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.

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.

Ubuntu MATE 17.04 - Fast Forward to the Past

Linux notes from DarkDuck has recently published reviews of two of the most popular flavours of the Ubuntu 17.04 family: Lubuntu and Kubuntu got most of the orders from BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk site, on par with Ubuntu 17.04 itself. Another flavour with a popular demand is Ubuntu MATE. And again, I used the opportunity to write a review of Ubuntu MATE 17.04 Live using the customer disk before posting it.

You can download Ubuntu MATE from the official web site https://ubuntu-mate.org/. Both torrent and direct downloads from many mirrors are supported.

The ISO image of Ubuntu MATE 17.04 32-bit is 1.7 GB in size. I burnt it onto the DVD-R disk.

The disk is in the drive of my Dell Inspirion 17 laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Fasten your seatbelts! Let's go!

Lubuntu 17.04 - simple evolution

Some of you may find it bizarre, but BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk, the commercial arm of this blog Linux notes from DarkDuck really gets orders for disks with different operating systems. We recently looked at Kubuntu 17.04 that was the leader for the number of orders this April when the newest version of Ubuntu family of operating systems was released.

Lubuntu was also in the top 3 of these distributions, along with Ubuntu itself. As long as I had a disk to be sent to the customer, why not use the chance to write a review of this operating system for you, my readers?

So, I downloaded the ISO image of Lubuntu 17.04 32-bit, which is 916 MB in size, and burnt it onto a DVD-R disk. This disk is in the drive of my Dell Inspirion 17 laptop.

Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Fasten your seatbelts! Let's go!

Kubuntu 17.04 - the next generation

As usual, every April and October are the months when many people in the Linux community wait for the new releases of their favourite operating systems.

Canonical released the newest version of the Ubuntu family of distributions on the 13th of April, and there is a good reason to look into them now.

I will start with Kubuntu 17.04 for several reasons. First of all, my new laptop runs Kubuntu 16.04, and I was interested in seeing if the new version is any different from the user point of view.

Second, I received a number of orders for disks with this distribution from my customers.

Third, I am more than sure that Ubuntu itself will receive too many reviews without my involvement, let's focus on something more niche.

I downloaded the ISO image of Kubuntu 17.04 32-bit from the torrent. The DVD disk with this image is ready to be sent to the customer, but first let's check what is in it for us.

I was a bit nervous at that time, because this was the first review written when running the Live Linux operating system on my new laptop Dell Inspirion 17 5749.

Nevertheless... Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Fasten your belts! Let's go!

Lubuntu 16.04 - good operating system with a bit of disappointment

It is difficult to believe, but Linux notes from DarkDuck blog has never published a review of Lubuntu.

The Lubuntu distribution is an LXDE-based reincarnation of Ubuntu that is officially created and supported by Canonical.

Yes, there were articles where Lubuntu was used as a showcase for creating your own distribution and for LXDE keyboard configuration.

Yes, there were reviews of other Ubuntu family members: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu and even Ubuntu MATE.

Yes, there were reviews of other LXDE-based distributions like Debian LXDE, ROSA Marathon, Zorin OS Lite and Knoppix.

But there has never been a separate review of Lubuntu.

The reason? I am not so fond of an LXDE desktop environment that isn't an integrated desktop environment per se, but rather a collection of different small tools under the same roof.

But anyway I thought there should be a review for this distribution, especially because it is in the Top-20 of Distrowatch rating.

As happened multiple times before, the trigger was a request from my customers. One of them ordered a disk with Lubuntu 16.04 operating system. You can order your personal copy of Lubuntu operating system too!

Bingo, I thought! Let's do a review!

I downloaded the ISO image of Lubuntu 16.04.1 64-bit from the official site using torrent. Of course, there are direct download links available too. The size of the ISO image is just under 900 Mb, however it is still called a CD on the site. You cannot burn 900 Mb on a CD, can you?

So, I burnt the ISO image onto a DVD-R. The disk is in the DVD-ROM of my Toshiba Satellite laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let's go!

Ubuntu MATE 16.04: there is always room for improvement

Linux bloggers have plenty of topics to write about every 6 months. These are release cycles for Ubuntu and Fedora families. Canonical and RedHat give us an opportunity to write reviews of their operating systems often enough to keep the blogs going. Many derivatives of these distributions add to the pot.

I have written three articles about Xubuntu 16.04 recently, and I am sure that there are plenty reviews of Ubuntu 16.04. But there are some other parts of that family that should be covered, should they not? Which one would I write about? That was not a question for me for one simple reason.

You know that the commercial arm of this blog sells disks with Linux distributions via BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk site, helped by eBay sales. Users could purchase their own disks with different flavours of Ubuntu as I announced. Would you guess which Ubuntu flavour got most of the orders? Of course, the majority of the orders were for Ubuntu 16.04 itself. The second place was not taken by Kubuntu or Xubuntu as many would guess. It was taken by Ubuntu MATE.

What is Ubuntu MATE? Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu GNOME are the latest additions to the Ubuntu family, added when Canonical decided to release official flavours of their operating system with "new generation" desktop environments. This is not a very precise definition since MATE is a fork of "good ol'" GNOME 2 desktop environment, while GNOME 3 is used in Ubuntu GNOME. But let's put the definitions aside.

The ISO image of Ubuntu MATE 16.04 32-bit is about 1.6 Gb in size. I downloaded it using the torrent, though you can get it from one of many official mirrors too. The image is written to the DVD-R prepared for one of my customers. The disk is in the DVD-ROM of my Toshiba laptop.

Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Fasten your seatbelts. Let's go!

Xubuntu 16.04 - quick screenshot tour

Canonical released the new range of its operating systems last week which includes many members of Ubuntu 16.04 family: Ubuntu itself, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu GNOME and, of course, Xubuntu.

Of course, you can purchase your own disk with any of these and many other distributions through the Buy Linux CDs site. It is easy and cheap.

Let's have a quick whistle-stop tour through Xubuntu 16.04. A more detailed review is here and a post-installation thoughts are here.

Once you finish the boot sequence, you're greeted with a welcome screen in simple blue colours.

Xubuntu 16.04 welcome screen

If you don't like the default wallpaper, you can change it to any other. Quite a few come with the distribution itself.

Xubuntu 16.04 choice of wallpapers

There are not many applications in the default distributions. The choice if Internet tools is shown on this screenshot.

Xubuntu 16.04 Internet tools

There are some simple tools to work with graphics in Xubuntu 16.04.

Xubuntu 16.04 graphic tools

Two simple games are available out of the box.

Xubuntu 16.04 games

LibreOffice 5.1.2.2 is a fresh representative of productivity tools.

Xubuntu 16.04 productivity tools

Of course, there are some tools for multimedia as well. Just enough to get you started.

Xubuntu 16.04 productivity tools

If you are interested in a more detailed Xubuntu 16.04 review, please stay tuned. It will come soon,

PCLOS 2016.03 KDE: good job

I published an extremely short review of PC Linux OS not so long ago. It was short because I could not connect to my wireless network from the Live run of that Operating System.

At the same time I mentioned that the most recent version of PCLOS was about 1.5 years old - too much even for the rolling release distribution.

I am not sure if that was the driver, but PC Linux OS team made some efforts and now version 2016.03 is available. As it happened many times, it was my customer from Buy Linux CDs site who made me try this new release through testing of the disk for the order.

The ISO image of PC Linux OS 2016.03 KDE 64-bit is just under 1.9 Gb in size. You can download it through torrent or from one of the mirrors.

So, the DVD-disk with PC Linux OS 2016.03 KDE is ready. It is in the drive of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let's go!

Manjaro 15.12 KDE - close, but not perfect

When I published an article few months ago about Manjaro 15.09 Xfce, I received quite a few recommendations to try the Manjaro KDE flavour as well. Even if I was very happy about the Xfce flavour, people kept telling me that KDE version is even better.

Was I too busy or too lazy these months? Let's leave it outside of this discussion. But, as it often happens, another order from Buy Linux CDs site made me try the Manjaro KDE version. Yes, there was somebody who wanted me to prepare a disk of Manjaro KDE 64-bit for him, and off I went. As I always test the disks myself, I had an opportunity to explore the new operating system.

You can download Manjaro either directly from one of the mirrors, or via torrent. The size of ISO image of Manjaro 15.12 KDE 64-bit is about 1.8 Gb.

So, the DVD with Manjaro KDE is ready and inserted into the DVD-ROM of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X laptop. Fasten your seatbelts! Reboot! Choose to boot from DVD. Let's go!

PCLinuxOS: the walking dead

You have probably noticed that BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk site has recently changed its design. The first order that came from the redesigned site contained a highly unexpected item: PCLinuxOS. But unexpected or not, you certainly can purchase a disk with this operating system from BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk, along with many others on offer.

Of course I always test the disks before sending them to customers, so I tried to run that distribution myself too.

To start with, the design of the official web site of PCLinuxOS is so cool outdated that you can see it with a naked eye. They are stuck somewhere in 2007, I suspect.

Second, the latest version of PCLinuxOS KDE that you can download from the official web site is dated December 2014. Though there are some updates on the front page, new versions of the browsers, kernel or other software are released almost every day. But why can't the team create a newer edition of their OS with all the updates? Isn't it better for the user to download the image with the latest versions of software once than download 1.8 GB of an outdated ISO image and then get the same amount of updates separately?

Nevertheless, I had an order to fulfill. I burnt the ISO image to the DVD-R disk.

Reboot. Choose to boot from the optical drive. Let's go!

Zorin OS 11 Core: quick screenshot tour

Zorin OS 11 continues the line of Linux distributions for the users who migrate from other operating systems. It was released at the beginning of February 2016.

Let's have a whistle-stop tour for the main features of this operating system.

Manjaro Linux 15.09: the user-friendly Arch

There are several distributions in the Linux world that many users have heard of, but are scared to try. Examples? Slackware, Arch, Gentoo, maybe even Debian. They all have a geeky aura. They have a reputation of being less user-friendly. Too many people prefer to stick to Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora or Mageia.

However, there are attempts to make these "hardcore" distributions more user-friendly through their derivatives. One of these derivatives is Manjaro Linux that I am going to try today. It is the Arch's derivative.

To be honest, the idea of trying Manjaro was in my head for quite a long time, but it was an order from BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk site that made it real.

You can download Manjaro Linux from their official Sourceforge page. There are KDE, Xfce and NetInstall versions that are supported officially, plus a dozen more flavours from the Community.

Manjaro also offers torrent downloads, but the number of available torrents on their page is much less than the number of flavours. Xfce flavour isn't available in particular. I had to download it directly using one of the Sourceforge mirrors.

The Manjaro 15.09 Xfce 32-bit ISO image is about 1.4 GB in size. I burnt it onto the DVD-R.
The DVD-R is in the tray of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X laptop. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let's go.

Xfce Smooth: the smooth variations

I, DarkDuck, am always interested in new, unusual, non-mainstream Linux distributions. That's why I was very happy when one of my old readers asked me to prepare him a disk with a Linux distribution that I've never heard of before. And the order came through BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk web site, which meant I had to prepare the disk with that distribution anyway.

You won't find this distribution's name in Distrowatch. They have no official web site. Does this distribution even exist? Once upon a time I asked this question about Zorin OS. Yes, this distribution exists and you can download it from the Sourceforge page. The name is Xfce Smooth.

The ISO image is about 1.7 Gb in size. I downloaded it and burnt onto the DVD-R disk that I was going to send out.

The DVD is in the drive of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X laptop.

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

Emmabuntus 3: take it all

This is not the first time I have reviewed the distribution I'm going to talk about now. Moreover, I interviewed one of the team leaders and we ran a joint contest with this France-based team.

The distribution continues to develop. Their latest release is number 3, and it is based on Ubuntu 14.04.2.

Let's talk about Emmabuntus 3 today.

The only option to download the ISO with this distribution is through the Sourceforge's network of mirrors. They don't provide a torrent file for the downloading. Although it is not a big problem anyway.

The ISO image size of Emmabuntus 3.1.01 is 3.8Gb. This is more than Emmabuntus 2 used to have. I downloaded the ISO image and tried to "burn" to a USB stick using Ubuntu's built-in image writer. Unfortunately, this did not produce a bootable USB stick. Then I had to revert to a "classic" option using the dd command. It took about 30 minutes to complete. But again, Emmabuntus 3 refused to boot from USB. As the last resort, I burned the ISO image to a DVD-RW drive. It worked.

So, fasten your seatbelts! Let's go!

Ubuntu 15.04: evolution continues

Everyone knows the distribution that I am going to review today. It is one of the most famous distributions in the world, leader of the Distrowatch chart and base for many forks and spins.

Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu family distributions every 6 months. Ubuntu 15.04 was released in April 2015, and you can buy the disk with this version on BuyLinuxCDs.co.uk or via a special post on this blog.

Although it is very easy to download an ISO image from Ubuntu's official web site, people order these disks from me, so I decided to take one of them for a personal test-drive. The distribution's ISO image is about 1.2 Gb in size.

So, DVD with the 64-bit Desktop version Ubuntu 15.04 is in the DVD-drive of my Toshiba Satellite L500-19X. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let's go!

Xubuntu 15.04: quick screenshot tour

The 23rd of April 2015 was the date when Canonical released the set of their new operating systems: Ubuntu 15.04 family. It includes Ubuntu itself, Ubuntu MATE and GNOME editions, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu and so on.

Let's make a quick tour through Xubuntu 15.04 and check how it looks like. So, my laptop is booted from the live DVD of Xubuntu 15.04.

Let's go!

Order your personal copy of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu 14.10

It is not the first time I announce something similar, so my old readers know what I mean...

With the coming release of next version of Ubuntu 14.10 just a month away, many of you already looking for downloading of your own ISO image of the system. Yes, that's the next version, codenamed Utopic Unicorn.

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 CDs with operating system images.
We can help!

You can pre-order your own copy of Ubuntu 14.10 (or Xubuntu, or Lubuntu, or Kubuntu) right now. It means that a DVD with your favourite OS will be burnt to you as early as possible, and dispatched on the 23rd of October 2014, or soon after. Dispatched to anywhere in the world.


How you can get the DVD? Go to http://buylinuxcds.co.uk site, purchase the Ubuntu DVD from there, and in the PayPal comments state that you want version 14.10. If you want K-, L- or Xubuntu, state it also in the same comment. 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): Ubuntu 14.10 pre-order (UK) Variation Ubuntu Kubuntu Xubuntu Lubuntu

USA (6.00 USD):

Ubuntu 14.10 pre-order (USA)
Variation Ubuntu Kubuntu Xubuntu Lubuntu

Other countries (4.00 GBP):

Ubuntu 14.10 pre-order (Other countries)
Variation Ubuntu Kubuntu Xubuntu Lubuntu

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

Zorin OS 9 - a step forward for Windows migrants

Linux notes from DarkDuck has closely followed the development of Zorin OS for a long time now. The first review was for Zorin OS 4, and since then it seems like I haven't missed any new release. I also interviewed Artyom Zorin, the leader of the distribution.

Even though I don't do reviews en masse now, I felt I had to write a review of Zorin OS 9, which was released in July 2014, just few days ago.

I downloaded the version Zorin OS 9 32-bit Core. It is about 1.3 GB in size, which means you either need a DVD or a USB stick with >1GB capacity to get this ISO working.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get Live USB with this distribution. I tried different methods: dd command, Unetbootin, and even USB image writer from Linux Mint 17 toolkit. None of them created a workable Live USB stick.

Then I reverted to a Live DVD option.

So, DVD with Zorin OS 9 Core is in the DVD-ROM of my laptop Dell Vostro 1500. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let's go!

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!