I am using KWheezy for last 5 days or so, in parallel to Elementary OS 0.2 and it has been a really weird experience using both so far. On one hand, I experience a very simplified approach to Linux where the operating system, by default, provides only a shell on which you build your own customized system with very specific applications that you like and use regularly, as in case of Elementary OS. It kind of considers users as intelligent. And there is, on the other hand, KWheezy, which packs possibly 100% of KDE applications and 30-40% of the Debian repository leaving very little to download. It believes in idiot-proofing the system. Both approaches, of course, have their own merits and demerits. Without going into that debate, KWheezy is to Debian what Ultimate Edition (UE) Linux is to Ubuntu - only KWheezy is better in terms of stability and slightly better in aesthetics.
KWheezy is a relatively new entrant in Distrowatch and if you go by the web traffic in last 1 week or so, it is ranked 9th. KWheezy comes in a mammoth ISO (3.5 GB) which took about 12 hours of time to get downloaded (internet speed is still slower in India compared to North America and EU; but I am hopeful that 3-4 years from now I won't be complaining of speed!). Going by the ISO size I expected a whole lot of applications pre-installed in the distro and KWheezy didn't disappoint me.
KWheezy, as the name indicates, is based on Debian 7 or Wheezy and the present update is based on Debian 7.1. Like Debian 7 KDE, it has KDE 4.8.4 and comes with kernel 3.2.0. If you think it is a tad bit old, I won't blame you. When Kubuntu and Arch users are excited about KDE 4.11, installing a distro with KDE 4.8.4 seems a bit lame. However, this is Debian and it is rock stable; I recall KDE 4.8.4 was doing good on my machine before the 4.8.5 update messed up everything. And believe me, between KDE 4.8.4 and 4.10.5 (available in Debian Sid repos, if you would like to install), you won't even notice the difference!
To try it out, I first created a live USB using Unetbootin (in a 8 GB USB drive) and did a live boot on my Asus K54C with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. Given I had Elementary OS 0.2 already installed there, I used a 20 GB partition to install KWheezy. Installation took 5 minutes flat and is a bit different from Debian/Ubuntu.
Installation
Installation started with queries on location to install, time zone, language and finally root password and administrator account creation. It didn't ask for any user ID creation at this stage. It was quick and a great departure from normal Debian installation. Anyway, actually I expected it because Debian live CD provides actually the shell and then downloads applications from the server - KWheezy has almost the entire Debian repo pre-installed in the ISO. Anyway, I liked KWheezy's uncomplicated approach, except for it asks to pick US English locale as en_US.UTF-8 and not just simple English (US).
However, as I mentioned before, KWheezy doesn't create user ID at the time of installation. Post installation, I had to login as administrator and create my user ID from a desktop link "Manage KWheezy Users". Also, post installation it asks for selection of right graphic card and system locale.
Aesthetics
The live boot desktop looks good with black themed KDE plasma desktop and red/white conky. However, post installation, it took me to the administrator desktop which looks a bit ugly with large icons.
But, when I created user account and logged in, the desktop interface was more decently looking. The red and white conky adds to the charm of the desktop with decently sized icons. I didn't like the currency converter and calculator (Kcalc) on the desktop and could not remove them as well. Otherwise, KWheezy didn't try to be different just for the sake of it. I like it's menu being kept simple - it is the most efficient one.
Also, the bottom panel with links to jitsi, dictionary, printer, LAN, wifi, etc. was quite useful to me. KWheezy has two different icons for LAN and Wifi. Generally in most of the distros I have seen a single panel entry notifies (with different signs) for wifi and lan; having two separate panel entries can be a bit confusing at times.
All my favorite KDE effects are there in KWheezy and I could create nice desktop cube and cylinders.
Overall, aesthetics are kind of ok with KWheezy and not as ugly as Ultimate Edition. The black themed KDE in KWheezy is not as cool as, say, an OpenSUSE 12.3 KDE, but it's not ugly.
Hardware Recognition
KWheezy, just like any other modern Linux, recognized my laptop hardware quite well. Wifi was detected immediately and so was LAN when I connected the LAN cable. Further, it could recognize the touchpad but manually I had to set single and double tap. Sound and display, too, were recognized immediately. I didn't have to spend much time to set it up, it worked right out of the box.
Applications
Honestly I lost count of how many applications it has! It will take a whole lot of time to actually put the list in my blog - so to save some precious time, I'll just write down important applications in each section and paste screenshots of the menu entries.
Further, I checked out Firefox - almost all essential plugins that I could think of, were there. It is quite a handy list of addons to have, actually.
Also, I found Jitsi good with social network integration option and support to a lot of networks like Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't support twitter.
Like other KDE distros, settings are integrated in KWheezy along with a lot of additional setting options like autostart, HP Printer setting, user manager, localizer (to include addition language settings), etc.
Repository
KWheezy sources it's applications from Debian Stable (Wheezy) repositories (main, contrib & non-free) and some third party repos like google, jitsi, etc. KWheezy is fully compatible with Debian, as their release note states. Apper is the front end GUI and I could download applications easily using apper.
Also, in KWheezy, I could add the sid main, contrib and non-free to the repo list in /etc/apt/sources.list. Even I got the system upgraded to the latest available applications and KDE desktop (4.10.5 is the latest one available in Debian repo and I don't know yet how to integrate KDE 4.11 from Kubuntu/backports to Debian Wheezy without causing any instability). It wasn't unstable but in course of the updates, I lost the customizations that KWheezy has made. So, I guess, if you like the KWheezy look and want to retain it, possibly updating to Sid is not the best of idea. Anyway, I did it for experiment and even I knew that some instability would be there.
Performance
KWheezy lags a bit in terms of resource usage from other KDE distros that I have used between 2012-13. At steady state, it consumed about 335 MB RAM and 1-10% CPU - which is about 15% higher than Debian 7 KDE and 45% higher than Mageia 3. All these distros were tested under identical conditions on the same machine. Further, most KDE distros take 5-7 GB of space but because of a large number of applications, KWheezy occupies about 11.9 GB space.
Numbers aside, on my core i3 machine, KWheezy gave decent performance. It is very stable and has decent speed, possibly Debian 7 KDE is faster.
Overall
KWheezy is an interesting spin of Debian - normally I get to see similar spins of Ubuntu. I definitely recommend KWheezy for users who are new to Linux or those who want to try out Debian the easier way. KWheezy works right out of the box and has plenty of applications (I guess you won't really require to access apper) - making it a decent choice for Linux newbies. I guess experts who like to have their own custom made system, won't like KWheezy but it may appeal to a lot of other users (apart from Linux novices), who doesn't want the headache of setting up the system. Like Linux Mint, KWheezy just works and like Ultimate Edition, it floods users with plenty of applications. But, it is definitely more stable than Ultimate Edition. And that is a big plus point for KWheezy.
Bottomline: If you have a powerful machine and like to have lots of application, KWheezy is perfect for you. But, if you like custom made applications list and a snappier system, go for Debian 7 KDE.
You can download 32 and 64 bit versions of KWheezy from here.
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
KWheezy is a relatively new entrant in Distrowatch and if you go by the web traffic in last 1 week or so, it is ranked 9th. KWheezy comes in a mammoth ISO (3.5 GB) which took about 12 hours of time to get downloaded (internet speed is still slower in India compared to North America and EU; but I am hopeful that 3-4 years from now I won't be complaining of speed!). Going by the ISO size I expected a whole lot of applications pre-installed in the distro and KWheezy didn't disappoint me.
KWheezy, as the name indicates, is based on Debian 7 or Wheezy and the present update is based on Debian 7.1. Like Debian 7 KDE, it has KDE 4.8.4 and comes with kernel 3.2.0. If you think it is a tad bit old, I won't blame you. When Kubuntu and Arch users are excited about KDE 4.11, installing a distro with KDE 4.8.4 seems a bit lame. However, this is Debian and it is rock stable; I recall KDE 4.8.4 was doing good on my machine before the 4.8.5 update messed up everything. And believe me, between KDE 4.8.4 and 4.10.5 (available in Debian Sid repos, if you would like to install), you won't even notice the difference!
To try it out, I first created a live USB using Unetbootin (in a 8 GB USB drive) and did a live boot on my Asus K54C with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. Given I had Elementary OS 0.2 already installed there, I used a 20 GB partition to install KWheezy. Installation took 5 minutes flat and is a bit different from Debian/Ubuntu.
Installation
Installation started with queries on location to install, time zone, language and finally root password and administrator account creation. It didn't ask for any user ID creation at this stage. It was quick and a great departure from normal Debian installation. Anyway, actually I expected it because Debian live CD provides actually the shell and then downloads applications from the server - KWheezy has almost the entire Debian repo pre-installed in the ISO. Anyway, I liked KWheezy's uncomplicated approach, except for it asks to pick US English locale as en_US.UTF-8 and not just simple English (US).
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Aesthetics
The live boot desktop looks good with black themed KDE plasma desktop and red/white conky. However, post installation, it took me to the administrator desktop which looks a bit ugly with large icons.
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Overall, aesthetics are kind of ok with KWheezy and not as ugly as Ultimate Edition. The black themed KDE in KWheezy is not as cool as, say, an OpenSUSE 12.3 KDE, but it's not ugly.
Hardware Recognition
KWheezy, just like any other modern Linux, recognized my laptop hardware quite well. Wifi was detected immediately and so was LAN when I connected the LAN cable. Further, it could recognize the touchpad but manually I had to set single and double tap. Sound and display, too, were recognized immediately. I didn't have to spend much time to set it up, it worked right out of the box.
Applications
Honestly I lost count of how many applications it has! It will take a whole lot of time to actually put the list in my blog - so to save some precious time, I'll just write down important applications in each section and paste screenshots of the menu entries.
- Office: Calligra suite (Flow, Sheets, Words), LibreOffice 3.5.4.2 suite (Write, Impress, Calc, Draw, Base, Math), Kile (LateX frontend), Okular document reader
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
- Internet: Firefox 17.0.8 ESR, Google Earth, Teamviewer 7, Jitsi, Rekonq
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
- Graphics: GIMP 2.8.2, Inkscape, Image magick
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
- Multimedia: Audacity, Clementine music player, SM Player, VLC 2, WinFF, guvcview, Dragonplayer
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
- Accessories:
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
- Others: Wine, Unetbootin, Imagewriter
Further, I checked out Firefox - almost all essential plugins that I could think of, were there. It is quite a handy list of addons to have, actually.
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Also, I found Jitsi good with social network integration option and support to a lot of networks like Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't support twitter.
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Repository
KWheezy sources it's applications from Debian Stable (Wheezy) repositories (main, contrib & non-free) and some third party repos like google, jitsi, etc. KWheezy is fully compatible with Debian, as their release note states. Apper is the front end GUI and I could download applications easily using apper.
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
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| From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in |
Performance
KWheezy lags a bit in terms of resource usage from other KDE distros that I have used between 2012-13. At steady state, it consumed about 335 MB RAM and 1-10% CPU - which is about 15% higher than Debian 7 KDE and 45% higher than Mageia 3. All these distros were tested under identical conditions on the same machine. Further, most KDE distros take 5-7 GB of space but because of a large number of applications, KWheezy occupies about 11.9 GB space.
| Operating System | Size of ISO | Base | Desktop | Linux kernel | CPU Usage | RAM usage |
| Mageia 3 KDE | 1.4 GB | Mandriva | KDE 4.10.2 | 3.8.0 | 1-10% | 233 MB |
| PCLinuxOS 2013.02 KDE | 1.4 GB | PCLinuxOS | KDE 4.9.5 | 3.2.18 | 1-10% | 250 MB |
| Fedora 19 KDE | 884 MB | Fedora | KDE 4.10.4 | 3.9.8 | 1-10% | 251 MB |
| Mint 14 KDE | 1.1 GB | Ubuntu | KDE 4.9.2 | 3.5.0-17 | 1-5% | 255 MB |
| Mint 13 KDE | 960 MB | Ubuntu | KDE 4.8.3 | 3.2.0-29 | 1-5% | 270 MB |
| Kubuntu 13.04 | 1 GB | Ubuntu | KDE 4.10.2 | 3.8.0 | 1-10% | 276 MB |
| Debian 7 KDE | 680 MB | Debian | KDE 4.8.4 | 3.2.0 | 1-10% | 290 MB |
| Slackel 14 KDE | 1 GB | Slackware | KDE 4.8.4 | 3.2.29 | 1-10% | 300 MB |
| Kubuntu 12.04.1 LTS | 738 MB | Ubuntu | KDE 4.8.4 | 3.2.0-29 | 1-10% | 310 MB |
| Kubuntu 12.10 | 999.6 MB | Ubuntu | KDE 4.9.2 | 3.5.0-17 | 1-10% | 314 MB |
| Sabayon 11 KDE | 2.1 GB | Gentoo | KDE 4.9.5 | 3.7.0 | 1-10% | 320 MB |
| Bridge KDE | 1 GB | Arch | KDE 4.9.3 | 3.6.7 | 1-10% | 330 MB |
| KWheezy 1.1 | 3.9 GB | Debian | KDE 4.8.4 | 3.2.0 | 1-10% | 335 MB |
| ROSA 2012 Marathon KDE | 1.5 GB | Mandriva | KDE 4.8.3 | 3.0.38 | 1-10% | 340 MB |
| Slackel KDE 4.9.2 | 1.1 GB | Slackware | KDE 4.9.2 | 3.2.29 | 1-10% | 355 MB |
| Manjaro 0.8.5 KDE | 2.0 GB | Arch | KDE 4.10.2 | 3.8.8 | 1-10% | 358 MB |
| OpenSUSE 12.2 KDE | 704 MB | OpenSUSE | KDE 4.8.4 | 3.4.6 | 1-10% | 366 MB |
| Sabayon 13.04 KDE | 2.3 GB | Gentoo | KDE 4.10.2 | 3.8.0 | 1-10% | 380 MB |
Numbers aside, on my core i3 machine, KWheezy gave decent performance. It is very stable and has decent speed, possibly Debian 7 KDE is faster.
Overall
KWheezy is an interesting spin of Debian - normally I get to see similar spins of Ubuntu. I definitely recommend KWheezy for users who are new to Linux or those who want to try out Debian the easier way. KWheezy works right out of the box and has plenty of applications (I guess you won't really require to access apper) - making it a decent choice for Linux newbies. I guess experts who like to have their own custom made system, won't like KWheezy but it may appeal to a lot of other users (apart from Linux novices), who doesn't want the headache of setting up the system. Like Linux Mint, KWheezy just works and like Ultimate Edition, it floods users with plenty of applications. But, it is definitely more stable than Ultimate Edition. And that is a big plus point for KWheezy.
Bottomline: If you have a powerful machine and like to have lots of application, KWheezy is perfect for you. But, if you like custom made applications list and a snappier system, go for Debian 7 KDE.
You can download 32 and 64 bit versions of KWheezy from here.
Hi Arindam thx for another nice review!
ReplyDeleteI was quite curious about Kwheezy once i saw it pop up on DW. I somehow feel like that Kwheezy approach for easy usability for Linux newbies isn't the right one. It does a nice job in making Debian easy, but I think KDE with its vast amount of configuration possibilities and software may be difficult to handle for newbies. In terms of newbie compatibility I think Mint does a better job because the interface is unclutered, simple and easy to use.
I also don't think the all-of-the-repository-is-on-the-image way is a good one, because as you pointed out there may be no need to ever use the Package- or the Software-Manager. For a better understanding of the Linux customs in the long term I think it's important to get in touch with the software installer, the repositories and package management.
On that behalf I think Elementary OS has the better approach with it's clean simple interface and the preselection of just the most necessary applications.
Hi Maddy:
DeleteThanks for liking my review, again!
I agree with you totally - Elementary is a much simpler approach than KWheezy. Both believe in contrasting philosophies - Kwheezy believes in idiot proofing the distro whereas Elementary gives users liberty to choose their own customized app list.
One good thing about KWheezy is that it is very stable. My experience with dump-it-all distros is quite bad actually, most of the time they tend to lack stability. Here actually KWheezy scores over distros like Ultimate Edition.
Regards,
Arindam
one question do u really install on real hardrive or in virtual box plz reply , sometimes felt that u review 32 bit in virtualbox .
ReplyDeleteHi, reviews are based on installation on my asus k54c but at times it becomes difficult to capture some of the critical screen shots. That's where I take the help of virtualbox. Possibly you got that impression as some of the screen shots are from virtualbox, esp the installation images. Hope it explains.
DeleteRegards
Arindam
so whats your primary system on your laptop, do you install it in dual boot or triple boot or barely single for reviews ?.And have you done an installation of all softwares available in default repos of default system bcoz have seen that after installing gtk apps in kde environment it breaks the system or vice versa so what is the robust system I still didnt found out .And actually installed almost all distros from distrowatch on my system only 2 ie Ekaaty linux and toorox has been left out since I am notable to download it . If u can review it will be good to see how this distros are since not able to download it and I am not related to this distro in anyway .
DeleteAlso the usage of ram in 32 bit and 64 bit is different from my test ram usage in 64 bit is higher as comp to 32 bit system did u notice that ? can you suggest me any distro for you that had worked with all shortcut keys like brightness ,volume and more out of box and how do u take snapshot of cube in gnome 3 , can u provide tutorial how to make cube in xfce and lxde distro and how to take snapshot of it ? as my primary system is kde so know how to do there but not tried cubes in xfce and lxde .
DeleteI have 3 laptops and a desktop, namely:
Delete1. Asus K54C, Core i3 2.2 Ghz, 2 GB RAM Intel graphics: Here I do all the testing - mostly dual boot (both Linux) and no OS stays more than a week :).
2. Asus K55VM, Core i7 3rd gen., 8 GB RAM, 2 GB NVIDIA Geforce 630M graphics: My main OS is a tweaked Zorin OS 32-bit with pae kernel right now. I change OS (based on my tests) every 3 months or so - but for last 6 months I am using Zorin 6 Core. Here I use single boot only.
3. Asus 1101HA Netbook with 1.33 Ghz Intel Atom processor and 1 GB RAM: Debian 7 LXDE right now - it runs wonderfully well on this low spec machine. Single boot only.
4. HP Desktop 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 processor & 1.5 GB DDR RAM: till last week I was running Arch Linux with LXDE but the sound got messed up in last update and I installed Puppy Slacko 5.6 after that. It is running good on the machine.
I use machine 3 & 4 for testing out OS meant for low powered machines.
I mostly use a selected set of applications: libreoffice, wine, playonlinux & MS Office 2010, GIMP, Chrome, Chromium, Firefox, Adobe Photoshop (using wine), virtualbox (only on Machine 2), Skype, Dropbox, etc. So, never tried installing a lot of applications. But, I used Ultimate Edition for a few months - it has almost all the desktops you can think of (KDE, LXDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, Unity, Gnome classic, Mate, Openbox, etc.) and the entire Ubuntu repository. It was good but I prefer more efficient OS as it gives me a longer battery life. You can try out Ultimate Edition - it doesn't have the KDE issues with gtk apps.
I lost count how many OS I have tested but I have tried from everything in Linux to BSD.
As for the usage of RAM, I prefer using 32-bit OS with pae kernel as they are more efficient than the 64 bit ones, as you rightly pointed out. Also, Skype and some other applications comes only in 32-bit and they are kind of essential for me personally. Hence, I my preference is towards 32-bit as of now.
As for a distro closest to Windows where short cut keys work, Zorin works wonderfully well with short cut keys, in my experience. You can try it out - I am using the free version of Zorin.
I take snapshot of cube using gnome screenshot - you can set a timer to it to capture screenshot after 4-5 seconds lag.
For XFCE, I could create desktop cube using compiz - here's the tutorial http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.com/2013/02/create-desktop-cube-in-ubuntu-fedora.html
LXDE, compiz never worked that well, unfortunately.
I hope I answered your queries :). Given you have so much experience in Linux, I would request you to suggest some interesting distros that you have used but I have reviewed them yet. I am kind of bored of reviewing similar looking distros of late :).
Regards,
Arindam
Ultimate edition is too ugly to look so stayed away from it .Can u provide me a tutorial of how to share wired internet connectivity of desktop linux with android devices through wifi if u had ever got it working ?.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI have a functional wifi router at home and never required that. Anyway, Ubuntu, I know, has that option. You can please try and let me know if it works.
Delete