X

Mandriva 2010 beta: Screenshots

In the past few days French-based Linux company Mandriva has released a beta version of its upcoming Mandriva 2010 Linux distribution. We took it for a spin in a virtualised VMware environment.
By Renai LeMay, Contributor
mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots1.jpg
1 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Upon booting the beta of Mandriva 2010 this screen was displayed.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots2.jpg
2 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Despite Mandriva's flashy exterior, the guts of the Linux operating system are never far away.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots3.jpg
3 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Mandriva automatically detected all of the virtualised hardware presented to it by our VMware environment.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots4.jpg
4 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Various language options are available.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots5.jpg
5 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

We didn't bother reading the entire licence agreement, but you might want to if you're deploying Mandriva in a corporate environment.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots6.jpg
6 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

We found the partitioning system less intuitive than Ubuntu's.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots7.jpg
7 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Multiple CDs? This takes us back to earlier this decade. Doesn't Mandriva know everything can be downloaded from the internet? Just kidding, some users will welcome this feature.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots8.jpg
8 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Unlike most Linux distributions, Mandriva gives you a choice between the KDE and GNOME window managers, or you can use something else.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots9.jpg
9 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Installation was relatively slow compared to SuSE and Ubuntu.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots10.jpg
10 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

At times the "time remaining" status bar got up to 40 minutes! Although this was inaccurate.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots11.jpg
11 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Setting up user accounts.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots12.jpg
12 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Setting up the display resolution.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots13.jpg
13 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

After booting from the hard disk for the first time, this screen displays.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots14.jpg
14 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

We like the stylised background.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots15.jpg
15 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

And again, the guts of Linux are never far away.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots16.jpg
16 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Unlike a lot of other distributions, the first time you boot up into Mandriva it asks you to participate in various surveys.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots17.jpg
17 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

We declined to become a registered member of the Mandriva community.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots18.jpg
18 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

We also declined to take part in Mandriva's survey.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots19.jpg
19 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

We also declined to upload the details of our hardware configuration. After all, they wouldn't have been very useful! Just VMware.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots20.jpg
20 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Finally! We get to a bona fide log-in screen.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots21.jpg
21 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

We wait for GNOME to load.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots22.jpg
22 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

This is the default desktop in the beta of Mandriva 2010.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots23.jpg
23 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Most of the popular open source packages you would expect (and some we didn't) are already installed.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots24.jpg
24 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

The Nautilus browser more or less looks the same in every Linux distribution. Or at least it works the same.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots25.jpg
25 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Mandriva has a customised control panel that lets you change the usual settings, install software and more.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots26.jpg
26 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Installing and removing software is a piece of cake.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots27.jpg
27 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

Loading up Firefox launched us into Mandriva's world.

mandriva-2010-beta-screenshots28.jpg
28 of 28 Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au

The last screen you'll see at the end of the day: shutting down your PC.

Related Galleries

Holiday wallpaper for your phone: Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, and winter scenes
Holiday lights in Central Park background

Related Galleries

Holiday wallpaper for your phone: Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, and winter scenes

21 Photos
Winter backgrounds for your next virtual meeting
Wooden lodge in pine forest with heavy snow reflection on Lake O'hara at Yoho national park

Related Galleries

Winter backgrounds for your next virtual meeting

21 Photos
Holiday backgrounds for Zoom: Christmas cheer, New Year's Eve, Hanukkah and winter scenes
3D Rendering Christmas interior

Related Galleries

Holiday backgrounds for Zoom: Christmas cheer, New Year's Eve, Hanukkah and winter scenes

21 Photos
Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6: Electric vehicle extravaganza
img-8825

Related Galleries

Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6: Electric vehicle extravaganza

26 Photos
A weekend with Google's Chrome OS Flex
img-9792-2

Related Galleries

A weekend with Google's Chrome OS Flex

22 Photos
Cybersecurity flaws, customer experiences, smartphone losses, and more: ZDNet's research roundup
shutterstock-1024665187.jpg

Related Galleries

Cybersecurity flaws, customer experiences, smartphone losses, and more: ZDNet's research roundup

8 Photos
Inside a fake $20 '16TB external M.2 SSD'
Full of promises!

Related Galleries

Inside a fake $20 '16TB external M.2 SSD'

8 Photos