Kali and Quirky Reviews, Steam for Debs, and a Mageia Look
Today's stroll around the Linuxhood proved quite interesting as usual. First up are reviews of two distributions that get few reviews, so those are quite welcome. Debian developers get a free subscription to Steam if they want. And someone nicked Zoltan gives a nice overview of Mageia and its place in the Linux distro landscape. Today's bonus is Matt Asay's assertion that the Linux desktop doesn't matter anymore.
Our old friend Jamie Watson is back at it again and this time he's given Kali Linux 1.0.6the once-over. Watson said Kali didn't appear to support UEFI yet, but since it includes Debian's installer, he went ahead and installed it. He was amazed at the number of security tools it actually included and liked the way the menu was arranged to present them. He actually said, "Kali is created, distributed and maintained by people who actually use it, so the default layout and organization are very well thought out and very convenient to use." Of this latest release Watson concludes, "The changes in installation, organization and packaging in this release are very significant, and they make using, configuring, maintaining and updating both the Linux operating system itself and the utilities included with it a lot easier."
Jack Germain at LinuxInsider.com took the Puppy Linux variety Quirky Linux for a test-drive yesterday. He had lots of nice things to say about Quirky but as a bottom line he said:
The Quirky Linux distro has a lightweight design with a powerful delivery system. That, plus a leading-edge test bed of new ideas, makes Quirky Linux an ideal OS for netbooks and older computers with limited storage and memory. Run Quirky on a hardware-enhanced modern machine and experience a new definition of fast and dependable.
Debian developer Neil McGovern posted to the developer announce list the other day that any DD (short for Debian developer) interested could get "a free subscription to all past and future Valve produced games." SteamOS is based on Debian and Valve may hope DDs jump in and help fix stuff here and there. McGovern said it was because Valve wants to give back to the community. Either way, it's a nice perk.
Zoltan, the magnificent, blogged earlier today about Mageia giving readers an overview as well as his thoughts. On the look and feel of Mageia, he said:
The French Mageia also has some of the flair that makes Southern-European aesthetics so loved all around the world. It's simple, but beautiful, not cluttered, not loud, but with just the right amount of good taste and panache to make it look noble and exclusive, and that certainly also helps with the quality of the distro. The fact that Mageia implements bleeding edge technology, makes it a lot more appealing. This is definitely added to my list of sensible full-featured distros that I would recommend everyone to give a try.
Finally, Matt Asay says the Linux desktop doesn't matter anymore and, in fact, never did. He says it never met the needs of the average user.