jsusanka PMed me about trying Mandriva out and has come across some problems with the package manager and updating.
If anyone else is having problems with the downloading of packages via the MCC or URPMI, see if switching the download protocol to "wget" fixes your problems. I use wget, rather than curl, and I don't experience any repository downloading issues.
You can change the protocol by opening up MCC and clicking on the RPM manager (under the software management tab). Click on "Global Options" and click the wget radio button (curl is probably selected by default).
Even DistroWatch Gives Mandriva a "Thumbs Up" Revi
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