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1 • lightweights (by Xtyn on 2009-09-07 06:58:23 GMT from Romania)
XPUD is nice but I'm curious about Lubuntu, it should be interesting.
The DWW appeared but it isn't on the front page yet. :)
That's odd.
2 • Gnome in BSD (by Yaroslav at 2009-09-07 09:31:48 GMT from Russian Federation)
Thanks for great review as always, a nice way to keep up to date with latest trends in Linux community.
I really wondering why there is no BSD distribution with Gnome environment. I prefer it to KDE, and in Linux I almost always have a choice, but here only KDE. Any hints why is it happening?
3 • Gnome in BSD (by Barnabyh on 2009-09-07 09:55:29 GMT from United Kingdom)
GNOME is in FreeBSD and OpenBSD just as much as KDE is, but screenshots feature mostly KDE.
Don't know about the choices PC or DesktopBSD are making though.
For FreeBSD it should be in the tree and you just have to compile it if you want it.
4 • Gnome in BSD (by Dark One on 2009-09-07 09:58:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
You can install GNOME on your own on any of the BSDs. KDE may have been chosen because the developers of the BSD distro prefer it, but GNOME is definitely available as an option as well as XFCE and others.
5 • Upstart vs. OpenRC (by Randall on 2009-09-07 09:58:53 GMT from United States)
As a long-time Gentoo user, I'm kind of curious how Upstart compares to OpenRC, the evolution of Gentoo's expanded init system. OpenRC uses named runlevels, rather than numbered ones, and all init scripts are dependency-based -- each script will only run when the ones it depends on have finished, even if they're in the same runlevel. Additionally, the newer versions allow for multiple scripts to be run at once, as long as they don't have conflicting dependencies. I know that Upstart is a complete rewrite of the init system, which presumably provides an opportunity for bigger gains, but could you be a bit more specific beyond "dependency-resolution" and "event-based"?
6 • Re: 2 (by silent on 2009-09-07 10:00:15 GMT from France)
Of course, there is Gnome available in FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. You can also install Gnome in PCBSD using a PBI.
Otherwise, I use Opensuse with LXDE from AnubisG1, and it is really good.
7 • Re: 3 (by silent on 2009-09-07 10:05:21 GMT from France)
Gnome is also available as binary, no need to compile. But some prefer to compile it anyway.
8 • re #2 (GNOME in BSD) (by Simon on 2009-09-07 10:08:50 GMT from New Zealand)
From glancing just now at FreeBSD ports it looks like they have GNOME 2.26, and NetBSD has GNOME 2.26 in pkgsrc, and OpenBSD has GNOME 2.24...so I'm not sure what you mean about no BSD with GNOME...are you talking about live CD's or something?
9 • LMMS (by ac on 2009-09-07 10:14:02 GMT from Hungary)
LMMS is exactly the kind of stuff we need on Linux. Thanks to everyone involved in its development!
10 • Virtualisations (by Tom on 2009-09-07 10:53:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
Recently i've been trying VirtualBox but it seems that after a while any LiveCd tends to just crash it. Wiping the /home/user/.Vitual folder seems to allow me to start again afresh with no problems.
Have other distro hoppers noticed this happening and does this happen on normal machines too? There have been a couple of times where popping out the Cmos battery for a minute or two has magically revived an old dying machine. Is that the same thing?
Regards from
Tom :)
11 • What the hell (by Anonymous on 2009-09-07 11:05:50 GMT from United States)
Is DesktopBSD basically run by one guy? The above DWW announcement mentions that "luckily" the developer decided to release a 1.7 version after all, as if it's great news. A quick visit to the site reveals this:
"This is the last and final release of the DesktopBSD project. I find myself having less and less time to spare lately and no longer desire to keep developing and maintaining this project. However, because DesktopBSD is based entirely on FreeBSD, further support for the operating system and availability of up-to-date software for DesktopBSD 1.7 is ensured."
In other words, unless something happens (like someone else gaining leadership), the project will die soon. In other words, you might as well just use PC-BSD if you want a desktop-ready BSD system. Sad, because competition is good, and DesktopBSD doesn't have certain annoyances that PC-BSD does.
12 • DesktopBSD (by Anonymous on 2009-09-07 11:12:32 GMT from Romania)
Well, on the same DesktopBSD forum thread: «I think DesktopBSD is the best of breed in the BSD family and it should remain alive, by the beginning of 2010 I pretend to work full time for the project to really help in keeping it what it is, the best.»
Maybe "pretend" is not the right word, but even so...
13 • DesktopBSD && Zenwalk (by Baalzebub on 2009-09-07 11:30:39 GMT from United States)
I love them both, glad to see DesktopBSD back in action, and kde-3.5.10 is still preferred by many who consider kde-4.x still too buggy...
Zenwalk is an awesome child/fork of slackware but what i miss is those Zenwalk-Core systems = no X and just enough to start you building your own custom system, i hope that comes out soon after this latest release...
14 • LMMS application v 64studio DAW (by Jay on 2009-09-07 11:34:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
LMMS on top of a standard Linux/Windows build won't do much to reduce latency between sound generation instructions (MIDI mainly) and sound being heard. You'll need something along the lines of 64studio with the kernel modified to prioritise audio to achieve this. So recording vocals over a backing track should be fine in LMMS - anything including a synth and live effects should be looking at 64studio or similar.
15 • RE: 11 What the hell (by ladislav on 2009-09-07 12:10:54 GMT from Taiwan)
That DesktopBSD announcement was published after DistroWatch Weekly went live.
But you are right - that changes everything. No longer as lucky as I first thought...
16 • Vector vs MiniSlack/Zenwalk (by DrCR on 2009-09-07 12:23:01 GMT from United States)
I'm a long time Vector user, and tried MiniSlack (now Zenwalk) back in the day and tried it again iirc in the 4.x era.
Funny how what appear to be similar distros can still carve out their own niches in the Linux user world.
17 • LUbuntu (by Abhijeet on 2009-09-07 12:51:27 GMT from India)
Though it seems interesting, i think CrunchBang Linux is a better lightweight (openbox) fork of ubuntu. I have been using for some time now and it is fantastic. Also, there is a notable size difference between crunchbang and lubuntu isos. It would be interesting to see the software selection in lubuntu.
18 • Review and Pulseaudio (by Jesse on 2009-09-07 13:06:35 GMT from Canada)
I really enjoyed the review of xPUD. It looks like an interesting idea that just hasn't hit its full potential yet.
As to the question of whether pulseaudio is ready for mainstream use, I strongly say, "no". Pulseaudio completely fails to work on about a third of the machines I've installed it on. While there are some good concepts in pulse (in theory) in practise they fall apart, leaving users frustrated.
19 • Gnome in BSD (by vermaden on 2009-09-07 13:09:14 GMT from Poland)
For all people interested in BSD with GNOME, here is complete FreeBSD 7.2 ISO image with GNOME/XFCE included:
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=3980
Here are images (directly):
http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/xfce-desktop/
http://freebsd.dev-urandom.com/iso/i386/gnome-desktop/
You can also add GNOME to any existing FreeBSD installation:
http://freebsd.org/handbook/x11-wm.html
20 • DesktopBSD/KDE (by Thom on 2009-09-07 13:10:19 GMT from Taiwan)
Nice to see a distro not falling into the KDE 4.x gravity well.
I tried KDE 4 (Kubuntu 9.04) and found nothing to like and plenty to dislike.
I'm not saying KDE 4 is bad in and of itself (so save the flames), only that I tried it and didn't like the direction it had taken.
I wish the distros using KDE 4.x would give users the chance to choose 3.x as an alternative.
DWW just keeps getting better, so all is not lost :-)
21 • Gnome in BSD (by vermaden on 2009-09-07 13:43:49 GMT from Poland)
... I forgot, there is also GNOME PBI for PC-BSD:
http://pbidir.com/bt/pbi/132
22 • Mandriva, Pud, etc. (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-07 13:59:29 GMT from United States)
xPud
Interesting review of Pud or xPud. The screenshots are nice too because when you are talking about an unusual desktop environment it is helpful to actually see how it is set up.
DesktopBSD
As for DesktopBSD, I unable to think of a reason why I would want to download it other than as a curiosity. Why bother to release another version if you are going to stop maintaining it? Am I missing something? I am also sick of the whole Adobe Flash thing. Usually my experience with BSD is that Flash is not available. I did see somewhere recently that Firefox is pushing an open source version.
LXDE
I like LXDE but there is apparently some unresolved issue the file manager.
Zenwalk
I just tried out the new Zenwalk yesterday. I was excited at first because the installer appears to be improved. However I thought it was supposed to automatically detect the appropriate kernal for your system. I had to manually type "scsi" before the install process began. Now typing "scsi" is not really a "ball-buster", but it was taxing :). Also it appears that a lot of work was done on wireless detection but I never was able to get my wired connection up and running. I am curious if anyone else had a "strange" experience with this.
KDE 4
I have used KDE 4 on several different machines with several different distros and I have yet to understand what is "buggy" about it. It has worked flawlessly.
Wolvix News
There is some discussion of freezing development on Wolvix beta 2.0. The idea being that it might be better to rebuild all of the packages based on Slackware 13.0.
23 • #22 (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-07 14:04:50 GMT from United States)
Sorry for the double post but I just noticed that Mandriva was in the title of #22 and I didn't mention it. I don't know why I put it there. Sorry, weird.
24 • No subject (by Sertse on 2009-09-07 14:28:44 GMT from Anonymous Proxy)
You secretly love Mandy, admit it ;)
xPUD: I've tried it before, interesting but limited. Better as a kiosk perhaps...
DesktopBSD: Sad it see it go. It offered literally a "Desktop" BSD from the get go, while keeping in line with the BSD way of doing things. We're now left with PC-BSD with it'll own non-standard way of doing things, or having to fuss from a minimal install. We're all worse for it.
LXDE: Issues are mainly to do with upstream file management free desktop standards being more "gnome-ifed" (Gnome(and KDE..) has significant influence over standards, and they try to push it to better integrate with "them", instead of being agnostic) and it's a case of adapting to it. It'll pull through, for better or worse...
Lubuntu: I have greater hopes it'll stick to it's goals of lightness better than Xubuntu, as the LXDE team itself pays a substantial part in Lubuntu development, which is not seen with the latter.
KDE4: I have no problems with KDE4. Anyone know when KDE 2 died out b and 3 was universally accepted?
25 • @24: KDE 2 -> 3 -> 4 (by Anonymous on 2009-09-07 14:46:34 GMT from Romania)
I don't think there were so many KDE2 users out there when KDE3 was released, so the impact was close to null. I suppose most people were using FVWM or something.
Slackware 8.0 had KDE 2.1.1 on 2001/07/01. Then...
Slackware 8.1 had KDE 3.0.1 on 2002/06/18, less than 1 yr later.
Who said Slackware was conscious with regards to stable software?!
26 • @24: KDE history (by Thom on 2009-09-07 14:47:41 GMT from Taiwan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kde
27 • PC-BSD and FreeBSD 8 (by BlueJayofEvil on 2009-09-07 15:32:22 GMT from United States)
I've been reading a few messages on PC-BSD's mailing list and there are plans to offer a "vanilla" FreeBSD installation through its installer. I hope this comes to fruition.
With FreeBSD's 'linuxulator' being significantly updated in FreeBSD 8, the Adobe Flash problem might be more easily worked around.
I'm very excited for these upcoming releases.
28 • No subject (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-07 16:03:52 GMT from United States)
I downloaded and burned Zenwalk, and the CD checked out with the hash, but the installer was not able to complete its function. It wouldn't find its own CD when it came time to install.
Ah, well, another ten cent blank CD lost to the abyss yet again. Back to Fedora 11 Xfce.
As for more in the issue, I cant say I'm surprised that xPud had a few issues since it's such a new project, but I do agree that it's coming along nicely. It'll be more powerful than Google's Chrome thing, anyway.
Now that I swapped to Fedora (after learning that Fedora 11 is going to become RHEL 6) nothing really catches my interest like it used to. Maybe it's time to ride the Rawhide and see what happens.
29 • Don't test KDE in Kubuntu !! (by Makosol on 2009-09-07 16:40:25 GMT from France)
Kubuntu makes KDE very buggy, it is well known. In order to test a good version of KDE, you test it on Pardus 2009, Mandriva or OpenSUSE.
30 • DesktopBSD! and KDE 4! (by JD on 2009-09-07 16:47:58 GMT from United States)
I Love DesktopBSD ! i hope someone takes over or the developer decides to be awesome and gets time to work on it. maybe there can be more then one developer? IDK someone do something! i can't because I'm not a BSD guru and i know Linux better. Amarok still keeps playing and playing! even when you press the stop button! when this happened i just shake my head and quit using kde. no crashes this time Kde is getting better! Go Nokia and QT!
31 • @29 • Don't test KDE in Kubuntu !! (by Anonymous on 2009-09-07 16:49:03 GMT from Romania)
I am very sorry, this is not anymore true by default!
Kubuntu Karmic Alpha 5 works like a charm! (Except that I don't have sound in VLC with neither of Pulse or ALSA, whereas I do have sound in Kaffeine.)
32 • Gnome in BSD distros (by Yaroslav at 2009-09-07 17:17:38 GMT from Russian Federation)
Thanks anyone for quick and comprehensive response. I meant Gnome environment to be default. But nevertheless, thank you for the link vermaden, I will definitely check them and try.
33 • DesktopBSD (by Marcelo on 2009-09-07 18:02:29 GMT from Anonymous Proxy)
Is to bad Desktop BSD die!.
We can bringing DesktopBSD to live. Where is helping?
DesktopBSD is FreeBSD as desktop, with easy tools to use and with a graphical automatic standard installer. DesktopBSD has the tools for new standard user of FreeBSD, like live DVD, graphical package-tools and simple installer.
Write me ...
Marcelo
FreeBSD user
http://www.geocities.com/unixmarcelo/
34 • DesktopBSD (by corneliu on 2009-09-07 18:51:15 GMT from Canada)
I just installed DesktopBSD and it works very well. By far the best BSD desktop out there. Only automounting CDs does not work. Of course, you can mount it in console with:
mount -t cd9660 /dev/acd0 /cdrom
Automounting is not DesktopBSD`s fault. It is a mess in FreeBSD 7.2
The new FreeBSD 8.0 should fix all the automount problems.
35 • Coming Mandriva on the rails again (by whocares on 2009-09-07 18:56:51 GMT from Finland)
I was curious and installed Mandriva2010 beta. Today came many updates and its BEAUTIFUL..........(with gnome). ;)
36 • Ladislav, why debian updates are ignored? (by df on 2009-09-07 19:06:39 GMT from Hungary)
All the updates of Debian stable (5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3) are not announced in DW. So many betas, development versions and other maintenance releases (such as ubuntu 8.04.[123]) are announced, why? A bit of popularity for the mother of many distros would not hurt.
[Debian stable are updated last weak to 5.0.3.]
37 • Help Continue Devlepment of DesktopBSD! Calling awesome peopele! (by JD on 2009-09-07 19:19:12 GMT from United States)
It seems that this may be the last release of DesktopBSD!
DesktopBSD is a awesome Distro ! let's not let this happen!
anyone who wants to help get on:
channel #DesktopBSD on FreeNode (irc.freenode.net)
And Interested developers lets talk and organize to help this project!
just log on to IRC and say i wanna help! and a leader of some sort would be appreciated!
38 • LXDE file managment (by Onenote on 2009-09-07 20:13:01 GMT from United States)
LXDE: its chosen file manager (pcmanfm) is being completely rewritten. So, it should be more interesting in a few months.
39 • @ Post #22 (by Jason Hicks on 2009-09-07 20:13:50 GMT from United States)
i have had no problem with KDE 4 either. Work awesome in Fedora 11 but it repositories still lag a little bit.
LXDE has a unresolved issue with there File Manager? i have seen or heard a problem with PCmanFM yet. i know PCMan got fired up over LXDE and he is working with them to make PCmanFM well integrated with LXDE.
Wolvix definitely needs to include Slackware 13.0.. There Cub edition is so robust and work well with 2GB Flash drive :-D
Both Zenwalk and Wolvix are my Slackware distributions.. I love em both
40 • @36 (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-07 20:44:20 GMT from United States)
You may want to read the announcements for the Debian stable updates.
"Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 but only updates some of the packages included."
41 • @40 (by df on 2009-09-07 20:49:54 GMT from Hungary)
Same is true for Ubuntu LTS updates (for example), isn't it?
42 • Gnome in BSD (by GrzegorzW on 2009-09-07 21:32:31 GMT from Poland)
@Yaroslaw:
I think question could be opposite: why most Linux distros uses gnome as default desktop? And the answer I think lies in QT (KDE base GUI library) double licensing issue it used to had in the past - what was hard to accept for many oss purists (mostly more attached to Linux than BSD).
The answer for original question is quite obvious for me: because KDE is simply better (for me of course ;)).
I tried PC-BSD and was much disappointed about how they do things (pbi, etc.). Now downloading DesktopBSD. I hope it will not die or at least its tools could be added to regular FreeBSD ports.
I especially like that DesktopBSD installs GRUB by default (if I properly noticed).
43 • @29 KDE in Kubuntu (by Untitled on 2009-09-07 21:49:47 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'm using Kubuntu (9.04 at home and 9.10 in the office) on a daily basis but have also used Mandriva for a while and tested Pardus 2009, the latest Sidux and PC-BSD and I don't think KDE in Kubuntu is any worse (or better) than in other distributions and PC-BSD.
Also, the bugs in KDE I reported or that were already reported by someone else always affect people using other distros (Suse and Gentoo included).
44 • Gnome in BSD (by GrzegorzW on 2009-09-07 22:00:07 GMT from Poland)
@Yaroslaw:
I think question could be opposite: why most Linux distros uses gnome as default desktop? And the answer I think lies in QT (KDE base GUI library) double licensing issue it used to had in the past - what was hard to accept for many oss purists (mostly more attached to Linux than BSD).
The answer for original question is quite obvious for me: because KDE is simply better (for me of course ;)).
I tried PC-BSD and was much disappointed about how they do things (pbi, etc.). Now downloading DesktopBSD. I hope it will not die or at least its tools could be added to regular FreeBSD ports.
I especially like that DesktopBSD installs GRUB by default (if I properly noticed).
45 • Re : I downloaded and burned Zenwalk (by arzouill on 2009-09-07 22:16:51 GMT from France)
"I downloaded and burned Zenwalk, and the CD checked out with the hash, but the installer was not able to complete its function."
It seems that Ladislav managed to install it, maybe you should ask him :)
46 • Excellent DWW+Link? (by D1Knight on 2009-09-07 22:18:20 GMT from United States)
Thank you for another excellent DWW. A great review of xPUD, now I have a better idea of what the heck that distro is, thanks.
Link?- on the front page the DesktopBSD 1.7 announcement section has a main "download" link that goes to Frugalware, just thought you should know. Have a great week.P
47 • Desktop (by Anonymous on 2009-09-07 22:54:20 GMT from United States)
The DesktopBSD tools are available from the FreeBSD ports collection, and are excellent.
DesktopBSD itself has always lagged hopelessly behind with its releases though, so as long as there's someone to maintain and improve the tools port, it'll be no great loss.
48 • Re: 39 PCManFM (by Sertse on 2009-09-07 23:38:17 GMT from Australia)
We're probably talking about this about Pcmanfm, kinda old news though...
http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=456
"Gnome-ifiction" of standards (which makes it hard for non Gnome apps, like Pcmanfm) is discussed here:
http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=0&t=472
49 • 36 Why debian updates are ignored? (by ladislav on 2009-09-07 23:48:20 GMT from Taiwan)
I used to publish news about these Debian "revisions" on the front page, but I stopped now. The reason is that each Debian revision announcement is an exact copy and paste of the previous one, followed by a rather boring list of bug-fix and security updates. In other words, I find it difficult to turn these into interesting announcements. It would be nice if the person writing the Debian announcements could put more effort into this - maybe highlighting the most important bug-fixes and security updates and turning this into a nice little summary.
Alternatively, if anybody among the readers is willing to do this (turning a boring list of bug-fix and security updates into an interesting summary), you are welcome. Just email me your version of the announcement and I'll be happy to publish it on DistroWatch.
Otherwise, all Debain revisions will only appear in the "Latest Distributions" section in the left sidebar (as soon as the ISOs are up on the mirrors).
50 • @41 (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-07 23:49:28 GMT from United States)
I haven't the slightest clue about the LTS releases; I haven't used 8.04 in a year.
But when the release announcement downplays the size of a release, then I suppose you'd be better off ignoring it. If Debian would frame their release as a refresh much like Ubuntu LTS would in your (probably true) allegation, then maybe we'd see it on the front page.
51 • ah (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-07 23:55:02 GMT from United States)
Ahh, Ladislav beat me. But that's true; they don't have a whole lot of things to say about their new releases.
Not there is much to say, to be honest. It's just routine updates of their ISO files with their usual bugfixes.
52 • Ref#12 "...Maybe "pretend" is not the right word, but even so..." (by Verndog on 2009-09-08 00:04:12 GMT from United States)
That is hilarious . Good catch. Maybe it was a Freudian slip!
I tried PC-BSD and really enjoyed it. Didn't understand it's ports much, but my first impression of kde4 was good.
I like all the attention that BSD has gotten in the comments section this week. Some well informed users.
I tried that Lubuntu that is based off of karmic. It just froze, just like the alpha1 of karmic did. No matter what I tried it froze up solid.
It will be interesting to see the new PCMan and whats been updated.
53 • BSDs (by stuckinoregon on 2009-09-08 02:51:25 GMT from United States)
Totally agree Yaroslav, I made the same comment several months ago.
I would love to help out in anyway I could with some sort of a new desktop oriented BSD project. PC-BSD is nice, but something still feels off there. DesktopBSD just somehow felt more "right." I've had OpenBSD up and running as a desktop environment before, but felt it was just way too sluggish. Certainly not a negative comment about the OS itself. Haven't had much luck with getting a desktop setup with either NetBSD or Dragonfly. May give then another shot.
54 • Website (by Mick on 2009-09-08 05:04:01 GMT from Canada)
Good grief!!! I just noticed the new look for each distro's page! Nice screenies; nice touch!
55 • xPUD (by RollMeAway on 2009-09-08 05:38:16 GMT from United States)
Tried the 0.9 release because of the DWW article.
It only has drivers for 3 net cards! My rtl8139 was not one of them.
It seems to be targeted ONLY at netbooks?
I last tried xPUD at the 0.8 release 12/8/09.
It was based on LXDE, was a fair try at about 191 MB live CD.
I see the DW page says xPUD is based on ion, and xfce.
Must be which ever way the wind blows?
No consistency do I see.
56 • xPUD (by RollMeAway on 2009-09-08 05:41:02 GMT from United States)
Correction:
I last tried xPUD at the 0.8 release 12/8/08.
57 • Zenwalk (by alb3rto on 2009-09-08 10:54:13 GMT from Spain)
Good to see a new version of Zenwalk, been using it for more than 3 years,
@28: I have installed in 2 pc (Laptop and Desktop) without a trouble.
58 • Pulse Audio... (by Anonymous on 2009-09-08 11:01:36 GMT from United States)
Shouldn't they fix the underlying layer of the advanced linux sound architecture before adding another layer of complexity to the horrible sound system? 4Front's OSS looks better and better with every Alsa update.
59 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-08 12:11:55 GMT from United Kingdom)
Just arrived (to me anyway):
http://www.h-online.com/open/Kernel-Log-Extra-round...
There is also a link to our old chestnut, security, on avoiding (?) attacks on to ssh so to speak.
60 • Suggestion for next donations (by Anonymous on 2009-09-08 12:42:41 GMT from Canada)
* OpenBSD
* cppcheck : http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/cppcheck/index.php?title=Main_Page
61 • drivers (by Tom on 2009-09-08 12:54:03 GMT from United Kingdom)
All this talk of removing drivers from the kernel just because there is no-one actively developing them seems like a bad move to me. Will this result in an increasing amount of hardware being unusable in linux? If a driver works for a particular bit of hardware then should it really need constant maintenance? What if the driver just works and is rock solid? It doesn't make sense to me to have all the drivers for everything in the kernel in the first place. Surely it would be better to have some sort of hardware detection and inclusion of only the drivers required? Perhaps places where people could lookup drivers just as people can look things up in repos?
I think i must be missing the point or have a wrong idea about what type of drivers are being talked about here
http://www.h-online.com/open/Kernel-Log-Extra-round-for-2-6-31...
Regards from
Tom :)
62 • Debian 100% obselete (by Anonymous on 2009-09-08 12:54:27 GMT from Canada)
"The stable releases of Debian GNU/Linux might never be cutting-edge (and for a good reason), but that doesn't mean that the project is still in the dark ages."
Acording to oswatershed (http://oswatershed.org/), the current version of debian is 100 % obselete, so above sentence is difficult to beleive ...
63 • #62 (by jack on 2009-09-08 13:26:15 GMT from Canada)
I just roughly totaled the percentages of the "current" distros and divided by 10.
The average "obsolete" is 81 %.The minimum (Arch) is 45%
Given the rate of change and the apparent vagueness of the criteria I feel that single digit scores would be sufficient
64 • #22 Zenwalk wired network setup (by Claus Futtrup on 2009-09-08 13:46:26 GMT from Denmark)
You wrote: Also it appears that a lot of work was done on wireless detection but I never was able to get my wired connection up and running. I am curious if anyone else had a "strange" experience with this.
I agree this is strange. I installed Zenwalk 6.2 on my 10+ year old PII 400 MHz machine with a no-name 100 Mb Novell NE2000 compatible ethernet card - without a glitch. Zenwalk found the network without any configuration at all (wired only).
Best regards,
Claus (a Zenwalker)
65 • RE: 62 Debian 100% obselete (by ladislav on 2009-09-08 13:58:21 GMT from Taiwan)
the current version of debian is 100 % obselete
You posted this comment on a web site served by a 200% obsolete distro. Yes, DistroWatch.com is still happily served by Debian 4.0 "Etch" (old-stable) ;-)
66 • Zenwalk, Mandriva (really), etc. (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-08 14:30:57 GMT from United States)
Thanks for all of the feedback on Zenwalk. I must have a bad cd. I'll try it again soon. Right now I am really enjoying #!crunchbang. The version based on Jaunty is really nice. So nice in fact that I am going to keep it for a while.
#24 RE: Mandriva
No, I just recently tried it out and it was really not a great experience for me. I was probably going to say something about that but decided not to be a meanie.
I gather that there are some mixed feelings about Puppy for some reason but I am currently using a new Puplet called 217. It is working very well on a old Pionex with MMX Pentium II processor. This machine has less than 256 MB RAM. Currently streaming Pandora radio without a glitch.
#61 RE: Drivers
Good point. It seems like common sense.
67 • Re: #62 - "obsolete" distributions (by Pearson on 2009-09-08 14:32:35 GMT from United States)
I recall when the OSWatershed site was discussed here sometime back. Distrology is interesting, but I have a problem with the use of "obsolete". According to the site, Firefox 3.0.6 is "obsolete". If I recall correctly, Firefox 3.0.6 is still maintained by the upstream provider, so how can it be "obsolete"? A better chosen word seems to be in order - perhaps "dated"? To me, obsolete implies that something is no longer appropriate or meaningful, which certainly does not apply to Firefox 3.0.6.
68 • RE: 66 • Zenwalk, ... (by arzouille on 2009-09-08 15:15:27 GMT from France)
"The version based on Jaunty is really nice..."
What is "Jaunty" ? is it a new distribution ?
Or maybe you mean "Ubuntu Linux code name Jaunty" ?
69 • Debian and Zenwalk (by Xtyn on 2009-09-08 15:19:31 GMT from Romania)
#66 I don't think it's the CD. I tried Zenwalk 6 on a HP 530 laptop and it didn't recognize the network card (ethernet), but it did see my wireless card. That was odd, because the other distros I tried had no problem with it.
Although Debian stable is outdated, some people like it's stability and don't care about bleeding edge. I have been using Debian testing for a while and I find it really stable, absolutely no crash, I haven't encountered any bug yet and it's more modern than stable. The adventurous can try unstable or Sidux.
OSWatershead should include Sidux in their list.
70 • Yet regarding Debian point rel announcements (by GrzegorzW on 2009-09-08 15:27:36 GMT from Poland)
@49 (Ladislav):
I understand your point, but it does not have to be full, verbal topic if there is not much to say about.
Just one line in minor / development releases section would be quite fair.
I think every release from main distributions when new isos are generated should be at least very briefly mentioned.
Thanks.
71 • RE: 68, Still not correct. (by Eddie Wilson on 2009-09-08 15:34:49 GMT from United States)
Its Ubuntu 9.04 code name "Jaunty Jackalope". You really didn't know he was talking about Ubuntu 9.04 did you?
72 • RE: #68 (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-08 15:42:14 GMT from United States)
Lol, you are correct sir. I meant Ubuntu version 9.04. The code name is "Jaunty Jackalope". I am using the 32 bit version on an old Dell Poweredge 2300 with a Pentium III Coppermine processor and 1 Gig of ram. It really runs fast.
#69 Thanks for the info. I will have to try it again to see if I can identify what the problem is. Interesting that you had the same problem.
73 • Re: #61 drivers (by DG on 2009-09-08 16:36:10 GMT from Netherlands)
All this talk of removing drivers from the kernel just because there is no-one actively developing them seems like a bad move to me. Will this result in an increasing amount of hardware being unusable in linux?
I think you've just misunderstood. The article doesn't say that existing drivers will be removed from the kernel, rather that partially implemented drivers which are not being actively developed will be removed from the staging area. So I presume that if you are currently using one of these drivers you must already be at the sharp end of development...
74 • No subject (by Tom on 2009-09-08 20:15:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
74 DG thx for reassuring me there. That does make sense now :) I don't know why i let things bother me sometimes but "It's better out than in", especially if it leads to greater understanding imo :) So it's not going to push hardware into landfill :)
I have been looking at this Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_computer_viruses
and comparing it to
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Linuxvirus
and found Wikipedia seems to have missed one! Also it doesn't seem to be completely accurate when compared against this page that has appeared in DWRC a few times before
http://librenix.com/?inode=21
These all seem to be quite old news. Are there any more recent malware to be added? I haven't edited a Wikipedia page before and i'm a bit nervous about it, especially because i am not very knowledgeable about the subject.
67 by Pearson was good to read, that's exactly how i felt about 'obsolete' too
Sound and multimedia generally seems to be a real issue in linux. It seems like graphics does have some sort of roadmap but sound seems to lack a clear direction. I was very glad to see LMMS get the gold this month and was also pleased to see that LiVES achieved their fundraising goal and also listed DistroWatch in their Hall of Fame
http://lives.sourceforge.net/index.php?do=donate
If only that was a clickable link to the DW home page, but it's great to see it there at all :))
Anyway, thanks and regards to all from Tom :)
75 • oswatershed & PCManFM (by Luke on 2009-09-08 21:19:42 GMT from United States)
Proof that OS Watershed is useless for decision-making purposes: they list *alpha* releases as their current releases. Don't use Firefox 3.6alpha1? You're "obsolete." That's not to say the info isn't interesting though.
PCManFM 0.5.1 (the current version) has two glaring problems: First, updates to HAL have broken some things, like mounting removable media and such. I have a permanently inserted SDHC card in my netbook, but I had to manually update fstab to get to its contents.
Second, it has a very nonsensical "virtual file" feature who's sole purpose, as of 0.5.1, is to put a "My Documents" icon on the desktop. It is hard-coded, so you can't remove it without modifying the source code and recompiling. Which I did. I only made minor changes, just enough to skip the part where it puts the icon on the desktop, but it's be way better to rip out the entire "virtual file" feature. What's wrong with simple symbolic links?
76 • RE: 70 Yet regarding Debian point rel announcements (by ladislav on 2009-09-08 22:28:03 GMT from Taiwan)
As I said in post 49, Debian point releases will show up in the "Latest Distributions" section on the main page (as soon as the ISO images are available). Please have a look - it's there. This will also be mentioned in DistroWatch Weekly, but only next Monday, since the ISO images were not yet available when this week's issue was posted.
77 • RE: 2 BSD and GNOME (by Sjakke on 2009-09-08 23:03:37 GMT from Faroe Islands)
The NetBSD Desktop project is going to be using GNOME.
78 • Slackware + KDE 4.2.4 (by Josh on 2009-09-09 04:04:03 GMT from United States)
I was using KDE 4.3.0 on Arch for a while, and it was a lot more stable for me than any other distro that I tried with KDE 4. Then I installed Slackware 13.0, and everything in KDE 4.2.4 seemed so much better than even in KDE 4.3.0 on Arch. I guess a lot of the other distros tried to brand KDE too much to the point where it became unstable?
Or maybe slackware is just awesome that way.
79 • @78: KDE4 (by RollMeAway on 2009-09-09 04:28:57 GMT from United States)
@78 To see what KDE 4.2.4 can be when the developers care,
do give Pardus 2009 a try. It is the most impressive KDE 4 I have seen.
While they have not released a live version yet,
install it to a spare partition. You will be blown away, guaranteed.
Slackware KDE 4.2.4 is the other end of the spectrum.
What you get when the developers do nothing.
80 • @24 - KDE 2 -> 3 transition (by gnobuddy on 2009-09-09 04:36:55 GMT from United States)
KDE4: I have no problems with KDE4. Anyone know when KDE 2 died out b and 3 was universally accepted?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I dumped Windows and switched to Linux in 2001 with Mandake 8.0, featuring the KDE 2.1.1 desktop. Even in those early days I vastly preferred KDE to Gnome - Gnome was much prettier than the KDE 1.x series, and still a little prettier than the early KDE 2.x series, but Gnome was also much slower and clunkier, featuring backward steps such as a default double-click to launch an application. Double clicks serve no useful purpose, and considerably increase your likelihood of developing carpal tunnel syndrome or other related RSI problems.
Roughly two years later Mandrake 9.0 featured KDE 3.0.3. I enjoyed the KDE 3 series, which I felt beat the stuffing out of Gnome in both usability and appearance. The transition from the KDE 2.x series to the KDE 3.x series was smooth and uneventful as far as I was concerned.
IMO things got worse for Gnome when they dumbed down the interface with utterly stupid features such as a file selector dialog that won't let you type in a complete Unix path, instead forcing you to hunt and click your way through the entire directory tree to your destination file - if I want this sort of stupidity, I'll buy a Mac and let Steve Jobs lead me by the nose instead of the Gnome developers doing the same thing. I hate the fact that Firefox uses the same dumb GTK file selector - just click your way to /usr/bin to pick a helper application, and watch the file selector bog down for a couple of minutes on the huge list of binaries (2263 in my case) in that folder. With Konqueror, I type in, say, /usr/bin/kpdf, and I'm done in a second or two.
So, I've been using KDE off and on since 2000, and full-time since 2001. That changed with the KDE 4.x series, which I find pretty but utterly unusable in Kubuntu 8.04, 8.10, and 9.04. Between missing applications, reduced functions from those apps that do exist, and frequent crashes, KDE 4.x has been a disaster from my point of view. (I haven't had a chance to try 4.3.0 or 4.3.1 yet).
I haven't yet found a solution I like - I've stayed with Kubuntu 8.04 LTS and KDE 3.5 for my desktops, but the software is getting long in the tooth. I've experimented with XFCE (same hated file dialog as Gnome) and Openbox (on Crunchbang Linux), as well as other alternative window managers. So far I'm not really sold on any of them.
I really hope the KDE developers find their way back out of the wilderness they're in, and give us a usable desktop somewhere in the 4.x series. KDE 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2 weren't it, though.
-Gnobuddy
81 • RE: 80 (dumb GTK file selector) (by mioriticus on 2009-09-09 09:33:47 GMT from Romania)
Señor Gnobuddy lacks something (hopefully not the intelligence), otherwise he would have noticed that both the GTK+ file selector and Nautilus' main widow include a left-side small icon (with a notepad on it, usually) that, once clicked... miracle! allows you to manually ENTER the full path or a part of it!
Alternatively, CTRL+L (L stands for "Location", one more surprise!) allows the user to manually enter a path (location) in:
-- the GTK+ file selector
-- Nautilus' main window
-- Firefox
and possibly in other places where it makes sense.
I personally love GNOME, even though for the time being I'm using KDE 4.3.1.
82 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-09 10:07:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
Just seen this, such tactics remind me of the petty childishness of the playground, I see no real humour in this at all.
In fact it is pathetic, especially when you find an adult must have sanctioned its release. The real message, unintended of course, is that Steve B and cronies are becoming more and more concerned by the spread of GNULinux.
MS media research teams, or wotever they choose to label themselves, cannot have missed the increasing numbers of GNULinux distros being born across the planet.
The advent of W7 (especially at $10, LOL) is not a lifesaver (for MS) by any means, slick tho' it might appear at the present. None of us can have any doubts that W7 will be attacked constantly by legions of anti MS hackers, crackers etc etc.
We shall see plenty of pro W7 hype by the pocket jounos...but it will be very amusing to see how they explain away the ever increasing security patches released, because, someone, somewhere, will find a vulnerabilty and exploit it to the full. Then another weak point and so on and so forth.
In fact I wonder if the so called anti Linux training is in fact legal across the planet? We probably have all read of the increasing hardline the EU takes against MS and its dubious practices...and of course, one of the prime movers in the EU, France, has rather a lot of distros running throughout their gov't departments.
http://www.osnews.com/story/22130/Microsoft_Offers_BestBuy_Employees_Anti-Linux_Training
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10346669-62.html
83 • Re: 82 (by mioriticus on 2009-09-09 10:16:33 GMT from Romania)
$10 is the correct price for Win7 Home Premium. I would buy a couple at licenses at this price.
84 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-09 10:22:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
ref #83
Spendthrift! LOL.
85 • 82 (by Tom on 2009-09-09 10:59:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
Win7 is easily worth $10, perhaps even $11. I am glad the gnu&linus distros don't charge what they are worth because i would never be able to afford any of them
Regards from Tom :)
86 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-09 11:43:49 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #85
Very droll Tom, LOL. Fortunately most of GNULinux stuff does not have shareholders to satisfy/pacify.
The real cost tho' is the amount of time wasted in waiting for all those blasted scans to finish off...even a nil result costs. And as said above all those folk wanting to prove their mettle by hacking W7 to pieces...who can be arsed to d/l all the security patches that MUST result?
87 • Ref#81 Gnome, #82 unknown (by VernDog on 2009-09-09 15:51:54 GMT from United States)
#81 - I like the information you provided. Also, just to keep up , I use both. Gnome is what I'm more use to, but kde4 has good interface. It's a bit slower. I just want to know what'g going on with both camps.
#82- I don't know what your referring to and who is " Steve B"? Maybe something got deleted.
88 • " Steve B" (by Anonymous on 2009-09-09 16:54:19 GMT from Romania)
Developers, developers, developers!!! (while sweating)
89 • xPUD (by Michael Fox on 2009-09-09 17:57:05 GMT from Canada)
Thanks for the good review of the xPUD program. I tried it myself on my MSI Wind hard drive, and found that it is a potential winner, but not yet. Boot up time was very fast, as promised, but the boot up doesn't include setup of your wireless, and xPUD doesn't seem to remember the settings. When you count the time to getting wireless reception in your startup time (I have a WPA2 router and need to enter a password every time), it's well over a minute. xPUD's version of Firefox works well, but after awhile, something goes wrong with the wireless setting and it has to be redone. Given that there is no easy way yet to add applications and that there is no email program included, I don't think it's a good Linux option yet. But I think it could be if the developer pays attention to comments like these and continues to improve his distro. I hope he does; I think we need a fast-booting basic internet system like this one.
90 • Re: #82 (by x on 2009-09-09 18:20:50 GMT from United States)
"None of us can have any doubts that W7 will be attacked constantly by legions of anti MS hackers, crackers etc etc." Most of the attacks are not by anti-MS hackers, but from socially inept MS users and those that are looking for a way to commit other crimes.
If you are a user of any of the open source operating systems, leave MS products alone. Do not allow them to blame the failings of their products on the open source community.
91 • Fedora 11 a very impressive Linux ! (by Jeffersonian on 2009-09-09 22:12:50 GMT from United States)
Hello:
I have used many Linuxes in the last say ten+ years.
Recently (say last three years) I used mostly Opensuse, and Ubuntu, but OpenSuse 11.1 never worked well: too many glitches, bugs and system unstability.
Ubuntu just did not cut it... (easy Install, but limited).
Last week, after one more disastrous Suse 11.1 system update, I decided to bite the bullet, and install Fedora 11, the add the KDE interface.
I must say that the install is not easy, and it is still an annoyance to figure out how to install the Wi-FI driver for Broadcom, and to get Nvidia to work with 3D acceleration.
But when this is done, WOW: what a distro !
As a professional programmer, I have always had the nostalgia of the SUN/CDE and the SGI/Irix, wonderful environment !
And now, it seems that I finally found a distro with this level of quality, stability and speed.
If you use Linux as a programmer, Fedora 11 may be your best bet.
For the GUI themes:
- Gome with Mac4lin clean, fast : excellent.
- KDE4 is now excellent too: my favorite, it is very fast, and always work.
In 2008, KDE 4 was just not ready for prime time, now it is superb.
If you are a casual user, with little Linux experience, stay away from this distro... unless a Linux Geek can help you with the install: passed the install, Fedora 11 is really easy to use.
The proper installation, with most belts and whistles took me more than one day.
This includes applications, drivers, codecs, plugins, and updates (many!), as well as language development tools etc ...
Jeffersonian. Wed 9 Sept 2009
92 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-09 22:46:29 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #90
Slightly wrong inference, x.
On reflection I would posit some of the attackers probably use all the OS systems with equal facility and are socially inadequate, not just inept, in fact they might even be total nutters on a par with the Columbine killers but with a different MO.
Some may be quite the opposite and are out to impress their peers/mates or gfs.
Some will be out and out villains trying for personal account details, or enrolling a machine on a botnet.
Perhaps, on further reflection, I should have said "pro" MS types...if only because most people in computerland, allegedly, LOL, use MS products and most of them, allegedly, don't know or can't be arsed to run security.
That said it is a given W7 will be attacked, and, if MS chooses to blame the open source community then they will, regardless of the truth of the matter. (You might say OS users are simply duty scapegoats.)
You may have observed MS are adept at spin and the abuse of statistics.
I would posit further MS are fast becoming adept at worrying about their market share, not to mention their share price.
W7 is, we are told, the bees' knees cf GNULinux and their own Vista. So what? GNULinux development is not exactly static.
Your penultimate sentence probably encapsulates the best advice even tho' you did not mean it quite like that.
93 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-10 01:34:28 GMT from United Kingdom)
Lubuntu anyone?
http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7520/1.html
A bit more for those interested.
94 • Ref#93 Lubuntu (by VernDog on 2009-09-10 03:18:41 GMT from United States)
Lo and behold. that Lubuntu article is written by none other than our own Chris Smart!
I've heard not good things regarding Xubuntu. That article is one of many pointing in that direction. I tried Lubuntu a while back, but what with my Intel chip it just froze over :(
95 • #93 (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-10 06:16:40 GMT from United States)
Nice link Forest. Very informative article. Does anyone know how Lubuntu stacks up against CrunchBang?
96 • re #92 (by x on 2009-09-10 06:17:20 GMT from United States)
Thank you for the clarification of your position.
Perhaps I should have provided a more detailed explanation of my thoughts on the subject. MS will continue to blame its' problems on others. I just prefer that any negative accusations towards the free and open source software communities be nothing more than groundless fabrications. Since its coup of the software industry, it has been a major irritant and will continue to be so for some time.
It is important that we not get involved in breaking W7 or any other product they offer, let it happen on its own. Yes, it will be attacked, hopefully, not by any of us. We have better things to do with our time, like improving documentation and security, as well as developing existing and new software.
97 • Lubuntu (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-10 07:43:58 GMT from United States)
I just tried out Lubuntu. Very nice and speedy. It is important to note that it is a "live" cd with no install option, which is a bit disappointing. There is also a rather severe paucity of applications included on the cd.
Zenwalk 6.2
I just attempted another install with even worse results. It won't even boot up now. I am currently re-burning a new cd at 2x to see if this clears up any issues...
98 • Zenwalk 6.2 (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-10 11:46:30 GMT from United States)
Ok no luck with the re-burn. Xtyn you were correct.
The positives:
Sick-fast, boot time!
Vastly improved installer.
The Negative:
Couldn't find my wired network. I am a Zenwalk fan so I am very disappointed.
99 • Catching up (by Michael Raugh on 2009-09-10 13:26:45 GMT from United States)
Can't believe it's Thursday and I'm just getting my first look at DWW. It's been hectic. I got engaged over the weekend and have been busy getting the word out to family and friends.
My honey and I did spend some time doing an Arch install, though, so I've got another chapter of the Distro Odyssey in the works. Still testing things and making notes but it'll be along soon.
xPUD looks schweet! I loved Caitlyn's review and will steal some time to play with it in a VM for fun.
Lubuntu should be interesting. I used to be a fan of Xubuntu; until I read Chris Smart's outstanding pieces on it a few months ago, in which he first reviewed Xubuntu Intrepid and then compared it to Debian, I thought it was lightweight. Now that I know better I'll try Lubuntu on that old (vintage 2002 or so) Gateway laptop that's sitting around the house.
The talk of DesktopBSD has me hankering to try a BSD. A friend of mine runs his home on FreeBSD servers and Mac clients and seems to quite enjoy it.
The MS/Best Buy "training" thing is a hoot. Sadly, as someone has already noted, the vast majority of Best Buy staff are ignorant enough to swallow it as truth. In my experience even the vaunted Geek Squad folk tend to shrug their shoulders mutely when asked questions like, "Does this printer depend on Windows-only software to work?" The nearest Micro Center is 40 miles away but worth the schlep to me because both the stock and the staff are much more Linux- and Mac-aware. You can actually walk in and pick up a RAID card that says "Supports Linux" right on the box, for example.
Hats off to Ladislav, Chris and Caitlyn again.
-mr
100 • torrents (by LarryJW at 2009-09-10 14:36:15 GMT from United States)
It would be nice if there was a way to make a torrent option here for every download (that doesn't offer that option already) for those of us with less then reliable internet connections. Don't know how feasible it would be though. Maybe just for the 10 most downloaded ones that are most likely to succ(seed).
101 • @100 (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-10 15:55:51 GMT from United States)
I suggest linuxtracker.org.
102 • How to get Lubuntu to boot correctly with an Intel video chip. (by VernDog on 2009-09-10 16:04:48 GMT from United States)
With livecd booted and presented with he following boot option
===
boot:live single
From "Recovery menu", choose root
#Xorg -configure
The screen will dance and you will see "List of video drivers:" supported.
Note vesa.
# mv xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
From inside vi, do the following:
/intel
cw
vesa
esc
ZZ
ctrl+d
From menu choose normal boot. Done!
===
PS-I'm posted this comment from the Lubuntu livecd, with my Intel i865 integrated video chip.
103 • DW Top Ten (by Landor on 2009-09-10 18:13:37 GMT from Canada)
Any chance of us seeing a top ten comparison (which differs greatly from just the overview page), if at all, Ladislav?
I know it's quite the undertaking to do such a comparison styled review. Sure, there's a lot here who already know the merits and differences of each (for the most part), like myself, but I always gain more knowledge from another's perspective. I would think even more so in regard to the conclusion of such an article. Though mileage varies of course. Also, there's the new to Linux initiate that undoubtedly would benefit from such an article, or series of (more than likely a series given the scope).
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
104 • Remastersys LXDE Lite (by woodsmoke on 2009-09-10 18:55:37 GMT from United States)
About the LXDE environment.
I've been running for several months now, as have a few others, Fragadelic's wonderful Remastersys LXDE lite, which is....lite lite! :)
This is on both a tower with Nvidia card and a Toshiba Satellite Laptop.
Very stable and it uses OpenBox also.
All in all, it seems to me to be a very nice example what can be done with the LXDE environment.
Here's a linky:
http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/index.html
woodsmoke
105 • #100: A better option that bittorrent (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-09-10 18:57:04 GMT from United States)
@LarryJW: I find the best way to do a long or large download is to use wget from the command line:
wget -cr
If your internet connection drops or the download stops for whatever reason it will timeout and restart and resume the download from where it left off. I find bittorrent downloads to generally be slower than standard FTP or HTTP and wget solves the problem you describe nicely.
106 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-10 19:34:05 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #105
CM, thanks for that nugget, some bit torrents are extremely slow...sometimes the next version is out before you finished d/l the existing one, LOL
Ref the ongoing saga of MS spreading FUD, this is bound to amuse some of us:
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3377584759.html
The only problem when trying to rubbish something or try the dodge with the patents...is that sometimes this sort of thing can backfire and end up biting you on the bum...
107 • Clarification on #105 (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-09-10 20:51:52 GMT from United States)
I've got to remember that I can't use angled brackets in the comments.
wget -cr [URL goes here]
is the correct command. There are no brackets around the URL :)
108 • Low-end. (by Kemosabe on 2009-09-11 02:39:15 GMT from United States)
The introductory article about Lubuntu questions the purpose of Xubuntu. Xfce4 uses 67M on my Debian setup compared to 160M 'buntu treatment. If a ??buntu wanted to provide something small to be built upon, I don't know why it needs LXDE to do it. Anything but KDE4 can be thrifty based upon my short time tinkering with installing packages.
109 • A few things (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-11 03:39:45 GMT from United States)
First off, Absolute Linux 13 is released (WHOO!). Hopefully it's better than the slip-up in 12.2.5 that Caitlyn reviewed. That distro was my favorite for a while - it really is quite good. It may not be enough to take me off of Fedora; we'll see.
Second, @108, I agree that Ubuntu's "low-end" is pretty terrible. Having used LXDE, I found that it was a very nice, nimble and fast desktop...in Debian. I'm just not sure that Ubuntu can keep the workload down. I know other people have had better luck with Ubuntu derivitives such as CrunchBang (which uses OpenBox, the window manager of LXDE), but for me CrunchBang didn't run any better or worse than its father on both high and low end machines, so I don't really understand the hullabaloo.
LXDE is a great desktop, though; no knock against them. It really manages to deliver the features most people take for granted while managing to work in under 100 MB. I hope it gets picked up by a good project and is taken advantage of (or I hope that Lubuntu turns out to be far better than I predict).
Speaking of lightweight Ubuntu releases, MoonOS looks nice, just like the last release did. I might have to give it a try and see how Enlightenment works. And Trisquel continues on their Free Software parade as well. I prefer to install the "VRMS" package, which gives you a Virtual Richard M. Stallman that tells you what free/non-free packages you have installed.
110 • wine version (by Aelius on 2009-09-11 11:06:19 GMT from Russia)
I'am sorry, but is the information about wine correct? Please, see http://etersoft.ru, its manufactorer site, there 2009-08-04 the stable release 1.0.11 is announced, however here only 1.0.1 is present as the latest stable.
111 • LXDE (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-11 11:10:55 GMT from United States)
I am running Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 with LXDE installed from the repositories. It runs faster than XFCE or GNOME. I like it better than Crunchbang which I found to be a little too "skeletal" for my liking. Now if I could remove GNOME without breaking anything that would be great.
112 • RE: 110 wine version (by ladislav on 2009-09-11 11:18:29 GMT from Taiwan)
If you visit the home page of WINE at http://www.winehq.org/, you'll learn that the current stable version is 1.0.1.
113 • (L)Ubuntu without GNOME (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-09-11 17:23:17 GMT from United States)
@Elder: The easiest way to achieve what you want is to do a minimal Ubuntu install (no GUI at all), then add X, the LXDE packages, and the apps you want. Apps and tools with GNOME dependencies will install bits of GNOME but you won't end up with the full desktop installed and the results will be significantly lighter than starting with a normal Ubuntu install and trying to strip it down.
114 • @113 (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-11 20:14:26 GMT from United States)
Ok, thanks for that. I'll try it. I'm sure it will get messed up somehow but that's fun too :) I would be interested in hearing your experience with the new Zenwalk if you get the time.
115 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-12 18:00:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
Karmic Koala eats Eucalyptus (groan), for those interested in the Cloud issue:
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=AF3D786E-1A64-67EA-E43BD17911D94D1E
116 • @81 - Dumb GTK file selector (by gnobuddy on 2009-09-13 04:03:06 GMT from United States)
81 • RE: 80 (dumb GTK file selector) (by mioriticus on 2009-09-09 09:33:47 GMT from Romania)
Señor Gnobuddy lacks something (hopefully not the intelligence), otherwise he would have noticed that both the GTK+ file selector and Nautilus' main widow include a left-side small icon (with a notepad on it, usually) that, once clicked... miracle! allows you to manually ENTER the full path or a part of it!
================================================
Mioriticus, you also appear to lack something; basic civility to another human being who never did you any harm. Why is that? Is it your ego's need to feel superior to others, or did nobody teach you basic manners when you were growing up?
Anyhow, despite the rudeness, thank you for pointing out what that completely unintuitive icon does. I would never have guessed its function, as it is the icon for a text-editor. I don't want to create text documents in my file selector, I simply want to enter a Unix path - why on earth would I assume a text-editor icon served that function? It might as well have been a clock icon, or any random image of that size.
This is just another classic example of poor Gnome usability. Why do the developers assume the typical user is too stupid to know how to enter a file path, and therefore provide by default a "trail of breadcrumbs" approach to navigating the directory tree, rather than the obvious method of providing a text box to type in the path?
I wonder what usability disaster the Gnome developers will come up with next. Perhaps we'll need to drag a CD icon from the desktop to the trash-basket to burn data onto it, a la OS X. Yeah, that's really intuitive! (What were the OS X developers thinking when they came up with that bit of madness?)
-Gnobuddy
117 • #116 Gnobuddy (by Xtyn on 2009-09-13 07:06:40 GMT from Romania)
I believe mioriticus's response was normal in those circumstances.
Let's face it, you dragged GNOME through the dirt for a problem that doesn't exist, that was your only argument:
"IMO things got worse for Gnome when they dumbed down the interface with utterly stupid features such as a file selector dialog that won't let you type in a complete Unix path, instead forcing you to hunt and click your way through the entire directory tree to your destination file - if I want this sort of stupidity, I'll buy a Mac and let Steve Jobs lead me by the nose instead of the Gnome developers doing the same thing."
"This is just another classic example of poor Gnome usability. Why do the developers assume the typical user is too stupid to know how to enter a file path, and therefore provide by default a "trail of breadcrumbs" approach to navigating the directory tree, rather than the obvious method of providing a text box to type in the path?"
I like the "trail of breadcrumbs" because it makes it easier to navigate, you just click on whatever folder you want to go back to.
If I want to enter a path, I just click on the icon and enter the path, it's easy.
I find it pretty intuitive.
I'm not a GNOME fan, although I have been using it since KDE4 appeared.
118 • Lubuntu, Karmic alpha and Antix 8.2/NVIDIA (by capricornus on 2009-09-13 16:20:49 GMT from Belgium)
1/ LUbuntu: what a pity it doesn't install
2/ Karmic Alpha: GRUB is a messup, DON'T organize a dual boot with it, it will end up in a disaster
Antix 8.2: what a beauty, but what when you install NVIDIA, you end up with nothing, not even a GUI
- just reporting -
Number of Comments: 118
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