The Great Distro Review Rolls On

The Great Distro Review rolls on.

This week, we’re looking at TurboLinux, an enterprise-focused distro that’s recently found its way into the top 10 Linux distributions. Today, we’ll talk about the installation process and some of the strengths and shortcomings of this up-and-coming distribution.

Installation of TurboLinux went relatively easily. The first few screens were text-based; a bit of a concern for a distribution so clearly focused on the enterprise. But it quickly rolled into a graphical install routine that was quite easy to understand and use.

In particular, I like the order of installation for TurboLinux. It set up the video and sound cards first, followed by networking and the package installations. The package choices are broken into install “classes”, with pre-defined installation routines for Workstation, Laptop, Power Workstation, and Development configurations. You can either accept the defaults for the class, making the installation process that much quicker, or you can customize within each class, adding or subtracting relevant packages. I chose the development workstation, as I prefer to have all the available development tools at my disposal.

Probing and auto configuration was smooth and easy. TurboLinux found both video cards and offered the option of which to use as the default. It didn’t detect the SoundBlaster Live! audio card, but allowed me to override the embedded Crystal Sound Fusion card and select the SB from a list of available drivers. TL also offered me the opportunity to customize the driver for the SoundBlaster, though I left it in the default mode. TL also recognized my Philips CDR as a burner and configured it accordingly.

Overall, I was satisfied with the install process. It was logical, easy to understand, and found most of the devices in my machine without a problem. The package classes made good sense and were easily modified to meet my needs.

There is, as always, one caveat for the folks at TurboLinux. This install did not see my Windows partitions. A few years ago, I’d have thought nothing of this. However, I’ve recently completed seamless Mandrake and Suse installs in which those Windows partitions were not only recognized but were also set up as auto mounting partitions. It seems like this would be a minimal requirement for enterprise-focused Linux machines. I hope to see this in future releases.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about the package selection in the stock TurboLinux Workstation distribution.

Tony
Steidler-Dennison