Pardus Linux 2.0 "Community" Review: Most efficient GNOME 3 distro!

I wanted to write this review for quite sometime. To begin with, Pardus is a Turkish distro, jointly developed by Scientific & Technological Research Council and National Academic Network and Information Center of Turkey. Before 2012, it used Gentoo as base. However, in 2012, it shifted to Debian and for good reasons. Pardus 2.0 "Community" GNOME edition was released in Sep-2013 and I am using it for last 3 months. The current review is based on my experience with Pardus 2.0.

From Pardus Linux 2.0 http://mylinuxexploreblogspot.in

The 64-bit ISO English version is about 1.7 GB in size. It ships with Linux kernel 3.10 and GNOME 3.8.4 (with GNOME shell 3.4.2). As per release note, Pardus Linux comes with multimedia codecs and Adobe flashplugin pre-installed along with a host of utility applications: 

"Pardus Community 2.0 GNOME has been released. Linux kernel 3.10.11; 3D Ironvolt icon set; simplified installation; GNOME 3.8.4 (with GNOME Shell 3.4.2); pre-installed NVIDIA 304.108 and ATI 13.4 drivers; all multimedia codes and firmware; LibreOffice 4.1.1; Firefox 24.0; Thunderbird 24.0; Chromium 29.0.1547.57; Adobe Flash player 11.2.202.310; VLC media player 2.0.8; Skype 4.2.0.11; TeamViewer 7.0.9377; Wine 1.4.1; GIMP 2.8.6, Scribus 1.4.3, Inkscape 0.48."

I used Unetbootin to create a live USB and then did a live boot followed by installation on my Asus K55VM with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 3660QM processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and hybrid graphics with NVIDIA GeForce 630M 2 GB graphics in addition to the default Intel 128 MB one. Mint Image writer didn't work with Pardus.

Netrunner 13.12 Review: Again an "Enigma"tic Kubuntu Saucy spin!

Netrunner's latest release is based on Kubuntu Saucy Salamander or the 13.10 release with 9 months of support. I guess it was originally intended to be released in December 2013 but got delayed to January 2014. In my comparison of the prominent KDE distros released in 2013, Netrunner 13.06 emerged as the best distro with a perfect blend of aesthetics, stability and performance. So, my expectations of Netrunner 13.12 was honestly quite high. In rest of the sections I'll take you through my experience of using Netrunner 13.12 for a week or so and whether it met my expectations.

From Netrunner 13.12 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

For this review, I downloaded the 64-bit 1.6 GB ISO and created a live USB using Mint Image Writer. I did a live boot on my Asus K55VM (2.3 Ghz Core i7 processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M hybrid graphics) laptop and then installed on a 75 GB partition in a multiboot environment along with Linux Mint Cinnamon 16 and Korora 20. 

From Netrunner 13.12 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Korora 20 "Peach" KDE Review: Enhanced Fedora 20 and up-gradable to KDE 4.12.1

For many Linux users, Korora, dropping an "a" from it's name last year, is to Fedora what Linux Mint is to Ubuntu. Is it really true? Why I am saying this because Linux Mint not only packages Ubuntu in a user-friendly fashion and just makes it work - in my tests, it actually outperformed Ubuntu. With a comprehensive collection of performance statistics from my evaluations last year, this year let me review the first big release of 2014 with a comprehensive assessment of Korora to check if it is able to outperform it's mother distro - Fedora.

From Korora 20 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Korora 20 is based on Fedora 20 released recently and like Fedora, it ships with Linux kernel 3.12. Korora 20 provides options to users for KDE, GNOME, Cinnamon, Mate and XFCE spins. I downloaded the KDE spin, about 2.3 GB in size, for this review. It has KDE 4.11.5 pre-installed along with a host of ready to use utility softwares.

From Korora 20 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I used my Asus K55VM laptop with 2.3 Ghz Core i3 3rd generation processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M hybrid graphics. I created a live USB using Mint Image Writer and first did a live boot followed by installation. Post installation it got upgraded to Kernel 3.12.7 and I installed KDE 4.12.1 along with Bumblebee for Nvidia hybrid graphics. In sections below I take you through my experience with using Korora for a week.

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.