I had an old desktop computer laying around here so I thought I would put it to good use.
I also had a LiveCD of a homegrown (Taiwan) GNU/Linux distro that I downloaded months ago. It’s called B2D PureGNOME. It’s a Chinese distro that I first heard about in a single post here on forumosa.com.
After a few tries, it left me unimpressed.
However, just yesterday I noticed it had an install to hard drive feature. After installing it to disk, I had to recommend it.
The install was a breeze and quick (only about 30 minutes). Its hardware detection doesn’t seem too bad, either.
The computer on which it is installed (this one that I’m currently using) is a virtual dinosaur. Only 128MB of RAM and a Pentium II CPU - yet the Gnome chrome flies! The system doesn’t lag even when running programs. It also recognizes my Wacom Graphire 2 tablet.
As for Chinese character input: B2D incorporates the xcin tools. But the way it is arranged allows you to type into any program without any “&” command or other command-line arguments. Simply put your cursor where you want to type, press SHIFT+space bar and you’re typing in Chinese. In my opinion, it works just as easy and well as Windows.
Since it is Gnome based, you also get a beautiful and very customizable interface.
Oh yeah, it comes loaded with software pakages: GIMP 2.0, Audacity, GAIM, Firefox, OpenOffice, XMMS, Synaptic, Bluefish, and a lot more.
B2D info:
Download:
Now, B2D PureGnome is on my desktop and Mepis is on my laptop.