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1 • DVDStyler (by Tom on 2013-08-26 09:20:13 GMT from Germany)
Great decision to choose this project for the donation. It's intuitive to use, it already has most of the functions you'd need, and it's in vivid development. Keep up the good work!
2 • gNewSense (by Chanath on 2013-08-26 10:42:38 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Maybe its a good idea to have completely free software in a distro, but is it practical? I wonder, whether those, who use only free software, don't use anything proprietary at home or at work in any other areas, such as mobile phones, vehicles, food etc.
3 • USB issue (by Fence Post on 2013-08-26 10:46:53 GMT from Australia)
I am very pleased to hear that the disconnect and connect problem with USB(3) will be addressed. Over the past year some kernels happily connect USB 3 devices on boot while other kernels require and a disconnection and then a reconnect to get it to work.
4 • GNewSense in Virtualbox (by skin27 on 2013-08-26 13:49:14 GMT from Netherlands)
Because no guest additions are installed by default, not all things are working correctly out of the box. You first need to install the distro in the VM. Then the guest addition needs to be installed as root. Then after restarting you should have see support (screen resolution etc).
5 • Gnewsense and Webbrowsers (by cba on 2013-08-26 14:44:01 GMT from Germany)
Please bear in mind that the gecko and webkkit engines that power Iceweasel 3.5.16 and Epiphany-Webkit in Squeeze, respectively, are EOL. Debian Squeeze does not support them anymore. One possibility to get a supported webbrowser is to use mozilla.debian.net which is compatible with Gnewsense 3.0 and provides Iceweasel 17.0.8 ESR and Iceweasel 23.0. This software comes with the usual "freedom bugs", but in this case you have no other choice if you would like to do e.g. your online-banking with Gnewsense 3.0. It is possible to avoid non-free addons and plugins, of course, if you pay attention to this "feature".
Personally I hope that Gnewsense tries to update to Debian Wheezy as soon as possible whereby ignoring most of these Squeeze freedom bugs, because Debian Squeeze will be EOL in May 2014.
6 • DVDStyler (by DavidEF on 2013-08-26 14:44:12 GMT from United States)
Can someone give me a quick run-down of the difference between DVDStyler and Bonobo? Is DVDStyler better? In what ways? I've been using Bonobo for years, but always interested in something a little better. I'm not entirely satisfied with the results I get from Bonobo sometimes. It seems to me a very thin GUI skin over ffmpeg, yet it doesn't offer all the power of ffmpeg unless you go back to a command line, which kinda defeats the purpose of a GUI. It can turn out good results, with great effort, but I'd rather get great results with less effort.
7 • Re.: 3 - USB Issue (by Anon on 2013-08-26 15:55:14 GMT from Norway)
This summer I bought two external Western Digital USB "green" (!) disks and have had nothing but trouble since. They disconnect and give all kinds of weird error messages, including during boot, which renders systemd all confused too. At one point my system got hosed completely. It turned out that instead of copying files to the external disk, the copies had landed in and filled up my /media directory, hence taking up all available space on my root partition. However, no warning or error message on that occasion. Of course.
Shortly afterwards my Western Digital internal disk (installed and working fairly well since 2009) decided to call it a day. For good, it seems, since it is no longer recognized in BIOS. Looking for a remedy (one can always hope...), I came across this in the hdparm manual:
"-J Get/set the Western Digital (WD) Green Drive's "idle3" timeout value. This timeout controls how often the drive parks its heads and enters a low power consumption state. The factory default is eight (8) seconds, which is a very poor choice for use with Linux. Leaving it at the default will result in hundreds of thousands of head load/unload cycles in a very short period of time. The drive mechanism is only rated for 300,000 to 1,000,000 cycles, so leaving it at the default could result in premature failure, not to mention the performance impact of the drive often having to wake-up before doing routine I/O."
Right. So why did I not know this before, preferably before deciding to buy the thing? I can only blame myself for sleeping at the wheel, and probably for using Linux as well.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a substitute? I have been looking at Seagate's Desktop .15 (4TB), but for some reason it carries only a 2 year guaranty.
8 • LXLE (by jaws222 on 2013-08-26 16:02:31 GMT from United States)
I was pleasantly surprised with this Distro. I installed in in Virtualbox and initially received an error when trying to boot up. ( " could not start boot splash could not access shared library")
but clicking once inside the VBOX terminal area and hitting enter the install proceeds and is quite fast. I initially thought the different desktop versions were "full blown", but they are not. You do not have all the DE features but neverthelessall te DE versions run well and the distro itself is pretty sweet. I could easily see throwing this on an old computer.
9 • gNewSense (by Nick on 2013-08-26 16:59:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
gNewSense comes with an mp3 decoder? Aren't mp3 decoders all proprietary?
10 • software libre (by Dave Postles on 2013-08-26 17:02:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
@2 Of course, life involves compromise. I use Trisquel on my desktop because: (i) it does what I want on my desktop; and (ii) if it isn't supported (like gNewSense), then we will always be subject to the dictates of proprietary systems and there will be no continuous development of software libre (and gratuit - although I like to make a donation when I use a distro regularly and am an associate member of Trisquel).
11 • mp3 support (by Jesse on 2013-08-26 19:34:00 GMT from Canada)
@9:
>> gNewSense comes with an mp3 decoder? Aren't mp3 decoders all proprietary?
No, there have been free software implementations for mp3 for ages, at least more than ten years. What confuses some people is, in some countries (USA & Japan) aspects of mp3 support are covered by patents. (Or was, that may have expired now.) However, patents do not prevent software from being licensed under free software licenses. This is why distributions like Ubuntu and Mint offer versions of their distributions without mp3 support. It isn't a free software issue, it's a patent issue. In almost all countries of the world software patents are not an issue and therefore do not prevent users from benefiting from mp3 codecs.
12 • @11 (by Nick on 2013-08-26 20:15:35 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thanks for the clarification.
Presumably VLC's libdvdcss2 is similarly covered by patents, given that it too is open source?
13 • @7 USB hardrive (by mandog on 2013-08-26 23:34:15 GMT from Peru)
I think you will find the time out is normal with all USB external drives. they really are not designed to install a distro on.All my drives are internal 2 ides 6 sata.
The WD 2 tb green caviare is superb comes with a 3 year warranty.
I also have 2 1.5 seagates and they are rubbish after 1 year they both have bad sectors
both have a delay at the start and end and both lose data. only good for testing I also have a ten year old wd 250 gb ide caviare with no bad sectors and a 500gb sata1 caviare again no faults or bad sectors its the 3 year warranty that makes a good hdrive
my Seagates only one year.
14 • Patents and DVD support (by Jesse on 2013-08-26 23:47:45 GMT from Canada)
>> "Presumably VLC's libdvdcss2 is similarly covered by patents, given that it too is open source?"
The functionality of the libdvdcss library may be patented, I suspect it is. However, what has made DVD reading tools problematic is that they work around copy-protection. In some countries "breaking" copy protection, like those found on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, is illegal. There were some court cases in years past where, if I remember correctly, the argument was that breaking protection on a DVD (or other DRMed media) even when the person using the software owned the media, was a violation of the rights of the original copyright holder.
15 • Parted Magic (by J.L. on 2013-08-27 00:06:01 GMT from Canada)
And where are these "other avenues" for downloading Parted Magic? Was it released for free before charging? Cause I found broken SourceForge links of pmagic_pxe_2013_08_10.zip still on Google cache.
It's also on heise.de, but that version and checksum is different from pmagic_2013_08_10.iso listed on partedmagic.com, so I'm unsure about the exactness. I don't even use a PXE server, so it's useless anyways.
Plus, they removed all stable versions after 2013_06_15, including their checksums. Good luck downloading from "other avenues", even with reputable third-party sites like MajorGeeks. Fortunately, I managed to obtain 2013_08_01 when it was released, so there's a genuine fallback.
16 • Parted Magic (by GJones on 2013-08-27 00:10:14 GMT from United States)
These unfortunate comments seem to stem from a common misunderstanding, namely that software freedom requires that software be made available without cost.
No... they stem from the fact that a small, but nonetheless very vocal, minority of Linux users are jerks with hugely inflated senses of entitlement. We've all seen this before - flames, misogyny, threats of vandalism and violence. It's not right, it's not healthy for the community, and it happens too often.
IMO the rest of the Linux community needs to stop pretending these jerks don't exist, and start calling them out.
17 • @ 7 USB HDD issue (by Fence Post on 2013-08-27 00:46:06 GMT from Australia)
I had an external 640G WD HDD that didn't last long. I found out it was on recall in the US and Canada but not in Australia. So I put it on the shelf - until I decided to pull it apart and put it in my Linux box to see if it would run - and it is still working as my back up drive over a year later. The problem was the controller card in it.
I therefore suggest (if you are not using a laptop) to install it in your box and give it a try. It might just work - without the WD controller.
18 • PartedMagic ISOs @ sourceforge (by Tomas on 2013-08-27 02:27:23 GMT from United States)
ISOs are available for download from SourceForge:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/partedmagic/files/
19 • SolydXK (by Orbmiser on 2013-08-27 02:34:19 GMT from United States)
With the SolydXK August release 2013.08 decided to give it a whirl. As was intrigued about a rolling release. As was getting a bit tired doing Clean Installs of my Mint KDE every 6 months. Based on Debian rolling and thought may be for me.
The Install was problem free. Nice on overwriting pre-existing linux installations. Is in the partition manager just right click the old root location and will set it as root and toggle format. If you have a separate /home like my case and right click set as /home and doesn't toggle the format so leaves it alone.
Everything worked out of the box just like Mint KDE,Cinnamon did on my system. The live CD gives you a boot with or without plymouth splash which is nice as makes some systems hang on boot with plymouth boot splash enabled.
The KDE release gives you 4.10.5 and Kernel 3.9.1
For Xfce lovers is SolydX
The default start menu has been replaced by the Whisker menu.
This menu has a built-in search function, and you can easily change your favorite programs list.
The network manager Wicd has been replaced by Network Manager.
Network Manager supports mobile broadband by default.
SolydXK Multi DVD
For those who’d like to try them all, we’ve released a SolydXK Multi DVD.
The DVD consists of all five distributions:
SolydX 64 and 32-bits
SolydK 64 and 32-bits
SolydK Back Office
So to desktop found I had to re-install a couple of programs and do some theme tweaking,etc.
And this disto's had a few apps I haven't seen in other distro's.
More default serious photographer type programs in graphics. And PlayonLinux and Steam installed by default.
20 • @ 10 • software libre - Dave Postles (by Chanath on 2013-08-27 02:53:39 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Of course, life involves compromise, but asking someone to use a distro that looks 3 year old, even older than what it is based is not practical. Anyway, even if you do so, you still have to install it on a machine that has proprietary parts. There is no sense in demanding that we use only free software, while we use proprietary hardware. Anyway, these are the ironies of living on our Blue Planet.
Free software is a very good idea, and the free issuance of the proprietary software is also a good idea--both comes free to the user. Not every user can or want to manipulate with the free source code, so for the majority of the users, any free software is a good thing, and sometimes they even care to pay for it, whatever the name we give for that payment. But the irony is that the payments happen "sometimes", but not "most times." A typical human nature to get free just anything.
21 • DVDStyler (by LinuxMan on 2013-08-27 16:14:44 GMT from United States)
Checked the Sourceforge page for DVDStyler and they had instructions on installing to Ubuntu and Debian. The only problem was the instructions was only as new as Ubuntu 11.04. I'm sure the same instructions would work now but probably the best way would be to compile from the source file. Their newest versions are for Windows and they also have the source code so Linux users could compile. DVDStyler is in the Ubuntu universe repositories but the version is a few months old for raring, (2.3.4). For saucy the version is newer, (2.5.2). I'm looking forward to trying it out.
22 • LXLE @8 (by Bob on 2013-08-27 23:48:14 GMT from Austria)
Yep, I second this. Tried it recently and it seems that it makes a lot of sense what the LXLE developers intend to do. Pleasant surprise amongst the myriad of lesser known and mostly useless distros.
23 • Re: 18 • PartedMagic ISOs @ sourceforge (by Tomas) (by Rev_Don on 2013-08-28 02:36:09 GMT from United States)
We already knew that, but if you take the time to actually read ALL of JL's post # 15 you'll notice that he states that Sourceforge has removed all stable versions after 2013_06_15, including their checksums. So why would you post that they are available and include a link that DOES NOT contain the very versions that he (and others) are looking for? Doesn't make a lot of sense.
And for the record, I took the time to chick your link in case they had reinstated the link to pmagic_2013_08_10.iso, but to no avail as the link is NOT there.
Next time PLEASE READ the ENTIRE post prior to answering it, and VERIFY that the information is accurate instead of wasting everyone's time with a nonsense rubbish post that does NOT answer the question(s) asked.
24 • PartEd Magic (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-08-28 06:28:59 GMT from United States)
So the 08/01 torrent on LinuxTracker may become a collectible? Ooo!
25 • Tomas was correct. (by LinuxMan on 2013-08-28 12:31:55 GMT from United States)
@23,
Did you read his post? He said that iso's were available on sourceforge. He didn't mention numbers or which iso files were there. Very little time was wasted by anyone that went to that link. 10 seconds? If the latest Parted Magic means that much to you then buy it, or you can download the unstable version, which works very well. I'm really amazed at people who wants something so bad that they will go as far as to insult someone instead of paying the asking price of $4.99. Now that's what I call rubbish.
26 • @21 DVDStyler (by DavidEF on 2013-08-28 14:43:31 GMT from United States)
I haven't had the time to check it out for myself. But, if what you say is true, it might be a barrier to some people trying to get the latest edition. A lot of people don't want to have to compile software in order to get the current version. I guess I will just stick with Bonobo for now. The pain of change is greater than the pain of staying the same, and I don't even know if DVDStyler is worth it.
27 • @26 correction Bombono (by DavidEF on 2013-08-28 14:45:33 GMT from United States)
Sorry, I've been spelling it Bonobo, but it is Bombono. I never can remember with a weird name like that.
28 • Parted Magic (by Jesse on 2013-08-28 18:03:16 GMT from Canada)
@23
I just went to the Source Forge link and the latest version of Parted Magic is 2013_08_09, that is only a few weeks old. Stable versions are available up until about two months ago. Plus it is made available for free. I fail to see the problem.
29 • Parted Magic (by J.L. on 2013-08-28 22:23:24 GMT from Canada)
@28
If you have no problems with unstable software for the critical functions Parted Magic provides (like disk imaging), go ahead.
If you have no problems with complete removal of previously free versions, I have nothing nice to say.
30 • @28 - Parted Magic (by Rev_Don on 2013-08-28 22:39:51 GMT from United States)
And that sums up the problem succinctly. The problem is getting the latest STABLE version from SourceForge (or anywhere else for that matter), not a 2 month old STABLE versions or BETA versions. If you know where to get the FREE release of the latest STABLE version how about manning up and posting a link to it, or at least revealing what site (or sites) have it. That's what JL was asking (and you conveniently failed to reply to) and what I was referring to.
How difficult is that to comprehend.
31 • DVDStyler (by Tony Brijeski on 2013-08-28 23:38:12 GMT from Canada)
This is my favourite DVD authoring app in Linux. Nice to see them get the July Donation. They deserve it!
32 • USB issue xHCI-only (by Somewhat Reticent on 2013-08-29 08:13:36 GMT from United States)
SS updated her article; she recommends emailing issue comments to Linux-USB mailing-list.
33 • Parted Magic 2013_08_10 (by LinuxMan on 2013-08-29 15:20:59 GMT from United States)
There are no sites to download, free of charge, the latest stable version of Parted Magic. As with everything else I'm sure that it will sadly turn up on the torrent sites before long. Until it does turn up on the torrent sites you must be content using Parted Magic 2013_08_01, or use something else entirely. There are no other options. Here's a novel ideal. How about sending the developer $4.99 to try to take care of some of the expenses he has incurred over the many years he has supplied this wonderful product to us. Does that not sound fair?
34 • Freed and Open - for whom? (by Pragmatic Idealist on 2013-08-29 15:37:27 GMT from United States)
Both the insistence on developer service donation inherent in the GPL and
the extortion of society inherent in a proprietary copyright/patent license demonstrate the commonly inappropriate absurdity of extremism.
[One size does not fit all.]
__________ A truly freed and open market allows most to negotiate easily. _________
35 • Free and Open - for whom indeed? (by LinuxMan on 2013-08-29 16:19:09 GMT from United States)
One of the main problems is most don't want to negotiate at all. You have ones who expect open to mean totally free at all cost, and of all cost. There is no so called negotiating in a proprietary license system so that is a moot point. You are correct in the sense of those two examples being the extreme. Small amounts to cover expenses are in order, no matter what.
36 • DVDStyler (by David on 2013-08-30 01:15:19 GMT from United States)
Glad to see the donation. I use DVDStyler on Windows and Linux Mint 13. Very useful program for making DVDs of school events, as it allows me to use a photo from the event as a menu background and place text with the event date and description on the background as well. it is also possible to use a video background, but I have had mixed success with that. You can also set your chapter points at appropriate times. Great to have a dvd of your kid's school event with a photo of the child and classmates in the background of your menu.
And you can put a good text description on each menu button.
37 • Interesting (by DbaiG on 2013-08-30 21:55:36 GMT from Pakistan)
Interesting! It is really nice to see open-source apps – such apps really bring out the best and address the user needs as motive is innovative solution rather than profit.
DbaiG
Bolee.com
38 • Parted Magic (by J.L. on 2013-08-31 05:38:07 GMT from Canada)
@33
You missed the point. They did not honour their previous version(s) that were already released for free before the commercial transition (namely the removal of pmagic_2013_08_01.iso and pmagic_pxe_2013_08_10). Nor were "other avenus" for the current version ever proven to even exist.
Looks like I have to list links I've already mentioned for some people:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:K_qJIODI1XYJ/
http://www.heise.de/download/parted-magic.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/parted_magic.html
39 • Honor what? (by Somewhat Reticent on 2013-08-31 06:11:47 GMT from United States)
I got pmagic_2013_08_01.iso at LinuxTracker; 13 seeders are up now. It's a very good vintage!
I don't recall any obligation for eternal donation.
I donated when the developer dabbled with that approach, but I suspect I'm an unusual case.
Can you think of a robust platform/method for supporting the full-time developer?
40 • PM (by Fairly Reticent on 2013-08-31 07:31:47 GMT from United States)
This http://digitalincursion.net/parted-magic/ includes a link to the PM donation page.
41 • Re: USB harddrives (by anon on 2013-08-31 18:49:22 GMT from Norway)
Thanks for the responses.
@13 mandog: I agree that USB drives are not ideal for OS installations. I have been using mine strictly for file storage/backup. I am also aware that they spin down, creating "time outs". However, after spinning down, they get totally lost to the OS; they literally disappear, with and without error messages. Only a reboot will make them accessible by the OS again, and then only after having run a filecheck. I hope this is due to the bug mentioned in this issue of DistroWatch and that it will be fixed in the not too distant future. Then there is the WD Green Drives' "idle3" timeout value, which is another issue entirely, but potentially 'deadly' in the long run.
@17 Fence Post: Interesting tip about the WD controller. I am planning to convert my current desktop box to a file server (with unRAID! ;) ) and if I get courageous enough I may well try to follow your example.
42 • Parted Magic (by ainol on 2013-08-31 19:28:44 GMT from Poland)
@38 http://digitalincursion.net/parted-magic is the official Parted Magic mirror and there are 2013_08_01 images.
43 • Parted Magic (by J.L. on 2013-09-01 06:30:31 GMT from Canada)
I'll get to the point before moderators abuse their power again:
1. The author of Parted Magic removed free versions that were already released.
2. The official site doe not contain any download links at all, or checksums for previous (removed) versions. Only a buy now button.
3. The torrents, third-party download site, and "official mirror" aren't mentioned anywhere (except the forums) on partedmagic.com.
4. Due to the above, there are no (easy) ways to completely verify you're downloading the right file.
5. It's funny all of you are fine with them not even providing the source code of the current version and claiming to be GPL.
6. Are all the "other avenues" listed? How come none of them seem truly official in any way?
44 • Parted Magic @43 (by anon on 2013-09-01 07:12:34 GMT from United States)
Can we assume that you have asked for the source code and been denied access?
45 • Parted Magic (by J.L. on 2013-09-01 08:35:10 GMT from Canada)
Think I found it now. Was far too pissed at lack of transparency, removal of more than necessary in commercial transition, unrelated comments showing neglect, and moderation of multiple posts due to a certain word that perfectly describes it.
So I posted less carefully than usual, my mistake. It's time to start looking for an alternative (after I just found one). Nothing more needs to be said, I hope.
46 • 41 • Re: USB harddrives (by mandog on 2013-09-01 15:12:28 GMT from Peru)
It is simple enough just open the case and remove it it has all the correct sockets for connection
The green running in the desktop does not spindown and park it reduces the speed from 7000 rpm to 3000 depending on what you do. Take no notice of the 300,000 to 1,000,000 cycles, I have 10 year old WD drives that are running perfect. My 2tb green is about 3 years old and shows no errors on smart test and runs 18 hrs a day 365 days a year as does the rest of my system. Its the seagates that are the problem sinse merging with Maxtor,
Number of Comments: 46
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| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Feather Linux
Feather Linux was a Linux distribution which runs completely off a CD or a USB pendrive and takes up under 128MB of space. It was a Knoppix remaster (based on Debian), and tries to include software which most people would use every day on their desktop.
Status: Discontinued
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