I've toyed with DreamLinux before (2.2) so I felt inclined to give the RC1 of DreamLinux 3.0 a go. I've always had an interest in DreamLinux because of the interface; I like the OSX feel they've deliberately aimed for and I appreciate there are a lot of users who also like this theme.

Installation
DreamLinux may have one of the least intuitive installation processes I've seen in over 12 months - I place a lot of importance on an easy installation. In my experience if an application is difficult to install most users will get tired and stop trying. This is very much what I faced with DreamLinux.

When opting to "Install" from the LiveCD I was told "no partitions were found".

Then you're prompted with a partition detail screen explaining that I have no partitions. Without instruction I'm supposed to click on "Partition Tools" in the menu and opt for a graphical partition manager. I then create a partition.

Once I've created the partition I'm back to the original screen that is asking where I want to install DreamLinux to. Unfortunately this is also unnecessarily counter intuitive; only when you click to "Add" the selected partition to the list of selected partitions do you get any instruction as to what it wants you to do.

You need to manually select a mount-point and filesystem, as well as opting to format the partition. Unfortunately to select the filesystem and mounting point you need to hold down the left mouse button over the region (something that you seldom see in GUI design). Once you've satisfied this criteria and succesfully added the active partition to the list of selected ones... You still cannot proceed. You need to create a user and set a root password.

The installation goes fine once you've managed all of this; but if I was trying to install DreamLinux for any other purpose I would have given up and used something more intuitive (PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Pardus, lots to choose from). It's folly to pay such little attention to one of the most important elements in system adoption.

Aesthetics
DreamLinux is a decent looking release which seems to have aspirations of being an open-source OSX. Unfortunately I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed. Sure this was impressive last year for 2.2 but since then plenty of releases has surfaced with breathtaking visuals... It just feels that DreamLinux could do with getting some sexier default backgrounds because their icon design is excellent.

Connectivity and networking
This was pretty good although I can't comment on the wireless support because I was working with a wired connection. Connecting to my current network was easy and accessing files on my Windows machines (through shared folders) worked directly post install.

Media playback
While I wasn't able to watch video files from across the network (using Mplayer) I was able to watch the file locally without downloading extra codecs. I like it when distros have good 'out of the box' support for media files because it's more in-line with "average" user expectations. Still, you could just get VLC using apt.

Configuration
It's not worth discussing installed applications when Synaptic is on offer so let's look at the configuration options. The DreamLinux control panel is okay but I do think the labelling could be a bit more helpful. Alsa for example is a speaker with a magnifying glass; whereas "audio config" would be a more useful label. Sure if you're familiar with Linux you'll know what Alsa is, but that's not a good thing. The system should be easy and obvious for new users.

Conclusions
This is the RC1 release so there's plenty of time for adjustments to be made. All in all it's not a bad release as such, but it's certainly not one I'd recommend for users who have not used Linux before. The installation alone should be a big enough barrier to stop "normal" users from installing it. Sure those who understand Linux can install it and from then on it works fine; I just think the DL guys need to spend a bit more time on the installation process... Especially when underdog releases like Pardus do it so well. In my humble opinion, there are better supported, more usable releases available. Let's see what the final release is like.

Original link: http://www.distro-review.com/rev...