 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 106, 27 June 2005 |
Welcome to this year's 26th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! This year's Linux Tag is behind us, which means that the new KNOPPIX 4.0 Live DVD, the biggest collection of current open source software on a live DVD ever created, is available from your nearest torrent site; it should also be released to FTP mirrors shortly. In the meantime, a SUSE 9.3 installation DVD image is now making its way to many of the SUSE mirror servers worldwide - check your favourite one today or later in the week for a 4.2GB ISO file. Also in this issue: an interview with Ryan Quinn, the Project Manager of Symphony OS and an introduction to Xearth, Xplanet & KWorldClock. Happy reading!
Content:
- News: KNOPPIX 4.0 in the torrent, SUSE 9.3 on mirrors
- Obituary: Libranet's Jon Danzig
- Interview: Ryan Quinn, Symphony OS
- Released last week
- Fedora Core 5, Vidalinux 1.2, Turbolinux Personal
- New additions: Snøfrix, Tugux GNU/Linux, TumiX, Underground Desktop
- New on the waiting list: Atomix Linux, BOSS, The Jackass! Project, LDIOS
- Applications: Xearth, Xplanet & KWorldClock
KNOPPIX 4.0 in the torrent, SUSE 9.3 on mirrors
 The much awaited Live DVD edition of KNOPPIX 4.0 was finally revealed at Linux Tag last week. As expected, it didn't take long before the 4GB ISO image was turned into a torrent file to be shared by thousands of users across the cyberspace. The new version contains over 2,600 packages, including the full KDE 3.4.1 and GNOME 2.8.1 desktop environments (this is the first appearance of GNOME in KNOPPIX since version 3.1 released in January 2003!), OpenOffice.org 2.0 beta, and the usual range of server, development and multimedia applications. The DVD boots into German by default, but this can be changed with the "lang=us" cheatcode (several other languages are also supported). KNOPPIX 4.0 is clearly the largest and most up-to-date live Linux DVD ever produced.
One of the interesting new features is the ability to switch between the different desktop environments. The "KNOPPIX X-Restart" dialog now allows selection between KDE, GNOME, WindowMaker, IceWM, XFce 3, XFce 4, Fluxbox, LarsWM, Openbox, RatPoison and TWM. If all these choices are a little bewildering, then rest assured that the promised "light" CD edition is still in the pipeline. Klaus Knopper explains in this forum post: "Of course, the ISO of DVD will appear on the mirrors soon, but I still need some time for making the CD 'light' version, so both are available at the same time."
KNOPPIX 4.0 "Maxi" DVD - the first KNOPPIX release since version 3.1 that includes the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 850kB)
* * * * *
 The full, installable ISO image of SUSE LINUX 9.3 should finally start appearing on mirrors near you by the time you read this. As with SUSE 9.2, the 4.2GB DVD image contains both x86 and x86_64 RPM packages and it can be installed on both of the two most popular processor architectures. The ISO image is labelled as "EVAL", which is Novell's new way of indicating that the company provides the free ISO image for evaluation purposes, but if you end up using it, you are still expected to purchase the full retail edition. The ISO image is already available from the company's main FTP server, but we strongly recommend that you wait until some of the SUSE mirrors synchronise with the main server before attempting to download it - you will likely get it much faster that way. As always, have a lot of fun!
* * * * *
One of the obstacles preventing a more wide-spread migration to 64-bit computing is the fact that the increasingly popular OpenOffice.org does not compile on the AMD64 platform. As a result, it has to be run either through a 32-bit library compatibility layer or from a chroot-ed 32-bit system, neither of which is an ideal solution. The good news is that the developers of OpenOffice.org have been working on providing a 64-bit compatible OpenOffice.org release starting from version 2.0. The bad news is that much work still needs to be done before it compiles cleanly, as documented by Pavel Janik, a SUSE developer:
"Build time on Dual Opteron 242 with 2G RAM is 1 hour, 19 minutes for en-US only build, with -P1 only and hot ccache. And now: what works? Splash screen works, first time installation can be correctly finished. Help is not available, because we build without Java (but after you copy the contents of help directory from x86 build to the right place, help is working correctly). About window is OK and also Ctrl+S+D+T works there. You can open new documents. In the file dialogs, no filter names are displayed, only file extensions."
Find more information in OpenOffice.org@AMD64: Current Status.
* * * * *
 As our regular readers know, the Linux distribution world was recently saddened by the sudden death of Libranet's founder and CEO - Jon Danzig. The latest Libranet newsletter provides more information about the sad event:
"Jon Danzig, 57, passed away on June 1st 2005 nearly a year and a half after he was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2003. The time from his diagnosis to his death was a long and difficult journey helped by family and friends.
Jon founded Libra Computer Systems in 1984 selling Unix systems and custom software solutions. In 1999 Jon became excited about the possibilities of the GNU/Linux system, and along with Tal, his son, released the first version of Libranet later that year. It was Jon's vision that made Libranet into the product that it is today. Tal takes over as leader of the Libranet team, continuing Jon's legacy.
Away from Libranet, Jon enjoyed the British Columbia wilderness where he and his family hiked. He held a private pilot's license which brought him great joy and a sense of accomplishment. Jon will be missed by his family, the Libranet team, and the Libranet community.
Donations in Jon's memory can be made to the North Shore Palliative Care Program c/o Lions Gate Hospital Foundation or to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee."
* * * * *
 Finally, something much less serious - a handful of great desktop wallpapers for popular distributions: Proposed Ubuntu artwork and other silliness. Please note: only click on the above link if you have any sense of humour. You have been warned!
|
| Interview: Ryan Quinn, Symphony OS |
This section of the DistroWatch Weekly has been traditionally dedicated to a "featured" distribution of the week. To make it more varied, we are going to make a slight change here - on alternate weeks we will get in touch with the developers of some of the more interesting distributions and ask them a few questions. As always, if you have a favourite distribution and would like to see their project leader or developers interviewed here, feel free to suggest an interview and questions in the forum below. For today's issue we have interviewed Ryan Quinn, the Project Manager of Symphony OS.
DW: Ryan, thank you very much for your time to answer a few questions. First, can you introduce yourself briefly? How old are you? What do you do for living? And what is your role in the development of Symphony OS?
RQ: Well, I live in the US in Dubuque, Iowa, am 27 years old, and have been working as a web programmer and developer for about seven years, first independently and for the last four years for an Internet service wholesaler who sells turn-key ISP services to small and medium sized dial up ISPs. I am the Project Manager for the Symphony OS Project.
DW: With its unique user interface and design concepts, Symphony OS is without doubt the most interesting and innovative Linux distribution in a long time. How did the idea come about?
RQ: About three years ago I began thinking about how I could go about creating a browser driven desktop. Like myself there are a lot of web developers out there who would love to get deeper into Linux but the desktop space is generally a C/C++ world and there can be a pretty steep learning curve there. Symphony OS on the other hand uses some existing software (such as our firefox renderer and fvwm) and implements the rest in a fashion that allows anyone who knows html and a bit of perl to really get deep into the internals of their desktop environment. The second goal was to make it easy to use for just about anyone.
Symphony OS - one of the most innovative distributions on the market
(full image size: 434kB, screenshot courtesy of SymphonyOS.com, more screenshots here)
DW: It has been about 6 weeks since you opened the project to general public. What sort of reaction have you been getting from users who have tried out the first public alpha release of Symphony OS?
RQ: The reaction has been amazing. Our user and developer community has been growing every day and I have heard from people all over the world who are interested in helping. It has really been great to have so much extra help and though I have been spending more time on the forums than before, our development has sped up with more people working on the various tasks we have for the next release.
DW: Symphony OS is based around the Mezzo Desktop. It is easy to see how a non-technical computer user might be enticed by such a beautiful and convenient design, but what about those of us who are accustomed to the KDE and GNOME interfaces? What does Mezzo do better than the existing popular desktops?
RQ: It seems that most desktop environments have sacrificed simplicity for configurability. I have met many people who have their windows PC still displaying the default settings right down to the bliss desktop. Many people would rather have things be simple and just work than have the ability to remake their desktop the way they want it. The nice thing about the way we have put together Symphony is that we achieve that simplicity but still give the geeks out there the ability to get into the code much easier than with other desktop environments and change pretty much everything if they choose to. There are a lot of people who love GNOME or KDE and both have their place just as Mezzo does. I like to think of Mezzo as an almost appliance like interface. It is designed to work the way it is supposed to and assist in getting tasks done, no more, no less.
DW: Mezzo Desktop seems to be the brainchild of Jason Spisak, a former Lycoris developer. Is Jason a member of your development team or are you just adopting his design ideas? How many developers work on Symphony OS?
RQ: As I understand it, Jason was the co-founder of Lycoris and their VP of Marketing, being the second man on board after Joseph. I am not sure what exactly Jason's position within Symphony would be but he is equal in the project with myself though he tends to keep more to the background. Jason is really a designer and not a developer as he himself would be the first to tell you. Within a few weeks after I began the Symphony OS Project I received an email from Jason who then showed me these amazing mockups for what later would become the Mezzo Desktop environment. They blew me away. They were absolutely perfect for what I was doing and we have been partners in the project ever since. Currently Jason and I are the only members of the project with anything like an official role in development. Over the last several weeks, though we have added several new developers to the community who have been contributing code back.
DW: What is the business plan? Will Symphony OS be a free community project or are there plans to turn it into a commercial entity?
RQ: Symphony OS will not turn into a commercial entity, and will always remain a free community project. We are looking into eventually setting up a non-profit foundation to foster development of Symphony OS.
DW: How much work is there left before we see a stable Symphony OS? Is there a roadmap?
RQ: We are not as organized as we would like to be. Currently we have been mapping out a to-do for each release and working towards it. We are on a feature based release schedule rather than a calendar based one, this way we can avoid releasing incomplete or overly buggy ISOs just to get them out on time. I can say with a fair bit of certainty that the upcoming Alpha 4 will be our last alpha release before heading into beta.
DW: Ryan, thank you very much and best of luck with your project!
|
| Released Last Week |
UTUTO 2005.1
A new version of UTUTO, the only free (libre) distribution, as endorsed by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, has been released. Based on Gentoo Linux, UTUTO is put together by a group of developers in Argentina. The latest release is the result of 4 months of development and testing with ISO images for several popular processor types now available for free download. The developers are also planning to build a set of live CDs at a later date. Here is the complete release announcement (in Spanish). Although the UTUTO web site is in Spanish, the distribution also supports English, Italian and Portuguese languages.
Càtix 1.1
Càtix is a Knoppix-based Linux live CD with complete support for the Catalan language. A new version 1.1 was released on Sunday for inclusion in El Periódico, one of the most widely-read daily newspapers in Barcelona, Spain, with a circulation of over 250,000 copies. Càtix 1.1 is now also available for download from public FTP servers. The new version includes both KDE 3.4 and GNOME 2.8, it comes with an improved hardware auto-detection module and new programs for hard disk installation and system configuration, as well as several newly included applications, such as JClic, amaroK, Kaffeine, Rosegarden, etc. More information is available in this release announcement (in Catalan).
Mandriva MNF2
Mandriva has announced the release of its Multi Network Firewall (MNF), version 2: "Mandriva, formerly Mandrakesoft, today announced the second versions of its comprehensive infrastructure and security system Multi Network Firewall. MNF2 provides advanced firewalling, IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and VPN (Virtual Private Network) capabilities in a single product made easy to use by a simple web interface. New features include new types of VPN such as PPTP and OpenVPN, network interface bonding and bridging, traffic shaping, network mapping and peer-to-peer filtering. MNF2 ships with one year online security update service and support options. Price: US$550 / €500." For more information please read the press release and visit the product's feature page.
Auditor Security Linux 200605
Auditor Security Linux is a Knoppix-based live CD with a large collection of security-related tools and utilities. Version 200605 was released today: "I am proud to announce the release of the new version of the Auditor Security Collection CD-ROM. We put in a lot of effort to bring it into that final look and feel as you can see in the Auditor development log. It seems to be the best version released ever. Not only because of its completeness, but also because it seems to be the most stable and bug-free version. You will see that in this version you have to choose between two different ISO versions. This has to be done because systems with an integrated Intel b/g chip based wireless card will not boot with the ipw2100 driver on the CD." Find more details in the release announcement and changelog.
Kate OS 2.1
A new version of Kate OS has been released: "Kate OS 2.1 released! The new version of our system contains NPTL, which increases the efficiency in critical moments. We've added some improvements, such as support of Reiser 4 filesystem. Kate OS 2.1 has been carefully tested, so many bugs from the previous versions have been fixed. We updated many packages, including the XFce environment. In the latest release you can find the improved version of 'updateos' tool, which is now able to show the progress of the actualisation and download speed. Kate OS 2.1 is definitely the best version of that system and is recommended to everyone, who wants to begin his experience with our product." Read the rest of the release announcement on the project's home page.
TumiX 0.9
TumiX is a Peruvian Linux distribution based on Slackware and SLAX. It provides the KDE desktop environment together with a large number of academic, office and multimedia applications. The distribution is targeted at colleges, universities and Peruvian educational institutions in general in order to help teaching and understanding GNU/Linux and to spread the use of Free Software in Peru. Tumix is an initiative of the Peruvian Community of Free Software and is distributed under the General Public License. Version 0.9 is the project's first public release; it is based on Slackware 10.1 with kernel 2.6.10, X.Org 6.8.1, KDE 3.4.0, GNOME 2.6, and some interesting images with Peruvian motives. Here is the complete release announcement (in Spanish) with download links.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Fedora Core 5
Although it has only been two weeks since the release of Fedora Core 4, its developers have already started planning for the next release, details of which can be found in Proposed Development Areas for Fedora Core 5 and Fedora Project. Some of the more interesting proposed features include a graphical package manager, a Fedora live CD, a new sound server, Xen virtualisation, boot and shutdown speed improvements, encrypted file systems, and many other enhancements. The list is still subject to change, but if most of these improvements are implemented, we can look forward to another exciting Fedora release in the not too distant future.
Vidalinux 1.2 (postponed)
The developers of Vidalinux have announced that their upcoming release, previously scheduled for release early last week, has been postponed until early August: "Due to some unforeseen complications, VLOS 1.2 has been delayed and is now been scheduled for general availability on August 1. We apologize for the inconvenience." Here is the updated announcement, together with some of the expected new features.
Turbolinux Personal
Turbolinux has announced that it will start shipping a low-cost Linux distribution for developers - Turbolinux Personal edition. The new product, complete with Star Suite 7, Oracle JDeveloper and IBM DB2 Personal Developer's Edition Lite, is expected to make its first appearance in Japan in early August and will retail for ¥1,980 (US$18), More information is available in this press release (in Japanese).
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Web Site News |
New distribution additions
- Snøfrix. Snøfrix is a demonstration CD for everyone who wants to try Free Software on Linux, with an emphasis on education, entertainment, and multimedia. Ideally, it should contain all the programs needed for daily computer use, in an appealing and easy-to-use format. The main characteristic of Snøfrix is a large selection of games, including FreeCiv, Frozen Bubble, and Tux Racer. Snøfrix includes standard office software, with Kontact/KMail for mail and OpenOffice.org for word processing, and standard internet software, with Firefox for web browsing and Gaim for Instant Messaging. The project provides localised CD images with support for several European languages.
- Tugux GNU/Linux. Tugux GNU/Linux is an independently developed Portuguese Linux distribution. It includes a custom package manager with automatic dependency resolution as well as a convenient method of compiling source code into binary packages.
- Tumix. TumiX is a Peruvian Linux distribution based on Slackware and SLAX. It provides the KDE desktop environment together with a large number of academic, office and multimedia applications. The distribution is targeted at colleges, universities and Peruvian educational institutions in general in order to help teaching and understanding GNU/Linux and to spread the use of Free Software in Peru. Tumix is an initiative of the Peruvian Community of Free Software and is distributed under the General Public License.
- Underground Desktop. Underground Desktop is a GNU/Linux distribution targeted at the desktop user. It is based on Debian's unstable branch and features graphical installation (using Anaconda for Debian by Progeny). Its main features are ease of installation, kernel optimisation for modern processors (i686), and the KDE desktop.
* * * * *
New on the waiting list
- Atomix Linux. Atomix Linux is a stable, robust, and highly secure operating system suitable for web servers, routers and firewalls, for professional application development (especially web development), and office use. The main desktop environment is KDE, but XFce and WindowMaker are also available. Atomix Linux uses RPM and yum for package management, while Python is the main programming language for application development and system administration.
- BOSS (BSI OSS Security Suite). BOSS (BSI OSS Security Suite) is German security-oriented live CD based on KNOPPIX and built around the Nessus security scanner.
- The Jackass! Project. The Jackass! Project is an enhanced version of Gentoo Linux 2005.0 that is based upon Bob Predaina's Stage 1 + NPTL on a Stage 3 Tarball installation method. The Stage 1/3 installation method was used to build an optimised toolkit that includes a GCC 3.4.3 compiler that has been optimised for the x86 hardware platform using an optimised set of CFLAGS. This toolkit also provides integrated support for the Native Posix Threading Library (NPTL). As a result, this toolkit significantly outperforms plain-vanilla Gentoo (and probably every other Linux distribution that runs on the x86 platform). The purpose of The Jackass! Project is to create a set of unofficial x86 installation media (bootable installation CDs and Stage 3 tarballs) for the 2005.0 release of Gentoo Linux that contain The Jackass! Toolkit.
- LDIOS. LDIOS (Linux Desktop Initiation Operating System) is a Linux distribution aimed at those totally new to Linux. The goal is to make Linux easy to install, easy to configure, easy to use and easy to update. LDIOS contains the KDE window manager, IceWM, recent stable applications and core components, and applications that would be easy for current Windows users to use.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
|
| Xearth, Xplanet & KWorldClock (by Robert Storey) |
Xearth, Xplanet & KWorldClock
A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space. On the back it said, "Wish you were here."
- Steven Wright
I have to admit, when I learned that Mark Shuttleworth (creator of Ubuntu) took a US$20 million joyride to the International Space Station, I was just a little envious. OK, maybe more than a little. Then again, I'll bet that Mark has never been to Seldovia, Alaska, where I'm planning to spend my vacation next month. So there.
But I digress. In the past year we've seen two rovers land on Mars, the Cassini/Huygens mission sent back closeups of Saturn's moon Titan, and Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds has just been released. So "space" has been on my mind lately.
Although I'm not expecting an offer to pilot the next Space Shuttle mission, I nevertheless was inspired to try out Xearth and Xplanet. Both are "interactive wallpapers",but they are more than that. As you might have guessed, Xearth renders an image of the Earth on your computer's screen. Xplanet ups the ante with real photos of Earth and the other planets. Both programs allow a considerable amount of tweaking.
Xearth
Xearth was originally written by Kirk Johnson when he was a student at MIT. Kirk later moved to the University of Colorado, but the project's web page suggests that Xearth is no longer being maintained. However, Xearth was later ported to Windows and Mac. You can still download the Xearth tarball from where Kirk originally put it, in his ftp folder at MIT. Debian users can simply do an apt-get install xearth.
At the most basic level, you can launch Xearth simply by opening an Xterm and typing xearth. This will reward you with an image of planet Earth - the vantage point is determined by the current position of the Sun. No geographical features are shown other than land and sea, plus a few large lakes. Rivers, mountains and political boundaries are not displayed, though some major cities around the globe are labeled. Although stars dot the background, they are randomly generated and do not represent real constellations. As the Earth rotates, the image is updated once every five minutes (though this can be changed with a command line option).
Xearth
Speaking of command line options, there are quite a few of them. For example, if you prefer to view the Earth from the current position of the Moon, you can type this:
xearth -pos moon
You can make other drastic alterations of your vantage point, such as specifying latitude and longitude. You can also make the background stars bigger and brighter, or you can choose not to display them at all. Really, the number of options is almost breathtaking, and fortunately the Xearth man page does a good job of explaining them.
If you're happy with Xearth and would like to have it start every time you run X, you could put a line like this into your .xinitrc file:
exec xearth &
Xplanet
Xearth is good, but it's fallen down somewhat in popularity, most likely because of the competition from Xplanet. However, I wouldn't say that Xplanet is simply Xearth-plus - it feels like a different program, with different capabilities. Of course, the best way to judge the Xplanet's potential is to install it - you'll find the source tarball at the Xplanet home page on SourceForge. Again, Debian users can do an apt-get install xplanet, but this won't give you much joy because it doesn't install images. To add those, do apt-get install xplanet-images. And even if you are a Debian user, visit the Xplanet site anyway to pick up some extra maps and scripts.
The first time I ran Xplanet, I was disappointed - the image was just too dark. It's kind of a pity that Xplanet does not have options to adjust brightness. Nevertheless, I improved on the situation by firing up Gimp and used it to brighten up file /usr/share/xplanet/images/earth.jpg. Even then, the shadowed side of the Earth was too dark - the bright lights of the cities were barely visible. I was able to improve on this situation only by adjusting my monitor settings. However, I do wish that Xplanet had an option to brighten the screen.
Xplanet
After exploring the excellent Xplanet man page, it soon became obvious that I could make this "wallpaper" much more exciting. For example, if you want to see a little more action, try this:
xplanet -wait 10 -timewarp 1000 -latitude 60n -longitude -60
This will update the image once every 10 seconds, and speed the Earth's rotation by 1000 times. We are also viewing the planet from 60 degrees north latitude and 60 degrees west. At this time of year (summer in the northern hemisphere), it's nice to have a vantage point in the far north so that we can see the Arctic ice cap (the Antarctic is currently submerged in darkness).
Interesting as the Earth is, there's no reason to limit your screen's real estate to our home planet. Once I downloaded a Mars image, it was this easy to set up:
xplanet -body mars
Again, you can apply the wait and timewarp options if you like to make the planet rotate faster.
Although until now I've been calling Xplanet "wallpaper", you can actually turn it into a screensaver with the idlewait option. For example, to make Xplanet run after 60 seconds of idle screen activity, you would use this syntax:
xplanet -idlewait 60
Note that this option requires Xplanet to be compiled with the X Screensaver extension.
KWorldClock
Up until now, I've been discussing what amounts to sophisticated eye candy. However, one more map/globe program that I'd like to introduce before leaving this topic is KWorldClock. Like Xearth, running this utility will put a map on your screen (though not a full-screen image). The map correctly shows which parts of the globe currently bathed in daylight or darkness. However, if you put your cursor on a city, it will show the city's name plus the current date and time. The practical use of this program is when you want to call somebody in another time zone far away, and you'd rather not wake them up at 3 am (though I know many geeks to don't go to sleep until sunrise). In fact, I make a fair number of international phone calls, so KWorldClock is actually one of my more heavily used GUI utilities.
KWorldClock
KWorldClock is part of the KDE project - more specifically, part of the KDEtoys package. You can download the source code from here. If you're using one of the major distros, there's a better than even chance that it's already included with a full install.
KWorldClock does have a few options. Take a look at the KWorldClock Handbook for more details. However, if you're looking for entertainment, KWorldClock is far less interesting than either Xearth or Xplanet, even though it's arguably more functional.
Parting Shot
Eye-candy they may be, but both Xearth and Xplanet have brightened my desktop and proved to be mildly educational. Indeed, seeing the night side of the Earth (in Xplanet) all illuminated by artificial lighting made it apparent just how overdeveloped the world is becoming. Perhaps we should be spending more on preserving the planet. As author Kurt Vonnegut once forecasted, at some future date when humans are gone and the UFOs visit our uninhabited Earth, they will encounter a giant billboard that says: "We could have saved it, but we were too damned cheap."
* * * * *
That's all for today. We hope that you enjoyed this week's DistroWatch Weekly!
Ladislav Bodnar
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • As usual (by Dexter Ang on 2005-06-27 09:51:39 GMT from Philippines)
As usual, great work Ladislav.
I'm saddened by the loss of a fellow Canadian, Human Being, and Linux enthusiast. Condolences to his family and friends.
2 • hilarious photos (by paul h on 2005-06-27 11:31:05 GMT from United States)
the link to the backgrounds was so true to the point for every desktop in there but it was so hilarious.
great job finding that internet jewel. and everything else was very good and to the point
3 • Clarkconnect (unmentined) releases (by Bo on 2005-06-27 13:33:59 GMT from United States)
Latest News
June 22, 2005 --- ClarkConnect 3.1 Release Candidate #2 is available. The details are here.
June 21, 2005 --- ClarkConnect 3.1 Release Candidate #1 is available. The details are here.
June 16, 2005 --- ClarkConnect 3.1 Beta #4 is available. The details are here.
June 14, 2005 --- ClarkConnect 3.1 Beta #3 is available. The details are here.
June 7, 2005 --- ClarkConnect 3.1 Beta #2 is available. The details are here.
4 • FC5 (by PuGz on 2005-06-27 13:36:24 GMT from Australia)
Its good to see that the fedora boys are getting on to some serious business.
I know a lot of us linux users started with either slack, debian or if you were a tad later red hat. We all had at least some very early introduction to red hat.
Lately, I only ever hear of complete newbies or universities running fedora core. It just doesn't have much ground breaking stuff... and if you want stability and reliability instead, there are better choices.
but some of those new features sound like fedora might actually step up to once again be a bit more of a leader in the game. here's hoping to some good and ground breaking work that can keep giving the linux community that extra push!
in the mean time... i think i will stick to my top 3: slack, archlinux, debian.
--
PuGz
5 • Backgrounds and stuff (by Scott Wilson on 2005-06-27 13:48:39 GMT from United States)
The backgrounds were funny, I use Debian, but the picture of Debian reminds me of the last time I used the IRC channel for help. Red Hat and Fedora how true. A vendor from a major Computer company had nothing nice to say about RH, ravining about Novell and SUSE.
Suse 9.3 I may have to try it out, so far its been the best out of the box experince I have had since using Linux.
Last week PureDebian, what a pile of trash. The boot options are labeled wrong. even after getting the base config set up, I still had to tweak on things to get things to work. Fine tune the product maybe you will have something. More detailed documention would be nice. So any way I reinstalled Sarge from Debian. much nicer.
The multi media problem really bugs me, It s the only complaint about Linux, my brother has since converting to Linux doesnt mind bitching about it every time I talk to him.
Positive note to end on. I look forward every monday morning a cup of coffee and Distrowatch weekly!
6 • RE: Clarkconnect (unmentined) releases (by ladislav on 2005-06-27 14:08:29 GMT from Taiwan)
I need a decent release announcement with information what has changed and improved since the last release. The ClarkConnect site makes a one-sentence announcement and then redirects people to the same old page as the first announcement.
In other words - how do you expect me to create a one-paragraph release announcement out of a short, simple sentence saying that "ClarkConnect 3.1 Release Candidate #2 is available"? If the developers won't do better than that, I can't be bothered either.
7 • Sorry for the double post... (by Bo on 2005-06-27 14:17:21 GMT from United States)
Regarding announcements, I agree. I see what you mean.
8 • multimedia (by mark on 2005-06-27 14:29:00 GMT from United States)
suse 9.3 was great except for the multimedia
but after I learned that there was a set of packs for it
and installed them its been one of the best
9 • re: multimedia (by Visible on 2005-06-27 15:09:52 GMT from Canada)
I am just about to setup Suse 9.3. Anyone know what "set of packs for it" this person is talking about? It sounds like the person is talking about some add on boxed packages or disks.
I can only think of online repositories. The only thing I really know for really good Suse yast sources is packman at links2linux.org or packman.de. Those are not necessarily exact addresses.
10 • re: multimedia (by SFN on 2005-06-27 15:26:57 GMT from United States)
I could point you to one other site. That's Guru's RPM site. Lots of good info there too. http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/
Other than that and packman's site, I don't know of any "packs". That would definitely be some good info to get out to people who use or want to use SuSE.
11 • astronomy and linux (by crawancon on 2005-06-27 15:27:28 GMT from United States)
speaking of space and linux distro's....
http://www.lin4astro.org/index.php?new_lang=en&main=accueil.php
:-)
12 • re suse multimedia (by nitroushhh on 2005-06-27 15:29:29 GMT from Netherlands)
these 'packs' appear in the online update.
check them and they are installed for you.
Still need to get over to packman for full featured video playback.
There are 4 'media packs', but its not very clear what they are for, or which ones you should install. People have had problems installing all 4.
I did 1and 2 then got xinelib and kaffiene from packman and kept my old win32 codecs and decss for playing you dvds.
13 • Help... (by Max on 2005-06-27 15:38:51 GMT from Australia)
This might not be the exact best place to ask this but here it goes...
There is a file in my system that the root user cannot cat, ls or rm...
Why the hell is that?
Isnt the root supposed to be able to do anything?
I also tried chattr, chmod and chown to no avail
Does anyone knows what the hell is going on????
(Im using Reiserfs btw)
14 • re: alternate ubuntu artwork (by nitroushhh on 2005-06-27 15:48:31 GMT from Netherlands)
Might it be a fork called "UBUMTU" ??? ;-)
15 • Ooops (by Max on 2005-06-27 15:49:55 GMT from Australia)
Btw I want to delete the file, but all those commands give me error msgs even as root...
16 • SUSE 9.3 CDs (by Anonymous on 2005-06-27 16:09:37 GMT from Germany)
ftp.suse.com now has also 5 CD ISO images available.
17 • No subject (by Max on 2005-06-27 16:39:36 GMT from Australia)
Filesystem was corrupted... would not detect problem at boot fs check but solved now.... thanks
18 • Another Great Distrowatch Weekly (by Wesley on 2005-06-27 17:22:47 GMT from United States)
Great Read
19 • live CD distro (by Frank Esposito on 2005-06-27 17:23:31 GMT from United States)
just noticed these were missing from your list
"Klax" is an i486 GNU/Linux Live-CD, very similar to Slax because it's created with the same Linux Live scripts. The version described here contains KDE 3.4.1.
http://ktown.kde.org/~binner/klax/
and;
"Klax" KOffice 1.4 Live-CD
http://ktown.kde.org/~binner/klax/koffice.html
great site-
-espo
20 • "Debian users can simply do an apt-get" (by zebul666 on 2005-06-27 18:35:28 GMT from France)
oh no . even here we can see this sort of "of course debian users can do apt-get " ..
and do you think of the user of non dbian distro
pleease stop it. Or provide the detail instruction to install such a software on the others distros too.
How a site like distrowatch.com that features an incredible number of distribution can talk in an article of a software and of only a distribution in that article.
it is a shame.
I can't bear those "debian users can apt-get' anymore on any site ... i am really sick of it.
21 • The search for the perfect Distribution (by Bill Savoie on 2005-06-27 19:01:00 GMT from United States)
The previous post from zebul666 didn't like the 'debian users can apt-get' note that shows up so much at distrowatch. I have tried many different linux distributions, my last was Suse 9.2, but I have never liked the rpm package manager. Since Redhat 4.2 it has gotten me into trouble.
I love Ada 95, so Suse has provided that, and I have been satisfied. I haven't got Mplayer to work, and now Suse doesn't even try to provide that.
With Novell in the game, it looks like Suse is going more commercial. I have been using Mepis for the last month, but I get upset each time it boots since it looses my desktop settings of 8 desktops. I think 'apt-get' is a wonderful package manager and it gives me Ada and all the language tools anyone could want.
I think Ladislav Bodnar is a gift to the Linux world. Thanks for the wonderful website..
22 • FC and apt-get (by AlanS on 2005-06-27 19:23:13 GMT from Australia)
@Bill Savoie: Ada is available on FC as well. I think it is available on most of the multi CD distros. On FC the packages needed are gcc-gnat and libgnat.
In regards to the section of the weekly that deals with FC5. I don't know if it's a good idea for the Fedora Project to come up with a new graphical package manager. I hope that is not what they are thinking of. Would be much better to use Synaptic or whatever the equivelent one is for yum and modify them to suit. While they are at it they could try and bring us a version of apt that is something approaching what has been released in the last 6 months. That way we might be able to use a newer version of synaptic with it.
23 • Debian users... (by sud_crow at 2005-06-27 19:43:09 GMT from Argentina)
Well, you could apply the "tip" to your own package manager:
apt-get xplanet is the same as:
urpmi xplanet in Mandrake
apt xplanet (with atp4rpm in SUSE)
pacman -S xplanet in Arch Linux
emerge xplanet in Gentoo...
And all the other distros with GUI package managers as Red Hat, Ubuntu, Mandrake, SuSE, Frugalware... you can search in those.
----
To Ladislav,
I really liked the new "featured" distribution section. Its good to read about the developers, i hope you keep this new model in the next issues!
24 • FC and apt-get (by AlanS on 2005-06-27 20:03:26 GMT from Australia)
@Bill Savoie: Ada is available on FC as well. I think it is available on most of the multi CD distros. On FC the packages needed are gcc-gnat and libgnat.
In regards to the section of the weekly that deals with FC5. I don't know if it's a good idea for the Fedora Project to come up with a new graphical package manager. I hope that is not what they are thinking of. Would be much better to use Synaptic or whatever the equivelent one is for yum and modify them to suit. While they are at it they could try and bring us a version of apt that is something approaching what has been released in the last 6 months. That way we might be able to use a newer version of synaptic with it.
25 • Re: FC and apt-get (by AlanS on 2005-06-27 20:04:37 GMT from Australia)
Forget that last bit about apt. Was confusing apt with apt4rpm.
26 • AlanS (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-27 21:54:09 GMT from Italy)
"Forget that last bit about apt. Was confusing apt with apt4rpm."
Alan
apt4rpm is APT ported to rpm distros: so you were correct in your previous post (although the actual package "apt4rpm" is for creating an apt repository)
As to FC using APT I don't think so: now they say that yum is better and APT is deprecated (I disagree)
Anyway yum has already a GUI frontend (very poor if compared to Synaptic)
27 • Scott Wilson (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-27 21:57:58 GMT from Italy)
"Last week PureDebian, what a pile of trash."
Same feelings here. I expected some script of any sort to start after the normal Sarge install: nothing at all.
28 • nitroushhh (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-27 22:09:34 GMT from Italy)
"There are 4 'media packs', but its not very clear what they are for, or which ones you should install. People have had problems installing all 4."
You should check dependencies either with YaST (which is hopeless at it) or, if you use apt:
# apt-get -f install
29 • Bill Savoie (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-27 22:33:51 GMT from Italy)
With Novell in the game, it looks like Suse is going more commercial.
Same feelings here. I gave SUSE the boot more than a month ago. I am a happy Kanotix user now.
I don't know if I have outgrown SUSE or if it is indeed getting worse by every release (the only "feature" I liked about 9.3 was Gnome, eventually a decent one)
30 • RE: "Debian users can simply do an apt-get" (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-27 22:50:25 GMT from Italy)
A few thoughts:
1)Debian has more than 120 derivatives
2) The number of people who use Debian or a derivative is probably more than half the total number of linux users
3)Apt (officially or unofficially) has been ported to a number of rpm distros, including SUSE, Fedora and Mandriva
4)Debian has by far the largest number of package available, and not necessarily in the official repositories: a google search "packagename.deb" gives me almost always a repo to add to my sources.list. When a package is only available as a rpm, you still stand a very good chance of using it in your Debian system: alien will do do the trick for you.
And BTW, I think that also Mandriva would have a lot to gain by going Debian :)
31 • Xplanet (by Carlos Eduardo on 2005-06-28 00:06:50 GMT from Brazil)
Xplanet can display the clouds all over the Earth every 3 hours. It can also display states and countries bounderies. Visit http://xplanet.sourceforge.net/maps.php and you'll be amused!
32 • PureDebian and Underground Linux (by William Roddy on 2005-06-28 00:29:05 GMT from United States)
I hate to dis distros, but both PureDebian last week, and Underground Linux this week proved to be a waste of time for any user at any level. These two distros don't come close to the level of so many more distros from which one could chose.
33 • Suse 9.3 (by nightshade on 2005-06-28 01:27:26 GMT from Australia)
After installing suse 9.3 I did the update through YAST and selected the multimedia packs. All functionality of multimedia was returned after this.
34 • re: suse 9.3 dvd... (by dr on 2005-06-28 02:43:07 GMT from Canada)
I would like to know where people are getting the whole 4 gig plus dowjnload of suse 9.3.... as every mirror I check shows the 4 gig eval version but only shows 188mb size when dnloading????? All should have been updated by now.
..dr
35 • More stuff (by Scott Wilson on 2005-06-28 02:53:52 GMT from United States)
I was really thinking "Great, maybe I can get my Brother to switch form Suse to Debian with Puredebian. I was so unhappy with the results.
Fedora just something about it I dont like, I was a long time Red Hat user since version 6.0. SUSE cant complain its great, but I am often feel I am still usung MS Windows, I dont feel that I am free, as I do with Debian, and yes the "apt-get"thing is just a hoot! Actually Doing suse FTP install now, on my laptop, after all I said, I would try it out. :-)
36 • Scott Wilson (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-28 03:21:59 GMT from Italy)
"SUSE cant complain its great, but I am often feel I am still usung MS Windows, I dont feel that I am free, as I do with Debian "
So I am not the only one who feels like that :)
37 • Pure Debian (by Phil Taylor on 2005-06-28 04:48:50 GMT from United States)
Just installed using Pure Debian. (I'm posting this message from it) It was okay. From command prompt did a "startx" and went into Gnome. I'm a KDE guy so I was a little disappointed. Found I could do apt-get install xdebconfigurator and then after running xdebconfigurator and dexconf I can choose my GUI. Was able to go to KDE or other desktops after that. Debian Pure seems okay, but I think it was easier to get to a Debian install using Knoppix or Kanotix. Usable, but not the slickest thing in town. They just gave it a 0.1 release, so I'm willing to see how it improves over time.
38 • You've just *got* to visit the humor links!! (by Ed Borasky on 2005-06-28 05:21:36 GMT from United States)
Man, I haven't laughed that hard in months!! Whoever came up with those, thanks from the bottom of my Gentoo-loving heart!
Gentoo is for Ricers :)
39 • Re: PureDebian and Underground Linux (by Ariszló on 2005-06-28 05:49:19 GMT from Hungary)
I haven't tried PureDebian but Underground Linux is awesome: its is very easy to install, gives you a working environment out of the box, and is extremely fast.
Go get it: http://www.ludos.org
40 • SuSE 9.3......so wat's wrong? (by Eric Yeoh on 2005-06-28 16:02:10 GMT from Malaysia)
I really am unsure why are there so many people dissing a distro just because it has become a commercial success.
Is it so wrong to be a success? Distro coders still need to eat and pay bills. With a commercial distro, it is actually easier for most companies to accept because there is an actual brick and mortar organisation behind it.
Some may be dissapointed with the "crippled" multimedia features of commercial offerings but after Googling around and forums most problems can be solved.
BTW so far SuSE is the only one works with my HP desktop at work and my Acer and Compaq laptops. I need a distro that works and not something that is "seemingly" superior but takes me a long time just to boot the damn CD.
41 • Eric Yeoh (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-28 19:17:46 GMT from Italy)
"I really am unsure why are there so many people dissing a distro just because it has become a commercial success."
That is not the point at all.
I had been using SUSE almost from the beginning, till last month, when I couldn't take it any longer. On the other hand I have the freedom and "the just works" feel of Debian: why keep struggling?
So a few examples of what I don't like about SUSE?
1)It is more and more buggy when it is released. It feels more and more like a rush job. I had to do a lot of compiling in order to get things working. Then it would make more sense to use Gentoo.
2)It is incredibly bloated and slow.
3)I don't like some of their heavy customizations. And every release they come out with some funny new default or "feature" : last year it was FAM disabled by default, now it is the new firewall which doesn't allow the opening of multiple ports...much more
4)Their multimedia support is still subpar or non existing: you have to use apt to get a semidecent one: and yet I couldn't watch any streamings in Kaffeine.
Same problem with P2P: i don't see why you couldn't at least get aBitTorrent client, which linux users use mostly for downloading distros.
Also I don't like the way they sell it: it has to be with bulky, expensive manuals. That can be okay the first time, but not after you have bought it for so many time.
If I really want to use a rpm distro I feel that Fedora or Mandriva are a better choice by now.
42 • suse9.3 (by mark on 2005-06-28 22:23:18 GMT from United States)
azureus and limewire run great
I didnt have any problems with the firewall
except not being able to turn off ping
multimedia runs great
its much faster then centos4 (aka red hat el4)
just my 2 cents
43 • Underground Linux? (by Andy Axnot on 2005-06-28 22:33:58 GMT from United States)
I read 2 comments here on Underground Linux. One very positive, one very negative. Anybody know if it's been reviewed anywhere?
(I just love Distrowatch, btw)
Thanks.
44 • mark (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-28 23:14:27 GMT from Italy)
"its much faster then centos4 (aka red hat el4)"
A matter of personal experience. For me the opposite is true.
Besides CentOS is rock-solid.
The only reason why I don't use it is because you get a limited number of desktop apps for it.
45 • RE: Underground Linux? (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 02:38:35 GMT from Italy)
It is "unusual", pretty even (IMO), but as a Debian system it is utter rubbish: whoever created it didn't have a clue about Debian.
Do you want an excellent one? Try Kanotix.
46 • Dont get me wrong SUSE is great (by Scott Wilson on 2005-06-29 02:48:38 GMT from United States)
Suse provides the best out of the retail box experience. Here in Phoenix, the only two Shrink wrapped package Linux versions that you can buy off the shelf are Red Hat workstation and SUSE. In some ways I really like SUSE, other ways I really hate it. I really dislike Fedora, Maybe the new Fedora foundation verseion will be better. I see the linux would as 5 flavors, Debian based, Red HAt/Fedora based, Slackware based and Mandrake or what ever their name is and Suse. 6 if you count Gentoo. Any way the choice of options is what makes Linux Great. Is the next Distrowatch weekly going to delayed due to the US Holiday? July 4th?
47 • Underground Linux? LOL (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 02:50:17 GMT from Italy)
I just realized that it is made in Italy. So nobody can say that I am partial...
48 • More stuff (by Scott Wilson on 2005-06-29 03:45:28 GMT from United States)
Mr Anonymous Penquin from Italy and the rest of the posters.
Please use a user name, make one up if you dont want to use your name. Please.
Well SUSE ftp install went badly on my notebook, just to be fair I just wiped my Debian machine and am currently install SUSE 9.3 on my machine. I will have to check out Symphony, since I am an Iowan by birth. Kworld I love it, one of real clocks costs about $1500 (US)
49 • Re: Underground Desktop (by Ariszló on 2005-06-29 05:49:12 GMT from Hungary)
Anonymous Penguin wrote: It is "unusual", pretty even (IMO), but as a Debian system it is utter rubbish: whoever created it didn't have a clue about Debian.
Since you are far from being explicite, I can only guess what you mean. Are you saying that Underground Desktop is not a pure Debian System because it uses third-party repositories like
ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/
ftp://ftp.tux.org/java/debian/
http://www.ludos.org/underground/ ?
50 • RE: More stuff (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 05:51:44 GMT from Italy)
"Mr Anonymous Penquin from Italy and the rest of the posters.
Please use a user name, make one up if you dont want to use your name. Please. "
But "Anonymous Penguin" *is* my chosen user name, not because it contains the word "Anonymous"
I have seen the oddest user names, like random sequences of numbers and letters.
At least mine is easy to remember :)
51 • Ariszló (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 05:57:12 GMT from Italy)
"Since you are far from being explicite, I can only guess what you mean. Are you saying that Underground Desktop is not a pure Debian System because it uses third-party repositories like..."
Not at all. I also use plenty of third-party repositories. I mean that it is very poorly configured. Have you tried a dist-upgrade? You'll see immediately what I mean.
52 • Re2: Underground Desktop (by Ariszló on 2005-06-29 07:44:02 GMT from Hungary)
Have you tried a dist-upgrade?
No, because it would not be wise to replace Underground's speed-optimized i686 packages with Debian's legacy-optimized i386 packages. It is hard to both use and not use Debian's repositories.
53 • Ariszló (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 08:36:44 GMT from Italy)
"Have you tried a dist-upgrade?
No, because it would not be wise to replace Underground's speed-optimized i686 packages with Debian's legacy-optimized i386 packages."
Well, that means that you can't install extra packages.
54 • Anonymous Penguin (by Ariszló on 2005-06-29 09:45:21 GMT from Hungary)
Yes, you can install extra packages without a dist-upgrade. Installing additional packages is not the same as replacing already installed ones. It's a pity that the extra packages are built for i386 rather than i686 but a few extra packages won't slow down the system too much.
Even if dist-upgrade sucks at the moment, this is a baby distro, so chances are that dist-upgrade will either be fixed, or Underground will become a fork sticking to its own repositories.
55 • Ariszló (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 12:44:44 GMT from Italy)
" Installing additional packages is not the same as replacing already installed ones. "
Quite often in order to install more packages you need to upgrade their dependencies. That is why I keep my Debian partion always updated.
"Even if dist-upgrade sucks at the moment, this is a baby distro, so chances are that dist-upgrade will either be fixed, or Underground will become a fork sticking to its own repositories."
I see it more like Knoppix, which breaks if you want to dist-upgrade.
But that isn't the only issue. Many other typical Debian configurations are screwed: locales is an example.
56 • The subject is Underground Desktop, not me (by Ariszló on 2005-06-29 20:44:26 GMT from Hungary)
Since this is a new-born distribution, all is flaws are forgivable, IMHO. If I had found as many issues as Anonymous Penguin had then I would report them at the forum, which is here:
http://www.ludos.org/portal/forum/
What I really appreciate is that it is optimized for i686 because running an i486-pessimized distribution on a Pentium 4 machine is not much fun. It also looks pretty (too pretty to my taste but never mind) and it gives you many of the most popular applications out of the box. There is also an FAQ which tells you how to configure the network or add some more applications:
http://www.ludos.org/portal/node/18/
57 • RE: The subject is Underground Desktop, not me (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 21:16:06 GMT from Italy)
Well, I use that formula instead of the ugly (and rude?) "@somebody" that one can now find everywhere.
"If I had found as many issues as Anonymous Penguin had then I would report them at the forum, which is here:"
Well, I try several distros a week. If I find them too far from a reasonably decent standard I simply give up.
58 • And besides... (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-29 21:43:21 GMT from Italy)
"running an i486-pessimized distribution on a Pentium 4 machine is not much fun."
Kanotix runs quite fast here. Many times faster than SUSE, for instance.
59 • Re: And besides (by Ariszló on 2005-06-30 06:50:07 GMT from Hungary)
Yes, there are some exceptions like that. Slackware is easy to explain: although its packages are built for i486, they are optimized for i686 (-march=i486 -mcpu=i686). There are also some distributions that are built for i686 and they are still very slow. Underground is not exceptional: it's built for i686 and it is faster than Kanotix.
60 • Underground Linux and Kanotix (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-06-30 19:45:01 GMT from Italy)
"Underground is not exceptional: it's built for i686 and it is faster than Kanotix."
Do you have some serious benchmarking which can confirm that?
61 • Suse 9.3 (by mariachi on 2005-07-01 22:31:44 GMT from Australia)
Why is it this distro seems to limp like a lame dog on my 3.0ghz p4 ?
This far from removing it entirely and going back to Gentoo.
62 • RE: Suse 9.3 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-07-01 23:07:26 GMT from Italy)
"Why is it this distro seems to limp like a lame dog on my 3.0ghz p4 ?"
SUSE and Gentoo couldn't be more different, opposite almost, from any point of view.
But having said that, almost every distro is faster than SUSE. My favourites are Debian/Debian based, and certainly they are a lot faster than SUSE.
There is only one feature that I really like about SUSE: "repair an installed system" from CD: it can save plenty of time if you are an experienced user, it can save your skin if you are a newbie.
63 • SUSE 9.3 (by Josh on 2005-07-02 02:23:42 GMT from United States)
I got the SUSE 9.2 DVD from a mag. Did not like it, ran very bad on my AMD 64 3000+ PC. But it ran great on my 6 year old Dell. Hope 9.3 is better
64 • Re: Suse 9.3 (by Ariszló on 2005-07-02 08:56:11 GMT from Hungary)
Anonymous Penguin wrote: But having said that, almost every distro is faster than SUSE. My favourites are Debian/Debian based, and certainly they are a lot faster than SUSE.
First a question:
Anonymous Penguin wrote: Do you have some serious benchmarking which can confirm that?
SUSE performs much better on my machines than Fedora.
65 • Speed (by Ariszló on 2005-07-02 09:12:07 GMT from Hungary)
When I first read comments in which some users praised Debian or Fedora as fast distros, all I could think was that love is blind. But perhaps they are all running their beloved distributions on an x86_64 machine where they are not as unbearably slow as they are on a Pentium 4?
Number of Comments: 65
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Otakux
Otakux was an Ubuntu-based distribution designed for "Otaku", a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests in anime, manga and video games. It comes with a custom theme and includes support for most media formats out of the box.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
