Absolute Linux 13.0.2
Sound and Multimedia
When I inserted my Superman test DVD I got a popup menu asking me if I wanted to Play, Rip or Cancel. I opted to choose to play it but then got a message saying the following:
“DVD playback is not enbabled” and also “libdvdcss and other multimedia packages may need to be installed.”
So don’t count on being able to simply pop your DVD into your Absolute Linux system and play it without having to download and install some other software and codecs.
If you want to add these additional items be sure to go into your Control Center and click on the Multimedia section. From there click on Multimedia Installer and follow the menu prompts.
I was able to play YouTube videos without a problem. The sound and video worked well and required no configuration effort on my part.
What I Liked Most
The attraction to Absolute Linux for me is simply that it’s Slackware geared toward desktop users. I also appreciated the minimalistic desktop environment and the selection of software (which was reasonable but not overpowering).
Problems & Headaches
One problem I had was that it was necessary for me to do a bit of manual configuration to connect to my network. This was a very minor thing as it took me all of about 20 seconds to do it but folks that are unfamiliar with setting up networking might be discouraged.
For some strange reason, the CD Ripper would not start. I had no problems whatsoever with the DVD Ripper but I was not able to get the CD Ripper application to load at all.
One other thing that some might find really annoying is that you must first log in as root to begin using Absolute Linux. After that you can set up your other login ID and password. This didn’t bother me too much personally as I was only using Absolute Linux for this review but forcing people to login as root might bother some folks. It would probably make more sense to be able to set up your regular user ID as part of the installation process rather than after logging in as root.
I’d like to see a much better tool for adding & removing software that contains additional packages that can easily be added to the Absolute Linux desktop. Right now this distro woefully lags behind the ease of use found in the Ubuntus and various other distros in terms of finding & managing desktop software.
The Absolute Linux package manager is ugly and quite primitive.
(10 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)
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(4.75 out of 5)
very good review…..thumbs up for the review…..i’m happy to see you included software installation methods….software installation methods and out of the box multi media performance are the two aspects important to me when choosing a linux distro…this review covered most of the aspects of the distro….This site will be useful for people to know pros and cons about various distros and they can decide the distro suites their taste or not….if it suites their taste they can go ahead and install the distro and experience themselves……Thanks for the review…
Hi go green,
Thank you for your suggestion about software installation methods. That kind of feedback is really invaluable to me as sometimes things seem obvious to me and I might not realize that somebody really wanted me to talk more about that a particular aspect of a distro.
I definitely rely on you guys to help me keep improving these reviews. Each time I get a good suggestion I incorporate it into the review template and thus they usually get better.
I look forward to more suggestions and thank you again. Glad to have you as a reader here on DLR.
[...] Review of #Absolute #Linux 13.0.2 http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2009/10/13/absolute-linux-13-0-2/ [...]
Hi Jim, I think your review is fair. I would like to comment, though, on the nature of Absolute Linux versus Slackware, which may explain some of the reasons that Absolute is the way that it is.
First of all, Slackware is really flexible. Absolute Linux is not trying to replace Slackware at all, it is attempting to carve a relatively small niche; one, a personal tool for the developer (I believe his name is Paul Sherman, correct me if I have that wrong). He initially created Absolute Linux, just as many others do, by creating tools to build a system that meets his own needs, then he sought to build a small market for others who are interested in similar needs and markets.
I believe that one place he envisioned Absolute Linux is to make it available to families and students, with the following assumptions: 1. There would be at least one somewhat experienced individual, who would be responsible for installing the software, creating accounts, and setting up the environment. 2. Those who were the other consumers of the system would generally be discouraged from messing with it; therefore the division was that the root user would have all of the capabilities, and non-experienced people would have no way to update the system; they’d have to have access to the root account. He figured that would keep the system reasonably under control.
Concerning the artwork, Paul is apparently not much of an artist, and I think he was looking for something that would not be flashy, but quite fast and simple for an experienced administrator to set up (it is easy in that context), with not a lot of options or flexibility to do much with it.
I think he is flexible on what gets implemented; I suspect he’d be open to hearing suggestions. When it comes to artwork and stuff like that, an artist would have to contribute to his community for us to see anything happening there.
I’ve used several releases of Absolute Linux in the past, though I have not yet tried out this particular update. Past releases have always been light, fast, responsive, and generally of good quality. They have not been pretty or cute; we can go to Hannah Montana if we want cute or Mandriva if we want attractive.
I think Paul hits his market pretty well. It is a rather limited market with specific goals and intentions, but at least he accomplishes what he wants to do within the limited boundaries of his one person capability.
In the past, when he’s built something, one very good thing to say is that if there is something wrong with it, he is very quick to correct it and come up with an update. That’s good because I do not think even with the gslapt-get facility, this release does well with updates. You’re better off just installing a new version every so often and keep your private data on its own data partition. That is a pretty limiting use case, but within that use case, this system does at least perform well, it is quick to set up and it does exactly what it is intended to do.
Interest wise, it’s not that interesting. Performance and capability wise, it is in the top tenth in performance and in the top half in capabilities.
I do have the ISO image for 13.0.2 downloaded; I will fire it up and see how well it runs in my Virtual environment.
Brian thanks so much for the background on AL, that’s very helpful information to know.
OK, I installed Absolute Linux onto Virtualbox OSE to specifically try out the 13.0.2 release. I also have the absolute-13.0.rc1.iso as well as the absolute-13.0.2.iso image, so I know that I have tried this out fairly recently.
Now knowing the tricks of how to actually INSTALL, as opposed to running Live or in memory a Virtual instance – it does seem to help to set up a fixed space – installing in an expanding dynamic virtual space seems to take a long time, but it does work. Only the other day I installed Zenwalk 6.2. It’s overall performance was pretty comparable to what I experienced physically installing Absolute Linux 13.0.2 onto Virtualbox OSE. Both install pretty slowly, but run well once installed.
There IS a way to get the Multimedia codecs, Jim, they just are not all installed initially. IF you look at the First Run Info, you will see that there are ways to add additional multimedia codecs, which would probably get the Superman stuff going with libdvdcss2, but Paul says it may take 1/2 hour or so to download, compile, and build.
Absolute Linux 13.0.2 also comes with both the Firefox 3.5.3 and Midori Web browsers. I know that Paul was talking about making Midori the default, but he was soliciting feedback on that and apparently he got the feedback to keep Firefox around. He seems to have Firefox, Midori, and Opera available, three good choices.
I found Absolute Linux to be a snap to install. My thoughts on root proved to be true – Paul confesses to being primarily a root user because he is a software developer and integrator, but he recommends immediately creating user accounts, and neatly describes how to do so in his very good First Run Info guide. He’s written some nice small Python scripts to simplify some of those tasks and he has written a nice guide, not too much info, just enough to do the key things that you are likely to need to do.
All in all, I am sticking with my previous impressions, namely that Absolute Linux is not a broad, general purpose system, but a basic, preconfigured system designed to quickly install, easily configure, and it operates well with modest hardware requirements. It is not fancy at all; it looks like a system built in 2001 or 2002, but it also runs like a system built in that timeframe, that is, it works on old hardware from that day and runs fast on hardware from our current era. All in all, I think it is worth having around, at least for those who like to tinker with more than one system on their hardware.
I would have to agree with Masinick that Absolute is a pretty easy install, especially compared to full blown Slackware. Of course I have not really messed with Slackware since version 6 or so. I bought the 6 CD set years ago off the $9.99 bargain rack at Fry’s.
As to the text installer, I for one have no problem with these. Sort of makes me nostalgic for the old DOS days. They also tend to perform a bit faster than graphical ones.
Speed is also an advantage of plain looking desktops, but I do agree a better color selection might be in order here. I do know IceWM is capable of better. Still, if that’s all the author required, more power to him.
From what I remember of my Absolute 12.x install is that what you get is a more or less a basic system. Any frippery or apps you want, you have to download and install manually. Sometimes that may mean re-compiling. From what I’ve read, the improvements you are looking for will not be forthcoming from the developer. The AL community prides itself on the fact that AL is a bare bones distro which can be tailored to each users exact needs. Unfortunately that takes experience with Linux.
why are Linux distro’s so crap looking compared to Windows XP, Vista, & now 7
Linux is supposed to have a community of hundreds of thousands of expert programmers,..and Absolute Linux looks like its something from the days of Windows 3.11,.
drab, dreary,..colourless,..mostly drab grey & shades of grey,..thats all Linux programmers produce.
Software that doesn’t work,..no real plug & play,..drabness abounds
Linux is the ideal Communist style distro,..drab and dreary