My View about ARCH Linux and its Derivatives

Honestly speaking, my advice for a newbie to Linux is for he or she to use Puppy Linux to begin with Never Try ARCH or it derivatives.

My View about ARCH Linux and its Derivatives has not changed at all.

This is the latest testing.

I forgot to mention anything about Arch Linux in my book of Linux essentials. 

Hence, I decided to check few of its derivatives.

Except for Majaro Linux, which is a pretty good distributions (except when installing additional applications) one should not try any other Arch derivatives.

I just mounted Arcolinux on a USB stick and tried  to have a simple user experience. Except for Gparted it had nothing, not even a simple browser. At least they could have used now dysfunctional Midori browser.

It configured the WiFi but what the use of Internet without a browser included in the distribution.

Image size is 2.7GB

I am going to try Storm Linux which is 3.5GB.

Storm Linux is pretty good.

It did configure WiFi.

It has Chromium browser.

It has VLC and Pulse Audio.

In that sense it is at least user friendly.

It has Note,  Htop and Vim but no office or AbiWord.

Its installer is Calamara.

It is Xfc based and themes are very dark for me.

Endeavor OS is on the USB.

Image size is 2.7GB.

I just tested it. 

Endeavor OS is pretty good and it is KDE based and has a pleasing desktop.

WiFi is smooth.

It has Firefox, which is my favorite browser.

It has Calamara installer, offline desktop is KDE but online installation lets one choose a different desktop.

Image size is 2.7GB

On the whole it is almost like Manjaro Linux.

It has Spectacle, the screenshot capture utility. 

On the whole Arch has come a long way and some developers are listening to the user comments.

Bluestar Linux when I tested it, last time, it had issues with WiFi connectivity but this time WiFi configuration was OK but I had to fiddle, a bit.

I thought Blustar Linux is going to come on top but I have some reservations.

Its image size is 4.6GB.

I have downloaded it direct from the SourceForge.

Linux tracker image is slightly older but almost the same.

This what it says about itself.

Bluestar Linux is an Arch Linux-based distribution, built with an understanding that people want and need a solid Operating System that provides a breadth of functionality and ease of use without sacrificing aesthetics. Bluestar is offered in three edtions - desktop, deskpro and developer - each tailored to address the needs of a variety of Linux users. Bluestar can be installed permanently as a robust and fully configurable operating system on a laptop or desktop system, or it can be run effectively as a live installer and supports the addition of persistent storage for those who choose not to perform a permanent installation.

A Bluestar Linux software repository is also maintained in order to provide additional tools and applications when needed or requested.

Most of the of the above, I could not accomplish on a live session.

Having taken the password for the WiFi it did not mount Firefox.

Since it was heavy, I tried to log out and log in.

That where the problem started. 

It asked for a password for the user.

I tried the usual.

live

root

user

without a password, press enter

I tells me I have tried, three times and it Froze.

I am not going to try it again, certainly not Install it.

The installer is Clamara.

My advice is once one gets the hand of Linux after using Puppy Linux on OpenBox, Xfc or similar desktop, GO STRAIFGT to Debian Linux.

I prefer Gnome but it has Cinnamon, Mate, and many more.

Try using Live DVD and there is DVD1 which gives all most all the Desktop varities one can choose at the time of installation.

This my last adventure and i am going back to finish my book Linux Esentials. 

It has lot of stuff. 

I usulay finish a book in a few days but this book took the longest time.

Puppy Linux and EasyOS-6.0.4

Puppy Linux and Easy-6.0.4

By the way, this is posted with Puppy Easy OS on Live Session.

It took a little time for me to get the Firefox downloaded and running.

This is a comment, I want to make here, since YouTube Guy who probably comes from Windows background was making Micky out of Puppy and giving almost half an our session, how to install Puppy Linux on Windows. 

I was annoyed and said or made a comment, to the effect, all one need is a USB stick and Puppy Image downloaded to a Linux Distribution and click the Image and Image Writer is thereby activated for install on a USB stick.

No hassle at all!

Thereafter, one can carry it in the trouser pocket.

I did not see him again, in YouTube.

Puppy even installs Jitisi, which I had some trouble in installing in Debian Gnome probably due to fragmentation of the libraries. 

EasyOS-6.0.4 which is the latest Image (I erased the USB stick that had 6.0.2) has done a great job.

One has an option to update to the latest version, if the current version is old.

It has Vivaldi browser which one has to download.

By the way, its default browser is Chromium and It has a chromium container which describes all the activities of EasyOS.

It has both AppImage Installer and Flatpak Installer.

Problem for me is, it has no AbiWord but has both LibreOffice and OnlyOffice. 

One cannot download what is not in their repository.

It has KODI, OBS studio and Kdenlive and what more on needs.

80% of what I have in Debian Gnome is available with EasyOS on a 15GB Stick.

Minimum USB stick one finds in Australia, nowadays is 32GB.

It has VLC, MPV and Audacity and many more for one to download.

Docking Station of Gnome

Docking Station of Gnome

Docky A full fledged dock application that makes opening common applications and managing windows easier and quicker. Docky is fully integrated into the GNOME Desktop and features, no nonsense approach to configuration and usage. Docky provides an intuitive application launcher, running application management, and various "docklets" including a CPU monitor, weather report and clock. It is similar to other docks such as AWN and cairo-dock. Applications can integrate with Docky to add extra items to their context menus or modify their icons to display more information.

Docky is derived from the GNOME Do "docky" interface. Docky is a theme for GNOME Do that behaves much like the Mac OS X dock. Unlike GNOME Do's traditional interface, Docky can be set to one of three modes for hiding:

None - Docky is always visible.

Autohide - Docky is normally hidden and appears when the mouse pointer reaches Docky's unseen edge at the lower/upper edge of the screen.

Intellihide - Docky hides if it overlaps any window in the active window group, but it can still be brought up with the mouse pointer. Standard Do functionality is still present within Docky and the Do hot-key will still produce the expected behaviour. Docky 2 is a separate application from GNOME Do.

Emmabantus in the earlier versions had an intuitive docking station at the bottom of the desktop and the applications were arranged according to the tasks they performed. However, there was poor standardisation of the menus and items and it started fragmenting over time with poor maintenance. The Cairo Dock seems to be the base and it can be downloaded using Synaptic Package Manager.

With Debian Gnome the panels are bigger and located on the right side, instead on the bottom in Emmabantus and appear to clutter the desktop and one cannot launch an application from these panels.

However, Gnome has its own way of addressing this issue with a few essential items, on the bottom of the desktop. One can add or delete any of the applications that are stationed below on the desktop without any panel restriction.

If the number of the items are few on the desktop each item of  the panel member appears big and as and when the number of applications are added each item becomes smaller and smaller to fit the horizontal breath of the monitor. I have added 30 odd items and that gives a pleasing or eye catching appearance.

All the other items are arranged with big icons, 32 for each page and I have seven pages in total which means over 220 items. Most of them are little games and I can drag and drop essential item to page one or  non essential game items to page seven. The Gnome work on this is much more visually appealing than MacOS and I love it.