[NTLUG:Discuss] Corel Linux

[MadHat]

Well, I just downloaded, burned and installed Corel Linux.  It is not
bad.  Should be nice for the truely novice user.  There are some
problems (read, things I don't like) that might be changed, but for a
1.0, it isn't bad...

OK, the details:

- On boot it has a graphical splash screen/prompt, no LILO:
	*NOTE: lilo is there, they just put a graphical front end on it.
- The install is fairly painless, more configurable then Caldera (I
think).
- It does ask to set uip a user by default, but doesn't prompt for a
password until the first time that user logs in, that means if you
forget to log in with that user or root one of them will be acccessable
without a password.
- There is a new "Corel File Manager" that has NFS and SMB built into
it, very nice. 
- On install it did not ask me about network settings, it detected a
DHCP server and assumed that is what I wanted.
- limited tools installed (I went for the developer desktop).
Let me add to this.  The tools are there, but there are very few apps
listed on the Kmenu, start button, what ever they are calling it.  The
apps are there, but unless you know where to find them you don't know
they are there...  I hope that makes sence.
- There were 4 install options:
 1: minimal Desktop install
 2: Developer Desktop
 3: Server (File, Web, FTP...)
 4: Expert
I plan on playing with it some more and going through the different
installs if anyone is interested.
- KDE is hacked but fairly close to the _main_ version.
- they replaced all the icons that normally come with KDE (not that this
is anything major, but just something I noticed as a user)
- They renamed (not the binaries) several of the KDE apps to have a more
generic name instead of like ktop is listed as "Task Manager" and is
also what shows up on the title bar.  This is good in that it is easier
for the user to figure out what they are running, but may cause problems
if the user wants to go to the developer with problems or wants to
upgrade. (this was discussed heavily on the kde-development list).
- I assumed (my mistake) that Corel WordPerfect would be on here, but I
haven't found it.
- I really like the Corel File Manager.  When you hover over a file it
give the info like running "file filename".  It has where if you right
click on a directory, you have the option to mount a network share fomr
either a NFS or SMB share point (but it crashed when I tryed to add it,
restarted the File Manager and it appears to work fine).

Over all I am empressed.  This is a nice step forward for Linux for the
non technical person, I think...  I am going to do an experiment with it
and my wife, she is not into Linux, so if she can instalol it and figure
it out, without my help, that should be a good, right?

If you want me to check something out, let me know.  Enjoy

-- 

MadHat