June 17, 2013

Great Little Radio Player`: Radio Player - 2 articles




great little radio player

`Great Little Radio Player` is an Internet radio player for Linux that comes with a collection of about 400 radio stations organized by genre and you can easily add more, import or export radio stations.

The application is very simplistic and doesn't try to do anything other than play Internet radio stations and look good. Even though I'm not a fan of its default icons (it uses custom icons), the application can look quite nice thanks to the 30 skins, called "coats", included by default. Here are some of the included "coats":

Great Little Radio Player

Great Little Radio Player

Great Little Radio Player

Other Great Little Radio Player features include:
  • display notifications on song change (useful for radio stations that display the song artist / title);
  • tray icon (converted to Ubuntu AppIndicator automatically if you use Unity, thanks to sni-qt): by default it can only hide / restore the player or stop playing the current station, but from the application settings, you can set it to show the stations and categories in the tray menu;
  • options to play stations on startup and hide window on startup.


Download `Great Little Radio Player`


Download `Great Little Radio Player` - there are deb (Ubuntu, Debian and derivatives), rpm (Fedora, Mandriva, openSuse, etc.) and source files available for download.

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/05/great-little-radio-player-simplistic.html


Great Little Radio Player Tunes In Simplicity

Great Little Radio Player Tunes In Simplicity
Why should you try GLRP? Well, it offers a fast and simple way to play streaming radio with a barely there interface. Also, having 400 radio stations available from worldwide locations is pretty cool. Remember, all of these are free. You do not even have to sign up for a free subscription. There's no limit to how many additional stations you can add, either.
The Great Little Radio Player is a perfect example of how great things can come in small packages.
This robust Internet radio station streamer does not burden system resources and packs a powerhouse of listening pleasure immediately after installing it. It's so fine-tuned that it needs no configuring to use it, but you can still tweak a few pleasantries to make it feel more at home on your computer.
Great Little Radio Player connects to some 400 websites offering radio streaming. Unlike other radio players that give you a few nonpremium stations, GLRP's streaming inventory is totally free.



Great Little Radio
Player


The app is very similar to my formerly favorite radio-playing app, Radio Tray. Where Radio Tray's ultra-minimalistic design fell short, however, GLRP does not stumble.
In fact, like Radio Tray, GLRP offers a fast and simple way to play streaming radio via a barely there interface. The user experience, though, is far more satisfying. Unlike Radio Tray, it plays on a much wider range of Linux distros.

Keep It Simple

Linux users have access to quite a few radio players. Listening to radio over the Internet offers a choice of methods spanning standalone players, individual Web sites and Web browser add-ons.
The Great Little Radio Player falls into the first category, but it does not give you static from a clunky interface or overstuffed features.
Instead, GLRP has a two-column design. Select your music genre on the left; select the station from the list on the right. This great app does not try to do anything else. It just plays Internet radio stations.

Who Can Use It?

GLRP is not too finicky as to where it plays. It supports 32- and 64-bit systems. If you run a Linux distro that is derived from Ubuntu, such as Kubuntu, Linux Mint, elementary OS and such, you are golden.
GLRP also runs on Fedora-based distros such as Mandriva, Mageia, PCLinuxOS and openSUSE as well as Arch Linux and Chakra Linux.
You probably will not find the Great Little Radio Player in your distro's software repository, but those places almost never have the most up-to-date package versions anyway. Get it directly from the developer's site linked above. The current version is 1.4.1.

A Nontraditional GUI

One of the things I really like about GLRP is its nontraditional design. It may be nonclassic, but it is definitely very classy.
For example, it lacks the drop-down menus and traditional icons and tool rows. That does not leave its usability lacking, however -- quite the contrary.
I already mentioned its two-column functional channel display. Above this is a row of eight custom icons. You use those icons to access the few controls and preference settings. Simplistic does not get any simpler than this.

Adding Stations

The Plus icon lets you add more radio stations. A panel appears with windows in which to enter the station's name and URL. A test button verifies that it works.
Two drop-down lists let you designate the genre and the country of origin. A checkbox lets you mark the station as a favorite. A button lets you load a .pls file via a file-selector window.
A station's .pls file is usually available from its website. This file format stores multimedia playlists and the streaming URL, if different from that of the main website.

Other Controls

The flag icon sorts stations by country. The musical note button sorts by musical genre. The star icon displays a list of favorite stations.
To the far right of this same icon row are three more buttons. Depending on the skin you select from the appearances settings, all eight icons might be crunched together on the left of this row. The default skin with a plain white background divides the icons. The style of the icons or labels instead of icons also varies with your skin selection.
The X icon -- as you might suspect -- exits the program. The dotted circle icon hides or shows the player. An icon on the system tray does the same thing. Some skins have a search icon; in other skins, that icon is replaced with a maximize/restore icon. Sadly, it does not work!

Setting Preferences

Nevertheless, click the gear icon on the left side of the icon row to access the Preferences panel. That exposes three tabs.
The "On Start Up" tab gives you options to play stations automatically, play a particular station or play the last played station. You can also choose to hide the application's window. This lets you use just the tray icon to see the main window.
Great Little Radio
Player
The Look tab sets the application skin and how the main window appears. For instance, you can show stations and categories in the system tray menu and display balloon messages about the playing station.
The Localization tab, logically, lets you select the preferred language of selections.

A Closer Look

GLRP's ability to change skins so easily is impressive. In the Look panel you must first check the Coats box. This activates the selection drop-down window.
This application comes with 30 skins. Some of them are quite attractive. Others make it difficult to read the text in the main window.
Highlight the desired skin and click its name. That closes the list. When you click the OK button at the bottom of the panel, the new look instantly appears.

Eclectic Tuning

Having 400 radio stations available from worldwide locations is pretty cool. Remember, all of these are free. You do not even have to sign up for a free subscription. Also, there is no limit to how many additional stations you can add.
A station begins playing as soon as you double-click on its name. Right-click on a station's name in the right column to mark it as a favorite or to delete it.
I like the very broad range of 30 genres. Even sports and news stations are part of the list. To my dismay, however, no genre for Country and Western music exists in Great Little Radio Player.
Truth be told, I am an avid C&W fan. I did find an occasional radio station that had scattered Country and Western songs in its play list, but I did not find a dedicated C&W station anywhere -- until I added some, that is.

GUI Oddities

What's missing, however, is the ability to maximize the main window. You can hide it, but it does not show on the panel when minimized. You also cannot drag the borders to change the size of the app window on the screen.
Another peculiar behavior is evident when you use GLRP without a mouse. Scrolling through the list of genres is limited to what appears in the left column of the main window.
The arrow keys do not go beyond the displayed list. Even the page-up/page-down arrows failed to function inside the main app window. Once I plugged in a mouse, however, full scrolling was possible.
Nevertheless, the bottom line is that Great Little Radio Player is a very cool Internet radio streaming app. It is very easy to use -- thanks in large part to its nonstandard user interface.

Jack M. Germain has been writing about computer technology since the early days of the Apple II and the PC. He still has his original IBM PC-Jr and a few other legacy DOS and Windows boxes. He left shareware programs behind for the open source world of the Linux desktop. He runs several versions of Windows and Linux OSes and often cannot decide whether to grab his tablet, netbook or Android smartphone instead of using his desktop or laptop gear.
- See more at: http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/78243.html#sthash.ZlMpXvaU.dpuf

Source: http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/78243.html

June 15, 2013

Linux Mint 15 Mate - 3 Reviews






Linux Mint 15 "Olivia" Mate & Cinnamon Review: Great aesthetics & superb performance - Almost perfect!

Linux Mint is one of the few Linux distros that I normally recommend to any newbie. It just works! This is possibly the most amazing thing about Mint. Whereas with rest of the Linux distros, I get to hear a lot of complains (even I have experienced for some). But, not a single one for Linux Mint. Any system you throw at it, it will always work! Perhaps this is what separates Mint from rest of the Linux distros that it is numero uno in Distrowatch ranking for quite sometime!


From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I missed an early review of Linux Mint 15, nicknamed "Olivia", as I was enjoying my vacations. It is a bit late to review Linux Mint 15 but never the less I wanted to review it. As usual, for this test I downloaded the 32-bit ISOs of both Mate and Cinnamon releases.

The release note of Mint Olivia states some significant improvements:
"The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 15 'Olivia'. Linux Mint 15 is the most ambitious release since the start of the project. MATE 1.6 is greatly improved and Cinnamon 1.8 offers a ton of new features, including a screensaver and a unified control center. The login screen can now be themed in HTML 5 and two new tools, 'Software Sources' and 'Driver Manager', make their first appearance in Linux Mint. MDM now features 3 greeters (i.e. login screen applications): a GTK+ greeter, a themeable GDM greeter for which hundreds of themes are available, and a brand-new HTML greeter, also themeable which supports a new generation of animated and interactive themes."
Linux Mint "Olivia" comes with Linux kernel 3.8.0-19 and is supported for 6 months, till Oct'13. Desktop choices are Mate 1.6.0 and Cinnamon 1.8. For installation, I used my Asus K54C laptop with 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor and 2 GB RAM. With Unetbootin, I created live USB's of each, did a live boot to test and finally install. I tried out both the flavors for a week (installed in partitions) and finally decided to write a review. The 32-bit ISOs of both Mate and Cinnamon are around 1 GB and won't fit in a CD. Anyway, who uses CD these days?


Installation
Installation of Linux Mint  is typical Ubuntu and no surprises there. The information required are location, language, keyboard preferences, location to install and finally user ID creation. It takes about 30 minutes to install, including installation of updates, just like Ubuntu. 


From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Aesthetics & Hardware Recognition
Although professionalism and refinement is evident in the distro starting from boot splash to desktop, Linux Mint 15 comes in it's good old bland ash colored wallpaper with white (Mate) or black (Cinnamon) lower panel. The login screen for Cinnamon version looks really cool but Mate release has the same default login. It is a typical Windows XP look and will make new switchers from Windows comfortable. Fortunately quite a few good wallpapers and loads of to-be-installed themes (for Cinnamon) are there as a saving grace. With these and adding a conky, I could transform the desktop to my liking!

From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

This is what I did to the above Mate desktop with simple addition of a cairo dock & a conky
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Cinnamon version comes with quite a few attractive themes and has some subtle but really cool effects like windows disappearing with effect upon minimizing, popping up when maximized, etc. but nothing too gaudy to distract user's attention.  

From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Hardware recognition is the best in Linux Mint among all Linux distros I have used and it could recognise Wifi, screen resolution, sound card and touchpad automatically. 

Applications
Both Mate and Cinnamon versions have more or less similar set of applications with some minor differences, viz.
  • Office: LibreOffice 4.0.2.2 Base, Calc, Draw, Impress, Writer, Dictionary, Document viewer
  • Internet: Firefox 21, Pidgin IM, Thunderbird 17, Transmission bit-torrent client, Desktop sharing, Xchat IRC
  • Graphics: GIMP 2.8.4, gthumb, Imageviewer, Simple scan
  • Multimedia: Brasero CD/DVD writer, Rhythmbox music player, VLC 2 video player, Totem video player
  • Accessories: Archive manager, gedit text editor, Screenshot, Terminal, Firewall, Printer settings, gdebi package installer, Calculator, File search, Tomboy notes, USB Image writer
  • Others: APtoCD (create installation disc), backup tool
Application list is very comprehensive and it has most of daily use apps. Mate has pluma in place of gedit as text editor. Rest of the softwares are the same.

Linux Mint 15 came with all multimedia codecs and Adobe flashplugin pre-installed and it is actually helpful for the new users.


From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

For Cinnamon, Nemo 1.8.2 is the default file manager and Mate has Caja 1.6.1. Both are very efficient and comes with all possible hard drive and networking options on the left hand side, so that users can drag and drop files for copying. Also, disk usage information is flashed in the bottom panel, which I find advantageous. Nemo, of course, looks more attractive than Caja.


From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Cinnamon Integrated Settings
Cinnamon 1.8 has got a new integrated settings. Earlier version had two settings options - one for Cinnamon (with very few entries) and rest of the settings would appear in another settings menu. It was really confusing for starters and I feel, this is a good incremental innovation.


From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Repository
Linux Mint derives it's applications from Ubuntu Raring Ringtail repos but has a different GUI for the same - Mint Installer. Further, Mint provides some applications of it's own to the users, like Image writer (Mint Image writer is different from Ubuntu Image writer). Also, the good old terminal is present to download apps, for experienced users. For update notification, an update manager is also present. 

From Linux Mint 15 Olivia Mate/Cinnamon http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From repos, I installed a host of applications like Chromium browser, docky, cairo dock, conky, etc. All worked as expected.

Given my system didn't have any other graphic card except Intel GPU, I couldn't test the new addition "Driver Manager". 

Performance
For Snowlinux, I noted Mate version to outperform the Cinnamon one. However, Linux Mint Mate and Cinnamon versions actually provide similar performance. At steady state, with task manager running, it consumes about 170-180 MB of RAM and 1-5% CPU. Both ran really smooth on my system.

If I compare Mint 15 to Ubuntu 13.04 & Snowlinux 4 Mate & Cinnamon editions, LM 15 Cinnamon is possibly best among the Cinnamon spins I have used so far. It offers a blend of both aesthetics and performance. However, I can't say the same thing about LM 15 Mate. Snowlinux 4 Mate actually offers better performance. One advantage that Linux Mint distros offer is that they take almost similar space as Ubuntu and are not bloated like Snowlinux. 

OSSize of ISOBaseDesktopLinux kernelCPU UsageRAM usage
Snowlinux 4 Mate919 MBUbuntuMate 1.6.03.8.0-231-5%120 MB
Snowlinux 4 Glacier Mate980 MBDebianMate 1.4'3.5.01-5%147 MB
Mint 201303 Cinnamon1.3 GBDebianCinnamon 1.63.2.01-10%162 MB
Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon973 MBUbuntuCinnamon 1.83.8.0-191-10%173 MB
Sabayon 11 Mate848 MBGentooMate 1.4.13.7.01-5%174 MB
Linux Mint 15 Mate1.1 GBUbuntuMate 1.6.03.8.0-191-5%174 MB
Mint 201303 Mate1.3 GBDebianMate 1.43.2.01-5%175 MB
Mint 13 Cinnamon857 MBUbuntuCinnamon 1.43.2.0-236-10%200 MB
Mint 14 Mate1 GBUbuntuMate 1.43.5.0-171-5%200 MB
Mint 13 Mate942 MBUbuntuMate 1.23.2.0-231-5%207 MB
Mint 14 Cinnamon922 MBUbuntuCinnamon 1.6.73.5.0-1720-35%221 MB
Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS693 MBUbuntuUnity with Gnome 3.43.5.01-10%230 MB
Snowlinux 3 White Mate827 MBUbuntuMate 1.43.5.0-171-5%240 MB
Snowlinux 4 Cinnamon849 MBUbuntuCinnamon 1.83.8.0-231-10%245 MB
Snowlinux 3 White CInnamon760 MBUbuntuCinnamon 1.6.73.5.0-171-5%260 MB
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS730 MBUbuntuUnity with Gnome 3.43.2.0-291-10%280 MB
Ubuntu 13.04 Gnome1 GBUbuntuGnome 3.83.8.01-10%280 MB
Ubuntu 13.04835 MBUbuntuUnity with Gnome 3.63.8.01-10%320 MB
Ubuntu 12.10790 MBUbuntuUnity with Gnome 3.63.5.0-171-10%412 MB

OSInstallation Size
Ubuntu 13.044.98 GB
Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon8.58 GB
Linux Mint 15 Mate4.90 GB
Snowlinux 4 Cinnamon12.00 GB
Snowlinux 4 Mate11.58 GB


Stability of both Mate & Cinnamon (thankfully) are better than Ubuntu Unity. I didn't note any annoying pop-ups of some back-end programs crashing, during my one week usage.

Overall
I would rate Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon among the best Cinnamon spins I have used in the last couple of years. It offers really good performance and consumes resources similar to what you see in any XFCE distro. Additionally, it offers quite a few cool effects, loads of themes to add variety, desk applets, etc. However, the Mate release is more functional and it too works well. But, I have used better Mate release from Snowlinux. Linux Mint 15 is definitely a great release but the most unfortunate part is that Mint is not upgradable. It takes the shine out of it a bit as you can use the fantastic installation till Oct'13. Possibly Mint can start a semi-rolling release distro for Ubuntu as well (like it has for Debian or like Fuduntu had for Fedora).

Otherwise, there is no better distro for beginners than Linux Mint. Even for experienced users it gives a rock solid stable distro which just works on any system you throw at it. The same legacy continues with Mint 15 Olivia as well. 

In overall, I recommend Mint 15 Cinnamon to those who want to try out Linux as well as for those who love GNOME but hate what they have done to it in GNOME3 or what Ubuntu has done to it in Unity.

You can download the 32 and 64 bit versions from here.




Linux Mint 15 Olivia MATE review



Last year, I installed and wrote a review for Linux Mint 13 Maya, the MATE version. It had worked really well on my laptop so even when Linux Mint 14 "Nadia" was released, I still kept using Maya. But after a year, I think its the time for an upgrade, and on the same occasion that Linux Mint 15 Olivia was recently out, I decided to download and install the new Linux Mint 15, MATE version.

Linux Mint 15 MATE overview

At first glance, the new Linux Mint is just like the older ones. Download and installation are simple and easy as usual.

Linux Mint 15 Olivia MATE review
The usual Linux Mint desktop

The default desktop of Linux Mint 15 MATE is still the same. You got the same wallpaper with the only difference is the number "15". The desktop is simple and clean with 2 icons by default. At the bottom is a gnome panel with a button on the left to launch the menu and some notification applets on the right.

The MATE menu still has the same default favorite applications just like in Linux Mint 13.

Linux Mint 15 MATE review


The new things

I didnt try Linux Mint 14 so these things are just new to me comparing to what I know from using Linux Mint 13.

One big change I noticed while trying Linux Mint 15 is the plymouth screen. It only has a big logo of Linux Mint now with some fading effect, the text is already removed.

Another big change is the login screen. The old login screen of Linux Mint was criticized of being ugly and tedious so it's nice to see a new one here. It really looks better now.

Linux Mint 15 login screen
New login screen

Besides these two big changes, one has to be quite meticulous to spot the other differences in this new release of Linux Mint.

The Caja file manager now has shortcuts in the left side bar. In Linux Mint 13, you will have to manually create the shortcuts yourself.

Caja file manager with shortcuts in the sidebar

I also saw some new icons for VLC and the volume control, I dont know whether these icons have been already used in Linux Mint 14.

Several bugs that I saw in Linux Mint 13 have been fixed in Olivia. The gnome dictionary now works right out of the box. The sound also works well and I didnt have to face the any problem at all when installing the proprietary driver for the ATI video  card.

And of course, the other obvious new things you will find in Linux Mint 15 are the new kernel and new versions of the applications.

The default applications

There is not too much to say about the default applications in Linux Mint 15. Its still the same bundle of apps that you find in the older releases. Linux Mint always offers all the basic applications you will need for the common tasks.

For surfing the net, you have the Firefox browser, version 20.0. Firefox in Linux Mint 15 still uses DuckDuckGo and Yahoo as the default search engines. You can change them to Google searcheasily but that will hurt the Linux Mint team a little bit since every time you use these search engines, the Linux Mint team will earn a little money. So you can just use "!g"  or "!i" before the search terms in DuckDuckGo to get the google result websites and images without removing DuckDuckGo.

Firefox 20.0 with DuckDuckGo and Yahoo as default search engines

Media codecs and flash are preinstalled so you can listen to music and watch youtube videos right out of the box here. In the MATE version that Im using, when you open Nautilus and hover the mouse over an audio file, the file will be played in the background, which is very nice to preview music.

The other apps are what we have already know, all are basic, popular apps. Pidgin, Xchat, Transmission and Thunderbird are the other apps for internet. VLC, Banshee, Mplayer are the media apps. GIMP and the LibreOffice bundle are for graphic and office works.

Performance

Nothing to complain about the performance of Linux Mint 15 MATE. At idle, it consumes over 300MB of RAM, a little higher than the minimalist distros but since my laptop has 4GB of RAM, thats not a problem.


Everything else works well right out the box. The propriety driver for my ATI card was installed smoothly without a problem. All the laptop function keys work well. No bugs or problems with the applications have been found so far.

Conclusion

Linux Mint deserves to be one of the most popular Linux distros. I have used Linux Mint 15 Olivia, the MATE version, for 2 days and am very satisfied with it. I havent tried the Cinnamon version but the MATE one is just excellent. I dont even have to tweak or change anything at all, the default settings are already good enough. In short, Linux Mint 15 MATE a great distro for those who want the Gnome2 experience with something that works out of the box with all the basic, necessary applications.

Source: http://www.linuxandlife.com/2013/06/linux-mint-15-olivia-mate-review.html

June 7, 2013

Exploring Ubuntu 13.04 Derrivatives

Ubuntu 13.04 vs Kubuntu 13.04 vs Xubuntu 13.04 vs Lubuntu 13.04 vs Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME: A brief comparison

Every Linux novice goes through this phase - confusion to decide which Ubuntu to install when now you've got so many versions of Ubuntu coming out of the stable. The aim of this article is to facilitate taking decision by briefing about what distro has to offer and a comparison of their performance.

I take up here the latest Ubuntu release 13.04, codenamed "Raring Ringtail". Released in April 2013, it comes in five distinct desktop environments

Unity in Ubuntu 13.04
It started as a net-book OS environment and gradually gained favor from Canonical. The much criticized (and rightly so because of its initial instability) desktop environment is now gradually improving in terms of performance and stability. It is kind of a minimalistic desktop with a left hand side strip, accommodating the user's favorite applications, along with a heavy integration to social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.) through its unique dash. It is still not as stable as I would like it to be but, I feel, Unity has the potential to challenge the operating system biggies like Windows and Mac OS X. It is intuitive and very easy to use but not as customizable as a KDE. Right now, its use is limited only to Ubuntu. Unity leverages the Gnome 3 ecosystem of applications with Files (forked from Nautilus) as the file manager. My review of Ubuntu 13.04.


From Ubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

KDE in Kubuntu 13.04
Possibly the most popular desktop (based on the queries and visits I get everyday), it has gained more prominence in last couple of years with serious deficiencies and instability in  GNOME and Unity. KDE itself had its share of brief instability (in 4.8.* series), but things settled down with the release of 4.9.* series of KDE desktops. With the introduction of KDE 4.10.* series, performance has improved significantly. Looks-wise, it hasn't changed much in last one year and it resembles Windows 7 a lot. Further, KDE has its own ecosystem of applications with Dolphin as the file manager and is self-sufficient in that aspect. With easy usage, increase in stability and efficiency, KDE has found admirers among Linux experts as well. Almost every distro has a KDE version to offer. Ubuntu KDE version is called Kubuntu. Earlier it was owned by Canonical (the corporate funding Ubuntu) and now it is funded by Blue Systems (who funds Linux Mint as well). My review of Kubuntu 13.04.


From Kubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
XFCE in Xubuntu 13.04
My favorite desktop environment! XFCE is lightweight and extremely efficient; further, it offers enough customization options for the users to make it look very exceptional and different. XFCE has gained prominence among Linux old timers who used to prefer Gnome 2. XFCE, too, has some ecosystem of applications and has a power file manager Thunar. Functionality-wise, XFCE is equivalent to KDE and GNOME, intuitive and easy to use. My review of Xubuntu 13.04.


From Xubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
LXDE in Lubuntu 13.04
A bit less popular than GNOME, Unity, KDE and XFCE but is extremely powerful. It offers plenty of flexibility but requires users to have some prior experience in Linux. For a Linux newbie, at times, LXDE can be a bit difficult challenge than an XFCE, for example. LXDE is lighter than XFCE and works really well on ever on systems with limited resources. If you've a low powered / antiquated PC/laptop, Lubuntu with LXDE desktop environment can work better than other desktops mentioned here. Even on high powered systems, if you follow the "Go Green" motto, LXDE can help you to leave less carbon footprints on the planet. My review of Lubuntu 13.04.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

GNOME 3 in Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME
Gnome 2 used to be my favorite desktop couple of years ago. It is still the best desktop environment that I have used till date. But, Gnome developers thought of shaking up the Linux world and made a lot of drastic changes in Gnome 3.* releases. As an user, Gnome 3 became less intuitive, heavy and inefficient for me and I had to give up using Gnome for production purposes. Imagine a desktop without shut down button! But, with GNOME 3.4 onwards, things started looking better. For me, GNOME 3.8 is actually the best release in the GNOME 3 series and it corrects a lot of vices and inefficiencies that existed in their previous releases. Like Unity, GNOME 3.8 too offers very good social network integration and should appeal to today's youth looking for more than an operating system. My review of Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME.

From Ubuntu 13.04 Gnome http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in
Ubuntu vs Kubuntu vs Xubuntu vs Lubuntu
With the brief introductions above, I take you through the actual comparison in a tabular format. All RAM & CPU usage given here are based on the results from the same laptop (Asus K54C) and measured under identical conditions.


Parameters Ubuntu 13.04 Kubuntu 13.04 Xubuntu 13.04 Lubuntu 13.04 Ubuntu 13.04 Gnome
Size of ISO 835 MB 1 GB 827 MB 720 MB 1 GB
Base Ubuntu Ubuntu Ubuntu Ubuntu Ubuntu
Desktop Unity with Gnome 3.6 KDE 4.10.2 XFCE 4.10 LXDE Gnome 3.8
Linux kernel 3.8.0 3.8.0 3.8.0 3.8.0 3.8.0
CPU Usage 1-10% 1-10% 1-5% 1-5% 1-10%
RAM usage 320 MB 276 MB 160 MB 103 MB 280 MB
Installation time 30 min. 30 min. 30 min. 30 min. 30 min.
Wifi detection Immediate Immediate Immediate Immediate Immediate
Touchpad detection Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic Automatic
Office LibreOffice 4.0.2 suite – Calc, Writer, Impress, Draw, Document viewer LibreOffice 4.0.2.2 suite, Okular Document viewer, KAddressbook, Korganizer Abiword, Dictionary, Gnumeric, Orage calendar, Document viewer Abiword, Gnumeric, Document viewer LibreOffice 4.0.2 suite – Base, Calc, Writer, Impress, Draw, Document viewer, Dictionary,, Documents
Internet Firefox 20, Empathy, Transmission, Thunderbird 20, Ubuntu One Ktorrent, Blue Devil, Akregator, KDE IM, KPPP dial up tool, Kmail, Rekonq web browser, Firefox installer, IRC client Firefox 20, Pidgin, Thunderbird, Transmission, XChat IRC Chromium 25, Pidgin, Sylpheed, Transmission Firefox 20, Empathy, Transmission, Evolution, Desktop sharing
Graphics Image viewer, Shotwell, simple scan Krita digital paint, Skanlite image scan, Gwenview image viewer, Kamoso picture retriever, Ksnapshot GIMP 2.8.4, gThumb, Ristretto Image viewer, simple scan Image viewer, mtPaint graphic editor, simple scan Image viewer, Shotwell, simple scan
Sound & Video Rhythmbox music player, Totem movie player 3.6.3, Brasero, music lens, video lens Amarok, Dragon Player, Kmix gmusic browser, parole video player, Xfburn Audacious, Gnome MPlayer, guvcview webcam, Xfburn Rhythmbox music player, Totem movie player 3.6.3, Brasero, Cheese, Sound recorder
Accessories Archive manager, calculator, gedit, terminal, screenshot Kate text editor, Ark archiving tool, Klipper clipboard, Nepomuk backup, Knotes, Kcalc, Kmag screen magnifier Archive manager, Calculator, Leafpad, Notes, Screenshot, Terminal, Catfish file search Archive manager, Calculator, Leafpad, Xpad, LXTerminal Archive manager, calculator, gedit, terminal, screenshot
File Manager Files 3.6.3 Dolphin 2.2 Thunar 1.6.2 PCManFM 1.1.0 Files 3.8.1
Repository Ubuntu Software Center 5.6.0 Moun Package Manager 2.2.0 Ubuntu Software Center 5.6.0 Lubuntu Software Center Ubuntu Software Center 5.6.0

As evident, Lubuntu is the most efficient followed by Xubuntu. Kubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome perform almost equivalent. Though Ubuntu with Unity is less resource efficient but expect all future innovations from Ubuntu stable to first land in Ubuntu with Unity and then gradually roll down (or not at all) to other OSs. For example, photo lens, video lens, etc.

So, if you have a laptop/desktop with at least a dual core processor (AMD or Intel), go for Ubuntu with Unity/Gnome and Kubuntu. If it is first generation dual core or less than dual core, than possibly a Lubuntu or a Xubuntu will give you better results. Also, if you are eco-conscious, then also you may like to use a resource friendly OS like Xubuntu or a Lubuntu. However, if you are heavily into social networking, I would recommend you an Ubuntu with Unity or Ubuntu 13.04 GNOME.

Thus, the inference is that which of these five operating systems are good or bad essentially depends on your requirements and the system you are using. I have used all five of them and they are fantastic in their own rights.

Source: http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.com/2013/05/ubuntu-1304-vs-kubuntu-1304-vs-xubuntu_16.html