moonOS 3 Linux (Makara)
Multimedia & Sound
I was pleased to note that I could watch my Superman cartoons DVD without having to install any other software. I was also able to watch YouTube videos. I had a problem with the sound but was able to fix it (see the problems section).
What I Liked Most
Well it’s no secret by this point in the review what I liked best about moonOS 3. It’s one of the best looking remastered distros I’ve seen in ages. But it’s not just that it’s pretty that matters. It’s pretty in a unique way that I haven’t seen anywhere else. There’s a flavor and feel to moonOS 3 that is distinct and that’s part of what sets it apart from other remasters.
I also liked moonSoftware and moonControl. Both add value to moonOS 3 and make it easy for people new to moonOS to do some of the usual stuff like configuring their system and adding or removing software.
I was able to play my Superman DVD without having to install any codecs.
Problems & Headaches
I ran into a problem with moonOS 3 in VMWare. I was able to get the install done but it took a very long time and when I went to login I was not able to type in the password field. I was not able to get this fixed so I switched to Parallels and did the install there.
I noticed that the install was much faster in Parallels and I had no problems typing in my password. I was able to login as usual. This login problem may or may not have been a VMWare burp so I’m not going to hold it against moonOS. But it is something to be aware of if you try to install moonOS on your system.
moonOS 3 does not seem to come with any of the usual desktop games that you might expect to be included. This isn’t a big deal for me because I don’t play them anyway. However, you will find a decent selection of games in the moonSoftware menu.
I also noticed the occasional misspelling or typo in some of the menus in moonOS 3. No doubt it’s probably because English might not be the first language of the developer. No big deal though. Given the prettiness of moonOS, I can handle a typo here or there.
I also had a problem getting sound to work. When running YouTube videos I had no problem getting the video to run but I could not get any sound. In order to get sound to work I had to go into the Pulse Audio Volume Control (under the Multimedia menu) and turn on the sound and then turn up the volume. This is a bit of a…er…non-intuitive thing to say the least. Anyway, after that the sound was perfect.
I had to use the Pulse Audio Volume Control to get sound to work.
(18 votes, average: 4.06 out of 5)
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(4.83 out of 5)
Wow, Jim, you are reviewing all of the lesser known distros this week! I’ve heard of moonOS before, but I do not remember grabbing a copy; I may do so this time and see if I have any success getting it going with Virtualbox OSE. It certainly is a good looking distro! Maybe I will try the LXDE variation just to be different and see if it also has the same outstanding art work.
Hi Brian,
Yeah, there’s some fun stuff out there that doesn’t get much press. Glad you are enjoying the reviews. moonOS is definitely cool. Let me know how you like the LXDE version if you try it.
I tried out MoonOS 2 recently and was pleased with it. I like the feel of E17. The only problem I had with it involved reading my other hard drives. The live Cd mounted all my drives and parttions with no problems. But I missed a step on the install somewher. The other drives would show in the places gadget and in the MNT folder but I could not get them to mount even as root. I also prefer the itask-ng module over the regular shelf for launching applications.
I think MoonOS is the best of the Enlightenment Distros (OpenGEU, OzOS, Elive, Maryan etc). I’m pretty sure the “Light of Free Operating System” is a translation issue.
Thanks for this review with the nice screenshots. Good to know about this Linux distribution.
But I have one remaining question, why did you use the proprietary software VMware and Parallels, and why not the open source VirtualBox instead ?
The Moon tools look very much like Mint tools – or is it just me?
Albinootje, I have all three available on my computers (Parallels, VMWare and VirtualBox). I float back and forth depending on the distro though I lean toward VMWare solely out of habit. VirtualBox is great too though.
I grabbed moonOS 3, Makara, and I am using the standard E17 Enlightenment version with Virtualbox 3.0.6 on Debian Lenny. It did not take long at all to load and it runs pretty well, and it is indeed very attractive.
The LXDE version, as far as I can tell right now, is limited to Version 2 – I grabbed that and will give it a try as well.
Hi, Jim.
Thanks for your informative review of MoonOS. It looks interesting, and I’m downloading it now to check it out for myself.
By the way, “it’s” (with the apostrophe) means “it is.” I think there were a couple of places in the review where you meant to use “its” (no apostrophe). :)
Thanks again.
Tony
Hi Jim, great review by the way, just one question: do i need glasses because i can’t find the install icon or anything looking like an option to install to the hard drive like in MoonOS 2?
Kind regards
James
P.s I’m opening a new cafe/holistic centre soon and i think i might use MoonOS as the colour scheme! It’s very beautifully zen.