 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 578, 29 September 2014 |
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Welcome to this year's 39th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! At the heart of what makes Linux distributions so fun, so flexible and so free is the open nature of the source code. Free and open source software allows anyone with the time and the talent to customize, improve and extend existing software. The freedom to modify and fix our operating systems is what drives us to create new distributions, create compelling desktop environments and fashion highly optimized solutions. In celebration of software freedom, this week we focus on open source software and source code. We begin with a review of the Calculate distribution, a project which provides a great deal of flexibility though source-based package management. We then turn to examples of collaboration and competition in our News section. Last week saw the Debian team swap out Xfce for GNOME as the project's default desktop environment. We also learned that FreeBSD was updating their Linux compatibility layer, through borrowing packages from CentOS. The Bodhi distribution may have lost its leader a few weeks ago, but the project may carry on under new management and we share more below. Finally, we discuss a nasty security bug which was discovered last week, patched and updated on users' computers within hours. This week we share some odds and ends from around the open source world, touching on significant developments with ZFS, Lumina, TrueCrypt and systemd. Plus we bring you the latest distribution releases and look ahead to more fun to come. We wish you all a marvellous week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (34MB) and MP3 (41MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Introducing Calculate Linux 14
 Calculate Linux is a distribution based on Gentoo Linux. Calculate makes installing the Gentoo-derived operating system easy and offers several convenient system administration tools. A summary of the distribution on the Calculate Linux website states: "Calculate Linux is an optimized distribution designed for rapid deployment in corporate environments. It is based on Gentoo, but provides a number of preconfigured features. Calculate Linux comes in four main flavours: Calculate Linux Desktop for personal use, Calculate Directory Server for servers, Calculate Linux Scratch for those who want to build a customized system that works for them and Calculate Media Center for your home multimedia centre."
Calculate Linux is a rolling-release distribution and, further, it uses a source-based approach to package management. This means much of the software we install on Calculate will be compiled from source code, a lengthy process which may optimize the software on our computers. The latest version of Calculate ships with a few new features, including notification of software updates and an improved administration panel. As mentioned previously, Calculate is available in several flavours, each of which can be downloaded in 32-bit or 64-bit builds. I opted to try the Desktop edition of Calculate, the ISO file for which is 2.2GB in size. There are actually two Desktop editions of this distribution, I downloaded the KDE edition, but there is also an edition featuring the Xfce desktop environment.
Booting from the Calculate Linux media we are shown a boot menu where we are given the choice of running the Calculate live desktop environment, running the live desktop from RAM for added performance or running a live environment with a command line interface only. Taking the live desktop environment brings up the KDE desktop. Calculate, unlike most distributions shipping KDE, places the application menu, task switcher and system tray at the top of the screen. Calculate's build of KDE ships with a classic style application menu, which is both unusual and, in my case, welcome. Icons on the desktop enable us to launch the GParted partition manager, the system installer, a file manager and the Konversation IRC client. There is also an icon which brings up the distribution's installation guide. The guide lets us know that it is a good idea to partition our hard drive prior to running the system installer, along with other helpful tips. The Konversation application, when launched, automatically signs into the Calculate IRC channel where we can get assistance with using the distribution. At the bottom of the display there is a hidden quick-launch bar that pop-ups when the mouse pointer strays toward the lower edge of the screen.
Calculate Linux 14 - the installation guide
(full image size: 418kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
The distribution's system installer is a graphical application which I believe is unique to Calculate. It begins by asking for our preferred language and our time zone. Next we are asked to confirm we want to install Calculate from the live media as packages may be retrieved from other sources. Calculate's installer provides a few options for partitioning the hard drive. We can take a guided option or we can use existing partitions (which we presumably set up ahead of time using GParted). The guided option takes hints from us, such as whether to use a GPT disk layout, whether certain directories should be mounted on separate partitions and whether we want to use LVM volumes. I took the manual partitioning option and the following screen asked me to assign partitions to mount points. The layout of this page was a little unusual and it took me a while to get into the flow of using the mount point feature.
During this process a warning popped up telling me my root partition needed to be larger than 7 GB. I thought this was odd as the partition I was using was 15 GB. I opted to proceed and the system installer accepted my choices. Next, the installer asks us to enable networking and to select a network time synchronization server. Then we are asked to set a password on the root account and create a regular user account for ourselves. The following page lets us select which video card driver to use and set our screen resolution, something I find most distributions do automatically these days. Though I do appreciate the extra control choosing our own driver potentially gives us. Next we are asked if the system should automatically check for software updates. After that the installer pauses to confirm we want to proceed with the installation and then copies its files to our hard drive. A short time later we are prompted to reboot the computer.
Calculate Linux 14 - downloading software updates
(full image size: 637kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Calculate Linux boots to a graphical login screen where, in the background, we see an image of a penguin parachuting from the sky. It's an adorable way to begin our time with the distribution. Something I found early on with Calculate is the distribution prevents us from logging in using the root (administrator's) account. Signing in with our regular user account brings us to the KDE desktop. Shortly after signing in an icon appeared in the system tray letting me know software updates were available. Clicking this notification icon brings up a screen where we are shown a list of available updates. The day I installed Calculate there were 12 packages available, totalling about 5MB in size. Updating these packages appeared to be an all or nothing venture as I did not see any way to select which packages to download. The process of downloading and installing updates took a while on my machine, over 20 minutes in total. I suspect this may be because each update is downloaded as source code and compiled in the background, though the update utility does not show a lot of detailed progress information to confirm or deny my assumption.
I tried running Calculate Linux in a VirtualBox virtual machine and on a physical desktop machine. I found Calculate's KDE desktop was a touch sluggish in the virtual machine, but the distribution was responsive when run on physical hardware. I found Calculate generally consumed around 500MB of memory when logged into KDE, though that number varied a bit between 480MB and 580MB on different days. In both test environments Calculate ran smoothly, automatically detected my network connection and sound worked out of the box. I selected my own video driver and screen resolution during the installation and these settings were respected by the distribution. My only hardware related complaint about Calculate was that the distribution booted slowly compared to most other Linux distributions I have used this year.
Calculate Linux 14 - KDE System Settings and Calculate Console
(full image size: 459kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Browsing through the distribution's application menu we find a wide range of useful software. Calculate provides us with the Chromium web browser and an accompanying Flash plugin. We are given the Skype voice over IP software, the KTorrent bittorrent client, the Kopete instant messaging software and the Konversation IRC client. The Choqok micro-blogging client is included along with the KMail e-mail application. There are a few applications for dealing with remote desktop and support situations, including the KRDC remote desktop client and the X11VNC Server. Calculate provides us with the LibreOffice productivity suite and the Okular document viewer. The distribution ships with the Amarok music player, the k3b optical disc burning software, the SMPlayer video player, the KsCD audio disc player and the Kdenlive video editor.
The distribution ships with popular media codecs, letting us play (and edit) most multimedia formats. Calculate offers us the GNU Image Manipulation Program, the KolourPaint drawing program and the digiKam camera manager. Plus we are given an archive manager, calculator, text editor, disk usage statistics application and the Kleopatra digital certificate manager. There are a few administrative tools as well, including the KDE System Settings panel where we can configure all aspects of our desktop environment. There is the Calculate Console where we can adjust administrative settings on our local computer or on a remote computer. I did not find Java installed, but Calculate does ship with the GNU Compiler Collection. In the background I found Calculate runs on the 3.14 release of the Linux kernel.
Calculate Linux 14 - running various desktop applications
(full image size: 351kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
My time with Calculate took an unpleasant turn on my second day, mostly because of a bug related to administrative permissions. The second day of my trial I wanted to install some additional software. Calculate uses the emerge package manager and typically compiles new software from source code. Some larger packages, such as the Firefox web browser, are available as pre-built binary packages. My first approach was to run emerge via the sudo command. An error came back saying my user did not have permission to run sudo. Many distributions do not enable sudo by default and so I decided to gain administrative access using the "su" command. This also came back with a "permission denied" error. Thinking I must have typed the password incorrectly, I tried again. And again. Not being able to gain access to the root account nor sudo and not being able to login directly as root from the login screen I thought my password might have been set improperly and next tried booting the distribution in single user mode.
Single user mode prompted for my root password and accepted it, allowing me to sign in, confirming my password had been set up properly during the installation. Here, however, I ran into two problems. The first was that, after the password prompt, no text I typed in single user mode was visible. The second problem I found was that after each key I pressed the system assumed I had followed that key with pressing Enter. For example, trying to type "passwd" resulted in Calculate attempting to run the commands "p", "a", "s" and so on. After double-checking that my install media passed its integrity check I visited the forums and found I was not the only one experiencing this problem with root credentials. At the time of writing no solution has been posted. So I'm apparently not the only person to encounter this series of problems, but nor does the issue appear to affect many people.
Soon, I discovered that Calculate Linux runs a secure shell service by default. Though locally logging in as root is blocked, a clever administrator can login as root remotely. This seems like a bit of a security issue (or at least a strange design quirk), but it did provide me with a workaround. I was able to login to my root account using secure shell and run administrative tasks, including installing new software packages. As most packages are built from source code this does make installing new packages a slow process, but emerge does seem to be entirely capable and I encountered only one error when emerge failed to properly install Firefox.
Conclusions
Calculate Linux is an unusual distribution in the Linux community. The project is one of the few desktop distributions I can think of that is based on Gentoo and still actively developed. This gives Calculate a distinct flavour when compared against the many offspring of Fedora, Debian or Slackware. I found I had to shift my thinking a bit to get used to the way Calculate approaches administration and package management. Even the installer feels alien when compared against most other Linux installers. That's not to say Calculate is better or worse than other flavours of Linux, only that there are noticeable differences in the philosophy and approach that this distribution takes. Calculate does not have a "learning curve" so much as a "different perspective curve".
Calculate Linux appears to be mostly focused on being flexible, something which comes naturally to a source-based distribution. Most of the admin tools are flexible and have advanced options, a characteristic which is especially visible during the installation process. Calculate ships with a lot of good, capable software out of the box and I suspect most new users will not need to install additional applications, at least not many. While installing new programs can take time, much longer than on distributions offering binary packages, the emerge package manager did work well for me. Of course, emerge is also flexible and this allows users to tweak build-time options to optimize Calculate.
Right now I'm not sure what to think about Calculate Linux. My experiences this past week have been different than what I experience with most mainstream Linux distributions. Some aspects of Calculate take some getting used to. The distribution certainly seems to be flexible and capable of completing any task thrown at it. I did run into a few bugs and the distribution was slow to boot (and sluggish in a virtual machine). My overall impression of Calculate 14 was not great, but it wasn't exactly bad either. I think people who want to experiment with source-based distributions (such as Gentoo) without the steep learning curve or long initial installation will find what they want with Calculate. The distribution is easy to set up and makes experiencing a source-based approach fairly straightforward.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8 GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500 GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6 GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) |
Debian switches default desktop to GNOME, FreeBSD updates Linux compatibility, Bodhi Linux changes hands, distributions react to Bash vulnerability, openSUSE interview, practical Tiny Core Linux
 Joey Hess announced last week that the Debian GNU/Linux distribution will be changing its default desktop environment again, this time shifting back to using GNOME 3 as the default desktop. A chart showing the various positive and negative attributes of each desktop under consideration was posted on the Debian wiki and this chart helps demonstrate why GNOME won the honour. Hess lists several reasons Debian "Jessie" will ships with GNOME by default: "This is particularly based on accessibility and to some extent systemd integration. Accessibility: GNOME and MATE are ahead by a large margin. Some of the other desktops have had their accessibility integration in Debian improved, partly driven by this process, but still need significant upstream work. systemd integration: Xfce, MATE, etc are stuck paying catch-up to ongoing changes in this area. There will be time to hopefully iron these issues out during the freeze once the tech stack stops changing out from under them, so this is not a complete blocker for those desktops, but going by the current status, GNOME is ahead."
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 One especially useful feature of FreeBSD is the operating system's ability to support native Linux executable files by way of a compatibility layer. In recent years FreeBSD's Linux compatibility layer, which previously used Fedora 10 packages, has been showing its age. Fedora 10 has not been supported for a few years now and so an effort has been made to upgrade FreeBSD's compatibility layer to include a more modern Linux distribution. The choice was made to use CentOS as the new base for native Linux software. CentOS features long term support making it a more stable base. The Linux emulation port is called linux-c6 and can be found in the FreeBSD ports collection.
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 A few weeks ago we reported the lead developer of Bodhi Linux, Jeff Hoogland, would be stepping down. Hoogland, through the Bodhi Linux project, created one of the most polished and user friendly implementations of the Enlightenment desktop. Fans of Bodhi were understandably concerned over the future of the project and we are happy to say it looks like Bodhi Linux will be able to continue under new management. Hoogland posted on the Bodhi forums saying: "I've been talking with a number of victims, err volunteers, who intend to take over the duties I have been performing packaging software for and building the ISO images for Bodhi Linux. This had always been my hope, but I wasn't sure anyone would step up to the task - thankfully they have. Bodhi 3 will happen at some point, but they don't have any firm time lines right now."
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 As widely reported last week, a security vulnerability was discovered in the Bourne Again Shell (usually referred to as Bash). The vulnerability potentially allows attackers to run any command they wish, in some cases this can even be accomplished remotely if the vulnerable machine is running a web server. As most Linux distributions ship with the Bash shell as the default command line shell, news of the vulnerability raised a lot of concern. Fortunately, most distributions have already patched Bash and made updated packages available. Detailed security advisories and patched copies of Bash have already been made available to users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Mageia, SUSE and PC-BSD. If you have not already done so, it is a good idea to make sure your copy of Bash is up to date with your distribution's latest version.
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 Two months ago, a rather low-profile change took place at the openSUSE leadership when Richard Brown took over the project's helm from Vincent Untz. So who exactly is the new chairman? The ./themukt's Swapnil Bhartiya sheds some light on Richard Brown's personality and his involvement with openSUSE in this interview published last week: "Q: Can you tell us about your involvement with open source? A: I've been using Linux since around 2003. I think my first distribution was Slackware, followed by Debian, but it wasn't very long before I discovered SUSE and since then I've been hooked. I started contributing with the great 'opening up' of the distribution that came with the launch of the openSUSE Project in 2005. In terms of 'upstream contributions', I've contributed to GNOME, ownCloud, Spacewalk, Cobbler, and a few other projects over the years, but normally through my involvement with openSUSE. I guess you could say I'm a little 'Geeko-centric' that way."
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 It's always inspirational to find out that even some of the smallest and "geekiest" Linux distributions have enormous practical impact in certain situations. 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, a minimalist Linux distribution, to solve a logistical problem and to save money. From "Practical Tiny Core in the Fire Service": "Being the go-to IT guy at my firehouse, I had fallen in the enviable position of making this system work for us. The trivial solution is, of course, just to fire up Windows with IE and let the monitor sit there - in fact, the vendor suggested this to me. I suppose when you're trying to sell something as easy to use, that's what you do. That solution, needless to say, was unsatisfactory. From a budgetary standpoint, I was encouraged to keep costs down. The first decision and the easiest decision was to use Linux. I just shaved off the cost of the Windows license."
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Open-source odds and ends
There have been some interesting developments in the open source world lately. While they may not deal directly with distributions, I think some of them will have long term impacts on open source operating systems and how we used them. I'd like to share some of these developments with you.
One news item I followed with interest was the announcement by Richard Yao that the ZFS on Linux project could be considered stable. ZFS is an advanced file system which provides improved data access speeds, guards data integrity, self heals and enables storage pools across multiple devices. The ZFS on Linux project provides kernel modules that allow Linux users to make use of ZFS. Richard Yao writes: "I believe the ZoL is production ready for the following reasons: Key ZFS data integrity features work on Linux like they do on other platforms. ZFS runtime stability on Linux is comparable to other file systems, with certain exceptions that I document below. ZoL is at near feature parity with ZFS on other platforms."
As a coincidence, the announcement that ZFS on Linux could be considered stable appeared around the same time the FreeBSD project updated their Handbook to include a chapter on ZFS. Though the specific examples presented in the Handbook are for people running FreeBSD, the information provided will be useful to people running ZFS on any operating system.
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For many years the TrueCrypt project was one of the most popular resources for people who wanted to encrypt data or create encrypted hard drive partitions. TrueCrypt was well known as being easy to use, flexible and cross-platform. Sadly, the TrueCrypt project came to an end and the developers dropped maintenance of the application. TrueCrypt was open source software and so it was no surprise when another group of developers offered to continue the project under a new name. CipherShed is a fork of TrueCrypt which will soon be available to people on Linux, Windows and OS X. The CipherShed team is encouraging people to try out the software and review the code for potential problems.
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The Lumina desktop environment began development as a new graphical interface for the PC-BSD operating system. Most desktop environments available for the BSD family of operating systems are created on Linux distributions first and then ported to the BSDs. Sometimes the porting efforts can take weeks or even months as some Linux-oriented desktops contain code or features that are difficult to transition to the BSDs. With new technologies such as Wayland and systemd making their way into the Linux software stack, some BSD developers believe porting software (like desktop environments) will become more difficult. Lumina, a desktop developed primarily for FreeBSD/PC-BSD, gives the BSD community a home grown solution that is future proof against changes in the Linux ecosystem.
However, technology flows both ways and Lumina has already been ported from PC-BSD and FreeBSD to Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, Ubuntu and Mint with a Fedora port in the works. Lumina may soon become a popular desktop environment for conservative Linux distributions that wish to hold off adoption of disruptive technologies such as Wayland and systemd.
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Previously, we discussed the systemd init software, what it is and the debate over whether it makes a good replacement for exiting init technology. Some people believe that systemd does offer improvements over other init technologies, but feel there are problems with the way systemd approaches certain tasks. For example, systemd is not cross platform, it only works with the GNU C library and systemd has expanded to include a lot of functionality normally outside the scope of init.
People who like the concept of systemd, but have concerns with its growing scope and lack of cross platform support will be interested to know there is a fork of systemd, called uselessd, which addresses these concerns. According to the project's website: "Basically, it's systemd with the superfluous stuff cut out, a (relatively) coherent idea of what it wants to be, support for non-glibc platforms and an approach that aims to minimize complicated design." The site goes on to say uselessd is almost to the point where it can act as a drop-in replacement to systemd and may soon work across multiple operating systems. "uselessd is not just a political protest. We aim to make it usable and as a solid alternative for people who want the features the systemd core provides (socket activation, parallel execution, resource limiting, cgroups, the declarative configuration syntax, etc) without the unnecessarily intrusive features, as well as maintaining a conservative development philosophy that prioritizes conciseness and focus over an ever-rolling gargantuan for system-critical software like this."
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| Released Last Week |
Salix 14.1 "Fluxbox"
George Vlahavas has announced the release of Salix 14.1 "Fluxbox" edition, a lightweight distribution based on Slackware Linux: "Salix Fluxbox is back for 14.1! Our Fluxbox edition is designed to bring a minimalist environment to your desktop. The default desktop layout is comprised only of the Fluxbox panel and the right click menu will bring up the Fluxbox menu, so it should be really light on resources. The file manager that is used is PCManFM. The default browser in this release is Firefox. The office applications that are included are AbiWord and Gnumeric. Whaawmp is the default video player and Exaile is the audio media library application. Of course, Salix Codecs Installer is also there to install all kinds of restricted codecs that you might need. mtPaint is installed as the default picture editor and it fits perfectly with the lightweight feel of the desktop. Other applications included are the usual stuff that goes in Salix releases, like the Transmission torrent client, the Claws-mail email client...." Read the release announcement for additional details.
Linux From Scratch 7.6
Bruce Dubbs has announced the release of Linux From Scratch (LFS) 7.6, a book of step-by-step instructions on how to build a base Linux system from scratch. Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS) 7.6, a separate book that extends the base system with additional packages, was also released today. From the announcement: "The Linux From Scratch community is pleased to announce the release of LFS version 7.6, BLFS version 7.6, LFS systemd version 7.6, and BLFS systemd version 7.6. This release is a major update to both LFS and BLFS and now includes separate editions for systemd. The LFS releases include toolchain updates to glibc 2.20 and GCC 4.9.1. In total, 26 packages were updated and 8 packages added from LFS 7.5. The BLFS edition includes approximately 750 packages beyond the base Linux From Scratch version 7.6 book. It has over 880 updates from the previous version including numerous text and formatting changes. In addition, we would like to introduce for the first time a BLFS variant based on systemd."
SparkyLinux 3.5 "MATE", "Xfce", "Openbox", "JWM"
Paweł Pijanowski has announced the availability of several new editions of SparkyLinux 3.5, a set of lightweight Debian-based distributions for the desktop: "SparkyLinux 3.5 'Annagerman' MATE, Xfce, Openbox and JWM is out. The new live/install ISO images provide package updates and a few changes. All packages have been synchronized with Debian's 'Testing' repository as of 2014-09-22. The Base edition is now available in two separated flavours - Openbox and JWM. The JWM edition offers traditional desktop look and a minimal set of applications. JWM uses even less power than Openbox and can be used on old machines. Sparky JWM 32-bit consumes less that 90 MB of RAM after installation. All multimedia packages have been removed from the Base editions. The system runs on Linux kernel 3.14.15 and offers MATE 1.8.1, Xfce 4.10.1, Openbox 3.2.5 and JWM 2.1.0." Here is the full release announcement.
SparkyLinux 3.5 - the MATE desktop environment
(full image size: 1,186kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Oracle Linux 5.11
Oracle has announced the release of Oracle Linux 5.11, a distribution rebuilt from source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11, but shipping with a custom "unbreakable" kernel: "We're happy to announce the availability of Oracle Linux 5.11, the eleventh and final update release for Oracle Linux 5. ISO images are available from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud and the individual RPM packages have already been published to our public yum repository. This release includes the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 2 (2.6.39-400), Oracle's recommended kernel for Oracle Linux. Oracle Linux can be downloaded, used and distributed free of charge and updates and errata are freely available. For support, you are free to decide which of your systems you want to obtain a support subscription for, and at what level each system should be supported." Read the brief release announcement and the detailed release notes for further information.
MidnightBSD 0.5
Lucas Holt has announced the release of MidnightBSD 0.5, a FreeBSD-derived operating system for desktop deployments: "MidnightBSD 0.5 has been released. Enhancements: jails now run shutdown scripts; support for username with length 32, previous limit was 16; imported FreeBSD 9.2 USB stack (plus z87 patches from stable); updated em(4), igb(4) and ixgbe(4); MidnightBSD now works with Z87 Intel chipsets; rarpd supports vlan(4) and has a pid flag (from FreeBSD); support for 65,536 routing tables was added (up from 16); added Subversion to base (as svnlite); virtio(4) imported from FreeBSD 9, SCSI support not included. New software versions: File 5.19, MKSH R50, less 458, Perl 5.18.2, Sendmail 8.14.7 (plus AAAA record patch), Subversion 1.8.1, zlib 1.2.7. Package builds for the release are not yet complete. KDE was removed from mports due to lack of a maintainer for our ports. Currently, we're recommending Xfce 4.x as a desktop environment." Read the rest of the release notes for further details.
OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1
João Patrício has announced the release of OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1, an updated version of the project's desktop Linux distribution that features a customised and intuitive KDE desktop: "OpenMandriva is proud to announce the release of OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1, that fixes lots of bugs and improves the overall performance of the distro. We would like to thank everybody that helped us make this possible - testers, bug submitters, developers and the community. Inside you can find: Linux kernel 3.15.10 with a new nrjQL patchset, KDE 4.13.3, Firefox 32.0.3, X.Org Server 1.15.2, MESA 10.2.6; an updated Bash with the latest security fixes; many updates for drivers and other software. Most of our effort focused on system boot up time, which is around 17 seconds now (and if you have an SSD that comes to about 12 seconds) and also to reduce memory footprint significantly." See the release announcement and release notes for further information.
OpenELEC 4.2
Stephan Raue has announced the release of OpenELEC 4.2, a an updated build of the distribution designed for media centres, with separate editions built for Raspberry Pi and Apple TV: "The OpenELEC team is proud to announce OpenELEC 4.2.0. OpenELEC 4.2 is the new stable release, which is a feature release and the successor of OpenELEC 4.0. Since OpenELEC 4.0 we have reworked many parts of the underlying operating system. This release is the result of 6 months of development and testing and will be the basis for the upcoming OpenELEC 5.0 series which is planned to release with Kodi-14 later this year. OpenELEC 4.2 is now based on Linux kernel 3.16, MESA 10.3, LLVM 3.5 and X.Org Server 1.16. We updated the NVIDIA graphic drivers in the 64-bit image to 340.x (32-bit remains on 304.123), systemd to 216 and XBMC to XBMC Gotham 13.2." Read the rest of the release announcement for a full list of changes.
Netrunner 2014.09.1 "Rolling"
Clemens Toennies has announced the availability of Netrunner 2014.09.1 "Rolling" edition, a Manjaro-based distribution featuring the KDE 4.14 desktop: "This is the release announcement of Netrunner Rolling 2014.09.1. We are releasing this maintenance shortly after our initial 2014.09 release to fix problems with the NVIDIA driver, and to include a first fix for the Bash shell vulnerability. We also updated Samba file sharing, Kontact accounts and language pack installation. Laptop Mode Tools was replaced by the new TLP to give you better control of your power consumption and achieve a longer battery life with your laptop. With the 2014.09 version we updated Netrunner Rolling to the latest software updates from Manjaro, including Linux kernel 3.14.18 with lots of bugs fixed and new driver support. KDE SC was updated to version 4.14." See the full release announcement for more information and screenshots.
Qubes OS 2
Joanna Rutkowska has announced the release of Qubes OS 2, a Fedora-based, security-oriented desktop Linux distribution with integrated Xen virtualisation: "Today we're releasing Qubes OS R2! I'm not going to write about all the cool features in this release because you can find all this in our Wiki and previous announcements. Suffice to say that we've come a long way over those 4+ years from a primitive proof of concept to a powerful desktop OS which, I believe, it is today. One of the biggest difficulties we have been facing with Qubes since the very beginning, has been the amount of this extra, not-so-exciting, not directly security-related work, but so much needed to ensure things actually work. Yet, the line between what is, and what is not-security related, is sometimes very thin and one can easily cross it if not being careful." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
- openSUSE 13.2-beta1, the release announcement
- Fedora 21-alpha, the release announcement
- Liquid Lemur 2.0-alpha1, the release notes
- Elive 2.3.6, the release announcement
- Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Studio and Xubuntu 14.10-beta2, the release announcement
- Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0-test2, the release announcement
- FreeBSD 10.1-BETA3, the release announcement
- Clonezilla Live 2.2.4-14
- Salix 14.1-beta1 "Xfce Live"
- Tails 1.1.2
- CoreOS 410.1.0
- Scientific Linux 7.0-rc1 and 5.11-beta1
- IPFire 2.15-core83
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 6 October 2014. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (feedback and suggestions: podcast edition)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • 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
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| • 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 |
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| Random Distribution | 
Pearl Linux OS
Pearl Linux OS is a distribution based on Ubuntu. Pearl uses components of the LXDE and Xfce desktop environments to create a desktop experience which looks similar to Apple's OS X desktop environment. The project calls this hybrid desktop PearlDE. Pearl Linux OS is available in several editions, including GNOME, MATE and PearlDE.
Status: Active
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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