Fox Desktop 1
The Fox Rocks!
Fox Desktop is a distro based on Fedora Core 4 and adapted for for ease of use with the desktop user in mind, from the web site:
FoX Desktop is one new distribution based on Fedora CORE and re-adapt
for users desktop.
FoX Desktop in fact is adapted to all those who uses the PC to navigate in
internet, use programmes, and for chatting... This new distribution is
structured on a single cd, so it should be easy to download and exchange.
Optimized for the CPUs of type i686 , and this guarantees greater speed.
for users desktop.
FoX Desktop in fact is adapted to all those who uses the PC to navigate in
internet, use programmes, and for chatting... This new distribution is
structured on a single cd, so it should be easy to download and exchange.
Optimized for the CPUs of type i686 , and this guarantees greater speed.
Being based on Fedora I expected a solid reliable desktop with a easy install and I was not let down.
Installation:
Since Fedora Core is Fox Desktop's base I was not surprised to find Anaconda as the installer. In my this is a good thing, Anaconda is without a doubt one of the easiest most reliable installers available for Linux. You are given language selection, keyboard layout, install type, partitioning options than bootloader. It continues with networking, timezone, and passwords. Finally you are given the option to accept a preselected set of packages or to pick and chose, and than it just goes, and reasonably quickly as well. Everything was smooth and easy.
Since Fedora Core is Fox Desktop's base I was not surprised to find Anaconda as the installer. In my this is a good thing, Anaconda is without a doubt one of the easiest most reliable installers available for Linux. You are given language selection, keyboard layout, install type, partitioning options than bootloader. It continues with networking, timezone, and passwords. Finally you are given the option to accept a preselected set of packages or to pick and chose, and than it just goes, and reasonably quickly as well. Everything was smooth and easy.
First Boot:
The simplicity of the install lead way to a rather odd problem when booting, the bootloader (grub) did not end up pointing to the correct location of the Kernel, causing a Kernel Panic when booting! I do have to say that this is a first for me, but I am not ready to blame the installer for this. It is very possible that when I was adding my other partitions to the bootloader I may have confused the situation and created the problem myself. A quick visit to the forums (keep your Italian dictionary handy, or at least google translate) showed no indication that others have had this problem, so I am willing to take the blame. Honestly grub is not my preferred bootloader, I learned lilo early on and could probably write a lilo.conf file by hand if I had to, but I have never really taken the time to learn grub. The easy answer for me was to pop in my PCLinuxOS live cd and reinstall the Lilo bootloader that it uses and than add in Fox from there which is exactly what I did.
So, when I did actually get to boot, I was greeted with the second stage of the Anaconda installer which is the point you get to select desktop preferences, add a user, license agreement and screen resolution. I have never fully understood why these were moved out of the initial installation that is where it seems the most logical, but I can't complain as it works. Once done, you get to log in, this is where the fun begins! Eye candy does not begin to fully explain what the KDE desktop is about with Fox Desktop. The similarity to Mac OSX is striking, and is no accident I'm sure.
See all the screenshots here...
Things
jump bump and dance as you move your mouse around and click on items.
The only real downfall I can see to all of this is there seems to
be a bit higher cpu usage than I am used to seeing. All this
happens due to the inclusion of KXDocker. This resides in the
system tray and animates and configures the icons on the taskbar.
The other fun inclusion that is hiding in the system tray is Kompose,
this useful little app creates a small screen shot of every
application you have open and allows you to pick which every one you
need. It is very smooth and quite cool.
Once I got past the eye candy, I remembered reading that the included package manager is the Smart Package. I have not had the opportunity to see Smart implemented successfully yet, so I had to have a look! I dug through the menus and found it, and it immediately yelled at me that “Configuration is in read only mode.” Ok, WTF does that mean? A quick search of the forums again indicated that Smart is running in the system tray and is doing something. Sounds fair, I attempt to open the Smart icon that is running in the system tray and it does nothing, I closed it and started from the menu. This time it ran just fine, I reloaded the channels and was presented with a handful of updates which I let it install. All in all, Smart looks to work as promised, and I am very encouraged in it's abilities.
Once I got past the eye candy, I remembered reading that the included package manager is the Smart Package. I have not had the opportunity to see Smart implemented successfully yet, so I had to have a look! I dug through the menus and found it, and it immediately yelled at me that “Configuration is in read only mode.” Ok, WTF does that mean? A quick search of the forums again indicated that Smart is running in the system tray and is doing something. Sounds fair, I attempt to open the Smart icon that is running in the system tray and it does nothing, I closed it and started from the menu. This time it ran just fine, I reloaded the channels and was presented with a handful of updates which I let it install. All in all, Smart looks to work as promised, and I am very encouraged in it's abilities.
What it has:
Eye Candy! and more eye candy.
KDE 3.5,
Smart .40,
Firefox,
Thunderbird,
Open Office,
XOrg 6.8.2,
KXDocker
Kompose
a Full assortment of Media players,
Fedora Core repositories
and Kernel 2.6.14
Oh, and did I mention great Eye Candy?
Worthy of note as an aside is the Fox Control Center. While it is not as flashy as Mandriva or PCLinuxOS Control Center, it is easily as full featured and easy to use. It provides great access to all the configuration GUIs available as well as an easy way to launch Smart Package Update. It is a very well designed and implemented package.
What it has not:
I'm thinking, I'm thinking....
About the only thing worth mentioning is KXDocker's lack of ease of configuration. It really seems like the application is much more difficult to set up than it needs to be.
Usage:
Wow comes to mind. The overall feel is very polished, the stability is very good. The taskbar can be a bit tricky to get used to, in order to make the icon work, you have to wait for it to highlight in red before clicking it. Otherwise it may not catch. I can see that on a slower pc this may be quite challenging to work with and you may wish to disable KXdocker. The menus are pretty standard KDE, but with the NuoveXT-KDE icon set, which simple but very stylish. I find Smart Package to be a highlight of this distro, it works easily as well as Synaptic or Kpackage. It is quite straight forward to use and proved stable and efficient. Adding channels is fairly easy as long as you understand a few things about the channel you are adding, removing a channel is as easy as a check box.
Configuration using the Fox Control Center is as easy as it gets. Software management, Security Center, Device management, network management, system settings and look and feel are all here and are easy to use. The look is not imposing and the function is solid.
Eye Candy! and more eye candy.
KDE 3.5,
Smart .40,
Firefox,
Thunderbird,
Open Office,
XOrg 6.8.2,
KXDocker
Kompose
a Full assortment of Media players,
Fedora Core repositories
and Kernel 2.6.14
Oh, and did I mention great Eye Candy?
Worthy of note as an aside is the Fox Control Center. While it is not as flashy as Mandriva or PCLinuxOS Control Center, it is easily as full featured and easy to use. It provides great access to all the configuration GUIs available as well as an easy way to launch Smart Package Update. It is a very well designed and implemented package.
What it has not:
I'm thinking, I'm thinking....
About the only thing worth mentioning is KXDocker's lack of ease of configuration. It really seems like the application is much more difficult to set up than it needs to be.
Usage:
Wow comes to mind. The overall feel is very polished, the stability is very good. The taskbar can be a bit tricky to get used to, in order to make the icon work, you have to wait for it to highlight in red before clicking it. Otherwise it may not catch. I can see that on a slower pc this may be quite challenging to work with and you may wish to disable KXdocker. The menus are pretty standard KDE, but with the NuoveXT-KDE icon set, which simple but very stylish. I find Smart Package to be a highlight of this distro, it works easily as well as Synaptic or Kpackage. It is quite straight forward to use and proved stable and efficient. Adding channels is fairly easy as long as you understand a few things about the channel you are adding, removing a channel is as easy as a check box.
Configuration using the Fox Control Center is as easy as it gets. Software management, Security Center, Device management, network management, system settings and look and feel are all here and are easy to use. The look is not imposing and the function is solid.
Conclusions:
So what's left to say?
This distro has it all, speed, stability, look and feel and the backing of Fedora Core.
I can honestly say that if Texstar and the gang over at PCLinuxOS gave up on the project, I have found it's replacement.
It's that good.
Contact me at:
webmaster(at)capnkirby.com
