 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 324, 12 October 2009 |
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Welcome to this year's 41st issue of DistroWatch Weekly! It was a bit of slow week as several popular distributions are gearing up for their next major releases, but the news has been exciting. Novell got annoyed at Red Hat claiming 75% market penetration and Debian was used to power an underwater vehicle to victory. Then I moved into Sabayon's latest to see if their KDE 4 build could perform any better than others I've tried. All this and more in this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly - happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (18MB) and MP3 (18MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
Sabayon Linux Five Point OH!
 We've been drifting through the Doldrums lately on the Good Ship Linuxlovers, but one bright isle is Sabayon Linux 5.0, or 5.o as the developers called it. Sabayon is the one distribution I keep thinking I'll switch to next release - just as soon as issue X is solved. I try it every release, but end up going back to my long-time favorite Gentoo. Sabayon seems like the perfect upgrade. It comes with most of the codecs and drivers folks need, it has some convenient default settings, and it always comes with lots of applications. This release brings all that with a performance boost and a great new look.
Installation
Sabayon Linux DVDs have always offered several boot modes. In the past they've offered a Gaming mode and Kiosk mode, among others. These are gone now, but a new XBMC mode is available. One can still boot to the desktop environment with or without the music or boot directly to the installer.
The installer is simple and easy-to-use. However, I did have some issues with the partitioner. Having just installed a new hard drive, I needed to set up partitions and thought I'd use the Sabayon installer for that. If memory serves, Sabayon adapted portions of Anaconda for their installer several version back and I thought it would be up to the job. Depending upon your perspective, it may have been. The issue I had with it was its insistence that it knew better than me how to arrange my partitions. I kid you not. I'd set up a few partitions in the order and size I wanted, and then they would just mysteriously rearrange themselves to meet some developer's idea of how they should be ordered. And it would not allow me to set up some unused partitions. It insisted they all have names and filesystems. I messed with it for a while but finally gave up and fired up fdisk. The install proceeded without incident after that. I chose to use the Ext4 filesystem and installed all software. There isn't a complete individual package selection, but broad categories and a few optional packages are listed one can disable. One can set up user accounts and a root password is desired, even though by default the first user account will be set up as the administrator. The GRUB bootloader will be installed if and where you wish and it'll try to detect and include other systems. That part is a bit hit and miss, but most are.
The Sabayon boot process isn't going to win any races. In fact, it seems rather slow by today's standards, but it gets there. It's nice that all the hardware is configured automagically, including 3D graphical drivers, and even CPU Scaling is set to ondemand for me. I didn't have to do anything except boot and start customizing the desktop appearance.
Desktop and Applications
The new theme for this release looks really great. It's tasteful and understated. Some versions of Sabayon in the past could be considered a bit gawdy, but the graphics for this release are quite attractive. However, the windows retain the plain decoration and style from KDE 4. I'm not sure why Sabayon developers stuck with the stock KDE window theme when they include some nice ones such as QtCurve and Klearlooks. Sabayon also has six or seven extra wallpapers if someone wanted something a bit more colorful. Unfortunately, I'm still not able to stretch a wallpaper across two displays, but that's on KDE.
The Sabayon Linux KDE 4.3.1 Environment
(full image size: 500kB, screen resolution 1680x1050 pixels)
Desktop effects are enabled by default and for the first time I was almost able to enjoy them. Whether the credit goes to Sabayon developers or KDE developers, I don't know, but the performance of KDE 4 in Sabayon is much improved over my past experiences with KDE 4. One of the most annoying issues with KDE 4 in the past was slow response times when using KMail and Akregator. Again, I don't know where the credit belongs, but both are much more tolerable in Sabayon's KDE 4.3.1. Akregator still pulls in agonizingly slow and random, but switching between feeds and articles is much more responsive. Also, I found it a bit annoying that some of my settings were lost in-between uses - again, I recall that being a characteristic of KDE 4. In the end, I disabled the special effects, desktop searches, and Konqueror plug-ins and javascript in order to feel more comfortable. Still I wasn't able to enjoy any screensavers. Even asciiquarium taxed the CPU and ran rather choppy and slow.
Sabayon Linux ships with a customized Linux kernel 2.6.31, Xorg 7.4, and GCC 4.4.1. Besides the mass of KDE applications, Sabayon includes several other handy apps. For multimedia enjoyment your choices include VLC media player, XBMC media center, and Amarok, although Dragon Player is the default for most video and DVD purposes. OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 is included for those pesky work tasks and Firefox 3.5.3 is available for Web surfing. Both of these seem quite peppy and Firefox is equipped with the plug-ins needed for media playback. Yakuake, NVIDIA Settings, and Wicd are also found. But where was the GIMP? Ah, there it is in Sulfur.
Package Management
Sabayon Linux is based on Gentoo and as such many telltale signs can still be seen under the hood. One of these signs is Portage and the /etc/make.conf file. While Portage is intact, operative, and directed at Gentoo repositories, Sabayon comes with its own package management system set up to use Sabayon binary packages. Sulfur is the graphical front-end to Entropy which can also be used in a terminal with equo. This can loosely be equated to the Synaptic front-end for APT which can also be used in a terminal with apt-get. At the commandline one can install by typing equo install <package name>. I like the commandline version for quick and easy installs when I know the name of the application, but if I need to search or examine the dependencies I prefer the compact nature of the results in Sulfur.
The Sulfur package management interface
(full image size: 262kB, screen resolution 1680x1050 pixels)
Sulfur has the same basic attributes and functionalities as other graphical package management tools - lists of applications by category, search by keywords, mark for installation, review, and apply. Sulfur looks a bit different than many of the others, but it doesn't take long to acclimate to its interface. Sabayon also comes with an update applet that sits in the System Tray to alert the user when updates are available. When activated, it opens Sulfur to take care of the actual work. Soon after my system was installed, an update to Entropy came down the pipe which then triggered a mass update of 186 packages. I was a bit hesitant to click that "Commit Actions" button, but it finished with no problems.
Conclusion
I always like Sabayon Linux, but I've never quite made the switch. I know I need to bite the bullet and just get used to KDE 4, and perhaps Sabayon 5.o will be the one to do it for me. It's the best implementation of KDE 4 I've tried to use, but it still has quite a few rough edges. KDE 4.3.2 hasn't shown up in Entropy yet, but I'm hoping it will soon and perhaps I'll see even more improvement. In any case, I think I'll be sticking with Sabayon and its KDE 4 for a while to see how it fares over the long haul.
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| Miscellaneous News |
Debian develops kFreeBSD port, Debian submarine wins competition, Red Hat and Novell argue numbers, Gentoo release statistics, Mandriva re-introduces itself
 The Debian project announced the port of the Debian system to the FreeBSD kernel in 32- and 64-bit architectures. These ports will see official support with the upcoming release (codenamed 'Squeeze') and will be given equal importance in determining release status. Motivations include broader choice and the ability to benefit from some of the components admired in free BSD systems such as the OpenBSD Packet Filter and NDIS kernel drivers. This subproject has been a long time in the making, with it roots going way back to 1999. It's been a long and arduous journey and continued challenges are inevitable, but as the Linux Weekly News said, this is one more step towards their goal of creating a universal operating system. In their informative piece, Koen Vervloesem delineates the history of the project and describes the some of the technical aspects for the current and future releases. This port comes with all the trimmings such as an official port site, fine manual, wiki, a #debian-kbsd IRC channel on irc.oftc.net, and install CDs.
In other Debian news, a press release announced that Debian was a key component of the winning entry in this year's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition, sponsored by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research. The Cornell University team took first place as their submarine completed the challenging course which required the vehicles "pass through a gate, follow a path, ram a submerged buoy, fire through a square target with small torpedoes, drop markers into bins containing simulated targets, recover a PVC target and surface through an octagon shape, all without human intervention." Debian and other Open Source software was used for the on-board computer of the vehicle as well in the labs and on servers. The Cornell software team has replaced all their Windows, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, and Gentoo installs with Debian because, as the software team leader said, it "works amazingly well for us." Underwater videos of the winning run can be seen on the Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle web site.
* * * * *
 Developers celebrated Gentoo's tenth birthday by releasing a live DVD recently that received quite a bit of attention. An updated 10.1 was released this past weekend to address a few bugs discovered with 10.0. Probably while reminiscing, but officially in response to inquiries, Robin Johnson, aka robbat2, a long-time Gentoo developer, posted some interesting release statistics for Gentoo for the last five years. He has broken the numbers down into architectures and media categories for fine-grained comparison, but he doesn't appear to have included numbers on Stage tarballs. For the 2005.1 release the universal install CD received 374388 hits. The 2007.0 and 2008.0 releases garnered the most hits at 1046455 and 968065 respectively. Interestingly, the 10.0 Birthday DVD recorded 33703 hits in just five days.
* * * * *
 Red Hat Executive Vice President Paul Cormier was quoted as saying that Red Hat has earned 75% of the paid Linux market at their annual analyst event in New York last week. While it was sandwiched in between other financial reports, forecasts, and plans for the future, that one quote seemed to bounce around the Internet getting quite a bit of attention. In fact, it got the attention and ire of the management at Novell. Novell public relations manager Ian Bruce wasted no time in setting the record straight. Bruce quoted an independent study that pegs Red Hat at about 62% of the Linux business market. Whatever the true numbers, Red Hat certainly seems to be faring quite well these days in this depressed economy.
* * * * *
 Mandriva is hoping to re-introduce itself to the public by publishing a series of articles examining their place in the Linux landscape and the community's role in their evolution. The first of these articles, Being a Linux distribution publisher, describes some of the steps involved in creating a Linux distribution. These include the software selection and integration processes, original tool creation, integrating graphics, hardware support planning, quality assurance, and development packages. One fun fact states there are over 20,000 software packages on Mandriva mirrors. Upcoming entries are titled 1001 ways to contribute and a new contribution option, so keep an eye on The Official Mandriva Blog for those.
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| Released Last Week |
Tiny Core Linux 2.4, 2 4.1
Robert Shingledecker has announced the release of Tiny Core Linux 2.4, a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux GUI desktop: "Tiny Core 2.4 is now posted. Change log: updated flwm_restart to use new capability of menu refresh; updated appbrowser - dropped access to TCE repository, 'Install Local' defaults to optional/; updated wbar.sh to read extra configurations from $HOME/.wbar; updated flpicsee to v1.0 - replaced Alt with Ctrl hotkyes; updated setbackground to process compressed logo template, saves much space; updated .Xdefaults for aterm transparency mode; updated .xsession to check and start flit and/or watcher...." Find more details in the changelog. Update: The developers have later released a bug-fix version: "Version 2.4.1 is posted and has a single character change, which only affects special permissions, e.g., setuid, and only when installing to the file system, i.e., not mounting. This fixes the X.Org not starting issue under such conditions."
Dragora GNU/Linux 1.1
Matias Fonzo has announced the release of Dragora GNU/Linux 1.1, a 100% "libre" distribution based on the concept of simplicity and inspired by Slackware Linux: "Dragora GNU/Linux 1.1 is the evolution of its previous version 1.0. Notable changes in this version are: Linux Kernel 2.6.30.9 free; toolchain - Binutils 2.19.1, GCC 4.3.4, glibc 2.9, Coreutils 7.6, util-linux-ng 2.16.1; X.Org Server 1.6.4 and Mesa 7.5.2; the inclusion of KDE 4.3.1; new compression format based on the LZMA algorithm; support for Free Java and JavaScript through Icedtea6 and Rhino; support for Bluetooth and IrDA devices; support for printing with CUPS 1.3.11; support for the PCMCIA subsystem; new language support - Galician. It is worth mentioning the large environment such as KDE 4.3.1 (included on CD 2) and the numerous corrections and improvements in the packaging system and the Dragora system start-up." Read the full release announcement (scroll down for the English version) for further details.
LliureX 9.09
LliureX 9.09, an Ubuntu-based educational distribution developed by the Council of Culture, Education and Sport at the Municipality of Valencia in Spain, has been released. New features and software packages: a LliureX control centre that allows teachers to control the activity of students in the computer room, with support for thin clients; F-Spot - an application for managing digital images; Gobby - a collaborative editor; Gmount-ISO - a graphical utility for mounting ISO images; new tools for cleaning and restoring a desktop; new tools for creating educational digital objects, such as resource preparation, mind maps and desktop recordings; a new TrueType font installer; a set of new custom tools for configuring applications and for broadcasting audio and video.... Read the detailed release announcement (in Spanish) for additional information.
LliureX features lots of software with a GNOME interface
(full image size: 220kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Clonezilla Live 1.2.2-31
Steven Shiau has released a new stable build of Clonezilla Live, a specialist, Debian-based live CD designed for hard disk cloning tasks: "We are happy to announce that Clonezilla Live 1.2.2-31 is the new stable release. In this release some programs were updated and some bugs fixed. Features: based on Debian 'Lenny' repository as of 2009-10-05; Linux kernel 2.6.30; updated Partclone to 0.1.9, Memtest86+ to 4.00, live-initramfs to 1.157.3; bugs in partclone.xfs and partclone.fat have been fixed; by default '-r' option is on; option '-g auto' is skipped when GRUB 2 is found in the restored OS; an option to mount NFS 4 server was added to prep-ocsroot; language files have been updated...." See the release announcement for additional technical details.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next installment will be published on Monday, 19 October 2009.
Susan Linton
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Mandriva (by BigA on 2009-10-12 09:37:04 GMT from United States)
Mandriva has a long and positive contribution to Linux. I hope their reintroduction is successful.
2 • Mandriva (by Johannes on 2009-10-12 09:45:02 GMT from Germany)
... and Mandriva is also the last "big" independant European distribution, since SuSE is not anymore independant, and not anymore European...
3 • Red Hat (by DigitalVampire on 2009-10-12 09:54:44 GMT from United States)
Red Hat has been doing well for a while now. Actually, they made it into the S&P 500 recently. Congrats to them.
4 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2009-10-12 09:56:10 GMT from Canada)
does not mandriva share a lab with "turbo linux" making them not independant also and completely in bed with a company that signed the microsoft agreement a la novel
5 • ... (by mika480 on 2009-10-12 10:07:07 GMT from Italy)
"Debian pushes development of kFreeBSD port"
VERY GOOD !!!
6 • Saabayon 5.0 (by mcgo on 2009-10-12 11:10:46 GMT from Brazil)
Tried both live DVD´s, liked the Gnome version more!
7 • srlinuxx (by Xtyn on 2009-10-12 11:26:08 GMT from Romania)
Nice review, Susan Linton.
I recognized your style of writing from the articles on tuxmachines.
Hope tuxmachines will be better (a lot of downtimes there).
Keep up the good work but don't get carried away by the wave, there's no need to boycott Ubuntu because of Mark's comment about women.
8 • No subject (by claudecat on 2009-10-12 12:00:18 GMT from United States)
Sabayon (at least for me) is much better in its gnome clothing. I had grub issues and then desktop effects issues with the KDE version... It would not boot from grub from a USB hd without strange massaging, and changing wobbly windows settings (once in KDE) resulted in the "white screen of death". So... it's gone now... I do like the gnome version however, and will keep it until it updates itself beyond usefulness (I have 31 distros currently bootable... I judge them mainly by 3g modem support and nvidia/compiz-ability). Yes, I am insane :=}
9 • No subject (by Jimbo on 2009-10-12 12:32:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
In reply to #2, there are loads of great independent European distros. Linux Mint for example.
10 • @8:KDE desktio effects issues (by Archdevil on 2009-10-12 12:56:17 GMT from Netherlands)
I doubt if these problems are distro related. I am running mandriva 2009.1 at this moment and I have composite problems too. If you search on the internet, you will find several of these cases.
11 • Upcoming Release. (by Roy Norris on 2009-10-12 12:57:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
Please note that the Fedora release schedule has delayed Fedora F12 beta until 20 October.
12 • Sabayon (by siacs on 2009-10-12 13:58:41 GMT from United States)
I too have always had high hopes to use Sabayon as one of my main desktops but Java has never worked for me and crashes a lot. Lets face it web surfing is what a lot of us do. That is the main deal breaker for me. I will say they have done the best presentation to date with 5.0
13 • review (by david on 2009-10-12 14:02:19 GMT from United States)
@xtyn
so, it was not her name of the bottom of the page that gave her away but her style of writing. you are good!!!!
i also prefer the gnome version of sabyon.
14 • Mandriva (by Darjeeling on 2009-10-12 14:26:16 GMT from France)
> ... and Mandriva is also the last "big" independent European
> distribution, since SuSE is not anymore independent, and not
> anymore European...
... although Mark Shuttleworth was born in South Africa he holds dual citizenship of South Africa and the United Kingdom. Canonical is registered in the Isle of Man and has its main offices in London. That makes Ubuntu a "big" European distribution. As to its independence ... true, Ubuntu ain't Debian. But have a look at Mandriva's dealings and cooperations. I wonder how independent a distribution can remain when its self proclaimed target is the "corporate desktop".
The Corporate Open Source Desktop
http://www.mandriva.com/enterprise/en/products/corporate-desktop-the-corporate-open-source-desktop
> Mandriva has a long and positive contribution to Linux.
> I hope their reintroduction is successful.
... I'm not so sure it will be successful as long as some serious problems aren't being addressed. Mandriva has changed dramatically since its talented, idealistic and sympathetic founder, Gaël Duval, was sacked from his own company in March 2006. Ever since this coup the company's CEOs have been soulless apparatchiks, many of the distributions original developers have left (or were sacked) and much of the original user base has broken away. I wonder how good people like Anne Nicolas can survive in such a noxious "corporate culture"? To me this all goes very much against the spirit of free and open software.
Open letter to Mandriva CEO:
http://rodgerdean.org/blog/2008/11/28/open-letter-to-mrherve-yahi-mandriva-ceo/
15 • Down Fall (by Chubby on 2009-10-12 14:26:56 GMT from United States)
I believe at lot of the new Linux distros are trying to be like MS Windows.
They lose the appeal of a new distro if they are MS Windows clones.
I say be LINUX.....Be different ... and by different I mean better.
Strive for perfection...not to be loved by the MS Windows crowd.
I love Linux...I try many of the new distros (probably too many) but
I enjoy installing a new distro. It's like Xmas morning all over again.
Keep up the great work. Ditch MS Windows. And be FREE!
16 • Mandriva (by corneliu on 2009-10-12 15:09:55 GMT from Canada)
re #4
"Completely in bed" because they share a lab? Please stop smoking.
re #10
Compiz is done. Stick a fork in it. It should be forbidden to use Compiz with KD4. There is KWin for that.
re #14
What's wrong with Mandriva trying to sell a corporate desktop? What's wrong with you? Is it not enough that you can use a quality desktop for free?
Gael Duval is gone. I wish he was still leading Mandriva but since he was fired, Mandriva has produced some good versions, especially lately.
17 • #7 (by Notorik on 2009-10-12 15:29:35 GMT from Seychelles)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
18 • Overlooked issue with Sabayon 5.0 (by GreenWolf70 on 2009-10-12 15:51:47 GMT from United States)
The networking manger is hosed. Its one of the basics that they need to get right. In 4.2 the wireless didn't work and now in 5.0 even the wired network management is hosed. The GUI should be all you need to set up your network.
19 • Broken images? (by Deathspawner on 2009-10-12 15:59:09 GMT from Canada)
I'm not sure what it is, but -all- images on this site have been broken for me, for the past week or two. I had two friends check the site out, and one also had broken images, but the other didn't. If I click on an image in this article, for example, it tells me I don't have permissions to view. Anyone have an idea of why that might be?
20 • kfreebsd (by Anonymous on 2009-10-12 16:14:46 GMT from United States)
too bad debian insists on keeping a gnu userland for kfreebsd.
21 • @ 19 - RE: Broken images (by rel at 2009-10-12 16:27:08 GMT from United States)
Deathspawner,
You can't see the images because you've tweaked your browser to NOT send referer headers. (I know referer is spelled wrong, it's spelled that way in the RFC's too)
in Firefox, go to about:config, then go to network.http.sendRefererHeader and set it to 2 or higher and you should then see the images.
cheers,
rel
22 • RE: 4 • Mandriva (by Darjeeling on 2009-10-12 14:26:16 GMT from France) (by Béranger on 2009-10-12 16:45:49 GMT from Romania)
>The Corporate Open Source Desktop
>http://www.mandriva.com/enterprise/en/products/corporate-desktop-the-corporate-open-source-desktop
MCD (Mandriva Corporate Desktop) N'EXISTE PLUS! What you see there is a kind of a hoax. The last MCD was MCD3. Then, MCD4 Beta was available, but not the final product, and later on, MCD5 was announced, but never made available to the public!
You can NOT find the Corporate Desktop in Mandriva Store, although you can find the Corporate Server there!!!
See:
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2008/03/03/10/15/12-mandriva-s-corporate-desktop-lin
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2008/07/10/20/57/34-quickie-4-mandriva-corporate-des
I've also asked François Bancilhon about the availability of MCD4 -- back when he was the P.-D.G., and he answered me back: "we're working on that".
This was the last reasonable feedback on MCD. The rest is just lame PR.
23 • corporate desktop (by Anonymous on 2009-10-12 17:05:53 GMT from United States)
if you want a corporate desktop, RHEL is the way to go anyways. mandriva (along with others) see RH's success and fall into the trap of thinking that is how they should go as well.
24 • sabayon 5 oh no! (by jd on 2009-10-12 17:28:12 GMT from United States)
i too thought this would be a good release but the x server wont even start for me! I think its because of issues with the proprietary nvidia 96x drivers and new kernel. Do you think theres a way to disable them ? All i see is a very lovely blinking underscore! Chakara didnt have this issue so thumbs up to them!
25 • Gentoo Review? (by zak89 on 2009-10-12 17:30:16 GMT from United States)
Hey, Susan, what about doing a Gentoo review? I think ever since they stopped releasing the liveCDs their installation process has been a bit confusing; maybe a fresh look at it would be helpful. I'd enjoy it, at least.
26 • Re: 16, Mandriva (by Darjeeling on 2009-10-12 17:38:33 GMT from France)
> What's wrong with Mandriva trying to sell a corporate desktop?
... nothing as long as all those whose work, talent and enthusiasm contributes
to such a desktop are being treated fairly. However, the introduction of a
top-down corporate culture by overbearing CEOs has done a lot to destroy
the spirit of free software development.
> What's wrong with you?
... nothing, I hope. Why are you insinuating there was? Can't you voice your
point of view without insulting others? Why get so personal?
> Is it not enough that you can use a quality desktop for free?
... frankly, no. The Internet is full of things I can get and use for free.
But that's not the sole point of free and open software, is it? People
quite rightly expect more from GNU/Linux than just a freebee. How
about security, transparency, open standards, etc. etc.?
> Gael Duval is gone. I wish he was still leading Mandriva ...
... yes, I too wish he was still at Mandriva. Sacking him was disgraceful.
I also wish the decision regarding distribution's direction had been the
result of a team debate rather than the orders of a hyper-inflated ego
with a "vision".
> ... but since he was fired, Mandriva has produced some good versions,
> especially lately.
... true. Despite all the above Mandriva is still an excellent distro.
27 • @21 Re: Broken images? (by Deathspawner on 2009-10-12 17:51:26 GMT from Canada)
I never touched that option before, nor do I have an issue on any other websites, but that fixed it, thanks!
28 • re 26, Mandriva (by corneliu on 2009-10-12 18:16:15 GMT from Canada)
Darjeeling wrote "However, the introduction of a top-down corporate culture by overbearing CEOs has done a lot to destroy the spirit of free software development."
I see you've got something against corporations. Community distros are nice but how many of them have you seen preinstalled on servers, desktops and laptops? I guess not many, maybe none. The problem is that we live in a corporations' world. Corporations like Dell, HP, IBM etc don't want to deal with communities. Sadly, they want to deal with other corporations such as RedHat, Novell, Canonical. I badly want to see Linux succeed in corporate word. That's where the funds come from. Linux developers want to provide for their families too.
" Is it not enough that you can use a quality desktop for free?
... frankly, no. The Internet is full of things I can get and use for free."
You are free to stop using the free stuff.
"How about security, transparency, open standards, etc. etc.?"
How is Mandriva not up to your standards regarding security, transparency, openness, etc., etc.? Can you elaborate?
29 • Sabayon 5 review (by Sean on 2009-10-12 18:37:50 GMT from United States)
Thank you for reviewing this distro. After so much experimentation with distros, Sabayon has just worked on this machine and it's been on longer than any single one so far. Can't see why to change it.
I am wondering about the mention in the review, in general terms, of the KDE 4 "rough edges." If it's the screen savers I wonder if that is machine specific (cpu? or graphics?) because they all work fine on this (hated) intel graphics chip.
Most 3d stuff is disabled, of course.
30 • Susan Linton (by revolver on 2009-10-12 18:44:11 GMT from Greece)
Susan Linton is a Gentoo user?
Or did someone else write the Sabayon review?
31 • FREE, FREE, FREE, Do you know what that means? (by Eddie Wilson on 2009-10-12 18:49:57 GMT from United States)
People you are getting really hung up on the free cost thing. When we talk about this software we are talking about the freedom to use, modify, and share it with other people. We should never ever give the impression that the reason we use GNU/Linux is because most cost no money. I get tired of hearing people say the only reason you use Linux is because you don't have to pay for it. Let's not give them any reason to say that. Remember the free stands for FREEDOM!
32 • A little typo... (by Muhammad Fahd Waseem on 2009-10-12 18:52:04 GMT from Hong Kong)
Conclusion, first sentence: 'switched' should be 'switch'.
33 • Why I tried Sabayon and moved on (by Simon on 2009-10-12 19:30:07 GMT from United Kingdom)
After hearing a lot of praises about Sabayon I tried out version 4 (.3?) . I liked it very much. Everything appeared configured correctly. However my disappointment came when I opened the package manager and looked for some familiar friends (such as kompozer and fillezilla). Couldn't find them anywhere and the repository package selection seemed out of sync with what I mainly us computers for (website creation and manipulation). So I gave a pass on it.
34 • Re: 28, Mandriva (by Darjeeling on 2009-10-12 19:36:58 GMT from France)
> The problem is that we live in a corporations' world.
... tired old statement/argument. Simply mentioning a problem doesn't make it go away. Disagreeing yet accepting it is spineless.
> Corporations like Dell, HP, IBM etc don't want to deal with communities.
... too bad. Maybe there's something wrong with corporations? In my experience corporations have a problem with everything that's not organized the same way they are. Authoritarian top-down command structures are their preferred type of organization. Anything that's not such a pyramid confuses them. Free association, idealism and voluntary work frightens them as it deprives them of the control they so crave. That's probably the reason Mandriva got rid of most of its paid "externals" ... too much beyond control?
> I badly want to see Linux succeed in corporate word. That's where the funds come from.
... although I really don't care whether GNU/Linux is successful in the corporate world or not, you have of course a point regarding the "funds". But does that mean we should be sucking up?
> How is Mandriva not up to your standards regarding security, transparency, openness, etc., etc.?
... I never said it wasn't. I mentioned these attributes in response to your question "Is it not enough that you can use a quality desktop for free?". It was supposed to contrast your apparent freebee attitude towards free and open software.
35 • Sabayon 5.0 - Sulfur (by dragonmouth on 2009-10-12 19:39:38 GMT from United States)
If by "Sulfur has the same basic attributes and functionalities as other graphical package management tools" you mean that Sulfur has a GUI the you are right. If you mean that it is as good, then I beg to differ. It looks like a re-branded KPackage. In comparison to Synaptic, Sulfur seems crude and primitive.
36 • various responses (by susan on 2009-10-12 19:54:19 GMT from United States)
#29 - Well, if it is machine specific, it's kde 4 on this machine specific. KDE 3.5 does great.
#30 - I've been a full time Gentoo user since 2003. Mandrake (as it was known then) for several years before that.
#32 - Thank you so much.
37 • Susan (by Anonymous on 2009-10-12 22:32:34 GMT from United States)
What are the specifications of the machine which
was used for the Sabayon Linux review.
CPU speed
Memory
Video
etc.
Thanks
38 • about mandriva's figures (by glyj on 2009-10-12 22:43:45 GMT from France)
If you want the rpm's numbers available for mandriva, ask Sophie. She'll be glad to answer you :
http://sophie.zarb.org/stat/Mandriva,2009.1
regards,
glyj
39 • RE: 20 GNU userland (by Mr. Penguin on 2009-10-12 23:09:15 GMT from United States)
I think kFreeBSD should have it's own 'Why' like the one located at http://www.debian.org/ports/netbsd/why
--
"Not everybody likes the *BSD ports tree or the *BSD userland (this is a personal preference thing, rather than any sort of comment on quality). Linux distributions have been produced which provide *BSD style ports or a *BSD style userland for those who like the BSD user environment but also wish to use the Linux kernel - Debian GNU/NetBSD is the logical reverse of this, allowing people who like the GNU userland or a Linux-style packaging system to use the NetBSD kernel."
40 • RE #31 - FREE FREE FREE (by Unwashed on 2009-10-13 00:04:20 GMT from Australia)
Calm down. There are three camps in Linux land:
1. GNU/Linux FSF users who scream FREEDOM like they're William Wallace.
2. Linux users who use Linux because it's free (as in beer).
3. Anti MS, Anti Apple users who use Linux because their tin foil hats don't offer as much protection from Big Brother as they used to.
(Yes, you can belong to more than one camp).
I've always said this: Who cares what Distro some one uses or why, just be glad that there's another Tux user out there :)
41 • #37 machine specs (by susan on 2009-10-13 00:10:39 GMT from United States)
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+
Mem: 1018820
NVIDIA GPU GeForce 6800 (NV40): Memory: 131072 kBytes
I know it's getting a bit long in the tooth and I was crying on my site, "oh I guess I just ain't got enough machine to run KDE 4! " But this guy chimed in and said he was running it on an eeepc! So, I keep hoping...
But it's pretty sad if Linux now needs 2 gig of ram...
42 • #40 (by susan on 2009-10-13 00:47:04 GMT from United States)
"1. GNU/Linux FSF users who scream FREEDOM like they're William Wallace."
lololol
I switched because of being extremely paranoid of the growing dangers of running Windows. Spyware, trojans, cookies, internet files, etc... I look back now and kinda chuckle ya know, but I knew just enough back then to be scared.
43 • @38 Mandriva Package padding (by SuperCharger on 2009-10-13 02:49:33 GMT from United States)
You really should compare source packages instead of binary packages because Mandriva has a habit of taking a source package and splitting it out into many many many binaries. Example gambas source = 39 Mandriva binary rpms. If Ubuntu did the same they would have 60,000 packages.
44 • #41 WOW! (by Anonymous on 2009-10-13 04:50:06 GMT from United States)
Even with Linux you can slow down the fastest machines.
What ever happened to the _nix way of small but well built programs?
I have been able to watch hulu.com video on a PII-333 with Nvidia-4000-agp.
That same card in a 1.6G Athalon still won't run those fancy desktop effects.
I'm still using Window Maker since most Gnome,KDE,XFCE seem noticeably
slower even with the 1.6G machine.
Thanks for your reply.
45 • Some comments on the comments (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-10-13 05:10:07 GMT from United States)
First, Susan, welcome back to DWW. Thanks for a nice review of Sabayon. I may have to look at 5.0 myself. I did run Gentoo some in 2004-05 but having to compule just about everything was just too time consuming. I've avoided source-based distros since then. There was nothing wrong with Gentoo; it worked well. I just prefer the convenience of a binary distro with a well maintained and stocked repository.
Oh, and don't admit you came to Linux looking for security. There are folks here who ridicule even the most basic security measures. I, like you, avoid Windows precisely because of all of the security issues.
KDE4 has worked well for me in 1GB of RAM on a netbook as implemented by Pardus 2009, the alphas of Vector Linux 6.0 SOHO, and Slackware 13.0. If it's slow with the specs you listed I'd be concerned about the way the distro implements KDE or what other things they have going on which eat up your system's resources. Of course, nowdays you can even get a netbook with 2GB RAM so sadly it seems many distros are less and less concerned about bloat.
Re: The relaunch of Mandriva... I was a big fan of Mandrake and later Mandriva once upon a time. It was always the distro I recommended to Linux newcomers. However, unlike conrneliu (#16), I've found the last two releases to be seriously buggy and problematic. I'm hoping 2010 is better. To me reintroducing the distro through articles is meaningless if they don't get their QA issues solved.
46 • Mandriva and #41 (by Xtyn on 2009-10-13 05:13:05 GMT from Romania)
#41 Linux doesn't need 2 GB of ram. I still run it on an antique laptop with Pentium 3 at 1 GHz and 128 MB of ram (with fluxbox). There's a lot of choice, from KDE4 to command line. I've tried Sidux with KDE4 (KDE lite CD) and it used under 200 MB of ram.
About Mandriva: I'm just curious how much money can it continue to lose before it goes bankrupt. It's like a ship with a leak, if the leak is not fixed, it's only a matter of time before it sinks.
47 • RE: Memory Requirements of Linux Distros - Help! (by Forgetful on 2009-10-13 05:34:28 GMT from Australia)
Reading these memory requirements brought up an outstanding issue I have - I have a laptop, Pentium 120Mhz with 16MB of RAM, no CD, no USB, just a floppy and a HDD.
What are my options here? TinyCore needs 32MB minimum, any many other 'light' distros need 64MB+. I need a window manager as having just command line interface is a step down from Windows 98SE (which does run - just).
Advice anyone?
48 • Is it really infinite? (by Xtyn on 2009-10-13 05:47:01 GMT from Romania)
#45 "Oh, and don't admit you came to Linux looking for security. There are folks here who ridicule even the most basic security measures. I, like you, avoid Windows precisely because of all of the security issues."
Don't you have any limits? Do you have to bring this up yet again?
There's a slight difference between reasonable and absurd.
Yes, I'm still waiting to get hacked. I'm still using a testing distro, still using the same old weak password (6 characters), no plans on changing it (every month), not watching the security advisories, don't really care.
49 • #47 (by Xtyn on 2009-10-13 05:57:00 GMT from Romania)
#47 I have two AMD K6-2 PC's around here. I would give them but nobody wants them. Kids these days want games, recycling doesn't really work in this country so I'm stuck with them for now. Too bad you're in Australia, I'd give them to you gladly, one has 400 Mhz with 128 MB ram, the other 360 Mhz with 64 MB ram. One of them is so old that it doesn't have any USB or PS/2.
Both of them have Puppy which runs great, still playing sometimes with them.
50 • #47 (by Bernd on 2009-10-13 08:19:05 GMT from Germany)
There is Delilinux especially for those boxes, I think, and also You could try damn small linux which may work because it still uses kernel 2.4.
51 • No subject (by forest on 2009-10-13 09:33:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #48
Security is part of being online hence a brief mention, and you know folk discuss that topic only to annoy you...
Anyway Xtyn, that does sound a bit conceited of you..."waiting to be hacked"...last time I looked you were right at the bottom of the hacking list...seems that Puppy is too easy to bother with and folk like a real challenge you might say.
52 • @40 (by megadriver on 2009-10-13 09:53:23 GMT from Spain)
1. I am not a "Stallmanist", by any means.
2. That Linux is "gratis" is great, but I'll gladly pay for it if it wasn't.
3. I'm also not a "tinfoil hat guy". I didn't even use an antivirus when I was in Windows-land, and never got a virus, trojan or things like that. Common sense is the best antivirus, even on Windows!
So how about...
4. Because it's BETTER.
That's the reason I use Linux. Yes, I know. "Better" is such a subjective term, so let's say it's better for me (but I know I'm not alone on this).
Cheers!
53 • Did Red Hat change it's logo? (by Loonie on 2009-10-13 13:07:58 GMT from Canada)
I just can't figure out why Red Hat would adopt a big bright "N" for it's logo???
"Tim Hortons is such a viable business model, they even opened one up in Afghanistan. If you're ever there, try the double-opium, double-goats milk"
54 • Re 52 (by Matt on 2009-10-13 15:44:35 GMT from United States)
How do you know if you don't have a virus if you don't run an Antivirus?
55 • Dragora (by Carlos on 2009-10-13 16:25:12 GMT from Argentina)
Dragora is a good distro, but still in development.
Can DW make a donation to this project?
56 • Red hat with N!!? (by hooborg on 2009-10-13 16:38:36 GMT from Germany)
What is that big N before Red hat news susan?!
57 • Best KDE4? (by al on 2009-10-13 16:45:45 GMT from United States)
Susan, I totally agree with your reticence to switch to KDE4 (as I write to you from an ARCH/KDEmod3 box). BUT, I think they finally DO have the bugs worked out, at least the show-stoppers for me.
I really suggest you try Sidux. It has been the only distro that I have found that does KDE4 totally right. It does not impede me in any way.
58 • Re #31 (by Anonymous on 2009-10-13 17:40:49 GMT from Canada)
Remembering, of course, that the GPL gives freedom to the software first, not the user.
There are a few musts and shalls in there for the sake of the code, rather than you.
I don't care either way, since I don't program. I just find this notion of Free!(tm) software liberating me to be...silly.
59 • Mandriva - @4, @14, @46 (by Adam Williamson on 2009-10-13 19:21:34 GMT from Canada)
@4: Mandriva co-operates with TurboLinux on the maintenance of the very low-level, core components of any distribution - the kernel, glibc, gcc and so on. This is to increase both distributions' efficiency and reduce their costs in maintaining these core components. Mandriva has publicly stated that:
i) None of the components developed in the Manbo Labs partnerships are covered by TurboLinux's agreement with Microsoft
ii) Mandriva is not in any way involved in Turbolinux's agreement with Microsoft, and said agreement does not cover any Mandriva product
iii) Mandriva has no similar agreement of its own with Microsoft
which seems fairly clear-cut, to me. You can identify packages that are part of Manbo, btw, by their 'mnb' package tag. Packages that are not part of Manbo Labs but part of Mandriva proper use the 'mdv' tag.
@14: that page is a product page, for the Mandriva Corporate Desktop distribution, not some kind of general statement of Mandriva's aims and objectives. It has nothing at all to do with the Mandriva Linux distribution, which is what most people reading DWW would be interested in. Also, as someone else pointed out, CD has been effectively dead for a while.
@46: Mandriva-the-company is, at this point, propped up almost entirely by a single creditor, Occam. Mandriva-the-company will continue to exist as long as Occam sees some value in bankrolling it, or Occam bails out but another creditor steps in (I find that scenario frankly unlikely, but that's just my personal interpretation), or it actually finds a way to start turning a profit. Occam effectively owns Mandriva, at this point; the changes in Mandriva management are driven by Occam. Mandriva-the-distribution, of course, is not the same entity as Mandriva-the-company, and could in theory continue to exist without it.
60 • Distro requirements (by Barnabyh on 2009-10-13 20:20:11 GMT from United Kingdom)
DSL is a good choice although I believe it is now abandoned, but it should still work well for a while using Debian packages (it's based on Debian in case you didn't know).
Or an older version of Zenwalk or Slackware, updated with a custom kernel perhaps? The Tux-Cafe'- yours is brewing.
61 • more responses (by susan on 2009-10-13 20:25:00 GMT from United States)
#25 - I might write one for gentoo, perhaps next official release. I had issues with that birthday dvd, so I'm not sure what to make of it just yet. Maybe I'll try the update as time permits.
#45 - Well, I tried Mandriva 2010rc2 this morning cuz it comes with 4.3.2 and it's a hair better. It doesn't seem to be writing to the disk as much too. I'll be testing others as they come out tho. Thanks.
#53 & 56 - I used the Novell icon because it was their response and resulting controversy that really made the news interesting - I thought.
62 • Susan and reasons to use Linux (by Jesse on 2009-10-13 21:32:39 GMT from Canada)
Susan, I always enjoy reading your pieces. Welcome back!
@40: There are more reasons to use Linux. I got into it for a combination of curiosity about operating systems in general and stuck around because I liked the power and flexibility of the GNU/Linux system. It's nice that's most distros are free and the source is open too.
63 • #47 Memory Requirements of Linux Distro (by sloben on 2009-10-13 22:14:44 GMT from United States)
Go with Fresh install Win98SE and Office 97
User Said:
47 • RE: Memory Requirements of Linux Distros - Help! (by Forgetful on 2009-10-13 05:34:28 GMT from Australia)
Reading these memory requirements brought up an outstanding issue I have - I have a laptop, Pentium 120Mhz with 16MB of RAM, no CD, no USB, just a floppy and a HDD.
64 • RE: #50 (by Forgetful on 2009-10-13 22:31:12 GMT from Australia)
Delilinux looks good, I'll give that a spin. Version 7.2 has 16MB as a minimum requirement for the GUI, though Version 8.0 has increased the minimum specs for the first time since 2002 to 32MB minimum - so looks like I can't use the latest version.
I wish I could buy 72pin 16MBx2 SODIMM kits second hand, but it looks like this stuff is too old!
65 • Don't forget that Sabayon also has Portage (by Simone on 2009-10-13 22:45:57 GMT from Italy)
if
a) something crashes like @12:java or
b) something is missing in equo like @33:kompozer and fillezilla
you can always try reinstalling it from the Entropy/Equo binary repository or use portage to rebuild packages for your specific hardware. ;)
I like Gentoo and Sabayon too.
And yes, its package manager is better using command line (both Portage and equo).
I personally have 2 installations of SabayonLinux both working great.
One is using only Entropy/Equo package manager and another one more customized, rebuilt from source with portage.
Both upgraded painlessly from 4.2 to 5.0 using the Sabayon wikis and guides without any problem.
Obviously the one using Entropy binary packages upgraded faster because everything was prebuilt for me, but I also enjoyed building everything from source, customizing a bit.
As always was with gentoo I recommend you pay a lot of attention when updating etc files.
Enjoy
66 • Random Comment (by Nobody Important on 2009-10-14 02:50:38 GMT from United States)
For all of you who like to play a game now and then on their Linux box, the fun little puzzler World of Goo is having a sale and only costs whatever you want to pay. any support for the game like this will make a difference - it will prove that Linux is out there!
I paid $5. I played the demo and loved it. Fun little game.
http://2dboy.com/games.php
67 • Fedora Advantages----->Smaller downloads and faster updates (by Observer on 2009-10-14 02:57:09 GMT from Australia)
Smaller downloads and faster updates
XZ payload feature
Fedora is used in a wide range of circumstances, and not all have the luxury of a high speed broadband connection with unlimited downloads. This presents a number of challenges, not the least of which is making it easier for users to get updates which will help ensure their system is secure and stable. In Fedora 11, Presto was made available which reduced update size by transmitting only the changes in the updated RPM packages. In Fedora 12, RPMs are being switched from using gzip to XZ for compression, providing smaller package sizes without the memory and CPU penalties associated with bzip2. Not only does this result in smaller downloads, but it also allows for more software to be squeezed into the final release, and less space to be taken up on our mirrors, making their administrators' lives a little easier.
Presto yum plugin is installed by default in the GNOME and KDE groups in Fedora 12 and users will get much faster updates since only the difference between updates will be downloaded.
Better file compression saves disk space for administrators and time for everyone.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_12_Talking_Points
68 • RE: 54 (by Dopher on 2009-10-14 08:22:22 GMT from Belgium)
He probably meant that he didn't use a REALTIME virus scanner On winXP.
I do the same. On my win XP, which i use only for gaming and some easy video conversion, I have no real time virus scanner. A few precautions though: Disable all unneeded services, and of course disable the windows scriptinghost (this alone will defend you for 95 percent against virusses, and the rest is just user stupidity or not being carefull enough)
But i am using the combo stinger/clamwin to check now and then if it is infected.
69 • No subject (by forest on 2009-10-14 11:41:45 GMT from United Kingdom)
Another chuckle...this time from an "analyst"...perhaps he should research the dozens of "native" distros in use across the planet.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62058636,00.htm
70 • Arch is only 25% obselete !!!!! (by Anonymous on 2009-10-14 11:59:01 GMT from Canada)
That Arch is number on in http://oswatershed.org distrology list is not new. What is new is that it is now only 25% obselete ! I dream of a day when it will be less than 1% obselete !
71 • Free, Free, Free, responses. (by Eddie Wilson on 2009-10-14 12:47:19 GMT from United States)
@40, I'm very calm also I'm not a FSF member. I do use certain codecs and such. Don't diss software freedom. We wouldn't have these fine distros without it. By the way the Tin Hat comment was cute.
@52, I agree that one of the reasons I use a Linux distro is that I believe it's better and I can get more work done. Also I have, and really don't mind paying for good quality products.
@58, I'm not a Linux programmer either and as far as liberation goes, it really depends on what you are being liberated from to determine if software has anything to do with it.
To all, I was was not peaching about the GPL, FSF, or anything like that. I just don't like the tag that some people (and also some Linux users) put on us that we are too cheap to pay for anything and that's the reason we use a Linux distro. It shouldn't even be mentioned. I see this all the time in other forums. I see nothing wrong if a company starts charging a fair price for a good quality product.
Isn't being able to choose and use any distro you want a type of freedom?
72 • Sabayon (by joy on 2009-10-14 15:05:14 GMT from India)
I think for gaming and multimedia Sabayon 5 is the best distro..
I'll prefer you give try to this distro then you know its worthiness.The distro has everything for daily use or if you are a gamer then this distro will be ideal for you. Read more about sabayon 5
http://distrolove.blogspot.com/search/label/Sabayon
73 • Broken Images #19 (by kilgoretrout on 2009-10-14 15:31:23 GMT from United States)
I also have no images on this website only. The about:config edit didn't work and was set on "2" to begin with. Setting it higher to 3 or 4 had no effect.
74 • Broken Images #19 - Adblock Plus (by kilgoretrout on 2009-10-14 15:42:37 GMT from United States)
Mystery solved. Apparently, if you are using Adblock Plus with firefox, images as well as ads will be blocked on this website. Confirmed this several times - disabling Adblock Plus and reloading brings up the images and the ads; enabling Adblock Plus and reloading blocks the ads along with the images.
75 • Frugalware (by fw on 2009-10-14 17:29:28 GMT from Hungary)
For: Summary of expected upcoming releases
http://frugalware.org/roadmap
DW <3
76 • Mandriva 2010 rc2 (by capricornus on 2009-10-14 19:06:17 GMT from Belgium)
just installed it. just got frustrated. while mint7 delivers, even with dual screen, the new mandriva fails with nvidia-matters, weird messages appear, and what can I do with a brandnew distro that does less than the competition? yes, put it aside. what a waste. of time. of goodwill.
77 • Mandrive release candidate (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-10-14 19:46:48 GMT from United States)
#76: A release candidate is not a final release. Did you report the bugs you found? If you did so maybe they will get fixed before the final release. If you did then you have done everyone a service, helping the Mandriva developers and community at large.
OTOH, if you are complaining about a development release but not doing anything to help the developers get the problems sorted out then it's a waste of time and effort. Negative reports about a development release are generally unfair in any case: the product is still in development. Now, if the final release is broken you then have a legitimate complaint.
Also, if you are using Mandriva Free the proprietary NVidia drivers have to be installed separately after the main installation. Did you try that? Remember that Mandriva Free includes no proprietary drivers out of the virtual box.
78 • distrowatch distro search enhancement - add kde3.5 (by Anonymous on 2009-10-14 20:13:40 GMT from United States)
As the latest releases of some distros won't be including kde 3.5 could the search be upgraded to include both 4.x and 3.5 as selectable criterea.
thanks,
79 • @70 (by greenLegs on 2009-10-15 09:20:40 GMT from France)
More interesting to me than the current "obsoleteness" of 25% / 55% / 70% / ... of Arch / Fedora / Sabayon / ... is the average lag (1w / 9w / 14w / ...).
At first glance, the selection of package is:
NetworkManager
alsa-utils
cups
emacs
firefox
gcc
ghostscript
gimp
glibc
gnome-desktop
gnupg
httpd
kdebase
linux
openssh
pidgin
postgresql
python
ruby
xorg-server
80 • Mandriva Install days wouldn't let me do them (by woodsmoke on 2009-10-15 16:30:58 GMT from United States)
I find it curious that Mandriva has contacted me three times now, by e-mail, about doing an "install day". I have always dutifully replied outlining where I would host it, and how many installs I would probably have, (since I have already donated over a hundred and forty machines with various Linux distros on them and most are still operating, I have a relatively good reputation in the area). So, a few other folks and myself working a day could probably install or demo for/to maybe a hundred people. I have yet to hear a single word from Mandriva. I've often wondered about the possible reasons for this which might range from possible fear of having to deal with a hundred new people, to maybe it is all some kind of weird advertising thing, or maybe somebody made up an automatic e-mail list four years ago and it automatically generates to all the rubes world wide just to see who will reply and have a big laugh; and I'm the only one stupid enough to reply from the middle of "that place over there". Dunno.. What is even more pitiful is that the people to whom I have donated a Mandriva machine have always "oohed and ahhhed" about how nice the destkop is. So...dunno.
If anyone here has received the same e-mail, replied and never received an answer I would be interested to hear about it.
woodsmoke
81 • Mandriva 2010 rc2 @77 Caitlyn (by capricornus on 2009-10-15 17:27:20 GMT from Belgium)
Caitlyn, with all my respect (you don't read Dutch, do you?, I defended your views on security while using a liveCD, on security.nl), I lately just report what I experience and give a short comment. I have here a Mint7rc that was outstandingly well finished, and with the 2 drakes, it is often thit-or-that, shiny till upgrading and then degrading.
Of course I tried to install Nvidia 185 and reinstall it, and for the first time I got weirdo situations I just report. Don't react so offended all the time.
82 • @81: You misunderstand me (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-10-15 21:11:44 GMT from United States)
I wasn't offended and nothing in my post #77 was meant to imply offense. When I have written articles about release candidates and betas I always say that reviewing them or criticizing a development build is unfair.
DWW comments aren't personal e-mail. We get lots of posts like yours where someone does a quick install or trial and reports how awful a distro is. Most of those people don't file bug reports. If you read my post #77 again I said that if you did file a report (and I didn't know if you did or didn't) you had done a service for the community. The purpose of the post was to remind people the purpose of test builds is just that: testing and reporting back. It's often forgotten. It certainly wasn't accusatory, judgemental or critical of you.
83 • Gentoo review (by Nathan Zachary on 2009-10-16 03:11:01 GMT from United States)
@Susan,
I would also love to see a review of Gentoo from a user who is not a developer. I would really appreciate seeing that perspective. Thank you for your review of Sabayon this week!
--Nathan Zachary
84 • ASUS Eee Netbook with U 9.10 (by forest on 2009-10-16 07:02:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
Oh dear...a bit of a blow, not at all what you would hope for:
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/28574/1141/
85 • Re: 82 Bug Reports (by Darjeeling on 2009-10-16 14:38:09 GMT from France)
> Most of those people don't file bug reports.
... sad but true.
One of the great advantages of free and open software are release cycles that are publicly accessible from the earliest stages on. Unlike proprietary software where only a select few can get their hands on development releases (often enough only after signing non-disclosure agreements) FOSS can be tried out and tested by everyone (without any obligations). I theory this sort of 'public scrutiny' should aid developers in rooting out bugs and security vulnerabilities. User feedback can also have a great impact on the general design and functionality of applications or indeed entire distributions as it encourages and motivates the developers.
Sadly, however, in praxis this is not always so. Quite often users can't be bothered to file bug reports or get back to the developers with questions and suggestions. This is what I meant with 'freebee attitude' in one of my earlier posts. I think FOSS could be even better than it already is if more people would 'get it' and try to participate in small ways for 'the greater common good' :-)
Number of Comments: 85
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| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Lycoris Desktop/LX
Lycoris was located in Maple Valley, Washington. The corporation was founded in 2000 by Joseph Cheek with a vision of making Linux simple enough for everyone and pioneered the Linux based home-user desktop by offering. Lycoris packages Open Source applications for the consumer market and integrates them into Desktop/LX, its simple, robust operating system. Lycoris has enjoyed amazingly positive press coverage in Time Magazine and other publications. Lycoris was positioning itself as the leading provider of the best Linux based operating system specifically targeted for the desktop market, whether purchased separately or pre-installed on Desktop/LX PCs. Update: Lycoris ceased to be an independent distribution after it was acquired by Mandriva in June 2005.
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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