The first ever bugfix-only release of the distribution is out now. The ISO is available from http://gobo.calica.com/gobolinux-iso/GoboLinux-014.01-i686.iso or http://kundor.org/gobo/iso/GoboLinux-014.01-i686.iso (MD5 c4c4827d8bbaf724e0e28f8ead47e7da), and will be from the other standard mirrors as they update.
This release fixes all known bugs from 014 and should be the most stable release yet. Thanks to Carlo for all the work he put in, and everybody else who reported bugs, fixed bugs, backported fixes to bugs, or just provided moral support.
This release will be distributed on 4,000 CDs at the International Forum on Free Software (FISL) in Porto Alegre, Brazil; if you’re not going to be there, download and give it a whirl.
Just tried the live CD of Gobolinux 014.01 and wanted to leave a little feedback.
First off I’m a WinXP user. Have used Mac OS then to windows 95–XP. Started looking at linux about two years ago. I’ve tried many distros over that time. I would call myself a newbie in Linux and medium user in Windows.
Why I tried Gobolinux
Someone suggested it on the ubuntu forum and as I usually do I had to see what was so special about it. The idea of a new file system got my attention–as any windows user can attest to the win file system is a nightmare and linux isn’t that much better and having used Mac OS I’ve always known it could be cleaner. Personally I think this is one of the best moves in an operating system since. . . well, since the original Mac OS. Yes, I know many have issues with it; however, an intelligent file system is really needed in a solid user controlled OS that is ultimately “user friendly” at the same time.
The organization is rather intuitive. Just browsing around quickly orients you to what is what and where things “ought” to be put when installed.
You can actually manage your file system without software! Who would have thought such a thing was possible. As a first timer I was able to cleanly delete entire programs without leaving a mess–impossible in windows, even with software. As a control freak I just love this fact! I know what I have on my computer and where it is!
The program folder is well . . . still a bit of a mess. Yes, everything in there is a program but most users will not recognize most of it because it isn’t a “program” in the sense of, something I use on top of my operating system/desktop and not part of one or the other (the operating system has its own folder elsewhere). This is one intelligent thing windows does do–separate out all the OS and desktop “programs” from the program folder so the novice doesn’t fubar their system. But a small quibble compared to the alternatives! Maybe it is possible to have a sub-directory in the OS folder for the desktop parts or having all programs in the program folder will make the new user find out what it all is and does?!?!
All in all I found the file system very intuitive and a breath of fresh air. THANK YOU!
The “software manager” is another unique feature. I’ve read elsewhere that Gobolinux is for the medium to advanced linux user, I would disagree! I’m a newbie to linux and had really no problem with this OS relative to any other. In fact, the recipe manager, if you will, makes more sense than many of the other alternatives on other distros. I don’t know, maybe it is just me, but it just seems like the right way to make installing software on linux “user friendly.”
Now, I may be mistaken, but I believe if this “standard” was adopted by linux then that would solve the entire repository race going on amongst distros?!?! Every distro would be able to use a recipe to download the source, compile, and install? Ok, is it just me. . . a stupid winXP user that thinks this is a must for linux? No more restrictions to a certain repository because of your distro, no need for every distro to have its own repositories. . . wouldn’t that be a good thing? Wouldn’t that save a whole lot of work? Maybe I’m missing something? Yes, I know everyone can compile from source. . . everyone that knows how to! Thus the massive repositories
The recipe idea works very intuitively and easily even for a newbie.
All in all I have to say that Gobolinux is the distro I’m pulling for. I hope some of the “big boys” that want to be user friendly take a look at this distro and adopt some of the ideas.
OK. . . the bad.
Like most distos it didn’t do the greatest job at detecting my hardware. So far ubuntu (and derivatives there of) is the only one to configure all my hardware correctly–that simply means everything worked with it’s normal functions not that it installed the perfect driver or anything like that. Hopefully you can scavenge some of this hardware detection from ubuntu if they aren’t smart enough to take heed of Gobolinux’s intelligent design. This is a huge thing for a windows user moving to linux. The most important thing is that all the hardware just works out of the box–most don’t care how you get it to work as long as it works. Funny, for me it has been the touch pad on my pavilion notebook–this is a rather ubiquitous device but almost always one or more functions (tapping, scrolling) don’t work. Yes I can go start learning to config this and that but that’s the whole point–you don’t want to learn that at the beginning. You just want to start using your computer and then fiddle as you go and yes I know it’s largely due to the hardware vendors–just the reality linux currently lives in, though.
Again like most other distros, it’s loaded with tons of software that I’m just going to have to remove–much easier on this distro to do that, though. And KDE. . . as a winXP user I don’t get KDE. I keep hearing how user friendly and windows like it is. Maybe the kid like interface works for some but I much prefer fluxbox/openbox style (see crunchband and linux mint fluxbox CE), they actually seem more intuitive to use where KDE seems like windows in that you need to hunt though tons of setup junk to find what you are looking for thus more bloat. Maybe a minimal install CD with good instructions for adding a alt gui environment so we don’t have to remove everything?
All in all I’m very impressed with the unique features of GoboLinux! I just hope the Linux community wakes up and sees that standards need to be adopted because linux is headed down the windows path. An intuitive file system and software management that reduces the need for separate repositories and allows upgrading software without breaking your box, similar to the NIX idea. The ideas are there but will the Linux community smell the burning coffee? I hope so because windows is becoming worse by the upgrade and Mac is just to restrictive and absurdly priced.
Just my 2 cents