Thursday, 28 April 2011

NimbleX 2010 - A New Wave of Linux!


NimbleX, based on Slackware Linux, is a project which attempts to provide a small, yet fully functional, desktop operating system for people on the go. Specifically, NimbleX provides a modern KDE desktop on a live CD or Flash drive. The project also provides a tool called Custom NimbleX, which allows the user to customize their ISO image prior to downloading it. Before taking NimbleX for a test drive, I had a chance to talk with Bogdan Radulescu, creator of the distribution.


NimbleX is a small but versatile operating system which is able to boot in various fashion, like from a small 8 cm CD but also from flash memory (USB pens, Mp3 players, ...), from hard drives and even from the network. Because it runs entirely from a CD, USB or network it doesn't require installation or even a hard drive. NimbleX is based on Slackware with the use of linux-live scripts and is has a lot of this distribution advantages. One of them is the availability of thousands of free software that can be found in the form of packages. The beauty of it is that even if is small it has a beautiful graphical interface and also a lot of built in software for browsing the internet, writing documents, listening to music, playing movies and many more. You even have basic server functionality.

KDE is the default desktop environment available in NimbleX. KDE was chosen because users that are new to Linux can get used to it in a matter of minutes. Most of the old Linux users are familiar to KDE or use it everyday. KDE is highly appreciated because it has an incredible amount of features and thus offers a lot of flexibility.


Other desktop environments are also available several reasons. One is that new users can make a first impression regarding the flexibility of Linux and can see that the Linux desktop can be both very different, interesting and customizable. Some users prefer to use an alternative desktops and reasons are as many as the users that use them. The included alternative desktops are: Enlightenment 17, Enlightenment 16, EDE, IceWM, Fluxbox, Openbox and TWM.


On the Internet people can browse the web with Firefox or other software chat with their friends with the Kopete multi-protocol IM application download torrents with Transmission, use DC++, connect remotely to other computers and many more. Accessing network shares on both Windows or Linux machines is as easy as 1 2 3


You can listen to your favorite music with XMMS and Juk, watch movies with xine or mplayer, burn CDs with K3B, edit/encode video with avidemux and a lot more with the other multimedia applications included. You don't need to download codecs. Just double-click and play your favorite media.


The components of KDE Kontact are tailored to work well with each other. KDE Kontact delivers innovations to help you manage your communications more easily, organize your work faster and work together more closely, resulting in more productivity and efficiency in digital collaboration.


In NimbleX you have the most important applications from KOffice like Kword, KSpred and KPresenter. You have a word processor that can work in two modes: page oriented or layout oriented, a powerful spreadsheet application, a full-featured presentation program.


The most important graphic application integrated in NimbleX is GIMP. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, image composition, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.


The KlamAV antivirus was included to allow users with problems on their Windows machines to scan for viruses and perhaps isolate the problem. An easy to use interface is available and if you decide to use KlamAV for that purpose all you have to do is update the virus definitions.


The PDF reader included is targeted to home users it has some very unique features to enhance your reading pleasure in addition of doing everything you can expect from it. A very interesting feature is that you can just skip the encryption in PDFs allowing you to do whatever you want :)


Bluetooth support is integrated in NimbleX out of the box. Transferring files to and from a bluetooth device is very easy and pairing to a bluetooth mouse or keyboard should be a child's play. There is even an application that locks your PC when you walk away from the computer with the phone.


Even thought the focus of this GNU/Linux distribution is usability and security usually stays in the way of usability, NimleX has the intrinsic security of Linux that combined with the idea that if no services listen to the network they can't expose any vulnerability. Since Linux viruses or worms are alien to Linux you'll be pretty damn safe.


Last but not least you have the powerful GNU/Linux command line at your fingertips. Advanced users that know their way around their command line can do just about anything with NimbleX. Even though the focus of the distro is ease of use learning to use the command line is highly encouraged.


Because NimbleX is based on the linux-live scripts and Slackware with some tweaking here and there, it inherits many advantages from these. The most significant are small size, flexibility, a more "pure" GNU/Linux base and speed. I like to believe that NimbleX is faster than what are most people accustomed to.


Homepage
NimbleX Manual
Requirements                                         



By: Ramkrisha Guchhait


Posted by welcome at 08:26

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