Siduction 14.1.0 Dev Review: A brief exposure to LXQt, the next gen LXDE desktop

From the Debian stable, Siduction is possibly the most cutting edge distro I have used. Siduction is based on Debian Unstable and ships with the latest KDE, LXDE (former) and XFCE desktops with a range of updated packages. The latest developmental release 14.1.0 Dev ports the latest buzz in the Linux world "LXQt" or the next gen fusion of LXDE and Razor-Qt desktop environments. I am an admirer of LXDE desktop for it's efficiency and was seeking an opportunity to try out LXQt.

From Siduction 14.1.0 DEV http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

The present version of LXQt is at beta stage and hence, should be used with caution before the final release is out. My interest was mostly to try it out and get a feel if it is as good as or better than LXDE and not to use it for production purposes. So, I downloaded the 793 MB 64-bit Siduction 14.1.0 Dev ISO and created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer.

I did a live boot followed by installation on my Asus K55VM with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 processor, 8 GB RAM and 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M graphics. Siduction ships with Linux kernel 3.14.3 and LXQt 0.7.0 with PCManFM as the default file manager.

From Siduction 14.1.0 DEV http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

As this is a developmental release, I am not giving any score to the distro. Once the final release is out, possibly I can do a detailed assessment.

Read more!

Siduction 13.2.0 KDE Review: Impressive Debian "Unstable" spin with cutting edge packages

Siduction is one of the distros which I didn't get a chance to review previously due to lack of time and opportunity. It is an operating system based on Debian "Unstable" branch offering cutting edge packages and applications offering most of the common desktop environments like GNOME 3, KDE 4.11, LXDE, XFCE, etc. For this review I take up the KDE version. Siduction 13.2.0 GNOME will be included in the "Best GNOME Distro" review I am preparing next week.

From Siduction 13.2.0 KDE http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

For this review, I used my Asus K55VM laptop with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 3rd generation processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M graphics. I installed the OS on a 25 GB partition and a multi-boot setting. I used Mint Image Writer to create live USB of the 64-bit 1.2 GB ISO that I downloaded. First, I did a live boot and once satisfied that everything is working, I installed it on my laptop.

Siduction 13.2.0 ships with KDE 4.11.4 and the latest Linux kernel 3.12. I checked if I can install KDE 4.12 but it is still not available for Debian and Kubuntu backports didn't work for me. However, I guess Siduction developers will be soon releasing the KDE 4.12 update and I am waiting for it as well. Dolphin 4.11.4 is the default file manager and it works as good as ever.

Read more!