"Other" Distros Graded [utilizing the RYDES standards]

[richbarna]

This thread uses R.Y.D.E.S (Rich Yozef Distro Evaluation System) to grade distros. The guide can be copied and pasted, and changed to suit your own grades of 1-5.

Could you please title your post "Distro Test - Distro" then it will be easy to do a forum search if the list is popular and gets a bit long, Thanks.
(This can be done after your review by clicking edit and changing the title)

Instead of having a load of chit-chat posts could you please PM richbarna or yozef with any suggestions, Thanks Again.

See my "howto" on adding other installed distros to the GRUB menu.lst

|It-0| Install
|Lt-0| Live Test
|H-0| Hardware support
|C-0| Codecs
|U-0| USB
|G-0| Graphics
|S-0| Speed
|F-0| Forum Support

0. Didn't Work
1. Unsatisfactory
2. Satisfactory
3. Good
4. Very Good
5. Excellent

PS: Don't forget the Distro URL

[richbarna]

|It-n/a| Install Test 0-5
|Lt-3| Live Test "
|H-5| Hardware support "
|C-0| Codecs "
|U-5| USB "
|G-5| Graphics "
|S-3| Speed "
|F-?| Forum Support "

Tested on a box with 256Mb RAM, Nvidia Gforce 5200, 1.7Ghz proc. ZyXel router.

I found the live cd slow, it took 5 minutes to get to the desktop and general usage was slow as well. (although live cd's are normally slower than in installed distro).

All my hardware was supported, so no problems there.

Standard KDE desktop, I did notice that Google-Earth is preinstalled and works well. There is also GsetCpmpiz although I didn't play around with compiz.

I tried the install and IMHO is scary. I am used to being able to choose my /root partition then /home folder + Swap, I didn't get this. I just got a Gparted style view of my partitions but no "install to hdc?" or "select your swap partition", I could get the properties for a partition and put / as mount point, but that was it. I also know nothing about portage, so I decided for the sake of my harddrive to leave it alone and maybe experiment later on another PC.
See Setup and install Guide

Ubuntu install it isn't !!

http://www.lxnaydesign.net/

[Lord Illidan]

|It-4| Install Test

Excellent interface used for installation. Easy to use. The only drawbacks are the partitioner section, which can be misleading to new users, and the selection of packages, which often gave me dependency errors.

|Lt-1| Live Test

Very slow, didn't work for me. Could be I need more RAM. SUSE is a big distro, after all.

|H-5| Hardware support

Every piece of hardware was detected, no problems.

|C-2| Codecs

Mp3 codecs were provided in the form of helix, yet Suse makes it difficult to install new codecs, since the multimedia players are crippled. Ubuntu outperforms Suse in this regard.

|U-5| USB

Works.

|G-4| Graphics

Nvidia drivers not included in Yast, had to download the official from Nvidia's site. Still, they worked without problems, and the distro correctly identified my monitor and resolution. Also, nv worked.

|S-4| Speed

Could do with some work. But not bad..

|F-3| Forum Support

Not as good as this forum. Far less users, and more RTFMing.

0. Didn't Work
1. Unsatisfactory
2. Satisfactory
3. Good
4. Very Good
5. Excellent

[xXx 0wn3d xXx]

|It-4| Install Test 0-5

The Archlinux install cd has no gui-based interface. It's all text. Even though it has no pretty colors, I found it easy to use and install.

|Lt-N/A| Live Test

There is a new live cd project called Larch (Live Arch) but I have not had the chance to test/use it.

|H-5| Hardware support

All of my hardware was detected except my Broadcom wifi card which will never be detected by any distro but it's hardware detection is very good.

|C-2| Codecs

Codecs are not included by default but can be easily be installed.

|U-5| USB

ALl of my USB devices were detected. Including my ipod, psp, and a few others.

|G-4| Graphics

Since I have an ATi graphics card, it didn't work by default. I was using the vesa drivers but the ati drivers were easily installed.

|S-5| Speed

Arch is amazingly fast. In terms of speed, it is faster then my Gentoo install without all the compiling times ! Boot time for me is under 25-30 seconds.

|F-4| Forum Support

The forums can be found at bbs.archlinux.org and they are very helpful. While they do not have as many users or posts as the Ubuntu forums, the people on the forum are very helpful.

0. Didn't Work
1. Unsatisfactory
2. Satisfactory
3. Good
4. Very Good
5. Excellent

My overall rating is 4.7/5 Archlinux is fast, stable, and easy-to-use. It is now my prefered linux distribution and the only on my hard-disk. Arch has a great future and I think that it will become very popular.

[richbarna]

|It-5| Install Test 0-5

This has to be the easist, risk free install of any linux distro. To install you "dock" a folder called "dyne". You do this by clicking on the Hard Drive icon, which gives you root access to ALL partitions.

Then you click on the CD drive, and copy and paste the dyne folder to a partition of your choice. It's 600 Mb so it takes a few minutes, but that's all.

To save all your configuration files, Dyne:Bolic uses "nesting", this is basically the same as having a /Home folder. Just like the install, you click on "nest" and it asks which partition you want to use for the nested the nested folder. That's it, all installed. If you want to boot from GRUB instead of the CD, just add Dyne to the Menu.lst.

|Lt-5| Live Test

Just using the "Live" version is awesome, it's fast and everything works "out of the box".

|H-4| Hardware support

I gave it a 4 because I have an nVidia card and I haven't yet found out if it's possible to get the newest nVidia drivers. My screen is offset by about 2 mm to the left. Although that is probably solveable.

|C-5| Codecs

Dyne:Bolic plays everything !! I tried wma, mp3, avi, mpg.

|U-3| USB

Multi-card reader, 3 pen drives (all worked)
Blue Tooth dongle (not recognised)
Web cam (will try later)

|G-4| Graphics

4 because of the previous nVidia driver problem, otherwise crisp and bright, excellent video playback.

|S-5| Speed

No KDE or Gnome = Rapid (using xfce & fluxbox)

|F-?| Forum Support

No forum that I know of, although there is a #dyne channel on IRC and a mailing list.

I am extremely impressed with this version of Dyne, having used the previous version.

It comes with Amarok 1.4 and K3B as standard. Both work "out of the box". It has some very good music editing software, and is also able to broadcast radio and podcasts.

This distro now has a permanent place on one of my partitions.

http://www.dynebolic.org/index.php?show=available

[richbarna]

|It-n/a| Install

I wouldn't install this distro.

|Lt-3| Live Test

As a live cd, it's ok if you need something quick to get on the internet.

|H-2| Hardware support

It found everything, but when I was testing cd's and dvd's I had to manually unmount and eject the cd's from a right click on the disk icon.
All other hardware worked as it should. Apart from when a cd refused to unmount and the system froze.


|C-4| Codecs

Plays mp3 and avi video, I couldn't test any other formats as some were on cd's that wouldn't read and others were on another partition that I wasn't given access to.

|U-1| USB

Nothing worked. I did an "lsusb" from the konsole and it showed that they existed but nothing automounted.I tried my blue tooth dongle (This works in Kubuntu by the way) my pen drives and a multi-card reader.

|G-5| Graphics

Nvidia detected ok, crisp clean and bright graphics, the avi video played smoothly.

|S-4| Speed

It booted and loaded quickly, but is pretty normal as live cd's go.

|F-?| Forum Support

I didn't check.

So, this is a live cd with KDE. You can also choose fluxbox. That's about it, and I'm not very impressed, I can choose 100's of KDE distros that recognise a router and basic hardware. This is nothing special in my opinion.

No Firefox, No Amarok, and Kplayer is just ugly. I could have taken a screenshot, but it's just the same ol' kde, not worth the effort.

http://www.slax.org/download.php

[RAV TUX]

|It-N/A| Install Test

N/A

|Lt-5| Live Test

Fast boot to live CD, easy to navigate, screen recognition/English Language automatic

|H-5| Hardware support

All hardware detected: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Sound Card
Razer Diamondback mouse, Radeon X 856XT Platinum PCIE, etc

|C-4| Codecs

some codecs need to be loaded for DVD movies, CD plays in Kaffaine and recognizes Album , artist and songs. Mp3's load and play flawlessly in XMMS within seconds. tested from my blog site here:
http://jozefmazeltov.multiply.com/music

|U-5| USB

Works.

|G-5| Graphics

Radeon X 856 XT Platinum works flawlessly

|S-5| Speed

Fast but remember I have an Intel EM64T 64bit Dual Core processor

|F-4| Forum Support

English forums are helpfull and adequate

|It-0| Install Test 0-5
|Lt-0| Live Test "
|H-0| Hardware support "
|C-0| Codecs "
|U-0| USB "
|G-0| Graphics "
|S-0| Speed "
|F-0| Forum Support "

0. Didn't Work
1. Unsatisfactory
2. Satisfactory
3. Good
4. Very Good
5. Excellent

Question: Would I consider Knoppix 5.0 as a Distro I would like to install and use? Yes.

[rattlerviper]

|It-3| Install Test
Installation was easy, BUT if you want to repartition the drive so you don't lose your other operating systen better figure out another way, as it is not included in the installer.

|Lt-na| Live test
This is not a live cd

|H-5| Hardware support
Excellent, recognizedeverything including wireless card, sound card, and even set up my monitor correcrtly(a 21 inch crt). This is the first install that EVERYTHING worked "out of the box".

|C-2| Codecs
Load them up and use them, codecs for DVD playback are not included.

|U-5| USB
Works well on my computer, used my USB mouse and have tested my thumbdrive and digital camera. Everything just worked.

|G-5| Graphics
Graphics worked great! Even set up the resolution perfecrlty for my 21 inch crt.


|S-4| Speed
Unuasually SLOW install, but worked VERY fast after the install. This is on a 1.1 ghz celeron with 512 mb pc133. I am very impressed at how fast everything works!

|F-4| Forum Support
Great forum support! Not quite the level of support as the forums here, but darn close!

URL is http://www.pcbsd.org/

Is this worthy of a permanant place on my harddrive? I think it very well may be, and I am considering leaving it as a permanant addition! I REALLY like PCBSD!

I am editing this to add info that I found in the forums over at pcbsd. I'm not sure how I had wifi support "out of the box"! After reading the forums over there I should have had to set it up myself using ndiswrapper. If I understand correctly what is being said over there they have no wifi support out of the box! YMMV, but I DID have working wifi without doing anything!

[rattlerviper]

|It-na| Install Test
I will NOT install this on my hard drive under ANY circumstance! If this was the last Linux distro left I would switch back to Windows!

|Lt-1| Live test
Does look good, does not function well on MY computer.

|H-1| Hardware support
Was unable to use my USB mouse, had to dig through the garage for my old mouse that came with my computer. It was unable to set a proper resolution for my monitor. A 21 in crt, and if I tried to set resolution above 400x600 screen would blank out and I was running blind!!! 600x400??? Absurd!

|C-2| Codecs
Well it LOOKS as if it can play a cd.

|U-0| USB
USB support is nonexistant. It did not recognize my mouse, thumb drive, digital camera, or web cam! In fact I would bet that nothing USB will work!

|G-1| Graphics
600x400 resolution is simply not acceptable.

|S-5| Speed
The only area were Puppy Linux excells, it is blazingly fast! I would bet it would be even faster installed to harddrive. Then again for a less than 70mb operating system it should be fast.

|F-4| Forum Support
There does seem to be good community support for this distro. It looks like everything that is wrong on my system could be fixed with ALOT of work and all the info available at the forums. I just don't feel like I should have to fix EVERYTHING!

http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1

[richbarna]

|It-5| Install

Install was very easy, just tell it which partition,(if you are using Ubuntu GRUB, just install puppy GRUB on it's own partition, then edit your Ubuntu menu.lst to boot Puppy)

|Lt-5| Live Test

Very quick startup. And as a live cd it runs fast.

|H-4| Hardware support

I gave it a 4 because I had to adjust my monitor (2 mm offset thing) however it does have Xvidtune which allows you to tweak the screen position.

|C-3| Codecs

Played mp3, avi. I did find extra codecs for Quicktime and Real in PupGet apt manager, it also has the lbdvdread package. Does not play wma, wmv.

|U-0| USB

Nothing, I couldn't get it to recognise anything, lsusb does not work from the terminal.

|G-4| Graphics

Graphics got a four only because of the offset monitor problem (easily solved though). Everything is fast, video played flawlessly even from the live cd.

|S-5| Speed

Rapid, on a 1.7 Ghz AMD proc, 256 Mb RAM, but as RattleViper said, it's only 70 Mb, it should be quick.

|F-?| Forum Support

As usual, I didn't check forum support (Lazy), I will check out the forums later and edit my posts.

All in all, I liked it, the thing that got me is the Seamonkey Browser. I need to find what fonts it is using as websites look gorgeous (better than Firefox default). I couldn't get any plugins to work for lack of an install script.

The jwm (Joes Window Manager) is clean, basic and fast, I like it.
This Distro is a newbie paradise, it has "wizards" for everything. When I first logged on, no internet. I just hit the "Connect" wizard and chose DHCP and it connected.

The reason I am going to keep Puppy on my hdd is that I have seen it with the enlightenment wm and it looks awesome. I feel that with all the software that is available, including "Pup-Get" (I love that ) and DotPup packages, it has a lot of potential.

http://www.puppylinux.org/user/downloads.php