How do you like Granular?

Daniele,
The advice is to not run as root. That is about security. It isn't about logging in as root, which must be done to perform system tasks like updates or installing apps. The problem is that most people have gotten used to running the windows default admin account (i.e. root). This leaves the system vulnerable to all the 'baddies' out there.

With any Linux system you run as 'user' and only log in as root to perform those tasks that require root access. This is very important to your security.

Merlin

Have you read this:

http://granular-linux.com/forum/index.php?topic=117.0

I read the link you posted and I think Anurag must be talking about first run on the live cd because the guest account is deleted on first boot after doing a hard drive installation. What Merlin said is and has always been the only recommended way to run linux from the gurus in the community. Linspire did the root account thing to mimic windows for a while then came to their senses and went to the standard linux paradigm of run as user login as root to do admin then logout as root.

What Merlin said is and has always been the only recommended way to run linux from the gurus in the community.

I have never had too much respect for self-styled, arrogant Linux "gurus". I have probably much more experience than most of them. Years ago I was already helping thousands of new users.
I have always run Linux as root, as I can't stand the nuisance of being limited in what I can do.
Bero Rosenkraenzer, one of the greatest KDE developers ever, used to feel like me. Now he has opted for a half-baked solution.

Daniele,
The advice is to not run as root. That is about security. It isn't about logging in as root, which must be done to perform system tasks like updates or installing apps. The problem is that most people have gotten used to running the windows default admin account (i.e. root). This leaves the system vulnerable to all the 'baddies' out there.

With any Linux system you run as 'user' and only log in as root to perform those tasks that require root access. This is very important to your security.

Merlin

Have you read this:

http://granular-linux.com/forum/index.php?topic=117.0

Yes, of course I have. I believe Anurag was speaking of the live CD, while I was speaking of an installed system. There are differences between the two.

Unless you mount your hard drive while using the live CD or run the installer, no permanent changes are made. But running as root from an installation, your hard drive is mounted. Any changes can be saved to it. That includes any changes that are made by outside sources, such as a cracker (someone who breaks into your system).

The security risks of running an installed system while logged in as root are well documented. A web search with your engine of choice should yield quite a few results.
Or try --  http://www.google.com/linux

Merlin

What Merlin said is and has always been the only recommended way to run linux from the gurus in the community.

I have never had too much respect for self-styled, arrogant Linux "gurus". I have probably much more experience than most of them. Years ago I was already helping thousands of new users.
I have always run Linux as root, as I can't stand the nuisance of being limited in what I can do.
Bero Rosenkraenzer, one of the greatest KDE developers ever, used to feel like me. Now he has opted for a half-baked solution.

As for me and those I teach linux to I will stick with the "Self-styled, arrogant Linux "gurus"". I have not had a problem doing an "su" into root to make the few system changes I have to make after initial installation. If everyone runs as root linux will be no more secure than windows. Windows users would do well not to run in the admin account either. Just basic stuff for an inexperienced user.

What Merlin said is and has always been the only recommended way to run linux from the gurus in the community.

I have never had too much respect for self-styled, arrogant Linux "gurus". I have probably much more experience than most of them. Years ago I was already helping thousands of new users.
I have always run Linux as root, as I can't stand the nuisance of being limited in what I can do.
Bero Rosenkraenzer, one of the greatest KDE developers ever, used to feel like me. Now he has opted for a half-baked solution.

To each his or her own, it's your OS do as you like. I use user by choice. I push an OS too much sometimes and it breaks. I only need to reinstall root acount to fix it, my home with all my files are intact so I don't really lose anything except the files that required root permission, and those are easy enough to reinstall.

   Fantastic Distro! I have  been trying distros for years and thought I had finally settled with PClinuxOS 2007.  But, Granular has changed my mind.  I know it's based on PcLos but, it definitely runs faster than PcLos did on older hardware.   I have installed it on newer and older hardware and it runs like a champ.  Remarkably, I had it running on a PIII 450 and it runs just as fast as puppy linux did, even with KDE.   I know have it on an IBM TP T20 (900 Mhz Processor with 256 mb of ram) and it runs awesome.  Definitely one of the fastest distros I have found.   Just my two cents for what it's worth.

I must have installed over 30-40 different Linux distro's over the last 12 years and I must simply say, Granular is the best by far. I did only a few tweeks with the screen resolution and mplayerplug-ins. But for my use, the stability is incredible. I can play my streaming music videos, watch avi/DvD movies and listen to regular streaming music just fine. Awesome distro.

silkymon

I heard about this distro from Helios on The Linux Link Tech Show. I have tried a few other distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and Mandrake. In my opinion Granular has been the simplest to setup and use. I am running it smoothly on a 1.7 MHz P4 with 512MB of ram. My only beef is that I can't see my network shares on my Freenas server. Good job Team Granular. Thanks for a great distro.

As I always say, thanks for the appreciation bitbyter0101. 

Like it a bunch, but I find it does tend to freeze up at least once or twice each time I use it. This always seems to happen when opening either Kplayer or Kaffeine. Not sure if this applies to VLC player or not. It's a dead freeze up, whereas the only way to recover is through unplugging the computer completely. It gets a bit tedious for sure. Wonder if anybody else has had similar problems?
Which brings me to a big question, why do computer manufacturers not include a reset button on front of their computers? I've only seen this unique feature on a few home made computers.

As a painter, I collect lots of images for reference. Sometimes though, some image files end up with the same name.
This in itself never shows up as a problem, until the day I decide to merge various collections.

With OS-X, this is a nerve ticking exercise, as there is simply no visual way of knowing ahead of time, if an image with the same name is actually one and the same image. With OS X all you get is a small text box warning that your about to overwrite an image file.

But in GRANULAR LINUX, this problem is neatly solved with an image based comparison box, such as seen below.

So whenever I compile images, I am far more relaxed knowing that there is a visual based file duplicate detection system built into the Distro.

It has already saved me from deleting or overwriting important files.

So...here's another 'thumbs up' for Granular.

Aquafire

Yep, I like this feature myself too. It has saved many important images for me too and I am happy for that . See!

I had PCLinuxOS on the number one hard drive, and it was almost perfect . . . almost.  But then Mepis released their Beta 5 and I put the 64 bit version on hard drive number two.  The beta is almost as good as PCL, almost, but there was a lot of tweaking to get it almost right.  But hey, it's a beta.  Then SuSE released 10.3 and I wanted a look at the KDE4 stuff so I put it where PCL had been.  I'm either a slow learner, or have a short memory span, or both.  My latest SuSE experience was as bad as the experience with 10.2 - or maybe worse.  It was disgusting.  Back in the 7.0 SuSE days it ran well on my old machine.  We all yearn for the good old days don't we?

So I replaced SuSE with Debian Etch and couldn't get Beryl to work at all.  Would Compiz-Fusion give me a greater migraine than Beryl?  I suspect it would.

I was left working with an unstable beta for day to day usage.  It isn't a good work plan.  I was about to reinstall PCL when I saw the new Granular release on Distrowatch.  It is now on my number one drive.

In KDE Granular seems to be very stable.  Even the minor problems I had with PCL have yet to make an appearance.  I played with XFCE a little and it seems equally solid, but I'm a KDE guy and that's where I spend nearly all my time.

I did have some problems with resolution (Nvidia 7600 gs) and vsync but got them resolved handily after installing the Nvidia driver.  Beryl works like the beautiful thing that it is.  One of these days I'm going to get some more Emerald themes and see if I can make the desktop even sweeter to look at.  I suppose Compiz-Fusion will soon offer even fancier eye candy and we will all bid a fond farewell to Beryl.

I would like to have played with that new Sun window manager, but it doesn't seem to be an option after a hard disk install. 
Couldn't do anything with it from the live CD.  No driver for the Nvidia?  I can't get into E17 after the install either, but I'm guessing it's because I have the 3d acceleration turned on.  No big deal.  E17 is interesting, but in my opinion it's still not ready for prime time.  (I do keep an elive disk handy because it works.  I just find it a bit awkward to use.)

To sum up, Granular is a keeper.  Congratulations Granular Team on a fine piece of work. In the days ahead I am sure we will see Granular surging to the top of the rating scales.  Now, if I could only get my hands on an AMD64 version. . . .

Thanks for the positive comments, galjaman.

E17 and Looking Glass do not support 3D acceleration enabled. So, you have to turn off the 3D acceleration to try these out.

Welcome aboard Galjaman.

Thanks for relating your experiences.

Like many Linux users, I bounced around  trying quite a bunch of Distros.

Then I discovered Granular.

Perhaps, I am a bit biased, but none of the other Distros were as easy to install and use virtually straight out of the box.

From this perspective, Granular runs rings around Ubuntu and most of the other Big name players.

Aquafire