Response to Distrowatch Review...

We are pleased that there has been a review of TTOS Linux. However, there seem to be some things to clear up. First, the author was using AMD GPU with his bare metal hardware. All of our test hardware is either Intel Integrated graphics or NVIDIA GPU. AMD is currently un-tested and with the recent surge in downloads, the AMD GPU bug has been reported via email by several contributors. Since it wasn't posted on our sourceforge, I decided to open a ticket myself. As the author of the review pointed out, startx will get you into a graphical environment.

The author failed to see what was unique about TTOS Linux. Yes, the website advertises PerformaSync. And no, it's not just some cloud storage. PerformaSync is designed to backup essential configuration files (apt sources, repository keys, installed package lists, basic desktop configuration files) and store them in our cloud service. A small space large enough for these basic files will be free for every account. Expanded storage for those that want commercial backup capabilities for all their files will be available. PerformaSync technology is ready however our internet connection is not (hence why it's still not deployed). Our server upload speed is only 30M while our download speed is 400M. Users can upload at fairly fast pace even if load balanced through bonded connection. But the download speed for file recovery will be painfully slow. Verizon has installed lines for FiOS internet however they are not yet activated on my location and they have not been here to work on them since COVID-19 outbreak. When they do, we will have almost gigabit upload speeds and PerformaSync will be deployed immediately.

The welcome utility is another one of our unique software provided. Our post welcome utility is designed to get you started with commonly performed post installation actions. This does imply needed Internet Connection as installing software currently not installed needs an installation medium. As far as proprietary software, TTOS Linux is available to download anywhere that sourceforge is available and is not geolocked. To make legal compliance with some regions, we opted to include only free software in the base install where the software's license permits. With an internet connection, you can enable non-free with a single click and entry of password from the Welcome utility. Our gaming setup scripts include Steam and Lutris support. We also have installers for google chrome, and WPS Office.

To make our experience truly unique, we include a custom wizard style graphical installer for proprietary NVIDIA GPU's and Android Studio. Again, these require that non-free is enabled prior to use and require an internet connection but they drastically make setup seamless and easy.

Another unique software is our live wallpaper selection. This is featured in the video on our webpage.

Our prize feature is our development of ProShield AV. Currently, it is in an alpha state however with a small bit of manual configuration, it is able to be fully functional. It features on-access/real-time detection capabilities as well as multiple engine support and cloud scanning support. Although many Linux systems can survive malware and virus attacks with minimal damage contained only in an users directory, there is still the potential of loss of files not backed up or spreading to other vulnerable systems. It is still important for all computers to maintain up to date protection.

We also provide some useful web apps such as a secure facebook browser that "forgets" all user data when closed out, a youtube client, airdroid remote messenger client, and an Android Messages (from Google) client for remote messaging support as well. More web apps are still to come.

To address the UEFI issue.... Our build system pre-dates UEFI standards hence why we still use legacy BIOS boot. Most computers still have the option for legacy BIOS boot compatibility. We had some un-successful attempts to include UEFI support as an option however our build system breaks when added. Therefore, we will have to rewrite the build module to give UEFI support in the future. The solution will be to code an entirely new build module for TTOS Linux Studio that produces UEFI builds. This is a priority feature that was already recently requested by an editor for Gizmodo and will be coming soon.

Then there's our website. Now the site is built from the land.io theme. To keep it simple and allow us to easily integrate updates from the theme into our landing page, we used the default file and image names and dropped our own on top of it. If you look at the source code for our website on our web page, all the theme information is still in there for anyone to see. There is a documentation page where we are constantly adding guides for common tasks. Some of these are already completed. This site was coded by me from scratch and it will soon feature the ability to print a PDF book from the web page (without the web elements) for those that need written documentation. The links to documentation are listed on the website. As for the wiki... it isn't empty, it has a link that forwards to Debian wiki. We use a vanilla Debian base with our modifications on top. We provide our documentation for what we do different. The Debian wiki provides the rest. There is no real reason to re-invent the wheel. We could clone the wiki site and replace branding. This could be automated and scripted to keep up with updates. But the issue here is that there is no benefit to the project and any changes and additions made would benefit the entire Debian community if they were made directly to the Debian wiki instead of the theoretical TTOS Mirror wiki. But for those that want to see a dedicated wiki on the site, this will be a possibility to consider in the future and very easy to implement.

Due to bad timing, we had a hard drive failure during a hard ware upgrade. Upon bootup, a drive presented with DRDY error with no prior indication of failure from S.M.A.R.T. reports. We have tested replacing cables and still no luck. We are currently using a stripe + parity configuration which unfortunately requires a replacement drive before we can perform self heal. This unfortunate event happened immediately after the Distrowatch review while our downloads spiked. For those that downloaded the ISO to test, please be patient as the initial experience with TTOS Linux requires these services online to work correctly. Hopefully, shipping won't be delayed however it is my experience that shipping is delayed around Christmas time.

We have a commitment for community support. We respond to emails and messages. We help when we can. Our team is small however more are welcome. This distro has been around since 2004 and evolved to where it is now over the years. There are still many planned features that would place it further apart from it's debian roots and these will be making it into the distro within the next couple years.

We are pleased to see that our distro is getting reviewed and receiving some attention. And as usual, we were planning to end the year with a huge feature drop as we traditionally do every year however this might be delayed depending on when the replacement hard drive arrives. In the meantime, thank you all for your continued support and enjoy the holidays! :)