Review: TurboLinux Client 2008

Today we have been looking at a more unusual distribution. TurboLinux (Client 2008) is developed by TurboLinux Inc., originally an American company, acquired by TL Holdings Japan. The distribution is a special distro, designed for a Japanese audience with excellent support for Japanese language and applications. In fact its a shame the English installs of this system are not more well done as it is a very good distribution indeed!

Featuring the KDE desktop, customized to look more Windows Vista in style, the system loads reasonably fast even from a live CD and surprisingly the applications bundled in with Turbo include many proprietary software applications including Real Player 11, Skype, Adobe PDF Viewer and even (something I haven't seen since my Windows days) ATI Catalyst Control Center.
Although this does detract somewhat from the essence of Linux as completely free and open source, it is excellent as a starter for those migrating from Windows, and as the distribution is developed on a commercial basis this is to be expected.

TurboLinux lives up to its name, as it is very fast and very efficent, as i mentioned the pre-bundled software selection is very well thought out and brilliant to get you on your feet with your new install straight away. Unfortunately, whilst Turbo does feature support for other languages, its support is very limited and does not compare with native English distributions, however this being said, if you are Japanese or able to read Japanese, the system is very good, and as a development basis for another distro, would perform very well. The installation is simple and easy to use and is built from scratch.

Conclusion: - Brilliant OS, stable and secure and featuring some brilliant applications, although the language barrier is a bit of a shame

Pros- Good selection of pre-installed apps, very fast system and very good hardware detection.

Cons - Unfortunately in Japanese and also seems to lack a software center or repository application of some kind, could be a drawback for installing further apps, especially as Turbo is based on independent code and is not cross compatible with Debian, RedHat or any other big names.


Overall Rating: - 9/10 - Brilliant system (if you know Japanese!)

Review : Linux Mint (Isadora 9) with Fluxbox

In this review we are looking at Linux Mint Isadora 9, running the Fluxbox edition. Our computers tech specs are as follows:-
AMD Athlon 64 1.60GHz, 2GB DDR2, 160GB HDD.

Linux Mint is a fork of Ubuntu and whilst initially being very similar to Ubuntu, since its development has matured, Linux Mint is now a fully fledged and independent operating system. Mint uses the Gnome desktop be default, however we are using the new Fluxbox editon and this is how we got on...

From the start the live CD booted very fast and working within the Live CD is very easy and completely bug free. Unlike many live CD based distributions, Mint performs very well and if you did not know any better you might believe you were running it from the hard disk. Installation of Mint is in essence similar to Ubuntu with a very easy installation process that is fast and glitch-free.

The system itself comes with a selection of pre-installed software that is easily accessible by simply right clicking your mouse key.
One notable difference is the absence of Open Office instead independent applications are installed such as Abiword and Gnumeric. Also pre-bundled is the popular VLC media player, one we found to be quite unusual in default installs of Linux. Mint features a software installer that is very similar to the one found in Ubuntu, although the interface differs slightly.
Wireless connections are a breeze with a near instant connection response and the speedy system allows firefox to launch within seconds.
Mint also lives up to its slogan "From freedom came elegance" as the system is very attractive and very clean,  uncluttered and generally pleasant to look at.
Very simple to use, but the absence of a Windows style application menu could be a little confusing for the first time Linux user.


Conclusion:-
Mint is a very fast, good looking system. The pre-installed software has obviously been very well thought out and the software installer makes life easy for those who want a little bit more, with easy one click installs.

Pros:-
Fast and stable, with a good response even when using the system in Live CD. Easy to use and containing fully featured software applications.

Cons:-
Whilst the fluxbox interface is very pretty, the lack of a "start menu" system could be a little confusing to those who are unfamiliar with Linux. The Live CD edition also does not support keyboard layouts other than standard US.

Overall Rating:- 10/10 Highly recommended system with a very attractive GUI.

Review : Salix OS 13.0

Reviewing the Slackware based Salix OS on a computer with:
AMD Athlon 64 1.60Ghz, 2GB DDR2 and 160GB HDD.
This review is based on the 64bit version of Salix OS.

Salix OS is a Slackware based distribution originating from Europe. Its basis on Slackware distills confidence in the user, being that Slackware is a well established distribution that for a while was one of the most popular, before the rise to power of Ubuntu.
Salix sports the XFCE desktop environment by default.

Installing Salix was a new experience as most of the distributions now-a-days have a graphical installation utility, Salix does not. Despite that it was still simply a matter of press enter where applicable and the installation procedure including the formatting and erasing of the hard disks only took about 10 minutes, and when you boot up for the first time after installation there is no need for any additional configuration as with many systems, making it very easy and fast to install. Salix also has a very fast boot time taking less than 1 minute from power-up to load the login screen then about  5 seconds for the desktop to appear.
Built in WICD network manager makes connecting to a wireless network a breeze and all hardware was automatically detected.

Salix comes with a selection of software including the entire open office suite (including Base and Math, which generally is not included even in Ubuntu), Exaile media player and Transmission bit torrent client, along with a host of other software. The system is easy to configure and does not take long to get used to. Salix looks attractive. To top it off one of my favourite features is the package manager, GSlapt, which supports automatic installations and installs all dependencies as well. The repositories also include downloads of MP3 and Xvid/Divx codecs, something that systems like Mandriva do not have support for.

Conclusion:-
I love Salix! its lightweight, fast and comes with a neat selection of pre-installed apps and to top it off, it looks amazing. It is secure and stable, everything an operating system needs.

Pros:-
Brilliant pre-installed apps and package manager, secure, stable and fast.

Cons:-
The non-graphical installation utility was a bit confusing at first but if in doubt, just press the "enter" key!

Overall Rating - 10/10!

Highly recommended system, great for newbies and advanced users alike!

Review: Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

This review looks at a default install of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx installed on the following system specs:-
AMD Athlon 64 1.60GHz, 2GB DDR2, 160GB HDD.

Ubuntu is one of the most popular desktop distributions in the world with millions of users and support groups worldwide. It also is one of the easiest to use and comes in four flavours with Gnome desktop by default (Ubuntu), KDE (Kubuntu), XFCE (Xubuntu) or Gnome with educational facilities (Edubuntu).

Ubuntu by default uses the Gnome desktop and runs from a Live CD or DVD, it can then be installed to the hard drive after you have had a chance to play around with it for a bit. The installation process is nearly the same as that of Mandriva, it is very simple and for the most part all you need to do is click the next button, as most of the default installation options should suit most systems.
Install typically takes around 15 minutes and once you reboot the system you can go straight to using the desktop.
Ubuntu takes about ten seconds to boot up from the slash screen. Once you login you can start using applications straight away no need to wait for any start up apps to load. Ubuntu comes pre-installed with most of the applications you would need for everyday productivity, including open office, firefox and even a couple of games to top it off. The system administration tools are very simple to use and the whole system is configured so that even the most basic of users should be able to work their way around it with very little problems. Connecting to a network is very simple using the network icon in the system tray, immediately a list of networks appears with no need to scan for them, simply select the one you want, input the encryption and off you go. Ubuntu will remember this choice and will will connect almost instantly on login in the future.

The system is fast, easily configurable and very easy to use and the best feature is the Ubuntu software centre which is a very fast, easy to use repository of more than 20,000 apps which can be installed at a click of a button in an easily searchable or browseable interface, it also includes detailed information on each application you want to install and generally a screenshot too.


Conclusion:
Ubuntu is one of the best distributions for beginners, intermediate or advanced Linux users and is easy, fast and fun, with a wide range of features and tons of configurable options to make your desktop your own. The Gnome desktop looks nice and the general interface is attractive.

Pros:-
Fast, easy to use, brilliant software support and repository as well as easy installation options for proprietary codecs. Tons of software available and totally compatible with Debian

Cons:-
Occasionally Ubuntu wireless and network utilities disconnect for no apparent reason and certain software available in the repositories does not function correctly. Whilst support and documentation is available from Canonical (Developers) it is not that brilliant, however thousands of forums should be able to solve any problems you might have.

overall rating: 

10/10!  - Highly recommended!

Review: OpenSuse 11.3

This review focuses on the latest release of OpenSuse linux (11.3), from Novell. Tested on the following system :-
AMD Athlon 64 1.60 GHz, 2GB DDR2, 160GB HDD.

OpenSuse 11.3 is the latest release of the OpenSuse desktop Linux distribution from Novell. In essence it is the free edition of Suse Enterprise Linux, which is a commercial distribution also developed by Novell aimed at a business audience.

The first thing I noticed about OpenSuse is that while it is an acclaimed desktop distribution, the installer did appear very bloated and slow, and installation is not as simple as the installation in distributions like Ubuntu and Mandriva. I also found that the partition editor whilst it selects "the best partition configuration for your system", it is better to create your own custom based partition table. Installation was very slow and even after the initial install and reboot process, OpenSuse still insisted that the installation was not over and took a good ten minutes to configure the system for first time use. Overall installation, while to most intermediate users is still relatively simple, it is not as simple as other distributions and comparatively is much slower taking a good 40-45 minutes to complete, compared with the 10 minute install from Mandriva.

Once logged into OpenSuse you are presented with a standard install of the KDE Desktop and the standard KDE Networking tools and sound controls are also present. The default install still includes a selection of software including Firefox web browser and open office. Unfortunately I found that connecting to my wireless network took some effort and required me to logout and login again before I could connect and still it was not automatic connection as I still needed to input the network encryption code.
I also found that the system would momentarily glitch and the responses were slow, which makes using it a very patience-testing experience.
Whilst the benefits of OpenSuse as a stable and secure operating system is clear, unless you are running all the latest hardware you might experience considerable issues in the general flow of the system.


Conclusion:-
OpenSuse is a well documented, well supported and well though out operating system, however its bloated installer and occasional momentary freezes can be frustrated.

Pros:-
Comes pre-bundled with a selection of software for instant productivity, layout is friendly to windows users and generally is attractive. The system is stable and secure and well supported and documented.

Cons:-
Very bloated and slow installer, as well as momentary freezes in general running (and we're not talking during live CD mode, which is to be expected), don't exactly make for an enjoyable user experience. In my personal opinion i have never been so disappointed in a Linux distribution before, as i have been with OpenSuse 11.3

Overall Rating - 4/10

Slow and bloated, but still stable and secure. 

Review : Mandriva One Spring 2010

Todays review focuses on Mandriva's One operating system from the Spring 2010 range of products. Tested on a system with the following tech specs:-
AMD Athlon 64 1.60GHz, 2048GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, ATI Graphics, Atheros Network Card.

Mandriva One edition is the latest free operating system from Mandriva. Unlike the Mandriva Free edition, One does come pre-bundled with certain proprietary software including Adobe Flash. In short 'One' is a completely functioning operating system right from the moment you install and is available on live CD/DVD with 32 and 64 bit editions. This review focuses on the 32bit edition installed to the hard drive.

Mandriva sports an easy and fast installation package which makes installing the system a breeze, with most options being pre-selected for the configuration of your system so all it really needs from the user is to input the username and root details and select the partition to install on, from then on all you need to do is sit back and wait. On my computer standard installation took around 10 minutes, after which the computer reboots and you are asked to create a primary user name and password.

Once you finish installing Mandriva you will be presented, upon logging in with a modified KDE desktop (worth noting that this modified desktop is faster than a standard KDE install), Your start menu is easily accessible through the blue star icon in the corner of the screen. Setting up a wireless network is a breeze with Mandriva's custom built network settings wizard which auto-scans all networks and connects in second (as well as auto-connecting on start-up after you have set the network up).
Mandriva also comes with a selection of software including open office, amarok media player (mp3 codecs need to be downloaded from fluendo.com, although this is free and takes only a few minutes, make sure you media player is closed before installing), Firefox web browser and RPMDrake which enables you to download software quickly and efficiently from Mandriva's own repositories.
The Mandriva control centre is also customized and laid out for easy access to system configuration.

Conclusion:-
Mandriva is a fast, capable and compatible operating system with support for a large number of applications and with a nice selection pre-bundled, clean and uncluttered interfaces and stable operating environment make it a very easy distribution to use and get along with on an everyday basis.

Pros:-
Easy and fast installer, pre-bundled with a selection of software to optimize your productivity from the start including office apps, very easy network configuration and easy installer for adding additional software.

Cons:-
Package manager is a bit slow to start and does not include some proprietary codecs needed for multimedia, the software settings also only list applications with a GUI by default so lib files won't show in a search, this setting is easy to change but if you don't notice it could be confusing. Occasional software bugs can also be slightly annoying but are easily fixed with a trip to the community forums at forums.mandriva.com

Overall Rating - 9/10

Highly recommended but software repositories could be made better and automatic dependency support for software downloaded outside of the repositories could be included.