Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Sabayon 10 Review: Gentoo on steroids!

Gentoo Linux is one Linux OS I haven't tried yet. But, surely this week I am going to try their 2009 Special DVD edition. The best feature of Gentoo is, it is version-less and once you make an emerge update, it has the most up-to-date packages. There are step-by-step guides available to install Gentoo and once I try it, I'll know how complicated or easy it is!

From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10
Sabayon is a Gentoo based Linux distro, created with the philosophy of "out-of-the-box" philosophy and it aims to give users a wide range of applications, ready to use and a self-configured operating system. I reviewed the Sabayon 9 as well and was pretty impressed by it!

From Sabayon 10
I downloaded the Sabayon 10 Gnome, KDE and Mate versions. XFCE is also there but I wanted to try out the Mate version, which is new in Sabayon 10 release. ISO sizes are quite heavy, 1.6 GB for Gnome and 2.1 GB for KDE. Mate is 763 MB and is a stripped down version with very few apps. I downloaded 32-bit versions of all the distros.

I booted all of them in my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 GHz Intel 2nd Gen Ci3 processor and 2 GB DDR3 RAM. Given limited RAM, I guess, 32-bit ISO won't be an issue.

First was a live-boot followed by HD installation. Live-boot was graphical and quick without asking any unnecessary Q&A. Installation using the Anaconda installer was really easy and similar for both Gnome and KDE. It asked me questions on language, keyboard, location and HD drive where to install. I set up the user account and passwords for root and user account. And within 5 minutes this is done. Rest of the installation took about 25 minutes and within 30 min. my laptop is ready with Sabayon installation.

Gnome 3 desktop is similar to what is there in Fedora or OpenSUSE. The dark blue interface looks really well and of course, you can change the wallpaper to make it look less serious. In KDE, you can install themes and it'll look brighter as well. Due to some driver issue, my first boot was in Gnome fallback mode, which I later corrected. Hence, the pictures below show those taken with Gnome fallback.

Applications
Both Sabayon KDE and Gnome have a rich ensemble of the latest applications. Linux kernel is the latest 3.5, Gnome 3.4.2 and KDE 4.9. 

Gnome 3 desktop is very simplistic and resembles a Gnome fallback. From Applications at the left top, you can browse the application list. Main applications are GIMP 2.8 for image editing, Shotwell for image management and uploading to facebook/flickr/twitter, Chromium is the main browser with empathy as chat client, bit-torrent client to download, LibreOffice suite for office work, document viewer to read comics archives and PDF files, Basero, Cheese Webcam booth, Exaile music player, and Gnome media player. Though VLC is not there in the Gnome version, but all Gstreamer and ffmpeg codecs are there and I could play a movie straight away, out-of-the-box!

From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10
The KDE version has more apps, mostly KDE centric, apart from what are there in the Gnome version. VLC player is a welcome addition in KDE, and I wished it was there in the Gnome version as well. Nothing plays media better than VLC! Also, desktop globe is by default, in KDE. I really like the 3D view and my 2 year old daughter enjoys playing with it! Good app, for sure.

From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10
So, you can understand, most of the applications that a normal user often requires, are all there in the default installation. Adobe flash, too, is pre-installed and I could play youtube videos and live stream channels smoothly. Also, the distro detected my LAN connection well with minor IP configuration inputs. Wifi was also automatically detected when I tested with a Wifi. I didn't face any trouble with sound as well.

All the settings and configurations are in the one stop shop of settings manager, just like other good Linux distros. It really helps new users to configure the system if all the controls are at the same place.

From Sabayon 10
Repository
Rigo application browser (whose link you can find on the desktop) is the graphical front-end of the repository. With going in details on entropy and portage package managers, I found the repository to be very good and with the most updated applications. Normally, I find Skype 2.0 in most of the Linux repositories and need ot download the packages for Skype 4.0 from the site. However, Sabayon has Skype 4 in the repo itself. I downloaded Skype and VLC from the repository and both worked well.
From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10
From Sabayon 10

One caution, though the Magneto Updates notifier will tell you everything is updated post installation, you need to refresh packages in Rigo before you can see and download other applications. I found Rigo to be very good and easy interface to search and install applications.

CPU and RAM Usage
With only task manager running, both Gnome and KDE gave me very low resource requirements. Gnome used 5-10% of CPU and 225 MB of RAM, where KDE used same CPU and 270 MB of RAM. Even with Chromium on, I could see only 300 MB RAM usage. System never crashed or no error messages popped up during my usage for last 3 days.

Overall
Sabayon made me more interested to try out the Gentoo DVD. I found Sabayon 10 to be really good and user friendly. Everything has a graphical interface and new users won't get lost whether to write 'su' or 'sudo' on the command line! Further, documentation on the distro is quite rich and you can access them through the Sabayon menu. Resource requirement is low which makes it usable on low specs computer/laptops. Applications are really the latest ones and it makes sense to install Sabayon on a top end model as well, as you won't need to reinstall it ever again. Thus, there is no need for a fancy LTS nomenclature as well!

Things work out-of-the-box unless you are really unlucky! Interface looks really serious and smart. I didn't note any instability during my use. I have been a PCLinuxOS fan for long but seems like Sabayon may be my preferred OS after this review.

28 comments:

  1. .... and I was wondering what's all about sabayon ... it's just a kind of 'closed' gentoo or I'm missing something, don't know until I try it myself...

    when you say 'Further, it gives users, as I understand, great liberty to even compile their own Linux kernels', does that means that with other distros you're unable to compile your own kernel?

    that's wrong.... you can compile your own kernel with any distro out there ....

    btw, interesting article there..

    take care,

    - d

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess, it is a 'closed' gentoo. For the compilation part, my mistake! Right, experienced hands can even compile any distro. Deleting that line. Thanks.

      Delete
    2. Please!! Travelling, so your netbook /tablet/ smartphone running Linux needs one more app. In your hotel room, you are COMPILING on your netbook?

      That's why I prefer debian-type o.s. - their binary package managers are the most complete of all offering.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for the review. Just to clarify, during installation are you asked to choose a keyboard layout? That is, independent of the system language? Like so:
    1. Choose system language
    2. Choose keyboard language?

    If yes, this is new and very fine. Some distros don't provide such a basic feature. Some idiots even ask pasword when you boot from their ISOs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, separate questions for system language and keyboard language.

      Yeah, I can understand. For quite a few distros, I had to do a mini-research to find out the root passwords and at times it is not root or toor!

      I am using Sabayon for last 1 week, quite happy with its performance. Very stable.

      Delete
    2. Thanks very much. Glad to hear this.

      Delete
  3. I too have recently looked at Sabayon 10. I found it to be very slick and extremely fast.

    A query though. I looked at the KDE version, and for the life of me could not find an email client like kmail or thunderbird. Is an email client not provided by default???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Apparently not (http://na.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/sabayonlinux/iso/Sabayon_Linux_10_amd64_K.iso.pkglist). But it's simple enough to install an e-mail client of your choice once you have synced your Entropy database:

      equo install thunderbird
      or
      equo install kmail
      or
      equo install claws-mail
      or
      equo install squirrelmail
      or
      equo install mutt
      etc.

      Delete
    2. Yes, email client is not there but you can install thunderbird or whatever client you like either through terminal (as Fitzcarraldo has suggested) or through Rigo application browser. Hope it helps.

      Delete
  4. Sabayon is not the first distro to have KDE 4.9. Chakra released "Claire" the day KDE released 4.9. Chakra already released 4.9.1.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right! I missed reviewing Chakra's recent release. Corrected in the article. Thanks for pointing it out.

      Delete
  5. Thanks for publishing a review on sabayon 10, I want to install opensuse 12.2 or sabyon 10 on my laptop for web development purpose , after reading your review I can't stop sabayon 10 to install on my emachine 732z

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am running the GNOME version of 10 right now. Its not bad, and Rigo has improved quite a bit. In your review, you appear to be running the fallback version of GNOME and not GNOME shell. On my install, it runs Shell out of the box, not in fallback. GNOME shell in Sabayon is similar to that of Fedora, just with minimize and maximize added back in and desktop icons in as well controlled by nautilus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Sabayon booted up in Gnome fallback mode on my system. I need to check, possibly some driver compatibility issue - hope to resolve it soon.

      Delete
  7. will the sabayon 10 kde works with all the major notebook vendor with sandy bridge board? especially toshiba, hp and acer? beside asus and dell?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It worked well with my Asus Core i3 and i7. I guess it should work with all the latest notebooks.

      Delete
  8. Sabayon should work well as it uses the latest kernel and thats where the drivers for most of the newer hardware reside.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just installed this last night. I must say I am impressed! Not only does Sabayon 10 run extremely well it looks and feels great using it in Cinnamon 1.6! I have not used this OS since about release 4 and it has come a long way! Ringo is fast and awesome! I really do think it is better than Linux Mint. Yes I said that lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rigo is really good and easy to use. I've used both Sabayon 9 and 10 and pretty impressed with the professional looks and stability.

      But, better than Linux Mint? Mint seems to be king now - the system where no one works - Mint works! Possibly, wait and watch for Sabayon :D

      Delete
    2. I take back what I said. After about 4 days of using it..Web browsing is terrible. No matter what browser I use I continously get SSL errors or browsing is terribly slow. Also creating overlays just so you can get updates on certain apps or OS is not worth the time. It isn't that Im not willing to learn...I just don't have that much time to do that in depth. I just reinstalled Mint 13 Cinnamon. I jumped the gun on this one :)...Will try again maybe later.

      Delete
  10. What about bluetooth in sabayon,my laptop have bluetooth but i cant find it anyware in sabayon(mate).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For bluetooth you need to install blueman. Here's an article from Sabayon wiki to do so, may be useful for you.
      http://wiki.sabayon.org/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Setup_Bluetooth_Headphones

      Delete
  11. Sabayon gnome 10. Pretty nice! Gnome has come a long way and I'm finding it entirely usable. Nice job Sabayon.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Most professional build I 've tried and I've tried alot lately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree. Aesthetics are really professional and wonderful.

      Delete
  13. I found four basic problems with sabayon X KDE version in my samsung netbook
    1. Automount internal drive is not set out of the box in dolphin
    2. Bluetooth adapter not detected
    3. Brightness control didn't work
    4. Rigo is fast but not resumeable, if lost connection happen, had to reupdate from beginning again.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I currently use Sabayon, is my favorite Distro.
    responding to some questions. For advanced users, yes. Sabayon is totally compatible with Gentoo, and can be also totally recompiled.

    ReplyDelete