All-in-One Source for Linux Distro Reviews

An anonymous reader writes "If you enjoy reading Linux distribution reviews, head over to DistroReviews.com - a new one-stop Linux distribution review site. DistroReviews.com is a collection of the latest Linux distro reviews from around the web. Original reviews can also be submitted."

Comments

hmmmm..first post?

[redsoxunixgeek]

Kinda interesting but I thought that is what slashdot is for, It is a nice lay out though..

Are user submitted reviews a good thing?

[Vaystrem]

Yes I want to be informed regarding new or previously unknown distributions but is simply letting anyone submit their own review really the
solution to the problem?

Personally I want to see: professional, balanced, comparitive reviews between multiple distributions OR indepth reviews of the major and minor distributions. That rarely seems to be the case with user submitted reviews.

To be fair most websites focused upon reviews grapple with this kind of challenge, and in fact with anyone who does reviews of any kind.

I was briefly affiliated with a poor quality hardware review site where I ended up editing a lot of the articles. I started to discuss the need for quality indepth reviews, rather than rushed brief articles that all seemed to receive 9/10 or 10/10. The primary reviewer bluntly informed me that we need to get the reviews out the gate rather than take the time to do a good job, nor can we risk offending the manufacturers supplying us with products.

I do not believe it is possible to be unbiased, but an attempt at balance & depth would go a very long way and this website does not seem to provide it with the content currently on their site. It is currently an excercise in subjectivity, although I suppose my opinion is subjective too.

Please don't misunderstand me. There is a place for user reviews, but I wish there were more places for indepth and balanced reviews.

too many distros' ..

[torpor]

.. its becoming evidently clear, that the only way to have fun with linux is to ship it in hardware.

Re:too many distros' ..

[superpulpsicle]

How come no one complain about the 8 million unnecessary versions of windows. Professional, Home, Advanced Server, Server, light, developers, blah blah.

great potential. mortally hurt by implementation

[capicu]

I see a review on the main page that I like the look of. I click Read More. I am taken to a second site, with slightly more of the review, and yet another Read More link. Whose idea was that?

I may check in in a few months time to see if they have fixed this, but it is highly likely that I will forget. One less person to see their bizarre google ads.

Advertisement

[acidrain]

Am I the only one here who feels he just saw a paid advertisment on slashdot? Here is a better site linked to by slashdot a while back: http://distrowatch.com/

Re:Advertisement

[kayen_telva]

you are not alone. everyday I visit less.

Cha cha cha

[krewemaynard]

...a new one-stop Linux distribution review site...

...as you're on the way over to DistroWatch, that is. Hey, it's the distro two-step! Only, this new first step sucks.

DistroReviews.com is for ricers

[cyberlackey]

Same old praise for the same old distros for the wrong reasons without standardized criteria. Win!

Wow.

[suitepotato]

That site and nearly everything I click on in it is totally Gooletastic... Googleriffic... Googlebarf...

Yeah, that last one works. I put Google Ads on my blog for kicks, not for making bucks. I want to Gooooooogle my eyes out at the sight of that site. (grammatically challenged /.ers take notice of that sentence, please).

Consumer Reports

[zogger]

is the most well known "hardware' review place. They *purchase* all their hardware for starters, no donations or "loansies", so that helps somewhat with the honesty part.

So a distro review? That has to be the most open of sources,the most common of create, ANYONE can write a review, so I say anyone can just go for it. It gets down to "fix your own complaint" if you don't like the other guy's review. Ultimate "put up or shutup" scenario. Easier than kernel hacking, too.

With that said, "Hey ya'all, watch this!!1! "

In todays review we take a look at FREDZNIX version .004.2 PRE-ALPHA

Fredznix is a live cd version operating system based off the popular Debian and knoppix. It is the BESTUS Paypal screenshot Paypal

with the choice of gnome, kde, xfce, and fredzown desktops! screenshot screenshot screenshot screenshot

It contains the popular OPEN OFFICE SUITE Paypal screenshot

and for intense internet surfing pleasure, the evah popular FIREFOX BROWSER screenshot, screenshot, screenshot, screenshot and screenshot

And teh THUNDERBUHD Email client

screenshot

and for your media pleasure, we have MPLAYER manpage
manpage
manpage
screenshot
manpage
excedrin URL
screenshot
manpage
offshore repositories
openproxy list
e-gold
Paypal
screenshot
manpage

Forums

Paypal

IRC

Paypal

SWAG

Paypal

Downloads

Paypal

Syndicate (what's this?)

Valid Html .78, Cs&S WWW3 Paypal

Best viewed with a computah

Not much use to me, so far...

[JavaRob]

I'd suggest that the creators focus on what people visiting the site are probably looking for, then redesign based on that.

Personally, I followed a couple of clicks for one review that turned out to be some random guy's ramblings about a distro he's either thinking about trying, or is trying (it wasn't clear). No thanks.

Some examples of probable visitors:
Person 1: I want to switch to Linux from Windows, I know what I need (web dev, or office stuff, or graphic design etc.) and I need the name of solid distro that will do this for me with a basic non-technical review.

Person 2: I tried X distro, and I sorta liked it. What are some similar distros that are equally or more popular?

Person 3: I want a comparison of Linux Live CDs, for use in system diagnostics.

Person 4: I'm very familiar with Linux, and I heard about a particular new Debian offshoot that sounds interesting. Gimme in-depth expert reviews of this one distro.

Person 5: I want to start transitioning my employees over to Linux -- which solid distro is the best supported (from a company and/or ease of finding tech staff familiar with it?)

Is there a site out there that can really help these people? This one has a ways to go, anyway. It's a start -- yes, collecting feedback from users is good (but you need useable data, not just unclassified reviews in a big bucket!). Yes, collecting links to external reviews all in one place is great (but you need the meta-data - like audience, reviewer expertise, etc. - before it's useful).

Something else...

[JavaRob]

..I just noticed.

There's a "most popular" page for the reviews with the most hits. This isn't going to be helpful at all, as is -- the number of hits only means that the title of the review looks interesting. It's quite possible that every single person who actually reads the review clicks back after 5 seconds, because it's horrible... but of course now that the review is stuck on the "popular" page, it's only going to keep going up as more people click on it.

The Amazon approach of "this review helped me" or not would work better, though of course it's probably patented..