Sorcerer Review, and News of Impending Doom

osworks writes: "There is an review of the Sorcerer Linux distribution over at linuxworld.com that is worth a read. I've been running SGL on my Inspiron for a month now, and have the same impression as the author. It took a really long time to install, but was educational and rather fun. Some discouraging news near the bottom about how the maintainer needs some development help, or it will be the end of Sorcerer. This is one of the most exciting new distros to come along in a long time, and that would be a shame."

Comments

Great Distro

[spencerogden]

Like the submitter I have been using Sorcerer for a little over a month. This distro is exactly what I have been looking for.

For one, I don't know if it is the optimized compiles, or the fact that it is a bare minimum system, but KDE feels fast!

The project is in need of assistance. If you haven't tried it, give it a weekend, and you too will hope that this project does not die. The author has a paypal account linked to his email address.

Re:Sorceror vs Gentoo

[krasni_bor]

After the original Slashdot story on Sorcerer, I downloaded and tried Gentoo while waiting for Sorcerer's servers to become un-/.ed. I tend to be really impulsive about uninstalling and reinstalling different distros on my personal box. I don't want to think about how many times I've installed both of these on my fun box at home. I also put Sorcery a firewall and web server at the high school where I work.

Both are source-based distros. Gentoo uses a Python and bash-based package system, influenced by the bsd ports system. It handles required dependencies automatically, and chooses optional ones based on a config file--you indicate if you want kde functionality in your apps, for example. Sorcery just prompts you for each dependency.

That comparison is typical for the approaches to the two distros. Sorcery asks/tells everything in a very straightforward way. Gentoo is more automatic.

On the other hand, Gentoo doesn't really have an installer at this point, just a shell and a bunch of well-written instructions.

At this point I prefer Sorcery, because no other distro has made me feel like I really knew exactly what was going on with my box.

self healing

[Anonymous Coward]

What everyone failes to mention is the self healing ability of sorcerer which is IMHO its biggest strength. Doing #cast --fix will verify all applications on your system, recompile the once whose depandancies have changed, put back in place missing files and symlinks.

One of the big challanges for sorcerer was upgrade from db3 to db4. That one tooked me 2 #cast --fix till system self healed. Try doing this with any other distro and see what happens.

SGL = excellent product, excellent install method

[dogas]

It would really be a shame if SGL stopped getting support. I switched from Mandrake a month ago and I'm more than satisfied with the results. Yes, the install is more difficult and time consuming, but it was worth it for the experience I got out of it. I now have an intricate knowledge about how the inner details of linux works.

I also believe that their method of installing applications is better than any binary install system out there (apt-get/rpm). Although it may take a bit longer to compile things, they're installed *right* and are compiled specific for your architecture. All dependencies are automagically downloaded, compiled, and installed without any user interaction (although you can interact if you want).

No other distro provides more control, flexibility, or ease of use better than sorcery. I hope it doesn't go away.