TechieMoe.com

Introduction:

SAM Linux is a German distribution based on PCLinuxOS. Although I'm not a fan of that particular distribution, I know there are a lot of people that are. Hopefully this is an improvement.

SAM came to me by request, as is fairly common lately. There aren't a lot of existing writeups on it, so I'm going to try to be as thorough as possible.

Install:

The boot and progress menus were fairly nice looking. The XFce mascot was prominent on both. I was brought to a log on screen. The password for the guest account was not blank, which I tried first.

Next I tried "guest" which let me in. This is a small thing, but I see no reason why LiveCD users should have to log in at all. If they do the passwords for the LiveCD should be prominently displayed somewhere.

The default desktop is pleasant. The icon bar at the top of the screen zooms when you hover over it, a la OS X. I clicked on the "welcome Sam" icon on the desktop and a Dillo browser popped up with a tutorial page.

For the sake of new users, I like when distributions do this. I read through the sections in order. The one on multimedia answered one of my most common questions.

Although I'm disappointed that they didn't include some of the more popular non-free codecs, I am glad they explained the process of how to get them. This is something I find I have to explain a lot to users on other systems like Ubuntu.

The other sections of the tutorial cover common tasks like network setup and mounting MS Windows partitions. Also included is a relatively advanced topic on how to create a persistant /home/ directory using a USB stick.

Software Selection:

A tool included on SAM that's new to me is Flyback, which is a self-proclaimed clone of Apple's Time Machine backup software.

Pidgin, GIMP and Firefox were installed, as well as Opera and Dillo. AbiWord is the word processor. The only program group not represented by a handful of useful programs is games. I suppose for most people that's a forgivable offense. I prefer to wave my angry fist in the air and scream "SAAAAAAMMM!!!"

GCC was installed, but not Java. I don't understand why distributions still don't carry it, even though it's effectively OSS software now.

SAM uses Synaptic Package Manager, which will be familiar to anyone with an Ubuntu background. It works, there's not much else to say.

Conclusion:

SAM is a pleasant, small LiveCD distribution that doesn't use Gnome or KDE (although in all fairness XFce does use Gnome libraries). The software selection is small but covers most of the common themes users will want.

The thing that stands out about SAM in my opinion is the fact that they have a welcoming tutorial. It may seem like a small thing, but if your goal is to spread your OS to as many people as possible you must consider that not everyone is comfortable with change. A little hand-holding helps sometimes.

Aside from the good help screens, SAM is a solid if somewhat forgettable distribution. It has a good base with which to further differentiate itself in the future.