
Chapter 6.Now that we have established how we are going to set up each machine in Virtualbox and what distributions we are going to install, it is time to take a look a what my expectations are for each distribution. Because I included a wide range of possibilities, it would be unfair to compare them through a general set of parameters. Arch Linux for example is a do-it-yourself distribution and can hardly be compared with the installation comfort of a graphical installer.
This article tries to describe what I expect during the installation and what criteria I will judge by once the installation is finished. This gives me the opportunity to test all different distributions fairly. To that end, I will not use a points system, I will just take in account how good a certain distribution fulfills a certain expectation. So if a feature is not in the distribution, this will have no impact on my eventual choice.
So, if a distribution delivers what it promises, it will get a positive mark, if it does not the severity of the shortcoming will be judged.
Here is the list of demands:
During Installation
- Am I able to chose the correct keyboard settings?
- Can I partition the hard disk myself (to make a separate /home partition to store documents)?
- Can I set Timezone and location?
- Can I decide what packages are installed?
- How long does the installation take?
- Are there any remarkable features? Is there anything missing?
Post Installation
- What does it do: layout, theme, start menu,… Are there any strange things, hard to find options or display errors?
- Are all the settings I chose during installation applied correctly?
- Does it work? No crashes, errors, other configuration not done by the setup?
- Are there any updates to install? If so, how many? Can I install all updates at once?
- Does adding / removing a program work?
- Can I get a clear picture what is installed?
Switching to Linux series:
- Chapter 1 >> Switching To Linux: The Start
- Chapter 2 >> Switching To Linux: My Reasons
- Chapter 3 >> Switching To Linux: The Software List
- Chapter 4 >> Switching To Linux: The Distributions
- Chapter 5 >> Switching To Linux: The VirtualBox Setup
- Chapter 6 >> This Article
- Chapter 7 >> Switching To Linux: Distribution Testing
- Chapter 8 >> Switching To Linux: Testing Distributions On Real Hardware
- Chapter 9 >> Switching To Linux: Ubuntu, The Surprising Winner
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