Sabayon 8

Sabayon is an Italian linux distribution amed after an Italian dessert, zabaione. Sabayon is based on Gentoo linux and therefore it is a rolling release. Sabayon believes in out of the box philosophy and works silky smooth. Lets have look around it

Sabyon supports several cpu architectures and is available in every desktop environment and by the way there is a gamming edition though.

The package management is done through either portege(inherited from gentoo) and Entropy . Entropy is very nice package manager . The GUI version is called Rigo which is not so great its like add and remove software centre.

All in all, Sabayon works out of the box wine is preinstalled for your windows apps and mp3 works dandy. It works without any lag. So, it is powerful distribution which is able to satisfy most of the needs so its recomended to everyone esp. the XFCE edition.

Open your wings with Flightgear

Flight gear is an open source flight simulator. You can actually fly different kinds of aircraft starting from Airbus A380 to Wright Flyer.

The system requirments are a 2-3ghz cpu, a OpenGl 2.1 compatible card with 1gb memory, 1-2 gb ram and 8-10 gb harddisk space

The latest version is 2.6 . You can fly small gliders, commercial airliners, warbirds, helicopters, fighters, fictional planes, and airships , there is also an Nimitz class aircraft carrier.

In my opinion its an wonderful application/game and is available for Linux, BSD, MAC and Windows.

Overview: Fedora 17 beta

Fedora as all of you know is community project sponsered by Red Hat. The last stable release was 16 verne it was extremely stable. The downside of the last release is gnome 3.2 . Gnome 3.2 requires 3D acceleration. Experienced users do not like the interface. Now with latest gnome 3.4 fedora has tried to address those issuses now there is no need of 3D acceleration. Gnome 3.4 user experience is better than 3.2.The Ext4 now supports upto 16TB. Awaiting for the final release.

Mageia 2

Mageia is an awesome linux distribution. Mageia 2 have been released. Mageia is a fork of Mandriva 2010 since then the devlopers of Mageia put a lot of hardwork to put up this release. Mageia is currently available in KDE, GNOME, LXDE, XFCE Razor-qt and E17 other lightweight window mangers such as IceWM, WindowMaker etc are also available.

The installation process is bit difficult but not a great deal. There is good selection of software available by defalt. The GUI package manager is rpmdrake. There are three sets of repositrys availavble ::
Core: For free software and drivers
Non free: This includes nonfree proprietary drivers and free of charge proprietary software this is not enabled by default
Tainted: The Tainted repository includes packages released under a free license. The main criteria for placing packages in this repository is that they may infringe on patents and copyright laws in some countries, this repo is also not enabled by default.

Mageia 2 is bit laggy to run but all in all its very nice operting system to try out for everyone.

LINUX MINT 13 MAYA

Linux mint 13 codenamed maya has been released. Linux mint as all of you know is based on ubuntu and maya is no exception it is based on ubuntu 12.04 precise pangolin which was released last month. Linux Mint 13 will also be long term release and will be supported till april 2017.

The installation process is easy but took a little long than ubuntu. The login screen is MDM which is based on GDM 2.20 and its very functional and linux mint team says it is the best display manager available. Now for desktop environment you have two options Mate and Cinnamon.

The Mate desktop is fork of gnome 2. Mate picked up things where gnome 2 left and is evolving since then and there is mintmenu which is the best menu in my opinion, which was absent in last release. Mate is currently 1.2 the software available with mate is of gtk and is forked and renamed. As linux mint team says Mate is the best desktop environment available.

Cinnamon is based on gnome 3 and uses gtk3 libraries. Cinnamon is currently at 1.4 and is under heavy devlopment. Cinnamon has many functionalites like gnome2 in which gnome3 falls short. Cinnamon can be easily be tweaked using cinnamon settings. As far the look and feel its looks very modern with mint -z dark theme. The scale and expo effects are quite smooth and handy. The menu is functional and you can actually drop drag icons here and there but, I am little bit dissapointed because its not anything like mintmenu in mate.

The software centre is also functional and there is synaptic . The software available are essentially the same that of ubuntu. The mint is absolutly stable but, it takes a while to startup ; its not a major issue. Otherwise, it runs silky smooth.

Mint has already topped the distrowatch ranking. Cinnamon and Mate is not as functional as unity in ubuntu but with active devlopment I am sure mint will outsmart unity. Its definately worth checking and good replacement for proprietary software esp. Mikros0ft windeos .

My new blog

I have created a new blog jetlinux.wordpress.com please visit, read and comment

Parabola: free your arch

Arch linux as all of you know is simple yet most advanced linux operating system. It has taken a new avatar(fork) Parabola linux .Parabola is essentially arch it just excludes non free software. Parabola is a free software. Free software means software that you can use, share, modify and redistribute.

Slackware quick review

Slackware is one of the oldest linux distribution. It was released by Patrick Volkerdin in 1993 since then it has devloped into one of the simple yet powerpacked distribution.

The latest release is 13.37. Slackware do not have any release schedule they release when they feel its stable enough. As far stability is concerned its very stable. Slackware can used in variety of workloads starting from desktops to servers.

Slackware have K Desktop Environment or KDE which looks absolutely modern and other kde software including KOffice. So, recomended audience for slackware is intermediate or advanced users. Click here to download

SNOWLINUX 2 "Ice'' quick review

Snowlinux is a free easy to use linux distribution. The recently released version is 2 ice which was released on 21/05/2012.

Snowlinux 2 "ice'' is based on debian 6 'squeeze' therefore, packages are bit old but highly stable. Snowlinux is available in gnome, kde, xfce and lxde. It aims to be user-friendly, incorporating many useful tweaks and carefully selected software applications. The snowlinux themeing makes it looks modern.

Those who are looking for stability but modern look and feel must consider this distro . Download it here.

Dream studio 12.04 quick review

Dream studio is a linux distribution based on ubuntu. The main aim of dream studio is media creation and editing with style.

Latest edition is 12.04 it sports unity desktop and includes various apps such as GIMP, DARKTABLE, CINELERRA, SCRIBUS, INKSCAPE, BLENDER etc .

Dream studio is good alternative to traditional ubuntu studio which is based on xfce. I think its very powerful platform for media production so if you are new to linux and do some serious or casual media editing its a good place to start.

OpenSuse 12.1

Open suse is free operating sytem build on top of linux kernel. openSUSE is sponsered by SUSE PROFFESSIONAL LINUX.

Open suse by default sports KDE desktop but there is gnome, xfce, and lxde desktop to choose from .Open SUSE is one of the first distribution to use btrfs filesystem instead of traditional ext4. Advantage of using btrfs is its snapshopt and rollback capability using the tool called snapper. One of the main features of openSUSE is YasT control center it makes your configuring computer really easy. Software installation is done through Zypper and on GUI side there is again YasT which is technically beautiful.

Performance wise openSUSE is decently smooth and responsive and stability wise its rock solid stable. So definately give a try.

MANDRIVA 2011

Mandriva is french linux distribution. The latest edition is 2011. Mandriva is one of oldest linux distribution previously it was known as Mandrake linux.

Mandriva is originally based on RHEL but it has now become independent. Its pack manager os urpmi and on the GUI side there is rpm drake.

Mandriva 2011 is officially supports only KDE. Looks and feel its awesome. KDE here looks like pretty bride. The menu is called take of menu which takes up the whole screen which includes timeline that displays when your photos or videos are stored that is a great convinence. One thing that I dont like is the scrolling through the menu is like walking with a hurt leg. The default music player is clementine the mp3 worked well but not the flash. Mandriva gives you 2GB cloud storage as Mandriva sync which works dandy.

As far stability is concerned it not so stable but usable. You can give it a try .

PCLINUX OS

PC linux os is an open source linux operating system. And I have to say its cool enough or as they say " cool ice cubes are jealous''.

Pc linux os is based on mandrake linux 9.2 in 2003 and again use the codes of mandriva in 2006 since then it has become a beast of its own. The idea behind pclinux is simple nonarrogant experience.

PCLOS is offered in KDE, XFCE and LXDE environments. It is also avilable in so called FULL MONTY DESKTOP it has basically KDE with different customised desktop for genral, office, multimedia, settings.

PCLOS is a rolling release means just install it once and update it you will get latest software and need not to worry to reinstall in every 6 months or so. Now package managment is done through rpm and on GUI side there is synaptic package manager, in my opinion synaptic is ok but there should be something like ubuntu software center or so. The packages is not bleeding edge but decently new. One of the great thing of PCLOS is the control centre it looks great and you can find every setting easily.

The experience with PCLOS is good it works dandy but here and there it lags because its a heavier distribution and includes every drivers and codecs the fully monty edition is fantastic to use for windows refugees.

so definately give PCLOS a try especially if you are looking for something that is easy to use and looks modern and Cool B-)

Cent OS

Community enterprise os or Cent Os is a derivative or clone of RHEL. Cent OS is superb distribution for use in servers, buisness where getting the job done is main priority or even at home.

Cent OS presently has two versions 6.2 & 5.8 in both 32 bit and 64 bit. Cent OS uses the old faithfull gnome 2 desktop.

Cent OS is rock solid stable it is used in about 30% of all the linux servers. For home use it is perfect for those who doesn't care for bit old software. Also people who doesnt like gnome3 at present can use cent os because 5.8 & 6.2 is going to be supported for 10 years.

Debian

Debian is one of the greatest distro of all times. It was first announced by Ian Murdock in 1993. The term debian comes from Ian's wife Debra and Ian himself. Debian inspired and become base for many other popular distribution such as Ubuntu, linix mint etc.

Debian is available for every kind of processor available today . Debian has linux kernel or free bsd kernel or Hurd kernel. Debian is currently available in three version:-
stable 6.0 "Squeeze''

Testing "Wheezy''

Unstable ''Sid''

The stable version is rock solid stabilty no crash debian developers actually modify every program to make it stable. The downside is packages are little bit old. The stable.

The testing edition is rolling nature and is quite stable but you can still have crash and the unstable edition is also rolling and is software is of bleeding edge and can crash anytime.

Debian default package manger is aptitude also there os gdebi and now a remake of ubuntu software center is also available. Debian repositories contain largest no of packages. Debian comes preinstalled in either of four desktop environments gnome, kde, lxde and xfce, but others such as fluxbox, openbox, jmw etc are also available in repos.

Debian stable is recomended for people who use computer for productivity. Debian testing for people who does casual computing and unstable for those who want latest and greatest and live bleeding edge

Xubuntu

Xubuntu is a rather impressive linux distribution. As the name (X-UBUNTU ) it is an XFCE spin of Ubuntu. Like its heavy weight brothers (ubuntu and kubuntu) is long term release and will be supported for five years.

The latest version released is 12.04 Precise Pangolin. Now comming to technicalties it has linux kernel 3.2 and xfce 4.8.3, firefox 11 . The file browser is Thunar, default music player parole, office applications just includes Abiword and Gnumeric. The command line package manger is aptitude. GUI package managment is done through Ubuntu Software centre and good old synaptic package manager.

The looks and feel of xubuntu is like the old gnome 2 but as you know its xfce and I have to admit xfce is getting better and better. Xubuntu is rock solid stable and quite snappy.

Xubuntu is available in both 32bit and 64bit edition. Definately give it a try click here to download.

Calligra Office

The free office applications like Libre office and open office were nice and now there is a new office suite called Calligra which is based on qt and is a fork of KOffice.

Calligra Office supports variety of platforms in both desktop and mobiles. Supported platforms are Linux, BSD, Mľčřőşőfŧ, maemo, meego and Android.

It contains applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, databases, vector graphics, and digital painting. It includes the following components:
1. Words It is an word processor it can easily import msword formats.

2. Stage This is an presentation , slide show program.

3. Sheet It is a spread sheet program.

4. Kexi It is an database making program similar to libre office base.

5. Flow It is a programmable flowchart drawing program with dynamically loadable stencils.

6. Karbon It is a vector drawing program.

7. Krita It is a painting program with image editing functions

8. Braindump It is notetaking program.

9. Plan It is a project management application that can create Gantt charts.

All in all this is a nice office suite to try in future it will have four month release cycle. official site

Chakra Linux

Chakra is a linux distribution which is built upon arch linux and has KDE desktop environment. Chakra wants to be a Gtk free distribution and concentrates only on Qt.

Chakra concentrates on tight KDE intregation and thereforw contains only on KDE apps, to have Gtk apps there is bundle manager with a few apps. For regular kde apps there is appsetqt and pacman. One of the most noticeable thing is the Calligra office suite instead of Libre office.

As far usability is concerned KDE 4.8 is nice and intutive. Stability wise here there is some glitches but overall its fairly stable. To downlod clickhere.

Lubuntu

Lubuntu is a lightweight linux distribution. It has LXDE desktop environment and is built on top of ubuntu. The latest version is 12.04 precise pangolin but unlike it is not long term release. And I have to say its quite stable and perfect for old hardware and netbooks.

lubuntu is a super lightweight distribution it has fairly low RAM usage and consumes little Hard disk. It has abiword and gnumeric as office applications instead of libre office it has its own software center and also synaptic package manager. The file browser is PCmanFm and disk burner is xfburn.

It is available in both 32bit and 64bit versions. You can download from here .

OpenIndiana

OpenIndiana ia a fork of open solaris. It has gnome2, XFCE, LXDE and KDE desktop.It has kernel called ILLUMOS is available in i386 and X86_64 version. It is available in both desktop and sever editions.

FREE your Mobile

CyanogenMod is an open source community version of Android. It was first released back in 2010. The current version CM7 which is based on gingerbread2.3. It offers features and options not found in the official firmware distributed by vendors of these devices and available for vast number of devices.

The idea behind was giving linux like root acess to users and offer some premium services free otnerwise be charged by mobile operator/carrier. Cyannogen has some inbuilt features such as tweaking and overclocking which is not available in barebones android and have to be done by 3rd party applications. CyanogenMod has inbuilt permission control and security features to control apps and avoid spyware

Mobile Phone maufactures and carriers are unspportive to cyanogen and other 3rd party firmware dut to increase in supporting costs. However, as community-developed software has grown popular and following a statement by the Librarian of Congress (US) that permits the use of "jailbreaking" mobile devices, manufacturers and carriers have softened their position regarding CyanogenMod and other unofficial firmware distributions and even actively providing support and encouraging development.

However cyannogen is not completely free it includes propietry applications and drivers, there is another firmare called Replicant Os it is completely free.

I am not anyway related to any of the vendors or compamies mentioned in this article and take no responsibilty of damage or loss of property, data, earning or any other things and this review is not any offical statement.

Arch simple yet powerful

Arch linux is distribution that is simple, powerful and highly configurable. Arch is built upon on the principles of KISS-Kiss It Simple Stupid . The iso of arch is available for i686 and X86_64 and is 400sumthing mb download.

Now when you get arch iso and start installing you have to follow Official Installation Guide or Arch Beginner's Guide and after installing you are greeted by a command prompt now at this point you can choose any desktop enviromment to install namely Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, cinnamon etc. After it you can choose to install AUR ( Arch User Repositry ) an alternate source of downloading bleeding edge software

Arch has many features it is simple, and higly configurable . Another feature is rolling nature it means when you update your system you get the latest and greatest packages no need to reinstall in every six months also arch linux has got excellent documentation.

Arch has got downsides to it is not new-bie friendly and the community is not so friendly other than this its great

Conclusion- arch is very nice higly configurable OS for itermediate and advanced users who want full control of their system. Download

Pear Linux Chomice OS 4

Introducing Pear linux chomice os 4. It is Macish distribution based on ubuntu/debian and originated in france. First of all it looks great the mac themeing is absolutly wonderful and works pretty well it has gnome 3.2 but to my suprise when I pressed the super key it didn't show me traditional gnome3 menu rather it displayed active workspaces and clicking on the pear icon yield the same result. Now to open the menu you have to look to icon in the bottom docki called applauncher. One thing I must say menu looks cool maybe its called elementry menu I am not sure. Another great thing about pear is the software centre the deepin software centre is rebranded as pear appstore. Other things is essentially the same gnome3. So definately check this out . To download click here

Tie those menus with RIBBON

The Ribbon interface was introduced by Mĭĉŗőşfŧ in office 2007 at that time it was subject to critisism. It is five years from them the situtaion have now changed people actually got used with the ribbon style menu and in my humble opinion its now quite intuitve and easy to learn for newbies all the editing, inserting, formating options on the ribbon. One day I asked a person what did he thinks about office 2003 and 2007 he replied " office 2003 is good and so is 2007 but in 2007 i can easily get over the menus" I asked again "what if I gave u an office application that has more features and is less resource hog but have the same old hang down menus?" he frankly said "no''.

What I feel is Libreoffice, Abiword is far better than 2007 but where it lacks is the intutivness the old hangdown menu is simple and works for the people who are used with it but the people who use office for light and casual work will find the ribbon better

So, this is my humble request to The Document Foundation to continue devlopment of libre office as it is and side by side also devlop ribbon like thinge and tie those menus.

Trisquel

Trisquel is an ubuntu based operating system. It is one of the totally free operating sytem and is listed in www.gnu.org . It has gnome 3.2 desktop environment and kernel 3.0 in the latest release 5.5 Briganta which is based on ubuntu 11.10. In reviewing Trisquel 5.5 in April 2012 writer Jim Lynch said: "Trisquel 5.5 is a great choice for those who prefer to use only free software, without any kind of proprietary stuff. The developers have clearly taken the time to go out of their way to cleanse Trisquel of potentially offensive proprietary software. While some folks won’t care about this, others certainly will appreciate it. Even if you aren’t a free software purist, Trisquel 5.5 is definitely worth a download. I found Trisquel to be a genuinely enjoyable distro. It’s what I would call a well-ordered and well developed distro. It accomplishes what the developers set out to do, and it does it in a very attractive package."

You can DOWNLOAD it

SOPA, PIPA and how to boycott like a champ

Dear readers, by now, the emotional storms over some very controversial laws have passed, so you will be able to read the following article with a calm and rational mind. Moreover, I purposefully refrained from posting this thing back then in order to reduce the noise and allow people to focus on the real efforts of stopping these laws. Now that we're in the clear, the trolling can commenc.

What I want to tell you is how you can effectively boycott companies, how you can easily circumvent draconian laws without breaking any law, and finally, what protests, boycotts and revolutions are really about. If you thought liking someone on Failbook constitutes as your Fifth of November, then you are mistaken. In real life, things are a bit more stringent than that. So do follow me.

continue reading

This article is originally posted on www.dedoimedo.com by Igor Ljubuncic . He is fantanstic writer he has written novels and many articles on computers, security, games etc this article is subject to copyright of dedoimedo.com.

Eclipse

Eclipse is free and opensource software devlopment environment, it consists of an integrated devlopment environment and plugin based system. It is originally written in java.

It was originally released by IBM in 2001 and supported by many big software vendors. The Eclipse Foundation was created in January 2004 as an independent not-for- profit corporation to act as the steward of the Eclipse community. The independent not-for-profit corporation was created to allow a vendor neutral and open, transparent community to be established around Eclipse. Today, the Eclipse community consists of individuals and organizations from a cross section of the software industry.

The Eclipse Public License (EPL) is the fundamental license under which Eclipse projects are released. The Free Software Foundation has said that both licenses are free software licenses, but are incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Eclipse is an industry standard SDK it has major competition with Oraclæ / šun NetBeans and Micřosofŧ Vĭşūãį studiø. It is definately not for students learning programing but for who have intermediate or advanced knowledge.

FOUR FUNDAMENTAL DIGITAL RIGHTS

There are four freedoms that every user should have: the freedom to use the software for any purpose, the freedom to change the software to suit your needs, the freedom to share the software with your friends and neighbors, and the freedom to share the changes you make. When a program offers users all of these freedoms, we call it free software. I have found an intresting video on EmperorOfTheHighway's channel

LINUX MINT DEBIAN EDITION

Linux mint debian edition 201204 has been released. It comes in three flavours Mate, Cinnamon and XFCE . Both the MATE/Cinnamon and Xfce editions use the MDM display manager. MDM will look familiar to many people, as it brings back GDM 2.20 and all its features: Remote login, configuration tools, fast-user switching, theme-ability, language selection…etc.

LINUX MINT DEBIAN as it sounds is built upon debian and packages are compatible with debian testing and therefore incompatible with ubuntu.Another advantage of using debian testing is the rolling nature you don't have to reinstall in every six months to hav latest packages just update your system and you have latest and greatest system though the con is your system may sometimes become unstable but you also get the fixes early. As far stability is concerned it is quite stable for home and office use

Now to user experience the default DE is Mate and as all of you know it is a fork of gnome 2 and i am very happy to see the old menu back that was available in '' Katya'' . Also the gnome 2 app have been forked and renamed. Cinnamon 1.4 is also available, in my opinion its the best DE available today its based on Gtk 3+ cinnamon looks classic and works well and have some modern enhancements. I feel this debian based release is better than their last ubuntu based release. So definately check this out consider donating to linux mints to make linux mint better and better. I hav also found an interesting video on Linux4UnMe channel

Cheers!

Kubuntu 12.04 -The step child

Kubuntu 12.04 is out. It has now KDE 4.8. It is somewhat heavier distribution it eats up your ram fairly well. The look and feel is absolutely modern and icons are very pleasant to eyes. The package manager is muon instead of usual software center and all other usual kde stuff. Stability wise not as stable as its elder brother ubuntu. Kubuntu is step child of cannonical and now its thrown out of house means cannonical will not support it anymore from now omwards Blue system will fund it along with Netruner and Linuxmint kde. I would have used it as my daily os if had been polished

UBUNTU--FANTASTICALLY BEAUTIFUL

UBUNTU 12.04 The long term support version of ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin has been released. In my opinion it is best linux i hav ever used. Its rock solid stable extremely fast and easy to use. The installation is rather easy and fast. After installation you are in the unity 5.2 interface. On dash u can search ur videos or music instantly without opening any browser The default player is Rythmbox instead of banshee If u press alt and type HUD comes out and gives search results in future traditional menu going to be replaced by hud. And u also get 5gb of ubuntu cloud services for free (ubuntu one) Here is a video from Linux4Unme channel