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Ubuntu Linux

ZDNet Calls Rhino Linux 'New Coolest Linux Distro' (zdnet.com) 52

If you're starting the new year with a new Linux distro, ZDNet just ran an enthusiastic profile of Rhino Linux, calling it "beautiful" with "one of the more useful command-line package managers on the market." Rhino uses a modern take on the highly efficient and customizable Xfce desktop (dubbed "Unicorn") to help make the interface immediately familiar to anyone who logs in. You'll find a dock on the left edge of the screen that contains launchers for common applications, access to the Application Grid (where you can find all of your installed software), and a handy Search Bar (Ulauncher) that allows you to quickly search for and launch any installed app (or even the app settings) you need...

Thanks to myriad configuration options, Xfce can be a bit daunting. At the same time, the array of settings makes Xfce highly customizable, which is exactly what the Rhino developers did when they designed this desktop. For those who want a desktop that makes short work of accessing files, the Rhino developers have added a really nifty tool to the top bar. You'll find a listing of some folders you have in your Home directory (Files, Documents, Music, Pictures, Video). If you click on one of those entries, you'll see a list of the most recently accessed files within the directory. Click on the file you want to open with the default, associated application...

Rhino opts for the Pacstall package manager over the traditional apt-get. That's not to say apt-get isn't on the system — it is. But with Rhino Linux, there's a much easier path to getting the software you want installed... [W]hen you first run the installed OS, you are greeted with a window that allows you to select what package managers you want to use. You can select from Snap, Flatpak, and AppImages (or all three). Next, the developers added a handy tool (rhino-pkg) that makes installing from the command line very simple.

When the distro launched in August, 9to5Linux described it as "a unique distribution for Ubuntu fans who wanted a rolling-release system where they install once and receive updates forever." The theming looks gorgeous and it's provided by the Elementary Xfce Darker icon theme, Xubuntu's Greybird GTK theme, and Ubuntu's Yaru Dark WM theme. It also comes with some cool features, such as a dedicated and full-screen desktop switcher provided by Xfdashboard...
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ZDNet Calls Rhino Linux 'New Coolest Linux Distro'

Comments Filter:
  • Inquiring minds want to know.
  • Finally!

    Oh wait, it's got a *command line* package manager. That'll never fly with tech-illiterates.

  • NO (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Plain and simple, NO. This marketing dribble on /. is and always was horrible.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      The word you were looking for is _drivel_, not dribble.

    • Plain and simple, NO. This marketing dribble on /. is and always was horrible.

      I usually don't write "Ya, me too" replies, but in this case, not just no but fuck no.

      Pacstall and Rhino-pkg are both satanic. In the almost literal sense of lulling you with a siren song of half-truths and "just let us do this for you and it will just work". APT is the glittering jewel of all Debian-based systems. It has been a long and fucking painful road to get where Debian's package system is now, and we aren't "there" yet. It is far from perfect, but it's a good system and it encourages packages t

      • Yeah, but those application packaging systems let me take security fixes from my distro while running old vulnerable libraries in my apps!

  • I go there once a year just to make sure my bookmarks are up to date.

    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      I'm not sure I can remember the last time ZDNet was relevant, if they ever really were.

      Also, what the hell happened to the logo? Who thought that was a good idea?

    • by Anonymous Coward

      We need more episodes of The Screen Savers.

    • Yeah ZDNet!
      There was a time, 15-25 years ago, when they were one of the best daily websites for tech news. Back in the long-gone free & open days of the information superhighway.
      Before the Dark Times. Before the Google-Microsoft-Apple-Meta-Amazon-Reddit Empire.

  • A rolling release model offers new and experienced users a new way to utilise their desktop PC, without the hassle of major upgrades.

    I don't think I want this. I'm looking for a new distro that's easy to install (and that I can also give to the uncomputered) without systemd, but with same ease as Mint.

    • by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Sunday January 07, 2024 @04:42PM (#64139163)

      There is a category in Wikipedia "Linux distributions without systemd" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      • Very helpful list. Now if there were only a place where someone might have an opinion on any of those. Or some recent anecdotes on any ole use case. Say, a way to frame what I might call, "Linux on the desktop" in a way that's useful to the hoi polloi, that is non-technical folk who want easy, breezy, not nerd politics.
        See, here is where we can choose for the masses, but instead we choose to say, "read up, I had to." So those who know cede the field to those for-profits that just give out free, configured O
  • if that's the default background, how do you change it? That would drive me insane.

  • Here we go (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RUs1729 ( 10049396 ) on Sunday January 07, 2024 @04:24PM (#64139135)
    The press all the time talking about "cool" or "gorgeous" Linux distributions. When you actually look into them, they are all very similar. And, for the most part, they can all be configured to make them look "cool" or "gorgeous" your own way. This proliferation of silly distributions (which tend to be little more than one of the main ones with some bells and whistles) is ridiculous.
    • by znrt ( 2424692 )

      they can have their use. i used crunchbang for years. it was just an opinionated debian install, it had no more pretension than that, but i did like it better than debian's default and install options for desktop machines, and it saved me some hassle. would totally recommend but it is discontinued, community loved it so much that they "forked" it to crunchbang++ but i have no experience with it.

      this one? nah, doesn't look right. for starters the design choices are a bit extreme plus ... wait ... you just c

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Came to say the same thing. They are just skins, they don't add any useful functionality.

      For example, I bet that app search doesn't support tags. I'm expected to remember that the app I need is called MooningPlumber or AnalProlapse or something, I can't just search for "browser".

      Pretty sure my audio device won't work reliabily either, because it never does on Linux.

  • We are Geeks! We are old school! We want puuurrrrrple!
    THE PURPLE SHALL RETURN! ...
    It's kinda cute the way they went overboard with purple and ditched all subtlety while doing so. The desktop screenshots are an all-out throwback to 1999 and the Enlightenment Desktop. LOL! Very nice. Old school and a bit tacky, but I like it. :-)

  • No. It's ugly as fuck. I mean, it's not the ugliest thing ever, but it's not beautiful by any means.

  • Using Linux-only for 15 years I have no interest in "new pretty".
    The only attribute I require of the Linux interface is ... familiar .
  • by christoban ( 3028573 ) on Sunday January 07, 2024 @06:43PM (#64139387)

    WOW!! Icons on the menu bar for Documents, Pictures, each which allows access to mostly recently accessed files, which, when clicked, opens in the associated default program!!

    Wow, this truly IS the THE distro to truly and finally conquer the desktop!

    Microsoft, SHAKE IN YOUR BOOTS!!

    Seriously, this is their marketing?

  • Jeez, that hurt my eyes. Looks like a 1960's psychedelic dress print.
  • >"When you first run the installed OS, you are greeted with a window that allows you to select what package managers you want to use. You can select from Snap, Flatpak, and AppImages (or all three)."

    Well, that ruins it for me right there. If this is a distro *dependent* on huge/complex sandboxed sub-systems, not interested (and that appears to be the case). It is nice to have the option, and the option of WHICH of the three, but making it mandatory is a non-starter. I will stick with Linux Mint for no

  • > You can select from Snap, Flatpak, and AppImages (or all three). I read that as: "yes we play all 3 kinds of music here: country, western, AND rap". Really?
  • Install Slackware and compile your own packages, you insensitive clods.

  • I fail to understand why and how rhino-pkg would make my life better. If I know exactly what package I want to install, it works the same as apt-get or dnf, if I don't know and want to do searches for names, descriptions, tags, it looks like a GUI would be more useful.

  • if xfce is daunting for having too many choices current kde and gnome must be completely unreachable to the main population. and yet.
  • XFCE just become GNOME Lite?
  • *Yawn* somebody is foisting their configuration of Xfce on Ubuntu as something new or novel. A quick search of Distrowatch shows at least 16 of these where Xfce is the primary WM. Yet another vanity project.
  • So nobody uses it, they just install it to look cool .... that explains a lot

    • Jack Wallen falls in love with a new distro every week. Stay tuned, he's due to try Hanna Montana again ....

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