Having played today with LXDE, I really like it.  I think when it comes to a simple, easy to understand interface, LXDE beats XFCE hands down.  We’ve been playing with it via LXPup.  Now, as I said, I love Carolina Linux, and I think it’s a great base for developing a Puppy based OS.  But it has limitations.  If you want to run Chrome, it’s not going to happen.  And I’ve tried regular Slacko, and it didn’t run some other things I wanted it to.  But LXPup does.  Plus LXPup is tiny, and that is with a lot of stuff we will end up removing.

I’ve been following and trying LXDE for a long time, and it’s never felt complete.  Until I tried it today, and for the first time I was happy to use it as a desktop environment.

Let us know what you think in the comments section.

From now on, if you want access to our alphas and betas, you can have them, free as always, it’s just that there will be an advert before the download.  Full releases will always be available advert free.  It’s just a way of us making a little bit of money to support Simplicity Linux without you, our wonderful users having to do anything or spend anything.

The first bunch of ad supported Alpha images are here:

Simplicity Linux 13.7 Desktop Alpha
Simplicity Linux 13.7 Media Alpha
Simplicity Linux 13.7 Netbook Alpha
Simplicity Linux 13.7 Obsidian Alpha

So, here is the review, enjoy, because, well, Sneeky is an awesome reviewer!  What more do you need?

Actually, from 13.7 onwards, we’re going to include a firewall, to protect you further.  Of course, if you don’t want it, just delete /etc/rc.d/firewall.rc, reboot and it will be gone.  It’s that simple.

But back to software companies spying on users; we are 100% against it, we are 100% against the Communication Data Bill and we are full for an open and free Internet.  And if you’re worried about companies spying on you, you could always try Simplicity Linux.  We’re not saying it will stop it completely, but you could always install Tor Browser (just open the start file and delete the if to fi sections relating to root to get it to work) which would make snoopers work harder…

This is just our 2 cents, and we thought you might like to know that we’re not interested in what you do online.  That’s your business.  Our business is to make you a decent OS that you can use with confidence.  We’re planning on keeping it that way.

Obsidian 13.7 Alpha

Netbook 13.7 Alpha

Media 13.7 Alpha

Desktop 13.7 Alpha

These are very rough versions.  Some stuff might not work, other stuff might work unexpectedly, and you may need an upgrade for Firefox.  We’re planning a lot of very cool stuff for 13.7, so there may be new features added between now and the release.

But anyway, enjoy the new images, and have fun with them!  And remember, if you do enjoy them, consider donating.  Even $1 helps!

For those new to Simplicity Linux, here is a handy introduction -

Obsidian
Obsidian is our heavily cut down edition.  If you want networking and a browser only, Obsidian is a great choice.  If you want more software, you can add it using the package manager, but from the start, you just get a browser and a way to connect to the Internet.

Netbook
If you want something light, but with a few bells and whistles, Netbook is the place to be.  You get web apps preloaded on the dock.  There isn’t much in the way of local apps, but this is designed for use if you’re online most of the time.

Desktop
If you need a fast yet full featured Linux, this is where Simplicity Desktop fits in.  You get a whole load of great, locally installed applications.  This is what we use on our desktops personally from a USB key.  We have LibreOffice, Skype, Clementine, VLC, and a whole bunch of other apps.

Media
Planning on using Simplicity to power a lounge or bedroom computer?  Media can help you do that.  It comes with XBMC as an interface, so there is no playing around with tiny pointers and huge icons.  This was designed to be used from a distance.  We’ve also played with XBMC a little and given you a whole load of pre-installed software to find media if you don’t have any on your machine just yet.  Plus, you can get back to XFCE and switch back to XBMC whenever you want very easily.

So, after four years, we have finally made the Distrowatch listings!  We knew it was going to take a while, we just didn’t think it was going to take this long.  Actually, we had pretty much given up on ever getting on the listings.  But now we’ve made it.  And we want to thank everyone who has helped us in the last four years.  There are plenty of them, but especially SneekyLinux for getting our name out there on YouTube and other places and all the people who have downloaded and tried Simplicity.

We’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again – you guys make this happen.  There have been a ton of times we’ve thought about quitting, but it’s things like this, and comments from people saying they’ve tried it that makes us want to keep going.

And Alphas should be out tomorrow!

So, as we get ready to unleash our new alpha releases upon an unsuspecting world, we read today that Windows 8.1 will have new features.  These new features include a start button, wallpaper, and you can boot to desktop.

We have all three of those features.  We’ve always had all three of those features.  Well, okay, Media Edition no longer boots to desktop, but that is something we’re waiting to unveil to you all in a few days (maybe tomorrow?)

Watch this space.  13.7 is probably going to be the best Simplicity Linux we’ve released, and 13.7 Media Edition has blown away our non computer using member of the team.  It’s quite special

We use Simplicity Linux on all our production machines.  We run it from a USB key and it’s very fast.  But we don’t run it because we make it.  We used to run Ubuntu, until the wifi stopped working.  Then we switched to Linux Mint.  Until the wifi stopped working.  But because we need the wifi to work to install packages, find art, and generally do stuff on Simplicity Linux, the wifi works on our machines.  And why would I use a fix or a patch or a hack to get Ubuntu running, when Simplicity is faster and works right out the box?

And if I want to test out the latest version of Simplicity on my machine, I use Unetbootin to install it to a USB key, boot it up, and we’re off.  It’s that simple.  And if I want to do that to a bunch of machines with 1 USB key, I can.

So we might not have the latest and greatest things like Ubuntu does.  But I can’t run Ubuntu quickly on a 5 year old netbook that I carry around with me everywhere.  I know this, because the latest Ubuntu is on it, and it runs really slowly.  Simplicity 13.4 Netbook is on a tiny USB key, and runs quickly.  Guess which one I use?

We have users from Honduras (it’s in Central America, between Guatemala and Nicaragua) to Germany who use Simplicity Linux.  We get e-mails from people telling us that old machines they thought couldn’t work again, do, because of Simplicity Linux.  And we love hearing that.

That is why you should use Simplicity Linux.  Because it just works.

The cool thing for us is that, although probably no-one will give a damn what OS we’re packing on our devices, we should have Simplicity Desktop 13.7 Alpha running on at least one netbook (my wife is still a die hard Windows fan…).

So, if you happen to see us (we’re planning on wearing Simplicity Linux t-shirts) then come up and say hi.  We’re friendly people and we’d be happy to talk geek.  And if you want to check out 13.7 Desktop Alpha, we’re happy to give you look!