gnoppix
tried and installed gnoppix today.
review
main menu
the cd boots up with grub. this is a welcome change from the boot> prompt in knoppix, since it supports loads of menus and menu options. there's support for a bunch of languages. i couldn't get the cheat-codes for gnoppix. this is funny since the boot menu says more at gnoppix.org. but the site doesn't say anything about the cheat codes that knoppix happily provides. i couldn't start the 2.4 kernel (is it included?) and the 2.6.7 kernel is enabled by default.
had problems with the video driver (nv and nvidia), but issues were resolved after having a look at their forum and using xmodule=fbdev...
boot-up
the os boots slower than knoppix, although it is based on knoppix/morphix. hardware detection was below par. i couldn't get my audio (nforce audio/i810) running on it. knoppix had detected it like a charm. probably since gnoppix uses discover instead of kudzu, ironically since (or so they say) kudzu has problems with hardware detection!
desktop
there's only one desktop supported: gnome 2.6. no fluxbox, twm, windowmaker, etc. there's a good bunch of themes in gnoppix, though. knoppix, by contrast had a set of different window borders and colours, but no icon sets. gnoppix has a good set of window borders, controls and icons, including crystal-svg :)
the desktop clutter due to partitions in knoppix in not there on gnoppix. this has a downside, since first-timers will find it hard to mount/unmount partitions. i couldn't find more than two wallpapers. bad.
applications
gnoppix comes with mono and monodevelop. a major pain: a bad vi editor. it isn't like the vim editors i've seen on fedora or knoppix. i've had to use nano instead... there's the default set of applications you'd find in most live cds: mozilla, evolution, gaim, gimp, openoffice.org and the like. something i didn't find in knoppix: firefox and thunderbird are also bundled with it
overall
overall, i'd give gnoppix 6 out of 10. it's hardware detection is still below par. morever, the system reboots if there's any problems with the graphics drivers or video. this plain sucks, since you can't even see the errors by default since bootsplash is enabled by default.
then again, as i said before, first-time users would find it difficult to mount/unmount drives/partitions. this project needs lots of work more... it's still some way to go, but it needs more steam.
review
main menu
the cd boots up with grub. this is a welcome change from the boot> prompt in knoppix, since it supports loads of menus and menu options. there's support for a bunch of languages. i couldn't get the cheat-codes for gnoppix. this is funny since the boot menu says more at gnoppix.org. but the site doesn't say anything about the cheat codes that knoppix happily provides. i couldn't start the 2.4 kernel (is it included?) and the 2.6.7 kernel is enabled by default.
had problems with the video driver (nv and nvidia), but issues were resolved after having a look at their forum and using xmodule=fbdev...
boot-up
the os boots slower than knoppix, although it is based on knoppix/morphix. hardware detection was below par. i couldn't get my audio (nforce audio/i810) running on it. knoppix had detected it like a charm. probably since gnoppix uses discover instead of kudzu, ironically since (or so they say) kudzu has problems with hardware detection!
desktop
there's only one desktop supported: gnome 2.6. no fluxbox, twm, windowmaker, etc. there's a good bunch of themes in gnoppix, though. knoppix, by contrast had a set of different window borders and colours, but no icon sets. gnoppix has a good set of window borders, controls and icons, including crystal-svg :)
the desktop clutter due to partitions in knoppix in not there on gnoppix. this has a downside, since first-timers will find it hard to mount/unmount partitions. i couldn't find more than two wallpapers. bad.
applications
gnoppix comes with mono and monodevelop. a major pain: a bad vi editor. it isn't like the vim editors i've seen on fedora or knoppix. i've had to use nano instead... there's the default set of applications you'd find in most live cds: mozilla, evolution, gaim, gimp, openoffice.org and the like. something i didn't find in knoppix: firefox and thunderbird are also bundled with it
overall
overall, i'd give gnoppix 6 out of 10. it's hardware detection is still below par. morever, the system reboots if there's any problems with the graphics drivers or video. this plain sucks, since you can't even see the errors by default since bootsplash is enabled by default.
then again, as i said before, first-time users would find it difficult to mount/unmount drives/partitions. this project needs lots of work more... it's still some way to go, but it needs more steam.
