Mandriva 2011 x86 -64 GDG

Next generation user experience

Mandriva has decided to focus his efforts on one user environment (KDE). We put all our efforts in having many improvements (all open source) on the usual linux desktop experience.

It is directly visible with a new graphical design, a new main program start menu (SimpleWelcome), an improved taskbar (RocketBar) that includes fast directory access applets (StackFolder).

An effort of graphical integration of all types of applications (gnome and kde) has been done. There are no graphical differences between Gnome and KDE applications.

A better, simpler environment

A new graphical theme has been created for the desktop including a full range of icons.

The login manager (KDM) was also improved, with bigger icons, it allows to perfectly see faces photo when logging in.

The file manager Dolphin is even more simplified without menu bar.

With this same goal of ergonomy, the full feature and lightweight music player Clementine as well as the photo manager Shotwell were adopted.

Pitivi video editor has been updated to version 0.14.2 it includes many new video effects and an improved ergonomy.

Mandriva Smart Desktop

Mandriva continues to improve its Mandriva Smart Desktop. Nepomuk, the component that manages informations on informations, has received a faster backend engine (Virtuoso).

TimeFrame is a SimpleWelcome panel. It shows the files (document, videos, photos) used by the different applications on a time line. It becomes possible to find a file by just knowing when it was saved. TimeFrame is based on Nepomuk.

The desktop environment integrates the notion of Activity. An activity is a group of application and a configuration of the desktop (specific desktop icons, background image, ...).

Firefox

Firefox 5.0.1 is the well known open source full featured web browser.

The 5.0.1 version includes plenty of new functions.

You will find sites quicker thanks to the functions of the location bar. Just type part of an url, or a word of a page title, and Firefox will propose to you the corresponding sites.

A myriad of small graphical interface change will increase your speed and productivity : new place for the Home button, new bookmark button, all menu items accessible from a single button, a new place for the reload button, ...

The tab line is now above the navigation bar. It means that all current web page informations and content are better grouped. A new function (Panorama) allows to group and view tab contents quickly and visually.

The speed of the html rendering engine and of javascript have been increased.

Firefox now fully support html5 and smil as well as html and svg as it previously did. Web sites with even more graphical animation will emerge from the support of these technologies.

LibreOffice makes every day more open.

Mandriva Linux 2011 includes LibreOffice full office software suite. It benefits of years of efforts and a vibrant, active supporting community.

LibreOffice is perfectly integrated into the desktop environment (style, file dialog, font rendering). It also includes more features and optimisation.

For example, LibreOffice Calc is faster and pivot tables were heavily worked on. More options, more speed, a clearer interface, with an easier loading of documents coming from other software.

A new html export assistant was also added for LibreOffice Impress helping preparing a presentation for a web output.

Many other features were added to LibreOffice

http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/features/