Fedora 21 GNOME Review: If you can ignore the initial hiccups, fantastic operating system!

On 9th December 2014, Matthew Miller has announced the release of Fedora 21, the latest stable version of Red Hat's community distribution for desktops, servers and the cloud: "The Fedora Project is pleased to announce the release of Fedora 21, ready to run on your desktops, servers and in the cloud. Fedora 21 is a game-changer for the Fedora Project, and we think you're going to be very pleased with the results. As part of the Fedora.next initiative, Fedora 21 comes in three flavors: Cloud, Server, and Workstation. The Fedora Workstation is a new take on desktop development from the Fedora community. Our goal is to pick the best components, and integrate and polish them. This work results in a more polished and targeted system than you've previously seen from the Fedora desktop."

From Fedora 21 Workstation http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I downloaded the 64-bit 1.4 GB ISO of Fedora 21 Live Workstation for this review. I created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer on a 4 GB pendrive and booted it on my Asus K55VM. Fedora 21 ships with GNOME 3.14 and Linux kernel 3.17.

Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" Cinnamon Review: As always, Impressive!

In my last review, I discussed about Linux Mint 17.1 Mate. Today, it's turn of Linux Mint's flagship operating system Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon. The release notes states of the following improvements: "Linux Mint 17.1 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2019. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable to use." It discusses of the following incremental improvements:

• Cinnamon 2.4 with about 30 memory leak fixes offering many little improvements to make user experience smoother and more enjoyable than before.
• The Nemo toolbar was redesigned and its buttons are now configurable. A new button (hidden by default) was added to open a terminal in the current directory. Nemo supports emblems now.
• More meaningful update manager and options to select kernel.
• Significant improvements in artwork and functionality.
• Improved privacy settings.

From Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

For this review I downloaded the 1.5 GB 64-bit ISO of Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon. I created a live USB on a 4 GB USB drive using Linux Mint Image Writer. First, I did a live boot and then installed Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon on my laptop, Asus K55VM.

Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" Mate Review: Simply awesome performance!

I guess I discussed sometime back in my blog that Linux Mint won't pursue Ubuntu's schedule of releasing a new distro every 6 months and instead focus on Ubuntu's LTS releases. True to their promise, they have released an update to the Linux Mint 17 LTS, nicknamed "Rebecca". The release notes states of the following incremental improvements: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 17.1 'Rebecca' MATE. Linux Mint 17.1 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2019. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use. Linux Mint 17.1 MATE edition comes with two window managers installed and configured by default: Marco (MATE's very own window manager, simple, fast and very stable); Compiz (an advanced compositing window manager which can do wonders if your hardware supports it). Among the various window managers available for Linux, Compiz is certainly the most impressive when it comes to desktop effects."

From Linux Mint 17.1 Mate http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I downloaded the 64-bit version of Linux Mint 17.1 Mate, 1.557 GB in size. I tried Mate first as it seemed more enticing because of the presence of compiz. Please note, I did not upgrade from Linux Mint 17 to Linux Mint 17.1 and it cannot be done via terminal using sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. This specific blog from Linux Mint talks of the upgrade process using MintInstall. Mint 17.1 ships with Linux kernel 3.13.0 and Mate DE 1.8.1. It is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release.

I created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer on a 4 GB pen drive. I booted the distro on my Asus K55VM and post live boot, installed it on a 50 GB partition.