2 August 2013

SparkyLinux 3.0 x86_64 LXDE/e17 review : Superb lightweight ,Speedy ,elegant and functional sandwitch lxde/e17 operating system.

 Sparky linux is probably one of the distro I was impressed since looking for an alternative enlightenment distro to bodhi linux something was just really confusing in bodhi was to access file system manager otherwise  overall in sparky  linux it was rather easy as it provides a sandwitch between lxde and e17 .I found the distro to be very good in terms of functionality ,stability and aesthetics. This vanilla remix has become one of my favourite lightweight distro .Sparky linux started it life by providing lxde/e17 vanilla distro . Now they have actually came up with different spins like openbox , mate ,Razor-qt ,Gamover etc.

Sparky linux is probably a new distro just around for one year .Sparky linux is a lightweight, fast and simple Linux distribution designed for both old and new computers featuring customized Enlightenment and LXDE desktops. It has been built on the “testing” branch of Debian GNU/Linux.



 I went to sparky linux website downloaded the sparkylinux 3.0 x86-64 lxde/e17 remix spin which is around (1.5 gb ) in size and created a live usb through imagewriter .
My accessment is based on Dell inspiron laptop 2.2ghz processor and 4gb ram . Here sparky linux 3.0 lxde/e17 comes with linux kernel 3.9.8 and PcManFm 0.9.10 as a default file manager .




The installation is just complex as compared to Debian installer .I wouldn't be explaining installation but u can just look at the respective site just to get more info about installing the distro on your hard drive.

here's the link

http://sparkylinux.org/

http://sparkylinux.org/hard-drive-install/

Actually the installation procedure was just normal but just some stuff was confusing about installation was to choose grub to root/mbr to install , i tested it with root but everything just worked out well for me .surely one thing to say both options just works fines but it will confuse the linux beginners.Also other process of installation just simple where some steps are required actually language,keyboard,geographic location  to install distro alongwith root n user password. It took me around 20 minutes to install it on dell laptop .




sparkylinux background comes with LXPANEL 0.5.10.




 Post installation process is required to keep the distro stuff updated. you can do it through terminal or synaptic package manager is the default as it still lacks behind Rosa and Pclinuxos software centre which are just better in terms of aesthetic and looks. Post installation process is around 10 mbs and works out of box even without  update required .



It comes with installer note



Thank you for choosing SparkyLinux !


"There is absolutely no guarantee that SparkyLinux will be working with no problems.
You are using SparkyLinux on your own risk !
It works as it works."

BEAUTY N AESTHETIC

It comes with default wallpapers to choose .






The desktop of sparky linux is been customized dark coloured with dark sparky wallpaper .It comes with a dock ,slightly top panel mix of e17 and lxde and conky default sparky linux theme enabled . Application launcher is just normal as found in other lxde based distros. Dock and wbar is configurable and icons theme has been improved from previous version but still some work needed .







I didn't had any issue when going through Indian language websites as i could easily read it which i was not able to do it  in Rosa desktop fresh which i had reviewed earlier .

http://gujaratsamachar.com/





 It doesn't have inbuilt cloud application but u can use dropbox ,spideroak ,yandex etc .You will have to download from their sites respectively.


 Hardware integration


wifi , touchpad etc worked well within my use for week and seems it has well configured hardware integration .It offers great performance and stability n smoothness .



Actual performance of cpu while updating distro .




Cpu performance of distro while updating stuff was around 200mb plus.

Just look it detects  cam on my laptop very well . 



When it detects pendrive or external hdd how it looks and recognize it.




 Applications


you can install through terminal or synaptic package manager.





sparky linux 3.0 lxde/e17 comes with a limited set of applications,



  • Office: libreoffice, Document Viewer
  • Internet: Pidgin IM,Iceweasel ,Uget ,liferea,Transmission
  • Graphics: Image viewer, simple scan, camorama webcam viewer, Image magick , gthumb
  • Multimedia: Audacity, Gnome Mplayer ,Recordmydesktop , Exaile ,Vlc ,BRasero
  • Accessories: XArchiver , calculator, terminal, Leafpad, Firewall, Printers ,sparky back up,conky, unetbootin














     Application wise it is having healthy list of course firefox clone iceweasel  browser preinstalled and other browser  it can be found in repos .Multimedia free and non-free codecs are provided and apart from it adobe flash plugin and open jdk 7 is inbuit .Daily needed apps are preinstalled .Actually sparkylinux come with it  vlc media player, Gnome Mplayer pre-installed ,Sm player is available in repos. Just look how media plays in default media player.







    I didn't faced any issues while playing videos on youtube or on default media player.







    The default email client available in sparkylinux is Icedovemail/news 10.0.12.



    It comes with multimedia and restricted codecs preinstalled as it played songs and videos very well in vlc and exaile  is default audio player.



    And now how the default theme for file manager looks like i.e PCManFM







    TIME TO CONCLUSION

     Sparkylinux comes to very good lxde spin in terms of my assesment .Desining is better with black background and performs well than other lxde based distros and has lot of daily needed application preinstalled .Remix of lxde and e17 has not affected the performance at all .Afterall the desktop is purely a remixed one but it enhances user functionability . Performance wise it is light weight blazing speed performance and good on limited resource systems . Even it will work well with modern advanced laptop and computers.Only one thing to note is that if you bear the hiccups while installation u will have a good distro to use .


    U can try it using ,

    1. unetbootin
    2. suse image writer
    3. usb transfer.


    NOTE 

    If  u have any issue just visit their forum you will get answered to all your queries .

    http://sourceforge.net/p/sparkylinux/discussion/

    you can download both 32bit n 64 bit Sparkylinux  from here.

    http://sparkylinux.org/download/








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