 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 451, 9 April 2012 |
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Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! This week's feature story is a first look at Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.02, a KDE-centric, rolling-release distribution that has its roots in Arch Linux, but which is now an independent project with some interesting ideas, regular releases, and up-to-date software repository. The longer-than-usual news section provides a feast of information from around the distro world, which includes a report about Ubuntu's new menu system called HUD, an article celebrating 20 years of SUSE Linux, an update on the release schedule of Fedora 17 and Mageia 2, a narrative about Gentoo's controversial April fool's joke, and an interview with Fabio Erculiani, the founder of Sabayon Linux. Also in this issue, an interesting comparison of Scientific Linux with CentOS in terms of errata update speeds, an overview of a server-only distribution called ClearOS, and a new round of tips on using and storing GPG keys. Finally, we are happy to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch.com March 2012 donation is the GNU ddrescue project. Happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
A look at Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.02
 The Chakra GNU/Linux distribution is a Linux-based operating system which started as a fork of the Arch Linux project. Though the two projects share a history they're separate entities and trying to mix packages or repositories is not recommended. Chakra is a semi-rolling release distro which means the base of the operating system, the foundation, stays fairly stable while the end-user software is continually updated. The idea is to provide a stable operating system with cutting edge applications. This should, in theory, mean we get to use the latest web browser, office software and other programs without worrying about regressions in the kernel or X. Another interesting characteristic of Chakra is that the developers are dedicated to the idea of a pure KDE distribution. A default install of Chakra provides a KDE 4.8 environment without any GTK-based programs. Nor are there GTK-based apps in the project's main software repository. It is possible to add in GTK-based software (such as Firefox and GIMP) through a separate Bundle Manager, but these software bundles are kept apart from the rest of the distribution.
Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.02 comes in two different flavours, a "Full" edition which is a 1.4 GB download and a "Minimal" edition which is about 690 MB in size. Both come with a KDE desktop environment, though the CD-sized edition obviously provides fewer applications.
Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.02 - the Welcome screen
(full image size: 843kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
When we first boot off the DVD a screen comes up asking which language we'd like to use for our live session. Then Chakra boots into a KDE desktop. In the upper-left corner there's a welcome widget. This widget contains icons for opening the project's website, launching the installer and showing us the the on-line beginner's guide to Chakra. There's also an icon which provides us with the distribution's default passwords since we're logged in as a regular user and need to be root to perform certain tasks. In addition there is a text file provided with a list of packages on the DVD. We'll come back to available software in a moment, but first let's look at Chakra's custom installer.
Tribe is the name of Chakra's installer and it begins by warning us it is still in development and may eat your hamster. (No hamsters were harmed in the making of this review.) Tribe then shows us the project's release notes. On the next screen we're shown a globe and asked to click on the globe to provide our location. The installer then tries to guess our time zone and preferred language. Should the installer guess incorrectly we can over-ride the defaults provided. On the following screen we can create regular user accounts, as many as we want. Then we're asked to partition our hard drive using the KDE Partition Manager. Once we get passed the partitioning section we match up our new partitions with mount points, confirm our choices and Tribe begins copying files to the local drive. Several minutes later we're asked if we'd like to install a boot loader, download GTK bundles or customize the system's ramdisk. Then we're done and we can reboot to experience Chakra running from the hard drive.
The installer has come a long way in the past year or so. The first time I tried Chakra I couldn't get it to install properly and this time around I was able to breeze through Tribe on the first attempt. The controls are pretty straight forward and the installer provides a good deal of flexibility. The only jarring part of the experience was switching over to a separate program to handle partitioning.
Chakra GNU/Linux boots up to a graphical login screen and, once we've signed in, we're presented with the KDE desktop. This time instead of a welcome widget the desktop is occupied by a folder widget. In the widget are icons for accessing our home directory and the trash. At the bottom of the screen we find the application menu, task switcher and system tray. Shortly after logging in an icon appeared in the system tray indicating updated packages were available for my system. Clicking the icon opened the Chakra package manager.
The package manager is, I believe, an application unique to Chakra and its layout is a bit different from what we'd find in most other software managers. The main thing that sets it apart is Chakra's package manager consists of three tabs. The first tab is used, apparently, for news and project announcements. It also contains statistics on available software in the repositories. The second tab is where we handle software and it is what I think of the package manager proper. This second tab allows us to search through applications based on name, status and category. We're shown nice big buttons with clear functionality and everything is nicely labeled. The third and final tab is for community contributed packages. At the time of writing this third screen is empty.
Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.02 - managing software packages
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Let's go back to the middle tab, which is the most interesting of the three. This middle tab shows us lists of packages in the currently selected category. Packages which have been installed have checks next to them and we can easily mark new software for installation by clicking a box next to the software's name. Up at the top of the window there's a bar of action buttons. One syncs our repository data with the remote servers, another marks all available updates to be installed, another button launches all queued actions. There are other buttons for reporting bugs and managing which repositories are enabled on our system. Generally speaking I found the package manager easy to navigate and it's fairly quick to respond to input. I did run into two concerns.
The first is that the statistics box shows only about 2,800 packages are available. It's not a very big selection compared to other Linux distributions. While most of the basic functionality we might want is included in this distribution some users may find they can't find more obscure software in the repositories. My second concern came when I first tried to perform an upgrade. Upon installing Chakra I found about 80 packages were waiting to be upgraded. I opted to apply all upgrades and, a short time later, the package manager told me it wasn't able to comply due to conflicts in a few KDE packages.
As mentioned before, Chakra GNU/Linux is a KDE/Qt centric distribution, but it does provide a way for users to install GTK-based software. There is a second package manager called the Bundle Manager. This application is much more simple than the regular package manager. We are shown a list of GTK-based software in alphabetical order and, next to each package (or "bundle") is a download button. When an application has been installed, it moves to the top of the list where another button click will remove it. Bundled software can be launched from the application menu or from the Bundle Manager. It seemed to work fairly well and I was able to install, launch and remove the various bundles. Though I did wonder why a different application was being used, after all, GTK-based software could simply have its own repository and be managed from the package manager much like Debian's non-free repository.
The DVD edition of Chakra GNU/Linux comes with a strong collection of software. We're given the Rekonq web browser, the Queassel IRC client and LibreOffice. There's a document viewer, the K3b disc burner and an e-book viewer. The Network Manager and KPPP dialer programs are included to connect us to the Internet. In the multimedia menu we find the Amarok music player, the Bangerang video player and the kdenlive video editor. Several popular media codecs are installed for us and Chakra can play most multimedia files out of the box. A copy of the XBMC media player is included too. There are multiple backup utilities, the Qt Designer app for GUI developers and the GNU Compiler Collection is included.
A copy of the Marble virtual globe is installed, as are the KDE System Settings panel and the KUser account manager. We're given an archive manager, text editor and the KGpg data privacy tool. Flash is available, but doesn't work with the default Rekonq browser. I found that installing another browser, such as Firefox, would automatically support watching Flash content. The WINE Windows compatibility layer is installed for us as is Java. Lurking under the surface, we find the 3.2 version of the Linux kernel. In addition to all of this the application menu contains a sub-menu dedicated to linking users to the project's website. There are menu entries for reporting bugs, visiting the project's forums and accessing the documentation. A nice touch, in my opinion.
Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.02 - desktop settings panel
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I ran Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.02 on two machines, my HP laptop (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 3 GB of RAM, Intel video card) and a generic desktop box (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, NVIDIA video card). On both machines Chakra worked smoothly, booted quickly and detected all of my hardware. My Intel wireless card was automatically activated and clicking on the Network Manager icon immediately listed local wireless networks. Desktop performance was pretty good, perhaps a little better than normal for a KDE distribution. Chakra is a fairly heavy distribution and, even when sitting idle at the desktop, I found the system used over 300MB of memory.
I'm a fan of the KDE desktop, so it would be easy for me to appreciate Chakra. And, in a lot of ways, Chakra is a good showcase for KDE. The environment is quick to respond, there is a good collection of Qt-based software and, for that matter, there is a good supply of software in the default install. The look and feel of the environment is nice and I like the little add-ons like the drop-down terminal, which is great for performing quick one-off tasks on the command line. Still, there are some problems which kept getting in the way. For instance the KDE Activity Manager kept crashing and throwing up errors whenever I logged in. Right out of the gate I wasn't able to apply all available updates as some KDE packages reported conflicts -- not a good sign in a rolling-release KDE-focused distribution.
There were a few other aspects of the system which I felt weren't ideal, though they were a matter of taste rather than bugs. For example, the main package manager is nicely laid out and easy to navigate. It's a bit like using Synaptic with a more modern interface. Which raises the question in my mind, why create a separate Bundle Manager to handle GTK+-based software when a fourth tab in the main package manager would bring all package management into one application? For that matter, why not simply have GTK+-based software in its own repository and let users enable/disable the GTK+ repository? A lot of users probably don't know what libraries make up their favourite applications and telling them that programs like Firefox and GIMP are somehow different and require a different package manager will be confusing for many.
What I found strange about using Chakra GNU/Linux is that the project has a lot of good ideas and the developers have made a great deal of progress in the past year, but there are these occasional speed bumps. My experience started out well enough, the installer is pretty solid these days, despite its warnings about being under development. The package manager is pretty good, I just wish all software was handled by one app. The included software selection is really good, but I wonder how many users will really prefer having the Rekonq web browser over browsers like Firefox or Chromium just to maintain KDE purity.
Chakra, for the most part, works well and I found their approach to be unique and, in its way, refreshing. Still, if people who are going to give the semi-rolling distro a try should be prepared to do some trouble-shooting and deal with the occasional bug.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Ubuntu's HUD, 20 years of SUSE, Fedora 17 and Mageia 2 delays, Gentoo's "install wizard", interview with Sabayon's Fabio Erculiani, CentOS vs Scientific Linux, ClearOS overview
 Ubuntu's frequent interface changes and redesigns have received much criticism in the tech media, so it can be refreshing to see writers taking a more positive view of those radical ideas that have (or might soon) become standard features on desktop Linux. Ubuntu's upcoming new menu system called HUD is one such example. TechRepublic's Jack Wallen has been highly impressed with HUD, believing that it is light-years ahead of any menu system: "In the end, what HUD does is advance the Ubuntu Unity desktop ahead of the competition. I think we were all fairly certain it was nothing more than a matter of time before Mark Shuttleworth and the Ubuntu developers managed to make the Ubuntu desktop an obvious choice. But most never assumed they would take the Linux desktops light-years ahead of the competition. Bravo to Ubuntu and Unity - what you are doing is nothing short of incredible. You keep up this type of work and there will be no doubt who is the reigning king of the desktop."
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 The Linux kernel was first announced back in 1991 and it wasn't long after that the first distributions, as we known them today, started integrating the open-source operating system with applications to offer complete "solutions" for end users. One of the first ones on the market was Germany's SuSE (Software und System-Entwicklung), which later evolved into SUSE Linux and openSUSE. In twenty years the small project created by four Linux enthusiasts has grown into a major Linux player, both in terms of home desktop use and enterprise deployment. PCWorld's Katherine Noyes reports in "SUSE Linux: 20 Years and Going Strong": "SUSE Linux, in fact, is not just celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, but on Thursday it also announced that its customer base now numbers 15,000. More than two-thirds of the global Fortune 100 now use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, which is also the most widely used commercial enterprise Linux distribution in China, the company says. Walgreens, Sony, Office Depot, and the London Stock Exchange are all among its users, as are five of the top 10 global supercomputers."
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 Another week and another show-stopper bug that is delaying the much-awaited beta release of Fedora 17. This time the culprit is non-functioning pre-upgrade: "At the go/no-go meeting it was decided to slip the beta by an additional week. Though the QA team was able to get through all validation testing, it was found that pre-upgrade was not functioning at an acceptable level, thus becoming an additional blocker which prevents us from shipping RC3, and necessitating the creation of an RC4. As a result, all major milestones, and their dependent tasks, will be pushed out by one week. The beta will now be looking at an expected release of 2012-04-17, and F17 GA is now scheduled for 2012-05-22. This is the second one-week slip of beta. Adjustments to the full F17 schedule have been completed and now reflect the above beta and GA dates, and high-level milestones have been updated as well on the Schedule wiki page."
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 Fedora is not the only distribution making adjustments to their release process. Mageia 2, which was originally scheduled for release on 8 May, will also be delayed by one extra week: "After some discussions between the Mageia Council and the Packagers' team, we've decided to make some changes to the Mageia 2 release schedule. There are a couple of reasons for this, the main one being that we feel that the list of important bugs still remaining to be solved needs more time and attention before we release. The bugs mostly relate to the systemd/dracut migration, and changes needed in the installer and drakxtools. While we're working on these bugs, our artwork and documentation and i18n teams will have a little longer to get everything polished and as near perfect as possible; we hope you'll be pleased with the result! We think you'll agree that it's more important to have Mageia stable, than to stick to the original release date."
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 The release of Gentoo Linux 12.1 on 1 April was accompanied by a controversial announcement about "a Gentoo install wizard", a feature that may be standard in most other Linux distributions, but which is missing from Gentoo due to the project's insistence on catering exclusively for users who are prepared to follow complex documentation. Many people were thus fooled into believing that they can now easily install Gentoo on their system and proceeded to download the 3.4 GB live DVD image - only to be disappointed to find out that the "wizard" is just a link to the Gentoo installation manual. Susan Linton reports in "Gentoo 12.1 Install Wizard: Real or Joke": "There were no new options in boot menu nor the advanced options, but on the desktop was an Install Wizard icon. It looked promising. But alas, it was indeed an April Fool's joke. Upon clicking the icon a little dialog box appears asking 'Are you the wizard?' Then the script was supposed to open Firefox to the Gentoo install handbook. So, yes it was a real icon and a real script designed for fun, but no, it is not an installer. It is probably the 'most intelligent Gentoo Install Wizard yet', but the bar was set pretty low."
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 For those who like the concept of Gentoo Linux, but feel intimidated by the complexities of a source-based distro, there is always Sabayon Linux, probably the most usable and active of the many Gentoo-based binary distributions. Last week Unixmen interviewed Fabio Erculiani, the project's founder and lead developer: "Q: There are many rolling-release distributions out there, what makes Sabayon unique? A: All the rolling distros I tried were lacking proper packaging. I mean, with Sabayon you can use both Portage (which is the most powerful source-based package manager out there) and Entropy (which is our binary package manager that works on top of the Gentoo base system). Tell me another distro that has all those things perfectly working together without annoying the advanced user. We spend a lot of time trying to find a good balance between split packages and fat binary blobs. We also spent the last 3 - 4 years working on next-generation binary package management applications and you're going to see the outcome of this effort starting from next month when we'll launch a new 'Google-like' applications management user interface called Rigo."
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 CentOS used to be the undisputed king of free Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones, but within the last year or so Scientific Linux emerged as a worthy competitor. Comparing the two distributions is unlikely to be easy, but if you are concerned about the speed of security updates, than Scientific Linux seems to be a better choice. Jens Kuehnel has compiled some numbers to illustrate the difference: "I took all the security updates available from an up-to-date RHN Satellite, exported its errata into a CSV file and added the release times from CentOS, Scientific Linux and Oracle Linux (OL). ... During this time Red Hat released 78 errata and I used 76. The average delay for CentOS was 6.58 days and for Scientific Linux 1.33 days. In December 2011 CentOS finally got its build environment and released both 6.1 and 6.2 in little over one week. CentOS really picked up momentum. If you look at the updates between 1 Jan and 1 Apr 2012 the numbers are very close together with 1.27 for CentOS and 0.97 for SL. The choice of Scientific Linux vs. CentOS is really much harder today. But I switched and I don’t see a reason to switch back."
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 While many big Linux distributions develop solutions designed for servers, some users might feel more comfortable choosing a project that actually specialises in developing a server-only distribution, with an intuitive web-based management system. One such project is ClearOS, a well-established venture formerly known as ClarkConnect. Linux.com's Carla Schroder investigates "ClearOS, the Missing Link LAN Server": "ClearOS used to be named ClarkConnect. It was built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS. The current stable release is 5.2, which tracks RHEL 5.2. RHEL 6.2 was released in December 2011. ClearOS 6.2 beta 3 came out February 29. So what's up? A lot. The maintainers have given it a major overhaul, which will be revealed in all of its glory in the final 6.2 release, which is scheduled for 'soon'. The Webconfig development framework has been overhauled for speed and more extensibility. A lot of effort has been invested in documenting the ClearOS development process with the goal of making it easier for new developers to come on board. The new ClearCenter Marketplace is the ClearOS application store, a place for outside developers to distribute their wares, both paid and free."
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 Finally, a quick note on one aspect of open-source operating systems that is and always will be clouded in mystery - the numbers. As we all know, it is impossible to obtain the accurate count of users of Linux distributions, but many developers still try to deliver some figures, often seemingly obtained from thin air. Last week it was the turn of a relatively little-known Ubuntu-based distribution called Zorin OS that claimed to have reached two million users: "We are thrilled to report that Zorin OS has hit an estimated 2 million users after less than 3 years. We announced back in December of 2011 that we have passed the 1 million user milestone and in less than four months the user base has doubled again, underscoring the explosion in popularity of Zorin OS." The brief post makes no mention of the methodology used to count the Zorin OS deployments, it merely gives us a highly unlikely number that seems to serve no other purpose than to inflate the developer's ego. So Linux distro developers, please give up on trying to count your users. And if you really must, at least tell us HOW you counted them, otherwise your claim is just a meaningless bluff.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Where did I leave my (GPG) keys?
Two weeks ago we looked at using the GNU Privacy Guard to encrypt and decrypt files and messages. At the time I mentioned a few ideas in passing, such as securely copying archives to a remote server and keeping private security keys safe. After all, if we lose our private key we can't decrypt messages sent to us nor can we access encrypted file backups. Some people raised questions regarding the use and storage of keys and I will try to answer those questions here.
Perhaps the most important issue is how to make backups of one's keys, especially the private keys. Security keys for GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) are typically stored in our home directory under the hidden .gnupg folder. In the .gnupg directory we will find configuration files, private keys and public keys. It's a good idea to copy the .gnupg directory to another location, such as a USB thumb drive, so we have an extra set of keys in case of hard drive failure.
One reader asked if it was possible to keep GNU Privacy Guard keys in another location, such as on a thumb drive or on a CD, to avoid having them stored locally. This is indeed possible. The GNU Privacy Guard program will, by default, operate on files stored in ~/.gnupg, however it can be made to use keys in other locations. To do this we need to set the environment variable GNUPGHOME. In the bash shell we'd use:
export GNUPGHOME=/path/to/my/keys/
The next time we run GPG it will create and use keys found at that location. To make sure GPG has found our keys we can run the following command and GPG will list any keys it has found:
gpg -k
When we are done using GPG and have unmounted the drive containing our keys, we can run the following command to tidy up after ourselves:
unset GNUPGHOME
In one of my examples two weeks ago I demonstrated using the secure copy (scp) command to copy an archive from the local machine to a remote server, like this:
scp mybackup.tar.gz remote-server.com:
Unfortunately the default behaviour of the secure copy command is to prompt us for a password, which is not suitable behaviour for backup scripts. The good news is it is possible to use keys with OpenSSH too. The keys, once set up, will allow us to login to remote servers and transfer files without requiring us to type in our password. To create a set of OpenSSH keys we need to run:
ssh-keygen
We will be asked to provide an optional password to protect the key. A moment later we will have our key and now we need to transfer the key to the remote server. We can do that using the following command:
ssh-copy-id myuser@example.com
The above command will copy our key to the remote server example.com. When copying the key it's important the user name we use is our username on the remote server, not on our local machine. For example, if I use the name jesse on my local machine, but my account on the server is jsmith I would use:
ssh-copy-id jsmith@remote-server.com
When we run ssh-copy-id we will be asked for our password on the remote machine. Once the key has been copied we can attempt to login to the remote server to make sure the key is in place:
ssh jsmith@remote-server.com
We should now be able to login without being prompted for a password. We should also be able to copy files over the secure connection without being prompted for a password. This makes scripting a lot easier as we can place lines like the following one in a script:
scp myfile.txt jsmith@remote-server.com:
Typing jsmith@remote-server.com each time we want to connect to the server or transfer a file can get tedious. To get around this I like to set up aliases which will stand in for the full name of the remote machine. For instance, assuming we're using the bash shell, we can add the following line to our ~/.bashrc file:
remote=jsmith@remote-server.com
With the above line in place we can connect to the remote server using:
ssh $remote
and we can transfer files in a similar fashion:
scp myfile.txt $remote:
The above features take just a minute to set up and they can save us a little bit of time each day. Plus they make scripting automated backups easier. Really, it's a win-win situation for us. Now, I want to leave you with one final short-cut. Do you ever find yourself logging into a remote server, running one or two commands and then logging out? Something like this:
ssh jsmith@remote-server.com
(enter password)
uptime
exit
Perhaps you're just making sure the server didn't reboot, or maybe you want to see what its CPU load is at the moment. At any rate, it can be inconvenient to type the same commands repeatedly just to check one thing. Using the keys we talked about above and the hostname alias we can run single commands quickly on our remote server like this:
ssh $remote uptime
The secure shell automatically substitutes in our username and the full host name, logs in using our key, runs the uptime command, displays the result and closes the connection. In addition, we can string a series of commands together on one line to be processed by the remote server. The following command will shows us the remote server's uptime, CPU load and a print-out showing disk usage:
ssh $remote uptime\; df -h
I find keys and aliases to be helpful tools, especially when babysitting multiple servers. They provide a lot of short-cuts and cut down on typing (and typos).
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| Released Last Week |
DEFT Linux 7.1
Stefano Fratepietro has announced the release of DEFT Linux 7.1, a bug-fix update to the project's Ubuntu-based distribution designed for forensic analysis, penetration testing and related tasks: "DEFT Linux 7.1 ready for download. The new features for DEFT Linux 7.1 are: Hb4most and xterm problems fixed; GParted bug fix; updated packages: bulk_extractor 1.2.0, guymager 0.6.5, iPhone Backup Analyzer 10/2012, Xplico 1.0; computer forensics side new tools - UsnJrnl-parser, lslnk; Cyber Intelligence side implementations; OSINT Chrome browser - we customized Chrome with several plugins and resources to perform 'open-source intelligence' and related activities; network information gathering - Host, nslookup, Dig, Nmap, Zenmap, Netcat, snmpcheck, Nbtscan, Cadaver, Traceroute, Hping3, Xprobe, Scapy, Netdiscover; wireless information gathering - Kismet; web application information gathering - Whatweb, Cmsident, Dirbuster, Burpsuite...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a full list of new features.
Puppy Linux 5.3 "Wary", "Racy"
Barry Kauler has announced that newly updated releases of "Wary" and "Racy" editions of Puppy Linux, targeting older computers, are ready and available for download: "Wary Puppy 5.2.2 was released on 18 November 2011 (also Racy Puppy made his début). Since then, there has been the usual feverish pace of development. We now have a significant upgrade, hence the version jump from 5.2.x to 5.3. Wary Puppy is our build of Puppy Linux targeting older hardware. Racy Puppy made a début at the previous release (5.2.2) and is 'Wary on steroids' -- identical except with later X.Org and kernel, to suit more recent hardware. Version 5.3 has a fairly small number of application upgrades, however there are fundamental changes at the infrastructure level, that is, the 'Woof' level - in particular, pervasive support for internationalization, plus a multitude of bug fixes. There are now 'langpacks' available for many languages." Here is the full release announcement.
Semplice Linux 2.0.2
Eugenio Paolantonio has announced the release of Semplice Linux 2.0.2, a bug-fix and feature update of the project's lightweight distribution (with Openbox) based on Debian's unstable branch: "The Semplice Linux team is proud to announce the immediate release of Semplice Linux 2.0.2, a maintenance release for the 2.0 branch. This release brings many bug fixes to the installer and ships the long awaited modemmanager and mobile-broadband-provider-info with the standard distribution. This means that you can use mobile broadband out of the box (if your modem is supported, of course). In order to bring Semplice to the majority of the hardware out there, we added some more firmware: atmel-firmware, bluez-firmware, firmware-crystalhd, firmware-libertas, firmware-myricom, linux-wlan-ng-firmware, midisport-firmware and zd1211-firmware." Here is the brief release announcement with a couple of errata notes.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
March 2012 DistroWatch.com donation: GNU ddrescue
We are happy to announce that the recipient of the March 2012 DistroWatch.com donation is GNU ddrescue, a free and open-source data recovery utility. It receives €260.00 in cash.
GNU ddrescue is one of those low-profile tools that most people don't use on a daily basis, but when it is needed, it can save one's bacon: "GNU ddrescue is a data recovery tool. It copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, CD-ROM) to another, trying hard to rescue data in case of read errors. Ddrescuelog is a tool that manipulates ddrescue log files, shows log file contents, converts log files to/from other formats, compares log files, tests rescue status, and can delete a log file if the rescue is done. Ddrescuelog operations can be restricted to one or several parts of the log file if the domain setting options are used." Visit the project's home page to learn more.
GNU ddrescue developer Antonia Diaz recently asked for direct donations as a means to fund his work and purchase the necessary hardware: "I would be glad to receive some donations directly for ddrescue because, if my records are correct, I have only received €9.26. This does not even cover the couple of drives I have worn out in the six years I have been developing ddrescue. If you wish, you can donate via PayPal here."
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with cash contributions. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for future donations. Those readers who wish to contribute towards these donations, please use our advertising page to make a payment (PayPal and credit cards are accepted). Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285)
- 2010: Qimo 4 Kids ($250), Squid ($250), Libre Graphics Meeting ($300), Bacula ($250), FileZilla ($300), GCompris ($352), Xiph.org ($250), Clonezilla ($250), Debian Multimedia ($280), Geany ($300), Mageia ($470), gtkpod ($300)
- 2011: CGSecurity ($300), OpenShot ($300), Imagination ($250), Calibre ($300), RIPLinuX ($300), Midori ($310), vsftpd ($300), OpenShot ($350), Trinity Desktop Environment ($300), LibreCAD ($300), LiVES ($300), Transmission ($250)
- 2012: GnuPG ($350), ImageMagick ($350), GNU ddrescue ($350)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$31,240 to various open-source software projects.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
- LuninuX OS. LuninuX OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution designed to be beautiful, clean, simple, fast, and stable.
LuninuX OS 11.11 - an Ubuntu-based distribution with GNOME Shell and Docky
(full image size: 899kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
- Phinx Desktop. Phinx Desktop is a PCLinuxOS-based live CD. It uses a pure Xfce desktop environment with recommended or default Xfce applications, settings and configurations only.
Phinx Desktop 2012-03 RC1 - a PCLinuxOS-based distribution with a pure Xfce desktop
(full image size: 95kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- Blender-boot. Blender-boot is an Ubuntu-based live DVD that boots straight into a light environment with Blender already open. It has Dropbox and Ubuntu One for saving files which can be opened easily in another operating system. It has Blender, GIMP, Guake terminal, Chromium browser and more. It's a distraction-free and resource-light distribution designed with Blender and fast rendering in mind.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 16 April 2012.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
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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