 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 598, 23 February 2015 |
Welcome to this year's 8th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Most of us get our first glimpse of a new technology when it is packaged and presented to us in a stable distribution release. However, for a new package or feature to make it that far it first needs to go through several stages of development and testing. This week we peek behind the curtain to look at events going on behind the scenes. In our News section this week we discuss Lucas Nussbaum's plans with regards to the upcoming Debian Project Leader election and talk about a release candidate for the next edition of Linux From Scratch. We also talk about which organizations are contributing the most to the Linux kernel, explore new features coming to Cinnamon and discuss a new method for securing desktop applications using sandboxing and Wayland. Plus we share early impressions of the new Vivaldi web browser, a spiritual successor to the legacy Opera browser. Our Feature this week is a review of Netrunner, a distribution designed to be easy to install and use. Read on to learn what features Netrunner brings to users. This week we share the torrents we are seeding and a list of distributions released last week. Our donation this month goes to the Haiku project with the developers receiving $300 in support of their efforts toward creating a modern version of BeOS. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: First Impressions of Netrunner 14.1
- News: Lucas Nussbaum on the upcoming Debian Project Leader election, Linux From Scratch calls for testers, who is working on the Linux kernel, new Cinnamon features and running sandboxed desktop applications
- Application review: Early impressions of the Vivaldi web browser
- Torrent Corner: Bodhi, Clonezilla Live, Frugalware, Rebellin Linux
- Released last week: Netrunner 15, Black Lab Linux 6.1 "MATE", Bodhi 3.0.0
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 15.04 Beta 1, OpenMandriva 2015.0 Beta
- Donations: Haiku receives $300
- New distributions: AryaLinux, eOsFree, Security Onion, StotinkaOS
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
First Impressions of Netrunner 14.1
The Netrunner distribution is a curious one as the project maintains two separate branches with different bases. Netrunner puts out a regular stable release based on the Kubuntu distribution and a rolling release that uses Manjaro as its base. As the Netrunner's website states, "The Netrunner team is focused on making the KDE desktop as snappy and responsive as possible. Sponsoring parts of the KDE development, we also concentrate on new technologies and include them in Netrunner as soon as they are ready for usage. The distro is offered in two variants: The Standard release is built on Kubuntu/Debian, while the Rolling release is built on Manjaro/Arch." The Netrunner distribution lists three goals: "Power-up, don't dumb-down the user; include add-ons, codecs, customizations; and avoid lock-ins, favour free (libre) alternatives."
I opted to try the project's latest Standard release which is based on Kubuntu 14.04 LTS. This version of Netrunner is available in 32-bit and 64-bit x86 builds. The download of the Standard edition of the Netrunner distribution is 1.4GB in size. Booting from the project's live disc brings us to the KDE desktop. The interface's background is a soft blue colour. Our application menu, task panel and system tray sit at the bottom of the screen. Large icons placed on the desktop give us access to the local file system, a hardware information screen, the system installer and a documentation file. Clicking on the documentation icon opens a web browser to display the distribution's on-line release notes.
Netrunner features a graphical system installer that appears to be inherited from the Kubuntu distribution. The installer begins by getting us to select our preferred language. We are shown a link we can click to read the project's release notes, however clicking the link opens a web page on the Netrunner website that says the desired page cannot be found. (People wishing to view the release notes should access them via the README icon on the desktop.) The installer next asks if we would like to automatically partition our hard drive or manually divide up the disk. Taking the automated approach gives us two partitions, one for the root file system and another dedicated to swap space. Taking the manual approach presents us with a friendly partition manager that I found quite easy to navigate. Using the manual partition manager we can set up new partitions or reuse existing ones. The ext2/3/4, Btrfs, JFS and XFS file systems are supported. The manual partitioning screen also gives us the option of choosing where the GRUB boot loader will be installed. Once our disk is partitioned we are asked to select our time zone from a map of the world. We then confirm our keyboard's layout and create a user account for ourselves. We have the option of encrypting our user's personal files when we create our account. From there we simply wait for the installer to finish copying its files to our drive and then we are asked to reboot the computer.
Booting our local copy of Netrunner brings up a graphical login screen decorated with a light blue background. By default, we have the ability to login to the user account we created during the installation process or we can login to a guest account which is wiped clean after each use. The guest account can be disabled in the distribution's settings panel if we wish to deny casual users access to our operating system. Upon logging in we are brought back to the KDE (version 4.14) desktop with its blue theme. The application menu, I found, has a fairly traditional layout with quick-launch buttons positioned down the left-hand side. These buttons launch a desktop recorder, the Synaptic package manager, a task manager and the KDE System Settings panel. Additional buttons will log us out, reboot or power off the computer. Should we wish to, we can add or remove quick-launch buttons by right-clicking on icons in the menu.
A short time after I logged in a notification appeared next to the system tray letting me know software updates were available. "There are 8 updated packages, of which 15 were updated for security reasons." Clicking on an icon in the system tray gives us access to the Muon Update Manager. This update manager opens a window, displaying a list of waiting software updates along with the size of each update. We can click a box next to each package name to select or un-select it. Clicking a button begins the upgrade process. I'm not certain how many upgrades were available in total, but there were more than the advertised 15. All available package upgrades downloaded and installed cleanly on my system.
Netrunner 14.1 -- The Muon Discover software manager
(full image size: 529kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Apart from the Muon Update Manager, the Netrunner distribution ships with two graphical package managers. The first one I came across was Synaptic. The Synaptic package manager displays simple, alphabetical lists of available software packages. We can search for specific items and Synaptic will let us install, remove or upgrade packages. I found Synaptic worked well and quickly. The second graphical package manager is Muon Discover. I found Muon Discover had a more colourful interface. The software manager displays categories of software we can browse through and each package is accompanied by a colourful icon. Hovering our mouse pointer over an application's icon reveals a button we can click to install the application. Clicking on the application's icon brings up an information page with a summary of what the application does, a screen shot and user-supplied reviews. I found Muon Discover worked fairly quickly and I like how the application is laid out. I also like that Muon Discover will allow us to continue browsing for additional software while it processes installations and removals in the background. I found this package manager can notify us when software upgrades are available and will install available upgrades on command. Both package managers pull software from a variety of sources, including the Ubuntu 14.04 package repositories, a Google repository and personal package archives (PPAs).
Netrunner provides us with the KDE System Settings panel which enables us to customize the desktop and some aspects of the underlying operating system. For instance, I was not a fan of the semi-transparent window borders that were displayed by default and found these could be changed in the settings panel. Apart from configuring the desktop, the System Settings panel also has modules for managing user accounts, changing the data & time and configuring network connections. In addition, there is a device driver manager module where we can enable third-party hardware drivers. I found the configuration modules were organized in a way which made it fairly easy to find settings I wanted to change. The System Settings panel includes a search feature to make it easier for us to find the desired options.
Netrunner 14.1 -- KDE System Settings and customizing GRUB
(full image size: 647kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The distribution ships with a large collection of useful software. Browsing through the application menu we find the Firefox web browser (with Flash enabled), the Pidgin instant messaging software, the Transmission bittorrent client, the Thunderbird e-mail client, Skype and the Telepathy messaging software. The LibreOffice productivity suite is installed for us along with the Okular document viewer. The Clementine audio player, the Kdenlive video editor and the VLC multimedia player are installed by default. The Vokoscreen recorder and the Qmmp player (a WinAMP clone) are installed for us. I found Netrunner shipped with multimedia codecs out of the box. Looking further through the application menu we find the GNU Image Manipulation Program, the Gwenview image viewer and a small collection of games. The Steam gaming portal software is installed for us too. There are a number of system administration tools, including a graphical interface for working with the GRUB boot loader's configuration, the Yakuake drop-town terminal and a utility for connecting to network shares. The KDE Partition Manager is available along with a hardware information browser and the VirtualBox virtual machine software. I found an archive manager, text editor, calculator and optical disc burning software. We are given a remote desktop client and Java too. In addition we find accessibility tools, including a screen magnifier and an automated mouse utility. I found the GNU Compiler Collection is installed for us and Network Manager is available to help us get on-line. In the background we find the Linux kernel, version 3.13.
Generally speaking, the software which shipped with Netrunner worked as expected and there were not many surprises. I did find it unusual that the Firefox web browser runs automatically in the background when we login. I suspect this is done to make Firefox appear to start faster when we click the browser's icon, but it does mean Firefox is constantly using system resources even when the browser's window is not visible. Another thing I noticed is icons on Netrunner are huge by default. Both on the desktop and in the Dolphin file manager, icons are very large. Icon sizes can be adjusted if we wish to scale things down.
Netrunner 14.1 -- Running various desktop applications
(full image size: 407kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
One feature I was very happy to see in Netrunner is the GRUB configuration tool. This graphical application makes it easy to adjust the GRUB boot loader. We can remove stale GRUB entries, force the GRUB menu to be visible at boot time, change kernel parameters and adjust the default timeout GRUB counts down at boot. Working with GRUB2 is often more complex than it needs to be and having this utility simplifies the process of adjusting our boot loader.
Finally, I'd like to draw attention to a program that runs in the Netrunner system tray. This program acts as a unified instant messenger client. Through this system tray entry we can set up and manage messaging accounts on a wide range of networks, including ICQ, MSN, Google Talk, Facebook Chat and various others. For people who want to stay in touch with people across multiple networks, this is a useful feature to have running by default.
I tried running the distribution in a VirtualBox virtual machine and on a physical desktop computer. In both environments Netrunner performed well. The distribution ran quickly, the KDE desktop was responsive and the operating system was stable in both environments. Netrunner properly detected and used all of my hardware, enabling networking and audio out of the box. My screen was set to its maximum resolution in both environments. Though Netrunner performed quickly, the distribution used a surprisingly large amount of memory, requiring a minimum of 700MB when logged into KDE. I suspect a significant portion of my memory was being used by Firefox's background process.
Netrunner 14.1 -- Customizing the application menu
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Conclusions
One of the nicest things I can say about any operating system is it is useful and running it is pleasantly boring. I like it when operating systems are easy to set up, they provide me with the tools I want so I can work (and play) and then they stay out of my way. Netrunner does exactly those things. The distribution is wonderfully easy to install, the operating system ships with lots of useful software and there are a minimum of distractions and notifications. The configuration panel offers a good balance of flexibility with easy navigation, the Muon Discover software manager is quick and easy to use and Netrunner worked well with my hardware.
I like the small touches that the developers have added that make Netrunner just slightly more attractive in a number of ways. For example, I like having a guest account enabled by default, but I also like that it is easy to disabled the guest account via a graphical interface. I like having the GRUB configuration utility available and I wish more distributions would adopt it. I like that Netrunner has a traditional application menu and that it is easy to customize the menu so we can place the items we use most in quick-launch positions.
The one, minor thing I didn't like during my trial was the use of transparency in window title bars and the virtual terminal. It was a highly subjective concern and easy enough to change. In fact it took less time to alter the visual characteristics of my desktop than it took me to write this paragraph. In all other aspects, I enjoyed Netrunner. The distribution is solid, useful and has a great line-up of default software. Netrunner is easy to install and has the good manners to stay out of the way while I am working. This version of Netrunner is a long term support release and will receive security updates for another four years, making it an attractive desktop solution, especially for fans of KDE.
* * * * *
Finally, a note on version numbers and timing. Observant readers will note this is a review of Netrunner 14.1 while Netrunner 15 was released last week. I feel it is worth mentioning a few things about this.
First, Netrunner 14.1 launched about four weeks ago. A week later I downloaded the distribution, ran it for a week then wrote up a review. A review I finished two days before Netrunner 15 appeared on the scene. The two releases are just three weeks apart, indicating things are happening quickly in the Netrunner community.
While I did not have time to properly experiment with Netrunner 15 before this review appeared, I do want to touch on some of the important differences between the two versions. Netrunner 14.1 is a long term support release and based on Kubuntu 14.04 while Netrunner 15 appears to be based on Kubuntu's 14.10 technical preview. Where Netrunner 14.1 ships with KDE 4.14, the new Netrunner 15 offers KDE's experimental Plasma 5.2 desktop. You can read my opinions on running Plasma 5 in a column I wrote back in December. Given the characteristics of Netrunner 15, it appears to be targeting people who wish to experiment and see what bleeding edge software is available, particularly KDE's new desktop environment. People who want a more stable release with long term support will probably wish to stick with the 14.1 release of Netrunner.
Netrunner 15 -- Demonstrating Plasma 5.2 and the KDE System Settings panel
(full image size: 416kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Some other differences are Netrunner 14.1 is offered in 32-bit and 64-bit x86 builds while Netrunner 15 is available as a 64-bit build only. The download for Netrunner 15 is about half a gigabyte larger than the Netrunner 14.1 download. The new Netrunner 15 release offers users more up to date software, including version 3.16 of the Linux kernel. For more information on the Netrunner 15 release, please see the project's release notes.
* * * * *
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
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Lucas Nussbaum on the upcoming Debian Project Leader election, Linux From Scratch calls for testers, who is working on the Linux kernel, new Cinnamon features and running sandboxed desktop applications
Lucas Nussbaum has been the elected Debian Project Leader for the past two years. After being asked at FOSDEM if he would run in the upcoming election to choose the next Debian Project Leader, Nussbaum had this to say: "It has been a pleasure and an honour to be the Debian Project Leader since 2013. Debian is really a fantastic project to be part of, with a unique community. The recent times have not been the easiest ever, but I am convinced that the approaching jessie release will just show how we have overcome the recent difficulties. But I also think that switching release cycles is a good opportunity to align other changes, and starting a fresh release cycle with a fresh DPL might be a good idea. Put differently: no, I will not run for re-election. During my last 2.5 months of this term, I will do my best to ensure that the transition to the next DPL will be as smooth as possible." What do you think should be the focus of the next Debian Project Leader, infrastructure, desktop computing, stability? Leave us a comment below with your thoughts.
* * * * *
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a book which details how to put together a GNU/Linux distribution using source code and some manual instructions. While not for the faint of heart, LFS is a great way to learn how the pieces of an operating system are put together. Bruce Dubbs announced last week that LFS 7.7 is going to be released soon and he hopes people will come forward to help test the LFS instructions. "The Linux From Scratch community announces the release of LFS Version 7.7-rc1. It is a preliminary release of LFS-7.7. Major changes include toolchain updates to binutils-2.25, glibc-2.21, and gcc-4.9.2. In total, 30 packages were updated since the last release. Changes to the text have also been made throughout the book. The Linux kernel has also been updated to version 3.19. We encourage all users to read through this release of the book and test the instructions so that we can make the final release as good as possible." The release candidate for LFS is available on the project's website. For those who are interested, there is a separate set of LFS instructions which feature systemd rather than the Sysvinit init software.
* * * * *
The open source community is full of hobbyists experimenting, people working on personal projects and paid developers working for companies. It is interesting to see who is working on what and, with that in mind, the Linux Foundation has released a report on Linux kernel development. ZDNet has a summary of the report and explores who is doing most of the work on the kernel. "19.4 percent of all Linux kernel development done since September 2013 appears to have been done by individual developers, but the rest has all been created by corporate programmers. Leading the way were Intel employees with 10.5 percent of Linux code to their credit. Following Intel was Red Hat, 8.4 percent; Linaro, 5.6 percent; Samsung, 4.4 percent; IBM 3.2 percent; and SUSE, 3 percent. In short, as the Linux Foundation report observes, `Well over 80% of all kernel development is demonstrably done by developers who are being paid for their work.'" The ZDNet article goes on to report an average of seven patches are merged into the Linux kernel per hour.
* * * * *
Last week Segfault, the blog that shares news from the Linux Mint development team, announced new features coming to the Cinnamon desktop environment. According to the news post, Cinnamon 2.6 will be gaining panel support for multiple monitors and panels will be more flexible. "You can now add panels to every monitor, and configure them each individually. Many thanks to dalcde for all the effort and time he put into this -- it adds an entirely new dimension to the desktop. After upgrading, your panels should be essentially as they were before, but if you check the panel menu, you'll notice an extra entry, Modify Panel. You can quickly perform a number of actions from this menu -- adding a new panel, moving or deleting. If you click Add Panel, you'll get on-screen guidance to allow you to choose where to place the new panel." Cinnamon will also gain search features, allowing users to find on-line documents using a local desktop applet.
* * * * *
Securing software is often a complex process. While many approaches for making sure applications behave exist, one of the more popular methods these days is sandboxing. Sandboxing isolates an application from the rest of the operating system, limiting the application's access to only the resources it truly needs. Alexander Larsson is working on one approach to sandboxing desktop applications. He writes, "This is going to require a lot of changes to the Linux stack. For instance, we have to use Wayland instead of X11, because X11 is impossible to secure. We also need to use kdbus to allow desktop integration that is properly filtered at the kernel level. Recently Wayland has made some pretty big strides though, and we now have working Wayland sessions in Fedora 21. This means we can start testing real sandboxing for simple applications." The blog post goes on to talk about a sandboxed game, Neverball, being run with very limited access to the host operating system.
|
| Application Review (by Jesse Smith) |
Early impressions of the Vivaldi web browser
For the better part of the past twelve years I happily used the Opera web browser as my primary window to the World Wide Web. Opera was fast, feature rich, stable and tended to incorporate features (such as tabs and developer tools) ahead of other popular browsers. I was sorry to see the Opera browser take a sudden turn last year when the feature rich application was gutted and the rendering engine changed from Presto to Blink. While the new Opera web browser continues to be developed, it feels today like a Chrome clone. The current version of Opera is missing many features I enjoyed and it seems likely future versions of Opera will remain trimmed down.
I was pleased to hear earlier this month that a new web browser is being developed by some of the original developers who created Opera. The new browser is called Vivaldi and the developers claim they will re-implement many of the features which made Opera so appealing to many users. The Vivaldi website makes the following statement:
"In 1994, two programmers started working on a web browser. Our idea was to make a really fast browser, capable of running on limited hardware, keeping in mind that users are individuals with their own requirements and wishes. Opera was born. Our little piece of software gained traction, our group grew and a community was created. We stayed close to our users and to our roots. We kept improving our software, based on our users' feedback, as well as our own ideas on how to make a great browser. We innovated and we strove for excellence.
Fast forward to 2015, the browser we once loved has changed its direction. Sadly, it is no longer serving its community of users and contributors who helped build the browser in the first place.
So we came to a natural conclusion: We must make a new browser. A browser for ourselves and a browser for our friends. A browser that is fast, but also a browser that is rich in functionality, highly flexible and puts the user first."
The Vivaldi web browser is available on multiple platforms with the project currently supporting Linux, OS X and Windows. The Linux edition can be downloaded as a Deb or RPM package. I grabbed an early build of Vivaldi to test, downloading version 1.0.83.38 from the project's website.
Vivaldi 1.0 -- Browsing pages
(full image size: 597kB, resolution: 1221x1000 pixels)
First, a few technical notes with regards to Vivaldi. The new browser uses the Blink engine, just like the current generation of Opera and Google's Chrome browser. As far as I can tell, Vivaldi does not yet support extensions and the build I used did not work with Flash content, though other browsers on my system (including Firefox, Qupzilla and Chromium) do display Flash content. The new browser has visible buttons for opening a mail client and contact lists. At the time of writing users can add, edit and search through contacts. However, bringing up the mail panel displays a message letting us know the mail client has not yet been implemented. Vivaldi, unlike legacy versions of Opera, does not yet support downloading torrents when the user clicks on a torrent link.
When first launching Vivaldi my initial impression of the interface was it follows the same flat & square style we see a lot of in recent Windows and KDE releases. The controls have sharp edges, it's hard to tell what is a display widget and what we can click on. Icons are sometimes displayed as grey on a different shade of grey. Vivaldi does not integrate with our desktop's theme and instead manages its own window controls, such as close and minimize buttons. This works, but gives Vivaldi the same foreign look proprietary applications like Steam have. I feel Vivaldi's developers subscribe to the Chrome school of browser design. There is no application menu bar and what few widgets there are use icons exclusively without any text labels. At the top of the window we find the customary address bar and a search box which defaults to running our queries though Google. Clicking in the search box we can change the default search engine to something else. A few navigation buttons are placed at the top of the screen. Down the left side of the page we find a panel with icons for accessing our address book, bookmarks, e-mail and settings. At the bottom of the window there are a few controls for showing/hiding images on the page and there is a slider for adjusting page magnification.
Vivaldi 1.0 -- The configuration panel
(full image size: 748kB, resolution: 1221x1000 pixels)
Digging through the options screen I found many of the choices we have deal with the positioning of elements. For example, page tabs can be placed along any wall of the window (top, bottom, left or right). We can choose to stack tabs and there is an option (enabled by default) for colouring tabs based on which page we are on. Other options deal with accepting or rejecting cookies and short-cut keys. There is a section in the configuration screen for managing our search engines, but this feature does not appear to work yet.
Like most browsers these days, Vivaldi features a speed dial page. Actually, Vivaldi offers us multiple speed dial pages. We can create multiple speed dial pages and name them. I think this is a good idea as it will make organizing short-cuts easier. Moving speed dial tiles between categories does not appear to work yet, but I suspect that feature will come in the future. When creating a new speed dial tile we can either type in a URL we want to save or select one from our history. At least Vivaldi has space dedicated to selecting items from our history, but this section of the window remains blank, whether we have pages in our history or not. The browser has a rich bookmarks manager and allows us to import bookmarks from the Firefox and Opera browsers. From the bookmarks page we can move items around, edit them and right-click on a bookmark to open it in a tab.
Earlier I mentioned Vivaldi offers tab colouring. I had not seen this feature in a browser before, but essentially it makes tabs change colour based on the page we are visiting. Whatever colour features prominently on the page gets assigned to the tab. This is an interesting idea, but one I find more distracting than helpful and I turned off the colour tab feature. One feature I did appreciate was the audio symbol that appears on tabs when a page is making a sound. For example, playing a YouTube video causes the audio symbol to appear in the page's tab, making it easy to find pages making noise.
For the most part Vivaldi worked well when visiting pages, playing HTML5 videos and filling out forms. The browser worked quickly for me, but oddly enough I kept feeling as though the browser was lagging. I did some tests and found Vivaldi was loading pages and displaying them in the same amount of time Qupzilla or Firefox required when performing the same tasks. What I think gives the illusion of slow page loads is that Vivaldi loads a page first and then displays it, rather than displaying items while it is loading. This means that when loading large pages it can take a few seconds before anything happens on the screen. In reality, Vivaldi loads and displays the page in the same time Firefox does, but Firefox shows us something happening while it works. Vivaldi, by contrast, appears to just sit doing nothing (visibly) for a second before we see the page appear. Vivaldi also displays minor animations when we switch between tabs rather than immediately snapping to the new tab. This also gives the impression the browser is taking longer to complete a task.
Something I found odd during my time with Vivaldi was I kept seeing prompts to enter a keyring password. I'm not sure what this keyring is for, it isn't explained at all. The prompt only appeared while I was using Vivaldi, typically when I was accessing my bookmarks. Perhaps the browser encrypts website passwords or locks our bookmarks. Hopefully future versions of the browser will explain or do away with the need for a keyring prompt.
Vivaldi 1.0 -- Organizing bookmarks
(full image size: 202kB, resolution: 1221x1000 pixels)
One thing which stands out about Vivaldi is that it appears to be a closed source project. I find this surprising. Vivaldi attempts to recreate the power and flexibility of Opera since the Opera team has effectively scrapped their original browser and replaced it with a streamlined version. One of the reasons Opera fans were left looking for a new browser is precisely because Opera was closed source and could not be continued by the community or forked. That is why projects like Otter and Qupzilla have been relatively successful, they are delivering the features Opera once did without the risk of the browser suddenly being discontinued. As a former fan of Opera I see a new, closed source browser as being a case of "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." On top of that, most browsers these days are either open source or have a strong open source base. This makes the browsers easy to port and package to a wider audience. Closed source browsers suffer in the Linux and BSD communities because there are more licensing restrictions and the software cannot be ported by the community.
At the moment, Vivaldi lacks the features the developers hope to implement. Right now, the web browser is still fairly bare bones, capable of performing the same actions as most other browsers. We can visit pages, set bookmarks and arrange our speed dial page, but that is about where the feature list stops. I do like how flexible the browser is with regards to placing, organizing and colouring tabs. I also like how quick the browser works, even if it gives the impression of being slow to respond. I do plan to try Vivaldi again in the future, perhaps once e-mail, extensions and developer tools have been added. The developers are off to a good start, they have the essentials in place, but the vision Vivaldi is meant to fulfil has not yet materialized.
|
| 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 are also 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: 23
- Total downloads completed: 3,671
- Total data uploaded: 1.6TB
|
| Released Last Week |
Netrunner 15
Clemens Toennies has announced the release of Netrunner 15, a desktop Linux distribution based on Kubuntu 14.10 and featuring the new KDE Plasma 5.2.0 desktop: "We are proud to announce the official release of Netrunner 15 'Prometheus'. Netrunner 15 is revised from the ground up - as the first distribution, it officially ships the new KDE Plasma Desktop 5.2. Therefore, an upgrade from previous Netrunner series with KDE 4.x is neither officially available nor really recommended. This release is 64-bit only. What's new? This release features the brand new KDE Plasma Desktop 5.2, packed together with the freshly released KDE Frameworks 5.7 and Qt 5.4. It takes a great deal of Oxygen and a little of Breeze and mixes them into a blend of tradition and modern. All previous settings and add-ons have been carefully restored to work in this new environment. With Netrunner 15 we took the chance to ship a finely revised set of applications." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details and screenshots.
Black Lab Linux 6.1 "MATE"
The Black Lab Linux project has announced the availability of a new edition to the Black Lab product line featuring the MATE desktop environment. "Today we are pleased to announce the release of Black Lab Linux MATE 6.1. Black Lab Linux MATE 6.1 is a distribution of Black Lab Linux that utilizes the Mate Desktop environment." The new release provides a live MATE desktop environment along with a selection of up to date desktop application. "With Black Lab Linux MATE 6.1 you get the same application lineup that you get with Black Lab Linux. Included are the following: Linux Kernel 3.13.0-45, MATE desktop 1.8.1, Firefox 35, Thunderbird 32, Steam Gaming Desktop, LibreOffice 4.4, Gimp, Scribus, Pidgin IM client, OpenShot, VLC, App Grid appstore. As well as all security updates until February 14, 2015 included." Please see the project's release notes for more information and a screenshot.
Frugalware Linux 2.0
After long development delays and massive infrastructure troubles, the Frugalware development team has finally released Frugalware Linux 2.0, a general-purpose distribution for intermediate and advanced Linux users: "Frugalware 2.0 (Rigel) released. The Frugalware developer team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware Linux 2.0, our twentieth stable release. No new features have been added since 2.0rc2. If you didn't follow the changes during the release candidate releases, here are the most important changes since 1.9 in no particular order: package updates - Linux kernel 3.14.19, X.Org Server 1.15.2, KDE 4.14.3, GNOME 3.12.2, Xfce 4.10.1, LXDE 0.99.0, LibreOffice 4.3.3, Mozilla Firefox 35.0.1, Chromium browser 39.0.2171.96. New features: MATE 1.8.1. Please refer to the Frugalware Rigel ChangeLog for more information." Here is the brief release announcement.
Bodhi Linux 3.0.0
Jeff Hoogland has announced the final release of Bodhi Linux 3.0.0, a desktop distribution based on Ubuntu 14.04 and featuring a customised Enlightenment 19.3 desktop: "Today I am very happy to share with you the first stable release for the third major update to the Bodhi Linux operating system. Notable features in the 3.0.0 release: Enlightenment E19.3, Terminology 0.8.0, ePad 0.9.0, Numix icons, Linux kernel 3.16, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS core. The release images for 3.0.0 support a wide range of hardware including: non-PAE processors, UEFI BIOS, SeaBIOS Chromebooks. Our stable release is not the only thing that is new at Bodhi Linux this month. Our main website, AppCenter, Wiki, and Forums have all gotten complete overhauls to go alongside this new release. If you are new to Bodhi Linux please take a look at the Quick Start Guide that opens by default when you first boot the live CD / operating system." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information, screenshots and useful links.
Bodhi 3.0.0 -- The Enlightenment desktop environment
(full image size: 902kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Clonezilla Live 2.3.2-22
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 2.3.2-22, the latest stable version of the project's specialist live CD, based on Debian's "unstable" branch, designed for disk cloning: "This release of Clonezilla Live (2.3.2-22) includes major enhancements and bug fixes: the underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded, this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2015-02-17; Linux kernel has been updated to 3.16.7; the bindfs and ntpdate packages have been added; Partclone has been updated to 0.2.76, partclone-utils to 0.3.1; the drbl package has been updated to 2.13.7, Clonezilla to 3.13.29; syslinux has been updated to 6.03; an encryption mechanism for Clonezilla image files has been added; a boot parameter, "ocs_dmesg_n", has been added so that it can be used to set the level at which logging of messages is done to the console, if not set it hides all messages, except emergency (panic) messages; the image repository can now be on a WebDAV server..." Here is the complete release announcement.
Proxmox 3.4 "Virtual Environment"
The Proxmox team has announced the availability of Proxmox 3.4 "Virtual Environment". The new release features out of the box ZFS storage support along with hotplug and NUMA (non-uniform memory access) support. "The Proxmox developers considered many user feature requests and added many GUI improvements like start/stop all VMs, migrate all VMs or disconnect virtual network cards. The integrated ZFS (OpenZFS) is an open source file system and logical volume manager in one, allowing huge storage capacities. Starting with the new ISO installer for Proxmox VE 3.4, users can now select their preferred root file system during installation (ext3, ext4 or ZFS). All ZFS raid levels can be selected, including raid-0, 1, or 10 as well as all raidz levels (z-1, z-2, z3). ZFS on Proxmox VE can be used either as a local directory, supporting all storage content types (instead of ext3 or ext4) or as zvol block-storage, currently supporting KVM images in raw format (with the new ZFS storage plugin)." More information can be found in the project's release announcement.
LinHES 8.3
Cecil Watson has announced the release of LinHES 8.3, an updated release of the project's specialist Arch-based distribution designed for set-top boxes and home entertainment computers - now complete with the new Kodi media centre: "The LinHES development team is pleased to announce the release of LinHES R8.3. LinHES R8.3 brings updates to the kernel, system libraries, NVIDIA drivers, the latest MythTV 0.27.4 fixes, and many other parts of LinHES. LinHES R8.3 now includes the option to install Plex Home Theater. Additionally XBMC has been updated to Kodi. Related issues: bug #983 - xscreensaver missing some screen savers; bug #985 - missing shared libraries for zoneminder; feature #981 - add Plex Home Theater; feature #982 - add PowerPanel for CyberPower UPS; feature #984 - LinHES Tools in Service Menu; feature #986 - xconfig.sh should detect and install NVIDIA and legacy driver; feature #988 - update XBMC to Kodi...." See the release announcement and release notes for further information and upgrade instructions.
Ubuntu 14.04.2
Canonical has announced the availability of the second update to the Ubuntu 14.04 product line. The new release, version 14.04.2, does not represent an entirely new release, but rather a minor update to the 14.04 branch. The new images contain additional hardware support and bug fixes over the original 14.04 release. A full list of improvements available in 14.04.2 is provided in the changes summary. Adam Conrad writes: "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS. We have expanded our hardware enablement offering since 14.04, and with 14.04.2, this point release contains an updated kernel and X stack for new installations to support new hardware." Further information can be found in the release notes.
ClearOS 6.6.0 "Community"
Peter Baldwin has announced the release of ClearOS 6.6.0 "Community" edition, a CentOS-based Linux distribution for cloud-connected servers and gateways designed for homes, hobbyists and small organisations: "ClearOS Community 6.6.0 final has arrived! Along with the usual round of bug fixes and enhancements, this release introduces WPAD, QoS, YouTube School ID support, an upgrade to the Intrusion Detection engine, and ISO-to-USB key support. With the upcoming ClearOS 7 release, some of the features in the beta have been migrated to the ClearOS 7 roadmap, notably WordPress, Joomla!, Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware, Vtiger and SugarCRM. The following is a list of new features in ClearOS Community 6.6.0: QoS YouTube School ID support; WPAD (paid app); Intrusion Detection engine upgrade; ISO-to-USB key support. Since the last release, the following apps have been released: ownCloud for Home; ownCloud for Business." Read the brief release announcement and check out the more detailed release notes for more information and links to changelogs.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
January 2015 DistroWatch.com donation: Haiku
We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the January 2015 DistroWatch.com donation is Haiku. It receives US$300.00 in cash.
Haiku is a modern operating system inspired by BeOS and the developers are maintaining the BeOS style desktop interface in Haiku while also implementing modern features. Haiku is designed with performance and desktop responsiveness in mind. All of Haiku, from the kernel to the desktop to end user services, are implemented by one core team.
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with cash contributions. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for future donations. Those readers who wish to contribute towards these donations, please use our advertising page to make a payment (PayPal, credit cards, Yandex Money and crypto currencies are accepted). Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285)
- 2010: Qimo 4 Kids ($250), Squid ($250), Libre Graphics Meeting ($300), Bacula ($250), FileZilla ($300), GCompris ($352), Xiph.org ($250), Clonezilla ($250), Debian Multimedia ($280), Geany ($300), Mageia ($470), gtkpod ($300)
- 2011: CGSecurity ($300), OpenShot ($300), Imagination ($250), Calibre ($300), RIPLinuX ($300), Midori ($310), vsftpd ($300), OpenShot ($350), Trinity Desktop Environment ($300), LibreCAD ($300), LiVES ($300), Transmission ($250)
- 2012: GnuPG ($350), ImageMagick ($350), GNU ddrescue ($350), Slackware Linux ($500), MATE ($250), LibreCAD ($250), BleachBit ($350), cherrytree ($260), Zim ($335), nginx ($250), LFTP ($250), Remastersys ($300)
- 2013: MariaDB ($300), Linux From Scratch ($350), GhostBSD ($340), DHCP ($300), DOSBox ($250), awesome ($300), DVDStyler ($280), Tor ($350), Tiny Tiny RSS ($350), FreeType ($300), GNU Octave ($300), Linux Voice ($510)
- 2014: QupZilla ($250), Pitivi ($370), MediaGoblin ($350), TrueCrypt ($300), Krita ($340), SME Server ($350), OpenStreetMap ($350), iTALC ($350), KDE ($400), The Document Foundation ($400), Tails ($350)
- 2015: AWStats ($300), Haiku ($300)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$42,575 to various open-source software projects.
* * * * *
Distributions added to waiting list
- AryaLinux. AryaLinux is an independent GNU/Linux distribution featuring the MATE desktop environment.
- eOsFree Linux. eOsFree Linux is a re-spin of the elementary OS distribution with a customized desktop.
- Security Onion. Security Onion is a Linux distro for intrusion detection, network security monitoring, and log management. It is based on Ubuntu and contains many security related packages.
- StotinkaOS. StotinkaOS is a remix of the CentOS distribution for Bulgarian users. StotinkaOS ships with third-party software repositories enabled, including RPMFusion and Fedora's EPEL repository.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 2 March 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Colored tabs (by Al on 2015-02-23 01:26:40 GMT from North America)
You mention that Vivaldi is the first browser you've seen with tabs that can have different colors. Firefox has an extension ColorfulTabs that provides this functionality.
I like it and think it's pretty neat.
2 • Icon sizes and other things (by cykodrone on 2015-02-23 03:21:09 GMT from North America)
Netrunner is a decent distro, I used it a while back, but I do have one question, are the icons in the sample pics that size by default? They're insanely huge, icons are only a graphical representation of something, they're not meant to take up so much screen real estate. Speaking of icons, I'm very sick of the oxygen set, I want to stab my screen every time I see them, lol, I curse the day they were ported to gtk. I decided my GUI needs to be more visually stimulating (as opposed to drab and depressing) so I installed the Go-Touch GUI theme, malys-revolt2 WM theme and the Humanity icon set. On the flip-side, I'm using a very boring CGI workstation-ish wallpaper to reduce distraction, I've gotta get things done and not fall asleep in the process.
Maybe the new Debian Project Leader can bring back 'choice', I'm not going to hold my breath and I've already moved on to a different distro, even Linux From Scratch offers choice.
It's nice to see corporations spending money on Linux code, I just hope it's not for the wrong reasons. Are they finally turning their backs on MS? We live in interesting times indeed.
I don't do multiple monitors anymore but the panel thing was a major thorn in my rhubarb, kudos to Mint and the Cinnamon team.
My Fedora decoder ring says X11 is on life support, I know, I know, it's not time to call the coroner yet, just sayin'.
Vivaldi looks like an interesting project, more browser choices is a good thing. I dumped Goggle Chreep ages ago, I wouldn't even touch it with somebody elses' ten foot pole.
3 • Vivaldi (by Left Click on 2015-02-23 08:07:51 GMT from North America)
I look forward to this browser bringing back everything that made Opera great. I'm still thrown that the Opera devs thought bookmarks were unnecessary. I very actively use mine.
4 • RE: Vivaldi (by Pat on 2015-02-23 08:50:05 GMT from Oceania)
They what?!? Opera thought bookmarks were unnecessary? What a ridiculous idea! I guess I stopped using Opera at a good time (pre-engine switch). Although it seems I may need to switch browsers yet against with the upcoming changes Mozilla's add-ons policy.
5 • The future of Debian (by Ex-Debian on 2015-02-23 08:55:15 GMT from Europe)
I have been a Linux user for over 12 years. For over one half of that time I was a Debian user. To name but the distros I actually used for working during at least 2 years, my evolution was:
Mandrake -> RetHat -> Ubuntu -> Debian -> Lubuntu
DE-wise:
KDE3 -> Gnome2 -> Xfce/Mate -> LXDE/LXQt
I have finished the migration of my third computer from Debian Jessie to Lubuntu 14.04 LTS. Just one more to go.
Lubuntu LTS is just a transition operating system. I will stick to it until it is deprecated just to have the time to observe how the Linux ecosystem evolves. I am rediscovering Ubuntu and realise how superior it is to Debian in so many ways... The reason for abandoning it in favour of Debian so many years ago was the poor quality control inherent to Ubuntu's release system (and which resulted in my file system being corrupted after an upgrade). However, experienced users claim that the an LTS release should be rock solid after the second of third revision (and we are already at .02 so I hope this is actually the case).
This far I have found only a couple of annoying features:
1.- Excessive dependencies. This is an extremely annoying "feature" inherited from Debian. There are certain applications that pull the entire Gnome or KDE desktops ("entire" is obviously an exaggeration). This does not happen in Arch or Gentoo, and therefore I guess that the Debian/Ubuntu packagers and not the developers are to blame. The reverse issue is also a pain, for instance, I wanted to remove Guvcview because it does not work with kernel 3.16, however, this would also remove the package lubuntu-desktop. Ridiculous...
2.- Locales handling. During installation, I chose en_US-UTF-8 as my default locale. However, the installer configured the rest of the locales according to the auto-detected location. As a result, my bash scripts using decimal numbers would not work. It took me a while to figure out what the problem was (with the new locales they expected a comma rather than a point as the decimal separator) and to find a solution (changing the value of the variable LC_NUMERIC).
Other than that Lubuntu is one of the best OS I have tried this far.
6 • Midori (by Barnabyh on 2015-02-23 10:16:08 GMT from North America)
Midori does coloured tabs if the in-built extension is enabled. It's the first browser where I saw this and it comes in quite handy in visually distinguishing and trying to find something between different open tabs.
7 • Vivaldi is alpha (by Teresa e Junior on 2015-02-23 10:36:51 GMT from Planet Mars)
You forgot to mention that Vivaldi is still in Alpha stage, meaning this is just preview build. I have hope they will implement the things I found most useful in Opera, since Vivaldi's CEO is Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner. Yes, the guy who tried swimming from Norway to the US!
8 • The Future Of Debian GNU/Linux (by Robert Pogson on 2015-02-23 11:03:02 GMT from North America)
The past year has indeed been trying. For me the big thing was migration to systemd. Whatever the merits of systemd, the shift to include it in the distro was botched. Besides the bugs actually in systemd and the snooty attitude of the systemd upstream, Debian did not get the conversion from sysvinit to systemd right. On my desktop PC, on which I run a bunch of services, for instance, boot-times doubled... The reason was that the implementation of systemd started X after all my services were up and running. The old behaviour was that things started in parallel. After much frustration, I found that I could get back the old behaviour by setting the sysvinit scripts to not start my services and then tell systemd to start them after X was up. How many consumers will run some database to support an application they use occasionally and not figure out how to do that? It's really bizarre that Debian prevents users from tweaking systemd when it needs tweaking by having it auto-configure incorrectly and reject tweaks that are in the documentation.
Besides that weirdness with systemd, I find it odd that Debian would make systemd the default init when systemd is clearly beta software. Debian Jessie is supposed to be a release, not a perpetual beta system. They should not have made systemd the default. Now all kinds of packages are building in dependencies on systemd and folks are being forced to use systemd. That's not the Debian way. That's inconsistent with the Debian Social Contract: "We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free software community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We will support the needs of our users for operation in many different kinds of computing environments." Instead users are fleeing or trying to avoid Debian's default as best they can. It makes no sense.
Trying to put all this together will be a challenge for any leader. Too much "blood" has been shed. For instance, some maintainers have stated they will not pay any attention to bug reports now... "all those bugs, whichever severity they have, are quite useless to me. There's just too much noise in them to make sound decisions, so I'll just ignore
them. I could as well close them wontfix for now, but I actually just wait until they're preventing something to migrate to testing.
In the meantime, I'm trying to have a clear view of the whole picture in unstable, but I've abandoned the idea to have it provided by actual users on the BTS."
see https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?archive=no&bug=754850#98
9 • Netrunner sw q's - IM and Grub (by Bill on 2015-02-23 11:34:23 GMT from North America)
2 apps described in the review were not identified by name - the grub editor and the system tray im client. Are these Netrunner specific, KDE apps or other?
10 • @8 The Future Of Debian (by greg on 2015-02-23 13:23:28 GMT from Europe)
You mentioned boot times.... Remember when ubuntu showcased boot times of 12 seconds with Ubutnu 10.04. no systemd needed. whatever happened to that idea?
i bet they could pull somehting similar off if they put their mind to it.
systemd wasn't all about boot times, but it was it's biggest "selling point".
11 • @10 upstart init system (by Frederic Bezies on 2015-02-23 13:31:30 GMT from Europe)
I think - and correct me if I'm wrong - Canonical is using upstart (a sysvinit replacement) for Ubuntu since Ubuntu Edgy Eft (6.10)
http://upstart.ubuntu.com/
Fedora used it between Fedora 9 (may 2008) and Fedora 14 (november 2010). Fedora 15 (may 2011) was the first using systemd.
12 • @11 upstart (by kc1di on 2015-02-23 14:19:42 GMT from North America)
Yes ubuntu has used upstart and so does mint. but Ubuntu has said they will go with systemd for future releases.
Netrunner is a nice distro. but I can't seem to get use to using it for some reason. Like Mint KDE Better Just my personal opinion.
13 • Semplice / Debian SID (by Carlos on 2015-02-23 16:11:24 GMT from Europe)
@5:
"The reverse issue is also a pain, for instance, I wanted to remove Guvcview because it does not work with kernel 3.16, however, this would also remove the package lubuntu-desktop. Ridiculous..."
That happened to me years ago with Semplice (based on Debian SID).
It did happen from time to time, not necessarily when removing a package, but sometimes even when updating some package.
It wanted to remove "semplice-something" because of incompatibility with a new library version. That was the whole Blackbox WM and the distro's customization.
I gave up.
14 • Torrent Files Download-XFCE Vs KDE (by Muthu on 2015-02-23 16:52:09 GMT from Asia)
Icon size may be very large. But Netrunner's looks are gorgeous like windows 8.I Download lot of stuff(Large size files) using torrents. I have found out that the torrent files download rate is initially fast and after some time torrent files download rate is slow in all KDE based Distros. But torrent files download are steady and fast in XFCE and Cinnamon DE based Distros. I am not sure may be this 'Download rate slow problem' due to my low hardware Specifications of my Desktop PC(Gigabyte Mother Board-Dual Core 1.5 GHZ/4 GB Ram).
15 • @5 (by albinard on 2015-02-23 17:08:13 GMT from North America)
On your Point 1, that removing Guvcview removes the lubuntu-desktop: it actually doesn't remove it at all. It's the same with removing things like Abiword, it removes only the degree of integration that the desktop has with the application.
I always remove Abiword from Lubuntu (prefer LibO), and it leaves the desktop unaltered.
16 • Removal of Packages-Dependencies (by Muthu on 2015-02-23 18:04:56 GMT from Asia)
Arch is Simple and the 'Regular Update' or 'Update After Distro Install' size is very small(example 400 or 500 MB). But after installation of Debian SID the Updates ready for the Distro is 2 GB. This might be due to the more Dependencies during Install, removal or Updates of Packages, I guess.
17 • Debian's focus, Linux kernel development (SUSE), Vivaldi, @8 (by Milo on 2015-02-23 18:36:17 GMT from Europe)
Debian
I was glad to see the GR on limiting the term of the technical committee members, though I'm not perfectly content with the chosen solution, but it's better than nothing. I would also like to see formulated policies regarding conflicts of interests (identifying, mitigating, etc).
I would like to see more focus on long-term support. Currently Debian LTS is not handled by the Debian security team, but by a separate group of volunteers and companies. Freexian's monthly LTS status updates can be read at raphaelhertzog.com/tag/lts/.
While I am preferential towards FreeBSD (but not to the exclusion of Linux) and think the OS ecosystem is more enriched than diluted by a diversity of operating systems, I question if the value added by the amalgam Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is really worth it (technically Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is no longer an official port anyway due to issues regarding its quality). wiki.debian.org/Debian_GNU/kFreeBSD_why rings hollow for me. I would rather see attention focused on FreeBSD and Debian GNU/Linux (or even Hurd) respectively across various architectures, than focused on Debian GNU/kFreeBSD. But people are free to invest their energies as they choose; whether that should be housed under the Debian Project umbrella and resourced by the Debian Project's infrastructure is the question. While deep, Debian has never been "the universal operating system". That verges on hyperbolic marketing speak, which even non-profits are guilty of sometimes.
SUSE
While its contributions have dipped somewhat since the first of the Linux Foundation kernel development reports was issued (during SUSE's Novell days), I'm glad to see SUSE continuing to be a noteworthy contributor to kernel development despite a couple of changes in its ownership during that time.
Vivaldi
I do not think of the Vivaldi browser as a serious contender to become a highly used browser, nor do I expect that is what Vivaldi Technologies is realistically trying to achieve. It is an Opera replacement. Just as Vivaldi.net became a replacement for the My Opera community which was closed down by the current Opera Software executives, I see the Vivaldi browser as trying to revive the browser culture of the old Opera (centred around innovation, and upstart cheekiness- in addition to the publicity stunt mentioned in the #7 comment above, does anyone remember the old Opera's "Bork" edition nose-thumbing at Microsoft?). I believe there is even some talk of integrating a lightweight email client. Obviously Vivaldi Technologies doesn't own the rights to the Presto layout engine (or any other Opera Software technologies), so that wasn't an option to adopt. Also, I had no issue using the Pepper Flash Player plugin (package is pepperflashplugin-nonfree for Debian) with Vivaldi (Vivaldi 1.0.94.2 w/ PPAPI Flash Player 16.0.0.305 tested on Debian Jessie). I'm not surprised Vivaldi is closed-source, as that was the nature of Opera before it (technically Opera is still alive as a browser, though it's not really recognisable in spirit). Steam is also closed-source. Though many of us disagree with that approach, some companies see some perceived advantage (licensing, control, etc) to closed-source software. Whether you're willing to run closed-source software (Steam, Flash Player, Skype, etc) is an individual decision. I'm not sure how one defines "relatively successful" with regard to Otter Browser. It's a healthy project, but I would venture to guess that there are already more users of the early Vivaldi tech preview than there are Otter Browser users. Though there was no explicit acknowledgement, Vivaldi Technologies does appear to have floated an employment offer to Emdek (Otter Browser developer) (github.com/OtterBrowser/otter-browser/issues/673#issuecomment-71933162 & www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?113083-Vivaldi-A-New-Chromium-Powered-Multi-Platform-Browser&p=467186#post467186). Judging Vivaldi Technologies as a competitor to Google or the Mozilla Foundation, I don't think it will be successful; however, as a competitor to Opera Software, I think it will be. Regarding "As a former fan of Opera . . . 'Fool me once . . . Fool me twice…'", I wouldn't necessarily compare Vivaldi Technologies to the current Opera Software, which I think that comment kind of implies. The head of Vivaldi Technologies left Opera Software due to not sharing "the same opinions on how to keep evolving Opera" held by Opera Software's board and management (this was in 2011, before Opera's shift to the Blink layout engine and its adopting of a GNOME-ish mentality regarding feature removal), and due to feeling that the board was more quarterly focused (he had already stepped down as CEO of Opera Software the year before, and had remained in an advisory capacity). Like pretty much any company, there is a possibility that Vivaldi Technologies could go bust at some point down the road, but I don't think it will repeat the Jekyll-Hyde culture switch of Opera Software, as rejection of Opera Software's cultural transmutation seems to have facilitated Vivaldi Technologies creation in the first place. While I don't think I will ever seriously use the Vivaldi browser (but I'll keep an open mind, particularly if it ever opens up), and I disagree with its closed-source nature (though I do expect that Vivaldi Technologies will make some contributions to open source via making code contributions to Vivaldi's underlying open source technologies such as Blink and the V8 JavaScript engine, as it is in Vivaldi's best interest to do so), I don't think Vivaldi Technologies should be tarred with the same brush as the current Opera Software.
@8
"…the shift to include it [systemd] in the distro [Debian] was botched."
^ This. I don't think it has been handled as badly as Ubuntu's initial rollout at PulseAudio, but systemd and Debian's implementation of systemd shouldn't necessarily be considered one and the same. However, I don't think #4 of the Debian Social Contract should be taken to mean that Debian will support every possible system configuration, or support older system configurations indefinitely. What one user perceives as being in her/his best interest may be the opposite of what another user perceives. Some very vocal users (and I believe this presently constitutes a minority) have switched from or have announced an intent to switch from Debian, but I see no current evidence that users are switching from Debian in droves. IF Debian's systemd rollout is horribly botched (i.e. for users moving from the previous stable release to the new stable release), users may indeed begin to leave in droves, or users may choose to stick with Debian through the storm until calmer waters are reached. I'm not claiming that there has never been contentiousness, but the Debian Project as a whole tries to do best by users as a whole; perhaps that best isn't good enough, but I don't think it is a betrayal of the Debian Social Contract.
18 • Removal of Lubuntu-Desktop (by denflen on 2015-02-23 19:08:19 GMT from North America)
I can confirm albinard on this question. From a Lubuntu user, here is the Synaptic description of Lubuntu-Desktop:
Lubuntu Desktop environment
This metapackage package depends on all components of Lubuntu Desktop system.
It is also used to help ensure proper upgrades, but it can be safely removed
if you want to remove some applications installed by default.
I no longer have Lubuntu-Desktop installed and am happily running Lubuntu 14.04
19 • lubuntu wrong language/pulse garbage (by imnotrich on 2015-02-24 01:25:52 GMT from North America)
Ubuntu and derivatives not respecting the locale selection made by the user at install isn't a new issue. This bug has been known for years.
My IP address is in Mexico so Libre Office kept trying to get me to download Spanish language spellcheck, Orage shows the wrong language and date format, Firefox keeps changing the default spellcheck from English to Spanish, Armory timestamped a transfer using a Spanish calendar which screwed up my wallet.
To fix these issues I had to get my fingers dirty and change a bunch of config files, delete dictionaries I wasn't using and it was a major headache for weeks. Linux is all about choice, right? Well I chose ENGLISH but Linux ignored my choice.
More annoying though is Pulse as implemented by UBUNTU STUDIO. For heaven's sake this OS is intended for people doing audio and video production, but they can't have a working audio system? Really? And the only VOIP sofware that works well in 14.10 is...wait for it...SKYPE. SFLphone is ok, but forget Ekiga until Ekiga is actually compatible with Pulse.
Never thought I'd say it but Skype currently is the most reliable,stable, and with the best audio quality of any VOIP software for Linux currently. Microsoft has won, for now. Developers need to get cracking because I really want to uninstall everything Microsoft...but only if I can get work done with the open source alternative.
20 • @19 wrong language (by Bonky Ozmond on 2015-02-24 02:46:30 GMT from North America)
I too have had many issues with setting Language etc in linux...as it seems I am not allowed to speak English while living in a Spanish speaking country using a Swedish keyboard.... and similarly i have also issues with Libre office spellcheck... which never wants to stay on GB English (the only real English) it will stick at times to US English or default to Spanish..
i had s to set the Browsers to google.com/ NCR as I was only getting Spanish google...then i have to change it again to get GB English .... as it only defaults to the US pages.
21 • Haiku (by dude on 2015-02-24 05:05:54 GMT from Europe)
So far, Haiku boots and runs faster in Virtualbox than any other distro. Haiku boots twice as fast as Vector Linux for example. Why is that?
22 • Vivaldi disappointment, closed-source (by Thomas Mueller on 2015-02-24 07:46:00 GMT from North America)
When I started reading the article on Vivaldi, it looked interesting, but when it was revealed to be closed-source, my interest dropped to zero. It was the first I ever heard about Vivaldi web browser. Making it closed source is a dishonor to the musical artist of that name.
There is an open-source browser, Otter, trying to take the place vacated by Opera, and included in FreeBSD ports but not NetBSD pkgsrc. My guess is that it's at an early stage, so I wouldn't expect much at this time.
On spell checkers supporting the wrong language, I wish they didn't exist. I have to overrule the spell checker many times. Seamonkey's spell checker doesn't even recognize USB, PCI, or Seamonkey. More comical entertainment than help. Spell checker also flags FreeBSD, NetBSD and pkgsrc.
23 • Haiku (by bobzr on 2015-02-24 08:30:53 GMT from Europe)
Is the Haiku project dead? From its blog page "There is currently not enough money in Haiku's treasure chest to safely continue it"
24 • (by beige on 2015-02-24 13:23:19 GMT from Europe)
@dude Haiku boots faster than most Linux distros because it is not Linux. This is caused by closer integration of OS components and probably also still by missing functionality (what does not exist cannot slow it down).
@bobzr Haiku is not dead, on the contrary, someone has been paid to work on it recently. Unfortunately there’s not enough money to continue paying for that so it’s back to volunteer development only.
25 • @ 19 20 Language (by mandog on 2015-02-24 15:46:12 GMT from South America)
Very strange you have language problems, I live in Peru speak GB English use a Spanish keyboard, never have a problem so what is going wrong for you I do not know? or maybe its because I use Arch and it does not assume where live just lets me get on with life.
26 • SRWARE Iron Browser VS Google Chrome (by Muthu on 2015-02-24 16:18:29 GMT from Asia)
All you are talking about the New browser Vivaldi.I have found a new Browser named SRWARE Iron Browser for Linux,Which is a true replacement for the Fast Google Chrome Browser.Try it and see it for yourself.
27 • SRWARE problems (by Jens on 2015-02-24 18:00:58 GMT from Europe)
@26 except that SRWARE has some massive issues, amongst them being Closed Source (even though it claims it's open source it still hasn't dropped and shown some source code). It has caught flack for just making stuff up about Chrome/Chromium and then claiming to fix it and finally many have pointed out that it offers nothing new beyond Chromium with some tweaked security settings.
28 • @17 (by Eagle on 2015-02-24 22:35:43 GMT from North America)
What do you think about Otter (http://otter-browser.org/). It is open source...
29 • @ 28 (by kc1di on 2015-02-25 12:47:08 GMT from North America)
Otter seems to work ok on Mint.
but don't see it adds anything more than FF.
30 • Which distros will run on Nvidia Tegra K1 ? (by Barnabyh on 2015-02-25 22:51:14 GMT from Europe)
Recently bought my first Chrome book with an Nvidia Tegra K1 cpu. I'm having a bit of a hard time finding out what sort of arm chip it is, i.e. armhf, arm proper etc. due to not having access to a terminal in Chrome OS to run some handy commands. Internet search did not help much either.
Apparently it's armv8. I suppose that means Bodhi for Chrome book will run on it, but will Risc OS or Raspbian? I also heard about Crouton which sets up a chroot environment with buntu but would rather replace the functionally limited install completely.
31 • Barry Kauler Announces Release of Quirky 7.0 (by Georgia on 2015-02-26 19:14:15 GMT from North America)
Barry Kauler routinely achieves great feats of distro strength. I don't know he does it; I can't even keep up with my job, home maintenance and family finances, let alone grind through a huge project like that.
Barry and the Puppy community Puplets never cease to amaze me. Bravo.
:-)
32 • @29 (by Jordan on 2015-02-26 20:24:57 GMT from North America)
So it's the otter opera, not opera itself.
I'm underwhelmed (by both).
33 • XFCE (by Bert on 2015-02-27 08:02:36 GMT from Europe)
Tomorrow (or the day after tommorow) XFCE 4.12 shall be released.
I sure would appreciate it that the first release of any distro with a XFCE 4.12 desktop would be reviewed.
34 • Barry Kauler / Puppy (by Carlos on 2015-02-27 09:43:07 GMT from Europe)
@31, Georgia
"Barry Kauler routinely achieves great feats of distro strength. I don't know he does it; I can't even keep up with my job, home maintenance and family finances, let alone grind through a huge project like that.
Barry and the Puppy community Puplets never cease to amaze me. Bravo."
+1000
I couldn't have said it better.
35 • Kubuntu Backpage has 1 out-of-date link (by Tom on 2015-02-27 11:45:55 GMT from Europe)
Hi :)
The link to their documentation;
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu
gets to a page that says something like "This has been moved to ..."
https://community.kde.org/Kubuntu
These sorts of things are inevitable. One of the many impressive things about DistroWatch is that it seems to be a lot more up-to-date than any other website that attempts to list distros.
Even though other sites only manage to list around 20 distros they still somehow manage to be a LOT less up-to-date than DW.
It would be really nice to see "The Linux Foundation" and "Free Sotware Foundation" (and others) supporting DW with mirrors and other resources such as space at trade-shows and even maybe a bit of funding to cover worker's wages, running costs, hardware, website costs and even a little for the prizes.
At the moment such places put such resources into pages that are perpetually embarrassingly out-dated and extremely limited in the breadth and depth of their coverage.
DistroWatch is a fantastic resource that deserves better support from the wider community imo.
Top marks all!!
Regards from
Tom :)
36 • Linux is least vulnerable (by gregzeng on 2015-02-27 14:03:24 GMT from Oceania)
http://www.gfi.com/blog/most-vulnerable-operating-systems-and-applications-in-2014/comment-page-1/#comments
Researched by:
NVD (U.S. government repository of standards based vulnerability management data)
OS X: 147 total vulnerabilities
IOS: 127 total vulnerabilities
Windows: 68 total vulnerabilities
Ubuntu: 39 total vulnerabilities
Red Hat Enterprise: 27 total vulnerabilities
openSUSE: 20 total vulnerabilities
Fedora: 15 total vulnerabilities
Android: 6 total vulnerabilities
The research company admitted that Linux listed above is inaccurate, because of the many Linux kernels used, and often updated. Vulnerabiities are rarely in the operating systems, compared to those caused by other factors.
37 • Vulnerabilities (by Carlos on 2015-02-27 16:50:05 GMT from Europe)
"Android: 6 total vulnerabilities"
LOL!
38 • @33 (by jaws222 on 2015-02-27 17:52:24 GMT from North America)
Manjaro has already included XFCE 4.12 in their latest update pack for Manjaro 0.8.12. I'll update and check it out tonight.
39 • Vulnerabilities (by Eddie on 2015-02-27 18:38:44 GMT from North America)
@37, Why the LOL! Carlos?
40 • Vulnerabilities (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2015-02-27 19:22:34 GMT from North America)
"X11 is impossible to secure"?
And applications? (Especially new releases)
Moving along to firmware ... not as many (yet) but may be the worst?
Should we look at the ratio of fixes to new bugs introduced?
41 • Vulnerabilities (by Carlos on 2015-02-27 19:49:06 GMT from Europe)
@39, Eddie:
Don't take me wrong but I would not take a vulnerabilities research seriously, made - or managed - by anything belonging to the U.S government.
All those numbers seem low and the Android numbers really low.
They are watching you, but I doubt that they call that a "vulnerability".
42 • Vulnerabilities (by M.Z. on 2015-02-27 20:02:32 GMT from Planet Mars)
The number of vulnerabilities is a complex topic, especially at the desktop level. There are issues related to how bad a particular bug is in terms of security, what the software versions looked at are, and when looking at the OS there are all question of what counts as part of the OS. In terms of browsers I took an interest a few years back & noticed that Firefox & Chrome were consistently the best with the fewest ongoing holes that weren't patched, while IE was consistently the worst. It seemed like vulnerabilities just keep piling up there, but IE always had the big problems patched before too long. At the OS level I've seen data acting as though Linux was the worst; however, it was very apples to oranges because Linux package handling gave the reviewers an excuse to treat every application as part of the OS, while in Windows apps were treated as separate non OS issues. If the two were treated equally Windows would be far more vulnerable because the apps are generally more targeted, and because the lack of central updating means inexperienced users are more likely to have unpatched programs. On the whole Linux is still likely to be the least vulnerable, but there are so many was to slice the issue it is hard to measure the magnitude of the difference.
43 • @28 (by Milo on 2015-02-27 23:16:08 GMT from Europe)
Internet Explorer and Safari not included as they are limited to their respective platforms of ill repute, Chrome/Chromium and Firefox are the dominant browsers. The browser wars are over (and Chrome prevailed this time around), until they begin anew. All other browsers are currently also-rans. My confidence in the Mozilla Organisation waxes and wanes, over the course of time from Seamonkey Milestone 3 (1999) to the present. The pattern follows that just as I am about to write them off as being too astray, they do something that keeps me invested; that is, of course, until they begin losing their way again. As for Google, despite its mantra of "don't be evil", Google Inc isn't what I consider a pillar of upstanding conduct. I would feel better about Chrome if it weren't used as a platform to promote Google's services (search, etc).
Otter is further along in its development than Vivaldi, and has more of the old Opera's functionality-without-reliance-on-3rd-party-extensions implemented. I may be making an unwarranted assumption, but I think Vivaldi will add more functionality and configurability as it is further developed (to that end, Vivaldi Technologies are currently surveying what features people are most interested in at vivaldi.net/blogs/teamblog/item/10-feature-requests-poll-1). But what does the future hold for Otter? Just to seek to preserve what features Opera used to have? My hope for Vivaldi isn't just that it restores features and configurability of the old Opera, but that is returns to the trajectory of browser development Opera Software used to have (i.e. innovating NEW features). At the time Opera Software announced the switch to WebKit (later forked into Blink), the explanation given was that "the shift to WebKit [Blink] means more of our [Opera Software ASA's] resources can be dedicated to developing new features and the user-friendly solutions that can be expected from a company that invented so many of the features that are today being used by everyone in the browser industry". Opera Software as it exists today has failed to deliver on that promise. Maybe Vivaldi Technologies can deliver in Opera Software's stead. Maybe Vivaldi can be the little browser that could. Time will tell.
As for open-source browsers inspired by Opera, there is also the minimalist browser Fifth. Whereas Otter uses the Qt 5 toolkit, Fifth uses FLTK. Both use the WebKit layout engine, though Otter Browser probably will support Blink at some point in the future (github.com/OtterBrowser/otter-browser/issues/615). Otter is further along in development (ex. as of Fifth 0.2, cookie management has yet to be implemented), and, as previously mentioned, Fifth is a bit more minimalistic.
44 • Makulu Linux (by Joe McCarthy on 2015-02-28 05:52:33 GMT from North America)
Tried a few distributions while trying to rescue a Toshiba Satellite M45 laptop. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Makulu KDE/Cinnamon/XFCE, PCLinuxOS, ZorinOS, Netrunner 14.1 (after reading Jesse's great article), and a few others. So far, it looks like Makulu Linux 7 XFCE is the best candidate for my use. It looks good, it's quick, has a good mix of applications already installed, and is easily modified/updated. So far I've installed Users and Groups, System Profiler, Chromium, Cheese (for use with a Logitech C110 webcam), and Clementine (not too keen on the installed app Rhythmbox). I'm going to use it exclusively for a couple of weeks to see how it goes.
45 • Browser war over? (by M.Z. on 2015-02-28 09:55:48 GMT from Planet Mars)
@43
The browser war is over? Excuse me, when did Chrome hit 97% market share? Things may not be as competitive as they once were, but I'd hardly call it over. I'd say it was sort of over when IE had the towering 95+% market share, but I doubt that that sort of thing will happen again with any browser. For the browser war to be over all opponents have to be vanquished & relegated to a passing point of interest for a few nerds who want something different. There will likely be room for competition in the browser space for a long time to come, which is a big win for everyone. Me, I'm sticking with Firefox, because despite of the dumb UI changes, silly new buttons, & annoying tendency to imitate Chrome, I still think it's the best & most flexible browser around. From the numbers I see Firefox is still healthy & bringing in money, & IE isn't exactly a nothing browser either. It does look like Chrome is the dominant contender by many measures, but us Firefox users are still fairly numerous, as are other non Chrome users. I would still like to try the Opera if it ever comes to one of the distros I use, but I still think Firefox is best overall.
46 • Makulu Linux (by ILoveLinux on 2015-02-28 12:56:40 GMT from Europe)
@44
Are you trying the latest edition of this XFCE spin (version 7.1), or the older 7.0 edition?
It would be great if you could give us some feedback when you're done testing.
I'm presently trying the 7.1 edition, and I must say it's the best-looking Debian-based XFCE spin I've tried so far. Despite all the eyecandy, it's a lot more responsive than stock Xubuntu, too.
I'll definitely try and turn my present install of the community respin of PCLOS XFCE 2014.12 into something like Makulu XFCE 7.1.
Another very nice rolling-release distro with XFCE and openbox (and with OpenRC instead of systemd as init system) is a Manjaro-based community project (https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?board=50.0)
47 • @45- clarification (by Milo on 2015-02-28 17:20:13 GMT from Europe)
I see the browser wars as cyclical (hence why I said "this time around" & "until they begin anew"). No offence intended, and no implication of monopoly intended. For example, I would say NCSA Mosaic was a previous winner of the browser wars, as was Netscape Navigator after it, and then later Internet Explorer. I regard the war generations slightly differently than the following Wikipedia article, but see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars for another example. If you prefer to see it as one big war, that's perfectly fine.
I excluded Internet Explorer and Safari in the first paragraph of my last post when talking about the current dominant browsers (Chrome/Chromium and Firefox), as Internet Explorer and Safari aren't currently (though they have been in the past to varying degrees) available outside of Microsoft's and Apple's respective platforms.
48 • @45- further clarification (by Milo on 2015-02-28 17:39:20 GMT from Europe)
Posted too soon. In case the wording was made unclear by the first parenthetical statement in #43, I was saying all browsers outside the dominant browsers are _currently_ also-rans, NOT all browsers besides Chrome. That doesn't mean these other browsers have nothing to offer the world (I use several), it's just an acknowledgement of their present usage share.
49 • That's about right (by M.Z. on 2015-02-28 21:22:09 GMT from Planet Mars)
@47/48
I did the same thing, Should have said I wanted to try the NEW Opera, if it ever comes to Linux Mint 17.x or PCLOS x32. I would agree that there are some fairly dominant players depending on the OS. In Linux it really is Firefox, Chrome, & a bunch of also-rans. I only use Chrome for Netflix & old Opera for Ars Technica, where they asked nicely not to use ad blockers & promised to behave. I wanted to help out Ars because of the quality of their science & tech articles & didn't want to disable all my anti tracking & ad blocking stuff on Firefox. I can definitely tell Opera Presto is getting to be an old browser though, it seems to cause some odd processor spikes on my laptop. At any rate I would like to see more first rate players in the browser space, it could use some more serious competition. Until I see the new Opera on one of my distros I'd agree that there really only are two big players in Linux browsers, & it's a bit of a shame.
50 • @14 Torrents download speeds - slows after time, etc (by gregzeng on 2015-03-01 01:29:43 GMT from Oceania)
This sometimes happens if you start another download in addition to the current torrent downloads. It matters not what distro, what hardware, IMO. I multiboot 2x Wn8.1 & now 10 different Linux distros.
On my SSD-based hardware (Dell XPS notebook, 16gb DDR3, Intel I7, dual GPU, etc), it's easier to reboot & start again.
51 • @2, 9, 14, KDE, Netrunner, etc .... not looking "right" etc. (by Greg Zeng on 2015-03-01 01:39:02 GMT from Oceania)
KDE probably the most flexible, adjustable Desktop Environment in any operating system. Every icon, font, etc ... can be adjusted in sizer, colors, AFAIK.
So much of our hardware differs from the coder's hardware, it is rare that any distro will be "perfect" in the eyes of the enduser. That is the beauty of both most Linux & Android operating systems.
52 • And now, for something completely different... (by dude on 2015-03-01 20:50:07 GMT from Europe)
I've been looking for a Fedora based distro that 'just works'. I gave Korora a try. Yep, my Wifi adapter works, Youtube works, Java works and Flash works (once I disabled Flashblock). I also like the fact Korora offers the Cinnamon desktop as an alternative to KDE, Gnome and Xfce. I was really hoping for MATE, but it's no longer available in Korora 21. That's ok. I still like Korora with Cinnamon. I like it so much, in fact, that I donated $5 to their cause. Thank you Korora!
53 • XFCE (by M.Z. on 2015-03-01 23:21:41 GMT from Planet Mars)
@33
Just saw the announcement on slashdot & read through the tour. XFCE 4.12 looks fairly impressive, with lots of nice little new additions & no jarring or crazy changes. It should be a good release. See here for the tour:
http://xfce.org/about/tour
Number of Comments: 53
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Freespire
Freespire was once a community-run Linux distribution sponsored by Linspire. Freespire was discontinued in 2008. Starting in 2017 Freespire became a free operating system based on Ubuntu and run by PC/OpenSystems LLC. Freespire features the Xfce desktop environment.
Status: Active
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
