| Review |
 |
Canada's
leading distro, Libranet is not yet one of the "big guns" in the
Linux world, but it has all the potential to compete with the best. A
commercial distribution based on Debian, Libranet attempts to improve on
Debian's fine features by adding excellent hardware detection,
easy system administration, and an up-to-date default configuration of
software packages. Unlike two other commercial Debian distros, Lindows
and Xandros, Libranet goes light on graphics - it is built for speed.
Furthermore, it offers a great deal of installation and configuration
options, and a generous supply of included apps. Those who want to take
Libranet further can use Debian's much-praised apt-get system of package
management to produce a bleeding edge system. Those who like
Debian should love Libranet, the only "gotcha" being that Libranet isn't
free (as Debian is). Nevertheless, Libranet is considered good value by
its growing fan club, so let us take a look and see just what this
increasingly popular distro has to offer. |
|
| A d v e r t i s e m e n t |
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A Kinder, Gentler Debian
|
"Dependency hell" - experienced Linux
users know all too well what this means, but to newbies it sounds like
an exotic term for over-reliance on one's parents for spending money.
For the benefit of those who are just finding their way in the Linux
world, dependency hell refers to the situation where installing one
software package fails because it depends on another package that is not
yet installed, so you attempt to install the missing package will also
fails because it requires yet another package, which fails...ad
infinitum, ad nauseum, ad oblivia.
Enter Debian. Long the choice distro of the "geek elite," Debian boasts
a number of admirable features, but its trump card has always been the
revered apt-get (Advanced Package Tool) system of package management
which banishes dependency hell (well, most of the time). It's chief
competitor, RPM looks like a throwback to the Neolithic era of computing
by comparison. Red Hat, inventor of RPM, even seems to be disassociating
itself from the system, since they now insist that the acronym means
"RPM Package Manager" (in the beginning it was known as the "Red Hat
Package Manager").
Aside from apt-get, the Debian community is also happy to point out
that their favorite distro supports around 12,000 packages, making it
the largest of all distros in terms of the goodies on offer. Debian also
boasts legendary stability, and has the ability to run on numerous
hardware platforms. As a bonus, Debian is noncommercial - you are free
to keep burning extra copies for your friends, lover(s), business
associates, and Aunt Tilly, until you run out of blank CD-Rs.
So much for the good news, now for the bad. If you want to make a proud
Debian user squirm, ask him or her about the installation program. Or
hardware detection. And what about ease of system administration? The
sad fact is that installation and configuration of Debian requires
dealing with an interface that only a battle-hardened veteran of the
Unix command line could love. Even experienced Linux users find the
Debian installer "primitive," while newbies flee in terror. The
situation is made worse by the fact that many Debian users seem to be in
denial: "It's not that bad," they will tell you. The same thing could be
said for having your wisdom teeth pulled.
Before I get flamed, if not lynched, by the Debian faithful, let me
assure everyone that I consider apt-get to be the greatest thing since
sliced bread, and I sincerely believe that anyone with more than 18
chromosomes can see how superior it is to RPM. However, Debian has its
dark side - I personally get no joy from having to spend my weekends
editing /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 with Emacs so that I can get a graphics
display that doesn't look as if I'd spilled coffee on my monitor. No, I
admit it, I'm a wimp - I want Debian to detect and set up my video card,
monitor, and sound card with a minimum of fuss and bother. I want to be
able to configure a firewall in about 30 seconds. I want to be able to
add and delete users (or change their passwords) with such amazing speed
and dexterity that even Macintosh users will be astonished. In short, I
want Debian to "just work." Oh, and one more thing - I want the system
to be fast. "Ease of use" should not be a euphemism for "slow and
bloated."
Fortunately, there are talented programmers out there in the world who
have recognized Debian's merits and have decided to tackle the "ease of
use" issue. Two of the more notable valiant efforts in this direction
are Lindows and Xandros. Both are commercial (that is, non-free)
Debian-based distros that seem to be clearly targeted at the newbie
crowd. Both distros have a well-deserved reputation for being "just like
Windows." OK, not "just like" Windows, but similar, and that can be good
or bad depending on your needs. On the positive side, Lindows and
Xandros are easy to install and easy to configure. They are basically
plug-and-play, intuitive, intensively graphical, and almost everything
can be accomplished by point-and-click with a trusty mouse. On the
downside, the graphical baggage (which is based on bloated KDE) can slow
things down. Perhaps even worse is the fact that these distros give you
hardly any install options at all - you accept the defaults, and that's
it. Hackers with an instinct to tinker and tweak will probably find
these point-and-click distros as disappointing as a spammer's "Make
Money Now" or "Lose Weight Fast" offer.
So is there a Debian-based distro which happily occupies the middle
ground between ease-of-use and infinite tinkerability, while preserving
speed and stability? Fortunately, there is. That distro is (drum roll)
Libranet. |
| Installation |
The Libranet installer has,
traditionally, been text-mode only. Or more accurately, it's an
"ncurses" installation where you choose options from text-based menus
using the arrow keys, tab key, and space bar. In this era of ubiquitous
art deco graphics-based installers, ncurses may sound like a troglodyte
way of doing things, but in fact it's both fast and easy. That having
been said, starting with version 2.8, the Libranet installation routine
has added a partially graphics-based mode. The way this works is that
the installation begins as ncurses, but after you've partitioned the
hard drive, you can configure Xwindows and then the screen switches to
graphics mode. This is an unusual approach - most installers save
Xwindows configuration for last.
One of the first screens to appear in the installation routine is hard
disk partitioning. ReiserFS is the default filesystem, the first
indication that Libranet is built for speed, but ext3 is also available.
For the more hard core among us, you can at this point hit ALT-F2, which
allows you to log in at a root prompt. This is Libranet's "rescue mode",
though you can also use it to run cfdisk and do specialized partitioning
(most people shouldn't do this). Unfortunately, there is no menu to
direct you to the rescue mode - you simply have to know it's there if
you want to make use of it.
After partitioning is finished, the installer asks you if you want
Libranet to handle booting. If you say "yes," the Grub boot manager will
be installed in the MBR (master boot record). You are also given the
option to create a boot floppy.
Installing Xwindows went very smoothly. I was especially impressed by
the fact that Libranet offered to set up the proprietary Nvidia driver,
rather than the open source NV driver which lacks 3D video acceleration.
Owners of Nvidia cards have long been frustrated at the hoops they had
to jump through to get video acceleration working, and Libranet deserves
kudos for making the whole process as easy as possible.
Having X running during the installation makes it a little bit nicer
when it comes package selection, because you can use the mouse cursor to
point and click on the packages you wish to install. When you reach this
point in the installation, you will probably be amazed - Libranet comes
on only two CDs, yet about a zillion applications seem to reside on the
disks. If you decide to install everything, the process will take about
an hour and you'll consume nearly 3 GB of hard disk space. However, I
decided to go for a "minimal install," on the theory that I wanted to
get the system up and running quickly, plus I wanted to test out
Libranet's package administration after the install was completed.
Although "minimal install" was fast (maybe 10 minutes), I was slightly
perturbed that it wasn't truly "minimal." The installer seems to require
setting up Xwindows, and as any experienced hacker will tell you, you
should not even have X installed if you plan to use the computer as a
server attached permanently to the Internet. This is for security - it's
difficult or impossible to make X absolutely secure, and since a server
doesn't even need a monitor let alone graphics, there is no reason to
install X. In the case of Libranet, if you want to get rid of X you'll
have to first complete the installation and then uninstall with the
command "apt-get remove x-window-system."
Towards the end of the install, you are given the option to configure
sound. It was nice to see that Libranet 2.8 includes the very up-to-date
ALSA sound drivers. You are also given the opportunity to set up
networking and configure a printer.
Screenshot 1: Printer Configuration with CUPS
|
| Post-install Configuration |
As soon as I completed my minimal
install, I was prompted to log in (no need to reboot), and Xwindows
started up. Users of other distros are invariably surprised to find that
the default window manager is neither KDE nor Gnome, but rather IceWM. As
befits the Libranet philosophy, IceWM is lightweight and speedy.
Furthermore, if you demand even more speed, Blackbox, Fluxbox, and
Openbox are available. Other lightweight window managers included with
Libranet are XFce, Windowmaker, Afterstep, Sawfish and Enlightenment.
Needless to say, bloated Gnome and KDE are also on the CD set. However,
I'm getting ahead of myself, because remember that I did a "minimal
install", so none of these window managers were yet available to me.
It was time to start loading up the applications that I had neglected
to install. In Libranet, installing and removing packages, as well as
performing most other everyday configuration tasks, can be accomplished
with Adminmenu (or it's graphical equivalent, Xadminmenu). This crucial
tool is the most important piece of software that differentiates
Libranet from ordinary Debian. Without a doubt, Adminmenu is Libranet's
star attraction.
Screenshot 2: Adminmenu
Screenshot 3: Xadminmenu
In Adminmenu, I selected "Package Management", and was offered these
options.
[1] Select packages to install from the Libranet CD
[2] Install packages from the Internet
[3] Remove packages
[4] Security updates
Note option No. 2. This is one of Libranet's secret weapons, the
ability to grab any of the thousands of Debian packages found on the
Internet. However, this being a test of Libranet itself, I was
interested on the packages found on the CDs, so I chose option No. 1,
and was presented with this menu of package groups:
[ ] PCMCIA software (laptop ONLY)
[ ] Laptop software
[ ] Chat software
[ ] Dictionaries
[ ] Documentation
[ ] Text and programming editors
[ ] File management software
[ ] Financial
[ ] Games
[ ] GNOME Desktop Environment
[ ] Graphics software
[ ] KDE Desktop environment
[ ] E-mail software
[ ] Office software
[ ] Personal management
[ ] Printing software
[ ] Shells and terminal emulators
[ ] Audio software
[ ] Toys
[ ] System utilities view more selections
[ ] Picture and video viewing software
[ ] Internet software
[ ] Window Managers
[ ] OpenOffice.org Office Suite
[ ] Math software
[ ] CD-R/RW recording software
[ ] KDE language packages
[ ] Emulators
[ ] EMACS
[ ] LaTex Software
[ ] Development software and libraries
[ ] GTK/GNOME development environment
[ ] QT/KDE development environment
[ ] Networking software
[ ] DNS server
[ ] MySQL database view more selections
[ ] NFS
[ ] FTP server
[ ] SAMBA clients
[ ] SAMBA server
[ ] Apache webserver
[ ] PHP4 MySQL modules
[ ] ISDN utilities
[ ] WordPerfect 8 compatibility
One can drill down through the menus and select individual packages
rather than simply installing a whole package group. For the purposes of
this test, I selected everything, then walked away to make some coffee.
Installing all these packages took approximately one hour - your mileage
may vary depending on the speed of your hardware.
When Adminmenu was finished, I found myself with a very complete
selection of applications, one that could easily compete with big names
like SuSE and Mandrake. I started exploring the menus and submenus, and
was delighted to find that, compared to version 2.7, most of the
applications had now been updated to later versions. Herein lies another
little secret of Libranet 2.8, but first a digression for the benefit of
those unfamiliar with Debian.
Debian has three branches: "stable," "testing," and "unstable." The
names are pretty self-explanatory. Every new package starts out in
unstable, and once proven moves on to testing and finally into the next
available stable release. As a general rule, one should not mix packages
from the different branches because this can break dependencies. For
example, it would be risky to grab KDE from unstable and install it onto
stable.
Now to reveal the big secret of Libranet 2.8 - it contains many
packages from unstable. However, before you get visions of constant
crashes, freeze-ups and "kernel panic" messages, there is something you
need to know: "unstable" is not as bad as it sounds. Furthermore, the
developers at Libranet have been conducting a major beta test for the
past few months among their faithful users, with the result that nasty
bugs have been successfully stamped out. My own (happy) experience with
2.8 backs up the integrity of this system - I suffered no crashes or
other nasty surprises. Having suffered from years of seeing the Blue
Screen of Death in those dark days when I used "that other OS," I can
only say that I'm relieved to be using such a stable system as Debian
unstable.
It was time to set up the system so I could go online. Xadminmenu
contains a routine for setting up a modem and installing a firewall - it
could hardly have been easier. LibranetPPP is the dialer utility -
basically, it's point-and-click, just as easy if not easier than that
"other OS." Once logged on to my ISP, I fired up Mozilla 1.3, and was
impressed to see the beautiful TrueType fonts which are now standard on
the Libranet desktop. One downside though is that the only included
TrueType fonts are for the Roman alphabet. Since my second language is
Chinese, this meant that many web sites I normally access were no longer
readable. However, the problem was easily fixed by copying Chinese fonts
from my "other OS" (Chinese edition) into directory
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-xfree86-nonfree/. As soon as I did this,
Chinese web pages instantly became readable. It would be good if Libranet
could include fonts for more non-Roman character sets in the future, but
since fonts are intellectual property, this is a legal issue that the
entire Linux (and BSD) community faces.
My favorite editor is Emacs, which is of course included with Libranet.
However, Libranet does not include Chinese fonts for Emacs (these are
not the same fonts that Mozilla uses). This is where I've really come to
appreciate Libranet's Debian heritage. I edited file
/etc/apt/sources.list to point to Debian unstable, and then (as root)
issued the command: "apt-get install xfonts-intl-chinese." Libranet went
and fetched the fonts, and Emacs instantly responded with the ability to
read and write Chinese.
Admittedly, the apt-get command can be a little intimidating for
newbies. This is where you'll come to appreciate Synaptic, a nice
graphics-based tool which cushions users form the horrors of the command
line.
Screenshot 4: Synaptic
As a final touch to my configuration, I decided to recompile the
kernel. With most distros, this is a chore reserved for the brave (or
the foolish), but in Libranet it's dead easy. Again, Adminmenu is your
friend - it makes the whole process so simple that you might want to
recompile the kernel just for fun.
|
Packages Galore
|
Libranet contains so many useful
packages that one could spend weeks exploring all that is offer. One
package that I was very pleased to see was Mplayer, which gives Libranet
state-of-the-art multimedia capabilities. Other included movie players
are Gtv and Xine. Ogle is designed exclusively for playing DVDs. Thanks
to a nasty piece of legislation in the USA called the DMCA, a special
procedure is needed to install the DVD video codec. This is not obvious
and not documented, but the procedure is to run
/usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh (the Chalmers deCSS
codec).
Gqview and GTKsee are both great for viewing photos. Both Acrobat
Reader and Ghostview are included for viewing PDF files. Good old
reliable Xmms was on tap for playing music, and for anyone with an
interest in editing music, there is the blockbuster application Audacity.
Email is adroitly handled by Evolution, Mutt and - my personal favorite
- Sylpheed. As a writer, I much appreciated two relatively little known
applications which come with Libranet, Wordinspect and Kthesaurus (try
them, you'll like them!). Since people occasionally send me files in
Microsoft's secret proprietary *.doc file format, I zap them into ASCII
format with the powerful Antiword utility.
Screenshot 5: Wordinspect
Included front-end programs for burning CDs are Xcdroast, K3B, Gcombust
and Gtoaster (note that Xadminmenu can automatically set up SCSI
emulation on an IDE CD burner - a much-appreciated convenience feature).
I could go on and on describing the zillion packages that are included,
but I'll spare my readers that experience. And if the zillion Libranet
packages aren't enough, there are at least 3 zillion more available from
Debian.
|
Purchasing Libranet
|
OK, so here's the downside. Libranet 2.8
is not free, you have to buy it. Sure, you can copy it from a friend,
but you will be haunted by pangs of guilt, will most likely develop
ulcers and die young.
No, you should not copy it - the two programmers who developed Libranet
continue to work on the project full time and have no other means of
support other than the sale of Libranet CDs. Perhaps in the future
they'll be able to make some money off the sale of coffee cups, T-shirts
and movie rights, but for now CD sales keep the whole operation going.
The full retail price of Libranet 2.8 "flagship edition" for home and
small business users is US$69.95. Corporations pay US$40 more,
registered existing users pay US$20 less, and students pay US$25 less.
The above prices are for CDs - you can download the CDs at a US$5
discount on the above prices, plus that way you won't have to pay for
shipping.
Almost unique among distros, Libranet offers a money back guarantee for
dissatisfied users, and so far there have been few takers for the
refund.
A somewhat stripped down version of Libranet 2.7 (called "Classic
Edition") is currently being offered for US$24.95. In a few months, a
Classic Edition of version 2.8 will also be released, probably for the
same price. It should be remembered that though the Classic Edition has
fewer packages, you can use Debian's apt-get tool to install what's
missing (it helps if you have broadband).
Purchasers of Libranet 2.7 who bought on or after Mar 01, 2003 will be
able to purchase version 2.8 for $15 plus shipping for the CD edition,
or US$10 for the download edition.
|
Suggested Improvements
|
My overall experience with Libranet was
very positive, but no distro is perfect and there is always room for
improvement.
The installation program could still use some work. The fact that you
can use ALT-F2 to reach the command line and run cfdisk is something you
just have to know - it isn't documented, and you aren't given any clues
onscreen. In fact, there is no indication that this "rescue mode"
exists. One of the tools that should be available in rescue mode, but
isn't, is grub-install, because it's an all too common situation where
someone installs Windows after Linux and Windows overwrites Grub in the
MBR.
The installer starts in text-mode (ncurses), switches to graphics-mode
after you've configured X, then switches back to text-mode at the end.
It would be nice if users were offered the option to do the entire
installation in text-mode only and not be required to install X. Though
most people will want X, there are situations where it is undesirable,
especially if you plan to use the machine as a server. The "minimal
install" should be truly minimal - I don't want X without my consent.
The installer lacks a "progress meter" so at some points during the
process you might even think the installation has stalled (at least on a
slower system).
Xadminmenu, great though it is, could use a few additional features.
Currently, there is a menu for managing "Users" but it would be nice to
have one for managing "Groups." It might also be productive to have a
menu for starting and stopping services such as Apache, Postfix, Ssh,
and Firestarter (the firewall).
When you ask dumb questions on the Libranet-users mailing list, no one
is going to tell you to RTFM, because there is no FM to read. Sadly,
included documentation with Libranet is minimal, nor is a visit to
www.libranet.com highly enlightening. Fortunately, users on the Libranet
mailing list are extraordinarily polite and helpful. Alternatively, you
could turn to the Debian mailing lists, or other Debian resources (many
online publications). Enthusiastic Libranet users are starting to
produce their own online documentation, but this project is still in the
infant stage.
The new TrueType fonts are a boon to Libranet users, but the lack of
non-Roman fonts is a hindrance. Hopefully, some kindhearted souls will
be donating more non-Roman TrueType font packages to the free software
community.
Finally, it should be pointed out that Libranet is very much geared
towards English speakers. You can, of course, configure KDE menus to
other languages, and reset the locale using standard Debian command
"dpkg-reconfigure locales". However, Adminmenu is only available in
English. If Libranet would like to expand its market share, translating
the Adminmenu text into a few other popular languages could be a
worthwhile effort. Given that Libranet is a Canadian distro, I would
expect French to be the first candidate.
|
Conclusion
|
I have tried about a dozen Linux
distros, including most of the "big guns," and all of these have left me
wanting. Most of my frustrations with Linux came from the constant
battle with "dependency hell" that is a built-in feature of the RPM
system. Debian was the first distro to really fire my imagination,
showing me that there really was life after Windows despite everything
that Bill Gates had said. Unfortunately, Debian has its own kind of hell
in the form of installation and configuration hassles.
Libranet has been my salvation. It's Debian that "just works."
|
| Copyright Notice |
Copyright (C) 2003
Robert Storey
Verbatim copying and distribution of this article is permitted in any
medium, provided this copyright notice is preserved. |
|
| Review Notes |
| Date |
| 6 May 2003 |
| Author |
| Robert Storey |
| About the Author |
| Formerly a well-known Asian-based travel
writer, now certified Linux geek |
| Credits |
The author would like to thank the
entire Libranet users mailing list for their comments, criticisms,
and good humor.
The review copy of Libranet 2.8 was kindly supplied by Libra Computer Systems Ltd.
|
| Test Configuration |
| Processor |
AMD Athlon 1600
|
| Motherboard |
Asus A7v8x-x mainboard, VIA KT-400
chipset
|
Printer
|
Epson LQ-680
24-pin dot matrix
|
| Video |
nVidia Riva TNT2 64, 32MB
|
| Memory |
256 MB, DDR-RAM
|
| Hard Disk |
| Seagate 40 GB, 7200 RPM |
| Other Storage |
IDE CD-ROM 52x
IDE CD-RW 48x
|
| Network |
VIA Technologies VT6102 [Rhine-II]
|
| Modem |
| CommuPack V.90 |
| Monitor |
| Ulycom LCD 15" |
| Sound Card |
| SoundBlaster PCI 64 |
| Libranet Specifications |
| Version |
| 2.8 |
| Release Date |
| 01 May 2003 |
| Kernel |
| 2.4.20 |
| GUI |
| XFree86 4.3.0 |
| File Systems |
ReiserFS
ext3
ext2
FAT
ISO9660 |
| Minimum Requirements |
• Pentium 200MHz processor
• 16MB RAM (32MB and up recommended)
• 500MB hard disk space
• CD-ROM or floppy drive
• SuperVGA 640x480 (800x600 recommended)
• Mouse |
| Hard Disk Requirements |
• Minimal install - 500MB
• Full install - 3.0GB
• Recommended - 4.0GB
• IDE and SCSI supported |
| Platforms |
| i486 and higher |
| Features |
• Automatic hardware detection &
configuration
• Adminmenu
• Pre-configured IceWM
• Access to 12,000+ Debian packages
• An extraordinarily polite users' mailing list
|
| Bundled Software |
• AbiWord 1.1.4
• Apache 1.3.27
• CUPS 1.1.18
• GCC 3.2.3pre6
• Gimp 1.2.3
• glibc 2.3.1
• Gtoaster 1.0-beta6
• Gtv 0.4.4
• K3b 0.81
• KDE 3.1.1
• KOffice 1.2.1
• libgnome 2.2.0.1
• Mozilla 1.3
• Mplayer 0.90rc4
• MySQL 3.23.49
• OpenOffice 1.0.2
• Perl 5.8.0
• Python 2.2.2
• Samba 2.2.3a
• Sylpheed 0.8.11
• XFree86 4.3.0
• xcdroast 0.98alpha13
• xine 1-beta9
• xmms 1.2.7
|
| Price |
• Home User: $69.95
• Student: $44.95
• Corporation or
Institution: $109.95
• Existing Libranet user:
$49.95
|
| Support |
• 30-day email installation support
• User Forums
• Mailing List
|
| Glossary |
| Libranet |
| Libra Computer Systems Ltd is the
company name but libra.com was taken, so net was added to libra to fit
the developers vision of a worldwide 'network' of Libranet systems. |
| Adminmenu |
| Libranet's administration and system
configuration utility. |
|
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