Well I suppose it's fairly obvious if you've gotten to this point that the look of The New Linux User Companion has changed a little.  I was playing around with the feature of my web host that allows modification of the html and css.  So I felt a little mini makeover was in order.  Enjoy!

Here is my first new distro review in a while and since it was odd of me to do one right now, I decided to do an odd choice of distro to review!  This time, it was a NetBSD derivative that I decided to take a crack at.  I have been reading up on BSD and decided that it would be fun to try it out but I hadn't made the leap yet, since I love my Linux Mint so much....
First of all, Jibbed is NetBSD based, not Linux based (like my usual offerings).
So what were my impressions of my very first foray into BSD?  Well...not bad!  To me, Jibbed felt very much like Xubuntu, the Ubuntu with Xfce desktop.  Of course, as you dig into the File Manager (Thunar) you will find certain differences in file folders.  Initially, I couldn't figure out how to run the darn thing (type startx in the terminal line).  I wasn't sure how to add applications (are they called apps on BSD?) but the ones that were there were quite familiar: Firefox, Abiword, Pidgin, Xfmedia and Thunar file manager (which I really love, it's so small and fast). 
The look was the typical Xfce desktop (I believe version 4?) very cute with the mouse and all and the typical offerings of ways to tweak the Xfce.  I hadn't messed with Vim before and that was a very interesting application, not of much use to me at the present but has a lot of potential. 
Aside from the inability to figure out how to find a repository, I felt pretty comfortable in Jibbed.  It's not all that newbie friendly but a good choice for a first delve into BSD. 

Okay I have a few items of interest to report.
1.  NewLinuxUser.net is BACK UP!!!!  Finally!!! and by using different nameservers, I should hopefully be able to avoid this problem from now on.  Yay!!  (fingers crossed...maybe I shouldn't have written that yet lol)
2.  Next is that I am working on a new website for my band.  It will be out, about, up and running sometime this week as long as I have time to work on it.  More on that to follow.
3.  My band and I had our second show at the Uptown Tap and the self reviews are mixed.  I didn't feel like we did all that well but our audience liked it so that is what matters the most, thanks to everyone who came out to support us and our good friends, Tongue-N-Gruve have our gratitude for letting us open for them.
4.  Back to Linux News, I have two distros that I will be reviewing here pretty soon.  I can't say when exactly I will get to them because I have to get our band site up but it won't be too long before I get at least one of them done.  Stay tuned!

Okay, sorry about that.  My main website at www.newlinuxuser.net has been down for a while.  Supposedly, it was an issue that was supposed to be fixed on the server right away and they had before so I didn't think much of it.  Then a friend told me it was still down, so likely it's been down nearly 2 weeks!! GRRRR!  So, I decided I had had enough and I switched servers..again...for the third time.  I have noticed that this site hasn't been down once, so now the other site is on this server too!  So hopefully, no more issues with the website after tomorrow!!  Check back then, sorry!!

Sorry for the inconvenience but currently my main website, The New Linux User (www.newlinuxuser.net) is down.  I am having some kind of issue with the server to where I can't even log in.  I have a support ticket going so who knows how long it will take.  If it goes on too long, I might just switch everything over to Weebly.  So far they have been great, really reliable and easy to use...although my main problem then would be that I have all these html files and Weebly works on Flash.  So right now, I am trying to be patient and see if the server issues get fixed before I take drastic measures.

Sorry if this causes any inconveniences to anyone (besides me lol) and hopefully everything will be fixed (very) soon.

Okay, turns out one of my web pages was missing in action.  Apparently, after I wrote the review on Sabayon Linux, I forgot to upload the file (dee de dee) so my second page of distro reviews was gone.  Sorry for any inconvenience that may have caused (by that, I mean irritation) and it is now up, with both reviews of Sabayon and Dreamlinux now present and accounted for.  Any future craziness on that site can be reported to me at :  pariah@newlinuxuser.net

Okay here is another review, right on the heels of the last one, it seems but I was trying to find a good distro for a friend that wouldn't require much in the way of wi-fi knowledge (I have none) and I downloaded Dreamlinux 3.5 brc to give a whirl as I have heard it mentioned many times in distro-discussions.

As usual, I made the boot disk (instead of once upon a time, it's going to be "after I made the boot disc") I popped it in and loaded it up.  It started right up and began booting.  It does a verbose boot so you can see what it's doing the whole time, while accompanied by a little Tux at the top..nice touch.  By the way, as a side note, this is a Brazilian distro although everything was in English, there are other language offerings. 

Once it started up, I noticed that the desktop environment is Xfce, so it would require fewer resources to run than a full Gnome desktop.  The theme was a nice sky blue with a polished, glassy look to the theme and icons.  The AWN (Avant Window Navigator) dock starts up right away at the bottom, with a regular panel at the top.  The icon set for the dock is nice and polished and there are 3 theme choices right off the bat. 

Going into the menu, I was surprised by the interesting choices included in this distro.  Brasero is there as well as Sound Juicer and Sound Converter, Rhythmbox and Totem.  EasyTag was also present for easy tag editing on your music files.  Nice touch, I thought. 

Then it got a bit interesting.  Not only is GIMP present, but also InkScape, which I had never messed with before.  I am downloading it as soon as I am done here.  It was fun and easy to understand unlike Wilbur I'm afraid haha.  Also there was an offering by Avidemux, a video editor.  This distro is trying to appeal to a wide base of media users.  It's working.  Compiz Fusion is present right off as well as Emerald Themes and a theme switcher for eye-candy goodness.  In the control panel, wireless drivers are an option, as well as Hard Info, which is what it says, info about your hardware.  It correctly told me I have an Athlon processor.  However, Bluefish told me I have a Celeron processor..hmm...anyhoooo, another application, PowerNow, gave the option for AMD processor possessors to use less power with the click of a button.

As for the internet, the offering is IceWeasel.  As you now can see, this is a Debian based distro.  IceWeasel is the debranded version of Firefox (it's the same with a different name).  One of the favorites in the toolbar is a tab called TuxSoftware.org where Debian users (Ubuntu, Mint, Dreamlinux, Mepis etc) can download applications using an application installer.  There was a couple of applications that I had not heard of that I wanted so to have been informed of this website was a positive bonus for me, thank you Dreamlinux!

Overall, I liked the looks and the performance of everything i tried out on Dreamlinux.  The speed was good, nothing crashed, everything looked great.  The only thing I didn't see was how to get the wireless drivers but I don't need them at the moment anyway....I give Dreamlinux a healthy A.  Enjoy!

This is the very first Linux distro review on this new website!  The honor goes to Sabayon Linux, a distro I had been aware of for quite some time.  Getting this laptop was just the excuse I needed to try it out.

So I downloaded the .iso and made my boot disc and popped it in.
The "catchphrase" of Sabayon is "where art meets inspiration" and this is certainly true.  Combining Sabayon's red and black theme with KDE's eye-catching desktop made for an amazing visual experience.  Simply put, Sabayon is beautiful.  Like, wow, beautiful.

Since KDE is the desktop of choice for Sabayon, all the "K" essentials are there, like Kate, Kwrite, Konqueror, K3bSetup (which cautions that it may screw up your system).  As this was the 'Mini' version, some things were understandably left out, such as Firefox.  I kind of thought this an odd choice as Amarok and Mplayer were present, but they know their business far better than I.  KDE brings its usual Windows-y feel to the desktop with its panels, control settings and excessive warnings concerning confirmations.  All in all, a very pleasant Linux experience.  While nothing stood out for me as far as userability, the looks of Sabayon will undoubtedly draw its fair share of new users.  Definitely a good newbie friendly distro.

Here it is, the long awaited (for me anyway) website, the NewLinuxUserCompanion...hm, I kind of like that name.  I'm here to help Linux newbs, Windows refugees and anyone else who just wants to learn Linux.  Newbies, advanced newbs, gurus..all all welcome! Leave me your comments, tips n tricks, advice, or random gibberish is good too!