Sabayon 4 Experience

[SkittleLinux18]

I just got around to testing out Sabayon 4 the past two days. Overall, it was a good experience. The Sabayon team did a really nice job. When I was still new to Linux and trying different distros a year and a half ago, I would have installed Sabayon 4 and said, "Whoa! This is the coolest Distro ever!" Now, as good as it is, I have some issues.

The Good First:
It is the most stable version I've played with so far. The UI stays true to Sabayon and is really pretty. They changed their colors again to grey, blue, and black. It comes ready for almost any task right out of the box. In a lot of ways, it's been re-tooled for people making the switch from Windows to Linux. Having said that, it's still a distro for people more familiar with computers in general. I would say the best thing going for Sabayon 4 is how ready to go it is out of the box with a wide array of programs and drivers already installed.

The Not So Good Next:
I say "not so good" because I really haven't found anything "bad" about the distro. However, there are some things I didn't like about it, like weight. I would recommend not running this distro on anything less than a Pentium 4, or equivalent, and 512 MB of RAM. That's what I was running it on and it chugged a little. Especially if I had a couple programs opened at once. Another issue I have is the install size. It's huge! Sabayon installs with 2-4 different programs per task. e.g. 2 IM programs, 3 web browsers, 3 package managers, 4 media players, ect. Since the the install size is so huge, I recommend installing the program with a good book to read while you wait. Having said all of these things I don't like about it, I must add (in fairness to Sabayon) that the only reason I didn't like these things is because of how I am with Linux. A lot of the things I didn't like about Sabayon 4 are things the more average computer user would love about it.

Would I Recommend It To Others?:
Depending on the person, yes! I would totally recommend it to my parents, friends, and other casual computer users.

[oz]

It's been a year or so since I last tried Sabayon, but it was too full of eyecandy for my own tastes. I can see why others might like it, though. It didn't give me any problems at all, but it's doubtful that I'll ever get around to trying version 4.

[SkittleLinux18]

Yeah, I really don't see you as someone who would like it, ozar. In fact, most of regulars on LFO probably wouldn't take much of a liking to it. Too much eye candy, too heavy, ect. I love eye candy, but weight is an issue for me.

[MikeTbob]

The thing about Sabayon that turns most people off, is the package management tool portage, it's just like Gentoo, it takes a long time to install just one package.
I thought Sabayon was the bees knees and everyone should try it, until I realized how large the install is, just like you mentioned.

[rokytnji]

I tried the Live CD Version Of Sabayon, I was just a little overwhelmed by it to give it a chance and give it a honest effort of trying to run it. I musta got sceeered.

[SkittleLinux18]

The thing about Sabayon that turns most people off, is the package management tool portage, it's just like Gentoo, it takes a long time to install just one package.
I thought Sabayon was the bees knees and everyone should try it, until I realized how large the install is, just like you mentioned.

I had 3.4 installed on my computer for about a week shortly after it came out. I tried to emerge Banshee music player. After 2 1/2 hours, I got impatient, canceled it, and moved on to the next distro. In some ways, I think Gentoo is faster with its build times. Sabayon came with three package managers, but I didn't try any of them. I didn't have 4 hours to kill.

I tried the Live CD Version Of Sabayon, I was just a little overwhelmed by it to give it a chance and give it a honest effort of trying to run it. I musta got sceeered.

It's extremely overwhelming. It is still a very good distro though. Just not for me. In the famous words of Dapper Dan, "Give me speed over eye candy any day!"

[questio verum]

Skittle,
I just visited the Sabayon website, and see they've changed the main page. I guess to reflect the latest release. So when you installed 4, did you go with Gnome or KDE4? Or something else? How long did the install and setup take? I'm thinking about loading Sabayon or maybe Gentoo on an extra drive.

qv

[SkittleLinux18]

Skittle,
I just visited the Sabayon website, and see they've changed the main page. I guess to reflect the latest release. So when you installed 4, did you go with Gnome or KDE4? Or something else? How long did the install and setup take? I'm thinking about loading Sabayon or maybe Gentoo on an extra drive.

qv

Hey buddy!

I went with KDE. Setup didn't take long at all. The install took about 30 minutes, though. A little long for me. And that was on a newer system with more resources to spare, too.

You could try it if you want, but it's very heavy and overwhelming. Who knows, you might really like it!

[Bemk]

When I hear the requirements, skittle, I think my CPU is going to wet its pants when I get the CD even near the drive.

[aluminumspleen]

I just read on Distrowatch that Sabayon just released Sabayon 4 "LiteMCE", which is smaller than the standard edition.

The DVD is 1.8GB.

I'm not hating on Sabayon, but in my opinion, that's still a hefty freakin distro, is it not?