Netrunner 15 Review: Looks fantastic as usual but lags a bit in performance

On 16th February 2015, Clemens Toennies has announced the release of Netrunner 15, a desktop Linux distribution based on Kubuntu 14.10 and featuring the new KDE Plasma 5.2.0 desktop: "We are proud to announce the official release of Netrunner 15 'Prometheus'. Netrunner 15 is revised from the ground up - as the first distribution, it officially ships the new KDE Plasma Desktop 5.2. Therefore, an upgrade from previous Netrunner series with KDE 4.x is neither officially available nor really recommended. This release is 64-bit only. What's new? This release features the brand new KDE Plasma Desktop 5.2, packed together with the freshly released KDE Frameworks 5.7 and Qt 5.4. It takes a great deal of Oxygen and a little of Breeze and mixes them into a blend of tradition and modern. All previous settings and add-ons have been carefully restored to work in this new environment. With Netrunner 15 we took the chance to ship a finely revised set of applications."

From Netrunner 15 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.com

I downloaded the 64-bit Netrunner ISO, 1.8 GB in size for this review. I created a live USB using Linux Mint Image writer on a 4 GB USB drive and installed it on my Asus K55VM laptop. Netrunner 15 is based on Kubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) and ships with Linux kernel 3.16.0, with KDE 4.14.1 and plasma 5.2. Dolphin 4.14.1 is the default file manager.

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Netrunner 2014.09.1 "Rolling" Review: Superb aesthetics combined with the stability of Manjaro

Clemens Toennies has announced the availability of Netrunner 2014.09.1 "Rolling" edition, a Manjaro-based distribution featuring the KDE 4.14 desktop: "This is the release announcement of Netrunner Rolling 2014.09.1. We are releasing this maintenance shortly after our initial 2014.09 release to fix problems with the NVIDIA driver, and to include a first fix for the Bash shell vulnerability. We also updated Samba file sharing, Kontact accounts and language pack installation. Laptop Mode Tools was replaced by the new TLP to give you better control of your power consumption and achieve a longer battery life with your laptop. With the 2014.09 version we updated Netrunner Rolling to the latest software updates from Manjaro, including Linux kernel 3.14.18 with lots of bugs fixed and new driver support. KDE SC was updated to version 4.14."

To be honest, I am a big fan of Netrunner OS (the Ubuntu version) specially for superb aesthetics. KDE itself is quite beautiful and Netrunner developers actually managed to make it look more slick and add improved functionality. I had used Netrunner Arch / Rolling previously and had written a review of Netrunner Arch. I thought this is a good opportunity to review it this week. So, I downloaded the latest update of Netrunner Rolling - the 64-bit 2.4 GB ISO for this review.

From Netrunner Rolling 2014.09.1

I created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer on a 4 GB USB drive. I used my Asus K55VM for this review.

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Netrunner 14 "Frontier" Review: Looks and feels awesome to use with new animated wallpapers!

If you ask any Linux user to name the most attractive KDE distro, I guess majority will answer Netrunner OS's favor. Netrunner is the best looking KDE spin even in my experience of using hundreds of operating systems. It is also from the Blue Systems whose stable includes Linux Mint and Kubuntu along with Netrunner. Previous couple of releases from Netrunner rank got the maximum score among all KDE distros I reviewed in 2013-14 - they were that good. So, naturally my expectations from the 2014 Netrunner release with LTS support of 5 years, was very high. Let me take you through my review whether it was able to fulfill or not.

On 22 July 2014, Clemens Toennies announced the release of Netrunner 14, a Kubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a customised KDE 4.13 desktop and five years of security support: "The Netrunner team today released Netrunner 14 'Frontier' – 32-bit and 64-bit editions. The release follows Kubuntu's support cycle, giving it a full 5 year support life via the backport repositories. Release notes: long-term support; Firefox instant start (on machines with more than 2 GB of RAM); KDE Dreamdesktop for animated backgrounds; Baloo superseding Nepomuk; single-click activated by default; new default theme; Veromix audio applet; the latest package updates available in the repositories, e.g. KDE 4.13.1, Firefox 30, VLC 2.1.4, Skype 4.3, Muon Discover 2.2 and many more." 

From Netrunner 14 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

For this review I downloaded the 64 bit ISO, about 1.4 GB in size. I created live USB using Linux Mint Image writer and installed Netrunner 14 on the system I normally use for Linux testing.

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Netrunner OS 2014.04i Rolling Release Review: Based on Manjaro, ships with non-pae kernel but PAE kernel can be installed from Arch repositories

I rated Netrunner as the best KDE distro I've used in 2013. Like many other distros around, Netrunner is developed on Ubuntu base and ships with an attractive interface. In April 2014, Netrunner OS released it's first Manjaro based rolling release distro - named as 2014.04i ("i" as in infinite). It is a pleasant surprise indeed and I didn't want to miss reviewing it at any cost.

From Netrunner 2014.04 Arch http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

The download section on the Netrunner website has only 32-bit ISO listed and they are yet to release the 64 bit ISO. I downloaded the 2.1 GB 32-bit ISO for this review. I used Linux Mint Image Writer to create a live USB on a 4 GB pendrive and installed it on my Asus K55VM laptop with 2.3 Ghz Core i7 processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM and 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 630M graphics. Netrunner Arch has KDE 4.12.3 as the desktop environment along with Dolphin 4.12.3 as the default file manager.

From Netrunner 2014.04 Arch http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

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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

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Netrunner 13.06 "Enigma" KDE Review: With Firefox Market place, web apps and a whole lot of goodies!

I have been thinking of writing a review of Netrunner for quite sometime. I missed out when 12.12 was released. Further, I downloaded the 64-bit Netrunner 13.06 for two weeks or so testing it out, thinking of writing a review later. But, an opportunity came this weekend. Before actually jumping on to the test, an introduction to those who are not aware of Netrunner. 

From Netrunner 13.06 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Netrunner comes from the same stable as the much acclaimed Linux Mint and Kubuntu - the Blue Systems is the sponsor of all three distros. It is built on Kubuntu with default integration of Gnome and Wine (though Wine dropped in the present release!) to offer users powerful customization, high functionality and an attractive interface. Plus, all the goodness of Ubuntu. The release note of Netrunner 13.06 states:

"The 64-bit and 32-bit variants of Netrunner 13.06 are available for download. Features and changes: new Netrunner desktop containment (no cashew, hidden plus/minus overlays); improved KWin performance, so full transparency works on most lower-end machines; new Kate minimap scrollbar; automatically activated KWallet; hot corner in lower right; simplified system settings; removed WINE (due to increased irrelevance); ALSA instead of PulseAudio for best compatibility and performance (intel hda); Firefox with (working) Mozilla app store; Steam installer link included; usual KDE goodies - Homerun 1.0, Tomahawk 0.7." 

Normally I download 32-bit versions of most of the distros. However, for Netrunner, I could not even after repeated attempts. Hence, I had to download the 1.4 GB 64 bit ISO (my laptop is 64 bit, but 32-bit with pae kernel works really well on it consuming lower RAM and even a lot of the apps I use like Skype, Adobe Acrobat Reader, etc. comes for 32-bit Linux). 

Netrunner 13.06 has KDE 4.10.3 as the default desktop with Linux kernel 3.8.0 and Dolphin 2.2 as the file manager. Post installation, it got updated to KDE 4.10.4.

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