Mandice Linux Installer Preview!

The episode of video will show you the Mandice Linux installer which is in development :

PS. It is not a video for advertisement, but it is a "REAL" Installer which is running on! :-)

Mandice Repository was Created Already

In principal, Mandice uses official Debian Sid and Emdebian Grip to be main line repositories, but to avoid that harmful packages causing system damage and to do some customizations, Creating A own repository is a way to realize the implementation for Mandice.

Right now, you can use Mandice Repository with those settings in sources.list for APT:
deb http://repos.mandice.org mandice main
deb-src http://repos.mandice.org mandice main

Though Mandice has own repository, but it is not used to replace main line repositories. It's only for making system stable that's just like a firewall to filter packages from main line repository, that's all.

Finally we extremely appreciate Providence University in Taiwan to provide server and bandwidth to Mandice project and support us to set up this repository site.

Current Roadmap

Slim is the chief consideration for Mandice Linux, but only small is not enough to provide great user experience. In order to be better, we have roadmap for development.

1. Mandice Linux developing release
• Only root filesystem image
• Build up own repository for urgent update only
2. Release Mandice Linux - LiveUSB version
• Using aufs and squashfs
3. Release Mandice Linux - Installer version
• Based on LiveUSB version
• Implement Installer (two version)
• Traditional version
• Fancy version (3D)
• Installing process is less than 5 minutes

Although we want to release something even root filesystem image only as soon as possible, there is no server to put in currently. Recently, the problem has solved, because of many universities and organizations are glad to provide hosting resource and bandwidth for Mandice Linux.

Using Nautilus as Default File Manager

Due to file management is complicated thing, it's very important to select a file manager which is easy to use. Under Linux, there are many applications to provide a user interface to work with file system, Nautilus, Konqueror, PCManFM, Thunar etc. Perhaps the one you're now using as well as you love it so much.

To be a slim distribution, every components we selected were lightweight and fast, so file manager of the original proposal of Mandice is PCManFM(PCMan File Manager). PCManFM is extremely fast and standard file manager in LXDE(Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), also it's intended to follow the specifications given by Freedesktop.org. However, slim is not the only consideration for Mandice, how to improve user experience is more important than size issue, so there are some factors we have to let us to consider to replace PCManFM. For instance, PCManFM doesn't support some functionalities like SMBFS(Windows Shere File System), easy way to burning CD/DVD and such.

Nautilus is very powerful and usable, and also it is a standard file manager in GNOME. It supports CD/DVD burning, file share, and more great extensions. Considering Nautilus has been used for a long time cause Linux users get used to it, it should be much better and easy to use for general users. For this reason, we've decided to use Nautilus instead of PCManFM.

Using Nautilus to replace PCManFM will increase disk space usage by 28MB, but we guess it will consume 28MB more RAM than PCManFM. :-(

Mandice has Adobe Distribution License Now!

Although Adobe flash player is free to download for personal use, it still cannot be distributed by anyone. It means any products and Linux distributions isn't allowed to be ship with Adobe flash player unless they has Adobe Distribute License. So you could see most Linux distributions doesn't support flash by default, users need to install it via internet oneself.

There is a good news, Adobe has approved Mandice Linux distribution its request to distribute Adobe flash player. We've got the Adobe Flash Player Distribution License Agreement, so Adobe Flash Player will be supported in Mandice by default. Mandice users won't install via flash player oneself anymore.

Welcome to Mandice Area!

How many time do you spend for re-install operating system all your life? Do you feel angry for big upgrade makes your system breken everytime? Do you dislike that most Linux distribution are very very ulgy?

Actually, we always waste much time to deal with system broken. That's why Mandice project be created to aim to be a small, fancy and fast-install Linux distribution. It doesn't only save our time on re-installing and maintaining system, also let us enjoy beautiful appearance.

Mandice main goal is to provide great user experience, and it's not only designed for lightweight requirement. For usability, GNOME will be the major desktop environment in Mandice still, but sometimes using LXDE or XFCE components to enhance performance and reduce disk-space usage.

Though Mandice uses GNOME which is the heavy desktop environment, total space usage of Mandice is only about 700MB ~ 1GB, and also RAM requirement is only 128MB, it is very suitable for Netbook and other low hardware specifications, even older computers. Due to Mandice is extremly small even less than 300 MB with compression, it doesn't need to spend much time on installing as well.

Besides, Mandice never needs big upgrade, Based on Debian architecture to avoid big upgrade cause system crash. Debian will make sure any online updates smoothly. Just install Mandice once, and never needs to re-install forever.

This is a special version of Debian Linux for Newbies, Lazy guys, Developers and System Administrators. To save people time to do more worth things rather than waste much time to re-install system again and again.

More informations, welcome to visit Mandice official website: http://www.mandice.org/