Instead of posting what you might expect to be a positive review, I thought I'd add this video here. Unfortunately the reviewer is clueless as to our approach, and who this OS is for.
- 'Why we need links to Thunar at 3 different points, I have no idea' Correct sir, you have no idea. 'Why have a Trash icon' this one nearly made me spit out my coffee at the time. XFCE by default, provides the option for a Trash icon.
- 'Settings is referred to as Control panel, that's a little odd' not if your target audience are Windows users, just another example of a reviewer doing little to no research on the topic, before addressing the topic.
That's just the first 3 minutes, the train wreck of misinformation and presumption without fact continues on for just under 30 mins. For a channel that has taken 6 years to attract a meager 1k subscribers, is safe to say he's not lighting up the 'Nix' world with fantastic content.
One of the comments by the reviewer - 'It looks as if the Lite devs are trying to compete with MX...' We don't compete with other distributions, we target Windows users.
I for one, welcome alternative reviews, so long as those reviews are done with an understanding of the OS's approach to layout and options.
At this point I'd usually say, 'Enjoy the video' but, yeh, well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJY7JuTGAGg
I actually got as far as 'Lite Tweaks', where his criticisms of this were the final nail in the coffin for this video, at least for me ...
Don't worry [member=2]Jerry[/member] - some people are going to be unhappy with a distro no matter what. Ignore them! You have worked hard on providing a great distro, and it's been a huge success for people on this forum.
I can already do much more with LL4.0, more quickly, than what I was with Windows. I use my machine as a "workhorse" for all kinds of things.
I even one day thought to myself "wow, wouldn't it be great one day as a project if I could develop the skills to install Arch Linux from scratch and customize it myself?" Then I realized "what's the point? I'd spend a lot of time and effort learning it, only to wind up customizing it to something that looks exactly like like Linux Lite because that's the perfect mix of features, so I may as well just save a ton of time and install Linux Lite." So, to many people LL is already the perfect distro.
I don't know if you subscribe to Abishek's It's FOSS newsletter, but I was thrilled to see a positive, balanced review of LL 4.0 in my email inbox. Here is the video for it. By the way, the It's FOSS channel has 12K subscribers!! So I'd say that their video trumps the other one! Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn71XZFn0IU
ADDED: The written review from the It's FOSS website is here:
https://itsfoss.com/linux-lite-4/ - a balanced yet positive review.
You can please all of the people some of the time, etc.
LL is, frankly, almost a literal life-saver for me so...
Thank you, Jerry and everyone
There are some Linux distro's that say that their distro is the one that will make you leave Windows 10. After trying some of them what you really do is run back to Windows 10. People want an OS that actually works, is light on resources, and is easy to customize to what they actually use the computer for. The people who use Linux Lite, and the people who try it as their first journey into Linux, get it. Stay the course Mr. Bezencon.
More than happy for people to criticise LL, I believe in freedom of speech. But let it be done with some research behind you first. I've heard criticism in the past and made the necessary changes because a good point was made. Unfortunately many Distro YouTubers are unable to separate completely and objectively from personal preference.
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Yes, uninformed critiques are not helpful because they do not take the user base into account or the philosophy of the distro.
One thing which many ex-Windows users are looking for, but is not always found in all other Linux distros, is a clear release roadmap with support dates listed. This is where LL shines. Usually the very reason for migrating away from Windows is to do with an upcoming end date of a Windows release, or simply desiring a more up-to-date OS without needing to buy a whole new computer. This (clear release roadmap) is actually one of the big reasons I went with LL when migrating away from Windows.
Another thing which is important to first-timers coming from Windows, is the positive supportive atmosphere that is so clearly seen here on the LL forums. A big thanks to Jerry and moderators for this. Forum behavior on another distro was so poor that I did not even consider using that distro because I didn't the experience would be a pleasant one! (By that, I mean I read comments on the other forum which came down to attitudes like "if you don't do it my way, you're an idiot".) Here on LL, people are free to agree or disagree - respectfully. I love that when people disagree about something, it's done in a respectful manner with outlining reasons for their stance, without being rude (except for a small minority of people who are rude, but that is very much the exception rather than the rule).
So, some people don't take any of those things into account as background, yet these can be super-important to Windows users migrating to Linux for the first time, and (at least for me) is a big reason why many of these users are choosing Linux Lite.
4.0 is excellent Jerry. I think you are not given enough credit for what you have built here. The first thing that drew me into the LL community is the thing that still keeps me here. Linux Lite is based on Ubuntu LTS, which is a relatively stable system but certainly not perfectly so. Stability is often a casualty of driven impatient development and Ubuntu is often prone to developmental over-excitement even though it is viewed as stable in general. The fact is that Linux Lite is more reliably stable than its base system, a fact that has caused me to recommend it constantly to users both new and institutional. Of the XFCE distros it is the best and most stable ready to use rendering. The changes you have made in 4.0 have made me even more happy to recommend Linux Lite. Menulibre and Xfce terminal, and the improvements to Lite tweaks are excellent. You are approaching a point in development where a new standard of excellence may be applied, one that given a little more resources and impetus could actually dent the stranglehold of MS on the American consumer. It's difficult to be an innovator, especially an innovator that is often misunderstood by his base community. Again and again, since 2.8 I have converted Windows and frustrated Ubuntu users to Linux Lite, a dual dynamic that remains for me currently, certainly a little ironic given that I am a Debian die hard. But this is easy to understand given my own support community. With Linux Lite users I only need to give instructions over a phone, no bench time. Imagine that! I go beyond utility in my praise of LL because what we are looking at here is actually excellence.
TC
I posted a comment on his video, it was deleted very quickly. Unfortunate as it would have given people a clearer insight to our approach. Also, thank you for your replies here folks. Much appreciated.
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I agree that LL 4.0 is a huge success. It is now my only Linux system. I am going to devote myself to knowing it well, so that when I put it on my wife's computer, to prepare her for Windows 7 EOL in 2020, I will be able to focus on solving any problems she may encounter.
The only thing I wonder about: Having Virtual Box installed does slow down boot time. Yes, it's easy to remove, once you know how, and it was no problem for me. But I am somewhat experienced with Linux. A Linux virgin could be thrown by this. I guess we'll have to wait for feedback to see if this is really an issue.