS that I didn't like. First, it took over an hour to fully install into VirtualBox (if you're not familiar with VirtualBox installations, it's nearly identical to a normal install on a hard drive). First, like Ubuntu, it loads into the Live CD, however, there are several choices you have to make to load the Live CD. You have to choose your default language, setup the time, and some other settings. Ubuntu does this much nicer by defaulting everything to either English, or the computer's BIOS settings. Once you have the Live CD loaded, you then need to run the installation. You will first be asked to set up the hard drive, you can choose to let Mandriva do it for you or set up the partitions yourself. I just took a quick look at the manual partitioner and it's not very user friendly and kind of confusing. After this, you answer some more questions and the install begins.
Here's what it looked like installed
The second problem I had with Mandriva was the BSOD I got whenever I tried to mess with any of the settings. Now, this may not be a problem with Mandriva itself, and could just be a problem with VirtualBox or my Windows OS, but my Ubuntu virtual install does not do this. The first one came when I was trying to configure some network settings during the installation, the second when I was trying to set up a system wide network proxy after the installation.
Here's a pic of the BSOD
Over all, Mandriva is a very nice looking Linux Distro, but, due to the BSODs, I was unable to test it as thoroughly as I would have liked to. I may give it a try again on my extremely slow VirtualBox at home. If so, I'll keep you up to date.
Next, Linux Distros (part 2)
Jump to Linux Distros (part 3)
(scrubbed NimbleX, for now, as it is designed as a Live CD Linux and does not install in VirtualBox)
