Digit OS Review - What is in? What is different?

We will introduce you to something called as Digit OS. But before we do so, let us ask you what you use your computer for. You open your computer, check the email and then go straight to Facebook for the first email says that someone wrote on your wall. You watch a few videos, post comments, look back at old memories and then open your media player and go back to chatting with friends. Cool, isn’t it. That’s what most of us would do with a computer at home. A bit of web surfing, some documents, emails, chatting with friends and some entertainment.

That was our prediction and we think it is most probably right. There is yet another scenario. You call your mobile operator’s customer care in a bad mood. Some support executive (we mean the ‘call centre guy’) picks up your call. You blast off at him asking why you were not notified in advance that the caller tune plan you once activated was going to be renewed and the poor chap on the other end is speechless but offers to deactivate the service and return back the 30 rupees which were deducted. We want to activate that ‘one-paisa-plan’ to save 10 rupees per month.

Both the above cases are true for most of us. We want to entertain ourselves on the computer, and on the other hand get the cheapest and the best. Now, if you were asked by your computer every 2 hours to spend Rs. 4000 just for something which could be done for free, how would you feel? Angry? Frustrated? Annoyed? Restless? May be something else too but not at all would you have the feeling defined by the word ‘happy’ inside you. Why would you spend Rs. 4000 anyway? For genuine software? Well, that’s a bad excuse we say. Not that we endorse piracy but we surely promote and suggest that you get out of propriety chains for something which can be done for free. Introducing the already famous Ubuntu.

What the hell is ‘Ubuntu’, anyway?

In case you have not used it, Ubuntu is a Linux based operating system. It is free and open source. If you want to know the benefits of open source, we suggest you ask Dr. Google. He is a specialist on such topics. If you want to know more about the word ‘Linux’, please be an obedient disciple of Master Google again for the list is too long (and rather boring) for us to mention here. Yet, we would tell you for short, as under.

Ubuntu is a Linux based free and open source operating system which is targeted at the normal home user and comes bundled with most software you would need. A social networking client, email client, web browser, media player and an impressive office suite are some of the software which would not fail to impress you with their work. There are a lot others available on the internet. Oh, and you do not have to download them separately.

Well, here are a few others to list:

1. A huge number of software available for almost any purpose you like to use your computer for.
2. Free software updates
3. Security centric. The Windows viruses do not run here. Firewall is built-in.
4. Upgrade to new version of Operating System over the internet.

There are a lot more reasons why you would love Ubuntu. However, the one thing which almost everyone wants in Ubuntu without glitches is ‘Media Playback’. But didn’t we say that Ubuntu came with media players? Well, yes it does but the media players bundled do not play back most propriety formats. No Operating System (including Ubuntu) can be absolutely free of cost and still come with 'paid' multimedia codecs. Along with this, the free world hates the propriety codecs so they do not bundle the open source software for playback too!

The Digit OS

Not everyone has an internet connection and even if they have, it might not be fast enough to refresh Ubuntu repository and then download the software you want and install it within a required amount of time. Along with this, many people would love to use Ubuntu as a live operating system for doing some temporary work when Windows does not boot or for some other reason. When working on a live session on Ubuntu, people would often like to have a faster browser, chromium or a media player which could play any file kept on the disk.

For this reason, Digit, one of the most popular tech magazines in India are distributing Digit OS, which is basically Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) with a few changes. The ISO image is available on the DVD and anyone can burn a DVD with the ISO image or use UnetBootIn to prepare a USB pen drive to boot with the ISO image.

Digit OS – What is similar to Ubuntu?

Almost everything is similar to Ubuntu. All the software which comes with Ubuntu is present and all the Ubuntu repositories work on it too. In case you fall into problem with this OS, go to the ubuntu forums and ask for help and it should work. In this version, no core changes are made.

Digit OS – What is different from Ubuntu?

Digit OS comes with a few minor but pleasant changes for the user.
The default ambiance theme has been slightly changed with a change in the icon theme, making it look and feel closer to Digit magazine’s look and feel. The change is not too awkward to get adjusted. Work with if for some time and you should feel at home with it!

Three new software packages are added:

1. VLC Media Player – This is one familiar name when it comes to media playback on any computer. Be it a Linux, Windows or a Mac system. This one player which plays everything is the main feature of the Digit OS. It was bundled into the Digit OS to make sure that whether a user using it in a Live session or after installation need not connect to internet and download repositories and install VLC Media Player. It adds a lot of value to the Digit OS compared to Ubuntu, especially when viewed from the eyes of a normal user.
2. GIMP – It is an advanced image editor for Linux platforms. Those looking for more-than-basic functionality in image editing would look no further. This software package was removed from Ubuntu in the most recent release. Digit OS brings back the GIMP.
3. Chromium Browser – Mozilla Firefox was a revolution once. Tabbed Browsing and Add-ons made it grow at a rapid rate. Internet Explorer’s share in the browser market went down by a large margin due to this one browser. However, with time the single process model of Mozilla has made it a slower browser. It appears slow especially when compared to the Google Chrome. Although Google Chrome is not bundled with the Digit OS for some reason (we believe its because Google Chrome is closed source), Chromium browser is. The chromium browser is the open source version of Google Chrome and the only difference we could find compared to the Chrome was the icon and the colour theme. Rest all were same as that of Google Chrome browser. It certainly makes a nice addition to the already fabulous set of software in the Digit OS.

Apart from this, the distro also makes the default home page of both the browsers (Firefox and Chromium) as http://www.thinkdigit.com which is the website of the Digit magazine. On the website you have a hardware review, software downloads, a few contests here and there, industry news and of course a discussion forum. All this makes sure that the Digit readers have their favourite website, just a click away from them.

We tested and liked the Digit OS and the and we think the Digit magazine readers (or for that matter, anyone) will like it too. We will post an image soon.