NEWS

Mageia Mageia 4 was released earlier this year   Mageia is the result of the community-driven fork of the Mandriva Linux distribution. Back in 1998, Mandrake Linux, based on Red Hat Linux 5.1, was the first distro designed for the everyday user. The distro underwent several name changes and acquisitions. After persisting with many incarnations, the community members decided to fork Mandriva. More than 100 Keyboard Shortcuts (Microsoft Windows) The first Mageia release was in 2011 and the project has produced four major releases since then. The latest, Mageia 4, was unleashed early this year. Mageia is an RPM-based distro backed by a solid community infrastructure. Along with an installable Live image, the project also ships an install-only DVD. The distro offer both KDE and Gnome desktops. Software packages are split into three repositories named Core, Nonfree and Tainted. Between the three, the distro provides just about all the packages you may need. Propri…

  Debian Debian can be configured as a desktop or server OS   While this distro is still considered to be the best offering for rolling out servers, Debian has also made inroads into the desktop. It now ships with all the popular desktop environments such as Gnome, KDE, Mate, XFCE, etc. The recent releases have also introduced a simpler installer. Debian is flexible and can be configured as a desktop, or as a web/mail/file server. One of the biggest contributions Debian made to the free software world was the dpkg manager, which is the underlying system on several popular distros like Ubuntu and Mint. It ships with no proprietary drivers or codecs, but being one of the oldest and most popular Linux distros has its advantages. Almost every software vendor provides pre-packaged binaries for Debian, so installing stuff is a breeze. The project subscribes to the "release when ready" philosophy but aims to release a new distro every two years. Debian produ…

  Linux Mint   Mint wisely steers clear of any interface controversy   There are two key reasons for Mint's stellar rise in the popular distro charts. One is that it's based on Ubuntu, and the other is that despite being based on Ubuntu, its default desktop is much more traditional than Ubuntu's controversial Unity interface.   Linux Mint offers users a choice of two Gnome-based environments, which are dubbed Mate and Cinnamon. Mate is designed to be a faithful continuation of the outdated Gnome 2 desktop. Cinnamon on the other hand appears more modern with a neat menu that provides quick access to all the system's settings and applications in one place.   Like Ubuntu, this distro is also preloaded with a full complement of daily use applications for work and pleasure. But in a marked departure from several mainstream distros like Ubuntu and Fedora, Mint ships with audio and video codecs catering to your multimedia needs out of the box.   The latest rele…

  Fedora   Fedora most certainly isn't old hat   One of the oldest Linux distros, Fedora can trace its origins back to the 1990s and Red Hat Linux. Fedora came into being when Red Hat decided to split its Red Hat Linux distribution into Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Project in 2003.   The distro aims to provide a completely free software system and has traditionally been pitched as an alternative to Ubuntu. Due to its focus on providing bleeding edge software and server-centric features, this RPM-based distro has often been described as suitable for advanced users.   Fedora's ease of use has diminished since the introduction of the Gnome 3 desktop, a phenomenal departure from the traditional desktop metaphor. The Gnome project, however, has worked tirelessly to provide a better user experience to new users and this is evident in the latest releases.   Fedora has traditionally lacked a decent software management tool despite seve…

  OpenSUSE 13.2 OpenSUSE now features a very user friendly installer   One of the most popular RPM-based distros, OpenSUSE, has shunned its KDE preference and now looks consistent across desktops. However, it remains one of the leading users of (and contributors to) the KDE desktop.   Its all-in-one management tool YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) can handle software installation as well as system configuration and administration. It can be used to configure just about every aspect of the system, from appearance to hardware. While it's convenient to have all these settings in one place, it can seem a bit overwhelming and intimidating, especially to new Linux users.   Taking a cue from distros that feature a straightforward installer, the latest release of OpenSUSE features a very simple installer. Almost all the advanced options, such as setting up a printer and configuring LDAP, are no longer a part of the installer, making the process quick and m…

Ubuntu   Ubuntu is an impressively polished distro. SAP Architecture   While not the first distro designed for inexperienced Linux desktop users, Ubuntu has established itself as one of the most well-known.   What is SAP R3 Architecture ?   The distro features the home-grown Unity desktop, one of the most polarising desktop environments in the Linux ecosystem. But that's about the extent of the project's missteps. For the most part, the distro remains incredibly polished and sophisticated for all manner of users, but especially new converts.   Ubuntu has one of the easiest installation mechanisms. It doesn't include proprietary codecs by default, but you can include them during installation simply by clicking a checkbox. This distro is released twice a year with regular Long Term Support (LTS) releases that are supported for five years.   What is SAP Landscape?   One of the most exciting new features of version 14.10…

  10 best Linux distros: which one is right for you?   Introduction   Choice and flexibility are the hallmarks of a Linux distribution, and by extension the Linux ecosystem. With the proprietary Windows and OS X, you're stuck with the system as designed and can't make changes no matter how unpleasant you may find the experience. Linux distributions are free of such limitations.   Each distro has the Linux kernel at its core, but builds on top of that with its own selection of other components, depending on the target audience of the distro. Most Linux users switch between distros until they finally find the one that best suits their needs. However, for new and inexperienced users, the choice of hundreds of distros, with seemingly little to distinguish them, can seem challenging to say the least.   Largely speaking, Linux distros can be grouped into seemingly endless categories such as the default graphical environment, the underlying package ma…