Ureview by: stinkipete
Ureview points: 12
Ureviewer since: February 2006
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Reviewed On: Wednesday August 2, 2006
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9 | Recommends product: Yes
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Kanotix, to take the description from the website, is a rock-solid Linux based on Debian-Sid, which contains the newest packages and recognizes more modern hardware than any other operating system in use today. It offers stability and security, and is perfect for mid-level computer users or, like any linux distro, complete newbies.
I recommend it for the more mid-level user. Kanotix is perfect for linux converts, who are perhaps tired of their buggy, slow, and gimmicky windows or mac OS, and want to try something which is built from the ground up for stability and security. As well as this, Kanotix is perfect for anyone who wishes to first enter the world of computing - as is any other OS with a GUI. This review will not focus as much on trying to win over complete "noobs," and will instead focus on converting windows or mac users to linux - or more specifically Kanotix - users.
The term mid-level is very important here, as I do not recommend any linux distro to someone who has just grown accustomed to windows or mac. The new file structure may prove frightening, and most users will have no idea how to install anything, as both windows and mac do so with graphical interfaces.
Getting Started
Getting started with kanotix is easy, you simply download the latest ISO from kanotix.com, burn it to a cd (or dvd) using nero or similar, put it in your drive and boot. Again, some less experienced users may encounter problems here if they do not have a decent understanding of the BIOS, as it may be necessary to modify your system's boot priority.
From here, you will see a short textual boot sequence, with some pretty penguin pictures and coloured fonts to make you feel a bit more secure in an unfamiliar shell.
After the boot sequence, you are placed straight into the KDE and can immediately get a feel for it. I recommend checking out the task bar at the bottom, and getting used to the Kanotix equivalent of many windows features. KDE features the K Menu, which will prove extremely familiar to windows users, and provides quick access to the majority of programs. You will also notice that your programs are categorised, which will provide a welcome change and prevents the need to scour around through menus as was the case with the "all programs" menu.
The default desktop area provides quick access to a variety of helpful features, including all storage media, as well as a link to your home folder, which acts as your "My Documents" folder if you're used to windows. Also on the desktop is a link to the Kanotix IRC channel, which will provide quick and helpful advice if needed.
The great thing about Kanotix being presented as a live CD is that you can mess around with anything you want, destroy everything if you so wish, simply reboot back to windows (or indeed back to a fresh session of Kanotix) and act as if nothing happened.
The live CD is also useful as it uses the majority of your windows settings and items to run all programs, meaning that they should all run perfectly. Don't be thinkin that things will stay this way though; when you install, you've got a hell of alot of apps to configure and install. This isn't a problem though, providing you can get your internet connection functioning properly (I admit, that took me some time;)). The best thing to do is look through your settings in the control center, and try things out. Don't stay in admin (root/su) mode for too long though - you don't want to do something you might later regret.
Security and Stability
Kanotix also features an extremely functional, and very secure firewall, which is very easy to set up and maintain. When on the live CD, a link to this is provided on your desktop.
When installing, you have the option of setting up secure file encryption, which prevents outside access of your documents. The majority of linux distros have this feature, and it provides an extra layer of safety. Linux was built form the ground up with security in mind, and it is very rare that you could be subjected to spyware and adware attacks (I don't think I've encountered a single case . . . is it even possible?). The reason for this, as far as I'm aware, is because linux does not rely on a registry like windows does. Although this makes the install process alot more complex, it's still safer, and quite easy once you've done it a few times. Without a registry, you choose to install everything, and there are no places for malicious scripts to hide.
Despite the obvious benefits, I still encounter problems with some programs, and these problems appear to be random or due to improper shutdowns etc . . .
The main app that I have issues with is AmaroK, which is KDE's awesomely powerful media player. It works very similarly to iTunes, but is subject to crashes whenever the hell it feels like it. Still, this is rare, but an annoyance.
AmaroK also seems to give me problems with my sound, although I plan to update my card's drivers, as I have not manually installed any. I would assume that this is the problem.
Pre-installed Software
Kanotix comes with a variety of extremely useful pre-installed software, ranging from security tools to graphical editors, web development environments and shell emulators. Below, I've listed the most useful programs to me, and their functions. All of these were pre-installed and required little or no configuration:
-Yakuake. This is a quake-style shell emulator, which, in true quake-style, drops-down from the top of your screen. This is shown in picture one, and I've configured it to the size I want, with a green-tint background as opposed to black on white. Although criticised by many reviewers for not being so great for heavy shell sessions, I've found it extremeley powerful, if not a little slow at times.
-Kate. Out of the three graphical text editors installed, Kate is my favourite. It colour-codes code in real-time, and is perfect for any coding work. Think of it as notepad on steroids.
-Vim. Vi IMproved is a command-line text editor, which I've found extremely useful for editing documents outside of my home folder in super user mode. With more keyboard shortcuts than you could shake a stick at, it's extremely versatile, and has very handy help and man pages. I've found it useful for editing install scripts and config files that I could not access through the gui.
-Krita. As a fresh photoshop user, the triple windows and innumerate settings in the gimp scare me, and Krita's simple and minimalist layout appealed to me instantly. I've only used it a few times, but it's comfortable and noob-friendly.
As well as these less generic programs, Kanotix also includes Firefox, a number of mail clients, Konqueror for browsing local files (and net browsing if wished), numerous media players and a fully fledged office suite! OpenOffice is also available, but not preinstalled, and KOffice is much faster.
Looks
All OS's need to look good. Although many linux users may cry out for minimalist and speedy distro's, even text-based OS's try to look good. Kanotix succeeds in this field. Although not as purdy and modern as Ubuntu Dapper Drake (which is the sexiest distro ever IMO), and not as professional and established as Fedora Core 5 (which I think provides a GUI that looks so sleek it welcomes and warms windows and mac users alike), it is still very quick, and very customisable, as can be seen from the screenshots accompanying the review. You can make it look as tacky as a mac, or as kiddish as XP, but it retains it's speed and professionalism.
Conclusion
I could have written loads more, but I've kept it this length for ease on you . . .
In all, Kanotix is a very stable and widely compatible distro thanks the it's basis of Debian, and has some sleek looks and powerful features thanks to it's default of KDE. I personally do not think Kanotix would be all that great in Gnome, but that's upto you. Despite some relatively trivial hitches, Kanotix is a near perfect distro for converting to linux, and offers alot to new comers and experienced users alike. I personally love the way it almost forces you to learn the fundametals of the shell, coding and computing in general, which is not found as much in Gnome systems (I'm thinkin Ubuntu in particular, although this may be better for complete newbs). With excellent support throughout various sites, it's my distro of choice, and I hope it's yours too.
Scoring:
As this is a never before reviewed category on uReviews, I'll make up my own scoring categories based loosley on the content of the review:
Looks: 8/10
Features: 9/10
Stability: 9/10
Security: 10/10
Applications: 9/10 (Openoffice and MPlayer would've been nice)
Compatibility: 9/10 (Not counting Wine, although it was preinstalled)
Ease of Use: 8/10 (For experienced linux users, this shoots upto 10, for windows and mac users that have extremely limited knowledge of coding etc, it drops to 6. For people like me, who were tired of their old operating systems, and not jsut because of their speed, it hits a comfortable 9).
Overall: 9/10
A good, solid OS with a tight upgrade cycle, which although poor in comparison with the likes of Fedora, is more than adequate and much better than windows or mac. A good choice for all.
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| Pros: Stable, secure, lightweight, Defaults to KDE, good selection of pre-installed apps. Very customisable. Easy to use installer, comes as a bootable live-cd and provides very adaptable and user-friendly dual-boot facilities. |
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| Cons: Rare, but random crashes in certain programs, some sound issues. Most problems are program based, and are trivial in comparison with windows problems. |
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