Why Can’t Linux Crack The Desktop?

Image by KobraSoft

Many computer geeks have always held Linux in high regard. They endlessly talk about its stability and security features. For many years people talked about how Linux may eventually take over in the future, but the OS is yet to take off as the leading operating systems. There has been a lot of debate as to why this OS has never really taken off. There are many things that programmers, computer experts, users and geeks in general have failed to agree on. However, there are a number of things that have affected its success.

Discovering Zorin OS

It was due to having Agoraphobia that I spent most my time gathering as many tips and tweaks that I could find to make my system run as lightweight as possible while having only 1gb of RAM. I wasted a lot of time and went through a lot of heartache trying to make a window out of what's really a box.

Image by KobraSoft

I'm talking about Windows that is. In my opinion Windows is just that. A window you can look through but it is locked onto a house that you cannot truly make your own and be the master of your own domain. You can only see as far and wide as 'they' want you to see which after looking a bit harder you see it is actually an illusion on the wall, tricking the eyes of the masses into thinking they're using the best of the best, the top-of-the-line OS when you're really boxed in.

I was in the dumps with my situation as there was no freedom for me, the limits were quickly found. I had hit a wall. I was to sit with a laptop that I knew had power and strengths; that deserved to shine but couldn't be unlocked to its potential. Only in my dreams, I thought.

Mageia 2: smooth upgrade

A few days ago I wrote about my first impression of Mageia 2 KDE from a Live run. I can’t say that it was without issues, but they were not the major ones.

That’s why I decided to upgrade my existing installation of Mageia KDE from version 1 to version 2.

To be honest, I was slightly scared by the previous not-so-good experience of a Mageia upgrade described by Gene on his ERACC blog. The second option for me would be to make a fresh install, which I could always revert to. I had so little to lose that the decision was easily made.

Mageia 2 KDE: first glance

This operating system captured my heart from the very first day I saw it. Unlike its predecessor Mandriva, I felt very comfortable with Mageia.

Mageia 1 was, to a very large extent, a rebranded spin of Mandriva, let’s admit that. The team fixed many things I disliked in Mandriva, and changed the branding. But they did not have enough time to make serious changes from Mandriva. The comparative test of Mageia 1 made by one of my guest authors confirmed this.

After almost a year after the first release, Mageia 2 saw the world at the end of May 2012.

I could not get my hands dirty with the new release for a few weeks because of various reasons, but finally I got the time to try it.

As you may know, Mageia 1 KDE is one of the systems I have installed on my laptop Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1505. Therefore, I could simply run an upgrade for my existing system.

But this would not be that interesting. Or, otherwise, this could be too risky.

That’s why I decided to try a Live run of the Mageia 2 KDE operating system first.

You can either download the ISO image file of Mageia 2 KDE from one of many mirrors, or use a torrent. I chose the second option. The ISO image itself is 696 Mb for the Live CD version. The entire downloaded size, though, is 715 Mb, because it includes additional files like MD5 sum.

The official guide says that you can create a Live USB from the ISO using command dd or application mandriva-seed. Unfortunately, neither of them worked for me. The USB stick, created using these methods, was not bootable. The very likely reason, though, is in the BIOS of my laptop.

Unetbootin was slightly better. I was able to see the boot menu and even the splash screen. But after approximately 15 minutes of waiting at the splash screen, I decided to give up. Live USB boot did not happen.

Finally, I burnt the ISO image of Mageia 2 KDE onto the DVD-RW disk.

So, the disk was ready and loaded into the optical drive of my Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 1505. Reboot. Choose to boot from DVD. Let’s go!

Zorin OS 6 quick screenshot tour

This is an unusual post for me.
I rarely put many images on my articles. Most of my blog items are prose.

Today I let myself to be different. This is a quick screenshot tour to the freshly released Zorin OS 6 Core.

Yet another guest post on the high-profile site

Coincidentally or not, but the very same day as I published Linux on the test drive post, yet another my article on similar theme was published. But this time, this was not a small blog like Linux notes from DarkDuck.

Please welcome to read The M-word that's Linux's curse on ZDnet.co.uk resource. I think, you don't need an explanation what ZDnet is.

Linux on the test drive

You have just passed your driving test and got your full driving license.
	You are fed up with Windows and want to try a new operating system.
You go to the car dealer to buy a new car, and the manager offers you a test drive.
	You go to the Linux distribution web site and see the Live CD option there.

You agree to try!