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1 • SCO (by Neurook on 2003-08-11 12:22:54 GMT)
Thanks Bodnar, You think SCO reallly will get any money from this?
What if I refuse to pay?
2 • SCO (by motub on 2003-08-11 15:10:53 GMT)
I'm thinking that these customers will have grounds for a class-action lawsuit against SCO if SCO really follows through and bills them.
After all, these customers-- and whose customers are they, anyway? Are they just unfortunates who are listed somewhere in the tech news as having switched to Linux, or are they actual registered users of Caldera, or what?-- are basically being billed for goods/services that it is not yet proven that SCO has any right to ask of them. One could also expect harassment from collection agencies to follow, if said customers refused to pay the bills, with subsequent damage to the customer's credit rating, etc.
Doggone right I'd call my lawyer as soon as I got such a bill. Not to mention that all of the distributions of which these customers *are* registered users should support their customers by refusing to allow them to be extorted without a fight.
Who the heck does SCO they think they are?
3 • Linus (by Marty on 2003-08-11 15:43:11 GMT)
For the record, Linus Torvalds native language is Swedish not Finnish. He is a member of the swedish speaking minority in Finland.
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/linus/
4 • SCO (by Anonymous on 2003-08-11 17:09:25 GMT)
As mentioned, it is possible that the SCO executives might even end up behind bars. I wonder if they have really been just after some easy license & stock profit as the risk in that effort is so great when compared to those profits? If they are just interested in ptotecting their IP & making licensing profit out of it, one would expect them to behave more moderately, not try to use extortion tactics, i.e. show what proof they have for code violations before trying to sell licenses of something that people don't know what it is, and not try to arouse so much noise everywhere about Linux being risky and illegal. But that's not what they have been doing; their main goal seems to have been to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt around Linux.
I wonder if SCO & some big boys behind them (by giving SCO, a company in serious financial troubles, much bigger sums of money than they would ever get otherwise) are doing this in order to spread FUD to stop Linux and to stop companies from moving to Linux? It cannot be proven, but it is not too difficult to come to that conclusion when following the actions taken by SCO (& their friends) during recent months.
5 • SCO and "getting personal"... (by Grunt on 2003-08-11 17:58:37 GMT)
Hey there, Ladislav.
I have expressed similar concerns in the "Reader Comment Area" of DWWs before and it looks like I'm going to do it once more...
"the fools of Utah!", "bunch of madmen", "their insane desire", "are safely behind bars", "SCO's harassment claim"... Quite possibly I'm alone in this, but I personally would like/expect a little less personal and a little more no-nonsense approach to covering Linux distro news. If OS community in general and Linux community in particular ever want to move on from the "long-haired unwashed hippies hacking away at nights on the kernel just for fun" image and get into serious business, those communities should start changing their ways of thinking. And ditching some of the outright childish and insulting accusations might be a good start.
The SCO Group (formerly Caldera International) management are neither "fools", nor "madmen", they are shrewd businessmen attempting to exercise rights they believe are given to them by the US laws. Whether they indeed have those rights or not is NOT up to individual US (or other countries, for that matter) citizens to decide, it is up to US judicial system. If at any point in time it will turn out that SCO has grounds for their claims - the US citizens will be THE ONLY ONES to blame for this, as they were the ones who elected their congressmen who in turn passed the [at times clearly preposterous, especially as far as IP goes!] laws that provided grounds for SCO claims, and who directly or indirectly set the rules for institutions like the US PTO.
Until SCO Group claims are either substantiated or disproved in court, any accusations of SCO Group lacking strong legal basis are just as groundless and irrational as current SCO Group claims seem to be to the Linux community. How does that make Linux community different from SCO Group then?
"we will have a good laugh before getting on with our lives"... In fact, I wouldn't put more than a dime on the "good laugh" part. SCO Group's assault is nothing but one of the first shots of an all-out IP war that is likely to come in the upcoming years. There are indications that both Linux kernel and great many other key open source projects may infringe a number of patents or other forms of protected IP belonging to companies and/or individuals worldwide. Which would be highly unsurprising given open source developers (and Linus'es himself!) attitude towards these matters. Before long, other companies will start going through their patent portfolios, at which time Linux contributors will find themselves in a very difficult position of coughing up workarounds to great many established mechanisms or relying on companies like IBM, HP and others to buy those patents out. I would hardly call such situation a laughing matter!
To sum up... Passion for one's job or hobby is a nice thing. Getting blinded by one's passion and sliding into personal insults, questionable insinuations or slander is not a very nice thing.
As always - this is just my own personal opinion.
My regards.
6 • Re : SCO (by Anonymous on 2003-08-11 17:09:25 GMT) (by Grunt on 2003-08-11 18:07:47 GMT)
"their main goal seems to have been to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt around Linux"... Actually, it's quite funny that Big Blue was the one to get hit by FUD on such a large scale, given the origin of the term "FUD", and all... ;)
7 • RE: Linus (by ladislav at 2003-08-12 00:02:22 GMT)
For the record, Linus Torvalds native language is Swedish not Finnish. He is a member of the swedish speaking minority in Finland.
You are right, of course. I read "Just For Fun", but it was a while ago...
8 • RE: SCO and "getting personal" (by ladislav at 2003-08-12 00:35:46 GMT)
Passion for one's job or hobby is a nice thing. Getting blinded by one's passion and sliding into personal insults, questionable insinuations or slander is not a very nice thing.
Fools, madmen..., I had to control myself hard to use such mild insults. And I really feel sorry for Don Quixote, who was in fact a very nice person to be compared with the likes of McBride. A "shrewd businessman"? Will you feel the same way the day you receive a registered letter from Lindon demanding that you pay up or else? Maybe we are all accustomed to uncertain outcomes of sensational court battles, but any businessman offering no product or service while demanding that we all pay up deserves little respect.
Nevertheless, I understand that not everybody feels the same way. As I stated before, all are welcome to contribute stories and opinions to DistroWatch Weekly, so if you'd like your voice to be heard, feel free to submit them for publishing.
9 • Lunar Linux (by Andrew at 2003-08-12 01:48:15 GMT)
It seems fair to say that Gentoo holds 99% of source-based "market", with the remaining 1% split between Sorcerer and its offspring, SourceMage and Lunar. Yet I hear some rumblings, some suggestions that Sorcerer's solution is in fact more advanced than Gentoo's... which brings me to my point: I'd love for Distrowatch to do a review and comparison of these... Ladislav, didn't you run Sorcerer at one point?
10 • RE: Lunar Linux (by ladislav at 2003-08-12 02:19:55 GMT)
Ladislav, didn't you run Sorcerer at one point?
Yes, I used Sorcerer for 1.5 years as my main production system. I enjoyed tinkering with it while it lasted, but unfortunately I no longer have the time, so I switched to Debian last month. As for Gentoo, the last time I installed it was over a year ago. I didn't find it as impressive as Sorcerer at the time (it even went belly-up after an innocent-looking 'emerge something'), but things might have changed since then.
Anyway, not long ago I wrote a brief, two-part comparison of source-based distributions for Linux Weekly News: Part 1: http://lwn.net/Articles/27599/ Part 2: http://lwn.net/Articles/27674/ The articles serve more like an introduction to source-based distributions for those who have never used them, rather than a solid technical comparison. I don't believe that a thorough technical comparison between them has ever been attempted.
11 • Re: Lunar Linux (by Andrew at 2003-08-12 02:36:34 GMT)
Well, it wouldn't have to be a PhD dissertation, but I had in mind something more detailed.. Sigh, as you said, I don't think something like this has ever been attempted either, which is precisely why I brought it up :)
12 • Banner (by gabbman at 2003-08-12 02:52:19 GMT)
How long before we see the winner on top. :) Great choice too btw.
13 • SCO's intellictual property (by jim thompson at 2003-08-12 09:03:41 GMT)
just took a quick look at sco's page & the first thing that jumped at me was their UNIX trademark. kinda like mixin apples & oranges isnt it ? is linux that similar, in coding etc. ? curiosity has gotten me on this issue. whats your take on this angle? regards jim
14 • Re : RE: SCO and "getting personal" (by Grunt on 2003-08-12 12:33:28 GMT)
Thank you for your reply, Ladislav.
"Will you feel the same way the day you receive a registered letter..." We seem to have a little misunderstanding here, Ladislav, which if you ask me stems from you - sorry, but again! - getting personal.
Whether *I* liked paying money for usage of GIF images created with free software in my website prior to June 20th, 2003, is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT as far as business sense of Unisys management is concerned. Likewise, whether *I* like or dislike paying up for the IP that SCO Group claims to have rights to is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT as far as SCO Group management business sense is concerned. This is precisely what I mean when I say you're getting too personal in your coverage, "too personal" to MY taste, that is. As I said this is only my personal opinion.
"...but any businessman offering no product or service while demanding that we all pay up deserves little respect." Alas, but this line of thinking goes right out the window when we start dealing with intellectual property. LZW algorithm is no product, yet is was patented in several countries, and according to those countries LAWS, individuals or businesses using LZW algorithm were/are obliged to pay up as much as the Unisys demanded for it. Had *I* been blessed to have some new "cool idea" which was patentable, I would have likely patented it, made sure it widely known immediately afterwards and offered anyone interested to license it from me for obscene amounts of money. It would be neither product nor service, but how come I would deserve little respect for demanding money for my creativity from anyone using my creativity's results?!? "Free beer" is quite nice as long as YOU’RE paying for my pint, just don't FORCE me to share MY hard earned beer with you for a loving stare...
"...so if you'd like your voice to be heard, feel free to submit them for publishing." Actually, I thought I have just done that :) , as my intended audience is... well, just you, Ladislav. Unlike you, I am not taking either one of the APPARENT sides in this "SCO vs IBM/Linux" brawl. If at all, I'd say that the whole IP rights protection business has gone WAY OUT OF HAND while the good people of world's greatest democracies were sound asleep, if at all - making THEM the ones to blame. Therefore, I have nothing to contribute as far as pro-SCO opinions go, especially before the case has gone on trial. My only wish is for your coverage to be slightly less personal, that's all - and I don't mean just this specific SCO debate!
My regards.
15 • RE: SCO and "getting personal" (by ladislav at 2003-08-12 13:10:37 GMT)
Alas, but this line of thinking goes right out the window when we start dealing with intellectual property.
No, this whole SCO saga has nothing to do with intellectual property. It is nothing but greed, a man's insatiable desire for money and power. The Linux Kernel was developed by dozens, if not hundreds of volunteers all over the world. Now all of a sudden here comes a "shrewd businessman", hiding behind some obscure law to claim 700 bucks from every individual who uses Linux! Come on! Your "shrewd businessman" has probably never seen a line of C code!
Maybe my views are overly simplistic, but that's how I feel and that's why I felt compelled to show a strong stance. I have no respect for greed and anybody who pursues agendas based on greed. Trust me, I thought about the story carefully before publishing it. Like you, I could simply stand on the side (or get less personal, as you put it) and wait for a court in some faraway country to decide who is right and who is wrong. But I don't need that. I know who is right and no amount of clever lawyer speak will hide the inherent greed driving this whole scam.
16 • Re : RE: SCO and "getting personal" (by Grunt on 2003-08-12 14:16:26 GMT)
(MY APOLOGIES FOR DOUBLE-POSTING THE PREVIOUS POST - hit the refresh button and absentmindedly hit "OK" on the "expired-blah-blah... Resubmit?" dialog in IE. Grrr... SORRY. Ladislav : could you by any chance delete the second copy?)
"The Linux Kernel was developed by dozens, if not hundreds of volunteers all over the world." So? SCO Group do not claim to have any sort of rights over ALL of Linux kernel. They do seem to have some issues with PARTS of it, including parts absence of which would render the kernel either totally useless or useless under certain circumstances.
"...hiding behind some obscure law..." I would hardly call laws dealing with IP "obscure" these days, quite the contrary. :) SCO Group didn't all by itself pass any of laws dealing with IP in any of countries which have them, the lawfully elected governments did. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge both Czechoslovakia and South Africa are relatively young democracies in the full sense of the word (SA : ahem!), thus having at times weak laws protecting IP, so I probably can't ask you, Ladislav, what YOU did to prevent "some obscure laws" from being passed (correct me if I'm wrong). But I can easily ask this question citizens of Western Europe, USA and Far East countries, in particular those citizens who also happen to be great Linux fans bashing any and all attempts to "stab" Linux kernel as far as IP goes...
"...to claim 700 bucks from every individual who uses Linux!" Yes, the letters to the end users of Linux are indeed a very strange move on SCO Group's side. However, in a way this seems to be an act of “desperation”, if not entirely backed by laws worldwide act, YET. Let's think about it for a second : let's say my protected IP rights are being violated by some code inside the Linux kernel. My financial interests are being badly harmed by each and every copy of Linux distributed in the world. Whom should I sue? The "author" of the misused code? But how do I tell over a decade into the development of the kernel who WAS the "author"? Should I sue Linus Torvalds for accepting this code into the kernel? But Linus himself did not misappropriate the code... Or should I just give up my rights and millions or billions of dollars of lost profit because someone was nice enough to slap a GPL license upon such misused code and anonymously mail it to the kernel dev mailing list?
Demanding money from end users indeed seems most novel (ahem! ahem!) as an approach to IP property protection, but so does the whole IP property business as well... IMHO some very serious rethinking of the existing law base must be done ASAP, both to protect the IP owners AND the users of that IP.
"Your "shrewd businessman" has probably never seen a line of C code!" That proves NOTHING. If one of those days I were to buy out all CDMA patents Qualcomm owns for a couple of billions of dollars, I would still be the owner of those patents (that set me back by billions of dollars). And I would STILL be eligible to collect royalties from usage of technologies covered by those patents, despite ever knowing the difference between Code Division and Time Division. Businessmen do not need to code in C, they only need to know how to make money where others see no opportunity at all. If they do - that makes them "shrewd".
"I have no respect for greed and anybody who pursues agendas based on greed." Unfortunately (or rather, as history demonstrates, fortunately), the overwhelming majority of the world has opted to go the Capitalism Way(TM), rather than Communism Way(TM). And by definition capitalism is all about MAKING MONEY, including making MORE money than one would need to buy milk and bread for his children - for instance to buy one's children a new Ferrari. Would you define me selling my property (intellectual or otherwise) for more money than necessary to buy my bread as "greed"? Even if I didn't force YOU to buy it?
"I know who is right..." In a way I envy you... :) I'm pretty sure you also had internal information on who was right and who was wrong in the Zynot/Gentoo case... :(
17 • Double-posting (by Grunt on 2003-08-12 14:17:33 GMT)
All done, I see? :) Thanks.
18 • Yoper (by Grunt on 2003-08-12 14:36:04 GMT)
Since I'm here anyway...
I see Yoper distro finally had some news to offer, which reminds me... I wonder how Page Hit Ranking scores would change if the listing was moved away from the front page, replaced by, for instance, an alphabetical list of distros? This whole PHR thing seems to act like a snowball - the distros displayed at the top keep getting "hit" due to their "popularity" according to PHR, while those at the bottom... You get the idea.
I can find no other logical explanation to the fact that Yoper with its lifetime of 4 months, miniscule installed base and absolutely nothing special to offer keeps hanging at #3. Which makes one wonder, what purpose does PHR serve?
So, how about it, Ladislav? What do you say about measuring week-long stats using the current PHR in its current location on the front page, then replacing the PHR list with alphabetical one for a week (while TOTALLY removing PHR results from the website for that duration, for the sake of experiment) and measuring again? Or is that Yoper ad funding still dripping in? ;)
19 • About PHR (by ben on 2003-08-12 15:42:48 GMT)
I think it's perfectly fair to have those distros with higher PHR displayed more prominently. Each of these distros had to come up from the bottom of the rankings anyway to get among the first places. Once they are there, it is a GOOD thing that they have some reinforcement towrds staying there. That way, once a distro makes the first few places, they've EARNED it. Like Gentoo.
Ookok...so maybe Yoper cheated a bit by being the first distro with a large ad, but since then, their once stratospheric ranking has normalized, and, if deserved, will continue to lower.
The rankings are very fair IMO.
20 • But... (by ben on 2003-08-12 15:43:46 GMT)
But then again, I would like the alphabetical listing, because my distro of choice, ARCH, would garner some additional support. :)
21 • RE: SCO and "getting personal" (by ladislav at 2003-08-12 15:52:56 GMT)
I am going to drop this discussion before it degenerates into philosophical debates about advantages of different economic systems or reasons for creating Zynot, both of which have little to do with our original argument. However, I do appreciate your taking time to contribute your point of view.
As for your observation that the top distros are getting more hits due to their "popularity" in PHR, I have to agree that this indeed seems to be the case. I am going to give your suggestion to temporarily remove the ranking some serious thought. It won't matter this week - the Yoper page was hit 84 times (!) during the last hour. The only reason I feel reluctant to do this is that the PHR has been around for a long time and has become an integral part of the site. Yet, I agree that Yoper does not belong on the third spot or even anywhere near the top.
Is that Yoper ad funding still dripping in?
Negative. Yoper has not purchased any advertising space since 20 February 2003 and the last time this site displayed any of Yoper's advertising banners was on 7 April 2003. Since you read DWW, you know that as of early last month, Yoper has gone non-commercial and today's release is available to all who want it at no charge.
22 • Re : About PHR (by Grunt on 2003-08-12 15:56:09 GMT)
I believe a one- or two- week experiment wouldn't harm anyone - after all, the PHRs would still be collected, just not displayed during that period... It WOULD however be somewhat interesting what the results would be, as that would be a true indication of current DistroWatch visitors interests.
When I did a search for Yoper reviews some while ago (which, believe it or not, proved a bit tricky, despite Yoper's immense popularity ;) ), majority of them mentioned Yoper's presence at the top of DW PHR list as a reason for review it. Smart marketing move for Yoper, that's for sure, but once people start getting interested in a distro because its makers are... er... "shrewd businessmen"... (he-he, couldn't resist that one) rather than for technical reasons... Hmmm... ;)
23 • Re : RE: SCO and "getting personal" (by Grunt on 2003-08-12 16:01:09 GMT)
Thanks again for your time, Ladislav.
Yes, it would seem natural that distros showing up in the news would get more hits as long as they remained at the top and middle of the front page. Perhaps extending such a trial period would do the trick by allowing the news to "sink" and/or wrap around?
24 • SCO saga (by NitrousHHH on 2003-08-12 18:47:27 GMT)
I think the IP claim of the SCO is real. But this doesn't mean it is valid. This will have to be proved.
But I feel that sending threatening letters demanding payment before anything has been proved is close to extracting money with menace, which is a very uncivilised way to behave and must surely only damage their case.
It also sad that this is all damaging the reputation of linux, a comunity with little money for marketing, so a recovery from any slur will take time.
Personally i think the whole software patent and IP thing has got well out of hand and come september 1st its going to take off in europe. So if you live here (or maybe if you don't) please consider signing the petitions or stating a view to someone who might be able to help.
On IP generally and Linux.... I'm sure I'm not the only one who's used a piece of linux software and though, "how did they get away with that, its exactly like software x from company y". Closed protocols and file formats are also a big worry. I'm no expert but isn't reverse engineering illegal if you live under the DMCA ??? Which would hit much of our windows inter-operability for starters.
So don't forget about open formats and protocols or your Linux distros functionality might start getting a bit light. :-(
NitrousHHH
25 • Doh !!! (by NitrousHHH on 2003-08-12 19:04:02 GMT)
double post, sorry.
26 • getting personal (by david on 2003-08-12 19:16:43 GMT)
Hey there, Grunt. Let there be others with some other opinion and style. Even with long hair and so on... (Linux doesn't want to move towards buisness, buisness discovers linux.) I wonder if someone insisting on respecting his opinion doesn't respect others' style. An author of a weekly news of a site aimed at linux users, can even put down the summary of his thoughts with some irony. Why not? It's a comment area and not the business news.
27 • "getting personal" (by andrew at 2003-08-12 22:21:52 GMT)
I just have to mention that one of the things I especially value about Distrowatch and its weekly column is just that it manages to provide Ladislav's personal opinions as well as dry and cut news. Don't change a thing!
28 • Re getting personal and Major Distributions list (by Warpengi on 2003-08-13 00:43:27 GMT)
I think that you, Ladislav, more than just voicing your opinion are also expressing the majority view of the Linux community. In other words you have a finger on the pulse of the community and as such I enjoy and appreciate your views most of the time. I expect that every journalist has an opinion and I tend to read those with whom I agree. It is said that opinions are like assholes... everyone has one. If Grunt had a web site I would read yours. That is my opinion.
As a complete newbie I discovered Distrowatch and the major distributions list (previously called top 10 distributions) was what I used to determine what distros I would try. This site has been a valuable resource for me. I have been a loyal follower of your site for a few years now and it just keeps getting better.
29 • Re : getting personal (by Grunt on 2003-08-13 01:57:44 GMT)
Hey there, David.
"I wonder if someone insisting on respecting his opinion doesn't respect others' style." I presume you weren't talking about me when mentioning that "someone" ;) , as I neither "insisted" on respecting my opinion, nor have shown lack of "respect" towards Ladislav's "style".
I head for DW when I need no-nonsense up to date info on the state of things. Therefore, I simply expressed my opinion, including my expectations of DW. I am entitled to have those, no? ;)
"Linux doesn't want to move towards buisness..." Linux per se doesn't want to do anything, as at best it's a collection of lines of code slapped together by folks from all over the world. There does seem to be a truckload of commercial/semi-commercial Linux distros fighting for their piece of the business pie, large chunks of code are being added to the kernel on a regular basis that are geared towards serious commercial environments and OSI/FSF are screaming their heads off as to how OS software (Linux being OS poster child) is a perfectly viable choice for businesses. If that's not an attempt to move on to serious business then I don't know what is... :)
30 • Page Hit Ranking (by Grunt on 2003-08-15 16:41:33 GMT)
Aha! I can see we're half-way there with that PHR thing! But no reshuffle in the alphabetical order yet, eh? Well, seeing how it goes the way it is right now might be a good start.
Thanks, Ladislav.
31 • Ladislav : SCO "fools" revisited... (by Grunt on 2003-08-15 20:02:40 GMT)
Oh, yeah, bumped into this one just now (two weeks late, I know, but better late than never) : http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/story/0,10801,83452,00.html (sorry, don't know how to embed links properly into the comments... Care to share the secret?). Still want to keep blowing your "fools of Utah" horn after reading that one, Ladislav?
Here's what : if someone out there will be persistent enough to plough through the publicly available financial reports, I say in less than 2 years time you'll be able to witness just HOW SHREWD those fellas are. Whether they're moral or immoral while at it is a laughable question, where BIG money is concerned morals have no value at all.
So much for the "madmen"... :(
Number of Comments: 31
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| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Moblin
Moblin was an open source project focused on building a Linux-based platform optimised for mobile devices including netbooks, mobile Internet devices, and in-vehicle infotainment systems. The central piece of the architecture was an independent layer that provides one uniform way to develop such devices. Underneath the Moblin Core sits the Linux kernel and device drivers specific to the hardware platform, and above the Moblin Core are the specific user interface and user interaction model for the target device.
Status: Discontinued
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