 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 554, 14 April 2014 |
Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! We entrust our computers with a great deal of personal and sensitive data. We rely on our computers to manipulate and store documents, family photos, perhaps tax information and credit card data. Considering the vast amounts of important data our computers are fed on a regular basis, it is vital that we make sure our operating systems are reliable and secure. With that in mind, this week we turn our attention to file storing solutions and security. In our feature review this week we look at a file storage and backup solution called FreeNAS, a FreeBSD-based operating system designed to work on network attached storage devices. In our News section we talk about Ubuntu's move to improve user privacy in future releases. We also talk about a very serious security bug which was discovered and patched last week that could be used to quietly compromise large amounts of sensitive data. Plus we invite you to select which community flavours of Ubuntu LTS will get reviewed this April. As usual, we cover the distribution releases from the past week and look ahead to exciting developments to come. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: Setting up storage with FreeNAS 9.2.1.3
- News: Ubuntu refines dash searches, OpenSSL bug found and patched, Fedora.next explained, CentOS update, Robolinux Stealth VM software for Ubuntu, DPL elections result
- Tips and tricks: Measuring memory and getting rid of useless cats
- Released last week: NexentaStor 4.0, Ultimate Edition 3.9, VortexBox 2.3
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 14.04, OpenMandriva 2014.0 RC, Bodhi Linux 3.0.0 Beta
- New distributions: Leck Linux, Lychee Linux
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Setting up storage with FreeNAS 9.2.1.3
 FreeNAS is one of the more popular open-source platforms for network attached storage (NAS) devices. It is built with FreeBSD as its underlying operating system. The development of FreeNAS is sponsored by iXsystems, a company which sells (among other things) NAS devices. This pairing means people interested in large amounts of storage can experiment with the freely available FreeNAS operating system and, should a person wish to upgrade, supported NAS devices are available.
The FreeNAS operating system is available in 32-bit and 64-bit x86 builds. Available download options include a disc image for fresh installations, there is an upgrade option, a thumb drive image and VMWare images of FreeNAS. The full installable version of FreeNAS is approximately 216MB in size. Booting from the FreeNAS media brings up a text menu in which we are asked if we would like to install or upgrade FreeNAS, shutdown the system or drop to a shell prompt. I took the option to perform a new installation and was asked to select which drive I would be using for the operating system. It is worth noting at this point that FreeNAS requires one hard disk for the operating system and uses additional hard disks for data storage. We are warned that installing FreeNAS will wipe the hard drive we have selected and, assuming we are okay with this, the system installer copies its data to our hard drive. The installation took under ten minutes in my VirtualBox test environment. At the end of the installation we are asked to remove the installation media and reboot the computer.
The local copy of FreeNAS boots to a text console where a menu is displayed with eleven options. Most of the options involve configuring aspects of the network, routing and DNS. There are also options for resetting the FreeNAS web interface's login credentials, resetting the operating system to its initial configuration, dropping to a command line and shutting down the NAS device. I feel it is worth noting at this point that, when FreeNAS boots, we are automatically logged in as the root user. We have the ability to configure or manipulate the system as we see fit. Even once a password is set on the root account, we are still logged in automatically.
Looking around the initial environment I learned a few things. One is that FreeNAS used approximately 90MB of RAM prior to me adding file systems or tweaking the operating system's configuration. Once I had added some storage and enabled a couple of services memory usage rose to about 110MB. The operating system uses about 755MB of disk space. With the default configuration I found FreeNAS would try to use DHCP to create a network connection and get on-line. Using the menu options I was able to set a static IP address and provide an alternative DNS server.
FreeNAS 9.2.1.3 - status graphs and system load monitoring
(full image size: 290kB, screen resolution 1280x997 pixels)
Most of what makes FreeNAS interesting is in the operating system's web-based control panel. By default we can access this web control centre by pointing our web browser to the NAS device's IP address. FreeNAS allows connections over plain HTTP, but can be configured to accept more secure HTTPS connections if desired. The first time we access the web portal we are asked to set a password on the administrator account. This password is needed to access the web interface later, but does not guard against access to the text console.
One of the first things I wanted to do was mount a second disk from my NAS device to FreeNAS so I could start storing things on it. Here I ran into an odd quirk. When I went into the Storage tab there were no disks listed as being available. However, if I went into the Reports tab where status messages and statistics are shown, both the primary disk (for the operating system) and the secondary disk (for data) were shown. Dropping to the command line I was able to see the second device listed as available, but I could not access the disk or format it through the web interface. Eventually, after a reboot and some more poking around, I re-installed FreeNAS. For some reason this fixed the issue and I was able to find my second disk in the web interface's Storage tab. I attempted to add the disk, formatting it with the ZFS advanced file system. The operation failed. I attempted to add the disk a second time, using the web interface's Manual mode which gives us some extra flexibility. This time the new disk was handled properly and set up as a ZFS storage pool.
Shortly after setting up my new storage pool, I noticed a yellow button in the upper-right corner of the screen. Clicking this yellow "alert" button shows warnings and status messages. One of the messages informed me I should venture into the "System->Settings->Advanced" portion of the web interface and enabled a "system data pool". This is a fancy way of saying we are to select a directory where dynamic information, such as log files, can be saved.
FreeNAS 9.2.1.3 - system status messages
(full image size: 161kB, screen resolution 1280x997 pixels)
Digging through the well organized web interface we can find a great deal of useful tools and information. As I briefly mentioned above, there is a collection of system monitors which give us information on the state of our NAS device. There is a web-based virtual terminal where we can login to perform command-line duties without the need for a separate secure shell service. Perhaps the most important collection of utilities is under the Sharing group, which allows us to set up NFS and Samba shares, giving easy, cross-platform access to our files. Another section of the web interface gives us access to various services. For example, we can configure rsync modules, OpenSSH and an FTP service, along with others. The options presented are straight forward and the services easy to configure. One aspect of the FreeNAS interface I found odd was that we configure system services under one tab, but enabling/disabling services is handled under another tab. All services can be turned on/off from one tab which is kept separate from the configuration options.
One feature of ZFS (and FreeNAS) I particularly like is the ability to work with file system snapshots. Using the web interface we can easily create scheduled snapshots of our data. The scheduling tool is quite flexible, allowing us to, for example, create snapshots every hour during work hours and just during certain days of the week. The provided ZFS utilities allow us to perform some other useful feats, such as automatically compressing data and enabling deduplication.
One aspect of FreeNAS I found interesting is the project's move to diversify the tasks we can perform with our NAS. While the core utilities focus on storing, retrieving and backing up files, there are two additional features one might usually expect to find on a more general purpose server operating system. For instance, FreeNAS gives us the ability to set up FreeBSD jails. These jails allow us to run processes in isolation, preventing the software we run from harming the rest of the operating system or our data. Several jail templates are provided for us, some for simply isolating processes, some for setting up contained Linux environments and there is a jail template for dealing with FreeNAS plugins.
FreeNAS 9.2.1.3 - enabling system services
(full image size: 173kB, screen resolution 1280x997 pixels)
A FreeNAS plugin is essentially a piece of bundled software which can be run inside a jail. Right now there are not many plugins available for download, but there are a few, including the Transmission bittorrent client and a media server. I have not yet had a chance to dig into the internals of a plugin, but from the wiki's description, a plugin appears to be a self-contained PBI file which is unpacked and run within a jailed environment. This avoids dependency issues, keeps the software from negatively affecting the rest of our NAS and provides additional functionality to the user.
Conclusions
When I first started using FreeNAS I did run into some minor difficulties getting the network enabled and adding my first storage disk. These problems may have been a result of working within a VirtualBox virtual machine, or perhaps it was a quirk of the software, I'm not sure. Based on my previous, smooth experiences with FreeNAS I suspect the issue lay with the VirtualBox environment. Once I got around those minor issues my time with FreeNAS was positive. The web interface feels smoother this time around than it did the last time I reviewed the operating system. I think the web portal is more responsive. It took me a while to get used to the way options were organized. As I mentioned above, system services are configured in one area and enabled in another. Also, I found it took me a while to get used to the idea that settings were generally viewed on one tab and added/enabled on another. However, once I got into the pattern, I found the interface was consistent. In fact, that may be one of the nicer things about FreeNAS, it appears to be entirely consistent. The user interface works the same way from screen to screen, giving the web portal a unified feel.
The features FreeNAS ships with are excellent. I really like the flexibility of the snapshots and the many methods (FTP, OpenSSH, rsync, Samba, NFS, etc) we can use to access our data. The user management, service management and plugin management tools are very simple to use. Defaults are generally reasonable and I suspect most people, aside from wanting to enable HTTPS for login access, will not need to change the operating system's defaults. ZFS is a very powerful file system and the ability to tweak its many options through the point-n-click web portal is a welcome feature. I have not played around with plugins and jails as much as I would like, I feel as though installing some services and Transmission is just the tip of the iceberg. So far these contained services have worked well for me and I look forward to exploring them further.
In addition, I like that FreeNAS is provided without cost, but that iXsystems also sells supported and certified NAS equipment. This means the hobbyist at home gets a free operating system while the enterprise system administrator gets the product they need too. FreeNAS appears to be a flexible and powerful technology. For people who want a platform that focuses (almost exclusively) on storing and transferring files, it is a solid offering and well worth investigating.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) |
Ubuntu refines dash searches, OpenSSL bug found and patched, Fedora.next explained, CentOS update, Robolinux Stealth VM software for Ubuntu, DPL election results
 Last week several blogs reported that the Ubuntu distribution will shift from the default behaviour of displaying third-party search results in the Unity dash to an opt-in approach when it comes to displaying remote search results. This news is sure to please privacy advocates who complained about Unity's dash sending search queries to remote servers. However, the more private version of the Unity dash is not going to be available for a while yet. The upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 release will still ship with the previous behaviour were on-line search is the default. The new, more private version of the dash will ship with Unity 8 which is likely to be bundled with Ubuntu's desktop edition later this year or in 2015. The OMGUbuntu blog sums up the situation nicely, "At present all queries entered into the Unity dash are searched against a set of on-line sources. Related results, including the contentious product suggestions from Amazon, are returned to the dash and are presented alongside local files and apps. Though this feature is enabled by default it can be turned-off through a toggle in System Settings. But before anyone unpacks the party poppers in jubilation there are caveats to note: Amazon results are not being removed entirely, and the change is not going to take effect in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS."
Twice a year the Ubuntu community releases a torrent of distributions into the wild. Apart from the flag ship Ubuntu distribution there are many official community projects which draw from the Ubuntu software repositories. These community editions include such popular operating systems as Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu and others. When these new releases arrive we try to review at least two of them here on DistroWatch, Ubuntu itself and one of the many community editions. Usually the community edition that gets reviewed is selected at random, but this time we are going to open up the matter to a vote. If you have a preference as to which community edition of Ubuntu gets reviewed, please e-mail your preference to jessefrgsmith@yahoo.ca and place the name of the community edition in the subject line of the e-mail. The project which receives the most votes will get reviewed.
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 A serious security vulnerability was discovered last week which affects most Linux distributions and members of the BSD family. The bug, nicknamed The Heartbleed Bug, was discovered in the OpenSSL software library and allows the attacker to gain access to a person's private security keys and files. A website was quickly set up which explains the nature of the bug, how to prevent being compromised by the exploit and which versions of popular open-source operating systems are affected. Several projects, including Fedora, Debian and FreeBSD have already posted information on the bug and how to apply security patches to fix the issue.
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 With the unusually long delay between the release of Fedora 20 and the start of the Fedora 21 development process, and the subsequent emergence of the "Fedora.next" term, many users have been wondering about the future of the popular Linux distribution. Christopher Tozzi at The Var Guy has summarised some of the possible upcoming changes at the Red Hat-sponsored project: "For now, the name [Fedora.next] refers simply to 'planning and direction-setting' aimed at identifying changes Fedora developers should make over the next several years to reinvigorate the operating system. Most notable on the list so far is a proposal for splitting Fedora releases into three different "products" -- workstation, cloud and server -- 'so that we can build and market each in different ways,' as Miller explained in a follow-up to his first article. That's a very similar strategy to the one adopted by distributions including Ubuntu - although it is notable that, unlike the Ubuntu suite, none of the proposed Fedora products focuses on mobile. The product segmentation seems likely to make it easier for different groups of Fedora users to obtain a distribution that more readily meets their particular needs out of the box."
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 Many Linux users are eagerly awaiting the upcoming release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, a major new update of the enterprise-class distribution that is expected to include many new technologies developed by the open-source software community over the last few years. Consequently, a "gratis" variant of RHEL 7 in the form of CentOS 7, should follow shortly afterwards. But the recent incorporation of CentOS into Red Hat structures has resulted in a new unknown variable and perhaps a bit of anxiety among the CentOS users. Here is an update on the Red Hat - CentOS relationship by LWN's Jake Edge: "CentOS board member Karsten Wade, who is also Red Hat's engineering manager for CentOS, came to the 2014 Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit to explain how CentOS and Red Hat are joining forces and what it means for the future of both. Back in early January, the two announced that CentOS was joining the Red Hat family. According to Wade, that was the completion of one-and-a-half years of effort to put the two together, but it was just the beginning of actually figuring out what the partnership means." Read also the comments that follow the article for additional clarifications and insight.
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 Robolinux, a distribution project designed to ease the transition from Windows to Linux with the help of a pre-configured VirtualBox addition running Windows XP or Windows 7, has released installable DEB files for Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Named "Stealth VM For Ubuntu & derivatives", these packages provide an easy-to-use wizard for installing a licensed copy of Windows that would run in a virtual environment alongside Linux: "What many Windows XP users want to do is run Windows applications inside Ubuntu or their Ubuntu derivative. The Robolinux Stealth VM software will significantly increase the number of successful and permanent Windows to Linux user migrations which is estimated by ZD Net to be 11% of the 670 million existing Windows XP users. ... In a few clicks the Windows XP or Windows 7 virtual machine is instantly built and fully configured and ready to go. Then you simply load your Windows disk and programs. Robolinux has incredibly easy how to screens and videos to make sure anyone can do it." See also this page for further information and screenshots.
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 And finally, a piece of Debian news that had come in just before this issue of DistroWatch Weekly went live - Lucas Nussbaum has been re-elected as Debian Project Leader: "The Debian Project Leader election has concluded and the winner is Lucas Nussbaum. Of a total of 1,003 developers, 401 developers voted using the Condorcet method. More information about the result is available in the Debian Project Leader elections 2014 page. The new term for the project leader will start on April 17th and expire on April 17th 2015."
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Measuring memory and getting rid of useless cats
Counting-the-bits asks: How do you measure the memory used by a distribution in your reviews? I've tried to replicate your results on Mint and CentOS with free, top and such to no avail.
DistroWatch answers: When reviewing Linux distributions I measure memory usage with the free command. Specifically I run the command "free -m" which displays memory usage in megabytes. The number which appears in my reviews is the number displayed in the first column of the second row of the free command's output. This value indicates the amount of memory actively used by the operating system and does not include buffered or cached data left in memory for fast access. When I test other operating systems, such as members of the BSD family, they typically do not include the free command. In those cases I run the top command and make note of the amount of memory marked as actively used.
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Command line tip
This week I would like to discuss a topic which has little practical value, but may be of some interest to fans of the command line. There are times when a user may type a command which technically works, but may be much less efficient than it could be. Or perhaps the user is just typing a good deal more than they need to be. One fine example of these sorts of scenarios is the useless use of the cat command. The cat command is used to concatenate two (or more) files together and then output the result to the terminal. In some cases the output of the cat command is redirected to a file or piped to another command. For instance, the following example uses cat to display the contents of a single text file:
cat my-to-do-list
In this second example we use cat to take two files, my-to-do-list and my-shopping-list, and combine them into one long text file called everything:
cat my-to-do-list my-shopping-list > everything
These are proper uses of the cat command. However, cat is popular and sometimes ends up being used in situations where it does not make sense or where using cat is redundant. For instance, it is possible to pipe the output from cat to other commands such as grep and less. However, both grep and less can simply open files directly without needing cat. Here is an example of a redundant use of cat, followed by a more proper example. Both of these commands accomplish the same thing:
cat my-to-do-list | grep clean
grep clean my-to-do-list
Likewise, both of the following commands display the contents of my text file, dictionary:
cat dictionary | less
less dictionary
Here is an example where cat is used to copy a file, followed by an example where I use the system's copy (cp) command to accomplish the same task:
cat old-file > new-file
cp old-file new-file
The cat command can be useful at producing small amounts of output and combining two (or more) files together. Quite often other uses of the cat command are redundant and make use of extra resources and time that could be saved by using shorter, more efficient commands.
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| Released Last Week |
NexentaStor 4.0
Michael Letschin has announced the release of NexentaStor 4.0, a major new update of the specialist distribution optimised for virtualisation and network-attached storage - based on the Illumos kernel and ZFS file system: "This latest version of NexentaStor delivers significant performance, reliability and functionality improvements to the award-winning SDS solution, having passed through rigorous engineering, customer and partner testing with flying colors. NexentaStor will continue to be available in two editions: Community edition (free, full-featured, community supported software for configurations up to 18TB), and Enterprise edition (licensed by the size of the storage pool). NexentaStor 4.0 is Citrix and VMware ready and certified to run on a variety of reference hardware configurations from strategic technology and channel partners." See the release announcement for more details.
Ultimate Edition 3.9
Version 3.9 of Ultimate Edition, an Ubuntu-based distribution and live DVD featuring KDE 4.10.5 as the default desktop environment, is ready for download: "Ultimate Edition 3.9. Time has never been on my side, this is no exception. I am dumping Ultimate Edition 3.9 to the public. I am not going to make a big deal about it. I have had nothing, but pretty much good feedback on it. I am not even going to spend the time updating / upgrading it. I will be doing some catch up over the next few weeks when time is available. Let's get Ultimate Edition 3.9 behind us, so I can focus on the future." Here is the brief release announcement. Ultimate Edition 3.9 is based on Ubuntu 13.04 and besides KDE it also offers MATE 1.6 as an alternative desktop. The live DVD image is available for download from the many SourceForge mirrors.
VortexBox 2.3
Andrew Gillis has announced the release of VortexBox 2.3, the latest version of the project's Fedora-based distribution that turns an unused computer into an easy-to-use music server or jukebox: "It has been over a year since our last full release of VortexBox. There have been small incremental updates but not a big release. VortexBox 2.3 is finally ready! Thanks to the work of our community the release has a huge number of features and updates. Although the interface looks the same, most of the features are in the underlying technology: SqueezeBox Server 7.8.0, the latest release from Community Squeeze; Fedora 20 with better hardware support for new DACs, motherboards; Squeezelite as a built-in player; full DSD support - play DSD direct to a DSD capable DAC or transcode to PCM in-line for non DSD DACs; backup and restore now does the LMS settings as well; network-based install so you can install from a USB key...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a full changelog.
Zorin OS 8 "Lite"
The "Lite" edition of Zorin OS 8, an i386-only variant of the beginners-friendly distribution that features the LXDE desktop, has been released: "The Zorin OS team is pleased to release Zorin OS 8 Lite and Business. Zorin OS 8 Lite is the latest evolution of the Zorin OS Lite series of operating systems, designed specifically for Linux newcomers using old or low-powered hardware. This release is based on Lubuntu 13.10 and uses the LXDE desktop environment to provide one of the fastest and most feature-packed interfaces for low-spec machines. This new release includes newly updated software out-of-the-box. Zorin OS 8 Business introduces a myriad of changes to the business-oriented edition of Zorin OS including updated software, improvements to the user interface and entirely new software." Here is the brief release announcement.
ZorinOS 8 "Lite" - the default LXDE desktop
(full image size: 1,692kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
GParted Live 0.18.0-2
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 0.18.0-2, the latest stable version of the popular Debian-based live CD designed for disk management and data rescue tasks: "The GParted team is proud to announce another stable release of GParted Live. This live image fixes a bug with the SSH host key protocol ed25519 not being generated during boot. Other items of note include: based on the Debian's 'Sid' repository as of 2014-04-10; updated Linux kernel to version 3.13.7; updated GRUB to 2.02beta2. Added the following programs: screen - screen manager with terminal emulation; rsync - a fast and versatile file-copying tool; ping - check network connectivity to another host on a network; telnet - communicate with another host using the TELNET protocol; traceroute - print the route packets trace to network host...." The release announcement.
MakuluLinux 6.0 "MATE"
Jacque Raymer has announced the release of MakuluLinux 6.0 "MATE" edition, a Debian-based distribution featuring the recently-released MATE 1.8 desktop environment: "The first release in our new 6 series dubbed 'Imperium' (Latin for 'power to command'), also our first dual-mode solo MATE build. This release allows users to customize their settings and software upon installation. Now users can setup their desktop the way they want it with the software they want while still experiencing an out-of-the-box experience. Those that don't want an out-of-the-box experience will now have an option to turn the system into a bare-bone system with a few clicks. Features: based on Debian 'Testing'; 3.13.x PAE kernel; full systemd support." Read the full release announcement for more information and screenshots.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Leck Linux. Leck Linux is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. The project is being used as a practice ground for Linux and distribution development.
- Lychee Linux. Lychee Linux is a business-focused distribution based on the openSUSE project. Lychee Linux ships with the GNOME 3 desktop.
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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, 21 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 • Heartbleed (by jg on 2014-04-14 10:02:54 GMT from Poland)
Wouldn't it be a great idea to organize and carry out a thorough screening of all the most popular linux distros, having in mind that probably nobody ever looked at them this way, trying to find any malicious spyware, backdoors and the like?
It turned out that when we said "open source software is safe, because everyone can see and check the code", we really meant "we don't know how safe the open source software is, bacause frankly, no one, even though they could, ever checked it anyway".
In the meantime, let's sing "Don't worry, be happy!"
2 • Ubuntu LTS community flavour (by Raphaël on 2014-04-14 11:51:58 GMT from Switzerland)
Hi! It would be great if you could have a look at Ubuntu Studio. How reliable is it for serious multimedia work?
3 • heartbleed (by mandog on 2014-04-14 12:05:59 GMT from Peru)
Unlike closed source that has dozens of vulnerabilities monthly and nobody cares or makes a big fuss over it. When open source gets the odd vulnerabilities it is jumped on like its the end of the world.
4 • Heartbleed (by Didier on 2014-04-14 12:09:50 GMT from France)
For Slackware a security advisory has been posted and an openssl-1.0.1g package has been released on Apr 8th.
I'm more worried about all the websites on which I have an account and of which I don't know the status and that didn't communicate on that topic yet, so I don't even know if/when I can safely change my password...
5 • Heartbleed (by corcaigher on 2014-04-14 13:04:07 GMT from United States)
"It turned out that when we said "open source software is safe"...
Yes, a opposed to the complete safe and secure Windows and Mac OSX, get a grip!
6 • Upgraded to Kubuntu 14.04 (by Leo on 2014-04-14 13:18:19 GMT from United States)
Hi, I ran an upgrade in a couple machines at home. Most stuff worked perfectly, as usual. On the main machine, HPLIP warned me that I needed to download a "driver" for one of the printers, which I did and worked fine. The only little things were that TV-Maxe is not working anymore, and sopcast-player is still not available for this release. Also, pitivi is segfaulting.
Other than that, muon is _still_ crazy slow on a superfast Haswell i5 with lots of ram and a fast SSD. I am using less and less of KDE, other than Plasma, Dolphin and System Settings.
Cheers!
7 • Chromebleed (by schultzter on 2014-04-14 13:21:52 GMT from Canada)
#4 there's a Chrome extension that checks web sites as you visit them, if there's an issue you get a notification (a toast) warning you. You can set the sensitivity so only absolute positives will trigger an alert or anything but an absolute negative.
8 • Linux umbrella or industry organization? (by gregzeng on 2014-04-14 13:25:02 GMT from Australia)
The first four comments seem to request a need for an industry association. AFAIK the existing industry associations seem to not care about Linux in its entirety. Who is the industry's spokesperson? To whom are they accountable? To which national security agency (ies) - NSA? Of the officer bearers of its governing body, which nations do they have person passports (n indication of NSA possible bias)?
If such persons or organizations exist, I have yet to see their press releases, industry announcement and industry awards. In my personal circumstances, I'm well suited to start such an agency, but my medical conditions & other priorities prevent this from happening.
9 • Heartbleed (by a lurker on 2014-04-14 13:25:43 GMT from United States)
Two points, we know who made the error with heartbleed and with open source when tend to know the full ramifications of the problem because others can analyze the source code. With proprietary code, one rarely knows who made the error and almost never knows the true extent of the problem from an independent source. We are left with a technical press release saying there is problem and it rated at this level of severity.
10 • @1 (by byku on 2014-04-14 13:01:52 GMT from Poland)
Adobe Flash isn't open source and is not safe (year by year is on top 10 list of vulnerable programs).
"we don't know how safe the open source software is, bacause frankly, no one, even though they could, ever checked it anyway"
Be free to check whole FLOSS code for us. Or you can always start a Kickstart project ;)
It is not easy task to check code. I belive that companies (like VUPEN Security) make some audits but they don't send their patches on git (bastards ;p) but sell to eg. NSA ;).
11 • Using cat to copy a file has a valid purpose (by Ben the Pyrate on 2014-04-14 18:12:55 GMT from United States)
You suggest that the following to lines are equivalent, but they're not.
cat old-file > new-file
cp old-file new-file
If new-file does not exist, then they will have the same effect. However if new-file already exist, the first form will preserve the permissions of new-file while updating the contents to match old-file. This is often a useful shortcut in build/install scripts. It's a common pattern in SlackBuild scripts in particular.
12 • RE #2 Ubuntu Studio (by Gee on 2014-04-14 18:49:29 GMT from United States)
I currently have a system that used to be able to run ArtistX and UE and now runs Ubuntu studio just fine and it handles all of my music and photo tasks just fine. I haven't worked it hard for video tasks as I have a faster machine for video tasks. The only issue I have with Ubuntu studio at the present time is a bit of repository chaos that seems to get a bit worse on very update. I'm getting ready to swap the drive out and virtualize the old XP on it with Robolinux. When I get done with that the 14.04lts should be out and I plan on reinstalling it on this machine. I also plan on testing lubuntu 14.04lts for a eee 1015 that loves lubuntu.
13 • @11 - copy vs cat (by Pearson on 2014-04-14 20:12:07 GMT from United States)
You are correct. For complete information, there is a (nonstandard, I believe) parameter to cp that will preserve the file permissions.
cp -p file1 file2
14 • @13 - copy vs cat (by greenpossum on 2014-04-14 22:14:44 GMT from Australia)
cp -p preserves the permissions of the old file, whereas cat > preserves the permissions of the new file. Also any hard links and SELinux context.
15 • OPen source errors (by Microsoft Bob on 2014-04-14 23:27:24 GMT from United States)
For those of you who think closed source bugs get a pass, but every little open source bug is made light of, consider that that might come from your perspective that open source is perfect and shouldn't be challenged.
Software is software, guys. It all has bugs. Linux is not your sense of identity. If someone points out a bug, its not meant as an insult to your mother.
16 • How is open source checked? (by dbrion on 2014-04-15 07:42:11 GMT from France)
At microsoft, source was checked the following way 4 years ago IIRC: when a programmer had typed some consistent code, another member of his team reviewed his code; then, someone from another team, with no links with the programmer, reviewed it. This can be achieved with a centralized way of producing code.
Open source programmers come from the same schools/universities, have about the same age than closed source ones (therefore, I would be very surprised if they were worse or ... better). I believe (but am not sure) RH reviews strategical code ; Debian (if Debian Packagers are not code authors : this is not systematic) can review code independantly. But I do not know the extent...
17 • cat is useful (by anon on 2014-04-15 08:25:17 GMT from United States)
cat <text file with tabs>
vs
more OR less <text file with tabs>
Try each and copy and paste the line with tabs. When dumped into the terminal I find that terminals preserve the tabs that cat dumps out, while other pagers transforms the tabs into spaces.
Likewise if you cat a text file with terminal commands, or certain escape sequences for your terminal type, you will see the proper output, since cat is just a raw dump and the terminal will interpret those sequences, where as pagers usually try to interpret those sequences themselves (just like tabs) before displaying
18 • @not bleeding (by greg on 2014-04-15 10:19:29 GMT from Slovenia)
well the hole was found, the hole was immediatelly patched. or at leats patches are available, but not all companies patched (which is a bigger problem than the hole itself).
in other news 5 year old boy figured out how to by pass MS security measures on xbox... took them longer to patch it. closed source FTW?!
19 • @18 closed source (by AliasMarlowe on 2014-04-15 11:55:51 GMT from United States)
"Closed source FTW?"
Well, that depends on who you're rooting for...
20 • Memory usage with 'free' (by Magic Banana on 2014-04-15 13:15:12 GMT from Brazil)
The tip to get the memory usage with 'free' is wrong. The number Jesse Smith indicates actually includes the buffer cache: http://www.thegeekscope.com/check-linux-memory-usage-using-free-command/
For more information about this cache: http://www.linuxintheshell.org/2012/06/05/episode-008-free-understanding-linux-memory-usage/
So, to get, from 'free', the real memory consumption of the system, two subtractions are required. It can be done with AWK if you wish:
$ free -m | awk '/Mem/ { print $3 - $6 - $7 "M used" }'
Notice that the value you get corresponds to the one the "GNOME System Monitor" (for instance) reports. However, and I believe that is the reason why Jesse Smith prefers 'free', such a graphical tool eats up a few MB by itself.
21 • Memory usage (by Jesse on 2014-04-15 13:25:14 GMT from Canada)
@20:
"The tip to get the memory usage with 'free' is wrong. The number Jesse Smith indicates actually includes the buffer cache:"
I think you misunderstood what I wrote. The value I report does not include buffers/cache. In fact, the awk script you provided gives the same value as the one I report. The first column on the second line of "free"'s output provides the same value you would get by running your awk script. Either you misunderstood my tip above or the articles you linked to, both which provide the same information I did above.
22 • FreeNAS as U1 replacement? (by DavidEF on 2014-04-15 14:28:10 GMT from United States)
I've been wanting to set up a home file server for a while. In fact, the last time Jesse reviewed FreeNAS, I commented that I was looking into doing a file server of some kind. I still haven't gotten around to it, mostly because I don't have hardware to dedicate to it yet. But, I'm trying to figure that one out with some old pieces laying around.
So, now that Ubuntu One is going away, I have another good reason to need/want some form of file service at home. What I'd like to know is whether it would be simple/easy to set up FreeNAS to do full synchronization versus just storage. I'd want to have my files automatically synchronized from any and all computers I may be using, whether at home or away, as long as I have internet connectivity, like it has been with Ubuntu One. I'd also like access to those same files by logging in from any connected computer via the web, like U1 does it.
23 • File syncing (by Jesse on 2014-04-15 14:35:08 GMT from Canada)
@22: David, I think what you want isn't a NAS, which is mostly used for storage and backups, but rather a server running file sync software. Your best bet for a DIY solution is ownCloud. it does the file synching and has a great web interface. Just set up one of the popular Linux distros and install the ownCloud package, that will take care of everything for you.
24 • Memory usage with 'free' (by Magic Banana on 2014-04-15 16:26:25 GMT from Brazil)
@21: I regret but that is not what you wrote. You wrote "The number which appears in my reviews is the number displayed in the first column of the second row of the free command's output".
To get the actual memory consumption, the two last numbers on the same row must be subtracted to "the number displayed in the first column of the second row of the free command's output". Indeed, they correspond to buffer and cache memory that can be easily reclaimed from the kernel whenever an application needs more memory.
25 • Free memory output (by Jesse on 2014-04-15 16:55:00 GMT from Canada)
@24: "I regret but that is not what you wrote. You wrote "The number which appears in my reviews is the number displayed in the first column of the second row of the free command's output"."
Yes, that is what I wrote and that corresponds exactly with the two articles you linked to. And, if you compare the number I provide with the awk script you provided above you will find the values match. Look at the first column of the second row of numbers output by "free". I'm not sure why you dont' see this, but we are saying exactly the same thing. We are both referring to the amount of memory used by the operating system, minus buffered data and cache. That is the first number on the second row, the one which follows the text "-/+ buffers/cache:".
Why do you keep insisting that isn't what I am talking about when we are both referring to the exact same value?
26 • Memory usage with 'free' (by Magic Banana on 2014-04-15 17:27:57 GMT from Brazil)
My bad. I actually interpreted "second row" as "second line" (that is, because of the headers, the first row). I did not know 'free' directly reported the actually used memory! I though we needed to do do the math! Sorry again for the misunderstanding and keep up the good work!
27 • Is Porteus really suspended? (by Marco on 2014-04-15 22:26:14 GMT from United States)
On both http://forum.porteus.org/ and http://www.porteus.org/ I get:
NOTICE
Porteus has been suspended by developers until further notice.
28 • Porteus (by Rex Culbertson on 2014-04-15 23:12:12 GMT from United States)
Yes Marco, I am shocked to find the same message today from the Porteus links. Just last night I was on their site and noticed nothing amiss. Then today- what?
Porteus is a fine distro in my opinion and I am not happy at such a loss.
29 • Ubuntu Studio 13.04 (by computergeek97308 on 2014-04-16 01:48:33 GMT from Mexico)
Ubuntu Studio is great for audio recording and light editing with Audacity, but practically every distro on the planet can handle that.
Most of the issues I've had with Ubuntu Studio relate to Pulse issues, Skype doesn't work even with the official Ubuntu "fix." Audio is horribly laggy with Ekiga. You constantly have to open pulse audio settings to get audio to work with various sources, it's not smart enough to recognize that yes, some audio would be appropriate here.Also zero audio in some flash or java based games or streams within Firefox (but they work fine with Chrome). There are also Pulse-related issues with audio in WINE. Running Radiosure in WINE you can't stream mp3 internet radio stations because pulse sends a "pulse" every 5 seconds that causes the audio to skip.
It would be nice to see working dvd ripper(s), video editors, and some other multimedia functionality in the repos or PPA's. Those which are available crash out, freeze up, basically a ridiculous waste of bits and bytes. Somewhat odd considering this distro touts itself as a "multimedia editing" type distro.
All things considered though Ubuntu Studio with XFCE does most tasks exceptionally well, far more stable than Debian, Mint or others in the top 5. On my desktop. But on my laptop Studio has major shortcomings with wireless hardware though and is totally not compatible with WPA2. Ubuntu still hasn'nt fixed the "valid password rejected as invalid loop" but which first appeared in forums maybe 5 years ago. Why is that?
30 • Strange Ubuntu Studio problems and Multimedia (by Garon on 2014-04-16 12:46:22 GMT from United States)
What I find really strange is that the parent distro, Ubuntu, does not seem to have those problems with Pulse or at least I haven't had any occur in the last several years. It must be problems with the build by the maintainers of Ubuntu Studio. As far as using Windows programs under WINE, you take what you can get and there are no guarantees nor should there be. All operating systems have problems with Flash and with some Java and that's always been the case. Chrome has Flash built in and Firefox does not so that's where the difference is with those two. Not the distro's problem. I have not experienced the WPA2 problem you speak of so I can't really comment on that one. A lot of the problems you list really fall back on the maintainers of those applications in my opinion. I only do casual work with video and audio and nothing really professional. Maybe a person who does professional work in multimedia would need something like special multimedia software made for dedicated hardware. Unless you build your own distro, Linux distros seem to try to work on everything and maybe that's where the problems are in that regard. What springs to mind, and I hate saying this, is maybe a Mac would better suit the purpose of a dedicated multimedia system for developers of multimedia. Remember that is just an opinion of someone who is not in that profession and an opinion that really is up for debate.
31 • Wowed By Makulu (by CharliesTheMan on 2014-04-16 13:00:12 GMT from United States)
I have to say, anyone that enjoys the tinkering/theming aspect of trying new distros, must try Makulu Mate. It's not only a beautiful distro that's VERY customizable, it also runs great and has an extremely easy to operate installer that will help new-to-linux users get a much better experience than some of the other high quality installers. It's as if the installer allows a noob to customize settings usually not in the other installers, and not realized/learned until the user has more experience.
Personally I enjoy the default theme and also make a theme that's way different, but those who don't enjoy the out of the box theme, don't let that dissuade you until you've at least tried it and looked at some of the other pre-installed out of the box themes.
Also, the wallpaper and widgets are a great introduction to conky and docks that new users might not start to experiment with so early in their experience if they hadn't discovered them in Makulu.
32 • Sound (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-04-16 13:51:46 GMT from United States)
I'd expect AVLinux at bandshed to be good with sound. For sound-servers, isn't Jack the professional, and PulseAudio the swiss-army-knife-connector?
Depending on hardware, ALSA or OSS may be the better sound API.
Then there's the KXstudio toolset ... LinuxMusicians may be a good resource for advice ... DW also lists Musix, DreamStudio, ArtistX - depends on your purpose?
More generally, many issues are vintage-specific.
33 • Ubuntu search (by M.Z. on 2014-04-16 17:04:04 GMT from United States)
I for one am glad that Ubuntu is finally trying to get its act back together after a long train wreak of bad decisions regarding user privacy. If they actually fix all their problems I could actually recommend default Ubuntu as as 'this odd mac like version of Linux' if anyone was interested. They have still done alot to turn my initial indifference into active dislike of their distro & Unity is still a goofy unconfigurable mess, but I want the poster child for Linux to have a decent default configuration regarding privacy. I think that this is definitely something to keep an eye on.
34 • Opt in is good enough. (by Garon on 2014-04-16 17:48:42 GMT from United States)
Yes the changing from opt out to opt in is a lot better then it was before. (I know it hasn't changed yet.) My daughter who has two children of her own and teaches school loves the Amazon search mainly because she shops a lot on Amazon and was scared they were stopping that search function. I told her that it was going to be opt in and that was good enough. That's okay with her. Privacy is very important now more than ever before, so it's a step in the right direction. @33, I'm just curious about what you said concerning Unity. What is it exactly that you can't configure that you would want to? Granted with the scopes, and lenses, and hud, and such it is hard to get use to but I find it easy to configure in my case. I guess some people just doesn't like the configuration or actions of the interface and it's fine and dandy to feel that way. lol I feel the same way about KDE and its millions of configuration settings. ;)
35 • @27, 28: Porteus Linux having bandwith problems (by Pearson on 2014-04-16 18:19:43 GMT from United States)
From their Facebook page (I found it from DuckDuckGo -- didn't know they had one!): https://www.facebook.com/porteus.org
"Hi guys. As some of you probably noticed porteus.org is down as we are struggling with bandwidth related problem and some other things. Will post announcement and explain everything once it's up and running again. Apologize for the troubles and thanks for your patience.
- fanthom."
and this implies that their problem is from being too popular:
"Our server couldnt handle all the traffic and got nuked by 3.0 release. Now we look like a bunch of amateurs - thanks guys!
- fanthom"
36 • @34 - configurablility (by M.Z. on 2014-04-16 19:40:48 GMT from United States)
@34
I never really cared for many of the default UI element in Unity, like where the open & close buttons are on the windows, where the dock is, and how the GUI portion of their dash menu works. Using Dash as a normal GUI menu is an especially massive pain in the butt, which made me extremely cynical about all the privacy problems while searching the dash. The last time I checked all of these basic elements couldn't be changed by default, though I admit that I haven't played that much with Unity. There has to be a happy in between spot where a few basic changes in configuration are possible, but I think most of that kind of thing requires some independently created tool to be installed if you want to change Unity. Making those kinds of changes are fairly simple in both KDE and Cinnamon, although I think the defaults are so much better neither really needs many configuration changes anyway.
37 • Ubuntu/Amazon (by Dave Postles on 2014-04-16 20:30:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
I came to Linux to avoid corporates. I especially dislike Amazon which is dominant, has been one cause of the decline of local bookshops, and avoids UK tax. Any association between a Linux organization and Amazon is anathema to me, whether it's opt-in or opt-out. It smells wrong.
38 • Unity Tweak (by Garon on 2014-04-17 00:36:46 GMT from United States)
@36,
You are correct when you say not many things can be changed by default but I always install Unity Tweak and then you can change about everything. It is in the repositories. Also you can change the buttons, menu bars and so on. It just boils down to what a person likes and we do have a lot of choice.
@37,
In the U.S. more and more states are starting to collect taxes from Amazon as they do other corporations. As far as corporations and Linux goes, most corporations do have Linux on their servers so they do have a relationship. Also more and more distributions are starting to seek corporate sponsorship whether it's from search engines or other types. It does happen whether we realize it or not, whether we like it or not.
39 • Heartbleed - ref.: jg on 2014-04-14 10:02:54 GMT (by Anon on 2014-04-17 01:06:29 GMT from Norway)
The OP is undoubtedly right - it _is a good idea to somehow try to 'make sure' that Linux code is being inspected thoroughly and often. The question is how, and by whom. Literally nit-picking miles and miles of often complex code isn't for everyone and usually not something even the more competent do gladly.
Linux is very safe, in theory. Practice is a different matter, as we have seen a little too often over the last few years.
40 • Thanks Pearson (by Rex Culberson on 2014-04-17 03:26:22 GMT from United States)
Good news and Thank-you. Well not good news about bandwidth shortage but otherwise yes.
41 • Porteus is back (by Marco on 2014-04-17 12:46:56 GMT from United States)
Why: http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=35&p=23856#p23856
Feedback: http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=3355
42 • @38 - choices (by M.Z. on 2014-04-17 19:36:52 GMT from United States)
@38
I do like choices, but I prefer my desktop to have the config options that I need to get to a comfortable desktop built in. Otherwise it's just a flawed & uncomfortable design with options tacked on afterwards by unsatisfied users. That doesn't sound like something I want to use. I do feel the itch to make a few tweaks here and there in both Cinnamon & KDE, but the defaults are far more usable than Unity & everything I want is built in and done far more the way I want right from the start. I also think that a decent amount of configuration options is a sign of respect for the intelligence of me the user, giving me the ability to use things the way I find most productive rather than telling me how things must be done. I do think Unity has far better defaults than Gnome 3, but it is neither good enough nor configurable enough by default. I want a less flawed desktop that I actually like to use.
43 • WIFI connect (by WyndRyder on 2014-04-18 01:49:20 GMT from United States)
I'm going to try to be sane and civil about this but I think Linux folks(devs and the such) are going to shoot Linux in the foot.
I tried out MX-14 a few days ago and thought maybe it was a glitch on their part.
Just got done trying the new Lubuntu and, oooppppsss same problem
And it's this. Whatever happened to the box that would pop up, type in the password and WIFI would connect? Simple and easy.
Not with this complicated whatever box that wants all kinds of things that I have no clue what it wants. Even a semi-geek friend of mine was doing some serious head scratching about it and finally just said, "I have no clue."
Ain't no way to win newbies, folks.
44 • wifi support across distros (by M.Z. on 2014-04-18 04:55:00 GMT from United States)
@43
Those are both from the Debian/Ubuntu family. I think it is usually more helpful to try something with an entirely different base, for instance if Mint doesn't work in some situation I try PCLOS or vice versa. Both are good OSes, but different branches of Linux seem to have better or worse hardware support depending on the situation. I think both the Mint/Ubuntu family & PCLOS, (& possibly Mageia or another Mandriva clone), are known for good hardware support but are different enough that one is likely to work when another doesn't. I'd always try something from an entirely different branch of the family tree if one version of Linux doesn't work.
45 • @ 43 wifi support (by AleCon on 2014-04-18 07:37:29 GMT from Italy)
Your complain is perfect if you wanted just to get it out your chest, if you wanted to have your problem solved is perhaps not going to be any helpful.
You didn't even mention which network utility you were trying to use.
Anyway, seek for help in the distro forum after having learned a bit about your hardware or try another distro, most of them can run live allowing you to test your hardware before performing installation.
46 • @43 WIFI connect (by Kazlu on 2014-04-18 11:01:23 GMT from France)
Well, I don't know for MX-14, but in Lubuntu things are done so that it does what you expected: scan for wireless networks, attempt to connect to one and ask you for the password. It's been there for several versions, I used it myself. Si I guess if it's not working in your case, it's not because the devs haven't thought about including that option or removed it on purpose (hence "shooting themselves in the foot"). It seems your problem is related to hardware support, like #44 and #45 suggested. Often for a given distro a lot of hardware is recognized and some other isn't, it is impossible to make so that every piece of hardware is recognized. It's difficult to be more specific. I second #45 saying that to solve your problem your best option is to head for the forum of your distribution of choice.
That being said you're right, that kind of problems is a show stopper for a beginner. But again, it is impossible to make so that every piece of hardware is recognized. Particularly for new hardware, where no driver is available for Linux because OEMs do not care and the community has yet to develop a free driver for it. The only solution to be sure it works is to buy a PC with GNU/Linux, or to check the hardware is recognized before buying (seriously more difficult, especially for a beginner).
47 • No clue given (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-04-19 12:24:35 GMT from United States)
An alternative interpretation of the complaint about a wi-fi connection issue encountered during a live test could consider the lack of communication, or (hyper?)links to useful information, regarding data desired.
Number of Comments: 47
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Burapha Linux Server
Burapha Linux Server was a free Linux distribution. It was a descendant of Burapha Linux 5.5, which in turn was a descendant of Slackware 10.x. Burapha Linux Server does not have any packages taken directly from Slackware; the project builds their own packages and have their own package manager. The primary purpose of development was for the computer science students to learn the infrastructure of a UNIX system, and to apply the acquired knowledge in research and projects.
Status: Discontinued
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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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| 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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