 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 • Calculate linux (by hadrons123 on 2014-09-29 12:39:25 GMT from United States)
Good review on calculate Linux. I am going to try this week!
2 • KDE accessibility (by massysett on 2014-09-29 13:29:39 GMT from United States)
I'm surprised KDE fared so poorly in the Debian table. It was ranked as being not accessible to those with disabilities, while GNOME 3 got a plus mark in this area. Is KDE that far behind GNONE in this regard?
3 • Calculate (by Comp-tech on 2014-09-29 13:37:16 GMT from Nicaragua)
I have been trying Calculate linux for almost 2 weeks..and I have been very suprised and pleased with it.. to the extent that I may start using t as my sole OS.
It worked good as a Live DVD and Installed easy and everything so far has worked ..it seems very stable. as you would expect from Gentoo
Admittingly Emerge can be a bit time consuming..though it's not an issue and i find it more "Fun" in a way...i am still trying to understand some of the USE options etc..but it is'nt as bad and as complicated as I expected.
I used Sabayon many years back and that seemed like a nice Distro...but since then it slipped down the Pan.....Calculate so far seems like the Best Gentoo experience after Gentoo itself ..if you can understand it install ...?? and have enough time to waste to actually do the install...
4 • openSUSE (by doubleplus_ungood on 2014-09-29 13:38:55 GMT from United States)
For a long time my primary distribution was Fedora. It works for the most part, but the constant shifting got a little annoying at times. The closest in structure seems to be openSUSE, considering that it's RPM based and targets the same general purpose, being the proving ground for enterprise features.
After giving openSuse a serious shot, I find it more well-rounded than Fedora. It's less volatile and therefore has fewer quirks, it's flexible in the sense that you can set a stable base (i.e., kernel) and have updated applications. The KDE repos are a great example of this. You have 3 options -
1. keep the LTS version of KDE that shipped with 13.1
2. update to the latest stable release of KDE 4
3. switch over to KDE 5
In some cases, you can customize these options, like the latest KDE 4 with the Breeze widget set from KDE 5.
And version 13.1 will be supported for another 2 years after the 13.2 release.
5 • Bodhi (by Lwo on 2014-09-29 15:42:05 GMT from United States)
I always thought that Bodhi would have been much better off providing a bodhi-desktop meta-package in Universe, and sure, a separate installer. But mostly leverage on Ubuntu main, and also make it easier for people to switch. I think the transition would be easier right now. Frankly, this could be an opportunity to do it. It feels like it might be easier to maintain (even they would lose some of the flexibility of keeping their own schedule).
Anyways, very many thanks to Jeff for all his working on Bodhi, it's quite beautiful.
6 • Debian Desktop Changed from What? (by Reed on 2014-09-29 16:33:01 GMT from United States)
The default desktop on Debian is being switched to Gnome? I thought it always was Gnome. Am I missing something?
7 • "Debian Desktop Changed from What?" (by Charles on 2014-09-29 16:59:49 GMT from United Kingdom)
GNOME has always been the default for Debian. What happened here is that Debian contemplated making Xfce the default so they gave it a trial run in the (as yet) unreleased Debian Jessie, subject to a re-evaluation closer to the point where Jessie is frozen. The re-evaluation has taken now place and GNOME has been restored as the default.
8 • Gnome and Debian (by corneliu on 2014-09-29 17:03:31 GMT from Canada)
The fact that Gnome is the worst ever desktop environment (OK, Unity is just as bad, so they share the last place) but is good at accessibility, does that make it the best choice? Wow, really dumb decision by Debian. Luckily Debian makes it fairly easy to switch to a more sane desktop environment so default means nothing.
9 • Re 8: Gnome Shell 3 is worse desktop ever but Gnome 2 was best (by hobbitland on 2014-09-29 17:26:01 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hi, I agree Gnome Shell 3.x is the worse desktop environment ever. Gnome 2.x was the best but they keep dropping features.
Xfce is way better than Gnome 3.x. Gnome requires multiple configuration tools and command line to configure the desktop. All Xfce configurations can be done using GUI and its so much more configurable than Gnome 3.x and even Gnome 2.x
Gnome should have kept Gnome 2.x on maintenance and launch 3.x as experimental until it is stable. A good desktop environment should be stable and not keep changing. Removing configurability is a real pain in Gnome 2.x and so much more is not even confuigurable in Gnome 3.x.
Debian is making a mistake.
10 • re 9 (by corneliu on 2014-09-29 18:29:08 GMT from Canada)
Yes, I meant Gnome 3. I don't think Gnome 2 was the best but was not far from that.
The lack of configuration options is the worst of all of Gnome's "features". It is only made worse by the reason given for it: simplicity. I guess the Gnome devs never seen LXDE. That's simple and yet, a much, much more sane desktop.
The other annoying feature of Gnome 3 is that a lot of tasks can only be achieved by using esoteric key combinations. What's wrong with using the mouse?
11 • GNOME Shell (by Charles on 2014-09-29 18:58:30 GMT from United Kingdom)
I quite GNOME Shell to be honest. I use it on Arch. It's slick, visually appealing and it's actually quite an efficient environment if you get used to it. In terms of customisation - yes, GNOME 3 is not as configurable through GNOME Control Center and other such tools but you'll find that an awful lot of the options that you want to tweak can still be tweaked using GSettings/dconf. You've also got tools like the GNOME Tweak Tool which provide a handy frontend to many of those options. And that's not even getting into extensions.
I think one issue with Xfce is that it's not particularly reliable as a project. Xfce 4.12 was supposed to be released 18 months ago. There hasn't been an explanation for the delay, indications on when the next release might be ready or anything much in the way of communication at all. Sure, you can look at Xfce's git to see what's happening but it's not quite the same thing as communication for the team. Compare this to GNOME - it has two releases a year, regular communication from the team, blogs, World of GNOME, press releases etc etc. I think that the big distributions would rather have a 'guaranteed sure thing' like GNOME as the default than a smaller and more uncertain project like Xfce.
12 • KDE vs Gnome (by M.Z. on 2014-09-29 19:59:21 GMT from United States)
@2
I have the impression that Gnome has always had a focus on accessibility/ differently abled users; however, there are options for such things in KDE under both accessibility & desktop effects. I don't know how the two really compare in that department, but I'll never be satisfied with how useful Gnome 3 is to users in general. The current Gnome really is a terrible design & I'm surprised that no one at Debian found some way to smooth the rough edges off another DE so something else could be used.
13 • uselessd (by Paraquat on 2014-09-29 21:18:06 GMT from Taiwan)
As someone who has gradually evolved from being originally neutral on systemd to an outright opponent, I view this uselessd project with great interest.
An init system really shouldn't be such a controversial thing. The idea of starting boot services in parallel (and thus rebooting boot time) is not a bad one. Sadly, systemd has quickly moved away from being just an init system to becoming the operating system itself. This is so against the Unix philosophy (do one thing and do it well), and so like Windows (monolithic binary blobs that humans cannot understand). As systemd becomes ever more complex, it will be a picnic for blackhats and NSA spooks - say goodbye to security.
I don't know if/when a major distro will have uselessd packaged and ready for use, but I am looking forward to it. In the meantime, I'm going to give Slackware (or its spinoff, Salix) a try. Right now I'm on Ubuntu, but when it abandons upstart for systemd, I'm going elsewhere.
14 • GNOME 3.x (by Microlinux on 2014-09-29 21:29:33 GMT from France)
The Debian developers made me realize I'm only having a hard time with GNOME 3.x because I'm not handicapped.
15 • Opensuse 13.1 (by CED on 2014-09-29 21:35:56 GMT from United States)
@4 Sorry Opensuse 13.1 is a mess. I installed it twice only to have the OS self destruct. They released that pig way before it was ready. The updates alone make it hardly a worthy choice at this point.
What is up with fonts? That is the ugliest looking kde distro out there (I have tried them all).
16 • KDE vs Gnome (by jack on 2014-09-29 22:12:38 GMT from Poland)
Gnome3 vs KDE4 is like a night to a day. I hope that Plasma 5 will make KDE even better! I do not know why nobody write anything about LXDE?
17 • It's mostly about GTK3 (by MikeF on 2014-09-29 22:35:21 GMT from United States)
@11, I would substitute 'conservative' in place of your use of 'reliable'. The small size of the XFCE dev team makes for slow progress, but more than compounding the issues is the GNOME dev team's hostility to the needs of 'lesser' applications and DEs. I read that the GTK3 apis and abis are still not stable enough and often don't contain functionality needed by these 'lesser' apps. Hence, migrating to an alternate toolkit (QT or ???) is a more frequent occurrence these days.
I suspect that the XFCE project is waiting for one of the 'big guns' (Libreoffice, Firefox and especially GIMP) to successfully complete a GTK3 / Wayland migration. Correct me if I've overlooked some big success story.
18 • Gnome3 (by Smellyman on 2014-09-30 00:38:51 GMT from Taiwan)
Count me in as one of the non Gnome3 fans. Not configurable, ugly Windows, awkward workflow.....It seems like it should be cool and could be slick (which it is to some extent),but after a few days using it I need to blow it up and go back to something I control.
19 • Debian Gnome and systemd (by cykodrone on 2014-09-30 00:42:11 GMT from Canada)
It looks like Gnome won out because of systemd "integration"...and fan-bot whining. If Debian's support for Xfce starts to suck, that'll be a deal killer for me (back to distro hopping, *sigh*). I can swallow the systemd bitter pill, but no Xfce, nah ah, not gunna happen.
20 • Calculate Linux (by dhinds on 2014-09-30 01:41:27 GMT from Mexico)
I was sorry to read about the problems Jesse had with Calculate Linux 14, which I haven't tried. I did install the previous version (3.19) of Calculate Linux Desktop XFCE and had none of the problems mention in the review and installed a large number of additional programs (including wine) following the instructions available on:
www.calculate-linux.org/main/en/add_and_remove_programs
A wealth of information can be found at:
http://www.calculate-linux.org/main/en/documentation
And I consider Calculate to the best Gentoo derivitave available, at present - it's stable and fast. (I'm not a kde user, however and intend to wait until a 3.15 or 3.16 kernel has been integrated before installing it on other computers due to a glitch in the 3.14 kernel, which I am also doing with the Debian derivatives I use, as well as openSUSE).
Calculate's Forums aren't very active but Gentoo's are and are applicable.
I found Calculate-Linux Desktop XFCE to be a highly polished distro that was surprisingly easy to install and expand.
21 • keyboard shortcuts are the new keyboard shortcuts (by :wq on 2014-09-30 02:14:05 GMT from United States)
To each her or his own, but a suggestion to and request of GNOME 3 and Unity fans- please don't tout keyboard shortcuts as some revolutionary thing. That's like a car salesperson feeling the need to mention that windshield wipers are included. But wait, they're intermittent too!
Perhaps it is simply a lackluster explanation, and what is meant is that there are some nifty features, which can be accessed via keyboard shortcuts. Invariably, however, how this is conveyed is an utterance to the effect of 'GNOME 3/Unity has keyboard shortcuts!'
22 • openSUSE 13.1 (by dhinds on 2014-09-30 02:47:00 GMT from Mexico)
To CED: Your problem may be KDE. I have both openSUSE 13.1 Gnome & XFCE installed on a Lenovo ThinkPad W520 and both perform very well. (I tried putting together an Openbox version and although it's very fast I couldn't get WiFi to work (although it may be the Realtek WiFi Adaptor).
With v. 13.1 (which I upgraded from 12.3 using zypper dup on another computer) openSUSE has proved to be a fine system, with no more sluggish behavior.
23 • addendum to #21 (by :wq on 2014-09-30 02:47:23 GMT from United States)
Also, when someone complains about mouse-centric annoyances, please don't mention keyboard shortcuts as a permanent user experience replacement. If my meal includes an orange, but the orange is rotten, someone telling me to instead have an apple doesn't change the circumstance regarding the orange. Both the orange and the apple are fruit, and are processable by the human body, but they are different. Some people like oranges, some people like apples, some people like them both. But nobody likes them rotten, which in the context of this analogy is a degraded user experience.
24 • Lumina on Linux (by bison on 2014-09-30 03:42:41 GMT from United States)
Are there any links for this? I couldn't find much...
25 • Default DE doesn't mean you're stuck using it (by EdKed on 2014-09-30 04:43:47 GMT from Canada)
I've installed Debian on various systems, often for friends, and I've never installed GNOME 3, whether it was the default or not, or had any problems with the other DEs (usually KDE or XFCE) that are still always available as options (and as official alternatives, not just "community editions" that they've just sort of allowed to happen).
I've never seen the whole "default" thing with Debian meaning much more than it just being at the top of the list of available versions when you go to download the ISO. The versions with the other DEs aren't going anywhere. Is it really that big a deal?
26 • Bash update (by John Coleman on 2014-09-30 04:57:42 GMT from United States)
Slackware / Salix pushed out updates very quickly. Wasn't listed and folks should know.
Good stuff - thanks
27 • Uselessd and @11 Gnome DE (by KI on 2014-09-30 06:35:47 GMT from Belgium)
Uselessd seems like the way to go:
http://uselessd.darknedgy.net/
Either that or an improved version of BSD init.
Concerning Debian and Gnome, let's not forget that Debian sticks to a release-when-ready policy. Exactly the same as Xfce. The two-releases-per-year policy is just non-sense and it explains the lack of quality and backwards compatibility.
28 • Future (by boto on 2014-09-30 07:09:37 GMT from Hungary)
There is no future for linux if Google Chrome can break Xorg to close session if not started with --disable-gpu. It's not a bug, it's a trojan horse against linuxes.
29 • Calculate/Shellsock (by Dave Postles on 2014-09-30 07:20:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
Calculate: I've tried it on a number of occasions, but never stick with it because emerge takes so long to compile additional software that I need.
Shellshock: can someone supply an update on progress? On my desktop, I've moved to PC-BSD because of its claims that BASH is not integrated into the system, but I do find PC-BSD a bit of a pain - slow, quirky (to me), and the DEs alternative to KDE never seem to work seamlessly.
30 • Who cares (by Diego Rodrigues on 2014-09-30 12:13:53 GMT from Netherlands)
I (almost) ALWAYS install Debian from the netinst.iso and configure my Debian system as I see fit. I almost always go for Xfce4, or Openbox on older hardware. I have used GNOME2 but GNOME3 was/is confusing for me. If I had to choose I would pick Ubuntu's Unity interface over GNOME3.
31 • Debian Gnome and systemd (by Diego Rodrigues on 2014-09-30 12:21:05 GMT from Netherlands)
@19 (cykodrone), I feel the exact same way you do!
32 • #15 - openSUSE install problems (by Andy Prough on 2014-09-30 12:33:18 GMT from United States)
@CED - be sure to download the "full DVD" installer disk - much better chance of successful install, as you get a larger set of drivers.
However, keep in mind openSUSE is not meant to be a lightweight distro that is simple to install or that has the best looking fonts out of the box. It's a more robust distro which competes with Red Hat and Debian for the vast amount of software and hardware it supports. For a simple, nice looking desktop I always recommend trying Ubuntu or Mint.
33 • @28 Chrome (by KI on 2014-09-30 13:51:26 GMT from Belgium)
Use another browser such as Chromium, QupZilla or Firefox...
34 • @28 Chrome (by KI on 2014-09-30 13:56:20 GMT from Belgium)
I forgot Midori.
35 • Gnome (by Reed on 2014-09-30 14:13:40 GMT from United States)
I personally really like the last couple releases of Gnome. Of course it's not for everyone, but I love the intuitive keyboard centric controls and the clean appearance.
After learning linux on Gnome 2, I switched to Unity in 2011. When I finally got sick if it I switched to Cinnamon. Now I think I'm ready to switch back to my first DE, Gnome.
36 • @19&31 Debian Gnome and systemd (by mandog on 2014-09-30 14:53:09 GMT from Peru)
I really don't see what your problem is https://www.debian.org/CD/live/
Is a live image suitable for me? Here are some things to consider that will help you decide.
Launcher: In addition to text and GUI install options in the boot menu, the desktop flavors contain a launcher on the desktop that can be used to install while running the live image.
Flavors: The live images come in "flavors", four providing the desktop environments GNOME, KDE, LXDE and Xfce, and two text console flavors: rescue and standard. Many users will find these initial package selections suitable, installing any additional packages they need from the network afterwards.
Architecture: Only images for the two most popular architectures, 32-bit PC (i386) and 64-bit PC (amd64), are currently provided.
Size: Each image is much smaller than the full set of CD/DVD images, but larger than the network install media. If you are installing from optical media, the standard and rescue images will fit on a CD, whereas the others require a DVD. If you are installing from a USB key, only LXDE, Xfce, standard and rescue will fit on a 1G device, whereas the others require a larger key.
Languages: The images do not contain a complete set of language support packages. If you need input methods, fonts and supplemental language packages for your language, you'll need to install these afterwards.
You see xfce is one of the 4 flavours simple as that.
37 • @24 & 25 (by :wq on 2014-09-30 14:56:12 GMT from United States)
@24 You can get it from https://github.com/pcbsd/lumina
http://i.imgur.com/B5VQP76.png
@25 "Is it really that big a deal?"
Mostly not. However, I don't think it's a totally valueless distinction for a DE. I won't argue cause and effect, but whatever is the default DE for a given distribution also tends to be the most used DE for a given distribution. I do think additional users, and even just an increase in exposure & acknowledgement, can lead to more interest in a software project, which can in turn lead to more contributors and greater growth for the project.
To some degree the default DE is the face of a distribution release, and often receives a good deal of coverage, directly or indirectly (such as via screenshots in reviews, etc). GNOME and KDE are safe bets as default DEs for distributions in the sense that they have amassed large communities, for a variety of reasons, and are embraced and sponsored by commercial interests, in addition to the community contributions. They have the wind at their backs. For another contender to approach that status seemingly requires upfront commercial investment (such as Unity shell receives from Canonical) or community groundswell, and a popular distribution such as Debian could be a great source for the latter. To the extent that the desktop metaphor continues to exist and matter in the near future, Enlightenment, LXDE-LXQt, MATE, TDE, Xfce, etc won't die off anytime in the next dozen years if they don't manage to become the default DEs for any major distributions, but the status quo likely won't change either (again, without an existent or future DE benefiting from commercial backing or community groundswell). While I like KDE for the most part, and like some of GNOME 3 (GNOME 3.14 doesn't make me grimace, but it's still not a preferred choice given the alternatives), I, for one, would like to see the status quo shaken up a bit, particularly as some pursue desktop+mobile-inspired, jack of all trades, master of none mashups.
Beyond whatever choices the Debian Project makes, I would like to see how Budgie Desktop, err, evolves, what the continued refinement of Pantheon yields, and also how Cinnamon shakes out as a fork. These are more interesting to me at the moment than GNOME itself. That being said, I AM interested in the future development of GNOME, despite not being quite content with the current state of affairs.
Getting back to Debian, those who can't be bothered to install anything other than the default will presumably live with GNOME 3, and I'm not denying GNOME 3 has users who really enjoy it. So does Windows 8 for that matter. I personally don't think GNOME 3 is the best choice as the go-to DE for Jessie, given the alternatives, but the relevant parties within Debian have weighed in, and I accept their decision, even though I disagree with it. Status quo, here we come/already are.
38 • Nope. (by Garon on 2014-09-30 15:49:40 GMT from United States)
@28,
You would have trouble proving that Google Chrome is a trojan against linux distros. That doesn't even make any sense. The BUG you talk of has also been giving Windows and Mac users headaches. Besides that, Linux already has a future.
39 • @34 Chrome alternatives, Midori (by Thomas Mueller on 2014-09-30 18:01:38 GMT from United States)
I tried Midori, first from the System Rescue CD (Midori 0.5.5), later built Midori 0.5.8 on FreeBSD from ports, and this form for inputting comments didn't show. I can't make comments like this using Midori web browser.
40 • Chrome (by Comp-Tech on 2014-09-30 19:28:34 GMT from Nicaragua)
@39 You may need to change your User Agent. I use Qupzilla and had the same issue with that..and many sites showed as mobile type sites..I changed my User agent and it all changed.. you may have to use a basic FF one if the standard Midori one isn't working..
41 • @39 Midori (by KI on 2014-09-30 19:52:09 GMT from Belgium)
I confirm the issue with Midori 0.5.8 64-bit. I tried changing the user agent. To no avail:
39 • @34 Chrome alternatives
However, QupZilla 1.8.0 works out of the box.
42 • shellshock & security (by M.Z. on 2014-09-30 19:53:02 GMT from United States)
@29
I checked both PCLinuxOS & Mint within a couple of days of the people making a fuss & both had a basic patch & each also had another bash patch again soon after that. I would also point out that desktop systems seem far less likely to be affected than web servers. I think that you are only likely to be vulnerable if you have something similar to the Apache web server pointed toward the web, so I don't think that it was worth dropping your desktop distro over, though I'm hardly a security expert so take that with a grain of salt. An article from today is here:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/09/shellshock-fixes-beget-another-round-of-patches-as-attacks-mount/
If I'm wrong & desktops are highly vulnerable I'd like to know, but I haven't heard much of a comparison on how likely an exploit is on the desktop, just bits & pieces here @ DWW & Ars Technica indicating servers are more vulnerable. I think the thing for desktop users to remember it that Linux may be the most secure OS available, but it still has problems so users should still think about security. Things like the noscript addon for Firefox are useful, & if you have an old PC & NIC around somewhere you might consider this incident as a good excuse to try setting up a full firewall distro on that old PC. I've been using pfSense & snort for a while now & feel fairly safe despite all the problems out there. I did have to work at making a list of thing to remove from the snort blocking list; however, after I did it & saved a copy of the list it felt pretty good. I still have the feeling I'm making some silly noob workarounds, but hey I feel pretty darn secure & that's the important thing.
43 • Tini Core application (by Goetz on 2014-09-30 20:18:12 GMT from Germany)
"Last week Wilfredo Crespo wrote a detailed article for Linux Journal describing how an all-volunteer fire fighting station in Pennsylvania has switched to Tiny Core Linux ..."
Thank you for posting that info.
44 • Opensuse 13.1 (by CED on 2014-09-30 21:11:23 GMT from United States)
@32 Yes, I used the full DVD installation. Upon installing the Muzlocker fonts, the fonts look great.
Various updates screwed up my system. Add to a difficult community to deal with and it is a recipe for disaster. You are correct that Mint & Ubuntu look better out of the box and are lightweight.
45 • shellshock cont. (by jadecat09 on 2014-09-30 21:26:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
Of course the more popular Linux becomes, the more vulnerable it will be to security threats.
Sad but true.
46 • SystemD done right, audit opportunities (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-09-30 21:31:02 GMT from United States)
Though the UseLessD developer notes Nosh would likely be a better improvement of our antiquated init hodgepodge, a clean focused version (of S*****D) should demonstrate a welcome modicum of self-discipline and prudence.
It's good that we have the freedom to modify and fix - and customize and improve - the Open Source. Recent security deficiency discoveries should motivate a serious review of _all_ that old code. Imagine the potential "cred" from proactively plugging the next gaping flaw.
47 • Debian, Xfce and systemd (by cykodrone on 2014-09-30 23:20:22 GMT from Canada)
@31 I have a Linux Mint 17 Qiana Xfce DVD on standby for just such an occasion. Being based on Ubuntu is also a bitter pill but it's still Xfce...and a Debian derivative.
@36 I run Debian Wheezy Xfce now on a dual SSD Raid 0, there is no problem, but judging by Debian's 'chart' (see link in above story), I get the impression they may not devote very many resources to Xfce and systemd compatibility. Just speculating of course but IMHO, it's not looking good unless the gang over at Xfce cave to the systemd tide as well. Just for your info, I've used, tried almost every DE under the sun, I'm a former KDE fan but the bloat and 'PIMware' became too much, I never found Gnome 2 that great, MATE is not much better and Gnome 3 is OK on a touch screen hand-held tablet, I build and run PCs, my phone has Android already.
48 • Gnome 4 ? (by Bob on 2014-09-30 23:33:10 GMT from Austria)
MS has finally come to their senses, promised to listen to users, admitted that Win8 was a failure and are working hard to bless the world with Win10 (start button inclusive). Gnome developers watch and learn!
49 • @48 : just use Mate Desktop. (by Frederic Bezies on 2014-10-01 03:36:16 GMT from France)
If you don't like Gnome, just use Mate. Its version 1.10 will support gtk3.
Watch and learn what ? That you are stuck in 2002 ?
50 • BASH vulnerability (by frodopogo on 2014-10-01 04:25:15 GMT from United States)
@42
M.Z.
Thanks for the comments and the link to the Ars Technica article. I was rather disappointed at Distrowatch's minimal comments on the Bash vulnerability- I was hoping for something a little deeper- especially on the point of "how vulnerable is desktop Linux"!
51 • MS watch and learn (by linuxista on 2014-10-01 04:48:26 GMT from United States)
Apparently the biggest desktop feature on Win9 (or 10) is virtual desktops, even though poorly implemented. A feature that all linux desktops have had for how many decades? Watch and learn indeed.
52 • MS watch and learn (by linuxista on 2014-10-01 05:01:46 GMT from United States)
@48. I missed the point that if even MS can learn to listen to users, so can the Gnome devs. I have my own issues with Gnome3...mostly the crippling of Nautilus, but the gnome-shell desktop was quite functional and non-buggy right ever since 3.0. (Configurability is another matter). And I know a lot of newbies that think it's clean, pretty and intuitive. Since I tried someone's Lenovo Yoga touchscreen, I really see the point of what they're doing, and with the 3.14 gestures it's going to make a lot of sense. I don't want to use it or even touchscreens, but sometimes to make progress there has to be leadership rather than just responsiveness. I'm glad Gnome is forging ahead (or to the side :-)). The linux ecosystem is better off for it.
53 • BASH/Shellshock (by Dave Postles on 2014-10-01 06:50:39 GMT from United Kingdom)
I add my inordinate thanks to M.Z. too.
54 • Amazed By OS / DE Combo (by sasdthoh on 2014-10-01 12:01:34 GMT from United States)
After reading so many posts concerning what has been missed in the new versions of DE's, I wanted to share my recent experience "going back to old school" by doing the following.
I downloaded and installed the stripped down version of Ubuntu Server 14.04.1 LTS. Basically, I just installed the core OS with only the print & ssh components. Then I manually installed MATE as a desktop environment.
I have to tell ya' folks how overwhelmed I have been with the stability and ROCK SOLID PERFORMANCE of this combination of OS and DE. What's really surprising is that it has yet to become an official derivative but they are actively working on an official adoption.
I think anyone who yearns for the old Gnome2 experience will absolutely fall in love with this combo or any cobo where you install just the basic OS and Mate.
I want everyone to know that I love all DE's for their strengths and have enjoyed experimenting with various combinations of base Linux platforms and customized setups.
Even if Ubuntu is not your preferred distro of choice, I ask that you check out this combo. If enough people respond here in the comments section, I'll post exactly how to install it with a minimum of work and fuss for all to learn and share.
Cheers!
sasdthoh
My 6-7 Year Old Test System (definitely not state of the art)
HP Pavillion Core2Quad q6600
8-Gigs Ram
nVidia GeForce 8500 Video
SATA Seagate Mechanical HDD 1-TB
55 • @54 Base Ubuntu + MATE (by fernbap on 2014-10-01 14:39:08 GMT from Portugal)
Although there are many people bashing Unity (and i'm one of them), Ubuntu has and always had a rock solid base system. That is why so many distros are based on it.
Mate became my DE of choice for its intuitiveness and down to earth approach. You also still have the choice to install Compiz with or without Emerald, if you want all the bells and whistles that Microsoft copied to make Win7.
However, unless your hardware is too old to cope with it, why not install a distro that already had all the work done, and Install Mint MATE?
Some might consider it a little too bloated, but you can always remove the services you don't want.
The main difference will be polish and ease of use.
56 • yerba mate (by linuxista on 2014-10-01 15:00:23 GMT from United States)
I recently had to install Mate for a friend on a new box with a new Pentium ARM processor (ValleyView+BayTrail graphics) and had a hell of a time getting anything to install properly. Various varieties of Ubuntu/Mint had trouble booting and shutting down among other things. All 3d graphics desktops were problematic with BayTrail graphics. Finally I got Manjaro + Mate to install without any issues, and as I worked with Mate, I found it to be good looking, configurable and stable. I will prefer it to Xfce in almost all cases at this point.
57 • It's all good! (by me in Louisiana, USA on 2014-10-01 15:21:56 GMT from Netherlands)
I generally agree with commenters here who point out that most Linux and BSD distributions that are worth their salt allow users to easily select a desktop environment. In fact, most common display managers -- including LightDM, GDM and KDM -- easily accommodate multiple desktop sessions, so it's not that important which DE you decide is the default or whether you hop back and forth between environments. To me, the fun of Linux -- look at the top of this page where Distrowatch says "Put the fun back into computing" -- is in trying different combinations of everything, and then nuking the latest incarnation of perfection a few weeks later and building something new. Other people may have a different take on desktops. For example, as a 56-year-old nerdy guy with concomitantly poor eyesight, I can appreciate the importance of accessibility as a design issue. I would be curious to read comments by experienced users with accessibility concerns, who could inform us about which DEs provide the best experience and why.
To commenter #54 -- I too am very pleased with the MATE desktop -- how it has so quickly evolved and how well it works with various distributions. I am running it with my latest Arch build and can't find a reason to change much of anything. I still like XFCE better (because it is more configurable), and I use it on my Debian testing system built using Sparky Linux CLI. But, that's just me. I also like to run bare bones a lot of the time. Openbox and Fluxbox are particularly fun and sweet to use. I am using them now on Gentoo and Fedora 20 systems. I also like the slimmed-down version of KDE you can get with PCLinuxOS. It's very easy to install and very solid.
My point is that, what's especially cool about all of this is that Linux does give you almost limitless variety, and even a non-expert user like me can, with a little bit of patience, create a beautiful customized experience. It's also that variety that makes discussions like this possible. When people ask me why I piddle around so much with my old clunker of a computer, I tell them it's like building a ship in a bottle -- I don't know what the point is, except that it's fun and satisfying to me to do it.
- me in Louisiana, USA
Using Grub 2 to boot five Linux systems with a:
Dell Dimension 4700
Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz
2 GB RAM
2 40 GB IDE hard drives
Nvidia GeForce 520 GPU,
and, yes, it runs them all beautifully (OK, a little more slowly than yours would).
58 • 54 @55 Base Ubuntu Server 14.04.1 LTS + Mate (by sasdthoh on 2014-10-01 17:19:11 GMT from United States)
I agree with you regarding the use of Mint. You are absolutely correct. It has been my base OS since Release 14. However, for some reason the newest LTS release has been acting very strange with my particular video card and/or hardware. Even with the recommended proprietary nVidia driver installed, it was constantly freezing. I even followed the advice in the release notes concerning this issue with Mint but it never resolved itself and also, there seems to be an issue with the nouveau driver in my particular system. Yet, Mint 17 it runs flawlessly on several other pc and laptop systems I have. Only with the system I mentioned in post #54 does this happen.
All of my hardware checked out and this issue never manifests itself with other distros. So I decided to experiment with a base Ubuntu Server LTS + Mate install to see if the "monkey" in my Mint setup was related to Ubuntu code and everything works flawlessly. No issues, no additional configuration, absolutely nothing wrong ever. Definitely a puzzle to solve. It may even be some weird x-server settings that needs attending.
Whatever causes this headache for me, it has to do specifically with Mint 17 Cinnamon mostly and sometimes with Mint 17 Mate. I still love Mint and will endeavor to solve this mystery.
Just for the record, I have always been and currently am a Linux Mint user and fan. I will also endeavor to experiment with mate combinations of other base distro installs and share my experience.
I have used and loved Arch, Debian, Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat (old days), OpenSUSE, Scientific (Red Hat Enterprise clone), Puppy, Tiny Core, and as they "say in the country", "bukus of buntus!"
Thanks everyone for your positive insight and contributions! Best wishes To You and Your Family!
sasdthoh
59 • Security (always use a firewalll) & Mint (by M.Z. on 2014-10-01 18:47:49 GMT from United States)
@50 & 53
I'm glad my poking around on the subject helped someone else, but I just found something else on the subject this morning. Apparently a firewall is all that is needed to prevent possible issues on PCs:
"However, as we mentioned, this is not something that should matter much on a user's computer with a working firewall, because it hasn't been proven possible to take advantage of the bug under that scenario."
Here is the link:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/25/what-is-the-shellshock/
I'm still not sure what happens if an unpatched version of Mint or some other distro were facing the web without a firewall and without server software, but the problem is very simple for desktop users to prevent. I think it is a great reminder to do the basics like turn your firewall on. In fact I've always been disappointed that some major distros ship without the firewall turned on by default, & a few years back I even heard some users act like a firewall wasn't really needed on Linux. Both of these are just dumb from a security standpoint, it cost you nothing but a minute or two of time to just turn a firewall on, but it should be on by default. Never assume invulnerability in any system, do the basics to make it secure, then try learn & do more if & when you can.
@58
Have you examined your update setup on Mint? Most video card updates are considered unstable by the Mint folks & not updated by default, so Ubuntu with updates can act different than Mint with updates on the same hardware. I'd try going to your update manager settings, making level 4 & 5 updates visible, & selecting the appropriate update for your video card as necessary. I've had those level 4 & 5 updates both burn me & make life better, so be ready for anything. I would also consider turning on the 'always trust security updates' option if you haven't. Of course that is all just a best guess based on my experience with Mint & the main difference I know of between Mint & Ubuntu driver support.
60 • More On @54 & @58 Mint Issue (by sasdthoh on 2014-10-01 22:22:39 GMT from United States)
I wanted to give everybody a heads-up.
The Firewall issue is definitely NOT what's happening in my case. I talked to nVidia and they suggested the very latest driver available. The recommended Mint version for nVidia GeForce 8500GT was 331.xxx but the latest on the nVidia website is 340.xxx. That's probably because the Mint team always leans to the overall side of stability for a majority of existing hardware and not necessarily the latest and greatest versions of a driver.
Another item we all know is Linux distros can run perfect on 100 different systems, then along comes a pc with the combination of hardware that freaks the video, xserver, or other subsystems out, let alone the wacky nouveau driver. Mint runs great on three other systems I own. And this never happened in version, 16, 15, or 14. Something obviously has changed in the Mint code camp because Ubuntu itself is running flawlessly at this point.
As soon as I get some private time away from "honey-do's" for Mama, I'll take another crack at it. I'll keep everyone informed of my failures or success.
Thanks again everyone. I appreciate your interest and suggestions.
sasdthoh
61 • @39,41 RE:Midori user agent spoofing (by :wq on 2014-10-02 05:01:05 GMT from United States)
The "Midori", "Safari", and "iPhone" IDs should result in the form being rendered. The "Automatic" (same user agent string as "Chrome"), "Chrome", "Firefox", and "Internet Explorer" IDs will not.
http://i.imgur.com/tsjo6Lm.png
This comment was submitted via Midori.
62 • Continuing Saga of @54, @58, @60 (by sasdthoh on 2014-10-02 23:29:03 GMT from United States)
Continuing as promised for all interested parties,
I decided to tackle this issue from a different angle. I made the decision to use the live .iso and write it to a usb flash drive, then boot and run totally off the live usb key.
I have performed all the normal decorative changes, minor control panel settings, etc. etc. After many hours of trying to cause the same lock-up issue as when I am running the fully installed Mint 17 setup, I have completely failed to cause it to lock-up.
No matter how many videos, web sites accessed, multimedia content, flash, audio, etc., Mint 17, in both Mate and Cinnamon editions, are performing flawlessly.
This made me think that the culprit causing my hdd installed os lock-up problem is somehow connected to one of the software updates which is done after a fresh install.
So I reinstalled Mint 17 Cinnamon Edition, 64-bit once again on the same system. But this time, I completely ignored the software update manager completely. I simply made the cosmetic and control center configuration changes I have always done.
Then rebooted with the same recommended Nvidia-331 proprietary driver installed.
So far, no issues with my fresh Mint 17 hdd installed os whatsoever with my system have manifested themselves. If this continues to run with the same reliability as Mint has always done in the past, then we will know for certain the culprit is causing the problem.
I just have a gut feeling that my problem is definitely related but I have to use the system for a couple of days and try to replicate the lock-ups. To be honest, I really hope it is one of the updates. Then I can take my time to figure this one out while still using Mint as my base os.
As always, I'll keep everybody informed of my progress.
63 • Shellshock (by Dave Postles on 2014-10-03 10:27:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
I find it all very strange indeed. I installed PC-BSD for the reason explained here:
http://blog.pcbsd.org/2014/09/bash-shell-bug/
When, however, I used the cli test from engadget (@59), it returned 'vulnerable'. So then I installed Fedora 20 and updated the system. I used the same cli test, and it reported 'vulnerable'!
So now I'm using Crunchbang with updated Debian system, and it seems to be clear of vulnerability.
I'm intending to install Ghost BSD on a notebook, as I quite like it, but I expect to find the 'vulnerability', since it, like PC-BSD, is based on FreeBSD.
64 • Shellshock (additional) (by Dave Postles on 2014-10-03 10:36:25 GMT from United Kingdom)
BTW, the firewalls had been activated.
65 • shellshock cont. (by jadecat09 on 2014-10-03 12:14:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
It might be better to use FreeBSD's default csh shell instead.
66 • @63 (by :wq on 2014-10-03 23:02:25 GMT from United States)
I can't verify your results on Fedora.
Fedora 21 (4.3.25-2) not vulnerable
Fedora 20 (4.2.48-2) not vulnerable
Fedora 19 (4.2.48-2) not vulnerable
See for relevant details:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/bash-4.2.48-2.fc20
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/bash-4.2.48-2.fc19
67 • Bodhi Linux (by LinuxJunkie86 on 2014-10-04 03:09:53 GMT from United States)
I'm happy to here that Bodhi Linux will indeed continue with others taking the reigns. Hopefully they will continue to build on the foundation that Jeff Hoogland has started. Bodhi is one of my favorite lightweight disrtos. Best wishes to the new development team.
68 • debian gnome (by ben on 2014-10-04 03:51:37 GMT from United States)
On my 8th computer for clients, the last 3 Debian net installs, new and old rigs, everyone of them gnome crashes into fallback on 1st boot. No boogie as I put xfce on them anyway, but the default de should not be so bloated and needing fancy graphics it won't run fresh. I love Debian, but the gnome default is horrible. I guess Debian is only for people who know what they are doing.
69 • Shellshock (by Dave Postles on 2014-10-04 08:09:30 GMT from United Kingdom)
@66 Obviously my fault then. I used a disk from a DVD of Fedora 20 which I already have (distributed with a magazine) and called for a system upgrade. With GhostBSD, the cli command still produces the 'vulnerable' response, even though the default shell is fish and bash is not integrated into the OS.
70 • @69, follow-up (by :wq on 2014-10-04 08:18:45 GMT from United States)
I took a look at PC-BSD. If you open AppCafe, and change frequency of updates from Production (Updates Quarterly) to Edge (Updates Frequently), then update (which may require a restart), Bash will be upgraded to a patched version.
71 • PC-BSD (by :wq on 2014-10-04 08:29:42 GMT from United States)
Though it is very much beta software (if that, really), I like where PC-BSD's Update Center is headed, particularly if it will handle switching between branches.
72 • Addtional notes (by :wq on 2014-10-04 20:06:57 GMT from United States)
With regard to GhostBSD (I installed v4.0), which uses fish as the default shell unless changed by the user, after using pkg to upgrade Bash from 4.3.24 to 4.3.27, it is also now free of that particular vulnerability.
iXsystems, PC-BSD's sponsor/developer, also made an announcement regarding Shellshock. http://www.ixsystems.com/whats-new/ixsystems-products-not-vulnerable-to-shellshock-related-exploits/
73 • RE: review by Jesse Smith (by Victor on 2014-10-04 21:31:23 GMT from Canada)
Good Day! The review by Jesse Smith of Calculate 14.0 was totally unfair. I have recently switched to Calculate Linux 13.11 on my work laptop. Being impressed at how well version 13.11 worked, I installed Calculate 13.19 on my Dell Vostro machine at home. And now, I am writing this comment in my newly-installed Calculate Linux 14.0. After installation I never experienced any root account or password problems that the author is mentioning. The GUI installer in Calculate Linux makes sense and easy to follow. If the author is simply used to working with Debian-based installers, it's not a problem with installer in Calculate Linux, as the author presents it, but a matter of personal habit that shouldn't be treated as a flaw. The whole point of Open Source distribution is to be innovative and not follow the crowd. Unlike boring Microsoft or Apple, where everything is the same and predictable, Calculate Linux is what Open Source community is all about – giving users freedom to choose something unique and innovate. With the majority of distributions being Debian-based Calculate Linux should be praised as a distribution that sets itself apart from the crowd. What this review implies is that being different and unexpected (according to the author's experience with GUI installer) is somehow bad. But I think the whole point of Linux distribution is the difference and innovative thought. I really think that Calculate Linux is grossly under-represented in the Linux community. Maybe because of the unfair reviews such as the one I mention?
74 • KDE accessibility (by Paul Clark on 2014-10-05 11:13:25 GMT from United Kingdom)
I do not understand how Debian rated KDE as being not accessible to those with disabilities and gave Gnome 3 a plus mark, I am a quadraplegic with 20% use of my left arm, Gnome 3 is totaly useless for the chronically disabled and impossible to use now they have taken all the configurations and features away to a point it discriminates against the severely disabled, KDE on the other hand is a wonderful OS for the disabled with its configurability and features in fact it is the number 1 OS for me and all my disabled friends, so Debian does not know what they are talking about when they look at disabilities, KDE is way in front of Gnome in all aspects, I am the disabled person and I know what I am talking about and which OS's work when you are disabled.
75 • Debian/KDE accessibility (by calaveras on 2014-10-05 15:12:11 GMT from United States)
Your comment seems too useful to rot at the tail end of a scatter-shot DW weekly thread. I'm wondering if you or your friends have offered your experiences to the Debian accessibility team. The best links/email I could find are below. I would bet they would be quite interested in the feedback.
https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility
debian-accessibility@lists.debian.org
76 • @58, @60, @62 Mint 17 Lockup Issues, Final Conclusion (by sasdthoh on 2014-10-05 16:04:23 GMT from United States)
As previously stated, I reinstalled Mint 17 Cinnamon Edition once more but decided to use it for awhile without performing ANY system updates.
Well guess what folks?
NO MORE LOCKUPS!
It now appears that one or more components after a first time system update is causing my lockups. So long as I stay clear of the update process, no issues so far. The hard part now will be spending the time, making selective updates to the system to determine which one (or more) are actually causing the problem with my particular hardware.
As always, I will keep interested parties informed of my progress. It is nice to use Mint 17 again. This shows how spoiled a user can become with a system that just works. And I don't mind stating how much I like being spoiled.
sasdthoh
77 • @74 (by :wq on 2014-10-05 17:30:20 GMT from United States)
If you and your friends are a Debian users, you could contact the Debian Accessibility team with your feedback.
https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility#Please_help_us_help_you
The mailing list is debian-accessibility@lists.debian.org. The threads in which the Debian Accessibility team (and others) weighed in on GNOME 3 appear to be primarily on:
1) "accessibility of jessie desktops"
https://lists.debian.org/debian-accessibility/2014/09/threads.html
2) "Reverting to GNOME for jessie's default desktop"
https://lists.debian.org/debian-accessibility/2014/08/threads.html
From what I saw, there really wasn't much discussion of KDE on the applicable debian-accessibility threads. Orca integration appears to have been weighed particularly heavily.
Regarding KDE, there is a note on https://wiki.debian.org/accessibility-devel, which states, "KDE is not accessible through qt-at-spi yet".
78 • @74 KDE Acessabiklity and Gnome (by Rev_Don on 2014-10-05 18:51:48 GMT from United States)
I'm not disabled (except for some normal joint problems of a 60 year old) but I would tend to agree with your assessment.
Not attempting to start a major debate, but how would you rate the old Gnome 2 (or now Mate), XFCE, Unity, or LXDE's accessibility capabilities for people like yourself? I would find it interesting hearing your thoughts on this.
79 • @74 Accessibility and GUI or Desktop Environment (by cykodrone on 2014-10-05 19:43:17 GMT from Canada)
Thank you ever so much for your opinion and input, the vast majority agree with you. Just one little correction, KDE and Gnome are 'desktop environments', or GUIs (graphical user interface), they run on top of an "OS", that could be most of the hundreds of Linux distributions and some BSD distributions. It's the same with Windows, if you strip away its GUI, you'd find a similar black screen with text (aka 'command-line'). Apple's OSX is their custom GUI which runs on top of their BSD based operating system.
FWIW, Debian has been flip flopping around like a dying fish on a dock about a lot of things lately, you're not the only one rolling your eyes. I'm a Debian Xfce user, and they're starting to worry me too.
80 • Accessibility and GUI (by Paul Clark on 2014-10-05 23:24:39 GMT from United Kingdom)
As a severely disabled person I have found the new Gnome 3 desktop environments to be to impossible to use and as previously stated discriminatory when you are severely disabled, for myself and my friends we need a desktop environment that is completely usable via the mouse (left and right click, mouse wheel desktop switching etc.) and configurable on par with Gnome 2, fortunately with Linux we have KDE, Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce, Lxde and a few others that are, it does not matter if they are Debian, Arch, Gentoo etc. as long as they are configurable to the specific users disability.
81 • Austrumi-2.9.8 (by Everett on 2014-10-06 02:45:39 GMT from Canada)
First a big thank you to Distrowatch for their wonderful site!
I am a beginner to Linux and I have tried many distributions. I seem to be settling down on the smaller versions that run from a USB stick.
I was very intrigued by Austrumi-2.9.8. The look and feel is excellent.
One small problem, i hope someone can answer.
1. Start up and running from USB, no problem. Did not ask for login name or password.
2. Changed language to English, set wireless and saved it.
3. After starting again its now asking for login name & password.
4. Tried standard root & toor, no login name or password. No success.
5. Does anyone know login name & password????
Thanks for any help or advise...
Number of Comments: 81
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 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 |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • 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 | 
Robolinux
Robolinux is a user-friendly and intuitive operating system based on the latest long term support release of Ubuntu. One of the project's more interesting features is the availability of a pre-configured virtual machine support pack with Windows XP or Windows 7 - a VirtualBox setup which allows the user to install and run the Windows operating system seamlessly alongside Robolinux. This is an optional add-on that must be downloaded from the project's online store.
Status: Active
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
