SolusOS

[wdhpr]

Here are a couple of comments from the SolusOS Forum that sums up the Gnome3 and Mate issue.

Originally Posted by bdantas

I am a current LMDE user. I must say that the idea of rolling distribution built on Debian stable but with up-to-date applications is absolutely brilliant. I tried Solus RC4 and was very impressed–the OS is beautiful, everything seems well-integrated, and the system is noticeably more responsive than LMDE (faster boot, menus load faster, applications launch faster). When the 64-bit release comes out I will seriously consider switching from LMDE. Just two concerns:
-I am concerned about what will happen when the next Debian stable release comes out with Gnome3. If Ikey’s idea of building extensions for Gnome3 fallback mode to make it like Gnome2 is as good as MATE, why did the MATE team put in so much effort to fork the entire Gnome2 code? How will Gnome3 fallback + extensions compare to MATE?
-It seems that SolusOS is mostly a one-man effort. Ikey, how certain are you that you can keep this going? Are you getting help?

I am very excited about your project and look forward to the 64-bit edition.

P.S. I use msort quite a bit to alphabetize text files in foreign languages, but this package is not in the Debian stable repositories. Would you kindly package it for Solus?

Originally Posted by justin

Thank you for the kind words. We are working on the ideas for future releases and the work we will have to go with Gnome 3. Forking Gnome 2 is not in our plans at the current time.

SolusOS is not a one person effort – I would say you can look on the About > Meet The Team page and you will see I am also assisting him. There are several key community members backing us up.

I find it telling that they will be going with Gnome3 and the point concerning the considerable effort that goes into Mate is also telling. I can not see how people can continue to produce alternatives to Gnome3 without the co-operation and resources of the Gnome developers. I could point to the Zorin team, because they have been forking Gnome2 for some time now and Zorin6 will be based on Gnome3.
More Info Here.
When you go to Zorin's home page and look at Help--> Developers--> it takes you to http://developer.ubuntu.com/ There is also a commercial version of Zorin which tells me they have considerably more resources. That is what compelled me to try it, because it should be able to provide good support.

To make a long story short (I know.... too late) Although distro's like SolusOS are clever, unless they have the resources to back it up you may end up with a desktop that eventually dies on the vine.

I predict linux will coalesce into a few major distro's for example how Ubuntu was based on Debian. For a more comprehensive look of what I mean Look Here From there they will then come wrapped in Gnome, KDE, Unity, Enlightenment.... etc and I also predict these too will eventually coalesce into a few major desktops. From here to there a whole lot of chaos in between

Cheers

[MidnightCowboy]

Certainly the whole Linux desktop development area is still pretty much a mess. KDE still manages to break things every time an update is released and Gnome of course tells its own story. I'm not so sure about resources being key to support and/or stability as most of the major issues recently have been associated with the bigger guys such as Suse and Fedora. There are of course many reasons why one man distros might cease, and some good ones already have. The true beauty of running Linux (in association with an external drive of course) is that if you want to change you can do so and be up an running with something else fully customised in around an hour.

[wdhpr]

Agreed......

[MidnightCowboy]

These are the reasons why I like Solus so much. I appreciate some of these are specific to my own needs/system, but then this applies to everyone.

• It's straightforward to install, even for a dual-boot configuration like mine.
  
• Bearing in mind this is still an RC and not the final version, everything works (there was a glitch for LibreOffice spell check but this is now fixed. There are no “oops Gnome panel crash” or file indexing error messages.
  
• For my tastes it looks good in it's default form. I do like the Equinox window borders which I installed, and prefer the Dolphin file manager (also installed) but everything else looks great out of the box including the font rendering although I appreciate this can be adjusted in other distros.
  
• It's fast and consumes just 4% of my memory (with Evolution open) and 7% when using a browser too.
  
• Start up is 45 seconds to the login screen and then a further 15 seconds to the full desktop. What else could I possibly do with a minute?
  
• The Firestarter firewall (which I prefer over the default UFW) works with all it's features enabling you to see blocked events and easily control ICMP which is not the case with many other distros.
  Screenshot-Firestarter glyn-pc.jpg
  
• Sound and video (including flash) all work out of the box. I do have an issue with my four speaker setup but this also applies to some other distros as well. Music files and streaming radio are not affected but movies are. For now, I can easily live with movie sound from just two speakers until I can work out what needs adjusting. I fully admit to being totally confused by Alsa this and Pulse the other, have no idea why both are installed and having read dozens of forum posts have equally no idea what to do about it.
  
• I love the menu presentation.
  
• The Control Center/Add/Remove software works flawlessly although searching for stuff can be a lengthy operation as the results for some items are quite numerous.
  
• No issues with Compiz (which is included by default) and Emerald is also there for anyone wanting a zillion other themes.
  
• The KDE versions of games such as FreeCell and Mahjongg which I prefer the look of over their Gnome equivalents also work without issue.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

I always thought that guy knew a thing or two about linux.

Dedoimedo is going to review Solus - just waiting for the final release which is pretty imminent.

[wdhpr]

Originally Posted by MC

The true beauty of running Linux (in association with an external drive of course) is that if you want to change you can do so and be up an running with something else fully customised in around an hour.

You have a valid point about installing a version of linux and have it up and running in around an hour. I could also add that upgrading to a new release often fails and you end up having to install it from scratch anyway.

I guess I have to admit, I enjoy installing new versions of linux, its almost a hobby for me I like to build on it and see how far I can go with it. If it crashes and burns..... well it just means I get to start all over again
I'm Looking forward to Dedoimedo's review.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

You have a valid point about installing a version of linux and have it up and running in around an hour. I could also add that upgrading to a new release often fails and you end up having to install it from scratch anyway.

Very valid observation. Again, these issues can be very system specific. Upgrading Kororaa 15 to 16 on mine left me with no sound, and just updating Fusion 14.1 left me with not a lot of anything! This isn't confined to Linux of course as both Microsoft and individual Windows programs are well capable of making things unstable or of disappearing altogether.

Rolling release versions of Linux are obviously likely to be more sensitive because installing one of these some way into it's cycle could require anything up to 400MB of updates. I always look at the forums first to see if anything is breaking with either updates or upgrades. Usually this is network (favourite ), video or sound related. I'm then either picky with what I tick to install, or just don't bother. With Linux in general being 95% security risk free out of the box there seems little point in disturbing the main system when individual programs can just be updated as needed.

With Solus there were a few issues upgrading from RC3 to RC4 but as I understand it these did not break anything, rather that the upgraded components just didn't load. I fully intend to upgrade mine to the final when it comes out so I'll update this thread then if there is anything to tell.

The spellchecking issue with LibreOffice is now sorted so they were pretty quick to get a fix out for that.

[MidnightCowboy]

Well, it seems I'm a couple of days out of track with the final

http://solusos.com/blog/2012/05/solu...-bit-released/

Maybe because the upgrade path mentioned in the link has not been published (to my knowledge) that I was unaware of this change. It will only take a couple of hours for me to download via their torrent link so I may elect to do this and just do a clean install of the final.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

It will only take a couple of hours for me to download via their torrent link so I may elect to do this and just do a clean install of the final.

This is what I did in the end as it removes any possibility of upgrade bugs. Installed the final smooth as silk and now back to where I was. The search feature in their software center is also showing more defined results which makes getting what else you might need a lot easier.

[wdhpr]

I once asked that Jeff guy from the Bohdi team about the upgrading. He was very animated in his response. I believe he said..... always,always,always (not sure on how many always) do a clean install. In my early Mepis days, Attempts to upgrade to a new release always resulted in dismal failures. I'm certain the process has improved since then. When I think about it linux has evolved substantially in the last few years. (to me anyway) So I carefully backup-up my stuff and perform fresh installs and re-install any of my missing favorite apps.