Increase Your Linux Experience 10 Folds with These Distros Sample

The moment an individual hears the word 'Linux', his mind starts thinking about the codes and complexities. Are you also one of these? If yes, then the time has come to bust the myth. Gone are the days when Linux was traditionally used just by the coders and programmers. With the passage of time, it has transformed immensely. Several distributions (distros) available in the market solve the problem of security issues related to the Windows and Mac OS. Furthermore, the developers have left no stone unturned in making it more interactive and user-friendly.

Undoubtedly, more and more people are shifting their interest in Linux. That isn't a problem as many distros are available in the market. The real problem begins when techno-geek sets on a hunt to find the best distros as per his requirements. And, let us not forget that there are thousands of distros available in the technical market. To ease the problem of the techno-buffs, this article has been drafted. It lists down 2019's best distros as per the different categories of the users. Keep scrolling the page to know more.

Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon - quick screenshot tour

The Linux Mint team continues to release fresh versions of their operating system approximately every 6 month, following the updates in Ubuntu LTS versions. You could read the quick screenshot overview of Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon back in July 2017. It is now turn of Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon. Let's have a whistle-stop tour through it.

The most promising linux distributions in 2017

Linux distributions have already gained recognition of its users and with every year new products appear in the market. Many of them focus on the certain tasks, so you can’t create a single list of the best ones. Here we have chosen several fields of Linux use and those distributions that have all chances to take the initial positions in their niche in 2017.

To Linux Mint KDE 18.2… and back

Linux Mint KDE is just one of several flavours of Linux Mint, and obviously not the flagship of this distribution.

However, I liked that distribution in my test of the Live version of Linux Mint KDE 18.2. I liked it so much that I decided to give it a go in installed mode.

How was that? Let’s check.

Linux Mint 18.2 KDE - what else can you desire?

Linux Mint is the distribution that tops the Distrowatch rating year after year. Its release cycle was following the Ubuntu releases for many years, including the non-LTS versions. But since the version 17 back in 2014 they only release Linux Mint based on Ubuntu LTS versions, currently Ubuntu 16.04, and then refresh the distribution every 6 months with newer packages.

Linux Mint 18.2 was released at the beginning of July 2017, and you can already read the quick screenshot tour of Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon, the flagship of the Linux Mint team.

Apart from Cinnamon, there are also MATE, Xfce and KDE versions. Linux notes from DarkDuck has previously reviewed Linux Mint 17.2 KDE. It was about 2 years ago, in August 2015. Let's have a look at Linux Mint 18.2 KDE now.

The ISO image, as usual, is available from one of many mirrors and via torrent. The Linux Mint 18.2 KDE 64-bit image is about 1.9 GB in size, which is quite a lot, 300 Mb bigger than a 2-years old release.

I burnt the image to the USB stick with the dd command and plugged that USB drive to the port of my Dell Inspirion 17 laptop.

Reboot. Choose to boot from USB. Let's go!

Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon: Quick Screenshot Tour

Linux Mint is one of the operating systems that release the new versions regularly. However, dislike Ubuntu and Fedora releases, Linux Mint only releases "when ready", more like the Debian operating system.

The most recent release of Linux Mint was named Sonya and has the version number 18.2. This is the third release in the Linux Mint 18 series that is based on Ubuntu 16.04. It saw the light on the 2nd of July 2017.

Let's have a quick screenshot tour through the Live DVD version of Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon 32-bit.

The theater of Linux distributions

Linux notes from DarkDuck has recently published an article with a very interesting classification of Linux distributions.

I’ll add one more: the Theater distros.

4 categories of Linux distributions

There are different Linux distributions. If you just go to Distrowatch site, you will find hundreds of them listed there. Some of them even have my reviews listed. And how many distributions are NOT listed? Some of them either fail to gain registration on Distrowatch, or are in the process of that, like Zorin OS was just few years ago.

However, there are at least four distinctive categories of distributions visible in the Linux world.

Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon: pity, pity, pity

Linux Mint is a long-established leader of the Distrowatch rating. As I am writing this article, the gap between Linux Mint and the runner-up Debian is about 30%. That is why each new release of Linux Mint is an event in the Linux world.

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, another great distribution. Of course, there is also a Linux Mint Debian Edition version, but that is a different beast that deserves a separate discussion. Up until recently, each new release of Linux Mint followed the Ubuntu release cycle, be it "regular" or "LTS" version. But since Linux Mint 17, only Ubuntu LTS is considered to be a proper Linux Mint base.

Linux Mint 18 is the first release of Linux Mint on consecutive LTS versions of its base. Did it make any impact on this distribution? Let's check ourselves.

I have already published a quick screenshot tour through the main Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon features. Let's now have a more in-depth look into the Live version of Mint 18.

The ISO image of Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit is about 1.7 Gb in size. You can download it either directly from one of many mirrors all around the world, or using torrent. I used the dd command to "burn" that image onto a USB stick.

The USB stick is in the port of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from USB. Let's go!

Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon: Quick Screenshot Tour

The release of Linux Mint 18 was very interesting from many aspects. The most interesting for me was the fact that it is the 1st release of Mint based on LTS version of Ubuntu after skipping several non-LTS versions. If you remember, up to Linux Mint 16, each new version was based on consecutive version of Ubuntu, being it LTS or non-LTS version. But since version 17 only Ubuntu LTS editions are used by the Mint team to build their own operating system. Mint 17 was based on Ubuntu 14.04 and Mint 18 is based on Ubuntu 16.04.

The full-blown review is also available. If you prefer a shorter version, let's do a quick whistle-blow tour through the Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon system with some applications you can find out of the box.

How-to video: Removing old kernels in Ubuntu

Once new kernel passes the test system, Ubuntu offers you to install it through its update system.
At the same time, old kernel remains in the system. It means that after some time of using Ubuntu, you may have a number of old kernels. They take your disk space and also may clutter the GRUB menu, although the latter issue is resolved in newer versions of Ubuntu.

This video shows you the way to remove old obsolete kernels from your Ubuntu installation.

The same approach is valid for whole Ubuntu family and derivatives: Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Zorin OS, Linux Mint and so on.

Please remember that the "best practice" is to keep at least two kernels in the system: the current and the previous one. This is to ensure the fallback solution if current kernel fails for whatever reason.

How many old kernels do you have in your system? How often do you remove the obsolete kernels?

Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon quick screenshot tour

With the newest version of Linux Mint 17.3 released just few days ago, it is no wonder a big part of Linux community is interested in it.

Let me give you a quick screenshot tour through the Cinnamon edition of this distribution.

(attention: graphics)

Linux Mint 17.2 KDE: do you have the hardware?

August 2015 is only half-through, but it has already seen releases of two popular Linux distributions.

DarkDuck has already reviewed Zorin OS 10 Core.

Today is the turn of Linux Mint 17.2. Yes, you are right. Linux Mint released the version 17.2 in August 2015. Of course, they are not their "major" Cinnamon and MATE editions, but rather slightly less popular flavours: KDE and Xfce.

Image size of Linux Mint 17.2 KDE is about 1.6 Gb, which is 0.2 Gb more than the Cinnamon edition. I downloaded it using the torrent link available on the web site and "burnt" onto the USB stick using the built-in tool of Ubuntu 14.04.

So, the USB stick is in the port of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from USB. Let's go!

Pre-order Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela

Linux Mint has something in common with Ubuntu! In fact, a lot in common.

First of all, all Mint versions are based on Ubuntu, apart from LMDE, which is Debian-based.

Second, Linux Mint is also released two times a year, approximately a month after Ubuntu release. It means that the next version of Linux Mint will be released at the end of June 2015, literally in few weeks time!

Many of you already looking for downloading of your own ISO image of the system. Yes, that's the next version, codenamed Rafaela. It is a long-term support version, along with versions 17 and 17.1. You will get updates for all these releases until April 2019!

But many of you are not so lucky, and will need to wait longer, because you can not or do not want to create their own DVDs with operating system images.

We can help!

You can pre-order your own copy of Linux Mint 17.2 (Cinnamon or MATE) right now. It means that a DVD with your favourite OS will be burnt to you as early as possible, and dispatched on the release date at the end of June 2015, or soon after. Dispatched to anywhere in the world.

You may ask why I cannot tell you the exact date of dispatch? This is because Linux Mint team, as usual, does not announce the release date, but only states that it is approximately "end of May".

How you can get the DVD? There are 2 options!

1. Free - email seanrickerd@gmail.com with your postal address and distribution you want. Presumably Linux Mint 17.2.

2. Read below and purchase from there.

Go to http://buylinuxcds.co.uk site, purchase the Linux Mint DVD from there, and in the PayPal comments state that you want version 17.2. That's easy.

To help you even further, here is a mini-shop which you can use straight away. It supports PayPal checkout, similar to Buy Linux CDs site. And you even don't need a PayPal account to pay - you can do this with your credit a debit card!

UK (2.00 GBP): Linux Mint 17.2 pre-order (UK) Variation Cinnamon MATE

USA (5.50 USD):

Linux Mint 17.2 pre-order (USA)
Variation Cinnamon MATE

Other countries (3.50 GBP):

Linux Mint 17.2 pre-order (Other countries)
Variation Cinnamon MATE

And yet another alternative: you can purchase the same disks via eBay.

Linux Mint 17 Xfce quick screenshot tour

Linux Mint team produces a number of distributions. Of course, the most famous of them are based on Cinnamon and MATE desktop environments.
However, KDE- and Xfce-based versions of Linux Mint also find their fans.

Linux Mint 17 Xfce was released today. Let's look at what it offer to the user. This is not going to be a full-blown review, rather a quick screenshot tour in the Live session.

Let's go!

Pre-order your personal copy of Linux Mint 17 Qiana

You have been waiting for long 2 years!


With the coming raelease of next long-term support version of Linux Mint 17 just a couple of weeks away, many of you already looking for downloading of your own ISO image of the system. Yes, that's the next version, codenamed Qiana.

I was waiting for this too! That is because I run Linux Mint 15 as one of the systems on my laptop. I waited for version 17 to upgrade the system, because Qiana will be based on Long-term-support version of Ubuntu, and will be a LTS version itself.

But many of you are not so lucky, and will need to wait longer, because you can not or do not want to create their own DVDs with operating system images.
We can help!

You can pre-order your own copy of Linux Mint 17 (Cinnamon or MATE) right now. It means that a DVD with your favourite OS will be burnt to you as early as possible, and dispatched on the release date at the end of May 2014, or soon after. Dispatched to anywhere in the world.

You may ask why I cannot tell you the exact date of dispatch? This is because Linux Mint team, as usual, does not announce the release date, but only states that it is approximately "end of May".

How you can get the DVD? There are 2 options!

1. Free - email seanrickerd@gmail.com with your postal address and distribution you want. Presumably Linux Mint 17.

2. Read below and purchase from there.

Go to http://buylinuxcds.co.uk site, purchase the Linux Mint DVD from there, and in the PayPal comments state that you want version 17. That's easy.

To help you even further, here is a mini-shop which you can use straight away. It supports PayPal checkout, similar to Buy Linux CDs site. And you even don't need a PayPal account to pay - you can do this with your credit a debit card!

UK (2.00 GBP): Linux Mint 17 pre-order (UK) Variation Cinnamon MATE

USA (6.00 USD):

Linux Mint 17 pre-order (USA)
Variation Cinnamon MATE

Other countries (4.00 GBP):

Linux Mint 17 pre-order (Other countries)
Variation Cinnamon MATE

And yet another alternative: you can purchase the same disks via eBay.

To upgrade or not to upgrade?

You may know that my current laptop Sony VAIO VGN-NR21Z has 4 operating systems installed. Three of them are Linux: Debian, Linux Mint and Mageia.

Debian WheezyXfce sits there as a guarantor of boot stability. It controls the GRUB records. As usual, it is a rock solid distribution without much fun in it, although I have an issue with a mounted network drive: like some other distributions before, Debian switches off the wireless network interface before unmounting the shared drive. Thus, the unmounting process hangs for about 10 minutes before the computer can finally shut down.

However, that is not the point of today's article.

Order your copies of OpenSuSE 13.1 and Linux Mint 16 Petra

The readers of my blog already know that I often put adverts about coming releases of operating systems, letting you pre-order a disk with a copy of that system through the site Buy Linux CDs. It gives you an opportunity to get the personal copy of the OS as soon as it is technically possible to download, burn and deliver.

This time I am happy to announce that pre-orders for two different operating systems are now taken. They are OpenSuSE 13.1 and Linux Mint 16 Petra.

• OpenSuSE 13.1 will come out on the 19th of November 2013.
• Linux Mint 16 Petra will come out at the end of November 2013, without any specific date known at this moment.

You can pre-order your own copy of OpenSuSE 13.1 and Linux Mint 16 Petra right now. It means that a DVD with your favourite OS will be burnt for you as early as possible, and dispatched on the day of release, or soon after. Dispatched to anywhere in the world.

How you can get the DVD? Go to http://buylinuxcds.co.uk site, purchase the OpenSuSE or Linux Mint DVD from there, and in the PayPal comments state that you want version 13.1 or 16 respectively. That's easy.

To help you even further, here is a mini-shop that you can use straight away. It supports PayPal checkout, similar to Buy Linux CDs site. And you even don't need a PayPal account to pay - you can do this with your credit a debit card! T&Cs from Buy Linux CDs site apply.

UK (2.00 GBP):

OpenSuSE 13.1 pre-order (UK) Variation KDE 32-bit GNOME 32-bitKDE 64-bit GNOME 64-bit

Linux Mint 16 pre-order (UK) Variation Cinnamon 32-bit MATE 32-bitCinnamon 64-bit MATE 64-bit

USA (6.50 USD):

OpenSuSE 13.1 pre-order (USA) Variation KDE 32-bit GNOME 32-bitKDE 64-bit GNOME 64-bit

Linux Mint 16 pre-order (USA) Variation Cinnamon 32-bit MATE 32-bitCinnamon 64-bit MATE 64-bit

Other countries (4.50 GBP):

OpenSuSE 13.1 pre-order (Other countries) Variation KDE 32-bit GNOME 32-bitKDE 64-bit GNOME 64-bit

Linux Mint 16 pre-order (Other countries) Variation Cinnamon 32-bit MATE 32-bitCinnamon 64-bit MATE 64-bit

And yet another alternative: you can purchase the same disks via eBay.

My favourite is KDE. Why? I'm not sure

I'm not sure I have a favourite distribution. The first disto I used (1999) was Debian. So I'm used to thinking first in terms of "apt-get/dpkg" rather than "yum/zypper/rpm/...".

My favourite distro tends to change every 9-18 months, butat times  it's been Debian, SuSE, Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora. The longest as my favorite would be openSuSE

Ubuntu, Debian and Mint seem to have the best variety in default software repositories, and I prefer Debian on my 7 rack servers, though  ~half of them (3) are CentOS, because Red Hat coded 'modules/drivers' were better for some prolinear/poweredge servers. I love how Ubuntu/Mint auto-play movies and mp3 music without having to load codecs separately.

The main reason I love Linux: it works. Plain and simple.

I got introduced to Linux in 2006. My first distributions were Kubuntu, then PC Linux OS. Until eventually I arrived to Mint Daryna.

By the middle of 2007-09 I was hooked on Mint 9 Isadora. Recently I have installed Mint 13 Maya on my wife's tower, and I am presently tearing my hair out, using a tower with WinXP.

I find that Mint is so much easier to use then any other Distro. Everything works out of the Box. Very little has to be tweak or altered.

The boot up time, and the shut down time has not altered. The Win XP is slowing down.

The main reason I love Linux: it works. Plain and simple. It means more productivity to me.

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This is a guest post by Joseph Barr, which took part in the Linux Mint contest where the main prize was the book Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner’s Guide and the second prize was the Linux disk from Buy Linux CDs.