Benelix

Benelix is a Solaris Open/Free operating system that runs on Intel machines. More information can be obtained here at: http://belenix.sarovar.org/

I don't like it. It's a Linux wannabe. Sun should stick to running it on their platforms and not try to give it away when there's no real benefit to it. What can you get from it? What can you run on it?

I got a Live CD copy from Linux Format (magazine). A Live CD is a CD copy of the software that will boot from the CD and allow you to use the software without you having to install it. A Live CD is an excellent way to test operating systems. Virtual Machines are another way, however you need to install virtual machine software.

The Live CD of Benelix was quite useless. It booted fine and had Firefox so I was able to get online and look around. The window managers that they have Xfce and KDE look jagged and crappy. No font smoothing at all. The default color schemes and themes need a lot of attention.

It's really sad since I think Solaris is an excellent product. Benelix could beat the crap out of Linux but it just looks plain ugly.