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Lycoris Desktop/LX Review
JigSaw writes: "Lycoris Desktop/LX (formerly known as 'Redmond Linux') is viewed by many as the new big distribution in the "Linux on the Desktop" arena. OSNews features an extensive review of the latest Lycoris and outlines the good and the bad things of the distro. In short, Lycoris seems to suffer from the general GNU/Linux situation to not be ready to power a true desktop-oriented, easy to use distribution yet."
. In short, Lycoris seems to suffer from the general GNU/Linux situation to not be ready to power a true desktop-oriented, easy to use distribution yet
Just making another distro isn't enough to be "Linux's answer to the desktop." It'll require more products, more "wizbangs", easier installation, and general "user friendliness" on all aspects. I'd concentrate on more products, ensuring you can go seamlessly between Windows and Linux flawlessly (Word docs as a minor example), before making a distro to be the "answer."
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
A good point of the distro is the inclusion of a WINE release. While I could only run correctly simple applications like notepad.exe and the Windows calculator, it is a nice addition. All the .exe programs are marked with the WINE icon and if you doubleclick them, WINE will try to load them.
..Uh, but there are far better native apps available for free.. Why would you ever want to run windows notepad or calculator? I understand the eventual goal of WINE to run all those exe's seamlessly, but why is WINE a nice addition in this distribution if it just runs simple programs that already have better native versions?
air and light and time and space
I have gotten used to using StarOffice, Mozilla, Licq, and several other applications that have almost taken the need to boot into Windows away completely. The only times I find myself booting into Windows is to play video games or watch media files that I can't find Linux players for (.wmv--mostly pr0n).
Since Linux can be configured well enough for my far-from-computer-geek girlfriend to use, and the only reason I boot into Windows is to surf for pr0n and play video games, I think that it would actually make a better solution in the working environment. All the productivity, none of the vices...
Just my two cents...
that every "easy to use" Linux distro is actually only an easy install for the user?
Real work needs to be done in helping the user in case an application fails.
Also, every one of the distros seems to be very superficial; they simply include some nice skins and applications that resemble those in windows, but many of these applications are hardly as functional as their "hard to use" counterparts.
Shouldnt these companies put more of their money behind making powerful products easier to use?
Once you completed the installation and booted your new Lycoris Desktop/LX system, you'll be greeted with a handsome X login window (KDM).
A feature most of us don't use anyway, which has been an option in most distros for about 3 years now.
As a GNOME user, I didn't realize that with KDE 2.1x, the kpackage RPM management tool was integrated with the desktop so that it would launch when you double-click an RPM file in Konqueror.
looks like thats a KDE feature, which is avalible with every major distro
Other than Samba, no other system daemons that could be security risks are running
this i feel actually is a feature, i've always thought it was dumb to by default install and run 17 daemons that home users really aren't going to use.
And the linux desktop isn't going to appear over night, it's going to take lots of apps, mainly game and business app support. When you can buy a game with a linux binary and windows on the same cd.
"The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows." -Aristotle Onassis
I think both you and the reviewer are applying a fallacy I often see in online reviews and evaluations -- especially on Slashdot. I call it the Me Fallacy. This fallacy is the assumption that your own needs are the needs of the product's target audience. So you applaud and criticize when the product succeeds and fails to meet your needs -- even if that's not what the product is trying to do.
I see this in the review (which does make some good points) when it criticizes Lycoris for not providing development apps. This is an end user distro, for Pet's sake! Of course, a developer might want it anyway (I'm going to try it in the hope that it will integrate with my company's IPX network better than the others), but such a user is perfectly capable of downloading apps -- and is more interested in how well the distro accomodates third-party packages than what specific packages the distro provides.
Anybody attempting to design a truly user-friendly Linux distro needs to start by making IceWM the default window manager. IceWM gives the average users What They Want: a simple clean desktop. The taskbar isn't filled with junk (well, maybe a little, but the distro should default it out), just a set of simple buttons. Yes, it looks a lot like Windows, but that's not necessarily bad. What's important is that it's a clean interface that users can understand right away. The desktop war is won or lost in the first minute that the user looks at the screen and decides if s/he understands what's going on.
Miko O'Sullivan
All isos can be downloaded from their ftp and mirrors, including the source.
Why can't some people just start reading before crying about some apparent GPL-violations???
I'm tempted to figure out how to do it myself. Not exactly the silly point-and-click to log in, but something that will let me go back and open another session as a different user easily.
:1
Getting at more than one X session at a time in Linux is needlessly complicated. The nice login screens should have this in mind. Why would a login prompt for a multi-user operating system only handle a single logged in user at a time? Silly.
I know it's only:
startx --
(or whatever the brain-dead syntax is) to start another session, but there really ought to be a better way.
I run lycoris on no fewer than 5 machines inside and outrside of a windows domain. I disagree with the 'not ready' statement and it shows that the person who commented on the article hasnt used the distro.
In all 5 cases (all different machines) it found all hardware and installed seamlessly, the video card on my personal notebook (Dell LS400) was found perfectly, something Mandrake 8 and 8.1 couldnt manage.
the Distro has built in and fully workin Div-xm,DVD, Mp3 and the Koffice suite, Samba configured to acccess windows shares by default and wine.
My home network is a windows XP pro one with a shared internet connection (dont laugh it works 100% perfectly and requires 2 seconds setup) Lycoris found it without config and worked straight away fpr all web funtions, it connects by default with my shares and it does so on windows 200 active directory as well.
In short its a desktop OS for the average user, it doesnt come with advanced features, compilers and dev tools installed but you can download and install them, its a full working simple to use and install linux distro for everyone. I gave it to my mother of all people and she loves it - it does everything she needs, loads fast, looks like fun and she can run her windows stuff.
I have given this OS to about 20 people from technical linux zealots to newbies and all of them have enjoyed using it and the newbies love it - in short its an OS i as an IT manager can roll out on a desktop, it's built on top of redhat and users RPMS which makes it great if you already have redhat servers and use the OS in your environment.
Yes it needs work but what is doesnt need is apache or any other server components, it doesnt need compilers and 10 shells instaled as a default, its a desktop linux and it works and for the first time a user doesnt need to resort to makefiles and consoles to try and get anything working in the OS (Div-x Under redhat anyone ?)
It works for what it is and its worth $29 or you can download for free.
I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
I notice Lycoris has made a decision that I really wish more distros would make:
/etc/init.d/ script to set up iptables, I can configure /etc/smb.conf, I can apt-get update from security.debian.org, I can enter some lines into /etc/fstab and /etc/crontab... need I go on, this can all be done... by an experienced sysadmin! Pull some of this stuff together into a system that functions as a unit and you've got something pretty damn amazing that will knock the pants off expee any day of the week. I just wish I had some more spare time and could code better, a handful of people could probably do what I've suggested (not that I think that's all of what Linux needs to be desktop complete, but it's certainly impressive and not hard to do.)
DON'T SHOVEL LOADS OF IDENTICAL SOFTWARE ON!
The K menu on Lycoris is sanely organised and there's one of everything. If you look at your average dist, when a user fires up the brand new desktop they're greeted with a load of disordered crap in the menus, half of which sticks out like a sore thumb (GTK+/Qt mismatch... sigh I really wish we could standardise on one of these. Preferably Qt but then of course it's put out by an Evil Company (TM) nevermind the fact that it's GPL.) and the other half just doesn't work. That's not a great first impression to make. Just by sorting out the defaults on installation Lycoris has taken a huge step forward.
The one thing imho that Linux needs on the desktop is a more homogeneous feel. One desktop environment and one widget set. One administration package. I want to boot into a KDE only desktop, start up KControl and schedule some backups every weekend and select "Automatically install security updates every week", maybe set up some email and web accounts for the kids, set up my firewall to "Allow web server and email traffic", and set up a home LAN and share some files around. If I were an end user doing that I'd think "Holy shit I can't do THIS under Windows!"
Come on fellas, this can be done. I can write an