Pardus 2011 Review
I am always on lookup of new promising distributions. And I had my eyes on Pardus for quite a while. I wanted to try out it's 2009 edition but I wanted something brand new and fresh. I had heard about an early 2011 version in works and I was very eager to get my hands on it.
So we see here how far Pardus has come in Year 2011. Is it the killer distro that everyone would want or does it need some time still polishing the nails?
0. An Introduction to Pardus:
Please go through following links to know more about Pardus Linux:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pardus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardus_(operating_system)
Pardus Home Page:
http://www.pardus.org.tr/
Download here:
http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/download/
OR you can ftp here:
ftp://ftp.pardus.org.tr/pub/ISO/Installation/2011/
A Pardus 2011 Beta Review at linuxuser.co.uk:
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/reviews/pardus-2011-beta-review/
1. Installation: Lets start with the installation. The installer here is YALI (Yet Another Linux Installer).
[ScreenShot-4]
Here we can see the first screen as the installer starts after booting off the medium and choosing to install. (I chose installer DVD for myself though there's a Live DVD available too!) From here we go to the validate Medium page. If you have MD5SUM checked your image then you can check this stage. (Now I know why the ydon't offer any MD5SUM on their website - apparently the novice user need to go through this stage and get the medium validated. Lucky me for finding their FTP and the MD5SUM too!)
[ScreenShot-5]
After selecting Keyboard Layout and Time Zone you are taken to the partitioning page.(I did a Virtual Machine Install so I don't have much to say here!)
[ScreenShot-6]
[ScreenShot-7]
[ScreenShot-8]
After getting the partitioning done, you go through couple more screens for some mundane settings and then after a confirmation screen you're ready to install Pardus 2011!
[ScreenShot-11]
[ScreenShot-13]
The usual Slideshow is present while various components are getting installed. One big plus is that you see what is getting installed - the name of component that is getting installed / configured is shown above the progress bar. Also the slides are very informative - I learned one or two new things there!
[ScreenShot-14]
[ScreenShot-27]
[ScreenShot-29]
And so we get an installation complete dialog.
[ScreenShot-31]
2. Booting Up:
The new boot menu:
[ScreenShot-32]
Starting Pardus 2011:
[ScreenShot-33]
Next is user Creation on first boot, This should have been handled in Installer itself a la Ubuntu, but it's not too complicated. After entering an administrator password you're set and at login screen.
[ScreenShot-39]
One thing about this login screen that irked me was the user list on left and the empty field for username. The field should be hidden at start. I was looking at the
field and my username on the left. only after clicking my username the field got filled with the Username did I understand that it's the username field. Somebody need to take a look at this.
3. Startup:
immediately though Kaptan starts for Desktop configuration and it's very helpful.
[ScreenShot-41]
[ScreenShot-43]
The Pardus 2011 Desktop after lil' bit of customization:
[ScreenShot-45]
After going through the application mixture I can say all the things we're going to need in daily usage are all there. The latest KDE is better and the Memory utilization is also light. (Though I'm yet to try out the full experience - all effects blazing and blinking! The RAM requirement will surely cross 512MB easily!)
4. Bugs:
I found some bugs though - virtuoso server missing, Empty settings menu, Missing documentations. They are not glaring but they should not be there. So clearly Pardus needs more work going in!
[ScreenShot-42]
[ScreenShot-55]
[ScreenShot-56]
One more thing of notice is it's repository currently is way smaller than Other mainstream distro's, it'll increase by the time but once in a while you might find one or two programs missing from the repository and you'll be needed to take some extra efforts.
5.Conclusion:
So overall I'll give Pardus 2011 8/10 Points. There's a lot of efforts gone into this distro and some more are needed. I'll iterate the same thing once again - This Distro Has a Promising Future. How much promising is yet to be seen.
So here's Vaibhav - Suffering from cold and terrible runny nose, and the time is 12:54AM, 2010 Jan 25 - signing out!!!
6. More Screens:
For More Images / Screens click the Picasa Icon Below:
There are couple of screens of my Ubuntu Lucid Desktop too! Just a comparison between a fully customized Ubuntu Experience and Stock Pardus Experience!
So we see here how far Pardus has come in Year 2011. Is it the killer distro that everyone would want or does it need some time still polishing the nails?
0. An Introduction to Pardus:
Please go through following links to know more about Pardus Linux:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pardus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardus_(operating_system)
Pardus Home Page:
http://www.pardus.org.tr/
Download here:
http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/download/
OR you can ftp here:
ftp://ftp.pardus.org.tr/pub/ISO/Installation/2011/
A Pardus 2011 Beta Review at linuxuser.co.uk:
http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/reviews/pardus-2011-beta-review/
1. Installation: Lets start with the installation. The installer here is YALI (Yet Another Linux Installer).
[ScreenShot-4]
Here we can see the first screen as the installer starts after booting off the medium and choosing to install. (I chose installer DVD for myself though there's a Live DVD available too!) From here we go to the validate Medium page. If you have MD5SUM checked your image then you can check this stage. (Now I know why the ydon't offer any MD5SUM on their website - apparently the novice user need to go through this stage and get the medium validated. Lucky me for finding their FTP and the MD5SUM too!)
[ScreenShot-5]
After selecting Keyboard Layout and Time Zone you are taken to the partitioning page.(I did a Virtual Machine Install so I don't have much to say here!)
[ScreenShot-6]
[ScreenShot-7]
[ScreenShot-8]
After getting the partitioning done, you go through couple more screens for some mundane settings and then after a confirmation screen you're ready to install Pardus 2011!
[ScreenShot-11]
[ScreenShot-13]
The usual Slideshow is present while various components are getting installed. One big plus is that you see what is getting installed - the name of component that is getting installed / configured is shown above the progress bar. Also the slides are very informative - I learned one or two new things there!
[ScreenShot-14]
[ScreenShot-27]
[ScreenShot-29]
And so we get an installation complete dialog.
[ScreenShot-31]
2. Booting Up:
The new boot menu:
[ScreenShot-32]
Starting Pardus 2011:
[ScreenShot-33]
Next is user Creation on first boot, This should have been handled in Installer itself a la Ubuntu, but it's not too complicated. After entering an administrator password you're set and at login screen.
[ScreenShot-39]
One thing about this login screen that irked me was the user list on left and the empty field for username. The field should be hidden at start. I was looking at the
field and my username on the left. only after clicking my username the field got filled with the Username did I understand that it's the username field. Somebody need to take a look at this.
3. Startup:
immediately though Kaptan starts for Desktop configuration and it's very helpful.
[ScreenShot-41]
[ScreenShot-43]
The Pardus 2011 Desktop after lil' bit of customization:
[ScreenShot-45]
After going through the application mixture I can say all the things we're going to need in daily usage are all there. The latest KDE is better and the Memory utilization is also light. (Though I'm yet to try out the full experience - all effects blazing and blinking! The RAM requirement will surely cross 512MB easily!)
4. Bugs:
I found some bugs though - virtuoso server missing, Empty settings menu, Missing documentations. They are not glaring but they should not be there. So clearly Pardus needs more work going in!
[ScreenShot-42]
[ScreenShot-55]
[ScreenShot-56]
One more thing of notice is it's repository currently is way smaller than Other mainstream distro's, it'll increase by the time but once in a while you might find one or two programs missing from the repository and you'll be needed to take some extra efforts.
5.Conclusion:
So overall I'll give Pardus 2011 8/10 Points. There's a lot of efforts gone into this distro and some more are needed. I'll iterate the same thing once again - This Distro Has a Promising Future. How much promising is yet to be seen.
So here's Vaibhav - Suffering from cold and terrible runny nose, and the time is 12:54AM, 2010 Jan 25 - signing out!!!
6. More Screens:
For More Images / Screens click the Picasa Icon Below:
There are couple of screens of my Ubuntu Lucid Desktop too! Just a comparison between a fully customized Ubuntu Experience and Stock Pardus Experience!
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