On 19th Aug 2012, Lars Torben Kremer announced the release of Snowlinux 3 Crystal XFCE, based on Debian Squeeze. The distro is supported till Feb 2014. Given my good experience with Snowlinux Gnome and XFCE being one of my favorite desktop environment for its low resource consumption, I was quick to download the 656 MB ISO from Snowlinux site. I downloaded the 64-bit version.
I did a live-boot and then installation to an 8 GB partition that I specifically created to try out latest Linux distros. My observations are summarized in the table below:
Somehow, I have a mixed feeling about the XFCE version of Snowlinux. The Linux kernel is 3, which is good, it boots up really fast, is considerably lighter (64-bit OS running with only 150-160 MB RAM is no joke!), very fast and has all the restricted and non-restricted multimedia codecs and Adobe Flash support is excellent. But, the XFCE desktop environment is not the most updated one - now we have Linux distros with XFCE 4.10.
Application-wise, Office is really weak and you have to download either OpenOffice (from the Software center) or LibreOffice from LibreOffice site. It means 170-200 MB additional download. Plus, the multimedia section, too, is not very strong either - there is no video player! So, a VLC or Gnome Media player is a must. However, good that all the codecs are provided to play most of the common file formats. Almost paradoxical that no video player is provided in the ISO though all codecs are provided!
Internet section is good with the latest Firefox and Thunderbird along with Empathy. I wonder why Icedove and Thunderbird both are present - both of them do the same thing! The developers could have provided IRC chat instead!
Graphics is good enough if you are not into serious photo editing. I miss GIMP 2.8 here!
However, you can download all the required apps like VLC, Chromium, Pidgin, Wine, PlayonLinux, virtualbox, etc. from the Software repository. Given it's the Debian squeeze repo, you won't have Skype (Ubuntu repo has it). But, you can download the .deb files from Skype site. Similarly you can add Chrome from Google Chrome site.
Overall, I am ok with having a lighter ISO which fits a CD (a rarity today!), and the user requiring to download some applications from Software center or internet, though I feel the developers could have optimized the software they are providing out-of-the-box. The Gnome version is really complete in that sense. The XFCE desktop environment also requires to be updated to the latest version (released in Apr'2012). All in all, definitely a good distro but my expectation was more.
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| From Snowlinux 3 Crystal XFCE |
I did a live-boot and then installation to an 8 GB partition that I specifically created to try out latest Linux distros. My observations are summarized in the table below:
| Evaluation Parameters | Snowlinux 3 Crystal XFCE |
| Computer on which tested | Asus K55VM |
| Processor | 3rd generation core i7 |
| RAM allocated | 8 GB |
| Release Date | 19-Aug-12 |
| ISO Size | 656 MB |
| Live boot option | Yes |
| Booting time (live boot) | 18 sec |
| Questions asked during Live boot | None |
| Ease of installation | Fairly simple, with Snowlinux automatically picking up the Location, time zone, etc. For keyboard, force select USA. Entire thing takes about 15 minutes. |
| Installation time | 15 min |
| Booting time (installed to HDD) | 10 sec |
| Desktop Manager(s) | XFCE 4.8.0 |
| Chosen Desktop Manager | XFCE 4.8.0 |
| Linux Kernel version | 3.2.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 |
| File Manager | Thunar 1.2.2 |
| CPU Usage (with system monitor) | 0-8% |
| RAM Usage (with system monitor) | 150-160 MB |
| Applications | |
| Office | None |
| Multimedia | Rhythmbox 0.12.8, Brasero 2.30.3, Gnome Sound Recorder 2.30.0, XFburn 0.4.3 |
| Internet | Firefox 14.0.1, Empathy 2.30.3 chat, Icedove mail/news, Thunderbird 14, bittorrent client |
| Graphics | Ristretto, Shotwell |
| Accessories | Bulk rename, Mousepad, Notes |
| System tools | Gparted, Firewall, Software center, Synaptic package manager, Update manager, Task Manager |
| Others | |
| Flash support | inbuilt Adobe flash 11 |
| Restricted codecs | inbuilt gstreamer good, bad, very bad, ugly, fluendo, ffmpeg, etc. Good enough for most of the media types |
| Java | Not available |
| Repository | Debian repository through Software center and/or synaptic package manager |
| How easy or difficult to install an app? | Very easy through synaptic and Software center |
| Richness of repository | Shares debian repository and is very rich |
| Parent OS | Debian 6 Squeeze (Stable) |
| Upgradeable | Not sure. |
| Internet connection | Picked up wifi easily and easy to configure Wired connection |
| Sound | Poulsbo driver already present, faced no issue with sound |
| Shutdown time | Due to some problem with killing all processes, had to force shutdown quite a few times |
| Supported till | Feb'2014 |
Somehow, I have a mixed feeling about the XFCE version of Snowlinux. The Linux kernel is 3, which is good, it boots up really fast, is considerably lighter (64-bit OS running with only 150-160 MB RAM is no joke!), very fast and has all the restricted and non-restricted multimedia codecs and Adobe Flash support is excellent. But, the XFCE desktop environment is not the most updated one - now we have Linux distros with XFCE 4.10.
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| From Snowlinux 3 Crystal XFCE |
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| From Snowlinux 3 Crystal XFCE |
Internet section is good with the latest Firefox and Thunderbird along with Empathy. I wonder why Icedove and Thunderbird both are present - both of them do the same thing! The developers could have provided IRC chat instead!
 |
| From Snowlinux 3 Crystal XFCE |
Graphics is good enough if you are not into serious photo editing. I miss GIMP 2.8 here!
However, you can download all the required apps like VLC, Chromium, Pidgin, Wine, PlayonLinux, virtualbox, etc. from the Software repository. Given it's the Debian squeeze repo, you won't have Skype (Ubuntu repo has it). But, you can download the .deb files from Skype site. Similarly you can add Chrome from Google Chrome site.
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| From Snowlinux 3 Crystal XFCE |
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