MakuluLinux.

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thriel

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MakuluLinux ( Pronounced "Ma-Cool-Loo" )

Based on the Foundations of Mint and Ubuntu, Makululinux incorporates multiple desktop environments into a single operating system running on 3.5.x Kernel, provides a Sleek, Smooth and Stable user experience that is able to run on virtually any computer from old to new, from netbooks to notebooks, desktops to server stations.

Offering a Variety of Desktop Environments ( Cinnamon, KDE, Mate, Unity ) allows a user to easily switch between desktops, allowing the user to have 4 desktop Environments at his finger tips, Tired of one desktop, simply switch to another...

Makulu provides software and codec's pre installed on the OS, to provide an out of the box experience for the end user and his day to day tasks.

Steam is pre installed on Makulu, you can simply log into steam and start playing your favorite game titles.

Wine is pre installed on Makulu, installing windows software has never been easier, simply double click your installer or exe files and they will operate in linux much the same way they do in windows.

The browser of choice on Makulu is Opera, the fastest and most configurable browser on the planet, It is configured with Adblock to block adverts on any website as well as flash videos, Web Caching to allow a user to not just browse with speed but also conserve bandwidth at the same time, Flareget offers multi-threaded downloads and catches links from inside Opera.

Makululinux utilizes a stable 3.5.x Generic PAE enabled kernel. This means that Makululinux will detect ALL of the system memory and put it to use, there is no need to worry if you have more than 4GB system ram.

Feel Free to Download MakuluLinux from here : http://www.makululinux.com

Here are some screenshots :

Cinnamon Desktop
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/Cinnamon.jpg

Nemo filebrowser
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/Nemo.jpg

Mate Desktop
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/Mate.jpg

Caja Filebrowser
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/Caja.jpg

KDE Desktop
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/KDE.jpg

Dolphin File browser
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/Dolphin.jpg

Ubuntu Unity Desktop
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/Unity.jpg

Nautilus File Browser
http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/24/38/104293824/photos/undefined/Nautilus.jpg


Any Feedback would be welcomed.
 
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lol, Thank you, We just released it today and ive been stressing my balls off that the first comment may be a bad one. I worked my ass off on this release, i seriously look like a zombie for the lack of sleep over the last 2 months, if you like it then please click "like on our FB page to show some support for the project :)

FB page is : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Makululinux/172145759605651
 
Question (and I'm not dissing you, I'm genuinely curious): why?
 
not sure i follow, why what ?

Why was i stressing, or why did i make this project ?

Made the project because i knew i could do it better and i wanted to learn more about linux.

I was stressing because most linux distributions often get negative feedback, atleast on first releases.

One of the major problems with most distributions is that they often lack the ability to focus on the finer things. They will for example make sure opera is working, but they wont spend the extra time to configure and set it up properly for the user, leaving him to do all the manual work ( IE : set middle mouse to pan, setup usefull extensions, change layout to show usefull hidden bars, add a nice theme, set the speedials to usefull sites and so forth ). The same goes for pretty much everything right across the board. Thus i made a point of not just stopping when everything worked, but i focused on adding all the little extra's, mouse pointers, themes, addons, extensions, customising applets, pre configuring apps that allow customisation, setting up wine to save the end user the effort of not having to sit 2 days to do it himself ...

the end result is an almost complete out of the box experience, where there is little, if anything for the user to still configure.
 
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thriel said:
lol, Thank you, We just released it today and ive been stressing my balls off that the first comment may be a bad one. I worked my ass off on this release, i seriously look like a zombie for the lack of sleep over the last 2 months, if you like it then please click "like on our FB page to show some support for the project :)

FB page is : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Makululinux/172145759605651
Click to expand...

I Liked you on FB long before you asked. In fact, I registered there just to do that! I wish you guys well; now help us with that phone sync app I asked about on FB message.
 
I also love the ethnic name. I've been saying for long now that Chev should have called their makhulu bakkie ''Laduma'' and not ''Lumina'', because it thunders!! Now we have a distro that thunders as it combines all the good elements. Nice job!
 
reneg8or said:
I Liked you on FB long before you asked. In fact, I registered there just to do that! I wish you guys well; now help us with that phone sync app I asked about on FB message.
Click to expand...

Uhm, you sure you went to the right FB page ? I see nothing on ours about a phone app, which app do you want to install ? Remember this is our first release, we are using it as more of a test release to get feedback to improve on any future releases, This means this release is stable and can be used on a daily basis without problems, the same as you would use any other distro you download, but with enough feedback and any request for any major updates or additions we may even put out a second release quicker if this turns out to be the case.

So feedback, both negative and positive is appreciated, it will only strengthen our project in the long run.
 
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Well developing something from scratch to be more mobile and social friendly will be long and tiring and consume alot of time, i wouldnt even know where to begin... However, in the next release ( our final build ), I can make the OS more mobile and social friendly if that would help ?

there is plenty descent software out there that can assist to bring linux maybe not quite on par with windows, but also not far off when it comes to syncing to social sites, dropbox, google drive, mobile platforms and so forth.

I will give the matter some thought and do some research over the next week and see where it takes me :)
 
kolaval said:
Question (and I'm not dissing you, I'm genuinely curious): why?
Click to expand...

I don't see the point either. Who needs four DEs? I don't use any of those and I doubt I ever will.
 
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Dont you ever get tired of one desktop ? And what is not apealing to you may be apealing to others. And even if you at some point in time feel like switching to a different desktop, do you realise the work that goes into running a second desktop without them conflicting... its easier to simply download a whole new distribution and reset up all your software, bookmarks, redo updates and everything else. but alas all that inconvenience.

Besides, the user does not need to run all 4 desktops, if he has a slow machine or old machine he can setup the linux and make mate default, on faster machine he can use cinnamon or KDE or Unity ... The point here isnt to force the user to run multiple desktops, The point is that he has a choice on which one he wants to run, or when he gets tired of one he can simply switch over without much hassles and still keep the same look and feel in the process. With multiple desktops included, it is one ISO that needs to be supplied by us, not 4 seperate distributions we need to work on. So it all comes full circle in the end, the end user has freedom of choice on what to run, and the developers work on a single distribution instead of multiple ones.

Nothing stops you from running only Mate, or only Cinnamon, the nice thing here is that you have the choice to run just one desktop, or switch freely between them. and if users request a specific desktop environment they would like me to add into the next release, then i will make it happen.

I got so tired of always having to keep reinstalling linux everytime i feel like a change, then having to do 300mb updates, then reinstalling apps, importing bookmarks, spending 2 days getting my linux to what it was before i changed and then only to find i forgot to backup some folder and lost files in the process... This is the reason i started working on this project, i actualy started making it for myself, but as it took life and friends of mine also wanted it, well, it took on a path of its own.

You will either love or hate the distribution, i cant account for everyone's taste, but nothing stops you from trying it out and making up your mind on actual experience from using it.
 
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Are the desktops full versions or shells? I have Unity on Ubuntu and Gnome-shell (think it's called that). Looks like Gnome, but still is Unity.

I now use Unity only because of easier launching with dash and windows-key shortcuts.
 
Each desktop has its shell and the most common applications that come with it, for example KDE comes with dolphin, conquerer, konsole, its own version of system settings effects and so forth. Cinnamon comes with Nemo file browser, Terminal, its own applets and extensions. Mate comes with Caja, Mint Menu, its own version of Terminal, Unity is supplied with Nautilus, Ubuntu tweak etc etc. its not just the shells, I have added the full repo's of each desktop and installed all the common software and the file browser and tools that goes with each desktop, you can expand even further on this for example if you want to enable the "dropbox" extension feature of nemo, simply open synaptic manager and tick it and click apply, the same goes for anything else that is tied to a specific shell that you are accustomed to using. So it really depends on what you mean by full ? if you mean the shell with the file browser, dependancies, system apps and so forth then yes.

If anything is missing that you would like, simply send a request for it and ill add it.
 
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Excellent. When I have time I will give it a try.
 
Going to try MakuluLinux as soon as download is complete...can hardly wait. Looks like a LOT of effort went into it's creation - thanks...
 
keep in mind its an RC version, im still busy polishing out a few issues i found namely :

Need to move it over to seperate repositories, still busy with some branding logo's and stuff, also changing display manager from LightDM to MDM since there seems to be issues with LightDM and LiveCD mode, then just making few custom tweaks and then i think it will be ready for final build. ofcourse none of this actualy interfere's with functionality, so the only real difference between the RC and final build is some grahical changes and repository, but repository is a clone so it wont effect either version.

If you get a "saned" blackscreen problem in live CD mode, well that will be fixed in the next build ( only effects certain computers ). and its only a liveCD mode bug, it does not affect the OS at all if its installed.
 
thriel said:
Uhm, you sure you went to the right FB page ? I see nothing on ours about a phone app, which app do you want to install ? Remember this is our first release, we are using it as more of a test release to get feedback to improve on any future releases, This means this release is stable and can be used on a daily basis without problems, the same as you would use any other distro you download, but with enough feedback and any request for any major updates or additions we may even put out a second release quicker if this turns out to be the case.

So feedback, both negative and positive is appreciated, it will only strengthen our project in the long run.
Click to expand...

the functionality that many people need as an out-of-box capability is something like this sync solution from https://patrick-nagel.net/blog/archives/389

When you have time, please have a look there.
 
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