wattOS

Reader supplied reviews for wattOS Average rating 8.4 from 24 review(s) What are your thoughts on wattOS? 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: -- R13R12R10R9R8R7.5R7R6R5R4R3R2 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: R13 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-12-09 Votes: 9 I am a refugee from Windows 10, having used MS OS's since 1984. I started trying various Gnu/Linux distros during covid-19, and many were inscrutable. I first tried wattOS R12 about the beginning of 2023, and I was glad because it was so easy and straightforward to make the transition from Win10, although I split my time with Win 10 until Oct 14, 2025. I have been running daily wattOS R13 for over a year now, beginning in summer of 2024, and I love this distro, because I only want a slim graphical Debian-based distro without the usual bloat littering the menus. I can choose and add the apps that I want, and it seems to me that every app that I have selected to try that is designed to function under standard Debian works without any hiccups under wattOS. I run wattOS R13 as the sole OS on an older HP laptop from the SSD, and also part-time on another older HP laptop from a live USB stick with persistence, and both are crisp to load, and execute everything FAST! The only suggestion I can make to the developer(s) of wattOS is to add a brief section to the wattOS web page that gives some info about plans and the estimated timetable for upcoming major revisions, like how soon to expect R14 running under Debian 13? Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: R13 Rating: 6 Date: 2025-10-13 Votes: 2 I am 72 and have used Windows since 3.1. I am testing Linux live systems looking for a good distro to install on an older laptop with Corei7 Intel duo processors, 16GB RAM, a CD/DVD drive, 256gb SSD and nVidia GTX video processor for 1920x1080. My tests are simple: besides coming up in 1920 x 1080, it must: find and connect to my wifi. 2. it must connect to my external monitor HDMI (sound and picture). 3. it must open NTFS partitions and allow files there to be viewed, copied, moved, etc. 4. it must have Firefox as it does everything I want including video downloads and has many great extensions. 5. the live CD/DVD/USB must have a video player and music player included. No Windows user is going to install them while running a Live system even if they know how. You'd be surprised at how many Linux Live systems do not pass these simple tests. If they don't I am not going to waste my time going further no matter how great they may ultimately be as there are distros out there that pass these simple tests. Sadly, I used WattOS many years ago and liked it. Not any more. My advice to all Linux Live system makers is simple; if you want to get MS users to stay with you your live CD and ultimately consider it for installation, it doesn't need a load of apps that only Linux people would know the use of. They can download those anytime and know how to. Windows users seldom know how and - scorn heaped upon us or not -that's where all Linux users came from at one time or another. Think about what we need - not programming tools and arcane system tools - simple stuff like writing, and viewing many different formats. Live kernels or systems that can't open NTFS partitions or cant' view .mp4 formats are poor choices for any live system and I've seen more than a dozen Live Linux systems from big companies (Fedora, ALMALinux, OpenSUSE, etc.) that shoot themselves in the foot regarding Windows people testing their live systems. You want to know how to make an attractive live system? Check out Big Linux from Brazil, FerenOS. MOst Debian/Ubuntu based distributions are scoring high with me as I search. WattOS did not - and that is it's own fault. 6 of 10 is the best I can give it. J.C. Bradshaw Alberta, Canada Was this review helpful? Yes No Version: R13 Rating: 10 Date: 2025-04-15 Votes: 2 I use Wattos-R13 primarily on a Dell Optiplex 9020 quad-core desktop with 16 GB RAM from an Externally-converted 1 TB platter drive.I have installed it via the Refracta-9.6.6 installer in a single partition. Watt boots reliably for me, bringing up the login box via grub installed in the root directory and I use it for all my computer needs. That includes internet, email, electronic book reading, and personal productivity needs. The pcmanfm file manager works nearly flawlessly with Watt, as access to locally stored files is a bsolutely required for my computer use. Anyone who enjoyed Windows 98 SE should be comfortable with Watt. It is very responsive and compatible with applications that are not in the developers' repositories, which I have installed with Gdebi. To me this is the the cream of the crop of Debian-based distributions. I highly recommend it for users interested in switching from Windows to Linux for the first time. Yes, there are many capable distros, but for reliability and user-friendliness Watt shines. I multi-boot with Windows 10 and various Linux distros, with the other OSs being rarelyused. I look forward to the next Watt release. Was this review helpful? Yes No See all 24 reader reviews of wattOS...