 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 237, 28 January 2008 |
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Welcome to this year's 4th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Mobile workers no longer have to carry bulky laptops in order to do their work; with the emergence of free software and live operating systems, a bootable USB Flash drive with Linux is often all that's needed to complete one's task while on the road. In this week's issue we'll take a quick look at Mandriva Flash 2008, a useful "pocket" OS with thousands of applications and several gigabytes of free space for storing your data. In the news section, Gentoo Linux works hard to improve the interaction between the developers and its users, Debian embarks on a major switch to GCC 4.3 as the default compiler, Fedora announces more changes to the project leadership prior to the upcoming release of Fedora 9, and ISP-Planet talks to m0n0wall's Manual Kasper about the importance of small, configurable firewalls. Finally, don't miss the usual bunch of new Linux distributions submitted to DistroWatch, including the promising openmamba GNU/Linux. Happy reading!
Content:
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| Featured Story |
First Look at Mandriva Flash 2008
 Mobile computing is an essential activity for many people who frequently move between different work places. Traditionally, carrying a laptop (and maybe a spare battery) was the most common way to make sure that a job was being done even while away from the office, but with the emergence of modern technologies and free software, some people have replaced the bulky notebook with a tiny USB device. With Linux, especially since KNOPPIX and other live operating systems revolutionised the way we boot our computers, many projects have embarked on building bootable Linux systems on USB devices - complete with full operating systems and enough space to store one's data. Of the big Linux distributions, Mandriva -- with its Mandriva Flash, a 4 GB USB storage device carrying the latest version of its distribution -- has always been at the forefront of the development of these "pocket" operating systems.
I started my testing of the 4 GB Mandriva Flash 2008 on a Toshiba Satellite laptop. Although the laptop supports booting from USB devices and its BIOS was set up with the USB drive as the first boot device, it still failed to boot the Flash drive. No problem. Since Mandriva's USB key comes with a tiny bootable ISO image, I inserted the Flash drive to a USB port of my main computer, copied the 4.8 MB ISO image to the hard disk and then burnt it onto a CD. Even if Mandriva Flash boots fine on your system, it is always advisable to create this boot CD for those computers that don't support booting from USB devices. With its small size, it even fits on one of those business card-size CDs that one can conveniently carry in a wallet!
With the freshly burnt CD in the DVD drive, the Toshiba laptop finally booted into Mandriva Flash 2008. The first boot somewhat resembled the installation process - although the system detected and configured all hardware correctly, it required some user input, such as specifying the keyboard, time zone and root password, and creating a user account. This was followed by a screen allowing the user to resize the live system in order to create space for system settings and data. This got me stumped; with the default set to just 400 MB, but with the total available space of 2,640 MB, why not use the entire free space for data? And if I accept the default and allocate just 400 MB for data, what will the remaining space be used for? Other user accounts? Or system updates? This, I felt, wasn't explained clearly by the on-screen wizard. Eventually I settled on allocating about two thirds of the available space to data and left the rest to whatever the system needed it for.
The optimal monitor resolution of 1280x800 pixels was set up correctly. Interestingly, the system automatically loaded a proprietary NVIDIA driver and asked whether to turn on any 3D desktop effects - the default was none, but one could choose between Metisse and CompizFusion. I opted for CompizFusion just to see how well it would perform while running the OS from a USB Flash drive, but later I turned it off because I found it a bit flaky (the default Mandriva slide show screensaver would sometimes only cover one part of the screen and I had X.Org crash on me on one occasion). The hardware detection system correctly configured and brought up both the wireless network card (Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG) and the Ethernet card (Intel PRO/100). One other glitch I noticed after entering the desktop was the duplication of some menus (Find and Recent Documents, see the screenshot below).
Mandriva Flash 2008 - the default desktop
(full image size: 618kB, screen resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
Mandriva Linux 2008 was released more than four months ago, so I wasn't surprised to see that, after launching the package update tool, there were 171 packages waiting to be updated. This proceeded without a hitch. Next, I was curious to find out more about the available "disk" space on the USB Flash drive, so I reached for the "df" utility. This gave me an interesting output: the total space was 3.1 GB (with 1.5 GB used and 1.6 GB free), which meant that the roughly 900 MB of space which I left "unresized" during the initial resizing wizard was unrecognised. This made me wonder even more about the unusually small space set out by default for user data - just 400 MB. Had I opted for that, full 2 GB of the Flash drive would have been "lost" to whatever the designers of Mandriva Flash intended it for!
One other thing I wanted to test was the speed of the system and applications, but I found these to be excellent; in fact, I hardly noticed that the operating system wasn't running from the hard disk. It booted up in 110 seconds (from the moment it detected the boot CD to the full KDE desktop), while OpenOffice.org Writer started in 11 seconds (first launch) and 3 seconds (second launch). Other than the fact that the system ran from a USB Flash device, it was very much the same as the Powerpack edition of Mandriva Linux 2008, complete with some proprietary components (kernel drivers, media codecs) and non-free software (Skype, Flash plugin, RealPlayer), but there was one important difference - GNOME was not present. The only alternative to the KDE desktop was the light-weight IceWM. On the other hand, Mandriva Flash 2008 supports a large number of languages, which can be configured during the first boot.
After spending a few days running Mandriva Flash 2008, I was pleased with the system. It's hard not to appreciate its versatility - you can easily move any data between the device and another computer without having to boot it first and the operating system itself seemed to be very stable (once you overcome the temptation to turn on CompizFusion) and bug-free. Its hardware detection was excellent and performance rather better than I expected. This should be a perfect companion for the road - provided that you have a remote server to back-up your work; after all, the USB key is so small that there is a real danger that it could get misplaced or lost. The only other negative: Mandriva Flash isn't particularly cheap, but as always with these products, you get what you pay for.
Mandriva Flash 2008 4GB is available from Mandriva Store (€59.00, free shipping) or Amazon.com (US$93.99). For more information please visit the product page at Mandriva.com.
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| Miscellaneous News |
Gentoo rejects Robbins's offer, Debian switches to GCC 4.3, Fedora announces more personnel changes, ISP-Planet interviews m0n0wall's Manuel Kasper
 The Gentoo Linux project has seemingly recovered from its recent leadership crisis. Following the outcry of the Gentoo user community over the revocation of the Gentoo Foundation's charter and further demands for better interaction between the project's developers and its users, the Board of Trustees has introduced a number of changes. Those who missed the old glory days of Gentoo Linux will be pleased with the frequent updates on the project's home page, including news about the upcoming release of Gentoo Linux 2008.0, tentatively scheduled for 17 March 2008. In a related development, the Board of Trustees has rejected the offer of help from Daniel Robbins and has decided to continue managing Gentoo under the current leadership. The project's founder welcomed the changes and dismissed suggestions that he fork Gentoo into a new distribution. He was later seen joining the developers' mailing list at Sabayon Linux, a Gentoo-based desktop distribution.
All is well that ends well? Let's hope that the newly introduced changes will not be just temporary and that we will continue seeing regular updates and frequent stable release of what is one of the most innovative and powerful Linux distributions available today!
* * * * *
 Judging by the confidence with which many Debian-based distributions release their new builds based on Debian's two non-stable branches, the development of the upcoming release of the world's largest Linux distribution, code name "Lenny", is going well. However, as announced on the Debian developers' list over the weekend, a critical part of the process - a switch to GCC 4.3 as the default compiler, is only now getting under way: "Over the last year many test rebuilds of the archive were made using new compiler versions taken from the upstream repositories. The results of these re-builds look promising so we will make GCC 4.3 the default compiler for at least these architectures with good test results soon after the creation of the GCC 4.3 release branch. ... Among some new features and bug fixes, the C++ compiler is now more strict, plus libstdc++ did see a reorganisation of header include files, which both lead to a large number of build failures, which will turn into release critical bugs once the first architecture changes to g++ 4.3 as the default C++ compiler. While a large number of packages is already fixed and prepared to build with 4.3, we still have more than 500 packages which do not build with g++ 4.3."
* * * * *
 Preparations for the upcoming first alpha release of Fedora 9 Alpha, due later this week, continue unabated - despite several personnel reshuffles the project has been through since its last stable release. The latest round of changes includes a "promotion" for Tom "Spot" Callaway to the newly created Fedora Engineering Manager post: "The paperwork went through earlier this week, so it is official now: I'm now the Fedora Engineering Manager inside Red Hat. This is a new role, it was created as part of the understanding that Max Spevack is actually a super-powered alien from outer space, and that no mere mortal can do all the things that his job entails. Paul Frields is the Fedora Leader, he is the decision maker, the big kahuna, the wise man, and the last best hope for peace. Jack Aboutboul is the Fedora marketing lead, community builder, and ambassador to the known the universe. I'm filling the technical portion of the tri-force, leading the Red Hat engineering efforts towards making Fedora even better, and getting good ideas wherever I can find them."
On a related note, the code name for Fedora 9, scheduled for release on 29 April 2008, will be Sulphur.
* * * * *
 Small firewall distributions lack the glamour and attention the big desktop-oriented releases get in the Linux media, but they form an essential part of the Internet infrastructure. One such project is m0n0wall, a light-weight firewall based on FreeBSD and complete with an excellent, web-based configuration tool. ISP-Planet has talked to Manuel Kasper, the project's founder and lead developer: "Manuel Kasper developed the embedded firewall software package m0n0wall back in 2002, he says, while experimenting with embedded x86-based computers. 'Having just succeeded at stripping down FreeBSD enough to make it run on a Soekris net4501 board... and deploying it for use as a home firewall/NAT router, I wanted to go one step further,' he says. 'I wanted a nice, web-based interface to configure it, just like the commercial firewall boxes.'".
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| Released Last Week |
Ubuntu 6.06.2
Canonical has announced the release of Ubuntu 6.06.2 LTS, the second update to its "Long Term Support" release from June 2006: "Canonical, the commercial sponsors of the Ubuntu project, announced today the second maintenance release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, which continues to be supported with maintenance updates and security fixes until June 2009 on desktops and June 2011 on servers. Over 600 post-release updates have been integrated, so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation, and the installation system has been improved. These include security updates and corrections, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. Some particularly notable updates in Ubuntu 6.06.2 LTS include: Users can configure LVM using RAID partitions as physical volumes; detection of the DAC960 RAID controller...." Read the rest of the press release for further details.
GoblinX 2.6 "Micro"
Flavio Pereira de Oliveira has announced the release of GoblinX 2.6 "Micro" edition, a minimalist live CD based on Slackware Linux: "GoblinX Micro 2.6 is released. The GoblinX Micro edition is the smallest version of our distribution and contains only Fluxbox as windows manager and GTK+-based applications. The main upgrades since the release candidate: added SLAX firewall; added more options to ISOLINUX menu; rebuilt GtkDialog interfaces to not allow resize action; corrected several errors and bugs; added ghdcpd and xrefresh; upgraded some libraries and packages including xorg-server; replaced z.Goblinx with z.Micro; replaced z.User with z.Muser; corrected some sudo issues; removed X.Org default resolution; recompiled Fluxbox against Imlib2." Visit the distribution's news page to read the full release announcement.
Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0
Alan Baghumian has announced the release of Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0, a desktop distribution based on Debian's testing branch: "We are proud to announce that the final version of Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0, code name 'Ramon', is available now. The main highlights are: Improved live system with new start-up and shut-down scripts, new live structure, new Squashfs + LZMA compression system, updated installer system, new 2.6.23.14 kernel with CFS 24.1, CK, TuxOnIce 3.0-RC5, Iwlwifi and other patches, GNOME 2.20.3, lots of updated packages including OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, GNU Iceweasel 2.0.0.11, GIMP 2.4.3, glibc 2.7, Pidgin 2.3.1, all packages have been synchronized with Debian testing repository as of January 24, 2008, new GUI X.Org configuration tool ported from Ubuntu, new attractive look and feel." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details.
Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0 - showcasing the latest from Debian's testing branch
(full image size: 355kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
SchilliX 0.6
SchilliX 0.6, a non-graphical distribution featuring the latest OpenSolaris technologies, has been released. What's new? "Updated to use OpenSolaris Nevada Build 80; now using a non-DEBUG build of the OS; new keyboard layout recognition and setup method, if you do not use a German keyboard, boot one of the 'Ask KBD Layout' boot entries and wait for being asked for the keyboard layout; thanks to a new mkisofs and to a new 'hsfs' driver, installing the DVD to a hard disk will now correctly hard link all hard linked files in the copy; all /opt/schily programs updated to a recent release; SCCS has been updated to the recent Schily release that adds some new features and fixes some bugs. Warning: this release does not fit on a CD any more, you need to write the image to a DVD to be able to boot it." Here is the full release announcement.
Shift Linux 0.6.2
Barney Tormey has announced the release of Shift Linux 0.6.2, an Ubuntu-based distribution developed by the Neowin.net community: "Shift Linux 0.6 released today. There are three editions released at this time: Shift Linux 0.6 GNOME, Shift Linux 0.6 KDE4, and Shift Linux 0.6 Lite (for older computers). Shift Linux Lite contains two less resource hogging window managers (Xfce and Fluxbox), but will have a full compliment of packages and utilities. All three versions of Shift Linux 0.6 are fully installable (tested and verified). Shift Linux has moved away from its Morphix base and is now based on Ubuntu. This version incorporates Firefox 3 (GranParadiso), OpenOffice.org, new themes, and a tested installer. We've also updated to KDE4. This is a transition version as we move away from Morphix and port over our previous versions to Ubuntu." Here is the complete release announcement.
Shift Linux 0.6.2 GNOME edition - now based on Ubuntu and featuring Firefox 3.0
(full image size: 200kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Gentoo Linux 2008.0
The Gentoo Release Engineering team has published a roadmap leading to the release of Gentoo Linux 2008.0: " Public beta releases play a major role in the Release Engineering team's revamped plans for 2008.0. Releng lead Chris Gianelloni said he hoped beta releases would increase community participation as well as the quality of the final release. These feature-complete public betas will require the earlier development of release materials, another component of the 2008.0 changes. To ensure sufficient time for beta testing, a mandatory 2-week testing period will follow the beta release." Gentoo Linux 2008.0 Beta is scheduled for release on March 3rd, with the final release coming on March 17th, 2008. Read the full announcement for further details.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
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DistroWatch database summary
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 4 February 2008.
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Gentoo (by Andrew on 2008-01-28 10:58:59 GMT from Australia)
When 2008.0 I will be giving Gentoo yet another try.
Until then, more than happy with Kubuntu :)
Another good one Ladislav!
2 • Mandriva Flash (by Peter Kasbergen on 2008-01-28 11:19:55 GMT from Netherlands)
It's really too bad that Mandriva Flash is so pricey. This way a lot of people will keep trying to make their own bootable USB sticks. MF seems like a very nice product though...
3 • YAP = Puppy 4 powered Buddhist Shrine (by lobster on 2008-01-28 11:23:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
Running from USB keydrive Tmxxine Vision a Buddhist ISO for running shrines, consecrating hardware and practicing YinYana and other forms of Buddhism, releases software that will run on any Puppy Linux 2.10 onward
http://tmxxine.com/wik/wikka.php?wakka=YapInfo
You will see a short youtube clip on that site . . .
An Alpha release based on the experimental Puppy 4 (Dingo) is running the shrine. The only Buddhist Shrine with a built in operating system . . .
OM YA HA HUM
4 • Parsix for non-Iranian users? (by Béranger on 2008-01-28 12:17:57 GMT from Romania)
Since Parsix looks always like a very polished distro, I wonder whether there is a significant number of Parsix users who are not interested in its Persian abilities?!
If I am not wrong, being based on Debian testing, you should be able to get everything (including security patches) from Debian testing repos, right?
It was nice for me to see that Parsix is GNOME-based, however the CD seems NOT to include Mono :-)
5 • OT?: Qt owned by NOKIA now (by arno911 at 2008-01-28 12:18:56 GMT from Germany)
one of the biggest Gnome-sponsors, NOKIA, bought Trolltechs Qt. What does this mean for the future of Gnome, KDE, do they just wanna brush up their mobile phone branche?
6 • @ 5 (by Anonymous on 2008-01-28 13:00:14 GMT from United States)
Nokia hasn't bought Trolltech, yet, they've just offered $153M(US). What does it mean? It probably means Nokia wants an established team of developers to work for them.
Considering how widely Qt is being used, it is a good investment for them. Adobe uses Qt in Photoshop Elements, Lucas Arts has licensed it for use in some of their upcoming games, Google chose it for Google Earth... Why not buy the company and make a bundle off it?
7 • OT?: Qt owned by NOKIA now (by mark on 2008-01-28 13:15:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
If you look here:
http://trolltech.com/28012008/28012008-letter/view
you can see the joint Nokia/Trolltech letter on the subject. It doesn't sound bad at all, but then you can argue that it wouldn't...
8 • Shift Linux (by Anonymous on 2008-01-28 13:36:52 GMT from Belgium)
I expected more of Shift Linux. I downloaded the KDE version today and what do we get? It's the same version of Kubuntu's release, the beta KDE 4. Even when you boot the live-cd there is written: Start or Install Kubuntu. Even on the desktopscreen you can see the installer icon of Kubuntu.
What's this all about? Is it Shift Linux or Kubuntu?
What a waste of a download.
9 • Gentoo, USB Sticks, Mandriva (by Landor at 2008-01-28 13:38:47 GMT from Canada)
Good Morning Everyone!
2008 really isn't any different than say 2007 when you come to think of it. You can install 2007 and actually get 2008 now basically. Just do a "uavDN world" and you're good to go. It might take a bit though :)
I wasn't suprised by the fact that they didn't accept Robbins offer. It seems there's a few there that don't wany any part of him. I don't know anything about it, so won't comment. But as I said, not suprising. I don't really want to know either, it's what it is, and what that is, is none of my business :) Sometimes the open source community is a little too open for it's own good :)
I love using a usb stick on the run, it's a great option. Since it's a little slower "normally" I have Sidux KDE Lite on it. Not a bad distro, and works well on the stick.
With Mandriva's Flash Edition, maybe they could offer to sell the install ISO seperate from the Flash Device/OS combo, to make costs a little lower for those who just want their OS product. It might generate a bit more cash too. :)
Any thoughts on that Adam?
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
10 • Parsix GNU/Linux (by Anonymous on 2008-01-28 14:12:39 GMT from Iran, Islamic Republic of)
Parsix is one of the best debian based distros I've had the pleasure of using. If you like Ubuntu, Parsix has the same goodies but it's way faster. I couldn't believe the speed when I installed Parsix on an old celeron. So yea this is a distro for everyone, I recommend you give it a try.
11 • Mandriva Flash, MCNLive USB distros (by Alter Ekko on 2008-01-28 14:34:02 GMT from Norway)
I hope Mandriva is selling a lot of their flash distro package.
For people that like to try things on their own there is of course
alternatives. I use four different usb-installed distros. The one
deserving more attention here is the MCLive distros
http://www.mcnlive.org/
since it is based on Mandriva Linux.
I've tried the CD-version of every distro issued by the Mandriva
Club of Netherland, but for USB install the (May 07) Delft version
is my favorite.
On my HP laptop it boots in 90 second - probably because it is
smaller (less programs) than the article's Mandriva/Toshiba
combo. It boots without help from a CD, has the correct
1280x800 screen, connects automatically to my wireless router
(because the settings, password etc) was saved on the
USB stick the first time I installed it.
It plays my media files/DVD (having all codeks) which is on a ntfs
partition.
All partitions are automatically mounted and useable for
the ordinary User. That suits me fine; other people may prefer
a more strict linux behaviour...
12 • QU 11 Have you compared the times (by dbrion on 2008-01-28 14:44:46 GMT from France)
your USB MCN linux and Windows (I suppose you have a Windows, since you have a NTFS portition) take to exhaust the battery?
(for example : you open the system, a document -the same in any case-, and then do nothing [as calling different apps might be not reproducible at all]).
I really do not know the answer (Linux consumes more/less than Windows for a simple common task) and laptops are not meant to eat too fast batteries....
13 • Lamentable la problematica en Gentoo (by Hades on 2008-01-28 14:59:23 GMT from Venezuela)
Yo fuy usuario de Gentoo por un buen tiempo (antes de conocer archlinux), y lo que aprendi con gentoo se que no lo aprendere con ninguna otra, es la distro indicada para quien de verdad quiere aprender, lamento profundamente la problematica actual espero (como muchos en la comunidad) que Gentoo Fundation, sobreviva a este problema coyuntural.
14 • @9 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-28 15:17:38 GMT from Canada)
Makes it too easily subject to piracy and dilutes the image of the product, so we don't do it. As it is, it's a very simple offering: it's a USB key with Linux on it. If you start offering an ISO option it gets messier.
15 • parsix (by twodogs on 2008-01-28 15:22:39 GMT from United States)
i have tried out parsix and it IS fast. re #4 -- me wonder same thing.
16 • @13 (by gurito on 2008-01-28 15:34:40 GMT from Germany)
Qué palabra tan dominguera: "coyuntural"... :p
17 • mandriva2008.1 beta1 (by Guy on 2008-01-28 15:57:50 GMT from United States)
Very nice...easy install everything seems to work.even my TV card just worked...excellent:)
18 • Re:11, USB distros (by Caraibes on 2008-01-28 15:59:26 GMT from Dominican Republic)
Thank you, Alter Ekko, for your suggestions...
I am in search of the "perfect" USB distro, as neither Puppy or DSL are my taste, and Wolvix has some issues that I couldn't resolve...
I will definitely download and install MCNLive on my 8 gigs USB pendrive.
I will post some feedback here.
Please don't hesitate o share more of your experience with USB distros... I want to learn some more...
19 • USB distros (by Antonio on 2008-01-28 16:15:33 GMT from United States)
@ 9 Just say you guys are in it for the $$, and won't cater to the user's needs. For the persons that want a mandriva like distro, they can look at
comment #11. It works.
For others, slax runs very nice on USB, but have not heard anything about that project.
Fedora also has an iso to usbdrive script that installs a live image unto hard drive. Have not tested it yet, but it looks promising.
20 • Qu 19 Which guys? Which needs? (by dbrion on 2008-01-28 16:38:37 GMT from France)
" you guys are in it for the $$,"
As far as Euros are concerned, Mandriva (Mandrivel, to be politically correct?) are 15 E$ -20 big bugs$- cheaper without Amazon... and there was not such a decrease in the us$ value within one week.... What is more, to develop and launch something new, one needs to buy hardware at a much higher price than one year later.... ( 4G USB keys were very expensive one year ago, and were of bad quality).
"and won't cater to the user's needs"
Does THE user need always something cheap?
When something is expensive and ends up to be more comfortable, perhaps MR USER can buy it (for clothes, it happens)?
Does THE user need that developpers be unpaid?
Wheter is the statue of THE user? (I suppose it is a sterile mixture of Joe and Jane, colored as a zebra)
21 • Glad for the change! (by Daniel on 2008-01-28 16:42:02 GMT from United States)
Here be a Gentoo user that is happy to see the surge of noise in the Gentoo world. Here is to hopping it lasts!
22 • flash drive distros (by ray carter at 2008-01-28 17:00:29 GMT from United States)
A good resource is pendrivelinux.com. They do have their own distro which is about the easiest thing in the world - download their 'img' file and copy it using dd to the flash drive - then boot it.
23 • ready for your USB stick (by arno911 at 2008-01-28 17:29:33 GMT from Germany)
I didn't mention sidux: it can also be used on an USB stick. fast and easy install, Debian Sid , friendly users, hard working devs. the best alternative for every partly frustrated (k)ubuntu user. and yes it has all the non-free stuff, just not by default, cause it's about FOSS.
24 • RE: 11 • Mandriva Flash, MCNLiVE (by Chris on 2008-01-28 17:36:19 GMT from Netherlands)
May I suggest to those who can afford it to get a Mandriva Flash 2008, it's not overprized, you get the 4 GB USB stick and the pre-installed official Mandriva edition :-)
ATM MCNLive is a bit outdated, and the dev stopped.
--chris
25 • Which guys? Which needs? (by Anonymous on 2008-01-28 18:03:03 GMT from United States)
Which guys?
Mandriva, which was formerly Mandrake. They were cool before, now they are not that cool as they were before. Others have stepped in and have done the job, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, etc.
Which needs?
The users of that distro. It was the no. 1, distro for a long time, because they cared about their needs, they just made bad mistakes when they had their "Mandrake Club", they could not get the money that they needed to continue working. Yes they gave away their product free as well and I salute them for doing that, however, they are charging too much. Disk drives are much more cheaper these days. Why aren't their prices more reasonable? Their products are much better than before, but PCLinuxOS has taken over their no. 1 spot which belonged to Mandrake.
Sorry for the rant.
Mandrake has a special place for me, Mandriva does not and it has to earn my respect and others. Looks like PCLinuxOS continued where Mandrake left off.
Salute to all.
26 • all (by Alexander on 2008-01-28 18:33:33 GMT from Ukraine)
Ладислав ты мужик , респект и уважуха :)
27 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-01-28 18:36:02 GMT from France)
"Why aren't their prices more reasonable? "
Parce que, pour développer des produits innovants (pas je copie et des fans crient que je suis le meilleur), il faut acheter beaucoup plus cher que ne sera le prix dans six mois (surtout si la fiabilité va avec : les gens sérieux *divisent* le prix par la durée de vie).
"Looks like PCLinuxOS continued where Mandrake left off."
Ah oui, comment? En supprimant le travail de traduction en plus de quarante langues (ah oui, en 1917, le monde a été sauvé: ça donne le droit héréditaire, à des zhéros par procuration, de s'asseoir sur le travail volontaire de traduction??).
Comment sont assumées les mises à jour de sécurité dans le no 1 de DW HPD (au fait, il descend... et ces scores de souris fanatiques sont en train de perdre toute crédibilité dans la presse sur papier -celle qu'on lit-)
28 • @25 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-28 18:36:14 GMT from Canada)
We charge what we consider to be a reasonable price for the Flash. It pays for the USB stick (which is a high-quality unit from a European manufacturer, Dane-Elec), the cost of developing the product, and yes, gives us a profit. This is how a company is supposed to work. How else do you suggest we pay our developers?
We are not 'in it for the money', but the company has to pay its staff. To do this, it has to charge *someone* for *something*. We already give away far more than most software companies, and as much as or more than any other independent commercial Linux distributor (OpenSUSE is hardly in an equivalent position, as Novell does not need its consumer Linux business to turn a profit). It's hard enough to make money in this business; if we were 'in it for the money', we'd be in another business. Please don't ask us to give everything away. It is just not possible.
29 • KDE4 - a big joke ! (by GLINUX ! on 2008-01-28 18:36:15 GMT from Canada)
KDE4 final version it's not stable anymore, and many people think that the third version of KDE4 ( kde 4.2) will be better and will have less bugs that we found now.
Before this, KDE4 is not interesting for the moment.
(Except if you able to deal with major bugs or you are a tester)
So keep 3.5.8
Even Slackware and those kind of distros are not weeling to set KDE4 in their OS at this moment.
The question is :
Kde4 was mainly spounced by Open Suse
Open Suse is a product of Novell
Novell has mad a deal with Microsoft
With the influence of Microsoft in the background , is it the new marketing way for KDE to build a product with a lots of eye-candy in it to impress everybody but that is not completly finnished and have a lot of bug ?
Welcome (back) to the new world of KDE, Vista, 98 , on so on ?
And to finnish the party, KDE want to build a Windows version !
Think to it...you will see that the answer come fast.
** KDE freaks will probably say that it's good for the evolution of KDE and bla bla bla, but the point is that i want a system that is very stable and have a good security.
So, for those (home) KDE4 freaks... are you serious linux users ?
30 • KDE rant (@ 29) (by CeVO on 2008-01-28 18:45:44 GMT from Spain)
Sigh....
Is it so hard for users that belong to the global Linux community to support what is going on in that community?
To be honest, rants like yours are better fuel for anti-Linux entities (MS??) than the fact that the KDE4 developers release is what it is, a developers release.
Tell me, do you own MS stock?
31 • re 29 there is already a Windows version of KDE (by dbrion on 2008-01-28 18:49:09 GMT from France)
... in Cygwin (Redhats bright idea , one century ago, to make people switch to GNU/linux)... but nobody,AFAIK, dared to used it (two desktops cascaded).....
"Kde4 was mainly spounced by Open Suse
Open Suse is a product of Novell
Novell has mad a deal with Microsoft
"
IF A is married to B, B has a bother married to C ... and V has a sister married to W$ (a chid raper, serial killer crook, maffioso, ... and software seller) I suppose you feel GREET not to shake A's hands...
BTW Novell is not that mad.
s/finnish/finish/ unless you are in Helsinki
32 • Re: "KDE4 - a big joke" by GLINUX (by Square Bottle on 2008-01-28 18:58:38 GMT from United States)
I think you're sadly misinformed. The open source way of doing things is to "release early, release often." Go ahead and search for that phrase in your favorite search engine and you'll find zillions of articles about open source methodology.
Also, you say that KDE 4 was mainly sponsored by OpenSUSE. Well, OpenSUSE is a big fan of KDE, but that doesn't mean that they get to sit on the KDE decision making body. KDE is made by the KDE community, and backed first and foremost by Trolltech.
I don't think you read the developer release notes. They specifically said at several times that KDE 4.0 was not intended to be a finalized, fully stable system. They are releasing it as it is in accordance with the open source mantra of "Release early, release often." For a stable and complete working environment, they say you should keep using KDE 3.5.8 until KDE 4.1, which is when the KDE 4 series is supposed to be more finished.
So in other words, you misunderstood what the KDE community was trying to accomplish with KDE 4.0 because you're used to more traditional "It's not released until it's done" product development models than what we see in the open source world. Perhaps you should take your finger off the trigger now, mate.
33 • Mandriva Flash (by CCfromNJ on 2008-01-28 19:04:45 GMT from United States)
Too bad the Boot image is 4.8 MB and not 1.44 MB, It could fit onto a floppy drive (Remember those things ?)
34 • @28 (by Anonymous on 2008-01-28 19:07:08 GMT from United States)
"Please don't ask us to give everything away. It is just not possible."
I am not asking you to give it away. I was only asking for the prices to be reasonable. I understand people need to feed their families. But come on, if you can get a USB disk for $25 and then put in your OS and you are selling it for more than $100 come on. Make it reasonable, and more people will get it.
Some will say that Microsoft gives away its OS for free, which we know is not true. One does indeed pay for it, in hidden fees of course. See Mr. Willamson, if one wants a Mandriva based OS, just look to PCLinuxOS, and/or MCNLive they are have what poor man's needs are. As for making money why don't you go after the big guy's Red Hat, Suse/Novell, etc. They are the one$ that are making the $.
35 • No subject (by Mère Téréza on 2008-01-28 19:13:37 GMT from France)
The prices in Europe are very reasonnable, if one sees the work and the liability (one usually *divides* the HW price by its life expectancy, in a rational world). The difference may be explained by the Great$ Big$ Buck$ devaluating at an unexpected speed or Amazon taking about 20$....
Now, whence do godTextstars big work?(I.e : I copy and I make disappear ca 40 l
ANd who paid for it?
36 • kde 4 not stable? (by hab on 2008-01-28 19:59:35 GMT from Canada)
WTF?
No software project is ever "finished" until it's not being used anymore! All software has bugs! A given release of a project is done at some arbitrarily decided point, hopefully, where the software exhibits the least annoying set of bugs!
I have used kde since pre 1. Every major and minor release has come with it's attendant issues. I am now on kde 3.58 and will move on to kde 4 when it shakes out a bit.
It appears there is a segment of free software users that just don't grok it at all. How terribly unfortunate for them!
cheers
37 • mandriva flash (by asasega on 2008-01-28 20:10:24 GMT from Romania)
people will never understand that free software it's not about 0 costs for the user
keep up the good work mandriva
38 • Debian and gcc (by areuareu on 2008-01-28 20:24:19 GMT from France)
How come that Debian plans to run gcc-4.3 and that Gentoo still runs gcc-4.1.2? is it the world upside-down or is is gcc-4.3 really stable?
39 • KDE4 - a big joke ! (by GLINUX on 2008-01-28 21:07:01 GMT from Canada)
For one who wants to know.
1) I use Debian (the web installation) with a custom gnome desktop and a realtime patch kernel
2) I use a custom gnome (modified dropline-gnome) on Slackware on my second computer.
I prefer to use my brian instead of having an already built-in system with many unnacessary stuff in it !
It's not the easiest way...but building your own system is great.
Of course you have to make an effort, and today it's not always the case !
But many people continue to beleive in flying saucer and of what some cie said...like M$ or Open Suse....poor guys you are, you're totally brain washed !
40 • @35 and @ 38 (by Anonymous on 2008-01-28 21:20:42 GMT from United States)
$87.21 is the cost from Euros to US Dollars,
Amazon sells them for $93? They are making about $6
What is the cost of the USB disk itself, most of the stuff is free without the proprietary stuff?
for 38?
Fedora still uses gcc 4.1.2
Like you mentioned Gentoo is still at 4.1.2, until recently slackware moved to 4.1.2
OpenSuse is at gcc 4.2
Debian is going there, then it must be getting stable. It takes the first steps, then others will follow
41 • re#39 fishing expedition (by hab on 2008-01-28 21:25:10 GMT from Canada)
Statements based on assumption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assume and presumption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption and a $1.50 will buy ya' a cupa coffee.
Good luck with that, eh!
cheers
42 • @ 39 (by CeVO on 2008-01-28 21:36:30 GMT from Spain)
Comment deleted (disrespectful).
43 • RE 40 There are other factors that the price of any USB stuff, (by dbrion on 2008-01-28 21:37:01 GMT from France)
such as
* life expectancy (the right operation is to divide the price by the life expectancy)
* work that is shipped with it (and then , big zheroes can copy it and claim they are number 1 on mouse hit parade : they feel GREAT) : if one feels satisfied with free OS, why should one not pay? If one has no money, there are smarter and more "dignes" (sorry, but I fear there are *no* translations) ways than whining "oh, it is too expensive: my life is definitively spoilt because I must wait two months" - I refer to Mandrivels ugly delays to publish their softs. Sometimes ago, before the PCLOL hype, I was very glad to give some money and I knew some of it ended going elsewhere (within 2 months, everyone could heroically !!!! copy it) than in shareholders pockets....
44 • Linux still only 10% vs Windows 90% desktop usage (by Jerry on 2008-01-28 21:40:33 GMT from United States)
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
45 • After all these years!! (by Jerry on 2008-01-28 21:41:01 GMT from United States)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Windows_and_Linux
46 • RE 44, 45 : 2 weeks ago, your figures were lower => it increases fast. (by dbrion on 2008-01-28 21:52:08 GMT from France)
And you can add , to GNU/linux as a kernel , tons of free GPL Windows ports, which make competition mindless.... (I use Cygwin to develop for Linux and prefer Iexplore to Firefox ... and Ooffice to Word => this choice makes that Microsofts loses 200$ : iexplore comes with Windows, and I have no extra costs; word is an extra cost...). Sometimes I use a closed source antivirus, sometimes clamscan....
There are other aspects (such a given user happiness, real cuts in expenses) than competiytion based on second/third hand numbers....
47 • Mandriva Flash (by Anonymous Coward on 2008-01-28 21:56:29 GMT from United States)
I agree that Mandriva should be able to make some money. Actually, if you go to the Mandriva store I think Flash is on sale for under $60, which is very reasonable.
Anyway, you have the experience, so please, please, please, release a flash iso for the Asus eee, and charge a subscription fee for an eee specific (tailored) repository. I'm first in line!
48 • KDE (by smallcaps on 2008-01-28 22:15:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
@ Square Bottle
"Also, you say that KDE 4 was mainly sponsored by OpenSUSE. Well, OpenSUSE is a big fan of KDE, but that doesn't mean that they get to sit on the KDE decision making body. KDE is made by the KDE community, and backed first and foremost by Trolltech."
which will soon be pwned by Nokia... the conspiracy continues...
49 • Pendrivelinux.com (by Caraibes on 2008-01-28 22:47:44 GMT from Dominican Republic)
As mentioned on my previous post here, I am a USB distro enthusiast...
Well, thanks to the advice of another poster, I am now using Debian Etch, remasterd by the folks from Pendrivelinux.com... It works really well so far...
I will continue to post my feedback.
One word about Mandriva Flash, I think it is a great idea, and it deserves its price tag. What I am actually doing with the help of pendrivelinux.com is a geek thing, but most regular users would be happy to just buy a Mandriva Flash ready to go...
50 • Consecration of hardware (by PastorEd on 2008-01-28 22:50:42 GMT from United States)
Lobster, I have a question.
(and yes, this is a serious question, and not an attempt to start a flamewar, so if anyone is prone to be upset by religious questions, just pass this post by, and read the next one, okay? Thanks.)
You wrote: "...a Buddhist ISO for running shrines, consecrating hardware..."
I'm very curious about this phrase. Are you actually using Linux software to assist in religious sense, in that you're performing some kind of ritual on the hardware itself?
Or are you using a metaphor to describe the installation of a Linux system on a computer which previously ran proprietary software?
The reason I ask: As a Christian, I am familiar with the concept of consecrating a "thing" for religious use (consecrating a church organ for use, as an example). And I'm quite familiar with setting up computer labs in churches which run Linux... which I suppose could be considered a kind of "consecration".
I was just curious as to the Buddhist aspects. I'm looking forward to your response.
Peace to you,
PastorEd
51 • KDE 4.0 is *NOT* KDE4 Final! (by BlueJayofEvil on 2008-01-28 22:51:41 GMT from United States)
http://www.osnews.com/story/19145/KDE_4.0.0_Released
"KDE 4.0 is the first release of "KDE 4", but take note that the developers have clearly stated that KDE 4.0 is not KDE 4, but more of a base release with all the underlying systems ready to go, but with still a lot of work to be done on the user-visible side."
I'm surprised at how many people miss this vital piece of information.
52 • @44,45 (by ml on 2008-01-28 23:03:14 GMT from United States)
10% sounds like a ridiculous ton and looking at your link it says linux 0.63% while windows 92%; don't forget there are other OSes than Windows and linux. Did you just subtract the windows number from 100? 0.63 sounds small on a global scale I wonder if that is just U.S. Or is your figure inclusive of servers/etc.?
53 • re# 48 (by hab on 2008-01-28 23:06:33 GMT from Canada)
I would be curious to see a relatively unbiased analysis of this deal. This link (from groklaw) http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1939 seems to suggest it is a reasonable fit.
Worst case scenario would be a forking of the code leaving nokia with an orphaned (probably) code base. The question is: does nokia need kde/qt more than kde needs nokia.
Interesting in light of kde4 going cross platform. From what i have read today nokia seems to have played nicely with free software before. Maybe they will here.
The plot thickens!
cheers
54 • Mini-ITX and Flash Drives (by mini-ME on 2008-01-28 23:56:53 GMT from Canada)
Recently I gave my 2.4 GHz Dell to my daughter because she needed a faster computer for school. So I took her old 950MHz machine which was choking painfully on XP and loaded my favorite Linux distro and am using it quite comfortably. It's a noisy beast though and that got me to thinking that I'd like a really quiet machine - the Dell was quieter but still noticeable. A little more thought and I decided I would build a fanless, flash based mini-ITX machine - something ultra-quiet! I typically only use a few GB for OS and my own personal data, so why do I need a 120GB hard drive? I'm planning to use a 4GB compact flash drive as the primary 'hard drive'. I have a 4GB U3 USB drive too that I was thinking of using as the home partition. Perhaps use xdrive.com to backup. The latest generation of compact flash is operating at 300X (360Mbit/sec), combine that with low energy requirements, 0 noise, and virtually 0 seek times, to me that seems pretty good. I'm taking a bit of a chance as you can't typically buy these type of computers off the shelf at your local computer store. Luckily I bought many of the parts at Boxing day sales and got spectacular deals so if it doesn't work as well or fast as I hope I can upgrade the motherboard to something more conventional.
Parts so far purchased:
Intel D201GLY2 fanless 64bit 1.2GHz motherboard (http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/D201GLY2/index.htm)
PicoPSU-90 power supply (http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-90-power-kit?sc=8&category=13)
1 GB DDR2 667MHz RAM (M/B apparently will support 2GB)
SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4GB U3 USB dirve (http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1925)...)
Dell 20" widescreen monitor with integrated webcam (supported by UVC project)
(http://accessories.dell.com/sna/products/Displays/productdetail.aspx...)
Samsung 280X compact flash card (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/280X-4GB-OEM-SAMSUNG-COMPACT-FLASH...)
I just need a compact flash reader and I'm all set. My son wants to use his old Playstation 2 case to hold it all together so it should be an interesting looking unit to say the least!
I really hope these flash-based distros and machines catch on in the mainstream computing world. Evidence seems that they will. It seems a shame to have to run a full size machine if you don't need one. Linux is killer in this area as it's much easier on resources (system and physical).
55 • RE:54 Mini-ITX and Flash Drives (by Dopher on 2008-01-29 01:21:47 GMT from Belgium)
Sounds like a nice setup, mini-ME. I would like to ask you what kind of distro you will use with this setup.
In my opinion, puppy linux would be best on such a configuration, especially because of your flash disk. Puppy is very suitable with flashdisk. with the latest versions it's extremely flexible when it comes to writing the changes ( i'm talking about the current 3.01 release). Write changes when needed, when closing the session, or not safe it at all.
Allthough puppy is great, when more flexibility is needed (like having bigger software repository, or having great font rendering and stuff like that) , you might even use a flash harddrive instead of that 4GB flashcard. Allthough they are a bit expensive, 32 GB for 200 euro or so. A cheaper solution would be to use a 2.5 inch drive. But then it's not completely silent anymore ofcourse.
But like i said, i'm interested to know which distro you use for the setup you described.
Mostly because i'm going to smaller computers. for example, my server is build with a Via epia EN15000 with debian etch. (without X, because Via sucks with linux drivers in general) And i'm looking for a small silent desktop myself.
56 • Mandriva Review is yet another load of BS (by Jack Becker on 2008-01-29 01:45:37 GMT from Australia)
So a USB based O/S -FAILS- to run and therefore you have to burn and run a live CD!
That means the Mandriva USB O/S should -FAIL- and be criticised heavily! Why bother going any further! There have been live CDs for years. The point of the USB version is that it should run without having to burn CDs, etc.
Has the Linux community totally lost the plot now? Modifying an O/S to suit is one thing but I am so sick of reviews where the tester has to modify config files, burn CDs, etc just to get the OS working!
It's like saying the new brand X car I tested didn't start when I turned the key but the seats are comfy and it has a nice dashboard! what a joke!
57 • 56 Mandriva Review is yet another load of BS (by ladislav on 2008-01-29 02:01:58 GMT from Taiwan)
How do I know that the problem is with Mandriva and not the laptop?
I am afraid, you don't make a very good point, in addition to writing in an unnecessarily aggressive tone. If you can't express your opinion in a more polite way then please keep it to yourself.
58 • Gentoo, etc. (by M. Edward (Ed) Borasky on 2008-01-29 02:14:51 GMT from United States)
1. Gentoo *testing* is running gcc 4.2.2, not 4.1.2. 4.3 is probably in the tree but hard masked.
2. Regarding the Gentoo Foundation failing to file its paperwork, etc. -- that isn't the sort of thing a developer should do. That's why we have accountants and attorneys!
59 • 56 (by Anonymous on 2008-01-29 03:02:34 GMT from United States)
The main point of a review is to provide information. It would be, in your words, "BS" if details were covered up. If you think Mandriva Flash is useless for your purposes after reading the review, the review did its job, helping you to make an informed decision without incurring loss of time or money.
60 • Re: 55 (by Mini-ME on 2008-01-29 03:02:35 GMT from Canada)
My favorite desktop distro is openSuse, so I would really like to get that running on this machine if at all possible! I'll probably try it just to see how it performs and go from there. 4GB will be enough to install it but I'm not sure how it will perform on a compact flash card or with the intel board. The intel board is supposedly much faster than a similar Via based board, yet still quite energy-conscious (http://resources.mini-box.com/online/MBD-I-D201GLY/intel-d201gly-power-consumption.html) and that's one of the reasons I chose it - price is great to at ~$65USD. The one downside of the board is it doesn't support suspend to ram, but the specs indicate that at standby it uses <15W so not too bad, and when you consider the long term power consumption vs a traditional PC it's still very green.
There's the issue of limited number of writes to a CF card, so I'm not sure how long the card would hold out with a traditional desktop distro. However these new cf cards are getting cheap so if I ruin a couple in the process I'm not too worried (no pain, no gain!).
I've run Puppy from RAM and it is blazingly fast, but like you said it's nice to have a full-blown desktop distro. Wouldn't it be nice to run SUSE from RAM! I'd like to learn how to do that, probably need 2GB RAM and a fairly minimal install to make it work.
I'll post my results when I get the unit assembled and running.
61 • 60 (by Anonymous on 2008-01-29 03:57:14 GMT from United States)
But can't you install Slackware packages in the latest version of Puppy?
I haven't used Puppy in ages, but I don't think that constraint is binding anymore.
62 • Re: 34 - Mandriva Flash (by dialup on 2008-01-29 04:22:36 GMT from United States)
"... you are selling it for more than $100."
Current price from Mandriva's online Store is 59 Euros with free shipping. Their USD price is only $69, a major price break ($18) given the exchange rate.
63 • Parsix Speed Hype (by Anonymous on 2008-01-29 04:24:46 GMT from Austria)
Installed it but speed is not exceptional as claimed in posts above. It won't come even close to e.g. Mandriva Cooker (at least on my machine). Parsix isn't too bad though - I have seen worse. But its Distrowatch ranking seems to be justified: They'd need to offer a usable proprietary NVIDIA driver like most of the major distros do nowadays.
64 • USB Flash OS (by Esldude on 2008-01-29 06:26:09 GMT from United States)
NimbleX works pretty well as a USB Flash drive OS. A few more niceties than Puppy which works well itself, just a bit hair shirted for some. NimbleX even has an Icon in the Home directory to put it on a USB flash drive. Best compromise I have seen for those who like a GUI to work with.
65 • RE 56 Mandriva can thus be an organic fertilizer (by dbrion on 2008-01-29 06:50:04 GMT from France)
"56 • Mandriva Review is yet another load of BS (by Jack Becker on 2008-01-29 01:45:37 GMT from Australia)
So a USB based O/S -FAILS- to run and therefore you have to burn and run a live CD!
"
As some PC cannot boot from USB (it depends on the BIOS, not on the USB linux) they provide a nano live CDROM to start....without failing. This may be linked to the BIOS and the solution is provided.... Where is the issue?
BTW I am not at all in favor of live USB, as it takes one USB plug (another for the mouse) : what can remain for external drives, etc?
and I would be surprised if one could boot after an USB hub...
66 • NimbleX (by Esldude on 2008-01-29 06:50:08 GMT from United States)
Forgot to add for those who haven't seen it. NimbleX has the KDE desktop and lots of capabilities while only weighing in at about 100 mb. Runs quite like you expect a Nimble linux to run.
67 • @54 (by john frey on 2008-01-29 08:11:29 GMT from Canada)
I was looking at these today: http://www.pcengines.ch/cflash.htm
Just plug your flash into an IDE slot. They even have one that fits in the laptop drive slot. I'm going to replacing my laptop HD with one of these. Fast boot times.:) Sweet. If it works well I might put my / partition of my desktop on one of these.
The 8GB upper limit on the drives is a little small but sufficient for / with a separate /home partition. The price is a little higher than your average HD too but not unreasonable.
68 • @34 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-29 09:03:54 GMT from Canada)
As has been pointed out, the Mandriva Store price is $69. We do not control what Amazon charge, they set their own price.
As I mentioned, Novell does not need its consumer Linux product line to make a profit, and I don't believe it does. The enterprise line may, but this is in large part due to a) Microsoft voucher sales and b) selling Linux *in conjunction* with their other enterprise software. We don't have either of those businesses. We don't compete directly in that way.
We do compete in the enterprise space, and actually make slightly more money there than in consumer sales. But we still need consumer revenue to keep the company viable.
69 • @56 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-29 09:05:54 GMT from Canada)
Some systems are simply incapable of booting from a USB device. The BIOS just won't do it. There is nothing we can do about this; it's entirely up to the motherboard manufacturer / BIOS provider. So we provide various ways to work around the problem, of which the bootstrap CD is one. The other option (new with 2008) is to plug in the Flash under Windows. It has a little applet which lets you add the Flash to Windows' bootloader, so that next time you boot the system, you can choose to boot to Windows or to the Flash.
70 • Re:60 (by Dopher on 2008-01-29 09:41:21 GMT from Belgium)
Keep us updated :p
One minor note though. I don't know how big an old ps2 is inside, but this board still generates quite some heat. Using it fanless in a mini-itx case would probably be not so good as a long term system.
So even though the board is small it would probably be best, that is if you wanna run it fanless, to use a midi-itx case. Not so super small, but at least the heat can go somewhere.
71 • re flash-based OS, Puppy & Slackware etc. (by klu9 on 2008-01-29 13:38:50 GMT from Mexico)
Flash OS
whichever distro you put on, make sure it is optimized for flash. Remember flash isn't as "durable" as a magnetic HDD in terms of the number of read/writes. The more times it is accessed, the sooner it will wear out.
Puppy is optimised for that; probably some other specialized distros too, but I doubt a big general-purpose desktop distro like OpenSUSE is. It might wear out your flash drive in a relatively short time.
But maybe someone's made a remaster of OpenSUSE that addresses that issue.
I wonder... the Asus EeePC uses a small flash disk as its HDD; maybe their version of Xandros (Debian-based) is available for download.
Puppy & Slackware
Puppy 3.xx series is designed to be compatible with Slackware packages, opening up a vast range of software. You can wait for someone to reformat a Slackware to Puppy format or there's a simple tool to do it yourself.
72 • Question 71 about a detail : read/writes or just writes? (by dbrion1 on 2008-01-29 13:49:08 GMT from France)
"number of read/writes"
I thought it was just the number of writes....
Perhaps this number of authorized writes increases with progress and with the quality (thus the price) of the flash drive...
Correct me if I am wrong, but what would be a classical Linux give, but without swap and where /var would be mounted on a HD (or made tiny, or made readonly) , and the rest being in flash? (even /home might be in a flash, as there are not too many writes, meseems).
73 • Re 70, 71, 72 Compact Flash Read Write, etc. (by Mini-ME on 2008-01-29 18:09:13 GMT from Canada)
70. As for the case and heat generation you're correct and it seems I may have to go with a fan after all or move to a larger case.
71, 72 I'm lead to believe that the number of writes to a cf card is finite and that write time increases as the number writes increases.
I will definitely keep a good backup regime. It will be interesting to see how long a generic cf card will last :-)
74 • re #65 usb boot over hub (by hab on 2008-01-29 18:14:29 GMT from Canada)
@dbrion
I have been able to boot puppy on a stick through an old targus 1.1 usb generic laptop dock with the dock attached to various comps.
I can remember reading usb specs some years back, available here http://www.usb.org/home, and there is nothing preventing booting over a hub. I suspect results are very situational!
Saw a 3 port usb 1.1 hub at a local dollar store the other day for $1.50. Gotta wonder how crappy that would be?
cheers
75 • Rootfly Links ??? (by MattS on 2008-01-29 18:18:04 GMT from United States)
What happened to the Rootfly tech articles links? This site without those is like a foot without a big toe. Please bring' em back !!!
76 • Reply to PastorEd (by Lobster on 2008-01-29 18:32:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
"As a Christian, I am familiar with the concept of consecrating a "thing" for religious use (consecrating a church organ for use, as an example). And I'm quite familiar with setting up computer labs in churches which run Linux... which I suppose could be considered a kind of "consecration".
I was just curious as to the Buddhist aspects. I'm looking forward to your response."
The way something is used denotes the type of attention it attracts.
The use of a shrine as a focus for chanting and meditation
and the display of Buddhist iconography is both a metaphor
for good will and intent, as well as a very real reminder.
If the open source software is modified to run Christian images
and inspiration, it then changes the nature of the interaction.
From a Buddhist perspective, any organ used skilfully
and relieve suffering, is a great Blessing.
:-)
77 • re 74, 73 Thanks (by dbrion on 2008-01-29 18:52:50 GMT from France)
@hab : I never dared to boot after a hub...though it was rather a matter of not too cascading (heaps of wires). I am glad to know nothing hinders it theoretically. It does not seem too dangerous; perhaps I ll dare...
@MiniMe : I suppose the write times getting longer w/ the number of writes (which puzzled : I did not know it) is linked to some smartness, hindering to write at the same place (it is pure and optimistic? speculation from me...)
Have a nice week/year and good luck with funny HW I little know!
78 • linux love (by hab on 2008-01-29 21:10:30 GMT from Canada)
@dbrion: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It's fun to learn, despite the pain of the occasional foot shooting misadventure ; -)!
Looks like the beeb is learning linux (bi-directional?) video love see here http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;58613278.
And arstechnica's take on the trolltech/nokia here http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080128..., appears to be quite positive on the deal.
cheers
79 • Re: 67 • @54 (by john frey ) (by Soloact on 2008-01-30 00:34:33 GMT from United States)
I have also found that those adapters work well, although I couldn't get more than 8GB working, as you mentioned. I usually get mine from http://addonics.com/products/cf_adapter/ who also have an adapter for SD as well. I haven't tried that one yet, though.
I've run Linux Mint from those adapters with several computers/laptops successfully.
80 • Live CD Distro with Tor (by Kimchi on 2008-01-30 01:25:10 GMT from Korea, Republic of)
Does anyone know of a good Live CD Distro with Tor, for online privacy purposes etc... ??
81 • re: 66 - Niblex (by star_x on 2008-01-30 04:23:31 GMT from Canada)
yes, it's a nice distro, but unforunately with a poor hardware support. if usb linux, then dsl- usb should be not only about portability, but also about speed and fast boot.
82 • re: Adam W. & Mandriva Flash (by star_x on 2008-01-30 04:30:09 GMT from Canada)
of course i understand that business has to create profit. but it can be done by selling product for $100 to few or for $20 (just an example) to masses. i would go for the second option. M$ also charges too much and that's why it is the most pirated system.
MCNLive is (was?) a good project, but unforunately with quite crippled functionality (due to loyality to Mandriva? or because of pressure from them?)
but anyway, good luck, Mandriva is one of the best distros and i always look forward to new release.
83 • @82 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-30 08:05:07 GMT from Canada)
As mentioned several times, we do not sell the Flash for $100. We sell it for $69-$79 (depending on promotions).
There is no possible way we could sell it for $20. That just wouldn't be feasible.
84 • @82 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-30 08:06:56 GMT from Canada)
Oops, forgot to reply to your other point: we never put any pressure on MCNL. I talk to the MCN folks occasionally and I think a couple of developers do, but nothing more than that. However, the MCNL developer from the start chose to take a position of not developing MCNL in a direction that would threaten any of Mandriva's commercial products, and encouraging his users to look at our products. Of course, we were / are very grateful for this, but it was entirely his decision. :)
85 • Com 82 There is a confusion between Free Open Source Software (by dbrion on 2008-01-30 08:35:50 GMT from France)
abd Free (or at leas cheap ) Hardware (I wish such Free hardware could be downloaded, but IT wires seem too tiny! -sometimes, one can get given Freescale 8 bits CPUs, this is not an absurd idea).
I had many issues with cheap 4 G USB keys (and I know I did not submit them to tremendous write/remove cycles, seems the connectics broke) and testing for long life expectancy is time and hardware consuming. (if I must buy 1 USB key every 6 months, and be worried with dataloss, it is more pleasant to buy three times the cheap price an USB key ...which lasts 4 years).
As far as the audience is concerned, the Mandriva USB key could attract people who develop under Linux and want to show their programs to colleagues under Windows, without having to carry an heavy, thief tempting laptop (desktop, for athletic ones) : this audience does not suffer from too great money shortages (hope it lasts!)
then, perhaps the easiness of the native hard disk recognition (and its gluing to windows) might be , messeems, a disadvantage (one can agree to lend a CPU, a keyboard and a screen to one's colleague, but not the access to the internal HD contents....)
86 • 84 • @82 MCNL LiveCD (by ikke on 2008-01-30 09:35:27 GMT from Tanzania, United Republic of)
"it was entirely 'his' decision"
Kindly read 'her' . As far as I know there was only one developper, Chris. And it is a pity she stopped 'the good work'.
So I decided to install Mandriva 2008 on an external usb hard disk. But I am not able to boot although my bios allows me to do so. Any help?
87 • Belenix DVD tops btjunkie downloads (by flebber on 2008-01-30 14:07:55 GMT from Australia)
Currently the Belenix Opensolaris DVD tops http://btjunkie.org/ . Strange I thought not because is Solaris Not linux . But strange because according to http://www.genunix.org/distributions/belenix_site/?q=download the current version 0.6.1 is a live CD and the DVD is 0.5.1.
Anyway go Belenix ! as I write this 175536 seeders and 73881 leechers.
88 • re:83,84 (by star_x on 2008-01-30 16:29:20 GMT from Canada)
thank you for explanation Adam. i understand that.
this is one of the things which makes Mandriva project great in my eyes- to see you here, always with explanation, always with a polite answer. never seen anybody from other "commercial" distribution. that's also the way how (potential) customers can make up their mind about payed distro choice and their approach to regular customers.
(and that 20$ was just an example, maybe a bit stupid as i cannot even get a 4gb usb for that)
89 • @86 / 84 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-30 17:12:09 GMT from Canada)
You're quite right, I'm sorry. Even though I know, I always make that mistake :. Apologies to Chris.
90 • @86 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-01-30 17:12:58 GMT from Canada)
Post in the forums - I believe some people there have done it. I haven't tried, so I don't think I'd be able to help.
91 • linux uptick (by hab on 2008-01-30 18:07:13 GMT from Canada)
70,000 of that other desktop going to ubuntu linux. See here http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/france_internet_police. Bit of a win for free software , looks like!
The beat goes on!
cheers
92 • re: 89 / 88 / 86 and usb boot problems on laptops (by Chris on 2008-01-30 18:23:43 GMT from Netherlands)
thx ikke and Adam, yes I am a woman. And I am glad that my favourite distribution has Anne Nicolas, Director of Engineering :-)
and no need to apologize, Adam!
And yes, it was our decision, back in 2005 when we started with a Live USB version to support our distribution, Mandriva.
@ Ladislav and others with USB booting problems on laptops.
Some notebooks have a problem with some kernels to boot from USB, for example my own Lenovo always needed a kernel parameter to be able to finish the boot process: irqpoll noapic
Can't test it with the MDV Flash 2008, don't own one.
93 • Re 91 The French "gendarmerie" intends to switch to UBU linux (by dbrion on 2008-01-30 18:35:42 GMT from France)
... and it would be finished ... between 2013 and 2015 .
There are elections between that....
OTOH, I noticed in July 2007 that "gendarmerie" (police working in the country, and depending on the Army: they are thought as more liable/ wise/ smart than the normal police) officers wrote (of course, with their hierarchy's permission...) in linux magazines about security => this seems to denote long term interest.
94 • re#93 (by hab on 2008-01-30 19:15:28 GMT from Canada)
Unfortunately political issues do seem to trump economic/technical issues at times.
In the time i have been involved with linux and free software it has grown from being a hobbyist's toy to running some of the fastest supercomputing clusters on the planet. And lotsa other stuff too.
I used to fret about the long term survival of linux and free software. Now ....not so much. On the contrary i believe the handwriting is on the wall for much (if not all) of the proprietary software industry. Not a question of if, but when, it passes. I fret for them not at all!
Proprietary information technolgies (computers) method and practices need to be free, open and accessible! I shudder to think what our existance would be like if science and engineering's methods and practices were closed, patented, copyrighted and drm'ed out of peoples hands!
cheers
95 • re: 80 • Live CD Distro with Tor (by Napoli Bona on 2008-01-30 22:21:03 GMT from United States)
Both tor and privoxy are available via synaptic in Ubuntu 7.10. Install them, add the tor button add-on for firefox, then open Privoxy's "config" file (look in /etc/privoxy/ or /usr/local/etc/) and add the line
"forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 ."
to the top of the config file. Don't forget to add the dot at the end.
More info at http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-unix.html.en
Peace
96 • re:90 re:80 I forgot! (by Napoli Bona on 2008-01-30 22:27:07 GMT from United States)
Sorry, forgot the link to create a custom live version with tor.
See:
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-linux-mint-livecd-with-remastersys
97 • TOR livecd (by klu9 on 2008-01-30 23:31:39 GMT from Mexico)
TOR FAQ's list of livecd's & other bundles with TOR:
http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ
Maybe the most famous one: Anonym.os
http://kaos.to/cms/projects/releases/anonym.os-livecd.html
98 • Up close and personal - Chief Ripper mugshot. (by Tex safari in NY on 2008-01-31 06:57:24 GMT from Australia)
http://www.tuxmachines.org/images/ny2tex2007.jpg
99 • m0n0wall (by KimTjik on 2008-01-31 13:10:24 GMT from Sweden)
I've nothing more to say than: m0nowall is one of the greatest small and specialized distributions! I've used m0n0wall for some years now, installed on a CF card, and it's really a solid firewall solution, very easy to manage.
Heads up for m0n0wall!
100 • Yes with the FLOSS/LINUX in the European Institutions (by OUI FLOSS on 2008-01-31 15:36:05 GMT from Canada)
It never ceases to tell us that Europe must continue to evolve, as youth employment is related to the economic strength that the 27 EU member countries will reach their synergies.Mais young Europeans need " concrete actions, actions that are hanging around outside the offices of the institutions Européennes.Depuis January 2007, the European Commission is in possession of a detailed report (Merit) on the allegedly positive impact on the EU economy largely distribution of FLOSS (Free / LibreOpenSource), and hence Linux & C, in the offices of firms with the European Union, resulting in the creation of jobs for young people skilled in the field of "information technology, as savings made by the companies that use Open Source for their software, rather than sources with licenses, are considerable; the same goes for the authorities.
In order to shake up the "coconut" Europe, from this week's online petition "http://www.gopetition.com/online/16601.html"promoted by Claudio d'Alelio, President of the European Federalist Group Progressist Alliance United States of Europe ".
MK d'Alelio of why a petition on the floss?
Cd'A. It is urgent that the European powers give a strong example of economic initiative pragmatic.
MK Where is the pragmatism using Open Source?
Cd'A We need Europe to channel spending in government and business, but we must also create jobs. However, the FLOSS (LINUX for example) we will save money illico presto very important: the city of Bolzano in Northern Italy savings through FLOSS 1 million euros per year, by not paying more software licenses.
The Italian Parliament was soon to Linux, with a savings of more than 3 million per year, savings that the National Assembly has begun Achieve by using the Linux system, since 2007.
MK and jobs for young people?
Cd'A. Merit reading the report on the impact of FLOSS in Europe, we will see that most of
63% of free software developers are installed within the EU, which implies the creation of jobs on the spot.
MK your petition Why is it addressed to the President of the Committee of Regions of the EU and not the European Parliament?
Cd'A. Because CoR represents at best the socio-economic life of the European regions and can take initiatives such as those required by our petition in a period of relatively short time, on the contrary of the European Parliament, where political divisions Opponents can slow all initiatives, as they are important.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/16601.html
101 • Torrent Programs (by IMQ on 2008-01-31 18:32:24 GMT from United States)
I am downloading Ubuntu Ultimate Edition 1.7 using Ktorrent. What I notice is that whenever I download an ISO via a torrent client, the most dominant torrent clients are are Azureus, but lately µTorrent.
µTorrent, as I understand, is a Windows-only program. I don't know if it will run in Linux via Wine, but let assume for the moment, it is not. That tells me that there is a good number of Windows user out there who are interested enough to give it a spin. It does help these users exploring the wonder of Linux with the help of Live CD/DVD and hopefully some will see the merit of being free from the years of Microsoft lock-in and join the community.
Any thought?
102 • sign of the times! (by hab on 2008-01-31 21:27:55 GMT from Canada)
This is just too hilarious to pass up! http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/130626.asp
I know, i know, cheap laugh!
cheers
103 • 102 (by Anonymous on 2008-01-31 22:14:59 GMT from United States)
There's a small company in our area that has recently bought a lot of radio air time to advertise that they are the only ones in town authorized to sell XP on new machines. It's been very profitable for them. I've been thinking it would be a good time to start a Linux business...
104 • @ Adam Williamson (by Peter Besenbruch at 2008-02-01 00:31:42 from USA)
$69 for a USB stick and Mandriva, I don't think you are making all that much money as it is. There are better ways to make some cash; I understand sub-prime mortgage notes offer a great return on investment.
That said, I thought I would order one and give it a try. If you see an order come in from Hawaii, that's likely me.
105 • new distros (by konan on 2008-02-01 02:39:33 GMT from Argentina)
I would like you talk about new distros like linux Passion:
www.linux-passion.org
it is from france and a french friend told me it is good
And other version I would like you comment is Rxart:
http://www.pixartargentina.com.ar/ingles/index.html
http://www.pixartargentina.com.ar/index2.html - (spanish)
it is from argentina and it is good too and many tv show about computing,software and hardware have been making good criticize about it
106 • re:105 (by star_x on 2008-02-01 03:37:54 GMT from Canada)
linux-passion web is off :(
rxart it's a brand new great idea to make special linux for lawers. but unfortunately it seems that it speaks spanish only. what is it based on?
(the only thing i don't like on it is the initial theme- i'm sick of vista-look linuxes_
107 • RE 94 Audience and institutions (by dbrion on 2008-02-01 10:18:44 GMT from France)
First, the post 93 was slightly erroneous : it was not gendarmerie officers who wrote about security, but other militaries (in GNUlinux magazine special outcome sep/oct 2007, about viruses)..
I doubt, even if gendarmes are very civilized and very conservative (they wonot change their minds, unless they get political orders) policers (any way, they are more respected than politicians), that they will convince other pple to install Linux (one visits gendarmeries if one has been stolen, say, and one is invited to them if ...
Neither of these circumstances is pleasant enough, I suppose, to make pple concentrating in choosing Linux for their computer French (tax collectors are likely to have moved to Linux, too).
Projects like Hacao or OLPC are more likely to make people (children, for very long term, their parents/neighbors, on shorter term, if they are/get rich enough) choosing Linux, and Microsoft is beginning to give a lot of money/help to schools... which will make of them, if it lasts for 10(0) years, a very philanthropic, nice company...
Have a nice week end/year.
108 • Re: 105 • new distros (by Ariszló on 2008-02-01 14:16:28 GMT from Hungary)
What is special about them? Could you give us some details? What are they based on? Are they easier to install than other distributions? Are they faster? Do they offer a better selection of default applications?
109 • Pat Volkerding on KDE 4.0 (by Ariszló on 2008-02-01 14:24:06 GMT from Hungary)
Wed Jan 30 19:07:35 CST 2008:
http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=i386
110 • Mandriva (by John on 2008-02-01 16:54:53 GMT from United States)
I think Mandriva is one of the best distros out there despite all the hype over some of the now more popular ones. I've used it a long time and 2007 is really nice. I was waiting until I could do everything in linux that I could in windows and that day is here.
Granted there are some bugs and somethings might be easier in windows but that will change very fast now as shown in the last 2 years. I hope mandriva hangs in there because I think others will discover mandriva, and I think some of their former users are playing with other distros and will return.
I am installing mandriva on 3 computers in the next week or so for friends who have seen mine! Oh, and the kids use 10.1 and are complaining about me upgrading it.
I am in no way knocking any other distro...I just think mandriva is that good and if you hang in there it will be worth the wait.
MANDRIVA: I hate your website! Can't find nothing! Distrowatch lists the top 10 distros and you are listed with a con of bad website!
Anyway, as for prices...everyone has a valid point. $69 might seem like a lot to pay, but it ain't much to get. Most people blow that much on one night out! Stay home one saturday night and buy yourself one...
Also, people run out and buy a CPU or video card as soon as it hits the shelf. Just wait 60 days and save $100 in most cases...wouldn't kill ya...
You might even be able to afford that night out after all...
111 • Mandriva's USB key (by Warp0 on 2008-02-01 17:07:36 GMT from United States)
I've donated more than $69 to other distro(s) last year just to support software that I like, so I think the price is pretty good. In fact, I'm going to order one right now.
112 • Mandriva One 2008 (by Tim on 2008-02-01 17:42:54 GMT from Canada)
Well, being someone who has used and had nothing but good things to say about PCLinuxOS, and one who has never had a lot of luck with Mandriva installations, Ive got to say how impressed I am with Mandriva One 2008. I installed it for the first time on my IBM Thinkpad T-22 this morning and all went flawlessly, ... including the wireless (Atheros) which wouldn't work for me "right out of the box" with Mandriva before. One thing I could never get this laptop of mine to do with PCLinuxOS 2007, .. although everything else worked good, was to shut down as it should, but Mandriva seems good there too. I've got a lot of playing around to do now, to see just how well it all works now that its on there, but my first impression is good.
Thanks Mandriva Team and keep up the good work.
113 • @110 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-02-01 18:08:28 GMT from Canada)
Glad you're having success with Mandriva :)
The con for "bad website" on DW was written before the extensive site re-design which came along with the release of 2008. What do you find problematic about the new site? It was designed to correct a lot of the problems people observed in the old one (downloads / product info too hard to find, navigation too deep etc).
114 • RE 113 (by dbrion on 2008-02-02 15:42:56 GMT from France)
"What do you find problematic about the new site? "
Too simple :
* if I want to download a given rpm, I do not know how to do (it is not that bad, as I am used to recompile anything I badly need... but).
* If I wanted to download a Mandriva 2007.x, there is a direct link ... to 2008.0 (without asking which one : download immediately starts under http -it means that, from a cybercafé with FAT32, the download can be lost (more than 2G) and there is no way to catch the IP adress to wget it!!!-.
OTOH, I was pleasantly surprised with the former (though there was an infamous Greek_letter) version of Mandriva 2008.1 Spring, in this January : I did not find any broken *.rpm -2007.0 had many ones, and essentials ones, in her release- and , as far as I could VM_play_test it, there was nothing wrong. I 'll wait till the weather gets warmer to decide whether to install her.
115 • @114 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-02-02 19:42:03 GMT from Canada)
Ah. Well, unfortunately, there's not a lot we could do about that: overall we decided the benefits of a simple site are higher than those of a complex site where you can find *anything*. We think overall that it's better to have a really quick and simple download of the latest version - which is what most people want - than a more complex page where you can download old versions, and so on.
Having said that, when the download starts, it *does* also show a direct link to the file that's being downloaded, so you can cancel the download and download that link with another program, or browse the location it points to.
There's really no reason to download RPM files. That's just not how they're supposed to work. That's what package management utilities are for. The Wiki includes a comprehensive guide to installing software on MDV:
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Basic_tasks/Installing_and_removing_software
it's really rare that you need to go to a mirror and download files directly, so it's not something we want to cover on the main web site, which we want to keep clean and simple.
116 • RE 115 I agree somewhat : MDV makes simple things simpler, (by dbrion on 2008-02-03 15:34:14 GMT from France)
but the rest becomes more complicated....
"
Having said that, when the download starts, it *does* also show a direct link to the file that's being downloaded, so you can cancel the download and download that link with another program, or browse the location it points to"
It is the way I do it (I always recommend an older version than the most recent one : errors are known, and HW is not that new), but it is less comfortable than having the choice btw. some versions...
The only reason I have to download separate RPM files (I know it can break one's system, and that it is better done automagically) is that I do not want IT connections (cybercafés are half full of pple boycotting any IT "se(r)vice" providers, as these no_providers are more greedy (younger), less competent and as monopolistic as the Redmond Sheitan..)
and that I sometimes need new fonts, softs, etc for my favorite applications..
Have a nice week-end/week/ beautiful_and_unusually_long_February
117 • Linux 64 and 32 bits: Why not out of the box? (by Andre Jet Dancre on 2008-02-04 03:19:31 GMT from United States)
Hello:
I have been using OpenSuse 64, for a while: a very nice distro indeed!
But you just cannot install+run a 32 bits package anymore, even thought the AMD Athlon series, can run both codes.
And I would not mind running "32 bits only" applications, like Skype which runs better on Linux than Windows (better sound quality) since kernels 2.6xx
To the best of my understanding, what is missing is a set of libraries to run 32 bits applications, mostly QT and GKT, and all of what make the SLB (standard Linux base).
So when will it be a Linux 64/32 (meaning 64 bits able to run precompiled 32 bits), or an add on package to achieve this feast
available for most 64bits distros?
Note that Windows Vista 64 bits, which just does this.
And usually Linux is way ahead of Windows...
Hope this posting will inspire these wonderful hackers who have made Linux so exiting.
Andre Jet Dancre
Number of Comments: 117
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| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Vincent OS
Vincent OS is Arch-based desktop Linux distribution with KDE Plasma as the preferred desktop. It comes with "Core LivePatch", an in-house patch system with an ability of applying critical and security updates without the need to reboot the computer. Some of the other interesting features and applications of Vincent OS are Microsoft PowerShell (with Bash compatibility), pre-installed Wine for running some Windows programs, out-of-the-box support for Flatpak packages, and the ClamAV toolkit for detecting malware and viruses.
Status: Active
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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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