In my quest for a desktop for Joe Average Windows User, I was strongly urged to look at Mandriva.
After doing so, I have to wonder what that guy was smoking. My first confusion was this screen:
What is that grayish window in the middle?? Handles come out of its left and right sides and you can drag it around, but why is it there? I clicked on “Live Install” and waited.. and waited..
The install was molasses slow. Cold molasses. Cold molasses on a winter day slow.
Yes, I was installing into a Fusion VM so I expect a little less than instant response. I don’t expect anything this slow, though. This is the slowest Linux install I have ever done in Fusion.
It lost my cursor at finish – that could be the VM’s fault, of course. But listen up all distro packagers:
YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO RUN IN A VM.
You WANT to run well. This is how a lot of people test things nowadays.
After the install things got a little better but still pretty sad. Not quick like a bunny. Slow like a turtle. Does “Mandriva” mean “turtle” in some obscure language?
After login, there’s that same strange gray screen – without Live Install now but just as fuzzy and mysterious.
I noticed that Firefox was 3.0.3. That’s good. What is that orange bug in the upper right hand corner of the screen??
A little icon in the tray told me that updates were needed. I clicked on it and it showed just 3 updates. For real? OK, sweet..
Naww, after those there were 385 more. That’s when I noticed that the system was running fast enough: the updates clicked right along. It’s just keyboard and mouse that are slooooooow.
That silly gray window – close it, it comes back???? What IS this??
I started a Konsole terminal. Can i ask a question? Why an 80 x 32 Konsole terminal????? Terminals should open 80 x 24 or 80 x 25. No more, no less.
But typing was faster in there too, so it is the desktop that has the performance issue.
And then it crashed. Well. not outright, but I got this:
I gave up. Mandriva is definitely not ready for Joe.
