ALT Linux

Reader supplied reviews for ALT Linux Average rating 8.8 from 20 review(s) Please specify which version of the distribtion you are reviewing. Please selecting a rating in the range of 1-10. Please write at least a few sentences about the distribution while limiting your review to 4080 characters. What are your thoughts on ALT Linux? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- Sisyphus10.19.19.08.28.17.0.06.0.05.0.04.1.14.03.02.42.32.22.01.1 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: 10.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-11-06 Votes: 8 I tried the ALT Mate release and I wasn't very happy with it. I couldn't get the permissions (root/user) to work properly and there was no visudo around to fix things. I wasn't interested in using Mate on my old desktop anyway (too resource-heavy), so I went back to the Simply Linux XFCE release of ALT without trying to mess around with it too much. The initial Simply Linux XFCE version of ALT install, I'm quite sure, was 10.1, but I updated everything completely after the install and now it shows 10.2. There were some minor bugs I experienced in Simply Linux 10/10.1 (e.g. shift didn't register for XFCE shortcut key specifications so other keys had to be used, including for terminal copy and paste) and these were fixed. I was impressed because I've had issues in other distributions that went unfixed for ages. I did notice that the install slowed down a bit after I installed all the software I typically use. Removing a bunch of autostart applications did help. I also changed the login theme to Slick which I think sped things up a little during boot up (the GTK theme is the default and it's a little buggy/strange in its appearance, so I didn't mind the switch for multiple reasons). It's still not as fast as the fresh install. But, it's not a huge difference and some of it is software-specific. For example, I can get a Floorp browser flatpak release to run blazing fast, while a tar install of Waterfox is a bit sluggish, and a repository install of Firefox is even more sluggish. But, that said, I can get Kodi playing a video on my 15-year-old desktop at the same time as five or so tabs being open on Waterfox without much of an issue. When I use shortcut keys to open Thunar or the terminal with Kodi and Waterfox both running, they almost instantaneously appear. I think that says a lot given the old hardware I'm using. There were some pieces of software I couldn't find in the default repository, but I found them in flatpak form and/or in the autoimports repository that you can add to ALT. (Search the ALT wiki and use a translation site if you don't read Russian. It's not hard to add the autoimports repositories, or you can find the package links on Pkgs.org from autoimports and you can install the individual .rpm files using the ALT RPM Install app that's included with the install without adding the whole repository. I did this for some hashing software without an issue, though ALT warns that the autoimports can be buggy.) I had some issues installing KDE-based software on XFCE because the location of libraries, resources, etc., was incorrect. Installing those few programs through flatpak instead fixed everything. Though, I had to add the flatpak directory to XDG_DATA_DIRS. I wish that had been automatic, but the flatpak installer (on the command-line) did give me a heads-up about it. Overall, the issues I've had have been minor. Some have been fixed very quickly by the people at ALT (thank you) and others are easy to work around. This is my new favorite distribution. Sometimes it can be a pain to find documentation, as I don't read Russian well. But, for most purposes, translation services online do the trick. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 10.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-10-29 Votes: 9 Excellent - Modern Mate Desktop on workstation and has feel of reliability, Installer is excellent along with package management. Flatpak is available with one caveat - auto install provides 25 GB for Root with separate Home partition - Advisable to use Custom partition option and allow more file space for Root partition if you intend to install any Flatpak Apps. I love this Distro and intend to keep and use it into foreseeable future. Very user friendly with all the Apps you might need readily available for install. For users who speak languages other than Russian,select the options that appear in Cryllic alphabet on Live CD bootup that has (F2) at the end - this will enable you to choose English or other languages. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: 10.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-10-13 Votes: 2 Fantastic distro. BUT: why the heck can't they fix their non-working PATH??????????? Commands from /usr/sbin don't work. AND the non-working localization??? Localization wirks FANTASTIC IF and only if you use the gdm login manager, not at all if the more modern one, forget name, is used. This means that localization is fabulous if you use SysV init starterkit, not at all if you use a systemd init based Starterkit. Come on ALT, you can fix this. Having to symlink stuff in /usr/sbin when you need to use it is not good. This may work better in a full size/main image but I prefer the flexibility of the starterkits. ALT is actually so good that I put up with the above. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 20 reader reviews of ALT Linux...