 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 9, 4 August 2003 |
Comparing distributions
The innocent looking article on linmagau.org attempting to benchmark application speed on Gentoo, Debian and Mandrake opened a can of worms on Slashdot and other forums. It is one of those mysteries of our competitive nature which immediately raises a self-defence mechanism in cases where our choice is challenged. The world of Linux distributions is and excellent example of this - many of us spent months or even years on settling down on a particular distributions, just to be reminded every now and then that our choice might not be the best.
For those of you who didn't read the article, the simple benchmarks of launching applications or compiling a stock Linux kernel indicated that the source-based Gentoo was outperformed by either Mandrake or Debian (or both) in all of the conducted tests. While this raises a valid question about the testers' efforts to optimise Gentoo before conducting the tests, it also brings up another question: how many of the 24,000 Gentoo users registered on Gentoo forums are running their favourite distribution in an optimised state? Just because you are a Gentoo user, can you claim with confidence that your compiler options are exactly right for your hardware? Or did you just copy them from a forum post? The multitude of available options with cryptic names require some solid understanding and involved studying, which not everybody has time for.
On the other hand, even a superficial effort to understand these options, together with the pains required to install Gentoo will undoubtedly lead to greater understanding of your system - both your hardware and software. In this light, what really is the greatest benefit of Gentoo? Speed? The immediate availability of software? Or the "portage" package management? Maybe none of them. It's quite possible that the greatest benefit of a source-based distribution for most users is in its educational value.
Of course, some of us will never admit that Gentoo is not substantially faster then any other distribution, ever. Here come some amusing quotes from Slashdot and Gentoo forums:
- "This test is wrong and prooves nothing - I run Gentoo and I can see it's faster."
- "Either the authors of this article were completely ignorant on compiler optimizations, or they have an anti-Gentoo agenda, because they set it up to fail."
- "An owner of a Hummer once told the owner of a motorcycle that his Hummer got better gas milage. The motorcycle owner said this is ridiculous, and challenged him to a contest. The would each drive the same hundred miles of road and see who used more gas. They did, and the motorcycle used less gas. The Hummer owner immediately pointed out that the test was unfair 'Your motorcycle weighs far less than my Hummer. That's part of the reason you're getting better milage. Also, you're using a different engine with less horsepower. If your motorcycle weighed as much as my Hummer and used the exact same engine, you would see that I get better milage.'"
- "The best way to optimize gentoo is to bootstrap it yourself. This yields impressive performance gains. In my case I settled on these flags: -mcpu=pentium4 -march=pentium4 -mmmx -msse2 -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -pi pe -fforce-addr -fforce-mem -ffast-math -mpush-args -mfpmath=sse."
- "I think you'll find you forgot -O9 and -fomit-instructions. It might crash every now and then, but I swear bash is responsive in ways I never thought was possible."
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| Released Last Week |
Xandros Desktop 1.1
Xandros, Inc has released an update of Xandros Desktop Deluxe Edition: "Xandros, Inc. has released a 1.1 edition of Xandros Desktop Deluxe. Version 1.1 enhancements include: support for Microsoft Office XP and Adobe Photoshop 7.0; Mozilla 1.3.1 with spell checking and spam filtering; OpenOffice.org office suite 1.0.3; Evolution groupware client 1.2.4; Enhanced hardware detection; Intel i830/845/855 graphics drivers. Current users of Xandros Desktop can simply click the Xandros Networks icon on their desktop to obtain free updates of most of the items in the version 1.1 release. This free upgrade policy provides customers with the latest updates and enhancements, and resolves various support issues that have turned up since the initial release." See the release announcement for more details. The new Xandros Desktop 1.1 is available from the Xandros Store for US$99.
Damn Small Linux 0.4.2
Less than a week after releasing version 0.4.1, the developers of Damn Small Linux have released version 0.4.2. From the changelog: "After using GNU strip on some of my custom-compiled binaries I was able to make room for some nice new apps. I replaces XFMail with Sylpheed. Also new for 0.4.2 are Xpaint for image editing and Xzgv for image viewing." See the full changelog and package list for further information.
Development Releases
- Lycoris Amethyst Update 3 Release Candidate 0. Annouced on the Lycoris community site, this long awaited beta includes plenty of package updates, although as expected, KDE will remain at 2.2.2 until after the final release of Amethyst Update 3.
- Vector Linux 4.0 rc1 is now available for download and testing. More information here.
- SME Server 6.0 beta3, the announcement includes a full list of changes.
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Xandros Desktop 2.0
Xandros has updated their news page with three new items dated 5 August 2003. The first one is the announcement about two new beta programs: "Xandros, Inc., today announced the opening of the beta program for the 2.0 release of its award-winning Xandros Desktop. Users interested in testing Xandros Desktop 2.0 are invited to apply at the Xandros web site. Xandros is also looking for IT administrators considering mass deployment of the Xandros Desktop to test the forthcoming release of Xandros Networks Enterprise." The complete press release is here and you can register for beta testing of Xandros 2.0 on this page.
Xandros has also announced the release of a Spanish edition of Xandros Desktop: "Xandros, Inc., provider of the award-winning Xandros Desktop, has released the Spanish Edition of Xandros Desktop. In conjunction with the release, Xandros has teamed up with Pixart Argentina, a leading South American software distributor, to market Xandros products throughout the southern cone of Latin America."
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| Web Site News |
I hope you've enjoyed the interview with Judd Vinet of Arch Linux published over the weekend. I am still working on a full review of Arch Linux and I have just received the promised review copy of LindowsOS, so we'll cover both an advanced and a newbie distribution with the next two articles. You might also see a few new interviews in the near future, but this depends on the readers who are working on them. As always, feel free to conduct any interview with distribution maintainers on behalf of DistroWatch and send in the complete story for publishing.
Two distributions were removed from the waiting list. Plop Linux was removed at the request of the developers who cited lack of time for continued development. The MIOLUX distribution's web site has not been updated for over 6 months and no stable version has been released since 1.0 beta in January this year. It was also removed from the list.
New additions
Jollix is the only new distribution added to the DistroWatch database last week. Jollix is yet another live Linux CD with hardware auto-detection, cloop file system and KDE as its default desktop environment. It is based on Gentoo Linux. I haven't been able to locate the package list or find out how to list the versions of included packages - if anybody can help with this, I'd appreciate it.
New on the waiting list
Three new distributions were added to waiting list last week:
- clusterKNOPPIX is a modified Knoppix with the openMosix kernel.
- RUNT (The ResNet USB Network Tester) is Slackware Linux designed to run off of a 128 MB USB pen drive.
- ViruX is a live Linux CD based on Linux From Scratch and Knoppix; the web site is in Swedish.
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of distributions in the database: 162
- Number of discontinued distributions: 21
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 53
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| Reader Feedback |
On DistroWatch icons, logos and banners
- "I have created a banner, not sure where i should send it in to, I'll give you a link, tell me what you think."
Thanks everybody who commented on their banner/logo preferences. One more banner was submitted last week, so let's call this list final, before everybody gets tired of voting for banners :-)
Banner 1:
Banner 2:
Banner 3:
Banner 4:
Banner 5:
Banner 6:
Banner 7:
Logo 1:
All opinions are welcome.
That's all for this week, keep well and see you next Monday,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Trusted End Node Security
Trusted End Node Security (TENS), previously called Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), is a Linux-based live CD with a goal of allowing users to work on a computer without the risk of exposing their credentials and private data to malware, key loggers and other Internet-era ills. It includes a minimal set of applications and utilities, such as the Firefox web browser or an encryption wizard for encrypting and decrypting personal files. The live CD is a product produced by the United States of America's Department of Defence and is part of that organization's Software Protection Initiative.
Status: Dormant
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Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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