Lycoris

[Buck]

Has anyone tried this software out?
http://www.lycoris.com/

I'm going to try the arduous task of downloading the three discs and see what happens.

 

[timwhit]

Where can you download it? I only saw an option for purchasing it, which will never happen.

 

[SteveC]

For some reason, they keep it hidden. Here is the list of mirrors. It's still in beta, and they seem to have a new version every couple of weeks, so I haven't gone throught the trouble of trying it yet.

Steve

 

[timwhit]

I found it through a google search. It's like they don't want people to know that it is actually a free OS.

I'm downloading it now, if I understand correctly you really only need the first CD.

 

[Mercutio]

Lycoris is what was once known as Corel Linux. It's based on Debian, has an exceedingly nice-looking desktop (including all the standard Windows-ish icons), and has a decent buzz from the Linux community.

I expect it'll be a niche player for at least a while as a good choice for resellers looking for a preloadable Linux, and for semitechnical noobs.

I hadn't looked at the desktop before. It looks a little too XP-ish to me, but I imagine people will love it. My main concern with something like that is that, for the basically clueless, it looks too much like Windows and might possibly be confusing.

Of course, none of the small number of Linux systems I've sold have had that problem. Most people willing to accept Linux on a PC are either very technical or so clueless that they wouldn't even try to install software.

 

[NRG = mc²]

I downloaded this a few days ago, havent tested it yet, might do so on my second machine.

Mercutio, are you sure this was Corel Linux? I was under the impression that it was formerly 'Redmond Linux' or something?

 

[SteveC]

It was formerly Redmond Linux. I think it's Lindows that's based on Corel Linux. It's hard to keep track of all of them, especially with the name changes.

Steve

 

[LiamC]

I too believe that it was formerly Redmond Linux. I downloaded it a while back and installed it about a month ago. It is the easiest installer I have ever worked with.

It does look a lot like XP nad even my wife (graphic artist) commented on how nice it loooked. Everything worked out of the box (including SAMBA) except there is no PPPoE client. I have ADSL so I needed it. I tried downloading the Roaring Penguin client and using it but could not get it to compile. After that it was too difficult for my limited knowledge so I tried RH 7.3 as I couldn't locate my Mandrake 8.1 disk. The rest is as they say, history.

If Lycoris had working PPPoE connectivity, I'd use it in a flash. For a supposed OOB ease-of-use product, I find the oversite strange...

 

[timwhit]

Does the installer have a way to resize a partition (FAT32)? Or should I do it with Partition Magic before attempting to install?

 

[LiamC]

I don't know timwhit. I have two9 drives installed. One is a a 15GB with 5 or so partitions so I can install any OS I want, and only OS's live on this drive. The other is strictly for data and proggy's so playing with a new OS is easy.

 

[NRG = mc²]

I installed it on my second machine, for some reason doesnt want to run my i815 based graphics at 32bit colour (displays lots of random colour lines vertically across the screen), but works fine at 16 bit. No biggie, but the real problem was that I couldnt get it to connect to the net via my NIC.

The NIC seems to be recognised fine, but I'm not sure of the setting.

We use ICS from a WinXP machine, anyone know how I can go about this? I messed with the IP address allocation, tried setting a manual address in the 158.164 range which is not in use and set the gateway to the ICS machine but no luck. I'm not even sure it will take my ADSL modem if I do it direct, have to check the HCL.

<runs off to check the FAQ>

 

[NRG = mc²]

Darn. It doesn't support my DSL modem. (D-Link DSL200).

And on my main machine it won't support the sound card, possibly NIC and graphics.

Too bad. Was nice though, easy to use though pretty sluggish on the P3-733/256mb I tested it on.

 

[Mercutio]

Oops. I think you're right.

Lindows is Lindows, a different distro. I can't remember what Corel turned into now.

tim, send me an email.

 

[Buck]

Thanks for the feedback. The one thing that stood out most for me in opposition to this OS was the software support. Nevertheless, I will try to run it on a PIII 1.2 Ghz machine. I'll let you know how that goes when I get to it. I've been quite sick for the past few days, and have not accomplished any of the tasks that I had scheduled, so I'm a bit behind - thankfully my customers have been accomodating. Where is Kristi when you need her? Oh, she's in Ballarat.

 

[timwhit]

I sent you an e-mail Merc.

 

[The JoJo]

When you wan't a hassle free Linux distro, try out www.spectralinux.com .
It's based on RedHat, but included are all the latest updates, kernels etc...

*end of commercial *

 

[timwhit]

I am going to attempt to install this now. I am going to use a 4GB partition on my Cheetah 36ES, hopefully that will be enough room.

Wish me luck.

 

[timwhit]

That was a really easy install. This is being posted from Mozilla in Lycoris. Mozilla seems to run pretty well, but it's not the snappiest OS I have used by a long shot.

 

[timwhit]

Ya know, I don't think I would mind using this OS if it were as fast as Windows 2K. And if my sound card were supported (it might be, it doesn't work though.)

Why does it take 10 seconds to launch solitaire? This is something that can be launched in less than a second in Windows. Just opening the Recycle Bin takes considerably longer than it would in Windows. And it's not like this is a slow system, Athlon 1800, 256MB, with Cheetah 36ES.

The one thing that really is nice about this OS (and all flavors of Linux) is that it comes with tons of programs preinstalled. I don't have to bother downloading Acrobat or install Office or even Realplayer

Installing programs is even pretty easy. I download the RPM for AIM and it installed automatically. The only problem was that it didn't create an entry in the menu for it or create a desktop icon. Which I had to do.

I will definately have to play with this some more, they really do seem to be on to something here.

 

[NRG = mc²]

timwhit summed everything up quite nicely I think...

 

[timwhit]

Can someone please tell me how to use Grub, because when I rebooted I get the Grub command line. I have no idea what I am supposed to do with this. If I type boot it tells me there is no kernel loaded. If I type kernel, it tells me I need to give it some args.

I really just want to boot back into Windows if at all possible.

 

[Mercutio]

Things are probably slow because you don't have DMA enabled on your hard disks. hdparm is your friend.

I think you need to type "Windows" to start windows, and I still haven't gotten your email.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

This site is actually showing Lycoris getting more attention than Lindows. Even if the latter was evangelizing how much Windows-like it is.

Mandrake is firmly on top of attention, as always.

 

[timwhit]

I think you need to type "Windows" to start windows, and I still haven't gotten your email.

I tried this but it didn't work. Are there a series of commands I have to use?

 

[timwhit]

Here is what I had to type to get the system to boot into Windows.

root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
boot

Why the hell should I have to type all that stuff? I thought Grub was supposed to be user friendly.

So how do I go about removing Grub and getting the Win2k MBR back?

 

[Cliptin]

fdisk /mbr

after booting from a win98 boot disk.

 

[Clocker]

Man the server is feeding me slow. Do I need all three CDs?

I have the first but the 2nd and 3rd are in progress.....

C

 

[NRG = mc²]

The second and thirs are extras... you can install fine with just the first one as I did.

I've managed to get the NIC working and can see the other Windows computers in the house and download data from them but cannot connect to the net via one of the machines which is running ICS on XP.

Any ideas? The help file is laughable at best.

 

[time]

Why the hell should I have to type all that stuff? I thought Grub was supposed to be user friendly.

Don't blame Grub. It's the distro.

 

[Adcadet]

I have a friend who just raves about Lycoris. There are a number of people at his work who are tired of Windows and have/are building themselves new computers and he's putting Lycoris on it.

Stupid Question: how on earth do I create boot floppies for it? I want to keep my WinXP installation, and put Lycoris on a different HD altogether. I also want to install Lycoris on my old laptop that's currently running Mandrake. It seems Lycoris is totally focused on the Windows user, leaving people like me out in the cold. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dozer]

Here is a fairly quick source for download:

http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=26

Just thought I'd share!

 

[Dozer]

I just installed Lycoris, and here are my impressions:

• 
  -Very easy to install--went very easily on the dual-Celeron
  
  -Basically KDE configured to look like Windows, with some menus that simplify configuration of hardware, network, etc.
  
  -Supports Folding@Home
  
  -Overall, a decent Linux distribution

Now, for my other impressions:

I am posting this message from a PIII-800mhz running Mandrake 8.2, using KDE 3. This system is very snappy, much more so than the Lycoris system (granted, Lycoris is running on a slower machine--but I've run the same Mandrake set-up on it before, with faster results). I like the Mandrake system better--and why do I really want my desktop to look like Windows? Mandrake was a bit more labor intensive at set-up, but also allows more installation options at the front end. And I can't get F@H to run on my Mandrake system (darn it!)

Overall, in my opinion, Lycoris is a good effort at providing the public with an alternative to Windows, and there is no doubt that it is extremely easy to set up, but there needs to be more work done to make it an efficient, viable OS.

 

[timwhit]

One thing they need to work on is making the "Start Menu" customizable. Ya, I know there is a way to do it. But, it should be as easy as in Windows. Would it really be that hard to have an option to add shorcuts and delete unused ones?