The SAM desktop

After some delay it’s finally time for me to write up my thoughts about SAM Linux 2009, a distro I must confess I hadn’t really heard of until someone asked me to review it. It’s a German distribution based on the very popular PCLinuxOS. So how would I get on with this unknown quantity (to me at least), read on to find out…

Vital Stats:
Distro Base – PCLinuxOS
Packaging – .rpm (Managed by Synaptic)
Linux Kernel – 2.6.26.8.tex3
Default Desktop – XFCE 4.6.1

Installation:

The toolbox folder

I downloaded the standard install CD from the SAM website and got to work straight away. Upon booting it immediately became apparent just how much this is based off PCLinuxOS. You don’t exactly need to be Columbo to work it out, with big clues like a splash screen proclaiming “Powered by PCLinuxOS”. You then choose your keyboard layout. This is all to boot into a live session from the CD, before you begin the install. You eventually reach a GDM login screen which looks oddly similar to the Linux Mint 7 one, I guess they used the same theme. There’s no indication on the screen of what username or password to log in with, so I took a wild guess and put “guest” for both fields. This worked, much to my relief. Some kind of indicator on the screen would be really useful, it seems a bit of a oversight. Eventually you reach the live CD desktop, which is XFCE 4.6.1, an environment I haven’t used a lot in the past, but one that I’ve always enjoyed on my brief stays. In this configuration they’ve put the main toolbar along the bottom of the screen and a Wbar animated dock at the top. There’s no installer icon on the desktop and I was wondering where to begin. There is however a folder marked “toolbox”, looking in there I found an installer and some other applets. You’re prompted to enter the root account details and once again there’s no indication what these might be. Maybe I could have used Columbo after all, his wife’s probably a big fan of SAM Linux. I took a wild stab at “root” for both fields again, and it worked. Maybe I’m smarter than I thought. Read the rest of this entry »