 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 335, 4 January 2010 |
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Welcome to the first issue of DistroWatch Weekly in 2010! We'll start the new year with a rather unusual review - a look at MINIX 3. An operating system that helped to inspire Linus Torvalds to create Linux (and whose creator, Andrew Tanenbaum, once famously described Linux as "obsolete" due to its monolithic design), continues to evolve in small steps, but is it still just a toy for students and those interested in operating systems design? Or has it finally become practical and usable for solving real-world problems? Read on to find out. The review is followed by a brief statistical look at the past year, where we'll highlight the winners and losers among the popular distributions. Then, in a more technical topic (although explained in a layman's language) we look at the possibilities of optimising 64-bit distributions with compiler flags. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the December 2009 DistroWatch.com donation is the Krita project. Happy new year and happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (22MB) and MP3 (22MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
A Look at MINIX (version 3.1.4)
 I believe it was Paul Gauguin who famously questioned: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" (D'où venons nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?) While it may be impossible to say for sure, I think he was expressing the idea that we can't really know what we are or where we're headed unless we also know where we originated. Bearing that thought in mind, I decided to take a look at MINIX, the operating system which helped to inspire the creation of Linux.
MINIX has traditionally been an operating system with an eye toward education. Both versions 1 and 2 of the MINIX system were designed to be useful for students learning about operating systems. The code behind MINIX was small and clean, making it a practical study tool in this complex field. The latest offering of MINIX, version 3, attempts to keep the same principles as the previous versions, but also strives to be more practical as a modern, UNIX-like, operating system.
The MINIX web site is an example in clean, easy to read documentation. The site covers a good deal of the project's history, current development goals and benefits of the MINIX design. The most interesting point of the design, perhaps, is that the MINIX hardware drivers run as user processes. This means if a driver crashes, the kernel does not become unstable. Instead, the kernel simply restarts the failed driver and continues on as before. This makes MINIX somewhat self-healing. The web site also contains a good deal of information on how to install and use the operating system, including disk partitioning, multi-booting and setting up user accounts.
The MINIX project released their latest version, 3.1.5, in November 2009, but this review covers version 3.1.4, released in July 2009, as it was the latest stable build at the time of writing. The install image I downloaded from the project's web site fit on one CD and weighed in at about 550 MB. Once the image burned to a CD, my odyssey got under way. I placed the CD into my desktop machine, which runs a 2.5 GHz CPU and has 2 GB of RAM, and rebooted.
MINIX boots up from the live CD to a text console with a brief explanation on how to install the operating system to the local machine. This isn't a tutorial or even a walk-through. It's expected that you have some experience with UNIX-like operating systems and know what you're doing. I logged in as root (there's no password on the live CD) and ran the installer.
The system installer is text-based and is an odd mix of friendly and terse. Options are explained and things are easy enough, for a text-only installer. To demonstrate what I mean, there's no way to back up and try again, short of killing the installer and running through it all from the beginning. On the other hand, there are helpful messages such as this one I encountered, typo and all, while repartitioning: "Please confirm that you want to delete region 0, losing all data it contains. You're disk is not actually updated right away, but still. Are you sure you want to continue?"
MINIX 3 - the installer finishes successfully.
(full image size: 10kB, screen resolution 698x400 pixels)
Sane defaults are offered throughout the installer and I was able to complete the process without any missteps on the first attempt. When I rebooted my computer, I was asked where my MINIX install was located. This location was remembered for future start-ups. The system booted to a command prompt and I was given instructions on how to add new packages to the system using a program called "packman".
Packman, like the system installer, is text-based, terse and fairly easy to use if the operator is familiar with a command line. There are 118 packages on the CD to choose from, most of which can be found in a modern Linux distribution. These include system utilities, a desktop environment, compilers, multimedia, emulators and games. To start, I installed the X11 package to enable a graphical desktop. The packman tool not only grabs packages from the install CD, but will also attempt to download packages, and optionally their source code, from a remote repository. My only complaint while using packman is that there's no indication of progress. The system sits and waits quietly for the package to install. For large packages, such as X11, this requires a lot patience, especially when installing over the network.
MINIX 3 - using packman to install software.
(full image size: 13kB, screen resolution 719x401 pixels)
Having played with packman a while, I'm not sure if the MINIX project supplies security updates. One MINIX developer let me know that they can upgrade packages through the repository. Whether any are updated, or how often, is more open to speculation. There doesn't seem to be any way to see if new packages have been added, short of manually checking the version numbers and comparing them with previously installed packages. The packman utility does not yet have the functionality to compare version numbers.
Once the X11 package finished installing, I tried to launch a desktop and ran into an interesting quirk. The X graphical system ran, but there was no desktop environment. Those readers who used Linux during the 1990s probably know what I mean when I say there was a graphical display and no desktop. There's just a grey background and a big, black X mouse pointer. I soon realized my mistake and went back to packman to install the JWM desktop. Unfortunately after installing JWM and manually setting up the proper configuration files, I was no further ahead. In fact, X would consistently crash and I eventually moved on to exploring the power of the MINIX command line.
The standard UNIX command line is where MINIX, if not shines, at least becomes more familiar. There are minor differences between the MINIX version of commands and the equivalent commands in Linux or BSD. The basics are the same and most command names are familiar. Happily, the customary man pages are there for reference. Various items common among UNIX systems, including a secure shell server, user accounts and a C compiler, were easy to set up. These procedures are all covered by the documentation on the MINIX website for those unfamiliar with configuring a UNIX operating system from the command line.
MINIX 3 - testing the C compiler.
(full image size: 4kB, screen resolution 615x398 pixels)
MINIX comes with the usual collection of command line network tools, including the lynx web browser; FTP, telnet and SSH clients. No network services are enabled by default, helping to keep MINIX secure while things are being set up. Once things are installed and one has services running, how to secure them? As far as I can tell, MINIX does not come with a firewall as most Linux or BSD users would recognize it. There's no iptables, for example, and no allow or deny files in the /etc folder. The best I could come up with was some advice given on the MINIX forum: create a file called /etc/serv.access and place rules for remote access there.
While writing this review, much of my test hardware was unusable. As far as I can tell, MINIX does not have any USB support. This effectively makes my printer a paperweight. It also excludes many modern keyboards and mouse devices. My video card was properly detected and handled for the brief period I spent using a graphical environment. I was unable to get any sound to come out of my speakers while using MINIX, though I've read others have managed to get MPlayer working. My network card was properly detected and enabled on each boot up. In an attempt to get around the lack of USB support and grab some screen shots, I installed MINIX in a virtual environment (VM). The operating system works well in VirtualBox and I was able to make use of my USB mouse in the VM.
An aspect of MINIX which took me by surprise is that the system installer does not create a swap partition for you. (Perhaps it does in expert mode, I mostly took the defaults.) Swap is something that needs to be added manually later if the administrator is worried about running out of RAM. Also, there doesn't appear to be any application to show how much memory the system is using at any given time. A forum post indicates this is a work in progress and will hopefully be included after this year's Summer of Code.
Speed, or the lack of, was sometimes a concern. When installed to the hard drive of my 2.5 GHz desktop machine, the system took about thirty seconds to reach a login prompt. Keeping in mind that the login prompt was of the command-line variety, not a graphical one, this didn't strike me as being quick. Small packages, such as the grep tool, took around two minutes to install from the CD. Larger packages, such as X11 took closer to twenty minutes. I suspect this may be caused by packman compiling software that it's installing, but there's no indication of what's going on behind the scenes.
It wasn't all bad, though. On the positive side, my network connection was fairly quick and most commands ran with about the same performance I'd expect on any other UNIX-like desktop. Disk usage was low; an install of MINIX is small (under 1 GB with compilers, multimedia and X11 packages included), allowing it to run on just about any Pentium-class computer. The operating system remained stable, if a bit sluggish, even when I was installing extra packages and starting and crashing X.
I don't think it would be fair to complete this review without mentioning the team behind MINIX. I had a chance to swap e-mails with a few developers and they have a small, but active, Google Group. All exchanges were pleasant and helpful, showing a calm respect on the part of the development team which is easy to appreciate. Any lack of user-friendliness in the MINIX operating system is made up for by these volunteers.
Whenever I test drive an operating system, especially one that is less mainstream, there's the question in my mind: "Where would this be useful?" My conclusion, after playing with MINIX for a week, is that it holds down a small niche. It's for people who want less functionality than Linux or BSD, but wish to stay within the same family. Or, perhaps, for those who want to experience running a microkernel. I think MINIX will continue to find its home in universities where students will be able to get hands on experience looking at, playing with and trying to improve upon a small, functional operating system.
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| Statistics (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics in 2008 and 2009
With the end of 2009, here is a quick look at the movers and shakers of the past year, with the help of our Page Hit Ranking statistics. The most noticeable change among the top distribution was the rise of Fedora which has replaced openSUSE on the second spot. While some of the reasons for openSUSE's drop could be attributed to the distribution's switch to less frequent release schedule, there is no doubt that Fedora has attracted a lot of interest with its constant innovation and fearless adoption of interesting features. Among the small distributions, the previously highly rated Damn Small Linux has fallen off the radar due to its prolonged inactivity, with Puppy Linux accepting the role as the most popular mini-distribution.
However, if I had to single out one distribution that was the shining star of the past year, I would pick Arch Linux. Although designed for intermediate Linux users, many seem to be attracted to the idea of a "rolling-release" distribution which is installed once and kept up-to-date throughout its lifespan via daily package updates. This is, in a way, a Gentoo of binary distributions, minus extensive time required for compiling software and without the complexity of many under-the-hood features. This growing popularity of Arch Linux can also be observed by the number of Arch-based distributions and community projects that have appeared during the past year, including the excellent Archiso-live, Chakra, Kahel OS and the brand-new ArchServer. The first-ever Arch Linux Handbook was also published last year. Maybe it's time to replace Gentoo Linux with Arch Linux on our Top Ten Distributions page?
As always, the DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics shouldn't be taken too seriously - they are a fun way of looking at what's hot among this site's visitors, but they probably do not reflect install base or distribution quality.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Optimizing 64-bit distributions with compiler flags
Pushing-performance asks: My question relates to performance and optimization of 64-bit distributions. We all know that some x86 distributions compile with different processor flags, and optimizations to improve the performance of their distro. Arch Linux (which I use) is one of these. So besides the services started at boot time, some distributions are significantly faster due to using more modern, faster CPU settings, i.e. i686 instead of i386 instruction set. I've now been using Arch Linux 64-bit for a while and it has got me thinking. Is there a similar set of CPU flags and optimisations for 64-bit CPUs for distro maintainers to use when compiling their distro that will make distro X faster than distro Y? Or are all 64-bit distributions essentially of the same performance?
DistroWatch answers: In a way, we have two different topics here, both of which relate to compiler flags. The first is different architecture types, for example: i386, i686 and x86_64. Source code can be compiled to target a specific type of architecture, such as one of the three I just mentioned. When you're compiling software for your own machine, you'll want to compile for your specific processor. So if you're running an i686 processor, that's the target you'll pass to the compiler. But, since x86 architectures are backward compatible, code compiled for i386 machines will also run on i686 machines. Likewise, i386 and i686 code can be made to run on a x86_64 processor.
Sadly, the reverse isn't true, code compiled to run on a x86_64 processor will not run on an i386 system. This one-way street has led many distributions to compile their software packages to target older architectures. As a result, their software will run on a wider range of computers, but there is also a performance hit from not using the modern, more efficient methods offered by newer processors. People who compile their software can target their specific architecture and gain performance benefits by having code that best matches their processor.
At this point, you're already compiling for your processor type, so are there any other flags to optimize your code? Yes, there are. The GCC compiler provides several levels of optimization which can improve your software's performance, regardless of which architecture you're using. These options will try to make the code more efficient in a variety of ways and you can read more about the specific optimizations on this website.
Back in October last year, Chris Smart wrote a really interesting piece on optimizing code on 64-bit machines and tested how the different levels of optimization changed the performance of several applications. The article talks specifically about Gentoo Linux, but is well worth reading if you're interested in compiling your own packages. You can read the article here.
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| Released During Last Two Weeks |
VortexBox 1.0
Andrew Gillis has announced the release of VortexBox 1.0, a Fedora-based server distribution that turns an unused computer into a music server or jukebox: "VortexBox 1.0 released. After several months of hard work we have released VortexBox 1.0. It has many of the features requested by the community including: FLAC to Apple Lossless (m4a) mirroring through the web GUI; MusicBrainz and CDDB used for ID3 tags; tool tips for each section in the GUI; Logitech SqueezeCenter 7.4.1 pre-installed and configured; software upgrade through the web GUI. VortexBox 1.0 also has a lot of bug fixes including better handling of existing cover art. You can update to this version from the command line." Read the release announcement and visit the project's home page to learn more about this distribution.
ClearOS 5.1
ClearFoundation has announced the availability of ClearOS 5.1, a CentOS-based server and gateway distribution for small businesses formerly known as ClarkConnect: "ClearFoundation released the ClearOS Enterprise 5.1 final version. What's new? anti-phishing, Windows 7 support, graphical console tool, improved usability and web interface, core system upgraded to CentOS 5.4. ClearOS 5.x supports upgrades from ClarkConnect 4.x and later. Upgrades from earlier versions (or systems originally installed with an earlier version) are not supported. When you run the ClearOS installer, make sure you select the upgrade option. As with any upgrade, please backup any critical data. For those of you upgrading from ClarkConnect 5.0, a live upgrade (via yum) will be made available shortly." Read the release announcement and release notes for further information.
Salix OS 13.0.2
George Vlahavas has announced the release of Salix OS 13.0.2, a Slackware-based Linux distribution with Xfce as the default desktop: "The Salix team is proud to announce the release of Salix 13.0.2. The most important change is the addition of a 64-bit port of Salix OS. As the 32-bit counterpart, Salix64 is fully backwards compatible with Slackware64 and provides a simple and fast way to install an Xfce-based system that follows the 'one application per task' philosophy. The 64-bit repositories already include a considerable number of packages, making it the largest third-party package repository for Slackware64 users available. The Salix team has also created and maintains a repository that includes dependency information for all Slackware packages, 32-bit and 64-bit." Read the rest of the release announcement for a more detailed list of changes.
Sabayon Linux 5.1 "Gaming"
Fabio Erculiani has announced the release of a special "Gaming" edition of Sabayon Linux 5.1: "This is our Christmas gift to our beloved community. A Sabayon DVD full of games to instantly play on every PC. This release comes straight from the north pole, I've found it under my Christmas tree this morning and wanted to share it with you. Santa made it for all our users. A cute Sabayon Linux 5.1 x86 full of games to not get bored during the holidays. Feature list: based on Sabayon Linux 5.1 x86 GNOME; filled with gigabytes of games, the best free and open-source games in the Linux land. Games included: Battle of Wesnoth, Foobillard, Freeciv, Frozen Bubble, GNOME Games, NeverBall, Nexuiz, OpenArena, Pingus, Pychess, Scorched 3D, Spring, Stepmania, Torcs, Tremulous, Warsow, Warzone 2100, Wormux." Visit the Sabayon Linux forum to read the release announcement.
Tuquito 3.1
Mario Colque has announced the release of Tuquito 3.1, a user-friendly, Ubuntu-based distribution for desktops developed in Argentina. New features in this release include: Linux kernel 2.6.31; GNOME 2.28.1; new functions added to Garfio, a system configuration tool; improved Tuquito RSS feed; addition of Banshee and VLC players; 100% compatible with MS Office file formats; support for reading and writing to FAT and NTFS partitions; automatic mounting of NTFS partitions; support for booting from USB storage device or DVD drives; addition of Google Chrome browser; support for netbooks; improved support for Broadcom wireless chipsets; support for Windows wireless drivers; ext4 as the default file system; out-of-the-box support for MP3 and DVD playback; support for ADSL modems; integration of VINE; addition of VirtualBox.... Read the rest of the release announcement (in Spanish) for more information and screenshots.
Tuquito 3.1 - an Ubuntu-based distribution from Argentina
(full image size: 641kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Berry Linux 1.00
Yuichiro Nakada has announced the release of Berry Linux 1.00. The project, which started in November 2002 with version 0.01 (based on Red Hat Linux 8.0) and continued with regular incremental updates, has now produced exactly 100 releases. Version 1.00 is based on Fedora 11, but includes updated Linux kernel 2.6.32.1 (with SMP, ndev/udev, bootsplash and Aufs support), KDE 4.3.2, Rasp-UI 0.14 window manager, up-to-date versions of MPlayer and xine, the latest Mozilla Firefox, (version 3.5.6, with Flash plugin updated to version 10.0.32) in English and Japanese, and WINE 1.1.32. The MadWiFi kernel modules have been removed from the live CD. See the complete changelog for further details. Berry Linux is a user-friendly live and installation CD designed primarily for Japanese-speaking users, but support for English is also available as an option in the boot menu.
Kahel OS 12-25-2009
Meric Mara has announced the release of Kahel OS 12-25-2009, an Arch Linux-based, rolling-release distribution with GNOME and GTK+ applications: "On this very day of 'gift-giving', three months after our first installer release 09-09-2009, we give you the new Kahel OS (Desktop edition) installer version 12-25-2009. Kahel OS now has Linux kernel 2.6.32, X.Org 7.5 and GNOME 2.28.2 by default." Some of the other improvements include: "simplified installation, the installer appears automatically upon boot-up; KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) is automatically detected, which means faster boot process, faster X server load, seamless graphical 3D effects, faster graphics, and an improved animated boot sequence; faster boot-up - the start-up process has been tweaked enormously to speed up the boot process." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional information.
Sabily 9.10
Mehdi Magnon has announced the release of Sabily 9.10, an Ubuntu-based distribution with Islamic software and web content filtering tools: "The Sabily team is proud to announce the release of Sabily 9.10. New in this release: Noor - new Quran browser; sample books for Thwab; Fsool - the Sira of the prophet Mohammed; Rejaal - men around the prophet Mohammed; Arabeyes Qamoos - and Arabic - English dictionary. Changes: new theme; new structure of Islamic software; Monajat is re-developed in Python. Main features: parental control tool (WebStrict); Zekr (Quran study tool), able to play Quran recitations; prayer times - Minbar and Firefox Pray Times add-on; Thwab (encyclopaedia); custom artwork; full support for Arabic; the DVD edition contains multimedia, scientific and educational software." More details in the release announcement.
Sabily 9.10 - an Ubuntu-based distribution with Islamic software
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SystemRescueCd 1.3.4
François Dupoux has released SystemRescueCd 1.3.4, a Gentoo-based live CD containing a collection of data rescue and hard disk management utilities. What's new? "Updated the standard kernels to Linux 2.6.31.9 with btrfs update from 2.6.32; updated the alternative kernels to Linux 2.6.27.41; updated X.Org Server to version 1.6.5 (graphical server and drivers); Updated NTFS-3G to 2009.11.14 (standard release); updated gDisk to 0.5.1 (gDisk is a GPT partition table manipulator); updated FSArchiver to 0.6.2 (default, stable version); added FSArchiver 0.6.3-beta10 (alternative, beta version); added scsiadd which allows to add and remove SCSI devices; added suspend-usb-device script to safely disconnect USB disks; Memtest+ 4.00 is now booted as a kernel to fix issues; replaced AIDA with HDT 0.3.6 (hardware detection tool floppy disk image)." Here is the full changelog.
Super OS 9.10
Super OS is a Linux distribution that can be described as an Ubuntu enhanced with various extra software and features for improved out-of-the-box usability. Version 9.10, announced a few hours ago, adds the following applications and features: "Better multimedia support - VLC, support for DVD-playback, support for MP3 and other media formats, like QuickTime video, Real video, Windows Media Video, Flash Video, DivX, Xvid; Internet software - aMSN, Opera, Google Chrome, Skype, Firefox with Flash and Moonlight; portable applications available (RUNZ included); programs are easier to run - App Runner is included; mount tar.gz, .zip, .rar and .iso files with file mounter; other software - Java, Ubuntu Tweak; system beep is disabled; Super OS now has its own repository, in addition to the official Ubuntu repositories; most commonly used KDE and Qt libraries included." Read the release notes for further details.
Linux Deepin 9.12
Linux Deepin 9.12 has been released. The new version of the Ubuntu-based Chinese community distribution, formerly known as Hiweed Linux, comes with the following features: a careful selection of lightweight, easy-to-use and optimised software packages; usability enhancements of desktop start menu and file manager right-click menus; inclusion of popular software for day-to-day use, including OpenOffice.org; customised system installer with only two steps that need manual intervention; streamlined post-install configuration; various enhancements in Mozilla Firefox, such as replacement of rarely-used search engines with more popular ones, addition of several pre-configured add-ons, Flash Player 10 and multimedia plugins; graphical configuration tool for ADSL (PPPoE) and other high-speed and mobile Internet providers.... Read the detailed release notes (in Chinese) for additional information.
Linux Deepin 9.12 - a beginner-friendly, Ubuntu-based distribution localised into simplified Chinese
(full image size: 658kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
NuTyX 2009.2
Thierry Nuttens has announced the release of NuTyX 2009.2, a Gentoo-based French Linux distribution with binary packages for four desktop environments: GNOME, KDE, LXDE and Xfce. According to the release announcement, this version has had over 900 commits, mostly package upgrades and dependency updates, but also some bug fixes. There is a new theme that is now a common feature across all the different desktop environments. An alternative kernel, supporting more than 4 GB of RAM, is now included in the distribution. Some of the package upgrades include: ALSA 1.0.22, Amarok 2.2.1.90, Firefox 3.5.6, GNOME 2.28, KDE 4.3.4, Linux kernel 2.6.32.2, K3b 1.69.0alpha4, LXDE 0.5.0, Midori 0.2.1 and X.Org Server 1.7.3. Read the release announcement (in French) for more details and screenshots of the new theme.
sidux 2009-04
Stefan Lippers-Hollmann has announced the release of sidux 2009-04, a desktop distribution with KDE and Xfce based on Debian's unstable branch: "We now have the pleasure to announce the immediate availability of sidux 2009-04 'Moros', shipping with Linux kernel 2.6.32 and KDE 4.3.4. For 'Moros', the development concentrated on updating the bootloader infrastructure for live and installed systems, but also took into account upstream changes like kernel 2.6.32, KDE 4.3.4 and further KDE 4 applications. On the installed system, GRUB 2 now replaces the traditional GRUB bootloader, while the live system now employs isolinux and an improved gfxboot theme. Kernel 2.6.32 doesn't only improve and stabilise hardware support for newer devices, it also allows KMS for Intel graphic chipsets and supports DRI and basic 3D support for ATI Radeon graphics cards." See the detailed release notes for more information.
sidux 2009-04 - a desktop distribution based on Debian's unstable branch
(full image size: 246kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
blackPanther OS 10.1
Charles Barcza has announced the release of blackPanther OS 10.1, a Hungarian desktop Linux distribution built from components and concepts borrowed from several major distribution projects. The new version is built on Linux kernel 2.6.32.2 and includes X.Org Server 1.7.3, Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6, OpenOffice.org 3.1.1, GIMP 2.7.0, KDE 4.3.1 and other popular applications. Some of the notable changes include: EasyInstall - an installation routine which ensures that even older and less powerful hardware is set up correctly; DisplayController - a program whose function is to bring up a graphical subsystem under any circumstances; DesktopSelector - an application that provides new users with an option to choose a preferred desktop environment based on visual impressions; MyInfo-Tool - a graphical hardware information program.... See the rest of the release announcement (in Hungarian) for further details and screenshots.
blackPanther OS 10.1 - a Hungarian desktop Linux distribution
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Zorin OS 2.0
The first release announcement of 2010 belongs to the Zorin OS team which has just announced the release of Zorin OS 2.0, an Ubuntu-based distribution designed primarily for Linux newcomers: "We are proud to announce that Zorin OS 2.0 has been released. Zorin OS 2.0 is available in five different flavours: Zorin OS 'Core' which is the regular desktop edition; Zorin OS 'Gaming' which includes over 40 of the best open-source games; Zorin OS 'Multimedia' which includes over 40 extra multimedia applications; Zorin OS 'Educational' which includes many educational programs; and Zorin OS 'Ultimate' which has some of the best open-source programs around. Zorin OS Core is available to download and the other releases are available for purchase from the Store page." Here is the full release announcement.
Zorin OS 2.0 - an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution for Linux beginners
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Kahel OS 01-01-2010 "Light"
Meric Mara has announced the release of Kahel OS 01-01-2010 "Light" edition, an Arch Linux-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop: "Today let us introduce to you Kahel OS 'Light' edition 01-01-2010, designed for netbooks with limited storage capacity. Just like the Kahel OS 'Desktop' edition, the 'Light' edition has 32- bit and 64-bit installers. What describes Kahel OS 'Light' edition 01-01-2010? Lightweight - the light desktop operates on Linux 2.6.32 and uses Xfce 4.6 which is suitable for PCs with low memory and resources; power-packed - the installer is compressed and the standard install is just 1.8 GB; SSD-friendly - KahelOS 'Light' includes Btrfs and NILFS file systems; bundled with lightweight applications - includes Claws email client, Midori web browser, gThumb image viewer and organizer, and Exaile music player." Read the rest of the release announcement to learn more.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
December 2009 DistroWatch.com donation: Krita receives €200.00
We are happy to announce that the recipient of the December 2009 DistroWatch.com donation is Krita, a creative application for raster images and part of the KOffice suite. It receives €200 in cash.
The project has recently launched a fund-raising drive to enable one of the developers, Lukáš Tvrdý, to work on the project full-time and to take Krita to a "next level". That was after receiving valuable feedback from an artist: "It was about that time when I got in contact with David Revoy. He's the concept artist who has been working with the Blender team on Project Durian: their latest open source movie project. I asked him for his opinions on Krita to get some feedback from a professional. I like when people use my applications, and David has plenty of experience with various tools like GIMP and MyPaint. His opinions seemed very valuable to me for making Krita ready for actual users. ... He was willing to provide us with feedback on the issues he bumped into. So that's when we decided we should put a strong focus on getting Krita ready for him. If he can work comfortably with Krita, so will many other users, both casual users and professionals." The project has since raised over €4,000 - well over the initial target.
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with a cash contribution. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for a future donation. Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285).
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$23,128 to various open-source software projects.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 11 January 2010.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Issue 984 (2022-09-05): deepin 23 Preview, watching for changing to directories, Mint team tests Steam Deck, Devuan posts fix for repository key expiry |
| • Issue 983 (2022-08-29): Qubes OS 4.1.1, Alchg Linux, immutable operating systems, Debian considers stance on non-free firmware, Arch-based projects suffer boot issue |
| • Issue 982 (2022-08-22): Peropesis 1.6.2, KaOS strips out Python 2 and PulseAudio, deepin becomes independent, getting security update notifications |
| • Issue 981 (2022-08-15): Linux Lite 6.0, defining desktop environments and window managers, Mint releases upgrade tool, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 980 (2022-08-08): Linux Mint 21, Pledge on Linux, SparkyLinux updates classic desktop packages, Peppermint OS experiments with Devuan base |
| • Issue 979 (2022-08-01): KaOS 2022.06 and KDE Plasma 5.25, terminating processes after a set time, GNOME plans Secure Boot check |
| • Issue 978 (2022-07-25): EndeavourOS 22.6, Slax explores a return to Slackware, Ubuntu certified with Dell's XPS 13, Linux running on Apple's M2 |
| • Issue 977 (2022-07-18): EasyOS 4.2, transferring desktop themes between distros, Tails publishes list of updates, Zevenet automates Let's Encrypt renewals |
| • Issue 976 (2022-07-11): NixOS 22.05, making a fake webcam, exploring the Linux scheduler, Debian publishes updated media |
| • Issue 975 (2022-07-04): Murena One running /e/OS, where are all the openSUSE distributions, Fedora to offer unfiltered Flathub access |
| • Issue 974 (2022-06-27): AlmaLinux 9.0, the changing data of DistroWatch's database, UBports on the Pixel 3a, Tails and GhostBSD publish hot fixes |
| • Issue 973 (2022-06-20): openSUSE 15.4, collecting distro media, FreeBSD status report, Ubuntu Core with optional real-time kernel |
| • Issue 972 (2022-06-13): Rolling Rhino Remix, SambaBox 4.1, SUSE team considers future of SUSE and openSUSE Leap, Tails improves Tor Connection Assistant |
| • Issue 971 (2022-06-06): ChimeraOS 2022.01.03, Lilidog 22.04, NixOS gains graphical installer, Mint replaces Bluetooth stack and adopts Timeshift, how to change a MAC address |
| • Issue 970 (2022-05-30): Tails 5.0, taking apart a Linux distro, Ubuntu users seeing processes terminated, Budgie team plans future of their desktop |
| • Issue 969 (2022-05-23): Fedora 36, a return to Unity, Canonical seeks to improve gaming on Ubuntu, HP plans to ship laptops with Pop!_OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Merdeka Trustix Linux
Trustix Merdeka was the first Indonesian Linux distribution. The main idea was to provide a desktop Linux distribution, which would be secure out of the box, easy to install, include minimum packages and multi-lingual. One of the main focus of Trustix Merdeka was mobile computing. Update: The distribution's web site became unavailable in March 2003.
Status: Discontinued
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Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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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