On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, Frank Rocco wrote:
> Interested in feedback from Red Hat users that have tried Corel Linex
Here's what I think of it...
Note: I am a Red Hat developer. I'm trying to be neutral, but you should
know I might be biased without realizing it:
Corel Linux contains numerous completely outdated packages. Some of them
(proftpd 1.2.0pre1, bind 8.1, ...) even have major security problems.
It's installation is very easy unless its hardware detection hangs the
system (which happened on a notebook I tried), which makes installation
impossible.
There are several bugs left (after one otherwise successful
installation, I had to add "/usr/X11R6/bin/startkde" to
/etc/X11/window-managers to see their KDE changes - prior to that, it
wouldn't start anything but twm.)
Their KDE changes are partially very nice for a beginner (they put in
a new file manager that behaves pretty much like a bugfixed Windows
Explorer), but also partially confusing for people who have already
used Linux (they changed package names, moved some options to different
places etc). Also, their applications lack serious testing, they crash way
more often than a normal KDE installation does.
A very nice feature is the possibility to change the X resolution and
color depth from the KDE control panel; this even seems to work.
They go to X only; if you want to try the command line mode, it's
definitely not a good choice.
Also, it is lacking some important programs (ever wondered why their CD
has only 300 MB on it, while Red Hat Linux 6.1 has 640 MB +
powertools?). For example, it's KDE only (no GNOME (not even the
libraries needed to run GNOME applications), no real text mode
support unless you tweak it).
Their choice of package managers (dpkg, not rpm) is surely a matter of
taste, but considering that almost everyone else is using rpm nowadays,
I'd prefer RPM.
All in all, I'd say it was a rushed release - their final would be an
ok beta. Maybe their next version will be more interesting. If you know
how to fix some potential trouble caused by installer bugs, it's
probably ok for a desktop machine, but it's a danger on a server.
LLaP
bero
--
Nobody will ever need more than 640 kB RAM.
-- Bill Gates, 1983
Windows 98 requires 16 MB RAM.
-- Bill Gates, 1999
Nobody will ever need Windows 98.
-- logical conclusion
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