Elive 0.5 Revolution - Bringing Fun and Excitement to Linux

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This entry was posted on 9/26/2006 8:38 AM and is filed under Distros.

Updated 11/7/06 - Recently, ELive announced that they have an unstable test for 0.5.2, which if you wish to know, has mostly bug fixes and very little in the way of a change to the install process or look and feel. Therefore, we will just update the one screen we noticed to be different and state that the system does seem to run faster on our test platforms. However, it didn't run on an older HP desktop with AMD chip.

Good luck and best wishes - KLG


I always am looking for the latest and greatest new Linux distro out there, and typically do my hunting on distrowatch.com like most of you. Well, since there are over 500 distros in the database, it can be tough to decide which one to play with next. I typically try to go with the most popular, but Fedora and Mandriva just bother me. Then in feedback to my Dreamlinux review, one reader suggested that if I like Dream I would love Elive, a Belgium based distro.

Now, there are many of these small distros out there touting cool and function over fluff like Elive, Zenwalk comes to mind right off the top of my head, but Elive is one that is very open and honest about what they are all about. From their website;

"Elive is not made for newbies. Elive is not made for experienced people. Elive is not made for enterprises or personal use... Elive is art, Elive is simply for the people who appreciate it and want it. Feel free to try Elive, because only you decide what you want on this world!"

Let's head to Europe and see what is happening, shall we?


Details:

Website http://www.elivecd.org/
Download Here
Kernel - Kernel 2.6.15
Desktop - Enlightenment E16 Stable and E17 selected parts
FAQs - http://www.elivecd.org/gb/Main/About/
Cost - FREE!!! But they do offer faster download servers for a donations of any amount
Special Features - Live installer, excellent icons/graphics, full media support including DVD creation

Nitty Gritty:
Installation ()

Elive comes in my favorite package: a Live CD with an installer function. When you boot up from the CD, first you get to choose a language, but be quick. There seems to be a bug in the countdown and you don't get the full 20 seconds. If you don't want English you better be quick.



Next, one needs to choose the system run type. Here, unless you have had issues in the past, you will need to select the 'default' option, or choose what you need from what you know. Unless you know what you are doing here, you may just want to stick to default. Laptop users may need to use 'noapic noapci' options if they needed that in the past, and you will likely know who you are.



A pretty little splash screen to watch while everything loads...



Here you get to choose the deafult theme for the Live CD. Now this sticks around after install, but we will show you how to modify. I went with Night version because it says it is better for the eyes. Remember, Elive is Art, so we want to see what Art is.



Here you tell the system the type of monitor you have. I know I have an LCD monitor so I stick with that. I didn't test the other options, but I assume these will probe your monitor and likely come back with something close. If you know the data, of course I would suggest entering the actual data in, but most people have no idea on their refresh rate or sync.



Now, when installing this on my laptop, I got a message around here stating that I could choose to select the 'ati' module or the 'fglrx' module, which they of course being the open source fans they are speak not so highly about. Basically the 'ati' is open source and 'fglrx' is proprietary. Because of that, you never know how well it will work with the system. So they provide you the option which I like because I really don't concern myself over open and proprietary rather works and don't work. Since the screen shots come form a VMWare install, this didn't present itself.

Next you get to choose your monitor settings, which stay with you upon install, so make sure you choose wisely. Of course you can modify if needed, but might as well stick with what brought you right?



After a few moments and some text at the bottom telling you a little bit of what is happening, the next screen pops up and now you see why they call Elive Art. Wow. This thing is right out of Myst meets Tomb Raider. I have to admit, this is starting to peak my interests. What I really like is that it is cool and organized. You see clearly on the screen what the user name and password is for the Live CD, you have the option in the bottom left shown clearly with a flashing arrow to select E16 or E17 version of Enlightenment and a monster power button. Now, I couldn't ever see how to reboot, just power off so that I miss, but other than that BLAM!!!!!



Not to be outdone simply by the login screen the desktop comes up quick for a Live CD. I didn't put a clock on it, but I would have to say only Puppy or DSL comes up quicker. And the Night Theme is definitely better on the eyes. I like the dark colors but some who prefer bright things should choose the Elive version, which we will show later.



I ran the typical programs, which include many of your favorites right in the Live CD, like Open Office, Mplayer, Firefox, and Thunderbird. Everything worked and worked amazingly fast. This is one of the key goals of Elive according to their fact page
fastFast: Work fast, this is one of the most important Elive goal's, no only with the fast and light work of the system but you can use your mouse normally or you have the possibility of work in a diferent way, for example with only press one key, your desired program are opened or a action launched, programs resized, iconized or moved, desktop switch, etc. and all ready to use for feel to fly fast how a ray
And Fast is the word that works. Everything works and you can't find much that doesn't scream open. Now, the IO Temp and IO Bat never have worked for me and for the life of me I can't get them off the screen, so that kind of bothers me, but with everything else being so amazing I am willing to look past it.

So now, lets get this Art on my machine. Again, I am installing this on VMWare for screen shots but also ran this for about 6 weeks on my laptop, first in Beta and then the last week or so on Revolution.

The icon to the right of the iBar is the installer. Once you click you get a nice little welcome to the install program window. Now, two things right away that I don't like. First, there is no status letting me know where I am and where I am going in the install process. I like these so I can see how much I have done and how much is left so I know to plan enough time. Simple, but really nice in my humble opinion. Second would be that there is no back or cancel install options along the way. Now there are cancel options in some choices, but these are really "no's" and not cancel.



Once we click pass the hello screen, the next screen gives you the chance to check out your disc to see if the install will likely happen. Now, if you have a few extra minutes go ahead. I did this once and it took about 3-5 minutes but if your CD is fresh, you likely won't have any issues. Your choice, but I selected Cancel (which means no).



Next, you need to select how you are going to set up your partitions. You get the standard fare of options here with Gparted (graphical) and CFDisk (command line), so which ever you prefer go ahead. Now I did have problems with gparted working with using an exisiting partition that I wanted to use, so command line was used in my laptop, but for most people gparted will likely be your best option. Note you cannot go back with this install, so if you want to start over you will likely have to reboot or kill the process. If you already have the system partitioned the way you like, you can choose the last option and skip down to the partition selection.



A nice window of gparted opens up here and you get to set up your partitions. I set up a basic one here of about 3 Gig and then a Swap of 516 MB. The next couple of screens are self explanitory.



Select Add and choose the format type. Remember to leave room for Swap on fresh drives or other partitions for other distros.



Remember that Swaps are their own filesystem type.



Almost there...Click Apply and see it take off and create your partitions.



Now, once they are done simply close your gparted session and then the next dialog box will pop up and ask where you want to install. Likely you will know this from what you just did, but if your drive was already partitioned just make sure to select the right one. Many times I have wiped out the wrong partitions, so be extra careful here.



The extra step I love making sure you just did the right thing.



Now that you verified your not going crazy, you get another goofy one. Here you need to select the format of the partition you wish to make it, even though when you used gparted you had to select the type as well. Now I like that you have to format, as when you don't odd things can happen, but to not remember that you just did this, is kind of silly. I guess it is more for those who might have skipped the partition tool, but hey, know that....I am a reiser fan. Just know that if you select XFS you need to have a seperate Boot folder in a seperate drive on a non XFS partition (I think anyway from previous attempts).



Here is a step you might have needed to know about before you partitioned your drive. Hopefully if you read this whole thing you will know that you can use the extra partitions to create ones for home, usr, etc...but since your partitioner was 5 steps ago, not much help now. If you select Cancel you are saying shove it all in the one we created.



Finally data is being copied. This process is pretty painless and worked well, just not very intuitive and with little safety net, minus kill and start over. I am not saying this was the worst installer every seen, but there are many out there better structured and easier. I do like that they give you a game to play with, similar to Ark does with tetris, but the pop up doesn't open the game right away so it could confuse you until you realize it is a solitare game.



The data transfer didn't take too long and then you are quickly prompted for the Root password, with a repeat that please window.



Follow that up with a single user name option, but you can add more later from the cool control panel.



Followed by the user name password and repeat like the admin. I didn't show that screen as it looks amazingly like the root password one. The hostname is next, which unless you are part of a network really doesn't matter, so the Elive default will work fine.



Now I missed the screen here for where to install your bootloader, so you should know that most likely that would be in the MBR, unless you have another distro you want to keep booting for now and add Elive as an option to there. You can always change that in either case, but for me I typically go with adding to the MBR so that I can see if there are any default boot options that they distro people suggest in theirs that I then copy over to the primary one.

There is an option next for a frame buffer line in the boot, but you will need to remember if your splash screen was present during boot or not to select yes. It won't hurt anything really either way, so go ahead and select Yes.



The next step really isn't one, it just lets you know that somethings are happening but not to worrry.



Wallah, you now have Elive on your system. Now, you cannot simply reboot from Elive, you need to exit Enlightenment and then shutdown from the login splash screen. Congratulations on your fine new distro, let's get out of this Live CD and really see if this is as fast as people claim it to be.



Starting (
)

Now, unlike Dreamlinux which runs on XFce, Elive is based on Enlightenment, but they don't offer in the E17 system, but someone told me they do in the E16, which provides the Apple OS X look and feel. I am not saying this is a bad approach, but ok in my book.

To run Enlightenment you really need to know the hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts, otherwise you are running in half cocked. You can find that data here so check those out first.

Now, some amazing things happened when I launched into Elive. First, my graphics card was working which always amazes me with ATI being such idiots on their Linux support. Next, everything else worked minus wireless. A quick brush with NDISWRAPPER and that too was working in short order. Last, media worked. All of it. And when I mean all of it, I mean they pack in all that any media people will ever want.

So how do you navigate within Elive. Basically you have no start button to click, but have an iBar full of programs that are defaulted in the system for you. To go beyond those you have two options: right click and left click on the desktop. Left click gives you a full menu of pretty much everything broken down like below.



Here one can go to Favorite Applications (which is the same as right clicking)



One of the most important option in the left click menu is the Configuration options with Configuration Panel options, shown below.



This is the place to come to configure the look and feel of your Elive system. However, this is not the control panel, as that is actually the far right icon now in the iBar, replacing your installer. That tool is called Elpanel and we will get to that in a second. This is more of the Enlightenment configuration tool here, setting up themes, backgrounds, icons and other basic functions. If you click on the theme selector, you can go to the other theme you didn't select during install called Elive, which is more bright and colorful.



If you need to do anything more, like setup more users, network configurations, or add applications one needs to select the Elpanel from either the right click> Utils> Elive Control Panel or the icon at the right of the iBar.

Once you select this, the following panel opens with three options; Look and feel, Users and Admin and System Configurations.



If you select configuration, this is where the meat and potatoes are. Primarily once you get going for the first time I would suggest opening synaptic and checking for any updated Debian packages. I really, really like the organization, the look and descriptions of this control panel from Elive. This thing makes like easy for newbies and also allows experienced Linux people a way to get eye candy without trying to look like windows or Mac. It is unique, it makes sense and is really functional.



Synaptic is pretty generic, with the same look and feel as every other version I have seen, so nothing new here.



Bonus Stuff ()

Elive isn't one of those massive distros full of crap you don't need, nor could ever want. It is a simple little package that is full of functionality, awesome looks, speed and productivity. Everyone from a typical user to a massive media nut will enjoy what they get out of the box with this tool. The coolest part for me is that they keep function in the package beyond open source, in media players that function without restrictions. Mplayer worked once I changed the video output type to x11, but I also installed Xine and that worked as well. So no need to go hunt and search for the lbdvdcss or w32codecs. They are there and they work. Now, legally speaking for people to have this is not illegal, but playing a movie on a non-licensed player is. So people in North America beware and know that you can, just don't play restricted files.



There is a really cool demo from Right Click> Demos > Multivideos that shows off some of the power of Mplayer with a pretty neat little commercial from IBM. I don't remember this one ever on TV but I wish it was out there. Pretty cool cameos if you ask me.



There is also an Enlightenment Demo there, but that doesn't seem to work.

In the Video section, you get the following packages:
  • Mplayer - A very power media player that once you have the right files loaded provides full functionality
  • Oxine - a lightweight pure OSD (on screen display) GUI for the famous xine engine. oxine is particularly suited for set-top boxes or home entertainment systems
  • Kino - Easy and reliable DV editing for the Linux desktop with export to many usable formats
  • Cinelerra - a non-linear video editor
  • Acidrip - Gtk2Perl application for ripping and encoding DVD's
So if you are into video playing, editing, creating, well then there is nothing Elive won't do for you. This is one powerful media center and I don't think that was an intention of the developers, but amazing for a small, fast package, like this one.

Overall ()

So did Elive live up to the Art hype? Is it something worth your time and effort to get over a mediocre installation, or valuable partition space? I would have to say yes. Giving this a 4 Pennie review wasn't difficult, if by the media capabilities and eye candy alone. This is by far one of the fastest packages around. If you have an older piece of hardware and want to impress people with an amazing Linux distro, then this is by far the best at doing just that. What amazes me the most is the hardware requirements/recommendations. Quoting again from their website:

cloud Minimum Requeriments: The minimum hardware for run Elive is a 100 Mhz CPU machine and 64 MB of RAM, but the minimum recomended is 300 Mhz and 128 Mb of RAM, no special graphic card or 3d acceleration required

I am pretty sure that comes below even what DSL and Puppy state and they have no where near this type of performance and packaging. I am truly glad that reader of my Dreamlinux review told me about this package, and now the only things that really seperate the two are Engage (apple look and feel), XGL option (for Nvidia folks), NTFS write support (with DreamLinux Works 2.1), which honestly are very specific and not what other people might want or need. This is an excellent distro and I would expect with Revolution out now, this will be climbing the charts like DreamLinux is.

Oh and go ahead and make a donation of a buck or two when you download the package. We in the Linux world do this out of love of the community, but we do have needs along with that, so any little bit helps.

Cheers!!!!

KnoLinuxGuy (Kevin)
 

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  • 12/28/2006 12:44 PM meneame.net wrote:
    Elive no está hecha para novatos. Elive no está hecha para expertos. Elive no está hecha para un uso empresarial ni personal. Elive es arte, Elive está hecha para la gente que la aprecia y quiere. Prueba Elive, porque tú eres el único que decide lo que quieres :D
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    • 9/26/2006 5:14 PM Raj wrote:
      Hi Kevin,

      Great thorough review. A couple of things I thought I'd tack on for those who have never used eLive or Enlightenment. In e17 [e16 or e17 are selectable from the login page as you described], the wallpaper, by itself gorgeous, has twinkling stars. Looks fantastic!! Also, when hoevering over icons in the ibar/taskbar, under e17 they "throb"/flash/glow. Another great effect. Also, you mention there is no Engage for OSX like effect? In fact logging into e16, this effect is in play. The configurable nature of eLive should also be mentioned, you can configure EVERYTHING. Whilst I am a PCLinuxOS user, I've been on eLive as a toy for about a month and it is staying, alongside my PCLinuxOS base system. You mentioned you could not get rid of the temp/battery meters. These can be done under configuration [not via the control panel, just left click>configuration>...]. Also, users need to know that things are different in Enlightenment than in KDE/Gnome/XFCE etc. eg, although usb keys etc do automount, there is no icon for the desktop. The way I access the device is via Thunar, the file manager. Pop in the usb, and it is added at the top level for easy access, and also, Thunar opens a new file manager for the device. Close that Thunar instance, and it asks if you want to unmount the device!! Pretty intuitive. Anyway, I still consider myself a linux newbie [Windows free for about 2 years] but eLive is really great. Install it, have fun, test ALL the features, try and break it, I'm sure you will love it. And if you want a really stable base, and another great community to try to get on the Linux bandwagon, go PCLinuxOS!! Cheers. Raj
      Reply to this
      1. 9/26/2006 6:22 PM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Wow, thanks for the review feedback Raj, this is almost as long as my review

        Yes, I did notice the USB drive issue when I loaded some data over. Thanks for the instructions for removing the icons for battery and temperature, those are a bit anoying. I did like the way the beta minimized things to the desktop with the Alt-I click, which this just minimizes to the little box in the lower left, which is cool in the way it shows the icon for the program, but when you have many there, it gets a bit confusing.

        Good luck with your Linux trials, I too love PCLinuxOS. You can check out my review on that, and give me some feedback there as well.

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy


        Reply to this
    • 9/26/2006 6:24 PM brjoon1021 wrote:
      I don't think that DreamLinux is based on Enlightenment, Distrowatch has it as XFCE and that is what it looks like to me.
      Reply to this
      1. 9/26/2006 6:40 PM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Very true I got ahead of myself when writing, will correct that. It is XFce along with Engage.

        Reply to this
    • 9/26/2006 6:56 PM Medieval Mutt wrote:
      Hello Kevin,

      Great review. Nice follow up by Raj as well. Earlier this month, I tried running the beta version on a laptop which has the ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 graphics chipset. For some reason it was painfully slow. After reading your review, I feel like giving it another shot. I'll try running it on my desktop as well; it has an Nvidia card.

      It's nice to see e17 moving along. Seems to be a lot more usable than I thought. I wonder how it'll fair on an older machine. Do post on your website if you hear anything about it or if you get to test it on an older machine. I'll do the same.

      Thanks.
      Reply to this
      1. 9/26/2006 7:40 PM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Thanks Mutt, will keep my eye on things. I really don't have much of an older system to test on, so I am at the whim of others to test that. These claims are pretty spectacular, so to see this running on a machine with 100 Mhz processor will be amazing to see. Maybe I will get on eBay and get one.

        Click away on the adds folks and I will try to find one out there once I get some funds from Google.

        Thanks for the comments and best wishes

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy


        Reply to this
    • 9/26/2006 9:53 PM SAM user wrote:
      Hi KnoLinuxGuy,

      if you like some eyecandy in combination with older hardware AND stability, don´t forget to check the PCLinuxOS based SAM Linux, which uses XFce. Not as eyecandy as e17, no MAC clone, it´s the linux way. A new version was released two days ago. Here´s the link: www.sam-linux.org
      Reply to this
      1. 9/27/2006 7:43 AM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Hey SAM, yes I am fully aware of SAM and have actually downloaded it. I tried it on the last release and it had some odd issues like right clicking went to German rather than English which is fine for my mother in-law, who is from there, but not for me. I plan on trying it next along with Sabayon. Whichever impresses me the most will be getting a review.

        Thanks for the feedback and best wishes

        Cheers!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
    • 9/27/2006 4:19 AM sodix wrote:
      Hello, very nice review as always :)

      And yes, I like Elive 5.0 too. I tried it live on my old laptop Toshiba Tecra 8200 P3 256mb RAM, and it worked really great. However, I could not test the suspend and hybernate feature.
      Did you manage to suspend / hybernate on your laptop? And what about it's temperature ? Mine showed a little high here (50 deg).

      Thank's !
      Reply to this
      1. 9/27/2006 7:47 AM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Thank you Sodix, I hardly ever try suspend/hybernate on my laptops for many reasons. First, I don't get the point. Elive boots up so fast there is hardly any time savings. Second, it hardly ever works and most likely will crash so why bother when seeing first point. I never got the temp to actually show something as I never enabled powernow or whatever this is using.

        I am not a big fan of using most of the laptop features as I run 99% of the time plugged in so I am not concerned about battery life. These are things I probably should try but mainly I am reviewing the software for newbies who really don't know about these things or are installing on a desktop. Will give it a go when I get some time.

        Thanks for the feedback and best wishes

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
    • 9/28/2006 9:28 PM L_n00b wrote:
      Twinkling stars are annoying, elive panel even more annoying, and the fact that newly installed packages do not get added to the menu is annoying as well. Many games do not work well with provided ATI drivers (Radeon Mobility 9200).

      I did not install from the LIVE cd. Maybe I can swap you for your Linux XP:)
      Reply to this
      1. 9/29/2006 7:59 AM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Well, there is the other theme to go with so that you don't see the stars. On the ATI driver, well you could have used fglrx instead of ati, or download the one from ATI, which I found worked well with my mobility 9600.

        I don't need the swap as I already have the Elive, but you can have my Linux XP one for the attempt at trying the distro. Not everyone out there is for everyone, but at least you gave it a go. There are many which get on my CD's but never my hard drive.

        Good Luck and best wishes

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
      2. 10/1/2006 2:55 PM duvelr wrote:
        "Twinkling stars are annoying" ...agree, so: run "el panel" -> Icono Screen ->E1? & select "Backgrounds Manager" and...remember:
        "Elive is not made for newbies. Elive is not made for experienced people. Elive is not made for enterprises or personal use... Elive is art, Elive is simply for the people who appreciate it and want it. Feel free to try Elive, because only you decide what you want on this world!"
        Reply to this
    • 9/30/2006 5:16 PM John Biles wrote:
      Hello KnoLinuxGuy,
      I have had Elive installed on my computer for a few weeks now and I agree that it has a very nice desktop with Enlightenment.
      It really shows that you don't have to use KDE or Gnome Desktops if you want a good looking Desktop.
      Also included in the Distro are alot of other good Packages, see link http://www.elivecd.org/gb/Download/Packages/0.5
      I believe like you do that Elive will win alot of fans and keep growing into a very usable Distro.
      Reply to this
      1. 9/30/2006 8:18 PM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        I agree with you. Enlightenment is an excellent desktop with a lot of potential. I am hoping E17 will get finished soon and help take over some of the Apple people who don't want to spend an arm and a leg for hardware to go with their software.

        The packages are excellent as well, especially for those who want more media in their packages.

        Thanks for the comments and best wishes

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
    • 10/4/2006 6:16 AM thecdn wrote:
      As a previous note mentioned, why don't added pgms get put into the menu? I've gone in and modified the ibar and tried to add things to the menu but it just doesn't work. I've added a lot of games via synaptic and only 5 show up in the menu. I've added x3270 but the only way I can start it is via cli.

      Also, is there a way to turn on auto logon for this distro? I don't have multiple users and want to start it and go to the desktop, not have to enter username and passwd every time.

      But it is a truly beautiful distro that has a lot of good features.
      Reply to this
      1. 10/4/2006 8:42 AM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        From what I have read on their forums about adding programs and the iBar issues, these seem to be issues with E17 and since that is still unstable, not sure how much of that will be workable at this time. You may want to go to their forums, which are very good and see what you can find.

        Good luck and if you find any solutions let us know. Right now I am onto another for review so I can't help test or tweak the system with you

        Thanks for the comments and best wishes

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
    • 10/14/2006 2:22 AM Merlin wrote:
      I am an extremely new to any Linux packages ... All I want is a package that allows me to access the internet and run Skype can you tell me whether this would do the job?
      Reply to this
      1. 10/14/2006 7:15 AM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Hey Merlin,

        If all you want is a distro that does skype, well then most anyone will do that with ease. Some come with it preloaded, others you just need to add it. Linspire/Freespire come with Gizmo, which is similar and if you get people to register their home phone with their account, all calls around the world are free. I would think more of what you are looking for your computer as that typically is more important, matching your hardware to a distro.

        The one draw back to Enlightenment, which I am sure a more experienced person with that desktop would disagree with me, is that adding new programs to the program browsers is pretty poor.

        This package is more art that anything else. It also works on older machines that just can't handle a newer, more memory intense OS like some of the other packages. Mandriva is working with Skype directly and their are packages on Skype's website for Fedora, Suse and Debian (Ubuntu, Dream, PCLinuxOS).

        So again, if you like the look and feel of Elive, then yes this one would be able to run Skype but adding a link to it is not as simple as other desktops.

        Hope that helps and best wishes

        Cheers!!!!!
        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
    • 10/26/2006 8:26 PM revdjenk wrote:
      wonderful review...I think you have pegged elive. It is art, yet useable art. And you have also noted the issues that the elive developer and the irc community are also able at answering with adding new apps, modules, etc.
      I have been using elive (and Linux) exclusively since March 2006 (version .3), and use it as my productive system, even though I sometimes break it by helping the developer and others test new apps and packages, and more often in my curiosity.
      Again, your review is most helpful in telling ppl exactly what to expect...yet that in trying elive, and being patient, they will enjoy it!
      Reply to this
      1. 10/26/2006 9:37 PM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        Thanks for the comments and support revdjenk, and I am glad you liked the review. Elive is one of those love/hate distros that just isn't for everyone, but those that like it tend to love it. Hopefully everything with Enlightenment 17 will get fixed up soon and the links on the desktop will become easier to manage.

        Thanks again and best wishes

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
    • 10/30/2006 5:49 PM Carlos wrote:
      After a real slow download I finally got Elive_Revolution. Luckily the MD5sum is ok so I immediately got it burned and installed. It worked fine with my desktop computer, very cool looking, the applications worked well, and the hardwares are doing ok. However I would say that, once the applications are on__the way they looked on the screen is not as cool or as handy as Mepis or PCLinuxOs. I didnt appreciate any difference in speed as well. I think I'm gonna enjoy it some more, this twinkling desktop is nice to play around with. BTW, where is the synaptic button? I want to see the repo and how how they update things.

      Unfortunately, it didnt boot in my laptop because of hardware detection errors. Well, I hope the next release would resolve this issue.
      Reply to this
      1. 1/13/2007 6:42 AM adLucem wrote:
        For Synaptic: in el panel (the icon on the right of the iBar), choose the Sys icon (a key holder), then the "Box with CD" icon (2nd row, 2nd column).

        It's so configurable that I'm sure there's a way to put a Synaptic icon in the iBar or within the Menu, but i ve just started looking at Elive today so i don t know how yet...

        P3 Celeron 1.2Ghz, 256RAM, 32Mb video card, works like a charm.
        Reply to this
        1. 1/13/2007 10:20 AM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
          There is a nice tutorial on getting the stuff on the iBar that I read on Dreamlinux website here.

          Cheers!!!!

          KnoLinuxGuy

          Reply to this
    • 1/12/2007 10:42 AM K from CDA wrote:
      Ive recently installed elive on an old Sony laptop (pIII 400 I believe) with 128M Ram, and it works amazing. Ive tried about 30 different distros designed for old hardware and any time there was eye candy involved, the computer screeched to a halt. Not elive. I love it. I agree with the adding programs to the menu issue, and I also would like to have pen drives show up as an icon somewhere rather than automatically opening Thunar, but overall...its been awesome, and I think I can finally stop burning distros onto cds....
      Reply to this
      1. 1/13/2007 10:28 AM KnoLinuxGuy wrote:
        See, what you found was exactly what Elive was intended to do...bring excitement back to older hardware and just work.

        The USB drive issue is one of the weaknesses of having an icon free distro like elive is meant to be, in that when you install a drive you are not going to get an icon. This is much better than before when you go nothing on the install, and you had to know to go and open a file manager and what location was going to be your pen drive.

        Best of luck and glad you found what you were looking for

        Cheers!!!!

        KnoLinuxGuy

        Reply to this
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