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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • OpenSUSE (by Gustavo on 2014-02-03 09:40:45 GMT from Brazil)
1 year release cycle is the way to go. Another good option would be a 2 year release cycle with good backport activity.
2 • OpenSUSE, Centos and.... (by musty on 2014-02-03 09:53:11 GMT from France)
I believe that all distros have to go for a one year release with some service pack in the middle.
For Centos and Scientific, it will be a good thing that they join their effort for the best FREE server around.
Ps: Robolinux has some icons from OS X !!! another distro with OS X look but without anything new (sorry !!!)
thanks for NetRunner revieww ..
3 • openSUSE (by :wq on 2014-02-03 10:08:44 GMT from United States)
The repositioning of SUSE's openSUSE team away from release-specific work seems to be a temporary measure, though there is no lack of confusion and concern.
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2014-02/msg00023.html
http://lizards.opensuse.org/2013/12/11/discussing-about-the-future-of-opensuse/
4 • @netrunner, opensuse (by greg on 2014-02-03 10:11:01 GMT from Slovenia)
netrunner - i though it was an improved Kubuntu. i believe it is made by company that financially sponsored Kubuntu. i am a bit surprised to see bugs in this distro that don't exist in Kubuntu.
Kubuntu also comes with 3 package managers. Muon software centre - is to be replaced with Muon Discover, the other one "replaces" synaptic. But Discover as i read is still in beta stage, but people will try it and give feedback. not sure why they include more managers it is a bit strange. i would focus on the mentioned bugs.
@openSUSE - it would be a shame if this fine distro went downhill. i agree with Gustavo in post 1. just keep it stable people.
5 • openSUSE addendum (by :wq on 2014-02-03 10:21:06 GMT from United States)
http://lizards.opensuse.org/2014/02/03/trying-to-add-some-light/
@1,4 I'm going to go against the grain and say that, even if it means rocking the boat a little, perhaps the openSUSE community should at least have a conversation about putting more emphasis on (as well as tweak/reimagine) Tumbleweed. But I do realize most of openSUSE's users prefer standard releases.
6 • openSUSE Trying to add some light (by slk021 on 2014-02-03 10:25:25 GMT from Serbia)
Long story short:
There WILL be openSUSE 13.2 in November 2014
13.2 WILL have security and maintenance support provided by SUSE
We WILL have coolo as release manager for 13.2
SUSE is NOT decreasing manpower put into openSUSE
Everybody from the community is welcome and encouraged to be involved with, and if they want to, take over some parts of the release process and we will support you the best we can in doing that
FULL BLOG
http://lizards.opensuse.org/2014/02/03/trying-to-add-some-light/
7 • Old Yeller (by :wq on 2014-02-03 10:54:37 GMT from United States)
YDL exists in a niche of a niche market now. It's dying, but it isn't dead yet. When it does die, perhaps another Linux distribution will appropriate its branding.
8 • Netrunner (by Hollandhook on 2014-02-03 12:49:07 GMT from Mexico)
That's a surprising review of Netrunner. I've used it for the past couple of years in every release and never ran into anything like that in terms of problems. One of the things I've appreciated has been the good care the developer takes with his product. Linux Mint 16 KDE is also excellent, but I would say it caught up in the current release with Netrunner, which had previously been better. I like them both better than Kubuntu; though Kubuntu 13.10 is very good, too, bugs and crashes aplenty at the start. I hope if you have time one week that you can give Netrunner another shot.
9 • FreeBSD NetBSD Gentoo Debian Support PowerPC (by Anonymous on 2014-02-03 12:52:08 GMT from United States)
FreeBSD's new binary packages (when ready in a few months, the PowerPC build farm awaits) mean you can get an Arch-like experience on PowerPC. The new FreeBSD binary packaging works like Arch Linux's pacman.
Debian supports PowerPC too, and very well, but package versions lag behind the BSDs per Debian release policy. Still if you like it, use Debian.
You can run Gentoo on PowerPC for up-to-date software, but look at NetBSD and FreeBSD along with Gentoo. After all they were behind Mac OS X. Gentoo is just that Linux closest in packaging spirit to BSDs.
10 • Netrunner fixed my super key (by Marco on 2014-02-03 13:57:31 GMT from United States)
Mogger claims because they packate ksuperkey:
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=154569
11 • Netrunner issues (by vw72 on 2014-02-03 15:29:19 GMT from United States)
I, too, had some issue with Netrunner when running it in vbox (although not as many as the review). I liked it enough to install it, anyway, and to my surprise all of the issues I had in the virtual setting were absent.
As a long time Kubuntu users, I am quite pleased with Netrunner-os. Kubuntu has a goal of presenting KDE as the KDE developers designed it. Then users reconfigure it to their liking. Netrunner takes a different approach in they present a KDE desktop that is visually appealing and has additional software installed so that users new to linux or KDE will feel right at home. (Obviously more experienced users will probably still tweak things around a bit).
Pluses for Netrunner - all of the advantages of Kubuntu plus a lot of extra functionality and usability.
Minus - a tad slower from login to desktop and a somewhat higher resource usage.
Is it perfect, no. But I have yet to find the "perfect" distro and if you like KDE, it is close.
12 • Re #1, #5 (by Vuktoa on 2014-02-03 16:27:05 GMT from United States)
@1: Totally agree. Longer release cycles for OpenSUSE are preferred along with LTS. I have too many computers to maintain and less frequent I have to do it, better for me.
@5: Funny, but I agree with you too. Tumbleweed has to receive some more attention and become more up to date and stable. If I understood OpenSUSE's folks correctly, "tooling" support they are working on should support exactly this, and I applaud them for it.
13 • Robolinux (by AliasMarlowe on 2014-02-03 19:17:17 GMT from Finland)
At present (3 Feb), SourceForge has no downloads available for Robolinux. It's the only source of ISOs and is linked from the Robolinux home page as well as from Distrowatch. Incidentally, in the list of distros, it appears as "Roboinux", which is missing a letter, but does get to the right page on Distrowatch...
BTW, thanks for the brief primer on dsh.
14 • Robolinux download at SourceForge (by DrakeSmith on 2014-02-03 21:30:32 GMT from United States)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/robolinux/
15 • Muon (by charlie on 2014-02-04 04:21:39 GMT from United States)
Does "Muon Discover" (packageKit-based analogue to Ubuntu SoftwareCentre) read from the same backend set of "user reviews" displayed via SoftwareCentre?
16 • Bad Distros (by Eric on 2014-02-04 12:30:13 GMT from United States)
I see a lot of good reviews of different distros. It might be fun to see a compiled list of the ten WORST distros.
17 • openSuse (by ثط on 2014-02-04 13:29:03 GMT from United States)
My experiences with SUSE / openSuse is that every time I want to run an update , the system ask me to insert CD 1 or 2 or whatever . Why can't they update automatically , without the insertion of the original media source , used to install the system !
Please don't tell me edit this or that file or used the terminal with 3 pages commands to accomplish this . Simply because a user should be enjoying the use of their box , without having to go through tasks meant for use by a professional whose job is to do that .
For everyday uses , the command-line and the insertion of a USB stick or DVD every time you want to update should be over , even for an advanced user .
18 • #16 (by jaws222 on 2014-02-04 14:20:50 GMT from United States)
That would be interesting. I know of a few that I stay away from. I figure there are so many choices why not just move on and choose another. The Linux community is "fractured" enough so I try to do less finger-pointing. I have my favorite distros and am very happy. :)
19 • RE: 17 (by Landor on 2014-02-04 15:46:38 GMT from Canada)
Even for an advanced user? First off, what defines an advanced user?
I use a terminal throughout my day, happily. I find it far easier to initiate a combination of keystrokes to open a terminal then to type out various commands than it is to lift my hand off my keyboard to then grab hold of a pointing device. I say pointing device as I own a trackball, which I'm sure must be far too advanced for even an advanced user as well.
Why exaggerate though? Three pages of commands? I honestly can't think of a time I ever issued three full pages of commands to do anything, and that includes installing Gentoo. It's poor form typing things out like that and putting a good distribution in a bad light. If you don't like using one distribution the easiest thing to is try another. There's 100s of them to choose from.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
20 • @17@19 (by jaws222 on 2014-02-04 16:31:42 GMT from United States)
@17 I'm not sure how you update but why not use Update Manager? That's what I use in the Gnome version. You can also go into YAST and do the online update and if that fails zypper will work too.
@19 The terminal is always good and I find it to be faster.
21 • RE 17 & 19 (by jdeca57 on 2014-02-04 16:35:08 GMT from Belgium)
YMMV is a nice acronym that describes perfectly the situation of *any* linux distribution. It has to do with software, hardware, and the user.
In OpenSUSE, the solution to almost any system setting can be found with Yast and that's a graphical tool that's been around for ages. In KDE you find Yast under the tab "Computer" of the menu.
However I don't remember changing the settings for an upgrade. On the contrary, my beef with OpenSUSE is that upgrades are to easy since they often don't even require a password. They simply say there is an upgrade, and you can perform it with a click of the mouse. (OpenSUSE 13.1 and KDE)
22 • @21 (by jaws222 on 2014-02-04 16:41:01 GMT from United States)
"my beef with OpenSUSE is that upgrades are to easy since they often don't even require a password"
That's not totally true. I'm not sure if Update Manager asks for credentials but getting into YAST you need your password and the terminal will also ask for your password when you run updates.
23 • SUSE (by قط on 2014-02-04 17:23:48 GMT from United States)
@19 Even for an advanced user? First off, what defines an advanced user?
2 me an advanced user is someone who know how to use Linux to perform more that just the basic tasks and can run complex tasks, which require more detailed knowledge of things like file-management and text-processing utilities .
Basic Tasks ! : Fire-up Firefox , Inkscape , Change background or time ....
advanced Tasks : Change permissions , edit boot-loader files ....
" It's poor form typing things out like that and putting a good distribution in a bad light. "
I like SUSE and openSUSE and I just would like it to be better . Before Novell buying , SUSE was my first Disro to work with my 56k modem out of the box .
@20 I meant to say Update Manager and not update through the term .
" The terminal is always good and I find it to be faster."
It is NOT always about speed . Plus why typing few keys to open a terminal then typing gedit ,when you just with one click , click on the gedit icon . also , what if i can't remember the name ! Is it editor or gedit or jedit or what !
24 • RE #16 and #18 (by vw72 on 2014-02-04 17:32:20 GMT from United States)
Instead of 10 worsts, what might be more useful is to come up with a point system for various aspects of a distro and based on that system a rating can be applied to each review. Then there could be a page ranking the distro's reviewed.
The still not 100% objective, as the weighting of the points (installation total of 10 points, current main packages 5 points, multimedia capabilities 5 points, as an example) is still subjective. However, once defined, it allows a consistent and objective score to be assigned.
Such a system, once established, would allow for an easier comparison of distros that have been reviewed.
Just a thought.
25 • @23 (by jaws222 on 2014-02-04 21:23:22 GMT from United States)
'It is NOT always about speed . Plus why typing few keys to open a terminal then typing gedit ,when you just with one click , click on the gedit icon . also , what if i can't remember the name ! Is it editor or gedit or jedit or what !"
Well I guess I'm much more advanced that I thought. If you go to the terminal and type:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Then enter a password your done. The next time you fire up the machine open the terminal and hit the up arrow until you see that command, hit enter, type your password and you're off! Not so hard.
As far as gedit, sudo gedit /your path
enter password
Really not that hard and I guess I'm really not that advanced.
C'mon, man! Easy as sin! You're starting to sound like a Windows user. :)
26 • On: openSUSE in Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) and #17 (by Pierre on 2014-02-04 22:43:32 GMT from Germany)
openSUSE in Miscellaneous News
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For clarification again, as already posted, because it can't be said often enough:
SUSE will further support and develop openSUSE and 13.2 is scheduled for Nov. 2014. So everything is ok and healthy on openSUSE and it's future although the April/May release will be skipped to further improve the tool chain for making openSUSE.
#17
-------
Start Yast (Control Center), go to Software and click Software Repositories. Then deselect your installation media (DVD or CD) and klick OK for saving the change.
After this you can do an update as expected.
I know, it would be nice if installation media would be automatically disabled after install, but this is not the case.
Nevertheless, if you know who to use your system or at least how to use google and make some research nothing on openSUSE will ever need the command line if you don't like it.
So pebkac here... (problem exists between keyboard and computer) ;)
27 • Yast (by قط on 2014-02-04 23:50:43 GMT from United States)
# 26
Thanks 4 the info and by the way I know about Yast . But that is not my point .
My point is this : a PC is a tool , just like a hammer or a car . I should not be asked to be a technician to be able to use and enjoy a drive to a seven 11 .
I should not be ask to remember the different types of nails just to nail two pieces of 2*4 to hang a photo on the wall.
I know how to use the term and edit files . Guess what ! I like to enjoy my system and not spent a whole lots of time tweaking it . That is why people go out to eat sometime , even if they are good cooks .
28 • #27 (by zykoda on 2014-02-05 08:02:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
If what one needs to do is already available as a point and click, there is little to gain from wading through command line options and parameters. However, there is often an easy and quick way to achieve what is impossible with a point and click interface using what is the vastly superior (IMHO) command line infrastructure. One is well rewarded by the time and effort spent in learning a little of it. I defend CLI unreservedly. It is the way to control your machine rather than the other way round.
29 • CLI (by قط on 2014-02-05 09:19:35 GMT from United States)
#28
The command line interface is necessary and should be included as a choice . That said , it should be as a second choice and a plan B choice and not the default or the main go to choice .
You want to spend half of your day shining your car and changing spark- plugs ? Great ! It's rewarding . Just remember most people want to drive the car and that's why Macs and the Redmond systems are more used than Linux .
30 • @22 (by jaws222) OpenSUSE upgrades without credentials (by Oliver on 2014-02-05 09:57:00 GMT from Germany)
In the default configuraton (when the standard security profile is active) package kit allows you to do upgrades without providing credentials for an elevated user account. If you don't want that, you have to add a line to "/etc/polkit-default-privs.local":
org.freedesktop.packagekit.system-update auth_admin:auth_admin:auth_admin
and run "sudo -i /sbin/set_polkit_default_privs" afterwards.
Best regards, Oliver
31 • @25 (by Kazlu on 2014-02-05 10:50:08 GMT from France)
Indeed it's not hard to type that command to update your system. Nobody here is saying it's hard to type a few keys on a keyboard (without any intention of being irrespectful to people who cannot type and rely on, for example, speech recognition). The hard part is not typing, it's knowing/remembering. You need to do something, are not allergic to command line but don't know how to do it? Fine, you can probably find what you're looking for by browsing a few websites. That's okay for a couple of particular actions. But as far as system updates are concerned for example, which must be done very regularly, what about the next time? Well, just type the same command! Wait, I can't remember, should I start with update or upgrade? Haw many "&" must I add between the two commands already? Okay, for the last one, you could as well type two separate commands. But my point is you don't necessarily remember or know the right command or the right syntax and you probably don't want to look for it over the Internet every time. If you remember a set of useful commands, perfect, CLI is right for you. But you cannot expect that from everyone. For less experienced users and for those who are not sure of what they are doing, a GUI with buttons and eventually options/menus correctly labeled can guide one so one can know what to do, where to click.
I know a couple of commands fo browsing/managing files and folders or install packages but do most of my tasks with a GUI. With the exception of system updates on Manjaro since I remember the syntax, the command line is short and I have a shortcut to open a terminal. On the contrary, on Ubuntu, I do it via the GUI that tells me automatically about updates. Simple habit, I don't feel the need to do it via CLI here. Even if I do some updates via CLI, I don't consider everyone should do the same. I would not consider someone who does it via GUI to be lazy or unwilling to learn or, even more insulting, call him/her a windows user :-D
Notable exception: command line is safer for helping someone distantly, because in a GUI you never know where the other clicks!
32 • @31 (by jaws222 on 2014-02-05 13:03:35 GMT from United States)
"The hard part is not typing, it's knowing/remembering"
Maybe, but I think it's a societal thing. A bit laziness, but with todays technology people expect to do less. Pretty soon it will all be futuristic with speech recognition. You'll come home and say "lights on" "TV on", "computer on" etc.. Keyboards and mice will disappear.
33 • Still looking for the point. (by Garon on 2014-02-05 13:13:57 GMT from United States)
@29,
I'm sorry but I'm still looking for your point. The comparison of Linux to MS Windows and OSX (Mac) are really irrelevant. For the most part people don't go out and buy Windows or OSX to install on a system. They buy a system and it's already installed and setup. All people have to do is plug up the system and turn it on. That is the main reason most people are using Windows and Mac's. For the most part it's the same way for Linux. After it's installed and setup per the user's requirements and preferences, you don't really need to do anything else. I know people who have used Ubuntu along other distros for years and have never touched the command line. It's a bit of a stretch to say that the command line is easier or more convenient than clicking on an icon but it is great for seeing what your system is doing and for troubleshooting. Speed is not an issue for me. Furthermore the command line is used a lot in troubleshooting and repairing Windows and osX. As far as setting options for updates and such, that has to be done on all systems. So all in all the myth that Linux is too hard to be used by the general public is just that, a myth.
34 • @33 Linux VS shit (by Kazlu on 2014-02-05 14:24:14 GMT from France)
I think you make a very good point. #29 قط originally just wanted to alter the way openSUSE handles updates. He anticipated that one could give him a solution via CLI, however #26 gave him a GUI based solution. Why did قط think everyone would have thought only about CLI options? Why could'nt he find the GUI based solution, was it not intuitive enough? I can't answer that but I would like to know, since these answers, in some people's mind, are precisely the reasons why Linux is considered hard to be used. Something you Garon called a "myth", and I agree with you. However I still wonder how people who are quite comfortable with computers have sometimes trouble using a distro as simple to use as Xubuntu. Is my vision clouded or is it just the fact that because of needing to change their habits, people think Linux is harder to use than Windows? Honestly, if you don't know either of them, I do not have the impression that it is easier to find one's way in Windows' configuration panel than in openSUSE's YaST.
35 • Update MGR YAST (by قط on 2014-02-05 15:12:08 GMT from United States)
#33
What if all the new Microsoft and apple systems in retail are setup as text-based only or at least the default heavily depends on the C prompt ! Do you think people will buy them ?
If that was the case , people would rather used a Linux box with Mate or KDE or Gnome desktop environment .
lets put back DOS or DR DOS on all the new system and remove everything GUI .
Have them type something like : man -l -Tdvi ./foo.1x.gz > ./foo.1x.dvi .
Again the CLI is important on all the systems you mentioned ( Mac , Win , Linux ) . The difference between Mac | Win and Linux is that nothing text-based is forced upon you in a Win machine until you get a blue screen or you need to do some serious fixing .
( by the way .. not a window user . last time i used windows , that was 2 years before i was born ) .
" As far as setting options for updates and such, that has to be done on all systems. "
Back to the first comment ( #17) , why do i have to edit files and or run YAST just to uncheck the original media check-box , when in my Mint or Ubuntu box i can just click the panel !
OK , do i want more control ! easy : Panel > Preferences > Edit . That's it . no original media insert option . and non of the is it YAST or yeast or yasst .
No it's Update MGR . My panel said so .
Logical .
System76 sells Ubuntu installed and setup , and people still buying more MS systems . OK , you are right . win is installed and setup . everywhere
That said , again most people using windows don't use the command line everyday and Microsoft does a good job of hidden it from them .
#32
"You'll come home and say "lights on" "TV on", "computer on" etc.. Keyboards and mice will disappear."
That would be nice as long as i have the controls . I want that option .
36 • Easy as it can be. (by Garon on 2014-02-05 15:54:03 GMT from United States)
@35,
"What if all the new Microsoft and apple systems in retail are setup as text-based only or at least the default heavily depends on the C prompt ! Do you think people will buy them ?"
Of course not, but I've bought them like that before. :) I know of nothing related to the command line that is forced upon you in Linux, unless you really screw up or are experimenting. Remember I said "I know of nothing" so there could be some reason you have to use the command line I don't know about. With that being said, distros like Ubuntu are very easy to use. If you can click you're good to go.
37 • @25 and 2 cents worth (by william on 2014-02-05 15:58:21 GMT from United States)
thank-you for the tip of opening a terminal and using the up arrow for the commands, i didn't know you could do that. i've been using different Linux distros for about a year and im still learning. as for the updating in openSUSE ive had a couple of problems in updating it but i think it comes down to setup when installing to get things set up right the first time to get things running right.(in my case anyway). for me with any of the distros its trying to get out of the mind-set that these are not windows. but from what ive seen in the advancement of the linux distros within the year ive used them they are starting to get a little easier to use but as an ex-windows user i have to get it in my mind i have to re-learn these os's just as i did with win95 and up. just a newbies 2 cents and blabbing.
38 • Update (by Hendrik on 2014-02-05 19:48:09 GMT from Netherlands)
@17,
just in yast open software sources and remove the repositorie pointing to youre original install media.
Then run software update and geus what problem solved i thank you!
Opensuse rules!!
39 • On Human Nature & Uberstudent (by himagain on 2014-02-05 21:32:27 GMT from Australia)
My Provenance: In 1984(?) I wrote what I believe was the first User-Friendly "menu" for the Osborne PC. I needed it. Adam Osborne said it really boosted sales.
Working with computers to that time was all about the "insider experience".
I was never, ever geekly. I was a good aetiologist as a psychologist.
For decades I tried to escape the Windows trap unsuccessfully as from the earliest days I tried every Linux iteration that appeared. None had any hope/promise for real END-USERS. The Luddites attacked me every time I pleaded for a GUI - just as they do to this very day!
But, the biggest obstacle is familiarity - AND the pain of having learned to use Windows and facing the same horrors all over again, to switch to LInux.
Today, the evolution of Linux Distros toward different classes of ENDUSER has been literally astounding. The choices amazing .... but confusing, as most still seek to be all things to all people.
Recently - only at the insistence of a friend - I tried UBERSTUDENT.
It is aimed squarely at the higher school student and is impeccable at that.
It is an amazing effort for a one-man band! Mr Stephen Ewen.
HOWEVER, it is also the best of the dozens and dozens of Distros I've tried over the years, none of which were safe to commend to non-hackers and myself.
I have suggested that UBERSTUDENT as a name will frighten many people away as it did me when I first heard of it. Stephen should put another cover version out there called something like "AtLast! - Linux for the Over 25's"
I keep recommending it to people who all shy away because - as everyone knows - anything to do with schools and higher education is always too hard.
It just works intelligently out of the box for "The Rest Of Us".
Please help him.
40 • nostalgia, indolence + the dreaded command line (by :wq on 2014-02-05 21:37:13 GMT from United States)
@32 "Main screen turn on" works for me.
I really hope http://s18.postimg.org/i6gnsdci1/wall_e.jpg isn't indicative of the future.
@33 I wish I knew what percentage of Windows users manage to go through life without ever having to touch Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell at some point. I imagine that there are more users who haven't used them than there are users who have, that being said, I think the number of Windows users who've had to use command-line interpreters in the course of daily life is higher than most people would probably expect. To be clear, I'm not comparing typical Windows command line use scenarios and the frequency of that use to typical *nix command line use scenarios and the frequency of that use, but I don't think the actual act of using a command-line interpreter is necessarily an anathema to users any more than typing a URL into a browser's address bar is. To add to what Kazlu said in #31, I think it boils down to rote memory, the intelligibility of commands and parameters, knowing where to look for documentation, and the quality of that documentation. It probably doesn't help that many people don't learn touch typing, and instead peck at the keyboard.
41 • @35 Update MGR YAST by قط (by Oliver on 2014-02-06 11:29:11 GMT from Germany)
>> why do i have to edit files and or run YAST just to uncheck the original media check-box , when in my Mint or Ubuntu box i can just click the panel !
Because SUSE is modeled after an enterprise distribution. In a corporate environment machines do not simply connect to the internet to get updates. Some system don't leave the local network at all. Larger corporations set up their own update servers. Almost all use proxy servers for outbound traffic.
Mint, Ubuntu, Windows, OSX are most often preconfigured for consumer use with a home internet connection. So yes, openSUSE is an outlier in that regard.
By the way: If you do more advanced stuff in Windows you rely heavily on the command line. I use it every day.
Best regards, Oliver
42 • OpenBSD as a desktop Os (by David Long on 2014-02-06 13:03:18 GMT from United States)
I am not an expert on security and don't even choose my OS based on wether its secure or not. I do however use OpenBSD as my main desktop. As a bonus it happens to be secure (so they say).
I use it for its ease of use. Fast install, easy wifi setup, and great package management. The documentation is coherent, accurate (as far as I can tell) and there is plenty of it.
It seems extremely stable and I rarely have any problems after I install my programs of choice.
I use links and netsurf for my browser. Mutt for my email client (send and receive email from my gmail account). Mplayer to watch movies and listen to anything. Irssi as my IRC client and MC as my file manager.
To manage wifi connections I use a small bash script to switch between available sites.
I also use fluxbox as my desktop environment.
If you want to watch youtube videos its easy with youtube-dl and flash videos are easily downloaded with get-flash-videos. Play them with ease using Mplayer.
I understand for some of you the extra steps needed to enjoy the web interactively may be a bit of a pain in the arse but for me no problem at all.
Don't let the fact that its mostly text driven to scare you off. I promise you will learn alot about unix and may even find it enjoyable.
David
43 • OpenBSD (by tuxtest on 2014-02-06 16:29:05 GMT from Canada)
@42
Reputation OpenBSD security is recognized by all.
Currently they are fighting for their survivors. If I just make a suggestion, to ensure their perenity in long term, it should offer a version out of the box for the standard user. That way they have a larger community and therefore more financial partner.
But unfortunately the good idea is never retained by the OpenBSD people .... In my book, it's a waste of competence through the narrow conservatism ... Sorry it my opinion
44 • CLI (by Dave Postles on 2014-02-06 19:55:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
The car analogy: surely you look under the hood and inspect the levels of your oil, coolant, brake fluid, screen wash; you check the condition of your tyres. There are basic things to be done. How many Windows users never defrag and then hit the attendant problems? A very large number, I'd guess. Why are 30% of Windows users still using XP? There is stuff you need to know about how the system operates.
As to the CLI, it's fast and it's flexible. I always use ftp from the CLI. I use concordance analysis and similar analysis from the CLI. If you look at the Linux Cookbook, there is so much that you can do from the CLI. You can do stuff for free instead of shelling (pardon the pun) out for software.
45 • 43, 44, Etc (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2014-02-07 00:23:37 GMT from United States)
43: Heise mentions a "cease and desist", likely about _unmodified_ Pear_OS screenshots and ISOs, not about "Clementine OS". Just remove the branding ... like CEntOS?
44: CLI from CP/M-DOS days onward - for Windows, see 'Batch Files'.
Why have so many kept XP? Not impressed with 7 or 8, or ...; it _works_; many computers were built for it, and they still work.
Maybe waiting for new PCs that perform better, use fewer enough watts to pay off within a year - in something more than a "smart"-phone/tablet, and still run x86 apps.
##: ReactOS is another OS, and is good for ... student-developer projects? [too slow composing this one?]
46 • insert media (by قط on 2014-02-07 02:25:45 GMT from United States)
# 41
" Because SUSE is modeled after an enterprise distribution. In a corporate environment machines do not simply connect to the internet to get updates. Some system don't leave the local network at all. Larger corporations set up their own update servers. Almost all use proxy servers for outbound traffic. "
Regardless i want my all my system to be all up2date one way or another . That being said , still i should not be asked to insert the original installation media . I should be using the updated files with bug fixes . AND the original installation most likely does not include the new bug fixes to keep my systems secure . again with proxies or without , directly or via a proxy .
# 44
" The car analogy: surely you look under the hood and inspect the levels of your oil, coolant, brake fluid,.......how the system operates. "
Basic stuff ? Yes Engine rebuilt ? Nice !! but you know what >>> most have other things to do . + Just like when your kid gets sick . it's nice to search and know about what making him or her sick , but you should not play a doctor . Unless your are one .
47 • PSD Links (by قط on 2014-02-07 03:14:07 GMT from United States)
Links as a browser is cool . that is if you surf in English . But , good luck trying to surf sites other than in English . a non Latin-based Language sites with it looks like an alphabetical soup .
I want to like PCBSD and BSD . My bone with both of them is drivers and docs . Less than Linux by far .
# 43
" If I just make a suggestion, to ensure their perenity in long term, it should offer a version out of the box for the standard user. That way they have a larger community and therefore more financial partner."
You must have a good hammer . That is a key .
48 • CLI? #29 (by Koroshiya Itchy on 2014-02-07 09:12:20 GMT from Belgium)
The main reason why Windows is more popular on the PC than other OSs are (it is not the case for servers and mobile devices) it is just because it comes pre-installed in most personal computers. The same applies to MacOSX.
The main reason for Android (Linux-based) to be the leader in the mobile device league is because it comes pre-installed (thanks to Google's successful strategy).
The reason why Linux and other UNIXes are leaders in the server league is because server administrators are more knowledgeable people than the average user.
Then of course, comes the compatibility factor. Most commercial developers will be forced to produce software (be it applications, drivers or whatever) which is compatible with the leading OS (which is the one pre-installed in most devices) thus strengthening its position.
Closed drivers and formats further strengthen the leading OS in a vicious circle.
The way to break the circle has little to do with quality or ease-of-use, the way to break the vicious circle is having your OS pre-installed in as many devices as possible. All the rest will come along (professional-grade applications, drivers, compatibility, etc).
And I think we are getting there...
49 • Unix (by قط on 2014-02-07 11:15:10 GMT from United States)
#48
"The reason why Linux and other UNIXes are leaders in the server league is because server administrators are more knowledgeable people than the average user. "
Unix is in the funeral home on its way to the cemetery . Linux will overtake Unix in few more years .
A window administrator is far more knowledgeable than the average Windows user.
A Mac administrator is far more knowledgeable than the average Mac user.
Microsoft certification for servers is far more popular that the LPI .
Server market share
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
December 2013
Linux : 31.8%
BSD : 1.1%
Win : 33.2%
50 • Linux is killing Unix (by قط on 2014-02-07 11:21:17 GMT from United States)
Sorry , I meant to say Linux killed Unix and will overtake Windows in every field but the desktop .
51 • Truncated quotations in 49 do notlead Unix to cemetary.... (by dbrion on 2014-02-07 16:43:55 GMT from France)
@QaT:
you forget to count the 'unknown' Unix likes (not Linux, nor BSDs: Sun, propriatary Unixes) : they count for ...34% (above Windows and Linux...)
Not that bad if it is "in a funeral home'....
And statistics are unconsistent w/r measuring methods, definition of a server (is a PC cluster a unique server? can one know about it with web polling?)
52 • Unix to cemetary (by قط on 2014-02-07 19:08:08 GMT from United States)
#51
Year after year , UNIX is in decline . Large , SMB and Enterprise server customers continue to look for solutions at lower cost, lower than what the UNIX old-timers like IBM ,HP , Dell , Oracle ( Sun’s server business ) all have to offer .
Large Internet corps ( Google , Amazon , Microsoft , Facelessbook ,apple ...) are not buying servers from the old timers anymore ( 4 the most part) but are using their own or systems which are not traditional UNIX based .
53 • Unix to cemetary (by David Long on 2014-02-08 01:04:03 GMT from United States)
At best the comments concerning Unix and its death are ridiculous. It is used on large scale DNS servers, Corporate servers,
OpenSSH is a direct result of the work that is done in the Unix world and is considered the defacto. There seem to be alot of uneducated comments concerning the viability of OpenBSD as well.
Viva la vida Unix
54 • Mageia 4 (by Mikkh on 2014-02-08 03:31:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
I use PClinuxOS mainly, but I was keen to see what another Mandriva clone could do, and how they compared.
The install was horrendously long compared to PClinuxOS and I'm not using some ancient relic, I have a recent quad core with 4 GB of RAM. PClinuxOS takes about 15 minutes to install but Mageia took the best part of an hour and has a lot less software when it's finally done.
Not a good start, but it did offer to install the propriety Nvidia driver for me, which I accepted. I wasn't given a choice about the bootloader, so I had to trust it would pick up the other OS's on the hard drive and luckily it did that job OK.
Slower install, but it does boot quicker - but then it would with less installed software ( 7 GB total compared to PClinuxOS 12 GB)
I play a few Facebook games, so getting Google Chrome was my next hurdle. There was a fairly painless cure on the Mageia forums, so that was sorted too and after getting rid of my pet hates in KDE, I was free to start using it properly
The default fonts are a bit weak and spidery compared to PClinuxOS and it doesn't like booting with USB sticks plugged in, but overall I'm quite pleased with it, and it's a massive improvement on Mageia 2 which I pretty much hated
55 • UNIX (by قط on 2014-02-08 04:06:50 GMT from United States)
#53
How many roosters do you need for every chicken coop ?
How many DNS server do you need for every UNIX farm ? Do you need more dns's than lets say file or data servers or workstations ?
All you need is one rooster for every chicken kingdom . And if you all you want is eggs production , then you don't need any roosters at all .
56 • Do consistent -existing- figures lead to cemetary? (by dbrion on 2014-02-08 14:02:32 GMT from France)
"Year after year , UNIX is in decline . "
Prove it with consistent (from year to year), well documented
** figures**
with a beyond doubt methodology.(and it wonot show anything w/r future which depends on one's Crystal Ball brand).
Number of Comments: 56
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| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
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| • 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 |
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| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
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| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
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Ichthux was a free Linux operating system aimed at Christian users. It was based on Kubuntu, which provides the easy-to-use KDE desktop environment with a variety of Christian software and settings, and was deemed suitable for use on computers in churches, Bible schools and Christian homes. The name Ichthux comes from the Greek word ichthus, which means fish.
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