 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 171, 2 October 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 40th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The unusually long development of Slackware Linux 11.0 continues with an ever growing changelog and more bug fixes. Will we see the final release this week? As Mandriva prepares to unveil its latest and greatest, some of the company's developers are found questioning the suitability of Linux for the desktop. Also in the news: Fedora quietly releases an unscheduled testing set of CD and DVD images of Fedora Core 6, Debian finds itself in a position of not being able to comply with the Mozilla trademark, and Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth talks about Dapper and the future of the project. A quick introduction to Instalinux.com is followed by a statistical titbit from our web logs, before we conclude the issue by awarding the September donation to Inkscape and Cape Linux Users Group. Happy reading!
Content:
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|
| Miscellaneous News |
 Those who follow the development of Slackware Linux 11.0 will no doubt agree: the upcoming version is an equivalent of a Caesarean birth - at least, by Slackware's own development standards. While the project's previous two stable releases were limited to one short beta test each, the "Current" branch seems to be going through endless levels of bug-fixing steps and package recompile stages. The recent flurry of security issues with OpenSSL, OpenSSH and Mozilla products did not help the matters. So the wait goes on, with no indication whether the current tree will become stable tomorrow or in three weeks.
| Version |
Release Date |
Beta/RC |
Days |
| Slackware 11.0 |
2006-10-?? |
5 |
49+ |
| Slackware 10.2 |
2005-09-15 |
1 |
6 |
| Slackware 10.1 |
2005-02-07 |
1 |
15 |
| Slackware 10.0 |
2004-06-23 |
2 |
7 |
| Slackware 9.1 |
2003-09-26 |
4 |
14 |
| Slackware 9.0 |
2003-03-18 |
3 |
15 |
|
Table 1: List of recent Slackware versions and their development times.
Of course, Slackware Linux has a reputation to defend. As an oldest surviving Linux distribution, it has always been considered the simplest, most transparent and most stable of them all. It is also extremely conservative; by reading the changelog, one gets an impression that Patrick Volkerding does not particularly welcome advances in the Linux kernel or the availability of more modern packages. It's a fact that Slackware remains the only major Linux distributions that keeps using the LILO boot loader, does not provide an alternative to the age-old Sendmail mail server, and still prefers the 2.4 kernel series - that's nearly three years after the first stable release of the 2.6 kernel!
And yet, this conservative approach is probably the most important feature of the distribution, especially appreciated by those old UNIX hands who do not care for learning new technologies, but would rather just run a worry-free setup on their server and desktop computers. In this respect, Slackware remains true to its roots. By providing a tried and tested distribution for those who value this approach, it has succeeded in maintaining a large group of dedicated followers who wouldn't consider switching to another distribution or operating system. Just take a look at the number of contributors mentioned in the Current ChangeLog for a proof that Slackware is alive and well.
A few more days, perhaps?
* * * * *
 You wouldn't expect something like this to happen at any time, let alone on the eve of Mandriva Linux 2007 release. Last week, two Mandriva developers went on record saying that "Linux is not ready for the desktop". In a web log post entitled Why I'll never use Linux for my main desktop, Vincent Danen concluded: "This kind of thing is precisely why, for me, Linux belongs on the server. Now if those kernel-developing idiots would get their act together and give us a 2.6 kernel that was a) stable and b) supported for more than a week, then I'd really be pleased." Another Mandriva developer, Fabrice Facorat, agreed. In a post called Linux ready for Desktop? Of course not!, he had this to say: "For me when you have control over the environment and the hardware, Linux is ready: think servers, workstations, thin clients, kiosks. However when you have no control on the hardware, Linux is not ready because it somewhat lacks flexibility."
There you have it, right from the horse's mouth! From two guys who have been working for a Linux company, developing a popular desktop Linux distribution, for years! Yes, that's right, Mandriva Linux is not ready for your desktop! Don't waste your money buying it!
One really has to wonder about the future of a company which happily asks Gaël Duval to leave, yet is quite pleased to keep developers who publicly hint that they consider Linus Torvalds, Alan Cox and other kernel developers "idiots"! A perfect pre-release PR, non?
* * * * *
 It looks like the developers of Fedora Core have decided to release an unscheduled test build of Fedora Core 6, labelled as "FC6 Pre-release (Test4)". This was in response to a rather large number of bugs found in Test3 and to do some last minute de-bugging before the final release, scheduled for 11 October. To save time, the CD and DVD images are only available from Fedora Project's BitTorrent server and will not be distributed to public FTP/HTTP mirrors. For more information please see these two mailing list posts by Will Woods: FC6 Pre-release (Test4) and FC6Pre images released.
* * * * *
 openSUSE, one of the most ardent sponsors and supporters of ReiserFS, is about to break with its past and say good bye to the popular file system: "We've been using ReiserFS as our default installation file system for the last 6 - 7 years now, and it's served us well in that time. Unfortunately, there are a number of problems with it, some purely technical, some more related to maintenance." This is a message by Jeff Mahoney from SUSE Labs. He goes on explaining why ReiserFS has fallen out of favour with the openSUSE developers and suggests that it be replaced with -- you've guessed it -- ext3. Read this web log post for a detailed list of reasons. Of the major distributions, Slackware Linux is now the only one that uses ReiserFS as its default root file system; will it follow openSUSE in reconsidering its file system strategy?
* * * * *
 Is Debian Weekly News in danger? Following a recent controversy over the funding of certain Debian developers, some disagreeing members of the Debian developer community continue to show signs of rebellion. In the latest issue of Debian Weekly News, Joey Schultze, the newsletter's editor, comments: "As Debian experiments with funding, the editor and main author of DWN is going to experiment with spending less time on Debian. Please understand that due to this there may be no future issues of DWN in the current form or that they will only be released less frequently." Still no signs of a compromise and an amicable resolution of the dispute?
On a separate note, the Debian project has now decided to rename the Firefox browser and other Mozilla products to different names to comply with the Mozilla Foundation's trademark policy. An excellent write-up on the controversy and its history is available in last week's edition of Linux Weekly News (subscribers only until Thursday).
* * * * *
 You might be getting tired of the endless string of news releases, articles and reports about Ubuntu and its founder, but if you can bear one more, then read this interview with Mark Shuttleworth, originally published in the September issue of Linux Format: "One of the things we've noticed is that the size of our community doubles from release to release - which means we get bug reports about things we never used to get bug reports about, because people are now using Ubuntu in ways they never used to use it. So that continually pushes the edges of the envelope. We're going to have to grow our development community to keep up with that." The South African entrepreneur also touches on the subjects of Ubuntu artwork, the growing number of sister projects, competition from other distributions, proprietary software, future of Ubuntu, Easter eggs in Dapper, and many other popular topics.
|
| Web Sites |
Instalinux.com
Chris Slater has sent us a short summary of Installinux.com, a web site he created with an idea to design a unified way of installing a number of popular Linux distributions:
"No matter what distribution of Linux you choose to try out, the first step is usually downloading one or more 700 MB ISO images and burning them to a CD. Instalinux has a better option. Using the great tools available in the open source LinuxCOE project, we've created a slick tool that not only minimizes the initial download, but performs a 'hands-free' install.
It's pretty simple. First, you pick which distribution you want (the choices right now are Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Debian and CentOS, with a few versions of each and the option to install for i386 or x86_64). From there, you walk through a few more steps, picking a network mirror to install from, setting your time zone, picking packages to install (in some cases), and setting an initial - and temporary, we hope - root password.
Click 'Go for it!' and the system starts assembling your custom ISO image. The images are less than 30 MB, which makes them an easy download. Once you burn that to a CD, you put it in your system, boot from it, and type install at the prompt. Then you go get a coffee, or some other beverage and come back in a little while to a system that's built and ready to go.
The site is free for anyone to use. We mostly put it out there as a showcase for the awesome work the LinuxCOE folks have done - though the ads do help to cover hosting and such. If you have any feedback, please send an email to chris at instalinux.com.
Enjoy!"
An interesting idea. Have any of our readers tried Instalinux? If so, what are your experiences? Would you recommend it to others? Please discuss below.
|
| Statistics |
United States versus European Union
Although DistroWatch tries to be as international a web site as possible, the truth is that the majority of our visitors -- that's almost three quarters of you -- come from either the United States or the European Union. In fact, during the 6 months' period between 1 April and 30 September 2006, we recorded a total of 13,758,107 visits on our main page, of which 5,246,452 (38.1%) visits were from readers located in the United States, while 4,961,219 (36.1%) were visits from readers residing in one of the 25 countries of the European Union. Just over a quarter of all visitors came from outside these two regions.
The following table ranks the 25 most visited distribution-related pages on DistroWatch by readers located in the United States and the European Union. Although the differences are not significant, it is interesting to note that our European readers tend to visit the Ubuntu, Mandriva, Debian, Zenwalk and Arch pages more often than their US counterparts, while the PCLinuxOS, CentOS, Puppy, Xandros and Freespire pages are able to draw noticeably more interest in the USA then in Europe.
| USA |
|---|
| Rank |
Distribution |
Visits |
Percent |
| 1 |
Ubuntu |
103,127 |
7.78% |
| 2 |
openSUSE |
76,442 |
5.77% |
| 3 |
Fedora |
54,586 |
4.12% |
| 4 |
SimplyMEPIS |
46,916 |
3.54% |
| 5 |
Damn Small |
37,621 |
2.84% |
| 6 |
PCLinuxOS |
37,530 |
2.83% |
| 7 |
Mandriva |
36,722 |
2.77% |
| 8 |
KNOPPIX |
31,531 |
2.38% |
| 9 |
Debian |
29,086 |
2.19% |
| 10 |
Gentoo |
26,005 |
1.96% |
| 11 |
Slackware |
25,334 |
1.91% |
| 12 |
FreeBSD |
21,977 |
1.66% |
| 13 |
CentOS |
20,071 |
1.51% |
| 14 |
Puppy |
19,860 |
1.50% |
| 15 |
Kubuntu |
19,331 |
1.46% |
| 16 |
Xandros |
18,605 |
1.40% |
| 17 |
Zenwalk |
17,008 |
1.28% |
| 18 |
SLAX |
16,987 |
1.28% |
| 19 |
Xubuntu |
16,476 |
1.24% |
| 20 |
VectorLinux |
14,601 |
1.10% |
| 21 |
Freespire |
13,207 |
1.00% |
| 22 |
PC-BSD |
13,080 |
0.99% |
| 23 |
KANOTIX |
13,043 |
0.98% |
| 24 |
SabayonLinux |
11,535 |
0.87% |
| 25 |
GParted |
10,891 |
0.82% |
|
| EU-25 |
|---|
| Rank |
Distribution |
Visits |
Percent |
| 1 |
Ubuntu |
139,054 |
8.12% |
| 2 |
openSUSE |
96,258 |
5.62% |
| 3 |
Fedora |
61,320 |
3.58% |
| 4 |
SimplyMEPIS |
55,027 |
3.21% |
| 5 |
Mandriva |
50,606 |
2.95% |
| 6 |
Debian |
45,107 |
2.63% |
| 7 |
Damn Small |
44,342 |
2.59% |
| 8 |
PCLinuxOS |
39,142 |
2.28% |
| 9 |
Gentoo |
34,644 |
2.02% |
| 10 |
Slackware |
32,991 |
1.93% |
| 11 |
KNOPPIX |
32,222 |
1.88% |
| 12 |
Kubuntu |
30,863 |
1.80% |
| 13 |
Zenwalk |
26,194 |
1.53% |
| 14 |
FreeBSD |
25,514 |
1.49% |
| 15 |
Xubuntu |
25,262 |
1.47% |
| 16 |
CentOS |
22,128 |
1.29% |
| 17 |
KANOTIX |
21,456 |
1.25% |
| 18 |
SLAX |
21,409 |
1.25% |
| 19 |
Puppy |
20,569 |
1.20% |
| 20 |
Arch |
17,917 |
1.05% |
| 21 |
VectorLinux |
17,897 |
1.04% |
| 22 |
SabayonLinux |
17,081 |
1.00% |
| 23 |
Xandros |
16,789 |
0.98% |
| 24 |
PC-BSD |
14,578 |
0.85% |
| 25 |
GeeXboX |
13,055 |
0.76% |
|
Table 2: Top 25 most visited distro pages by readers in USA and EU.
Disclaimer: The origin of visitors is generated by using Maxmind's GeoLite Country database, which claims 97% accuracy of its data. As always, please don't take the data too seriously. They are simply provided as an indicator of interest in DistroWatch (and, by extension, in Linux and other open source operating systems) in various countries, but they certainly don't represent physical installations or distribution downloads.
|
| Released Last Week |
SAM Linux Desktop 2006-3
A new version of the PCLinuxOS-based SAM Linux Desktop has been released: "SAM 2006-3 is ready for the public. Again based on PCLinuxOS software and XFce 4.3.90.2, SAM offers you a complete desktop environment for your older hardware. With more than 1,000 packages it's smaller than the previous version, but now the complete OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 is back on the live CD with full support for English and German languages. A new 'welcome' dialog introduces you to the usage of the desktop and gives you direct access to the Internet connection wizard and installation tool. The new installation tool, an enhanced version of Mandriva's Draklive Install, speeds up the installation time even on older systems." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
Ubuntu Christian Edition 1.3
A new version of Ubuntu Christian Edition has been released: "We have just released Ubuntu Christian Edition v1.3. There have been some changes made to the web content filtering. The Firefox proxy settings have been 'locked down' to prevent users from bypassing the filtering. Three new programs have been added to this release. They include Planner project scheduler, Scribus desktop publisher, and Nvu web authoring system. Three games have also been added. They include Frozen Bubble, Breakout, and Sudoku. These were added by user request. Other changes include the addition of wallpapers provided by CarriedCross.org, new Usplash and Bootsplash, customized default Firefox homepage and bookmarks, some minor graphical adjustments, and a minor bug fix in the Ubuntu CE Installer." The release announcement.
Rocks Cluster Distribution 4.2.1
Rocks Cluster Distribution has been updated to version 4.2.1: "Rocks v4.2.1 is released for i386 and x86_64 CPU architectures. This is a maintenance release to Rocks v4.2 which contains bug fixes and usability enhancements." New features in this version include the following: "During Roll selection, the disk ID for CD/DVD-based rolls is displayed under the 'Selected Rolls'; during a front-end install, the IP settings that are provided on the first text-based screen are used as defaults for the graphical screens; minimum memory requirement for compute nodes has been reduced to 512 MB; Bio Roll: Glimmer source and GROMACS v3.3.1 is added and compiled with MPICH support." More details can be found in the release announcement.
Cross Linux From Scratch 1.0.0
Jeremy Utley has announced the release of Cross Linux From Scratch (CLFS) 1.0.0, a book that teaches how to make a cross-compiler and the necessary tools to build a basic system on a different architecture: "The CLFS Development team is pleased to announce the final release of CLFS 1.0.0, code-name 'Bender'. This release features Glibc 2.4, GCC 4.1.1, Binutils 2.17, and supports the x86, x86-64, SPARC, PowerPC, PPC64, MIPS, MIPS64, and Alpha, including multilib on those architectures that support it. Cross-building is also supported, even from non-Linux host systems such as Solaris, *BSD, and OS X." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
redWall Firewall 2.2.1
A major new version of redWall Firewall has been released. Unlike the 0.x and 1.x series, which were based on Red Hat Linux, the new version is now built from Gentoo. From the release announcement: "redWall Firewall version 2.2.1 has been released and is available for download. Major changes include: kernel 2.6.17.1; udev device management; Unionfs-based configuration and data 'management'; Unionfs-based root file system if enabled using 'union_root' as kernel boot parameter; completely rewritten save-config and restore-config mechanism; configurations sent by email are now 'pre-formated' to be put on a floppy and work right away if booted from that floppy; hard disk install script now supports 'USB Disk installs'; a 'maintenance' menu has been implemented during boot...."
SabayonLinux 3.0 "miniEdition"
Following the recent DVD release of SabayonLinux 3.0, its smaller cousin, called "miniEdition", is now also out: "SabayonLinux 3.0 miniEdition is the CD release of the latest SabayonLinux x86/x86-64 DVD. New features and bug fixes since 3.0 DVD: extraordinary AIGLX support thanks to NVIDIA 1.0-9625 beta drivers, Beryl and Emerald pre-release; 2.6.18 kernel; r1000 Ethernet device support; added VIA Technologies graphics cards automatic configuration; ATI Drivers 8.29.6; fixed a library problem that prevented most open source graphics drivers to work properly with DRI enabled; added Konversation 1.0; updated Gwenview to 1.4.0; installer - many bugs fixed and added support of AIGLX." The release announcement.
PUD GNU/Linux 0.4.6.6
PUD GNU/Linux, an Ubuntu-based mini-distribution with the XFce desktop and support for traditional Chinese, has been upgraded to version 0.4.6.6: "We are glad to announce the release of PUD v0.4.6.6. New features: Squashfs 3.1 with LZMA algorithm; Ultimate - because you can install PUD on an USB drive, we've launched a whole new branch called 'Ultimate, this 256MB edition of PUD contains additional applications like OpenOffice.org, GnomeBaker, Firestarter, GParted; boot entire CD to RAM (experimental); upgraded plugin system - Opt-Get now uses a more proper way to handle Unionfs, the plugins compressed in Squashfs, and you can create a plugin within a command." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
UHU-Linux 2.0
The UHU-Linux project has announced the immediate availability of UHU-Linux 2.0, an independently developed Hungarian distribution for home and office use. According to the release announcement (in Hungarian), the project's fourth stable release listens to the code name "Igen", and comes either as a single-CD desktop distribution with GNOME, or a DVD containing the complete tree of UHU-Linux packages and their source codes. The main new feature of this release is transition to the UTF-8 character encoding, supporting central European languages. Other notable new features include improved network handling, automatic mounting of external storage devices, and new keytable selection procedure. UHU-Linux 2.0 also provides many up-to-date software packages, such as Linux kernel 2.6.17, X.Org 7.1, GNOME 2.14 and KDE 3.5.3.
UHU-Linux 2.0:
(full image size: 1,755kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
BLAG Linux And GNU 50002
An updated version of BLAG Linux And GNU, build 50002, was released earlier this week: "The second update to the Fedora Core 5 based, single-CD, 100% Free distribution has been released. Highlights for this release are the latest kernel 2.6.17, the 'promotion' of BitlBee (an IRC to other chat networks gateway application) and Irssi (a terminal-based IRC client) from the repository onto the main CD, and updates to such major packages as Firefox 1.5.0.7, with BLAG's unique set of activist and independent media bookmarks), GIMP 2.2.13, Inkscape 0.44.1, Scribus 1.2.5, Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 and XChat 2.6.6. BLAG continues to have range of tools and software for the desktop user, media activist and those searching for the properly 'free' GNU/Linux experience. This includes BLASTERISK - the free BLAG telephone service for Free Software users, developers and Indymedia activists." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
September 2006 donation: Inkscape US$350.00, Cape Linux Users Group US$130
Continuing the DistroWatch.com donations programme, we are pleased to announce that the recipients of our September 2006 donation are Inkscape (US$350) and Cape Linux Users Group, Cape Town, South Africa (R1,000).
Inkscape is a relatively new applications on the open source software scene, but it is a much needed one - an excellent vector drawing package similar to some of the expensive proprietary software suites available on Windows: "Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Inkscape's main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards."
The default user interface of Inkscape 0.44
The second donation goes to the Cape Linux Users Group (CLUG) in Cape Town, South Africa. The group recently asked for donations to cover the cost of taking part in Futurex, a popular exhibition and conference for Information Technology specialists in South Africa. It was Cape Town where your DistroWatch maintainer first installed and took early tentative steps in Linux, hence a somewhat personal reason for this donation. The CLUG donations call was a huge success - although the group needed to raise only about R10,000 (US$1,293), the fund-raising effort generated more then twice the required amount, proving that many companies and individuals see a great value in promoting the use of alternative operating systems in the country.
As always, the monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch, which allocates 10% of its advertising revenue, and three online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - LinuxISO.co.uk and LinuxCD.org and OSDisc.com. The three CD/DVD vendors contributed US$50.00 each towards this month's donations to Inkscape and Cape Linux Users Group.
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
Since the launch of the DistroWatch Donations Programme in March 2004, we have donated a total of US$10,130 to various open source software projects.
* * * * *
|
New distributions added to waiting list
- Sauver. Sauver is a new Slackware-based live CD designed for file recovery tasks.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
And that concludes our latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next issue will be published on Monday, 9 October 2006. Until then,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Full list of all issues |
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ASPLinux was Russian company developing ASPLinux distribution and providing a wide range of professional services such as porting existing applications to Linux from other OS, development of embedded GNU/Linux solutions for custom hardware platforms such as consumer electronic devices, including porting GNU/Linux OS itself if needed, software development for GNU/Linux, technical support, consulting, training. In March 2001 ASPLinux and Black Cat Linux Team, developers of the popular in Russia and CIS Linux distrubution, merged. ASPLinux company headquarters are located in Moscow.
Status: Discontinued
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