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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Did you try unetbootin? (by mparillo on 2014-09-08 09:57:49 GMT from United States)
> Porteus has a rather roundabout method where we need to format a thumb drive, extract files from the ISO image we downloaded and then run a script.
unetbootin worked for me:
https://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3206&p=22720&hilit=unetbootin#p22720
2 • systemd (by Alan on 2014-09-08 11:20:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
just to add to the systemd debate, as im also looking into all of this and working out what it means for me:
http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/the-biggest-myths.html
3 • #2 systemd (by Didier Spaier on 2014-09-08 12:04:47 GMT from France)
Well, the fact that Lennart Poettering have posted something (not very recently, in this case) in favor of systemd shouldn''t come as a big surprise ;)
To get fresher news about the path systemd is now taking , I'd suggest reading this:
http://0pointer.net/blog/revisiting-how-we-put-together-linux-systems.html
4 • systemd (by Teresa e Junior on 2014-09-08 12:17:04 GMT from Paraguay)
"...I suspect most people running Linux desktop systems will not notice the difference when they switch to systemd..."
Well, maybe not if you install your system from a Live media, but in my case, upgrading from Debian Wheezy to Debian Jessie replaced init with systemd, and I can tell you that:
* The system would lock on boot trying to run fsck on my SWAP PARTITION (the hell, man!).
* The system would hibernate, but would not wake from hibernation (and all my scripts from /etc/pm were ignored).
* The system would lock on shutdown, and therefore I had always to kill it.
My solution was to downgrade to good and old Wheezy. I just hope all this gets fixed before the Jessie release, otherwise all systemd "merits" are just outweighed by all the problems it brings along, besides having a lot more than needed by just an init system.
systemd is IMHO not an init system, but rather the swiss knife for setting up a Linux system. It may become good some day in the future, but I'm afraid it will turn out like many other FreeDesktop.org projects that have been breaking desktops for years (PolicyKit, ConsoleKit, Pulseaudio, anyone?).
5 • systemd (by Corbin Rune on 2014-09-08 12:18:25 GMT from United States)
The good thing about Arch and its associated derivatives, is that there's plenty of info (and in at least Manjaro's case, an OpenRC-based installer) on how to replace systemd.
I switched my system out over the weekend, personally. I won't say I "hate" systemd, but I am concerned with how many functions it's starting to take direct control of. Single point of failure, much?
6 • IceCat and systemd (by Magic Banana on 2014-09-08 12:21:43 GMT from Brazil)
It is worth mentioning that IceCat's new maintainer is Rúben Rodriguez (aka quidam), the leader of the Trisquel GNU/Linux project. As a consequence, the forthcoming Trisquel 7 will use GNU IceCat too. It would be nice to review that 100% free (as in freedom) distribution. Do not (only) test it on an AMD machine though. 3D acceleration on AMD requires proprietary firmware that Trisquel rightfully rejects.
As for systemd, it is rather weird not to mention Lennart Poettering's blog: http://0pointer.de/blog/
The advantages of systemd are well explained there. On the contrary, the arguments of most of its detractors (including Jesse Smith) basically amount to "too complex" (they do not want to understand the problems solved, neither understand that SysV init and its spaghetti-like bunch of Shell scripts is horribly complex) or "not UNIX-like" (what simply is wrong: systemd actually is tens of small binaries working together). In essence, those are the arguments at http://boycottsystemd.org/ for instance. Little more.
There is also the following common argument that Jesse Smith echoed here: "The systemd project intentionally targets Linux exclusively". The Linux kernel has cgroups for security reason (the famous double-fork technique does not work with systemd). BSD kernels do not have such a mechanism to isolate processes. End of the story. Should Linux's init systems not use Linux specificities just because BSD cannot handle them?
http://dontboycottsystemd.org/ looks like a joke by systemd's detractors.
7 • systemd (by Teresa e Junior on 2014-09-08 12:28:47 GMT from Paraguay)
I just go back on my word about PulseAudio. Although PulseAudio changes constantly and sometimes breaks things, I actually love the benefits it brings, like recording audio from the sound board, unlimited volume levels, better handling of bluetooth, multiple audio sources and outputs, etc.
I hope systemd will get better stability and compatibility in the future, otherwise I'm afraid I'll have to move away from Debian in the future, into one of the systems mentioned by Jesse.
8 • Porteus (by Rick on 2014-09-08 12:38:24 GMT from United States)
I was pleased to see that you reviewed Porteus. I think that this is a remarkable niche distribution that deserves more attention. However, I noted that you overlooked my favorite version. Porteus Kiosk. This has got to be one of the best Linux kiosk setups I have used. It is particularly lightweight and can be quickly be flashed to the DOM of a Thin Terminal and setup in minutes. In fact, the only downside to my use is the lack of wireless drivers. Other than that, it works great!
9 • systemd (by zero on 2014-09-08 12:41:53 GMT from Paraguay)
To the systemd lovers, you always have the option to write your own init system or to pay someone else to do it, complaining won't take you nowhere; for now systemd is in process to be implemented in all linux distributions that matter, so learn to live with it or do something about it, complaining on a forum isn't solving anything.
10 • @9 Re:systemd (by cykodrone on 2014-09-08 14:33:26 GMT from Canada)
"To the systemd lovers"
Did you really mean 'haters'?
"complaining won't take you nowhere"
That's a double negative, did you really mean 'complaining will take (get) you nowhere'?
My personal opinion is, as long as it's easy to maintain, it works and is secure, I could care less who uses it. If it ships with the upcoming official Jessie release and there are no bugs, so what. I'm pretty sure if it's a huge failure, it will be dropped like a hot potato, and those that insist on staying stuck in the past will be smiling again.
11 • systemd (by linuxista on 2014-09-08 14:37:51 GMT from United States)
@4 I don't think your troubles with your migration to systemd on Debian are the fault of systemd, but a problem with the upgrade path in Debian. Arch users had to do it a year or two ago and the transition was free of problems.
The guys at linux action show have been discussing the "systemd" debate for the last few episodes. In the last one they have been discussing the proposal of Lennart to use systemd as a basis of unifying the package binary base across all linux distros. Reactionaries might freak out, but this has been a complaint about developing for linux for a long time. So if it could be accomplished, that would obviously be something in favor of systemd.
http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/65847/one-packager-for-all-lup-56/
12 • systemd (by salparadise on 2014-09-08 14:41:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
To the systemd lovers, you always have the option to write your own init system
We had a perfectly functioning init system. People are talking as though prior to systemd, Linux was this useless, broken heap of junk that Mr Poettering has singlehandedly saved. This is nonsense.
Linux gained ground because it was modular and secure and put the user in complete control. Now we're handing all that away for nothing better than slightly faster boot times? Utter madness.
And of course, we have this perpetual chorus of blind, ignorant users, who think that it's OK to stuff distros full of proprietary software ("I want my convenience, no matter the cost") and who think that if it boots in under 30 seconds that it's got to be awesome.
Linux was good design. It was designed specifically to be robust and secure, not convenient. If all you want is convenience, go back to Apple or Microsoft, we don't want you..
13 • systemd (by Jesse on 2014-09-08 15:03:56 GMT from Canada)
>> "As for systemd, it is rather weird not to mention Lennart Poettering's blog:"
I was trying to be objective. I linked to the systemd project website where you can find out what systemd is trying to do any why. Poettering, being the lead developer of systemd, is unlikely to be objective. (And in fact most of his posts ignore concerns about systemd.) That is why I mostly linked to third-party viewpoints such as the Debian debate.
>> "On the contrary, the arguments of most of its detractors (including Jesse Smith) basically amount to too complex"
First, I'd like to point out I'm not a detractor of systemd. I'm pretty much neutral on the subject. I appreciate what systemd is trying to do, but I think it has too many faults at the present time to be a welcome change. Much like PulseAudio was quite buggy in its early years, but eventually grew into a positive experience, I suspect systemd may travel the same rocky road to eventual success. But right now systemd does have its problems. It's not detracting to point that out.
Second, complexity is not my main concern, though it is a potential problem with systemd. My big issues with systemd are A) its binary nature. systemd init scripts are binary files rather than scripts and its log files are binary, making them harder to parse. B) systemd isn't portable either which means more fragmentation.
>> "The Linux kernel has cgroups for security reason (the famous double-fork technique does not work with systemd). BSD kernels do not have such a mechanism to isolate processes. End of the story. "
You miss the point here. It would be possible to port systemd to the BSDs and simply not include cgroups in the BSD port. That is not a big hurdle. The problem is the systemd developers have stated they will not accept patches which make systemd portable. They reject all non-Linux patches. This means any efforts to port systemd to other platforms would be an endless task as patches would need to be maintained downstream. This is less a technical problem as it is a social one. Porting systemd would probably help find and fix bugs, nicely balacing out any added effort/complexity, but the systemd developers refuse to cooperate.
14 • #11 (by Teresa e Junior on 2014-09-08 15:04:28 GMT from Paraguay)
@linuxista No, it was actually a clean install. I meant an "upgrade" in the sense that I used Wheezy before, sorry for the confusion. And yes, unfortunately I researched and came to the conclusion it was all related to systemd.
15 • #11 (by Teresa e Junior on 2014-09-08 15:05:21 GMT from Paraguay)
@linuxista More details: I used the netinst image.
16 • Fill Your Hand (by Mark Mywords on 2014-09-08 15:43:54 GMT from United States)
Bad move, Jesse.
You should know better than to state an opinion about Linux. Now, the systemd Jihad/crusade/geek slap fight will come here. god save us.
17 • systemd? No problem. (by Garon on 2014-09-08 15:47:19 GMT from United States)
@9, I believe you meant systemd haters. I don't really know tho.
Seems to me that the only ones who will have a problem with systemd are the ones who consider themselves so called software purest. (Gentoo, Slackware, etc.) The one who builds their own applications and os. All that http://boycottsystemd.org/ does it to try to bring attention to something that no one really thinks much about unless you are a very deeply troubled nerd. Furthermore It should be obivious to everyone that somethng like http://dontboycottsystemd.org/ is a joke, lol. After reading something like http://boycottsystemd.org/ it makes me relieze that not many will have a problem with systemd. It is a developing project and as Jessie said, most people won't even know it has been replaced. As far as the website http://boycottsystemd.org/ goes, they lost my attention when they uttered that uless phrase, "K.I.S.S." or as they say it, "Keep it Simple, Stupid". When they call the developers "Stupid", what does they say about them? One thing is for certain and that is that no one has proved that systemd is damaging. If the software purest don't want to use it because it's too complicated then that is their choice, use something else. After all, that is what software freedom is all about.
18 • @17 The KISS principle (by Microlinux on 2014-09-08 16:20:20 GMT from France)
The KISS principle is a well-established principle in computing, philosophy and several other domains:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle
I'm an IT professional working exclusively with GNU/Linux and free software, and though I have quite some experience with Debian, RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu LTS and some others, I prefer to run Slackware on all my servers and desktops, because it's rock-solid and doesn't implement any "technology preview" simply because it's new and shiny. I like my system boring and reliable.
Here's some more reading:
http://slated.org/the_poetterisation_of_gnu_linux
19 • @17 (by george on 2014-09-08 16:50:47 GMT from United States)
First sensible post on this sorely vexed topic!
20 • systemd (by GJones on 2014-09-08 17:06:07 GMT from United States)
It's not about faster boot times, that's just an occasional side effect. It's about taking a bunch of features Linux really should have *on servers* and putting them in a common package. Kind of like a minimal version of the BSD UNIX base system.
e.g.
- Service management, respawning services as needed
- More manageable automounting
- Better system logging facilities
- OS level virtualization via systemd-nspawn and cgroups
IOW stuff commercial UNIXes have had for decades, which presents a barrier to Linux adoption as long as Linux doesn't have it.
I'll admit the command suites have a bit of a glossy overly-clean corporate feel to them, but let's face it, that's a vast improvement on ad-hoc, opaque, and unintuitive. It's 2014, folks. We have autocomplete and terabyte hard disks. There's no need to be stingy about text interfaces.
21 • RedHat will make or break systemmd (by Jason on 2014-09-08 17:47:05 GMT from United States)
Most of Linux's real business and money comes from it's use as a server OS, and most of that has been in the RedHat/CentOS world. If companies avoid RedHat 7 because of systemmd, we'll see Fedora floating new solutions quite fast. But my guess is companies will adopt it.
My biggest problem is with projects like GNOME, making it a dependency. When learning to program we were always warned away from spaghetti code, well with Linux we are ending up now with a spaghetti OS.
22 • Get over it (by Scott Dowdle on 2014-09-08 19:05:03 GMT from United States)
systemd rocks. Thanks Lennart and gang. Keep'em coming. No, no, seriously.
23 • Proteus... yeah... (by Nonny Moose on 2014-09-08 19:07:08 GMT from United States)
It went to my 16Gb Sandisk flash drive after a bit of
angst, but most of the angst came later when I saw
what it was: a pretty well-built system with no security
and very little access to the outside world of system
and software updating.
Flash drive heaven: Extix. :)
24 • systemd -- obscure maintenance (by Hal King on 2014-09-08 19:33:26 GMT from United States)
My first experience with systemd was using Arch Linux. I liked Arch BUT was forced to drop using it due to systemd unexpected interactions with the Arch continuous update philosophy -- namely minor breaks or upgrade failures that resulted in an inoperable system with no clear idea of what went wrong.
I can see the advantages to system admins -- i.e. people who have many systems - (usually configured the same) to maintain. This does apply to most individual Linux users.
For most users its the ease of maintenance that is the priority -- and that is NOT systemd's forte.
I went back to Slackware distros -- much easier for one-off maintenance. I will never use a systemd distro again -- not interested anymore in fighting the sysadmin issues.
I'm a retired sysadmin myself and would like to stay retired.
25 • systemd Debian (by linuxista on 2014-09-08 19:43:49 GMT from United States)
@4 @11 Well, I would say the Debian Jessie implementation of systemd is still buggy at this time. Jessie is not yet stable. Do you really think Red Hat, Fedora, Arch, Manjaro, OpenSuse, Mageia, Sabayon etc. are using systemd all this time with the catastrophic bugs you are experiencing?
26 • systemd arch (by linuxista on 2014-09-08 19:47:56 GMT from United States)
@24 I have not experienced any issues with systemd and updating on Arch or Manjaro. I have had the installs for years. No minor breaks. No upgrade failures.
27 • Porteus (by AliasMarlowe on 2014-09-08 19:56:30 GMT from Sweden)
I use Porteus as the "other OS" on my work-supplied Windows laptop. It fits nicely inside an ancient 256MB (yep, a quarter GB) USB stick, but boots fast and uses only a fraction of the RAM on the laptop.
Unlike most other Linux distributions, I was able to download a customized version which defaults to my particular keyboard instead of the US keyboard. That custom version also uses the xfce desktop and has OpenOffice and Firefox.
28 • systemd -- obscure maintenance (by Hal King on 2014-09-08 20:02:40 GMT from United States)
I do agree that Manjaro is the better and somewhat more stable variation of Arch --- but give it a few months -- and make sure you continue with nearly daily updates. Also, visit the forums regularly to keep up with the latest fixes.
Frankly for me this is too much effort -- I do NOT want to be that active in sysadmin -- what I want is a stable system that can run for months without a reboot -- and that is Slackware.
29 • #25 (by Teresa e Junior on 2014-09-08 20:23:20 GMT from Paraguay)
@linuxista No, I don't expect other implementations of systemd to be so catastrophic, but this was the worst experience I've had with any Debian installation for the last 6 years (including installs of Debian stable, testing and unstable).
30 • systemd -- obscure maintenance (by linuxista on 2014-09-08 20:42:51 GMT from United States)
@28 Sigh. More rolling-release FUD. I've had the same Arch install for over 5 years and my Manjaro install for over a year. The "daily updates" recommendation is a myth. There is nothing in the Arch Wiki about maximizing system stability that recommends frequent updates. Also, the "visit the forums regularly to keep up with the latest fixes." I've never visited the forums regularly, and what "latest fixes"? I run Arch because in the long run it's easier and more stable than other alternatives.
31 • systemd (by Will B on 2014-09-08 20:49:40 GMT from United States)
I have very strong feelings about systemd, so I 'voted' by installing a distro that allows me to make a choice.
Linux users have a choice...exercise that privilege! It's like watching television or listening to a radio station...change the channel! If it's your personal computer, no one is forcing you to use one distro or another. Do you appreciate systemd? Stick with the distros that offer it. Dislike it? Contribute coding time/money/testing feedback to the distros that don't offer it and give them your support.
The day when we *don't* have a choice...that will be a dark and troublesome day indeed. Let's work with our favorite distros to keep variety alive!
:-)
32 • systemd (by Gerald E. Morris on 2014-09-08 21:02:49 GMT from United States)
The only OPAQUE system initialization daemon I've seen in 15 years is systemd! I'll take CLEAN SIMPLE TEXT BASED init.d as on Slackware, my system of choice since 2002 when it became clear that Dead Cat was selling out. Thank God for Gentoo and CRUX, who stand with Pat Volkerding to keep GNU/Linux TRULY free.
If corporate coprophage-code takes over your system, then you've lost any serious argument for Free Software.
3 cheers for BORING, RELIABLE AND FREE!!!! I like watching my machines boot and post as each daemon comes online. W systemd, all I get is its either up or down, until I hunt down the problem through some GUI! Systemd is a Trojan horse. Beware what lurks waiting inside.....
33 • Re:systemd (by zero on 2014-09-08 21:51:52 GMT from Paraguay)
@10: Sarcasm. Excellent, I learned something new today.
@17:Sarcasm. Don't worry about the software purists, in the real world their opinions are more or less worthless.
34 • Potentially parallel ruminations (systemd) (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-09-08 22:58:52 GMT from United States)
If it's easy to have systemd generate plain-text human-readable log files directly, and if the purpose of the binary version is indexing, is there a way to encode the indices in plain-text as well, just like encoding a relational database in plain-text?
There's been some whining about a monolithic hodge-podge - but wasn't that characteristic of Linux from the start?
Wouldn't it be nice to see a "splash" that graphically informed of processes and their progress, instead of a mickey-mouse thumb-twiddle?
Hardly seems fair to name an effect of the common arrogance of the powerful for any one individual; then again, I've never sympathized with describing legal-fiction entities as persons, or corporeal.
I wonder what happened to the systemd bug noted in Qubes testing ...?
35 • systemd (by Hal King on 2014-09-08 23:29:01 GMT from United States)
Sorry if some of you think my remarks about Arch/Manjaro are FUD -- but my experience was otherwise. I tried both -- Arch twice and Manjaro 3 times. After a few months they all failed in updates -- when I was able to track down the problem most times it was systemd related. I kept trying to use Arch for well over a year -- so this was not a short term test. Much of the problem was also related to old hardware and one new system -- business system with 64 bit Intel I7 and 8 CPUs (it lsted the longest but still failed).
After retiring from sysadmin -- I didn't want to fight new issues all the tme so I dropped back to a distro I was comfortable with: Slackware. Other people have different priorities and probably can do well with Arch -- it just does meet my needs, mostly due to systemd.
36 • @12, salparadise (by Angel on 2014-09-09 00:04:52 GMT from Philippines)
"If all you want is convenience, go back to Apple or Microsoft, we don't want you."
"We?" Is that the royal or dictatorial "we," or do you have a mouse in your pocket?
37 • #13 and Pulse Audio (by computergeek97308 on 2014-09-09 01:30:42 GMT from Mexico)
"Much like PulseAudio was quite buggy in its early years, but eventually grew into a positive experience,"
What distro are you running? Even today, Pulse has more bugs than a termite infested 200 year old victorian home in San Francisco. I'm a voice over artist and do audio production from home using Audacity and other software. I also like to use Skype, Ekiga, Listen to streaming radio stations and play some classic windows games using WINE.
Doesn't seem to matter if I'm using Debian, Ubuntu or Mint. None of the above applications "just work" with Pulse. I am on the precipice of uninstalling pulse and using ALSA exclusively. If there is a distro out there that has a functional implementation of Pulse, I'd switch in a hot minute rather than spend the next three weeks tinkering under the hood.
38 • Pulse (by Bill on 2014-09-09 01:41:49 GMT from United States)
@37 - Strange how YMMV applies. I am listening to Radiotray as I type this.
I have just completed digitizing old Reel to Reel tapes of spiritual talks made in the 60's and 70's and saved them from extinction using a TEAC player and Audacity and Pulse. I have Netflix working and use Audacious quite frequently. I also stream and record audio from time to time. All this with Mint Mate Qiana 17 and PULSE along with Gstreamer good, bad, and ugly. In short, Pulse works very well on my i7 Quad core with 16 gigs Ram and Creative sound card. But YMMV I guess.
39 • #38 Pulse (by computergeek97308 on 2014-09-09 02:03:04 GMT from Mexico)
Using Ubuntu Studio 14.04 Pulse doesn't automatically recognize/is not compatible with usb devices such as my plantronics headset (even though the driver is natively supported) so forget using skype or ekiga. Oddly, Pulse does work with skype and ekiga using old school headsets that connect via the 1/8" three conductor plug. Like you I have been able to transcribe some old audio (Dr. Demento cassettes-important stuff) using the input from a 1/8" three conductor cable.
Pulse also doesn't consistently recognize the usb microphone I use for my voice over work, and again the driver is natively supported by the OS.
I haven't tried a usb turntable but I imagine because it's usb it won't work either.
There are several streaming audio apps in the repos, but the only one that sort of works is radiotray. So I've adapted Radiosure using WINE. Problem is since Pulse, every 5 seconds or so when streaming MP3 stations in WINE you get a little stutter from the audio. Is that why it's called pulse audio?
Rather embarrassing for a distro supposedly intended for audio and video production. And don't get me started about Ubuntu Studio's video apps which are in the repos, but are not functional.
Brief detour and forgive me for repeating myself but apps that don't work with the distro should not be in the repos. Period.
40 • Re: Pulse Audio (by Rev_Don on 2014-09-09 02:17:46 GMT from United States)
Interesting the different experiences using Pulse Audio. Leads one to wonder what hardware is being used by those with problems verses those without problems. Of course, people rarely take the time to post hardware specs when they post here so it's impossible to tell for sure, but I have my theories.
41 • init systems comparison chart (by cykodrone on 2014-09-09 02:43:43 GMT from Canada)
In Gentoo's wiki...
http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Talk:Comparison_of_init_systems
The "Hard-to-debug monolithic startup in undocumented C" is a little troubling, hmm.
42 • @37 - Pulse (by Ralph on 2014-09-09 02:55:10 GMT from Canada)
Out of curiosity: have you tried any of the RPM-based distros?
43 • Pulse (by Bill on 2014-09-09 03:18:44 GMT from United States)
I make a 1 hour audio talk each and every Sunday using my Plantronics C-Media USB Headphone setwith Audacity on (hw:4,0) and have made 100's of these talks just fine. Also talk with Skype with no problems all with good ol' Pulse. Go figure.
44 • Pulse (by Reuben on 2014-09-09 04:44:32 GMT from United States)
Yeah, skype did have problems with early versions of pulseaudio. I haven't had any problems with it recently.
As to Potterings point the systemd's feature creep can be disabled at compile time. It seems that many of the old tools are falling by the wayside. Gentoo had to fork udev.
45 • Debian and systemd (by KI on 2014-09-09 06:37:36 GMT from Belgium)
I am running Jessie in several systems and the migration to systemd has brought various problems in all of them. In some cases are fairly minor problems and in other are more severe issues. It depends on system's configuration.
On a system with a complex LVM/RAID setup the boot process looks like a complete chaos. A number of filesystem features are not recognised and I am dropped to the console where I need to run a couple of commands in order to be able to use the graphical environment.
My guess is that a clean install would fix these issues. However, for the time being that is not an option.
46 • Pulse (by wolf on 2014-09-09 06:44:11 GMT from Germany)
My old Acer 1810tz has trouble with the internal Microfone and so does skype, found out that if one sets pulse to one channel only everything works just fine, didn't find the error on any other machine though.
So I think you are right YMMV. In Linux the used Hardware is very important. Go figure
Bye
47 • @40 Pluse (by kc1di on 2014-09-09 09:11:21 GMT from United States)
I think you may have hit it on the head :)
There is such a diverse amount of Hardware being used or should I say trying to be used. It would be almost impossible to get it right for all of it. MS didn't really try the just told the Manufacturers that if you want your H.W. to work with our O.S. then you develop the Drivers and software to make it happen. Linux has not to this point had that Luxury. So often drivers and software are first developed by volunteers. and It can be specific to hardware so not all will work with it. I believe that they do quite a good Job. But It will have to be up to each op to make sure their H.W. will be supported. The distributions Just can't really do that for everything that's out there. I have an old desktop here that only Debian base distros seem to work on - with Red Hat , Suse and other RPM based Distro won't go figure.
Though some do better than others.
So it will continue to be a problem Until more and more Hard ware vendors see the economic need to develop good software and drivers that work with Linux, HP printers have done it pretty well but even then you have so many flavors of Linux at so many differing levels that it's very difficult to develope something that will work with them all, all the time. Pluse suffers from that. Unfortunately you have those coming from M.S. that think there stuff because it work with M.S. Aught to also work out of the box with Linux, I don't see that happening very soon, but the expectation is still there.
48 • @ 40 Pulse (by kc1di on 2014-09-09 10:53:44 GMT from United States)
+1 Rev_Don - all my problems with pulse here have been hardware related. Problem is there is such a mass of Hardware on the market that it's difficult to know what hardware will and what will not work.
I See Debian and the Free Software Foundation are attempting to make a data base that will tell what will work and what won't for H.W.
we'll see if it works out.
In the mean time it's a hit and miss thing.
49 • Porteus 3.0.1 (by Ted H on 2014-09-09 14:47:33 GMT from United States)
comment to Jesse on Porteus 3.0.1
I am using the MATE version of Porteus 3.0.1.
For me, I had no problem installing Porteus to a stickdrive. I burned the downloaded .iso file to a CD, booted my computer with the CD, then installed Porteus to a stickdrive using their install menu and choosing my stickdrive. No problems, works slick. Boots fine, and as an bonus, the stickdrive install is persistent!
As you noted, the package manager is difficult/a headache. When I try to install packages, I get a message that I "have no database" and that I can get it by using the system update. When I try to do that, I get the message that "there are no updates"! A real Catch-22! I have thrown my hands up in the air and say forgetaboutit for adding new apps! If only they had used Synaptic Package Manager or something like it!
Aside from the package manager, this is a nice, thoughtfully done, useable distro - and the Persistence feature using the stickdrive is much appreciated.
Ted H
50 • technical advances/ease of use (by Antony on 2014-09-09 16:52:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'd rather do without systemd. And while you can fine tune and reduce boot time, it can ultimately bog down and be quite a bit slower than non-systemd boot - making all that tuning a bit pointless. Maybe better theoretically/technically - same as GRUB2, but as for ease of use I would personally rather not use these particular technical advances.
Another non-systemd distro is Pisi Linux, of course.
51 • Systemd is the init system of the future (by Microlinux on 2014-09-09 21:29:55 GMT from France)
So I will use it in the future.
:o)
52 • systemd and any other Red Hat crap forced down our throats via LP's whining (by Landor on 2014-09-09 21:45:37 GMT from Canada)
These systems, or as RH would love the world to call them, enhancements to the Linux Kernel Based OS Landscape, are usually as problematic for many as they are supposedly useful. The Linux Kernel Based OS community seems to believe (not all) that since it's something new from RH we best be thankful for it. I think it's a sad state of affairs.
People who complain because it's complicated, or the like, shouldn't even be using it in my opinion. The should go back to point and click and shoot themselves in the ass instead, it's better suited to them.
What should be the focus is a continuing oligarchy, no matter if it's offering something free or not. Fight that wherever its ugly head rears.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
53 • Debian and Systemd (by Bushpilot on 2014-09-10 00:03:29 GMT from Canada)
I moved from Windows XP several years ago, not because I didn't like the desktop but because of viruses and disk management and upgrade issues. I now use Debian Wheezy Xfce because of it's stability and the fact that I can set up my desktop like Windows XP.
I have tried virtually everything from the Linux community. Fedora 20 and a few other distro's are great, however the all fall short of Debian 7 when it comes to competency as a desktop environment.
I do not think that systemd is the holy grail of Linux. Not do I think that is that bad. The problem with linux as I see it is, that it is missing the mark as to providing a better desktop environment than others, including windows. We don't need a better desktop OS, what we need is a user friendly distro that people can use in their daily living. Android is doing this much better than Linux is. Perhaps we should step back from the idea that computers can be an asset to our daily living experiences as developing friendships with others?
54 • @53 (by Michael on 2014-09-10 04:05:09 GMT from Australia)
"The problem with linux as I see it is, that it is missing the mark as to providing a better desktop environment than others, including windows"
I hear this all the time but don't understand what you mean.
Nothing is better than your own customised Linux desktop.
Start with something simple like Openbox or Wingo add a few simple customisations to match the way you work and you have desktop Nirvana.
What else can run multiple desktops with multihead control, customised taskbars, e.g. cairo-dock, floating or tiled windows by keystroke?
I even have a hotkey for my wine/MSWord install.
I can't stand using any version of Windows or Mac.
Compared to my setup they are slow and painful.
55 • If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it ! (by RollMeAway on 2014-09-10 05:01:17 GMT from United States)
"The only constant is CHANGE"
Why must everything be "upgraded" or replaced constantly?
How many ways can you design a file manager?
If sysv init has worked for ...what 45 years? Why change it?
Jesse is quite right, if 'whatever' is working, nobody notices, or cares.
Personally, I like the ability to understand and modify (control) what I use.
Major concern with systemd and pulsesudio. Don't understand them, can't modify them.
My biggest concern with systemd is, if left uncheck, it will take over the entire operating system. The latest diatribe is that systemd can do package management better.
When will it stop? After systemd takes over the functions of the kernel you no longer have a linux system at all.
The round wheel is very old. Surely we should toss the design and do it better.
Lets make it oval shaped. Get rid of this OLD stuff.
56 • the royal we (by salparadise on 2014-09-10 05:55:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
"If all you want is convenience, go back to Apple or Microsoft, we don't want you."
"We?" Is that the royal or dictatorial "we," or do you have a mouse in your pocket?
Both, as it happens.
I have a mouse in my pocket and I am your king.
;-)
57 • systemd is a miracle (by VE on 2014-09-10 05:58:52 GMT from United States)
As a volunteer sysadmin for a couple non-profit orgs, systemd is going to make my life so much easier. Anyone who thinks it's not an improvement has never had to write their own startup scripts for SysVinit.
According to Ubuntu developers, users should never even have to use a terminal, let alone mess with their init system.
If you think a change in init system will effect you, you are most likely an admin, not a user. It will therefore be well within your power to simply not use systemd if you don't want to. If you're a professional sysadmin being forced to use it on the job, you most likely realize what an improvement it really is since you're the target audience.
58 • Devopsreactions on systemd (by Microlinux on 2014-09-10 09:39:07 GMT from France)
http://devopsreactions.tumblr.com/post/97126865868/systemd
:o)
59 • Not the DE/GUI (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2014-09-10 10:21:36 GMT from United States)
It isn't the Desktop Environment (else why themes/styles?) per se, it's what a user can do from it (access to functionality), and packaging standards - which may yet be Steam(OS)-rolled into place. Goes to Plays Well ... with others. (Oh yes, a massive driver repository helps too).
"It's not broke, why fix it?" It's incomplete, and desperately needs improvement. Next worst thing to broke. And then another New and Visionary development (PA, sD) is pushed into /Fedora/Arch/Unstable before it's Fully Debugged. So?
Of course, fossilizing grey cells over-dramatize the pain of limbering up for learning, knowing full well it's Good For You, that we're wired to enjoy learning. Stretch!
60 • re:systemd - do we need a "one size fits all" solution? (by Pearson on 2014-09-10 13:32:04 GMT from United States)
I wonder if much of the discussion of the merits/faults of systemd are due to different needs? A change to the init system would likely have different benefits for a home computer (another disparate group of users: email-only, hacker, work-at-home, gamer, etc.) than a corporate system with RAID, LVM, encryption, etc.
In my (limited) vision, the binary and monolithic nature of systemd is likely to make it less "tweakable" for the different environment.
61 • The systemd sky is falling, RUN! (by cykodrone on 2014-09-10 13:44:02 GMT from Canada)
I am neither for or against systemd, I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude, if Debian bungles its implementation, THEN I complain or move on to a non-systemd distro. That being said, the tinfoil hat conspiracy theories of Red Hat controlling all other distros by forcing a standardized implementation of systemd being bandied about is a bit much. Do you seriously think if THOUSANDS of non-Red Hat developers notice any malfeasance or bugs beyond repair, systemd will continue to "reign" (it's not even wearing a 'crown' yet, lol). Somebody please supply a smoking gun link to anybody FORCING systemd on anybody. Now go find a paper bag, breath in and out slowly, go to your happy place, because there are far greater things to worry about in this *&%ked up world than an init system.
62 • @59 (by Microlinux on 2014-09-10 21:23:13 GMT from France)
My Slackware servers may be dinosaurs, but just the same, it takes at least a meteor strike to kill them. As for "limbering up to learn", does publishing a few 500+ page books about Linux System Administration count?
63 • Linux books (by Curious on 2014-09-11 04:06:02 GMT from Canada)
62) You mentioned having published "a few 500+ page-books about Linux System Administration". I'm sure most of us here wouldn't mind (even if this is mostly a non-commercial site) if you gave yourself a "plug" and mentioned the titles of the books and (since you are in France) if they are available in English. Another good Sysadmin book on the shelf is always welcome around here.
With Slackware, I can USUALLY figure out how to solve problems myself (although problems are rare with this distro). And I especially like that the init scripts are Posix-based and easily understandable.
If you are that experienced with Slackware, you may be able to clear up one mystery: I find MOST DVD's play just fine, but there is the occasional one where the video plays fine, but the sound is just a loud roaring static. It would seem an audio codec is missing, but having most of the common ones installed, I can't imagine what obscure codec may be missing that only the rare DVD requires (libdvdcss not being an issue for this problem). I thought when you buy a commercial DVD, there was some standardization (be it red book, orange book, or whatever...).
Also seem to recall there was a website in France where you could do a single download of all the required codecs for Slackware, but can't recall the URL, or find it again.
Any suggestion appreciated.
64 • @63 Curious - required codecs for Slackware (by ready4evac on 2014-09-11 07:43:49 GMT from United States)
I hope this helps http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/slackware-multimedia-codecs-oh-my-591761/
Near the bottom of page 1 are some builds for vlc.
Cheers. :)
65 • systemd chatter (by New OSX user on 2014-09-11 13:43:04 GMT from United States)
So many systemd cheerleaders, I'm surprised this systemd epidemic is still a problem. You know that when RedHat doesn't even implement systemd the way Lennart envisioned that someone is doing something wrong. Lennart wanted journald to be the only log mechanism, but RedHat said lolno.
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/ch-Viewing_and_Managing_Log_Files.html
We're getting a little closer to GNU/systemd + Linux every day though, as I said we would over a year ago.
http://0pointer.net/blog/revisiting-how-we-put-together-linux-systems.html
So, you like your package manager? Well, that's too bad.
Don't mind me though, I'll just be over here in the corner watching the rest of the show while I use a real operating system instead of being force fed Lennart's new toy.
66 • systemd worries (by Kazlu on 2014-09-11 15:35:37 GMT from France)
@18 Microlinux: the 2nd link you provide raises some interesting questions, although some of the proposed answers seem strange to me. Thank you for sharing anyway.
@all: Please don't fall into "you don't like that GNU/Linux needs time and knowledge to be used properly? Go back to Windows". Of course you have to know a minimum what you're doing, but almost no one is able to master every aspect and every part of it's operating system. It demands way too much time and knowledge and most people on this planet don't have enough of any of those. So should everyone who is not a developper use Windows or MacOS? Please don't say that. I have some knowledge about GNU/Linux, but not enough to determine wheter systemd is a good or a bad thing. Yet, going back to Windows is out of question. I am concerned about this, especially when I see some arguments like "systemd is already used by a lot of distros, so we should use it" instead of technical arguments. But on both sides there are valid technical or philosophical arguments, as well as stupid arguments. In the end, I still don't know what would be best and for who (for the GNU/Linux community, for the Libre software community, for me...). But I put my trust in Debian developpers. I would understand a change of something that is working for the sake of coolness, speed or being new coming from Fedora or Ubuntu, but Debian is not of that kind. They are quite conservative and reasonable (maybe not as much as Slackware though :) ). So in my mind if *even* Debian developpers have decided to go for systemd, I suppose that move is not that bad.
And in the end I join @10 cykodrone: The GNU/Linux ecosystem is about survival of the fittest. Should a piece of it be bad for enough people, it will be replaced by something that is better. Well, of course the definition of "better" depends on who you are and what you want, that's why there are so many distros with different philosophies. And I think that's what make the GNU/Linux comunity strong: several people will take different roads but only the ones that are taken by enough people stay. That does not mean either that they will be only one road in the end, just the ones that really have a purpose for enough people.
@12
"If all you want is convenience, go back to Apple or Microsoft"
Come on, Windows is way less convenient that a lot of GNU/Linux distros :) (I don't know for Apple systems, never used them, never will)
@31 Will B
Choice: I am fully with you on this :)
67 • Pulse (by Hendrik on 2014-09-11 15:50:18 GMT from Netherlands)
I use opensuse 13.1 and pulse is doing the job nicelly, no trubels here.
Add the packman repository instaal the multimedia packages you need (and dependencies), and it works just fine.
Regards Hendrik.
68 • @54 Desktop Customization is Oh, So Easy? (by b on 2014-09-12 14:22:33 GMT from United States)
"Start with something simple like Openbox or Wingo add a few simple customisations to match the way you work.." Take a walk in the shoes of someone who is not so steeped in Linux that he/she does not know how to do a reputedly simple customization. That sort of apparently unwashed person has the reasonable expectation of using a Linux desktop immediately without undergoing the learning curve of how to customize.
69 • @68 Re:Desktop Customization (by cykodrone on 2014-09-12 15:23:53 GMT from Canada)
That's why I switched to Xfce, the customize learning curve was no greater than any version of Windows I used to use. Linux really doesn't have much to do with it, that's only the OS under the GUI you tweak, a lot of the same DEs run on top of BSD for example. if you could edit a config file in Windows, than you can edit a config file in most DEs than run on Linux. Just sayin. Search engines are your friend.
If you want a more point and click customize-able GUI, that would be KDE, lots of right-clicks, radio buttons and check boxes, lol. Unfortunately the trade off is KDE is somewhat bloated.
70 • @69 (by jaws222 on 2014-09-12 18:29:58 GMT from United States)
"If you want a more point and click customize-able GUI, that would be KDE, lots of right-clicks, radio buttons and check boxes, lol. Unfortunately the trade off is KDE is somewhat bloated."
I run XFCE with kwin as my window manager. I just install kde-window-manager and systemsettings from synaptic, edit my settings and I'm off to the races, It adds a little bloat but runs beautifully!
71 • @69 Re:Desktop Customization, a False Comparison (by Ben Myers on 2014-09-12 23:38:32 GMT from United States)
" if you could edit a config file in Windows, than you can edit a config file in most DEs than run on Linux." Hey! Who ever edits a Windows config file? Not me. Never have to, and I have been installing and supporting Windows systems and users for way longer that I have dealt with Linux. NOBODY, repeat, NOBODY ever has to edit a config file to customize the look and feel Windows.
72 • systemd just got better (by systemdsparklepartyd on 2014-09-13 01:19:18 GMT from United States)
[systemd-devel] [PATCH] Add systemd-sparklepartyd
Lennart Poettering lennart at poettering.net
Mon Sep 1 20:22:48 PDT 2014
Previous message: [systemd-devel] [PATCH 3/3] TODO: Remove Elapsed Time DHCPv6 option as it is done
Next message: [systemd-devel] [PATCH] Add the CPU hotplug rule
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Sparkle party is my new favorite thing, it is just like developing systemd. Since I like it, I give you systemd-sparklepartyd.
I have spent all day testing this, but I think it’s better than all of my other code.
The rule is missed in systemd but exist in legacy udev.
Signed-off-by: Lennart Poettering >
---
rules/50-udev-default.rules | 2 ++
1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/systemd-sparklepartyd
index 2bf9c1e..ac44f81 100644
--- a/rules/systemd-sparklepartyd
+++ b/rules/systemd-sparklepartyd
+https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyfinUZk8Ps
--
1.7.3
73 • @71 Re:Desktop Customization (by cykodrone on 2014-09-13 17:23:41 GMT from Canada)
OK, I'll give you that it was a broad generalization, but still, I found myself many times editing the registry (a nightmare not for the timid), etc, among other things, that was my point, Windows is no walk in the park, AFAIAC, Linux is a cake walk compared to Windows. Ironically, I can thank MS and Windows for forcing me to become an uber-nerd, they actually did me a favour, because now me or my computer are no longer marketing demographic data mining tools. You are not truly "free" (as in freedom) if anybody has control of anything in your life, by proxy or otherwise.
74 • re codecs (by Curious on 2014-09-14 00:11:08 GMT from Canada)
64 - Ready4evac re codecs for Slackware:
Thanks for the link. Interesting. From what I can tell, all common codecs ARE installed and practically all commercial DVDs play fine. Just the odd maybe 1% that don't. In this case someone lent a Loreena McKinett DVD and I suspect something "fishy" in the encoding. The set also includes 2 audio CDs, and the 10th track on CD is an ISO? What's an ISO doing on a commercial audio CD? Used isomaster (linux program) to look at it, and got an error message about corrupt bytecodes. I like to preview stuff before going out and buying material. If it is enjoyable and something worth keeping, then it is worth going out and buying the commercial version. This supports the author/writer, and you get the inserts/artwork/lyrics etc. But if you are going to get a "locked down" item you can't back up, it only encourages buying pirated stuff that doesn't impose problems. eg. - you buy some animation for the kids. You know at 6 to 10 years old, they are going to somehow kill the media by abusing it somehow (fingerprints, scratches, using as a frisbee plaything for the dog, etc.). If you are a smart parent, you will hide the original from the kids to use as a master backup, and give the kids a copy to destroy. The commercial recording companies would have you buy a new replacement each time. Sorry, that's not going to "fly"..
On an related note, will be interesting to see how Neil Youngs new venture (portable music player supporting 244khz hi-definition music) "plays out" in the market.
For now, I'll try out some of the "live" multimedia distros (eg - Ubuntu studio, Musix, Artist-x, etc.) If any of them succeed at playing that problematic DVD, then it's just a matter of comparing their installed codecs with my installed base. Would still be nice to find that French site that had an 'all-in-one' media codec download file for each version of Slackware.
75 • @42 Pulse and RPM based distros (by computergeek97308 on 2014-09-14 03:42:52 GMT from Mexico)
My first foray into Linux was Suse, but I haven't used any RPM based distros in probably 15 years, since I switched to Debian/Ubuntu/Debian/Puppy and currently Ubuntu Studio.
When I initially installed 14.04, The Skype PPA with a command line latency tweak did not recognize my Plantronics usb headset and I could only use Skype for texting. Answering an incoming call or attempt to use Skypeout would cause Skype to crash and/or make this very obnoxious hummmmmm that couldn't be killed from the command line - you had to reboot. Ekiga didn't recognize my usb headset either and Audacity was unable to find either my usb headset or my usb mic/mixer combo that I use for voice over work.
Several updates of Skype later, also many hours and weeks of determined google-ing and I discovered that Pulse doesn't automatically fall back to a usb audio device when you hot plug (or even if the device is plugged in when the computer boots). I was able to change the Pulse config file so Pulse realizes that "hey, that audio usb device? It's for AUDIO! I better pay attention to it!"
Seems a little half-baked, that an audio controller isn't smart enough to realize that an audio device is for audio but I guess that's what Linux freedom is about? You are free to fix plenty of broken sh*t.
Once I made this change to the Pulse config, it automatically and consistently recognizes my usb mixer/mic too.
I have three hard drives in my tower, in a multiple boot situation. Windows, Ubuntu Studio, and a 32gb SSD for Puppy or whichever distro I'm experimenting with that week. Thing is when I have to get work done, I don't have time to experiment and research and tinker and break broken things worse than they are already broken. I need a stable distro for work that respects the user, allows him/her to get work done without having to get lots of dirt under the fingernails. Over the past 20 years or so in my experience, Debian and Ubuntu seem to be doing the best job of that and they have made great strides, but they're still far from the motto "just works." Currently their biggest bug issues seem to be related to Unity/Gnome, wifi (next to zero support), Pulse audio, video, and according to the comments, systemd.
I don't get why basic functionality is not a priority for developers.
76 • @73 Re:Desktop Customization (by Ben Myers on 2014-09-14 04:33:32 GMT from United States)
There's no doubt that the Windows registry is a flimsy dreadfully designed abomination, but there is rarely a need to edit the registry unless something in Windows gets really fubar. A lot of people customize the Windows just fine without resorting to REGEDIT and simply by pointing and clicking.
Various Linux desktop environments permit greater or lesser customization without having to edit text files. I realize that being a died in the wool Linux maven means being able to edit all manner of text files. But in the year of our lord 2014, there should be no need at all for a garden-variety unwashed computer owner to have to screw around with text files.
Again, editing the Windows registry is not an apt comparison with editing text files to customize a Linux DE.
77 • Pclinuxos - systemd adoption. (by Grepnix on 2014-09-14 17:14:33 GMT from France)
"The PCLinuxOS distribution has not adopted systemd and, so far as I know, has no plans to migrate to the new init software"
More than that Texstar said in a forum post after being asked if he had any plans to move to systemd :-
"Not until I am forced to at gunpoint. I looked at 2 different distributions source rpm and both of them have over 140 patches applied to the systemd 208 sourcecode? "
78 • plain-text configuration files to edit (by Reminascent on 2014-09-14 18:52:43 GMT from United States)
Even Unix and CP/M had these, before Microsoft's flattering imitations Xenix and (QDOS - Quick and Dirty Operating System, bought & renamed) MS-DOS; adding Windows 3.1 often required editing config.sys and autoexec.bat when maintaining legacy systems. Like geeks protecting arcane secrets, proprietors rarely provided The Full Manual in clear and complete documentation, preferring to "stimulate the economy" of consulting businesses ... and white-hat hackers, of course. Many cheap-imitation gurus insisted installation required wiping out and/or taking over existing storage; this pernicious practice is still rampant today, due largely to hardware-makers' avaricious pranks, and their like in the larger community.
A common example today in XP - simply adjusting partitioning of a hard drive (without changing the hardware, potentially a license issue) requires tweaking a number in boot.ini to accommodate its arcane numeration scheme. How many distro communities mention this simple detail to new prospects?
XP provides access to more functionality through basic and advanced layers of clearer-communicating GUIs, more than any other OS I've seen since, though much of this came from freeware, freed and open-source supplements working with only a few standard APIs. (Admittedly, I'm not thoroughly familiar with Apple products.)
The related massive driver repository may not be aggressively kept current, but remains a significant market-share factor, of course.
79 • #76 (by Teresa e Junior on 2014-09-14 22:51:10 GMT from Paraguay)
@BenMyers And since when does a user need to edit configuration files to customize DEs like KDE, GNOME, Xfce, and Elementary's Pantheon?
80 • systemd & other upsets (by techchange = brainchange on 2014-09-15 03:38:26 GMT from Australia)
Have to agree with friends cykodrone, dino, & others - the systemd kerfuffle is one big drama. It was the same with new versions of KDE and Gnome. They were also claimed to be taking over (the desktop) too much. New changes are horrible at first, but eventually you get used to them and move on.
81 • @79 I did not say it (by Ben Myers on 2014-09-15 05:21:48 GMT from United States)
I was not the person who said it was necessary to edit configuration files to customize DEs. What I said earlier was "Various Linux desktop environments permit greater or lesser customization without having to edit text files." See also comment 69. Pick on somebody else.
Number of Comments: 81
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Server Optimized Linux
SoL (Server optimized Linux) was a Linux distribution completely independent from other Linux distributions. It was built from the original source packages and was optimised for heavy-duty server work. It contains all common server applications, and features XML boot and script technology that makes it easy to configure and make the server work.
Status: Discontinued
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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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