Review: Foresight Linux 2.0

Foresight Linux is a release that I hadn't heard of before they appeared in the "latest distributions" bit on Distrowatch when I was hunting for new review material. One of my favourite things to do is try releases I've not heard of before... And so we enter Foresight.

"Foresight is a desktop operating system featuring an intuitive user interface and a showcase of the latest desktop software, giving users convenient and enjoyable access to their music, photos, videos, documents, and Internet resources." is how the website sells it to you, but it's this sentence that got me:

"As a Linux distribution, Foresight sets itself apart by eliminating the need for the user to be familiar with Linux" - a brave yet foolish claim to make if you can't back it up.

Because Foresight is clearly gunning for the mainstream market by citing usability as one of their key concerns (through intuitive interface, etc) I'd be expecting the release to be attractive and very functional straight out of the box. Let's begin then shall we:

Installation
The thing that struck me first was the lack of a LiveCD, something that is so common in releases these days. Especially considering Foresight weighs in at 1.2gb (offering you a DVD or 2CD download). So already it might be at a disadvantage to other releases that offer you the chance to "try before you buy". Never mind, let's install it anyway.

The only real point to note is that extlinux is the default boot loader but you're given the option of Grub; everything else was textbook.

I've got to hand this to Foresight; it made a complicated looking install amazingly easy. Unlike DreamLinux (which had a pointlessly complicated installation process) Foresight looks difficult but it actually auto-completes everything for you. I was very impressed with the installation process because it required little to no input from me at all; just user details. A good start then.

Aesthetics
It's not a bad looking release to be fair, but it doesn't amaze me. The loading screens are okay and the interface is typically Gnome but not overly offensive.

One of my biggest complaints is that I personally find it too green by default; so I entered the appearance configuration in an attempt to make it more tolerable. I changed the background to a sexy blue alternative and changed the menu type, but couldn't for the life of me get the vile bright green active menu state to change to something a little less... green. As you can see it looks wrong.



I assume this is a personal failing rather than Foresight making it impossible to change the colour... Otherwise it's not a bad looking release so I can't fault it there.

Networking
As always I can't comment on wireless connectivity because the machine has a wired connection; but it picked up my Windows network without any problems. I could comfortably access my Samba shares and that's something I class as very important for a "usable" release.

Media Support
This is one of the most crucial elements for a release that claims to give users "convenient and enjoyable access to their music, photos, videos, documents, and Internet resources". It's here that their claim that "Foresight sets itself apart by eliminating the need for the user to be familiar with Linux" really comes to bite them in the arse. Pulling a media file across and trying to play it results in a "codec not found" error.



A little disappointing considering 90% of the releases I toy with have such codecs bundled; especially when you consider that Foresight is 2x the size of PCLinuxOS, Mint, etc. Obviously it could save itself by doing "an Ubuntu" and offering me a download link to get the codecs I need... No such luck.

Right. So I need to go and dig up the codecs myself do I? Fine. Another minor problem is that I cannot find a package manager of any kind (I'm looking for Synaptic or something along those lines). I can't see anything in the System/Administration menu beyond an inexplicably unhelpful "Add/Remove Software" application that doesn't seem to offer anything to a user who doesn't already know what they're looking for.



So I do what I should never have to do: RTFM. Let me just say that truly usable, intuitive applications don't require the user to read the manual before finding what they need... Anyway, I find the chapter on "Proprietary Codecs" that offers me some advice:



Just in case you can't see the image above, it's asking me to paste a command into the command line. So Foresight tries to have a USP of "you don't need to know anything about Linux" but not only does it require me to read the manual but I also need to sudo a package update on the console? Hell, it doesn't even tell me where I'd find this "command line", which would be a problem if I didn't already know Linux. Do you see the problem?



Sure when I run that command it installs the codecs and everything is right with the world again but that's not the problem. A distro that claims to be really usable and good for media cannot make getting codecs this complicated because "normal" users would be confused. I couldn't sit my mom down and ask her to play a video because she'd cry... Yet I would have no problems getting her to do it in Ubuntu, Mint, Pardus, Mepis, PCLOS and so on. Foresight has lost me.



Installing Software
Well the "add/remove software" application is possibly the least useful thing I've used this year; unless you know specifically what you're looking for you're out of luck. It's not a browsable directory of installable applications, it's a search window where you enter the name of the application you want. It's awful.

I searched for "GIMP" and the only result returned was "gimp, image manipulation software". So I decide to search for "image" to see if I get a wider range of results but all I got were packages with the word "image" in the name (GIMP was absent). How would someone who doesn't know the name of the package they want ever find anything?

I have to assume there is a real package manager hidden somewhere in the system - so I return to the user manual. The manual claims to have "PackageKit" which is a front end graphical user interface to manage the software on your system... Yet it offers no insight into where it might be or how to access it; the only thing I can find is the god awful "add/remove" application that I've already expressed my distaste for. Again, maybe PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair) but I'm pretty used to toying around in various Linux environments and it's never THIS hard.

Part of me wants to make witty puns; the irony of using Foresight as the name for such a release, but the other part of me just wants to just make it go away.

Configuration... Actually forget it, I give up
You know what? This is normally where I write about the configuration utility and the installed applications but I can't even be bothered to do that. I just don't get it; what was actually on the 1.2gb DVD image that I downloaded? Sure there are a few installed applications on offer but no more than PCLOS. The out-of-the-box media support is non-existent and it's Gnome! It should be light shouldn't it? I just can't be bothered because Foresight isn't meeting me half way.

Ubuntu is smaller, better, more intuitive, more usable and requires less knowledge of Linux than this; it bests Foresight in every single way so how could I possibly recommend it?

It's not pretty enough to make me sit and work out how everything is done... I have never had to read the manual using Ubuntu and that's why Foresight fails. Ubuntu is smaller to download, equally easy to install, equally attractive and infinitely more usable. I'll keep an eye on the release but ultimately I've lost the will to keep reviewing it because it cannot salvage a remotely positive score.

There are too many other good releases to try; ones that are half the size and offer you a LiveCD for a start, let alone the lack of an obvious package manager and shoddy media support.

If you think I've been unfair to Foresight then please say so but remember that I'm looking at usability and functionality. If I don't think a normal user can do it then it loses points - simple. Avoid Foresight, get Ubuntu.

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