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Netrunner 14 - KDE for the Everyday Linux User

July 22, 2014, 11:30 pm
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Introduction

This is the year of Linux for the everyday user.

I have already written reviews for Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17 and they are both exceptionally good for the average computer user.

This review is about Netrunner 14.

There are two versions of Netrunner available. This article looks at the Standard Release which is based on Kubuntu 14.04. The other version is a rolling release based on Manjaro.

System Requirements

I am listing the requirements as stated on the FAQ - Installation page on the Netrunner website.

It appears the requirements have been set from the fact that they were tested on a netbook.

  • CPU - 1.6ghz Intel Atom
  • RAM - 1 gigabyte
  • Hard Drive Size - 10 gigabytes
  • Graphics Card - Intel GMA 945
  • Video Memory - 128 megabytes
I tested on a more powerful machine:
  • Intel i5 quad core 
  • 8 gigabytes RAM
  • 2 terabyte hard drive
Needless to say it worked like a dream on my computer.

How to get Netrunner

To download Netrunner visit http://www.netrunner-os.com/download/

There are 32 bit and 64 bit versions of both the standard and rolling release.

To create a bootable USB drive I used UNetbootin.

If you have a poor internet connection or you are unsure about creating a bootable USB drive you can always click here to buy a bootable DVD or USB drive.

How to install Netrunner 


First of all boot into the Live version of Netrunner by inserting either a live USB or live DVD into the drive and turning on your computer and then click on "Install Netrunner 14 LTS".

The Netrunner installer is linear, making it very easy to follow. You can see the steps that the installer is going to take you through.

The first thing you have to do is choose the installation language and click "Continue".























You can now set up your internet connection if you so wish. Setting up the internet automatically chooses your timezone, installs third party software and downloads updates.

It is an optional choice whether to connect or not. My preference, because I have a poor internet connection, is to not connect and download the updates later. The third party software is installed by Netrunner anyway.























The third screen shows how prepared you are to install Netrunner. As long as your computer is plugged in (or has enough battery life) and it has enough disk space you are good to go.























The disk setup screen isn't as easy to follow as the one provided with Linux Mint. If you read the options carefully though it is quite straight forward.

The options above are basically saying

1. Install Netrunner alongside Linux Mint (I had Linux Mint installed previously)
2. Replace Linux Mint with Netrunner (use entire disk)
3. Replace Linux Mint with Netrunner and use LVM
4. Replace Linux Mint with Netrunner and use encryption with LVM
5. Perform a manual installation and setup the disk layout yourself

I chose option 2 to replace Linux Mint.























Now you have to choose your timezone by clicking on the map or selecting from the drop downs.























Choose your keyboard layout.























Finally create a default user by entering your name, a username, a password and a name for your computer.























The files will now be copied and your hardware will be detected and setup.

First Impressions





















Netrunner boots into a plain looking desktop. As with Linux Mint everything should look familiar to most people who have used computers before.

There is a panel at the bottom with a menu and quick launch icons in the bottom left and a system tray in the bottom right.



There are also some icons on the desktop. The "My Computer" icon shows you details about your computer such as the processor, memory, disk usage and operating system. The "Network" icon lets you connect to network drives. Finally the "Readme" takes you to the Netrunner website which contains some useful tutorials.



The quick launch part of the panel has an icon which brings up the menu, access to the file manager and an icon for the Firefox web browser.



The system tray has a multitude of icons which by default are as follows:
  • a terminal window
  • audio settings
  • software updates
  • contacts
  • clipboard manager
  • bluetooth
  • network settings
  • clock
  • search bar
  • notifications
  • activities
The menu is crisp and clean with useful icons on the left and categories on the right. Hovering over a category brings up the applications within that category.

To add icons to the favourites list, right click on them in the menu and select "Add to favourites".

Customising the desktop

The KDE desktop is highly customisable and there is just too much to discuss for including in this review.

Starting off nice and easy though you can change the desktop wallpaper. Simply right click on the desktop and select "Netrunner Desktop Settings".


































There are a number of wallpapers available with Netrunner and they all appear to have a very blue theme to them.

You can choose your own wallpaper by clicking on the "Open" button and finding the image you wish to use or you can click the "Get new wallpapers" button to search online for more.





















You can adjust the items that appear on the panel by right clicking on the panel and clicking "add panel items". You can also add new panels to the display.

The KDE desktop also has the concept of activities which is like a new play on the virtual workspaces concept.





















The choice of activities isn't as expansive in Netrunner as it is for openSUSE but you can download more if you need to.

The above image shows the photos activity.

Connecting to the internet





















As long as you have a fairly standard network card, connecting to the internet should be as easy as clicking on the network icon in the system tray and choosing your wireless connection.

You will need to enter the security key if one is required.

The default web browser in Netrunner is Firefox.

Flash and MP3



























Netrunner has everything you need to get started installed by default and as such Flash videos work and you can play MP3 audio without installing any further software.

Applications

Netrunner has a really good set of applications installed at the outset.

Games


  • Burgerspace
  • Chess
  • Duckhunt
  • Frozen Bubble
  • glTron
  • GNUDoQ
  • KBreakout
  • KDiamond
  • KMahjongg
  • KDiamond
  • KMines
  • KPatience
  • KSnake
  • KDuel
  • STEAM
I have written an article previously about the default KDE games but Netrunner includes some extras that I never covered.

More importantly is the inclusion of STEAM. I think the thing that annoys me with STEAM (and this is the same with every distribution that includes STEAM) is that as soon as you click the icon it downloads 200+ megabytes of updates.

STEAM is the best thing to ever happen to Linux gaming and provides 500+ games for the Linux desktop.

Graphics


  • GIMP Image Editing
  • Gwenview Image Viewer
  • Kamoso Webcam Viewer
  • Karbon Vector Graphics Drawing Application
  • Krita Digital Painting
  • KSnapshot Screenshot
  • Skanlite Scanning Application

Internet

  • FireFox Web Browser
  • Kontact Address Book
  • Pidgin Instant Messenger
  • QTransmission BitTorrent
  • Skype
  • Telepathy Instant Messenger
  • Thunderbird Email Client
It is interesting that Netrunner has a mix and match approach to the applications installed as opposed to choosing all the default KDE applications.

Skype is a good default choice.

Multimedia 

  • Clementine Audio Player
  • KDenlive Video Editing
  • KMix Audio Mixer
  • Qmmp Audio Player
  • VLC Media Player
  • Vokoscreen Screencasting
The default audio application in Netrunner is Clementine. I mentioned in my review of Linux Mint that Linux has a plethora of music applications. Clementine is a great example of how an audio player should work.

I wrote an article not so long ago comparing Clementine with Amarok in which I mentioned the virtues of a clean easy to use interface. Clementine really is the best that KDE has to offer.




























For watching videos there is the VLC media player, which allows you to watch videos that are local to your PC or online.

Netrunner also includes a video editor and screencast tool which is something you don't see in many other distributions but which are welcome inclusions.

Office





















  • LibreOffice Writer
  • LibreOffice Calc
  • LibreOffice Impress
  • LibreOffice Base
  • LibreOffice Math
  • Okular
The full LibreOffice office suite is included with the excellent LibreOffice Writer and the very competent LibreOffice Calc spreadsheet package. For presentations there is LibreOffice Impress and LibreOffice Base is a clone of MS Access.

Okular is included as a PDF viewer.

Installing Applications

































For package management, Netrunner 14 uses MUON.

The MUON graphical package manager is fairly straight forward and isn't unlike the Mint package manager.
































If you know the name of the package or you have a particular type of package you can search by keyword or name.

If you just want to browse then you can select the category you wish to view and scroll down the list.
































Double clicking on one of the items brings up a description of the application, reviews and the file size.

To install the package all you have to do is click "Install".

If you prefer a more powerful package manager, Synaptic is available as well.

Issues

I used Netrunner 14 for a week before writing the review and I never really came across any issues.

Audio, video and basic functionality behaved themselves nicely.

Summary

For the Everyday Linux User the future is bright. Netrunner is another great example of how good Linux can be.

Users can get up and running with Netrunner in about 15 to 20 minutes. Most computer users should be able to perform the most common tasks such as browsing the internet, watching videos and listening to music without too much thought.

The most challenging aspect will be customising the KDE desktop and learning the finer points about activities. How much effort each user puts into this is up to the individual concerned and is certainly not mandatory.

All in all, Netrunner is definitely worth checking out.


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How to install Linux Mint alongside Windows 7

July 26, 2014, 11:30 pm
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Introduction

This article will show you how to install Linux Mint 17 side by side with Microsoft Windows 7. The desktop environment that will be installed will be the “Cinnamon Desktop”.

It is imperative that you follow every section especially the part about backing up your Microsoft Windows files. If you fail to back up your system and something goes wrong with the installation you run the risk of losing data.

Don’t let the last paragraph scare you. Installing Linux Mint is not that difficult and the rewards are incredible.

Linux Mint is currently the most popular version of Linux and boasts an impressive user interface and a great range of software and it can be installed and used for free.

Backup Windows 7

Whether you intend to continue installing Linux Mint or not it is very important for you to back up your system regularly.

Your computer may well be equipped with the best Antivirus software and the best Firewall software but one careless click on a link in an email could cause Malware to be installed on your computer which may trash your system rendering it useless.

Sometimes things go wrong. What would you do if your hard drive failed? First of all you would lose access to Microsoft Windows and more importantly all of your photos, videos, music files and documents would be either lost or very difficult to recover.

Before installing Linux Mint it is imperative that you backup Windows 7 in case something goes wrong with the partitioning of the hard drive or the installation of the “GRUB” bootloader which enables your system to dual boot between Microsoft Windows and Linux Mint.

Create a recovery disk

The recovery disk is used when you don’t have access to Windows 7 at all. It provides a way to boot so that you can recover from your system image.

To create a recovery disk:

  1. Click the “Start” button.
  2. Click “Control Panel”.
  3. In the “View By” drop down in the top right corner select “Large icons”.
  4. Click the “Backup and Restore” icon.


  5. There are three options in the left hand pane. The first option if you have never created a backup before is to set up backups. The second option is to create a system image and the third is to  create a system repair disc.
  6. Click “create a system repair disc”.

  7. A screen will appear asking you which drive to use to create the disc. Select your DVD writer.
  8. Click “Create disc”.


  9. After a short period a message will appear telling you to label your disc which is a good idea.
  10. Now place this disc somewhere safe and memorable

Create a system image

The system image will take a full copy of your Windows partition (and any other partition you decide to backup)
  1. Click the “Start” button.
  2. Click “Control Panel”.
  3. In the “View By” drop down in the top right corner select “Large icons”.
  4. Click the “Backup and Restore” icon.
  5. Click “Create a system image”.

  6. The “Create a system image” dialog will appear and will ask you where you want to create the image. You should choose the location you wish to save the image. Make sure you have enough disk space.  Read the section “Backup Media” if you are unsure where to backup.

    The options available are “on a hard disk”, “one or more DVDs” or “On a network location”.
  7. Once you have chosen where you want to create the image click “Next”.

  8. You will now be shown a screen asking you which drives to backup. You should leave the C drive and the System partition checked.

    You can optionally choose to backup other partitions if you have any.

    Note that in the screenshot above I have chosen to backup to a different partition on the same machine and I am warned that this is not a good idea.

    Ideally you should backup to an external hard drive or network drive or at very least DVDs.
  9. Click Next to continue.
  10. You will see another screen which asks you to confirm your backup. Click “Start” to backup the image.

Backup files and folders

You should consider backing up important documents and family photos to another device just in case the system image has not been created correctly and the more copies you have of something the less likely it is to be lost forever.

Copy the images and documents to a DVD, USB, external hard drive or via a service like dropbox.
If you have an iPod synchronise your music so that all your music is both on your computer and on your iPod.

Consider backing up your music to a series of DVDs, USB drives or an external hard drive.

For videos you will also need to back them up to DVDs, USB drives or an external hard drive.

Summary

Before continuing it is definitely worth trying your recovery disk out to make sure it loads to the recovery screen. Simply reboot with the DVD in the disc drive.

System Requirements

The following is a list of requirements that your computer must meet in order to be able to run Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop.
  • x86 processor (32-bit) or x64 processor (64-bit)
  • 512 megabytes RAM (1 gigabyte recommended)
  • 10 gigabytes disk space
  • DVD or USB support

How to get Linux Mint

The options available are as follows:

1. Download Linux Mint and burn to a DVD or USB drive
2. Buy a Linux DVD or USB drive

    Downloading Linux Mint

    If you have a good internet connection, a DVD writer or a USB drive, and you have no download limits on your internet connection then you can get Linux Mint for free.

    The best place for information on downloading a Linux Mint image is the Linux Mint website.

    Linux Mint comes in a number of varieties.

    First of all you can choose to install a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Linux Mint.

    Obviously you should only choose the 64 bit version if you have a 64 bit computer. You can however choose to install the 32 bit version on a 64 bit computer if you wish to do so. I'm not sure why you would want to do this though.

    There are also a number of different desktop choices such as MATE, Cinnamon, KDE and Xfce.

    Ideally you should choose the Cinnamon desktop as this is the ultimate desktop for Linux Mint. It has all the whizzy effects, gestures and style required of a top operating system.

    If your graphics card is not up to running Linux Mint Cinnamon or you need something a bit more lightweight then you should consider the MATE desktop as an alternative as this will run on pretty much any machine.

    This guide assumes that if you are running Windows 7 then your computer is probably more than capable of running Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop.

    Another thing you will notice on the download page is the option for no codecs and this goes hand in hand with the “Multimedia Support+” heading.

    Basically whilst Linux is free some of the components that are installed aren’t. If you want to use Flash or play MP3s then these require non free components to be installed. This doesn’t mean that you have to pay for them but some people would prefer not to have proprietary software installed on their machines.

    Personally I think it is a good idea to install everything you need to get the job done and in that regard I would choose the option to have multimedia support.

    As mentioned before this guide is written for Windows 7 and Linux Mint with the Cinnamon Desktop so find that option and click the link (either 32 bit or 64 bit, depending on your machine).

    The next screen provides two ways to download Linux Mint. The first way is to use a bittorrent. Many people think that torrents are only used for downloading illegal software but torrent software is just as useful for distributing legal software such as Linux Mint.

    You can either choose to download from a download mirror or from a torrent. A download mirror will give you the download speed made available by the server that it resides on at that download mirror.

    A torrent will enable you to download the file from as many people as are serving the software. If there are 100 users with the Linux Mint software available as a torrent then you can download from all 100 people.

    If you do not know how to use torrents then it might be a good idea to just choose the mirror that is closest to you geographically. 

    Burn the Linux Mint image to a DVD

    If you would prefer to use a USB drive skip to the next section as this section deals with booting and installing from a DVD

    To burn the Linux Mint image to a DVD you will need a CD/DVD disc burning application such as Nero Express.

    It is highly likely that you will already have a disc burning application on your computer but if not you can download a 15 day trial copy of Nero from http://www.nero.com/enu/downloads/.

    This guide assumes you are using Nero Express. If you know how to use another application already feel free to use that application to burn the image to a DVD. If you don’t have Nero Express download it from the link above.

    To burn the image to a disc:
    1. Open Windows Explorer (Press Windows button on keyboard and E on the keyboard or press “Start” and type “Explorer”, then click “Windows Explorer”).
    2. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the Linux Mint image. 
    3. Right click the image file with the mouse and select “open with” and then “Nero Express”.
    4. Place a DVD into the disc drive.

    5. Check that the “Current Recorder” dropdown list is set to your DVD drive.
    6. Check that the “disc type” is “DVD”.
    7. Check that the “Image File” is the Linux Mint image that you selected.
    8. Click the “Burn” button.
    9. When the process has finished, click the “Next” button and then click the “Close” icon.

    Make a bootable USB Drive

    If you have already created a Linux Mint DVD to boot from then you can skip this section.

    To burn the image to a USB drive you will need:
    1. A blank 2gb USB drive (or larger)
    2. UNetbootin
    If you have a USB drive but it is not blank first of all make sure that there is nothing you need on the drive. If there is something you need on the drive copy it to another drive or a disk.

    IMPORTANT: Remember that if you back up your USB drive to your Windows partition that your backup image will not contain these new files and so if something goes wrong you will lose these files. You should either copy the files to another drive, to a service like Google Drive, Dropbox or to a DVD.

    Formatting the USB drive

    1. Insert the USB drive into your computer.
    2. Open Windows Explorer (Press Windows button on keyboard and E on the keyboard or press “Start” and type “Explorer”, then click “Windows Explorer”).
    3. Find the removable device that relates to your USB drive.
    4. Right click with the mouse on the drive and select “Format”.

    5. Make sure the file system is set to “FAT”.
    6. Check “Quick Format”.
    7. Click “Start”.
    8. A warning will appear telling you that the data on the drive will be deleted. If you want anything on the drive copied off then you should cancel and backup the data otherwise click “OK”.
    9. A message will appear telling you that the format is complete.

    Get UNetbootin

    UNetbootin is a free application that enables you to create bootable USB Linux drives.

    To get UNetbootin:
    1. Open your web browser and navigate to http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
    2. Click the “Download (for windows)” link.
    3. The sourceforge downloader will start and UNetbootin should start downloading.
    4. If you have a download blocker installed then you may need to authorise the download by clicking the yellow bar at the top of the page and allowing downloads from this site.

    Burn Linux Mint to the USB drive using UNetbootin

    To burn the image to the USB drive:
    1. Run UNetbootin by double clicking on the executable that was downloaded.
    2. If you have user account control set to on then you will have to authorise UNetbootin.

    3. The UNetbootin application has two ways to burn an image to a USB drive.

      a. Select a distribution from the list
      b. Select an image from your computer

      I think it is always a good idea to download the image from the place that the distribution links to as you are guaranteed to get the latest version and you can be sure that it is a good image.
    4. Click the “Disk Image” radio button.
    5. Click the button marker with “…”.
    6. Navigate to the folder with the Linux Mint image and select it.
    7. Ignore the “Space used to preserve files across reboots (Ubuntu Only)” as this install is for Linux Mint and not Ubuntu.
    8. Make sure the “Type” dropdown is set to “USB Drive”.
    9. Select the drive letter that corresponds to your USB Drive. Be careful to get this right so that you don’t accidentally overwrite the wrong device.
    10. Click “OK”.
    11. After a while the process will complete and you will have a bootable USB drive with Linux Mint.

    Buy a DVD or USB drive online

    You may not want to download an image of Linux Mint because you have download limits set by your internet service provider or because you have a poor download speed.

    You may also prefer to buy a USB drive or DVD as you are then guaranteed to get media that works.

    Click here to buy a Linux Mint USB drive or DVD visit

    Try Linux Mint in Live Mode

    Linux Mint runs in Live Mode.

    What this means is you can test Linux Mint out by running it straight from the DVD or USB drive.

    There are two real advantages to this:
    1. You can make sure the DVD/USB drive works correctly
    2. You can test all the features to make sure that you can connect to the internet and play music/videos etc.

    Boot from a DVD

    1. Put the DVD into the DVD drive.
    2. Reboot the computer.
    3. A message will appear stating that Linux Mint will boot in 10 seconds.
    4. If you press “enter” on the keyboard the boot will start straight away.
    5. If everything is ok then after a minute or so Linux Mint will have booted.

    Boot from a USB Drive

    1. Put the USB drive into the drive.
    2. Reboot the computer.
    3. A menu should appear with options to try Mint or install Mint.
    4. Choose the default option which loads Linux Mint from the USB drive without installing anything.
    5. If everything is ok then after a minute or so Linux Mint will have booted.
    6. If your computer booted straight to Windows 7 then your hard drive is set to boot before a USB drive.

      If this is the case you have two choices.

      The first choice is to boot from a DVD and the second is to go into your computer’s BIOS and change the boot order of devices.

      You will need to read your computer’s manual or search online to determine how to change the BIOS settings as they are different for each make of computer.

    Install Linux Mint

    If you are happy that you have adequately backed up your Windows files and any other important files and you are suitably pleased with the Linux Mint live run then now you can install Linux Mint.
    1. Boot into the live version of Linux Mint 17.
      Click on the install icon on the desktop.



    2. Choose your installation language and click "Continue".


    3. You will be asked to connect to your wireless network. This is optional and to be honest I always choose not to connect.

      The installer will use your internet connection to download updates as it goes which means when you boot Linux Mint 17 for the first time after installation it will be completely up to date.

      If you have a slow internet connection this can take ages and if your connection drops then it is hard to know the state of your installation. I prefer to get the installation done first and then apply updates later.

      Select your preferred option and click "Continue".


    4. The next steps shows you how well prepared you are for installing Linux Mint. If you have three green ticks then you are good to go. (The only one you really have to worry about is disk space and if you are not using a power source make sure your battery is charged).

      Click "Continue".
    5. The next step is very important. You basically get three choices when it comes to installing Linux Mint:

      a. Install Linux Mint alongside Windows
      b. Erase disk and Install Linux Mint
      c. Something else

      For this installation I will be advocating choosing the option “Something Else”.

      The “Something Else” option allows you to choose how to partition your disks and because of this you can choose how much disk space to give over to the operating system and how much to keep for your own personal data.



      Look at the image above. This is an image of my disk before I installed Linux Mint. As you can see I have 4 partitions.

      The partition called “/dev/sda1” is a Windows system partition and should not be touched. The partition called “/dev/sda2” is the actual Windows partition and again should not be touched. When you run the Linux Mint install these are likely to be the only two partitions you see.

      In my case there are two other partitions. The partition called “/dev/sda3” is a backup partition. I use this to store a system image. It is not the only place I store the system image but it gives me instant access in case something goes wrong. If I happen to lose this partition then I can always go to my external hard drive to restore the image.

      The fourth partition on my drive is a data partition. I learned a long time ago to separate the operating system from the data on a drive and as such I created a data partition for storing documents, images, photos and videos.

      What you will also notice if you look at the image above is that there is a lot of free space. Over 100 gigabytes worth. This is the space I managed to retrieve by shrinking the Windows partition and this is where Linux Mint will be installed.

      At this stage it is important to talk about disk partitions. Each hard disk within a computer can have 4 primary partitions. Windows needs to run off a primary partition. Each primary partition can have logical partitions. Linux can run from logical partitions.

      If you look at the disk layout on my computer you will have worked out that I already have 4 primary partitions set up. The plan therefore is make logical partitions within the 4th partition.

      The setup will be as follows: Partitions 1 and 2 are for Windows and are primary partitions. Partition 3 will also be a primary partition and will remain as a backup partition. Partition 4 will be an extended partition and will contain 4 logical partitions.

      The logical partitions will be the existing data partition, a partition for Linux Mint, a partition for storing data and a swap partition.

      In your case you might only have 2 primary partitions set up as you may not have the backup or data partitions. This does not matter. You will be creating your logical partitions in the 3rd primary partition.

      Creating the root partition

      Select the “Free Space” and click “Add”.

      A screen will appear asking you to create a partition. In this step you will create the partition that will be used by Linux Mint.

      Initially the box marked “New partition size in megabytes” will show the full amount of free space. Realistically you only need around 20 gigabytes for the operating system allowing for software installations and so overwrite this field with 20000.

      Leave the radio button for “Location for the new partition” as “Beginning”. This will place the Linux Mint partition at the beginning of the disk.

      The “Use as” dropdown allows you to choose the file system that will be used by Linux Mint. The most commonly used file system in Linux is EXT4 and so I would always recommend using this type of partition.

      Change the mount point to / to make this the root partition. 

      Click “OK” to continue.

      Creating the home partition



      Now we are going to create the data partition or as it is called in Linux, the home partition. Consider the home partition to be the same as “c:\users\username” in Windows.

      Select the free space and click the “Add” button again from the “Installation Type” screen.

      The data partition will use up the rest of the disk space minus the amount you plan to use as a swap partition.

      How big should your swap size be?

      Now that is a really good question and everyone has differing opinions. If you plan to hibernate/suspend then consider using at least as much disk space as RAM.

      In the box marked “New partition size in megabytes” enter a value which is at least the mount of RAM less than the amount of remaining disk space.

      Again set the “location for the new partition” to “Beginning” and set the “Use as” to “EXT4”.

      You should set the mount point to “/home”. 

      Click “OK” to continue.

      Creating the swap partition

      The final partition to be created is the “Swap” partition.

      Select the free space and click the “Add” button again from the “Installation Type” screen.

      Enter the remaining disk space in the “New partition size in megabytes” box.

      This time change the “Location for the new partition” to be “End”.

      Within the “Use as” dropdown select “Swap area”.

      The “Swap area” is used when your machine has memory hungry tasks.

      The memory hungry tasks will start using disk space to store and swap memory. This is of course inefficient and if you hear a lot of disk activity when doing simple tasks then it probably means you don’t have enough memory in your machine.

      The “Swap area” is used by Linux Mint for hibernation purposes. If you don’t care about hibernation then you can make this partition a lot smaller.
    6. Now that all the partitions have been created the last thing to do from the Installation Type screen is to choose where to install the bootloader. This usually defaults to the correct place and should say “/dev/sda”. It is important to make sure this does not have any numbers at the end. (for example /dev/sda2).

      The bootloader determines the boot order of operating systems.


    7. The rest of the steps are very straight forward. Choose your location.


    8. Choose your keyboard layout.


    9. Create a default user and a name for your computer.


    10. Wait for the installation to complete which for me took less than 10 minutes

    Test it out

    Before booting into Linux Mint for the first time it is worth checking whether the Windows partition is still working properly.

    To boot into Microsoft Windows reboot your computer (remember to remove your installation media) and a menu will appear with various options including “Linux Mint”, “Linux Mint (Recovery)”, “Windows 7 (sda1)” and “Windows 7 (sda2)”.

    Press the down arrow until “Windows 7 (sda1)” is highlighted and then press “Enter” on the keyboard.

    If everything has gone successfully Windows 7 should boot up without any errors. If Windows 7 doesn’t boot up then reboot and try the “Windows 7 (sda2)” option on the menu and press “Enter”.

    If Windows 7 refuses to load then there is a problem and it is not now worth continuing with booting into Linux Mint until the issues have been resolved. Feel free to leave a comment and I will try and troubleshoot your problem. The worst case scenario would be reverting to the backups you made earlier.

    if you are reading on it is assumed that you have a working Windows partition. Now it is time to try Linux Mint.

    Reboot your computer and from the menu press the down arrow until “Linux Mint” is highlighted.

    Now press “Enter” on the keyboard.

    After a short period the Linux Mint login screen should load.

    Logging in to Linux Mint

    If you chose not to login automatically then a login screen will appear.

    You can login by clicking the username at the top of the screen.

    Enter the password that you set up during the installation phase and press “enter” again to login.


    Summary

    If all has gone to plan you should now be able to boot into Windows 7 and Linux Mint.

    I hope you have found this guide useful but if you spot issues along the way please leave a comment so that I can update the guide and so that other people can see how you worked around potential problems.

    Thankyou for reading.

    If you found this guide useful consider using one of the share buttons below to share the article so that other potential Linux Mint users will know where to go.
    ↧
    ↧

    How to replace your operating system with Zorin OS 9

    July 29, 2014, 3:58 pm
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    Introduction

    Zorin OS 9 takes Linux and makes it accessible to Windows users. With well designed interfaces, a familiar look and feel and the best desktop software pre-installed it really is a good way to dip your toes into the Linux pool.

    This quick guide shows how to replace your current operating system with Zorin OS 9.

    How to get Zorin OS 9

    To read all about Zorin OS 9 visit http://zorin-os.com/.

    To download Zorin OS 9 visit http://zorin-os.com/free.html for the free version or http://zorin-os.com/premium.html for the premium version.

    There are links available to download the 32-bit or 64-bit version. Make sure you choose the correct one for your machine.

    After downloading the ISO file follow this guide to create a bootable Linux USB drive but choosing the Zorin OS 9 file that you just downloaded.

    With the drive created reboot your computer with the USB drive still plugged in.

    A menu will appear with a list of options. Choose the "Default" option.

    How to install Zorin OS 9






















    After booting into Zorin OS 9 you should feel pretty much at home if you are a Windows user.

    The desktop has been specifically designed to look and feel like Windows. Note that even though the above image looks like Windows 7 there is a setting available that makes the desktop look more like Windows XP if it makes you feel more comfortable.

    To install Zorin OS 9 click on the "install" icon on the desktop.






















    If you have prior experience of installing any Ubuntu based Linux distribution then this guide will be familiar.

    First of all choose the installation language.





















    You can now choose whether to connect to the internet or not.

    Connecting to the internet makes the installation take a bit longer because it installs updates as it goes along. Obviously this time is offset against having to download and install the updates post installation.

    If you have a slow internet connection I would recommend not connecting now but to install Zorin and then connect after the installation is complete and install the updates.

    Make your decision and click "Continue".





















    Ideally to install Zorin you will have a great internet connection and be plugged in to a power supply.

    Realistically though as long as you have enough battery power and enough disk space you will be fine to install Zorin.

    I would recommend plugging your laptop in if you are going to replace the operating system, otherwise there is no telling what state your system will be in if the power dies.

    The "Preparing to install Zorin" screen shows you how ready you are to install.

    Click "Continue".





















    The "Installation Type" screen will be slightly different depending on what you already have installed.

    In the screenshot above you can see that I already have Netrunner installed and therefore I have the option to install alongside, replace Netrunner or something else.

    If you are running Windows then you will have the option to install alongside Windows or replace Windows.

    Note that these instructions will not work with Windows 8. That is a guide for another day.

    Select the "Replace with Zorin" option to replace your current OS with Zorin OS 9 and click "Continue".





















    A big warning message will now appear stating that everything will be wiped. This is your last chance to change your mind.

    If you are sure you want to do this, click "Install Now".





















    The next screen asks you where you are in the world so that your timezone will be correctly set when you use Zorin for the first time.

    Click where you live on the map and click "Continue".





















    Select your keyboard layout from the aptly titled "Keyboard Layout" screen by choosing where you are and your language and then click "Continue".





















    Finally create a default user and define your machine name.

    Simply enter your name, a descriptive name for the computer, a username and a strong password.

    Click "Continue".



























    The Zorin OS files will now be copied across and the system installed.

    When everything is done you will see the following screenshot.











    That is it. All you need to do now is restart your computer and remove the USB drive.

    Other useful links

    Now obviously this guide was quite quick and quite specific.

    Maybe you wanted to dual boot Zorin OS with Windows 7 for instance or maybe you wanted to try Zorin OS out in a virtual machine.

    Whilst the following links were created for other versions of Linux all you need to do is replace the version of Linux used in these articles with the Zorin OS ISO downloaded earlier.

    Summary

    This article was created in advance of the upcoming review of Zorin OS 9.

    If you have any questions feel free to use the comments section below.

    Thankyou for reading.

    ↧

    Zorin OS 9 - Linux for Windows users

    July 31, 2014, 3:13 pm
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    Introduction

    This will be my third review of the core version of Zorin OS.

    I first reviewed Zorin 6 in July 2012 and looking back on that review it is clear that my posts were much shorter then than they are today.

    One of the questions asked in that review was whether there was enough space for Zorin OS as it occupied similar space to Ubuntu and Linux Mint.

    Zorin has survived a further two years since then but I find myself asking the same question because if anything there are more and more distributions with very similar offerings. Off the top of my head there is Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Netrunner, Kubuntu and PCLinuxOS.

    I reviewed Zorin OS 8 back in February and the review covers most of what I will also be covering in this latest review such as the software and the look and feel.

    I will also highlight the differences between Zorin OS 8 and Zorin OS 9.

    About Zorin OS 9

    Click here to read the Zorin OS 9 release notes

    Zorin OS 9 is based on Ubuntu Linux 14.04 which is the long term support release and this means you will get software updates until 2019.

    The unique selling point for Zorin OS is that it is has multiple themes which make it look like the operating system that you are used to using. For instance if you are used to Windows XP then you are able to switch to an XP style interface and if you use Windows 7 you can switch to a Windows 7 interface.

    In the core version which is free the available interfaces are Windows XP, Windows 7 and Gnome 2. If you upgrade to the premium version you will get the user interfaces for Unity, Mac OSX and Windows 2000.

    Zorin OS Website

    Click here to visit the Zorin OS Website

    The website lists the following advantages for switching to Zorin OS:
    • No risk of getting viruses
    • Superfast and light on resources
    • Easy to use and familiar desktop
    • Customisable user interface and look changer
    • Stable as it is based on Linux
    • All the software you will ever need out of the box
    • Extremely versatile and customisable open source software
    • Available in 55 languages 

    System Requirements

    The following minimum system requirements were found on the Zorin OS website at http://zorin-os.com/faq.html.
    • 1 GHz x86 processor
    • 5 GB hard drive space
    • 512 MB RAM
    • Graphics card capable of 640 x 480 resolution

    Installation

    The Zorin OS website has a link to installation instructions, however they are not exactly extensive and so if you are a newcomer you might find them confusing.

    I have written an installation guide showing how to install Zorin OS 9. The guide also has links to other articles which shows how to set up Linux distributions in a virtual machine and how to dual boot Linux with Windows.

    First Impressions





















    The default look within Zorin OS 9 is the Windows 7 interface and so if you are coming from Windows Vista or Windows 7 then you will find this an easier transition than perhaps using Ubuntu which comes with the Unity desktop.



    The screen shows the main desktop with a panel at the bottom.



    In the left corner of the panel there are icons for the menu (the big Z), Firefox web browser, the file manager and the Rhythmbox audio player.




    In the right side of the panel there are system tray style icons for bluetooth connectivity, network settings, power settings, audio settings, a clock and user settings.

    Clicking on the "Z" icon in the bottom corner brings up the menu. On the left is a list of categories and if you click on the category a list of applications appears. You can also search for an application by title or keyword.

    The right side of the menu gives you access to folders such as the home directory, documents, pictures, music and videos.

    Connecting to the internet


    Connecting to the internet is fairly simple. 

    Click on the network icon in the system tray and a list of wireless networks will appear.

    Choose the network you wish to connect to and if required enter the security key.

    To start using the internet use the Firefox Web Browser which can be started by clicking on the icon next to the "Z" in the bottom left corner.


    Flash and MP3

    Flash is becoming less and less important as the years go by but they said the same thing about JavaScript a few years ago and look how that has turned out. JavaScript is more relevant now than it has even been.

    The average user who likes watching videos and listening to music doesn't care about file formats and multimedia codecs nor whether they are proprietary. The average user just wants their computer and operating system to work.






















    Zorin OS is made to work out of the box and so users will be able to watch Flash videos and listen to MP3 audio files without installing any further software.

    Applications

    Zorin OS 9 comes with a really good complement of applications which should get the average computer user up and running. There are more default applications installed with Zorin OS 9 when compared to a purchased version of Windows 7 and Windows 8.

    Accessories

    • Archive Manager
    • Backup Tool
    • Calculator
    • Disk Manager
    • File Manager
    • Screenshot Tool
    • Terminal Emulator
    • Text Editor
    One of the things I bang on about in my installation guides is the importance of backing up and I am pleased to say that Zorin also takes this subject seriously because shortly after booting for the first time the above message is displayed asking you to think about backup strategies.

    The backup application is easy to use. Set up the folders you wish to backup, the folders you wish to ignore, where to back up to and how often the backups occur.

    Games

    • Solitaire
    • Mahjongg
    • Mines 
    • Quadrapassel (Tetris)
    • Sudoku

    Graphics

    • Document Viewer (PDFs)
    • GIMP (Image Editing)
    • Gnome Image Viewer
    • Shotwell Photo Manager
    • LibreOffice Draw
    • Simplescan






















    There are graphical tools for everyone, whether you enjoying looking at your photos in an album or you see yourself as an amateur photo editor.

    The GIMP is a great tool for editing images and is seen as the free equivalent to Adobe's photoshop.

    Internet

    • Desktop Sharing
    • Empathy Instant Messenging
    • Firefox Web Browser
    • Remmina Remote Desktop
    • Thunderbird Mail Client
    • Zorin Web Browser Manager
    If you prefer to use a mail client as opposed to webmail then Thunderbird is a good alternative to Microsoft's Outlook.

     
    There was a stage a year or so ago where many Linux distributions had switched from Firefox to either Google's Chrome or the Chromium web browsers but most of them appear to have switched back and for good reason. Firefox has improved immensely.

    If you don't want to use Firefox you can switch to another browser by running the Web Browser Manager. There are four choices available: Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Midori.

    Office

    • Document Viewer (PDFs)
    • LibreOffice Writer (Word Processing)
    • LibreOffice Calc (Spreadsheets)
    • LibreOffice Impress (Presentations)
    • LibreOffice Draw (Drawing)
    The LibreOffice suite of applications gives you access to full office applications and the document formats used are becoming more and more widely acceptable including many governments.

    If you prefer to use proprietary Microsoft formats then you can create documents using LibreOffice and save them in Word, Excel or Powerpoint format.


    Sound and Video

    • Brasero Disc Burner
    • Cheese Webcam Viewer
    • Openshot Video Editor
    • Rhythmbox Audio Player
    • Totem Video Player

    Zorin OS 9 includes the Rhythmbox audio player. Rhythmbox is a great application and is far better than the Windows equivalent.

    The obvious functions are available such as the ability to import music into the library and the ability to create and edit playlists.

    Rhythmbox also works well with many audio devices and worked perfectly with my Sony Walkman and my Samsung Galaxy S4.



    Rhythmbox is the one stop shop for audio and includes the ability to listen to podcasts and a number of internet radio stations.




























    Nearly everyone creates videos nowadays. If you own a smartphone with a camera it is highly likely that you have recorded video content at one time or another.

    Not many Linux distributions come with video editing software included yet more and more people would find it beneficial to edit their videos in order to add titles or to mix content.

    Zorin OS 9 comes with the excellent Openshot Video Editor. I am nothing more than a complete amateur at video editing but I found it very intuitive when creating a video loop for my daughter's birthday party which was highlighted in a subsequent blog post about screencasting and videoediting within Linux.






























    For simply watching videos Zorin comes with the Totem video playing software which is more than adequate for most people's needs.

    Running Windows Applications


























    Former Windows users may have applications that they might not be ready to give up on.

    Zorin includes WINE which enables Windows applications to run within Linux.

    Generally speaking WINE has improved immensely over the years and a great number of Windows titles now work incredibly well.

    PlayOnLinux is also included which provides a more user friendly experience for interacting with WINE. You can use PlayOnLinux to install games from various sources such as online or from DVD.

    GOG.com has recently announced that they are releasing games for Linux but they also have a large Windows only library that generally run well within Linux using WINE. PlayOnLinux makes it easier to buy, download and install GOG.com games.

    Zorin Look Changer



















    I mentioned earlier in the review that the unique selling point of Zorin is it's ability to morph itself to look like other desktop operating systems.

    In order to change the theme there is a tool called the Zorin Look Changer which is available under the System Tools category.

    The functionality couldn't be easier. Simply click on the interface you wish to use.

    Again, as mentioned earlier, in the free version you get the choice of Windows 7, Windows XP and Gnome 2 and for the the premium version you will also have Mac OSX, Unity and Windows 2000.

    The Windows themes are obviously going to be a draw for Windows users and I can see the temptation of using the Mac OSX theme.

    The Unity theme is a strange one as Zorin is based on Ubuntu. If you want to use Unity why not just use Ubuntu? Similarly the Gnome 2 desktop style interface can be achieved by using Mint with the MATE desktop.

    Zorin Theme Changer



















    The Zorin developers have worked hard on the visual elements that make up Zorin and as well as making a customised desktop experience they have provided different themes as well.

    The themes available are Zorin Light, Zorin Blue and Zorin Dark. As mentioned on the Dark Duck blog there doesn't appear to be much difference between the blue and dark themes.

    To be able to change themes you have to use the Zorin Theme Changer tool which is available under the system tools menu.

    Desktop preferences





















    In order to change the desktop background all you have to do is right click on the desktop and choose the cryptically titled "Change Desktop Background".

    Zorin provides a number of different backgrounds and they are all nice in their own way. If you prefer to use your own then all you have to do is click the plus symbol (+) and browse to the location of the image you wish to use.

    Gratuitous Kitten Picture






















    Desktop Effects





















    As mentioned before, the Zorin developers have worked extensively on the visual side of things and there are a number of desktop effects provided. Switching between applications for instance can be achieved by holding the super key (Windows key) and the tab key, providing a three dimensional tiled window effect.





















    Other effects include the ability to snap windows so that they appear side by side.

    You can also switch between applications by pressing Alt and Tab which provides a preview of each application in a row.

    Pressing Alt and F7 gives you the ability to move the current application around the screen and it snaps and twists as you do so.

    CTRL and S zooms out showing multiple desktops.

    The effects can be managed and changed by accessing the Compiz settings manager.

    Software Centre

























    The default tool in Zorin OS for installing further applications is the Software Centre.

    I find the Software Centre limited, painful and frustrating and this is not limited to Zorin but to Ubuntu as well and to some extents Mint (although it is much better in Mint).

























    This is why I find it frustrating. In the above screen image you will see that I have searched for Steam (because it is a glaring omission).

    The Software Centre has provided 2 options. If I click on the top option it gives me a "More Info" option. Clicking on the "More Info" returns "Not Found".



    Clicking on the 2nd option gives me a "More Info" option as well. When I click the "More Info" button I am now provided with details of the Steam Launcher which is used to install and update Steam.

    Great!?! Except there is no install button. There is a "Buy" button however. To install Steam you have to log in to a Ubuntu One account and then you are able to download the application.

    The Software Centre is also annoying because it never really appears to return all the available software from the repositories and seems to be more interested in trying to sell you stuff than actually delivering the goods.

    Whilst I can see the point of an all singing, all dancing software centre with free software and non-free software it would be good if it did the basics right all the time.

    I still find that Synaptic is the best go to graphical package manager. It may not be pretty but it sure is effective.

    Issues

    Zorin was in the main fairly stable but there are a couple of mentions in the issues section.



    I will start with the live session. After opening a few windows and playing around I noticed that all the icons had disappeared from the system tray.

    This was easily remedied and hasn't happened in the installed version.


    I also had a couple of these type of messages pop up. Bizarrely the errors appeared but there didn't appear to be any obvious problem.

    Now as a developer myself, what I should really have done at this point was hit the show details, take a screenshot, copy the message and raise it as a bug report because I get users telling me about these sort of errors in the current application that I am developing and it is frustrating when they say "hey I got this message but I just hit close". Unfortunately I didn't do this and so can't adequately say why these errors appeared.





    Finally whilst running Rhythmbox the above message appeared. Again there wasn't really an issue at all. The music was coming out of the speakers just fine but Rhythmbox was determined to ask me what was wrong. Anyone know what "Apport" means?

    Summary

    Zorin has a lot of good things going for it. Visually for instance it is extremely good and the effects are quite nice on a modern machine.

    The Zorin Look Changer is a nice feature and will certainly aid Windows users thinking of using Linux or people who just happened to like that interface but don't like using Windows for other reasons. The "other reasons" are listed on the Zorin website including things such as better security and less chance of contracting viruses.

    The choice of applications has been well thought out. GIMP, Thunderbird, Rhythmbox, Firefox and LibreOffice are all pretty much Linux standards and Openshot is a welcome inclusion.

    WINE and PlayOnLinux will be attractive for Windows users as it means they can continue to use some of their current applications if they choose to do so.

    I was slightly disappointed that STEAM wasn't included but among the premium versions there is a gaming option which may well include it.

    The Software Centre is also a bit disappointing. I get the concept but I would recommend Synaptic or if you are willing to learn just one command line tool then apt-get would be a great choice.

    There were a couple of minor issues that didn't interfere with my Zorin experience and are only mentioned because they happened and not because they will destroy your opinion of Linux if you happened to stumble across them. You will receive far scarier errors when running Windows 8.

    So where would I place Zorin when compared to other similar distributions? I'm afraid that is an article for another day (coming very soon).

    Thankyou for reading.











    ↧

    Which Linux Desktop Environment Should You Use?

    August 8, 2014, 10:02 am
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    Introduction

    The question that I get asked the most is "Which Linux Distro Should I Use?".

    I released an article similar last year called "I need a Linux distro that is more customisable than Ubuntu". In that article I listed some potential candidates based on the criteria provided.

    I am working on a series of articles that lets you choose your distribution based on your needs and your computer's capabilities.
     One part of your decision making process is choosing the desktop environment that is right for you.

    You can use any of the core distributions such as Debian, Fedora, openSUSE and Arch and pretty much every desktop environment is available.
     
    Other Linux distributions take the default desktop environment and customise the settings to provide a richer experience. Examples include Bodhi, Xubuntu and Linux Mint.

    This is a guide to the various desktop environments available and the distributions that utilise them.

    Modern Heavyweight Desktop Environments

    The following desktop environments are a break away from the traditional panel/menu driven desktops that many people are used to.

    These desktop environments may not run so well on older hardware and will not be a good choice if you have insufficient RAM, CPU or an older/incompatible graphics card.

    Unity



















    Unity is the flagship desktop environment for the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

    Unity takes a little bit of time to get used to and isn't overly customisable but is incredibly intuitive when it comes to navigating the desktop and finding applications.

    The Unity desktop has a quick launch bar at the side and hosts your favourite applications. When you press the super (Windows) key on your keyboard a dashboard appears with access to various views including applications, music, videos, photos and social media.

    It is easy to embed popular online applications such as Twitter, GMail and Reddit.

    If your machine is underpowered then it might not be able to run Unity or may be sluggish. It is worth giving Ubuntu a go in a live environment or in a virtual environment to see how well it performs for you.

    Unity isn't to everybody's taste and so try before you buy (even though it is free) is definitely the best course of action, especially if you prefer the more traditional desktop.

    Gnome



















    The Gnome desktop is very similar to the Unity desktop in that it uses a launcher style approach with a dashboard showing all the applications in an iconised fashion.

    Again I would say it is worth trying out Gnome in a virtual machine to see if it is to your taste and in a live environment to make sure it works properly with your hardware.

    Distributions that use Gnome include (but are not limited to):
    • Ubuntu Gnome
    • Mageia
    • Debian
    • Fedora
    • openSUSE
    • Arch
    • CentOS
    • Manjaro
    • Kali
    • Makulu
    • Knoppix
    • Korora
    It is worth noting that whilst some distributions are listed as using Gnome, it may not be the default desktop and may only be available from the repositories post installation.

    Traditional Heavyweight Desktop Environments

    What do I mean by "Traditional Heavyweight Desktop Environment".

    For me a traditional desktop environment includes a panel at the bottom, icons on the desktop and a traditional menu system whereby you scroll through categories to get to applications.

    Heavy versus light? Well a heavyweight desktop environment requires more resources to run.

    Cinnamon


    Cinnamon is the flagship desktop environment for the Linux Mint distribution. Linux Mint actually works with a number of lighter environments as well so if Cinnamon doesn't work for you due to hardware restrictions then that doesn't discount Linux Mint completely as there are alternative desktop choices available.

    If you like things to evolve naturally then the Cinnamon desktop is definitely worth considering. It includes all the bells and whistles which will make your computer look good but it is also well designed making it easy to navigate and requires the smallest of learning curves.

    Definitely a traditional desktop as it contains a single panel, a menu and icons on the desktop.

    Again it is worth noting that whilst some distributions are listed as using Cinnamon, it may not be the default desktop and may only be available from the repositories post installation.

    Linux distributions that use Cinnamon include (but are not limited to):
    • Mint
    • Cinnarch
    • Makulu
    • Mageia
    • Fedora
    • Arch

    KDE

    The KDE desktop has been around for quite some time and has had a number of major updates.

    On the surface it is very much a traditional desktop with a panel, menu and icons but there is much more to the KDE desktop with multiple activity style workspaces.

    The KDE desktop also comes with more default applications than any of the other environments.

    Linux distributions that use the KDE desktop environment include:

    • Mint
    • Debian
    • Mageia
    • Fedora
    • openSUSE
    • Kubuntu
    • PCLinuxOS
    • Netrunner
    • Arch
    • Korora
    • Makulu
    • SolyDK
    • Knoppix
    • SLAX

    Zorin Desktop


    The Zorin desktop is a heavily customised Gnome desktop. It is only used by the Zorin OS Linux distribution.

    The Zorin desktop by default is made to look like Windows 7 but there is a look changer which lets you choose a Windows XP or Gnome 2 desktop.

    There are huge differences between Gnome 2 and Gnome 3 and this brings us onto the lighter desktop environments.

    The Zorin desktop is integrated with Compiz to prove whizzy effects.

    Traditional lightweight desktop environments

    Lightweight desktop environments will require less resources and will therefore work on most hardware.

    Again traditional is used in terms of panels, menus and icons.

    MATE

    When Gnome 2 became Gnome 3 a new desktop environment called MATE was formed which basically forked the Gnome 2 code.

    The MATE desktop is much slicker than Gnome 3 on older hardware.

    MATE is extremely customisable and allows for multiple panels with alternative widgets and menus.

    Linux distributions that use MATE include:
    • Linux Mint
    • PCLinuxOS
    • Makulu
    • Mageia
    • Fedora
    • Arch

    XFCE

    When it comes to customising a desktop you won't find a desktop environment quite like XFCE.

    Linux experts and beginners swear by XFCE because you can tweak it and get it to behave how you want it to very quickly and there isn't a huge learning curve.

    Multiple panels, applets, menus, docks and special effects make XFCE my own personal favourite desktop environment.

    The fact that XFCE doesn't take up a huge amount of resources makes it just perfect.

    Linux distributions that use XFCE include:

    • Xubuntu
    • Linux Mint
    • Debian
    • Mageia
    • Fedora
    • openSUSE
    • Arch
    • SolyDX

    LXDE

    If you are really tight on resources then LXDE is a viable alternative to XFCE.

    LXDE is highly customisable but with a more basic look. As with XFCE you can use different menus, add multiple panels and use different widgets but it isn't quite the same and doesn't quite have the same appeal.

    LXDE does work on pretty much anything hardware wise. If your computer doesn't run LXDE then you really will be pushed to find a Linux distribution that works for you (but they do exist).

    Linux distributions that use LXDE:
    • Lubuntu
    • LXLE
    • Debian
    • Mageia
    • Fedora
    • Zorin OS Lite
    • PCLinuxOS
    • SparkyLinux
    • Simplicity

    Enlightenment

    Enlightenment is one of the lesser utilised desktop environments and is probably highlighted best in the Bodhi Linux distribution.

    The Enlightenment desktop is potentially highly customisable and provides the ability to use a large number of virtual workspaces.

    Linux distributions that use Enlightenment:
    • Bodhi Linux
    • SparkyLinux
    • Fedora
    • Arch
    • MacPUP

    Fluxbox, JWM, IceWM, RazorQT

    For completeness I have added the above desktops and window managers.

    If you are looking for ultra lightweight then these are the graphical environments to go for. Note though that they are much harder to customise.

    If you use any of these GUIs on a modern machine then you will soon realise that the speed is insane but realistically you only want to use them to keep older hardware alive.








    The Linux distributions that use these desktops include:
    • Various versions of Puppy Linux
    • AntiX
    • Damn Small Linux
    • Tinycore

    Summary

    There are other Window Managers out there and you can try 76 of them out by downloading and trying out LinuxBBQ (although it takes patience).

    If you just use your computer for browsing the web, watching videos and listening to music and you have a modern computer then why not try out Unity or Gnome.

    If you are keen to stay traditional and have a modern computer try KDE or Cinnamon.

    If you have a mid range computer then there is MATE and XFCE and these are worth trying out even on modern hardware because they will keep things nice and slick.

    On older hardware try out LXDE first but if that fails try out one of the ultra light distributions that use ICEWM or Fluxbox.

    The final option of course is no desktop at all. If you are using your computer as a server then you may not need a desktop environment in which case Ubuntu minimal and Debian minimal are worth looking into.

    Thankyou for reading.

     

     

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    ↧

    The 5 easiest to use modern Linux distributions

    August 11, 2014, 11:30 pm
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    Introduction

    This is part 2 of a series looking to help people find the best Linux distribution for them.

    In the first part of the series, I looked at some of the best Linux Desktop Environments so that you could eliminate distributions which only use desktops that won't work for you and your setup.

    The title of this post says it all really. Here are the 5 distributions I would turn to if I wanted to use Linux and I didn't want to be too hassled setting things up and they just work.

    Notice that the title includes the word "modern". The reason for this is that the next article is going to be the "5 easiest to use Linux distributions for older computers". This one is all about the modern desktops, the whizzy effects and the shiny interfaces.

    Before I start, here is the criteria that I think is important when deciding on the easiest to use distros.
    1. How easy are they to install
    2. How much work is it to setup the distribution
    3. How intuitive is the desktop environment
    4. How much useful software is installed by default
    5. How much support is available

    1. Linux Mint 





















    Linux Mint is number 1 on this list and in the Distrowatch rankings for a very good reason.

    Linux Mint uses the same installer as Ubuntu and therefore it is very easy to install. If you can follow simple instructions such as being able to choose your language, where you want to install Linux Mint and where you are located on the map then you will be up and running within about 10 to 15 minutes.

    Linux Mint is ahead of Ubuntu in this list for two reasons. In the first instance the Cinnamon desktop is likely to be more familiar to more people than Unity and secondly because Linux Mint has the ability to play Flash and MP3s straight away.

    For general purpose use, the desktop works the way you would expect it to with system icons in the bottom right, a menu in the bottom left and quick launch icons available to open a browser and file manager.

    The software available in Linux Mint is perfect for the average user with the LibreOffice suite, GIMP image editor, Banshee audio player and VLC video player.

    The main thing that is missing is STEAM but this can be installed via the package manager. The Mint Software Centre behaves more intuitively than the Ubuntu Software Centre as well.

    Click here for a review of Linux Mint 17

    2. Ubuntu


    Ubuntu is the Linux distribution that is most well known amongst people outside the Linux community.

    Due to the Unity interface, Ubuntu has something of the Marmite effect whereby you either love it or hate it.

    Installing Ubuntu is easy and the tool used is far better than the Windows equivalent (but then again ordinary users never have to install Windows).

    The desktop is actually incredibly easy to use. If you can type the name of the program you want to run then you are 90% of the way to understanding Unity.

    Ubuntu has a great set of software repositories and provides a stable base for many other Linux distributions.

    Setup wise you have to install the restricted extras package to get Flash, MP3s and fonts (although there is an option during the installation which aims to achieve this with limited success).

    Support for Ubuntu is very easy to find with support forums and IRC chat rooms available.

    The software centre is still a little bit of a let down.

    Click here for a full review of Ubuntu 14.04

    3. PCLinuxOS























    PCLinuxOS is the only non Debian based Linux distribution on this list.

    PCLinuxOS is available for a number of different desktop environments but the way it utilises KDE is excellent.

    The installer is incredibly straight forward and as with Linux Mint, the desktop will be familiar to most users with the panel, menu and icon layout.

    PCLinuxOS has more applications than Linux Mint and Ubuntu with games, graphics applications, the LibreOffice office suite and audio applications. Dropbox is also included.

    The graphical package manager for PCLinuxOS is Synaptic and whilst it might not be as pretty as the "Software Centre" it is much easier to find what you are looking for.

    Click here for a full review of PCLinuxOS

    4. Zorin OS





















    There is no easier transition for Windows users to Linux than Zorin OS, that is the intention anyway.

    Zorin OS looks and behaves in many ways just like Windows and you can choose which Windows version you want it to look like, whether that is Windows XP or Windows 7.

    The installer for Zorin is the same as the Ubuntu installer and so it is very easy to install and it comes with all multimedia codecs pre-installed.

    Zorin OS comes with a good selection of software including the LibreOffice office suite, VLC media player, Banshee audio player and the GIMP image editor.

    PlayOnLinux is installed which makes it possible to run Windows software (although not every application works).

    Zorin has a look and theme changer and also has some fairly nice desktop effects.

    Zorin is number 4 on this list because there are a few glitches, it uses the software centre and there isn't as much support for Zorin as there is for Ubuntu, Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS.

    Click here for a full review of Zorin OS 9

    5. Netrunner

    Number 5 on this list was difficult to choose because it meant leaving other distributions out.

    I went for Netrunner because having recently used it I found it to be very intuitive and easy to use.

    Netrunner takes a Kubuntu base and subtly improves it by including the multimedia codecs and some useful software that Kubuntu doesn't have by default.

    The installer is the same as the Kubuntu installer. The Kubuntu installer is a little bit better than the Ubuntu one because it lists all the stages down the left hand side making it more linear and you can see how many steps you have left before the installation is complete.

    Netrunner has a really good selection of software and it includes games, video editors and screencasting tools on top of the usual office suites and internet tools. Skype is also included.

    The package manager for Netrunner is called MUON and it is much better than the Ubuntu Software Centre.

    Click here for a full review of Netrunner

    Summary

    These are the 5 Linux distributions that I would recommend to new Linux users and to people who just want to use their computer as a computer and who aren't that interested in getting too deep and dirty with their operating system.

    This list could easily have been the 10 easiest to use Linux distributions but 5 is a good number because it shows new users just where to begin yet still provides a limited amount of choice.

    As I mentioned in the introduction these Linux distributions work better when installed on modern computers. If you have an older computer there is another list coming shortly. 

    Remember that you can subscribe to this blog via email by entering your details on the right hand side. Also if you want to get in touch, I am on twitter via the handle @dailylinuxuser.

    Thankyou for reading



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    The 5 easiest to use Linux distributions on older hardware

    August 14, 2014, 11:30 pm
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    Introduction

    This is part 3 in a series aimed at making it easier for people to choose the right Linux distribution for them.

    In the first part of the series I listed a number of the best desktop environments and the Linux distributions that use them.

    In the second part I listed the 5 Linux distributions I would recommend for modern hardware based on their ease of use.

    This article lists the 5 Linux distributions I would recommend for older computers based on their ease of use. Note that there will be a further article for the best distributions to run on ancient hardware.

    1. Elementary OS





















    Elementary OS is based on Ubuntu and therefore it is very easy to install.

    The desktop environment used is Pantheon which is incredibly well designed and very stylish.

    The interface is more of a Mac style interface than a Windows one but most users will pick up how to use Elementary within a matter of minutes.

    The software is lighter in resource requirements than Ubuntu or Linux Mint but the packages are not necessarily inferior. As an example the audio application is called Noise and it works perfectly well as does the Totem video player.

    The web browser is Midori which is ok but you might want to switch it out with something with more features and there isn't an office suite installed.

    Elementary OS uses the Ubuntu Software Centre for package management which is ok but not brilliant.

    Click here for a full review of Elementary OS

    2. Linux Lite























    Linux Lite is based on the LTS version of Ubuntu but uses the XFCE desktop environment as opposed to Unity.

    Linux Lite provides better applications and a better instant impression than Xubuntu.

    Installation is very simple as it uses the Ubuntu installer.

    Linux Lite also comes with a decent set of applications including LibreOffice, GIMP, STEAM, VLC and Firefox.

    The applications listed aren't incredibly light on resources and so wouldn't work on very old hardware.

    The menu is easy to navigate and the desktop easy to use and to customise.

    Click here for a review of Linux Lite (there is a new one on the way for the latest version).

    3. SolydX





















    There is a distribution called SolydXK which basically becomes SolydX if you use the XFCE desktop or SolydK if you use the KDE desktop.

    SolydX is based on the Debian testing branch meaning that it is quite up to date without being unpredictable and unreliable.

    The installer is the same as the Debian installer which means it isn't quite as easy to install as perhaps Elementary or Linux Lite but still fairly straight forward.

    All the multimedia codecs are installed with SolydX and so you can listen to MP3 audio and watch Flash videos.

    SolydX keeps the software on the lighter side in the main with Exaile as the audio player, Abiword as a word processor and Gnumeric as a spreadsheet package. The two office packages listed here are fine enough for basic home use.

    The software manager used is the same one that comes with Linux Mint.

    Click here for a review of SolydX

    4. Linux Mint 

    Number 4 on the list is Linux Mint. I am torn with this list between choosing distributions that work on older hardware yet still provide a decent experience. For example with a MATE or XFCE desktop environment, Linux Mint would work on a lot of hardware released in the past 8 years.

    The applications included in Linux Mint are the same though, whether you use Cinnamon, MATE or XFCE and so they might not work across the board especially on really old hardware.

    Elementary therefore came top of the list because it is more likely to work across the board but then it doesn't come with the selection of applications that Linux Lite and Linux Mint comes with.

    Linux Mint is easy to install and easy to use and the desktop is just as intuitive whether you use MATE, XFCE or Cinnamon.

    If the only thing holding your computer back is the graphical capabilities then Linux Mint is probably worth trying out.

    Click here for a review of Linux Mint (with MATE desktop)

    5. Xubuntu





















    If you have tried Ubuntu and it just doesn't work on your computer then there are alternatives available that probably will work and Xubuntu is one of those.

    Xubuntu is based on Ubuntu but comes with the XFCE desktop environment. Xubuntu has the same installer as Ubuntu and from a useability point of view it is simple enough with a panel at the top and a dock at the bottom.

    Xubuntu is great for people who want to customise their system as it deploys a fairly bare bones XFCE desktop and a minimal set of applications.

    The applications are thin on the ground but there is at least one of each type of program that you will need. There are office applications ( Gnumeric and Abiword), an image editor (GIMP), email client (Thunderbird), audio player (GMusicBrowser) and video player (Parole).

    Applications are installed via the Ubuntu Software Centre.

    Click here for a review of Xubuntu 

    Summary

    This was a more difficult list to come up with than I originally thought it would be because how old is old?
    Including Linux Mint with the MATE desktop yet omitting PCLinuxOS with MATE doesn't seem to make much sense but you have to stop somewhere.

    As mentioned earlier I will be writing an article for Linux distributions that work on really old hardware as part of this series and this will be released shortly.

    Thankyou for reading.
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    HandyLinux 1.6 - A sample of what you can achieve using the power of Debian

    August 18, 2014, 3:24 pm
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    Introduction

    I was asked a long time ago now whether I would be willing to give HandyLinux a go. Due to time constraints this review has come about much later than I hoped it would.

    HandyLinux is a French Linux distribution based on the Debian Stable branch (Wheezy).
    HandyLinux is accessibility for all and freedom for everyone to evolve on its own. Based on Debian GNU/Linux with XFCE, a fast, light and stable desktop environment, HandyLinux is safe, handy and free.
    Designed to facilitate access to computers those who start, children, seniors and those who are looking for simplicity.  
    The above quote was taken from the HandyLinux website. The aim of HandyLinux would appear to be to provide a simple, light and easy to use Linux distribution for everyone.

    However if you read further down the homepage you will find the following text:
    This distribution is only there to facilitate the use of your computer. Once your environment tamed, you simply remove the facilitating options and you get a “classic” Debian distribution with XFCE as desktop environment.
    In essence what this appears to be saying is that you install HandyLinux to get used to Linux and then when you are happy with Linux you can continue to use the base Debian distribution.

    Hardware Requirements

    The hardware requirements listed on the HandyLinux website are:
    • 3.7 gigabytes hard drive space
    • 512 megabytes RAM
    The default desktop environment is XFCE and so HandyLinux should work well on most computers.

    How to get HandyLinux


    There are two versions available. The 486 version is for computers made prior to 2005 and the 686 version is for anything more up to date than that.

    Instructions for creating a DVD and USB drive are available from the above link.

    Essentially all you have to do to create a DVD is burn the HandyLinux ISO to the DVD using your favourite disc burning software.

    For burning HandyLinux to a USB drive you can either use LinuxLive USB Creator (Using Windows) or if you are already using Linux run the following command in a terminal.

    sudo dd if=handylinux-1.6-686.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M && sync
    I would recommend following the instructions from the download page..

    Note that if you would prefer to, you can buy a HandyLinux installation DVD here. There appears to be a non-PAE version available as well.

    Installing HandyLinux

    When you boot HandyLinux from the DVD or USB, a menu appears asking whether you want to try it in a live environment or install it to your hard drive.

    Normally when you enter the live environment for a Linux distribution you can play around and then run the installer without rebooting but for HandyLinux there doesn't appear to be an install option available.

    If you are going to try HandyLinux give it a spin in the live environment and then reboot and choose the install option.

    I usually provide step by step instructions showing how to install the Linux distribution that I am reviewing but the HandyLinux developer(s) have done a fine job in detailing the steps required.

    First Impressions





















    The above screen shows the essence of what Handy Linux is about. When you first boot into HandyLinux you are presented with a plain desktop and a single XFCE panel at the bottom.



    The icon in the bottom left provides access to the Handy Linux menu which is displayed in the middle of the screen as shown above.

    On the right side of the panel there are system icons for adjusting settings such as the volume control, connecting to wireless networks and power settings. There is also the customary clock.

    The HandyLinux menu is an interesting feature. There is basically a tabbed display with tabs for internet applications, places, multimedia applications, office applications, games and raiders.


    Most of the tabs are self explanatory. For instance on the internet tab you can access the internet or read your emails and on the office tab you can use the word processor, spreadsheet application and presentation tool.

    The one that might seem confusing is "Raiders". The "Raiders" tab gives you access to a terminal window, the package manager and system settings such as printers and networks.

    Incidentally, whilst running the live version of HandyLinux everything worked fine but after installing the full version to disk the HandyLinux menu wouldn't start when I clicked on it.

    I therefore ran the menu from the command line and the message that appeared stated that the file "/home/user/.config/user-dirs.dirs" could not be found. To resolve this issue I ran a search for the user-dirs.dirs file using the following command:

    find / -name user-dirs.dirs

    The file was found in /etc/skel/.config/user-dirs.dirs. I therefore copied that file to /home/user/.config/user-dirs.dirs using the following command.

    cp /etc/skel/.config/user-dirs.dirs /home/gary/.config/user-dirs.dirs

    After copying the file, the menu started to work correctly.

    Connecting to the internet

    Connecting to the internet is as simple as clicking on the network icon in the system tray and choosing the appropriate wired or wireless network. You will probably have to enter the security key if you choose a wireless network.

    The default web browser in HandyLinux is Chromium. (version 35)

    Flash and MP3

    Debian is a community distribution and it also provides only free software. This means that if you want to watch proprietary videos using Flash or listen to music in the MP3 format you have to jump through a few hoops.



    HandyLinux has removed those hoops and it is possible to watch Youtube, play Flash games and listen to MP3s without adding repositories and installing further software.




















    Applications

    HandyLinux has a fairly extensive, if somewhat eccentric, set of applications installed by default as shown below:

    Internet

























    • Chromium Web Browser
    • IceDove Email Client
    • mpartage File Sharing
    • Skype Video Conferencing
    • Teamviewer Remote Desktop Sharing
    The IceDove email client is fairly decent. It is easy to connect your current email especially if you use one of the major webmail providers such as GMail.

    Skype is obviously good for staying connected to friends, family and business clients. 

    Teamviewer makes it possible to share your desktop or connect to somebody sharing their desktop. This is good if you are supporting your parents' computers.

    Graphics


    • ImageMagick - Image editing
    • LibreOffice Draw - Drawing application
    • Shotwell - Photo management
    ImageMagick isn't the best drawing or image editing package that you will ever use. Alternatives to install would be GIMP or Inkscape.

    Games



    • AisleRiot Solitaire (Card Game)
    • Freecell Solitaire (Card Game)
    • gbrainy (Puzzle Games)
    • Mahjongg (Card Game)
    • Sudoku (Logic Puzzle)

    Multimedia





















    • Asunder CD Ripper
    • Cheese Webcam Viewer
    • Minitube Youtube Viewer
    • Quod Libet Audio Player
    • RadioTray Online Radio
    • VLC Media Player
    • XFBurn DVD Burner
    The image above is the Quod Libet audio player. It is functional but an interesting choice because there are loads of great audio players for Linux, even if you are trying to go for something light on resources. Personally for lightweight audio players I would consider GMusicBrowser or Noise.


    Asunder is a decent CD ripping application and it is able to convert audio files to the free OGG format or MP3.

    Minitube is a desktop version of Youtube. The interface is basic yet functional.

    The RadioTray application adds a widget to the XFCE panel. When highlighted a menu appears with a large number of online radio stations sorted by category.

    Office

    • Document Viewer (PDF)
    • HPLIP Fax Utility
    • LibreOffice Base (Databases along the lines of Microsoft Access)
    • LibreOffice Calc (Spreadsheet)
    • LibreOffice Draw (Drawing application)
    • LibreOffice Impress (Presentation Tool)
    • LibreOffice Writer (Word processing)

    Installing Applications




    HandyLinux has a software centre similar to the one that comes with Ubuntu. Note that the repositories are for Debian Wheezy and so the applications are limited. You will not find Steam or PlayOnLinux.

    If you don't like the Software Centre you can also use Synaptic which is more basic in looks but more ultimately more powerful.

    Customising the desktop

    The HandyLinux desktop doesn't look particularly inspiring. The HandyLinux menu (HandyMenu) is fine for a little while but it is fairly limited.

    It is worth noting that the XFCE desktop environment is incredibly easy to customise. It is also worth noting that HandyLinux also has the Whisker menu available and the Slingscold dashboard style menu available.




















    As you can see from the image above, the Whisker menu is more traditional in style with a list of categories and applications. There is also a search box available.




















    The Slingscold menu provides an iconised view of applications split by categories laid out at the top of the screen.


    You may have noticed in the images above that I had changed the desktop wallpaper. Changing the wallpaper is as simple as right clicking on the desktop and choosing "Desktop Settings".

    HandyLinux has some plain wallpapers with the HandyLinux logo and some really nice photos. You can also add your own images by clicking on the plus symbol and locating the file.




















    With just a small amount of tweaking the desktop can be made to look more attractive and much more functional.

    Issues

    The issues that I found were as follows:
    1. No install option from the live environment (you have to reboot to install)
    2. The HandyMenu didn't work after installation. I had to copy files around.
    3. Despite installing the English language version a lot of the menus had French terms. Examples for this include the Slingscold menu (search shows as recerche), Chromium loads in French, RadioTray has French radio stations.

    Summary

    HandyLinux was created using the Debian Live Build tools. This distribution shows you a small sample of what can be achieved with Debian.

    HandyLinux was reasonably easy to install and there is a decent if not spectacular set of applications installed by default. 

    The HandyMenu will probably be useful for people who want a basic computing experience but for everyone else there is the inclusion of Whisker and Slingscold.

    Using Debian Wheezy as a base makes the system a little bit limited in terms of available software. I would recommend using the testing branch as a base.

    There were a couple of issues as highlighted but nothing too hard to fix. It would probably be a bit disconcerting for a really new user to hit the menu icon and for nothing to happen.

    The only guarantee that you will see all of the articles on this site

    All of this leads on to another article that is coming up regarding when and why you would use Debian. If you want to read that or any other forthcoming articles why not subscribe via email (box in sidebar) or follow me on Twitter (@dailylinuxuser). 

    Thankyou for reading.
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    Search

    5 Linux distributions for very old computers

    August 21, 2014, 11:30 pm
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    Introduction

    This is part 4 in a series of articles designed to help you choose the right Linux distribution for your circumstances.

    Here are the links to the first three parts:
    Some of you will have computers that are really old and none of the solutions presented thus far are of much use.

    This guide lists those distributions designed to run with limited RAM, limited disk space and limited graphics capabilities.

    Ease of use is sometimes comprimised when using the really light distributions but once you get used to them they are every bit as functional as a Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

    Before I start I would like to say that unlike the other two lists this one is in no particular order.

    1. AntiX

    The AntiX website claims that you can run it on a Pentium II with 64 megabytes of RAM although it is recommended that you have at least 128 megabytes.



    Click here for a full review of AntiX

    The download image for AntiX is just 690 megabytes in size. It is amazing how much is packed into that image.

    AntiX comes with dozens of applications and that includes the LibreOffice suite. All of the other applications are lightweight in nature including Gnome MPlayer for listening to music, Iceweasel as a web browser and Claws as an email client.

    The desktop that comes with AntiX is IceWM which uses very little of your computer's processing power.

    AntiX is based on the Debian testing branch which means the applications are fairly up to date and in the main fairly resilient.

    2. SparkyLinux





















    Click here for a full review of SparkyLinux

    SparkyLinux is another Linux distribution based on the Debian testing branch. There are a number of choices of desktop available including LXDE, Razor-QT, OpenBox/JWM, e17 and MATE.

    SparkyLinux will work quite well on really old and just plain old old computers.

    If you have an ancient computer then the Razor-QT, LXDE and JWM desktops are the ones to go for.

    The minimum requirements are 256 megabytes RAM for LXDE, OpenBox and e17 or 384 megabytes for Razor-QT. You will need at least 5 gigabytes of hard drive space.

    You can download SparkyLinux from http://sparkylinux.org/download/

    I believe that the i486 versions include a non-PAE kernel making it accessible to everyone.

    The applications aren't so lightweight in nature. LibreOffice, GIMP, PlayOnLinux, DropBox, Teamviewer, QMMP and VLC are installed by default.

    The installer for SparkyLinux isn't as easy to follow as other distributions but there is a full guide available at http://sparkylinux.org/hard-drive-install/

    3. Crunchbang



    Click here for a review of Crunchbang
    (This is a little bit out of date and a new review is forthcoming shortly)

    Crunchbang is also based on Debian and it uses the Openbox window manager.

    The following quote comes from the Crunchbang website
    Put simply; CrunchBang could be thought of as a layer built on top of Debian, specifically to provide a great Openbox experience.
    Crunchbang is genuinely lightweight in nature and that is reflected in the applications with Abiword and Gnumeric installed instead of LibreOffice (although the option is there to have LibreOffice).

    The Crunchbang website isn't overly forthcoming with minimum specifications but this forum page has people listing RAM requirements of anything from 64 megabytes to 512 megabytes.

    4. Puppy Linux

    There isn't just one version of Puppy Linux. There are dozens of them. They are all built using the same tools and are all light on resources.

    My personal favourites are Simplicity and MacPup but Precise, Wary and Slacko are really good as well.

    Puppy has a number of really good applications with small footprints including the excellent PMusic audio player.

    There are dozens of tools available including ftp clients, screengrabbing tools, torrent clients, CD rippers and audio download tools.

    Puppy is designed to run from a USB pen drive as opposed to installing it on a hard drive. (You can if you want to though).

    The Puppy Linux wikka page states that Puppy Linux can run on 64 megabytes RAM but 256 megabytes is more realistic with a 512 megabyte swap file.

    The desktop environments used vary depending on the version you install and they vary from IceWM to JWM and LXDE.

    You can download Wary, Precise and Slacko from http://puppylinux.org
    You can download Simplicity from http://simplicitylinux.org/
    You can download MacPup from http://macpup.org/

    5. Lubuntu

    Click here for a review of Lubuntu 14.04



    Lubuntu is based on Ubuntu 14.04 and comes installed with the LXDE desktop.

    Windows users will find Lubuntu more familiar than any of the aforementioned distros.

    Lubuntu can apparently work with just 128 megabytes RAM but becomes more useable with 256 megabytes RAM and it is highly recommended to have 512 megabytes or more.

    The applications installed are all light in nature with Abiword and Gnumeric installed as the word processing and spreadsheet tools. Audacious is installed as the audio player which is decent if not spectacular.

    With Lubuntu you get access to all the Ubuntu repositories but your choice of applications will be determined by the amount of system resources available to you.

    You can download Lubuntu 14.04 from here

    Summary

    The obvious choice for users coming to Linux for the first time on really old machines would be Lubuntu but AntiX and SparkyLinux are both worth a go. With Lubuntu you will find a larger support network.

    The choice doesn't have to be Lubuntu or Puppy as you can try Lubuntu as a full installation and install Puppy to a USB drive.

    Crunchbang is a very popular distribution and you will soon realise that functionality outweighs shiny.

    Thankyou for reading.









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    Convert from MP3 to WAV and WAV to MP3 using Linux Mint

    August 26, 2014, 3:21 pm
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    Introduction

    Straight out of left field and completely unrelated to recent content on this blog is an article showing how to convert audio files from one format to another including from MP3 to WAV and WAV to MP3.

    So the reason I am writing this guide is that I had to convert some audio files at the weekend really quickly (more of a want than a need really).

    Last week I was given an Amazon gift card and so I used some of the money to update my music collection. I downloaded the files straight to MP3 as opposed to buying the CDs and waiting for them to be delivered.

    On Saturday mornings I take my daughter swimming and I felt the urge to subject her to an eclectic mix of "Chas and Dave", "Brian Setzer", "Louis Jordan" and "Cab Calloway". Hey that is what dads are for.

    I had fifteen minutes before we needed to leave and I realised that I had to burn the songs onto a CD and what is more I needed to convert them from MP3 to a format a standard CD player can play such as WAV.

    In this article I am going to show you the method I used to convert the files and then I am going to show you the easy way.

    Converting MP3 to WAV using mpg123

    I used a command line tool called mpg123 to convert the MP3 files to WAVs.

    To get mpg123 I opened a terminal window in Linux Mint and typed the following:

    sudo apt-get install mpg123

    The following command shows how to convert a single MP3 to a WAV file:

    mpg123 -w "02 Big Fat Rat.wav" "02 Big Fat Rat.mp3"

    Now obviously when you are time limited and because you would drive yourself insane having to type in each and every filename it is better to write a script to convert all the files.

    for file in ./*.mp3
    do
    mpg -w ./wavs/"${file}".wav "$file"
    done

    For a complete script that you can use again and again click here.

    This script works perfectly well and will work on any distribution that has mpg123 available.

    Convert MP3 to WAV using Gnac

    This is the Everyday Linux User website and the point of this site is to make it easier for the average user and is not for command line wizards.

    There is a Gnome based tool called "Gnac" (Gnome Audio Converter) which is perfect for the task and is really easy to use.

    You can install "Gnac" from the Mint Software Manager by simply searching for it.





    The reviews aren't very inspiring. There are just two of them. 1 for 5 stars and 1 for 1 star. 1 person said it worked perfectly and 1 said it didn't work at all. 

    Once it has been installed "Gnac" can be loaded by clicking on the menu and searching for it using the search bar.






    "Gnac" is very easy to use.

    There are 4 icons on the toolbar:

    1. Add files
    2. Remove files
    3. Clear files
    4. Convert
    Clicking the "Add files" button brings up the standard "open a file" dialogue. You can select individual files or select a folder. Selecting a folder loads in all the valid audio files within that folder.

    If you add files by accident you can remove them by clicking the "Remove files" icon.

    Got it completely wrong? Simply clear the list by clicking the "Clear files" icon and start again.

    There is a dropdown in the bottom left corner which shows what the file will be converted to. By default WAV is selected which in this case is exactly what is required.

    Clicking "Convert" either on the toolbar or in the bottom right corner of the window starts the process.

    The conversion takes a matter of seconds to complete.

    Converting WAV to MP3 using gnac

    Converting from WAV to MP3 used to be a common task as people used to buy CDs and then convert them for use on their computers and MP3 players.

    Most people probably download more music than they buy on physical disks and so it is more likely that they want to convert the other way around now.

    "Gnac" can convert to multiple formats and so if you need to convert from WAV to MP3 you can.

    The file format dropdown box can be set to have other formats as well.

    Click the "Edit" button to add new file formats.





    When you use "Gnac" for the first time there is only "wav" listed. To add new file formats click on the "New" button.



    The Name and Description fields are there for your benefit to describe the format that you are adding. 

    You might choose to have 3 MP3 formats all with differing quality settings. It is therefore a good idea to use the "Name" and "Description" fields wisely to define the format that you are adding.

    The "Format" dropdown provides a list of possible conversion formats such as FLAC, OGG, MP3 and M4a.

    The quality setting determines how much quality you lose during the conversion. If you use the highest quality the file size will be bigger and therefore of course a lower quality file will have a smaller file size.

    The  "Advanced" options lets you choose bit rates and the number of channels (mono/stereo).

    When you are happy that you have set the format the way you want it click on "Save".

    From the "Profile Manager" screen you can copy a profile. This is useful if you have for example an MP3 format but you want another one with a higher or lower quality. 

    To amend a profile click it within the list and click "Edit".

    Finally, to delete a profile select it and click "Delete".

    When you return to the main "Gnac" interface you will now be able to choose your required format from the dropdown.

    Summary

    Most of us listen to music digitally nowadays and so converting from one format to another probably doesn't happen all that frequently anymore.

    If you need to create an audio CD for use in a car stereo (some of us still have older cars) or you have an audio CD you need to convert to MP3 then "Gnac" is perfect for the job. 

    Of course the annoying thing is that with seconds to spare I managed to get in the car and insert the CD into the stereo only to find out that printed in bold writing were the words "MP3 Audio".




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    Raspberry PI frustrations and Why Windows 8, Why?

    August 26, 2014, 3:57 pm
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    Spoiler alert. This post has absolutely nothing to do with Linux and is simply a way for me to vent my weekend frustrations.

    I had planned this week to review a distribution and write an article about Debian.

    On Friday morning I set up my Raspberry PI to download the necessary files whilst I went to work. I have mentioned before that I live in the Scottish wilderness and therefore my internet connection is based on a couple of tin cans attached to a piece of string.

    The Raspberry PI is perfect for this sort of thing. I don't have a desktop computer and therefore to download files whilst away from the house used to require using a laptop and leaving it on all day. Now I just queue up the files and let the Raspberry PI do its thing.

    I tend not to do much on a Friday night and so it was Saturday before I needed to use one of the files.

    Unfortunately something catastrophic happened to the Raspberry PI and not only did it not have the files I needed it had also corrupted the operating system.

    Luckily I back up the Raspberry PI quite often so all I needed to do was take out the SD card and put the backed up image onto it.

    Unfortunately the last time I had backed up the Raspberry PI it was to my Windows 8 machine and I hadn't had time to copy it over to my backup drives. No worries though because the Windows 8 machine was working ok or so I thought.

    Whilst booting up a message appeared stating that something had gone wrong and that the computer needed to restart. The restart took me to a blue screen where it said something along the lines of reconfiguring settings.

    The reconfiguring settings took 3.5 hours.

    Installing most versions of Linux takes up to 15 minutes. Installing Windows takes up to 30 minutes. What on earth was Windows doing for 3.5 hours. It wasn't connected to the internet so it wasn't downloading anything.

    One final reboot and the computer restarted and I was able to use Windows again and there were no apparent changes whatsoever.

    I ended up spending a little bit of time on Sunday reinstalling the image on the Raspberry PI and downloading the files required for the next distribution review.

    In the mean time I have just released an article showing how to convert from WAV to MP3 and MP3 to WAV using Linux Mint.




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    Linux has run out of time - I looked into the trap, Jim

    August 31, 2014, 3:03 pm
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    Introduction


    I like to read the "Today in open source" column written by Jim Lynch.

    On the 27th August there was a link to an article by John Dvorak which basically stated that Linux has run out of time.

    Speaking of Munich, John Dvorak uses it as the opening to a diatribe about how Linux on the desktop has run out of time or something like that. Think carefully before you click through to read the article

    The above quote was written by Jim Lynch and I should have heeded the warning. Jim told me before clicking through that this was an article designed to stir up a wasps nest.

    What has this to do with the Ghostbusters video linked above? There is a line in Ghostbusters where Ray says "Ok, I'm opening the trap, don't look into the trap" and just seconds follow before Egon says "I looked into the trap, Ray".

    Humans are curious and if there is a big red button that says "do not press" our natural instincts makes us wonder what the button is for and the second instinct is to press it to find out.

    Linux has run out of time

    The reason for John's article appears to be the on off relationship that Munich appears to be having with Linux at the moment.

    John Dvorak believes that Linux has had its chance and it has failed to impress. 
    I like Linux and would love to just go all-in with it as the mavens tell me I can do. But I cannot. I use these computers to make a living by writing and podcasting. I also produce photographic art as a hobby. I can't accomplish any of this with Linux.
    Does this tell us more about John's failings than the state of Linux. Let us consider podcasting for example. Linux Outlaws, Everyday Linux, The Linux Links Tech Show (TLLTS), Ubuntu UK Podcast, Mintcast, Linux Action Show. All of these are really excellent examples of Linux podcasts. Am I supposed to believe that all of these podcasts are made using Windows? If John is right then it wouldn't be possible for all of these excellent podcasts to create their recordings using the operating system that they discuss on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

    What about writing? Linux User & Developer Magazine, Linux Format Magazine, Linux Journal. Are all of these magazines using Windows to write articles about Linux. That would seem a bit counterproductive. How can people write so religiously about a topic that they don't have faith in?
    There are a lot of products that I need that will run on WINE, a chunk of code that allows Windows software to run on Linux. It's not perfect. It takes tweaking, there are all sorts of issues, and, more importantly, what's the point? If I have to run Windows applications, I want Windows, don't I? 

    John wants Windows and therein lies the problem. You can't write an objective article about Linux if ultimately you want Windows. WINE is great and it is getting better year on year at running Windows based applications but at the same time there are less and less Windows applications that Linux users truly rely on. 
    Then we have Photoshop, Illustrator, and the entire Adobe universe. None of it runs on Linux natively and people "have heard" that it runs okay on WINE. This is no good. Then GIMP enters the conversation. Yes, as a Photoshop clone it's actually pretty good. But the name says it all: hobbled.
    The main issue with people using GIMP professionally as opposed to Photoshop is the hype given by people like John.

    Why do so many offices around the world run Windows? For decades Windows has been taught in schools as the only operating system and Microsoft Office has been taught in schools as the only office suite.

    When you enter the business market place it can therefore be no surprise that big companies run Windows and use Microsoft Office. The people that run the IT departments and their senior managers and directors were all brought up on Windows. They feel safe by using it. It has nothing to do with what works and what doesn't.

    Photoshop is the same. Photoshop has become a commonly known product and web design companies hire people because they have Photoshop skills. The people running these agencies have become too ingrained into thinking that Photoshop is the only way to go.

    Things do change though. Microsoft used to dominate everything. Every man and his dog used to use Hotmail but now more and more people use GMail. Do we even need a mail client anymore such as Outlook? I can have a million emails in my GMail account and with a quick keyword search I can find the email I am looking for.
    Ironically, Microsoft didn't need to change anything. Word is just better. Excel is better. PowerPoint is better. It's that simple.

    Is Word better than LibreOffice Writer or is LibreOffice Writer better than Word? Is Android better than Apple? Were Nirvana better than Pearl Jam? Which were better "The Beatles" or "The Rolling Stones"?

    Microsoft Word has a lot of flaws that people seem to gloss over. Bullets and numbering for instance are just random. The fonts change, the numbering changes, the indentation changes and for no apparent reason.

    The Microsoft ribbon bars have surely just been added to sell training courses because there is no way they are better than menus, toolbars and keyboard shortcuts. Everything we have been used to for 20 years all switched around for no seemingly good reason. I don't like it when my local supermarket rearranges all the shelves for no apparent reason either. If you want a ribbon bar then there is always Kingsoft Office.
     My wife, for example, likes the Windows way of tracking and saving all changes in a document, and the ability to reclaim old text.
    Good for her John. I quite like my computer to boot in under 30 seconds, not display a blue screen saying there has been an error and then spend 3.5 hours reconfiguring itself. Each to their own I guess.

    LibreOffice Calc is probably a more difficult sell. IT departments in the business world are commonly underfunded and therefore to get around IT deficiencies every other department in the company has the so called resident Excel expert who knows VBA. Companies big and small have badly designed spreadsheets with poor VBA code, whereby the expert left long ago but nobody dares to change the spreadsheet for fear of breaking it.

    Getting companies to clean up these spreadsheets is not a cheap task and therefore abandoning Excel for LibreOffice is probably not going to happen.

    If I want a word processor to create e-books, for example, or to organize large texts I use Scrivener. Does Scrivener run on Linux? Maybe someday. I still do the original writing in Word, then run it to Scrivener for organizing and compiling. Linux is not part of the scheme.
    It just so happens that Scrivener has arrived on Linux. At the moment it is in Beta but then so was GMail for about 5 years.

    Right now Linux on the desktop remains a cheap curiosity, that is kind of fun to play with when you are bored.
    I am not suggesting for a minute that Linux has made it on the desktop. To be honest I'm not sure what the big fascination is.

    All I know is that for me Linux is easy to install, easy to use and for home use it has served me well for over 10 years.

    I haven't had a virus or any sign of malware in all the time I have used Linux. I only have to switch on my Windows based computer before I am bombarded with an Antivirus package that wants to update itself constantly and scan every single file and process slowing down the whole machine to crawling point.

    I can't reboot my Windows based computer without it wanting to install updates 1 of 63, 2 of 63, 3 of 63 on what appears to be a daily basis.

    Free software in Windows doesn't mean free anymore. Once the bastion of freeware and shareware CNet now seems to supply software riddled with endless toolbars, search tools and PC Optimisers and they aren't the only download site doing that.

    When I run Windows applications at work, every so often I will receive a message saying that the application has stopped working. It doesn't give a reason, it just tells me it has stopped working. The application then dies and I have to restart it. I'm not saying that I have never had an application crash on me in Linux but it is far less frequent and the reasons why are far more verbose.

    I don't write about Linux to force Windows users into changing their operating system. If somebody is using Windows and they want a change then I try an aid that process.

    Why does it have to be one thing or another?. For Windows to survive must Linux die and for Linux to succeed does Windows have to die? Of course not. The people who want to use Linux will and those who don't won't.

    Thankyou for reading.





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    Linux @ About.com

    September 1, 2014, 3:24 pm
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    Introduction

    During the past month I have been in discussions with a number of people at about.com.

    I have been provided with the opportunity of writing articles on the linux.about.com subsite and I am in full control of all the content that will appear on that site.

    It is early days and there is some old content on the site which is a bit out of date but I plan to make linux.about.com a great resource for everyone.

    What about Everyday Linux User?

    Nothing changes with regards to Everyday Linux User.

    Everyday Linux User is about providing guides for the average computer user and it will continue to have reviews and how to guides and all the usual content that this site provides.

    Articles at Linux.about.com

    The articles at Linux.about.com are likely to be more varied with some basic content for new users and some command line stuff for those who want to get their hands well and truly dirty.

    There will be some overlap between the two sites and that is to expected.

    And the first article is....

    The first article has just been published and shows how to install Ubuntu within Windows using Virtualbox

    Thankyou for reading.



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    10 Answers To The Most Frequently Asked Linux Questions On Google

    September 3, 2014, 3:50 pm
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    Introduction

    Go to Google and type in a query. As you type you will notice that Google suggests some questions and topics for you.

    The suggestions that appear are based on the most searched for topics based on the keywords provided. There is a caviat and that is each person may receive a slightly different list based on things they have naturally searched for in the past.

    The concept of todays article is to provide answers to the most commonly asked questions using terms such as Why is Linux, What does Linux, Can Linux and Which Linux.

    I borrowed the concept of this article from the Going Linux podcast which did something similar in episode 253.


    1. Why Is Linux Better Than Windows?

    I have incorporated the first three items on the list into the answer for this question because on their own they are meaningless.

    Why is Linux better than Windows?

    This question is at the best subjective and many Windows users would probably suggest otherwise. In fact there was an article that appeared last week, by John Dvorak, who suggested that Linux had failed to win over the desktop and was nothing more than an operating system for hobbyists.

    You can read my response to that article by clicking here.

    Here are some reasons where it can be argued that Linux is better than Windows:
    • Performance
    • Security
    • Customisability
    • Price
    • Community 
    • Support
    Linux can be made to work on the oldest hardware or the most modern hardware. By tweaking the desktop environment and the applications you use it is possible to make Linux perform in a much more efficient way than Windows.

    Another reason Linux performs better is the fact that it doesn't deteriorate over time.

    When you first get a computer with Windows on it the performance is usually pretty decent.

    Antivirus software instantly places a load onto the computer that just isn't required on a day to day basis for home Linux computers.

    Windows tends to slow down after a period of use. This is due to installing applications, system updates and various other tasks that fill up the registry and leave junk on the computer.

    Windows 7 is definitely an improvement on Window Vista and XP because it automatically defragments the hard drive but it is noticeably slower running either Windows 7 or Windows 8 compared with any version of Linux that I run on the same machines.

    With regards to security, Linux is better for various reasons. The use of a normal account as opposed to an administrator account certainly helps as it limits the amount of exposure to potential hackers.

    Viruses are less likely to affect Linux than Windows as well and this can be attributed to the use of package managers in Linux, the ability for viruses to spread and the level of chaos that virus developers can generate by writing viruses for Linux. This is covered again later on in the article.

    If I want to download a Windows application then I have a choice of the whole internet to download from but how do you know a reputable site for a non-reputable site. Even so called reputable sites bundle search tools, optimisers and toolbars with the applications that you download from them. The use of package managers as repositories is a far better way to distribute software.

    Linux is ultimately more customisable than Windows. Everything on Linux can be built the way you want it to be. You can choose the display manager (login manager), the window manager, the docks that appear, the terminal, the applications, the fonts, menus and widgets. In Windows you can change the desktop wallpaper, what else?

    Linux at the point of use is free. Now many people would say that because Windows came with the computer they are using it is also free. With Windows everything costs money. You buy the computer and the Windows fee is already included. Then you have to pay for the antivirus subscription. If you want to use an office suite you have to pay for it.

    Also consider about what happens when something goes wrong with Windows. Can you fix it? How much is it going to cost for you to get it fixed? With Linux there is such a great community and support network that you can probably fix most problems for free and you don't have to worry whether you lost the disks that came with your computer because you can create them again for free.

    It is unfair to do a ying without a yang and so whilst searching on Why Linux I noticed that second on the list is "Why linux sucks".

    Nobody answers this question better than Brian Lunduke
















    2. Can Linux Read NTFS?

    NTFS is the native Windows file system and has been for quite some time.

    Can linux read NTFS?

    I can prove this one by example. The computer I am using is running Windows 8 and Linux Mint 17. If I open up the Nemo file manager I am able to see the Windows 8 partition.

    As you can see from the image above I am able to access the files and folders in the Windows partition formatted to NTFS and I can open photos, music, documents etc.

    The answer to the question is therefore yes you can.

    A better question might have been "how safe is it to write to NTFS partitions using Linux".

    3. Can Linux Get Viruses?

    Every operating system can catch a virus but a better thing to consider is the purpose of a virus.

    Malware comes in many different forms and the aim of malware is to either extract money or to cause chaos. In order to do either the reach of the malware has to be wide spread.

    To get one person on one computer to run an application to install Cryptolocker
    will earn the reward of one person paying the ransom. In order to make real money the people spreading ransomware need to get as many people as possible to install it.

    Why are there more burglaries in city centres than in country villages? It is easier to burgle a number of properties in close proximity than go from village to village and do one house at a time.
    Real life viruses spread in the places that are most populated and with the least protection against that virus.

    The same can be said for computer viruses. Windows has the larger userbase and so it is easier and more profitable to create viruses for Windows.

    People using Linux for the first time are more likely to stick with installing applications via the package managers and by following guides from recognised sources. These users are unlikely to contract any sort of virus as the package managers are kept clean by the wider community.

    Long term Linux users are technically savvy and therefore ultimately less likely to install a virus and even if they do they can probably fix the damage caused anyway and therefore there is little point targeting them.

    The biggest danger to new Linux users is following instructions on websites that give false information. Entering commands into a terminal window without fully understanding the commands is potentially very dangerous.

    4. Can Linux Run Windows Games?

    Linux can do better than run Windows games, Linux can run Linux games as well.

    This question therefore also incorporates "Can Linux Run Games?" and "Can Linux Run Steam?"

    Steam has over 500 games available for the Linux platform and GOG.com have started releasing games with full Linux support


    There are native Linux games as well. I wrote an article a while back discussing the games installed with the KDE desktop.

    Are there any Minecraft players out there? You can play Minecraft using Linux as well.

    To answer the actual question, Windows games can be played using WINE and PlayOnLinux. A full article on WINE and gaming is coming up shortly.

    5. Can Linux Replace Windows?

    Can Linux replace Windows? Which version of Windows are you looking to replace?

    For Windows 7 you can follow this guide to switch to Linux Mint.
    For Windows XP you can follow this guide to switch to Lubuntu.

    Like the Windows look but not the functionality? Follow this guide to switch to Zorin OS 9.

    6. Can Linux Read exFAT?

    What is exFAT?

    exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) is a Microsoftfile system optimized for flash drives.[3] It is proprietary and patented.[2]
    exFAT can be used where the NTFS file system is not a feasible solution (due to data structure overhead), or where the file size limit of the standard FAT32 file system (that is, without FAT32+ extension[4]) is unacceptable.
    Although the industry-standard FAT32 file system supports volumes up to 2 TiB, exFAT has been adopted by the SD Card Association as the default file system for SDXC cards larger than 32 GiB.
    The above snippet was taken from Wikipedia. exFAT appears to be the file system used on large USB drives and SD cards.

    The answer to the question is yes. Linux can read exFAT partitions. You will need to install exfat-fuse and exfat-utils. (See here for details).

    7. Can Linux run exe?

    Linux works in a different way to Windows. Files with the .exe extension are executable programs in Windows, they have no meaning in Linux.

    In Linux programs are installed via a package manager and are stored as binary files. You can start a program in most versions of Linux by double clicking it or by running it via the command line.

    Simply downloading and double clicking an "exe" file in Linux will not work. If you have WINE installed it is possible to run executable files.

    8. Can Linux Run On Mac?

    It is possible to get Linux to run on Macs and I have written a guide showing how to dual boot Linux Mint and OSx on a MacBook Air.

    This article appears if you ask the same question in Google and there is a really detailed response by someone who has tried Debian and Arch.

    The MacBook Air internet connection issue has been solved in my article above but the other points raised are worth thinking about.

    I am not a big Mac fan so maybe you can provide your experiences with running Linux on a Mac in the comments below.

    9. Can Linux Run Windows Applications?

    I feel like I am covering this question to death. The answer is yes (and no). Using WINE it is possible to run many Windows applications and in a lot of cases the applications run perfectly well.

    An application designed for Windows will probably never work quite as well on Linux as it does for Windows because it wasn't built for the Linux architecture and you are relying 100% on WINE.

    The simplest solution is to either find a good alternative (and believe me there are loads of great alternatives for most Windows applications) or try out the application in WINE to see how well it works.

    Another alternative is to dual boot Windows and Linux or run Windows in a virtual machine for the odd piece of software that you need that requires Windows use.








    10. Which Linux Distro?

    This is the question that I get asked most every single day. Which Linux distro is best on this machine or which Linux distro is best on that machine?

    Choosing a Linux distribution is a personal thing. I recommend trying a few out in virtual machines or as live distributions and then decide which Linux version suits you the best.

    I recently ran a series of articles designed to help in this quest:
    Here are a couple of articles for those of you looking to put Linux on a netbook:
      

    Bonus Question. What Does Linux Look Like?

    That is an almost impossible question to answer. I did say almost. Linux can be made to look however you want it to look.

    I have a Pinterest page that has a selection of the wallpapers and images that have appeared on this site over the past few years.

    Summary

    The Google search tool throws up some interesting questions and the 10 that I answered just scratched the surface.

    Just by adding an extra letter after the search term brings up new results. For instance "Why Linux a" brings up "Why Linux Ate My Ram" and "Why Linux Arch". The search tool also throws up some fairly bad grammar such as "why linux are better than windows".

    I will be looking at Linux gaming over the next week including purpose built gaming distros, games emulators, STEAM and PlayOnLinux.

    Thankyou for reading.













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    Retrogaming With Linux

    September 11, 2014, 4:26 pm
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    Introduction

    You might be surprised to learn that outside of work, bringing up three children and a dog and writing about Linux that I try to find time for other hobbies such as being a navigator at classic car rallies and playing old computer games.

    This article looks at the options available for potential retrogamers using a fairly standard Linux Mint or Ubuntu setup.

    There are already specialist Linux distributions available for playing computer games such as Puppy Arcade. If you just want to play games casually then running a whole distribution to do so might seem a bit overkill.

    I have written other articles in the past about games emulation and in one of my earliest articles I showed how to set up the Sinclair Spectrum in Linux Mint 13.

    Generally when people think of retrogaming they think of games emulators and ROMS. They will also think of old consoles such as the Atari 2600, Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64, NES, SNES, Megadrive and Dreamcast.

    Old Windows games can also be considered retro and there are some great examples of games that used to work in DOS or on the earliest versions of Windows such as Sim City, Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Wolfenstein 3D.

    A few years ago I used to own a number of consoles including all those listed above as well as an Atari ST, Gamecube, Playstation 1 and N64. I still have a Gamegear, Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance.

    Unfortunately space was at a premium and so I reduced my collection but in order to do so I bought a Raspberry PI. The Raspberry PI is great for games emulation up to a point but you certainly need patience when setting it up.

    My wife bought me an OUYA last Christmas which lets me play Android style games on a television. The OUYA has a large number of games emulators available for it and I find it works much better than the Raspberry PI for this purpose. The Raspberry PI is much more suited to repetitive tasks without a GUI. I therefore now use my Raspberry PI for other purposes and the OUYA for retrogaming using emulation.

    For retrogaming with old DOS and Windows games I use my best Linux laptop.

    GOG.com


    STEAM has been hailed as a Linux revelation as it has brought main stream gaming to Linux.

    Before STEAM arrived on the scene however GOG.com (Good Old Games) were providing games that worked very well in WINE and recently they announced that they were releasing games for LINUX.

    The Linux games library is fairly small at the moment with just under 100 games available.

    Titles include Witcher 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Flatout 2, Pinball World, Crystal Caves and The Hugo Trilogy. Prices for the Linux games range from free to £13.

    To test out the Linux games I downloaded "Stargunner" which is one of the free games.














    You have to sign up for an account in order to download the free games and you are basically sent through the same purchasing procedure although of course you end up paying nothing.

    After purchasing the game (even though it is free) you can go to your accounts area and download the game. The game format is provided as a .deb file.

    To install the game all you have to do is double click on the .deb file and the GDebi package installer will do the rest. (This is all of course assuming that you are using a Debian based distribution such as Debian, Ubuntu, Mint etc).

    When you start the game it loads in dosbox which is a DOS emulator. The game loads in full screen mode which is probably fine for most people but you can make it open in windowed mode by following these steps:

    1. Open a terminal window
    2. Enter cd "/opt/GOG Games/Stargunner"
    3. Enter sudo nano dosbox_stargun.conf"
    4. Find the line that says fullscreen=true and replace the true with false
    5. Press CTRL + O and then CTRL + X to save the file
    If you are using Mint then you should have an icon for the game on your desktop. Double click on the file. Ubuntu users will find an icon in the dash.

    Controllers

    The main problem you will have at this stage is that you can only control the game with the keyboard controls.

    It is worth noting that whilst a game is open within dosbox that if you press F1 it will provide you a list of other options. For example pressing F4 will let you decide which controller you wish to use (keyboard, mouse, joystick etc).

    If you choose to control via joystick then it will ask you to calibrate your joystick.

    I have three joysticks available to me:
    • XBOX 360 Controller (Wired and Wireless)
    • WII Remote
    • OUYA Controller


    Plugging the XBOX 360 Controller in using the USB port is the easiest way to get started and if you have one of those then I recommend using it.

    The OUYA controller is fairly straight forward as well. If your computer has bluetooth available then all you have to do is search for a new bluetooth device and then hold in the OUYA controller power button until the device is found.

    The WII remote is a bit different and I found it difficult to set up.

    I think most bluetooth or USB based joypads would work well enough.

    Calibrating Joysticks

    To calibrate your joysticks and joypads install jstest-gtk.

    jstest-gtk is available from the software manager or software centre.

    Simply search for jstest-gtk and click install.



    jstest-gtk can be launched from the menu in Linux Mint or via the dash in Ubuntu by searching for jstest-gtk.

    Make sure you have the controller plugged in. If it isn't plug it in and click refresh. Click on properties to start calibrating.


    To test out the current calibration rotate the joysticks and press all the buttons on your joystick.

    All the button presses should light up a number button.

    The left joystick on an XBOX controller or the OUYA controller will move the cross on the left hand axes dial.

    If something doesn't seem right click on the calibrate button.






    Press the Start Calibration button to start the calibration and you will be asked to perform various tasks such as rotating the joysticks and pressing all the buttons.














    WINE

    If 100 games isn't enough for you (and it really isn't for me) then you can also try out the Windows games at GOG.com by installing WINE. You can also install your own Windows and DOS games that you have on CD/DVD.

    You can install WINE from the Software Manager.






    All you have to do to install a game is find the setup program, right click and select open with WINE Windows Program Loader.

    Once the game has been installed it is likely that an icon will have appeared on your desktop. If it hasn't then you should be able to run the program from the menu or dash depending on your distribution.

    There are other programs that you might wish to run such as WINE Graphic Mode Setup.





    This application lets you determine whether the program opens full screen and the graphics mode it uses.

    The Advanced Settings screen lets you choose the window resolution (Note that choosing a smaller resolution in Mint made my bottom panel move halfway up the screen).

    The scaling engine is probably the most useful feature as it lets you set the size the game appears in Windowed mode.





    The main issue I found with WINE games (and I tried about a dozen of them) is that the joystick sensitivity is crazy on older games.

    There is a program called WINE Control which can be ran from the terminal which lets you test the calibration of the joystick and certain games have a joystick calibration option which came as part of the installation.

    Neither of these options fix the sensitivity issues and this is because modern joypads have far more axis than older joysticks from the past. 

    QJoyPad


    In order to get the joysticks to work properly with older WINE games I used an application called QJoyPad.

    QJoyPad is not available from the default repositories and you will need to follow this guide in order to set up the getdeb repository.

    I recommend following option 2 as option 1 still appears to be pointing at an older version.

    When you have the repository set up open a terminal and type:

    sudo apt-get install qjoypad

    QJoyPad is a GUI application and can be ran from the menu or dash (depending on your distribution and desktop environment) and the screenshot is shown above.

    QJoyPad lets you map each direction on your joystick/joypad to a key on the keyboard.

    Press "Quick Set" to map the keys.

    You will be asked to select an axis on the joypad and then you will be asked to map that axis to a key on the keyboard.

    The point of this is to press up on the joystick and select a key, press down on the joystick and select a key, press left and select a key, press right and select a key, press fire and select a key. Each joystick function has a key on the keyboard assigned to it.


    Remember that older games only had a 4 (or 8) directional joystick and a couple of buttons. All you need to do now is select keyboard as the input device within the game and remap the keys.

    The game will ask you to choose the key for up when remapping the keys and instead on pressing a key on the keyboard you press up on the joystick. Similarly when it asks for the down key press down on the joystick and so on.

    You will find that old games play much better using this method than using the joystick in its full glory.

    Summary



    This is only the first part of this series and I have only just touched on the subject of gaming thus far.

    In the next article I will be looking more closely at PlayOnLinux and WINE and I will also look at some of the games emulators that are out there.

    In future articles I will be looking at distributions specifically designed for playing games.

    Thankyou for reading.


























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    Play Sim City 2000 And Other DOS Games For Free On Linux With PlayOnLinux

    September 19, 2014, 2:52 pm
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    Introduction

    A common way to play DOS games within Linux is to use a program called DOSbox.

    The Everyday Linux User website is all about making things easier and therefore I try to keep command line options to the minimum and that includes DOS commands.

    Therefore I am going to show you how to use PlayOnLinux to install and play DOS games.

    The advantages to running DOS games in this way is that you can create separate virtual drives for each game and you will be able to load all the games from one application.

    In addition if you decided to install Windows only games using PlayOnLinux you won't have to switch applications.  

    Download Sim City 2000

    Sim City 2000 is now available for free. The site that I am linking to has a number of DOS based games available and they are all legally available.

    To download a working version of Sim City 2000 visit the following link:

    http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-games/simcity-2000.php

    After downloading the file, open the compressed folder and extract the files to your downloads folder.

    PlayOnLinux

    PlayOnLinux is available for most distributions.

    If you are using Ubuntu or Mint then it will be available in the Software Centre and for other distributions it will be in the equivalent package managers.







    The first thing that we need to do for playing DOS games is to make sure that there is a version of WINE installed that includes DOS support.

    Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Manage WINE Versions".





















    Scroll down the "Available Wine versions" list and add the latest version of WINE that includes DOS support by press the > arrow. (1.4-dos_support_0.6).

    A window will appear which will allow you to install the specific version of WINE that you selected.

    Click "Next" to continue.




    When you install Windows programs via PlayOnLinux you do so by clicking the "Install a program" link.

    If however the game you are installing doesn't require an installer then this method doesn't work.

    Sim City and many other DOS games don't require an installer and so you have to use the method I will explain below.

    Click "Install a program"




    There is a default configuration but it is worth leaving this alone.

    For installing Sim City 2000 click the New button at the bottom of the screen.






    The virtual drive creator screen will be displayed.

    Click "Next" to continue.












    Choose whether you want to create a 32 bit or 64 bit installation.

    For DOS based games you will only need 32 bit installations.

    Click "Next" to continue.








    You will now be asked which version of WINE you would like to use.

    Select the version of WINE with DOS support that you installed earlier.

    Click "Next" to continue.








    The next step is to give your virtual drive a name.

    I would go with the name of the game as it keeps things simple.

    Note that in the screenshot the name has spaces but you can't have spaces in the name. (Use underscores instead).

    Press "Next" to continue.
























    With the virtual drive created the next step is to copy the games' program files over to the virtual drive. To do this select your virtual drive name and click on the "Miscellaneous" tab.

    Now click on the "Open virtual drive's directory" button. This will open a file manager.

    Navigate to drive_c and then into the "program files" folder.

    Select "File" and then "New Window" from the menu so that you have two copies of the file manager open.

    In one of the file managers select the downloads folder and drag the "Sim City 2000" folder over to the "Program Files" folder in the other file manager.

    Click on the "General" tab.






















    Click the "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive" tab.

    All you have to do now is select the executable that runs the game.

    Note that there is an install.exe but DOS games often had these for setting up sound and controllers. They weren't required to actually install the games.

    For Sim City 2000 click on the "sc2000.exe" link.





    Finally give your shortcut a name (i.e. the name of the game) and click "Next".

    Close the configuration screen and now in the main PlayOnLinux window you should see a shortcut for Sim City 2000 (Or whatever you called the shortcut).

    Simply click on the shortcut and press "Run".



    The game will always load in full screen mode.

    This might be annoying for some people as they prefer to run games in a window.

    Press Alt and Enter to switch to Windowed mode.






    I have tried other games on the site including "Prince Of Persia" and "Pinball Fantasies" and this method works for every DOS game that I have tried.



    Summary

    Playing games that requires joysticks work with most gamepads including the XBOX 360 and the OUYA.

    The sensitivity of the joypads may be too high for certain games. In my last article about Retrogaming with Linux I highlighted a way to get modern joypads to work with older games.

    I am going to continue with the theme of retrogaming for a bit longer.

    The next article will show how to install Windows games using PlayOnLinux and then there will be reviews of game centric distros.

    Other articles

    I have also been writing for About.com recently.

    Check out the following articles:

    Thankyou for reading










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    Play classic titles such as Sim City and Prince Of Persia For Free In Linux Using dosbox

    September 19, 2014, 3:11 pm
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    Introduction

    Wow that is some title isn't it?

    Last week I wrote an article about retrogaming with Linux. In that article I highlighted how to play native Linux games downloaded from GOG.com and how to play Windows games using WINE.

    The retrogaming article also looked at how to set up games controllers so that they aren't so sensitive on older games.

    This time I am going to look at playing some classic DOS games using DOSbox.

    Installing dosbox

    DOSBox should be available for most distributions.

    If you are using Ubuntu, MINT or an equivalent then you will be able to install DOSbox from the software centre/software manager.

    For other distributions you can use the equivalent graphical package manager or one of the command line tools such as apt, zypper or yum.



    Setting up dosbox


























    Before you start to worry about playing games you should set up a folder structure on your computer which will be loaded as a drive into dosbox.

    Open the file manager on your computer and under your home folder create a new folder called games. (i.e. /home/gary/games)

    Now from the home folder press CTRL and H to show hidden folders. Note that there should be a folder called .dosbox.

    Open the .dosbox folder. There is a file called dosbox.conf (there will be a version number, i.e. dosbox-0.74.conf).

    Open the dosbox.conf file in a text editor. The file contains all the settings that you might need such as being able to choose between windowed and full screen mode.

    The bit that we are interested in though is at the bottom and is titled [autoexec].

    Underneath the [autoexec] section type the follow:

    mount c ~/games

    Now save the file.

    Downloading free games

    There are a number of websites available where you can legally download free games.

    The one I found to be pretty good is:

    http://www.bestoldgames.net/eng/old-games/simcity-2000.php

    To get Sim City 2000 click on the link above. If you would prefer another game then do a search on that site or browse the listings.

    After the file has completed downloading open the compressed file and extract the contents to your games folder. (hint rename the folder to be a maximum of 8 characters)

    Open a terminal window and type the following:

    dosbox

    To find your games type c:\ and press return and then type dir to get a directory listing.

    Now navigate into the folder of your choice. For example in the image above I have put Sim City into SC2000.

    To navigate in DOS use the cd command as follows:

    cd sc2000

    To get a list of files in a folder type DIR

    The file to run for Sim City 2000 is sc2000.exe.

    Typesc2000.exe and press return.


    Summary

    You may be wondering why I am releasing this article at the same time that I released another article showing how to play DOS games using PlayOnLinux.

    I have been messing around with different ways to do things like this all week including trying different dosbox graphical user interfaces.

    I had written 90% of this article prior to the PlayOnLinux article but I knew there would be an easier way than opening a DOS window and navigating via the command line.

    This article is therefore being released to show how to use DOSbox but I would recommend the PlayOnLinux method.
        



     
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    How to play classic Windows games using PlayOnLinux

    September 24, 2014, 2:39 pm
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    Introduction

    Continuing with the series looking at retrogaming with Linux here is an article showing how to play classic Windows games using PlayOnLinux. (and this process will work with newer games as well).

    PlayOnLinux

    PlayOnLinux is available for most distros and can be installed via the resident graphical package manager such as the Software Centre, Software Manager, Yast or Synaptic.

    PlayOnLinux provides a nice user interface that makes using WINE and DOSbox easier.









    Installing Windows Games


    This article is going to show how to install a game either from a CD/DVD or from a folder.

    When you first load PlayOnLinux you will see a list of applications that you have already set up (and if you followed my guide to setting up DOS games within PlayOnLinux then you will have some).

    To install a Windows game click on the "Install a program" link.



    The installation screen has a list of categories that you can choose from. If you select the games category a list of games will appear.

    It is worth checking down the list to see if the game you wish to install is there as it speeds up the process slightly.

    Note that if you don't have access to either a CD/DVD or a downloaded program then you won't be able to install the game. There is a caviat to that because there are games listed via GOG.com which will take you through the process of buying the games and downloading them.

    For this article we are going to install the game manually. In order to do so click "Install a non-listed program".


    A welcome screen will appear but you can just press the Next button to move on.

    You can now choose to install or update an existing installation. Generally you will want to click the install option but if you get half way through and there is an issue then you will be better off clicking the update as this saves creating another virtual drive.

    For this guide select the install option and click Next.

     

    Enter the name of the application you wish to install. For this tutorial I will be installing "Championship Manager 01/02" which is a classic football management game and probably the best I have ever played. 

    The good news is that you can play it as well because EIDOS who created the game have allowed for it to be downloaded for free.

    To download the game visit http://www.fmscout.com/a-championship-manager-0102-free-download.html.

    The game will be downloaded as an ISO. After downloading the ISO you can either burn it to a CD using Brasero and insert it into the drive or you can mount the ISO as if it is a CD.

    To mount the ISO as if it is a CD open a terminal window and type the following:

    sudo mount -o loop /path/to/ISO /cdrom

    Of course if you have another game that you want to install insert the CD into the drive.

    Click Next within the PlayOnLinux Wizard after entering the name of the game.





    You now have the opportunity to choose the version of WINE to be used, configure WINE or install extra libraries.

    If your game is pre-2001/2002 then it is possible that it was made for Windows ME or before and it may not work with Windows XP which is the default machine type for PlayOnLinux.

    Championship Manager was built for Windows 98/ME and therefore the configure WINE checkbox needs to be checked.

    Click Next to continue.




    Before you can configure WINE you have to choose whether you are installing a 32-bit or 64-bit application.

    All older games will be 32-bit but some modern games might be 64-bit.

    For Championship Manager it is definitely 32-bit.  Click Next to continue.




    The WINE configuration utility will now load. From the Applications tab change  the Windows version to something prior to Windows XP. 

    Windows ME was a truly awful operating system but Championship Manager runs using it.

    Click "OK" to continue.




    This is the point where you choose where to install from. You can either choose the CD/DVD or you can select another file. The select another file option lets you choose from files stored elsewhere on your computer.

    For Championship Manager I mounted the CD-ROM (I actually own the original disk but I am writing this guide as if I downloaded it as I know most people won't have the disk).

    Select the CD-ROM and click Next.



    After choosing the CD-Rom you will be required to choose the setup file in order to install the application.

    Click the "Browse" button and navigate to the /cdrom folder on your computer and choose "Setup.exe". Click Next.





    The game's installer should now kick in. Each game will have its own installer and generally it is the case of installing the same options as if you were installing it on Windows.









    The setup for Championship Manager requires you to choose your installation language, accept the agreement, choose a destination folder, determine how many of the files to copy from the CD and select a program folder.

    The game will be now be installed.

    An important part of the installation is when it asks whether you want to install DirectX. The answer to that question is pretty much always no. WINE already has DirectX catered for.


    After the installation has finished you will be asked to choose which program to create a shortcut for within PlayOnLinux.

    Choose the correct program and click Next. For Championship Manager select the cm0102.exe file.

    Note that this will create a shortcut on your desktop. If you would prefer not to have a shortcut click the "I don't want to make a shortcut" option.


    Finally enter the name of the shortcut that will appear on your desktop.

    That is it. You can run the game either from within PlayOnLinux or from the shortcut on the desktop.










    And then there is trouble... 256 colours

    Some games from prehistoric times required 256 colours and no more. There are ways to do this in Linux but it requires changing the XORG.conf file and restarting X which isn't ideal.

    A workaround to this is to create a virtual machine and install a very basic version of Linux on it and then install PlayOnLinux and the game within the virtual machine.

    You can then set the number of colours for the virtual machine to 256 colours.

    Windows users might be smugly thinking that this is a lot of hassle to play a game but running DOS games and older Windows games is a nightmare using Windows 8 (virtually impossible in some cases).

    Summary

    PlayOnLinux and WINE are great for playing games within Linux and although Steam and GOG.com have done a great deal in trying to bring native games to Linux there will always be a place for WINE.

    Thankyou for reading










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    8 Linux News Articles and How To Guides

    September 27, 2014, 10:18 am
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    Introduction

    This post just highlights some of the other articles that I have been writing at linux.about.com.

    Every week I have started writing a news roundup highlighting Linux based articles that I think will be useful to the wider community including general news and tutorials.

    In addition I have started setting the scene for new Linux users by showing how to set up Linux in a virtual machine, how to use the Unity Launcher and Dashboard and by providing a list of things to do after installing Linux.

    I have focussed on Ubuntu to start with as that is one of the easier distributions to get used to but the articles will become more and more generic for other distributions and there will be some more technical stuff as time goes on.

    How to fix the BASH Shellshock Bug

    The big news of the week is the major bug in BASH that could leave your system vulnerable to attack.

    Most home Linux users probably wouldn't fall foul of this bug as it requires access to the shell in the first place but you should patch your systems and keep them up to date anyway.

    About Linux Weekly News

    15th September 2014 - The End Of The Road For Bodhi

    Jeff Hoogland had announced that he was taking a less active role in Bodhi Linux and therefore it was predicted that Bodhi would stop being developed.

    Another big story was the news that Turin would be swapping Windows XP for Ubuntu.

    Matt Hartley discussed the myths that often touted about Linux and Dedoimedo looked at Plasma 5.

    Also in the weekly news that week were guides showing how to set up a command line Twitter client and how to set up SSH using Linux.


    22nd September 2014 - Bodhi's Demise Greatly Exaggerated

    A week is a long time in Linux. Jeff Hoogland announced that Bodhi was not going to be coming to an end and that new people had stepped forward to help with the project.

    Dedoimedo asked the question "Has the Linux arena become boring?". Read the news roundup and then the article and then come back here and comment.

    Datamation had an article questioning the viability of Linux gaming as many games developers are seeing less than adequate sales growth from the Linux platform.

    In a week that included Microsoft buying Minecraft the news was a bit doom and gloom but there was a positive upbeat as it is unlikely that Minecraft will cease to exist on the Linux platform.

    Tutorials included links to the PlayOnLinux articles found on this site and how to install and run Android applications on your Linux computer.


    How To Guides

    How to install Ubuntu in a virtual machine using Windows


    If you have Windows and you want to try Linux out for the first time then trying Ubuntu out in a virtual machine might be a good start.

    30 things to do after installing Ubuntu


    After you have installed Ubuntu you might be wondering what you should do next. This article has 30 items of which some of them must be done and others are nice to haves.

    The first few items actually look at learning how to use Ubuntu whereas later on it looks at setting up things like Skype, Dropbox and Netflix.

    The final few steps are more about support and further development and also a little bit about entertainment such as listening to the Ubuntu UK Podcast.

    The complete guide to the Unity Launcher


    Ubuntu's Unity desktop might be confusing for new users. This article shows you how the launcher works including how to set up new launcher icons, what all the symbols mean, why the icons flash sometimes and how to hide the launcher altogether.

    The complete guide to the Unity Dash


    Having learned how to use the Unity Launcher the next step is to understand the Dash.

    This guide looks at all the different scopes, how to filter the scopes and how to integrate online accounts and various other applications into the Dash.

    How to choose a distribution


    This week has been a bit fraught for System Admins with the Shellshock bug coming to the fore. One thing that has become prevalent is that it is important to know how well your system is supported.

    This guide takes a unique twist on the way you might decide to choose the best Linux distribution by looking at distributions in a tree type structure where the top of the tree is the base distribution and the branches are derivatives. The further you get from the top of the tree the harder it is to keep up to date and get support.





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    An Everyday Linux User Review Of Play Linux

    October 2, 2014, 2:51 pm
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    Introduction

    When writing reviews I usually steer clear of distributions if they are not yet fully released. (i.e. if they are still in alpha or beta).

    Recently however I have written articles about gaming within Linux and it just so happens I was asked to give Play Linux a go.

    "Play Linux was built because there wasn't any good linux distribution made for gamers. Now there is."

    The above quote can be found on the about page on the Play Linux website. I happen to know that this isn't totally true because I have more gaming distro reviews lined up in the coming weeks.

    What Is Play Linux?

    According to the Play Linux website:

    Play Linux is a linux distro based on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS optimized for gaming.
    It combines the power of Linux with the simplicity of Ubuntu.
    It comes with all GPU drivers and automatically enables your GPU!
    You don't need to dual-boot anymore!

    This review is therefore based on Play Linux's aims as opposed to necessarily stability as it is technically still an alpha release.

    Installation

    As Play Linux is based on Ubuntu the installation is a fairly straight forward affair.

    I had a bit of an issue connecting to a wireless network in the live image but I think this was user error on my behalf rather than an issue with Play Linux.

    I am used to entering the security key and that is about it, unless I am using the KDE desktop in which case there is the KDE wallet to deal with. Play Linux however requires you to enter a password before entering the wireless security code.

    During the installation you will be asked to choose the installation language, decide whether you want to overwrite the existing operating system, install alongside or something else. You will also be asked to create a user. It is all fairly standard stuff.

    First Impressions





















    The default desktop environment for Play Linux is Cinnamon which is interesting because that puts it in direct competition with Linux Mint.

    Cinnamon is very straight forward and whether you are from a Linux, Windows or even Mac background you will get to grips with it quite quickly.

    By default the Cinnamon desktop has a panel at the bottom with a menu and quick launch icons to the left and system tray style icons to the right.

    The icon set is quite interesting if a little disconcerting. For instance the icons in the quick launch area are "show desktop","Firefox","Terminal" and "Nemo". Is that a new Firefox icon?

    The desktop wallpaper is a nice space theme but if you want to change it you can do so easily by right clicking on the desktop and choosing "Change desktop background".

    As of yet there appear to be no other backgrounds or if there are the background changer doesn't default to the right location.

    You can easily add your own wallpapers or you can go to a web browser, find the image you wish to use, right click and choose set as default wallpaper.





















    It is amazing how good you can make your desktop look with the right picture.

    Connecting to the internet

    Choosing a network is as simple as clicking the network icon in the system tray and selecting the one you wish to use.





















    As I mentioned earlier in the piece connecting to the internet caused me some confusion at first as I was busy typing in the network security code when I was asked to enter my user's password.

    Once I got over that hurdle I was able to enter the network security key and connect to the internet.
     


    Flash and MP3



























    Flash works perfectly well within Play Linux although as you may be aware Flash is no longer being actively developed for Linux and so if you really want updated versions you need to use Chrome.

    For more information on that visit read this article at Computerworld.





























    MP3 audio files also play perfectly within Play Linux.

    To be honest I am thinking of dropping this section from the review because it is very rare for distributions not to include the multimedia codecs anymore and they are easy to install even if they are missing.

    This section does give me the license though to show some of my favourite Youtube videos and link to my favourite Flash based games.

    Applications

    This is the section that should set Play Linux apart as it is built for gaming and therefore should provide a good set of games or the tools required to play games.

    Games

    Graphics

    • GIMP - Image editing
    • ImageMagick - Image editing

    Internet

    • Empathy - Messenging
    • Firefox - Web Browser
    • Kosmos - Package Manager

    Office

    • LibreOffice Writer
    • LibreOffice Calc
    • LibreOffice Impress
    • LibreOffice Draw
    • LibreOffice Math
    • LibreOffice Base

    Sound/Video

    • Spotify
    • VLC

    Other

    • WINE - Run Windows applications and games within Linux
    Few people would argue with the inclusions of Firefox, LibreOffice and GIMP as these are commonly distributed with Linux distributions.

    The key decisions made include the lack of a dedicated audio player and instead the inclusion of Spotify and the inclusion of the Kosmos application.

    Steam and PlayOnLinux were to be expected as this is a distribution dedicated to gamers.



    Kosmos is the central place where you can set up things unique to Play Linux. The Kosmos isn't that big as yet but under the games section you will find an installer for Minecraft which will be of interest to some of you.






    I think including Minecraft is a good idea as my guide for running Minecraft in Ubuntu is one of the most popular on this site and Play Linux removes the requirement for this guide as it is simply a one click installation.

    Under the GPU section within Kosmos you will find graphics drivers for AMD and NVidia.




    The internet section provides a choice of different browsers as well as Skype.

    That really is about is for Kosmos at the moment. It will probably grow as Play Linux grows but it is fairly light in terms of functionality at the moment.



    Spotify was just not playing ball for me and although it runs it just wouldn't return any results. It also wouldn't allow me to resize the window.

    Steam is installed by default, well kind of. It is the Steam installer and so as soon as you click on the icon you have to wait for 200+ megabytes of updates to be installed. This isn't Play Linux's fault but rather a characteristic of Steam.

    PlayOnLinux is installed as well as Steam and hopefully you have followed my guides for playing DOS games using PlayOnLinux and Windows games using PlayOnLinux.

    Installing Applications



    If the application you need isn't already installed, you can install it via the Ubuntu Software Centre.

    Simply browse by category or use the search option to filter by title or keywords.

    Summary

    Play Linux is built on top of Ubuntu and because it utilises the Cinnamon desktop it is easy to install and easy to use.

    Play Linux needs something to set it apart from Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Zorin and the way it is trying to do this is by providing the applications people want that aren't ordinarily installed such as Steam, PlayOnLinux, Spotify and Minecraft.

    I found Play Linux to be fairly stable although I had a few minor issues such as Spotify not working and my keyboard layout defaulting to US English despite choosing UK English during the installation.

    Here is the thing. Play Linux's website states that there aren't any decent distributions for gamers. Providing Steam, PlayOnLinux and a point and click installer for Minecraft helps on that score but I was hoping for more.

    I would have expected there to be some default games included such as Frets On Fire and I would perhaps have expected some games emulators to be installed and configured by default.

    For gaming Play Linux could perhaps include joystick calibration, one click installs for setting up WII remotes, XBOX controllers and OUYA controllers.

    So my main conclusion is that the current alpha release of Play Linux is a good start but before moving to Beta perhaps it can include a little bit more.

    Thankyou for reading





























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