Installing another Linux distro on the 3ePC; after going back to Xandros, it feels absolutely glacial.  There seems to be a Debian-live installer in the works, and as luck would have it, only Debian-based distributions hasve showed any positive results in recognizing a majority of the hardware, wireless, etc; what is not in the repos is easily added (at least in the Debian-based distros). Not sure about straight Debian though.

Ouch. The 3ePC will come with Windows XP preloaded, but for $1000 (!?!). Via the very fine UMPC blog.

A clear concise review of several Linux distributions, after using them for some time. Wait til he tries PCLinuxOS or LinuxMint; it just gets better from here. Well worth a read; here’s a sampling:

One point I’d like to make is that all of these distributions allow you to use various open source products for multimedia, system tools, utilities, internet tools, etc. The difference is that they each come with a different set of products that get installed when you load the operating system. All of them have some type of package manager that allows you to easily download and install literally hundreds of open source products.

Head on over and read the whole thing.

On my part; when I referred to the developers (in the post ‘SuperSpam’) I was talking about the developers for Vixta (.org) and not those of the fine team at Fedora (fedoraproject.org). Sorry for the lack of clarity. Mea Culpa Maxima.

Oh ye bots that keep spamming the comments–is that all you got? C’mon. My ‘delete as spam’ finger will never tire.

Yah, it’s got a few cool effects, like the cover flow and the avant window manager (Linux does it, too!); the fan out of items in a folder is sweet as well, but overall just a Meh on the reality distortion-o-meter. Just initial impressions, as it was installed barely five minutes ago–the real test will be with older hardware–will it be usable? More later.

A nice review of the iPhone from OSnews

We used the iPhone for almost a month now and it’s time to write an editorial-type article on the… unlockiness of it all.

Well, if Gmail can’t handle the all the spam thrown at this blog (and elsewhere) then it’s foolish to think that Wordpress can. And as the freezing bug appears to have disappeared, will post here.

A bit more on Vixta: as a liveCD, it is a lot of fun to play with, though nothing even close to Granular .90–mostly for the looks one gets from unsuspecting folks who believe it to be Vista, to which there is an uncanny resemblance.

The installation of this Fedora 8 (eight) based distribution went smoothly up until the post-install processing, at which time it hung and had to be aborted.

The name and the looks have attracted quite a sizable number of folks to the forum, and from the tenor of their questions the majority of them are completely new to Linux, likely current Windows users.

Sadly, the level of support from the two developers (as best as I can make out) rose only to the level of ‘read the documentation’ and that was about it.

One would be better served getting Fedora 8 (eight) when it finally arrives in the next couple of weeks, and simply copying over the Vixta theme, or alternately, using the Revisor technology to roll your own distribution with that theme as a KDE base.

Much appreciation for all the hits. the mothership (LinuxTracker.org), the free digs, et al; but with the comment spam filter broken and not being to log in at all for several days consecutively (not to mention the wordpress 1.2.5 autosave problem) and the site has become all but unusable–am taking it (at least for the short term) to another wordpress space; the blog has the same name, just a slightly different address. Cheers!

Saw a link at the mothership (LinuxTracker.org) for Vixta, a Fedora based system (Fedora 7) that mimics the looks of another similarly named, but shall we say less than Open Source friendly, Operating System (guess!) and could not resist downloading it from the source and trying it out in liveCD mode.

It is fast, and lovely, and weighing in at 718MB likely needs to be burned to a DVD-R, unless you are a CD-burning guru and know how to ‘overburn’ and fit it into the 700MB space (I just used the DVD-R). The torrent is available for download here; the direct download link (which will find a mirror close to you–very handy, and fast) is here.

This is the fruit of the Fedora team’s Re-Spin efforts; taking a version of the latest (or really any) version of Fedora, making changes, then turning it into an ISO installer or liveCD disk. The folks who have worked on this clearly have some excellent graphical art skills, as this is one shiny and polished looking distro, with a touch of levity thrown in–the blue welcome screen looks precisely like another well-known one, though I seriously doubt that there is a penguin in that one. Hahahaha.

Boot up is fast, probably as fast as I have experienced with a major distro in liveCD mode–the verbose splash flies by, and then you are promptly deposited into a frightening simulacrum of the OS-that-shall-not-be-named (for fear of scaring sentient beings), though with a twist–it works. And is fast. And lets you do whatever you want. And no mysterious phone homes or spying for RIAA/MPAA. And..this blog post does have a word limit, so better stop there. Best just to leave it to the maestros who crafted this work of art:

What is Vixta.org?
Vixta.org is a Fedora-based Linux distribution designed to be user-friendly and eye-catching, similar in look and feel to Vista.
1. Absolutely free, in every sense
2. spread linux to the “masses”
3. ABN - AbsolutelyNo Config
4. User-Friendly
5. Eye-catching
6. Familiar look and Feel

The re-crafted KMenu has the feel of a mix of the SLAB menu from Suse, and the more recent Kickoff (or is that Kicker?) menu, and true to their description, there is absolutely no config. The rest is all true as well, and this is another example of how to spread Linux to a wider audience.

Good that this came along, as the highly anticipated (at least here) release of Fedora 8 is just a little more than two weeks away (11/8!) and it’s been a long while since I tried out one of their fine offerings. Flash works (Youtube) right in the liveCD, though I could not find a music player nor a video player to test the mp3 and video abilities. So just a tiny bit of a complaint (and the spelling of graphics is grafics in the KMenu).

Really tempted to install this, just because that’s an important indicator of how nice a distro can be–if it uses the Fedora 7 installer, then it should be no problem, though I’m concerned that if I do install, then add Amarok and Mplayer (or the like) that the absolutely wonderful theme might not carry over. It is something that you get a hint of in the screenshots (available at the homepage), but seeing it on your computer is really a dazzle to the eyes (if that makes any sense at all..).

As this is still a sub-1.0 release, I would guess that they are going to add some of the essentials to make this a fully functional out of the box distro that leaves others panting with envy–they have that in the looks, and when they add just two bits of software (and their libraries), i.e., a music and video player, then I’ll be one of the first to install it. This will be ideal as a desktop distro, as the intel 3945 a/b/g wireless card in my Thinkpad was recognized as wlan0/wmaster0, and again, a tiny gripe that can be easily remedied. The sheer artistry of the theme and the choice of plasmoids/widgets in SuperKaramba are flawless, and I so look forward to seeing what the brilliant graphical design artists from Brazil can do with KDE4. I say Brazil, for this bears all the hallmarks of a distro, much in the spirit of Famelix (Hasta La Vista) and Kurumin, that has been done up by the developers there with such a flair for graphical artistry. Anxiously awaiting the next release of this fine Linux distribution. Will check if they have an IRC channel, and edit shortly.