Review: Dreamlinux 3.1

My last two trips into DreamLinux haven't gone so well; most recently I toyed with DL3.0 RC1 and found an okay release plagued by a massively counter-intuitive installer. Let me clarify the importance of the installer yet again:

However excellent a distro may be, an uneccessarily counter-intuitive installer will be too much of a barrier for most users. I don't want to use a release that disregards such an important aspect.

Installation is an important part of usability; to ensure a decent level of adoption you can't create barriers like this. Especially when you consider alternative releases are not plagued by this affliction. I've not actually found a release to date that has a worse installer than Dreamlinux. So the question is, have things changed in 3.1?

Why I chose to give DreamLinux another go
When browsing the latest releases I saw that DreamLinux 3.1 had been released, so I checked their official website and it was this statement that interested me: "It has an improved installer which eliminates a few problems caused by more specific hardware configurations." I could only hope that "an improved installer" meant they had taken another look at the whole process.

Unfortunately not, the installer is the same as before
I imagine the upgrades they made have improved hardware support, but I just cannot be bothered installing DreamLinux. It's the same old story as when I reviewed 3.0 so if you're interested in my full verdict check that out.

It's a real shame because I really think I'd like DreamLinux, aesthetically I think it really works and it has a good, strong community behind it. I just don't have the time for a release that neglects such important things.

DreamLinux looks great, I know what's beyond the installer works rather well but I'm not going to bother reviewing DreamLinux any more until the installer is improved. Why? Because I'll never recommend it. For me to recommend a release it has to be better than another and the overall score of DreamLinux is dragged down too much. Too many other releases manage the installation process too well... Enough said.

Please please please DreamLinux guys, play with Mandriva, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Kubuntu, Mepis, Mint, Knoppix and see how your installer feels. Fix that and you'll have a great release, I promise you.

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