I wonder why...

Story: Mandriva Linux 2010.2 ReleasedTotal Replies: 18
Author Content
devnet

Dec 23, 2010
10:12 PM EDT
This wasn't posted to the front page of every single major news outlet like ALL alphas and betas from Ubuntu are.

This distribution is far and away the easiest for new users accustomed to having a central control center...yet somehow, it get NO attention other than negative attention.

Pisses me off that it's the red headed step child of Linux...
herzeleid

Dec 23, 2010
10:59 PM EDT
Probably something to do with the relative popularity... I haven't seen anything about xandros lately either.
tracyanne

Dec 23, 2010
11:11 PM EDT
Relative size of the public relations department, I guess.
Scott_Ruecker

Dec 23, 2010
11:13 PM EDT
@devnet; I take it your giving LXer some love for posting it? ;-)

helios

Dec 24, 2010
11:04 AM EDT
Let me tell you where Mandriva impressed and surprised me.

We got a call out to visit a fairly large real estate firm a couple of years ago and I sat down to get an initial evaluation of their desktop needs with the owner. I had in mind Ubuntu, but only because of their LTS schemes and the availability of professional support. His biggest concern was that his extensive Ricoh printers and copiers worked without fail and that he be able to do remote printing from home. That made me a bit nervous.

He gave me a computer to sit at to dual boot and I ran the live Ubuntu CD and installed it. I immediately ran into network printing problems. Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to this particular area, I fooled with it for about 15 minutes and then reached into my bag and pulled out my bundled stack of live CD's. Mandriva One was the next one on top.

Everything worked out of the box. Where Ubuntu failed to recognize the Ricoh cluster, Mandriva not only found it but pretty much self-configured. Once I had it installed and set up on that particular Linux partition, I sought out the owner, showed him how it worked and over the next 30 days migrated his company over to a shop dual booting Linux and Windows. Out of 19 computers at that location, 11 of them were infected with the same virus.

Early this year, we went back in and simplified things further by installing VirtualBox on all their computers and set up their WinXP SP3 to run within.

I think more than anything, the lack of marketing, coupled with the Corporate fear of financial failure has hurt the Mandriva confidence in the public sector. But yeah, Mandriva surprised me and the fact that they have the foresight to include corporate printing ability out of the box speaks well for them. Ubuntu and other distros may do the same thing now but I haven't had the time to opportunity to test it.

devnet

Dec 25, 2010
4:59 PM EDT
@Scott_Ruecker

Definitely!

@helios

You would think that the 'new user revolution' that accompanied the Ubuntu blitz of the past few years would stumble onto Mandriva and swoon...evidently not though.
tuxchick

Dec 25, 2010
8:03 PM EDT
Here is how it works, devnet, interested parties such as developers, fans, PR people, community organizers, anyone at all who is interested in a particular distro or project writes up an announcement. Then they send it to sites like LXer and Linux Today and Tuxmachines and OS News and others that publish Linux news. They might even go as far as maintaining a blog, and cultivating a few reporters and editors that they keep informed. We all do our best to keep on top of events, but we're not quite omnipotent yet and rely on a combination of our own contacts and research plus reader and community submissions.
devnet

Dec 25, 2010
8:13 PM EDT
I guess Ubuntu sends the announcements then...which is why it is on every single news website every 10 seconds.

I suppose those news sites consider it newsworthy.
tracyanne

Dec 25, 2010
8:22 PM EDT
Quoting:I guess Ubuntu sends the announcements then... which is why it is on every single news website every 10 seconds.


That's the point of Public Relations... to get the information out to as many people as possible, as often as possible.

Quoting:I suppose those news sites consider it newsworthy.


Clearly. In addition news sites like it even better if they can receive their information in nice easy to publish "sound bites", the less work they have to do the more they like it, and the more likely it is to get published..... and that is the whole point of Public Relations departments.

Canonical clearly has one, even if it's only one person, that understands those things, and an additional even more important thing, given the groups of people we they are dealing with, how to motivate non paid public relations players to spread the word in a effective (see paragraph above) manner.

Mandriva, obviously doesn't.

devnet

Dec 25, 2010
8:50 PM EDT
That's too bad that Mandriva doesn't...they've really done a great job with the recent 2010 release. I sure hope they don't continue to fade away :(
jdixon

Dec 25, 2010
9:53 PM EDT
> Mandriva, obviously doesn't.

That's a management issue. Mandriva, and Mandrake before them, has always had management problems. It's unfortunate, as they're often a very good distribution.
tuxchick

Dec 25, 2010
10:01 PM EDT
Well devnet, to quote a KDE4 fan over in the other thread, pitch in and help. How hard is it to submit a story to the LXer queue?
tuxchick

Dec 25, 2010
10:06 PM EDT
Gads, the timing of this announcement doesn't help-- Dec. 23. Way to almost guarantee being ignored.
devnet

Dec 26, 2010
8:33 PM EDT
tuxchick,

I'd like to know when a long time veteran of lxer.com and friend to most posters here became a hated enemy :|
tracyanne

Dec 26, 2010
8:36 PM EDT
For the record devnet you are not hated, nor considered The Enemy.
devnet

Dec 26, 2010
8:53 PM EDT
Thank goodness...I felt like I was being jumped in to the bloods or something in the other thread. I agree though that it is HORRIBLE timing on Mandriva's part. I hope they get their stuff together...and even if they don't, my project has enough behind it to fill in for them or to pull off mageia...in the event of a Mandriva demise.
jdixon

Dec 26, 2010
9:34 PM EDT
> I felt like I was being jumped in to the bloods or something in the other thread.

I would hope we can disagree about the occasional subject without it becoming personal. Lord knows TA and I have gotten in to it on occasion, and she doesn't seem to hold it against me.
Ridcully

Dec 27, 2010
3:42 AM EDT
And for the record Devnet, I also support Tracyanne's comment. We can agree to disagree, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't debate without any personal animosity......Glad to be a colleague on LXer.
hkwint

Dec 27, 2010
5:43 AM EDT
devnet: If you want your distro reviewed in an article on LXer, PM me and I'll see what I can do. If you want Mandriva reviewed, I'm fine with it either.

I'm a bit short on time these days as I suffer from (non-IT) employment again, but I think a "running and peeking at the LiveCD" kind of review is the least I can do.

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