With all the talk and change of Gnome 3 and Unity leaves me looking elsewhere. For my possibly next Linux Distribution. It was a year ago I reviewed Beta Gnome 3, I liked the Idea. It seem best suited for my laptop. Once I started to find my way around it seem different but possible. With the latest release of Gnome 3 seems its changed but too new without a distribution to call home. I did test it with Fedora and OpenSuse but that’s another topic. When I first heard about Unity with Ubuntu I felt disappointed. It’s not for me to know whats best for Ubuntu. I have come to rely on this distribution and was pretty confident to tell others to try Linux with Ubuntu. Maybe their changes are for the best for the majority of people. Maybe this will open the doors for other distribution to rise. To me Gnome has been very flexible and easy to modify. It’s my personality always looking to change something. I have tried many desktop environments like KDE, Xfce, Openbox, Enlightenment, and Lxde. Yes there are a lot of choices. But I would always return back to Ubuntu for its reliability and support.
I will try Ubuntu 11.04 when it comes out and give it a fair try. When I used the beta 3 Ubuntu with Unity it seems similar to Gnome Shell. What I noticed right off it wasn’t as easy to modify. Actually the option on some items are just not there. Sure this might be asking a lot similar to KDE it has its main look and feel. Making computing easy is great, I love that Ubuntu was friendly and got me started. I believe a majority of people want a computer to look good and just work. As I’m writing this post It hits me maybe I want to learn more and don’t care for a simple desktop environment. I guess Ubuntu is not the only one making changes. Suddenly I feel like someone embarking on an adventure. I don’t mind learning something new. I don’t remember how long ago it was. I first bought a computer at a local computer store. It was a Emachine with a 17” monitor one of those monster old school remember? I hooked up the computer you know the usual keyboard and mouse and I think speakers. I turned the computer on then just stared at it what next! I grabbed the manual and went to the living room and started to read it. People make fun of me for reading manuals but they are amazed when I can do things that are over their head to say the least.
Testing Pardus 2011 I’m running a Live DVD. I like this method oppose to running a virtual machine. Mainly because it feels like its installed on my computer. I’m not crazy about KDE 4 but time changes us all. Pardus has a startup wizard called Kaptan that helps customise you desktop from the beginning. I like Lancelot menu rather than the usual Kickoff. I’ve noticed a similar concept with other distro’s like Linux Mint and soon to come out Ubuntu with Unity. The way it’s organised per section like Internet gives you related Icons to choose. Using KDE I like using alt + F2 it brings up run command. But it has many functions like searching a file. To me similar as Gnome-Do which I love using in the Gnome desktop. Pardus was ready to go from bootup. Using a home network no problem. It detected a USB memory stick which I transferred this document for later post. As a Live DVD Pardus comes with many programs. I like trying different distro’s because I get to discover new programs. I found Marble Desktop Globe. A simple but effective program Atlas of the world. Pardus came with the new Office suite LibreOffice. And all the usual KDE programs.
I had trouble with setting Date & Time. My guess it needs administration rights but I never got any notice to the problem. Had trouble with Clementine music player. At first it just wouldn’t run. Got it going on a second run of the Live DVD. Basic and similar to Amarok I think. I ran the Internet radio with SomaFM, It played well. My biggest concern is the documentation. Running FireFox a Pardus home page starts with a second tab with page ozgurlukicin.com its not in English and I didn’t see a way to change the language. There is an Installation guide in English but I wonder if this would be a problem. Further browsing I did find a WorldForum which would be the place to go. One thing about Ubuntu that makes it strong is it’s documentation and community support. Looks and feel of Pardus is very good distribution with KDE. I’m not ready to jump just yet but this might be the best KDE distribution. I use to think it was OpenSuse and its close except OpenSuse doesn’t seem to be consistent from one release to the next. I used a Live CD OpenSuse 11.3 it was very polished great setup from bootup. I don’t like its installer I had trouble with it. I could not get a dual boot with OpenSuse and Ubuntu. Another strong feature with Ubuntu I think is it’s installer it’s the best I’ve used. Overall Pardus 2011 gives me a good option. It feels very well planned out. Very complete distribution with lots of features. I must add installing can be a totally separate experience one I can’t comment on today. But it’s not over soon Fedora 15 will come out with a complete version using Gnome 3 sometime in May. Oh! I guess it never ends something in the bones wanting to travel in unfamiliar roads.
If it matters my computer experience is intermediate, somewhere in the middle. What is your favourite Linux distro?
BoogieStu 
Setting Time and Date does require admin rights. A window should pop up to ask for it. A problem I’ve seen with KDE is that that window is often hidden behind the main app window. Alt + Tab will bring it forward.
A fix is to set System Settings – Window Behaviour – Focus – Focus Stealing to none.
That works on my Kororaa / Fedora system.
Thanks for the review. After starting using Linux with Ubuntu in 2009 and now being deeply disappointed by both GNOME 3 and Unity I’m also on the lookout for other options, something with KDE in the first place. So far I’ve tested Kubuntu, openSUSE and Mandriva and I like Mandriva the most so far, in fact I like it even more than current stable Ubuntu. I haven’t heard about Pardus before, so I will have to take a look at it too since it seems to be a very good option. Heh, it looks like at least something good did come out of the whole Ubuntu desktop situation: I started looking at other alternatives and am starting to discover that there may actually be something better out there.
AnTs, thanks for your comment. A friend suggested PinguyOS. I have played with it. It’s a resource hog but an interesting option. I read somewhere described as between Ubuntu & Ultimate. I have tried Mandriva and I liked it as well. Except only on 32-bit. On my laptop with 64-bit I had alot of trouble. It seems Madriva wants to charge for 64-bit support. Hey I get it but when you have options to me thats off the table. I wonder have you switched to Mandriva completely?
Well I’m using 64-bit version of Mandriva and it works fine so far. And no I haven’t switched completely yet. Still getting used to the new KDE universe and I will for sure try some more KDE distros before making the final decision.