When comparing Google's Web Starter Kit vs PsychOS, the Slant community recommends Google's Web Starter Kit for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distros that run entirely in RAM?” Google's Web Starter Kit is ranked 10th while PsychOS is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose Google's Web Starter Kit is:
Since a lot of web designers these days don't use the plain old CSS, instead they use a CSS pre-processor (like Sass or Less). Thanks to Sass support web designers can easily add GWK to their workflows.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Sass support
Since a lot of web designers these days don't use the plain old CSS, instead they use a CSS pre-processor (like Sass or Less). Thanks to Sass support web designers can easily add GWK to their workflows.
Pro CSS vendor autoprefixing
Starter Kit includes Autoprefixer that takes care of vendor prefixes.
Pro High PageSpeed Insights performance score
Since the base skeleton provided by the Web Starter kit is authored by Google itself, it's pretty much understood that the template is optimized to the max, for performance. If you test a site (on Google PageSpeed Insights) built by the GWK you can be sure that it'll always achieve a very high score.
Pro Responsive
Since most of the websites that are currently being built (or any website that was built after 2012) are responsive, a 'scaffold-ed' website skeleton without any responsiveness would be pretty useless.
Pro Live browser reloading
Helps to build website faster by refreshing the page automatically as you save the source file changes.
Pro Performance optimization
Gulp script includes tools for image optimization, JavaScript & CSS minification & optimization and HTML minification.
Pro Built-in HTTP server
In case you want to try out your shiny new site on your mobile phone or another PC. Just type in the command gulp serve
and load up the provided server address from another device to see how your website looks and performs.
Pro Google-friendly style guide
Pro Includes a gulp build script
If you use the Gulp build system and are familiar with its environment, you can directly use Web Starter Kit's Gulp build script to build your next GWK based project.
Pro BrowserSync for synchronized browser testing
BrowserSync offers a browser live-update solution across multiple devices. And it works with basically every desktop and mobile browser. Even IE7.
Pro Yeoman generator
There's a Yeoman generator for Google's Web Starter Kit available. To install (requires Node, Ruby, Gulp, and Sass):
sudo npm install -g yo generator-web-starter-kit
cd project-root-directory/
yo web-starter-kit
npm install
gulp serve
Pro Runs well on older, 32-bit hardware (i686)
PsychOS is designed for older/lighter, 32-bit, i686 hardware with plans to go even further back with i486 (PsychOS486), i386 and older (PsychDOS), and so on and so forth as opposed to always trying to run on the latest hardware, not that it could in most cases anyway since 32-bit i686 operating systems will run on most x86_64 ones.
Pro RetroGrab is really cool
It lets you install old software for use with emulators like DOSBox but run them as if they were normal programs from the normal applications menu.
Pro No fuss. Just works.
A lot of the programs are already set up for you. Just boot it and go. This is definitely one of the better SHTF distro's.
Pro QuickEdit
There's a yad-based tool you do not see on any other GNU/Linux distro in which you can simply right-click pretty much any file and then use the "QuickEdit" option to quickly edit small things about a file such as size if it's an image or video, convert the file, or even render the file if it's a Blender project. It's nice not having to open an image with GIMP every time I want to resize or convert something.
Pro The IceWM option looks and functions nice
Most GNU/Linux distributions that include IceWM as a desktop environment option don't do too much to it, if a t all. PsychOS seems to have a customized or themed version that actually doesn't feel you with dread and still uses many of the keyboard shortcuts from XFCE.
Pro Lots of command-line tools
Lots of command-line tools and I really like the CLIMax thing. It's a good tool to have if you want to spend time in the command-line but aren't that experienced. Also, it plays a quick, one-time ascii animation when you go into the tty for the first time.
Pro TONS of Thunar Custom Actions
PsychOS comes with a lot of Thunar Custom Actions, many of which as disabled, but they are there none the less; most probably just in case. Right-click on a DOOM WAD shows there's a menu item to play it directly using LZDoom.
Cons
Con Deprecated
Visitors to the official docs will see a warning: "Warning: Web Starter Kit is no longer supported."
Con Can't be used with Less
The framework CSS is built on Sass, which adds dependencies to the build chain. There's no option to use Less.
Con Rather poor documentation
Con Bloated
Over 3000 packages by default including several package managers.
Con 7 package managers included
There should only be one.
