About:
TopologiLinux is an easy-to-install Linux distribution that is designed to be run on top of or inside your Windows computer without requiring repartitioning. It can mount itself using a loop-back device or be run like a traditional distribution, and works with DOS, Windows 9x, or Windows 2000/XP systems with an NTFS or FAT partition. It is based on the latest version of Slackware and contains some extra packages like OpenOffice.org, Wine, and much more.

Author:
Tobias Svensson <tobias [at] topologilinux [dot] com> [contact developer]

Rating:	reset 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
8.36/10.00 (4 votes)

Homepage:
http://www.topologilinux.com
Mirror site:
http://www.topologilinux.com

Trove categories: [change]

[License]		OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)
[Operating System]		POSIX :: Linux

Dependencies: [change]
No dependencies filed

 Branches

Branch	Version	Last release	License	URLs
5.x	6.0-rc2	11-Nov-2005	GNU General Public License (GPL)
4.0.x	4.0.0	10-Nov-2003	GNU General Public License (GPL)
6.x	6.0.0	24-Nov-2005	GNU General Public License (GPL)

 Releases

Version	Focus	Date
6.0.0	Major feature enhancements	24-Nov-2005 12:40

 Comments

[»] Is Topo right for you?
by thrashers7989 - Feb 18th 2007 21:27:05

Don't be fooled by the ease of install. This is not a beginners Linux. Actually, this distribution is difficult for some experts to figure out.

Hardware detection is almost non-existent as it only mounts hardware that is installed on startup. This means USB devices. There is a hotplug feature installed, but it doesn't seem to work.

If you have a non-generic video card (nVidia or ATI), be prepared for a pain-in-the-butt, hit-or-miss compilation and installation of video drivers. Without the drivers, you can NOT run X-Windows (GNOME, KDE, Xfce). Keep in mind, this is a distro built for X-Windows. In my experience, my system installed about 3 GB worth of X-Windows software, but the GUI wouldn't even work without video drivers! Waste of space, and a basically useless command line that I didn't even know what/why/how to use.

If you have a wireless network, again, be prepared for a painful if not impossible install of your network adapter drivers. This was the point I got rid of Topo...after realizing that my wireless card would never work with Topo among many other things.

There are a multitude of small annoyances (bugs) that vary from computer to computer. They all depend on compatibility, or lack thereof, with hardware.

The support is the worst I've seen in an active distribution. I've seen defunct distributions with better support communities. If you have a question about Topo, be prepared to wait several days for a response, and that response might not be the one you're looking for.

To those looking to experience Linux for the first time, please take my advice. This is a good operating system strictly for experience sake. If your computer happens to be in the perfect conditions to receive this OS, go for it. I guarantee that few, if any people will use this as a permanent OS. If you want a real Linux experience, you have to look at the major distributions and learn to partition and dual-boot. Ubuntu, Mandriva, and Fedora make it easy as pie. Overall, I would never recommend Topo to anybody. You risk creating a bad image about Linux and it's just not worth some of the frustrations that come with this OS.

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[»] Potential
by Tony - Jan 30th 2005 23:35:21

The potential sounds good - too bad I can't install it! I get a "Can not find script file c:\tlinux5\settapip.vbs" error, and rebooting to install off the CD image doesn't help (the NTFS support doesn't work).

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