[osol-discuss] BeleniX 0.4 Released

[ken mays]

I just reviewed Belenix 0.4 and must say this is one
of the best Live-CD demos I have seen in quite some
time for the Solaris Live CD distros. I enjoyed seeing
Xorg 6.9beta, KDE 3.5.1, Koffice 1.5beta,
KDEPIM/Multimedia, Quanta 3.5.1, GIMP 2.2.10,
Xscreensaver 4.23, and pretty much a good inclusion of
KDE packages and open source software.

Also, the layout of files were more like the standard
Solaris distro. Good. This is a product that can be
used to teach Solaris as well as show off a few
programs, develop/migrate software, or use for various
ISP or networking purposes.
 
<Sidenote: I got the same monitor resolution setting
at bootup of 1400x1050 as I did during Nexenta bootup
- this never happens with Linux Live-CD/DVDs). I go
into Control Panel->Desktop->Screen as reset to
1024x768 and everything is fine. Monitor detection and
setup with Xorg on Solaris needs review. I notice Xorg
6.9cvs was built on Belenix 0.3 (not 0.4) as well from
Dec 2005. Maybe the official release of Xorg 6.9 fixed
this?>

A few things I noticed (space reasons?):

1.Missing were the other KDE packages (i.e. KDE
Educational, KDEGames, etc.). The KDE Educational
(http://edu.kde.org/development/3.5improvements.php)
has some worthy educational programs on it which would
have been great to show off in school environments. A
full implementation of KDE 3.5.1 would make this
perfect for KDE conferences, engagements, and
journalism efforts. Otherwise, good job here.

2. Xscreensaver had a few of the screensavers missing
or not working. Otherwise, I'm glad Xscreensaver was
included and a lot of GL screensavers worked fine with
Xorg 6.9. No crashes during random screensaver
playback within the first 5 minutes. Please add
Xscreensaver 4.24 to the next update. Mesa 6.4.2 and
the official release of Xorg 6.9 are worthy upgrades
as well.

3. Quanta Plus 3.5.1 mentions Kommander
(http://dot.kde.org/1087424515/) and Tidy  was
missing? Might want to look into that.

4. Firefox 1.5 beta. Please add v1.5.0.1 or higher -
or maybe even SeaMonkey would be the successor
Internet browser suite.

6. Install to Hard drive...

7. Nvidia 81.78+ drivers for Solaris with GLUT
missing. This is the icebreaker.

8. More usage of a 700MB CD. I think only 617MB gets
used which could have included a few of the additional
pieces.

9. Build 34 of Nevada.

The other things were just some observations, not show
stoppers. Belenix 0.4 is truely one of the best
Solaris distros. I think a few official updates to
critical pieces like Xorg 6.9/7.0 and Mesa 6.4.2 will
help the desktop environment as well as support for
many things mentioned in the OpenSolaris desktop group
discussions.

~Ken Mays
 

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