Netrunner is produced by Blue Systems, a company which sponsors the Mint KDE version, and has taken over maintenance of Kubuntu (the Ubuntu KDE spin) from Canonical. Blue Systems definitely favors KDE, and Netrunner reflects this. It’s based on Kubuntu, and doesn’t offer any other official desktops for download (although like any Linux distro, you can add additional ones easily using the repositories). Netrunner isn’t a “pure KDE” distribution – like most other distributions that feature the KDE desktop, Netrunner 12.12 contains other software in addition to  the KDE Software Collection.

The version I used for this review is the 64-bit version of the 3rd edition (Dryland). I’m using my 2009 HP Pavillion laptop that has 4 GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon 3200 graphics card (and a nonworking optical drive).

Installation was simple – as it usually is these days – and Netrunner uses the same Ubiquity installer that other Ubuntu-based distributions also use. This means that like other Ubuntu forks, the wireless security password is not carried over after installation.

Desktop right after installation

Features:

Like Mint, Netrunner installs all the codecs that you need to watch and listen to most media files out of the box.

There are several themes in “Window Decorations” that seem unique to Netrunner…”seven”, Smaragd, MetroDark, FormaN.

Netrunner has several additional features that distinguish it from other Ubuntu derived Linux distributions. For one, it includes a few addons in Firefox installed out of the box, such as Adblock Plus and Download helper. For another, the default installation gives you Oracle’s Virtualbox and the Wine application, as well as such useful programs as Inkscape, Krita, Skype, the Telepathy IM client, and quite a few games.

Also installed are 14 Web-Apps, ranging from Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Dropbox stand alone windows to 5 of the Google applications. This at first seemed very cool, similar to Peppermint’s Ice single site browser windows, however they all use Firefox and you can’t have more than one open at the same time – which takes away some of the usefulness of the feature.

As you notice in the screenshot above, the desktop is pre-populated with 5 icons: My Computer, Runners-ID, Add Web Accounts, Add Network Drive, and Welcome Introduction. My Computer actually gives the details of your hardware, Runners-ID is a cloud storage solution provided for Netrunner, Add Web Accounts and Add Network Drives are links to the appropriate sections in System Settings, while Welcome Introduction brings up a “Read Me” file to help get you started.

Software:

The version of KDE installed is 4.9.3.

In addition to Synaptic, you can use Muon Discover to add software, which is brought over from Kubuntu for Netrunner.

Netrunner’s “Software Center”

The Oracle Virtualbox program is ready to go out of the box, as are Skype and Dropbox.

My HP wireless printer was identified promptly, but you still need to select the correct one from a long list before you can add it. So in terms of ease of use, very good but not the best I have seen.

Adding my printer

You update your system using the Muon update manager:

easy updating

Games:

Since it uses Ubuntu’s repositories, Netrunner has the usual long list of games in all categories. You don’t need to use Synaptic, Muon lets you easily look for well reviewed games.

Netrunner installs 14 casual games including Frozen Bubble, Mahjongg Solitaire (tile matching), the AisleRiot card solitaire collection, KDiamon, KSudoku, and KMines. The Wine software is also installed (along with Winetricks). At this time, Wine 1.5.20 was the version installed.

Unlike Linux Mint, the GetDeb and PlayDeb extra repositories aren’t included in the sources by default. So there are some games that you won’t be able to install.

Help and Support

The installed default browser (Firefox) includes 4 bookmarks: Netrunner’s home page, the Netrunner MAG, Runner-ID (a cloud storage solution), and Jack’n'Joe (a online software store). Netrunner has a forum page, that is very new and looks bare, but only because the old page is no longer active. The dev-news page has a link to the old forums, which do seem to have had decent posting activity. There are video tutorials for the desktop icon applications.

Likes

I definitely like the extra applications included (in only 2 gigabytes!).

I like that it’s a mostly KDE focused distribution.

A “Guest” user account is set up automatically, and does not get wireless connection unless you configure it to do so. Files created in it are stored in a special /tmp folder, which gets deleted when you log out of the guest account.

Dislikes:

The “web apps” don’t seem as useful as they really should be, since you can only have 1 open at a time (a limitation of Firefox I think). They do remember your sign-ins, though.

Final Thoughts:

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Netrunner. Although it seems like “Yet Another Ubuntu Fork”, it does add a lot of software by default that even Mint does not, while staying reasonably small in size (around 2 GB). Netrunner manages to strike the balance between having the best KDE software and including the other programs (e.g. GIMP, Firefox, LibreOffice) that people are used to. The added Guest account can definitely come in handy for friends who visit.

Netrunner is not going to replace Linux Mint as my favorite version of Linux, but it isn’t for lack of trying. I guess it’s because there’s nothing compelling in Netrunner that I can’t get from Linux Mint by installing extra software. It does look really good, though, and has plenty of customization options because of its KDE base. I didn’t have any issues during the week and a half I used it.

It is now 2013. My main laptop, now over 3 years old, has 7 keys that I cannot enter using the keyboard, but must use an on-screen one instead. Along with the heat problem I have during the summer and the lack of a working CD drive, I’m hoping to get a new laptop this year. I looked at Newegg.com and there are some really good choices in the $650 to $800 range.

Near the end of the year, the Linux community received great news – a way has been found to run Netflix streaming without using a virtual machine that contains a Windows operating system. I tried it myself and it definitely works quite well, and is fairly simple to install. The one drawback is that the current solution is only for Ubuntu Linux or distributions such as Zorin and Linux Mint which are based on Ubuntu.

Together with the new Steam for Linux beta that has gotten started, I actually think that my next computer will not need to dual-boot Windows 8 at all, but run Linux full time. (Unfortunately, my budget makes it impossible to purchase from ZaReason or System76, who sell pre-installed Linux computers. Getting a computer with the graphics card and specs that I prefer at a cost under $1,000 still means buying a laptop pre-installed with Windows).

Last year I reviewed ten Linux distributions (the same as in 2011), and took a look at several popular games (Frogatto, Super Mario Kart, Super Maryo Chronicles), along with a few RPGs. I stopped blogging for a few months at the end of the year, which unfortunately meant that I never finished the Dink Smallwood RPG. I also never continued a series on learning Linux From Scratch, but hopefully I will resume that this year.

I also had written articles discussing the best casual games available for the KDE and GNOME desktops, with the idea that when your friends visit, they might enjoy some well known favorites if they ask you what there is to play on your computer.

I did try Ubuntu’s distribution in the spring finally, and mostly liked it. Their Unity desktop isn’t really my cup of tea, but there are many who do seem to like using it. But in the fall, Canonical managed to generate new controversy over a decision to partner with Amazon and offer users the ability to search and shop directly from the desktop without opening a browser. The implementation of this was widely criticized, and it remains to be seen whether Ubuntu will make substantial changes in this application before they lose more goodwill. If you are using Ubuntu, it’s quite easy to remove the Amazon shopping “lens” feature, and it really only affects people who use the default Unity desktop.

Fedora’s 18th edition was not released last year, and is scheduled for later this month. I plan to review it, but I have not really been happy with the way GNOME 3 has progressed lately. I guess it’s losing its charm for me.

Along with the major distributions that I reviewed, I discovered some little known ones (such as Peppermint OS) that proved to be quite useful.

At the moment, I’m planning to continue mixing reviews of well known distributions with others. On the list at the moment are Mageia 3, Linux Mint 15, Fedora 18, Slackware 14, possibly Ubuntu 13.04, Sabayon, openSUSE (KDE), and a few others like Chakra and Arch.

Yes indeed. On November 18, news broke on I Heart Ubuntu that a small group of programmers had succeeded in accomplishing the near impossible: creating a customized wine build which in combination with the Firefox browser and Microsoft’s Silverlight, allows you to watch Netflix using a browser directly on Linux with no need for a virtual machine Windows installation. I tested it myself last night (using Mint 13) and it does seems to work smoothly. A definite improvement. At the moment, the PPA is only for debian based systems…Ubuntu and Mint, and I assume closely related distributions.

There is no news yet about whether an rpm-based version will become available.

watching the first episode of Breaking Bad

It’s been awhile since my last update.  This game is one where you are blocked from new areas until you complete the current quest, meaning that you have to grind away trying to gain a couple of levels. That gets tedious after awhile, since the enemies must respawn. I have been focusing on magic when I get a point upon leveling, and I hope it hasn’t been a mistake.

In Kernsin, you’ll need to talk to the girl near the fountain, then the Mayor, before being able to enter the Goblin Sanctuary. I found that the first 4 guards can be dealt with one or two at a time, returning to town to heal (don’t use elixirs at this point, save them for fighting Chief Mog). Tip: BEFORE you kill the last guard, go to the right, to the next screen, and grab the 4 bouncing strength boosts. They will come in handy before you get to return here.

When Mog comes out, like all boss fights, you cannot leave the screen, so be ready. The 2 walkthroughs I found mention the need for a bow, but neglect to mention he will fall to enough fireballs. I ended up keeping my sword equipped, dodging him, and throwing fireballs till he died. This was because of what happened next… (hint: you don’t get to heal up before the next fight!)

That wasn’t so bad. Once again, the main reward you actually get is…

another new area!

The next town is Windemere. This is actually south of your original tiny village and to the east of Terris, the town with the Castle in it. They have an….interesting problem for you to solve. Aside from their quest,  you’ll need 1,800 gold to upgrade your sword (assuming you sell the Longsword you are using now), and I recommend you also kill monsters until you have an additional 3,000 gold. That will get you another useful weapon, but in order to reach the seller you need to go to the Mayor’s house after the quest is finished, and follow the tunnel from his basement.

Do NOT buy elixirs in Windemere. They are four times more expensive than they are in Terris, and unless you like grinding, money is scarce in this game. There are a few secrets to find, and plenty of monsters for you to kill in the area. Just keep slogging away. When you think you’re ready (level 9 or 10), go see the king in the Castle in Terris:

He doesn’t seem fazed that I am swinging a sword close by…

I did try to reach the blue potion bouncing on the left table there, but invisible barriers prevented me from getting to it. I’m guessing that will change once I help the King out. But in the meantime, he sent 2 knights to make sure I can reach the Darklands and discover whether Milder is still alive. (Remember him? From your home village?)

The first new enemy in Darklands are strong giants that resemble golems to me. They hit hard. Does Dink survive? With difficulty and another level or two, most likely.

Well, I successfully returned Nadine’s daughter Mary from the clutches of some cult.

In addition to the gold and experience, the main reward is that the grateful town removes the large rocks blocking your way west. After saving at the convenient machine that’s right in the middle of the road, spend a fair amount of time exploring, and leveling up. This is definitely one of those RPGs with hidden or partly hidden bonus items – life hearts (increase your maximum life bar), gold, or “megapotions” that increase all stats by one. It seems that every level takes roughly twice as much esperience as the previous one.

One thing has become clear – “boss” monsters get added to the mix later on in the game. I’ve encountered 2 examples so far.

Speaking of monsters, I totally forget to mention in my first post that all combat is in real time, and you will see all enemies on the map. However, if you kill enemies and then leave that screen for any reason, the enemy corpse and any gold it dropped will disappear. All you will gain in such cases is experience points. So be careful when you are near the screen edge and have killed monsters.

You’re going to need to learn “Bow Lore” before you can use the bow that one of the shopkeepers will sell you. Save up $1500 and go looking for a teacher. He isn’t in an obvious place.