That some folks want to recommend this blog to their readers–but if that is the substance of your comment, then I’ll have to treat it as SPAM; too much of the last couple of weeks has been spent deleting it and blacklisting sources of SPAM that if you have nothing substantive to add (or rather too much substance haha) then don’t bother.

That ends well, at least when concerning the latest releases/spins from Mandriva and PCLinuxOS; in this case the KDE ‘One’ 2008 Asia version of Mandriva, and the once problematic Ultumix (now version .004). The former maintains its excellence in terms of overall hardware recognition and better Asian language support as well as all-around out of the box goodness, and the latter is a spin of PCLinuxOS, which is a nice effort, though it’s difficult for me to see how the original PCLinuxOS 2007 could be much improved upon–yes, there are a ton of desktop icons on startup for those that can’t be bothered to touch menus, and the desktop wallpaper is different, but apart from that I would much prefer to use straight up PCLinuxOS, by far one of my all-time favorite Linux distributions, one that is no less remarkable for the fact that it is not supported by some huge corporation (like Suse), but the work of a few very hard-working coders improving upon the Mandriva core.

I download a ton of Linux distributions and try them out, and almost never do I give a cautionary warning or negative word–I simply do not bother to write about them. When something comes out from trusted channels and then proceeds to disappoint on what I have already said is one of my preciousss (golem-voice) favorites, during installation no less, then I feel it is only fair to give a hint of how I truly feel about said Linux distribution. It’s comforting at the end of the day to see that all the parties involved have come to some sort of amicable arrangement, because honestly we are all in this together, from the high level developers, to the lowly users like myself.

If you want something that has a very strong look of Windows XP, then Ultumix may be good for you; I personally would recommend sticking with PCLinuxOS, though if you want a re-spin of that most excellent of Linux distributions, then give Granular 0.9 a look, as they provide by far the nicest in that category. If I wanted to use something that looked like XP, then I would just install XP. That’s one of the strengths of Linux–there are so many variations and flavors out there, that surely something will capture your attention and imagination. As long as it’s KDE, that is. Heh.

There is a kind of mad rush away from proprietary systems in the direction of Linux; nowhere is this as keenly felt as in the IRC support channels, where several thousands of users gather daily to get a dual boot, wipe XP, Vista, and even Mac OS X from their systems and get into the open source mix.

It can be frustrating at first, as the traffic in certain channels is so high that keeping track of the person you are helping or are being helped by just scrolls by so quickly, and even though the moderators do their damnedest to maintain order, it can be somewhat chaotic at times.

This is not just about turning to Linux, but for many users, it is their first installation of a system ever–many of them having purchased boxes that came with a system completely pre-installed–and the number of simple questions on setting up mp3 playback or getting the spinning cube or even dealing with a sound issue create a kind of white noise after a while.

The most amazing thing about this all is that many of the individuals helping out are people who not that long ago were completely new users themselves, even folks that have no real issues on their own Linux systems, just there to pay back the help they got at some point in the past, either on the various user forums, from a friend they know who uses Linux, or from the channels they now seemingly inhabit.

There are certainly a number of individuals who forget that it is not a service center at their beck and call, but simply volunteers, and act with a degree of less than total politeness, though thankfully they are a tiny minority.

Then there are the folks that just seem to know how to answer your question, or have questions you have faced in the past, and needs meet source in a very nice place. Something you don’t often find in the proprietary world.

Pardus has come a long way since the last time I tried one of their fine Linux distributions; it was an excellent system nearly a year or so ago, and has just gotten much better in the meantime. It stands out as a system that is wonderful to use, either in the liveCD (Calisan) or the installed version (Kurulan) and is friendly to speakers of many European languages across a broad range of hardware.

There are systems that you try for a while and then get sidetracked with the bling from one of the major distro releases, and somehow I got lost and didn’t find my way back to Pardus, though the system and name stayed with me as a very positive one, a system that I would definitely like to stick with and learn more about.

I had been planning to run the livecd and then if it worked out to install the full system, but got caught up in a game of lbreakout on the livecd and lost track of time. When you first enter the grub login screen you are asked to choose your native language from a long list (numbering around ten), the first being Turkish (naturally, as Pardus is a product of Turkey), followed by English, and then a number of other European languages, both major and minor.

The splash is slient, so there is a minute or two of seeming inactivity with just the outline of a flashing cursor at the top of the otherwise dark hued screen, followed by a couple of xserver adjustments as the system sought to find the correct resolution (1024×768) for this R60 Thinkpad with the intel 945 integrated graphics card.

The most excellent Tasma control center launches as you enter the KDE desktop, and gives you a wealth of choices as to menu style (four nifty choices there), wallpaper, internet connection, and the package manager Yali. Once you have finished making your selections, you can either head back into Tasma for more customization right away, or finish and delve further into the choices on offer on the lovely KDE desktop, one that the Pardus developers and graphical artists have truly made their own, with a number of eye-pleasing alterations.

First stop was Firefox, which loaded very quickly, to head over the various spots one would normally go when accessing the internet– youtube, a streaming mp3 site, and a site that streams non-flash video–all of them passed with flying colors, all of the various codecs ready to go from the livecd without a hitch.

Just as a livecd it is a very fun and responsive system–one can only imagine how much speedier it must be in the installed version. All of my hardware was recognized, including wired/wireless, core duo processor, HP all in one printer, and external (fat32) hard drive.

This lynx comes loaded with tons of games, all the graphical tools for media/content creation you could imagine, something for every internet need, music/video playing, as well a full (one might say over brimming) office suite of tools–whatever your content creation, work, entertainment or internet needs, Pardus 2007.3 has something for you–and the configuration tools are as fine as any system I have tried, comparable to those on offer in PCLinuxOS and Mandriva ‘One’ 2008, all this in a tiny 688MB livecd package. It’s amazing how much they were able to pack into this single disk.

If you are looking for a system that is fun, fast, easy to set up and run, easily customizable and using the KDE desktop environment, then there is hardly a better choice out there than Pardus 2007.3, one of the dark horses in this year of stellar Linux distribution releases. Try the livecd and see if you don’t agree–you may find it’s hard not to queue up the installer disk on your torrent list as you zip around in livecd mode. Highly recommended.

I like the sound of that. Heh. Too bad this blog has a name already. Interesting that Google now has some customized start pages–here is a fine example.

Me, being the sucker that I am, will give Ultumix a second chance–though I’m clearly biting the hand that feeds me here–this site is hosted by the folks who run Linuxtracker, and there is clearly some less than good will between the two parties. Will report more later.

Been a bit wary the past few days/week or so to download and test any new distros after the Ultimux debacle; one expects that certain sources of Linux distribution torrents are reliable, and when they are not (putting up and then pulling a torrent in a single day) one has to step back and take a breather. Thanks to iconoclastic cat for tracking down the shenanigans of this distro ’spinner’, who apparently has not only failed to deliver a real Linux distribution, but broken PCLinuxOS’ rock solid networking and setup tools, but pissed off the folks at PCLinuxOS, LinuxTracker, and others in the process. Too much Vista and not enough Vixta. Hahaha. This schmoe not only pulled off those wondrous feats, but managed to include proprietary software in his distro, pretend that it had been changed, and then when confronted with the fact, not only failed to fess up to it, but released a ‘fix’ that wasn’t and then didn’t tell the truth about the alleged fix. As my Wii golf game would say: “Nice approach”. Sheesh. Am getting to run the liveCD and then installation CD of the newest release of Pardus Linux (as long as the liveCD goes well). Will report back.

Exciting Nightmarish new distribution Ultumix combines the best of PCLinuxOS with the Vixta look and feel. With added codecs! Looking forward to installing this system as soon as the torrent arrives. Details soon. Update: if you were one of the unlucky folks to download this “distro” then don’t bother even trying to install it–PCLinuxOS with a Vixta look–pshaw. It could not even get my very common ethernet card (never mind the even more commonplace wireless card), and the torrent has mysteriously disappeared from LinuxTracker without an explanation. All you get with this one is a terminal, no internet of any kind, and no way to install anything. A total bomb.

Via the ever excellent OSNews, word of a significant development involving PC-BSD 1.4:

November 14, 2007 — iXsystems announced today a distribution agreement with Fry’s Electronics whereby all Fry’s stores nationwide will carry PC-BSD Version 1.4, Da Vinci Edition. The agreement marks the first time that the PC-BSD operating system is made available for purchase at Fry’s Electronics.

PC-BSD is a fully functional desktop operating system based on FreeBSD 6.2-STABLE. FreeBSD is one of the most used UNIX-like operating systems in the world. It is widely renowned as the most stable and secure server operating system.

It’s wonderful to see this system finally get its dues; congratulations to the hardworking developers of this terrific operating system.

In other news, chairmakers in Redmond, WA have reported brisk business in the past 48-hour period.

Has been toppled, and it’s only a matter of time before they are all lying flat on the ground:

“SCO IP Licenses for Linux” amounted to little more than “protection money pricelists” and that SCO is “spreading rumors about copyright violations in Linux.” Further, Kuckartz claimed that “The SCO Group Inc. is probably is involved in crimes such as stock manipulation and filing a fraudulent complaint against IBM.”

SCO took him to court over these claims and SCO has lost

Sweet. Via GrokLaw newspicks.