Previously we looked at the history of Mandriva and how 'magically' it started off. Now, time for some techno matter.
Mandriva Spring comes with KDE 3.4.9 and Gnome 2.22. For your web surfing, you can use the Mozilla Firefox web browser 2.0 and Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0. Now, we all know what is Mozilla Firefox. Let's look at what this thunderbird is for.
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open-source cross-platform email and news client developed by Mozilla Fountain and it had been modelled after Mozilla Firefox. It acts like your regular news feeder and email service provider.
Mandriva includes openOffice.org version 2.4. This version of openOffice.org comes with improved chart drawing and multiple language support too. The multiple language support sounds new doesn't it? So, what we could deduce now is, openOffice.org is becoming more and more like Microsoft Works/Excel/Powerpoint/Word. Looks like someone's got competition.
Though this version of openOffice is a norm in most distros, the fact that Mandriva has one which can do multi-language options is remarkable especially when the community of Linux users come from all over the globe.
Apart from having openOffice to do your documents and presentations, Madriva Spring has a new application called Abiword 2.6 which is a free software word processor licenced under GNU general public licence and was first created by SourceGear Corporation in 1998. This software functions just like any regular word processors with an niche for working most operating systems including Windows.
Another interesting improvement from the previous version and something that is not yet available in the other distros is the HomeBank software that would replace the GNUCash application in previous versions of Mandriva. This tool helps you manage your finances at the comfort of your home or where ever you might travel. It helps you manage your accounts with incredible graphical tools and visual applications. HomeBank has been around since 1995 and has been used for several of Windows' desktops too.
Let's put the serious stuff aside. Entertainment on Madriva is cool too and play up to its maximum capabilities.
Amarok is a free software music player for Linux and Unix-like platforms. It makes use of core components from the K Desktop Environment but during release, it is released without using the centre KDE release cycle. It supports upload and music playing from most devices like the iRiver, iPod, Creative Zen and many more. Interestingly, Amarok also had podcast support.
Another portal for entertainment and photo/video browsing Elisa. Elisa is a free software that gives you a media centre-like portal to upload your photos, music and videos. Using Elisa, you can manage your entertainment needs all at one place. Elisa works on all Unix-platforms and now aims to work with Windows. Elisa has the latest graphics and visual structure that is appealing to use and enjoy.
Another music entertainment application is PulseAudio. Pulse Audio is particularly interesting because it allows scripting capabilities through the command-line interface. It has the ability to synchronize multiple playback streams. This wuld be really useful when you want to play a favourite music of yours but do not know what type of stream it is. Infact, some music players cannot play all types of streams. Overall, Pulse Audio is a sound server that has the ability to accept sound input from one or more sources.
An OS is nothing without meeting entertainment needs of the user. More importantly is the capacity of networking it can provide. We will now see what are the networking capabilities that Madriva Spring provides.
Mandriva has better bluetooth functions compared to its latest versions. Receiving and sending files through bluetooth is better at ease now. Furthermore, more types of bluetooth devices can be synchronized with the system. In my opinion, bluetoothing shouldn't be problem with Mandriva Spring. Hail to the wireless world!
Madriva includes a software called Midori which is a web browser that works using WebKit as the rendering engine. Midori comes with your regular tabs, bookmarks and search engine box. WebKit is just an open-source application framework from Apple that provides the foundation upon which you will build a web browser. Above is the logo of Midori.
Hotwire is another simple but useful feature in Madriva. Hotwire is am object-oriented hypershell that allows you to do systems programming with files and processes. It has the same concept and design as a regular Unix shell but Hotwire is better in the sense that it gives you a better graphical user interface display that you may not get from Unix shell.
Last but not the least, Mandriva Spring comes with Conduit, a software that allows you to synchromize information between your system and various other destiantions. One particular use would be to synchronize photos from your computer to various photo-hosting websites such as Picassa and Flickr. You can also synchronize files, folders, contacts, calendar and tasks. Conduit gives you a easy to user interface with the drag-and-drop feature so that you get a proper visual representation of what is going to be done and what is being done. Above is a snapshot of Conduit in action.
That must be a lot for you to read and digest but that is Madriva. This OS comes with unique applications and the usual KDE, Gnome and Linux Kernel. However, thought the other distro have updated to Firefox Beta 3.0, this latest version of Mandriva has choosen to stick with Firefox 2.0 and Thunderbird 2.0.
With that, I conclude my Mandriva talk. I hope that you would have gained some useful insight of Mandriva here. If you would love to know more about the distros that I've discussed thus far, you can always click on the 'Acknowledgements ~ Citations' post that would be uploading no later than 24/7/08. All the links and books from which I've gathered my resources for this blog would be cited there.
So, gear up for a little more from this blog before we call it a blog-end and meanwhile, keep reading my 'OS WARS'!
P.S. It is so beautiful to share knowledge that I have with people who read this blog. Sometimes or always, all good and fun things must come to an end. When it comes, I would be missing this blog and the module so much. But there is still at least another 5 entries before I close my 'bloggings'! Rejoice my readers!
