 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 265, 11 August 2008 |
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Welcome to this year's 32nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! While interacting with the Linux user community through DistroWatch is an enjoyable activity, it can't beat face-to-face encounters with real Linux users and user groups. In this week's feature story, your DistroWatch maintainer meets the members of LoLiTa, a highly active free software user's group from French Polynesia. In the news section, the openSUSE community offers version 11.0 live CDs with KDE 3.5, Xandros announces the end of Linspire and a new Debian-based beginning for Freespire, PC-BSD continues rapid alpha testing of the upcoming version 7, and the OpenSolaris user and developer community is rocked by a "messy divorce" at Blastwave.org, a major repository of Solaris and OpenSolaris packages. Also in the news, an update on the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" and a preliminary feature list of the forthcoming Fedora 10. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the July 2008 DistroWatch donation is Linux Mint. Happy reading!
Content:
- Feature: Meet LoLiTa - the Linux user's group of French Polynesia
- News: openSUSE KDE3 live CDs, Debian 5.0 and Fedora 10 features, mixed fortunes for Linspire and Freespire, updates on Foresight KDE and PC-BSD, "divorce" at Blastwave.org
- Released last week: Musix GNU+Linux 1.0R2R5, CCux Linux 0.9.9
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 4, Frugalware Linux 0.9 RC1
- Donations: Linux Mint receives US$400.00
- New distributions: Bubuntu, Elastix, GUFI, Medianix, Ojuba Linux, OzOs, Ryder Linux, Tin Hat, WorkBench Linux
- Reader comments
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (13MB) and mp3 (13MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
Meet LoLiTa - the Linux user's group of French Polynesia
 Meeting free software enthusiasts in person is a rare feat for your DistroWatch maintainer who spends much of his time at the web site's headquarters - i.e. a spare bedroom. But whenever there is an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals, I tend to grab it with both hands. Last month, during my break in French Polynesia, I had the pleasure of meeting several members of LoLiTa (Logiciels Libres à Tahiti), a free software user's group operating from Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia. An excellent dinner at Royal Tahitian just outside Papeete was followed by an interesting discussion about the status of Linux in this (increasingly autonomous) French overseas collectivity.
But first, some useful facts about French Polynesia. Although small in total land size (only 4,167 square kilometres) and population (just 260,000 people), the 120 or so islands that constitute the territory are spread over 2.5 million square kilometres, an area as large as Western Europe. This makes it a challenge to provide good Internet connectivity to all inhabitants. Like elsewhere in the South Pacific (with the exception of Fiji and New Caledonia), the Internet is delivered by means of a satellite connection, rather than an undersea fibre optics cable. There is talk about a possibility of laying down a real pipe from Hawaii, some 4,400 kilometres north of Tahiti, but by all indications this is unlikely to happen before 2011 at the earliest.
 There is only one Internet Service Provider in French Polynesia. Called Mana (the word stands for "power" in Tahitian), this partially government-owned monopoly is a mixed blessing for the people of the archipelago. On the one hand, it suffers from all the usual ills that many ISPs would in a similar position, such as mediocre support service or annoying local caching of international web sites, but on the other hand, it also ensures that Internet is available even on the most remote islands, where no for-profit ISP would ever consider setting up a shop. As such, I've had a reasonably good experience surfing the Internet in Rangiroa or Nuku Hiva, the more distant and sparsely populated islands of French Polynesia, even if the web pages didn't always jump at me instantly.
LoLiTa, a non-profit organisation which is partially sponsored by the French Polynesia government and which also owns the linux.pf domain name, came into formal existence in February 2004. It was launched by a group of Linux enthusiasts working at the Université de la Polynésie Française (UPF) at Faa'a, near Papeete. The university's web site offers a brief introduction to the group (in French), its mission and activities. The president of the group is Franck Mével, a kernel hacker who co-authored a book entitled The Linux Kernel Book back in 1998. Unfortunately, he was out of town, so he couldn't attend the meeting, but by all accounts, he is a highly-respected Linux developer.
 While meeting the elusive president of the group proved impossible, the association's first secretary, Arnaud Jordan (pictured on the left with Cecile Koessler, a colleague and a LoLiTa member), was more than happy to attend the meeting and to invite interested members. This turned out to be a very entertaining encounter. Just a few days prior to my dining with LoLiTa, Arnaud was featured in one of the local newspapers, Les Nouvelles de Tahiti. The full-page article focused mostly on introducing LoLiTa to the readers, but it also presented Arnaud and Linux users as people who are in "war" with Microsoft and commercial software. Even the title of the article, loosely translated as "This Polynesian IT worker is a Linuxer who fights Microsoft", sounded a little over-ambitious. Nevertheless, it's always nice to see when a free software user's group is given space in the mainstream media. If you understand French, you can read the entire article here (in PDF format).
The principal activities of the group include regular install fests and distribution of free software on CDs. The growing number of the group's members is a reflection of the fact that several of its leading personalities work at the university where they have sufficient freedom to choose what they teach. So instead of delivering courses on commercial products, they frequently choose free software alternatives, e.g. OpenOffice.org. Also, the group's FenuaSoft CD (with the word "fenua" representing the land of French Polynesia in Tahitian) contains a large collection of free software for Windows. This is in hope that the recipients will install and use this software on their Windows machines, thus paving the way for eventual less painful switch to Linux or other free operating systems.
 Overall, I had a mixed bag of experiences with free software in French Polynesia. Accessing the Internet in Internet Cafés and hotels was universally on Windows and Internet Explorer - it seems that Firefox is not even an option anywhere in this part of the world. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised when visiting the sole news agent on the island of Bora Bora where I counted no fewer than eight different (French) Linux magazines on the shelf! Whether anybody buys those (or even needs them) in a tropical paradise is another matter, but the fact that one could get a Linux fix in place where computing can't be very high on the people's list of priorities was very pleasant indeed!
Finally, one little Linux-related anecdote from French Polynesia. It seems that your DistroWatch maintainer was not the only Linux-using visitor enchanted by these paradise islands. Gwenolé Beauchesne, a Mandriva developer currently responsible for Core Labs unit, (re-)visited the territory in 2006. The result? Those of you who used the distribution in that year might remember that version 2007 had come with a brand new Mandriva theme called "Ia Orana" (or "hello" in Tahitian) and it included a set of superb photos that formed a part of one of the screensavers included in the distribution. A great way to pause and reflect on a pleasant vacation once life returns to normal!
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| Miscellaneous News |
openSUSE KDE3 live CDs, Debian 5.0 and Fedora 10 features, mixed fortunes for Linspire and Freespire, updates on Foresight KDE and PC-BSD, "divorce" at Blastwave.org
 One of the most frequently heard complaints about the recent round of distribution releases was the inclusion of the (as yet) feature-incomplete and buggy KDE 4.0 as the default KDE desktop by some projects. Although openSUSE was wise enough to make the older KDE 3.5 available alongside the more bleeding-edge version, the lack of a live CD with this KDE variant left many users wishing to use the live CD installation method with the sole option of installing KDE 4.0 first, then get the KDE 3.5 desktop packages over the Internet later. The good news is that a set of community-built openSUSE live 11.0 live CDs with KDE 3.5.9 was released last week: "For those people who don't want to install openSUSE with KDE4, GNOME, Xfce or any other desktop and then install KDE3 I have gorgeous news: openSUSE 11.0 KDE3 live CDs are now available! These live CDs are also installable CDs and were created using the openSUSE KIWI image system. They contain the latest official updates and also the latest packages from KDE:KDE3, KDE:Backports, KDE:KDE4:Factory:Desktop, and KDE:KDE4:Factory:Extra-Apps repositories as of the time of writing." Interested readers can download these live CD images from here (MD5): openSUSE-11.0-KDE3-LiveCD-i686-0.99.0.iso (658MB), openSUSE-11.0-KDE3-LiveCD-x86_64-0.99.0.iso (697MB).
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 Now that the Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" development tree has been frozen, the focus of the project has turned to bug fixes and infrastractural updates prior to the final release scheduled for next month. So what can we expect in the new release? Practical Technology has published a brief summary of some of the most important new features in "Lenny": "Lenny is based on the 2.6.25 Linux kernel. For the desktop, Lenny supports both KDE 3.5.9 and GNOME 2.20. It doesn't support, however, KDE 4.1. It also includes the most recent versions of many popular end-user software applications: Firefox 3.0.1, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, and Evolution 2.22.3.1. Lenny isn't just for end-users, of course. It also includes the best developer and server programs. For example, Lenny comes with glibc 2.7 and Samba 3.2. For networking, Lenny will include full support for the IPv6 networking protocol and NFSv4 (Network File System). On the server side, Lenny is also expected to have LFS (Large File Support). With this, applications will have access to the largest files supported by the operating system and file system rather than an application-bound arbitrary file size limits."
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 Another major distribution which is hard at work at its upcoming release and which has been known to have no fear of incorporating the very latest Linux technologies into its products, is of course Fedora. Last week's first alpha release of Fedora 10 has given us some preview of what we can expect when the finished product ships in late October, but for those who just want to read about the features, here is a nice article entitled 9 + 5 things you'll get with Fedora 10: "Fedora 10 will be released on 28th October 2008, let's take a look at what some of the upcoming features, 9 of them have been accepted by the team, 5 more are still in the 'proposed' state. Nine accepted features: connection sharing; glitch-free audio; OpenChange; security audit; better webcam support; better remote support; RPM 4.6; Haskell support; Artistic 1.0 license removal. Five proposed features: better start-up; better printing; port reserve; Python-NSS; save to Bugzilla." So nothing really breathtaking, but with a focus on general improvements and polish, Fedora 10 will hopefully work out better than the somewhat disappointing Fedora 9.
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 When the MP3.com founder Michael Robertson launched Lindows in 2001, it was a classic David vs Goliath story - a tiny start-up taking on an enormous monopoly (Microsoft) in order to win some share of the desktop computing market. Or at least that's what the founder led us to believe with a constant barrage of high-profile press releases, which didn't always go down well with the wider Linux community. Well, after some seven years of trying, a subsequent name change to Linspire, and a complete failure to achieve even the tiniest of market shares, the last few pieces of the Lindows/Linspire wreck finally sank last week: "Linspire, the distribution originally launched as Lindows, is no more, says Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos. Xandros purchased Linspire, the company, earlier this year. This week, the company announced that it was going to revamp community distribution Freespire, basing its next version on Debian instead of Ubuntu, and using it as a precursor for Xandros Desktop Professional, in much the same way Red Hat uses Fedora and SUSE uses openSUSE. But the company didn't need multiple for-pay desktop distributions, so Linspire is getting the boot."
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 Interestingly, as hinted above, the Freespire distribution, a project launched by Linspire's former CEO Kevin Carmony as a free-for-all community edition of the company's commercial product, has survived the shakeout: "Xandros has announced a new version of Freespire, to be based on Debian's forthcoming 'Lenny' release, expected later this year. Xandros says it plans to 'consolidate' its various offerings on Debian, following its acquisition of Linspire. Xandros acquired Linspire last month. Freespire is a free version of Linspire, and was previously based on Ubuntu. Following the release of a Lenny-based Freespire distribution, Xandros plans to bring out Xandros Desktop Professional 5, which will also be built on 'the same open source code base,' with added proprietary bits for 'enterprise customers,' the company says. Tom House, Freespire community organizer, stated, 'This is really some of the most exciting news since the announcement of Freespire 1.0. This is what we were hoping to see: both the continued development of Freespire, and a return to a Debian base.'"
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 Foresight Linux, an rPath-based distribution that has traditionally focused on cutting-edge GNOME technologies, but has recently embraced other desktop environments, is preparing to launch a KDE edition shortly. Here is an update on the status of Foresight "KDE": "I get asked a couple of times a week what's going on with the Foresight KDE edition, what is the status of KDE 4.x, and when is the KDE edition going to be released. I thought I'd blog so that something exists in Internet-firma that can be referred to. First the status of KDE 4.1: I have no plans to build KDE 4.1 into Foresight. While a giant leap forward from what KDE 4.0 was, KDE 4.1 is still disappointing. Part of what happens when you rewrite rather than make incremental improvements is that functionality gets left behind, and some core functionality that I feel is essential to making a decent desktop experience for the end user is missing or buggy. Also, two of KDE 4.x's killer applications are less usable in 4.1 than they are in KDE 3.5.9: Amarok 2.0 lacks basic wholesale tag editing, dynamic playlists, and is a very buggy alpha, and KMail 4.2, part of Kontact is significantly slower than it's 3.5.x counterpart." A good, honest assessment of the differences between KDE 3.5 and 4.1 from a user's perspective.
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 No such worries for the developers of PC-BSD who keep producing a quick succession of alpha releases, all with the very latest KDE 4.1 code: So how does the upcoming release, now based on FreeBSD 7.0, evolve? The project has published a brief status update on its web site: "The PC-BSD team has been hard at work over the past few months, preparing for the next major release of PC-BSD, also known as PC-BSD 7. This new version will be based on FreeBSD 7, and will include KDE 4.1 as the primary desktop interface. We are currently releasing weekly alpha ISOs, that allow us to test out the new features, and fix bugs associated with the switch to a FreeBSD 7 and KDE 4.1 base. Users who wish to preview this release and help out in testing, are able to do so by signing up on our testing mailing list. As soon as the alpha releases begin to stabilize and bugs are hammered out, we will release a public beta, and freeze the user interface for the translation work to begin." Interested alpha testers can download the latest alpha installation DVD from here: PCBSD7-x86-08082008-DVD.iso (1,979MB, MD5).
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 Last week, the OpenSolaris developer and user community was rocked by trouble at Blastwave.org, the most popular repository of third-party packages for Sun Microsystems' open source distribution. While details of what exactly caused the split between Phil Brown and Dennis Clark, the site's two maintainers, are still emerging, Ben Rockwood offers an unbiased observation on his blog: "In the simplest possible terms, Dennis Clark and Phil Brown are in the process of parting ways. Phil Brown is the creator of the CSW (Community SoftWare) effort including the popular apt-get like pkg-get which has been the center of what people think of Blastwave. Dennis Clark is the man behind Blastwave which has provided the large infrastructure and pool of resources around CSW. These two have been intertwined for a very long time and, due to difference over future direction has escalated into separation. Because of this intimate relationship between CSW and Blastwave over so many years this disconnect does, in many ways, resemble a messy divorce." While OpenSolaris packages still continue to be available at Blastwave.org, the CSW part of the site has now moved to a new web site called OpenCSW.org. That's the latest at the time of writing, but as lawyers are also involved in the "divorce", one never knows on which side the products of this failed relationship will eventually end up....
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 Finally, the next major hardware manufacturer that will attempt to gain some market share in the Linux sub-notebook market is none other than Lenovo. According to this report (with screenshots) by LinuxDevices.com, the IdeaPad S9 and S10 notebooks will be available in early October 2008: "Lenovo has announced its entry into the 'netbook' market. The Linux-based IdeaPad S9 and Windows-XP-based S10 feature 8.9- and 10-inch displays, respectively, plus 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processors, 1.3 megapixel webcams, 802.11b/g wireless networking, and up to 160 GB of storage, says the company. The basic recipe is similar to other netbooks, starting with Intel's 22 x 22 mm, 1.6 GHz Atom N270 processor. The N270 has a 533 MHz FSB and 512 KB L2 cache, and it operates with the 945GSE chipset, which gives devices based on it enhanced graphics and power-saving capabilities, according to Intel." Further information about Lenovo's IdeaPad S9 and S10 series can be found in this Lenovo UK press release.
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| Released Last Week |
CCux Linux 0.9.9
Christian Metzen has announced the release of CCux Linux 0.9.9, an independently developed desktop distribution using the RPM package management system: "After two years without a new version, we are proud to announce the availability of CCux Linux 0.9.9. From now on CCux Linux is delivered as a DVD medium. Many new features have been implemented, the installer and installation system have been totally re-worked. We think this should be the best release ever. Some highlights: KDE 4.1.0; GNOME, Xfce, Fluxbox directly available for selection as a desktop environment via the installer; kernel 2.6.26; OpenOffice.org; VDR integration. There are many more things, but convince yourself!" Here is the brief release announcement.
Musix GNU+Linux 1.0R2R5
Marcos Guglielmetti has announced a new stable release of Musix GNU+Linux, version 1.0R5, a Debian-based distribution designed primarily for musicians and other creative artists: "The Brazilian music teacher Gilberto Borges tells us that he has finished the last Musix GNU+Linux 1.0 stable version on CD, a 100% free operating system for artists focused on music production, based on Debian GNU/Linux and KNOPPIX. This version of Musix, 1.0R2R5, fully supports Brazilian Portuguese and English languages, and it partially supports Spanish, French, German and Italian. Borges highlights the updated packages: Muse 0.8.1a (light Audio and MIDI sequencer), Muse Score 0.9.2.2 (score editor), Painel Musix 1.7 (control panel), Rosegarden 1.7.0 (MIDI and Audio sequencer and score editor), knx-installer 0.3.19.90 (a bug fix for the ugly fonts)." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
m0n0wall 1.234
Manuel Kasper has announced the release of m0n0wall 1.234, a minimalist firewall distribution based on FreeBSD: "I've decided to create one more release in the 1.2x stable branch to add source port randomization (for both NAT and the DNS forwarder). This is a recommended upgrade for all 1.2x users, no matter whether you're running a DNS server behind m0n0wall with NAT or not. Changelog: added source port randomization for ipnat; updated Dnsmasq to 2.45 (source port randomization); updated PHP to 4.4.9; bumped MFS size for firmware upgrades to 10 MB; changed ZoneEdit update server name to dynamic.zoneedit.com." Read the release announcement and changelog for further information.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
July 2008 donation: Linux Mint receives US$400.00
 We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the July 2008 DistroWatch.com donation is Linux Mint, an Ubuntu-based distribution targeted at new Linux users and featuring a range of interesting enhancements. It receives US$400.00 in cash.
Linux Mint has turned out to be one of the most successful Linux distributions of the past couple of years. According to the DistroWatch web server statistics, Linux Mint is currently the second most-widely used distribution among the DistroWatch readers (after Debian GNU/Linux), with a market share of 6.3% of all Linux-using visitors. This number has climbed dramatically after the successful Linux Mint 5 release. Besides the main edition with GNOME, the project also offers a variety of community editions with alternative desktops, including KDE and Xfce. Clement Lefebvre, the project's founder and lead developer, was interviewed by DistroWatch in July 2007.
The project's leader has sent a thank-you email to DistroWatch. In addition, the project has made an announcement on their web site that also introduces the DistroWatch donations programme and lists all the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation.
As always, this monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch and two online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - LinuxCD.org and OSDisc.com. These vendors contributed US$50.00 each towards this month's donation to Linux Mint.
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NdisWrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and SabayonLinux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA (Linux webcam support) ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400)
Since the launch of the Donations Programme in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$18,583 to various open source software projects.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Bubuntu. Bubuntu is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose user interface and included applications have been customised to make it easier for Windows users to switch to Linux. The project's web site is in French, but the distribution is available in English, French and Spanish languages.
- Elastix. Elastix is a Linux distribution that integrates the best tools available for Asterisk-based PBXs into a single, easy-to-use interface. It also adds its own set of utilities and allows for the creation of third-party modules to make it the best software package available for open source telephony. Based on Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
- GUFI. GUFI is a complete universal GNU/Linux operating system specifically designed to work on any computer with at least 256 MB of memory. Based on Zenwalk Live, it features a complete set of desktop and office applications, and a phenomenal 3-minute universal installation. GUFI is available as a Live Install and Restoration DVD.
- Medianix. Medianix is a installable live CD based on both Morphix and Debian GNU/Linux. Developed by Unixmedia Srl, it can be used as a base distribution for both commercial and free products around telephony, networking and more.
- Ojuba Linux. Ojuba Linux is a Fedora-based distribution whose main focus is to provide the best Arabic support, as well as some Islamic tools such as Hijra (Hijri calendar) and Minbar (prayer time indicator). It also contains pre-installed drivers and multimedia packages from the Livna.org repository.
Ojuba Linux aims to be a distribution with the most complete support for Arabic.
(full image size: 1,345kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
- OzOs. OzOs is an Ubuntu-based distribution that uses a heavily-customised Enlightenment 17 desktop, built from the latest CVS sources. The distribution offers a minimal number of pre-installed applications, but additional ones can be added later - either via standard Debian utilities or by using the project's online package repository. It also includes optional extras - small applications, themes and eye candy for the desktop.
OzOs is the latest distribution project that attempts to combine Ubuntu with the Enlightenment window manager.
(full image size: 467kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
- Ryder Linux. Ryder Linux is a new distribution and live DVD based on Arch Linux. Currently in early stages of development.
- Tin Hat. Tin Hat is a Linux distribution, derived from hardened Gentoo Linux, which aims to provide a very secure, stable and fast desktop environment that lives in RAM. Tin Hat boots from CD, or optionally a pen drive, but it is not a live CD. Tin Hat is a massive image (approx. 2.3 GB) which loads into tmpfs upon booting. One pays the price of long boot times (5 minutes off CD, 2 minutes off pen drives), but the advantage afterwords is that there are no delays going back to the CD when starting applications.
- WorkBench Linux. WorkBench Linux is a Xubuntu-based distribution aimed primarily at software and web developers. As such, it includes the most popular development environments (Eclipse, NetBeans, Lazarus, Gambas), tools (GCC, Sun JDK, PHP, Apache, MySQL) and utilities. Moreover, all the usual applications that a user would need on a daily basis (like the OpenOffice.org suite, VLC, Firefox and Thunderbird come pre-installed. In order to achieve the desired level of usability and eye-candy, the Xfce window manager is used in combination with Cairo-Dock and screenlets.
WorkBench Linux is a remastered Xubuntu aimed at software and web developers.
(full image size: 207kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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DistroWatch database summary
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And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 18 August 2008.
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Full list of all issues |
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VailuxOS
VailuxOS is a German, desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Ubuntu's long-term support (LTS) branch or Debian's "Stable" branch. The project's primary goal is to make the transition from Windows to Linux as seamless as possible by maintaining familiar ways of working and workflows. The distribution uses the KDE Plasma desktop.
Status: Active
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