tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post142446463353924255..comments2024-03-26T17:37:35.499+00:00Comments on Linux notes from DarkDuck: GeckoLinux Plasma: for Die Hard OpenSuSE fansDarkDuck (m)http://www.blogger.com/profile/06273784224243667602noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-37276057722752133652017-06-11T06:19:44.692+01:002017-06-11T06:19:44.692+01:00Thanks for sharing your experience, Jeff!
Is "...Thanks for sharing your experience, Jeff!<br />Is "100% Suse under the bonnet" a real "bonus"? (pun intended)DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-42933127071502900352017-06-10T22:47:17.483+01:002017-06-10T22:47:17.483+01:00Hello, Jeff here, its 11-Jun-2017, I installed Gec...Hello, Jeff here, its 11-Jun-2017, I installed Geckolinux Tumbleweed edition, Cinnamon DE on my Acer Aspire Cloud One, 11.6", 2Gb ram laptop. The installation was very difficult for me, required reformatting my ESP partition to allow Calemares to allow ESP flag for UEFI boot. Then the installation randomly got stuck at 23%, then I got black screen after a successful boot, then another time I installed with the same iso image, it worked perfect. I found the distro very good, on par with Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1 I am using on my main desktop. I do not have any of these issues you've mentioned in the comments and I find Geckolinux much more polished and out-of-box usable than OpenSuse with the huge bonus that it is 100% Suse under the bonnet.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />JeffJeffJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11172443251811410867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-19554256544028107802017-02-04T07:09:43.409+00:002017-02-04T07:09:43.409+00:00Thanks Eddie!Thanks Eddie!DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-64233348809824818402017-02-04T02:42:39.551+00:002017-02-04T02:42:39.551+00:00To the creator of GeckoLinux:
WELL DONE! I'm ...To the creator of GeckoLinux:<br /><br />WELL DONE! I'm an AVID openSuSE Linux user and while I know my way around XFCE....MATE....Cinnamon...and GNome, I have always found KDE desktops to be confusing masses of configuration hell! Maybe I'll give this one a spin and see how good it runs on my SSD in my Asus Aspire! Thanks for the great variety of desktops!, Now I have something for everyone! (I help people make the move from Windows and Apple to Linux constantly, now I can show them something that's constant over various desktops and not have to worry about explaining what's different between Ubuntu Unity and Fedora GNome! Thanks again for such a great product!<br /><br />@Dark Duck: Your reviews are always direct and to the point, a no-frills, don't-cover-it-in-chocolate opinion that gives the Linux community a fresh take on some of the most talked about distros,...never stop your work! You're helping millions of people with your reviews and articles!Eddie G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11211758013393939905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-44896544264742103622017-02-03T20:08:52.394+00:002017-02-03T20:08:52.394+00:00Glad you're happy!Glad you're happy!DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-33209154936904309492017-02-03T18:08:08.562+00:002017-02-03T18:08:08.562+00:00I am a linux newbie and tried few distros. I had n...I am a linux newbie and tried few distros. I had no problem whats so ever with Geckolinux. love it, easy to use and all the support you need from sb56637RedBeethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03841388152145677992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-76785468604603267412017-02-01T18:40:01.074+00:002017-02-01T18:40:01.074+00:00It appears to be specific to the text used in the ...It appears to be specific to the text used in the icon. They apparently have some kind of word wrap logic for filenames on the desktop, but it can fail. That's what a developer said here:<br /><br />https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/5jg02z/plasma_58_is_winning_me_over/dbgilcl/sb56637https://www.blogger.com/profile/07676170639787988102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-55626949681620278672017-02-01T18:26:18.932+00:002017-02-01T18:26:18.932+00:00Hmm, Kubuntu and ROSA don't have the issues wi...Hmm, <a href="http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2016/11/kubuntu-1610-obey-and-not-destroy.html" rel="nofollow">Kubuntu</a> and <a href="http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2016/12/rosa-desktop-fresh-r8-plasma-5.html" rel="nofollow">ROSA</a> don't have the issues with icon texts at least, and both use Plasma.DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-41276440003585430512017-02-01T18:20:09.123+00:002017-02-01T18:20:09.123+00:00Hmm, no, it proves that GeckoLinux is meant to be ...Hmm, no, it proves that GeckoLinux is meant to be used and customized after installation. :-) Also, the other issues you mentioned are either personal preference or Plasma-specific issues. If you don't like Plasma (which is understandable) I would recommend that you review one of the 7 other GeckoLinux editions, that's why they're offered.sb56637https://www.blogger.com/profile/07676170639787988102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-12286583694709151242017-02-01T18:17:28.343+00:002017-02-01T18:17:28.343+00:00@DarkDuck: I respect your reasons, but you should ...@DarkDuck: I respect your reasons, but you should understand that you can't expect everything to work in the live system when you try to perform tasks that are normally performed in an installed system. That is what caused the major package manager issues you ran into on this review.sb56637https://www.blogger.com/profile/07676170639787988102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-1787838079755572352017-02-01T17:24:45.311+00:002017-02-01T17:24:45.311+00:00I have distributions that can do the same without ...I have distributions that can do the same without the number of issues and glitches shown in this review. Why bother?DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-731596926000168852017-02-01T17:23:55.585+00:002017-02-01T17:23:55.585+00:00Thanks Filippos!Thanks Filippos!DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-53381628386719489222017-02-01T17:23:19.020+00:002017-02-01T17:23:19.020+00:00@sb56637: I have Toshiba Satellite L500-19X if it ...@sb56637: I have Toshiba Satellite L500-19X if it matters. Rather old hardware, but works with other distros well.<br /><br />@sb56637 and @David: I don't discuss the way I do my reviews after publishing <a href="http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2011/06/why-do-i-do-live-system-reviews.html" rel="nofollow">this article</a>.DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-51039127983513846782017-02-01T17:20:24.128+00:002017-02-01T17:20:24.128+00:00Thanks! It still proves that OpenSuSE is far from ...Thanks! It still proves that OpenSuSE is far from ideal, and you cannot do much here to improve.DarkDuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16128579430145372138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-89454917909137627402017-02-01T16:09:11.959+00:002017-02-01T16:09:11.959+00:00@David: Yes, the XFCE variant of GeckoLinux has be...@David: Yes, the XFCE variant of GeckoLinux has been heavily customized to make it as refined as I know how. Here's a screenshot:<br /><br />https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2692138/11413918/e5faf1fa-93bc-11e5-87a6-91c8506f8f1e.pngsb56637https://www.blogger.com/profile/07676170639787988102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-31917032959326140922017-02-01T16:07:23.392+00:002017-02-01T16:07:23.392+00:00@Epeeist: Nice! Was this with GeckoLinux or openSU...@Epeeist: Nice! Was this with GeckoLinux or openSUSE proper?sb56637https://www.blogger.com/profile/07676170639787988102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-64615451989805076252017-02-01T14:28:12.909+00:002017-02-01T14:28:12.909+00:00I found this review interesting in part because I ...I found this review interesting in part because I learned geckolinux is including an installable live XFCE desktop (among others). OpenSUSE by default does not, and the OpenSUSE XFCE default packages/setup really leave a lot to be desired, making it very necessary to do a lot of work to get it to the point of being actually usable. I am hoping the geckolinux defaults/installs for that (and other desktops like lxqt too) at least suck less at the beginning. For that alone, it could have great utility. I wish some of the other variants had been reviewed.<br /><br />As for this review, I do similarly note live installs are not generally meant to be "customized" from the iso boot. This is especially true since such customizations/package installs may be lost when installing anyway. At minimum I think the reviewer could and should have used something like qemu or virtualbox.<br /><br />As for "essential" utilities, there are machines that do not even have DVD/CD drives any more. I also think a minimal necessary subset is always best practice for any generic live booting installable distro, and users can add what they want/need after installing to hd.David Sugarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15571126520796116865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-39362301766210723082017-02-01T14:24:09.687+00:002017-02-01T14:24:09.687+00:00"Neither OpenSuSE nor GeckoLinux are actually..."Neither OpenSuSE nor GeckoLinux are actually easy distributions to deal with. Maybe I am just very subjective towards OpenSuSE, but that's my position."<br /><br />Err what?<br /><br />Just bought myself an Intel NUC. Burnt the boot image onto a USB stick and booted the system. Twenty minutes later I have a working system with all updates installed.<br /><br />The only thing I need to do is pick up the community repositories to get a small selection of additional software. <br /><br />Really where is the difficulty in that?Epeeisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15431856881586512464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-41106657832514188042017-02-01T12:31:22.359+00:002017-02-01T12:31:22.359+00:00Thanks both for the review and the answer.
Keep th...Thanks both for the review and the answer.<br />Keep the good work up !!!Filipposhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17131718536749216891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-68278485915020949232017-01-31T03:49:10.015+00:002017-01-31T03:49:10.015+00:00[continued, max character limit reached]
> The...[continued, max character limit reached]<br /><br />> The installation of Chromium browser failed in general. The error message said there was not enough space on the drive. Could this be calculated prior to downloading the package and its dependencies to save time and bandwidth?<br /><br />It could be that you ran out of space, but it could also be a warning about another partition that you had mounted with low space. I don't like this feature either, but such is YaST. It alerts you about low space on *any* connected device, and its idea of "low" is arbitrary.<br /><br />> the lack of essential software like disk burning utility or image editor.<br /><br />"Essential" is dependent on each user. This is the first request I've received for disk burning software, so I'm assuming it's not essential for most users. As for image editing, please see my above comment about Gwenview.<br /><br />> the glitch in software installation<br /><br />GeckoLinux can't do miracles. If it runs out of space, software can not be installed and the system won't work well.<br /><br />> performance issues even on simple things like minimizing and restoring of the windows: I was able to see separate frames rather than the smooth animation.<br /><br />What kind of graphics hardware? Your link to your "Toshiba" laptop just takes me to Amazon. It would be good to try uninstall all the xf86-video* drivers and using the Xorg modesetting driver, which solves a lot of problems. Also it would be good to change the compositor acceleration method. Plasma is by far the most sensitive desktop environment to graphics issues, but it's probably possible to work around those issues.<br /><br />I'm afraid that you won't have a good experience with GeckoLinux without installing it to the hard drive. It's mainly intended to be used and customized *after* installation.<br /><br />I hope this clears up a few of the issues you ran into. Thanks again for the coverage.sb56637https://www.blogger.com/profile/07676170639787988102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-474321140763590831.post-17786379323584290912017-01-31T03:48:30.744+00:002017-01-31T03:48:30.744+00:00Hi there, GeckoLinux creator here. Thanks a lot fo...Hi there, GeckoLinux creator here. Thanks a lot for the review. I'd like to address a few of the issues you mentioned:<br /><br />> Once I entered the password, the system froze for some time. There was no visible reaction on the screen.<br /><br />I don't think it froze. I just have the splash screen disabled by default to make it actually load faster.<br /><br />> Calamares (What is it? An installer, a game, a Spanish dictionary or a HDD destructor? Any hints?)<br /><br />It's the installer. Plasma gave me fits with the desktop icon, and I had to leave it as a single word. Not ideal, I know. In the main start menu it does have a description though.<br /><br />> Both icons have only one word in the name, but it is ugly spread across two lines. Why so?<br /><br />Plasma.... They've still got a long way to go on polish. I couldn't find a workaround for this, and I reported the issue to the Plasma devs.<br /><br />> date with day of the week and month in full words. That is simply a waste of space on the panel, isn't it? <br /><br />Nope, I need to see the day and date of the week at a glance. <br /><br />> Why wouldn't you remove or shorten day of the week and month?<br /><br />I don't want to remove it, and unfortunately Plasma doesn't offer a shortened form. I agree that would be preferable.<br /><br />> The freshly booted system takes about 480 MB of memory, which is much more than Kubuntu 16.10 and ROSA Desktop Fresh R8<br /><br />It will be much less after installation, I've tested it at around 350MB. Keep in mind that it's a live system.<br /><br />> There is no GIMP or any other image editor.<br /><br />Yes there is, Gwenview allows for basic photo editing and touch-ups.<br /><br />> system and configuration utilities are distributed across three (yes, three!) sections of the menu: System, Settings and Utilities. The line between these sections is so fine that I always struggle to find the reason behind splitting tools into two categories like most distributions do.<br /><br />I don't configure the menu at all, it's pure openSUSE. But with that said, there are differences between those three sections: "System" is basically shortcut to YaST modules that affect the entire system, "Settings" are for configuring Plasma and preferences at a per-user level. And utilities are, well, utilities. They're not billed as system configuration tools, nor should they be misconstrued as such.sb56637https://www.blogger.com/profile/07676170639787988102noreply@blogger.com