Huzzah! So, the official (and huge) ISO for the second release of Netrunner is up, out and available right now! (torrent)
Here’s the distrowatch announcement.
Moving to KDE
The biggest change in this version is moving to KDE for the desktop.
Something important to understand about that: when I say “KDE for the desktop”, that doesn’t mean Netrunner is running all KDE apps. There are a lot of GNOME (and other) apps in there, because we are trying to present the best selection of applications and for some reason some people like some of the non-KDE apps better.
Still, I really like the idea of mixing KDE/GNOME. The obvious downside is the “bloat” – the Netrunner ISO is ~1GB, which kills the LiveCD route - but the upside is we do have the ability to present a different (and hopefully better) mix of applications.
If you have input on the application selection – especially if you want to “side” with me and push for more KDE! – get on the netrunner forums and let me know what you like!
Spit and Polish
This is a strange thing for me, because as I’ve said many times I have zero graphic design skills combined with near-apathy for how a distro looks out of the box.
That being said, there is someone (Starbuck) who obsesses over the visual end, and I hope his efforts are appreciated. I do like the wallpaper and theme, and again if you have input on the graphical direction, take it to the forums, because I guarantee you it will get read and discussed.
So give it a try already
Enough yakking from me – download the thing and give it a try and if the spirit moves you post some feedback on the netrunner forums.
#1 by Brandon on July 18, 2010 - 2:08 pm
I installed Netunner 2 in VBox, and I find it very intriguing. There are bits from KDE I like, and bits from GNOME I like. To combine those into one distro makes since to me. There needs to be some sort of GTK+/QT interpretor. This way GUI’s written in either will work but without the bloat of having both toolkits installed.
Netrunner looks great, just needs some polish here, and there. I would like to get involved. Let me know if you’re looking for help.
#2 by Jason on July 19, 2010 - 6:03 am
Brandon,
Good to hear your experience with Netrunner!
One of the main things we are trying to to is to open up the development process – please check out the netrunner forums and wiki!
#3 by Andrew Macabe on July 21, 2010 - 5:15 am
Picked up a used dell d610 – 150 USD
Install Netrunner Blacklight RC – n/c
Haven’t looked back since.
Found all hardware flawlessly.
Good mix of apps.
Everything works.
No reason for trying anything else on this laptop.