Loading...EasyPeasy
With the proliferation of Linux across severl platforms,it is no surprise that there is one targeted for the netbook market.
EasyPeasy is a distro specifically designed to run on Netbooks. Like most major Linux distros EasyPeasy comes with numerous offerings including office tools, several games, audio and video tools and encryption support.
All of this is neatly arranged in a slick desktop. This distro is indeed worthy of your netbook.
Freenas
In the past few weeks, we have had a taste of a number of Linux desktops. Today we are savouring another linux distro but not quite a desktop version. For Geeks like me, it has been a habit for a few years to hide an ugly noisy out-of-date computer in the closet, hook it to the network, attach a few internal or external drives to it, fill those drives with music, movies photos and documents. This computer then becomes a file server and can stream all the data on its drives to other computers all over your home network.
Microsoft Home server is one alternative but expensive way to set up a file server to hold your digital data. Linux geeks however, have an easier way to set up a file server. They use Freenas.Freenas has very minimal requirements. You can have Freenas running with 128MB of RAM and 32 MB of disk space. It can be run from a hard drive or from a USB drive.
Once Freenas is running on your file server, you can configure your settings through a very simple, user friendly console. These setting include assigning your lan interface, your IP address, your webgui password,etc. You can detach both your mouse, keyboard and monitor from your file server, transforming it into a 'headless system'..
You may then access Freenas from a browser on any other computer on the network to configure your file server settings.
These include mounting and partitioning the drives on the Freenas file server, adding new drives, monitoring their usage, etc. While freenas is small and probably not as good looking as Windows server, it is as powerful, easy to set up and ..free!
I have also tried the Ubuntu server as a file server. With Ubuntu, one can install apache on their file server and have the system double as a webserver. However, if you, like me would prefer to have a single dedicated file server, then stick to Freenas.
Related Articles:
How to build an open source Freenas Server
GoblinX
GoblinX is an interesting distro based on an old Linux distro called Slackware. The philosophy behind Slackware and now, GoblinX is to strive for simplicity. This means that while the like of Ubuntu strive to be compatible with as many devices as possible, GoblinX offers no drivers nor addons.
The GoblinX website offers 4 types of distros:
g:Standard: This is the original version that has 5 windows managers
g:Noblin: This is a Gnome based distro of GoblinX
and two other distros, GMini and GMicro.
I tried the live CD of the g:Standard distro on an old pentium III. The UI is slick. The g:Standard packs a lot of system and network tools.
See also:
MakeUseOf article on GoblinX
DSL-N
Do not let the small size fool you. This distro can run on a 486 with 16 MB of RAM. It packs in it a a newer kernel than DSL. It has many applications, including the Mozilla suite,an internet browser, a word processor, media player. a handful of networking tools, a paint utility and much more. There are also a bunch of screen savers to choose from. DSL-n can be run off a hard drive, Live CD or from a flash drive.
Feather Linux
Feather Linux(128MB) is another lightweight distribution 
Like Puppy, it can run on out-of-date computers. Unlike Puppy, Feather does not provide as much eye candy or as many applications.
gOS
On the other hand, if you want a basic system and prefer to do all your work online or are a big fan of Google and the tools Google offers, this may be the system for you.Do not confuse gOS with the Google Chrome OS which Google plans to deliver next year.
Though years behind in simplicity, the philosophy of gOS is,(believe it no not,) similar to that of that of the forthcoming Chrome OS. Keep the machine uncluttered by doing all your work in the 'Cloud'. This means do your work online with online tools.
gOS comes with Firefox, Skype,icons linked to Google docs, Blogger, youtube, gmail,Google calendar, Google Finance, Google maps.,etc. Clicking on an icon brings up the respective application in the Firefox browser.
gOS is simple and functional.
The desktop may be best described as a mashup of Goofle widgets and a basic linux system. Walmart, a few years ago offered a $300 PC which ran gOS.
Crunchbang Linux
Crucnhbang is what I'd like to call a 'Man's Linux'. Sporting a Spartan interface and just a black background, Crunchbang is eerily deceptive in its offerings. It offers almost no conventional eyecandy. A right click of the mouse will reveal the large number of applications in a small package. You can, if you choose customize the desktop easily to suit your needs.
Crunchbang is another Ubuntu derivative and is much faster and smaller than its parent. For regular desktop work, crunchbang offers a slick desktop. A build of Crunchbang Ububtu's latest version is yet to come, but the existing version, built of Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope is good enough for now.
Linux Mint
LinuxMint is another Ubuntu/Debian based distribution of Linux and has a large user community. The latest version Helena is build off Ubuntu's latest version, Karmic Koala. I tried playing around with the Live CD. While it offers great eye candy and some good applications, it did not provide any strong reason to switch over from Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Having said that, it does make a decent desktop.
PuppyLinux
There are plenty of reasons to 'wow' this distro. One is the footprint size. The live CD ISO file is has a size of just 110MB and downloaded in a jiffy. As advertised all over the web, it can be used on older PCs with small .drives and memory.
Having said that, I have had some problems trying to revive some older PCs with Puppy. It runs well, however on a P3 Dell (T.800) . Another word of caution is that if you plan to do some heavy weight development on Linux, Puppy may not be the one you want.
Puppy's desktop is also great giving the user a wide choice of wallpapers, etc. I preferred the older version of Puppy, titled 'Deep Thoughts', to the latest version (4.3.1), when it came to default wallpaper.
Another reason to be impressed in the number of applications Puppy packs inside it. (There are too many to count. )All of these applications come out of the box. These include utilities, file system tools, games, office applications, multimedia, internet and network tools. The network tools include a firewall, FTP software, a VPN client and many more. One of my favourites is the simple to use, network configuration tool, 'Connect' If you need a good, free and fast system from older hardware for your basic you may want to a good look at Puppy Linux.
OpenSuse
OpenSuse is another popular Linux Distro, sponsored by Novell. Version 11.1 ran wonderfully on a Pentium II 866 mHz and was quite fast. I had my heartaches trying to install 11.2 from a Live Cd though(I tried both the KDE and Gnome versions). A network install CD finally had me up at running with 11.2. I went for the KDE version. The network install takes about 3 hours.
Open Suse 11.2 has an impressive look and comes with an impressive set of applications. In addition to Open Office and games, it features Choqok, a desktop client for microblogging on Twitter and Identica. It also comes with Xsane, a scanning software that works with most scanners and Marble, a Globe, a Geography tool.
One of OpenSuse's claims to fame is its application installer Yast, which is more powerful that Yum and aptitude, the installers on Fedora and Ubuntu. Yast offers the ability to add the latest, greatest versions of applications housed on the OpenSuse machine.
Open Suse is another safe choice for anyone looking for a slick desktop. It does not have as many applications as Ubuntu, though. With Ubuntu and Fedora, Opensuse is one of the big three in the Linux world.
Fedora
Fedora is another popular Linux distro sponsored by Red Hat.Taking on one size fits all approach, the distribution includes a lot of applications like a word processor, spreadsheet, media player and so forth. Fedora does not have as big a user community as Ubuntu and hence does not have as many applications.
Installing the latest version of Fedora(Version 12 titled Reign) on a Pentium III 512 MB was a breeze. Fedora's speed is comaparble to that of Ubuntu.Fedora makes an excellent desktop with a great set of utilities. Its newest release also features improved Bluetooth support.
Fedora is a stable powerful and fast system that makes a nifty desktop.
For the last few years, reviving old pentium IIIs with 512MB or less of memory with a Linux distribution has been my magnificent obsession. This has been a rewarding and dare I say, a heart-warming experience that has opened up my eyes to free, legal and high quality systems that come loaded with equally high quality software. Here is my take on some of these systems.
Xubuntu is another version of Ubuntu I have tried. It is used to install Ubuntu on systems that do not have the luxury of too much memory or fast processors.
