Distro-Review is the new home of the Linux reviews that used to take place on Seopher.com but I've decided to separate the two sites entirely.
Therefore this site will be 100% dedicated to reviewing Linux distros and the surrounding technologies; from the mainstream releases like Ubuntu to smaller (but equally awesome) ones like Pardus.
Mandriva started life in July 1998 (formally known as Linux-Mandrake) as a KDE distro based on Red Hat. That was nearly 10 years ago and they've just released Mandriva 2008.1 Spring Edition so let's have a look at this release.
As always I'm interested in ease of use, out of the box functionality and intuitiveness. Mandriva 2008.1 uses KDE 3.5.9, Kernel 2.6.24 and Xorg 7.3.
My last two trips into DreamLinux haven't gone so well; most recently I toyed with DL3.0 RC1 and found an okay release plagued by a massively counter-intuitive installer. Let me clarify the importance of the installer yet again:
However excellent a distro may be, an uneccessarily counter-intuitive installer will be too much of a barrier for most users. I don't want to use a release that disregards such an important aspect.
For those of us that like to use Linux it seems insulting to pay for a laptop that comes preloaded with an operating system that we'll never use. Whatever the laptop costs there'll be a hidden fee on top of that for the software and that's why *some* vendors have "Windows Refunds" on offer.
Linux has a negative image associated with it; a most unfortunate affliction when that image is contrary to the truth. I'm occasionally asked "why do you bother with Linux?" by people who haven't used it recently under the assumption that it's difficult to use, counter intuitive, geeky, nerdy and any number of other adjectives. However it is my intention to raise awareness that Linux is remarkably usable these days, so on that note let's start looking at how Linux has outgrown that stereotype.
Freespire is one of those distros that I'm always being recommended to try, so this week instead of reviewing a brand new release I'm stepping back to try Freespire 2.0.3 and see how it measures up.
The single most annoying thing about Freespire is that I've only just stumbled upon it's greatness. If someone dresses up the menus and the folder icons then this has the potential to be the best release in the world - and I genuinely believe that.
Foresight Linux is a release that I hadn't heard of before they appeared in the "latest distributions" bit on Distrowatch when I was hunting for new review material. One of my favourite things to do is try releases I've not heard of before... And so we enter Foresight.
