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1 • OpenSolaris (by Parkash on 2008-05-05 09:38:16 GMT from Germany)
I wonder if they're going to do anything to keep up with hardware support... I certainly hope so.
2 • Thanks (by pedcol on 2008-05-05 09:53:17 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the DW weekly summary Ladis. I make my living working on PC, Servers & SAN's.
All my personal computers; I use Linux, period At work I provide support for Linux,
Solaris & Windows. When asked, "Which OS should I use?"; I tell them "Use Linux".
If they want something else (Windows); I give 'em something else.
Three-quarters of the time I spend building computing environments. One-quarter of it
supporting them. I provide more support for windows 'cause it's inherently broken, for
Linux 'cause some people do not listen and run as root all the time.
My beef is with current business practices; Microsoft's are unethical and immoral,
Cisco & Brocade will nickel-and-dime you to death, HP & Dell go whichever way the
wind blows. SUN Microsystems is the worst.
Even though I'm a Debian junky, I like the way RED HAT conducts business. Without
RED HAT you wouldn't have CENTOS, X/OS, White Box, Fedora, etc. Mark's Canonical is a
masterpiece in the making. Numerous distros are based on Slackware & Gentoo. BSD is
also another great choice open and available to everyone.
Open Software Community - The best computing environment. Linux without a doubt is,
"Best of Breed". You have more distro choices than letters in the english alphabet. No
matter what distro you use, it's born out of Linux and BSD. You have people in forums,
blogs and even personal web sites which are willing to help anyone, anywhere. The key
is: Encouragement - we all help each other out where we can.
3 • Slackware 12.1 (by 1369ic on 2008-05-05 10:26:32 GMT from United States)
Excellent Slackware review. I've been following 12.1 since a little before RC1, but my experience has been very similar. I've been using Slackware (along with other distros) since 8.1, when I first came to Linux. It has a clean feel that no other distro gives you.
In fact, I just put the new Ubuntu on my laptop, to see how that is progressing. It really is sweet. I spent a couple of days marveling at it. Then I toned down the useless eye candy, then installed XFCE and Fluxbox, and then I attacked the services to kill off what I didn't need. In short, I spent as much time turning things off or adding lighter options as I usually do setting things up in Slackware. I'd like to say I ended up with the same desktop in the end, but Ubuntu isn't as fast, doesn't feel as clean and there are no doubt other differences I'm not knowledgeable enough to figure out.
So I would differ with you at the end -- I think Slackware is more than a fairly decent desktop distro. It's not the only one I use (I'm booted into Arch this morning), but it's always my main distro.
Great work, though. A very fair review on top of all the usual DW goodness.
4 • Slackware Linux (by My Linux Page on 2008-05-05 10:39:34 GMT from United States)
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the first time that Slackware has included any form of branding in its distribution. Granted, this was done mostly because (in the words of Slackware founder Patrick Volkerding) "the default LILO had too many colors and was making my eyes hurt."
That has to be the funniest thing I have ever read. Thanks for the laugh.
5 • OpenBSD 4.3 (by Joaquim Gil on 2008-05-05 11:07:12 GMT from Portugal)
Glad to know OpenBSD is alive and kicking and with a new release. :)
I will look at the improvements soon.
Thanks for another DistroWatch Weekly issue. Outstanding, as usual.
Cheers.
6 • Mandriva Linux 2008.1 "Xfce" (by Slag on 2008-05-05 11:34:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
Took hours to d/l. Sadly an absolute pig to get started (but possible eventually) with older nV cards. And when it does, the selection of apps is disappointing - pedestrian, at best. There are many better Xfce-based distros, of which Vector is one of the many that impress. Xfce is intended to avoid the bloat - this one doesn't.
Puppy 4 is probably the way forward - all things to all men, with a wide selection of derivatives to please everyone, every machine, including an Xfce version.
CDLinux also disappointing. Anyone get connected via a static IP, yet?! Like to give the rest of us a clue....
7 • USB Distro Images ? (by Leo on 2008-05-05 11:58:25 GMT from United States)
Hi Ladislav, everyone!
First off, just wanted wanted to thank you (and the live-CD sponsors) for the GSPCA donation.
Second, I noticed that Mandriva released a live USB iso. Dumping the iso to a usb flash drive is a snap:
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Installing_Mandriva_Linux
With so many eeepc-like new devices out there with no CD drive, this seems like a must. Why aren't other distros doing the same ? The Ubuntu distro didn;t do it for the current 8.04 release.
Anyone would care to list some distros that do provide a USB iso? Personally, I am looking into an alternative gaming distro that I can boot off the USB drive on my eeepc (in particular, non-violent, arcade games for my kids). I don't want to uninstall the default Xandros (it just works for me).
Cheers!, and thanks in advance
8 • Ubuntu and Debian (by Peter on 2008-05-05 12:30:25 GMT from Netherlands)
Thanks for another great DWW! Following the latest Ubuntu Hardy Heron release, I was wondering if there would come a time when Ubuntu 'overtakes' Debian and would start using their own distro as base to develop further. This may have been discussed elsewhere before, but I just wondered if they had ever entertained any thoughts in that direction and what other people think of this possibility...
9 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-05 12:35:14 GMT from United States)
[i]Personally, I am looking into an alternative gaming distro that I can boot off the USB drive on my eeepc (in particular, non-violent, arcade games for my kids).[/i]
You might want to look into rolling your own from Debian or similar, almost all of the game distros that I've seen include non-child friendly games (the free Quake/Q3A clones).
10 • Slackware (by Jesse on 2008-05-05 12:43:31 GMT from Canada)
My first Linux distro was a mini version of Slackware called Pygmy
( http://linux.about.com/cs/linux101/g/pygmy.htm )
It's nice to see Slackware is still being maintained.
I tried OpenSolaris when it first came out years ago and couldn't get it to install. The installer choked on my hardware. I think I'll give it another shot this week.
11 • RE 7 : potential USB distros for eeePC (but perhaps not on USB?) (by dbrion on 2008-05-05 12:47:05 GMT from France)
" Mandriva Linux 2008.1 is reportedly designed to work on the machine out of the box, while many other projects, such as eeeDora, eeeXubuntu, PuppEee, Debian EeeOS and others exist in order to develop custom solutions for the laptop'
from last week's DWW....
That is not inconsistent with @9's advice of using Debian tons of apps/games)... and leads to less trials than > 300....
12 • RE: 6 • Mandriva Linux 2008.1 "Xfce" (by Slag (by Béranger on 2008-05-05 13:04:07 GMT from Romania)
the selection of apps is disappointing - pedestrian, at best. There are many better Xfce-based distros, of which Vector is one of the many that impress. Xfce is intended to avoid the bloat - this one doesn't.
Absolutely H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!
There is no other XFCE distro (Wolvix, Vector, Zenwalk, you name it) to include ALL the XFCE Goodies. Heck, most of the XFCE-based distros lack even xfce4-clipman-plugin!
Most of the other distros are defaulting to non-XFCE default applications (image viewer, archiver, cd burner), in some cases bringing applications from GNOME -- Mandriva XFCE One tries to be as much as possible "100% XFCE".
Except for the 2-panel layout, of course, but in this case your example, Vector, is the worst of all: not only it has a KDE-like single-panel layout, but it's worse than KDE: when you have in KDE that height of the panel, you'll have the window list on two rows, whereas in Vector you have a single row of windows in the taskbar, yet the taskbar (the whole panel) is too thick!!!
Vector is good as a distro, but it has the worst layout of all.
If you don't like Mandriva, don't use it. But don't claim that Vector is better (I personally recommended Wolvix in the past, should you be OK that it's based on Slack 11).
13 • Re:USB Distro Images ? (by Leo on 2008-05-05 13:10:10 GMT from United States)
Thanks dbrion and #9. Yes, Ubuntu also has lots of games in the repos (of course Debian based). I guess I need an easy way to get Ubuntu/Debian on a USB stick that I can boot from, and then load the games there. If anyone knows a shortcut (dead-easy usb-stick install), it'll be greatly appreciated ...
Thanks a lot!
14 • @8 (by Landon on 2008-05-05 13:13:58 GMT from United States)
[i]8 • Ubuntu and Debian (by Peter on 2008-05-05 12:30:25 GMT from Netherlands)
Thanks for another great DWW! Following the latest Ubuntu Hardy Heron release, I was wondering if there would come a time when Ubuntu 'overtakes' Debian and would start using their own distro as base to develop further. This may have been discussed elsewhere before, but I just wondered if they had ever entertained any thoughts in that direction and what other people think of this possibility...[/i]
I don't see how that would be possible with the current number of people working on Ubuntu. Debian is created by roughly a 1000 people. I would think that if anything, it would be more likely to see Debian and Ubuntu 'merge' or at least become closer before Ubuntu splits off separately.
15 • Ubuntu and Debian (by Omari on 2008-05-05 13:14:21 GMT from United States)
"I was wondering if there would come a time when Ubuntu 'overtakes' Debian and would start using their own distro as base to develop further."
Not a chance. Debian has 18,000 packages. Without Debian there would be no Ubuntu Universe and they'd even have a hard time maintaining a lot of the stuff in main and restricted. Debian has a massive labor force and infrastructure. There is no way Ubuntu could do six-month releases without Debian.
16 • Slackware 12.1 (by IMQ on 2008-05-05 13:16:02 GMT from United States)
I installed Slackware 12.1 on one of my wireless-only PC yesterday. The first thing I was surprised and delighted that the ralink-based pci wireless card supported in the new release. All I needed to do was modifiy the wpa_supplicant.conf file, then with a couple commands, I was connected wirelessly for the first time with Slackware!
I did a full install, then installed slapt-get from GSB (GNOME Slack Build), modified it to point to 12.1 repos for Slackware and gsb-current. I installed the GNOME desktop and it seemed to work OK.
I also installed several packages (that are not available in Slackware official repo) from LinuxPackages.net and Slacky for Slackware 12.0 and they seemed to work OK, for some of them. Some failed because of dependency problem, which I was not incline to resolve.
I may re-install or upgrade packages to 12.1 from these repos (GSB and Slacky) once they update their repos for 12.1
Slackware is Slackware.
You got the same familiar feeling if you ever run Slackware before. Everything is pretty much the vanila defaults (KDE, XFCE, Window Maker, etc.) which is the way I expect when it comes to Slack.
I also installed OpenOffice.org-2.4.0 from Slackware-current.net. And it seemed to work OK so far.
There is a new addition to the installation process, if you are familiar with Slackware. It gives the user the option to create a bootable USB stick. Otherwise, the install procedure is unchanged. Unfortunately, my PC does not support booting from USB stick although it has the option to boot from USB-HDD in the BIOS. I guess USB stick and USB-HDD are not the same, as far as the BIOS is concerned.
The only problem I have at the moment is that I can't boot Slackware 12.1 from the hard drive and have to use the DVD to boot it. I installed the LILO boot loader into /dev/hda7, which is where Slackware is install, and add an entry to GRUB menu in the other distro. This is unusual because I had practically no problem adding an entry for a newly installed distro to GRUB menu until now. I just don't know what to make of it.
Anyway, a minor inconvenience for a working Slackware on this PC.
17 • RE 15 Some complements (by dbrion on 2008-05-05 13:35:39 GMT from France)
"Not a chance. Debian has 18,000 packages."
Me too, could download and have much more than 18000 packages, but in which state?
Just add :
* and support processors other than x86s....
*and has a useable wiki (not million of random fora entries)
* and has a policy of one package/one responsible (sometimes, it is even the maintainer/developper)...=> one can hope the package is/will be maintained....
OTOH, UBUlinux just offers fora to whine about bugs on ONE type of processor (it is their criterium of success : this increases google's hits : the more bugs, the more success in the sense of fora activity)...... and some PRs...
18 • RE: 16 • Slackware 12.1 (by IMQ (by Béranger on 2008-05-05 13:39:49 GMT from Romania)
I may re-install or upgrade packages to 12.1 from these repos (GSB and Slacky) once they update their repos for 12.1
Slackware is Slackware.
Exactly. Slackware is Slackware. Which means: you always have the FULL SOURCES on the same FTP server as the binary packages, and also on the DVD or CDs 3-6.
However, with GSB (GNOME Slack Build), Dropline GNOME and LinuxPackages.net, you DON'T have the full source packages!
(Slacky.eu DOES offer the full sources too. rlworkman too.)
19 • Slackware (by Anonymous on 2008-05-05 13:46:40 GMT from United States)
First off, great DWW! And I think that donation was an excellent choice.
I am wondering if anything has changed on the software installation front for Slackware. Do you still have to resolve dependencies yourself, or are there tools available to help with that?
20 • qu 16, 19 (by dbrion on 2008-05-05 14:05:38 GMT from France)
what is slapt-get? (quoted in @16 : hope it is not a ferocious animal)
21 • 6 & 12 (by Slag on 2008-05-05 14:10:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
Béranger : sorry old bean, that's utter BS - I just checked. It is so lean as to be worthless, yet the d/l size is huge, the d/l slow and the net apparent size large. No idea how they wasted so much code space on what is intended as a slick UI. Please don't mislead folks who arrive here with good intentions, B. M2008-1Xfce - don't bother.
22 • Thanks Ladislav! (by davemc on 2008-05-05 14:14:54 GMT from United States)
Your donation to the Linux Webcam Project is extremely well placed. I recall a DWW issue back or two where several of us recommended that you award Xhaard, and you did, so thanks! Next up, maybe it might be worth taking a look at the Mythtv types of projects (Mythtv, Freevo, etc.), which are so beneficial for so many. Mythtv via Mythbuntu has been instrumental in turning my lone PVR 250 card into quite the media server for all of my workstation PC's! Its also capable of handling multiple TV cards, USB TV plugins, and more - all served off single or multiple server backends remotely. Quite impressive the development of this Open Source Project.
23 • No subject (by wl on 2008-05-05 14:26:59 GMT from France)
@17: for boot from extended partitions, after typing the corresponding /etc/lilo.conf file, one must execute: lilo -M /dev/sda ext . It's good , before, with fdisk /dev/sda and inside with >a , to mark that partition where one want to boot from as bootable.
24 • @23 s:17:16: (by Anonymous on 2008-05-05 14:31:51 GMT from France)
unless the wild, wild Internet ate one post.....
25 • Nice slackware review... (by biomega on 2008-05-05 14:32:41 GMT from Mexico)
I liked the review from slackware, its nice and kind of boring, but is nice. That remember me when I tried Zenwalk (based in Slackware), great, just great.
26 • No subject (by wl on 2008-05-05 14:34:42 GMT from France)
correction: my previous post refers to @16 , not to 17
@15,17: *buntu is also a distro where the most packages are taken directly from another distro, i.e. Debian, partly re-packaging them trivially and putting their name. Slackware, in opposite, is an example of a distro what adapt, compile, pack all distros self
27 • Emulating bad ideas in KDE (by Kevin on 2008-05-05 14:38:45 GMT from Canada)
I looked at the PC-BSD 7.0 alpha screenshot and found it ghastly. I wonder why KDE is trying so hard to look like Windows XP. What happens if the next version of Windows uses a completely different metaphor ? Will the KDE team stick to a desktop conceived circa 1999 or are they going to ape Windows 7 ?
In the same line of thought, KDE 4 features include transparency. Many Mac OS X users hate that rubbish. Why should linux users love it ? To see what I'm talking about, ask yourselves if you've ever read a transparent book . I know I haven't.
At their core, the BSD and linux are great. Why should one of their desktop environments become a bag of stupid tricks found in proprietary operating systems ?
For the time being, I'll stick to Gnome.
28 • RE:20 what is slapt-get? (by Woody on 2008-05-05 14:42:56 GMT from Korea, Republic of)
It's one of package managers for slackware in apt-get style of debian. Swaret is another popular one and there are many out there.. but real package manager in slackware is yourself :) I've used slackware since it's born. My first linux dist was SLS. Oh.. before SLS, I tried MCC, but failt to got it installed.
29 • PCLinuxOS (by winsnomore on 2008-05-05 14:56:23 GMT from United States)
What's up with this distro.
Do they intend to release a full new distro .. or will it only be updated by adding the new packages ?
It's been almost a year since a "new" full release of the distro was made.
30 • Ubuntu 8.04 (by karellen on 2008-05-05 14:59:20 GMT from Romania)
aka Hardy Heron, proves not to be so stable and trouble free after all. take a look at ubuntuforums.org and you'll see what I'm talking about
31 • @14 - Landor (by texasmike on 2008-05-05 15:16:23 GMT from United States)
Ubuntu & Debian merge? Better lay off the nose whiskey, Landor.
32 • Slackware 12.1 (by Justin Whitaker on 2008-05-05 15:18:58 GMT from United States)
Excellent review of Slackware. Actually, I find that the steadfast resolve to stay close to Linux Kernel+Vanilla KDE to be a blessing, rather than a curse. It's fast, stable, uncomplicated, and boring.
After playing around with Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and others, I am starting to think that maybe boring is a virtue. :)
33 • Slackware (by kilgoretrout on 2008-05-05 15:32:32 GMT from United States)
Nice slackware review. However, you forgot to mention one of slack's greatest virtues - it's fast. In fact, slack is faster and more responsive than any other distro I've ever tried and that includes source based distros like gentoo. I think that's the reason many distros designed for older hardware like xenwalk and vector are based on slack.
34 • Alas PC-BSvista (by Sam on 2008-05-05 15:37:19 GMT from United States)
Oh poor poor PC-BSD. I have tried out every release of this BSD on my testing laptop. I worried once some company took over its development. Now? I see PC-BSD 7 with a menu skin that screams Windows Vista (although Vista has a bit better selection of options on its menu). ::sigh::
35 • #29 PCLinuxOS (by Justin Whitaker on 2008-05-05 15:38:09 GMT from United States)
I believe that 2008 is in process...maybe Texstar and the Ripper Gang are waiting for KDE 4 to mature a little more before they release the new version.
36 • RE 35,29 : (by dbrion on 2008-05-05 15:51:32 GMT from France)
Add (among news I donot know)
*a mypclos project for the eeepc (it might make @13 happy..)
* announcements of translations (and godTexstar is wise enough not to promise anything last month)
* the fact that a recent *.iso version (the 2007 one) is sold, with other linuxen, by Linux+DVD in French railways stations ... and that there were no railways strikes....
37 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-05 16:10:10 GMT from France)
"I believe that 2008 is in process...maybe Texstar and the Ripper Gang are waiting for KDE 4 to mature a little more before they release the new version."
Mature KDE4? No release before 2009, then...
"* the fact that a recent *.iso version (the 2007 one) is sold, with other linuxen, by Linux+DVD in French railways stations ... and that there were no railways strikes...."
With that many strikes, the French must have gotten rid of trains entirely.
38 • RE 37 : Its UBU linux fault there are railways strikes (by dbrion on 2008-05-05 16:16:09 GMT from France)
with its policy of stuffing fora with bugs complaints (cf 30) and fretting with millions of fora entries.....
=> Google trends indices of success might be meaningless....
39 • Slackware (by oldjoe225 on 2008-05-05 16:23:29 GMT from United States)
I would like to give Pat Volkerding a great big THANKS. He has always put together a great Distro that vary few others can match. One Distro might do this better then others and that Distro might do something else better, but very few give you a great base to do what ever you want. I know it's already been said a hundred times, but I'll say it again, there is no other Distro that will teach you Linux better then Slackware. I don't know how many times I have used the skills Slackware taught me to fix other Distro's that failed in some way. Thanks again Pat and also thanks to all the developers that help Pat do what he does.
40 • VirtualBox 1.60 Released (by Richard-S on 2008-05-05 16:35:40 GMT from United Kingdom)
Although neither a Linux "distro" nor a normal Linux "app," the release of an upgraded VirtualBox virtualiser is good "news."
VirtualBox 1.60 is the first release since Innotek was bought by Sun.
There are considerable changes. So far, it seems to work well.
41 • Slackware (by Ringwraith on 2008-05-05 16:46:19 GMT from United States)
Congratulations to Patrick for another excellent release. Thanks to Ladislav for a great review. Most long time Slackers love it because it works.
42 • RE:20 what is slapt-get? (by IMQ on 2008-05-05 16:56:17 GMT from United States)
I would like to add or give a better picture of what is said in #28.
Slapt-get is a package manager modeled after Debian package manager: apt. It has the capability of resolving dependencies, just like apt. So if you install a package that depends on other packages that not already installed, slap-get will install them for you along with your chosen package.
The syntax is similar to apt. In Debian, the apt syntax for basic functions are:
apt-get update
apt-get install package-name
apt-get upgrade or apt-get safe-upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
For Slackware, slapt-get commands are similar:
slapt-get --update
slapt-get --install
slapt-get --upgrade
slapt-get --dist-upgrade
There is a GUI for slapt called GSlapt, similar to Debian's Synaptic, but I much prefer the command line slapt-get to do the actual work.
If you are familiar with Debian's apt, then you'll be right at home with slapt-get.
43 • @31 (by Landon on 2008-05-05 16:58:49 GMT from United States)
I didn't say they would...just that there is a better chance of Ubuntu and Debian merging than there is of Ubuntu creating their own OS. You are right though, no way will that happen (at least without a mass exodus of users and developers).
44 • RE 13: Installing Ubuntu On USB Stick (by Kurt Caton on 2008-05-05 17:17:07 GMT from United States)
I used these instruction with no problems:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09/28/usb-ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon-install/#more-243
45 • Ubuntu and Debian silliness (by ezsit on 2008-05-05 17:26:12 GMT from United States)
I am glad developers know that all this talk about "Ubuntu overtaking Debian" and "Ubuntu should roll their own instead of being tied to Debian" is rubbish. Ubuntu IS Debian, the packages are the same, at least 95% of them, and Ubuntu, as a community, could NEVER achieve what the Debian community does. Namely, put together a stable and robust operating system directly from the source code of thousands of independently developed software projects from around the globe.
Ubuntu does a fine job of picking and choosing only the select Debian packages that fit into Ubuntu's project goals and release strategy. Ubuntu does a far better job at promotion than they do at releasing a stable operating system. This is not a slam, but a matter of fact. More people know the word Ubuntu than are familiar with the word Debian.
To all those who believe that "Ubuntu is overtaking Debian," get a clue. Ubuntu is more popular because they release more often, promote the heck out of their releases, and make installing proprietary software and drivers easier than Debian. However, Ubuntu is merely a selection of packages from Debian, nothing more or less. Without the Debian community, Ubuntu would cease to exist as it does and would quickly be forced to re-base off of Fedora (that would be the easiest move the Ubuntu devs could make and still put out a regular six month release schedule).
46 • MISC RE 43, 13 and qu 25 (by dbrion on 2008-05-05 17:37:38 GMT from France)
RE @43 / many thanks : never saw a clear and concise desription of package managements for TWO distrs (at least).
RE @13 distrs for eeeeepc on an external USB drive
dhttp://www.coagul.org/spip.php?page=article_imprime&id_article=584 gives (but in French) an how to make a Linux on a flash USB pen.
http://sidux.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-7669.html
seems also a nice howto, specifical to eeeeeeePC (the screen seems to get configured, too!!)
Both link to Debian wiki ....
Qu @25 "That remember me when I tried Zenwalk (based in Slackware), great, just great.
"
Did you find to qemulate *recent* Zenwalks (Christmas edition and later) ?
Was the first screen great (the one which theoretically gives access to key,qp options?)?
was it great?
Did you try to start a terminal from the taskbar (at the South of the screen) in Zw Xmas, ZW5.0, Zw5.01 (i.e : 3 successive versions!!) ? For me (and it is likely to be reproduced) it was a
great
restart..... (though XFCE works with terminal in other distrs....)
47 • Why is Gentoo Still on Active List? (by Anonymous on 2008-05-05 18:03:17 GMT from United States)
There hasn't been a release in over a year. If they are on a rolling release and all you've got to do is update your system (for days) to get caught up, why is there so little activity? Was it that broken?
The Release Roadmap hasn't been updated since April 8th even with a supposed Beta2 available for download.
I think I understand now. The 416 people that click on Gentoo daily are using it for their home page.
It's been a year with no release, two lifetimes in this business, it's time to clear them from the slate.
48 • RE 47 : BECAUSE (by dbrion on 2008-05-05 18:13:13 GMT from France)
a) Because :Gentoo supports many more types of UC than the ritual AMD/Intel x86 semimonopole... (and fedora is not told to be dead with a 15 days dead-line shift, for ONE processor!)
b) Because : The Gentoo newsletter and handbooks are useful, unlike 10 million entries 'fora'
c) Because : when one downloads a Gentoo 2008 Beta, it works very well...
d) Because : there are other purposes in software maintenance that PR oriented solennel releases....
e) Because : if you need good sources, and if upstreams seems broken, Debian and Gentoo are useful sources....
Nothing to do with DWW mouse plays.....
49 • #47 Gentoo Is Active (by Justin Whitaker on 2008-05-05 18:31:45 GMT from United States)
It's a sign of the pervasiveness of Ubuntu's Marketing that 12 months without a release starts people saying that a distribution is no longer active.
Gentoo is a rolling release. New stuff is uploaded each day (or week, not sure since I am not a Getoovian, or whatever they call themselves), and you can emerge them on the fly. The CD/DVD releases are snapshots of a base system that installs, is relatively stable, and has the most recent bug fixes. It's just a way to bypass a massive upgrade.
I've never gotten Gentoo past the core install on my machines....but that does not prevent me from reading their literature and seeing what the project is all about.
50 • Puppy4, Elive172 and OSos (by capricornus on 2008-05-05 18:44:51 GMT from Belgium)
Yeey, Puppy 4, it delivered every expectation immediately!
Elive172: It says: sorry, installing it is a next project. Thus: It should be announced as a Live-CD ONLY. It recognizes NVIDIA, but does not use a 1440x900 resolution. Another ThrowAwayCD.
OSos. Slow download. Very slow. And after 300 MB it just closed on me. I pay EUR 5 per 5 GB. It shouldn't do that again. I'm curious, and I'll let you know.
51 • O Solaris and economical issues.... (by Anonymous on 2008-05-05 18:55:02 GMT from France)
Comment deleted (duplicate post).
52 • OpenSolaris and Novell (by Duhnonymous on 2008-05-05 18:59:26 GMT from United States)
It would interesting if we had Novell's take on the future of OpenSolaris.
SJVN just wrote:
"Sun may yet have to contend with Novell's IP interests in OpenSolaris. Novell clearly doesn't believe Sun had the rights to open-source the System V code within OpenSolaris under its CDDL (Common Development and Distribution License)."
http://www.linux.com/feature/134260
53 • USB Distro Images : Mandriva released a live USB iso? (by ikke on 2008-05-05 19:00:43 GMT from Belgium)
7 : "Dumping the iso to a usb flash drive is a snap" Am wondering ... The url you are referring to explains how to install mandriva on an hard disk from usb but not how to make a live USB iso.
Is it enough to copy the contents of Mandriva-One.iso eg to an usb-stick using dd?
Thank you for any hint.
Ikke.
54 • Great DWW, etc. (by Eyes-Only on 2008-05-05 20:08:03 GMT from United States)
I agree!---great DistroWatch Weekly this week Ladislav and thanks for the wonderful review of Slackware 12.1 as it was most enlightening indeed! I've used many distros based upon "the parent", and yet I've never realised that the parent itself was without branding (until now) plus so completely vanilla in flavour. How interesting!
So your review was very much appreciated by myself, and I can see many others as well. Likewise a hearty "congratulations!" to Patrick for sticking with the project for all these years and seeing to it that the oldest Linux distro is STILL vibrant and very much alive this far into the New Century. Kudos Patrick and to all who have remained committed to Slackware!
Myself, I'm a self-described "distro junkie" who may never really find a true "home distro" as I love playing with so many of them (6 on this machine). Currently I'm testing out this new Puppy "Dingo" 4.00, which I didn't think I would very much care for it after having a long 6 month run with the 3.0.x version which is binarily Slackware 12 compatible. (Can you picture the tiny Puppy running the complete KDE 3.5.8 desktop? It does!)
Instead, however, I find myself once again admiring the sheer genius of BarryK and the Puppy Community---both of which have worked so hard to produce this little GTK2.0 marvel. When they described that there were a lot of changes in this version 4.00 they weren't kidding and it has to be seen and experienced to be believed. Just the now over-all uniformed look to Puppy 4.00 speaks volumes. Oh yes! And now that it's all GTK2.0 based can you picture a small 87meg distro running the complete Gnome 2.20.3 desktop environment flawlessly?
"Stunning" is the adjective that comes to mind.
Thanks for your time folks---and thanks again Ladislav for a great DWW!
Amicalement,
Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
55 • Fix the links (by sgunhouse on 2008-05-05 20:14:59 GMT from United States)
Hey, can someone fix the links to this page from the news summary page? You guys left out all of your "#" symbols in the links. :(
56 • Adenda (by Eyes-Only on 2008-05-05 20:30:10 GMT from United States)
I need to point out that the default window manager that comes in Puppy "Dingo" 4.00 is JWM 2.01 and NOT Gnome 2.20.3---the latter is an .sfs module which "snaps-into" Puppy via the "BootManager" programme and was made by forum member "Wow".
Nor did Puppy 3.0.x come with KDE-3.5.8 as a desktop environment, but likewise went out with JWM 2.0.1 (if memory serves me correctly) in the .iso. There were TWO .sfs modules of KDE made: A "Lite" version by forum member "Kirk" and a "Full-Featured" version by forum member "MU", which is also used in his "Muppy/Mini-Sys" fork of Puppy.
Sorry if I created any confusion above in my statements.
Amicalement,
Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"
57 • RE: 16 • Slackware 12.1 (by Marek on 2008-05-05 21:17:51 GMT from Estonia)
"The only problem I have at the moment is that I can't boot Slackware 12.1 from the hard drive and have to use the DVD to boot it. I installed the LILO boot loader into /dev/hda7, which is where Slackware is install, and add an entry to GRUB menu in the other distro. This is unusual because I had practically no problem adding an entry for a newly installed distro to GRUB menu until now. I just don't know what to make of it."
i had the same issue, finally decided to add grub bootloader to my new 12.1 install, and copied over my previous menu.lst. it is located on slackware extras folder on dvd, install and then run grubconfig as root.
58 • Puppy (by M on 2008-05-05 22:02:50 GMT from Australia)
"Puppy Linux 4.00 - now with a background image showing a decidedly non-Australian landscape"
It may well be part of the Australian Antarctic Territory.
59 • RE: 57 (by IMQ on 2008-05-05 22:11:25 GMT from United States)
Here is the entry I made for Slackware 12.1:
title A7 --Slackware 12.1 --huge-smp-2.6.24.5-smp
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-huge-smp-2.6.24.5-smp root=/dev/hda7 ro
I can't see what's wrong with it. It just refuses to boot.
Maybe I tried GRUB and see.
60 • Slackware review (by linux user on 2008-05-05 23:53:08 GMT from Maldives)
Cant believe "Dhivehi" was mentioned... its pretty rare
61 • Slackware, Puppy, ubuntu & debian (by VernDog on 2008-05-05 23:58:34 GMT from United States)
Slackware has a tender place in my heart for some reason. Maybe it's because it was the first Linux I used way back when.
Puppy 4.0 is much improved for me on my system. It just works great.
DSL just doesn't work well for me.
I like the new ubuntu and wonder if there isn't a tad bit of jealousy from it's success. It works great as a full os on my machine. No problems whatsoever.
Maybe all the problems that are noted on the ubuntu web site is do to the fact most Windows users that come to Linux go by way of ubuntu and haven't gotten down the new philosophy yet.
debian is rock solid and will probably be my final install. I just wanted to give ubuntu a going over. I wasn't impressed with it three years ago. I'm amazed at how stable this new release is. Give debian the credit for it, apparently.
62 • Puppy 4. "Final"?? Not hardly... (by ROC on 2008-05-06 02:53:12 GMT from United States)
Looking over the running commentary in the Murga forum (http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=28643), one can see that this puppy has a ways to go to be considered "stable" or "final" - wait for 4.1; maybe it will be worthwhile then. In the meantime 3.01 is probably safer (I like it ;-)
63 • Slackware 12.1 review (by foureyes779 at 2008-05-06 03:06:06 GMT from United States)
That is really sad that Slackware couldnt hold your attention with eye candy long enough to give it a decent review. If you want a distro that is going to entertain you, stay away from slackware. If you want a distro that you can use to do the task at hand, without all the bloat and eye-candy, then give slackware a try
64 • Puppy 4 Ever (by Lobster on 2008-05-06 06:12:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
All your questions and answers about Puppy 4 "Dingo"
http://tmxxine.com/wik/wikka.php?wakka=PuppyDingo
Smaller, simpler, sturdier, swifter - Superb
65 • suse look good (by Sharique on 2008-05-06 06:46:38 GMT from India)
opensuse looks good, I think it is going to be distro of the year.
Read my test report abt opensuse 11 beta1 at my blog http://safknw.blogspot.com/.
66 • RE 50 How to solve a distro-junkie's economical issues... (by Butch Cassidy on 2008-05-06 06:50:00 GMT from France)
"Elive172: ....., but does not use a 1440x900 resolution. Another ThrowAwayCD"
Or a throw away graphic card.....
Or try to sell the graphic stuff : it will give you 20G more download, if it is more than 3 month old...
"OSos. Slow download. Very slow. And after 300 MB it just closed on me. I pay EUR 5 per 5 GB. It shouldn't do that again. "
I agree it is slow, but you should wait (and it would be cheaper even if you are not a railway robber) till it is in Linux Identity Collection/Kit/ (has identitity pbs, but advertises in DW home page) . One can find it in any serious French railway station....and there are nice how-tos and help on paper....
67 • Re: #53 • USB Distro Images : Mandriva released a live USB iso? (by Leo on 2008-05-06 11:31:24 GMT from United States)
Hi Ikke
Sorry, you are right, the USB iso they refer in the URL I linked is for the installer, not for the live distro (I am used to Ubuntu where they are both the same). But it's still a great idea for the distros to treat flash media on equal footings as CD/DVD media.
In my case, I can settle for something like this: dump an installer to an USB stick in my main Kubuntu pc, boot from there in the eeepc, and install in an sdhc card. That would work for me. Then I can customize the sdhc install over time.
Thanks!
68 • Distro Comments Forum (by steve on 2008-05-06 13:26:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hi,
This has got to have been floated before. Ladislav, hows about a forum for the site? That way we (as a group) get to see the trials, tribulations and successes of each release.
Might be useful.
69 • I installed Slackware today (by Woody on 2008-05-06 13:44:53 GMT from Korea, Republic of)
I installed Slackware today. I appreciate that Pat brings SCIM for the first time with 12.1. I've ever compiled and used both Nabi and SCIM for Korean input in the earlier version, and had some issues. In this version, Pat did a good job for IM, it works like charm without a glitch. Pat, thanks a million for making the best distro on earth. Thanks again.
70 • 68 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 13:54:42 GMT from United States)
Ladislav is busy, but how about if there is a community effort to put together a forum? Maybe he'd link to it. If not, it would be just another forum.
The comments section could then be limited to news related to the DWW that week.
It would have to be policed constantly to get rid of nonsense posting about Distro X is junk and Distro Y just works so use that. Mods would have to make sure that posts state facts (list hardware and describe the problem in detail, etc.) It seems like a good fit for DistroWatch.
71 • OSos... (by capricornus on 2008-05-06 14:35:20 GMT from Belgium)
...2nd download burned and...nothing. Don't blame the consumer again, other downloads/burns worked very well.
72 • Elive 172 (by capricornus on 2008-05-06 14:38:58 GMT from Belgium)
I really threw it away, you know. When a distro doesn't work on my first and very basic pc, it's already over. It runs almost everything, reason for including NVIDIA 1440x900 now. Some great distro's recognize it without any problem or extra click! So I feel free to compare the latecomers with a Mint, MEPIS or Granular...
73 • 71 A careful consumer differs from a distro junkie (by Sundance Kid on 2008-05-06 14:44:40 GMT from France)
"Don't blame the consumer again"
But laugh at the uncareful distro hopper : as Osolaris has unexepected success (read the review in DW home page, even if they are in German), the download site (s : they apologize and add new ones in Suns web site!!...) are victims of traffic-jams, until ... SunDay, I suppose...., and , if you wait some months (what are months in a (wo)man's life?)and it is worth it (else, what is the matter), you will find it, with cellulotic help, in railways stations journal sellers.
74 • RE 72 s:ELive 72: elive UNSTABLE version: (by dbrion on 2008-05-06 14:47:42 GMT from France)
As they claim.....
75 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 14:57:27 GMT from Canada)
I tried OpenSolaris and I found it quite nice. The only concern I have is how much software will be available for it (flash, k9copy, libdvdcss, etc). I didn't install it because it did not pick up my ethernet card and when I opened the network wizard it said it can't run in live mode. Is it easy to configure the network card with that wizard?
76 • ref 70 COMMENTS (by John Grubb on 2008-05-06 15:11:40 GMT from United States)
"The comments section could then be limited to news related to the DWW that week.
It would have to be policed constantly to get rid of nonsense posting about Distro X is junk and Distro Y "
What do you think the news related DWW is if not distro's???
The comments should reflect one's distro experience - good or bad.
77 • opensuse (by arno911 on 2008-05-06 15:17:11 GMT from Germany)
does anybody know if the latest suse beta boots into runlevel 5 or not, like the beta1? this one's not available as CD, only full dvd, and i would like to know if a download is of any value before i try it :)
78 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 15:19:14 GMT from United States)
> What do you think the news related DWW is if not distro's???
But, for instance, this week's comments could be related to Slackware, the upcoming opensuse, etc. No reason to have a debate about PCLinuxOS.
> The comments should reflect one's distro experience - good or bad.
Yes, they should reflect the experience. I was referring to comments of the form "PCLinuxOS is a pile of crap" or "PCLinuxOS just works" and so on. Comments describing problems with detecting hardware are useful. A broad statement about a distro with no elaboration is not helpful at all. Such a forum would just turn into a childish flamefest providing no helpful information to anyone else considering a particular distro.
79 • Please avoid using OpenSUSE (by troll on 2008-05-06 15:47:52 GMT from India)
Comment deleted (troll).
80 • #79 (by drizake on 2008-05-06 16:05:22 GMT from United States)
We get the point. You've already posted a link to your site here on numerous DWWs without changing your message. BTW, your site looks terrible on Firefox. I tried it on IE and it works fine. I also noticed it uses Active X scripts. For someone who boycotts Novell for their association with MS, you sure seem tied into the MS machine.
81 • Laptops and Linux (by Gerald on 2008-05-06 16:19:07 GMT from United States)
Well now, that was quite an experiment. It was meant to be only an install of the newest "Mint" on this Toshiba Satellite A205 laptop.
I could get no wifi configuration to work, so I downloaded Sabayon on my PC and burned and installed that one: same result, no wifi.
Next was Ubuntu, then Mandriva's latest. Mandriva would not make a connection via wireless either. In the Mandriva Control Center I went to the hardware area and it did detect the wireless card but said, "unknown" for its module, etc. Also, it detected the ethernet card but could not find a driver for it.
I find it fascinating that after 11 or 12 years of Linux we have this sort of situation. It is not as if Toshiba is an upstart company with unknown hardware and pci slots, etc. If the oft-said "inferior" Windows Vista can see it all and connect it all, why cannot the new Linux distros?
Am I supposed to dual boot and have Linux on the same hard drive as Windows so the Windows drivers can be used? That seems counter to the Linux culture of replacing Windows.
Luckily I used a spare hard drive instead of wiping out Windows Vista with one of those Linux distros that would not work propertly.
82 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 16:23:01 GMT from Germany)
interesting. maybe its because of MS that the first Beta didnt work *g*
83 • RE 81 :"Laptops and Linux " (by dbrion on 2008-05-06 16:29:34 GMT from France)
Laptops are expensive...
New HW too;
It takes time *and* money to test every piece of HW on *every* laptop (there are hundreds of them) and to fill up tables of supported HW.... All of this work is gratis....as if devs were slaves...
If you want to install a Linux on a brand new laptop, perhaps you should wait ... six months, whithout crying (that makes the oceans swell, and leads to tsunamis).
With Cygwin to train you to the command line use, Virtual Box, Qemu and VMplayer , plus thousands of nice W$ ported applications, plus tens of free books,
it might be not that boring
..... and the other free OSes (such as xBSD and Osolaris, likely) suffer more than GNU/linux from the great number of fashionable, expensive but quickly losing any value HW......
84 • @81 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 16:32:33 GMT from Canada)
What I am about to say had been said many times already. Anyway, here it goes.
That computer was made to run Windows on it. Toshiba wrote drivers that specifically work with that hardware on Windows. It is impossible for the Linux kernel for Windows and for any OS to support all the hardware in the world. I'll take a wild guess and say that you bought that computer with Windows preinstalled on it. So Toshiba took care of the drivers. Buy a laptop with linux on it and install Windows on it. I bet there will be many things that won't work otu of the box.
85 • Linux and Laptops (by Gerald on 2008-05-06 17:39:45 GMT from United States)
Maybe that rich guy that funds Ubuntu can get a laptop company to deliver with Ubuntu (or Xbun or Kbun, etc) on the hard drive already installed.
Wouldn't that be a wooptie doo. :O)
86 • @77 suse beta2 (by stefan on 2008-05-06 18:08:47 GMT from Netherlands)
hi,
the latest suse beta is available in (live) cd's as well:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0-Beta2/iso/cd/openSUSE-11.0-Beta2-KDE4-LiveCD-i386.iso
you can install from the cd and what i have noticed is that the default runlevel in the installer is set to "3" (for some insane reason) but if you pay attention you can easily set it to "5".
beta2 runs fine but I cannot understand why people would value it over lets say Fedora (or even *buntu) when it offers nothing extra besides a decent KDE4 desktop, has (Still!) lots of package managing issues (and Way too many ways to do so, all of them different) and less packages then the others, and that is not even mentioning the M$ marriage......
but hey, i tried it too .... and it does Look Good admittedly I just cannot for the live of me get used to / accept / like that %#$%$# yast stuff, but that is just personal.
stefan.
87 • No subject (by anonymouse on 2008-05-06 18:09:45 GMT from Germany)
until today there was no laptop with a preinstalled ubuntu that had less bugs or more working gimmicks than the same model without buntu preinstalled (but windows), after you installed a linux yourselve.
a friend of mine bought a vista laptop. vista didnt work as promised xp didnt have drivers. ubuntu failed. sidux worked, except for the proprietary wifi shit.
let me say i hate hardware.
I was very lucky that my core2duo on its mainboard was supported when i bought it - you know it has been on the market for only one year before... :/
88 • OpenSolaris (by Hawkeye52 on 2008-05-06 18:21:29 GMT from United States)
I downloaded, with some anticipation, the completed version of Indiana, now creatively named Open Solaris 2008,5. The burn went fine, the system booted, recognized my nVidia card, and delivered me to a fairly generic, but clean desktop.
I read how they had some utility that found your network connections, but I forget the acronym they used. I wasn't interested in the buzz words, I just wanted to get in and tinker with the distro. I run an HP Slimline, less than 6 months old, that has an ethernet connection to my ISP cable modem. In the 15-20 live cd's I have experimented with over the last year, I can not say I remember a distro that failed to make this connection. Today was the exception.
I wanted to be helpful, so I went to their website to file a problem report through their forums, and to see if anyone else had experienced this problem. I have not come across a more convoluted website in a long time. It was WAY too verbose and confusing for a simple fellow like myself; I just wanted to give them a tip on a problem I had encountered and move along. I felt like I had walked into a corporate website selling something that I didn't believe I was qualified to buy.
Anyway, I bounce around a few of their pages and finally went through the process of 'enrolling' in what I thought was a user forum. When my email notification came back, it explained that I have enrolled in the 'developers' forum, and then I got a second email telling me of all the developers benefits I was going to receive by enrolling. I am not a developer, I am an end user who wanted to help with a problem report on their new distro. I decided I would try to use this 'developer forum' and let them know my piddling little problem. When I tried to log on, I was told that my password was invalid.
At this point, my patience ran out. I can only hope that someone from Sun, god-forbid Ian himself, might be reading Distrowatch comments. If so -- my simple ethernet connection wouldn't work, and none of your printed documentation, nor convoluted website led me to anything resembling either a solution or a simple way of reporting the problem.
I have found most Linux websites easy to navigate, and high on useful information and willingness to help. I found my brief experience with Open Solaris to be lacking on all counts. It had all the markings of corporate bloat and posturing, without useful end-user substance.
I am sorry for the highly negative tone, but I actually bit my lip for a couple of hours before I posted this. I also, sincerely, hope others have a more positive experience than I did. Maybe Open Solaris is not intended for the end user; Maybe it wants to be a 'meta-distro' like Ian created with Debian. If so, just say so up front and let the little tinkers like myself save the time and frustration.
89 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 18:23:04 GMT from Canada)
Comment deleted (troll).
90 • Dr. Suse (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 19:09:11 GMT from United States)
I think I'll try out open suse, with that much propaganda against it it has to be good.
Or people are just obsessive compulsive...sometimes it's hard to say.
91 • Laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled (by pfpearson on 2008-05-06 19:10:36 GMT from United States)
I've not dealt with them, but I've heard good things about computers from System76 (http://system76.com/). They come preinstalled with Ubuntu, even the laptops. They even have a section in the Ubuntu forums.
Like I said, I've never dealt with them directly. I am in no way affiliated with them. I just hope that they do well, since they seem to target the home user with Linux.
92 • 88 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 19:38:29 GMT from United States)
I tried OpenSolaris in Virtualbox. I would say they have a good start, but it's obviously not "final release ready". Not even "Vista ready" or even the extreme case of "KDE4" ready.
You can tell it's a solid system, looks pretty, and so on, but...
a. Why are packages so incredibly large?
b. Why does the search function in the package manager work so poorly?
c. If they own Virtualbox, why can't we install guest additions?
d. Once I install Studio Express, which is my greatest source of excitement about OpenSolaris, where does it go? I can't find it anywhere on the system. Read through the documentation and can't figure it out.
e. There are not a lot of packages available.
f. Why can't you manage repositories from inside the package manager?
This is just a partial list of things that need to be done. Very promising indeed, a great start for recruiting the Linux crowd, but nevertheless not ready to serve as a replacement for Linux.
93 • OpenSolaris (by IMQ on 2008-05-06 20:27:18 GMT from United States)
I am a little disappointed that OpenSolaris does not include OpenOffice.org., or even better StarOffice to compliment the LiveCD.
Consider Kiwi or Ubuntu or Mint has GNOME Desktop, yet manages to include OpenOffice.org suite.
Maybe it is not intended as a Desktop alternative to Linux or Windows, but more of a development platform for those interested in Solaris.
Still, it would be nice to have the office suite for on the go OpenSolaris.
Now, I need to find a spare PC to try the HD install.
Does OpenSolaris require primary partition or would a logical will do?
94 • The latest Ubuntu & other stuff (by dooooo on 2008-05-06 20:40:04 GMT from Jordan)
Ubuntu is the distro that I suggested/installed for others . It never failed me before either on my desktop or on my friends' laptops . That's why I was very disappointed with their latest "stable" release . I ran the live CD on my desktop & It booted successfully . But I was surprised when the screen resolution was set to 800x600 .Knowing the fact that the nv driver in 7.04,7.10 managed to set the resolution to 1200x1024 , that was the 1st step backward but not really a serious issue .
I changed the wiring between the main board and the other devices just before I inserted the live CD . This change made (s)hda become (s)hdc . I didn't touch the already existing menu.lst just to test the installer .
Well , It failed & It failed so bad . I was surprised when I found out that grub failed to install completely on both the MBR and the root partition .
Conclusion : The automation tools wrote by the Ubuntu devs are not that magical/clever after all .
Off-topic : Is there an equivalent open-source solution (or at least Linux ported) to the PalTalk voice conferencing rooms (with queue and full administration capabilities ) .
95 • Re: 88 - About Sun / OpenSolaris (by Anon. on 2008-05-06 20:40:26 GMT from Norway)
Hawkeye52 wrote: "I have found most Linux websites easy to navigate, and high on useful information and willingness to help. I found my brief experience with Open Solaris to be lacking on all counts. It had all the markings of corporate bloat and posturing, without useful end-user substance."
Precisely. What is more, Sun's attitude is even stuffier today than that of IBM or MSC ever. It is quite telling that Sun is releasing a half-baked OpenSolaris 11 years after IBM decided to throw in the towel regarding OS/2, rather than end their gross neglect of the end users. Some things never change, and the corporate world is the most conservative in existence.
The only solace in this is that Sun is American, not French or German, in which case the end user would not have existed at all.
96 • 93 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 20:42:20 GMT from United States)
I thought that was strange, too, given that OOo is a Sun product. It must be that everything wouldn't fit on the CD if it was included. IMO they should ditch the GIMP if they want to save space.
I was going to install OOo but it said the download was over 400 MB. I figured that's just too much bandwidth.
97 • Re: post 91 .. wow! (by Gerald on 2008-05-06 20:46:21 GMT from United States)
http://system76.com/index.php?cPath=28
98 • ref# 90 - It is better to keep your mouth shut... (by John Grub on 2008-05-06 20:59:47 GMT from United States)
"I think I'll try out open suse, with that much propaganda against it it has to be good." This is EXACTLY why I choose to install ubuntu!
And guess what? It works better than anything I have installed to date! You are spot on in regards to all the nonsense against something.
If you want people to stay away from a distro - KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT !
99 • @ 90 and @ 98 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-06 21:49:21 GMT from Canada)
What's wrong with the fact that Suse is so Windows friendly? There should be freedom of choice. Use the OS that suits you best. That's all. Why fight Microsoft and Suse? Why use Linux? Use Suse.
100 • RE: 96 400MB for OOo? (by IMQ on 2008-05-06 22:34:27 GMT from United States)
Are you sure it didn't mean after installing it will take up 400MB. More than likely the case, I think.
The official binary only around 130MB, IIR. If it is true, no wonder they don't include it on the CD, but it is strange to be that big.
The only other variation of OOo that I know of is the OxygenOffice Professional, which is based on OOo. Even with the addition arts and fonts, etc., it is only around 230MB.
I still want to give a spin on the HD when I get the time.
101 • 100 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-07 01:49:16 GMT from United States)
Sure surprised me. It's never been that size in any Linux I've ever installed. But it did show a 400 MB download.
102 • @81 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-05-07 02:33:32 GMT from Canada)
Did you try using ndiswrapper with Mandriva? You don't need to keep Windows around to use the Windows driver via ndiswrapper. All you need is to feed it a copy of the Windows driver, one time. It then copies all the bits of it that it needs to a safe place in the filesystem so you can do whatever you want with the original.
103 • Similarity between opensolaris and ubuntu logo (by Ultra on 2008-05-07 02:27:25 GMT from Canada)
Coincidence or plot to take over the world?
104 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-07 04:29:31 GMT from United States)
...as demonstrated by the many Slackware-based distributions that exists on the market...
# 30 in Slackware status=Active, SaxenOS, is now based on PCLinuxOS.
105 • Let people express themselves. It hurts nobody. (by whitespiral on 2008-05-07 04:33:56 GMT from Mexico)
"Comments describing problems with detecting hardware are useful. A broad statement about a distro with no elaboration is not helpful at all. Such a forum would just turn into a childish flamefest providing no helpful information to anyone else considering a particular distro."
They can speak their minds freely. If you don't like some posts, ignore them, there'ś so much to read here.
106 • RE 92 Thanks for O'Solaris testing and partial answers... (by dbrion on 2008-05-07 05:41:03 GMT from France)
"a. Why are packages so incredibly large?
e. There are not a lot of packages available.
"
The definition of packages does not exist : one can cut a package into 3/4 parts, say, to have lots of packages (and good PR!)
... and incredibly small ones (doc part, header part, *.so/*.a -one can even separate the static and dynamic part, which makes 4 package out of one!!!)
"
b. Why does the search function in the package manager work so poorly?
"
As did (perhaps do) yum, urpmi, etc... It is a tempory -I suppose- state which plague(s|d) hundreds of distrs.. and perhaps they have a rollback function (if one is not satisfied with the latest and the buggiet? one could be happy to come back to older and safer versions) , which makes things more complicated....
FYI : I VMplayed (and was rather satisfied, though it was very austere) Indiana in february : from what I read, they made huge progresses (USB recognition, more softs...) in a rather short time ... and they claim to offer a development system (in a rather poetic announce!). Else, I used closed Solaris between 1994 and 2002.without any software failure -nor "up"grade- and am therefore very biased (but not in a hurry) in favor of O Solaris..
107 • RE 95 O solaris baking, great theories and some practice.... (by Anonymous on 2008-05-07 10:54:22 GMT from France)
" It is quite telling that Sun is releasing a half-baked OpenSolaris 11 years after IBM decided to throw in the towel "
Good news : With all his great theories and fully understood generalities, @88 will reklease, within one month, a fully baked, full of end user substance, OS...
BTW, where can one find (the definition) of end user substance???
tried 10 dictionaries......
Is it edible?
Has it proteins?
Which is its color?
108 • Open Solaris (by Rich on 2008-05-07 11:53:50 GMT from United States)
The last 'free' cd release was garbage. Couldn't do anything with it other than boot up. I'll be giving this one a test when I receive it. If I can't get internet connectivity it'll go into the trash as the last release. Hopefully they've made some progress. If not it'll be another few years before I try them again.
109 • Windows Menu Hate (by Andy on 2008-05-07 12:43:54 GMT from Australia)
What's with all the windows start menu hate? The XP/Vista start menu is pretty decent. A two panel menu system works really well, and for me at least tracking commonly used/favourite apps is a boon. Plus, unlike the suse menus in KDE/Gnome, the icons/text/spacing aren't huge making the menu unncessarily large. Are we seriously that close-minded in that we hate things just because they are MS?
110 • Dear Adam Williamson, (by Gerald on 2008-05-07 12:50:12 GMT from United States)
I do not know how to use "ndiswrapper." I have seen that suggestion and mixed results posted by people in various forums (I'm searching around all the time for a way to get Linux on this Toshiba Satellite A205).
The problems:
- the Realtek RTL8187B_WLAN_ADAPTER is not seen at all by any Linux distro I've tried so far (no drivers in Linux anymore for that wireless adapter?)
- the Marvell ethernet card is seen but not utilized by any Linux distro I've tried so far, so I cannot download in Linux from my cable modem the stuff for ndiswrapper or whatever.
That is the problem, the wonderful Marvell ethernet card.
I admit to being surprised that Linux distros, big or small, young or old, still has trouble using deviced that get people on the internet. ??
111 • RE 110 There are other goals than getting pple on the Holy internet (by dbrion on 2008-05-07 13:12:01 GMT from France)
"That is the problem"
It is not a GNU/linux problem, it is
method
of buying problem : if you buy a car with no heater, and go to Alaska, you would be ridiculous if you complained about the cold climate and your shiny new uncomfortable car. Even in front of court, it would be very funny.......
When I buy USB sticks, I look if they are Linux supported (it is written, now).... and laptops are more expensive....
112 • 110 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-07 13:48:04 GMT from United States)
> I admit to being surprised that Linux distros, big or small, young or old, still has trouble using deviced that get people on the internet. ??
You are clearly new to Linux. Please allow me to state nicely that you are not using proper etiquette when you make a post like this.
It is *impossible* for all hardware to "just work" with every OS. As someone posted above, you bought a laptop with Windows configured, from an anti-Linux company, and are now complaining that Linux doesn't "just work". I have a printer for which Vista doesn't work because there is no driver. It happens, it is the choice of the hardware provider, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the OS. It appears that you do not fully understand how these things work.
If you want to get help, attaching such commentary at the end of your message is not a good idea. If you really want to know _why_ such problems occur, you should make one post to ask for help, and a second post to ask why.
113 • @110 (by Adam Williamson on 2008-05-07 15:35:37 GMT from Canada)
The basic procedure is to run the Mandriva network configuration tool, tell it you want to configure a wireless card, and then select the "Windows driver (via ndiswrapper)" (or something like that) option. Then you feed it a Windows driver.
It's odd that the wired connection doesn't work either, though. Almost all wired ethernet controllers are supported by Linux. When you say "seen but not utilized", what exactly do you mean?
114 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2008-05-07 17:17:02 GMT from India)
does slapt-get moo? ;-)
115 • @ 114 (by texasmike on 2008-05-07 19:50:48 GMT from United States)
Not like apt-get does.
116 • Re: 107 - French dictionaries (by Anon. on 2008-05-07 20:54:01 GMT from Norway)
Anonymous, from France, wrote: "BTW, where can one find (the definition) of end user substance???
tried 10 dictionaries......"
I'll believe you. In the context it is a market economy concept and as such a generally alien idea in authoritarian cultures like the French. Try Wikipedia.
117 • Too many distros? (by Jon Mason on 2008-05-08 02:03:36 GMT from United States)
Ladislav Bodnar, a man who I hold in great esteem, frequently expresses his concerns about unoriginal distributions that are just a remaster of another distribution that possibly adds a few extras such as proprietary drivers or codecs. He also states that this has resulted in an unnecessary explosion in the number of distributions. My response is I love looking at all of those unoriginal distributions that spend so much time on the waiting list. In addition, I enjoy reading on Distrowatch about all of the distributions that I will never have time to try. One person's junk is another persons treasure. Ironically, without Distrowatch, I would never have the opportunity to look at all the junk.
I love Distrowatch.
Best Wishes,
Jon
P.S. It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. (Mark Twain)
I am a fool and I have no shame. (Jon Mason)
118 • ref#117 Finally (by verndog on 2008-05-08 02:50:49 GMT from United States)
Thanks Jon and DW for this great site where we can meet and look and download our beloved distro or venture out and try another.
I've heard a lot of complaints regarding this site and not nearly enough praise. And yet, almost every forum I visit their is DW talk. Saying something like, "...I was reading a DW article and..."
I have now been using ubuntu for a week now or so, I'm loving it!
DW, like Ubuntu, absorbs more negative unfounded press than it should. I guess there's a price to pay for success! :)
119 • OpenSolaris, my take: (by RollMeAway on 2008-05-08 04:21:38 GMT from United States)
200805 offers a live, minimal , gnome desktop customized by SUN.
It detected nvidia at boot, configured my (8139too) wired network, and
configured (via82xx) MB sound ok. I started "Package Manager". It shows
526 of 1127 total packages installed. Very minimal in my book. Packages
are SUN specific e.g. SUNWgnome-desklets 0.5.11-0.86. That is how a
package and its version is listed. Common linux cmdline tools like 'lsmod'
and 'free' are not recognized. Under the hood is very different than linux. It detected and mounted partitions from an installation of OpenSolaris 10, I had installed in May 2005. Mounted /dev/dsk/c5d1s0 on /mnt/solaris0 for example. The CD is /dev/dsk/c6t0d0s2. Installation
only supports SUN's ZFS file system. It requires a real partition, not
logical, and must exist before any linux partitions.
It appears to me this is meant to be the start of a development system
for the users to create new apps and system of their own. To develop
a SUN derived distro. SUN specifically states they do not support this in
any way.
I decided not to overwrite my previous solaris, as it has three desktops:
Java Desktop System (gnome 2.6), CDE (common desktop enviornment)
and kde 3.1. I spent a good month getting that system up and running
on the same machine, so clearly SUN's hardware support has improved
considerably.
120 • @117 ("too many distros") & re slackware 12.1 (by simon on 2008-05-08 04:22:17 GMT from New Zealand)
there are pros and cons to the proliferation of linux distros. the major distributions have taken the source code for the kernel, gnu tools and so forth, and carefully built them to play together nicely. this is a huge contribution, even in the case of slackware where modification is deliberately kept to a minimum. personally i think it's ridiculous how many projects take a good, solid, flexible distribution, tweak it superficially, whack on some branding and call it a "distribution" as though their customisations (typically involving a package manager or repository, a few admin tools and the integration of a few favourite packages) belong in the same category as the massive work that projects like debian achieve. the thousands of users, testers and developers working on these hundreds of little spin-offs or "tweakings" of the major distros dilute the contribution that could be made to improving the big ones, and probably add to the confusion for new users.
on the other hand, the "major" distributions were "spin-offs" themselves at one time (to varying degrees), and obviously it can be good for innovation and creative development when people who aren't happy with an existing project fork it and take it in a new direction. i just think that there are very often opportunities to contribute to an existing project that aren't taken because it's easier and more of an ego-trip to start a new one. actually, the same could be said for individual packages: it's very boring to try ten different versions of the same basic thing (media players are a good example) and find them all repeating the same limited functionality with different names and appearances, instead of collaborating on something that actually worked better. sometimes less is more.
speaking of which, i want to add my comment to the others thanking pat for another beautiful slackware, and i agree with the person who questioned the review's calling slackware a "fairly decent" desktop system. it's very fast, rock-solid reliable, and beautifully clean and straightforward: what would a "really decent" desktop be, if not that? its only "weakness" as a desktop (for some people) is the time and effort involved in building custom packages, given the small default package set and the lack of automated dependency resolution: but that's the inevitable price you pay if you want to use the package manager you were born with to track what's going on in your system. if you'd rather just use a package without having to worry about what it's doing, there are plenty of third-party tools and package repositories that can beef up the slackware desktop with minimum effort (look at the gsb gnome desktop, for instance: not just a complete compiz-fusion gnome desktop, but everything from openoffice to mplayer, inkscape, blender, kino, dvd::rip...a very full-featured desktop you can install on slackware with fewer commands than it would take to install all its packages on debian).
slackware, debian, fedora, a few more projects like gentoo that do things in genuinely different and potentially useful ways...and the tweaked spin-offs like ubuntu that are now too huge to ignore (and which make significant contributions to their parent projects)...these are the distributions i read distrowatch to find out about. i'm not knocking the little ones individually: some of them are really cool, and no doubt some of them will evolve into major projects themselves. i do however think that it has got to the point where there are so many of them that the announcement of a new "distro" (which usually means yet another re-branded tweaking of an old one) is nothing to get excited about (whereas not so many years ago, it was a big deal and the new distro was definitely worth checking out).
121 • Donation nomination - Parted Magic (by Adam on 2008-05-08 07:54:37 GMT from Australia)
I propose a Distrowatch donation to Patrick Verner's Parted Magic mini-distribution, which I have been using very sucessfully for about approaching a year now.
It's a specialised tool, but in my experience it Just Works.
PLUS: By forking GParted into VisParted, Patrick appears to have prodded the GParted people off their laurels and back into action. Mission accomplished!
122 • RE 119 : Thanks for beginning to make things clearer.. (by dbrion on 2008-05-08 13:49:08 GMT from France)
"It appears to me this is meant to be the start of a development system
for the users to create new apps and system of their own."
As it is fairly stated in their (very poetic) announce ... and reviews. It is the maximum one maust wait from a first (even stable) release...
123 • RE 116 Generall, I do not answer to somewhat xenophobic unthought (by dbrion on 2008-05-08 13:55:06 GMT from France)
pests....
@95,116
"I'll believe you. In the context it is a market economy concept and as such a generally alien idea in authoritarian cultures like the French. Try Wikipedia."
How can 95 meaningless slogans have a definition?
What is the economical / intellectual value of a "culture" based on
* I do not know anything
* I am glad of my lazyness
* I spread my leasiness on fora
* I deduced, in an ununderstandable way (perhps it is based on poster reasoning; technician have a 3rd dimension) that free software should support gratis my incompetence...
124 • Ubuntu's dynamically mounted partitions (by chris on 2008-05-08 14:48:43 GMT from United States)
Has anybody commented on Ubuntu's solution
of the "can't find partition with UUID" problem
during boot?
Partitions are now dynamically mounted on demand via Nautilus
instead of being statically mounted on boot via 'fstab'.
The partitions' icons are shown in the Nautilus side pane.
Double click to mount one.
Great.
A major annoyance has been fixed.
chris
125 • @117 I generally avoid unoriginal distributions -no time-, but.... (by dbrion on 2008-05-08 14:53:35 GMT from France)
"My response is I love looking at all of those unoriginal distributions that spend so much time on the waiting list."
There are not only unoriginal distributions waiting in the waiting list , but some very original , or (incl) very useful ones :
As a non exhaustive set of examples, I would like to randomly quote (two of them thaught me something) :
elpix : when she was announced, her download site broke ... as she is a copy of two distributions (she is twice unoriginal) plus a training course which was-rightly, IMO- felt very useful....
detaolb : dedicated to vi, git and useful programming tools... has a tiny memory print and is very useable for training/testing, or for making it bigger, too...
myOs: dedicated to one -1- library one can try to compile!
126 • top in opensolaris (by wonder on 2008-05-08 15:12:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
I installed the resent opensolaris and noticed that the "top" command didn't work. I checked the usual locations and indeed there was no "top" anywhere.
Either I was not capable of finding it or they really crippled the system!
Is there someone else with opensolaris here who can confirm or reject my observation?
127 • Re; 126, "top" in OpenSolaris (by Anonymous on 2008-05-08 17:01:21 GMT from United States)
Is prstat available? It's roughly equivalent to top (without as much information, unfortunately). I use prstat often in Solaris 8.
128 • Thanks 127 (by wonder on 2008-05-08 17:12:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thanks for the tip. I didn't know about prstat
129 • UR Welcome 128 (by pfpearson on 2008-05-08 17:43:08 GMT from United States)
(note that I also write #127). Try to do a man on proc(1) (I forget, it may be "man -s1 proc" or "man -a proc" might work). There are a lot of cool utils there in Solaris 8 (ptree, pkill and pgrep are my favorites).
I use Solaris 8 at work, so my knowledge may be outdated. But Sun, being a large company, is likely to keep some things philosophically similar.
130 • It has been a good month! (by Brian Masinick on 2008-05-08 18:52:15 GMT from United States)
Last month, my favorite cutting edge distribution, sidux, came out with a release. I have it on a couple of systems, including an old Dell Dimension 4100 desktop and a middle aged Dell Latitude D600 laptop and both are working great.
At the end of last month, I got a hold of two versions of Ubuntu, first the Kubuntu 8.04 KDE 4 Live CD remix, which worked quite well. It loaded effortlessly, automatically detected my wireless network on the D600 laptop and made it really easy to connect to my home wireless network (and see the surrounding networks as well). I was actually on the network within a minute of the Live CD completing its load up process.
KDE 4 cooperated quite well. Though I did not bang on the edges of the software, I did use the file manager, Dolphin, to browse files and I used the classic file manager and browser, Konqueror, to access the Web. I used the KDE Wallet to save authentication information and I accessed quite a few Web pages, and they all rendered well and the response was good.
A few days later I downloaded Xubuntu 8.04 and installed it on the 4100 desktop. I was very pleased at how easily it installed and how effortlessly it worked. Again, I did not exercise the edges as much, perhaps, as some users, but instead used it in a way typical of a sizable population, that is, essentially use the Web Browser, the Email Client, and the file manager, all of which worked very well.
I also used the lightweight CD burning application in Xubuntu. Usually I use k3b, and in days gone by I used to use the command line cdrecord, but with simple tools that get the job done, I appreciate them, and as long as they work and save me time, I appreciate them too. Xubuntu has a nice collection of those kinds of tools, all put together in a modest sized package.
That wasn't all.
Then my favorite small Live CD, Puppy, came out with their 4.00 release and I had to try it out. Naturally it worked well too. I did have some trouble figuring out how to use their wireless network assistant, but I found some very good forum links on the Puppy site that ought to help me sort all of that out the next time I use Puppy. On the desktop, it worked great, as always, and with the Seamonkey browser and Internet client for virtually all Internet related activities, plus Puppy running almost exclusively in RAM, this version runs very well.
Not enough to just have Linux going.
A few weeks back I installed the latest version of PC-BSD 7.0, and as usual, I was pleased with it. But I was perhaps even more impressed with the progress that Ian Murdock's crew at Sun has made with Open Solaris 2008-05. At last there is an enterprise quality UNIX system that can run on commodity hardware with Linux desktop features. My acid test lately has been that wireless interface. OS 2008-05 did nearly as well as Ubuntu 8.04 with it, figuring out right away which devices were present and allowing a very simple and straightforward mechanism to select the access connection and authenticate with WPA-PSK parameters. Very easy to do and like Kubuntu Live, I had the whole thing up just a minute or two after the Live CD loaded. Browsing was solid and the appearance and functionality of the software was definitely there. I give it very solid marks.
So I have a whole slew of software, all current within the past month, all of which can get the job done for me. The sidux desktop is the one I use most every day. With Perl instabilities in Debian Sid, sidux has earned its spot repeatedly on my desktop, remaining stable and useful in spite of a very volatile and unstable Debian Sid environment over the past six weeks or so. Huge appreciation to the sidux development team for being on top of this!
131 • ... and I did not even get to Slackware yet! (by Brian Masinick on 2008-05-08 18:55:09 GMT from United States)
... as if I did not have enough to enjoy already, I did not even get a chance to kick the tires on the latest Slackware 12.1 release - and I haven't taken the chance to run a release candidate or Slackware-CURRENT recently either.
Guess I will have to try that soon to keep the sense of nirvana going strong!
132 • antiX (by anticapitalista on 2008-05-08 19:57:09 GMT from Greece)
Brian,
... and antiX-M7.2 is ready for release.
Uploading to the mirrors as I type.
133 • interesting (by Earl E. on 2008-05-09 01:00:56 GMT from United States)
that link to the notebook computers shipped with ubuntu.
very interesting.
why are they not talked about more? reviewed? I would very much like to see a review.
134 • Still in awe... (by Tony on 2008-05-09 02:35:19 GMT from United States)
I still consider myself a noob in the Linux Distro world even after installing my first Linux Distro a few years back.
I am 'Still in awe' the average person can actually download and install a fully functional Operating System and get support for that Operating System for F-R-E-E.
I know this may sound a bit odd what I just said, but my sincere "Thanks" goes out to the Linux community as a whole regardless of the Distro.
This is a concept that Micro$oft will never understand...
135 • REF# - 121 • Donation nomination - Parted Magic (by verndog on 2008-05-09 03:51:06 GMT from United States)
I just downloaded it today, and I am amazed at it's ability. I was a bit confused from reading DW info about why they forked off from Gparted.
After download ISO and burned a CD. Upon boot is is a grat app. Has a great backup utility part image, both gui and command.
Aslo has Gparted. I was able to backup by ubuntu system after I created a new ext3 partition right on the spot and ued part image. The one hangup was the cannot create temp. The reason was I needed to mount my new partition. Seems reasonable, except one can already use thundar or mightnight commander and read AND write to it. Someone else at the partedmagic fourn had same issue a year ago with NO replies! LinuxQuestions forum to the rescue!!
Try partedmagic, you'll love it. Now if I can get Puppy to include those programs, I'm all set :)
136 • Re: #135 (by Adam on 2008-05-09 08:01:39 GMT from Australia)
Yes, basically GParted stagnated and so Patrick forked it into VisParted. I don't know whether he had intended to inherit and run with GParted's legacy, or whether his goal all along was to simply to spur the lads back into active development.
Not it matters now.
What really struck me is just how quickly he set about adding functionality to VisParted once he forked it. Reverting to GParted, in the short-term, is actually a step backwards, but from a long-term perspective it can only be beneficial to all to have it back on track.
137 • @131, 132 (by arno911 on 2008-05-09 08:06:11 GMT from Germany)
Brian, the new Slackware is like Slackware ever was - it works. I had the time to test it and, so far, i found no bugs. I will have to take a look at the gnome gsd for it, sounds good. (though its gnome *g*)
anticapitalista: thx for letting us know, you know I love your antix, i will download it right now and put it on my disk to check it out. keep up your good work!
it wont stop me from using sidux as my main distro, only sidux could do that :) but its always good to know more than one way to linux :)
otoh: with debian, sidux, mandriva and slackware there have been impressing and overwhelming releases this year, Im tempted to say: ubuntu, suse, go pack your things and leave, you wont (cause you cant) make it better, and you have proven it often enough. *g*
b.r.
arno911
138 • re:#33, system76 Ubuntu notebooks (by pfpearson on 2008-05-09 13:47:40 GMT from United States)
system76 has a support forum at Ubuntuforums (http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=341). There's a thread where people post their experiences (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=343798&page=11)
How about someone (Ladislav? Susan?) do a professional review just for Distrowatch?
If someone will buy me one, I'll be glad to learn how to write a professional review :-)
139 • Re 94 (by Wired on 2008-05-09 16:42:59 GMT from United States)
If you changed the order of HD's and did not have an ACTIVE boot record on the HDC drive it is no wonder it failed. Added to that fact that while you may have formated the drive you needed to delete all the partitions on a drive that does not have an ACTIVE mbr, and repartition.
140 • the ubuntu notebook area (by Earl E. on 2008-05-09 17:28:55 GMT from United States)
thank you pfpearson, that is a resource.
i too will be happy to review a provided ubuntu notebook. :)
141 • the ubuntu laptop "system76" customer reviews (by Earl E. on 2008-05-09 17:38:08 GMT from United States)
mixed. dissapointing to me. :(
some good reviews.. it seems that consistency is the problem (in the quality control areas). one quote jumped out at me:
"The system was heavier than I expected and had a "cheap" feel to it: a no-name laptop with a sticker on it.
I was very disappointed by the fact that the hardware on the system does NOT all work with Ubuntu. I would think that was the point of getting a pre-installed system: everything works out of the box.
I'm hoping the upgrade to Hardy will improve things but I'm not holding my breath.
The internal mic sucks, the wireless internet performance is bad."
142 • 137 by arno911 (by anticapitalista on 2008-05-09 21:02:41 GMT from Greece)
arno911: I agree with you that this has been a good year so far for released distros such as sidux, Mandriva, debian, slackware etc.
Standards are high for us mere mortals to follow. But we try.
Let me know your opinion of antiX-M7.2 at the antiX forums.
http://antix.freeforums.org/index.php
143 • Re #139 (by Anonymous on 2008-05-10 04:44:49 GMT from United States)
Will the new Parted Magic fix this or the dreaded USB install that trashes the hard drive? I sure hope so. I hate that it makes you format when you try to restore the partition.
144 • UBU linux laptops (by dbrion on 2008-05-10 14:08:27 GMT from France)
Perhaps it would be interesting to know :
a) how many people chose UBU linux laptops rather than MS ones (an indicator of popularity)
a1) where they more numerous than the ones who voted ? .....
b) How many preinstalled "OS"es remain (an indicator of technical skill from the "OS" provider), and, it it is relevant, in favor of which substitution OS?....
It would be more original (as other non GNU-linux free OpenSource OSes are likely to be successfully released ... and to have a growing popularity, due to apparently shorter bug detection times -see the time it took to detect a security flaw in linux v >= 6.17....) to review a xxBSD laptop (for an O Solaris one, it might be a little early)
145 • ATI Rage Pro Mobility M1 (by Michael Scott on 2008-05-10 14:50:51 GMT from United States)
Finally! After waiting almost forever (and forever is a mighty long time) a Linux Distro has included Direct Rendering support for my old Rage Pro Mach64 chipset. I know I could have spent three plus hours compiling it but in todays age who has the long to kill. Mandriva 2008.1 has it built in from the install. My glxgears scores went from 150fps to a blistering 300fps. (OK stop laughing). But it is enough to allow wine to run my son's Starcraft on my old laptop. I do realize that some "security risks" are involved in getting the Rage Pro to Direct Render. But come on! I have waited three years for this day. Congrats to Mandriva 2008.1. And thank you.
146 • #134 (by herman on 2008-05-10 22:28:03 GMT from Netherlands)
> "This is a concept that Micro$oft will never understand..."
They do understand, that's why they're still out to destroy it.
147 • Solaris on Distrowatch (by jrick on 2008-05-10 22:59:43 GMT from United States)
With all this talk about OpenSolaris, and other Solaris-based projects (Nexenta comes to mind), I think Distrowatch's subtitle (upper left hand corner or page) should add "Solaris" to the list of "Linux" and "BSD".
148 • vole's response to linux challenge (by hab on 2008-05-11 03:36:02 GMT from Canada)
Redmond is responding to the threat of linux on cheap laptops by doing this: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/145719/microsoft_to_limit_capabilities_of_cheap_laptops.html
This seems to me to smack of desperation. It is too little, too late!
Not to mention a tacit admission of failure!
cheers
149 • #139 (by dooooo on 2008-05-11 14:06:34 GMT from Jordan)
I understand that's a very late reply .
Actually changing (hda) to (hdc) in the already installed grub's menu.lst and of course in fstab(s) did the trick .
I wrote this because It might be useful to someone .
BTW the running distro is Debian Sid . With apt-listbugs you can avoid a lot of update issues & It receives security updates frequently (Check the security mailing list ) .
150 • Top{m|l}ess OSes (by dbrion on 2008-05-11 14:29:10 GMT from France)
RE "126 • top in opensolaris" and 127 (substitutes)
There was a top in BC-BSD alpha version, I was made aware of its existence thanks to DWW.
HOWEVER,
the values of elapsed time were of limited interest, because they had only three "values" :
NaN (not a number : I wanted numbers),
Inf (did not think it was soo slow!)
and 0.000 (did not think it was soo incredibly fast)!!!
This was the biggest flaw I saw in this alpha (the author of the announce is quite fair!) version, and I could have a realistic (at least, I hope) of the state my RAM greedy trials through vmstat (as there is no package manager *now*, as it is unambigously claimed, I had to recompile my fav. apps and * things needed to compile them + their dependancies ; (@145) as computers are faster than 15 yrs ago, when OPEN SOURCE was founded, it is not unpleasant having ones computer compile while one sleeps...).
I am just curious to know whether there is an equivalent of
top
in Windows which does not stretch arthritis suffering fingers (might be useful for hitch-hiking, anyway). As memory leaks may happen in W$, too (one even bought them!!), this would be very useful....
151 • Ubuntu Forums Statistics - Lots of UserS ---> (by Some with issues on 2008-05-12 01:26:31 GMT from Australia)
Ubuntu Forums Statistics
Members: 576,040, Active Members: 78,809
What's Going On?
Currently Active Users: 9887 (895 members and 8992 guests)
:-)
152 • ref 151 What's the point (by John Grub on 2008-05-12 01:35:08 GMT from United States)
Are you trolling or is there some reason for your comment?
You can take almost any Linux distro forum and get similar results.
153 • @148, vole's response to linux challenge (by Fractalguy on 2008-05-12 01:56:15 GMT from United States)
It certainly looks like an anti-trust violation. There have been some discussions about this in Australia where they have some detailed laws.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do? command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9084838
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/145719/ microsoft_to_limit_capabilities_of_cheap_laptops.html
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/18146/1023/1/1/
Paste these links back together, I included a space so they wouldn't be too long. Some of the comments are good. Slashdot and groklaw.net have been on this as well. Basically the Monopoly is dictating the spec on ASUS like netbooks whether Linux or XP is in on board. Prices of hardware are dropping so fast. It may take a while but I expect someone will break away again offering a wow netbook with touch screen and Linux without the Microsoft limitations. I wonder what EU will do about this.
You know, eee ment embrace, extend, extinguish. Looks like Microsoft was reminded of that when ASUS came out with eee PC.
154 • Re 152-->"You can take almost any Linux distro forum and get similar results". (by Lets try Mint? on 2008-05-12 06:19:56 GMT from Australia)
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Most users ever online was 131 on Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:35 pm
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Forum stats (flawed as they may be) for Ubuntu should give the UNBIASED OBSERVER a perspective of where this particular distro ranks in popularity/usage/adherents...etc! I would say that it is a FAR more accurate gauge of popularity than DW "PHR" rankings or DW "hits" rankings, which even "respected" Linux journalists have been using to write crap about pclos rise to the top and similar b.s.
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