Mandriva 2009 Free - simply inane

Mandrake/Mandriva was one of my favourite distros. The simplicity of it's installation and usage were a refreshing change from what other distros offered - waaay back.
 
I recently picked up Mandriva 2009 Free ( from zyxware.com ) to see if it could do the tango with the Canon printer.

What struck me, hard, like a slap, was the oversimplified installation procedure. NO PACKAGE SELECTION. Just a screen that shows three desktop screenshots of KDE, GNOME and another one. Once selected, the installation continues with no interaction.

Post installation, the flatfootedness of KDE4 dooms Mandriva. But not before I get to see a functional implementation of a proper desktop. The only KDE4 installation (including Opensuse 11.1) I tested so far that allows shortcuts to be created on the desktop. Ofcourse, there seems to be no intuitive way to recreate this "desktop space", once it is deleted.

Mandriva joined Slackware in oblivion soon after.

Mandriva 2009 Free is notable for one reason, it rightfully reflects the spotlight on to Opensuse. As a regular user of Opera 7.54 (under Wine) I see considerable similarities between the thoughfulness that went behind creating these excellent pieces of code. Yes, there are more popular choices, but with half a brain one can appreciate the profusion of practical, thoughful options offered by these two products that are glaringly absent in the others. Options are important, very important.

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