 DistroWatch Weekly |
| 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) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • GoblinX Premium 2007.1 Released (by John Doe on 2007-04-02 11:44:46 GMT from Brazil)
The GoblinX Premium 2007.1 is released.
The special edition created to be the main operating system of the goblin fan, our O.S. Replacement, starts the second generation of the distribution, full of news, special features and upgrades.
http://www.goblinx.com.br/en/index_news.htm
2 • Webconverger (by Kai Hendry on 2007-04-02 11:47:05 GMT from United Kingdom)
I wrote to you last week about a Webconverger beta release. Did you receive my mail?
Best wishes,
3 • Less Releases Better Distro (by John Doe on 2007-04-02 11:48:05 GMT from Brazil)
"On the negative side, PCLinuxOS lacks any form of roadmap or release goals. Despite the growing community involvement in the project, most development and decision-making remains in the hands of Texstar who tends to be on the conservative side when judging the stability of a release. As a result, the development process of PCLinuxOS tends to be long and a new version is not released until all known bugs are solved. There are currently no plans for a 64-bit edition of PCLinuxOS."
In my personal opinion, this is good. As a Slackware user I'm always in favor of slow down releases... some distros only do releases to get more media.
4 • Debian Etch and glibc (by Anonymous Penguin on 2007-04-02 11:49:35 GMT from Italy)
Wondering if glibc can be safely upgraded to a more recent version after the release.
5 • Dell selling Linux PCs (by kanishka on 2007-04-02 11:53:38 GMT from Italy)
Strange you didn't mention this important news: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8436091466.html
Anyway, I always look forward to every issue of DWW!
6 • About the top10 (by Caraibes on 2007-04-02 12:01:43 GMT from Dominican Republic)
I am glad you gave the donation to CentOS, it highly deserves it !
I enjoy your piece on the controversial nomination of PCLOS/Mepis on the top 10... I am one of those who don't really agree, but this is by no mean a disrespect to Warren and Tex, as they are doing a great job. It is just my opinion.
If you include PCLOS/Mepis, then you might as well include CentOS, Zenwalk, Vector and Puppy Linux... They are great distros too !
My view is that the top 10 should be "base distro" only (with the exception of Ubuntu, because it is so big...).
Also PCLOS/Mepis don't even offer the choice to install in another language than english, and one has to tweak hard to install another language for the system.
But no offense to the PCLOS/Mepis communities, both distros are great, and very important... They are now in the top 10, so be it...
7 • Dell Linux (by Bryan on 2007-04-02 12:06:20 GMT from United States)
There has been so much back and forth talk about Dell and desktop linux for the masses. It will become real news once it happens.
Personally, I am hoping they go with ubuntu, or a debian-based system. Anything would be good if they work towards getting any necessary drivers integrated into the basic linux kernel, instead of binary blobs stuck on to the OS.
8 • MEPIS (by CeVO on 2007-04-02 12:17:57 GMT from Spain)
Thanks for mentioning MEPIS as one of the top 10 distros. I would like to expand a bit on MEPIS features that may be interesting for readers:
1. MEPIS is going to be issued at least in spanish and french shortly after 6.5 final sees the light. This has been announced in the podcast.
2. MEPIS 6.5 is based on the Dapper pools, but holds quite a lot of new versions and updates (Xorg 7.1, Beryl, Firefox 2.0.3, Amarok 1.4.4...). In the words of Warren, they have 'taken the Dapper pools as far as possible'. So MEPIS is definitely a distro in its own right. Besides, it has a number of extra tools that allow GRUB restore, X config restore, KDE settings restore and more, which is great for getting a somehow borked system up and running again
3. MEPIS Live CD can be transferred to a bootable USB stick. It also allows you to have your homedir on a USB stick, so with the live CD you have your own environment everywhere
4. Last but not least: the MEPIS installer has great support for the Mactel. Where other distros may wreak havoc on a Mac due to OSX issues, MEPIS has eliminated possible install errors.
I don't really understand the word 'roadmap'. What is the roadmap of Suse? Of Debian? Of the Linux kernel? MEPIS is committed to releasing stable, user friendly distros with components that work together really well. The reason not to have an Edgy based MEPIS version is simple: the components were not stable enough. Warren is a kernel expert, and he knows when a kernel can be considered stable or not. If it isn't, he will not use it. That is one of the reasons that MEPIS has such great hardware support and stability.
9 • Re:6 (by digger on 2007-04-02 12:23:02 GMT from United States)
So far as I know, Puppy Linux has been independantly developed from scratch by Barry Kauler and others, rather than being a clone or even a fork.
10 • Re:9 Puppy (by Caraibes on 2007-04-02 12:31:03 GMT from Dominican Republic)
I agree, hence Puppy should have more rights to be in the top 10 than PCLOS/Mepis !
11 • About PcLinuxOS (by 20.100 on 2007-04-02 12:35:33 GMT from France)
The biggest drawback of pclinux is that it is only available in English.
I don't understand why, as their mandriva base have a lot of languages.
12 • PCLinuxOS (by flebber on 2007-04-02 12:40:43 GMT from Australia)
If PClinuxos/Mepis should not be in the top ten then clerly Ubuntu couldn't be there either.
One has to wonder however why PClinuxOS is so much more popular than Mandriva. Maybe it is because Mandriva shipped its last edition with known bugs which were mentioned in nearly every review of it.
A stable release, a very clear and inviting user community, easy access to information configuration, wiki and community magazine maybe these are some reasons PClinuxOS is a successful rewrap of Mandriva.
And if PClinuxOS is more successful than the distribution it is based on, why don't Mandriva pay any attention and borrow some of the key concepts that is making PClinuxOS second only in recent months to Ubuntu.
If Texstar has a price maybe Mandriva should pay it.
13 • mepis and pclinuxos (by random guy at 2007-04-02 12:51:16 GMT from United States)
2 great distros, i am glad to see tehm on the top 10 list, but i am unhappy about seeing them above some of the original distros like gentoo. but i guess it is all ok since they are more popular.
i dont like puppy much, i dont think it should be up there. they have some good ideas but it isnt something i would recommend to anymore at all.
14 • Small is beautiful (RE 10). (by dbrion on 2007-04-02 12:52:01 GMT from France)
What about DSL? I found a smaller memory print than with puppy (this with less hype), so I did not keep puppy. It is the smallest memory print I ever found, and it is sometimes annoying to have invading/ ressource consuming desktops (no RAM left for the user, who bought the hardware, everything to Me KDE/ Gnome...).
Having a choice between low/huge memory prints, short/ long release cycles, bad/good quality assurance and no/some user friendliness (the latter 3 points are IMO equivalent in the long term) seems a good idea...
15 • Mepis (by arthurhlevine on 2007-04-02 13:14:58 GMT from United States)
I have been running SimplyMepis6 six it was released, and the SimplyMepis3.4something (from which my wife refuses to upgrade her PC to SM6) her before that.
I am far from being a geek (pro or amateur) though I do DL and burn several more than several distro's every month in my never ending quest for something "better", simpler, more stable, and even easier to figure out how to use than the SM6 I am running.
My personal top five, so far, SM6, Vector5.8, Knoppix5.1, GoblinX, and maybe Kubuntu
Ladislav, IMNSHO you got it right regarding SM6 when you wrote:
"Possible alternatives: None"
That about sums it up, Unless you disagree, in which case, near as I can tell anyway, you are wrong. But even though you might disagree with my choices, it is a good thing to try lots and find the one/ones that best suit your personal learning/thinking/using wants and requirements best.
Choice is a very good thing....
Thanks for another great issue....
16 • Why New Versions all the time (by Serge Matovic on 2007-04-02 13:18:18 GMT from Canada)
Well, this is most probably a very stupid question/comment, but for the light of me I cannot see the need for this constant obsession with pushing new versions (with new bugs replacing the fixed ones) of distros out the door all the time. Yes I'm aware that this "dynamicism" helps develop new stuff, but isn't there a danger that, at least some non-geek Linux users are getting tired of constantly "fiddling" with their distros, just to be able to use them to do their daily stuff on the computer?
17 • What about freedom (by Magic Banana on 2007-04-02 13:20:37 GMT from France)
I would like to find among the "cons" of Mepis and PCLinuxOS, the total ignorance of the Free Software Philosophy. Technical advantages are secondary.
18 • MEPIS Possible alternative; PCLOS key principles (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 13:21:03 GMT from Romania)
> MEPIS Possible alternatives: None
Maybe the death :-J
> why don't Mandriva pay any attention and borrow some of the
> key concepts that is making PClinuxOS second only
> in recent months to Ubuntu.
PCLOS key principles:
-- "don't release often";
-- "when you release, don't bring major changes";
-- maintain a kid-like community spirit: this way, IT professionals won't use PCLOS, unless they're really young and restless :)
-- like I said, don't have a release plan ("it is ready when it's done");
-- don't bother for providing 70 languages;
...
19 • Diversity of timescales is good (by Mark South on 2007-04-02 13:29:55 GMT from Switzerland)
We often say here in DistroWatch Weekly that it's great there is such a diversity of Linux distros, and it's true. There are distros for all kinds of specialities, for different desktop or server uses, system recovery, security, etc. All kinds of emphases are accomodated.
What seems to be forgotten quite often is that there should be diversity of development speed as well. It's great that there are distros releasing new versions every month, and it's equally great that some distros give us the option of more heavily tested kernels and software that break quite slowly as the system evolves. Choice is a great thing about Linux, let's celebrate it!
A couple of other comments, too:
It would seem that Sidux is a very viable alternative to Mepis, and has many of the same design goals. Before that, Knoppix always seemed like Mepis's closest competitor.
While I am an admirer of Puppy, the claim that it was built entirely from scratch is not exactly true. Examination of the Puppy startup scripts show clear evidence that the original distro was something Slackware based (maybe Vector) that was cut down at the beginning in order to form the basis for Puppy.
Cheers to Ladislav for DWW and to all my fellow DWW readers. May your uptimes always be long!
20 • Top 10 and derivative distributions (by Felix Pleşoianu on 2007-04-02 13:30:28 GMT from Romania)
I don't see what the problem is with having derivative distributions in the Top 10. After all, the whole point of a top is that whatever is more popular climbs the highest, regardless of other considerations.
And why should be derivative distributions be relegated to the background? They build on existing foundations, true, but they add real value to those foundations - usually easier installation and more up-to-date software. I don't know about other people, but I prize those qualities.
21 • Absolute the customized Slackware distribution (by DC on 2007-04-02 13:34:26 GMT from Germany)
Check it out here: http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/index.html and please list at distrowatch. It's Slackware 11 + rox, icewm,fluxbox and some custom tools.
22 • Debian (by hikmahtiar on 2007-04-02 13:48:03 GMT from Indonesia)
Well I'm curious what architechture will going to drop from debian if they planning to use modern glibc e.g. glibc 2.5?
23 • Japanese Prime Minister (by BA on 2007-04-02 13:52:07 GMT from United States)
He's using an old Titanium Powerbook G4, not a Macbook or a Macbook Pro for that matter. ;)
24 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 14:01:40 GMT from United States)
This weekly issue snuck in something deadly wrong about Arch.
Here is the quote--
"In this way, Arch is comparable to Slackware Linux, except that it has more powerful package management, much better documentation and a lot more software available for installation."
Better documentation eh?
Let me think, which distro has a nearly 300 page manual on how to use linux? Oh yeah that's right, it's Slackware. Which one has detailed instructions and comments in the installer? Oh yeah that's right it's Slackware. Which distro started with the cleanly written bsd init scripts with detailed comments that make it easy to read and edit? That's right, it's Slackware. Which distro is known for including full documentation, headers, and development libraries? Oh yeah that's right it's Slackware.
Arch is a very nice distro, but it's documentation doesn't come remotely close to surpassing Slackware!
" If you expect your distribution to work out of the box a few minutes after inserting the installation CD, then this distribution is not for you. But if you enjoy having control over your operating system and don't mind editing configuration files in Vim, then Arch Linux is an interesting alternative to try."
This is also wrong, it will work after you install it. You won't have a desktop, which is different. Easily done, go as root "pacman -Syu;pacman -S kde/gnome/xfce" (pick whatever you want). And you don't have to edit config files with vim! You can edit them with nano. And usually you only have to make minor edits to one or two files, it's not a big deal.
25 • (Not quite so) old glibc in Debian Etch (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 14:07:13 GMT from Germany)
"It's a well-known fact that the stable releases of Debian GNU/Linux are better known for stability than cutting-edge packages. Even so, some readers might wonder why the upcoming release (version 4.0, code name "Etch") will ship with the 3+-year old glibc 2.3 series, instead of the more recent versions 2.4 or 2.5."
Debian Etch ships with glibc version 2.3.6 that was released in 03-Nov-2005 -- that is, a year and a half ago. The current Ubuntu LTS (Dapper) also ships with glibc 2.3.6, and so does the latest Mepis.
Nevertheless, Etch brings Debian back among the modern distros. Sarge was way too outdated when it came out. Etch is more up-to-date, although the delay of four months has already taken its toll. But Etch will be a much better launchpad for Lenny than Sarge was for Etch. Hopefully we'll see the Etch release announcement in next week's DWW! :)
26 • Evolution of Linux (by davemc on 2007-04-02 14:12:50 GMT from United States)
Linux is evolving! The logic of remaining in an unchanging, or slowly advancing state is flawed, as has been unquestionably proven by Distro's such as Sabayon, PCLos, Mepis, and now Mint. The older base distros (Gentoo, Debian, SuSe) better pick up the pace by 100 fold or be left behind with the old folks who will still maintain them, and then slowly die away as the new generation of Linux guru's continue to expand Linux into newer arena's. But this is the way the world works -- Keep up, or stay ahead of the competition or die!.. Or do you really believe that most folks who actually use Linux on a day to day basis on thier desktop will be satisfied with the "no proprietary stuff on my distro" line of reasoning that is currently killing the older distro's? HAH! Wake up!
27 • For those who bash Puppy (by davemc on 2007-04-02 14:29:13 GMT from United States)
Barry Kauler has done what very very few could ever claim -- Create his own distro from scratch! Not just that, but a simply outstanding distro to boot with an incredibly vibrant community. Distro's like Puppy and DSL must have thier place on the list because they approach Linux with an entirely different philosophy and one that is extremely important -- functionality without the bloat! Puppy comes with a complete set of wizards, even including a "wizard wizard" which makes setups easier than just about any other bloated distro that exists today and both DSL and puppy reside in RAM completely. Those two are pretty much the only distro's im aware of that can breathe life back into your old 386 machine that was growing cobwebs, and do it well! And for you Debian cronies, DSL gets its roots from there too. The major differences being that Barry got it right with Puppy so things like youtube and DVD's work "out of the box" with no fiddling required by the user!
28 • Dreamlinux is steps ahead (by ema on 2007-04-02 14:36:10 GMT from Italy)
What I'm seing around really new,fast and stable is Dreamlinux!
This is an example how to mix in a innovative way a solid base like debian and with simple,light,fast xfce, adding a great design :-)
Give a try!
Ciao
29 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 14:38:28 GMT from United States)
"it's hard to overlook the fact that both MEPIS Linux and PCLinuxOS have been climbing steadily in our Page Hit Ranking statistics over the last few years."
It's easy to overlook, since the fanbois are artificially boosting them. Remember Yoper a couple years ago? Putting PCLOS in the top ten only adds to the abundant confusion. There's already too much misinformation and badly formed pre-conceptions floating around. Look at "davemc's" post, for example. He's so far gone, he's lost. Completely divorced from reality.
30 • Arch Linux Release (by Faust on 2007-04-02 14:43:56 GMT from United States)
"then be warned that the installation procedure and subsequent system configuration are equally technical and require much documentation reading and file editing before it can be turned into a nice desktop system."
Well, I don't know if I should agree or dis-agree. For one you make it seem as if "reading" is hard. And comparing it to slackware is well .. no. Honestly I feel it's more like a *BSD system. Due to it uses rc.d and has either binary or source pkgs.
Futhermore you can get a good clean system running any where from 25-45 mins depending on your knowledge of your hardware. And for the most part things tend to work out of the box as long as you TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN. Seems that the linux community is taking the "Just Works" way when it DOESN'T JUST WORK. Not even for MS. But hey learning isnt cool it seems.
31 • Top 10 (by voislav on 2007-04-02 14:45:44 GMT from Canada)
It's kind of funny this talk of original distributions. If you go far enough how many distros started from scratch and not as a fork? You'd have trouble compiling the Top 5 let alone Top 10. So discriminating agains the late arrivals like MEPIS and PClinuxOS is hypocritical. The main criteria for originality should be whether the distro produces and maintains its own package pool, which both of these do. Given time, they are likely to evolve further and further from their parent distros,
I found both of these to delightful, kind of disappointed that everything worked out of the box (I do like to tinker a bit), even in the beta/test stage. This is really the way of the future for Linux, where some bleeding edge is sacrificed for stability and usability. Ubuntu and Mandriva should really take notice, because MEPIS and PClinuxOS have the polish that is sometimes lacking in their parent distros.
32 • Re: 16 (Why New Versions all the time) (by Lucas Goss on 2007-04-02 15:02:52 GMT from United States)
> ... but for the light of me I cannot see the need for this constant obsession
> with pushing new versions (with new bugs replacing the fixed ones)
> of distros out the door all the time.
Sometimes new versions fix broken features, add simpler interfaces, add more functionality, add better integration, less memory use...
While bug fixes are released by distributions, they are usually only critical bug fixes, as in security problems. Sometimes there can be bugs in programs that are annoying or maybe even mess up files or freeze the computer that aren't considered severe enough to warrant a bug fix release (even though there are software bugs in the program). These bugs are fixed in the new version of the program, while new features are also added (sometimes being sorely needed, while other times may be frivolous). And new features always have the chance of adding bugs.
I think this is just one of those things about how the whole process is a little goofed up. I remember waiting for like 5 months for Firefox 2 (and I even upgraded my distro before it was final) because some pages and things didn't work correctly in Firefox 1. I've had similar problems in waiting for other programs. I've sent error reports to developers, and to beta test their new release I had to do the whole ./configure and make process. which isn't too bad for me, I'm a developer, but sometimes dependencies and setting up the whole configure process can be a pain as opposed to just downloading an executable and running it. Then I finish beta testing and not long after a new version is released. Great I'll just go to my repository... DOH!!! Won't be upgraded till new distro release... 5 months later!?!?
33 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 15:13:05 GMT from United States)
Etch is not outdated. I have Iceweasel 2.0.0.2 - ask what users of other distros have. The same is true of most packages on my system. They are as up-to-date as the stability requirements will allow, which means much of the software I use has been updated in the last few weeks if there was a new version released.
"I challenge you to travel to Huston and Morgantown, meet with Texstar and Warren Woodford, and tell them that, in their faces. Will you be able to do it?"
How big are they? What is their weight, height, and age? Some information about their background would be nice. Do they have military experience? Any special martial arts training? I can't answer the question without more information.
34 • about suse roadmap (by error corection on 2007-04-02 15:21:16 GMT from Latvia)
There seems to be a mistake in the upcoming distros list - it is not opensuse 10.3, but alpha3 of it, that is to be released.
Keep up the good work Ladislav!
Your regular reader,
Matīss
35 • RE 11 (by dbrion on 2007-04-02 15:23:41 GMT from France)
"
The biggest drawback of pclinux is that it is only available in English.
I don't understand why, as their mandriva base have a lot of languages
"
The problem with Mandriva is that 76 languages are too many for tests (for example, wolof speaking pple might often use English or French for technical matters), thus leading to too many kinds of downloads if one wants to try it; => I do not think PClinuxOS needs many CDs...
in the same time, they forget packages, do not fully debug them (it happened for me with 2006 and 2007).
If they took time and laughed at deadline issues, they would be usable (now, I shall wait at least 6 months before I decide [from bug reports] to buy a Mandriva...).
as long as PClinuxOS has a support for AZERTY keyboards from install (I never tested it as this point was not clear; it is essential for pqsszords..), the policy of releasing when "one is ready" is decent (it is growing rare, as some new, expensive and unknown quality hardware gets unsupported) and user friendly (times to install are not an issue; if one has a bug, it may take days to detect and remove it)....
I do not know whether PClinuxOS is Mandriva based to day (nor whether Mandriva is Red Hat based, nor whether all this competing {for what : chocolate medals?} stuff is Source Forge based.)...
36 • Mepis: alternative (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 15:28:13 GMT from United States)
Distro-hoppers usually have a long list of flavors they've tried... but I don't recall ever seeing Debian in their lists. Isn't that strange? Is it just because they think you need 15 iso images to install it? You can use 1 or 2. Or is it because they've been brainwashed into thinking Debian is somehow so much more difficult to install and manage than any of it's derivatives. Rebranding is the main difference.
Want cutting-edge packages for your desktop? Use testing. Want bleeding edge? Use unstable. Debian is constantly updated. Want all the non-free multimedia codecs and stuff? Very easy to enable.
People, you look like a bunch of fools. Stop making your distro choices based on politics and just use what works best, for you.
37 • I want my PCLOS (by Nybronx on 2007-04-02 15:32:58 GMT from United States)
Good to see a fantastic Distro get some "props" on one of the most respected and read weekly. I for one am avid about PCLOS and have no qualms in recommending this to any new/advanced user. The language issue is tough, I can only believe that Our small and dedicated group are concentrating on the much anticipated release. However let me stress that they are small. An excuse?...no....A reason?...I believe so. The product is so well done.It is obvious to me this is not a just a remastered Distro. That would be akin to calling a Mansion just a "remastered" greenhouse.
38 • Dell, PClinux, (by Scott Wilson on 2007-04-02 15:37:16 GMT from United States)
So we might get Linux installed onto Dell PC's.
Now that we "have" a OEM installing Linux, how many of you all are going to buy a Dell with Linux, or are you all going to leave it up the the others to create the demand? So if you are planning to build a new PC, stop and purchase a Dell PC with Linux preinstalled. Myself, I'm not in the market I do have a 6 month Dell insprion E1505 running Vista , Ubuntu, and CentOS.
PClinux, its OK, just like the rest of Linux flavors it has its good points and bad. ( I have it installed on my desktop), Windows media kinda works, but I was floored when Real Player media files would not play. Some other things, rpm based packing , why not apt-get. Created by a Mandrake developer, I find PClinux buggy just as Mandrake was. Yes for a new Flavor of Linux in many ways its ahead of some of the well established flavors. Yes its not, fully delevoped still pre 1.X version.
Where is CentOS 5? IF not out soon I am thinking about purchasing Red Hat Multi OS Desktop.
39 • my opinion PCLinuxOS and MEPIS (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 15:43:30 GMT from Canada)
I still believe that PCLinuxOS and MEPIS are just re-mastered editions of Mandriva and Ubuntu without offering anything new. It would certainly offend Texstar and Warren Woodford if I tell that in their face, but I tried both distro and I know that under the customized desktop theme, they are almost identical to Mandriva and Ubuntu. Also a new live-cd installation or different installation option does not make them leader in the linux world.
Let me be clear, PCLinuxOS and MEPIS are good distro. They are as good as Mandriva and Ubuntu, not more.
On the other hand, there is some very interesting project, with great communities, like ArchLinux (and other with smaller community like GoboLinux, SymponyOS, nexenta) that try to provide new idea, new concept to the opensource world. They probably deserve a better place on this web site.
40 • Laptop distros. (by technosaurus on 2007-04-02 15:51:01 GMT from United States)
Everyone has had very valid statements concerning DESKTOP distros, many of which are all too similar. Zenwalk and Vector (both of which I really like for older computers) for instance - if anyone could benefit from cooperation, they could. LAPTOP distros such as ... well there really aren't any good candidates except MEPIS. So far it has the best working out of the box percentage going for laptop use, still havent seen anyone include wifi radar or a similar utility by default. Although I'm not 100% satisfied with Mepis it "just works" so I use it on all of my systems.
41 • "Ready when it's ready" isn't necessarily a negative (by Davey on 2007-04-02 15:54:29 GMT from United States)
Nice writeup on PCLOS and Mepis, but I have to differ on one point:
"On the negative side, PCLinuxOS lacks any form of roadmap or release goals."
I don't think this is necessarily a negative -- not for me, anyway. It's simply one alternative for users with particular preferences. PCLOS and Mepis have chosen to hold off on calling a release final until beta testing by users and the developers shows that there's a stable, reliable release that's ready to work right out of the box. Those who want to be up-to-the-minute and take their chances will be impatient with this philosophy.
For those of us who just want to do work on our computers, and those of us who have been through the mill installing "stable" and "final" releases only to find they're still beta testing, the PCLOS and Mepis philosophies are a welcome opportunity. I don't understand just dismissing this view out-of-hand as a "negative" without argument to back up the assertion. It's especially ironic that such an assumption would appear on DistroWatch, where hardly a week goes by without a new report on the massive problems with yet another "stable" release.
42 • Silly cons (by RammsteinAddict on 2007-04-02 15:55:26 GMT from United States)
I'm sure my fellow PCLinuxOS users would agree with these statements.
1.Who cares about a 64 bit edition, the present PCLinuxOS runs
great on a 64 bit system. All the 64 bit distros i've looked at were a
disaster in the area of browser plug-ins.
2. English is my language so i could care less whether PCLinuxOS
has any other language incorporated. I work with many people
from China and various European countries, and they all speak
fluent English. I think their parents made a wise decision in that
regard.
3.Lastly, i consider "no release plan" a HUGE PLUS. The results of
which are reflected in the amazing quality of PCLinuxOS.
Radically simple, it just works! Thanks Texstar.
43 • RE: #33 (by timon on 2007-04-02 15:55:31 GMT from Finland)
Even better -- Etch has now Iceweasel 2.0.0.3. That's the latest and greatest Firefox-version available. :-)
http://packages.debian.org/testing/web/iceweasel
44 • RE: Stop making your distro choices based on politics (by Béranger on 2007-04-02 15:59:40 GMT from Romania)
> People, you look like a bunch of fools. Stop making your distro
> choices based on politics and just use what works best, for you.
The best for me is to have the peace of mind. And this means rejecting some distros, like *SUSE. It's not politics, it's peace of mind. Without peace of mind, the distro "doesn't works best", no matter it might seem it does.
45 • RE: Etch has now Iceweasel 2.0.0.3. (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 16:02:00 GMT from Romania)
> Even better -- Etch has now Iceweasel 2.0.0.3. That's the latest
> and greatest Firefox-version available. :-)
Yes, but it's Weasel for them, not Fox. If I was looking for Fire-otters, Ice-parrots, Sun-rabbits, or Water-mellons, I would have jumped to Etch right away.
46 • PClinuxOS VS Mepis (by Linux6 on 2007-04-02 16:07:28 GMT from Canada)
What I,am Finding On My installs is PClinuxOS is just for newbies looking for a linux that will work for both old and new OS systems.Mepis wants to class with XP and Vista and I thank it,s Wrong,Sam Linux Did Admazed Me On That Last Live Cd ,It Did See My Wireless Card,Which was cool with no work.Since This Is Open Software Why Not Make A OS That Has It ALL To Work On All Instead Of The Many.Why Not Compete with Microsoft and Produce an OS that Will Move Many.Hey I,am Just DREAMING?
47 • MEPIS and Ubuntu (by CeVO on 2007-04-02 16:07:48 GMT from Spain)
The guy who says that MEPIS and Ubuntu are identical is obviously off his rocker. That is like saying Ubuntu and Debian are the same. In that respect, ALL distros are the same, since they are all based on exactly the same codebase.
Differences between MEPIS 6.5 and the Dapper repos:
- MEPIS specific packages of xorg 7.1, Firefox 2.0.0.3, KDE 3.5.3, Amarok 1.4.4, NXclient, HPLIP, Beryl 0.2.0 and more
- Custom MEPIS kernel with lots of updated drivers
- Custom MEPIS boot procedure with MEPIS hardware detection
- Custom tweaking of KDE, MIME configs, powersave
- Loads of preinstalled software, codecs, players etc
Please let's not forget MEPIS existed BEFORE Ubuntu. The MEPIS concept is now based on a Ubuntu package platform, but is not Ubuntu. As a matter of fact, the LTS idea of Dapper is maintained better in MEPIS than in Ubuntu itself. Where possible, new versions of packages are introduced by MEPIS, whereas Ubuntu does not even have official backports or version updates.
48 • Miscalculating time (by Béranger on 2007-04-02 16:08:35 GMT from Romania)
> Debian Etch ships with glibc version 2.3.6 that was
> released in 03-Nov-2005 -- that is, a year and a half ago.
The problem is not when was released glibc-2.3.6. The problem is how longer will you be forced to STICK with it by using Debian STABLE. Add some YEARS to NOW().
Your grandchildren might die, and your Debian will still be running glibc-2.3.6.
RHEL5 is on glibc-2.5.
Slackware -current is always glibc-2.5 and it has dropped the 2.4 kernel!
Bye, Debian, see you at the National Museum of History!
> Lastly, i consider "no release plan" a HUGE PLUS. The results
> of which are reflected in the amazing quality of PCLinuxOS.
I am usually VERY CONSERVATIVE, but "no release plan" is dumb. "Amazing quality"? Yes, the Egyptian pyramids are of "amazing quality" too, and they never change (except for some erosion...)
49 • glibc (by Jesse on 2007-04-02 16:08:47 GMT from Canada)
I'm curious -- If someone installs Debian 4.0 with Linux kernel 2.6, would they then be able to use a newer version of glibc? Or are Debian users going to be stuck with the old library?
As long as bug fixes are back-ported to the old glibc, I don't think it will be a problem.
I'm very happy CentOS got the donation.
50 • RE: 38 • Dell, PClinux, (by Scott Wilson on 2007-04-02 15:37:16 GMT from United (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 16:23:23 GMT from United States)
38 • Dell, PClinux, (by Scott Wilson on 2007-04-02 15:37:16 GMT from United States)
You say you have PCLinuxOS installed and yet your call it PCLinux (improperly) and you say "why not apt-get?" when PCLinuxOS DOES HAVE APT-GET.
I conclude from these erroneous statements that you were blatantly lying in your post. How are you different from Microsoft with this misinformation? (hint: you're not)
51 • No subject (by JKRX on 2007-04-02 16:35:45 GMT from Sweden)
I used Mandrake before and switched over to PCLOS after Tex and Duval split... PCLOS is better than Mandriva in my opinion. Mandriva is sort of arrogant this days like Suse. Ubuntu is a good distro but their forums is sadly filled with "linux veterans" ready to bash at noobs...
Mepis is also a good distro and I think of it as a fork right now..
if all you "its a remaster" ppl could open your eyes a little you would see whats a remaster and whats not... SAM is a remake and Linux Mint is a big remaster distro... those kind of distros will most likely evolve to something on its own but right now they are remasters... and even your precious Mandrake is based on something else and so on...
52 • Re: 27 - Puppy/DSL (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 16:37:01 GMT from Germany)
I second the inclusion of at least one micro-distro on the top 10. Puppy is great for a low space hd install, while DSL is more suited to the flash drive OS niche, from what I have seen. Puppy seems like a better all-around distro to me.
53 • PCLinuxOS has apt-get :) (by Mahmut Sedat Erogul on 2007-04-02 16:48:37 GMT from Turkey)
PCLinuxOS has apt-get, and synaptic
which are modified versions that work with .rpm files :)
Please don't comment if you do nat have an access to PCLinuxOS,
I'm writing from a PC running PCLinuxOS, after 11 years with linux I'm using PCLinuxOS on my main desktop box, switched to PCLinuxOS from Mandrake, and I'm using Ubuntu and Pardus as alternatives. For me these three are the best desktop distros, they have easy package installation and update, more than enough packages for average user, good hardware detection and support, and stable operation.
54 • RE: 48 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 16:55:03 GMT from Germany)
"The problem is not when was released glibc-2.3.6. The problem is how longer will you be forced to STICK with it by using Debian STABLE. Add some YEARS to NOW().
Your grandchildren might die, and your Debian will still be running glibc-2.3.6."
Hehe, it's not quite that bad. glibc-2.3.6 is the price that Etch is paying for the horribly outdated Sarge release. (Sarge was 18 months delayed from the original schedule.)
But now Debian tries to put out a new stable release every 18 months (although Etch is currently 4 months late from the schedule). All in all, Etch is now more or less up-to-date and this means that Etch+1 ("Lenny") should have much easier time than the Etch release has had due to Sarge's outdatedness. Lenny will most likely be out about 18 months from now -- when Ubuntu's LTS release (Dapper) still continues using glibc-2.3.6. ;-)
55 • I prefer Debian Testing (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 16:59:46 GMT from Germany)
Oh yeah, I forgot to say that Debian Unstable and Debian Testing will move to a newer version of glibc soon after Etch is out (that should be next week). I prefer to use Debian Testing for my desktop. :-)
56 • Re: 49 • glibc (by spiritraveller on 2007-04-02 17:03:02 GMT from United States)
Etch runs a 2.6 kernel by default. If I understand correctly, the reason for using the old glibc is to preserve compatibility with Sarge. Some people mix packages between releases. It would also make it difficult and risky to upgrade from Sarge to Etch without doing a complete reinstall.
I agree about CentOS. What a great service that distro provides! And it maintains the spirit of the GPL in what I consider to be a small loophole: the trademark issue. By removing the Red Hat trademark, they make it a lot easier for 3rd parties to use, redistribute, and support Red Hat.
Kudos to them.
57 • what have distro watch got agensted Mepis and PClinuxOS (by Tom on 2007-04-02 17:21:52 GMT from United States)
So this is what DistroWatch wants for Mepis and PClinuxOS to go away, why would you want that?
You seem to try and control what happens with you stupid reviews, what is your problem. Mepis and PClinuxOS are here to stay get over it.
Nether Mepis and PClinuxOS has a founder that flew half way to the moon and back or give piles of free CD's away or have Millions of dollars, they are their because they are good at what they do.
I reckon you guy's at DistroWatch are Ubuntu fan boys, a nuf said.
58 • 52 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 17:24:47 GMT from United States)
I reckon you ain't an English professor, a nuf said.
59 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 17:25:37 GMT from United States)
The subject to 58 should be 57, not 52.
60 • 50 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 17:29:25 GMT from United States)
You might try going back to bed long enough to fall asleep and then get up on the other side.
61 • RE: Absolute (by pinakidion on 2007-04-02 17:35:03 GMT from United States)
Slackware 11 + rox, icewm,fluxbox and some custom tools. When Slackware 11.1 changes to 2.6 kernel, it will switch as well.
It's not trying to be a Windows-clone. I have an old 200mhz PentPro box and Absolute sings on it. The memory footprint is 18 - 20 MB for icewm+rox. The custom tool for screen resolution gets it right every time, on every computer I install it on.
The development cycle for Absolute 11.1 is completely open on the forums. All kinds of helpful tips and scripts for the amateur developer are readily available. As it is based on Slackware, it is well documented.
The forums recently reset, so it looks sparse. Paul is really quick to respond and help.
Please consider listing Absolute.
Disclosure: I'm one of the guys that posts on the Absolute forums a bit.
62 • SAM/PCLinuxOS (by Jan on 2007-04-02 17:36:44 GMT from Netherlands)
When I started playing/testing Linux-distros, PCLinuxOS was the first one at which all my hardware functioned, using its control center (at all other distros my printer did not work, till I changed the BIOS-setting for the parallel port).
For me a distro must have the most recent version of Firefox and Opera, OOffice, an email-program, some sort of security-assurance (firewall + spam-blocker), a super-filemanager like Ztree, and Wine (to be able to run the super-usable 1by1 audio-player).
I am still testing new/updated distros.
However mostly something is wrong, like an uncomprehensible/not-functioning system/package updating tool (which is the first thing I do after installing a distro).
Or after installing the distro, never any (security-)upgrade is available (which can not be true).
Or (initially) no access to NTFS-partitions (to import browser-data or documents).
SAM, the XFCE-version of PCLinuxOS, seems to me the perfect distro (I have a P3). Sadly the present install-CD fails to fully boot after finishing the detection of my network-card (Realtec). I am waiting now impatiently for the bug-fixed version of SAM.
Saxen-Linux (a Zenwalk/Slax based distro) seemed also very good to me. However its upgrading tool was only rejecting Zenwalk-upgrade-packages, which I considered very strange.
I think that the new Ubuntu will be very interesting.
The current version simply had all I need. Except that Ubuntu starts with an error when you change a partition, or install another distro after installing Ubuntu.
Possibly Linux-Mint and Automatix will loose their reason of existence.
One of the best things, w.r.t. Linux, is DW and the info through this forum. So continue please.
Jan
63 • 57 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 18:02:47 GMT from United States)
Looks like someone needs some anger management and medication.
64 • CentOS (by Jeff on 2007-04-02 18:08:45 GMT from United States)
Thank you for making such a substantial donation to CentOS. I know one of the CentOS developers. They are a very hard working group!
65 • A new and even better Distrowatch Weekly is here! (by Roger A. Jacobson at 2007-04-02 18:10:48 GMT from United States)
Hello Ladislav and Linux- and BSD friends!
A few weeks ago Ladislav invited people to submit suggestions about Distrowatch. The new series about Linux distros tells me Ladislav has found his stride. Ladislav's soul-searching has paid off. Recent issues of DW Weekly prove the point.
The coverage this week of PCLinuxOS and Mepis feels exactly right. This kind of coverage sets a very good tone. It hits a sweet spot. It points to the future of Distrowatch. The friendly and informative «feel» to the new series, «Top Ten Distributions,» looks to be just what people need. This series will serve nicely as guideline for future topics on Distrowatch Weekly.
What people need, I think, is a road map. Imagine how baffling it is to total newcomers. When a new reader learns this week that «PCLinuxOS is a KDE-based distribution,» that may sound at first quite baffling. But at the same time it gives the new reader a handle on things: namely that something-or-other called «KDE» is a key part of Texstar's offering. If the reader follows through on the footnoted mention of SAM, s|he will learn that SAM is like PCLoS but with «Xfce» instead of KDE. A little persistence leads to understanding that KDE and Xfce are alternate kinds of «desktops.» For a total newcomer, this bit of knowledge amounts to a small revelation, a real ah-hah! And more little triumphs of understanding follow like these. These little triumphs start to make everything be both fun and really interesting. It must be quite a surprise to new visitors that Linux and BSD offer a choice with desktops!
And so the newcomer checks out SAM and learns that if you want add software to SAM all you do is get it from the PCLinuxOS repository. A person learns this way what a repository is: and that's another little triumph. Then a person learns what it takes to download stuff from the repository: it takes Synaptic. And so on like that. Pretty soon one is feeling like a whiz kid by just following a few key threads. It's all very basic, yet powerful. It becomes very clear very fast. How nice!
It's pretty clear to me that Distrowatch will become an even better web site by telling people what these various threads are and by helping people to follow through on these threads. In ways that more expert students may have long since forgotten about, learning about these various key topics or threads is very empowering. The brain cells start to light up.
In comparatively no time a newcomer («newbie») finds him|herself able to do stuff which just a short time before seemed impossibly geeky. Earlier on, even to hear the term «text editor» might have frightened off a newcomer. Or the term «package manager.» Things start falling into place!
A handful of threads like this at Distrowatch Weekly will flesh out a reader's understanding very nicely! These threads or topics become a helpful theme for DWW and make DW an even more interesting site to visit. A thematic approach like this is one way to get a grip on such technical issues as the mentioned «volatility» of Debian, or of other Linux. For a newcomer it is helpful that Mepis and PCLoS take care of that volatility for a person. So do Ubuntu and some others. More falls into place!
I'd like to mention wireless before signing off. This too is a good topic for Distrowatch Weekly at some point. Why not be so bold as to tell people where to find Linux-compliant wireless cards? Changing out the wireless card is cheaper than buying a Mac (not everybody knows that a Mac has a BSD-Unix under the hood, or that BSD, Unix and Linux are kissin' cousins).
In short, Distrowatch has always been a wonderful clearing-house of information. It has just recently become an even better clearing-house with the «Top Ten» series. I for one am looking forward to reading more of the same and am very happy that Ladislav's soul-searching on the future of Distrowatch has so quickly found its own solution. And in prose that people can understand!
Sincerely,
Roger
66 • A new and even better Distrowatch Weekly is here! (by Roger A. Jacobson on 2007-04-02 18:21:11 GMT from United States)
It did say a person should type in the *full* URL of homepage. Here's one more go.
Roger
(«65»)
67 • Re 52 Micro-distributions (Puppy, DSL, ...) (by dbrion on 2007-04-02 18:50:04 GMT from France)
"I second the inclusion of at least one micro-distro on the top 10. Puppy is great for a low space hd install, while DSL is more suited to the flash drive OS niche, from what I have seen. Puppy seems like a better all-around distro to me."
Is Puppy a micro-distribution (from VM playing, I found a mem print between 64 M -it worked- and 32 M -it broke-) ? In these conditions I feel Austrumi would be better (less hype, more exotic) than Puppy.
DSL is OK with 16 M (these are figures, not bashing...) and claims a mem print of 8 M ....
If my way of getting memory prints is wrong, please let me know...
BTW, are (and will be) micro-distributions fashionable? or utterly ridiculous (not high enough numerology)?
I see 2 interesting aspects in micro distributions:
* very old PCs , but they might die or go to a museum (and their prices would then be 1000 times higher than when new)...
* launching somewhat comfortably Linux binaries (and displaying results) from Windows + VMplayer : it might be useful for closed source Linux binaries (it exists...) .
These aspects are very limited (though the second one interests me)...
68 • PCLinuxOS,MEPIS (by kevred on 2007-04-02 18:58:38 GMT from New Zealand)
The success of both these distros is obvious not every person wanting to change from M$ is a computer geek or linux guru when Ubuntu started as a branch of Dubian its main strong point was its ease of installation. Debian then took note and came up with their own installer.
PCLinuxOS and MEPIS should be a wakeup call to the larger distro's
1 One man bands are doing something right for the masses.
2 People are getting tired of reading arguments on the gpl free and non-free software they want a system that works.
3 Most migrants from M$ never even read the ULA and probably won,t read the DRM so what makes some think they will read the GPL.
And hey all this rubbish about its a copy of this or that well with out minix we wouldn't have the LInux kernel and without Unix no goals to set for a GNU project.
And didn't Linus Torvalds creat the linux kernel on his own to start not bad for one man bands.
69 • FreeNAS 0.684b is out ! (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 19:12:52 GMT from Germany)
FreeNAS 0.684b is out !
http://freenas.blogspot.com/2007/03/at-last-freenas-0684b-is-out.html
http://freenas.blogspot.com/
Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=151951&package_id=184256
70 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 19:27:52 GMT from United States)
> People are getting tired of reading arguments on the gpl free and non-free software they want a system that works.
Good for them! They can go write their own OS and release it under a BSD license.
Would they like a free massage with their OS? How about a belly rub? I think you are, like, missing the point.
If the goal is to put together a free OS, Mepis and PCLinuxOS are not the second coming of Jesus. If the goal is a free as in zero cost OS, just the way they like it, then yes, those are superior distros.
You have a right to have any goal you want. You are, however, making a big mistake if you think the goal of Linux is charity. Go download some music illegally if your goal is to get something at zero cost.
Don't make broad statements like that where you assume everyone has the same interests as you. I can assure you that your comfort and convenience is at the bottom of the priorities of most free software developers. And oh yeah, all the goodies in those distributions are not necessarily without legal questions in all parts of the world.
71 • About the PCLOS pros (by linbetwin on 2007-04-02 19:28:07 GMT from Romania)
"Pros: Out-of-the-box support for graphics drivers."
That was the case for older versions, when there were seperate ISOs for ati and nvidia. But now I had to install nvidia-dkms, or whatever it's called.
72 • problems with MEPIS/PCLinuxos (by NK on 2007-04-02 19:30:04 GMT from United States)
The problem with these two distros is the "one man at the top" philosophy, rather than having an active development group. In the case of Mepis, Warren will NOT allow any input at all, leading to the dissolution of the dotmepis community. So it's a distro I can no longer support. And as the article noted, PCLinuxos finds it increasingly difficult to make timely realeases, probably much for the same reason. I like PCLinuxos though, and think it has great potential.
73 • SIgh... (by 1c3d0g on 2007-04-02 20:06:18 GMT from Aruba)
MEPIS is not worthy of being in the top 10 list. If anyone can mention a more bug-ridden, crash-prone and UGLY distro, not to mention a so-called "leader" whose arrogance is only rivaled by M$, please let us know. There are much better distro's out there like Arch or Puppy which *deserve* a spot!
74 • SIgh... (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 20:12:10 GMT from United States)
If Mepis isnt worthy of being in the top 10 list it wouldnt be there. They must be doing something right.
75 • Re: Micro/lightweight distros (by octathlon on 2007-04-02 20:19:46 GMT from United States)
Right now is the time when a lot of people and school districts are trying to figure out what to do with their no longer supported Win 98 machines (and older XP machines), forced to decide between buying brand new ones that can run Vista, or finding some way to keep using the old ones.
I think Distrowatch should put up a separate overview of the top few light-weight distros that can work well on these machines and maybe prevent a lot of them winding up in the landfill.
76 • Re: Micro/lightweight distros (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 20:31:22 GMT from United States)
**Right now is the time when a lot of people and school districts are trying to figure out what to do with their no longer supported Win 98 machines (and older XP machines), forced to decide between buying brand new ones that can run Vista, or finding some way to keep using the old ones.**
That would be a good article. I work for a school district that is about to replace several hundred computers.
77 • Gparted-Clonezilla link (by Navneeth on 2007-04-02 20:48:34 GMT from India)
Great news about Clone-zilla. I'm sure that would really come in handy.
For some reason, I'm not able to download it from the link provided. If anyone else is facing the same problem, try this place:
http://opensource.nchc.org.tw/GParted-Clonezilla/
78 • preachers (by kevred on 2007-04-02 20:50:54 GMT from New Zealand)
f the goal is to put together a free OS, Mepis and PCLinuxOS are not the second coming of Jesus. If the goal is a free as in zero cost OS, just the way they like it, then yes, those are superior distros.
No free in Being able to watch DVD's being able to play games being able to watch streaming video and not being scared to put a name above their comments ya know... But I do agree with your last comment yes they are superior distros.
Ya forgot the beer coment.
79 • A little joke for you... (by Yoyo on 2007-04-02 21:01:52 GMT from Mexico)
"If Texstar has a price maybe Mandriva should pay it"
Yours truly,
Texstar.
:-D
80 • Arch (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 21:22:10 GMT from Canada)
Please add Arch to the top-10.
81 • RE 76 Old PCs and Linuxen (by dbrion on 2007-04-02 21:22:42 GMT from France)
"That "(lightweight distrs)"would be a good article. I work for a school district that is about to replace several hundred computers."
I am very surprised of the high number of old PC. Are they still in good state?
When I hear of an old PC, I say :"perhaps you should switch it to Linux, as it is less virus sensitive and one can control (with KateOs , say) her memory greediness" but the old PCs die before I can convince their owner.
I think that, if disconnected from the web, W98 can remain stable and one can install softs like Abiword, Inkscape who make it still usable and have been Windows ported..=> Linux is interesting only if one wants at any price an IT connection (or if Windows is an illegal one...) . Perhaps some golden paint would be more appealing to the owners..
I am afraid an article about old PC would be felt by a majority as utterly ridiculous, and should be put in an International Museum of Paleontology: it is far more interesting to have higher Kernel numerology (i.e one supports newer, flashier hardware: it is then a synonym of quality) than trying to keep alive old stuff (and their owners are concient it is outfashioned...).
( OTH, GNU/Linux Magazine, in France, makes a full cellulotic release about this topic once a year, as far as I remember, but it is very oriented towards Linux fans/geeks?.... )
82 • Wrong opinion about PCLinuxOS and MEPIS (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 21:37:07 GMT from Canada)
I think you are wrong when you wite :
"And those who believe that PCLinuxOS and MEPIS are just re-mastered editions of Mandriva and Ubuntu without offering anything new, then I challenge you to travel to Huston and Morgantown, meet with Texstar and Warren Woodford, and tell them that, in their faces. Will you be able to do it? I doubt it. In fact, the two (more or less) one-man projects deserve credit for being able to deliver excellent products despite having a budget of almost zero dollars and despite having to compete with such powerful Linux giants as Red Hat, Novell or Canonical."
Let me look at this from another point of view. Suppose that Mandrake, Ubuntu and Debian and their respective community desapear tomorrow. Do you really think that PCLinuxOS and MEPIS will survive ? In fact, these two projects ONLY deserve credit for beeing able to deliver a customised version of another project. They are nothing whitout giants like Red Hat, Novell, Mandrakesoft or Canonical. Even if they add a small number of useful feature, they don't have the community needed to be able to maintain a whole operating system.
83 • Re 82 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 21:43:35 GMT from Canada)
Just to add a few word to my precedent post, the fact that a distribution is a fork of another or is not build from scratch is not important. The real question is wether a distribution can survive, even if another distribution disapear. This is my definition of a "MAJOR" distribution.
For exemple, I think that Ubuntu is a major distribution. With the size of the ubuntu community, I beleve that it would survive even if Debian disapear. I suggest you to use that definition to select distro for the top ten
84 • No subject (by kevred on 2007-04-02 21:48:13 GMT from United States)
> No free in Being able to watch DVD's being able to play games being able to watch streaming video and not being scared to put a name above their comments ya know
As I said, you are free to have your own opinions. The Linux distro you produce can incorporate all of your ideals, subject to the restrictions of the GPL and the laws of the countries where you distribute it.
Stop trying to jam all this garbage down everyone else's throats. If you don't like free software, use PCLinuxOS, use Mepis, use Windows, use a Mac. It's your choice. It's all proprietary software. Stop your preaching.
85 • Another vote for Arch! (by benplaut on 2007-04-02 21:53:50 GMT from United States)
It's a really an outstanding distro :)
86 • Pclinuxos (by James on 2007-04-02 21:58:26 GMT from United States)
It Rules ! it should be number 1 !
87 • yoper (by kevred on 2007-04-02 21:58:30 GMT from New Zealand)
<>
Hopefully we don,t lose any Mandriva Debian Redhat have all led the way for many distro,s but I,ll use Yoper as an example it was considered a one man band and expected to fold straight after their leader went to work for suse but the community has kept it going from what I have seen MEPIS and PCLinux also have stronge communitys they just havn,t got millionare backing.
88 • monthly donation (by Joe P. on 2007-04-02 22:37:59 GMT from United States)
I'm surprised by how many of the monthly recipients of the Distrowatch donations program I am familiar with. One glaring omission though is the projects which work on live file systems which made Live CD's possible. I think live CD's are many users first introduction to Linux now.
89 • Missing the boat (by Disappointed on 2007-04-02 22:46:28 GMT from United States)
Linux has a nice variety of distributions, with more work needed, but I would much rather see fewer distributions with fewer people doing basically the same thing, and more people working on different things that need improvement. I think the main reason Linux isn't more mainstream is the lack of applications. OOo is great, but it still doesn't match up to Microsoft Office in ease of use, attractiveness, and features (especially Impress and Base; and totally missing an email client). Why not increase the number of people working on that, or if Sun doesn't permit it, start a fork and make improvements? Also, many high quality or easy-to-use programs, such as graphics, multimedia, or educational programs, run only on Windows, or just have basic or hard-to-use versions for Linux. Why not have some of the people making all these distributions work on more and better applications for Linux?
90 • More Hypothetical Ideas (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 22:55:00 GMT from United States)
"Suppose that Mandrake, Ubuntu and Debian and their respective community desapear tomorrow. Do you really think that PCLinuxOS and MEPIS will survive ?"
Here are some more hypothetical situations:
1. What if a "major distributor" gets tied up in petty bickering and infighting?
2. What if a "major distributor" strikes a deal with a company which is vehemently opposed to F/OSS?
3. What if a non-Linux company decides it is going to release the same code as a "major distributor" but charge less for support?
4. What if a "major distrubtor's" founder departs and the company teeters on the verge of bankrupcy?
5. What if the infrastructure (distribution, hosting, etc) of a "major distributor" is almost wholly supported at the whim of a billionaire? What happens if he dies and his heirs are not interested in Linux? What if he gets bored with Linux, decides his company has no viable business plan, and gives developers/users three months to find a new home?
91 • Interesting (by Raven on 2007-04-02 22:57:10 GMT from New Zealand)
If theirs one thing that clear from reading these comments it's that people are passionate about their particular distro which is good. However it's also clear that some out there have blinders on when it comes to looking at the merits of other distros which (whilst understandable) is sad.
Mandrake, SuSE, Ubuntu are all built upon pre-existing distro's. The reason they are the way they are today is because they have evolved beyond their base. If (for example) when mandrake 5.2 was released people just said, "Why bother with it? It's just a remastered version of Red Hat 5.2 with a kde desktop!" The community would have missed out on the Mandrake / Mandriva distro and the innovations they provided. Similar things could be said about SuSE and Ubuntu.
Looking down on PCLinuxOS, Mepis and Puppy (although I can't for the life of me understand why some have added Puppy to this list, because as others have mentioned Puppy was completely built from scratch), is snobbery, plain and simple.
92 • 84 (by kevred on 2007-04-02 23:01:54 GMT from New Zealand)
I did not write that whole post but to answer the Anonymous person who did yes I do use PCLinuxOS and MEPIS and I open the windows in my house often it lets the air circulate and yes it is my choice just as it is my choice to voice an opinion and yours but forgive me if I don't take too much notice of yours constructive critasim is always interesting to read but so far you haven,t written any.
93 • Puppy/DSL and mem print (by GoPuppy on 2007-04-02 23:04:35 GMT from United States)
For thouse who trying to compare puppy and DSL "mem print" please be aware that puppy loads itself into memory *entirely* and do not use media after load. So you can free your cd drive/usb port.
DSL does not load itself into memory and uses media to run apps from like any life cd. This makes DSL a better distro for computers with small memory.
On the other hand pupy allows you to use computer as a terminal keeping entire OS + all documents you're warking with on a single cd/dvd/usb (yes you can burn results of your work back into Puppy CD as a multisession data ;)
Regards.
94 • RE: Lightweight Distro and Number of old PCs (by Anonymous on 2007-04-02 23:28:22 GMT from United States)
**I am very surprised of the high number of old PC. Are they still in good state?**
They are in good shape. The school district I work for is really large. (about 60,000 students) These computers aren't in the labs, they are the administrators computers.
Some are quite old. The oldest still in use is a Gateway E3000. Most of them are five years old, not nearly as ancient as the 3000 model. Thanks to the M$ settlement, we got a lot of money to replace old computers. I said we should switch away from M$, but the current chief of IT won't even pilot anything that is not from Redmond.
So, since they have to dispose of them (at $14 a shot), I asked if we could give them away. (Of course, I'd put Linux on them. Why pay M$ 5-10 dollars for '98 or ME?
95 • RE 83 (by ezsit on 2007-04-02 23:47:46 GMT from United States)
RE 83 - "I think that Ubuntu is a major distribution. With the size of the ubuntu community, I beleve that it would survive even if Debian disapear."
I am a Ubuntu user and respect the people that produce the distribution, but I am not convinced that without the Debian community Ubuntu would survive.
Ubuntu and its derivatives would almost cease to exist without the larger Debian community, but this is not a bad thing. Ubuntu and its children help Linux users get into Debian. I am waiting on Etch's release and plan to switch as soon as possible. Why, you may ask? Because the Debian community and development model will survive where commercial entities will fail in the long run.
Ubuntu got to number one by shipping free CDs, that is the only reason for its extremely speedy success. Mepis was around before Ubuntu and Warren produced a more refined distribution before Mark. Mark had the money and marketing prowess to push Ubuntu into the spotlight and send thousands of CDs around the world at no cost to the user (remember how drug pusher would give a free sample to get you hooked?). Mark did this for Ubuntu, he gave it away and produced a giant in the Linux world.
Warren produced a quality distro for years and it took longer for the word to spread. I remember emailing Distrowatch.com back in 2003 to alert Ladislav of Mepis version 2003.06. Mepis was far ahead of the pack even back then.
Still, I look forward to switching to Debian simply to avoid all the fuss over which Debian derivative is more deserving than the next. It is rather silly. Use what works for you and live and let live.
96 • Re: comment by Mark South (by GuestToo on 2007-04-03 00:13:51 GMT from Canada)
quote: "the claim that it was built entirely from scratch is not exactly true. Examination of the Puppy startup scripts show clear evidence that the original distro was something Slackware based (maybe Vector) that was cut down at the beginning in order to form the basis for Puppy."
Puppy was originally built on a Red Hat system ... Puppy was not based on Red Hat, Red Hat was simply used to compile source and to build isos
later, Puppy was built on a Mandrake system ... again, Puppy was not based on Red Hat or on Mandrake
later, for various reasons, Barry chose to use another distro to build Puppy ... he chose Vector Linux, in part because it was small and light and fast, like Puppy, and in part because Vector was based on Slackware, which does not modify the source of applications, the way that Red Hat and Mandrake tend to do, for example, Grub ... again, Puppy is not based on Vector Linux
lately, Puppy has been using the source from the T2 Linux project
Puppy isos are usually built from binary packages (Unleashed packages) ... i'm not sure whether the official Puppy isos are being built on Vector Linux, or on Puppy ... Puppy now has development capabilities that it did not have at one time
in any case, it does not matter at all what Linux operating system is being used to build Puppy ... Puppy definitely is built from scratch, and is not based on any other Linux distro.
97 • so sad (by john frey on 2007-04-03 00:51:54 GMT from Canada)
"And oh yeah, all the goodies in those distributions are not necessarily without legal questions in all parts of the world."
Awwh. You're just mad because you are in one of those countries with the most restrictive laws around those goodies. Maybe one day you'll be able to enjoy the freedoms that many of us take for granted.
98 • Linux Mint "Light" (by reyfer on 2007-04-03 01:24:21 GMT from Venezuela)
"Bianca Light Edition was released and is available for download. The purpose of the Light Edition is to bring a version of Linux Mint which doesn't contain: proprietary software, patented technologies, support for restricted formats. In some countries where the legislation allows software patents to be enforced the Light Edition provides a way for users to legally download Linux Mint. The following components are not present in the Light Edition: Macromedia Flash, support for encrypted DVDs, Windows codecs, support for restricted multimedia formats, Unrar, Sun Java."
Does the above quote mean that Linux Mint just released.....Ubuntu?
99 • Re 94 : Thanks for the info. (by dbrion on 2007-04-03 01:35:36 GMT from France)
It seems a good idea to switch some (hundreds of) old PCs to Linux, as MS Windows is expensive; if you have 5 yrs old PCs, I can suppose they have 256 M RAM; then,
even a Mandriva 2007 with a partial KDE (i.e I use their 'expert mode' installer to install only what I needed: as I had no loudspeaker, everything linked to sound was irrelevant or absurd) can work (but slowly, with 190 M [under VMplayer, which makes things slower, and on a 4 yrs old PC]).
I was very happy -through VMplaying, too, with Zenwalk : as her desktop is smaller than KDE, I could very comfortably compile anything (about 10**6 lines ) with 256 M (I had to add 100 M to compile some big sources without swap....)
Zenwalk has carefully selected applications, which are non redundant and one has everything (including the library headers....) related to these applications (SAM and elive do not have natively headers, but can be user friendly for music...). I suppose KateOS or VectorLinux can work very good, too, at least for compilation and tests on somewhat old hardware (its their claim).
The main problem I see with hundreds of PCs is that it might be somewhat tedious to install Linux manually on each of them (if they are slow and in good state, it might take 0.5/1.5hr per PC....).
I hope I am not too naive....
100 • PCLinuxOS (by wazoo on 2007-04-03 01:49:33 GMT from United States)
I used PCLinuxOS when I was tried Linux because it worked with my hardware, all of it, when nothing else did. Later, I tried Mandrake/Mandriva, but found it comparatively unstable. Clearly, Texstar had made not just minor or cosmetic changes, but true enhancements (better integration, a more solid kernel, easier package management that worked with a focused and useful repository).
As Ladislav has often pointed out, a distro is not just the CD, but the website. And PCLinuxOS has a dedicated group there that generates real work, distinct from Mandriva. I suspect PCLinuxOS would indeed survive the sudden disappearance of Mandriva, not that I would wish such a thing.
I use Ubuntu at work, PCLinuxOS at home. Different approaches, different feels, and I've noticed a curious thing: they leapfrog each other. Sometimes, PCLinuxOS seems to be ahead; sometimes, Ubuntu. I learn more about Linux, and about my own needs, by having two distros to watch and use. It's not a religious issue for me, as it is for so many. It's just a mix of hobby and work tool; and I'm not at all surprised to find that the two distros I've settled on are the top 2 on Distrowatch. After all, I /found/ them both on Distrowatch, for which I'm grateful.
Great series, insightful comments as usual, Ladislav. Keep it up!
Yr faithful reader,
wazoo
101 • RE: 3 • Less Releases Better Distro (by johncoom on 2007-04-03 03:05:14 GMT from Australia)
This comment is exactly what I have been saying, every now and again here, for quite a while now.
When will people start admitting this - any one who learns from "the school of hard knocks" knows this.
Sure have as many unstable-cooker-alpha/beta-release_candidates as you want for those that want them.
But for Linux (or GNU-Linux) to progress in the world, the older "I'm a Geek and I do not care about others with lessor abilities) mentality will have to change
NOTE: it is just a "IMHO" folks
102 • YOPER 2.95 MKII 04-02-07 wkly. ISO (by FUI on 2007-04-03 04:16:00 GMT from United States)
Short mems, Rebuilding, this is the current weekly ISO working, fixing whats wrong so all Distro lovers of the future will have another GOOD Linux Distro to talk about. Its Linux, and when its not it COSTS more, what are you giving to Linux ?
103 • Figuring out the distro of Shinzo Abe (by izaac on 2007-04-03 04:17:35 GMT from Mexico)
Well, maybe its a Fedora/RedHat or based on them like Yellowdog or TurboLinux considering the commands in the image.
Hehe xD
104 • Top Ten (by vukota on 2007-04-03 05:02:08 GMT from United States)
"Instead of dismissing these projects for building nothing new, we should be excited about having more distributions to choose from - not just from big companies and large community projects, but also from a few talented individuals with bright ideas and undying passion for Linux."
Nobody is saying that these projects are building nothing new, but I'll say that there are more than just a fiew other distributions on the top 100 DW list (not included in top 10) that are bringing at least the same amount of the innovation (and some more) than these two mentioned. To name a fiew: Solaris, elive, dreamlinux, Damn Small, Puppy, PC-BSD, dyne:bolic, Pardus, Sabayon...
I am not saying that they are not good (MEPIS and PCLinuxOS). I used them both in the past (and still do occasionally) and they are great Live CD distros, but when security patches are not getting released on the timely base it stops being fun. I would never suggest them for any serious work. MEPIS at least has commercial support, where PCLinuxOS has ???
Second question is can you relay on (mostly) one person to maintain OS that you are using? I can not, because I am Software Engineer myself and know how much effort you need to put in to the system to have acceptable reliability.
I would suggest to bring another Top Ten list like Top Ten Live CD distributions or Top Ten easy to use distributions or Top Ten best HW recognition distros or something like that and there to mention these distros as a leading distros.
This way it doesn't make too much sense. I'll repeat from the last week my comment:
"There should be a criteria list how distros got in the Top Ten list. Is it just how popular on DW distro is or it is something else?
I think following should be considered:
1) How old distrio is?
2) Is it a base distro with lot of unique features from which many other distros are derived or it is just repackaged other distribution with not too much innovations in it?
3) What is the estimated install base (not just DW ranking).
4) Does this distro has active support for current AND older releases (either free or commercial)? For how long after release date?
5) How many packages distro actively maintains it self?
6) How popular distro is?
7) How much documentation is available for distro?"
Regarding some comments about what is a base distro and what not. I would define it as a distro with lot of packages developed, improved and maintained by itself from which other distros are copying most of the packages again and again.
I am not saying that among Top 10 distros, only base distros should be considered, but rather these criteria considered.
105 • One detail about PCLinuxOS... (by iMoron on 2007-04-03 05:04:30 GMT from Puerto Rico)
PCLinuxOS is now its own distro since they are no longer utilizing Mandriva as its base since .94 (2007) ... Just like what mandrake did long ago when it was derive from Ret Hat (I think!... poor memory) So I feel PCLinuxOS is more than just a simple repakage...
It should be on the top 10...
Maybe we should make it top 16 or 20. Highlight distros for old PC, current and high end... or server and desktop use...
Also should make top "big diferent revolutionary distros" list with distros like sinphony and gobo... Wierd distros...
106 • Re: #21, #61 - Absolute (by Ariszló on 2007-04-03 06:32:30 GMT from Hungary)
The IceWM+ROX combo reminds me of the deceased Buffalo Linux:
http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/buffalo/
107 • Small correction about openSUSE (by João Ramos on 2007-04-03 08:45:37 GMT from Portugal)
Just 2 small notes:
openSUSE:
On April, 12 will not be release the new openSUSE 10.3 as seems to be on the "Upcoming releases", but the Alpha 3 of that release.
SiteMeter and Spyware:
You should check blogs like this one: http://www.shaftek.org/blog/archives/000429.html and many others.
Big Hug and Keep the great work ;o)
108 • The oldy Mandriva 2007.1 has things to show to the young distros (by glyj on 2007-04-03 09:18:46 GMT from New Caledonia)
about the laptops :http://www.dailymotion.com/mandriva/video/x1fctc_mandriva-linux-2007-spring-benchmar
about stability in this upcoming version : 2 betas, RC1, RC2 (4850) and now the RC3 . this means a lot of work.
about the packages provided: gnome 2.18, kde 3.5.6 and also kde 4.0 (pre-version avalable in a separate directory to preserve stability)
and something for those coming from windows : drak3d to configure automaticly Metisse, compiz, beryl.
new media repository avalable for everyone: non-free (proprietary drivers, players, etc..)
MandrivaOnline now working . Well, cross the fingers for that ;-)
regards,
glyj
109 • re 30; linux or tv? (by Anonymous on 2007-04-03 09:19:26 GMT from New Zealand)
Good comment in post 30:
>Seems that the linux community is taking the "Just Works" way when it DOESN'T
>JUST WORK. Not even for MS. But hey learning isnt cool it seems.
We all know that the ease of a distro is directly related to what it is installed on. What just works in one place just won't in another, at least not without a quick visit to the forums. Hence the call for the likes of Dell to sell linux-based and therefore linux-compatible systems.
The future of distro development really depends whether people want linux etc to be their OS or their tv? Tune in and drop out? Some M$ goon once said something like, "Linux is only free if your time has no value." We should encourage distros that require a bit of user activity. How else did FOSS get where it is now?
Live distros are great for a ready-to-run solution, but long-term stability is better for an installed system. Ubuntu's LTS + beta release parallelism seems to nicely cater to the widest spread of users who want a working system and a development system.
It would be great to see an article on things like the T2 SDE 6.0.3 customising toolkit in a future DWW.
110 • PCLinuxOS - popular due to license violations (by john doe on 2007-04-03 10:13:22 GMT from Norway)
yeay! People continously praise pclinuxos for their inclusion of proprietary stuff etc. without being aware of these things violates licenses, patents, is strictly illegal and what not, nice..
Also very nice is how most of their packages are just rebranded mandriva packages (rebuilt with their own release suffix and changelog removed) and they don't even provide sources for the packages they modify..
111 • Re: #110 - PCLinuxOS (by Ariszló on 2007-04-03 11:16:15 GMT from Hungary)
No, proprietary packages do not violate Free Software licenses unless they are derived from Free Software and software patents are country-specific.
And yes, PCLinuxOS does provide source rpms:
http://www.google.hu/search?q=%22pclinuxos%2Fapt%2Fpclinuxos%2F2007%2F%22
112 • CentOS - good denation choice (by Dimitri on 2007-04-03 11:42:06 GMT from United States)
Greetz to Ladislav and all DistroWatch Weekly readers.
I had actually been meaning to suggest CentOS as a possible donation candidate but was beat to the punch (I'd like to think that great minds truly think alike :-) ).
When we established our company three years ago, I planned that it would be a mostly Linux shop, at least at the server level. Where money was tight, I decided to use CentOS. It most certainly was taking a chance. In fact, when I told people which OS we were running in our shop, no one had heard of it. But, I liked the way Johnny Hughes and company approached the project. I also got an opportunity to speak with a representative of the CentOS team (well, at least he was the booth-keeper) at LinuxWorld in Boston in 2005.
My faith in this distro has been richly rewarded. It has proven the rock-solid foundation upon which we've built our company's information system. There were 6 of us when the company began; there are 60 of us now (and still growing), and it's seen us through the growth just fine, thanks.
For now, my deepest thanks to the CentOS team for a wonderful distro (I would be remiss if I didn't also thank a major North American Linux vendor for making the binaries available). I look forward to making a donation of my own in the not-to-distant future.
Dimitri
113 • Comment 99 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-03 12:14:31 GMT from United States)
Fortunately, when it comes to install, there's a program called Slack-Kickstart that I think I can modify to work.
Even if that doesn't work, there's a local Linux group eager to do something helpful.
114 • Mepis (by Ron on 2007-04-03 13:19:17 GMT from United States)
I have been using Linux since 2000, first Red Hat and then I stumbled upon SuSe 5.1 at Best Buy and was hooked. Along came Mepis and I gave it a try and surprisingly I liked it. So SuSe was dethroned. I have tried many distros since and I always come back to Mepis. For me it just works and I like that. I am not a computer geek and the command line for me is hard but, I am making progress slowly. Did not have a computer until 2000, so simple is best for me. I like Mepis because it recognizes my hardware and more importantly my wireless card right off the disc and that is a big plus. For me simple is best. I still like Suse but, it is too slow for me. I still use it and whatever flavor I am taken in by from time to time. I am using Suse at the moment and will continue to use it as well as my number one Mepis. So, all you out there use whatever you want. Just stop the trashing. You all sound like my Microsoft friends. Ron.
115 • Live CDs (by Yoyo on 2007-04-03 14:05:03 GMT from Mexico)
PCLinuxOS offers an application to view TV while running as live cd (TVTime), when most others don't. It's a darn shame.
116 • Still NO Annouce in DW (by Anonymous on 2007-04-03 14:21:22 GMT from Brazil)
The GoblinX Premium 2007.1 is released and still no annouce here in DW.
http://www.goblinx.com.br/en/index_news.htm
117 • Apple *is* Unix (by Thoeger on 2007-04-03 14:26:20 GMT from Denmark)
...More or less, anyway. Darwin, the core of OS X, is a modded BSD, så the UNIX commands next to him is, unfortunately, no guarantee that he's not using the OS that came pre-installed on his MacBook Pro.
118 • RE: 116 Still NO Annouce in DW (by ladislav on 2007-04-03 14:31:25 GMT from Taiwan)
I'll wait with the announcement until there is something to download.
119 • Mint (by Anonymous on 2007-04-03 14:40:53 GMT from Sweden)
Re 98
I guess they did :) (well, you have the blueish theme still)
I like the ideas that PCLOS, Mepis, Mint and more are doing, but i think that Mint(full) has lost it now that the new Ubuntu comes with the "Restricted Drivers Module" (or whatever its called).
120 • Comparing Mints and Chocolates (by welkiner on 2007-04-03 16:03:30 GMT from United States)
When Ubuntu Dapper came out I installed it on 4 boxes. Shortly after Upgrading all to Ubuntu 6.10, I switched all to Mint Linux. Not because of the non-free add-ons, etc. Automatix takes care of that problem quite well for Ubuntu. I switched to Mint Linux because on all of my machines (desktop and laptop) Mint boots faster from CD, installs more easily, and more cleanly and runs much faster and more stable from hard drive. If that is just a remaster, it is a highly improved remaster. I still prefer and use the original Ubuntu Earth background, and I still use Automatix2 for even more easy add-ons.
121 • 92 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-03 17:29:05 GMT from United States)
> constructive critasim is always interesting to read but so far you haven,t written any.
I'm not giving any constructive criticism at all. I'm telling you to stop bashing distros just because they are founded on a philosophy of free software and you think free software is a joke. You want a Windows replacement with a price tag of $0. I get it. Distros like Fedora and Ubuntu have a lot to offer to some people. Please stop bashing them.
122 • Distros (by David Kiwerski on 2007-04-03 17:51:11 GMT from United States)
I use Mepis at home on 6 machines. Tried Ubuntu, but I did NOT like their method of installing software. I've found that Mepis is the easiest. It also is the ONLY distro that has found and fully set up my wireless card.
123 • Alternatives to MEPIS ... NONE??? (by George on 2007-04-03 18:56:27 GMT from United States)
I have nothing at all against MEPIS ...
but really ... NO alternative?
How about LinuxMint (Bianca version 2.2) for example.
124 • Re: 94 Lightweight Distros (by octathlon on 2007-04-03 19:06:52 GMT from United States)
I glad you are trying to keep all those PCs from going to the landfill. I ran across this article that may be of interest to you. The author briefly discusses Puppy, SLAX, BeatrIX and DSL:
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/free_computing
125 • Clear Some Things Up about PCLinuxOS (by Jmiahman on 2007-04-03 19:16:22 GMT from United States)
There's So much FUD here I would almost think this was a Microsoft Forum. That's what is bad about the internet every Joe can post there opinion whether they know what they are talking about or not and about 98% of the negative posts about PCLinuxOS are FUD. I'll address a few issues as I have followed this thread and I have followed Mandrake (I hate mandriva, still love the glory days) since it first started offering a KDE based RedHat.
Q. If Mandriva was to go off the face of the planet so would PCLinuxOS
A. PCLinuxOS uses/used Mandriva as a base. Instead of compiling all packages and building the RPMS from scratch they took a short cut and used Mandriva for their package base. In working with the developer team at PCLinuxOS they are more then fully capable of "Starting from Scratch" or for that using any distribution as there base. If Mandriva was to ever go bye bye they could just as easily switch bases to fedora or for that matter build there own base system. They're really quite flexible as they have there own kernel and alter/create there own and other distros kernel packages to work for them. If anything this would be a great thing as many of the issue they have to fix in PCLinuxOS has to do with shotty work (Bandaids) and patches that mandriva is putting out. Dbus issues etc..
Q. PCLinuxOS Steals RPMS From Mandriva
A. The people who say this are cleary not RPM packagers, or they themselves haven't looked at some of the Spec files from Mandriva. The Best Spec files I've seen from Mandriva look the same as spec files coming from Fedora.. Hmm I wonder how that works. RPM creation is so incestuios no one distro can say these are all my RPMs yes they may have been repackaged and updated but a vast majority are shared. Also the whole point of the birth of TexStars popularity was because he could out package the hired Mandriva Packagers. That's why you would run Texstars KDE instead of Mandrake because he added stability patches feature patches etc.. to the RPMs that made them better or more stable.
Q. Texstar was a Mandrake developer.
A. Texstar to anyones knowledge was never paid or endorsed by Mandriva nor did he ever developed anything. He was a volunteer packager. We talked about when the Club first started that he should be hired but instead that caused a backlash from Mandriva's packagers. That backlash soon lead to PCLinuxOS.
Q. PCLinuxOS 2007 has such and such issue
A. PCLinuxOS 2007 is still in it's testing phases. Hardware compatibility is still being worked out. Graphic card issues are still being worked out. They still may have a ATI verion or a Nvidia Version or it just may load the proprietary drivers on it's own. Future testing will tell. There is still one more testing Release PLANNED.
Q. Missing Future Goals/ Plans
A. What are you people looking for. A time line. It may look something like this.
2008 release. We plan to work better, update package, more compatibility as the Kernel allows
2009 release. We plan to work better, update packages more compatibility as the Kernel allows
2010 release. We plan to work better, update packages more compatibility as the Kernel allows
2011 release. We plan to work better, update packages more compatibility as the Kernel allows
.....
2024 release. TexStar hands the reigns over to a group of people he's trained. They plan to have PCLinuxOS work better, update packages and add more compatibility as the Kernel allows.
Really people. You are all Crazy!
126 • No subject (by Eudoxus on 2007-04-03 19:56:51 GMT from Latvia)
All those Mandriva versus PCLinuxOS or Ubuntu versus Linux Mint wars are just stupid. If one says that PCLOS or Mint has not contributed anything to open source it is just false. Mint is in quite early state of development but it has some nice touches that appeal to users (In fact I prefer Mint to Ubuntu); The same goes for PCLOS. If it is just repackaged Mandriva then way there is such a difference in performance. I installed Mandriva 2007 and it was really unstable, I experienced several freezes. Not so with PCLOS.
Just my two cents.
127 • RE: # 126 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2007-04-03 21:46:01 GMT from Italy)
"All those Mandriva versus PCLinuxOS or Ubuntu versus Linux Mint wars are just stupid."
How true. That is one of the reasons why I am beginning to prefer the Mac community. At least they have only "one distro", LOL.
But I must also honestly admit that I have myself attacked some Linux distros because I didn't agree about one thing or another.
128 • REad before you Post false facts (by Superboog on 2007-04-03 21:53:37 GMT from Saint Lucia)
If more people in society actually read before they blasted their horn then this board wouldnt be filled with so many false comments about PCLinuxOS/ Mepis. Also anyone who has used these two systems for even the shortest amount of time will agree with me that they can hold their own even if they are not backed by millionaires or large financial firms.
http://linux-blog.org/index.php?/archives/197-Debunking-Confusion-in-PCLinuxOS.html
Read people knowledge is power and misinformation has gotten people killed :D
129 • Ideology behind a free OS (by KimTjik on 2007-04-03 22:00:29 GMT from Sweden)
I'm not criticizing anyone, so my questions are sincere. The whole issue of what OS is in the real since free or not seems to finally be decided by the hardware itself. An OS totally free of proprietary drivers is decided by the selection of hardware devices, right? Some companies aren't very keen on opening up enough to allow the development of good free drivers. If I exclude some multimedia support, my decision to have a working but totally free OS isn't really just decided by what OS I install. Have I understood this part correct?
Hence I wonder: what do devotees of free operating systems wish to accomplish? Do they wish all developers of hardware to open up and give a full spec without any issues of patents? Why I ask, is because I don't view it as realistic to expect certain companies to open up, because of business ties or policies, like Intel. Therefore, even though I've never come across it, do these devotees keep an updated database about devices supported by free drivers?
What made me think about this was DistroWatch’s recommendation to read Pau Amaro-Seoane's articale "Looking for a free OS for my laptop". What did confuse me was that he tried to get a free operating system working on laptop with Intel chip. Did he really expect to find free working drivers? Isn't this a bit naive? Hence I'm tending to believe that Mr. Amaro-Seoane didn't really believe it could be accomplished, but wanted to make a point.
I don't know what to believe, so if anyone wishes to enlighten me it will be appreciated. I would love to get links to some clear statements without the thick smoke of philosophy.
130 • so called cons for pcLinuxOS_ (by paul on 2007-04-04 00:28:05 GMT from Australia)
Ladislav, your mention of no roadmap and that development process tends to be long for pcLinuxos. I tend to agree with post number 125 (jmiahman) about the goals. (also apreciate the time taken by jmiahman to clarify things) Okay there may not be any official roadmap, but if Texstar did not have some goal do you think he would have even had any releases beyond the first one.
If the average time between releases was something like 18 months, then perhaps your commenting that pclinuxos has a long developement process may have been more valid.
I am glad you have mentioned "new version is not released until all known bugs are solved". I dont know why you did not put this in as a Pro. Especially when one takes a look at the average time between releases which is not vastly different to other distributions. I am suprised you have said these things and did not take the time to put things into perspective here. Otherwise you do good work and i am greatfull for your efforts in continuing this site and the newsletter.
131 • Mepis & PC Linux OS (by Richard Fitzsimons on 2007-04-04 01:11:44 GMT from Ireland)
Rather than dismissing these two distributions as some have done, I would state that they are the two most ideal for desktop use. Either for me, a reasonably seasoned user or for a new user to linux. They have a tendency to 'just work' and work straight away. They play a huge range of media formats, open all the main filetypes automatically and work with a huge range of hardware.
Even the best of the mainstream distros, opensuse, has problems with these issues.
So while they are not strictly innovative, what they do is package the best of open source(and related) software out there in a polished, stable easy to use system. I wish them every success(not unselfishly).
Richard
132 • Re 125 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-04 01:48:57 GMT from Canada)
"If Mandriva was to ever go bye bye they could just as easily switch bases to fedora ..."
As far as PCLinuxOS and Mepis provide a customised desktop, the neophyte will not see the difference at all, but the power user will probably not like a change like this (ok ok, power users don't care about this because the don't use PCLinuxOS and Mepis ;-)
"or for that matter build there own base system."
They don't have sufficiently large community to back building there own base system.
133 • Sigh (by Anonymous on 2007-04-04 03:47:56 GMT from United States)
None of this crap matters to the Window user wanting to try Linux and have their computer work like it does when running that other os but without trojans, virus and malware. Mint, Mepis and PCLOS are good introductions without a steep learning curve.
134 • Need help getting started? (by Justin Breithaupt at 2007-04-04 06:39:04 GMT from United States)
If you need help getting started or just want to know why to use Linux or what it is go to my site www.mindblowingidea.com and click Linux to find out what it is and click Self Help to learn how to get it, install it, and play with it.
135 • Rumours of Debian’s irrelevance exaggerated. (by RoachBoy on 2007-04-04 07:25:23 GMT from Kenya)
I was just thinking about the frequent comment that Debian is becoming irrelevant. Interestingly, but in hindsight perhaps unsurprisingly, the folks who’ve lost the most market share to Linux are the proprietary UNIX vendors rather than Windows. As a result, Sun has been haemorrhaging money for the last few years. Besides hints that Sun is considering moving Solaris to the GPL, it appears that Sun is also building up its own Linux capabilities. The presence of Sun’s Simon Phipps at last year’s DebConf, and more recently Ian Murdock joining Sun, are probably an indication that Sun’s Linux of choice may be Debian. So besides HP and Intel we are also likely to have Sun taking more interest in Debian. With interest from all these heavy-hitters it seems that reports of Debian’s decreasing relevance may have been greatly exaggerated. That being said, release 4.0 already!
136 • Ideology behind a free OS: part II (by KimTjik on 2007-04-04 08:06:50 GMT from Sweden)
I just read through my post, # 129, and realized that it is somewhat unclear.
My questions refer to the following:
- the quite common Linux user who doesn't care from where or who he gets a working driver...
- the devotees of free OSs who accept nothing, if possible, that is proprietary.
...
About distro of choice: the idea of Arch, or as it now is Ark, is what I like the most. Not very difficult, but still a very good path to get a slim efficient system.
137 • RE:125 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-04 10:03:40 GMT from United States)
And you dare call others crazy? LOL, now that's a funny statement.
138 • RE: # 136 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2007-04-04 11:35:08 GMT from Italy)
Hi KimTjik
Ark and Arch are 2 very different distros. The former is meant to be newbie friendly, the latter is for the more advanced user, probably people who come from Slackware or Gentoo.
139 • RE: # 133 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2007-04-04 11:50:15 GMT from Italy)
"None of this crap matters to the Window user wanting to try Linux and have their computer work like it does when running that other os but without trojans, virus and malware. Mint, Mepis and PCLOS are good introductions without a steep learning curve."
Provided that their hardware is supported by the above mentioned distros.
I haven't tried Mint because I am not a fan of Gnome (nor a fan of Ubuntu for that matter). The last time I tried Mepis it was still based on Debian. I had been trying Mepis since the beginning, but I almost always had problems. Same with PCLinuxOS. To be taken into account I change hardware quite often.
IMO, OpenSUSE or even Mandriva are more likely to work out of the box.
And pity that Kanotix is on a limbo, because in my long and extremely intense experience no other distro has come even close (with the possible exception of Libranet)
140 • MINT (by Anonymous on 2007-04-04 12:15:34 GMT from United States)
LinuxMint is just Ubuntu on Steroids! It SHOULD NOT be consider a distribution, and they have prove it with the release of the "light" edition, like if "light meant NO proprietary software, patented technologies, support for restricted formats.
I think this so call "NEW" distros would do more good to the linux contributing to the Distributions that they are trying to use as a base. There is so much that Linux needs, But for sure is NOT another "Flavor".
141 • RE 138: Arch and Ark (by KimTjik on 2007-04-04 13:08:04 GMT from Sweden)
I know about the difference between Arch and Ark...
... but I was fooled to not notice the date of the following announcement:
"After 5 years of being called Arch Linux and 5 years of people confusing us with Ark Linux, we've finally come up with a solution. We've spent the last few months talking to the Ark Linux people to come up with a solution that's beneficial for both distributions. Today, we are happy to announce a name change for Arch Linux. Today, I am happy to announce, we will be known as Ark Linux!
We will keep our domain archlinux.org for the next few weeks, while people are still getting used to the name change, but eventually we will switch domains as well. In changing names, we are sure that people will never again have problems discerning Arch Linux with Ark Linux.
Long Live Ark Linux!"
That was the 1st of April and I proved to be a fool!
Actually Arch did for that one day even use the Ark logo.
So I'm very well aware of the Arch design and that was the one I referred to when talking about my distro of choice; in my view it has some advantages over Gentoo even though I like that distro as well. I've never used or been interested Ark.
Sorry for the confusion folks!
142 • 140 (by Eudoxus on 2007-04-04 13:23:35 GMT from Latvia)
Sorry, but I tend to disagree. Everybody is free to try to make a new distro he or she deems to be good. And there is always such a thing a as beginning. And Linux Mint, for example, is right here now. Then who is to say whether they existence is justified or not? Purists like you? Hardly. According to Distrowatch popularity rating people need Mint. As for me - I prefer it to Ubuntu (By the way - are not you just a jealous Ubuntu guy?). I think that it is more wise to accept a kind of Darwinist thinking in this regard - if there is a really superfluous distribution that is good for nothing, it will die sooner or later. Time will tell.
143 • To post #137 (by Jmiahman on 2007-04-04 15:15:26 GMT from United States)
To post #137
Why do you think I can call other people crazy. You don't truly know crazy unless your crazy yourself ;)
144 • RE: # 141 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2007-04-04 16:20:31 GMT from Italy)
ROFL, that was a really good April fools' joke!
145 • RE:129 • Ideology behind a free OS (by Anonymous on 2007-04-04 17:43:43 GMT from Canada)
I'm not criticizing anyone, so my questions are sincere. The whole issue of what OS is in the real since free or not seems to finally be decided by the hardware itself. An OS totally free of proprietary drivers is decided by the selection of hardware devices, right? Some companies aren't very keen on opening up enough to allow the development of good free drivers. If I exclude some multimedia support, my decision to have a working but totally free OS isn't really just decided by what OS I install. Have I understood this part correct?
Yes.
Hence I wonder: what do devotees of free operating systems wish to accomplish? Do they wish all developers of hardware to open up and give a full spec without any issues of patents?
In short, yes, free software devotees want the hardware manufacturers to allow free driver development. I don't know what you mean by issues of patents.
Why I ask, is because I don't view it as realistic to expect certain companies to open up, because of business ties or policies, like Intel. Therefore, even though I've never come across it, do these devotees keep an updated database about devices supported by free drivers?
Well for the most part your "devotees" are a straw man argument on your part. There are numerous databases, on the internet, of hardware that is supported. Mostly these databases are maintained by the developers of software so specific to only the hardware they are supporting. I'm thinking here of the madwifi or xorg projects as examples. I have seen compatibility lists of laptops too. So there are resources if you look.
What made me think about this was DistroWatch’s recommendation to read Pau Amaro-Seoane's articale "Looking for a free OS for my laptop". What did confuse me was that he tried to get a free operating system working on laptop with Intel chip. Did he really expect to find free working drivers? Isn't this a bit naive? Hence I'm tending to believe that Mr. Amaro-Seoane didn't really believe it could be accomplished, but wanted to make a point.
I don't think that is so naive. You would find, if you cared to look, that there are open source drivers for all Intel graphics, for all Intel cpu's and for most Intel chipsets. Intel has not allowed open source drivers for the Centrino chipset. I'm not sure why and I know the free software community has approached Intel about this. Your suspicion that the article you read was trying to make some subtle point may or may not be true. I have not read the article. If it is true it would probably not be for the reasons you have.
I don't know what to believe, so if anyone wishes to enlighten me it will be appreciated. I would love to get links to some clear statements without the thick smoke of philosophy.
I think here you are referring to the ideology of free software. I'm afraid you will find that impossible. You see free software is not a product for you to consume. It is a social movement and the ideology is what free software is about. You may not realize that most of what you do has ideology behind it. Most people are just too used to the whole consumerist, capitalist ideology that they don't really think of it as being an ideology. The free software movement is about releasing you from the ideological binds of consumerism. I you want more freedom you are welcome to join. If you don't then you are not compelled to join.
146 • RE:129 • Ideology behind a free OS (by john frey on 2007-04-04 17:45:29 GMT from Canada)
"I'm not criticizing anyone, so my questions are sincere. The whole issue of what OS is in the real since free or not seems to finally be decided by the hardware itself. An OS totally free of proprietary drivers is decided by the selection of hardware devices, right? Some companies aren't very keen on opening up enough to allow the development of good free drivers. If I exclude some multimedia support, my decision to have a working but totally free OS isn't really just decided by what OS I install. Have I understood this part correct?"
Yes.
"Hence I wonder: what do devotees of free operating systems wish to accomplish? Do they wish all developers of hardware to open up and give a full spec without any issues of patents?"
In short, yes, free software devotees want the hardware manufacturers to allow free driver development. I don't know what you mean by issues of patents.
"Why I ask, is because I don't view it as realistic to expect certain companies to open up, because of business ties or policies, like Intel. Therefore, even though I've never come across it, do these devotees keep an updated database about devices supported by free drivers?"
Well for the most part your "devotees" are a straw man argument on your part. There are numerous databases, on the internet, of hardware that is supported. Mostly these databases are maintained by the developers of software so specific to only the hardware they are supporting. I'm thinking here of the madwifi or xorg projects as examples. I have seen compatibility lists of laptops too. So there are resources if you look.
"What made me think about this was DistroWatch’s recommendation to read Pau Amaro-Seoane's articale "Looking for a free OS for my laptop". What did confuse me was that he tried to get a free operating system working on laptop with Intel chip. Did he really expect to find free working drivers? Isn't this a bit naive? Hence I'm tending to believe that Mr. Amaro-Seoane didn't really believe it could be accomplished, but wanted to make a point."
I don't think that is so naive. You would find, if you cared to look, that there are open source drivers for all Intel graphics, for all Intel cpu's and for most Intel chipsets. Intel has not allowed open source drivers for the Centrino chipset. I'm not sure why and I know the free software community has approached Intel about this. Your suspicion that the article you read was trying to make some subtle point may or may not be true. I have not read the article. If it is true it would probably not be for the reasons you have.
"I don't know what to believe, so if anyone wishes to enlighten me it will be appreciated. I would love to get links to some clear statements without the thick smoke of philosophy."
I think here you are referring to the ideology of free software. I'm afraid you will find that impossible. You see free software is not a product for you to consume. It is a social movement and the ideology is what free software is about. You may not realize that most of what you do has ideology behind it. Most people are just too used to the whole consumerist, capitalist ideology that they don't really think of it as being an ideology. The free software movement is about releasing you from the ideological binds of consumerism. I you want more freedom you are welcome to join. If you don't then you are not compelled to join.
147 • Qu 146 : what is your definition of consumerism? (by dbrion on 2007-04-04 18:29:52 GMT from France)
If you define it as the defence of the consumers rights (say : to have good provable quality software, to know what is inside the software one bougt/downloaded ) it might be seen, in the short term at least, seen as anticapitalist...
148 • RE: 142 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-04 18:39:54 GMT from United States)
Sorry, but I tend to disagree with you, jajaja.
Purists like me!, where did you get that idea?, what is the dif if you compare ubuntu with Mint? .
mint menu and some other little contributions, lets not forget that Bianca is newer!.
you just prefer Mint because you are lazy!!
149 • RE: 146 (by KimTjik on 2007-04-04 19:16:41 GMT from Sweden)
“Well for the most part your "devotees" are a straw man argument on your part.”
I’m sorry if I made the impression of making an argument against or questioning the sincerity of the free software community. That’s far from my intention.
“There are numerous databases, on the internet, of hardware that is supported. Mostly these databases are maintained by the developers of software so specific to only the hardware they are supporting. I'm thinking here of the madwifi or xorg projects as examples. I have seen compatibility lists of laptops too. So there are resources if you look.”
I do look for it, but as your statement imply, you in a way have to know what you’re looking for and where to find it. Let me also explain why I ask: at times I don’t know if certain drivers are a result of hardware manufacturers opening up or developers using their experience and knowledge to overcome the obstacle of scarce information. Both are an accomplishment, but the former is to prefer.
“You would find, if you cared to look, that there are open source drivers for all Intel graphics, for all Intel cpu's and for most Intel chipsets.”
I’m happy to hear that, because that’s not the impression I get reading articles on the subject. There no need to question my intentions: I care to look, but still it’s a haystack, at least for me. So much information, still it’s hard to get correct and not biased information. Also I have to admit that I’m selecting my hardware partly on basis of the policies some companies have concerning my freedom, so Intel isn’t present on any of my main machines, with the possible exception of a CPU, so I haven’t been forced to really dig deep.
“I think here you are referring to the ideology of free software. I'm afraid you will find that impossible. You see free software is not a product for you to consume. It is a social movement and the ideology is what free software is about. You may not realize that most of what you do has ideology behind it. Most people are just too used to the whole consumerist, capitalist ideology that they don't really think of it as being an ideology. The free software movement is about releasing you from the ideological binds of consumerism. I you want more freedom you are welcome to join. If you don't then you are not compelled to join.”
I think you misunderstood, or I did a miserable job writing that part. I don’t view myself as a part of any community, but I’m putting a real effort into breaking loose from software limiting the freedom of choice. What I would have liked to get is a pure report about the state of progress, what hardware manufacturers have been supporting and which have been less cooperative etc. That said I don’t negate the interaction between ideology and the practical effort.
Thanks for your time and I will continue to look into the subject taking note of your suggestions.
150 • 148 (by Eudoxus on 2007-04-04 19:32:05 GMT from Latvia)
So what? Yes, I am lazy in certain respects because life is short and there are many things I would like to do. The point is that I consider my computer as a tool for work and I pick up whatever serves this funcion without too much fuss. What's wrong with that?
I dared to call you a purist because you just have picked up some arbitrary criteria for determining which distro has rights to exists and which not. I just wanted to say that there is nobody to say such a thing. And the fact that many people like Mint, PCLOS and Mepis is good proof of that.
151 • Top 10 Distro's -- must be a joke! (by Werewolf on 2007-04-04 20:28:58 GMT from Romania)
Maybe top 15 or 20 because THERE ARE OTHERS DISTRO'S except deb/fc/ubuntu that should be mentioned here. I'm talking about Puppy (of course- it's incredible :D ), Frugalware, PCLOS, Sabayon and others (i can't remember them now...).
152 • RE 150 (by Anonymous on 2007-04-04 21:44:00 GMT from United States)
Myh dear Eudoxus,
what type of work you do if I may ask?, it has to do with mp3, or encrypted DVDs,. but that is not the case, the point that i was trying to make is that we NEED to make the current Distros more Solid, in the book the art of war, one of the ways to defeat the enemy is divide to conquer, and we are doing that to ourself M$$ must be laughing his ass off watching us fight. do you have any idea how much effort is waisted creating and and supporting a new distro?
BTW i'm not a purist, i think we have to be pragmatic and use what works or make it work. and about the top 10 Distro's we need to ad a new top 10 and that would be the TOP 10 FLAVORS. we need to take Linux to the next level and creating more flavor would not do it.
153 • RE:149 (by john frey on 2007-04-05 01:09:43 GMT from Canada)
That’s far from my intention.
I must apologize too. I though you were suggesting "these devotees" could all be found in one place, all having the same mindset.
"I don’t know if certain drivers are a result of hardware manufacturers opening up or developers using their experience and knowledge to overcome the obstacle of scarce information. Both are an accomplishment, but the former is to prefer."
It is hard to know about many drivers. Note that reverse engineering has a long tradition and is not unethical. No that unethical reverse engineering doesn't happen but the practice itself is legitimate.
"I care to look, but still it’s a haystack, at least for me."
No, it's a haystack for all of us, believe me. I usually give up on trying to get all compatible hardware, trusting that in the near term drivers will emerge for the hardware I select. I have not been disappointed yet. Laptops are a tricky area due to the many different hardware bits. In the case of laptops I usually settle for last years laptop in order to be sure of driver support. I'd be interested in what other Intel chips besides Centrino you have read about.
"I’m putting a real effort into breaking loose from software limiting the freedom of choice. What I would have liked to get is a pure report about the state of progress, what hardware manufacturers have been supporting and which have been less cooperative etc."
That's fantastic! I am not so vigilant on the manufacturers as you are although if I do hear about ones that are more supportive of free software I do make an effort to buy their hardware. I don't know if there is a dedicated list for supportive manufacturers. I would be interested in that as well. Anything that I know is the result of reading bits here and there. So I like Atheros and Linksys and dislike Broadcom for instance.
I can only suggest that FSF and the EFF might be places to start looking.
154 • My 2 cents on PCLinuxOS (by Terry on 2007-04-05 06:18:40 GMT from Australia)
I began with Mandriva and tried about 7 distros altogether before deciding on PCLinuxOS for the time being. Mandriva 2007 was the last straw. Neither of the so-called package managers work well and I could not even install Bittorrent because of a dependency problem. Incredible.
I don't dig the eye candy, the name or the adolescent excitement. I don't like it when I can't run or, sometimes, even install new software because the libraries are too old. What I do like is that it does not waste my time.
155 • RE 152 (by Werewolf on 2007-04-05 10:43:46 GMT from Romania)
THAT'S EXACTLY MY POINT OF VIEW. I'm totally agree with you! The linux world is aplying to herself the same method the romans used 2000 years ago "Divide et impera": there are to many X-based distros sharing the same goal: ex look at Slack and it's derivates : SaxeOS, Vector, Zenwalk,SLax,Kate,... Puppy with his (too) many flavours, PCLOS with SAM, and not to speack about Ubuntu (X,Edu, k, mint, Mepis, Pioneer....etc). But hey! you can't force a person to work on a project as a developer if he want to start a new project ( a X-based distro without nothing new except the graphics) and to be called "founder ".IMHO if a distro want's to atract people, to be "good" it needs to have many good developers,packagers,mainteiners,graphics teams and a strong community suport (testing,requests etc) and all of this can't be achieved if the Linux (distro's) world is dividing that fast.
To Ladislav: I think Distrowatch should drop the distro's that are dead, inactive or small and should re-think the criterias for admitting new distros in the database.
That's my 2 cents!
Happy Easter to you all!
156 • Missing the point? (by davemc on 2007-04-05 14:36:27 GMT from United States)
After reading through all 155 posts above, it is clear to me that the vast majority seems to want -
1) A distro that "just works", out of the box, and with all the functionalities working for thier hardware. This of course would have to include proprietary drivers such as NVIDIA and ATi.
Evolution is a very very good thing! Although I see alot of debate about various flavors of Linux Distro's (whats good, whats not), I really do not believe that anyone views spinoff distro's as a bad thing. This is how innovation and true advances happen! What I see happening to the Linux world cant be termed as anything other than true evolution because we started with a base, derivates branched introducing new energy and drive as well as new innovations, derivites from them, and so forth. Because the code is open source, it only gets better and better with each new distro. THAT is the true spirit of open source and GPL! To take a "slow moving" mindset and only accept new innovations into your distro after months or years of testing is counter productive to the advancement of Linux itself and serves nobody well (not talking about business deployments).
Although I sympathize with the proprietary vs. non bit, you will win NO new converts to Linux if you cant offer a distro where everything...and yes, I do mean EVERYTHING (windows apps included via wine)! works out of the box, with no setup or fiddling required by the user. This also of course means that the user should not have to go to X repo and download/untar whatever binary is required to get thier video cards working... Just rediculous to ever think that someone who is trying Linux after using M$ for years would even bother with such foolishness! LOL!!!!
157 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2007-04-05 15:06:10 GMT from United States)
"They don't have sufficiently large community to back building there own base system."
What is large? Is 10-20 thousand enough? Both MEPIS and PCLOS fall into this area.
They'd be fine my friend...even if they had only 300 members...because they have a LOYAL community.
158 • a new framework? (by glas on 2007-04-05 15:19:18 GMT from United Kingdom)
After reading many posts on the "Top 10 distros" as selected by DW so far, I can only see more discord in the future.
Perhaps a better approach would have been to a more historically based Greek mythological approach. We could first have a review of the Linux Titans (Debian, Slackware, Red Hat, etc.) followed by the Linux Gods (Mepis, PCLOS, Ubuntu etc.)
This is more of an evolutionary perspective that the Beauty Contest feel of a "Top 10".
glas (user and admirer of the demi-gods Pardus and Mint)
159 • dbrion (by RE 155 on 2007-04-05 15:36:41 GMT from France)
"Distrowatch should drop the distro's that are dead, inactive or small "
What should be the units for smallness ? (tenths of Vista's one month sales? hundreths of installed XPs ). What makes DW unique is that one can know what is inside many distrs, even those who seem inactive or dead:
Linuxes packaged in universities have some constraints (students should study, too; teachers should sometimes teach and publish) which can make release times unpredictable; their testing base is unknown and efficient. I think of Poseidon Linux ((one of) the first to offer qemu) and GeoLivre (it uses some complicated GIS : 20 yrs Grass is 10**6 lines of code and seems to be in an active debugging and upgrading, which is beyond the scope of a distr; I suppose releasing somewhat buggy/antiergonomic stuff is the safest way of having people choosing to buy [ they loose less ; one just count the months one risks to waiste finding a workaround if a strategic piece of soft is broken, and multiply by a salary ]). => distrs which offer such kind of widely appeciated applications can decide to wait till their users have a chance of being satisfied....
What was the size/user base/community of Linux 20 yrs ago?
160 • Size of ISO (by IMQ on 2007-04-05 17:24:48 GMT from United States)
What's the deal with the ISO from LinuxMint 2.2 KDE and Pioneer? Over 700MB? Were these typos? If not, I don't recall any local stores (BestBuy, Circuit City, Fry's, Micro Center, Office Depot, etc.) selling 800MB CD-R blanks.
161 • Where to find praise for PCLinuxOS (by davecs on 2007-04-05 19:25:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
I think that Ladislav's original comments on PCLOS were fair, apart from where he mentions the release cycle and roadmap. I think maybe he's a bit upset because he wrote in the LinuxFormat that came out in UK on 31st March that PCLOS 2007 had been released! Clearly he thought that Test Release 3 would be declared final and it hasn't been. :-)
Unlike many other distros, PCLinuxOS aims to be a "metadistro", ie, each release morphs into the next one by way of regular updates. This had to stop due to the new compilers, and so before the "new" version is considered stable, it has to be right, this base system is going to have to last for maybe three years.
As for PCLOS (and MEPIS) being "one man" distros, etc, I'm sure there are loads of others, too. But how many of them have forced their way to the top 10 of distrowatch? How many have communities around them taking over appearance, ? Texstar's quite a laid-back leader. A lot of people are doing their thing, having the last word is one thing, preventing initiative is another. Tex does his job well.
Finally, the title of this comment: If I want to read praise for PCLinuxOS I don't look on Linux sites, certainly not some of the "traditional" ones, but look at the blogs of Windows users trying Linux for the first time, and how many of them praise Linux?
You aim at newcomers, that's where the praise comes from. Unfortunately PCLinuxOS attracts some negative stuff because it fails to preach to the converted.
162 • RE: 160 • Size of ISO (by Antonio on 2007-04-06 04:41:03 GMT from United States)
You are correct there are no CD's capable of writing 800MB, you can use overburn option but up to a certain amount probably like 716MB or so. I do remember seeing that they are for DVD's though.
For Linux Mint, it says
Read the rest of the release notes for more details. Download (MD5) the DVD image from here: LinuxMint-2.2-KDE-BETA-020.iso (803MB).
and for
Pioneer it says
Rifleman requires a DVD for installation and is only recommended for P4 systems, or equivalent, and NVIDIA graphics support.
163 • 800 MB CD's (by Ariszló on 2007-04-06 10:16:47 GMT from Hungary)
Yes, there are 800 MB CD's. I have two 800 MB (90 min) TDK CD's here on my desk.
164 • This whole topic is crap anyway (by davemc on 2007-04-06 17:16:49 GMT from United States)
Although the debate here is interesting, the article is complete crap and im sure Ladislov is aware of that fact. For one, you cannot group together a bunch of distro's as he has done and call them "top 10". Top 10 by whose standard?!.. Does Ladislov determine what is best and what is not for the rest of the Linux world?!... I think not, therefor he should not even try.
This is classic trolling IMO, and an article designed to stir up controversy. Something the Linux world needs alot less of.
165 • Ubuntu/Mepis Software Installation (by soonerproud on 2007-04-06 22:09:58 GMT from United States)
Quote 122
"I use Mepis at home on 6 machines. Tried Ubuntu, but I did NOT like their method of installing software."
Mepis and Ubuntu are both Debian and use the exact same methods for software installation. Both use Synaptic and apt-get/dpkg to install software.
The reason Mepis does wireless detection better than Ubuntu is that Ubuntu tries to remain free of proprietary drivers when it can and Mepis loads as many proprietary drivers as possible.
Fiesty is a change in direction for Ubuntu because they have decided that functionality is more important than remaining clean. Wireless support for fiesty will be vastly improved for this reason.
166 • Linux Mint is not just Ubuntu on steroids (by soonerproud on 2007-04-06 23:32:50 GMT from United States)
I have tried Mint and I can tell you it differs from Ubuntu in some key aspects. The Ubuntu-Desktop metapackage has been removed. Some of the things unique to Ubuntu are not in Mint like the add/remove software utility.
Some of the default applications in Mint differ from Ubuntu. Amarok is the default media player in Mint instead of Rythmbox. Games have all been removed from Mint.
Another difference is Mint defaults to it's own Mint menu where Ubuntu uses the Gnome menu. The control panel in Bianca is different from the control panel in Fiesty. Mint Disk is used to mount partitions and add ntfs support in Mint.
Mint also includes Mint Wifi to add better wifi support than Ubuntu has.
The look and feel of the entire operating system is completely different than Ubuntu. this includes new icons, splash, wallpapers and themes.
A lot of this work is unique to Mint and substantially differentiates it from Ubuntu. Mint even has it's own repos because of these differences.
Codecs are just icing on the cake and are not necessary to consider Mint a distro in it's own right. This is the reason the light version will have appeal for those who live in countries that it may be illegal to use the full version of Mint. Those users can always use Automatix2 to install the codecs and other proprietary bits they want later.
The project leader clem has stated many time that Mint is not about the codecs since those can be easily added by Automatix. Mint is clem's idea of what a linux desktop should be.
167 • The Distribution of Distro Popularity (by Fractalguy on 2007-04-07 03:00:35 GMT from United States)
It looks like a good question might be how many distros should be featured in a "top" list? Top 10? Top Dozen? Top Hundred?
How many are in the data base? I don't know, but some very nice ones are not getting any notice at all - and their creators don't mind, at this point. Maybe they aren't ready to go "public". I'm guessing it might push 500 in all.
So, how about a little anaylsis then. I'm thinking the Distribution of Distro Popularity (gotta love that title) is one of those long tail things "they" write about. I used the long tail maths in a work related report about 9 years ago. :)
For background see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail
Anyways, there can be a very large number totaled in that long tail depending on the cutoff for the sum. And some companies are learning that lesson the hard way (think brick and mortar book stores vs. Amazon who understands). The long tail represents the little known but once in a while bought books or songs. And these numbers add up to be more than the top 40. So, you ignore the long tail at your own risk.
Here on Distrowatch, the total (one month) hits over the first 100 distros today is, by my Gnumeric spreadsheet table, 32821. So how about if we say the "Top" list should cover half of the "voting" visitors. Then that would be, it turns out, the top 11, pretty close to a "Top 10". Interesting.
I modeled the data from Distrowatch with a Pareto function, see
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stdisfit.html#pareto.
When I extrapolate the function out to 500 distros to cover more of the rare but important long tail the total accumulation is about 40890, half of which are in a Top 20 list.
Hmmm. So, what to do with the extra 10 distros. Well, I think they might satisfy both the "More taste, Less filling" crowds and "More eye candy, less bloat" fans, if not most of them. Will the long tail ever merge with the top distros? I doubt it and don't see why they should. Many might run a Big Ten distro on one machine/partition while tinkering with their favorite on another.
You can see the chart on my web page.
http://www.geocities.com/e_8013/index.htm#Distrowatch
168 • Symphony OS based on Ubuntu (by Ariszló on 2007-04-07 15:00:48 GMT from Hungary)
2007-04-02 Announcement:
"We have moved to an Ubuntu base, and are gunning for a summer release."
http://symphonyos.com/cms/?p=14
169 • RE: 162 & 163 (by IMQ on 2007-04-07 21:25:46 GMT from United States)
RE: 162,
I think you are right. They are for DVD. However, I think it is a total waste of DVD space if the ISO is slightly larger than the regular CD blank, but about 1/5 of DVD size. It reminds me of Foresight ISO image, which is a little bigger than 700MB. I prefer to do 2 CDs set than 1 DVD for economic reason. CD blanks are still much cheaper than DVD one.
RE: 163,
The 800MB CD blanks are not popular here in all the stores I mentioned.
170 • re:162,163 and 169 (by Jacko on 2007-04-08 12:26:44 GMT from United Kingdom)
You are all right, but if you check the press release (link is somewhere on distrowatch ). Once the initial testing of the Alpha release is done, then the rest of the DVD space will be filled with requested stuff so it can be used as a reposaitory itself, ideal for people on dialup.
Jacko
171 • KDE on Mint without the DVD (by Fractalguy on 2007-04-08 17:33:58 GMT from United States)
You can install the KDE desktop on your Mint installation adding it to GNOME. At login you can then log into either. I've just done this with my HD install and can login to both on the same account. That done, I can hop between them with CTRL-Alt-F7 and F9. I grabbed all the KDE stuff from the repository and it looks pretty good. Now I don't know if there is some extra eye candy included with the DVD . Also, I just put in Xfce4 and IceWM. I'll log into them after posting this. :)
I wrote about multiple window managers running on your Mint livecd earlier here where I added IceWM. That took less than 100MB extra ram. I'm running 1GB here and bet I could add basic KDE to the Mint livecd session, especially if swap is running. Well at least you could see what it looks like. :)
Now swap is turned off by default. I turned it on with these commands, the first to verify the swap partition (hda5):
sudo fdisk -l /dev/hda
sudo swapon /dev/hda5
There must be a file somewhere to edit to make this the default on my HD install. :/
172 • mepis6.5 (by flash86 on 2007-04-09 06:28:47 GMT from Canada)
hi guys,
i am a newbie to linux. i have just installed mepis6.5. i have noticed that there is no trash file manager. was this done by design or was it replaced with something else.
173 • Debian release (by AC on 2007-04-09 09:01:16 GMT from United States)
This cannot be right. RC bugs are at 71 and security problems were reported to lead to a 4-6 week delay from April 2 release.
PLEASE WAIT TO DOWNLOAD!
Number of Comments: 173
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| 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 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Polar Bear Linux
Polar Bear Linux was a source-based GNU/Linux distribution derived from Linux From Scratch. All software packages are provided in the form of source code, which are compiled during installation. This has many advantages, as well as a major drawback in the time it takes to install the system (approximately 9 hours for a base system). Polar Bear Linux uses a simple package manager called Tarball Package Manager (TBPKG).
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
