Leaning Towards Linux

Originally Posted on March 24, 2014

I don’t know what has come over me… I’ve started on a rollercoaster ride into a wild world of Linux desktops… and of course the main problem I’ve discovered, is that of choice! There are far too many distros to choose from!!

I have a few requirements that need to be met – not very difficult, but nonetheless tricky in some instances – these requirements are:

• Need to be able to install on my Dell Vostro 3550 Laptop as a secondary OS (I’m using EasyBCD for boot management)
• Connect to my networked Canon MF4270 to print, and scan via USB
• Install/use Evernote (perhaps via Everpad or Nixnote if necessary)
• Ability to mount ISO files as virtual CD/DVD drive
• Install some specific (basic) Windows Apps through Wine
• Easily connect to my Windows/Samba shares (and save shortcuts/mapped drives)
• Connect to Dropbox/ownCloud etc.

So, I’m definitely not going to try and actually review any of the distros I’ve tried, but I will list here those I have used, and my overall feeling for them.

Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 – this is via work, and in general the build we have is very useable, although I and others definitely have issues trying to use a Plantronics Blackwire C710 headset with it. (although this does seem to be a general Linux/C710 compatability problem)

ElementaryOS – I have to say this was the first “beautiful” Linux distro I really came across, fast booting, very fluid, and very much resembling Mac OSX.

Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon (it’s now on 16) – again, very nice looking, quick booting, I particularly like the “Void” theme – very clean and monochromatic.

Ubuntu – Installed and running on my second (older) laptop, haven’t had much time to play, but want to look into the Everpad integration, particularly in terms of searching individual notes some more…

Zorin – Super easy to use, can be made to look like Windows XP or Windows 7, very nice Wine support making it extremely easy to run Windows Apps (Others before this might be good too, I just didn’t try out Wine on them).

PC-BSD – Somewhere around here I did a very brief test of PC-BSD, but for me, my laptop (in terms of hardware/compatibility), and the need for stuff to just “work”… I moved on…

SolydK – Nice, but I had trouble mounting ISOs to be able to install apps in Wine… I probably could have solved it with enough time, but for me nowadays, time is a premium…

Therefore I have currently returned to Zorin, but that doesn’t prevent me playing with others… and in fact to make this simpler, I have actually added a third partition to my drive so I can carry on testing without affecting either my Windows 8 or Zorin installs…. more fun to come..