Kudos to LXer

Story: Taking a Long Look at Salix OS 13.1.1 (DistroWatch Weekly #368)Total Replies: 9
Author Content
caitlyn

Aug 23, 2010
5:51 PM EDT
I first learned about SalixOS and it was first recommended to me here in the LXer.com forum. See what y'all did! :) Consider this review, in part, a thank you to those who pointed me in that direction.
hkwint

Aug 23, 2010
5:57 PM EDT
Nice to see you back for once!

Still busy on Distrowatch? Or doing translations?

Wish you good luck with whatever crossed your path!
Steven_Rosenber

Aug 23, 2010
6:15 PM EDT
Caitlyn, that's the most complete review I've seen of Salix - very valuable to have. I laugh because we're united in our pain with the HP LaserJet 1020. But really, you do a great job with these reviews.

You addressed the lack of a live image for 13.1. I'm really reluctant to commit to an installation of anything that I can't sample in a live environment beforehand. Both Zenwalk and Salix are behind in their live images ...
caitlyn

Aug 23, 2010
7:20 PM EDT
@Steven_Rosenberg: Well... the Laserjet 1020 works fine once I compiled and installed the driver and downloaded the firmware. The installer for that driver has improved and I no longer have to tweak an init script to reinstall the firmware on each boot. It's worth a look.

It's unfortunate that hardware which worked fine in Slackware 13.0 and SalixOS 13.0.x doesn't in 13.1 . Slackware usually avoids issues like that. Not this time. Once I worked through those issues I was good to go. I've run SalixOS since version 13.0.1 and I must say that I am pleased with it. It just takes some work to get right.

@Hans: This is my first DistroWatch article in about 10 months. I hope to be doing more of them in the near future. Mostly I've been doing systems administration. I hope to seal the deal with a new remote client tomorrow which will help keep the billable hours up. I'm also still (slowly) working on the Yarok project. The remaining devs, including myself, have all been scrambling to keep the income coming in so I still don't know when (or even if) we may finally have a release.

I haven't done any translations lately. Someone suggested I do a Hebrew review of SalixOS 13.1.1. I trust my Hebrew enough to understand and translate to English but I most certainly do NOT express myself well and could not go in the other direction unless I wanted to produce an unintentionally humorous result.
jdixon

Aug 23, 2010
7:35 PM EDT
> Caitlyn, that's the most complete review I've seen of Salix

Agreed. It's a very well written review, Caitlyn. Excellent work.
caitlyn

Aug 23, 2010
7:51 PM EDT
Thanks again for all the kind words.
Steven_Rosenber

Aug 23, 2010
8:39 PM EDT
Caitlyn, I just got through the comments on Distrowatch Weekly, and I'm glad to see you both defending yum, which has been working great, and my knowledge is pretty much apt/Aptitude-only. If only PackageKit could get an overhaul ...

I was very interested in your comments on 64-bit vs. 32-bit operating systems. Have you written at length about this topic elsewhere? After hearing so much "64-bit is unneeded," it's nice to hear a voice from the other side, and I'd love to read more about why 64-bit makes sense.
caitlyn

Aug 24, 2010
2:37 PM EDT
For the rpm haters out there I would also ask: where are the delta debs? I can download a delta rpm which just has the changes/patches to a given package. There is no equivalent for Debian. That's one way rpm is way ahead in terms of package management.

I have not written at length about 64-bit systems and the need for a 64-bit OS. Let's just put it this way: Take a 64-bit machine, take a process which heavily taxes the CPU such as video rendering, and time the same process doing the same work on a 32-bit OS and then on a 64-bit OS. You will never run a 32-bit OS again.
gus3

Aug 24, 2010
2:54 PM EDT
Links, or it didn't happen.
Steven_Rosenber

Aug 24, 2010
2:57 PM EDT
Does Mr. Phoronix, Michael Larabel, have some benchmarks on this?

Yep, he does (and he recommends 64-bit):

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu_32...

I'd like to see more benchmarks ...

Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]

Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!