Application availability is an area in which Sabayon really shines. In fact, when it comes to out-of-the-box competition with other distros, Sabayon wins hands down (apart from Knoppix, perhaps). The DVD is 4.13 GB, which pretty much expands to a requirement of more than 12 GB for a full install. So do make sure you have enough space before a full installation. Whether you need an application for your day-to-day activities or some really exquisite feature, it's all pre-loaded! A few of the basic software and core utilities included in the OS are:

1. KDE 3.5.10

2. GNOME 2.24.2

3. The GIMP 2.6.2

4. K3b 1.0.5

5. Ekiga 2.0.12

6. OpenOffice.org 3.0.0

7. Firefox 3.004

8. Skype

Refer to Table 1 for a list of some of the available applications.

The application versions are pretty much up-to-date. However, one thing to note here is that it includes a poorly-configured GIMP. The present version mimics the window management behaviour of the older version 204, and even editing the settings from Preference--> Windows Management didn't restore the original window behaviour.

KDE4 didn't make it into this release, but you can install it from the online repositories, and that was the main reason for me to install GNOME over KDE 3.5. Although, the KDE4 integration is at par with KDE 3.5, if you are a GNOME user you
will be a bit disappointed with the way it's been integrated. The menus are cluttered and applications are scattered across wrong sections. You will find graphics programs under music and vice versa. gives you a glimpse of the default GNOME desktop offered by Sabayon.

It is always good to have alternatives, but how many alternatives will you use at a time? Sabayon includes four Web browsers, nine media players, multiple archive managers, image viewers and other tools. Having too many similar tools makes the system bloated and the as memory voracious. The distro should have made some shrewd choices on packages. Fewer and better packages inight have resulted in a snappier experience.

Sabayon 4 has added a.few great utilities. It includes full-blown virtualisation solutions from the geekyVirt-Manager to the user¬friendly Virtual box. Sabayon also includes the Lightscrible media labeller. This tool allows you to create covers for your lightscribe CD/DVD in just a few clicks. You can then use the software to print
it on the discs using the Lightscribe DVD/CD Writer.

As for package managers, it has introduced Entropy, which is fully compatible with Gentoo's Emerge package manager. It has also introduced a graphical wrapper called Spritz to cope with other high-end package managers available. Spritz aims to be simple, yet powerful. It is still at a nascent stage of development, so it wasn't a surprise when it crashed quite a few times while testing.

With over 8,000 packages you will find nearly all you desire from Spritz, and can install it easily. Spritz looks and performs nearly similar to Packagekit, but is still not as powerful. Though I'd say its inclusion is a very positive step and is way simpler than the labyrinthine portato package manager.