 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 417, 8 August 2011 |
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Welcome to this year's 32nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Ever since Slackware dropped GNOME from its official repository, third-party GNOME packages, some more up-to-date than others, started competing for the attention of Slackware users and fans. But it wasn't until recently that a dedicated Slackware-based distribution with GNOME appeared on the market. Jesse Smith takes the latest release of Linvo GNU/Linux for a spin to discover whether GNOME and Slackware can be once again united in a happy alliance. In the news section, a Linux user is excited to discover a perfect portable distribution for gamers, TuxRadar proceeds with a scientific evaluation to discover the best Linux distribution of the year, and Debian GNU/kFreeBSD developers make dramatic progress towards greater usability of their distribution. Also in this issue, a link to an article discussing RAW image processing with the recently-released Digikam 2.0 and a Tips and Tricks section which offers a solution to a fairly common bug on Xubuntu and other distributions featuring the latest Xfce desktop. Happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (20MB) and MP3 (28MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Here's looking at Linvo, kid
 The Linvo GNU/Linux project describes itself as an independent effort, but with some packages pulled from various other projects -- namely Slackware, Arch Linux and some Slack-based repositories. What drew me to try Linvo, version 2010.12.6, wasn't the flashy art of the website (though it has a certain appeal), rather I was attracted to the promise of atomic updates.
On most modern systems we get used to the idea that packages are updated a certain way and new versions of a package over-write old ones. This is the usual order of things. The drawback to this approach is that if the update is interrupted (perhaps due to electrical failure) or if the new version of the package is broken, we find ourselves in a bad position. The desktop environment might stop working (as recently happened to me) or the OS may fail to boot. One solution to this problem is atomic updates. This approach usually works by letting us have different versions of a package on the system at the same time, thus avoiding over-writing a working configuration and making roll-backs easy. Linvo promises atomic updates and the ability to have multiple users with different versions of packages installed at the same time. This should allow one person to run Firefox 3.6 while another runs Firefox 5, for example.
The distribution comes as a 737 MB download. The website suggests it's possible to create a custom live disc using modules, but I found the modules page to be blank and simply downloaded the default ISO. Booting off the DVD quickly brings us to a GNOME 2.32 desktop featuring a bright space-themed wallpaper. The menu bar sits at the top of the screen and our task switcher sits at the bottom. On the desktop are icons for browsing the file system, opening a link to the project's website and launching the installer.
Linvo GNU/Linux 2010.12 - browsing the web with Chromium
(full image size: 402kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
Right away the installer lets us know we need to manually partition the hard drive using a different application. The GParted program is provided to make this process fairly straight forward. With partitioning out of the way the installer takes us through five steps, which we can perform in the order of our choosing. We need to set the current time, choose our locale and select a partition on which to install Linvo. There's a screen for creating a regular user account and setting the root password. The final screen gets us to pick whether we want to perform a core (bare bones) install, a basic (medium) install, or if we want to install all the available packages. I opted for the full, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach. Livno's files copied over quickly and, when the process was complete, I rebooted.
The Linvo distribution uses GRUB Legacy (version 0.97) and, unlike most distributions, does not boot into a default menu choice automatically. This means if the computer is remotely restarted the operating system won't load, something to keep in mind if you plan to work on Linvo from afar.
Booting into the local install of Linvo brings us to a graphical login screen. There's a menu button in the bottom-left corner of the screen which gives us the option of selecting a session, a language and configuring the login manager. During my tests taking the configuration option didn't do anything. When selecting a session there are several options to choose from, over a dozen in fact, but I found taking anything other than the GNOME desktop didn't work, resulting in my user being punted back to the login screen.
When we first login an icon appears in the top-right corner of the desktop letting us know software updates are available. Package handling is done using GSlapt, a graphical package manager with a layout similar to Synaptic. GSlapt lets us search for packages by name and by status (installed, not installed, upgradable), but doesn't allows us to search by category. This makes it easy to apply updates and to find software with which we're familiar, but makes finding new software a bit more challenging. I found GSlapt worked well for me and I encountered no problems using it. Looking at the sources list for GSlapt we find most packages come from Slackware (or Slackware-oriented projects) and that Linvo pulls from Slackware-13.37 repositories.
Linvo GNU/Linux 2010.12 - managing packages with GSlapt
(full image size: 393kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
The Linvo project provides their own application manager to access Linvo-specific modules. Unfortunately every time I tried to launch this custom package manager it would give me a "Not found" error, apparently indicating the application couldn't locate modules on the project's server. Without the special package manager (and the atomic updates it promises), Linvo basically presents itself as a GNOME edition of Slackware.
By default, Linvo's application menu comes with a good selection of desktop software. We're provided with the Chromium web browser (version 12), OpenOffice 3.2, Skype, the Empathy chat client, the Gwibber microblogger program and Dropbox. The Transmission BitTorrent client is included, as is an e-book reader and the Evolution e-mail application. We're provided with a disc burner, the Cheese webcam tool, the PiTiVi video editor and Rhythmbox music player. There's an application for recording videos of the desktop, the GIMP and Shotwell. For viewing movies, Totem is included. The System menu has the full range of GNOME configuration tools, along with a few surprises. For instance, Linvo includes a touch screen calibration program. We're additionally treated to the GParted partition editor, a system monitor and a graphical firewall configuration program.
Linvo comes with codecs for playing MP3 files and most popular video formats. The Chromium browser includes a Flash plugin and, in the background, the Linux kernel (version 2.6.36) keeps things running smoothly.
Linvo GNU/Linux 2010.12 - running OpenOffice.org
(full image size: 393kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
I ran Linvo 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). Linvo handled the desktop machine well and everything worked out of the box. On my laptop most things worked. My desktop was set to an appropriate resolution, audio worked and the touchpad operated as expected. My only complaint was with my Intel wireless card as it seems Linvo does not include the firmware to operate the wireless device. On both machines boot times were good and desktop performance was better than average.
For the most part Linvo worked well and it includes a few packages not commonly seen. For example, it's one of the few distributions I've tried recently that still uses GRUB Legacy. It may be the only distro I've used that includes a touch screen calibration tool, which was interesting to see. On the other hand, there were some bugs. For instance, the ace up Linvo's sleeve was supposed to be the special package manager, which did not work for me. The version of Chromium which ships in Linvo has a weird bug where it kept reporting it wasn't the default browser and asked me to confirm if it should be. Since Chromium is the default and, at install time, the only browser, it seemed odd it would keep nagging me about this whenever it was launched. The prompt can be turned off, but it shouldn't appear in the first place.
The distribution has a good selection of software out of the box, additional packages are available through GSlapt and most things work. I think Linvo does well for such a small project. It doesn't have anything to make it really stand out from the crowd, but Linvo makes for a solid desktop distro. The project basically provides us with a copy of Slackware featuring a point-n-click installer and a nice GNOME desktop. Since the Slackware project itself doesn't include GNOME packages, and with some people looking for a way to stay with GNOME 2, Linvo does offer some appeal.
Since I got into the Linvo trial to try out their atomic updates, I'd like to talk some more on the subject. Though I haven't had a chance to install it yet there is another project out there with a surprisingly similar objective to Linvo. This other project is called NixOS. NixOS is a small distribution built on top of the Nix package manager, which is designed to make updates atomic and to insure the operating system is always in a usable state. As with Linvo's stated goals, NixOS is said to support multiple users installing different versions of software. Nix also has a roll-back feature. The result is supposed to be a system without global program directories (/usr/bin, /usr/local/bin, etc), instead each version of each package gets its own directory. NixOS is a research project and isn't targeted at home or business users. However, for people who are interested in trying out something different you can learn more from the project's website.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Portable gaming with linuX-gamers Live, TuxRadar's best distro award, improvements in Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, RAW image processing with openSUSE and Digikam 2.0
 Linux is often considered a poor platform for gaming, especially when compared to some of the operating systems that enjoy much more attention from game publishers. Nevertheless, Linux also offers something its competitors will never be able to reproduce: a complete live environment with a good selection of popular games. This live DVD is called linuX-gamers Live. Justin Popa provides an enthusiastic first look at this distribution in "live.linuX-gamers.net: Linux games for the portable person": "I felt like a 12-year-old again. The distro comes in two editions: Lite and Big... guess which one I went for. The Big edition has, as you've probably guessed it, more games. Booting went off without a hitch (and was quite fast). It even detected the two soundcards I have connected to the laptop (internal and USB) and asked me which one I would like to use. It also asked about the keyboard layout. The games ran well for the most part, the very graphically intense ones hiccuped up a bit but I am guessing that it has something to do with the graphics drivers. To mention a few of the games, you get: OpenLieroX, TuxRacer, SuperTuxKart, Secret Mario Chronicles, Teeworlds, World of Goo and many many others."
linuX-gamers Live 0.9.7 - an Arch-based live DVD containing dozens of games
(full image size: 191kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
 So what is the best Linux distribution of 2011? If we ask ten Linux users we'll probably get ten different answers, but TuxRadar, a website closely associated with the Linux Format magazine has analysed (scientifically) a few of the big releases of the year. And the winner? It may surprise some, but it's Debian GNU/Linux: "Debian makes a good case for best all-round distro. In some ways it is still practically neolithic, and installing it could certainly be made a bit easier, which is a shame because it gives people who have difficulty with that step a bad impression of the system as a whole. Also, it pretty much expects a constant network connection, and may not be quite so suitable in its vanilla form for netbooks or off-line installs. However, package management and flexibility are all top notch, and there is a wide and active community here that provides support, documentation, packages and plenty of opinions too. It certainly won't suit everyone, but if you have never tried it, it should be top of your TO DO list." Ubuntu walked away with a silver medal, while Fedora finished third with a following summary: "Cutting edge with more than a bit of flair, Fedora is just about spot on in a lot of areas."
Our recent review of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD attracted some interest in the "geekier" circles of the free software world, and while it's an interesting project, it certainly isn't for everybody. However, with some dramatic recent improvements, perhaps the next stable release of the distribution will see a spike in its market share. Robert Millan reports: "Debian GNU/kFreeBSD was first released with 'Squeeze' last February. The 'technology preview' label indicated, among other things, that it had a number of limitations when compared with what users would expect: missing features, incomplete functionality, etc. But it has seen many noteworthy improvements since then. Here are some that I would like to mention: graphical installer support; userland support for FreeBSD jails and encrypting disk partitions; FUSE support is now provided by fuse4bsd; it is now possible to mount the NFS file systems; kFreeBSD has seen a number of updates - compiler has been upgraded to GCC 4.6, new kernel (from FreeBSD 8.2) now available." Perhaps most importantly, support for wireless networks is enabled and backported to Debian GNU/kFreeBSD 6.0: "Wireless support, which was disabled in 'Squeeze' due to a bug in ifconfig, has now been enabled, then backported to 'Squeeze' after it was reported to be functional."
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 Digikam 2.0, a major new version of the popular photo organiser for KDE, was released recently. openSUSE and KDE user Sven Burmeister takes a look at one neglected aspect of the tool - RAW image processing. Have things improved in Digikam 2.0? "The beauty of RAW images is that you can do a lot of things and fine-tuning until the image fits your expectations; yet a beginners' expectation is simply to get a picture that looks the same or better than the JPG preview they see in Digikam. Thus defaults should provide exactly that as a starting point for further processing. Other RAW image processing applications like darktable do this by providing base curves for your camera that put some vibrancy and colour into the dark and dull RAW data and hence motivate the user to get deeper into the possibilities of RAW image processing. Digikam currently does not provide that feature. However, with a little work one can get there."
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| Tips and Tricks (by Robert Storey) |
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Interface woes
Why, a child of five could understand this. Fetch me a child of five. (Groucho Marx)
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 The Linux desktop is, if nothing else, diverse. Whether or not this is a good thing can be debated, but if there ever was an operating system contest for the most desktop diversity, then Linux is a slam dunk winner. Mac OS X and Windows users are offered various lame "themes" that allow one to change fonts, borders, colors and wallpaper, but Linux comes equipped with the tools to turn the whole desktop universe on its head.
Alas, for all their efforts, developers keen on creating the perfect desktop interface seldom receive much gratitude. In the past week, Linus Torvalds made headlines by proclaiming his extreme displeasure with the state of GNOME 3.0. A former happy GNOME 2.x user, Linus has now moved to Xfce. He made no mention of Unity, but that probably has something to do with the fact that Linus runs Fedora. Were he to dabble in Ubuntu, I imagine that the folks at Canonical would be getting an earful right now. Similarly, much blood was shed during the prolonged upgrade from KDE 3 to 4. The war for the hearts and minds of Linux desktop users continues - indeed, it is escalating.
Since I've more-or-less settled into the Ubuntu tribe, you might be forgiven for thinking that I would have some strong heartfelt opinions about Unity. However, I'm embarrassed to say that beyond admiring at a few screenshots produced by others, I've never even looked at the Unity desktop. Fortunately, I have a good excuse - during installation of Ubuntu 11.04, a message flashed saying that I didn't have the graphical hardware to enjoy the full 3D experience - thus, I was automatically defaulted to GNOME 'Classic'.
GNOME 2.x has been around for a while and is reasonably well-polished. However, GNOME developers have made it known that they intend to deprecate 2.x in favor of 3.x. Furthermore, my hardware is kind of minimal, so this time around I decided to go with the relatively lightweight tried-and-trusted Xubuntu. Indeed, ever since the Unity debacle began, I've been recommending Xubuntu to Linux newbies, confident that the simple interface and rock-solid stability wouldn't let them down. And now I'm having to eat my words.
Et tu, Xfce?
Having recently converted my wife from Windows to Xubuntu - a major coup, by the way - I was a little disheartened when she started shrieking about how Firefox suddenly became "unusable." At first I thought she was mistaken and had simply gotten confused by her former Windows XP brainwashing, but I soon realized that she was correct. Firefox was open in a window that was strangely lacking borders. Normally you can drag a window with the mouse by using the top border, but since there were no borders, the only way to drag Firefox out of the way was with ALT-LeftMouse. And it wasn't only Firefox that "looked weird" - all applications were affected. Worse, drop-down menus were unusable, which meant I couldn't do much of anything short of using the command-line interface in a terminal. In short, the desktop was totally FUBAR.
Xubuntu 11.04 - fubared
(full image size: 95kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
I first attempted a reboot, though I didn't expect that to help, and it didn't. I then logged out and logged back in after selecting the pure Xfce interface (somewhat different from the Xubuntu-desktop, which is customized for Ubuntu). The problem remained. I theorized that the problem just might be Xfce, so as a last-ditch effort, I opened a terminal and via the command line installed FVWM (the oldest and possibly most stable Linux window manager). I then logged out, logged back in after choosing FVWM as my desktop. And everything worked fine, other than the fact that FVWM looks rather retro by today's standards.
Over my years of Linux usage, I have seen desktops get messed up due to misconfiguration problems, usually caused by a buggy application. In such cases, the one sure-fire cure is to nuke the user's hidden dot files which hold all the configuration information. This comes at some cost, since it means (among other things) that our intrepid user will lose his/her browser settings, including the bookmarks file. But without further ado, I applied this drastic cure to my wife's computer. For illustration purposes, I'm user "geek" and my wife is user "tigerlady" (the names have been changed to protect the innocent). Thus I applied the cure as follows. I log in as user "geek", open a terminal, and...
su
cd /home/tigerlady
rm -fr .[a-zA-Z0-9]*
...then log out, and log back in as "tigerlady". Now, Xubuntu looks good again.
Xubuntu 11.04 - normal
(full image size: 253kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
As if all this wasn't embarrassing enough, the same problem appeared on my own netbook computer two days later. Since my wife never uses my netbook, I couldn't blame her. I decided to report the bug, and in short order received a courteous reply from a developer at Canonical. His (abbreviated) message to me:
"Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. This is an issue in Xfce 4.8, and has been reproduced many times by users. Normally, simply restarting xfwm4 resolves this issue. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better! WORKAROUND: hit Alt+F2, type "xfwm4 &" without qoutes, hit Enter"
Out of chaos, comes enlightenment
Canonical's suggested workaround sounds less drastic than my own, so I'd recommend it to anyone in need of a quick fix. However, neither workaround leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling, since the problem can recur at any time without warning. I decided to move my wife to Lubuntu for now, at least until the bug is fixed. Xubuntu users can make the change by installing the package "lubuntu-desktop." For myself, I've moved to Enlightenment 17, something I'd wanted to try anyway after hearing glowing reports from enthusiastic Bodhi Linux users. As for those of you living in the non-Ubuntu universe, I'd be interested to know if you've encountered problems with the latest Xfce interface.
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| Released Last Week |
Oracle Linux 5.7
Oracle has announced the release of Oracle Linux 5.7, an enterprise Linux distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7: "Oracle is pleased to announce the general availability of Oracle Linux Release 5 Update 7 for x86 (32-bit) and x86_64 (64-bit) architectures. Oracle Linux 5.7 ships with following three sets of kernel packages: Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel kernel-uek 2.6.32-200.13.1 (installed and booted by default), Red Hat-compatible kernel 2.6.18-274.el5 (installed by default) and Red Hat-compatible kernel with bug fixes added by Oracle 2.6.18-274.0.0.0.1.el5 (can only be installed manually). This update includes the following kernel/driver changes: Fix put_nfs_open_context() NULL pointer panic; fix SCSI hotplug and rescan race; fix filp_close() race; fix missing aio_complete() in end_io...." Read the rest of the release announcement and release notes for a full list of bug fixes.
TurnKey Linux 11.2
Liraz Siri has announced the release of Turnkey Linux 11.2, an Ubuntu-based set of highly specialised virtual appliances which integrate some of the best open-source software into ready-to-use solutions: "We just updated the website and the TurnKey Hub with the new TurnKey 11.2 maintenance release, which includes: TurnKey Hub support for micro instances, Amazon's free tier and cloud servers backed by persistent network-attached storage volumes (AKA EBS-backed instances); built-in support for TurnKey's new dynamic DNS service; the latest security updates. We've added support for micro instances (613 MB RAM), Amazon EC2's smallest cloud server type which costs less than US$15/month if you run a server 24x7." Read the release announcement and see the virtual appliances page for further information.
Ultimate Edition 3.0 "Lite"
Ultimate Edition "Lite" is a Lubuntu-based distribution featuring the LXDE desktop environment. Version 3.0 was released today: "Well, ladies and gents, we now have Ultimate Edition 3.0 Lite. Ultimate Edition Lite was built off Lubuntu; it is intended to be run on low-resource computers, such as netbooks. Ultimate Edition Lite contains only the bare minimum, a browser, a music player and a few other tools. The desktop environment is LXDE / Openbox which has a look similar to Windows XP. This release, being as large as it was to begin with, did not leave me much to work with to keep its CD size. Unfortunately I was unable to pre-install the updates for you as I was in Ultimate Edition 2.8 Lite. I have enhanced the wireless support since this release is intended for notebooks." See the release announcement and release notes for more details.
PureOS 4.0
Marc Poirette has announced the release of PureOS 4.0, a desktop-oriented live CD (with GNOME), based on Debian's "testing" branch: "PureOS is five years old and the 4.0 version is available. You can now choose your language (and keyboard) from the boot menu. Main features: Linux kernel 2.6.39.3 with Squashfs 4.0 and xz (LZMA 2), GNOME 2.30 with Docky. Office: LibreOffice 3.3.3 - Calc, Draw, Impress and Writer. Internet: Iceweasel 5.0 ('sid' repository) with Gnash, Icedove 3.1, NetworkManager, Transmission, FileZilla. Multimedia: Songbird 1.9.3, VLC, Brasero. Graphics: GIMP, Evince, Eye of GNOME. System: GParted, smxi/sgfxi scripts, scripts and Nautilus actions for modules management - activate, debs2lzm, debs2lzm-file, dir2lzm, lzm2dir and find2lzm." Read the rest of the release announcement for notes about the supported locales and artwork credits.
Pure OS 4.0 - a desktop distribution based on Debian's "testing" branch
(full image size: 545kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Zorin OS 5 "Educational Lite"
Artyom Zorin has announced the release of Zorin OS 5 "Educational Lite" edition, an Ubuntu-based distribution for schools with LXDE as the desktop environment: "The Zorin OS team is proud to release Zorin OS 5 Educational Lite, the lightweight version of our educational operating system designed for Windows users using old and low-specification computers. This new version of Zorin OS Lite is based on Zorin OS 5 Lite and uses the LXDE desktop environment, which brings new and updated packages. Zorin OS 5 Educational Lite includes dozens of educational programs for primary, secondary and tertiary education students. We have also included our other exclusive programs such as our Zorin Look Changer and Internet Browser Manager." Here is the brief release announcement.
Pinguy OS 10.04.3
Antoni Norman has announced the release of Pinguy OS 10.04.3, the third update of the Ubuntu-based desktop distribution with long-term support: "I am proud to announce the release of Pinguy OS 10.04.3 LTS, the third maintenance update to Pinguy OS 10.04 LTS release. This release includes installation DVDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures. Numerous updates have been integrated and updated installation media have been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. This will be the final point release for 10.04. Linux kernel 2.6.32, LibreOffice 3.3.2, Firefox 5.0, Flash 10.3, Java 6u26, VLC 1.1.7. VirtualBox 4.1, Wine 1.2.3." Here is the release announcement as published on the distribution's user forum.
KNOPPIX 6.7
Klaus Knopper has announced the release of KNOPPIX 6.7, a new version of the Debian-based live CD and DVD with LXDE as the default desktop, accompanied by a special edition for visually impaired users: "During the past days, version 6.7 of KNOPPIX has found its way to the mirrors and is now available as DVD and CD image, including the blind-friendly ADRIANE edition." What's new? "Updated from Debian 'Squeeze' with the usual picks from Debian 'testing' and 'unstable'; uses Linux kernel 2.6.39.3 and X.Org 7.6 for supporting most current computer hardware; experimental free Nouveau graphics modules supporting NVIDIA cards, acellerated graphics via kernel mode settings (KMS); LibreOffice 3.3.3; Chromium 12.0.742.112 web browser; optional 64-bit kernel via 'knoppix64' boot option...." Read the detailed release notes for additional information.
KNOPPIX 6.7 - a new version of the famous live CD by Klaus Knopper
(full image size: 1,353kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Vine Linux 6.0
Daisuke Suzuki has announced the release of Vine Linux 6.0, a new version of the oldest Japanese community distribution. The new release is built on top of a Linux kernel 2.6.35 and includes glibc 2.11.1, GCC 4.4.5, X.Org Server 1.10.2, GNOME 2.32.2 and Firefox 5.0. From the release notes: "This is Vine Linux version 6 release. Since this is not a commercial version (Vine Linux CR), non-free applications and fonts are not included on the CD/DVD. Instead of proprietary ATOX X, Wnn7, Wnn8, VJE Japanese inputs and Ricoh, Dynacomware fonts, this FTP edition contains Anthy and free TrueType fonts. Vine Linux 6 has following features (highlights): reform the software collection, stability and look & feel improvements; newer hardware support; new user-friendly tools." The release announcement and the detailed release notes (both links in Japanese) provide more information.
Vine Linux 6.0 - a major new update to the popular Japanese community distro
(full image size: 189kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Tiny Core Linux 3.8
Robert Shingledecker has announced the release of Tiny Core Linux 3.8, an updated release of the the project's small (but extensible) desktop Linux distribution: "Team Tiny Core is pleased to announce the release of Tiny Core Linux 3.8. Final change Log: updated AppsAudit dependencies menu grouping and added 'Fetch Missing Dependencies'; updated AppsAudit - updated error reporting and now reports stale extensions; updated AppsBrowser - clear Search & Provides field upon results; updated wallpaper - improved GUI, now with a single window; updated screenshot to display file name created upon completion; updated mnttool - added a refresh button; updated wbarconf - support for no initial .wbar; updated BusyBox - 1.18.5, new depmod applet and audit of required applets...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a full changelog.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- NodeZero Linux. NodeZero Linux is and Ubuntu-based distribution designed as a complete system which can also be used for penetration testing. NodeZero uses Ubuntu repositories and it comes with around 300 tools for penetration testing.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 15 August 2011.
Jesse Smith, Ladislav Bodnar and Robert Storey
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Debian - Daddy of All (by manmath sahu on 2011-08-08 08:34:52 GMT from India)
I tinker distros every now and then. But when it comes to no-non-sense computing I am always with comfort of Debian. Besides, taming squeeze to fit one's need is not much harder than ubuntu or fedora.
Thanks for citing that tuxrader article.
2 • #1 Debian (by zykoda on 2011-08-08 09:05:04 GMT from United Kingdom)
"Besides, taming squeeze to fit one's need is not much harder than ubuntu or fedora."
How perspicacious of you! And IMHO that maybe a reason that Debian and Mint HPD have swollen and Ubuntu has progressed so so latterly. When others falter, there is always Debian: sound and sure.
3 • Slome (by Skrim on 2011-08-08 09:07:40 GMT from United Kingdom)
Might there be a good reason why Gnome wasn't offered with Slackware?!
4 • RE: Et tu (by Pierre on 2011-08-08 09:10:39 GMT from Australia)
Why didn't you move "tigerlady" to a version of Mint?.
as there is a few versions of Mint, surely one of them would have suited her.
5 • Et tu, Ubuntu? (by megadriver on 2011-08-08 09:31:19 GMT from Spain)
Last time I tried them, Both Xfce 4.8 and 4.8.1 worked perfectly here on Arch.
It's not Xfce's fault. Blame Ubuntu!
6 • Debian/XFCE (by Toolz on 2011-08-08 10:12:06 GMT from Vietnam)
> "Also, it pretty much expects a constant network connection"
What's this big hang-up with the network connection on Debian? I just installed Debian Xfce on a netbook without a connection and I'm very very happy with it. Connection to the 'net was infrequent until I signed up for a cheap 3G plan a couple of days ago.
> "Why didn't you move "tigerlady" to a version of Mint?"
Beware - I really struggled with Mint Xfce last week. I attempted three installs before finally giving up and going with good old Debian. I'd recommend plain Debian Xfce - that's version 4.6 - the tried and tested version.
7 • RE: Et tu (Xfce 4.8) (by koroshiya itchy on 2011-08-08 10:41:23 GMT from Belgium)
As far as I can tell, Xfce 4.8 runs fine in PC-BSD 9.0 BETA.
Other comments:
1) The "atomic updates" concept sounds very interesting. Is it easy to manage? Does it apply to drivers, kernel modules, etc.?
2) Whereas I do not agree with the absolute concept of "the best" (there are as many "bests" as people's needs ans circumstances), I do agree that Debian is the best all-rounder (and therefore the distro I use). The prove is that most distributions are Debian derivatives, including the 1st and 2nd most popular ones according to DistroWatch. Debian itself is 4th.
8 • Old news is old? (by Rick on 2011-08-08 11:03:26 GMT from United States)
Debian winning awards, Knoppix and (on front page) Gentoo get new releases... I'ma go party like it's 1997!
Slightly more seriously, how old is that TuxRadar article? It says:
"Although Mint is based on Ubuntu, the next release (11, “Katya”) will not copy the shift to Unity"
Did they write this in April and sit on it until now?
And one more rant, Otatux? Really? wouldn't it have been easier to make a Gnome theme package instead of a whole distro?
9 • where's GNOME SlackBuild? (by Aaron Burr on 2011-08-08 11:23:31 GMT from United States)
I'm wondering why GSB isn't on the Distrowatch list.
Also, it gets very little attention, but Zenwalk has a Gnome version, so that's another way to put Slackware and Gnome together.
10 • xfce 4.8 in mint debian edition (by miks on 2011-08-08 11:30:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
FYI, the 4.8 problem exists in mint debian edition. It occurred last week on my testbed install, and I was grateful that my production install is a mintified debian squeeze, basically a frozen squeeze version of LMDE, which has been rock solid. Googling at the time got me nowhere, so I am grateful that someone other than me has had this problem. I will try the workaround later....
11 • gNewSense has disappeared ... (by Coffee on 2011-08-08 11:32:34 GMT from France)
... from the DistroWatch page hit ranking. Only yesterday I saw the distribution hanging out with the likes of Finnix, Grml Blag and Crux somewhere in the 140s-150s. Is there any explanation for this?
12 • XFCE 4.8 and Arch (by Corbin on 2011-08-08 11:45:07 GMT from United States)
Yea, I'd definately call that no-borders bit a DE issue. I've had it happen on my Arch systems. Do hope the devs can knock that one out soon.
13 • RE: 11 gNewSense has disappeared (by ladislav on 2011-08-08 11:59:12 GMT from Taiwan)
I've flagged gNewSense as "dormant". They haven't released anything new in nearly two years and their earlier promise to deliver a new version once "Squeeze" goes stable hasn't materialised (though six months have passed since "Squeeze" was released). Their forum has also disappeared and a cursory glance at their development mailing list didn't leave room for much optimism either.
14 • Xfce Bug (by Sascha Biermanns on 2011-08-08 12:07:02 GMT from Netherlands)
The same bug happened to my wife two weeks ago on Arch Linux. I moved her folder, started Xfce - got a new folder with defaults and copied them into her normal folder. After that - I renamed back her real folder - and the bug was gone.
15 • @ Interface woes (by os2_user on 2011-08-08 12:08:46 GMT from United States)
The underlying problem is the view that constant change of graphical manager is needed. But that only appeals to uber-geeks. Gnome 3 apparently (I'm not going to /try/ it now because /warned/) changed all the API too, and there's simply no reason for it, doesn't improve function a bit.
Just make the interface simple and basic, guys. -- IF you want it to be accepted and actually used by the rabble, but frankly, I doubt that you do. Not to be rude. But Linux now needs /utility/ rather than continuing to play around with "concepts".
16 • Re: Tips and tricks (by Wine Curmudgeon on 2011-08-08 12:11:30 GMT from United States)
Xfce 4.8 is a huge disappointment. I had the desktop go missing in Xubuntu, as noted in the article, and in Mint, as noted in the comments. Worse, it happened so often I had to change distros, Check out Watt OS3.
17 • Mepis (by Frank on 2011-08-08 12:14:12 GMT from United States)
Mepis linux 11 is the bests!! i have try all the mayor distros out there and Mepis was the only one with very few issues it works perfect on my laptops and 2 desktops.
Great Job Mepis !!
18 • Games for Linux (by Jesse on 2011-08-08 12:15:49 GMT from Canada)
For people interested in gaming on Linux you can check out this list of the 100 Best Free and High Quality Linux Games:
http://www.cahilig.net/2011/07/29/100-best-free-and-high-quality-linux-games
I'm happy to be able to say I've hacked on two of the games that made the list.
19 • Linus on Xfce (by kenjite on 2011-08-08 12:36:05 GMT from United States)
I don't understand what the big deal is about what d/e Linus uses nor his opinion of them. I don't code or build kernels so why should I look to someone that does to tell me what my desktop should be? It's like asking Michael Schumacher what minivan best serve the soccer mom of the world.
20 • XFCE (by Gustavo on 2011-08-08 12:50:53 GMT from Brazil)
Please, *don´t use* Xubuntu 11.04, use 10.04 LTS instead. And, please, don´t make such a disservice to XFCE. It´s a great desktop.
21 • xfce4.8 (by barnabyh on 2011-08-08 13:05:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
No problem here on Arch. It seems buntu is attracting all the bugs and then blames upstream. Btw, both Knoppix and PureOS look good, perhaps try them?
22 • Re: 20 (by Vakkotaur on 2011-08-08 13:24:33 GMT from United States)
I am currently using Xubuntu 10.04 LTS (on desktop & laptop) and am giving serious thought to moving at least the laptop to 11.04. Why? Because I need a 32-bit program to run and the *buntu kernel updates after -28 have broken it. I get errors that indicate the compatibility libraries are missing, yet if I boot with -28 things work just fine, thus the libraries are not missing. Also, 10.04 does not support the wireless 'card' in the laptop, 11.04 does. Not having to recompile the wireless system after every kernel update would be a big win. I like the idea of LTS, but since it's been broken (32 bit issues) for so long, I see no real point to sticking with it.
So, what's the issue with 11.04, beyond not being "LTS" ?
Of course, what I really want is 64-bit PCLinuxOS, but I'll just have to make do until that arrives.
23 (by Eduardo Z on 2011-08-08 13:25:34 GMT from United States)
@18 Games for Linux -- I'll be checking out that link, and the linuX-gamers Live DVD. I recently experienced a mild rejuvenation of interest in games. This occurred upon my discovery of the http://www.humblebundle.com/">Humble Indy Bundle, 5 games (now bonus'd to 12) for which you can set your own price. The deal runs for another 34 hours. I've been following the deal, since I've been impressed with the distribution method. The games run on Linux, Windows, Mac, have no DRM, and you can download for several platforms, as desired. HIB is probably old news to some. Hopefully a nice revelation for others.
24 • xubuntu vs lubuntu (by morri on 2011-08-08 13:26:00 GMT from Germany)
I myself have lubuntu on my pc which runs very well on my 10 year old PC . I had considered xubuntu too but it doesn't run half as well on my oc as lubuntu does and if one sees the reports that point out that xubuntu runs quite a lot more baggage than lubuntu it is understandable. I think lubuntu is the best ubuntu distro for older computers and people that just want to use a pc for simple purposes.
25 • Lubuntu Alpha 3 and Zorin OS Lite (by Roy H Huddleston on 2011-08-08 13:31:17 GMT from United States)
From downloading the DVD and installing I learned again that 'Lubuntu' can see the 'Lubuntu' in Zorin OS 5 Lite. But interestingly enough even though it is still Alpha it gave me the option to upgrade Zorin. Nope. It didn't work right because it is still Alpha but I know it will still 'see' the Lubuntu in Zorin in the future. The Alpha was willing to try to resolve the conflict. Running Zorin Lite and Lubuntu brings up a kind of what do you want Lubuntu to do. :)
26 • Xfce 4.8 WM (by Eddie on 2011-08-08 13:37:53 GMT from United States)
I had that same "disappearing window borders" problem in Xfce 4.8. (This was in Foresight Linux.) I got an answer on the mailing list to add xfwm4 to the Application Autostart, and it has been fine ever since. I never learned why this was happening; it seems to be fairly random. Other than that, Xfce 4.8 has been smooth and enjoyable.
27 • Best distro Debian, second Ubuntu... (by kolaloka on 2011-08-08 13:39:27 GMT from Czech Republic)
I think, while Ubuntu had a position (about version 9.04) when it was the absolute top of linux distros, it has been doing everything possible to make people try other distros and probably engage in other distro's communities. What I find much worse especially, is Gui changes every year, loss of original stability, focusing on Macish look instead on usability.
No wonder it is not No. 1 any more.
28 • Xfce (by TrevorNT on 2011-08-08 13:59:44 GMT from United States)
My machine, running Arch with the latest Xfce packages, had the above-mentioned issue. It did both before and after I reinstalled Arch on my machine. The whole time I had been using the Canonical-suggested method of typing the command at Alt+F2 (though I found it on my own :-P), but then I realized that in Session and Startup, under Session, xfwm4 was not listed. The more permanent solution I found was using Alt+F2 "xfwm4 &", then going under the Session tab in Session and Startup and clicking "Save Session". After that, the window manager always started up and continues to do so.
No idea why Xfce is having this problem but I hope they resolve it fast.
29 • xubuntu 11.04 (by walter_j on 2011-08-08 14:25:34 GMT from Canada)
I have xubuntu 11.04 on my pc and occasionally boot into it, but have lockups often in it, so i won't use it for anything serious until i sort that issue out. I suspect the video driver but haven't taken the time to figure out how to change it. There isn't a hardware menu like in ubuntu, so i can't find it.
I installed xubuntu 9.10 on my mom's pc: she ran that for a few years, without too much trouble. I recently upgraded to 10.04, and it's running great. She's 85 now.
ubuntu 10.10 is my main install. It just keeps running. The best ubuntu ever imho. 11.04 may go down as the worst ever of any distros
30 • @22 (by Gustavo on 2011-08-08 14:25:37 GMT from Brazil)
These are great reasons to run 11.04.
31 • the best distro (by ix on 2011-08-08 14:42:28 GMT from Romania)
PCLinuxOS 2007 was the best Linux distro ever (IMHO). It was fast, stable, good looking and user friendly. It was no.1 for a long time in the default page hit ranking.
Those were the good old days, with KDE 3.5, Amarok 1.4 and other nice stuff.
I have been using Debian for some time now and it's a good distro, but I don't think it's the best distro for most people.
32 • XFCE titlebar issue (by Josh on 2011-08-08 15:16:44 GMT from United States)
I've seen this issue in Gnome 2.32 on ubuntu 10.04. The titlebar would usually disappear due to a crash of compiz, compiz not starting at boot, or on boot with compiz running (maybe due to metacity). I'd usually just kill the x server and it would fix the issue. It is quite a pain but not too big of one. It doesn't really happen often, maybe 5 times since the release, so I never felt a need to sift through what the cause was. Though, the "delete all .*** folders" is a bit extreme of a measure just to restore the xfce configuration. Though I don't use xfce, so I wouldn't know.
33 • How about KDE (by Leo on 2011-08-08 15:45:03 GMT from United States)
Another alternative is KDE. I use Kubuntu in all my machines (desktops/laptops/netbooks), and it works well. It looks amazing really, and it is mostly ok. The main issue I see is the constant introduction of new technologies. Nepomuk and Akonadi have both given me more headaches than they are worth. Frankly, I gave up on the PIM (contacts, calendar, email) for the most thing, since they have always had little or not so little issues. Not to mention the now forked KOffice/Calligra. I mostly use the Plasma Shell, the widgets (or “apps”), and that’s about it. The rest is either native Linux applications such as VLC or Digikam, and a lot inside the browser (Chrome).
So, I basically use KDE in a light way to give me a ChromeOS on steroids. I read that Kubuntu 11.10 will have a low-fat configuration. That’s very welcome. KDE-5 will focus on mobile, another step on the right direction. It’s all good.
34 • Ubuntu (by hobbitland on 2011-08-08 17:20:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hi, I am still using Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS and CentOS 6.0 at work. I customize my
Ubuntu and even respin the CD ISO as a ISO/USB. What is default in Ubuntu does
not bother me so long as I can change it.
I only use LTS Linux distros and will be using Gnome 3 in classic mode for
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Surely, Linus should know how to enable classic mode in
Gnome 3?
35 • Remove all dotfiles? (by mjjzf on 2011-08-08 17:33:39 GMT from Denmark)
Surely you wouldn't have to remove all dotfiles? How about just moving them? Also, it is not that hard to see what is related to Xfce.
36 • Missing window decorations? Think "restart the window manager" (by eco2geek on 2011-08-08 17:53:20 GMT from United States)
Anyone who's played around with compiz-fusion and/or its predecessors (like Xgl) has probably, at one time or another, had to restart the native window manager due to a problem with compiz-fusion.
So if your title bar and the frames around your windows suddenly disappear, it's probably due to a problem with the window manager.
For example, for GNOME 2.x, the window manager is "metacity". Or, for KDE, "kwin". And for Xfce4, "xfwm4".
So, when Jesse's problem happened to me with Xfce4 (I think it was after installing Xfce4 for the first time on a pre-existing openSUSE installation), fortunately my first thought was, "Does Xfce4 have a window manager, and what's it called?" rather than "Let's delete all my dot-files." It was the one essential component of Xfce that hadn't been installed.
37 • On Linux migration (by Basilio Guzman on 2011-08-08 18:03:38 GMT from Puerto Rico)
I am a Mac User since 1987, but I am now confined to using Windows. The software I use for my work is only available for Win and Mac. Linux can run the software, but not natively, because the manufacturer (Adobe Systems, Inc.) seems they never will make their software for Linux.
At least I saw AdobeReader running natively on Linux (Or was I dreaming?) mostly because of market share for the PDF format.
I hope in the near future I can do EVERYTHING on Linux, and forget about proprietary software, and operating systems.
38 • Xfwm4 Crash (by Moose on 2011-08-08 18:03:47 GMT from United States)
While I have never encountered a crash in Xfwm, I have encountered a bug a Xfce Panel 4.6 that had the same result - leaving me without a panel. Being a newbie to Linux at the time I had no idea what was wrong and actually reinstalled my system in order to fix it. Of course, I also didn't know what a .tar.gz file was or why there were no exe's to run, but you got away with less damage than I did. Thanks for the tip, it may help some save their data.
39 • XFCE (by Blue Knight on 2011-08-08 19:15:33 GMT from France)
Ah, the joys of Ubuntu... I have XFCE in Fedora and never had a problem with it!
40 • XFCE (by Mike on 2011-08-08 19:23:20 GMT from Denmark)
Mint Debian XFCE => no problem. Yet.
Lost wireless after kernel upgrade a few days ago, though. (2.6.39-2-686-pae.)
41 • "Best" 2011 distro (by Blue Knight on 2011-08-08 19:28:31 GMT from France)
I forgot. For me, the 2011 distro is Mageia. Mageia *is* the big news for 2011.
42 • Linvo (by Zbreaker on 2011-08-08 20:47:10 GMT from United States)
Nice review of Linvo Jesse. I'm a Slacker with a day off, a spare drive and burning the cd as I write...it doesn't get any better.
43 • Comparaison (by Linux User on 2011-08-08 21:54:18 GMT from Canada)
I don't think we can take this comparison seriously of
LinuxFormat. Debian, Fedora, Suse and Ubuntu ... First, the small number of
Linux distro just put out games this comparison. On the other hand, 98% of
standard PC user will never be able to install Arch or Debian. For this Newbie user
OpenSuse during the partitioning step is not easy. While on the lot is Fedora and Ubuntu so the installation in a couple minutes by just anyone ready! But perhaps they
speak rather derived from Debian. Mepis is a great Debian derivate with a lot of administration tool, good simple system install step for anyone. which I think would come out great comparatif winning this if we just take it as such. In short we have forgotten Slackware, Vector Linux, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, Sabayon and many other, which are, in my opinion many Distro is more pleasant to use than Debian.
I'll put that on summer vacation and the guys had LinuxFormat
nothing to do.
In conclusion, to compare the linux distro is not so much
relevant.
44 • A better Xubuntu (by Fartee Toomuch on 2011-08-08 22:19:15 GMT from United States)
I installed Peppermint Two on my pc and it is mind-blowing. Then I installed the Xubuntu desktop on top of it. Now, the Xubuntu session works better than a real Xubuntu installation.
But, regardless of which distro I happen to be using at any given time, Openbox is the single most-dependable desktop that exists. Yes, I am aware that it is just a window mgr.
45 • Atomic updates (by Jesse on 2011-08-08 23:32:29 GMT from Canada)
>> "1) The "atomic updates" concept sounds very interesting. Is it easy to manage? Does it apply to drivers, kernel modules, etc.?"
In theory, atomic updates should be as easy to manage as regular updates. Typically atomic updates will take up more disk space because there will be an extra copy of the software, but space is rarely a concern on modern systems.
I haven't been able to test the atomic update features of the distros reviewed, but I think NixOS supports atomic updates of the kernel and its modules/drivers.
46 • For a testbench 11.04 is not ideal (by Marcello on 2011-08-08 23:51:06 GMT from Canada)
20 • XFCE (by Gustavo on 2011-08-08 12:50:53 GMT from Brazil)
Please, *don´t use* Xubuntu 11.04, use 10.04 LTS instead. And, please, don´t make such a disservice to XFCE. It´s a great desktop.
I agree. Not that I use XFCE on Ubuntu but, just by itself, from all I heard, 11.04 is rather tricky.
47 • PCLINUXOS KDE (by linuxforever00 on 2011-08-09 00:57:24 GMT from Canada)
I love it! 2011.07 KDE MINIME and then installed the packages I wanted. I honestly think the full version of KDE PCLINUXOS is much more user friendly compared to them all. I don't care if they have 64-bit or not. I only have 2 gb ram.
48 • Et tu, Xfce? (by Anonymous (no, not that one) on 2011-08-09 01:10:28 GMT from United States)
I've encountered the same borderless windows in Mint 11 Gnome. My bad, since the release notes said not to enable Compiz, and I forgot. It was solved by deleting the gnome configuration in my home directory.
Makes me wonder if the two are related somehow -- maybe back to the graphics driver issue.
49 • Re @22 (by charsan2 on 2011-08-09 01:18:28 GMT from United States)
You can run the pae kernel and it suppose to do the same thing
50 • Underappreciated X-Window manager IceWM (by Thomas Mueller on 2011-08-09 02:01:27 GMT from United States)
With all the problems some Xfce users are having, there is another window manager I have taken to: IceWM (http://www.icewm.org/), now at version 1.3.7, good on my old computer with 256 MB RAM, and it may be the first window manager I build on the new computer I'm setting up, might not bother with Xfce at all. IceWM does not include a terminal, but I find xterm more dependable than Xfce Terminal.
51 • @48: Think "restart the window manager" not "delete configuration files" (by eco2geek on 2011-08-09 03:08:06 GMT from United States)
From Linux Mint's web site (http://linuxmint.com/rel_katya.php):
"If you experience problems with the window manager (with window borders, focus or mouse clicks) launch "Fusion Icon" from the menu, and use the Fusion tray icon to switch your window manager to 'Metacity'."
The fusion tray icon allows you to switch easily between compiz and metacity.
52 • How frugal?! (by Scart on 2011-08-09 06:53:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
Frugalware Linux ... (4,262MB, SHA1).
Strike a blow for the English language.
Ever tried Wary @ 127Mb or Lupu @ 128Mb?
I rest my case.
53 • RE:49 Nope not the same (by Realistic Linux User on 2011-08-09 11:49:28 GMT from United States)
You cannot get a 64 bit system using the pae kernel. That just allows you to use more memory.
54 • RE: There has to be change. (by Realistic Linux User on 2011-08-09 12:17:21 GMT from United States)
Why is it that some people think that there is a lost of stability or usability when a distro changes their de? There may be for a short time until the others can catch up but the general public doesn't want to use something that looks like Win98. Someone even said that the "rabble" would use it if it was simple. Who are the rabble this person is talking about? He sounds a little mixed up. If the truth be known the people who mostly comment on this site has the most problems with a different de. They complain even tho there tons of simple Win98 looking distros that they can use. They complain about the progression of other distros, probably because they can't learn how to use them, and in turn give the open source world a bad name. If you don't like something I'm sure you don't use it so why do you bitch about it. KDE4.x, Gnome3, Unity, and anything else that doesn't look like Win98 are not going away because you can't figure them out. If you don't use and learn these new desktop environments then you really don't know what you are talking about when you diss them. If you want to talk about something then talk about something you know something about. Everyone has a right to voice their own opinions but realize that opinions are not facts, just opinions. Everyone needs to realize that or you may chase people away from the open source world. Is that what you want?
55 • @54: "change" (by cba on 2011-08-09 18:22:52 GMT from Germany)
"They complain even tho there tons of simple Win98 looking distros that they can use. "
At the moment I am using openSUSE 11.1 "Evergreen" with KDE 3.5.10 with parts from the Open Buildservice.
This is also possible with openSUSE 11.4 and the corresponding KDE3 OBS repo.
A future openSUSE with a Gnome2 OBS repo would also be no problem.
So you are right, there is almost nothing to complain about, because its free software.
56 • Et Tu Xubuntu (by VT on 2011-08-09 21:15:43 GMT from United States)
Been a long time visitor and this finally piqued me enough to comment. I've been running XFCE 11.04 since Unity & G3 were released. I love it but I've been having precisely the same problem with Xubuntu. (Which I solved myself, he writes tooting his horn.) The benefits of Xubuntu, to me, outweigh this one bug, so I've stuck with it. Putting XFWM4 in autostart hasn't helped (unlike a former commenter). Trying TrevorNT's solution also didn't work (starting 'XFWM4 &' and then saving the session). XFCE in Xubuntu seems to pay no attention to saved sessions? Probably another bug... Sometimes trying to initiate XFWM4 can be a real chore. There are times when I can't type in the Run dialogue box but had to type XFWM4 in a Firefox dialog box(!) (the only program accepting keyboard input), then copy and paste it into the Run window. Etc.
I have to admit Jessie, Lubuntu is looking more and more attractive. I'll stick with Xubuntu until 11.10. If the bug continues, I might try Lubuntu or Peppermint. I like Ubuntu's PPAs so I'll stick with an Ubuntu derivative. As it is, I've found no other elegant solution to the Xubuntu bug.
57 • RE:#54 Real bloat (by koroshiya itchy on 2011-08-10 07:32:39 GMT from Belgium)
The problem for me is that Gnome 3, KDE 4 and Unity are bloated and heavy. This is a fact. I do not really care how they look like. I need my computational resources to be used for doing actual work not for showcasing useless bling-bling and running useless services and daemons.
Gnome 2 is about the heaviest thing I can stand. So I have migrated to Xfce 4. Xfce 4.6 is light enough, very stable, functional, versatile, familiar,... All I need. I have also tried LXDE and Enlightenment and both are light and nice desktops environments, but they have stability issues. Other DE and window managers are also fine, but normally they lack functionality. Of course if you want a nice-looking desktop with plenty of functionality, KDE is your man. Gnome 3 is heavier than Gnome 2 and yet it has lost functionality. Why is it so heavy then? Besides, if you have two 24-inches 1920x1200 monitors having a heavy desktop with little functionality that looks like a mobile phone is a bit rid
iculous... If it is for embedded devices, great, but then I guess it needs to be skimmed down.
58 • re 54 (by willi-amp on 2011-08-10 08:45:26 GMT from United Kingdom)
'but the general public doesn't want to use something that looks like Win98.'
Who says so? Your comment states quite clearly that posters should only deal with facts.
59 • xfce 4.8 stable? (by disi on 2011-08-10 11:06:01 GMT from Germany)
I didn't even notice the upgrade from 4.8 to 4.8.1 on Gentoo.
Works like a charm and that since end of May on x86:
23 Apr 2011; Samuli Suominen (ssuominen) xfwm4-4.8.1.ebuild:
alpha/ia64/sparc stable wrt #358407
29 Mar 2011; Jeroen Roovers (jer) xfwm4-4.8.1.ebuild:
Stable for HPPA (bug #358407).
22 Mar 2011; Kacper Kowalik (xarthisius) xfwm4-4.8.1.ebuild:
ppc/ppc64 stable wrt #358407
22 Mar 2011; Thomas Kahle (tomka) xfwm4-4.8.1.ebuild:
x86 stable per bug 358407
60 • Firefox memory usage - light at end of tunnel? (by gnomic on 2011-08-10 23:52:18 GMT from New Zealand)
Just happened to be using austrumi 2.4.0 - this comes with browser Aurora, aka Firefox 7. A quick web search reveals one notable feature of Ff7 - it should use less memory. With any luck this should mean it will not fizz out so often on memory challenged machines. It seems my suggestion last week that versions 4 and 5 of Firefox were notably worse in this respect than the 3.x series was correct. Something to look forward to around October this year.
This article is interesting.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219069/Mozilla_shrinks_Firefox_s_memory_appetite_by_20_30_
See also:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Which-Firefox-should-you-use-5-6-7-or-8/1310052564
Version 7's headliner: providing proper remedy to the age-old memory leak problem. Instead of relying on the user to manually free up memory using the "about:memory" dialog, version 7 takes control of the process itself through increased garbage collection frequency and defragmentation of memory chunks, which will reduce Firefox's memory consumption by tens or even hundreds of megabytes over a lengthy period.
http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/2011/07/07/firefoxaurora7/
Improved memory management: For many users, memory use is reduced by 30 percent or more, responsiveness is enhanced
61 • Installer Crash Error Lubuntu Alpha 3 (by Roy H Huddleston on 2011-08-11 00:18:19 GMT from United States)
The installer crash was an error because it did install. I was given the option to install Lubuntu 11.04 but this Lubuntu 11.04 is the new Ubuntu accepted Lubuntu. :) I switched out my Nvidia Geforce 9400 GT with my ATI Radeon X1300 because I wanted to go Linux without all the hassle of loading a proprietary driver.
62 • Bloat? Someone said bloat? (by Gary W on 2011-08-11 06:11:45 GMT from Australia)
@57, while that is a good point, there are many in your situation and there are many solutions for you, e.g. LXDE, OpenBox, IceWM. Perhaps sadly, it is left to you to evaluate each of these, but at least you have realistic choices.
For another view of bloat, I checked one of my work computers, running a newish variant of a well-known distro. I don't want to name it as I'm sure it's not the only offender.
On this machine I found 3 Pythons, 2 Perls, and 4 gccs, without much analysis (ncdu). This is real bloat, very unfortunate for a machine with a 4Gb SSD. Possibly forcing me to another distro.
63 • Another opinion (by Michael Thomas on 2011-08-11 08:45:50 GMT from United States)
Despite the fact that the software is free and it's authors owe nothing to anyone and despite the fact that we as users have other options it is still wrong to expect us to change our work habits at the whim of someone else. Many users expect their computers to function a certain way and many expect their operating systems to be as transparent as possible. Having administered a number of computers over the years I have learned that the users want simplicity and consistency as well as reliability.
It should be said that there are many ways to introduce new desktops but expecting users to adapt or change to a different environment shows a total lack of concern for the users these developers claim they create the software for.
Number of Comments: 63
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| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Foresight Linux
Foresight Linux was a desktop operating system, based on rPath Linux, featuring an intuitive user interface and showcasing the latest desktop software. As a Linux distribution, Foresight sets itself apart by eliminating the need for the user to be familiar with Linux, combining a user-focused desktop environment on top of the Conary package management system. As the most technically innovative software management system available today, Conary ensures that users can efficiently search, install, and manage all the software on the Foresight system, including bringing in the latest features and fixes without waiting for a major release.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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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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