Linux Distribution Reviews

blackbird, I've actually used Sabayon and liked it, except that the machine I was using at the time had an ATI card. I didn't have a clue what I was doing; it took me about a week to install the proper drivers and get the screen resolution set right. LOL

This CD includes OO, but I haven't used it here, or anywhere else so can't make a comparison for you. I can tell you that there are many more apps included on this CD than I expected, though I've really done nothing except surf the Net so far. However, in my admittedly limited Linux experience, this is by far the fastest distro I've used, and it isn't even installed yet! A more experienced guy like yourself could probably really make better use of a system like this than I, but I'm keeping this - until the final release, that is . . . LOL

BTW, was going to take a few screenshots, but don't see a way to do it. Probably need to download something, or use the terminal to open something up. If I can figure a way to do it, I'll post a few shots later.


Edit: fwiw, my feeling is that you should download the ISO and make a copy. If you like Arch, I think you'll really like this distro, blackbird, even if it is still a Beta release.

 

Im not as experienced as you say I am lol. Thanks for the explanation.

I tried the 2008 Live CD beta 2 r1 iso and here are my experiences.

-On desktop machine it doesnt recognize the usb keyboard past the boot screen, cant really install it without a keyboard lol.

-On laptop the hda intel isnt detected, its one thing for it to not output sound but to not be detected altogether is another.

- Uses XFCE4, I hate this environment, I dont know how to configure the network to use wifi through xfce4.

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Im going to wait for the 2008 final before testing again, also sabayon with the 3.4 and 3.5 releases has gotten excellent in terms of hardware support.

For the screenshots as it's xfce4 I dont know a gui app, but perhaps this command will work "scrot -d 3"

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Going to be reviewing Sabayon soon.

 

This is my first experience with XFCE; because it's so new to me, I'm going to put a judgement on hold, but so far I think I prefer KDE.

Don't have any idea why your keyboard wasn't recognized, blackbird. I've now downloaded Intel and AMD versions of the Live CD, and each works well, with the only exception being resolution of the screen (same monitor with both versions) when using AMD. For instance, this post looks normal, fonts are correct size, colors look fine, but the rest of the page looks . . . out of proportion - too big and less crisp. I know all can be adjusted, but nothing like this happenx with the Intel CD.

 

I might be doing a review of either Ubuntu or Mandriva next, it depends on which one i install.

 

Zoid wrote a good review of Mandriva, Calvin. I think a second opinion is a good idea.

BTW, did you try Gentoo?

 

Where is his review? Yeah, i tried Gentoo and it wasn't too special. It didn't have anything that grabbed my attention at all. Mind you, this is the latest GNOME beta.

Mandriva on the other hand is shiny, but not too shiny and has a lot of stuff installed out of the box that Ubuntu doesn't have so I'm more inclined to use it than anything else. So just so you know, the thing i like about Mandriva is the default software and the shiny factor.

 

Zoid's review.

I thought Gentoo was extremely fast, while just using the LiveCD - it blew me away. But I couldn't get the damn distro to install. Am going to try again tomorrow. Weird how sometimes Linux works so well and seems great, but then some minor little issue keeps it from being quite right. Had the same installation problem with, of all things, DreamLinux. Works great as a LiveCD, but damned if it would install on my AMD machine. Am in the process as I type, of trying to put it into an old Intel desktop.

Looking forward to your Mandriva write-up.

 

Every distro I've ever tried is always pretty much the same, but they all work fine. I'm in the process of installing Mandriva right now.

 

I'm gonna do a quick write up of Mandriva before i scratch it for Ubuntu, i don't like it much, go figure.

 

Tried to install Gentoo? Your in for some fun
I'll do a review of Ubuntu 8.04 later guys, I'm testing some distros on my flash drive. Maybe a review of Backtrack? It was fast(fluxbox).

 

Im on gentoo (sabayon) compiled everything and the speeds are fantastic.

Backtrack used to be kde, and besides backtrack is a security based distro used for testing rather than daily purposes.

 

I like Fluxbox

 

Seems it is the old 2008 GNOME version i got by accident, so I'll try out the Spring soon. Hopefully I'll like it. Ubuntu is kinda slow.

 

Spring is the disto which Zoid used. I think you'll like that one, Calvin. It's loaded with software which will probably appeal to you, and everything I needed worked immediately. The distro was installed in a desktop, though, and used ethernet so I can't vouch for how well the wireless works.

 

I hope it works, if not i can always use Fedora 9, or go back to Xubuntu.

 

I've just tried Linux Mint 4.0 and i love it, it's pretty funny because it's the first distro I've ever used and now it's my favorite Linux distro. I'll probably be doing more reviews on this machine but that machine has found it's perfect OS so i won't be changing it out. I hope to review Fedora 9, Mandriva 2008 spring, and Ubuntu.

 

My intel 4965 wireless worked OTB with Spring....that's one pretty great distro IMO. Right now I'm toying around with OpenSolaris...it's managed to get into my Psyche....(not good, here we go again...LOL)

 

Installed mint on this machine, gonna do a review on it using this one.

 

I got rid of Mint, now i'm using Ubuntu and i love it. I'm gonna do a review on Ubuntu and Tom will do a review on Mint.

 

Wooh! Mint