A review of Gnoppix Linux 0.8 livecd
Background
This review started because I was curious about GNOME as a desktop. I use KDE on as my installed desktop with PCLinuxOS and Fluxbox with my Feather Linux live cd that I carry around. I mention this as much as a disclaimer for any dumb GNOME comments as an introduction. I wanted a live cd with GNOME so I went over to Distrowatch and found Gnoppix.
The Gnoppix website states "Gnoppix is a linux live cd based upon Debian GNU/Linux. It can be compared to Knoppix but GNOPPIX uses GNOME as desktop environment."
Perfect, I downloaded the Gnoppix 0.8 ISO, burned it to CD, popped it in the drive and rebooted.
Boot/Hardware detection
Hardware detection is fundamental with live CD. If it doesn't work there is very little you can do except use the CD as a coaster. I tried Gnoppix on two machines, an eMachines desktop and a Compaq desktop, both of which are under a year old and so have fairly new hardware.
First of all I tried Gnoppix on the desktop. As soon as it starts booting you are presented with a list of boot options along with brief descriptions of what they mean. I chose the Default option but there were almost 10 options in total including Failsafe, Boot USB and Expert. It took about three and a half minutes to get to the desktop, which is about average for a full live CD - and actually very fast if you consider it is loading the complete operating system. I went to have a look around and nothing happened. It seemed to have detected all the hardware except for the USB wireless mouse. So that was that, no Gnome for the desktop machine.
Next, I tried the laptop. Again, I chose the default boot option which took around three and half minutes again. I went to have a look around and again - it hadn't detected my USB mouse (this one with a tail). Fortunately, the laptop has a trackpad which was detected so I was able to continue.
Desktop (GNOME)
So, my first look at Gnoppix and Gnome...
Applications are launched from the top as with Mac OS. This makes sense as the "File" and "Edit" menus are at the top of applications windows too but you cant teach an old dog new tricks so I lasted about 10 minutes before I clicked and dragged the launch bar to the bottom of the screen. It does make absolute sense that clicking on "Applications" opens your list of programs though - a nice, intuitive touch. Another nice touch, not only are programs grouped in to category names that make sense (such as Games, Internet and Office) but also the programs have named that tell you what they do - like Mozilla web browser.
The desktop has shortcuts to "Computer" (with the different mount points on the PC: screenshot), the "Home" directory, "Ximian Evolution" email, "Web browser" (Epiphany), "Gaim" (instant messenger), "Allmediaplayer", "Help", "CDROM Burner" (K3B), "Settings" (control center) and "Trash" - everything a typical user is likely to want to use right at their fingertips. These are all very good, my only slight gripe is that Computer had shortcuts to things that didnt exist on my laptop like "sda1" and "CD-ROM2".
Software
Gnoppix comes with a good selection of software: Firefox 0.93 (screenshot), Mozilla 1.7 (screenshot), GIMP 2.0, Evolution (screenshot) and OpenOffice (screenshot) to name but a few. I think one of the good things about live CDs for new users is that they don't have to choose between 25 applications that do the same job. I do think choice is good and once you have spent some time with Linux then it is a good time to look around at the different applications, however when you are first looking at Linux I think too much choice causes confusion. For me the most essential applications on the desktop are the web browser, the email client and the word processor. Firefox is fantastic, Evolution is excellent and OpenOffice is awesome - I personally am very pleased with this choice of applications in Gnoppix. Also, Nautilus, the graphical file manager in Gnome lives up to all the good things I have heard about its ease of use.
Overall
Maybe I am setting my expectations too high with hardware detection but no mouse is pretty much a show stopper with a GUI. And besides...Knoppix does it! There are some nice touches in it I really like such as "Computer". I think Gnoppix is almost there and it is definitely a distro I am going to keep an eye on in the future. I'm not sure I am going to run it permanently just yet though.
As for Gnome, the more I looked around the more I liked it. I am not quite ready to replace KDE as my main desktop but I am going run something with Gnome on my spare partition. I really liked it alot and it is going to be my desktop to show prospective Mac to Linux converts because its great ease of use just "feels" Mac to me. Very impressed!