This is a good thing

Story: Madtux and Vector Linux Announce NEW Linux PCs from $139.00 USDTotal Replies: 15
Author Content
helios

May 18, 2007
7:08 AM EDT
Not only is another Vendor offering Linux on good, reliable hardware, they have recognized the value and quality of Vector Linux. I have been a Vectorite for some time and have watched this distro evolve into a blazing-fast, rock-solid operating system.

Aside from the installer I battled, I have found no real problems with Vector. I do think their is improvement to be made in slapt-get, but aside from that, this distro rocks.

h
Teron

May 18, 2007
11:07 AM EDT
There's one thing that's keeping me from embracing Vector: The installation.

The absolute perfect install would, in my opinion, be LiveCD-based, graphical, and ask lots of questions.

Imagine a Ubuntu-style LiveCD with a SUSE-style installer, only, all that for Vector SOHO. That's something pretty close to being OS heaven, methinks.
Abe

May 18, 2007
11:47 AM EDT
Quoting: LiveCD-based, graphical, and ask lots of questions.


Graphical Live-CD based is perfect, why ask lots of questions when not necessary especially when there are wizards to tailor everything else afterwards so easily?

I think PCLinuxOS, Kubuntu, Mepis and others have almost perfect installers for everyone.



Aladdin_Sane

May 18, 2007
1:25 PM EDT
>with a SUSE-style installer

I was recently testing the YaST installer for SLES 10 SP1.

I gotta' say, it is very smooth. Impressive.

The test password, 111111 is warned of for being a palindrome.

But they misspelled palindrome using the German spelling 'palindrom'.

Dell would not let me write up a bug report due to no effect on Dell hardware. Hilarious.
rijelkentaurus

May 18, 2007
1:55 PM EDT
Quoting: have watched this distro evolve into a blazing-fast, rock-solid operating system.


I'm putting together a PC for my lady's nephew and he wanted a Linux PC (great kid!), and I figured I'd try Vector out while I was screwing around since they just released the newest SOHO edition.

WOW. Man, my draw dropped. The installer, IMO, was easy and I had no problems. I just did a default install (with the exception of setting up my custom partitions) and then added a few packages from slapt-get. The PC is a Dell Optiplex GX150 with a P3 900mhz and 512RAM, and I have never used a KDE distro that was this fast. Even PCLOS (which is being used on the main machine) can't compare to this. The default theme is beautiful and I didn't change it, and with a few tweaks it was setup and ready to roll for my buddy. It's very likely that PCLOS is about to be displaced...sorry, Tex! I haven't made up my mind yet, but I will be trying Vector on my laptop to see how it likes it (it will probably love it).

I was wanting to say some nice things about Vector. Thanks, h, for giving me the opportunity by starting this thread.
Teron

May 18, 2007
2:11 PM EDT
"why ask lots of questions when not necessary especially when there are wizards to tailor everything else afterwards so easily?"

Because I like it, pretty much. It's nice to see the installer list the system configs the way SUSE does. If something's wrong, you can just click to change it. It's the perfect style for me, don't know about others.
Abe

May 18, 2007
3:58 PM EDT
Quoting:Because I like it, pretty much


I can't argue with that, but the only issue is you might not get it. Distros and users like to make Linux installations as easy and short (fewer questions) as possible.
jdixon

May 18, 2007
3:58 PM EDT
> I was wanting to say some nice things about Vector.

Why wait. I'm sure Don would love an in depth write up for LXer.

Vector Linux is Slackware based, which gives it bonus point for me. :) It used to use Red Hat's Anaconda for it's hardware detection, which always gave me fits with various sound cards. I don't know if that's still true or not. Otherwise it was the standard Slackware install. Again, I don't know if that's still true or not. I may have to download the most recent version and give it a test install in a virtual machine, now that I have VMware Server installed and working on my Slackware box.
devnet

May 19, 2007
3:20 PM EDT
rijelkentaurus,

You must not have installed PCLOS 2007. It averages 32 seconds for boot time on my Dell E521n :)

I've not found a distro faster...including arch, Gentoo, and slack.
tracyanne

May 19, 2007
3:40 PM EDT
[quote]You must not have installed PCLOS 2007. It averages 32 seconds for boot time on my Dell E521n :)[quote]

Yes PCLOS would be the fasted boot of any Linux I've tried, it's faster even than Mandriva 2007 on the same hardware.

rijelkentaurus

May 19, 2007
7:32 PM EDT
Quoting: You must not have installed PCLOS 2007.


Yup, TR4. And I'm talking about the overall feel of the distro...since I reboot once every 2-3 months, I could care less about boot time, and yes, PCLOS is a fast booting OS, and fast in usage also. On that hardware, vector feels faster than the main PC, a P4 2.66 with 1gb of RAM. I'm not trying to put down PCLOS...I just renewed my PASS access and I feel it's money well spent even if I don't use it for a while, but I'm just saying that Vector has a more responsive feel with the same apps than PCLOS does, at least to this penguin. The one thing I haven't done is to get down and dirty with the apps available from their respective repos. That's often the deciding factor.
devnet

May 20, 2007
9:41 AM EDT
rijelkentaurus,

There will be a 'minime' iso for 2007 also...that always ran fast on my pc (.93a minime)
metvas

May 23, 2007
10:07 AM EDT
Hello All: Thanks for all for your kind words about Vector Linux. We all work very hard to make it all come together, as always thinking of you, the end user. Spread the word is all we ask. Best regards Metvas
number6x

May 23, 2007
10:48 AM EDT
in the last six months or so, 4 'small' distros have all made my jaw drop with their default install.

Vector Linux Dream Linux Zenwalk Linux Sam Linux 2007

All happen to be XFCE based. Two are Slackware based. some are flashy and in your face, while others are simple and clean.

The big distros are all great, but these were very impressive. XFCE is certainly nice as well. I haven't tried PCLOS 2007 yet, but SAM is based on it.
Abe

May 23, 2007
10:49 AM EDT
Quoting:metvas:


I tested Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO couple days ago and it is also a great distro like PLinuxOS. I believe it is a little faster than PCLOS. I haven't looked into the details yet but I am sure I will. Keep it open though.

rijelkentaurus

May 23, 2007
2:30 PM EDT
Quoting: I haven't tried PCLOS 2007 yet, but SAM is based on it.


And I think the only thing that stopped SAM from being delayed as much as PCLOS 2007 Final is all of the added dependencies of KDE. Smaller footprint desktop, faster release. If you like XFCE (I think it's good) then SAM is a great way to have PCLOS on really light hardware.

Quoting: There will be a 'minime' iso for 2007 also...that always ran fast on my pc (.93a minime)


Remember, I didn't say PCLOS was slow...just that Vector was a little faster. And I like the mimime CD, I could have PCLOS and then decide what I wanted to fatten it up with. PCLOS (mini and full) also ran well on my laptop, a ThinkPad G41. Tex and crew have done a bangup job.

Quoting: Spread the word is all we ask.


Done!

Quoting: Vector Linux Dream Linux Zenwalk Linux Sam Linux 2007


Agreed, and I would add Elive to that list, it's another I have been quite impressed with, and I like Enlightenment a lot (assuming someone else sets it up, LOL).

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