 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 344, 8 March 2010 |
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Welcome to this year's 10th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! It is always nice to have a choice of operating systems to run on our desktops. The PC-BSD project has been doing marvels with FreeBSD - in the project's latest release, version 8.0, the developers have turned the predominantly server operating system into an amazingly easy-to-use desktop system that anybody can install and use. Read our first-look review to find out more. In the news section, Canonical updates Ubuntu's desktop theme, KNOPPIX releases a new version of the popular live CD, openSUSE adds the LXDE desktop to the list of options on its install media, and a project called multicd.sh delivers a script that combines several CD images into one bootable CD or DVD with a single command. Also in this issue, links to interviews with Ubuntu's Melissa Draper and KNOPPIX's Klaus Knopper, some speculation on the possible release date of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, and a bunch of useful shell scripts for a variety of common tasks. All this and more in this issue of DistroWatch Weekly - happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Taking a look at PC-BSD 8.0
 Toward the end of 2009 I took FreeBSD 8.0 for a test drive on an old PC. The experiment went so well that I was immediately looking forward to trying out PC-BSD, a desktop variant of the popular FreeBSD operating system. Unfortunately for me, the new version of PC-BSD wasn't to arrive for several weeks. Like a penniless child with his nose pressed up against the window of a candy store, I went over to the project's website.
The PC-BSD site maintains a very similar look and feel to its FreeBSD counterpart. That is to say, it's well crafted, easy to read, painless to navigate and filled with lots of useful information. The installation documentation especially is a well-done piece of work. Open source projects, and their developers, often take flak for putting so little effort into the user manual. This is not the case with PC-BSD. While browsing, I read the teaser for the upcoming release - and good things were planned. New features include better ZFS support, a live DVD, improvements to the package updating system, the ability to run 32-bit applications on a 64-bit system and better binary support for Linux programs.
It felt like a long wait, but in February the PC-BSD team released their latest offering, version 8.0, and I downloaded their live DVD. It's a hefty image, weighing in at just over 3 GB. There's also a USB image file for people who like to carry their operating system in their pocket. For my PC-BSD test drive I used a desktop machine (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM), my HP notebook (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 3 GB of RAM) and a virtual environment, provided by VirtualBox.
Installation
I popped the DVD into my desktop machine first and was presented with a boot screen very similar to the text-based boot screen which comes with FreeBSD. The menu allows the user to boot into a live environment, start the installer or try various safe modes. I chose the live environment and, a minute later, was presented with a beautiful KDE 4 desktop. If you've used KDE recently on Linux, the desktop will seem familiar. It has the same taskbar and the same cashew in the corner. There are a few icons on the desktop offering the user help and access to a graphical installer. The application menu is nicely filled out, mostly with KDE programs which I'll cover later. The performance from the live DVD is very good, not quite on par with a mini-Linux distro live CD, but better than most full-sized distributions I've tried on the same hardware.
The installer can be kicked off from the desktop or from the boot menu. In either case, the graphical install process leads us through the usual steps. First, the user is asked to select their preferred language and keyboard layout. Then we have the option of performing a fresh install, upgrading a previous install or restoring from a backup. As this was my first PC-BSD experience, I had to go with a fresh install. The installer also allows the user to either install PC-BSD or the base FreeBSD 8.0 system. This strikes me as a great way to allow people unfamiliar, or uncomfortable, with the FreeBSD text installer to get a server up and running. The next step is disk partitioning and I think PC-BSD may have the most friendly disk partitioning tool I've seen in an installer. One can let the installer decide what to do, perform all partitioning manually, or ask the installer for a suggested layout and then fine-tune the result.
Partitions can be formatted as UFS, UFS-J, UFS-S or ZFS and it's easy to configure mount points. Partitions can be encrypted by simply clicking the proper checkbox. Partition sizes can be adjusted by either typing in the desired allocation or dragging a slide bar, which gives a good graphical representation of what's going on. The next step in the install process is setting a root password and creating a regular user account. The installer actually allows multiple regular accounts to be created at this point and, optionally, one user can be selected to automatically login at boot time. The last two steps are to pick a time zone and then select which optional packages should be installed. With my additional software checked, the installer went to work formatting the drive and copying files. The entire process took about twenty minutes on my machines.
PC-BSD 8.0 - the system installer
(full image size: 44kB, screen resolution 804x632 pixels)
I have to say that PC-BSD probably has the best operating system installer I have yet used. It's beautifully laid out, it has helpful hints and sane defaults all the way through. A novice user could almost click "Next" eight times and have a working system. But, at the same time, almost every page has the option to go deeper, to override the defaults or to pick advanced settings. It's a great, intuitive piece of software and I hope Linux developers take the time to study how the PC-BSD project has approached installation.
Hardware support and software selection
After installing PC-BSD, I poked at my hardware to see what would work and I think drivers are what will make or break the experience for most people. On the desktop machine, my NVIDIA video card worked flawlessly, sound was configured and worked without any issues and my network connection was enabled automatically. My notebook was another matter. When running on my HP machine, the live DVD took a few extra minutes to get to a desktop. Once there, video and sound again worked without a glitch and my network connection was discovered. However, my Intel wireless card was not detected and my Novatel mobile modem was not picked up. When working with the notebook I found I was unable to get the machine to suspend or hibernate. For the most part USB devices, such as cameras or Flash drives, worked, though I found one Flash drive I couldn't write to that works properly with other operating systems. When running PC-BSD in VirtualBox I found performance held steady when browsing the web and editing documents with 512 MB of memory. Below that point, performance gradually dropped off.
The live DVD contains a wide range of software, much of it associated with the KDE desktop. There is a suite of fun, educational programs and a good collection of small games. There are applications for listening to music, playing CDs and watching videos. We also find the usual collection of programs, such as an archive manager, text editor and calculator. The Office section is a bit light, featuring an organizer, address book and document viewer. There's a small development section with tools for programmers. The Internet category features KTorrent, a download manager, instant messaging clients and the Konqueror web browser. The menu contains a few graphic manipulation tools, including applications for grabbing screen shots and photo managing. Last, but not least, there are tools for handling Samba shares and managing user accounts. The control centre is the standard KDE System Settings console and should be familiar to anyone who has used the KDE 4 desktop. From there the user can adjust the look and feel of the system, manage printers and configure desktop services.
PC-BSD 8.0 - finding help and adjusting settings
(full image size: 218kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
There are some programs which can be installed from the DVD which are not included in the live system. These include the VLC multimedia player, the GIMP, K3b and OpenOffice.org. PC-BSD 8 also comes equipped with the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) for people who want to build their own software. The system includes a wide range of multimedia codecs, allowing users to play MP3s and most video files out of the box. Flash is installed and works automatically when browsing with Firefox.
Security and package management
The PC-BSD project leaves very little to complain about when it comes to security. For instance, the installer allows partitions to be encrypted with virtually no effort from the user. On a default install the only network service running is the secure shell and it blocks root logins. In fact, root is prevented from logging in directly locally too, requiring the administrator to have a regular user account; the root account can be accessed using su. In my mind, this combines the best features of having a root account and the sudo approach used by some Linux distributions. There's an icon in the system tray which notifies the user of any security updates from the project and the whole system sits on FreeBSD's solid base. My only security complaint was that users can see into other users' home directories, including root's directory. Users can lock this down if they wish, but I'd prefer to see more strict permissions set out of the box.
Package management is an area where PC-BSD really shines. Not only does the system come with the command-line tool pkg_add, giving the user access to FreeBSD's massive software collection, it also comes with its own special method for handling software. PC-BSD has a custom package format called Push Button Installer (PBI). These package files are similar to RPM or DEB files in the Linux community, with the important characteristic that they are self-contained. That means PBI files do not have dependencies. Each PBI file installs itself into the /Programs directory, which prevents the /usr sub-directories from becoming cluttered. The self-contained approach also allows third-party developers to package their software and offer it to PC-BSD users without worrying about library version conflicts and other dependency problems.
The PC-BSD package manager is an attractive program with three tabs. The first tab allows users to search the project's repository for software, either by name or by category. Packages in the repository are displayed with their name, a description, a rating and their size. Installing a new package is as simple as clicking on the name of the package and then clicking its download link. The manager's second tab shows packages which have already been installed or are currently being downloaded. Packages can also be removed from the second tab. The final tab displays any updates which are available and allows the user to selectively install those updates. The approach of using self-contained modules is similar to the way Slax and LinuxConsole handle packages, but I find the PC-BSD software manager itself more intuitive to use. Like the system installer, it has a simple interface with the ability to customize settings.
PC-BSD 8.0 - changing update settings
(full image size: 271kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Though the system installer just supports UFS and ZFS, the PC-BSD OS can handle a wider variety of file systems. The live DVD was able to mount my Linux partitions (ext3) and manipulate files. Support for reading from NTFS partitions is also included, though I haven't had the opportunity to test the feature. This is good news to anyone interested in dual-booting PC-BSD with another operating system. For people migrating to PC-BSD, the underlying OS is binary compatible with most Linux applications. Additionally, WINE is included in the project's repository, allowing new PC-BSD users a smoother transition from Windows.
Conclusions
While on the topic of other operating systems, it's hard for me, as a long-time Linux user, not to constantly compare PC-BSD to the penguin. Usually, these comparisons turn out favourably for PC-BSD. For example, PC-BSD runs faster on my systems than most of the full-sized Linux distributions and it generally used less memory. My notebook has an Intel video card and it's a card that has tripped up some of the more popular distros, but PC-BSD handled it without any problems. Likewise, sound worked on both of my machines without any tweaking, a feat Linux isn't always able to match. Some people might not like the PBI self-contained packaging approach, but the OS supports more traditional forms of package management, ensuring PBI files do not have to be used.
After using PC-BSD for a week, I'm very impressed with the project. With the exception of some of my notebook's hardware, I ran into no serious problems. Fortunately the live DVD makes it easy to test hardware before committing to installation. The installer is a work of art, the package manager is easy to use, even for less experienced users. The desktop is attractive, stable and responsive on my machines. The documentation, which builds on the FreeBSD Handbook, is first class and the system's defaults are reasonable. Having popular codecs and Flash pre-installed is a nice touch and makes PC-BSD ready-to-go straight out of the box. In my opinion, this operating system isn't quite as user-friendly as Mandriva Linux or Linux Mint, but it's not far behind and, on my hardware, it performs faster. In my eyes, PC-BSD is ready for The Desktop.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Ubuntu unveils new desktop theme, KNOPPIX releases 6.3 CeBIT edition, openSUSE adds LXDE desktop to install media, multicd.sh
 The new identity of Ubuntu, together with the upcoming changes in the default desktop design, has dominated the headlines of many Linux web sites throughout the week. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth explained the reasons behind the change in a blog post: "One of the real challenges for us has been to find a branding and design strategy which spans the spectrum of audiences, forums and dialogues that we cover. With Ubuntu, it's my specific dream to find a constructive blend of commercial and community interests, not only for Canonical but for other companies. That has made our design and branding work difficult - the distinctive look of Ubuntu lent itself well to pure community messaging, but it was hard to do a brochure for Canonical data center services for Ubuntu on servers. We have not only Ubuntu, but also Kubuntu and an important range of derivatives that all have a role in our ecosystem."
From the end-user's point of you, the visual changes in the upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.04 (scheduled for the end of April) are perhaps more interesting. Many seem to be in favour of the new, light desktop theme, but others find the possible new arrangement of window controls (the minimise, maximise and close buttons) hard to get used to: "The development version is a wonderful area to try new concepts, and this is something that is being tested. I tried to use this for nearly an hour and found that my habit was too strong, and it's not one that I currently wish to change. I decided to revert it to something I'm used to (the far right). I'm not aware of an easy (graphical) method of doing this, which means that we need to pull out some gconf -foo (hurray)!"
Two more Ubuntu-related links. The first one is for those readers who still have doubts about Ubuntu being the most popular desktop Linux distribution. According to a recent poll conducted by Linux Journal, out of nearly 7,000 readers who cast their votes, 31% claim to be using one of the Ubuntu family members as their primary distribution. Canonical's flagship product is followed by Fedora and openSUSE (10% each), Debian GNU/Linux (9%), Arch Linux (8%), Mandriva Linux and Linux Mint (6% each). The poll is ongoing so the results could look different by the time your read this. The second link is a brief interview with Melissa Draper, an active member of the Ubuntu community and a secretary of Sydney Linux Users Group: "When I decided I wanted to use Linux I asked around. A friend had been using Ubuntu since Warty so I installed Hoary on an old computer. I've tried other distros, and despite using Fedora or CentOS for work, I've been with Ubuntu ever since."
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 KNOPPIX, which started as a revolutionary live CD, might have lost some of its glitter in recent years, but project founder Klaus Knopper continues to build regular releases - now with LXDE as the default desktop. Last week, a brand new version was released at CeBIT 2010: "At this year's CeBIT open source forum, KNOPPIX creator Klaus Knopper announced the release of version 6.3 of his popular live Linux distribution. KNOPPIX is a bootable CD, DVD or USB Flash drive distribution of Linux, incorporating automatic hardware detection. It can be used to demo Linux, as an educational CD, a rescue system, etc. KNOPPIX uses on-the-fly decompression, so it can have up to 2 GB of data and software installed on a distribution CD or up to 10 GB of data on a single-layer DVD." The author promises to have an updated version of this release available for free download at the end of March or in early April. In the meantime, check out this excellent review of KNOPPIX 6.3 (in PDF format), together with a brief interview with Klaus Knopper, as published by Linux Magazine
KNOPPIX 6.3 - released exclusively for Linux Magazine and CeBIT 2010
(full image size: 925kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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 Good news for those who would prefer a lighter openSUSE than the standard KDE or GNOME variety. According to this blog post on LXDE.org, the installation DVD of the just-released openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 3, provides LXDE as an option during system install: "openSUSE 11.3 now allows to install LXDE directly from installation DVD or the net-install CD. I'm sure all of you reading this post want to try it, just click here and watch some pictures. Just today I announced on the opensuse-lxde and opensuse-factory mailing lists that we have finally switched to PCMan File Manager 2. Even if it's still in the alpha release stage, it's already feature-rich and stable enough for daily use. Of course, bugs exist and your reports are welcome, so we can fix them. And more good news - we are working on live CDs. Yes, it's taking a long time, but now we should be able to provide you with better ISO images in a shorter time since we have moved from SUSE Studio to the OBS Kiwi system. Preliminary images can be downloaded from here." The third milestone of openSUSE 11.3 is now available for download from the distribution's mirrors.
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Have you ever thought of building a multi-boot CD or DVD image that would boot several distributions depending on your choice at boot time? If so, take a look at multicd.sh. This project provides a script that will generate a new ISO image - all you need to do is to place it in the same directory as your distro images and run the script. From the project's web site: "multicd.sh is a shell script designed to build a multi-boot CD image containing many different Linux distributions and/or utilities. The advantages to making a CD with this script are: you don't need to burn multiple CDs for small distributions; if you already have the ISO images, it is not necessary to download them again; when a new version of one of the distributions is released, you can simply download the new version and run the script again to build a new multi-boot image." All the major distributions are supported, along with many popular utility live CDs and some lesser-known distros.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, command line tricks
Tired-of-waiting asks: When is RHEL 6 coming out? Isn't it long overdue?
DistroWatch answers: I think we'll see a beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 in June 2010 with a final release a few months later.
Perhaps some reasons are in order. I don't have a crystal ball or any inside information. All I have is guesswork. And my guesses aren't always accurate. For example, two years ago I predicted (along with some other eager people) we'd see RHEL 6 shortly after the release of Fedora 9 in 2008. At the time it seemed Red Hat was timing its Enterprise releases to match every third Fedora release. If we look at Red Hat Linux 9 as being Fedora Core 0, the schedule looked like this:
- FC 0 -> RHEL 3
- FC 3 -> RHEL 4
- FC 6 -> RHEL 5
It starts to look like a simple pattern matching test, doesn't it? Obviously, following the pattern, we would expect Fedora 9 to herald in RHEL 6. But it didn't. Instead of getting version 6, we got a series of 5.x releases. Which is all well and good, but it doesn't get the blood pumping. So what happened? I think Fedora 9 had more issues than a prairie farm has gopher holes and Red Hat wisely decided to wait until Fedora stabilized. Their Enterprise Linux 5 series was doing the job and there wasn't any need to rush. Since then, we've seen a steady improvement in the stability and polish of the Fedora releases and I suspect RHEL 6 will be based either on Fedora 12 or 13, the latter comes out in May. Red Hat has a summit coming up in June and that strikes me as being a good time to demo a RHEL 6 beta.
When it does finally arrive, I hope someone at Red Hat sends me a copy, because I'd love to test drive it. Their work on virtualisation is especially interesting to me.
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Commanding-from-the-line asks: Could you show us some useful command line magic?
DistroWatch answers: When I was in college and was learning about the power of the UNIX command line, I was both fascinated and regularly frustrated. The many different shells, short command names and often cryptic options can be a tough cookie for newcomers to crack. But there are an amazing amount of things you can do and I'll share a few tricks with you that I've found useful from time to time.
This first example makes use of four different commands to find out how much time a user has been spending logged in to the desktop. With a little modification, this command can be used to show how much time you spent logged in during one month. Or you could change it a little to show how much time a user was logged into all terminals and remote sessions combined. Login information can be accessed with the "last" command. We can then filter information from last using "grep" -- in this case we're looking for logins by a person called "joe". The second grep command further filters our data down to just login sessions to terminal tty7, which is generally the desktop. The "cut" command then trims away all the data we don't need, focusing on the time field. On my machine, time is displayed in columns 67 through to 71. The heavy lifter on the end, "awk", looks at each line of data and keeps a running tally of the time our user "joe" spent logged in. When all the data are processed, awk displays the total time. Warning: if you play World of Warcraft, you probably don't want to actually see the total.
last | grep joe | grep tty7 | cut -b 67-71 | awk -F : 'BEGIN{hours=0;minutes=0}; {hours+=$1; minutes+=$2}; END{hours+=minutes/60; minutes=minutes%60; printf("%d:%d\n", hours, minutes)}'
Our second example is a script written specifically for the T C shell (tcsh). It uses the "find" command, along with "awk", to find out how much disk space each user account is taking up. The find command looks through each user's directory and gives us the size of every file it locates. That information is then passed to the awk command, which displays a total for the user. You can put the following text in a file and run it to see the script in action.
#!/bin/tcsh
foreach currentdir (`ls /home`)
echo -n $currentdir
find /home/$currentdir -printf %s\\n | awk 'BEGIN{total=0}; {total+=$1}; END{printf(" %d\n", total)}'
end
If you'd like to see the output sorted, based on which users are taking up the most disk space, you can run the above script and then use the "sort" command to put the worst offenders at the top of the list. For example, if we put the above script in a file called "account_size" we could run
account_size | sort -r +1 -1
The "+1 -1" indicates that the sort command should use the second column as the key field, rather than the left-most column. If we just used sort without the "+1 -1", we'd get output sorted by the username.
A third thing I find handy on a regular basis is getting the system to notify me in some way when a command has finished completion. Let's say I'm installing some software and I want the system to get my attention when the installation is finished. I might run the following command:
sudo apt-get install sopwith ; mplayer a_night_on_bald_mountain.ogg
The above example attempts to install a classic computer game, named Sopwith. The semicolon (;) tells the system to wait until the installation attempt is finished and then runs the next command, which in this case is telling mplayer to play some music. Slight variations can be made so that if the first task is successful, we play one tune and if it fails, we play another. In this following example, we'll use the "grep" command to try to find the word "Linux" in a text file and, if we find the word, we'll print a message to that effect:
grep -i linux a_big_text_file.txt && echo We found it
And in this next example we do the same search, but print out a message if we did not find what we wanted:
grep -i linux a_big_text_file.txt || echo It is not here boss
Going one step further, we can do the same search and print one message or the other, depending on whether we found what we were looking for:
grep -i linux a_big_text_file.txt && echo We found Linux || echo There is no Linux here
Tips and tricks on the UNIX command line can (and do) fill entire books. If you're interested in further reading, you might want to get a copy of Classic Shell Scripting: Hidden Commands that Unlock the Power of Unix by Arnold Robbins and Nelson H. F. Beebe.
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| Released Last Week |
Linux From Scratch 6.6
Matthew Burgess has announced the release of Linux From Scratch (LFS) 6.6, a free e-book that gives step-by-step instructions on how to build a base Linux system by compiling source code of the Linux kernel, GNU utilities and other basic components: "The Linux From Scratch community is pleased to announce the release of Linux From Scratch version 6.6. This release includes numerous changes to LFS 6.5 (including updates to Linux kernel 2.6.32.8, GCC 4.4.3, glibc 2.11.1) and security fixes. It also includes editorial work on the explanatory material throughout the book, improving both the clarity and accuracy of the text." Other important updates in this release include the GRUB bootloader 1.97.2, udev 151, Coreutils 8.4 and gzip 1.4. Read the brief release announcement and the detailed changelog for further information.
Tiny Core Linux 2.9
Robert Shingledecker has released Tiny Core Linux 2.9, a minimalist Linux distribution in 10 MB: "Tiny Core Linux 2.9 is now posted. Change log: upgraded udev to 151 with several rule adjustments and new rules added; updated libstdc++ 6.0.9 to support exceptions; updated glibc 2.9 to support i486; updated wbar - eliminated background relics; updated appbrowser - added 'Provides' to search for 'What provides', also error handling and speed improvements; updated appsaudit - added 'Display All Not Depends On'; updated tc-config - persistent home and/or opt; improved language support by auto-loading locale support extension(s); added functions checkroot and checknotroot for improved user handling; new 'Set TCE Drive' in control panel to setup TCE directory, optional and mydata.tgz from cloud mode...." Read the full release announcement for a complete list of changes.
PC/OS 10.1 "OpenWorkstation GNOME"
Roberto Dohnert has announced the release of PC/OS 10.1 "OpenWorkstation GNOME" edition, an Ubuntu-based distribution for the desktop: "The developers of PC/OS are excited to bring you this new installment in the PC/OS family. Users and customers have demanded it so we have now delivered it. This release is based on the GNOME desktop. We are targeting this release at a more high-performance crowd. What's included? GNOME 2.28, Linux kernel 2.6.31, Empathy replaces Pidgin, OpenOffice.org 3.1, Exaile, Gambas 2, WideStudio, full multimedia codecs, Sun Java 6, Evolution groupware suite, GnomeBaker, Exaile, VLC, GIMP (with all plugins), Google Chrome, Nimbus GTK+ theme and Metacity. As we continue to improve this release we will continue to add software and tools for everyone." Here is the full release announcement.
Elive 2.0
After a long development period lasting more than two years, Samuel Baggen announced today the release of Elive 2.0, a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution featuring an optimised Enlightenment 17 window manager with plenty of desktop eye candy: "The Elive team is proud to announce the release of the Stable version 2.0 Codename Topaz. The new stable version of Elive has a huge list of improvements. Its ease of use makes it suitable for any kind of user along with a totally new Linux experience for those who have not tried Elive before. Changelog: autolaunchers - entirely rewritten with better stability and more features; user configurators - many user configurators added to configure anything; drivers - Linux kernel 2.6.30.9 with support for special hardware and other features like TuxOnIce (hibernation), Reiser4FS, ext4...." Visit the distribution's updated home page and read the detailed changelog for further information.
Elive 2.0 - a Debian-based distribution with Enlightenment
(full image size: 319kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
NuTyX 2009.3
Thierry Nuttens has announced the release of NuTyX 2009.3, a French, Gentoo-based desktop Linux distribution. This is the fourth update in the 2009 series; while the base system, the C library and the compiler remains unchanged throughout the 2009.x releases, a number of small problems have been corrected. For example the Mozilla browser is now in French and the Xfce, GNOME (2.28.2) and KDE (4.4.1) desktops have all been updated to their latest versions. Other important package updates include OpenOffice.org 3.2.0, KOffice 2.1.1, Pidgin 2.6.6 and CUPS 1.4.2. The default Linux kernel has also been upgraded to version 2.6.33. Read the rest of the release announcement (in French) for further details.
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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 |
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New distributions added to database
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 15 March 2010.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Bluewhite Linux
Bluewhite Linux was an unofficial port of Slackware Linux to the x86_64 processor architectures.
Status: Discontinued
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