Desktop Linux Reviews

The recent release of Linux Mint 12 has gotten quite a bit of attention. Most reviews of Linux Mint 12 have focused mainly on the GNOME 3 desktop (as pointed out in the comments of my Linux Mint 12 GNOME 3 review by reader liquidkermit). But there’s another desktop environment included in Linux Mint 12 called MATE.

The moment so many have waited for is finally here. Linux Mint 12 has been released! This update to Linux Mint has had many people on edge since it marks the move from the older version of GNOME to GNOME 3.2. GNOME 3.2, as you might already know, has had many detractors. Linux Mint users have wondered how on earth such a popular distribution would make a transition to such a reviled and hated desktop interface.

openSUSE is one of the most popular desktop distros available. This time around it’s version 12.1 that has been released. If you aren’t familiar with openSUSE then you should know that it comes in KDE, GNOME, Xfce and LXDE versions. For this review I’ve picked the KDE version of openSUSE 12.1. I may do a quick look at the GNOME version on Eye On Linux later though.

Yet another Ubuntu release is upon us. This time around it’s Oneiric Ocelot (Ubuntu 11.10). Canonical, as you may already know, tends to name its release after various kinds of animals. The ocelot is a dwarf leopard that dwells in South and Central America and Mexico. The other part of the name is the word “oneiric” which essentially means “relating to dreams” according to the Merrian-Webster dictionary.

The release of Ubuntu 11.10 also means that all of the related spins have also been updated, including Kubuntu 11.10.

Many people have expressed dissatisfaction with Ubuntu after Canonical added Unity to it. Kubuntu has often been mentioned as a possible replacement for Ubuntu for users who dislike Unity and want to move to another environment. Does Kubuntu 11.10 work well as a replacement for Ubuntu 11.10? We’ll find out in this review.

Mandriva had been around a long time and is a popular desktop distribution. I was intrigued to find that Mandriva now has a fork called Mageia. The first release of Mageia came out recently and I finally found some time to sit down and give it a go. Mageia was created by former Mandriva contributors. For more background, be sure to read the original announcement about Mageia.

The last time I looked at Sabayon Linux it was up to version 5, this time around it’s version 6. Sabayon Linux is based on Gentoo and, as you may already know, Gentoo has not always been considered the easiest version of desktop Linux for non-technical users to install and use. Sabayon Linux does a pretty good job of making Gentoo available to those who simply want to install and use Gentoo without having to roll their own or otherwise deal with Gentoo’s potential headaches.

Fedora 15 was recently released and I decided to snag a copy to review. Since there are a billion reviews already of the default desktop version with GNOME 3, I’ll be covering the KDE version in this review (though I may circle back to the GNOME version at some point for a review). As I noted in my column “The Many Faces of Fedora,” there are quite a lot of Fedora spins now available. You can get spins that focus on gaming, design, security or that use different desktops (such as LXDE, KDE, Xfce or GNOME).

There’s been quite a lot of talk about “the cloud” lately so what better time to do a review of one of the best cloud-oriented desktop Linux distributions? Peppermint OS One came out a while ago and its successor has just been released. Peppermint OS Two is based on Lubuntu 11.04 and, for the first time, comes in a 64-bit edition. Lubuntu is a good choice as a base for Peppermint OS Two since it runs well on older or slower hardware.

In one of my last reviews I covered Linux Mint 201104 Xfce, a distribution featuring the Xfce desktop environment that is based on Debian Testing. Linux Mint 201104 is a rolling release distro. Rolling release distros are great for some folks but not so great for others. In this review I cover Xubuntu 11.04, an Ubuntu derivative that also features the Xfce environment. Xubuntu 11.04 is not a rolling release distro though; it follows the same release pattern as Ubuntu and the rest of its official derivatives.

Each time a new version of Ubuntu is released, a new version of Linux Mint quickly follows. Linux Mint 11 has just been released and it’s probably the best version of Linux Mint ever. If you aren’t familiar with Linux Mint then you’ve missed out on what is arguably one of the best desktop Linux distros available. Linux Mint 11 is based on Ubuntu 11.04 but it takes that distro to a whole new level, as you’ll see in this review.

Linux Mint Debian Edition has proven to be a popular release for the Linux Mint developers. It’s certainly at the top of my list of favorite distros. Linux Mint Debian edition uses the GNOME desktop and, as good as it is, it’s just not right for some folks (especially those on older or slower computers). Enter Linux Mint 201104 Xfce version. Now you can get the benefits of a rolling Debian distro and the virtues of the lightweight Xfce desktop environment. Linux Mint Xfce runs on top of a Debian Testing base and makes use of the same repositories as regular Linux Mint Debian Edition.

In my last review I considered Kubuntu 11.04 as an alternative to Ubuntu for disgruntled Ubuntu users. But there’s another Ubuntu derivative that should be taken into consideration as well: Lubuntu 11.04.

Lubuntu uses the LXDE desktop environment, a much simpler and faster alternative to Unity, GNOME and KDE. Lubuntu also users PCmanfm as its file manager, and comes with Chromium as its default browser. Openbox is Lubuntu’s window manager.

Until now Lubuntu has been considered an “unofficial” Ubuntu derivative but that’s about to change with the eventual release of Lubuntu 11.10.

The release of Ubuntu 11.04 has garnered an enormous amount of attention, mostly due to the inclusion of Unity as its default desktop environment. But, as with any new version of Ubuntu, there are alternatives available and one of the most prominent is Kubuntu. Kubuntu 11.04 is a KDE-based distro that might work well as a substitute for those who are uncomfortable with Ubuntu’s Unity.

Ubuntu’s latest release (code named Natty Narwhal) is finally out and I grabbed a copy of it to check it out. Canonical has gotten some flack for this release since it uses Unity as the default desktop instead of the usual GNOME interface. Some users seem to love it and others have vowed to switch away from Ubuntu and find some other distribution as their main desktop Linux.

Only time will tell if Unity brings in more Ubuntu users than it drives away. The jury is still out on that one and will be for quite some time, but I shared some of my thoughts a while back in a column on EOL called “Unity: Ubuntu’s Descent Into Madness!”