Linux Universe posted a review of the Dropline Gnome distribution for Slackware.
Dropline Gnome 2.4.x Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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anyone…
Because Ximian does not support their desktop under Slackware.
And also because it is very good software. I had two machines set up, one with Red Hat 9 and Ximian Desktop 2, and the other with Slackware 9.0 and Dropline. I preferred the Slack/Dropline desktop combination, to the point that I have upgraded it to Slack 9.1, and am using the Red Hat box for something else now (although it was very nice too).
Choice is a good thing!
The article seems to have a few mistakes in it.
The themes include Geramik Mac – a mixture of Geramik and MacOS X
I don’t think that this theme even exsists. At least its not included on my install of Dropline.
I use the Galeon browser by preference. As yet, Dropline hasn’t upgraded to Galeon 1.3.10. I built a custom one without gtkhtml support. This is better than the Dropline version only because it seems the gtkhtml renders the fonts too small on my laptop screen.
As he lists earlier in the article, Dropline doesn’t include Galeon at all, but instead includes Mozilla and Epiphany, and I haven’t heard that Galeon could be compiled to use gtkhtml as its renderer.
Other than that though, the article seems to be pretty good. Although I find the tendancy to constantly compare things in dropline to windows is a little annoying. Gnome has always struck me as being less windows like, and more like the bastard child of BeOS and MacOS.
Also and this is something to think about, Ximian’s future is questionable. It’s all fine an good to say Novell is going to continue to offer a free addon for Gnome, but that simply may not always be the case even though right now they have the best on intentions. That’s not FUD, its just something to keep in the back of your mind. If you don’t know that their is a trend going on to make linux proprietary then your missing out on the news.
Also I’ve never really seen a reason to even use Ximian since Gnome 2.0 came out. For example if your installing it on RH9 you basically ending up downloading a bunch of packages you already have. For people running a modern linux distro with Gnome 2.4, Evolution, OpenOffice, and Gimp already installed there just isn’t that much a point in going with Ximian. I know there are some people who obviously disagree, but that’s just my 2 cents on the matter.
I love dropline gnome! I’m running it on Slackware 9 and it works like a dream.
I decided to go with slackware because I was just so tired of all the bloat in Mandrake and Red Hat. But I didn’t really care for the Gnome which was packaged with Slackware 9.
That’s where Dropline makes the difference. It’s actually the best experience I’ve ever had from Gnome. I’m very happy with it! I’m running on a somewhat older system. A 433 Mhz Celeron, 256mb of ram. And it’s FAST! A lot faster than Gnome under Mandrake or Red Hat.
So if you’re running Slackware or want to run it, and you like Gnome, give Dropline Gnome a try. you’ll be glad you did!
I have Slackware 9.1 installed.
The Gnome runs ok.
If I understood Dropline is (just ?) a i686 with complete gnome applications optimized ?
From the screenshots there is no real difference in the themes department.
And it’s got some additional packages that don’t come by default with Slackware, like more themes and evolution.
The posted text is inaccurate. “Slackware’s Dropline Gnome” implies that Dropline Gnome is a part of Slackware. It’s not. It’s specifically made FOR Slackware, but it is not a part of the official distribution.
I’d like to try it but I’m a bit scared of slackware’s installation.
Anyway, the more I work with linux the more I begin to like both Gnome and KDE look without any modifications.
In that case, you might want to try Vector Linux, which is basically a Slackware focused on older PCs (but should run fine on newer ones nonetheless) and has afaik a somewhat nicer installer.
How can you write a piece including your thoughsts on the “look and feel” of a DE without including screenshots? Grr…
> I’m a bit scared of slackware’s installation.
My experience is tar.gz packages and pkg (command line) are as easy as rpm command line installation. It’s even better than rpm and its dependencies hell.
Thanks Eugenia. I think I will order a Dropline CD for my Slackware 9.1.
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Anyone knows if it installs ok in slack 9.1 (the site only says it’s compiled and based off on 9.0 – gcc ?.?)
Dropline2.4+Slackware9.1+Kernel2.6
Yes it works. For help look here: http://www.dropline.net/forums/
Also and this is something to think about, Ximian’s future is questionable. It’s all fine an good to say Novell is going to continue to offer a free addon for Gnome, but that simply may not always be the case even though right now they have the best on intentions. That’s not FUD, its just something to keep in the back of your mind. If you don’t know that their is a trend going on to make linux proprietary then your missing out on the news.
Huh? What news? Why should I keep this in the back of my mind, considering that you haven’t backed up any of your claims.
Got it running like a charm. I recompiled the kernel for my Athlon XP to optimize things and after that installed Dropline without any errors. Great Package !!! I WHAS a mandrake fan but those two are unbeatable. Go for it.
If I have KDE installed, can I install Dropline? Do I need to have a copy of Gnome already installed?
yes, no :o)
> screenshots? Grr…
See the site.
http://www.dropline.net/gnome/screenshots.php
Thanks!
Actually I ve made a switch from RH2Slackware after performing a speed test between RH & Slack on the same system. Slackware originally is much faster than RH, and more reliable, stab’lity,very clean and simple (just personal idea 🙂 )
And Dropline came to my Slackbox afterward. Well very responsive, less bugs (FC 1 Gnome mess my sys. up seriously after upgraded), and well co-living with backbone SlackSystem.
I made a comparission and resulted that Dropline Gnome is much faster and more stable than Gnome in RH. Although so, I am not sure Once I upgrade Slackware, is it need a remove like Ximian in RedHat or not?
Optional selection of mine, and yours (give it a try):
Linux = Slackware + swaret + dropline = $0.00 if you dunt like to buy a official Slackware to contribute OSS SlackTeam 🙂
Dropline support only i686 CPU and above, so PPro, P2, P3, p4 and Athlon will work fine with it. However all CPU older than that will not wirk. Pentium, Pentium-MMX, AMD K5 or K6 will not work.
I recently installed Slackware on a good old K6-II 400MHz system. Was eager to install Dropline, till I hit this problem… Sad…
However beside this issue, I am overall very impress by Dropline. If we couple it with SWARET, it will even be more impressive.
DistroWatch Weekly says that College Linux 2.5 is about to be released soon. It’ll be based on Slackware 9.1 and has Dropline. College Linux has its own installer and it’s targeted for students and desktop users. In addition to Vector, College Linux might be worth a try for those who find Slackware proper a bit too ‘hard core’.
So it’s possible to install Dropline Gnome on VectorLinux? That way I’ll end up with a Gnome 2.4.1 system that has all Slackware’s configuration utilities, isn’t it?
The only thing I don’t like about Gnome 2.4 is the lack of a complete recording cd program, like k3b (for some reason I can only use k3b on KDE, not on Gnome – I’m on a Mandrake 9.2/Windows machine).