 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 114, 22 August 2005 |
Welcome to this year's 34th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The long awaited KNOPPIX 4.0 live DVD was finally released last week - with a large collection of great software, but also with a few nasty bugs. In the meanwhile, the openSUSE project continues its fast-paced beta testing process of SUSE Linux 10.0 with more great software and an easy way to upgrade to the latest version. Our featured project of the week is aLinux - a distribution with amazing eye candy, unparallelled multimedia support, and many bleeding edge software packages. Happy reading!
NEW: listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (5.88MB) or mp3 (4.25MB) formats.
Content:
KNOPPIX 4.0 DVD - joys and problems
 The much awaited public release of KNOPPIX 4.0 live DVD finally happened last week. This is a different beast from the "special" 4.0 edition distributed during LinuxTag in June - not only it comes with many updated packages, it also boots faster and is available in the form of both German and English ISO images. It is also much leaner and -- it has several nasty bugs.
First the bugs. The initial release of the KNOPPIX 4.0 DVD was quickly followed by an updated changelog, which refers to a patch that fixes an issue with knoppix-terminal-server and which also mentions a workaround for a problem with burning CDs in K3b. A few days later a bug in Unionfs was also discovered: "Unionfs is broken again, but not as heavily as in 3.9. If you install certain packages with dpkg or apt-get, a kernel oops can happen, though it doesn't freeze the system. This is quite bad for people who like to test-install new software on the live system, so because of this (and the prior reported bugs) there will be a hotfix of the 4.0.2 DVD soon (probably even before I get a chance to finish the CD)." In short, if you haven't yet downloaded the DVD you might be better off waiting for version 4.0.2 which should come with fixes for the above bugs.
On the positive side, the DVD boots much faster. With the LinuxTag edition it took us about 7 minutes to get from the boot prompt to the full KDE desktop, but the new release gets there in half the time on the same system. The DVD is also smaller by about a gigabyte, although there is no mention of this fact in the changelog. And for those who still prefer the lighter CD edition - it is coming soon, probably later this week or soon after the known bugs in the DVD edition are fixed.
Keeping up with SUSE 10.0 beta releases
 With the release of the first two public betas of SUSE Linux 10.0, many users are taking advantage of the newly available option to participate in the beta testing process of the upcoming SUSE release. The pace is furious - last week's second beta will be followed by a new beta later this week, and two more betas and a release candidates will follow during the next three weeks. With all the releases, how do you keep your system up-to-date? Surely, there has to be a better way to upgrade your SUSE installation than downloading five CD images every week!
And indeed there is. If you installed your original system from a CD set, you can simply start YaST - the SUSE Linux setup tool, configure your "Installation Source" (by adding an FTP or HTTP source from this list) and launch the "System Update" module. The trickiest part is to add the installation source, because you have to manually type in the URL of your preferred FTP/HTTP server and installation directory, taking extra care not to make a typo. As an example, let's add the fi.muni.cz mirror. In the "Software Source Media" dialog choose "Add", select HTTP as the protocol, then type the following:
- Server Name: ftp.fi.muni.cz
- Directory on Server: pub/linux/opensuse/distribution/SL-OSS-current/inst-source
Then click on the "OK" button and wait until your selected server appears on the list of "Software Source Media". You can disable or delete the CD entry since you won't need it.
Once you are back in the YaST "Software" module, click on the "System Update" icon and wait until the system updates the available package list from the newly added FTP or HTTP server. The next screen will inform you what exactly is going to be upgraded and tells you the size of the required download. In our configuration we only had to download just over 50MB of files. Since the update process also installs a new kernel, you will be prompted to reboot the system.
When the next beta of SUSE Linux 10.0 is released to your chosen mirror you won't need to reconfigure the FTP/HTTP sources; just click directly on the "System Update" button and follow the instructions.
One of the more interesting packages available in the second SUSE beta is the "apt" package management utility, previously provided by various SUSE community sites to simplify package installation on SUSE Linux. The main advantage of apt over YaST's software management module is the fact that apt accepts third-party package repositories of community-built RPMs - useful for installing media codecs and other software not available in SUSE Linux due to legal restrictions.
We will take a closer look at SUSE's apt and investigate the intriguing Xen virtual machine in next week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly.
|
| Featured distribution of the week: aLinux |
aLinux
Among all the distribution listed on DistroWatch there are a few that stand out from the crowd. One of them is aLinux, formerly known as Peanut Linux. In development since 1999, when it was built as a Linux operating system with a small size and modest system requirements (hence its original name), it has developed into a full-blown, general-purpose Linux distribution. Daring, unconventional, and with strong emphasis on eye candy and user convenience, this distribution, developed by Jay Klepacs in Hamilton, Canada, has risen a few eyebrows in the Linux world.
We installed the newly released aLinux 12.5 over the weekend. The Slackware-like text mode installation intends to be fairly user-friendly and it works reasonably well, but we noticed a few problems - if you make a mistake during system configuration and decide to abort with Ctrl+C, you'll be dropped into shell with no obvious way to restart the setup dialog. Eventually we completed the installation routine on our third attempt and all was well.
The system boots straight into a graphical KDM login screen with the only user being "root" as set up during installation. Logging in to KDE is a fun experience, complete with dazzling colours, fancy desktop fonts and a rather unusual taskbar. KDE is the only desktop environment available on the CD, but a quick trip to the Synaptic package management utility (yes, aLinux uses apt for managing RPM packages) reveals a number of alternative desktops, including Fluxbox, GNOME, IceWM, XFce, and even a current CVS release of Enlightenment 17. Application installation is a breeze in aLinux.
One of the more interesting features of aLinux is the instant availability of all sorts of multimedia codecs and browser plugins (in Mozilla). These make it possible to enjoy many media formats, including proprietary ones - an ability that is usually missing from most major distributions and which brings the multimedia experience of aLinux on par with other operating systems. Do you want to watch movie trailers in your browser or view encrypted DVDs right out of the box? Then aLinux is the right distribution for you. Of course, since aLinux is a hobby project developed in Canada, its developer has so far demonstrated little respect for various US patent and trademark laws; this has already attracted some attention of Microsoft's lawyers.
We enjoyed aLinux. The distribution comes with a curious mix of old and bleeding-edge software packages that work surprisingly well - we certainly didn't experience any instability during the time we tested the distribution. More importantly, if you believe that, as a Linux user, you should not be prevented from watching movies or listening to music on your computer by some ridiculous patent law, then download and install aLinux. You are unlikely to find a better distribution for this task!
For more information about aLinux please visit its web site at alinux.org.
Plenty of eye candy in the latest release of aLinux
(full image size: 1,183kB)
|
| Released Last Week |
Plamo Linux 4.03
A new version of Plamo Linux, a Japanese distribution originally derived from Slackware Linux, has been released. The biggest change is the addition of GNOME 2.10.2, thus increasing the size of the distribution to three CDs (with KDE and GNOME on the second CD and 'contrib' packages on the third CD), the default kernel upgraded to 2.4.31 (an optional kernel 2.6.12.4 is also available), updates to XFree86 4.50, KDE 3.4.2, GCC 3.3.6, and usual bug fixes. See the release report and changelog (both links in Japanese) for further details.
KNOPPIX 4.0 Live DVD
The first public release of the KNOPPIX 4.0 Live DVD, with many updates over the LinuxTag edition, is now available for download. From the changelog: "V4.0DVD-2005-08-16. Project split into DVD and CD edition; OpenOffice.org 2.0 build 104 (English/German); lots and lots of package updates; bugfixes: floppyconf, knoppix-installer; kernel 2.6.12.4 update; KDE 3.4.1 from Debian experimental; added development packages: Eclipse, Mono; added most kde-i18n languages from unstable; added Knoppix books and Open Source Jahrbuch; added m23 software distribution system; added Knoppix menu item for setting root password; added alternative desktops: GNOME, Ratpoison, XFce, Openbox; replaced Mozilla with Firefox and Thunderbird...."
Linux+ Live 2005-08
Linux+ Live is a Fedora-based live DVD, supplied as a cover DVD with the Linux+ magazine. The latest version is 08-2005, released earlier today: "After while (we have worked really hard) we have something new for you - Linux+ Live DVD 2005-08 from August 2005 Linux+. The most notable changes are: usage of Unionfs; saving data and configuration on external device; support for TV cards (Video4Linux) with KDETV, TVtime, xawtv, Zapping and MythTV; development version of Anjuta 2.x with Glade 3.0; printing software CUPS with Mting, Kover, Mptool, HP Device Manager; RSS readers (Liferea, Blam); binary editor (Bless)...." Read the full release announcement for further details.
Onebase StudioGo 1.0
The Onebase project has released StudioGo 1.0, a specialist live CD for graphics and multimedia enthusiasts: "StudioGo 1.0 released. The Onebase Linux Project is pleased to announce the release of a new special edition live CD called StudioGo (version 1.0). It is a pure entertainment CD consisting of multimedia and graphics software that includes audio players and editors, video players, video editors, TV software, multimedia utilities, graphics modelling, imaging, photo management, motion detector, streaming, presentation.... " Find more details in the release announcement and features page.
Trustix Enterprise Firewall 4.6
Trustix has released a new version of Trustix Enterprise Firewall, now available under a free (gratis) one-year license: "Comodo owned Trustix, developers of the world's most secure Linux and inventors of the world's first WYSIWYG firewall, today announced that the latest version of Trustix Enterprise Firewall will be available at no charge. The decision enables administrators to protect their networks for free with a firewall developed and maintained by Trustix's highly skilled firewall. Released today, version 4.6 heralds a range a host of improvements and new features including enhanced multi-platform GUI interface, DHCP server and relay support, enhanced monitoring and alerts, advanced logging, stronger High Availability capabilities and numerous other improvements." See the press release and product page for more information.
Lunar Linux 1.5.1
Lunar Linux 1.5.1 has been released: "After 3 weeks of heavy QC, a new Lunar installation ISO, version 1.5.1 'Gallium Arsenide' is released. This is the first release ever where two different lunar ISOs are released simultaneously - One for i686 and one for older (up to i386) machines. This version fixes a few bugs with missing files in /etc/, and adds support for displaying normal device names (/dev/sda, /dev/hda3 etc) in the entire installer. Also, there are now proper default choices in the language, font, charmap menus to guide you. The network now starts by default after installation." The release announcement.
GoblinX Mini 1.2.0
The GoblinX project has released a new edition of its Linux distribution, a light-weight GoblinX Mini with the XFce desktop: "Released: GoblinX Mini 1.2.0. GoblinX Mini edition is a son of GoblinX and contains only XFce as a window manager and GTK-based applications. The ISO image is about 150MB, but it contains an excellent collection of applications. The Mini edition is easier to download and remaster because modules are already prepared to allow a fast rebuild of the ISO file." Find out more about GoblinX Min on the distribution's features page.
GoblinX 1.2.0 Mini - an attractive live CD with low resource requirements
(full image size: 373kB)
aLinux 12.5
aLinux (formerly Peanut Linux), version 12.5, has been released. What's new? "New look and feel; desktop GUI cosmetically enriched; K menu button replacement, supports animation; K window decoration replacement; K widget set replacement for both QT and GTK2; K taskbar replacement, translucent support with image tooltips; hundred more True Type Fonts added; Konqueror load time efficiently quicker; KOffice v1.4.1, new addition: Krita image manipulation program; K3b v0.12.3 CD/DVD burning; kernel updated v2.6.12.2...." See the release announcement for more information.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Debian GNU/Linux 3.1r1
The first revision of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 "sarge" is scheduled to be released in the beginning of August: "I am preparing the first revision of the current stable Debian distribution (sarge) and will frequently send reports so people can actually comment on it and intervene whenever this is required. This update is scheduled for beginning of August 2005." More about the upcoming Debian 3.1r1 can be found on this page.
FreeBSD 6.0
The official release of FreeBSD 6.0, originally scheduled for 15 August, has been delayed and is now expected in September at the earliest. According to the release schedule, a BETA3 release should appear on the FreeBSD mirrors later today. This will be followed by a release candidate and a final release on as yet unspecified dates.
SymphonyOS Beta 1
The Symphony OS distribution is currently still in its alpha stage of development, but the project maintainers are hoping to move into beta as early as 1 October: "Prior to our beta 1 release (currently tentatively scheduled for October 1st) I hope to release at least one beta 1 preview release which will consist of the updated Mezzo and Orchestra with a Componentized Linux base and making use of Anaconda for Debian for the installer. These preview releases will not be released as live CDs but Beta 1 will be available both as a live CD and as an install disc using Anaconda." More information can be found here.
Asianux 2.0
Asianux 2.0 will be released later this week. That's according to this press release, jointly issued by the three participants in the Asianux project - Red Flag, Miracle and Haansoft: "The launching schedule for Asianux version 2.0 was also announced at the exhibition. 'Version 2.0 will be launched first in Korea and China on August 25th, 2005, followed by Japan in October, 2005. In China, there will be a road show in Beijing on August 25th and August 26th, 2005, to promote this new version.' said President Chris Zhao. After the road show in Beijing, eight other cities in China are planning to hold a similar road show. After these events the show will be held in Korea and Japan."
Red Flag Linux 5.0
With the launch of Asianux 2.0, China's Red Flag Software has also announced the release of Red Flag Linux 5.0 on 25 August. This will take place during the Red Flag World conference, held at the Great Wall Hotel in Beijing on 25 - 26 August. More information about the event is available on this page (in Chinese, simplified).
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Web Site News |
Podcasting DistroWatch Weekly
If everything goes according to plan, this week's DistroWatch Weekly will also be available as a Podcast edition later this week. Please keep an eye on this page for updates and be sure to share your opinion about the Podcast edition in the forums below. Update: the Podcast edition of DistroWatch Weekly is now available in ogg (5.88MB) and mp3 (4.25MB) formats. Many thanks to Shawn Milo for creating the files.
New distribution additions
New on the waiting list
None this week.
DistroWatch database summary
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 • Knoppix DVD4 (by d00m3d on 2005-08-22 11:30:27 GMT from Hong Kong)
In Knoppix-4.0.1, the gcc-3.3.6, gcc-3.4.4 and gcc-4.0.1 are included. In addition, g++-3.3.6 and g++-4.0.1 (but no g++-3.4.4) are also included. However, the default symlink for gcc is 3.3.6 while g++ is pointed to 4.0.1 which is very uncommon.
I reported this strange complier symbolic links (another bug?) in Knoppix forum, hope the developers will fix it too.
2 • 34rd edition? (by Sven Zallmann on 2005-08-22 11:38:43 GMT from Germany)
/me thinks it has to read '34th edition' :)
I know by now that you are not a native English speaker (neither am I), but this one is not to be expected by someone who lives in a largely English speaking country. Found a few other typos but didn't care to report them; if you want, I can email them to you :)
3 • aLinux (by Walter Kruse on 2005-08-22 11:52:32 GMT from South Africa)
I have been using aLinux since December 2002 it was still Peanut 9.4. It has always been a pleasure to use, and really taught me a lot about how a distro is put together. The distro makes me want to boot up and tinker. It includes everything a moderate power user could want. Very good community too. And all of this put together by one man...
4 • Suse Repositories. Yast and apt (by Derrick Gaskin on 2005-08-22 12:10:29 GMT from United States)
I have noticed that you can add the Packman repository to Yast.
I was able to install the win32 codecs just as easily as using apt.
Opensuse.org had a nice little doc on it's download page showing how to set it up.
5 • aLinux (by Charles Loader on 2005-08-22 12:27:17 GMT from Canada)
ALinux is an odd bird. I installed Peanut years ago and it worked well but I have never managed to install Peanut - aLinux since on any of my computers. I think it is connected with the Nvidia cards or the like. It starts to install, installs the compressed image and then wants to reboot and start over. Vector Linux behaves similarly. I have no problems with Kanotix, Mepis, DSL and most others I have tried. Anyone else had similar experiences or got a solution? This surely cannot be that rare an experience. It must be very off putting for new Linux users.
6 • Upgrading a SUSE beta to the next (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-22 12:47:43 GMT from Italy)
I wonder if that could be done with apt, possibly by using the component "base" ?
7 • Unionfs bugs and Live CDs (by Anon on 2005-08-22 13:14:59 GMT from United States)
Going by the problems that Knoppix has been facing, It seems that Unionfs has some serious problems which have not been ironed out yet.
For those that are not aware, unionfs provides a pseudo file system that merges several directories/partitions into a virtual file system ("union"). When one of the "branches" of the tree is writable, then the union is writable, and this allows, in theory, for live CDs, which typically use read-only filesystems, to provide self-updating capability (as in "apt-get" for debian-based systems).
Many linux liveCD distros were too quick to adopt to unionfs before it has been sufficiently debugged and tested. This lack of quality-control on this occasion is a bit disappointing, in that, I am unable to recommend stellar distros like Knoppix/Kanotix to other folks, by the virtue of their unionfs bugs and issues :(
But, kanotix has a boottime flag that turns unionfs off, but I am not sure if Knoppix 4.0 has something like it. If not, I'd suggest Mr. Knopper to include this feature in 4.0.2.
thanks
8 • UnionFS Bugs (by Flavio de Oliveira on 2005-08-22 13:51:13 GMT from Brazil)
UnionFS has some bugs but it's better then other filesystems for livecds...
We are using UnionFS since march, and we only have to study and know its bugs... UnionFS, it's my personal opinion, made a livecd virtually equal an installed distro... I never tested Knoppix, but I really don't think Mr. Knopper doesn't know how-to work with UnionFS...
UnionFS is now adopt by many famous livecds like Knoppix and Slax...
GoblinX Mini uses a new UnionFS snapshot which seems to be more stable...
BTW, very nice the GoblinX Mini screenshot, thanks Mr. Bodnar...
9 • A web site bug (by Sven Zallmann on 2005-08-22 14:49:20 GMT from Germany)
Ladislav,
I am reading through old issues of DWW and found the comment are in http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20040223">issue 37 to be messed up: the text is going way beyond the right border of the screen with no scrollbar appearing (Firefox 1.0.6 on WinXP/SP2 (at work)). This is probably due to an extremely long link posted in the lower area of the comments.
Thought you might want to know :)
10 • RE: Charles Loader comment (by DaveW on 2005-08-22 16:51:40 GMT from United States)
I haven't tried ALinux, but have the same install problem with Vector and a few others. I have the Nvidia MX200 card, and agree that the problem seems to involve some video bug in certain distros. When I tried to install Vector in an ancient PII 133 machine with some onboard video card, the problem did not arise.
Some years ago the same thing happened with LibraNet. I emailed the producers and they sent a new cd with VESA instead of the usual video mode and it worked fine. So, no solutions, unfortunately, and there's been no useful response from any of the distro sites. If there's a cheat code to use vesa in the install, try that, and I'd bet it will work OK.
11 • GentooTH (by James at 2005-08-22 17:30:04 GMT from United States)
GentooTH
looks like march of the penguins the movie
ok im off to try alinux
12 • No subject (by 1c3d0g on 2005-08-22 17:36:27 GMT from Aruba)
aLinux certainly looks interesting...but I'm not clear on the package manager. Is it a GUI-based or console-based package manager? And how would it be different to, say, Kubuntu? Either way it looks like a good distro. Might give it a try. :-)
13 • No subject (by Jeff on 2005-08-22 20:54:32 GMT from United States)
I've always like Debian myself. Can't stand RPM-based distros. I'm using Debian Pure (www.debianpure.com). Haven't had a problem with it yet. Just my $0.02.
14 • Alinux (by MikeT on 2005-08-22 21:22:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have played with Peanut for several years, since Peanut 8.4. It has always proved quirky to install but never ceases to amaze me how well it performs. It always seems to do much more than my "up-to-date" Mandriva installation. I can't get Real Player to install on Mandriva, but Alinux runs it so easily. Amazing!
15 • Live+ (by Dave Florence on 2005-08-22 21:56:12 GMT from United States)
Been attempting to get the Live+ distro, but the serever only allows 9 connections to max out. It would seem to me they would mirror the downloads, so people could get this distro. Why make an announcement, if you do not make the release accessable?
Dave
16 • Alinux (by nybronx on 2005-08-23 00:11:20 GMT from United States)
Now I say "YEAH" to this distro but I gotta tell ya after the install I couldn't for the life of me get it to boot to the gui. Now that note on nvidia gave me pause cause I got me an ol geforce 2 but I was able to start it and play around with it before I got flustered. Am I the only one that saw no bootloader with this distro..? Is it fixed with this latest release..? Ahh maybe I'm just not gettin it....(see flustered :)
Later
17 • Re: Alinux is an odd bird (by Clint Canada on 2005-08-23 00:51:30 GMT from Philippines)
Well, you're correct on that one. Originally slackware-based, it evolved into a rpm-based distro, only recently going with the apt4rpm/synaptic package from the pnutproject experiment (see the original project page that got apt4rpm started on alinux http://www.videomedic.net/pnut/). As for Vector and Alinux being similar, Vector's installer and packages was originally based on peanutlinux, if I get that correctly, and both of the developers are very good friends.
12.5 should be stable... it is based on the same installer as peanut 9.5 was, bz2 based package (not live cd now). You can test it if it runs on your system by running the test .iso (7mb) on your computer if it runs ok.
18 • BLAG (by im_ka on 2005-08-23 01:34:07 GMT from Sweden)
ubuntu 5.04 has been acting strange (...) lately so i thought i give blag a try... it's great to see that there's a distro that equals what i would make out of fedora for myself, and it comes on one cd. afaik 100% fedora compatible.
so you can put blag besides kanotix on the list of underrated distros
19 • knoppix and etc (by reub on 2005-08-23 01:35:55 GMT from United States)
You'd think if a CD was 3170MB, and contrained a compressed filesystem, that it would contain everything under the sun. But where is amaroK on the latest version of knoppix. And where is xmingw in case I wanted to quickly compile something for windows? Or what about Qemu 0.7.1 with either kqemu or qvm86?
Also, what's with distros trying to copy the look of Windows? Why?
20 • Looks Extreme! (by OS Case on 2005-08-23 01:52:44 GMT from Bahrain)
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/peanut/current/pics/
Text dialog installer by the looks, but kickass graphics if it's for real? ................. off to give it a try. That pnutproject looks interesting too. I dont mind Aplha/Beta... anything OS ;-/
21 • GentooTH - March of the Penguins Indeed! (by MadHunter on 2005-08-23 04:17:18 GMT from United States)
I was beaten to the punch with this observation... but it's quite a valid one. Is that pic that they use a "free" pic? Or is it something being taken from March of the Penguins without legal license?
22 • Copying Windows (by mixmatch on 2005-08-23 06:52:28 GMT from United States)
I have to agree with the guy commenting on copying windows. It seems the featured distro a few weeks ago did this and alinux seems to be trying it as well. Linux is unique from windows and I find no need for it to be associated with windows in any way. Please, distro makers, try to move away from windows XP themes. There are better themes available, and they don't degrade linux.
23 • Major SUSE 10.0 Beta 2 Changes (by Anonymous on 2005-08-23 07:38:25 GMT from Germany)
http://www.opensuse.org/index.php/Product_Highlights
24 • E for donation? (by butters on 2005-08-23 10:52:44 GMT from United States)
I remember when Rasterman announced E17, saying it would be a extraordinarily ambitious undertaking to do a desktop environment the right way from the start. Then there was a ping every six months or so (in response to "E is dead" posts) for several years. Now it seems like there is momentum towards an actual release, possibly within a year or so. E is unlike most other free software projects, especially the other DEs. It doesn't rely on fast development cycles, incremental improvements, and large testing communities. This is more like a commercial development model, spending years in stealth mode before arriving on the scene with a revolutionary product--except it will be free software.
We can hope that KDE 4.0 (late 2006) will turn out to be as evolutionary as Aaron Seigo is planning, and we can hope that the corresponding GNOME (2.16 / 3.0 / 3.2) will live up to the vision of Miguel de Icaza. But if E17 sees a stable release in late 2006, there will be no question which DE will be most indicative of the future of free software on the desktop.
Speaking of helping out small projects, how about pointing the next DistroWatch donation at project whose potential impact on free software is enormous compared to its size?
25 • read: I'm changing my endorsement (by butters on 2005-08-23 11:03:11 GMT from United States)
Yes, I did post here about supporting Xgl last week, but now I realize that that stuff is pretty irrelevent if we have the EFL libraries. Plus, the Enlightenment project is smaller than X.org/Freedesktop, and the latter doesn't have the same kind of vision (EXA is a typical free software stopgap that we'll have to live with for years because it is easier than Xgl). I'm flip-flopping, which we all know discredits anything I say...
26 • IRC Channel (by ladislav on 2005-08-23 12:17:37 GMT from Taiwan)
Hi folks,
A reader suggested that perhaps we should create an IRC channel for distro-related discussions. If you care to join in, please log on to
irc.freenode.net, chatroom #distrowatch
This is just an experiment to gauge the interest, so come and join us. If things go well, we'll make a more formal announcement next week.
27 • A joke? (by Bremac on 2005-08-23 15:33:12 GMT from Canada)
The lines "Of course, since aLinux is a hobby project developed in Canada, its developer has so far demonstrated little respect for various US patent and trademark laws; this has already attracted some attention of Microsoft's lawyers." are unbelievable. Can people really be offensive enough to suggest it's because they're Canadian, that they violate laws at will?
28 • What A Wonderful Idea (by Macaulay O James on 2005-08-23 18:53:10 GMT from Israel)
My Name is Macaulay James, Of Plot 134 Festac link Road Amuwo Odofin. An Orphan from Africa, Lagos, Nigeria to be precised. in other to better my life and have a brighter future.
I decided to take the bull by the Horn( my Destiney) by enrolling in A+ Training which i am currently doing. i the process of learning, i was introduce to so many operating systems. But i was shock today when my Lecturer brought up an Os in the lecture room, Called UBUNTU. The my did not ring a bell cos it sounds odd, but on loading it the so -called UBUNTU it became more interesting and everyone in the lecture hall developed an imazing attention to this new introduced Os called UBUNTU.
He made us to understand that we don't need to load any other applications to it. that UBUNTU comes fully loaded with all the applications every system and user requires .
Every student in the lecture hall was ancious to have, And there and then he gave us a more shocking new "it is free, you all can get it for free without any charge". Every screamed on top of their voice including me. I personally wrote down the Website. I loged to the site and did all the registration and i did not see any page asking of Money , that is pretty wonderful, But that is not the main issue here. The main issue uniqueness of this UBUNTU, the Screen Saver and all the wonderful Funtions and guidelines which is step to step. I praise all the wonderful brain behind this weonderful development , And I pray that God that gave you this Idea will continue to Increase all of you in Knowledge and Wisdom to keep it alive for Humanity to use.
NOTE: 97 % OF THE PEOPLE IN MY COUNTRY
ARE NOT AWARE OF THIS DEVELOPMENT
BUT IF YOUR ORGANISATION GIVES ME THE RIGHT I WILL DEVOTE MYSELF TO CREATE AWARENESS OF THIS NEW DEVELOPMENT CALLED UBUNTU.
Yours Faithfully,
MACAULAY O JAMES
+2348034167397
29 • Re: A joke? (by Andrew on 2005-08-23 19:36:45 GMT from Canada)
No, you misinterpret. It suggests that because the're Canadian, they can violate American laws at will. Examples gay marriage, legalised marijuana in volume of <30oz., and libdvdcss2 (still legal in Canada). Besides, people like Member of Parliament Carrolyn Parrish, famous for proclaiming "damn Americans, I hate those bastards!", and stamping on a doll resembling George Bush on publicly funded television, do nothing to reinforce our image projecting complete disregard for the USA (never mind that they patrol our border for us, and that they serve as our surrogate military).
Sorry for the off-topic, flame-basting rant.
Note: Carrolyn Parrish was a member of the federal caucus (MP for Missisaugua-Erindale) until she proclaimed on publicly funded radio that she didn't care whether her party's leader won or lost the election, at which point she was forced to sit as an independant MP.
30 • I agree!!! (by 1c3d0g on 2005-08-23 20:09:22 GMT from Aruba)
Totally concur with you guys. The Enlightenment project DEFINITELY deserves a donation! Enlightenment has shown us the light...they're one of the very few project that are truly innovative (just look at their latest Desktop shell)...and a lot of man-hours have been poured into the project to make it work. Enlightenment deserves a chance. :-)
31 • Re: A joke? (by warpengi on 2005-08-23 20:49:14 GMT from Canada)
I partly agree with Andrew and that is that Canadian laws and u.s. laws are not identical and thus some of the perceived violations are not that at all. I don't think the original statement was a slander on Canada at all
That said many Canadians were proud of Carolyn Parrish when she said what she did about Americans in the context of the Iraq war. The real image problem is not stamping on George Bush dolls on This Hour has 22 Minutes, a COMEDY show well known for lampooning politicians and the world in general. The real image problem is with those who are murdering and terrorizing Iraqi's in an illegal war and occupation.
As far as Canadians having a surrogate military, show me the borders we need to protect. Oh ya, we only border on one country, the u.s.
Now, I don't hate Americans, I have 2 in-laws that are u.s'ers. My in-laws are wonderful people who deplore what is being done in their name.
Sorry was this a Linux site? Oops!
I'm going to try aLinux just because they have the gall to violate patents. I do file sharing too. This is Canada, I'm allowed to share. At least for now.
32 • A joke? and a little bit more . . . (by Antonio on 2005-08-24 02:11:49 GMT from United States)
Many times the laws that were written were meant to be broken. Thank god there exists libdvdcss2, mp3, win32 codecs, MPlayer, and all free goodies. We can watch movies, listen to mp3's, make mp3's with lame all in Linux. Many great distros to use. Many distros will not have this or that, but we can get those packages and install them. Or we can use a live cd.
They will run very nicely. In some cases, we are very lucky in that we can use a live cd and connect to the internet with a pci winmodem. In case you did not know, KANOTIX contains LTModem, and Slmodem drivers. We can connect easily to the internet with a few commands away. I am an excited person that recommends linux to many people. I highly recommend KANOTIX, it is one of the best kept secrets in the Linux World. A big high five to Jörg Schirottke aka Kano the master behind it. I have read some other distro's will follow in inserting winmodem drivers. SUSE also did an excellent job with this as they also have drivers for winmodems. A big salute to all linux and bsd lovers around the globe.
33 • linux 12.0 (by Mr. Kamrul Hasan on 2005-08-24 05:32:58 GMT from Bangladesh)
I want this is the first and most sophisticated operting system in the world. And it is add to note that its FIREWALL
is too Great.. Finally i have the crying need of current virsion.please give its Current Virsion to me for Resurch.
34 • Penguines (by William Roddy on 2005-08-25 06:17:33 GMT from United States)
There's a great shot of emperor pengines on National Geographic's site that could be used as wallpaper on personal machines. It's downloadable, but I would imagine copywrite would prvent it's being used as a distribution's background.
And I think the penguine wallpaper shown this week on GentooTH has been around before the movie. I seem to remember one quite similar to it, having seen it for the first time on one of the Russian Linux distros. Maybe I'm wrong. I haven't seen the movie, but my brother says it's great.
William
35 • if these distro's cost money how come there are free downloads (by pinny on 2005-08-25 17:29:26 GMT from United States)
Ok I am confused here. Most distro's out there on Distrowatch cost money to buy yet have free downloads. If you are supposed to buy it why do they give out free d/l's?
36 • DW podcast (by Mark on 2005-08-25 19:57:43 GMT from United States)
Its great to hear that DW is now podcasting. My only problem is I can't find the xml feed so I can subscribe?
37 • @if these distro's cost money how come there are free downloads (by Antonio on 2005-08-25 22:09:48 GMT from United States)
You get the distribution downloaded for free but without the support and customer service and without the documentation that comes with boxed sets. You are still getting the same linux distro but without support and few to none documentation. You will get a name like limited edition/download edition as an example if you get Mandriva. You may also download but you must provide your email address or something like that.
Another reason that you can download is if the product has been in use and released later like SUSE used to do it before they became OPEN SUSE.
I hope I clarified things up a bit, Else someone will probably clarify my points as well.
Best Regards
38 • RE: @if these distro's cost money how come there are free downloads (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-27 15:44:31 GMT from Italy)
Well said. To be added that in fact the majority of distros are free by their very nature. There are very few you *have* to buy (Libranet, Linspire, Xandros...But even those distros give you freebies) and a few more you can buy if you want (SUSE, Mandriva...)
As to the documentation you won't get the printed one, but normally you can get it in digital form.
You can get various forms of support also with the free distros, mainly forums and quite often replies from the developers themselves, like in Kanotix and many others.
Of course many free distros offer a premium version or extra services that you can buy if you want.
39 • And besides... (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-08-28 01:46:24 GMT from Italy)
And besides you can copy a commercial linux distro from a friend and it is perfectly legal. Or you can buy one copy and put it on a thousand computers, also perfectly legal...
40 • No subject (by Misty on 2005-08-28 23:35:01 GMT from United States)
Spent 5 days downloading aLinux with a download manager (I'm on dial-up) and it won't boot the installer. It just fails to boot and says press any key to try again. Over and over. Grrrrr, snarl, growl....... Has anyone else experienced this?
Yes, I could buy the cds, but I'm poor. I only have a small savings account, no regular bank account and I don't want to set up paypal to sraw for my savings, what little of it there is.
Number of Comments: 40
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| NovaCustom |
NovaCustom PrivacyGuard Laptops - Escape from Big Tech
The NovaCustom PrivacyGuard Laptop is ideal for anyone who prioritizes privacy. Comes with Dasharo coreboot open source firmware and Zorin OS Pro, free from influence of Big Tech.
|
| 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 1175 (2026-06-01): PineTab2 with various distros, less common words of wisdom, Canonical shutting down Ubuntu's Pastebin, Murena nears 100k users, DistroWatch turns 25 |
| • Issue 1174 (2026-05-25): Solus 4.9, Linux tablets, Haiku boots on Apple M1 machines, Fedora drops Deepin packages, Mint improves Nemo performance |
| • Issue 1173 (2026-05-18): Sylve on FreeBSD, the benefit of BleachBit, Debian commits to reproducible builds, Debian publishes updated install media, Haiku introduces SMP support on ARM64 processors, Rocky Linux creates opt-in security repository, Fedora reconsiders AI tools, KDE receives generous donation |
| • Issue 1172 (2026-05-11): Fedora 44, dealing with extra fonts, Fedora plans to provide AI tools, problems with Ubuntu's new coreutils, TrueNAS extends its development cycle, postmarktetOS improves the boot splash screen, Redox ports tmux |
| • Issue 1171 (2026-05-04): Xubuntu 26.04, extending memory with VRAM, Ubuntu plans AI features, Devuan developer forks GTK2, Mint introduces hardware enablement builds, Linux running on a PlayStation 5, local kernel exploit found in Linux |
| • Issue 1170 (2026-04-27): ENux 5.2.1, picking a second distro, AlmaLinux expands CPU support, FreeBSD publishes Status Report, Ubuntu MATE skips 26.04 release |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • 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 | 
TrueOS
TrueOS has as its goals to be an easy-to-install-and-use desktop and server operating system, based on FreeBSD. To accomplish this, it provides a graphical installation to enable even UNIX novices to easily install and get it running. It pre-configures desktop environments, video, sound, and networking so that the desktop can be used immediately. A graphical software installation program makes installing pre-built software as easy as other popular operating 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
