 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 538, 16 December 2013 |
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Welcome to this year's 49th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! These days Linux-based operating systems are everywhere, from the server room to the desktop to hand-held mobile devices to gaming consoles. This week we cover Linux distributions on a wide range of platforms. Up first we talk about one of the Linux community's most popular distributions, Linux Mint, and follow along as Jesse Smith takes Mint's latest release for a spin. Then we talk about Red Hat's most recently Enterprise Linux beta release and the new features it brings to system administrators. We also talk about Canonical's push to bring Ubuntu Touch to smart phones and their progress on that front. This past week Valve launched the first beta of their highly anticipated SteamOS and we link to all the details in our News section. In addition, we discuss migrating from aging proprietary systems to a modern Linux distribution and the work being put into the upcoming FreeBSD 10 release. As usual, we cover new releases from the past week and look ahead to exciting new launches to come. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: Linux Mint 16 "Petra"
- News: Red Hat launches new beta, CentOS prepares for version 7, Ubuntu finds hardware partner, Valve launches SteamOS, FreeBSD project issues status report
- Questions and Answers: Finding drop-in replacements for unsupported operating systems
- Released last week: Tails 0.22, GParted Live 0.17.0-1, Ultimate Edition 3.8
- Upcoming releases: Fedora 20, Mageia 4 RC, Ubuntu 14.04 Alpha 1
- New additions: SteamOS
- New distributions: Osdad OS, Linux Myst, RasPlex
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux Mint 16 "Petra"
 The Linux Mint project is a distribution which is built using Ubuntu as a base, mixing a combination of Ubuntu's packages and a number of custom add-ons to create a desktop operating system that has become widely popular in recent years. The latest release of Mint, version 16, uses Ubuntu 13.10 as a base and features several improvements and new features. Perhaps the most interesting development in Mint 16 is the Cinnamon 2.0 desktop, a traditional desktop environment built using modern GNOME 3 technology. The latest version of Mint also comes with a new user management application that makes it easier to perform session and account related tasks, such as logging out, switching between logged in users and enabling/disabling notifications. MIME support has been improved under Cinnamon and work has gone into polishing the login screen to make it easier to configure. The latest Mint release also comes with various performance improvements and support for the Steam software portal.
Linux Mint is available in two main editions, MATE and Cinnamon. Each edition can be downloaded in a few flavours. For example, we can download either desktop edition with multimedia codecs and proprietary add-ons, or we can download a spin which comes with freely licensed open source software only. Each spin of Mint can be downloaded in 32-bit or 64-bit builds for the x86 architecture. I decided to download both the MATE and Cinnamon editions, the ISOs for which were approximately 1.2 GB in size.
One nice thing about Linux Mint is that each edition is designed to look and act approximately the same. This means the regardless of which live disc we try, we are quickly brought to a desktop laid out in the traditional manner. At the bottom of the display we find the application menu, task switcher and system tray. On the desktop are icons for browsing the file system and there is an icon for launching the system installer. The background is silver and features the Linux Mint branding. While playing around with the two desktop environments (MATE and Cinnamon) I noticed really just two visual differences. The first is that the MATE application menu is the one I've grown accustomed to with Linux Mint. It is a three-panels-in-one arrangement that presents us with file system "places", applications and settings. The menu also features a search box, allowing us to type searches for items we want. The Cinnamon desktop comes with a menu which feels to me to be more classic in its layout with a few short-cut buttons arranged down the left side of the menu's panel. The other main difference between the two desktops seems to be that Cinnamon comes with a few visual effects enabled, not many, but enough to give the interface a pleasantly dynamic feel. The MATE edition did not display any special effects, giving the environment a lighter, snappier feel.
Linux Mint 16 - managing user accounts
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Linux Mint makes use of the Ubuntu system installer, a graphical application with a nice, friendly interface. On the first page of the installer we are asked to select our preferred language and we can optionally read the project's release notes. Next we are asked to partition the local hard disk and there are a few options from which to choose. We can turn the entire disk over to the installer for automated partitioning, we can instruct the installer to use LVM volumes and we have the option of making use of an encrypted system partition. Should we choose to we can manually divide the disk ourselves. The manual partitioning screen is nicely laid out and I found it very easy to navigate. The installer supports formating partitions with most Linux file systems, including ext2/3/4 JFS and XFS. Once the disk has been divided we are asked to confirm our time zone and our keyboard's layout. The last screen of the installer asks us to create a user account and we can, optionally, encrypt our user's home folder. The installer copies its files to the local drive and then we are prompted to reboot the computer.
Booting into our local copy of Linux Mint we are brought to a graphical login screen. Mint's login screen is a fairly simple affair with clearly marked icons for changing our language and session type. Logging into our account we are presented with a welcome screen which features links to Mint's documentation, support resources (such as the Mint user forum) and Mint's community web pages. The first time I logged into the MATE desktop I was greeted by dozens of file manager windows all opening one after another. There didn't appear to be any reason for these windows to appear, and after I downloaded the distribution's package updates the pile of file manager windows did not return. A short time after I logged in an icon appeared in the system tray indicating software updates were available to be downloaded. Clicking the notification icon opened Mint's update application which lists package upgrades available in the distribution's repository.
Each package is listed along with a stability rating which lets us know how likely an update is to cause stability or regression issues. Stability ratings of one through three are deemed to be safe while packages given a rating of four or five are thought to carry higher risk. We can set filters on packages so we end up downloading either just stable packages or all available upgrades. The first time I ran the update manager application it first asked me to download a newer version of the update software itself. Once this upgrade had been applied another 90 packages were presented, totaling 83MB in size. All upgrades downloaded and were applied without any problems on my system.
On the subject of software packages, Linux Mint comes with two graphical package managers. The first is called Software Manager. It is a user-friendly application with nice, big icons that guide us through browsing software categories. Clicking on a desired package brings up detailed information about the software along with user reviews. Adding or removing software on our system can be done with a single click. While new packages are being downloaded Software Manager allows us to continue browsing the package archive. The second package manager is Synaptic, a classic and powerful program which allows us to create batches of actions to perform. Synaptic takes a package-oriented approach to software (as opposed to Software Manager's application-centric style). Synaptic may not be as pretty or novice-friendly as its companion, but it is fast and flexible. During my trial both package managers worked well and I encountered no problems.
Linux Mint 16 - installing new software packages
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Linux Mint comes with a useful collection of software. The distribution tends toward a one-application-per-task approach and most of the applications included in the default installation are top of their class in terms of features and usability. Mint comes with the Firefox web browser, the Thunderbird e-mail client, the Pidgin instant messaging software and the XChat IRC chat client. The distribution comes with the LibreOffice productivity suite, a document viewer and the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Mint also features the Transmission bittorrent application and the Brasero disc burning software. Digging through the menu I found the VLC multimedia player, the Banshee audio player and the Totem video player. The spins of Mint I was running came with multimedia codecs and Flash out of the box. To get us on-line Mint comes with Network Manager.
The distribution features several useful administration tools including a third-party driver manager, a domain blocker and the mintBackup utility. Mint features a services manager, a printer manager and a user account manager. We're given small apps like text editors, a virtual calculator and an archive manager. Digging further I found the distribution comes with Java and the GNU Compiler Collection. In the background I found Mint ran on the Linux kernel, version 3.11. Personally, I feel Mint comes with one of the best combinations of software out of the box available to Linux users. The menu is not crowded and still carries a lot of functionality. The only quirk I ran into during my trail was with the backup utility. I found that the restore function of the mintBackup tool doesn't just restore files it archived, it also restores any other files stored in the same location. This has its uses as it means users can add files to a backup archive after the backup has been performed. It also means if we want to keep our backups true to the time they were created we need to avoid storing them in a directory where other items are kept.
I ran Mint in two environments, on my laptop (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 4 GB of RAM, Intel video card and Intel wireless card). I also ran Mint in a virtual machine powered by VirtualBox. In both test environments Linux Mint performed very well. The system booted quickly, ran smoothly, properly detected all of my hardware and I encountered no problems. Mint performed quickly and scaled well inside VirtualBox which is always nice to experience. In the past I have tried Mint's Cinnamon edition and found the desktop with its visual effects to be too sluggish for my taste. However, trying Cinnamon 2.0 this week I found the desktop performed quite well and there was no lag in the interface as I had experienced with previous 1.x versions. I also tried the MATE edition and found it, likewise, performed quickly. The MATE edition of Mint used approximately 180 MB of memory during my tests and the Cinnamon edition used around 300 MB of RAM.
Linux Mint 16 - adjusting desktop settings
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What quickly stood out about Linux Mint 16 was that the distribution feels remarkably polished. Mint manages to present a simple interface which is also powerful (this is true of both Cinnamon and MATE). Most of the applications included in the distribution are common across both editions and they all worked well for me, providing a small collection of powerful applications out of the box. Apart from the file manager window pop-ups I encountered when running the MATE edition I rarely saw any notifications or flashy content. The Cinnamon desktop has a few subtle visual effects, but nothing overly distracting. I found both Mint editions easy to navigate, easy to configure and, generally just a pleasure to use.
The installation process is one of the easiest in the Linux community, the distribution includes lots of functionality and multimedia support out of the box and the operating system was both stable and fast on my equipment. I really like Mint's Software Manager and I think it is one of the more friendly package managers available. The only concern I have with Linux Mint 16 is it is based on Ubuntu 13.10 which comes with a short nine months of support. This means people who install Mint 16 will probably need to upgrade in the near future, but it's hard to get upset about that when the upgrade is free of charge and likely to be a quick process. All in all Linux Mint 16 is one of the best experiences I have had with a desktop operating system and I recommend trying it.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) |
Red Hat launches new beta, CentOS prepares for version 7, Ubuntu finds hardware partner, Valve launches SteamOS, FreeBSD project issues status report
 For many professionals, system administrators and technology enthusiasts, the big news last week was Red Hat's release of Enterprise Linux 7 Beta. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is widely used in business environments where software support is required and clones of Enterprise Linux are a highly popular choice for web hosting, database servers and virtual private servers. Some key features to look for in the beta are improved compatibility with Active Directory via Samba, the availability of powerful file systems such as XFS and Btrfs, performance profiles and support for Linux containers. The new Enterprise Linux release is based on Fedora 19 and ships with version 3.10 of the Linux kernel.
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 Many users and fans of CentOS, a community project that compiles the source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) into a free distribution, will remember the sluggish response of CentOS developers to the release of RHEL 6 when it took CentOS eight months to finally "clone" RHEL 6. Fortunately, if the initial reaction of CentOS to the release of RHEL 7 is anything to go by, things should be much faster this time around. Karanbir Singh explains the plan: "Our plans for CentOS 7 are to still focus testing resources on the upstream RHEL 7 beta; the better the overall quality of RHEL 7 when it comes to release, the better off we are all going to be. So there is little attraction in diluting that testing effort. On the other hand, we want to be a lot better prepaired for EL7 than we were for EL6, so we are going to do a build publicly and call it a limited release for testing. Keep your eyes on the centos-devel mailing list for more information about that and progress reports on the build effort."
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 For some time now Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has been shopping around for a hardware partner willing to ship mobile devices with Ubuntu Touch. CNET reports that Canonical has found a hardware partner for their Linux-based mobile operating system. "Canonical has just signed its first deal to supply a smart phone with its mobile operating system, Canonical founder and product strategy leader Mark Shuttleworth revealed in an interview here at the LeWeb conference. He wouldn't say which company has agreed to use the Linux-based OS, but said it will be offered on high-end phones in 2014." It looks as though Canonical's plan to supply Ubuntu across all platforms (servers, desktops and mobile devices) is one step closer to being realized.
In other Ubuntu-related news, the popular Linux distribution is planning to make adjustments to its desktop control centre. To date Ubuntu has used a patched version of the GNOME Control Centre, taken from the release of GNOME 3.6. The Ubuntu developers now face the choice of either upgrading their GNOME code base to stay in line with the upstream project or maintaining their own fork of the control centre package. The Ubuntu developers have decided to fork the control centre and maintain it as a separate package, called Unity Control Centre. This fork will be a stepping stone toward a new Ubuntu Control Centre, which will be designed with both desktop and mobile devices in mind. As developer Robert Ancell writes, "To be very clear, this is a fork with a limited lifespan. We don't expect to make significant changes to it outside of stability and security fixes."
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 The long-awaited announcement from Valve, a popular gaming company, appeared on Friday. Valve has released their first beta of SteamOS, a Debian-based operating system designed to run on gaming consoles. Most of SteamOS is put together using free and open source software with some proprietary add-ons, such as video drivers, included for improved performance. People interested in trying this technology preview can download and experiment with SteamOS for free and Valve has supplied installation instructions for the beta. People willing to install the beta release will find it ships with Debian's APT package management tools, making the underlying system quite customizable and the distribution also allows root access and the ability to access a standard Linux desktop, such as GNOME. Have you tried SteamOS? Tell us what your first impressions were in the comments section below.
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 The launch of FreeBSD 10 is right around the corner and the developers behind the powerful, open source operating system have put together a status report of projects being worked on and projects recently completed. Some of the highlights from the report include work being done to make the system more secure (especially where encryption is concerned), improve the quality of the project's documentation and on-going work to replace software licensed under the GNU General Public License with more liberally licensed components. The document also covers the relationship between PC-BSD and the FreeBSD project and how FreeBSD will handle the transition from its traditional package management tools to the newer PKG-NG package manager.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Finding drop-in replacements for unsupported operating systems
Beginning-the-countdown asks: American mainstream press is coming to life right now in a big way with articles and comments on the six month countdown to the end-of-life for Windows XP and why the switch to Windows 7/8 or Mac on sparkly new hardware should happen as soon as possible. Just as a suggestion, this might be a good time for DistroWatch Weekly to seek out and emphasize specific distros that could extend the life of the common laptop and netbook, for folks who bought theirs too close to the end of the ride to want to trash them so soon. I know many distros already work on laptops, but few duplicate Windows-specific features found in certain hardware; for example, screen brightness, audio controls, etc. I am thinking distros created specifically as drop-in-ready operating systems for laptops and netbooks that would take these features into account.
DistroWatch answers: There are several Linux distributions which are ideal for replacing an aging installation of Windows XP. Some of these are polished desktop solutions which would probably fit the needs of users while maintaining their own style. Others are designed specifically to feel familiar to people migrating from other operating systems. The Zorin OS project, for example, is designed to be a drop-in replacement. It has the ability to mimic the Windows interface, to an extent, and (if my memory serves) Zorin comes with WINE in the default installation, making it easy for users to install software built for their previous operating system. For people looking for a free operating system which closely mimics the Windows interface, I recommend starting with Zorin.
For many people running fairly modern hardware, user-friendly distributions such as Linux Mint, Mageia and Kubuntu will be ideal. Each of these distributions targets desktop users and each distro comes with lots of user-friendly features. On the other hand, many people looking for a replacement to Windows XP will likely be on older hardware and may be interested in lighter distributions. I've found Peppermint OS to be a distribution which can offer a fairly familiar desktop interface for new users while maintaining a high level of performance. Another lightweight distribution I've used and enjoyed recently that I feel comfortable recommending to new Linux users is LXLE. The LXLE distribution offers a very attractive interface and lots of features while maintaining a small resource footprint.
There are certainly other distributions which are suitable replacements for the aging Microsoft operating system, most main-stream Linux projects offer all of the features required, each just has a different style when it comes to delivering those features. This means the projects I've mentioned above are hardly the only options available, but they are the projects I've had the most luck with when it comes to introducing newcomers to the power of Linux.
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| Released Last Week |
SparkyLinux 3.2 "LXDE", "Ultra", "Razor-qt"
Paweł Pijanowski has announced the availability of three new editions of SparkyLinux 3.2, a set of Debian-based distributions with lightweight desktop user interfaces: "New DVD images of SparkyLinux 3.2 providing a few changes and system improvements, such as: Linux kernel 3.11.8; all packages have been upgraded from Debian's 'testing' repositories as of 2013-12-07; added support for installing 32-bit applications on 64-bit systems; 32-bit WINE package has been installed on 64-bit systems; Sparky Center LXDE and Sparky Center Openbox have been reconfigured - some applications have been extracted from sparky-center and packed separately so they can be installed on other Sparky desktops with no sparky-center; added the cURL package curl – it's a missing tool requires by PlayOnLinux...." See the full release announcement for more details.
Tails 0.22
Version 0.22 of Tails, a Debian-based distribution a live CD incorporating the Tor technology for anonymous web browsing, has been released: "Tails, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, version 0.22, is out. All users must upgrade as soon as possible - this release fixes numerous security issues. Notable user-visible changes include: Upgrade to Iceweasel 24.2.0esr that fixes a few serious security issues; stop migrating persistence configuration and access rights - instead, disable all persistence configuration files if the mountpoint has wrong access rights; upgrade to NSS 3.15.3 that fixes a few serious security issues affecting the browser; switch to Iceweasel 24.2.0esr and Torbutton 1.6.5; incremental upgrades are ready for beta-testing; fix Vidalia start-up; disable DPMS screen blanking; fix checking of the persistent volume's ACL; sanitize more IP and MAC addresses in bug reports...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details and known issues.
MakuluLinux 4.0 "KDE"
Jacque Raymer has announced the release of MakuluLinux 4.0 "KDE" edition, a distribution and live CD featuring the KDE 4.11 desktop and based on Debian's "testing" branch: "MakuluLinux is proud to present the release of KDE as you've never experienced it before. It is based on the PAE Linux kernel 3.11.2. KDE 4.11.x and a brand new installer, speed, stability and a smooth, user-friendly experience is what you will get from MakuluLinux KDE edition. Sporting a traditional look and feel much like our other releases, our users will fall right in with the upgrade to version 4.0 with the exception of a few new features. As of version 4 we now use an RSS feed to stream important information to the user's desktop; this feed will stream through important updates, bug information, and even information about major events in the Linux world. This feed will be incorporated into the new build of Xfce and any future MakuluLinux releases." See the full release announcement for more information.
GParted Live 0.17.0-1
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 0.17.0-1, a new version of the Debian-based live CD with tools for disk management and data rescue tasks: "The GParted team is proud to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release marks the first time that GParted can resize some file systems (Btrfs, ext3, ext4, JFS, LVM2 pv, NILFS2, ReiserFS, and XFS) while these are online (mounted). This release also includes a number of bug fixes and language translation updates. Items of note include: based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2013-12-13; updated Linux kernel to 3.11.10. GParted 0.17.0 which includes: add support for online resize; recognize Linux swap suspend and software RAID partitions; fix busy detection for Linux software RAID and extended partitions; turn on resize2fs progress bar." The release announcement.
Ultimate Edition 3.8
"TheeMahn" has announced the availability of Ultimate Edition 3.8, an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the MATE desktop environment with extra privacy features: "Ultimate Edition 3.8 was built from the ground up, debootstrapped from the Ubuntu 13.04 'Raring Ringtail' tree. Many of the issues I faced with the development of Ultimate Edition 3.6 and 3.7 just faded away. Finally, in my humble opinion a release worthy of the Ultimate Edition title. My main focus on this distribution was your privacy and security. I have taken steps beyond the call of duty to ensure that is exactly what happens. These integrated features may become a new de-facto standard with future releases of Ultimate Edition. No more 'big brother' watching over your shoulder and tracking your every move." Read the release notes which include a number of screenshots.
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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 |
New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Osdad OS. Osdad OS is a project created by the OSDAD organization with the aim of research, innovation and community development.
- Linux Myst. Linux Myst is a Debian-based project which showcases the Myst window manager.
- RasPlex. RasPlex lets you turn your TV into a Smart TV. Similar to the AppleTV, but completely free and open source.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 23 December 2013. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (feedback and suggestions: podcast edition)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Mint (by Terence on 2013-12-16 10:19:19 GMT from United States)
There is something about Mint that I do not like. Whenever I have asked a question about it, it is either ignored or deleted. I don't have enough experience to diagnose the problem on my own either. The problem is that there is an apparent limitation on the length of password you are allowed to use for your account. By my estimation, it is not allowed to be any longer than about 8 or 9 characters. I have never experienced this bug with any other distro. I am not even sure how I thought to experiment with a shorter password. But the fact of the matter is that it is an unnacceptable situation.
2 • Mint password length (by Chris Whelan on 2013-12-16 11:01:34 GMT from United Kingdom)
@ No 1
I've just set up a temporary account with a password length of 16 character, and it worked faultlessly.
I've also found the user forum to be reasonably friendly, so I don't understand the problems you have had.
3 • Mint (by Sondar on 2013-12-16 11:07:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
Better than that, Jesse - Petra16 Xfce is in RC already and, as usual, virtually complete and stable.
4 • Mint password (by coolpup on 2013-12-16 11:09:23 GMT from Canada)
@1
Since Mint is based on Ubuntu, this may be of some help to you:
http://linuxpoison.blogspot.ca/2010/10/how-to-set-password-length-in-ubuntu.html
5 • Cinnabuntu (by joe on 2013-12-16 11:09:27 GMT from Mexico)
I am totally sure that if Cannonical will change Unity by Cinnamon then "Cinnabuntu" will recover easily the first ranking place here and will be for many years in this first place. but... I think that Mark Sutleworth is highly proud and he isn't able to recognize that Unity was a tremendous error.... Sincerly a simple linux user.
6 • password length (by Terence on 2013-12-16 11:54:52 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the link to update password length. Ironically, Ubuntu has never placed a limit low enough for me to encounter a problem, and I use 24 character passwords.
7 • SteamOS (by Richard on 2013-12-16 12:01:25 GMT from Canada)
Thank you! Downloading now. After using Steam on Linux Mint for a while, it is time to play!
8 • Cinnamon Needs Better Workspace Handling (by joncr on 2013-12-16 12:32:07 GMT from United States)
Cinnamon's workspace handling is weaker than Mate's and XFCE's in that it doesn't allow restoration of a minimized window to its original workspace. I use workspaces a great deal and expect windows to stay put unless I deliberately move them to another workspace.
Plus, you can attach names to workspaces but those names are not reflected in the pager applet, where they're always just numbered "1", "2", "3", etc.
9 • Mint 16 Cinnamon 64bit (by zykoda on 2013-12-16 12:48:15 GMT from United Kingdom)
Really easy to boot via GRUB2 from downloaded ISO for trial/installation. I just edited /boot/grub/grub.cfg as a temporary measure. (much easier than fiddling with multiple files in various directories; although not preserved on grub-update!!)
ONLY a pre-installed GRUB2 needed.
No messing with other boot loaders
No CD/DVD or USB peripherals/media/writing involved
Installation just needs preformatted disk partitons (gparted)
GRUB2 entry for booting ISO: iso file is on disk partition hd(X,Y) in my case hd(1,15)
menuentry "Linux Mint 16 cinnamon ISO" {
set isofile="/linuxmint-16-cinnamon-dvd-64bit.iso"
loopback loop (hdX,Y)$isofile
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
10 • @1 password (by twodogs on 2013-12-16 12:52:21 GMT from United States)
really? a 24 character password? is this password (?) just a bunch of words strung together (weak) or hardcore (upper/lower case, numbers, special)? the latter would take forever to type in. example please. thanks.
nice linux mint review!
11 • Cinnabuntu (by luvr on 2013-12-16 13:31:48 GMT from Belgium)
@5
I'm not a Unity fan either, and I find Unity fairly weak as a traditional desktop environment (though GNOME3 Shell is even worse, in my humble opinion).
However, that does not mean that Unity will necessarily turn out to be an error; it only makes it clear that Unity was not designed with the traditional desktop in mind. If you want to properly judge it, then you should not, therefore, treat it as such.
Time will tell whether or not Unity was a good idea, once mobile devices become available that run it.
Having said that, I have recently converted a few family PCs from a failing Windows XP system to Ubuntu 12.04 (running the Unity desktop environment), and, given that the families involved have only pretty basic requirements, they are perfectly happy with it.
Earlier on, I had converted a few such PCs to Linux Mint, but the update process has a tendency to be pretty confusing to non-technical users, by prompting them about configuration files that were modified after install, and asking them whether the modifications should be left intact, or the updated files should be installed. For people having been trained on TOOS-TOFR ("That Other OS--The One From Redmond"), for years on end, to suspect malware whenever something unexpected like this happens, such prompts are pretty disturbing after having been migrated to a supposedly safer and more secure operating system.
12 • Password length (by coolpup on 2013-12-16 13:44:05 GMT from Canada)
@6
I never tried the suggestions given simply because the last few incarnations of Ubuntu (12.10 possibly, 13.04 and beyond definitely) and Mint 16 (maybe 15 too) have soured me. After installation, doing the usual clicking and filling in blanks, and booting into the installation, I've been left at the grub rescue> prompt and had to fix things that shouldn't have needed fixing. I don't know why it did that, but it did. Ubuntu and its offshoots are the only ones that do that.
13 • Mint password (by N. F. Taussig on 2013-12-16 13:55:11 GMT from United States)
I have not experienced the problem cited by Terence. I use Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon, and my password has more than 20 characters.
14 • @11: (by dragonmouth on 2013-12-16 13:55:23 GMT from United States)
Ubuntu, on the other hand, just overwrites the config files automatically without asking permission, restting the way the system is configured.
15 • Suggestion (by vw72 on 2013-12-16 14:02:51 GMT from United States)
Jesse,
Mint has Mate and Cinnamon desktops, both to mimic the old Gnome 2 desktop. Obviously, Mate being a fork of Gnome 2, should be most like the original, but an interesting article might be to compare Cinnamon to the Classic shell of Gnome 3 as both attempt to do the same or very similar thing.
In other words, how does Cinnamon and Classic compare?
16 • Cinnabuntu (by joe on 2013-12-16 14:29:27 GMT from Mexico)
@Dragonmouth
Certainly Canonical and Ubuntu was been fundamental in the universalitation of Linux and all linuxers are grateful, But Unity has many problems: very heavy, slow because is based in gnome 3 added winth compiz, much more complex to learn that Genome 2 (or now than Mate and Cinnamon), and in the last year with Amazon integrated). Cinnamon also in its version 1, was basede in gnome 3, and was buggy and slow. But now that was rewritten from scratch and it already does not depend of Gnome its very fast and secure, and it is Simple and easy to learn for begginers. a think is evident. The Ubuntu populary was descending from its cange to Unity. And the increase of Mint popularity was been consistent because its design is KISS (keep it simple and secure). Now With the maturity of Cinnamon 2 and its independency of gnome, Mint securely will continue araising its popularity in the linux world. Today is the number 1 at least here in DW. I said this with humble because I am a simple user, I am not an expert.
17 • LM 16 Cinnamon and KDE (by Hollandhook on 2013-12-16 14:45:31 GMT from Mexico)
I've been using the Cinnamon final release and the KDE RC. They're both working perfectly. Faster than ever before, reliable and lovely to look at. I've seen many final releases of various distros that don't nearly come up to the condition of the current Mint KDE RC, so it could have been released as final already, in my opinion.
18 • Linux Mint (by Mint man on 2013-12-16 14:46:17 GMT from United States)
Linux Mint is the only for me . I just wish they drop “ The based on Ubuntu “ and foucs on Debian
edition .
19 • Mint (by Jacque on 2013-12-16 14:59:07 GMT from South Africa)
@18 I fully agree
Ubuntu based mint is good, but LMDE needs serious work, it is miles behind some of the other debian based distro's out there, surely they must see with the way ubuntu is headed it is in their best interest to cut ties and move onto greener pastures ...
First the 9 month cycle, then the securities issues rantings, now licensing fees, what is next ... it is clear now shuttleworth and his buddies are in this for cashflow, i dont think weve heard the last of their crazy ideas ...
20 • *buntu derivatives (by Linadian on 2013-12-16 15:05:48 GMT from Canada)
Been there, done that (*buntus), finally got Debian 'testing' to install on my dual SSD Raid 0 (the nice people at Debian have been busy fixing things, special thanks shout out :-D). Use the 'testing' Net Install 'CD', choose ONLY base system plus base system tools, when I booted in to the Raid command line, just did an 'su' then 'apt-get install kde-standard', NO bizarre dysfunctional Gnome, worked like a charm. The only thing is, my 'Pure KDEbian', as I like to call it, is nothing like the pretty and preconfigured *buntu derivatives, you have to get a lot of things working on your own, like follow the nVida driver instructions to a 'T' or wind up back in the command line, lol, then there is the permissions lock down, Debian is old school Linux, *buntus have pre-relaxed all that so there's a bit of configuring to do. Just a tip for anybody that wants to try this, make sure you install all OTHER the GUI run-times, like kde-gtk 2 and 3, etc, makes all your program windows look the same. You might want to tweak the fonts too, make 'em all Dejavu Sans/Mono, enable 'slight' hinting and 'force 96 dpi'. You have to install sudo too and configure it. So now I have Kubuntu WITHOUT the *buntu under the hood = 'Pure KDEbian". ;-D
21 • Ubuntu (by jacque on 2013-12-16 15:07:11 GMT from South Africa)
In fact, the moment i saw ubuntu becoming commercialized i started focusing on building debian based distributions instead, and i have never looked back, and in such a short time look at what ive accomplished. Took me quite a while to get a stable working base, but once i had that going building desktops actually don't really take that long, Mint with a much larger team can do this in no time at all if they shift their focus to what matters and what is good for the project long term.
22 • Shuttleworth and Unity (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-12-16 15:07:41 GMT from United States)
Oh, come now, Unity could've been a well-received shopping facility, if Mark had any impulse control. Consider how many would now be helping Amazon with market research if he'd had a smooth marketer presenting the "enhanced" services of a specialized browser, instead of a hastily kluged search function.
23 • @18 (by jaws222 on 2013-12-16 15:09:36 GMT from United States)
"Linux Mint is the only for me . I just wish they drop “ The based on Ubuntu “ and foucs on Debian
edition ."
I'm also waiting for them to leave Ubuntu, but would like to see Mint go Independent like PCLinuxOS, Fedora, Mageia and a few others.
As far as Mint Debian, it is a testing distro. I' still not sure if they have plans to do a stable Debian, but yes that would be ideal.
24 • Mint & Ubuntu (by cflow on 2013-12-16 15:22:36 GMT from United States)
Those who keep telling mint to switch to debian are those who refuse to acknowedge all the work the ubuntu base does below. Intriging, how LMDE, while it's been around even longer than even cinnamon, is still not as highly placed as their Ubuntu based counterpart.
Desktop rasicm at work.
25 • Peppermint and LXLE (by Hollandhook on 2013-12-16 15:26:24 GMT from Mexico)
Peppermint One was my first Linux distro ever when it was introduced and I still use Peppermint a lot, now on Four. I've been running LXLE also for a few weeks to see what it is like. Really nice. So I was glad to see the mention the two LXDE distros received. Thanks.
26 • Linux Mint 16 (by Carl Smuck on 2013-12-16 15:34:40 GMT from United States)
I have a Toshiba satellite with an Intel core i5 processor in it with Windows 7 and Linux Mint 15. I was able to run Linux Mint 16 from a live USB flash drive and it worked fine. But, when I tried to install it on my hard drive it would not work. Those of you who have Ubuntu Linux can get the cinnamon desktop for ubuntu.
27 • @18, @19, @23 Mint Debian (by Jeff on 2013-12-16 15:51:12 GMT from United States)
The lead developer for LMDE was Ikey Doherty, since he left LMDE is pretty much abandonware.
28 • The SteamOS. (by Jeferson Vasquez on 2013-12-16 15:59:44 GMT from Brazil)
Will SteamOS be finally the definitive door for Linux in the gaming world?
Only time will tell.........................
29 • Windows XP (by historyb on 2013-12-16 16:13:36 GMT from United States)
A good distro for an old XP computer is bohdi linux. I used it on an older computer with 512 mb and it was fast
30 • Fortunes of Mint (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-12-16 16:22:53 GMT from United States)
A great many big fish are joining the frenzy, feeding on people "soon parted from their money", as the market of those who compensate for their lacks with smart phones has been saturated and is beginning to shrink. Mint rose on the coat-tails of Ubuntu, and may fall the same way, if Canonical goes fully proprietary in a panic to join the lemmings.
At least several helpful innovations have been contributed to the community.
LMDE has always been the neglected unrecognized child in the family - DebIan-favoring developers with skill and energy are driven to fork out on their own.
Rather than looking to LM, consider the robust competition already available, and support them before they, too, are forced out by the tight global economy.
(Should DebIan "testing/unstable/stable" be "advanced/mainstream/retro"?)
31 • @ Jesse, Mint review (by Chanath on 2013-12-16 16:45:38 GMT from Sri Lanka)
>The latest release of Mint, version 16, uses Ubuntu 13.10 as a base and features several improvements <
What might be those improvements, Mint had done for Ubuntu 13.10 base?
32 • Pining for LMDE? Consider SolydXK (by Jefe on 2013-12-16 16:52:44 GMT from United States)
The LMDE torch and legacy seem to have been picked up by SolydXK. It doesn't look like LM, but it looks good and runs well.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=solydxk
33 • The taste of Mint (by einarrdoc on 2013-12-16 17:01:12 GMT from United States)
I've tried using Mint a few times, but it always seems to me like a Nanny distro:
“Don't accept all those big scary updates, they might damage something”
“Here's the nice menu, all set up for you in the right portions”
“Careful, that's a TERMINAL! You can hurt yourself!”
And when you do something – anything – experimental or out of the ordinary, it will slap you on the wrist by freezing up.
34 • Why would they? (by LinuxMan on 2013-12-16 17:16:09 GMT from United States)
@30,
You have some confused. Where did you hear that Canonical was going fully proprietary with Ubuntu and why would they? It makes no sense. Only Apple and the MS Windows phone are fully proprietary. Android is not. Also it's foolish to think that the smartphone business, or lets say mobile business, is getting saturated and beginning to shrink. It may evolve but not shrink. You are seeing the downsizing of the desktop systems and even the laptop system into something more mobile and that will not change. Even tho desktop systems will always be somewhat needed somewhere it could be the operating systems that hang on to only the desktop market are the ones going the way of the dinosaur. Think about it. Would sinking in a tar pit be any better.
35 • Been There Done That... (by Ari Torres on 2013-12-16 17:41:25 GMT from United States)
I have tried Mint,Fedora,Fuduntu,Elementary,Bhodi,Peppermint,PC Linux OS,Open Suse,Pear,Debian and so many other Distros but I always keep coming back to UBUNTU
No matter what Unity looks elegant,smart,new,futuristic,innovative,creative so update with today's world, able to compete side by side with Windows 8.1 and of course the distant relative MAC OS Maverick. I wish people give it a try for a week and get confy with it,you will see what I mean. I love Ubuntu and I am not getting pay to write this. God bless you all. Ari Torres.
36 • @ 18 • Linux Mint - Mint man (by Chanath on 2013-12-16 17:53:38 GMT from Sri Lanka)
> Linux Mint is the only for me . I just wish they drop “ The based on Ubuntu “ and foucs on Debian edition <
Clem can't, as the Debian guys (devs) had run away from Mint. And, if once he gets into Debian, goodbye popularity. By the way, this DWW ranking is only here, pushed up by Mint fan boys, just like it was with Mageia. All this "top of the list" is make believe.
LMDE;
Cons:
LMDE requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux, dpkg and APT.
Debian is a less user-friendly/desktop-ready base than Ubuntu. Expect some rough edges.
No EFI, GPT or secureBoot support.
Well?
37 • @35 (by jaws222 on 2013-12-16 17:54:27 GMT from United States)
'able to compete side by side with Windows 8.1"
That's not saying much since an etch-a-sketch can compete with 8.1
38 • Ultimate Edition 3.8 Mate (by Chanath on 2013-12-16 18:10:26 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Ultimate Edition 3.8 Mate is quite interesting. Theemahn had built it from 'the ground up, debootstrapped from the Ubuntu 13.04 'Raring Ringtail' tree.' He even gives you a lengthy tutorial how to do that and/or make your own distro.
I didn't like MATE much, after trying out few releases of Mint, but this Ultimate Edition 3.8 Mate is something else. I am going to uninstall Petra to free a partition and install UE Mate there. TheeMahn is a very experienced IT person, and a coder.
I also have the latest Pinguy OS and upgraded it to Trusty Tahr, and no user of Pinguy OS flamed me for that in the forums. Some people are not at all arrogant as the Mint guys...my personal opinion, not anyone's.
39 • MakuluLinux (by Jacque on 2013-12-16 18:11:59 GMT from South Africa)
@38 Have you tried any of the makululinux versions ? XFCE or KDE ?
They are both debian testing based and are extremely user friendly, both for windows and non windows users. Iv'e had alot of positive feedback about both versions, I am busy with a Gnome version which i will be taking in a similar route as the first two.
40 • @39 (by byku on 2013-12-16 20:13:32 GMT from Poland)
What does Makulu means. I've found only 2 answers: Saturn or Big.
Maybe it has some special meaning like one distribution?
I didn't found any info on the page about this.
41 • @ 39 MakuluLinux (by Chanath on 2013-12-16 20:22:46 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Well, I'd download the Gnome version when it comes. It'd be nice, if the Gnome version would have the latest Gnome-shell at that time and all kinds of tweaks/extensions added, but flexible, an example Pinguy OS.
I won't download the XFCE and the KDE versions, as there is an unbeatable XFCE distro, Voyager from France and ROSA (KDE), Calculate (KDE) around. Debian and user friendly doesn't go together, but would try the MakuluLinux Gnome version.
When Ikey Doherty left Clem's crowd, LMDE had become another dormant distro. Let's wait and see, how long Mint (the Ubuntu based ones) is going to pull itself.
42 • @37 (by AleCon on 2013-12-16 20:27:35 GMT from Italy)
etch-a-sketch, what a dive into the past.
thanks for that! (getting emotional now)
43 • @41 (by jaws222 on 2013-12-16 20:30:05 GMT from United States)
"Let's wait and see, how long Mint (the Ubuntu based ones) is going to pull itself"
You'll be waiting a long time. Mint is going anywhere, but I'm sure if they do they'll go Independent.
'Debian and user friendly doesn't go together"
Really? I've used quite a few and they work well.
44 • MakuluLinux (by jacque on 2013-12-16 20:38:26 GMT from South Africa)
@40 Makulu means Big Chief or big Momma in the zulu language, hence the hippo being one of the biggest african animals the name and image go hand in hand... yes it is a South african distrobution.
@41 NOTHING is unbeatable. I have no doubt voyager and bunch of other distro's are good, I am not here to put anyone down, but until you tried my XFCE and KDE versions you cannot say someone else is better :) i have received a lot mails of people hopping over to Makulu from ubuntu, voyager, mint and bunch of others ...
And i beg to differ about debian being user friendly, one of the reasons everyone rushes off to use ubuntu based distro's is because debian is so un-user friendly... infact most of the feedback i received is from users complimenting how easy the distro is to use, just take a peek in the makulu forums, couple of those comments there as well.
45 • @43, 44 (by byku on 2013-12-16 20:46:55 GMT from Poland)
@43:
Please don't feed the troll.
Instead try Makulu as it is now based on Debian (Ubuntu before). Well done transition imho.
@44:
Yep i've noticed hippo and maybe heard about this word in National Geographics channel. I know that it is from SA (you are developer).
But thanks for clarification.
46 • @45 (by Jacque Raymer on 2013-12-16 21:03:37 GMT from South Africa)
Originally when i started makulu it was based on ubuntu and combined XFCE, KDE, Gnome, Mate and Cinnamon into one distro, that is where the word Makulu originated from ( big distro ). However, after i made the move to Debian i started focusing on Solo builds instead.
After i am done with my plans for 2013/2014 i may yet make another big distro like that, its always handy for someone who does demonstrations or wants to try out a variety of distros without wanting to download each one.
47 • @46 (by jaws222 on 2013-12-16 21:31:00 GMT from United States)
I just watched the Spatry review on the XFCE version of MakuluLinux and it looks pretty interesting. I'll have to put this in Virtualbox and check it out a little further. Good job.
48 • Win XP/ Wine (by More Gee on 2013-12-16 21:43:32 GMT from United States)
First off I don't know if this is 13.10 issue or a Mate issue, but on a Old Dell running XP with 2gb of ram both Mint 16 Mate and Ubuntu Studio 13.10 would not run Wine. Click and the hour glass spins then gives up without creating a window. Ultimate Edition 3.2 was on it dual booting with wine, 3.6 did not work, the installer would hang up. May try 3.8.
On a Via C7 box running XP with 1gb of ram I'm getting video problems that limit display to 2/3 of a screen crushed to the bottom even at 800x600 resolution. I've dumped all of my XP machines that do not do PAE. That includes some AMD K6-2 boxes. I'm telling everyone to give up on the box if it does not have at least 1gb of ram and 10gb of disk space because any less the updates will fill it up within 3 months. I'm also seeing webcam and scanner driver issues that I was not seeing 6 months ago with 13.10.
49 • Ubuntu/Unity (by EGilmore on 2013-12-16 22:33:09 GMT from United States)
I have tried Ubuntu with Unity interface on my netbook. It worked fine but what got me was the way the interface ran slowly. I switched over to Debian, which started to run slowly as well, once I upgraded to Debian 6.
I also tried the Unity interface on Ubuntu touch (on my smartphone). It works okay but lacks so many of the apps I depend on daily.
50 • Didn't say ... (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-12-16 23:32:36 GMT from United States)
Canonical would go full-pro - just IF.
DebIan proper is friendly - just its derivatives; good ones are appearing daily.
51 • Makulu Mate Edition (by Rev_Don on 2013-12-16 23:50:31 GMT from United States)
Any chance for a MATE edition of Makulu in the near future? I've been trying one of the XFCE editions recently and it is indeed quite peppy. But I'm an old died in the wool Gnome 2 fan and MATE is the closest thing I can get to that these days with any reasonably up to date distro and applications.
Pinguy 11.04.1 has been my all time favorite distro so far, and I started using Linux in the mid 90.s with Red Hat 4.
52 • Linux Mint (by Goetz on 2013-12-17 00:13:10 GMT from Germany)
The 9 months support affects all Ubuntu based distributions. Linux Mint 17 has been announced for May 2014 and will be a long term support edition. Mint 16 shows, that they keep going into the right direction.
53 • @35 Re:Unity (by Linadian on 2013-12-17 00:25:02 GMT from Canada)
When creating my beautiful 'Pure KDEbian' (see comment #20), during the first install attempt I wound up in the Gnome 3.8.x DE by accident, OMG what a mess, the only option on windows is an 'x', as in exit, no minimize, etc, you can't ask anything to remember window size/location, etc. What is really concerning me is all that smacking of the corners and sides of the screen with the mouse cursor, by all means, if you don't mind making THREE OR FOUR mouse manoeuvres just to get what you want and developing Carpal tunnel syndrome in the process, you'll be right at home with Unity/Gnome 3.x. I've said this a million times, smart-phone GUIs belong on smart-phones, Unity/Gnome is bizarre and confusing, aside from the possible Carpel. KDE on the other hand has every option know to man to personalize your GUI look/feel/behaviour, the user should have the control, not the DE, at least on a PC/lappy. IMHO, Ubuntu losing faithful and their dropping DW numbers correspond with them going all out Unity, expect more dedicated Linux users to migrate back to the 'basics', completely GNU distros, I did, and I'm NEVER looking back, I make the occasional OSS financial donation when I can, Debian and KDE are at the top of that list.
54 • Ubuntu fatal crash (by Paraquat on 2013-12-17 00:53:19 GMT from Taiwan)
@12 said After installation, doing the usual clicking and filling in blanks, and booting into the installation, I've been left at the grub rescue> prompt and had to fix things that shouldn't have needed fixing. I don't know why it did that, but it did. Ubuntu and its offshoots are the only ones that do that
I have encountered the exact same thing on three different computers. Seems that the issue started with 12.04, and I saw it in 12.10. Didn't matter if it was Lubuntu, Mint or Bodhi - the three fatal crashes were on *buntu systems. After installing and running successfully for several days, I'd boot up and be dumped at the Grub prompt and could not repair the error except by doing a complete reinstall. I googled and found a few others who reported this, but no one had any solutions (or even believed there was a problem). It may be a rare occurrence, but what are the odds that I would see it on three separate machines?
I switched to Debian a year ago, and have had no further issues like this.
55 • mint16 and UEFI (by jack on 2013-12-17 03:33:30 GMT from Canada)
if you have a Ubuntu (or Xubuntu) installed you will not be able to run the LIVE version of Mint 16.
see:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=152778
56 • @53: Makulu Linux and Nero Buring ROM (by eco2geek on 2013-12-17 03:49:35 GMT from United States)
Out of curiosity, does Nero AG (the company) know that you're providing your users with a copy of their optical media burning program, Nero Linux 4.0, along with your Linux distro?
Last time I checked, it was proprietary software for which they charge a fee, so I'm a bit confused about why it's in your distros.
(Another, less serious question: is that hippo in your main wallpaper behind glass, or...? What I mean is, how is all that chaff suspended in the air where the hippo is, but not where the kids are?)
57 • @56 I think you meant @51? (by Linadian on 2013-12-17 05:11:12 GMT from Canada)
KDEbian was just a name I made up, just searched it and it seems somebody in Russia came up with Kdebian already, oops. FWIW, I don't need somebody elses idea of what an installation should look and feel like (aka, a 'distro'), I just made my own (see post #20) on my dual SSD Raid 0, now I have to find a tool to back this up, it's pretty sweet. I was using Kubuntu, my KDE+Debian looks better and works better, way less bugs too.
58 • MakuluLinux (by Jacque Raymer on 2013-12-17 05:23:08 GMT from South Africa)
@51 I am waiting for Mate 1.8 to hit the testing repo's, then i will start work on a Mate edition.
@56 NeroLinux was discontinued, the software is considered abandonware
What an Odd question with the hippo wallpaper, I think ill leave it to your imagination :)
59 • @58 -- so it's discontinued... (by eco2geek on 2013-12-17 07:07:39 GMT from United States)
....does that mean they're OK with your including their software with your distro? I doubt they've discontinued their copyright.
How about Kingsoft Office Professional? Is that abandonware, too?
(Re: the hippo question -- it looks to me like he's underwater, but I'm not sure. Speaking of odd, I'm not the one who produced a distro (the Xfce one) which includes 34 wallpapers -- each and every last one of them, of hippos. That'd be you.)
60 • @59 (by jacque raymer on 2013-12-17 07:23:07 GMT from South Africa)
well if nero has a problem with it im sure they will be in touch ... but as you cannot buy it any longer i cant see the harm, in fact i am giving them free publicity and hopefully in the long run enough to convince them to reboot the linux version ... :)
Kingsoft office is alpha or beta version i think ( tho its very stable ), i got it off their website, its not the pro version, altho i dont know if pro features are unlocked in beta or not.
you dont like the wallpapers ? the wallpapers are still work in progress... you should check out the KDE version, then you will see what is weird ...
61 • @10 Password formula (by Terence on 2013-12-17 07:25:52 GMT from United States)
Here is a dead simple way to create long but memorable passwords. Furthermore, they are hard to crack.
Step 1 is create a "root" word that you use across all passwords. Let's use "mother."
Step 2 is create a site specific word or function word. In thee case of FaceBook, maybe we could use "face" or even "f@c3."
Lastly, we need the padding. That's as simple as choosing a certain character and repeating it a set amount of time across all passwords. We could use ! for example. I recommend at least 11 repeats.
So our FB password would look like motherface!!!!!!!!!!! and to test our password, we can head over to https://accounts.silentcircle.com/join/ and place our potential password in the box. It will tell you how long it will take to crack the password right below that.
Hopefully this helps others in creating long memorable strong passwords.
62 • Ubuntu vs others (by Gustavo on 2013-12-17 10:42:59 GMT from Brazil)
Ubuntu LTS base is the (non-ofical) Linux desktop standard and it's a good thing to have one. It´s easy to mantain, stable, compatible, updated, adopted by third party developers and, believe it or not, some hardware manufacturers.
The fact is that there is no other distro up to this standard.
63 • @62 (by U on 2013-12-17 12:36:08 GMT from Netherlands)
(The fact is that there is no other distro up to this standard.)
Really?
In what world are you living?
I think you are living under a stone the past 25 years.
64 • @62 (by Jacque Raymer on 2013-12-17 13:16:05 GMT from South Africa)
Ubuntu doesnt hold a candle against debian, neither does mint or any other ubuntu based distro. id even run the worst debian based distro than run ubuntu.
65 • @62 (by jaws222 on 2013-12-17 15:37:54 GMT from United States)
"The fact is that there is no other distro up to this standard."
That's a pretty bold statement to make, especially with that Unity DE. Unity needs to go then maybe there's an argument. But not likely.
66 • @61_Are you advertising for Silent Circle? (by gee7 on 2013-12-17 15:38:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
Terence sir
You gave this url:
https://accounts.silentcircle.com/join/
If someone fills in that form and then clicks "I agree to the Terms and Conditions" in order to check password strength, then he or she will be charged a subscription fee!
Reading more closely we see:
"Terms and Conditions:
By clicking on the box below, you enter into a subscription agreement with Silent Circle for the services it provides (the “Agreement”). Silent Circle wants you to understand what you get for your money and what we promise you. The pricing and subscription terms you have chosen are incorporated into this Agreement."
Perhaps Distro Watch ought to check whether giving out this url on their website is permitted. A nooby reader may well give a correct email address, fall into a trap. and find themselves under a legal contract to pay for a service that they did not want.
67 • Makulu (by PenguinHead on 2013-12-17 17:21:55 GMT from United States)
I really like this distro. I like the fact that Nero is included. Keep up the good work. I hope this isn't going to be one of those distros that is around for a couple of years until it becomes too much work and then disappears. You are really on to something here especially with the XFCE version.
Not a big fan of the hippo theme but whatever. Not many distros include a picture of their mascot on the default wallpaper. I like hippos, I just don't want to look at one on my desktop all day lol. I know, it's easy to change the wallpaper but how about less hippos and more other stuff.
68 • @40 • @39 (by byku on 2013-12-16 20:13:32 GMT from Poland) (by Ron on 2013-12-17 17:54:28 GMT from United States)
"What does Makulu means. I've found only 2 answers: Saturn or Big.
Maybe it has some special meaning like one distribution?
I didn't found any info on the page about this"
Really, who cares its just some name someone spit out just to have a name. Just think of the silly names children are currently given; "blanket", just to give an example!
Jot it down and stop worrying.
69 • burning software (by Dave Postles on 2013-12-17 18:59:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
I've always found Xfburn quite adequate. What does Nero do which Xfburn doesn't?
70 • My mistake. (by LinuxMan on 2013-12-17 19:40:41 GMT from United States)
@50,
My mistake. I read it wrong.
@53,
If you have to use three or four mouse maneuvers you are doing something wrong. I never have to use more then two. Sometimes not that many.
@65,
I really doubt that. Ubuntu is Debian based. I've run the worst Debian distros, pure Debian, and they are not very fun. When it comes right down to it as I've said in the past, Debian is a great base and it has its place, but it is not a good stand alone distro in my opinion. Anybody who has only a general knowledge of computers will tell you that also. This is not a stab at Debian but it is what it is. Debian in it's present configuration will never be accepted by the general computer population, no matter what it's DW PHR is. That doesn't make it any worst then any other Linux system.
I still keep trying to figure out why people want to continue to have distro wars. What really is the benefit? Nobody here knows it all, but they talk like they do. People talk like they hate each other. We shouldn't be that way. You cannot imagine how many people this stupidity turns away from using Linux. They can't help but wonder what the hell is wrong with these people, and the sad fact is I can't answer them.
71 • Nero/Xfburn (by PenguinHead on 2013-12-17 22:44:42 GMT from United States)
@69 - I don't know. Xfburn is my favorite burner. It's just nice to see something different for a change. Maybe there are some advantages I'm not aware of but I'm not interested enough to check ha. It's easy enough to install Xfburn as you know (which I probably will do).
72 • @66 Please don't be that guy (by Terence on 2013-12-18 04:05:26 GMT from United States)
My instructions were pretty clear cut. i never told anyone to sign up with SC. In fact, not even I am a member. I use Autistici for my email which is free. I merely stated that you should put the proposed password in the password box. Hell, you don't even have to type it a second time. Once is good enough to get feedback on the password strength.
Since I am unaware of a similar tool to assess password strength, that is the one I chose. If you know of another similar tool, please provide it for my benefit.
73 • @69 - re: Nero (by eco2geek on 2013-12-18 04:10:38 GMT from United States)
I can't answer your exact question because I use K3b, rather than Xfburn. However, Nero can tell you all about Nero Linux's capabilities themselves:
http://www.nero.com/enu/promo-linux.html
Nero doesn't have anything over K3b (I'd say they're pretty comparable in their feature sets), but it's well-known on the Windows platform, and is both powerful and easy to use. It's a good burning app. (It's also proprietary and, of course, copyrighted.)
If Xfburn meets your needs, stick with Xfburn.
74 • K3b (by Jeff on 2013-12-18 07:30:22 GMT from United States)
The main reason I have never used K3b is because it depends on most of KDE.
When I use a DE I normally use Xfce.
In the past I have used cdrecord (the command line tool) called by a Thunar Custom Action, unfortunately xfburn could not find the speeds for my burner.
I prefer modular applications.
75 • burning (by Dean on 2013-12-18 09:29:54 GMT from United States)
I have encountered a burning problem within Linux over the past a year or earlier (not sure exactly when the problem began). When I tried to use K3b, it would give errors so I tried xfburn and it would not recognize the blank dvd in the drive. I then moved to brassero and it burned the iso but I had to manually eject the dvd after the burn.
At first I thought it main been a bad download so re-downloaded but same problem. Since then I have downloaded other isos and they burn fine with brasero, the dvd ejects through the program now. Which burner is the best I can't say but brasero works for me so that is what I use.
I don't know where the problem is whether it is within Linux itself or within my computer. I built this computer back in 2006 and the dvd burner was installed then. The only hardware changes was a new harddrive when the old one crashed.
Just adding this comment in case others may have a similar problem.
76 • MakuluLinux Nero (by Jacque Raymer on 2013-12-18 11:40:29 GMT from South Africa)
Well the way i see it, the more the merrier, adding one more burner to linux is more freedom of choice, so not sure why you guys are so dead set against it. its easy to remove if you dont like it, however none of you have even tried it, so how do you know you wont like it ? funny how people can be so opposed to change to the point where they will reject something without even giving it a chance.
You also forget that nero burner works on all de's, no need to put XFburn on XFCE and K3B on KDE and brasero on gnome and cinnamon. I can put nero on all of them and users get used to using one standard burner ...
77 • @76 (by Terence on 2013-12-18 12:36:51 GMT from United States)
I can sum up the reasons why they seem to be objecting.
1) It is is discontinued software
2) It is proprietary
3) It is not standard
4) Some are of the mindset that IP is sacrosanct and that using it without permission is not good
78 • @77 (by Jacque Raymer on 2013-12-18 14:17:21 GMT from South Africa)
That is a little over dramatic dont you think ?
I think Nero has a little more on their plate then tracing your IP on abandonware software ....
79 • Nero (by Bill on 2013-12-18 14:33:51 GMT from United States)
Hi Jacque,
I've used Nero burning software since Ubuntu Hardy 8 just because at first, it was the only program that would recognize my optical drive without hanging up and freezing before completing the burn. It was out of necessity that I bought the software. And yes, as you say, it has worked consistently over any distro I have tested since then. Now of course I am just used to it for burning all my iso's.
To each their own my friend.
Happy Holidays everyone!
80 • Ubuntu fatal crash (by avelinus on 2013-12-18 15:52:36 GMT from Portugal)
I had the same fatal crash problem with ubuntu 13.10 and solve it using an external disk installation i use to backup and to use in other computer.
Then reboot the computer with the external disk and chose the rescue mode. I do the grub update, reboot again with the USB disk and choose the crashed partion on the other disk entering may account. Next i uninstall grub, delete it configuration and then install grub again. This always work well.
Good holidays.
81 • Nero Linux (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-12-18 16:15:43 GMT from United States)
The purpose of copyright is to encourage development, not to suppress it.
82 • @81 (by Jacque Raymer on 2013-12-18 16:44:25 GMT from South Africa)
Its not available to be purchased anymore, so no business is being stolen at all, and in fact if they ever revive the nero linux at some point they will probly have new customers due to people being used to it from my distro. We can argue this point till we both blue in the face and we would both raise valid points, the fact is i like nero, and ive had far more positive feedback about including it than negative, the only negative feedback about nero has been people that dont use my distro. I myself do not encourage using warez or software that is not paid for, but you cannot buy nero anymore, its considered abandonware ...
@79 Glad you see the value in the burner, its definitely not the best out there, but it has a certain charm to it, and it is so user friendly ...
83 • @82: Nero on Makulu Linux (by eco2geek on 2013-12-18 20:57:50 GMT from United States)
The reason including proprietary software like Nero without explicit permission in a Linux distribution is this. The Linux kernel, and most software in any given Linux distro, is based on the GPL. (We could probably agree that the GPL is unique among software licenses, as most of them are proprietary, and it's the reason why Linux has grown, with the participation of a global community of developers and users.) The GPL depends on copyright law for its viability. If you expect others to uphold the license terms in the GPL, then you have to uphold the license terms of proprietary software.
That's basically what it boils down to. Sorry to get all Richard Stallman on you, but I was pretty surprised to see Nero in your distro.
84 • @83: Add "is a bad idea" in the first sentence there (by eco2geek on 2013-12-18 20:59:43 GMT from United States)
^^^
85 • #84 (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-12-18 21:44:53 GMT from United States)
Add "in the United States of America" as well, since that country is particularly infested with an abundance of lawyers and other vermin, who would prefer we forget the origins and intent of copyright and patent law.
86 • @70 Not "distro wars"... (by Linadian on 2013-12-19 04:07:25 GMT from Canada)
...more like DE wars, lol. I have a smart-phone, swiping and Gnome/Unity style operation is fine on that, but most of us seasoned PC users prefer a 'normal' DE, that's where KDE comes in. What I said is not about what's under the hood of my OS, which it is Debian (simply because most distros I've used were Debian based, including *buntus), but the bizarre layout/behaviour of Unity/Gnome on a PC. I've been used to right clicking for YEARS to bring up special shortcut menus, all you get in Gnome/Unity is an x in the corner of the window, no right clicking, NOTHING, not even minimize, in KDE I can tell EVERY window exactly how to behave, size, location, focus, etc etc etc, then inside that window I can right click to root actions or various specific file type menus, etc. Can you do that in Unity/Gnome? Umm, nope. Even if I went Slack or Gentoo or Fedora or Manjaro, my DE would still be KDE, my machine can handle KDE, I feel sorry for those that can't.
Have you actually counted the mouse manoeuvres? My important apps are linked by widgets/icons on the 'desktop', aim, manoeuvre, double click (hate single click), that's two, if it's in the kmenu, click, locate, open, still very basic and straight forward, no Carpel tunnel syndrome smacking corners or sides. I have a spinning cube desktop, icons enabled in the pager, I know what's open and where, one click to go to it, already focused, no smack/scroll/locate/click.
87 • Portable Virtualbox - run VMs directly from external hard drive (by Andy Prough on 2013-12-19 04:38:31 GMT from )
Nice recent discovery - Runar Buvik is running a great little project called Portable Virtualbox:
http://www.vbox.me
You can install Virtualbox and run it entirely from a USB hard drive, including your VM's ISO and virtual hard drive image. Nice way to test out a bunch of distros without having to devote any internal hard drive space to the effort. Works really well if you've got a USB 3.0 connected hard drive - I've been watching videos and streaming TV tonight on an openSUSE 13.1 VM on a Seagate 1 TB external hard drive.
88 • @81 something about the road to hell is paved with good intentions (by Terence on 2013-12-19 12:31:38 GMT from United States)
I am no lawyer, and quite honestly, I spit in the face of IP. However, I do not expect you to be familiar with american style law, especially regards to IP. It does not matter what you think. What matters is the lawyers from Nero. They aren't in the business of caring about you. Furthermore, and this is factual, they are required to defend their IP even if they do not care about ever resucitating that Linux line ever again. Because in america, if you do not defend your IP/trademark, it can be used by competitors. A great example is the word aspirin. It is trademarked and is heavily defended, but almost everyone and their mother call any pill designed to relieve aches and pains by such a name.
Besides, I do not especially care for distro makers telling me what software they think I should have preinstalled. Why don't you place it in your repo instead and make it available for anyone that wants it rather than including it by default?
89 • Nero (by Penguinhead on 2013-12-19 14:16:31 GMT from United States)
I hope you keep Nero in your distro. Nobody is going to bother you over abandonware. The level of paranoia I see in this forum is actually funny. These are the same trolls who vilify Puppy Linux for running as root. Get out your foil hats everyone.
90 • burners (by Dave Postles on 2013-12-19 14:37:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
@89 That seems to me both an unwarranted comment, really. If you need to get out your tin foil hat, then you look like the paranoid. Sometimes it is necessary to have non-free drivers, although one tries to avoid that wherever possible. To include a burner which is not OpenSource (i.e. the code base is not available) when there are other options, seems gratuitously counter to the philosophy.
91 • @90 and everyone else ... (by Jacque Raymer on 2013-12-19 15:04:40 GMT from South Africa)
if nero wants money, then they need to make it available for purchase ( i will be first in the Que ) ... they dont, and i dont see why i and everyone else should be forced to use the 3 default burners that come with linux because software was discontinued and as a result suddenly "no one" is allowed to use it. Abandonware sites all over the world have been posting discontinued software and games for many years and they are still going strong, none of them prosecuted and none of them taken down or gone to jail. like i said, if nero wants to travel to South Africa to prosecute me over a discontinued version where they will have no monetary gain then so be it, but laws here arent the same laws in America, so good luck to them. it may be that people can sue for stupid things, but at same time a company will have to weigh the cost involved, and such a petty case will surely cost a massive fortune to prosecute with little chance of sucess.
on the other hand, me including nero burner in my distro's creates a demand for it, maybe not a massive one right now but as i get more popular and the demand grows, nero at some point may see the profit and benefit in rebooting the nero for linux series ...
So what it boils down to is that they should really be thanking me for creating more potential clients in the future...
92 • Sure, Spy apps (by ElBendecido on 2013-12-19 15:29:25 GMT from Mexico)
@49
"I also tried the Unity interface on Ubuntu touch (on my smartphone). It works okay but lacks so many of the apps I depend on daily."
Government Spy Apps, Like Face, What's, Twitter, etc.
if you do not worry the government, Fret for cybercriminals to take advantage of this Surveillance toys .
93 • Ubuntu roots (by ElBendecido on 2013-12-19 15:50:59 GMT from Mexico)
@62
"The fact is that there is no other distro up to this standard."
WHAT!, Don't forget!
Without Debian, ubuntu did not exist, so when you speak of the success of a derivative, you have to honor the mother distro, minimum.
94 • Nero bad idea (by ElBendecido on 2013-12-19 16:20:26 GMT from Mexico)
"I like the fact that Nero is included"
Is a big mistake, Nero Linux was descontinued at 24 April 2012, which means 0 security patches since then.
It is already proven that a system can be compromised by a single unpatched application -> http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/12/anatomy-of-a-hack-what-a-successful-exploit-of-a-linux-server-looks-like/
Nero is and will be a propietary software, for that reason, I doubt that is patched by Makulu Developers.
In this time of high vulnerability to security and privacy, we need to avoid these types of applications possible.
95 • burners (by Dave Postles on 2013-12-19 16:24:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
@91 I don't give a toss whether Nero wants to chase you up or not - that's immaterial. The inclusion of Nero is counter to the philosophy of Linux and OpenSource, IMHO.
96 • US laws is not for the world (by ElBendecido on 2013-12-19 16:40:26 GMT from Mexico)
@91
You're absolutely right, thanks God, in most countries sharing software is not a crime, but keep in mind that your Distro is distributed globally, and in consideration of your users, you should ask yourself include a warning to avoid get in trouble users of aggressive countries like U.S. and Japan, UK, etc.
While I agree with you on this, I want you to know I never would use your Distro, the reason is in comment # 94
97 • About comment 94 above. (by Jeferson Vasquez on 2013-12-19 17:48:32 GMT from United States)
About in the comment 94.
If that's a big problem, so as soon as this distro is installed just
uninstall nero that's all!
98 • nero linux is not free (by Jeff on 2013-12-19 23:43:17 GMT from United States)
Go to;
http://www.nero.com/enu/promo-linux.html
and you will see it priced at US $19.99
Lawyers will get involved over lost revenue for a company.
99 • The Crumbling Kingdom of Buntu. (by fool me once on 2013-12-20 00:01:25 GMT from United Kingdom)
All the past and present grumbling about Ubuntu, Unity, and spyware is a waste of time and resources.
Download a minimal Debian iso and install/build from there. Google[1] for 'Debian minimal install'. I no longer recommend or use (K)(X)(L)(U)(whatever)buntu. Fool me once, never again. I urge you to switch from Ubuntu to a distro you are comfortable with, and one which doesn't draw from Ubuntu's package repositories.
[1] or use ixquick, startpage, duckduckgo search engines
100 • Nero (by Penguinhead on 2013-12-20 03:13:24 GMT from United States)
@98 - I think you have a point.
@95 - As do you.
So, I'm over it.
101 • Nero Linux 4 (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-12-20 06:06:27 GMT from United States)
Has anyone actually used that link, and succeeded in making a purchase?
Does anyone have an official current statement specifically about this from Nero?
[... or it it indeed simply, as stated, abandoned?]
There's no "lost revenue", only word-of-mouth advertising assistance.
It's hard to sabotage a known binary package without changing its checksum(s).
Thus there's no threat to Nero's trademark (nobody "Neroes" their disc) or IP.
If some Freed and Open-Source Software developer is jealous, perhaps they should provide superior software.
102 • nero linux (by linux user on 2013-12-20 11:20:52 GMT from United States)
http://forum.my.nero.com/index.php?showtopic=12578
Currently we do not sell any Nero Linux products any more. Please note that technical support for Nero Linux is no longer available. As a service for these products, Nero will continue to provide online FAQs, manuals and tutorials in our Support Knowledge Base.
103 • Nero (by Penguinhead on 2013-12-20 14:39:37 GMT from United States)
@102 - Well now I'm ok with it again. David Postles does make a good point, it's just not a deal breaker for me. Key words, "for me". I will continue to enjoy Makulu because it's excellent. When is the 64 bit version coming?
104 • ????? (by LinuxMan on 2013-12-20 18:45:13 GMT from United States)
@99,
Stop wasting your time. There is no spyware on Ubuntu. Spyware is something you don't know about. As far as search engines goes, that is all up to the user and search engine providers. Sounds like you've been fooled more then once. Your recommendations are too exclusive and will not benefit most people.
105 • Sabayon 14.01 (by Chanath on 2013-12-23 00:53:45 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Interesting comment on the Sabayon 14.01 release;
"Together with the GNOME 3.10 bump, we kicked out Cinnamon 2.0, which has been available in our repositories before Linux Mint (ihihi hi there!) made a new ISO. Enjoy Cinnamon with a cup of hot chocolate (unless you live in Australia, in that case well, enjoy Summer)."
Such love for Cinnamon and Mint!
106 • never fooled again (by replicant on 2013-12-23 02:27:05 GMT from Russian Federation)
@104
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/ubuntu-spyware-what-to-do
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.html
Take your empty words to RMS and FSF.
107 • Nero would likely be expected to pay licensing fees for each user ... (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2013-12-23 04:33:20 GMT from United States)
... using copyrighted codecs like mpeg or blu-ray. Just sayin'.
Unless owners of said copyrights accept a more functional arrangement, of course.
108 • @ 106 • never fooled again - replicant (by Chanath on 2013-12-23 05:14:24 GMT from Sri Lanka)
Actually, why are you so worried that someone is spying on you? You go to shop, there are cameras, you walk on the street, there are cameras. If you are not doing something bad/terrible, why should you worry, if anyone is looking over your shoulder? Whatever we do in the internet can be caught by someone else. When you click "okay" or "go" or whatever, you really don't know how the data are moved around. It can be checked by your service provider, his overseas agent etc and etc.
If I close the two newer laptops, and fire up the old desktop, and look in Google, all I need to do is write the first 2-3 letters, and what I was searching for would come up. Is that good or bad? For me, its good, saves my time.
Simple solution; if you are so afraid of "spyware," don't use those distros you suspect, and use the others. Calculate, Sabayon etc appears to not to have spayware, so use them or some other. Forget Ubuntu!
Number of Comments: 108
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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