Thanks to the Mageia teams for the newest distro version, it is a great
looking system and it works without any problems.
At this time, the only critique I would have is (sorry my systems are
all in French, so the terms below may not be correct):
* the choice of "Window Decorations" -- I would have gone with a more
conventional window a little like a windows look-a-like. I switched to
"Plastik". If we are going to try to popularize Mageia, we will have to
have more conventional widows themes to lessen the hurdles to newcomers.
* the "Cursor Theme" -- I am 53 of age and the default theme is a little
too hard to see. The arrow icon on the default theme does not have a
well defined tail and blends too well with the text when wordprocessing,
messaging etc. I switched to "Whiteglass" but may change it again. Also,
I find the shadow on the cursors is too extreme, it should be closed up
-- but this may be due to the Whiteglass theme.
* I love the treatment of the bottom bar where open windows/software
icons take much less space. This is really great and much appreciated.
* Neopunk -- well, what can I say, it slows my machine down quite a bit,
but then, I have over 200 gigs of data on it. I'm going to give it the
benefit of the doubt and give it a chance at indexing. I am not sure how
long it will take for my system, but it would be nice to have an indexed
machine to work with as I do quite a bit of searches through files. I
hope it doesn't take weeks to index.
* the "Activity Manager", I had not really worked with this, but, I can
see its appeal where someone would want an uncluttered screen with some
of the options. It is nice to see it out in the open for people to try.
* PulseAudio -- it can either be a "bust or a boom" on different
systems. On my system, I have a Via 8237 sound controller and PulseAudio
did not want to play nicely with it, so I removed it and all is well; I
am not sure, but I think the problem was with my WebCam being plugged
into the system. I also switched KMix with QASMixer as I like the
controls better on QASMixer.
Otherwise, the system works really well and is responsive. I still have
2 more desktops and a laptop to install at home. I have also a lineup of
30 clients whose computers I maintain on a volunteer basis and the
lineup has already started for the upgrades from MageiaV.1.0 to
MageiaV.2.0.
Thanks again for all of the great work and OS!
Cheers,
Marc
