 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 363, 19 July 2010 |
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Welcome to this year's 29th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! For many projects, this is a slow point in the year. However, there is still important work being done in various corners of the open source community. The latest version of openSUSE, 11.3, came out this week, as did Zencafe and Netrunner. In the news section we examine the pros and cons of two virtualization technologies, talk about getting Debian ready for its next release and the future of OpenSolaris. (Does it have one?) We also look at a young operating system, BareMetal OS, which is gaining momentum. In our feature this week we take a look at the latest offering from the Zenwalk project and chat with project leader Jean-Philippe Guillemin. Rounding out this week's issue, we talk about file permissions on Linux and how to get more fine-grained access control. Happy reading!
Content:
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Taking a Walk on the Zen Side of Life
The Zenwalk team recently released version 6.4 of their operating system. The project's website, which is presented in an attractive combination of blue and white, offers four editions of the distro:
- Standard -- a plain installation disc, featuring the Xfce desktop
- Core -- a bare bones install disc without any desktop apps
- Live -- similar to Standard, but with a live desktop environment
- GNOME -- replaces Xfce with the GNOME desktop.
The site contains a pile of useful documentation, including a getting started guide, user manual, wiki, a forum and contact information should you need to reach the development team. The main site is offered in six different languages, making it accessible to a wide range of users.
Before downloading the Standard edition, I got in touch with the project's founder, Jean-Philippe Guillemin.
* * * * *
DW: I'd like to start off learning a little bit about your background. When did you first get involved with Linux and why did you create Zenwalk?
JP: I was born in the East of France in 1972, but I grew up in Africa until 8. Then I came back to France. From 8 to 11 I was passionate about electronic components and radio transmitters, I began programming electronic calculators and small Basic computers when I was 12, a young geek. I started playing guitar at 14. I did my high schooling at the University of Nantes with good results and decided to try playing music professionally in 1995~1996.
I first heard about Linux in 1996 when a friend told me that he had just installed a cool free Unix OS. In 1996 I was full time musician and I wasn't toying with computers much, so I didn't look more thoroughly. When it was clear that playing music was not enough to live, I searched and quickly found a job in the network and computer security area in 1997. I installed Linux for the first time in 1998~1999 as a development platform, I don't remember exactly, but the fact is that I haven't used any other OS than Linux since then. In 2004 I felt that creating a Slackware derivative Linux distribution was a good way to learn more about Linux and I shared the result. I called it "Minislack". I wanted a development environment that would be simple and complete so that I could easily install it on any computer. From the beginning, the goals were already "one application per task", "performance" and "rationality". In 2005 several contributors joined me to help support and improve the project. Now 90% of the tasks are handled by the main development team and packages contributors. I wouldn't be able to take care of everything myself anymore.
DW: This new release, 6.4, seems to have a focus on improving speed. You have the BFS scheduler, for example. What else can Zenwalk users look forward to?
JP: Each time I find some cool and exciting new feature to enhance the performance or improve usability, I test it, and if it seems reliable then I offer it to testers in the "snapshot" repository. I really want Zenwalk to provide something different and I especially enjoy when great developers like Kon Colivas fight against well established common opinions about what's right and what's wrong for Linux. I guess that I'm a kind of a rebel.
BFS is really great, in fact this little, yet important, piece of software is designed like Zenwalk: no nonsense, no bloat, just effectiveness. With it I have noticed better low-latency behaviour of my multi-track studio (Ardour), and also lower compile time: Zenwalk 6.4 should fly on the more modern hardwares, and run smoothly on old computers.
Apart of this, Zenwalk 6.4 provides a lot of enhancements at system level, while staying stable in terms of applications (users don't want to change their web browser and multimedia player for each release). Mainly, 6.4 provides Kernel 2.6.33.4, UDEV 151, which is really a big evolution in hotplug detection and the first step toward HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) deprecation in the future. We also provide Xorg 7.5, Openoffice 3.2.0, and the brand new XFCE 4.6.2.
DW: Zenwalk was originally based on Slackware. Do you still base releases off Slackware, or has Zenwalk separated to be a more independent distro?
JP: From Zenwalk 5.0, we started to fork seriously away from Slackware and some of the differences where very good improvements (for example: more flexible and faster init scripts, system tools). Anyway, slowly loosing package compatibility wasn't a good thing. Thus, reinventing the wheel when Pat already does a great job on base packages (like Xorg) is a waste of time. So we decided to revert this tendency in the 6.x branch and we began to adopt more Slackware packages that have been replaced by Zenwalk builds in the 5.x branch. We can now focus on real value-added features like performance, desktop, system tools, internationalization... As a result, Zenwalk 6.4 is Slackware compatible: you can install Zenwalk packages from our repository, or install Slackware packages as long as they are up to date.
DW: The distribution's website and documentation are well polished and put together compared to many other open source projects. Was this a design goal, or the result of having certain people on the team?
JP: It's entirely the work of contributors, and is part of the project design: making Zenwalk not only technically appealing for advanced users but also easy to start with for Linux newcomers. I thank you for noticing this as I think it's very important. Yet we need more manpower to maintain this documentation, in several locales, especially since some active contributors left us to found their own project.
DW: Zenwalk has a standard (Xfce) edition and a GNOME edition. Will we also see a KDE edition?
JP: If things go as expected, yes. Packaging of KDE is already done, and the maintainer will mostly have to polish the desktop so that it follows the Zenwalk guidelines (it's supposed to look very close to the official Zenwalk XFCE desktop).
DW: Could you tell our readers a little about the Zenwalk User Repository and how many packages are currently available?
JP: Well, at the moment the Zenwalk repository contains 2,800 packages covering most needs from development, multimedia, music recording, gaming, to office work, but Slackware packages can also be used, so the Zenwalk user should find everything he could expect from a modern GNU/Linux system.
One thing that I would like to point out here is that the Zenwalk ISO distribution is a "designed" system with carefully chosen applications and APIs -> "a fast core system + the GTK toolkit + a set of well integrated applications".
When a user installs Zenwalk and then, for example, doesn't find his usual media player of choice out of the box (ie: mplayer), we often get harsh comments on the forum, although our repository provides all kinds of media players and other applications.
It should be clear that when we select an application for the Zenwalk ISO, it doesn't mean that it's the best of its category: it means that it integrates well with the system (should be GTK based, fast, easy to use, still supported and reliable). Many good applications are not included in the ISO but we love them as well, and they are available from our repository along with their dependencies.
DW: What would you like to add to future versions of Zenwalk? Does the project have any long-term goals?
JP: Of course. The roadmap is simple: change nothing to the Desktop look and feel, and support 64 bits processors. This could happen in the 8.x branch. The 7.x branch will focus on the HAL to UDEV migration, and introduction of XFCE 4.8. This said, prior to migrating to 64 bits we will have to find a solution to make the support of two architectures possible and consistent.
DW: Zenwalk appears to be targeting older machines, I believe you support i486? Could you talk a bit about the hardware you focus on?
JP: Zenwalk is targeting modern hardware and provides latest versions of modern applications like Openoffice or Icecat (Firefox), but as you noticed, Zenwalk is optimized for i686 CPU and remains compatible with i486, so it can run on old hardware as well.
Note that the "march" compiler parameter varies according to the type of machine that can use the package: some applications are built for i686 because they wouldn't run at all on a i486 CPU, especially real-time music applications.
As far as I know, one could find more "Jurassic-computing" focused systems, ideal for very old computers, but this kind of Linux distribution lacks mainstream applications needed for modern Internet or multimedia experience. Zenwalk is close to these "tiny-Linux" specialized systems in terms of responsiveness on older machines, but still provides the same level of modernity as fat Debian or Red Hat based systems...
DW: Is there anything else you would like to add, about open source in general or Zenwalk specifically? Any message for our readers?
JP: Yes! Actually I'm only in charge of global design, Desktop, system tools development and kernel related stuff, most parts of Zenwalk's packaging and project coordination is done by the Zenwalk team driven by Frederic Boulet, our project manager.
The GNU/Linux user base is growing thanks to the work of benevolent developers and information sites like DistroWatch. As a result user relationship and questions are evolving and tend to become less technical, so we need more contributors to support the growing amount of questions, and keep on providing friendly support on
http://support.zenwalk.org/
* * * * *
I'd like to thank Monsieur Guillemin for taking the time to talk about Zenwalk.
Booting from the Zenwalk disc, the user is presented with a curses-based display, which presents five options. The user can select their preferred keymaping, partition their hard drive, run the installer, have the system do an install on auto-pilot or exit the menu and drop to a simple shell. To get started, I ran the partitioner, which turns out to be cfdisk. With my disk carved up the way I wanted it, I launched the regular installer. The install process begins by asking the user to select a partition to use for swap space and which partition should be used to hold the operating system. The installer then inquires as to which file system the user would like to use for the root partition -- ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS and XFS are supported. For newcomers, a brief explanation is provided next to each FS option. The user is asked to select where their source files are located (the default is the Zenwalk CD) and packages are copied to the hard drive. The process is fairly quick and the installer keeps the user informed on what's going on the whole time. Once all the required software has been copied over, the user is given the option to install a boot loader (LILO, in this case). We then get into some more nitty-gritty options, such as what the screen resolution should be, if any specific kernel parameters should be used and where to place the boot loader. All of this would probably be a bit much for newcomers, but sane defaults are provided throughout.
Upon the system's first boot-up, the user is shown a copy of the GPL license, asked to pick their preferred language and set an administrator password. The first-boot program then allows the user to create and configure additional non-root accounts. This is all done within a curses-based environment.
With all the setup steps complete, Zenwalk turns the user over to a graphical login screen. Signing into the desktop provides the user with an attractive, one might even say beautiful, Xfce desktop environment. There is a thin task bar across the top of the screen, providing an application menu, clock and logout button. The bottom of the screen features a quick-launch bar with icons for kicking off the web browser, mail client, media player, desktop settings, console, volume control and file browser. There are a few icons on the desktop for navigating the local file system and for visiting the Zenwalk website. The interface is fast, impressively responsive and the Xfce components feel well integrated.
Changing settings and editing documents.
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The application menu comes with an excellent array of software when one takes into consideration the ISO download is 540MB. The menu includes popular software, such as Firefox (renamed Icecat), Thunderbird (renamed Icedove), OpenOffice, a multimedia player, CD player, disc burner, calendar app and the GIMP. Additionally, we find the usual collection of apps, such as a text editor, calculator, archive manager, file browser, and document viewer. Zenwalk also comes with Pidgin for instant messaging, gFTP for transferring files, a bittorrent client and network browsers to find secure shell and VNC services. Most of these are fairly standard across distributions and so it was interesting, to me, to see what else was packed into the 540MB image. Of note were the Firestarter firewall manager; Geany, an intuitive compiler IDE; and Gigolo, a network tool which connects users to different types of shares, such as SSH, Samba and FTP. Zenwalk comes with Grsync out of the box, a graphical front-end to rsync. The GUI app allows people unfamiliar with the ins and outs of rsync to backup their data with a few mouse clicks. In most cases Grsync provides the proper defaults, taking the guess work out of backups. Behind the scenes, Zenwalk comes with the GNU Compiler Collection, version 4.4.3, a Flash plugin for the web browser and codecs to play popular music and video formats. The Zenwalk distribution takes the approach of trying to use one application per task, which means a lot of functionality is provided yet the menu remains pleasantly uncluttered.
Testing the Geany IDE
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Hardware support from Zenwalk was fairly standard as far as which devices were automatically detected. My generic desktop machine (2.5GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, NVIDIA graphics card) operated with no problems. Screen resolution was properly set and audio worked out of the box. My HP laptop (dual-core 2GHz CPU, 3GB of RAM, Intel video card) didn't get along quite as well. While video and audio also worked without any issues, I found that neither my Intel wireless card nor my Novatel mobile modem was handled out of the box. During my test drive with the distribution I ran Zenwalk in a VirtualBox virtual machine with varying amounts of RAM to see how the system would perform. The system ran and was very fast with 512MB of memory. Reducing the available RAM to 256MB caused the system to slow down and use swap space for some tasks, such as web browsing or document editing, but performance was still acceptable. One problem I ran into while running in the virtual environment was that during my first boot, post-install, X didn't handle the virtual video card. However, I was able to edit the xorg.conf file to get up and running. Once VirtualBox's guest additions were installed, X was able to run smoothly with its defaults. It's nice to see the xorg.conf file included. Since advances in X have made it unnecessary to have a configuration file in many cases, most distros don't ship with one anymore. Distro-hopping as much as I do I find quite a few cases where X doesn't work properly and a configuration file is required. When this happens, it's nice to have a config file in place, even if it's just a framework where the options are commented out. It's something I'd like to see more projects provide, perhaps with a name like /etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe. Another nice touch was that Zenwalk mounts partitions with the noatime option, which prevents the system from writing access times back to the disk every time a file is read. It's a small thing, but a welcome feature, especially on my laptop.
Zenwalk uses the Netpkg package manager. Netpkg has the same features as other mainstream package managers, but the layout is just different enough I feel it deserves some mention. At the top of the Netpkg screen is a drop-down list of available repository mirrors. There are quite a few to choose from. Selecting a mirror and hitting the refresh button causes the list of available packages to update. In the middle of the screen is a list of package categories, which can be expanded to show the individual software components. Over to the right is a set of filters, allowing the user to tell the manager to show installed software, available software, software that has been installed and has updates waiting, or orphaned packages. Directly below the filters is a search box for finding specific software items by name. The bottom of the window holds a status and information area that shows details on selected packages and a progress report on any actions taking place. I think manually selecting a repository and changing filters might be a bit strange for new users, but otherwise I had no complaints. The software runs smoothly, provides information in an easy to follow format and I encountered no problems installing, removing or updating packages. For people who like to work from the command line, Netpkg can be run from a command prompt too and operates in much the same way as Aptitude or YUM.
Zen Package Management
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I didn't have many complaints when it came to Zenwalk's security. The install process sets a password for the administrator and allows the user to create additional, unprivileged accounts. I did have two concerns. While I was using the distro the repositories were populated with updates, but there didn't seem to be any notification for the user when security updates were available. I've been spoiled recently by systems which automatically check for me. My other concern is Zenwalk runs a secure shell service by default, which allows remote root logins. Preventing root from remotely logging into a machine is a policy I'd like to see more distributions adopt.
Backing up and securing the system.
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An aspect of the Linux community I enjoy is the wide variety of styles. Not just differing desktop environments, package managers and architectures, but the way in which these options combine together to give a certain feeling or to fill a niche. Take, for example, Slackware. Slackware is sort of the vanilla flavour of the Linux world, simple, fast and stable. We've got more exciting distributions, like Fedora, which are always trying new things and sticking to FOSS principles. Off in another direction, we have projects like Mandriva which try to be as easy to use as possible. And while I sometimes shake my head at the announcement of yet another Ubuntu-based distro designed for cat lovers, I am in favour of anything which adds a new flavour to the Linux buffet. Which brings me to Zenwalk. This distribution may be the fastest Linux operating system I've used which wasn't a mini-distro. The developers have done an outstanding job at balancing functionality, of which it has a lot, with performance, which is top-notch. They also do a fine job of trading off between ease of use and appealing to more advanced users. Occasionally I felt Zenwalk veered a little too far toward advanced territory, such as when I was running the installer or setting up the package manager to use different repositories, but for day-to-day use, the experience was balanced and smooth. As far as the feel of the system is concerned, Zenwalk may be the most Linux operating system I've used. It's professional without being commercial, it's fast without sacrificing form, it attempts to provide one pre-installed application per task, and in doing so covers a wider range of functionality than some other, heavier distros. While it may not be quite the fastest, have the most packages or be the most user-friendly distro available, it scores well in each category. This probably isn't an ideal first distribution for a Linux novice, but it would make a great second (and possibly last) distro.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Virtualization Comparisons, the Future of OpenSolaris, Squashing Debian Bugs
Virtualization is a big topic in the computer industry. It has been pushed as a method to lower energy costs, save physical space in the server room, test operating systems and add a layer of security. But which virtualization technology is right for your environment? There are several choices out there and it can be difficult to figure out which is the best fit for your needs. To help us navigate the often complex topic, Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier offers his thoughts in a piece called
"KVM or Xen? Choosing a Virtualization Platform".
* * * * *
 The open source community has been waiting a long time for a new version of OpenSolaris. The latest release was due to arrive back in February and, despite the occasional rumour, we don't seem to be any closer to an official release. And it seems the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) is tired of waiting. According to this blog post, the OGB is giving Oracle one more chance to step up to the plate. If Oracle does not respond, the OGB will hand over control of the OpenSolaris project to Oracle, effectively washing their hands of the situation.
* * * * *
 With all the buzz around cloud computing, have you ever felt that you wanted a cloud of your own? We hear a lot about cloud computing these days and it seems Red Hat is getting into the game. The open source giant is now offering
consulting services for organizations interested in learning about and setting up their own cloud infrastructure.
* * * * *
 Fixing bugs doesn't have to be just more tedious work, it can also be a fun social activity. That's why Debian developers had a
bug squashing party in Munich this past weekend. The event brings Debian closer to wiping out the remaining
release critical bugs, moving the project closer to its next stable release. The Debian team has a long-standing policy of releasing when the code is ready rather than sticking to a specific schedule and it is good to see the developers are dedicated to putting together a polished system.
* * * * *
Every so often it's nice to see different approaches in the open source community. The BareMetal OS is just such a fresh approach.
BareMetal is a very small 64-bit operating system designed with high performance, embedded applications and education in mind. It's written entirely in Assembly and is offered under the BSD license. If you are interested in OS internals or want to learn more about 64-bit Assembly, BareMetal is worth studying.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Fine-grained file permissions
Assigning-access asks: A colleague of mine claims Linux doesn't have the same fine-grained file permissions as his favourite operating system (you know the one). Is there a way to extend beyond the regular owner/group/other permissions to be more flexible?
DistroWatch answers:
First, for those people not familiar with traditional file system permissions on Linux, the concept is fairly simple. Each file (directory) is assigned a set of three permissions which determine what the owner of the file can do with the file, what people in a given group can do with the file and what everyone else can do with the file. Each category is further broken into three items indicating whether a person can read the file, change it or execute it. It's easier to understand if you see an example. If you open a command line and run the command
ls -l
you'll see a list of files. The first column will probably look like this
-rw-r--r--
drwxr-xr-x
The first item is a regular file and the first group of four symbols shows the owner of the file can read and write to the file. The second group of three symbols indicates the file can be read by people in the file's group. And the final section says anyone else who isn't the owner or in the file's group can also read the file. The second line in this example starts with a "d", which tells us it is a directory. Again, following the displayed letters, we can see the owner can read, write and enter the directory. People in the directory's group (and everyone else) can read from the directory and enter it, but cannot alter its contents.
You can get a more complete explanation here.
In environments where there are a few different categories of users and each category needs to have a different level of access, we need to find ways of making use of the basic file permissions. One way to do that is to create new groups of users on the system. For instance, we can have an "accounting" group. To set this up, we login as root and run
groupadd accounting
We can then assign people to that group. In my example, we want to make the user "susan" a member of the "accounting" group. To do this, we run
vigr
Our "accounting" group should be the last entry in the file. It will look something like this
accounting:x:105:
To add Susan to this group we append her name to the line so that it looks like this:
accounting:x:105:susan
and then save the file. So now we have a group and a person is a member of that group. To make sure a file is assigned to the accounting group, we then run
chgrp accounting mydata
where "mydata" is a file on our system. To make sure the accounting group then has the ability to read and edit the file, but anyone outside the group can only read the file, we could assign the following permissions
chmod 664 mydata
The file "mydata" will then show up in a directory listing like this:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root accounting 1024 2010-07-12 15:30 mydata
With this done, we can add as many people as we want to the accounting group, granting them access. We can then create a new group for each category of users, so we might end up with an "hr" group, an "it" group, and so on.
I like this approach to handling file access because it uses traditional file permissions and works well across distributions and file systems.
Another approach, which gives more flexibility, is Access Control Lists. ACL is a method of offering fine-grained control over files. The functionality exists in more recent kernels (the 2.6.x family) and works across most Linux file systems, including ext2/3/4, ReiserFS and XFS. The file system to be worked on needs to be mounted with the "acl" flag. This can be done by adding "acl" to the proper line in /etc/fstab. For example
/dev/sda2 /home ext3 acl,rw 0 0
The above line enables ACL features on our /home partition. We should then re-mount the partition:
mount -v -o remount /home
Using our previous example, where we want Susan to have access to the "mydata" file, we could grant her permission to read and edit the file using
setfacl -m u:susan:rw- mydata
We can give the entire accounting group the same access using
setfacl -m g:accounting:rw- mydata
And we can assign read-only access to the HR group with
setfacl -m g:hr:r-- mydata
To confirm the proper permissions are in place, we can then use the getfacl command to see what permissions are attached to the file
getfacl mydata
Though the ACL approach has more requirements (newer kernel, mount flags and the ACL package must be installed) it offers additional power to the administrator. The ACL rules can handle long lists of specific users and groups (not just one owner and one group), allowing the administrator to fine-tune permissions for any number of use-cases.
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| Released Last Week |
Zencafe GNU/Linux 2.2
Zencafe GNU/Linux is a Slackware and Zenwalk-based distribution designed specifically for deployment in Internet cafés. The project's latest release, version 2.2, was announced earlier today: "This Zencafe version uses the latest Zenwalk Linux distribution and kernel 2.6.33.4. Mainly designed for use in Internet cafés, Zencafe is polished and easy enough to be operated even by a non-technical user. With the included auto-recovery and Internet café management software, Zencafe is the first Linux solution that is suitable for use in Internet cafés. Software included: Linux kernel 2.6.33.4, OpenOffice.org 3.2.1, Mozilla Firefox, Pidgin and Gyachi (instant messengers), Mkahawa Internet café management software, auto-recovery and kiosk mode protection. What's new? Simple installation process, user-friendly keyboard shortcuts, additional applications..." You can read the full release
announcement here.
T2 SDE 8.9
Rene Rebe has announced the release of T2 SDE 8.0, a distribution build kit designed for advanced Linux users who wish to build custom distributions: "After years of development we are proud to announce the availability of the new T2 stable release, version 8.0. This release received updates across the board, while a major working target was to further improve cross compilation, and all official ISO images are now fully cross-built. Over 10,000 Subversion revisions indicate the magnitude of the release, with over 200 new packages, new features and various other improvements and fixes. User visible changes: GCC 4.5.0, glibc 2.11.2, X.Org 7.5, preliminary support for LLVM/clang and MinGW/Win32." You can read the full announcement on the project's website.
openSUSE 11.3
The long wait is over; some eight months after the release of the previous stable version, openSUSE 11.3 is now officially available: "The openSUSE project is pleased to announce the release of the latest incarnation of openSUSE, with support for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. openSUSE 11.3 is packed with new features and updates including SpiderOak to synchronize your files across the Internet for free, Rosegarden for free editing of your audio files, improved indexing with Tracker, and updates to Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. Among these many new features, openSUSE also provides support for netbooks and the Btrfs file system support. Users can expect to see improved hardware support with the 2.6.34 Linux kernel and updated graphics drivers. And support for the next generation of interactive computing for touchscreens like the HP TouchSmart." You can read the full announcement here.
The openSUSE 11.3 Desktop
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Netrunner 2
Jason Melton has announced the release of Netrunner 2, a beginner-friendly, Ubuntu-based desktop distribution and live DVD with a carefully tuned KDE 4 desktop and integrated GNOME applications: "Today we released the official Netrunner 2 'Blacklight' CD image. Features: switched from GNOME to KDE; aims to be Ubuntu, GNOME and GTK+ compatible; includes GNOME applications like Nautilus and Synaptic; includes Firefox 3.6.3, installed web browser plugins (Java, Flash), VLC 1.1 (media player with codecs), OpenOffice.org software suite 3.2, Thunderbird (email client), WINE 1.42, GIMP (paint program), Audacious (Winamp-like music player), Pidgin, Vuze (file-sharing program). All on top of a fine-tuned and easily customizable KDE 4.4 desktop environment." You can read the announcement
here.
openSUSE 11.3 Edu Li-f-e
Following the recent release of openSUSE 11.3, the project's education team has now released its "Edu Li-f-e" edition, a specialist distribution for schools and other educational environments: "The openSUSE Education team is thrilled to announce the availability of openSUSE Edu: Linux for Education (Li-f-e). The aim of this DVD is to provide complete education and development resources for parents, students, teachers as well as IT admins running labs at educational institutes. It comes bundled with a wealth of software carefully selected to meet every need. Educational software covering a wide range of subjects such as IT, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy and electronics catering to students right from pre-school to research. If you are a developer or a student wanting to learn programming on Linux platform, there is everything you can hope for in one place: Java, C, C++, Perl, Python, LAMP stack, databases, IDEs, the list goes on." You can read the
full announcement here.
SuperGamer Supreme 2
Darin VanCoevering has announced the release of SuperGamer Supreme 2, a dual-layer DVD packed with games and other day-to-day software applications: "SuperGamer is a games-oriented Linux desktop operating system. It has all the normal Linux desktop applications such as the Firefox browser and OpenOffice.org, but also has a great many native Linux games added, as well as some demo editions of proprietary games. This SuperGamer Supreme 2 version will work on both 32-bit and 64-bit PCs and fills a full live dual-layer DVD. It includes support for Ethernet, wireless, and dial-up Internet connections. It can run in live mode directly from the DVD and can be optionally installed to a hard drive. I also included the latest NVIDIA and ATI drivers. A few key components are Linux kernel 2.6.27.47, Azureus, Audacity, GParted, Limewire, GIMP, K9copy...."
The rest of the release announcement is here.
Linux Mint 9 "LXDE"
Linux Mint 9 "LXDE" edition, featuring the lightweight LXDE desktop and designed for older computers with limited resources, has been released: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 9 LXDE. Based on Lubuntu 10.04, Linux kernel 2.6.32, Openbox 3.4.10, LXSession 0.4.3, and X.Org Server 1.7.5, Linux Mint 9 LXDE features a complete desktop computing experience while being easy on system resource usage thus making it suitable for older hardware and situations where speed is a crucial factor. Featured improvements in this release: LXDM, improved PCManFM2 file manager, VLC installed by default, 30,000 applications catalogued and reviewable both online and in the new software manager, brand new incremental backup tool for both data and software selection, three years support."
You can read the full announcement here.
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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 |
New distributions added to database
- Uberstudent: Uberstudent ("uber" meaning "productive" in Latin) is an Ubuntu-based distribution on a DVD designed for learning and teaching academic computing at the higher education and advanced secondary levels.
The Uberstudent desktop.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Chameleon OS. Light-weight linux operating system with changeable skins.
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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, 26 July 2010.
Jesse Smith
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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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| Random Distribution | 
Bonzai Linux
Bonzai Linux has been build to offer a Debian based Desktop-OS that fits on a 180MB CD-R(W). The Distribution includes the current stable version of KDE and has been modified for easier installation.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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.
|
| 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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