J_K9 @ Linux

Next: Dreamlinux 2.0

July 25, 2006 on 2:03 am | In Linux, Reviews |

Next is one I recently came across while browsing a forum: Dreamlinux.

This is a Brazilian distribution based on Debian and Morphix, and here is a small description of it taken from its website:

1. Dreamlinux is a modern and modular Linux system that can be run directly from the CD and optionally be easily installed onto your HD.
2. Dreamlinux comes with a selection of the best applications designed to meet mostly of your daily needs.
3. Dreamlinux is based on Debian and Morphix, which means it takes advantages of their best features and adds its own modern development tools.
4. Being a modular system Dreamlinux allows you to add new modules comprising your preferred applications and build a new Distro that meet your requirements by means of its revolutionary MKDistro tool.

The distribution is exactly as the developers have described it. Cue phrase: more on this later

The Test Box

These are the main specifications of the computer I tested this distribution on:

• Athlon 64 4000
• 2GB RAM
• 250GB Seagate Hard Drive
• 256MB NVidia GeForce 7900GT

Those are the main specifications, plain and simple. A powerful box.

Dream Away

I was feeling daring, so I burnt the experimental Dreamlinux 2.0 XGL Edition to a CD-R, and rebooted. The “2.0 WORKS Edition” is stable, so if you don’t feel like dipping your feet into a bit of possible trouble, then that is the version you should download (instead of the XGL Edition). When I booted up with the CD, here is what appeared:

There was nothing strikingly beautiful about this part, so I will pass it by. I hit “Dream,” and a few seconds later the polish began to show. I am going to coin the phrase “Yet Another Polished Distro” - YAPD in its abbreviated form. This will save me having to repeat myself for every polished distro I come across! Anyway, feast your eyes on these screenshots (the first was taken when it was loading, and the second when XFCE has loaded):


For a minimalistic Window Manager, Xfce has been customised to look very nice indeed - and Dreamlinux has not even been installed yet. The icons are well designed, the theme has a good combination of colours, and the developers have obviously thought this distro out well.

Let me briefly return to what the developers said - please bear in mind that the distribution has not been installed yet. With regards to the first point, Dreamlinux was running superbly from my CD drive, and I experienced very little lag when opening applications. It is also extremely easy to install to your Hard Drive, as you will see in the pictures below. The developers also claim that Dreamlinux brings a “selection of applications designed to meet” the majority of my daily needs - this it does bring, as apps for many of the things that the average user would want to do on a home desktop are included; yes, even GtkPod, to transfer music to and from your iPod! It definitely has the best features of Debian and Morphix - just look at that shiny, red (it is actually red this time) apt-get icon sitting at the end of the Dock. Finally, it is also fairly easy to make your own distribution from Dreamlinux by using the MKDistro tool, accessed by clicking on the third icon from the left in the Dock. Dreamlinux is exactly what its developers said it is, and more.

Below are a few screenshots. The Installer is only two clicks away from the desktop, and it even brings its own “Quick Installation Guide” (just press the Firefox icon in the Dock, as shown in the second picture below), so you can’t possibly complain that it is difficult to install.


The installer was even faster than FoX’s - although, to be fair, far fewer apps are included (but it is a good bunch nonetheless). As all other modern Linux installers do, it asked me a series of questions and also gave me some things to do. Partitioning the Hard Drive was simple using “PartitionMorpher”, and once the partitions had been formatted and the files installed, I was asked to set up the usual things - root password, a user account and its password, and if/where I wanted to install GRUB (a bootloader). After that, I quit the Installer, and rebooted the PC. All was well!

The startup was - yet again - fast, and the desktop was just as lovely (I’m not sure I feel comfortable using that word) as it was on the Live CD. Now that it was installed, I thought: Why don’t I play around with it? There wasn’t much to “play around with,” so to speak - the distro was flawless! Well, almost - XGL was not working. This may be because my NVidia card is quite new (it is a 7900GT), and it may not be supported by the NVidia driver included with Dreamlinux. Being the goldfish I am, I completely forgot about updating the driver and trying it out.

Below is a screenshot of Xfce’s Settings panel. This is where you customize most of your GUI experience - I decided to post the screenshot because I love those icons:

More screenshots are available on the Dreamlinux website.

In Conclusion

It is a pity that I have not had as much time to try out this distribution as I had with FoX, but I have certainly liked what I have seen. The interface is inspiring (I’m trying not to say ‘polished’ here), and incredibly fast as well, as it is the lightweight Xfce Window Manager - but Dreamlinux’s developers have added their own special touches to it. This is another excellent distribution, and I am glad I got the chance to try it out. In fact, I liked it and FoX so much that I cannot decide which one is ‘better’ than the other - for me, that is. The distro that is best for you is the one you like the most - for this precise reason I advise you to try out all the popular distributions, and the ones reviewed in this project, and then decide which one you like the most. I rate it: 9/10