Condres OS 2019.03
This issue Mayank Sharma learns yet another lesson: just because a distro has the right formula for success doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily be one.
This issue Mayank Sharma learns yet another lesson; just because a distro has the right formula for success doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily be one.
On paper, Condres OS seems like another addition to the growing number of distros that use Arch to produce a desktop for both new and experienced users. It has custom tools to ease complex tasks such as switching kernels, yet doesn’t drop any of Arch’s adaptability to make a truly malleable desktop. But it all starts to go off the rails pretty soon.
First up is the developer’s love for the Gnome desktop – so much so that Gnome is the default desktop on the MATE edition as well. You’ll have to log out of the Live environment and manually select MATE from the login manager if you want to use its desktop inside the MATE edition. Gnome is even listed as an option in the login manager on the Cinnamon spin, though thankfully that one boots into the correct desktop environment.
Next, there’s the project’s modified distro-agnostic
Calamares installer. The developers have tweaked it to insert a screen for users to accept licence agreements for various components such as proprietary graphics hardware. The partitioning screen offers the option to encrypt the boot partition, which is surprising given that the release notes specifically mention the developers have turned off the option to encrypt. This is a major gaffe, because toggling the option on will result in an unbootable installation.
The ISOS for the Condres 19.03 release weigh in at over 2GB, and you’ll know why once you’re inside the desktop. The distro is chock-full of apps, and while we appreciate some – like Steam, Playonlinux and
Syncthing – the inclusion of three web browsers seems like a waste of disk space.
Rolling disaster
The issues with the distro continue even after installation. The icon to install the OS continues to linger on the desktop, though it fails to find the installer’s executable for obvious reasons. Another irritant are the constant notifications that root privileges have been automatically granted to pacman to update its database. They keep popping up every minute or so until disabled.
One of the highlights of the distro is its custom Control Centre, which also features a package installer. Although it identifies itself as alpha software, it works well. However, the distro also includes the Octopi graphical frontend to Arch’s pacman package manager. Condres is the first distro to include multiple package-manager frontends; our issue is with the fact that they are both allowed to display notifications for updates. Further still, notices from both apps show a different number of updates, which only end up confusing the user.
The one feature in the distro that works as advertised without any conflicts is the kernel switcher. You can use it to switch from the currently installed kernel to either a long-term support kernel, a hardened one or one optimised to run the Xen hypervisor. You can even use the app to update your boot loader to make it aware of the new kernel.
All things considered, Condres OS 19.03 has too many rough edges for us to recommend it, irrespective of your experience. The distro does have its moments, but the overall user experience lacks polish and the refinements offered by its peers such as Chakra and Manjaro Linux.
The project has all the makings of a wonderful distro, with adequate documentation and well-attended forum boards. However, glaring issues such as the spins booting into the wrong desktop and incomplete options exposed during installation are inexcusable, and are big enough distractions from the project’s custom apps. It’ll be quite a while before we revisit this distro.