Should I go for Dropline or Freerock GNOME? Recommendations?

[DrCR]

Freerock
http://gsb.freerock.org/

Dropline
http://dropline-gnome.sourceforge.net

I'm looking for a Gnome DE for Slackware 10.2. These are two that I have found so far - any recommendations? Pro/Cons for one of the other, or are they bascially the same i.e. bascially redundant projects all so common in the open source world?

Thanks! Nice to get back to SW. After playing around with so may distros, SW is what keeps calling me back to Linux ... that what will be hard to do if I can ever get Mac OSX86 on my PC...


Edit: Then of course there's this thread but could you guys give me some pros/cons for one of the other?

DrCR

[Dapper Dan]

A lot of Slackware purist don't like the idea of changing the Slackware environment. Even Patrick has, in his ever so polite way, so much has said that Dropline is his least favourite Gnome environment to use with his distro.

I tried Freerock but had problems. I'll try it again someday, because I'm sure the difficulties I had were due to mistakes I made in configuration. Who knows. Maybe I'll like it better than Dropline.


Personally, I have used Dropline for a while now, and have had no problems whatsoever. In my estimation Dropline is an excellent Gnome environment, and the maintainers work exceedingly hard to ensure you have a trouble free and attractive Gnome Desktop.


Dropline also has a very good updating utility to keep you current, and it is vigorously maintained. The Dropline community is also very able, and cordially willing to assist with whatever problems may arise.

Just my 2 cents...

[Vergil83]

I once again vote for gware.

I say stay away from dropline because of this

gnome/*: Removed from -current, and turned over to community support and
distribution. I'm not going to rehash all the reasons behind this, but it's
been under consideration for more than four years. There are already good
projects in place to provide Slackware GNOME for those who want it, and
these are more complete than what Slackware has shipped in the past. So, if
you're looking for GNOME for Slackware -current, I would recommend looking at
these two projects for well-built packages that follow a policy of minimal
interference with the base Slackware system:

http://gsb.sf.net
http://gware.sf.net

There is also Dropline, of course, which is quite popular. However, due to
their policy of adding PAM and replacing large system packages (like the
entire X11 system) with their own versions, I can't give quite the same sort
of nod to Dropline. Nevertheless, it remains another choice, and it's _your_
system, so I will also mention their project:

http://www.dropline.net/gnome/

However, Dapper Dan has several times said he has not had problems with it, and he is defientaly an experienced user that you should listen too.

In my experience, I had a few issues with dropline (nothing big) and no problems with gware or freerock. Actually using all of them is about the same IMHO.

*edit I see Dapper Dan has already added his two cents

[Dapper Dan]

*edit I see Dapper Dan has already added his two cents

We must've been posting almost at the same time!
I'll be honest, I've yet to try gware, but if Virgil83 recommends it, then I'm certain it warrants a thorough investigation. I need to look into it myself so I can make a more informed recommendation. Until I do, Virgil83 can you give us more details about why you prefer it over the others?

[DrCR]

Dropline also has a very good updating utility to keep you current, and it is vigorously maintained.

That's what made Dropline very attractive to me (I have the iso burned as we speak). How do Freerock and Gware compare in this regard?

FYI I'm a bit of a "purist" as well, but I don't mind going for some solid which is how Dropline is sounding. In other words, as long as I won't have resulatant updating issues, I don't mind apps "messing" with things. For example, I love Vector Linux, but I just can't seem to get it updated with no problems. Maybe I have slapt-get looking at the wrong server, but I mean, I'm still on Firefox v1.6.

[Dapper Dan]

Can't say on Gware or Freerock as I've yet to experience them. Compared with ALL the distro's I've used, Dropline's update utility is excellent in my humble opinion. I've used Dropline and its update utility through 10.0, 10.1 and 10.2 without any problems whatsoever. I'm beginning to believe that Slackware in immune to breaking!

[Vergil83]

*edit I see Dapper Dan has already added his two cents

We must've been posting almost at the same time!
I'll be honest, I've yet to try gware, but if Virgil83 recommends it, then I'm certain it warrants a thorough investigation. I need to look into it myself so I can make a more informed recommendation. Until I do, Virgil83 can you give us more details about why you prefer it over the others?

I guess I prefer it for purely superficial reasons. It just seems like it has more of a slackware quality. It is installed via a very small script that downloads the program. Then you just use installpkg. Of course, Dropline is just as easy. I thought long ago Dropline required 2.6 kernel, but now I see it isn't necessary. That was my biggest issue (gone now!).

I only had a small issue with dropline (this was back when 10.1 was new). I don't even remember what was the issue! One caveat is I don't normally run gnome, but I prefer certain gnome apps over kde ones, so I install gnome. However when I did run gnome, I didn't notice much difference, so I wouldn't bother with gware unless you have some time to waste.

Dropline also has a very good updating utility to keep you current, and it is vigorously maintained.

That's what made Dropline very attractive to me (I have the iso burned as we speak). How do Freerock and Gware compare in this regard?

Gware is updated by running the install script again.

[DrCR]

Gware is updated by running the install script again.

Cool, sounds just as easy, if not easier.

Does Dropline install pre-prettied or just a base Gnome installation? If not, is there really any difference at all, other than installation/updating and potential quality?

[Dapper Dan]

Dropline Gnome differs from a basic Gnome Desktop. In fact, this is one of its best features, a very slick and intuitive looking desktop and menu. Dropline also offers some of its own utilites to make ease of configuration easier on folks not entirely familiar with the command line...
Dropline screens... (upgrade is the third shot.)
With Dropline you also update with the installer. Just run as root:

dropline-installer

And choose 'upgrade.' Very simple and easy to follow.

[DrCR]

I though it was different somehow. Well I already have the dropline iso burned so I'll go ahead an use it then. Thanks for the insight guys, really appreciate it!