I’m always looking at different and new Linux distribution’s now and then, trying to finally find one that is good enough to overthrow windows on my PC. But all the distributions seem to have a weakness, Mandrake is rpm based, Debian makes it hard to set some things up and Gentoo requires a lot of work and time compiling. And so I decided to try out Libranet.Introduction
I?’ve never failed to install a distribution before, I just always give up when fonts are ugly, plug-ins don’t work and I can’t get my soundcard to do anything. Apparently Libranet fixes this kind of thing, but I had to see it for myself.
These are the specs of my computer which it will be running on. 2.6ghz P4, Abit IC7 motherboard with onboard sound, a NVIDIA Geforce 4mx graphics card, a 80 gigabyte hard drive, a bog-standard network card and 512megs of ram.
Installation
The installer is really good. A nice change from all the graphical ones, which I don’t think make installing easier anyway. Also it was all well thought out, it gave me enough choice to be happy it wasn’t doing something stupid (I don’t like the distribution ‘s that don’t ask for anything but a password because they always do something wrong) but it was still very simple. It detected my quite old monitor perfectly, my graphics card, everything worked. It even installed the propriety NVIDIA drivers and setup duel booting and mounting for my windows partition, Brilliant!
Post- install
Well I prefer Lilo to Grub personally, but it seems to work and I guess choices between the two would just confuse a lot of people that are new to Linux. The install left me with a nice login manager. I was pleased with it because it let me do things like shutting down without needing a root password, which just annoys everyone. If someone can get to the login manager of a computer, they can just switch it off at the mains anyway!
All the window managers work nicely and look like they should, except the menus are very messy. Granted, the fact that Debian puts menu items in stupid places and in separate folders isn’t really Libranet’s fault and they are trying to stay compatible with Debian, but it would be nice if Libranet could get around it somehow because its pretty pointless. Although it seems quite a small thing to complain about, it really annoys me because I use the menus quite frequently.
Now, the main thing Libranet is famous for is the admin menu. It’s a program, which lets you do a lot of common things like installing nice fonts, installing flash player etc at the click of a button. I really like this because, instead of searching and finding out how to get fonts nice and other basic things, you can do it through the admin menu very easily. I don’t think I’ll use the admin menu again after its set things up for me though, because I know my way around Linux (just about), but beginners will find it very useful.
The only things I really needed to do myself was to make a desktop icon to take me to smb://workgroup and one to link to the /windows mount that’s been setup automatically. I think that it would have been better if Libranet made a windows icon automatically because it asks you earlier if you want it mounted and most people who want it mounted would like a icon.
I also decided to do an apt-get upgrade to unstable, as I like the new gnome etc. Often I find this kills an install, but it worked brilliantly, except it seems to have nerfed the admin menu a little. Now when I click on a button in it, it takes me to the text-based version of the admin menu. It doesn’t really matter though, it still does the job.
I really like the way that Libranet tries to make Linux easier to understand and use, rather than trying to emulate windows. I prefer window managers that look roughly like windows (as in a bar at the bottom with a start like button etc) but I hate it when people start trying to copy every last detail of looks instead of focusing on more important things.
Conclusion
Libranet needs some work in a few little ways to make it more obvious to people new to Linux, but in a way I think it’s good that they have to figure some things out for themselves, it helps them learn. I tried distributions like Redhat and Mandrake when I started with Linux and I learned very little. Also Libranet provides a lot of support and documentation to their customers so I think it is worth the money for beginners.
For people like me who have dabbled and tried a lot of different distributions but are not Linux gods, this is a great distribution. It gives you a nice clean Debian install with a lot less hassle, but doesn?t customize things too much or break apt-get.
I think Libranet have done a great job. I’m going to carry on using it, and I would recommend it to a friend as well.
i like that wallpaper with the Tux holding a flywatter looking at the M$N butterfly…
sounds like you had a good experience getting Libranet setup, and about the menus i agree with you on that, i hate a menu that has too many submenus like Mandrake’s KDE, i want menus totally customizable and the items easily renamed…
HappyTrails
Libranet is ok, but I prefer either straight debian or Mandrake. Libranet feels like a strange step in between. The other thing is how does Red Hat or Mandrake prevent you from learning?
It’s all there, just a console away.
There sure are a lot of Libranet reviews on OS News. I just clicked on the Debian topic icon and Libranet makes up most of the recent news.
I have been meaning to buy a CD for a while now. Not for myself (since they don’t have a ppc version), but as a way to seduce friends to the dark side: Debian.
My only complaint (and this goes for Debian as well) is I would like more news in addition to the reviews.
YEah, the wallpaper is cool. Is it available anywhere else?
>There sure are a lot of Libranet reviews on OS News.
Yeah, because they are a real company and they make sure they are more in the news than Debian.org cares to be. We only report whatever is in the news and whatever articles are sent to us, I have personally never used Libranet in my life, neither I think I will (I mostly use Slackware when I feel the need to use Linux)
On a somewhat related note (since Libranet is often touted over stock Debian on account of its installer) the first official beta of the new Debian installer was released on November 9th.
Check it out at http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/News/2003/2 if you’re curious. You’ll be doing the project a favour: “what we need most now is broad testing. That is why we want users to help us by testing this beta.”
“Is it available anywhere else?”
Here:
http://www.kde-look.org/content/files/7858-5272-1.jpg
Also in Serbian:
http://www.kde-look.org/content/files/7858-5272-1.jpg
“But all the distributions seem to have a weakness, Mandrake is rpm based,”
Yet another person who doesn’t understand the difference between package formats and pacakges benefits. RPM in itself is NOT a weakness. It’s a very good packaging method that when combined with the proper package management tools works as well if not better than any packaging method around.
That was the fastest distro install I ever did. Got a working base-install + fluxbox + aptitude (sid) in so little time I, downloading the iso and burning was the longest part.
Are you referring to the beta installer that Syntaxis link to? If so, I think I feel a smile creeping across my face. That would be a news item.
I have a question, but only time will tell; If Debian comes out with a decent installer, how will the other Debian based distro’s fair? I currently use Knoppix, solely for the installation routine.
“If Debian comes out with a decent installer, how will the other Debian based distro’s fair?”
I don’t think it’d have too much of an impact. To me, much of their strength comes from better, or at least better integrated and easy to use configuration tools than can be found in a normal Debian install. Even with the easy install of Debian that Knoppix gives, I still wouldn’t point someone new to Linux to it, just because I know most would have a tough transition without better hardware update and configuration utilities. I think eventually though that a desktop oriented controll panel style setup will be made for Debian, and that’s the point where I personally wonder how other distros are going to fare. The commercial distros get their money from home use primarily through offering software and system updates. If someone can install Debian Unstable and get a Mandrake style controll panel as well as updates that come faster than mandrake or lindows provide, it’s going to be seriously sharp competition.
but it didnt install on my Toshiba laptop, and I just dont know Debian enough to get everything setup right. And there aren’t many books out there specifically targetting Debian…
The wallpaper is so cool, it is now on my desktop, cheers!
Actually, dpkg does have some rather significant advantages over RPM.
1) Its closely tied in with package configuration (debconf). I was a Debian user for quite a while (up till the KDE-3 debacle) and debconf is *sweet*. Its basically a unified backage configuration mechanism. Every time you install a package, debconf will come up (with a number of different UIs, depending on which one you choose) and give you a kind of “wizard” for configuring it. You can also call debconf at any time to reconfigure the package if you want.
2) It gives recommendations. I don’t know if this is a limit of the RPM format, but every dpkg comes with a list of recommended packages. These packages usually represent other packages that will give the current one additional functionality.
3) dpkg has a lot of excellent developer tools that make it easy to create Debian policy-complaint packages.
4) It uses tree of text files for its database, unlike RPM which uses a binary database. Text formats are almost always better for this kind of critical system information, because they are harder to corrupt and easier to work with directly. A binary database is a single point-of-failure. Even Microsoft has learned its lesson with the registry, and is moving to an XML tree in Longhorn.
Thank you very much for providing that information. The new installer should help and encourage new users to debian (imho).
New Debian installer! Also Progeny has ported RedHat installer to Debian. See the news in DebianPlanet: http://www.debianplanet.org/
And a Debian based live-CD distro called Morphix announced recently that it is currently porting some RedHat/Fedora’s GUI config tools to Morphix/Debian, as well as developing some GUI config tools of its own. Morphix also develops at the moment ‘MorphixControlPanel’ that is going to be something like Libranet’s Adminmenu. Also I’ve read that Knoppix now uses graphical partioioning tool QTParted and that Morphix plans to provide something similar written in gtk. All tools from Knoppix and Morphix will come in time to official Debian repositories (unlike tools that Libranet develops). All in all, future looks pretty bright for Debian on the desktop! :^)
Cheers for the responses, guys. I’ve submitted it as a news item in its own right (with a little extra detail thrown in). Now to see if the moderators agree that it’s newsworthy. 🙂
“All tools from Knoppix and Morphix will come in time to official Debian repositories (unlike tools that Libranet develops).”
Yes, hopefully. The debian-knoppix project (http://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-knoppix/) is one to watch; its stated aim is to “integrate all Packages which are necessary to build a Knoppix live CD into Debian and build a system to build your own Knoppix derivative from Debian mirror.”
“All in all, future looks pretty bright for Debian on the desktop!”
I couldn’t agree more. 🙂
I’ve been using libranet 2.7 “classic” for about 2 months now. I’ve always liked debian, but didn’t like the pain and suffering involved in getting things “just so”. Libranet takes the grunt work out of it and gives me a bf2.4 woody install that works on my laptops (Dell CpiA366 and C800) with out a hitch. The stability of debian 3 woody is what I wanted, and it’s what I got.
“But all the distributions seem to have a weakness, Mandrake is rpm based,”
What a strange comment. Mandrake is rpm-based, yes, but with an easy-to-use tool that handles dependencies stably. It’s the equivalent of Debian’s apt though it isn’t as mature and well-known. Being rpm-based and having a tool like urpmi is one of mandrake’s advantages! I don’t understand calling it a weakness.
because it more mature and has about a three times larger repository size that is better updated and is better tested than the unofficial stuff put out by everyone else.
I completely concur with you here. I use Gentoo instead of Redhat because I can get just about ANYTHING in Gentoo and compile it exactly how I need to. (Gentoo has a very similar repository to Debian)
i.e. If I want to use Galeon 1.3.x I just compile Mozilla w/GTK2 support. If I want to use Galeon 1.2.x instead, just compile Mozilla with GTK support.
Sure compiling takes a little while (I just do most of it over night), but it sure beats the heck out of having to go to Galeons site, find/download the latest RPMs. Try to install the, find out you need libfoo.so.x and libfoo2.so.y, have to download those RPMs and then hope they all work together.
Freshrpms has a really nice apt repository, but it doesn’t have anywhere NEAR the amount of packages as the Debian or Gentoo repositories.
all the packages are so out of date(even the testing). For now im going to stick with slackware and swaret.
Re the installer, knoppix IMO has to be the easiest and fastest(~15mins to install everything).
“I like Debian but… all the packages are so out of date(even the testing)”
Some stuff can and will ”never” be included into Debian GNU/Linux, like MPlayer and LAME. Various reasons exist for such decisions, try Google.
If you want the newest of the newest, try Sid. Moderate Debian knowledge is recommended imo, and i wouldn’t use it on mission critical servers either because who cares about the newest on such computers, but anyway, your computer.
There are also 3rd party repositries for Woody and Sarge. See http://www.apt-get.org
The packages generally aren’t far out of date. Unstable is very up-to-date, and still rather stable. I used to run unstable, never got any broken packages. Certainly, their package quality is on par with FreshRPMs — about as stable, but with more niceties like debconf scripts and whatnot. Unstable is still out of date on a couple of things (mainly XFree) due to portability requirements, and for those there are *tons* of third-party APT repositories. Try http://www.apt-get.org. If you’re looking for a binary distro, the only thing that keeps me from recommending Debian is its lack of a good graphical installer and suite of config tools like RedHat or SuSE have.
i’m migrating servers from redhat.
thanks.
anyone with solid insight into Debian vs FreeBSD?
Try debian-user mailing list.
Or ask in #debian @ irc.debian.org
J
The retail versions of Red Hat or Mandrake come with a decent manual, contrary to some other operating systems (name your favorite cheap turkey here). In fact, I have my old Red Hat 5.x manual somewhere in a drawer or a box. Those who prefer to download the iso still have access to a wealth of information, either on the CD or online. Therefore, I don’t understand why the author didn’t learn much with those two fine distros, unless he means he didn’t have the opportunity to tinker with configuration files every five minutes.
>>”But all the distributions seem to have a weakness, Mandrake is rpm based,”
>What a strange comment. Mandrake is rpm-based, yes, but with an easy-to-use tool that handles dependencies stably.
Stably?
I disagree!! Maybe it has improved lately but when I used it, the graphical tool drakrpm was junk: it crashed a lot, and was very slow.
So when I discovered that drakrpm was a frontend for urpmi (it wasn’t written anywhere on the help files about drakrpm, which is stupid!), I dumped drakrpm and used urpmi.
Urpmi was better than drakrpm, but it wasn’t very good either:
– for an unknown reason, it was looking for the package only on my old CDROM reader, not on my CDRW (too bad: my CDROM reader can’t read rewritable CD..)
– two times the binary database was corrupted so I had to recreate it which was very slow!
Thanks for the replys, as you may have guessed ive never written a review before :p
Anyhoo heres the url for the background image because ive already got a few emails about it . http://www.badsooden.de/bilder/sonstiges/5272-1.jpg . I duno who made it, i found it in the gentoo forums somewhere.
Good to hear that a fall back solution is emerging in case something wrong happens to Mdk
That’s about the most idiotic “review” I’ve read in ages. Are you sure you’re actually fit to own a computer at all?
I mean, “I don’t like having a hardware ‘coz then I have to set it up”, “I don’t trust installers but I don’t want to do it all myself”, “I don’t like menus ‘coz I can’t find my programs in it”.
Come to think of it, maybe DOS will fit you’re needs. Or maybe you should just buy a PC casing and look at it without actually installing anythinh.
More qualified reviews and reviewers please !
Hold your horses, buddy. FreeDOS is still out there, getting better day by day… Just try it out and you might actually like it!