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1 • Excellent Distrowatch Weekly (by Mark South on 2006-09-18 09:53:54 GMT from Switzerland)
An excellent Distrowatch Weekly. The best is when DW tells what's happening, reports the latest, and explains - nonjudgementally - the diversity of approaches in the Linux and BSD worlds.
BTW, my personal cool award of the week goes to Zenwalk 3.0. You once asked, who would miss Zenwalk? Me. I would miss it a lot! Please add it to the list of projects nominated for the Distrowatch Weekly Award.
2 • Paldo & Olive (by Ariszló on 2006-09-18 09:57:23 GMT from Hungary)
I was testing several waiting list distros last week and found Paldo & Olive interesting.
Paldo is a nice and very fast Gnome-based distro following the "one app for one task" philosophy:
http://www.paldo.org/
http://www.paldo.org/index-section-packages-page-livecd.html
http://www.paldo.org/index-section-packages-page-bootcd.html
Although using it is easy, installation is slightly geekish:
http://www.paldo.org/index-section-support-page-install.html
If you have a static ip number then you should issue the following commands before bootstrapping paldo (using your own numbers, of course):
echo "nameserver 192.168.1.1" >> /etc/resolv.conf
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.123 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
route add default gateway 192.168.1.1
Olive is a live cd with Enlightenment, MPlayer and UniPKG:
http://isteve.depressant.org/olive/
http://isteve.depressant.org/unipkg/
It is one of the new mini distros in MultiDistro 2.5:
http://multidistro.tlm-project.org/md_en.html
3 • Hiweed (by Michael Bannier on 2006-09-18 10:05:20 GMT from China)
Very nice reading indeed.
A little up to Hiweed Linux, a chinese distribution based on xubuntu, that make life easier for my chinese friend.
Delivered with chinese input, lumaqq, all codecs and plugins, using dapper mirror.... A very nice adaptation!
4 • RPM maintainer (by ou_ryperd on 2006-09-18 10:20:36 GMT from South Africa)
I believe it's the same person that wrote this:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/6/5/101431/9311
5 • RPM? (by Anony_mouse_Cow_hurd on 2006-09-18 10:30:20 GMT from United States)
fork it, dont put up with people that are hard to deal with just because they have a controling hand in a package, either fork it, or find something else like Conary, or deb, or something like Slackware's .tgz package system...
just like a troll or spambot in a chatroom they can be blocked and ignored indefinitly
6 • memory test (by George on 2006-09-18 11:03:38 GMT from United Kingdom)
Interesting memory test piece. However, my impression is that WM is a lot faster than either Gnone or KDE, and it will run, and run well, and run applications well, on low end hardware that none of the others will run at all on. So the question might be, what about speed? The difference in memory is maybe not catching all of the really meaningful differences?
7 • RPM (by werner on 2006-09-18 11:52:41 GMT from France)
The RPM is of big importance and should be forked immediately if the 'project' sticks. There are necessary certain BASICAL improvements - such as, clean an installation from double versions of the same package; clean an repository with downloaded rpms from older versions and keeping only the most new ones (whats doing another prog called # rpm-update), the possibility to anyhow include source-code compiled packages in the package/dependences database (inclusive possible updates by different format's packages, or vice-versa, updates of .rpm/.deb/.tgz packages by a source-code-compiled newer version, etc), principally however the option to let searche dependencies on file (not on package) base. Also, problems and sometimes even the loss of the whole package database comes from incompatibilities of db3 and db4 databases, and sometimes it happens that on the same installation suddenly one has the both (if one f.ex. install some packages from 'outside' with #rpm ... --root=... i.e. from another distro like Slackware existing on another partition, using an older version of #rpm) These problems have to be repaired urgently.
Independently, # synaptic needs urgently an improvement that one can include pkgs from an internal folder of dowmloaded .rpm/.deb/.tgz existing already on its hard-disk. Theoretically it should work already -- in the practics it dont work. The program is too stupid to make or update a necessary (?) hdlist, similar like # genhdlist --nobadrpm [--norecursive] is doing, and also to input the path of that local repository is so stupid that one seldomly have success. This project also need to be forked.
8 • Zenwalk & Blag !!! (by Caraibes on 2006-09-18 11:56:22 GMT from Dominican Republic)
Good read, Ladislav, as usual I am enjoying my monday morning coffee with DWW !
Yes, I am also waiting to test Mandriva 2007, haven't had the guts to install any of the betas...
I have been experimenting last week with the most recent Debian testing, and it gives me the same problem as Ubuntu 6.06 with my ATI video-card : flickering display... Don't know how to fix it...
In my workshop, most of my boxes are running Blag or Zenwalk, and I must say those 2 distros (very different from each other) are the most interesting to follow in my humble opinion. I am mentioning it since you where asking :-"who would miss Zenwalk ?" My answer is :-"I will !".
Both Blag & Zenwalk are based on major distro, that is Fedora for Blag, and Slackware for Zenwalk, but they are "better" (personnal opinion), "easier" (personnal opinion)... You pop-in the cd, follow the installer, and have a nice system, ready for a wonderfull desktop experience.
Now, I do realise that I could either install Fedora or Slackware, tweak it, and end up with a similar experience, but that would require time, knowledge (I wish I learn everyday, to get more !). But nothing beats downloading an iso, burning it to a cd, and booting it, to have a "ready to go" desktop...
This is why I want to give 2 thumbs up to the leaders of those 2 distros :
Jebba (Jeff Moe) from Blag
JP Guillemin (Hyperion) from Zenwalk
They are doing a great job for the community !
9 • forking (by AC on 2006-09-18 12:22:51 GMT from United States)
It took a licensing issue that made the package effectively illegal to distribute for Debian to fork cdrtools, but it's been needed for some time, given Schilling's intransigence and uncooperativeness. I don't follow rpm development, but it seems to me that if their are comparable difficulties, a fork is called for. FLOSS is about cooperation and people who cannot or will not cooperate may be better off left behind.
10 • Zenwalk (by Daniel on 2006-09-18 12:27:05 GMT from France)
I'm not a geek and testing distributions is not my hobby or something I do when I have some more free time. I'm on Ubuntu the 2 last years and I'm happy with that. But I don't know why (maybe XFCE, sorry but Gnome is mission impossible on old machines), Zenwalk somehow catched my attention and I installed it on one of my old Toshiba laptops. I have to say that this is one of the distros to watch in future on Distrowatch.
BTW: another great issue of DWW, It's now a habbit , monday on my lunch break I read It, real pleasure.
Keep up the goot work Ladislav.
11 • Mandriva Beta (by Troy W. Banther on 2006-09-18 12:58:10 GMT from United States)
I finally upgraded my old-and-cranky computer with a Mandriva RC from an earlier version. I am impressed. Based upon what I see I think the completed product will be spot on.
12 • Slackware 11 (by Edo hikmahtiar on 2006-09-18 13:01:47 GMT from Indonesia)
Slackware 11 is near release... :)
"Mon Sep 18 05:33:24 CDT 2006
Slackware 11.0 release candidate 5. This is the last one, scout's honor."
happy slacker
13 • rpm fork (by ray on 2006-09-18 13:16:57 GMT from United States)
Just like the Xorg fork. If it is needed, do it.
14 • Tips (by tom on 2006-09-18 13:39:33 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the tips section. I hope this becomes a regular feature on DW. Nothing fancy, just a short tip of the week. Very nice "cross platform" approach.
Ex Zenwalk refugee, moved to Arch. Zenwalk is moving away from Slackware and, IMO, package management is becoming an issue. Arch is fast and has a very nice repository. It does take some effort to install, but once installed it is very easy to admin.
15 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2006-09-18 14:20:10 GMT from Iran, Islamic Republic of)
Zenwalk Linux has a bright future as both a fast, bloat-less distro for older hardware and it's suitable for Linux Gamers since they even have their own gaming website with precompiled Cedega and other goodies on the tap. Please don't say nobody will miss it.
As for RPM, fork it!
16 • Extracting package lists (by Chris on 2006-09-18 14:35:02 GMT from Canada)
Great resource! Thank you.
17 • Xandros 30 day trial (by Fotokor fm Montreal on 2006-09-18 14:48:20 GMT from Canada)
I just wonder what will happen after 30 days ? Presuiming I do not pay :-)
Did not fin any info on their web-site......
18 • Mandriva (by Johannes Eva on 2006-09-18 15:15:12 GMT from Spain)
Good luck for Mandriva - i used to use Mandrake, 4/5 years ago, if it's a great release, i'll give it a try. It's very important that old great distros stay on top! Bonne chance !
19 • Agreed (by 1c3d0g on 2006-09-18 16:03:15 GMT from Aruba)
Well said, #13. It's a shame things have to turn out this way, but hey, that's life. Some people_just_aren't cooperative.
20 • No subject (by anon on 2006-09-18 16:17:50 GMT from Russian Federation)
> Extracting a complete package list from Gentoo Linux is somewhat more
> complicated than obtaining the same information in other distributions.
Well, OK (but not that much more complicated).
> Since nowadays Gentoo seems to promote its live CD as a preferred method
> of installing the distribution, the list of packages included on the live CD can
> only be extracted after the distribution is installed.
Well, yes, but you really care about the packages in portage (since the live CD
doesn't have all of the binary packages you want to check for). Look in the
snapshot directory for an archive of the portage tree for the live CD.
> Gentoo provides a number of alternative methods for obtaining the list of
> installed software, including "epm", which is a clone of the "rpm" command
> and takes many of the same switches, but these tools are rarely installed by
> default. The above-mentioned command is about the most reliable method
> of finding out which packages are installed on a Gentoo Linux system.
Bleh! Install gentoolkit (also not installed by default, but definitely the preferred
tool for this), and then just run "equery list" from the command line.
21 • Xandros 30 Day trial (by Egon Spengler on 2006-09-18 17:19:52 GMT from United States)
Apparently, according to one who installed the trial and ran into a problem, the trial says "This version has expired, and will shut down in 3 minutes" without writing anything out to disk.
22 • Zenwalk all the way! (by Incer on 2006-09-18 18:14:15 GMT from Italy)
I've got to add myself to the ones who praise Zenwalk. It's a great distro, I am not an expert, but I played with Linux many times in the past, and no other distro ever successfully kept me from going back to windows and forgetting about the linux partition on my hard disk. There always was something that didn't work, and I didn't manage to make it work, also. I always liked Linux, but these problems never allowed me to use it for long periods of time. So I tried LOTS of distributions, until I found Zenwalk. Now I don't even have windows installed anymore. It's fast, it looks good and it works perfectly. Thunar is a great file manager and XFCE simply rocks. The program selection is quite good.
Simply put: I LOVE IT. And I would encourage anyone to try it. Satisfaction guaranteed (or almost :P)
23 • Forking RPM? (by Joe on 2006-09-18 18:18:37 GMT from United States)
Forking may certainly be an option, but considering that Jeff Johnson is no longer a Red Hat employee and may have other interests at hand, perhaps a proposal for a small but effective RPM development team is in order. It's supposed to be a community project, right?
24 • Mandriva 2007 (by luddite on 2006-09-18 18:20:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
The first linux distro I successfully installed on my PC was Mandrake Linux (8.2?).
I have been waiting for Mandriva 2007, but got a bit impatient & have installed Mandriva 2007 RC2, which is what I am using right now. So far so good, smooth install, no hiccups (yet!). I hope Mandriva can offer linux dektop users a real alternative to the very small clutch which currently dominate Distrowatch rankings ;)
25 • why fork RPM? (by Patrick on 2006-09-18 18:56:45 GMT from Luxembourg)
The rpm distros could just as well adopt dpkg and apt, and the world would be a better one.
26 • Mandriva (by Riklaunim on 2006-09-18 19:03:52 GMT from Poland)
How much did mandriva payed to get that juicy news? ;) The distro changes shows that it want to target bussines/corporate/commerical audience. And why should I try it? I don't want any distro that is a jump-upgrade type (vs rolling release of arch or gentoo) and which keeps all the goodies to those who pay... and so on....
27 • RPMs & Desktop Blowout (by |TG|Mateo on 2006-09-18 19:22:14 GMT from United States)
Yes, I believe that an obstreperous (to quote Mrs. Slocum) developer is more than reason enough to fork a project. As noted: it's about competition-with open source, there are no barriers (save your own skill set) to taking some code and beating you at your own game with more features, better service, etc...so it behooves you to be nice to people and get their help, otherwise you will be irrelevant.
As for the desktop blowout...it's nice to see some numbers around this, and even if he is somewhat biased, the conclusion about KDE was: it depends.
I do quibble about the "WM is a different thing"...window managers like Windowmaker, FVWM, and *box (how many are there now?) all integrate fairly well with KDE and GNOME apps, and end up on the lower end of the resource usage spectrum while often providing a pleasant desktop to look at and work in.
So because they are not full application environments like GNOME or KDE they get a quick dismissal from the author? That's not exactly fair.
But then he acknowledged the bias, so it's all good.
28 • Zenwalk Comments (by Auronandace on 2006-09-18 19:40:15 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have to admit that Zenwalk has certainly caught a lot of attention, even if its not mentioned in this DWW.
I am also a user of Zenwalk (ever since 2.4) and I really like the way its going. I've noticed that AxXium plays a large part in the work on the various websites and forums linked with Zenwalk and really appreciate the effort put into these sites and the focus on its community. I've found the community really helpful and the distro simply fills all my needs.
Zenwalk is great stuff. My personal favourite about it is that it focuses on Xfce, not Gnome or Kde (although they are available in the repos). I really think Zenwalk is climbing on DistroWatch and its here to stay for a long while.
Keep up the great work people!
29 • comment #26 (by kojak on 2006-09-18 19:54:04 GMT from Germany)
"How much did mandriva payed to get that juicy news? ;) The distro changes shows that it want to target bussines/corporate/commerical audience. And why should I try it? I don't want any distro that is a jump-upgrade type (vs rolling release of arch or gentoo) and which keeps all the goodies to those who pay... and so on...."
I'd say: They didn't pay anything. It is a fact that this is gonna be a very fine release. I am running cooker and although there are still some hiccups here and there, the overall image I get from 2007 is that it will perhaps be the best release they ever made and real competition to the other big-leaguers.
If you would take a closer look to things, you would know that they offer a 100% free system, too and all proprietary things that you get with the powerpack are available from online repos. In this respect there is not a big difference to Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or SUSE, who don't ship with proprietary stuff either.
Why should you try it? Nobody says you have to, but taking a look at other distros doesn't hurt, right?
Just to mind you: I ditched Gentoo for Mandriva and haven't regretted the move. :P
30 • RE: why fork RPM? (by Luk van den Borne on 2006-09-18 19:57:43 GMT from Netherlands)
Well, there's nothing inherently wrong with RPM, except that apparantly the maintainer is hard to live with. You should compare RPM to DPKG, as APT is just a frontend that can be used for both DPKG and RPM. Imagine what it would be like to admin a Debian install with dpkg only...
The so called RPM hell is from times when there was no decent RPM frontend (except maybe Madrake's urpmi), and there were many distro's that used this package format. The former problem has been solved many many times, but the latter still exists. But again, that's not inherent to RPM.
For example, look at Debian and Ubuntu. There too have been problems regarding package compatibility, even though it uses the "superior" package format. The only reason that the impact hasn't been bigger, is that Debian and Ubuntu are the only large players in the field (easier to coordinate), and that the devs have started to communicate about it to each other.
31 • Adult Swim mentioning Open Source (by cheetahman on 2006-09-18 19:58:21 GMT from United States)
One of the bumps went like like this they use Windows it crashes,next they use Mac OS X it crashes then they say ahh ****** were switching to Open Source
32 • Yellow Dog Linux for PowerPC (by rexbinary on 2006-09-18 19:59:26 GMT from United States)
"So don't throw your PowerPC-based Macs out of the window just yet - there is still plenty of life in them!"
There are many better reasons to keep your PowerPC Mac other then Yellow Dog Linux. Most all popular distros are available for PowerPC based Macintosh computers, such as Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, etc.. Personally, I think Yellow Dog is the worst distro for PowerPC, and if it was the only game in town I would just run Mac OS 9. :)
33 • Domain change? (by djohnston on 2006-09-18 20:19:56 GMT from United States)
On Sunday, the 17th, after being unable to reach distrowatch.com, I was finally able to connect and noticed that it was, in fact, distrowatch.cz. This seems to have been a temporary situation, but I'm curious as to what happened.
34 • 30 day evaluation ? (by Marius Cirsta on 2006-09-18 21:08:13 GMT from Romania)
This sounds a bit silly to me . I mean I understand it and all but an evaluation for a Linux distro sounds funny . I think Xandros should wake up and notice even Linspire made Freespire available for free . It's now the only important distro which offers no alternative but to buy it . I wish them good luck but with so many free alternatives out there it doesn't look too good .
One thing is for sure though , I'm not going to get a pirated copy of Xandros like I did with with the WindowsXP I somethimes use . Thanks but no thanks .
Oh and one more think rather then pay for Xandros I think my money would be better put to use if I were to donate to an OpenSource project ( Kdevelop , KDE , GAIM ) .
35 • Elightenment (by Andrew on 2006-09-18 21:54:27 GMT from New Zealand)
Does anyone use Enlightenment?
I have noticed the lack of distros that specialise in using Enlightenment as the main Window Manager.
If you check out Elive, it is based on Debian and is very fast. I use the live cd on my desktop - everything is detected and runs well.
36 • printer frindly (by bhrich902 on 2006-09-18 22:04:43 GMT from United States)
i think i've posted this before, but im not if im missing this somewhere in the page, is there or can there be a printer-friendly option for the distrowatch weekly?? things like this i prefer to print out and read and avoid some horrible monitors at work. thx.
37 • RE: 33 Domain change, 36 Printer friendly (by ladislav on 2006-09-18 22:24:52 GMT from Taiwan)
I don't know what happened. The network provider's web site became unreachable for several hours on Sunday, so I changed the DNS record to point to distrowatch.cz until the problem was resolved. Things like this happen from time to time.
As for a printer friendly option, no, there is none at the moment. If there is anybody who'd like to help with implementing it, please raise your hands.
38 • Enlightenment (by Anonymous on 2006-09-18 22:37:12 GMT from Iran, Islamic Republic of)
I haven't tried Elive but it certainly sounds interesting. The previous stable version of enlightenment by default looks horrible with pretty shaky functionality too (Installed on ubuntu and opensuse). However the developmental version DR17 looks absolutely fantastic. If it's fast to boot I'll give it a try.
39 • Zenwalk & Vmware; not so Zenlike for me (by Paul on 2006-09-18 23:19:02 GMT from United States)
Blag? I totally agree. Very nice, easy to like, and easy to keep current.
I run everything as guests in Vmware Workstation (as do a few other people). I run these usb-drived-guests on many different hosts... both 32 bit, 64 bit on both Windows NT/XP and Suse at home and at work. The results are always a mixed bag with some distros, like Blag, performing flawlessly as a guest everywhere I run it. It has really gained my confidence.
Zenwalk surprised me. I had serious problems moving from 64 bit Suse to 32 bit XP hosts and retired it after 3 tries (I discourage easily). Of course, few people run OS's this way, so it hardly matters. And it's in very good company because even some of the big distros are no better behaved.
BTW: if you need to run XP 32 bit as a guest on Suse 64 bit, I've had zero problems. I have to run XP for work and must use a rather abusive Cisco VPN to connect from home using DSL. The VPN neuters an ordinary XP host by seizing control of all network ops and firewalling all ports except 1. But VMware keeps that barking dog in a cage.
40 • NetBSD will not die (by ghl on 2006-09-18 23:52:13 GMT from Venezuela)
After seeing http://bsd.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/0348243 I became sick again.
It's funny to see people saying "Linux has taken BSD" and bringing up those "survival of the fittest" arguments when all they do is expect other people make the decissions and never involve themselves.
I use both FreeBSD and NetBSD on the desktop. True OS innovation does not happen in OpenBSD but they deserve respect for PF, OpenSSH, etc. They'll never unleash a SMP kernel, they'll never offer ISO's on their website and they'll never use bzip2 to compress binary packages.
41 • ELive (by tom on 2006-09-18 23:59:13 GMT from United States)
Yes, I installed Elive as a primary OS. I have been happy with it. Wish there were a few more themes.
Biggest problem I've had with the ELive CD has been hardware detection.
42 • elive (by ray carter at 2006-09-19 01:04:09 GMT from United States)
I happen to think that Elive is really cool. For one thing I heartily recommend that folks with 'older' equipment check it out. I've installed it on a P166 with 64MB ram and it runs quite nicely. I have it installed on several other computers though I don't use it regularly. I will certainly install when the new stable version comes out. It is definitely worth a look.
43 • I take that back (comment 20) (by anon on 2006-09-19 05:23:18 GMT from Russian Federation)
>> Since nowadays Gentoo seems to promote its live CD as a preferred method
>> of installing the distribution, the list of packages included on the live CD can
>> only be extracted after the distribution is installed.
>
>Well, yes, but you really care about the packages in portage (since the live CD
>doesn't have all of the binary packages you want to check for). Look in the
>snapshot directory for an archive of the portage tree for the live CD.
You don't need to install anything. Just download:
http://anygentoomirror/releases/x86/2006.1/livecd/livecd-i686-installer-2006.1.iso.CONTENTS
(x86 only) and run (a very slightly modified) the script on that file.
44 • Another Enlightenment-based distro (by Ariszló on 2006-09-19 06:02:18 GMT from Hungary)
Olive is another Enlightenment-based distro I tried last week (see Comment #2 this week).
http://isteve.depressant.org/olive/
It is also one of the 9 distros on the Multi Distro live cd:
http://multidistro.tlm-project.org/md_en.html
45 • Tipps & tricks [gentoo] (by fdavid on 2006-09-19 07:57:45 GMT from Austria)
For getting all installed packages on gentoo:
eix -I
The eix utility is really powerful and worth to take a look at.
Another way:
cat /var/lib/portage/world
The latter is not a complete list of installed packages, since it doesn't contain packages installed as dependencies, but most of the time it's more useful than the complete list.
46 • Not illegal, but license-Nazism (by Beranger on 2006-09-19 08:40:25 GMT from Romania)
>>package effectively illegal to distribute for Debian to fork cdrtools
NOT ILLEGAL, but not in line with DFSG. That's license-Nazism, to believe it's illegal just because, even if it's a free license, it's not free enough.
>>Just like the Xorg fork. If it is needed, do it.
It was NOT "NEEDED". Just another license-Nazism.
>>As for RPM, fork it!
No need. RPM *BELONGS* to Red Hat, no need to fork IMHO.
47 • Desktop Linux done right...well, almost! (by RoachBoy on 2006-09-19 08:47:34 GMT from Kenya)
Freespire is almost my idea of Desktop Linux done right! It’s based on a stable platform, floppies can be supermounted (but more on this later), and it does not aspire to be a totally dumbed-down Windows XP replica. Freespire installed in just 12 minutes (not counting the preliminary stuff), hardware detection was flawless, and the Startup Wizard is quite snazzy...
I say `almost’ because there are a few bummers. For one, it’s not rock-solid yet and you are likely to experience the occasional crash. Second, the version of KDE is rather old (3.3.2). Third, it takes painfully long to boot (and shutdown). Finally, while supermounting of cdroms is on by default, I haven’t had much luck with supermounting of floppies. On the other hand, the next release later this year is expected to have a faster boot time and will feature KDE 3.5.4. In the meantime I've killed some of the startup scripts in /etc/rc2.d/. With respect to supermounting floppies, maybe it’s the module for the 2.6 kernel, or maybe I just haven’t got the skills. Probably the latter. Gotta put in some more work.
Moving on, since they both target the same market and both provide access to proprietary add-ons (Mepis with TaFusion and Linspire with CNR), one can’t help wondering whether Mepis can hold out against Freespire. It was Warren Woodford himself who observed that the Linux distro scene was ripe for consolidation. I think that he might now be the one in danger of being consolidated right out of the picture. On the other hand, Linspire should consider hiring Warren. I think he would be an asset to the company. First of all, he’s a good fit because he uses Debian, and now *buntu, as his platform. Second, anyone who can maintain a major distro essentially on their own is not only smart, but also very passionate about Linux. In any case, it would be a crime to squander such talent. On the other hand, Warren could build a better product than Linspire, but for a one-man operation, that seems a stretch...
I’m looking forward to the next Freespire release and I’ll probably get hold of a copy of Linspire 6.0. I hope Linspire will consider releasing a DVD version for those of us on the wrong side of the Digital Divide who can’t rely on CNR...
48 • Arch (by lumiwa on 2006-09-19 12:45:49 GMT from United States)
I was very long time SuSE and Debian user but one year ago I had a problem with SuSE, formated disk and installed Arch Linux and I am Arch user still. It is fast, it is not difficult to install and what is the most important is that Arch users are very friendly and helpful.
49 • 46 (by AC on 2006-09-19 14:56:16 GMT from United States)
>quoting me>>package effectively illegal to distribute for Debian to fork cdrtools
>NOT ILLEGAL, but not in line with DFSG. That's license-Nazism, to believe it's illegal just because, even if it's a free license, it's not free enough.
No. Illegal. Although I suspect that the CDDL is in line with the DFSG - that has not been officially determined. I chose my words deliberatetly. Cdrtools combines CDDL code with GPL code and those licenses - whatever their respective merits - are mutually exclusive, creating a legal conunudrum. It is not possible to distribute it while honoring both licenses.
And Godwin's Law has been demonstrated here. You lose.
50 • Freespire (by Anonymous on 2006-09-19 16:05:51 GMT from United States)
As #47 mentions, Freespire is pretty good, but does take painfully long to boot. And I do mean painfully long. They should either fix the booting time or make it be able to suspend by default.
It's also stuck with a lot of old versions of software. For example, its Firefox is at 1.5.0.4...which wouldn't be so bad except it won't upgrade past that, even with a root account. What have they done to Firefox so it doesn't actually contact mozilla.com anymore when you choose "Check for Updates..." from the Tool menu? I don't want to be a Freespire hater, but left a bad taste in my mouth.
Anyway, the real exciting thing for me is the Kanotix release candidates. Now that a 2006 Kanotix is almost here... I think it's about time for me to say a partial goodbyte to Windows.
51 • 49 • 46 Illegal, thus forking (by Beranger on 2006-09-19 16:34:16 GMT from Romania)
>> Illegal. Although I suspect that the CDDL is in line with the DFSG -
>> that has not been officially determined. I chose my words deliberatetly.
>> Cdrtools combines CDDL code with GPL code and those licenses -
>> whatever their respective merits - are mutually exclusive, creating
>> a legal conunudrum. It is not possible to distribute it while honoring
>> both licenses.
>> And Godwin's Law has been demonstrated here. You lose.
Only the binary is not redistributable in this case, because of GPL.
I'm sorry to say that (and only Joerg Schilling will agree with me), but in this particular situation, GPL is *harmful*, not CDDL, nor Joerg Schilling!
I don't lose anything. The humanity loses. Already, too much energy is lost in debates related with GPL (binary kernel modules; forks because of non-GPL licenses, etc.).
Don't tell me that Linux couldn't have existed if it weren't GPL'ed!
Apache is not under GPL and it *is* #1!
But please, let's not pollute this DWW, you may argue with me here:
http://beranger.org/index.php?article=1543
52 • Use the Linux installer (by Rykel on 2006-09-19 17:33:41 GMT from Singapore)
Instead of using RPMs only, why not use the official Linux installer (http://www.autopackage.org/packages) for user software?
Leave RPM for the distro maintainers to upgrade your system files, without them trying to create a distro version of every Linux program out there. (It is just impossible and impractical.)
If Linux distros adopts the Linux installer as the official Linux installer, every future Linux user simply download/install FavouriteProgram.package from the program website, like what the majority does in the world of Windows.
And the best part is: Anyone using the Linux installer can simply install his/her desired program WITHOUT Root Password! In other words, the Linux installer CAN install software into /HOME, rather than somewhere in the filesystem such /opt, /usr etc.
If I am honest to goodness, this is security at the highest level. Everything you install happens in the HOME folder.
Try Inkscape, AbiWord, GAIM, Mission Photo and other pioneers and see for yourself how you can now install these great programs as User, rather than Root.
Let my Linux users have CHOICE!
P/S. Imagine what Microsoft would be like, if it tried to create a Microsoft version of every single Windows program out there! LOL ... yet, this is exactly what Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora Core and basically all the popular Linux distros are trying to do... no wonder MANUALS and WIKIs have to be written pages after pages to teach newbies "how to" install Linux software...
53 • Plug for Puppy (by hiwayman on 2006-09-19 18:40:04 GMT from United States)
Puppy is a solid little distro with lots of advantages, and its rising again in the ratings. I don't usually nag Distrowatch, but why do you always use that obsolete old icon? They've had a new one for a while now...
54 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2006-09-19 20:14:08 GMT from United States)
#53: Puppy is cool, but I think your Puppy spam turns people off.
55 • Well said! (by 1c3d0g on 2006-09-20 01:40:17 GMT from Aruba)
I concur #54, the Puppy spamming is getting out of hand.
56 • 51 • 49 • 46 (by AC on 2006-09-20 03:31:54 GMT from United States)
>But please, let's not pollute this DWW, you may argue with me here:
I don't waste time debating people who evoke "Nazism" in discussions having nothing to do with them and who change their claim without acknowledging that their initial claim was incorrect. B'bye.
57 • 52 (by AC on 2006-09-20 03:51:01 GMT from United States)
>Instead of using RPMs only, why not use the official Linux installer (http://www.autopackage.org/packages) for user software?
Has Linus Torvalds announced that he endorses autopackage? Has RMS (although you called the OS "Linux")? If not, you have absolutely no business making such a claim as that autopackage is "official".
> If Linux distros adopts the Linux installer as the official Linux installer, every future Linux user simply download/install FavouriteProgram.package from the program website, like what the majority does in the world of Windows.
The fact that things are done a certain way with Windows is surely no selling point. This way of doing things might arguably be a big part of various MS problems, such as DLL hell and rampant malware.
>Let my Linux users have CHOICE!
No one is denying anyone the freedom to use autopackage if they so choose. Or Klik. Or whatever that thing is that Rox wants people to use. Or whatever else.
> P/S. Imagine what Microsoft would be like, if it tried to create a Microsoft version of every single Windows program out there!
What would it be like? I truly have absolutely no idea. Do you? So much is different in the Windows world, with licensing, etc., that for them to want to do it and for them to find a way to make it worth their while to do it would make things very different indeed, I am sure.
58 • RE: 46 & 51 (by Rölli Peikko on 2006-09-20 09:21:32 GMT from Finland)
If you don't like GPL or software licensed under its protection, just don't use it. No-one is forcing you. Just please try to refrain from calling other people Nazis if you disagree with them -- such name-calling is uncivil.
IMHO, GPL is doing an important job in trying to ensure that people can freely share with their friends and modify the software they use.
59 • Your comment on Mandriva in the Weekly News #169 (by Wolfgang "wobo" Bornath on 2006-09-20 13:44:40 GMT from Germany)
As a Mandriva user, deeply involved in community work, I'd like to thank you for the last paragraph of your comment on the upcoming release.
I haven't read much lately like this mixture of realistic acknowledgement of the current situation and hope for the things to come. You pointed out that Mandriva is not what it used to be and that the former king himself has to fight for a place on the Round Table. You also pointed out that this was mostly because of his own doings because the talent is still there. And last not least you pointed out that this former king can do it again - if he really tries.
Thanks for this "hitting the spot" comment.
60 • Mandriva 2007? (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-09-20 19:18:09 GMT from Italy)
Unfortunately I am finding RC2 extremely buggy for such a late stage of development: random freezes, trying in vain to disable services, problems with cups...
However I can see the potential once the bugs have been ironed out.
A non club member will not see the final for a couple of months.
Based on RC2 I wouldn't spend money on the boxed edition or on club membership. That is why I have always believed that the club business model as it is now is wrong. And that is one of the reasons why Mandriva is not the top linux desktop any longer, IMO.
61 • How to make a Lifeview FlyVIDEO 2000 TV-Card work in Linux : (by Caraibes on 2006-09-20 21:53:15 GMT from Dominican Republic)
I am quite satisfied that I made my TV-card work in my Blag box, so I posted a little how-to for other users who were just like me, lacking the proper information.
Here's the link :
http://forums.blagblagblag.org/viewtopic.php?p=16531#16531
62 • Re: Mandriva 2007? (by wobo on 2006-09-21 02:51:52 GMT from Germany)
You may have your opinion, but let's get the facts right:
1. Non club members will see the final's installation tree 2 weeks after the release. They'll see the free ISO images around end of October, 4-5 weeks after the release. Far from "a couple of months".
2. Nobody buys a box or a club membership based on a RC. You buy the box based on the final's quality as tested with the free edition. Or you buy the membership after you decide for yourself that you want to support Mandriva (based on various reasons).
3. The club helped Mandriva out of chapter 11 real fast and the club still generates an important part of Mandriva's revenue. It was and still is one of the most successful business models in the market. Go read the figures. Mandriva's position in user's ranking of desktop distributions has nothing at all to do with the club business model.
Everybody is free to have his/her own opinion but it should be based on facts, not on hearsay or rumours.
63 • Mandriva moving quickly toward final release (by agendelman on 2006-09-21 02:58:53 GMT from United States)
I'm amazaed at the furious pace at which bugs are being squashed at Mandriva. I'm running Sunna. It's a release candidate, but at Mandriva, release candidates are really betas. Just a few days ago I had to manually configure my mouse, cups wouldn't install, no streaming video in either firefox, konqueror, or seamonkey, and 3D acceleration and 3D desktop effects, which had been fine, stopped working.
With a few updates using urpmi and smart my wheelmouse and hpdeskjet are humming. Cups now loads without issue. We're all waiting for the flash update to the 9.0 series, but I found a partial workaround. Mplayer plugins let me enjoy streaming sound and video in all browsers. Nvidia proprietary drivers conflict with mesa and are not the way to go. For both nvidia and ati cards, use dkms from plf. Both dkms-nvidia-8774-1 and nvidia-8774-1 from plf are the current problem. I filed a bug at plf bugzilla yesterday. It was confirmed the same day, and plf is reporting a fix. I'll download and install the new versions as soon as they're available. Probably a matter of hours.
MDV 2007 has an attractive theme and looks formidable. It's configuration tools are second to none. My computer, linuxbox, is acting as a print and file server for several windows computers on a small home network. It was all set up with a few clicks of the mouse in Mandriva's marvelous Control Center without having to resort to the command line once. For an old timer suffering from geek burnout and fatigue, that was a wonderfull treat.
You don't have to buy a boxed set or be a club member to use Mandriva.99% of what you find in a boxed set is available on Mandriva's free public mirrors. The rest is available on plf mirrors. Now we're down to three or our rpms like java, flash, adobe etc. If you can't download an rpm, open it in konqueror and click to install, you shouldn't be allowed near a computer.
At the current pace, 2007 cooker will be good to go very soon.
64 • RE: #62 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-09-21 05:12:27 GMT from Italy)
"Everybody is free to have his/her own opinion but it should be based on facts, not on hearsay or rumours."
I don't believe that is the case here. I was a paying member many years ago for the first time, I have read countless complaints about club membership (right in the club forum), I have been testing 2007... And besides 4-5 weeks is not that different from a generic "couple of months"
65 • RE #64 (by wobo on 2006-09-21 07:41:52 GMT from Germany)
I was part of many of those discussions you mention. And the actual complaints which were not solved were not countless, they range somwhere between 30 and 40, all with the same reason: the way Mandriva dealt with the promised club updates for MDV2006. I will not enter that discussion here, there are 2 different opinions about it anyway.
But this has nothing to do with the ranking of Mandriva in the desktop survey or anywhere else. The number of people involved in the club is much too small to make a difference in this question and that some people are not content with the way they are treated as clubbies is not responsible for the overall downslide of Mandriva from the top 2 places of 2004/2005 to #6 or #7 in this years survey so far.
There are much more serious things like the 2006 desaster with Xorg and kat, the way Mandriva deals with updates, and the not existing or rare visibility of Mandriva in public. Bodnar here is a special fan of Mandriva's information policy! :)
Maybe the long release cycle is not for the typical easy-desktop user who was the main target of Mandriva so far. For this user a monthly feed of news and new versions is of the essence. He did not get that from Mandriva for a long time (nearly 1 year), so he turned to other pastures. His place was taken by other users who want a more reliable and steady way the distribution moves. But those people do not crowd around surveys. I'd make a bet, that if you could really count all user installations of Linux, you'd be surprised how different they are to those surveys.
Example: The click rate on this website here. In all my Mandrake/Mandriva life I haven't clicked more than 2 or 3 times on the Mandriva link but I visit this site at least once a week. I don't think that I am a total exception.
BTW: if taken seriously, 4-5 weeks is 1 month, not a couple of months. But that was a minor point, just one of those indifferences you can find everywhere. :)
This was my weekly allowance of written words, sorry, 'til next week! :)
wobo
66 • 30 day trial (by RoachBoy on 2006-09-21 10:12:33 GMT from Kenya)
A 30 day trial. What’s up with that? I wonder if Xandros have ever contemplated giving their software away for free? A popular gimmick in marketing is to sell something below cost in the hope that people will buy something else from you, often at a premium. It’s called the “loss-leader” strategy. However, it is one of the peculiarities of libre software that you can also develop a community around your loss-leader (Freespire, Fedora, OpenSuse, Mandriva Linux Free Edition) which may help to enhance the commercial product (Linspire, RHEL, NLD, Mandriva Club/Enterprise).
Commercial Linux distros may get a lot of flak from the Community, but there’s nothing wrong with earning an honest buck. Even the Bushy One himself is always reminding people of this. In fact, I think he’d be more concerned about whether Xandros is contributing code back to the community. Will Xandos ever create FreeXandros? Maybe, maybe not. Right now they seem happy to portray themselves as the system that offers Windows usability with Linux peace of mind - for a mere $79.99!
67 • 30 day trial (by pedcol on 2006-09-21 14:52:11 GMT from United States)
I don't think any commercial distro such as Linspire, Xandros, Linux XP Desktop, RedHat, Suse, Mandriva, etc. should even be mentioned or listed in distrowatch. Commercial distros should be able to advertise for themselves. Other distros such as ubuntu and it's forks, debian, gentoo, etc; there is the real spirit of linux and open source.
68 • Re 66 - 30 day Xandros trial (by rglk on 2006-09-21 15:20:58 GMT from United States)
"A 30 day trial. What’s up with that? I wonder if Xandros have ever contemplated giving their software away for free?"
They have not only contemplated it, they have done it. The Open Circulation Edition (OCE) is free and has been available for Xandros v.3 for one and a half years. An OCE v.4 is in the works and will be available soon.
The 30-day trial may just be a stopgap. I haven't tried it as I own XS 4 but I would think it's the full Xandros 4 Home Edition Premium, and after 30 days you simply lose your access to their updates server which is the only part of Xandros that requires activation. If my guess is correct, you could still use Xandros and use apt-get to install additional software, it just wouldn't come from their server.
Robert
69 • Re 67 (by Lanx on 2006-09-22 06:52:24 GMT from Germany)
Linspire, Xandros, RedHat, Suse, Mandriva, etc. all have free versions of their respective distro which everyone can download.
70 • Re 68 (by RoachBoy on 2006-09-22 12:56:58 GMT from Kenya)
You’re right rglk. Xandros do have a free version – OCE. However, it is my understanding, and I stand to be corrected, that you can’t compile packages on it as it lacks gcc or something of the sort. In other words it has been crippled so that you have to get hold of the commercial version. Perhaps as you say the 30-day trial version doesn’t prevent you from installing regular Debian packages and packages that you can install from source…
71 • RE: #70 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-09-22 19:09:51 GMT from Italy)
1) The kind of people who buy Xandros wouldn't even dream of compiling.
2)Debian compatibilty: it seems very poor, but I tried with testing, not stable.
I recommend everybody Freespire instead: it has much better Debian compatibility, you can get dev tools from CNR...(and personally I find it much better overall)
72 • DreamLinux (by Anonymous on 2006-09-22 20:35:08 GMT from United States)
I just tried the newly DreamLinux 2.1 yesterday. It's visually stunning. Beautiful! They clearly haven't a coherent vision.
But why would a newly released distro only include Firefox 1.5.0.1? Is that what Debian chugging along with or something? I don't get it.
73 • RE: #72 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-09-22 20:59:20 GMT from Italy)
"But why would a newly released distro only include Firefox 1.5.0.1? Is that what Debian chugging along with or something?"
Running Debian Sid right now: About Firefox: version 1.5.0.7
Why do some derivatives use very old software? I noticed it with Linux XP (Gnome 2.8.0???) and with Linpus Linux, which was being advertised yesterday (but at least that was released one year ago)
74 • Ooops... major type (by Anonymous on 2006-09-23 01:12:26 GMT from United States)
>DreamLinux 2.1 yesterday. It's visually stunning.
> Beautiful! They clearly haven't a coherent vision.
Ooops... I meant "they clearly HAVE a coherent vision". I made another type later too. It must be Friday.
75 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2006-09-23 01:14:43 GMT from United States)
Oh my... I can't type anything correctly today. I better just shut up. *hiding his head in shame*
76 • #67 (by 1c3d0g on 2006-09-23 03:22:48 GMT from Aruba)
That's ridiculous. FYI, it's Linspire, SUSE etc. who pay salaries for a lot of the Linux developers, who in turn program Gizmo, iFolder etc. If you have a problem with people who pay a minor monetary contribution to these excellent distro's, that's YOUR problem, not DistroWatch.
77 • Re 66 & 70 - 30 day Xandros trial (by rglk on 2006-09-23 04:02:25 GMT from United States)
Xandros OCE 4 isn't out yet, hence we can't discuss it.
Xandros OCE 3 is identical to the paid for version except that the CD burn speed of Xandros' own CD burning utility (which is part of the proprietory Xandros File Manager) has been reduced to 4x which renders it pretty useless. But plenty of people who use OCE 3 have installed k3b which works fine, at full burn speed. Also, with the free version you don't get Xandros' tech support but you can get very competent technical help in the Xandros User's Forum.
gcc is not part of the default install of Xandros 3 but you can easily install "C/C++ Development Tools" (which includes gcc v.3.3.4 & g++), "KDE Development Tools", kernel sources and kernel headers from Xandros repositories which are open to users of OCE. In fact, you can install everything from a standard Debian repository. I've installed more than a hundred packages from such a repository on Xandros servers (Xandros calls it "Debian unsupported site") without running into problems with them.
Since so many Debian packages are available under Xandros as binaries, one doesn't have to resort to compiling from source very often. I've installed perhaps two dozen programs that I've compiled from source, and I've run into other Xandros users who have compiled programs from source.
Robert
78 • "Commercial Offerings" (by Videoguy on 2006-09-23 16:42:03 GMT from United States)
Once again, thanks Robert, for clarifying the Xandros "cloud". Once again, the blurring of "free as in speach" and "free as in beer" creeps in to the discussion around here. Oh well.......
79 • Elive (by tom on 2006-09-24 14:44:49 GMT from United States)
Go Elive.
80 • LADISLAV (by MAX on 2006-09-24 16:15:53 GMT from Brazil)
Distrowatch is TOO brownish!!!!
We are geeks but we like a nice green and blue now and then.... ;)
Number of Comments: 80
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| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
PoliArch
PoliArch was an Italian GNU/Linux distribution containing a variety of tools designed to help with management, maintenance and recovery of computer systems. It was based on Arch Linux.
Status: Discontinued
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| 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.
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