BunsenLabs Linux

Reader supplied reviews for BunsenLabs Linux Average rating 8.5 from 38 review(s) Please select a rating in the range of 1-10. Please write at least a few sentences about the distribution while limiting your review to 4080 characters. What are your thoughts on BunsenLabs Linux? Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system. Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review. Version: -- carbon-rc2boron-1beryllium-1lithium-3helium-52017042920160710 Rating:    -- 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 out of 10 Your review (minimum 250 words): Past reviews - sort by: DateVotes Version: boron-1 Rating: 9 Date: 2025-08-18 Votes: 8 As a new Linux user naturally I tried around 50 Distros before regaining hold of my sanity and settling for Debian 13. Two of the other most memorable Distros I use for my other laptop are PeppermintOS and Bunsenlabs, firstly they both look unique. Bunsenlabs is fast and only uses 805mb of ram on idle, cosmetically it looks brilliant, very minimalist and of of all of the lightweight Distros its definitely one of the best. It was very fast to install despite what TechRadar says. If you want a lightweight, fast and unique Distro Bunsenlabs is up there with the best Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: boron-1 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-06-04 Votes: 8 Installing BL was easy. I used a startup disc creator to burn the ISO onto a USB stick. I verified the checksum and booted into the live environment. I noticed that my network hardware was immediately detected and I was able to connect to the house WiFi without any problems. The touchpad worked and everything was snappy. The installer was very smooth and easy. I had one minor scare during partitioning when an error message briefly appeared and I had to repeat a step, but then it proceeded normally and completed the operation without further issues. I don't recall what exactly the error said, but it was something to do with failing to make a partition. I finished the install and signed in to my new BL desktop. Nice! It booted very quickly. Everything worked and the system was very responsive and snappy. I needed a little assistance getting everything tweaked to my liking and the members of the support forum were very friendly and helpful with my questions. Initial impressions : 1) I was pleasantly surprised that I am getting noticeably more battery life compared to Ubuntu. That was unexpected but very welcome. 2) I love how commonly used config files are linked for easy access and open automatically in the text editor. That is a very nice touch and makes OpenBox a pleasure. Barebones OpenBox can be taxing to get everything situated and looking just right, and BL really knocks that out of the park, so to speak. Well done. 3) Printer support was easier to setup than Ubuntu. Also a surprise. 4) I like how Conky, the Tint panel, and the menu are setup and easily configured. Once I had everything tweaked, I almost forgot that this wasn't a more polished full-blown desktop environment. BL has done a fine job of making a window manager do much more than barebones OpenBox is easily capable of. Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: boron-1 Rating: 7 Date: 2024-07-11 Votes: 25 Bunsenlabs was based on Crunchbang Linux and the look and feel has remained true to the very excellent design philosophy of Crunchbang (also known as #!). Bunsenlabs aims to be a lean operating system with innovative approaches to solving technical issues other Distr's simply ignore. Their forums are packed with useful advice and technical help. I often visit even when I am trying to fix a machine with Ubuntu or Manjaro as its operating system. I am a long time user of Bunsenlabs and used have used various releases . It is a great distribution with very dedicated and truly knowledgeable programmers, developers, and other personnel. It is not a production distro, you wouldnt use it, for example, in a critical role within a business. You can think of it as being a sort of experimental Debian with Openbox, but the Bunsenlabs developers design a lot of their own software for full compatibility, and spend time theming the apps to fit in nicely with everything else. There is a lot right with the distro. It is extremely well documented and all the documentation has links to it within the menu system. They use jgmenu, which I like a lot, by the way as it is easy to configure and theme to your exact liking. On the downside there isnt a lot of support for switching from the Nvidia open source Nouveau drivers to Nvidia proprietary drivers. I must admit I am not as keen on the version called Boron, as I was about the other versions. I found a big problem with using sound engineering software and sound sequencers, which I have not found with any other distribution or Bunsenlabs version, and, sadly, I have reverted to using Linux Mint with Openbox until the issue is sorted. So to finish up, I would say that Bunsenlabs distro is unique, beautiful, with very dedicated and technically brilliant people behind it. You should try it if you want to experiment and improve your Linux knowledge and be part of a friendly community. Unfortunately the Boron release seems slightly over-engineered to the point where there are too many themes and the menu structures and setup files are too convoluted. It is getting more difficult to understand what the developers are doing and to fix it when it goes wrong. Hopefully they will get back toward the simplicity and beauty of Crunchbang. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 38 reader reviews of BunsenLabs Linux...