Austrumi Linux 1.9.3
Problems & Headaches
I was not able to get Austrumi to load properly in VMWare, I had to use VirtualBox instead.
I fiddled with the hard disk install briefly but was not able to get it to install. No great loss considering that it’s really supposed to run in RAM anyway. But be aware you might have problems if you try to do a hard disk install.
I also had a terrible time with Firefox, it kept crashing over and over and really wasn’t usable when I tried to use Gmail. I eventually gave up. Yahoo Mail didn’t work either, Firefox just kept crashing like crazy every time I tried to use it. Even the old version of Yahoo Mail didn’t work right.
Eventually I realized that the version of Firefox included with Austrumi was Minefield. Minefield is apparently a version of Firefox that is nowhere near ready for regular use. There’s an even a warning message on the official Mozilla page about it here:
Warning: This is NOT A FINAL OR PRE-RELEASE VERSION. This program is provided without any guarantees of stability, so please use it at your own risk. It is recommended that you back up your profile regularly, as there may be bugs that corrupt your data. If that sounds scary, you’d probably be better off with the latest version of Firefox that you can download here.
So why the heck was this included with Austrumi? I have no idea but it should be removed immediately and replaced with a stable version. Who the heck wants to be stuck with an unstable browser? And what’s worse is that there is no other browser included with Austrumi. So you’re stuck with Minefield. Ugh. No thank you.
Where To Get Help
You can always post a note in the Desktop Linux Reviews Forum and we’ll do our best to offer feedback or at least point you in the right direction. You might also want to drop by the Austrumi Forum and if you only read English then you should also visit the unofficial Austrumi Forum in English.
(4 votes, average: 3.25 out of 5)
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Instead of Minefield, maybe they should call the browser “Fire in the hole!”.
I have been getting that same Firefox error message a lot since switching to 3.5 regardless of OS. As such, I have reverted back to the 3.0x series until Firefox decides to get their bleep together.
As to offering a good, lightweight, and stable web browser in these smaller distros, I have yet to find one. SeaMonkey and IceWeasel are the least offensive, but both still need lots of work. I always end up downloading Firefox.
@timck: Iceweasel is Firefox without the trademarks. Any differences you perceive would be crated by the difference in the browser name that websites see. Otherwise they are identical.
I use Swiftfox – i <3 it
tlmck wrote:
Yes, I think “Fire in the Hole” would have been very accurate. Heh.
Nobody Important wrote:
IceWeasel may be based on Firefox, but every version I have used has had problems. The latest version of Firefox, at the time, ran just fine on the same machine. The last IceWeasel I tried was in DreamLinux 3.1.
Now I just ignore any browser other than Firefox.
I am sorry to hear that Austrumi has such an unstable Web browser. Odd, too, because I have been running frequent nightly builds of both 3.6 (and even 3.7!) versions of Firefox from the Shiretoko, Minefield (and one other) code name, along with nightly builds of SeaMonkey, and I have not had a single problem with any of them. I have also occasionally been participating in the “Litmus Test” suites to feed back the Mozilla project on the results of Firefox and SeaMonkey builds. I am quite happy with them.
Given that Austrumi can’t seem to find a usable version among the many solid versions that are out there, nor provide even a single stable alternative, it does not seem worthwhile to use, though it certainly does seem to have many other desirable traits.
Also given that I have very fast builds of antiX, Puppy, Tiny Me, and Tiny Core, and I have them on disk, on CD, on USB, and in Virtualbox OSE, I am not particularly in need of another fast test system.
Thanks for the review though Jim. If I get the itch, I may give one of their versions a peek again. I’ve used Austrumi before, but it has been a while since I last tested it.
The first thing i noticed when i opened your site is the google ads in left side of the first paragraph…..Nice idea jim to move the Google adsense from right to the left of the starting paragraph……..it will surely give you a lot more eyeballs…I really appreciate you for that idea…I really enjoyed your idea to “buy jim a cup of coffee”….you are really a fantastic marketer who knows how to market your stuff……At the same time you are keeping the simplicity and readability in your blog….Really Linux need this kind of marketing to succeed in this world…
manutd31 wrote:
Thanks, glad you are enjoying the blog.
I didn’t try Austrumi 1.9.3 yet but I suppose it’s very easy to get a stable browser from the Slackware repositories. Of course it should be better if the browser just works out of the box!
I like Austrumi for its ever very nice look and for its amazing choice of applications compared to its size.
Infortunately, it doesn’t include ndiswrapper (at least the last version I tried) so I’m not able to connect to my network from it with my two PC’s.
There seems to be a version 1.9.5 downloadable from the homepage at Distrowatch – couldn’t find a link to it at the Austrumi site. Maybe they’ve fixed some of the issues?