Mageia 1 Review: How to make a distribution

First of all let's see the general basic steps of a Linux distribution creation.

• Find a strange name for your distro and create a childish logo.
• You know that creating a new distro is hard, so you must find an already existing base. (Beware! You will have find a good reason of your distros existence and that is not a easy as it sounds. See later.)
• Create a website!
• Make sure that every page of the website contains the words: free and community (at least 10 times)
• Community, community, community: explain in large how wonderful your distros community is.
• The features page of the website: copy and paste the old "how wonderful is that linux has everything from office programs to games" text from a different distro page. If you think that's now enough then add something again about the community or freedom.
• Show exciting statistics about the huge number of packages available in your repositories and hide the fact that in 2011 installing something which is not in the repo is still a pain and you have no idea how (don't want) to change this.
  
• If you think the default desktop of your distro sucks or have no idea what the default DE of your distro should be then do create a lot of spins and add a download option for every DE spin. Make sure you explain somewhere the importance of choice. To help confused users add a complicated wiki article about different installation medias and wonder why Linux is under 1% on the desktop.
  
• Make sure every visitor of your site understands that your distribution includes LibreOffice and NOT OpenOffice but don't explain why this is important (because is not).
• Invite people to do things. Say that everybody can participate and hide the fact that you have no idea what is the direction or plan. Here you can explain again why the community is so important. When explaining the lack of strategy or direction you can point that no commercial management can dictate the path your distro will take.
  
• Create a backports repository for your current "stable" version. Create a nonfree repository too. And create a testing repository. And create a contrib repository. Say again something about the greatness of choice, but add that you have no idea what will happen if somebody mixes these repositories too much.
  

And we are here: http://www.mageia.org. They are following this little guide with lots of enthusiasm. Mageia 1 is a new (old) distribution and is based (basically they have copied everything) from Mandriva Linux. Mandriva is bad now because they are controlled by an evil corporation. And this corporation is not a community, which is bad.

They did a good job at explaining why this distro is needed: Mageia is about people. So it is a club or something. They even states that Mageia have People not Users...

Ah, and they are looking for advocates too!

A list of truly evil systems

http://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html

I think this is around 99% of the whole freetard community. Nice.

BTW, they call them all GNU/Linux. I understand they are pissed, because everybody forgets GNU, but still. Red Hat Enterprise GNU/Linux?

LibreOffice 3.4.0 final is out. Don't use it!

http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2011/06/03/the-document-foundation-announces-libreoffice-3-4-0/

These guys are so honest. They warn you to not use their crap if you actually want to do some real work. Because version x.x.1 will be the real final-final. What's wrong with the alpha-beta-rc versions? Ah, you want to be in front of openoffice! They have only v3.4.0 beta of the same crap. You are the winner! I propose version 9.0.0 for the next version. You will be in front of openffice AND Windows 8. That will be awesome.

Your mouse is not broken! This is Gnome 3!

Good news! Your mouse is not broken! You just don't need to right click! And you don't need icons, taskbar, bullshits. They just distract attention! You don't even need a shut down menu. Let's hope they will not remove left click in Gnome 4.

Hello KDE! Please fix this bug or do something else.

Sometimes I am forced to use Linux... This happened today: the system is Kubuntu 11.04, Vmware. I REALLY tried to like KDE but this bug I will present, simply renders the whole KDE to an unusable piece of shit: KDE CANNOT REMEMBER THE FU*ING SCREEN RESOLUTION!
Every damn time I restart the virtual machine (and I have to restart a lot of time) the SCREEN RESOLUTION RESETS TO 800X600. And all the fu*ing plasmoids are in a different place. And this is not something new, this a fu*ing old bug.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Look: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1637869

Of course not even a single ubuntu fanboy tried to answer. At least something totally unrelated, as usual.

There is a weird, add xrandr there and there, workaround, but you know: go to hell!

I don't know, the KDE devs are not using monitors? Or 800x600 is ok, anyway nobody needs better than this?

Zorin OS Review - I wanna be Windows 7 - Part 3

...still trying to understand

Zorin OS Review - I wanna be Windows 7 - Part 2

We are back to Zorin OS and after the installation I have mixed fellings. Nothing wrong has happened but I had a constant "just don't click on the wrong place" feeling (wrong click - wrong time). I am trying to see Zorin from the point of view of a inexperienced user. And until now Zorin OS failed. The Grub boot screen with the kernel version is fine for Gentoo or for people from other parallel universes but here just does not fits with the "ultimate desktop experience" promise.

First boot! Wow!



Let's summarize my first impression: 90% of this desktop looks good. The remaining 10% is the problem, that big fat Computer icon on the top-left. Why did you made it so big? Without that the desktop it simple and elegant. Our friend, the red button is still here, this time on the right-bottom, but from the design point of view is not a problem. This is Gnome 2 with a Windows 7 style theme. There is nothing wrong with that but the big computer icon leads you to another disappointment. As a Windows user you may think that using the computer icon you can access your computer content, your desktop settings, your device settings and other administration tools. Especially with such a big computer icon! There is no such thing here. By clicking on the Computer you will get this:



Who is the target audience of Zorin OS? Windows users? "lost+found"? What is the reason of putting the root in the users face? What is the purpose of this icon? It is like putting a big System32 icon on the Windows 7 desktop. Maybe with a right click we will have more luck. In Windows 7 we have the "Properties" and "Manage Computer" menus from where almost everything is accessible.



Victory! We have Properties but we also have "Restore Icon's Original Size" which is very confusing again, because gives you an impression that the size is not the original, but in the same time this your first boot, so somewhere somebody must have made the modification, which sounds strange. I did not tried the Compress and "Send To" menus and I cannot image the consequences of clicking on one of these. Back to the original plan, let's access our computer's properties. Click Properties:



Holy crap! The wonderful world of Linux! I think this is where the new user starts looking for his Windows 7 CD. Why did you put this useless, ugly, big Computer icon here? Anyway you have the Home icon under which is almost the same but at least opens the user's folders, where is possible to save or copy something. Contents: 3 items, totalling 0 bytes. At least make it normal size. Yes, I know the answer: Linux is not Windows. But in this case Linux wants to be Windows, and some logic is needed anyway.

If Windows 7 then Start Menu. Zorin OS gives it's best in this area:



Yes, basically they wanted to copy the Windows 7 user interface, and the idea itself is not so bad but the execution is. The Zorin start menu does not have all the features of Windows 7, it feels different but the biggest problem is the bug which represents the quality of Zorin OS and in some ways the current state of the Linux desktop. The bug: after clicking a few times on the Zorin start menu, it starts to show the icon list twice or more. On the screenshot you can clearly see this. This bug appears every time I boot, this was a long test, now the system is up-to-date but the bug is still present. Honestly: this is unacceptable!

Meanwhile I wanted to change the screen resolution, so I have searched for "screen" and "resolution" in the start menu:



Nothing! You must use the word "monitor" and nothing else brings you good results. Again: Zorin OS failed.

At this point I have updated the system. Another gift from Zorin: a cryptic error message. That means that while the Zorin OS team is remastering the upstream Ubuntu, in the same time they are creating new bugs because I have never seen this error on Ubuntu. Bad, because maybe this is the single case where the Linux desktop is better than Windows, the easy way you update the whole system. Zorin cannot handle this correctly.



Oh, and did somebody noticed the "Welcome to Ubuntu" text? Very nice and integrated.

...to be continued

Zorin OS Review - I wanna be Windows 7 - Part 1

Today we are doing a full review of Zorin OS. Their website says: Zorin OS is a multi-functional operating system designed specifically for Windows users who want to have easy and smooth access to Linux. This is how they introduce their product and their slogan is Beyond Limitations. OK, this sounds really exciting but I think the first sentence needs some correction: Windows users in general *don't* want to use Linux. It would be more honest to say ...designed specifically for Windows users because WE want that they switch to Linux and we want to make sure the switch will be smooth. The Zorin OS website looks good, modern and a normal visitor really will have the idea that these guys have produced an operating system. To be fair with the Zorin team I have to admit that on the first page they say clearly that their OS is based on Ubuntu. It is based on Ubuntu which is the most popular Linux operating system in the world. And already we are at the second problem (two sentences, two problems). What is the problem in this case? The Zorin OS team is producing a Linux OS for Windows users. And not just any kind of Windows users, but probably for Windows users with very little knowledge of Linux and Ubuntu. Let's say this new user never heard about Ubuntu. Then why you tell him this is based on Ubuntu. He don't know what is Zorin and what is Ubuntu, and you tell him that Zorin is based on Ubuntu. He will search Ubuntu but no luck: Ubuntu is based on Debian. And then Debian: that is something on some kernel and hurd... The second case is when the new user already heard about Ubuntu. For this user you have to tell what is the advantage of Zorin over Ubuntu. Something must be wrong with Ubuntu if your OS is here, no? Because the Ubuntu website advertizes almost the same set of features.

One more thing about the website and we will start the real thing. They have a nice "Take the tour" button which links to a really nice features page. Big problem here! The feature set is BORING! Com'on guys, No risk of getting viruses is the first feature? This is a very very old joke. And Security comes first. Is this a mission critical server OS? People are in constant fear of viruses and malware in this digital world. Thanks to Zorin OS's immunity to Windows viruses you will never have to worry about them. Zorin OS also comes with integrated firewall software to keep your system extra safe. When a potential security threat arises, software updates usually come within a matter of hours through the Update Manager. With Zorin OS you are sure to have peace of mind. People are in a constant fear? Why you did not mentioned the terrorist threat? And you have another logical problem here. You say that Zorin OS is immune to Windows viruses. In fact this is logic, because this is Zorin not Windows, but you don't say anything about Zorin OS viruses. Did they exist? If yes, this is a problem, if not then why not? I mean the bad guys are writing viruses to Windows but not for Zorin? Why nobody has interest in writing a Zorin virus? This puts Zorin OS in a bad light.

And what is with the Much faster than Windows 7 feature? Do you have any data?

The rest of features are the same standard things available on any distro website.

The website review was somehow negative but let's forget this (maybe they just put all their efforts in the OS itself, not in the marketing things) and start the real test with a positive thing: the download was fast. They do offer a free version (I have tested Zorin OS 5 Core 32-bit) and some premium editions for purchase, which is fine.

The Installer: the Welcome screen is the first part of the Installer. And look nice. Because this is an OS specifically designed for new or inexperienced users, we are expecting a very polished user experience and attention to details. Unfortunately even this simple screen already can create confusions. Only the experienced user will click Forward automatically. One may wonder why the button on the top-right corner of the screen is red? Is something wrong? That button is red (the shut down menu in fact) even when you install the desktop. Ubuntu changes the color of the Shut down menu to red when an update requires a restart. In Zorin OS this dark red colored button is always there, leaving you with the constant impression that something is wrong and needs your attention.

This page also has a You may wish to read the release notes label or button. A new user may really wish to read the release notes, but this will be not so simple as it sounds. First a Welcome to Google Chrome dialog pops up with Choose search engine question. Com'on, I just want to read the release notes. Who knows, maybe says something important. At this point I accidentally clicked on the installer form and guess what. The Chrome dialog dissapeared and the release notes button did not worked anymore. A bit frustrating.

Finally I've managed to bring Chrome back (Alt-Tab) and the release notes appeared. Coming Soon... And one of the feature was the "document creation".

OK, no release notes probably means no problems! Continuing with the installation. This is a standard Ubuntu installer, the slideshows were changed. While the installation is in progress we have the possibility to click on that damn red button. Interestingly you can access the Control Center and play with the settings. Of course this is non-sense and creates another confusion. A new user may think he can configure his computer at this point but receives strange error messages only. Is it so hard to disable these items at install time?

Installer finished without errors and we are ready for the first boot!

DISASTER!

Dear Zorin OS support team! I need your help. Today I have installed Zorin OS, but now I have a virus on my computer. The virus name is "gnu grub version 1.99~rc1-13ubuntu3" or 2.6.38-8-generic, I don't know. Please help!

I can image such support requests at Zorin. Look at this:

You say: let's take Ubuntu and make it better for new users. And you don't change this? What the hell is this? It's too complicated to change? Then stop pretending you have an "operating system". Until this point you did not added any value to Ubuntu! Only a few bugs. Period.

...to be continued

Why Gnome 3 is better than the Windows 8 UI?

Situation: Gnome 3 is out and everybody can see it is a piece of crap. Even some lusers can agree with this (but they are too lazy to fork Gnome 2). A Windows 8 preview video was released and lusers (who hates M$ but every Linux site is full with Windows 8 reviews and discussions) jumped on it. And of course they found a lot of Gnome 3 in Windows 8 and started to compare the two thing as if they were of the same weight. The big players: Gnome 3 and Windows 8. Haha. Wake up guys! You still have 1% (Gnome 3 probably 0.01%) and even if Windows 8 will be the worst thing in the computer history that will NOT mean people will jump to your Linux OS. Remember Vista, was not the best, so what?

You always start with the fundamentally wrong idea: people wants to switch to Linux, they only need to find the perfect time. So you are always trying to create a false problem, prove that Windows suffers from this imaginary problem and as a solution every living or dead person should switch to Linux. In this case you think that the problem with the Linux Desktop was the lack of a stupid interface like Unity or Gnome 3. I am sure lots of "Why Gnome 3 is better than the Windows 8" articles are under construction in the archaic LibreOffice (OpenOffice is now the bad guy?)... You still not understand the problem with Linux and maybe this is because: 1. you are too stupid, 2. you understand but you know the solution is not so simple and you are a lazy bastard, 3. in fact you are not really interested, have nothing to loose anyway. And what is the problem with Linux? This thread on Adobe Forum will explain a lot: PhotoShop For Linux ? In this very sad thread an Adobe engineer will try explain why they cannot port Photoshop to a fragmented, always changing, never finished, broken operating system backed by a band of always crying fanboys. He never said they don't port Photoshop because of Gnome or KDE. A must have reading for all fanboys!

At this point it does not matter if Windows 8 will suck or not, now one thing is sure: your childish Gnome 3 is.

No escape

Ubuntu 11.04

Question: How to switch back to classic mode?
I don't like both of Unity and Gnome 3, but I can't find the classic one either, after installed Gnome 3.
The only choices are:
Fluxbox
Gnome shell
Recovery mode
User defined session
So how to get back the classic session?

Answer
Unfortunately, the only way back is either:
Downgrade with PPA Purge (will not work at this time).
Or
Reinstall.

Source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/39860/how-to-switch-back-to-classic-mode

Wonderful. I would add this to answers: Install Windows 7.

0.0185144 > 1

Typical freetard logic: "we are more than 1%"! And to prove this they create a website to reach 0.0185144% after one year. The GNU Linux Counter: http://www.dudalibre.com/gnulinuxcounter. At least we know that we are living on a planet with 58 gNewSense users. This thing backfires. Better to close this project and be happy with 1%. (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9)