| sidux 2007-03 Review - The Sexiest. |
|
| Written by Administrator | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 10 September 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Siduxtively . Have sidux will tame Debian sid.
Sidux 2007-03 is a Sid-based Live CD. For those who need a "more-friendly" and more stable Debian sid, then Sidux is for you. I think Sidux would also appeal to those users who prefer a rolling-release type of Linux distro, so that they don't have to reinstall the resident Linux distro whenever the "hot cake" arrives every 4 to 6 months. Other Linux distros taking such approach are Debian Etch, Gentoo Linux, Arch Linux, etc. By the way, MEPIS LLC is going to implement the same rolling-release approach in its much awaited SimplyMEPIS 7.0 too.
Important Notice
Just in case you have downloaded the iso image for sidux 2007-03, instead of the hotfix iso image of sidux 2007-03.1, you need to run the commands shown below at the Konsole terminal in order to remedy the broken audio/video playback :-
#apt-get update #apt-get install libxine1 libxine1-ffmpeg
(Took about 5 minutes to complete on the i686
New features or packages
sidux 2007.3 was released on 14th August 2007. The architectures supported are Amd64 and i686. Languages supported are English and German. sidux 2007-03 iso images come in two flavours, the KDE lite (about 400MB) and the KDE full (about 700MB). The KDE lite iso images contain much less number of KDE packages. New things under the hood are kernel 2.6.22.3-rc1(smp, hard preemption), completely overhauled init sequence, completely refactored installer backend, fw-detect tool for probing hardware with non-free needs, iputilsping added, rt73-legacy driver also added, availability of support for Agere systems et131x ethernet controllers, support for RealTek RTL8187 wlan cards, rt2x00 2.0.6+git20060810 support for the RaLink wlan cards supporting wpasupplicant, libata support for the parallel ATA systems, etc. Otherwise the sidux 2007-03 is still using the KDE 3.5.7 desktop interface and the X.Org 7.2.
siduxcc at Kmenu.
siduxcc integrated in the KDE control center.
Well, I also noticed a new icon on the desktop, the VDR 1.4.7 icon. One of the things that I have always liked about the sidux 2007 series of operating system is the very helpful offline and online manual. The offline manual for Sidux 2007-03 is definitely the best. It would be a huge waste of the sidux team's time and the new user's time if they skip the manual or take the offline manual for granted. Kooka has also been added for this new version of sidux.
KDM login manager. There were various sessions.
The iest desktop
The desktop on the Live CD comprises of the gaia wallpaper featuring an outline of a woman whose hair is being blown by a strong breeze. The intelligent play of the brown colour tones and the outline of a woman really make sidux 2007-03 look . If I am the organiser of the New York Fashion Show, I will not hesitate to choose such a theme as the backdrop of the stage.
KDE splash.
KDE desktop.
The desktop panel of sidux 2007-03 is located at the bottom of the desktop and it consists of the Kmenu applet, Terminals applets, Home applet, Iceweasel applets (on the left-hand corner), and the system tray applet (=the keyboard configurator, Display configurator, Knemo, sound, kpowersave) and the clock applet on the right-hand corner. The desktop switcher and the taskbar are located in the center of the desktop panel. I was also enchanted by the visual of the KDM login manager. The boot option screen of the Live CD could have been better. The sidux developers may want to change the common icon theme of crystal SVG to a ier one or to a "siduxtive" one in sidux 2007-04.
Applications available on the Kmenu (KDE full version).
a) Debian applications. b) Games included were KMahjong, Kreversi, Patience card game, KBattleship. c) Graphic applications included were Gimp, digiKam, Gwenview, KFaxView, Kooka, KGhostView, KPDF, KSnapshot, OpenOffice.org Draw, PDF Editor, etc. d) Internet applications included were Akregator, Elinks, Iceweasel, kbluetoothd, kbtobexclient, kbtserialchat, KGet, KMail, KNetAttach, Konqueror, Konversation, Kopete, KPPP, Krdc, KTorrent, KVpnc, sidux-browser, WengoPhone, etc. e) Multimedia applications included were Amarok, K3b, Kaffeine, kdetv, KMix, etc. f) Office applications included were Kontact, KAddressBook, KOrganizer, OpenOffice.org, OpenOffice,org Base, OpenOffice.org Calc, OpenOffice.org Draw, OpenOffice.org Impress, OpenOffice.org Math, OpenOffice,org Write. g) Applications or tools located under the Sidux directory of the Kmenu were Configuration tools, Networking tools, Siduxcc tools, Utilities tools, Root Shell, metapackage-installer, sidux manual, VDR-Startmenu, and vdr-xine. h) System applications or tools on the Kmenu were Htop, KCron, KInfoCenter, Konsole, Kpackage, kpowersave, KRandRTray, Krusader, KSysGuard, KSysV, KUser, Partition Editor, Yakuake, etc. i) Utilities available on the Kmenu were the Accessibility tools, Kate, Kwrite, BasKet Note Pads, EmbedJS, File Size Viewer, Krusader, Root Terminal, etc.
How light is the KDE lite version of sidux 2007-03?
For your information, there were no applications in the office category in the KDE lite version of sidux 2007-03. There were no Amarok and kdetv in the multimedia category of the KDE lite version of sidux 2007-03. In order to save more space for the lite version of sidux 2007-03, there were no Akregator, kbluetoothd, Kbtobexclient, kbtserialchat, Kopete, KMail, Krcdc, KGet, KVpnc, WengoPhone in the lite version. In the graphic category, there were no Gimp, digiKam, OpenOffice.org draw, KFaxView, KGhostView, etc.
sidux Installation
The sidux installer took about 10 to 15 minutes to install to the hard disk of my desktops and notebooks. I encountered no problem with the installer despite the developer's claim that the installer was still undergoing heavy development. Unlike the previous versions of sidux, the sidux-installer in the 2007-03 version also gave you the option of using the Cfdisk and the Fdisk partition manager, in addition to GParted. By the way, you can also install sidux 2007-03 to your usbkey but you would need at least 2.1GB of space for the KDE full and 1.2Gb of space for the KDE lite version of sidux 2007-03.
Package management
Another strong point of the sidux Linux distribution is its usage the infamous Debian APT pac- kage management system. The gold standard! You can easily manage the .deb packages using the KDE-based Kpackage available at Kmenu->System. I prefer Adept. After updating my system, I downloaded Adept from the repository.
IMPORTANT ERRATA:- I have just received emails from a few very concerned readers on 11th of September 2007. According to the sidux developers, only apt-get is to be used for package management in sidux. I gained my insight after reading this thread at the sidux forum.
More about siduxcc-hermes of siduxcc
siduxcc "control center is located at Kmenu->sidux. Well, siduxcc-hermes is located within the siduxcc "control center". siduxcc-hermes will inform you of any Updates and upgrades which are availalable for you system. However you must launch the siduxcc-hermes utility from the Kmenu before you can see the soothing-green crystalball-like applet sitting on the system tray.
Sidux-hermes applet on the panel.
If the applet is green in colour, it means no dist-upgrade available.
You can also execute the apt-get update from sidux-hermes.
Iceweasel Plugins
If you need a Flash Player for the Iceweasel, all you have to do is by visiting a Flash-based website. The Iceweasel's Plugin Finder Service would download the Macromedia Flash Player for you. That simple! However, the Plugin Finder Service failed to download the Sun Java plugin for me. I had the same problem with Java plugin in Debian Etch as well! However, you can find you can easily find the solution by googling.
Iceweasel Plugin Finder Service searching for Flash player.
The Plugin Finder Service downloading the Flash player.
The Non-free or Firmwares
Despite not having the proprietary firmwares in the iso image, sidux has lots and lots of driver modules in addition to the abundance of driver modules of Debian sid. So hardware compatibility should be excellent. As for the firmwares, sidux has the convenient metapackage-installer to do the work for you. If you need other firmwares, the sidux manual would help you too.
Non-free list.
The non-free firmwares listed on the metapackage-installer were the Atmel wireless firmware, Bluetooth devices firmware, bcm43xx firmware, ipw2100 firmware, ipw2200/ipw2915 firmware, ipw3945 firmware, iwlwifi firmware, linux-wlan-ng firmware, qlogic firmware, usrp firmware, rmidisport firmware, rt61fwcutter, and the zd1211 firmware.
Before you can download the firmware, you have to click the "install non-free" button. By clicking that button, you don't add the necessary repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list file by using an editor. This is another convenience of sidux!
Not all the non-free firmwares are listed on the metapackage-installer. The madwifi firmware is a good example. In order to download and install the madwifi firmware you need to execute m-a a-i madwifi as root at the Konsole.
Madwifi firmware is not on the list of non-free.
Good Hardware Support
The sidux 2007-03 Live CD started the network by default. There were no problems at all with the various types of wired ethernet device. My Logitech EX110 wireless keyboard and wireless mouse were detected and worked out-of-the-box. However, I had no luck with my Logitech bluetooth mouse though. Most of the CRT and LCD monitors' resolutions were set correctly to the their best native ability. It failed to configure my Samsung LCD monitor with the correct 1680x1050 resolution.
Open source multimedia codecs with a tinge of....
However, if you need proprietary multimedia codecs other than MP3 codec, you may want to add this line deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main to your sources.list. The thing that I still don't understand is how on earth, did the MP3 codec get into the sidux 2007-03? I thought the sidux's goal was DFSG. Further investigations showed that the MP3 codec was also bundled along the iso image in the sidux 207-02.
Installing the proprietary graphic card drivers
Four methods are available for the installation (according to the sidux manual):-
a) New scripts for installing proprietary graphic card drivers are available:- -execute get-sidux-binary-gfx. -then execute install-binary-gfx to install the downloaded driver.
b) Another choice would be executing the sgfxi command at the Konsole as root.
c) The 3rd method is achieved by running du-fixes-h2.sh -kiwdt
d) The last method is by directing downloading the drivers from the ATI or Nvidia websites.
sidux 2007-03 is for geeks with passion for Debian sid
All in all, if you need a bleeding-edge Debian desktop, sidux 2007-03 is for you. In the very highly competitive environment that we live in at the moment, very few people (teenagers and adult) would have abundance of time to commit to a Linux distribution which does not work out-of-the- box. Me, I am amazed by its sexy artwork and I am also particularly very happy that its fantastic scripts managed to make the bcm4312 miniPCI wlan adapter on my Dell 640m notebook work! However, I really feel that Cleary and the Art team should improve on the look of the grub menu and if possible make the icon look better too.
sidux 2007-03's superior hardware support (Debian's plus sidux's driver modules and firmwares) and the more than eighteen thousands of free software (on Debian and sidux repositories) will definitely make it a good choice for your desktop. Even the VirtualBox software has recently made it to the Debian sid repository. The quick or timely bug fixes is also another strength of sidux and Debian. I have three chief complaints though.
Firstly,there was no icon for the mounted usbkey on the desktop. So I had to access the Storage media icon to access the usbkey's content.
This is my response to the emails that I received on 12th of September 2007 that disagreed with my second chief complaint: that it is difficult to install Iceweasel Java plugin. This is my
response:- Secondly, it's as compared to the automatic installation by the Iceweasel Plugin Finder Service. I should have mentioned the difficulty in relation to the ease of installation offered by the Plugin Finder Service. Unfortunately the Finder Service failed. The easiest form of manual installation of Sun Java plugin that I know of is through the execution of apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6- plugin at the Konsole (after you have clicked the "Intall non-free" button on the metapackage installer and then click the install button).
Thirdly, I think that the number of configuration tools for the network devices were a bit redun- dant although they might have been created to allow more than one way of doing things.
Thank you for reading my review.
Kindly email me suggestions/comments. ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
By Michael Shee Choon Beng.
Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.12 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.                   |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
there are sexier distro!
you maybe right| < Prev | Next > |
|---|