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1 • Compiling the Linux kernel (by megadriver on 2011-04-18 09:45:47 GMT from Spain)
You can obtain the current kernel configuration file in most distros this way:
zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
One of the main advantages of configuring (make menuconfig) and compiling your own kernel is the possibility of specifying _just_ the drivers your machine needs, and compile everything in (i.e not as modules), dispensing with the need of a separate initial RAM disk.
2 • Puppy (by KC1DI on 2011-04-18 10:04:52 GMT from United States)
Wow your a brave soul, opening once again the dreaded discussion of Puppy and root privileges. I did that some years ago on a puppy list and came away bloodied and worn.
But if I remember right one of the Dev's had posed a way of changing puppy into a more secure platform with users and all. just can't remember where I saw the article.
In any event always like trying out each new puppy. but alas always end up installing a more robust distro after that.
It sure is fast though.
enjoyed the review :)
3 • GRUB 2 (by megadriver on 2011-04-18 10:10:30 GMT from Spain)
And, yeah, GRUB2 sucks! It's not KISS at all.
If you, like me, have simple booting needs, good old LILO (which is being actively developed once again!) is unbeatable!
http://lilo.alioth.debian.org/
4 • Puppy and root priviledges (by Stuart on 2011-04-18 10:17:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
I would like to try a distribution like Puppy, but using root priviledges shows an incredible lack of security awareness.
Does anyone know of similar, but more competent distributions?
5 • puppy roots (by da bug on 2011-04-18 10:26:07 GMT from United States)
of course, it's intended to be run as a live cd - making root moot
6 • Puppy (by Swell on 2011-04-18 10:47:29 GMT from United Kingdom)
As a great Puppy fan, Robert's extensive review is not only fair & reasonable but goes well beyond with his helpful suggestions. Unlike him, I am a proponent of 'root only' solutions, although I use my own subterfuges to avoid alien invaders. Of course, if you boot to a liveCD written on a CD-R, the chances of being invaded or cloned from session-to-session become vanishingly small. Despite his excellent assessment, Robert is clearly a newcomer to the mutt, so he was unaware of the massive preceding discussions about the finer aspect of the breed archived within the (poorly indexed, but one of the few willing to accept dissent) Murga Forum, the independent Forum and most recently, especially for the cogoscenti, Kauler's personal blog where he describes the minutia and motivation for every coded breath he breathes. And you don't get more value for no charge from ANY other distro, making it the undoubted permanent top ten in Ladislav's page hit rankings.
Too many inadequate reviews of Puppy from ill-informed reviewers - this is not one. Everybody could benefit from trying this one and taking the time to adjust it to their personal taste and requirements. Even the impossible can often be achieved with the amazing help of the army of clever kennel clubbers.
7 • Puppy and kernel (by Carlos on 2011-04-18 10:48:48 GMT from Brazil)
I used to have Puppy on my old eeepc as well, but I guess I am so used to using Debian and Ubuntu with sudo, I think it's weird to use a distro logged in as root... About the endless security debate, I can't say anything because I never had problems at all with Linux ;)...
Oh and great guide to compiling the kernel. That can be a real pain for a noob like me.
8 • Safe as a Puppy (by Lobster on 2011-04-18 10:49:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
Puppy is perfectly secure and recommended for banking
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Security
We also cater for those requiring tinfoil hat levels of paranoia
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=398158#398158
Be Safe Guys
9 • @ Jesse (by Anonymous on 2011-04-18 11:02:13 GMT from United States)
That's great and all, but how are Users supposed to track security updates within the kernel?
10 • root (by guerreau on 2011-04-18 11:28:09 GMT from France)
I boot always as root, thats much cooler ; security problems ? never seen....
please, leave everybody have his personal choice ;-) (what is freedom ?)
AG
11 • @9 (by megadriver on 2011-04-18 11:30:37 GMT from Spain)
1. Download relevant security/update patch
2. Apply patch to kernel source
3. make oldconfig
4. Recompile kernel
5. Install modules (if applicable)
5. Rebuild initial RAM disk (if applicable)
6. Copy kernel image and initial RAM disk (if applicable) to /boot
7. Update boot loader config (if needed)
8. Reboot (finger crossing optional)
9. ...
10. Profit!
12 • Puppy review (by Ryan on 2011-04-18 11:36:19 GMT from Philippines)
i'd like to say a few words about this review. puppy linux is intended to be used as a livecd with the alternate option to create a persistent save file. it is not meant to be installed on a hard disk though the option is there. i believe most of the development is intended in polishing puppy's ability to run from usb drives or any live media than a full blown os installation. most of robert's frustrations with puppy came from not using the system to its intended purposes. read here http://puppylinux.org/main/How NOT to install Puppy.htm
13 • Puppy, a hackers dream.... (by Ron on 2011-04-18 11:44:08 GMT from United States)
I think it is great to have a linux distro out there that has no sense of security and leaves the root wide open. I just wonder how long it will be before people realize they are being suckered into a very bad situation so hackers can use there computer any way or any time without them even knowing about it.
Of course there are many more security risks and only an idiot would say that leaving the root wide open like that, signing in as root account only, is a good and safe thing. You people that believe this are making some criminal hackers really, really happy. Your call and your computer. Do what you will. But I will never run any operating system like that, including Puppy.
14 • Puppy (by Artie on 2011-04-18 11:48:19 GMT from Norway)
Thanks for an interesting review of Puppy 5.2.5. There are many different Puppy versions and the way you described the difference between Wary, Quirky and Lucid was very informative and useful.
I have been playing with Puppies for many years and have used it on many different desktops and laptops and USB sticks. mbr.bin works every time so I recommend everyone to try that one first.
In my opinion Puppy shouldn't really be compared to fullblown distros like Ubuntu. It's a community effort where countless people contribute just for the fun of it and everyone is welcome to chip in or make their own derivatives. People expecting another windows replacement might be disappointed, the rest of us are just having a ball. :-)
For extra software, many of the apps in http://portablelinuxapps.org/ will work just give them a try or check the lists of working apps on the forum.
Artie
15 • Puppy review (by Wine Curmudgeon on 2011-04-18 12:04:39 GMT from United States)
Terrific review. Would that all Linux distro reviews were that thorough, instead of rehashing what's on the website. And your point about installing Puppy is right on. I can't tell you how many times I've had to re-install and re-install it, especially with older hardware.
If, as Artie says in 14, all one wants to do is play with a distro or use it as a rescue or portable distro, there is no need to install Puppy. But since so many people expect a distro to act like Windows and Mac and to be installed, Puppy needs to be installed. My mom would never understand booting from a CD.
16 • Puppy (by Artie on 2011-04-18 12:12:27 GMT from Norway)
The link in 12 on how NOT to install Puppy doesn't work for me. Here's one that works: http://puppylinux.org/main/How%20NOT%20to%20install%20Puppy.htm
17 • My Crunchbang Review and this week's DWW News. (by Landor on 2011-04-18 12:39:29 GMT from Canada)
As I commented last week, I've published my review of Crunchbang today at my blog - http://landorsplace.wordpress.com/ for those that are interested.
-----
I was hopeful that in some way Debian and gNewSense were collaborating on an even more 'Free' Debian. I was disappointed to see in the article that it had been gNewSense only that approached Debian and nothing had been done on the topic.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
18 • Comments to comments ... (by Pierre on 2011-04-18 12:42:05 GMT from Germany)
I think to mention, that Robert used the system not like the developers intended users to make use of it, is... in fact... useless. He even assumes: "Maybe the only thing wrong with Puppy is that users' expectations tend to exceed the developer's intentions."
And that's the point, he knew that his expectations differ from the developer's intentions.
Although I don't see the need for the opportunity to have the ability to install Puppy if it is not intended to be used as hard disk installed system.
How ever, the review was really nice as usuall. I'm always looking forward to Monday and the new review in the DWW. :-)
Good work, keep on!
19 • Open Office (by Eddie on 2011-04-18 12:56:28 GMT from United States)
I know that this does not follow any of the topics this week but I just read this story about Oracle giving up on Open Office and thought everyone would like to read it.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/04/
20 • RE: 19 (by Landor on 2011-04-18 13:08:32 GMT from Canada)
Not saying that it's false, but I have to actually consider the validity of the article. There was not a link that I could see in the article for Oracle's original statement that they'd be dropping it. Also, something that big would have garnered widespread attention from the community in news and other forms of media, including personal blogs.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
21 • Grub2 (by cba on 2011-04-18 13:19:22 GMT from Germany)
OpenSuse 11.4 also still uses Grub1, not Grub2.
If you want to start e.g. an OS like Haiku via Grub2 and a fresh installed Debian Squeeze, this is an absolut horrible experience.
Grub1 instead is "Haiku-ready" in less than ten seconds.
Maybe Grub2 is still beta?
22 • @20 (by Tony Brijeski on 2011-04-18 13:19:30 GMT from Canada)
Here is the link which was at the bottom of the article.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Oracle-Announces...
23 • re #4 a distro like Puppy but safer? (by gnomic on 2011-04-18 13:19:33 GMT from New Zealand)
Hummm, a distro like Puppy . . . well this could be tricky, for better or worse there's nothing quite like Puppy near as I can tell. You could have a look at antiX perhaps, or SliTaz, or Salix. There is a live CD version of SLiTaz at godane.wordpress.com with added apps that has run here for a couple of weeks with no glitches. Or there is porteus at porteus.org. Maybe that could be a Puppy substitute.
24 • Kernel compilation (by Donnie on 2011-04-18 13:44:59 GMT from United States)
@Jesse--You may already know, for for everyone else who's reading. . .
The kernel compilation procedure that you've described only works on certain distros. Debain and Ubuntu have their own completely different way of doing things, which requires a special set of tools. Using the traditional method that you've described for either of these distros will only result in a kernel that you won't be able to install.
25 • Re #23, #4 Alternatives to Puppy (by MarkSouth on 2011-04-18 13:45:03 GMT from Switzerland)
To add to what gnomic says in #23: There are several distros that are playing in the same space as Puppy. Austrumi is always interesting, for one.
Salix and antiX are really meant to be installed, and they are more like lean installs of mainstream distros, as is CrunchBang (reviewed last week, also see Landor's blog post linked in #17).
But there's one that stands out for running on older or less capable hardware: SliTaz. SliTaz is a tiny download, about 30Mb or so, it runs entirely in RAM on nearly anything, and it has a decent selection of packages - which can even be installed for temporary use while running in live mode. For example, I've booted SliTaz live, then installed the Skype package, signed in and made a voice call, and shut down.
SliTaz has an interesting approach to installing proprietary packages or other large sets (like Skype, Java, OpenOffice), the SliTaz package manager installs an installer which then downloads and unpacks the package
It's pretty stable - I've run it for several weeks in live mode, and it only stopped because of a power flicker caused by a lightning storm. By default, it runs as a normal user, and the root account is enabled for doing admin tasks.
As far as running as root: my opinion (for what it's worth) is that it's generally not a good idea, but that if you are going to do it, do it from a liveCD. But be aware of the risks. I think it's fair to say that the Puppy fans have been told of the risk many times, and if they still do it they are doing it with their eyes open. De gustibus non disputandum.
26 • Booting with GRUB? (by zykoda on 2011-04-18 13:53:34 GMT from United Kingdom)
There are issues to which there are compromises to be made. It's only a matter of time before they become more important. Those interested refer to the following.
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6480/1/
27 • Puppy and Kernel (by Jesse on 2011-04-18 14:08:59 GMT from Canada)
@Robert: I enjoyed the Puppy review. Thanks for sharing.
@24: >> "The kernel compilation procedure that you've described only works on certain distros. Debain and Ubuntu have their own completely different way of doing things, which requires a special set of tools. Using the traditional method that you've described for either of these distros will only result in a kernel that you won't be able to install."
That's not true at all. The steps I outlined here were run as shown on a Ubuntu 10.04 test box and the kernel installed and ran without any trouble.
28 • RE: The commerical version (by Eddie on 2011-04-18 14:21:31 GMT from United States)
What may have confused you, and I didn't make that clear, is this pertains to the commercial version of Open Office. The community version, if you can call it that, will still be developed by who ever is left.
29 • RE:Grub2 again? (by Eddie on 2011-04-18 14:44:27 GMT from United States)
I still can't figure out why people are having such a problem with Grub2. No Grub2 does not suck. If you learn how to manage scripts then you won't have any problems with Grub2. Now to be fair I haven't tried Grub2 on all distro so there may be some problems out there, but with what I have tried it on I really have had no problems. This includes MS Windows as well as Linux. Also there are tools like "Grub Customizer" which will let you edit, add, subtract entries, also you can change colors, resolution, and add pictures, and much more all in a nice GUI environment. How much simpler does it have to be?
And to whomever ask the question, No, Grub2 is not still in beta.:)
30 • 26 • Booting with GRUB? (by jack on 2011-04-18 14:46:07 GMT from Canada)
the date of the link given is May 2008
Surely there must have been changes to Grub since that time, which might invalidate some or all of the instructions ?
31 • RE: 22 - 28 (by Landor on 2011-04-18 14:55:24 GMT from Canada)
#22
Thank you. I did see that but ignored it as just some overview of Oracle Inc. This is a reason why I almost never read any news from our community, poorly done. The article hardly spoke of dropping the commercial product in all truth, and the most important aspect, the link to the original statement they made, was marked as 'further reading' after the article was finished, and just labeled 'Oracle'. Very poorly done.
Thanks again.
#28
I had to pause and take in what I was reading again, as I first thought it was about the Open Source version as well.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
32 • Puppy (by imnotrich on 2011-04-18 15:43:33 GMT from Mexico)
I have enjoyed puppies from versions 1 through 4, with 4.3.1 in particular being a work of genius. I've installed them to the hard drive. I've used them as live rescue cd's (on a cd-r, not rw for security sake), and I've installed them as .sfs files in windows partitions. I understand you can also now install them to a usb flash drive though I've never tried it.
One of my bigger gripes with puppy is the limited choice of packages available in their "repos" or in some cases packages that used to work don't work anymore. If you can't count on a program to work with each install, what's the point?
Until now. Starting with the 5 series Puppy now isn't a true "independent" distro in that they use Ubuntu binaries as a foundation and that has opened up the Ubuntu repos. Unfortunately, it also creates more problems than it solves because you have Ubuntu bugs and issues, such as poor video support for NVIDIA, ATI and Intel cards. Plus you're running as root so when things do go bad, they can go really, really bad.
I've had issues with Puppy 5 installs on 4 different machines (three desktops, one laptop) and was only able to salvage one of them - the other three I gave up. My advice to those who want something that "just works" and has fairly good support for wifi including laptop cards stick with Puppy 4.3.1.
33 • Bet on UFC fights (by placebetufc on 2011-04-18 15:59:52 GMT from Germany)
Comment deleted (spam).
34 • Puppy Linux review (by CJ Veniot on 2011-04-18 16:09:24 GMT from Canada)
Hello,
I think the review misses the mark a bit on the "meat and potatoes" purpose of Puppy Linux.
Primarily, Puppy Linux is meant to be booted from CD and/or USB ... a nomadic distribution allowing you to not only carry your data with you, but your applications, your O/S, and your settings. The whole issue of running as Root ... kind of moot.
Secondarily, Puppy Linux can be installed "frugally". I'm sure somebody else can better explain this, but I'll throw my "pre-schooler" view: security-wise, the applications and O/S are contained in an unalterable image (again, Root, not so much of an issue). An upgrade to this kind of install is very easy: just replace the image.
Finally, you can have a traditional install of Puppy Linux, IF YOU REALLY MUST! I would recommend that only for very old (or "special purpose") computers that are disconnected or really don't have "the juice" to handle heavy-lugging on the internet. I've done that with "ASRI Éducation" and "HanSamBen", special versions of Puppy Linux for kids.
From personal experience, using only Puppy Linux for the last four years (always booting from CD), I've had only good experiences.
I think it's a mistake to review Puppy as a traditionally installed O/S to be compared with Ubuntu (or other heavy and traditionally installed O/S.) That's not Puppy's primary purpose.
Puppy should be reviewed as an all-purpose nomadic distribution or a distro to breathe new life into really old computers. As for security: I trust this Live CD distro running as Root much more than any installed distro running as non-Root.
BTW
* grandma won't have any problem booting from CD if you have two CD drives (one for Puppy, and one for everything else);
* before installing Puppy and dealing with problems, isn't it a much better idea to test (Wi-Fi, for example) "Live" ? That's one of the primary benefits of Live CD's.
35 • BTW on Puppy Linux review (by CJ Veniot on 2011-04-18 16:14:22 GMT from Canada)
I can't imagine how much work goes into doing these kinds of reviews. It takes somebody with pretty thick skin to put these together, because you know you'll take a trashing.
So, my previous comments aside, thank-you. Your time and effort are very much appreciated.
All I ask is that, in future reviews, please consider reviewing the "subject" with that "subject's" primary purpose in mind.
Cheers and best regards.
36 • RE: 35 (by Landor on 2011-04-18 17:12:22 GMT from Canada)
'All I ask is that, in future reviews, please consider reviewing the "subject" with that "subject's" primary purpose in mind.'
While I tend to agree with the above statement, it's also not fully correct. Let me explain.
Pointing out something has a primary purpose denotes that it must have secondary purposes as well. Why must it rigidly adhere to just that purpose? Why shouldn't some emphasis be put on its secondary purpose(s)? They are present after all.
I personally don't like stale and bland reviews. I don't like finding something that's be regurgitated by many an author, across many websites/blogs. I prefer the obscure, little known bits of information, or reviews. Anyone can say the round peg fits in the round hole and the square block doesn't.
Besides, my personal opinion is that the recent releases of Puppy do not offer anything up to write a good review about it. That doesn't negate the above truths regarding reviews though.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
37 • Puppy & Wolfer (by Flip23 on 2011-04-18 17:47:35 GMT from United States)
Wanted to thank Distrowatch for turning me on to this distro Wolfer Linux. This little distro has become my distro of choice it is sorta plain, sorta ugly but man does it run! Thank you Jesse for your review I wouldn't have noticed it but for your review.
Now my thoughts on Puppy I do some puter work and was spending lots of money for this program this disc for win, mac especially for programs to recover data. Now I just send monthly donations to Puppy it will shock a lot of people when they find out what you can do with a live Puppy cd . That and Trinity Rescue is all I use now .
38 • @ 4 • Puppy and root priviledges (by Flip23 on 2011-04-18 17:51:51 GMT from United States)
Go to the Puppy forums there are a couple of variants that do offer multi user logins ! I think is Pizza Pup.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php?f=35
39 • re: 36 (by da bug on 2011-04-18 18:24:51 GMT from United States)
to quote from a recent review of crunchbang i saw somewhere or another:
"With reviewing any distribution you really should try to find out what its intentions are, all about it. Meaning, what audience does it intend to reach. What are its goals. How come it’s built the way it is, and why."
it seems it would apply to reviewing puppy, especially as regards live cds and old equipment
40 • @21: GRUB2 and Haiku, etc. (by eco2geek on 2011-04-18 18:30:44 GMT from United States)
Using GRUB2 to boot to Haiku is easy. Say you've got Haiku installed on sda2 (and you've only got one hard drive, to make things easier). Hopefully you told Haiku to install its boot loader to the partition it's installed on, not the MBR. Then, in /etc/grub.d/40_custom, you'd add something like the following:
menuentry "Haiku (on sda2)" {
set root=(hd0,2)
chainloader +1
}
Then run "update-grub".
The advantage of GRUB2 is obvious when you have multiple distros on one computer. If you tell each new distro to install GRUB (1 or 2) to its root partition during installation, then the copy of GRUB that's on the MBR will "pick up" and include them all automagically in its menu each time you run "update-grub". This beats the hell out of manually configuring grub.conf every time you install a new distro, or when one of your distros gets a kernel update.
41 • RE: 36 (by Landor on 2011-04-18 18:38:41 GMT from Canada)
If you noticed in my review http://landorsplace.wordpress.com , I left myself an out with that comment. If you have added that it, it would make a world of difference, and make your comment invalid.
'That’s the respect due to distribution that warrants respect.'
As I stated, I do not believe the recent releases of Puppy, and I should also add, at times the community, offer anything up to write a good review about. Hence, they don't warrant it.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
42 • Puppy Linux review ... about "purpose" (by CJ Veniot on 2011-04-18 19:05:27 GMT from Canada)
Landor: I think I understand where you're going, but...
If I wrote a review about a saw, and how it doesn't work as well as this hammer when it comes to putting this nail in this piece of wood, then I should probably make that point clear.
The article IS good. It just doesn't present it's own purpose clearly: a review of Puppy Linux as a substitute for Ubuntu in the role of a full-featured and heavy distro traditionally installed on a decent piece of hardware.
Obviously, that's not what Puppy Linux is meant for, and the article, rightly, "implicitly" points that out.
Not every Linux distro is appropriate for every scenario. That's the beauty of Linux.
43 • Puppy Linux (by Edward on 2011-04-18 19:05:41 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the review. Puppy Linux is not just another Linux distro, but IS another Linux distro, and the ONLY one of that sort. Ther eis no other distro that can be compared to Puppy Linux.
There is nothing much to confuse the first time user of Puppy Linux, and even when it is installed. Everything is written in good simple English, and people have to read, why not.
The other point is, once Puppy Linux is booted up, the CD is ejected, so if you click "CD" when installing, you just get that notice stating that the CD is not mounted. One has to know what's happening around one and remember that the CD is EJECTED.
No other distro in the Linux world can match or be compared to Puppy Linux!
Having the Puppy Linux Cd (or USB) one can get into any other distro, and nothing can be hidden, whereas, if Puppy Linux blocks any file in it, other distros can'topen that!
44 • da bug (by re: 41 on 2011-04-18 19:15:01 GMT from United States)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
45 • Root and regular users (by Sean on 2011-04-18 19:46:43 GMT from Canada)
You know what> On my personal machines, root *IS* my account.. Has been since 1995 and the Slackware CD's my then boss dropped on my desk.
When people start telling me the reasons I shouldn't use root as my account, I tell them I've already read the best practices from Bell Labs, and if they haven't got any material which dates from the current millenium, I'd appreciate it if they would STFU and go stick their nose in someone else's business (since these people patently have no business of their own to mind...)
*I* make the choices for my machines, and plenty of other machines as well. What's important isn't what Bell Labs thought was best practices in 1970. What is important is analyzing the situation, thinking for yourself, and then implementing the best possible solution. Sometimes, that means someone gets to be root. Other times, it doesn't.
In fact, most of those Bell Labs employees would have declined to have included those best practices if they had thought you people would stop thinking about it yourself and just keep parroting their limited, and hurried take on the subject...
46 • re 3 and 40 (and others) (by Woody Oaks on 2011-04-18 19:54:59 GMT from United States)
For multi-boot hard drives simply install a separate Grub 1 to each of the partitions (e.g., sda1, sda2, sda3, sda6) and one distro's Grub 1 (say, sda5) to the hdd's MBR, then on the grub.conf file of that MBR-Grub list the other partitions with chainloading instructions. Switching your default preference in that grub.conf file is a lot easier than juggling priority numbers in Grub2's grub.d directory, and with every distro booting from its own Grub (a Grub 1) each of those Grubs gets automatically updated with every kernel upgrade. Grub 1 was briefly hobbled by 256 byte inodes, but it was soon repaired; Grub 2, in my opinion, should be fixed by a veterinarian.
47 • Puppy (by Robert W. Hayden on 2011-04-18 20:01:56 GMT from United States)
I can't speak to Puppy 5.2.5 or the reviewer's hardware but I have installed many versions of Puppy on many machines and found it to be the distro most likely to work and keep working. I use it to revive my computers after some mightier OS has trashed them.
I think a review of a distro should give a summary of what is new in this version and the goals of the distro. (II know that is not always easy. Many times have I gone to the site of a distro I've read about here and found not a clue as to its intent.) Eternal debates over things like logging in as root, or Emacs versus vi should get at most a sentence or a link, as should any issues peculiar to the reviewer's hardware. Most readers already have a religion and are interested in their own hardware.
These questions of how to write a review are broader than this site. In general, distro reviews tend to address whether the distro suits the reviewer's needs, when the review should address whether the distro meets the needs of those whose needs the distro addresses. So for Puppy the review should be mostly about running it from a CD, with again a possible brief comment about a hard drive install (which Puppy allows but recommends against).
BTW, I use the ability to write a boot floppy as follows. I still have a Pentium 200 box I use to run old DOS and Windows 3.1 software. It will not boot from a CD so I copy the Puppy CD to the hard drive and boot from the floppy. Among other things, I use Puppy to backup the Microsoft partitions to a CD since their old OSs do not burn CDs but Puppy does, even on this hardware. I don't believe Puppy will run on any systems that use cassette tapes for storage but if anyone can provide a counterexample I am sure Puppy will provide support;-)
48 • Puppy, Guess who... (by Ron on 2011-04-18 20:40:42 GMT from United States)
Well I think what is happening is that the majority of people speaking out loudly in the defense of keeping the root wide open like that are the ones who benefit from computers that have little or no security. Then others of course, a few sheep, just follow the loud ones.
Logging in as root is not only the worst idea but just just common sense. If people want something that unsecured just go back to MS Windows or only use that and don't duel boot.
Ok now even with a livecd what is going to stop a hacker from accessing mounted drives and that data? Think it can't happened? Ok, whatever.
49 • Serious Distros (by Anon's Moss on 2011-04-18 22:11:43 GMT from Sweden)
I have noticed, for quite some time now, the use of the term "kiddie distros" (not, as of yet, in this week's comments, though) and I'm all fine with that terminology, and do get the reason behind many distros being referred to as belonging in the "kiddie distro"-category. My question is, what distros are not (generally) considered to be "kiddie distros"? I'd really appreciate if someone could enlighten me. The distros regarded as non-"kiddie distros" seems to be rather few, from what I gather from the comments in this section, as of lately, thus, my humble request wouldn't result in a too long list of non-"kiddie distros", would it?
/Just curious
50 • This weeks review and things... (by davemc on 2011-04-19 01:23:47 GMT from United States)
Most excellent review Robert. Well done. This is the proper way to do a review imo. Good, bad, ugly, you cut to the heart of the Distro and spelled it out well. You spent no time on pointless and needless details like website aesthetics and all your time getting to the meat of the distro. You spent some time covering Puppies deplorable and unprofessional security policy and that was wise. I don’t think Puppy was intended to be a permanent install type of Distro as much as it was meant to be a portable one, so I think the review would have been better targeted in that area, but still, Puppy does give an option for permanent installs, so that is more than fair game.
Great info about the kernel compile. I would like to repeat your consideration for the project Calibre. Please take a look at that app. It is really fantastic and worthy of a DW Donation.
51 • Solution to Quickpet and Pet Packages not running (by Mel on 2011-04-19 02:17:57 GMT from United States)
I also had the problem of many of the Quickpet and Pet pkg’s not running. Then I read somewhere (hidden in small print) that some of these will not run UNTIL you down load the correct video driver. I tried this and now everything runs. (Google Earth, Open Office, Xpad, Gimp, etc.) The video driver auto detection and download are available from a tab on Quickpet. I also remember reading about some versions that had multi-user log in, but have never tried them. I have tried dozens of distros, and so far Puppy is by far my favorite.
52 • Other distributions (by JR on 2011-04-19 03:56:55 GMT from Brazil)
anyone has tried the Epidemic GNU / Linux which is in Released Last Week? There are various tools developed in-house ...
any thoughts?
53 • RE: 52 (by Landor on 2011-04-19 04:09:17 GMT from Canada)
It's been a few years since I've looked at it. I can tell you this though, they do work towards providing a more simple user experience. The result of those tools you spoke of.
It all comes down to fit and usability in the end.
Hope that helps.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
54 • I know this is off topic but huge news... (by Tek Heretik on 2011-04-19 04:30:01 GMT from Canada)
Linux Mint 10 Gnome 64 bit DVD has successfully installed to my 4 HDD Intel ICH10R Raid 0. Go to the Mint forum for what NOT to do during and after the install (titled 'tricky but successful install on ich10r'). I have been waiting 4 1/2 years for this, a distro to install without the command line jungle...I know...lazy b*stard...but I did try before over the years, had no luck. Now I have to keep my word and give them a donation. Thanks Linux Mint and Distrowatch, I am finally free of that oppressive software corporation I don't even want to mention by name. =)
55 • Sucess compiling Kernel for PCLinuxOS and Pppy Linux (by Tony on 2011-04-19 06:25:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
Many thanks for clear instructions. Strangely I have never have any success compiling a program to run under Linux but with your excellent guide I managed to compile a fully working kernel! Gives me hope I might one day have success compiling an actual program!
Puppy Linux is excellent and I use it for older machines, it often works with laptops when other distros won't and has worked more reliably than parted magic for my partitioning needs. Lighthouse Puppy is I feel a more powerful and polished version of the base Puppy (Obviously a lot bigger) and well worth a test drive.
56 • Root (by Swell, reprise on 2011-04-19 07:13:49 GMT from United Kingdom)
Probably isn't going to be the last word, but here is a warning:
If you intend to download pirate videos, music, etc,
if you intend to visit porno or paedo sites,
if you intend to meet Russian brides,
if you live in the US (or anywhere else without an NHS!) and want to buy drugs on-line from illegal or even unknown vendors
if you click on stuff willy-nilly eg before your morning tea/coffee,
if you let other folks, including infants, juniors and especially teens (your boss/CEO?!) anywhere near YOUR computer,
then it's probably a bad idea to run as root.
57 • Root (by Swell, reprise, PS on 2011-04-19 07:21:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
or:
if you visit any site controlled by you-know-who's OS or use their hotmail
58 • Root (by macias on 2011-04-19 08:28:43 GMT from Poland)
or:
* you are simply tired -- one mistake too far, and you can lose your system
I prefer not only using apps are regular user but also to put most of them in sandboxes (I didn't manage to do this, though).
59 • Root or not (by megadriver on 2011-04-19 09:16:33 GMT from Spain)
I'd say doing any of the stuff mentioned in @56 and @57 is, in general, a bad idea, root or not!
Remember, folks... "Common sense" is the best "security software" available.
60 • Various (by Pedantic Anonymous on 2011-04-19 09:44:22 GMT from United States)
"I know that Puppy likes to support old hardware, but I'm not sure it's still possible to even buy floppy disks."
Give me a break.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=floppy+disks
"And you'll need either mkinitramfs or mkinitrd, depending on your distribution."
No you don't. I don't have either installed, and I compile kernels all the time. Initial ram disks exist mostly to store drivers required to boot that are not built into the kernel - primarily for the hard drive and filesystem, but in the case of an NFS root partition, the network interface driver (and possibly a dhcp client), as well. For the vast majority of people (meaning those with reasonably modern desktops or laptops and a local root filesystem), putting the following line in the .config (and also making sure the root filesystem driver is build into the kernel) will obviate the need for an initial ram disk.
CONFIG_ATA_PIIX=y
"On machines using the GRUB boot loader, we can run the following as root:
update-grub"
I don't have that, either. Must be a grub 2 thing.
"zcat /proc/config.gz > .config"
If the kernel was compiled with that option. I simply store my .configs in /boot rather than actually build them into the kernel.
By the way, this page:
http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/
is quite handy as far as gathering the list of drivers necessary for a particular machine. If you are actually going to compile a kernel, it usually makes sense to only build the necessary drivers for that machine (I strongly prefer actually building them into the kernel rather than as modules), instead of building every driver for every linux supported computer in history.
61 • @56 (by Ron on 2011-04-19 10:43:18 GMT from United States)
You make it sound like the only people that do not want to run things as root are doing questionable or illegal things. Please.... That is as bad as saying the government can watch everything you do because if you are not doing anything wrong then it will be ok (or safe.) That is beyond naive.
62 • Root - Ron (by Swell on 2011-04-19 11:28:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
Can you read, Ron? What you say is selective - read ALL of my text. Your No.13 was equally inappropriate.
Apart from which, Carnivore & Echelon. Everything you do is watched. It keeps us (relatively) safe from despots, tyrants and zealots, inter alia. My guess is that the CIA knows the exact co-ordinates of eg Ahmadinejad every minute of the day.
63 • Puppy Linux (by mechanic on 2011-04-19 11:30:28 GMT from United Kingdom)
I don't think it's at all unrealistic to compare PL with mainstream desktop distros. If your netbook has a hard disk why not install the OS to it, it's a reasonable expectation. I thought in the 21st century we had got beyond the idea of designing products just to satisfy the developers, products should be tailored to meet the needs of users and not the other way round (users adjust their expectations to meet the product's design)! I've tried PL a couple of times and never got beyond the stage of installing Chromium to a PL system installed to a USB key. After a short time the system hangs needing a cold reboot, and this was repeatable.
PL looks nice/different but that's about it. Come to that the same can be said about MeeGo!
64 • Running as 'root'. (by mechanic on 2011-04-19 11:37:16 GMT from United Kingdom)
I think anyone connected to the Internet (or the company WAN) whilst running as 'root' is risking loosing his machine to the bad guys, soon rather than later. If you must do this reinstall your system from a clean source frequently and change login passwords often, using strong ones!
Don't become a zombie!
65 • It would be nice ... (by Coffee on 2011-04-19 12:52:00 GMT from France)
... if DistroWatch had a page with links to all of Jesse's very useful Tips & Tricks articles. As it is now one has to navigate backwards through the weekly issues which makes older articles practically inaccessible. With a dedicated links page all of the articles would be just a click away. The whole thing doesn't have to be anything sophisticated ... just a list of headlines. Whether they're sorted alphabetically or by date doesn't really matter. I think, such an ever growing collection with nuggets of GNU/Linux wisdom would make an attractive new feature for the DistroWatch website. Good idea?
The same applies of course to the weekly distribution reviews. But unlike Tips & Tricks reviews age and become less interesting over time.
66 • RE: 65 Tips and tricks (by ladislav on 2011-04-19 13:10:10 GMT from Taiwan)
It's all here: http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php. The headlines include the tips and tricks - it's usually the last item in each headline.
67 • RE:56 running Puppy as root (by Noob on 2011-04-19 14:55:38 GMT from Hong Kong)
If I am behind my Linksys E4200 router , then how can running Puppy Linux as root be so risky ? How can a hacker break through the firewall setup in a Linksys E4200 router ? Can someone please help me ,thanking you in advance , Puppy Linux lover.
68 • More Root musings (by Rick on 2011-04-19 15:28:06 GMT from United States)
@56 Simple solution: use Puppy for your everyday computing, and Incognito for buying drugs for your illegally downloaded underage Russian brides! ("I'm behind seven proxies" meme optional). Then you don't even need a hard drive!
...
As far as running root as your primary account, seems pretty silly to go out of your way to do this. The only advantage I'd see is not having to sudo to install software/run a package update/edit system config files, but that's not something that gets in the way of everyday use. (Although to be fair, if that is what your everyday use consists of, I guess it'd be worth the trouble.)
69 • RE: 66, Tips and tricks (by Coffee on 2011-04-19 15:40:27 GMT from France)
Thanks for your reply. Yesss, this is exactly what I've been looking for. Great! But I can't find a link to the DWW index on the DW homepage or on the individual DWW pages ... so, I've bookmarked it.
70 • Firewalls and such (by Jesse on 2011-04-19 17:28:38 GMT from Canada)
>> "If I am behind my Linksys E4200 router , then how can running Puppy Linux as root be so risky ? How can a hacker break through the firewall setup in a Linksys E4200 router ? Can someone please help me ,thanking you in advance , Puppy Linux lover."
There are a couple of ways. One would be to exploit a flaw in the router's firewall to send packets through. Another way would be to take over the router and adjust it so it doesn't block attacks against whatever is inside the network. Routers for home networks tend to have very poor security and are rarely kept up to date with security fixes.
And, of course, if any of your programs (web browser, e-mail client, chat program, etc) talks to an outside machine then the firewall won't protect you from exploits that target those programs.
Granted, if you're running Puppy from the CD and you do not have a hard drive in your computer, then you're pretty safe. However, if your machine does have a hard drive then it's trivial to mount it and infect it if an exploit is achieved while you're running as root.
Running as root is a problem if you have storage devices or data attached to the machine because the root account can do whatever it wants with the devices attached to the computer. This applies both to attackers or a legitimate user who makes a typo.
On the other hand, if you have a machine with no storage and you want to run as root from a live disc, then you're pretty safe.
71 • Still more fun with Debian Squeeze slug bug (by imnotrich on 2011-04-19 18:13:02 GMT from Mexico)
Hello again!
In a previous post I described a bug with Squeeze and Skype regarding lack of webcam recognition, and the script I had to use as a workaround. I'm pleased to report the new version of Skype for Linux 2.2.0.25 has corrected this problem, and you can hotplug your cam now too! Un-bug!
Now to some other issues.
Not all installs will create menu items and/or desktop launchers. It doesn't seem to matter if you install using Synaptic, command line, gdebi, or through wine. You can right click on "applications" and select edit menus. Sometimes editing menus works, and sometimes it does not. Worked fine in Lenny. BUG!
Potato Guy - you can drag, but you can't drop. The potato guy's pieces don't stick where you place them. Worked fine in Lenny. BUG!
DosBox 0.74 - When trying to install the 7th guest for DOS, at the end of the install you are directed to insert disk 1 to play the game (because the install is actually on disk 2). When you eject disk 2, DosBox unmounts the cd-rom drive and does not auto-mount when you insert disk 1 and causes Debian to lock up. Control-Alt-Backspace does not let you escape. You have to unplug the computer's power cord. BUG! The workaround is (after a couple reboots because the abrupt shutdown corrupted gnome) once 7th guest is installed, don't insert the 2nd disk. Go straight to the 1st disk and play.
Also - sometimes the auto mount feature thinks 7th guest is an audio cd and opens an audio player. BUG!
Wine 1.0.1-3.1 again (still waiting for the wine maintainer to update this package) will install Dasher (an online chess client for use with ICC) and start to run - but as soon as the female voice says "welcome to the Internet Chess Club" the program crashes out. Dasher's website claims it runs with Wine. I have not found a fix for this yet. BUG!
Yes, I know about eboard but the version of eboard in the repos does not include timeseal, causing any internet lag between you, the game server, and your opponent to be counted against you. BUG!
Again, standard disclaimer. I recognize some of these bugs are not entirely the fault of Debian Squeeze. But anybody who tells you Squeeze "just works" is fibbing. I'm still unable to use my internal sd/media card reader, and I have other hardware/software I haven't tried yet for lack of time.
Stay tuned for updates.
72 • @71 (by fernbap on 2011-04-19 18:35:37 GMT from Portugal)
wine - The version in debian repos is a joke, perhaps because wine releases are never marked as "stable". It is too outdated to be usefull to anything. You can simply add the repo from winehq.org and install the latest release. No biggie at all, winehq gives you all the instructions you need.
Regarding chess server clients:
Dasher - try it with a decent wine version. it works, BUT you should be aware that Dasher includes spyware in order to collect data from your computer.
Blitzin - works flawlessly, at least all times i tried it. It also includes spyware to identify your machine.
Jin - It is a java client, so it is platform independent, supports both FICS and ICC protocols.
Raptor - a new project. Still in beta, but very promising and linux native.
As i play at FICS, i use the one that is for me the best chess client ever, Babaschess, under wine. That is in fact the only windows app i use.
73 • Re @72 (by imnotrich on 2011-04-19 22:01:35 GMT from Mexico)
Thanks for the recommendation of Raptor - Tried it this afternoon. Very cool! I'd like to put the chessboard in the center of the screen instead of left justified - I'm old but both eyes still work! And I'd like to turn off the red arrow and some of the obnoxious sounds (especially the lady counting down my time) but other than that Raptor is excellent, and timeseal too!
I knew Dasher and Blitzen installed spyware, it's my understanding the intent is to catch chess cheaters but like any good rootkit you never know what's going on under the surface.
I've tried Jim in Chrome and found it a little clumsy.
+1 re Babaschess. I've run it under 98, XP, Vista, 7, and with WINE never had a problem. Excellent stuff.
74 • Puppy (by Bert on 2011-04-19 22:03:24 GMT from Belgium)
Puppy is a distro anyone should have..
Also installed.
Years ago there was Damned Small Linux.
Noweadys we have Puppy, and really: any Puppy is a full system.
Puppy 5.2.5 really is state of the art.
I do have a problem with Puppy with one of my computers that sems to be due to the hardware, But nevertheless: puppy is a small and full distro that loads like a charm.
A distro everyone should have laying around.
Really.
75 • Kubuntu Natty (by KevinC on 2011-04-20 01:42:54 GMT from United States)
DL'ed and installed the beta 2 of Kubuntu Natty and it's actually pretty decent. Few bugs, here and there, but overall not bad. Not quite up to OpenSUSE 11.4 standards yet, but I'm really liking KDE 4.x now...didn't think I'd ever say that. Nice to know that since it appears Gnome and Unity are not gonna be ready for prime time for some time...it's good to know there are nice alternatives available---this could be a major win for KDE.
On other topics, nice review of Puppy, tho I have no old hardware to really justify experiment, interesting review.
To Landor---good review of #!...good job--well done.
76 • Puppy and more. (by OldTimer2 on 2011-04-20 03:12:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
Good review of Puppy.
I have heard people rave about Puppy for 6+ years, yet I never cottoned to it, that is despite having tried everything from Slackware 3.0, Corel, SCO, early Redhat, Suse 5.0, Mandrake, DSL and most in between.
I end up coming back to AntiX, PCLinuxos Mini me, Mint and Arch.
They are professional.
Whereas Puppy is, to my way of thinking, a hobby distro, nice if you like it, but rough around the edges, with design quirks and silly ways of doing things.
If you like it, that's fine, but it could be so much better, might try it again when it reaches version 10....
I think two distros have real potential, SliTaz and Tiny Core, they are ones to watch
77 • On distros (by userconfused on 2011-04-20 03:20:57 GMT from Sweden)
Have been using the imfamous Puppy for some years now, not even a "kiddie-distro" from what I gather around here, rather an "infant-distro" - by default running as root. Have also, as of lately, been running an "adult" distro (a RHEL clone, if that really is to be considered a non-"kiddie-distro", as it's so simple to install and run that a mere kid could do it).
Anyway, yesterday I took the chance of installing another, from what I perceived, non-"kiddie-distro"; slackware-current. Accepted most of the default options while installing it - mostly kept accepting and pressing ENTER, and I was left with a full installation, running as password-less root, and I don't even know how to start the firewall in this distro.
I guess that makes me the "kiddie-user", or does it make slackware the "careless adolescent" distro?
FWIW, in Puppy I'm installed, password-protected, and behind a firewall within a minute, while after installing slackware-current, I'm still rather unprotected, due to my being a "kiddie-user" after running for quite some time now (pulled the ethernet cable, while scratching my head, wondering how to protect myself from the evil outside world).
I will find out, eventually, the ins and outs of this slackware distro (which I do like, btw) - I hope.
78 • Kernel 2.6.38 (by JD on 2011-04-20 07:10:58 GMT from United States)
I tried kernel 2.6.38 by downloading it from kernel.org and thne following Ubuntu wiki to compile new kernel to generate the .deb packages. It threw fit on me because of some Ubuntu way of naming custom kernel with "+" sign. After tweaking few items on one build file I was able to compile and generate two required packages with option of 'yes ""| make oldconfig' and used to generate config file at first.
Although the labor paid off as it made my desktop really snappy now. Video plays without stopping and I can do other tasks without having blurs or slowness. Difference on my test desktop is very visible as it used to be slow I tend to use other desktop for my day to day work. This kernel made it enjoyable enough. When you build it with old config make sure new task scheduler is chosen to be implemented. New scheduler is the one which is everyone talking about. I also got away with just copying those deb file to my netbook and I saw difference there too.
Hope this will help enough to gather courage to compile it and try it out.
JD
79 • confused user #77 (by Rudolf Steiner on 2011-04-20 11:13:29 GMT from United States)
@77 There is no way in hell you ended up without a root password in Slackware during a vanilla install!
Obviously you didn't read a damn thing during the install process. This link http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_slackware12 illustrates the exact place you were prompted to enter a password. Even telling you that none exists at this time and then, you would have had to chosen no to not enter one. Now who's the adoloscent???
Stop the BS we all know better.
RS
80 • @77 (by notsure on 2011-04-20 16:25:10 GMT from United States)
Slackware assumes you either
a) know what you are doing or (ie. your passwordless root is your fault
b) are willing to learn
firewall can be generated here:
www.slackware.com/~alien/efg
just fill in your specs, save as /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall
chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.firewall
firewall will now be started at next boot
81 • Thanks Jesse (by noob distro hopper on 2011-04-20 23:21:54 GMT from United States)
Jesse said "Running as root is a problem if you have storage devices or data attached to the machine because the root account can do whatever it wants with the devices attached to the computer. On the other hand, if you have a machine with no storage and you want to run as root from a live disc, then you're pretty safe."
I appreciated this explanation. This solves one half the my question. But the other half is:
Lets say hackers are targeting your bank or favorite online retail store. You are using puppy on a live CD entering your SSN or credit card number into this site. Granted your screwed either way, but would logging in as root matter less or more?
82 • Re: Banking (by Jesse on 2011-04-20 23:41:32 GMT from Canada)
@81:
>> "Lets say hackers are targeting your bank or favorite online retail store. You are using puppy on a live CD entering your SSN or credit card number into this site. Granted your screwed either way, but would logging in as root matter less or more?"
In this scenario I'm not sure if you're suggesting your computer has been hacked or the merchant/bank website has been taken over, or if the attacker is just sniffing network traffic... However, if the attacker is just after the data you're sending over the wire, then it won't really make any difference who you're logged in as. Once the data leaves your computer it's not affected by your local account permissions. So being root on your machine doesn't help you more or less if you're willingly sending your personal data to another computer.
The risk I would see in such a situation is, if the bank/merchant website is compromised, then they may attack your web browser when you connect to their website. The server may exploit a hole in your browser, giving the attacker access to your machine.
I hope that helps.
83 • Thanks again Jesse (by noob distro hopper on 2011-04-21 00:05:07 GMT from United States)
Yes it helps because it seems running puppy as root is not that big of deal and has the same online risk as any other distro. As for desktops or laptops, use it as a live CD or with very limited storage like a 2g USB stick and you lessen the risk. Which seems is the original intent from the web site.
I'll give it a try, but like the reviewer I'm on a combination of wireless and and broadband connections only. Which is usually my stumbling block when try new stuff. I sort of wish every distro had network manger. Its noob friendly and I'm online in like 2 seconds. Topic for another day, I guess.
84 • got root? (by Jesse on 2011-04-21 00:51:04 GMT from Canada)
@83:
>> "Yes it helps because it seems running puppy as root is not that big of deal and has the same online risk as any other distro."
The difference is, if you account gets compromised when you're surfing as root, then your whole machine is compromised. If you your account is hijacked as a regular user, then it's just that account's files that are in the hands of the enemy.
Running as a regular user account also saves you from mistakes, typos and such. There's a small, but very important difference, between running "cd /usr" and "rm /usr", for example.
Personally I'd recommend against running as root, because security is largely about layers. Not being root gives you one more layer between your machine and problems. It's like wearing a helmet when riding a bicycle. Yes, it can be a little inconvenient sometimes and you might never be in an accident, but it's usually a good idea to wear the helmet in case something does go wrong.
85 • @83 (by Candide on 2011-04-21 02:02:15 GMT from Taiwan)
"As for desktops or laptops, use it as a live CD or with very limited storage like a 2g USB stick and you lessen the risk. "
It might be worth noting that netbooks don't have a CD drive. Yes, you can use a USB memory stick on a netbook, but since that's a writable device (which a CD is not), that's really no different than having Puppy installed on a hard drive. All the security issues that apply to a hard drive install also apply to a USB stick install.
86 • Another noob question (by noob distro hooper on 2011-04-21 03:04:02 GMT from United States)
How hard is it to add user privileges to a distro and make it on by deafault? Is it a space issue or programing headache? Is seems that if that is the major problem most people have, just write it in.
So I googled user privilege, su and sudo and after some reading, im kinda shocked. Such a easy and common sense concept. I think i actually get the animosity towards puppy now.
87 • Puppy stuff (by Shankar on 2011-04-21 06:27:03 GMT from India)
Just a few clarifications (I was a puppy user for four years before switching to Debian for other reasons):
1. Puppy can be installed to the hard drive, but with two different methods. Unlike what the reviewer says, a full install - the type he chose - is NOT preferable and in fact is recommended against in the Puppy documentation. The preferred type of install on all devices - USB or hard drive - is a frugal install, where the system files etc. remain in the compressed read only SFS file and only your personal data is in the pup save file.
2. In that sense, as Adam Williamson pointed out a long time ago, Jesse's distinction - "The difference is, if you account gets compromised when you're surfing as root, then your whole machine is compromised. If you your account is hijacked as a regular user, then it's just that account's files that are in the hands of the enemy" - is actually moot in a Puppy frugal install in which ONLY personal files are on the pup save file. Because in such an install it's only your personal files that are writable.
That said, I have to say to my fellow Puppy lovers (and myself) - how often is your save file only your personal data files? Every program we install is in the save file and therefore writable. It remains true that the system can be restored to clean condition simply by deleting the save file, but would you do that if you didn't know you had been compromised?
3. As has been pointed out several times, the comparison of Puppy with Ubuntu etc. seems inappropriate. Indeed, I feel about 90% of Linux distro reviews that I read are of no help to me as a reader, because they concentrate on telling me how that distro fares on things that every distro can do - which means there's no reason for me to switch anyway. It might be good, if in addition to the usual stuff, a reviewer told us what is exceptional or unusual about a distro. In Puppy's case that includes excellent portability - it is designed from the ground up to be portable and used on flash drives. The packages are kept small, the system automatically protects your drive from excessive writes if it detects that it's running on flash, there are tools to protect your save file from file system corruption, etc. These advantages are appreciated by those like me who use portable systems, and despite trying the "persistent" versions of many "big" distros, I have never found one that works as well as Puppy in this respect.
It would be good to see aspects like these highlighted in reviews as well, since this is the kind of information that is useful in choosing a distro.
88 • Puppy and root (by Luc on 2011-04-21 11:05:40 GMT from Brazil)
Puppy is an intelligent distro, and running as root is excellent proof of that.
The concept of root is very necessary in multi-user server environments, in fact that's what Linux still is, an operating system written from scratch for server environments. But Linux has been dragged into the desktop arena, and people who don't exercise their brains very much insist on enforcing server paradigms that become foolish on the desktop. For example, making everything a server (starting with X, the graphical environment, a huge and slow monstrosity). Another example, screaming and hitting one's own head in panic like Rain Man whenever someone is caught running a Linux desktop logged in as root. Oh, and the obligatory hyperboles, like "running as root is a huge disastrous OMG gaping wide security threat!!!!!!1!!11!!"
Just get over yourselves. Millions (billions?) of people used Windows 95/98 as root for half a decade and yes, they had viruses, but mostly because all viruses were written for Windows. Running Linux, you automatically sidestep that threat 99%. Running commands by mistake? That is rare, and when it happens, running '$ sudo wreck_system' will not prevent anything. Now people run XP, Vista and 7 logged in as the Administrator and the sky has not fallen. Windows machines still get infected, but probably less because people are more aware of it and take precautions.
Also foolish is the argument that running as an ordinary user the system isn't affected, just my personal files. Well, personal files are the ones that DO matter to me. I don't care about the system files, I can always get them back with reinstallation. So that whole concept of not running as root doesn't help me at all.
Finally, the Linux community never gets tired of chanting the "freedom" mantra, but will thread roughshod on it whenever it decides that freedom is inconvenient to its religious devotion. Decide to run as root and suddenly your freedom is no longer worth a damn. You must do as the sect tells you or else! The Linux community is horribly disparaging and sanctimonious, keeps taking childish potshots at whoever dares use a different operating system or take different decisions, and preaching to all and sundry as if assigned by God.
It's high time this community finally grew up. Just grow up. Windows may be a bad operating system in many aspects, but holy cow, I never have with Windows users the kind of "social" and behavior problems I have with Linux users routinely. I love Linux, but I often hate, despise the Linux community. What a huge bunch of impolite, maladjusted brats. Stop acting like idiots. Grow up. Dispense your advice once in a while, but do not pound and hammer your points of view onto other people, and under any circumstance, do not, DO NOT EVER twist people's arms and force them to do anything. That is hideous, disgusting, unforgiveable. Stop repeating mantras mindlessly. Just grow up.
89 • Robert's reviews (by jmirles on 2011-04-21 12:27:34 GMT from United States)
Great review on Puppy Linux, Robert. While I understand that it is not meant for a full installation, the capability exists, so you tested that method. I have always loved the small distros like Puppy and DSL. Puppy was my favorite until I found Tiny Core. I never ran it as Root, as it was simple to add a user. Still I understand your point.
@88, no one is forcing anyone to do anything. People ask, why not run as Root and others simply answer. The answers are clear and concise, but no one is saying if you don't do this my way you are stupid or anything like that. You mention Windows and make some really out of this world statements about it. Did you know the "Mom and Pop" computer stores make their living cleaning Windows boxes? I mean they get more infected PC's to clean than PC in for hardware repair. Best Buy's Geek Squad is making a killing on cleaning infected Windows boxes. I support Windows PC at my job and I see more problems when the users figure out how to gain Admin access on their PC's. Don't get me wrong, I love Windows. It has given me something very rare nowadays, Job Security.
Simply put, running as Root can be dangerous. Running as a user can be just as dangerous if you are careless. It's your choice. The community is doing its job on alerting you to the pitfalls one way or another.
Finally, Caitlyn where are you?!
90 • re #83 wish puppy had network manager (by gnomic on 2011-04-21 13:39:43 GMT from New Zealand)
Or was it wish every distro had network manager? Well, as far as Puppy goes, hard to get much simpler than their Simple Network Setup. Even the older network setup script isn't rocket science (though I haven't done a click count versus NetworkManager) - both methods seem pretty foolproof these days in Puppy. Main problem I see with wireless these days is absent requisite firmware in /lib/firmware, which is easily detected by $dmesg | grep firm. However Puppy has a pretty comprehensive firmware selection.
91 • Tuxmachines.org down... (by Caraibes on 2011-04-21 15:08:25 GMT from Dominican Republic)
It has been about 3 days that www.Tuxmachines.org is down...
Does any of you has info on that ?
What happens to Susan Linton ?
I certainly hope she is ok...
92 • #88: Puppy and Root.. (by Mark Pace on 2011-04-21 15:43:12 GMT from United States)
Obrigado para seus pensamentos extremamente bem dito Luc.
93 • Puppy and root (by fernbap on 2011-04-21 16:21:21 GMT from Portugal)
Personally, i love Puppy. It is one of the cutest toys you can find in the Linux universe. Puppy was always fun to play with.
However, what is Puppy's main strength is also his main weakness. Puppy was thought as a live CD in the first place, a "portable operating system" you can take with you and run anywhere. That alone is enough to justify puppy's popularity.
Puppy was also thought as an OS that you can run concurrently with another OS and be used as a rescue disk for broken windows installs. I have no doubt that this is one of the major uses for Puppy.
Puppy is, without a doubt, a very useful tool that everyone should have and use. Burn a CD or an unused pendrive with Puppy, and you are ready to go.
However, Puppy is also a victim of its own popularity, "growing into a full desktop system".... well, not quite. Of course, noone is preventing you from using it as your main working desktop, but for that you have a lot of more adequate choices.
Its main drawback, as a desktop system, is the lack of a central repository for all the available pet packages. They are preaded all over, many inside user forums. I understand that mantaining a repository has a cost, and i'm not blaming puppy for the lack of it.
Puppy inherited all the basic concepts used for developing a rescue live CD disk. Hence the login as root.
Of course, this is an issue that any linux user can overcome easily. There is nothing preventing him from creating a normal user account and using it. In fact, that should be a choice to be added to the puppy install, and that would defenitly shut up those that cry in outrage "OMG! A linux distro that logs in as root! Blasphemy!".
Puppy is puppy. As many "different" linux distributions, first you need to understand its concepts and purposes in order to fully understand it.
As i said before, i love Puppy, although i don't use it as my main working environment, but i always take a pendrive with puppy with me.
94 • @86 I'm curious myself. (by Stacy on 2011-04-21 22:25:27 GMT from United States)
How many more lines of code will have to be be added to puppy's 128MB distro to add normal user account?
I heard about this root access flame war thing for years. To me, ignoring the main complaint about your product for years has a certain arrogance to it. With that said, I hope there is a real technical reason not to include normal user accounts after all these years.
If its trivial amount of code then puppy's developers, maintainers, and outspoken die-hard fans are relishing in that arrogance. Thus being trouble makers for the hell of it. Which is really sad for something so minor!!!
95 • Live distros in the desktop and loging as root (by Anonimuos Coward on 2011-04-21 00:35:04 GMT from Spain)
As many have said before me, is not completly fair to test a Live distribution in an HDD-install environment. However, it is interesting to note that many Live distributions can perform extremly well when used as traditional operating systems, so this review makes some sense after all.
That said, a frugal installed Puppy has little to do if you compare it with a frugal installed Knoppix, for example (yeah, this one needs a little grub2 tweaking, but is worth it!). The reason is that Puppy was designed to be somehow small and portable, while Knoppix is designed to have lots of software in it. That is the cause for Knoppix to be so damn slow when working from the CD, but when you remaster it and run it from the hard drive (frugaled), you get all the power of Debian with the advantages of a Live system, including unmutability. I'm not saying that using a frugal installed Knoppix as a main OS is a good idea, (it can have some problems, like paswordless accounts and the like), but you get the point.
There is a tool for each task. Puppy was not intended to be installed to a hard drive, and that is all. Please, note I'm not defending Puppy. In fact, it is interesting for frivolous use, but I find it more limited and buggy than the ones I use for serious purposes.
Now, to the root vs non-root flame.
I wouldn't use root for my everyday computing live, because of the reasons that many have already posted. I simply think that, if you don't need to take the risk, you should't take it. The first thing I do with Live CDs is to set passwords for every account, then set the firewall, then turn on networking.
Did you know that most Black Hats won't try to hack your computer for the information you keep, or for the fun of destroying your files? They mostly try to seize computers to gather resurces for other dirty tasks. They will root as many computers they can to launch DoS atacks againts third parties, or simply to spread spam. Yes, if they compromised your non-root account, they could surely toast your porn movies and copirighted downloaded stuff, but most probably they won't because Black Hats are in your computer for a non so fivoluos reason. Vandalism would reveal their presence, and they don't want that. And, probably, they'd have problems trying to launch their DoSes and spam messages from a regular user account. If your root account was compromised, then they still could toast your files, but in addition they could spread their spam too!
The barrier that protects your domestic computer when the account in use has been hacked is the permission system. If the afected account is called "root", then that barrier disapears. I myself have invested too much time setting up my security meassures (intruder detection, firewalling, regular integrity checking, etc) to screw it away because of a missused superuser account.
That said, if you are careful enough, there should be not so much trouble in using root. The likeness of your Live CD being seized is reduced when you are behind a firewall which is opened only for "secure" operations. However, why taking the risk, when the only cost of the additional security is to type "sudo" or "su -c" from time to time?
96 • re:86 , 94 etc puppy and root (by dopher on 2011-04-21 00:36:32 GMT from Belgium)
Please people, I am reading some real disturbing responses and attacks. I can't imagine that I am the only one here who finds that a bit annoying and narrow minded. the remarks contain the words "arrogance" up to the remark with the work "animosity"
If you do not like puppy linux, or the fact that it uses root as main account, then don't use puppy linux. But do not act like you paid for the product, and it is not satisfactory.
Barry Kauler is working day and night on developing Puppy Linux and realizing his ideas about software. He also shares a lot of his stuff AND encourages AND is helping youngsters to start developing. Qll this without getting paid for it. You could at least respect that. I know I do.
Apparently his work is not appreciated by some, as some of the remarks show. And it's okay to ventilate your ideas about it. But that can be done in a more pragmatic, but still respectable, way.
97 • RE: 96 (by Landor on 2011-04-22 02:20:16 GMT from Canada)
From what I understand Barry 'is not' working day and night on Puppy Linux anymore. He's pursuing his own interests. The only time he builds something Puppy specific is when it's to be more compatible with older hardware. Something he has to do because the new team is not.
Also, I would say that leaving a gaping security hole in your system, no matter how much you do otherwise for people, the community, is pretty arrogant. Especially when he's well aware of the security risks and left it as is.
It wouldn't take much for Barry, or the community to incorporate adding a user to an install, etc But it's pretty well ignored. That's arrogant.
I also see a few people saying 'Puppy is not meant to installed to a hard drive'. Do you realise what you're all saying? The option is there right? How can anyone say it wasn't meant to when it can do it. Seriously. Stop making excuses for something that's broken by design, period.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
98 • RE 97 Arrogance in the puppy community? (by CJ Veniot on 2011-04-22 04:33:09 GMT from Canada)
Landor, you are kidding, right? No?
Let me get this straight. A group of people put together a Linux distro with a specific purpose in mind, and because they do it a certain way to fit the goals of the distro/project and refuse to make changes that contradict with those goals, that makes them arrogant?
It's no wonder Linux in general gets a bad rap. These comments from the "high and mighty" do the entire Linux community a huge disfavor.
Attacking the contributions and goals of a project and attacking the approach taken by that project, says a heck of a whole lot more about the people doing the attacking: What Peter says about Paul says more about Peter than it does about Paul. (There may be some valid points in what you say, but you lose all credibility because of "how" you say. That's too bad.)
In these posts, I'm seeing an awful lot of immaturity, lack of decency, lack of respect, and lack of appreciation for what Linux is really all about: FREEDOM OF CHOICE !!!
If Puppy Linux fits my specific needs because of the way it is designed (because of it's reason for being), then it's hardly broken from my perspective. I don't want this distro to be like the other ones. (Gee, sorry if that makes me "arrogant"...)
Although not meant to be installed in the "traditional way" (to a hard drive), we are fortunate to have that option to handle odd-ball (exceptional) needs that other distros simply do not handle as well: a friendly distro with low requirements.
If Puppy Linux does not fit your specific needs, then isn't it enough to just say it does not meet your specific needs?
My purpose for writing this: I don't like to see any efforts (and people) from any Linux project get criticized unfairly (without just cause)... that undermines the entire open source movement.
Those of you who do want to criticize the Puppy Linux distro and project (any distro and project, for that matter), what's the driving purpose of your criticism?
99 • RE: 98 (by Landor on 2011-04-22 04:59:14 GMT from Canada)
Show me where I'm wrong, and make sure you provide factual information, not just an opinion that is invalid, please.
Oh, and by the way, did you not notice your own slur that makes the community look bad?
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
100 • RE:97 (by Anonimous Coward on 2011-04-22 08:31:36 GMT from Spain)
Landor wrote:
I also see a few people saying 'Puppy is not meant to installed to a hard drive'. Do you realise what you're all saying? The option is there right? How can anyone say it wasn't meant to when it can do it. Seriously. Stop making excuses for something that's broken by design, period.
You are right. When a developer sets an operation mode for his software, he should expect it to be used. So, when Puppy developers did set a HDD mode, they should have released it only after making it bug-free enough. Fortunately, they warn against HDD install at least.
This is the cause for this review to make sense: most reviewers would tell us about the traditional Live Puppy, but here we see how Puppy does perform in a no so common environment. Many live distros work well when installed in the hard drive, so trying Puppy to do so is not unreasonable at all.
101 • RE:97 Corrected (by Anonimous Coward on 2011-04-22 08:34:36 GMT from Spain)
My last post is messed! It should have been has follows:
Landor wrote:
-------------------------------
I also see a few people saying 'Puppy is not meant to installed to a hard drive'. Do you realise what you're all saying? The option is there right? How can anyone say it wasn't meant to when it can do it. Seriously. Stop making excuses for something that's broken by design, period.
------------------------------
You are right. When a developer sets an operation mode for his software, he should expect it to be used. So, when Puppy developers did set a HDD mode, they should have released it only after making it bug-free enough. Fortunately, they warn against HDD install at least.
This is the cause for this review to make sense: most reviewers would tell us about the traditional Live Puppy, but here we see how Puppy does perform in a no so common environment. Many live distros work well when installed in the hard drive, so trying Puppy to do so is not unreasonable at all.
102 • RE:94 (by A nonymosser on 2011-04-22 09:23:31 GMT from Sweden)
"Thus being trouble makers for the hell of it."
Non-conformism is trouble-makerism only when viewed with totalitarian eyes...
Rootism is (almost, sort of...) sacred to many computer users....
/Also curious
103 • Ångström (by glyj on 2011-04-22 12:05:05 GMT from France)
Hi !
I discovered this distro and nothing about it on Distrowatch !
How is this possible ?
Here is a link to the official website : http://www.angstrom-distribution.org
Regards,
glyj
104 • Puppy full install (by imnotrich on 2011-04-22 22:12:30 GMT from Mexico)
I used Puppy 4.3.1 full install on one machine's hard drive and frugal (.sfs file) on another for years and never had a problem.
It only required the slightest bit of tinkering to get everything installed and functional (with the exception of wifi - that remains a challenge).
Someone posted that the hard drive Puppy install was full of bugs but didn't name one. Please enlighten us!
My biggest gripe about Puppy was not running as root. If I screwed something up using the live cd or .sfs it only took a few seconds to reboot. Maybe an hour if I screwed up something with the full hard drive install, and nobody every attacked me with any success.
My biggest gripe was when Puppy went to using Ubuntu binaries and suddenly was completely incompatible with much of the recent hardware I was trying to run it on. Forgive me for repeating myself but if you want the best Puppy experience, go with 4.3.1. The 5 series is rubbish.
105 • Puppy spin with a user to go (by gnomic on 2011-04-23 10:09:58 GMT from New Zealand)
I was running a Puppy variant called Lighthouse Pup lately and noticed it seems to have a use account available out of the box. So you too can be user 'spot'. This one I think has a Slackware base.
106 • Puppy is funny (by Bronco on 2011-04-23 10:20:49 GMT from Germany)
It has been said that running as root is not a problem, because Puppy is a Live-CD. The idea seems to be that running as root is not a risk if your system is stateless. And I would agree... BUT from what I take from Puppy's homepage the particular strength of Puppy is that it is not stateless. It advertises that you can carry your own settings, programs and data around because it uses CDRWs or USB-sticks to keep your system state.
Now, I can't imagine that I'm the first to realize this, so I would like to read something about this, maybe on a developers' blog? Any links?
107 • BSD Variants (by Rudolf Steiner on 2011-04-23 17:51:21 GMT from United States)
I personally use OpenBSD as my main desktop but have recently given GhostBSD a try. It is quite stable and easy to install. It would be nice if we could get a few more BSD reviews here on distrowatch. I may submit one myself.
RS
108 • BSD (by Jesse on 2011-04-23 19:05:26 GMT from Canada)
@107:
Over the past year I think I've reviewed all of the major BSD variants, including GhostBSD (twice), PC-BSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. Is there another one you'd like to see featured here?
109 • BSD Reviews (by Rudolf Steiner on 2011-04-23 19:49:51 GMT from United States)
Sorry Jesse, I must have missed those reviews. I will go back through the past DWW's and read them. It was GhostBSD that I as looking for a review on, but since it have already done two I would not be so bold to ask for a third.
RS
110 • GhostBSD (by Jesse on 2011-04-23 23:14:25 GMT from Canada)
@109
THe last review of GhostBSD was fairly short, I think it was a case of three projects in one review, so it would have been easy to miss. I did enjoy GhostBSD, I think they've come a long way since version 1.0. When they hit their next milestone I'll probably give them a full feature to themselves.
111 • Don't ignore Kubuntu 11.04 (by KevinC on 2011-04-24 07:02:56 GMT from United States)
I have been using for about a wk or so and it's rather nice. Often seems KDE gets 2nd citizen status w/ Ubuntu---and I have yet to find a Kubuntu that I liked. This one seems to have all the flaws ironed out. I can definitely see myself going KDE4 vs. Unity or Gnome3..neither look to be viable alternatives for me. I'm not sayin' it's 'buntu or nothing, b/c I have plenty of other distros waiting in the wing that will sate my appetite. Just nice to have a KDE variant that looks to be fairly solid. Give it a go and tell me what u think.
112 • @111 - Kubuntu (by Reuben on 2011-04-24 17:18:50 GMT from United States)
I think I agree with a previous reviewer that Kubuntu is boring. It's a great distro to install if you just want to get stuff done. It's stable and it works. On first log on you are presented with a boring blue background instead of a snazzy black background like you'd find with the likes of aptosid. That said, I don't use it because I consider it boring.
113 • RE: 111 - 112 (by Landor on 2011-04-24 19:47:33 GMT from Canada)
#111
The only Kubuntu I actually really enjoyed and felt was a great build was 7.04. I have no qualms about saying I thought that was an amazing offering. I will admit part of the reason I don't have much regard for anything after that release is because of the KDE 4.XX series. Only part though. :)
#112
A background makes a distribution boring, or not?
What has this community come to.
I just sit here and shake my head, day in and day out.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
114 • Re: 111 - Kubuntu (by BrandonSniadajewski on 2011-04-24 23:52:25 GMT from United States)
I agree with KevinC that the Natty version coming this Thursday works and looks good. Who cares if it is "boring". I encourage youy Landor to at least give Kubuntu Natty and KDE 4.6 a try.
115 • trivial complaints (by gnomic on 2011-04-25 00:08:03 GMT from New Zealand)
Hmmm, If I read one more review in which the reviewer threatens to throw their toys out of the cot because (sob) distro X's installer is not graphical, I may well run screaming into the night.
116 • RE: 114 - 115 (by Landor on 2011-04-25 04:45:32 GMT from Canada)
#114
I probably will look at it at some point. I've kind of become a GTK user now though, which is quite shocking to say the least. Though I always have liked minimal window managers.
#115
I usually find those reviewers to also be the ones that put great emphasis on their happiness for included codecs and the like.
One day maybe I'll write up a list of the most annoying crap from the kiddie crowd.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
117 • @113: Re:Kubuntu (by Reuben on 2011-04-25 04:50:46 GMT from United States)
I like to see the design of desktops shipped with distros. Of course flashy artwork doesn't make a distro good, it simply makes it interesting. Of course, blue is soo much better than purple. Heck, I never really had anything against brown.
Of course the real reason that it is boring is that everything works with little fuss.
118 • Uh, Landor (by Bob on 2011-04-25 07:10:51 GMT from United States)
I'll save you the trouble of the list.
It takes 25 seconds to boot up rather than 20(my world will explode).
It comes with Open Office which means I have to burn a dvd rather than a cd(oh the horrors).
It doesn't come with Open Office which means I have to go thru the trouble of opening synaptic and download/install it(the agony).
Think I'll stop there.
So, no appreciation of others work which gives me a distro that costs the time to download it, burn it to a 30 cent cd or a 75 cent dvd and do a little work to have a sleek nice running os in at the most 1 hour and then just let er rip.
Tell ya what. Go buy some desktop with pre-installed you know what and shut up already.
Or just go buy it for anywhere from 150 to 350 bucks and your world should just be peachy then. ok?
I see why some developers or contributors to a distro get frustrated.
Number of Comments: 118
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| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Local Area Security Linux (L.A.S.)
Local Area Security Linux was a 'Live CD' distribution with a strong emphasis on security tools and small footprint. We currently have 2 different versions of L.A.S. to fit two specific needs - MAIN and SECSERV. This project was released under the terms of GPL.
Status: Discontinued
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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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