2004-02-10, 04:43 PM
If you are a minimalist then try Vector Linux. It runs quite smoothly.
One thing went wrong after the install though. Where normally in Gentoo and Redhat the onboard NIC on my box would come up as eth0, and the PCI NIC would come up as eth1, they were swapped in Vector Linux. This was quite confusing. Though, i simply had to do a "dhcpcd eth1" to sort it out.... Works like a dream now. The whole thing runs very fast.
just ran into a silly little feature... When i minimize a window in fluxbox, the only way to restore it is right-click on the desktop and find it in the fluxbox menu under worspacelist - icons... Kinda confusing for me, and I have used fluxbox before. I suppose it would be incredibly confusing for anyone who hasn't used fluxbox before.
SoftwarePlaza is VL's gui-version of apt-get. It lists available packages for local installation or FTP download, and installed packages for uninstall. I'm pretty sure you have to run it as root (duh), otherwise it downloads but doesnt install the package you want it to. The software options are very limited, with such software titles as gnome, gaim, xine, xmms, and some others. There are about 60 packages available for download and install. Some packages I didn't see but would like to see in future versions are mplayer, mozilla (vector comes with firebird), gdesklets, the 2.6 kernel, various games...
IPTables is a default module, so if you have a premade firewall script, it's a breeze.
The Vector Linux ISO is approximately 229 MB in size. After installation (with X), it takes up approximately 600 MB of hd space. It is easy enough to set up, allthough you might need to read a partition HOWTO if you are completely new to linux and dont know how to use any partitioning software. And lilo is a PITA unless you want to have it boot from a floppy (which I have done), probably the only use left for floppies anyways...
This is a great alternative to XP (which I have deleted, finally, just so I could install VL). It has everything a casual user would really need. Web browser, Gaim, XMMS, Xchat...
Rating: (out of 10)
If I were more of a noob than I already am:
Installation: 4.5
Post-installation: 6
Connecting to the Net: 2
My personal opinion:
Speed: 8
Installed Packages: 3.5
Installation: 7
Installation Speed: 10
Post-install (Firstboot): 5
Overall: 8
In comparison:
RH9: Overall: 8
Gentoo: Overall: 6