Written by Steve Lake
Posted on: 01.23.2009 at 10:13am
Section: Reviews
Sabayon Linux, the "swiss army knife" of distributions, covering a wide range of needs, and providing you with pretty much everything you need for a proper Linux desktop experience, is back. We took a look at an earlier version of Sabayon back early last year and were quite impressed with it. But past performance doesn't always signal present success. So how does the new Sabayon stack up against it's honored predecessor? Let's find out.
Live DVD
Sabayon Linux, with the introduction of version 4, has a new look, a new logo, and a new catchphrase. "Open your source, Open your mind." Really, it's a catchy little saying and immediately sets the tone for what is to be an interesting user experience.
Initial bootup is quick and fairly straight forward. During bootup, the LiveDVD actually starts playing a rock song while it's booting up. Yeah, seriously. While it's weird, you have to give them props for uniqueness. 
It also serves the unique purpose of making sure that Sabayon has properly seen your sound card. It will stutter and stagger a bit as it loads, especially if your processor is taxed, but otherwise it should play just fine without interuption.
Once the system boots all the way, it drops you into a screen that lays out the two kinds of user environments you can experience: Enhanced and Standard. I chose to use the standard environment, especially since Compiz has chosen to stop playing nice on my test machine. Likely because it's not the latest of hardware. But then, if a Linux distribution can't run well on older hardware, something's not right. But that's another argument for another time. So anyways, moving on...
Once the standard experience was activated, I was greeted with a standard login screen that, interestingly enough, had all the login details filled in already. This is something I haven't seen in a while, and it's definitely a welcome sight. And I know a lot of new users that will be grateful for that as well.
Another interesting discovery is, if you don't login right away, it will log you in after a few seconds. So that also makes this nice and simple. The livedvd experience is noticeably snappier than in previous versions of this distribution, so that's also another plus. The system comes by default with KDE 3.5.10 with the 2.6.27 Linux kernel.
One of the first things most users will notice is that the traditional KDE menu has been replaced with the updated multi-pane KDE4 style menu. It's a little difficult to get used to if you're used to the more traditional linear menus like in KDE3.x, but it's easy enough to learn if you are willing to be patient in the beginning.
The desktop is also loaded with quite a wide variety of application icons, many of which are standard for Sabayon, and are the same as those in version 3.5. These include Firefox, Battle for Wesnoth, Picasa, Google Earth, Second Life, Gparted, Nexuiz, and Sauerbraten. There is also once again a huge selection of installed programs that come with the system available through the KDE menu.
Application load times for the livedvd are quite good by livecd/livedvd standards, and are actually faster that they were in the previous version. This speed improvement is a welcome addition and it goes a long ways towards further improving the user experience. Hardware detection also appears to be flawless, as it found all my hardware without issue and installed all the proper drivers.
Installation
Installation is fairly straight forward. Most of what you do to complete the install is simply click next, as keep clicking next until you're done. The only real exceptions are the desktops screen, where you can choose between KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox or XFCE for your installed desktop. There's even a console only version, as well as a mobile version so that you can use Sabayon as either a server, or on your laptop respectively.
But regardless which desktop you choose as your primary, you're given the option to install either KDE, Gnome and/or XFCE alongside your main desktop choice. There is also a selection of games, office, multimedia and internet applications you can add to your installation. Now obviously, even though you can just click through the install and just go with all the defaults given to you when setting up your desktop, there is still plenty of options you can adjust and tweak if you want to.
One thing to note however is that you will be asked to setup passwords, and will be required to make sure they are at least six characters long. Total installation time has been improved as well from the previous version as it now takes just under 25 minutes to complete.
Once you're done you're asked to reboot and start your experience on your new desktop.
Installed System
First boot is somewhat slow, as it takes a while to process stuff (and no music this time), but it eventually gets you into the desktop without too much of a problem. The installed system is pretty much identical to the live system, save for any changes you made during the install process obviously. Speed of the normal bootup is about average for a Linux distribution, but desktop stability is rock solid.
3d support for games is excellent, however, I was unable to test Compiz support as it hates my system. Again, that's something entirely unrelated to this distro itself, as it's a Compiz issue, so I'll keep moving. Multimedia support is very good. In fact, the selection of available applications is actually better than I expected. All of the old standbys are there, along with quite a few new ones as well. It's almost as though they invited every possible application to the party.
Load times on applications is slightly better than the livedvd, but still quite snappy for a distribution of this size that is so loaded to the hilt with options and features. Hardware support is nearly flawless, as it was in the LiveDVD, as all my hardware was detected out of the box, without a single missed setting.
The updated KDE menu is still a bit of a challenge to get used to, as stated before, but manageable. If you boot into Gnome or XFCE, the user experience is pretty much equal to what it is under KDE, with snappy response times and good stability, so nothing special to report there.
Conclusion
Overall, I really enjoyed Sabayon 4. It's a nice improvement from 3.5 in that it fixes many of the issues that existed (what few there were) and noticeably increased speed and performance. The entire distro is standing by and ready to perform for you in whatever way you want.
Sabayon Linux 4 once again wins my seal of approval for new users and has kept it's place among my top recommendations for distributions for new users. You can find out more information about Sabayon Linux by either visiting their homepage or viewing their Distrowatch page. You can also download the latest iso's here.