I use Linux since 2002. I started with SUSE 7.3, than I used Mandrake 9.2, 10.1, Fedora Core 4, SUSE 10.1, Ubuntu 6.10, Xubuntu 6.10 etc. I also run Linux CD Shop in Prague (Czech Republic), so I tried almost all distros from Distrowatch top 100 chart. In any distro I tried there was something missing, or not working properly, or hard to configure or it was all too slow.

Last time I tried Myah 2.3, which is very nice Live CD, where multimedia are working without problems, when you install it on HDD it not as good. The same with Vector 5.8, it is small and fast distro, but in the default package manager I could not find OpenOffice.org. (I was informed that there is OOo for this distro, but when installed I really could not find it.)

For some time I'm using in my office and at home Dreamlinux, brazilian distro based on Debian, Morphix and Kanotix, using some packages from Ubuntu. I have to admit, this distro is very close to the distro of my linux dreams. We received from Dreamlinux team Dreamlinux 2.2 MULTIMEDIA EDITION, which should be public in the beginning of January 2007. In february 2007 this distro should be published as supplement in german Linux Magazin in volume of estimated 60.000 copies (hopefully some other magazines follow this).

Dreamlinux 2.2 MULTIMEDIA EDITION is one Live CD with possibility of HDD instalation. Booting and instalation is by default in English, but you can switch to Spanish or Portuguese. Adding "lang=cz" while booting you can boot to czech language version (thanks to djesteves), unfortunately because of bug in Debian, there is a cyrilic keybord, which is of little use. Advantage of Live CD is that while installing to HDD, you can surf the web of listen to music.

On one computer with video card NVIDIA GeForce 6200 256 MBR the graphics was too slow, so it was necessary use OpenGL.

While booting you have to set the screen resolution correctly, after installing to HDD it is not easy to change (increase) it.

Instalation to HDD is fast and without problems.

After installing to HDD it is necessary, contrary to Live CD where network card is automaticaly set to be used as DHCP client, you have to activate/set network card from main menu "Settings – Network".

When I started using Linux I used as window manager KDE, later it was not convenient for me so I switched to GNOME, unfortunately in the last version it was very slow and I really do not want to upgrade HW of my computer when upgrading graphical environment. From KDE and GNOME are becoming huge monsters full of not always to be usable aplications. In Xubuntu 6.10 I used new and fast XFCE 4.4 RC, which was lacking some features and an elegance. Dreamlinux uses XFCE 4.4 RC with Mac OS style, and it looks very nice. Main board uses Mac OS method of increased size of program icons. As file manager is used Thunar, again in elagant style by Dreamlinux, icons of different file types are just cool. The upper panel includes mini control center of XMMS, you can add utiity as "mount devices".

Everyone who has ever installed any from the most knows available from free download distros had the same problem, how to make the main multimedia formats to be played. In each distro the system works in slightly different way, always you have to search for the right packages and the right repositories. Not in Dreamlinux. You can play mp3 files in XMMS. Thanks to Streamtuner you can play more than 100 working online radion stations (my prefered is Dainbramage) and in Audacity you can even record music from this stations. You can play mpeg, .avi and .mov files with Mplayer or gXine, you can also play this files thanks to correspondent plug-in in Firefox. I only had problems with .mov files, which I had to download and play with gXine. Voice you can edit with Audacity, movies you can edit in Kino or AviDemux. You can play movie DVD. To shrink movie DVD to size of normal DVD you can use xDVDshrink. To rip audio CD you can use grip.

The selection of aplications is very, very good one. From multimedia aps. you have all you could need. For image viewing there is gqvies, for image editing Gimp, for drawing Gogh, there is also Inkscape, Scribus, Xara LX. For web browsing you have Firefox, as e-mail client is used Thunderbird called IceDove, FTP client is gFTP. There is OpenOffice.org. From games Brutal Chess. For CD/DVD burning Gnome Baker. Really impresive collection of aplications considering, that it is all only on one CD! (I personally miss k3b for CD/DVD burning, and gedit as text editor, I am using them). To install other aplications there is stable and reliable Synaptic (originaly also from Brazil – Caldera), which on contrary from Yumex (Fedora Core) does not crash and with YAST2 (SUSE) is faster. For instalation are used repositories of Debian, which means huge amount of aplications (including games as Nexuiz, Torcs, Vdrift, Trigger).

Control Centre "Dreamlinux Control Panel" is easy to use, and you can set all you need, language selection works without problems (czech language works), keybord (czech qwertz works). In case of Printer setting you have first from main menu "Printing System Settings" set the printing system and than you can add printer as such. To make OpenGL for NVIDA/ATI video cards work is easy, you have to click on the corresponding icon, and follow orders, in case of NVIDIA cards it means after the system turns-off X-server as a root you have to type "nvidia-install" and be connected to internet, that is all. The coresponding NVIDIA binary file is downloaded, installed X-server is set and started and this time with OpenGL support. In section "easy install" again with one-click you can install Acrobat Reader, Opera, Skype etc.

Conclusion? Dreamlinux 2.2 MULTIMEDIA EDITION is by my opinion the best Linux distro of current time. It has very solid ground in Debian, it has team which knows what wants from it's distro (see our interviews with Dreamlinux project leader) Very pleasant, at least for me, is absence of aplications as desktop search tool Beagle, which is so common in other "modern" distros (SUSE 10.2, Fedora Core 5), which reminds users on old good viruses in Windows, when your HDD starts without giving any notice works as crazy.

Download: DL_2.2_061220MME_en.iso 701MB