Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on August 02, 2005 10:30 PM
Hi,
My name is Auke Kok and I'm the current project leader of Lunar-Linux. I was glad to see the review on linux.com as we appreciate good articles about our distribution, also if that includes criticism. We will certainly do something with the information written in the article.
However, I feel compelled to refute and comment to some of the things that were written in the article, since some of it is false.
"It's based on the Source Mage distribution"
This is not true, SourceMage and Lunar-Linux are both based on Sorcerer GNU Linux, a nonactive distribution. Lunar-Linux forked from this distribution *before* the SourceMage people even existed. So, obviously Lunar Linux cannot be based on SourceMage.
"If you attempt to choose a step that has an unfinished prerequisite, the program will stop and inform you which step to choose next."
The installer has an option to turn this off, allowing you to see all installation steps and perform them whether it makes sense or not.
"However, there is absolutely no hardware detection."
The iso includes "discover" from the progeny group. This provides (some) hardware detection and recognizes most network cards etc. (and loads them automatically!). Despite the fact that 'discover' doesn't provide sound (the lunar ISO doesn't pack any sound drivers at all) this sentence is obviously false as well.
"(There did not appear to be an option to add another user during the install process.)"
That feature was experimental and removed for the final release. Future ISO's might contain it but we would recommend booting and logging in as root first.
"Typing adduser and filling in the appropriate blanks did not work."
This uses the 'useradd' binary. If it really didn't work I would like to hear about it!
"Essentially, you completely recompile the system, just as a stage 1 Gentoo install would have done from the start."
Unfortunately that manual page is out-of-date. We currently do not recommend that unless people change their optimizations, so this is our mistake.
"and the need to create a working desktop system"
I hope you didn't get the idea that lunar is meant for desktop systems. I certainly would not say that that is what lunar is best for!
"the next step was to use the dependency checker by typing lin xfree86"
xfree86 is very outdated. I find it very strange that one would choose xfree86 over XOrg nowadays, as XOrg has largely taken over the X-market in linux land. Also, 'lin' is not a dependency checker, but the (installer part) cli of the package management system.
"I tried to use the lin links command-line Web browser to visit the Lunar Linux Web site"
lynx is installed on the ISO/installer by default, so there's no need to install 'links'. I acknowledge that links might be a better choice.
"the site requires users type a graphically displayed code"
We use an email confirmation system but we have no graphically displayed code whatsoever! Our 'experimental' setup (bugs.lunar-linux.org) is not the official bugtracker and most likely will not become it (it has zero bugs in it). All links from the main website (<a href="http://lunar-linux.org/" title="lunar-linux.org">http://lunar-linux.org/</a lunar-linux.org>) point to the normal bugtracker (<a href="http://lunar-linux.org/bugs/" title="lunar-linux.org">http://lunar-linux.org/bugs/</a lunar-linux.org>). I apologise for any confusion and will see to it that this gets adressed.
"Unable to submit the bug report"
Alternatively, this person could have subscribed by email to our main mailinglist, and reported the problem there. This requires no X.
Also, as written in the README on the installer, the lunar community is very active on IRC.
"Using Lunar Linux to set up a desktop system is certainly not efficient and I would discourage you from trying it."
Finally somehing I can agree with<nobr> <wbr></nobr>;^). I mostly use it on systems that run as server, and I would agree that lunar is not the perfect desktop. However, as (for instance) many Xfce developers use lunar, I can definately say that lunar makes a good software development platform. Again, I hope that it is understood that lunar is not meant for easy desktops!
I hope you can do something with the information. Feel free to discuss or mail me back. I would be glad to help.
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Comments from the lunar-linux project leader!
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on August 02, 2005 10:30 PMMy name is Auke Kok and I'm the current project leader of Lunar-Linux. I was glad to see the review on linux.com as we appreciate good articles about our distribution, also if that includes criticism. We will certainly do something with the information written in the article.
However, I feel compelled to refute and comment to some of the things that were written in the article, since some of it is false.
"It's based on the Source Mage distribution"
This is not true, SourceMage and Lunar-Linux are both based on Sorcerer GNU Linux, a nonactive distribution. Lunar-Linux forked from this distribution *before* the SourceMage people even existed. So, obviously Lunar Linux cannot be based on SourceMage.
"If you attempt to choose a step that has an unfinished prerequisite, the program will stop and inform you which step to choose next."
The installer has an option to turn this off, allowing you to see all installation steps and perform them whether it makes sense or not.
"However, there is absolutely no hardware detection."
The iso includes "discover" from the progeny group. This provides (some) hardware detection and recognizes most network cards etc. (and loads them automatically!). Despite the fact that 'discover' doesn't provide sound (the lunar ISO doesn't pack any sound drivers at all) this sentence is obviously false as well.
"(There did not appear to be an option to add another user during the install process.)"
That feature was experimental and removed for the final release. Future ISO's might contain it but we would recommend booting and logging in as root first.
"Typing adduser and filling in the appropriate blanks did not work."
This uses the 'useradd' binary. If it really didn't work I would like to hear about it!
"Essentially, you completely recompile the system, just as a stage 1 Gentoo install would have done from the start."
Unfortunately that manual page is out-of-date. We currently do not recommend that unless people change their optimizations, so this is our mistake.
"and the need to create a working desktop system"
I hope you didn't get the idea that lunar is meant for desktop systems. I certainly would not say that that is what lunar is best for!
"the next step was to use the dependency checker by typing lin xfree86"
xfree86 is very outdated. I find it very strange that one would choose xfree86 over XOrg nowadays, as XOrg has largely taken over the X-market in linux land. Also, 'lin' is not a dependency checker, but the (installer part) cli of the package management system.
"I tried to use the lin links command-line Web browser to visit the Lunar Linux Web site"
lynx is installed on the ISO/installer by default, so there's no need to install 'links'. I acknowledge that links might be a better choice.
"the site requires users type a graphically displayed code"
We use an email confirmation system but we have no graphically displayed code whatsoever! Our 'experimental' setup (bugs.lunar-linux.org) is not the official bugtracker and most likely will not become it (it has zero bugs in it). All links from the main website (<a href="http://lunar-linux.org/" title="lunar-linux.org">http://lunar-linux.org/</a lunar-linux.org>) point to the normal bugtracker (<a href="http://lunar-linux.org/bugs/" title="lunar-linux.org">http://lunar-linux.org/bugs/</a lunar-linux.org>). I apologise for any confusion and will see to it that this gets adressed.
"Unable to submit the bug report"
Alternatively, this person could have subscribed by email to our main mailinglist, and reported the problem there. This requires no X.
Also, as written in the README on the installer, the lunar community is very active on IRC.
"Using Lunar Linux to set up a desktop system is certainly not efficient and I would discourage you from trying it."
Finally somehing I can agree with<nobr> <wbr></nobr>;^). I mostly use it on systems that run as server, and I would agree that lunar is not the perfect desktop. However, as (for instance) many Xfce developers use lunar, I can definately say that lunar makes a good software development platform. Again, I hope that it is understood that lunar is not meant for easy desktops!
I hope you can do something with the information. Feel free to discuss or mail me back. I would be glad to help.
Regards,
Auke Kok
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