MakuluLinux 4.2 Review: Refreshing all purpose Debian spin but has some minor bugs!

For last 4-5 days, I was busy in testing a couple of pretty good XFCE distros - MakuluLinux and Voyager 13.10. Actually I am bit tired of reviewing the established names in the Linux world - they come pretty much configured to work on commonly available systems and there is very little surprise in store. Of late, the new and relatively unknown distros seem more appealing to me due to a couple of reasons: A. they try to ship some additional elements over and above the established names, B. they are not as ready to use as the established distros and challenge a bit of my limited Linux knowledge to make them work.

Though neither Makulu, nor Voyager are in the B group, but both of them come across as exciting distros worth exploring in my test use. I start with Makulu Linux 4.2 with XFCE 4.10 desktop. In my next review I'll focus on Voyager 13.10.

From Makulu Linux 4.2 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Actually I was not much aware of MakuluLinux before this review and hence, I thought a short introduction (from Distrowatch) deem necessary. MakuluLinux is a South African distro based on Debian testing branch and ships with most of the commonly used DEs like Cinnamon, KDE, GNOME, XFCE, Mate, etc. It includes pre-installed multimedia codecs, plugins, device drivers and software for everyday use. Makulu means "big" in Zulu language and it is amply evident with a big hippopotamus as their distro icon!

For this review I downloaded the 32-bit ISO (a whopping "big" 1.9 GB in size). I created a live USB using Unetbootin with a 4 GB USB drive. For this test, I used Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor, 2 GB DDR RAM and Intel HD 3000 graphics. I did a live boot followed by installation on a 12 GB partition.

MakuluLinux is based on Debian testing ("Debian Jessie") and ships with Linux kernel 3.10.3 and XFCE 4.10. In the following sections, I'll discuss the interesting features of MakuluLinux that compelled me to write this review.

Read more!

Kubuntu 12.04.3 Review: Good but AWESOME with KDE 4.11

Kubuntu 12.04 LTS received a new update a couple of weeks ago and I have been using it for last two weeks. I installed it on a partition in my Asus K54C laptop with Core i3 2.2 Ghz processor and 2 GB RAM. There is no separate graphic card option in this machine except Intel proprietary graphic card which came along with it.

The latest update came with some significant changes like drivers for the new Haswell processors, out of the box support for NVIDIA and AMD Raedon graphic cards, and a lot of bug fixes. However, unlike Ubuntu 12.04.3, updated Linux kernel 3.8.0 is not available to Kubuntu LTS yet - still running on LTS kernel 3.2.0. Unfortunately I don't have any laptop beyond Ivy Bridge and hence could check Kubuntu's latest update on systems with the most recent Haswell processors. Otherwise, in this write up I take you through my experience of Kubuntu for about 10 days.

From Kubuntu 12.04.3 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Kubuntu 12.04.3 32-bit ISO is about 738 MB in size and I did a live boot followed by installation to my Asus K54C for this review. By default, it ships with KDE 4.8.5, which is still the stable release of KDE. It worked well but I decided to install KDE 4.11. My previous experience with KDE 4.11 in OS4 OpenLinux was really fantastic and I wanted to try it out in Kubuntu as well.

Read more!

Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS Review: With much smoother Unity but no web apps yet!

Ubuntu is and always will be a special distro to me as my experience with Linux began with Ubuntu. I used it till 11.04 release, as long as the GNOME classic option was there and it supported customization. However, with Unity taking precedence in Ubuntu's flagship distro, I shifted to Linux Mint and other Ubuntu spins (with XFCE or KDE desktops). 



But, with the 12.04 release I started using Ubuntu with Unity 5 in patches again. I faced bouts of instability though initially with the LTS release. Things got a bit better in Ubuntu 12.04.1 which impressed me a lot and in one of my production  laptops, I switched back to Ubuntu again. This month Ubuntu released the 3rd update for the LTS release (Ubuntu 12.04.3). Surprisingly, there is no detailed release note yet. However, I try to take you through my experience with the present release and some of the improvements that I noted.

From Ubuntu 12.04.3 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Ubuntu 12.04.3 comes with Unity 5 (Unity 5.20.0) and an upgraded Linux kernel 3.8.0; previous update had kernel 3.5.0. However, unlike Ubuntu 13.04, there is no Unity 7 in this update. I like the social networking features & social network integration in dash of Unity 7 and I miss those things in Ubuntu Precise. But, in terms of performance, possibly Unity 5 is more efficient. I'll cover a bit more on it in the performance section.

For this review, I did a live boot followed by installation of Ubuntu 12.04.3 32-bit version in my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. I generally don't prefer yet 64 bit versions as they are less efficient and rely more on 32-bit versions with pae kernel. The live USB was created using Unetbootin and I used a 4 GB USB drive for the same.

Read more!

Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" Review: Sizzling with Unity 7 but does it warrant an upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04/Ubuntu 12.10?

Let me start with where I left off in my review of Ubuntu 13.04 beta 2. To me, as an user, it appeared to be an updated version of Quantal (12.10) and nothing more. However, I ended with a note that possibly by the time of release Ubuntu will come up with something really spectacular like Smart Scopes. I must say, I am a bit disappointed with Ubuntu in the absence of Smart scopes. I heard that it is still unstable and possibly, would release with Ubuntu 13.10.

From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

With that expectation, I downloaded the Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail 32-bit ISO, about 833 MB in size and was quick to install in my Asus K54C with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM, once the release note came in Distrowatch. I'll take you through my experience of a couple of days with the latest release of Ubuntu.

Read more!

Puppy Linux 5.4 "Precise" Review: Amazing is a lesser word for it!

Last week I was really busy testing out the Ubuntu Quantal Quetzal releases on my Core i3 and Core i7 laptops. Lubuntu, inarguably, was the fastest of the lot and I was amazed by the speed it offered. However, there is a desktop in my house, from my student days, a 2.4 GHz Pentium IV (single core), 1.5 GB DDR RAM PC. Mostly it is used by my kid to watch rhymes or my wife/parents check their mails. I no longer use it for any production work. It runs Bodhi Linux but struggles a bit to play media files even in Bodhi. Last month I tested quite a few modern distros, but except Bodhi none of them did actually work smoothly on it. There is also a separate installation of Linux Mint Julia on it - just to play live stream of television channels or sports matches. Adobe flash plugin 11 actually runs really slow on my system and Julia still has flash plugin 10.

From Puppy Precise 5.4

From Puppy Precise 5.4

Why I am giving so much of an intro? Because yesterday I booted up Puppy Precise 5.4 on it and was floored by the speed and multi-tasking ability it offered! Amazing is a lesser word for it! I don't think I've ever used any distro faster than this on the Intel P4 PC that I have!


From Lucid Puppy to Precise Puppy, interface remains more or less the same - JWM desktop manager, but it is more refined in Precise. Booting time has reduced perceivably, wifi and display settings (1366x768) are picked up automatically now - no need for any manual settings. It has really a long list of applications to offer and you can access to Ubuntu repositories to download more!

From Puppy Precise 5.4

From Puppy Precise 5.4

From Puppy Precise 5.4

Applications

Puppy Precise 5.4 ISO is around 165 MB but if you look at the application list, it'll keep you amazed! It may not have all your preferred applications but it has at least one app for your every computing need. Puppy has a long list of applications - some of the major ones are mentioned below:

• Office: Abiword wordprocessor, Gnumeric spreadsheets, PDF creator & viewer, calculator, some financial tools, etc.
• Graphics: Mtpaint, scanner, JPEG Resizer, webcam tool, etc.
• Internet: Seamonkey browser with flash support, IRC chat, bit-torrent client, IP telephone, download manager, etc.
• Multimedia: Gnome MPlayer with all codecs, Music player, Blu-ray DVD player, Audio CD ripper, ISO editor/creator, etc. 

Audio-video codecs are in-built and things work out of the box. Immediately after booting, I could watch movies and listen to music without any hassle. Online live stream and youtube videos work really well with Puppy. Puppy uses Adobe flash plugin 10, which is a better option for hardware with limited capacity.

From Puppy Precise 5.4

Repositories

Puppy Precise 5.4 offers both Ubuntu Precise repositories as well as Puppy Precise apps. I downloaded VLC 2.0.3, GIMP 2.8, Pidgin, etc. from the repositories and they worked without any dependency issues. So, in nutshell, majority of the Ubuntu applications should work on Puppy Precise.

From Puppy Precise 5.4

From Puppy Precise 5.4

How Puppy performs on modern hardwares? 
 
Understandably Puppy worked well with my antiquated system - but, isn't it supposed to work in that way? What's so great about it? How about a really really modern system? With these questions in mind I booted it up on my Asus K55V with Core i7 3rd generation processor and 8 GB RAM. To my amazement it worked equally good there as well - detected wifi within one or two setting changes, detected the touchpad automatically, played media files out of the box and I could browse youtube videos without requiring to download anything extra! Most amazing part - it detected my 8 GB RAM as well! So, the same Puppy can work on both 32-bit and 64-bit machines with equal efficiency. That is commendable!

And think about it, only a 165 MB distro! Truly, amazing is a less word for Puppy.

CPU and RAM Usage

Puppy Linux boots up entirely on RAM and the specs required for it to run is very low. I have run Puppy even on 128 MB RAM desktops. Puppy Precise takes about 47-48 MB RAM to load and have 0-2% CPU usage.

From Puppy Precise 5.4

Even with Flash video running on Seamonkey browser, the RAM consumption is well below 230 MB and CPU usage ~4%. In the picture below, you can see that it detects the 8 GB RAM in my 64-bit Core i7 laptop.

From Puppy Precise 5.4

Carry your own desktop wherever you go
 
Now with Puppy Precise live usb boot, I downloaded VLC Player, virtualbox, Skype 4, and a host of other familiar applications and saved them to the USB drive only before exiting. I can carry my computer with preferred set of applications in my USB only!

So, you can understand Puppy Precise is amazing! Offering the versatility of Ubuntu within an ultra-lightweight OS!

Pain areas in Puppy Precise
 
Is everything good about Puppy? Possibly no - there are improvement areas as well. Agreed that the operating system is highly functional and is more refined in Puppy Precise, but still there are improvement areas in terms of looks. Also, Quickpets were very handy in Puppy Lucid but are not there in Puppy Precise, though SFS downloader is there to download few applications like GIMP 2.8, Opera, Nvidia drivers, etc. I miss Quickpets!

From Puppy Precise 5.4

Second, settings has too lengthy a list and also spread all over the place. These days most of the Linux operating systems are going for an integrated settings window and it is easier to use. Puppy, too, can have an integrated settings tab where I can find all the settings menu and choose which one I need to edit.

Third, it is a pain to take snapshots. Key button to take screenshot doesn't work and every time I had to scroll down the menu to take it. Added pain is that every time it kept me waiting for 13 seconds to take the desired screenshot! A smarter snapshot tool is urgently required in Puppy Linux! <---One correction - earlier I was using mtpaint-snapshot capture and it is painful. But, there is also another program Screeny, it is better and doesn't take 13 sec! However, the Print Screen button of keyboard still doesn't work!-->

Fourth, live usb works perfect but if I have to install it to hard disc along with other Linux operating systems, editing the grub requires some technical expertise and may not be be very conducive for Linux newbies.

Fifth, Puppy Linux never asks for any password by default, as the user login is by default as root. Hence, there is always a security concern in my mind though firewall and encryption options are there. The last distro I used which never asked any password to install any software, was Windows XP and I had such a nightmare with it that I now hate anything that even looks like XP! It may be only me but somehow I am more comfortable if the distro asks for password before installing any application.

Overall

In overall, Puppy Precise is an amazing combo offering best of both the worlds. No other distro works faster and offers a complete range of applications as Puppy Precise. It is definitely the best Puppy Linux ever and is recommended to anyone looking for a solid stable operating system with lots and lots of speed!

My association with Puppy Linux dates back couple of years ago. My parents have a PC (P4 with 128 MB RAM) with a damaged hard disc. They were about to sell it as scrap. But, I bought couple of 16 GB USB drives and installed Lucid Puppy in one of the USBs and used the second one as a storage. It is still working and good enough for most of their limited use! And the speed it offered can make my Core i7 with 8 GB RAM running Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon, hide in shame! Such is the power of Puppy Linux! And did I mention that Puppy Linux "Precise" is long term support OS with 5 years of support? That is truly icing on the cake!

24 Oct: I received a few queries on how to install Puppy Precise 5.4 on hard drive. Assuming you already have a Linux OS (like Ubuntu, Mint or Debian, etc.) installed, below set of instructions will give you a Puppy Linux boot option in Grub:

1. Note the partition where Puppy Precise is installed - opt for frugal installation
2. Go to your Main Linux OS (in case of multi-OS computers) and type the following command in the terminal
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
Note the uuid of your hard drive where Puppy frugal installation.
3. Edit grub by the following command:
sudo gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom
 
Edit the 40_custom file to enter a menuentry. Say  I installed  Puppy Precise in sdb1 (with uuid 5ddaba1b-a977-4409-a78d-09f6993275a8) in root (hd1,0) folder /precise5.4frugal then my menuentry will be:

menuentry "Puppy Linux 5.4 (frugal on sdb1)" {
set root='(hd1,0)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5ddaba1b-a977-4409-a78d-09f6993275a8 linux /precise5.4frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=precise5.4frugal initrd /precise5.4frugal/initrd.gz
}
4. Update grub by sudo update-grub
5. Reboot and you'll see Puppy Linux as one of grub entries.
6. Happy puppying! Woof! Woof! If you need further details, please visit my article on how to modify grub in Puppy frugal installation.   

28-Oct-12:
Puppy Precise is now the primary OS in my HP Pentium 4, 1.5 GB DDR RAM PC, along with Lubuntu as a backup. It runs with fantastic speed and stability. However, somehow I could not make a lot of programs from Ubuntu repo work even after resolving dependencies. But, a bit of research on Puppy Linux and Lucid Puppy packages came to the rescue. Puppy Linux documentation wasn't that helpful - more help came from the murga-linux forums. I downloaded sfs/pet files of Java, VLC, Chromium, Opera, Firefox, Asunder, Audacity, Audacious and a whole lot of other programs. 

Further, the Puppy Precise desktop theme actually bored me a lot. Hence, I downloaded a lot of icon themes and JWM themes from different Puppy version repositories, changed the desktop wallpaper, added quite a few icons, changed default programs and finally to match the background, changed the icon font colors as well. Currently my Puppy Precise desktop looks like this! 

From Puppy Precise 5.4

 I am trying to add a conky as well. Lucid conky didn't work that well in Precise, may be I need to tinker a bit with it. Will keep you posted once I resolve the conky and make it work.

Read more!

Ubuntu distros: RAM & CPU usage of Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu & Lubuntu

An interesting suggestion came for comparing the RAM & CPU usage of the four Linux sisters: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Kubuntu 12.04 LTS, Xubuntu 12.04 LTS & Lubuntu 12.04 LTS.

As mentioned in my previous post, Ubuntu seemed to be the most taxing on CPU & RAM whereas Lubuntu seemed to be the least. The same results are validated when I booted each of them from pen drive and checked the RAM & CPU usage.

Distro	Xubuntu 12.04 LTS	Ubuntu 12.04 LTS	Kubuntu 12.04 LTS	Lubuntu 12.04 LTS
CPU Usage	6%-10%	17%-18%	3%-10%	1%-11%
RAM Usage	130 MiB	340 MiB	235 MiB	126 MiB

In nutshell, Lubuntu uses least RAM and CPU. Xubuntu is very close to Lubuntu. Kubuntu lies somewhere in the middle with about 235 MiB RAM usage and Ubuntu, of course, with the effects of Unity (2D here) and other graphics, uses about 50% more RAM than Kubuntu.

Limitations: All these are without any programs running and booted from pen drive. After installation and updating, the actual RAM & CPU usage may be slightly higher.

17-May-2012:

One additional comment: Please check my review on Linux Mint 13 LTS with Gnome 2 before deciding on what distro you would like to install.

Read more!

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin: The HUD effect

To begin with, I won't go into much of technical nitty gritty - you can check it from the ubuntu website itself.

My blog is from end user perspective. I'll share some cool screen shots of ubuntu and highlight the essential improvement ubuntu has made in it's cool new distro.

Unity interface was bad in Ubuntu 11.10 to be honest and I didn't like it at all. I preferred staying back with Ubuntu Natty 11.04 which I thought was the best Ubuntu distro released. Till I came across Ubuntu Precise.

Unity looks really good in Precise and doesn't feel heavy (like I felt while installing 11.10). Menu is redefined like 11.10 which many users didn't like.

Agreed it may be unsettling initially but once you get used to it, the left side tool bar and the new menu option is quite handy, especially if you have installed too many programs.

Bundled Softwares

Games
AisleRiot Solitaire
FreeCell Solitaire
Mahjongg Mines
Sudoku

Graphics
Document Viewer
Image Viewer
LibreOffice Draw
Shotwell Photo Manager
Simple Scan

Internet
Desktop Sharing
Empathy
Firefox
Gwibber
Remmina
Thunderbird
Transmission

Multimedia
Brasero Disc Burner
Movie Player
Rhythmbox
Sound Recorder

Office
Document Viewer
LibreOffice


New Features

• HUD
• Video Lens
• Linux Kernel 3.2.*
• UbuntuOne with a control panel

I have kept HUD at the very last intentionally. HUD is really futuristic.

Regular Features

Firefox 12.0 is the default browser but you can download Chrome from Ubuntu Software Center.

Adobe Flash is not installed by default but you can download either from Software center or from the Adobe website itself.  Similarly some handy internet tools like Skype, photoshop softwares like Gimp, etc. needs to be downloaded after installation.

Office productivity suite is LibreOffice and after using Office 2010 in my work computer and the amount of time wasted in opening and saving a document, I prefer LibreOffice more than Office 2010. Functionality and productivity options are same in both, you can automate both using VBA; but LibreOffice is very fast, loads within seconds and is easier to use. Now you can save your documents in LibreOffice format and open in Office 2010 as well!

LibreOffice has Writer (like Word), Calc (like Excel), Impress (like Powerpoint) and Base (Access) along with Draw (somewhat like visio). All in all, a complete office suite. No need for anything else.

For viewing media, however, I don't like the default player. VLC is my preferred choice and you can download VLC from Software Center or directly from website. VLC plays any and every kind of media.

Instant messenger softwares are in abundance for Ubuntu and you can choose between pidgin or empathy. Gwibber is a good Facebook & Twitter client and Thunderbird is a really good email client.

Functionality-wise Ubuntu always has been a complete package. Coming on to the eye-candy part - Ubuntu too is in the Apple mode. Like Mac OS X has a docky, the side bar has similar functionality. You can put your most commonly used programs there. Plus all open programs would be visible there.

Some linux experts simply hate Unity. But users like me, whose Windows desktop would always be full of shortcuts, definitely dig this idea. Instead of going through a long list of menu, the Unity side bar kind of helps increasing efficiency.

I like Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for it's cool transparent looks and Ubuntu has created a new identity from a boring linux desktop (of course, you can make it look like anything, from Mac to Windows, like I made my 11.04 desktop look like a Mac) to a true competitor to Mac and Windows - it has come a long way. And in HUD, it has surpassed it's competition.

Now I guess Ubuntu can capture some market share from Linux Mint :).

All the results shown above are after booting from a pen drive. Now I am installing Ubuntu Precise to my desktop. Already my Asus Eee PC 1101HA, from which I am typing this entry, has Xubuntu 12.04 LTS and it is the fastest OS I ever had on my netbook. Why I installed Xubuntu? I wanted to try it and I wanted something less resource intensive. That's it!

Once I install Precise to my PC, I'll update this blog entry - hopefully tomorrow.

HUD, finally


28th April 2012, 12:45 PM IST:
Ubuntu is installed to my system, without any hassles. Only I had to blacklist poulsbo. It connected to my earthlink broadband without any problem and downloaded some 400 mb updates with new linux kernel.

I am unable to run Unity 3D due to system limitation but Unity 2D gives pretty decent performance. Of course, I have installed xubuntu-desktop as an additional backup.

The best thing I like about Precise is HUD. Going away from the standard menu that we see across all OSs and coming up with something so different is absolutely path-breaking. I hope I'll come to see more on this line in future versions.

All in all, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is a neat distro which can take on any operating system in the world with it's path-breaking Unity and HUD. Kudos to the developers for coming up with such a refined OS.

Read more!

Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin LTS: Review of the next gen OS

Well, I was pretty much disheartened with Ubuntu 11.10 not really clicking with my 9 year old PC. It's specs were impressive in 2003 but not now. 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 single core processor with 1 GB DDR RAM and 200 GB IDE HDD - nothing to boast of today.

Ubuntu 11.10 with Unity won't load on my system. So, I had to be contended with Ubuntu 11.04 (which ran real smooth in classic mode!). Today I thought of testing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS loaded on a pen-drive. It took some time to load from the pen-drive (around 5 min.) but the programs ran real smooth after loading.

I am posting this blog entry from 12.04 LTS only!

I used to hate Unity till I used this baby! Unity had its glitches in 11.04 & 11.10 but it looks really polished in 12.04 LTS. Mind it, 12.04 is still beta and by the time final distro comes out, I guess it will be more refined.

Below are a few snaps of the distro (running on a 4 GB pen-drive) from my desktop.

With a little bit of background change (one of my favorite wallpapers).

The uber-cool transparent Dash-home giving the different options. I migrated from Ubuntu 11.04 to 12.04 and did not see much noticeable changes in the application list. Rhythmbox music player, of course, replaces the previous Banshree music player and we have a few new programs like Archive manager. Tomboy notes is gone but the usual applications like Libreoffice suit (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw), Firefox 10.0, Empathy, Gwibber, etc. are all there. VLC, Chrome and Cheese would have been a nice addition to the list but I'll manually download these apps once I start using 12.04 on a regular basis.

Finally the system specs! Frankly, my system crashed at Windows XP SP3, it can't handle it! That's when I started using Ubuntu a year back and became a fan of it. Super cool Ubuntu 12.04 loads like a charm without any glitch on this antiquated configuration and runs with a decent speed.

I hope this gives a glimpse how improved the OS is as of now. Loading Unity was not at all possible in Ubuntu's earlier versions but 12.04 LTS runs superbly smooth. Thanks to the developers at Canonical for coming up with this upgrade. Amazing!

Read more!

Precise Pangolin - Ubuntu 12.04 CD images are out

You can download Ubuntu 12.04 beta from here.


But the CD image is over 700 mb (which the developers claim is a bug) and hence, needs to be burn in a DVD or a Pen drive to try it out. Further, it is a long term version.

I am eager to try it out next week. Unity would be there along with Gnome. Though I prefer LXDE for speed but definitely I would try it out and put a few snapshots of the beta build.

Hope it will be fun, as it has always been with Ubuntu. I tried several Linux distros; some have more speed than Ubuntu but nothing seems more complete and so easy to install like an Ubuntu distro. For a new Windows to Linux convert, Ubuntu is simply the best and miles ahead of other distros. My personal opinion, of course.

Read more!