NeroLINUX Review

Positives and Negatives:

While using this program a number of points both positive and negative came up. These are listed below for easy reference.

Positives:

• Easy to use
• Simple and elegant user interface
• Solid application (never crashed once)
• Everything worked as it should
• It’s different
• For registered Nero 6 (Windows) users, NeroLINUX is free.

Negatives:

• A lack of Audio and Video wizards makes Audio and Video creation less than simple
• General lack of features
• Some dialogs could do with a makeover
• No label creation feature
• No Nero InfoTool or CD-Speed utilities.

Conclusion:

NeroLINUX has a fairly basic feature set, but the features it does have, all work very well.

During the review period the application proved solid and robust and never crashed once. It does however lack a lot of features that one has come to expect from a burn application. There are no wizards to guide you through, and hold your hand while you create your masterpiece. Some may see this as a bonus. Some will not be able to manage without those wizards.

Having had a few weeks too get used to using NeroLINUX and creating a few CD and DVD discs. One thing that kept running through my mind was ‘if only”. This led me to creating a wish list of features I would like to see added to NeroLINUX.

1. When creating a new compilation: it would be nice to be able to select the project type like the Windows version of Nero
2. File conversion would also be a nice addition: for example being able to convert MP3 files straight out of the box would be very nice indeed.
3. Video authoring of some kind is badly needed: If Nero Vision Express could be ported to Linux and included with NeroLINUX, this would boost this applications appeal by miles.
4. The now legendary Nero Toolkit would also be very useful; Nero InfoTool and CD-Speed were sadly missed during this review.

Final Word:

One must keep in mind that NeroLINUX is still in development and this is still a very early version.

What we have so far is a solid and robust application, it works well, and it does what it claims to do. A big plus at the moment is NeroLINUX is free to Nero 6 users. Even if you don’t own Nero 6, the NeroLINUX download will allow you to trial the application and see if it fits your needs.

One thing we can be sure of. When big players like Nero take the Linux operating system serious enough to port its premium burn application across to the Linux platform. We can be sure of great things to come.

In summing up:

NeroLINUX offers a genuine alternative to having to use Windows to produce CD and DVD discs. During the review period I enjoyed using NeroLINUX. This is one application I will most definitely keep on my Linux PC and look forward to updates to NeroLINUX with anticipation. I guess if this application grows to anything near the sophistication of its Windows parent application, then Nero will start to charge for it. Let us hope the price can kept to a reasonable amount.

The NeroLINUX homepage can be found here and Nero homepage at this link. You can also discuss this software in this forum thread.

Thanks to:

MMORE International B.V. – The Netherlands for providing the CD-R media used in this review.

Verbatim GmbH – Germany for providing the CD-R media used in this review.