 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 143, 20 March 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 12th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. It's that time of the year when development activity in the open source software world is about to reach its peak - the release of GNOME 2.14 last week will be followed by Fedora Core 5 later today, with SUSE 10.1 coming out next month. At the same time, Ubuntu's Dapper Drake has received extra 6 weeks to get more polish, while Mandriva's new "One" product has been overshadowed by news about the sudden involuntary departure of the distribution's founder. Also in this issue: Debian developers on explaining their project to non-geeks, update on the custom DVD booting a number of distributions, and a quick look at the new KNOPPIX 5.0. Happy reading!
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Content:
Opinion: Mandriva on the rocks
  Despite the release of a new Mandriva edition last week, it was the company -- rather than the new product -- that stole the spotlight in the media. In a never-ending series of blunders that have relegated the best desktop Linux distribution on the market to a mediocre one over the last few years, the decision makers at Mandriva have asked Gaël Duval (pictured on the right) to leave the company! Yes, the same Gaël Duval who single-handedly created Mandrake Linux back in 1998. The same Gaël Duval who had a proven track record of understanding desktop Linux better than anyone else at the time. The same Gaël Duval who probably contributed more than anyone else to increased adoption of Linux at a time when very few distributions thought about usability of Linux on the desktop. Now, last week, Gaël Duval was deemed a burden to the company he helped to jump-start!
It was a telling sign of Mandriva's attitude towards their user community that we had to learn about such an important event in an obscure IRC channel or a private web log, rather than directly from the horse's mouth. It was only when a major news site picked up the story that the company found itself in an embarrassing position of having to provide an explanation. Although Gaël Duval disagreed on a few minor points, the message given by Mandriva's CEO was clear: Mandriva as a company is once again in a bad financial shape and needs to find ways to cut expenses. With the acquisition of Conectiva and Lycoris in 2005, the ill-contrived spending spree of the past year has come back to haunt the company's investors. Fresh doubts about the viability of its business model have re-surfaced.
Is this the end of Mandriva as a company? No, not just yet. Is this the end of a distribution that helped so many users (including your DistroWatch maintainer) to jump on the Linux bandwagon back in the late nineties? Sadly, yes. As one forum reader put it so bluntly, it is frightening to realise that in their quest to increase the value of their investments, Mandriva's desperate shareholders have made so many absurd decisions that instead of building a prosperous business entity they will bring about its downfall!
Right now, the only thing that can save Mandriva from certain death is return to its roots - by building a distribution for home users, not suits. Although following Red Hat's business model might sound like a perfect way to ensure future financial prosperity, the sad reality is that Mandriva will have hard time competing with the likes of Red Hat and Novell. Instead, the company should close its rapidly diminishing Club infrastructure, return to a 6-month release cycle, and give away the base distribution with no delays and no strings attached. With the dramatically increasing interest in Linux that we have been witnessing over the past 6 months, it shouldn't take too long before it would generate solid and sustainable revenue from private and government contracts, as well as by selling support and custom solutions.
For Mandriva to survive, it needs to stop laying off its best employees and start implementing a radical overhaul of its business strategy. It should strive to become a leader in one area, not a follower in another - no matter how lucrative it might seem to certain uninformed investors. Unfortunately, as its most recent action demonstrates, Mandriva might have already passed the point of no return....
* * * * *
Miscellaneous news: polishing Dapper Drake, tasting bubbly Bordeaux, explaining Debian
 The controversial decision of the Ubuntu developers to postpone the final release of Dapper Drake by six weeks has met with mixed reactions. Although the decision-making process was democratic and the reasons for the proposed delay sound, the decision has its critics. Up to this point, Ubuntu Linux was about the most trustworthy Linux distribution on the market, with the reliable 6-month release cycle as one of its stated goals. Suddenly, a big part of this trust is gone and users have every reason to question the validity of Ubuntu's other promises. Besides, six weeks sounds like a long time to reach that ever elusive goal called "polish". The delay will also put more pressure on the developers - with so much extra time, the expectations will rise considerably. But let's not judge the product too early. If the extra six weeks turn Dapper Drake into the most amazing Linux distribution ever built, then be it!
 In the meantime, the eagerly awaited Fedora Core 5, the distribution's first release in over 9 months, should provide enough features, software and entertainment for every Linux user to give the venerable operating system a serious test drive. Although Fedora's revamped installer and some of the custom utilities feel somewhat dumbed down, the new release promises to be a solid operating system. Code named "Bordeaux", the new Fedora will be formally announced on Monday, but as many have already discovered, the ISO images have started leaking from some of the distribution's mirrors as early as Friday last week. If you find yourself bored while downloading the product, here are a few interesting links to check out: Fedora Core 5 sneak preview, Stanton Finley's installation notes, and Fedora 5 screencast. One final note: users of proprietary NVIDIA and ATI video drivers should read this important message before installing or upgrading.
 How do you promote Debian at parties? Joshua Kwan, one of the distribution's developers happened to wear a Debian T-shirt at a party and soon found himself struggling to explain the purpose of the strange looking spiral to non-geek public. After describing the awkward situation on a web log, several Debian developers offered an advice on how to deal with the situation:
- Martin Krafft: "Rule number one: stay away from opinions, comparisons, and technical details (at least in the beginning). Give them humanly comprehensible facts and do not mention Windows or OS X unless asked."
- Erich Schubert: "You need to have what is called an 'elevator pitch'. That is a short preso you could give while going up a few floors with an elevator on your way to a meeting, back, at a conference, at a party..."
- Wouter Verhelst: "And about that Linux bit, I wouldn't worry too much. If the people you're talking to are business people, and they've never heard of Linux before, just get yourself a strange look on your face, and say something like you've never heard of Linux before?!?"
Any similar experiences among the readers of DistroWatch? How would you explain Linux to casual acquaintance? Please comment below.
Finally, a quick update on the Spanish article explaining the steps to create a custom DVD that can boot a number of live Linux distributions. Due to overwhelming demand, the author has spent time to update the script and to translate the article into English. Those of you who found it difficult to follow the original story can now access the English version of the updated article on this page.
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| First look at KNOPPIX 5.0 |
First look at KNOPPIX 5.0
 Those readers who recall the early days of KNOPPIX will also remember the high frequency with which new releases of the popular live CD used to appear on public mirrors - sometimes as much as three times a week! Although those excitingly hyperactive days are gone for good, having a more sedate release schedule has its benefits too. Probably the chief one among them is that awesome feeling of experiencing unexpected dramatic improvements. If you are still using KNOPPIX 4.0.x, then prepare yourself for a major update when version 5.0 finally hits the public mirrors in the next few weeks. It's good; in fact, it's probably the best KNOPPIX release to-date.
As has become tradition over the last few years, new KNOPPIX versions are first presented during major computing exhibitions, such as CeBIT or LinuxTag before they are updated and released to public mirrors. If you can't wait any longer, a hacked English edition of the new 3.88 GB KNOPPIX 5.0 live DVD can be downloaded via BitTorrent from LinuxTracker.org. This is the release I used to boot up a Pentium 4 computer to take an early look at the world's most popular live DVD.
Your first impressions are likely to be excellent. The KNOPPIX 5.0 DVD boots noticeably faster than version 4.0.2 (3 minutes and 20 seconds to full KDE on this test machine), the hardware detection is the usual perfection, and the new desktop theme looks a lot more professional than anything we have seen from KNOPPIX so far. Under the hood, there are many more improvements. The live DVD sports the latest KDE 3.5.1 running on top of kernel 2.6.15. Several other "firsts" will please a large number of users - KNOPPIX 5.0 is the distribution's first release that uses X.Org (version 6.9.0) instead of XFree86, provides udev for mounting storage devices, and includes Java and Java-based Jakarta Tomcat and the Eclipse SDK. Mono is also included for the first time, although disappointingly Mono-based Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy have failed to make the cut. Besides the default KDE, users can also boot into GNOME 2.12, XFce 4.2.3, Fluxbox 0.9.14, WindowMaker 0.92.0, IceWM 1.2.25 and several other window managers.
The new KNOPPIX also ships with an improved hard disk installation program which is now able to upgrade a previous installation. Like version 4.0, the DVD includes a number of KNOPPIX-related electronic books in both English and German, such as the excellent Knowing Knoppix. Somewhat surprisingly, it also provides several open source applications for Windows, e.g. Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org. And speaking of Windows, transparent read/write access to partitions formatted with the NTFS file system is now a standard feature.
Despite my mostly positive impressions, a few negative points of KNOPPIX 5.0 need to mentioned too. The 'knoppix-installer' program is nowhere to be found in the menus, so users wishing to install the new KNOPPIX to their hard disks will have to read the changelog or resort to guesswork. Similarly, the KNOPPIX and KANOTIX menu entries are available in KDE only, making it hard to access all the great custom utilities from other desktops. If you do switch to a non-KDE desktop, it will become immediately obvious that no effort has been expended to synchronise the menus, wallpaper, font sizes, etc. with those on KDE. To get the best experience out of KNOPPIX you really should use KDE, otherwise you might be disappointed.
Overall, KNOPPIX 5.0 is a very good release with a huge number of up-to-date applications, improved speed and a pleasant desktop theme. I still prefer the faster and more polished live CD edition, but many users will no doubt be attracted by the versatility and extra software on the live DVD.
For more information about the project please visit the distribution's web site at Knoppix.com.
KNOPPIX 5.0 live DVD provides excellent allround improvements over the previous release
(full image size: 556kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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| Released Last Week |
PAIPIX 5.0
A new major version of the KNOPPIX/KANOTIX-based PAIPIX Linux live DVD has been released: "After a major restructuring PAIPIX version 5 is now available for download both for the 32-bit and AMD 64-bit architectures. A single image is now used for all supported languages. For hard disk installation, PAIPIX is now using the KANOTIX facility that renders the installed system pure Debian and therefore much more robust to upgrades. There was a lot of work over a long time that was put into this major restructuring that now includes OpenOffice.org 2.0.1, KDE 3.5.1, Apache 2, PHP 5, MySQL 5, PostgreSQL 8.1 and X.Org 6.8." The release announcement.
Source Mage GNU/Linux 0.9.6
Source Mage GNU/Linux 0.9.6 for i486 and PowerPC processors has been released: "'Guidance' ISO Release 0.9.6 stable PPC and x86. Our first stable PPC ISO release in a very long time. The PPC installer now has all the nice features that the x86 installer has. Main new features: a 'dependency' scheme that will make sure you don't accidentally skip a vital step or do things in the wrong order - you can still override dependencies if you really know what you're doing; spells get installed in the background while you are busy selecting options; software RAID support via mdadm." Read the release announcement for further details.
Foresight Linux 0.9.4
The first distribution release shipping with the hot-off-the-press GNOME 2.14 is Foresight Linux 0.9.4: "I am very pleased to announce the availability of Foresight Desktop Linux 0.9.4 with GNOME 2.14. This release includes a number of updates: GNOME 2.14; cleaner and shinier 'Clearlooks' theme; Tango desktop icons; kernel 2.6.15.6; Avahi (aka Rendezvous, Bonjour and sometimes Zeroconf); latest DBUS and HAL; GNOME Power Manager; Banshee, F-Spot, Beagle, Tomboy and more... Foresight Desktop Linux 0.9.4 is available as both CD and DVD ISOs, and -- drum roll please -- VMware player and QEMU images thanks to rBuilder!" Read the release announcement for more information.
Skolelinux 2.0
A new major version of Skolelinux, a distribution also known as DebianEdu, has been released: "After twenty-one months of development, Skolelinux has released a new version. Skolelinux, the Debian-edu project's Custom Debian Distribution, is installed in hundreds of schools in Norway, Germany, and other countries. Many municipalities use Skolelinux across all of their schools; such centralized operation offers low maintenance and operational costs. Skolelinux is free and open source software, and for those schools that need assistance, many commercial organizations offer maintenance and support solutions." Read the release announcement for more information.
Mandriva One 2006
The inaugural release of Mandriva One, a new live CD that aims to simplify the installation of the Mandriva Linux operating system to a hard disk directly from the live CD, has been released: "An operating system is generally available as a live CD or a set of installation CDs, but not both on the same disc. Mandriva One differs in offering an all-in-one CD based on Mandriva Linux 2006. It's a great way for all users to save space and time. This high quality Linux distribution not only includes live and install functionality but also a selection of the best free software available - and selected non-free applications and drivers are available on a special edition for Mandriva Club members." See the full release announcement and press release for additional details.
Nonux 2.3
Nonux has been updated to version 2.3. The new release brings several major updates, including new versions of the Linux kernel (2.6.15.6), GNOME (2.12.3), OpenOffice.org (2.0.2) and Firefox (1.5.0.1). Also, the distribution's hard disk installation program has seen considerable speed improvements. Please visit the Nonux news page (in Dutch) to read the complete release announcement.
Lineox Enterprise Linux 4.076 and 3.140
Following the recent updated releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3 and 4, new versions of Lineox Enterprise Linux, a distribution rebuilt from source RPM packages for RHEL, are also available: "Always Current Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.140 with Update 7 available. In the 3.140 version the installation environment is rebuilt, so it offers better hardware support during the installation. Note however that booting from a floppy is no longer supported in x86 version. The x86_64 version has never had floppy boot support. New features introduced by this update include: improved support for NUMA architectures, addition of OpenIPMI userspace tools...." Please see the two release announcements (Lineox 4.076, Lineox 3.140).
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Linux Format Issue 78
 The April 2006 issue of Linux Format should now be available from your book store or news agent. As usual, the DistroWatch section on pages 34 and 35 has a mixture of articles on the latest distributions, starting with an opinion piece arguing the importance of Slackware Linux. Despite some voices in the community claiming that the advent of modern, user-friendly Linux operating systems has rendered the oldest surviving distribution obsolete, Slackware is still one of the most reliable and cleanest distributions available today. This is followed by an article describing some of the new features in Fedora Core 5, a brief review of VectorLinux 5.1 "SOHO", and a quick look at EnGarde Secure Linux 3, one of the friendliest server-oriented Linux distributions with excellent web-based administration tools. The section concludes with an interesting way of measuring the size of distributions - by ranking them according to the number of packages they ship. No prices for guessing which is the biggest of them all!
Elsewhere in the magazine, the main cover feature is dedicated to 8 pages of digital photography, including a basic set-up for beginners, photo manipulation techniques in GIMP, and printing and sharing of photographs. Although Linux Format is predominantly a Linux publication, the current issue branches out to cover another free operating system - the lightning-fast and easy-to-use Syllable. As always, don't miss the review section, which tests and rates a late beta release of SUSE Linux 10.1, Yellow Dog Linux 4.1, Gentoo Linux 2006.0, and a number of applications and games. There is also an excellent round-up of DVD players resulting in a surprise winner, while the highly informative interview section will be most appreciated by the fans of Mono, as Edd Dumbill and Niel Bornstein share their passion for the open source port of Microsoft's .NET framework.
Once again, the tutorial section is heavily focused on budding graphics designers. If you are one of them, you will have a chance to create a glass reflection in the GIMP, learn a few special text manipulation techniques in Inkscape, and get to grips with surface modelling in Realsoft 3D. Linux beginners will appreciate the 4-page story of managing email in Evolution, while those who enjoy working on the command line will find it informative to read about advanced Bash tricks using alias, less, top, grep, and find. Web masters will learn a few SQL optimisation techniques with PHP.
Whatever you do, don't miss the latest edition of the best Linux magazine on the market!
* * * * *
New distributions added to the waiting list
- Olive. Olive is an independently developed minimalist live CD featuring the Enlightenment window manager.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 27 March 2006. See you then :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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DRBL Live
DRBL (Diskless Remote Boot in Linux) is server software to boot and operate remote desktop clients. The DRBL software allows client machines to run as stateless, thin-client style computers which are managed by the DRBL server. DRBL Live is a Debian-based, live disc distribution of the DRBL server software which can be run from a USB drive or CD/DVD. It includes a desktop environment to assist users in configuring the server.
Status: Dormant
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