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Old 08-30-2004, 11:02 AM   #16
Tarential
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Registered: Feb 2003
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I was merely offering to write a review. Chances are, this review will be done in my free time for no money. I don't know how that is advertising.

I'm sorry if what I said was not allowed. I was merely trying to help someone in the same way that everyone else in these forums are here to help. Since I have the ability to get this review published on a high traffic site, helping Linare gain publicity, I offered my services.

Once again, I appologize if I violated the forum rules. I did not mean to.
 
Old 09-02-2004, 12:18 PM   #17
wanabee
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I've tried this distribution for a few days now, and I must say I like it. Granted, it looks a lot like XP, but I like this too. Usually the Linux distributions look like "old" Windows 98/2000 boxes. This is the first Linux that has a polished, contemporary look. Of course, this is a question of personal taste, and anyway this can be changed any time later. But I think it is good for an OS that is sold preinstalled on boxes in Wallmart, right next to Windows boxes.

A few comments :
- Installation is based on the anaconda installer, with only a subset of the usual steps available. For instance : no keyboard layout and language selection (this is a US english only distribution). No packages selection. No user creation. What comes out is a fully installed and usable computer. However by default you're running as root. :-(

- The distribution itself is a subset of Fedora Core 2, with a few additional packages from Linare for theming/customization. Yum and apt/synaptic are available to download and install more packages/updates from Fedora Core 2. I must say that I found really cool that this distribution does not tweak so much packages from its original source (here Fedora Core 2) that other packages for this distribution cannot be installed anymore.

- The user experience is very pleasant, with a short and well organized start menu. The usual applications are all there : Mozilla, OpenOffice, Evolution, GIMP 2, Gaim. Even better, all Mozilla plugins (Flash, RealPlayer, Java) are already installed and configured. You can start working and having fun right away!

- Being based almost directly on Fedora Core 2, it suffers from its bugs and limitations. On my system, I experimented the famous "sound hiss" in one speaker. Quite easily solved though thanks to the Fedora Core 2 forums. Also, XSane does not work for a regular user. Changing the keyboard layout to a non-US layout did not work with the utility present in the menu. I had to manually edit the Xorg.conf file.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this distribution. I very much like it's polished and familiar look. And I know it works well for its original US configuration.

Summary:
The goods
- Simple, familiar installation
- Very pleasant user experience. It really works out-of-the-box, including multimedia support!
- Complete set of software applications installed
- More software and updates available thanks to Synaptic and the Fedora Core 2 compatibility
- Fedora Core 2 support forums available

The bads
- Some Fedora Core 2 bugs (E.g. sound hiss)
- By default, the user will run as root
- The Linare theme still needs to polish some rough edges (Gnome scroll bars, buttons)

Thank you Linare! I am looking forward for a european version! Tell me when its there!

Regards,
 
Old 09-02-2004, 02:09 PM   #18
J.W.
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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Boise, ID
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Quote:
Originally posted by Tarential
I was merely offering to write a review. Chances are, this review will be done in my free time for no money. I don't know how that is advertising.

I'm sorry if what I said was not allowed. I was merely trying to help someone in the same way that everyone else in these forums are here to help. Since I have the ability to get this review published on a high traffic site, helping Linare gain publicity, I offered my services.

Once again, I appologize if I violated the forum rules. I did not mean to.
At least in my view, offering your services to publicize a commercial product clearly is advertising - this doesn't seem to be all that gray to me. In any case, given that you are so interested in writing up a review of Linare, I will ask again why you don't just contact Linare, and make your pitch to them directly. Your approach of asking people here at LQ if you can borrow their copy of Linare for the purposes of reviewing it would be sort of like an automobile reviewer asking passersby if he could borrow their car and take it for a test drive for the purposes of writing an article. That's ridiculous - the auto reviewer should just contact the manufacturer, not the people who purchase the product. That's what I recommend you do as well - I'm sure that if Linare likes your idea, they would be willing to make a copy of their available to you for review purposes.

Please understand I'm not trying to scold or hassle you, but the LQ Rules are very clear on advertising. Good luck with this project in any event. -- J.W.
 
Old 09-07-2004, 12:24 AM   #19
a_m_flash
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Registered: Apr 2003
Location: North America
Distribution: SUSE 9.1 personal, Yoper (1.0 & 2.*), Knoppix 3.6, Knoppix STD, Helix 1.4, Lycoris 1.3 (Amethyst)
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This is the first Linux that has a polished, contemporary look. Of course, this is a question of personal taste, and anyway this can be changed any time later. But I think it is good for an OS that is sold preinstalled on boxes in Wallmart, right next to Windows boxes.


Wannabe(spelling?)
said this up above and he is quite right. Has anyone noticed that GNOME is fading out and KDE is taking more of the spotlight? So us geeks like shiny things
Linux is changing and regardless of "XP" looklike (which I do not see), so, the more comfortable we make Windoze users migrate to linux, I would say Great!
But as far as this distro, I like the look and I think it is still Linux. Linux is choice and Linare is one of them. They are doing a fine job by perpetuating this project.
At least its not a big corporation that keeps everything at bay and to itself making the owner rich.

Thats my story and I am sticking to it.
 
Old 09-14-2004, 02:38 AM   #20
heema
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Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Egypt
Distribution: Arch
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Linare Linux 2.0 has been uploaded to Ibiblio.org and its mirrors , so if any body tries it post ur feedback

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=01905#0
 
Old 09-14-2004, 08:56 PM   #21
igster
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Registered: Sep 2004
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I am still trying to figure out if the file being freely available via ibiblio's mirrors is intentional, maybe a ploy to garner some free word of mouth advertising or possibly a mistake on ibiblio's part?? Regardless, being the distro junkie that I am, I downloaded and installed it (I am typing this in Linare's default installation of Mozilla 1.6). Here's my take on it.

Installation

The single 698MB ISO image (Linare ISO.ISO) contains the full install and default package set is nice considering it is based on Fedora Core 2, which is comprised of 3 full sized ISOs. Granted, you don't have the opportunity to choose which packages to install. I doubt many advanced Linux users will appreciate that.

Linare's take on Anaconda is pretty straightforward. They have changed the icons and colors and have removed just about all of the fine tuning aspects of the installer which new and inexperienced users alike won't notice. If the intent was to remove the aspects of Anaconda that could confuse a new and inexperienced user then they have succeeded. Not much that could go wrong, other that overwriting the wrong disk partition. The installer recognized and configured my video and sound cards but I would expect that to be the case for an Anaconda based installer. It recognized my other OS (XP) and put an entry in the bootloader menu titled "Other" and the default entry for Linare Professional (2.6.5-1.358). When the install finished it ejected the CD and requested a reboot.

Booting up/Logging in

Upon booting up, you are presented with a slightly altered version of FC's boot screen that allows you to see details if you would rather see them instead of the progress bar. After boot, a login screen that looks frighteningly similar to XP's appears containing an entry for the root user.

This is where "simplifying" the installer becomes a problem. Because you have no way to configure a normal user account when installing, you only have access to the root account. An experienced user is going to know to immediately create and use another user account but a novice or Windows user is not and most likely will continue to use the root account. I am now wondering if this situation is the same when purchasing a computer with Linare pre-installed. If so, it seems like a bad way to go, especially given that there is nothing telling a user to not use the root account on an ongoing basis. Maybe there is printed documentation included. I would have to hope so.

That issue aside, the login screen will be very familiar to an XP user and as such may be very comforting. In my own experiences dealing with desktop users, change is scary and causes mass confusion. I assume the intent is to avoid that.

The Desktop

Linare's desktop of choice is KDE (dubbed KDE 3.2.2-4 Linare). The taskbar size is set to small and has almost none of the normal buttons one expects to see with KDE. No desktop pager, system tray, or anything else recognizable as default KDE. You get a clock on the right, desktop, Gaim, and Mozilla buttons, and an "Explore" button that looks similar to XP's "Start" button.

Everything has a glossy candy-button look which I will say is appealing. Fonts are clear and anti-aliased. The Explore menu is well laid out larger than normal icons making browsing it easy. It has very simple starting points like "Programs" and "System Settings" to guide the user to what they are looking for and reminds me of SuSe 9.1's menu. There are a decent number of pre-installed applications like OpenOffice 1.1.0, several IM clients like GAIM and Kopete, the Mozilla 1.6 browser, multimedia players like RealPlayer 8 and XMMS, and so on. Beyond that, you can use Synaptic to grab other programs from the FC2 mirror servers.

Performance is middle of the road and while not being slow, I can't say anything was particularly peppy either. It did some somewhat faster than FC2 so perhaps they have done some optimization. Programs load in a reasonable amount of time so that should satisfy the average user.

Conclusion

So is Linare worth the 700MB download? That depends. I am used to distros that give me infinitely more flexibility and choice than Linare. I personally can't say I love Fedora either so a distro based on it doesn't do much for me. That being said, it comes down to personal preference. Based on the fact that Synaptic is using FC2's mirrors, I assume that the packages available will work with Linare. In that sense, it becomes an easy way to get a base FC2 install that you can then change to your liking. One CD to download vs. three...

Linare treads dangerously close to copyright infringement with some of it's XPish aspects. Beyond visually looking nearly identical, there are several things "borrowed" from XP. For instance, Kedit is labeled "Notepad" complete with an icon that looks very much like XP's. Another example of this is Konsole which is labeled "Command Prompt" and as far as I can see, uses the same exact icon as XP does. GnomeMeeting is labeled NetMeeting. The list goes on. It is one thing to mimic the look and feel of something but to start re-labeling applications seems to be over the line. The intent is to draw Windows users to Linux because of the stability and security, not because it is the same or incredibly similar. Maybe I am fixating on these few little things but it gives me a bad impression of Linare's motives and intent.
 
  


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