DistroWatch reviews Mageia 5
Mageia is a community distro based on the now defunct Mandriva distribution. The latest release is Mageia 5, which offers UEFI support as well as various software updates. DistroWatch did a full review of Mageia 5 and found it to be a worthwhile distribution.
Jesse Smith reports for DistroWatch:
Mageia 5 has a lot to recommend it. The distribution has plenty of installation and live disc options, including all-in-one DVDs and small net-install discs. The graphical system installer is easy to use and gets the job done. I found Mageia handled my hardware well, the system was responsive and I like the way the KDE edition was set up. I also like the project's welcome screen which not only provides links to documentation, but makes it easy to install popular open source programs.
Mageia's primary selling point is probably the flexible and newcomer friendly Control Centre. The modules in the Control Centre allow the administrator to adjust almost any aspect of the operating system without requiring any interaction with the command line. I found Mageia ships with a good default selection of applications and there are plenty of additional programs in the distribution's repositories.
One of my few complaints when it came to running Mageia was that my videos did not have sound and some media players crashed. The multimedia experience aside, the distribution was stable, functional and nice to look at. Mageia tends not to get as much attention as a newcomer friendly distribution as it (and its parent Mandriva) used to. Mageia tends not to receive as much attention as Ubuntu or Linux Mint these days. I think that might be about to change, and perhaps it should change, based on my experiences this past week. Mageia is a solid distribution, easy to install and pleasant to use. I definitely think it should be recommended for novice Linux users more than it is.
Linux Mint 17.3 to be named "Rosa"
The Linux Mint developers have been busy working on the next release of the popular distribution. The next version of Linux Mint will be 17.3, and it will be named "Rosa."
Silviu Stahie reports for Softpedia:
The Linux Mint project doesn't seem to take a break, and it's now getting closer to the final iteration of the 17.x branch. In fact, the new development cycle was adopted starting with Linux Mint 17.x. The project is now using only the Ubuntu LTS versions, and all the other releases in between for Mint are using the same base.
"The third and last 17.x point release will be Linux Mint 17.3 codename ‘Rosa’. Rosa is a classic vintage Italian, Spanish and Portuguese name. The meaning of the name Rosa is: Rose. Used as a sign of love and compassion, the rose is also the symbol of England. In 1545, Ronsard writes one of the most famous poems in France. In 'Mignonne, allons voir si la rose', youth is ephemeral, beautiful but short-lived, just like a rose. Linux Mint 17, 17.1 and 17.2 users will have the choice to upgrade, and that upgrade will be both easy and safe," writes Clement in the official blog.
Chromebooks comprise nearly half of US K-12 education device sales
Chromebooks have been hugely popular on Amazon for quite a long time now, but they are also burning up the education sales charts. Chromebooks now comprise nearly half of all devices sold in the US K-12 education market.
Tony Wan reports for edSurge:
Chromebooks, which began as cheap netbooks that required Internet and raised eyebrows, have now become a bargain for many schools, especially as educational tools increasingly move to the cloud. They made up almost half of the 3.9 million devices shipped to the US K-12 market from April through June 2015.
According to market research firm Futuresource Consulting, 1.9 million Chromebooks were sold to the US K-12 schools during this period, with Dell replacing Acer as the leading supplier. Tablets, still dominated by Apple iPads, accounted for 1.1 million units. And notebooks—which include Apple Macbooks and Windows laptops—made up 880,000 device shipments.
A key advantage for Google’s Chromebooks has been its low price point. “With Chrome, you’ve seen this massive surge in the $300 and below category, and it comes at a time when schools are moving towards online assessments,” says Mike Fisher, Associate Director of the Education Division at Futuresource. And Chromebooks continue to get cheaper; new models recently announced by Haier and HiSense start at $149.
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