Legend
Below are the symbols used to denote different types of notes taken during distribution reviews, aggregated in tables in the following sections.
- ✓ : Good feature(s) planned for implementation in AOSC OS.
- ? : Questionable feature(s), further discussion needed.
- × : Anti-feature(s), flaw(s), and bad decision(s) to not repeat in AOSC OS.
Manjaro
- Date of Review: 20220424
- Version: 21.2.6
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | A news aggregator for community/distribution news and PSAs. |
| ✓ | Pre-installed backup application: Timeshift. |
| ✓ | Graphical utility for installing NVIDIA drivers. |
| ? | OnlyOffice as LibreOffice replacement, where possible. |
| ? | A snazzy and semi-graphical (font-dependent) shell prompt. |
| × | Messy application menus. |
Deepin
- Date of Review: 20220430
- Version: 20.5
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Extremely fast browser and LibreOffice launch times (deepin-turbo?). |
| ✓ | Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot. |
| ✓ | Audio effects on login and other system events. |
| ? | Virtual machine detection and warning about possible performance penalties. |
| ? | A/B partiton scheme for more efficient and reliable system upgrades. |
| × | Sluggish installation UI. |
| × | No final confirmation between configuration wizard and installation. |
| × | Useless installer log. |
Pop_OS!
- Date of Review: 20220430
- Version: 22.04
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Defaults to a larger TTY font. |
| ✓ | Fast, squashfs-based installation (parallel decompression). |
| ✓ | Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) on first boot. |
| ✓ | Eddy, a graphical .deb package installer. |
| ✓ | Popsicle, a USB backup media creator. |
| ? | Mandatory installation media checksum verification (skip unavailable). |
| ? | Full-disk encryption option on installer. |
| × | Poor layering handling with modified GNOME Shell. |
openSUSE
- Date of Review: 20220430
- Version: Leap 15.3
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Graphical GRUB menu for both installation media and installed copy. |
| ✓ | "Boot from Hard Disk" entry on installation media GRUB menu (detects whether openSUSE was installed on the hard disk; displayed if detected). |
| ✓ | Option to check installation media. |
| ? | Option to enable automatic login during installation. |
| × | Ugly boot splash. |
| × | Poor colour scheme and contrast on installation UI. |
ZorinOS
- Date of Review: 20220507
- Version: 16.1
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Option to update system on installation. |
| ✓ | Mandatory installation media checksum verification (possible to skip with ^C). |
| ✓ | Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) on first boot. |
| ✓ | LibreOffice launches much faster |
| ? | "Power Off" entry on installation media GRUB menu. |
| ? | "Eject media" prompt on installation media reboot. |
| ? | OnlyOffice as LibreOffice replacement, where possible. |
Ubuntu
- Date of Review: 20220507
- Version: 22.04
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Introduction to pre-installed software and possible alternatives during installation. |
| ✓ | Power profile configuration GUI (future feature to upstream KDE). |
| ✓ | Fast LibreOffice launch. |
| ✓ | Recovery media creator. |
| ? | Pre-installed Remmina. |
| ? | Installation begins during configuration. |
| × | Sluggish installation UI (Ubiquity). |
| × | GNOME with all its flaws... |
Kubuntu
- Date of Review: 20220513
- Version: 22.04
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Fcitx5 as default input method framework, works on first boot. |
| ✓ | Fast LibreOffice launch. |
| ✓ | "usb-creator-kde" for creating backup media (let's fork it?). |
| ✓ | More comprehensive peripheral support: Thunderbolt (kcm-bolt) and Wacom (kcm-wacomtablet). |
| ✓ | Pre-installed backup manager (KUp, kup-backup). |
| ? | Release note avaiable pre-installation. |
| ? | Pre-installed BitTorrent (KTorrent) and Remote Desktop Protocol (KRDC) clients. |
| ? | Pre-installed firewall manager (KFirewall, using firewalld or ufw). |
| ? | Pre-installed partition manager (PartitionManager, KDE project; use GParted instead?). |
| ? | Blur effect disabled by default. |
| ? | Include games on default KDE installation? |
| × | HTML files opened with Kate by default. |
| × | Inconsistent L10n settings: incomplete language packs and confused KDE localization settings (stating that language packs were not installed when they were) |
| × | No L10n support for LibreOffice. |
Ubuntu MATE
- Date of Review: 20220522
- Version: 22.04
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | OOBE dialog and a quick navigation for pre-installed software. |
| ✓ | Fast LibreOffice launch. |
| ✓ | Screen narrator (Orca); KDE equivalent available? |
| ✓ | Fcitx5 as default input method framework, works on first boot. |
| ? | Pre-installed gufw firewall manager. |
| ? | Sound effects for login and desktop. |
| ? | Preinstalled BitTorrent client (Transmission). |
| ? | Evolution as default e-mail client. |
| ? | Webcamoid to augment Webcam functions (like a simple OBS). |
| ? | Out-of-tree v4l2loopback driver for virtual video input devices. |
| ? | "Boutique" application store for recommended applications, with detailed introductions and reviews. |
| × | L10n provided via (unreliable and incomplete, such was the case with LibreOffice) language packs. |
| × | Loads of updates on first boot, before language packs could be installed. |
| × | Two bluetooth managers (MATE and Blueman). |
| × | No graphical configuration tool for Fcitx5. |
Linux Mint Cinnamon
- Date of Review: 20220529
- Version: 20.3
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | "Mint Upgrade" offers mirror tester. |
| ✓ | Fast LibreOffice launch. |
| ✓ | Windows XP "Security Center"-like user suggestion application (asks to enable backup via Timeshift). |
| ? | Hardware detection and listing tool at Live medium boot menu. |
| ? | OOBE/Onboarding wizard starts by default unless unchecked. |
| ? | A wizard for creating progressive Web application entries (webapp-manager). |
| ? | Pre-installed BitTorrent client (Transmission). |
| ? | Pre-installed IRC client (HexChat) joins #linuxmint channel on first launch. |
| ? | A flash drive formatter? |
| × | Installer runs localedef for all locales (takes years). |
| × | Ambiguous "Skip" button on installer (Ubiquity) for seemingly key steps. |
| × | Asks to install extra graphical drivers on Qemu, then prompts that no driver was necessary (with a big tick mark on the UI). |
| × | Applications freeze on exit occasionally. |
| × | HYpotix TV channel streamer... but nothing works. |
| × | Dated Sunpinyin as default Simplified Chinese input method. |
| × | Two backup applications pre-installed. |
| × | Sluggish software center UI - Python applications with loads of fading animations. |
MX Linux
- Date of Review: 20220605
- Version: 21.1 (non-AHS)
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Help message for each installation step. |
| ✓ | Option for RTC as local time. |
| ✓ | Snapshot manager saves current system state into live installation media. |
| ✓ | "MX Tour" as a short visual guide for new users. |
| ? | "MX Tools" as a collection of (not so) distro-specific administration tools/utilities. |
| ? | Uses gfxboot for MBR by default. |
| ? | Option to migrate Live media state to installed system. |
| × | Live system froze on first boot. |
| × | Installer does not have any i18n support. |
| × | Ugly installer UI with a narrow log window. |
| × | No confirmation before installation - procedure starts after partition selection. |
| × | Tips only showing after user configuration wizard - not much time to read. |
| × | Peculiar desktop layout, with logoff menu button on top left and application menu button on bottom left. |
| × | Multiple backup tools (MX Snapshot + luckyBackup). |
| × | Midnight Commander on a desktop distribution. |
| × | Messy init system situation (sysvinit as PID 1, runit as extra tools, and systemd for desktop sessions). |
| × | Systemd not PID 1, but pre-installs systemd tools - most report errors and will not function. |
UOS
- Date of Review: 20220605
- Version: 21.3 (revision 13000034, Home Edition)
Note: Most of the remarks overlap with Deepin since UOS is a rebranded version of Deepin.
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot. |
| ✓ | Audio effects on login and other system events. |
| ? | Virtual machine detection and warning about possible performance penalties. |
| ? | A/B partiton scheme for more efficient and reliable system upgrades. |
| ? | Included an Android compatibility layer to run Android applications. |
| × | Sluggish installation UI. |
| × | No final confirmation between configuration wizard and installation. |
| × | Useless installer log. |
UbuntuKylin
- Date of Review: 20220611
- Version: 22.04 Professional
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot. |
| ✓ | Device Manager-like Hardware information application. |
| ? | Mandatory Live media verification (skippable via ^C). |
| ? | Windows 7-like desktop interface. |
| × | 50GiB disk requirement for automatic partitioning (but not for manual partitioning: 25GiB). |
| × | Useless installation progress indicator (stuck at 96% throughout installation). |
| × | Systemd service failures. |
| × | Boots to TTY login prompt... then X11. |
| × | Desktop crashes randomly to a blank screen with a cursor (VirtualBox). |
| × | File manager pops up on first boot... for some reason. |
| × | Pre-installed Fcitx 4 does not come with Qt support - but self-developed applications uses Qt. |
| × | Opt-out distro telemetry. |
| × | Two scanner applications and music players installed by default. |
elementaryOS
- Date of Review: 20220611
- Version: 6.1-stable.20211218-rc
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Out-of-the-Box Experience (OOBE) wizard on first boot. |
| ✓ | Clean application menu. |
| ? | Mandatory Live media verification (skippable via Esc). |
| ? | An application for system maintenance (file clean-up, etc.) scheduling. |
| × | Installer UI (Ubiquity?) takes ~30 seconds to respond after language change. |
| × | LiveCD's "Boot from HDD" option does not work. |
| × | "Purchase" button for paid applications crashes App Center. |
| × | Default video player fails to launch. |
| × | No zh_CN locale option by default in settings application. |
| × | Ambiguous name for "Chinese" language pack. |
| × | zh_CN locale paired to Bulgarian (then Denmark?!) regional formats. |
| × | Random, rapidly repeating PolicyKit agent crashes. |
| × | Uses an IDE as default text editor. |
| × | Automatic system update does not check space availability, crashes desktop. |
Miscellaneous Notes
| Type | Remark |
|---|---|
| ? | Option to enter DeployKit from LiveKit GRUB menu. |
| ? | Games and music during installation (as with Magic Linux). |
| ? | Offline installer (bundled with tarballs). |
| ? | Overlay tarball for NVIDIA driver. |
| × | Incomplete KDE localisation data (KWrite, Elisa, etc.). |