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1 • Parsix (by Solo on 2011-09-12 10:23:17 GMT from United Kingdom)
Many years since this one last tested, but liked it then. As a non-Gnome user, could Jesse offer any advice on how alternative desktops run on it. Should be possible to run Xfce/LXDE for example, but are they already packaged? Might be useful in future if testers could provide this kind of info in reviews - save a lot of folks a lot of time!
2 • New OpenIndiana release this week! (by Jepp on 2011-09-12 10:50:20 GMT from Denmark)
You are missing the news that a new OpenIndiana release is scheduled to come out on Wednesday. It contains a lot of improvements which is covered in the following blog post: http://alasdairrr.tumblr.com/post/10055702323/oi-151a-due
3 • Alt desktops (by Jesse on 2011-09-12 11:21:24 GMT from Canada)
>> "As a non-Gnome user, could Jesse offer any advice on how alternative desktops run on it. Should be possible to run Xfce/LXDE for example, but are they already packaged?"
Parsix has, I think, all of the packages from Debian Testing in their repositories. This includes alternative desktops, such as LXDE, Xfce and KDE. As I pointed out in the review, if something is missing, Parsix can pull packages down from Debian's Testing branch so there is no shortage of software, including desktops.
4 • Parsix (by mazidul on 2011-09-12 12:13:17 GMT from Malaysia)
Hi Jesse, you have missing one point. Parsix installer offer upgrade from old version to new version. I like Parsix with basic Gnome without mono, elementry, pluseaudio.
5 • Media files on the CLI (by cliner on 2011-09-12 12:55:37 GMT from United States)
A shorter command to remove spaces in file names (in the current directory in this case):
for i in ./*; do mv "$i" `echo $i | tr ' ' '_'`; done
A function to convert images:
cam2mail(){
mkdir $1
for i in ./*.jpg ; do convert $i -resize $1 $1/$i ; done
}
An example:
$ cam2m 800x600
will create a directory called 800x600 in the current one, resize all images to 800x600 and put them in 800x600/ preserving original names.
6 • Installer and scripts (by Jesse on 2011-09-12 13:14:44 GMT from Canada)
>> "Hi Jesse, you have missing one point. Parsix installer offer upgrade from old version to new version. "
I covered that in the review when I said:
"Post-partitioning we're given the choice of performing an upgrade from a previous Parsix install or we can perform a clean install of the current version."
@5:
Thanks for showing another way to perform these tasks. That is one thing I like about the command line, different ways of tackling problems.
7 • Thanks guys (by sargon on 2011-09-12 13:27:44 GMT from United States)
Yet another useful weekly brief.
Two notes:
thanks also Jepp for the heads-up on OI;
I was intrigued enough to try 'BlackBox' from week 36 new releases, and was rather impressed;
Stay well and keep up the fine work!
8 • Parsix (by Solo on 2011-09-12 13:38:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thanks, Jesse. The CD .iso s are available, too. Great news for your southern neighbours in the stix on DUN !
9 • Desktop Environments (by Deeon on 2011-09-12 14:39:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Lately, its hard to find a laptop less than with Intel i3 processor, so why should people want DEs that work for older comps? KDE works quite well with so much processor power.
10 • Re: Desktop Environments (by Caleuche on 2011-09-12 15:02:48 GMT from United States)
Because:
- Some people don't have the budget for a brand-new computer
- Some people are using netbooks
- Some people are ecologically minded, and prefer to use a computer until it stops working
- Some people prefer to stick with hardware that they know is reliable, even if it's "obsolete"
Also you have institutions that may be stuck with older hardware for various reasons, and need up-to-date applications.
11 • Re: Re: Desktop Environments (by Koroshiya Itchy on 2011-09-12 15:51:24 GMT from Belgium)
Because:
- Some people use the computer for working (yep, no kidding) and when you use resource-intensive applications or you do heavy number-crunching, you need every bit of your RAM memory and every hertz of your CPUs and GPUs to be available for the calculations rather than being wasted in funny desktop effects, applets, etc.
12 • Re: Desktop Environments (by Ralph on 2011-09-12 15:58:41 GMT from United States)
It's amazing that something so obvious needs so be restated. There's lots of older equipment that is perfectly useful and functional. What's more amazing is that anyone is producing a desktop environment that isn't capable of functioning without graphic hardware acceleration.
13 • Parsix & DE s (by Solo on 2011-09-12 16:08:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Should've mentioned:- the CD s are CLI only; ideal for giving some of Jesse's tips, above, a spin. Don't believe that Deeon's view accurately reflects opinions in my country. Most would probably concur with Caleuche? A Propos Parsix, it is sometimes worrying that distro language selection is limited to 'US'. Of course we can manage with Mr Websters' version, but it's all a bit chicken-and-egg!
14 • Re: Desktop Environments (by davecs on 2011-09-12 16:16:18 GMT from United Kingdom)
The beauty of Linux is that you can choose from many desktop environments, or, of course, none - just a text screen. I would recommend PCLinuxOS LXDE edition because:
1 - It's fast - both because of the lightweight environment, and the bfs scheduler in the kernel.
2 - You can make it look fairly decent without 3D effects, adding a package to make Qt windows impersonate GTK.
3 - Stuff like gnome-power-manager and acme can be added without significant gnome overheads, which makes it ideal for laptops and netbooks.
On my netbook, I've got it looking rather like KDE3, but without any significant bloat.
15 • Command Line stuff (by pearson on 2011-09-12 16:17:15 GMT from United States)
Thanks for reminding folks about the power of the command line.
The imagemagick commands you provide can be very useful for making thumbnails and adding watermarks, I've done both.
Also, once i messed up and scanned in a bunch of pictures in too high of a resolution. My computer at the time had so little RAM and vidio RAM that it would take 10 minutes to open 1 picture. So, I logged out of X and used ImageMagick from the command line to resize the pictures to something smaller. They were suddenly usable again.
Another advantage of command line utilities is automation (not necessarily something a typical home user would want). If it has a command line, then it can be put into a cron job or started by a mail filter, etc.
16 • Re: Desktop Environments (by Gustavo on 2011-09-12 16:32:52 GMT from Brazil)
- even on a powerful CPU a fast desktop will always be faster than other desktops.
17 • Re: Desktop Environments (by temperage on 2011-09-12 17:01:33 GMT from United States)
Here is another one to add under "Ecologically minded"
- Being able to use a low watt computer. For example if you are running Debian on a 1.2Ghz 5Watt GuruPlug or 720 MHz 2Watt BeagleBoard, you would not want to even try the latest-greatest GUI's. You will want something that gets the job done, plus you are saving on electricity.
18 • Typo in Parsix review (by AliasMarlowe on 2011-09-12 17:25:53 GMT from Finland)
Hi Jesse,
I think the "gnsbi" package you refer to should actually be "grisbi".
19 • Grisbi (by Jesse on 2011-09-12 17:37:06 GMT from Canada)
@18:
Yes, you are correct. In my application list there is a typo. The proper spelling appears in the screen shot above. Sorry about that.
Did anyone else read the proposed Ubuntu release piece and think it sounds like this guy wants to introduce stable, testing and unstable branches of Ubuntu?
20 • exif (by Xiao-Long Chen on 2011-09-12 17:45:17 GMT from United States)
Hi Jesse,
I just wanted to let you know that on some distributions, the command "exif" is called "exiv" or "exiv2" (with a 'v').
21 • @Desktop Environments (by Gnobuddy on 2011-09-12 18:05:46 GMT from United States)
Gustavo wrote:
- even on a powerful CPU a fast desktop will always be faster than other desktops.
-----------------------------------------------
Precisely. An extra second of lag time on every mouse-click adds up to hours of wasted time every week waiting for your laggy desktop. Not only is your life being wasted waiting for windows to render and pixels to flash, the user experience is less pleasant too. Some of us find laggy software really annoying.
Laggy software is one of those things that are more acceptable to people who've grown up disconnected from the real world and immersed in the digital one. When you take a step, toss a pebble, or snap a twig, the object reacts with no perceptible lag to the forces you apply. People pay premium prices for sports cars which respond to driver inputs with less lag than your typical family sedan. Only in the fake digital world do things respond seconds after you attempt to manipulate them.
I still run the KDE 3.5.x desktop on my most powerful computers, via the Trinity Project. IMO KDE 3.5.10 is and was the best PC desktop I've used, on any operating system. Current versions of Gnome and KDE are miles behind in every way except bling, flash, and glitter, which are useless to me.
-Gnobuddy
22 • OpenSuse Beta Milestone (by Bob on 2011-09-12 18:10:01 GMT from Austria)
Regardless whether they'll call it Beta or Milestone 6, my last hope for a useful future distro hangs during booting and shows me a blinking text cursor. Reset is the only solution but this does not leave me a clue what's wrong with the live CD ...
23 • @22 (by Gnobuddy on 2011-09-12 18:48:09 GMT from United States)
I have not had good experiences with OpenSUSE in recent years, either. Back in the days when it was just SUSE it used to be horribly slow, but rock solid. Lately whenever I've tried it, it's been much faster, but quite flaky.
I gotta ask, why is OpenSUSE your last hope for a future distro? None of the others works for you? (Ubuntu minimal + Trinity Desktop Project is what I've been using since the KDE 4.x and Gnome 3.x disasters were unleashed on us Linux users.)
Trinity Desktop is a fork/continuation of the old KDE 3.5.x desktop:
http://www.trinitydesktop.org/
-Gnobuddy
24 • Ubuntu, as a home (by Bill on 2011-09-12 19:10:51 GMT from United States)
I have been using Ubuntu since it began. It has been consistently useable and has looked like a well-managed house, with no more furnishings than necessary, and the space to add more, if need be. The decor was simple, elegant, its logo even memorializes the connectedness of all humans.
I feel disconnected now. No, not angry, not cheated, nothing so dramatic. I just no longer have an interest in the house that is being built to be the new Ubuntu.
My complaints are similar to others I've read, but my impression -- using the metaphor of the dwelling -- is this: Ubuntu now looks like a kitschy old apartment that smells of burnt toast, and has stained potholders hanging at the most visible locations. No wallpaper goes well with potholders.
"Under the hood," to mix a the metaphor, I'm sure it will be a Porsche. But, as it stands now, I'll be switching to XFCE, because this year's Ubuntu is a dreadful Volkswagen hippie van.
In a manner of speaking.
Having written all that, I want you to know I absolutely love DistroWatch, I think Linux should win a Nobel Peace Prize, and, yes, my XFCE will be "my" Ubuntu.
P.S.: As for the well-worn Twain admonition, glaring at one as one writes a comment, intended, I'm sure, to evoke caution, I find it ironic that, if Twain had taken his own advice, we'd never have been able to read his wise and funny stuff.
25 • Ubuntu fast release. (by Anonymous Coward on 2011-09-12 20:15:31 GMT from Spain)
Jesse wrote:
-----------------------------------
Did anyone else read the proposed Ubuntu release piece and think it sounds like this guy wants to introduce stable, testing and unstable branches of Ubuntu?
-----------------------------------
I was not going to talk about this, because I could have been regarded as a troll, but since you ask...
I think Canonical has no resources to make short cycle releases. It has almost no resources to do proper seven months releases properly, so imagine what would happen if they tried to do weird things.
If they did adopted this model, it would be more because of marketing reasons than because of technical reasons.
26 • Bodhi & Enlightenment (by Leo on 2011-09-12 20:36:30 GMT from United States)
Over the weekend, I test-drove the latest Bodhi. I was in the search for an ultra light, bare bones, but slick and functional distro for my dying eeepc-701. What a great surprise!
There are profiles and themes to make customization a snap. It looks great, works great, and uses very little in terms of resources. So, for the first time in about 5 years, one of my computers will run something else than Kubuntu. And this is my eeepc.
Cons? It’s still a small (one person?) development effort. No 64 bit. The shutdown process writes garbage on the screen. It is not as intuitive or slick as KDE-4 IMHO. But it doesn’t have undesired (by me) technologies such as akonadi and nepomuk in KDE, so it is a balancing act. Overall, I still prefer KDE/Kubuntu except in limited hardware. But I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point I switch to an Enlightenment distro
As an aside, I think Bodhi Linux would benefit enormously from inclusion in Ubuntu. Some sort of Ebuntu. With Ebuntu-core, Ebuntu-desktop and other standard metapackages
Anyways, great work, Jeff + Bodhi + Enlightenment teams. And thank you so much for the outstanding work!
27 • Ubuntu Monthly release (by nemo on 2011-09-12 20:39:09 GMT from United States)
You can get a daily build right now so what's the big deal?
If the cook wants to cook daily, monthly, or whatever, let him cook.
Whether the freeloader wants to eat or not doesn't matter.
28 • re. 26 (by Solo on 2011-09-12 21:03:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
...but Bodhi now has an ARM .img and that's where the future lies!
29 • Does FreeBSD 9.0 BETA 2 have texlive? (by bsduser on 2011-09-12 22:26:02 GMT from United States)
Anyone know if FreeBSD 9.0 BETA 2 have texlive?
if it does not, then we can conclude that teteX still is the king :)
Thanks if know the answer.
30 • Ubuntu Monthly Release (by Brandon Sniadajewski on 2011-09-12 23:09:32 GMT from United States)
Something like a monthly cycle might work well for variants like Kubuntu (what I use). Since KDE SC is cuurntly on a 6-month cycle (where a new KDE release comes 2 months prior to the next Kubuntu) with monthly bug-fix releases in between; it would make perfect sense for them (and any of the thousand derivatives out there).
31 • TexLive on FreeBSD (by Jesse on 2011-09-12 23:22:41 GMT from Canada)
>> "Anyone know if FreeBSD 9.0 BETA 2 have texlive?"
Officially I don't think texlive is in FreeBSD's port tree. However, there is a freebsd-texlive project. They have instructions for installing ports and packages of texlive here: http://code.google.com/p/freebsd-texlive/ and http://code.google.com/p/freebsd-texlive/wiki/Installing
32 • Re. 26/Bodhi (by Jeff Hoogland on 2011-09-13 00:54:33 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the kind words! The longer you use something the more "intuitive" it becomes.
Just as a note though, while I am the main driving developer for Bodhi we have a number of people on our team: http://bodhilinux.com/team.php
Cheers,
~Jeff Hoogland
33 • @31 (by bsduser on 2011-09-13 02:01:30 GMT from United States)
I knew about that project by Romain T. He has done an exceptional job. According to the google texlive code page, the texlive port is now in official FreeBSD ports. I use 8.2 version, and have installed texlive from DVD successfully. Still some things don't work as well as they should like xdvi; complains that it is missing some #%#$#$#.so file. If I use teTeX, it works fine, but there are many files that are not present. I have read somewhere that an official texlive port was coming and was hoping that it was true. I will download BETA-2 and see if it* is there and report back. Thanks Jesse for answering.
34 • Intel VGA Driver (by azzorcist on 2011-09-13 03:36:10 GMT from Indonesia)
@ Mr. Jesse: You seem to always do well with your Intel graphic card while I always stuck with the black screen problem. May I know what you did? Any configurations? Btw, mine is 4500MHD.
35 • Interview with Parsix developer (by eco2geek on 2011-09-13 05:56:15 GMT from United States)
You may be interested in revisiting DWW from January 23, 2006, in which Parsix's Iranian developer, Alan Baghumian, was interviewed:
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20060123#interview
36 • @23 (by Bob on 2011-09-13 08:05:20 GMT from Austria)
Thanks for your suggestions. I was referring to openSuse more or less jokingly as my "last hope" because up to now I've had mostly positive experience with it. The selection of user repositories is great and openSuse never broke after updates as opposed to Arch, Mandriva, etc.
I don't like where Gnome and/or Ubuntu are heading. Kubuntu is inferior to Ubuntu. Xubuntu works but I don't like it too much. Lubuntu will need some more time. Fedora never worked properly on my hardware. From all other distros I've tried Pardus seems to be the most polished one. But a government sponsored distro which defaults to turkish language makes me somewhat uneasy.
Good to see you using the term "KDE4/Gnome3 disaster" because that's exactly what it is ...
37 • about Bodhi (by meanpt on 2011-09-13 09:17:30 GMT from Portugal)
My congratulation to Bodhi and the team, through jeff hoogland, the main developer and founder.
Bodhi is more than just a buntu. It's a LTS with mainstream and not so main stream applications backported to 10.04.
It installs applications from an online "software center", using one of the two browsers assigned to that task - firefox or midori, refreshing the repositories before any installation.
Bodhi is more than a "just works" distro: it just works really fast, with system's resources prioritized for applications.
Bodhi looks great. Period.
38 • spinning Enlightenment (by gnomic on 2011-09-13 10:02:40 GMT from New Zealand)
For those who might condescend to use Puppy or one of its derivative versions and are also crazy enough to use Enlightenment there is Dpup Exprimo.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=70399
OK I was joking about Enlightenment, it maybe seems to be near stable enough to be taken semi-seriously. (Call me sceptical, but there was the phase of some years when development seemed close to inert, and I found out what the term segv means . . . .).
Did I forget to mention the Macpup?
http://macpup.org/
39 • Intel card (by Jesse on 2011-09-13 12:07:40 GMT from Canada)
>> "Mr. Jesse: You seem to always do well with your Intel graphic card while I always stuck with the black screen problem. May I know what you did? Any configurations?"
Honestly I don't do anything special to get the card to work. My laptop just has an Intel card which works well with Linux. Next week's Q&A will probably deal with Intel cards. It might be helpful for you.
40 • Re: 39 Intel Card (by Leo on 2011-09-13 12:57:47 GMT from United States)
Same here. I have 1 laptop (dell) and 2 netbooks (1 dell, one asus) with Intel graphics. They have all been running Ubuntu for ages. There was one release a couple years back with poor acceleration, but a workaround was posted, and that was about it.
41 • More on Bodhi (by Leo on 2011-09-13 15:03:15 GMT from United States)
@32: Thanks Jeff for the info, it is indeed a growing team
@28: ARM is obviously great for embedded. But multicore 64 bit is widespread now for laptops, servers and desktops. In particular, 64 bit builds will make things even faster
@37, meanpt: I didn't realize about the web apps. I will try that. I agree it looks beautiful (KDE4 has an edge IMHO, but this is a very relative statement)
@38, gnomic: I had the same feeling. I think Enlightenment takes a bit of elbow grease to set up. Bodhi does a great job, give it a swirl!
42 • RE: Ubuntu release cycle. (by Eddie on 2011-09-13 16:08:55 GMT from United States)
This is more like a rolling release program then anything else. Resources will be no problem because this release program will free up resources. It could work well. With Unity not being a disaster like some people think this could very well push a Linux distro more into the mainstream.
43 • Ubuntu & Working with media files on command line (by Vukota on 2011-09-14 02:42:03 GMT from United States)
One of the reasons why I didn't like much Ubuntu in the past was because it was not stable/polished enough. If they switch to rolling releases, I'll stay away from it 100%, unless I need live DVD which I do not expect to upgrade.
About media files, its easy to manipulate images and there are good GUI apps (as well), but manipulating movies, that is hard and lot of GUI (and even command line) applications are sluggish at best. So my next suggestion would be to expand this part of the topic, like
- rotating movie
- resizing movie (bytes, quality, bit rate, width, height, adding or removing black bars)
- cutting particular part of the movie
- changing brightness of the part of the movie
- synchronizing sound and video in the movie
44 • Re: Re: Desktop Environments (by Vukota on 2011-09-14 02:56:19 GMT from United States)
I agree with poster #1 and am very interested in every distro if they have polished good looking/working light weight desktop environment. I usually never skip to try it, but usually always get disappointed. Last pleasant surprise for me was PCLinuxOS LXDE.
This is usually more important for a live DVD/CD/USB, and older or less powerful hardware. But whatever today is new, tomorrow will be old, so today or tomorrow everyone will be interested more in this (unless you can afford yourself to throw money away or are lucky that someone else can do it for you).
45 • bodhi, archbang, etc (by Julian on 2011-09-14 03:43:48 GMT from United States)
Love that bodhi and archbang are getting a lot of attention. They bring exciting new things to the linux world in a way that the new "standard" desktops for fedora/ubuntu do not.
Having used bodhi and archbang, each as my main distro for a number of weeks, I am convinced that they bring new technological possibilities to us.
We linux fans like shiny new things, but ultimately we also want the OS to just do its thing (run apps) and get out of the way -- so i'm not surprised at the so-so reactions to gnome3 & Unity, while people are having a lot of fun (maybe not getting a lot of work done yet) on bodhi, archbang, and the like.
long live free choice.
46 • Ubuntu release (by Shaśvatthḥ on 2011-09-14 18:20:42 GMT from India)
@19
Yes Jesse, seems like he is proposing the Debian style of development. Though, from the article its hard to figure out, if proposed release process is emphasizing more about code maturity or about better development of new features (ubuntu specific tools).
In case of whole release, IMHO effectiveness of such process has to be proved by some "pilot project". Success of the same process in Debian is because of its "release when ready" approach. In Ubuntu's "mostly paid" development and short release time (and thus development time) it might not work-out with the same success of Debian.
However, if such process is incorporated for new feature (tools) development then it could show better results. May be new features/tools can be developed separately (something like alioth facility in Debian) and then can be incorporated in the main release. That way developers get needed time, testing and better cooperation from the community.
47 • Debian style release system. (by Eddie on 2011-09-14 18:59:53 GMT from United States)
After reading a little more on the matter it does seem more like adopting a Debian release style system. It has worked great for Debian and with the resources of Canonical it could very well work if done properly. I can't make any judgments until we see how it works out, if it really happens.
48 • OpenIndiana (by Geekboula on 2011-09-14 21:26:34 GMT from Canada)
Great news Openindiana is out ! Work perfectly on my netbook Acer with only basic hardware AMD graphic card x1280 2go ram This version 151 is more fast and reactive of 148
But LiveCD doesn't boot on my Desktop Quadcore AMD motherb chipset 790FX
Good Job team OpenIndiana !
49 • booting OpenIndiana (by Ralph on 2011-09-14 22:31:30 GMT from Canada)
@48 - did you use the live DVD for installation on your netbook Acer or some other method?
50 • Openindiana (by Geekboula on 2011-09-15 00:36:46 GMT from Canada)
@49
Yes I use a LiveDVD for the Netbook 11.6 screen size.
51 • Bodhi/Enlightenment (by wolfizzi on 2011-09-15 06:32:36 GMT from United States)
A few years ago, I also had some buggy problems with E-17, even though I thought it looked really cool. After trying Bodhi, I can verify that it is much closer to stable now. Bodhi has gone to the trouble to configure E-17 the way you would if you had the time. Enlightenment is truly amazing in that it is beautiful, yet still lightning fast. If you want a fast distro that is infinitely configurable and can do eye candy without a major slowdown, you owe it to yourself to try Bodhi. And please, read the "Bodhi guide to Enlightenment" on the DVD version or on the website, so you get an idea of how to use Enlightenment. E-17 is a little different than you are used to, so educate yourself and your mileage will improve dramatically.
52 • @23 openSUSE/KDE 3.5.x (by cba on 2011-09-15 19:17:44 GMT from Germany)
There is a good news for KDE3 users:
H-online reports that in openSUSE 12.1 KDE 3.5 will once again be a part of the openSUSE main-OSS repo as a result of the dedicated work of various KDE3 community developers.
According to the packages that can be found in the openSUSE Factory repo, this KDE3 seems to be a more "classic" KDE 3.5.10 desktop based on qt-3.3.8b.
See
http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Fresh-wind-for-openSUSE-1343874.html
"In the desktop area, openSUSE users are in for a nostalgic treat: various enthusiasts from the developer community have joined forces to prepare KDE 3 packages for version 12.1 of the distribution. (...)"
53 • #29, 31 (by bsduser on 2011-09-16 01:38:49 GMT from United States)
As a followup I have successfully installed 9.0-BETA 2 amd64. I report that texlive is not* in FreeBSD ports tree as was/is documented on code - freebsd-texlive google page. TeTeX is the king and remains the tex distro. It is like this in slackware as well. One can install from texlive dvd the full scheme but some things might* not work xdvi did not in my case last time I tried complained about some missing *.so file. My best guess is to install both and use the path trick as regular user to use TeXLive in case I need it and install it from DVD. Might just try to see how I can fool the system and try to incoroporate the tree from romain google-freebsd-texlive page?
If there are any FreeBSD 9.0 BETA 2 users out there, X is not working just get a screen with colors no mouse nada zilch zero :( have installed xorg + xfce. Is xfce broken, or it just does not work?
Thanks for distrowatch. I appreciate the help.
54 • Lightweight desktop - Debian, of course! (by fernbap on 2011-09-16 23:58:35 GMT from Portugal)
What i'm currently using is Debian XFCE.
Installed Debian 6 from the install DVD, with XFCE.
Changed the repos to wheezy and sid
dist-upgrade gave me a XFCE desktop with the latest versions, working in around 100 MB ram.
Light, very fast.
55 • Re:53 (by Oko on 2011-09-19 03:07:08 GMT from United States)
teTeX is dead since 2005. You can check with Thomas Eckhardt if you do not trust me. There has been several attempts to port TeXLive since 2001 to FreeBSD but all have been successfully prevented by Hiroki Sato currently one of the core members. As somebody whose livelihood depends in part on using TeX I can attest that was one of the main reason for me personally to switch from FreeBSD to OpenBSD in 2007. Since then I have found very many other reasons never to look back. FreeBSD has nothing to offer to a savvy Unix user on the desktop and even less to 99.99% other so called "computer users". It is just enough to see pictures of FreeBSD developers with their new shiny Apple MacBook Pros from recent BSDcons to understand why. Speaking of OS X the recent switch from IPFW to PF is the best testament what industry thinks about FreeBSD. By the way, the version of PF that ships with OS X is far more up to date than the one that will be shipped with FreeBSD 9.0.
Number of Comments: 55
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| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Zeroshell
Zeroshell was a small Linux distribution for servers and embedded devices with the aim to provide network services. It was available in the form of live CD or compact Flash image and it can be configured using a web browser. The main features of Zeroshell include: load balancing and failover of multiple Internet connections, UMTS/HSDPA connections by using 3G modems, RADIUS server for providing secure authentication and automatic management of encryption keys to wireless networks, captive portal to support web login, and many others.
Status: Discontinued
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