BTVillarin: Vector Linux 3.2 Review

“Once it became clear that my Red Hat 8.0 setup was FUBAR, I
decided to try another Linux distro instead of just reinstalling RH
8.0. Since an article titled The Quest for the Perfect Linux
System–a worthwhile read thanks to Windows, Mac, BeOS and Linux
distro comparisons–gave Vector Linux such high accolades, I
decided to give it a try. Regarding ‘The Quest…’ article, I
partially share the author’s view on ‘must-haves,’ namely on KDE
3.1 window manager and Evolution E-mail client. I don’t need or
want any server related stuff. In fact my ISP explicitly forbids
setting up servers, so something with SOHO right at the title was
sure to capture my attention. This piece is about me installing VL
3.2 SOHO on my rig. If you just want my two cents on tweaking and
updating the distro, head straight for Part 2.

“VL 3.2 comes in two different flavours: VL 3.2 (about 220MB
downloadable .iso image) and VL 3.2 SOHO (Small Office/Home Office,
about 620MB downloadable .iso image). I tried the plain VL 3.2
first, even though it had just XFCE and IceWM window managers (no
KDE 3.1). At a glance, IceWM seemed like a ‘good enough’ WM to me,
and it sure starts up way faster than KDE. However, it eventually
became obvious that there would be just too much tweaking involved
with the plain VL 3.2. For starters, I had some trouble setting up
an internet connection. Since I have plain and simple static
IP/domain to my name, I feel that if web browsing doesn’t work by
default after the installation, the OS/distro isn’t for me…”

Complete
Story