Mageia is a real nice user experience. I tried the kde version. I like how well thought out and designed its administrative control center is and how I can go back to the top level pages by closing the window. I also liked how well integrated it felt with kde. I also appreciate its launcher and how it doesn't follow the same kde mold but tries to make some tools more accessible than others based on your usage. What I also enjoyed was how easy it was to get some things installed but what I found like you guys is that it mostly has very popular software on there and specialist software tends to need to be compiled by yourself. Something that impressed me was how much you could do without ever opening a console. The good security/privacy thing I noticed was that it was harder to access other users folders unless their users gave that permission very explicitly to begin with unlike some distros which will simply give you a pass into everybodys folders without thinking about keeping things more private.
Going off the rails a bit: Remember how xfce used to use its own libraries and didn't even use Gnome's? Those were good times because it felt more fast but when we got to xfce4 initially it was more bloat with Gnome libs than Gnome itself. Now adays that isn't true anymore but I'm worried that xfce will need to change gears and use something like MATE for libs instead of Gnome as Gnome runs towards insanity head long. I liked using KDE back with version 3.5.10 when it actually wasn't all that bloaty but I randomly have quality issues with KDE4. In 4.0 it was just plain crashy and unusable. 4.2 was much more stable but they were still adding to it constantly and Amarok didn't seem to ever work right. 4.4 Was An Interesting Experience(TM) especially with the new netbook interface which I found clunky and unusable. 4.6 greatly improved everything and gave me a better activities interface that wasn't so easy to fudge because you closed the wrong activity. 4.8 gave me more confidence in the project as usability goes and smoothing out the many rough edges which used to be huge deal breakers for me. My problem right now is that it feels like Konqueror is still in the last decade and hasn't gone anywhere in kde4. My other issue is that it seems that while KDE has some great and tight knit integration that makes doing some things very seamless and easy but because of that integration you basically need to install a GIgabyte or two of software just to get that. Also I don't like waiting around to get something going like I used to on windows XP. With KDE it adds a whole 30 seconds of extra time to my boot. That is rediculous for me since I can get this machine to boot in less than 30 with minimal effort. I've shaved it down to about 22 seconds but I still had more I could have cut but I decided that I didn't like the level of work I was putting into just that effort. I stick with LXDE or just AwesomeWM because I'm the kinda guy that keeps about 14 tabs open in firefox so that it'll eat my ram like no tomorrow and is constantly switching around between them usualy with the keyboard because the mouse is just too damn slow for me. I am so instant gratification on my computer I can't stand having a slow machine anymore that cost me over $500 and not bust a nut wanting it to feel like I spent $500 on it. I'm done hyperventilating. :D -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup References can be found at: http://goo.gl/anqri Please remember to abide by our list rules (http://tinyurl.com/LUG-Rules or http://cdn.fsdev.net/List-Rules.pdf)
