I reviewed quite a range of Linux distributions in 2017, and for once they were not all based
on Ubuntu.
I also took a look at Fedora, openSUSE, and even a few Arch based distros.
Linux Lite is based on Ubuntu 16.04 and uses the XFCE desktop.
The theming of the distro is plain and to the point.
Linux Lite have not only accommodated new users, but have kept the application selection
tight and simple enough that a more advanced user could pick up the system and not feel
the need to go pruning surplus applications.
There is a wide range of tools and utilities provided with the system, and one that I do
like is their custom Lite tweaks tool, which allows you to easily modify various system
settings, clean temporary files, remove old packages, free up RAM, as well as various
other tweaks.
The Welcome screen provides shortcuts for getting your system up and running, links
to online support and the help manual, and also a link to the Hardware Database.
This is another feature Linux Lite have made which is over and above many other distros,
they have created a Hardware Database, where the community can submit details of their
hardware and say whether it works in Linux.
SolydK used to be one of my favourite Linux Distributions, and I even used it on my main
system after I decided to leave Ubuntu back in 2014.
The version I reviewed came out in July, it was based on Debian Stretch, and came with
the newer KDE 5.8 LTS desktop.
One fundamental flaw of the distro was it only recognised one CPU core.
Although my AMD Ryzen is much newer than the kernel, I had not suffered the same problem
in Debian Stretch with Gnome desktop.
But ok CPU issues aside I was disappointed by reduction in features of the welcome screen.
Pity because the welcome screen was what I really loved about it.
Perhaps the problem is Ubuntu MATE came along and set my expectations for a user friendly
distribution much higher.
Talking about Ubuntu MATE it is my 2nd best distribution.
They have impressed me with their constant development and improvement of what is an
old fork of the Gnome classic desktop.
They have provided a look switcher to easily switch the desktop style between: Apple, Windows,
Netbook, Pantheon, Gnome Classic and Unity style layouts.
It’s the Mutiny, Unity style I wanted to focus on here where you can have a Heads Up
Display, Global menu, and Unity-like style panel.
The HUD and Global menu work perfectly with both Qt and GTK based applications.
Which is something that Gnome and KDE have so far failed to achieve.
These improvements came at a perfect time with Ubuntu ending development of the Unity
desktop.
Ubuntu MATE allow easy tweaks to be made with the placement of Close, Minimize, and Maximise
buttons, and you can choose whether to have a Software compositor with Marco, or Hardware
compositor with Compiz.
The desktop is more flexible than Unity ever was.
By using a fork of older Gnome applications it seems more feature rich than the brand
new versions of Gnome.
The welcome screen is a nice addition to assist new users.
The presentation of it is superb, and it has links to Getting started, Driver installer,
Community help, and a basic software installer called Software Boutique.
If you find Software Boutique too lightly stocked for your taste it provides a link
to install one of the other Software centres on your system.
The second worst distro is something I completely forgot that I had reviewed, but upon looking
back I can see why I had forgotten about it.
Maui Linux is based on KDE Neon which is based on Ubuntu 16.04.
You get a rolling release KDE desktop on top of a stable Ubuntu base.
KDE Neon is currently my distro of choice, so why would I dislike something based on
it.
Well the problem with Maui Linux is the choice of Applications, they seem to have gone out
of their way to avoid some of the native KDE apps.
The update manager is from Linux Mint, which would withhold the kernel updates at a time
when a few kernel vulnerabilities had been discovered.
Package manager is Synaptic which looks awful on theming, instead of the native Muon package
manager which fits nicely in KDE.
Music players were Audacious and gmusicbrowser.
Why not use Clementine, which has more functionality, looks beautiful, and is a native Qt app.
Baloo file searcher was disabled by default, which reduces functionality of application
launchers, in that they can’t search for files.
Sure disabling it does save some CPU and memory which would be fine for an underpowered netbook.
The ISO file was 1.9GB and I can’t help but wonder if the large size was due to all
the additional libraries required to run the non-native applications that were pre-installed
on the system.
It seems to me that they have taken the KDE desktop, shot it in the knees, and then passed
it across to the user.
An honorable mention has to go to Sparky Linux, I wanted this to be a top 3 contender, because
it has a unique feature of easily being able to install from a wide range of desktops with
the APTus tool.
Not just the main desktops like KDE, GNOME, and XFCE, but more obscure ones like CDE,
Enlightenment and Trinity.
It's certainly worth installing if you want to try out all the different Linux desktops.
Or you could watch the series I made last year.
And now on to the best Linux Distro.
KDE Plasma is my favourite desktop, but the problem is development is extremely aggressive
and a new version with new features appears once every few months.
This is too quick for a fixed release operating system like Kubuntu, Debian, and Fedora to
keep up with.
KDE Neon is my current distro of choice as it provides a rolling release version of the
KDE desktop packed on top of a stable long term support release of Ubuntu.
However, that version of Ubuntu is now getting a bit old, and the latest CPUs from Intel
and AMD don’t work so well with its kernel.
My choice now is to look for something more rolling release for the entire Linux OS.
I looked at a couple recently: openSUSE Tumbleweed and Antergos.
So the winner is the Arch based Antergos.
I loved its simplicity and speed.
The installer allowed you to easily choose between different desktops and applications
to put on your system.
You can make it as cut down and simple as you want.
Getting it going was honestly no more difficult than installing Ubuntu.
You may ask why not openSUSE or Manjaro, and the answer is bulk.
Both distributions came with too many applications pre-installed which may suit a new user.
But for the more advanced user who doesn’t want to mess around with configuration files,
Antergos was a brilliant alternative.
It was a bit annoying that the Application Dashboard for KDE didn’t get pre-installed,
and it was a bit vague finding multimedia codecs, but neither problem took me long to
solve.
Installation of applications could be carried out either via the terminal with Pacman or
the GUI using Pamac.
Both the Arch and AUR repositories were included, which means a wide range of applications were
available for the system.
I even noticed the latest nvidia 387 drivers were available in the repos.
A price you will pay being on Arch is there will be a lot of updates, as you are on the
bleeding edge.
But otherwise everything just worked and I loved it.
Now for the worst distribution, although there
wasn’t really too much of a problem with bugs, it completely failed on its main selling
point.
Ultimate Edition 5.1 is based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and used the KDE Plasma 5.5.5 desktop.
This version of Plasma was awful and buggy when it was released with Kubuntu the previous
year.
I never understood why the creator said “I hate KDE.
No news there, but I believe I spent a ton of time refining it to make our users happy.
Did I mention I hate KDE?
Looks too much like that other Operating System” What!
You’re the distro creator you can use whatever desktop you want.
Ultimate Edition always was a flashy looking distro, and you know what there is nothing
wrong with that.
But the problem was the fancy looking components of the theming were not consistent throughout.
The Ghost Deco window theme is broken in Plasma 5.
The glossy mouse cursor kept falling back to using the grey Breeze cursor.
A variety of icon themes were included, but these failed to cover core component features
of the desktop and all the pre-installed applications.
As a result KDE fell back to using default icons, which looked so out of place in comparison.
I appreciate there are far too many applications to draw icons for all, but a pre-installed
theme should at least be able to cover all the pre-installed applications.
There was one bug with the application centre crashing.
Thank you all for watching.
Have a happy new year and prosperous 2018.