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By : vasanth
This Russian based distribution's latest release 4.0 was released on 27th of August 2007. ALT linux is one of the many recent distributions which includes proprietary components such as display/modem/LAN card drivers,multimedia codecs and browser plug-ins. The 4.3GB iso download is available as an installable DVD with a strange name (dvd4.iso).
When booting from the DVD, the important boot options listed were livecd, rescue system, install and install with safe settings. I chose the install option(Be warned that the initial grub screen is in Russian. You have to change the language to English by pressing F2 and selecting the 3rd option) and was presented with a professionally looking walking penguin which took me to the installation screen.
The laptop i used for this review was the DELL 6400 with the following configuration.
- ATI mobility Radeon X1400(256MB)
- WSXGA+(1680x1050)
- BCM43xx series wireless LAN card
Installation:
The setup detected my radeon card but there was this AMD logo saying "unsupported hardware" which i could not get rid of. The step by step configuration gave me the license agreement as the first option. There was no step 2 but the time zone selection which was step 3.
The partitioning tool was simple and functional with which you can create/remove file systems. The missing thing in the partitioning was that after you are done with partitioning, there was no summary which lists your changes.
After this the "base installation" step installed the base system. There was no release notes (or games) so i had to look the flying package names. The next step which was "install boot loader" presented the simple/expert settings which will allow installing LILO into a partition in the disk,adding other operating systems,choosing another loader etc. After this i set the root password and created system users.
The next step allowed me to include additional software but the sections presented did miss commonly expected sections like "Internet" which was included in the "communications" section. The network configuration step detected the LAN card but not the BCM43xx wireless as most other distributions. The next step detected the mobility radeon card and set the resolution to the native 1680x1050(fglrx version 8.39.4). This was the last step and asked to reboot the system which i did.
Booting:
The default boot loader is Lilo which did not detect my existing Mint,Fedora,Paldeo and Sabayon installations. So i had to boot Mint add ALT to its list. As i previously mentioned the boot loader theme was very clean and professional.
Alt uses KDE as the default desktop and since KDE is my personal preference i was now looking at my KDE desktop. The mild theme with QTCurve style was pretty and the choice of fonts were good. To my surprise the "AMD Unsupported Hardware" was still present and even now I'm living with it(even when watching movies :) ).
Life with ALT:
One of the real strengths of ALT linux is its choice of packages. The important packages and their versions at the time of installation were,
- Kernel 2.6.18
- Kde 3.5.7
- Open Office 2.2.1
- Firefox 2.0.0.6
- Java 1.6.0
- Flash 9.0
Working with ALT is pleasant since all the applications seems to be stable. No crashes so far(except suspend to disk). The first thing i tested was the "fglrx" driver and it worked perfectly with a good "fps" count. As this distribution comes with proprietary audio/video codecs, i was able to play all my audio/video files without any issues. One of my complaints is that the "media direct" keys on my Inspiron which controls volume and playback are not functional.
The searchable KDE menu is a great customization which is simple and efficient to search the applications in the menu. When you type it automatically highlights the path in which the matching application can be found.
ALT linux is a rpm based distribution with apt-get as the package management tool. Though this tool is not as good as its .deb counter part it is mostly functional. When i first opened synaptic, it took a lot of time to refresh the package list but after this I was able to add/remove applications without any issues.
Alt has a repository called Sisyphus which is more like debian's testing/sid though it is not as bleeding as sid. The ALT linux repositories are updated continuously with latest security/version updates. The packages repositories have a decent collection of software.
ALT has to improve its suspend/resume functionality on laptops. When i tried to suspend to disk i got the "kernel mismatch" error.
The main area where ALT fails to compete with the other major distributions like SUSE/Mandriva/Fedora is its control center(alterator). This tool has very limited options which are, "System Objects","Date/Time","Users","Network" and "Graphical Interface settings". The "System Objects" option seems to be an equivalent to "AppArmour" of SUSE which sets access rights to individual components of the system. This tool should have integrated the partitioning,package management etc like YAST or MCC.
Another problem for the users may be getting help from Internet especially if you are outside of Russia since there are no user forums for ALT as of now. The home page promises of an English version of altlinux.com under reconstruction that will be available in Jan 2008 and let us hope that this will include an user forum.
The XGL/AIGLX and ATI always tend to make problems(at least for me). I did not try the desktop effects with ALT linux so there is nothing much to say about the fancy effects.
Summary
I've summarized the positive aspects and the things i expect in the next release of altlinux.
Where ALT Shines:
- All applications are stable.
- Rpm based with apt-get package management.
- Repositories with regular security/software updates.
- Package Selection.
- Searchable KDE menu(not a major one but very useful).
What would make the next release of ALT the ideal one:
- During installation, after partitioning, a summary of the partition changes and release notes while installation.
- A more functional apt-get.
- A more comprehensive/integrated control center.
- Network install as an option.
- More laptop friendly.
- An official user forum for the Non-Russian community.
Conclusion:
I'm very pleased with the overall stability of ALT
linux. As there are no major issues either with the installation or afterwards, I would recommend this distribution as an alternative to the
rpm based distributions such as Mandriva,Fedora or SUSE.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
Sounds like a piece of trash from a normal user perspective.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
nice review....
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
I'm using ALT for 5 years in production.
It's a very good distribution.
Server-4.0.1 has out-of-the-box openvz support with management console.
I'm satisfied with the overall product quality.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
To eliminate that stupid square in the right bottom
of the screen just install fglrx_toos package. This
is not Alt's fault, it's AMD's "great" idea.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
To Temo:
Thanks for that tip.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
I use ALT over 5 years and completely satisfy with it.
The apt over rpm does all the best that could be reached
from rpm limitation and even more. As far as I know
ALTLinux team made more changes for rpm and rpm-build to
extend its flexibility.
It seems you have not enough time to investigate the
distro in deap.
You could found many interesting tricks. Let me
concetrate your attention on etcnet subsystem - own
network management system. As alternative of plain apt
You could use aptitude and synaptic as package managers.
For home use ALT comes with a lot of games do not forget
to try them ;)
Enjoy your ALTLinux!
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
To Iscander:
Thanks for your comments. I should have named the
review as "ALT 4.0 Desktop Edition". I've reviewed
alt as a desktop operating system from a beginner's
perspective.
there's ALD4.0.1 for some of those reasons :)
Thanks for pointing out most of known bugs and issues with Desktop 4.0; in fact, that was rather a "brown paper bag" release (it was printed but in very low volume).
Current ALT Linux Desktop 4.0 release is 4.0.1, you can find it nearby (I'm giving more time-proof link):
ftp://ftp.altlinux.org/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/4.0/Desktop/current/iso/
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ftp.altlinux.org/4.0/Desktop/current/iso/
BTW there's a linux.com review of 4.0 with most of these bugs pointed out also (on some of them, we did report too):
http://www.linux.com/feature/119106
There is not (and probably will not be) a user forum for quite some time since forums are historically not popular within ALT community, we do prefer mailing lists (http://gmane.org/find.php?list=altlinux). English one is rather inactive currently as there's apparent focus on Russian-speaking folks currently (still we welcome everyone we can communicate with). There are independent fora hosting ALT-specific conferences as well, e.g. linuxforum.ru (Russian-speaking).
I think ALT Linux Desktop is quite specific -- it has its strong sides where it works out-of-box, but is behind colleagues where we did a complete rewrite of configuration subsystem two years ago and it still lacks modules and polish and they still build upon technology we considered obsolete back then. :)
There are Beryl packages included, basically I just needed to install "beryl" (or "beryl-manager"?) to pull in everything needed *and* enable Composite with nvidia-xconfig (it just pokes in xorg.conf, not nvidia-specific re composite). I hacked Alterator module for X11 setup to add a checkbox for that but being too crude a hack that isn't yet merged (hope to have that finished for 4.1, along with Compiz Fusion which is already in our unstable -- I'd not recommend jumping there mindlessly though).
ALT Linux Server might be much more interesting for pro sysadmins here and now: it bears integrated lightweight virtualization with OpenVZ and its security is comparable to Owl GNU/*/Linux or, well, OpenBSD.
Anyways, thanks for your comments, I'm forwarding them to desktop development mailing list.
--
mike@altlinux
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
To Mike:
Thanks for your detailed comments.ALT seems to be a winner
as a server but with some minor improvements it can become
as the best desktop linux out there.
I'll try the 4.0.1 after the holidays.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
Nice review.
I'm using ALT from ALT Master 2.2 - it`s really
distribution for work.
Good support of my native Ukrainian
language (localization).
Do not expect any tech support forums, though
Hi, I have been using ALT Linux for a quite long time(2.0-2.4,3.0 Junior)... Now switched to Debian
Don't expect there will be any tech support forums. I guess ALT Linux team thinks "forums are for lamers and windows, real Unixoids use mailing lists"... :)
But the mailing list support is... well, adequate or better than adequate.
Again, ALT web site always needed some polishing.
And it needs it now, and I do not hope it will change anytime soon.
Personal IMHO - ALT is a quite good distro not-for-complete-newbies.
And if you need a specifically Russian/Ukrainian/Byelorussian distro, it remains a reasonable choice.
But I guess I won't be using ALT anymore, in fact just because I hate the tech support via mailing lists.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
To Vale:
Thanks for your comments.
>>But the mailing list support is... well, adequate or better than adequate.
Yes,the support from the mailing list is really good.
>>Again, ALT web site always needed some polishing.
>>And it needs it now, and I do not hope it will change anytime soon.
As per their home page the English version is being revamped and will be available in JAN 2008.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
2 Vale
> But I guess I won't be using ALT anymore, in fact just because I hate the tech support via mailing lists.
Ouch, then you've probably got poor mail agent... ;)
Re "anytime soon", they're the only real distro/team after Russian school Linux project so I guess things are going to change (well our firm is partnering to provide ALTSP5 flavour for school terminal server so sort of *know* that... ;)
2 vasanth
> [...] English version is being revamped and will be available in JAN 2008.
Guess it won't be, it was clearly a tad too optimistic for a good job.
In the meanwhile, there's Desktop 4.0.2 out there (also available via BitTorrent, see e.g. http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=altlinux).
Though I didn't quite fix another minor ppp-related lapse just in time, and there are other daily issues (like CVE-2008-0001) which make it likely that 4.0.3 will be available before spring as well.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
>Ouch, then you have probably got poor mail agent... ;)
1.Thunderbird
2. The problem with the mailing list is that you need to subscube-unsubscribe, and get a tons of unneeded messages. No, thanks. Not for me.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
Good News!!!. It seems the english "altlinux.com" will
be available in April 2008.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
Finally, an English Wiki for ALT at http://en.altlinux.org/Main_Page
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
Re English site, I told them that announcing "in three months" or so is silly, since the actual amount of work to launch it is a bit more.
Anyways, now they're well into replacing Joomla with proper TYPO3 at altlinux.ru, and altlinux.com upgrade should follow due to multilingual nature of new site.
I'd be wary with predictions but maybe even as soon as Jan 200_9_, or probably spring 2009.
There's also Desktop 4.1.0 (torrent at mininova), with 4.1.1 in RC stage.
Re: ALT Linux Forums
Ah, and re mailing lists... there's forum.altlinux.org now, with forum.en.altlinux.org discussed but nothing more [yet].
Re: ALT Linux Forums
Thanks for those updates...I downloaded and installed ALT 4.1.0 as soon as it got released.
I started writing a review but went on a vacation so could not complete it. Its good to see
the improved ALT control center.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
this is the best linux distribution.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
Well i can't say alt is the best linux distribution,
but it is really the best russian distribution and
the best distribution for russian spoken community.
It is especially good for russian small buissnes,
with it wine@ethersoft support for 1c:predpriyatie
and others popular russian ERP systems.
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
The http://www.altlinux.com/ is up finally!!! (English and Russian)
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
pls need default password for root access to web interface
Re: ALT Linux 4.0 - An alternative to Ferora/Mandriva/Suse
@chris:
Did you try the root account's password?