TurboLinux Workstation

We’re looking at TurboLinux this week, specifically, TurboLinux Workstation 7. Even though the folks at TurboLinux were kind enough to provide a copy of their version 7 server, it really didn’t seem, in hindsight, like fodder for this review series. It’ll certainly make it into future reviews. Instead, I dug through the site and found the downloadable workstation version for this review.

As you’ve read, the install was very easy. I’ve consistently been pretty surprised by the advances made in the past few years in graphical installers and in hardware probing. As Linux users, we undoubtedly owe that to the commercial distributions, most notably RedHat, Mandrake and Suse. They seem to have set the standard that others aspire to. These distributions also tend to keep downloadable versions up to date, incorporating stable revisions of their default applications as they’re made available. It’s nice to know that when you spend the time to download a distribution of Linux, you’re reasonably current with the included applications.

I can’t say exactly the same about TurboLinux. While some of the applications included in the distribution are relatively current, some are woefully out of date. Evolution, the very Outlook-like email program, is a perfect example. Ximian three weeks ago released the final version 1.0 of Evolution. The version included in TurboLinux 7 Workstation is version .10 - barely a functional beta. While it’s hard to expect companies to keep every application precisely up to date, there have been at least 4 beta versions and 10 months between Evolution .10 and the stable 1.0. Somewhere along the line, a revision to the download version could have been made. Gnome is currently in version 1.4 - easily its best yet. TurboLinux has yet to roll this version into its workstation distro. Galeon, the outstanding web browser for Gnome has advanced through at least two revisions beyond that found on TurboLinux. These, really, are the premier applications in most current Linux distributions. In other words, Linux houses tend to be very diligent in keeping these particular applications up to date. It’s hard to explain why TorboLinux has not chosen to do so.

TL 7 Workstation does come with what’s shaping up as the standard compliment of installed applications. Web browsing is handled by Mozilla, Netscape and Galeon. TL covers word processing with ABI Word. KDE is the default desktop environment, though Gnome, as mentioned, is available. And, with KDE comes KOffice. Multimedia is covered with XMMS, cdrecord and XCDRoast. TurboLinux Workstation even includes GnuCash for personal finance management. The standard package is definitely in place, up to date or not.

Other major distributions have made credible attempts to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack. Mandrake has the ~Drak configuration set. Suse includes the very fine Yast2 and SaX tools. RedHat includes Up2Date, a package management and update system. I found no such unique tools in TurboLinux, other than a lightly modified version of Anaconda. It’s surprising and, frankly, a bit disappointing.

Given that I’m not one who likes to immediately update my system, package by package, after an install, it’s tough to make a strong recommendation on behalf of TurboLinux. I simply didn’t find enough up to date applications or unique features to distinguish TL from the rest of the pack. There are at least three other distributions that have paid more attention to the details.

So, that’s the Great Distro Review, week four. Tomorrow? Let’s just play it by ear, shall we?

Tony
Steidler-Dennison