Distributions

Sabayon Linux 4

Sabayon Linux began life as a binary shortcut to a fully working Gentoo system. Early experiences with RR4 - Sabayon's original name - ranged from "nothing installed" to "data lost." Fortunately, the developers never gave up and today Sabayon is a beautiful, functional, and stable Linux desktop distribution.

Booting the Live DVD

Sabayon Linux is comparable to Mandriva or openSUSE in that it is a large system aiming to meet the needs of a broad section of users. The first evidence of this is seen at the initial boot of the live DVD, which contains several modes of operation. Beyond the default choice that boots with music into a highly customized KDE, one can also boot an EeePC mode that provides the same KDE environment at a 640x480 resolution. You can also opt to start the installation in either graphical or text mode. You can also boot to an anonymous web browsing mode that uses Tor or boot to play Sauerbraten, a popular 3D action game.

With most of these boot modes, the user is given the chance to enable 3D desktop effects with Compiz Fusion if their hardware is supported. Besides the native Intel support, Sabayon comes with NVIDIA and ATI proprietary accelerated graphic drivers. So, most hardware is supported - if you do not mind binary blobs. Compiz Fusion usually requires a beefy system, but basic functionality was tested successfully here with 2.0 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM.

Sabayon Linux 4 sports a tasteful new theme that starts at first boot and is consistent throughout. Gone are the gothic tones of 2.x and the gawdy bright blue of 3.x. The professional quality graphics feature gray tones with royal blue accents and is very easy on the eyes. This new theme reflects the maturity of the distribution and its developers.

Installing Sabayon Linux

It's during the installation that one can see further evidence of Sabayon's ability to meet the needs of many user types. First is the support for every language and keyboard available to Linux today. Further, there are choices which will determine the type of system installed. One can choose from several default desktops that include KDE 3.5.10, GNOME 2.24, and Xfce 4.4.3. These will result in the multipurpose system with the full complement of software and accelerated graphics.

For lighter systems, Xfce for UMPC and the Fluxbox minimal desktop are offered. Sabayon Core can also be chosen which excludes any graphical environment; it is well suited for server deployments. If a server is desired, Sabayon includes software such as Apache 2.2.10, PHP 5.2, and MySQL 5.0 in its repositories.

GParted, a graphical partitioning tool, makes partitioning easier by allowing users to visualize the layout of their hard drives. By default the full contents of the live DVD is installed, but packages can be deselected individually if desired. The wizard also walks users through setting up the root password, user accounts, networking, and boot options. Unlike Mandriva and openSUSE, the Sabayon installer doesn't add other operating systems that may be present to the GRUB menu. One significant change from the previous release is the opportunity to install upon an Ext4 filesystem, although,in that case, Sabayon still requires a separate Ext3 or Ext2 boot partition. For the most part, it is a typical Linux install routine; those with experience will have no difficulties, and those with no experience should have very little.

The Sabayon Linux Experience

The new theme is carried over from the live DVD; it starts with the boot-up process and remains through log in and onto the various desktops including Xfce, Fluxbox, and LXDE. This level of continuity is usually seen only in the larger commercial distributions and adds an air of professionalism to Sabayon. In simple terms, it looks good.

Sabayon Linux ships with software for everyone as well. For work, for play, and everywhere in between, the Sabayon menus are overflowing with applications. For office tasks, OpenOffice.org 3.0 leads the way. For graphic work Picasa, Inkscape, Hugin, and The GIMP stand out among the many others. Multimedia applications include MPlayer, Ardour2, Elisa Media Center, Kaffeine, VLC, and Juk. For file transfer d4x, aMule, Filezilla, and Deluge are among the choices and for communications Pidgin, Skype, Ekiga, and Evolution are available. To surf the internet Firefox 3.0.4, Konqueror, Epiphany, and Seamonkey are at the ready. The extensive menu contains lots of KDE and GNOME games as well as several 3D games such as Nexuiz and Sauerbraten.

Aside from the expected, Sabayon offers some more unusual software too. That includes BOINC, which facilitates distributed computing and replaces Seti@home. Another is Second Life, which is a client for an immersive virtual world. Plus, there are several graphical programming environments such as Qt Designer and lots of system tools such as KMyFirewall, KlamAV, Wireshark, VirtualBox, and Wine-Doors. Sabayon comes with multimedia codecs and plugins needed to enjoy video and audio either locally or streaming over the internet. Linux kernel 2.6.27, Xorg 7.4, and GCC 4.3.2 form the foundation.

If by some chance you require something not included within the installed system, perhaps it is in Sabayon's repositories. Sabayon developers have been working for quite some time to perfect their new package management system, Entropy. Entropy installs binary packages from Sabayon's repositories rather than compiling the source like Gentoo's Portage. The graphical front-end, Spritz, is nearly feature complete and has options for the most commonly needed tasks - plus a few extra. Like other package management systems, it has a search function to check availability and status, update feature, and even a database backup and restore option. Sabayon is reputed to be compatible with Gentoo Portage repositories, so emerge is an option on a very small basis.

Linux hardware support in general is very good these days and most hardware is auto-configured. This is true for Sabayon as well, although it goes a bit beyond by providing proprietary graphic drivers and drivers for some of the more challenging wireless ethernet cards. It was quite refreshing to have the Broadcom 43xx in my HP laptop work out of the box. With standard dhcp networking, most internet connections should work without user intervention. Screen resolutions were configured as desired here, but graphical configuration tools are available as is the xorg.conf file that has begun to disappear in may distributions with the use of Xorg 7.4. Difficulties did arise when configuring a Samba shared printer due to some issues with Samba in general.

Conclusion

Overall, Sabayon Linux 4 was found to be an excellent release. Over the course of several weeks very few issues emerged. Firefox crashed occasionally on streaming video sites and the Samba issue was unfortunate, but no other notable problems were experienced here. Performance and stability were above average and, frankly, much better than expected. The new look and feel make using Sabayon a sheer pleasure.

Availability

Sabayon Linux 4-r1 was released on December 31 and comes in several varieties. The flagship four gigabyte DVD is available for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. A smaller two gigabyte Media Center Edition is also offered for those whose primary interest is in multimedia. Xdelta files are available for the main system as well. The files are available for download directly from an http or ftp mirror, through rsync or torrent, or from retail outlets.

Comments (6 posted)

Announcing K12Linux F10 Live Server

The K12Linux team has announced the release of K12Linux F10 Live Server. "K12Linux is Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP.org) integrated with Fedora 10, in a convenient LiveUSB or DVD media installer. Since 1999 LTSP has empowered many schools and businesses with Linux-based terminal servers and thin clients, allowing low-cost clients or recycled computers to become powerful Linux desktop machines."

Full Story (comments: none)

Mandriva Linux MIB-Live-prog 2009.0 available now!

Mandriva has announced the availability of the new MIB-Live, called MIB-Live-prog 2009.0. This ISO is a revised version of Mandriva One 2009.0 with many applications and games. "[I]t can be used as DVD-Live, it can be installed on disk and, starting by now it can be stored to a USB pen: we can finally bring with us our Mandriva 2009.0 everywhere (it works like the One edition)!. It is very useful, when you want to install Mandriva 2009.0 on a NetBook (Asus eeePC, Acer One and so on), where the CD/DVD device is usually missing. To put it on a USB pen you have to type only the comand genusb in konsole, when the MIB-Live DVD is running on the PC."

Full Story (comments: none)

Debian Lenny release planned for February 14

Following on the announcement of the second Debian installer release candidate, the release team has sent out a status update which, among other things, says that the final release is current planned for the 14th. "The intention is only to lift that date if something really critical pops up that is not possible to handle as an errata, or if we end up technically unable to release that weekend (eg., a needed machine crashes). Every other fix that doesn't make it in time will be r1 material."

Comments (24 posted)

Fedora Board Meeting Recap 2009-02-03

This recap of the February 3, 2009 meeting of the Fedora Advisory Board includes Board Questions & Answers.

Full Story (comments: none)

Unofficial Fedora FAQ Update: 2009-01-30

The Unofficial Fedora FAQ was updated January 30, 2009. There are plenty of changes. Help spread the FAQ by providing new translations.

Full Story (comments: none)

Gentoo Foundation 2009 elections - nominations are now open

Nominations are open for the Gentoo Foundations 2009 elections. "The nomination period started today and lasts until Saturday February 28th. The election polls will be open from Monday March 2nd to Sunday March 29th. The elected trustees start their term on April 1st."

Full Story (comments: none)

Mandriva Linux Assembly announcement

The creation of the Mandriva Linux Assembly has been announced. "As announced in december, the main goal is to create a committee together with developpers, users, testers, translators and Mandriva salaries to improve our favourite distribution."

Full Story (comments: none)

KDE 4.2 is in Slackware

KDE 4.2.0 is available for Slackware current and Slackware 12.2. "KDE 4.2.0 is released -- congratulations to the KDE development team for such an amazing job on this beautiful and highly user-friendly desktop environment! Thanks also to Eric Hameleers, who did a ton of work getting KDE 4.2.0 ready for Slackware. Once again (for now), these packages are compatible with Slackware 12.2. Enjoy! :-)"

Full Story (comments: none)

KDE 4.2 is in openSUSE

OpenSUSE has released KDE 4.2 packages. "Want to install KDE 4.2 on an existing system? Grab the packages via one-click install for openSUSE 11.1, openSUSE 11.0, or openSUSE 10.3."

Full Story (comments: 1)

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #127

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for January 31, 2009 covers: Call for testing of DRBD: Server Team, New MOTU, Arizona LoCo installfest, Launchpad 2.2.1 released, Exporting translations upstream, PartyBoi2 interview, Ubuntu pocket guide and reference book, Ubuntu Nokia project (a community project), Technical Board Meeting, Server Team: January 2009, MOTU Council, and much more.

Full Story (comments: none)

OpenSUSE Weekly News/57

This issue of the OpenSUSE Weekly News covers openSUSE@FOSDEM2009, HP Builds on the openSUSE Education Project, Masim Sugianto: Tutorial : VirtualBox on openSUSE 11.1 Part 2, openSUSE Forums: How to install KDE 4.2, Build maemo-apps with openSUSE BuildService ? - It works ! and several other topics.

Comments (none posted)

Fedora Weekly News Issue 161

The Fedora Weekly News for February 1, 2009 includes an update from the Fonts SIG to bring us up to date on their work leading up to Fedora 11 and much more.

Full Story (comments: none)

Fedora's Echo Monthly News Issue 6

The January 2009 issue of the Echo Monthly News looks at the Echo Perspective starting of Fedora Hosted and New Echo Artist Scripts and Supporting Icon Artist Library.

Comments (none posted)

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 288

The DistroWatch Weekly for February 2, 2009 is out. "As Linux personalities go, there is nobody more famous than Linus Torvalds, the man who started it all by developing the Linux kernel in 1991; read on for our exclusive interview with the chief architect of the most important part of your Linux distribution. In the news section, Fedora gets set to include KDE 4.2 in current and previous releases, Debian developers announce the imminent release of version 5.0 "Lenny", OpenSolaris focuses on improvements to compete with Linux, Keir Thomas releases his Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference book as a free download, netbook distribution Easy Peasy publishes a feature list of the upcoming version 2.0, and the Intel-sponsored Moblin project releases a new alpha build of its operating system for mobile devices. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch.com January 2009 donation is the Openbox project."

Comments (none posted)