DistroWatch Weekly, 8 September 2014 - Porteus review

[sean]

FYI

Jesse Smith gives Porteus 3.0.1 Razor-Qt and LXDE a review in this weeks DistroWatch Weekly. He concentrates on the pre-built Razor-Qt edition.

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue ... 08#feature

Sean

[fanthom]

looks like there is still a room for improvements...
anyway - constructive criticism is always welcome

[francois]

Personally, I think that he missed it completely concerning usm. He was not even able to find the modules. However, it means that once they are built into xzm, they should be activated automatically.

He missed the modules, but also he addresses other critiques that coud be easily solved if founded:
Porteus does not play well with USB thumb drives, the installer really doesn't give us much flexibility, we are given one default user account, no practical security and no meaningful way to acquire additional software.

[sean]

FYI +

Allow some time for a stroll through the comments (at the bottom) of this DistroWatch Weekly and find some additional praise for Porteus.

In addition the "comments" are full of "systemd" arguments and links.

Sean

[francois]

Sean, you are right, but yet there is only two comments, though positive. We will see. I hope there will be more would they be positive or negative.

[donald]

What an Excitement.
Someone made a review of Porteus...positiv or negativ...I don't care..
Am I happy with Porteus?...I decide it for myself...
Q:
If some new users leave porteus, because of the review, should I care?,
and if yes, why?... 8)

[francois]

@donald:
Why do you like or prefer porteus?

@all:
1.0 The article in wikipedia is quite outdated in terms of content. And some critics in addendum ask for a rewriting with more objective facts and references to powrteus features. A number of positive reviews have been written in the past months. Their content should appear, they should be referenced.

We have accumulated some material in the Porteus on the net thread to put more meat in there:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?t=230&p=13419

The wikipedia article speaks about a modular approach but there is no explanation as to what are the modules and how distinctive they are to porteus compared to other distributions.

2.0 In our first article in the faq of porteus website, What is porteus?, there is a simple explanations about modules that is good, but maybe not enough explicit (I suspect). An operational definition of modules would not be excessive. Maybe we should have a faq: What is a module? Slax gives such a definition:
http://www.slax.org/modules.php
Additional software for Slax is provided in the form of modules. Copy your downloaded modules to the /slax/modules directory on your USB device in order to get it activated automatically during boot. Alternatively, you can use Software Center while running Slax to activate and deactivate Slax modules online. Read the documentation in order to understand how to use and even build and share your own Slax modules.

In addition, the information about the nature of modules is not evidenced in the text:
http://www.porteus.org/faq.html#one
Porteus is a lightning fast and small but powerful Linux operating system that can be installed on a USB flash device, CDROM, SD card or Hard Drive. Once installed on the storage media of your choice, it can be run on almost any PC, giving you the power and freedom of Linux anywhere you go. In essence, Porteus is a lightweight and portable implementation of the Slackware Linux Operating System that boots directly from your storage media without needing to modify or utilize your existing operating system (your computer doesn't even need a hard drive!). To accomplish this, it makes use of the Linux Live Scripts, which have been heavily modified for much faster boot-up and shutdown times. Unlike a standard Linux installation, Porteus exists in a compressed state on your storage media, with no /root, /bin, /usr, etc. directory structure on the media itself. The familiar Linux file structure is created on the fly (i.e., 'live') in your computer's RAM during the boot process, which only takes about 20-30 seconds to get from pressing the power button to full productivity on a relatively new computer. Porteus is modular in design, which means that extra software comes in the form of 'modules' which can be activated and injected into this live file system. Software does not need to be installed and uninstalled as you may expect with other operating systems which take numerous amounts of clicks and agreements; you simply double click on a module and it is activated and ready for use in a second or two. To remove this software, just double click again and it will be deactivated. It's that simple!

Porteus started out as a community remix project to keep the Slax OS up to date. It has now come into its own as a fully-fledged Linux distribution. It is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, making it the perfect "on the go" solution whether you're running a netbook, an old pentium or a brand-new power system. We hope you enjoy using Porteus as much as we have enjoyed creating it!

3.0 A simple space to make an additional paragraph before Porteus is modular in design ... could make a difference and give some more evidence to modules as in:
Porteus exists in a compressed state on your storage media, with no /root, /bin, /usr, etc. directory structure on the media itself. The familiar Linux file structure is created on the fly (i.e., 'live') in your computer's RAM during the boot process, which only takes about 20-30 seconds to get from pressing the power button to full productivity on a relatively new computer.

Porteus is modular in design, which means that extra software comes in the form of 'modules' which can be activated and injected into this live file system. Software does not need to be installed and uninstalled as you may expect with other operating systems which take numerous amounts of clicks and agreements; you simply double click on a module and it is activated and ready for use in a second or two. To remove this software, just double click again and it will be deactivated. It's that simple!






Some critics

[brokenman]

I think we need an FAQ and a 'Porteus for dummies' write up. The PFD should be very basic and use non technical language.

E.g:
So you have booted into your shiny new Porteus installation. Fast isn't it? You have played around a little and now you want to add some extra programs. How you gonna do that? (insert something here that makes variation in distros' packaging and endless dependency nightmares sound really simple).

We also need:
a) Some people to update and maintain above documentation
b) A software center that looks like google apps or similar
c) More hours in the day

[donald]

@francois

@donald:
Why do you like or prefer porteus?

Because of its community.
Two Hours after my very first post here, I could get the needed crda-module.
(thanks again Hamza)
That was impressive and made me stay a while.

about the OS:
Porteus just worked reasonable with my old Hw.It is nearly lightweight, and
has xfce as an DE...not to forget, the "Sw-module-thing", really cool.

But for my taste, Porteus doesn't need to be everybodys darling and absolutely
fool-proof (how boring when everything is working without tinkering)..

[francois]

a) Some people to update and maintain above documentation
Good idea. But should we put much energy on that, as most of the time people do not read the faq. However, wikipedia is often used to get some knowledge about concepts, words, linux systems. What about the wikipedia article on porteus and the links to small distros, etc.

b) A software center that looks like google apps or similar

Very good idea. People would load the most popular packages (modules and dependencies) directly, instead of using usm?

[fanthom]

A software center that looks like google apps or similar

we had PPM - now have USM, going for software center next?
let's be honest - we have no manpower to change package manager every major release. i'm still hoping to see a Rescue edition being actually released ...

[beny]

fanthom,francois i think have the pclinuxos packages manager like example,i think it is enough a link to the slack-desc if one choose one package,there are a lot of people that install software in a blind way,and hang the system,or you have to push for the kiosk edition, system as is and locked software option.

[brokenman]

we had PPM - now have USM, going for software center next?

No, actually i was being sarcastic. Sarcasm is difficult in written form.

let's be honest - we have no manpower

Exactly. This is the reason USM was created. To decrease the workload of maintaining yet another project (repository). This is also the reason I haven't released the rescue edition. It is sitting here almost finished, but I am very hesitant to release anything. USM has taken more maintenance than I imagined but hopefully it matures and becomes less labour intensive soon. I think it would be difficult for me to cope with yet another project that requires ongoing attention. For this reason I need to decide between making a light/thin version or releasing the rescue version. Both is probably not an option for me at this stage.

The part about other people to maintain documentation was serious. As was the extra hours in the day.

[fanthom]

ahhh.. sorry.
i thought we were serious and started worrying .... software app centre with descriptions, icons, user reviews, etc would mean one man working on it full time. we cant afford to sacrifice you on such task

[Bogomips]

But for my taste, Porteus doesn't need to be everybodys darling and absolutely fool-proof

For that we have Mint, which I'm not denigrating in any way. Porteus has it's own niche it seems in the scheme of things. (Suppose best write up first three weeks' jottings)