Manjaro Linux0.8.7 "Ascella " XFCE Review :- Rodar su mente con nueva montaña rusa Manjaro paseo linux .

Arch Is one of the distribution which has lot of followers but when it comes to installation for newbie friendly it will confuse you where to find archstar in oceans of stars from the sky .When I asked in some of the forums for rolling based friendly distro many of them suggested me to try Arch .Also I saw the ranking of Arch in Distrowatch is around top ten ,so decided to try it buy after several install try up something here and there mess up ,and used to take long time for novice user like me.So I just left off arch for sometime as I need ready to go linux distro for use as didn't want to waste time in installation and setting arch , Surely Arch is not for beginners but best for them who want to learn , professional , hobbist etc . 

I never thought of using an Arch based distro anymore but somewhere got to know that it has very fast ,responsive and friendly Forum .So to test it downloaded their ISO of openbox and went to their forum site to see what is said and heard about manjaro forum is true or not .Then after questioning my doubts and other related issues I got the reply very quickly as compared to other forums .So actually their vibrant community forum brought me more closer to them and also had tested some arch based distro from that onething was sure , arch distro is definitely more faster than all other distro available today . Truely speaking I was more intersted to try arch based distro but want something that dont wanna Messup with the installer like arch but want some beginner friendly esay-to-go installer and here Manjaro from Mount kilimanjaro which is  named after , comes to my rescue .

Searching for cross- accessing software for linux partition from windows ? Dual- booting windows and linux there are various ways,A detailed short Guide.

When someone starts with linux operating system he/she feels that something is still missing here and there on both the operating system , but then he/she will start dual booting the system to get best of both systems .while above reading the topic article it seems weird what I started talking , now lets come to straight point ,Actually what happened I was searching for some recovery and backup software from paragon websites ,as wanted  to do some recovery and backup on one of my pc .When I was just browsing their site for other softwares ,Just my eyesight  felt on one more software known as Paragon Extfs by reading the detail got what exactly it is . Extfs is a simple utlty tool which  provides you with all time permit to access Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 from your windows operating system .

Now why I felt to write this article sometime before  as I made an install of linux os on one of my friends laptop and after using for days he asked me how to access linux  media files from windows at that time I suggested him Ext2fsd as that one of my favourite to access the ext3 system from windows , so usually I  used to keep home as ext3 formated in my linux system .And now by giving information it will be useful to someones let see what are other option .

1.Ext2Fsd :-

Ext2Fsd is basically a windows driver manager for various support of read and write for linux ext3/2 volumes from windows thats really sound goods for novice users .Its one of the easiest way and pain-free to configure system .Now head on to their site , download it and install it as windows program and launch  the program what you will find is that it display an error  . unable to execute c:\program files \Ext2Fsd \Ext3 Mgr.exe. like that simply click ok over it .And simply re-run the application by double  clicking  over it . Now you can choose various media point you would like to mount it .Theres an option whether to mount it permanently or temporary , plz dont forget to assign letter for the drive to be mounted .Generally I opt for permanent mount option so system remains mounted even after reboot .Once mounting of media is finished you are easy to access and play with the system from windows explorer .

It has nice features like it supports  Ext2/Ext3 volume file reading and writing and assignment of mounting stuff automatically , htree directory indexing ,ext4 Extended support .
Caution :- Ext4 read only support and no NT4 support anymore .Also it doesn't support LVM andLinux Raid , If you have not activated automont of file system at boot you have to everytime start the software Ext2fsd and mount from its window or by through going to Tools > service management  and have to start Ext2fsd  to make your Linux files accessible .And you can find your media by looking / home /Name directory .

Openlinux 13.07 kde 64 bit review :Take the New kde 4.11 to ride with efficient , fast spin and solid performance .

Today I was not so much interested to review the openlinux 13.07 kde completely  as just want to  peep about what actually kde 4.11 is all about ,so just made a  live usb  of the iso which I downloaded from their openlinux site which is around more than 1.5 gb .

Truly speaking I was not actually impressed what openlinux kde came up with their first kde spin of ubuntu ie just before 13.07 version as when I used just  felt that it was just another kubuntu remastered only icons changed up and brand but all applications were like simply kubuntu 12.04 LTS .

But my impression changed with it after using openlinux 13.o7 version they have now added some stuffy software so their distro can be called as good alternative to kubuntu . when I actually fired my laptop with it and just begin to install the openlinux and the installation is same as about  another ubuntu clan .so not to tell more about the famous kubuntu installer you can just look at kubuntu or Netrunner os which I just reviewed earlier for detailed installation process .Its just same as age old kubuntu you are asked things like your language preferences , keyboard preferences ,time-zone and other things like  user Id and root password and your home folder encryption and login automatically by user or by password all this various boxy-stuff you have to make up .For me the installation took around 10 minutes along with third party codecs .

For installer procedure head on to Netrunner review page .

One thing now I dont like that of kubuntu installer is that its default to the country origin , really considered as a stupid stuff let the installer man choose where and what actually he want to put the location where he/she  resides that would be more professional .Also the slides show of installation procedure like kubuntu was cut offed only plain installer for openlinux may be they have not developed slides according to their brand is missing , what effect does it have on public its hardly to tell .

Why Linux Desktop computing has failed to miss the "Doorbells Ringing " of everyday computing ?

Linux computing has reached  a  far-ahead in terms of technology , If you see the top Supercomputers list  then you will find that about 99 percent of supercomputers are based on Linux .Similarly most of the Military are now using linux as their main platforms for computing as it provides and enhanced security .

Look at this article from it can be seen that Linux is everywhere ,

 http://www.comparebusinessproducts.com/fyi/50-places-linux-running-you-might-not-expect


http://www.top500.org/

But why the hell is that Linux desktop is not shining like a star on Desktop front even having more than 20 years of active development and early arrival , Linux has really become awesome and  the  dominant force behind the internet servers and other related stuffs ,but in terms of  Desktop user still lot of misguidance persist .

In terms of security ,companies spending lots of money on their Server sites , proxy and Mail gate-way etc also a misconception persist as its Open-source can be used as backdoor for hacking and other problem is that as some companies actually shifted to Linux system but they were actually short of technical expertise needed to maintain the systems in third world countries .

Certified Hardware: The  biggest challenge Linux community is facing about adoption of certified hardware from hardware vendors is too slow like a snail race .Also an example of vendor 'Dell" Selling Linux laptop pre-installed , they dont market  or advertise the consumers that some brands like Inspiron /Xps comes with pre-installed with Ubuntu systems .When user want to buy a system in Dos they will be actually using some form of windows os on their system later but when they start their system with a visually different OS that they had never seen or used .  So most user either return their system back to companies otherwise call someone and install windows or some form of pirated system over it .When users enquire about the system the response we get "We dont guarantee you that if you used ubuntu on your system it will work fine , all you have to search on ubuntu related issues on web for queries , Dell recommends using Windows ." So you can just see even with hardware vendors selling open source on their system how they do it .

BACKBOX linux 3.05 amd 64bit Review

BackBox Linux is a distribution used to perform penetration tests , security assessments,  fast and easy to used based on ubuntu distro providing  a minimal but complete desktop environment since maintaining of its own software repositories, which are always updated to the latest stable versions and used for best-known ethical hacking tools. It uses the Xfce desktop environment which is developed by Raffaele Forte's  dedicated team. Because it is based on Ubuntu, its installation program is Ubiquity, Ubuntu’s graphical installer,Installation is the same as Ubuntu and it takes about 12 minutes, depending on internet connection speed. Installation went smooth and correct at the first attempt itself. Surely, Linux has come a long way and from most of the distros installation process is trouble free.Actually downloaded iso of size more than 1gb and during live boot started installer .

 

Dreamstudio 12.04.3 Review : Rock solid and Decent MULTImedia desktop studio for all .

DreamStudio is an Ubuntu-based distribution containing tools to create stunning graphics, captivating videos, inspiring music, and professional websites .Logo of Dream studio looks like as shown below  ,

Dream studio is a complete multimedia and photo production suite . Now already you have heard of  some studio like ubuntu studio based on xfce , kxstudio based on kde , Tango studio based on gnome  etc but whats the difference , yes Dream studio is based on ubuntu unity interface  which is very different what you have not used on other linux platforms . Now ubuntu unity interface is very beautiful , seemingly fast and doesn't clutter your interface  while working thats the beauty of unity but only cons is that it more resource consuming than other desktop interface.

Now Dream studio is extremely portable can be installed on hard drive or usb device so it can be in your pockets anyplace anywhere. Dream studio contains all the apps containing creating music editing videos and photos,with astonishing graphics , captivating video stuff and stuff required to create professional websites etc .Dream Studio is maintained by musician and artist Dick Macinnis,and has  easier for creative artists to set up stuff for studio without any need for professional tutorial .

RED FLAG INWISE 8.0 REVIEW : International appeal lacking seems like only for Chinese user base .

Red Flag Linux (Chinese: 红旗Linux) is a Chinese Linux distribution developed by Red Flag Software. The distribution logo is Tux carrying a prominent red flag. Red Flag Software Co., Ltd. (Red Flag Software) is focused on developing and marketing Linux-based operating systems and application software on multiple platforms for the constantly growing base of Chinese technology users and their goal is "Creating Incentives for Networking Life."

 As Chinese business was growing, and the World Trade Organization began cracking down on widespread copyright infringements, there was a need for a localized version of a free operating system.Hence, Red Flag was born out of cooperation between the Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and NewMargin Venture Capital, a venture arm of the Chinese government.


 I am somewhat skeptical about installing chinese software on my systems ? Do they have keyloggers? or somewhat of other malware hidden in their os ? They don’t appear to have publish  source code and its  itself  a violation of the copyright  license that the code is published under GNU GPL .But let not shy away from that testing this software .so I  visited their red flag site but not able to download the iso at all as they dont have good chinese mirrors for International users  .so after searching got an iso which was hosted at some site and downloaded and created a live usb using dd .  And booted my laptop with live usb . First with a surprise at graphical boot screen some star twinkling and Red flag logo can be seen and booted in a live mode and then it ask me for a language to choose english or chinese and continue then booted with a graphical kde environment of Red Flag os .

PCLINUXOS 2013.04 to 2013.07 rolling release kde 64 bit Review : A ROCK SOLID ROLLER-COASTER rolling distro but still some work needed on 64 bit edition .

Pclinuxos is an independent project, actually I love independent projects since they do things in a different manner and style . Its one of the  major Linux distribution which still has roots with Mandrake Linux 9.2, whose successors now include Mandriva linux and OS which I had  Reviewed earlier on my blog  like Mageia  and Rosa linux  / Alt linux. Its an interesting mix of Mandrake Linux  stuff and Debian like command line ,other linux goodies remaining in PCLinuxOS .

On their  website, 

PCLinuxOS "So Cool Ice Cubes are Jealous"

.

Actually I was thinking of reviewing their full monty kde 64 bit 2013.07 edition  , what  I love about this edition as lots of useful software comes pre-installed . The iso were downloaded past night the recent iso 2013.07 kde full monty edition and kde 64 bit edition and then made a live usb of it and even burned dvd full  monty edition but it refuses to boot in live mode on my  laptop {Dell} it was just not able to boot   what's the problem that I didn't understood . so looked in my iso wallet found a old  copy of 64 bit kde by texstar 2013.04 edition  . so burned out a dvd of it and fired on dell laptop and started the installation process wizard. From installer noted that the installation steps haven't changed  from previous versions, so I'll skip that part.Thus pclinuxos installed on my system  fine as ,it all takes about 10 minutes to install for me ,

After reboot  steps like creating  a regular user account with a password. and then we are brought to a colourful graphical login screen greeted with a message as shown below as since its rolling release plz update uor repos .

LXLE (Lubuntu) 12.04.2 LTS 64bit Review : Fast ,efficient , beautiful "Diaspora" of Lubuntu and extended Long term support(5 years) life for distro.

LXLE Lxde is a Light fast desktop remastered version of lubuntu using ubuntu LTS  shell  based distro for older hardware support as well as  it covers most users' everyday needs by providing a good selection of default applications, and it adds useful modifications and tweaks to improve performance and functions.

Actually Lubuntu is one of my favourite distro actually running one of the  clone of lubuntu ie wattos on one of my pc's .So I was interested to see how good actually this distro is ?.By name its an lubuntu extended edition ie long term version of lubuntu running on ubuntu os .  So actually downloaded the os made a live usb and started to boot from my Dell inspiron laptop to see  what the difference between lubuntu 13.04 and lxle 12.04 edition.

LXLE, is a Lubuntu  based LXDE version of Ubuntu that is lightweight and focuses on speed and lower end systems.The LXDE desktop is lightweight and plain compared to that of Ubuntu’s Unity Dekstop. There is no Unity task bar, no HUD but  still a nice desktop environment to use and so it doesn't matter it has power pack ability  or not.

So lets start up  the installer after live booting Distro you come up with beautiful looking wallpaper and conky hud which looks aesthetic beautiful  . so now cliking lxle installer icon  installer seems to be same as of ubuntu  installaer and it  is simple and straightforward and awesomely fast .Actually who know to install ubuntu also know lubuntu installation since both are same only themes and icons changed up .Installation took about 13 minutes for me including download of multimedia codecs .

KAhel OS 030712 Review : So-So called distro not so Dual-Boot friendly for Distro -hoppers .

KahelOS is based on Arch Linux. KahelOS is the first and remains to be the only Filipino Linux Distro with the rolling release model on Arch Linux + GNOME. In the community, it is the first to release (non-beta) such Linux OS on Arch Linux and  GNOME combination .


Logo of kahel os as shown below ,

I tested the live session through a live USB made with imagewriter I tested the installation in a real hardware ie Dell laptop 2.2 ghz dual core processor and 4 gb ram , atheros wifi  etc  Follow the jump to see what this other offspring of Arch is like as compared to chakra which are also arch based distro .Chakra is more kde fied and kahel is opposite ie  more gnomeified . Then rebooted the os and started the installer of kahel os



After booting you are given option to test it in live mode or installation mode .Generally  I  Review on a real hardware so just see what happen next so started the installer .

OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 Review : Sensational, Beautiful XFCE Spin changing way linux looks .

Os4 is user-friendly desktop based on xubuntu .some of its features includes support for popular browser plugins , addition of packages for multimedia production ,content creation and software development and innovative desktop layout .

Arrival of the distro with release notes.

"Today we are releasing OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 and unveiling our new hardware initiative. This release comes with a lot of bug fixes & application updates. We also have brought new functionality and services. First, hardware services. As a licensed ACER dealer we are bringing about a new hardware initiative. We are bringing state of the art, powerful, beautiful and functional hardware to the OS4 and Linux communities. We believe state of the art software deserves state-of-the-art hardware. So we have a wide range of towers, laptops, all-in-ones and of course our most popular, OS4 BriQ, is still available. We also have the engineering marvel, the Vision 64 all-in-one keyboard PC from Cybernet available. All of these systems make great gifts and they make a great addition to any home or office." 


The size of iso I downloaded was around 1.5 gb in size and created a live usb using unetbootin and tried to install on laptop . here os4 comes with xfce 4.10.2 and linux kernel lts 3.2 .The installer of distro is same as ubuntu so wouldn't cover the installation process.steps like selection of language,keyboard ,location and user and Id creation and it took me around ten minutes to install distro on my laptop excluding updates .


Beauty and aesthetic

Os4 comes with top and bottom panel and latter being transparent .here when an apps open its being seemed in right corner of bottom panel which is very easy to manage stuff , user experience is awesome .

Hardware integration

As its ubuntu based so it recognized my hardware very fastly .Bluetooth ,wifi , touchpad , graphic card etc detected very well as seems to be using well configured hardware configuration and everything works out-of- box for me .also the os is very fast and no lag has been seen by me yet and after using lap for 12 hrs continuously it was still tremendously quiet .

Applications

OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 suprises with new integrated application as shown below


**Office: Abiword, Dates, Dictionary, Document viewer, ebook reader ,Gnumeric,
**Internet:  gFTP, Maps, NixNote, Dropbox, Firefox 22.0 ,Phone Dialer, Skype 4.1.0.20, Thunderbird 17, Pidgin IM, Qtransmission bit torrent client, , Xchat IRC
**Graphics: GIMP 2.8.6, Scribus, ,Simple Scan ,Shotwell Photo Manager, Gthumb, Ristretto Photo viewer
**Multimedia: Arista transcoder,  Openshot video editor, Recordmydesktop, VLC 2.0.7, Webcam booth ,Audacity, Audio recorder, Clementine music player,
**Accessories: Application finder,  Startup disk creator,Archive manager, Calculator, ClamTK, Leafpad, Notes, Screenshot, File Search, Terminal, gdebi Package Manager, Backup, Bootup manager
**Others: Steam, Gambas 3, Grsync, Remastersys, Fog apps.

And games like ,

Other apps screenshot ,

For application management it has no ubuntu like software centre present but synaptic package manager .

As system is xfce so file manager is through thunar and system setting integrated as shown  below .

Only missing was libre office apps but it can be installed from repos . Above seeing it can be concluded that it is rich in web apps which are used by day to day in life .Even firefox is rich in integrated with plugins like flash , Java , shockwave etc.Only app like reditr or Gwibber missing but its also rich in graphics with gimp picture editor and shotwell photo manager .

Application wise it is having healthy list of course firefox browser preinstalled but if you need other browser can be used which can be found in repos .so look how media plays in default media player vlc .

It played youtube video nicely as flash pre- installed .

Also its boost with open-shot best video editor .

It played my music collection well as precodecs installed as in clementine player .

Remastersys a good application to seen in distro pre-installed as its acts backup or restore for os .If u tweak your osoften then its good tool you must have in your wallet .

Os4 comes with steam preinstalled it will bring a smile on hardcore gamers as here steam starts updating but couldn't show game on it as lack of time .

Maps an application is preinstalled in distro to access google maps .

Web based apps is used to integrate various services like twitter, facebook ,reddit etc and it has potential to integrate more and more services like itu can't just think off.

It was able to read newspaper in fog .I didn't had any issue when going through Indian language websites as I could easily read it which I was not able to do it  in Rosa desktop fresh which I reviewed earlier.

Truly speaking I saw web apps  suddenly appearing in Netrunner os then Peppermint os and now os4 as more and more distro provides such web integration and healty competition among distros.Actually all apps are chosen very refinely and it doesn't outspace desktop applications providing working environment .

Actual performance of cpu while updating distro ram usage was around 200mb .

Time to conclusion 

Here apart from libre office apps list seems to be complete and robust .Comparing with other distro ram usage is more but its lighter and blazingly  fast and beautiful and spiced up from xubuntu .Interface seems to be interseting , user friendly and seems to be impressive it put a quite remark on my memory impressions.It will replace my ubuntu studio if able to add ubuntustudio apps if able to do so.Themes look elegant no font rendering issue and its one of the best xfce spin in town after uberstudent .If you like it and want to try out then this is the definetly your distro just try it , go for it .

Enjoy it .

U can try using 

1.unetbootin
2. Imagewriter

NOTE

If you have any queries kindly visit the sites you can ask there ,


http://www.os4online.com/



You can download your os4 desktop at ,

http://sourceforge.net/projects/os4online/files/

Openmamba GNU/Linux Milestone2.0.10.1 kde edition Review :Un-noticed , Forgotten Rock-solid distro for folks who don't need updating system too often ..

As I was looking for an alternative to non ubuntu , non-fedora , non -suse based distro I accidentally come up to a independent distro so actually thought what would be the distro  would be like so  decided to try it .First what is openmamba ? so its  a GNU/Linux distribution for personal computers (Intel i686-compatible) that can be used on notebooks, desktops and servers. It works as an boot to live CD, offering out-of-the box support for  a variety of media codecs and proprietary graphics drivers and wireless network cards,3D desktop with KDE.

Their Tagline is

 "Ready to use GNU/Linux".

wonder what it actually means to newcomers?

Sometimes  generally I look for weird distros and actually got a new distro to test .This distro was relased on 2012 7th july .so almost its one year old . Let's talk today about Openmamba GNU/Linux namely their operating system Milestone2.0.10.1 kde edition . so I downloaded the dvd edition of kde which is almost 2.6gb in size . Tried to make live usb through uneetbootin / imagewriter /usb transfer noothing seems to worked for me , so decided to burn dvd-rw  and fired my optical drive by reebooting to openmamba os .Then  I was greeted with green bubble like s dollar effects wallpaper , this is the only wallpaper available related to brand Os .ALSO other options for live dvd gnome and studio edition available .

NOTE : Actually not able to create live usb since it is not a fully operational  LiveUSB image. so you need DVD or CD image on your hard drive to continue but there's option to make live usb after booting live dvd image from optical drive for that u need to use live usb installer which will create live usb image of it using system tools .

Netrunner 13.06 "Enigma" Stealth Edition KDE Review : Secure your online privacy and life with Enigma .

My first trial of Netrunner distro was Netrunner Dryland edition  which was based on ubuntu 12.04 LTS version . At that time I just came upon this distro as anews of Bluesystem sponsering kubuntu /linux Mint Kde the same company behind it also has a distro of its own " Netrunner ".I think this was the First unusual kde based distro with combination of kde and gtk based apps started flowering of various cloud based apps , also the name of the distro is netrunner so philosophy of having cloud based apps was already rooted in them to give a out-of- box experience to user at that time till now it can be seen easily just by using it .Also decided to look in this distro security spin what privacy   enhncement they had made in this spin as I was looking for privacy based distro .

  I also have used netrunner 12.12 edition but  had one issue after updating couldn't able to login with my default password so moved on from it also when I installed some cloud based apps system crashed  but  they have a new spin so let see how perfectly it works to other brother's  ubuntu based distros.

By using kubuntu, Linux Mint Kde and Netrunner it can be seen that they made a marvellous effort to improve user reliability towards it . Here one thing to note that all three distros lives in one home having separete rooms for operation .The organization behind Netrunner has also sponsored Linux Mint with KDE, and had in past  taken over Kubuntu from Canonical .

Further, I downloaded the 64-bit Netrunner 13.06 for  testing so thought of  writing a review of it Hoping  that this could be the distribution for which I have been searching, I tried the 64-bit edition of Netrunner 13.06 enigma SE as a live USB made using UnetBootin and let see what it's like all about .

Sabayon Linux 13.08 "XFCE" Review :Professional ,Elegant distro

Sabayon Linux is a Gentoo-based distribution which follows the works-out-of-the-box philosophy, aiming to give the user a wide number of applications that are ready for use and a self-configured operating system.  Sabayon is available in several flavors featuring respectively  KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and Enlightenment desktop environments.

ARRIVAL OF DISTRO WITH RELEASE NOTES

 "This is a monthly release generated, tested and published to mirrors by our build servers containing the latest and greatest collection of software available in the Entropy repositories. Linux Kernel 3.10.4 with BFQ iosched, updated external ZFS file system support, GNOME 3.8.4, KDE 4.10.5, MATE 1.6.2, Xfce 4.10, LibreOffice 4.1, UEFI SecureBoot for 64 bit images (with bundled UEFI shell), systemd as default init system, Plymouth as default splash system and new high-dpi artwork are just some of the things you will find inside the box."


Installation

Installer is quite simpler and while installation generally question asked are language , location , keyboard set up and where to install image on hard disk alongwith root and user password and Id creation .

Kwheezy 1.1 Review : FAST, Stable , Ready -To-GO Debian wheezy and Kde based distro .

Kwheezy is a Debian-based Linux distribution with an intuitive KDE desktop and a good selection of GNU/Linux and open-source software. It also includes popular device drivers, media codecs and browser plugins, all pre-configured and ready for use at first boot.

ARRIVAL OF DISTRO WITH RELEASE NOTES

 "The new version is geared towards better locale/language support. Changes in version 1.1: minor improvements to the installer including the hardware clock to local-time fix; keyboard selection before and after installation; new app called 'Kwheezy Keyboard Selector'; locale (language) support; new app called 'Kwheezy Localizer'; Firefox/Thunderbird language extensions; Firefox now supports magnet links out-of-the-box and Flashgot add-on enabled with Kget as download manager; KDE Touchpad configuration now installed by default; no login sound in live session (speeds it up a bit); a few other minor stuff. As usual, you can upgrade to Kwheezy 1.1 from the Kwheezy repository via Apper or apt-get."


As I just was eager to try how this kde based new distro based on debian wheezy and how the installer is so I downloaded the dvd version which is roughly around 3.6 gb in size and then fired my usb with live kwheezy and then booted with it boot screen gui is purely text no gui and after that I was greeted with some configuration related to keyboard config , video driver and local etc as seen below

BlankOn 8.0 "Rote" Manokwari Review : Manokwari " ROTE " just can't dance on the show .

BlankOn Linux is a Linux distribution based on Debian developed by Yayasan Penggerak Linux Indonesia (YPLI).

 BlankOn 8.0, code name "Rote", was released on 17th Aug 2012. You can get more details of BlankOn in Wikipedia . Just searching a new distro spin and suddenly my eyes felt on blankon distro started to search about it luckily it has a 64 bit as I generally review 64 bit os . so downloaded the iso which is approximately around 1.7 gb in size . Pinned up my usb with live BlankOn  distro and while rebooting my laptop started to see actually how it works on my dell laptop 2.2 ghz processor , 4gb ram and it comes with Linux kernel is 3.2.0 and it has Gnome 3.4.2 .


Installation was just simple where  you have to select language , timezone, keyboard and then to install target and then it scan your hardrive  and then assume swap by itself and only thing  you can select was root partition no option to select home and boot partitions and other stuff .If you are setting dual boot than it would be most confusing as you don't know where bootloader is going to be set .Seems to be my installer went right and dual booted Blankon and windows  .

Calculate Linux Desktop 13.6.1 XFCE Review : Ok ,Stable and beautiful distribution

Calculate Linux is based on Gentoo that is well known for its stability and great performance on a broad range of hardware  from Pentium Pro to modern CPUs.

The Calculate project features several distributions, optimized for two distinct groups of people: home users as well as small and medium businesses that prefer open-source to proprietary solutions.Calculate Linux Desktop is a complementary solution for the Server .Calculate Directory Server can successfully replace a Windows NT ® domain controller and provides additional services that can be deployed in a matter of minutes: LDAP, Mail, Jabber and many others.


This review focuses on the desktop edition XFCE, which comes preloaded either with KDE, GNOME or XFCE. I’ve downloaded the XFCE live DVD edition which is around 1.6GB.The live DVD offers options to boot using the default settings, using only RAM, without GUI { referred as ‘No-X’ rather than something like ‘No GUI ‘}, and Live DVD builder. A help message for each for these options will enhance the  overall user experience .Here calculate linux comes with linux kernel 3.9.6 and XFCE 4.10.2.

The installaler of the distro is inbuilt as  part of the ‘Calculate Utilities’ which  are custom developed

KXStudio 12.04.1 64 bit review :Reliable, Efficient kde Multimedia Ready-to-Go studio for use.

kxstudio is a linux distro which is based on ubuntu and aimed at musicians , producers ,artists as well as normal regular users .KXStudio  is a collection of applications, artwork and plugins, targeted at audio and video production.

KXStudio also provides a Linux Distribution, currently based on Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS.Although focused on GNU/Linux, some of our applications work in other Operating Systems.There are also other studio available like ubuntu studio /Dream studio but no one were based on kde so I decided to try this distro ,size of the iso I downloaded was about 1.7 gb .

The installer  of the distro is just same as kubuntu/linux mint kde  .So I wouldn't be covering installation stuff over here . The kxstudio  installer quickly installed the system as also an option to update distro during installation process , so had a ready to go studio to use for me . The splash screen is just normal kde based.

Kanotix Dragonfire LinuxTag 2013 KDE 64 bit Review : Simply efficient , Rock solid distribution .

Kanotix is a Debian based distro started its life around 2004 and inspired by the knoppix live distribution the founder started their own way of improving debian base so started its own new distro named as kanotix.

kanotix  as based on debian had some issues were there  in past so then kanotix was born again with Debian stable .Truely speaking kanotix had some issue of stability in past so some developers left it and form their new distro "Sidux ". And the founder adopted less unstable and shifted their legs into more stable Debian foundation.

Kanotix Mascot is Fangtooth .

On their website

 Kanotix is a rock-solid Linux based on Debian, which contains the newest packages and recognizes more modern hardware than any other operating system in use today.Kanotix is assembled for 32 Bit i586 and for AMD 64 using the most up-to-date kernel with unique patches.

Kanotix was announced at  LinuxTag 2013 conference and exhibition in Berlin a Debian-based distribution (with KDE or LXDE) on a live DVD:

 "I am proud to announce the release of KANOTIX Dragonfire from LinuxTag 2013 in Berlin. Kanotix Dragonfire is based on the recently released Debian 7.0. Besides KDE as the default desktop environment, beginning with this release there exists a lightweight alternative with LXDE. Additionally, we offer a special image similar to the CeBIT special. The main difference is that it has a pre-installed Steam client, a newer MESA version (9.1.1), gfxdetect and a newer glibc 2.17, KDE SC 4.8.4 and LXDE, Iceweasel 21.0, Linux kernel 3.9; LibreOffice 4.0.3...."

Frugalware 1.8 cinna kde review : CINNA is DEAD .

Frugalware Linux is an independent distro ,general purpose desktop Linux  designed for intermediate users. It follows simple Slackware-like design concepts and includes the "pacman" package management utility from Arch Linux. 

Frugalware 1.8 has been dubbed Cinna and it finally reached a stable version after no more than two release candidates.  According to the developer, no new features have been added since the last release, but there have been over 150 changes implemented just to fix minor bugs. The distribution makes use of Linux kernel 3.7.5 and is based on the Gnome 3.6 desktop environment and on KDE 4.9. 

Linpus Lite 1.9.3 review :Light ,elegant distro .

Linpus Linux is a commercial Linux operating system based on the popular Fedora distribution. It is developed by Linpus Technologies. Inc., a Linux software solutions provider headquartered in Taiwan. The product's main features are: easily switchable touch-based mouse and keyboard launchers; web applications integrated with the launchers; HTML 5 widget panel; full theme changes and compatibility with a wide range of computer hardware.

The latest edition, Linpus Lite 1.9.3 , was released  June of this year  featuring grub 2, gnome  shell 3.4.1 and linux kernel 3.7.10 .Actually it is based on fedora Gnome 3 so i visited their site and downloaded the latest edition of linpus lite live version which is around 500 mb in size.

Installation is just simple where some steps are required actually language,keyboard to install distro alongwith root n user password. It took me around just 4 minutes to install it on dell Inspirion laptop . The distribution’s installation program is a fork of Anaconda, the graphical installation program of Fedora. So, it’s very easy to use, with both automated and manual disk partitioning options .For a new user, provided  if familiar with the basics of disks and disk partitioning in Linux, it is very easy to create a custom set of partitions using the installer’s manual partitioning tool.The default file system on all the partitions created by the installer is ext4, even on the boot partition.

The Linpus Lite installer is fork of Anaconda, lacking some of Anaconda’s best  .So LVM( Linux Logical volume Manager), Disk Encrypter, boot-loader's  password safety has  three features making  Anaconda as one of the nicest installer  available which are  Left off from Linpus Lite’s edition. Also missing is the option to choose the location of the boot loader, which makes dual-booting this distribution with any other operating system a little bit more involved than is necessary.

The desktop is powered by GNOME 3 (GNOME 3.4), and features a highly modified GNOME Shell. It has two modes – Simple Mode and Desktop Mode. The later is default mode .In Desktop mode, you get a non-classic menu with a search feature. The menu is just like one of those that you can enable on any GNOME 3 desktop via Extensions. My impression is that the system is EASY  to use.   In other words, the desktop is helping me to get stuff done.

Now simple mode  The image below shows the “home” screen of the Simple Mode. By default, the transition from one screen to the other takes place using the carousel effect. But there are five other effects to choose from, if you don’t like the default.

This image shows the application Category screen and you can reorder the Category icons by drag-and-drop.

you can search apps as shown here

 Note that Daily Widget is turned off by default setting.

Like everything else, the system is not perfect. .The  problem I encountered concerns the network interface when the system is coming out of hibernation or suspension. On every other distribution that I’ve used, the network interface is activated as soon as the system “wakes up.”Also one issue i faced it automatically disconnect wired connectivity often which i have not seen and this is serious bug.

Actual performance of cpu .

One issue i had with this linux distro as i visited indian site it may be related to Indian users may be Indian language  fonts are available in repos. when i visited this site it looked awkward.

http://gujaratsamachar.com/

The display option has only two options and it worked well .

Linpus lite comes with lot of application which are daily needed for computing task ,around 460 application are there in software application centre .A major drawback of Application Center is that it is designed for installing and managing applications with graphical user interfaces, not those that can only be run from the command-line. So if you attempt to search for, say, cups or firewalld, no results will be returned. All non-gui applications have to be installed from the command-line. I found that it is better to run yum update to apply available updates than to use the Application Center’s update facility. That’s because it’s much faster

Post installation process is required to keep the distro stuff updated. you can do it through update your system or install remove software centre .

By default, the system is configured to check for updates daily.

BEWARE: Not all Free and Open Source applications are available in the Linpus repository. For example, libdvdcss or libdvdcss2, which is used by video players to play encrypted DVD videos, is not in repos. However, given that Linpus is based on Fedora, you can add third-party repositories to make up for what’s not in the official Linpus repository.

There is no audio or mp3 player or video player installed in default lite mode .

One that I’ve not come across on any other distribution that I have reviewed is called Smart Connect. The official description says that it “allows your computers to update users email, social networks frequently and automatically, even the system is asleep.” This is one feature of Linpus Lite 1.9 that i tested using thunderbird and messenger but as advertised it doesn't worked for me .

From the physical security angle, Linpus Lite 1.9 has nothing to offer. No full disk, or even home directory encryption. And no boot loader password-protection during the installation phase. Based on its lack of physical security features, this is not a distribution I want to install on any computer and firewall not installed .
so installed firewall which is not enabled by default .

And finally, when it comes to removable media, the default configuration is unable to tell whether an audio CD, DVD video or a USB Flash drive is inserted. You’ll always get the notification shown in this image .

Another problem is Application Center is that it has to be fullscreen before you can see all the information in the right column.

Even though the system is configured to check for updates daily, there is no updates notifier and you have to activate Daily Widget or launch the Application Center to know  updates are available.

some other screenshots

TIME TO CONCLUSION

Actually amazed by the distro perfomance as it detected my function keys for volume  Dell inspiron  laptop perfectly also brightness keys  worked very well for me but the problem of advanced installer like lvm and bootlader password and firewall and security issue should be taken into consider by developers.Apart from it is fantastic os to use you will enjoy it .

U can try it using ,

live usb doesn't work for me so have to burn cd.

 NOTE 

If  u have any issue just visit their forum you will get answered to all your queries .

http://www.linpus.com/products.html

you can download  from here

http://www.linpus.com/downloads.html