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1 • FreeBSD 7.0 (by Joaquim Gil on 2008-03-03 10:30:45 GMT from Portugal)
Started working with FreeBSD 7.0 last week and I can tell you: IT ROCKS!
Thanks for another DistroWatch Weekly Release. :)
2 • Congratulation to FreeBSD team (by Daniel Mery on 2008-03-03 10:44:45 GMT from Venezuela)
Hi,
FreeBSD 7.0 is now arriving, Congratulation to FreeBSD team for its great effort.
Regards,
dmery
3 • No subject (by mika hack on 2008-03-03 11:04:55 GMT from Italy)
Mythdora.....looks really cool...!
4 • FreeBSD as a server though? (by dino vliet on 2008-03-03 11:35:24 GMT from United States)
Hi,
why haven't you tested FreeBSD as a server because that's the role it'll probably be used for predominantly. I am curious to find out the pro's of using glabel, gmirror and gjournal all at once.
5 • RE: 4 FreeBSD as a server (by ladislav on 2008-03-03 11:38:34 GMT from Taiwan)
Yes, that would be a better way to test the OS. Unfortunately, DistroWatch is now running on Debian, otherwise I would have most likely upgraded to FreeBSD 7.0 by now. Maybe some of the readers would be able to answer your question?
6 • FreeBSD ports/packages GUI (by Eric on 2008-03-03 13:11:07 GMT from Canada)
Indeed the desktopbsd-tools package manager is a gem that should be made current and use for FreeBSD more officially. I'm glad that 7.0 RELEASE is out and I have made a DVD to install instead of only CD's.
You should really give it a try for the distrowatch server again, only trick is I had to recompile the kernel to include the awesome new schedule (SCHED_ULE), everything was like butter after that and shaved ~4MB off the GENERIC kernel. ;)
FreeBSD ROCKS !!
7 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-03-03 13:38:37 GMT from United States)
Thanks for your review of FreeBSD 7.
I think the Frugalware project is very deserving of a donation. One of the problems once you move away from the most popular distros is limited binary package selection. Not Frugalware. I was really surprised by the number of up to date packages available. It is also very fast and appears to be stable.
The only drawback of this distro that I have noticed thus far is that the community is small, so the documentation is not as complete as with some distros, and the forums are not as active as with some distros.
Frugalware is a good project. Thanks for donating to them.
8 • Learning FreeBSD (by Ted Maul on 2008-03-03 13:52:34 GMT from United States)
What are the best websites for general FreeBSD hints & tips? What is the best way to learn unix on FreeBSD? I have a spare computer and would like to give it a go, as I have heard nothing but great things about FreeBSD 7.0
Thanks,
Ted
9 • No subject (by PCLinuxOS fan on 2008-03-03 14:02:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
dear BSD users - what are the main advantages of BSD over GNU/Linux you'd like to point out to someone who's used BSD for about 5 minutes in the last 5 years?
10 • Debian number (by Alexandru on 2008-03-03 14:02:51 GMT from Germany)
Hi,
The first time in Debian releases the sum of major and minor number is greater then 4:
1.1, 1.2, 1.3 - The maximum sum is 4,
2.0, 2.1, 2.2 - The maximum sum is 4,
3.0, 3.1 - The maximum sum is 4,
4.0 - The sumis 4, and,
5.0 - The sum is 5 !
11 • FreeBSD 7.0 (by My Linux Page on 2008-03-03 14:13:46 GMT from United States)
I remember installing FreeBSD a couple of years back and it was daunting. No GUI all text. Great for servers but for the average Joe you could forget about it. Most people coming from Windows most have had a heartache. I'm glad this great OS is getting it dues.
12 • Often wondered myself (by davemc on 2008-03-03 14:22:17 GMT from United States)
Poster #9 above pretty much mimics my query. The BSD's seem to always lag far behind the top GNU/Linux distro's on pretty much every front, so, it always leaves me respectfully wondering, "whats the point?". I say "respectfully wondering" because BSD is a grand daddy, and thus, well deserving of respect and awe from all of us *nix users. But (there always is a, "but"), GNU/Linux does seem to be the most widely accepted *nix platform and thus attracts the heaviest development. I am not knocking BSD in any way, mind you, just observing the above, and the fact that Unix has evolved over the decades and will continue to do so, but, like the Neanderthal, older, less adaptive variants will become obsolete at some point.
13 • freebsd (by jackson on 2008-03-03 14:30:06 GMT from United States)
I have been a Linux and BSD user for ~8 years and I love them both. FreeBSD presents a complete operating system, where the kernel and userland are all contained within the main FreeBSD CVS repository and are all, with a few exceptions, coded and maintained in-house. Linux distributions are a collection of things, the kernel from kernel. org, the userland from GNU, etc. Aside from the installer and certain scripts, such as acpi stuff or whatever, your XYZ Linux distribution does not really "create" a full fledged operating system in house,
I find FreeBSD to be extremely stable as a server and, with a few important caveats, a fine desktop or workstation. The main issues with running FreeBSD on a desktop are (a) Adobe has chosen to provide no native Flash 9 support and (b) Nvidia has chosen to provide no native proprietary driver for the AMD64 platform (the binary driver works well on i386). I have been using FreeBSD on one of my desktops for years and it works great.
For package management, one can use "pkg_add -r " to install a binary package. Furthermore, after changing the PACKAGESITE environmental variable, can even pull down updated packages from the 7-STABLE repositories. These packages are updated for security updates as developer resources permit. Otherwise, one can choose to use the ports system to install from source. I typically use packages for things like Xorg and the big desktop environments like KDE etc. and ports for other, smaller things. The nice thing about ports is that you can set compile time options. For example, if you want to compile Mutt with the sidebar patch, you can simply select it as a compile option when you install the Mutt port. No manual work required. You cannot easily do that in any binary-based Linux distribution. Want firefox installed without CUPS support? No problem, just deselect it when you install the Firefox port. Want to set a system option to never install anything GTK related? Just set that in your make.conf file. Or maybe you to set mplayer as the default video player for any application that provides different video backends. Again, easy to do.
This fine-grained control is what makes FreeBSD great on a server since, for example, you can compile Apache with _only_ those things you need. This level of control also makes it a great desktop operating system for power users who want full control over their machine.
Like I said at the start, I love Linux and FreeBSD. I love OpenBSD. Each of these operating systems present their advantages and disadvantages. Maintaining an Ubuntu desktop might be easier and quicker for most folks, but you are basically stuck with the binary packages that the MOTU people decide are appropriate, unless you want to learn Debian packaging and roll your own, in which case nstalling the port in FreeBSD and choosing your options is much, much easier.
Check it out and decide for yourself.
14 • RE 12 (by Neanderthal man on 2008-03-03 14:30:59 GMT from France)
"GNU/Linux does seem to be the most widely accepted *nix platform and thus attracts the heaviest development"
What about Apples? They are *BSDs, too, and ... more popular than GNU/linux....
What does heavy mean? A stone is heavy; an obese man, too; development may be valuable, useful, seriously tested or ... buggy, without any originality.
15 • Freebsd 7 (by Anonymous on 2008-03-03 14:52:19 GMT from Thailand)
Well to me and many there are two things that any freebsde MUST have
to compete with linux..
(1) Nvidia drivers for both 32 and 64 bit systems
(2) Flash 9 suport..if we cant see youtube or cnn videos that is a showstopper
I really doubt freebsd can address these two...for that reason i have
much more faith in opensolaris distros like nexenta...
16 • FreeBSD (by Anonymous on 2008-03-03 15:08:53 GMT from United States)
It's important to keep in mind that you will be disappointed if you want to use FreeBSD as a drop-in replacement for PCLinuxOS, the same as you would be disappointed using PCLinuxOS as a drop-in replacement for Windows.
Different OSes are designed to do different things. I've also heard similar comments made about e.g. Slackware or Arch. If you limit yourself to only the things done well by the most popular Linux distros, FreeBSD will look like a dinosaur on life support.
OTOH, if you judge PCLinuxOS or Ubuntu on the strong areas of FreeBSD, you will be scratching your head wondering why PCLinuxOS or Ubuntu have any users.
You need to widen your perspective beyond the, "Let's see if the least competent Windows user who has limited needs and does not know how to use a keyboard and will not read documentation feels comfortable with this OS." That is not the appropriate question to ask of every OS. There are enough that focus on Windows users already. There's no reason for FreeBSD to jump into that arena as well (though DesktopBSD and PC-BSD are there already).
17 • No subject (by Eric on 2008-03-03 15:13:12 GMT from Canada)
@9 #1 Faster and more responsive than Linux on a task even on heavy system resource use, #2 much more stable; solid as a rock an an unmovable as a stabilized steel reinforced concrete wall ..... So why not top it off? #3, an integrated kernel & user land for higher quality code overall the system to keep it more secure than any Linux distro
@15 Not like either of those 2 are FreeBSD's choice, they are both company owned binary packages that are internally made and supported ONLY by NVIDIA and Adobe respectively, Closed source has held back your requirements thus far, FreeBSD is doing its best, with what is has that isn't encumbered by patent law and able to be sued for, java has recently been plainly awesome, kudos Sun!! Isn't it a lovely situation your blaming the BSD's or any Linux for?? You sir from Thailand, are just as good for wanting such closed crap to happen, instead make them open their products, and the situation would disappear within the year.
How do you like them apples?? Note I use BOTH FreeBSD and Debian Sid as my primary workstations interchangeably for their own strengths.
18 • Re: 15 (by BlueJayofEvil on 2008-03-03 15:45:26 GMT from United States)
They do have nVidia drivers for FreeBSD. I'm not sure about 64-bit, but my 32-bit installation is using it right now and it works well. Setting up Xorg to use the nvidia driver requires a little bit of work (fairly easy, though) but it works like a charm.
And second, Flash 7 works on FreeBSD, and Flash 9 can work if you use the Linux compatibility feature (obviously I'm referring to using the Linux Flash 9). And if that doesn't work, use WINE to install the Windows version of Flash on the Windows version of Firefox/Opera/etc.
I'm glad I chose to try out FreeBSD 7. I'm learning a lot about how it works and how to do stuff I took for granted in most Linux distro's.
19 • RE: #3 Looks can be deceiving (by Landor on 2008-03-03 16:02:15 GMT from Canada)
I thought I'd take a look over at the MythDora page and see what it had to offer that other Myth TV specific offshoots of distros didn't. So I took a look at the info on the main page and changed to their MythDora 4.0 release info.
While doing so I found some information about upgrading that didn't "look too cool" coming from the developers of the project:
DO NOT UPGRADE FOR THE HELL OF IT. MYTHDORA HAS BEEN TESTED USING WHAT IT COMES WITH. IF YOU POST SAYING THAT YOUR HAVING PROBLEMS AFTER UPGRADING, DO NOT EXPECT A REPLY FROM ME.
Then there was another part on the same page about the game emulators that come with the distro:
- 16 different game emulators (Don't ask us how to use them)
So I can only gleen from the above two that if you upgrade from an older version to a newer release that's supposed to work (shouldn't previous functionality continue with a new release unless otherwise stated?), well too bad. They install specific packages that are obviously there for a reason but don't know how to run them. Does that mean nobody tested them? If someone tested their functionality (emulators) then someone knows how to use them and they could be supported no?
Right off the hop I read info about a distro that says one thing twice. We won't support or help you without any concrete reasoning for it. Then it makes you wonder if some of the installed packages were even tested, which makes you wonder if there's some, are there more?
Doesn't look cool at all. .
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
20 • Why not cover Metalinks? (by Ant Bryan on 2008-03-03 16:20:45 GMT from United States)
I think it's time that DW at least mentioned metalinks, which list mirrors & checksums. They're frequently used for ISO downloads, and instead of a link to a download from a single server & separate MD5/SHA1 files, they distribute the load between a whole mirror network among other things.
http://www.metalinker.org/
21 • Enjoyed the FreeBSD review (by Brian Masinick on 2008-03-03 16:29:04 GMT from United States)
Thanks for writing about FreeBSD 7.0 in this week's edition. My background goes way back to the eighties in my use of commercial BSD based UNIX systems, so I am always interested in what is going on in the BSD camp. For desktop use, I find the PC-BSD derivative of FreeBSD to be easier to set up because it takes care of configuring the X server for you and installing common software used on the desktop. Because there are efforts like this one, as well as DesktopBSD and a few others, I suppose the FreeBSD project continues to stress the development of server capabilities. The fact that PC-BSD is specifically designed as a desktop system is indicative of the fact that you can do desktop computing with FreeBSD, it's just not as automatic as many of us are used to with the stock FreeBSD installation.
Personally, I want to experiment with FreeBSD 7.0 more to determine the specific steps needed to hone it into a useful desktop system, which I am confident it can handle very well.
Meanwhile, I continue to actively use a number of Linux-based desktop systems. I multi-boot anywhere from six to a dozen distinct instances on my two desktop systems and I run one additional Linux distro from my hard drive on my laptop system, plus I use many others Live and loaded into RAM.
Given my long history with the BSDs I would like to keep abreast of their development and become more adept at installing and configuring them specifically for the desktop. We all know that they do a great job in the server environment. I'm equally convinced that they can do a good job on the desktop, it's just not as automated for us because we have to configure more features. With Linux compatibility mode available, there is certainly more than initially meets the eye available on the BSD systems.
Thanks again for an informative weekly update.
22 • Re #19 (by Fred on 2008-03-03 16:30:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
I think the upgrade warning applies specifically to the newest release, which is a major release as it says 2 paragraphs up on that page "MythDora has undergone almost a total revamp. Things are in different places and paths so be sure to read the changelog."
As for the game emulators quote, my take on that is that it would probably be illegal for them to post instruction, not that they didn't test. Just a guess though, so feel free to confirm or infirm.
23 • MANDRIVA 2008.1 RC1 screenshots + review (by moondowner on 2008-03-03 16:30:30 GMT from Macedonia)
I made a nice and short review on Mandriva 2008.1 rc1, so if anyone is interesteed in reading it, or lookin in some screenshots, here it is
http://mklinuxos.blogspot.com/2008/03/news-mandriva-20081-rc1-released.html
Ladislav thanks for the sneak peek at FreeBSD 7.0 will definitely try it :)
24 • Re:8 • Learning FreeBSD (by LM on 2008-03-03 16:38:04 GMT from United States)
I started FreeBSD with 7.0 beta1 and now I have on the computer Release. I don't know why I waited so long (I was Linux user).
I bought Greg Lehey book, 100 BSD Tricks from D. Lavigne and Unix power Tools and there are on the FreeBSD site their handbook.
25 • RE #22 (by Landor on 2008-03-03 18:19:28 GMT from Canada)
I read the info on the release being a major release/revamp.
What I found distrubing was the developers didn't state it would break an upgrade, or that it should not be upgraded but fully installed fresh. But they went on to say that they will not reply to anything regarding a broken upgrade, but did little to explain why in any form.
. I still stand by my belief that it's not cool :)
The emulators in their anouncement is a key selling point, but they don't support their use. Their statement "leads" (yes easily a false assumption) one to believe that it's not even to be discussed via the forums there, which would normally be a key place any user would go for help regarding the distro or a package therein.
I don't know, maybe I'm reading it wrong. I don't know the developers, nor the distro. What I do know is that how I read it at first, and still do, is I was told via their documention not to ask any questions about two major points in their distro as I won't get a response (no response on the emulators is based on the comment and no response about a broken upgrade). Not a good start for someone looking at a distro for the first time. Especially when the distro is an alternative to many other Myth variants. You would think the developers would be a bit more forthcoming as well as helpful.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
26 • SLAX updated again... (by torque2k on 2008-03-03 18:42:28 GMT from United States)
FYI, went to DL SLAX and found they've already released 6.0.2:
http://blog.slax.org/2008/03/03/slax-602-is-here/
Enjoy!
27 • RE 26 (by Landor on 2008-03-03 18:50:05 GMT from Canada)
Now here's a developer that has his head together and understands things for what they are:
"Also note that the Slax logo at DistroWatch is outdated. Please don’t write to me about it, I know it. I can’t change that. Slax’s logo has been modified five times in the past few years, and people@distrowatch have better things to do then updating the icon once per year."
Now if something is cool, that is in my opinion :)
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
28 • Up-to-date binary packages for FreeBSD? (by Anonymous on 2008-03-03 18:53:59 GMT from United States)
I wonder if there is a binary package repository for FreeBSD that gets updates when new versions of applications are released?
A couple of months ago I tested DesktopBSD and found it quite easy to install, and it gave me a nice KDE desktop. However, the GUI package manager didn't find binary versions of all the packages that I wanted to install, and so I re-configured the package manager so it could install packages also from the ports tree. The package manager installed also the dependencies for the applications that I wanted to install from the ports tree, and it spent a lot of time compiling things from source.
I got the impression that the ports tree includes more applications than the binary package repository, and also that the ports tree often has newer versions of many applications than the binary repository. I finally gave up on DesktopBSD because I've got an old and slow computer that doesn't have much RAM and it becomes very slow when compiling packages from the ports tree starts using the swap memory.
But I'd be willing to give the new FreeBSD a try if there is a binary package repository that has lots of applications that are updated often. The GUI package manager from DesktopBSD is quite nice, but I'd rather just use it to install binary packages and not compile anything.
29 • Re: #12 (by Rex Bygraves on 2008-03-03 19:00:23 GMT from United States)
The BSD's seem to always lag far behind the top GNU/Linux distro's on pretty much every front, so, it always leaves me respectfully wondering, "whats the point?".
The exact same criticism could be leveled at Linux when compared to Windows - Windows is easier/has more software/better hardware support, etc. than Linux.
The BSDs don't 'lag behind on every front' - some proprietary software is harder to get hold of for BSD, and hardware drivers can take a little longer to appear (neither of which the BSD devs have much control over). On the other hand, FreeBSD is faster and more powerful than linux and I've never had a BSD update break my system before.
The huge improvements that have gone into the release of FreeBSD 7.0 show just how active and skilled the developers are. As others have said, if you're looking for a Windows replacement in FreeBSD, you're going to be disappointed. If you want BSD on your home computer, try DesktopBSD or PCBSD instead of FreeBSD.
30 • Re: Mandriva Linux 2008.1 (by Distrogue on 2008-03-03 20:08:51 GMT from Spain)
"Mandriva Linux 2008.1 seems to be poised to continue what the company started with version 2008 - to regain its reputation as one of the most user-friendly and polished desktop Linux distributions available today."
Funny, I remember that DW trashed Mandriva 2007 before its release...
31 • #16 (by PCLinuxOS fan on 2008-03-03 20:17:24 GMT from United Kingdom)
I will NOT exchange PCLOS for another distro in the nearest future anyway... :-)
32 • RE 9,12,31 Merci beaucoup (by dbrion on 2008-03-03 20:32:15 GMT from France)
pour la richesse de votre information sur un "système "
* orienté vers l'originalité profonde, au point d'en être multilingue et d'avoir été cloné par Mandrivel.
* dont la "politique" de sûreté est dictée immédiatement par des pressions externes, sans aucun recul :( les éventuels résultats peuvent être calamiteux d'ici un an, pour tous ceux qui auront essayé d'avoir un bureau le jour, un miniserveur la nuit) .
* qui tire toute sa valeur de clics de souris, et de sa place dans un clicoconcours (au fait, quelle est la couleur des flèches? je suis daltonien)
OTOH, thanks to the many BSDs users/tryers, and their wise, objective advices in this week and last week DWW (I almost could start FreeBSD with only their advices, and begun to reread their manual one can find in an iso (7.0*docs.iso on one of their well tended download sites, which do not break).
33 • Emulators (re. 19, 22) (by UZ64 on 2008-03-03 21:02:23 GMT from United States)
Emulators themselves are technically not illegal; they're just pieces of software that allow a computer to "act like" a completely different piece of hardware (in most cases). On the other hand, some systems have a copyrighted firmware which is required to run, which *is* illegal to obtain, basically making it illegal to even use the emulator. Some emulators which emulate hardware containing a proprietary firmware simply come without this image, and require the user to know how/where to get it. By downloading the firmware, you're pretty much breaking the law... but at the same time, it'll allow you to play pretty much any games for the system.
As for ROMs; dumps from actual, copyrighted games are illegal, and I would assume that any hacks of actual copyrighted games would be illegal too. However, a completely home-brewed ROM is legal, as long as it was started from scratch, not using any copyrighted material (graphics, sounds, etc.). And I know there are a lot of ROM sites that claim that it's legal to download ROMs temporarily... but they must be "deleted within 24 hours." As far as I know... complete bull****. It is illegal to get a hold of ANY copyrighted game, especially those you don't own. It's even illegal to download ROMs of games you *do* legally own, but in my opinion it's an example of fair use. Still, according to the law, it's illegal. It's illegal for the site to even be distributing files containing copyrighted software. Period
That's my view on it, don't take it as 100% fact; it's just my understanding from the research I've done over the years on the subject. I just happen to be interested in emulation myself. Also, I'm not sure of laws outside of the US.
As for the site's tone... it seemed pretty ridiculous. If they don't want anything to do with emulation, why even put emulators in their distro to begin with? Sure, they're just saving their asses, but still, they just come off as sounding hostile towards emulation in general and anyone who wants to use it... WHILE LISTING IT AS A FEATURE. There's just something wrong with that.
34 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-03-03 21:03:03 GMT from Canada)
New knoppix , Wonder if it will be as revolutionary as the first live cd.
Interesting to note that it is still above sidux in the phr
35 • Mandriva 2008 (by Capri Chopin on 2008-03-03 21:06:44 GMT from United States)
Mandriva 2008 forme vraiment jusqu'à soit une distribution gentille. Espoir I sûr qu'ils continuent à s'améliorer. J'ai examiné le plus défunt candidat de dégagement. Il court grand sur mon ordinateur. Je voudrais offrir mon appui dans de toute façon possible aux réalisateur
36 • @30 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-03-03 21:15:16 GMT from Canada)
Well, that was kind of the point? In DW's opinion we blew it between 10.0 and 2007, and began "to regain its reputation as one of the most user-friendly and polished desktop Linux distributions available today" with 2008. The use of the word "regain" wouldn't actually make sense *unless* they thought releases prior to 2008 were bad.
37 • to #31 (PCLinuxOS fan) (by a_linux_user on 2008-03-03 22:12:36 GMT from Canada)
Don't and be happy.
38 • Frugalware (by mu_co happy Frugalware user :) on 2008-03-03 22:34:53 GMT from Poland)
It is good to see Frugalware getting the donation. Developers of this distribution deserve it for sure.Small, really fast, wast repository and most off all very helpful community. Yes, community is not that big, but I bet that having a problem you will never be alone on their forum, and there will be people trying to help minutes after your post for help.
Forum seams not very active cause Frugalware most of the time just works, and there is not that many times you need help or something to write about on forum. System is stable, updates itself well, so you enjoy working with it instead crowding Frugalware forum.
Of course I speak of my own experience with Frugalware, as this distro works very well on my computers since 2 years. The new version is going to be here in just a few weeks and I encourage all mid experienced users (or new users wanted to learn more about Linux) to try it. To say it "distrowatch" way -> Put the speed and comfort back into computing. Try Frugalware ;D
39 • @17 (by Steve Bergman on 2008-03-03 22:37:52 GMT from United States)
#1. Prove it with actual data.
#2. Prove it with actual data.
#3. Prove it with actual data.
Unsubstantiated claims are just so much noise. Support your assertions.
40 • PCLinuxOS funboyism = It's not even funny anymore (by nedvis on 2008-03-03 22:45:06 GMT from United States)
PCLinuxOS fun wrote:
"I will NOT exchange PCLOS for another distro in the nearest future anyway... :-)"
Who cares, PCLinuxOS fun?
Didn't you realized post like yours are not only distracting, meaningless and downright boring but ,also, the reason some people in this forum developed their hatred towards PCLinuxOS.
You're just doing disservice to PCLinuxOS project and community.
I like PCLinuxOS too and I'm really active PCLinuxOS forum visitor and project supporter ( one more check is on its way to Texstar P.O.Box ) but would never accept sort of funboyism you are exercising here at DW.
Next time you want to post something ,please, read the red line just above the Submit comment button.
41 • BSD would be great if... (by RuralRob on 2008-03-03 23:06:07 GMT from United States)
The one thing that keeps me from trying FreeBSD is the lack of a native virtualization environment. Seems to me that BSD would be a great VM host; if VMware or VirtualBox were available for it, I'd jump to it in a flash.
42 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-03-04 00:12:51 GMT from Brazil)
Congrats, frugal!
43 • Mandriva (by shrek on 2008-03-04 01:53:54 GMT from United States)
Tried Mandriva 2008 RC1 on the home computer. Very nice. I used the 64bit version and could not get Flash to work, so went back to the I586 version. Flash worked fine.
I am a long time SuSE user, and switched because of Distrowatch. Congrats to the Mandriva team for making a nice disto.
shrek.
44 • some rambling, and re43 (by a1b1 on 2008-03-04 02:37:33 GMT from United States)
Got Mandriva RC1 2008.1 KDE here too, very nice, very fast. No unexpected problems, except one that I also had with 2008.0 on my system. Changes to the task bar don't save after reboot (changing the clock, or making the bar transparent, moving things around, etc.). They revert to default settings after reboot. Removing the clock applet, then adding it back make it function normally. I don't know why it does this with my system, others reported it for 2008.0 as well on their forum, thought they'd have fixed it by now. RPMDrake is getting better too, finally know how much you are going to download, nice for those of us either on dialup, or that have to watch how much we download. It would be nice if there were an overall download progress bar showing how much downloaded, how much left, estimated time left, etc., instead of a separate one for each package.
For Flash in 64bit, did you try nspluginwrapper? It worked fine to get flash going in Sidux 64 for me, takes very little effort. Install instructions can be found easily on google.
45 • #12 (by Anonymous on 2008-03-04 03:05:14 GMT from Thailand)
I am the author of #15 (will Distrowatch PLEASE get a decent threaded forum feature?) and linux sound (ALSA) simply sucks for a desktop
Try mixing sound from a java applet and amarok...you can't because
java uses oss(because that is still the unix standard) and Amarok uses
alsa.( know about aoss but that can't be used with applets and it
also has limitations with oss apps) This is with integrated sound and no I will not buy a sound card as that is no longer something people should be required to do.
FreeBSD and Solaris both give SIMPLE WORRY-FREE sound mixing the
way a user wants,
To the other points, I know it is not freebsd's problem that nvidea does not realease specs and that abode does not either..It is too bad cause I do like FreeBSD..it is far more logical than linux.
#18 I know about emulation and hope it has improved in FreeBSD 7
I remember a lot of problems in PC-BSD with it and even if you get it going it is still not a good solution. Should I really be forced to use
one instance of firefox for youtube and one with everything else?
The linux one will play youtube but will not have proper integration(eg print support) with FreeBSD.
46 • @43 / 44 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-03-04 03:25:41 GMT from Canada)
nspluginwrapper should be installed and enabled on x86-64 One and Powerpack editions of Mandriva by default: if you were testing the x86-64 One edition of RC1 and it wasn't installed, then that's a bug, please report it. :) With Free it's not installed by default I don't think, but installing it should be as easy as 'urpmi nspluginwrapper'.
47 • Mandriva (by wam on 2008-03-04 03:35:46 GMT from United States)
I just downloaded Mandriva RC1 GNOME and i have tell you...Its SWEET! Mandriva has a winner here. I do wish they would use Synaptic as their package manager though. Its very fast and very stable. It may be a keeper. Do i keep Ubuntu ot Mandriva? LOL
48 • Mandriva (by wam on 2008-03-04 03:37:30 GMT from United States)
I forgot to say,...Im getting ready to try KDE RC1 now.
49 • Mandriva (by Anonymous on 2008-03-04 05:02:16 GMT from United States)
I have been testing Mandriva since beta 2, and I am impressed. I always liked Mepis for the way it supported my hardware, but this last round just wasn't doing it. Now, Mandriva has stepped up and is doing better while just being a RC. Guess which one is staying on my hard drive.
47, you're right. Adding Synaptic would be nice, but their package manager isn't bad.
50 • Mint 4 KDE is fine ! (by Fotograf on 2008-03-04 05:37:53 GMT from Canada)
just downloaded and installed the 1 Gb iso
could not boot a live DVD unless pressing F6 and
--noacpi nosplash no apic -- options ! this trick was written in the Release Notes
51 • BSD v Linux (by BryD on 2008-03-04 10:59:44 GMT from United Kingdom)
Eureka !
I have found a operating system that works very well as a Server and as Desktop.
Its called Windows, any one else heard of it.
52 • @#51 (by CeVO on 2008-03-04 12:51:25 GMT from Spain)
'Eureka !
I have found a operating system that works very well as a Server and as Desktop.
Its called Windows, any one else heard of it.'
Where did you find windows server? Via emule ;)
Congrats with the license fees. I think I would join the majority of servers on the internet and use Linux. In case you never heard of it, it sort of powers Google. Ever heard of that?
53 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-03-04 13:00:19 GMT from United States)
Eureka! I've spotted a Windows troll. I hope your message is deleted.
We don't go trolling on virus and spyware sites, why do you insist on bothering us?
54 • GUI "Roll your own"? (by Ed N. on 2008-03-04 14:14:17 GMT from United States)
In the stone age, I wrote a simple DOS (can I use that word here?) menu that allowed a tech to pick from a list of applications to include in an install. Once they were done the program would create DOS install disks that included only those things that they tech requested. That way a secretary did not get Fdisk but the CIO did get Visicalc.
Is there a distro that included only the OS and an app that did the same thing as my "builder" script. (i.e. create an ISO by getting the latest program versions from the web and adding them on the fly?)
If there is not such a distro I offer this as a challenge. Give me a year or so of working with Linux and I might do it myself.
55 • Re #54: "Roll your own" (by Anonymous on 2008-03-04 14:24:29 GMT from Switzerland)
Not only has it been done, it's already online:
http://custom.nimblex.net/
NimbleX pwns U! :-)
56 • microsoft>nokia> Trolltech (by jack on 2008-03-04 15:59:15 GMT from Canada)
Nokia buys Trolltech, Microsoft " buys" Nokia.(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7276907.stm)
Whither Linux?
57 • knoppix 5.3 (by Chris on 2008-03-04 17:16:34 GMT from Canada)
I haven't seen 5.2 yet. Looks like a yearly release of knoppix, which is good. I don't like having to always upgrade when the new released are brought out on an almost daily basis.
It doesn't look like much is new for 5.3 I'll wait for Knoppix 6 - 2010 has a nice ring to it.
58 • freeBSD and NVIDIA (by jay on 2008-03-04 20:03:20 GMT from Belgium)
So why does everyone keep claiming that "it isn't FreeBSD's fault" if there aren't any 64 bit drivers? Why would NVidia release drivers for about any OS under the sun but not for FreeBSD 64 bit? The fact is that Nvidia developers have pointed out time and again that the 64 bit FreeBSD kernel makes it impossible to write a driver and that just a few small changes would do to solve that. Do the FreeBSD developers know this? Of course, they have known it for many months. Have they solved it? Nope, just like they still haven't produced a decent PAE alternative. I gave up on FreeBSD because it could access only so much of my RAM and PAE just has too many disadvantages (but then 64 bit has even more). All in all, it's good as a desktop for older computers and great as a server OS - but anything in between is far better serviced by Linux/Solaris/Mac/Windows.
59 • Mandriva RC1 GNOME (by Tony on 2008-03-04 21:50:00 GMT from United States)
I downloaded Mandriva RC1 GNOME and gave it a test drive on my Acer Aspire 5570 laptop. This is the "very first" Linux system I've tested where the Atheros wi-fi worked without a problem.
When time allows, I'll go beyond the LIVE CD. The main thing I would change would be Synaptic. Thanks Mandriva(and of course that includes Adam)!
60 • @59 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-03-05 00:33:36 GMT from Canada)
That's great news - can I ask if it was with the native driver (madwifi) or ndiswrapper, out of interest? (If it just worked and you didn't have to do anything, that would be madwifi). Glad you're enjoying RC1 so far.
61 • 20 • Why not cover Metalinks? (by ladislav on 2008-03-05 01:41:08 GMT from Taiwan)
Could you please write up a short story about Metalink for publication in DistroWatch Weekly? I don't think many readers know about Metalink (I for one don't know anything about it), so if you could explain in more detail how it works and include your personal experiences, that would be great. Thanks in advance :-)
62 • 60 Adam Williamson (by Tony on 2008-03-05 02:31:48 GMT from United States)
Adam - I did not have to use ndiswrapper, that is unless Mandriva did it automatically?
I chose Atheros > Operating Mode [Managed], Encryption Mode [Open WEP], Encryption Key [--], and chose Automatic IP (BooTP/DHCP) then [ok].
I picked up my wireless signal and one of my neighbor's signal too!
63 • @62 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-03-05 02:59:34 GMT from Canada)
Great, so that's using madwifi. That's good news as some people had trouble with it in 2008, glad to hear it's going okay in 2008 Spring :). Thanks for the feedback.
64 • First look at FreeBSD 7.0 (by FreeBSD_User on 2008-03-05 08:05:31 GMT from United States)
Hello,
I would like to address some errors in the review:
With nearly 16,000 FreeBSD ports ready for installation, these tools will surely come handy during the initial setup of that perfect workstation.
There are 18153 ports available for installation.
I didn't expect all that much. After all, I read the release announcement, so I knew that the FreeBSD development team had spent most of its time on such tasks as speeding up the performance of SQL databases and porting the ZFS file system from Solaris - features that are of little interest to most desktop users. In other words, FreeBSD is still predominantly a server operating system and although there is nothing that would stop a knowledgeable or determined user from setting it up as a complete and functional workstation, it is unlikely that an average computer user would find it particularly enticing.
There is quite a bit of usability in FreeBSD as a Desktop Operating System. The FreeBSD porting teams for both KDE and Gnome cover the Desktop scenarios.
FreeBSD now also includes freebsd_update, a tool for keeping a FreeBSD installation up-to-date with security updates (in binary format) with minimum of fuss.
FreeBSD Update has been part of the base system since the 6.x branch.
Security in FreeBSD is handled in accordance with UNIX principles. The project has a security team which issues GPG-signed security advisories and distributes them via a dedicated security mailing list. This, however, is limited to security issues found in the FreeBSD kernel and userland, not in ports - hence the reason why the project rarely issues more than a dozen security advisories per year. With the ports, the situation is different - as a general rule, FreeBSD users are expected to upgrade the installed ports to the latest versions in regular intervals and there are also tools that alert the user to security problems in installed ports.
One such applications is called "portaudit" that will handle security with respect to the ports system.
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/url.cgi?ports/ports-mgmt/portaudit/pkg-descr
Just curious; who is the author of the article?
65 • re: Freebsd 7 (by Anonymous on 2008-03-03 14:52:19 GMT from Thailand) (by A Non-hypocritical Nix User. on 2008-03-05 08:18:18 GMT from United States)
Well to me and many there are two things that any freebsde MUST have to compete with linux..
(1) Nvidia drivers for both 32 and 64 bit systems
(2) Flash 9 suport..if we cant see youtube or cnn videos that is a showstopper
I really doubt freebsd can address these two...for that reason i have much more faith in opensolaris distros like nexenta...
There are 32 bit drivers; I cannot comment on the 64 bit drivers.
I did take a particular note of your Flash comment. You want Flash 9 support; but you didn't mention that it should be both 32 bit and 64 bit support. Perhaps your omission is based on the fact that Adobe doesn't put out 64 bit Flash.
Now taking into consideration that you need both 32 and 64 bit video drivers and Flash. Since you need both; then by default Linux doesn't constitutes a desktop because there are no 64 bit drivers for Linux. That would be a show stopper for Linux. Are you trolling? Sounds like it.
As for the 64 bit drivers from some other place; not Nividia, you may want to consider project Nouveau: nouveau.freedesktop.org/
And as for non-adobe flash (64 bit support; linux too); please refer to the Gnash project; however, it is Flash 7 support.
Regards,
A Non-hypocritical Nix User.
66 • Qu 64 Is the difference 19000-16000 ports relevant? (by dbrion on 2008-03-05 08:31:38 GMT from France)
What would be more interesting is whether the reviewed OS played a role in [detecting bugs/ developping/promoting] the packages they ship, meseems (I remember that Frugalware anonnounced they had included the latest version of Ocltave: this makes a nice ad for Octave).
There are other figures whose difference seems meaningless (if OSes were racing horses, I would have a different opinion) : DWW links to a comparison between Fedora and Mandriva, on a laptop: the time it took to eat the laptops battery were tabulated under some options, which is nice -it is one function of a laptop to be alive far from the main supply- but the difference (less than 10% is likely to be unnoticed: the only element I saw was that beagle -which is ressource consuming, among which CPU ->battery- could not be installed on the less greedy distribution.....
67 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-03-05 09:39:55 GMT from China)
replace Page Hit Ranking with Upcoming Releases in the mainpage
68 • 64 (by Anonymous on 2008-03-05 15:02:03 GMT from United States)
I don't know what it is with BSD types. Every time I decide to give a BSD a serious look, I run into users like the author of post 64. That seems to be the typical BSD user: they're everywhere, including their forums.
FreeBSD, a great OS if you are able to ignore the users.
69 • Perils of Distro Hopping (by Glenn on 2008-03-05 21:14:47 GMT from Canada)
Hi Gang.
The perilous Journey of distro hopping.
I looked at Dreamlinus and after testing it on Virtualbox I decided to install it in a partition on my TP60. On this TP60 I have winxp, Mandriva. Ubuntu 7.10, Linux Mint, Geubuntu. With all that, whats one more distro? Always room for just-one-more.
I burnt the ISO and went thru the installation procedure which seemed straight forward enough. I instructed the installation to install GRUB on the Root partition and NOT the MBR.
Ok.. Great. All done.... I rebooted. hmmm,,, Cannot boot. Thats funny... No worry, I had Supergrub,I figured that would fix it right up.. I used Puppy to look at my partitions thinking I would Update my Grub Menu.lst which was on SDA7. Funny, Dream Linux's footprints were all over it. I looked at other partitions which had /BOOT/GRUB/MENU.LST on them.. Same thing. Those partitions i could see that is, A couple disappeared on me. I think DreamLinux was trying to tell me something. It wanted to be boss.
I figured I would fixup the MBR manually with supergrub but for some reason it did not see anything.... I said ok, I'll use gparted and see whats going on.... It saw nothing also, not even a useable partition. Wow. this HDD was messed up.... I played a bit and then decided to give Parted Magic a try as a last resort. I booted it, used TESTDISK and it found my deleted partitions. I then rebuilt the partition table with it and i was back in business. Parted Magic is now rooted firmly in my repair kit. Nice piece of work there.
Notes.
1. Did I take a backup first ER, AH, ER. I'll leave that one for now
2. Did I use a test system or my Production system.... er, ah ,er... I'll leave that one for now also.
3. Did I follow install correctly... Yes. I have done many over the 40 years I've been in the field.
4. Did I try all possible recoverys ,,, yes, I resorted to Parted Magic as a final desparate attempt.
5. Did i try to find other recovery tools... Yes, i found one. It ran and found the missing partitions and only then did it say to send $49 to activate the recovery portion of that utility. Not nice so forget that! Tell me up front next time
6. Will this now limit me from more distro hopping? No... This is rare but I will be a bit less daring than before (Maybe).
7. DreamLinux. Well obviously it is not for me but that does not mean do not try it. I did see a couple of other hits similar to mine on their site and furthermore this is an RC that I tried. Something went wrong and I really did not have time to debug and send in problem report to them.
For those windows users reading this and chortling. I have had Windows XP choke and blow my HDD also once in a while so this is not a linux quote FEATURE endquote. (grin) In fact i did try Windows recovery hoping to re-instate the MBR similar to FDISK /MBR. No go.
Anyway thats what happened to me this weekend in distro hopping.
This coming weekend I plan to go fishing instead.
Glenn
70 • RE: 69 • Perils of Distro Hopping (by IMQ on 2008-03-05 22:34:33 GMT from United States)
I also tried out DreamLinux 3.0RC1 and it was a disaster. So I posted my experience on DL forums. It seemed I was not the only one.
Nevetherless, I used gpart as suggested in the DL forums and I had the partition table recovered. I could boot into 5 out of 9 bootable partitions.
However, WinXP was not bootable. No big deal since I hardly boot into it and only keep it around just in case and to help out friends and family members every once in a while who, unfortunately, are still unable to break free from Windows.
71 • #69,70 - distro hopping (by ray carter at 2008-03-06 01:13:07 GMT from United States)
Exactly why I now have one system on which I do nothing more than install and test. I bought a gOS motherboard for $60 from ClubIT.com along with 2gb ddr2 memory for $50 - $25 rebate, and utilized the case, hard drive etc from an old P2 system I found lying around at the local library (I manage their public access systems).
72 • @65 (by Steve Bergman on 2008-03-06 05:44:20 GMT from United States)
Nice try. But modern Linux distros use nspluginwrapper out of the box. It really does not matter whether a 64 bit plugin is available. 32 bit plugins work just fine with 64 bit browsers these days. So if you have a 32 bit plugin, you're set.
73 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-03-06 10:32:14 GMT from Thailand)
#65 I was not trolling, Mepis 64, Vector Linux 64(Beta)(super easy setup) and even Debian (Lenny) all have 64 bit drivers
for Nvidea cards..Please do your homework...
and nouvea isn't useable...
I use linux cause it is the best free alternative to window..but
from an engineering point of view FreeBSD is better..
(I am on vaaction now and post from windows machines in PC
rooms)
74 • Re: 68 (by Béranger on 2008-03-06 15:52:47 GMT from Romania)
> FreeBSD, a great OS if you are able to ignore the users.
No, you must be able to ignore the developers! They're even worse!
75 • Mint 4 KDE (by Jimmy Johnson on 2008-03-06 15:55:02 GMT from United States)
Mint 4 KDE don't seem to be well tested to run on a wide verity of computers, on three computers I ran the Live CD, one it ran with no problem, two the splash started showing text, I got video noise and it would not fully shut down and it would not install, three it would boot fine from the menu to a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner and stop.
In case you think I'm not being fair, the md5sum was tested on the .iso and the finished dvd as well.
Any distro that will only install on some computers will not succeed as a mainstream distro.
"Mint uses the sudo method, like Ubuntu, with no root password." But this release has an app in the main menu that you can click and will add root and setup the root password, so you can use "SU" like a normal Linux system.
Mint has a lot of nice features, to bad it's not more hardware compatible and the installer can use some help so that the grub install is not hidden, on step 6 of the install, if you don't click the advanced button you will not see any mention of Grub and you will get Grub installed to the MBR, or so it seems, because on the two computers I was going to install it on, it never got past step 6. :(
76 • BSD vs Linux (by Anonymous on 2008-03-06 16:38:39 GMT from United States)
For those of you who are considering trying FreeBSD or are just curious as to why some of us prefer BSD to linux, here is a very interesting comparison of the two : http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php
Of course, this is just one man's opinions.
77 • What's wrong with post #64? (by Tim on 2008-03-06 16:41:36 GMT from United States)
Saw a couple comments regarding post #64. What's wrong with correcting the details in the FreeBSD 7 review? He wasn't rude in my opinion?
78 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-03-06 16:45:33 GMT from United States)
> No, you must be able to ignore the developers! They're even worse!
My only experiences with developers of BSD are what I've read from Theo, but I don't think he's affiliated with FreeBSD.
My experiences are in the forums and when a journalist or blogger writes about one of the BSD's. I can fully understand why there's not more coverage of BSD. No matter how minor, there's going to be an extreme, passionate response to any errors or any mild criticism. I wouldn't want to cover BSD for any news outlet.
79 • Pot:Kettle (by Marcato Captan on 2008-03-06 22:59:55 GMT from United States)
I can fully understand why there's not more coverage of BSD. No matter how minor, there's going to be an extreme, passionate response to any errors or any mild criticism. I wouldn't want to cover BSD for any news outlet.
Yeah, they need to be more diplomatic and media friendly - like Stallman and Torvalds!
80 • re 69 • Perils of Distro Hopping (by Glenn ... from Canada) (by zhymm on 2008-03-07 00:51:12 GMT from United States)
Wow! Same experience for me w/ DL 3.0 rc1
Worked fine as live CD. Decided to install to a partition of a HD I've reserved for distro testing. Lo and behold DL was not satisfied with one little 10 GB partition but decided to wipe out the whole drive. Fortunately, all that was lost was a handful of recent distro releases I'd been playing around with. And that Dreamlinux CDRW was quickly erased to make way for a different recent release (Mint miniKDE).
Must make a note to check out PartedMagic, too (thanks, Glenn!).
Best regards,
Zhymm (also named Glenn)
81 • Ubuntu release (yawn) (by mikkh on 2008-03-07 02:27:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Sixth "Alpha release"!! Are they really that desperate to keep their name in the headlines? Who else makes that many alpha releases available - no-one, that's who
Come on now, I don't mind testing a beta release or two, but that is taking the mickey IMO
82 • Qu 79 : Are diplomacy and media linked with Operating Systems? (by dbrion on 2008-03-07 10:12:11 GMT from France)
"Yeah, they need to be more diplomatic and media friendly - like Stallman and Torvalds!"
Perhaps the care to avoid/detect bugs should be more relevant, and make the presence of fora unuseful.... thus leading (perhaps : I never use fora to configure *my* favorite GNU/linux) to exasperation when people try to help on fora....
I noticed, from this week DWW , that RedHat contributes to about the half of the security failure detection/correctiion, most (> 90%) of these security failure being localized in nice desktop|desktop applications : as RedHats sells servers, the detection of desktop applications (users cry in fora for sexier, sexier, more quickly released is financially funded ... by servers buyers : what do you think these server buyers/users think of demagogic user (very short term) friendliness?)
83 • New Elive .............FYI (by deb on 2008-03-08 22:26:51 GMT from United States)
Just an FYI in the event you wanted to install the newest Elive (some of us do have play machines) you CAN'T. When you click the install button on the taskbar up pops a box saying " I'm sorry Elive is in big developement stages at the moment the installer is being rewritten.
I doubt I would have downloaded had I known that so I'm just posting a FYI.
Of course maybe there is a work around that I'm not aware of.
84 • RE/RE and Distro-Hoppin' (by Landor on 2008-03-09 19:19:13 GMT from Canada)
#33
Thanks for the info. I understood most of it, and you got my point. They made a deal about it yet don't want any discussion regarding it.
#77
I wondered the same thing. He wasn't bashing or rude in my opinion. It's funny some were talking about thin skins no? :)
#79
I near spit when I read your comment. It's one of the more humourous ones I've seen in some time here, and bang on :) We thought along the same lines and you beat me to the post!
#83/Distro-Hoppin'
Thanks for the head's up. Wasn't their last release similar I think, a development release?
I've slowed down a lot when it comes to testin'/hoppin', one due to time constraints, the other for reasons like that. Another is I've been back in Linux for over a year now I think and I was going to say novelty, but that's not it, maybe the offerings of many of them has dulled a bit. I remember someone saying something last year along the lines of most distros are quite the samy when it comes down to it, other than functionality. When you download a KDE based distro you can expect things like Amarok, K3B, Kopete, etc.. It gets kind of humdrum in the end. I've come to the point where I look for something that stands out a lot. Recently there really hasn't been a lot of that. It's mainly just another layer of polish, which says a lot for Linux and Kudos to all.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
85 • @84 (by Deb on 2008-03-10 00:03:51 GMT from United States)
I agree Landor, things have sort of gotten ho hum. I still like to see what might be new though so I keep on hopping (grin) I do want to say I read DW each week and enjoy your posts so much. My main is Sidux right now, but have you tried the new UE.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ultimate
I have to say I have never been a big fan of Gnome but I am liking this distro. Folks on the forum are a lot of fun too! That in itself makes is a a big plus for me.
86 • typos (by Deb on 2008-03-10 02:25:26 GMT from United States)
@85 Yah, I can type. Really. What that last line SHOULD read is..... that in itself is a big plus for me.
Sheesh , have another I will.
Number of Comments: 86
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| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Bedrock Linux
Bedrock Linux is a meta Linux distribution which allows users to utilize features from other, typically mutually exclusive distributions. Essentially, users can mix-and-match components and packages as desired from multiple Linux distributions and have them work seamlessly side-by-side.
Status: Active
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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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