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

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

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

Ubuntu Mate 14.10 Review: For GNOME 2 lovers and offers awesome performance

I am not sure if Ubuntu Mate 14.10 is an official release from Canonical yet. It is still to be listed in distrowatch. But, never-the-less I came across this distro as a reference from a couple of readers from my blog. I used the distro for a week and I am writing down my experience with the distro. It has the same specifics as Ubuntu 14.10 - the desktop environment is different here: Mate 1.8.1

Ubuntu 14.10 vs Kubuntu 14.10 vs Xubuntu 14.10 vs Lubuntu 14.10 vs Ubuntu GNOME 14.10: A Comparison

Honestly, I have used better Linux distros than Ubuntu. But, I don't deny that Canonical's Ubuntu took Linux to the masses. Five years ago when I started using Linux, I started with Ubuntu as well. Those days none of my friends knew about Linux and now almost everyone of my friends knows Ubuntu, if not any other Linux. And even in my blog, articles on Ubuntu gets 30% more hits than non-Ubuntu

Ubuntu GNOME 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" Review: Fantastic performance and upgradable to GNOME 3.14

Ubuntu GNOME is the youngest official flavor from Ubuntu stable. The first release was in 2012 with 12.10, followed  13.10, 14.04LTS and now, 14.10. Though I am not a big fan of GNOME 3 but of late, GNOME 3 has stabilized and offers some real cool customization ability. The latest release of Ubuntu GNOME, Utopic Unicorn, ships with GNOME 3.12 - the latest offering from GNOME stable 3.14 can be

Lubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" Review: Much improved over the LTS version

Lubuntu's Trusty Tahr LTS release actually put me off because of the Wifi bug and using nm-applet I found a workaround. My expectation was higher from the LTS release honestly. So, I started evaluating the Lubuntu's latest release, 14.10, with almost zero expectation and I was pleasantly surprised. The release note states that this release is kind of calm before the storm.

"A new version of our

Xubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" Review: Looks great but slightly disappointed with performance

XFCE is my favorite desktop environment for all for being lightweight and ability to support customization. Generally Xubuntu or Linux Mint XFCE always satisfied my requirement. Hence, with that expectation I checked out the brand new Xubuntu release, nicknamed "Utopic Unicorn". The release note doesn't say any radical change except for some incremental improvements, namely:

"The Xubuntu team

Kubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" Review: Amazing performance and with KDE 5!

I did not get many exciting things in Ubuntu 14.10, in my previous review. But, my experience with Kubuntu's new release over the last couple of days has been really exciting. The release note states of a couple of options, one with stable KDE 4 and another with the next gen KDE 5.
"Kubuntu 14.10 is available for upgrade or install. It comes in two flavours, the stable Plasma 4 running the

Ubuntu 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" Review: Very similar to Ubuntu Trusty Tahr!

"Once upon a time" - every story my 4 year old daughter would narrate, starts with this sentence. And while penning down a review of Ubuntu Utopic Unicorn, I was also thinking the same. Once upon a time, every new release of Ubuntu meant excitement of something new, something very radical and innovative and something worth trying out. LTS or no LTS, every release was worth upgrading those days

ROSA Desktop Fresh R4 Review: Refreshing Mandriva based KDE spin

ROSA is a Russian company developing a variety of Linux-based solutions. Its flagship product, ROSA Desktop, is a Linux distribution featuring a highly customized KDE desktop and a number of modifications designed to enhance the user-friendliness of the working environment. The company also develops an "Enterprise Server" edition of ROSA which is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. On 9th October

Zorin OS 9 "Lite" Review: One of the best LXDE spins of 2014

Artyom Zorin has announced on 13th August 2014 the release of two new editions of the Ubuntu-based Zorin OS 9 distribution, the i386-only "Lite" and "Educational Lite" variants: "We are pleased to announce the release of Zorin OS 9 Lite and Educational Lite. These releases are the latest evolutions of the Zorin OS Lite series of operating systems, designed specifically for Linux newcomers using

Ubuntu: Download flash videos using the latest version of get-flash-videos

Somehow the version of get_flash_videos (1.24) in Ubuntu Trusty and git repositories don't work with YouTube. The latest version (1.25) works and I followed the following steps to successfully download, install and use it for YouTube videos. I am documenting it here for my future reference as well as it may help someone looking for the solution. I know I used the Debian Sid version but it works

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

Emmabuntüs 3-1.00 Review: Xubuntu spin with an attractive desktop and plenty of apps!

Finally I came back to India after a couple of months at Chicago. I enjoyed the warm sunny weather out there and visited quite a few places like Mount Rushmore, Badlands, Boulder, etc. In between delivering business critical projects over there, I managed to fine sometime to actually have fun as well. But there's nothing like the comfort of home and spending time with great Linux distros. So, I

linux noosphere

linux noosphere

Appeal to donate for Children with Autism for my friend Michael Schefferstein @ Univ of Colorado and TGS

Hi Friends,

This is an appeal on behalf of my friend Michael Schefferstein to support kids with Autism.


Here is the
link:
http://tgs.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1105067&lis=1&kntae1105067=03101F48EA534120975094F13A47C0D0&supId=411072672

TGS is
a 501(c)3 not for profit and all donations made for my fundraising goal
to TGS are tax deductible to the extent allowable by

Zorin OS 9 Core Review: As good as Linux Mint 17!

Zorin OS has a lot of takers in the new Linux converts from Windows. Recently, Zorin OS released it's 9th version based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with 5 years of support. For users who are familiar with Zorin, the release notes states of some incremental improvements over it's predecessors, namely:

"We are excited to announce the release of Zorin OS 9 Core and Ultimate. The main focus for Zorin OS 9

Linux Mint 17 "Qiana" XFCE Review: Simple, elegant and functional

There is something special about Linux Mint - their ability to deliver consistent performance release after release. Also, amazingly Linux Mint's design is pretty much consistent across desktop environments - Cinnamon, Mate, KDE and XFCE. I already reviewed the KDE and Cinnamon versions and today it is the turn of my favorite of all - Linux Mint 17 XFCE. Another thing as well, as I am in a trip

ImportError: No module named pymeanshift

To install the pymeanshift module i did it easily like this:

1) Download the sources https://code.google.com/p/pymeanshift/downloads/list

(there is no binary at the time of writing this)


2) tar zxvf pymeanshift-0.2.1.tar.gz


root@walter-Lenovo-Z480:~/pymeanshift-0.2.1# ./setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
creating build
creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7
copying pymeanshift.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7
running build_ext
building '_pymeanshift' extension
creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c ms.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/ms.o
cc1plus: warning: command line option ‘-Wstrict-prototypes’ is valid for Ada/C/ObjC but not for C++ [enabled by default]
ms.cpp: In member function ‘void MeanShift::generalLSearch(double*, double*)’:
ms.cpp:2171:26: warning: variable ‘lN’ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
ms.cpp: In member function ‘void MeanShift::optGeneralLSearch(double*, double*)’:
ms.cpp:2327:37: warning: variable ‘lN’ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
ms.cpp: In member function ‘void MeanShift::generalSearch(tree*, int, double*, double*)’:
ms.cpp:1818:5: warning: ‘diff’ may be used uninitialized in this function [-Wuninitialized]
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c msImageProcessor.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/msImageProcessor.o
cc1plus: warning: command line option ‘-Wstrict-prototypes’ is valid for Ada/C/ObjC but not for C++ [enabled by default]
msImageProcessor.cpp: In member function ‘void msImageProcessor::TransitiveClosure()’:
msImageProcessor.cpp:2414:8: warning: variable ‘threshold’ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
msImageProcessor.cpp:2563:6: warning: unused variable ‘oldRegionCount’ [-Wunused-variable]
msImageProcessor.cpp: In member function ‘void msImageProcessor::Prune(int)’:
msImageProcessor.cpp:2784:57: warning: variable ‘oldRegionCount’ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c rlist.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/rlist.o
cc1plus: warning: command line option ‘-Wstrict-prototypes’ is valid for Ada/C/ObjC but not for C++ [enabled by default]
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c RAList.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/RAList.o
cc1plus: warning: command line option ‘-Wstrict-prototypes’ is valid for Ada/C/ObjC but not for C++ [enabled by default]
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -I/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c pymeanshift.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/pymeanshift.o
cc1plus: warning: command line option ‘-Wstrict-prototypes’ is valid for Ada/C/ObjC but not for C++ [enabled by default]
In file included from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/ndarraytypes.h:1761:0,
                 from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/ndarrayobject.h:17,
                 from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/arrayobject.h:4,
                 from pymeanshift.cpp:21:
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/numpy/core/include/numpy/npy_1_7_deprecated_api.h:15:2: warning: #warning "Using deprecated NumPy API, disable it by " "#defining NPY_NO_DEPRECATED_API NPY_1_7_API_VERSION" [-Wcpp]
g++ -pthread -shared -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/ms.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/msImageProcessor.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/rlist.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/RAList.o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/pymeanshift.o -o build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/_pymeanshift.so
running install_lib
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/_pymeanshift.so -> /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/pymeanshift.py -> /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
byte-compiling /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pymeanshift.py to pymeanshift.pyc
running install_egg_info
Writing /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pymeanshift-0.2.1.egg-info

-----

Deepin 2014 Review: Very very artistic and different, but with a few bugs

Deepin (formerly Linux Deepin, Hiweed GNU/Linux) is an Ubuntu-based distribution that aims to provide an elegant, user-friendly and reliable operating system. It does not only include the best the open source world has to offer, but it has also created its own desktop environment called DDE or Deepin Desktop Environment which is based on HTML 5 technologies. Deepin focuses much of its attention

Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 "Trusty Tahr" LTS Review: Very very good!

Ubuntu GNOME's first LTS is the only Ubuntu Trusty spin that I missed out reviewing. Finally I got a chance to pen down a review after using it for over 2 months. In between, the Linux kernel is updated, LibreOffice is now 4.2.4.2 and a lot more security updates have happened. But, anyway, it is better late than never. So, to begin with, in April 2014, Ali Jawad announced the release of Ubuntu

Peppermint OS Five Review: Move over Lubuntu - Peppermint with 5 years of support is here!

Peppermint OS is a Lubuntu based distro offering lightening fast speed, superb cloud and web-based applications and is easy on system resources. On 23 June 2014, Kendall Weaver announced the release of Peppermint OS Five, a Lubuntu-based lightweight and easy-to-use desktop Linux distribution: "Peppermint OS LLC is excited to announce the launch of our latest operating system, Peppermint Five.

Linux Mint 17 "Qiana" KDE Review: Better than Kubuntu with pleasant aesthetics and superb performance

Linux Mint is one distro I always respect and adore as they seem to know better than others what an average user really wants in a Linux distro. Plus, it works on the majority hardware I have tried. The present LTS spin of Linux Mint, named "Qiana", is no exception and it is based on Ubuntu Trusty Tahr, with some Mint specific modifications. Consistency in user experience has been a hallmark of

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

LXLE 14.04 Review: The best LXDE distro I've used till date

LXLE's USP in previous releases used to be Lubuntu with long term support, as Lubuntu didn't have a LTS spin till recently. And hence, the acronym LXLE from Lubuntu eXtra Life Extension. However, in 2014 with Lubuntu itself releasing an LTS version, I wanted to check how LXLE can entice users to continue using it over Lubuntu. As Ronnie Whisler's release notes states, it is time for the distro

Ubuntu on Touch Screen Laptop: Setting up Linux on Asus Vivobook F200CA / X202E / X200LA / S200E /X200CA

I am a big fan of Asus laptops and rely on them much more than any other Windows PC brand. With my Asus 1101HA (2008 model, 1.33 Ghz Intel Atom processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD) almost giving up after 6 years of decent service, I decided this is the time to buy another portable laptop. I have a powerful machine, Asus K55VM laptop with 2.3 Ghz 3rd Gen. Core i7 3610QM processor, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, 2

Manjaro Linux 0.8.10 KDE and XFCE Review: Bang on target release after release!

I have used a lot of rolling release distros in last 5 years, but, for production purpose, till recently, I mostly relied on only a few - Linux Mint, Debian and Ubuntu LTS. Primarily because the so-called "install it once only" promise hardly worked for most of the rolling release distros and they inevitably break or become unbootable after a couple of major upgrades. However, my experience with

Adding Linux Mint Qiana Repositories to Ubuntu or Ubuntu derivative installation avoiding GPG error

I use a lot some of the Linux Mint packages like USB Image Writer and USB Stick formatter. I added the Linux Mint LTS release (Qiana or Mint 17) repositories to my Linux Lite 2.0 installation by running the following codes through the terminal:

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ qiana main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list'

Now run an update.

$ sudo apt-get update

Linux Lite 2.0 "Beryl" Review: Evolving to a very good distro!

Linux Lite is a user-friendly XFCE spin of Ubuntu LTS. I came to know of it and reviewed in 2012, the version 1 of the distro based on Ubuntu Precise. The version 2.0 is released recently with Ubuntu Trusty Tahr as base. I downloaded the distro last week but reviewed Mint 17 Cinnamon as it sounded more interesting proposition to me. However, a reader's comment that Lite seems to have evolved,

Linux Mint 17 "Qiana" Cinnamon Review: With improved Cinnamon and Bang on Money release after release!

There is something about Linux Mint - they are specialist in making distros which just work! With the Ubuntu Trusty Tahr released in April 2014, I was eagerly waiting for the final release of Mint's version of the long term support release. Also, as I noted in my review of Mint 16, Cinnamon, as a desktop environment, has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few releases. I was more than

Chakra GNU/Linux 2014.05 Review: User-friendly and efficient distro for daily use

Well, I tried Archlinux a couple of times and didn't get a perfect distro out of it with my limited knowledge of Linux. So, I keep on trying the next best things - Manjaro, Chakra, Antergos, and now Netrunner. My last review of Chakra was not that good - I used Arch, Manjaro and Antergos previously and thought what works with them, should work with Chakra as well. That's where I messed up big

Pinguy OS 14.04 LTS Review: Fantastic now after "Papercuts" & upgradable to GNOME 3.12

My user experience with Pinguy OS 14.04.1 LTS Mini was a bit unhappy as there were several bugs and I felt it was a bit rushed out. So, on 19 May 2014 when the final heavier cousin was released with several papercuts, I was eager to check the level of refinement in the distro post all the bug fixing. For the uninitiated, Pinguy OS is a tweaked GNOME distro based on Ubuntu, providing users a

Siduction 14.1.0 Dev Review: A brief exposure to LXQt, the next gen LXDE desktop

From the Debian stable, Siduction is possibly the most cutting edge distro I have used. Siduction is based on Debian Unstable and ships with the latest KDE, LXDE (former) and XFCE desktops with a range of updated packages. The latest developmental release 14.1.0 Dev ports the latest buzz in the Linux world "LXQt" or the next gen fusion of LXDE and Razor-Qt desktop environments. I am an admirer

Voyager Live 14.04.1 Review: Xubuntu on steroids!

To me Voyager Live is a well decorated Xubuntu. I tried previously Voyager Live and it looked beautiful but I found it much less efficient than Xubuntu and felt, kind of defeats the purpose of XFCE distros. This was for Voyager spin of Xubuntu 12.04. However, the present release changed my impression and I'll tell you how.



Voyager 14.04.1 is based on the latest LTS (3 years though) spin of

Pinguy OS 14.04.2 Mini Review: Power packed Ubuntu Trusty spin with an enviable collection of repositories but is a bit buggy!

With the release of Ubuntu Trusty, I am expecting plenty of Ubuntu based spins to come out in the next couple of months. One of the first spins to release is that of Pinguy OS, an established name among the Linux beginners. Pinguy's beauty is that they provide an easy to use and stylish operating system which works without requiring much tweaking from the user. I was impressed with the design

Lubuntu 14.04 "Trusty Tahr" Review: All well except the Wifi bug!

The reason I don't review many LXDE distros these days is that I am waiting for the release of LXDE-Qt. I am expecting a highly functional and lightweight desktop - LXQt whose alpha release will be out anytime soon. Of course, the latest release of Lubuntu doesn't have LXQt but it is the first Lubuntu release with long term support of 3 years. Hence, naturally I was interested to try it out and

Xubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" Review: Buttery smooth and lightweight

With GNOME 2's sad demise, a lot of users like me, shifted to another lightweight and customizable alternative - XFCE desktop environment. Those days I was most comfortable with Ubuntu, and so my natural choice was Xubuntu. And based on my experience with XFCE in Xubuntu/Manjaro for the last couple of years, I can safely say that it is the most stable desktop environment I have used along with

Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" Review: Solid, stable KDE spin with KDE 4.13.0

Kubuntu is one of the distros which didn't undergo a lot of change over the last 2-3 years. Mostly it has been a stable distro with a stock KDE interface and a mix of KDE-nonKDE packages. Though it may not be called the best KDE distro around but it is definitely popular. Unlike distros like OpenSUSE or Chakra, Kubuntu never came with any distro-specific themes but relied more on the stock KDE

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" Review: Solid, stable but no radical element this time

Final release of Ubuntu Trusty Tahr is out on 17th April 2014. So, here is my first bit on the much awaited Ubuntu Trusty Tahr and I am reviewing here the 64-bit final release. For the uninitiated, this is the long term support (LTS) release of the most popular Linux distro in the world, Ubuntu. Trusty Tahr is the code name of the release and has support till April 2019.



From Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

MakuluLinux 6.0 "Mate" Review: Visually enticing but with a few bugs

Jacque Raymer has announced the release of MakuluLinux 6.0 "MATE" edition, a Debian-based distribution featuring the recently-released MATE 1.8 desktop environment: "The first release in our new 6 series dubbed 'Imperium' (Latin for 'power to command'), also our first dual-mode solo MATE build. This release allows users to customize their settings and software upon installation. Now users can

Zorin OS 8 "Lite" Review: Super efficient LXDE spin but released a bit late!

The "Lite" edition of Zorin OS 8, an i386-only variant of the beginners-friendly distribution that features the LXDE desktop, has been released: "The Zorin OS team is pleased to release Zorin OS 8 Lite and Business. Zorin OS 8 Lite is the latest evolution of the Zorin OS Lite series of operating systems, designed specifically for Linux newcomers using old or low-powered hardware. This release is

antiX MX-14 "Symbiosis" Review: Truly Special!

MX-14 "Symbiosis", a special version of antiX developed in full collaboration with the MEPIS Community, has been released for the 32-bit architecture: "It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint. The base depends on the excellent upstream work by Linux, Debian, and Xfce. MX-14

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

Ubuntu 14.04 "Trusty Tahr" Beta 2 Review: Pretty good but no surprises yet

Though I write a lot about Arch, Debian and Mandriva based distros but nothing beats Ubuntu in terms of expectations and popularity. Not only in Distrowatch ranking, even in my blog the most popular posts are related to Ubuntu. So, here is my first bit on the much awaited Ubuntu Trusty Tahr and I am reviewing here the 64-bit beta 2 release. For the uninitiated, this is the long term support (LTS

Zorin OS 8 "Gaming" Review: All purpose complete distro for Gaming!

Zorin OS is in general one of the best Windows clone available in the Linux world. A lot of newbies actually prefer Zorin for familiar desktop design and beautiful aesthetics. It ships with a tweaked GNOME 3 desktop with AWN docky made to resemble Windows 7. Zorin also ships with WinXP, Mac OS X and GNOME 2 look alike desktop design options. Of them Win7 was the best, at least I thought till I

Tanglu 1.0 "Aequorea Victoria" GNOME Review: Elegant and efficient distro based on Debian

Tanglu Linux is a fresh new distro, released for the first time this year. It's first beta release came on 19th Jan 2014 and the first final release on 22nd Feb 2014. It is based on Debian and is optimized for desktop deployment, with up-to-date software, extra drivers and regular releases. Why does it interest me and many other Linux enthusiast? Though Tanglu is not an official project of

Linux Mint 201403 "Debian" Review: Typical Linux Mint - Good stable semi-rolling release distro

The first major update of Linux Mint Debian edition was released on March 2, 2014. I downloaded both Cinnamon and Mate versions (remember that SolydXK now releases the KDE & XFCE versions) and tried both of the versions for about a week to pen this review. I like the fact that Mint took a decision to roll out a Debian spin in 2010 and is still pursuing the same with it's preferred desktop

[SOLVED] NVIDIA - "Can't access Secondary GPU" with Bumblebee in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

I recently installed Ubuntu 14.04 GNOME Beta1 on my Asus K55VM laptop with NVIDIA GeForce 630M graphics. Like the previous release (Ubuntu 13.10), the LTS version beta1 release also ships with nouveau drivers for NVIDIA. Now I encountered problems of laptop overheating as the hybrid graphics are always on, which I don't require.

Hence, the best option for me was to install bumblebee. I ran the

Manjaro Linux 0.8.9 Review: Right on the money release after release!

Whenever I have to recommend a Linux distro to a novice user, the first name that I generally tell is of Linux Mint. Now I think I have another distro to refer to - Manjaro Linux. In fact, these days I am using Manjaro Linux XFCE in a couple of my systems for last 6 months or so - none of them broke in the last 3 updates. So, I start with a spoiler here: I have seen and used quite a few Arch

MakuluLinux 5.0 Review: A good Debian spin with an attractive XFCE desktop

Can you name an XFCE distro which can put any GNOME / KDE distro to shame in aesthetics? Yes, I know - Voyager. Now add another XFCE distro to that list - MakuluLinux. Normally XFCE distros are designed to be functional and less importance is placed on looks. Even the best of the XFCE distros like Linux Mint XFCE, Xubuntu or Manjaro XFCE, don't look as attractive as a KDE or a GNOME. And it is

Chakra GNU/Linux "Curie" 2014.02 Review: Attractive, functional and true to KDE/Qt

Chakra Linux is quite unique a Linux distro intended to provide pure KDE experience to the users. It is originally based on Arch Linux and focused to provide GTK+ free KDE experience. I have used Chakra previously but never got time to actually pen a quality review in 2013. However, I included Chakra in my article on the best KDE distros of 2013. So, with no big release this week, I thought why

LXLE 12.04.4 Review: Much more than a lightweight distro!

While using LXDE for last one week or so, I noted that I haven't reviewed a single LXDE distro for last 4 months. The last LXDE distro I reviewed was Lubuntu 13.10 32-bit edition. In between I refrained from trying out LXDE distros, possibly waiting for LXDE-Qt to release sometime in 2014. However, when the 4th update of LXLE 12.04, the LXDE distro with 5 years of support, got released in Feb, I

Zorin OS 8 Review: A very good distro for beginners

Zorin is definitely one of the easiest Linux distros to use, IMHO. Most of the things ship pre-installed and pre-tweaked to make life easy for a new Linux convert. Further, it looks quite similar to Windows 7 and it really helps.



From Zorin OS 8 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Zorin has a commercial and a non-commercial line of release. For this review, I downloaded the free Zorin OS 8

Mageia 4 KDE Review: Very very good!

I installed Mageia's new release a week back. It took me a bit of time to pen down a review as my familiarity with Mandriva distros is not as great as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or OpenSUSE. It was indeed a good learning on my part and I enjoyed my experience with Mageia 4. Let me take you step by step of what I experienced of Mageia.

Initially I downloaded the KDE x86_64 LiveDVD of Mageia 4 but I

OpenSUSE 13.1 "Education Li-f-e" Review: More than an educational distro!

I have a 3.5 year old daughter. For her I often search suitable educational distros. I like the educational distros released by Zorin, Ubuntu, Doudou, etc. but nothing comes close to the superb experience I had with OpenSUSE 13.1 "Education Li-f-e". The beauty of the distro is that it ships with an enviable ensemble of packages suitable for both young and adults alike. I'll take you through my

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

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

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

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