More about sidux

[Collins Richey]

Just a few comments about my latest experiences with sidux to make
your weekend even more boring. If you're interested in something
outside the big 4 (RH, SuSE, Ubuntu, Mandriva) and you're not turned
off by a bleeding edge release, give it a try. Here are some of the
pluses and minuses.

1. sidux is based on Debian sid (thus the name), but it is a KDE
distro. In case you've been hiding under a rock, sid is the unstable
branch of Debian which should clue you in that you're dealing with
software that still has a few kinks.

2. The wallpaper for the release is a shadowy image of a woman with
long flowing hair in tan tones, a lot more pleasant than the Ubuntu
brown sh*t wallpaper.

3. The distro is released as a livecd with gui installer. I'm much
more fond of the basic Debian and Slackware text-mode installers, but
that's just me. The installer has one irritating quirk for those like
me who have multi-boot setups. The installer will not make available
any partition that is unformatted, so you have to format the partition
in another terminal session, and most likely restart the install to
direct sidux to the desired partition. The developers say this is
intentional, and I say this sucks. Nevertheless, sidux (and sid) is a
continuous upgrade release, so you should never need the installer
again unless you have multiple machines.

4. There is no server variant. Who in their right mind would base a
server on unstable software?

5. The grub boot screen takes a little getting used to. It's
attractive, with the usual list of choices. If you have many choices
as I do, you have to scroll down with the arrow key to see what
doesn't fit on one screen. At the bottom of the current visible list,
is the kernel line for the currently selected title ready for
modifications if you type anything. If you type 'e' to edit (the
standard way you're accustomed to), the 'e' appears at the end of the
options, so don't do that, just type away!

6. Unlike most of Debian and Ubuntu, the sidux developers have
reintroduced the standard runlevels 1-5 (kudos). gui is runlevel 5,
and 3 is non-gui (more below).

7. sidux is essentially sid, and because it's sid (development), the
recommended way of updating is via apt-get dist-upgrade at runlevel 3.
Strong warnings are issued against using upgrade instead of
dist-upgrade. Even better, there is a script 'smxi' that handles the
update process for you. First any kernel and initramfs updates are
processed, and you are prompted to reboot and continue at runlevel 3.
Next dist-upgrade is performed. Next special things like font refresh,
virtual image setup, etc. options are presented. Finally, video
updates are performed. If you upgraded the kernel, you need this.
Current nVidia driver is 100.14.19. If you're running ATI (poor slob),
you're out of luck, but supposedly AMD is releasing something new that
works.

8. In true Debian fashion, there is no Firefox or SeaMonkey, but only
the Debian forks IceWeasel and IceApe.

9. Like any bleeding-edge release, there are going to be a few
glitches. When the cutover to xorg 7.3 occurred, nVidia proprietary
drivers would not work, and I was stuck with the 'nv' driver for a
week. Other than that I've not encountered one blessed problem
(running since 9/15, installed on two different AMD boxes with nvidia
chipset).

10. There is an active forum and wiki, and the developers are active
here too, unlike Ubuntu where the developers prefer their own ivory
palace. I did have one minor problem installing sound-juicer, my
preferred cd player. This is gnu/gnome stuff, and one of the prereqs
could not be resolved. I got the prompt answer that the missing
package was not in sid, and that I needed to included the testing
repos. Problem solved.

11. The main site and forums warn when changes like xorg 7.3 occur.
They've already posted notes that xorg 7.4 is coming - works with
nVidia but not ATI.

12. If you install now (gaia release), be prepared for a dist-upgrade
of 600-800 packages! Or wait for the eros release coming soon.

In case you haven't noticed, this is probably not the best distro for newbies.

Enjoy,

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.