| Mandriva 2010 goes for the full Moblin |
Oct. 13, 2009
 Mandriva posted the final development release of Mandriva Linux 2010, complete with the Moblin v2.0 netbook environment. Based on Linux 2.5.31, Mandriva 2010 RC2 offers a choice of KDE 4.3.2 and GNOME 2.28 desktops, plus Intel Poulsbo chipset drivers, guest accounts, and the Nepomuk collaborative desktop.
Mandriva released the final version of Mandriva Linux Spring 2009 in April, offering KDE 4.2.2 as the default desktop, plus delivering up to 25 percent faster boots, according to the French software company. Other features included support for additional netbooks, as well as enhanced networking and security tools.
The latest Mandriva Linux 2010 RC2 release, which focused on bug fixes, will be followed on November 3 with the final release, which will add the final GUI, says Mandriva. The current version is now available as free downloads in 32- and 64-bit versions, as well as in Mandriva's commercial "One" Live CD versions, available for KDE or GNOME.
According to Mandriva, the 2010 RC2 release is claimed to be the first community distribution to offer the "full packaged" Moblin v2.0 platform, which is aimed at netbooks that use the Intel Atom. (Last month, with the final release of Moblin v2.0, Dell began offering its Mini 10v netbook with an early developer's version of the Moblin-based Ubuntu Moblin Remix, and other distributions are also expected to arrive this fall sporting all or part of the Moblin stack.) A year ago, Mandriva released a Mandriva Linux-based distro called Mandriva Mini, which was designed to work on netbooks.
Mandriva 2010 also offers KDE 4.3.2, the latest version of the KDE 4.3 desktop released in August. The desktop includes Amarok 2.2 final, a new version of the open source music player that can read CDs. Also supplied is the Nepomuk (Networked Environment for Personalized, Ontology-based Management of Unified Knowledge) desktop, pictured below. Nepomuk provides a "Social Semantic Desktop" which is said to enrich and interconnect data from different desktop applications using semantic metadata stored as RDF.
Nepomuk allows KDE users to tag, rate, and comment on files via the KDE file manager, Dolphin.
As the usual alternative to KDE, Mandriva offers GNOME 2.28, a new version of the GNOME desktop, which recently appeared in OpenSUSE 11.2, among others. The new version is said to contain the latest version of GTK+ with client-side window, thereby reducing window flickering.
Other major new features in Mandriva 2010 include:- Linux 2.5.31 -- The new 2.6.31 kernel version adds support for USB 3.0, among many other enhancements.
- XFCE 4.6.1 -- The latest version of the XFCE lightweight desktop is provided, providing support for the freedesktop.org menu standard, a new configuration system, and a new audio mixer.
- Plymouth boot splash -- The Plymouth boot splash technology, which provides a graphical boot animation during the boot process, is now fully integrated, and replaces Splashy, which has been removed.
- Guest accounts -- Guest accounts, based on the xguest package, can now be established to offer safe temporary access to the system via gdm or kdm.
- Poulsbo drivers -- Mandriva now supports drivers for Intel's "Poulsbo" companion chips to the Intel Atom. The Intel SCH (system controller hub) chipsets are now fully supported out of the box in the "One" ISO. (Because it requires non-free firmware, this could not be included in Free ISOs, says Mandriva.)
- X.org server 1.6.3 -- The major new release of the X.org server is provided, complete with bug fixes.
- Urpmi and Drakxtools -- The new Urpmi along with URPM, have been improved to help resolve complex dependencies, and numerous bug fixes have been applied to Drakxtools.
- Partition tool -- Both the Free and One installers have been redesigned with a focus on ease of use, adding graphical representations.
- Firsttime wizard -- The wizard now uses WebKit instead of Firefox, making for easier and lighter integration.
- Netprofile and Net_monitor -- Both the Netprofile network profiles management tool and the Net-monitor network monitoring tool have been improved.
- Python -- Python 3 is now available, as is Python 2.6, which remains the default version.
- Virtualbox -- Virtualbox 3.0.8 now supports SMP virtual machines, and offers improved 3D support and better performance, claims Mandriva.
Availability
Mandriva Linux 2010 RC2 is now available as free 32- and 64-bit downloads, as well as in Mandriva's "One" Live CD version, available for KDE or GNOME. More information may be found here.
-- Eric Brown
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