TechieMoe.com

Introduction:

Vector Linux has been an interesting beast in my past reviews. For some reason I had less trouble with the "Standard" edition (which is free) than I did with the $30 "Deluxe" edition. If that holds true again, I don't expect to have any major hiccups with this release. We shall see.

::UPDATE:: An estute reader brought to my attention that the kernel source is available for install after the fact, and may also actually be available during the initial install (I apparently just missed it). Feel free to disregard any complaints I have about the lack of kernel source.

Install:

The text-based installer hasn't changed since the last release, but since it worked just fine last time the lack of window dressing was acceptable. I did notice that when it started installing some of the optional packages the progress bar seemed to go wonky (-4 of 70 MB?). I hope this was just a display glitch.

Reboot showed me a cute and colorful LILO menu and dumped me to a command line. I specified text login during the install in case something went weird with my video hardware. Startx brought me to a pleasantly clean XFce desktop.

MPG/WMV8 and MP3 playback worked as expected with the included players (Xine and XMMS). My USB thumb drive mounted and unmounted just fine. I was not able to install the Nvidia drivers since although make and gcc were installed, the kernel source was not. This doesn't hinder my *work*, but it does significantly hinder my play.

XSane detected my scanner just fine. Although the appropriate drivers were present in GTKam for my camera, it could not detect it for some reason. This isn't exactly a show-stopper since I only pull that camera out to test compatibility; I rarely use it.

Software Selection:

Firefox, GAIM and Gimp are present, but Abiword replaces OpenOffice Writer. Also included (to my amusement) was the Mozilla SeaMonkey suite (essentially what used to be the Mozilla internet suite) which includes a browser, an email client, an address book, a calendar and a WYSIWYG HTML editor. Bluefish, a more full-featured HTML/CSS editor is also included.

A handful of games are also installed including several that require 3D acceleration, making my inability to install proper drivers all the more vexing. Frozen Bubble was included, along with a strange platformer called "Don Ceferino Hazana" which I couldn't quite figure out.

I noted with pleasure that a proper Java VM (1.5 from Sun) was installed by default, meaning although Eclipse wasn't included on the disc I could easily install it from one of my dev tools CDs.

Most Annoying Feature:

I realize Vector is trying to be lightweight, but would it have killed the developers to add in at least an *option* to install the kernel source out of the box?

Who's it best for?

Vector has held up well since my last rant and I could do most all my work (if not necessarily my play) on this distribution even without an internet connection. It's small, speedy and has a pleasant selection of applications.

I'm sure with a little tweaking I could get 3D working, but since the only real application would be games, I'm not going to bother. Overall, a nice light distro.