Linspire Inc. claims that the recently released Freespire is the development version of Linspire, much like Fedora Core is the freely available development version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. During the several days that I used it, I found this to be true in both a good and a bad way. It’s good in the sense that the software that comprises Freespire is a bit more modern, but bad in that it has a few problems that make it unsuitable for a production release.
Freespire introduction
In short, Freespire is a desktop GNU/Linux distribution that is free to download, and easy to install and use. Aside from being a desktop operating system, it is also the development version of Linspire. That means that all of the latest available software is used in Freespire, whereas Linspire only uses older, more thoroughly tested programs. Often this means that the current Linspire version can be almost a year old, and be incompatible with recently-designed hardware. The idea is that software will be tested and evaluated in Freespire, then if all goes well, it will be included as part of the next Linspire release. If you want to know more about Linspire’s relationship with Freespire, your questions can be answered in this Freespire FAQ entry.
On every level, Freespire is identical to what you would expect to see in Linspire, but there are a few extras included as well. To start off with, the APT package tools come with a correctly populated sources.list file. That means if you’re opposed to Linspire’s Click N Run (CNR) software subscription service (which is fully interoperable with Freespire), you can use APT from the command line to install software not included with the distribution. That also means that you could install the Synaptic package manager and install further programs from there instead of APT.
Freespire is designed for software developers, so GCC, GDB, Emacs, Vim, Python, and Perl are all installed as part of the base distribution. The Java Development Kit and other languages and SDKs as well as IDEs like Eclipse, KDevelop, and Netbeans are available both through APT and CNR.
There are two different Freespire distributions: the standard edition, which includes proprietary video drivers (ATI, Nvidia, Intel) and Web browser plugins (Java 5.0, RealPlayer, Flash, Windows Media, QuickTime); and the OSS edition, which is the same operating system without any proprietary extras. Obviously the standard edition provides a much more complete desktop experience — so much so that Freespire can easily stand up to any other GNU/Linux distribution on the market.
Freespire uses a heavily customized KDE desktop environment, the Firefox Web browser (rebranded as Lbrowser), Thunderbird for email, and includes such desktop standards as GAIM, OpenOffice.org, and the Linspire-authored Lsongs for music and Nvu for Web design.
Putting it to the test
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| Freespire: good, but not perfect |
The installation CD is small, and doubles as a Freespire live CD, so you can use the operating system to a limited degree from the CD before you commit to it. The sound driver on my Acer TravelMate 2300 was not properly detected and installed on the live CD even though it worked perfectly after I’d installed Freespire to my hard drive.
Freespire’s installation routine is oversimplified. There is only one option you can change from the default: the partition scheme and filesystem type. Freespire lumps the entire operating system onto a single ReiserFS partition, a choice that I find to be messy and inefficient.
Linspire is notorious for making users run as root by default. This invites security problems because if the system is compromised, an intruder or attacker will instantly have complete control over the operating system. Freespire has an interesting workaround for this problem. You have to set up a user account during the installation process, and once Freespire is installed the root account will be disabled. You don’t need to type in the root password to install software through Click N Run, and most system settings can be changed with the default user permission level. When you do need to type in the root password, it’s the same as your user password, so root is completely unnecessary for all but high-level command line work (using APT, for instance).
The Freespire developers claim that you can use APT to install programs from Debian repositories. While APT does indeed work without any extra configuration, on one of my test machines APT destroyed Click N Run in a variety of unfixable ways, and I couldn’t install any programs anyway because APT kept choking on a gigantic list of missing Freespire-specific dependencies. After a complete reinstall I tried it again, and APT seemed to work as intended without messing up CNR. I’m not really sure what happened, but I don’t trust APT on Freespire.
If decide to use CNR, you’ll have an exceptionally easy time installing and managing software. Unfortunately it’s going to cost you U.S. $20 per year. Realistically that is not a lot of money to pay for software, especially considering what you’re getting. Linspire graciously makes a “free aisle” of software available for Freespire users, but it consists of only a half-dozen programs, all of them games or KDE applets. Existing Linspire CNR members can use their CNR account with Freespire without any problems.
The proprietary video drivers work wonderfully — the Intel Extreme Graphics on my TravelMate had direct rendering enabled by default, as did the ATI Radeon X700 on my desktop test machine. What really blew me away wasn’t the graphics drivers, though — it was the wireless network drivers. Freespire includes not only the Atheros (madwifi) drivers, but also Centrino wireless drivers and the NDISwrapper utility, pre-stocked with 26 Windows wireless network drivers. Freespire 1.0 was the first operating system I have ever installed — Windows included — on this Acer machine without having to go to great lengths to get the integrated wireless card working. I had wireless Internet access by default. The only consistent problem I had with wireless connectivity was the crappy Connection Manager applet. If I closed the lid on the Acer laptop (this only shuts the screen off — ACPI isn’t fully supported on the TravelMate 2300 yet) and put it on the floor next to my chair, I would come back to it later and find that the wireless connection had gone away. Nothing I could do from Connection Manager or the command line could bring the network up again. The best I could do was shut the computer down, wait a few minutes, then start up again.
The first major problem I had with Freespire 1.0 was the quality of the sound drivers. On both the TravelMate and the desktop test machine with a PCI SoundBlaster Audigy, the sound either refused to work at all, or emitted a high-pitched static noise. No other operating systems I’ve tested on these machines have had sound problems like this. Although I didn’t look too deeply into the matter, I believe it may have been related to the Jack sound server, which I have never used before (it’s been all EsounD and aRts for me).
The second major problem I had with Freespire was the Adobe Flash plugin, which constantly crashed my Web browser. Instead of removing the plugin, I installed the Flashblock, Adblock, and Filterset.G Updater plugins for Firefox, which disabled Flash animations by default and blocked all of the ads that were causing the crashes. This problem is not intrinsic to Freespire — it’s a problem with the old, outdated, poorly programmed, proprietary Flash plugin. Still, the Freespire developers should have been able to find and address this bug before shipping the product.
I also initially had a bad crash when trying to connect to a WEP-enabled wireless network. I couldn’t repeat the problem, so I can’t say much more about it.
After all of the initial issues were dealt with, I installed a bunch of programs through both CNR and APT and had absolutely no trouble with any part of the process (except the APT problem I mentioned before). The one program I thought would throw a wrench in CNR for sure was Eclipse; on most operating systems there is some trouble with installing the Java Development Kit, and since I didn’t see the JDK listed in CNR, I thought for sure Eclipse would fail. Though it did take almost a half hour to install, Eclipse did install properly, and it brought the JDK version 5.0 with it. No further work was necessary to start building and running Java programs.
Another little gem that I discovered in Freespire was the Synaptics touchpad utility. This program enables Synaptics users to disable the intensely annoying “scroll” feature. Usually the distribution programmers overlook little things like this, and users are forced to download and install KSynaptics on their own.
Conclusions and developer recommendations
For years now I’ve thought that Linspire should be free to download, especially since users are practically forced to buy into the Click N Run service to get a reasonably complete desktop experience. I’m not a fan of hidden costs; as a software user, I want to know the total price upfront. Linspire makes an effort to hide the CNR dependency until after you’ve purchased and installed the operating system. Freespire, on the other hand, gives you a usable and mostly complete operating system as-is, and allows you to buy into CNR if you want extra programs, or use APT if you’re willing to learn how to work with the command line interface.
Speaking of CNR, it’s greatly improved over the past two years, and is definitely the most easy-to-use software installation and maintenance framework in the operating system world today, primarily because of its tight integration with the Freespire interface. Other package managers on other desktop operating systems seem like hacks or modules that are hastily plugged into KDE or GNOME, but with Click N Run it’s hard to tell where the package manager ends and the desktop environment begins. It’s worth the $20 subscription price if you are decided on Freespire as your desktop operating system.
The OSS edition of Freespire is predictably light and very frustrating for desktop users who expect full Web browser and video card functionality. If you’re adamant about avoiding proprietary programs, however, Freespire may be your best choice for a totally free-as-in-rights desktop operating system. Previously, people concerned with software freedom had to either endure a few proprietary programs, or build their desktop OS from a metadistribution like Debian or Gentoo. Although I’m not sure of the licensing status of every single line of code that comprises Freespire OSS, I’ll take the project leadership’s word that it’s all free, and say that this distribution represents a huge leap forward for software freedom on the desktop.
- Update the documentation. The online Linspire documentation and FAQs, which Freespire points to in various places, does not have any Freespire-specific information. Aside from being confusing, some of the Linspire-specific information may not be applicable to Freespire.
- More Linux-like drive partitioning. What’s the deal with the one gigantic partition for everything — including swap space? I can think of a few good reasons why this is not a good idea, chief among them the fact that this could make it very difficult to reinstall or upgrade the operating system in the future.
- Implement a better wireless networking tool. The Freespire/Linspire Network Connection Manager is terrible. What exactly are “profiles” and how are they used? I set up my computer for a WEP-enabled access point, then I had to have a profile for it, and although I wanted it to connect automatically, I had to select “Manually,” then it stopped working and wouldn’t connect to the Web, showed a connection when there was none and showed no connection when there was one… this thing is full of bugs and usability problems. Coming from SUSE Linux 10 and 10.1 with their superior NetApplet and Network Manager programs, it’s hard to accept the Network Connection Manager in Freespire. It’s the weakest part of the operating environment.
- Fix or remove Flash. The version of Flash included with Freespire causes frequent browser crashes. Isn’t there anything that can be done about this? Perhaps some sort of resource separation between Firefox and its plugins, or the funding/development and inclusion of GNU Gnash? I’d rather not have it at all than have it crash Firefox repeatedly.
- Include the Acrobat PDF plugin. If you’re going to go so far as to include Adobe Flash, you may as well toss in the Acrobat Reader plugin too.
| Purpose |
Desktop operating system |
| Manufacturer |
The Freespire Project |
| Architectures |
x86 |
| License |
Mostly the GNU General Public License and other free software licenses, but many individual parts are under proprietary licenses, such as the video drivers and Web browser plugins. There is a totally free-as-in-rights version of Freespire available, if you have a particular aversion to proprietary software. |
| Market |
Home desktop users, software developers |
| Price (retail) |
Free of charge |
| Previous version |
N/A |
| Product Web site |
Click here |
Discuss this article or get technical support on our forum.
Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop overview
Originally, SuSE Linux produced a corporate desktop distribution called SuSE Desktop. It used the old UnitedLinux kernel, but was otherwise much like the SuSE consumer desktop products of the same era. It was the first commercial corporate desktop GNU/Linux distribution, and had a large but quiet impact on the GNU/Linux distribution market. Sun Microsystems adopted SuSE Desktop for its first and second editions of the much-hyped Java Desktop System. Later, Sun decided that Java Desktop System would no longer refer to a specific operating system; instead it would be the name of the customized GNOME desktop theme that Sun uses for both Solaris and for future GNU/Linux-based operating systems that it releases.
When Novell bought SuSE, it changed SuSE Desktop’s name to Novell Linux Desktop. With this release, Novell again changed its name, this time to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. Though KDE was the traditional interface for all SUSE products, GNOME is now the standard desktop environment.
You can expect SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 to include a majority of the packages necessary to run a desktop computer in a large business — and not one single program more. The default installation differs little from the maximum installation, and the extra packages are really only for special-case situations.
What’s new in version 10
First, the obvious: all of the standard packages have been updated. The kernel is at version 2.6.16.21, OpenOffice.org is at version 2.0.2, Firefox at 1.5.0.4, and GNOME is at version 2.12.2. Were you expecting KDE instead? With SLED 10, Novell has changed the default desktop environment from KDE to GNOME, thought KDE is still available if you wish to install it.
SLED 10’s GNOME implementation has been modified from its highly usable default interface to to one that very much resembles Windows XP and Windows Vista in terms of functionality and menu placement. Taken as a whole, however, SLED 10’s interface is unique enough that even seasoned GNU/Linux, OS X, and Windows veterans will have some initial trouble figuring out where things are and what everything does. After I became accustomed to GNOME ala SLED 10, I concluded that the interface design is only useful to people who need a maximum of eight programs (the number of programs that will fit in the “favorite programs” group that dominates your Computer menu). If I were to use this operating system long-term, I think I would have to modify the interface so that I can avoid the click- and scroll-heavy main menu. It is a big production to get to a program that isn’t shown in the main Computer menu screen. If, after clicking on the Computer menu button, you need to use something that isn’t considered a “favorite” application, you have to click another button, then scroll through a double list of installed programs in a separate window. SLED 10’s GNOME implementation won’t win any beauty contests, either — it’s plain and uninspired to the point that the bland theme actually further detracts from its usability by unintentionally disguising the Computer menu button. If you weren’t familiar with the purpose and placement of the Windows Start menu or KDE K menu, you’d find SLED 10 very difficult to navigate.
Another major change in this release is in the software management framework. Novell ZENworks is now the default program for installing, removing, and updating software in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (and other current SUSE products). If you want, you can still use YaST and YaST Online Update (YOU) for these tasks, but it has officially been deprecated in favor of ZENworks. Unlike the consumer-grade SUSE Linux 10.1, SLED 10’s ZENworks implementation actually works as intended, though it still requires a small amount of configuration to allow normal users to access it. You also need to register your email address with Novell in order to activate ZENworks, but this is a quick and painless process that literally takes a few seconds. This registration process also enables proprietary software repositories in ZENworks, so you can download and install the Nvidia and ATI video card drivers, among other things.
Though they only very recently began to see usage in desktop operating systems (well, SUSE Linux 10.1 and DIY distros like Gentoo and Debian are the only ones so far), the XGL special effects engine and the Compiz window manager are included in SLED 10 and activated by default, assuming you register with Novell to get the required proprietary video drivers. Given the wide range of problems with these early XGL and Compiz releases, I’m surprised to see them included as standard packages in an “enterprise” operating system. Even if these packages were optional, I can’t imagine any sane company rushing to provide support for them. I predict XGL will be a major source of trouble for Novell’s support department over the next few months.
JFS support has been dropped from YaST, so if you had any JFS volumes, you’ll be unable to manage them through the GUI. The JFS kernel module is still in place, however, so you can still read existing JFS partitions.
The default install includes an outstanding computer-based audio/visual training program and interactive help system to assist new users in learning how to operate and configure SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. The program is broken up into tasks, so you can skip directly to the section that applies to your situation. It’s by far the best desktop GNU/Linux CBT that I have ever seen.
Lastly, the NetworkManager applet introduced in SUSE Linux 10.1 has been incorporated into SLED 10. It allows you to easily manage and connect to wired and wireless networks. I’ve got no complaints about NetworkManager at all — I think it’s an outstanding tool that every desktop operating system should have, and I’m glad to see it in SLED 10.
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| SLED 10: bland and buggy |
Putting it to the test
Installing SLED 10 is easy and intuitive — just like SUSE Linux 10 and 10.1 — and not too much different than it’s been over the past several releases. The default disk partitioning scheme is excellent; it assigns enough space to the root and swap partitions to run the system, then gives the rest to /home, where the bulk of your data will ultimately reside.
SLED 10’s install routine intelligently detects laptop systems and installs the laptop package group by default. This group consists of wireless network drivers (Centrino, Atmel, Atheros), PCMCIA slot drivers, infrared drivers, and sleep/suspend software. Although this group is not selected by default on desktop systems, the Madwifi (Atheros) wireless drivers are still installed if you have a wireless PCI card that needs them.
SLED 10 can authenticate users against the local system (/etc/passwd), OpenLDAP, NIS, a Windows domain, and eDirectory LDAP, a selection I found to be rather eclectic.
I was pleased to learn that the default SLED 10 install included Firefox plugins for Java, Flash, Adobe Acrobat (PDF), RealPlayer, and Citrix. That means that there is little or no post-install configuration or hacking to be done to make the Web browser meet the expectations of the average business desktop computer user. The only thing that is missing is the ability to play video files through Firefox. The absence of such a plugin could prevent important work-related activities like attending online meetings, viewing product demos, and participating in computer-based training programs. As is now customary, I have written a guide to show you how to add missing pieces like these.
While there was a Java Runtime Environment installed, it was the older 1.4.2 version. Since there are significant, oft-used features in Java 5.0 (1.5.0) that are not backwards-compatible with older JREs, I’m puzzled as to why Novell did not go with the newer version. To add insult to injury, there are absolutely no integrated development environments included with or officially available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. No NetBeans, Eclipse, Bluefish, Screem, Quanta, or KDevelop – nothing. What are programmers supposed to do if their company installs SLED 10 on its desktop computers — switch to Vim?
My first impression of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 was quite negative. On my first test machine — a desktop computer with an Asus A8N-E motherboard, 1GB RAM, an ATI Radeon X700 video card, and a 17″ LCD monitor — the default font settings were so tiny that I couldn’t read any text. The login screen was fine, as was the virtual terminal, but everything in the GNOME desktop had its font set to what must have been the smallest size. I tried to mess with SaX2 for a while, and other YaST modules, but couldn’t fix the problem.
Moving on to my Acer TravelMate 2300 laptop system, the first thing that happened after installation was a hard lockup. It turns out that SLED 10 doesn’t get along with the Linksys WPC11 version 4 wireless network card, and the system crashes when it tries to connect to an access point. Further confounding my wireless networking options, I discovered that NDISwrapper is not installed by default; it is available in the standard SLED 10 package repository, though.
Lastly, the Synaptics touchpad on the TravelMate had the infamous scroll problem. This is fixed by installing a Synaptics control program like KSynaptics, which is not officially available for SLED 10. So you’re stuck with an unfortunately remapped touchpad that wants to scroll the screen when you get near the bottom or right side of the pad. In Firefox, this makes the browser go back and forward in the page history.
Conclusions and developer recommendations
As a veteran of dozens of operating system reviews and hundreds of articles on computer technology, I have found that if you don’t stop and recalibrate your frame of reference from time to time, you can start to accept the fact that most operating systems these days ship with obvious and easy-to-find problems. Not just software bugs, but configuration issues and usability blunders. In a free-of-charge BSD variant or GNU/Linux distribution, some of these sins are forgivable. But when you tell me that you have a product designed to work in a big business — a real production environment where you lose thousands of dollars for every minute of downtime or lost productivity — then you’re throwing down the gauntlet and saying that this operating system is not just pretty good, it’s damned good. Well, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not good enough. This is definitely not what I would call an “enterprise” operating system; you would have to be crazy to deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on corporate desktop and laptop systems, considering your alternatives. Red Hat Desktop, though only available in volume orders with the higher classes of Red Hat server products and being comprised of somewhat older software, is a perfect example of an “enterprise” desktop OS. You can put OpenBSD and CentOS in the “enterprise” category as well. They don’t crash, they accept a wide range of hardware, and have a better and more varied selection of business desktop software available for them. They’re everything that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not. Xandros and Mandriva also make outstanding, far more thoroughly tested business desktop operating systems that — having reviewed two versions of each — I consider to be superior to SLED 10. It seems to me that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not so much Novell’s attempt to push into the business market as it is an attempt to provide a for-profit version of SUSE Linux for home desktop users.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is, in effect, what the buggy SUSE Linux 10.1 should have been. Or at least, that’s the most positive way I can think of to say that both operating systems were insufficiently tested for their intended markets. I hope Sun Microsystems takes this first draft of an operating system, fixes the problems I listed in this review, and comes out with a killer Java Desktop System 3.
The following issues must be addressed before I will consider SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (assuming Novell doesn’t change the name again before the next release) truly enterprise-ready:
- Improved release engineering. Did Novell fire its QA department or something? I found showstopping bugs in this product within five minutes of post-install use. That is totally unacceptable for a supposedly production-ready operating system. Don’t give customers your beta builds and promise to try to fix them later.
- Synaptics touchpad configuration. Really this is a suggestion for the GNOME people, but nothing is stopping Novell from designing its own Synaptics touchpad configuration utility (or just including KSynaptics). At very least, X.org could be configured to disable touchpad scrolling by default. If you think I’m being petty about this seemingly minor issue, I challenge you to use SLED 10 for your daily computing work for three days with a Synaptics touchpad and we’ll see how long it takes before you crack.
- Developers, developers, developers. SLED 10 doesn’t have any IDEs. What operating system is the Web development team supposed to use? What about the programmers — what OS do they use? Unless you want to hack SLED 10 to use SUSE Linux 10.1 packages, or download and install RPMs manually from the Internet, these people are left out in the cold. How many businesses do you know of that don’t employ either a Web developer (or designer) or a programmer? The people at Novell who decide what packages go into the Enterprise Desktop product need to create a “Development” package group that includes popular integrated development environments and other development packages. Note: A Novell employee wrote to me about the SUSE Linux Enterprise SDK, which has IDEs and other development tools for SLED 10. I don’t know how I would have found out about this extra disc if someone hadn’t told me — at the time of the review, the SDK was not on the media download page for SLED, nor was it mentioned in any place where I’d notice it.
- Forget XGL. Graphical desktop effects have no place in an “enterprise” operating system. Principles aside, XGL is buggy and causes a variety of stability and usability problems, some of which are even listed in the SLED 10 release notes. If Novell knew that this undeniably superfluous technology caused so many problems, why on earth did the release engineers include it in the base system and enable it by default?
- Fix the upgrade problems. As much as sysadmins adore an operating system that they only have to apply occasional patches to, eventually everyone must upgrade. The bad news for SUSE customers is, upgrading from one version to the next can be difficult at best and impossible at worst. Smooth upgrading from one major version to another is an issue that every operating system developer struggles with, but again, this is supposed to be an “enterprise” operating system. System administrators expect an operating system that they don’t have to mess with.
- Improve hardware autoconfiguration. SLED 10 was totally clueless when it came to detecting the size, resolution, and aspect ratio of two of my LCD screens. It also had trouble switching from the standard ATI driver to the proprietary one. Again, this is stuff that sysadmins don’t want to bother with; the software should be able to do its own configuration.
- Improve usability. I found SLED 10’s interface to be difficult to use. The Computer menu looks more like a minimized application than a menu button. It’s also fairly nondescript, and if I wasn’t already used to the K menu or Start menu being in the lower left corner, I wouldn’t know what that “Computer” icon was. Furthermore, the menu structure is anti-productivity. Perhaps there should be a step during post-install configuration which asks each user what icons they would like in their “Favorite” group, rather than just guess and make them swim through a two-part menu system to get to the software they use most.
| Purpose |
Enterprise desktop operating system |
| Manufacturer |
Novell, Inc. |
| Architectures |
x86, AMD64/EM64T |
| License |
Mostly under the GNU General Public license, but several packages are under restrictive proprietary licenses |
| Market |
Business desktop computers |
| Price (retail) |
U.S. $50 per year per computer |
| Previous version |
Novell Linux Desktop 9 |
| Product Web site |
Click here |
Discuss this article or get technical support on our forum.
Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.
Ubuntu overview
This section is for people new to Ubuntu Linux. If you’re already familiar with the basic details of this operating system, you may want to skip down to the next section, which details the new features in this release.
Ubuntu Linux is a relatively new GNU/Linux distribution that was originally based on Debian. Since its first release in September 2004, Ubuntu has grown further and further away from Debian, though there is still a great deal of resemblance between the two. Ubuntu is on a six-month release cycle, so the goal is to create two production releases per year. Release numbers are a one-digit year followed by a two-digit month, so 6.06 represents a June 2006 release, and 5.10 indicates an October 2005 release.
Each version is supported with software updates for a term of 18 months, at which time you must upgrade to the latest release. Any Ubuntu release that has an LTS (Long Term Support) tacked onto its version number will be supported with security updates for five years on servers.
In general Ubuntu Linux is easy to install, use, and configure. It’s also highly focused, meaning you don’t have to wade through huge system menus full of multiple Web browsers and word processors to find what you need. Installing new software is easy through the Install and Remove Applications program, with the Synaptic package manager as a fallback for more advanced users who need to draw from a wider body of available software.
The default desktop environment is GNOME; other DEs and window managers are not officially supported, though you can just as easily download and use Kubuntu or Xubuntu if you prefer KDE or XFCE. The package managers are integrated with the desktop environment, so when you install a new program, it is immediately added to your Applications menu. Software updates are monitored through a notification applet which informs you of available patches.
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| Ubuntu Linux 6.06: lots of potential, lots of bugs |
What’s new in 6.06
At its core, each new Ubuntu Linux release includes a more recent Linux kernel and GNOME desktop environment. Version 6.06 ships with the 2.6.15 kernel and GNOME 2.14.2. The following enhancements and additions are also new to Ubuntu 6.06:
- UltraSPARC T1 processor support
- Long-term support for servers
- Commercial software packages are now able to be installed via the Install and Remove Applications tool
Overall there aren’t a lot of big changes in Ubuntu 6.06. Expanded hardware support and an updated software stack are the primary advantages that 6.06 has over 5.10.
Putting it to the test
Ubuntu 6.06 is packed with problems. Both the x86 and AMD64 versions of Ubuntu failed to boot on one test machine (Asus A8N-E, Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon X700, Atheros-based wireless PCI network card) no matter what boot option I chose. On the laptop test machine (Acer TravelMate 2300), I got Ubuntu to install, but the system occasionally ignored keyboard input for about half a second. So typing this very review, every two sentences or so I miss a word — a situation that is positively infuriating.
I use these two computers — both of them more than a year old — for the bulk of my operating system testing because poorly designed OSes tend to fail on them. CentOS 4.3 and Xandros 4.0, for instance, both recently installed and worked very well on these machines, so I know that they can handle hardware that is on the fringe of Linux compatibility. Ubuntu 6.06 failed miserably. The previous version of Ubuntu Linux was even worse on these systems — so much so that I couldn’t write a review because I couldn’t find a computer that Ubuntu would work on.
Firefox is the default Web browser in Ubuntu 6.06 (and the only one installed, which is good — no clutter), but it has no plugins installed. None at all — not even the SVG plugin. That means spending a half hour or so finding and downloading the Java, Flash, PDF, RealPlayer, and Windows Media plugins if you want to have a complete Web experience. The only good news is, this is a fairly simple process because of the Ubuntu Install and Remove Applications and Synaptic package managers.
I figured I’d do some Java programming exercises while I tested Ubuntu, but I couldn’t find a Java Development Kit in either of the package managers. There was a Java 5.0 Runtime Environment, but no JDK — or at least, searches for “jdk” and “java” didn’t turn up anything in Synaptic. To top it all off, Ubuntu 6.06 comes with a fake Java installed — GIJ. I want the real Java, or I want nothing so that I can install the real Java properly; I do not want a half-hearted, half-working Java facsimile that doesn’t even have a browser plugin.
I prefer to see NDISwrapper installed by default. That makes it easier to get a system online when its only available network connection is over an “unsupported” wireless card. Ubuntu does not have NDISwrapper installed by default.
There are some good points about Ubuntu 6.06, though: the integrated Intel graphics chip on the TravelMate was properly recognized and configured for direct rendering. I noticed that a general proprietary kernel module package had been installed when I was looking through Synaptic. This includes Nvidia, ATI, and Atheros drivers, so I would assume that my configuration time would have been low on the desktop test system, had Ubuntu actually been able to install on it.
Conclusions and developer recommendations
After spending three days with Ubuntu Linux 6.06, and recognizing that a large percentage of first-time GNU/Linux users are trying out Ubuntu before other distros, I understand why many people think that GNU/Linux can be difficult to install, configure, use, and in general be “not ready for the desktop.” Ubuntu Linux 6.06 is a step below Fedora Core in terms of usability, quality, and ease of use, but it’s far below any modern commercial desktop GNU/Linux distribution like Xandros Desktop 4.0, SUSE Linux 10.1, or even Mandriva 2006 PowerPack Edition.
What I can’t understand is why I seem to be alone in my assessment of Ubuntu 6.06. Everywhere I look, I see glowing reviews and “best of” awards and such. I wonder what computers those people used for testing? What other GNU/Linux distributions are they comparing Ubuntu to? Obviously they aren’t Java programmers. As far as I’m concerned, Ubuntu Linux 6.06 doesn’t live up to the hype. There’s a lot to like about Ubuntu in general — I mean, as far as distribution design is concerned — but this release was poorly tested.
Here’s what I’d like to see in the next release:
- Java: do it right or don’t do it at all. I appreciate the fact that many people are working hard to create free-as-in-rights replacements for the Sun JRE and JDK (despite the fact that Sun Microsystems is working to free them). Having said that, I don’t want to use these replacements. I want the standard, documented, platform-tested Sun JDK so that I don’t pull my hair out trying to decide if the problems I’m having with my programs are due to my code, or the non-standard compiler and virtual machine that I’m using.
- Better release testing. I suspect the reason why Ubuntu failed to install on my Athlon 64 X2 system was due to the dual-core CPU. Since you can hardly buy a new computer these days that doesn’t have a dual-core processor in it, I can’t understand why the Ubuntu team couldn’t properly test their release on one. Furthermore, the strange laptop keyboard problem I had was one that I have never seen before in the four years I have been writing about GNU/Linux, Unix, and BSD operating systems. It is highly unlikely that this is specific to my one test machine, so I have to blame the release engineers for sending the product out the door too early. Perhaps six-month release cycles are too soon for Ubuntu Linux — or perhaps the Ubuntu developers need to take some lessons in release engineering from the OpenBSD crew.
- Include NDISwrapper. It’s not very large, so I don’t understand why NDISwrapper can’t be included in the base install. When you don’t need it, you don’t know it’s there, but when you do need it, its absence is intolerable.
- Web Browser plugins. I realize that licensing restrictions prevent many plugins from being shipped as part of the release, but what about the mplayer plugin? And can’t something be worked out with Adobe to include the Acrobat Reader and Flash plugins?
| Purpose |
Desktop operating system |
| Manufacturer |
Canonical, Ltd. |
| Architectures |
x86, AMD64/EM64T, SPARC64, Niagara, PPC |
| License |
The GNU General Public License version 2, although some parts of the base system are under the BSD or other free software licenses |
| Market |
Desktop and server computers in any setting |
| Price (retail) |
Free to download, or have an Ubuntu CD set mailed to you for free |
| Previous version |
Ubuntu Linux 5.10 |
| Product Web site |
Click here |
Discuss this article or get technical support on our forum.
Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.
Xandros overview
If you have never used Xandros Desktop Linux before, this section will give you an overview of it. If you’re already familiar with Xandros, you might want to skip down to the next section, which covers the changes introduced in version 4.
Originally developed and sold as Corel Linux, Xandros is a KDE-centric GNU/Linux distribution that is loosely based on Debian. While it offers a rich desktop environment, it is possible to use the Debian package tools to adapt Xandros Desktop Home Edition for a variety of different uses. Its heritage plus the excellence of its design equal an operating system that is easy to use, but powerful when necessary.
The base distribution includes about 1.4GB of software, though most of that is the base operating system and “filler” — ancillary KDE software and other programs that are rarely or never used. The default Xandros Desktop Home Edition installation offers few useful applications, but the Premium version comes with CrossOver Office 5.0 Standard, which allows you to run many Windows programs, and Versora Progression Desktop, which enables you to safely move all of your data and settings from Windows to GNU/Linux. You’ll also find a small collection of proprietary extras: the Java Runtime Environment, Adobe Flash Player, RealPlayer, and hardware-accelerated Nvidia and ATI video card drivers installed and ready to go. In essence, Xandros is more of an operating system with the ability to expand, whereas most of its desktop GNU/Linux competitors are self-contained software distributions.
The officially supported method of installing new software (and updating currently installed programs) is through the Xandros Networks framework. This consists of a self-contained program that both tracks your current software situation and informs you of other applications that you can install. It’s much like Linspire’s Click N Run (CNR) system, though Xandros Networks is not integrated into the KDE menu structure like CNR is. Lastly, Xandros Networks has a taskbar notification applet that tells you when software updates are available.
The general “look and feel” of Xandros Desktop Home Edition is like a cross between Windows XP and Sun Java Desktop System. It’s easy to use and navigate if you’re used to the Windows Start menu interface philosophy, but not really all that sensibly designed according to modern usability standards. One thing you won’t find in Xandros is clutter — the Launch menu is clean, focused, and easy to navigate. Most other desktop GNU/Linux operating systems will have up to three separate Web browsers, office suites, and email programs. Xandros, in contrast, only has one standard program for each purpose.
Desktop Home Edition is only one of Xandros Inc.’s GNU/Linux products. The others include a business desktop product and a deployment management server; a business server edition; and an education desktop and server edition for schools. Xandros Desktop Home Edition and Home Edition Premium are the only two Xandros products aimed at consumers.
What’s new in 4.0
The most noticeable change in Xandros since version 3 is the interface. Everything from the installation boot splash screen to the KDE desktop and all points in between has been graphically enhanced. Cosmetically this is an impressive distribution, but I am growing increasingly weary of blue themes. I think this must be the “blue period” for GNU/Linux — SUSE, Linspire, Mandriva, Red Hat, and Xandros all have blue standard themes.
Unless I missed it in the previous version, Xandros now requires product activation to enable the Xandros Networks program. Previously you needed a subscription to take full advantage of Xandros Networks, but you could still get updates. In version 4, the whole framework is inoperable until you put in your support serial number, which is sent to Xandros to generate your product activation code, which is emailed to you. Then you enter that code into a prompt in the XN client to enable it. Word on the Xandros forum is, you can only use your serial number five times before you have to make a phone call to activate your XN subscription (normal business hours only). Some Xandros customers are upset about this, complaining that it’s no better than Microsoft’s product activation schemes. In effect, Xandros actually is a little bit better; Windows XP requires product activation to use the operating system, whereas Xandros only restricts support requests and product updates — the base distribution is perfectly usable without the activation code. Secondly, every other major commercial GNU/Linux distribution except SUSE already does this — Mandriva, Red Hat, and Linspire — so there aren’t a lot of alternatives in the top tier if you’re trying to avoid any kind of product registration. I’m not saying what Xandros is doing is in any way ethical or respectful of its customers’ privacy; I’m just pointing out that everyone else is doing it, so there really is no surprise here.
The Xandros Home Edition 4.0 license is rather strange — it now allows customers to install the entire distribution on an unlimited number of home computers and one business computer. This is a sensible choice because, quite honestly, it’s what people do anyway regardless of license restrictions. I don’t know how this broad allowance reconciles with the fact that you can’t activate your support serial number more than five times.
A new feature in the Premium Edition is the Xandros Security Suite, comprised of a firewall, anti-virus scanner, and file system protection application. The latter two programs wanted to run memory- and disk-intensive services at frequent intervals, so I disabled them. Realistically, I think most users are going to have to do the same in order to avoid a noticeable system performance decrease. These services seem like they are designed more to assuage the fears of paranoid-by-experience Windows refugees than as useful security precautions anyway.
Also new to Premium Edition is the Xandros Storage Manager, Xandros File Manager, and the Paragon NTFS kernel module. The latter allows you to write to Windows NTFS partitions; the standard Linux kernel module only allows reading NTFS volumes, so this could be a great asset to people who need to share data with a Windows partition.
Putting it to the test
Xandros Home Edition Premium installed completely in about 15 minutes and without incident on an Athlon64 X2 desktop machine and an Acer TravelMate 2300, both of which are notorious for having problems with poorly equipped operating systems. The TravelMate has an oddball integrated wireless network card that works well through NDISwrapper, but doesn’t have a native free software driver yet. I expected the software to prompt me to set up NDISwrapper for my unsupported wireless card during setup, but no such prompt appeared. Later on, when I went to run the cool NDISwrapper graphical utility that I’d raved about in Xandros Surfside Linux, I found that it had disappeared.
Actually it wasn’t gone — it was just hiding. The utility no longer appears in a sensible place. You now have to go to the Control Center, then click on Hardware Information, then Hardware Detection, then select the unsupported network device, then click Properties, then click Windows (NDIS) Wireless Drivers. If that isn’t a wild goose chase, I don’t know what is. I’m bothered by the decision to move the NDISdrivermanager utility to a remote corner of the interface because there are many laptop computer users who need it. I also think that operating systems should not purposefully be made more difficult to configure; to do otherwise is pure insanity. A Xandros representative told me that the NDISdrivermanager was put in the background because most wireless network cards are natively supported in Xandros Desktop 4.0. That’s no excuse for making the operating system more difficult to configure.
I had trouble getting the touchpad mouse to work properly on the laptop test system. This is nothing new, though — the default behavior of Synaptics touchpads in X.org is to enable an unbelievably annoying “scroll” feature. If your finger gets too close to the invisible scroll area to the right or bottom of the touchpad, it acts like a scroll wheel on a regular mouse. Unfortunately, that can mean that you often go back or forward in the Firefox browser history, which treats sideways scrolling as a back/forward event. The usual cure for this is a program called KSynaptics, which can be found in the standard Debian package repositories. Xandros does not come with any kind of touchpad configuration program by default, and KSynaptics is not in Xandros Networks unless you add the Debian sources to it. Don’t bother trying to do this, though — KSynaptics in Xandros 4.0 causes worse problems than it fixes. In the end, I had to manually hack the xorg.conf file from a terminal window, and even then I didn’t completely eliminate the problem.
I hooked up my Windows XP (NTFS) test drive on the same SATA drive controller that my Xandros test drive was on, then started the computer. While Xandros created device nodes for sdb and sdb1, there was absolutely no indication that the drive existed in the graphical interface. I tried the Xandros Storage Manager, but even that did not list the second hard drive. I tried to mount the Windows NTFS partition from the command line, but I got an error message saying that the drive was already mounted, even though mtab disagreed. So don’t count on flawless NTFS partition support in Xandros Desktop 4.0.
Although they were perfectly capable programs, I didn’t find much value in the Xandros File Manager and Storage Manager. They offer essentially the same (or less) functionality as Konqueror and KParted, except they are more stable and easier to use. The true advantage in these applications is not to someone like me, but to a user who is coming directly from Windows and needs familiar-looking programs to help them adjust to the new operating environment.
One flaw I noticed in Xandros Networks is that the Premium Edition extras like CrossOver Office, Progression Desktop, and the proprietary NTFS kernel module were not listed as “purchased.” In other words, even though these components were installed, the option to buy them was still there, and XN did not recognize the fact that they existed on my computer. This may seem like a small oversight until you consider product updates. How will XN know to update these programs if it doesn’t even know that they are installed?
My other big complaint about Xandros Networks is the fact that the Shop area is comprised mostly of demo or trial software, not the full version. If we can’t buy and install the real thing, why tease us with limited demos?
 |
| Xandros Desktop Home Edition: just like Windows |
Whenever there was a disc in my DVD drive, Xandros would spin it up and seek it about twice per second. This heated the disc so much that I couldn’t even pick it up out of the drive after fifteen minutes of use. This is a serious bug — CDs and DVDs can be ruined if you’re not paying attention. The operating system shouldn’t seek or spin up the drive unless it is currently being used.
There is still no native support for playing encrypted DVD movie discs; neither is there support for Windows Media Audio and Video (WMV, WMA) files. I figured out how to enable these options and wrote this article to show you how to do it.
Lastly, I’ll take a moment to marvel at the fact that ATI and Nvidia video drivers were not only supplied with the distribution, but that they required zero effort to install or configure. I didn’t even know they were there until I ran the glxinfo program and saw that I already had full DRI and GLX support on two test systems (one using an ATI Radeon X700, the other an Nvidia Quadro FX 4000). Unfortunately, there was no hardware acceleration available for integrated Intel graphics chips. I tried briefly to enable DRI on one such system, but didn’t get very far with it.
Conclusions and developer recommendations
Xandros Desktop Home Edition 4.0 isn’t without its little problems here and there, but as far as desktop operating systems go, it’s the most complete one I’ve ever used. Very little has to be done to modify it to do practically anything you need a desktop OS to do, and those few procedures that have to be done are quick and simple. Adding new software and updating the programs you already have is easy and accomplished through a single, simple management framework. The menus aren’t clogged with superfluous options and multiple programs for common tasks, and in general everything is very easy to use if you’re a Windows refugee. Current GNU/Linux or *BSD users probably won’t have much of a reason to switch to Xandros, however.
I’m not sure that the standard Home Edition is worth buying. People who don’t need CrossOver Office or Versora Progression Desktop for Windows migration (it’s a really great tool for that — it couldn’t be easier to use, and gets all of your settings and data in one quick operation) probably won’t see more value in Xandros than they would in a free-of-charge distribution like openSUSE, Ubuntu, or Fedora Core. Xandros’ real advantage is in the ease of migration from Windows that it offers in the Premium Edition.
As I said in the introduction, this should be the GNU/Linux distribution that you recommend to friends and family when you don’t want to spend a lot of time helping them. Xandros is a snap to install and use, and includes a good paper manual and commercial phone and email support, so you can safely absolve yourself of the infuriating string of “how-do-I” questions that computer illiterates sap your time with. If you yourself are looking for a good way out of Windows, Xandros Desktop Home Premium Edition is your ticket to desktop computing happiness.
- Native DVD playback support. I don’t think GNU/Linux companies like Xandros are really putting enough thought and/org money behind native DVD decoding abilities. A significant number of people watch DVD movie discs on their computer. It’s time some company took the initiative to either find a way to make libdvdcss legal, or write a driver for one of the hardware MPEG2 decoder cards out there. Why can’t that company be Xandros?
- Make it easier to find NDISdrivermanager. It was a big mistake to hide this excellent utility. Not only should it go back to where it was among the other networking tools, but it should also be offered during installation so that people who don’t have any other way of accessing the Internet can complete the installation process properly with their “unsupported” wireless network card.
- Red, green, purple, orange… anything but blue! Please, no more blue themes — seriously. At least offer other color themes. Windows is blue and gray because those are the Microsoft company colors. I know that some people might feel more comfortable with what they’re familiar with in Windows, but I doubt that extends to tired old color themes.
- A control utility for touchpads. In general Xandros needs to work a little harder on laptop compatibility. In specific, it would be nice to have greater control over the behavior of the touchpad mouse.
- No more demos. Take the demo software out of Xandros Networks. If you can’t offer the full version, don’t bother teasing users with products you can’t deliver.
- A 64-bit edition. It’s getting harder and harder to find desktop CPUs that don’t have either the AMD64 or EM64T 64-bit architectures. It’s time to make the transition away from 32-bit software, and Xandros is among the last of the holdouts that do not offer a 64-bit edition.
| Purpose |
Home desktop operating system |
| Manufacturer |
Xandros, Inc. |
| Architectures |
x86 |
| License |
Proprietary, lightly restrictive. Most of the included software is under the GNU General Public License. |
| Market |
Home desktop users desirous of switching to GNU/Linux from Microsoft Windows. |
| Price (retail) |
U.S. $80 for the Premium Edition, or $40 for the standard edition |
| Previous version |
Xandros Desktop 3.0, Xandros Surfside Linux |
| Product Web site |
Click here |
Discuss this article or get technical support on our forum.
Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.
CentOS overview
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is reliable, easy to use, and has extensive support options. One thing it is not, though, is inexpensive. The usual alternative for people who can’t or won’t use RHEL is its publicly available development edition, Fedora Core. Unfortunately, Fedora is too often littered with showstopping bugs, and doesn’t make as reliable a platform as RHEL does. That’s where CentOS comes in — it’s built from the source RPMs from RHEL Advanced Server, minus Red Hat’s trademarks and proprietary graphics. The end result is an operating system that operates and performs identically to RHEL, with a few extra tools to make it easier to update, and no official Red Hat logos or images.
CentOS is an acronym for Community ENTerprise Operating System, meaning it is a free-of-charge and free-as-in-rights operating system that is stable and reliable enough to be used in a large business. The release cycle is slow and predictable, which is favorable to large businesses that seek a stable, uniform operating environment with rapid security update delivery. Home desktop users may not find as much enjoyment in CentOS because its desktop software tends to be a few versions older than the latest and greatest packages included in home desktop-oriented GNU/Linux distributions.
CentOS has a relatively simple installation routine, just like Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Unlike RHEL, which has different editions for a variety of business uses, CentOS only maintains one core from which you can customize your operating environment to act as a desktop, workstation, or server. RHEL has the same options, but is packaged and supported differently for different uses.
The GNOME desktop environment as customized for CentOS is easy to use, navigate, and customize. It includes up2date, a program that notifies you of software updates, though the preferred method of software maintenance in CentOS is through YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified). YUM requires command line interaction, but the only command most sysadmins need to know is yum update — a simple command, to say the least.
CentOS comes with a large enough selection of desktop and server software that the computing needs of nearly any business or professional operation can be met. Anything certified for RHEL should work with CentOS. If you don’t find what you want, you can use the Dag Wieers RPM repository to add many more packages to your system.
System services can be enabled, disabled, or restarted through a nice graphical tool; a similarly easy-to-use tool exists for connecting to other servers on the network. Ease of service configuration ends there, though — each service must be custom-configured by hand from a text editor. The config files are generally well-commented and do not significantly deviate from the universal default values or file names.
What’s new in 4.3
The 4.3 release contains the same updates and enhancements found in RHEL 4 Update 3, plus a new YUM-based update system that automatically selects the closest available CentOS update mirror.
 |
| CentOS: RHEL rebranded |
Putting it to the test
I had some trouble with the x86 version of CentOS 4.3 on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 test system. Specifically, the USB keyboard and mouse went totally crazy — repeating keys and clicks, and in general being unusable. Oddly, the problem did not occur in the 64-bit edition of the same release.
The up2date program is still there, but it won’t be as fast because of the new server selection scheme employed by YUM. On my test system, the yum update method worked quickly and without error. up2date, however, crashed several times on the AMD64 version, and took a long time to complete on the x86 edition.
The software is somewhat aged, but that’s to be expected from a maintenance release, which is what 4.3 is.
A few people have written to me post-publication and asked that I mention YUMEX, a graphical frontend for YUM. It can of course be installed via YUM: yum install yumex. It’s a nice utility, and definitely a great addition to CentOS. However, I still feel that it should supercede up2date, or that the user should have the option of using YUM instead of up2date for updates by default, not as an add-on or afterthought.
Conclusions and developer recommendations
CentOS is the perfect alternative for people who can’t afford or otherwise are opposed to paying for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It’s as perfect a clone of RHEL Advanced Server 4 Update 3 as can legally be distributed. Overall I found it just as easy to install, use, and maintain as RHEL4.
The only recommendation I have is for the CentOS team to make YUM graphical in a minimalist way, much like up2date currently is. The beauty of up2date is that it is so easy to use and understand, whereas running YUM from the command line to update the system by hand is sloppy and unreliable. I’d like to see an up2date-like utility that monitors the update servers for changes and either automatically applies them, or puts up a big red exclamation mark like up2date does.
Discuss this article or get technical support on our forum.
| Purpose |
Operating system |
| Manufacturer |
The CentOS Project |
| Architectures |
x86, AMD64/EM64T, IA64, PPC, Alpha, SPARC, S390, and S390x |
| License |
GNU General Public License |
| Market |
Servers, workstations, and desktops of all kinds; people who like Red Hat Enterprise Linux but can’t afford it |
| Price (retail) |
Free of charge |
| Previous version |
CentOS 4.2 |
| Product Web site |
Click here |
Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.
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