Aurox Linux 10.0.1 Beta Reviewed

sarumont writes "Here's another lesser-known distro trying to make a splash on the big scene. Aurox Linux is a Fedora-based distro mainly developed in Poland. Even in its tenth release cycle, it is still a young distro and as such: small. Could it be the next big thing? Even gentoo was small and "lesser-known" once. Check out this review, hot off the presses at LinuxForumsDOTorg."

Comments

too many

[Gherald]

I for one resent the fact that the amount of linux distros is still growing. Why? There are many answers I could give, but consider that one of the following is usually true:

1) It is based on an existing major distribution, contains little useful innovation, and as such does nothing but add pointless name clutter and minor incompatibilities.

2) It is sufficiently different enough from the current major distributions to be considered innovative, but that innovation would (in the majority of cases) be better spent imporoving existing distros, particularly in the areas of package management, modularity, convenient installation, and general ease-of-use.

Now I understand that having the "right to fork" is an essential part of OSS and I would defend that right to the death (ok so maybe I'm exagerating a wee bit, but less than you would think). Choice is awesome, I like choice. But who has time to try 100's of distros? It is of some consolation that their are review sites to give us the scoop, but reading them is tedious too, and not guaranteed to be helpful or relevant.

Bottom line: New distros have their place, but we need fewer of them. Far fewer. Development time (or should I say "repackaging time"?) would be better spent improving existing deployment tools, e.g. Portage and Catalyst.

Re:too many

[puddpunk]

I was going to mod you up, but then I decided I would reply to you instead...

I agree with what you say and admit you have quite an insight into the matter. For instance, I thought the amount of debian-based distro's were reaching critical mass. Ubuntu Linux came out and I installed it on my tiny 450MHz laptop, gnome 2.8 and all. I was so damned impressed. I've use dozens and dozens of distros (Gentoo, debian, suse, knoppix, xandros, fedora, redhat the list goes on...) but this one still managed to blow me away, and fit my needs perfectly, more so than debian which is what it's based on.

If you've heard the saying "Jack of all trades, Master of none" I think you'll start to understand _why_ we have so many distro's. We need different distro's that fit different purposes.

I need an up to date yet stable distro for my slow laptop -> Ubuntu
I need a very stable and secure distro for my server -> Debian
I need a flexable hobby distro for my desktop -> Gentoo
I need a distro that will be familiar to a windows user -> Xandros/SUSE
I need a distro that is suited for workstations -> SUSE/Red Hat
I need a server distro with GUI administration for an ex-windows user -> SUSE Enterprise

I think we get the point... Why should we have to try to ram a distro into every situation, each problem is different so each solution needs to be.

IMHO, that is part of where MS went wrong with windows. Suddenly everyone who's used windows on the desktop thinks that they can run a server for their work (Hey, why hire an IT guy!) so we end up with hundreds of open spam relays, rooted boxes and DDoS zombies. Of course, there are advantages for having a common platform between desktops and servers but the problems can outweigh the benifits.

So after all that, you can basically boil my post down to: Use the right tool for the right job.

Yes, perhaps the 100s of distro's need to be cut down some, but IMO not as much as your suggesting.

Cheers,
Chris.

Re:You know...

[Lord Kano]

If people spent half the time improving what is there as they do creating new distros Linux would far surpass Windows and OS X on the desktop.

In case you haven't noticed, most of these distros aren't aimed at the desktop.

You think Gentoo is thinking about grandmothers?

They're not.

Red Hat? Nope! Debian? No way. Slackware? No.

The desktop isn't the holy grail. There's no need to launch a crusade to obtain it. If we can put out a few fires like the DMCA and keep up the pressure for people to use open standards, it won't matter.

LK

Clueless choice for a name

[infonography]

I have known of the Aurora Linux a redhat based distro for the Ultrasparc since at least 2001. Can a Distro maker go to all that work and still be so in the dark as to not at least do a google search for the name first. It would be one thing to have a app called that but a whole distro? Expect a name change once their servers are un-slashdotted and they get a clue.

And no I am not raining on their parade. The quality of the distro is unknown to me. I wish them the best of luck.