Canonical is pushing hard to expand Ubuntu into new consumer markets. In the past year we've seen shiny prototypes of Ubuntu-based mobile phones and tablets, and the company hasn't given up on its 2012 vision of getting Ubuntu onto TVs either. What's more, serious work is underway on converging all of these roles into a single chameleonic OS, something even Microsoft hasn't attempted. Read on for our full Ubuntu 14.04 review.

LXQt is a desktop environment derived from the merger of the LXDE-Qt and Razor-qt projects. It is supposed to tap the best features of LXDE-Qt and Razor-qt and offer a desktop environment that is easy on resources and user-friendly. Because it is built atop Qt technologies, you can call it a resource-friendly version of KDE, though there is really no true basis for comparison, other than the fact that they use the same development toolkit.

• Slackel 4.10.5 KDE Live

• siduction 14.1.0 Dev

• Sabayon 14.05 GNOME

The last time I wrote about PCLinuxOS I was a bit critical about its Linux kernel version being quite a bit behind most of the other mainstream Linux distributions, so I was pleased to see that they have really caught up with this release. It has kernel 3.12.18, KDE 4.12.3, X.org X server 1.12.4, LibreOffice 4.2.4.2 and Firefox 29.0.1. Those are all quite good, and that Firefox release is really "hot off the press".

• GoboLinux 015

• Voyager 14.04.1

Once you've got it going, you'll find that Tails' default desktop is the popular GNOME Linux desktop. If you (or your users) aren't comfortable with GNOME, Tails can masquerade as the more familiar Windows XP.

• Ubuntu Privacy Remix 12.04r1

• Robolinux 7.5.1

Kubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr is an official derivative of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS that uses the popular KDE desktop environment. According to information from the development team, this version offers more stability and also brings the latest apps for KDE.

As Xubuntu 14.04 and Lubuntu 14.04, Kubuntu 14.04 come with long term support. The long term support means it comes with the promise of at least 5 years of support, including patches and bug fixes.

I guess that the main question is: after seeing those problems, do I intend to keep OpenMandriva Lx 2014?

The answer is yes. I find the distro responsive, beautiful, and functional for pretty much all I need (except printing or typing in Japanese so far :-P ).

Those, however, are very specific problems that other users should not expect to find, I suppose, and I can live with them.

It has been a while since I've done a review, and I apologize for that. This week isn't actually getting any less busy for me; last night I finished my undergraduate thesis and submitted it to my thesis advisor, and hopefully there aren't too many major revisions that I would need to make. Beyond that, though, I still have problem sets, a midterm exam, and final projects to finish. I'm just doing this review now because finishing the thesis was exhausting, and I need a short break before I can get back to work. In that time, I'm reviewing OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0.

This is a quick test of the OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0 (Phosphorus), focusing mostly on desktop and (my) hardware support.

• Debian 7.5.0 Xfce

• Zenwalk 7.4 Live

• Tails 1.0

Xubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr is an official derivative of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, released with many improvement and updates. Come with LTS (Long Term Support) version Xubuntu 14.04 will be supported by xubuntu team and developer for 3 years. Without adding tons of new features, Xubuntu focuses on stability, simple, light and fully customizable.

Xubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr uses the Xfce desktop environment instead of Unity 7, so it works very well as a lightweight alternative to regular ubuntu desktop. On this release Xubuntu developers have introduced the new Whiskermenu a more modern menu with the ability to easily launch your favorite applications, as well as have a useful search bar and various customizations. You can also find the new Xfwm4 4.11 which includes support for Sync VBlank, Xfdesktop 4.11 and other updates.

BitTorrent clients feel right at home on Linux, and this means that there are a ton of them, all doing mostly the same thing, with some differences in features and the interface. Interestingly enough, some of the clients on the Linux platform try really hard to copy the way uTorrent looks and works on Windows, which is rather strange for a software.

As a general OS, Musix sounds a few sour notes. It has a meager collection of text editors, word processors and Web tools. You can do some real work with the software that is provided, but you might resort to manually installing some of the programs typically available in distro repositories but missing here. Musix also provides a poor user experience with its menus.

Everyone knows that Ubuntu is not one of the most customizable operating systems, which is one of the problems that often come up in the Linux community. This is where the Ubuntu Tweak software will really help its users make head or tails of the Ubuntu Linux distro in a way that very few applications can.

The Raspberry Pi packs a lot of hardware into a sub-£30, credit-card sized package. From its ability to drive Full HD displays without a sweat to its on-board networking and GPIO capabilities, it’s a miniature marvel – but even its most ardent fans would admit that its audio subsystem leaves a little to be desired.
Although digital audio via the HDMI port is acceptable, the analogue audio provided from the 3.5mm jack is extremely low quality. Even when passed through a good-quality external amplifier, the analogue audio is crackly and unpleasant – and there are no input capabilities whatsoever.

Xubuntu 14.04 LTS has been released in the wake of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS so it’s time for a full review. Xubuntu 14.04 is a long term support release, so the focus is really on stability and finesse, not on adding tons of new features. Xubuntu uses the Xfce desktop environment instead of Unity, so it works very well as a lightweight alternative to regular Ubuntu. Xubuntu can be particularly useful if you have an older or otherwise underpowered computer.

• AnitaOS 20140322

• Albatross-X 20130906

• ExTiX 14.1

For years, proponents proclaimed the Linux operating system would someday be a viable competitor on desktop PCs to its rivals, Windows and Mac OSX.

When someone on an internet message board says they’re having trouble with a Mac or PC, someone will almost inevitably tell them to try Linux.