Suse or Trisequel or Mandriva

I looked at my blog posts and discovered that I have no entry for Suse.
This is to rectify that omission.
Unfortunately I am bit explicit here.
Suse or Trisequel or Mandriva
Suse Linux had a special place in my choices before it went commercial. I left Fedora and embraced Suse Linux and had been using it from Suse 8. Till Suse 10.1 there was no problem and when it was taken by Novel I had lot of expectations. Novel concentrated on server but I believe like Redhat neglected the desktop version. By Suse 11.1, I was changing my allegiance. Mainly due to it’s failure in commercial support of the desktop version.
It was less than ideal.
Then it’s alliance with Microsoft was not a favorable enterprise.
I will talk about the plus points first.
It had one of the best installation script even though unlike Redhat sometimes tends to miss some of my other Linux distributions already installed in the box. It also had a very good partition utility when compared to other Linux distributions except Mandrake, Debian and Redhat. It’s YAST was a very good configuration utility. Its KDE was bulky but very attractive. Then it introduced the Suse Studio where one can Mix and Match utilities and make one’s own Live distribution. In fact, I made one distribution myself. ChromeOs is one of those distributions a that took root from Suse Studio. From then onwards I shifted my allegiance totally and it’s Milestone releases are “pain in the neck” and worse than the Fedora experience for me.
I stopped downloading and testing them after the last version 11.2. When I saw many innovations in other Live CD/DVDs it was easy for me to ditch it in favour of PClinux.
Now few of my reason for ditching it.
It is bulky and consumes lot of RAM.
It is slow in boot up.
Its downloading of Linux images was bad.
It tends to pile up all the junk temporary files and what really annoyed me was it did not have a way of cleaning up and deleting large files. With time file corruption ensued. At that stage to save time I had to dump it and never used it again.
It stopped reading partitions above 15 and with me having 5 to 6 distributions in one box it was restricting my freedom. With disks of 500 GiB coming to the market restricting to 15 partition was a stupid idea. Only Microsoft would have done it that way. New Windows 8 not allowing alternative operations to boot is a case in point.
It also take the belief and shoot that belief out of window that commercial ventures do add value and complementary and better than community work.
Suse desktop was a commercial failure for the happy faces of Microsoft and Apple CEOs.
I wanted to write about Trisequel here instead of Suse but took the decision if I do not write little bit of Suse and its history, justice is not done to those developers who created Suse.
Trisequel
I will be brief in here writing about Trisequel. Suse and Mandrake took Open Software theme to the extreme and in their early releases excluded all packages which had slightest taint of commercial tags and did not include things like Flash and the like limiting the functionality for those who migrating from Microsoft background. They then bundled them in their commercial counterpart to lure them to buy their distributions. This was not a healthy ploy, and the clever customer like me can see the commercial intent. I have personal experience with Suse the details which I decline to state here.
XandosOS is another good commercial product which apply this principle.
I should close this entry with why I have not included Mandrake. Many reasons as stated above an it’s split recently into two. Mandrake has been acquired by a Russian company and it is applying rigid and regimental style, somewhat akin to military. The breakaway Mageia is not yet mature. I wish both of these endevours success but hesitate to recommend them just for now.
Coming back to Trisequel if one wants a pure Linux derivative and beautiful and clean distribution too, I have no hesitation of recommending Trisequel that come from Spain and has English version too.
It has everything except cloud utilities.
That shoots two birds with one go.
1. No commercial involvement or enticements.
2. True to it’s Linux base.
So if any Linux distribution goes commercial like Redhat focus that commercial aspect and give customer due care which Suse failed in desktop range. I am not stating that Redhat customer service good. It is far from it but it knows it’s obligation and working towards that goal at least in the server section.
Redhat is well known for failing the desktop clients.

XBMC Linux and Media Center

XBMC Linux and Media Center

This is a Live CD that specializes on Multi-Media applications. It runs on Flushbox X-windows and has XBMC as its major package.This is a mouse happy distribution and when one right clicks the application menu comes to life.

One interesting feature about this distribution is the distribution is only tine but its application XBMC takes a large portion of it’s MiB.

If one has an old computer with a good graphic utility one can use that computer as a home media center and store all your videos and audios in one place. Not only that t can store pictures to. Once it is connected to the internet one can get the local weather too.

This is something one should have one’s bedroom and program it to wake you up with music and morning weather. Of course one has to write a tiny script to wake you up at 6 A.M or 7 A.M.

I am told early risers are healthy and manage stress better. Music and cup of tea (not coffee) is healthy start up for one who has cash strapped duty debt crisis.

What better way other than rise up XBMC on a old computer.

XBMC is under the menu video when you right click and get the applications into life. It has lot of other little applications.

Incognito Linux and the Visually handicapped

Incognito Linux and the Visually handicapped

This is something one should take cognizant of. I was looking for a post in the name of incognito in my blogspot but I have posted it as Webbo Amnesia. Amnesia is a medical term and I had gone to the town with that word and has completely forgotten to highlight the Linux distribution in my post. My apologies to the guys and girls at Incognito. 

The error of commission and omission should be put right here.

1. It is a Live CD if one wants to browse anonymously and without leaving any traces to detect.

2. It has vidalia which gives a list of guys logged in at the time of one's current browsing. 

3. It has ORCAs which is something I should highlight here. 

Even a blind person can browse the web without any intrusion or obstruction.

4. Web browser is light and no cookies or attempting to remember all one's actions. 

5. It does not feed back your browsing habit to commercial interests. It is fast because of that fact and i was immediately on my blog entry and reading its first few lines.

I am happy even a blind person can read this entry if he/she accidentally visit my site. There are lot of nice Linux guys/girls out there doing things that are commendable. Helping visually handicapped to be independent is one such thing. Thanks a lot to all ORCAs developers out there.

Incognito is an amazing utility which all the aspiring politicians and power hungry ones should worry about. It can boot and erase all the traces of memory in the browser and the computer of use after posting a message out of the country which some dictators like what you find in China may not like it, and the true state of affairs are known to the rest of the world.

Tor is a small utility one can carry in a floppy disk and it will send chills in the spines of some politicians!

Linux can do it and www is for all not for a few powerful and wealthy.

It makes the ground rules simple and open. Be transparent in all public (not private) affairs.

What I gather is that this utility is used by teenagers in the West to hoodwink their parents and reach unwanted sites. Well, teens are two steps ahead of their parents and old folks should fast learn "tricks of the trade".

Use of this utility in bad hands can be deplorable but I will use it only when their is a dire necessity political-wise.

 

1. Number one feature one I want all the Linux distribution to have is UnetBootIn.

2. Number two is ORCAs.

3.Number three is gParted and partition image.

Incognito has it.

Knoppix has it.

Most of the Ubuntu derivatives VinuX have it.

Dynabolic should have it and it has it.
The  visually handicapped will enjoy Music with Dynabolic.

In other words all audio visual Linux CD/DVDs should have ORCAs and UnetBootIn.

So he/she can wear the distribution around the neck wherever they go.

Who knows I am in my twilight years and I may go blind due to old age and I will have to carry one with me.

Thanks young guys and girls for your wonderful communal spirit.