Similar to other distros in the Crystal stable, E17 Crystal is also based on Debian Wheezy. Beta 2 installer of Wheezy got released this month only and is more or less the freezed version for the stable release to be announced in, I guess, sometime in Oct’12. Linux kernel used is the same as Snowlinux 3 Crystal Gnome, that is, 3.5.
The default desktop has a Mac crossed with KDE feel. However, I could use the settings to change profile to look like Gnome 2 or a typical Snowlinux with only the lower panel. Further, there is a mobile option for touch devices with a touch key pad. I started the mobile option but unfortunately couldn’t find a way to go back to the other profiles. Ultimately, reinstalled the OS again as a solution!
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| From Snowlinux 3 e17 Crystal |
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| From Snowlinux 3 e17 Crystal |
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| From Snowlinux 3 e17 Crystal |
Applications
Just like it’s gnome counterpart, even here, the applications are carefully chosen considering the systems on which E17 is supposed to run. Most of them are lightweight and less taxing on the system, like, Abiword for Office. There is no point of having a relatively heavier LibreOffice suite and hence, the developers’ decision to put Abiword is correct. However, I would have liked to see Gnumeric as well.
Firefox 14 is the primary browser. There is no by default flash support. Lightweight browsers like Dillo or Midori could have been given as an option but anyway, Firefox is miles ahead of all of them. Firefox 15 is already out and users can upgrade to 15. Thunderbird is the default email client with a bit torrent client completing the list. There is a menu entry for a “Web Browser” which I thought would be some lightweight browser provided in addition to Firefox, but it opens Firefox only. Possibly it is a lapse or meant to start the default browser, assuming users will install multiple browsers! Further, for some apps there are no icons! It doesn’t look good and possibly the developers should take care to refine this distro further.
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| From Snowlinux 3 e17 Crystal |
Audacious is the default music player and Gnome Media Player is for media. Multimedia codecs are there by default and hence, users can play movie or songs right after installation is complete. Few other applications are there like Geany for programming, leafpad, etc. Overall, it is not many but some essential softwares provided out-of-the-box. For rest of the apps like VLC, Chrome, Skype, Cheese, etc. and multimedia codecs or Flash plugin, there is Debain repository to download from!
Read Full Review at Source Web Site: mylinuxexplore.blogspot.ca
