I like knoppix a lot however I wanted to test the latest and greatest tools such as kde 3.3 - where knoppix typically lags a bit, so I decided to try out the OneBaseGo distribution, which I had read about on distrowatch.com. My test machine was a Dell GX270 with 1 gig of RAM and a 2.2 Ghz Intel CPU.
I downloaded the iso - which is somewhat hidden on the ibiblio.org website. I searched google for "iso OneBase site:.ibiblio.org" and found the ftp site for all the onebase ISOs. I used "wget -t0" to download the iso (so was not to have any time outs) and burned OneBaseGo-2.2.iso to cd on a windows box at the office (x12). I would prefer to have used Bittorrent to share bandwidth but that wasn't available.
I had issues with knoppix on the same Dell and had upgraded the Bios to A04. Knoppix booted fine once I changed the BIOS Video Buffer from 1Mb to 8Mb.
It booted ok but the login screen refresh was unacceptable and seemed to hang.
I rebooted and used the cheatcodes, I'm not sure why I needed them under OneBase as in knoppix I didn't anymore. Perhaps this is due to them using X.org ?
“onebase fb1024x768 xmodule=vesa screen=1024x768 noddc xvrefresh=60” (I figured it would be onebase instead of knoppix.) Later I found it worked when I just used “onebase xmodule=vesa”
When I went to login - I was forced to log in as root with the password "one". Which is a bit odd - why not auto-loggin the user as in knoppix? If sshd was running anyone in the world could gain access to the box. Why log in the user as root?
Beautiful kde 3.3 started, so I launched and configured konqueror with a proxy and then tried to hit the internet. It gave an error "no host found for the proxy server", so I launched a console and typed "ifconfig -a". OneBase didn't seem to get an ip address for my eth0. Strange - knoppix always worked. I used their "ol-connect" command. It gave some options - none of which included settings for simple Ethernet connection. I tried "ol-connect -y" this also didn't work. Checked google again for the dhcp configuration command - typed "dhcpcd -n eth0" which seemed to start get an IP address and launch the network.
I was impressed with the kde setup OneBase developers have done. They have selected nice icons and background and given applications appropriate names and groupings. Now I could browse the web. They seem to have installed the flash plug-in but not the java plug-in, mplayer, or helix (knoppix only has java). Tested out Mozilla 1.8a (why do they include an alpha version of mozilla?). If it were me I would include firefox with the plastik theme to make it look more integrated with the kde desktop. A screenshot of OneBase (not current)
Overall the desktop felt very snappy - and generally I couldn't tell it was running from the cd. I verified the kernel with "uname -a" which gave "Linux Onebase 2.6.7 #1 SMP". Checked out the gcc version with "gcc -v" which indicated gcc version 3.4.1 with the thread model of posix.
I also played with SuperKaramba - the python based eye candy tool. They had only included a clock theme so I downloaded and played with some other ones. SuperKaramba can be used to run a MAC OSX style docking station - which looks sweet (I love eye candy even though I am a command line guy).
I checked out the icons that they include: "EPS", "to hard disk" etc. Basically they are shell scripts to install the application to a hard drive etc. My gut feeling is that they have reinvented the application install and management. What's wrong with apt-get? klik (http://klik.berlios.de/) offers a easier and nicer way of installing apps under knoppix clones.
Another issue is that they decided not to include OpenOffice.org. I think this is a mistake. kword has gotten much more stable but it is still very limited. You can't for example select two cells in a table and copy and paste them.
Other limitations are that no mplayer (to play the .mov files) was installed or realplayer ( or helix) or java (as mentioned). I found the default font they decided to use looks nice but is large. So when I browsing some websites look odd. gaim is only v0.81 whereas v1.x has been released. Also no wine was included. OneBaseGo did not automount my hard drive like knoppix does or add icons for them to the desktop. The kernel 2.6 currently has had some issues with ntfs - so this was not a major issue.
A plethora of desktops were included in OneBase: kde, gnome, icewm, fluxbox, xfce etc., which in my opinion, is overkill. I would have included kde, gnome and one light desktop. I tested out gnome - and they have not included the application icons like in kde. Obviously gnome support is an afterthought. Also why no link to mozilla in either kde or gnome?
It looks like kontact pim may be the killer application for kde. It includes imip support and most of the functionality most companies might need for a standards based email and calendaring client. One feature that I'd like to see is the ability to see what is contained in your "to do". This could be done in a non modal window or showing the first few lines in the window.
The bottom line? Everything in the linux desktop is rapidly getting better. Gnome has improved and now presents a consistent strong gui. Kde is improving its groupware set and feels snappier. OneBaseGo offers a nice way of sampling the newer kde applications and tools before they are released in the main distributions without much effort, but I think I will stick with knoppix(debian) or one of the main distros such as Redhat, Mandrake or Suse.
I couldn’t determine who OneBase is targeted to – but they’ve done a good job in integrating all the latest components into a knoppix style distro. If onebase is targeting the public with a Debian based desktop (like Ubuntu, PClinuxOS, Xandros, etc) then I would hide the dev tools, include OpenOffice with the kde integration, and firefox with kde integration/icons, have excellent wine integration, and get rid of all those desktops and create some troubleshooting wizards. If OneBase is for users to test out the latest and greatest then I would have include OpenOffice 2.0 and gnome 2.8 – two popular environments. If OneBase is meant for showcasing the latest kde technology – then I think they have hit their target.
