Well, the thing’s installing now. Slick as goose grease, so far. The “net install” download’s definitely the way to go, if one has a broadband connection, IMO. Instead of 21 CDs (or a short stack of DVDs) to download and burn, just a “small” ~150MB download (well, small as contemporary OS installations go) and then let it pull the rest of whatever you require beyond the bare basic install directly from the web as it installs.
Nice, clean, clear installation that any moderately literate person–even a newbie–could follow easily. Of course, that may exclude up to 70% of recent college graduates… *heh*
Going into the first boot after install now. Everything looking good. Let’s just see what the default desktop environment looks like.
OK, looks like a normal (low-rez screenshot of a) Gnome desktop. 🙂 (Click on the image to see a larger version–still low-resolution rendering) The menu items are a little more obscurantist than with the uber-ultra-friendly Ubuntu or Freespire or even Puppy Linux and PC-BSD, but clear enough. Looks usable, but probably more suited, as initially configured, to Wintel power users who’re comfortable learning new interfaces or to folks already moderately familiar with some Linux through the training wheels interfaces offered by Ubuntu or the others mentioned (yeh, yeh, PC-BSD isn’t Linux like the others, but it’s a ‘nix and is similar in some ways).
One thing: unlike most of the other distros, the installation configured networking BEFORE the first boot of the install (had to to download the rest of what I wanted installed from a mirror), so that’s a very newbie-friendly thing. NOT impressed with the Epiphany browser that’s part of the standard installation, but I don’t expect downloading and installing Opera will be much of a much.
Well, aside from the quirky Flash plugin installation (you’d think I was used to it by now) for Opera, that was easy-peasy. Much easier than installing Opera in Puppy Linux or PC-BSD, even. Not quite as easy as installing it in Freespire, but easier than some Ubuntu installations. (Downloading/installing Easy Ubuntu makes adding media plugins for browsers easy-peasy, though–and I’ve not looked at a fresh install of Ubuntu 7.04, yet, so that may be an outdated assessment.)
Nice.
Now, I just need to poke around, see what apps are available with the default desktop installation, how easy it is to fill in gaps with new downloads/installations (stuff like WINE will be good/fun to test out, for sure :-)).
First impression: pretty slick. Let’s see how it works for a while. Back later…
Not that much later. OPen Office is included in the desktop installation. Plenty of decent media apps, CD/DVD burner, GIMP, etc. More than enough to keep Windows transplants busy for a while.
Get your own copy of the distro here to try out.
NOTE: a higher-resolution of the screenshot above is here. ANd yeh, I changed the desktop background first thing outa the gate. And yes, the “phreddie” username is a throwaway. 🙂
Trackposted to The Right Nation, Stuck On Stupid, Rightlinx, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, and Adam’s Blog, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.