The Linux ShÖÖtÖut (Part 1)

"Hello everybody...I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional…)." Linus Torvald’s first Linux announcement on 25th of August 1991.

Those simple words describe Linux’s humble beginning. Linux comes in various distributions (distros to the geekdom) that promise to be stable and as user friendly as Windows. Well, are these just empty assurances, or can there claims be justified? The purpose of this comparison test was to evaluate the very best of the Linux distributions. We also answer crucial questions that every office and home user wants answered-is Linux really ready for the desktop? Can I install Linux on my PC, and get the same productivity, and features that Windows Offer? This test answers them all, and comes up with some astonishing results to boot.

The available flavors were divided into two subcategories. Windows replacements, and Office Desktops.

The Windows replacement distributions are meant for a newbie scouting the market for an OS rather than Windows. Closed flavors were Xandros, Lycoris, Lindows and ELX Linux.

The second category includes the distributions that do not attempt to give the same look-n-feel as the standard Windows desktop. Instead they provide a very intuitive interface that can be used with a little effort. They also bundle a whole lot of applications that make life easier for the office user. Red hat Linux 9.0, Mandrake 9.1, and SuSE Linux Office Desktop were the distributions considered.

How they are tested

The test procedure for the categories was almost identical. However, the weight age awarded to each component of the test process differed for the two categories. For Windows replacements, importance was given to their resemblance to windows so that a novice user can make the right choice.

Ease of Installation:

The installation utility was tested for the ease of use. Special points were given to those flavors that took into account existing Windows partitions and suggested mount points automatically. The ability of the partitioning utility to handle NTFS, and FAT32 partitions, was considered as a distinct advantage.

Suitability to Desktop:

These tests gauged the ease with which a novice can configure, and get around his Linux desktop-for example, easily understandable desktop icons (My Computer, My Documents, etc), which promote a familiar Windows environment. We also noted the ease with which a user could alter the desktop settings such as background image, screensaver resolution etc.

Adherence to the File Hierarchy Standards (FHS) was also given special attention- for interoperability of applications between various Linux distributions.

The number of file system supported by a Linux box, is a good indication of its suitability in a heterogeneous environment where it needs to co-exist with other operating systems. However, for the typical home, and office desktops users, the area of major concern is the compatibility level between Linux, and Windows.

Office productivity tools:

Office applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, presentation tools, etc were evaluated, and their compatibility with standard windows office applications was also determined.

For those who insist on using MS Office tools in Linux, Windows emulators are a viable option. They create an artificial Windows environment within Linux, thereby enabling a user to install, and run his favorite Windows application.

Hardware compatibility:

To check the compatibility of the available distributions with common hardware, we installed each flavor on five different test PCs that represented a pool of popularly available computer components. The details of each configuration can be found in the hardware compatibility table.

This time we will discuss ELX Linux Power Desktop and Lycoris Desktop/LX review. In the forth coming sections we will go through the remaining.

The Windows Killers

ELX Linux Power Desktop

This one is for everyone. This installation is fairly simple. A neat listing of the steps involved on the left hand panel goes hand in hand with the information box in the corner. Three installation options-Default, Laptop, and Custom System offered-are offered. The Default install loads a majority of the applications, the Laptop installs only the bare necessities and the custom install, as the name suggest, is just that. The partitioning utility is just same as the Red Hat- the user has to assign the root partition. However, the assignment process is simplified; instead of assigning partitions for individual directories, you can check the box labeled ‘I want to use this as the main partition (/)’. Moreover, you can either use the remaining free space, or specify the partition size in MB.

The install process is time consuming due to the installation of whole lot of applications. After installation, the user is asked for basic configuration information, using KPersonaliser during the first login. ELX Power Desktop 2.0 has a very friendly desktop with simple Windows style icons, such as My Computer, My Network, etc.

ELX works with KDE, but does not work properly with GENOME. Sometimes the panel crashed during the GENOME session, and we had to use the shortcut keys to start the X server; a novice user could not have done that.

Assessing Windows shares is extremely easy. During the installation, you are prompted to specify a workgroup name. Later just click on the Network Neighborhood icon to get a listing of all the machines on the network, and their network shares.

All applications are nearly categorized into six groups-Office, Multimedia, Graphics, Development tools, and Games. All these groups have icons (called Launchpads) on the task bar. Clicking on any one of these icons brings up a dialog box containing separates icons for the individual applications within the group. Point the mouse to any of these icons to get a brief description of its feature. A button, to update the application in a particular group, is provided. The Launchpad also acts as a front end to the apt-get package manager. Select Update all from the Launchpad to update all the packages and dependencies via FTP sites. For the root user (administrator), a couple of extra Launchpads are provided. The system configuration Launchapad has a handy set of tool to make system configuration an easy affair.

Apart from some of these customized utilities, the rest of the tools are generally KDE-based utilities. For example, adding, or removing users can be done using the KDE User Manager (Kuser). Similarly printer configuration uses the standard printer manager. But what is commendable here is that a very simple way of accessing all the relevant tools is provided. Clicking on the My Computer icon on the desktop will bring up a window that has almost all the tools found on a standard Windows computer including Dial-up Account icon.

As can be seen from the comparison chart, ELX turned out to be a very surprising distribution in many respects. Apart from using a very easy desktop, they have developed some very simple but ingenious tools. The samba file sharing front end is a classic example. While the majority of distributions used the Konqueror browser to access Windows shares, the separate tool provided by ELX is comfortable to use. Moreover, this distribution is free for personal and educational use. The commercial licensing is also very reasonable.

Lycoris Desktop/LX review

The problematic Windows look alike Lycoris has one of the most simple and fastest installations of all the distributions. However, even a small problem with hardware compatibility, such as an undetected mouse, could bring down the installation utility.

In terms of looks and feel, Lycoris is the closest to the Windows desktop. It even has default wallpaper that has a striking resemblance to one that comes with Windows XP. A guided tour will start up during first boot, which walks you through all features of the Lycoris desktop. This is very helpful for the first time Linux users migrating from windows to Linux.

Lycoris has the worst hardware support amongst the all distributions. It did not configure on many of the test beds. Even on those that could be configured, everything will not run smoothly. Overall, Lycoris was impressive with its near-perfect Windows desktop look and feel, but lost out on hardware support.

Have more about other flavors of Linux i.e. Xandros 1.0, Lindows 3.0, Red Hat Linux 9.0, SuSE Linux Office Desktop and Mandrake Linux 9.1 in my next articles (Part 2).