Originally, it was Ubuntu with out the “evil Mono(tm)”, now of course mainline Ubuntu has no mono either, so their USP was gone! So they changed their main idea.

The latest release is based on Kubuntu (which makes it a 4th generation distro) and aims to improve the KDE that is provided by Kubuntu by, this is what really got me, integrating more of Gnome into KDE.

Yes, really. Dolphin for instance is replaced by Nautilus, because Nautilus is more “Feature complete”.  I’m not sure how they came to that conclusion at all and especially within KDE Dolphin really shines, its integration with tech like Nepomuk and friends is a big plus.

In fact, which missing features of Dolphin? You mean the integrated terminal? No forced breadcrumb navigation? On wait, they are things Dolphin can do and Nautilus can’t. If anything, nautilus is getting worse, espesially with Gnome’s ongoing war against features that could confuse anyone with less mental power than a domesticated turkey.

(Domesticated Turkey fact: Young Turkeys don’t know how to eat. Turkey farmers make use of the chick’s natural attraction to bright colours: marbles or strips of foil are placed into their food, or their food is sprayed with green food colouring. In pecking at the colours, the turkeys learn to eat. )

One idea on their suggestions forum was to ship Windows apps pre-installed, uTorrent in fact. Native applications aren’t feature complete either?.

I suppose this is the strength of Linux – if you are looking for a Linux flavour for any particular purpose there will be one available -  even if what you want is a KDE/Gnome/Windows cross-breed Mongrel.

Gnome 3.0 at its core seems to be gnome shell bolted onto a standard gnome 2.2x, with the primary purpose it seems of hyping gnome using a bigger version number. Maybe its because KDE is now solid and gnome think they need something closer to KDE’s Plasma?

However, I will watch with interest at what happens in regards to gnome shell, Its nice to see that if needed Gnome can do something new. Great. The real question is do you want it to do something new?

For me its a No, I don’t. Gnome is generally preferred by businesses building a working desktop out of Linux, why? Because its solid, predictable, a tried a tested desktop, why mess with it….that’s KDEs job!

That’s why it wont be included in Ubuntu until late 2010 I suppose. Looking like Empathy all over again.

And breaking Compiz compatibility is not cricket. Its only really ever worked properly on Gnome, I’ve moved on to Kwin now but that is beside the point.

In other news, I’m very happy that you have all voted “HELL YEAH” to keeping libdvdcss for many of the reasons I originally gave to keep it, I have 0 clue why Fabio wanted it removed anyway.

It does mean however that we cant be included on cover disks of magazines, which is a shame, would love to see Sabayon on the cover of Linux Format, but playing DVDs out of the box is always a winner with me!

This leads to some cool possibilities, mounting a remote server over a secure connection for easy file uploads and downloads, the ability to run local scripts on remote files (WIN) and more.

Its ultra easy to use:

emerge -av1 sys-fs/sshfs-fuse

or

equo install sshfs-fuse

then

sshfs username@server:/path/to/mountpoint

I have it set up to run when I login and I use RSA key based auth so no passwords for ultraconvience at the price of a little bit of security.

Just thought I’d spread the word a bit.