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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 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 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Full list of all issues |
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AliXe
AliXe was a SLAX-based, desktop-oriented live CD with the goal of promoting Linux among the French-speaking public of the Québec province in Canada.
Status: Discontinued
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