Josh Saddler

I just found some old reviews I wrote up on Ubuntu 4.10, Gnoppix .8.2.2, and Gentoo 2004.3. On a journal I don't use much, even. I know I tried Gnoppix first, a few months after I played with Knoppix. The latter didn't seem to warrant a review, even though it was better than all but Gentoo.

Notice the terrible time I had with Ubuntu Warty. The LiveCD worked; the install CD didn't. I tried to install it literally 16 times in a row before giving up. Now that I recall those days, there were several aborted install attempts before that final crazy string of attempted installs. Man, their installer sucked. You think Gentoo's installer has had some rough edges...

Anyway, reading all that old stuff is interesting. After using Linux for more than 2 years, I can pretty much figure out the sound and font issues (load ymfpci and install corefonts, then turn off antialiasing). Now, of course, I know why OpenOffice takes so long to compile...because it's OpenOffice! I shoulda gone with the -bin version.

It's nice to see that Gentoo is still just as good as I remembered it. It's one thing to have in my mind a golden, fuzzy picture of "the good old days", and another to read the review I wrote during those days confirming my experiences. And hey, it's still good now. I switched to Gentoo from Windows shortly before the review, and haven't gone back.