NeoLinkComputers features a review of Libranet 2.8.1.
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The reviewer has a good taste; he uses the Noia Icon set 
Anyway, I've used the 2.7 version, and was quite impressed as well. Might try out 2.8.1 one of these days
I think its worth noting, that there is a 30 day money back guarantee on the 2.8.1 release (minus a small fee, I think). So its actually pretty risk free to try it out.
On the other side, I don't think that many people use the guarantee, as this is a very nice distro.
Libranet is certainly staying on my computer...
how is libranet's application repository?
would it be (for example) possible to install
- anjuta
- eclipse
- firebird
through their software installation tool, or how fast does one have to resort to compiling from source and manually solving dependencies
i am not trying to troll or imply a judging over libranet, i seriously want to know because i might check it out but that is the one thing that i am fearful of, i use a wide variety of app's and don't have a clue if i'll be able to do so under libranet
You can without any hazzle at all use apt (or the gui synaptic) to download whatever package Debian supports. Thanks to apt you will not have any probs with dependencies either.
Libranet stays forever on my disk too. I simply love it.
-Vecc
For Anjuta and Firebird (actually both the database and the browser), they are in the standard repositories so there should be no problems.
For eclipse I do not know which repository to use. But instead I downloaded it from the eclipse site, and it ran without no problems.
I bought 2.8.0 a while ago after reading all the (very) positive reviews. I really like it, it has a good software selectiong, the installation is very simple (but not intimidating for experienced users) and Debian is under the hood. Libranet is Debian for desktops. I think I am going to buy 2.8.1 too.
Hmm... I notice that this NeoLink Computers site has already reviewed Knoppix and MEPIS. (Especially MEPIS gets very positive review.) It would have been interesting if they had compared Libranet with these distros.
As for the application support in Libranet (and other Debian based distros) - if you are looking for bleeding edge software and it is not in Debian's official APT repositories, you are very likely to find what you're looking for by making a search in
http://www.apt-get.org/
Can anyone point me towards some documentation for Redhat Fedora ( _not_ Fedora.us, the outdated version), like where to point yum.conf.
dabooty wrote:
"How is libranet's application repository?
would it be (for example) possible to install
- anjuta
- eclipse
- firebird
through their software installation tool, or how fast does one have to resort to compiling from source and manually solving dependencies"
They all are in the debian repository, Libranet is Debian.
Example:
root@libranet:/home/luigi# apt-cache search anjuta
anjuta - A GNOME development IDE, for C/C++
devhelp-book-autotools - Autotools book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-binutils - Binutils book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-cvs - Cvs book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-emacs - Emacs book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-gdb - GNU Debugger (gdb) book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-glibc - GNU C Library (glibc) book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-gtk2 - Gtk+ 2 books for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-make - A 'make' book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-book-sdl - Simple DirectMedia Layer book for the DevHelp system
devhelp-books - Books for the DevHelp system
Am I right in thinking I can download 2.7 and somehow upgrade to 2.8.1 for free?
Thanks
Fedora is still in test stage, and the merger between Fedora and RedHat is not yet complete, so there is little documentation available on this. The links on the Fedora wiki seem outdated. However, when you run up2date (which should come pre-configured, it will display a message about which yum repository (currently Rawhide) it is connecting to. You can just point yum.conf to this repository. Unfortunately, you have to do this because 0.95's yum package comes configured with an yum repository that seems to have been moved. Also, freshrpms.net has yum configurations for their servers --- their latest is RedHat 9 so you won't get Fedora packages, but they are compatible.
I see. I was having lots of problems with YUM giving me 404 during "yum update" and up2date consistently hung when at "finding inter-dependencies." I am going to try and re-install and start over. I was impressed that it detected my USB printer and had it working out of the box. But, up2date seems like complete crap so far. Hopefully I can get yum or apt working.
Have you used Fedora? Were you able to get Eclipse working? I installed the Java RPM available from java.sun.com, but Eclipse was unable to detect it.
The Java SDK is a piece of shit. Its a pain to install on any OS. In 2003, such simple software should not require editing environment variables. As for up2date, it worked perfectly the first time on my Inspiron 8200. The GUI is a bit unpolished --- it will look hung for a long time because it redraws only every few minutes. If you give it time to work (about 5-10 minutes on my 100megabit connection at school) it should work just fine. The up2date GUI really needs to be fixed --- the long pauses defeat the whole purpose of it having a progress bar.
Yes, that is what I suspected, too. I let it run overnight though (12 hours) and it was still at the same process. I have a 200kB connection, and nothing was being downloaded at that stage anyway. I'm going to do a fresh re-install, and I'm asking for some help on their mailing list also.
Seriously. Libra net = Free net. Yet you have to pay for it?
It might be the best distribution in the world and I have no problem at all with them asking for money for it, however they really should change the name to Lucrenet or something. 
lol, I thought that too. But it really is a good distro.
It is somwhat ironic. However, the reviewer was misinformed. You can download the 2.7 version gratis and then upgrade to Debian sid to get on the bleeding edge.
Andrew D wrote:
"Seriously. Libra net = Free net. Yet you have to pay for it?"
You must be confusing Libra with LIBRE. Two different things entirely.
Libra is a unit of weight as in pound (16 oz), in ancient Rome it was 12 oz.
Libre is free, as in freedom, it comes from the word libertad.
Nobody has ever gone broke underestimating the knowledge of
Americans about the rest of the world.
I recently purchased Libranet 2.8.1 and installed it alongside of Fedora Core Test 3. Libranet is definitely a solid distro. However, it isn't nearly as pretty as Fedora, and programs load much, much slower under Libranet than Fedora. However, it was very nice to have the nvidia driver installed by default, and the multimedia support was much better than Fedora. Unfortunately, even with all the multimedia stuff installed, I still couldn't get Libranet to handle windows streaming video properly. Also, the crossover plugin for Windows Media Player wouldn't work under Libranet (but it did work under Fedora). For the home user like myself, I think I'll pass on Libranet and Fedora. I think I'll give Mandrake 9.2 a try -- hopefully this will be the best of both worlds -- pretty, fast, stable, and good multimedia support.
