 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 412, 4 July 2011 |
Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! This week's feature story is a first-look review of a little-known live CD which has the words "lightweight" and "security" in its name. Designed by the USA's Department of Defence, Lightweight Portable Security is provided to general public as a secure way to connect to the Internet without leaving any traces behind. But does the project deliver on its promise? Read on to find out whether it could become part of your arsenal of useful live CDs to carry around. In the news section, Mandriva experiments with user interface updates courtesy of a collection of new tools from Russia's Rosa Labs, Mageia developers set out to establish a reliable update mechanism for its initial release, and Bodhi Linux announces a variant of its distribution for ARM processors - with Enlightenment and touch-screen capabilities. Also in this issue, a brief exploration of alternatives to the GNOME 3 desktop environment in the Questions and Answers section. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the June 2011 DistroWatch.com donation is the Midori web browser project. Happy reading!
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Lightweight Portable Security 1.2.1
 Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) is a product produced by the United States of America's Department of Defense and is part of that organization's Software Protection Initiative. (If you're in the military, you might prefer the abbreviated SPI-DoD-USA LPS-OSE, a tangle of letters you'll find in the project's URL and scattered throughout their website.) What all this alphabet soup basically boils down to is the Department of Defense made a Linux live CD. The idea seems to be that most publicly-used operating systems are easy to compromise and so it would be a good idea if people could use a computer without the risk of exposing their credentials and private data to malware, key loggers and such. The Department of Defense's response to this issue was to make a small Linux distro that would let people work on simple documents and browse the web without worrying about spyware or leaving behind digital tracks on the hard drive. In the department's words, "the ATSPI Technology Office created the LPS family to address particular use cases. LPS-Public is a safer, general-purpose solution for using web-based applications."
Booting off the live CD shows us a graphical boot screen with a banner letting us know that this disc came out of the Air Force Research Laboratory. Then a small dialogue box appears and asks us to view and accept LPS's license agreement. Once the agreement is accepted, we're shown the disc's desktop. The first thing to jump out at me is that LPS's desktop looks a lot like the Windows desktop of the mid-to-late 1990s. There are icons along the left side of the screen, a grey taskbar along the bottom and the launchers are designed to look like their Windows counterparts. The application menu is brought up using a button dual-labelled with Tux (the Linux mascot) and the word "Start" and the short-cut button to bring up a terminal window is marked with "C:\". Likewise, IceWM is themed so that window title bars and buttons look like those previously used by Microsoft.
The application menu contains a fairly small collection of software and includes Firefox 3.6, the PCMan file manager, the Leafpad text editor, an encryption wizard, and a secure shell client. There's a link to documentation, which is made up of local HTML pages shown to us via Firefox. There's a small drawing application, Citrix, a PDF viewer, and a calculator. For handling our network connection we're given NetworkManager. In the background we find Java and the 2.6.27 version of the Linux kernel. I was surprised to find Flash installed as it seems out of place in a product containing both "lightweight" and "security" in its name. In an additional effort to make the title "Lightweight Portable Security" sound ironic the user is logged in as root and hashed passwords are stored in the world-readable /etc/passwd file.
Perhaps it seems nit-picky to make such observations about a live CD that isn't designed to be installed to a hard drive. After all, if we're going to automatically login and everything on the disc resets when we reboot, it hardly matters, does it? Maybe, I can see the argument for storing the password wherever it's convenient, but running as root (which gives the user more access to the machine) and having Flash installed (which increases the operating system's attack surface) strikes me as asking for trouble. Do Department of Defense employees regularly need to watch YouTube videos between sending and receiving confidential documents? For that matter, if LPS is designed to be a use-and-discard live environment, why does the CD include Firefox Sync, a tool used to keep track of your "history, tabs and passwords wherever you go"?
There are other unusual characteristics lurking under the surface. For instance, all of the distro's applications are stored in the /bin directory; the /sbin and /usr/bin "directories" are just links back to /bin. We're also missing common items like the "top" command and man(ual) pages. The LPS distribution includes a secure shell client (ssh) and secure copy (scp), but doesn't include SFTP, which makes secure transfers more cumbersome.
The two central pieces of software in LPS are Firefox (for web browsing, e-mail checking & web applications) and the encryption wizard. The wizard is an interesting and wonderfully easy-to-use program which, as the name implies, encrypts and decrypts files. Launching the wizard brings up a small window where the user can drag-n-drop files to work on, and there are large buttons at the bottom of the window labelled "Encrypt" and "Decrypt". Selecting a file and clicking a button walks the user through entering an encryption password or supplying a key. It's all fairly quick and painless. At least it's painless if you're trying to decrypt files which were encrypted by the Encryption Wizard. During my trial I encrypted some files on one machine, copied them over to the box running LPS and loaded them into the encryption wizard. The wizard wasn't able to decrypt them, so there's a compatibility issue if you're exchanging private documents with other parties. It's also important to make sure that encrypted files have a specific extension, otherwise the wizard will refuse to operate on them.
LPS 1.2.1 - running the encryption wizard
(full image size: 384kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
The Lightweight Portable Security distribution did well working with my hardware. I tried running the live CD on two machines, a desktop box (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, NVIDIA video card) and my HP laptop (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 3 GB of RAM, Intel video card) and found that LPS was able to detect and use all of my hardware. My touchpad worked as expected, sound was set to a low, but audible, volume and NetworkManager informed me of wireless networks in my area.
According to the changelog found in the "Docs" directory, the distribution is based on Thinstation 2.2.2, a small distribution designed for thin clients), but it doesn't include a package manager or software repository. Since Lightweight Portable Security is designed to be used solely as a live CD with fairly specific goals, I think this makes sense. Chances are that if users are missing a specific piece of software, they shouldn't be trying to do that anyway, as far as the developers are concerned.
After playing with Lightweight Portable Security for a few days, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. The one thing the distro has going for it is hardware support (it handled both my test machines well), but beyond that the experience was a series of let-downs. The distro isn't, by Linux standards, particularly lightweight (the ISO is 144 MB and LPS uses over 300 MB of RAM when sitting idle at the desktop); distributions such as SliTaz and Puppy offer more features with a smaller footprint. The system doesn't feel particularly secure either, with the user always running as root, passwords stored in the open, Flash enabled by default and Firefox Sync installed. The encryption wizard is easy to use, but seems limited in the types of encryption it can handle. And, perhaps it is overly picky of me, but if the Department of Defense wanted to rip off a Windows theme to make their software seem familiar to their employees, why did they pick a look from fifteen years ago?
I think the makers of LPS would have been further ahead if they had based their distribution off an existing Linux distro. There are plenty of small and secure Linux live CDs available and, for that matter, several full-featured ones, depending on what the Department wanted. They could have had more features or more security with an off-the-shelf distro. As it stands, LPS probably accomplishes the task it was created for, but it does not do so elegantly.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Mandriva experiments with UI changes, Mageia sets up update infrastructure, Bodhi releases distro for ARM-based touch screens
 Seemingly following in the footsteps of Ubuntu (with Unity) and Fedora (with GNOME 3), Mandriva Linux has become the latest distribution to experiment with a new Linux desktop layout. The delayed first release candidate of the upcoming version 2011 ships with a number of unique utilities developed by Russia's Rosa Laboratory (website in Russian), including a "new login manager, desktop theme, plasma widgets, icons, backgrounds, splash screens, launcher, boot screens and desktop settings, as well as Mandriva Sync, Sphere helpdesk clients and Improver testing application" - all developed by Rosa. Susan Linton takes a quick look at the user interface changes in this release candidate: "It did sport some new icons, and in Linux icon sets are a hot commodity. These new ones were okay, though they didn't make me go 'ooo' and 'ah.' The 'plasma-applet-stackfolder application' was pre-set and working fine. I suppose those could be handy. But that menu... I know someone has put a whole lot of work into that new Rosa menu, but it's just not my cup of tea. It reminds me of the older GNOME 'more applications' menu or the new GNOME Shell. I don't like a large screen-size application launcher that closes automatically upon clicking something."
Mandriva Linux 2011 RC1 - the Rosa start menu
(full image size: 209kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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 In contrast, Mageia, a fork of Mandriva Linux maintained by many former Mandriva developers and contributors, has been focusing on setting up a proper infrastructure for continued development, rather than large-scale user interface changes. Following the project's successful first release, the project's next challenge is to manage package updates, security fixes and backports: "The release of Mageia 1 marks a turning point for the distribution, because end users are now encouraged to install and use it on a daily basis -- and up until now, most of those users were still running Mandriva, which continued to receive regular package updates. A user switching to Mageia is likely to encounter several distinct package update scenarios: security updates to close specific vulnerabilities, incremental bug-fix updates, and new packages that for one reason or another were not ready for inclusion with the initial release of Mageia 1. Each scenario has its peculiarities, although for simplicity's sake, it is in the project's interest to provide as uniform a testing and update process as possible." The author concludes the article with an interesting observation: "As many old Linux veterans will tell you, getting the first release out the door is not nearly as taxing as setting up a smooth development, testing, and release process that is sustainable over a multi-year period."
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 Bodhi Linux might be a relatively new distribution with a somewhat eccentric user interface (Enlightenment 17), but it certainly isn't short of ambition. Last week the project announced the initial alpha release of Bodhi Linux for ARM processors, a Debian-based distribution optimised for touch screen devices: "If you have used Bodhi before then you may be aware that one of the profiles we offer by default is one that is optimized for touch screen devices. Over the past couple of months since we added this layout we have had many requests from users to get Bodhi running on embedded touch screen devices. Today I am happy to announce the first availability of an alpha version of Bodhi Linux for ARM devices. The ARM edition of Bodhi is built on top of a Debian base, which provides stability on top of the speed the Enlightenment desktop provides. The first target devices Bodhi Linux plans to 'officially' support are the ArchOS Gen8 tablet computers." If you own one of these devices and are interested in seeing Enlightenment on it, head for the above announcement for links to installation instructions and support forums.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Alternatives to GNOME 3
Three's-a-crowd asks: I've been trying GNOME 3 for a month and I can't get it to work how I want. What alternatives to GNOME 3 can you recommend? Is there a GNOME 2 project like Trinity for KDE?
DistroWatch answers: When GNOME 3 first came out there was quite a bit of talk about a fork. There for a while it looked like EXDE was going to launch a GNOME 2 fork, similar to the KDE 3.5 Trinity fork. However, it seems support for EXDE never reached a point where the project could get off the ground. And it's not surprising really -- even the GNOME team said this about GNOME 2: "GNOME 2 had a long life, and parts of it became difficult to maintain over that period. As a result, continued releases of the entire GNOME 2 desktop were never a practical option for the GNOME Project, and several parts of the old GNOME 2 desktop will not receive new releases after GNOME 3 is released." So if the GNOME team feels they can't properly maintain GNOME 2, what chance do the rest of us have?
Since a fork doesn't seem likely, let's look at other options. One way to go is to use a distribution which is still using GNOME 2. In fact, at this stage, that should be fairly easy as most major distributions (aside from Fedora) seem to still be on GNOME 2. Projects such as Scientific Linux and Debian Squeeze will be using GNOME 2 for the next several years. The last Ubuntu LTS release will support GNOME 2 for about two more years. So if you don't need to be on the cutting edge of technology, there are plenty GNOME 2 distributions.
Alternatively, there's Xfce. The Xfce desktop environment is, in a lot of ways, basically a light version of GNOME 2. I find the developers do a nice job of putting together a low-resource, but fully capable desktop. I suspect a lot of people who don't like the latest generation of GNOME are probably migrating to Xfce.
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| Released Last Week |
PCLinuxOS 2011.6
The KDE edition of PCLinuxOS 2011.6, a new update of the beginner-friendly distribution with rolling-release update mechanism, has been released: "PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6 for 32-bit and 64-bit computers is now available for download. The Linux kernel was updated to version 2.6.38.8. Additional kernels are available from our repositories such as a PAE kernel for computers with more than 4 GB of memory. A BFS kernel for maximum desktop performance and a standard kernel with group scheduling enabled. X.Org Server was updated to version 1.10.2. Mesa updated to 7.10.3 and libdrm to version 2.4.26. These updates bring enhancements to the PCLinuxOS desktop including speed, 3D desktop support for most Intel, NVIDIA and AMD/ATI video cards, better font rendering, black screen fixes for most NVIDIA cards, better Flash playback and more." The release announcement has more information and screenshots.
PCLinuxOS 2011.6 - a new respin of the beginner-friendly desktop distro
(full image size: 483kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Vinux 3.2
Tony Sales has announced the release of Vinux 3.2, an Ubuntu-based distribution optimised for the needs of blind and visually impaired users: "I am happy to announce the release of Vinux 3.2, based on Ubuntu 11.04. This is a cutting-edge release featuring the latest versions of Orca (3.1.2) and Speech-Dispatcher (0.8) from the daily-build repositories. This version is available as CD and DVD in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions. The DVD version provides the same software as the CD but with the addition of LibreOffice and some non-free multimedia codecs. The default desktop is Classic GNOME 2.x but Unity is available from the GDM login screen if your video card supports 3D. This release includes the Pico TTS voices in addition to Espeak...." Visit the project's news page to read the full release announcement.
Untangle Gateway 9.0
Dirk Morris has announced the release of Untangle Gateway 9.0, an updated version of the project's Debian-based distribution for gateways, firewalls and routers: "We are pleased to announce general availability of Untangle 9.0. Our latest version includes a new application for seamless integration with other Untangle or third-party firewalls via IPsec as well as a host of enhanced features and improvements. Untangle's easy-to-configure IPsec module allows for seamless integration with third-party firewall products. Tested platforms include: Cisco, Sonicwall, and Astaro. Key features include: orovides support for all current encryption protocols; no per-tunnel licensing; seamless integration with existing IPsec VPN networks; full mesh tunnel support." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
Netrunner 3.2
Clemens Toennies has announced the release of Netrunner 3.2, a Kubuntu-based desktop distribution: "We just released Netrunner 3.2 for download. Changes from the last version are as follows: added LibreOffice (office suite) 3.3.2 to replace OpenOffice.org; added Clementine (music player); added Deluge (torrent client); added Dropbox (including Kfilebox for Dolphin); added Skype (VoIP); added GNOME NetworkManager to replace KNetworkManager; updated KDE desktop to 4.6.2, Firefox browser to 5.0, Flash plugin to 10.3.181.26, Thunderbird (email client including Lightning calendar) to 3.1.10, VLC (media player) to 1.1.10, Wine (Windows environment layer) to 1.3.22, Pidgin (messenger client) to 2.7.11, GIMP (graphic program) to 2.6.11." Here is the complete release announcement.
Calculate Linux 11.6
Alexander Tratsevskiy has announced the release of Calculate Linux 11.6, a Gentoo-based distribution: "Calculate Linux 11.6 has been released. Major changes: added support for selecting the network manager between OpenRC and NetworkManager; added support of network configuration to the console installer; for better device support and boot speed udev has been integrated into initramfs live CD; GRUB 2 is the default bootloader; added detection of installed operating systems; added screen splash auto-resolution; added video driver choice menu, additionally the nouveau and the proprietary ATI driver are supported; free video driver with support for KMS are used by default...." The release announcement.
Calculate Linux 11.6 - a Gentoo-based distribution for desktops and servers
(full image size: 530kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Fusion Linux 14.1
Valent Turkovic has announced the release of Fusion Linux 14.1, "a Fedora remix done right": "Fusion Linux 14.1 'Thorium' is officially out. This release has been in the making for a few months, and it is mostly an update to our initial release. The biggest new feature is LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice.org and two biggest bugs squashed. One bug prevented Firefox 4.0 from starting while using it as live USB or live DVD and other bug was a dependency issue that prevented updates from being downloaded. We hoped with this release to make all desktop components more stable and add an overall desktop polish. Features and highlights: new download managers - Tucan and Uget; new remote desktop application - Remmina; a brand-new custom-made theme; multimedia support out of the box...." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details and screenshots.
Toorox 07.2011
Following the recent release of Toorox "GNOME" edition, Jörn Lindau today announced the availability of a new "KDE" variant, a Gentoo-based live DVD built on top of the Linux kernel 2.6.39 and featuring the KDE desktop (version 4.6.4). From the release announcement: "A new version of the 'KDE' edition has been finished. This contains all improvements of the recent 'GNOME' edition. The kernel is Linux 2.6.39-gentoo-r1. KDE has been updated to the recent version 4.6.4. Also the latest version of IceCat 5.0 has been built in. Nearly all packages have been updated - GCC 4.5.2, X.Org Server 1.10.2, VLC 1.1.10, LibreOffice 3.4.0, Audacious 2.5.3. Both torrent files (32-bit and 64-bit) are stored in the download section."
AriOS 3.0
Mahdi Fattahi has announced the release of AriOS 3.0, an Ubuntu-based distribution with a unique look & feel and loads of extra software: "I'm very happy to announce the release of AriOS 3.0 final, a complete operating system based on Ubuntu 11.04. In this version the focus has been on more polish and providing a better set of default programs. Noteworthy points and changes in this version: Unity has been removed as I think it still lacks a lot of features and customization options; downgraded Compiz to 0.8.6 to avoid the problems reported with the new version shipped in Ubuntu 11.04; Sessions - you can choose between three sessions at login: AriOS, AriOS-2D and GNOME Classic; Alt+F2 shortcut has been assigned to Synapse, the smart, semantic launcher." Read the release announcement for a full list of changes and known issues.
AriOS 3.0 - an Ubuntu-based desktop distribution
(full image size: 1,428kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Parted Magic 6.3
Patrick Verner has announced the release of Parted Magic 6.3, a utility live CD with software for disk management and data rescue tasks. Besides the usual i486 image, Parted Magic now also exists in i686 and x86_64 flavours for more modern computers. From the release announcement: "This release fixes a few obscure typos and bugs in some of our scripts. Pburn and Pfilesearch have been added for testing. There are no menu entries yet, so run 'pburn' from the command line. The main reason for this release was to add more kernel CPU options. Parted Magic now comes in i486, i686, and x86_64 editions. The only testing I've done with x86_64 was on my i7 machine. I've successfully chrooted into a 64-bit Slackware 13.37 and ran some command-line programs. The i686 CPU is set to PIII, so if you are running a PII, use the i486 version instead."
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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 |
June 2011 DistroWatch.com donation: Midori
 We are happy to announce that the recipient of the June 2011 DistroWatch.com donation is Midori, a fast and lightweight web browser.
Midori was one of the most frequently requested packages in our annual package database update concluded last week, and is often included as the default web browser in small and lightweight distributions. Some of its features include: "Full integration with GTK+ 2; fast rendering with WebKit; tabs, windows and session management; configurable web search; user scripts and user styles support; straightforward bookmark management; customizable and extensible interface; extensions such as Adblock, form history, mouse gestures or cookie management." Visit the project's features page to learn more about this interesting web browsing alternative.
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with cash contributions. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for future donations. Those readers who wish to contribute towards these donations, please use our advertising page to make a payment (PayPal and credit cards are accepted). Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285)
- 2010: Qimo 4 Kids ($250), Squid ($250), Libre Graphics Meeting ($300), Bacula ($250), FileZilla ($300), GCompris ($352), Xiph.org ($250), Clonezilla ($250), Debian Multimedia ($280), Geany ($300), Mageia ($470), gtkpod ($300)
- 2011: CGSecurity ($300), OpenShot ($300), Imagination ($250), Calibre ($300), RIPLinuX ($300), Midori ($310)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$28,390 to various open-source software projects.
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New distributions added to database
- LPS. Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) is a Linux-based live CD with a goal of allowing users to work on a computer without the risk of exposing their credentials and private data to malware, key loggers and other Internet-era ills. It includes a minimal set of applications and utilities, such as the Firefox web browser or an encryption wizard for encrypting and decrypting personal files. The live CD is a product produced by the United States of America's Department of Defence and is part of that organization's Software Protection Initiative.
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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, 11 July 2011.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • PCLinuxOS lxde 2011.6 rocks (by Barista Uno on 2011-07-04 09:30:58 GMT from Philippines)
I was using Bodhi Linux 1.1 on my vintage (Pentium III) IBM workstation for over a week. It's a fast and elegant-looking distro but the Enlightenment DE can be a bit quirky. So I've not replaced it with the latest PCLinuxOS lxde. Fast, minimalist, stable. All that I need really for a desktop Linux.
2 • LPS (by M1k on 2011-07-04 09:34:36 GMT from Italy)
I am a registered LPS user.
But Tails it is far more secure.
3 • Alternatives to GNOME 3 (by Megadriver on 2011-07-04 09:37:46 GMT from Spain)
Well, there's a GNOME 2 fork called the "Mate Desktop Environment":
http://matsusoft.com.ar/redmine/projects/mate
As its name implies, it's made in Argentina. It seems to be a one-man show, though.
If you ask me, you'd better off learning to live without a DE (try it, it's fun!), but for those of you who can't/don't want to do that, there's XFCE, indeed. A basic XFCE setup it's _surprisingly_ light for a DE.
4 • Alternatives to Gnome 3 (by Charles on 2011-07-04 09:38:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have switched, at least for now, to Xubuntu as I'm not keen on the direction of Gnome 3. I find Xfce a very capable desktop. Just a pity that Mint have abandoned their six-monthly Xfce releases based on Xubuntu in favour of a rolling edition which, for me, involves a little bit more technical knowledge than I have.
5 • Lightweight Portable Security (by dragonmouth on 2011-07-04 09:38:53 GMT from United States)
"The distro isn't, by Linux standards, particularly lightweight"
The definition of an elephant -- a mouse built to government specifications.
6 • #3: A small correction (by Megadriver on 2011-07-04 09:39:34 GMT from Spain)
Sorry, a two-man show, actually.
7 • PCLinuxOS (by Mike on 2011-07-04 09:42:48 GMT from Netherlands)
I like PCLinuxOS. Unfortunately the latest release still has two quirks not solved: My wireless uses the RT2870 chipset and under PCLOS it runs as G instead of N.
Also the HP printer problem, where it does not use the black ink cartridge, still isn't solved. It is time for me to look for another distro......
8 • PCLinuxOS 2011.6 (by KC1DI on 2011-07-04 10:18:42 GMT from United States)
I've been using PCLinuxOS 2011.6 for awhile and it's the perfect match for my hardware. Just works out of the box and is a rolling release which I like very much. And there are a number of different DE to choose from I use LXDE on an older box and KDE version on my newer machines. Texstar and the gang do a good job of keeping it up to date and very usable.
9 • Alternative to GNOME 3 (by KC1DI on 2011-07-04 10:03:51 GMT from United States)
Though XFCE is a very nice and capable DE I surprised that you did not mention LXDE it's even lighter and will do most of what Gnome would do. just a thought.
10 • Mandriva experiments (danger ahead . .) (by Robert Fox on 2011-07-04 10:43:12 GMT from Germany)
As a long standing Mandriva user, I am deeply concerned that they will alienate many users with the RosaLabs changes (like Ubuntu has going with Unity as standard) - because certain choices are being taken away from the end user . . . I for one am sitting on the fence right now, not knowing if I should continue with Mandriva or go Mageia . . . tough call . . .
11 • KDE Gorgeous? (by Bob on 2011-07-04 11:30:01 GMT from Austria)
If one can live with bugs and bloat then KDE might be right. I use it mostly due to lack of acceptable alternatives. Disabling screen effects will increase system's responsiveness, disabling the 'bouncing cursor' will keep user's sanity and replacing the useless 'kickoff menu' with 'classic menu style' will get things going ...
12 • PCLinuxOS (by rob on 2011-07-04 12:18:29 GMT from United States)
PCLinuxOS is, in my opinion, the perfect Linux distro. Excellent hardware support, restricted software already installed, up-to-date yet stable repositories, every desktop environment known to man (plus openbox and e17), excellent community... what more do you want? Give PCLOS a try!
13 • @9 (by Megadriver on 2011-07-04 12:45:13 GMT from Spain)
I don't have a lot of experience with LXDE, to be honest, Isn't it not much more than plain Openbox, plus a basic panel and a few «lightweight» GUI apps? If one is able to «simplify» to that level, why not go all the way and just use Openbox by itself (which is what I do)?
I mentioned XFCE because it honestly impressed me when I played with it a few days ago. Despite being a «full-blown» DE (with those dreaded *kits, assorted daemons, a library of extra GUI widgets, automounting and all that crap), a basic installation consumes only _a few_ KiB of memory more than my current Openbox setup (at least on Arch). I must say my «beliefs» were «shaken» _quite a bit_ by this fact... Although not enough to cause me to fall to the «dark side» (yet!).
14 • Alternatives to Gnome 3 (by Wine Curmudgeon on 2011-07-04 12:48:15 GMT from United States)
Xfce 4.8 has been a huge disappointment -- too many major bugs and not especially stable. And #9 is right: LXDE does what needs to be done, especially if you don't mind tweaking it. Check out Watt OS. And the Elementary Ubuntu project is doing some amazing things with Gnome 2.
15 • I love how the word "bloat" is thrown around (by brad on 2011-07-04 13:18:31 GMT from United States)
Bloat???? what's that, with 3+ gigs ram on computers, with 1,2 now 3 tb hds', what is bloat ?? i mean really.. I installed full kde suite on my computer, I use Arch linux 64bit... its fast. only put on f/x to impress friends.. besides that I've never cared about effects, I like KDE because it's "functional" if i had a 10y/o computer with a 1 gig hd, I'm sure out of the thousands of friggin distros.. I can find a fast "un-bloated" one for my liking... So if you are going to talk about "bloat" please give us the specs of your limited crippled by age computer.. thanks. besides that.. next thing you know, people will talk about how some DE's/distros use up valueable resources...
16 • PCManFM (by commenter on 2011-07-04 13:19:57 GMT from Brazil)
I vote for PCManFM (sf.net/projects/pcmanfm) to receive a donation from distrowatch.
PCMan does a very good (and hard) job developing this really great lightweight file manager (and its underlying lib).
17 • Re: Gnome 3 Alternatives (by Brandon Sniadajewski on 2011-07-04 13:33:55 GMT from United States)
You know there is always KDE. KDE SC 4 has matured very well since its debut over 3 years ago.
18 • Alternatives to Gnome 3 (by rich52 on 2011-07-04 13:41:47 GMT from United States)
Gnome 3 works great on my laptop with Intel graphics chipset. It would be nice to hear if any development is taking place where the problems with many people still lie (i.e. Nvidia and ATI HD Radeon graphics video cards) with accelerated 3d video. I for one have stayed away for Gnome 3 because of video corruption problems and have opted to use 'Kubuntu' #27 on your distro hits page. It works very well with KDE 4.6.4. BTW I've stayed away from KDE for several years now and find it now works exceptionally well with all the features I'm use to. Until I see improvements with Gnome 3 it may be severall releases before I once again try them out on my desktop systems.
19 • Alternatives to Gnome 3 (by tdockery97 on 2011-07-04 13:42:52 GMT from United States)
Since I have a modern enough laptop not to worry about resource usage, I look at KDE as one of the best alternatives to Gnome 3. However, lately I've been running the release candidate of Linux Mint 11 LXDE, and I have to say that I am really enjoying the experience. It is much lighter than Gnome, yet can do everything I normally do with my LMDE Gnome 2.x desktop. I find that I am booted into LXDE 95% of the time I'm using my laptop.
20 • Bloat (by Megadriver on 2011-07-04 13:46:55 GMT from Spain)
I don't know about others, but my definition of «bloat» is «stuff I don't need or want», as opposed to «stuff I can't run due to hardware limitations». My 3-year old machine with 1 GiB of RAM can run KDE4 perfectly (I checked), but all those *kits, daemons, notifiers, database servers, etc. _constantly_ running in the background really get on my nerves.
If you are on KDE, open a konsole window and run htop. What you're seeing now is what I call «bloat». If find it _scary_. Is all that stuff really needed!?
21 • Utnubu (by Roy H Huddleston on 2011-07-04 14:01:13 GMT from United States)
I was just wondering if anyone is still working on the project.
Utnubu is Ubuntu spelled backwards. One of Ubuntu's activities is frequently redistributing packages originally from Debian to Ubuntu's users. Well, Utnubu is about the reverse, copying packages from Ubuntu to Debian.
http://wiki.debian.org/Utnubu
The startup manager worked great in Mepis 11 when I converted the KDE to Gnome.
22 • Re: Bloat @ 20 (by Brandon Sniadajewski on 2011-07-04 14:23:58 GMT from United States)
I like Megadriver's definition of "bloat". One of the first things I do after I install an OS is remove (purge?) any application, driver or library I don't need or want. Not only does it keep my installation lean, it also makes updating and dist-upgrading it easier and shorter. Instead of downloading 700MB or so for a CD, I could dl and install ~500MB of updated packages and be on my way with no problems.
23 • PCLinuxOS (by milli-amp on 2011-07-04 14:38:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'm just a simple Desktop user. The 'simple' refers to me, not the Desktop.
I started with Mandrake (9.0) and stayed with it until they made the idiotic decision to switch to KDE 4, long before it was usable. I moved to PCLOS because it sensibly kept with 3.5. What a revelation. Everything worked better, including the community ambiance (something that Mandriva never had) and the marvelous Magazine. I have followed the rise of Mageia and noted the organisational skill the preceded the first release. Solid to its foundations Mageia is what Mandriva never was or is ever likely to be. However, it does not package with Synaptic so I'm staying loyal to PCLOS 2011.6, both KDE and LXDE. I'm not a fanboy, just a simple Desktop user.
If I were a newcomer to Linux I would probably click on Ubunto because it is top of the list and therefore the best. Oh boy! How wrong can you be.
24 • LPS is a strange choice (by Coffee on 2011-07-04 14:45:07 GMT from France)
There are currently 323 distributions in the DistroWatch page hit ranking. Many (probably most) of them have never been reviewed nor have they been introduced with a "Feature Story" although they've been there for years. LPS has just joined the pack at the bottom of the list and receives all the attention in the world ... and I'm wondering why? Is DistroWatch so impressed (or intimidated) by the producers of this distribution that they couldn't help it?
The DoD and related agencies (especially the one in Langley, VA) employ hundreds of people and spend millions of dollars every year on the development and the "implementation" of sophisticated backdoors and spyware (the OpenBSD scare has never really been explained away, the story has just somehow fizzled out) ...
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/allegations-openbsd-backdoors-may-be-true
... on the infiltration of commercial software producers and the "modification" of their products, on organized sock puppetry in social networks, blogs and forums ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
... in an effort to fake the popularity of their often highly unpopular and unjustifiable actions, on large scale DDoS attacks (more than 300 WikiLeaks mirrors have disappeared or cannot be reached since months) etc. etc. etc. Why on earth would anyone use a GNU/Linux distribution from such a tainted producer?
For me LPS is completely unaceptable because of its inherent lack of security. I want my computers to be secure FROM the DoD, not by it! Who in their right mind would accept binaries from such a distributor? Who in their right mind would spend months to read (and understand!) the sources so they can build the distribution themselves and use it with peace of mind? Really, sometimes I'm wondering.
25 • @13, re. LXDE (by Barnabyh on 2011-07-04 14:48:45 GMT from United States)
That's right Megadriver, one could just install any other panel whose rc file you can tweak and it would also look a bit cooler too. That said, LXDE panel gives it that classic Win95/98 look that I suspect a lot of people still feel comfortable with and are attracted too. It also has a few plugins that can be added and removed from the gui so it is easy to administer without diving into text files, and supports loading a background image and also transparency. It's a decent panel and nice enough then although still looking a bit old.
The LXDM login manager is also part of the project. All in all I find the good thing about LXDE is how modular it is, and with few dependencies you can easily use just the login manager, a few of the apps or the whole, and it's even lighter than Xfce. But if you're comfortable tweaking your own Openbox there's probably little use. It's more a ready to go minimalist environment with an auto-updating menu, for those who don't want to hand edit their menu every time they un/install an application.
26 • Typo in my comment (by Barnabyh on 2011-07-04 14:55:55 GMT from United Kingdom)
Second sentence should read *attracted to* (one o), ...but you knew that.
27 • LPS (by Toolz on 2011-07-04 14:57:19 GMT from Vietnam)
Comment deleted (if you wish to just thank the reviewer please email him directly).
28 • Xfce and DoD (by Mathew John Roberts on 2011-07-04 15:00:15 GMT from United Kingdom)
Xfce has always been a brilliant choice as a desktop environment for me. I do find it funny though when people say a certain desktop environment or a distro is "the best". There is no "best" desktop environment or distro, there is only the best one for you. People have different needs and tastes (and that is a good thing).
As regards the DoD livecd in the review, I am surprised. The review itself is very good and objective (which is what I like in a review), but the distro is quite laughable. You'd expect something a lot more professional and thorough than an improperly secured linux that looks like a skewed windows imitation from the Department of Defence. It gives the impression that their employees can't handle anything beyond a windows gui. That is something that does not instil me with confidence.
29 • Xfce (by Al on 2011-07-04 15:00:25 GMT from Canada)
I've been using Xfce since 4.6 and I'm really impressed by it. 4.8 improves on 4.6 in a nice but not overly dramatic way. That seems to be the philosophy of the project; incremental and predictable improvements. I suspect that the project will see more action as more users and devs turn to it after giving G3 a spin and not liking it.
30 • #10: (by Taigong on 2011-07-04 15:17:40 GMT from Canada)
You don't like it? I thought everyone would like an "iPhone inspired" interface, LOL. BTW, maybe Windows 8 will look like that.
31 • Live distros for security? (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 15:29:45 GMT from Spain)
Most Live distributions designed with security in mind make a questionable assumption: they take for sure the hardware or the network you are using is not compromised.
This might not be true.
Imagine you go to a place where someone offers computers for public use. You go and plug in a flash unit with Incognito or LPS, in order to dodge the malware that could be installed in the computer itself.
What happens if there is a hardware keylogger? The enemy will track your movements anyway. What happens if all the traffic of your computer passes throught a network which has a sniffer placed somewhere (without you knowing)? The enemy will track your traffic, unless you take some extra security measures, as encrypting all sensitive connections. It is worth noting that the Tor network (used by Incognito and others) is known to be not very secure unless you take the time and effort to harden it a bit, and even then it is not very reliable. The fact remains that the only computer you can trust is YOUR COMPUTER. And you should't trust it so much, anyway.
In addition, I have to find an scenario where this Live&Secure distros are useful. The only public computers I have access to don't allow their users to boot Live media, so LPS would be of little use here. Maybe they could be of some use if you want to use your friend's computer, which is known to be infected by a (software) Troyan Horse, thus taking less risks.
Finally, I must confess I don't trust anything made by a government agency. Does anyone really think LPS or SElinux are not plaged of spyware?
32 • Clarification (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 15:36:27 GMT from Spain)
In my previous post, I was refering to all that LIve distros designed to work in computers you don't own. What I meant with all that writting is that you shouldn't trust a computer/environment you don't fully control, no matter how secure is the software you use.
33 • Backdoors, etc. (by Bob on 2011-07-04 15:48:33 GMT from Austria)
Interesting that anyone actually cares about backdoors in OpenBSD. If this is true then all of us are already monitored, because OpenBSD will be probably the last remaining OS to be "blessed" with specific open source contributions. Who is capable of constantly auditing all open source on this globe to keep, say, Linux safe? I am using Linux 95% of my time, but when it comes to online banking a plain Windows version without any "free downloads" feels much safer to me.
If Linux is not actively targeted yet - it is just a matter of time when this will happen. For every bastard we might catch, there will be hundreds more trying to install us some keyloggers or other neat functionality. Now get the newest Linux updates to keep your system "safe" ;-)
34 • Censored (by koroshiya itchy on 2011-07-04 15:53:52 GMT from Belgium)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
35 • RE:33 Backdoors (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 15:59:48 GMT from Spain)
When you use OpenBSD, you may be using compromised software. When you use Windows, you KNOW you are using compromised software. Please, refer to Windows' EULA for more details.
The fact is no software is secure. When you install a closed-source app, nothing is ensuring you its creator didn't place a rootkit in it. When you use open-source apps, nothing is ensuring you that their creators or packagers didn't place a backdoor in them. At least, with open source software it is more likely someone will discover the backdoors, but not by so much.
The only privacy which exists is inside your skull. Everything done outside can be easily spied.
36 • Distrowatch (by Toolz on 2011-07-04 16:12:49 GMT from Vietnam)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
37 • Google Sketchup (by Deemon on 2011-07-04 16:18:56 GMT from Germany)
Will there ever be Google Sketchup for Linux without the Wine?
Why is Google so ungrateful?
38 • Security (by Al on 2011-07-04 16:36:19 GMT from Canada)
I think taking reasonable, non-paranoid precautions on your home computers and devices will let you sleep well and effectively reduce your security target to nil.
- run linux or bsd
- use a firewall on your laptop even if behind a hardware firewall.
- use a non-root account
- don't auto-login to your laptop, lock screen when suspending
- use an encrypted filesystem on your laptop's /home and swap partitions
- use good passwords (another topic, won't go into here)
- enable daily software update checks
- use only reputable 3rd party software repositores (i.e. Pac-man, Debian multimedia)
- browse incognito when you have to login to a site such as personal banking (or at least clear the cookies/cache afterwards)
- use https sites where given the choice (i.e. gmail)
- use TLS (or SSL as a second choice) in your email client settings if supported by your mail host. If not, get a new mail provider.
- for your wireless access point, prefer WPA2-PSK security with AES encryption if supported by all your devices. If not, then WPA2-PSK/WPA-PSK combo with AES/TKIP combo. Do not use WEP, it's as good as no security.
I'm not paranoid…really!
39 • what about Gnome 3 Fallback Mode? (by George Mason on 2011-07-04 16:52:03 GMT from United States)
I'm surprised Jesse didn't cover this. If people could have the under-the-hood improvements of Gnome 3 without the radical interface redesign, they'd be happy I imagine. That's the promise of the Fallback Mode, but many users don't even know it exists.
Someone should talk about whether this is a viable option, now and in the future.
40 • RE:38 Security (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 16:57:16 GMT from Spain)
Al wrote:
---------------------------
I'm not paranoid…really!
---------------------------
You don't have to swear it. If you knew what I do in my own computer, you would know what does "paranoia" mean.
Al wrote:
----------------------------
- browse incognito when you have to login to a site such as personal banking
----------------------------
I suppose you are refering to the Tor network, or a similar service. As I have already said, Tor (and the others) are not secure by themselves. They provide *weak* context protection (that is, nobody will know from which computer you are trying to connect to your bank) but not content protection (that is, if you use an unencrypted channel for comunication, your data could be intercepted anyway).
I must say that Tor's ability to keep your anonymity safe is questionable if you send through Internet a message like "Hello, Mr BankMan, my name is John Doe".
Al wrote:
----------------------------
use https sites where given the choice (i.e. gmail)
---------------------------
This is a good one. I have installed an Iceweasel plugin called NoScript which blocks unrequested Javascript contents, thus avoiding many vulnerabilities in the browser. NoScript has also the ability to encrypt cookies on-the-fly and enforce secure comunication (https) to especified sites. Or to the whole Internet. In addition, it kills many adds and pop-ups.
By the way, e-mail accounts controled by Google (or anyone who is not you) shouldn't be considered "secure" at all.
41 • kde (by M1k on 2011-07-04 17:00:05 GMT from Italy)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
42 • What about Gnome 3 Fallback Mode? (by tdockery97 on 2011-07-04 17:07:22 GMT from United States)
As a Linux Mint user, it's my understanding that Mint plans to use a tweaked version of the Gnome 3 fallback mode as the default desktop in Linux Mint 12. If this is the direction Clem takes, I think we'll see a large increase in users.
43 • RE:38 Security (again) (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 17:11:12 GMT from Spain)
Now, let's start with another set of security measures:
-----------------------------
use an encrypted filesystem on your laptop's /home and swap partitions
----------------------------
I like this one, but if you don't encrypt also /tmp you are risking data leaking form your /home. Even if the content of /tmp is deleted every shutdown, an enemy could perform a basic undelete technique to bring back useful data from this partition. It is better to encrypt everything and keep the /boot partition in an external device.
-----------------------------
Don't auto-login to your laptop, lock screen when suspending.
------------------------------
It would be better to say "Don't suspend at all. Use pure shutdown or just hibernate". By leaving the computer powered, you are exposing yourself to a cold-boot atack. As long as the RAM is powered, the keys for your encrypted filesystems are stored in it and are "stealable".
------------------------------
for your wireless access point, prefer WPA2-PSK security with AES encryption if supported by all your devices. If not, then WPA2-PSK/WPA-PSK combo with AES/TKIP combo. Do not use WEP, it's as good as no security.
-----------------------------
Many paranoids out there keep a domestic server so, if they use a public Wifi network, they can establish an SSH tunnel with their server. This allows them to browse the web using the server's browser. Every connection between the server and the laptop is secured, so nobody will be able to easily compromise the comunication in any point of the Wifi network. Remember too that the Wifi administrator might Install an sniffer somewhere in his Network...
44 • LPS and Gnome fallback (by Jesse on 2011-07-04 17:18:35 GMT from Canada)
>> "There are currently 323 distributions in the DistroWatch page hit ranking. Many (probably most) of them have never been reviewed nor have they been introduced with a "Feature Story" although they've been there for years. LPS has just joined the pack at the bottom of the list and receives all the attention in the world ... and I'm wondering why?"
It's quite simple, a review of LPS was requested by one of our readers. My "to review" list usually reads as follows:
1. Major distributions which release on a regular basis: ie Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu
2. Requests from readers
3. Whatever project I find interesting.
If you know of an active project you feel deserves attention, drop me an e-mail.
>> "what about Gnome 3 Fallback Mode? ... Someone should talk about whether this is a viable option, now and in the future."
It's not. The fall back mode looks like Gnome 2, but is missing features. It probably shouldn't be considered as a long term alternative.
45 • @11 (by Gustavo on 2011-07-04 17:36:30 GMT from Brazil)
"Disabling screen effects will increase system's responsiveness, disabling the 'bouncing cursor' will keep user's sanity and replacing the useless 'kickoff menu' with 'classic menu style' will get things going ..."
100% agreed. What a stupid idea that bouncing cursor!!
46 • LPS (by lott on 2011-07-04 17:43:05 GMT from Colombia)
Why would any one want to use this Distro, what does it have to offer?
It s Much less secured then any dubious OS.
I can show you 20 Distro that can be Booted of a USB stick that are more secured, and leave no tracks.
Heck if just want a smaller track, I would just use TOR or Vidalia.
It even come as Web Browser, that can be loaded on to USB stick or flash Mem.
And it is even smaller, only 74.6 Meg's for Linux and same for Windows after it's decompressed.
Run it from USB, it will take 1 min: on a slow PC but it more secured, no log and there is no tracks where, when, or what, you have done.
For that matter just install it on your OS, and you at list will have some Peace of mind.
You can be tracked, but it is a lot harder to do so, but they do not want anyone to use it.
Just Encrypt your letters like with true crypt & password lock at least 32 characters long and your good to go.
I am not saying that this will stop any one from seeing your mail, but it will make it harder.
Instead of calling it Lightweight Portable Security it should be called little peace sh*t.
Are this tax Dollars at work?
I hope not!
This is probably a way to see gullible fools who would use it.
47 • @40, 43 Security (by Al on 2011-07-04 17:56:54 GMT from Canada)
What I am more worried about these days are the data I've entrusted to various websites such as paypal, ebay, my bank, etc. I think it's a good idea to exercise reasonable caution on your own machines, but with all the news these days about groups like anonymous et al, I think hackers are getting more joy going after the "concentrated data" on vulnerable sites. What O/S are these sites running? I read on the FreeBSD site that Sony uses it, but was it used on one of the sites that was hacked?
48 • RE: 39 • what about Gnome 3 Fallback Mode? (by Béranger on 2011-07-04 18:20:16 GMT from Romania)
Read this, by the builder of GNOME 2.32 for F15:
Why Gnome 3's Fallback mode sucks:
http://k3rnel.net/2011/07/03/why-gnome-3s-fallback-mode-sucks/
49 • security (by lott on 2011-07-04 19:02:55 GMT from Colombia)
Most britches are created by the Administrators.
It doesn't help that the biggest back doors are at CPU and mother board end.
There are plenty ports that can be accessed with out you even knowing of them.
They are there by political interest.
And who runs the Web?
You!, me!, some company running servers!,
Who runs most communications?
Who's satellite?
Who's fiver optic?
Who standers are being run?
What business is the Governments roll.!
Look at your computer, it can be accessed right through the power lines.
WIFI, Networks, any network devices that meats FCC stander, has! and can be intercepted!.
At any time in any place!
It was made to be intercepted from the very they it was made.
Just read the spec's of you device, and then read the ruling on FCC of any Device that is in your computer.
This applies to any communication Device.
50 • Gnome 3 (by Ed Perchyshyn on 2011-07-04 19:04:50 GMT from Canada)
Wait. You don't need a Gnome 3 alternative.
All you have to do is change the window manager.
In Fedora, for instance, go to Add/Remove Software.
Search for Openbox and then select it.
Also, select GNOME integration for openbox. Install these,
and then logout and login again, but be sure to choose the
correct session: Openbox(Gnome).
Now, you will want to change the background. Say you want
a solid background colour. Look in the following:
/usr/share/themes/Adwaita/backgrounds/stripes.jpg (for example)
and ~/.config/gnome-control-center/backgrounds.
Open Gimp and edit stripes.jpg to give you the colour you
want.
51 • Censorship on Distrowatch (by TobiSGD on 2011-07-04 19:11:38 GMT from Germany)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
52 • Why? (by gmasterboots on 2011-07-04 19:17:21 GMT from United States)
Why review this distro? DW just added it and it adds little to nothing new.
On a different note, I have been impressed with the new PCLOS, especially the Configure Your Computer program. It's very easy to use but has lots of advanced options for those that need it. I have also tested Zenix GNU/Linux and been pleasantly surprised. The artwork is good, it has a nice custom Openbox setup and a decent suite of applications. It's not quite as light as advertised though (200MB RAM on idle in VBox). It also has Debian sources and 2.6.32.5 for the chronically staid.
All in all, thanks DW for making my Mondays enjoyable, and the past several reviews have been very good, especially the Slackware one.
53 • Also, (by gmasterboots on 2011-07-04 19:20:20 GMT from United States)
Comment deleted (troll).
54 • Xtreme Paranoia aroun here. (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 19:22:39 GMT from Spain)
Al wrote he's worried about Paypal, ebay and other web sites being compromised. I thought he was serious when he said he was not paranoid :-)
The only piece of advice I can give is not to entrust any information to anyone unless you have no option. If you need to pay something, avoid Paypal and use a wire transfer. Better yet, use your postal service to transfer the money and sign with the name of John Smith :-) I pay always in cash when I have that option.
Regarding hardware backdoors... lott, seek help, I am sure there's a doctor somewhere who will help you with your mental disorder :-)
Now seriously, hardware backdoors are posible and should not be ignored. Lott is right in the fact of the ISP, satellite owners and everyone in the comunication chain being able to intercept your activities. When I say that the only privacy which exists is inside your own brain, I was refering to this kind of thing.
55 • Unity is coming together for me (by DC on 2011-07-04 19:43:17 GMT from Canada)
I know it's not cool right now to admit this, but I recently switched from Fedora 15 (just couldn't get used to Gnome 3) to Ubuntu 11.04 - and after a couple weeks, I'm really feeling the love for Unity!
Maybe it's got a lot to do with my horribly small LCD monitor (1366x768), but I love that the File/Edit menu gets hidden into the top bar. I always had to use extensions for my browsers to hide this menu and scrape up a bit more space. Another thing that'll get me crucified by the mob: the switch of close/minimize/maximize to the left instead of the right really makes sense now that all of the pieces are in place. I was one of the people to criticize this change when it first happened, but it seems that the Ubuntu folks have figured out a practical way to include everything, but take up very little space.
It's not perfect, though. I keep trying to run programs (such as gparted) by pressing ALT+F2 and typing the command, but it doesn't work right for me. Maybe the command itself isn't "gparted", but "gparted-gtk" or something like that - I don't care, though, I just want this functionality back. I have to click the Ubuntu icon, then "More Apps", then the "search applications" feature will finally recognize a program like gparted.
The Ubuntu Software Center is awesome! The last time I used Ubuntu as my main OS was whichever version introduced the Software Center. It was good then, but not great. They've really made it easy to add alternate software sources and even buy commercial products (I bought Steel Storm for $3 via the Software Center; I had tried a couple days before, but Paypal was messed up and wouldn't let me buy it straight from the company). I had a very good experience buying software through this tool.
Anyway, I've read so many comments here at DW in the past month or two from people who are reluctant to embrace Canonical's changes (or who are, more likely, openly aggressive!). This is merely a reflection of my (so far) great experience using the latest Ubuntu. Especially compared to the other distros that I use (Debian is my second full-time desktop), the latest Ubuntu really feels "next-gen". I, for one, am very glad that Canonical has offered this as one of the many alternatives for the linux community.
56 • What's with all the "icon picker" application launchers? (by eco2geek on 2011-07-04 19:50:04 GMT from United States)
GNOME shell, Unity, now Mandriva -- why the hell are "icon picker" application launchers suddenly today's hot new trend? It's as if developers think that users' desktops should look like their smart phones.
This reminds me of Windows 3.1's user interface (http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win31) and Mac OS 7.x's user interface (http://toastytech.com/guis/mac755control.gif), both from the early to mid 90's. Been there, done that.
57 • LPS, secure bootable CD (by Jan on 2011-07-04 20:00:43 GMT from Netherlands)
For a secure connection I found the following possibilities:
Webconverger http://webconverger.com/about/
LPS http://spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm
Fedora Secure Spin http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/spins/linux/releases/15/Spins/i686/
Bankix (in German) http://www.heise.de/ct/projekte/Sicheres-Online-Banking-mit-Bankix-284099.html#download
Amnesia (Tails) http://tails.boum.org/
Privatix http://www.mandalka.name/privatix/
The first 4 are focused on security (I think).
The last 2 are focused on anonymity, which is probably not the same as security (as mentioned in an earlier message).
My interest is in a secure CD-bootable CD (I use RW), so 1 of the first 4.
A bootable USB is not protected against writing, so is not secure (I have experienced a severe security issue with a bootable USB).
The problem is that the above mentioned ISO's sometimes lag pretty far behind on security updates (particularly the browser, which is pretty essential I think).
Also it is a mystery to me why they do not include NOSCRIPT and PERSPECTIVES (Firefox, of course this would cause even more upgrading-reasons).
I have a CD-bootable virus-scanner (eScan and Bitdefender), who update their system and virus-databases after booting, before scanning. So it is possible to be near perfect !!
The Fedora-Security-spin is probably pretty up-to-date, however I have no idea if the security is also focused on banking/secure-connection.
Bankix (the German ISO) I have not tested, the comments mention some problems!
Further here an explanation in Dutch how to make a secure bootable USB on base of XPUD http://www.security.nl/artikel/32452/USB-stick_voor_veilig_internetbankieren.html . It also has some critical remarks.
I use LPS because it is focused on security and on updating it lags not so much behind.
Amnesia could also be interesting, however I am not sure if it is really secure.
The review is very interesting to me.
Possibly someone has additional experiences on the above ISO's on the point of security and being-up-to-date.
Jan
58 • Secure Browsing (by Landor on 2011-07-04 20:24:01 GMT from Canada)
If you want real security, say for banking, it's actually easy to do.
Here's a concept that you can replicate easily by doing a couple searches online for.
Create a live kiosk CD.
First thing to make it doubly secure is to have it boot directly to virtualisation software (QEMU, VirtualBox), that then loads an almost duplicate ISO that boots directly to a browser. You would have the image already on the CD in the home directory.
You can eliminate the virtualisation step and have it boot directly to a browser instead, if you choose. I personally prefer to not do it this way.
For the iso with the browswer you would whitelist your bank only (as an example) in the browser and blacklist everything else. Then on both, or just the one, as you've chosen, you can create a firewall to block all incoming traffic that's unwanted.
When building it, you want the least amount of applications as possible installed. In this case, you don't even use a desktop environment, or window manager. The only thing you need is Xorg. More applications run the risk of more things being compromised, and more things to update on a security level every so often.
I would keep such a system to a CD only, not a USB stick.
One other step would be to create a shutdown script that wipes everthing from ram as it shuts down. That's if you're concerned about that as well.
Essentially what you're doing is creating a single use operating system that is as locked down as you can have. You don't have to use it just for your bank. You can whitelist any sites you need to do transactions with, and visit, while blocking everything else.
It's not perfect, but it's as perfect as you can get easily.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
59 • censorship #51 (by jack on 2011-07-04 20:32:20 GMT from Canada)
Comment deleted (off-topic).
60 • DESKTOP AGNISTIC (by F1aw on 2011-07-04 20:34:18 GMT from United States)
@Jesse Smith - dont you think that some users will feel KDE or LXDE should also be listed as viable alternatives to the Gnome/Unity/Rosa line of inventions. I am not trying to argue that XFCE is bad, its not the only one. I actually suspect that KDE is the one that will benefit the most during the next couple of years while Gnome and Unity are being ironed out.
I personally would be afraid of loosing my life if I would allow myself to publish an application that would handicap/cripple so many desktop users. Seriously, I imagine those Gnome/Unity guys are probably holed up in a safehouse in the middle of Canadian wilderness.
61 • PCLinuxOS (by seb on 2011-07-04 21:05:24 GMT from France)
I'm not sure to get it well: it's said "PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6 for 32-bit and 64-bit computers". Does that mean there is a 64bit edition of pclos now ?
62 • Alt Desktops (by Jesse on 2011-07-04 21:12:49 GMT from Canada)
>> "@Jesse Smith - don't you think that some users will feel KDE or LXDE should also be listed as viable alternatives to the Gnome"
I'm sure some people do feel that way. However, I framed my response with the premise that the person using Gnome 2 and looking for an alternative to Gnome 3 would like to stick with a Gnome 2 style of environment. Xfce fits that criteria, LXDE, KDE, etc etc etc do not.
I think giving people too many options in response to a simple question isn't helpful. In response to "What distro/desktop/music player do you recommend?" we often see people in the open source community list every distro/desktop/player they have ever tried. Which is fine if we're making a Wikipedia entry, but not very useful to the person asking the question.
Personally I'm a big fan of KDE in its current incarnation, but I don't think someone who wants to stick with a Gnome 2 style of environment would be well served by KDE. Xfce is likely a better choice for _that person_.
63 • @56 "icon picker" (by DC on 2011-07-04 21:19:01 GMT from Canada)
I find that I only use the same half dozen programs about 80% of the time. I keep my favorite browser, text editor, terminal, htop and whatnot in the icon picker. It seems that most people would traditionally have these icons on their desktop. Having an icon picker makes me less likely to clutter my screen with icons. Unity's picker disappears until you move your mouse to either the upper left corner or the left edge of the screen, so it's only there when you need it.
Of course, users who don't like icons can always move to something like Openbox, which keeps a very clean screen. Linux is all about choice!
64 • Anonymous and Secure browsing (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 21:20:13 GMT from Spain)
Mr. Jan, in fact, anonymous browsing is not secure browsing. What many anonymity services do is just avoid your computer being located because of network analysis, and some of this services are pretty lame in doing so.
Take a look at Tor. Even if you ensure every traffic you generate passes throught the Tor network, including DNS lookups and the like, all unencrypted traffic can be easily intercepted. There are known cases in which *very* sensitive data has been compromised because it travelled throught Tor without being encrypted.
It is like sending a letter to another country without the sender adress in the envelop. The mail agency can open the envelope and read the leter, even when it has no idea of who sent the message. And, if in the message you say something like "My adress is blah,blah", they get your adress anyway. If you don't filter your outgoing traffic properly, you could be easily sending the "My IP is..." without knowing it.
The idea of a virtualized live medium just for sensitive operations seems not bad to me, but brings some troubles. Introducing a virtual machine introduces a new set of potential vulnerabilities you can avoid by just using a real OS (virtual machines can also have security weakness). In addition, making a truly secure Live iso and mantaining it up to date needs some extra effort. If you are to get serious measures, you'd better grab all the artillery, use a hard drive OS, place an IDS, a Role Based Access Control System (take a look at GRSecurity), and read some books about the subject.
If you are to use USB live medium for browsing, consider Slitaz, Porteus or another one which can be loaded into RAM, and harden it if desired. That way, you could plug the USB, boot, take the USB and THEN connect to Internet. If you got infected by any evil thing, the infection would disapear once you turned the computer off and the RAM got deleted. Of course, if whatever infects you manages to gain write access to your hard drive, you are in trouble.
65 • RE: 64 (by Landor on 2011-07-04 21:39:30 GMT from Canada)
In the case of the LiveCD, it's become fairly easy to remaster any system. Also, there's a number of distributions that offer a hardened variant which further creates a more secure system.
My belief in virtualisation was a live session inside a live session, further reducing vulnerabilities with the added layer. As you build the system you're in total control security wise and know just how secure it is (as of he most recent advisories of course). Both ISOs being built the exact same way except for what software is launched the kiosk (virtualisation, or browser), also gives you a level of security on your system as they're both configured exactly the same way, as much as they can be for their respective roles. :)
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
66 • RE:65 (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 22:26:05 GMT from Spain)
It seems to me your solution is somehow resource hungry, but would do the trick for many domestic scenaries. I might create one of these Live CD just for fun, if I find the time to do it.
However, I still prefer the old-macho way of hardening a traditional operating system with Intruder Detection Systems, integrity checkers and all that fun stuff. Inside it, you could place a even more hardened mini-OS in a security container (like FreeBSD's Jail, or OpenVZ) for your sensitive operations. I feel, however, that this cannot be considered an "easy solution".
Chroot does not count as a security container, just if you were wondering.
67 • RE: 25/LXDE (by Landor on 2011-07-04 23:12:31 GMT from Canada)
I almost forgot about mentioning this. One thing I find that bugs me about LXDE is the developer's stand on plug-ins. More so, Gnome plug-ins. There are quite a few Gnome plug-ins that could bring more functionality to LXDE, and its panel, but the developer flat out refuses to add any kind of support for them. His opinion is that he doesn't want to be responsible for plug-ins he didn't create. While I fully understand that, and agree with it as well, it does limit the functionality of the panel/LXDE though.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
68 • RE: 61 (by Vakkotaur on 2011-07-05 03:06:08 GMT from United States)
Alas, there is not yet a true 64-bit version of PCLInuxOS. I agree the announcement is mis-phrased or misleading. The 32-bit version can run on a 64-bit CPU, but it's not the same thing. There is a kernel available what will let the 32-bit version use more than 4 GB of RAM, but why fiddle around? I'll wait the "few weeks" (I hope that's all it is!) for the real 64-bit version.
Right now the only reason I am not using PCLOS is that I won't go back to a 32-bit OS for my 64-bit hardware.
69 • Pardus 2011.1 (by Landor on 2011-07-05 03:16:23 GMT from Canada)
Ladislav, or anyone that's interested:
This was found on the worldforum ( http://worldforum.pardus-linux.nl/index.php?topic=3879.15) posted by atolboo :
"http://translate.google.com/ says
Quote
* Firefox 5 and LibreOffice Firefox 3.4 's in the 2011.1' asked to include, for reasons 2011.1 'I intend to postpone the release date up to 1 week (11 July).
Original is at http://www.ozgurlukicin.com/forum/haberler/22109/?page=3 scroll down to >> 04-07-2011 10:03"
Hope that helps someone who's interested.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
70 • XFCE for next Ddonation (by Octathlon on 2011-07-05 03:18:48 GMT from United States)
I nominate XFCE for the next Distrowatch donation. I agree with Jesse that GNOME users looking for an alternative will find XFCE comfortable and easy to switch to, and I'm sure it will be getting a lot of new users in the future as GNOME 2 fades out.
71 • Use of Linux... (by Deemon on 2011-07-05 05:47:52 GMT from Germany)
Everyone here writes about many programs that work with GNU/Linux distros and/or some might work bit slow or completely don't work with one distro, but works with another.
But, aren't anyone here ever work with AutoCad and Google Sketchup? These are two programs absolutely don't work freely with Gnu/Linux, and cannot do without by certain professions. While AutoCad has to be bought, Google Sketchup is free, BUT not to the Linux users.
Anyway, is there anyone, even Jesse, Ladislaw or any other person interested in at least Google Sketchup?
72 • RE: 16, 70 Donations (by ladislav on 2011-07-05 05:51:40 GMT from Taiwan)
Just a periodic reminder: please only nominate projects that actually accept donations. Or even better, provide a link to the project's donations page.
As a curiosity, I recently found out that the developer of PCManFM is a doctor in a hospital here in Taiwan. So it's hardly surprising that he doesn't keep a donation button on the PCManFM website ;-)
73 • Fedora LXDE (by michael King on 2011-07-05 07:14:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
It gets little mention because of Fedora'a approach to different desktop versions compared to Ubuntu but the Fedora 15 LXDE spin is a really nice looking and functional LXDE desktop
74 • CentOS 6.0 may finally be out in next few days... (by Hobbitland on 2011-07-05 07:46:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
CentOS 6.0 may finally be out in next few days. Syncing to servers...
http://qaweb.dev.centos.org/
75 • Xfce +1 (by TUNGMAY on 2011-07-05 08:28:58 GMT from Thailand)
Moved to Xfce already. Bye bye GNOME :D
76 • SketchUp (by Jesse on 2011-07-05 12:07:25 GMT from Canada)
>> "Anyway, is there anyone, even Jesse, Ladislav or any other person interested in at least Google Sketchup?"
Not, but if I was, Google SketchUp runs in Wine. And there are naive 3D modeling apps for Linux, so I don't see what the problem is.
77 • XFCE, LXDE, Gnome 3 (fallback) (by Bob on 2011-07-05 12:12:15 GMT from Austria)
Thanks guys. Your comments have motivated me to try the Gnome 3 and KDE competition once again: LXDE looks currently more promising to me if developers keep to continue like this. Eats less power and uses less memory as compared to XFCE. Could not set keyboard repeat rate to a convenient level, however. But I didn't expect it to be completely bug-free at this stage anyway.
Biggest surprise: Gnome 3 in fallback mode is very lean and snappy. Might even beat LXDE and XFCE. Unfortunately Gnome has not yet realized that 2011 screens are different to 1985 displays. They are still wasting screen real estate by default with their double horizontal panels. I consider donating a 16:9 monitor to them ...
78 • Still confused (by Lee on 2011-07-05 13:19:49 GMT from United States)
Thank you, Ladislav & Jesse for this week's subject: Lightweight Portable Security.
On my main machine I use Mint v9/Gnome 2. To use online banking, I must log on
and provide my user name & PIN. I would like to better understand my 5 options:
1. The computer directly connected to my ISP (cable co)
2. Another computer on my lan via WiFi
3. My laptop via WiFi at a coffee shop
4. A computer at a library
5. A live cd/usb key at a libary
W/key-loggers, man-in-middle, etc can any other than option 1
be really secure?
79 • LPS (by john on 2011-07-05 13:38:28 GMT from United States)
Jesse, re LPS. I work for the US DoD, and can say there were probably 3-5 people at the lowest level who knew what they were after with LPS and how to achieve it, and they constantly had "enhancements" and other "requirements" mandated by clueless layers of management above. Why does it look like Windows 95? Obviously because Windows is all there is (and some of us in DoD are probably still running '98 if not '95) to management. Why does it have Flash? Because some manager directed it when they couldn't watch a laughing baby or dancing fat man during a test. Now if you could find the actual developers, rather than the managers who've likely got their names stuck all over the effort, you could likely get the decent version they developed on the side as an attempt to keep their sanity while dealing with their private ship of fools.
80 • PCLinuxOS (by seb on 2011-07-05 15:19:44 GMT from France)
@68: just the same for me. I am always this closed to jump into PCLinuxOS. I just cannot get through this non 64bit thing... Hope the 64bit will be as reliable as the currrent version is though (according to user comments the 32 bit PCLinuxOS seems to be a really good and reliable distro so far)
81 • Adding on to 78 by Lee (by That Dude on 2011-07-05 16:03:58 GMT from United States)
When doing anything with personal info, I use a live cd with the on screen keyboard while on Sprint mobile broadband. I was told that mobile broadband is not a big target so there not a lot of cracking tools for it. Is this true? The words *not a lot* kinda imply that their are some cracking tools out in the wild.
Also, would a live PCBSD cd /Mobile Broadband combo be more secure?
82 • Gnome3 Alternatives (by john lewis on 2011-07-05 17:21:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have been looking at LXDE as an alternative as I didn't really like XFCE. At least LXDE will run on my laptop, netbook and the older systems I have.
My main system will probably run Gnome3 but I suspect it will not last long. I really don't need any of the modern eye candy as my computing needs are very basic.
I use my computer to do genealogy research and only need email and a browser to access my geneweb database and online resources.
I don't do social networking at all and have no interest in storing my data anywhere other than my local server.
83 • more secure (by Landor on 2011-07-05 21:39:31 GMT from Canada)
Unless it's specifically designed to be very secure, it's not very secure. Actually, having a secure system is a contradiction in itself.
The only thing you can do is make it as secure possible, and follow safe usage practices.
A lot of people imagine some big attack coming there way and they'll be able to stop it, or the attacker having to gain administrative access will keep them safe.
Most often the person won't even know their system has been compromised. If you look at examples in this community, you'll see that after quite a long period of time they find out that their servers, etc, were compromised.
If you're connected to a public network, that has inbound traffic, then you're vulnerable. If you're connected to a private network that has some kind of access to a public network, though not directly connected to your machine, you're vulnerable. It doesn't matter the medium in which you connect, you're still allowing inbound traffic.
Locking down that inbound traffic is the key, but outbound as well.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
84 • @83 More Security (by Jonn on 2011-07-05 23:13:27 GMT from Canada)
Let's face it, no matter if you're on a network or not, whatever digital device you own is vulnerable.
Recently, some digital picture frames have been found to contain malicious software that infected any USB keys inserted into the frame. You can guess what was infected next.
Yesterday's paranoia is today's reality.
P.S. Does anyone know if those picture frames runs a custom, streamlined Linux distro?
85 • Release soon (by Vanillux on 2011-07-06 06:16:57 GMT from Canada)
Hi,
as our distribution is progressing we wanted to update the distrowatch community. We are soon going to release a CD until then people can install our distribution from http://wiki.vanillux.org/wiki/HOW-TO_Install_Vanillux
thank you for the good work.
86 • HP Printers and PCLinuxOS @Mike, post #7 (by davecs on 2011-07-06 08:18:38 GMT from United Kingdom)
Mike, the problem with your HP printer may not be a PCLOS problem, but one of the HPLIP drivers. Many of the printers that do not work properly are basically clones of the HP 990C and that driver works just fine. I have posted the workaround here:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,92651.0.html
As for those who "must have" the 64-bit version and will not consider PCLinuxOS until there is one, well try it anyway, I think you will be surprised how fast it goes, and you can upgrade the kernel to a 64-bit, bfs kernel so as to take advantage of high memory if you have it.
87 • PCLinuxOS (by seb on 2011-07-06 14:08:00 GMT from France)
ok Dave, I'll give it a try. Last time I went to pclinuxos.com the web skin was different. The major diff I see here is the download section: as far as I can remember pclinuxos used to be distributed in many desktop flavours, such as E17, XFCE and Gnome, right ? Now, only KDE and LXDE seem to be available. Is this because Gnome (my favorite) has not reached the final status yet or will pclinuxos be restricted to only 2 desk flavours from now on?
88 • PCLinuxOS (by seb on 2011-07-06 14:11:08 GMT from France)
Ah, wait, there's a "PCLinuxOS Gnome Website" link...
89 • Gnome3 and Unity (by Pilotbay on 2011-07-06 15:04:24 GMT from United States)
Mainstream people love Unity and Gnome3, and at the end of the day thats all thats counts. Suse,Fedora, Ubuntu are major players, on home desktops and business desktops.
90 • re;56 icon picker (by Pilotbay on 2011-07-06 15:09:18 GMT from United States)
It seems as though people are not working in IT on user desktops that make comments here. People on this forum need to look toward the future. Gnome3 and Unity are here to stay!
91 • security reply 54 • Xtreme Paranoia aroun here. to {Anonymous Coward} (by lott on 2011-07-06 15:54:57 GMT from Colombia)
[{54 • Xtreme Paranoia aroun here. (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-04 19:22:39 GMT from Spain)
Regarding hardware backdoors... lott, seek help, I am sure there's a doctor somewhere who will help you with your mental disorder :-)
Now seriously, hardware backdoors are posible and should not be ignored. Lott is right in the fact of the ISP, satellite owners and everyone in the comunication chain being able to intercept your activities. When I say that the only privacy which exists is inside your own brain, I was refering to this kind of thing.}}
Well if I am such need of help, why is it a consideration for others of this exploits.
Here is just one comment on this subject.
http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3936741/Stop-Software-Attacks-From-Destroying-Your-Servers.htm
If It is not likely? where all of the exploits coming from.
92 • LPS (by lott on 2011-07-06 18:33:52 GMT from Colombia)
I just wonder if the developers of LPS, are the same individuals that are in this article.
http://mbcalyn.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/michael-horowitzs-most-recent-posts-computerworld-blogs/
93 • @ Jesse (by Anonymous on 2011-07-06 19:00:35 GMT from United States)
Were you seriously expecting anything from the U.S. DoD to be "elegant," as you put it?
94 • Elegant (by Jesse on 2011-07-06 20:43:55 GMT from Canada)
>> "Were you seriously expecting anything from the U.S. DoD to be "elegant," as you put it?"
I generally try not to have expectations going into reviews. I always hope the thing I'm reviewing will work, and if I've used a product before I hope the new release is better than the previous one. But with products I haven't used before (and in this case haven't heard of before) I try to leave my prejudices at the door. It's not always easy.
95 • @90 (by Megadriver on 2011-07-06 20:55:45 GMT from Spain)
I'm pretty sure Openbox is here to stay, too, fortunately :)
96 • re 87/88 @seb (by davecs on 2011-07-06 22:51:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hi Seb
As far as I know, all the "respins" of PCLinuxOS other than the KDE version are community projects. Neal who does the LXDE versions is a major developer on the main project so can get out the LXDE version soon after the main one. I'm sure the others will follow now.
I get the impression that, whilst there is a slight speed advantage in a 64-bit version, other factors, such as avoiding bloat, can have a greater effect. However, Texstar is working on a 64-bit version.
97 • @16 and @72 PCManFM (by disi on 2011-07-07 07:16:24 GMT from Germany)
PCManFM is a really capable file manager. I used it along with Xfce rather than Thunar for a long time.
However, in my opinion file managers are too big nowadays and want to do anything (just think of nautilus, that's what I call explorer.exe in Windows :D).
In thunar I can disable all the automount stuff for example... anyway, haven't used PCManFM for a while (it was crashing when I used detailed view and froze on my nfs shares the last time I used it).
98 • PCmanfm, RE:97 (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-07 09:04:11 GMT from Spain)
disi wrote:
---------------------------------
However, in my opinion file managers are too big nowadays and want to do anything (just think of nautilus, that's what I call explorer.exe in Windows :D).
---------------------------------
You can say that again!
There are some good file managers which are not that bloated, however. I am thinking about ROX-filer and Xfe, for example. PCmanfm is great, but I stopped using it because the version in my distro (Debian 6) is affected by a mayor bug. Now I am using Thunar too.
Finally, remember that there will ever be MidNight Commander :-)
99 • #98 bug in squeeze pcman fm? (by imnotrich on 2011-07-07 21:58:37 GMT from Mexico)
What bug?
I had to use pcmanfm as a workaround for a squeeze bug regarding setting default applications. Gnome/nautilus didn't allow me to set defaults using the right click (as previous versions did).
If pcmanfm is flawed too, now what?
100 • looking for file manager (by JB on 2011-07-08 02:57:24 GMT from United States)
i've used pcmanfm2 a fair bit recently and it has worked fine for me (it is the default on some of the distributions I like). I haven't encountered any bugs in it at all.
But i like emelfm2 better, in terms of what it does (two panes for looking at two places in the filesystem tree; better for copying files).
Both file managers require a minimal amount of RAM and hard drive space assuming you already have GTK installed.
101 • PCmanfm's bug (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-07-08 16:30:40 GMT from Spain)
Imnotrich wrote:
-------------------------------
What bug?
-------------------------------
This one: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=593607
Any failed move operation can lead to massive data loss. I have already posted about this bug some weeks ago. Again, my piece of advise for users of Debian 6 is to uninstall PCmanfm 9.7 and look for an alternative. Thunar works great for me.
102 • @101: Pcmanfm (by cba on 2011-07-08 17:56:37 GMT from Germany)
In my opinion, it would have been better to remove such a flawed pcmanfm-0.9.7 version from Debian Squeeze. If this means "stable", I do not want it.
103 • Thunas (by Al on 2011-07-08 20:46:43 GMT from Canada)
Thunar is so simple, initially you may find yourself suffering from bloat-withdrawal symptoms. But after a little while you appreciate it's elegant simplicity and speed. I blinked once while clicking the thunar icon and I didn't even realize it had opened a window…it's really fast. The thumbnails load much faster than in nautilus too. If it ever grows tabs, I may even disable them if that's an option.
104 • Xubuntu crash reduction (by gnomic on 2011-07-09 23:33:29 GMT from New Zealand)
Another test run with Xubuntu 11.04 - had a couple of episodes where it seemed running random screensavers including the dread GLText was resulting in gui freezes. Allowing only 'FuzzyFlakes' to run appears to eliminate this problem.
Aside from that I rather like the look and feel of this version of Xubuntu.
Number of Comments: 104
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| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
ARMA aka Omoikane GNU/Linux
Omoikane GNU/Linux, known as OGL, is a Japanese distribution based on Debian's testing branch. It has a user friendly installer based on Scheme and GTK+. The commercial branch of the Omoikane GNU/Linux is knows as ARMA - it includes the most popular Japanese input method "ATOK", RICHO True Type Fonts and other features. A free version of OGL, containing fewer packages, is available from FTP servers and mirrors.
Status: Active
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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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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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
