Linux is not for IT or Linux is for non-IT? Part 2

Why Astra? Firstly, domestic, and secondly, it is with my clients in healthcare facilities (in the first part I wrote that I work as a medical representative) and I was interested in “feeling” it. It is also important that Astra has the same terminal commands that I have become accustomed to.

The installation process does not raise any questions, everything becomes uneventful (especially since the disk was already partitioned, and my files in / home were in place).

Desktop

Looks more fun than Simply Linux

But switching between virtual desktops is easy song of the soul darkness. As far as I understand, when switching between desktops, a symbolic link ~Desktop is created in the home directory to the desktop that you switch to. This causes slowdowns and terrible pain, especially when, out of a habit left over from working under Windows, you press Ctrl + F4 to close the tab in the active window, and switch to the fourth virtual desktop. If several applications are open, then this is delayed for a few seconds. It’s the same when you try to switch between applications by pressing Alt + Tab: you switch between applications, but only between those that are not minimized, and they can be on different desktops. In general, pain.

Soft

Most often I have to work with Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Power Point presentations and PDFs. When installing Astra Linux, about six months ago, the distribution included LibreOffice 7.2. It refuses to update automatically at all, so you have to go to the site, download and install it manually, after demolishing the previous version. And that’s also a pain.
Now I already have version 7.5 installed, and as far as I understand, compatibility with MS Office has grown (at least now elements in presentations do not “move out”), which pleases.

Screenshot

B

The FireFox browser was demolished immediately after installation and replaced with Chrome, later Yandex.Browser was also installed (it is more convenient to watch the weather in it: D). Unfortunately, Chrome updates are handled too, and the latest update brings yet another pain.

Click “Reinstall”, get to the site, download, try to install manually and …

OK. We go to the terminal, we try to install the missing libraries, we write:
apt install libcurl4 libgtk-4-1 libu2f-udev
And…

Attempts to “fasten” the Debian or Ubuntu repositories did not give anything, so we sigh and stay with the previous version, since there is still not enough knowledge to overcome this problem. Pain.

I also installed AnyDesk and Remmina from the software (sometimes friends and colleagues ask me to help them cope with some problems), Teams – needed for work, SimpleScreenRecorder. I wanted OBS Studio, but it is not in the package manager, and it does not want to be installed manually.

The next minus is related to the fact that the KMix audio mixer does not want to open – neither through the desktop icon, nor through the Start menu. Why it was included in the distribution – I do not understand.

The PulseAudio volume control works strangely: to get an acceptable volume, you need to set it to 100% or higher, otherwise the sound is quiet. This is despite the fact that on the same laptop under Windows the sound was normal, I did not raise it above 60%.

From the “boxed” software, I really like the Spectacle screenshoter, the Clementine audio player, and the Speedcrunch calculator. There are pretty good image viewers and editors, there are as many as three programs for working with the camera, and two for working with the scanner.
However, none of them sees the scanner of my Samsung SCX-4278 MFP connected by an Ethernet cable to the router (and Slimply Linux immediately recognized it as native), while the printer is visible and it prints. True, there are nuances:
1) it is not clear why, it prints very lightly, so that the text is readable, set the resolution to 1200dpi in the settings
2) when I print from a browser (I often download PDFs and they automatically open in it), the printer gives me two extra pages – the first and last – on which some abracadabra diagnostic information. Another interesting fact: these two pages are printed in black, not gray, like the main document. I did not find how to defeat this, so I do not print from the browser.

I got an Epson L132 inkjet printer, there are no “firewood” for Linux in the kit, I didn’t find it in the open either. Sadness-longing.

Next, wine. Not all Windows programs can be got rid of yet, so this thing is necessary and useful in the household. As part of the distribution kit But not everything in it starts

Astra Linux has a good Control Panel

Screenshot

…but the detection and installation of the scanner is sorely lacking.

There is a text here

Of the network applications, it should be noted the graphical firewall configuration utility Gufw, everything is quite simple and clear there. Although, an ordinary user who “moves” from Windows is unlikely to need it.

conclusions

In principle, for the average user Astra Linux CE is quite a suitable distribution. Easy to install on your own, easy to configure (if needed).
I am glad that Debian is stable “under the hood”, I am not glad that it is old (as far as I understood from what I read, the 9th).
Those users who have Astra installed at work (doctors, teachers, etc.) will be satisfied and are unlikely to feel the difference.
Beautiful desktop, it is possible to customize icons, wallpapers, different effects.
Personally, I will consider it as a home OS only if my further research does not lead to a better (for me) distribution.

PS Do not judge strictly ))

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