SF-LUG - New Linux Distros

[Bobbie Sellers]

Hi LUGgers,

     Hey a new version of TAILs is out.
Secretive people will love it.  Need a DVD or Flash Drive.
tails-i386-1.2.3   907 Megabytes.

     Ordinarily I would do a checksum and write it to a disk
but the checksum is not supplied and an elaborate system
of Trusted Connections using PGP signatures is used.
     Well if you are handy with PGP then you won't have
a problem verifying the soundness of your download.
	==================================	

	Kubuntu 15.04 Alpha Vivid Vervet
	Booted and ran well live on my box.  But I only got it to
to try out KDE 5.x.  KDE 5 is in the same space as KDE 4.x.x a few
years back.  Some options like copying the date from the clock
are simply not available.   I only got this so that if it did
boot I could check out KDE 5.


     ==================================
Mageia-5-beta2-LiveDVD-KDE4-x86_64-DVD.iso
	Downloaded via Torrent and ran a checksum
before I overwrote its predecessor beta1 which could not
complete a boot on my machine.

     Mageia 5 beta 2 looks more like an update than
a wildly new version.  It has improved its efi components and
offers a lot of choices from the GRUB 2 menu.
     It is using kernel 3.18.1 and KDE 4.14.3
     A bit short of the wares I favor and no games at all...
That will improve with the HD installation, I am sure.

     ==================================

     Linux Mint 17.1 KDE boots and runs nicely in Live Mode.
This version has an integrated KDEWallet which I believe means
that when you log on your wallet is opened.  Wallet means
a software device to hold passwords, etc.
     Uses Linux 3.13.0-37-generic and KDE 4.13.3.
     It mounts the disks on your computer but read only.
I saved out my notes to an SD card.
     It has KDE Partition Editor which looks like most gui
partition editors but is simply in monochrome.
     There are some interesting tools to format and write
to Flash drives.

     ==================================

  So Rosa Fresh Ra
Linux kernel 3.14.25-nrj-desktop-1rosa
KDE Platform Version 4.14.3
Well I didn't really want to try this out.
Cold War prejudice lingering or appreciation of the
present tyranny I am not sure.

     This has some unique tools like Rosa Media player
which works well with files that I would use VLC to
play.
     It has the usual assortment of KDE stuff but adds
the Mozilla Thunderbird 31 as well as Firefox 34
It does have KWrite but no sign of Kate.
     Again we see LibreOffice and Ocular. Graphics barely
mentioned but it does have Gwenview.
     It has a Rosa Image writer to use with Flash drives
and a USB formatting tool.
     Finally this is a Mandriva derivative and it leaves out
the most important part the Computer Control Center.
     It does mix some tools in with the KDE control senter
and separates others out.  This may be useful but this old
old Mandriva user is not content
     It does have GParted 0.16.1 which seems a bit behind
the curve, as it is up to 0.20.02 at least on my copy
of the Live Disk version.
	==================================	
     Hope some readers will find this interesting.
	
	
     Bobbie Sellers -  Je suis Charlie!