 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 304, 25 May 2009 |
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Welcome to this year's 21st issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Three weeks ago Mandriva Linux 2009.1 was released. This distribution has a well-earned reputation for being both user-friendly and flexible and this week we take what turns out to be a somewhat surprising first look at the latest Mandriva release. In the news section, Slackware Linux finally opens a 64-bit branch of its development tree, Moblin 2.0 impresses the reviewers with a refreshing user interface design, Ubuntu reveals a change in video architecture for the upcoming version 9.10, Debian changes its archive signing key, and Fedora considers mailing list moderation in response to some unruly behaviour of its users. Also in this issue, a round-up of news from vendors preparing Linux-based solutions for mobile devices and an interesting new way of installing Arch Linux - via an unofficial live CD. Finally, if you have a package that you think DistroWatch should track, don't miss your chance to suggest it - this week only! All this and more in this week's issue, enjoy the read!
Content:
- Reviews: First look at Mandriva Linux 2009.1
- News: Slackware goes 64-bit, Moblin 2.0 impresses reviewers, Ubuntu effects video changes, Debian updates GPG keys, Fedora mulls list moderation, round-up of mobile Linux news, Archiso-live
- Released last week: Puppy Linux 4.2.1, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8
- Upcoming releases: Linux Mint 7, openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 2
- Site news: Annual package list update
- New additions: DEFT Linux, Elastix
- New distributions: Hymera, Taneu OS
- Reader comments
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
First look at Mandriva Linux 2009.1
 For years now I've recommended Mandriva Linux as the best choice for newcomers to Linux. I have always found it to be an incredibly user-friendly distribution that manages to avoid sacrificing functionality for simplicity. I've also found that, more often than not, it has fewer significant bugs than a certain more popular distribution that touts itself as being Linux for the masses. Naturally, when Mandriva announced their 2009.1 release a few of weeks back, I was interested to see how the latest version stacked up. I freely admit I had very high expectations for Mandriva 2009.1.
Mandriva comes in four flavors: Mandriva One KDE, Mandriva One GNOME, Mandriva Free and Mandriva Powerpack. The two Mandriva One varieties are single live CDs with the option of installing to a hard drive. In order to keep to a single CD, each version offers only the one desktop environment, a selection of popular applications, and a limited subset of the more than 70 supported languages. There are actually six different CD images for each version of Mandriva One with different language selections for different parts of the world. Once installed, Mandriva One has access to the same software repositories as the other Mandriva editions.
Mandriva Free is an installable (not live) 4.3 GB DVD image. It includes full language support, a wide variety of applications available at install time, and a choice of three desktop environments: KDE 4.2.2, GNOME 2.26, and LXDE 0.3.2. Three lightweight window managers are also available: WindowMaker, IceWM-lite, and Fluxbox. All of these can be installed side by side. Additional desktop environments and window managers, including Xfce 4.6.1 and Enlightenment DR17, are available in the software repository but not during the initial installation. The name "Free" refers to the fact that this edition of Mandriva includes no proprietary software whatsoever. Only F/OSS drivers and applications are included. If you need "non-free" applications and/or drivers, they are available in the repository after installation is completed. I decided to concentrate on Mandriva Free as it offers the most complete picture of what Mandriva has to offer.
So far I've used Mandriva 2009.1 on two systems. The first is my Sylvania g Netbook Meso (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD) which I purchased in January. The second is my 6.5-years old Toshiba Satellite 1805-S204 (1 GHz Intel Celeron CPU, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD). Both systems meet minimum requirements for any current Linux distribution and both have hardware which is challenging in some distributions. I find the old Toshiba laptop particularly useful in determining how a given distribution will perform on older, legacy hardware.
Installation and Configuration
For this review I stuck with a straightforward installation. I used an external USB DVD drive to boot the installer on my netbook and used the internal drive on the Toshiba laptop. Mandriva Free uses a nicely laid-out and well thought-out graphical installer. At each step there is a default which will work for the majority of users and the option to customize to the nth degree for advanced Linux users. Since I wanted to preserve my home directories on both machines (both in separate partitions) as well as other Linux distribution installations, I chose the custom partitioning option. Anyone familiar with disk partitioning should find the basic version of the graphical partitioner quite familiar. An advanced option button allows every conceivable option to be customized, including options to be used in the /etc/fstab file.
Once disk partitioning is done, you are given the choice of three installation options: a KDE desktop, a GNOME desktop, and a Custom desktop. Custom allows you to choose groups of packages or, for those who want total control of what is installed, the ability to choose packages one by one. For the little Sylvania, I did a custom installation but chose to install nearly everything available that would actually work on my netbook, a total of nearly 5 GB of software. Once package installation started, I was shocked to see that the installer estimated that the process would take four hours. That turned out to be wildly inaccurate. The actual installation time was about 50 minutes. On the Toshiba laptop, I decided to do a lean and mean installation with LXDE for my default desktop. The installer guessed this would take an hour and a half. It actually was more like two hours with the extra slow drive in that machine. Clearly, the one part of the installer that doesn't work is whatever it uses to estimate time.
After the software was installed, I was given the opportunity to configure the bootloader, networking, and optionally a wide variety of system settings, ranging from time zone to services to start at boot. Once again, many if not most users can safely take the defaults and ignore a lot of these potential steps. For the knowledgeable user the array of choices at install time goes beyond even what Slackware Linux offers. Once everything else is done, if you have a working network connection, you are offered the opportunity to install all available updates since release. Including this in the installer is a nice touch. I had only used Mandriva One over the past couple of years and I was impressed by what has been done with the Mandriva Free installer.
I did run into one error message with the Sylvania netbook. I was warned that my Ralink wireless chipset required the rt73 driver which is proprietary and not included in Free. I was given two options: Mandriva One or the upstream website for the driver to deal with after installation. It turned out neither was necessary. I was able to go into the Mandriva Network Center and it offered me the option of "automagically" retrieving the missing driver from the repository. Getting wireless up and running required little more than entering the passphrase for my encrypted network.
The bootloader installation correctly identified my Ubuntu Network Remix installation on the netbook. It failed to recognize my VectorLinux installation on either machine. I had to manually edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to be able to boot into VectorLinux again. Those of you who dual-boot (or multi-boot), might expect to do the same if you use anything other than one of the most popular distributions.
Configuring X window on both systems is problematic for some distributions. Mandriva 2009.1 fully supports netbooks and correctly set up my system for the correct 1024x600 pixels graphics resolution. The Toshiba laptop has a Trident CyberBlade XPi chipset which many current distributions, including Ubuntu, completely fail to configure properly. Once again, Mandriva got everything right and correctly configured the graphics with a default 1024x768 pixels display resolution, the best the Toshiba supports. After installation, all the hardware just worked.
Changes Since Mandriva 2009
The most visible change since the last release of Mandriva Linux is that KDE 3 has been deprecated. The only version of KDE now included on any of the ISOs is KDE 4.2.2. KDE 3.5.10 remains available in the contrib section of the repository but is officially unsupported.
Mandriva 2009.1 default KDE 4.2.2 desktop
(full image size: 580kB, screen resolution 1024x600 pixels)
Other changes include an upgraded X.Org 7.4 and support for the new ext4 file system. Most popular applications have been upgraded, including OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 (based on the Go-OO branch). If you take the post-release updates during the installation, your Firefox browser will start out with the current version, 3.0.10. There are also upgrades to Mandriva's well-regarded suite of graphical configuration tools. Under the hood, Mandriva 2009.1 sports a 2.6.29.1 kernel.
Running Mandriva 2009.1
I have always been impressed by Mandriva's ability to come up with release after release that have avoided really serious or show-stopping bugs. This time around the number of bugs that presented themselves in obvious ways from the start was truly unfortunate.
By default, Mandriva uses KDM as its display (login) manager. That was fine with me. The default desktop is GNOME 2.26. I worked in GNOME for a while and decided I really wanted to try out the KDE 4 implementation and to see how well that was done. I logged out, clicked on the list of available sessions and found lots of choices except for KDE. I logged back into GNOME and went into Rpmdrake, the graphical package manager, and sure enough KDE 4.2.2 was installed. It was just missing from the KDM session list, which was totally strange since KDM is the KDE display manager. I went into the Mandrake Control Center, changed my display manager to GDM (from GNOME), logged out, and finally I had KDE 4 as an available choice. OK, that's annoying and silly but not serious.
The most serious bug for me was expected. My Sylvania netbook has an Intel Express Graphics 945 chipset. The Intel driver in the latest X.Org has been problematic in both Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and in the new Mandriva Linux. In Ubuntu, the problem manifested as poor graphics performance. The workaround is to install an older driver and that really does solve the problem. In Mandriva, the reported bug according to the published errata is that the system actually freezes up using 3D effects. The recommended fix is to disable 3D acceleration which would be completely unacceptable to me. What I saw with my system was different than what the Errata indicated.
Instead of freeze-ups, which did not occur on my system, I saw the same slowness I saw in the latest Ubuntu. In addition, in KDE the menu displayed with horizontal lines all through it briefly before correcting itself. This actually is reported in the Mandriva forum and the fix is the same suggested in the Errata: a new, updated driver released on May 13 plus two changes to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Once I installed the new drivers, edited my configuration file and restarted X, performance was immediately improved. Unfortunately, it was only after making the changes that the freeze-ups occurred on my system. I've disabled the UXA acceleration option, undoing both changes to the xorg.conf file, and that seems to have ended the freezing problem for me but, unfortunately, the graphics performance is just the same as with the original driver: truly horrible. Unlike Ubuntu there just is no acceptable fix or workaround for the issue in Mandriva. The net result is that I consider the distribution unusable on my netbook.
Folks who have ATI, SIS, or NVIDIA graphics chipsets may also want to check the Errata and Bugzilla as some graphics chips by these manufacturers are either problematic or unsupported in Mandriva 2009.1. In some cases, workarounds are available but in other cases, at least temporarily, this release just won't work on the affected hardware.
There are numerous other curious quirks. I used Rpmdrake to add some additional software to my system and to remove one or two items I just didn't need. It did all the installs and uninstalls correctly but gave me an error message indicating that a large amount of software on my system was now "orphaned", including all of KDE 4! It helpfully provided me with instructions explaining how to remove all that orphaned software, which included lots of applications I most certainly didn't want removed, automatically. Thanks but no thanks! Were these applications really "orphaned"? No, of course not. KDE 4 continued to work as did everything else I checked. Imagine a user who didn't quite understand the message and followed the instructions. The consequences would be ugly.
Rpmdrake 2009.1 package manager
(full image size: 94kB, screen resolution 1024x600 pixels)
I decided to install AbiWord from the repository since I use it in other distros. The current version, 2.6.8, is available. For some strange reason in Mandriva the font size can't be adjusted.
I switched into LXDE and found more weirdness. An icon I deleted off of the GNOME desktop, which had correctly disappeared from the KDE4 desktop as well, was only half gone in LXDE. The text was still there. I deleted it again. I went to empty the Trash but found that the Trash icon doesn't actually do anything. I could go on but by now you are getting the picture. Most of the bugs aren't serious at all but they are numerous. I've tried alpha code that had fewer bugs that the final Mandriva 2009.1 release.
Oh, Mandriva is pretty as always. If the graphics problems could be fixed, the KDE 4 implementation would be the best I've seen so far. The selection of applications in the repository is excellent. The graphical system configuration tools, as always, are second to none. On the old Toshiba, with excess services disabled, performance was quite decent and better than I expected. I didn't experience any of the sluggishness I experienced in Ubuntu and all the extra lightweight applications I know from distributions like VectorLinux Light were in the repository waiting for me. Most of them work properly even if the LXDE desktop doesn't quite.
Mandriva 2009.1 default LXDE 0.3.2 desktop
(full image size: 681kB, screen resolution 1024x600 pixels)
Other positives I should mention include first-class package management tools, straightforward update notification on the desktop and easy upgrading of the system, and truly excellent internationalization and localization. If you're multilingual and want to switch your default language on a user-by-user or session-by-session basis all the tools you need are there. Applets to change keyboard layout work as expected as well. All these things have been hallmarks of Mandriva and have been done well for quite some time in this distro.
Conclusions
If everything worked, then Mandriva would be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of providing both a user-friendly solution to newcomers and all the configurability the most seasoned user could possibly want. The installer truly handled both of my often problematic systems flawlessly. Wired and wireless networking, sound, and initial graphics configuration were all correct. The software selection in the repository is first rate. Applications I like that I can't find in the oft-praised Ubuntu repository were available in Mandriva. This is particularly true of lightweight applications for older and limited hardware. With a little tweaking during installation, performance on older hardware was entirely acceptable. In other words, all the good things I've come to expect from Mandriva are still there.
Unfortunately, I've never seen a Mandriva release before with so many bugs. The one truly show-stopping bug for me, the widely reported Intel graphics driver problem, doesn't have an acceptable workaround yet. The same is true for known issues with other graphics chipsets. While it is certainly true that these problems originate upstream, other distributions have either found solutions or have chosen to stick with the previous X.Org version until problems are corrected. Perhaps all of this will be solved soon and I'll be able to reconsider Mandriva 2009.1. On the other hand, there are so many other quirks that fall into the category of just plain annoying that I probably will wait for the next release. I never thought I'd be writing this, but for the first time ever I am going to recommend giving a Mandriva release a pass.
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| Miscellaneous News |
Slackware goes 64-bit, Moblin 2.0 impresses reviewers, Ubuntu effects video changes, Debian updates GPG keys, Fedora mulls list moderation, round-up of mobile Linux news, Archiso-live
 Let's start this week's news section with the widely-reported news about Slackware Linux finally going 64-bit: "Ready or not, Slackware has now gone 64-bit with an official x86_64 port being maintained in-sync with the regular x86 -current branch. DVDs will be available for purchase from the Slackware store when Slackware 13.0 is released. We've been developing and testing Slackware64 for quite a while. Most of the team is already using Slackware64 on their personal machines, and things are working well enough that it is time to let the community check our work. We'd like to thank the unofficial 64-bit projects for taking up the slack for us for so long so that we could take our time getting everything just right. Without those alternatives, we would have been pressured to get things out before they were really ready." Those readers who are too impatient to wait for the official release of Slackware64 Linux can install the distribution's development branch from this unofficial installation DVD (courtesy of Slackware.no): slackware64-current-20_May_2009-DVD.iso (1,689MB, MD5).
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 The first beta of Moblin 2.0, the distribution for netbooks and mobile internet devices (MIDs) launched in 2007 by Intel, was released on Tuesday. The first reviews focused on the new GUI interface which received high marks all around. Matt Asay, writing for CNET, describes the new desktop experience as "more Mac-like" and "pretty impressive." He goes on to say that "the thing that most impressed me about the Moblin experience is that it's nothing like traditional Linux 'desktop' experiences. In fact, it's not really much like Windows, either." XPD259 was also impressed: "I was pleasantly surprised to find a smooth, intuitive experience which didn't give the impression of a desktop build just altered for notebooks as an after thought." The New Linux User blog at EveryJoe.com noted the rough edges in the beta but still found a lot to like and a lot that is different from the desktop implementations seen before: "Unlike your typical Linux desktops, this one doesn't have fixed virtual desktops immediately. As you launch the applications you want to use, you will define the zone it will go to." Author Clair Ching also posted a nice variety of Moblin screenshots on her Flickr page.
Moblin 2.0 beta default desktop
(full image size: 213kB, screen resolution 1024x600 pixels)
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 The first alpha of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) was released on May 14. An article in The Register reports about a change in video architecture in the new release: "Ubuntu 9.10 will switch from the current EXA acceleration method to UXA. A kernel-mode setting, meanwhile, will reduce video mode switching flicker during start up and - the team said - 'dramatically' speed up the suspend and resume time." Phoronix put the new alpha through a series of performance benchmarks, comparing the results with the current Ubuntu 9.04 release. Their conclusion? There "seems to be some performance improvements. Besides the huge SQLite improvement. ... There are better compilation times with GCC 4.4, much better disk performance with the newer Linux kernel, and other improvements throughout." Intel graphics performance continues to be problematic, though, with the latest driver.
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 On Friday, the Debian project announced a change to the GPG key used to sign archive reference files: "Signatures are used to ensure that packages installed by users are the very same originally distributed by Debian, and have not been exchanged or tempered with." Debian unstable (Sid), testing (Squeeze), and the current stable Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny) are all included in this change. Lenny was shipped with the new key but users of Etch, Sid, and Squeeze should make sure that they have an updated version of the debian-archive-keyring package installed.
In other Debian news, the first netbook shipped with Debian GNU/Linux pre-loaded was reported this week. The Lemote Yeelong is built by Quanta, a major laptop manufacturer. The system is not based on Intel x86 architecture but rather a 797 MHz Loongson-2 MIPS processor. Lemote is selling a full range of laptops powered by the Loongson-2 MIPS CPU which is described as "energy efficient." The netbook is part of a Chinese government effort "to produce an independent range of processors, for which no license fees have to be paid to major American, Japanese or other foreign CPU designers such as Intel."
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 In an e-mail to the Fedora Advisory Board on May 14, Fedora Project leader Paul Frields proposed steps to improve the tone of the Fedora mailing lists, including possible moderation: "The Board had a long discussion today about the increasingly toxic nature of discussions on Fedora mailing lists. The goal is to implement a policy of "being excellent to each other == no personal attacks, profanity directed at people or groups, serious threats of violence, or other things seen by the monitor as to be purposefully disrespectful."
Jack Aboutboul published an interview with Lennart Poettering who describes Fedora 11's enhanced audio control: "They basically designed the new user interface from scratch with input from usability experts. It implements many of the features the old pavucontrol tool did, but in a much nicer, streamlined way. Also, it integrates sound theme/event sound control with general audio configuration and volume control in a single user interface tool." More information can be found in the Fedora Wiki. You can also find more details about the new version of Pulse Audio on their web page.
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 Red Hat is changing the name of Fedora Directory Server to 389 Directory Server. The Fedora name was seen as an obstacle for inclusion of the server into other Linux distributions: "One of the things that has hurt the growth and acceptance of the project in the open source community is the name 'Fedora'. The name implies that it is "The Directory Server of Fedora". This is not true. In addition, anything associated with 'Fedora' and 'Red Hat' has a negative connotation in some communities, and that has caused some people to stay away from porting or running the directory server on other platforms. We recognize the need to have better support on Debian and its derivatives, SUSE and its derivatives, other distros, and other operating systems (*BSD, Solaris, etc.). Having a distro and vendor neutral name will help in that regard." More details on the name change can be found on the project Wiki.
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 Have you ever thought about trying Arch Linux, but were put off by the relatively "geeky" installation process in this day of modern, easy-to-use system installers? If so, here is your chance. Christopher Rogers (better known by his nickname "godane") has been releasing regular Archiso-live CD images, unofficial Arch Linux live CDs with automatic hardware detection, Xfce desktop and a graphical system installer. The latest version was released just last week (version 20090524). Containing Linux kernel 2.6.29.4, glibc 2.10.1, GCC 4.4.0, X.Org Server 1.6.1, Xfce 4.6.1, Firefox 3.0.10, GIMP 2.6.6 and the usual range of popular open source applications, it has to be one of the most up-to-date Linux distribution available today! Additionally, Arch Linux has a reputation of being easy to keep up-to-date with the excellent Pacman package manager and the rapidly evolving online repositories. Interested? Then get the live CD image from here: archiso-live-2009-05-24.iso (681MB, MD5, torrent).
Archiso-live - an unofficial Arch Linux live CD with automatic hardware detection, Xfce and graphical installer
(full image size: 114kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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 The past few weeks saw a flurry of news stories about Android, a specialist distribution developed by Google and currently used on smart phones. It actually started on May 7 with a nearly month-old news of a Hong Kong announcement of the first netbook running Android finally reaching the tech press in the rest of the world. At about the same time, reports surfaced that ASUS, Acer, HP, and Dell were all testing Android for possible use on their netbooks. On May 13, a Linux Insider article reported that Strategy Analytics predicted 900% growth in sales for Android this year. Gartner predicted much more conservative growth. The VAR Guy threw cold water on the optimistic forecasts, pointing out that it is easy to show a large percentage in sales growth when sales are rather small to start with. Whatever the future holds for Android, right now it seems a day can't go by without the tech press writing about the project.
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 Articles debating the future of Linux on netbooks have been a popular topic on Linux news sites during the past few weeks. A report in the Taipei Times provided source material for my Wednesday O'Reilly Broadcast article. That was where Stephen Lim, the CEO of Taiwan-based Linpus Technologies, made the surprising prediction that Linux will regain 50% market share from Windows on netbooks by next year. Lim added: "More and more chip suppliers, such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, are jumping on the bandwagon to adopt Linux. We are also seeing more and more PCs bundled with Linux from Acer, ASUS, Dell and other computer brands." Lim also spoke about the advantages of Linux over Windows: "The advantages of using a Linux system include advanced power management, optimized boot and shut-down times, as well as more WiFi and 3G support from telecommunication providers."
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 Chinese Linux developer Red Flag announced a new version of Midinux, their distribution for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) recently: "Red Flag, the leading Linux operating system vendor, today announced Midinux 3.0 and an Early Access Program for Intel's next generation Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform, code-named "Moorestown", scheduled to launch by 2010. This program offers OEMs, ODMs, and ISVs an opportunity to access Midinux 3.0 OS build, schedule, and features early in the development cycle. By joining this program, partners will be able to evaluate and develop software solutions for their Moorestown-based MID products and will have the opportunity to get early feedback from their customers. Intel's next generation MID platform is based on the Moorestown hardware platform and Moblin v2.0 software platform." The previous version of Midinux has been sold in Europe by BenQ on their mobile devices. The new version is also under evaluation for use on BenQ netbooks.
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 Is Gentoo dangerous for children? Jugendschutzprogramm.de, a German site designed to provide web filters seems to think so. Hanno Böck reports in his blog: "Both gentoo.de and gentoo.org are considered only suitable for people over 14. So if you ever thought about installing Gentoo on the PC of a kid, think again what you might do to that kid. Beside, my blog is even more dangerous: it's blocked by default." He adds that the German newspaper BILD, which supports the site, has pornographic images on their front page but is not filtered. Böck adds: "But what's really frightening is that Jugendschutzprogramm.de is part of ICRA, an international system created by big content and Internet providers. It's even supported by the European Union."
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| Released Last Week |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8
Red Hat, Inc. has announced the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4.8, the latest update of the company's legacy series of enterprise-class operating systems: "Today we released the eighth update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, marking the next step in the product's seven-year life cycle. RHEL 4, first shipped in February 2005, is now in the Production 2 life cycle phase. With this, the focus of product updates in the future will shift away from providing significant code changes and focus on providing critical fixes and helping customers evolve their IT plans for eventual migration to RHEL 5. Key features in RHEL 4.8 include: improved virtualization performance and scale; Improved Windows interoperability and file system support; general performance improvements; storage and file system enhancements...." Read the rest of the press release for further details.
NetSecL 2.4
Iuri Stanchev has announced the release of NetSecL 2.4, a hardened, security-oriented distribution based on Slackware Linux: "NetSecL 2.4 released. It's time for the new release and here are the main highlights: X.Org drivers updated to newest; X.Org autostart is now being delayed a few seconds so you could break if it is needed - mainly handy if you need to change the driver used; Metasploit is updated to its latest version; Ruby is re-included; a new kernel configuration with better support for SATA drives (IDE is still available as a module); new tools, like 0trace, Dmitry and Evilgrade included in the penetration package; Dazuko is removed and replaced by Dazuko_FS; the CruxPorts4Slack portage system was used for generating all packages tagged as NetSecL packages." Here is the brief release announcement.
ArtistX 0.7
Marco Ghirlanda has announced the release of ArtistX 0.7, an Ubuntu-based live DVD that turns a common computer into a full multimedia production studio: "ArtistX 0.7 is based on the Remastersys software for creating live CDs and includes the 2.6.27 Linux kernel, GNOME 2.24 and KDE 4.2, Compiz Fusion and about 2,500 free multimedia software packages, nearly everything that exists for the GNU/Linux operating system. Main features: based on Ubuntu 8.10 'Intrepid', Compiz Fusion for 3D desktop effects; most of Ubuntu multimedia packages; Ubiquity installer. A partial list of software included in the DVD: 2D graphics software - GIMP, Inkscape, Nip2, Krita, CinePaint, Synfig, Rawstudio, Skencil, Hugin; 3D graphics software - Blender, Wings3D, KPovModeler + POV-Ray 3.6, K3D; video software - Cinelerra, Kino, Open Movie Editor, Kdenlive, PiTiVi, Avidemux, DeVeDe...." Visit the project's home page to learn about the new release and to see hundreds of icons of free multimedia software projects.
Puppy Linux 4.2.1
Warren Willson has announced the availability of a bug-fix update of Puppy Linux, version 4.2.1: "This is a bug-fix update for Puppy Linux 4.2 and includes very few changes from the original release except for the following: CUPS 1.3.10 regressed from 1.4b2 to resolve ongoing issues with CUPS printing; fixed printing from Geany, Leafpad and Gnumeric using CUPS 1.3.10; AbiWord 2.6.3 with 2.6.6 plugins has been patched for improved .doc and .docx support (Liberation TTF fonts required for some documents); Pwidgets updated to 2.0.8; Pcrypt updated to 17 May 2009 release and now requires Ccrypt to function. MIME-types updated in Rox 2.6.1; patches for GTK+ Xinput and b43 Broadcom network driver; Pmusic updated to 0.6.4; Pschedule updated to 0.7. This release marks the end of my obligations as project coordinator for the 4.2 series of Puppy Linux." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional details.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Linux Mint 7
 The release of Linux Mint 7, an increasingly popular Ubuntu variant, is imminent. That's according to this blog post by project founder Clement Lefebvre: "I can see that's the question on everybody's lips right now - when is Mint 7 going to be released? I just want to ask the community for a little more patience. There's very little left to do before the release but we can't afford to skip any steps. LinuxMint-7-DEV-052.iso wasn't fully tested by myself, and although it was maintained by me and approved by Exploder, I still want to make sure about a few things before I approve it myself. The Universal edition is going to be released at the same time as the Main edition, so that needs to get approved as well. Once everything is fine, it will take up to 48 hours for the ISOs to propagate on the download mirrors. After that, we'll be ready for a release."
Gloria is the code name for the soon-to-be released Linux Mint 7
(full image size: 849kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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Jesse Keating has announced that the release of Fedora 11, originally scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday), will slip by a week: "In a meeting today between Release Engineering, QA, and various team leads, we decided to enact a 7-day slip of the Fedora 11 release date. The primary reason behind this slip is the state of our blocker bug. We cannot begin Release Candidate phase until the blocker bugs are closed or at least in MODIFIED state. We are not there today, which would be our last day to enter RC phase and still have enough time to release on the 26th. We hope to enter RC phase in the next couple of days, and hit our new target, June 2nd." Here is the full mailing list post.
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Annual package list update
As has become tradition, June is the month when we update the list of packages tracked by DistroWatch.com and listed on each individual distribution page. For this year, it looks like we need to make some rather radical changes - many packages appear obsolete or even no longer actively developed, while a large number of new packages, as suggested by readers throughout the year, will likely be added to the list of tracked packages. This is the current status:
- Packages to be removed: beagle, blackbox, kdewebdev, metisse, modutils, pan, xdtv
- Packages to be added: DeviceKit, dillo, lxde, lzma, NetworkManager, openbox, openjdk, syslinux, wicd
The above list is not set in stone, so if you have any objections to removing a certain package or if you'd like to see other packages tracked here, please use the comments section below to provide suggestions. Alternatively, you can also email us directly (you can find the email address at the bottom of this page).
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Hymera. Hymera is an Italian desktop Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. Its main features are ease of installation and out-of-the box support for 3D desktop effects. The distribution is developed by Hymera Engineering and released under the GNU General Public Licence. The project's web site is in Italian.
Hymera - a new Italian desktop Linux distribution
(full image size: 835kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
- Taneu OS. Taneu OS is a German, Slackware-based live CD created with the Linux-Live scripts. The project's web site is in German.
Taneu OS - a new German live CD created with Slax's Linux-Live scripts
(full image size: 171kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 1 June 2009.
Caitlyn Martin
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Julex
Julex was a Knoppix-based live CD distribution. Its aim was to be light-weight so that it works on older computers and was a small file to download.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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