Review plans for lightweight distros

April is coming up soon. In the Linux community these days, the end of April in even-numbered years means that Ubuntu Linux will release what is called an “LTS” version of their operating system.  LTS stands for Long Term Support, and unlike the other twice-yearly Ubuntu releases, the latest edition of Ubuntu will be supported for five years, as opposed to nine months for the three editions that are released in between.

I have been looking at various 32-bit distributions of Linux to see how to fit reviews in over the coming months. There are several which are based upon the Ubuntu LTS with some changes. Therefore, I’ve decided to put off reviewing them until after they release a new edition. These include Bodhi Linux, elementary Linux, Linux Lite, Neptune, and possibly one or two others. I think it wouldn’t be fair to look at a release that will be obsolete in 3 or 4 months. I also want to review the new edition of Lubuntu or Xubuntu. I looked at Xubuntu 2 years ago, but have never tried Lubuntu.

This plan still leaves me with at least eight distributions that I can review between now and May. Possible candidates include antiX, SparkyLinux, ROSA, Parsix, Zorin, Makulu, Simplicity, and a few others.

I also will fill in additional posts by covering Linux games on my primary laptop. I intend to start off with a series that looks at the current state of native Linux FPS games. I last discussed them over five years ago, very briefly, and haven’t really looked at them since. I’m talking about games such as Open Arena, Sauerbraten, Red Eclipse, Warsow, Xonotic, and others. They are fast-moving shooters that are multiplayer action-fests.