Hello, I got a request for my brief review of NeroLINUX, so here it is. On Saturday 12 March 2005 07:08, Randall R Schulz (that's me) wrote:
...
That said, since I have a full Nero 6 license, I can use this for free, so I may give it a try.
If I discover anything interesting, I'll report back.
Here are my first impressions: This information is based on installing and running NeroLINUX 2.0.0-6 as delivered in the RPM file "NeroLINUX-2.0.0.0-6-intel.rpm". RPM-based installation. No problems. The Web site claimed compatibility with SuSE 9.0, 9.1 and 9.2 (among many others). The installer properly detected that I'm running 9.1. It thoughtfully pointed out the ".desktop" file it created, so I just copied it to my ~/Desktop directory so I can double-click the resulting icon to launch NeroLINUX. Next I launched NeroLINUX. It started up without a hitch and prompted me for my license number. As with the on-line registration required for download, the same number successfully activated the program (as I mentioned in my previous post, I was a registered, paying Nero 6 owner). Upon the second startup (required after entering the registration number during the initial run) NeroLINUX reported that it could not access /dev/sg0 - /dev/sg9 (but for some reason said nothing about 10-15). All these files are in fact unreadable by me. It's probably irrelevant because all my CD/DVD drives are on my IDE bus. Next NeroLINUX detected and reported that "suseplugger" and "susewatcher" were running and could potentially interfere with NeroLINUX's operations. I chose to ignore this warning with no apparent ill effect throughout the process of burning a DVD. Dismissing these two dialogs leaves me looking at a Gnome GUI that is structurally quite familiar to me as a former Nero user (as well as being quite typical of burning software of most stripes). It lacked some of the graphical polish I remember from the Windows version, but was by no means crude or ugly. As is my wont, the first thing I did was open the Preferences dialog. I found nothing breathtaking and the controls were fairly geeky in feel. I'm concerned that the "Audio driver" options in the "Audio System" tab include only "Open Sound System" "Enlightenment Sound Daemon" and "No Sound". Since I use CD/DVD burning software almost entirely for data, this probably won't affect me, but since I run ARTS for sound, I'm uncertain whether NeroLINUX will work properly if used to play audio media. NOTE: See addendum, below. Going back to the main GUI, I was momentarily concerned that main divider between the upper and lower portions of the window could not be moved. It turns out this divider can only be grabbed at the right edge of the window. (This is probably something that would not confuse a Gnome user but did throw me off as a KDE type.) The help menu includes a small dialog describing requirements for the driver interface between NeroLINUX and recording hardware and possible fixes if there are problems. Apart from this and the usual "About...", there appears to be no on-line documentation built into or accessible directly from the NeroLINUX. The next thing I tried were the Drive and Disc information dialogs. Both functioned properly and just as I remember from the Windows version. So... On to the real deal. Writing a disc. I decided to back up my /home directory, which at 3.8 GB fits nicely on a single DVD+RW. I encountered no problems whatsoever doing this. Because of the sheer volume of files (39411) and directories (3462) I was writing, the initial phase of burning was time-consuming, which might lead one to believe something was hung, but patience is all that's required. The writing proceeded smoothly taking 16 minutes, 20 seconds altogether. I did note that the "nero" process used nearly a third of the available memory on my 1GB (RAM) + 512M (swap) system. Also the automount system apparently can have an undesirable interaction with NeroLINUX (which is no doubt the point of the start-up diagnostic regarding suseplugger and susewatcher). After the burn completed, I changed directory (in a shell) to the automount / subfs directory assigned to the DVD recorder so I could verify that the write worked correctly. While my shell's current working directory was still there, I launched NeroLINUX again, and found that it was then unaware of the DVD recorder (it was not listed in the recorder information dialog, though my DVD-ROM drive was). I had to quit NeroLINUX, change the shell's directory out of the recorder's mount point directory and then launch NeroLINUX again. At that point, it again properly detected the recorder and properly described the disc that was inserted in it. So I'm contented that this is sound software and will probably use it, at least in certain circumstances. My concerns about "kernel optimizations" appear to be unwarranted. I did list all the files installed by the RPM before actually installing the RPM, and there were no ".ko" files or other kernel components, as far as I could tell. Just the usual executable, shared object, documentation (a manual in PDF format) and miscellaneous resource files. In case he's listening, I'll say to Paul W. Abrahams that Nero's behavior does not mimic that of K3B's as far as how it records a compilation of files that it burned. I believe this makes NeroLINUX suitable to use for backup purposes as Paul wants to do. After posting this, I was asked:
Will you report to us if it is able to backup a DVD movie please?
To which I replied: I was not able to copy a regular mass-market DVD (I used the Babylon 5 DVD holding "The Gathering" and "In The Beginning", side B, "In The Beginning"). It kept telling me that it got a "write error," but I suspect the problem was with the source. On the other hand, I could easily duplicate the DVD I made from my /home directory (with NeroLINUX) yesterday. Regarding the concern I expressed above about sound system compatibility: My concerns about audio compatibility with ARTS were allayed. I was able to preview audio tracks using the built-in player with no trouble at all. To wrap up, I'd have to conclude that there's very little to motivate one to acquire and familiarize oneself with this software when K3B is right there in the SuSE distributions. Randall Schulz
On Sunday 13 March 2005 3:55 pm, Randall R Schulz wrote:
In case he's listening, I'll say to Paul W. Abrahams that Nero's behavior does not mimic that of K3B's as far as how it records a compilation of files that it burned. I believe this makes NeroLINUX suitable to use for backup purposes as Paul wants to do.
I'm listening!
To wrap up, I'd have to conclude that there's very little to motivate one to acquire and familiarize oneself with this software when K3B is right there in the SuSE distributions.
Except perhaps, based on your comments, that Nero is suitable for backing up a compilation of files while K3B really isn't. To recapitulate my earlier comment, that's because K3B records the content of the directories you're backing up and therefore gets them wrong if the contents change. I've reported that as a K3B bug, to which, so far, there has been no response. Paul
Paul, On Sunday 13 March 2005 13:59, Paul W. Abrahams wrote:
On Sunday 13 March 2005 3:55 pm, Randall R Schulz wrote:
In case he's listening, I'll say to Paul W. Abrahams that Nero's behavior does not mimic that of K3B's as far as how it records a compilation of files that it burned. I believe this makes NeroLINUX suitable to use for backup purposes as Paul wants to do.
I'm listening!
To wrap up, I'd have to conclude that there's very little to motivate one to acquire and familiarize oneself with this software when K3B is right there in the SuSE distributions.
Except perhaps, based on your comments, that Nero is suitable for backing up a compilation of files while K3B really isn't. To recapitulate my earlier comment, that's because K3B records the content of the directories you're backing up and therefore gets them wrong if the contents change. I've reported that as a K3B bug, to which, so far, there has been no response.
Paul
A big caveat is in order: Now that I realize that this is not a port of Nero, but rather a repackaging of Gnome Toaster, I'm not sure my assumption about this behavior is warranted. The good news is, I suppose, that you can just use Gnome Toaster and see if it works they way you like. Randall Schulz
On Monday 14 March 2005 00:29, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Paul,
On Sunday 13 March 2005 13:59, Paul W. Abrahams wrote:
On Sunday 13 March 2005 3:55 pm, Randall R Schulz wrote:
In case he's listening, I'll say to Paul W. Abrahams that Nero's behavior does not mimic that of K3B's as far as how it records a compilation of files that it burned. I believe this makes NeroLINUX suitable to use for backup purposes as Paul wants to do.
I'm listening!
To wrap up, I'd have to conclude that there's very little to motivate one to acquire and familiarize oneself with this software when K3B is right there in the SuSE distributions.
Except perhaps, based on your comments, that Nero is suitable for backing up a compilation of files while K3B really isn't. To recapitulate my earlier comment, that's because K3B records the content of the directories you're backing up and therefore gets them wrong if the contents change. I've reported that as a K3B bug, to which, so far, there has been no response.
Paul
A big caveat is in order: Now that I realize that this is not a port of Nero, but rather a repackaging of Gnome Toaster, I'm not sure my assumption about this behavior is warranted.
From http://ww2.nero.com/us/NeroLINUX.html: <quote> * NeroLINUX uses NeroAPI for low-level operations (burn process) * Autodetection and support for all types of internal CD and DVD recorders supported by NeroAPI 6.6 </quote> I think they did change more than a thing or two under the hood. Cheers, Leen
Leen, On Monday 14 March 2005 03:04, Leendert Meyer wrote:
...
A big caveat is in order: Now that I realize that this is not a port of Nero, but rather a repackaging of Gnome Toaster, I'm not sure my assumption about this behavior is warranted.
From http://ww2.nero.com/us/NeroLINUX.html:
<quote>
* NeroLINUX uses NeroAPI for low-level operations (burn process)
* Autodetection and support for all types of internal CD and DVD recorders supported by NeroAPI 6.6
</quote>
Right, right. I read that and then promptly forgot it. However, the user-visible behavior, such as how it treats a saved collection when re-opened and there have been changes in the file system in the interim, are likely to be those of Gnome Toaster.
I think they did change more than a thing or two under the hood.
Cheers,
Leen
Randall schulz
On Monday 14 March 2005 9:55 am, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Leen,
On Monday 14 March 2005 03:04, Leendert Meyer wrote:
...
A big caveat is in order: Now that I realize that this is not a port of Nero, but rather a repackaging of Gnome Toaster, I'm not sure my assumption about this behavior is warranted.
From http://ww2.nero.com/us/NeroLINUX.html:
<quote>
* NeroLINUX uses NeroAPI for low-level operations (burn process)
* Autodetection and support for all types of internal CD and DVD recorders supported by NeroAPI 6.6
</quote>
Right, right. I read that and then promptly forgot it.
However, the user-visible behavior, such as how it treats a saved collection when re-opened and there have been changes in the file system in the interim, are likely to be those of Gnome Toaster.
I think they did change more than a thing or two under the hood. yeah, but it's still $70-ish USD for this "free" software, since you must have a valid lic. for the Nero6 windows version, no? Or is this another blonde in the sun moment ?? :)
--
j
Watch carefull how you reply to me,<Grins>. "Good" karma points can also
be removed from offenders accounts and bad ones can be substituted. These
have different weights when *you* have need of them !!
On Mon, 2005-03-14 at 04:42, jfweber@bellsouth.net wrote:
On Monday 14 March 2005 9:55 am, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Right, right. I read that and then promptly forgot it.
However, the user-visible behavior, such as how it treats a saved collection when re-opened and there have been changes in the file system in the interim, are likely to be those of Gnome Toaster.
I think they did change more than a thing or two under the hood.
yeah, but it's still $70-ish USD for this "free" software, since you must have a valid lic. for the Nero6 windows version, no?
Or is this another blonde in the sun moment ?? :)
Probably, but on the part of Nero, not you. :-) If this is based on gtoaster isn't Nero supposed to return the code back to the foss community under the GPL? -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998 * Only reply to the list please* "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge
Ken Schneider wrote:
On Mon, 2005-03-14 at 04:42, jfweber@bellsouth.net wrote:
On Monday 14 March 2005 9:55 am, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Right, right. I read that and then promptly forgot it.
However, the user-visible behavior, such as how it treats a saved collection when re-opened and there have been changes in the file system in the interim, are likely to be those of Gnome Toaster.
I think they did change more than a thing or two under the hood.
yeah, but it's still $70-ish USD for this "free" software, since you must have a valid lic. for the Nero6 windows version, no?
Or is this another blonde in the sun moment ?? :)
Probably, but on the part of Nero, not you. :-)
If this is based on gtoaster isn't Nero supposed to return the code back to the foss community under the GPL?
You got there before me! Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Large Computer Systems Specialist - Retired Hamradio Callsign G3VBV and Keen Private Pilot Aeroplanes, Linux, Computers and Cricket my major passions ===== LINUX USED HERE, A Microsoft-free Computing Environment ====
Randall R Schulz wrote:
Leen,
On Monday 14 March 2005 03:04, Leendert Meyer wrote:
...
A big caveat is in order: Now that I realize that this is not a port of Nero, but rather a repackaging of Gnome Toaster, I'm not sure my assumption about this behavior is warranted.
From http://ww2.nero.com/us/NeroLINUX.html:
<quote>
* NeroLINUX uses NeroAPI for low-level operations (burn process)
* Autodetection and support for all types of internal CD and DVD recorders supported by NeroAPI 6.6
</quote>
Right, right. I read that and then promptly forgot it.
However, the user-visible behavior, such as how it treats a saved collection when re-opened and there have been changes in the file system in the interim, are likely to be those of Gnome Toaster.
I think they did change more than a thing or two under the hood.
Cheers,
Leen
Randall schulz
Gnome Toaster is GPL, hmmmmmm....... someone fancy having a look at the internals? Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Large Computer Systems Specialist - Retired Hamradio Callsign G3VBV and Keen Private Pilot Aeroplanes, Linux, Computers and Cricket my major passions ===== LINUX USED HERE, A Microsoft-free Computing Environment ====
participants (6)
-
jfweber＠bellsouth.net -
Ken Schneider -
Leendert Meyer -
Paul W. Abrahams -
Randall R Schulz -
Sid Boyce