 DistroWatch Weekly |
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Gobo (by greg on 2014-06-09 10:30:10 GMT from Slovenia)
when i read about gobo i wanteds to give it a try, but then i dug deeper and saw the symbolic links it uses. i am not sure this is the good approach.
so as the review asks "How does one tell the computer to find the executable files in the correct spot?" i don't think the spot itself is the issue here. look at various portable apps projects availabel on Windows. how did they solve the issue? simply oyu put the necessery libraries along with the apps. if some are not availabel then the one frm system is used. and system keeps them in only a few places if not only one (i don't know ho latest wins have this arranged). something similar could be and iMO should be done in Linux. The various portable apps also have a nice updater that will find updates for apps and download them if you request it.
each app into it's own folder. if certian dependency is missing use the one form system. then it's on the porgram maintainers that they ship all that is needed along with the bundle.sure it make it bigger, but then again you can easilly install the newer version next to old version or you can even have two verison of same applicaiton...
2 • Separate program directories (by cykodrone on 2014-06-09 11:51:14 GMT from Canada)
So does that mean library files are are replicated if many programs use the same library and version?
3 • LInux BBQ (by ckyodrone on 2014-06-09 12:22:18 GMT from Canada)
Their website is hilarious, lots of humour. This is a great distro if you have spare time on your hands and you want discover what's bleeding edge in the Debian and DEs world, kinda like the Fedora for Deb-heads, lol. Although, I'm a little nervous about using anything from China, go ahead, call me tinfoil hat paranoid, safe is better than sorry.
4 • GOBO (by GreginNC on 2014-06-09 14:06:43 GMT from United States)
While I agree somewhat with your assessment that symbolic links and added complexity may not be prudent in the long run. I have to wonder why after stating that when you checked the software mirrors were offline you then stated that you were unable to install software and even said that "package management was broken" as though that was a systemic flaw rather than something likely caused by unavailable repos.
Give them a break, that project has been dormant for four years and just got a new version out, I would assume it would take a while to get all the repos updated especially if it's a small team working on it.
5 • Skip the temporary file (by Sitwon on 2014-06-09 15:03:28 GMT from United States)
If you're using Bash, you can play your ad-hoc playlist without writing a temporary file to disk by using process substitution.
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/process-sub.html
The command would be re-written as:
mplayer -playlist <( find ~/Music -iname "*the*pretty*reckless*" -type f )
6 • Re: 2 (by Sitwon on 2014-06-09 15:10:36 GMT from United States)
No. Read this page on the GoboLinux website.
http://www.gobolinux.org/?page=at_a_glance
In short, the "latest" or "active" copy of a given library is symlinked to a global directory where it can be discovered and loaded by an application which depends on it.
7 • @4 Re: GOBO (by Rev_Don on 2014-06-09 15:47:54 GMT from United States)
You are missing the point of a review. Jesse did the right thing by revealing all of his findings, both good and bad. If you don't tell the readers about a distro's shortcomings you haven't done anyone any favours. Readers want to know what is wrong just as much as what is right, and the distro creators/maintainers need to know that as well so they can fix the problems.
In short, he DID "give them a break". He posted what he found, warts and all.
8 • LinuxBBQ (by JWJones on 2014-06-09 16:33:23 GMT from United States)
@3 - Although LinuxBBQ is technically from China (Julius Hader a.k.a. "machinebacon" currently lives and works in China), the distro is an international effort. Fear not! ;)
9 • Re: Command line tricks from climagic (by Roland on 2014-06-09 17:09:35 GMT from United States)
The trick with $_ doesn't always work:
$ mkdir -p ~/Desktop/"New Music"/"Crest of a Knave"
$ cd $_
bash: cd: /home/rolandl/Desktop/New: No such file or directory
Does bash have a quoting bug?
10 • @9 Re: Re: Command line tricks from climagic (by Sitwon on 2014-06-09 18:34:29 GMT from United States)
It's not a quoting bug, it's the normal behavior in Bash.
The argument to mkdir was not [~/Desktop/"New Music"/"Crest of a Knave"]. That's what you typed, but the shell expands and normalizes it before it's passed to mkdir. So the actual argument was [/home/roland/Desktop/New Music/Crest of a Knave] (obviously I'm guessing at your username).
So, just like every other time you dereference a variable in Bash, you should quote the special variable $_ in case it contains whitespace characters (space, tab, carriage return, and newline are all valid characters in a POSIX filename).
11 • healthy paranoia (by M.Z. on 2014-06-09 18:50:11 GMT from United States)
@3
Given the level of problems caused by things downloaded off the internet it is always good to have some healthy paranoia when dealing with computers. This is true no matter where you are in the world, and there can be blow back in all parts of the world caused by privacy fears. After the leaks of NSA documents many large tech companies in the US began to complain vocally in D.C. about how their international business had been hurt by privacy breeches, and now representatives in the US are doing more to reign in the NSA. Despite all the other things that could be said about that situation the negative blow back did good things for the privacy of people all over the world. So with apologies to well intended & innocent software makers in China, I say don't use anything from there until the locals can lobby the government to get reforms that improve privacy & reduce all forms of hacking.
12 • GoBYO? (by Otto B. Reticent on 2014-06-09 19:35:50 GMT from United States)
Start with the Keep-It-Short'n'Simple concept of a simplified file-system structure, and then lard on KDE or Enlightenment? Release when packaging is generally broken? Is this an example of the power of geeks' lemming-urge toward complex-ification, or another I-Told-You-So from GlobalCorp saboteurs or Arch elitists? At best, perhaps it's simply a demo, and you're expected to Go-Build-Your-Own Linux-Nearly-From-Scratch?
13 • hmmm.... ? (by Jordan on 2014-06-09 19:48:45 GMT from United States)
Another development release of Elive. Seems like the non-development releases ("distribution release") are experimental at worse and in need of development at best.
Interesting distro. I've had several releases over the years. But does anybody keep Elive as their default distro? It seems like a sort of hula hoop or something to play with but not a keeper.
Just my 2 cents worth. I'm a PCLinuxOS and Extix fan, myself.
14 • @3 (by Carl Johsnon on 2014-06-09 22:27:48 GMT from Netherlands)
"I'm a little nervous about using anything from China"
Like it's any better using something from the "home of the 'free' and the land of the 'brave' "...
15 • Gobo and Nix? (by Reg on 2014-06-09 23:26:44 GMT from Australia)
Gobo sounds like it would benefit from using Nix as a package manager, because of the finer control you gain.
16 • China and Russia OS's (by jymm on 2014-06-09 23:54:45 GMT from United States)
ckyodrone - I was a bit paranoid too, But then I tried Point Linux from Russia. Best OS i have used yet. I also tried Start OS from China as it is looks so much like Windows XP, for some friends and family that need to give up XP. Like them both and no longer paranoid.
17 • The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything (by Ricardo on 2014-06-10 02:55:12 GMT from Argentina)
$ printf '%d\n' "'*'"
42
Is that why 42 is the answer?
Sorry for such an off-topic but I'm currently reading The Hitchicker's Guide to the Galaxy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_(number)#The_Hitchhiker.27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
18 • Made in China (by bacon on 2014-06-10 03:36:33 GMT from Japan)
LinuxBBQ is just as Chinese as most of our the readers here ;) Lean back and relax, there's still Ubuntu from the Isle of Man ;)
19 • a little better anyway (by M.Z. on 2014-06-10 05:14:12 GMT from United States)
@14
I'd point out that the last time someone claimed an open project had a back door inserted on behalf of US intelligence agencies that version of BSD got looked over extensively & there was nothing but a few minor & unintentional bugs. In contrast China has both a culture of corruption & a strong proclivity to engage in various forms of electronic espionage, so by any reasonable measure I'd argue that yes the risks are higher with Chinese software. There are lots of problems with overreach in US intelligence circles, but all the evidence indicates that it hasn't affected any open source projects.
20 • @13 (by GreginNC on 2014-06-10 11:27:44 GMT from United States)
I've been a PcLinux user my self since 2007 so we're in agreement there.
As for Elive being something to play with but not a keeper I would probably disagree. I switched to Elive from PcLinux when PcLinux went to KDE4 and ran it happily for a couple years until it got too outdated to continue. I now use Pclinux as my anchor system mainly because I have a certain loyalty toward it and because they are about the only distro to still use GRUB legacy while my primary day to day system is Slackware.
I havent had any interest in the Elive betas as they don't include an installer so I can't comment on their current effort, but if their past efforts are any indication I'll be looking forward to getting an ISO when they release a stable version.
21 • printf Hitchhiker's Guide (by Jesse on 2014-06-10 13:19:01 GMT from Canada)
@17:
Yes, the printf statement which translates * into 42 was inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The climagic feed posted several command line tricks in which the answer worked out to be 42, in honour of Douglas Adams' work. I think it is especially suited since * is the symbol for matching everything and anything.
22 • Mint 17 and Wine (by fernbap on 2014-06-10 17:22:04 GMT from Portugal)
Recently, i posted here that Ubuntu 14.04, and therefore Mint 17 as well, had issues with wine, by trying 2 old games that i use to test wine on any distro i try.
I was not the only one, and so Mint forum didn't take long to come up with a solution, which is installing the ia32-libs metapackage, which installs all 32 libs needed by wine to run 32 bit windows applications,
All the issues disappeared completely, and so i'm pleased to report that Mint 17 Mate has been flawless since that operation.
Oddly enough, couldn't find that package in Ubuntu's repos, and so the Xubuntu that i installed with mate+compiz+emerald still has a few issues, although one was fixed by an update.
23 • Manjaro Xfce (by Bill Donnelly on 2014-06-10 17:27:13 GMT from Canada)
Installed and liked this (Manjaro Xfce) distro. I have Windows 7, Debian 7.5 Xfce and Fedora 20 Xfce on my hard drive. To me, the new Manjaro distro is so much the same as the other two Xfce distros and offers no advantage except for the gnome 2; Mate like desktop. Pretty well work with Debian on my older HP core2 desktop computer and use Fedora to keep up to date on new and updated software. Linux certainly offers users lots of choices and is truly a good alternative to Windows.
24 • RE: 22 Wine libraries (by MDboy on 2014-06-10 20:39:46 GMT from United States)
"installing the ia32-libs metapackage, which installs all 32 libs needed by wine to run 32 bit windows applications."
Would you mind telling me the name of the metapackage? I don't see it.
25 • Elive (@greginnc) (by Jordan on 2014-06-11 00:06:17 GMT from United States)
Thanks for that. I guess there are some out there like yourself. I just don't get it (as compared to so many solid distros out there).
Seems experimental to me, as mentioned.
Texstar turned me around about linux altogether, when I was struggling with this and that distro back a while (long while).
Mentioned Extix because I had to put something quick and easily done on a thumb drive when my hard drive fried. Of course, on Extix's home page it's referred to as "experimental." *blush* :D
26 • Sorry to interrupt the regularly scheduled programming (by :wq on 2014-06-11 00:13:47 GMT from United States)
This comment will probably be deleted, but can we drop the geopolitical xenophobia (this is probably not the best term for it, but it's what I'm going with) before it spirals out of control into the usual back and forth of acrimony and broad, sweeping indictments? I have yet to see a nation that can point a finger with a clear conscience. I'm not questioning the earnestness of the usual suspicions in these matters, I just don't think it will lead to anything productive or positive. If code is open source, it should be available to be audited, so please provide proof. And if it's mystery meat (i.e. closed source), other nations may be the least of your problems.
I do not mean this offensively to anyone, and I hope it isn't taken that way.
27 • Re: 23 (by Brad on 2014-06-11 00:18:06 GMT from United States)
I've changed distros more times than I can count. But in my 7 complete years using linux, starting with pclinuxos/ubuntu/mint/fedora/chakra/sabayon/arch/manjaro/etc.. I believe I can sum it all up this way:
Pclinuxos is Mandriva done right, Mint is ubuntu done right, Sabayon is Gentoo done right, and Manjaro is arch done right.. (right doesn't mean perfect, or right doesn't mean conform to the original's philosophy) but right means, ease of use, compatibility, etc. I mean the days of only geeks and those willing to learn by trial and error are over in my opinion.
It's nice that the distro just "works" not many end users/desktop users care about configuration files, streamlining an install, etc..
and those distros just work.. in regards to #23, I would say Debian xfce is rock solid as any debian pure distro would be, Fedora is a mix of leading edge and testing, and manjaro is arch which is bleeding edge, but manjaro is bout 7-14 days behind Arch in many cases.. so it's Leading Edge!
All about choice right? I say use whatever works for you, you can figure out, install or willing to learn.
Thats my .02 now I'm broke!
28 • wine libraries (by fernbap on 2014-06-11 00:18:17 GMT from Portugal)
The packages is in the mint repos. It doesn't exist on the ubuntu repos. I hunted for all the 32 libs there, but didn't manage to fix all the issues under Ubuntu 14.04.
The issue is that installing wine on 64 bit systems doesn't grab as dependencies all the libs that wine needs to run windows 32 bit applications. I'm not saying it is wine's fault, but it is something that the distro maintainers should take in mind.
A hint i got is that it has to do with the interface between wine and opengl.
29 • a little off (by M.Z. on 2014-06-11 04:24:01 GMT from United States)
@26
Of course all nations have done wrong, that isn't really the point & neither is xenophobia. I'd also agree that open source is generally more trust worthy, but like most users I can't conduct an audit of code & I don't know much about finding information on any such audits, so that doesn't help a lot either. One thing I do know is that local pressure is generally needed to generate reform, and such pressure can be generated by opting out of using something.
The distro that started the discussion may not be particularly relevant in this case, but in general public reaction to bad policy can generate reform. If China wants to have a serious software industry then they need to stop their endless cyber attacks or no one will trust their local software companies. These local companies need to push for and end to the current hacking policies in China if they want to expand to other markets; however, that might be difficult given the nature of the government in China. There are lots of problems in China, and it is a good thing to put pressure for reform on the government of China or those that can lobby for reform. I'm also boycotting any distro with the word Ubuntu in the name on account of the privacy policies of that distro, & I think people being vocal about those privacy issues is actually working. Things can get better eventually if you speak out & call people on their bad decisions.
30 • @ RE:GOBO (by GreginNC on 2014-06-11 06:51:07 GMT from United States)
My post wasn't meant to be critical of Jesse, rather one thing struck me and I commented on it. You seemed to have missed my point entirely though.
As an example say he did a review of Debian and said he tried to to install something while their repo was down, then concluded that the Deb package management tools were broken because installation failed.
I wouldn't want to read a toadying review and want to be truthfully informed of what the reviewer finds good AND bad. But my only point was that saying package management in GOBO was "broken", under the circumstances, didn't seem an accurate assessment. It may very well be broken but how could you really tell with the repos down?
31 • @29 (by :wq on 2014-06-11 07:27:50 GMT from United States)
Would you agree with advice such as "source and pick commodity hardware that is manufactured outside of the U.S., possibly by vendord who are not based there" and "for your hosting or your bandwidth choose a provider that is located in France, Europe or any country that does not snoop and collect your data as it passes on the network"? This was one semi-notable Linux company's reaction to "United States governmental agencies collecting and monitoring data across the Internet", although a cynic could suggest that this advice was more a business calculation than a statement driven by idealistic purity.
"If China wants to have a serious software industry then they need to stop their endless cyber attacks or no one will trust their local software companies. These local companies need to push for and end to the current hacking policies in China if they want to expand to other markets; however, that might be difficult given the nature of the government in China." People can and have made similar statements about a number of other nations, including the United States. I'm not seeking to establish an equivalency of (mis)deed between whatever unsavory goings-on happen in the PRC, whatever unsavory goings-on happen in the US, and whatever unsavory goings-on happen elsewhere, but I am questioning the subjective measure by which distributions and other software offerings are eschewed due to their country of origin. As I would people, I would prefer to take distros (and software in general) on a case by case basis, and judge them on their individual merits (or lack thereof) rather than by their countries of origin (any language barriers which prove insurmountable for me aside). Many of them are multinational efforts anyway, regardless of where they originated. And all use technological underpinnings that exist due to the contributions of people around the world. I'm not trying to stop anyone from avoiding distributions from certain countries, I just wonder if in doing so they might not be painting with too broad a brush.
I hope I did not offend you or anyone else. As I said, it was not my intent. I apologize if this has pushed this week's discussion too much off course (I had actually hoped for the opposite), and I'll understand if this post is deleted. I'll leave this particular issue to rest here, and I look forward to reading comments about other items covered in this week's DistroWatch Weekly.
32 • Re: China xenophobia (by cykodrone on 2014-06-11 12:37:32 GMT from Canada)
Being wary of individuals caught doing unscrupulous things does not make one xenophobic, unfortunately China is somewhat schizophrenic politically (communist capitalism?!) and very corrupt. It's not just the software, when I heard they have 'government' offices inside private company buildings and they write snoopware in to the firmware of hardware (wow, that was a mouthful, lol), I became wary, it just so happens to be taking place in another country, no race card involved at all, I would feel the same way if it was here, for example, I have totally rejected any 'free' services from that huge search engine company because they love to track, data mine and sell your information, I even block their bots in my browser. I'm not fond of drones either, hence my nick. The future is here, we either deal with it or get stepped on.
33 • Nation-biased distros @29, 31, 26, 19, 18, 14, 3 ... (by gregzeng on 2014-06-11 14:09:25 GMT from Hong Kong)
Here in Australia, our biggest cyber-threats seem to come from the ex-Russian colonies, on the dollar-fraud scams. Luckily it seems, that USA etc does not get these cyber threats?
In military terms, most of the known-to-the-public events are because of the hollywood-type publicity machines. So of course, the victims of these publicity machines then guess it must be aliens, etc.
What surprises me is that distros that emerge from any of the three national enemy nations of the USA can be launched in Distrowatch without comment. Even Nigeria, one of the biggest cyber-scam nations on the planet, seems not to be mentioned. Methinks the cyber-critics here really love all foods, except Chinese food. Its a cyberthreat to each and every family!
34 • @22, etc. ia32-libs (by AliasMarlowe on 2014-06-11 14:21:48 GMT from Finland)
Xubuntu does not have ia32-libs, since it has multiarch instead. I don't know about wine (don't use it), but had a headache trying to install Adobe Aftershot Pro 1.2.0.7, which I had in a 64-bit deb package, on one of our 64-bit Xubuntu systems. It installed flawlessly once I used the 32-bit version of the deb instead, as it's really just a 32-bit package with the ia32-libs libraries to assist in running it on 64-bit linux system.
35 • Yes, they can do it elsewhere too (by M.Z. on 2014-06-11 19:34:40 GMT from United States)
@31
I'd say pressure on the big US tech companies has also been a good thing, because they have a strong voice inside the US & when they get mad over spying more happens than when I get mad. I'd also say that getting US based tech companies riled up over some loss of business has been good not just in general, but its been good for me on a personal level in terms of my freedom & privacy. One could certainly debate the tone & tactics on an individual basis, but I'd like to thank the people that have helped to encourage the US government to reign in US intelligence agencies by pressuring big US companies. I don't have to like the actions of all the groups putting pressure on US tech companies, but they have still done me a favor. I take a similar attitude toward China & hope for reform there.
@33
I did a search & didn't even find any distros from Nigeria on the Distrowatch website, so distros from there are likely to be very untrustworthy indeed. In other words: No I will not download a Nigerian distro no matter how much the local prince begs me ;)
36 • @32 (by :wq on 2014-06-11 20:31:32 GMT from United States)
I said I was finished with this particular line of commentary, and yet here I am scratching the itch. I really would like to see the discussion move on to other topical matters, so if I don't respond to any follow-ups, that is why.
At the time, I said that "geopolitical xenophobia" was probably not the best term, and I had a gut feeling that if there was going to be one particular thing in my original post that jumped out at people, that would be it; I went with it as "xenophobia can manifest itself in many ways involving the relations and perceptions of an ingroup towards an outgroup, including . . . suspicion of its activities". I tacked on "geopolitical" to try to modify the concept to what I was trying to convey. Clearly poor terminology on my part.
"Being wary of individuals caught doing unscrupulous things..." What have any of the distributions listed @ http://distrowatch.com/search.php?origin=China&status=Active done that is demonstrably wrong in a way that suggests they are caught up in unscrupulous behavior? If avoiding these distributions isn't due to inherent wrongdoings on their part, and is instead meant to bring roundabout pressure to bear against the CPC, organized crime, etc, I don't think there is a snowball's chance in the Sahara of that happening. I think the only ones which will be affected by people not using these distros are the actual distro projects. I also don't think using these distros is a political endorsement or serves as a significant enabler of the nation of their origin. To stress, I'm not saying don't keep your guard up or don't behold software with a critical eye, and I also acknowledge that there are indeed cybercrime hotspots in the world (http://globalsecuritymap.com/), but there should be allowances made for software projects that act in good faith, IMO.
37 • Linux BBQ Cream (by Paul M on 2014-06-12 04:17:50 GMT from United States)
A distro that has 76 window managers to choose from?!?! When I first saw that, I started laughing.... and then, I thought... Well, I'm going to DL the distro just to check out some WM's I've never seen or tried! What a cool idea!!
38 • Ubuntu blues (by Stitch on 2014-06-12 17:19:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
I don't use Ubuntu at home but we do use it at work - am I the only one to notice that the quality of the 14.04 LTS is very low? We've had several showstopper bugs and so far they are just closing all of our bug reports.
We've had better success with Alpha releases in the past - what's going on there?
39 • Ubuntu blues (by fernbap on 2014-06-12 18:50:04 GMT from Portugal)
As usual, the Ubuntu policy of "releasing when not ready" kicks in.
However, i wouldn't rule Ubuntu out. Typically, Ubuntu LTS becomes a very solid, very reliable platform, about 2 months after its release.
I'm using Mint 17, seriously contemplating the decision to replace my Mint 13 LTS as my working environment, and since its release, i get updates on a daily basis, most of them from the Ubuntu base, with the added benefit of having the Mint overlay to sort things out wherever Ubuntu is still strugling (the ia32-libs metapackage, for instance).
Don't worry too much at this early stage. Ubuntu eventually wiil get there.
40 • Window managers (by Rumpleforskin on 2014-06-12 18:53:29 GMT from United States)
76?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/window_manager
41 • Window managers (by Jeff on 2014-06-12 22:26:16 GMT from United States)
I am not involved with this site/page and do not claim it to be complete or totally accurate, but you may find it useful, as I have:
The Comprehensive List of Window Managers for Unix
http://www.gilesorr.com/wm/table.html
42 • @38 - LTS Point Releases (by Woodstock69 on 2014-06-12 22:52:10 GMT from Papua New Guinea)
As the dev team recommends themselves - don't upgrade your LTS until the first point release: xx.04.1. I too will upgrade when the Trusty 14.04.1 release ships as I use Digikam and v4 is not compiled for 12.04 (yet?).
Yes, I tried to compile it for 12.04 and do my bit for the community, but ran into dep hell and gave up after 72 hours of obscure errors I haven't learnt to interpret yet. As I don't have an internet connection at home, doing research and downloading is a pain (from work). (Yes, the 3+ series works fine for me).
If only Digikam could follow LibreOffice and VirtualBox's lead and make their install generic. And yes, I know the reasons they don't, and yes, it still sucks for my workflow.because I'm addicted to the latest and greatest features I hardly use. ;-)
One day I'll put some effort into learning how to compile complex source, but for now I'm busy learning Python (2.7).... And no. I don't need to learn 3+ yet......
43 • @42, @39, @38 Ubuntu quality (by AliasMarlowe on 2014-06-13 18:00:22 GMT from Finland)
Yep, even normally solid packages like mplayer are buggy in the latest LTS release. Check https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mplayer/+bug/1218510, which was noticed in Saucy, and still exists in Trusty. It would not even start on my test Xubuntu system until I applied the "fix" mentioned there.
My other Xubuntu systems are going to wait until 14.04.1 before upgrading from 12.04
44 • Updates (by Ron on 2014-06-13 21:09:37 GMT from United States)
Just wondering here. After several years of using Xubuntu, currently using 12.04 LTS, I get software update messages and I update just about every day. This got me thinking, are there really that many security holes out there. I mean, every day it seems, in the 'Security Vulnerabilities' section, not just face-lifting. Anyone out there know that is going on???
45 • updates for bugs & security (by M.Z. on 2014-06-14 06:17:34 GMT from United States)
@44
Even a good programmer usually has a error every so often, & that adds up on big complex programs, so yes there have to be a lot of bugs out there. The makers of software are only human after all. I think the only programs that ship without bugs are either very tiny, or very old & static with regard to everything but bug fixes, & even then there are still occasional problems. As a general rule all software is expected to ship with bugs, be they generic errors or security vulnerabilities. In fact one of the things that helped drive me toward open source stuff was a peculiar attitude I could see in a certain OS makers web browser. Just look at the little old security holes pile up in IE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers#Security_and_vulnerabilities
They do seem to stop the big bugs and may even be getting better at the little ones, but as big a company as MS is it seems bizarre that they have never patched as thoroughly as the folks at Mozzilla. This was true even when Firefox was a tiny player in the browser market. I'll take frequent updates on Linux over that any day; however, you can easily go a week or two without updating if you want, & this is even true on some rolling systems like PCLinuxOS.
46 • Ubuntu Studio 14.04 (by imnotrich on 2014-06-15 15:44:59 GMT from United States)
Seeking relief from the constant battles with Pulse Audio not working properly in Ubuntu Studio 13.10, and tired of the constant pestering of upgrade notices I finally upgraded to 14.04.
Silly me. It totally broke sound, now I had none but even more annoying after the upgrade bfgminer could not see any of my usb devices nor my cpu's and gpu's.
So even sillier me I went through the hassle of a complete fresh install. Much to my dismay I find no support for bitcoins and mining built in to 14.04. Had to get Armory, bitcoin-d and bfgminer elsewhere, and still bfgminer hardware scans detect nothing.
After a full day of tinkering I got sound working for most everything except Skype and a high end usb microphone/mixer set I use for recording stuff, Pulse only reluctantly recognizes usb hardware and is hardly consistent at that.
Plus still no functional bitcoin mining capability and Armory refuses to load the blockchain.
Now it would be nice if Ubuntu 14.04 supported recent vintage hardware/software that it's immediately previous OS release did, but I'm even more annoyed with Pulse. Over the years I have tried probably 15 different distros on different hardware since Pulse was released. Nobody can get it right "out of the box."
One more rant? I know Skype for Linux is now owned by Microsoft but c'mon Redmond grow up and act like adults. Wouldn't hurt you to remove the linux/pulse incompatibility feature you build in to Skype, hoping to push customers back to (puke) Windows 8.
47 • Lemmings rush off the shore (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-06-16 03:52:42 GMT from United States)
... and geeks rush to the latest version.
Even the developers recommend waiting until At Least the First "point-release" - the First Milestone against the risen tide of New Bugs.
As opposed to the Well-Polished-By-Now "old" version ... 12.04.04+
Number of Comments: 47
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Komodo Linux
Komodo Linux was a distribution based on PCLinuxOS with a custom set of packages and a new theme.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
