LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Phil Pittard <vk5ham@seol.net.au>
  To  : linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
  Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 14:32:31 +1030

Corel Linux

Hi all - I have just finished checking out Corel Linux (the version that
was "in the post" never got here so i grabbed PC World Mag yesterday
with it on). I never did get any real response from my original question
as to what ppl thought of Corel, so I will provide my observations & see
who agrees/disagrees.

Test Machine was:
Pentium-100 
4Gb hdd (2gb partition for Corel)
80Mb RAM, 
Monitor that can do graphics so small you cant see them!! 
3d-RUSH 6Mb video card
3c509 & 3c503 network cards
ESS1868 Sound Card
40x IDE CDROM.

INSTALATION:- minimal "user" input required - very impressive & quite
fast.. took abt 3 minutes to get to 98% completed then 15-20 minutes to
do the remaining 2%!

Areas of concern:
PARTITIONING: During the install you have to tell Corel which partition
to install to... it became very obvious that I HAD TO create a NEW
partition- it refuses to allow installing/formatting an existing
partition (well I could not figure out how to make it do it!) - so I
deleted the existing partition & created a new one... it then would not
allow me to make the new partition the same size as the old one (ie/ use
all available space). Finally had to settle for losing 12 Mb's of drive

XWindows/VideoCard
Totally screwed graphics sent my monitor into some sort of oscillating
seizure - couldnt get it to drop to "console mode" using
CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE = ended up having to hit reset button :(
Rebooted & got into it using non-graphic "mode". Corel didnt seem to be
able to identify my Video Card but even selecting ANYTHING other than
generic vga produced the "wobbly" unviewable screen display. Finally
ended up ftp'ing various X-Servers & etc from my SuSE box & replacing
the corel stuff & got it going in 1024x768 + 16bit colour.

Ethernet Cards- not detected.
Corel did not, & apparently could not, detect my 3c509 & 3c503 at all
during the install. I tried using the "Corel Control Centre" however I
am damned if I could find anywhere to even tell it what the cards were -
I could allocate IP addresses to eth0 etc but nowhere to configure the
cards. Manually configuring the cards works fine but as far as I can
tell there is no user interface to configure network cards!

SoundCard: - not initially detected 
Corel did not autodetect the ess1868 pnp card during the install - it
eventually found it on abt the 5th reboot and then worked fine
thereafter. Interestingly, I did find mention of the fact that after
configuring the sound card you MUST reboot (M$ roolz!)... but as stated,
that didnt initially work either.

KDE (1-1.2) Eeeeek! Basically a stripped-down "racing?" version -
missing many of the KDE functionality I am used to. It seemed that far
more KDE apps existed in /usr/X11R6/bin than appeared in the KDE Menu.
Kappfinder was missing from the menu as was the ability to install icons
on the "panel"(from the menu). I located kappfinder (and had to
reconfigure it!) and got it work.

Windows Networking: Big emphasis on SAMBA & hooking into existing
windoze networks etc - all pretty pointless when it doesnt appear to
have any functional gui/newbie method of configuring a network card & it
couldnt find my 2 3com  cards!!

COREL-HELP(topics/general): The look & feel of Corel is very windozey,
so I assumed that the configuration and related help would also be so...
nope... the HELP doesnt even mention HOW or WHERE to configure a network
card (type/io/irq etc). Generally, I found the help screen (it uses
Netscape)to be messy & unhelpful....  there's icons that say stuff like
"more information"/"related topics" etc but they dont appear to work!

Overview/Impressions:
Basically COREL LINUX "LOOKS" nice - For a non-linux user, the install
is probably the best I have *seen*! It's just unfortunate that it
incorrectly detected my video card, couldnt find my soundcard, couldnt
find either of my network cards, refused to let me use an existing
partition etc..but otherwise its very good ;). Corel appears to be aimed
at the windoze & dial-up ppp market. I had no probs with it being Debian
although I last used debian abt 4 years ago. All in all the COREL part
of Corel Linux lacks the "functionality" in Linux that I am used to &
expect to have. IMHO Corel Linux is just "OK" as an entry level O/S but
I cannot see any experienced Linux user being overly impressed with
it... as a debian linux its fine if you "fix" it up. As far as I can
tell the "full version" is basically the same but with more apps &
WP8-Lite etc.

Conclusion: I wouldn't pay $64-95 (or whatever) for it & have now
reinstalled SuSE-6.2 on the PC I tested it on. NB: SuSE found both my
network cards, allowed me to just format the Corel partition, found my
soundcard & correctly identified my video card and has a fully
functional KDE & a very good help system & is (afaik) the same price as
Corel's distro.

If you have friends who are windoze-users & they decide to install
Corel, be prepared for some serious base level configuring before it
behaves like the Linux you are used to!

Phil.
-- 
Phil Pittard
Amateur Radio Station VK5HAM
South East Network Solutions.
http://vk5ham.au.com
Email: vk5ham@vk5ham.au.com
       vk5ham@seol.net.au

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