Yoper Linux v2.1
Website: www.yoper.com Introduction
Ok, this is my first review and the kickoff to Linuxforums.org's Editorial Content Section, so lets get started. Yoper Linux is built around the idea of light, compact and wicked fast distro that is available to the average Linux user. Its 100% GPL compliant and the full ISO is free to anyone with an Internet connection. Yoper's popularity has absolutely skyrocketed with the release of v2.1 and is currently sitting at #18 on the distrowatch.com Page Hit Ranking.
Yoper's claim to fame is the speed at which it runs,
out of the box. Yoper is a distro that targets the desktop Linux user from a brand new convert to the legendary guru. The latests release (2.1) improves upon the the installer, making it more user friendly and now includes non-destructive partitioning.
Speed applies to every aspect of the system. The install was completed, start to finish, in under 15 minutes. Once the system booted, the kernel took little time to load. It may seem little slow as compared to a custom kernel (like one created in a Gentoo install), but thats to be expected with a universal build. Once KDE started to load I noticed the speed kick. It was loaded in less than 10 seconds - which is good compared to my lovingly tweaked Gentoo system. Applications opened almost instantly and the overall feel of the system is similar to that of a fine Italian sports car, suave and fast.
The Yoper team accomplished this with the use of several methods that have always been available to those with enough experience, but generally beyond the average user, They include, but are by no means limited too:
- Several performance enhancing patches to the kernel
All packages compiled specifically for the i686 against the latest and greatest of the gcc
All the binaries were 'stripped' (ie. all the debug symbols and other nonessential data are removed.) in order to create an even faster base system.
Prelinking
A short description of prelinking:
Due to Yoper's success, the process has been getting a lot of talk recently, and I was intrigued by the mechanics of this intriguing little utility. The results are readily evident: incredible startup times, even for massive applications. Basically whenever you start a program it has to find all the libraries that it will draw upon and link them to the correct location in the program. Prelinking does this when you run the Prelink, so when you start the program, 1/2 of all the startup work is already completed. Now should you be a developer, you will need to re-run the prelink code (a simple command available on their website) more frequently. They recommend it after major upgrades (such as KDE 3.2 to 3.3).
Installation
After downloading the single ISO and burning it, I booted into a BASH prompt. This might sound intimidating to those newer to Linux, but wherever a user is required to type something in there are directions included. In this instance it indicated 'type Yoper to begin setup'. A little fiddling reviled that the prompt had a few basic commands such as mount and access to Vim. Ready to begin the install, I typed Yoper, pressed enter and was greeted by the installer. Overall the feel of the install was similar to that of Slackware and comfortable enough for any user: even a Linux 'newbie'. While some may frown on the lack of a GUI installer, the Yoper team wanted to keep this all on one CD, resulting in a GUIless install. After a few simple steps (the installer holds your hand through the entire process) you arrive at qtparted, a graphical partition tool. The best part of this is that it not only makes the hardest part of the install possible through a simple GUI, but allows for non-destructive partitioning.
After that I hopped through the selection of a few mount points, selected a file system from ext2, ext3, reiserfs, and reiser4 then the install started. No progress bar or indicter of any sort was present, but the installer notified you that it would take 5-15 minutes. The lack of a package selection menu was a little surprising as that has almost become a standard feature, but the install went off without a hitch. Another feature worth noting is the inclusion of the new reiserfs4 format. This is really indicative of the bleeding edge options that Yoper includes; they are also the first major Linux distribution to ship with KDE 3.3. After the selection of either LILO or Grub, it took only a few simple administrative tasks for me to get to a working system.
Other install notables include out of the box Nvidia support (ATI support is not there yet), but after speaking with the development team I understand it is high on their To-Do list. Also SuSE's X configuration utility Sax2 handles initial X configuration and does a wonderful job of hardware detection. ALSA support is also configured during the install. Nothing really notable there, except that it is a new feature that was not included in the previous release.
Now the bad part, If any of you were paying close attention you will notice that I am using an ATI card, and I just mentioned that ATI support is weak. Yoper claims that Nvidia support is out of the box, and I have heard nothing contrary to that, but getting ATI was a bit of an adventure. It was fine in reasonable base resolutions and color depths, but it took me a good 30 min of fiddling in Sax2 to get 3D acceleration working. I ended up using the 9000 driver on my 8500. While it wasn't perfect, I was getting 2500 fps on glxgears: plenty for my needs, and enough to handle all but maybe Doom 3 (when the Linux Binaries come out). Sound worked perfectly out of the box, which was a treat as the only other distro that it worked on so naturally on was SuSE.
Everyday Usage
Yoper's speed is evident mostly in everyday functions, such a opening a OpenOffice document. I have always found OpenOffice.org to open painfully slowly, but the start time in Yoper was impressive. In most systems it can take 15-20 seconds to start the massive OpenOffice, Yoper manages this in about 10 (on my machine, these are not official numbers from OpenOffice, just mine). Web browsers open next to instantly. The startup for most everything is downright stunning. (This is where prelinking is at its strongest.)
KDE is loaded by default, and I must admit that normally I prefer a much lighter WM. KDE was loaded with such speed and felt so agile overall, I was actualy comfortable in the KDE environment. Should you still want another WM, there are several in the apt repositories (we'll talk more about apt-get in a moment). Unfortunately changing the WM or default desktop will be a but of a chore, as a plug in to control this is not yet included in Yoperconf.
The change that I found to be most dramatic (even more so than the installer) was the addition of a graphical configuration utility by the name of Yoperconf. While it's not quite as all encompassing as YaST2, it allows modification and changing of a few simple/common options that a casual user would like to implement without getting involved in the manual configuration. An example of this would be samba.
Screenshot of Yoperconf and Desktop
The default theme is the standard KDE theme, though the background, splash and icons were all quite smooth and pleasant. Easy access to several key tools via the desktop was a thoughtful addition and only goes to show how much the team listens to feedback that users are providing.
Another feature that throws Yoper into the ring with the heavyweights of the industry is apt-get, Debian's package management system that makes installing packages simple and painless. It not only retrieves the packages from prescribed FTP mirrors but also handles all dependences. Included by default is Synaptic, a GUI front end for atp-get, giving the distro a stronger desktop feel that will comfort most users. It is also this desktop "ease of use" feel that leads me to believe Yoper would not be a strong server choice, bringing me to my next point.
I was under this impression at first, so I poked around the apt-get repository, finding a surprisingly large amount of server packages. While the performance boost seen by a server configuration is not as impressive as that of a desktop, its still there. I think that with more mainstream acceptance, hosting services may start advertising with a 'Yoper Powered' logo.
Documentation seemed a little weak, consisting of little more than an FAQ. A few cursory posts on their forums were greeted by knowledgeable staff. Several members of the development team personally addressed problems that I was having, and on several occasions told me of plans for future features and bug fixes that were in the works. In fact the head developer is involved on a very personal level with the entire community, making it a point to listen to input from anyone.
In Conclusion
I have to say that Yoper is a system that will truly surprise you. If the speed isn't enough to sell you on the idea, the default package selection will. It is comprehensive but not encumbering like some distros have become in an attempt to become even more user-friendly. Unfortunately while the install is comprehensive and easy to use, the lack of package selection is disappointing and a tad bit surprising. Yoper is a hybrid of the best of each distro, and a big handful of originality. While this is commended, it is also constrictive. Installing RPM's can be difficult and the apt-get repository has not yet grown to the point of something like Gentoo's Portage, which you can rely upon for all your program needs. In fact, Yoper's only true drawback is its age, or more accurately, its lack thereof. While community support is great, once you leave the Yoper community and enter that of the Linux community as a whole, it is difficult to find users familiar with it.
Having been a hardcore Gentoo user before Yoper I feel it is my duty to perform a rough speed comparison on the box below
- 1.8Ghz P4
512 DDR RAM at 233mhz
1x80GB ATA HD
Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder
Integrated Sound
52x CD-Rom
8x4x2 DVD-RW
I will assume a vanilla install of Gentoo with the gentoo-dev-sources Kernel compiled with genkernel and Yoper V2.1. The install time obviously goes to Yoper as Gentoo compiles the entire thing from special rebuilds (basically source), whereas Yoper uses prebuilt packages with the most common performance enhancing flags used during their compilation. The boot time is a tricky one to measure, but if you clock the time taken to reach a login prompt, Gentoo wins but not buy much, about a 7 second difference in my test. But once you go to starting X, Yoper leaps ahead and can have me browsing the web, editing an office doc, and chatting in the IRC before Gentoo got me into a GUI. Various CPU benchmarks showed little difference as the core of both systems is minimalistic with not extra processes running. While Yoper's kernel start time is not as impressive as Gentoo's, once you get going, the absolutely incredible startup time will astound you.
All said and done, any Linux user who has a few free gigs on their hard disk should give this newest release of Your Operating System a try and see what the rave is about. Several of you might just notice that Yoper seems to draw you in, especially for daily desktop tasks where this zippy little distro truly excels.
Linear Mode
