DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 552, 31 March 2014 |
Welcome to this year's 13th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the nice aspects of open source is that established projects act as a foundation for new projects. Debian acts as a base for many projects, including Ubuntu. Other projects grow and branch out from Ubuntu and the family tree continues from there. This week we focus on two distributions which are relatively new additions to the Debian family tree, yet are making good progress in their quest to become usable, stable operating systems. We start with Tanglu, a Debian-based project which focuses on being a friendly, desktop-oriented operating system. In our News section this week we talk about the Ubuntu GNOME project, a distribution which has been seeking long term support status. We also link to a resource for people who wish to improve their on-line security and privacy. Plus we cover SliTaz's new ARM port along with PC-BSD's upgrade issues. Our Tips and Tricks section this week also talks about a useful security feature for multi-user systems. As usual, this week we look back on the releases of the past week and look ahead to exciting developments to come. We wish you all a pleasant week and happy reading!
Content:
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Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Welcoming Tanglu 1.0
The Tanglu distribution is a Debian-based project which uses software packages from Debian's Testing, Unstable and Experimental branches. The project has a focus on being a beginner friendly desktop operating system with a regular time-based release cycle (as opposed to Debian's "release when ready" release cycle). The Tanglu project, which gets its name from combining the words "tangerine" and "igloo", is currently available in two editions, KDE and GNOME. Both of these editions can be downloaded in 32-bit and 64-bit x86 builds. I opted to try the KDE edition of Tanglu as the GNOME edition is still considered experimental.
The ISO for the KDE edition of Tanglu is approximately 1GB in size and booting from the live media brings us to a KDE 4 desktop. The user interface is presented in the traditional manner with the application menu, task switcher and system tray placed at the bottom of the display. Icons for browsing the file system sit on the desktop. Looking through the application menu I found the project's system installer.
Tanglu appears to be using the same graphical system installer as the Linux Mint Debian Edition distribution uses and, as I covered the install process for Linux Mint Debian Edition last week, I will keep this part of the review brief. The installer quickly and cleanly walked me through selecting my preferred language, choosing my time zone and confirming my keyboard's layout. The installer helped me create a user account, offered to set up partitions for me automatically and then asked where it should install the GRUB boot loader. The installer progressed smoothly and I encountered no problems. When it was finished copying its files to my local hard drive I was prompted to reboot the computer.

Tanglu 1.0 -- Running the default KDE desktop
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Booting the Tanglu distribution brings us to a graphical login screen. Once I signed in I was presented with the KDE desktop. Minor visual effects were enabled, but otherwise the interface was subtle with no distracting pop-ups or welcome screen. The desktop was fairly responsive, neither remarkably fast nor slow.
Shortly after getting Tanglu up and running I started wondering about security updates. The distribution uses the Apper graphical package manager for updating and manipulating software. Apper lets us check for updates and browse categories of software packages. Within these categories we are shown lists of packages and we can then queue these packages for installation or removal with the click of a button. Apper processes batches of actions, temporarily locking the interface while it works. For the most part Apper functioned well for me, the exception being when I checked for package upgrades. When I checked for software upgrades the package manager would download repository data and then hang. A little investigating revealed that PackageKit was running in the background, using all available CPU cycles. PackageKit would churn non-stop, apparently locked in a loop, and it prevented Apper from completing its tasks. This has happened to me before, PackageKit often misbehaves, and I found killing the PackageKit process allowed Apper to get back to work, downloading and applying security updates. Tanglu, I found, uses its own software repositories. The distribution may pull packages from Debian, but they are maintained in a separate Tanglu software repository.
Digging through the distribution's application menu I found Tanglu ships with the Firefox web browser, the KMail e-mail client and the Konversation IRC software. A remote desktop application, document viewer and image viewer were also included. I found the LibreOffice productivity suite was installed by default along with the Amarok audio player, the VLC multimedia player and the Dragon Player video player. The Kamoso webcam utility was present along with an archive manager, virtual calculator, text editor and screen magnifier. Tanglu supplies Network Manager and the KPPP dial-up software to help us get on-line. I found multimedia codecs were present and I could play a variety of media files. Flash support and Java were both missing, though I found Java and Flash in the project's software repositories. In the background Tanglu runs on the Linux kernel, version 3.12.

Tanglu 1.0 -- Package management with Apper
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I tried running Tanglu on a desktop computer and in a virtual machine powered by VirtualBox. In both environments Tanglu performed well. On the physical hardware my display was set to its maximum resolution, sound worked and a network connection was automatically enabled. The distribution is fairly light on resources. I found Tanglu ran fairly quickly, not setting any speed records, but holding up well against whatever I threw its way. When logged into the KDE desktop I found the distribution used approximately 170MB of RAM, a conservative amount for a Linux distribution running KDE.
After playing with Tanglu for a while I have to say, for a project that has just hit its 1.0 milestone, the distribution is surprisingly solid. I would normally expect an early release to have more rough edges and less coordination. I was especially concerned with the project's use of packages from Debian's Unstable and Experimental branches, but Tanglu remained stable throughout my time with the distribution. The only serious bug I ran into was with PackageKit and its habit of preventing the Apper package manager from working. However, with PackageKit disabled, the distribution performed well. Tanglu has a small memory footprint, works fairly quickly, comes with most of the software I want in a desktop operating system and provides many more packages via the project's repositories.

Tanglu 1.0 -- Various desktop applications
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What I found especially interesting was comparing this week's trial with Tanglu against last week's experiment with Linux Mint Debian Edition. The two projects have a similar base (Debian), have similar goals (better desktop experience, regular release cycles and some extra non-free bits to improve the end-user experience) and they even use the same system installer. A month ago, had I been asked which distribution would offer the better experience, the veteran Mint project with its record of strong showings in my past reviews or a new distribution called Tanglu, I would have felt the deck was stacked in Mint's favour. However, while my experience with Mint's Debian-based edition was peppered with various minor issues, my time with Tanglu was pleasantly boring. The distribution tended to work quietly and without fuss and, the problem with PackageKit aside, Tanglu didn't offer me any problems.
At this point my only real concern with Tanglu isn't a technical one, but a matter of the project's goals and direction. Tanglu appears to have the same goals as dozens of other Debian-based projects with nothing to set it apart. At least not yet. Right now the project appears to be focused on getting on-line and getting the first few releases out the door and that is great, the developers are doing a good job so far. What I am wondering is: what happens next? What makes Tanglu more appealing than other fixed-release, Debian-based projects with a focus on the desktop? Why might a user select Tanglu over established distributions such as Lubuntu, Kubuntu or Parsix? Right now Tanglu appears to be a solid distribution, the 1.0 release a good first effort. However, at this (early) point in time Tanglu doesn't appear to be doing anything to set the distribution apart from the rest of the pack. Hopefully that will change with time.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu GNOME gains LTS status and discusses GNOME desktop versions, PC-BSD corrects update issue, SliTaz gains ARM port and Digital Era offers tips on staying safe on-line
Three weeks ago we discussed the Ubuntu GNOME project's proposal to gain long term support status in the Ubuntu community. The project has received its response from the Ubuntu GNOME team and the news is positive. The Ubuntu GNOME project is happy to announce it has long term support for the upcoming 14.04 release. This means Ubuntu GNOME will receive three years of security updates. The Ubuntu GNOME website reported the good news: "Ubuntu GNOME team has responded to the request and Tim (Ubuntu GNOME head of developers) has agreed to extend the support to 3 years instead of 2 years and 3 months. Without a doubt and without a question, this is by far, the biggest and the best achievement for Ubuntu GNOME Community. We're not only an official flavour of Ubuntu, but also got the LTS status."
Following the release of GNOME 3.12, the Ubuntu GNOME team addressed questions they have received regarding the latest version of GNOME. Will the new version of the GNOME desktop be shipped when Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 is released? The answer is negative. "No. Because on the 20th of February 2014 Trusty Tahr Cycle reached feature freeze: `At this point we stop introducing new features, packages, and APIs, and concentrate on fixing bugs in the development release.' That said, there is no time to introduce any new feature and at that time, GNOME 3.12 wasn't yet released." The Ubuntu GNOME team does point out that there is a personal package archive (PPA) featuring the latest version of the GNOME desktop for people who wish to try a more recent version of the graphical environment.
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Two weeks ago the PC-BSD project released a small upgrade to their 10.0 release. While people who installed the project's freshly created images appeared to have done so without problems, some users experienced problems upgrading from 10.0 to 10.0.1. As it turns out, people who were experiencing problems were probably connected to a malfunctioning server. As the PC-BSD blog reports, "We heard that there were some users that were experiencing problems upgrading and believe we have found the guilty party. I was able to duplicate the same package upgrade problem that was causing updates to 10.0.1 to fail, and asked Allan over at Scale Engine to give us a hand. Allan was able to track down the issue to a faulty distribution server that was interrupting connections and preventing the upgrades randomly. This server has been removed from service at this time and further work is going into preventing this from happening again in the future." This will hopefully make future upgrades smoother for the project's users.
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SliTaz, an extremely lightweight Linux distribution, has gained support for the ARM architecture. Work has gone into the SliTaz project to support ARMv6 with future plans to support ARMv7. The new port of SliTaz means the distribution can be run on the popular Raspberry Pi hobbyist computer. The project's website states: "SliTaz currently supports the ARMv6 (armel) architecture and work is on the stove for armv6hf (hard float) and ARMv7. SliTaz ARM is supported by the official SliTaz project but with its own boot scripts for faster start-up. A base system will use around 20MB of RAM. SliTaz can turn an ARM device into a music or web server, a NAT, an IRC bot, a small desktop and much more."
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Many of us are concerned about maintaining secure operating systems. It is a challenge in the Internet Age to maintain one's security and privacy. Many applications leak information to the Internet and it is hard to know what we should trust and what cannot be trusted. The Digital Era website is trying to help. The site discusses important issues such as anonymity, security and privacy and offers tips on how to stay safe on-line. Not surprisingly, one of recommendations is to use a Linux-based operating system. The Digital Era site covers such topics as using proxies, setting up firewalls and Tor. It is a valuable resource for people who want to improve their on-line privacy and are looking for a place to start that is not overwhelmingly technical.
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Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Command line tips and tricks
You may have heard that it is a bad idea to enter any sort of sensitive information on the command line. Tutorials often warn against supplying a username or (more often) a password as an argument to a command line program. The reason for this is it is possible for other users on the system to see the commands you type. Running programs like top or ps allow other users to see the commands you type, including all the parameters you supply. This means other users on the same computer can watch the commands you type and look for login credentials or other sensitive information.
One way to avoid having credentials stolen is to hide one user's processes from every other user. Process information, including the command line which spawned the process, can be found under the system's /proc directory. We can alter the information available under the /proc directory so that we can see our own process information, but another user cannot spy on our processes. To alter the way the /proc directory works we can issue a remount command and tell mount to hide our process information from other users. The mount command that follows adjusts the /proc directory so that we can see our own process information, but other users cannot.
mount -o remount /proc -o hidepid=2
If we now look in the /proc directory we will see a list of our own processes, but none belonging to other users. Likewise, if we run the top or ps commands to see a list of running processes, only our own processes will be listed. Other users will only see their own processes too, making it harder to spy on our command line activity.
Should we wish to make this change to the /proc directory permanent, we can open the /etc/fstab file which details which file systems will be mounted and with what parameters. We can add the following line to our /etc/fstab file to make sure our process information always remains hidden from other users on the system.
proc /proc proc defaults,hidepid=2 0 0
This behaviour of hiding process information from other users will likely become default behaviour in distributions in the future. The Debian team, for instance, is looking to enable process hiding by default in order to protect users from accidental information leaks.
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Looking at the comments at the bottom of each issue of DistroWatch Weekly you will find that each comment includes, among other bits of information, a guess as to where the comment writer is located in the world. If you have ever wondered how to get the geographical location of an IP address, then the following command line tricks are for you. Virtually every Linux distribution and BSD operating system includes a command called curl which can transfer information over the Internet using URLs. We can use the curl command to contact an IP-to-geographical location service. For instance, the website ipinfo.io will take a given IP address and attempt to tell us where it is located. From the command line this looks like
curl ipinfo.io/74.125.226.37
Note we start with the curl command, add the name of the web service we wish to use and then add the IP address we wish to lookup. We should get back a city, a region (province or state) and the country where the IP address is located.
Another command line program we can use is called geoiplookup and is packaged in most Linux distributions as either geoip or geoip-bin. The geoiplookup command simply accepts an IP address on the command line and returns the name of a country.
geoiplookup 74.125.226.37
The syntax of geoiplookup is a little easier to remember and, while it returns less detailed information, its straight forward nature makes this program an attractive tool.
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Humour (by Jesse Smith) |
Website Migration: Moving on from Debian
Long time DistroWatch readers may remember that this site ran on FreeBSD, once upon a time. The powerful server operating system worked well for DistroWatch until, in 2007, DistroWatch fell victim to a massive distributed denial of service attack. In the wake of the attack an effort was made to get the website up and running again as quickly as possible using a fresh installation. While FreeBSD is a fast and stable operating system, the initial configuration of FreeBSD and the required services would take a significant amount of time. Even if binary packages were used in place of compiling software ports from scratch, a new installation of FreeBSD would take a relatively long time to put in place. Debian, on the other hand, takes a short time to install and automates many of the steps required to put a web server in place. In the name of expediency, the decision was made to perform a fresh installation with Debian on the DistroWatch server. Over the past six years Debian has served DistroWatch fairly well and, despite the occasional minor issue one encounters with any operating system, we have been happy with Debian.
With all that being said, as happy as we have been with our current operating system, the choice to use Debian was made with an eye toward getting up and running as quickly as possible rather than what might be good for DistroWatch in the long-term. Some software and scripts which ship with Debian are perpetually out of date, Debian's policy of "release when it's ready" means it is hard to plan upgrades to new versions of the operating system in advance and performance, while good, could probably be improved. As such, we have been looking at various potential alternatives to Debian to see if there might be another platform better suited to our long-term needs.
We looked at a handful of possible operating systems. The recent FreeBSD 10.0 release was tested first, but we found that getting it up and running and then maintaining the required software would take more effort than we felt the performance benefits were worth. The CentOS distribution was seriously considered and tested. We liked the security, performance and stability offered by CentOS, but the distribution comes with the same issues Debian does -- outdated scripts and an uncertain release schedule. The openSUSE distribution was my personal favourite among the contenders. The mighty green distro provided good performance and great admin tools, but concerns were raised about the length of openSUSE's support cycle. Slackware was briefly considered, but its hands-on style of administration and conservative nature provided all the drawbacks of Debian with none of the package management perks of other Linux distributions. It looked, for a time, as though DistroWatch would be sticking with Debian for the foreseeable future. But then I had a chance encounter with a fellow system administrator who had been beta testing some very interesting software.
Before I go any further, I should explain something about how DistroWatch is set up. The DistroWatch website is not hosted on a single server, but rather on three servers which share the workload. When a person connects to distrowatch.com they are, in fact, contacting a load balancing service. The load balancer then passes on the connection to one of three servers (let's call then A, B and C). The page request is then processed by one of these three servers. Each connection gets handled in a "round robin" fashion, spreading out the work. This arrangement further allows us to take one server off-line for maintenance, leaving the other two machines to continue serving up content. The arrangement allows us to process a fairly large number of connections and maintain good uptimes, but carries the drawback of extra work, as we need to make sure all three servers are synchronized.
What my friend had been beta testing is a new technology coming out of Canonical called Net-Ju. Some readers may be familiar with the Ubuntu utility Juju. Juju allows servers to be linked together in a cloud-style infrastructure where resources scale as needed -- all with convenient command line and web-based system administration tools. Net-Ju, which will be provided as an add-on option to Ubuntu Server 14.04, is an extension of Juju. How it works, in a nutshell, is we install Canonical's proprietary Net-Ju service on a fresh Ubuntu Server installation. We then assign the machine a unique identifier. We can then use that unique identifier to connect the Ubuntu server to our Landscape control panel. Each machine added to the Landscape control panel can be placed inside a Net-Ju group, effectively making any Ubuntu-powered machine we want into a member of a distributed cloud. This means any Ubuntu machine anywhere in the world can be made a member of our cloud with only three commands and a couple of mouse clicks. Each machine, or "node", in the Landscape cloud will effectively work together to act as one giant machine. Network connections to any one machine will behave identically to connections made to any other machine in the same group. Further, the Net-Ju service load balances automatically. This means if several connections arrive at any node member at once, the connections are transparently divided up between all the active nodes. Files, meanwhile, are automatically synchronized between all nodes in the Net-Ju cloud.
All of these features sounded good and convenient and Ubuntu's package management tools, being the same as Debian's, would make the servers easy to configure and maintain. Ubuntu's next release will be a supported for five years, which makes it an attractive option. The big remaining concern was performance. The Debian community is understandably proud of their distribution's small resource requirements and high performance and I had doubts as to whether Ubuntu, alone or in a cloud arrangement, could keep up. Luckily I was able to get a month-long trial from Canonical in order to test Net-Ju myself and see how it would behave.
Following the steps in the provided documentation quickly got me set up with a fresh installation of Ubuntu Server. I added Canonical's Net-Ju service and signed into Landscape. It took me a little while to navigate around Landscape's web-based controls, but after a few minutes I had managed to create an empty cloud instance and, shortly after, I used my server's unique identifier to create my Net-Ju cloud. Then the testing began.
In order to test Net-Ju, I created scenarios where an equal number of Ubuntu nodes and Debian servers (laid out in a round robin configuration) would each process an increasingly greater number of web connections. Unsurprisingly, when I had just one Ubuntu server in my cloud and compared it against one Debian server, the Debian server consistently out performed Ubuntu. The Debian server, without its extra cloud overhead, performed approximately 20% faster under any load. This was to be expected, and so I added a second Debian server and a second Ubuntu node to the test.

Performance comparison between Debian and Ubuntu using one server
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This is where things got interesting. While the Debian servers performed better under relatively low loads, the Ubuntu nodes scaled traffic better, completing tasks faster under higher traffic volumes.

Performance comparison between Debian and Ubuntu using two servers
(full image size: 20kB, resolution: 561x339 pixels)
Then, with a third server of each distribution added, my Ubuntu cloud again scaled better than its Debian counterpart. In the end, I found Ubuntu performed about 25% faster than Debian under traffic loads simulated to be about the same as what DistroWatch sees on most Mondays.

Performance comparison between Debian and Ubuntu using three servers
(full image size: 20kB, resolution: 561x328 pixels)
Further investigation turned up additional benefits to working with Canonical's Net-Ju. One problem we sometimes run into at DistroWatch is reader comments not syncing between servers fast enough. This sometimes causes people to believe their comment has been deleted or failed to post in the first place, when in fact the comment simply has not propagated to all of our web servers. The Net-Ju installation links us to Ubuntu's One service which would reduce the time required for files to synchronization and remove the need for us to maintain our own synchronization scripts. In short, this should prevent comments from disappearing. Another benefits is that, due to Canonical's deals with Amazon, made famous via the Ubuntu shopping lens, using Canonical's Net-Ju technology results in higher advertisement commissions from Amazon. This means DistroWatch can generate more income and pass along more money (we estimate 10% more) to open source projects through the donations program. In short, Ubuntu and Debian offer similar package management benefits and Ubuntu provides a more regular support cycle. Ubuntu further offers higher performance under heavy loads, easy system administration and higher revenue that we can then pass on to the community. The only downside is the use of Canonical's proprietary Net-Ju technology, but our philosophical oppositions to closed source software seem outweighed by the benefits offered by the Ubuntu platform.
Such a change from Debian to Ubuntu is not one we will make lightly, of course. Debian, as a server platform, has been very good to us in recent years. Ubuntu currently offers a very attractive solution which could make administration easier and improve our website's performance. Still, before we make the change, we welcome feedback from you, our readership. The last time we switched operating systems it was a choice made in a rush. This time we can pause to consider all the pros and cons and that includes hearing from the people who visit us every week and will actually be making use of the technology. So, please, feel free to e-mail us or leave us a comment below with your thoughts on migrating our server infrastructure from Debian to Ubuntu.
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Released Last Week |
antiX MX-14
MX-14 "Symbiosis", a special version of antiX developed in full collaboration with the MEPIS Community, has been released for the 32-bit architecture: "It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint. The base depends on the excellent upstream work by Linux, Debian, and Xfce. MX-14 also incorporates the independent and innovative development products Whisker Menu, simsu and gottet, QupZilla Browser, smxi and inxi. We think you will enjoy it! MX-14 is based on Debian 7 'Wheezy' and enhanced with more up to date applications from debian-backports and MEPIS Community repository...." The release announcement can be found on antiX's news page, and screenshots as well as a video introduction can be found on the MX project page.
Legacy OS 2.1 LTS
Legacy OS 2.1 Long Term Support edition, a Puppy-based distribution compatible with old hardware like Pentium III PCs, has been released: "Today sees the release of Legacy OS 2.1 LTS the final Series 2 release ever! While there won't be any new releases for the 2 Series you can still expect new applications will be added to the repository over time. In this release you'll find some new applications and a few that have been update like the Opera web browser. Those who are currently using Legacy OS 2 will notice an improvement in Usability / Look and Feel. A number of configuring applications that once looked more like scripts now look like normal applications. With over 200 menu choices for users to choose from Legacy OS 2.1 LTS brings together a collection of extremely useful applications that could make a Pentium III PC far more useful than a user could imagine. Install once and use for years to come." The release announcement can be found on the Legacy OS website.
Musix GNU+Linux 3.0.1
Marcos Guglielmetti has announced the availability of Musix GNU+Linux 3.0.1, an update to the Debian-based distribution designed for musicians: "The development team of Musix GNU+Linux is proud to present version 3.0.1 Stable. This is a bugfix release related to installation fail due to lack of grub package. Also, now the ISO image is isohybrid, i.e., supports boot from USB or DVD media. For this version of the installable Live DVD/USB Stable we added some video editors like Kdenlive 0.9.6, Avidemux and Cinelerra, added French and Serbian language support, OpenOffice, solved some minor KDE desktop bugs. Some useful information: User: user; Pass: live." Check the brief release announcement and the package list.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Cubuntu. Cubuntu is based on the Ubuntu distribution and features multiple desktop environments, including Unity, Cinnamon and MATE.
- Lubit Linux. Lubit Linux is a minimalist distribution which ships with the Openbox window manager. The distribution attempts to run using less than 100MB of memory.
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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, 7 April 2014. 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 • Short sighted (by vw72 on 2014-03-31 13:35:24 GMT from United States)
I understand the Ubuntu Gnome developer's decision and that they are a small development team, but I think the decision was really short sited.
All of the reviews of Gnome 3.12 show it to be very good (for those who like Gnome) but given the release cycles of the major distros like Fedora, openSuse, etc., most will probably skip 3.12, because 3.14 will be coming out by their next release.
Ubuntu Gnome could have gained a lot of new users for those looking for 3.12. Instead, UG 14.04 will be stuck with using Gnome 3.10 for the next three years. In the past Ubuntu would have been using the development releases (in this case 3.11.x) while preparing the next distro release, so that when the final came out, it was would upgrade automatically to the final version.
Again, their position is understandable, but it is a shame they lost an opportunity to bring new users to their fledgling distro.
2 • Command line tips (by Bill on 2014-03-31 13:36:49 GMT from United States)
Thanks for those tips. I can definitely make use of the geoiplookup as sometimes my firewall reports pings from outside sorces I do not recognize. Now at least I can do some back tracking.
3 • Cubuntu and Lubit (by Wanderer on 2014-03-31 13:41:51 GMT from United States)
The Cubuntu website is in French, no word on the distro being in French. Lubit is Italian and the distro is in Italian. Seems worth mentioning.
4 • Cononical still doesn't care about it's users? (by Eric on 2014-03-31 13:45:07 GMT from Canada)
Seems the ridiculous (in my opinion) choice of Cononical to not include Gnome 3.12 in 14.04 just shows they have no interest to please it's users. The whole point of a good distro was "release when done/ready". But I''ll just stick to: never under any circumstance recommend a distro running an ubuntu kernel as I have for 2-3 years already.
Here's hoping they get an unprecedented about of backlash from the community who actually care about Ubuntu/Cononicals future.
5 • @4: Vindictive, Much? (by joncr on 2014-03-31 14:25:31 GMT from United States)
@Eric: Don't imagine that *your* displeasure with Canonical means Canonical has no interest in pleasing its users. Projection is unwise.
And, Canonical does not produce Ubuntu Gnome.
If Ubuntu Gnome sat out a release cycle, they could probably get back in synch with Ubuntu and Gnome's schedules. But, that would likely prompt complaints from people who think that other people who give things away should let themselves be jerked around by the people who expect to get those free things when and how *they* decide.
In any case, the release of 3.12 and the 14.04 feature freeze within a few days of each other precluded any chance of 3.12 being in this release of Ubuntu Gnome.
6 • Tanglu (by Naked Penguin on 2014-03-31 14:26:35 GMT from United States)
RE:"The Tanglu distribution is a Debian-based project which uses software packages from Debian's Testing, Unstable and Experimental branches.The project has a focus on being a beginner friendly desktop... "
if they are going to focus on "beginner friendly" then they should stick to Debian Stable as a source because beginners wont have a clue about fixing conflict and problems that comes with unstable and experimental software.
7 • Ubuntu GNOME (by Tom on 2014-03-31 14:31:05 GMT from Germany)
I don't see much of a problem. It's an LTS version after all, so it's for users who generally prefer stability to having the latest versions. And for those being a bit more daring, there'll always a PPA offering the latest GNOME.
8 • @4 -- The hell are you talking about? (by eco2geek on 2014-03-31 14:41:45 GMT from United States)
First off, Ubuntu GNOME is a community-based distro. It's not produced directly by Canonical.
Second, GNOME 3.12 was released on 3/20/14. The beta 2 version of Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 was released on 3/27/14, and, as it says above, its features were frozen on the same date GNOME 3.12 was released. It takes a while to get a release out the door, especially if it's going to be supported for the next 3 years.
So, it's pretty obvious that the decision to not include GNOME 3.12 in Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS doesn't have a thing to do with whether Canonical "cares about its users" or not; nor is it even Canonical's direct decision to make.
And I don't even like or use GNOME.
Point being, there's plenty of things to criticize Canonical for; this ain't one of 'em.
9 • Test method (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-03-31 20:53:48 GMT from United States)
"My physical test equipment for this review was ..." no USB flash stick, so burned another plastic disc, or launched ISO with emulator or virtual?
10 • MX-14 (by dolphin_oracle on 2014-03-31 21:08:45 GMT from United States)
I agree with that point on using a debian stable release for begineer friendliness.
nice to see the MX-14 edition of antiX in the released list! (happens to be based on debian stable).
11 • So many distro's (by Davd on 2014-03-31 21:42:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
Want to ask everyone a question. Do you think the many many different distributions of Linux are a good thing?
For one distro, there can be many different versions of ie. 32bit/64bit and they can be based off LXDE, XFCE, Debian, Ubuntu bases. I think choice is always a good thing and I have found Linux to support freedom of choice. But lately I have found myself being tired of there being so many choices when I want to download a distro. It must be confusing for the newcomers and noobs. I find the DVD versions of distro's the best. The one's that contain several desktop environments all on one DVD. You can then try each desktop environment as and when you want. But Linux is all about freedom of choice and being able to create what you want, isn't it? I find Linux distro's becoming more and more fragmented and it feels like there is so much saturation, it is hard to choose a good distro and stick to it over a period of time ie. at least a year.
***Spoiler alert*** The words expressed above are simply my own opinion and thats all. We all have different opinions and experiences which make us unique. If what I have typed gets you going for some reason, just sit back, take a breath and think before typing. I prefer intelligent debate instead of off the cuff remarks and fanboism.
Would be interesting to hear other people's opinions.
Thank you for reading.
12 • Ubuntu (by Toran.korshnah on 2014-03-31 21:57:32 GMT from Belgium)
The only regret I have is the fact Ubuntu is shiped with Unity only. Would love to give the others like KDE a try as well. For Unity, I really like Unity. My second thing, I'm going to shoot adobe for leaving Flash. I like Facebook Games...
13 • Cubuntu (by Davd on 2014-03-31 21:59:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
Just been reading about Cubuntu and am downloading right now. hope it is as good as it sounds. An all in one distro with multiple DE's. Something I've been looking for.
14 • Chrome on Ubuntu (by Toran Korshnah on 2014-03-31 22:00:38 GMT from Belgium)
I read Chrome Browser would still support the latest flash as only browser. Checking my plugins mine did not even have flash. I had to install 11.2.
15 • @11 Too many choices (by kernelKurtz on 2014-03-31 22:31:52 GMT from United States)
Try replacing "Linux distros" in your argument with "breakfast cereals", and see how that scans.
To me, it's a first-world problem, at best.
16 • @13 (by tony on 2014-03-31 23:35:35 GMT from Thailand)
Multiple DE distro : PCLinuxOS-FM ( FM stands for FullMonty )
17 • @12 (by albinard on 2014-04-01 02:22:59 GMT from United States)
Simple way to try any desktop on Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop (or Kubuntu-, or lubuntu-, etc)
18 • @13 (by sam on 2014-04-01 02:57:18 GMT from Vietnam)
It should be named "CUM-buntu" : Cinnamon+Unity+Mate !
19 • Many Choices (by BobbiesYourAunt on 2014-04-01 03:29:59 GMT from United States)
Many choices, well at least you are not boxed in to a monopoly. Let the cream of the crop rise to the top. Any that are not worth their salt, most likely will fade. Live your life and be awesome. :D
20 • @17 Trying out desktops (by vw72 on 2014-04-01 03:34:58 GMT from United States)
"Simple way to try any desktop on Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop (or Kubuntu-, or lubuntu-, etc)"
That's not a good thing to do. Installing the the way you suggest does a lot more than just installing a new desktop. By using the distro-desktop method, you are wiping out your existing ubuntu-desktop settings and replacing them with the disto desktop you selected, effectively having an xubuntu or kubuntu setup, with a bunch of ubuntu stuff mingled in.
If you have ubuntu installed and want to try out other desktops, you are better installing the xfce4 or kde-full (for the complete kde experience or kde-plasma-desktop for just the core kde system) packages:
sudo apt-get install xfce4
21 • Distrowatch server platform (by AnklefaceWroughtlandmire on 2014-04-01 04:46:48 GMT from Ecuador)
I dunno, if you guys were originally able to get Distrowatch running on FreeBSD way back then, I suspect it would be a cinch to do so now on a modern FreeBSD 10 system with pkg-ng and all of the newer tools they've recently rolled out. FreeBSD is a formidably performant OS, and quite frankly trounces Linux in terms of performance, provided it is running on hardware that supports FreeBSD with optimal drivers. To say nothing of ZFS, which is undoubtedly the best filesystem that exists on the planet.
It sounds like some of your minor infrastructure bugs and hassles could be solved by a different topology or possibly a more modern noSQL database, although I'm not knowledgeable enough to make any specific recommendations.
Just my $0.02.
--A satisfied but open-minded 100% full time Linux user. ;-)
22 • Many choices, many little empires (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-04-01 04:57:24 GMT from United States)
Instead of one of the larger corporate empires, one could choose one of the many smaller empires. Competition may be good, but choosing among would-be masters, no matter how seductive the look-and-feel, is less attractive than freedom.
Tangle aspires to be "vendor-independent". Distro-agnostic (AppStream, pkgcon/pkcon, smart, PackageKit, Nix) tools could derail the current shark-frenzy of wanna-be app-store owners.
23 • Server Migration (by SingleCore on 2014-04-01 05:25:27 GMT from Korea, Republic of)
You said Debian packages and scripts not being up to date is one of the reasons for migration. But, you also said Ubuntu's 5 year support is a strength. Debian's release cycle is slow, but it's never been longer than 5 years.
Ubuntu is also a great distro, and I have nothing against it. I hope Ubuntu would serve DistoWatch well for many years, but I am not very convinced why you need a migration.
-- SC
24 • Server Migration (by Brian Bidulock on 2014-04-01 07:17:22 GMT from Canada)
I used to run all the servers on Debian too (with some sacrificial lambs running RH 7.3 to insulate them from 0-day vulnerabilities); but I've now moved to Arch and will never go back. Using Arch after Debian was like being time-warped 5 years into the future. As the beetles say in "The Wild": "less taking, more hrolling!" Consider using a rolling release distro. Any significant open source software you want will be available on Arch years before it shows up in Ubuntu.
Using proprietary software? Have you been reading what you've been writing these years? Just load up a couple of throw-away boxes with that proprietary crap and power them in the corner to show someone so you can get your 10% and use real software on the "real" servers. I suggest that the only reason you are considering something so abhorent is because you are already 5 years behind the times (your using Debian). gosh... and you are tempted to lock yourself into being 10 years being the times at the end of that run. Don't believe me? I have one word for you: "systemd". When will that be running on your Ubuntu boxes? Sometime after Debian is "ready" to release it?
Well, you asked for comments. That's mine.
25 • @24 agreed (by Smellyman on 2014-04-01 08:26:30 GMT from United Kingdom)
I can't go back to a "normal" distro after Arch. Been rolling Arch for 5 years and I don't care what people say. It is more stable than any other distro I have used. Only distro I have ever used where I don't have to stray from their packages or jump through hoops to find/install packages.
26 • Server Migration (by Richard on 2014-04-01 08:41:29 GMT from United Kingdom)
Take a look at the email address in the "email us" link at the bottom of the article ;)
27 • @6 (re Tanglu) (by Simon on 2014-04-01 09:15:30 GMT from New Zealand)
Thank you: that's exactly what I was thinking. What is this ridiculous obsession with using the latest untested software, that people are happy to smack new users with a "beginner" distro using packages from Debian Unstable and Experimental? The same goes for #24: a rolling release distro for high volume servers?! Let's hope these people who think it's more important to use the latest whiz-bang-wow than to provide services that actually work reliably and consistently are never given control of any systems that other people *have* to use.
28 • @26 Server Migration (by Jan on 2014-04-01 10:02:46 GMT from Germany)
Thanks for this hint. :) I´m very happy to notice that as I was on the edge of writing a more serious comment on this (could´nt wrap my thoughts around why distrowatch may switch to proprietary software & Amazon cloud stuff to improve speed and earnings for opensource projects).
29 • Digital Era website (by greenpossum on 2014-04-01 10:37:15 GMT from Australia)
Maybe they could start by making their website default to https access as many sites now do.
Re: server migration. Juju and Landscape do exist but Net-Ju is well, look at the date.
30 • Server Migration (by Brian Bidulock on 2014-04-01 11:25:34 GMT from Canada)
Got me. Hook line and sinker!
31 • Server migration (by Pearson on 2014-04-01 12:55:50 GMT from United States)
My primary concern with moving to Net-Ju is that it's proprietary. It seems almost contradictory to have a site primarily dedicate to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) use a proprietary solution. I'd think the benefits of a proprietary solution would have to *greatly* outweigh the costs to make this a philosophically consistent decision.
I wonder if the performance improvements could be met with an architectural changes (different database, different synching mechanism, different networking topology, etc). I'm not a sysadmin, so I may be off base on this.
32 • @26 sure had me going (by GNUday on 2014-04-01 17:53:29 GMT from Canada)
thanks for the heads up, good one DW, ya got me, lol.
33 • Server migration - I've been fooled (by Pearson on 2014-04-01 18:40:17 GMT from United States)
I thought I saw this on March 31. I guess I got fooled, especially since I rarely click the email links (don't wanna do the email from work).
34 • Servers migration: April 1st joke? (by msx on 2014-04-01 19:10:22 GMT from Argentina)
If not, go with Ubuntu: I've been running the desktop version since a month and it's plain amazing how well it performs. I didn't tested the server flavour though, but judging from how well my installed OS performs I like to think it will be equally great. Cheers!
35 • Tanglu et al (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-04-01 21:39:15 GMT from United States)
Why do so many trolls talk as if DebIan-based distros don't test?
36 • Hidden Joke¡ (by Charles on 2014-04-01 22:23:45 GMT from Mexico)
"Trisquel 6..... release with improved Facebook integration;"
Errata o Fools day?
37 • Tanglu (by Jeff on 2014-04-02 00:38:55 GMT from United States)
If only Tanglu was available with a better selection of Desktop Environments.
Gnome has jumped the shark. Every release breaks the APIs from the previous release ON PURPOSE.
KDE is a bloated resource hog, and naming everything with a K ? I would feel somewhat embarrassed to try introducing a new user to KDE because of the K names.
38 • i like K (by greg on 2014-04-02 08:18:58 GMT from Slovenia)
It doesn't bother me.
is KDE really bloated? works quite snappy even on older maschines. ram usage isn't every thing and in the age when most computers ship with 4GB ram does it really matter if ram usage is 280 or 300 or 350 mb?
39 • @8, re. #4 (by Barnabyh on 2014-04-02 08:23:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Not to fan the flames but I think Eric's main point in comment no. 4 is still valid, that 'release when ready' is a better approach. I understand all releases under the official Canonical umbrella that are synced with development have deadlines, and they are silly and self-imposed. Even the Fedora guys have seen sense and deviate from their schedule when there is a good reason.
I think Gnome 3.12 might have been worth releasing a few weeks later. It would have been better had Ubuntu Gnome stayed independent.
40 • Lost distro (by Bernard Victor on 2014-04-02 08:33:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
I had installed a distro who's name I have forgotten and which I accidentally deleted.
It has a very distinctive interface, unlike any other and an unusual way of configuring your desktop.
I think that it was only released in late 2013, and beleive it was based very loosely on Fedora and Gnome 3.
Can any one help. I picked it up from reading about it in a forum but cannot remember where.
41 • #40 (by zykoda on 2014-04-02 10:11:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
!'d hazard a guess at PearOS!
42 • Server migration (by Kazlu on 2014-04-02 11:38:07 GMT from France)
Awwwww. Thanks #26, I was also about to write something about this, I was completely into it. I should have thought about this when I refreshed the page - which I fisrt loaded on march 31st - and discovered there was a new article!
Good one DW, very well put.
43 • Ubuntu GNOME (by Kazlu on 2014-04-02 11:42:13 GMT from France)
I don't see the problem with not including GNOME 3.12. The Ubuntu family uses a time-based released schedule, that means rigorous planning is necessary, no exceptions. Especially for an LTS. I would understand a switch to GNOME 3.12 if GNOME 3.10 was not a viable solution, but as long as it works it's good like this. It's better for the ones who seek stability for an LTS version. Those who absolutely want the latest GNOME can still have it via PPA or consider switching to Parsix for example.
44 • @40 Lost Distro (by ILoveLinux on 2014-04-02 13:16:27 GMT from Germany)
Try the DW search located at the top of the page. In "OS Type" choose "Linux", in "Based on" choose "Fedora", and in "Desktop Interface" choose "GNOME".
Hope that helps!
45 • @40 My guess is Korora (by Eric on 2014-04-02 13:59:06 GMT from Canada)
https://kororaproject.org/ is most likely the fedora based distro you were seeking, they had a release in late 2013 Korora 19.1 (Bruce) but now there's Korora 20 (Peach) available.
46 • Wish it were still April 1 (by Marco on 2014-04-02 14:37:59 GMT from United States)
https://one.ubuntu.com/services/shutdown/
47 • RE:39, Only for hobbiest. (by Garon on 2014-04-02 16:23:39 GMT from United States)
I guess "release when ready" would be good but then 90 percent of the distros here would never be released. One example of releasing when NOT READY is Fedora, so I'm really not sure what you mean when you say "Fedora guys have seen sense and deviate from their schedule when there is a good reason." There is nothing ever stable or ready when Fedora is released. lol, can you say "test bed"?
@46, Very true but I do see their point. It's going to be hard to complete with Microsoft and Google when they offer so much free storage space. I'm surprised that Dropbox is still going.
Too bad that the migration was an April fools joke. It would have been a good move for Distrowatch. You know that eventually they will have to migrate, don't you know? Distrowatch will be assimilated and their technology absorbed into the collective. Resistance is Futile.
48 • @40 Lost distro (by ange on 2014-04-02 16:28:13 GMT from Hungary)
Distinctive interface? Then Linux Deepin, but it's based on Ubuntu.
49 • Net-Ju (by Todd Dixon on 2014-04-02 16:54:51 GMT from United States)
I got a little excited thinking about how our company might use something like Net-Ju. One graph would have been enough, but three graphs literally sealed the article for me.
Of course, had I read the heading of the section well, "Humour", I probably would have put it together a little quicker than I actually did. Nice play.
50 • Who'd've thought? (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-04-02 17:58:44 GMT from United States)
Intriguing synchronicity, an April Fools' article proposing dependence on a proprietary cloud service just before the day Ubuntu One announces shut-down - and code-release to open-source.
51 • USB2.0 device(s) can disconnect on resume (any distro!) (by zykoda on 2014-04-02 18:45:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
USB2.0 devices (mouse, keyboard, sticks, disks..etc) can fail to resume and disconnect causing problems with smooth data flow, regardless of distro! More recent distros seem to suffer more frequently than earlier ones. The whole phenomena seems to be connected with the expectation that a resume should take place within 10milliseconds, which does not always happen, leading to a disconnection and a lag for reconnection and reassigment of the device! Is there a solution to this fundamental issue that jepodises linux USB? The issue is long standing!
52 • Re: Lost distro (by wtzhu on 2014-04-03 13:06:01 GMT from China)
If it was reported on DistroWatch's main page, you can roll back by specifying the "News Filtering Options" with Year=2013 and Month=12 or so.
53 • @40 Re: release when ready (by Rev_Don on 2014-04-03 13:45:35 GMT from United States)
I believe the "Release When ready" comment amount Fedora refers to the fact that a couple of the recent releases were delayed so they could work on some bugs. I don't remember all of the details, but at least a couple of them were fairly substantial. I seriously doubt that it has anything to do with the fact that Fedora is essentially a Testing distro rather than a LTS distro.
54 • Should have been @47 Re: release when ready (by Rev_Don on 2014-04-03 14:47:40 GMT from United States)
Sorry, but I made a mistake in my previous comment #53. It should have been in re#47, not 40. Not having the ability to edit a post is a real bummer and something that should be looked into being implemented.
55 • USB timing - not just Linux (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-04-03 15:25:38 GMT from United States)
Abysmal programming of USB timing has been aggravating since its inception in 1996, and will likely remain so as long as hardware drivers remain proprietary (vigorous competition in a robust market may help); the good news is that open-source developers are very much http://www.linux-usb.org/aware, and vigorously nailing such bugs as the infamous "Linux plug&pwn".
56 • USB timing - not just Linux (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-04-03 15:28:56 GMT from United States)
Abysmal programming of USB timing has been aggravating since its inception in 1996, and will likely remain so as long as hardware drivers remain proprietary (vigorous competition in a robust market may help); the good news is that open-source developers are very much aware (see http://www.linux-usb.org), and vigorously nailing such bugs as the infamous "Linux plug&pwn". [edited for readability]
57 • PearOS status (by george on 2014-04-03 15:30:12 GMT from United States)
I have been searching the web for anything new about PearOS ... since it's demise earlier this year ... to no avail. Has anyone heard anything (positive I hope)?
58 • RE:53, Maybe so. (by Garon on 2014-04-03 18:10:52 GMT from United States)
@53, I guess your probably right. But you have to admit that Fedora was not, in my opinion, a good example of a distro that releases when ready. But then again, you have to ask yourself, what is your definition of "release when ready"? I guess it could mean different things to different people.
59 • home network? (by robert kresl on 2014-04-03 21:26:40 GMT from United States)
Greetings Lads & Lassies..I am a "noobie" with a question from my work colleague..He wants to run his old Pentium(tm) 4 /1 Ghz / 2GB ram box as a home server (for his tunes or files) to link Ethernet 10/100 connection (cross-over cable) from his basement shop to his current Windows(tm) 7 (or 8?) box in the living room for file sharing..What would you guys recommend for guys like us who have never done this..Can you recommend a good distro?..Me? I typically use various flavors of Puppy linux because it works to get my stuff done..Also use Ubuntu 13.04 (waiting for 14.04 Final) and Linux Mint 15/16 cinnamon/mate flavors..But I have no idea of what I am doing to help my pal out..any ideas folks?..(also I have a problem reported here on DW comments awhile back..Opera does not show "comments" submission boxes..Seamonkey /Firefox does though)...TNX in advance for all you kind folks and any help appreciated.
60 • #59 - Home Network? (by GregNOIBN on 2014-04-04 03:16:12 GMT from United States)
Mr. Kresl - this type of question is best asked at a major distro forum (like Mint, Ubuntu, OpenSuse or Fedora). That way, a multiple question/answer thread can be used, as there are multiple ways of networking and perhaps your original method/plan isn't the best way. Distrowatch is just not designed for that type of online discussion.
61 • @60 (by robert kresl on 2014-04-05 03:22:37 GMT from United States)
TNX Greg{...} I agree with you..no offense given..nor taken..forums are the best place for my type of questions but are focused on the distro {which is -TBD-}..But, the only angle I am coming from is, my work colleague / pal with only a Windows background..What would be a good starting "OOTB" distro to setup what he needs?..as I stated, I have never tried or needed to setup home network...I am sorry to waste anyones' time here on DW..but many gurus here and thousands of noobs like me {might be thousand more with same question}..I am sorry, but we just need a compass direction..TNX all!
62 • RE:61 Xubuntu 14.04 (by Garon on 2014-04-05 05:30:04 GMT from United States)
Xubuntu 14.04 would be an excellent distro for your purpose. It will be final later this month and will be a LTS release that will be supported for many years. Setting up the network will be no problem and there will be plenty of help available in the Xubuntu and Ubuntu forums and on the main web site. If that doesn't tickle your fancy then I would take a look at Lubuntu 14.04. As I stated both distros will be released later on this month. Good luck and happy computing.
63 • @59 (by jaws222 on 2014-04-05 05:40:29 GMT from United States)
I'm not sure if he has a preference for Ubuntu based or Debian based, but if Ubuntu Xubuntu would be good like Garon suggested or try LXLE. On the Debian side Crunchbang is excellent for older hardware as is Point Linux.
64 • 59 & 64 server for lunch (by server perver on 2014-04-05 10:14:03 GMT from Australia)
59. try the server distros. pfsense just released. if one doesn't work so well just try another one. open source is all about freedom to explore.
64. if you don't like someone's lunch habits, try viewing someone else's lunchtimes. open sauce is all about freedom to eat :)
65 • Home server (by Barnabyh on 2014-04-05 18:13:54 GMT from Germany)
Definitely use something that is pre-configured as a file server to take some of the work out of setting it all up. To do a search for 'server' type distros here was good advice. Myself, I have just gotten back into giving SMS another shot, it's a great little server and easy to maintain for a -now more experienced- Slackware user. It's got a file server ready to go. Simple and always a pleasure to use.
Barnaby
66 • Addition to my previous comment (by Barnabyh on 2014-04-05 18:31:21 GMT from United States)
Oh yeah, SMS also offers Vbox images in a link list on the right side of the page of around 1,600MB.
67 • RE: Website Migration (by Noe Juan on 2014-04-05 21:24:07 GMT from United States)
Quote: "... The only downside is the use of Canonical's proprietary Net-Ju technology, but our philosophical oppositions to closed source software seem outweighed by the benefits offered by the Ubuntu platform. "
Are you sure your only philosophical conundrum has anything to do with Net-Ju being "closed" source and not the estimated 10% increase in revenue?!
Please don't hand me (us) a line of BS should you end up running this web site using Net-Ju -- or any other closed source code. I say use closed source when there is no other choice (which is clearly not the case here). Because if you start to go down that typical corporate road of implementing closed software then you might as well run your web site from a IIS (Microsoft) platform too. And if that's what you want to do then please be honest about your clear money thirst.
However, I think I speak for a number of people when I say "don't do it!" And if that means riding a free train as opposed to an over priced, cramped, stinky, mindless advertisement-laden jet then I think I'll stick with the train. (It may take a little longer but you're also less likely to crash as hard should it runs out of gas!)
68 • #67 April Fool! (by anticapitalista on 2014-04-05 22:29:56 GMT from Greece)
#67 You are the April Fool of the year, congratulations!
69 • NAS boxes (by stalinvlad on 2014-04-07 01:46:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
I wonder if in future reviews of distro's you could include connecting to a NAS box You know the sort of thing Buffalo et al make. These are now quite common in households and the ease with which you can browse them in windows and on tablets & smartphones is, in my opinion, their great appeal I have had some upsetting experiences with linux in this regard mainly solved it must be said by sticking to KDE
I do feel that a quick mention that out of the box you could browse a NAS would be enormously helpful
Thanks
Number of Comments: 69
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• Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
• Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
• Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
• Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
• Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
• Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
• Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
• Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
• Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
• Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
• Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
• Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
• Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
• Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
• Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
• Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
• Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
• Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
• Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
• Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
• Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
• Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
• Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
• Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
• Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
• Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
• Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
• Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
• Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
• Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
• Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
• Full list of all issues |
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Random Distribution | 
GeckoLinux
GeckoLinux is a Linux spin based on the openSUSE distribution, with a focus on polish and out-of-the-box usability on the desktop. The distribution features many desktop editions which can be installed from live discs. Some patent encumbered open source software is included in GeckoLinux which is not available in the default installation of openSUSE. Special attention has been given to the quality of the font rendering. GeckoLinux provides two main editions, Static (which is based on openSUSE Leap) and Rolling (based on openSUSE Tumbleweed).
Status: Dormant
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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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