Absolute Linux--90

This is on of those installable CDs that takes over your hard disk in toto.

so look at the label is it Live or Install.
I almost erased my hard disk it with it .
Even then I have several editions of it but never install it to see its worth.

I fetched and got live Cd in a zip file from Softpedia and ultimately made a image and booted little while ago for testing.

It looks xfce but there is no record that it was from xfce was visible in the booted front.

It is very shaky with it configuration of x-Windows and warn and ask you some worrying questions (for a newbie) before the last stage of mounting.

It puts anybody off including me.
It readily displays the user and root and their passwords and violates the principle of password by using only 55 and 77,
that is not the lesson a newbie should learn.
Thanks it is in zip file only a Linux fan can unravel its secrets.

This is not for newbie as yet and it cannot be installed!

It is a good try and it has a long way to go like Centos (Salix has joined the fold recently) and the like who took up Live CDs seriously only lately.
I will be with you with Salix moment I download and test it for you.

GNUSTEP--89

This is the purest of the pure of Gnome and free software foundation (F.O.S.S) distribution. It follows the rules of the foundation and include utilities without compromising foundations goals.

In fact only a handful of them follow the rules to the letter.

It is a very good distribution with lot of utilities and I could not find gParted in the lot.

This distribution follows the principles and it should be a benchmark of Linux and Gnome.

Note my words. there is a difference of Gold Standard and the Benchmark.

Benchmark is the Guiding Principle but Gold standard is the utility Status whether you are a Gnome fan or an average consumer fed up with Microsoft and its franchises.

Interestingly it has Blender in its fold so it gets very good average score from me.

Linux is it Convergence or Divegence?

While Linux had been going on diverse and diverging pathways over the last decade there are significant converging strategies developing in the World Wide Web.

More and more people are using it everyday it has come to stay with the trends of the time.

Telecom's innovations are coming to its peak that less and less people (except the young) are willing to invest and pay for everything they use or partake.

Ordinary people are more conscious of the price since everything else is going up in prices.

This is where V.O.I.P will take a center stage in couple of years since it is cost effective and one does not have to pay twice for the same article or service.

Similarly Television channels are offered through the pulse line of telephone and slowly but surely everything is becoming digitalized.

Analog years are numbered just as the music turntables of the past.

Similarly Video formats would change.

This is where Linux will and can steam role and go forward faster than our imagination can take us.

In the third world we are not yet ready for this scenario changing but billions of consumers are there in the East in Asia and China.

That is where the profits are going to be.

In time come everything is going to be computer generated and only Linux can penetrate all these markets.

Linux have to move in different directions while converging on the desktop market. Server market and netbooks (rather O.E.Ms).

Live CDs showed the convergence pathway but what about the divergent pathway.

1. V.O.I.P is one pathway.

2. Video Generation (New Fast and reliable web format) and its different formats.

3. TV and Web TV is another pathway.

4. Education and Multimedia is another pathway.

5. Cloud Computing is yet another.

6. Business packages and MySQL is another pathway.

7. Science. Technology and Mathematics is another.

8. Web Utilities (like Google's Chrome)is another and sports is another.

9. Venture into Government and Universities is another.

10. Sports and Entertainment (Music and Films) is another

11. Web Storage is another since Linux will work tirelessly without breaking the system or the hardware.

There are many more avenues for Linux enthusiasts.

Linux also should have a market philosophy.

Merging with big companies and committing harakiri is not the way forward.

Linux should generate reasonable income to its developers and community.

Just like medical service operates the vaccination and community health should be free but people who get sick with indulgence (alcohol and cigarettes and unconventional life style should pay or should have a reasonable health insurance).

In other words people who can afford it should pay reasonable price for the service.

If one gives something free its market value will go down. This is seen in our country very well. We give free education and after 11 years of teaching English they cannot utter a sentence with 10 words clearly. This is true for Mathematics and Science and there is no training in IT.

Do not follow this stupid idea in the name cheap socialism.

For Linux workers (like labour laws) there should be some sort of compensation for the time and effort of the community and the developers. This can take the form of cooperative movement at internet level.

If one's idea is quoted and referred there should be a way of paying some royalty value through a cooperative fund. The fund should be developed from donations and charities. This has to be formulated with some strong checks and balances otherwise one rogue (we have our Sakwithies, here) will drain it overnight.

Then only it will go from strength to strength.

If we have repeated episodes of economic crisis one after another crisis the community will strangle itself and quietly dwindle it's human resources (which is natural with the present day youth) and the big companies will jump in for the kill.

We should not let this happen. We should be mindful.

WebConverger-88

This is a very nice Live CD for web browsing.

Coming from UK it has BBC on line too which is a good thing.

It has taken KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) very seriously and I cannot shutdown the console once it is booted and rooted which is a big handicap at my prostratic age!

If they want to be serious about light weight must shed 27 out of 227 MiB, like the old Nimble X so that it will fit in a mini CD and I can wear it in my front shirt pocket.

Make it pocket size please so lest I cannot carry it in my front shirt pocket on holidays.

Take some cues from Good OS (gOS) and make it eye candy.

Good Luck.
I am downloading ADIOS web edition and will be back with you soon.

NiMbleX--87

This is a distribution I wanted to put with the teeny weenies but any longer.

It's 200 MIB was nimble to begin with but now it has gone to KDE 4 with little fat, an ailment of atherosclerosis.

When one is on a diet of KDE it is no wonder one gets atherosclerosis that is why I call the the KDE 4 fondly as the Gorilla in the wing (I love Gorillas any way) if not at the dinner party.

Unfortunately we simple Sri-Lankans are on a not so balance diet but on a lean diet due to food prices going up by the day and we cannot invite Gorilla for a dinner let alone a party. But we have two legged variety with both hands up for innocent voters charm.

We even cannot feed our four legged elephants except during perahara time. These majestic animals are killed one a day almost everyday (in the pretext of development) that we will not have any left in the jungle.

But the fat politicians are eating up everything including the limited resources.

Problem with fat distributions (like politicians) they waste time and energy doing nothing at all for me to talk about.
It takes lot of time downloading them and feeding them with RAM and memory.

I am downloading the 400 odd MiB not so Nimblex.
I will be with you soon with some comments.

It is sleek as always the KDE is.

Slow to boot but surprisingly once booted up moves fast/
it has everything a newbie needs including open office in 400 MiB which is an achievement.
They should take a cue or two from PCLinux and add some light weight X-windows to it's repertoires.
It has a long way to go to satisfy every type of customers . especially somebody like me in its fold to give a pet tap or a kick in the back and should not drop its light weight 200MiB descendent in its repertoire.

Good Luck with future endeavours.