GNOME 1.4 micro-review -- LinuxPPC 2000 Q4 on a 466 Mhz Wallstreet PowerBook

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From: Eirikur Hallgrimsson (eh@mad.scientist.com)
Date: Wed May 09 2001 - 17:35:32 PDT


I've installed the Ximian version of GNOME 1.4. I'm technically on a
LinuxPPC release that isn't supported yet (I had to edit my
/etc/redhat-release file), but it installed perfectly smoothly and works like
a charm.

Performance is noticably improved overall. Quality is way up, I'm not
getting the occasional process crash or extraneous error messages that I used
to in 1.2.

I have cut over to Nautilus as the file manager, at least for now. I'm
getting adequate performance out of it, even on my laptop. The Ximian install
process offered sensible configuration options and doesn't force conversion.

The new Ximian Red Carpet update program is simply terrific. It's the way
things like this should be done. You can get a walk-through at Ximian.com,
but that doesn't cover how nice it feels to use. It gives me the granularity
that I want to see--which probably means that it should grow a Nautilus-like
user-level system so that end-users don't have to see confusing lists of
libraries. For the moment, though, since it resolves dependencies, it will
work properly for anyone. I just let Red Carpet install some updates to my
base system (their channel system includes a channel for your base Linux (or
?) distribution).

I can't say enough about the Ximian installer and Red Carpet. If these guys
did a Linux distribution, Red Hat and Mandrake would be toast. People who
complain about installing Linux or installing apps on Linux will be eating
crow when they review the Ximian CD.

GNOME 1.4 looks like an outstanding product. When it gets into the major
distributions (Mandrake 8.0 has almost all of it), I expect Linux desktops to
become more popular.

Eirikur


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