Some of the people who have replied to the otherwise quite positive review have been quite snotty about some of the features, like including non-free stuff and "an ugly theme" - Is it just me or are some of the replies from people who have beefs not directed at Vector in particular but certain ideas in general? It is a shame but in the Linux world some people are relentlessly negative about everyone else other than their own favoured distro.
Indeed...probably gNewSense users / Stallmanites....
Setting a new theme is only a few clicks away. Besides, which users of other distros stick to the default theme forever anyway, even if it is appealing?
In general I agree all the software in an ideal world would be free in free speech, however this is the real world. Computers are tools, and if you can't use them to the fullest then you will switch to methods that enable you to do so. Yes we should support efforts to create decent gpl compliant 3d accelerated graphics drivers for all cards etc. but we are not their yet. For me Vector is well balanced, it gives me the tools to use my computer to the full. That is as it should be. I have the freedom to change things I don't like or to remove software that offends my ethics. And full info is given before you download.
Any way back to Vector 5.8, its great, downloaded a few things, am now migrating to this as my main distro. Looks great and works well on this machine. Installed Nvidia drivers and its all working well :-) This is an Athlon running at 1.3GHz, with 256 MB RAM. Nothing special and it flies. Also works well on my lower spec 733MHz Compaq with an intel onboard shared graphics and 128 MB RAM.... though can't get 3d acceleration running on that (but only old versions of Mandarke ever managed that).
Again congratulations to all concerned, another very usable distro.