The most recent articles from Personal Computer World

Review: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 software

Alan Stevens — 2007-05-02T00:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 2 May 2007 at 00:00:00

Red Hat gets real about virtualisation

The latest release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 5) sees the usual clutch of open source performance, functionality and security updates joined, for the first time, by integrated virtualisation facilities deemed suitable for production use.

Based on Xen Source technology, RHEL 5 offers support for two types of virtualisation: so-called para-virtualisation, where guests are limited to modified versions of the Red Hat Linux O/S; and full virtualisation, where other guests, including Windows, can be run unmodified.

However, as with Xen Server for Windows, you’ll need the latest Intel VT or AMD-V enabled processors to take advantage of the full virtualisation option.

Management could be an issue, too, especially in a small business with limited expertise. Command-line and graphical management tools are provided, but we didn’t find them as easy to use, or as comprehensive, as those provided with the standalone Xen Server application. Neither do they measure up to what you get with VMWare or Microsoft virtualisation products.

That said, the virtualisation capabilities are a welcome addition, as are the licensing changes that also accompany this release. An annual subscription still applies, but a single RHEL 5 server licence now replaces the old tiered ES and AS subscriptions, which means you get everything on offer, including the full set of virtualisation features, no matter what level of subscription you opt to buy.

On the downside, there are some limitations, such as support for just two processor sockets in the base server and four virtual guests. As such customers with larger networks will be interested in the new Red Hat Advanced Platform which, at €1,235 ex Vat (about £836) per system/year, is great value because it has no limits when it comes to either processors or guests. It also incorporates the Red Hat Cluster Suite and Red Hat Global File system for storage virtualisation.

A unified RHEL Desktop implementation has also been developed (desktop subscriptions start at €62 – about £42 – per system ex Vat) to which you can add optional enhancements. The Workstation option provides support for dual processors and unlimited memory, while the Multi OS option adds similar virtualisation facilities to those available on the server.

Desktop users will also welcome support for high-performance graphics cards, better wireless and power management, plus printer and USB enhancements. The application set is still based on the Gnome desktop, Mozilla Firefox and Openoffice, but these are similarly updated, and fancy graphical effects, such as those in Windows Vista, are possible with the right hardware.

Performance enhancements include support for the latest quad-core processors and improved SMP scalability. Security also gets a boost with improvements to both the SE Linux implementation and management tools. Finally, installation has been streamlined with the option of supplying an installation number to automatically configure the setup to match the licence purchased, with minimal operator input required as a result.

Coming as it does some months after the release of Novell’s rival SLES 10, RHEL 5 will help Red Hat counter growing competition from both Microsoft and Linux. Existing ES Server customers can upgrade straight away, while those with AS will get the full Advanced Platform features when they renew their subscriptions, with no change to the price.

Image gallery: Hands on Linux - Get connected with Ubuntu

Debbie Oliver — 2006-04-28T00:00:00.000Z

Debbie Oliver, Personal Computer World, Friday 28 April 2006 at 00:00:00

Get connected with Ubuntu

Review: Suse Linux 10

Tim Smith — 2006-03-31T00:00:00.000Z

Tim Smith, Personal Computer World, Friday 31 March 2006 at 00:00:00

The latest update to this popular Linux distribution

Suse is a Linux distribution with a rich heritage that's seen a variety some changes since it was acquired by Novell.

Version 10 sees a simplification of the range and it's now aimed at the desktop user as well as server environments.

For those wanting to try it out, an evaluation version can be downloaded. As with this edition, it is supplied on either one DVD or five CDs. Both version are supplied in the box along with a manual.

Installation is straightforward, although the partitioning tool is not as helpful as the graphical tool in Mandriva. All the information is still there, but it's harder to process.

The installation wizard requires a choice between KDE or Gnome desktop environments, although it is possible to opt to install both. This is still very much a personal preference and now most applications work with both.

Suse Linux 10 comes with some commercial software already installed, including Adobe Reader 7 and Real Player.

During testing, it was possible to play audio and video from the BBC website without any tweaks required.

Openoffice 2 is bundled and features Novell branding. Evolution is the personal information manager of choice for Gnome, while Kontact handles these duties for the KDE desktop manager.

Both are very good, in some respects are better than Microsoft Outlook and can talk to an Exchange server.

Sadly it's no longer enough to rely on the built in security measures of Linux for protection online.

However, a firewall is set up automatically and anti-virus software can be installed (see our review of AVG for Linux).

Additionally, Novell Apparmor, described as a complete intrusion-prevention system, prevents software from being modified by third-parties.

Overall, Suse Linux 10 has a polish that is sometimes lacking from completely free distributions and the price makes it very competitive alternative to Windows.

System requirements:

Intel Pentium or higher

256MB of Ram

500MB hard disk space (2.5GB for standard install)

Group Test - Linux

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-24T15:23:06.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 24 March 2004 at 15:23:06

Personal Computer World tests 8 linux distributions to help you find the one that best suits your needs.

How much are you willing to pay for a modern, secure multi-user operating system? How about one that comes with a full office suite compatible with Microsoft Office? For Windows XP, you're already talking hundreds of pounds.

Consider adding on a range of Internet software, a great web browser, advanced email programs, news readers, an instant messenger client capable of connecting to all of the major services and more. Don't forget the software development programs, compilers, utilities and languages like Perl and PHP.

Add on industry-standard servers including Apache and Sendmail, dozens of games, educational applications, graphical manipulation programs and support for the latest hardware, all supplied and installed with the operating system. Surely the cost of all this must now be into the thousands. Well, no of course it's not: Linux offers all of these for less than the cost of Windows XP alone, and in many cases, for no cost at all.

Linux is not like Windows or Mac OSX. There is no one company responsible for its development or marketing, and no company owns it. Instead companies or in fact anyone can distribute Linux in any way they wish. Consequently, there's a great number of distributions out there, each catering for one part of the market - be it enterprise, small office or home. Personal Computer World looked at eight distributions from the current leading vendors, to help you choose the one that suits your needs.

Gentoo Linux 1.4

Knoppix 3.3

Lindows OS4

Lycoris Desktop/LX Deluxe

Mandrake Linux Powerpack 9.2

Red Hat Linux 9

Suse Linux Professional 9

Xandros Desktop 2 Deluxe

Download a table of features relating to all the products in our group test here. (208KB).

You will need Acrobat Reader 5.0 or above, in order to view the table. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader here.

SCO Vs Linux - read our special report on the latest rumblings in the Linux world

Look out for the DVD edition of Personal Computer World June 2004 (on sale - 22 April) which will include a copy of Gentoo 2004 and Mandrake 10 Community.

More group tests: Firewalls

Lindows OS4

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-24T11:55:48.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 24 March 2004 at 11:55:48

Looking for a desktop operating system rather than a general linux distribution? Then this could be for you.

Lindows, like Lycoris' Desktop/LX, is designed as a desktop operating system instead of a general Linux distribution. The company has had unusual success in having the distribution pre-installed by OEM vendors on cheaper PCs; the cost of running Windows on low-end PCs can often overtake the hardware costs once you add applications. Lindows, along with Knoppix and Xandros, is based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, but sold in a rebranded form.

The installation is the simplest of all in terms of choices; all you need to do is decide where on the drive to install, enter a name for the computer and a 'security' password, and it proceeds in just few minutes. In other respects, this makes the installation more difficult. The disk set-up is limited: you can only take over an entire hard drive or use an existing partition: you cannot create or modify your drive at all. There is no control over the boot loader - in true Windows style, Lindows will simply overwrite your bootloader without a warning. For the vast majority of people who will want to dual-boot Linux and Windows, it's a big problem. Fortunately, it does still detect Windows partitions and allow you to boot them subsequently.

After a reboot, Lindows starts a wizard to let you change a few settings, such as the desktop resolution - this is well designed and quite painless. Notably there is no insistence on creating a new user. Lindows is quite happy for you to remain logged in as root (the superuser), which is frowned upon from a security perspective.

The desktop has a set of useful icons and a clear menu laid out in a style more similar to Windows. Each entry is named well, and attractive icons are consistently used. The installation doesn't offer any choice of software to install, but it is a similar set to Lycoris' Desktop/LX, including media players, graphics viewers, and the Open Office suite (an old 1.0 version).

We had no problems getting multimedia files to work on our test PC, and the usual plug-ins for the Mozilla (renamed to a Lindows brand) were installed. There's also a commercial DVD player available for a small charge; other distributions can play DVDs with manual downloads, but the legality is ambiguous.

Lindows pushes its Click-NRun service, a graphical front end to the Debian package management system. As a subscriber to Click-N-Run, you can browse a large repository of software from Lindows. The popular titles are explained well, though there are several multiple entries and lesserknown entries are unclear. Here you can get hold of development utilities such as GCC, and the Gimp graphical tool (unfortunately not provided on the CD). Installing by Click-N-Run was as simple as it gets - an icon is added to the desktop and the correct menu entry set up, and it was a case of one click to run the programs. One clever feature is that each menu section has a Click-N-Run option, taking you directly to more applications of that type.

There was a major issue with our test PC. Lindows did not support the onboard network controllers, and a broadband connection is important on a small distribution like this. Since development tools are only available by downloading, it was impossible even to hack together a driver manually. The only option was to plug in a supported Ethernet card. We also had some problems with shutting the PC down; there were occasional hangs, meaning the hard drive had to have slow, full checks on the next boot-up.

As a desktop replacement, Lindows is a good choice - providing the hardware is compatible. Clearly a lot of time has been spent on integrating Click-N-Run and the relatively small amount of software means it is a necessity. Experts can still download Debian packages in the normal way, but this could interfere with the configuration.

Lindows can be purchased as a set from the Lindows website, or as a paid downloadable version at a lower cost. The base operating system costs $59.95 (approx £35), or a bundle offer including a year's subscription to Click-N-Run is $99.

Contact: Lindows 001 858 587 6700

www.lindows.com

System requirements:

Pentium II 800
128MB of Ram
2GB hard disk space

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Lycoris Desktop/LX Deluxe

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-24T10:52:54.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 24 March 2004 at 10:52:54

Does this newcomer to the world of Linux deserve all the attention it is getting.

US-based Lycoris is a relative newcomer to the Linux world, but has caught the attention of many with its 'make Linux simple' approach. Desktop/LX doesn't aim to be the ultimate Linux distribution, but attempts to create a system simple enough for anybody to use.

This philosophy carries through to the installation, which was one of the easiest. The language used is straightforward, avoiding the use of technical terms where possible. We were pleased with the graphics section: a list of commonly used resolutions, together with standard refresh rates is presented, allowing you to test each before deciding the one you prefer. The hard disk set-up is rather basic and doesn?t provide the ability to resize existing partitions, but it gets the job done. As soon as the disk is set up, the installer gets to work in the background. Next are screens to enter details for the network and modem, and finally to set the time zone. Once done, Desktop/LX is unique in giving you a game of Patience to play while the rest of the installation continues.

After rebooting and logging in, you get a customised KDE desktop that has a very familiar look and feel. After using the system for a few minutes, you will notice a distinct similarity to Windows XP. Lycoris has made significant modifications to KDE as well as developing additional software to give its users a familiar environment. It?s possible many people will believe they are using XP.

The desktop has always been the complete focus of Desktop/LX, and so it's no surprise to find it's well configured. There's a narrated graphical introduction to the desktop to help get you going, though you're unlikely to need it. The menus are laid out clearly and effectively. There's a 'My Linux System' icon that offers aWindows-style view of the system's drives, and a 'Network Browser' application that lets you connect to Windows networks. Web browsing and email are done with a modified Mozilla 1.3.1, and all of the typical plug-ins are present and working. The multimedia side of things is impressive, with most files playing correctly. The Konqueror file browser is well configured, with useful shortcuts and menu entries.

Unfortunately, the onboard network card on our test PC wasn't recognised, despite being supported. Some manual hacking got the card working, but this isn't ideal for a system that aims to be simple. The rest of the hardware was identified and configured without problems. There were some other minor issues that make the distribution seem lacking in some finishing touches. For instance, the keyboard wasn't set to the correct location - this can be fixed through the control panel, but it's something you shouldn't have to do manually. There is no centralised configuration program like those from Suse or Mandrake, and there was little in the way of help for anything other than managing users.

We were disappointed with the absence of Open Office. Lycoris supplies a modified version as a commercial package and only includes KDE's less functional Koffice programs with Desktop/LX. It is possible to download and install Open Office yourself, but every other distribution here has it available. Koffice is a competent suite, but it would be good to have the choice. Some of the software is a little dated, particularly KDE, which is version 2 with some enhancements from the third version.

This distribution is purely for the desktop and there is no server software supplied, and many common Unix utilities and services are unavailable. Lycoris provides an online repository called Iris for those who purchase the boxed edition, with additional packages not available on the CD. Also provided is an automatic update program, which works flawlessly. There is no additional charge to use these services.

Desktop/LX is available as a free download, but only for personal use. Two boxed sets are available, in standard and deluxe versions. The latter includes extra CDs with development utilities and sourcecode for an extra $10.

Contact: Lycoris 00 1 425 738 6604

www.lycoris.com

System requirements:

Pentium II 500MHz
128MB of Ram
1GB of free hard disk space

Price details:

RRP Deluxe: $50 (approx £29)

Standard: $40

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Xandros Desktop 2 Deluxe

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-23T18:05:03.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 23 March 2004 at 18:05:03

This Linux distribution is ideal for the use on the home desktop as well as in the office.

Highly Commended - Personal Computer World.

Last year Xandros released the first version of its desktop product to much praise. Originally based on Corel Linux, some of the original developers took the distribution and transformed it into Xandros Desktop, a Debian-based commercial operating system. One of the main criticisms was its use of the old KDE 2.x desktop, but this new second release has moved ahead to the much improved version 3.1.4.

Xandros seems rather small, coming on just a single CD. The installation gets under way quickly, with a high-resolution blue display. The first decision is to follow an express or custom install path. If you choose the express path, and the disk has free space, all you need to do is enter an administrative password, a name for the computer and create a new user. For custom installations there are more stages: first up is the disk configuration. Xandros allows resizing of NTFS and FAT partitions, ideal for dualbooting your computer. This installer was alone in finding both onboard network controllers on our test PC, allowing each to be configured. Next you can decide on which packages to install.

On the first boot-up, the KDE login manager appears with a sensible resolution at a high refresh rate. After logging in, like most distributions, a wizard pops up to configure some more settings. Here we could set the automatically configured mouse to right or left-handed and add a printer. The printer manager was especially intuitive, and handled the set-up impressively.

The KDE desktop Xandros uses is not as aesthetically pleasing as some others, the 'Launch' button was drab. The colourful menus are, however, laid out well in a Windows style, with the standard KDE menu structure under 'Applications'. A good selection of utilities and applications are installed by default, including Open Office 1.1.0. Web browsing and email is catered for by Mozilla 1.4, which also has plug-ins for Java, Real Player and Flash ready to go. Multimedia performance was as good as any other - video files, MP3 and other audio formats played effortlessly. Additionally, if Xandros finds any Windows partitions during the installation, it copies over the fonts and configures them for you.

Xandros provides an online service called Xandros Networks, similar to Click-NRun from Lindows, although this has no subscription charges. The GUI works well, giving access to fewer programs than Click-N-Run; but more is not always good: Xandros Networks has a clearer, less commercial and more professional layout, without the multiple and obscure entries found on the Lindows service.

Instead of the standard KDE file browser Konqueror, Xandros has developed its own file manager based upon Konqueror. It is similar in appearance to Windows 2000 Explorer, and lists network and disks on a tree menu. Xandros makes thorough checks for other partitions on the hard drive during installation, and creates mount points with sensible names. For any NTFS or FAT partitions, it uses Windows-style drive names, such as C:.

The deluxe version of Xandros includes Crossover Office and Plug-in from Codeweavers. These products let you run several major Windows programs, including Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes. Many other Windows programs will also run, though full stability isn't guaranteed. This addition is particularly useful to corporate users, where certain applications are requisite, and you can run these without having to purchase any Windows licences.

There is little in the way of administrative utilities, and Xandros could gain from having something similar to Drakconf or Yast. Basic tasks such as adding users and changing the screen resolution can be performed with KDE's control panel.

Xandros Desktop is not available as a free download. Boxed sets can be purchased from the company's website. The deluxe edition, with Crossover Office and Plug-in, includes 60 days of email support and a printed user guide, while the standard edition comes with 30 days email support.

Contact: Xandros 00 1 613 842 3494 www.xandros.com

System requirements:

Pentium II 450MHz
128MB of Ram
1GB hard disk space

Price details:

RRP $89 (£51 approx)

$39 standard

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Mandrake Linux Powerpack 9.2

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-23T18:02:15.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 23 March 2004 at 18:02:15

Our top choice Linux distribution.

Editor's Choice - Personal Computer World.

Mandrakesoft, a France-based company, is responsible for Mandrake Linux, which originally came about as a variation of Red Hat Linux.

Instead of the Gnome desktop, KDE was the choice, and the system was compiled and optimised for Pentium processors. It wasn't long before the distributions began to move in opposite directions, but the similarities and differences remain apparent. Mandrake Linux is aimed more towards the home desktop market, but this new 9.2 release is heading into the corporate desktop territory.

Mandrake Linux has always tried to be a user-friendly distribution, and is often cited as the best for beginners. Unlike competition from Lindows and Lycoris, Mandrake is still firmly and clearly Linux, and is a large system.

The installation looks a little dated in comparison to some, but it?s quite well designed and intuitive. The first choices are for language and keyboard, followed by a general security level for the system. Next up is the disk set-up, where you can manage your partitions and choose where to install the operating system. The software selection offered has a good variety of categories, like games, development tools and servers. Next, a summary of options for the system is given and on our test PC, the printer, onboard network card and graphics card were all correctly configured. Finally, the system password and a standard user are created. The system then offers to update itself before the reboot.

After the reboot, the Nvidia screen indicated the correct graphics drivers were installed and, upon logging in, a simple wizard popped up to configure a few settings. Mandrake naturally prefers KDE as the desktop, and has gone to considerable effort to configure it well. The theme is Mandrake's own Galaxy, a blue and grey design that works well.

It's here on the desktop where Mandrake excels. The latest version of KDE is provided, which itself gives excellent usability for common desktop tasks. Also supplied are recent releases of many applications and utilities. Video support worked fine with mpeg4 and other formats, and double-clicking on the common audio formats launched a suitable player. In fact, this was the case, with double-clicking on most major file types. Other partitions on the hard drive are found and mounted, and the 'supermount' utilities take care of managing the CD or DVD-Rom drives.

Web browsing is through Mozilla or Konqueror, and the usual plug-ins for Java, Flash and Real Player were working. For productivity, Open Office 1.1.0 is supplied, with the capable Kmail for email. The distribution installs all the popular applications, which are laid out well on the menus. Also available are many lessknown programs arranged into categories making them easy to find and install.

System administration is performed through Drakconf, a centralised configuration application similar to Suse, though it offers less functionality. Here you can update and install new software, configure the network, users, hardware and more. We were able to update the system in no time, as well as add fonts from the Windows partition; Drakconf automatically found and configured these.

Mandrake 9.2 contains lots of new software, and is itself a recent release. The distribution isn't as solid as one like Red Hat, but we encountered few problems. Drakconf has improved since past releases, and now you can configure aspects of the system suited to corporate needs. Mandrakesoft also has a reputation for providing enhancement updates in addition to security and bug fixes.

The distribution is available as a free download. This comes with no support and doesn't include commercial software. There are several boxed releases, including the Discovery and Powerpack editions - which includes 60 days of email installation support, seven CDs of software and a useful manual. It?s also available in a DVD version and without the manual. The Discovery edition lacks development software and some server software, and includes 30 days of email installation support.

Look out for the DVD edition of Personal Computer World June 2004 (on sale - 22 April) which will include a copy of Mandrake 10 Community.

Contact: Mandrakesoft +33 (0) 1 40 41 00 41

www.mandrake.com

System requirements:

Pentium or above
64MB of Ram
1GB hard disk space

Price Details:

RRP 69 Euros (£49 approx)(39 Euros - Discovery)

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Gentoo Linux 1.4

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-23T17:53:07.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 23 March 2004 at 17:53:07

A free linux distribution only available over the Internet.

The Linux mascot is a penguin, and a Gentoo is a kind of penguin. Gentoo Linux's mascot is, however, a cow, and this is a non-commercial distribution available only via the Internet. It is sourcecode based, which means all the packages are downloaded, compiled and built on your machine and optimised for that system. This makes it quite different from all the other packages we've looked at here, which install prebuilt binary software for generic PCs. Gentoo is the largest distribution here, offering many thousands of packages and being non-commercial, is completely free.

The software package system, known as Portage, is unique to Gentoo, although partially based on the FreeBSD OS' Ports system. The Gentoo Project maintains a tree of information containing all the automated instructions to download and build each package, including all dependencies on other related packages. Similar to the Debian APT system, automatic resolution of dependent packages means installing complex pieces of software can be done in just one step.

The main purpose of any source-based distribution is to have complete control over what software is installed and how aggressively optimised it is for the hardware it runs upon. Generally speaking, other distributions use software that runs on any Pentium system or above, and do not take advantage of new processor capabilities such as MMX and SSE. The design of processors varies as well; code that still runs on both an Intel Pentium 4 and an AMD Athlon can be optimised to perform better on one particular model. Some distributions do include optimised kernels but Gentoo is built from scratch.

As a result, the installation for Gentoo is for experts only. The bootable CD simply drops you to a command prompt in a shell. If that idea scares you, Gentoo is probably not for you. There is no graphical or even text-based installer, and you must manually partition your hard drive and create filesystems before you can begin to build the base system and kernel. A set of detailed instructions with lots of examples is provided on the website and the CD.

The base system takes a couple of hours to compile, even on the latest hardware, and it doesn't include any graphical desktops or programs. The nature of the Portage system means you can easily install the KDE desktop with just one command, but the sheer amount of packages that must be compiled will lead to a build time of a day or more. Consequently, Gentoo is a distribution only suitable for mid to high-end systems with a broadband (or better) Internet connection.

Aside from the optimisation, Gentoo has another distinct benefit in having all the latest versions of software available. There's no need to wait around for six months for a new release, as the Portage tree is constantly updated. This leads to enhancement updates being available as quickly as security updates from other distributors. The drawback is that the latest releases can often introduce bugs as well as fix them, so Gentoo may not be ideal for systems where stability is vital.

Once the long installation is over, Gentoo isn't difficult to maintain. Updating the system is simple; one command downloads updated packages, compiles and installs them. Complex packages such as video players are easier to install than in any other distribution, as Gentoo downloads and builds the necessary libraries and codecs in the right order, making sure everything is in sync. With such flexible control, Gentoo can excel as a server or desktop operating system, due to Portage. On the administration front, however, there is no centralised configuration system, again emphasising this distribution as more suited to Linux experts.

Several CD images can be downloaded from the Gentoo website, and these can be written to blank CDs to create the boot disc. Alternatively, some online resellers offer Gentoo for a small charge. The bulk of the operating system is downloaded during the installation from many software sites across the world; the Portage system takes care of that.

Look out for the DVD edition of Personal Computer World June 2004 (on sale - 22 April) which will include a copy of Gentoo 2004.

Contact: Gentoo Linux

www.gentoo.org

System requirements:

1GHz processor
64MB of Ram
4GB of free hard disk space

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Suse Linux Professional 9

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-23T17:38:03.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 23 March 2004 at 17:38:03

This Linux distribution is large, with a wealth of programs available to add on.

Highly Commended - Personal Computer World.

Suse's success as the main competitor to Red Hat has been predominantly in Europe until now. The penetration of this German company (now owned by Novell) into the market is expected to grow further. Suse has aimed its Linux distribution more generally, and as such, it's certainly big. Similar to Mandrake Linux, there is some emphasis on making the desktop aspect of Linux more user friendly, but it also has good server capabilities.

The installation begins with a splash screen with Suse's new rebranded look. The set-up program is part of Yast, which is also used to configure the system after installation. The first option allows you to repair, update or boot a current system in addition to a new install. Next, Yast takes a unique approach in collecting together appropriate settings and presenting them to you in a list, for you to make alterations. Although a little unusual, it works, and most of the suggestions are suitable. The hard disk set-up is effective, and allows you to resize partitions, including Windows Fat and NTFS.

After installing the packages, the system then reboots. The network card, printer and sound card were correctly identified on our test PC, but there were problems with the graphics installation - Suse does not supply Nvidia drivers, but offers the option to download these later. The monitor was not detected. We found the graphics set-up confusing and quite unreliable; it was better to accept the low-quality defaults and change them later. The final stage of the install process allows an automatic update to patch the system. This worked without issue, and we were impressed having an up-to-date system before finishing the installation.

On first login, you're presented with a colourful KDE desktop, only let down by some poorly rendered fonts. Fortunately, it's easy to change these with KDE's control centre. Suse has also developed its own desktop theme, using a blue colour scheme, together with KDE?s latest icon set. The menu is laid out in a new style with minimal entries, most of which are named to describe the program, instead of using the program's name itself.

System configuration is performed using the centralised system Yast, last seen during the installation. Yast is designed intuitively with an attractive set of icons. Tasks such as configuring the network, printers and software packages are made easy, and the interface is clean and slick. If you did not choose to update the system on install, that can be performed here as Yast has many useful touches.

Suse Linux comes with most of the applications you'd need, including Open Office 1.1.0. Kmail provides the email, but oddly, the Mozilla web browser isn't installed by default. A video player is installed, but won't play mpeg4 (like DivX) files as standard. Most other files, including audio, are supported without a problem, and KDE's Konqueror file browser was fast and a pleasure to use. The typical web plug-ins for Java, Flash and Real Player are also configured and ready.

Suse, like Mandrake, is a large distribution with thousands of programs available. Adding new software is relatively easy with Yast, although we encountered a few errors. Disappointingly, some software isn't added to the menu properly, giving the impression of an unfinished product. For example, Mozilla only gets an entry as an email program and lacks an icon.

With lots of server software supplied, together with Yast?s ease of configuration, Suse is also ideal off the desktop. You can set up remote administration both graphically and through the shell with ease. There are programs to watch for updates and hardware changes, helping to make administration less difficult.

Suse Linux 9 is not available to download, and can be purchased as a boxed set in Personal and Pro editions. The Personal version lacks a few applications, the development utilities and some servers. It comes on three CDs and has 60 days of installation support. The Professional version comes with a DVD and five CDs, as well as two manuals and 90 days of support.

Contact: Suse Linux 020 8846 3918

www.suse.co.uk

System requirements:

Pentium or above
128MB of Ram
3-6GB of hard disk space

Price details:

RRP £59.99 (Personal £34.99)

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Red Hat Linux 9

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-23T17:37:47.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 23 March 2004 at 17:37:47

The latest version of this well known Linux distribution.

Red Hat is by some way the largest Linux company, and the oldest. Red Hat Linux had been in development for some 10 years, back to when Linux was in its infancy, but the company has recently announced that it no longer has plans to develop the Red Hat Linux product line, and instead will concentrate on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. But for the time being, Red Hat Linux 9 is a hugely popular distribution and will continue to receive updates into 2004.

On installation, the first thing you notice is how professional and polished it is. The install process, while offering flexibility, is one of the easiest to use, and its well-designed aesthetics give you confidence. The first steps are to set up the system language, keyboard and mouse, and then the installer searches your hard drive for existing Red Hat Linux instances that it can update, or allows you to perform a fresh install. For new installations, you're offered the choice of a desktop, workstation or server, in order to tailor the software selection automatically. The rest is straightforward, and our test PC?s monitor and onboard network card were identified and set up. The installation also lets you include extra languages, configure a firewall, and customise the software to install.

On the first boot-up, the good design continues with a wizard to control a few more settings. We were impressed that the time and date could be configured here via the network and set to update at boot-up. The PC's sound card was then identified and configured. Next, the wizard asked to register the system, but this step failed. A visit to the 'Red Hat Network' website showed that an update had to be downloaded and manually installed before the system could be registered or any updates performed. Once done, the update process was simple. Unlike other distributions, automatic updates can only be performed with registered systems. You can only have one system registered free, otherwise you must pay for extra entitlements on the Red Hat Network.

Red Hat is alone here for defaulting to the Gnome desktop over KDE, which is also supplied, but not as well configured. Red Hat has developed its own Bluecurve theme, which includes a custom set of icons and window decorations. The design works well, and gives the distribution a professional and branded feel. Menus are well laid out, and applications are named sensibly.

Many tools for configuring the system are supplied, though there is no central application to perform administration. These cater for everyday activities, such as adding users, as well as more complex things, such as configuring the Samba server. Printers are not automatically set up, but the Print Manager tool was easy to use. Some of the major applications were slightly out of date. Mozilla was at version 1.2.1, while Open Office at 1.0.2. Email is provided for by Ximian Evolution, an application users of Microsoft Outlook will feel comfortable with.

Red Hat Linux is very disappointing on the multimedia desktop front. There?s no MP3 support at all: Red Hat has decided to remove support for legal reasons. There is no video player, so no support for AVIs or DVDs. The Nvidia drivers for our test PC were not available, and had to be downloaded manually. On the web side, Mozilla isn't configured with any plug-ins at all, thus there is no support for Java, Real Player or Flash. Nautilus, the file manager, is fast and stable, and file types are identified, even if few have applications to handle them. Most of the major types are however configured, including images, wav files and archives.

System stability was impressive, we had no crashes at all on our test PC. This has often been the case with Red Hat Linux, since its large user base means more vigorous testing than other packages.

Red Hat Linux is available as a free download or as a boxed set (Standard and Pro editions). The former includes 30 days of web-based support and a 30-day subscription to Red Hat Network. The Pro edition gives you 60 days of support, 60 days with Red Hat Network, a single DVD and extra documentation.

Contact: Red Hat 0800 358 2018

www.redhat.co.uk

System requirements:

Pentium II 400MHz
128MB of Ram
2GB hard disk space

Price Details:

RRP £115 (Pro)

£34 (Standard)

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Knoppix 3.3

Barry Shilliday — 2004-03-23T17:34:37.000Z

Barry Shilliday, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 23 March 2004 at 17:34:37

This linux distribution can be run from a bootable CD.

Knoppix is perhaps the most interesting distribution here; it's the only one you can run without any commitment, or even a hard drive. Knoppix, a project from Linuxtag, is a bootable CD that lets you run a full Linux operating system entirely from the CD alone. It's downloadable as a 700MB disc image, which you can write to a blank CD using Linux or Windows software.

As a CD-based distribution, there is no installation as such, you just insert the disc and wait. The boot phase has hardware detection that other vendors could take a lesson from - it detects and configures all sorts of devices, from your DVD-Rom drives, your graphics and network cards through to USB devices and digital cameras. The latest kernel and applications ensure support for the greatest number of devices.

In order to control the boot process, Knoppix uses a series of 'cheat codes'. The boot splash screen has a help option listing some of the main ones. Here you can control the screen resolution and tweak hardware detection settings, among other things. A full list of the cheat codes is available on the project's website.

Upon booting into the GUI, Knoppix 3.3 at your chosen resolution, and an icon for every partition on any hard drives on the PC. This is one area where Knoppix is extremely useful - system recovery. Not only can you read and write to Linux partitions, you can also do the same with Windows FAT volumes, as well as gain read-only access to the NTFS format Windows XP and 2000 use. Knoppix doesn't stop there - as you have an Internet connection, it automatically configures the network interface to make use of it, as well as any Lan the PC is attached to. This makes Knoppix ideal for transferring data to and from a PC that might otherwise be non-bootable. All the hard drive partitions are initially mounted as read-only for safety reasons, but a right-click on the partition?s icon makes it writeable.

You might expect that there is little software available other than system recovery programs from a 700MB CD. But the KDE menu has an overwhelming amount there. Knoppix uses a heavy compression system to provide more than 2GB of applications. Not only do you get a full working version of KDE 3.1.4 including Kmail, but you have Mozilla 1.5 (complete with Java plug-in), Open Office 1.1.0, and the latest versions of for CD-writing, the Xine video player, and heaps of games, educational programs and development utilities. There's even a utility to download and install a Flash plug-in, which can?t be distributed by Knoppix for legal reasons.

With so many applications, the menus aren't that well laidout. Most of the less frequently used programs have a plain, default icon, while the more popular ones have distinct images. The desktop is pretty much a default KDE set-up, though this isn't a problem.

As a system that exists in the PC's memory, you might assume there's little point in using it for anything other than recovery or to play with Linux. To get around the fact that the distribution isn't physically installed, a menu option offers an automated method of storing your home directory together with your settings on a hard drive partition, or even removable media like a Zip drive or Compact Flash (CF) card. Any will do, and Knoppix will even encrypt data for you. What's more, it is possible to install Knoppix to a hard drive and run it as any other distribution, though this it must be done manually, and requires expertise.

Knoppix provides a small configure printers, sound cards and swap devices, although the system automatically uses any swap partitions it detects on the hard drive. There's also the option to start services for remote administration, as well as a Samba server, to connect to a Windows network.

Knoppix is a free Debianbased distribution. The software is open source, and the CD is distributed under an open licence, as used for Red Hat and Mandrake's downloadable versions, which allows you to distribute the CD freely.

Contact: Knoppix

www.knoppix.com

System requirements:

Intel 486
128MB of Ram

Price:

RRP: Free

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Arkeia Arkeia 5

Alan Stevens — 2003-03-25T11:37:42.000Z

Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 25 March 2003 at 11:37:42

Linux-based back-up for multiplatform networks.

Although they can be used to protect Linux systems, most mid-range back-up applications are hosted on either Windows or Netware servers.

Arkeia 5, however, works the other way round, running on a Linux or Unix server with client support for a wide range of platforms including both Windows and Netware.

Also available for deployment on AIX, HP-UX, Tru64 and Solaris systems, we tested the Linux implementation using a server running Red Hat 7.1.

An Red Hat Package Manager package makes for easy installation, the set-up routine configuring the server software and the X-Windows management interface, which can be run remotely.

The graphical interface looks a little unusual, but we quickly got the hang of it. The application is pretty conventional in the way it works and can identify most small computer system interface (SCSI) devices automatically.

That includes the Exabyte VXA-2 we used for testing. Other standard features include library support and load balancing across multiple drives.

Similarly, all the usual facilities are available for media rotation and taking both full and incremental back-ups. Jobs can be run immediately or scheduled for unattended operation.

This version of Arkeia has its own scheduler rather than using cron, with a good calendar interface to program exceptions to the schedule.

Mixed data from a variety of client file systems can be included in each back-up, with optional plug-ins to back up MySQL and Oracle databases.

An optional disaster recovery module is also available to rebuild both client and server systems from a back-up, with other plug-ins in development.

There's no specific support for Nas (network attached storage) or storage area networks (Sans), although Arkeia clients are included in some Nas appliances, such as those in the Sun Cobalt range.

We also found the logging and reporting facilities a little primitive. Overall, though, Arkeia 5 does the job expected of it, providing good back-up facilities for mixed platform networks from a Linux/Unix host.

DETAILS

Price: From £528.75 (£450 ex VAT) - one back-up server and one Windows/Linux client

Contact: Arkeia +33 1 48 10 89 89 (France)

www.arkeia.com

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Linux/Unix server with 128MB of memory, TCP/IP network connection and SCSI interface for drive attachment
SCSI tape drive or library
Clients require a minimum 64MB of memory (128MB recommended) and can be running Linux, Unix or Windows