Sunday, August 5, 2012

Review of Calculate Linux 12: KDE with a twist!

I wanted to try out some Linux distros which are not Fedora or Ubuntu based. So, in came Calculate Linux 12 Desktop version and I liked what they have done with KDE here. The KDE ISO is big (2.3 GB) and I downloaded it from the calculate linux site. Just a day before Calculate Linux, I tried out Scientific Linux - given similarity in names and a large ISO size, my expectations were really high!

The boot up was quick and unlike Scientific, Calculate didn't require installation. The KDE interface is pleasant and I really liked the Gnome flavor the developers have rendered here.

From Calculate Linux 12

From Calculate Linux 12
From Calculate Linux 12
Applications
Very rich indeed! Except VLC, I could locate all the applications I need. Even Flash support is out-of-the-box! Amarok (did I tell it is my favorite music player!) & Gnome Media player in Multimedia section, LibreOffice suite & Okular in Office, GIMP 2.8 in Graphics and Chromium & Skype in Internet! I don't know of many Linux distros who provide pre-configured Skype! This is as complete as it gets. In addition, I really liked the Virtual Globe - my 1 year old daughter enjoyed it a lot!


From Calculate Linux 12

From Calculate Linux 12
From Calculate Linux 12
I really like GIMP 2.8 and it is definitely an improvement (at least in the interface to GIMP 2.6. Calculate is definitely cutting edge!
From Calculate Linux 12

Calculate console is quite simple and easy to operate even for the newbies. 
From Calculate Linux 12

From Calculate Linux 12
CPU & RAM Usage
RAM usage was on the higher side 440 MB, with only System monitor running. CPU usage is around 5-10%. Pretty decent for a KDE desktop.

From Calculate Linux 12
Overall
I definitely recommend Calculate for those who neither like Ubuntu, nor Fedora. It is a pretty stable distro rich in applications and you can download more via the software manager.

A host of screenshots are in my Picasa album. Please visit.

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