 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 111, 1 August 2005 |
Welcome to this year's 31st issue of DistroWatch Weekly. SUSE LINUX has always been developed behind closed doors - some believe that it's time to open up and let the community get involved. Are you curious about the current status of the Enlightenment window manager, version 17? If so, we'll show you how to set it up on the recently released VectorLinux 5.1. Also in this issue: "Freedom Toasters" that dispense distribution CDs across South Africa, and an interview with Jonathan Riddell, the lead developer of Kubuntu. Happy reading!
Content:
"Fedora-izing" SUSE Linux
 Let's start with an interesting opinion about SUSE LINUX, as expressed in this editorial by Linux Magazine. The author of the article argues that the current development model of SUSE doesn't have the right vibe with open source and Linux community and that Novell should consider a different approach:
"It’s pretty darn clear to me that to make mojo, SUSE Linux Professional needs to look deep into its roots and re-birth itself as a public, open source project similar to Fedora. While Novell executives might think twice about copy-catting Red Hat and many of Novell’s critics would undoubtedly categorize such a response as a knee-jerk reaction and a Johnny-come-lately, there are a number of reasons to Fedora-izing SUSE Linux. Heck, I think it would be a better Fedora than Fedora."
The above is certainly true. Unlike the development processes of Fedora or Mandriva, both of which is completely transparent and open to public participation, the development of SUSE LINUX has always been taking place behind closed doors. There is no public directory where interested parties can monitor the development progress or examine SUSE's patches, and there is no public changelog to inform us about current changes. Of course, the SUSE developers have long argued that public testing does not necessarily result in a more bug-free distribution than a carefully designed internal quality control programme. On the other hand, the lack of openness is a concern - for many, the ability to participate in development and beta testing is a major attraction when choosing a Linux distribution.
Where do you stand? Do you think that SUSE should open up its development process and perhaps even create a "SUSE Foundation" with public participation? Or do you believe that the distribution's current development model has proven itself and that it should continue without any major changes? Please discuss below.
VectorLinux 5.1 with Enlightenment 17
 A few weeks ago we published news about Elive, a live CD featuring the Enlightenment window manager. The interest in this project, as well as the new and visually attractive Enlightenment, has been high among our readers and we received many inquiries and comments about both projects. Now we have great news for all the Enlightenment fans out there: the developers of VectorLinux have built Enlightenment 17 packages for their distribution and made them available for free download from VectorLinux mirrors.
We managed to set it up, although, disappointingly, it required more work than we had expected. Here is how we did it. First, we modified our /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc file by adding the source to the Enlightenment packages. We chose the nluug.nl mirror and added the following line:
SOURCE=ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/vectorlinux/veclinux-5.0/packages-test
After saving the file, we updated the list of available packages like this:
slapt-get --update
We expected slapt-get to be able to resolve dependencies automatically, but it wasn't the case, so we proceeded with downloading each package from this directory:
slapt-get --install e e_modules ecore edb edje eet elation elicit embryo emotion entice entrance epeg epsilon esmart etox evas ewl examine express iconbar imlib2 imlib2_loaders imlib2_tools
Next, we edited /etc/XwmMenu.ini to add Enlightenment to the list of available options in the post-login "Start Menu"; we added the following three lines to the end of the file:
Entry 9 Label = - Enlightenment
Entry 9 Execute = enlightenment
Entry 9 Description = Enlightenment window manager
Now we were able to login to Enlightenment and start having fun. Don't expect to be enormously productive - Enlightenment 17 is still in beta and we found that many menu entries were configured with non-existing applications. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see some of the available eye-candy and a refreshing change from the well-established desktops, such as KDE, GNOME or XFce. Definitely worth spending a few hours investigating this alternative desktop!
VectorLinux 5.1 with the latest snapshot of the Enlightenment 17 window manager
(full image size: 463kB)
Freedom Toasters
 If you are lucky enough to live in the beautiful land of South Africa, you'll be pleased to know that you can obtain many popular Linux distributions and FreeBSD for free - from Freedom Toasters. Set up by the Shuttleworth Foundation in various public places across the country, these "vending machines with a touch screen" provide the ability to burn copies of most major distributions on blank CDs or DVDs. The available distributions include the latest versions of Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Impi Linux, Knoppix, Mandriva, Slackware, SUSE, as well as CDs containing popular open source projects, such as OpenOffice.org.
Jason Hudson of the Shuttleworth Foundation explains: "The Freedom Toaster project began as a means of overcoming the difficulty in obtaining Linux and open source software due to the restrictive telecommunications environment in South Africa, where the easy downloading of large software packages is just not possible. The Freedom Toaster is a conveniently located, self-contained 'bring 'n burn' facility, where users bring their own blank discs and make copies of the open source software they require."
Sounds like an interesting idea!
Is Microsoft preparing Linux law suits?
 Is Microsoft getting ready for patent infringements law suits against Linux? There are those who believe that this is indeed the case. Their reasoning was given further credibility last week when an independent survey company representing several major IT players conducted a paid survey among IT decision makers. A large section of this survey was devoted to public perception about how Red Hat Enterprise Linux infringes on Microsoft patents. Here is one of the questions: "Given this statement, would you be more or less likely to believe that Red Hat Enterprise Linux infringes patents owned by Microsoft?"
The survey then went on to present a hypothetical situation that Microsoft granted patent rights to Red Hat, but not to other Linux vendors, then asked: "How would that impact your interest in deploying other brands of Linux in your IT system?"
Is this a beginning of a new Microsoft versus Linux battle? And are we going to witness an endless series of patent infringement law suits against Linux companies? Whatever it is, it seems that the largest software company in the world is getting more and more desperate every day....
|
| Interview: Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu |
Interview: Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu
The Kubuntu distribution is a partner project of Ubuntu Linux. Designed for those who prefer KDE over GNOME, Kubuntu maintains the usual high development standards of its parent project, while providing users with the latest KDE packages throughout the distribution's release cycle. We caught up with Jonathan Riddell, the initiator and lead developer of Kubuntu.
* * * * *
DW: Jonathan, thank you very much for your time. First, can you tell us something about yourself? How old are you? Where do you live? What do you do for living? When and why did you start using Linux?
JR: I'm 23 and live in sunny Edinburgh in Scotland. Mostly I do freelance programming and computer consulting, but sometimes I do rickshaw driving instead to get a change of scene. I started using GNU/Linux in about 1999 when a friend gave me a SUSE CD, I spent a couple of weeks getting X to work but once it was working I discovered KDE and haven't looked back. I've worked on Umbrello UML Modeller and various other parts of KDE.
DW: Kubuntu is essentially a project that brought KDE to Ubuntu. How did it all start? Are you on Canonical's payroll or is Kubuntu a purely volunteer effort?
JR: Sometime last year I blogged about a new super secret project which would become Ubuntu, for a short time I was top hit for "ubuntu linux" in Google. After Warty (the first Ubuntu version) was released Jeff Waugh phoned me up saying they wanted a KDE edition of Ubuntu and shortly after a few of us started working on getting the KDE packages ready.
Kubuntu is a community effort and, just like Ubuntu, a mix of volunteer and paid work. Canonical were kind enough to give me a short contract before the Hoary release and I've got another one for Breezy.
DW: How many developers work on Kubuntu?
JR: We have a growing group of MOTU (Masters of the Universe) developers who look after many of the KDE packages in the archives, we also have Froud who is working hard on the Kubuntu documentation. Basse has done great with much of our artwork (although he has competition from Matea who did our new Konqueror throbber). The rest of the Ubuntu developers are also extremely supportive of Kubuntu and help a lot. I should also thank the Debian KDE-Qt team who make the packages we base ours off.
We're always looking for more helpers, good ways to help are mentioned in HelpingKubuntu.
DW: Kubuntu was released at the same time as Ubuntu, with the then latest version of KDE. Later, when an updated version of KDE came out, you released a new set of ISO images and provided an apt repository for the latest KDE. Are you planning to continue with this practice? And what is the policy with these "special" releases - are the updated KDE and KOffice debs officially supported or is this just an unofficial service to users who want the latest KDE packages?
JR: One of the great features of Kubuntu and Ubuntu is that they are kept up to date with the latest releases. The KDE and KOffice update packages are not as well tested as the definitive releases but I do support them in the same manner. They are also extremely popular. In the future I'd like to also make packages of KDE SVN snapshots to help developers and testers.
DW: I noted on several forums that some users have been complaining about the quality of KDE packages in Kubuntu. They say that these packages are buggy and that Kubuntu is not as stable as Ubuntu. What can you say about this? Have you received any similar complaints?
JR: We did have some problems with overlapping files which took longer than it should have to get fixed due to the C++ transition blocking new packages in the archives. Other significant problems have included a beastie in KControl stopping you from using administrator rights, this is a general problem with KDE but seems to occur more frequently because of our sudo changes; Kopete was also caught out by a change in MSN's protocol which Gaim was fortunate enough to not be affected by. These are the sort of issues which happen to all distributions, but I am aiming for 100% bug free in Kubuntu Breezy :)
DW: What is your favourite package management utility - Synaptic, Kynaptic, or the good old apt-get? Which one would you recommend for novice Linux users?
JR: I use apt-get but really none of these are good enough for novice users. For future versions expect us to move towards more user-orientated package managers. The gnome-app-install application is a good start in this area but we want to do a lot better.
DW: The Kubuntu developers seem to have made some important modifications to Konqueror. Can you tell us more?
JR: There aren't any significant changes in Hoary's Konqueror, but for Breezy I'm looking into using Konqueror's "simplebrowser" interface.
Konqueror's "simplebrowser" interface
DW: The developers of Ubuntu tend to make "milestone" releases during the distribution's development cycle, but this is not the case with Kubuntu. Why not? Will we see any beta and RC releases before the final release of Kubuntu 5.10?
JR: We haven't been able to do a Colony test CD yet because KDE has been so heavily affected by the C++ transition from GCC 3.3 to 4.0 and the archives are now going through changes to the X packages. Users who want to live on the edge can try a daily build. We should have known usable Colony test CDs for Kubuntu soon and we will have preview, release candidate and final releases in line with the Breezy schedule..
DW: What other additions can we expect in the next release?
JR: I'm looking to use System Settings as a replacement for KControl.
System Settings as a replacement for KDE Control Centre
One small addition that I really like is a nifty item launcher called Katapult.
The "Katapult" item launcher
It's not yet clear if KDE 3.5 will be released in time for Kubuntu Breezy, the KDE 3.5 release schedule will be set depending on when the KDE 4 branch becomes ready for application development. But when KDE 3.5 does come out, we'll be the first with packages.
DW: Jonathan, thank you very much for answering our questions.
|
| Released Last Week |
Scientific Linux 3.0.5
This is the fifth release of Scientific Linux 3.x series: "Scientific Linux (SL) release 3.0.5 for i386 has been released. Release 3.0.5 took a little longer than we expected, but it is finally here. We wish to thank all the testers, those who sent us patches and suggestions, and all those who have given us kind words of encouragement. Scientific Linux release 3.0.5 is based on the rebuilding of RPMS out of SRPMs from Enterprise 3 AS, including Update 5. Its biggest improvement over 3.0.4 is perhaps the addition of Firefox and Thunderbird, as well as newer, and hopefully better, kernel modules." Find more details in the release announcement and release notes.
ADIOS Linux 4.12
An updated version of ADIOS Linux has been released: "ADIOS 4.12 live boot CD is the latest version based on Fedora Core 3.0, kernel 2.6.12, SELinux, SquashFS, Unionfs, KDE, IceWM, OpenOffice and User Mode Linux virtual machines with kernel 2.6.12 for LIDS and SELinux. It seems to be stable, fewer complaints so far. ADIOS-selinux 4.13 pre-release 1 is working using targetted security policies (removed OpenOffice.org to make it fit on a 650MB CD). The YETAA-0.2 toolkit to make your own Fedora Core 4 live CDs allowed me to make a personal workstation from the FC4 installation CDs." The release announcement can be found on the project's news page.
VectorLinux 5.1
VectorLinux 5.1 "Standard" has been released: "The developers of VectorLinux are proud to announce that the latest version, 5.1 Standard Edition, is available from our FTP site and the various mirrors. We think you will find this a fast, easy-to-install and very robust operating system that can be used on older hardware and new as well. Slackware is our core and we bring many things to the table that a modern desktop should have, like auto hardware configuration, the latest 2.6.x kernel, automounting of USB devices, and a real package management with dependency checking...." The release announcement.
Kubuntu 5.04.5 Live CD
Following the release of KDE 3.4.2, an updated Kubuntu 5.04 live CD is now also available for download: "KDE 3.4.2 released with Kubuntu packages and live CD. KDE 3.4.2 has been released. You can download Kubuntu packages from any of these deb sources (add to sources.list). A live CD is available based on Kubuntu Hoary with all current updates, KDE 3.4.2 and KOffice 1.4.1. The packages have also been uploaded to our breezy development version." Read the release announcement for further details.
Klax Live-CD 3.4.2
Another interesting live CD with the brand new KDE 3.4.2 (besides Kubuntu) is Klax. With its primary goal to showcase the KDE desktop environment, along with other KDE applications, such as KOffice, Klax is an excellent bootable CD for testing and demonstration purposes. A new version was released yesterday: "Klax KDE 3.4.2 Live-CD: an ISO size of 330 MB; all KDE 3.4.2 modules except kdebindings; Qt 3.3.4 with qt-copy patches, K3b 0.12.2 and KOffice 1.4.1." Unlike Kubuntu, which is based on Debian, Klax is based on Slackware Linux and SLAX. More details are available on the project's home page.
SNAPPIX 0.9
SNAPPIX is a KNOPPIX-based live CD with many open source Java components integrated into one compact package. A new version was released yesterday: "SNAPPIX 0.9 'OSCON' showcases the open source components in SNAP Platform 0.9, which feature the SableVM open source Java VM, GNU Classpath library, and Jikes compiler, the Apache Ant build tool, the Jython scripting language, plus the Eclipse universal tool platform, and the Tomcat servlet and JSP container. SNAPPIX 0.9 contains Mono 1.1.6, MonoDevelop 0.7.0.0, MonoDoc 1.0.6-3, and XSP 1.0.5.0. MonoDevelop features full syntax-highlighting and debugging integration of C# applications for the Mono environment." See the release notes for more details.
Onebase DevelopGo 1.0
The developers of Onebase Linux have announced the release of a new product - DevelopGo 1.0: "The Onebase Linux Project is pleased to announce the availability of 'Live Development Platform' for programmers. DevelopGo is a special live CD that comes with over 11 languages, 5 popular integrated development environments, 4 GUI designers, 5 GUI tool kits, extensive language bindings, wide collection of offline documentation, and with core Onebase support - all in a single live CD. Read the features page for more details on the software included in it. Note: It also comes with multimedia support." Read the release notes for further information.
X/OS Linux 4.0
X/OS Linux is a distribution built by compiling source RPMs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Version 4.0 has been released: "After some delay, the final release of X/OS Linux 4.0 is now available to the public. Highlights include the 2.6 Linux kernel featuring numerous enhancements over the previous 2.4 version, Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) to apply more granular security policies, improved storage capabilities supporting file systems of up to 8TB and more. The Global File System (GFS) and Cluster Suite software is included in this release to ease the task of creating and managing advanced cluster configurations, and is available as an extra option during installation." Here is the complete release announcement.
Famelix 1.1
Famelix is a Brazilian Linux live CD designed for potential Windows converts - complete with a familiar look and feel of Windows XP. A new version 1.1 has been released after some six months in development; it includes a new kernel with patches for bootsplash and supermount, a number of updated packages, such as KDE 3.3.2 and OpenOffice.org 2.0 beta, multilingual support, and other optimizations. Find more details in the official release announcement and in this discussion at BR-Linux.org (both links in Portuguese).
Famelix 1.1 - a new release with a Windows XP theme for KDE
(full image size: 764kB)
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Progeny Debian 3.0
The developers of Progeny Debian have published a roadmap leading towards stable release 3.0: "Progeny is pleased to announce that, beginning in August 2005, Componentized Linux will become a fully supported Progeny product." The final release of Progeny Debian 3.0 Developer Edition is scheduled for 26 September, following two previews and one release candidate. For more information, please see this roadmap.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Web Site News |
July 2005 donation: The GNOME Foundation receives US$425
We are pleased to announce that the recipient of our July 2005 donation is the GNOME Foundation. As one of the two main desktop environments on Linux and UNIX, GNOME is certainly a project worth supporting. It has come a long way since a few years ago and has matured into a clean and stable desktop with superb support for dozens of languages and writing systems. GNOME is the default desktop on some of the most popular distributions out there, including Fedora Core, Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu Linux. It also ships with Mandriva Linux, SUSE LINUX and a number of other distributions.
As always, our donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch and LinuxCD.org, which contributes US$50 every month. LinuxCD.org is an online store selling low-cost Linux/BSD CDs - they have the largest selection, inclusive of all the latest releases, and they offer the lowest prices. Next time you need to order your favourite Linux or BSD CDs, get them from LinuxCD.org.
This is the PayPal receipt for our donation:
Dear DistroWatch.com,
This email confirms that you have paid GNOME Foundation $425.00 USD using PayPal.
------------------------------
Payment Details:
------------------------------
Transaction ID: 12469669PN090980G
Total: $425.00 USD
Item/Product Name: Sponsor level donation ($250.00 - $999.99)
Item/Product Number: 104
Buyer: DistroWatch.com
Message: This is a donation by DistroWatch.com as part of our programme to support open source projects. Keep up the good work!
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
Since the launch of the DistroWatch Donations Programme in March 2004, we have donated a total of US$4,655 to various Free Software projects.
New distribution additions
- Klax. Klax Live-CD is a Linux live CD based on Slackware Linux and SLAX. Its primary goal is to showcase the latest KDE desktop environment and related applications, such as KOffice, on a live CD for demonstration purposes.
- Musix GNU+Linux. Musix GNU+Linux is a KNOPPIX-based live and installation CD with a large collection of free audio software.
New on the waiting list
- GentooTH Live CD/USB Linux. GentooTH is a Ukrainian live CD based on Gentoo Linux.
- IOSN Live CD. IOSN Live CD is a bootable CD that boots into a usable and fully featured Linux desktop. In addition to standard FOSS productivity and multimedia applications, it is bundled with a "User Guide to Using the Linux Desktop" in print and multimedia formats as well as several IOSN Free/Open Source Software primers.
DistroWatch database summary
Holiday notice
By the time you read this issue of DistroWatch Weekly I will be more than likely enjoying myself on a white sandy beach of an Indian Ocean island. That's right, folks, it's time to take a break! DistroWatch has been a full-time occupation for me and most of you will probably agree that I've done a decent job and deserve a little holiday every once in a while ;-). The site will, however, continue to function as normal - the news will be published by Dr Zhu, while the August 8 issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be written by Adam Doxtater of the Mad Penguin fame.
That's all for this week. We hope you've enjoyed this issue of 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 • First in Line (by piale on 2005-08-01 10:31:33 GMT from Mauritius)
i Just want to know what Microsoft is afraid of when it comes to GnuLinux Since they think they have the best Os in the world. Why can't he live and lets us live also
2 • Fedora-izing the suse distro (by Markus on 2005-08-01 10:34:35 GMT from Germany)
Hi,
indeed, some changes are quite better for Suse, but on the other
hand: Whats about Suse-izing of Fedora? e.g. the Package Manager
of Fedora has to be "Yast-izised".
Just my flat
bye,
Markus
3 • Debianization of SuSE and Fedora (by hobbitland on 2005-08-01 10:46:39 GMT from United Kingdom)
I will say Debianization of SuSE and Fedora would be nice.
4 • Microsoft Preparing Linux Lawsuits (by EPedersen on 2005-08-01 11:01:44 GMT from United States)
I am thinking that there may be more to the Microsoft and Red Hat story coming in the future. It is possible that I am mixing facts with hearsay and rumor, however, I think that the two companies are in the early stages of negotiating some business together. We have the proported "mystery luncheon meeting" between the two companies. We have Microsoft showing interest in the open source model by hiring Mr. Robbins, a former Gentoo developer (so that MS could learn more about the open source model). We have the paid survey as mentioned in this weeks DistroWatch article: "hypothetical situation that Microsoft granted patent rights to Red Hat, but not to other Linux vendors, then asked: "How would that impact your interest in deploying other brands of Linux in your IT system? ( I read this as: If Microsoft endorsed Red Hat would you still use Novell, Debian.. et al?)
We have the announcement of the Fedora Foundation- thus spinning off Red-Hat development into it's own segment.
I think that MS and Red Hat will eventually form a business relationship wherebye Microsoft will represent the Windows segment and Red-Hat will represent the Open Source segment- and it will all be under the same "Red Mond" roof.
5 • SUSE - Fedora (by Philip Moore on 2005-08-01 11:28:09 GMT from United States)
I think that SUSE turning into a project like Fedora is a great idea. I have thought of that before. I believe it would be best for the long term viability of the distro. It would also more then likely increase their market share which is alway a good thing.
6 • Debianization of SuSE and Fedora (by hobbitland on 2005-08-01 11:29:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
I will say Debianization of SuSE and Fedora would be nice.
7 • Great Work Ladislav (by Mark Kowarsky on 2005-08-01 11:41:47 GMT from Australia)
Thankyou for another excellent distrowatch weekly. You do an excellent job for the OS community. Enjoy your holidays.
8 • Opening SuSE (by Dave Mitchell on 2005-08-01 11:42:38 GMT from Australia)
I'd switch to SuSE tomorrow if it was opened up. At the moment, I'm using Ubuntu and Mepis, primarily because they're Debian-based and I like the philosophy of Debian.
However, there are some things that are difficult to do with Debian-based distros that are available "out of the box" in SuSE. I've thought of bringing up one box in SuSE, but am having second thoughts because of the closed nature of the distro. Open it, and I'll be on board.
9 • Anti-RH FUD (by Anonymous on 2005-08-01 11:43:23 GMT from United States)
EPedersen,
I'm sure you mean well, but your speculation is FUD of Microsoftic proportions. Please don't unwittingly play into their hands, because they it appears they are realizing how endangered their business model will become over the next several years. They are starting to get desparate, now (far ahead of schedule) -- and a desparate Microsoft will be a dangerous thing.
Red Hat is one of a handful of vendors that has kept their distribution purely Open Source. In fact, every new aquisition becomes Open Sourced, whether it's Cygwin, Netscape server, etc. In addition, Red Hat has proven to be a leader in the fight against anti-innovative patents and in protecting Free and Open Source software. You might do well to review their positions on these matters, then ask if your OS vendor does the same:
http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Red-Hat-wants-the-patent-legislation-changed-2653.shtml
http://www.redhat.com/opensourcenow/key_issues.html
And, here, you may find the respective positions of three leading Linux companies:
http://www.redhat.com/magazine/001nov04/features/patents/
10 • microsoft (by Anonymous on 2005-08-01 12:36:18 GMT from United States)
since MS dosent like linux or mac for the fact. If they buy them out or have a law suit that stopps the creation of the softwaer from a developer, that would clearly state that they have a monoply.
11 • Anti-RH FUD (by EPedersen on 2005-08-01 13:01:31 GMT from United States)
I didn't mean to suggest any malice or contempt at all in my previous post. I was simply stating what I see as a possible merger of MS and Red Hat in the future. You have stated it well yourself: "they (Microsoft) are realizing how endangered their business model will become over the next several years. They are starting to get desparate, now (far ahead of schedule)"
I agree with you. If the battle of fighting Open Source is too large, then why not encompass the battle and bring Linux into it's own offering. Thus my prognostication that MS and Red Hat will forge into some agreement in the future. This has neither good nor bad ramifications yet. It is simply what I predict for the future.
12 • M$ (by AnoBG on 2005-08-01 13:11:52 GMT from Bulgaria)
It is clear for everyone that MicroSoft is a monopoly in a real-world terms. So what? US government will not pursue for monopolistic behaviour such a big tax payer. Linux companies should base their operations in EU, which (hopefully) recently relaxed the software patents unlike the efforts of the big software companies.
13 • New Distro (by Jeff on 2005-08-01 13:25:43 GMT from United States)
Debian is my favorite distro. Debianization is fine by me. Debianizing other distros should be done carefully as to not destroy that distro's strengths.
Has anyone worked with Debian Pure? www.debianpure.com They also have a Mepis remaster available. Anyone else working with it?
14 • KUBUNTU (by superstoned on 2005-08-01 13:37:10 GMT from Netherlands)
they should definately delay the breezy release for KDE 3.5... after all, the release schedule of ubuntu (which they follow) is based on gnome's release schedule. so kubuntu's should be based on KDE's schedule, imho!
15 • EU may have stopped the software patents but europe is nobetter. (by Scott Wilson on 2005-08-01 13:39:40 GMT from United States)
"Linux companies should base their operations in EU, which (hopefully) recently relaxed the software patents unlike the efforts of the big software companies." The EU is no better, sure they found MS gulity being a monopoly. Lets make them unbundle the media player, Yes we are great powerful OZ. See we care about about you...Have you notice how all of the streaming media is now Windows Media player. We need to get companies to produce cross platform apps, makeing a knock off "opensource" program is not the answer, then we would nt have to worry about patent lawsuits. I dont know about Europe but every other Commerial (or so it seems to be MS promtional PR, Thast is were we are getting or rear ends kicked!
16 • RH (by Chuck at 2005-08-01 13:56:38 GMT from United States)
RedHat has, as far as I can tell, done nothing to make people think they are anything but open. just look at the number of RH based distros out, Fedora, CentOS, Whitebox, and others that are easily found on DW.
17 • YAST? Sure if the only medium to update from were CDs/DVDs (by escapenguin on 2005-08-01 14:31:39 GMT from United States)
First, YAST is horrible. If you don't think so, you probably just haven't used anything better.
I've tried SUSE sporadically year after year, and YAST always pissed me off so much I'd get rid of it. It never changes, it's still unintelligent, frustrating, idiotic. Even if that's not possible for a program, it's idiotic the developers keep putting it out year after year and never fixing it. Especially since everyone complains about it! I think this would be a good time for SUSE to suck up their damn pride and try implementing something better.
I support the Debanizing of SUSE if that means we don't have to wait a decade per release, and get something that's comparatively stable without the annoying political nonsense.
18 • The Gates Fall, (MS can't fly with broken wings!). (by Carl Hewlett on 2005-08-01 14:42:48 GMT from United States)
It is time for the people to vote with their wallets! Just pull the plug on Bill Gates and his band of pirates, (don't purchase the new software distros). Get Open source into the schools. Thats the real breeding ground for change. The kids will get the message and spead it to home use. (Thats the MAC model from the 80's, (Remeber)). Don't worry so much about the future, act now. You can't sit around, and worry about how fast the corn is going to go thru your body, (or you will not gather more corn)! I am helping the schools in Fitzgerald, GA, United States, change over to UBUNTU. This is a start for our area. Get out and preech to the new users, (not the converted). Remember that you eat an elephant one bite at the time.
Thanks,
Carl Hewlett
Product Engineer
Hewlett Design & Development
19 • Suse just fine (by Buster Ellis on 2005-08-01 14:46:17 GMT from Canada)
If Suse finds itself in trouble, then change the process. But personally, I find the solidity and reliability of Suse very pleasant just the way it is - and there is room for it in the Linux galaxy. We have Fedora, Mandriva and Debian for those who wish to participate in a distro, and many more opportunities with clones based upon these distros. I vote for leaving Suse alone until it has to change, if that time ever comes.
20 • Applause for the DW donation programme (by Tofu Bandit on 2005-08-01 15:11:43 GMT from United States)
I must applaud distrowatch and Ladislav for the DW donations programme. It's great to see so many worthwhile projects receiving support from this site (and community). $4655 is an impressive number.
Everytime there's been a large consensus built in the comments for a certain project to receive the donation, Ladislav has gone with that project. When there isn't a consensus or the comments are otherwise silent on the subject and we learn of the donation in the DW Weekly, I always find myself saying, "yeah, yeah - that was exactly the right project to choose."
Bravo, Ladislav, bravo!
21 • Media on the Web (by William Roddy on 2005-08-01 15:38:50 GMT from United States)
Almost every Web site is increasing its video streaming content. Some, like the BBC and the New York Times, give the option of RealPlayer or WMP. Others, like CNN, CBS -- and far too many others -- require WMP.
The only way I know of to stream media from some of the places I want to view is to use MPlayer and the w32codes. A few distributions, like KANOTIX, come with multimedia install (except for w32codecs). Others, like Ubuntu, do not (for reasons of open-source philosophies). In the case of Ubuntu, a very good distribution, one cannot install MPlayer at all, due to dependency conflicts.
As I see it, this is currently the most prominent hurdle for Linux to cross, in trying to present universally user-friendly distributions.
Is there now any other simple way with which to stream all media content using Linux? What is the solution?
Have a great holiday, Ladislav. And congratulations on another excellent issue.
William
22 • Maybe Mandriva is a better target than Fedora? (by Buchan Milne on 2005-08-01 15:40:03 GMT from Mauritius)
Until all aspects of Fedora are *really* open to the community (http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/ still says CVS write access is a long way away - the "real soon now" has been there for almost 2 years now), I think Mandriva would be a better target to aim for if you're asking about seeing more community involvement in the distro.
(maintainer of a number of packages in the "main" repository of Mandriva)
23 • Suse (by Mereo on 2005-08-01 15:43:28 GMT from Canada)
I also think we should leave Suse alone. Even if Suse disappear oneday, I won't mind at all ^_^. Because no matter how hard Suse tries, it can't do better than Red Hat and it can't be free/open like Ubuntu either. The thing is once you go commercial for a such long time, hard to go back...
24 • What can't Debian do? (by DaveW on 2005-08-01 15:56:05 GMT from United States)
Dave Mitchell, you said "However, there are some things that are difficult to do with Debian-based distros that are available "out of the box" in SuSE."
I use Mepis and have never tried Suse, so I'm curious as to what you can do with Suse that's difficult with Mepis. Ubuntu, I can understand you have to install non-free apps like Real and Acrobat yourself if you want to, but not with Mepis. Care to elaborate?
25 • Exactly who doesn't need it gets the moeny! (by Great on 2005-08-01 16:05:40 GMT from United States)
" We are pleased to announce that the recipient of our July 2005 donation is the GNOME Foundation."
So the most commercially backed project with loads of $ from Novell, Sun and other companies gets Distrowatch's largest donation. Might as well have given Microsoft some of that money!
26 • Next Donation (by Alan Moser on 2005-08-01 18:03:05 GMT from United States)
I think that the next donation should go to the Mozilla Foundation, I mean, they have done so much to help push open source into mainstream computing (Firefox). I think it would be a nice thank you toward those developers
~Alan
27 • Next donation (by hughesjr on 2005-08-01 18:13:12 GMT from United States)
The CentOS Project would also be a good donation target.
http://www.centos.org/
(There have been several recent announcements for RHEL rebuild releases, most of them at least a month AFTER CentOS has already released that specific version)
28 • SUSE (by edwin at 2005-08-01 18:52:08 GMT from Peru)
SUSE is the best distro in the market IMO, the only problem is that it is not clear if they (Novell) will sometime in the future change their license policies or if it always be available as until now.
I use it in a 24x7x365 produntion environment for 2 years with no problem I also use it in the desktop and all the software just works with little or no intervention (dvd, mp3, printing, etc).
I' have tested RH4, Debian3.x, Slackware x.x, Mandr* x.x, etc, etc but SUSE is unbeatable.
I must also add, that for teaching I use Debian (because of their filosophy), but if SUSE were as open as Debian I would certainly use SUSE.
29 • RH (by Anonymous on 2005-08-01 19:22:39 GMT from United States)
The way I see it.
As it is now and MS knows it next year...
Just like XP 5 years ago.
Windows vista will cost too much for people to buy a "home" edition. Not enough is new so there is no reason to upgrade.
MS wants to secure out the hackers and everyone who doesn't have a agreement/license with MS. Some will buy new computers with Windows Vista on it.
Phase one...
Windows has a agreement that lets RH market a home edition with the 64bit NTFS, w32codecs and win modem drivers etc. (sell for $100 a year US per PC if you have XP $200 if you don't, raise it $25 a year).
MS then has law suits with everyone else.
Drop updates for XP. Waits...
Phase two...
Everyones parents and uncles buy "Windows Vista Home powered by Red Hat" so they can play blue ray DVD's (or other new large format) because their TV's won't play them or they'll have to buy the media center edition of windows vista.
Then if all goes well with the courts, buy RH and let it die on the vine or just end the agreement. Pull all codecs on a "monthly security update" or let it display in black and white with mono sound and a big ghost windows logo on screen.
Everyone buys windows vista full version for home or a media center for each of their TV's. Oh, and don't forget 4:3 broadcast TV (analog) goes black in US in a little over a year in the US and we'll have to buy cable type boxes (or media center PC's) for us to get by the DRM for reruns on PBS for free. Or buy the boxes and pay double for your cable or satelite TV.
The perfect storm?
30 • Suse (by james on 2005-08-01 19:53:25 GMT from United States)
Suse is great go! suse i see it at all of the stores that means anyone can get it ! they say the have over 500 workers ! so thats that
Distrowatch rules !
31 • SuSE should NOT be Fedora'ed... (by torque2k on 2005-08-01 21:04:48 GMT from United States)
I've used both SuSE and RH for about six years now, as well as many others such as Gentoo and Debian/Ubuntu. Of all distros, SuSE and RH have been the most stable for the long haul. I've still got a server running RH 7.2, and I'll probably leave it alone until it dies.
When Fedora Core 1 was released, I tried it. It was OK, but I preferred RH 9. FC2 came out, and I was hooked! It performed better on my desktops and notebooks than anything else, even SuSE. But once SuSE 9 came out, I started seeing the benefits of heavy commercial support (in a business environment). RHEL was a step forward as well, and didn't break like FC seemed to, but it was more outdated than SuSE at every release.
Fedora Core 3 came out, and I swear I broke the CDs after trying to get it stable on two desktops and a notebook. Fedora Core 4 was OK on the desktops again, but the notebooks I tried it on were broken within minutes of installing.
SuSE 9.1 was almost flawless on all of my machines. I skipped 9.2 because it was so good. When I recently downloaded 9.3 (yeay, Novell!), I was again floored with how well it picked up all of my hardware, including my Lucent modems and D-Link (atheros) 54G cards!
If Fedora is the future, and SuSE/Novell is being asked to follow its development path, I'm afraid for SuSE's future. Please DON'T open SuSE. There are plenty of other distros out there for people who don't like the way it's developed. For those of us looking for a stable Windows replacement, Novell's got the right mix.
And I don't mind YaST at all. Haven't had it fail on me yet for any reason.
32 • Suse is Great (by Jeremy on 2005-08-01 21:34:58 GMT from United States)
I think the last thing Novell should do is to follow in Fedora's footsteps. Suse is a great distro. Far better than Fedora in my opinion. Novell shouldn't change a thing unless they absolutely have to in order to keep Suse alive. If it isn't broken, don't fix it!!
33 • "Fedora-izing" SUSE Linux (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-01 22:21:04 GMT from Italy)
I am in favour.
Everything you do to SUSE can only make it better.
This comes from somebody who until 3 months ago dual booted SUSE and Debian, who was in love with SUSE 9.0 and has posted literally thousands of times to help other users with SUSE.
Now I wonder how I could like both SUSE and Debian: in a word: Debian is pure freedom, SUSE is a straitjacket.
34 • And BTW... (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-01 22:25:06 GMT from Italy)
SUSE has a really big community of developers and the number of packages you can get from SUSE apt is simply amazing.
Therefore SUSE makes a very good candidate to become a community project.
Thanks Ladislav for suggesting this discussion.
35 • "Fedora-izing" SUSE Linux. (by anonymous linux user on 2005-08-01 22:57:07 GMT from United States)
I have used both Red Hat, and Suse for a long time (about 5 yrs), lamost every version.
For a long time, I thought SuSE had something complementing Red Hat: better hardware detection and support, and an better system management tool (YAST).
Also I prefered the better KDE support by SuSe.
I loved both distros for their stability overall (in my view) superior to most distros.
Now (summer 2005), I am having second thoughts:
I still love Suse's YAST, as a better integrated system management tool, but in many areas, Fedora has made significant progresses, and (to me) is much more stable, reliable.
Also Fedora kept (in my view) a good balance of a clean system (not blooted by unnecessarry stuff) when SuSE seems to have spent more times to make ethically questionable screens than enhancing its base which is a stable system, easy to maintain.
So Fedorazing SuSE or SuSefying Fedora would make lots of sense, since they have both complementary qualities...
I am wondering how much time is Red Hat or the Fedora "crew of volunters" spending designing a better system managment tool?
Actually, most of the pieces already exist, in KCONTROL, SYNAPTIC, the old KPACKAGE, and the little fragmented system-config-xxxxx utilities....
On SuSe, I would say from my unsatisfactory 9.3 experience:
1) Focus on bug cleanning, and better hardware support.
2) Better support XFS (even FC4 could enhance this).
3) Forget any super fancy eyes candy, KDE and Gnome both do a great job there.
4) Keep it simple, open please!
5) Provide a release candidate for "hackers to test" at least 3 month before release.
On Fedora:
1) Continue and keep the good job.
2) Make it easier to use even for "non geeks" by providing a better system managment tool(s), allowing (like Suse does well) most system action to be done in a few mouse clicks.
To both:
Try to no fragment Linux too much, this has killed UNIX in the past.
Ideally RPM packages should all run on both distros without requiring specific Fedora or SUSE RPM's!
Here product differentiation obtaine at the cost of incompatibility is (too me) a major mistake.
But product differentiation obtained by providing what is usefull... and missing to the competion, is the place to look at.
Hope I did not step on someon'es feet !
36 • mepis open or closed (by mike wahlstrom on 2005-08-01 23:24:09 GMT from Canada)
I was reading on the Mepis forums that Warren Woodford does not release his code as open source. Is this true.
I don't think all code has to be open source, but when you make your base around open source you should do the same thing. I really like mepis but if this is true I will never use it again.
37 • Arch linux rocks (by mike wahlstrom on 2005-08-01 23:29:32 GMT from Canada)
I think Arch linux should get the donation. Arch linux is one of the most underrated linux distros. It is not a rehash of another distro it is its own distro. If you like gentoo you will love Arch linux.
What do you think of Arch linux?
38 • SUSE LINUX (by mike wahlstrom on 2005-08-01 23:38:09 GMT from Canada)
The best distros for community involvement are gentoo, ubuntu, debian
This is the main reason that these distros are so popular especially ubuntu
If Suse wants to open up the development of their distro they should look at these distros
Fedora had problems at first but it looks like they are stating to get the hang of it. Fedora is a good project don't give up on it.
39 • How to install Enlightenment 17 to Vectorlinux (by lnxbrzr1 at 2005-08-01 23:50:58 GMT from Canada)
Thanks Ladislav for the article on installing E17 on VL5.1
Here is my 'hassle free' way to install E17 on VLSOHO 5.01:
Go to http://www.linuxpackages.net (an excellent Slackware
site) and download enlightenment-0.17.0.cvs (slackware version
10.1 packaged by Adi Roiban) to your /home directory.
Open Konqueror file manager and right click on the enlightenment
file that you just downloaded and from the dropdown menu
select ACTIONS>VECTORLINUX PACKAGE>INSTALL.
Now that Enlightenment is installed: log out of the current
session and log back in> select session>enlightenment.
This is not the only distribution that uses E16 or 17 that is
installable.
Alinux (Peanut linux) has enlightenment configured with
'eye candy' (audio too!)
Lnxbrzr1linuxmailorg
As Usual
Your Mileage May Vary
40 • SUSE LINUX (by mike wahlstrom on 2005-08-02 00:03:49 GMT from Canada)
The best distros for community involvement are gentoo, ubuntu, debian
This is the main reason that these distros are so popular especially ubuntu
If Suse wants to open up the development of their distro they should look at these distros
Fedora had problems at first but it looks like they are stating to get the hang of it. Fedora is a good project don't give up on it.
41 • Red Hat is utmostly venal (by Enrico Fermi on 2005-08-02 00:10:56 GMT from Canada)
Don't forget Red Hat introduced Linux to the stock Exchange. The GPL was never intended for such an endeavour, but Bob Young knew he thus could get Red Hat a reputation of solidity, not for its technical merits, but because it could then stand loosing millions for decades without facing bankruptcy. (Don't forget the second offering was at around $100 / share!)
How it seemingly escaped every suit investors launched against it is anyone's guess, but one thing is sure: Red Hat is a money company, its administrators believe in nothing else. While developers couldn't get their hands on the shares they were promised, Bob Young and his wife got all theirs and they sold before the bubble was completely deflated. The couple is now pretty close to being billionnaires without Bob ever writing a line of code. (At least, Gates did!) Red Hat never looked back at how it has drained just about every source of financing for other Linux distros by giving investors a dreaful experience with Linux. (Mandrake got next to nothing from Euronext Marché Libre and SuSE had to surrender to Novell.)
So if Microsoft was to offer a nice lump, Red Hat would consider it an offer it can't refuse. Red Hat is utmostly venal, it would go for any deal with the devil himself.
This fact couldn't escape Microsoft's attention.
42 • win?Linux (by titiv on 2005-08-02 01:02:43 GMT from France)
I am not certain of the fututure but obviously the NIET NO NON from Europe to the patents have already some effect on our friend Bill.
He most probably had preapared his fututre move against Linux but have to wait now, and for sure take an other angle for it's attacks.
The time for rivality has just begin I guess, and if you have a chance have a look on the the win-Vista beta and I guess you will understand that the next move is not in the challenger camp, " they" must do something for sure now, because there product is a "crap", they will not have other choice (if you add the apple X arrival ....).
In a war unfortuntaly there is deads, betrayers but as well heroes, just the end will show the winner and I only hope that it will not be the money for the money this time.
Money is important Ubuntu by exemple could not exist without his rich donator it's just a matter how and why you use it.
The world is changing and as some "superpuissance" Microsoft would like to keep it as it is and as a "superpuissance" they will not care of the "colaterals casualties ".unfortunatly for us the only way is to resist.
43 • Vector 5.1 Linux on what mirrors? (by ChiJoan on 2005-08-02 01:29:00 GMT from United States)
Is anyone else able to download it? First I thought it was my WinXP and other programs blocking them. But I couldn't get it on newly installed Vector 5.0 SOHO either. I need to try the new version to see if it will auto-detect where my VGA monitor is pluged into. The motherboard video is too old to use...640x480 and why do some Linux distros work right (Linspire 4.5) and others not?
Thanks for a great site, also thanks for the Puppy Linux news. They continue to grow this lifesaver of a distro. Ever have the RAM die on your laptop and need to conect to the Web? Windows sure couldn't do it in 64 RAM. Maybe some day the UbuntoLite people will think better of me mentioning it to them.
Have a good rest,
ChiJoan
44 • No subject (by vampire_janus@yahoo.com on 2005-08-02 02:00:47 GMT from Philippines)
enjoy your vacation then ladislav!
guys, have you not noticed that distrowatch monthly donation is slowly increasing? ie you can subtract $50 dollars of linuxcd.org but still you get a high value. it seems that distrowatch is really getting popular. and even the amount of comments in every distrowatch weekly have been too much as compared to when it started. o well. blame ladislav for being too good on this =)
45 • re: arch linux rocks (by charlie on 2005-08-02 02:39:37 GMT from United States)
to the guy who wants the next donation to go to arch...
um, did you look at the list above of prior recipients? perhaps the one for 10/2004 might interest you? :p
46 • Adam Doxtater? Oh boy... (by MadHunter on 2005-08-02 02:41:33 GMT from United States)
It's bad enough that we have to listen to his biased, opinionated outlook on one website, but now he's bringing his "unique" views to Distrowatch???
THE PLANET IS DOOMED!
;)
- The opinions of the poster of this message only reflect the thoughts, ideas and beliefs of all who care.
47 • Slackware should get donation next month (by Brian P. on 2005-08-02 03:04:59 GMT from United States)
Hey Ladislav,
Very good edition of DW.....I love the site and look forward to it every week!!!! Enjoy the rest..
I vote for slackware to get next month's donation.......It is a great distro that has been around for years and is rock solid.........
Thanks,
--Brian
48 • who cares if Linmodems work with SuSE? (by escapenguin on 2005-08-02 04:41:43 GMT from United States)
Every time you support a distribution that encourages hardware manufacturers to keep specifications on their products (at the very least) closed source, you might as well shoot yourself in the foot.
You might as well not use Linux. You encourage counter-productive and ultimately destructive behaviour by patting them on the back.
Pay close attention. Everyone pores over every damn detail with the software they use, it's time to start looking at the hardware you want in depth before you buy it impulsively. Before you plunk down the cash for that brand new wifi-adapter, first check and see if it's compatible with Linux or a BSD.
Software advocacy isn't enough if there's nothing with which to use it!
49 • Fedora-izing SUSE (by Ariszló on 2005-08-02 08:20:23 GMT from Hungary)
Launching a SUSE-supervised open project would be nice but crippling KDE as in Fedora would be sickening.
50 • KDE (by Ariszló on 2005-08-02 08:26:58 GMT from Hungary)
Why not counter-balance the donation to Gnome?
51 • Re: Slackware should get donation next month (by Ariszló on 2005-08-02 08:32:42 GMT from Hungary)
Yes, Slackware or KDE would deserve it.
52 • Legacy OS support (by Nathnial Whapcaplett on 2005-08-02 11:03:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
In view of the rumours surrounding a merger of Red Hat and Microsoft, it would be interesting to ask if anyone is still running aLegacy OS like RHEL and MS Windows in the modern enterprise environment
;---)
viva la rezolution !
.hic
53 • Fedorarize SUSE (by Kondor Vlastos on 2005-08-02 18:14:24 GMT from United States)
Leave SUSE alone! The SUSE distros have always been superb. SUSE development should remain in-house, at the least as a cost saving factor. Why should they have to take on the additional burden of monitoring outside developers? The fact that they release the source is should be enough. Obviously, Novell is satisfied or they wouldn't have purchased SUSE. SUSE has always had excellent support, in addition.
Why would anyone suppose that Fedora is the greatest effort going? It is primarily a test bed, a free resource for RH. Anyone that has ever tried to update either RH (without paying a special fee) or Fedora can well appreciate the speed of a Yast online update with SUSE.
Ubuntu (Debian) is far more popular than Fedora and considering that the project is in its infancy, its success is astounding. When has RH ever given anything to anyone? Ubuntu will even furnish a cd free of charge. And, the Synaptic package manager has anything offered by RH/Fedora beaten by miles.
What a relief it is that Fedora is NOT the only thing out there.
54 • Re: Fedorarize SUSE by Kondor Vlastos (by Troll Collector on 2005-08-02 18:47:21 GMT from United States)
"When has RH ever given anything to anyone?"
Nice troll. I'll bite.
How about RPM, Cygwin, kernel contributions (ever heard of Alan Cox?), GNOME contributions, PostgreSQL contributions, Netscape Directory, Fedora Project, to name a few. Now, here's the next question, "When has [insert your favorite distribution here] ever given anything to anyone?"
Another pretty good benchmark for the "open-ness" or "contributions" made by a specific distribution are the number of derivations it has produced or is capable of producing. Red Hat/Fedora are definitely a leader in this category. While SUSE is a fine distribution, it pales to RH in this respect, although it has gotten much better since Novell acquired SUSE and Ximian.
55 • Fedora-izing SUSE (by BA on 2005-08-02 19:05:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
Freeing SuSE Pro as per Fedora is something Novell could certainly consider as long as quality is NOT affected (I've always found Fedora a bit ...errr [thinks of polite word]... flakey). Otherwise I'd lower the boxset RRP since 2 releases per year @ £60 is a bit steep. There's definitely an identity/pricing/placement muddle for Pro presently, which is a shame as it's a great product and a joy to use as a desktop. I think Novell know this so I expect some changes.
For the person asking re: Linux streaming video, have you tried the mplayer_plugin for Mozilla/Firefox (I assume you'd previously used MPlayer standalone)? If not, try it - it's great! ;-)
56 • Synaptic in Fedora (by Ariszló on 2005-08-02 20:22:25 GMT from Hungary)
Kondor Vlastos wrote: And, the Synaptic package manager has anything offered by RH/Fedora beaten by miles.
Synaptic is available for Fedora, too:
ftp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/4/i386/apt-0.5.15cnc7-6.fc4.i386.rpm
ftp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/4/i386/synaptic-0.57.2-1.fc4.i386.rpm
57 • SUSE (by Madluv on 2005-08-02 21:43:46 GMT from United States)
I have used SUSE and like it but chose not to run it as my desktop because of the closed nature of it's development. Just my preference but that also means that by word of mouth I (and I assume others with the same perspective) are not promoting it's use to others. Closed development doesn't make for an attractive distro in a community of potential users that support the opposite.
58 • The Red Scare..... (by Scott Wilson on 2005-08-03 03:22:06 GMT from United States)
Seems like some of the Linux users are stuck in the 1950 America. Instead of the Commies, hiding behind every tree and bush, its the Red Hat Fedories hidding behind every piece of code.
Doesn't it seem that the war with in Linux and against Linux is starting to get intense. Make you wonder what is up, something big is on the horzion.
By the way, I like Fedora core 4, but something about out I didn't like.
Suse 9.3 liked it, felt some what sleepy and comfortable. didnt like that. , wiped the drive and install Debian, I really feel like I am home.
59 • Suse-and-torrents (by NobodyXXX on 2005-08-03 04:32:10 GMT from El Salvador)
Im know this is out of topic... but... can somebody help me? How the hell is the package to dowload torrents with Suse. There is not one in suse 9.3, no azureus, not nothing. Please. Thanks in advance.
60 • SuSE is opening up, as it seems... (by Sven Zallmann on 2005-08-03 08:14:48 GMT from Germany)
Switching on DistroWatch this morning I couldn't help stumbling over the announcement that Novell will create an OpenSuSE project to bring development of its prime desktop OS out into the community. The eWeek article clearly is a fine read but...
What the fsck is this Micro$oft FUD ad doing in that article??? The sole fact that this ad is around might be reason enough for a lot of people not to read the article. Is this what we want? Having good Linux news picking up dust for the sake of God Money coming in the shape of software evilness itself? [...]
I wonder whether there is an effective way of protesting against M$ ads in Linux articles. If anyone knows one, feel free to share it :)
System Specs: AMD Athlon 900, 768MB SDRAM, 2 HDDs w/altogether 250GB storage capacity, old GF2 gfx card w/32MB, dual-booting Windows ME and SuSE 9.3 Pro.
Greetings,
Sven
61 • Ahead of the curve (by William Roddy on 2005-08-03 09:47:18 GMT from United States)
Hey, Ladislav. Looks like you're way ahead of the curve. Want to tell us about your crystal ball? Or will you reveal your journalistic secret about Suse's move?
Good call. As Usual.
62 • Really good foresight (by Anonymous on 2005-08-03 10:12:20 GMT from United States)
Ladislav has predicted that there will not be so many releases in the summer and hence he arranged a beach holiday for himself. By the time this issue of DWW was published, he had been enjoying himself on an island. Instead, he had somebody else to call "join the discussion on Fedora-izing SUSE Linux" and "stay tuned" for Slackware 10.2 beta...
63 • Vlos 1.2 released too soon? (by Mikkh on 2005-08-03 10:47:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
I was looking forward to this, but I'm not impressed by several bugs.
The anaconda installer places Grub on the MBR, even though I picked the advanced options and told it not to. I even reinstalled to check I hadn't made a mistake. It looks very rushed in general, which is a shame because 1.1 showed a lot of promise
64 • Can Novell contibute its real expertise in networking to linux (by Trev on 2005-08-03 11:20:39 GMT from Australia)
When I first heard Novell was buying Suse I thought this is the best news for Linux. Linux networking in the corporate environemt just sucks. Windows (for all its problems) makes this easy. At the moment Samba is the only good way for linux desktops and servers to simply share files and authenticate users. NFS is just broken and has no concept of domain wide user authenication and authorisation. This is where Novell started and this is what it should be able to give back to the linus=x community. That is:
* Good domain wide authentication and
* Good simple and secure file sharing integrated with Gnome, KDE or whatever.
65 • Why support Winmodems? [clue]REAL WORLD[/clue] (by torque2k on 2005-08-03 11:25:30 GMT from United States)
"Every time you support a distribution that encourages hardware manufacturers to keep specifications on their products (at the very least) closed source, you might as well shoot yourself in the foot.
You might as well not use Linux. You encourage counter-productive and ultimately destructive behaviour by patting them on the back."
This fight is long past. Are you telling me that, in a corporation with hundreds or thousands of three year old notebooks, you're going to go through and RIP OUT the "softmodems" installed and replace them with a controller-based modem on a PC Card (most likely with a wimpy dongle that the user will snap off in days) which costs $70, if you can find them? Just so you can satisfy your urge to give hardware manufacturers the "up yours"? Please.
The fact that companies are recovering these older notebooks and replacing Windows with Linux should have you jumping for joy, not demoaning the lack of "Linux compatible", proprietary hardware and drivers. The open-source community does a heck of a great job working to get drivers working with a lack of information (look at the MadWiFI project, or CUPS). We should be thankful for them.
Yes, in a perfect world it would be great to stay away from closed-source projects, but that's easy to say now. When the next big thing comes out (MIMO wireless), and a corporate IT group needs to satisfy the CEO, and still wants to push a Linux solution on its users, will they have to wait until someone releases hardware fully compatible with Linux? That won't happen. They'll just wait for the community to rally together and make it work. Hopefully they'll even help!
Sorry, but this rant comes from experience with these support issues. I'm all for looking for hardware which just "works" in Linux, but the softmodem issue will not go away any time soon.
66 • RE: Suse-and-torrents (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-03 12:50:41 GMT from Italy)
You can just download Azureus from its website and install it. It is very easy.
67 • RE: Vlos 1.2 released too soon? (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-03 12:56:01 GMT from Italy)
Same feelings here.
Besides people have been complaining that an emerge world breaks the system, and do you know their reply: RTFM!!!
68 • Fedora-izing, debianazing, yastizing... (by Alberto on 2005-08-03 16:51:31 GMT from Spain)
As long as they leave Slackware alone, they can fedorize, yastize or debianize whatever they want.
Slackware is the oldest and most respected distro out there. Great to see Patrick in such a good shape releasing soon Slackware 10.2. Great to see SW's sons (Vector, MiniSlack, etc..) growing up strong and healthy.
Slackware is fast, simple, stable, free... So my vote for a donation goes to it (although I wouldn't mind if it goes to Vector or MiniSlack either).
Happy holidays, Ladislav. Thanks for the great work.
69 • Great to see SW's sons (Vector, MiniSlack, etc..) growing up strong and healthy. (by Anonymous on 2005-08-03 18:33:05 GMT from United States)
You forgot SLAX. SLAX is also in the footsteps of Slackware. And also Mutagenix and GoblinX. They are also derived from Slackware. Great!!!
Why support Winmodems?
They are a caring group of people that go out of their way to help users which have a winmodem, connect to the internet using a Linux Machine. Some LiveCD distros are now including drivers for LTModems and Slmodem. They are working fine. Among them Pupply Linux, and Kanotix that I know. Add more if you know of any.
I know that folks at linmodems.org use different distros. Debian, Fedora, Suse, Mandriva, Knoppix and others are usually the distros of choice. They are volunteers that are very helpful in determining which drivers are needed to make your distro work. The decision is up to you kind folks that use and love linux.
Fedorising Suse? Suse is already a great distro. and know that it will follow Red Hat/Fedora Model, it will become even better. More and more testers, better and higher quality and more updated software. What more could you ask for?
Kind Regards
70 • slackneighborlee on 2005-08-03 21:51:42 GMT from United States)
i've found the slackware IRC commuitty to be very much a RTFM commmunity which is HIGHLY offense to me and most people. When you linux people realize that ?
..now take ubuntu for example..you hardly EVER see RTFM in irc OR the forums..its just NOT acceptable..BESIDES apt-get is the easily clear victor in package management and slackware ( last I knew ) doesn't even COME with package management does it ???
no comparison so lets not FUD each other into think its somehow superior..heck there is not even a GUI installer nor does supermount work out of the box...no..lets not compare..
cheers
nl
71 • RE: slackneighborlee (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-03 22:47:11 GMT from Italy)
A bit of humor: maybe you are new to linux and you don't quite know the linux etiquette: indeed, Slackware might be old and even old-fashioned, but it is like the late Queen Mother: you never say anything bad about it :)
72 • Re: • Really good foresight - by Anonymous (by William Roddy on 2005-08-04 05:11:16 GMT from United States)
Re: • Really good foresight - by Anonymous
Is there a chance we might know who made the call, and how? Just curious.
73 • DesktopBSD (by tdjokic on 2005-08-04 11:01:02 GMT from Yugoslavia)
What about this distribution
http://desktopbsd.sourceforge.net/ ? I didn't see it on DW.
74 • Famelix (by mixmatch on 2005-08-04 11:10:53 GMT from United States)
Its pretty foolish and unoriginal to steal the graphics from a commercial project (MS Windows) for an open source one that is much better. Reguardless of who actually made that XP KDE theme, I am disappointed to see a linux distro acknowledging it.
75 • Re: Famelix (by flimflamman on 2005-08-04 12:17:14 GMT from United States)
I agree with mixmatch. Sculpting desktops to resemble XP is an irresponsible marketing ploy. Sure, it might soothe a few new users, but it also attracts the attention of MS and provides some basis for lookalike lawsuits. Even worse, it doesn't promote the strengths of Linux. It's like a little kid standing on one leg, saying, "Look what I can do!!!" All it takes is one little push...
76 • DesktopBSD (by William Roddy on 2005-08-04 14:59:12 GMT from United States)
DesktopBSD looks interesting. I'd like to know more about it, too. Anyone tried it yet. How does it compare with PC-BSD?
Thanks.
77 • donations (by Psionides on 2005-08-04 17:27:50 GMT from Poland)
Hi,
my propositions for new donations: Beep Media Player, Kaffeine or Krusader file manager.
Regards,
Psionides
78 • OpenSUSE (by kondor vlastos on 2005-08-04 20:06:27 GMT from United States)
The lizard was moribund when Novell coughed up the cash. Now, the lizard dies, "end-user" PR aside.
Just shows-to-go-ya that one shouldn't protrude one's tongue toooo far.
Novell's idea of a desktop is NLD. That is, a thin-client desktop that generates revenue.
Makes one appreciate Debian. And, to a lesser extent, its spins.
Cheer up lizard lovers - Vista is coming!
Slackware lovers - "We started in germany by sending 40-floppy-sets with Slackware on
it to people who wanted to have Linux.
We translated all the slackware scripts to german and made
a german slackware out of ot. This was all done in close cooperation
with Patrik Volkerding. Then the floppies switched to CDs..."
"At one time we decided that it will better to have our own distribution
than always fixing the same slackware bugs. Also we thought, that we
need a better installation and configuration tool besides with many
other things. We took the jurix distribution by Florian LaRoche as
base for S.u.S.E. Linux and started to develop YaST."
System Specs: HP Pentium II 400 384mbRAM 8mb HD running SuSE 8.
79 • Suse Splits For $$$ (by michael on 2005-08-04 22:54:02 GMT from United States)
Suse's splitting their product into a "free" product that basically allows them to
-get R&D and new features for free.
-It's release quality will be substantially lower than the commercial version.
-Take all the stuff that costs them money (like java) out and put it in the commercial distro.
-Break compatibility between the free and not-free product.
What Novell's got working for them is the killer back-end management stuff. I just hope they don't screw up getting it to market. (9.3 is very good too)
I'm glad I still have my debian partition. That too though, will end up doing the same thing. See http://www.ianmurdock.com for details.
80 • Vida Linux 1.2 & ADSL problem (by Fotograf on 2005-08-05 05:04:28 GMT from Canada)
downloaded and installed that VLOS and have NO idea how to ajust my ADSL
and go to Internet. External modem connected to a Network card works perfectly under Debian Mandriva and Wind-XP......Who knows how to do it ???
Dynamoc IP and need to find the Concentrator and put my User/Password....
81 • Microsoft Linux ??? whe are the ISO's (by Anonymous on 2005-08-05 05:30:43 GMT from United States)
http://www.mslinux.org/
^ ^
* *
*
----/
82 • Indiana kicking out Microsoft out of its schools (by Anonymous on 2005-08-05 05:33:26 GMT from United States)
http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20050804LinuxKickingMicrosoftOutOfIndianaSchools.html
83 • US Federal Government to require MSIE for copyright preregistration (by Anonymous on 2005-08-05 05:36:40 GMT from United States)
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr44878.html
84 • Which version of Windows is that? (by Anonymous on 2005-08-05 05:44:43 GMT from United States)
With new distros coming out and making users feel right at home with Windows Look alikes like Famelix, and others which use XPde desktop and now the XP-KDE theme, many more people will ask which windows is that?
At school I ran several live cd's like SLAX, Kanotix, Knoppix and FreeSBIE and students ask which windows is that? I can sure fool my students into thinking that it is windows!!! Some of my more clever students will go and check Microsoft webpage to validate/check that the windows is genuine.
Microsoft Genuine Advantage will probably put up a major lawsuit on some of these distros. With KDE-XP theme, only time will tell what will happen.
85 • RE: Vida Linux 1.2 & ADSL problem (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-06 06:01:06 GMT from Italy)
I had the same problem.
What to do:
Install VL
DELETE the eth0 DHCP connection.
Get hold of rp-pppoe-3.5.tar.gz from here:
http://www.roaringpenguin.com/penguin/open_source_rp-pppoe.php
You can copy it from you Windows partition, use a floppy, a USB pen drive to carry it to your VL partition.
And then use it as usual.
If you have more doubts please ask.
Number of Comments: 85
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 |
| • Ussye 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
tuxtrans
The tuxtrans distribution was a specialist, Xubuntu-based Linux distribution developed for translators. It features the MATE desktop environment and it also includes a broad collection of software applications which allow translators to do their jobs. It comes with many applications suited to the everyday tasks of a translator or anybody dealing with multilingual texts. The included software ranges from an office suite and DTP software to specialised translation memory systems.
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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
