7 Business Advantages of Linux

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If you're looking for a more affordable way of running your office than Windows, an open source alternative like Linux can be a very good alternative. A lot of businesses needlessly stick with Windows because it is what they are familiar and comfortable with, but learning to use a Linux system is easy once you get that hang of it and it has many advantages, as you can see below...

Zorin OS 12.1 Lite, the Xfce one

Zorin OS has always been famous for its design, specifically made for Linux newcomers, thus made to resemble the Windows interface.

Zorin OS had several versions in the past, the most popular of them being Core and Lite. While the Core and Ultimate versions of Zorin OS are based on heavily customized GNOME 3, the powerhouse of many distributions, the Lite version was based on LXDE desktop environment.

However, things have changed recently with the release of Zorin OS 12.1 Lite. This operating system uses Xfce desktop environment. It is a good reason to check that distribution, isn't it?

You can download the ISO image of Zorin OS 12.1 Lite from the official site of the project. 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available. The 32-bit ISO image is about 1.4 GB in size. I "burnt" that ISO image to the USB stick using the dd command and plugged the stick into the USB port of my Dell Inspirion 17 laptop.

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

Mageia 6: is it the rise of Phoenix?

There is no secret that I always preferred distributions with the DEB package format. However, there is an exception. Mageia was the distribution that I ran for quite long time on various laptops. Unfortunately, the issues with outdated packages made me leave this distribution behind some time ago.

Just as a reminder, Mageia is an off-spring from the famous Mandriva family that survived when the Mandriva tree crashed.

And to fill out the whole forest, OpenMandriva is another off-spring, and my recent test showed that it is far below the mother quality.

Coming back to Mageia, it has been a long time since the previous version of this operating system was released. Mageia 5.0 was the “most recent release” for 1.5 years, and 5.1 was merely an update to it.

Mageia 6 was released just few weeks ago, in July 2017. It is a good time to check it out now.

You can get this Linux operating system from many mirrors or via torrent. There are 64- and 32-bit install images for both GNOME and KDE, as well as Live images with the same desktop environments available for 64-bit computers only. I downloaded the ISO image of Mageia 6 KDE 64-bit Live, which is 2.4 GB in size. Then I "burnt" that ISO image onto the USB stick using the dd command and plugged it into my Dell Inspirion 17 laptop.

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

5 Reasons to Use Linux for Development

For years now, Linux has earned a reputation as a popular platform among IT enthusiasts. It’s attracted everyone from system administrators to experimenting students. Yet, not enough is said about Linux power as a programming platform. Here are five reasons why this open source operating system should be at the top of your list when choosing a development environment.

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!