 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 595, 2 February 2015 |
Welcome to this year's 5th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The leaders of open source projects have the ability to shape the experiences of the community. A good leader faces challenges and rises to meet them, understands what the users need and finds solutions for them. A good leader will keep a project active and on track. This week, in our News section, we turn our attention to projects going through trials and leadership changes. First we talk about Jeff Hoogland's return to the Bodhi project and learn what he is working on. We also cover last week's openSUSE Board election and welcome the restoration of Frugalware's website. Plus we link to an explanation of UNIX file system layouts, exploring what goes where. Our Feature this week talks about the ExTiX distribution, an Ubuntu spin that replaces Unity with the GNOME Shell desktop. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss protecting private data from prying eyes and then we share the torrents we are seeding this week. Plus, we received market statistics from OSDisc.com and we share those with you, below. As usual, we bring you the distribution releases of the past week and look ahead to fun, new developments to come. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading.
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
First impressions of ExTiX 15.1 GNOME edition
ExTiX is a distribution based on Ubuntu with GNOME Shell as the default desktop environment. Browsing through the project's README file we find notes regarding the distribution's most recent release. ExTiX 15.1, we learn, is based on Ubuntu 14.10 and the version of the GNOME desktop shipping with this release is 3.14. ExTiX provides users with version 3.16 of the Linux kernel and Google's Chrome web browser is installed by default. The availability of Chrome is significant as people are able to watch Netflix videos using the Chrome browser. ExTiX also ships with the BlueGriffon web page editor. The main edition of ExTiX is available as a 925MB download and there is a Razor-Qt edition available which is 1.5GB in size. Both editions are built for the 64-bit x86 architecture.
Booting from the ExTiX media brings up a boot menu where we are given the choice of loading the project's live desktop environment, making use of persistent (USB) media while running a live desktop or running the live desktop entirely from RAM. We can also run a memory test from the boot menu. Loading the project's live desktop brings up GNOME Shell. The desktop is mostly empty with a dark green and black background. The GNOME Activities menu and system tray are placed at the top of the display. Looking through the Activities menu I found the project's system installer.
ExTiX 15.1 -- Visiting the Netflix website in Chrome
(full image size: 776kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The ExTiX system installer is inherited from Ubuntu and is, for all practical purposes, identical to Ubuntu's installer. We are asked to select our preferred language and given the chance to view on-line release notes. We are asked whether we wish to install multimedia support during the initial configuration and then we proceed to partitioning the hard drive. ExTiX offers automated partitioning or we can manually divide up the hard drive. I tried both approaches and found both automated and manual partitioning worked well. I like how easy the manual partitioning screen is to use. The installer supports a range of file systems, including ext2/3/4, JFS, XFS and Btrfs. We can also select a location for our boot loader from the partitioning screen. From there we select our time zone from a map of the world, confirm our keyboard's layout and then create a user account for ourselves. When the installer finishes copying its files to our drive we are asked to reboot the computer.
Booting our new copy of ExTiX brings up a graphical login screen. From here we can sign into our account using either a GNOME Shell session or an Openbox session. I experimented briefly with Openbox and found ExTiX provides just a bare bones Openbox environment. There are no additional programs or controls available, just a blank Openbox environment. We can right-click on the screen to bring up a menu allowing us to logout, open a web browser or launch a virtual terminal. This makes the Openbox environment a usable fallback option in case something breaks our GNOME desktop environment, but ExTiX obviously doesn't expect us to spend much time using the Openbox session. I was a little sorry to see there isn't any GNOME Classic option included in ExTiX. I tend to prefer GNOME's legacy interface over the GNOME Shell interface, but that's a matter of preference.
ExTiX 15.1 -- The GNOME settings panel
(full image size: 102kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Usually when I run a distribution in a virtual machine the operating system sets its screen resolution to a medium level (typically 1024x768) while I am running a live environment. Post-installation, some distributions detect they are running inside VirtualBox and offer better display resolutions. Other distributions need VirtualBox guest add-ons to be installed manually before they will offer improved screen resolutions. ExTiX was unusual in that, post-installation, my screen resolution degraded, dropping from 1024x768 to 640x480. As modern desktops are not designed to work at this resolution, this effectively broke GNOME Shell. I installed VirtualBox guest additions as usual and, upon a reboot of the virtual environment, I was no longer able to login to GNOME Shell. I could log into the Openbox session (with improved display resolution), but any attempt to access GNOME resulted in the operating system locking up and I had to perform a hard reboot. With some further experimenting I found I could install the LXDE graphical interface from the project's repositories and this served well enough for the remainder of my VirtualBox/ExTiX trial.
When running ExTiX on physical hardware I found GNOME Shell worked well and my screen was set to its maximum resolution automatically. GNOME Shell was actually quite responsive on my physical hardware and performed faster than GNOME usually does on my computer. In both physical and virtual environments I found ExTiX was slow to start-up, but the distribution performed well once the boot process was finished. The distribution required about 490MB of memory to run GNOME Shell (on physical hardware) and approximately 230MB to run LXDE in the virtual environment.
The distribution ships with a small collection of software which includes the Chrome web browser, the Firefox web browser, the Transmission bittorrent client and the Pidgin instant messaging software. The AbiWord and Gnumeric productivity applications are installed by default, as is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. ExTiX ships with an image viewer, the Gucvview web cam utility, the Xfburn disc burning software and the mtPaint drawing application. The distribution includes an archive manager, a calculator and the Leafpad text editor. We also find the BlueGriffon web page editor in the Activities menu. At install time we have the option of installing popular media codecs and Flash. In the background we find the Linux kernel, version 3.16.
Software management on ExTiX is handled by the Synaptic package manager. Synaptic presents us with a simple interface where available packages are listed in alphabetical order. Synaptic allows us to create batches of actions (such as installing, removing or upgrading software) and then it processes these queued actions all at once. Synaptic enables us to search for items by name and we have some filtering options to help us find the software we want. Synaptic may not have the prettiest of interfaces, but the application does perform actions quickly and gives us a lot of progress information while it is working. For the most part ExTiX pulls software from Ubuntu's repositories. The distribution does feature a few custom repositories that provide updates to the Chrome web browser and the GNOME desktop.
ExTiX 15.1 -- The Synaptic package manager
(full image size: 118kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
While playing with ExTiX I ran into a few minor problems, though nothing particularly serious. For instance, I couldn't get the Additional Drivers utility to start. As it turned out, my hardware was detected and used well anyway, but I had hoped to find more up to date video drivers. Another problem I ran into at first made me wonder if I was seeing a problem with the system or with myself. About one in every seven searches I performed on the GNOME Activities screen would come out garbled. For example, if I typed in "synaptic" the Activities search box might show I was searching for "ynasptci" or a search for "office" might yield results for "oficfe". At first I put this down to fat-finger typing, but then I started experimenting more carefully, typing much more slowly and found letters were regularly slowing up in the improper order. This is an interesting bug, one I suspect is connected to the search box gaining/losing focus while I am typing in it, and it is a problem I don't think I have encountered before.
Conclusions
Were I to try to sum up ExTiX with one word I might choose eclectic. The design of ExTiX feels somewhat unfocused. Just as an example, the distribution ships with a modern version of GNOME Shell with all the features turned on and the fallback desktop isn't GNOME Classic, as we often see with other distributions, but rather a blank Openbox environment. Likewise, we have two of the most popular web browsers (Firefox and Chrome) available, suggesting ExTiX is targeting average desktop users, people who want Netflix to "just work", for example. But then we are treated to AbiWord and Gnumeric, rather than the more popular LibreOffice productivity software. ExTiX ships with Synaptic, a venerable package manager, rather than the more modern Ubuntu Software Centre, but one of ExTiX's talking points is the project's cutting edge build of GNOME. What I'm trying to say is I'm not sure who ExTiX's target audience is. Some tools are very modern and simple (Chrome), others are more obscure (AbiWord), some are powerful and complex (GIMP) while others are very straight forward to use with minimal features (GNOME MPlayer). ExTiX's style, while unusual to me, certainly is not a bug, but I did have trouble putting my finger on what sort of user ExTiX is trying to attract.
Style choices aside, most of the software included in ExTiX worked well. I did have some trouble early on with running the distribution in a virtual environment, but once I switched to using the LXDE desktop, the distribution ran smoothly in VirtualBox. ExTiX performed well on physical hardware and I found GNOME to be quite snappy when running on my desktop machine. I suspect this distribution will appeal mostly to people who like Ubuntu, but would prefer GNOME Shell over Unity for their default desktop environment.
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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 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Jeff Hoogland's return to Bodhi, openSUSE elects new Board members, Frugalware's website restored and a discussion on file system organization
Last September we reported Jeff Hoogland would be stepping down as the Bodhi project's lead developer. After being away for a few months, Mr Hoogland returned, offering new ISO images. "Just over four months ago I announced that I was stepping down from the active role I had maintained in the Bodhi Linux project since it started a little over four years ago. Today I am happy to share that I am returning in my full capacity as project manager/lead developer and I come bearing gifts!" The announcement includes links to new release candidate images for Bodhi's upcoming 3.0.0 release.
What change in the wind brought Mr Hoogland back to the Bodhi project? In an e-mail conversation with Bodhi's founder he stated, "I opted to step back from the project midway last year when I knew a slew of personal commitments would make it difficult for me to devote proper time to the project. I did not want to simply go silent without letting people know I would be on a break from things. With the new year I have more time for personal projects than I did at the end of 2014 and the folks who had wanted to take the reins of the Bodhi project were still working to get their feet underneath themselves and get a new stable release out. My goals for the first part of 2015 are to both get the stable Bodhi 3.0.0 finally released (in February if we stay on track) and then get better documentation written about the processes that I do so that in the event I ever need to step away again new folks can more easily transition into the work that I do for the project."
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The openSUSE project held an election last week to choose its Board members. "In this election we had 3 seats to be elected, all for a standard 2 year (24 months) term: Robert Schweikert and Kosta Koudaras' terms were coming to expiration. Peter Linnell's seat was up for election as he got appointed in the board as a replacement for Richard Brown." The voting has concluded and the results were posted to openSUSE's Announce mailing list.
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Last month some of our readers may have noticed the Frugalware website was off-line and some questioned whether the project was still active. The good news for Frugalware fans is the distribution's website was on a server that crashed, but the project's website has been restored. "We had a server failure on our main server, but we were able to restore the server to working order. This process took around three weeks as we do not have speedy access to where it is physically located. We have since recovered."
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People who are first introduced to Linux and BSD operating systems often struggle with the layout of the file system. On UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems the directory names tend to be short and, to the uninitiated, cryptic. What, many people wonder, is the difference between the /bin directory and /sbin? What is the point of having /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin? There are three main factors in deciding where programs are kept on a UNIX file system: whether the program is statically or dynamically linked, whether the program is a system administration tool and whether the program is a part of the base operating system or an add-on. This Reddit post has a more complete explanation on how Linux and BSD file systems are organized.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Destroying encrypted data
Leaving-no-trace asks: I want to find a method for erasing my hard drive or an encrypted partition if the wrong password is entered a certain number of times. While I use a complex password I'd prefer the drive be erased if accessed by an unauthorized party.
DistroWatch answers: Wiping the hard drive in response to entering the wrong password is one of those ideas that sounds good on television, but is not particularly practical in real life. When dealing with real life threats, you are likely to face one of two scenarios.
First, you face the possibility the person trying to break into your files is an amateur and unlikely to have the means to either guess your complex password or the ability to break the encryption on your hard drive. In this scenario there is not much of a threat and, so long as your change your password on a regular basis, you don't gain anything by destroying your data. With complex passwords, it will likely take far too long for someone to brute force their way into your data. It just is not practical from their perspective.
In the second scenario you have a professional trying to break into your system. If this happens, the professional will be working from a binary copy of your hard drive and they will be able to brute force the copy (or copies). This means they will not be working with your original drive and so your original disk will never get wiped. Further, it won't matter if the copy gets destroyed, because an endless supply of copies can be cloned. Furthermore, it takes time to wipe a hard disk. If a professional thinks they have accidentally triggered a disk wipe they are likely to pull the plug long before the majority of the data on the drive has been erased.
With all that said, there are ways to wipe a disk if the right actions are not taken. An easy way to do this is to set up a dummy user name and password. Logging into the dummy account launches a script that overwrites the local drive with random data. (Of course, this is not an easy thing to test without putting your data in danger.) A more practical approach is to use hidden volumes. These are encrypted directories that live inside encrypted (or password protected) partitions. Think of having an invisible box hidden inside a locked box. The idea is that someone might gain the password to open the first box, but they might not notice the second box hiding inside. The Ubuntu documentation has a page explaining the concept.
Keep in mind that if you plan to experiment with encryption and/or wiping your hard drive, you should keep backups of your data. After all, for most people, hard drive failure or accidental deletion are more likely to occur than having someone try to brute force their way into our encrypted files.
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
Bittorrent is a great way to transfer large files, particularly open source operating system images, from one place to another. Most bittorrent clients recover from dropped connections automatically, check the integrity of files and can re-download corrupted bits of data without starting a download over from scratch. These characteristics make bittorrent well suited for distributing open source operating systems, particularly to regions where Internet connections are slow or unstable.
Many Linux and BSD projects offer bittorrent as a download option, partly for the reasons listed above and partly because bittorrent's peer-to-peer nature takes some of the strain off the project's servers. However, some projects do not offer bittorrent as a download option. There can be several reasons for excluding bittorrent as an option. Some projects do not have enough time or volunteers, some may be restricted by their web host provider's terms of service. Whatever the reason, the lack of a bittorrent option puts more strain on a distribution's bandwidth and may prevent some people from downloading their preferred open source operating system.
With this in mind, DistroWatch plans to give back to the open source community by hosting and seeding bittorrent files for distributions that do not offer a bittorrent option themselves. This is a feature we are experimenting with and we are open to feedback on how to improve upon the idea.
For now, we are hosting a small number of distribution torrents, listed below. The list of torrents offered will be updated each week and we invite readers to e-mail us with suggestions as to which distributions we should be hosting. When you message us, please place the word "Torrent" in the subject line and please make sure the project you are recommending does not already host its own torrents. We want to primarily help distributions and users who do not already have a torrent option. To help us maintain and grow this free service, please consider making a donation.
The table below provides a list of torrents we currently host. If you do not currently have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found here. All torrents we make available here will also be listed on the very useful Linux Tracker website. Thanks to Linux Tracker we are able to share the following torrent statistics.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 14
- Total downloads completed: 1434
- Total data uploaded: 555GB
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| Statistics |
OSDisc.com sales in 2013 and 2014
Measuring the popularity of Linux distribution is not an easy task. While some data, such as our Page Hit Ranking (PHR) statistics, Google trends, online polls and download counts can give some indications as to what many users of free operating systems prefer, each of these data sets has its flaws and a larger than acceptable margin of error. To add to the mix of available statistics, here is another piece of information, this time from OSDisc.com. OSDisc.com is a popular online store selling CDs, DVDs and USB storage media with free operating systems. The site owners were kind enough to compile their sales data for the past two years and these are summarized below. The third column of each table represents the percentage of each distribution's share of the total number of sales made by OSDisc.com for the specified period.
Along with the distribution share data OSDisc.com kindly provided, they also offered this bit of significant information:
"Sales increased by nearly 50% last year, so the stats look a bit odd. Linux Mint grew by 2.5 times. It grew so much faster than the others that many of the projects have a lower market share even though they grew in absolute numbers. Ubuntu [sales], for example, increased by 30% last year, but its market share decreased from 15.8% in 2013 to 15% in 2014."
Apart from Linux Mint taking the top spot from Ubuntu, there were a few other interesting changes. For example, this past year we can see Slackware, SimplyMEPIS, and Scientific Linux dropping off the list to be replaced by Manjaro, Linux Lite and LXLE. These newcomers to the list may suggest an increased interest in novice friendly, lightweight Linux distributions.
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| Released Last Week |
GParted Live 0.21.0-1
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of a new stable version of GParted Live, a Debian-based live CD featuring a range of software for disk partitioning and data rescue tasks: "The GParted team is proud to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This live image contains GParted 0.21.0 which fixes an off-by-one sector error in GParted's internal block copy algorithm, and removes unnecessary duplicate actions when resizing a partition. Items of note include: based on the Debian's 'Sid' repository as of 2015-01-27; replaced i486 live image with i586; increased minimum requirements to 256 MB of RAM. This release of GParted Live has been successfully tested on VirtualBox, VMware, BIOS, UEFI, and physical computers with AMD/ATI, NVIDIA, and Intel graphics." Here is the brief release announcement.
BackBox Linux 4.1
Raffaele Forte has announced the release of BackBox Linux 4.1, an updated build of the Ubuntu LTS-based distribution designed for penetration testing and forensic analysis tasks: "The BackBox Team is pleased to announce the updated release of BackBox Linux, the version 4.1. This release includes features such as Linux kernel 3.13, EFI mode, anonymous mode, LVM + disk encryption installer, privacy additions and armhf Debian packages. What's new: new Ubuntu 14.04.1 base; handy Thunar custom actions; RAM wipe at shutdown and reboot; system improvements; upstream components; bug corrections; performance boost; improved anonymous mode; predisposition to ARM architecture (armhf Debian packages); predisposition to BackBox Cloud platform; new and updated hacking tools." See the release announcement for system requirements and upgrade instructions.
BackBox 4.1 -- Default desktop environment
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
SolydXK 201501
Arjen Balfoort has announced the release of SolydXK 201501, an updated set of the project's Debian-based Linux distributions offering a choice of Xfce (SolydX) or KDE (SolydK) desktops: "The team has been toiling night and day to make the transition to Debian 'Jessie' and Debian 'Wheezy' as smooth as possible for you. Everything is ready and you should now be able to upgrade. With this transition come new ISOs and what better way to celebrate this new start than with a nice 'nip 'n tuck'? For both SolydX and SolydK the themes have changed. SolydK comes with the QtCurve theme, SolydX with Greybird and both use the fabulous Evolvere icon theme. After the installation you will be presented with a complete new welcome screen and most SolydXK tools were updated as well. We hope you're going to like this new version." See the release announcement for further information and links to upgrade instructions.
Black Lab Linux 6.0 SR3
The Black Lab Linux project has announced an update to the distribution's Professional Desktop edition. "Today we are pleased to announce the release of Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 Service Release 3 or SR3. Black Lab Pro Desktop 6.0 SR3 is a major upgrade to our pro desktop line of distributions. With this release we worked on a few issues with memory consumption, security and speed. With the Black Lab Pro Desktop we deliver it in two different desktops, KDE and GNOME Shell . While these are commercial releases we do offer a cut down version of it available for download from our website. While we do not release for download all of the features of the retail release it is far from being crippled. The KDE release boots only consuming 480MB of RAM and the GNOME Shell release boots using only 545MB of RAM." See the release announcement for full details and a screenshot.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Distributions added to the database
Evolve OS
Evolve OS is a Linux distribution built from scratch. It uses a forked version of the PiSi package manager, maintained as "eopkg" within Evolve OS, and a custom desktop environment called "Budgie", developed in-house. The Budgie desktop, which can be set to emulate the look and feel of the GNOME 2 desktop, is tightly integrated with the GNOME stack. The distribution is available for 64-bit computers only.
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Distributions added to waiting list
- AOSC OS. AOSC OS is an independent Linux distribution focusing on adapting new technologies such as systemd. The distribution supports both PKG and RPM package managers.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 9 February 2015. 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)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Frugalware and Bodhi back to active development : great :) (by Frederic Bezies on 2015-02-02 05:49:14 GMT from France)
It is really good to see that Frugalware Linux came back to life. I used this distribution a few years ago. A good archlinux alternative.
Bodhi creator back to its project ? Another good news. Far better than the 1168367th (or so) Ubuntu or debian based project added to waiting list :D
2 • Encrypted hard disks (by hobbitland on 2015-02-02 06:25:45 GMT from United Kingdom)
I put my important files on an encrypted partition on my hard disk. I use cryptsetup to enable 256bit AES and use LUKS key management. I sue 36 character password. My external hard disks are all fully encrypted using cryptsetup as well. Don't use hardware vendors encryption as they probably have back doors.
The encrypted partition is only mounted when needed. This should only be done in a safe environment like your home and not on the road. So if my equipment fails or is stolen I don't need to worry.
Really important files are also GPG encrypted again with 4096bit key protected by a different 36 key pass phrase.
Automatic data deletion if wrong password entered does not work and really risk the data owner being punished by friends playing a joke.
3 • Suggestion Re: Wipe Disk On Failed Auth (by Serge on 2015-02-02 06:44:38 GMT from United States)
How about this idea:
•Run a script that polls log files for failed logins, either through cron or on a loop. Google says there's a /var/log/secure for this, but my system (Debian running systemd) doesn't have that. However, the /var/log/btmp binary file, accessible through the lastb command, does the job.
•Upon having registered whatever number of bad login attempts you want to use as your wipe trigger, the script then proceeds to dd if=/dev/zero the drive. For enhanced security-conscious wiping, instead of dd, you might want to look into tools that zero a drive in a random, non-linear pattern.
4 • Statistics (by bobzr on 2015-02-02 08:18:37 GMT from France)
I don't want to argue but there's something confusing about that first place of Linux Mint, everytime we look at Distrowatch statistics (by the way I love Linux Mint). Anyway, as long as I know, Linux Mint is made of Cinnamon, KDE, MATE and Xfce. Ubuntu is also made of Unity, KDE, Gnome, MATE, Xfce.... However, Linux Mint is treated as a single distribution, while Ubuntu is 'scattered' in the statistics depending on its flavours. Is it fair? IMHO Linux Mint should be treated as Ubuntu, and in that case I'm not sure it would still be first place.
5 • @ 4 (by Gnnnnnnnu on 2015-02-02 08:42:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
The various *buntus are derivatives of Ubuntu, but are not necessarily maintained by Cannonical. Xubuntu for instance, is according to Wikipedia, "a Canonical Ltd.–recognized, community-maintained derivative of the Ubuntu operating system". In that respect, it's correct to regard it as a separate distro.
6 • @4 (by Michele on 2015-02-02 09:14:34 GMT from United States)
Kubuntu is developed and maintained from "Blue System".
The *buntu distro can use only the package (and authorized to use the name by canonical), you can see them as derivat by ubuntu as is mint
7 • Slackware off the charts (by Morten J. Zölde-Fejér on 2015-02-02 09:39:00 GMT from Denmark)
With all due respect to OSDisc, it is good news to me that Slackware is not on the list of top sellers. Sales from the main Slackware store are important for keeping the project funded, so purchases should be made there:
https://store.slackware.com/
8 • Today's DWW Leader (by Sondar on 2015-02-02 09:57:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
Interesting! At times one can become worried in case a dichotomy opens between users and developers/coders, or, indeed, hardware enthusiasts. Whilst there is little doubt about the expansion of our digital economy, individuals have their own interests and proclivities. It's good that all school children in the UK are to be exposed to coding lessons (although I seriously doubt that includes baseline assembler). What about the firmware engineering, not least, embedded coding prevalent in our mobile devices as well as desktops, and, of course, the cpu itself - still x86 for many? At the heart of it all is the hardware, the physics and chemistry of design and manufacture, rapidly incorporating essential elements of biology and biochemistry to keep us all ticking over.
Education truly is at the root of future societies. We need all these, and more, experts to speak willingly and easily to each other. Expose our pupils to the widest range of endeavours -they will choose their preferences. Who rules? Hopefully none. But maybe users win out because we are all such. More market research before releasing OSes to world+dog?!
Interesting to see that the PHR rankings suggest a slide towards "..novice friendly, lightweight .. distributions.", therefore. Ah, yes, - K.I.S.S. inevitably surfaces again. One reason this correspondent won't be using ExTiX and other quirky bloatware. Quirky, itself, excepted...
9 • misc musings (by Reuben on 2015-02-02 10:57:52 GMT from United States)
In the screenshot of chrome, it looks like you're using the gtk theme, which has been broken for around a year. The alternative is the default theme which doesn't mesh with any desktop environment. I much prefer Firefox, which seems to look better in most desktop environments.
Anyways, erasing just the luks header on a encrypted disc should make the rest of the data inaccessible, right?
10 • torrent hosting (by David Wheeler on 2015-02-02 11:20:48 GMT from United States)
I think Distrowatch hosting some bit torrents for distros that do not offer that option is a great idea and a helpful way for DW to give back to the community.
11 • DWW stats (by Dave Postles on 2015-02-02 11:55:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
@4 Haven't we been here before? What has made Linux usable for many of us is the packaging of software applications, so, in a sense, the development of .deb and .rpm (as well as other package maintenance, but especially these two) are the origins of all distros.
12 • DWW stats (by jadecat09 on 2015-02-02 12:27:38 GMT from United Kingdom)
@11
No! Tarballs were the origins of all distro's.
13 • /bin, /sbin/, /usr/bin, ... (by Pearson on 2015-02-02 14:46:45 GMT from United States)
That reddit post was an very readable summary of how BSD distinguishes the differences between the directories. While it's very reasonable, I can see how a non-technical user might be confused; thankfully today the non-technical user is less likely to care.
In general, does Linux use the "statically/dynamically linked" difference as a distinguishing criteria?
14 • @4 (by Ramsey Brenner on 2015-02-02 14:56:59 GMT from United States)
Out of curiosity, I combined the *buntu projects, and the total is 20.45% (19.43% for 2013). If I separate Mint by desktop, Mint Cinnamon has 18.36%, Mint MATE 6.10%; Mint XFCE 1.4%; and Mint KDE 1.25%. So Mint Cinnamon would be #1 even if it were treated like Ubuntu.
15 • /bin vs /usr/bin (by Jesse on 2015-02-02 15:00:25 GMT from Canada)
@13 "In general, does Linux use the "statically/dynamically linked" difference as a distinguishing criteria?"
No, at least not all distributions do. On Linux /bin is typically used for programs the system might need prior to /usr being mounted. Ideally, the executable files probably _should_ be statically linked to avoid missing dependencies, but they usually are not.
If you want to check for yourself, run the command "file /bin/program" where "program" is the name of a file you want to check to find out if it is dynamicaly or statically linked. For example
file /bin/bash
or
file /bin/dd
16 • @15 /bin vs /usr/bin (by Pearson on 2015-02-02 16:26:03 GMT from United States)
Thanks, Jessie. That matches what I thought I had understood. It sounds like the Linux "rules" for the hierarchy are less strict than BSD (IMO, the BSD appear much more well defined, but I'm not a lawyer).
17 • Tarballs as the Origins of All Distros (by Bruce Fowler on 2015-02-02 16:27:04 GMT from United States)
@12 - I always thought it was stacks of floppy disks... :-)
18 • osdisc.com and SolydXK (by cykodrone on 2015-02-02 18:16:03 GMT from Canada)
I've never actually used osdisc.com, but just out of curiosity, how are the actual physical optical disk(s) labelled? For example, a DIY home burning person usually uses a marker. Anybody ever make a purchase from osdisc.com? Another question, does osdisc.com make any kind of financial contribution to the actual distros?
Does anybody have a link to screenshots of SolydXK 201501 default live or install desktops (X & K)? I can never seem to find any, at least not tweaked versions.
19 • Rankings. (by Ulf on 2015-02-02 18:27:37 GMT from Netherlands)
ubuntu = Debian.
mint=Debian.
So DEBIAN= No.1.
Second = Opensuse My No.1.
And thats all there is to it.
Apple is silent,
Windows makes noise,
Bsd plays music,
Linux ROCKS!
20 • origins of a distro. (by Ulf on 2015-02-02 18:37:36 GMT from Netherlands)
Combinations of 0`s &1`s,
forming bits and bytes are the origin of any piece of software.
Far before floppy`s or whatever.
21 • @18 (by Ramsey Brenner on 2015-02-02 19:55:07 GMT from United States)
There are two types of printers we use: a thermal printer (B&W on a silver disk) and a thermal retransfer printer (full CMYK w/ scratch proof top coat). The retransfer printer is a few months old, so most of the projects are still produced on the thermal printer... but eventually they'll all have artwork and will use the retransfer printer. I grabbed a few disks from the machines and snapped a pic with my phone: http://www.osdisc.com/static/tmp/IMG_0538.JPG
Most of the funding we provide to the open source community is through our affiliate program (only open source projects and websites are accepted). It pays up to 40% of the order.. we give tens of thousands back each year to the community through it.
I booted up SolydXK 201501 in virtualbox and took these shots (absolutely no tweaks):
https://www.osdisc.com/static/products/solydxk/solydk-201501.png
https://www.osdisc.com/static/products/solydxk/solydx-201501.png
22 • @3 • Suggestion Re: Wipe Disk On Failed Auth (by Ricardo on 2015-02-02 19:57:17 GMT from Argentina)
Please don't do that! The first script kiddie who tries to login to your box, bye bye your data!
I'd suggest to look for suspicious *successful* logins but that's dangerous too.
Maybe if you're really paranoid (and in these times, that's not a bad thing) set an at job to run the wipe, say, 30 seconds after someone logs in, giving *you* time to remove the at job manually.
But I serously rather use fail2ban or something like that to prevent a brute force login in the first place.
23 • @7 • Slackware off the charts (by Ricardo on 2015-02-02 20:11:00 GMT from Argentina)
While I agree with you (I have a Slackware subscription for a couple of years and I buy a t-shirt from time to time) I believe OSDisc contributes a percentage back to the projects, so it's not so bad.
But I couldn't find anything in their website, so: can anyone confirm if OSDisc does contribute back to the projects?
Thanks.
24 • Frugalware back online (by Ricardo on 2015-02-02 20:12:35 GMT from Argentina)
I'm glad to see Frugalware's website back online, eagerly waiting for the next version of their distribution.
25 • @21 Thank you ever so much... (by cykodrone on 2015-02-02 20:43:20 GMT from Canada)
...for your very thorough and honest reply, thermal or artwork, they still look 100% better than my home burns, lol, and professional looking too, great to give a customer buying a used machine from me, etc, or as an alternative install disk to that other monopoly OS.
Double thanks for the SolydXK screenshots, I was a SolydXK user and donor but went back to Debian briefly because it has 'fakeraid' support, I'll be switching back to PCLinuxOS soon because of systemd creep in Jessie, PCLinuxOS is now my #1 install, recommendation for my customers. Now that I know how nice your disks look, I will most likely be ordering a batch.
26 • great comment on PCLinuxOS (by linuxdog on 2015-02-02 22:03:23 GMT from United States)
First of all I think it is nice you posted about a very often over looked "distro" called PCLinuxOS.
I just burned the latest PClinuxOS x64 to a BD desk using image burn in wine, and I have to say the latest version is very nice. I noted that on playing a music file that my sound was fantastic to hear.
I always start newbies on PClinuxOS as it can run a long time without crashing. I have one friend ran it for 5 years with the same install and no problems.
Furthermore, Crossover Office (you have to pay on this one) works like a charm in PCLinuxOS.
I am running AVLinux v.6.04 as I really like How Glen included the aloop daemon which helps secondary programs. Jack capture also works like a charm and I did make GuitarX work as utilizing the computer as a customizable guitar amp. I am far, far from an expert but I is cool to accomplish tasks.
27 • @26 pclinuxos (by greg on 2015-02-03 11:27:56 GMT from Slovenia)
"I always start newbies on PClinuxOS as it can run a long time without crashing."
perhaps I should really try it out. read about it before. need to check a few more reviews.
Currently we use Kubuntu, but I can not figure out why some games work fine for a while and then crash. so far I came to the following speculation - either drivers for the GPU card are bad (I also know that sound drivers don't work as they should) or the CPU is still overheating (despite cleaning it, applying new thermal paste and adding a case fan). but the overheat doesn't seem to be a factor anymore. granted it does heat up quite a bit, but noting serious. at least it should freeze the whole system. so perhaps one of the drivers is bad. which makes me think if another OS like pclinuxOS would work better.
28 • OSDisc Stats (by Rick on 2015-02-03 18:14:07 GMT from )
It appears that Linux Mint has forged far ahead of Ubuntu in the past year. No wonder. They listen to their users and take suggestions seriously. The same thing has happened on the DW stats for the past 4 years. Mint is riding the wave crest because of its overall vision of producing the best possible distro thanks to Clem and his team!
29 • Linux Mint vs. PCLinuxOS (by ferd on 2015-02-03 18:34:04 GMT from United States)
For me Linux Mint is easier to use than PCLinuxOS. I particularly like the mint image writer and formatter and the fact that Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu/Debian. I look forward also to the latest version of Linux Mint Debian Edition, hopefully not too far away from release.
I am also enjoying the new SolydXK releases, SolydX in my case.
30 • Diagnosis, methodical (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2015-02-03 19:03:30 GMT from United States)
"... why some games work fine for a while and then crash."
To better cover all cases, add:
what if the GPU card overheats?
what if the CPU insists on doing the GPU's job?
what if peak processing demands for sound confllict with peak video?
what if something else needlessly competes for CPU/GPU attention?
what if you try Xubuntu or Lubuntu (or CrunchBang or ...)?
31 • EvolveOS (by Corbin Rune on 2015-02-03 20:56:22 GMT from United States)
I've been keeping an eye on this one, myself. Budgie desktop looks pretty decent, think I'm going to fire up a vbox install later,
32 • Mint, PcLinuxOS, Debian, Ubuntu & derivatives, ... (by gregzeng on 2015-02-04 02:04:37 GMT from Australia)
Distrowatch classification seems faulty?
Comments till this one, ignore @4, @14: where "Mint" is really Cinnamon Mint, PCLOS, Debian, Ubuntu etc are legalistic classifications, which do not show real user interests nor uses.
The Distrowatch legalistic classification system ignores the real differences between the legalistic distros: Desktop Environments.
33 • Mint, PcLinuxOS, Debian, Ubuntu & derivatives, ... (2) (by gregzeng on 2015-02-04 03:55:23 GMT from Australia)
Desktop environments is not enough either. Netrunner has the same DE, but under very different & incompatible Linux bases: Kubuntu & Manjaro.
My problems of adding Nemo to Mint or Netrunner, in all its inscrutable names (Rebecca. et al.), hiding its DEs. Each inscrutable Mint has DE way of terminating the operating system. It is not just Hibernate, Restart, Shut-down, or Log-off - with just one simple click.
Apple solved the classification & evolution of its operating systems, by forcing the iSheep to throw away its "old" software, hardware & operating systems whenever Darth-Vader told them.
flexibility.
Microsoft tried to keep its loyalty base (Windows RT & phone excepted). Hence its well deserved user favoritism. The true beauty of Windows, both for coders and users, is with it app use. If I repeated the Nemo exercise of Linux, with "Servant Salamander" in any version of Windows x32, no problems.
Canonical excepted, it seems that Linux & its organizations generally do not care about present & future users, only past users, and their "old equipment", as shown by Distrowatch's Search function. We users are unhelpfully faced with x32, ARM, Intel64, AMD64, etc ... incompatible, unexplained nightmares everywhere. When users try the Linux forums, etc ... "RTFM -- IDIOT!!"
In Linux, oldies like myself dominate. But Linux oldies are so NIMBY (Not In My Backyard), that they are old course conservative, foreigner-fearing, etc.
34 • Mint and Ubuntu derivatives (by cykodrone on 2015-02-04 04:08:11 GMT from Canada)
Some people took the long way around explaining this, Ubuntu is the 'flagship' Linux OS of the Canonical corporation, people are allowed to 'spin' it with alternative desktops, aka 'community' editions, which are not 'officially' supported by Canonical but may get a 'nod' from them.
Now on to Mint, which is not a 'corporate' OS, it's a team of volunteer people led by Clem Lefebvre who release various DE versions of the same base distro, actually two bases, some versions are Debian based.
When you boil it down, Canonical only *really* releases and supports Ubuntu, whereas Mint, as a single entity, releases multiple 'flavours' under one umbrella.
Wow, I wound up taking the long way around explaining this too, phht. Do ya think I used enough 'single' 'quote' 'marks', lol. *air finger quotes* :D
35 • Changing passwords (by macias on 2015-02-04 06:50:19 GMT from Poland)
"so long as your change your password on a regular basis". Do you even read what you write? Changing password means having second set of hard disks, encrypting them with new password, copying all the data. And for what purpose? Newer password is no better than the old one, unless the old one was already cracked, but then you already have a problem (like hacked keyboard or malicious USB -- and it is not task for amateur), and blindly changing password does not change a thing. Another problem is human factor -- regular change of password leads eventually to writing down password on piece of paper to memorize them.
36 • @frederic Bezies @ comment 1 . bodhi is an Ubuntu based distro (by morgan on 2015-02-04 16:40:42 GMT from Spain)
Bodhi Linux is in fact another Ubuntu based distro.
It is based on Ubuntu lts, it has an updated kernel and has the enlightenment desktop
Its a really nice distro, perfect for netbooks or vm's (I use it with KVM) its also (due to its tiny memory footprint) for remote desktoping to (I use x2go)
37 • Nemo and Mint (by frodopogo on 2015-02-04 18:52:57 GMT from United States)
@33 gregzeng
One of the Mint versions, Cinnamon I believe, comes with Nemo pre-installed.
The forums are fairly friendly. I haven't seen the behavior you describe.
(Some might not understand that a Windows refugee isn't eager to learn the Terminal, but that's another issue!) And Linux Mint works so well that I seldom have to go to the forums anyway. And if I do, a search usually turns up the answer I want- that's another benefit of using a popular distro is that problems are more likely to crop up sooner than later, and get enough attention to at least find a work around.
The names aren't really inscrutable... they are in alphabetical order.
As far as I've been concerned, the LTS releases were the only ones worth bothering with.
Rebecca (17.1) is an LTS (long term support) release.
Linux IS confusing, but Mint has made it less so for me. It's allowed me to try a few different desktops, but know that things like updating software or getting new software will be the same.
I recently tried Ubuntu MATE, and I like that too, but it's not as polished as Mint.
Manjaro shows promise, but still seems rough in spots. Installation of the distro, as well as updating and installing software really needs to be done as well as Ubuntu and Mint do it, or a distro really is not going to be able to compete with them, no matter how attractive in other respects.
38 • Mint and Ubuntu derivatives note (by linuxdog on 2015-02-04 21:36:41 GMT from United States)
There are many, many ubuntu derivatives, in fact the largest number of clones are such.
PClinuxOS did come from the older Mandrivia which Mandrivia derived from Red Hat.
Eventually PClinuxOS retained itself and did not evolve as much as other and it should be noted that PClinuxOS did a fairly thorough job of matching software and their libraries to run as well as possible.
Too many updates to fast can actually adversely affect a well meaning linux, so it appears over the years PClinuxOS earned its "fork" due to their own constant maintenance.
Sure, mainboards, onboard add-ins, gpu's and cpu's constantly update but I, for one always figured that the power of the "home" computer outpaces any software which may take a long time to develop after hardware introduction. It has been my opinion that the "bar to check your usage standards" is (in the home view) just how much of a gamer you consider yourself as the newest games can "up the anty" for required resources.
I tried Kbuntu and found it not too bad, however I still keep assisting new people to linux to start with PClinuxOS. I have been through the "arch" distro's & "slackware distros" which have their value. The very core of any linux distro to me is what do you want to do and can it do those tasks without crashing.
For myself, I have been running AVlinux for quite some time starting with the first issue. This is a "locked down" linux devoted to audio and video fun/tasks.
I kind of figured out that if you just change the wallpaper and call it a new name it really is what I have seen other commenters call "a knock off" and I agree which is my own view. I do enjoy distrowatch's comment section and reading other peoples tips and comments.
39 • @34 (by Milo on 2015-02-05 06:46:56 GMT from Poland)
Canonical only supports the software of the Main and Restricted Ubuntu repositories. The Universe and Multiverse Ubuntu repositories are not supported by Canonical.
40 • Pulse and VOIP (by imnotrich on 2015-02-05 21:25:46 GMT from Mexico)
Crazy stuff, it's 2015 and the only VOIP client that is fully compatible with Pulse/Linux?
Skype.
Forget Ekiga, twinkle, SFL, Linphone and lesser known open source software. None of them will run properly on my Ubuntu Studio 14.10 64 bit install. Nearly all of the issues related to audio quality, or lack thereof. Basically, Pulse is still beta but if Microsoft can make a version of Skype that works with Pulse...why can't Linux developers do the same!? I am using Diamondcard us as my VOIP provider.
Can ANYBODY recommend a VOIP client that actually works with Ubuntu? I want to be able to have a two way conversation with no echo, no jitter, no garbled audio, where both parties can hear each other that is not subject to random disconnections at inopportune moments. Shouldn't be any more complicated than installing, plug in your headset, and enter you VOIP provider info & password. I don't have time to write code and revise half baked software.
41 • VOIP (by Somewhat Reticent on 2015-02-05 22:43:41 GMT from United States)
Why would you be using your computer for this?
42 • Re 41 (by imnotrich on 2015-02-05 23:03:12 GMT from Mexico)
Why do I use a computer for VOIP? Not sure that is relevant to the issue of why VOIP developers have forsaken Linux users but...I live a stone's throw from an international border which I cross multiple times per day for work. My profession requires that I have phone numbers in each country and I choose not to pay exorbitant rates for Vonage or some other phone provider.
43 • @41 VOIP (by Rev_Don on 2015-02-06 03:03:27 GMT from United States)
You said "Why would you be using your computer for this?" concerning VOIP.
Simple answer, my daughter and grandchildren live over a thousand miles away so it isn't possible to see them nearly as much as I want. Using VOIP and a vid cam we can Video Chat regularly. Not as nice as being there in person, but a LOT better than just a voice only phone call. And that's only ONE reason.
44 • let's give them something to talk about... (by Joe on 2015-02-06 03:57:55 GMT from Germany)
@1:
"Bodhi creator back to its project ? Another good news. Far better than the 1168367th (or so) Ubuntu or debian based project added to waiting list :D"
You do realise that Bodhi is "Based on: Debian, Ubuntu" according to their page on DW?
I'm more excited by the discovery of new distros.
Drama? Not so much.
45 • let's give them something to talk about... (by Joe on 2015-02-06 04:00:27 GMT from Netherlands)
@1:
"Bodhi creator back to its project ? Another good news. Far better than the 1168367th (or so) Ubuntu or debian based project added to waiting list :D"
You do realise that Bodhi is "Based on: Debian, Ubuntu" according to their page on DW?
I'm more excited by the discovery of new distros.
Drama? Not so much.
46 • That's a neat trick... (by cykodrone on 2015-02-06 06:08:27 GMT from Canada)
...Joe(s), my gworldclock says you're both in the same timezone (unless you have a molecular recombination transporter), *cough* copy *cough* paste. *eyeroll*
47 • chaging passwords (by hsw on 2015-02-06 06:40:55 GMT from Taiwan)
@35 the password only protects the key file.
The HD contents are not encrypted by the password but by something like an AES 256 bit binary key; so changing the password only reencrypts the key file.
So you could potentially not have the key file on the system at all but on a separate removable drive, only to be used at boot (better have good backups) that way if the HD is removed from the machine it would be necessary to brute force AES256 which is a lot more difficult than cracking the password to the key file.
48 • Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS Release Date has been changed (by Peter on 2015-02-06 13:55:12 GMT from Germany)
Some minutes ago, i noticed at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TrustyTahr/ReleaseSchedule
that the new release date changed from February 5th to
February 19th! Thats a little bit corios, because some
hours ago, the ReleaseSchedule-Website was still equiped
with the February 5th.
Does anybody know what's the reason / what happend ?
Ok, the 14.04.1 with the latest updates is also very
great ;)
49 • Fare Thee Well, CrunchBang (by Milo on 2015-02-06 18:54:51 GMT from Poland)
Just as Bodhi Linux is reinvigorated, CrunchBang is retired. While I'm sure there are some community contributions, projects like SolusOS demonstrate the hurdles to maintaining a distribution when the bulk of the burden rests on the shoulders of one person, particularly when several hundred alternatives exist. I'm glad Ikey Doherty (this time with Evolve OS) and Jeff Hoogland are back at it, and I do not fault them for stepping away, but I appreciate the constancy of some projects more and more as time goes on.
50 • VOIP .. Linphone Would be Good if .. (by Graham on 2015-02-07 08:08:33 GMT from Australia)
.. the Ubuntu 14.04 version was fixed so that it would handle the sort of DTMF tones used outside the US.
51 • Distribution world is an hard world. (by Frederic Bezies on 2015-02-07 09:55:22 GMT from France)
@45 : I know that Bodhi is debian and ubuntu based, but it is providing enlightenment instead of one of the big three environment (KDE, Gnome, Xfce). It is good to get some changes sometimes. Nearly all debian and ubuntu derivative are bundled with one of the big three.
@46 : Oh, you're back :)
@49 : besides Slackware, there is not a lot of long living distribution based on one developper.
EvolveOS ? I will remain cautious about it until the first stable version will be released.
52 • RE: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS Release Date has been changed (by Marco on 2015-02-07 13:00:41 GMT from United States)
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-release/2015-February/003208.html
Sounds as if there were a couple of last-minute fixes.
53 • Adios Crunchbang (by Bonky Ozmond on 2015-02-07 15:20:39 GMT from Nicaragua)
Really sad to hear about the discontinuing of Crunchbang....
It was one of the Distros that helped me keep my faith in Linux many years ago and has been very influetial in getting people using linux I always prefered Openbox type Desktops, and many distros were only interested in Gnome / KDE and myself never having time to go through the process of editing files etc.. found that Crunchbang was doing exactly what i wanted
and still we see people dropping support for Openbox,,,, Antix still does an excellent Fluxbox, ..and Manjaro did an outstanding Openbox once it got rid of its dumb idea just to be another Archbang.. but then they since have changed it from being a Supported Main Edition to a Community Edition which no one is maintaining.. that has gone as an Openbox edition....
I would have thought it much easier for people to keep a trouble free Distro using Openbox than having all the issues that arise with other DEs...
It would be nice if somone too over the Reins of Crunchbang though I believe it's Originator and Lead developer Corenominal wishes any not to continue with the Name ....very sad to lose it
54 • Page Hit Rankings (by Jordan on 2015-02-07 15:33:28 GMT from United States)
A curiosity crossed my mind about the page hits for the distros on the list, especially for Mint (and maybe Ubuntu.. perhaps the top 3). I have been running Mint for quite a while now. I'm sure there are an awful lot of Mint users out there, goes without saying.
But why would they keep clicking the Mint link in that list? I don't unless I see some update or dev release posted.
Is the ranking supposed to be a reflection of new(er) users? Is it more a reflection of people coming to Distrowatch for the first time and clicking the one at the top of the list to the tune of thousands of times more then the ones at and near the bottom? Is it bots?
55 • @54 rankings and GUI art (by cykodrone on 2015-02-07 18:15:39 GMT from Canada)
@54 You're about the millionth person to ask that question, lol, it's in not intended to be an official, accurate or scientific poll regarding distro popularity or use. I once suggested they track clicks to the distros' home pages, download links or forums (from DW), it's just an internal site thing for basically fun, nothing more. If some zealot 12 year olds feel the need to bolster a particular distro's rankings (I've been guilty of the same 'crime', lol), that's their thing and they soon get bored of it, boiled down, they really don't mean much, just a click count on DW.
GUI art trend (icons, etc)
I've noticed every time that other monopoly OS changes their look, distros soon follow suit, from glossy, shiny, pretty transparency to flat Sesame Street colours. Who decided flat, ugly 'tile' style icons look *good*, they don't, it looks stupid retro, and some of the colours look like the result of vomit in a blender. Linux and its identity crisis, GAH!
56 • About icon "fashion" and trends. (by Frederic Bezies on 2015-02-07 20:14:51 GMT from France)
@54 "I've noticed every time that other monopoly OS changes their look, distros soon follow suit, from glossy, shiny, pretty transparency to flat Sesame Street colours. Who decided flat, ugly 'tile' style icons look *good*, they don't, it looks stupid retro, and some of the colours look like the result of vomit in a blender. Linux and its identity crisis, GAH!"
For once, I agree with you. This flat icon fashion is boring, such as was the faenza icon fashion last year.
Korora 21 follows this fashion, as does Manjaro Linux, Antergos, and how many others distributions ? Not the big ones, like Fedora or Debian.
At least, we can choose any icon set you want to use. In a year, numix and look alike theme will be replaced by something else. Like faenza before it.
57 • Icon/fashion etc (by Bonky Ozmond on 2015-02-08 02:13:30 GMT from Nicaragua)
@ 54 Yep you are right...i have often wondered who decides what is the "in " trend at the moment....not so long back everyone wanted to post a green plan wallpaper....then a 3D type thing...
Icons I generally found seemed to be dictated a little by what would work OK with What ever DE...then the next version they changed because they broke something in KDE or wernt Gnome 3 compatible......
I must admit I have been put off trying a distro at times just because of its Ugly Flat coloured design....i guess first impressions count.....
I generally only use Openbox with a Picture of my Dog as wallpaper...
58 • VOIP (by Somewhat Reticent on 2015-02-09 01:06:56 GMT from North America)
"if Microsoft can make a version of Skype that works with Pulse...why can't Linux developers do the same!?"
Good thing that question started with "if" - Microsoft didn't invent Skype, they bought it; be assured, MS has Linux developers.
"VOIP developers have forsaken Linux users"
Don't tell the Alpine, AsteriskNOW/CentOS, Bicom/Gentoo and Elastix/CentOS teams, or all the teams supporting all the other alternatives, which include Jitsi, Ekiga, Tox and Vox.
Of course, MS is certain you won't mind letting any "Law Enforcement" agency in the world record and listen ... and who can blame the developers of PulseAudio for distributing buggy software?
Number of Comments: 58
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Full list of all issues |
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LinnexOS was an intuitive and easy-to-use Polish Linux distribution designed for offices and schools. It was based on PCLinuxOS.
Status: Discontinued
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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
