Dreamlinux - Linux for Mac OS X Lovers

I've been a Mac user since the early 1990s, and a Linux user for the last year or two. I started with Linux out of "necessity" (my Mac died and the only computer I had ran Windows, which I've never really enjoyed using Windows, so I installed Linux over it). One thing I've noticed, not just about myself, but about a lot of Linux users, is that after installing Linux, it seems the first thing many people do is try to make Linux look just like Mac OS X.

There's nothing wrong with this; Linux is a great operating system, but with very few exceptions, the overall aesthetic appeal of Linux has never really been strong. Mac OS X, on the other hand, has the sexy eye candy and graphic effects, so it's natural, in my book, to try and emulate it.

I just took some time out from using Ubuntu, my favorite Linux, to look at another Linux distribution, called Dreamlinux. Dreamlinux, just about to reach a final version 3.0, would seem at first glance to be right up my alley. For one, it runs the Gnome desktop environment, which I use most often, and second, it makes no bones about its goal of looking and feeling just like Mac OS X.

Now, giving the impression of looking and feeling like OS X is fairly simple, but how long does the feeling last? Will I notice the difference right away? Of course. I've been using Macs too long to be fooled by something trying to pass itself off as OS X. The real question is: will the differences be so glaring that I can't handle using it? The answer to that is no.

I downloaded the Dreamlinux 3.0 RC1 disc image and burned it to disc. I was pleased that Dreamlinux comes as a Live CD, which allows me to boot into Dreamlinux and use it (including Internet, Sound and Video), without having to actually install it to my hard drive. The downfall with a lot of Live CD releases is that they are deathly slow to boot up, and then once they've booted, they're slow to run.

Surprisingly, I didn't notice that at all with Dreamlinux. Sure, it did take a bit longer to boot up my computer (roughly twice as long as to boot from my installed operating system, I'd guess), but once I was up and running, everything seemed quite snappy, even launching of programs, such as OpenOffice and Firefox, which can sometimes be a bit slower than other applications.

As far as looks, Dreamlinux, to its credit, does a pretty good job of imitating OS X. I was kind of surprised that the theme I see in most Dreamlinux screen shots was not the default theme, but it still looked good (it wasn't as close to OS X as it could be, but one of the other options certainly looks nice and close). As for the feel of things... it's definitely a hard thing to make one operating system behave like another, and that's no exception. No matter how close Linux looks to OS X, it's still Linux, and will still behave that way. But for people wanting something that looks like OS X, Dreamlinux is very good.

Of course, it doesn't matter how good something looks if it doesn't have good programs. Fortunately, Dreamlinux comes with a ton of good stuff, even on the Live CD.

First, the "important" (to most people) applications: the Internet. Dreamlinux comes with Firefox installed, only its the Debian version of Firefox (which means it behaves exactly the same as "regular" Firefox, only has all the Firefox branding removed and is called Iceweasel, for trademark purposes). For Email, Dreamlinux includes the Mozilla Thunderbird email/news application. Chatting can be accomplished via the Pidgin IM client, which allows users to chat on the AOL, Yahoo, Google, MSN and other chat networks.

Dreamlinux also comes with the OpenOffice.org suite of office applications, which allows a Linux user to almost seamlessly integrate with a Microsoft Office user. OpenOffice.org's office suite includes a word processor, spreadsheet program, and modules for drawing, presentations and database applications. Dreamlinux also includes the Evince PDF viewer, for viewing all those Adobe PDF documents.

Multimedia is covered as well. Dreamlinux includes Avidemux for video editing, Brasero for CD/DVD burning, Rhythmbox for organizing your music collection (as well as synchronizing with portable music players, including the Apple iPod), as well as Gxine and Mplayer for playing videos. There are also included programs for ripping CDs, editing ID3 tags on music files, and a program to convert your music to different formats.

Graphics are covered as well, with the standard GIMP program included for pixel art, and Inkscape for vector graphics, as well as programs for importing pictures from digital cameras and one to view them. One note about the version of GIMP included with Dreamlinux. Adobe Photoshop is the standard graphics program for pixel art, and a group of developers has modified the GIMP, calling it GIMPshop. GIMPshop is exactly the same as GIMP, except for its menu structure has been modified to closely follow that of Photoshop, to allow for easier transitions from one to the other.

One nice thing I noticed about Dreamlinux was that it acknowledges that people do have the need to use software other than completely open source. The Google applications, for instance (Google Earth and Picasa are prime examples), as well as products such as Skype, the "real" Firefox web browser, and multimedia codecs to support DVD and MP3 playback, while not included in a default installation, are easily added. The aforemention programs, as well as Komposer, Last.FM, Adobe Reader, Azureus and an installation wizard for official Nvidia video card drivers, can all be added through the Dreamlinux Easy Install program. Simply start it up, click what you want to install, and the Easy Install program takes care of everything.

All in all, I'm very impressed with Dreamlinux. It includes a lot of great software, realizes that people use Linux for both philosophical and pragmatic reasons, and looks and feels very nice. It's fast, it's friendly, and in all honesty, it's one of the best-looking versions of Linux I've seen. If you're like me - a longtime Mac user who also dabbles in Linux - I'd highly recommend giving Dreamlinux a try. You can grab yourself a free copy from the Dreamlinux home page. Burn it and run it off the disc. I think you'll like what you see. I know I did.