Snowlinux E17 RC

I had been trying out the beta version of Snowlinux E17 and then saw that the RC had been released about a week ago. There were improvements from the Beta version, and the RC looks fully functional to me, so the final release should be quite nice.

I am not an expert with the E17 desktop. I played around with it a bit on Puppy Linux, then later on Bodhi. I can't say exactly why but E17 feels much more usable and intuitive to me on Snowlinux, perhaps it is their setup, or the desktop has matured a bit from when I last tried it.

A few of things excite me with this release. First, we are using Wheezy Debian rather than Debian Stable like the other Snowlinux Debian releases. With Snowlinux's Debian Stable Xfce I was not as impressed because my wireless firmware was missing out of the box, but with this E17 Wheezy release my wireless is ready to go. And at this point Wheezy is nearly as solid as Debian Stable yet with updated software and kernel.

I must admit that the only lightweight desktop that I use regularly on my hardware is Xfce, and I almost don't consider it lightweight because it is so feature rich. Yet E17 is knocking my socks off on Snowlinux. I could see myself using this as my regular desktop, very impressive.

OK, so what don't I like? My touchpad tap doesn't work out of the box, I can probably get it working though. The temperature widget doesn't work for me, so I sidestepped it and added psensor. The fonts don't completely suck, but they aren't great, though that is probably more Debian than Snowlinux's fault, and I will list a fix for this below. I don't know why they tweaked it this way or if it is an actual bug, but there are no minimize/maximize/close buttons on the Firefox browser. The only way I could see to close it was with the menu. Also there are no buttons on the panel showing open windows, but you can add that from the settings on the panel. My guess is they expect you to watch the launcher at the bottom to see what apps are opened, but kudos that the buttons are available for the panel in the settings. A few other things to note, you will probably need to add some codecs as well as flash and perhaps MS fonts from the package manager as they do not come out of the box with Snowlinux. 

To greatly improve your fonts in Snowlinux E17:

http://noz3001.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/ubuntu-font-rendering-on-debian-wheezy/

God bless the person who came up with that simple fix. The system fonts on Snowlinux are not greatly improved by it, but your web pages are going to look much better. I don't know why Debian just doesn't get over itself and use Ubuntu's font config files.

OK, what do I really like? This iteration of E17 has just made it my favorite ultra-lightweight desktop environment, usurping LXDE. For a small desktop E17 is feature rich. It feels lightweight, runs lightweight and cool, but wow, you can really tweak this thing, and it pretty much stands up feature wise to the bigger desktops. I really like the launcher, it holds its own against some of the nicer launchers I've used. E17 has a good settings gui, and many things can be done by simply right-clicking. I would like to see it get a weather widget, and to see its temp widget working, but other than that I can find little fault with this desktop. As for Snowlinux itself, I wonder where they have been hiding? They have been climbing on Distrowatch, and they are doing good work, but they need to be given more attention and a closer look by Linux users. I like that their Debian versions use basically the same installer as Linux Mint Debian and SolusOS. Hands down it beats the daylights out of Debian's installer. I like that Snowlinux focuses primarily on Debian Stable for their releases, and am looking forward to seeing their work next year with the New Debian Stable. And finally, I really like that they used Wheezy Debian for this E17 release as it shows how nice their upcoming New Stable versions should be.

Snowlinux E17 has impressed me greatly. I didn't really have high expectations. I knew E17 could look nice, but it always seemed a bit buggy and glitchy in the past, yet this release feels quite solid, and on top of Debian Wheezy I just don't know how E17 could be better matched up. Keep in mind that this is the RC release, there may be improvements before the final release, but as it stands, Snowlinux E17 is looking very good and I will be watching these guys as I'm a fan of Debian, especially when it is made user friendly. Snowlinux E17 is 100% Debian compatible which means you don't have to worry about fooling with the repositories. Edit: Actually the sources are set to Testing, which makes it a rolling release, some quick editing by changing "testing" sources to "wheezy" will get you headed for the New Stable next year. Also note that with some help from the Snowlinux forum I quickly got my touchpad working.

Snowlinux E17--Nice Job Guys!

Their Site

0 A.D On Linux

I'm not a big gamer. I have enjoyed playing around with a few PC games over the years, but if I ever wanted to really get into gaming I would probably buy a Playstation or XBox, get myself a dedicated gaming device. Yet I'm very encouraged to see games coming to Linux as one of the excuses for those who don't want to leave their safe (unsafe) Microsoft world is that there are no games on Linux.

Two games I particularly liked back in my Microsoft PC days. One was Heroes Of Might And Magic, a turn based game that had a nice fantasy theme. Linux has a similar game available called Wesnoth. The other MS PC game I liked was Age Of Empires. And that brings me back to 0 A.D.

Wildfire Games, the creators of Age of Empires, has created an open source game that is quite similar to Age of Empires. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, 0 A.D. Alpha 11 was released on September 7. I stress the fact that this is an Alpha version, there are missing features, a few things could use some polish, but that doesn't take away from the fact the game is both usable, and the graphics are quite impressive. The music is not bad either. For a free Alpha game version that the creators claim will be free even when the full version is released--it's an impressive piece of work.

I'm quite excited by 0 A.D. for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is the fact it is open source. To me an open source project is a living thing, not solely held captive to the whims of its makers, and not limited by the imagination of its makers, but open the great suggestions of its users and anyone willing to improve it. It may take awhile, but 0 A.D. is definitely one to watch, and it's fun to play with as is.

If you want more information you can check out the 0 A.D. Wildfire Games page there you will find a FAQ and link to the 0 A.D. forum and other information. I will be keeping an eye on this one, have already enjoyed playing it, and look forward to the finished version.

It's All Linux To Me

Pictured above is the Alpha 5 of SolusOS 2 with the KDE 4.8.4 desktop installed and a few cosmetic tweaks. While there are differences in the various Linux operating systems as I have noted on this blog, it is also true that Linux is Linux.

The great thing about Linux is the ability to configure the operating system to your liking. Just as in the screenshot above, let's say you like SolusOS Linux but want the KDE desktop or the Xfce desktop instead of Gnome, you just have to install it from the software center or synaptic package manager or right from the terminal.

Linux offers choice and freedom for the user. If you like a certain operating system but the developer disappears, you can easily switch to another operating system within Linux and still feel reasonably at home.

Let's say you like Linux Mint Debian but do not like sticking to the Latest software source repository, but would rather have Debian Testing or Sid Debian sources instead. You just change repositories and can get updates as often, and from whichever sources you wish.

Package management is one of the biggest differences in Linux operating systems, but even it is no huge obstacle, but rather learning a few different commands if you decide to do updates from the terminal. Such as using yum in Fedora instead of apt-get in Debian. Yet if you do all your updates and application downloads from a GUI you need not even worry about the command difference.

Desktop interface choice is becoming the biggest difference you will come across in Linux, and quite often you can use your favorite desktop across just about any Linux operating system.

I find myself sometimes astounded at the vitriol on certain Linux message boards, fans of one Linux distribution bashing other Linux distributions. In fairness, we all have our favorites, some have easier installers, better package management, some come with useful codecs and a good selection of software out of the box. There are differences and it is good to compare and decide which appeals most to our wants and needs. But you would think from reading some of the bitter posts about certain Linux distributions that these hated distros were from some other hemisphere and are the first cousin's to Microsoft Windows.

If they have so much in common, then why so many different Linux distributions? Choice is both the blessing and curse of Linux. Unlike Windows, there is not a uniform desktop with mostly uniform applications that places all users into the same operating system box. This can give the appearance of a fragmented user base. Anyone who wants to create their own Linux operating system can do so. This gives us many versions and numerous Linux forks. The great thing about this is that the user has tools and options to configure and personalize their operating system in ways Microsoft users can only dream of. The down side is that with so many configurations on so much different hardware unique bugs and problems can arise, and their is no sense of uniformity among users. I think having the choice and options is worth losing the uniformity among users, but some may consider this the Linux weakness.

I have tried most of the major Linux operating system distributions, and no few forks. I have my favorites, and yet realize that sometimes a certain operating system that is not in my top tier of choices may work better on certain hardware. This is why I never quite drink the Kool-Aide of any particular operating system. To be sure I have my favorites, but if they won't work on some particular hardware, I will use a different Linux distribution that will work well on the hardware in an instant. This is one reason why it is handy to not only have a variety of Linux distributions around on CDs, but also to be familiar with the major Linux distributions.

Linux is all about choice, and in the final analysis comes down to whichever Linux distribution works best for you. There is nothing wrong with having a favorite, or several favorite Linux distributions, but when all is said and done: They are all Linux, with the Linux advantages and tools and freedom that Linux offers to those wise enough to use it. Yes, it's all Linux to me.