[Mageia-discuss] Successful Install with some initial thoughts

[Marc Paré]

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