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1 • Rolling release trial (by Wim Herremans on 2014-11-03 09:33:22 GMT from Belgium)
In the table with the package versions, the kernel version for Arch is showing 3.16.4.
I am using Arch myself and I am at kernel version 3.17.2.
Is that a mistake, or are you keeping the kernel version at 3.16.4 deliberately?
2 • Rolling release trial (by Pierre on 2014-11-03 10:55:59 GMT from Germany)
Same for openSUSE. As Factory ships Linux 3.17.1 and not the mentioned 3.16.4 I am a little confused about that difference between Factory and your test machine.
3 • ownCloud ./. Ubuntu packages (by Pierre on 2014-11-03 11:14:45 GMT from Germany)
This is one of the few times I have to disagree with Jesse on the ownCloud ./. Ubuntu issue.
I support the demand to remove packaged versions of ownCloud from fixed releases like Debian etc.
ownCloud gets frequently updated and if the package maintainers are not willing to backport at least security patches then it's better to stop packaging ownCloud for freezed repositories at all.
Or stop packaging of ownCloud alltogether as it's super easy to download the sources, copy them over into it's own webserver's virtual host instance and run updates from ownCloud itself. This way you have it up to date, database changes are done by the updater and therefore you wont end up with a messed up ownCloud server.
Simple as that.
4 • Good Post on Elive (by joncr on 2014-11-03 11:47:44 GMT from United States)
Good, to-the-point, post on Elive. This expectation that everything is supposed to by provided gratis comes from people who think they're entitled. (It's also the reason the web is full of ads and annoying monetizing schemes: People won't pay for content, no matter how good it might be. So, instead, the web gives them dumbed-down swill.)
I booted up a live Elive beta just to see what Enlightenment looks like these days. If I liked what I saw, I'd happily pay for it. Better than I remember the last time I looked at Enlightenment, especially the non-dark theme. Still, I won't use anything without Ubuntu's font rendering patches these days.
5 • Excellent issue (by Wine Curmudgeon on 2014-11-03 12:14:32 GMT from United States)
Another winning issue of DistroWatch -- great reviews and commentary.
Jesse, you should should read the comments more often. Most of us have praise for you.
6 • Simplicity 14.10 surprises very pleasantly (by Joe Tie on 2014-11-03 12:27:33 GMT from Philippines)
X was not part of the alpha stage of Simplicity but I remembered how good its first iteration was in March so I tried it on a 2005 PC. Performance is very impressive but this experimental release has a few application and package hitches. The Desktop version should be the one considered for production use.
7 • Rolling release trial (by Mohammadreza Abdollahzadeh on 2014-11-03 12:43:18 GMT from Iran, Islamic Republic of)
I am using Arch and about kernel version: Yes my Arch kernel version is 3.17.2 but this update come recently and I think that's why the kernel version that Jesse Smith mentioned is different.
by the way Archlinux is a wonderful and awesome distribution. I could say that all my knowledge about linux came from working with this great distro and I strongly recommend using this distro to every one who truly wants to learn linux and love linux.
8 • Kylin Linux and the Chinese market share (by gee7 on 2014-11-03 12:51:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thank you for the link to the interview with Dr Jonas Zhang of China's Defence Technology University and Ubuntu Kylin.
It was an interesting interview but what I found most illuminating at this point in time is what information was left unsaid: the percentage of user use of Kylin Linux in China.
The omission points to it still being extremely small, so I would guess (and of course may well be wrong on this) that the majority of Chinese computer users are still using (often pirated copies of) Windows XP.
Any information on the Chinese desktop market that Distro Watch can provide would make fascinating reading.
The Chinese government is slowly making the changeover from American proprietary software to Linux but the population will be slow to follow suit.
However, when they do, it will be a world changer.
No longer will we read reports of desktop and tablet use such as Microsoft 91.53% and Linux 1.41% see:
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qpcustomd=0
but I would hope to see Linux as a major global desktop force in the next decade, as China sets an example to Asia and the third world.
Remember that China has nearly 20% of the world population, India has over 17% and The USA only 4.5%.
9 • Again on the Ubuntu ./. ownCloud Issue (by Pierre on 2014-11-03 13:05:35 GMT from Germany)
Statement provided by the ownCloud Project:
http://owncloud.org/blog/linux-distributions-and-open-source-projects/
10 • Package versions (by Jesse on 2014-11-03 13:42:23 GMT from Canada)
A few people asked why my package versions are out of date (especially the Arch kernel). This is because the article you are seeing posted here today was written last week, following an upgrade I did the previous weekend. There is a time lag of about ten days between when I run the upgrades and when the article talking about my experiences appears. For obvious reasons I'm not doing the upgrade and writting the column the night before DWW gets published.
The version numbers you see in the Rolling Release articles are a snapshot in time from about ten days ago. No packages are being held back on any of my test OSes.
11 • OwnCloud major version incompatibility (by Dale Visser on 2014-11-03 13:47:18 GMT from United States)
> A second thing I noticed, when I tried to rollback my ownCloud installation, is that major
> versions are not backward compatible. For example, trying to run ownCloud 7 with a copy
> of my ownCloud 6 database/configuration did not work.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. Assuming they are using standard SemVer-based version numbering. From the http://semver.org/ summary:
> Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:
>
> MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes,
12 • 10 • Package versions (by Jesse) (by Pierre on 2014-11-03 14:07:25 GMT from Germany)
> The version numbers you see in the Rolling Release articles are a snapshot in time from about ten days ago.
This explains the older version numbers.
Maybe could mention in your next update about your rolling release tests an which date you made these upgrades to make that a little more transparent.
13 • Why is SEANux even on the waiting list? (by GJones on 2014-11-03 14:43:59 GMT from United States)
Seriously? The Syrian Electronic Army is a bunch of unabashed blackhats, working in support of a criminal regime that has murdered tens of thousands of people. They, their Linux distribution, and anything associated with them should not be given the slightest hint of legitimacy.
14 • openSUSE Factory (by ferri on 2014-11-03 14:45:53 GMT from Slovakia)
Actual coorect state:
kernel 3.17.1
KDE 4.14.2
LibreOffice 4.3.2.2.0
Firefox 33.0
15 • Elive (by linuxista on 2014-11-03 15:29:35 GMT from United States)
Thanks for addressing Elive, Jesse. From some of the comments of disillusioned Elive users, it seems the payment gotcha comes AFTER the installation to the hdd is complete in order to get some basic productivity software. If this is the case, at such a point there is already a certain amount of commitment on the part of the user having erased their hdd and completed the installation. This is the part that seems deceptive and somewhat extortionist. I can't think of any reason not to disclose the commercial aspect of the distro on the front page of the website, especially since users/devs such as @4 seem so proud of the commercial aspect. I guess the rest of us entitled linux users and contributors will just have to settle for the dumbed-down swill of the non-commercial linux ecosystem.
16 • eLive "Pay or not to pay"? (by Larry Apakian, iXi on 2014-11-03 16:35:42 GMT from United States)
Yes, I agree with most users concerning eLive and it's down right sneaky approach to selling eLive even though on first glance you would get the impression it is freely available. I find it somewhat manipulative as well since you don't find out about paying until your hard drive has already been formatted for the new OS. Furthermore, it's in beta cycle right now, why do you have to pay for beta software to install it. Who knows if it actually works to anyone's satisfaction for that matter! It's not even a bug-free full product if I understand beta correctly. I'm surprised the key file downloaded when you pay their asking price hasn't been hacked so it been freely installed for everyone to check out first and if you like it and it's stable then you should have the option whether to pay or not! The reviewer really didn't cover many aspects of eLive when he/she should have.
17 • Elive (by More Gee on 2014-11-03 16:49:56 GMT from United States)
I had a similar thing happen to Robolinux, I bought the VM for a donation and did an update and wanted me to redonate to access my VM.
18 • Ubuntu 14.10 (by More Gee on 2014-11-03 17:05:02 GMT from United States)
Any word on Ubuntu studio 14.10?
Also, Symantec is currently broken at the moment for Artist-x since the new release because it is supposed to roll.
19 • Rolling releases and systemd commentary (by Jesse on 2014-11-03 21:17:03 GMT from Canada)
@12: Pierre, I am all for transparent. In fact, I go one better. Every week, as I mentioned in earlier columns regarding rolling releases, I live tweet (@blowingupbits) the rolling release upgrades as they happen. You can not only see when an OS is upgraded, but how the upgrade went, and people can ask questions while the upgrades are happening.
This week I had some extra commentary on systemd and Debian which I felt was too personal/colourful for DWW. I placed that extra commentary on my website, in case anyone wants to read it. Fair warning, it is subjective and full of bias. http://blowingupbits.com/2014/11/thoughts-systemd-freedom-choose/
20 • @19 - systemd commentary (by Paraquat on 2014-11-03 23:19:58 GMT from Taiwan)
Your commentary on systemd is spot on, I couldn't agree more. Everyone with an interest in Linux should read this.
21 • @19 systemd and Debian (by ButtHurt on 2014-11-04 00:30:41 GMT from United States)
Jesse, excellent commentary posting. I agree more freedom and choice, not less. Real common sense, in regards to open source software. :)
22 • The *BSDs and systemd (by cykodrone on 2014-11-04 04:56:23 GMT from Canada)
Or virusd as I like to call it, anyway, the *BSDs aren't bending over backwards to adopt it. I was a die-hard Deb-head, not anymore, I'm wiping my old machine as we speak to do my PC-BSD learning on it before I put it on my main machine, that way I know what to expect. I feel betrayed, like finding out my gf has been sleeping with my best bud, or bro even.
Truth be told, it's not a bad technology, it just has had bad PR and it's trying to be too much too soon, I think the perfect balance would be the community maintained uselessd, that way Poett-hats won't be dictating to us.
23 • linux-base-api? (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2014-11-04 05:59:37 GMT from United States)
Isn't the RH/Gnome/system+68d's-project simply a (hardware?/enterprise?) 'vendor' initiative to "reduce the testing-matrix for all use-cases, establish a full (vendor?)trust-chain, standardize installation on servers, embedded systems, multiple desktops and/or thin-clients ... and unify app market platforms"? Who could possibly argue against such virtuous purposes? Why, we could finally see the resolution of dependency-hell!
Surely it's more cost-effective to co-opt other (competing) distros' infrastructure than focus on your own? And outsource the debugging burden? Surely that's a fair trade for such a grand vision?
In Unity there is strength ... efficiencies of scale ... meaningful standards ... convergence (via btrfs-subvolume-deltas toward ZeroInstall?) ...
(Did I miss any marketing buzzies?)
24 • "SEANux" -- What the hell? (by eco2geek on 2014-11-04 09:18:49 GMT from United States)
From the "distros added to the waiting list" section above:
"SEANux is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with a modified GNOME Shell interface. It ships with penetration testing tools and software developed by the Syrian Electronic Army."
From Wikipedia:
"The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), is a group of computer hackers supervised by the Syrian Assad regime. Using spamming, defacement, malware (including the Blackworm tool), phishing, and denial of service attacks, it mainly targets political opposition groups and western websites including news organizations and human rights groups. The Syrian Electronic Army claims to be "a group of enthusiastic Syrian youths who could not stay passive towards the massive distortion of facts about the recent uprising in Syria", however the SEA is believed by experts to be "a state-supervised operation"[4] that is linked to the Assad regime. The SEA is thought to be the first public, virtual army in the Arab world to openly launch cyber attacks on its opponents."
Lovely. A Linux distro sponsored by and in support of a state that's killed tens of thousands of its own citizens. I'd say something snarky about it -- "And now you can use it, too!" or "Of course it runs GNOME shell!" -- but the thought that a Linux distro that's being used in the Assad regime's war against its own citizens is being offered for public consumption is not even remotely funny.
25 • OneMan'sTerroris (by linuxista on 2014-11-04 16:20:36 GMT from United States)
These linux distros/programs are also sponsored by states that have killed massive numbers of their own citizens or millions of other people around the world for the purposes of "regime change." Turkey, for example, appears to be responsible for the sarin gas attack against the Syrian population last year. So lets lay off the politics and quit the enemy of the week demonization in the western media.
Outside of the U.S., there are several "national" Linux distributions. These include China's Red Flag Linux; Turkey's Pardus, and the Philippines' Bayahnian. Other countries, like Russia, are on their way to moving their entire IT infrastructure to Linux and open-source software. In the U.S., the government, especially the military, makes use of Linux all the time. Indeed, Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), the most popular software set for hardening Linux against Linux is sponsored by the National Security Agency. But, there hasn't been a national American Linux desktop distribution... until now.
The Software Protection Initiative (SPI) under the direction of the Air Force Research Laboratory and the US Department Of Defense recently created Lightweight Portable Security (LPS). Like the name indicates, this is a small Linux desktop distribution that's designed for secure use.
26 • Elive (by kilgoretrout on 2014-11-04 17:02:41 GMT from United States)
I have no problem with Elive charging whatever they wish for their product. I do not suffer from some false sense of entitlement regarding open source software, nor do I believe most readers of DW have any such entitlement issues. Raising this as an issue is little more than an inflammatory straw man meant to divert attention from Elive's dubious business practices.
The obvious fact remains that virtually all linux distos are not only freely downloadable but also freely installable. Elive trades on these reasonable expectations to get potential users to download and install their distro without disclosing the true nature of their product anywhere on their website. Then if you want to use their distro they demand a $15 fee. This is a grossly deceptive business practice, plain and simple. Why anyone would even attempt to defend it is beyond me.
27 • A correction is in order. (by salparadise on 2014-11-04 17:09:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
I don't like such issues being raised on a Linux site, however, untruths are being spread and must be addressed.
The Syrian Government has NOT killed tens of thousands of its own citizens. The US backed "rebels" have killed many and have used, more than once, chemical weapons against civilians. So, before you bring politics into Linux - get your facts straight. (Hint - you will not find anything like the truth about this issue anywhere in the main stream media).
28 • Re: SEANux (by GJones on 2014-11-04 18:11:56 GMT from United States)
Don't cop that moral relativism crap, please. And by the way, if you have me figured for a wingnut, you're entirely wrong.
Yes, the US has committed its share of atrocities. Hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq, millions dead or enslaved as a result of the conflict mineral trade (which is part of why computers are so cheap now), ad infinitum. If you wanted to you could call most US civilians complicit for paying taxes that go into such things, and you'd be more or less right. If you think that makes what the SEA is doing perfectly okay, you're deluding yourself.
@salparadise: where do you get your info on this, pray tell?
29 • Re: "SEANux" comments (by eco2geek on 2014-11-04 18:18:10 GMT from United States)
> The Syrian Government has NOT killed tens of thousands of its own citizens.
Yes, they have. Full stop. Those would be facts. Here:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/22/world/meast/syria-conflict/index.html?hpt=imi_c2
Now would I believe you, or the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights?
> These linux distros/programs are also sponsored by states that have killed
> massive numbers of their own citizens or millions of other people around the
> world for the purposes of "regime change."
And that somehow excuses the Syrian government, how, exactly?
30 • SEANux (by linuxista on 2014-11-04 19:52:35 GMT from United States)
The point is hypocrisy. Even putting aside disagreements about who in Syria is a terrorist and who is, in fact, fighting the terrorists, if you are going to denounce the SEAN distro then you ought to denounce all of them with dark sponsorship. How many projects get DARPA funding? Tor does, and SELinux is tied to the NSA. Venezuela (another government demonized in the western media) has a distro, as does/did/will North Korea, Russia, China, Turkey. NATO member fading colonial and neo-colonial empires tend to give themselves a pass on past and current atrocities, which are too numerous and horrific to list. So, let's move this discussion to some political site and focus on tech here at Distrowatch.
31 • Re: SEANux (by GJones on 2014-11-04 20:36:36 GMT from United States)
@linuxista, you have a point in that all nation-states are criminal when you get down to it. But I feel there's a difference between a Linux distro that is maintained or funded by a criminal nation-state; and one maintained by an organization whose purpose is to aid and abet war crimes, for the specific purpose of making it easier to aid and abet war crimes.
IDK, maybe I'm putting too much weight on intent, but I do think it matters in this case.
32 • @30 - More about SEANux (by eco2geek on 2014-11-04 21:36:17 GMT from United States)
@linuxista, you're certainly doing a good job at changing the topic away from Syria.
> So, let's move this discussion to some political site and focus on tech here at
> Distrowatch.
It is about tech - tech made and used explicitly to support Syria's government, and its mass killing of civilians. Unlike the creators of all those other distros, the SEA seems to be pretty focused on only one thing.
Mr. Bodnar is, of course, welcome to put whatever distros he wants into his databases, but I'd like to register that this one's really offensive.
33 • No politics (by Barnabyh on 2014-11-04 21:40:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
Please guys, none of us will ever know the truth of what exactly happened in a particular scenario. 'Facts' can be bent either way and their interpretation appeals to people's pre-disposed inclinations. Everybody believes what they want to.
So let's keep the politics out of it and stick to our hobby - or livelihood for some. Have fun with Linux and BSD.
34 • SEANux (by Scrummy on 2014-11-04 21:41:26 GMT from Nicaragua)
Its Interesting that citizensof the leaders of World Morality, are the only people who seem to be complaining.. and seem to be more informed about Syria than any other people on the planet.. in the same way as they knew more than anyone else regarding WMDs in Iraq, and how Govt lies have cost how many Innocent lives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Pakistan and how many weapons did USA send the rebels in Syria to overthrow a legitimate soveriegn govt.. (how would they feel if China funded usa based rebels to over throw usa.) How many of those weapons are now in the hands of ISIS the same rebels who are trying to overthrow Syria......and are using them to attack the usa puppet leaders etc in Iraq..
Does it even matter who is using a Distro intended for hacking as the USA and UK etc are quite happily hacking everyone and for what ends..certainly not to benefit any of us....
let's see some actual proof that anyone involved with any terrorists is actually developing this distro.. or is it just assuption and rumour. or some ficticious hacking name.. for someone who really lives in Kansas..????
35 • SEANux (by linuxista on 2014-11-05 02:43:40 GMT from United States)
@34 Someone from Nicaragua ought to know pretty intimately the degree to which the US has supported terrorist proxy armies and death squads to force "regime change" on small countries. That western nations, and esp. the US and Britain, think they have they have the moral legitimacy to accuse other nations of human rights abuses is exquisitely and supremely ironic. So, again, let's back off the politics and focus on the tech. I'd be interested to know if there's anything interesting on SEANux. Apparently, they pulled off a number of impressive hacks.
36 • Stick to nerd politics (by cykodrone on 2014-11-05 04:20:05 GMT from Canada)
If you want to argue ethnic cleansing and genocide, Twitter would be the place for that.
There's a systemd jihad (don't worry NSA, I'm not a terrorist) going on, didn't ya know? lol
37 • KDE (by Jerry C. on 2014-11-05 10:09:13 GMT from United States)
I just don't get their reasoning behind the "brand" change from KDE to Plasma. I mean, "Plasma," in the commercial electronics world, is just a type of television no one buys anymore......
38 • SEANux (by Jerry C. on 2014-11-05 10:19:20 GMT from United States)
Regardless of whether you believe the Syrian government, the jihadis, or the truth, I don't think I'd run this on ANY computer without a full audit of it, first.
39 • Fan speed control for laptops (by Bill C. on 2014-11-05 12:31:38 GMT from United States)
Yes, I am not a developer but rather a curious and excited user constantly testing different operating systems.
Since I can not modify kernels I am disappointed that most of the OS's I've come to enjoy do not have inherent fan control routines. Consequently, many of my thinkpads overheat when I raise the resolutions or dare play a game.
So, how about making more effort to introduce and make it known that your distro has a good generic fan control routine with an interface to prove it and allow adjustments where possible by the end users.
Thanks to all for what you provide to the communities for free.
PS, why the Hell are you discussing Syria and other non-Linux BS in this forum??????????????????
40 • OpenSuse 13.2 (by jaws222 on 2014-11-05 15:42:46 GMT from United States)
Trying out the new OpenSuse 13.2 and it looks good. One knock I do have against OpenSuse in general is setting up shares similar to how Ubuntu or Debian does it. Does anyone know an easy way?
41 • systemd (by Kazlu on 2014-11-05 16:38:37 GMT from France)
Re #10 Jesse: Very well put. You pointed very rightly a problem that is not related to the technical benefits or drawbacks of systemd, but to how it is coming to the GNU/Linux community. This is also what worries me: I don't mind trying systemd, but if everyone goes for systemd and if systemd appears to be a bad solution in the long term, we will no longer have usable alternatives.
As you also pointed, I am surprised Debian decided to integrate systemd, considering it still evovles a lot. If systemd evolves too much and changes its APIs too often, supporting older versions for the lifetime of a Debian (and even worse, for a lifetime of an Ubuntu LTS!) seems complicated. Once systemd has reached maturity and some stability (I mean "stability" as in "less frequent evolutions", not as in "less crashes"), then it would seem more reasonable to consider a switch to it. For that reason, I plan on staying on Debian Wheezy when Jessie comes out and, if I have to, going back to Xubuntu or Linux Mint 5 year supported LTS versions with Upstart, or trying Salix. I will try systemd on some machines maybe, but not on my main one any time soon.
@19 cykodrone: "Truth be told, it's not a bad technology, it just has had bad PR and it's trying to be too much too soon, I think the perfect balance would be the community maintained uselessd, that way Poett-hats won't be dictating to us."
I second that. Although
42 • Elive (by Roy Reese on 2014-11-05 17:17:50 GMT from Spain)
I have to agree that "entitlement mentality" is a strawman in the case of Elive and add to the above what I consider a true deception: by prominently showing "We need mirrors!" and have an elaborate donations page, the financing looks completely voluntary. I also question counting the "Suggestions" setion of the forum as a reasonable mention given that I download from the site itself, not the forum!
Beyond that, sadly, Elive is shooting itself in the foot. By hiding the fee it risks exactly what seems to be happening: ticking people off -- and doing so when it has not had a stable release in four (4) years! Even though I do sometimes ask myself why, I am a fan, as well as a user, of Enlightenment -- and there are very few distributions that offer it as an option, let alone being devoted to it (none at present in the latter category other than Bodhi and Elive as far as I know). Given that, Elive has a really good opportunity to sell itself as a specialty distribution and note that it survives, in part, by charging for installs. There are ways to make the case compelling.
Putting the modest charge up front and explaining its importance will allow those who would not consider paying under any circumstances to move on. Those who really know the value of alternatives to overpriced commercial products and like the distro after trying it will be only too willing to pay. By not being upfront, some portion of those who might otherwise pony up the money will simply walk away in disgust.
I'll sign off with one last thought: How can we consider a hidden term of use (essentially what the charge amounts to) consistent with being "open?"
43 • Elive (by Microlinux on 2014-11-05 18:20:22 GMT from France)
I gave Elive a spin recently on one of my computers. The live CD started, I fiddled around with Enlightenment and decided to fire up the installer. I formatted the disk, and THEN I was asked to pay. I thought "what the heck?!?". And yes, the developers should be upfront with this. Should have been. Whatever. I don't want to test their product, since they've simply lost my trust.
44 • comments on feature story (by ken on 2014-11-06 17:32:05 GMT from )
Very few comments on the feature story, Ubuntu 14.10. Does this mean less interest among readers of DW on what is happening in Ubuntu?
45 • Ubuntu 14.10 (by linuxista on 2014-11-06 19:58:58 GMT from United States)
Since there is so little new in this release, I wonder if a much higher percentage than normal will stay with the LTS. Dedoimedo gave Utopic a terrible review (basically very buggy vs. Tahr).
46 • Dedoimedo non-review (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-11-06 22:18:13 GMT from United States)
Hard to review when the screenshot function is broken (and temper's short)? Instead of fallback to low-tech, this one frustration essentially prevented a review. Only one other "bug" (a local-mirror issue) was noted.
Notably it has a link to a separate page about test equipment - which seems sadly short on specs, and shows no log of changes.
Jesse's review, OnTheOtherHand, is informative and complete.
47 • Plasma (by Whitespiral on 2014-11-07 03:36:50 GMT from Mexico)
@37:
" I mean, "Plasma," in the commercial electronics world, is just a type of television no one buys anymore......"
A plasma weapon is also something you want to have with you, when facing evil aliens in some popular computer games... I love the word Plasma.
48 • distro search tool suggestion (by cykodrone on 2014-11-07 06:48:30 GMT from Canada)
Dear DW, it may be time to implement a new distro search option choice:
'Not using package' -drop down list-
*cough* systemd *cough*
;-)
49 • systemd-journald (by zykoda on 2014-11-07 07:26:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
Fedora 20 updates have eventually revealed what is a point of Failure. 50+% CPU load and 700K/s disk writes can be considered a race condition, making the whole system basically unusable. Can anyone point to a cure for this? The deamon restarts if stopped.
50 • Questionable Origins (by M.Z. on 2014-11-07 09:52:17 GMT from United States)
I certainly won't be using anything made by the Syrian Government for a variety of reasons; however, similar projects with questionable origins have been tracked on distrowatch before. Just look at Red Flag Linux developed in part by a branch of the dictatorial government in communist China:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=redflag
I suppose it's a risk in protecting the freedom of users that you'll end up with shady characters using your software while not caring at all about the rights that open licenses like the GPL were meant to protect. From what I remember that RMS guy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who created the GPL has always linked free/libre software with free speech. I think both free speech & free/libre software have a similar weakness, which is to say that free speech can be used by fascists who don't respect the freedoms of others & who actively seek to take freedoms away from others. It is much the same with free software, which despite the best intentions of many developers can be repurposed for use by regimes that seek to control, oppress, & even murder large numbers of their citizens. I think abuse of freedoms in both the realm of free speech and free/libre software are prices that you pay in an open society or an open source world.
51 • AV Linux 6.0.4 (by Harry on 2014-11-07 17:26:31 GMT from United States)
Downloaded AV Linux ,ran it on an MSI military class mobo, AMD 8120 8 core processor, 8 gig DDR3, one gig Nvidia card, and it worked great. Tried to run it on another box using the same mobe, AMD 8350 8 core processor, 16 gig DDR3, two gig Nvidia card and it would hang up at the same spot. Really wanted to install it on this box. Any suggestions?
52 • SEANux (by linuxista on 2014-11-07 21:28:26 GMT from United States)
I hope after all of this political demonization Jesse has the fortitude to review SEANux purely on the basis of tech to see what the distro's about.
53 • SEANux (by Glenn on 2014-11-08 19:35:29 GMT from United States)
I would add my support to others here who have commented regarding SEANux and respectfully ask it NOT be included.
54 • Just hope it goes away? (by M.Z. on 2014-11-08 21:03:01 GMT from United States)
Well so far SEANux is only on the waiting list & not even officially tracked here at Distrowatch, and some things never get off the waiting list. That being said I wonder if ignoring the issue isn't counter productive in the long run. I certainly agree with #53/Glenn that the project is very disagreeable & will be used to do bad things; however, to try & keep these sorts of projects off the waiting list would be to ignore the down side of free & open software.
Giving away source code as a right has the same problem as free speech rights, which is to say the very bad people will do bad things with that right & we should all remember that fact. I have the same basic attitude as the Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who defended the protest/ free speech rights of neo Nazis in court - they are horrible but they still have rights under the constitution (or GPL as the case may be). We should denounce the project & perhaps it should not be tracked; however, we should also remember that free software can be used for bad & we shouldn't ignore that fact by not acknowledging the existence of bad projects like SEANux. I happy with the fact that it was noticed & denounced by many of the readers here on Distrowatch, & we should remember that despite the best intentions of the developers of free & open software some of it is used for bad purposes.
55 • Elive cost (by browed koffee on 2014-11-10 02:43:41 GMT from Australia)
You could look at it this way. An OS allows you to use your own computer to access the Internet. You can send and receive emails to talk with all your peeps all over the world for free (and even talk to some hackers if they choose to intercept your messages). This saves a lot of money per year in postage costs - and speeds up collaborations compared to snail mail. An OS also allows you to produce work that you can earn money from. So it's reasonable for devs to charge a fee for an OS. Elive just uses Enlightenment to add a bit of extra bling to your otherwise mundane work and dreary emails (which even the toughest hacker would probably soon regret intercepting).
Number of Comments: 55
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