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1 • Phinx Desktop (by Maik on 2012-04-09 09:50:59 GMT from Belgium)
It's really great to see Phinx Desktop amongst the other distro's here on DW.
For those who love and enjoy using a more pure Xfce distro, this is it.
2 • customize the system's ramdisk. ? (by Bill on 2012-04-09 10:00:32 GMT from United States)
Isn't a ramdisk a bit unusual, at least as a default? Is there a specific purpose it serves in Chakra?
3 • Gentoo install wizard (by Larry Gearhart on 2012-04-09 10:20:18 GMT from United States)
Wickedly funny!
It wasn't so long ago that Gentoo didn't have a live DVD.
Think about it:
No live DVD.
Therefore no desktop.
Therefore no desktop icon.
Therefore no April Fool's joke.
You have to wonder what they plan next...
... altering the install docs to be almost correct?
4 • HUDvertisement (by GS on 2012-04-09 10:42:28 GMT from United States)
Funny how that "article" about Ubuntu's HUD reads like a badly-written advertisement. How is the HUD supposedly better? Well, it's just "better." At least, according to someone who doesn't mind having to hit the Alt key (unlike when I use the menu, I can just use the mouse for everything).
5 • HUD (by Gerald on 2012-04-09 11:07:45 GMT from Austria)
I think the advantage of HUD will be only in the future, when you can control it per voice.
6 • RE:5 HUD (by Eric on 2012-04-09 11:20:29 GMT from United States)
I think that the advantage that you gain from not having to remove your hands from the keyboard and go to the mouse as often is greater than you are giving it credit for. With that said, I haven't used HUD yet, so I speak as an uninformed vim user in this case.
7 • SSH (by Bob on 2012-04-09 12:37:09 GMT from United Kingdom)
Jesse, why on earth are you doing that in .bashrc?
Inside ~/.ssh/config:
Host remote
Hostname remote-server.com
User jsmith
Then you can do:
ssh remote
Or:
scp myfile.txt remote:
Saves from having to type the $. See "man ssh_config" for a whole bunch of other things you can do.
The quality Q&A section has consistently been getting worse over the last year :(
8 • Chakra (by mythus on 2012-04-09 13:10:58 GMT from United States)
I just want to inform the reviewer, you have to update/connect to the repositories first in Chakra Linux. Once you do that, you will see loads more software in their package manager and the CCR tab will be populated.
That is what I had to do when I played with it not too long ago. I like Chakra, it is a nice distro, but not nice enough for me to leave Arch yet... or should I say, I've put way too much work into making my arch ran computer work for me that I rather not loose it all lol.
9 • How I speed up my Linux systems (by dude on 2012-04-09 13:28:10 GMT from Thailand)
First, I create tmpfs in RAM by adding these lines to /etc/fstab
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
Sure, it uses lots of RAM, but it's virtual memory anyway. Works ok with 4gb but better with 6gb.
Then, I move my Firefox browser cache to /tmp (in RAM)
browser.cache.disk.parent_directory;/tmp
Then to speed up slow Flash web pages, delete the Flash hidden directory
rm -r ~/.macromedia
and create a symbolic link to /tmp (in RAM)
ln -s /tmp .macromedia
This not only speeds up my computer, but it improves security too. Now the Supercookies can't hide in ~/.macromedia and all my temporary internet files disappear when I reboot. I've tried this with Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and CentOS with no problems.
10 • @9 (by notsure on 2012-04-09 13:58:03 GMT from United States)
Nice, you could also specify the size of the /tmp, to have more control, ie... so you don't run out of ram:
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,size=2G,nr_inodes=200k,mode=01777,noatime,nosuid,nodev 0 0
would make a 2gig /tmp, no more, no less
and link /var/tmp to /tmp
11 • Ubuntu HUD (by Kelsey on 2012-04-09 13:58:47 GMT from United States)
I have to say, I LIKE the idea of what amounts to a search bar for your installed applications. Figuring out the menus for some of my lesser-used applications can be a pain in the a**, so being able to just type what I want and find it will be incredibly useful. If this works as advertised, Ubuntu may have won me back after the debacle that was Ubuntu 11.10.
12 • Rosa review as a "feature story" (by Bill on 2012-04-09 14:00:36 GMT from United States)
For a couple of reasons
1) as Mandriva's survival is again suspect http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/53826-ahoy-mandriva-are-you-still-out-there an alternative other then Mageia might be valuable to current Mandriva users
2) they seem to be doing a lot of app development for the KDE environment that doesn't (yet) appear in the official KDE S.C. like rosa-media-player, ROSA-stackfolder, ROSA-panel, KLook, as well as fonts and themes
13 • Chakra and SSH (by Jesse on 2012-04-09 14:22:00 GMT from Canada)
>> "Isn't a ramdisk a bit unusual, at least as a default? Is there a specific purpose it serves in Chakra?"
It's certainly unusual to give users the chance to fiddle with it. I suppose the Chakra developers just want to make things as flexible as possible.
>> "I just want to inform the reviewer, you have to update/connect to the repositories first in Chakra Linux. Once you do that, you will see loads more software in their package manager and the CCR tab will be populated."
Not in my case. I refreshed the package manager a number of times and didn't see any additional software added to either tab.
>> "Jesse, why on earth are you doing that in .bashrc?"
My way requires adding one line to my bashrc file and using a "$", yours requires adding three to your ssh config file. I don't see one as being better than the other. They're just different ways to accomplish the same thing. Why do you think your way is better?
14 • Chakra (by Barnabyh on 2012-04-09 14:48:49 GMT from United Kingdom)
The CD size image is missing the package manager as far as I can tell? Can only find the Bundle manager and have been updating and installing with Pacman. Bundle manager at first didn't seem to work, so I downloaded some from the website the old fashioned way. They seem to update ok though, Google-Chrome just did, and now aMule installed fine too.
Went for adding xscreensaver and was astonished that pacman offered gtk-2.24 and libglade alongside with it. I thought they had filtered out all GTK+ stuff.
15 • SSH (by Bob on 2012-04-09 15:28:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
> My way requires adding one line to my bashrc file and using a "$",
> yours requires adding three to your ssh config file. I don't see one
> as being better than the other. They're just different ways to
> accomplish the same thing. Why do you think your way is better?
1 line vs 3 lines? Seriously? That's your argument? You only have to insert the lines once, while $ has to be typed every time. But this is a minor point compared to...
If you're adding other ssh options then bashrc won't work. scp and ssh take different arguments (e.g. "ssh -p 22" vs "scp -P 22"), but ~/.ssh/config will work fine for both. bashrc also tends to get more congested, so overall it's a lot more readable and extensible to use ~/.ssh/config.
16 • OpenSSH (by Jesse on 2012-04-09 15:54:49 GMT from Canada)
>> "1 line vs 3 lines? Seriously? That's your argument? "
No that's wasn't my argument at all. I wasn't saying one was better, I was saying they were so close to the same there wasn't any notable difference.
>> "If you're adding other ssh options then bashrc won't work"
Yes, it will. It's easy to add extra options to the bashrc line to make the alias work for additional ssh options.
>> "bashrc also tends to get more congested"
There are a total of five lines in my bashrc file. Doesn't seem all that congested to me. If you want to drop options in your ssh config file then I think that's great. But let's not pretend doing the same thing with bash aliases is somehow wrong. Both are effective and efficient.
17 • (GPG) keys? (by joy on 2012-04-09 16:31:00 GMT from India)
Comment deleted (spam).
18 • Some clarifications about Chakra (by tetris4 on 2012-04-09 16:32:15 GMT from Cyprus)
On behalf of The Chakra Project, I want to thank Jesse Smith for spending the time to look over our distribution and DistroWatch for publishing this post.
After reading the article I just wanted to clear out some points:
- AppSet-Qt (the package manager mentioned above) is an external application not developed by us. We used to include it in our releases to offer a GUI for pacman, but it will be dropped from future ISOs since it can't work as we would like it.
- Our developers are actively working on a package manager of our own, called Akabei, that will eventually replace pacman. Once that is done, work will start on introducing a GUI for akabei, which will provide a unified GUI for packages from all our repositories (Official repos, CCR, Bundles).
- It is really recommended to do a full system update after installing Chakra, using pacman and not the GUI since the latter can't handle some updates. That would explain the issues you came across.
- Since only KDE is provided as a desktop environment you can easily understand why the package number is not that big. It can't be compared to other distributions that include gnome, xfce, lxde etc. Also, we have the Chakra Community Repository (CCR), where any user can add any package he wants, not restricted by the rules for the official repositories. CCR already hosts 2000 packages.
- You can find more info on our GTK-free policy and some other questions asked in the comments in these links:
http://chakra-linux.org/wiki/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions
http://chakra-linux.org/wiki/index.php/Chakra_Linux
We are a small team and we are working to achieve the goals we set for Chakra one step at a time. =)
19 • Chakra (by Pearson on 2012-04-09 17:29:37 GMT from United States)
Tetris4, thanks for your response.
I'm a happy arch user who likes a ligher DE (or just a WM). However, I found your response pleasant and informative. When things "stabilize" a bit, I may even recommend Chakra on occasion.
Just out of curiosity: since Jesse mentioned it, is there a Qt-based equivalient to gimp? Are the features even close?
20 • Chakra (by Jesse on 2012-04-09 17:32:59 GMT from Canada)
@18:
Thanks for the added information. Best of luck with your new packaging front end, I'm looking forward to seeing how it operates.
21 • Chakra (by DavidEF on 2012-04-09 17:51:40 GMT from United States)
I like the idea that Chakra developers have, of making a pure KDE environment. It can almost be said, in fact it has been said, that the DE is the OS, and Linux is just the kernel. By that logic, using pieces from different DE's, and trying to integrate them without making a mess of things, would be like trying to use pieces of Windows 7 and XP and Win2000 all at the same time, on the same desktop, and integrate them together. Now, the cool thing is that integrating DE's has been done, which is a credit to linux developers everywhere. However, keeping them separate would almost have to be easier and even better in some ways.
22 • HUD (by Eric on 2012-04-09 18:39:26 GMT from Netherlands)
@ 4 • HUDvertisement (by GS)
The fact that you don't like it - which I can respect - does not mean that the arguments given, are invalid. The author gives a few arguments pro-HUD. In my opnion, these arguments are valid. The question is, whether these listed advantages are, in the end, an overall improvement or not. Time will learn us the answer. I will at least try it before judging.
23 • SSH (by Bob on 2012-04-09 18:42:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
> "If you're adding other ssh options then bashrc won't work"
>> Yes, it will. It's easy to add extra options to the bashrc line
>> to make the alias work for additional ssh options.
Actually, you should probably read my previous comment again.
remote="-p 22 jsmith@remote-server.com"
The above will work for "ssh $remote" but not for "scp myfile.txt $remote", as scp uses "-P" (that's an uppercase p) to specify port. No such problems when using ~/.ssh/config. You may not be using a different port, but many others are.
> "bashrc also tends to get more congested"
>> There are a total of five lines in my bashrc file. Doesn't seem
>> all that congested to me. If you want to drop options in your
>> ssh config file then I think that's great. But let's not pretend
>> doing the same thing with bash aliases is somehow wrong.
>> Both are effective and efficient.
Just because yours is 5 lines does not mean everyone else's is 5 lines. There's a reason that configuration is kept in separate files (in /etc and in /home)... makes it easy to find what you're looking for.
Using ~/.ssh/config is a documented solution (man ssh_config) provided by the project itself. It's also the place almost every other guide recommends.
24 • pearl os (by forlin on 2012-04-09 18:55:42 GMT from Portugal)
I'm test driving the Pearl O/S Distro. This is my first step after installation into hard disk (a relapse from my distro hoping good old times). What called my attention to it was the rampant ascension seen in the DW's PHR.
In a few words: so far, so good. All hardware detected, including my mobile broadband modem (hi Jesse, what about a DW revision about this new and increasing popular distro? ;) )
25 • HUD @6 (by fernbap on 2012-04-09 19:31:32 GMT from Portugal)
Well, i would say that most typical users use the mouse for everything.
The keyboard is for entering text. Period.
So, HUD is not meant for desktop computers (again). In fact, i can't find a single case where HUD would improve over anything.
26 • News on HAIKUOS? (by laura on 2012-04-09 19:32:19 GMT from Spain)
Hi,
Years ago I've learned about this project. I even tried a vmware image. Do you have any info on it. How they are doing financially, projects etc.
Thanks.
27 • @26 (by lutz on 2012-04-09 19:38:27 GMT from Germany)
http://haiku-os.org/
28 • Move my hand from the mouse to the keyboard (by Lars on 2012-04-09 20:01:29 GMT from Finland)
Many things of Unity seem to aim at keyboard usage. From my point of view it is less efficient if I have to take my hand from the mouse and start typing. Ubuntu with Unity is moving to the opposite direction.
99,99% (or more) of PC users are content consumers and not creators. These are more likely to use the PC mostly with a mouse and would like to avoid the keyboard. Also with HUD, you need to know what you are looking for.
Is Ubuntu now aimed for geeks and developers who rely a lot on the keyboard?
29 • Gentoo Installer (by M. Edward (Ed) Borasky on 2012-04-09 21:24:36 GMT from United States)
There was at one time a Gentoo LiveDVD that *did* have an installer. It was a hand-built "stage4" tarball with all of the packages on the DVD, or an image file, or some similar hack. I was running Gentoo at the time, so I didn't see the need to test or use it, but it did sort of work, I'm told. But the release engineering process / tools (Catalyst) were brittle, the Gentoo Foundation was having political struggles and the "Gentoo Installer" project died.
A basic Gentoo "stage3" install could be done mostly automatically; you'd need a partitioner but the rest of it can be done with a Perl or a bash script and doesn't take very long, except for the kernel compile. But that just gives you a relatively current console / command-line system. If you want a desktop, even a small one like OpenBox, you've got a fairly long compile to sit through. It isn't till you get to the really huge things - Firefox, LibreOffice, etc. - that Gentoo provides binary packages.
I'd really like to go back to Gentoo. They're the best-integrated desktop for scientific software, since packaging upstream code is mostly trivial. But I don't want to be down for 24 - 48 hours when I need to re-install!
30 • comments (by ikisham on 2012-04-09 21:51:15 GMT from Brazil)
Is this HUD a shiny/bloated dmenu?
IDK if Zorin's numbers are real or not but it not being popular in Distrowatch doesn't mean it isn't popular, specially since it's aimed at Windows users (non-geek).
31 • unity and HUD (by imnotrich on 2012-04-09 22:33:07 GMT from Mexico)
For desktop or even laptop use, Gnome 2 is still the gold standard.
Unity or it's variants make absolutely no sense, garbage even.
The good news is you don't have to stay with Unity. It's fairly easy to install Gnome from the Ubuntu Software Center.
Now if I can ONLY get Ubuntu to support my very common wireless card, I'd be a happy camper. They were capable of doing so in previous versions but inexplicably dropped support for the Realtek 8185 after version 9.04. Another case of developers knowing what is best, and to 7734 with what the users want/need.
Hint to developers: Hardware support is not bloat. Nor Functionality/usability.
32 • RE: 30 (by ladislav on 2012-04-09 22:44:59 GMT from Taiwan)
if Zorin's numbers are real or not but it not being popular in Distrowatch doesn't mean it isn't popular
That wasn't the point of the news item. The point is that if some distro maintainer is claiming to have millions of users he should at the very least also disclose the method he is using to count them.
33 • ZorinOS is Ubuntu's best kept secret for Windows refugees. (by Chris on 2012-04-10 01:19:45 GMT from United States)
For my geeky friends who want to try Linux, I recommend Mint or Sabayon, hands down. On the other hand, for my tech inept friends who view computers like their toasters and keep infecting their Windows machines with spyware and virus, I offer them ZorinOS. Version 5.2 Core comes (blessedly) with Gnome 2.x. With the addition of a few PPAs for latest Xorg, Firefox, Thunderbird and Gimp it's ready to go with all the best FOSS has to offer. ZorinOS resembles a clean, crisp Windows 7 right out of the box. The desktop is clean and professional. It also has Compiz enabled by default (for supported hardware.) Finally, as an added courtesy, I always install the Win2-7 pack from gnome-look.org which literally transforms the entire desktop, including bootsplash, into a clone of Windows 7 with superbar, transparent window borders... the whole nine yards. With WINE and MS Office to top it off, people literally can't tell it's not Windows; more importantly they're immediately productive and are no longer vulnerable to common viruses, spyware or crap.
34 • CentOS vs Scientific Linux: no contest - SL was a no-show (by RO on 2012-04-10 02:29:18 GMT from United States)
A couple months ago, the SL 6.2 (as I recall the version) installation, was literally a non-starter on a Dell Optiplex 760 (newest PC I have had in quite a while ;-) - I could not get the SL installation to "keep track" of where it was installing from. I tried USB flash drive and CD/DVD, and after a certain step in the installation, it could not find the files to install.
CentOS had no such problem on the same PC, so that is what I ended up with as an experimental alternate boot from Mint 9. I will have to see how Ubuntu 12.04 and/or the Mint based on it work out, but I am strongly interested in a RH-based more "traditional" DE as a longer term, stable alternative to all the Ubuntu squirreliness (on this PC at least).
Seeing that CentOS is doing better now with security updates is reassuring since that is the only reason I considered SL first, but if it cannot install, it cannot be updated...
YMMV
35 • Listing the Size of Each Distribution on Your Web Pages for the Distributions (by Clayton B. on 2012-04-10 02:44:37 GMT from United States)
Comment deleted (for feature requests please use email).
36 • @12 by Bill (by JR on 2012-04-10 05:09:11 GMT from Brazil)
+1 for a Rosa Desktop review, but, maybe it's better to wait for Rosa 2012 Marathon edition!
37 • Chakra package selection was limited when I tried it (by Pororo on 2012-04-10 05:14:25 GMT from Korea, Republic of)
A few months after Chakra broke compatibility with Arch packages, I tried it out and was disappointed. The package selection was very limited relative to Arch.
I could no longer see the point of Chakra's existence. I still do not understand what it provides that Arch does not, other than an easier installation, which does not explain breaking Arch compatibility.
Even if the rolling nature of Arch is the problem, it should still be possible to use the Arch pkgbuild scripts to make your own packages. Maybe things have changed and this functionality is now available. It seemed more that the developers thought it would be fun to make their own distro than an attempt to put out a solid distribution that is a replacement for Windows or OS X.
38 • RE: 29 - 32 (by Landor on 2012-04-10 05:16:41 GMT from Canada)
#29
24-48 hours? That's quite a broad difference. What kind of CPU is that based on to get that poor of performance? An Atom N270 can build a KDE 4 based system in 12 hours. GNOME would be a lot faster, and Xfce even faster still.
#32
A couple things. First, I read your belief about it doing nothing but inflating his ego. If I'm not mistaken, Zorin's out to make money I believe? Maybe I'm confusing it with another distribution. I thought they want to sell systems, or the OS, something to make money. It's only natural they'd find some way to promote their usage. But, did you e-mail and ask them beforehand to find out?
Second, it's just like the numbers here. I absolutely do not believe that Linux Mint has that strong of numbers here from actual real people. Take a look at PCLOS, facts are they were in the same boat, now they're sitting at what, somewhere around 10? If that doesn't prove that the PHR is 'severely' skewed here, nothing does. But we both know there's tons of ways to manipulate the PHR, even by mentioning a distribution and just linking to the front page here. Then the person is automatically going to click on said distribution and there's a hit. There's the media, etc. So the PHR doesn't actually show any real numbers either, just some basic form of interest, which could even be just passing curiosity from an article, or some such thing. You and I have been over this before though.
Here's something I'd actually love to see, a detailed article about the PHR here. Right down to the most minute detail, and how people take advantage of ways to manipulate the PHR that you can't control. I'm guessing we'll see Zorin's methodology long before that article. :)
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
39 • Chakra package selection: much improved! (by Pororo on 2012-04-10 05:29:33 GMT from Korea)
Looking at the current selection of packages, it seems that most of what is in Arch is now in Chakra, though some of the packages are a few versions behind the latest release. The pkgbuild scripts should make it easy to compile the most up to date versions though.
Maybe I'll have to give it another try.
40 • RE 24 • pearl os (by forlin on 2012-04-10 06:08:04 GMT from Portugal)
Of course I'm referring to the Pear Distribution. It still has some rough edges to polite, but I believe so far, their developers are doing very well, for those who like an OSX taste and feel.
41 • @25 (by Patrick on 2012-04-10 15:31:30 GMT from United States)
"""Well, i would say that most typical users use the mouse for everything.
The keyboard is for entering text. Period.
So, HUD is not meant for desktop computers (again)."""
Fernbap, please, do you even think about what you write when you're spewing your hate?
If it requires using the keyboard, what would it be meant for if not desktop computers???
42 • gddrescue (by Oliver on 2012-04-10 16:56:03 GMT from Germany)
Good choice for the donation, gddrescue is the best disk rescue util around. Rescue to an image that can be mounted using loop, make a copy of that image and then let any other tool of choice try to repair that copy. If anything goes wrong, create another copy of the rescued image and try again, no need to shred over the damaged harddisk again. Whenever your harddisk goes rrrrt-rrrrt-rrrrt, gddrescue is the tool to go for.
43 • HUD and hate (by DavidEF on 2012-04-10 17:11:35 GMT from United States)
Hate is a people problem. There is far too much of it in the world, IMHO. There is nothing to hate about HUD, or really any software. What has HUD done to anybody? Unless I'm mistaken, we're not living in The Matrix yet. We still have some control over our own machines. And yet, we see so much hate all around us.
Lately, Canonical is the big target. Anything they do must be evil. We don't even have to USE their software before making a judgment, we can just assume. Wow, Microsoft must be so proud. They should be just jumping with glee at the fact that they are not everyone's favorite corporation to hate any more. And even more-so knowing that we, the Linux using community, have chosen a Linux Distribution to hate in place of Windows, and a Linux-based corporation to hate in place of Microsoft.
Why do we have to hate at all? Can't we just use what we like and let others do the same? When has it ever NOT been the case that developers scratch their own itch? When did we vote to change from everyone has individual freedom to everyone has an individual right to be kept satisfied?
How many of those spewing hate have invested anything at all in Canonical or Ubuntu? I think probably a small portion, if any. How many have even given Unity or HUD a fair try? Probably few as well. Given the price (free) and the plentitude of replacement options, what has Canonical done to you?
44 • wZLjhlWidxojHDM (by buy on 2012-04-10 18:25:04 GMT from Korea)
Comment deleted (spam).
45 • update (by Irfan on 2012-04-10 18:40:18 GMT from Pakistan)
Comment deleted (please do not use the comments section to announce news).
46 • HUD... (by Edna Crabapple on 2012-04-10 19:08:06 GMT from United States)
HUD = Horrendously Unintuitive Desktop
Some like Unity, I despise it. Tried it- hated it. GNOME 2 is my DE of choice. I'm still using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my desktop computer, but I won't be upgrading to any version of Ubuntu that uses Unity.
My old laptop runs Ubuntu 10.04 as well, my newer ones run Linux Mint 11, Mint Debian, and Xubuntu. Since Mint is now going with KDE and GNOME 3, I'm switching to XFCE based distro's. XFCE isn't anywhere near as configurable as GNOME 2 was, but I'll live with it because I have to. I don't want eye-candy and other resource hogging garbage, I want configurability and speed- and menu's.
47 • @Edna Crabapple (by DavidEF on 2012-04-10 19:30:16 GMT from United States)
" I don't want eye-candy and other resource hogging garbage..."
We're not really talking about Vista. But since you brought it up, I've never seen a worse resource hog than THAT ONE! Let's not lose perspective here. I can run Unity in all it's glory, with all the "eye-candy and other resource hogging garbage" in a lower-resource environment than Vista requires just to boot up.
Windows 7 is much better, of course (than Vista), but the point I'm making is that "resource hogging garbage" is a VERY relative term! Not only that, but remember also the old saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Some people DO LIKE eye-candy, and will happily devote system resources to running it. I even know exactly one person who LOVES Vista!
Please, can we dispense with the name calling and childish put-downs, and just appreciate that we have the freedom to use what we like, and so do others, because of all the hard work and dedication of developers everywhere?
48 • SnowLinux LXDE (by Roy H Huddleston on 2012-04-10 19:36:33 GMT from United States)
I thought that it was a Debian Ubuntu combo. Later I read the fine print. "We also have a Ubuntu-based distro which has Mate. So in others words, no Nvidia proprietary drivers but the Nouveau. Still a pretty cool distro.
49 • Chakra package management (by claudecat on 2012-04-10 19:53:31 GMT from United States)
Not a bad review of Chakra, but I found it curious that so much of it was devoted to its package management via the gui when the project's documentation clearly recommends (at least at first) using cli. AppSet-QT is not bad, but is not even in Arch's repos (it's in AUR), which tells you something about its reliability. That said, the fact that it is so prominently present in the system tray by default in Chakra is perhaps a mistake.
As for the activities crashes, I've yet to see that, or any crashes at all with the last few Chakra versions. And xscreensaver does indeed show up in the gui package manager, but not when doing pacman -Ss in a terminal. That is indeed very strange and probably attributable to AppSet-QT's status as an "external application". I'd stick to using pacman.
Personally, I rather like Chakra, mostly because it IS so purely KDE. Every release is an improvement on the last. Arch is more mature and stable, but the two are less and less comparable as time goes on. I think that when Akabei is in place and Tribe gets finished, Chakra will finally be as n00b-friendly as many assume it already is. For now it still behaves largely like Arch under the hood.
50 • linux general (by colin on 2012-04-10 20:05:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
is it me or is any other linux like any other!? linux is linux ... why not just make one fantastic linux distro instead of releasing loads of rubbish! linux seems to me like its just catching up with windows 98 ... and no im not a microsoft fan!
linux need opencl on intel graphics for purposes of wine. everytime u compile wine on an intel graphics system it says missing opencl will not be supported. and u still need to use nocd cracks which I for one will NOT use.
And its all this eye candy in the desktops that make games etc not run in linux since the eyecandy is so memory hungry! I just fail to see the point in compiz and others like that!
51 • Opinions... (by Edna Crabapple on 2012-04-10 20:33:04 GMT from United States)
@DavidEF #47:
Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much... :-)
I don't use either Vista or Windows 7, so I can't attest to the amount of resources they consume.
Wobbly windows, animations, lack of menu's and other frippery on the HUD/Unity desktop? Seriously? It's just plain silly for anyone who wants to do real work on a computer, and it's an opinion, not a childish put down... we're all entitled to our own opinions.
52 • End of life for 2.4 kernel (by Jesse on 2012-04-10 20:43:43 GMT from Canada)
The 2.4 Linux kernel series is coming to its end of life, at least regarding formal releases. Though I don't imagine anyone here still runs a 2.4.x kernel, it's interesting to see it go. I remember compiling it when it came out to compare performance and checkout USB support.
53 • several comments (by JR on 2012-04-10 20:56:25 GMT from Brazil)
@14 Barnabyh:
“Went for adding xscreensaver and was astonished that pacman offered gtk-2.24 and libglade alongside with it. I thought they had filtered out all GTK+ stuff.”
I don't use chakra but, isn't that from the CCR repository? Because tetris4 sad: “Also, we have the Chakra Community Repository (CCR), where any user can add any package he wants, not restricted by the rules for the official repositories. CCR already hosts 2000 packages.”
@25 fernbap, @41 Patrick and @46 Edna (HUD)
Well, i just use two computers, one at home and another at work, at home I use mouse for everything besides entering text and at work the computer is a workstation that even don't have a mouse, so I'm with fernbap on this but, that's only my experience and the future may prove that navigate in a menu with keyboard may even be faster but, again, it's the new way of doing things versus old fashion way, in time we'll see...
@43 DavidEF
I think sometimes we make confusion between the way informal and impolite people speak (write) with emotions (hate). The sermon about it seems unnecessary to me .... (just IMHO)
@47 DavidEF
“I can run Unity in all it's glory, with all the "eye-candy and other resource hogging garbage" in a lower-resource environment than Vista requires just to boot up.”
“Windows 7 is much better, of course (than Vista), but the point I'm making is that "resource hogging garbage" is a VERY relative term!”
I like eye-candy, but not Windows eye-candy...
I like eye-candy but not Unity eye-candy...
I like eye-candy but not gnome3 eye-candy...
so, seems to me it's not about that, it's the way of doing things... but, let's admit Vista versus Ubuntu's Unity is a very relative comparison too! Unless we crack at Windows source-code to see if it has the linux kernel there. :):) (please understand that the last part is a joke)
54 • RE: 46 (@Edna Crabapple) (by mcellius on 2012-04-10 21:14:47 GMT from United States)
"HUD = Horrendously Unintuitive Desktop"
Really? You've run Ubuntu 12.04 beta 2 and tried out HUD? That seems very unlikely, as you then wrote this:
"Some like Unity, I despise it. Tried it- hated it. GNOME 2 is my DE of choice. I'm still using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my desktop computer, but I won't be upgrading to any version of Ubuntu that uses Unity."
So by what experience can you say that HUD is "horrendously unintuitive?" Shouldn't you know something about it before you say something about it? (Would you also oppose Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, knowing that you can as easily boot into Gnome Classic as into Unity?)
I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 beta 2. I don't find the HUD all that useful (although given time, I might), but it doesn't hurt me, either. I don't know if I'll ever use it much, but I certainly don't mind having the option..
So I have to agree with DavidEF. Throwing out insults and name-calling, without even having tried something, certainly qualifies as hate. He doesn't "protest too much," but you do.
55 • pear OS (by japer85 on 2012-04-10 23:41:20 GMT from Australia)
i have been using pearOS on my acer netbook, and so far, it is more conftable to use compared to ubuntu, and mint...
Pear OS do have some rough edges as per forlin, but havent came across any problem for me to use as a study, and take around ^^
56 • @54 (by JR on 2012-04-11 04:40:13 GMT from Brazil)
""
Really? You've run Ubuntu 12.04 beta 2 and tried out HUD? That seems very unlikely, as you then wrote this:
"Some like Unity, I despise it. Tried it- hated it. GNOME 2 is my DE of choice. I'm still using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my desktop computer, but I won't be upgrading to any version of Ubuntu that uses Unity."
So by what experience can you say that HUD is "horrendously unintuitive?" Shouldn't you know something about it before you say something about it?
""
Maybe she ran only as a LiveCD.... so... we doesn't have to install the OS to test this kind of thing, and IMHO, you all are "protesting too much"...
57 • @52 - kernel 2.4 series EOL (by kezza on 2012-04-11 06:51:13 GMT from Hong Kong)
> Though I don't imagine anyone here still runs a 2.4.x kernel, ...
My wireless router is running dd-wrt with 2.4 kernel (has been for the last 4 years). I think you will be surprised how many embedded systems are still on 2.4, because 2.6 kernel has bigger RAM and flash footprint.
58 • @53, Chakra package management (by Barnabyh on 2012-04-11 12:33:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thanks for trying to get to the bottom of it, but that was before enabling CCR. To enable CCR you have to download build tools first, automake etc., and then run the command ccr -S to install from there. As far as I can tell it's actually seperate from the main repos you pull in with pacman and requires invoking seperately.
Would be good to find out what's going on. I may have to email them or ask in the forum.
59 • Re: 50 Variety (by Vakkotaur on 2012-04-11 13:40:20 GMT from United States)
I suppose we could settle on just one distribution, and just one desktop, and why not go with just one word processor, just one browser, just one... etc.
Or we could have variety and people choose what suits them. I'm running Xubuntu on a few machines (though I'm considering other 64-bit distributions - I'd *love* to run PCLinuxOS in true full 64 bit glory...and still have the one 32-bit program I use still work on it..) and Vector Linux Light (with icewm) on a laptop that I wouldn't even try to run *buntu on now.
I've used Mandrake, RedHat, PCLinuxOS, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Vector and a few other Slackware variants - each was suitable for the job at the time. Likewise, I've used KDE, Xfce, icewm, Openbox, and Enlightenment. Again, each seemed right to (to me) at the time - and might have seemed kooky to others. I like having the choices.
60 • JR is correct... (by Edna Crabapple on 2012-04-11 14:05:18 GMT from United States)
RE: #56, JR from Brazil...
You are correct. I ran Ubuntu 12.04 as a LiveCD only.
So, can we all just get along now, and agree to disagree? Some folks are taking this WAY too seriously.
61 • @58ready (by claudecat on 2012-04-11 16:27:19 GMT from United States)
As I commented earlier (49), I think the issue with gtk stuff showing up in Chakra's package management has to do with the gui app not being reliable. They've now dropped it from future releases and have always recommended cli pacman - until their new package manager is ready. If you saw xscreensaver as available from pacman (I did not) that's even more bizarre.
62 • RE: #60 (by mcellius on 2012-04-11 17:26:30 GMT from United States)
I'd LOVE it if we could all agree to disagree. I hope it'll be possible.
The problem is that for months now the Unity haters have largely taken over these comments, so much so that by now it just feels "normal" for them to post insults and over-the-top hyperbole about Unity that are simply unsupportable. It's been almost all emotion and little reason.
It's all right to dislike Unity and Ubuntu. But it's also all right to like them. This is Linux: we have lots of options. Try them all! Stick with the ones you like, but why turn around and bash those who prefer something else? (I read the comments section here every week, and I guess I just got tired of the constant and unreasoning bashing, complaining, and hatred; it doesn't make sense!)
So yeah, let's agree that having options is good, that even if we use different DEs we're all using Linux and appreciate its advantages and flexibility.
63 • @60 Agree... (by DavidEF on 2012-04-11 17:37:05 GMT from United States)
Edna,
"So, can we all just get along now, and agree to disagree? Some folks are taking this WAY too seriously."
I agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY! In fact, it's the point I was trying to make myself. Sorry for any confusion.
64 • Chakra Questions (by george on 2012-04-12 00:00:28 GMT from United States)
Hey. Just wanted to clear up a few questions about Chakra, if anyone is still reading these comments.
1. GTK
Both gtk2 and gtk3 are in the Chakra repos. These are provided mainly as dependencies for Chakra's 'gtk-integration', which allows users to run bundles without them looking like crap. What you will not find in the repos are things like wxGTK, wxPython, and any sort of GTK app, like Firefox or Bleachbit. Many GTK apps are available in CCR, and the most popular of these (Firefox, Thunderbird, Audacity, Chrome/Chromium, the GIMP, etc) are available as bundles.
2. xscreensaver
xscreensaver is in the repos, and does show up with pacman. I'm not sure what the problem was with that one. Perhaps you just didn't run 'sudo pacman -Sy' first?
3. Appset-Qt
The decision has been made to remove Appset-Qt from future DVDs, simply because it cannot handle complex updates. Pacman has always been recommended to update the system; Appset was only provided as a convenience, for installing new packages.
4. Number of packages / Arch compatibility
Chakra does have many more packages than it did in the olden days, before the Arch split, and CCR grows bigger every day. However, I think you misunderstood how it is not compatible with Arch: only Chakra's and Arch's binary packages are incompatible. Chakra does use PKGBUILDs, and any Arch or AUR package can be made to build on Chakra with a minimum of hassle. Even akabei, the future package manager, will still use PKGBUILDs.
5. Out-of-date Packages
As Chakra is a half-rolling distro, core packages (X, coreutils, linux, etc) are kept at the same version for 6 months to a year. This leads to greater stability. Apps and games are updated as soon as anyone notices there is a new version out, and one of the packages has time. KDE is updated in the testing repos before new versions are even announced by KDE, and land in the main repos about a week later, having been thoroughly tested.
6. CCR and Appset
Installing the ccr package, and updating the pacman databases, will not make anything show up in the CCR tab of Appset. Unfortunately, Appset only displays search results in that tab- it will not show all packages.
65 • "55 Pear OS (by forlin on 2012-04-12 01:30:01 GMT from Portugal)
Its Mac's style and I see nothing wrong about them mimicking the osx. Jobs did also often mimic others.
After all, Linux is about choice and that's what fascinates me the most.
In a computerised world, those who don't feel comfortable with choice (99% of pc users) will find a refugee with Ms or the Macs. Let it be.
I'll register on Pear forum for questions and some suggestions. So far I'm enjoying my time while testing it.
I'll keep using this Distro and will cooperate with its community.
66 • Zorin (by Bob on 2012-04-12 01:39:51 GMT from Canada)
Zorin's numbers are completely bogus. Take a look at their forums, there's only a few hundred topics and a few thousand posts. I think the developer should copy a few hundred thousand posts from Ubuntu or Debian forums to make it seem like he has the user base he claims.
67 • chakra pkg manager and others (by JR on 2012-04-12 04:16:05 GMT from Brazil)
@58 by Barnabyh
thanks for replying, I guess now we can just talk to george, and, talking about him:
@64 by george
if you have GTK2 and GTK3 in the official repositories then I did not understand the point of being purely KDE, the concern was not precisely not contaminate the system with these libraries? I understand that if you do not offer large softwares (except in bundles) you will minimize the use of these libraries but they will still be used here or there then...
@60 by Edna and @63 by DavidEF
can we always, always do that? that was my point from the beginning when I wrote:
“I think sometimes we make confusion between the way informal and impolite people speak (write) with emotions (hate). The sermon about it seems unnecessary to me .... (just IMHO)”.
Can we do that even when we think one should have written his/her own comment differently, more politely? can we always talk about software and IT in general and not about good or bad manners of the people? Please...
68 • Chakra (by george on 2012-04-12 05:01:45 GMT from United States)
Chakra is pure KDE in that it has no other desktop environments, such as Gnome, LXDE, XFCE, etc. It is also as gtk-free as possible- these two points are unrelated. Compiling large packages such as GTK from CCR would take a long time, especially on older computers. These packages are included in the repositories for the convenience of users who would like to install them, but are not included on the live CD or DVD by default. One of the points of Chakra is to offer Qt alternatives to GTK apps (for example, spideroak instead of Dropbox). GTK is not seen as a contaminant (though many, including myself, do believe it slows the system down), only as something that is not necessary for many users. If you choose to install GTK, that is up to you.
69 • Chakra (by JR on 2012-04-12 06:44:12 GMT from Brazil)
ok, now I understand better what is the main goal (I think): the default is not to offer pre-installed GTK packages (purity, performance, does not need to), but if you want to install those available then it's ok. I thought that GTK libraries will never exist on the system, just as bundles..
Thanks for answering!
however, with respect to GTK slow the system down, I think the reverse would be true would not it? If we had a system that was pure GTK, by installing QT libraries it also would be somewhat slower!
70 • Slitaz (by Roy H Huddleston on 2012-04-12 07:52:36 GMT from United States)
So far I have only got:
Loading /boot/bzImage and Loading/boot/rootss4.gz to work and then it hangs right there.
71 • puppy support forum (by magoo on 2012-04-12 12:30:11 GMT from Japan)
Linux would be less interesting without the fine writing at DistroWatch!
72 • GPG, HUD, Unity (by octathlon on 2012-04-12 14:12:41 GMT from United States)
Jesse, thanks for the additional write-up on GPG usage!
HUD: Sounds like it could be very nice, especially if it can associate alternate names with the menu commands. Often we don't even know what word is used in the menu. For example in the article, he says he wants to bring up the extensions page, so he typed the word "add". Obviously he already knew they were called add-ons in the menu. But most people would have typed "extension" if they didn't know that. Would HUD work in that case? That's the key.
It would also be useful if HUD would list, below the commands found, any relevant topics from the application's Help file.
Unity: I haven't even tried it (or the latest KDE) yet--still on 10.04. When I upgrade to the next LTS, I plan to install kubuntu and xubuntu desktops as well, and give them all a fair shot. Even after reading the reviews I have no idea whether I will love or hate Unity until I actually try it, but that's why I decided to wait for the LTS until it was more mature and stable.
73 • gddrescue works!!! (by Bob on 2012-04-12 16:28:56 GMT from Canada)
A friends son's 250GB notebook had a massive, catastrophic hard drive failure this week and of course it wasn't backed up. I pulled the drive, attached it to a usb-sata adapter, but it wouldn't even mount. I ran ddrescue - it ran for 18+hrs and managed to rescue 220GB of 235GB. I tried mounting the image but it was still unusable, so I had to fsck the image. After that it was a simple matter to copy the contents to a new hard drive.
74 • ref: 43 • HUD and hate (by Verndog on 2012-04-12 17:57:57 GMT from United States)
David, that's the best comment this week. I don't visit the comment section very often anymore because of the negativity of Ubuntu.
People can get caught up in all the hoop la and don't realize their doing so.
I didn't like Unity in the beginning of Ubuntu distro , but now I do. It's just an adjustment, that's all. Funny thing is while using Windows 7 , I find myself "pushing" the left wall to run a program :)
Right now, here at least, Mint is the flavor of the month. Do you remember when PClinuxOS was the "king" of the hill?! Everything changes and stays the same.
===
Regarding Chakra. I tried it early on, but couldn't get it to install. I'll try the it again. I even forget what the problem was, but the installer just wouldn't go.
75 • @72 by octathlon (HUD) (by JR on 2012-04-12 20:08:17 GMT from Brazil)
I agree, HUD reminds me YaKuake that I always use as a terminal, if they can do what you proposed, it can really get interesting!
76 • HUD or Gnome Do (by RollMeAway on 2012-04-12 22:08:23 GMT from United States)
Never been a heavy gnome user, but, sounds like the function of HUD is about the same as the craze a couple of years ago called Gnome Do.
They allow unorganized users to find applications, files etc. they are unable to keep track of themselves?
77 • Intent (by uhhu on 2012-04-13 00:09:33 GMT from Finland)
Dear computer,
Do you think you know how I think? Do you really think you know my intentions? No, you do not. No, do not try! If you do you will get it wrong and it will frustrate me. Trust me. Please, do not try to think for me, just do what I tell you to do. No, I do not want you to think.
Thank you.
78 • @77 (by JR on 2012-04-13 01:46:40 GMT from Brazil)
Computers don't thing, they are pre-programed to act like they were thinking, the dev is the one that is thinking, I get your point but, it's really not like they were starting to get a soul!
I'm sure you already know that, just remembering...
if it's about HUD (comment 72) the relation between "extensions" and "add" is a very good example about what should be pre-programmed!
79 • correcting post 78 (by JR on 2012-04-13 01:49:43 GMT from Brazil)
where you read thing, please read think (obviously), thanks
80 • @50 (by TobiSGD on 2012-04-13 02:43:34 GMT from Germany)
"is it me or is any other linux like any other!? linux is linux ... why not just make one fantastic linux distro instead of releasing loads of rubbish!"
OK, let's do that. I want it to be like Slackware (no automatic dependency resolution) and the only supported Window manager should be like wmii, my currently favorite WM. Oh, and of course all we need is vim for text editing. How would you like it to be? I bet that my choices wouldn't be your choices. May be it is a good thing to have all those different distros, DEs/WMs and applications.
"linux need opencl on intel graphics for purposes of wine. everytime u compile wine on an intel graphics system it says missing opencl will not be supported. and u still need to use nocd cracks which I for one will NOT use."
You are right again, we should improve Linux, so that we are able to run our Windows software better. The obvious solution would be to run your games on Windows, they work and you don't need NoCD-cracks. By the way, you really are into gaming and use the Intel graphics for it?
"And its all this eye candy in the desktops that make games etc not run in linux since the eyecandy is so memory hungry! I just fail to see the point in compiz and others like that!"
May be that is just me, but I fail to see the point in people that are complaining that there Windows software is not supported on Linux. Wait weren't you the one complaining about too much choice in Linux. Wouldn't it not be quite handy to ditch the eye-candy and choose a simple and lightweight WM when Compiz is too resource hungry for you? Openbox or Fluxbox are nice when it comes up to not using up your system resources.
81 • Ten essential Linux Apps - a fresh pair of eyes (by boris on 2012-04-13 05:03:48 GMT from United States)
basically you nailed most of the list; there are just a few points of difference that I would like to argue. First I would give Synaptic Package Manager priority over Ubuntu Software Center. Basically they're the same thing, but I think synaptic is easier to browse and provides a greater amount and great depth of information about available programs and the related packages.
Also I get less use out of video editing software than I do out of the Gnome games package. I think we need to recognize this great little collection of desktop distractions. Not since windows came with the Best of Microsoft Entertainment Package has a collection of games been so engrossing. Primacy must be given to five or more, but aisle rot's Sir Tommy, TetraVex, Gnomine and Tetris clone are all capable of inducing the distracted desktop user to apportion a part of one's daily to wards the pursuit of a high score. Is 992 on Five or More (beginner) any good?
make time in his daily schedule to spend in pursuit of a high score. commit user of eracted computerand in
82 • @68 by george (GTK is not *really* required for DropBox) (by Marco on 2012-04-13 14:04:33 GMT from United States)
I follow the command line instructions here:
https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=lnx
They 'just work' on Kubuntu for the most common use cases.
- Install, creating your DropBox directory.
- You copy files to the directory / edit files in the directory.
- You invoke sync by executing the daemon.
83 • Thanks, George and JR (by Barnabyh on 2012-04-13 15:11:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thanks for clearing that up now, and an interesting discussion.
84 • @81 Essential Games! (by DavidEF on 2012-04-13 15:30:04 GMT from United States)
Firstly, I agree that Synaptic Package Manager is much better than Ubuntu Software Center, or any similar software center app. To me, it is better because I usually know what I'm doing and it doesn't get in my way as much. For the times I don't exactly know what I want, I have been known to use Ubuntu Software Center, because it seems to do a lot more hand-holding, which some people need more than others, and even the others may appreciate at times.
As for the games, I almost agree. My choice of games would be different from yours, as would almost everyone in the world. While those are good and worthy games, the fact is that we're all different. But IMHO, you're right that games are something most of us would not want to do without.
Maybe someone should create a linux distro called "10 Essential" which has a "rolling" feature list to always include the current top ten essential apps as voted on by users, in a poll taken before the start of every major release. Wow, that would probably be a nightmare to maintain! Never mind. Forget I mentioned it. LOL!
85 • Synaptic vs Ubuntu Software Centre (by Jesse on 2012-04-13 16:21:27 GMT from Canada)
I'm a bit surprised Synaptic gets such high praise. Not that it's a bad software manager, but it's a bit out dated and, frankly, the interface isn't all that nice. I prefer the Software Centre for a few reasons:
1. Better use of window space, when I bring up the details of an app and screen shot it all fits on one big page, rather than having to scroll through a tiny text box.
2. The categories make sense. Synaptic breaks software into repositories, the Software Centre breaks software into activities. It's a lot easier for new users to get used to the latter.
3. Ratings and reviews. Software Centre makes it easy to find out how well applications have worked for other people.
4. The Software Centre lists recommended packages in the software's description, making it easy to find related items.
5. Software Centre allows users to set up an account and sync packages across multiple machines.
6. Synaptic forces the user to batch multiple actions. The Software Centre allows users to continue using the manager while tasks queue and get processed in the background.
I suspect people praising Synaptic do so because they've used it for so long. Feature to feature it just doesn't hold up. Again, not that I have anything against Synaptic, it just hasn't kept up in modern features and I think new users will take to USC a lot easier.
86 • dropbox and GTK (by george on 2012-04-13 16:39:48 GMT from United States)
"I follow the command line instructions here:
https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=lnx
They 'just work' on Kubuntu for the most common use cases.
- Install, creating your DropBox directory.
- You copy files to the directory / edit files in the directory.
- You invoke sync by executing the daemon."
$ pacman -Ss dropbox
apps/dropbox-servicemenu-gtkfree 0.16.1-1
A servicemenu for KDE4 which allows easy access to most of Dropbox features - Stripped from gtk dependencies. It uses Dropbox CLI to generate public
urls, and pyndexer to allow sharing directories in public directory.
apps/kfilebox-gtkfree 0.4.8-1
KDE4 Dropbox client (with own daemon)
;)
87 • Phinx Desktop (by Curious Guy on 2012-04-14 23:01:21 GMT from Brazil)
Does somebody know the main differences between Phinx Desktop and PCLinuxOS Phoenix Edition?
I guess they are very similar. They even have the same kernel...
88 • Zorin OS (by TheBulldog on 2012-04-14 23:21:04 GMT from United States)
I've used Zorin OS 5 on one of my laptops for quite a while now. I haven't had any real problems (other than a couple of applets disappearing from the taskbar which was fixed by logging out/back in). I've used Linpus Linux, Mepis, Mandriva (2008.1), Mageia 1, Mint, PCLOS, Peppermint OS 2.0, and Zorin Lite on my Acer netbook and have to say that Zorin OS 6.0 lite is now my new netbook OS of choice. Everything just works. It only has an 8GB SSD but the OS runs as smoothly as Zorin 5 does on my business laptop. And, I just installed it on my Linux desktop -- replacing Ubuntu Business Remix (which isn't bad if you switch from Unity to the Classic Gnome desktop). I'm skipping version 5.2, and will patiently wait for Zorin OS 6.0 Core to be released so I can give it a whirl.
I'm about half in the Linux world and half in the Microsoft world. On the Windows side, I like Vista Business and Windows 7 Professional, but do not like the home versions of either -- that includes everything from the Basic edition to Home Premium. For my personal use, I prefer Linux and I've downloaded and worked with almost every distribution listed in DistroWatch. Almost every distro has it's good points, and occasionally a few things that need a little work. I don't want any developer to get discouraged, because I want the freedom of choice that the BSD and Linux world offers.
I also like the board (other than the occasional cat fight); I like the reviews; I like seeing the perspectives of other users; and, I look forward to the occasional amusing, albeit snarky comment that often leaves me laughing or just plain scratching my head.
... and my darned stick is stuck to the ice...
89 • RE: 85 (by Landor on 2012-04-15 13:52:50 GMT from Canada)
The Software Centre/Center was designed with one thing in mind, selling proprietary applications. That was the end goal of it. First they had to build it, get the desired stability, then add in 'partners'. Another way for people to get their freedoms restricted.
You spoke of the top ten applications last week and that left me thinking. You named Firefox as the top web browser. Do you use Firefox as your 'go to/main' web browser forl most of, if not all of your needs, or is there another web browser you use?
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
90 • USC and Firefox (by Jesse on 2012-04-15 20:17:54 GMT from Canada)
>> "The Software Centre/Center was designed with one thing in mind, selling proprietary applications. "
I think that's a strong over-statement. USC does provide an avenue for selling applications, both from partners and independent developers, but it does a lot more. Note the list I posted above of features USC has that most other package managers do not. It's a powerful application. Yes, it allows the sale of software (both open and closed source), but it does a lot more than that.
>> "You named Firefox as the top web browser. Do you use Firefox as your 'go to/main' web browser for most of, if not all of your needs, or is there another web browser you use?"
Firefox is one of the web browsers I use on a daily basis. A lot of what I do these days is web development/management so I tend to have two browsers open at any given time for testing.
91 • Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) (by FrankStarr on 2012-04-15 20:37:35 GMT from United States)
Your announcement reads: "A new version of Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), a Linux live CD with strong privacy protection features created by the United States Department of Defence, is out."
What with the way things are these days, I would think that this means that the D.O.D., and innumerable other branches of U.S. government, can "eavesdrop" on you. :().
Number of Comments: 91
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| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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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 | 
ROSLIMS Live CD
ROSLIMS (ROmanian Simple LInux for Medical Students) was Knoppix-based live CD with full Romanian localisation of Knoppix 3.4, and additional software for medical students: (Medical) Reference Manager (Pybliographer) and Medline Query Interface, molecule editors - XDrawChem and ChemTool, true type fonts with Eastern European language support, and a 72-page tutorial in Romanian. The graphical user interface was in Romanian and English.
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!
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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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