Written by Steve Lake
Posted on: 08.10.2009 at 02:03pm
Section: Reviews
Pardus Linux is a distribution that likes to put a lot of "roar" in the user experience. Hailing from Turkey, it's a distribution that looks to make your desktop user experience exciting. So what does Pardus offer you that others don't? Well, let's have a look.
Installation
When Pardus boots up, it first loads into a startup screen as though it were going into a LiveCD session. However, it's not. Secondly, it's also in Turkish (whatever language that is). English and Turkish are the two default languages included in the grub boot menu, and if you're a native English speaker (which I assume you are if you're reading this), then to get started you will need to press F2 at the boot menu and change the default language by pressing the up arrow, and then hitting enter.
Once that's done, you should see all your options now appearing in English. (Supposedly Pardus supports other languages, but other than the keyboard layout, I couldn't find anything.) There are other options in this boot menu you can choose, such as the default console size (natively set at 1024x768 ), graphical display and kernel default. You can also do a system rescue (in case your system bought the farm), a memory test, or even find out what hardware you have on your machine.
When choosing the first option, marked "Pardus 2009", it will immediately take you into an install screen. Apparently Pardus 2009 ( like 2008 ) comes with the install cd separate from the LiveCD. Not sure why they didn't just toss both on the same disk, but apparently you either get a LiveCD, or you get an installable CD for installing Pardus. Either way, it's no big deal.
When you progress past the boot menu, you're briefly greeted by a loading bar that then takes you into a console prompt which in turn begins loading the installer for Pardus 2009. Once there, you're asked to accept the GPL. You can choose to accept it without reading, you can read it, or you can choose deny it or reboot the system. Any choice other than selecting "Yes, I accept" and clicking next, or "Read GPL" results in the system rebooting.
In the next screen you can check the CD integrity to be sure you had a proper burn on your disk. If you don't want to, you can click next to skip this screen. The next two screens allow you to choose your keyboard layout and time zone. Next, you have the ability to enter your username, real name, and password for your general user account.
Interesting side note here. If you only fill in the first four boxes, and don't touch anything else other than back and next, you can proceed without anymore fuss. If you hit advanced, you'll have to go through the extra steps required, including adding the user before going to the next screen. Of course, if you want to add more than one user or tweak their default settings, then by all means click advanced and follow the steps required to complete your work, only tinkering with the fields applicable to your needs.
The next step is choosing a root password. Unlike some distros that require you to use sudo exclusively and highly discourage use of the root account, Pardus assumes that, if you login to the root account, you know what you're doing. And if you don't, you likely won't be logging in anyways, so what's the fuss? 
Once that's done, you're asked how you want to handle partitions. For the most part, unless you're dual booting, a simple click of next is sufficient here. From there it's just a few more clicks to get into the install loading screen. So far the entire installation process has been pretty flawless and very new user friendly. If you can't figure out how to make it through these simple set of steps, you likely shouldn't be installing Linux on your own anyways.
After about 30-40 minutes, Pardus completes its install and asks you to reboot. If you have better things to do, go take care of them. If not, the information screens that Pardus displays, some of which talk up some of the included applications, are interesting to read and watch.
Now, once this is all done, simply kick out the cd, press reboot, and let your machine restart. Overall, the installation process is incredibly user friendly and very straight forward. There are a few things you need to have at least a basic understanding of. But aside from that, everything seems to be pretty new user friendly.
Live System
Upon first boot, you're greeted with a very simple boot screen that only lists Pardus 2009. If you've set yourself up for dual booting, other OS's will be listed here too. Also, your default language and your graphical display settings from the install boot are here as well.
Once you hit enter to start the boot process, Pardus loads into the login screen very fast. In fact, overall so far, Pardus has been generally faster than its predecessor, and it's noticeable. The login screen is quite pretty, and while I'm not a big fan of red themes, the theme they use is actually quite nice.
Pardus 2009 includes:
* KDE 4.2.4
* Linux Kernel 2.6.30.1
* Openoffice Office Suite 3.1
* Firefox Web Browser 3.5.1
* Gimp 2.6.6
* Xorg 1.6.2
...and much more!
One of the interesting things that comes up on first boot is the "Kaptan Desktop", aka the "desktop captain". This is a rather interesting configuration tool that immediately walks you through setting up your mouse, menu, wallpaper, themes and more. And to say that this is something that seems rather petty to have is ludicrous. Honestly, I'd love to see something like this in one of the other distros.
Another nice thing about the desktop captain is that under themes you can choose to either use the standard KDE 4 desktop, or switch to folder view as your default. Before, this was something you had to do manually after install. Assuming you even knew it was there.
Pardus puts that right in front of you via the desktop captain and allows you to decide if you like it. It even includes example pictures so you know for certain what you're choosing! There's even an option to go with the default KDE4 menu, the simple menu (a "classic" menu that's very similar to the menu used in KDE3) and even your wallpaper. There's some other little things you are given the chance to look over, such as network (setting up DHCP and the like), packages and updates, and desktop search.
Overall it converted everything the way I wanted it, save for a couple of hiccups (it put the darned task bar at the top of the screen!!), which is really nice. I figure hiccups will occur, since this is 4.2.4, and not the new 4.3, so it's understandable since that version of KDE4 still had some rather rough issues. Those hiccups are also very easy to fix, so it's more an inconvenience than a real problem.
Adding widgets, something new in KDE4, is really easy. You can even get more than the default grouping using the download tools. You can also search for more plasmoids and widgets from other sources, download them, and then install them manually. There's even an option to download Google Gadgets, which did work without a hitch.
At first though I couldn't get the remote widgets to download, until I figured out that the network hadn't been setup. I don't know if that was the fault of the Captain or user issue on my part, but I thought I'd mention it anyways in case it isn't a one time thing.
Another thing I noticed with Pardus is that it tries to really dumb things down. Now while that has its advantages, I for one don't like it. Why? Because it tries to simplify things TOO much in some areas.
Case in point. The taskbar. If you look at naked KDE4 vs the Pardus setup, there's a LOT of settings missing. And I wasn't able to really compare all the other areas completely either, but they're missing settings as well that should be there, and aren't. For a new user who doesn't want to be bothered with all that extra stuff, that's fine. For a power user, that's not.
But Pardus seems to be focused towards the beginner anyways, so I guess in some respects that's fine. Just pray that a new user doesn't ask you to make a desktop tweak that Pardus doesn't allow. Speed wise, Pardus is right on par with many of the giants in the distro world. It's not earth shattering speed, but it is most certainly very good.
Stability is also spot on. Despite this only being 4.2, I never saw a crash, a fault, or any kind of flakiness at all. Period. That's a pretty good sign. In the menu itself, you will find a very nice, full selection of applications ranging from the complete Open Office suite to Firefox 3.5.1, the latest Gimp, and a lot more.
It's like having the bleeding edge without ending up with a pool of blood on the floor. (ironic really given the red theme of Pardus.
) Another cool thing is to see, not just many of the old KDE3 and 4 standbys, but also some Gnome things as well mixed in. In other words, a best of the best collection.Conclusion
Overall though, I'm highly impressed with the new Pardus. It's fast, sleek, stable, and just a good all around new user distro. It's also a nice improvement on its predecessor. But even with all this greatness, there's still a few flies in the ointment. Interestingly enough, none are the fault of Pardus, as the issues lie elsewhere in other applications.
Do I recommend Pardus 2009 for new users? Yes, and completely yes. For power users? Not really. There are few distros that properly balance the needs of the new user with that of the power user, and Pardus chose not to try to be one of those, instead siding with new users. But that's fine, because this is a good distribution for friends, family, and the occasional co-worker who wants to try out Linux, but needs something newbie friendly to cut their teeth on.