GeckoLinux Plasma: for Die Hard OpenSuSE fans

The old fans of Linux notes from DarkDuck blog know that it is mostly about reviews of Live versions of various Linux operating systems. That is why OpenSuSE has not been reviewed for a long time. The latest and the previous version of this distribution, 42.2 and 42.1, do not have a Live option. The only way to experience OpenSuSE is to install it.

Luckily, there are people who care more about distro-hoppers, or people who are interested in OpenSuSE, but not ready to commit to installation yet. That's why GeckoLinux was born.

GeckoLinux is a stripped-down version of OpenSuSE with only one desktop environment (at a time), and with a Live run enabled. You can download GeckoLinux versions with Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, Mate, Budgie, LXQt or barebones. All of them are available as Static or Rolling editions. All these versions are based on OpenSuSE Stable release, 42.2 at the moment. There is also GeckoLinux Plasma NEXT, which includes some non-stable repositories. Only 64-bit versions available as it is the only architecture supported by OpenSuSE now.

You can download the ISOs for any of the version via the Sourceforge's content delivery network.
I downloaded the GeckoLinux Plasma Static release from the 28th of December 2016. It may not be the freshest release for the date when this review goes live, because the release team issues them monthly. The ISO size is about 1 GB in size. I "burnt" it to the USB stick using the dd command.

The USB drive is in the port of my Toshiba laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from USB. Let's go!

Top 5 posts from 2016 (version 3)

Last couple of weeks I posted the Top 5s for the most popular posts from 2016. They were taken from the pageviews statistics of the Blogger and from the number of Google+ endorsements.

To complete the statistics trio, let's have a look at the most popular posts of Linix notes from DarkDuck blog from 2016 by Google Analytics. It is a different mechanism to Blogger statistics, and you can find a number of articles describing the differences if you search the Internet.

So, here is the list. Please re-read any of the articles if you missed them.

5. Lubuntu 16.04 - good operating system with a bit of disappointment
4. Xubuntu 16.04 - not for Linux beginners
3. 4 tools to play Windows Games on Linux?
2. CentOS 7 KDE: not for home users
1. Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon: pity, pity, pity

As you can see, all three Top 5 lists are different. Which one do you like more?

Top 5 posts from 2016 (version 2)

Last time you could see the Top 5 list of articles published by Linux notes from DarkDuck in 2016 by the pageview statistics gathered by Blogger, the blog hosting platform.

Of course, the pageviews are important, but also important is how popular the article is between the readers. Let's look at this from the aspect of Google+ shares the articles received in 2016.

Here is the list of Top 5 posts. Feel free to re-read them if you missed any so far.

5. (+30) PCLinuxOS: the walking dead
5. (+30) Linux-running car: can you feel me?
4. (+40) 5 ways to use the Telegram messenger on your Linux computer
3. (+48) Will Ubuntu keep the title of the best Desktop OS?
2. (+49) Zorin OS 11 Core: quick screenshot tour
1. (+94) How to create list for LibreOffice Calc cell (video)

As you can see the two Top 5 lists are totally different. Statistics is a powerful tool, isn't it?

Next week I will show you yet another Top 5, and that will be the last one for now! Stay tuned!

Top 5 posts from 2016 (version 1)

The year 2016 is in the past now.

There were many articles and reviews published by Linux notes from DarkDuck blog during the year. Let's look back and see which ones were the most popular. There are different ways to look at the popularity of the page. That is why I will publish 3 different "Top 5"s in the coming weeks.

Today we will look at the most popular page by Blogger Statistics of pageviews.

Here is the list of Top 5 posts. Feel free to re-read them if you missed any so far.

5. Ubuntu MATE 16.04: there is always room for improvement

4. Top 3 Linux Performance Monitoring Tools

3. Xubuntu 16.04 - not for Linux beginners

2. CentOS 7 KDE: not for home users

1. Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon: pity, pity, pity

Please note that the article "Top 3 Linux Performance Monitoring Tools" was published just before the year end, so it can easily get higher in the list very soon.

I hope you have enjoyed the reading!

OpenMandriva Lx 3.0: a faint shadow of name

Mandriva may be a name unfamiliar to people who came to the Linux world recently, but it is very familiar to old Linux users. It was one of the first distributions ever created. It became a base for many offsprings or forks. Just to mention three – ROSA Linux, Mageia and PCLinuxOS.

However, corporate difficulties made Mandriva an abandoned project. The OpenMandriva project picked up the flag and continued Mandriva development. To be precise, OpenMandriva is not a "daughter" of Mandriva, but rather a "grand-daughter" with ROSA Linux standing in between.

The latest release from that area of the Linux world is OpenMandriva Lx 3.0. It first saw the light of day on the 18th of August 2016.

The image size of the 64-bit version of this Linux distribution is 1.8 Gb. It is available from several mirrors and from BitTorrent. I downloaded the ISO image and "burnt" it onto the USB stick with dd command.

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