Over at Scot’s Newsletter forum, a post and link was made referencing a extensive review of Mandriva 2008. What was interesting about the review was the misconceptions about Mandriva including some FUD issues that circulate around the Net. Issues such as whether Mandriva is free or not, whether free updates and support are available and other issues about this Linux distributions.

Stated on the site is the following:

It sometimes amazes me how much misinformation is spread about various distributions, Mandriva being one of the favourite targets at times, not by opponents of Linux, but by users (zealots?) of other distributions. It seems like Linux doesn’t need Microsoft for an opponent, there are plenty of enemies in Linux’ own camps!
Of all the reasons that people bring forward to _not_ use Mandriva, the following _untrue reasons_ are often at the top of the list, and if you ask me, they most likely signal a zealot FUD-master troll:

• UNTRUE: “Mandriva Linux is not really free, you have to become a clubmember, which costs!”
• UNTRUE: “with Mandriva Linux you have to pay for updates!”
• UNTRUE: “with Mandriva there is no easy way to add proprietary stuff like drivers for graphics cards!”
• UNTRUE: “rpm-package based systems open up a world of dependency issues and lead to dependency hell!”
• UNTRUE: “you have to be a club member to use the Mandriva forums!”
• UNTRUE: “Mandriva Linux isn’t really Free, they close up and hide their stuff!”

If you haven’t tried Mandriva may I suggest you take it for a spin. You will be pleasantly surprised how easy this Linux distributions is to use and also the many features being offered that are not available in other distributions. The 2008 version is a winner.

Comments welcome.

Mandriva product review is here.

[tags]mandriva, linux, distributions, false statements, fud,  [/tags]