 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 405, 16 May 2011 |
Welcome to this year's 20th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! A new version of Slackware Linux was released recently and Jesse Smith takes it for a spin. Unlike many other free operating systems that compete on the market today, the world's oldest surviving Linux distro continues in its fine tradition of putting simplicity and dependability before any large-scale modifications. Read our first-look review to find out more. The news section then continues with links to interviews with two well-known Slackware contributors before it goes through the usual round-up of news of the past week from the world of CentOS, Sabayon Linux and Ubuntu. It also provides links to two more interviews - one with the developer of Bodhi Linux and the other with founder of CrunchBang Linux. Also in this issue there is a quick overview of the current state of the RPM package format, and a useful how-to for those readers who use online storage services, with tips on how to keep your files safe and away from prying eyes. Happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: First impressions of Slackware Linux 13.37
- News: CentOS vs Scientific Linux, Sabayon 6 and Ubuntu 11.10 updates, interviews with Slackware, Bodhi and CrunchBang developers, who maintains RPM
- Tips and tricks: File encryption and cloud backup
- Released last week: BackTrack 5, Salix OS 13.37 "Xfce"
- Upcoming releases: Mageia 1 RC
- New additions: Fuduntu, Bardinux
- New distributions: Blackbuntu, iQunix, mabuntux, PrimeE17, Vanillux
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (39MB) and MP3 (36MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
First impressions of Slackware Linux 13.37
 The Slackware Linux distribution holds a special place in my heart. The first Linux distro I installed was a minimum version of Slack, which included just the basic command-line tools. This left me without a desktop, graphical applications, compiler or package manager, but that was okay. At the time I wasn't looking for a full-sized operating system -- I wanted a bare essentials, free version of UNIX I could run at home so I could gain experience with the command line and learn awk scripting. The Slackware-boiled-down-to-the-essentials disks I got my hands on were what I needed at the time and, when I decided I liked the Linux experience, I moved on to other distributions which focused on GUIs and making things easy for people migrating from commercial software. But my early experiences with the Slackware approach, and it's clean efficiency, stayed with me as a pleasant memory.
Now let's fast-forward a bit and look at modern Slackware, a distribution which no longer comes on floppy disks, but instead is shared via CDs and DVDs. Modern slackers have access to the 2.6.37 Linux kernel, Btrfs, the KDE 4 desktop and the latest Firefox. Slackware users can enjoy official 32-bit or 64-bit builds and, for my latest trip into Slackland, I decided to make use of the 32-bit DVD, which weighs in at 4.2 GB.
Booting from the DVD shows us a text-based boot prompt, and when the system loads, we are shown some helpful instructions, letting us know that we need to prepare partitions prior to launching the installer and, that to begin installation, we should run a the command "setup". For dividing up the disk Slackware includes three partition managers -- fdisk, cfdisk and gdisk. I went with cfdisk because I find its menu system can be navigated relatively quickly and easily. With partitioning completed, I turned to the installer, which guides us through setting up Slackware via a series of text-based menus. Each screen is well thought out, giving us an explanation as to what is going on and offering reasonable defaults. First we select our keyboard layout and choose which partitions to use for swap space and which to use as our root partition. The installer gives us the option to format our root partition as any of the ext2/3/4 family, Btrfs, JFS, ReiserFS or XFS. We confirm the location of our source packages (the DVD in my case) and then we're asked which packages we wish to install. I decided to do a full install of everything, minus the KDE international items which were not selected by default.
There's a lot of software on the Slackware DVD and I found that the install took about forty-five minutes, during which time 5.4 GB of files were placed on my drive. Once that's done, the installer walks us through installing the LILO bootloader, selecting our monitor resolution, and we're given the option to set up custom kernel parameters. The installer continues by walking us through configuring the mouse, the network connection and which (if any) services we want to run. A secure shell server (SSH) is enabled by default, but otherwise Slackware generally leaves services turned off. We're not done yet; next up we're allowed to select our font, time zone and preferred window manager. The last step is to set a password on the root account (no regular user accounts are created).
With all of that done the system reboots and I was dropped at a text login prompt. From there I was able to log in as root, create a regular user account for myself and confirm that my network connection was functioning properly. Unfortunately that's when I ran into a problem. I'd started my "slacktivity" on my desktop machine (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, NVIDIA video card) and I soon found that trying to start a graphical session didn't yield the expected results. Specifically, trying to launch a desktop session would cause the screen to show the KDE loading screen, the progress icons would appear and, just as the desktop environment finished loading, X would crash, returning me to the text console. After confirming that my X configuration file was in order and doing some other trial-and-error troubleshooting I found that the issue was a result of compositing being enabled by default. Apparently (according to what I've read on the forums) compositing doesn't work with some driver/hardware combinations. The problem, I'm told, usually hits Intel video cards and I later confirmed that on my laptop machine. Disabling compositing on both machines cleared the way for me to access the desktop environment. The desktop, which in my case was KDE 4.5, has a soft, pleasant and generally clean look to it. The background resembles café au lait and the desktop is uncluttered, containing just two icons for file system navigation.
Slackware Linux 13.37 - playing around with applications on the desktop
(full image size: 634kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
At this point I realize that we're over 700 words into this review and have yet to talk about what it's like to actually use Slackware and there's good reason for that. Slackware is a distribution which expects us to be hands on. It's not going to do any work for us; we have to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. It's not a system for people who want things to work out of the box; instead it's tailored to people who like to craft their operating system, knowing it will be exactly what they want when they're done, shaping it like so much digital clay. This can be seen in the way the installer walks us through so many configuration screens and it also becomes apparent when we look at package management.
Slackware is one of the few GNU/Linux projects to not include a package manager with dependency resolution and it's only been in fairly recent history that Slackware has started including a network-aware all-in-one package manager in the main repository. Slackers generally view the lack of dependency resolution as a characteristic of Slackware's clean and simple design. While many slackers prefer not to sully their systems with modern software management tools and dependency resolution, others do crave these tools and the result has been a supply of third-party add-ons which provide additional features.
First, let's look at the official package tools that come with Slackware. If you read the Slackbook (and I suggest you do) you'll find that users have traditionally been expected to download and manually manipulate software on the command line using installpkg, removepkg and upgradepkg. However, manually finding and downloading software can be time consuming and so slackpkg has been included in recent versions of Slackware. The slackpkg program has a syntax similar to Debian's apt-get tool and can download, install, remove, upgrade and search for software. This is a handy command-line program which automates some steps in the process, but doesn't include dependency resolution.
For that feature users can turn to the third-party package manager, slapt-get. The slapt-get program is, like slackpkg, a command-line tool which has an APT-style syntax and will resolve dependencies where it's able to do so. The slapt-get page also makes available a GUI front-end, called gslapt, for the more extreme hedonists among us. Community repositories exist with extra packages not already included in the official ones. Some of these are more up to date than others and I found, during the two weeks following 13.37's release, that some repositories weren't yet offering software for this release. A helpful way to find software across repositories is Slackfind. It's an easy resource to use and great for finding anything from firmware to VirtualBox to multimedia editors.
Slackware Linux 13.37 - showing off the application menu and package manager
(full image size: 163kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
Next, let's look at the software made available to us out of the box. In the "Welcome to Linux (Slackware)" message from Patrick Volkerding he writes, "Slackware is designed around the idea that the system should be a complete installation kept updated with any official patches. This avoids the mess of dependencies that some other Linux-based GNU systems face." As you might then expect, performing a full install from the DVD provides us with a large selection of software that will cover the needs of most users. Some of the highlights include Firefox 4.0, KMail, the Blogio blogging tool, KTorrent, the Konqueror web browser, the Pidgin instant messaging client, the SeaMonkey web browser, SeaMonkey Mail, the Thunderbird e-mail client, XChat and the KPPP dialing software. For multimedia we have a range of players ranging from Amarok and Audacious through to Juk and the Dragon Player. There's a CD ripper, disc burner, XMMS and Xine.
KOffice 2.3.3 is available in the menu, as are document viewers, an address book, the GIMP, KolourPaint and an array of KDE games. There are system tools for handling user accounts, setting up printers, and the KDE settings modules for handling the desktop's look and feel. We're given a handful of development applications, including a graphical CVS client, KDevelop and graphical front ends for both Emacs and vi. Slackware includes the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and Java. There's no Flash player, but Slackware does come with codecs for playing multimedia files, including MP3s, and popular video formats. In the background we find the 2.6.37 Linux kernel. Obviously I haven't been able to go through and make extensive use of all of this software in the course of the week, but what I have used has been functional and stable. And, because there is such a wide range, I very rarely had to install additional software. The DVD covers almost everything and the kitchen sink, so it's easy to get work done (and have some fun) with what's there initially.
On both of my test machines I found that Slackware worked well, once I got past the initial install and configuration stage. Audio worked out of the box and my screen resolution was reasonable, if a bit below what I had wanted on my desktop. My laptop's wireless card wasn't picked up, not by default, but I was able to find a firmware package for the card through Slackfind. Responsiveness was good and about in line with other Linux distributions running KDE. My only complaint in the area of performance came early on when I discovered that desktop search indexing had been enabled and would chew up CPU cycles when I first logged in. Disabling the indexing service restored smooth operation. I tried Slackware in a VirtualBox environment and found it worked well and performance remained reasonably good with 512 MB of memory available. Once it was up and running I found that Slackware generally stayed out of the way and I didn't encounter any problems.
Slackware Linux 13.37 - graphical front-ends for Emacs and vim.
(full image size: 159kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
When dealing with a distribution like Slackware, where there is some expectation that users will be working with the command line and manually configuring the system, I feel that documentation is important. Slackware does have documentation and it's well laid out. I get the impression that much of it is intended to be more of quick reference, rather than detailed instructions. Compared to the handbooks provided by, for example, FreeBSD and OpenBSD, I found Slackware's documentation to be terse. In the end, documentation can only take a person so far and some issues or questions need to be handled by other people. For that reason there is a Slackware forum on LinuxQuestions.org full of friendly slackers exchanging fixes and knowledge. Further on the topic of communication, Slackware features a security mailing list. This list keeps users up to date with important updates, removing the need for update notification apps or manual checks for new software through the package manager(s).
It has been often said that if a person wants to learn about Red Hat they should install Red Hat, but if one wants to learn Linux they should install Slackware. I think there's some truth to that, partly because Slackware largely avoids distro-specific tools and configurations, but also because it forces the users to educate themselves. One certainly can learn the nuts and bolts of Linux through Ubuntu, Fedora or openSUSE, but where those distributions provide a lot of hand holding, Slackware patiently sits to the side with its arms folded. As a teaching aid Slackware is hard to beat as it's stable, has a clean implementation and encourages user involvement while offering sane defaults. Slackware will also be appealing to people who want their computer to do what they tell it to, no more, no less. I wouldn't recommend it to users who aren't interested in what's going on "under the hood"; it's a distro for expert users or for people who wish to become expert users. Whether you like Slackware will depend a lot on what you're looking for in an operating system, but I'm happy to report 13.37 continues the project's tradition of stable, clean computing.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
CentOS vs Scientific Linux, Sabayon 6 and Ubuntu 11.10 updates, interviews with Slackware, Bodhi and CrunchBang developers, who maintains RPM
 In this world of rapidly evolving distributions and desktop environments, one can always rely on Slackware to stay true to its roots in terms of simplicity and dependability. For those who are attracted to these principles and who enjoyed the above review, here is more on the world's oldest surviving Linux distro: two interviews with well-known Slackware contributors. In the first of them, Robby Workman answers a question concerning the "most remarkable" changes in version 13.37: "Kernel mode setting for graphics is now on by default (and required for X.Org) for both Intel and ATI chipsets, but I don't know how 'remarkable' that really is. The only other thing that 'jumps out' at me is the inclusion (by upstream) of the formerly patented BCI in FreeType, but that's not such a big deal in my opinion." In the second interview, Eric Hameleers replies to the same inquiry with a somewhat different viewpoint: "The version of KDE in Slackware 13.37 is a lot more enjoyable than that of 13.1. The new version of X.Org delivers a lot of punch, leaving HAL behind and working much better with a lot of hardware. The same is true for the new kernel. I was very pleased with the updates to the Slackware installer.".
* * * * *
 The fans and users of CentOS, the most popular among the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clones, are slowly coming to a realisation that the project is grappling with serious troubles. As six months have passed since the release of RHEL 6 without any sign of CentOS 6, some are wondering whether they might not be better off using the "other" RHEL clone - Scientific Linux. Greg Smith summarises his feelings in "The rise and fall of CentOS": "If I needed a sign that it was time for me to start installing Scientific Linux 6, this week I found it. Any long-time user of RPM-based distributions has probably used a package from a Dag Wieers repository at some point. ... Well, that party is over. Last week Dag publicly announced that he was resigning from CentOS development work, seemingly over the development team's communication issues. In the comments there, Dag specifically suggests Scientific Linux as the right distribution to move to now, saying that 'their process is more open and the people are actually friendly to feedback.' If a tight development group has enough resources to keep its users happy, so long as the end result is open-source I'm not going to knock the process that got there. But when your release is at least four months later than it was expected by most people, and you're causing major community contributors to abandon your project in a bad way, I don't have any choice but to start looking into more open projects."
* * * * *
 Here is an update on Sabayon Linux, directly from the project leader, Fabio Erculiani. According to his blog post entitled "Sabayon 6, Entropy 1, a new era is about to come", the project's major new version is likely to ship in July: "Regarding what people worry about, Sabayon 6 will be our next release version and it is scheduled for July. You may already know that we don't like fixed release dates: we prefer the 'it's done when it's done' approach. Sabayon 6 will be shipping with Entropy 1 and package updates will be delivered to you via our upcoming new build server (which is going to replace our current one), a Bi-Octa AMD Opteron 6128 system with 48 GB of RAM." There is a lot more in terms of package updates: "Entropy eventually entered the final beta phase - API documentation is complete, Entropy services infrastructure has been rewritten from scratch taking advantage from the best communication protocol ever invented - HTTP (and JSON as 'data format'), Sulfur eventually got its awaited speed boost (1.0_beta15), packages.sabayon.org has been deployed, Python 2.7 is now the default, same for GCC 4.5, and Entropy in general is as rock-solid (and fast) as ever in all its 300,000+ lines of code and millions of line changes that I've been able to work out in four years."
* * * * *
 Last week's Ubuntu Developer's Summit, which took place in Budapest, brought plenty of news as well as hints about future plans for the popular desktop distro. Here is a nice summary entitled "Expected changes in Ubuntu 11.10 'Oneiric Ocelot'," published by Web Upd8. These include a switch to GNOME 3, a possible removal of LibreOffice from the live CD image, a replacement of GDM with LightDM as the default login manager, and improvements in Ubuntu Software Centre (USC), among many others: "In Ubuntu 11.10 'Oneiric Ocelot', Ubuntu Software Center might get a web catalog from where you can install applications (using apturl). The web Ubuntu Software Center looks and behaves pretty much like the standalone USC but for now that's all the available info on this. One of the major issues with Ubuntu Software Center is that the application descriptions are in English, no matter what language you use so that really needs to be fixed. To solve this, the Ubuntu Software Center might even allow the users to translate the application description from within the software center."
* * * * *
 With all the recent criticism of both GNOME 3 and Ubuntu's Unity interface it's hardly surprising that some developers are looking for an alternative desktop for their distributions. Scott Lavender, the lead developer of Ubuntu Studio, has found the perfect one in Xfce: "Several desktop environments were discussed but Xfce was chosen because it offered appreciable advantages that other desktop environments could not. Some advantages would be more immediately tangible to users. For example, Xfce represents a familiar desktop metaphor for users and provides a more resource-friendly environment than GNOME, KDE, or (I would expect) Unity. Other advantages would be more tangible to the Ubuntu Studio team (and perhaps to users later on). A large potential advantage is to develop working relations with the Xubuntu team, which could reduce the workload on the limited Ubuntu Studio team but also increase the actual development yield. And ultimately, some benefits of this relationship might eventually include a graphical installer and a live image, both of which have been desired by users."
* * * * *
 For someone who prefers a flashier desktop there is always Enlightenment and Bodhi Linux. Last week Steven Rosenberg interviewed Jeff Hoogland, the founder and lead developer of this Ubuntu-based desktop distribution: "Q: What do you think of the stock Debian and Ubuntu installs of Enlightenment, and how does Bodhi improve on them? A: Well, for starters we provide an up-to-date version of Enlightenment. Enlightenment development sees about 1,000 SVN commits a month. As such any Enlightenment desktop in Debian/Ubuntu repositories is often many months old. Bodhi provides weekly updates to the desktop for our users to download. Default Enlightenment setups also are not very functional or nice-looking without a good deal of tweaking. For instance, Sabayon E17 ships with a fairly standard Enlightenment desktop, whereas Bodhi provides a number of nice-looking desktops to choose from (see the scrolling images on the main home page). For a new user setting up Enlightenment 17 as Bodhi has done can take hours or days even."
* * * * *
 While on the subject of interviews, here is another one - this time with the founder of the Debian-based CrunchBang Linux, Philip Newborough. Is a new release of CrunchBang Linux planned soon? "As you are probably aware, CrunchBang Linux 10 'Statler', the latest CrunchBang release, is based on Debian 'Squeeze', which is stable. At the moment, I am not planning on developing Statler any further, but I may push out some point releases with updated packages. The next development release of CrunchBang will be named 'Waldorf' and it will be based on Debian 'Wheezy', the current Debian testing branch. I have a few ideas I am working on for Waldorf, but nothing concrete yet. Mostly, I would like to work on improving the Xfce desktop experience, which I somewhat neglected in Statler." And what is CrunchBang developer's favourite distribution? "I like them all, but I am really fond of Puppy Linux. There is something about Puppy which really appeals to me and I think it encapsulates the Linux spirit. SliTaz and Tiny Core Linux also fall into the same category."
* * * * *
Finally, a link to an interesting update on the state of RPM by Linux Weekly News. As some readers might be aware of, there are currently two separate branches of the package manager - the commonly used RPM 4.x which is still the preferred version in Fedora and all its derived distributions, and RPM 5.x, which will make its first appearance in the upcoming Mandriva Linux 2011 and which is also employed by a handful of smaller distributions. Here is Jonathan Corbet's conclusion on the subject: "It is going to be interesting to watch what happens from here. Mandriva appears to be well committed to the RPM 5 transition at this point, and, seemingly, things are beginning to stabilize. If RPM 5 performs well in the final Mandriva 2011 release, it could motivate questions from users of some of the other distributions on why they are stuck with the 'older' version. Alternatively, users could see the pain Mandriva has been through and, if the result doesn't appear to be worth it, they may decide that they're happier with their relatively boring RPM 4. Either way, it seems that this particular drama has not played itself out yet."
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Head in the clouds
Cloud storage, the practice of saving one's files on a server controlled by someone else, has a way of polarizing people. There are those who enjoy the convenience of being able to send their data to a remote server, giving them the ability to retrieve or synchronize from another machine on another network. Some like the idea of other people managing the machines and disks, leaving us to worry about other things. And, at the other end of the scale are those who dislike having their data on a server they don't control, where scripts and prying eyes might see it. Or, for that matter, where the server might go off-line and we can't do anything to fix the situation. I think cloud storage can be quite useful, if it's used properly, but as with any tool, it needs to be used with reasonable expectations.
For instance, the ease of sending copies of files to a remote server is appealing, but whenever someone tells me they're backing up their data to a cloud, my first reaction is: "And where else?" I recommend always having two backups, regardless of what methods are being used -- one to be kept locally for easy access and one remotely in case of an on-site disaster. Remote servers can go down, companies can close their doors and network connections to the outside world can be interrupted. These potential problems lead me to suggest that cloud storage is a useful backup solution as long as it's not the only backup process in place.
The other big concern, privacy, is especially important to consider when we're dealing with confidential documents. It's one thing for your music collection or camping photos to leak out, it's quite another for your tax return or business contracts to be looked over. For this reason I recommend encrypting anything that gets sent to that big cloud in the ether. But there is a catch, how does one easily encrypt files before sending them to the cloud? Let's take a look at that. Most distributions will have a copy of OpenSSL either pre-installed or available in the repositories. What is OpenSSL? From the program's manual page, it's "a command line tool for using the various cryptography functions of OpenSSL's crypto library from the shell." Which means, among other things, that OpenSSL will allow us to encrypt and decrypt files. Make sure it's installed if you'd like to follow along.
In this first example let's assume that we have a file called to-do-list.txt and we want to encrypt it before uploading it to remote storage. We can use OpenSSL to do this with the command:
openssl enc -e -aes256 -in to-do-list.txt -out encoded-list.txt
We'll be asked to assign a password to the encrypted file and what comes out the other end is an encrypted file called encoded-list.txt. We can then send this file to the cloud. In the above example the "aes256" part is the method of encryption. A list of supported encryption options can be viewed by running "openssl help".
Of course, later we're going to want to be able to decrypt the file so it's important to use a password we will be able to remember. Speaking of that, how do we get our original file back from the encrypted version? We can use:
openssl enc -aes256 -d -in encoded-list.txt -out the-to-do-list.txt
Running the above command will prompt us for the password and then output the original contents of our file to the-to-do-list.txt. The "-d" flag tells OpenSSL to decrypt the file we give it, where in the previous example the "-e" flag indicated we wanted to encrypt a file.
Now, if you're like me and don't want to risk typing mistakes every time you want to encrypt or decrypt a file, you can use a script like the one below. This script accepts a single file and encrypts it, adding the extension .enc to avoid over-writing the original. It pauses to prompt us for a password:
#!/bin/bash
# make sure we get a file name
if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
echo "Usage: $0 file-to-encrypt"
exit 1
fi
openssl enc -e -aes256 -in "$1" -out "$1".enc
To get our file back we can use the following script. It will accept the name of an encrypted file and the name of the file we wish to save the decrypted data to.
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 2 ]
then
echo "Usage: $0 file-to-decrypt new-file-name"
exit 1
fi
openssl enc -d -aes256 -in "$1" -out "$2"
To wrap this up, let's look at a script which will backup a copy of our Documents folder, automatically encrypt the archive for us, save the password and place the encrypted version in a location that will be synced up to our cloud storage. In this example I'm assuming that we're making use of Ubuntu One's cloud storage, but the script can be easily adjusted to make use of other services.
#!/bin/bash
# get current date
mydate=$(date +"%y-%m-%d")
# Archive Documents folder
tar czf documents-$mydate.tar.gz ~/Documents
# workout checksum-based password
checksum=$(md5sum documents-$mydate.tar.gz | cut -c 1-16)
# encrypt the archive and put in it our synced folder
openssl enc -e -aes256 -in documents-$mydate.tar.gz -out ~/Ubuntu\ One/documents-$mydate.tar.gz.enc -pass pass:$checksum
# save the date and password
touch ~/Passwords
echo $mydate $checksum >> ~/Passwords
# move the original archive to another disk
mv documents-$mydate.tar.gz /media/disk/
What we end up with is an encrypted archive in our synchronized folder ("Ubuntu One" in this case) and a plain (unencrypted) copy on another disk (mounted as /media/disk). The password for the encrypted archive is saved in a file called Passwords in our home folder. Each entry in the Passwords file will give the date the archive was created, followed by the 16-character password.
Some security-minded people will point out that keeping passwords in a text file and, for that matter, automating passwords in a script that can be ferreted out using commands like "ps", isn't a good idea. It's a completely valid concern, especially if we're trying to prevent our passwords from falling into the hands of people who have access to our computer. However, in this example we're not protecting ourselves from local users, but from the cloud storage servers.
It's entirely possible to make use of cloud storage while keeping data safe. As with other forms of off-site backups, this requires some redundancy and encryption, both of which are easy to set up on most Linux distributions.
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| Released Last Week |
linuX-gamers Live 0.9.7
Marko Kaiser has announced the release of linuX-gamers Live 0.9.7, an Arch-based live CD/DVD packed with a large selection of 2D and 3D games: "So Sven released a new version of the linuX-gamers.net live DVD -- the Linux Tag 2011 release. What's new in this version? Improved user experience and auto-configuration; support for chipsets of recent boards; updated games; new additional games; updated proprietary drivers; Linux kernel 2.6.38; improved network boot support; added persistent home support; added installation support; removed proprietary ATI drivers. New games: ZaZ, MegaGlest, Mars Shooter, Speed Dreams." Read the release announcement and check out the list of games included on the live CD and DVD.
linuX-gamers Live 0.9.7 - an Arch-based live DVD for gaming enthusiasts
(full image size: 191kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
BackTrack 5
Offensive Security has announced the release of BackTrack 5, an Ubuntu-based security distribution providing a collection of specialist tools for penetration testing and forensic analysis: "The BackTrack development team has worked furiously in the past months on BackTrack 5, code name 'revolution'. Today, we are proud to release our work to the public, and then rest for a couple of weeks. This new revision has been built from scratch, and boasts several major improvements over all our previous releases. Based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Linux kernel 2.6.38, patched with all relevant wireless injection patches. Fully open source and GPL compliant." Here is the brief release announcement.
BackTrack 5 - an Ubuntu-based distribution for penetration testing
(full image size: 1,245kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
SalineOS 1.4, 1.0 "Personal Server"
Anthony Nordquist has announced the release of SalineOS 1.4, a Debian-based desktop distribution with Xfce, and SalineOS 1.0 "Personal Server" edition, a Debian-based distribution for home servers: "SalineOS Personal Server edition 1.0 is now available. The Personal Server edition is designed to make setting up small personal home servers as easy as possible. It features stripped-down Xfce 4.6.2 desktop environment, FireStarter firewall utility, GNOME NetworkManager, the new SalineOS installer, ClamAV pinned to Debian 'Squeeze' updates, scripts for aiding installation of certain server services, and full user manual in English, Spanish and German." Read the brief release announcement and visit the product information page to find out more; the 1.4 announcement is here.
KANOTIX 2011-05
Maximilian Gerhard has announced the release of KANOTIX 2011-05, a Debian-based desktop distribution and live DVD featuring the KDE desktop: "LinuxTag 2011 in Berlin started today, therefore we offer an updated KANOTIX 'Hellfire' version. Kanotix 'Hellfire' 2011-05 is based on Debian 6.0. It contains the latest Debian stable branch with all the latest security updates. In addition it provides useful extras and updated packages, including: Linux kernel 2.6.38 final (Ubuntu, recompiled), KDE SC 4.4.5 with KANOTIX branding, Amarok 2.4.0, LibreOffice 3.3.2, GRUB 2 boot manager, KDE Network Manager, Iceweasel 4.0.1, Icedove 3.1.9, Pidgin 2.7.11, NTFS-3G 2011.1.15, WINE 1.3.19, Kano's scripts for installing NVIDIA or ATI graphics driver and Flash Player plugin." Here is the full release announcement.
Salix OS 13.37 "Xfce"
George Vlahavas has announced the release of Salix OS 13.37 "Xfce" edition, the first of the series of Salix OS releases with various desktop environments and window managers (editions with Fluxbox, LXDE and KDE are to follow), all based on the new Slackware Linux 13.37: "Salix Xfce 13.37 is finally here. It includes numerous changes and improvements, both Salix-specific and also inherited from Slackware. This release comes with Linux kernel 2.6.37.6, the Xfce 4.6.2 desktop environment, Firefox 4.0.1 and Claws Mail 3.7.8. LibreOffice 3.3.2 is included by default in full-mode installations, replacing OpenOffice.org and localization packages for it for more than a hundred languages are available through the package management tools. Exaile 0.3.2 is the default music player and parole 0.2.0.6 is used as the default movie player." See the full release announcement for further information.
Salix OS 13.37 - a Slackware-based desktop distribution
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Pinguy OS 11.04
Pinguy OS 11.04, an Ubuntu-based distribution with many user-friendly features, has been released: "Pinguy OS 11.04 released with classic GNOME 2.32.1 desktop. Pinguy OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that comes with a lot of applications installed by default, trying to cover everyone's needs. But it's not the default application selection what makes Pinguy OS so interesting, but Pinguy's attention to detail: every single aspect of the desktop is carefully customized to provide a great out-of-the-box experience. Pinguy OS 11.04 (based on Ubuntu 11.04) was released yesterday. The new Pinguy OS comes with GNOME 2.32.1 and uses the classic GNOME desktop while Unity has been completely removed from the CD." Read the full release announcement which includes screenshots.
Pinguy OS 11.04 - an Ubuntu-based distribution with an enhanced GNOME user interface
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to database
- Fuduntu. Fuduntu is a Fedora-based Linux distribution that earns its name by its ambition to fit somewhere in-between Fedora and Ubuntu. It is designed to be aesthetically pleasing, and is optimized for netbook and other portable computers, as well as general-purpose desktop machines.
Fuduntu 14.9 - a Fedora-based distribution with GNOME and some user-friendly touches
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- Bardinux. Bardinux, a project of the Office of Free Software at the Universidad de La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain, is a Kubuntu-based distribution. It follows Kubuntu's long-term support release and is designed primarily for the students of the university.
Bardinux - an Ubuntu-based distribution from Canary Islands
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Blackbuntu. Blackbuntu is an Ubuntu-based distribution for penetration testing which was specially designed for security students and practitioners of information security. It uses the GNOME desktop environment.
- iQunix OS. iQunix OS, is a Linux operating system based on the popular Ubuntu distribution. Its design offers Ubuntu users and specialist a bare-bone GNOME desktop on which nothing is pre-installed.
- mabuntux. mabuntux is a Ubuntu-based live DVD featuring the Ubuntu 11.04 desktop, XAMPP and OpenSSH servers, eyeOS web desktop, web development tools, and Macbuntu theme.
- PrimeE17. PrimeE17 is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring Enlightenment 17. It includes Engage, Places, calendar modules, Remastersys, Chrome, OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Skype and xine
- Vanillux. Vanillux is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the standard GNOME 3 desktop. Also includes LibreOffice, Google Chrome and VLC.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 23 May 2011.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Quantian Scientific Computing Environment
A Knoppix/Debian variant tailored to numerical and quantitative analysis, Quantian was a remastering of Knoppix, the self-configuring and directly bootable CDROM that turns any PC or laptop (provided it can boot from CDROM) into a full-featured Linux workstation. The most recent version was based on clusterKnoppix and adds support for openMosix, including remote booting of light clients in an openMosix terminal server context. Quantian was an extension of Knoppix and clusterKnoppix from which it takes its base system of about 2GB of software, along with fully automatic hardware detection and configuration. However, Quantian differs from Knoppix by adding a set of programs of interest to applied or theoretical workers in quantitative or data-driven fields.
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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