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1 • PCBSD&KDE& Android (by greg on 2014-02-17 11:28:07 GMT from Slovenia)
they have some interesting solutions that i would like to see in linux as well. i wonder why they haven't appeared yet.their code is open and free, right?
virtualisation - i wonder what the issue was. the hardware virtualisation was enabled, right? i think i might try it at home on windows PC just to see what happens.
too bad for the hardware support. i've read their user guide and system seems easy to control.
KDE - i think the kicker menu is kind of strange. there is classic, btu lately i saw homerun kicker which seems really well done. it's a ncie combination between classic and modern. haven't tried it yet though.
It's good to see Android X86 added to the list. makes it easy to follow what is happening with distributions all in one place here on distrowatch. i still have to try it, haven't found the time to get to it yet but already downloaded it. though there is no google play i believe in this x86 version. but i could be wrong...
2 • SystemD, Red Flag (by Paraquat on 2014-02-17 11:51:35 GMT from Taiwan)
Certainly the biggest and most surprising news of the week was Ubuntu's announcement that they are abandoning Upstart for SystemD. Although I don't have any strongly held opinions about which one is better, it probably is necessary to find some sort of standard because that will make life easier for developers. I realize that there are still a few holdouts - Slackware which is sticking with sysvinit, and Gentoo which offers OpenRC. But for the most part, the war is over, and SystemD won. I have yet to try it, but look forward to seeing if it can really boot up as fast as claimed.
===========
Also, sorry to see that Red Flag bit the dust. Not that I used it, but I was hoping that China would find a way to ditch Microsoft - if they could do it, other nations might be more inspired to do the same. Sadly, there are precious few countries in the world where Linux on the desktop is even well-known by the public, let alone dominant. Sad.
3 • PCBSD 10 (by Michael F. on 2014-02-17 13:19:10 GMT from Germany)
PCBSD 10
Generally I'm happy with the new release, but
- there should be some fixes regarding the old problem, namely to install the bootloader correctly.
- Grub2 is working, but makes system startup very slow, and
- choosing to install the bsd bootloader ends up in an unbootable system.
4 • Tech Buyers Love To Be Dominated (by Joncr on 2014-02-17 13:28:26 GMT from United States)
On Red Hat: I think it is in the nature of technology that its markets will often be dominated by one ot two vendors who survive from among an initial, early, flowering of many vendors. We saw this a century ago in the automobile business. We've seen it in the aircraft industry. The market dominance of these vendors allows them to create de facto standards that only entrench their position. Smaller vendors and most consumers are happy to ignore the dominance so long as the de facto standards deliver profit and convenience. (The same phenomenon is seen in the dominance of businesses like Google and Facebook.)
Red Hat sells into the segment of the market that is probably least affected by the de facto standards created by Microsoft's dominance.
Ubuntu and systemd: Seemed certain to me Ubuntu would adopt it if Debian did. Why take on all the hassle and effort of adding systemd-to-upstart conversion to every release? *Users* should judge all this based on new capabilities it delivers to us, if any.
5 • Red Hat & Red Flag (by JSL on 2014-02-17 14:33:35 GMT from United States)
I do not think the Red Hat business model is bad or particularly difficult to execute. The problem with any business model is understanding its limits and strengths. Currently there are several different OS models used in the marketplace; OS bundled with vendor's equipment (Apple), standalone commercial OS (MS), OS as service (Red Hat), and OS as marketing tool (Google with Android/Chrome). Each model is vulnerable to different market forces such as people opting to not buy Apple products, deciding your OS is garbage (MS and Red Hat), OEM's refusing to install your OS (MS and Google).
As Joner noted, in mature markets there are relatively few dominant companies that as long as they deliver products the customer will at least tolerate they will do well. What should not be overlooked is if one the dominant companies ignores its customers often a relatively minor player will start to grow and replace it. MS missteps with W8 and XP upgrades provide an opportunity for someone take a significant share of the OS market place.
6 • PC-BSD 10 & slitaz-cooking.iso (by tester testing on 2014-02-17 15:53:05 GMT from United States)
PC-BSD resets my hwclock to localtime. Every linux distro keeps it in UTC. Slackware is polite enough to ask. Localtime is weird. There's system software to deal with that, but it doesn't work if you bypass it. Systems move, especially laptops. When that happens you should just change TZ. Resetting the hwclock is a PITA.
Slitaz-cooking.iso won't boot under qemu-I tried several options. Complains about no rootfs. Did they test it under qemu?
7 • PC-BSD (by Dave Postles on 2014-02-17 16:51:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hurray. It recognizes usb drives and puts an icon on the desktop to open them.
8 • android-x86 (by pfyearwood on 2014-02-17 17:40:50 GMT from United States)
I have tried Android-X86 several times in the past. The major complaint I had was solved with 4.4. You can now dual boot, at least I can with my Gateway LT40. So, now I have the choice of Android or Windows 8.1 Enterprise Eval. Next, I'll try it with a Linux/GNU distro. Will update this report later. To all those snowbound, It's almost March.
Paul
9 • Red Flag, Qomo, & Asianux + NixOS (by :wq on 2014-02-17 19:17:27 GMT from United States)
I noticed that Qomo's website was down last week. While I haven't really followed it, on the most recent occasion I was able to access Qomo's forum, I saw some people accusing Red Flag of abandoning Qomo. I think they felt Red Flag was no longer interested in Qomo; I guess the truth turns out to be that Red Flag was floundering. Asianux was already in maintenance mode prior to this announcement, IMO. Beyond Red Flag Software Co, Ltd (which wasn't basing its recent products on Asianux anyway), Miracle Linux Corporation (still majority owned by Oracle?), Hancom, Inc, VietSoftware, Inc (whose website is currently down, though their Asianux specific-site, www.asianux.vn, is still up), and Enterprise Technology (Pvt) Ltd are/were all invested in Asianux to some degree. Of these, Miracle Linux seems to be the most interested in continuing to beat the Asianux drum. That being said, Asianux's website (www.asianux.com) has gone from being accessible, to inaccessible, and back to being accessible over the last year. If curiosity compels you to download Asianux, you're better off getting it from Hancom (http://tsn.hancom.com/index.php?m=downiso&a=list), as downloading (anything other than source) from Asianux's servers requires authentication, and Miracle Linux requires you to register in order to download an evaluation version from their website. Also, access to Asianux binary updates requires a service contract.
The best distro originating out of China is (IMO) Linux Deepin. Red Flag and Qomo are no big losses (again, IMO), and Red Flag inWise was an update attempt too little, too late.
---
I'm glad to see NixOS moved from the waiting list to the database. How about a review (if nothing more pressing is on the docket)?
10 • clarification, PHR envy, TechCrunch article (by :wq on 2014-02-18 00:51:42 GMT from United States)
RE: 9 "Access" was a poor word choice on my part. Without a support contract, you can still download Asianux updates from https://tsn.miraclelinux.com/tsn_local/index.php?m=errata&a=published, but that can make for a PITA.
---
Both Ubuntu Kylin and Linux Deepin are engaged in what I feel is a slightly disingenuous act in how they've worded their DistroWatch link descriptions. On Ubuntu Kylin's download page it reads, "Click here to check Ubuntu Kylin's ranking in DistroWatch", which links to Ubuntu Kylin's page at DistroWatch. On Linux Deepin's homepage it reads, "Click here to view our popularity", which links to Linux Deepin's page at DistroWatch. They should really read, 'Click here to increase Ubuntu Kylin's PHR at DistroWatch' and 'Click here to raise our [Linux Deepin's] PHR at Distrowatch', respectively, rather using language like "check" and "view" that belies their intent. This appears to be a recent development for both (this month?); maybe it's an indication of jockeying between them. Regardless, I wish they would amend their hyperlink text to something more general like 'See our entry at DistroWatch', and leave "ranking" and "popularity" out of it. But perhaps I'm being too suspicious.
---
RE: "Why There Will Never Be Another RedHat: The Economics Of Open Source"
Levine says "...the [Red Hat] business model simply does not enable adequate funding of ongoing investments. The consequence of the model is minimal product differentiation resulting in limited pricing power and corresponding lack of revenue. As shown below, the open source support model generates a fraction of the revenue of other licensing models. For that reason it’s nearly impossible to properly invest in product development, support, or sales the way that companies like Microsoft or Oracle or Amazon can."
I find this interesting, because among Linux-related companies, I think Red Hat unequivocally makes a mark in terms of contribution of developer hours and/or funding. Oracle has a much larger market cap than Red Hat, but Oracle's product development/support/sales is also spread out over more areas. A similar comparison could be made to Microsoft, etc. Subsequently, those companies also have greater overheads. Red Hat isn't doomed, it just needs to operate leaner and in less of an ADHD-way than companies with deeper pockets like Microsoft, which can slap cash bandages on inefficiency boo-boos.
Second, does the open-source community tolerate true differentiation well? I'm not talking about UX tweaks here so much as stark underlying technological differences. How many times have accusations like 'NIH syndrome', 'not the Unix way', etc been batted around? Whereas Windows users may represent a community of consumers (and to a lesser extent contributors), I think (GNU/)Linux users and developers as a whole tend to be viewed as 'the community', as opposed to the users and developers of a specific distribution's fiefdom, and walled gardens are often frowned upon.
Levine: "It’s not to say we won’t see another Red Hat, but the odds are long and the path is littered with the corpses of companies that have tried the support model."
Isn't that the truth.
11 • BSD (by James LaRue on 2014-02-18 01:10:28 GMT from United States)
I admit that I'm a dilettante, not an expert. But I wonder if one of you good people can give me a succinct summary of why (other than hobbyist reasons, which I *do* get) someone would choose BSD over Linux. The GNU/user space, I gather, is roughly the same. BSD has a reputation or security, but my Linux installations have been secure enough for a user (not a server deployment, developer or programmer). BSD has less hardware savvy. Is there ANY reason to prefer it to Linux?
12 • @11 (by :wq on 2014-02-18 02:15:01 GMT from United States)
If Linux is everything you want, there is no reason you should prefer a BSD.
"BSD for Linux Users" (http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/) is dated and makes the point of stating that it isn't a "Why you should use BSD" pitch, yet I think it some of what it covers might encourage consideration.
Other (FreeBSD-related):
Allan Jude's take: http://youtu.be/HiGHABTDp3U?t=1h9m15s
The less controversial bullets from §4.7 of "Explaining BSD" (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/explaining-bsd/comparing-bsd-and-linux.html): "The BSD license may be more attractive than the GPL." (<- i.e. for some, not all, people/organizations) "BSD can execute most Linux binaries, while Linux can not execute BSD binaries. Many BSD implementations can also execute binaries from other UNIX like systems. As a result, BSD may present an easier migration route from other systems than Linux would."
13 • NixOS (by GNUday on 2014-02-18 02:39:58 GMT from Canada)
That's a very interesting looking project, out of the box thinking (no pun intended) and innovative. How old are the rpm and deb models now? At least over two decades each? It's about time somebody shook things up a bit.
14 • @11 (by JR on 2014-02-18 04:29:08 GMT from Brazil)
@11 - ZFS? and... it's BSD, it just lack hardware support and desktop focus, give it time....
@13 - I think it's not just about that. it's the whole packaging infrastructure...... (or instalation?)
15 • Android x86 screen resolution (by Pumpino on 2014-02-18 05:26:05 GMT from Australia)
Does anyone know how to change the screen resolution in Android x86? I added it to my grub2 entry in Arch and it boots fine, but no amount of specifying the desired screen resolution will work. I've tried adding "vga=866" and "vga=0x0366" to the kernel line, as well as these lines to the grub file. My resolution is 1366x768, but changing it to more standard resolutions fails to result in any change also. It's useless without a higher resolution.
GRUB_GFXMODE=1366x768x16
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
16 • 15) screen resolution (by EarlyBird on 2014-02-18 06:23:16 GMT from Canada)
15) Screen resolution:
I don't know about doing this on Android, but here's how I solved the problem in Linux (on the off chance this may be applicable or helpful):
The problem starts on first booting. Newest kernels include "kernel mode setting". During bootup, monitor is detected, and kernel part of video driver (kms) switches to highest monitor resolution resulting in user myopia, a visit to the optometrist, burnned out eyeballs, Passing the nomodeset argument to the kernel via bootup manager (lilo, grub, or whatever) results in black or frozen screen (usually with Nvidia and Intel video chipsets).
Solution, leave vga=normal line in the boot manager, but append (or pass the argument to the kernel) by adding the following:
append="video=resolution"
so if you want 1024 by 768, the line would be:
append="video=1024x768"
and of course leave the vga=normal line in the boot manager (as opposed to the previous line which was appended.
Since I work a lot at the command line, the LAST thing I want is for the monitor booting up at maximum resolution. Now text and curses based programs like Midnight Commander are usable again.
Still one problem. When booting into X, One is STILL at the maximum resolution. KDE and XFCE have "display" options in the settings where one can choose one's preferred resolution and refresh rate. Haven't figured out where the mode settings are stored, and how to transfer them into my prefererred window managers (Fluxbox, Openbox, etc.). When using them, the settings from KDE or XFCE are lost, and one is stuck again at maximum resolution.
Xorg -configure will provide a minimal working configuration, but that's it. It USED to provide options to pick your graphics card, and cycle through options like, zoom (virtual screen mode), resolution(s), and more. In "simplifying things, they have utterly destroyed it's utility. Have searched all over the place (including Xorg site), but no simple drop-in replacement for the old-style behaviour. Funny, I never see younger users bouncing back and forth between commandline and X anymore. Having virtual screens and being able to change resolutions at the flip of a keystroke (CTRL-ALT+ or -).
Anyway, assuming that Android is similar to Linux, hope this helps; and if anyone can shed light on fixing things under X, that would be appreciated.
Note, even if you don't use X and STAY at the commandline, this can be a problem. Example: Finnix 109 - a commandline ONLY rescue distro. During bootup, it immediately switches to the infernal kernel setting thingy and switches to maximum resolution. There IS no X in this distro! WHY would you invoke mode switching? And it is a "live distro", so I guess I'd have to edit as above and remaster the ISO, but as a default behaviour, it defies logic.
17 • @13 (by greg on 2014-02-18 08:40:15 GMT from Slovenia)
aside from nixOS another thing that might be intresting to look at is GoboLinux 015 once it gets out of alpha and beta. and see how this compared for example with PBI in PC BSD.
offtopic: dissapointed they do not have an official torrent. i believe torrent is a must for when one downloads such large files. especially OS where little error during download can have huge impact on OS stability or even basic functions. there are posts of people downloading it 3 or 4 times before getting a good image.
18 • (16) Sorting video (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-02-18 18:30:33 GMT from United States)
Isn't modesetting for GPU (hardware) acceleration, not (software) driver, or for passing parameters to X, or a display device?
(For geeks, it's fun when Life gets complicated.)
19 • security (by de on 2014-02-18 18:58:56 GMT from United States)
I have enjoyed coming to distrowatch for perhaps 8 years and most of what I have learned about linux came from first visiting this page. I felt much more secure running linux. Today I walked away from my machine for an hour or so to do other things and I passed by my machine, which was booted from a puppy linux mem stick. (I like it for backing up downloaded tutorial/educational files), sitting there with the wired connection to the internet, and the hard drive light blinking about like I would see, if I were downloading a large iso- lights blinking continously, mostly on. The browser was theoretically not open. I doubt I am important enough or do the type of things that would make the NSA interested in me. I have lost confidence in some other distributions recently, also. Is the hacking or NSA back-dooring getting that bad, or am I too paranoid?
20 • Maybe not. (by Garon on 2014-02-18 19:56:41 GMT from United States)
Chances are you have nothing to worry about with Puppy even tho you are running as root. Now if it was a large corporate distro, like perhaps Redhat, you could possibly have reason to worry. Redhat is just an example, but you see my point.
21 • @11 BSDs vs Linux (by Oko on 2014-02-18 21:27:46 GMT from United States)
I am an avid OpenBSD user but I use in my day job besides OpenBSD also FreeBSD and RedHat. This is an attempt to give you a brief summary of things where BSDs IMHO have an edge over enterprise Linux.
1. Portability
2. Simplicity
3. Stability
4. Security
5. Superior network stack
6. Firewall (IPtables are joke comparing to PF or even NPF).
7. Hammer, ZFS and WAPBL are far superior than any existing Linux file system (Btrfs doesn't exist yet)
8. OpenSSH
9. OpenSMTPd
10. Many serious applications like Unbound, NSD or even IPv6 are firstly developed for BSDs.
11. DTrace on FreeBSD arguably developed for Solaris
12. Documentation
13. Quality control in general (I can't emphasizes this enough)
14. Great little specialty distros like PFSense or FreeNAS
15. Business friendly license.
Advantages of Linux
1. Parallel computing
2. Optimization
3. Scientific computing in general
4. Commercial support
5. Commercial applications like MATLAB or Oracle Java
6. Better IPMI support
7. Virtualization
8. Better support for crappy hardware
9. Bigger ecosystem
10. Much easier to find competent Linux admins than BSD admins
11. You have a legal entity which you can sue if things go wrong.
12. Enormous commercial resources and entities behind the Linux.
To quote Dennis Ritchie: "UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity". As we know GNU stands for GNU not Unix!
As a final note since this site is primarily desktop oriented I will say OS X (which is not BSD but Mach kernel+FreeBSD userland with Linux-isms+Aqua) in the hands of semi competent Unix guy (majority of MAC users do not belong to that group) beats the crap out of Linux or for that matter Windows desktop any day or night. For the record my desktops run OpenBSD.
PCBSD is a fine desktop operating system for people willing to read little bit and has many advantages and some disadvantages over Ubuntu for example. Any other vanilla BSDs are generally not usable on the desktop or otherwise without professional support by a general public.
22 • Red Flag Linux (by Toran on 2014-02-19 00:45:42 GMT from Belgium)
Just been reading here RFL is finished. It is known however that China is choosing for Ubuntu Kylin. So no need to worry...
23 • PCBSD 10 (by TransformHumanity on 2014-02-19 03:55:07 GMT from India)
@3 I chose pcbsd bootloader and "lost" my partitions; I have to hand write the grub entries to be able to boot the linuxes again.
The system was not rendered unbootable but boots into pcbsd directly ignoring the linux distros.
24 • Red Flag (by Meh on 2014-02-19 04:55:38 GMT from United States)
Obviously Red Flag needed to sell security updates to be profitable, like Red Hat.
25 • #23 (by zykoda on 2014-02-19 09:37:26 GMT from United Kingdom)
I had a similar "feature" some years ago which I resolved by making BSD the last (4 max) primary partition on a msdos partitioned device. BSD slices and msdos partitions can cause problems. Not sure how BSD would play in GPT, LVM, RAID... scenarios with GRUB, syslinux, GRUB2...etc. There looks enough material for a whole conference.
26 • @21 (by byku on 2014-02-19 09:54:08 GMT from Poland)
I'm user of Linux and BSD (especially i like DragonflyBSD, mostly because i'm former Amiga user and developer of Dragonfly is former developer of Amiga and he wants merge some flavour of Amiga with his BSD fork).
But why:
- we have: 15. Business friendly license (BSD).
comparing to (Linux):
- 4. Commercial support
- 5. Commercial applications like MATLAB or Oracle Java
- 12. Enormous commercial resources and entities behind the Linux.
What stop business to add those Linux points to BSD ecosystem?
27 • @26 (by Oko on 2014-02-19 18:39:42 GMT from United States)
That is a very difficult question to answer and am certainly not in position to offer any plausible explanation. I can speculate only. For example there is too much money and work thrown into the Linux that redoing some of that stuff just to be BSD based is economically unacceptable. Unfortunately business decisions are in many instances not technologically based. One of stellar examples is Google discussion to use Linux as oppose to NetBSD as a base for their Android OS. IIRC there are lengthy discussion amount NetBSD developers circa 2005 who were very confident that NetBSD fortunes would completely change once NetBSD was used by Google for Android OS. At that time it was clear from technological point of view that NetBSD was light years ahead of Linux for such kind applications.
28 • @26 (by :wq on 2014-02-19 21:23:52 GMT from United States)
BSD licenses encourage the inclusion of BSD-licensed code more so than the inclusion of BSD operating systems. That is to say that use of BSD-licensed code and support for BSD operating systems don't necessarily go hand in hand. A company may use BSD-licensed code for licensing reasons (but it's not all about the license, if it weren't quality code, it wouldn't be used regardless of the license), but not support BSDs (or even the company's code upstreams) for business reasons (shortsighted or not).
Why has it taken many commercial vendors years to support Linux (particularly the home user segment)? Vendors often don't want to support smaller market segments (unless they feel they can grow and leverage those). Also, some may perceive certain segments as hostile territory for proprietary and/or commercial software.
To some degree, the fact that FreeBSD and NetBSD can run a great number of Linux binaries may discourage some from directly targeting the BSDs. And companies generally don't want to support extra operating systems unless there is a perceived clear, significant benefit to them to do so. I'm sure some vendors who support Linux have probably decided that they have the open-source marketplace covered. Just as for some people Linux = Ubuntu, for others open-source OS = Linux.
Businesses often operate out of inertia. One of the key forces that affect this inertia is consumer demand. But how does one grow smaller market segments to a size where they garner widespread attention without vendor support, and how does one attract vendors to support smaller market segments when they don't yet have widespread attention or sizable user bases? Buzz and mind share really do have an effect, and those can trump the actual merits. Consumer demand, both reasoned and inane alike, ultimately carries the day.
29 • Linux vs BSD (by Koroshiya Itchy on 2014-02-20 07:24:53 GMT from Belgium)
I use Linux because I am a scientist. And, as @21 rightly pointed out, Linux is the OS of choice for
"3. Scientific computing in general"
Besides, there is also hardware support. FreeBSD does not support my printers, for instance. Of course, being a BSD user, I would have purchased supported printers. But mines are very good, conveniently priced and provide drivers as deb packages.
One additional consideration regarding licensing. All right, BSD licenses are more business friendly than GLP licenses. But why? What does this mean? It means that anyone is allowed to steal the code and give nothing in return. Apple picked up what they needed from BSD and closed the source as they pleased. A relatively similar thing happened to OpenSolaris.
BSD-kind of licences allow spurious interested to take advantage from the work of the community without giving anything in return. It is therefore good for them. Now, IMHO, the interest of the community are better protected with a GPL-kind of license, which forces you to give the modified code back to the community.
Now, if you prefer working for the big corporations for free, please, be my guest.
30 • Other Redhats re Commercial Viability (by GregNOIBN on 2014-02-20 19:37:35 GMT from United States)
Concerning the economic viability of Linux service(s) companies such as RedHat, Suse, Canonical, etc., there are additional factors (not expressed) that promote the longevity of the business model used by the aforementioned firms.
Those factors are:
> VLC (very low cost) contributors network . . . the kernel support project, the NGO non-profit organizations (Linux Foundation, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, etc.) and thousands of commercial entities that want to avoid vendor lock-in and promote maximum flexibility.
> Zero Cost contributors network. Ten's of thousands system developers, engineers, admins doing the work/project "on their own dime" because of interest, philosophy, expertise growth etc.
> Millions of "in-place" critical support hardware systems & devices that rely on the linux/unix - - how many Cray's and other top-end systems use MS or Apple based OS's?
Linux is now like a massive grouping of trains running on a huge track network - it has a momentum of it's own, is still growing, and will require more Suse's, Canonicals and RedHats. Saas, Paas, Naas (and so on) will be supplemental to internal networks and hardware environments imho.
31 • So, in a nutshell (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2014-02-20 19:59:33 GMT from United States)
BSD gives source away for free, and allows conversion to proprietary
GPL gives development away for free
proprietary gives full control to (whatever "owns") developers
and none of the above inherently generates a free (and robust) market.
32 • @27, 28, 29, 30, 31 (by byku on 2014-02-20 20:28:58 GMT from Poland)
Thx for opinions. Sometimes i see licence wars on forums or portals (especialy GPL versus BSD). I myself don't have problem with licences. If i use GPL code i release my work as GPL (the same for others licences).
Recently Linus have said that licences, CLAs and etc. are like "a relict of medieval times". Linux is now like snowball (or perpetuum mobile).
33 • BSD (by Dave Postles on 2014-02-20 20:39:24 GMT from United Kingdom)
Solid, secure, slow! I'm using PC-BSD right now on desktop and one laptop, basically because I want ZFS. It has the desktop which I want (XFCE with Openbox - as do the best Linux distros). It has the applications which I want (including R, gretl, QGIS and clamtk - as do most Linux distros). The recognition of USB drives is still a bit buggy. I have HP printers and HPLIP is in the packages in AppCafe (but no different from most Linux distros); it even detected automatically my old HP LaserJet 5M which is on an ethernet network (powerline). 10 seems to me to be a big improvement. I guess I use it for ZFS.
34 • @byku (RE: Amiga) (by :wq on 2014-02-21 06:39:30 GMT from United States)
Have you tried AROS, or a distribution thereof, if only for reasons of nostalgia?
35 • @34 (by byku on 2014-02-21 09:05:51 GMT from Poland)
I'm using: Linux, BSD, Haiku and AROS (i'm waiting for native port for RPi) because i like those OSes and yes there is some sentiment it this:
1) Tripos ("console part" of AmigaOS) have some similarites to UNIX (so to Linux and BSD too)
2) Dragonfly, Haiku, AROS had been influenced by AmigaOS (especialy AROS)
3) Some of my Amiga friends now are using/developing on BSD, Linux.
4) And Fred Fish (Fish Disks - Amiga FLOSS movement ;), BeOS, GNU Debuger)
36 • LTS Ponderable (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-02-22 04:30:49 GMT from United States)
Do most LTS updates drop support for more and more LTS hardware?
Have a great weekend!
37 • 18) re passing parameters (by EarlyBird on 2014-02-22 06:36:56 GMT from Canada)
18) re GPU acceleration: I am no expert in this. My answer to 15 was an explanation of how I resolved problem on MY system in hope it might help solve his problem.
IF I understand things correctly, when you pass a parameter via your bootloader, it is being passed to the kernel as a kernel argument, and not directly to X. In this case, Xorg is written in a more modular form than the older Xfree, and part of that structure is now directly integrated into the kernel; hence the need to pass the parameter as a kernel parameter.
After replying to 15, I went back to the Xorg site, and found some info on probing mode lines buried in the FAQ, but no clear cut way to restore old behaviour, or any automated linux ready tool.
Not being a "gamer" have not been paying much attention to the MIR/Wayland developments. Hope the video landscape will be settled soon.
If I am wrong in any of this, hopefully someone will provide corrections and an explanation.
38 • Another good reason to run Linux or *-BSD (by GNUday on 2014-02-22 14:28:53 GMT from Canada)
With all the government spying going on globally, who needs the built-in watermarks and back-doors of that corporate monopoly OS, just sayin'.
39 • Have a great weekend! (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2014-02-23 18:50:02 GMT from United States)
15 vga=ask or uvesa? maybe search android-x86.org
21 Imagine Mach_microkernel with FreeBSD-userland+Linux'isms+Aqua
35 Consider ZevenOS-Neptune, a BeOS-style Debian spin
38 Watermarks: users looking for someone to blame when it goes bad
... Back-doors: users who need remote support
... most would happily switch to a robust free-market platform.
Number of Comments: 39
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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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| Random Distribution | 
KNOPPIX
KNOPPIX is a bootable disc with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational disc, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the disc can have up to 10 GB of executable software installed on it.
Status: Dormant
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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.
|
| 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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