 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 153, 29 May 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 22nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The new Ubuntu "Dapper Drake" with long-term support will be finally unveiled later this week; before that happens, however, enjoy the latest DistroWatch Weekly! The highlight of this issue is an interview with Andreas Jaeger, SUSE Linux project manager and release coordinator, who reveals the secrets of developing a complex operating system and gives us some hints about what we can look forward to in version 10.2. Also in this issue: Freespire presents its first release roadmap, Debian continues work on a graphical installer, FreeBSD seeks volunteers to maintain the Ports Collection, and Gentoo and PCLinuxOS release new documentation. Finally, a note on Picasa and a reminder about the DistroWatch IRC channel. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (8.9MB) or mp3 (10.8MB) format (courtesy of Shawn Milo).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Miscellaneous News |
Freespire release roadmap, Debian graphical installer, Gentoo development guide, PCLinuxOS user guides, Picasa for Linux
 The Freespire project, a new community distribution launched recently by Linspire, has announced a development roadmap leading towards version 1.0. The distribution's first beta is scheduled to be released on 1 August 2006, with the final product following one month later. The short testing period is explained by the fact the Freespire 1.0 will be forked off stable Linspire 5.0 and as such, it will only need limited testing. In other words, Freespire 1.0 will be just a quick launching platform, after which the development process should start evolving independently from its parent. Freespire 1.1, scheduled for release in the 4th quarter of this year, should be a more interesting product, complete with support for a number of languages, open source CNR (Click-N-Run) client, kernel 2.6.17, KDE 3.5, GCC 4, and several other features. The release of Freespire 1.1 will be followed by Linspire 6.0, the company's commercial product, also due in the 4th quarter of this year. For more information please see this forum post.
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 The upcoming release of Debian "etch", currently scheduled for December 2006, is likely to provide several interesting features, never before seen in the world's largest Linux distribution. One of them is a graphical installer. As reported in the latest issue of Debian Weekly News, the Debian graphical installer is now part of the regular daily builds for the i386 platform, with AMD64 and PPC following shortly. While it still won't be the default way of installing Debian "etch", the availability of a point-and-click interface should make it easier for novice users to install Debian, a distribution often considered more suitable for use by software developers and technology enthusiasts. On a related note, Daniel Baumann has announced the availability of a new set of unofficial Debian live CDs for the i386 and AMD64 processors; images containing either GNOME or KDE can be downloaded from the project's main server or its European mirror.
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 Good news for all aspiring developers of the most popular source-based distribution: Gentoo has published a comprehensive document entitled Gentoo Development Guide. This lengthy tutorial provides information on how to create "ebuilds", or meta files containing information about compiling a package from its source code, complete with other essential information, such as package dependencies. Pleasant formatting of the document makes the guide useful not only to those wishing to start building "ebuilds", but also to those readers who want to learn what goes into creating a package for Gentoo Linux.
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 Speaking about community development, the FreeBSD project has issued a call for volunteer contributors who would be interested in maintaining the FreeBSD Ports Collection: "A lot of the ports in the Ports Collection have no assigned maintainer. Unmaintained ports tend to lag behind the rest of the Ports Collection in the speed of updates to new versions, and in the overall quality of the port. With nearly 15,000 third-party applications in the Ports Collection, and dozens more added every week, there is an ever-present need for more volunteers to assist in maintaining ports." Those of you thinking about answering the call, please read through the Contributing to the FreeBSD Ports Collection document and check out the FreeBSD Porter's Handbook.
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 MyPCLinuxOS, a community web site serving the users of Texstar's PCLinuxOS, has released a set of installation and user guides for this popular beginner-friendly distribution. Three documents are available: a 27-page PCLinuxOS Installation Guide, a 30-page PCLinuxOS Live CD Guide and an 80-page PCLinuxOS User Guide. Especially the PCLinuxOS User Guide seem like a well thought-out publication covering basic computer tasks, such as file manipulation, work with Internet and multimedia applications and using productivity software, and even introducing some more advanced topics, like system administration and computer security. Written by Alex Belgraver and Julia Ray, this guide, available in PDF and ODT formats, is a must-have document for all users new to Linux in general and PCLinuxOS in particular.
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 Is your DistroWatch maintainer the only person who fails to see the point of Picasa, a digital photo management program released last week by Google? After downloading the 20 MB monster and installing it on an Ubuntu system, it didn't last beyond a few minutes I took to investigate the software. Running through WINE, Picasa felt slow and looked unsightly, with its toolbars failing to match the theme of other, native Linux applications on my desktop. With perfectly functional free programs, such as digiKam or F-Spot, do we have a need for a closed-source, binary-only and non-native beast for managing our digital images? Or do you find Picasa a superior alternative to anything that exists on Linux? Please state your views in the forum below.
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| Interview |
Interview with Andreas Jaeger, SUSE Linux
 Following the highly intensive 9-month development effort of hundreds of full-time coders and volunteer contributors, SUSE Linux 10.1 was finally released to the public on 11 May 2006. Based on some of the early reviews, it appears that the new product is possibly one of the best operating systems available today and another reason to celebrate the enormous progress desktop Linux has made over the past couple of years. But the long development cycle didn't pass without its fair share of glitches, delays and unexpected feature enhancements in the middle of the beta testing process. We asked Andreas Jaeger, Project Manager at SUSE Linux, about his experiences with managing a massive and complex software project, and to give us some hints about the next SUSE release, the development of which is scheduled to start in just a couple of weeks.
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DW: Andreas, thank you very much for your time and congratulations on your new release. If I understand it correctly, you are the release manager for SUSE Linux. What exactly are your responsibilities?
AJ: My job title is project manager which means I am the SUSE Linux project lead and as such, I act as the release manager for the SUSE Linux distribution and I basically coordinate work on our SUSE Linux distribution. So to say, I am the link to product management, the different development teams at Novell and to our community. Â I'm not responsible for the marketing material, e.g. the look of the retail box.
The features in the product are requested by product management, taking into account the feedback received from the openSUSE community and our customers. To achieve this, I work with various development and testing teams inside Novell and coordinate these. I'm also taking care of localization and documentation. Most of my responsibilities are delegated which means I have to handle a number of escalations.
DW: Can you describe your typical day during the SUSE Linux 10.1 testing?
AJ: There's no really typical day since I'm in fire fighting mode during such times. But it basically boils down to: I start by reading the Bugzilla reports, where I give the highest priority to those where people ask me and set the report to NEEDINFO for me - I have to unblock them so that they can continue working on bugs. Then I go through other bug reports that I'm responsible for or am CCed. I also check blockers and criticals to see that we're moving forward and how the product progresses. I have to go through my Bugzilla emails several times during the day. Then come a lot of emails I have to read and answer, both directly and on mailing lists. Depending on the bug reports and emails, I might talk with engineers face to face, if possible, or by phone, and help resolving issues.
Most mornings we had a so called daily build where we mastered CDs with the changes that were checked into our build system the day before. I look at these builds briefly, announce them for wider testing and discuss with the testers whether the known issues are really fixed and what new issues arise.
In the afternoon I had a daily conference call with all the people involved with libzypp and ZENworks to discuss development and testing. I also had a number of weekly meetings - e.g. with my project manager colleagues, all the team leaders involved with SUSE Linux 10.1, the product manager and my boss.
DW: Several of your release announcements came late in the evenings or during weekends. Do you normally work from home or do you work in an office, but stay late, if necessary?
AJ: I work four days from the office (at Novell's Nürnberg office) and Fridays in general from home (in Fürth). During the release time I did a lot of emails in the evening from home as well. There were a couple of days where I stayed late at the office but those were not for the announcements but to get everything ready ;-).
DW: Let's talk about the release process for SUSE Linux 10.1. It became obvious that something changed shortly after beta 4 when the original release plan was basically thrown out of the window. What happened exactly?
AJ: We decided to redesign the way we handle software and a new software management back-end, based on our "libzypp"library, which also integrated Novell's ZENworks technology. This allows us to not only manage packages but also patches, patterns and even products in an integrated way.
The decision to integrate this was made after Beta 3, instead of waiting for the next release. The work to integrate this was underestimated and, in hindsight, I would say that even at that point it was not ready to go in. But we decided that it would be better to continue the integration and also fix a couple of other areas, especially Xen.
DW: The recently concluded development of SUSE Linux 10.1 has to go down as the longest and most intense development process in the distribution's long history. Did you ever feel like giving up and just walking away from the seemingly thankless task of coordinating the releases?
AJ: It was the longest and most intense since I've joined SUSE - but I've heard that the 4.2 release was even worse. But I agree, this was a real exception, we've been too proud of timely delivery ;-).
I'm part of an excellent team of project managers at SUSE and they, as well as the team leaders, took some responsibility from me so that a few of us could concentrate on critical areas. If I would have been on my own, I might have given up. It was not thankless at all, I received lots of encouragement from the community and colleagues. It was also a challenge to release such a complex beast as a Linux distribution - and I'm always glad to release it.
DW: One of the points of criticism during the development of SUSE Linux 10.1 was lack of any release notes accompanying the betas and release candidates. This was in sharp contrast with other popular distributions, such as Fedora or Ubuntu. Don't you think it's important to inform the testers about the most important changes in a more user-friendly format, rather than just relying on a long and highly technical changelog?
AJ: This is something we'll think of for next release. Since everything is in the open, I would like to invite community members to help with this.
DW: Let's move onto the SUSE Linux 10.1 release. What sort of feedback have you been getting so far? Any praise or complaints?
AJ: Lots of praise, even personal emails, which really surprised me. During such a long phase I obviously saw the rough edges and bugs instead of how good it was, so I really appreciated this. We also got a lot of complaints about some rough edges on the package management side. The rest of the system is really excellent, the long beta phase has paid off here.
DW: What is the best way to upgrade from 10.0 to 10.1?
AJ: Boot from a 10.1 CD1 or DVD and use "Update system" instead of "New installation".
DW: One of the most interesting new features of SUSE 10.1 is 3D window manipulation and other effects with Xgl and Compiz. What do you think of these? Are they just "eye candy" or would you say they represent a truly useful breakthrough in the way a Linux desktop is presented to the end user?
AJ: I haven't seen as much excitement for a single feature as for Xgl - ever! It's "eye candy", but the users really consider it a major step forward.
3D effects on SUSE Linux 10.1 with Xgl and Compiz
(full image size: 725kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
DW: Do you normally have Xgl and Compiz turned on your main workstation at work or home?
AJ: The graphics cards in my laptop and in my workstation at home will not work with Xgl - and my main workstation at the office would work fine but I'm not using it right now.
DW: Looking through some SUSE forums and mailing lists, I've noticed a few complaints, such as a problem regarding online updates, some wireless networking troubles, and stability issues with Xgl. Are these concerns being addressed in post-release updates or do they affect just a small portion of SUSE Linux users so they can be ignored?
AJ: We have already fixed problems in the areas of package management ("libzypp") and Xgl, and will release updates for these and also for other packages, if needed. Most fixes are already available in our "factory" tree and will be released after additional testing for 10.1 as well. Also, we will support SUSE Linux 10.1 with security updates for two years, with the first online updates already available.
DW: How many full-time developers worked on SUSE Linux 10.1?
AJ: Since SUSE Linux is based on open source software and developed with the openSUSE community, it's impossible to make a guess. So, let me only answer how many developers from Novell worked on it.
We have developers working on different locations world-wide and home offices; just some examples: The Xen team is in Provo, Utah, the GNOME, Mono and ZENworks teams are based in Boston, the Evolution team is in Bangalore, and the two main SUSE locations are in Nürnberg, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic. If you add the various test teams as well, it should give us at least 250 people working on it.
DW: The KDE vs GNOME issue in Novell products continues to attract heated discussions in online forums. SUSE, a traditional supporter of KDE seems to be in conflict with Novell, which has been trying to promote the use GNOME instead. What is your view on this? Which desktop do you normally use on your workstation?
AJ: My position is that SUSE Linux has to deliver the best desktop to its users. The problem is that there's just no single best desktop and the world is split into GNOME and KDE (and XFce, Blackbox,...) enthusiasts. It's not only a different look and feel, it's also different development communities that have different philosophies. It's often said that competition is good for the user - and I think that a friendly competition will help the user. I'm glad that now we have not only a good KDE desktop, but also a good GNOME one and therefore SUSE Linux reaches out to more users.
I consider it important that both desktops work together to give users an integrated view and also a real choice. As an example, look at NetworkManager and Powersave. Those are technologies that are desktop-agnostic and nicely integrate into both desktops. For SUSE Linux 10.1 we integrated NetworkManager into our basic network setup and added a KDE front-end to supplement the existing GNOME front-end. With our Powersave technology we went the other way and integrated our libraries with the GNOME applets.
With each public snapshot, I look at both GNOME and KDE myself and have them on the pre-release check list.
My workstations run KDE, I switched from WindowMaker to KDE at a point when our GNOME support was not as good as it is now.
DW: With the upcoming release of the first alpha of SUSE 10.2, scheduled for 16 June, it doesn't look like you'll have much time to take a well-deserved break before the start of a new development cycle. Can you give us some hints about what is planned for version 10.2? Does SUSE have some sort of a mechanism for determining a list of new features for the next version?
AJ: I'll take some vacation soon and my colleague Adrian will handle the Alpha1 release. We will not make significant changes for 10.2 Alpha1 but we're now starting work on some infrastructure changes, such as removing GNOME 1 packages (its last use was for GnuCash, which has now also been converted to version 2) and switching to X.Org version 7. Some of the planned improvements for openSUSE include our build server project and an extension of the community in Asian countries like Japan and China.
For the features for 10.2 we use our internal tracking system called FATE (basically a Bugzilla for features). The product management team will also look at the feedback from 10.1 and the various wish lists on openSUSE.org to decide about new features.
DW: If there were no SUSE Linux, which distribution would you likely use on your workstation?
AJ: I hope this will never happen. I started with SUSE Linux nearly 10 years ago, then went to my own packages and then used SUSE Linux again. So, in this case, I would have to start a project to create a new distribution as I don't know any that is both cutting edge and still stable, has all the packages that I need, supports my hardware, is freely available, as well as integrated and therefore easy to use.
DW: Well, I am pretty certain that among the 500 distributions listed on DistroWatch, there will be one or two that fits the criteria. But anyway, thank you very much for your answers and all the best for SUSE Linux 10.2!
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| Released Last Week |
SLAX 5.1.6
Barely three days after version 5.1.5, the SLAX project has announced the availability of SLAX 5.1.6: "A new version of SLAX is available. The main added feature is NTFS write support. The default behaviour didn't change, SLAX still mounts NTFS volumes read-only. But you can mount it manually with read-write support by using the command 'ntfsmount'. It allows you to safely edit all existing files on NTFS partitions. You can also create or delete files, this will either succeed or it will be refused. Please note that refusal to do an operation does not mean the volume will be corrupted. Actually it means just the opposite: it's a guarantee that your data is safe." See the latest SLAX changelog for further details.
BeleniX 0.4.3a
The developers of BeleniX, a full-featured live CD based on OpenSolaris, have announced an updated release - version 0.4.3a: "BeleniX 0.4.3a with JDK 1.5 released! Another release of the live CD this month. The significant feature of this release is the inclusion of JDK 1.5 under the new Distributors License for Java (DLJ) as announced by Sun Microsystems on May 16th in JavaOne. However due to a licensing issue with a required SUN Studio C++ runtime library it is currently an installable bundle and does not execute off the live CD. This is expected to be resolved soon." Visit the distribution's home page to read the complete release announcement.
Arch Linux 0.7.2
Judd Vinet has announced the release of Arch Linux 0.7.2, a minor update to the Arch 0.7 series: "Arch Linux 0.7.2 (Gimmick) is now available for download. This time, we've provided three different ISO images for you to use: an FTP-only image (13MB), a Base-only image (145MB), and our full image that contains the entire Current repository (519MB)." Gimmick is the first official release to have the new modular X.Org 7.0 and GNOME 2.14, as well as KDE 3.5 available in a "stable" repository. Among other upgrades, it also includes the Linux kernel 2.6.16.16. Here is the brief release announcement.
Zenwalk Linux 2.6
Zenwalk Linux 2.6 has been released: "A new stable Zenwalk release 2.6 is available as a CD-ROM ISO. More than 80 packages have been updated or added. The kernel is 2.6.16.16. Since the last release, we worked on the desktop look and feel, and also on Zenwalk specific system tools, like networkconfig, serviceconfig,and Zenwalk USB automount system. In our continuous search for the best applications for our GTK2-based platform, we have added WiFi Radar to handle WiFi roaming network profiles. The extra section provides optional add-on packages made specifically for your Zenwalk system, like the OpenOffice.org suite or KDE." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
FreeBSD 5.5
Ken Smith has announced a new stable release of the FreeBSD 5.x series: "It is my great pleasure and privilege to announce the availability of FreeBSD 5.5-RELEASE. Work done between the 5.4-RELEASE and this release has mostly been bug fixes. Some 'vendor supplied' software has also been updated, mostly due to security concerns (specifically BIND and sendmail). This is the last planned release on the 5-STABLE branch. The FreeBSD development community is currently focusing its efforts on the 6-STABLE and CURRENT codelines. No new major features are planned for the 5-STABLE branch, although minor updates and bug fixes may be merged at the discretion of individual developers." Read the release announcement and consult the release notes for more information.
BackTrack 1.0
The first stable version of BackTrack, SLAX-based live CD with a collection of security and forensics tools, is out: "After hundreds of combined man hours, the Dev Team is proud to present our first 'final' BackTrack release." From the changelog: "Updated Metasploit 2.6; updated pbnj; fixed LILO problem; added VNC vulnerability scanner; added ThinkPad ACPI kernel module; fixed Kimset menu text; fixed switch to scripts; fixed missing fontdirs; fixed console menu size; added revhosts; fixed SPE and Absinthe wx incompatibility; added radeontool; added DMitry." Here is the brief release announcement.
Scientific Linux 3.0.7
A new update to the 3.0 series of Scientific Linux, a distribution release built by recompiling the source RPM packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, is available for the i386 architecture: "Scientific Linux (SL) release 3.0.7 for i386 has been released. We wish to thank all the contributors, testers, and all those who have given us kind words of encouragement. The Scientific Linux community is great to work with and for. Scientific Linux release 3.0.7 is based on the rebuilding of RPMS out of SRPMS's from Enterprise 3 AS, including Update 6 & 7. There aren't too many improvements over 3.0.5 other than bug fixes, security errata and updated kernel modules. The release notes can be found here." Read the brief release announcement for more information.
tinysofa classic server 2.0 Update 5
Jaakko Heinonen has announced the release of a new update to tinysofa classic server 2.0: "tinysofa classic server 2.0 Update 5 (Ceara) is now generally available. This release focuses on bug and security fixes, integrates all released security fixes, and updates various packages (notably the kernel) to the more recent upstream releases. 'Ceara' features: the Linux 2.6.16 kernel, grsecurity support, APT and SmartPM for advanced package management, the next generation PHP 5 environment (5.0.4), OpenSSH 4.3p2, high availability features such as DRBD (0.7.17) and UCARP (1.1), the latest development tools and languages (GCC 3.4.3, Python 2.4.2), and much more." Visit the distribution's home page to read the release announcement.
PC-BSD 1.1
An updated version of PC-BSD, now based on FreeBSD 6.1, has been released: "PC-BSD 1.1 was released today, along with a PBI update file for users running 1.0, who wish to update to 1.1. This release brings the core operating system up to the latest version of FreeBSD 6.1, adds better driver support to the kernel, and improves the speed on many systems." The new release also ads "nve" devices to DHCP network detection, fixes network manager to restart network after settings change, and upgrades Online Update Utility to display status. For more information please read the release announcement and consult the release notes and changelog.
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Development and unannounced releases
- Frenzy 1.0-rc2, the release notes
- Frugalware 0.5-pre1, the release announcement
- Parsix GNU/Linux 0.80-beta1, the release announcement
- Tuquito 2.0-beta3, the release announcement
- Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu 6.06-rc, the release announcement
- Elive 0.5-beta, the changelog
- SimplyMEPIS 6.0-beta4, the press release
- Grafpup Linux 1.0.4-pre1, the release announcement
- UHU Linux 2.0-test1, the release announcement
- Truva Linux 1.0-rc2
- Kalango Linux 3.3-alpha1
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch IRC channel reminder
Following an inquiry by one of our readers, here is a quick reminder that interested readers can join our IRC channel at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch to discuss distribution-related topics. Those of you who are new to this type of communication should use one of the IRC clients, such as the popular XChat. After starting XChat, please select "FreeNode" from the list of available networks and type in "#distrowatch" as the name of the channel. The attendance has apparently been rather low lately, but hopefully this reminder will cause a big surge in the number of "DistroWatchers" sharing their experiences with other like-minded readers. Happy discussions!
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DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 5 June 2006. See you then :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Picasa (by XF on 2006-05-29 13:16:19 GMT from Padova, Italy)
I've been using Picasa a long time with Wine as I've never felt comfortable with f-spot or any other similar tool. The simple fact that f-spot creates a new file everytime you modify a picture instead of storing only the index of the applied filters like Picasa does (Imagine applying a filter to every 2MB picture in a 100-pictures album: f-spot occupies 400MB while Picasa 200MB plus some KB's) made me abandon f-spot and go the Picasa+Wine way.
2 • Picasa is useless. (by CoolGoose on 2006-05-29 13:16:37 GMT from Bucharest, Romania)
Well when you have f-spot and other applications that are native to *nix and they're also opensource why do you need picasa :). (Yea i know that i told the same thing like Ladislav). Google made and makes some great things for opensource but i can't understand why their code is closed source because they give their programs for free.
3 • Release of Zenwalk 2.6, PCBSD 1.1 and Picasa... (by Caraibes on 2006-05-29 13:17:30 GMT from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
Hi Folks !
I am posting my comment about the successfull release of Zenwalk 2.6 : it rocks !!! Try it, it is nice and stable... Lite and simple...
About Picasa, I ain't gonna waste bandwidth for that... Just like Ladislav siad, who cares about it, since we have great Linux app... We have to support the authentic open source app whenever possible, and photo manip' app' is the case.
Now, about the new release of PCBSD 1.1, I just hope that the dev' took care of the lack of support for users of Via S3 integrated video chipset. On version 1.0, there was a blank screen during install that made it impossible for us to go on... I would love some feedback before downloading the iso...
And, yes, I am just like the rest of you guys, waiting for the final release of Dapper. I plan to test-drive all flavors : Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu/Xubuntu...
Well, since I have 4 pc's, i might as well take advantage of them when customers don't use them (it's a small internet-café...)
4 • Debian Etch (by Peter on 2006-05-29 13:17:59 GMT from Mülheim An Der Ruhr, Germany)
A graphical installer is not really important, that is not a new interesting feature, what are the other new features?
5 • RE: 4 Debian Etch (by ladislav on 2006-05-29 13:23:14 GMT from Taipei, Taiwan)
New it certainly is. Interesting - that's too subjective a word to say for sure, although I believe there will be those who would consider it that. As for other features, see last week's DistroWatch Weekly.
6 • PCLinuxOS (by David on 2006-05-29 13:25:53 GMT from Forestville, Australia)
Where is the PCLinuxOS news mentioned in the news forward?
7 • RE: 6 PCLinuxOS (by ladislav on 2006-05-29 13:34:38 GMT from Taipei, Taiwan)
It's there now. I accidentally deleted the paragraph before uploading the file.
8 • Picasa (by Luis on 2006-05-29 13:35:10 GMT from Madrid, Spain)
I agree that Picasa adds nothing new. And it's not just f-Spot vs. Picasa. It's Digikam, Gthumb, Lphoto (Linspire's free, open source one), and a few others.
Google should have ported Google Earth better...
9 • Picasa for Linux (by spiritraveller on 2006-05-29 13:37:12 GMT from Atlanta, United States)
I hate to bash on Google when they're trying to support Linux, but I have to agree with the reviewer.
Why would anybody use a poor implementation of a proprietary program when there are Free (as in freedom) versions that work better?
Wine and Crossover Office are only useful for essential programs that have no open source alternative. But there are fewer and fewer programs like that as time goes on.
10 • Picasa (by Wolfram Ravenwolf on 2006-05-29 13:43:10 GMT from Bad Kreuznach, Germany)
I downloaded Picasa for Linux, if only to show Google that there's demand for Linux applications, but it doesn't compare well to native Linux applications.
I enjoy taking photos so I've already searched for some picture management software. I tried a whole bunch of programs (digiKam, F-Spot, gThumb, ...) but the one I found most useful was KimDaBa.
While other options might be easier to use, only KimDaBa was powerful enough to make organizing my collection possible. If you haven't tried it yet, I recommend you check it out (easily installable from the "Add/Remove Applications" feature of Ubuntu), if you didn't like the other choices.
That said, there's one feature of Picasa that I really liked, the "I'm feeling lucky" button to automatically enhance images. I hope the open source programs will include something like that, too, after all it's easy to do it with ImageMagick or the Gimp.
11 • Picasa for Linux (by Mark W. Tomlinson on 2006-05-29 13:57:27 GMT from Alpharetta, United States)
I was very excited when I read the first release blurb for Picasa for Linux - for about 10 seconds. I was really expecting a native package, not something ported via Wine. My issue is not so much with the Google or Wine folks as it is with the way the news was reported.
In my opinion, the banner/headline should have stated something to the effect of "Google ports Picasa to Linux via Wine". I'm probably picking nits here but, to me, "AnyApp for Linux!" implies a native Linux port. Something about truth in advertising...
Since I do very little with digital photograpy, it doesn't affect me much one way or the other. My excitement was based on, "Wow! Now maybe other folks will follow Google's lead!".
12 • Google's kludge (by TuxRaider on 2006-05-29 13:59:06 GMT from Ada, United States)
i read the article about it the other day at yahoo news tech section, the article did state it depended on wine so i never bothered to try it, i been happy with gimp for editing and fir a light fast photo viewing tool i use gqview because it is gtk based yet does not require gnome being installed too, and with gqview right click on the photo you are viewing select full screen and roll that mouse wheel to smoothly glide from one photo to the next.
the Gimp and gqview are my two favorites...
13 • PC-BSD VMWare Image - This image can be booted with VMWare Player under Windows (by George on 2006-05-29 14:01:49 GMT from Stoke, United Kingdom)
Giving VMWare Images , like the PC-BSD 1.1, will encourgage many more people to make use of various Linux, BSD, Solaris etc listed on this site. One can now start using it without going through the installation phase while still running Windows ...
14 • Picasa for Linux (by Fred Morcos on 2006-05-29 14:25:24 GMT from , Egypt)
Well, it seems like everyone is hard headed here.. something i really hate about the open source community, not because it's open source that it's the best, picasa is the best photo album management program that is freely available out there.. like it or not, it's a fact.. F-sport?! Huh?! i can't even search my images and it just takes forever to load them into the library! lol F-spot! I wonder why linux will never get to the desktop (as a real desktop os, not as a "keep working around everything" desktop os)...
15 • Debian graphical installer (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-29 14:34:52 GMT from Milano, Italy)
That is not a priority for me.
Support for pppoe in the installer is much more important, IMO, and I suppose it is for thousands of users.
16 • Open Source Hardheadedness (by spiritraveller on 2006-05-29 14:36:50 GMT from Atlanta, United States)
I am very hardheaded about preferring open source, but that's because I value my freedom.
Why bother to "get to the desktop" if you throw out the entire value system that spurred you to move in the first place??? You might as well stick with Microsoft and other proprietary products that take control away from you.
17 • Another vote for Picasa (by Alex on 2006-05-29 14:38:58 GMT from Melbourne, Australia)
Using WINE is not ideal, but the user interface and features of Picasa blows F-Spot and DigiKam out of the water. Installing it is a breeze - just an RPM, Deb or other package depending on which format your distro uses.
Props to Google for this - now all we need is Google Earth for Linux.
18 • Picasa (by cookingout on 2006-05-29 14:46:23 GMT from Denver, United States)
Google has provided Picasa for free and I have used it at work when I was forced to use that other platform. I am grateful. I still must admit that I was disappointed to see that it required WINE to run (and I did not even try it). If Google were to release a true Linux version, what a statement that would make for Linux and the open source community!
I could even see a "Picasix Live" CD on distrowatch in my dreams.
Distrowatch is my most visited website! Keep up the GREAT WORK!
19 • SimplyMEPIS Upcoming Release (by Michael on 2006-05-29 14:48:26 GMT from Phoenix, United States)
The press release on SimplyMEPIS 6.0-beta4 has changed the release date for the final 6.0. According to Warren, "One more beta will be released approximately June 4 then a Release Candidate is scheduled to follow in about one more week. Final release is planned for around June 18."
20 • On the Picasa issue (by Peter on 2006-05-29 15:03:24 GMT from Bacau, Romania)
Picasa is a fairly complex piece of software and in case the trolls bashing Google missed it... there was some effort from Picasa developers to port it to Linux and that effort resulted in patches to Wine. Google proved that is not very difficult to port something complex to Linux and other companies might follow Google. I believe that once you will get a critical user mass we'll see a native port too.
21 • Picasa (by jared on 2006-05-29 15:06:44 GMT from Mission Viejo, United States)
I think we need to be careful what we say if we want companies to continue to port more apps to linux. Maybe this was a test for google to see how the linux community would adopt apps they ported over. Perhaps after reading everyone's comments like, "there's no need for Picasa, we have f-spot" or "but it runs in wine so it sucks" will discourage google from porting over some of there other apps like google earth. I agree with you most of you, I'm not a big fan of Picasa, I prefer digikam, but lets encourage google and others to continue to port apps over to linux.
In stead of making negative comments lets make them more positive and encouraging with constructive critism, like "thank you for showing an interest in the Linux community by porting Picasa......"
We need to show companies out there that there is a demand for their apps in linux. Lets not tear the early attempts that will help build this community.
22 • ELive (by tom on 2006-05-29 15:07:54 GMT from Helena, United States)
Downloaded the new ELive (0.5 Beta). It is very nice. Great speed, hardware detection is much improved.
I could not get internet access with the live CD and it runs slow with emulation.
Intallation was fast and easy. E17 looks great and is very responsive even on older hardware. Internet access if fine after installation (did not come up automatically, su -> ifup eth0 -> no problem).
Other then Enlightenment it seems to be a Debian system, although I have not had time to look "under the hood" much.
For those testing Picasa, ELive comes with wine.
Well worth the time.
23 • Picasa (by Comrade mister Yamamoto on 2006-05-29 15:19:05 GMT from Bronx, United States)
I DL'd it just because. It's handy, since it finds ALL your images. That works for me since I have tons of photographs. It took Picassa about 3 minutes to find all the images on both my drives.
24 • ELive (by tom on 2006-05-29 15:28:51 GMT from Helena, United States)
Almost forgot, ELive comes with QEMU installed. QEMU rusn fast on ELive, but if you want kqemu you will need to uninstall, download source (qemu and kqemu) and re-complie. takes about an hour.
See:
QEMU for Linux:
http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/download.html
QEMU for windows:
http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/
For guidence on installing qemu with kqemu (acceleration) and a gui (confusing because the gui is also called kqemu). Covers enough information that it should help for those not running Ubuntu.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=154265
See also this site (Slackware):
http://www.davereyn.co.uk/download.htm
This last site covers how to run qemu. Again enough information it should help with non slackware users (ie Zenwalk).
For those running Windows, download and install qemu, kqemu, and qemu manager:
http://www.davereyn.co.uk/download.htm
Sorry this turned into a post on qemu. ENJOY!
25 • No subject (by spiritraveller on 2006-05-29 15:30:09 GMT from Atlanta, United States)
"I think we need to be careful what we say if we want companies to continue to port more apps to linux."
We really need to be careful what we say about small open source projects, whose developers sometimes work for nothing but public appreciation.
26 • ArchLinux 0.7.2 (by Ben Woods on 2006-05-29 15:34:54 GMT from Perth, Australia)
The new arch linux is simply magic!
I am using it and absolutely love it.
If you havent tried it and you are one of those people that likes to rotate distributions... this one is a must!
After a bit of hacking I have NetworkManager working happily on my beautiful gnome desktop and a cutting edge, stable system with my pacman package manager!
Check out a review if you know nothing about it:
http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/05/2138228&from=rss
http://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/64/Arch_Linux_Review.pdf
27 • Number of SUSE developers (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-29 15:38:38 GMT from Milano, Italy)
SUSE has 250 developers according to Andreas Jaeger.
Add many hundreds volunteer developers and consider that SUSE supports only 3 achitectures, and you probably have the distro with the highest number of developers per architecture.
No wonder so many innovation come from SUSE.
28 • re: picasa (by cookingin on 2006-05-29 15:44:53 GMT from Gunzenhausen, Germany)
Seems there is already a live cd including picasa and digikam,
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/mandrakeclubnl/mcnllive/Montreal/releasenotes-onthebeach_beta.txt
29 • Picasa on Linux (by W. Anderson on 2006-05-29 16:06:37 GMT from New York, United States)
I agree generally with Jared that un-constructuve complaints about Picasa on Linux serve no good purpose, but if Google ceases to port apps to GNU/Linux because of a few blow-hards, they are not very good business decision makers.
Google should, and I am confident do understand that the more of their great apps and those from other software companies that run on non-Microsoft base, the better to compete against Microsoft when more people change OS.
Plus it is my understanding that this iteration of Picasa on Linux is only the "first" release, which is sure to improve with time, and thus offer more choice to users - Free Picasa or "pure" FOSS competitors.
30 • Picasa and f-spot (by Bastiaan on 2006-05-29 16:15:16 GMT from Osdorp, Netherlands)
Im glad google has released picasa for linux. Id say we might need picasa because it makes editing you photos VERY easy, so since F-Spot is way more smooth i use picasa for editing and f-spot for photo management
31 • Google Earth coming to Linux (by linbetwin on 2006-05-29 16:43:57 GMT from Ploiesti, Romania)
Don't underestimate the news about Picasa. It may not be what many of us expected, but it's a big leap forward.
I read in the WINE newsletter that Google Earth will be ported to Linux as well, via WINE. There will also be a lot of improvements to the Direct3D implementation.
32 • Significance of WINE work? (by Brit on 2006-05-29 16:52:55 GMT from Atlanta, United States)
There is another issue at play here that I most say I feel is being overlooked. There are a a great number of applications (and I am speaking chiefly here about games) that due to driver issues or API complications (directx) will not see the linux platform in terms of native ports. To this end, the WINE framework is the strongest tool that FOSS community has to run those apps, attract their users, and gradually shift the market towards producing for linux. Given that, while a native version would have been nice Google's contribution remains useful but in a perhaps different way than releasing an open-source native version of their product. Could this be more helpful long-term? Does Linux need another photo app or do we simply make a few picasa users smile and add momentum to our emulation project?
33 • Picasa (by michael robertson on 2006-05-29 17:00:12 GMT from Burlingame, United States)
In my opinion this move by Google is a good one and shows that they are taking note of the growing Linux user base on the desktop ,even though this is not a native port but takes place through wine i am sure lots of software manufactures will take note and i think we may as well face the fact that a lot wont too. Maybe we should focus on making wine better than it is now so that any software would be able to run as if it were natively ported then any distro could run any Windows software thereby removing another obstacle to mass adoption of Linux on the desktop.
34 • If there were no Suse... (by Tim on 2006-05-29 17:06:51 GMT from Denver, United States)
"DW: If there were no SUSE Linux, which distribution would you likely use on your workstation?
AJ: I hope this will never happen. I started with SUSE Linux nearly 10 years ago, then went to my own packages and then used SUSE Linux again. So, in this case, I would have to start a project to create a new distribution as I don't know any that is both cutting edge and still stable, has all the packages that I need, supports my hardware, is freely available, as well as integrated and therefore easy to use."
Hey Andreas, how about Yoper?
35 • WINE (by tom on 2006-05-29 17:16:28 GMT from Helena, United States)
I think it would be geat if WINE were significantly improved and hope GOOGLE and others will help.
36 • 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY (by Tjotser on 2006-05-29 17:23:14 GMT from Schiphol, Netherlands)
"The DistroWatch web site was first published on 31 May 2001"
I know it's almost the day, but next week is too late :-)
37 • Picasa Wine port better then true port. (by kwink81 on 2006-05-29 18:04:33 GMT from Orem, United States)
I believe that Google's decision to port picasa to Linux using Wine is a "good thing" and here is why. If they did a "true port", we would simply end up with some non-FOSS app that still would not be as good as digikam. When they ported with Wine, they submitted over 200 patches back to wine in order to make it work. So the Wine port helped the FOSS community, when a true port would not.
38 • Picasa (by Kevin on 2006-05-29 18:07:33 GMT from Toronto, Canada)
I believe the move to Linux for Picasa is a good thing. As others have said, it improves Wine and paves the way for others to start porting to Linux in one way or another. Once people start porting to Linux using Wine, there is a greater chance of them wanting to port an app and make it run natively.
Oh, and Google Earth is coming...and it sounds like it will not be relying on Wine: "When asked if the additions to WINE would bootstrap Google Earth's porting progress, DiBona answered in the negative, explaining that Google Earth relied on Qt and GL libraries and code, so additional WINE support would not help. No timeline for that application's release was revealed at this time."
http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2006052601026NWSWRL
39 • Picasa (by michael robertson on 2006-05-29 18:10:20 GMT from Burlingame, United States)
In my opinion this move by Google is a good one and shows that they are taking note of the growing Linux user base on the desktop ,even though this is not a native port but takes place through wine i am sure lots of software manufactures will take note and i think we may as well face the fact that a lot wont too. Maybe we should focus on making wine better than it is now so that any software would be able to run as if it were natively ported then any distro could run any Windows software thereby removing another obstacle to mass adoption of Linux on the desktop.
40 • Picasa (by Claus Futtrup on 2006-05-29 18:45:30 GMT from Horsens, Denmark)
I love Picasa for Windows. The best software out there. I'm not going to give it a shot on my Zenwalk Linux box at home (which also has Win98 - too old for Picasa) since I prefer not to install Wine - but I'm happy to see Google acknowledging the Linux users by this approach. I wish that Google will continue to move toward Linux, for example by moving toward a graphics library suitable for both worlds (could be GTK+).
41 • Picasa and Wine (by Chris Spejcher on 2006-05-29 19:03:48 GMT from Van Dyne, United States)
A few praises on Digg applaud Google for making Wine better, by making Picasa work better with it. Some also said that it lets Google maintain one code base, not like Adobe and how far behind Flash is on Linux. It would still be nice to see a GTK or QT port that's GPL'ed for Linux systems though.
42 • Wine (by Jesse on 2006-05-29 19:18:02 GMT from Calgary, Canada)
One of the biggest hurdles I find when trying to
convert people from Windows to Linux is "But will it run application xyz?" Up to this point, I haven't felt Wine to be strong enough to handle most Windows apps on Linux. However, with Google's move to improve Wine, I hope this wil change soon, allowing new Linux users to run their favourite applications.
43 • Picasa (by Hal on 2006-05-29 19:49:26 GMT from , United States)
I downloaded the .deb of Picasa to install on Unbuntu. The install worked perfectly and I did not have Wine already installed. I believe they packaged everything together. It looks and works like a native app in my Gnome desktop. I love Google and I'm glad I can use more of their stuff in Linux. Check out Google Notebook and Calendar. I'm hoping they provide Google Talk and Earth next.
44 • I dont need it . (by neighborlee on 2006-05-29 20:03:14 GMT from Seattle, United States)
hi...
1) it uses wine..no thanks
2) I may not use fspot as I dont really like .net based apps so Ill u se something else.
hmm to think they chose wine to make a crossplatform app..no wait that they wanted something to 'just work', no matter that it might be sluggish and not blend in with rest of desktop ??
oooook ;)
no thanks.
45 • Wine (by Leo on 2006-05-29 21:06:50 GMT from , United States)
So, what's the point of people posting things like: "uses wine ? This does not show commitment to Linux". Hello!. If any Mac/Windows user goes to the Picassa Download Section, and they see a link to a Linux download, that's good. It's not like they are going to say "oh, no, they use wine, a win32 compatibility layer, o, no, this is not really a linux application.
Come on my friends, if you really think this way, go out, grab a glass of Burgundy, run in the park, talk to a few people, there is a world out there.
As for Photo management, Digikam fits _my_ bill
Cheers!
Leo
46 • hmm (by Speel on 2006-05-29 21:49:05 GMT from Astoria, United States)
What you guys are missing is that a major end user company made the effort to port an application to linux besides a game company where you would have to buy the game to use it on linux. I personally find it a great step foward and hopefully other common end user companys follow googles steps.
47 • Re: Number of SUSE developers (by Anonymous on 2006-05-29 21:56:24 GMT from Hamburg, Germany)
> consider that SUSE supports only 3 achitectures
SUSE Linux Enterprise supports more architectures like z-Series and for SUSE Factory there is even a public ia64 repository.
48 • Why picasa if we have f-spot? (by James on 2006-05-29 21:57:36 GMT from Urbandale, United States)
You know, there are those who would ask the same about f-spot as folks are asking about Picasa, since f-spot is written in C#.
All I can say is this: I tried f-spot. It ate all available RAM and swap space, ground to a crawl and then to a halt, and by the time I had to kill it off, it had hardly gotten through over half the images on my computer. Picasa used up a hefty amount of CPU cycles and RAM, but never stopped, never rendered the computer unusable, and succeeded in grinding through all the images. Yes, I'd rather have a native Linux app... but actually working is worth a lot.
49 • I love it! (by dave on 2006-05-29 22:13:29 GMT from San Diego, United States)
Sorry - I love Picasa. Love the new version on Linux - gives me on less reason to boot Windows.
50 • Picasa (by dat.eagle on 2006-05-29 22:42:03 GMT from Gdansk, Poland)
I'm happy Google submitted 200+ fixes to the Wine project. And that's where my happiness ends. So I installed Picasa just to check it out (I don't use Windows so I didn't even know how it looks), start it and wow, finds all my images quickly and is quite fast UNTIL You actually open an image. If so, it slowly hangs my Ubuntu Dapper RC on a HP nx6110 laptop. After a minute I can't even switch to the console, and if I manage to do that ASAP, killing 3 Picasa processes is not helping. Tried that even on a fresh Ubuntu install on another PC, same problem. Maybe I should have waited 10mins to open that picture :/
51 • Picasa for Linux (by Rafterman on 2006-05-29 22:43:45 GMT from Point Pleasant Beach, United States)
I found out about Picasa for Linux from a blog on ZDnet.com. I tried it out, and it's nice for a first release, but like Ladislav and quite a few people on this forum said, I'll wait until they come out with a version that is better integrated with Linux. Why? Features that are available on the Windows version(compressed movies, email client support and screensaver) are not implemented in the Linux/Wine version. If you're trying to implement these features via Wine, that's three layers of APIs you must manage(Win32/Wine/Linux vs. just Linux) to make sure everything works. Plus, it doesn't have a look and feel that blends in with the rest of the desktop.
I'm certain, though, that Google will address these problems and eventually make a 100% native version of Picasa, and show the way for other big software makers to develop for the *nix market. Kudos to Google!
52 • Picasa and WINE (by Clint Christopher Canada on 2006-05-29 23:01:49 GMT from Cebu City, Philippines)
Hi all,
For all of you who bash Google for using WINE... Think about it. Google released over 225 patches to wine, which includes libgphoto patches (usb cameras now work). This was as of April 18, and the newsletter in winehq states that many more patches came in after that.
For people who are used to windows... what better way to ease the transition to linux by letting them use their favorite apps through wine? The improvements to wine (with GoogleEarth coming in, Direct3d improvements are also sure to follow), makes it possible for ordinary average users to choose what they want. I can't believe the amount of people who bash windows and in hiding open their dualboot to run their games in it.
I run PCLOS in my home computer almost exclusively (except for PnutOS - tgzfied alinux port) and use Digikam for my photos. However I am very impressed by Picasa's GUI when I tried it out using the rpm (I cannot run Picasa for Windows in Windows 98 at home since it is an XP application) and the application is very very snappy on my computer. Sorry guys... It's not sluggish at all - It got all of my high resolution photos of over two years in less than 2 minutes.
53 • Suse 10.1 Love it. (by Paul on 2006-05-29 23:09:02 GMT from Saint Louis, United States)
>>Do you normally work from home or do you work in an office, but stay late, if necessary?
Ha! This should be a standard question. I'm an old-school who works at work. But I'm on countless conference calls where I hear bleating goats, barking dogs, chickens, screaming children, and sometimes TV soap operas in the background.
I just bought 3 CDs of sound effects to have fun with during these calls. Not that the noise would disturb anyone on my floor... offices for 150 and half are "working from wherever."
54 • Picasa (by Andrew Swinn on 2006-05-29 23:52:41 GMT from Forestville, Australia)
Picasa got a big thumbs down from me. I know the Codeweavers people did lots of work in patching Wine to incorporate Picasa 2 for Windows, but at the end of the day it still comes over as a hack job. I tried running it on my Ubuntu Dapper install and had issues with it. We can assume it will improve through testing if they continue to go this path. I can only say to Google, please don't port all your applications this way. I don't want a 'Windows' look on my desktop, it's everything I want to avoid.
I view Wine as a 'neccessary evil' to run a couple of Windows apps on a very occassional basis and am more than happy with 99% of the *native* Linux applications to handle my tasks. I don't consider Wine to be the 'evil' part of this and I think it's developers are marvelous. However relying on it to run lots of Windows based applications on your Linux desktop is not what it is about to me.
55 • 55 • Re: 52 + 55 Location wrong (by johncoom temp in UK on 2006-05-29 23:58:56 GMT from Camberley, United Kingdom)
Rafterman - ha ha - I got my self muddled up + my direstions
Camberley is in Surrey (south of London UK)
I am pysically in Essex (north of London UK)
It is still some where in the order of 60 miles away
So still the same thing my ISP's main servers (DNS etc) are in probably located in Camberley - that is the server machines - not the customer contact office etc. and what you see as your location is that of your ISP which in many (or some) cases happen to be where you live - but one does not always live in the same location that your ISP machines are located in
Make sense now ?. Just take the location with a pinch of salt etc etc
56 • Picasa on Ubuntu Breezy (by Terry on 2006-05-30 00:09:03 GMT from Graz, Austria)
I just wanted to mention that Picasa runs like a charm on my Ubuntu Breezy, very fast , no issues .
57 • Picasa is good gesture (by User #169344 on 2006-05-30 00:09:17 GMT from Columbus, United States)
So they bundled wine with it. So what. It's the fact they put enough thought and effort to actually release for no cost a program that does what it says it does, and quite well I might add.
This is a huge step forward. It can open up the doors for other software makers to move their software to linux. Yes, it's a quick fix, but these companies don't feel the need, nor want to invest the time and money into a market they haven't tested yet. Google has set a roadmap for other software vendors to get their feet wet with little time investment or adding new devs to their payroll. Once some apps are moved to Linux this way, companies will see there is a demand, and a user base that has a need for thier software. The improvements and bug fixes they (Google labs) made to wine, went straight to the wine devs to improve that app in future.
I think all you fan boys and zealots need to get off your high horse and give credit where credit is due. Why is it that a group of people can hack away at some code and release a "distro" that is full of bugs, yet no one complains. Hey it's only alpha, maybe the next release will be better. But when a comercial company actually attempts to do something for Linux, it's met with grief. You should be happy that a few companies that cater to 90% of the computer market share took time out to think of the other 7%.
58 • Happy Birthday Distrowatch (by zali on 2006-05-30 00:11:32 GMT from , Malaysia)
It was first published on 31 May 2001, hopefully Ladislav will open competition to redesign the site interface using CSS as slashdot did.
Cheers
59 • Re: Location wrong (by Rafterman on 2006-05-30 00:39:35 GMT from Point Pleasant Beach, United States)
Okay, now I understand. Thanks, but it would be nice to specify where you are when posting comments, instead of Distrowatch having to use your ISPs location. It's my first time on this forum, so thanks for the clarification.
60 • RE: 58 Happy Birthday Distrowatch (by ladislav on 2006-05-30 01:25:24 GMT from Taipei, Taiwan)
What's wrong with the current design? Besides, DistroWatch has been using CSS almost from the beginning.
Yes, it will be exactly 5 years tomorrow since the site was first published on the Internet. Time is flying so fast :-)
61 • Donation next month (by Fakhar on 2006-05-30 01:58:34 GMT from Tokyo, Japan)
I wanted to suggest that next month's Distrowatch donation (or part of it) go to Shawn Milo .. he's in trouble...
Guy is doing good job with the podcasts...
62 • No subject (by Zu on 2006-05-30 02:22:19 GMT from Polska, Poland)
I wish I could share Mr. Jaeger's positive feelings about recently released SUSE. It seems they were about to release newer and better one. But suddenly after beta4 somebody (in a glimpse of enlighment?) decided: no way!, that's too good. Let's screw something up. And they succeed. New SUSE is IMHO back to alpha state of something what is hardly to figure out what's supposed to be finally. Time will tell. If things will go further that way I can imagine SUSE 10.2 on 10 DVD to download + 1 blue-ray disc with additional software and 12 hours installation procedure. Perhaps we can expect SUSE-Vista as they finish? I'm so excited... ;)
63 • Picasa (by Steve Dean at 2006-05-30 02:36:17 GMT from Newark, United States)
I am a Pro Photographer. Picasa is not usefull to me, but the sister application "hello" is fantastic! Although it gets no attention, it is great. It is an instant messager with great image upload and viewing ability. Through it I can send hunderds of full size jpg's (about 3meg each) in little time to my clients that don't want to understand ftp. Then I can see what they are viewing on the side or have my view follow theirs. Thus I can proof and discuss a shoot with a client knowing exactly what image they are talking about. I get a log of the conversation for reference of what they like and don't like. As long as the client is on line I can upload to them any time, with comments. Sometimes I am working late and just upload the images as I get them done. No hassel on the clients end, no mail box to fill up, no wondering if they got them.The images are ready for them the moment they get in (with my comments). Hello a powerfull tool for any imaging pro's. Unfortunatly it is only for windows. I would love to have it for Linux, but my feer is that if you guys bag on Picasa to loudly they will not continue with moving to support Linux. You can get hello at http://www.hello.com/ This is a great program and would be better if it were made for Linux. Picasa is a start. If we ask perhaps they will make the really usefull program "hello" for Linux.
Steve Dean
64 • Picasa on Linux (by S.W.B. on 2006-05-30 03:45:06 GMT from Southfield, United States)
I'm very happy to see Picasa for Linux. This is an excellent first step. It gives users more choice, and prevents new Linux users from being alienated from all of the old tools they formerly used and liked in Windows. As far as Windows photo management apps, Picasa is among the very best, and possible THE best free photo management app for Windows. As far as Linux photo managers, Digikam is excellent, but F-Spot does not meet even my own relatively basic needs. Performance of Picasa on Wine is actually better than F-Spot on Mono, although users with fast systems may have different opinions. If I were not running KDE, I would use Picasa exclusively. Hopefully Picasa will be one of several quality Windows apps that migrate over to Linux.
65 • Picassa (by Mike on 2006-05-30 06:47:37 GMT from , Israel)
I installed Picassa on my Debian system and it works great. Actually this is going to be my favorite photo managing application for the nearest future because it
1)has a great and friendly interface
2)permits me to photoblog on blogger.com
3)works extremely fast
4)is the best of the all applications of a kind I tried.
The best things at all is that it lets you operate your images where they are, not forcing me to copy some 10 G of photos to the application- created folder.
Wine and GPL question? If it works and free, why not?..
And a short message tto Google: thank you guys for Picassa, and what about G.Earth?
66 • Picassa+Linux+WINE (by |TG|Mateo on 2006-05-30 08:32:18 GMT from Allston, United States)
I'm not a linux purist-I do not see the point of slagging something simply because it is not "native". That's just silly. Google took their developer's time, which could have been used for something else, and gave something to the OSS community using the most cost effective method-WINE.
According to WineHQ 200 fixes, patches, and tweaks for WINE came out of the Picassa endeavor, which will bolster not only current Linux adoption but future adoption as those changes translate into more Windows applications being "supported" by WINE. Every application that the development team can get to run on Linux is one less reason to stay with XP, which is what we all want to see, right?
I liked and used Picassa on XP. Glad to have it on Linux, however they get it to run. Kudos to Google for giving something back to OSS.
67 • KDE image viewers (by Ariszló on 2006-05-30 08:49:19 GMT from Budapest, Hungary)
Gwenview:
http://gwenview.sourceforge.net/
iOta:
http://www.varp.net/photos/iOta.html
KSquirrel:
http://ksquirrel.sourceforge.net/
In case you prefer KDE apps.
68 • Picasa (by Trevor Farrell on 2006-05-30 09:25:44 GMT from Chullora, Australia)
Picasa is one of the ONLY reasons I still use Windows... It's that simple! Nothing I have found on Linux matches it's ease of use and simplicity as a photo organiser. When they do a REAL port to linux I'l be very happy!
69 • Wine & Picasa (by Misty on 2006-05-30 13:45:18 GMT from Elizabethtown, United States)
I agree with those who said this was a good thing, even though I have little use for Picasa myself. I think though, the problem with those who don't want anything ported with Wine is Wine's reputation for not working very well. In that regard -- well, it's improved a great deal just in the last year. Perhaps now Wine is too unreliable to count on for most, but maybe in a couple of years it will be reliable enough to count on. Purists still won't use it, of course, but many who see some really good Windows apps running smoothly with it will use it, especially if they make it easy to use (I.e., not having to do so much tweaking to get it running good).
70 • Pickassa (by Sphinx on 2006-05-30 14:21:45 GMT from Sacramento, United States)
I want native applications, hate emulation, (well maybe xmame).
I want Open Source, period.
Conclusion, Picasa should be shunned.
71 • Stuff (by Scott Wilson on 2006-05-30 15:25:43 GMT from Phoenix, United States)
So here we go again, Linux gets an main stream program. Not everyone is a super geek, I welcome Picasa. I see this as another block to fall in the main stream adoption of Linux. If you don't like it don't use it. I m going to down load it today. and give it a whirl.
Now if we can get Quick books, Quicken, or any of the tax software programs (for USA Linux Users), then I am sure you will see more adoption of Linux as a personal desktop. Then the games, Cedega (transgamer) works great, I wish gaming companies, would help and donate to help improve the program. Loki games was great, but no one bought the games, so the company didn't survive
I went ahead and install Ubuntu 6.06 this week end, I really like the non-reboot, in installing, when the machine did reboot it booted up to the desktop. Install process was comparable to Windows install. Very nice! Only complaint is that it doesn't play nice on my Think pad 600E, but then again its a very old laptop. I have order ship it Cd's to give away,
Alles gut zum geburstag! Happy Birthday! gee has it been 5 years. Time flies when we are having fun.
72 • picasa (by mike s on 2006-05-30 15:46:47 GMT from Makati, Philippines)
picasa for linux is nice.. digiKam, F-spot, etc..?
couldn't we just get along?...
73 • Xubuntu saved this PC! (by Tony on 2006-05-30 20:27:00 GMT from Detroit, United States)
Just a quick word of praise for Xubuntu. I have had an old Compaq laptop laying around that had run the old "GatesVirus" for years. I tried loading many of linux disro's on this but never really found one that did not act buggy, especially when it came to the network drivers. Along came Xubuntu. I had run Ubuntu in the past on Dell's and even tried it on the thing (Badger), but when I loaded Xubuntu, everything worked perfectly! No wireless issues, the ethernet configured correctly and the video drivers gave me the resolutions I was hoping for. Congrat's to the team and I can not wait to see what is in store in the future!
74 • Scientific Linux live DVD ? (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-31 01:49:11 GMT from Milano, Italy)
That is funny. I always wanted to try Scientific Linux, but the lack of DVD iso images put me off (I hate dealing with four isos and four CDs when dealing with just one DVD makes life so much easier)
And now they release a live DVD, if you please.
I hope next time they release an installable DVD as well.
75 • picasa (by Paulo Cesar on 2006-05-31 02:38:42 GMT from Brasília, Brazil)
I loved Picasa, the nice effects, the easy way of management and the cute photo editor, here you can make great changes and apply great effects in little time
Picasa is very good, f-spot is good too, but it doenst have a search tool (?!?), and I don't like very much the others
Again, I loved Picasa, and it doens't matter if it is closed source, I want only to use-it
76 • picasa (by tom on 2006-05-31 05:41:46 GMT from La Junta, United States)
I downloaded picasa to see what all the hype is about.
I must say all you "wine snobs" have it all wrong. You should not speak about what you do not know. AT LEAST INSTALL PICASA BEFORE YOU TRY TO EVALUATE IT !!!!!
picasa integrates wokderfully into Linux, I would not have known it even ran on wine.
I just installed picasa on ELive. Elive comes with wine installed, but not configured in any way. Downloaded picasa, installed the deb package, viola. No configuration of wine was required in the least. If only I could insert a screen shot....
Very nice software, congradulations to Google, thank you for contributing to wine.
77 • RE: Open Source Hardheadedness (by Robert on 2006-05-31 14:46:52 GMT from Chestnut Hill, United States)
As a long-time Linux user, I can certainly understand how freedom is valued. Personally, my main desktop is a Mac running OsX. Yes it is mostly a closed system and it will only run on Apple hardware, but a great system nonetheless. Even though I run OsX as an OS, all my apps are open source. Mozilla Firefox, VLC, Gimp, etc... If OsX only ran on generic x86, it'd be close to perfect. I think having open source apps and tons of them is great because it gives you freedom of choice, however, I also think the main, underlying os should be tight and if that means it has to be proprietary so be it. I don't mind shelling out $129 for a well-made system if open-source apps are available for it. I also think formats should be open source and one shouldn't need proprietary plugins to listen to music, view a video, etc... Give me Osx running on generic x86 hardware, a society that uses open source formats, and tons of open source apps for OsX and I'd be in heaven. Alas, I don't think I'll ever see this.
Any thoughts on this?
For the server end of things, I'd probably go with FreeBSD, Red Hat, or Debian Stable.
78 • Turbolinux 11 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-31 15:11:19 GMT from Milano, Italy)
Turbolinux 11 released for the Western World almost 7 months after it was created?
Now US$39.00 is not a lot of money, I would have bought it if made available within a month. But 7 months means that all the recent Linux technology won't be included.
79 • Picasa does not run on WINE!!! (by butters on 2006-05-31 17:01:54 GMT from Somers, United States)
Perhaps some of the "hardheadedness" is due to a major misunderstanding of how this Picasa port was done. For those who don't know, the WINE project contains two major parts: the WINE layer, which runs (some) native win32 apps, and the libwine library, which translates win32 API calls into native Linux calls.
Google did the Picasa port by tweaking the code a little bit and building it through libwine, producing a native Linux binary. Try it and see: when Picasa for Linux is running, try and find the wine-server process running. You won't. In fact, you don't even need to have WINE installed on your computer to run Picasa for Linux. For all intents and purposes, your Linux box sees Picasa as a native Linux appplication.
Is there some overhead involved? Yes. The win32 API calls might translate equivalently to Linux native APIs, but not in the most efficient manner. Probably the application would have been programmed differently from the start if it were originally targeted for Linux. But Google has demonstrated with Picasa how to rapidly port Windows applications to Linux without an enormous development cost.
In summary, WINE != libwine. Google has not done the Linux community a disservice here, and IMHO they have clearly demonstrated to other proprietary software vendor how they too can produce native Linux binaries.
80 • Picasa (by Eric on 2006-06-01 07:33:12 GMT from Leiden, Netherlands)
Happy or not with Picasa for Linux? I think we linux users are spoiled by the fact that we have beautiful programs with nice graphical menus etc. The windows like menu's look old-fashioned to us.
Nevertheles I consider it a good thing that Google made this available. As long as the native linux programs don't function as Picasa does, people will use it. I think people working on gthumb and f-spot etc. should tak a look if they could implement features that are badley needed by us linux users and are available in Picasa.
Now waiting for Google Earth to be ported...
81 • Picasa (by Anonymous on 2006-06-01 11:06:39 GMT from Brussels, Belgium)
Hello everyone...
I am interested in Linux but it is not the case with my wife and kids; the kids want to play and my dearest wants to surf, mail and edit the pictures she takes with her 2 MP C@n0n camera. To do this, she uses Picasa in her account in the WinXP Pro partititon. With the availability of the Linux version of Picasa I can maybe convince her to log herself only in Suse 10.0
I know very well that it's closed-source and that good and free alternatives exist but she does not; in first instance she wants to do her things the way she's used to and then maybe she will experiment with some other program.
82 • 81 (by tom on 2006-06-01 13:22:01 GMT from Helena, United States)
Start a new Linux user (ie your wife) on open source programs like firefox, thunderbird, OpenOffice, Abiword, etc first. They will run in Windows and allow her to ease into the transition.
83 • ELive (by tom on 2006-06-01 13:23:22 GMT from Helena, United States)
Has anyone else tried ELive??
Well worth the time, runs much faster once it is installed onto a HD.
84 • new ubuntu sucks (by paul on 2006-06-01 14:36:16 GMT from Marietta, United States)
dont get me wrong, i have used ubuntu since 4.10 and that is all i would use. First off the new install method is REALLY bad. My resoultion was stuck at 640x480 and i was unable to see anything to install it. Well after hitting the tab button at guess to install the system it said my HDD required *special* permissions to write to. I was unable to install it and after several hours of installing it, i gave up. Im moving to gentoo to have a balanced server and desktop. Conicial should not of changed that install method. Too bad to see ubuntu go bye bye.
85 • Picasa (by Jaro on 2006-06-01 19:36:43 GMT from Stevenage, United Kingdom)
I think that it works very well. Sure it would be nice to have it as opensource and truly native to Linux, but you can't have everything!
For me there are two reasons why I am pleased with this release:
1. Sometimes opensource software can be generally a little unprofessional when it comes to the desktop - for example installing programs should be point and click easy for desktop users, especially if doesn't even require root permissions! Google however appear to have produced a good piece of software and I have no doubt that were there more "normal" non-techy GNU/Linux desktop users, the comments on this page would better reflect that.
2. The Wine wrapper to this application is very interesting, because it could allow other software manufactures to produce essentially one application that will run on both Linux and Windows with the minimum of fuss for all concerned. This is good because the only thing hampering Linux's impact on the desktop market, is the availability of all the applications for MS Winblows. If MS lost this advantage or had it significantly reduced, then Linux would have half the desktop market, if not more, within two years! Come on folks what does Windows actually do, as far as I can tell its most important feature is the ability to attract malware writers!!! In other words the "MS advantage" on the desktop boils down to all the hard work that OTHER software developers do!
Caveat: This comment is just an opinion.
86 • No subject (by Zu at 2006-06-01 19:37:48 GMT from Polska, Poland)
I can hardly agree with you. However, I do NOT know any good OS. All OSs nowadays are crap as be written in a hurry or during having lunch. But Ubuntu seems to be not that bad in comparison with the rest. I personally do use win64xp only because there's no alternative for it (hardware support), however, it's a piece of junk too. *nix as desktop - gimme a break! I wouldn't use system written by kids for exotic/old hardware. They enjoy to compile, write scripts etc. as I did 15 yrs ago. Now I'm too lazy for it. I expect of the os nothing but to work - out of the box!. I wouldn't also buy h/w for particular system. I assemble pc-s myself since about 1992 of compounds I like, then I wanna install an os and done; with linux - no way. And regarding X os (re 77, Robert) this system will die and it will be soon - that's a crap - a quasimodo, hybrid of bsd and mach-microcernel, google a little and find yourself why. Same way Silicon Graphics died and Sun seems to follow (I red today they plan to fire 10% of employees). Apple figured out a way to survive - ipod+itunes marriage, it works fine so far but regarding their os I'm in doubt.
87 • subject (by Zu on 2006-06-01 19:40:35 GMT from Polska, Poland)
sorry subject of my last issue was "re 84 (ubuntu sucks)"
88 • SUSE makes me sleepy (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-02 05:32:59 GMT from Redmond, United States)
pita:/home/g00fy # time rug sl
# | Status | Type | Name | URI
--+--------+------+-------------------------------------------------+-----------
1 | Active | ZYPP | SUSE-Linux-10.1-DVD-i386-10.1-0-20060525-012952 | dvd:///...
2 | Active | ZYPP | 20060531-162326 | ftp://p...
3 | Active | ZYPP | SUSE-Linux-10.1-FTP-10.1-0-20060531-162355 | ftp://f...
4 | Active | ZYPP | SUSE-Linux-10.1-Updates | http://...
5 | Active | ZYPP | SUSE-Linux-10.1-FTP-10.1-0-20060601-203924 | ftp://f...
[b]real 66m4.662s
user 0m1.692s
sys 0m0.072s[/b]
pita:/home/g00fy # uname -a
Linux pita 2.6.16.13-4-smp #1 SMP Wed May 3 04:53:23 UTC 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
66 freaking minutes to list services. What are they smoking there?
89 • re: #84 (by Anonymous on 2006-06-02 06:53:54 GMT from Oxford, United States)
The "text mode" install is still available. You just need to download the iso entitled ubuntu-6.06-alternate-i386.iso if you are using x86 or the matching alternate iso for you arch.
90 • 88 (by AC on 2006-06-02 10:39:58 GMT from , United States)
I'm assuming this is the same Mr. Pink who trolled here awhile back. Is anyone surprised he's from Redmond? ROTFLMAO
91 • Os X (by Robert on 2006-06-02 13:30:00 GMT from Newton, United States)
"And regarding X os (re 77, Robert) this system will die and it will be soon - that's a crap - a quasimodo, hybrid of bsd and mach-microcernel, google a little and find yourself why."
I'm well aware of the architecture of OsX, however, your comment that it will die is unfounded. I work as an analyst in finance and me and my colleagues along with my counterparts in the competition are in agreement that Apple will increase market share from 4% to at least 6% and possible 8%. How is doubling their market share in the desktop arena going to make them go away? Steve Jobs is not dummy. He's managed to get Apple through some of the toughest storms of silicon valley. I'm sure everyone has an opinion about Jobs, but as far as a business CEO, he's well respected today. However, I agree that OsX will eventually die off, but I don't think it's as soon as you think. As far as there being no good OS, that is true. Every OS today seems to have issues in one way or another; however, I've found that the trick is to find the OS that's perfect for your situation. It's kind of like dating. Looking back, I'm glad I don't have to anymore!
92 • Ubuntu (by tom on 2006-06-02 15:46:35 GMT from Helena, United States)
The new Ubuntu seems very nice to me. I like the Live CD, have not installe it yet. The live CD runs fast and no longer is good to demo to newbies.
I also like the fact Ubuntu is only 1 CD, I do not like the bloat of some distro's. Why download a 4 or 5 CD set, let alone a DVD? Just give me a base and I can install what I need form there.
93 • re os x (Robert) (by Zu on 2006-06-02 15:47:53 GMT from Polska, Poland)
Robert, I wrote os x will die, not Apple itself. The company proved to be very well managed, especially in matter of market analysis and taking very appropriate actions (unlike Sun did). I think they're more focused on founding ground for stable financial future in wide perspective as on desktop mkt share - that's only my conclusions. However, theyre current activity surely give them that also. So, to clarify myself - Apple will survive and most probably grow but IMHO os x not (as yesterday's G5 CPUs). We can only speculate what system will they finally acquire. I would say Windows but I'm also aware Apple do like something very proprietary and unique to make ppl buy their machines. Time will tell. They can also resign of h/w business as IBM did and focus themselves just on making money - what business is all about.
But this forum is meant for another purpose. Generally I think it is too early (for person poorly informed as an ordinary pc-user like me) what system will dominate in next 10 yrs. We don't even know how a pc will look like in let say 5 yrs. I hope there still will be a choice.
94 • RE: #77 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-06-02 15:50:40 GMT from Milano, Italy)
"I don't mind shelling out $129 for a well-made system if open-source apps are available for it."
I could agree with you, except that OS X, unless you build a "Hackintosh", runs on overpriced hardware of dubious quality.
If the only expense was $129 for the OS, I would buy it tomorrow.
95 • RE: OsX (by Robert on 2006-06-02 18:09:42 GMT from Chestnut Hill, United States)
Zu, all good points. I would say Windows will remain dominant for the next 10 years. Microsoft is armed with loads of cash so they're not going anywhere anytime soon. It'll be interesting to see what the PC's are like 5 years from now.
96 • No subject (by welkiner on 2006-06-02 22:03:54 GMT from Los Angeles, United States)
What's the deal with Knoppix 5.01 download link? Instead of downloading 4.1GB ISO file, it downloads a 48 MB ISO file.(which gives an error if you try to burn it). Alson 5.0.1 does not seem to be available on any Knoppix download mirrors.
Does anyone know where the new Knoppix can be downloaded? (Cannot us bittorent)
97 • Remember Redmond Linux by joseph cheek. (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-02 22:20:40 GMT from Redmond, United States)
90 • 88 (by AC on 2006-06-02 10:39:58 GMT from , United States)
I'm assuming this is the same Mr. Pink who trolled here awhile back. Is anyone surprised he's from Redmond? ROTFLMAO
ROTFLMAO??? Really? You are easily amused aren't you my feebleminded friend? By your measure anybody who lives in Redmond, WA lacks credibility?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoris
You wanna laugh some more?
Pogo Linux
(425) 702-0840
6640 185th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052
Do you have any comments on the substance of my post?
98 • #96 (by welkiner on 2006-06-02 23:43:49 GMT from Los Angeles, United States)
Apparently the download works OK if you're using linux to download, but not if you're using Windows. I tried the download many many times using W2k and IE with no success(#96). Download started fine on first attempt using Ubuntu....so far 8% and seems to be working OK.
Is this a vast conspiracy with MS trying to prevent me from downloading linux or Knoppix making ie look bad?
I tried this on several computers...does anyone have any idea what is going on? (aside from the fact that MS sux!)
99 • RE: #96 & 98 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-06-03 00:43:19 GMT from Milano, Italy)
Why not use curl?
If you don't know how, have a look here:
http://forum.libranet.com/viewtopic.php?t=8106&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
100 • 97 (by AC on 2006-06-03 08:36:54 GMT from , United States)
That there are many in Redmond is of an anti-GNU/Linux mindset or with financial motives to attack GNU/Linux hardly disputable. That one should be amused that such a troll (assuming that you are the same Mr. Pink) is from Redmond and is exposed as such is a subjective matter, like all humor. That one might see corroboration of one's awareness of the presence of such trolls in Redmond when a troll (again assuming that you are the same Mr. Pink) turns out to be from Redmond is perfectly reasonable. That there are those in Redmond who are not anti-GNU/Linux is neither here nor there as I neither said nor implied nor insinuated that everyone from Redmond was such a troll. Learn to avoid red herring arguments before you call other people "feebleminded".
But I grant: "ROTFLMAO" was hyperbole. I daresay it usually is as it is typically difficult to type while rolling on the floor.
101 • re - 96 - Knoppix 5.01 download link? (by Anonymous on 2006-06-03 15:26:10 GMT from Camberley, United Kingdom)
Start here (Distrowatch original Download link)
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html
Pick a mirror -> Accept etc. ->
NOTE do not use these USA sites
ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mirrors/knoppix/dvd
ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/knoppix/dvd
http://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/knoppix/dvd/
ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/knoppix/dvd
http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/knoppix/dvd/
As all of these site show this
__the_big_iso_only_via_rsync__
for these USA sites they have it
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/knoppix-dvd
http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/knoppix-dvd/
EG:
KNOPPIX_V5.0.1DVD-2006-06-01-EN.iso 4243030 KB 02/06/06
KNOPPIX_V5.0.1DVD-2006-06-01-EN.iso.md5 1 KB 02/06/06
Take Note: if you are using Windows you may be better
off to use the port of WGET from a DOS command prompt
See here: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html
and http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm
after installing the Setup copy the wget.exe from the horrible
.......program fileswget-sub-dir to c:windows (or c:winnt)
copy all the required DLL's to c:windowssystem (or c:winntsystem
Listed at second url and also should be found in that horrible dir
Now you will be able to use WGET from any command prompt window
Why do I say this ? Because when you use the -c switch it will continue any
broken download from where it stopped
eg: start with this
wget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/knoppix-dvd/KNOPPIX_V5.0.1DVD-2006-06-01-EN.iso
if it stops (up arrow to repete - but add -c
EG:
wget -c ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/knoppix-dvd/KNOPPIX_V5.0.1DVD-2006-06-01-EN.iso
I use WGET port for Windows all the time when I am forced to use Windows
EG: navigate to file in fireFox - Right click - Copy Link location
Open Command prompt - CD to the dir you want (typical c:download)
type: wget and push space bar once, then put mouse there - right click - Paste -> Enter
Any fool can use WGET - it is not exclusive to Nix - you may get a problem in that it
may not download any file larger than 2 Gb ? I don't know if they solved that problem ?
102 • comment for distrowatch (by Anonymous on 2006-06-03 16:41:58 GMT from Camberley, United Kingdom)
how come when one posts a comment it will not accept a back-slash ?
See my last comment where all they all vanished after submit comment
103 • No subject (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-03 19:47:00 GMT from Redmond, United States)
[b]Hm[/b]
104 • Re: 103 • No subject (by Ariszló on 2006-06-03 21:29:08 GMT from Budapest, Hungary)
BB Code does not work here. Use html tags instead: <b>hm</b>
105 • No backslash (by Ariszló on 2006-06-04 20:02:37 GMT from Budapest, Hungary)
Is this a backslash: \?
106 • No subject (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-05 00:40:20 GMT from Redmond, United States)
Thank you.
107 • Facts don't matter. (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-05 00:47:07 GMT from Redmond, United States)
That there are many in Redmond is of an anti-GNU/Linux mindset or with financial motives to attack GNU/Linux hardly disputable.
If it rings true and it feels true then it must be true, and no facts needed to support this statement. Wright?
108 • 105 - Is this a backslash (by Anonymous on 2006-06-05 01:38:24 GMT from Camberley, United Kingdom)
Ah - I had to view the html source of the page to work out how to do it and I found this \ = an & and # and 92 and ;
I wonder if we will be able to see all that
109 • html code for symbols (by Anonymous on 2006-06-05 01:48:08 GMT from Camberley, United Kingdom)
this site may help us all in the future ?
here http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/charset/
110 • some facts are obvious (by AC on 2006-06-05 03:03:17 GMT from , United States)
I could answer your trolling with excerpts from various publications of FUD from Ballmer, et al, leaked memos, and the like, or refer anecdotally to my own experience with people from Redmond. (I've lived in the Puget Sound region), but insisting on documentation for something that everyone knows just shows you for the troll you are.
111 • Assumptions (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-05 07:09:06 GMT from Redmond, United States)
Redmond does not equate Microsoft. Ballmer does not equate population of Redmond and doesn't speak for for Redmond community. And my zip code is 98034. Go check if it's Redmond.
excerpts from various publications of FUD from Ballmer, et al, leaked memos, and the like
I am not familiar for those. I don't read propaganda, be it MS or Linux.
just shows you for the troll you are
So what you are saying is that anyone who is not happy with bug riddled crappy Linux distros and being vocal about it is automatically labeled a troll. OK.
112 • one last nibble for the troll (by AC on 2006-06-05 07:18:30 GMT from , United States)
I said "many" in Redmond, not the whole of Redmond. But Redmond is very much a "company town", to the point where I've heard waitresses and bus drivers say things like "That Lynucks is mostly stolen from Microsoft and they think nobody should make money on software and we should all go broke." Again, perhaps not representative of the whole town, but I never claimed the whole of Redmond.
113 • No subject (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-05 07:37:48 GMT from Redmond, United States)
I said "many" in Redmond, not the whole of Redmond
How many? 10, 100, 10000, majority, overwhelming majority?
but I never claimed the whole of Redmond.
That's exactly what you did when you dismissed my first post just because I was posting from Redmond. You didn't even addressed the issue I was writing about. Would you be so kind and do it now. I'm very interested in your opinion.
Is it normal that YAST/YUM (whatever) takes an hour to check installation sources on a broadband connection?
114 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2006-06-05 07:53:01 GMT from , United States)
I've not done a statistical survey. And it doesn't take a statistical survey to explain my amusement. It wasn't an argument, it was an expression of amusement. Are you incapable of seeing the difference?
Actually, I wasn't dismissing your first post if you are the same mr. Pink who trolled here a few weeks back. And I earlier made clear I wasn't dismissing your post on the basis of your being from Redmond. I was amused that someone (assuming you are that Mr. Pink) now was revealed (or seemed to be revealed) to be from there.
I don't use SUSE. I've never had apt take so long. It could be any number of issues, including the connection on your end or theirs. If it's a widespread issue, I'm sure you'll find discussion of it in their forums. If not, perhaps the bugs are with the component between the monitor and the keyboard.
115 • You are contradicting yourself. (by Mr. Pink on 2006-06-05 08:00:18 GMT from Redmond, United States)
Your amusement is based not on the validity of the issue at hand, but your animosity............... Ah, screw it.
Number of Comments: 115
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Xebian
Xebian is a Linux distribution based on Debian's "Unstable" branch and featuring the Xfce desktop. It comes with a slightly modified default configuration, inspired by Xubuntu, and a third-party icon theme. Xebian closely resembles a Debian blend, with only a thin layer for artwork and configuration that differs from Debian.
Status: Active
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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