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It's not all bad

Just after installation -- a 30 to 45-minute process -- you end up with a nice, fully functional, and well-equipped desktop with GNOME 2.6; Ximian's customized OpenOffice.org 1.1; Mozilla 1.6 with the Blackdown JDK 1.4.1, Flash, Realplayer, Acroread, and QuickTime plug-ins; and several other mostly current desktop applications. Aside from the hardware difficulties I had, the software does look and operate nicely.

Porthole is the new graphical front end for Portage

Porthole is the open source GTK-based front end for the Gentoo Portage software management system. The first downside to it is that, even though it's a GUI, you need to have a basic understanding of Portage to know how to use it. The second downside to it -- if you already know Portage well -- is that the GUI will just get in your way. I found it easier to simply use Portage from the command line, especially since Porthole only covers a small number of Portage functions (albeit the most common ones). Still, Porthole is good for doing standard system updates.

If nothing else, Vidalinux is easy to install and use, and installing new software is a snap with Porthole. Services and servers are set up through the command line mainly, just as in Gentoo. From a command-line perspective, Vidalinux is Gentoo Linux, complete with such Gentooisms as the requirement for the deprecated devfs in the kernel and the customized update scripts (etc-update, rc-update, modules-update) for your config files and startup options. The tough part of a Gentoo system is not using it; it's installing and configuring it. Vidalinux takes away some of that hassle.

Conclusions

This distribution needs a lot of work before it can be a usable desktop operating system. It looks nice and has some promising new features and utilities, but it's plagued by bugs and mistakes. To sum up:

• The kernel is old and should be updated for better performance, security, and hardware support
• Porthole needs more powerful options and a more intuitive interface (or instructions) for those not familiar with Gentoo
• AMD64 and SPARC support would be nice
• The installer needs an overhaul: the ability to add a user account, set up the network, deselect certain packages, and use a stage 1 or 2 Gentoo set for those who want more customization without all of the typing and manual-reading. The distribution names should also be corrected
• Fix the documentation that exists (hint: actually follow the procedure before you post it), and offer an installation guide to cover the post-install configuration

I'm not confident that the first release of Vidalinux will be at all on par with a more mature desktop distribution, or even with a standard Gentoo installation by the time of its official release. If development continues, however, Vidalinux will definitely be a force on the desktop.

Jem Matzan is the author of three books, a freelance journalist and the editor-in-chief of The Jem Report.

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