 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 55, 28 June 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 26th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. Everybody's favourite distribution, Slackware Linux, reached version 10.0 last week, which means that it is time for some serious "slacking" ;-) Happy reading!
Content:
The new Slackware 10.0
The fans of the oldest surviving Linux distribution once again had a reason to celebrate last week as Slackware Linux entered the double-digit release figures with version 10.0. If you haven't tried it yet, do yourself a favour and get the release; unless you insist on having graphical utilities for all configuration tasks, you won't be disappointed - Slackware 10.0 continues in its tradition of simplicity and reliability. It comes with KDE 3.2.3, GNOME 2.6.1, and many other up-to-date applications.
Some users might be disappointed about the fact that the Linux kernel in Slackware 10.0 remains at version 2.4. But as we have seen with other distributions, the 2.6 kernel still has a long way to go before it becomes a truly stable kernel that can be given the responsibility to power important servers and desktops. Trust Patrick Volkerding on this one - he has been developing Slackware for over 10 years and he knows. At Slackware, technical decisions usually take precedence over marketing ones, which is not always the case with the big commercial distributions.
Of course, many of the more advanced users are already running Slackware Linux 10.0 with kernel 2.6.7. The relevant package can be found in the testing/packages/linux-2.6.7 directory on the second CD. There is no option to select this kernel during installation so you will have to install it manually with 'installpkg':
installpkg kernel-generic-2.6.7-i486-1.tgz
You can also install the alsa-driver, kernel-headers and kernel-modules packages with the same command. Before you can boot the new kernel you will need to do two more things. Firstly, you will have to create initrd so that you can load certain kernel modules before mounting the root partition. The details are in the README.initrd file in the same directory as the kernel 2.6.7. The required command depends on the root partition's file system - you were given a choice between ReiserFS (default) and ext3; if you chose ext3, then navigate to the /boot directory and issue the following command:
mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.7 -m jbd:ext3 -f ext3 -r /dev/hdb3
The /dev/hdb3 in the above command should of course be replaced with the root partition of your Slackware installation. If you chose ReiserFS, you can achieve the same with this command:
mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.7 -m reiserfs
Secondly, you will have to update your /etc/lilo.conf file to look something like this:
image = /boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26
root = /dev/hdb3
label = Linux-2.4
read-only
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.7
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
root = /dev/hdb3
label = Linux-2.6
read-only
Again, you need to replace /dev/hdb3 with the root partition of your own Slackware installation. Don't forget to execute the 'lilo' command after saving the modified lilo.conf file.
When you reboot, the lilo prompt will give you a choice to select between the two kernels. While the majority of users are unlikely to experience problems with the newer one, some hardware combinations are known to cause problems. If this is your case, the tried and tested kernel 2.4 is still available for your booting pleasure.
Whatever your choice, happy Slacking ;-)
Slackware 10.0 with GNOME 2.6.1. (full image size 432kB)
(No, the wallpaper is not part of the distribution, but you can find this one and others at KDE-Look.org.)
Installing Gentoo the easy way
As reported on NewsForge and other web sites late last week, a new Gentoo-based distribution called Vidalinux Desktop OS has made its debut. The distribution is made by the same developers that have created a port of Red Hat's Anaconda installer for Gentoo Linux, creating an installation CD which makes installing Gentoo Linux as fast and simple as installing Red Hat/Fedora. It is no longer necessary to spend hours following the otherwise excellent Gentoo installation manual; with Vidalinux you will have Gentoo Linux up and running in less than an hour.
This is not to say that everybody should use this method to install Gentoo; in fact the Gentoo installation method, if started from "Stage 1", is highly educational and most recommended to all users who are interested in learning about Linux internals. But for those who just want to have a working Gentoo Linux, or for those who have installed Gentoo before, but no longer wish to go through the tedious installation process again, Vidalinux is certainly a great choice. Once installed, the system can be recompiled, upgraded and maintained in the same fashion as any Gentoo installation.
Vidalinux comes with kernel 2.4.20, XFree86 4.3.0, and GNOME 2.6.0 as its preferred desktop. More surprisingly, the ISO images is complete with most multimedia applications, RealPlayer, Flash Player, browser plugins and other desktop applications that make the operating system instantly useable without any further tweaking. While the latest release is labelled as "beta" and some more work is still needed on the Anaconda port, Vidalinux appears to be a solid distribution already. Three ISO images, compiled for AMD, Pentium 4, and i686 processors respectively, are currently available for download via BitTorrent.
Vidalinux: a quick and easy installation of Gentoo Linux with Anaconda
(full image size 150kB)
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| Released Last Week |
Asianux 1.0
Asianux is a recently announced Asian Linux distribution, a collaborative effort between Japan's Miracle Linux and China's Red Flag Linux. It is a server-oriented distribution based on Red Hat Linux, aiming to become a standard enterprise Linux platform for Linux servers throughout Asia. Asianux 1.0 is now available for free download from the distribution's web site. To find out more about the product, see the Asianux 1.0 release notes (PDF format). The upcoming releases of Miracle Linux 3.0 and Red Flag Linux 4.1 will be based on Asianux, but bundled with extra localisation features in their respective countries. Find out more at asianux.com.
Linux LiveCD Router 1.9.5
A new version of Linux LiveCD Router has been released. From the changelog: "The new default language is English. A new version of linux-wlan-ng 0.2.1-pre21 for Prism2 wifi cards is included. USB webcam driver support was added, including ov511, ov51x, nw802, spca5xx, philips, pencam, and more. Hotspot, Samba, and webcam server documentation was added."
Slackware Linux 10.0
Slackware Linux 10.0 has been released: "The first Slackware release of 2004, Slackware Linux 10.0 continues the more than ten-year Slackware tradition of simplicity, stability, and security. Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you'll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: GNOME 2.6.1 (including a collection of pre-compiled GNOME applications), and KDE 3.2.3, the latest version of the award-winning K Desktop Environment." Read the release announcement and changelog for further details.
SAM Mini-Live-CD 0.2.1
This is a new release of the Mandrakelinux-based SAM Mini-Live-CD, version 0.2.1. From the changelog: "Installed: nvidia kernel-module, eagle-usb kernel-module, needed packages for ISDN and ADSL connection (PPPoE), XawTV, nfs-utils. Removed: xfdesktop, some unnecessary files. More: configured ROX-Pinboard for desktop icons, added new mouse-cursor theme. Important: normal modem connection not possible in this release!"
Berry Linux 0.44
Berry Linux is a live CD based on Fedora Core 2, with hardware autodetection and hard disk installer borrowed from Knoppix. Although the default language is Japanese, specifying 'berry lang=us' at the lilo boot prompt will boot the CD into an English environment with KDE as the default desktop. This is probably one of best Fedora-based live CD available at the moment. The latest version is the just released Berry Linux 0.44; it includes kernel 2.6.7, XOrg 6.7.0, KDE 3.2.3, Mozilla 1.7 and other highly up-to-date applications. Visit the distribution's home page for details about the project and to read the changelog.
Plamo Linux 4.0
Plamo Linux 4.0 has been released. All major components have been updated; this release comes with kernel 2.4.26, glibc 2.3.2, GCC 3.3.3, XFree86 4.4.0 and KDE 3.2.2. There is a new network management utility called "Planet" for setting up all aspects of networking (including wireless) in one place, while the hotplugging utility "murasaki" can now used for managing PCI cards, including network and sound cards. The GRUB bootloader has been improved and is able to set up a multiboot system automatically. Plamo Linux 4.0 comes on two CDs, with KDE and the entire contrib directory on the second CD. The release announcement and the changelog (both links in Japanese) have all the details.
INSERT 1.2.13
The Inside Security Rescue Toolkit project has released INSERT 1.2.13: "This is a major new release. The kernel was updated to version 2.4.26. INSERT is now based on KNOPPIX 3.4. The result is even better hardware support and detection. The bug with the file system on the image not being readable from Windows OS is fixed. Also other minor issues have been addressed. Various feature requests have been dealt with. Support for virus scanning is improved with clamav being updated to the latest version. Most of the other packages come in newer versions now." Read the rest of the announcement and changelog.
Puppy Linux 0.9.0
Puppy Linux 0.9.0 has been released: "This is a new complete rebuild, compiled on Mandrake 9.2. Release notes. For anyone upgrading from an existing USB, Zip or hard drive installation of Puppy, please upgrade both image.gz and vmlinuz files. Puppy is still using the Linux kernel version 2.4.22 but I recompiled it for a default ramdisk size of 61440kB. If your isolinux.cfg or syslinux.cfg file has a 'ramdisk_size' entry, either change it to 61440 or delete it entirely. Puppy users booting off the live CD can ignore this advice." The complete release notes are available on the Puppy Linux news page.
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
IDMS Linux 3.0.2
IDMS Linux, the Red Hat-based server-only distribution made in South Africa, has announced an upcoming release 3.0.2: "Just an update on the status of IDMS Linux. IDMS Linux is being actively developed and as soon as we see it is stable enough, we release. There is a second release of version 3.0.2 due, call it a maintenance release. This release supports the 2.6.6+ kernel and makes use of YUM to keep the distribution up to date. Another thing that was done is the bootable rescue/install CD has been stripped of the RPMs in the file system itself used for installing." You can find the rest of the announcement here.
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| Web Site News |
Package list update
As promised in an earlier issue of DWW, we have updated the list of tracked packages. Among the new packages are audacity, bochs, epiphany, firefox, module-init-tools, nessus, thunderbird, xorg and yum. Adding zero-install has been postponed; it seems that very few (if any) distributions ship the package, so we felt that its inclusion wasn't justified. Also postponed was the move from lvm to LVM2; the reason is that Sistina, the developers of the Logical Volume Manager, has been bought by Red Hat and the current status of LVM2 is somewhat unclear. It seems that Red Hat has launched a new commercial product called Global File System (GFS) of which LVM2 is a part. If anybody knows more about the subject, please comment below. The individual distribution tables will take a while to get updated (it is no small task to check the version numbers of all newly added applications in over 300 distributions, most of which have widely varying naming and versioning schemes).
New distribution additions
New on the waiting list
- Linux Live Game Project (LLGP). LLGP is a Knoppix-based live CD that makes it easy to play games on Linux. It includes a solid collections of free and open source games, such as TuxRacer, Cube, Egoboo, FreeCiv, Pingus, Chromium, Foobillard, Frozen Bubble, Power Manga and many others.
- Linxp Desktop. Linxp Desktop is a Chinese live CD distribution based on Kurumin Linux.
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 311
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 7
- Number of discontinued distributions: 32
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 83
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| Reader Feedback |
Slashdot poll versus DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking
Not much feedback this week, except perhaps a comment about the recent Slashdot poll on "Favorite Linux Distro for 2004". The poll lasting a few days generated over 35,000 votes. Debian won with 22%, just ahead of Gentoo (21%) and Fedora (13%). Slackware, Mandrake and SUSE received 10% each, while Knoppix was the last of the "choice" distributions with only 6% of all votes. One of the posters expressed curiosity about the poll's results when compared with our own Page Hit Ranking statistics:
"I find it interesting how much different the hits per day counter is on DistroWatch. I'm curious if anyone has a good explanation for this. I realize that the people visiting the sites regularly may be different, but this is almost a reversal of the order! On Distrowatch, Mandrake is on top and Gentoo is on the bottom of these top 7 distros. The results were quite different in this poll."
All opinions about this phenomenon are most welcome; please comment below.
That's all for this week, see you all next Monday :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • poll result and site popularity (by Emil on 2004-06-28 08:29:45 GMT)
Well, I vote for Debian too.
And I admire Knoppix greatly ( I visited knoppix site much-much more often then I visit Debian's site).
You see, knoppix introduce me to desktop linux world. I installed several flavors of desktop linux on my quest for the one that fits me well, and it happens that all of my choice is Debian based.....
Currently I'm working on Debian/Sid (installed using kanotix, err.. this is where Debian purists send me flames :D)
Although I strongly feels that Debian is close to the best linux distro around, I've never feel the need to visit Debian's site to check for updates. If I want news, I go to Distrowatch :D, and if I want to check updates, I just fire up synaptic :D
I vist knoppix site more frequently to see if there's exciting new updates on the iso. I still use knoppix to work on other PCs where linux is not installed.
You see, Debian users do not feel the need to frequently visit Debian site. Debian users rarely excited with new iso releases.
2 • Stable Sarge? (by Thijs van Dien on 2004-06-28 08:33:02 GMT)
This feedback isn't based on this issue, but how long do we have to wait for Sarge to become stable? Weeks ago, it was in the 'Upcoming Releases', but from there I have never seen it again... I'm waiting for all that long! (Yes, I know there is a netinstaller, which is up to install a 'testing' installation, but unless that, my servers would like to run on a non-outdated 'stable'.
3 • DW page hits (by Random J. User on 2004-06-28 08:57:06 GMT)
Just a small reminder: some distributions (at first Debian, Gentoo, Mandrake, but now also others) have an open development process, which you track.
That means there are interesting news much more often than on, say, SuSE, where the only visible changes are the official releases.
This certainly influences results, though I couldn't guess how much. Separating the development releases from the main ones to avoid this seem a bit overkill; on the other hand, you could try and dedicate a single page to all those CURRENT trees, and not put them in their main distro page anymore.
Who knows what it would change?
Whatever you do, thanks for all your good work.
4 • International differences (by Anonymous on 2004-06-28 09:08:04 GMT)
A lof of the difference in the polls vs. the hits probably comes from the fact that Slashdot catches mainly U.S. readers while I perceive that distrowatch gets a larger sample of international readers. Suse and Mandrake are quite popular internationally while they still have a small penetration in the U.S.
5 • Slackware 10 International Support (by rapont on 2004-06-28 09:22:12 GMT)
One of the biggest problems i've found with Slackware 10 is that even with KDE International Support built in, I can't select English-GB as my language, only US is available.
I don't know if this means all non-US language support has been removed, but if so I think that's a *major* problem!
Apart from that it seems great :)
6 • Page Hit Ranking (by Honaby at 2004-06-28 09:54:02 GMT)
The page hit ranking here in DistroWatch cannot be compared to a "Favorite Linux Distro" mainly because (IMHO) a high ranking here doesn't automatically means that it is the most favorite. It can actually be anything from "The most popular", or "The most Active Distro (Active as in freqently updated, or a new version is always cooking... like Mandrake, Debian, Fedora, Knoppix, etc))", or "The most interesting (Like Yoper - I remember Yoper being at the top of the list last year for a several weeks!)"
Anyway, I hope you get my point... I'm sure Ladislav will agree with me... that the page hit ranking here doesn't mean that the Distro on top is the most "Favorite" distro of all.
7 • it's simple... (by spiritraveller on 2004-06-28 11:10:02 GMT)
People who frequent distrowatch are often looking for a new distribution or trying to pick their first one...
Those people are much more likely to click on Mandrake or Fedora.
The people who would bother to vote on Slashdot are people who would already have a chosen distribution that they will never switch from (Debian), and are thus far less likely to visit this site.
When was the last time you saw a story on Slashdot called "Which Linux distro is best for my Mom/Grandma?" The topic is no longer of interest to over there... they have moved on to other topics, like "http://bsd.slashdot.org/bsd/04/06/25/1640232.shtml?tid=122&tid=159&tid=185&tid=186&tid=190">Building your own FreeBSD-powered motorcycle."
8 • poll results (by jayhags on 2004-06-28 11:37:33 GMT)
There is the following quote from Slashdot's poll results page:
"This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls."
Also the possibility of non-linux users voting as well.
9 • GFS (by kmp on 2004-06-28 11:55:02 GMT)
Here is the source code (which is GPL) for GFS:
http://sources.redhat.com/cluster/
Also, the source RPMS for the supported product is available from Red Hat mirrors:
http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/3/en/RHGFS/i386/SRPMS/
10 • Debian (by Devilotx at 2004-06-28 13:24:59 GMT)
I went with Knoppix installed to disk for a loooong time, but I could never get certain aspects to work right, perhaps from my own ignorance... I don't know... but I've moved to Mepis install to the hard drive, and that my friends, is the way to get debian on your disk, at least untill the anaconda for Debian gets finalized.
11 • Slashdot poll and DW page hit ranking (by Penguin on 2004-06-28 13:57:52 GMT)
Slashdot is - like its many advertisment say - for "geeks" and "nerds". It is natural that Debian and Gentoo get the most votes there, not to forget Slackware when they vote for their favorite distros.
If the same poll would have been on some regular business IT magazine, or on a a PC hobby magazine, Redhat, SUSE & Mandrake would pobably lead the vote. Also Knoppix, Linspire and Xandros would get more votes there (though sure many hobbiests and business users like also Debian and Slackware etc.).
I would guess that Distrowatch gets quite a wide variety of visitors, from business users to hobby users and to lots of total newbies who have no Linux experience at all. Though it has been often said that the Page Hit Ranking cannot be taken all too seriously, actually it may often give quite a reliable view of the general amount of interest towards various distros as a whole, I think.
12 • SUSE (by Lord-storm on 2004-06-28 15:11:31 GMT)
Well I would like to say YOU SUCK.. the only thing that is keeping suse as my desktop is the network works well with my ISP. US keyboard - pumps out B and XMMS has a AWFUL FONT THAT YOU CANT READ... Tried it and im over it... 1.5mbs of my 48x Liteon Drive SAD.... Mandrake gets 4.1 MB's.
13 • Polls (by Paul F. Pearson on 2004-06-28 15:22:55 GMT)
I think it's been said above - there's a big difference between a favorite distro and one which is found interesting. I'm a Slackware fan - started using LInux when Slackware had kernel 0.9plxx (it's been a *long* time since I downloaded all of those floppies!). Moveed to RedHat, then to Debian. Now, I'm back to Slackware - and it's my favorite. Becase I use it, I have Slackware's pages bookmarked and don't get there from DistroWatch.
However, I'm a "geek" and like to know what's out there. I find source-based ditros interesting, and I'm always looking for a good live-cd utility distro (like System Rescue). So, I'm skewing the PHR *away from* my favorite distro. Hmm....
14 • Hey. That's me. (by Joel Ebel at 2004-06-28 16:19:20 GMT)
Heh. That slashdot comment was mine. I can't believe it made it into a DWW, let alone that it was found on slashdot at all. It was not modded, not replied to, and way down on the second page of comments. Anyway, I was curious in hearing people's reasoning. I'm glad I got some responses, though I expected to get them on Slashdot rather than here. I'm a Slackware fan. I voted for it on the Slashdot poll. I'm surprised it didn't do better in that poll though. I thought a lot of geeks still preferred slack. Maybe they've mostly gone off to Gentoo and Debian. It might even be interesting if a simple poll was put up on distrowatch. Let it use the same rules as the slashdot poll, and just see how being on a different site affects the outcome. Could be interesting.
Joel (kg4eyf)
15 • ratings, votes, etc... (by Foo on 2004-06-28 16:35:35 GMT)
I think that Hit Ranking on Distro Watch tells You only how many people clicked on the name of the distro. And that's all. It has nothing to do with popularity or so on. Just as somebody told -- there are many Debian users, who probably visit DistroWatch very often, but don't click on the Debian name. On the other hand: sometimes the new distro appears, especially with a very "sexy" name, everybody want's to check what's this. But it has nothing to do with the distro popularity. 99% of this people that cliced on it wont install the distro at all!!!!!!
And one other thing: When I read news on DW, and I see a new interesting distro, I just go to their page, because there I can find much more informations about it (and probably more up2date). I think that this should also be counted. And obviously, when I click on the url that brings me directly to *.ISO file!!!! Because this is the best proove that I'm interested in the distro, because I spent my time to download it -- clicking on internal url does cost me nothing.
Bye.
16 • Re: Slackware 10 International Support (by Ariszló at 2004-06-28 20:38:34 GMT)
You need kde-i18n-en_GB-3.2.3-noarch-1.tgz and koffice-i18n-en_GB-1.3.1-noarch-1.tgz, which you can find in the kdei (note the final i) directory. I don't have my Slackware CD's around but I guess that kdei is on the second CD. If it is not there, you can download the i18n packages from any up-to-date mirror, e.g.
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-10.0/slackware/kdei/
Install the packages with KPackage or with the following command:
instalpkg *.tgz
17 • Vidalinux (by FedUp Penguin on 2004-06-28 20:56:55 GMT)
Another great distro based on Gentoo.
Or rather, "it is Gentoo", with a very easy installer.
Also, it is very nice regardless, even if it had been Debian or RPM based. It has been developed with plenty of love.
And the official Gentoo forums?
Same story as for Navyn OS, or worse: somebody posted in "Gentoo Chat" and the thread was moved to: "Off the Wall"
But what happened to the developer, Carlito, was even worse: his thread was moved to: "Duplicate Threads"
Just out of very basic good manners that was *very wrong*, IMO.
What is wrong with the Gentoo Mods: are they jealous, are they afraid?
They are blind., that is the truth.
Gentoo is constantly moving downwards in the Hit Rankings (for what they matter)
They should be grateful that developers are making distros based on Gentoo.
Look at Debian: I don't believe today it would be so immensely popular had it not been for the countless distros based on it.
18 • Poll in distrowatch? (by EdCrypt at 2004-06-28 21:00:53 GMT)
Distrowatch could have a link in the main site to a 'favourite distro poll', or a link "vote this distro" in each distro page. Maybe a page whit the results of the pool and the page hits in the mouth side to side too.
[Sorry by the bad english, I'm brazilian]
19 • Poll in distrowatch? (by EdCrypt at 2004-06-28 21:04:09 GMT)
>Distrowatch could have a link in the main site to a 'favourite distro poll', or a link "vote this distro" in each
read:
Distrowatch could have a link in the home page to a 'favourite distro poll', or a link "vote this distro" in each
20 • No subject (by JoeLinux at 2004-06-29 06:14:00 GMT)
FedUp Penguin while it is true that the number of spawns of Debian e.g. Knoppix, Kanotix, Mepis, Morphix, Overclockix, etc have helped Debian shoot upward in the Distro popularity charts, this reason alone cannot explain the phenomenon in full.
Rather if one is to examine the profile of your typical Debian user, they are folks who are a combination of a militant Free Software crusader; people who see the need for a strong Not-for-profit volunteer based distro for the masses independent of big money interests and the problems such profit-oriented distros can from time to time find themselves in e.g. danger of going under as in the case up till but recently with Mandrake; and the ease of post-install security, packages even system updates, configuration and maintenance with a few simple commands or for those who prefer GUI packaging tools e.g. Synaptic - a few point and click actions.
I'm not a geek by any standard of measure but really your typical Joe Average who has very simple needs i.e. 1.) Effortless post install system maitenance and administration 2.) Bleeding edge apps but complemented by 1st class security 3.) technically competent and proactive user community for any support I may need.
I do also play around with Slackware quite a bit because the 3rd party packaging tools like swaret and slapt-get are more or less nearly as user friendly as Debian APT. As is evident, I tend to go for distros that affords the familiar feel of Debian, distros like Slackware, Crux and very soon Gentoo.
:)
21 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2004-06-29 09:29:34 GMT)
"Gentoo is constantly moving downwards in the Hit Rankings (for what they matter)"
I think the fact that Mandrake is #1 shows that the ranking of a distro means absolutely nothing. Distro's seem to move up when news about them hits... What does that have to do w/ the quality of a distro?
22 • Re: No subject (by Ariszló at 2004-06-29 11:48:14 GMT)
"I think the fact that Mandrake is #1 shows that the ranking of a distro means absolutely nothing."
Are you from America? Mandrake is quite popular in Europe.
23 • No subject (by spiritraveller on 2004-06-29 15:46:20 GMT)
And for a while, even in America, Mandrake was THE distro for new users. I don't think any other distro has had that kind of PR success. Whether or not it's deserved is another matter.
24 • @JoeLinux (by FedUp Penguin on 2004-06-29 19:57:41 GMT)
I didn't mean for a moment that because Debian has so many "modified distros" is worth any less, on the contrary: that proves how good it is.
Otherwise I agree with you almost entirely.
25 • poll and page hits (by Saicho at 2004-07-02 22:07:57 GMT)
I have fast food pretty frequently but it doesn't mean fast food is my favorite food. I have them because it's cheap and fast... I check out different kind of distros on DistroWatch all the time and none of them is my favorite... I have MEPIS webpage saved in my Favorties! if it's a distro I like,not to mention my favorite one, why would I come to DistroWatch to be linked to its website?
26 • Slashdot Poll (by Chastiser on 2004-07-05 02:19:23 GMT)
There was also a Gentoo zealot that posted links to all of the other distro ML and fora that linked to the gentoo voting page, So lot's of Mandrake, Fedora, Debian, etc all unwittingly voted for Gentoo. The results of the Slashdot poll are meaningless, just like every other Internet poll. Interesting, but meaningless.
Number of Comments: 26
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Full list of all issues |
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redWall Firewall
redWall Firewall was a bootable CD-ROM firewall based on Gentoo Linux. Its goal was to provide a feature-rich firewall solution together with a web-based interface for all the generated log files. redWall Firewall comes with Snort, SnortSam, DansGuardian and support for fwbuilder, SpamAssassin, reporting, VPN and mail alerts. Configuration files are stored on a floppy disk or a USB pen drive.
Status: Discontinued
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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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