Linuxed - Exploring Linux distros

From KWheezy 1.1 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

KWheezy 1.1 Review: Good Debian spin for the beginners

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.

From ZevenOS Neptune 3 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

ZevenOS 3.0 Neptune "Brotkasten" KDE Review: Refreshingly different!

ZevenOS, a German based distro, is quite a familiar name in the Linux world. Typically they bring out two classes of distro

A lightweight XFCE distro based on Ubuntu, with the look and feel of BeOS, which actually never captured my imagination
A heavier KDE based Neptune based on Debian testing

Last week I came across the release note of Neptune in Distrowatch based on Debian Wheezy and I was quite intrigued to try it out. And I must say, it was really worth. What a wonderful distro the ZevenOS developers have created!

To begin, I downloaded the 1.9 GB 64-bit ISO and created a live-usb using Unetbootin. Normally I test 32-bit versions for a fair comparison in performance with other distros who don't have any 64-bit release. But, Neptune 3 has only 64-bit version and hence, I had no choice. I tested it on my Asus K54C laptop with Core i3 2.2 Ghz processor and 2 GB RAM. First, I did a live-boot and then installed it to use it for 4 days. I agree writing a review just based on 4-days of use is a bit pre-mature but I couldn't resist writing about Neptune. It is amazingly wonderful, perhaps one of the most aesthetically pleasing KDE distros I have used.

From Linux Mint Debian 201303 Mate http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Linux Mint 201303 "Debian" Mate: Very good semi-rolling Mate distro from Debian testing

Last week I reviewed Linux Mint 201303 Debian Cinnamon and was extremely pleased with the smoothness, refinement and performance it offered. Further, LMDE offers a semi-rolling distro with little requirement of reinstalling it again (if everything works properly after each update though!). Next I thought of reviewing the Mate version to make an assessment. Honestly, I haven't used much of Mate on a regular basis - I rather preferred distros with Gnome 2 desktop (like Fuduntu, CentOS or GhostBSD).

Linux Mint 201303 Debian Mate comes with Mate 1.4 and Linux kernel 3.2.0. Mate is forked from the now unsupported Gnome 2 and is supposed to be lighter than Gnome 3 and its derivatives. I downloaded the 32-bit ISO (about 1.3 GB in size) for this review. I did a live boot on my Asus K54C with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. Post live boot with correct resolution and proper detection of hardware, I installed Linux Mint Mate on the same laptop. For those with Windows 8 laptop, LMDE doesn't yet support UEFI firmware and may not install as dual boot.

From Sparkylinux 2.1 “Ultra” http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Sparkylinux 2.1 “Ultra” Review: Lightweight, fast and elegant Openbox distro for low spec computers!

From performance point of view, these days, Openbox is my favorite desktop environment. I found it actually to be more efficient and less resource consuming than either LXDE or XFCE and works very efficiently on low powered P4 machines. Perhaps the most famous distros with Openbox DE are Archbang and Crunchbang. Recently, SparkyLinux came up with their version of Openbox spin. In this article, I review SparkyLinux 2.1 "Ultra" Openbox as well as do a brief comparison with Archbang and Crunchbang.

This assessment is done entirely by me. My assessment is based on installation on Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM and experience of using it for the last 3 days. I downloaded the 32-bit ISO (1.4 GB in size) for this testing. Sparkylinux 2.1 “Ultra” has an Openbox DE with Linux kernel 3.2.0. PCManFM 0.9.10 is the default file browser.

Snowlinux 4 XFCE Review: The Smoothest one but very very bland!

Lets begin with a note of thanks to the Snowlinux developers - each one of their distro I have tested and/or used, are very stable and give amazing performance. However, I never really liked the themes they use, if Crystal was bland, Glacier is blandest with everything - wallpaper to panel, in white. In Glacier series, the less you speak of the default wallpaper (the Push to Start one), it is better. It is really bad.

From Snowlinux 4 XFCE

Anyway, my assessment involves more than aesthetics and delves deeper into the operating system's performance. Snowlinux 4 XFCE ISO is about 727 MB, quite smaller in size compared to average Linux ISOs these days. I used Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor & 2 GB RAM. Though the machine is 64 bit but given limited RAM, I used the 32-bit ISO for installation and evaluation. My evaluation involved using it for 3 days for all purposes.

Snowlinux 4 "Glacier" Mate Review: Fast, light and customizable

I have been a fan of Snowlinux for quite sometime and their Debian spins have always been exceptional - Lightweight, fast and very customizable. The new year release of Snowlinux 4, codenamed "Glacier" is no exception. Based on Debian Wheezy, it has Mate 1.4 as the default desktop environment and uses Linux kernel 3.5.

I downloaded the 32-bit ISO, about 980 MB, in size and did a live boot on my Asus K54C, 2.2 Ghz Core i3 with 2 GB RAM. Post live boot I installed Snowlinux on an 8 GB drive dedicated for Linux OS testing. My assessments shared below are based on its performance post installation.

Snowlinux Glacier has a changed wallpaper from all 2012 releases, with white background and a tag "Push to Start" - looks nice. But, it doesn't gel with the white themed Mate. On selecting a darker background, actually the desktop look elegant. I added a nice looking Conky (Conky Lua) to glamorize it further.

Long story short, Snowlinux desktop, as always, looks professional and elegant. Caja 1.4.0 is the default file manager and is fast to use. Sound and Wifi work out of the box - hardware detection is good, except for touchpad. The touchpad settings require to be manually configured and post manual intervention, toucpad works as expected.

Applications
Though Snowlinux has applications by default to cover most of the basic needs but the app section left me bit disappointed. I'll tell you why later. The list below sums up the essential apps present in Snowlinux 4, and it is not much different from Crystal or White releases, namely:

Office: LibreOffice 3.5 Suite with suitable alternatives for MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access and Math, Dictionary, Document viewer
Internet: Firefox 17, Pidgin, Transmission, Thunderbird 17
Graphics: Eye of Mate Image Viewer, Shotwell Photo Manager, Simple Scan Brasero, Movie Player, Rhythmbox
Accessories: Archive Manager, Calculator, Pluma, Root terminal, Terminal, Screenshot

In overall, it is a healthy list. Of course, like previous release, Adobe flashplugin is not out of the box and requires to be installed from the repository. But, multimedia codecs are in the distro by default and I could straight-away start watching movies on live-boot itself. All the applications work as expected and I didn't face any issue with any of the applications.

Installation
Installation is like Ubuntu and it takes about 30 minutes of time, if updates are selected for downloading. Steps are pretty simple: Language, time-zone, Keyboard language and type, preferred username and password and finally selection of the location to install. That's it - pretty simple!

Repository
Snowlinux sources applications from Debian Wheezy repo and uses Synaptic package manager as the GUI. Synaptic works well and fast, as expected. However, I was a bit disappointed on the repo contents. Already LibreOffice 3.6 suite is out for quite sometime and almost every other distro is offering it as the basic office application. I checked the repo, even there LibreOffice 3.5 is the most updated version! Same with GIMP - entire world is playing with 2.8 and the Debian repo has 2.6 to offer! Seems like quite a bit of backdated apps in the repo.

How to update with the latest Linux softwares?
Now here I came up with my own way of installing GIMP 2.8, LibreOffice 3.6 and Skype 4. I added Ubuntu Precise and Mint Nadia ppa's to the repository list in Synaptic! You can add Quantal as well. Doing it is pretty simple, as you can see from the pictures below.

Once added I just refreshed the repo and I could see the latest versions of GIMP, Skype and LibreOffice. For LibreOffice, I uninstalled 3.5 and then installed 3.6 from the Ubuntu repository. Installing GIMP 2.8 wasn't a pain as there was no installed version of GIMP. Similarly, I installed Skype and checked that it was working fine with Snowlinux Mate.

Post installation of the required applications, I ran into a bit of issues as "apt-get update" reported of broken packages (possibly downloaded from Ubuntu repo while installing these applications). So, I unchecked all the extra Mint and Ubuntu repo I had added and then did an update. Now everything ran fine and I didn't see any instability in last 5 days.

Performance
Mate 1.4 is very low on resources and consumes 1-5% CPU and 147 MB RAM to load the desktop GUI, with task manager running. Now that is equivalent to using an XFCE desktop! If I compare it to other Mate distros, Snowlinux wins hands down - it consumes the least resources of the Mate distros I tested. All performance estimates below are from 32-bit versions and tested on the same machine, post installation, with task manager running.

Linux OS (32-bit)	Desktop	CPU Usage (post installation)	RAM usage (post installation)
Mint 13 Debian Cinnamon/Mate	Mate 1.2	1-5%	190 MB
Mint 13 Mate	Mate 1.2	1-5%	207 MB
Mint 14 Mate	Mate 1.4	1-5%	200 MB
Snowlinux 3 White Mate	Mate 1.4	1-5%	240 MB
Snowlinux 4 Glacier Mate	Mate 1.4	1-5%	147 MB

Overall
I really like the Glacier release of Snowlinux. It works real smooth and is light on resources. The desktop looks a bit bland to start with but is user-friendly and supports customization. Applications are a bit old in the distro but, as I showed, it supports the Linux Mint and Ubuntu Quantal backports and latest applications can be installed in Snowlinux without any pain at all.

I absolutely recommend Snowlinux 4 for it's low resource consumption, customization options and compatibility with Linux Mint and Ubuntu repositories. If you are a Gnome fan and looking for something light in Gnome, Snowlinux 4 is the perfect distro for you.

You can download Snowlinux 4 from here. Both 32 and 64 bit versions are available.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Crunchbang 11 20120806 Review: Minimalistic but highly functional

If you need a cutting edge Linux OS but you have a very very low resource computer, what would you do? You download Crunchbang and your computer will start performing blazing fast and amazingly stable. Now Crunchbang 11 Waldorf is in the testing stage, based on Debian Wheezy (it's also testing till date). I guess once Wheezy is released as a stable distribution, we will have the Crunchbang stable as well.

The 800 MB ISO I downloaded from Crunchbang site, is a testing version and hence, may not be ideal to use for your regular production work. However, I bet once you use it, you'll end up using it regularly. In my use, I didn't note any significant bug or anything not working. Of course, it is in virtualbox.

Live boot is quick and fast. It will ask you whether you want a live boot or install it. The desktop is pure minimalistic - no menu no icons - nothing. Right click and you get everything! There is a conky on the right upper corner to tell you the system stats and short cuts.

Applications
Crunchbang is in a different genre of minimalistic distros. It is minimalistic but complete and the 800 MB ISO is packed with almost all the essential apps, except may be VLC. Abiword, Gnumeric and Google docs are there for Office work, along with a link to download LibreOffice suite. Iceweasel is the default browser (which I never liked) with out-of-the box flash support along with links to download your favorite browser like Chromium, Firefox, etc. GIMP is to manage your image editing needs and it is the latest version (2.8). Multimedia section is weak with only Gnome media player but you can download VLC, Rhythmbox, Banshee, etc. from the debian repository.

The distro is all black and white. Even Google is kind of black colored in Crunchbang! If you love black, you'll surely have fun with Crunchbang.

Minimalistic is stylish as well - look what happened when I changed the wallpaper!

The Synaptic package manager can be used to add/delete applications and it sources apps from the Debian testing repository.

CPU and RAM Usage
Crunchbang uses the nimble Openbox window manager and is extremely light on resources. With only conky running, it uses about 100 MB RAM and 4-5% of CPU!

Overall
I am eagerly waiting for the final release. Crunchbang 11 would definitely be lighter than any other debian derivative and extremely functional, as well. I am really fond of the minimalistic look that Crunchbang has along with the stability of Debian. Specially those who think Gnome 3 and Unity are ruining the essence of a lightweight, low resource consuming but functional Linux OS, Crunchbang is a must try for them. If you like it, you'll get addicted to it.

More screenshots of Crunchbang 11 is in my Picasa album.