It’s the combination of the hardware you have with whatever you’re installing. Whether it’s any particular Linux distribution or maybe even Windows, there’d be times that you will hit some snags. Some inconveniences might be greater than others. You can not always tell. (This is also based on my personal experience.)

There will be times that everything is going to work out of the box. Seriously fine and dandy and happy. Right? I get those times. But there are moments that there are unexpected kinks. It could affect the sound card, it could be the video card. It could be something else like wifi. There are those sweet moments that I know people are happy about, including myself.

I’ve read the acronym YMMV on a mailing list and I wondered what it was all about. And someone just explained it to me that sometimes people don’t have the same experiences when it comes to installing things or trying out new applications. It often grounds me to the reality that not everything about x distro will be all bad or all good. That’s why even if I do read that x distro (in this case Ubuntu 9.10) isn’t quite as perfect, I still would give it a try once I can. After all, I do read good stuff about it too.

No distro is perfect. Exaggerated reports or isolated cases will not be very helpful either in assessing these things. So just keep in mind, YMMV for each time that you want to use something.

Post from: New Linux User

1. New design for the installer.
2. Live upgrade
3. Moblin desktop
4. Guest accounts
5. 3G features request
6. Better wireless support
7. Easier wifi key setup
8. Better boot time
9. Better rpmdrake start up speed
10. Urpmi media auto configuration
11. Better user information in rpmdrake
12. Better Drakguard
13. Better krandr
14. OpenOffice.org 3.1 and KDE 4 integration
15. gcc 4.4
16. Improved diskdrake
17. GNOME 2.28
18. KDE 4.3.2
19. Nepomuk integration
20. Plymouth boot splash

I really liked it that the installer of Mandrake give us users the freedom to choose the kind of desktop environment we want. Looks like they still give users the option and they even included Moblin for good measure, to keep up with netbook users. I think this will be interesting to test eventually. Moblin offers users an interesting layout for netbook users so that the space is maximized. There’s also the improvement of the tools users use to manage things like disk partitioning. After all, this is one of the things which would be tedious on the command line and could be tricky and scary for users who are not used to the command line interface.

All in all, it does look like Mandriva is going to improve everything to make it usable to users. If you’re a user who’d like the fancy stuff of KDE, it might be an advantage too since there are improvements in krandr (for easy management of the resolution of your monitor, etc.) and then there’s also the OpenOffice.org integration with KDE. GNOME fans also have something to look forward to because GNOME 2.28 is the basis of GNOME 3.0!

Mandriva is looking mighty tempting. But I am really thinking about this well because of the comfort level I currently have with Ubuntu. Ah well, who knows? I might go back to where I started if things keep looking this good. : )

Post from: New Linux User

Sounds like an infomercial, doesn’t it? ;  )  But thinking about what defaults you might possibly have, there’s gotta be something better.  And I might be biased but there really are other things better on netbooks compared to Windows.  Whether you believe it or not, that’s what I personally think.  Windows looks too cluttered for me even though it’s not as sluggish as I thought it would be.

Anyway, no need to freak out that your netbook isn’t quite as fantastic as you thought it should be. Some changes in the latest version of Easy Peasy:

• It has a new look!
• It uses kernel 2.6.30 that’s been optimized for netbooks so that startup’s faster.
• Support for more netbooks! Hooray!
• An image which could possibly be installed from a Mac.
• Upgraded software like Picasa and OpenOffice.org.
• It uses Ext4 as a file system by default.

Easy Peasy. Logo from the Easy Peasy website.

I am waiting for my download of EasyPeasy to get done so I could blog about my first impressions too. As much as I am excited to try it out because of Ext4 and the latest kernel that’s optimized for netbooks, Ubuntu Karmic Koala’s just around the corner. Hrmm. I don’t know.

But yeah, those who are new netbook owners could benefit from distros whose teams are always seeking ways to make it easier for newbies to use Linux. They make sure that the applications that users will look for are there. Like Picasa or Skype.

And it’s really great that the Easy Peasy team has gone beyond supporting Asus EEE PC so other netbook owners could enjoy the benefits of this distro.

Just wait for me to check it out and I’d post my screenshots and write my impressions of this version of Easy Peasy. I already have the image and so I just need to put it on a USB flashdrive for a review later.

Post from: New Linux User

Among the list of distributions worthy of checking out are:

• GoboLinux
• Draco
• Blag
• Enlisy
• Protech

Blag has a very interesting name. This distro is fascinating because it shows what free software can do. A problem, though, is that the hardware support on this one isn’t as good as what new users might be used to and could be daunting. Not for the faint of heart, I guess. But it doesn’t mean you can’t try.

Enlisy might be interesting to those who want to really try hacking it because its tools are written in Python. However this has no live CD, so you have to really install it first. Looks like a good thing for those who want to have a minimal system that’s meant to be tweaked to convenience or one’s needs/wants.

Someone mentioned INX too. It’s a Live CD which is meant to be used by newbies to the console. The name itself says so: “INX is not X” which implies that it’s all about the console. Various tools are available on INX that help you deal with various tasks on the command line. Don’t worry because on the menu, you could actually get to learn more about it because you get access some basic tutorials as well as a tour of GNU screen. Hopefully you won’t get lost around it.

Excited to try out new distros? Then you probably share my sentiments on this matter.

Post from: New Linux User

• Lite ISO: Small CD image (700MB)
  
  This has games suitable for children and older computers. You just burn it on a CD with your favorite CD-writing tool.
• Lite USB
  
  This has the same games as the Lite ISO version but it is made for USB keys and USB sticks (requires minimum of 1GB USB device).
  
  You could use:
  sudo dd bs=8M if=/path/to/lg-live-0.9.5-i686-lite.usb of=/dev/your_usb_device

  
  Or: use the Flashnul utility. You could also refer to this guide to using Flashnul.
• Big ISO
  
  Big DVD image (4.7GB) with the full games selection for adults and more recent computers.
• Big USB
  
  This has the same contents as the Big ISO but this is meant for USB drives. So yes, your USB drive must have as much capacity or you can’t write this on it. Writing method could be the same as the Lite USB version.

For the complete list of games, check this page.

I would probably get a copy of the lite versions so that I could give it to my co-workers who have children. Some of them do allow their children to use their computers but having the USB with a distro with games will probably limit their young ones so that they won’t be able to just click on anything just because it’s on the browser. I see that a lot of their children go online to play games so this will give them another option.

Post from: New Linux User

Nifty features:

• 20-second boot-up. How much faster could boot-up times go? But a 20-second boot-up would be nice.
• Automatic fonts and Mime installer. If you’re not familiar with the file format, it’s ok. You could try opening it and you will be prompted if you want to search for the application that will open it. If you’re opening a file in a word processor or something, you will be prompted that the application will install the appropriate fonts.
• GNOME 2.26 – You could get the latest version of GNOME with Fedora 11. And if you’re not a GNOME user, there’s always…
• KDE 4.2 which has PolicyKit-KDE, Network Manager plasma applet among others.
• Invidia graphics cards will use Nouveau as the default driver.
• Access your Microsoft Exchange inbox using OpenChange. You could use Evolution or kdepim with Exchange using OpenChange.

All those features and more are available in Fedora 11. If you’re dying to see some screenshots, you could view h-online.com’s slideshow of Fedora 11 screenshots.

Post from: New Linux User

• support for proprietary drivers such as ATI and NVIDIA
• support for suspend on notebooks
• 20,000+ software in the repositories
• APT and Synaptic package managers
• Linux kernel 2.6.29
• GNOME 2.26.1
• KDE 4.2.2
• X.org Server 1.6.1
• OpenOffice.org 3.0.1
• Firefox 3.0.10

Kudos to the Caixa Magica team for releasing v. 14! They have become successful in making a distro their own and it’s appropriate for their country’s computing needs. Native English-speakers or those of us who are comfortable with English might not find it relevant but if you think about it, technology is not just for us and it need not be centered on us. The team behind Caixa Magica seems to know how much impact it would be to have Linux more relevant to their country. In terms of advocacy, it helps in spreading the Linux love.

Post from: New Linux User

Interestingly enough, Acer might be releasing the Android-powered Acer Aspire One in the third quarter of the year. And they could probably even have a netbook sale around Thanksgiving, right? Or around Christmas time. A strategic time of release, don’t you think? Especially if these netbooks would cost lower. For Linux users who want to play around with Android on their netbooks, this would be interesting because at least you get hardware that works with the software already. Unless Acer releases something half-baked, that is. I don’t think they would be doing that because their customers could end up complaining.

Somehow, I’d like to see Android on even smaller devices like the Sony Vaio P Series that just looks like a pocketbook because it somehow feels right to me for it to ‘feel very mobile’ due to its size. Or maybe something like a DS Lite or a DSi. The DSi could even connect to wireless internet even with WPA security so I wonder if there’s a way to load Android there for the heck of it.

Post from: New Linux User

Fedora

PlanetOSS even has a review of Fedora 11’s pre-release. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols listed down Fedora’s 5 best features even.

On the best features list, I saw that the fast boot up time was included. I saw that on one of the tweets of one person I’m following. The list includes Fedora using Ext4 by default, better graphics because of X.server 1.6, as well as improvements with Synaptics to the point that it made him appreciate touchpads more. Another one is the extra security provided by DNSSEC.

The PlanetOSS review has more screenshots in case you are curious and it gave a more detailed writeup of his user experience with Fedora 11. That includes the good and the bad. Although as other commenters have pointed out, not everything that was mentioned was the same for them. Some agreed to having difficulties with the graphical package manager though.

For me, package managers are critical because users who are new to Linux must be guided about instaling packages. They might get the usual exe files and other such installers online without knowing that they won’t work. So where do they turn to for their favorite kinds of applications, right?

I like that the PlanetOSS also included a lot of screenshots for those who are not familiar with Fedora, like me. The review also mentioned other stuff like Palimpsest which might be a replacement for Gparted.

Post from: New Linux User

• Wifi was gone. But no worries. There’s a new wifi driver included apparently. For a time I was using Madwifi with Intrepid Ibex but JM Ibanez told me that there is a newer driver, which is ath5k. It was disabled, somehow, so basically we just had to enable it and then I had wifi going. The nice thing about wifi now is that even if i resume from suspend, I could connect to the wifi network. It wasn’t like that when I was using Madwifi on Intrepid.
• No video playback. I am not sure what the cause of this is yet. But I’ve observed that I could not play any videos at all. SMplayer warns me about my mplayer as having the older version. For some strange reason I could hear the sounds but there are no graphics whatsoever.
• Certain settings were overwritten. My default browser is now Epiphany — which wasn’t because I’ve set it to Firefox waaay back.
• They changed the screen configuration tool’s name to “Display” instead of “Screen Resolution” — Not a bad idea, IMHO, considering it’s not just about the screen resolutions anymore but the entire setup of your display screen/s, especially if you’re using an extended monitor setup.

I have nothing to say about performance yet. But in any case, Jaunty Jackalope seems to be running just fine on my Acer Aspire One. No noisy fan issues, my volume control keys work, my screen brightness buttons are fine too. Still no wifi LED indicator but I’d manage anyway.

Post from: New Linux User