Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on March 15, 2006 06:31 AM
This review reads a little more like a press release. Since it borrows a buzzword or two from my own recent article (Newsforge, March 07, 2006), a response is in order.
I carefully evaluated Knoppix and Kanotix for "newbie" use before discovering, evaluating, and selecting GRML Linux. In fact I evaluated many distros, but paid extra special attention to the famous "hardware detection" distros.
Knoppix and Kanotix are fantastic, but not flawless or near-perfect. Kanotix goes somewhat beyond Knoppix, yes. I studied their scripts intensively and tested several configurations of both. Kanotix has many familiar "gotchas" for hard drive and flash fob use, just like Knoppix. (P.S. UNIONFS is not always pleasant, nor newbie-friendly.)
For hardware recognition, I give first prize to GRML. I don't know about "widely regarded," but GRML is less well known than Kanotix, so no surprise. You can imagine that a Linux for sysadmins (GRML) would want to detect hardware. GRML even does RAID.
GRML is more Debian (i.e. Linx standards base) compliant. So the "Debian for newbies" prize is up for grabs. GRML does not market itself to newbies, though. That's why some other Linux distributor could take the ball and run with it, and another reason I post here: to encourage just that.
BeatriX, for example, does target newbies. It married Knoppix to Ubuntu, but development stalled in recent years. There are non-technical reasons for that but also technical ones. I wrote BeatriX suggesting they migrate away from Knoppix foundations to GRML foundations to make their work much easier.
BeatriX deserves credit for being one of the few distros to divide and conquer, leveraging separate parent distros to handle boot/kernel issues and desktop issues. GRML gets credit, too, for staying focused. Most distros try to do both boot/kernel development and desktop development. Desktop Linux will take off when more projects leverage each other.
If you love KDE and live CDs, then Kanotix is clearly for you. If you need more standard Linux with additional user mobility possibilities, try GRML with any package list and desktop you want. GRML already has sysadmin, cryptoloop, rescue, and backup stuff. Just add water, as the saying goes. As in cooking, it's much easier to add ingredients than remove them.
This note is not meant to pick a fight. I spent many painful days doing evaluations and sincerely believe others could benefit from my experience. Before doing my detailed evals, I had no particular axe to grind regarding any distribution, and had not even heard of GRML. In fact Kanotix was actually one of my top contenders. In other words, I tried hard to make Kanotix work for us. Please forgive me if I just state an intention here not to respond to further replies, though I will read them.
Kanotix is a fantastic piece of work for the usage scenarios that it envisions. However the people who can handle them well should not be considered "newbies." I am responding here only to address the buzzwords and encourage developers to think about GRML as a foundation for new and novel desktop Linux concepts pertaining to "newbies" and "just works" distributions, as well as in-house desktop customization needs.
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 15, 2006 06:31 AMI carefully evaluated Knoppix and Kanotix for "newbie" use before discovering, evaluating, and selecting GRML Linux. In fact I evaluated many distros, but paid extra special attention to the famous "hardware detection" distros.
Knoppix and Kanotix are fantastic, but not flawless or near-perfect. Kanotix goes somewhat beyond Knoppix, yes. I studied their scripts intensively and tested several configurations of both. Kanotix has many familiar "gotchas" for hard drive and flash fob use, just like Knoppix. (P.S. UNIONFS is not always pleasant, nor newbie-friendly.)
For hardware recognition, I give first prize to GRML. I don't know about "widely regarded," but GRML is less well known than Kanotix, so no surprise. You can imagine that a Linux for sysadmins (GRML) would want to detect hardware. GRML even does RAID.
GRML is more Debian (i.e. Linx standards base) compliant. So the "Debian for newbies" prize is up for grabs. GRML does not market itself to newbies, though. That's why some other Linux distributor could take the ball and run with it, and another reason I post here: to encourage just that.
BeatriX, for example, does target newbies. It married Knoppix to Ubuntu, but development stalled in recent years. There are non-technical reasons for that but also technical ones. I wrote BeatriX suggesting they migrate away from Knoppix foundations to GRML foundations to make their work much easier.
BeatriX deserves credit for being one of the few distros to divide and conquer, leveraging separate parent distros to handle boot/kernel issues and desktop issues. GRML gets credit, too, for staying focused. Most distros try to do both boot/kernel development and desktop development. Desktop Linux will take off when more projects leverage each other.
If you love KDE and live CDs, then Kanotix is clearly for you. If you need more standard Linux with additional user mobility possibilities, try GRML with any package list and desktop you want. GRML already has sysadmin, cryptoloop, rescue, and backup stuff. Just add water, as the saying goes. As in cooking, it's much easier to add ingredients than remove them.
This note is not meant to pick a fight. I spent many painful days doing evaluations and sincerely believe others could benefit from my experience. Before doing my detailed evals, I had no particular axe to grind regarding any distribution, and had not even heard of GRML. In fact Kanotix was actually one of my top contenders. In other words, I tried hard to make Kanotix work for us. Please forgive me if I just state an intention here not to respond to further replies, though I will read them.
Kanotix is a fantastic piece of work for the usage scenarios that it envisions. However the people who can handle them well should not be considered "newbies." I am responding here only to address the buzzwords and encourage developers to think about GRML as a foundation for new and novel desktop Linux concepts pertaining to "newbies" and "just works" distributions, as well as in-house desktop customization needs.
Mark
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