Solus and Budgie - not bad but for beginners only

[oshunluvr]

For kicks this morning I installed Solus in VBox to check it out. I must say the installer and other things are quite good. Very quick to install and boot. I would totally recommend it for a beginner trying Linux.

A couple things I noticed:

The menu is very old-fashioned IMO. Looks like KDE4 or Windows XP.

Using the liveISO, I install btrfs-tools using the software center and was notified of 4 needed dependencies. It installed 40+ things - the counter actually went to "41 of 4". Seems like a bug somewhere to me.

Even after pre-formatting, the installer reformatted the disk from btrfs back to ext4. This is a deal breaker for me. There's no way I could find to choose to not format the partition even though if you want custom partitioning, you can't do it from the installer. Basically, you can't install it to a multi-boot btrfs environment unless you partition for it first. So likely, it wouldn't install to subvolumes anyway - which cripples a btrfs install.

Still, if a total noob wanted to get their feet wet with Linux, this wouldn't be a bad start. The website and docs seem top-notch and professional. The ISO is less than a gig, so there's not a whole lot of included software, but the software center seems easy to use and well thought out (unlike Discover ).

[oshunluvr]

I just had a discussion on IRC with the installer dev. Besides having a rather nasty disposition (the word Jackass comes to mind), he made it clear that in no way would anyone be able to install to anything but an ext4 partition and the installer will format it regardless of your desires.

Clearly, these are Gnome/Apple-minded folks who really don't want users to have their own way. I've already deleted it.

[vinnywright]

I just had a discussion on IRC with the installer dev. Besides having a rather nasty disposition (the word Jackass comes to mind), he made it clear that in no way would anyone be able to install to anything but an ext4 partition and the installer will format it regardless of your desires.

Clearly, these are Gnome/Apple-minded folks who really don't want users to have their own way. I've already deleted it.

Did he remind you of being in the PClinuxOS forums back in the day,,,,,,,,,,,, ROTFLMFAO

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

LOL Vinny, Not quite the same kind of a-hole. More like the SMUG type of a-hole vs. the guys at PCLinuxOS who were the PUGNACIOUS type of a-holes.

[Snowhog]

PUGNACIOUS type of a-holes.

PUGNACIOUS A-HOLE (Meaning: If you have to ask, you aren't worthy of using our product!)

[vinnywright]

LOL Vinny, Not quite the same kind of a-hole. More like the SMUG type of a-hole vs. the guys at PCLinuxOS who were the PUGNACIOUS type of a-holes.

,, I was on that forum for a week or so (a long time ago)but left when a post of mine got DELETED and a gruff message sent to me ,,,,that I really needed an answer to ,,,,,,,,,, although ,,,, now ,,,,,I would say it was a real n00b question ,,,but I was a real n00b ,,,,and needed guidance not RTFM kind of $41t.

I think it was something about mounting ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,?,,,,,,,,been a long time .

VINNY

[vinnywright]

PUGNACIOUS A-HOLE (Meaning: If you have to ask, you aren't worthy of using our product!)

exactly .

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

I had the audacity to suggest that a modern Linux distro should have the ability for the user to decide their own fate. Based on what I saw of Budgie and the attitude of the devs on IRC, they're Gnome 2 people. SO of course, they know what's best for me and how dare I ask why they made a particular design decision.

Really too bad too because the darn thing was really easy to install and real fast - even in a VM. Sad that it's crippled on purpose by the very people who are supposed to be making it.

I get FOSS and it's theirs to do with as they like, but if they can't logically and politely explain their decisions and philosophy then both are suspect in my view.

[vinnywright]

I had the audacity to suggest that a modern Linux distro should have the ability for the user to decide their own fate. Based on what I saw of Budgie and the attitude of the devs on IRC, they're Gnome 2 people. SO of course, they know what's best for me and how dare I ask why they made a particular design decision.

Really too bad too because the darn thing was really easy to install and real fast - even in a VM. Sad that it's crippled on purpose by the very people who are supposed to be making it.

I get FOSS and it's theirs to do with as they like, but if they can't logically and politely explain their decisions and philosophy then both are suspect in my view.

+1 ,,,,,,I wander how that ext4 to BTRFS thing would work on an installed system ,,,,,when I did it , it was just on a storage drive with data ,,,,,,,but the data was and is intact after the operation .

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

It does work. The only bad thing is you're left with an install that's not in a subvolume - so no snapshots, no send|receive, etc. It's not really much help.

[vinnywright]

It does work. The only bad thing is you're left with an install that's not in a subvolume - so no snapshots, no send|receive, etc. It's not really much help.

O,,,,right that would be the case ,,,, Dohhh

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

LOL Vinny, Not quite the same kind of a-hole. More like the SMUG type of a-hole vs. the guys at PCLinuxOS who were the PUGNACIOUS type of a-holes.

I used PCLinuxOS back when it was riding #1 on DistroWatch's PHR. (For about 6 months). Then a hurricane hit Huston and TexStar had to take a year's sabbatical to get his personal affairs back in order. During his absence the distro suffered in quality control and the devs and help began a turf war over who was in charge. TexStar had to come back to put things in order. For me it was too late, I had moved on.

[jlittle]

LOL Vinny, Not quite the same kind of a-hole. More like the SMUG type of a-hole vs. the guys at PCLinuxOS who were the PUGNACIOUS type of a-holes.

Yuck, an unfortunate phrase... made me think "pugwash".

John Little