 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 162, 31 July 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 30th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! This is my third and final week bringing you DistroWatch Weekly. It's been great fun, but I now have an even greater appreciation for the contribution Ladislav Bodnar makes to the Linux and Open Source Community. Fedora and Mandriva have announced the end of the support cycle for some older products, Ubuntu is starting class and Gentoo is holding elections. Dr. W. T. Zhu brings us an in-depth look at all the options and features available here at Distrowatch with glimpses into some of the history as well. Beranger brings us a wonderful look at last week's release of Zenwalk Linux 2.8, while I report on my test drive of Berry Linux 0.72. I hope you enjoy this week's DWW. Oh, and as Ladislav always says, "Happy reading!"
Content:
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
|
| Miscellaneous News |
Fedora and Mandriva End of Support Cycles, Ubuntu Classroom, Gentoo Elections, Slax Special Editions
 Last week we reported that the FC6 Test2 freeze had slipped by a week. However, it subsequently slipped even further until July 24 due to issues with Xen. As of this writing, news of this FC6 test2 freeze hasn't been forthcoming. In other Fedora and Red Hat news, the Fedora Weekly News issue 56 informed users of the end of support cycle for FC1, FC2, RHL7.3 and RHL9. FC1 and FC2 support will cease upon release of FC6 Test 2 and bug reports will be accepted for RHL7.3 and RHL9 until October 1 with the end of life being set at December 31.
* * * * *
 The Ubuntu project has announced their newest addition: The Classroom. This irc based educational service was established to assist new users in using their new Ubuntu systems, from the simplest to more advanced tasks. Classes will be held in #ubuntu-classroom on chat.freenode.net at scheduled times. Appropriately, the first class topic is an Introduction to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) scheduled for August 5 and August 6.
* * * * *
 It was announced in last week's GWN, "The Gentoo User Relations project is happy to announce that the elections for the position of User Representative are now open." Candidates have shared some information on themselves and their goals. Voting began July 22 and will run through August 5.
* * * * *
 Seems 10.2 has reached the end of its support cycle as well. Reports are scarce but READMEs on mirrors state that the previous 10.2 updates have been moved to "Mandrake-old/ tree as 10.2 is no longer supported." Mandriva had been having great difficulties building a 2007 beta. However, new Beta 1 isos, dubbed "Thor," began appearing on mirrors July 30. This release features Gnome 2.16 beta 1, Kernel 2.6.17, and KDE 3.5.3.
* * * * *
 Slax released several specialty distributions based on their latest 5.1.7 release. These consist of the KillBill Edition - which has the ability to run many Windows applications natively in Linux, Server Edition - which includes support for DNS, DHCP, HTTP, FTP, MySQL, SMTP, POP3, IMAP and SSH, Popcorn Edition - is a minimalistic version featuring XFce which fits even 128MB USB Flash Drives, and the Frodo Edition - which is the commandline only version. See the download page for those special versions.
* * * * *
 The lead developer of SymphonyOS has fallen upon hard times recently. As a result, development of his revolutionary Linux distribution has come to a halt. He and his friends are appealing to the community for financial assistance. For more information please see the SymphonyOS Homepage or this forum topic for more details and an opportunity to help.
|
| Guest Columnist |
Exploring DistroWatch
(by Dr. W. T. Zhu)
Like many others, DistroWatch is one of my favorite websites and I visit it everyday - sometimes every hour. We all know that it is a comprehensive website dedicated to news and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions, but it may be even more comprehensive than many of us think. It lies in the way how we could better explore DistroWatch.
DistroWatch welcomes readers with a main page with three columns, the main focus in the middle being the "Latest News and Updates". The first news item ever recorded dated back to Apr 25, 2001, which was even earlier than DistroWatch's debut on May 31, 2001 ("About DistroWatch"). It's so interesting that DistroWatch began with an end. The second news item was dated June 1, 2001, in which DistroWatch founder's maintenance on the Slackware table was mentioned. Again, the third and the fourth news items were both on Slackware. Interestingly then, DistroWatch started receiving so much attention that it began to respond to readers' feedback. Soon Ladislav planned to transform DistroWatch from a static HTML-based site into a dynamic one powered by MySQL/PHP. Looking back at those historical posts may help you better know about how DistroWatch got started in the early days.
The way the news items are referred to (http://distrowatch.com/nnnnn where nnnnn is the news id) probably took effect in October 2003, according to this message ("Web Site News"): "New on the main page: news headlines are now clickable. The resulting page will display a single story, with further information related to the specific distribution - click on any of the headlines to see for yourself." In this way, DistroWatch news posts are elegantly "referable" or "locatable"; when publishing some news concerning a latest release, a webmaster can link the release to such a headline other than simply speaking of "DistroWatch reports".
The "Latest News and Updates" column also features "News Filtering Options". That is, news can be selectively organized according to the reader's preferences on release date and the distribution concerned. For example, recently (July 26) an anonymous reader asked how he could search back further for recent distribution releases (No. 52): "a week or so ago I noticed a new release based partially on Kanotix, but now I can't find it and I don't remember the name of the distro. The Latest Distributions list only goes back 3 or 4 days. That is not much depth. Is there a way to search back farther for [recent] distribution releases on DistroWatch?" Well, it's easy to find the solution utilizing the "News Filtering Options" (a nice feature possibly unnoticed by many!): Set Month to July and Year to 2006 (and Distribution defaults to All), then click the Refresh button. Among the filtered news headlines, just search "Kanotix" in the browser - and the answer to the question turns out to be Dreamlinux 2.0 released on 2006-07-16. Isn't such a solution fast and convenient?
In another example, suppose you are a Slackware enthusiast, and you are now composing a review on Slackware or sending an Email to a good friend trying to persuade him to have a try on it. You write, "Slackware survives as the oldest Linux distribution still actively maintained and it was first released on..." Wait, what's her birthday, er? Well, turn to DistroWatch and try to find the answer! By merely setting Distribution to Slackware (so Month and Year default to All) you get all the reports on Slackware. Then try searching "birthday" in your browser and you luckily went back to the day when Slackware was exactly 10 years old. So you continue writing, "and it was first released on 1993-07-17..."
A stable releases of a Linux or BSD distribution is referred to as "Distribution Release" or "BSD Release" respectively, while a testing one (either Linux or BSD) is referred to as "Development Release". A news item posted in this column may occasionally be updated one or more days later. Some recent examples are 3586, 2419, 2056, 1764, and 1518.
DistroWatch follows the rule that on posting a new release, download links to the ISO image(s) and the checksum file (typically, an MD5 file, if any) are "scattered" to as many FTP/HTTP servers as possible. Particularly, a download link to an MD5 file on an FTP server also implies that the ISO image(s) may be found in the same directory. Such a cautious consideration shows the kindness to avoid directing too much traffic onto a single server. Therefore, project leaders are encouraged to provide a mirror list (if any) on their download page so as not to have their main server heavily loaded or even overwhelmed. If there are no mirrors available at all, they are strongly advised to distribute a release via peer-to-peer file sharing technologies as a plus. One of the "Recommended Sites" found on DistroWatch homepage is LinuxTracker, where lots of torrent files are maintained.
Now let's come to the right column of the DistroWatch main page, which is mainly occupied by the somewhat controversial "Page Hit Ranking". It came into being almost at the very beginning. I'm a faculty member with the academia and I make a living by doing some research work. But I was really amazed when the "Page Hit Ranking" was turned into a research topic of some groups (including Zenwalk.org and Nuxified.org), and I was really impressed by their academic spirits.
I hope I can improve my research skills so that I could be promoted to Professor in the future. Then I did something similar - I investigated the HPD numbers of two specific distributions, which looked "suspicious" at that time. I looked into the Apache log file but unfortunately in the end no evidence of manipulation was found. So now, I tend to accept what Ladislav once said in his New Year greetings ("Which is the best?"): "don't read too much into the numbers. They are provided for entertainment only..."
So let's come to the left column, which is so informative that one just wonders how this column is maintained. In the in-depth interview with Ladislav Bodnar, Susan Linton asked "How do you keep up with all the happenings in the Linux world?" Then he replied this question with only one word: "Liferea". Unfortunately, I failed while trying setting up Liferea on my own PC (it core dumped over and again). So, I turned back to keep an eye on this left column - for one-stop shopping.
The "Latest Newsletters" section provides direct links to newsletters published within the last week or so. Newsletters from less popular distributions also have their positions here, say the GoblinX Newsletter. The "Latest Reviews" area contains recent reviews on distributions of specific versions, be they stable or development releases. If you find an interesting review or even you publish one yourself, you can send the web link to distro@distrowatch.com and chances are good that the link will be put up here within hours. Reviews written in languages other than English are also accepted. However, if you submit a link to a distribution review published weeks or even months ago, of course DistroWatch will not consider it as "Latest Reviews". One of my observations is that only highly selective reviews will be put up as official news items (in the middle column). The hints in the introduction to "Articles, Reviews and Interviews" may shed some light.
I don't want to talk much about the "Latest Podcasts" section as I never listened to them (due to poor aural English), but I really like the "Latest Packages" area. Quite often download links to newest software packages are provided here even before news updates are found on the projects' homepages. One thing to note is that only packages of latest stable branches are tracked, as explained in "Packages Tracked by DistroWatch". If the application is source open, working links to the source tarball are provided. If the source code is not available (say opera, ati-driver, etc.), download links to binary packages are provided. I do not use the Firefox package shipped with my installed distribution; instead, I always download the binaries in Mozilla mirror server's linux-i686/en-US/ directory and manually set up my browser. Each time I see a new version of Firefox sneak into this "Latest Packages" area, I immediately upgrade mine to it.
Now let's come to the "Latest Distributions" section. For those "ISO hunters" on the Internet, this section could be a real secret treasure. Quite often a working link to ISO images of a latest release is listed here before the release is officially announced. That may happen for various reasons. For example, the distribution developer is waiting for all mirror servers to be synchronized, or she/he goes to bed while the ISO images are being uploaded, or she/he has done that just to get prepared for an upcoming anniversary day of the distribution, or she/he just decides not to make an announcement at all.
Often there is a release that is freely available for download but on the project's website there is never a decent release announcement, or a changelog, or anything like that. In this case, the "Latest Distributions" section accommodates the release and it will not be officially posted as a DistroWatch news item. In the coming issue of DistroWatch Weekly, those releases will be mentioned as "unannounced releases" in "Released Last Week". So, if you are a project maintainer, remember to publish a detailed announcement as gracefully as you can - at least provide a few concrete remarks on a not so casual page so as to be quoted in a DistroWatch news item. More specifics on this topic can be found in "A new policy regarding release announcements" ("Web Site News"). In case DistroWatch happens to have missed a well prepared announcement, just feel free to drop in a line.
There are more subtle differences between releases found in this section and releases announced in "Latest News and Updates". For example, a distribution released as an installation tree on an FTP server instead of as ISO image(s) will not be listed here. Neither will a release that is only available via BitTorrent, or, one that is not available for free download at all. Therefore, this section (ISO images oriented) and the middle column (release announcements oriented) may complement each other.
In the end, let's come to the full-featured navigation bar on the top of every DistroWatch webpage. Currently nearly 40 languages are supported, and it provides instant access to more than 370 active distributions - as long as you can think of the distribution name from the "Select Distribution" drop-down list. This implies that you may not need to clearly remember the exact name of the distribution. For dormant and discontinued ones (more than 130 in all), you can access the distribution-specific page by typing in the text box the exact distribution name or a reasonable abbreviation. This may also be applied to active ones, for example, typing "parallel" for "ParallelKnoppix". You may also try typing some comical words, say "microsoft" or "barbie".
In the navigation bar there are a dozen of links organized in three blocks. However, some of the features have been paid less attention. For example, now and then someone writes in, "Sir, I'm looking for a Red Hat Linux based x86_64 distribution that supports KDE for my desktop PC, I thought DistroWatch might be helpful but then I found it somewhat lacks the functionality for finding or recommending a customized solution. I would appreciate it if you could consider implementing such a feature for classification based selection." Well, what can Ladislav do on receiving feature requests like this every week? Maybe the only thing he could do is rename the "Search" link in the navigation bar to "Advanced Search", and the readers need to learn to better explore DistroWatch.
Rome was not built in one day. Neither was DistroWatch. "DistroWatch started as a one-man project and it's still 95% one-man project five years later" ("Ladislav Bodnar - Keeper of the Record"). This is by no means an easy task. Maybe he has been employing the "two naughty parrots" in the Bodnar household as his secretaries; they keep a close eye on hundreds of distributions' websites as well as wade through busy FTP servers and they twitter on finding anything new and interesting...
|
| Featured Distribution of the Week |
Zenwalk Linux
(By Beranger)
With the recent release of both ZenLive Linux 2.6.1 and Zenwalk Linux 2.8, this distribution formerly-known as Minislack (through mid-2005) hits it big. In a world of easy to use, installable LiveCDs like Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Xubuntu, MEPIS, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva One and others, this might be the chance to prove that the Slackware base does not impede a distro to keep up with the current standards.
To test it prior to the installation, we downloaded the 500MB ZenLive 2.6.1 ISO. As it was meant to be a sneak preview of the full 2.8 release, and most of the packages are unchanged between the two, we'll only say that: it simply worked. That's definitely Zen, so far. (The root password is "ZenWalk", in case you missed it.)
The installation CD took 410MB and the setup process was more or less like in Slackware, minus the package selection: it installs everything it has on the CD. And it does it really quickly.
The cfdisk partitioner failed to cope with one of the hard-disks ("FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 3: Partition ends in the final partition cylinder. Press any key to exit cfdisk"), but this happens with Slackware too. The unlucky guys should use the plain fdisk instead.
Two words about the defaults: the default 2.6.17.6 kernels is sata, but you can also opt for ide or scsi. We recommend to add an option vga=791 or vga=793 at boot time, to avoid the ugly 25x80 text screen. And you should know that if you go with the default xfs filesystem, you won't be able to install LILO in the superblock of a partition, should you need to chain two bootloaders.
What does it mean to be Zen nowadays? Painless power through simplicity, thy name might be XFCE 4.3.90.2 (4.4 BETA2, dubbed BETA1 in Zenwalk 2.8, but BETA2 in ZenLive 2.6.1). This lightweight desktop environment gets better and better lately, and the new Thunar 0.3.2beta2 shines.
Thunar 0.3.2beta2 - an elegant file manager
(full image 1302x508, size: 88kB)
Zenwalk is configured with simplicity in mind, with a compact single-panel layout of Xfce, but you won't feel anything lacking (clutter and bloatness, maybe).
The Zenwalk Linux 2.8 desktop
(full image 1280x1024, size: 312kB)
Just coming from a GNOME desktop, we spent 10 minutes to make it look a little like the elder brother: the results were quite impressing.
Customized Zenwalk Linux 2.8 desktop (à la GNOME), in activity
(full image 1280x1024, size: 296kB)
Right out of the box, Zenwalk Linux offers you a fully-fledged system: Firefox and Thunderbird 1.5.0.4, GAIM, Bittorrent, LinNeighborhood, Wifi-radar, GIMP 2.2.12, GQview, Evince, Mousepad, Bluefish 1.0.5, Geani IDE 0.7.1, GHex, JRE 1.5, Python 2.4.3, Perl 5.8.8 (with GTK bindings), Gxine 0.5.4, Graveman, and many more.
The pre-installed office applications are however limited to AbiWord and Gnumeric (plus Xsane and Xfce's Orage), but you can install OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 from the network repository, using Zenwalk's Netpkg package manager (see the manual if you need help).
For many people, Netpkg is exactly the part of Zen which might be seen a little harsh (no, it's by no means resembling Synaptic). Apart from the modest look, you should be aware that the apparent lack of an alphabetical order is only illusory: the listed packages are alphabetically ordered, but this only happens within a set of packages - where the sets are (in this order): a, ap, d, g, n, l, s, xap, x, kde, extra.
What you can get from the repositories? First of all, Midnight Commander (mc) lacks from Zenwalk, although it was in ZenLive. Then, plenty of packages, including a full GNOME 2.14.2 (in only 6 packages!), a full KDE 3.5.2, Ruby 1.8.4, PHP 5.1.4, MySQL 5.0.21, apache 2.2.2, ProFTPd, samba, webmin, nVU, Inkscape 0.44, Mplayer, Audacious, BMP, and so on.
To make a bit of proselytism now: the rather unexpected choice of having Gxine as the default multimedia player is actually "a better choice". When listening to streaming radio channels that update the ID tags for each tune, you may be surprised to find that Gxine updates the screen info too, while most players can't do the same!
Where are its limits set? Not being a corporate-backed distribution, it can afford to come with support for MP3, win32 codecs, and RealMedia files - but you have to download libdvdcss2 with Netpkg. Alas, the PDF reader Evince seems to have problems when selecting text.
As a funny thing in confignetwork (check also configservice): the NIC that are named in Zenwalk 2.8: eth0 and eth1, were identified in Zenlive 2.6.1 as eth2 and eth1 (in this order).
Searching for higher limits now: as Zenwalk's packages are in .TGZ format and are still meant to be binary-compatible with Slackware, you should have a good chance to enjoy extra packages from linuxpackages.net too.
For a distribution that doesn't need many resources to fly (an 850 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM and 1.5 GB of disk are more than enough), this seems to be the good path to the moment-by-moment awareness through direct experience. And this is exactly Zen.
|
| Review |
Berry Linux 0.72
The release of Berry Linux 0.72 was announced on July 26. Berry Linux is a Fedora-based livecd with support for the Japanese language. I've tested earlier versions of Berry Linux before, but this release held a little surprise for me. This version includes XGL. One can boot the system into an XGL KDE desktop.
I've always like Berry with its fruity motiff and with this release that hasn't changed. Strawberries and raspberries can be seen throughout the boot process and desktops as well as other blooms and even a kitty cat. Seems Berry developers have an appreciation for nature. Underneath it is all Linux.
This release brings Kernel 2.6.17.4, KDE 3.5.3, Xorg 7.0.0, gcc 4.1.1, OpenOffice 2.0.3, and Firefox/Thunderbird 1.5.0.4. Coming in a 515 MB download, one might think it'd be a slimmed down system. Well, it is, but it's hard to tell by looking. The menus are full of applications and tools for most of the common computing tasks.
The menu is constructed in a manner that lends itself for easy navigation. Major headings include Administration, BERRY, Preferences, and Program. Under Administration is the entry for Wireless Assistant and Server settings (which is empty). Under BERRY we find various system and hardware configuration tools and utilities, including two harddrive installers. Preferences contain a few entries for KDE specific settings. Program is where the applications are found.
For photo and image viewing and manipulation we find The Gimp, digiKam, showFoto, and Inkscape. Under the Internet subheading are KPPP, Konqueror, Firefox, Thunderbird, SIM (gaim), Smb4k, and Sylpheed. Sound and video includes BMP, K3b, Kaffeine, Mplayer, TVtime, and Xine. Office tasks can be handled by the OpenOffice suite or TextMaker and PlanMaker.
All the applications worked very well here except for SIM which seemed a bit unstable. It exited with segmentation faults on two occasions in the short time it was being tested. The media players functioned as designed, and the video players had no problems with the basic formats tested. TVtime was a very pleasant surprise for me as I've rarely had any luck with it. Rarely, if ever, does it work for me, but on Berry it did.
  
Berry Linux includes a utility for saving one's BERRY configuration and two hard drive installers. The primary installer looks very much like Morphix's installer. It consists of a few basic configuration questions and then a progress bar. It's quite easy to use for anyone of any experience. As with any Linux install, only the partitioning step could present any confusion.
Berry Linux has a basic Control Center. At this point it holds system information and offers a few system configuration options as well as an Auto Update feature. I wasn't able to test the Auto Update tool as there didn't seem to be any updates at this time.
There are several choices when the Berry Linux live cd is first booted. At the grub splash screen one can choose from such options as English Version, Expert, Vaio, or Xgl. When choosing Xgl one is booted to an XGL enabled KDE desktop. I found this option to be a great addition to the Xgl desktop line-up. SUSE offers a setup guide for using XGL KDE on their systems, but I believe this to be the only distro shipping with it enabled at boot. It worked wonderfully here and didn't seem to consume excessive system resources. Menu operation, application opening, and window moving or redrawing all functioned with no noticeable delays. All the commonly documented effects worked really well.
Berry Linux also comes in a "mini" version too. If one desires a smaller lighter version, a 162 MB iso is available. This version features a lighter desktop rather than KDE. It features their own Rasp-UI, but appears to be an animated Equinox. All icons on the desktop, in the panel, and in the menu are animated. Gears turn, windows resize, and flags wave. It's a real cute option that's available as an alternative in the larger iso as well.
The only trouble I had here was with the installer and SIM. The installer appeared to stop at 80% with the installing grub phase. I'm not sure if the install was really unsuccessful as the resulting system appeared to function fine within the limited testing performed. It performed well from the live cd. Hardware detection and auto-configuration was good. As stated, I've always like Berry Linux and this release has some really nice new features. It is another great Linux distribution.
|
| Released Last Week |
GoblinX Mini 1.4.0:
"The GoblinX 1.4.0 has several important improvments. The Liveupgrade, our livecd remaster tool, now has a new main window with all options you can enable before create your own livecd, there are also several new GUIs prepared to use, gtkDSL which is a graphical interface to configure accounts and start DSL connections, gtkSwap, used to create swap memory files, gtkQivss, a Qiv slideshow interface, gtkSplitz, to divide files into pieces and gtkImods, to use with modules and install modules to harddisk." Visit the project's news page to read the full release announcement and changelog.
DragonFly BSD 1.6:
"1.6 is our fourth major DragonFly release. DragonFly's policy is to only commit bug fixes to release branches. The biggest user-visible changes in this release are a new random number generator, a massive reorganization of the 802.11 (wireless) framework, and extensive bug fixes in the kernel. We also made significant progress in pushing the big giant lock inward and made extensive modifications to the kernel infrastructure with an eye towards DragonFly's main clustering and userland VFS goals. We consider 1.6 to be more stable then 1.4." Find more details in the comprehensive announcement.
NetBSD 3.0.1:
"NetBSD 3.0.1 is the first security/critical update of the NetBSD 3.0 release branch. This represents a selected subset of fixes deemed critical in nature for stability or security reasons, no new features have been added. NetBSD 3.0.1 runs on 57 different system architectures featuring 17 machine architectures across 17 distinct CPU families, and is being ported to more. The NetBSD 3.0.1 release contains complete binary releases for 53 different machine types, with the platforms amigappc, bebox, pc532 and playstation2 released in source form only. Complete source and binaries for NetBSD 3.0.1 are available for download at many sites around the world." More details can be found in the release announcement.
PUD GNU/Linux v0.4.6.1:
PUD GNU/Linux is a Taiwanese mini live and installation CD based on Ubuntu, with ideas borrowed from the LAMPPIX and Damn Small Linux projects, and with support for Traditional Chinese. Its main purpose is to provide a complete Linux desktop with many popular applications and tools, yet remain small and simple to operate. PUD v0.4.6.1 is now available: "with lots of new features and packages, improved performance, bug fixes and upgrades. For more information please read on Release Note."
Berry Linux 0.72:
Yuichiro Nakada has announced a new release of Berry Linux, a desktop-oriented, Fedora-based live CD with support for Japanese and English. From the changelog: "Kernel 2.6.17.4 SMP + ndev/udev + bootsplash; squashfs 3.0; unionfs 1.1.5; ndiswrapper 1.19; InitNG 0.6.7 (+initng-is for isplash); KDE 3.5.3 (Fedora Core 5/Stable); Rasp-UI 0.03 (WindowManager); OpenOffice 2.0.3 (Japanese and English); Wine 0.9.17."
ROCK Linux 3:
Version 3 of the ROCK Linux is released. From the announcement: "It took a bit over 20 months, but finally, ROCK 3 is done. Over the last 20 months, ROCK Linux has seen many changes not only in the code, but also in its aim and social relations... Creating a distribution is a complex task. ROCK makes this task a lot easier. Many changes since the last release have gone into enhancing the example distribution - Crystal ROCK - to be a good reference for what is possible." Changes since version 2.0 can be found on the RockWiki page.
Puppy Linux 2.02:
Puppy Linux version 2.02 is released, the greatest news with which is Puppy now has full NTFS write support, using the ntfs-3g driver: "Full read and write support for NTFS partitions. This includes saving of the Puppy session to hard drive. More thorough checking of system integrity at a version upgrade, to ensure that the system is stable and usable. The kernel is still version 2.6.16.7 but has been recompiled to support 4G memory and frequency scaling..." Find more details in the release notes.
aLinux 12.8:
Version 12.8 of aLinux, a distribution formerly known as Peanut Linux, has been released. The changes in this release are as follows: The API was changed by updating to glibc 2.4 and GCC 4.1.1. Other updates include KDE 3.5.3 and KOffice 1.5.2. Xorg was removed and replaced with XFree86 4.6.0. The Linux kernel version is 2.6.17 with IVTV. A MultiMedia desktop was added for high definition users. More information is available in the release notes and on the project's homepage.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
Thanks!
I want to thank everyone for joining me during my three weeks here with you. I know you're missing Ladislav and if things go as scheduled, he'll be back with you next week. Thanks to everyone who helped out, especially Dr. Wen Tao Zhu. Thanks to Dr. Zhu for the fascinating article this week as well. Thank you Beranger for your wonderful review of Zenwalk. Thanks to gfranken for further Mandriva Linux news tips. But most importantly, thanks to all of the DistroWatch visitors. Have a great week!
Susan Linton
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qtede6f7adcce4kjpgx0e5j68wwgtdxrek2qvc4  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le |
|
| Linux Foundation Training |
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Shells.com |
Your own personal Linux computer in the cloud, available on any device. Supported operating systems include Android, Debian, Fedora, KDE neon, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro and Ubuntu, ready in minutes.
Starting at US$4.95 per month, 7-day money-back guarantee
|
| Random Distribution | 
CROWZ
CROWZ is a lightweight, Devuan-based Linux distribution. The project offers three graphical window managers: Openbox, Fluxbox, and JWM. CROWZ can be run from live media or installed to a hard drive using the Calamares system installer.
Status: Active
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
