Sabayon Review

[Jerrod Frost]

Joost brought this video to my attention. I decided to review it and take notes from their complaints and suggestions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDcQZ-iKLdQ 

Some Feedback :/

1. Nvidia driver issues plagued us! Random issues. I had no issues with my 1080Ti, but evidently certain 1080s were having problems. Devices that use Nouveau get screwed due to default blacklisting. The nvidia situation isn't a great experience.

(Need to find a way to allow VESA, Nouveau, nvidia-driver version selection at/before install?)

2. Updates slow! multiple complaints. Seems default repo speeds can be iffy depending on the users location.

(need to set host machine to equo repo mirrorsort sabayonlinux.org in background on first boot)

3. Calamares Installer is slow 

(Not sure what we can do here? We're limited by the abilities of calamares. is there a way to multi-thread the install method which is rsync IIRC?)

3. Need to update or add another GUI package manager? maybe mimic Pop Shop?

(Some users annoyed by searching through RIGO, they appear to like the ability to "shop" for apps in a app store like manner.)

4. Wiki needs updated, gathered from mentions of the wiki or missing the wiki's existence all together.

(yeah, we know....)

5. flatpak support? https://flatpak.org/setup/Gentoo/

(not my cup of tea, but supporting the customer isn't wrong. Flatpak is just similar to the way Mac packages all its libs etc into a single package)

6. Theming was bland. Meh.

(We know, we're working on it)

7. User wanted Chrome due to lack of support in Firefox for applications such as zoom video conferencing.

(not a game changer, I think this can be ignored if we just add a GUI package manager with the ability to "shop" for chrome)

8. Need better explanation of what Sabayon is capable of. Maybe a job for the webpage and welcome screen?

(codecs/support) (explanation of benefits using Gentoo package management style vs RPM/DEB) (Explanation of larger binary packages since they are split up into thousands of smaller packages for deb/rpm distros.) (explanation of difference between Gentoo and Sabayon) 

9. Couldn't use SSH...

(I have no idea here. SSH isn't hard. generating keys isn't hard. Maybe people are too used to having their hand held through everything? This could be a simple wiki task.)

Some Good things :D

Kudos for firewall on by default.

Updater was loved. (They liked the way Rigo Looked and responded during updates.)

verbose info from Equo/entropy in CLI was LOVED.

Loved the welcome screen.

(Welcome screen may need introductory slide show of package management?)

These people have been dealing with Linux a while. These confusions are what seasoned linux people see when viewing Sabayon for the first time. We need to find how to fix the first impressions. The way we handle Nvidia-drivers has hurt us here. Especially if nvidia's drivers themselves were what was iffy. We are also too strongly viewed as "Beginner Gentoo" which is causing people to look heavily into the idea of compiling programs for install.

Does my analysis seem correct? I'm curious to know you're thoughts as well.

Thanks,

Darksurf

[Mihai Dobrescu]

Hello,

Sorry to interrupt. Just my experience... what I've undersood as IT specialist on Windows...

I'm lazy, I need some OS to rely on. So I use Sabayon as daily OS, and Mandriva on some NAS (because I'm lazy... too lazy to replace it with Sabayon, maybe one day I would...).

For me, the guys seemed to be accustomed to Salient...

1. Indeed, Nvidia is problematic. Soo expensive for what it offers on Linux. Still grateful to them. Options might be useful when tuned according to the detected hardware. As we know from 560Ti tests, the proprietary drivers are preferable. For other probably other drivers suit.

2. I love the updater for the same reasons as them. I feel some guys did not tune the bandwidth first (and select the fastest mirror).

Maybe the initial sequence must be emphasized. Maybe further upgrades must be directed with more hints and so on.

3. Lately, Calamares was confusing to me, even though I knew what to do. Reusing a partition makes me wonder if I actually lose some unintended partition.

3(!). Rigo is wonderful - except lack of sorting by some criteria (like name) when looking for packages. A feature requested but denied.

4. Indeed, there are several articles for the same thing, but procedures differ or are obsolete, apparently.

5. There are some important distributions of software that are not available in Sabayon's repos. Some come with Sanp, Flatpack, Appimage. Some popular packagers must be supported. I prefer AppImage, but not always available.

Dangers of these must be emphasized too.

6. Themes are more than OK, except Firefox. I use dark theme on several OSes, only here the pages are dark too and that is not suitable.

7. Video conferencing is a stopper when missing support. I've had issues with so many, like Webex. Lifesize worked only so far.

8. Hmm.. I would say Sabayon is not for Gentoo users. It's like a stable OS for me, I don't need to learn Gentoo (although I have compiled it for a couple of times...). The relation with Gentoo comes when a new package is needed. I am grateful for both, though, but, gladly, don't have to learn Gentoo for using Sabayon. And that's good!

9. I have used SSH very easy... Don't know whet they've meant with that.

Kudos to the firewall, indeed!

I have managed to salvage the installation every time when some update bug hit. This is a BIG +!!

Never lost something, rescued damaged disks.

I love you guys for this great OS and I don't understand why Sabayon is not popular among Linux users. The others have their minds set.

I am grateful to Bill & Windows for making PC's popular, but lately, like Android and Mac OS, seem that metering comes first, so often I'm annoyed by them doing some commercially intended (in their interest) upgrades instead of loading my desired web page...or application...

So Linux forever!

Indeed, the perception is the most important thing. Like them, for me Ubuntu is a crashy thing, it does that each time in a couple of hours. Might be me, but Sabayon never did that.

But remember, the things you can do with a distribution is most important. Ubuntu has a large application base that makes it versatile. I understand it has a company behind too.

FOSS is a dynamic beast, so what I feel coming to Sabayon as a miss is the support for several libraries at once.

Right now, if I need to build Inkscape 1.0 beta, for instance, I lack Imagemagick 6 support. So I need a virtual machine to do the job. I feel like shooting

And Wine 4, which appeals me very much with all the patches from Steam... For a ffmpeg 4 declared unstable is not possible (now). There could be some exceptions for a big thing like Wine 4. And it could be the only one to use ffmpeg 4. ffmpeg 3 is declared highly vulnerable to attacks, BTW. Remember, games attract people. Me, I hope to be able to install Photoshop again and get rid of Windows - I keep it only for Photoshop...

Just my two cents...

Best Regards,

Mike

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Mihai Sorin Dobrescu