| My Desktop Odyssey Update - Part 2 |
by Michael C. Barnes
Red Hat 8.0
Red Hat is by far the most popular Linux distribution. Many other distributions are based in part or in whole on Red Hat. Red Hat is fast, stable, and complete. Red Hat created many of the tools used in other distributions. Few can argue that Red Hat is not the GNU/Linux server platform of choice.
Red Hat was originally a Gnome only supporter. Mandrake evolved as a version of Red Hat with KDE. Mandrake gained the edge over Red Hat as they focused on making Mandrake a better desktop based Linux.
I used Red Hat 7.3 to setup up the main desktop for my loudspeaker business. While I am very pleased with the results, I would not want to repeat the process again. Getting Red Hat to work the way I wanted to was more of a research project than I expected or wanted.
Red Hat 8.0 has completely redesigned their desktop. Red Hat has combined Gnome and KDE into a common desktop that they call Bluecurve. Bluecurve retains KDE features but looks more like Gnome. Red Hat 8.0 has made many enhancements to their desktop.
Red Hat Bluecurve User Interface
Red Hat has opted for a simpler approach for the desktop. The tool bar is far less busy looking than most KDE based installations. KDE Office is not installed. Instead, the icons bring up Open Office. I think this is a good move. I don't believe KDE Office is required except for those situations where Open Office does not have local language support.
There was an icon for a browser and one for e-mail. The e-mail icon brought up Evolution and the browser icon brought up Mozilla. I believe that these are very good choices. It is apparent that the people at Red Hat have actually used Linux for their desktop as they have made very good choices.
As with previous versions, Red Hat 8.0 is stable and fast. I tested Red Hat 8.0 on a VIA C3 800 Mhz processor. The performance was very good.
I was very pleased to see that Gnome Meeting was included with the base installation. I was surprised to see that no software was loaded to play DVDs. Most other distributions come with Xine or Ogle to play DVDs.
Another complaint is that the browser is not preconfigured. Flash, Real Audio and Java are not preinstalled. I have opted to use Codeweavers Crossover Plugin to add these features, as it is ultimately much easier and more complete. Codeweavers Crossover Plugin makes browsing with Linux as complete as browsing on Microsoft Windows.
Red Hat did not choose to preconfigure Samba, Komba for other tools that would make Red Hat look like a Windows based PC on the network. You can do this yourself, but I always hope that these things are done for me.
Red Hat is one of the best choices for any organization with existing GNU/Linux expertise. Red Hat is the best known and probably the best supported GNU/Linux distribution available. For mass deployments, Red Hat provides the right toolset to set a distribution on a large scale.
For an organization with experience primarily with Microsoft Windows, Red Hat might not be the best choice to deploy on thedesktop. It isn't that it is difficult to use, quite the contrary. Red Hat 8.0 is very easy to use, and very easy to lay out. The issue is that there is a lot of work to be done to bring Red Hat up to the level of integration that most Microsoft Windows users expect. The tools to do this are all there and with the right expertise, Red Hat can be configured into a truly outstanding desktop.
I have tested over thirty Linux distributions as well as most versions of Microsoft Windows. I give Microsoft Windows 98 SE a '7', and Windows XP a '9' on a ten-point scale. To date, I have not given any Linux a '9', most score equal to,or slightly better than Windows 98 SE. Red Hat 8.0 gets a '7.5 'which makes it better than Windows 98 but not quite as good as Windows XP.
I believe Red Hat should be a standard part of any IT professional's toolkit. Red Hat is an excellent foundation to build virtually any solution. Red Hat is one of the easiest GNU/Linux distributions to install and configure. Deploying Red Hat 8.0 as a desktop does require some expertise.
Red Hat has made the choice to combine Gnome and KDE into a single environment. This decision has no impact on people who are not familiar with either environment, but will probably disappoint those that prefer one environment to another. I have always preferred KDE to Gnome so Red Hat's choice is a disappointment for me.
Mandrake 9.0
Mandrake has always been my favorite distribution of the major players. Mandrake was originally designed as a KDE based version of Red Hat. As Mandrake matured, it took on a flavor of its own. Many of its configuration tools were modeled on the control panel tools found on Microsoft Windows. It was generally much easier for a person familiar with Microsoft Windows to do tasks such as change the screen resolution or add a printer than it would be using other distributions.
Mandrake created menus that made more sense and their applications were better organized than most Linux distributions.
Mandrake's latest version prior to 9.0 was 8.2. Mandrake beat Red Hat to market just prior to Red Hat releasing Red Hat 7.3. It might have been better if Mandrake had been slower to market. Mandrake 8.2 offered KDE 2.2.2 instead of the newer KDE 3.0 offered by Red Hat. Mandrake 9.0 is long overdue. This release brings Mandrake up-to-date with other distributions.
Although Mandrake 8.2 may not have the latest bells and whistles, Mandrake 8.2 remains one of the best available distributions based primarily on the elegant work Mandrake has done improving the Linux desktop experience.
Many Linux distributions take the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to Linux. They cram every single Open Source software package into the distribution. The challenge for the user is to figure out what is installed, where it is and what it does. In some distributions, many of the installed applications do not work.
Mandrake does a lot of work to make configuring GNU/Linux easier to administer, and easier to use. Adding a printer or scanner to Mandrake is not much more difficult than doing so with Microsoft Windows.
Mandrake 9.0 is very comlete and well organized.
While Red Hat 8.0's desktop experience is much improved over Red Hat 7.3; Mandrake's move to 9.0 is less of an improvement than it is polishing. Red Hat is still playing catch up while Mandrake is refining.
Red Hat 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0 are both very good choices for desktop users. Red Hat takes the safe route by offering fewer applications and directly supporting less hardware. Some offices might appreciate a simpler approach.
Mandrake is better suited for users who want to expand the functionality of Linux. Mandrake has Xine installed to play DVDs while Red Hat does not. Mandrake offers an easier way to install both scanners as well as digital cameras.
Mandrake is the distribution of choice for the user who wants to stay up-to-date with the latest of every application. Mandrake is very easy to install and it does a very good job of supporting new software. Mandrake offers more desktop applications than Red Hat 8.0. Mandrake also leaves the KDE environment intact. Both Mandrake and Red Hat provide a very good foundation for building custom distributions.
Both Red Hat 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0 include Gnome Meeting. Gnome Meeting is a very nice video teleconferencing package that is compatible with Microsoft NetMeeting. ELX, Knoppix, Mandrake 9.0 and Red Hat 8.0 users now have a common video teleconferencing application. The newest version of Gnome Meeting allows GNU/Linux users to subscribe to PC to Phone services. Mandrake 9.0 deserves an '8' making it one of the best GNU/Linux distributions for the desktop.
SuSE Linux 8.1
I have tried various versions of SuSE periodically. There have always been some things that SuSE does better than anyone. Then there are other things that are unique to SuSE. When I tested SuSE 8.0 against Red Hat 7.3 and Mandrake 8.2, I felt that SuSE was not quite as polished as Mandrake.
SuSE Linux 8.1 is greatly improved. There is one area where SuSE Linux 8.1 really stands out. SuSE 8.1 has about the best hardware support I have seen – equaling the amazing hardware recognition capability of Knoppix.
My previous experience with SuSE was always frustrating because there was always something I could not make work. The new SuSE recognizes virtually all hardware. This includes scanners that aren't recognized by other distributions.
I tested the standard version of SuSE Linux 8.1 and not the more expensive versions that also include Star Office 6.0 and Codeweavers Crossover Office. While the version I tested was SuSE's most basic offering, it was quite complete. I tried to install SuSE Linux 8.1 on four computers to see just how good it was at recognizing hardware. The first system was a BIOSTAR motherboard supporting an AMD XP1500 processor. This system was fully configured with USB 2.0, SCSI, Zip drives, two scanners and a TV card. Amazingly SuSE found all the hardware. What surprised me the most was that it worked with my Lifeview 2000 TV card which uses a Phillips chip.
The second system I tested was an Asus motherboard with an Intel 800 Mhz Pentium III. This system had a Plustek scanner, ATI All in Wonder, HP 970 printer and a generic video camera. SuSE picked up all the hardware. While the software appeared to see the ATI Wonder, I was unable to get the system to work. Perhaps with more time, I might have been able to get the ATI All in Wonder working.
Even for organizations not wanting to adopt SuSE for all their users, SuSE would be a good tool to add. Anyone who has done a lot of work with GNU/Linux knows just how frustrating it can be to support some hardware devices.
It might be nothing more than SuSE is newer than the other versions I tested and therefore has the latest drivers. If this is the case, this is good news for GNU/Linux users everywhere.
The version of SuSE 8.0 that I tested was relatively complete. It was more complete than Red Hat 8.0 and less complete than Mandrake 9.0. The degree of integration was on par with most standard GNU/Linux distributions, which means that it was less integrated than Xandros or ELX. I give SuSE 8.1 a '7.9' out of 10.
Vector Linux 3.2
One of the benefits that I constantly read about GNU/Linux is the fact that Linux will run on older PCs. I have a lot of old PCs. Some of these are laptops that cannot be upgraded. The maximum RAM in some of these are only 32 MB and some of these only have 1 GB hard drives.
I tried many different GNU/Linux distributions and found that 32 MB RAM is just not enough RAM for most GNU/Linux distributions. I concluded that Microsoft Windows 98 did run well on these older computers and concluded that people with older machines should simply continue to use Windows 98.
I looked at many possible distributions. I tried Dragon and other GNU/Linux distributions. The problem is that both KDE and Gnome are attempting to match or exceed Microsoft's latest offerings and need from 64 MB to 128 MB to run.
I played around with Mandrake and Slackware trying to use an alternate window manager to see if I could put something together myself that would work. I gave up.
Searching the web and looking for a small GNU/Linux distribution, I found Vector Linux 3.2 I downloaded the distribution using a modem from their website http://www.vectorlinux.com
Vector Linux sells a commercial SOHO version for $19.95 and claims that their only source of income is from the copies of CDs they sell.
Reading over the features of the latest version, the commercial version appears to have many worthwhile features and I am sure that it is well worth the purchase price. The comments I have are based on my testing of the free download version.
Vector Linux can install on an existing FAT32 partition or you can create your own partition. The instructions claim that some people feel more comfortable using commercial programs such as Partition Magic. I used the FDISK utility included with the download and I tested an install using a native FAT32 partition. Both worked so long as I partitioned the disk prior to running the install software.
Installing Vector Linux requires you understand the way that GNU/Linux addresses drives. There is some documentation on Vector Linux's website and on the install disk that explains this concept fairly well.
The complete install took less than 20 minutes. I initially installed Xfree86 version 4.21. For some reason, I could not make Xfree86 4.21 work with my S3 Trio 64 to work. I reinstalled using the Xfree86 3.36 and everything worked.
Booting the system, I had a choice of either XFCE or ICEWM. XFCE is very similar to the CDE environment found on many Unix based workstations such as Sun. I personally feel that this environment is a outdated, however others feel that it is a fat free environment and for those people used to Unix systems, XFCE will seem very familiar.
Screen shot of Vector Linux's ICEWM environment
ICEWM is a very attractive window manager. There are many different themes. Many of the themes are similar to KDE themes. I selected the Aqua theme and felt quite at home.
On my system, Vector Linux took just over 400 MB. The documentation claims that the system can install on 350 MB. There is also documentation that claims that the install can be compressed.
Vector Linux seems like a very good candidate to put on a 512 MB CF card or 512 MB Disk on Module to create a totally solid state solution.
The free version of Vector Linux comes with Abi Word, Dillo Browser, Opera Browser, and XMMS media player. While the distribution is quite basic, there is an application that clones apt-get that allows the user to easily update and download new files. Vector Linux is the very best compact GNU/Linux distribution I have seen. I believe that in terms of look, performance, features and boot up times, Vector Linux can be considered an upgrade to Windows 98. The performance I saw on my 32 MB systems was superb.
Based on only the free version of Vector Linux, I would give this distribution a score of '8.3.' Looking over the features provided in the commercial version, I believe that the commercial version would score as high as Peanut 9.5 (reviewed later in this article).
Vector Linux should be considered when looking at ways to breath new life into older systems—particularly older laptops.
ASP Linux
ASP Linux bills itself as very easy to install. I agree. ASP Linux claims to be 100% compatible with Red Hat. I did not test this claim. ASP Linux comes with plenty of software. The version I tried was the free download version. I did not spend a lot of time with ASP but the time that I did spend with it convinced me that this is one of the better desktop environments available. ASP Linux is complete, easy to install and stable. ASP Linux isn't one of the better-known GNU/Linux distributions but it deserves consideration. I would rate ASP about '7.7', which puts it at the higher end of the Linux Desktop options.
Go to Part 3
(Click here for further information)
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