Vidalinux Desktop OS 1.1 Screenshot Tour

linuxbeta writes "An update to Vidalinux Desktop OS has been released. This release sports many new updates including the 2.6.9 kernel, improvements in many different areas including reiser4 support, wireless drivers, scalability, performance, and support for NPTL. Also included is the Fedora Core 3 Anaconda installer, Udev and hald for hardware autodetection, GNOME 2.8, KDE-3.3.1, and the OSX styled kicker Gdesklets 0.3.1." An interesting combination of Gentoo Linux with Red Hat's Anaconda installer; OSDir.com has a screenshot tour.

Comments

Never understood the point...

[nile_list]

What's the point of screenshot tours for distros? All distros have KDE and Gnome and whathaveyou. The only thing that's "unique" about the screenshots is that the wallpapers are just each distro's logo.

Re:Never understood the point...

[Stevyn]

For most distros, I'd agree with you. However, since this is based off Gentoo that's known for its somewhat difficult installation, I think it's relevant. Seeing the screenshots gives people an idea of what is going to happen and makes them feel more comfortable about installing the operating system.

Nice, at first look

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a nice setup, a Gentoo-based desktop-OS, something I haven't seen much of (anyone know of any others?) but This is a joke. You only get certain* apps when you buy the purchase version.

*this includes FREE OPENSOURCE software such as Gaim, Mozilla Firefox, xine, k3b, etc

How can they charge extra for a purchase version because it includes free software?

I think I'll stick with Ubuntu, where it's a great desktop os based on a very stable distro (Debian) and is completely free, and always will be, yet still commercial in that they have full-time dedicated employees improving it 24/7, and where I can "apt-get install thisgreatapp" in a few seconds.

Nice try, but really, laughable when compared with the alternatives.

Next!

Re: Freedom of Choice and Competition

[gregmac]

If the linux community is not competing with Microsoft, then why all the constant comparisons to Windows about how linux is superior, which applications run on which platform,

What else are you going to compare it to? Obviously if you're using Linux as a desktop, then you're going to compare it to other desktops.

discussions of how to get more users off of Windows and onto a Linux desktop, etc.

Well, I don't think I touched on this, but of course having more users means more market share, which means more developers being interested, which means more applications being developed, and ultimately, more choice.

"Freedom of choice" is a beautiful thing in linux-land, but for someone on the outside looking in, which choice is the correct one for moving line of business apps to linux en masse (gnome/kde; xorg/xfree86; linux/*bsd/dragonfly)?

Well, that's a problem and it's not a problem. When you're talking about moving a business, then I assume you have an IT department or at least someone serving as an administrator. It's their job to make that decision and then deploy and support it. (Of course, now the administrator is removing choice from the users, so perhaps I'm just being hypocritical. :) )

I think that too many choices only results in unending confusion and a complete reluctance to abandon Windows by those who might otherwise make the switch.

Yes, I'm sure it does. But what would happen if there's no choice? Someone might try out Gnome, not really like the interface, and then decide they hate Linux - and they'd basically be right, since it was the only way to get a GUI. In reality, if you don't like Gnome, you can try KDE. Or one of dozens of other desktop environments/window managers.

Remember too that these are individual developers working on independent projects. If it was Microsoft that had 14 different GUI's to choose from and it was confusing users, then Bill Gates can always step in and stop all but the best GUI from being developed. In the FOSS world, there's no one that can do that.

On a more personal note as a VB.NET developer, I am further put off by the superioristic attitude of many in the *nix community that I should abandon my language of choice and use java/c/c++/python/etc -- and then in the next breath I hear that linux is all about choice.

Well, you're looking at it from the wrong level. Using VB.NET, you're stuck with Microsoft, as are your users. You've removed their choices. If Microsoft decides that they're going to charge a $100,000 per application licence fee, then you're either stuck paying it or you give up development and start from scratch in a new language. If they release Longhorn and active a backdoor in all earlier versions of windows that blocks them from using the internet, your users either have to buy the new Windows, or give up on their investment in your program.

In reality, these are unlikely to happen, and perhaps a bit extreme, but things like this are possible.

All that said, there are a diverse collection of people in the "linux community" -- the (often loud) ones that boo at anything Microsoft are not representative of everyone.