 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 206, 11 June 2007 |
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Welcome to this year's 24th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! This week marks the start of a slower season on the distribution release calendar; all major new versions are now out and many users have been enjoying their newly updated Linux desktops. But is there still anything exciting going on the distro scene? You bet! This week's DistroWatch Weekly asks the readers to comment on their "distro hopping" habits, reports about Linux Format's annual distribution mega-test, links to an open source software article in The Economist, and reports about the new linuX-gamers live DVD. Finally, don't miss your chance to suggest new packages to be tracked after the upcoming DistroWatch's package database update later this month. Happy reading!
Content:
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| Featured Story |
Distro hopping
How many distributions have you run on your main desktop system during the past two years? If your answer is "more than one", then you are probably not alone. It seems that the current trend among Linux users -- or at least among those of you who frequent DistroWatch -- is to change a distribution every few months.
Take a look at this piece of statistical evidence from this site's web logs:
The two tables compare the percentage of distributions used to visit DistroWatch.com during the last month (May 2007) and the first 10 days of this month (June 2007), as logged by the web server. The last column of each table represents the percentage of visitors using a certain distribution; as an example, among the Linux users who visited DistroWatch during May 2007, 28.7% used Ubuntu to browse these pages.
Now let's observe the trends. As we can see, some distributions recorded significantly higher market share during the first 10 days of June than during May; most notably Fedora (up from 3.6% to 6.0%), PCLinuxOS (up from 5.6% to 6.5%) and Linux Mint (up from 1.8% to 2.8%). It can't be a coincidence that all three of them released new major versions towards the end of last month (PCLinuxOS 2007 was released on 21 May, Linux Mint 3.0 on 30 May and Fedora 7 on 31 May).
These figures seem to suggest that many of you who visit DistroWatch regularly switched to a new distribution in the last couple of weeks. openSUSE seems to be the biggest victim of this trend (down from 5.8% to 5.3%), but all other distributions that did not release a new version recently also dropped in terms of market share.
So here are a few questions for this week's discussion: Did you switch to a new distribution recently? If so, why? Did you just test one of the new releases and liked it so much that you decided to keep it? Or did you find it exciting to run an operating system with more up-to-date software? If you switched from openSUSE to Fedora or PCLinuxOS, what was your main reason? Are there any readers who have used the same distro for the past two years? Please discuss below.
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| Miscellaneous News |
Distributions enter "shoulder season", Linux Format's distro showdown, The Economist on Ubuntu, Xandros - business as usual
With the release of Fedora 7 in late May, we have now entered the "shoulder season" of the distribution release calendar. With the possible exception of Slackware 11.1 (or will it be 12.0?), no major project is expected to publish a new version before around late September or early October 2007. Last week was a perfect example of this slow-down - only two stable versions (one of which was a regional distribution catering for a specific language group) were announced during the week. Nevertheless, there is still a lot to look forward to before the next major release wave generates new excitement; the upcoming SabayonLinux 3.4 is in heavy development and should be out before long, while the openSUSE project is about to complete its fifth development build of the forthcoming version 10.3. So don't stop visiting DistroWatch even if things are slightly slower than usual - we'll keep bringing you news about any interesting ideas and exciting projects as we learn about them!
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  Linux Format has published its annual "distro showdown", a comprehensive test of the most popular desktop Linux distributions available today. This year's evaluation included eight distributions -- Debian GNU/Linux 4.0, Fedora Core 6, Mandriva Linux 2007, PCLinuxOS 2007 TR4, SabayonLinux 3.3, Slackware Linux 11.0, openSUSE 10.2 and Ubuntu 7.04 -- and covered various aspects, such as security, hardware compatibility, performance, community and software selection. The review gives preliminary standings in each category before concluding the test with a final ranking. And the winner? Ubuntu, which won three of the five categories, finished as the top distribution, ahead of openSUSE and Debian. The only categories that Ubuntu did not win was security (openSUSE was rated the best here) and performance, where the top prize was snatched by PCLinuxOS.
It is always a pleasure to see a mainstream, non-technology publication reporting about Linux and open source software. The latest issue of The Economist caries a long article entitled Bringing free software down to earth, in which the author introduces the readers to Mark Shuttleworth and his vision of the world of software: "Rather than seeing open-source software as one of two competing ideologies and focusing on the struggle, Ubuntu thinks about the user. Ubuntu is a complete bundle of software, from operating system to applications and programming tools, that is updated every six months and, says Mr Shuttleworth, will always be free. Taking the hassle out of open source is intended to move adoption beyond politically motivated enthusiasts and encourage mass adoption of the software on its merits." Read the rest of the article here.
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 Xandros, a company which was created from the ashes of Corel Linux in 2002, but which has failed to excite the Linux community in recent years, has finally entered the headlines of Linux publications. Unfortunately, for the wrong reasons. After concluding a business, technical and Intellectual Property collaboration deal with Microsoft, many free software enthusiasts expressed their dismay over the agreement (see this article by Groklaw or this one by ITWire). But even before this deal, Xandros had never been a community player (it has failed to release a single piece of its own software under a free licence) and the only raison d'être of this Canadian company was to profit from free software. And while its first two releases of Xandros Desktop brought some interesting advancements into desktop Linux, the company later abandoned its innovative spirit and desktop enthusiasm to focus on business Linux instead. Disappointing, to say the least, from a company that held so much promise in its early days....
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Here at DistroWatch we have talked about the so-called Linux web sites that happily disseminate sponsored anti-Linux propaganda from their pages. Last week, the Free Software Magazine published a parody on the subject of Microsoft's ongoing smear campaign against Linux, targeting Linux news sites: "...you want to place your ad on articles and pages that relate to your competitors, so you can have that juxtaposition sitting right there. An article about your opponent? YOU NEED TO BE THERE. My suggestion is to target all of your opposition sites as well, and offer huge sums for advertising space on their sites. Some of them will go for it because they can't afford not to." Even if you disagree with the DistroWatch position that accepting such advertisements for publishing on Linux news sites is an insult to the community of Linux developers and users, this is still an entertaining article to read. Enjoy!
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| Released Last Week |
STUX GNU/Linux 1.0
STUX GNU/Linux 1.0, a live CD based on Slackware's "current" tree, has been released: "STUX GNU/Linux 2007 (version 1.0) released." From the changelog: "Upgraded to Slackware current as at 1 June 2007 and KNOPPIX live CD 5.1.1 (kernel 2.6.19); fixed problem with installation on SATA hard disks; all STUX utilities deeply reviewed; NVIDIA proprietary driver updated to 1.0-9755 + legacy driver 1.0-9631 for old cards; save live CD persistent configuration on ReiserFS partitions; install compressed image on ReiserFS partitions; Acx wireless firmware upgraded; fully integrates with other pre-installed operating systems; Compiz 0.5.0; fully VMware/QEMU compatible." Visit the project's news page to read the release announcement and changelog.
Càtix 1.3
Càtix is a Debian-based live DVD with support for Catalan, a widely-used language spoken in Spain's Catalonia and some neighbouring regions. Càtix 1.3 was announced earlier today; some of the important changes and new features include: read and write support for NTFS partitions; X.Org 7.2, pre-configured for 3D desktop effects with AIGLX and Beryl; use of Unicode as the default character encoding; Unionfs 2.0 overlay file system compressed with Squashfs, providing 4.5 GB of software on a 1.6 GB DVD images; auto-detection of USB storage devices; Linux kernel 2.6.21 with KDE 3.5.7, GNOME 2.18.1, OpenOffice.org 2.2.0, Iceweasel 2.0.0.3 and many other applications. Please read the comprehensive release notes (in Catalan) for detailed information about the new release.
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Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
The annual package database update
As has become customary, June is the month when the list of packages tracked by DistroWatch gets updated to include new packages that you would like to see listed in the distribution tables. If you have a package that you believe is worth tracking on DistroWatch, please either email us directly (email address at the bottom of this page) or leave a comment in the forum below. Please note, that not all requested packages will be added, but those that receive the most requests will be considered for inclusion.
One set of packages that have been requested frequently during the past few months are the various 3D desktops, especially Compiz and Beryl, but also Metisse. However, with the ongoing merge between Compiz and Beryl, it isn't quite clear what the end result will be; will Compiz and Beryl still exist after the two projects have merged or will there be a new package? Maybe some of our readers who follow the project can provide suggestions as to which package(s) to track. Also, does anybody use Metisse? Is it worth listing?
Several packages have undergone a name change or have been forked due to various issues and these will be renamed in the DistroWatch tables shortly; here is the list:
The new package list will be finalised and announced next Monday, 18 June.
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Enlisy. Enlisy is a Linux distribution optimised for i686 processors (Pentium II or better), with InitNG as its init system and Apport as its package manager. It is currently aimed at the more experienced Linux user.
- Linux For Clinics. Linux For Clinics is an Ubuntu-based distribution with the goal of providing a Linux-based OS with a complete software package aimed at medical professionals and hospitals as a free and complete alternative to proprietary software.
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DistroWatch database summary
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 18 June 2007. Until then,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
StartCom Linux
StartCom Enterprise Linux, which was based on the Red Hat AS source code, was the ultimate solution for middle-size servers to large data centres. The current version supports the largest commodity-architecture servers with up to 16 CPUs and 64GB (on x86 systems) of main memory, Global File System - for highly scalable, high performance data sharing in multi-system configurations. Included in this distribution was a comprehensive collection of open source server applications like mail, file (SMB/NFS), DNS, web, FTP, and a complete desktop environment.
Status: Discontinued
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| 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.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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