 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 10, 11 August 2003 |
Invoice is in the Mail, Says SCO
According to this story by Computer Business, SCO Group Inc is preparing to invoice customers running or developing with Linux. "Those being billed will include 1,500 end-users who were earlier this year informed by SCO in writing they should seek legal advice as running Linux violated the company's copyright. Customers running Linux who were not on SCO's original mailing list will also be targeted. SCO last week announced customers would be charged $699 per server running Linux and $199 for a client."
Ah, the fools of Utah! Like the legendary Don Quixote blindly fighting the wind mills, the SCO's executives will go down in business history as a bunch of madmen taking wild chances at achieving impossible dreams - first by suing IBM, then by harassing small businesses and individual Linux users. It's amazing how some people will stop at nothing to satisfy their greedy needs, their insane desire for easy cash without offering a solid product or a superior service in return. One day, when "SCO" is no longer in news headlines and the masterminds of this hopelessly inapropriate get-rich-quick scheme are safely behind bars, we will have a good laugh before getting on with our lives.
But in case some of you worry that somehow SCO succeeds in shutting down your favourite web site covering Linux distributions, then worry not. DistroWatch is actually hosted by a web server running on Debian Woody and powered by Linux Kernel 2.2.20, which, for some strange reason, is excluded from the SCO's harassment claim -- er, I beg your pardon -- SCO's Intellectual Property License. Still complaining that Debian is behind the times and badly outdated?
Debian's 10th birthday parties
Speaking about Debian, don't miss the project's 10th birthday party, raunchy celebrations and other festivities on 16 August (Saturday). Even if you are not a Debian fan, you have to admit that Debian GNU/Linux is an awesome project, one of the largest collaborative efforts ever created, spanning hundreds of developers on all continents. Birthday parties will be held in many countries and cities around the world, so check the schedule and do your best to attend. It will be fun!
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| Released Last Week |
Gentoo Linux 1.4
The long awaited official release of Gentoo Linux 1.4 finally arrived last week: "Gentoo Linux 1.4 is now available. 1.4 includes automated kernel builds, CFLAGS generation, the Gentoo Reference Platform, and support for netless installation. Stages and LiveCDs are now available on our mirrors." The announcement was followed by quick bug-fix releases of the LiveCD editions for x86 and i686 architectures: "Updated 1.4 GRP CD1 LiveCDs for x86 and i686 are now going up on mirrors. These CDs are datestamped as 20030806 and contain an updated version of the genkernel utility, fixing a bug that only affects users of the x86 and i686 CDs. Users of the pentium3, pentium4, and athlon-xp CDs are unaffected." More information on gentoo.org.
Lorma Linux 3.1
The developers of Lorma Linux have announced the release of version 3.1: "Lorma Linux release 3.1 features: Realplayer - streaming media; Webmin - a web-based administration interface for Unix systems; development tools - compiler and libraries; Yahoo Messenger - problem on invisible messages fixed; added the module for development tools; GCC compiler and libraries; upgraded the Kernel to Kernel-2.4.20-18.9; updated the yahoo messenger to ymessenger-0.99.19-1..." This is the full announcement. Unfortunately, it seems that the developers uploaded an incorrect ISO image to their mirrors and those who downloaded the original image were unable to install Lorma Linux. A workaround has now been posted and the correct ISO image uploaded - see forum thread for further information.
Kurumin 2.01
The Kurumin live CD project released Kurumin 2.01. The long release notes are in Portuguese, as this increasingly popular distribution with the ability to install on hard disk is made in Brazil. More information on kurumin.org.
Damn Small Linux 0.4.3
Another week and another release of Damn Small Linux, version 0.4.3. From the changelog: "Now in 0.4.3 we have desktop icons! This is possible because of the fantastically small XtDesktop X Window desktop icon manager by Dmitry Ovechkin." See the full changelog and package list.
ClarkConnect 2.0
This is a brand new version of ClarkConnect Broadband Gateway, released late on Friday evening. 2.0 is based on Red Hat 9 and both the free Home Edition and the commercial Office Edition were released simultaneously. The distribution's web site is a little skimpy on detail, so head straight for the user forums if you are interested in all the latest news, discussions, fixes and workarounds.
Lunar Linux 1.3.2
This source-based distribution called Lunar Linux released a new install/rescue ISO image on Sunday. New in version 1.3.2, code name "Captain Raymo": "Lots of modules were updated. Some small bugs were fixed. gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2, openssl-0.9.7, gettext-0.12.1, all pre-installed so you don't have to watch your lunar box cycle through a LOT of recompiles. All the ISO apps that depend on openssl were recompiled as well." Read the full announcement here.
DeMuDi 1.0
The mysterious DeMuDi (Debian Multimedia Distribution) project appears to have released version 1.0. There has been no release announcement, but the distribution's download page provides three ISO images of DeMuDi 1.0, dated 4 August 2003. DeMuDi's sister project ReHMuDi or Red Hat Multimedia Distribution (both DeMuDi and ReHMuDi are now part of the Agnula Project) has had a 1.0 ISO image available since 3 June 2003. Unfortunately, the Agnula web site is in dire need for updates and even the README file on the installation CD contains very little useful information about the project.
Development Releases
- The second beta of Mandrake Linux 9.2 was released; all the details, including download mirrors are on the beta page.
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Onebase Linux 1.0 Beta 2
Onebase has announced a planned release of Onebase Linux 1.0 beta 2 on 20 August 2003. You are invited to request new features in this forum thread.
TA Linux 0.2.0
TA-Linux has posted news about the upcoming stable release of TA-Linux 0.2.0: "Stable 0.2.0 will be released soon, sometime after the next stable kernel is released (2.4.22), if nothing major shows up in that kernel. When 0.2.0 is released the Collection CVS will branch, with a 0.2.0-stable branch and HEAD is up for big changes. The 0.2.0-stable branch will only get updates to stable versions of software (no development versions, unless there are some major bug or security fixes). Major software that is now as development versions (GNOME 2) will be updated up to the next stable version and stay as such on 0.2.0-stable." The full announcement.
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| Web Site News |
New DistroWatch banner
Without much fanfare, the winner of the banner contest is banner 4 by MadPenguin. Giving two points for "strong preference" and one point for a "second preference", banner 4 is was clear winner. Banner 7 was doing very well in the second week, but it did not get close to the number of votes banner 4 was getting during the first week of voting. I hope that its author will be willing to modify the size and colours to fit the overall colour theme of the site. Many thanks to all of you who have submitted banners and who took the time to vote.
New additions
- The much requested GoboLinux distribution has been included in this site's database. GoboLinux is a distribution with a fairly radical idea to break with the historical Unix directory hierarchy, such as /usr and /etc and group the executable programs in /Program. Read more about it on the distribution's web site, in this kuro5hin.org review and in this Slashdot discussion. GoboLinux is not a new distribution; it has been in development for over 2 years. The current stable version is 006 and development version is 007alpha.
Discontinued distributions
- Eridani Star Systems has announced on its web site that Eridani Linux is discontinued: "The end of the road has come for Eridani Linux. There will be no further updates for Eridani Linux 6.3, and our advice to
existing users is to upgrade to a current supported distribution. As a direct effect of this, this mailing list will be disbanded and erased. The FTP repository will remain in place, space permitting. Eridani Star System is not disappearing, instead we are shifting our focus to our own Linux-based software projects." Eridani Linux has been moved onto the Discontinued Distributions page.
- MSC.Linux has announced that "The MSC.Software Systems Group has been shut down. Overall maintenance level support will be provided for MSC.Linux, plus some specifically requested updates. MSC.Linux will not be generally upgraded in anything approaching the manner expected for a Linux distribution. We thank you very much for your support." Read the full message here. It isn't clear whether this is a temporary situation or a slow and painful death of the MSC.Linux distribution.
New on the waiting list
- AL-AMLUG Live CD is a live CD with a pre-installed Arch Linux 0.5, developed by Ananda Margii's Linux User Group.
- cAos is a new Linux distribution whose purpose is to provide a stable Linux solution for organisations and individuals that do not need or want to purchase their Linux solution. A stable release is not expected before January 2004.
- INSERT is a complete, bootable linux system. It comes with a graphical user interface running the fluxbox window manager while still being sufficiently small to fit on a credit card-sized CD-ROM.
- O2 Linux is a Japanese distribution based on Slackware (web site in Japanese).
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of distributions in the database: 163
- Number of discontinued distributions: 22
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 57
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| Reader Feedback |
On adding new distributions to the "Major Distributions" page
- "I want to inquire into our status as a distro and ask how do we get listed in the "Major Distros" section of your page? We feel as does the Linux Community that we deserve a spot there."
The Major Distributions page has a limit of 10 distributions. It is primarily designed for new and potential Linux users who would probably feel confused by the sheer number of distributions out there, so we put together a page listing the 10 most "major" ones. The main criteria for selecting the top 10 distributions for this page was the page hit ranking on DistroWatch. Of course, this is hardly an objective way of evaluating a distribution's usage, quality, popularity, etc, but nevertheless, and because there is lack of other reliable data, we decided to use this criteria. It's not the only one though, other important factors include things like how long a distribution has been around, how much attention it gets in Linux media, number of reviews, number of community web sites in different languages, number of registered users on public forums (if available) and some other subjective criteria. It is not particularly easy to select the "top" ten distributions, but we probably wasn't too far from the reality.
On site navigaion menus and their default languages
- "Super site! But, the "auto language" feature is not good. Just 'cause I'm sitting in Denmark today, does not mean I want the site in Danish! (At least a "back to English" button, please!)"
The reason why the language of the navigation menus defaults to the language of the visitor's country (as determined by the visitor's IP address) is simple. We want to bring this site to as wide as audience as possible, irrespective of the visitor's fluency in English. While some content (e.g. reviews) will be largely inaccessible to those who don't understand English, certain other pages (e.g. the individual distribution pages) are fairly easy to understand by anybody. By making the default language the same as the language most widely used in the visitor's country, we hope to keep the visitor on the site for longer. Granted, this matters little in a country like Denmark, where English is widely spoken and understood, but it could make a substantial difference in countries such as China or Korea, where not many people feel comfortable in navigating web sites in foreign languages.
To change the default language, you have to go to the main index page and click on the graphic representing your preferred language at the very top of the page. Alternatively, you can select it from the preferences dialog found at the bottom right of the page. And while on the subject of languages, many thanks to Pasi Ruhanen who has helped to translate the menus into Finnish. Now even Linus Torvalds can browse DistroWatch in his native language :-)
That's all for this week, keep well and see you next Monday,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Merdeka Trustix Linux
Trustix Merdeka was the first Indonesian Linux distribution. The main idea was to provide a desktop Linux distribution, which would be secure out of the box, easy to install, include minimum packages and multi-lingual. One of the main focus of Trustix Merdeka was mobile computing. Update: The distribution's web site became unavailable in March 2003.
Status: Discontinued
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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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