Fuduntu 2013.1

I was impressed with the last release of Fuduntu, and continue to be impressed with the latest release. While not generally a fan of rolling release Linux distributions, Fuduntu is the one exception.

I first came across Fuduntu in 2010 and even back then I liked it, but it has come far since then. They have built up the repository for this now Independent distribution. I was pleased to find things like Pithos, Pinta, Unetbootin, and Deluge in the add/remove software center, and it has most of my favorite applications like Dropbox ready to go from the applications menu.

Anyone who thinks Gnome 2 looks outdated should take a good look at Fuduntu. It is a polished distribution using the Cairo Dock, nice default wallpaper and theme. The distribution feels lightweight without being simplistic. It is a smooth and polished,  good looking distribution overall.

Of particular interest is how easy it is to use Netflix with this distribution. I honestly never thought I would ever see Netflix on Linux, but the Netflix button is there under the Sound and Video portion of the applications menu, when you click on it you are asked to install a few things, then you find yourself at the Netflix web page to sign in and watch videos. On my netbook the picture quality was bad, with stuttering video. But my guess is that if you have better hardware than I do this would be a very nice feature.

When I reviewed the last release of Fuduntu the distribution seemed a bit sluggish to me, but not now. There is no lag, this thing is very fast on my netbook and feels made for the little laptop.

I have to look hard to find any downside to this distribution, the only thing I can think of is that the software center is still a bit slow to download apps.

I have used Fuduntu on and off for the past couple of years, but it looks to me like Fuduntu has truly come into its own now, it looks and feels mature, does not have the buggy/unfinished feeling of Fedora. It uses the older, excellent Anaconda installer, one of the best installers to be found in Linux land. The last time I installed Fuduntu it was on a usb stick for review and just to play around with, this time I installed it onto my netbook. I'm hoping Fuduntu will prove me wrong with my concerns of update breakage regarding rolling release distributions, I'm hoping this one will remain solid and reliable across updates and upgrades.

I still believe Fuduntu is one of the best kept secrets among Linux distributions. It is beautiful, functional, comes with just the right applications without the bloat, always has a surprise or two like the Cairo Dock and Netflix. Fuduntu has never looked or felt better on my computer. Many other distributions vary from release to release. You can get a good one, a broke one, a meh release. But with Fuduntu I've seen a good distribution get increasingly better. Kudos to the Fuduntu developers for another, even better, Fuduntu release.