Linux Format Archives

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Issue 171 (June 2013) - 50 Distros Tested

Choice is natural. Choice ensures competition. Choice is good. But sometimes there's too much choice, and we need a helping hand through the forest of indecision. Take the act of choosing a Linux distribution, for example: of the hundreds that are out there, all with their slightly different goals and values, how do you know which one is going to be right for you? You could try every single one of the top 50 ranked Linux flavours on Distrowatch, or you could let us do it for you – brilliant!

Also in the mag we've more on the UEFI debacle, a roundup of image editors, an inside look at audio editing with Ardour, Hotpicks and a gaggle/pride/murder of brain-expanding tutorials. Have fun!

On the disc: This month it’s a super-special double disc issue. We’ve built our very own gaming distro that allows you to play some of the best open source games without installing them. On the second disc we’ve got OpenSUSE, Kali and Trisquel. Enjoy!

 Features

50 Distros Tested

How do you pick a distro from the dizzying array on offer? we check out 50 of the best and give you the low down. (Mayank Sharma, Shashank Sharma)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Inside Ardour 3

Discover the best Linux audio application. (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Secure Boot part 2

Find out what Microsoft is doing to PCs (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Interview: Cathy Malmrose

Linux Format caught up with the CEO of ZaReason for a chat. (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Coverdisc

Gaming DVD and more

Check out the exclusive LXF Gaming DVD and more on this month's coverdisc (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

The best open source software from around the web

Tiled, Mosh, Mp3splt, i7z, Terminator, JSesh, The SilveSearcher, Irrlamb, QNetWalk, Halttimer and Torsocks (Mike Saunders)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Tutorials

AWS

Everything you need to know about Amazon's cloud service. (Rob Dobozy)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Raspberry Pi CLI

Learn to use your Pi like a pro with our guide to the command line interface. (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Sleep States

Give your computer a rest! (Neil Bothwick)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Testing

Use automatic testing to make sure your apps work flawlessly. (Jono Bacon)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Coding Academy

Code Concepts: Storage

We go back to basics and show you how to store data using Python. (Jonathan Roberts)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

C++

Join in part one of our new series on C++ (Alec Ross)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Ruby on Rails

Discover the framework that puts happiness first. (Gavin Montague)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Reviews

OpenSuse 12.3

our favourite KDE distro gets an update. (Mayank Sharma)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

PC Specialist

The UK-based PC builder makes us a no-OS machine to play Steam games. (Ben Everard)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Crusader Kings II

A strategy game of European conquest, but is it any good? (Alex Cox)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Team Viewer 8

Remote desktop for the enterprise. (Shashank Sharma)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Image editors

We look at five of the best image editors (Marco Fioretti)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 More

News: A roundup of the Linux latests news

Ubuntu Phones, Raspberry Pi, UEFI, more UEFI, more Ubuntu, Wayland and Patents (Andrew Gregory)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Distrowatch: News from the vaults of distro development

Gnome Ubuntu remix, Kali and ALT. (Susan Linton)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

What on Earth: Ubuntu Acomplishments

We check out this new development from Canonical. (Jono Bacon)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.