Welcome to My Distro Review page. This page will contain all the reviews of various Linux distributions that I have done. Hopefully they will be of use in helping you find that "perfect" distro..or at least one you want to try out today! I gave all the distros I reviewed "grades" based on how newbie-friendly I felt they were.
Featured Distros
- Debian GNU/Linux
- Knoppix GNU/Linux
- Feather Linux
- Puppy Linux
- Vector Linux
- PUD Linux
- PCLinuxOS (MiniMe edition)
- Ubuntu (Hardy Heron)
- Xubuntu (Hardy Heron)
- PCLinuxOS (Gnome Remaster)
- Linux Mint 4 (Daryna)
These are the distros that I have personally tried out on my computer, which is a Dell Celeron 2.5 Ghz with 768 MB RAM.
Website This distro was the first one I tried (the one that started it all!) because I was a hopeless newb without a clue and this is one of the ones that kept popping up when I searched for a distro based on not having much RAM (only 256 MB at the time). On a side note, I used the distro choosers from the First Steps page.
Debian GNU/Linux facts:
- Debian is named for the creator, Ian and his wife Debbie. (One of the fun things about Linux is the crazy names!)
- Debian only uses open-source software, which is not for everyone. I love my Opera browser, which highly supports open-source but is still proprietary at this point. Flashplayer by Adobe is also proprietary so it is not included and the work-around is pretty difficult as far as newbies go.
- I am also a command-line moron, which is a big part of Linux, so a graphical user interface (GUI) is very important to me..(What is it? basically–point and click.)
- Debian uses the Gnome desktop. This means my first venture into Linux-land was to use Gnome. I have heard it said that Gnome resembles Mac, while KDE resembles Windows. However it is, I like Gnome. Things are easy to find, easy to tweak, and looks professional. It ran faster than my old Windows XP did despite my lack of memory at the time.
- Debian has, I believe, the largest package repository (place to get "packages" which is how applications come) in all of Linux-dom, so as long as it is not proprietary (owned by someone and not copyable) Debian has it!
What I liked:
- Gnome! It is a very intuitive desktop. I had no problems finding all the 'basic necessities' within a few minutes. Many things are self-explanatory and the help feature is VAST! Right clicking on the desktop will allow you to change the aspects of it; different themes, wallpapers, colors, fonts..I'm easily amused, the color picker was fun to play with.
- Force-quit!! Probably my absolute favorite Gnome application ever lol..an application freezes? No problem; just click on force-quit and then click on what is frozen. Any Windoze refugee can appreciate this!
- Debian means stable! Arguably, in all of Linux-dom, Debian is the most well-known for stability.
- Debian just works! <--One of the most important phrases in Linux.
- .deb packages!!!!! These are great because if you get an application in a deb package, the Gdebi installer will put all the files in all the right places for you at a click! (Great for us non-command-line savvy folks)
- Debian IS open-source. If you love the fact of free for all, then Debian has it covered. No hogging the info here!
- Debian is community driven. Many people, all dedicated to making and keeping Debian at the top of its game.
Things I didn't like:
- The install takes just this side of forever
- The installation process is not very newbie friendly--at all. I stumbled a lot on this one.
- Debian support forums are HUGE but they are definitely in tech-speak. I might be able to go there now and figure my way around some things and learn quite a bit but a brand-new newbie will be lost.
Summary:
All in all I give Debian Linux a B+, a little hard to learn to use, but pretty easy to use (uh, that nonsense means once you've figured out how to install it, when it's up and running it's relatively easy to use.) And I did come back to it as my main OS several times after trying out other distros…
Knoppix
KNOPPIX GNU/Linux Website
Knoppix Facts:
- Knoppix was created by Klaus Knopper and named for him
- Knoppix is Debian based!
- This distro is the original Live CD distro, which enables the user to run an entire operating system completely from a CD disk
- Because it is meant to be run from the CD disk drive on a computer it is not suitable for a hard drive install..
Things I like:
- Easy to run
- Fast! On the webpage, it says zero to linux in 5 minutes..this is true!
- Looks great! This distro uses KDE desktop, which works hard to give a visually pleasing desktop experience (eye-candy).
- Every application I tried out worked.
- I like the Rescue Disk concept
What I didn't like:
- I got a tad confused on a couple of set up questions but I mostly chose defaults when that happened
- I liked it so much that it would have been great to install but Knoppix is not meant as a hard drive intall distro. For me, that's a deal breaker. (If portability is an issue for you, then you might just love this distro!)
Summary:
I really liked this one. It was a great looking distro "out of the box" and I had no problems figuring out things but because of the fact that it doesn't work as a hard drive distro, I give it a B
Website
Feather Linux Facts:
- Feather Linux is a "small" distro, an operating system meant to take up as little room as possible, thereby enabling a user to break out their old dusty computer and give it new life.
- Feather Linux is a remaster of Knoppix (remaster meaning that the creator uses parts of the original to make something new)
- Feather Linux runs using approximately 24MB RAM, which makes it ideal for an old machine.
What I liked:
- Feather Linux is a small distro, great for old machines.
- It ran fast like lightning on my machine, which had 256MB RAM at the time.
- Comes full-featured, with word programs, good web browsers, a complete user experience.
What I didn't like:
- This distro is made for the seriously old machine, which mine isn't.
- I hate the way it looks. Yes, I know, shallow of me but part of my personal computing enjoyment is the appearance.
- The color settings were not right and at the time I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Yes, I know now, but a brand newbie wouldn't know either.
Summary:
I love the size yet hate the appearance and a couple of newbie-not-so-friendly settings. I love that you can totally revive a "dead" PC with small distros like this. Overall, I gave it a C
Website
Puppy Linux Facts:
- Puppy Linux is another of the small distros, the one with the infamous Puppy wallpaper.
- Puppy Linux has inspired scores of derivatives, which are all featured right along with the original distro!
- Barry Kauler is the creator of Puppy Linux, released in 2003; it has a huge community base
What I like:
- Puppy is small, like a puppy! Great for older machines
- Puppy has been or can be tailor made to fit just about anyone..No matter how you like your puppy, it can be done!
- Community support is VAST! Additionally, there is no "running" of the Puppy "show." If a person wants to add new elements to Puppy or run a forum or anything inbetween, no one will stop it. Taking the core of Puppy and rewriting it is so popular, the resulting new distros are called "puplets" and are displayed right on the website. There aren't really any rules; It's the "anarchist's Linux."
What I didn't like:
- Keep in mind this doesn't necessarily apply now as there has been a new release of Puppy since my review but again, appearance was a big issue for me..(okay how do I get to be shallow? lol)
- I got nothin else!
Summary:
It really performs well though and if you aren’t as “eye-candy hungry” as I am, then it really is great, especially for older systems…Note: As of the time I wrote this, I hadn't seen some of the various derivatives that people have made..I am going to revisit this review at a future time or review some of the derivatives that I have seen which are looking really awesome! I gave it a B
Website
Vector Linux Facts:
- Comes with KDE desktop
- Runs Opera "out of the box" (this was huge for me!)
- Vector Linux is based on Slackware, the oldest distro still in use and available.
What I liked:
- Opera was already there, ready to go, which was great for this newb!
- Seamonkey was also installed, which I like reasonably well (it's a Mozilla project, like Firefox and Galeon)
- There is multimedia support for iPods and such.
What I didn't like:
- I tried to install it to hard drive (I liked it that much) but I felt that the install process was a newbie nightmare with the partitioning and such
- The installation froze up and refused to boot again, except from the Live CD
Summary:
I really wish I had been able to install this OS; however, it was not all that newbie friendly and it did freeze up on install, so I have to give this one a C-
Website
PUD Linux Facts:
- Based on Ubuntu, PUD is supposed to be a smaller version of Ubuntu, which is notoriously bloated.
- The creator of this OS is Taiwanese; the OS is aimed accordingly
- Simple, straightforward website--easy to navigate
What I liked:
- It was a type of Ubuntu that I could use with my memory challenged computer
- Easy to navigate website
- From what I could tell, a good representation of Ubuntu and its features.
What I didn't like:
- The main website page is in Chinese (easy fix)
- When trying to discover more about the features of PUD, there is no way to expand the categories; only a very superficial amount of information is available
- What I did learn about PUD I learned on DistroWatch, not the website
- My Live CD froze up right off the bat; not a good first impression!
Summary:
I would have to give PUD Linux an incomplete because I really couldn't try it out much after the Live CD kept freezing up. (I did an integrity check and the .iso image was fine)
Website
PCLinuxOS Facts:
- PCLinuxOS comes with KDE desktop
- PCLinuxOS was created by a team headed by "Texstar" (aka Bill Reynolds), whose goal is to provide a very newbie friendly environment for Linux users.
- PCLOS is based on Mandriva
- This review is of the "MiniMe 2008" version
- Texstar is a NASCAR fan :D
What I liked:
- Easy to use!
- Everything just worked!
- The configuration center has everything you need in one place to configure your system
- The install process is a snap
- The MiniMe was a minimal installation, allowing me to choose exactly what I wanted on my OS
What I didn't like:
- Kind of "Windows-y" feel
- I don't prefer KDE
- When an application froze, no force-quit
Summary:
I have to say that I really, really like this distro. It is designed to appeal to Windows refugees and newbies and it provides for both quite well. Everything just works and works well. This is one of the better distros out there. I give it an A-
Website
Ubuntu Linux Facts:
- Ubuntu is community based and commercially funded
- Ubuntu has a strict schedule of a new release every six months.
- Quoted from the website: "Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world."
- Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distros in the world, partly due to new-user friendliness and its vast language database, which includes most African languages.
What I liked:
- The LiveCD was easy to use (as was Ubuntu) and there were little warnings and popups for things that I was not supposed to mess with until I am not such a newb
- I like the unique look..love it or hate it, Ubuntu is easily recognizable at a glance!
- As a Debian derivative, the installer is mostly a graphical version of the Debian installer.
- Has a nice, stable feel and most everything just works.
- Ubuntu is a VERY newbie-friendly distro that will and does appeal to any techno-phobe.
- Ubuntu probably has the most extensive Help Forums in all of Linux-dom. (Likely this is because it's where the newbs go but it feels good to google a "stupid newb" question and see it come up in the Ubuntu Help Forums (asked by 10 other newbs already!) Any question you can think of, someone has asked it in the Help Forum. I myself am a member of the Ubuntu Help Forums even though I don't use Ubuntu.
What I didn't like:
- While I can appreciate the Windows-ish feel of Ubuntu (or at least understand why so many would flock to it) it is precisely that quality which turned me off. I prefer to not be reminded of Windows..ever.
- Working in root is dangerous! Certainly, I know this..but to be denied root access by default is a pet peeve.
- Advanced Linux users would likely find Ubuntu to be somewhat irritating due to some restrictiveness and the warnings that they wouldn't need.
Summary:
As I stated, I fully believe that Ubuntu is right up there with the best Linux distros for newbies, with a full-featured distro that guides every step of the way and a comprehensive support system. More advanced users will likely jump ship but it is great for newbs so I will give it a B+
Website
Xubuntu Facts:
- Xubuntu is a direct-derivative of Ubuntu, which means it gets the same support and attention Ubuntu is famous for.
- Xubuntu comes with the Xfce desktop, which is based on the X environment; lighter on resources than Gnome or KDE.
- As easy to use as Ubuntu
- Long Term Support (LTS) for 3 years
What I liked:
- Xubuntu has the same repositories (gathering of software packages) as Ubuntu so whatever you want that you know Ubuntu has, you can get for Xubuntu
- Xubuntu is lighter on the resources, which is good if you don't have that much memory.
- Xfce is similar to Gnome; anyone familiar with Gnome will transition easily to Xfce
- Xubuntu is also committed to the same 6-month release schedule; therefore, when a new Ubuntu comes out, the derivative versions update as well.
What I didn't like:
- The Xfce desktop is not for me. As a fan of Gnome, I found Xfce to be like a "stripped-down" version, which for some reason irked me.
- I had some problems with Xfce functionality and stability. This may or may not be an issue for others
- The same "restrictiveness" of Ubuntu is carried over to Xubuntu
- I had a problem installing from the Live CD. This may have been an issue with the CD.
Summary:
This derivative of Ubuntu is to be commended because it is every bit as thought out as Ubuntu, something that doesn't often happen with derivatives. For anyone who has more limited resources (but not too limited) say, around 512MB of RAM, and enjoys the Ubuntu experience, this is a great distro..also reasonably newbie-friendly. I give it a B
Website
PCLOS Gnome Remaster 2008.1 Facts:
- This version of PCLinuxOS is a special Gnome remaster of the normal version of PCLOS, which is a KDE-based distro
- PCLOS claims to be "radically simple"
- PCLinuxOS Gnome is built on the official PCLinuxOS MiniMe 2008 distribution, which is based primarily on Mandriva, although it incorporates traits from several distros (see above review)
- PCL-Gnome uses the Draklive Installer (which the normal versions of PCLOS use as well as Mandriva
What I liked:
- It's a beautiful version of Gnome! There is a dark theme, with smooth lines and color blending
- Compiz-Fusion (the eye-candy of Linux) settings right in the menu and ready to Cube!
- The MAJOR issue that has been plaguing Opera, the latest Flash Player update, has been addressed with its own entry in Synaptic with an option for Flash Player 8 for Opera, even telling users about the potential (although very unlikely) security issue.
- All the applications I wanted, like Opera, VLC, and Brasero were all right there in Synaptic, just waiting to be installed
What I didn't like:
- In order to install to hard drive, I had to log back out and back in..and it got stuck on this step..I repeated this a few times and finally it worked properly
- I was unable to change the color resolution from 16 bits to 24...never could figure out why
- I opened Firefox and realized I was not connected to the internet; This is only the second distro I have ever tried that didn’t detect my ethernet automatically (the other was Puppy Linux.)
- I tried to install Opera, Brasero and VLC from the repository and for some reason I got an unknown error message and only Brasero downloaded
Summary:
I was a little disappointed in this distro. As much as I had loved MiniMe-PCLOS, I was eagerly awaiting this Gnome remaster and after all that, several things didn't work right. Also the fact that my ethernet connection wasn't automatically connected would be very difficult for a newbie to figure out the fix for. Additionally, the main menu would not refresh after installing or removing applications. Sorry PCLinuxOS Gnome, I had to pass on this one; too many annoyances and disappointments, even though it was amazing to look at. My older MiniMe was far better and I don’t even like KDE……I give it a C for performance, and A for appearance.***Please note that this review is for the 2008.1 version..the beta of 2008.2 is now out and may have addressed these issues..I will probably be reviewing it in the near future***
Website
Linux Mint 4 Daryna Facts:
- Linux Mint is the project created by Clement Lefebvre.
- Linux Mint started out as a fork of Ubuntu
- Linux Mint (from freedom came elegance) is often touted as "Ubuntu done right"
- Linux Mint has several versions: KDE, Fluxbox, Lite, Xfce and a Debian testing version. All versions are closely related and maintained by members of the Linux Mint community
What I liked:
- I popped in the Live CD and I was delighted immediately by the nice, polished and elegant look to it..(It’s Minty!)
- I checked Firefox and I was connected to the internet right off the bat, no configuration required.
- I checked Synaptic and found my favorite three applications right there including the non-free flash plugin
- The MintMenu!! The “MintMenu” is a lovely piece of work..it is the Gnome menu done right! There are 3 columns, and headings (places, system, and applications) the menu is searchable and you can also use the All applications at the top or look in sections..Additionally you can save applications as favorites, which have a menu of their own!!
- Included on the repository is Compiz Fusion and I had a blast with “the Cube”
- Then there is MintInstall, which a popup asks you what you are searching for..taking you to firefox and the option is presented with a download icon..from there you click download, then ok and mintInstall does the work! (It’s supposed to be “one click” but it is really 3 but hey, still super easy!!)
What I didn't like:
- It does require a lot of memory--The mintMenu takes up quite a bit on its own
- It tends to hang a bit on startup for me and I had an issue where I had to twice to boot..odd but I found a fix for that so it wasn't a big deal.
- Clicking on shutdown also produced a lag, which was a mild irritation
Summary:
I love this distro! Everything just works! It is polished, refined and elegant. I give it an A- for performance and an A for appearance. Basically, in my opinion and that of many is that Linux Mint is what Ubuntu should have been but missed out on being.
