Hi All, since all are putting in many good things about Linux Desktop distros, let me put in my two cents by talking about the distro that I use wrt the following questions.
Now, TurboLinux 10D, as someone once said to me, is a rich man's Linux, in the sense that there really isn't much left to the command-line. But it's excellent as a Desktop for a user at any level. On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:30:23 +0530, Kedar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi All, > I was just thinking what things would be nessesary to create a Ideal > Desktop Linux Distro. When I say "Ideal" I mean that a Newbie should be > able to operate it and should feel that it is more easier/as easy to > operate as Windows. > > I found current Desktop Distros lacking certain features . I have listed > them below. > 1) Lack of a graphical application installers (aka Installsheild) and a > Add/Remove option in Control Panel (control panel discussed below) > Install Shield X is available but what about a GNU tool. TurboLinux has Zabom, which is their own InstallShield like tool, only much easier to use. > 2) Dependency Problems > How about a installer that bundles all the required dependencies and > installs them if needed. I think I have heard of a installer called > Autoinstall, but cant confirm it. I haven't found out one in TurboLinux, but that may entirely be my own fault. > 3) Office Apps (heavy OO) > I havent checked out OO 2.0 beta , but OO is pretty heavy on the system. > A lighter Office suite (need not have all the feature that OO has, 80 to > 90 % of OO features will do). Should be fast Although heavy, OOo is really an excellent suite. Beats MS Office on many counts. There's still a long way to go, but OOo will certainly be tough competition. > 4) A light webbrowser and Mail Client (Mozilla was earlier bundled) > Firefox has taken care of this :-). Evolution and thunderbird shine here. No need to comment on that, I suppose. > 6) A light window manager (KDE and GNOME are still heavy for a 128 mb > ram system) > XFCE/ IWM rock. TurboLinux 10D started with KDE 3.1.3, but now they've upgraded, is what I hear. It also includes Xfce. But I think this version of KDE is simply marvellous. It also addresses your issue of "look & feel" of Windows to a large extent & much more. No doubt it'll improve even further. > 7) Media Player with capablity to play all/most media files. > Mplayer with plugins is great (Licensing issues have to be taken care of) Yes, Xine & Kaffeine(which is Xine based) are excellent. The newest Desktop offerring from TurboLinux - the 10F - has Real Player & PowerDVD bundled & has a media player, which can play even .wmv/.wma files directly. No licencing issues here, as they've licenced the technology from MS directly. > 8) No need to edit any config file (Control Panel) > This has been taken care off properly by modern desktop distros but some > distros still have multiple control panels > YAST is great in this regard but extremely slow. TurboLinux has an excellent Control Panel, but I really can't say how much of it has been contributed by them. Anyway, you get a good Control Panel that works great. > 9) Behavior and look and feel a bit like MSWin. > This is what I think is not actually nessesary. Linux WM's can do a lot > more but This is for those Windows USers who like operating windows. > XPDE is good. But could do better. Nothing like TurboLinux.As I've already said, they have bundled their distro to make it easier for Windows users to use it. In fact, they could change a few icons & "those Windows Users" won't even suspect any difference. ;) > Please let me know any comments/suggestions . Please also let me know > what you would like to see in a "Ideal Desktop Linux Distro". > > Regards, > Kedar Koppikar Thanks, regards, Viraj -- ______________________________________________________________________ Pune GNU/Linux Users Group Mailing List: (plug-mail@plug.org.in) List Information: http://plug.org.in/mailing-list/listinfo/plug-mail Send 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for mailing instructions.
