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1 • The number and diversity of Linux distributions (by Out Of Peanuts on 2015-03-09 00:27:27 GMT from North America)
While I agree in general, I think the following misses the user's point:
"Should we do away with all distributions except Slackware? Or maybe we should all use Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Ubuntu? Few people would be happy with such a restriction."
I think the real point is Can we do without the "Fedora-minus-Tetris" respin or the "3-teens-in-the-garage" distro? While I wouldn't want to stop them, the answer is probably Yes.
2 • microlinux (by erinis on 2015-03-09 01:05:02 GMT from North America)
So how do we download and install it ? I try hard to keep up but Hummm sometimes it gets odd and not really user friendly. From a long time Linux user.
3 • @2 (by ecormier on 2015-03-09 01:24:08 GMT from North America)
erinis go to the website and read the installation guide (you use a slackware cd, it's in the guide)
4 • Linux Diversity (by Richard Carlson on 2015-03-09 01:27:44 GMT from North America)
Linux diversity isn't such a bad thing.I think I'd rather see more time spent in improving software apps instead of the numerous OS shells ie.(Unity, Cinnamon, Xfce4,Gnome3, KDE4) all under the guise of different distro brandings. . Let's get them all up to speed and give them the best versatility we would come to expect a desktop computer can handle with all the bells and whistles. Then concentrate on developing the best software apps to then function in these shells.Too much time is spent on the shell environment with less emphasis on the actual apps that run within them. Just my opinion. (The top 10 distro's are plenty for me to play with and enjoy.)
Rich :)
5 • @1 (Number and diversity of distros) (by Simon on 2015-03-09 02:31:10 GMT from Oceania)
LOL@ "Fedora-minus-Tetris" distros. Yep, or "Ubuntu-with-my-favorite-packages-installed", which somehow counts as a "new distro" if it's got new artwork and a new name. Calling these little personalized installations "distributions" just creates confusion for new users and potentially lures them away from the real distributions. Distrowatch is cluttered with dozens of "distributions" that are actually closer to the major distributions upon which they're based than some of my own systems are. A bunch of custom artwork and installers with a few tweaked bootscripts and extra packages does not belong in the same category as a project like Debian or Fedora. I wish the developers of these little personalized installations would just contribute to the distros that they're using rather than claiming to be creating new ones.
6 • linux diversity... (by jay coeli on 2015-03-09 02:48:00 GMT from North America)
@ out of peanuts, et.al...
while I get annoyed often by a spin-off of ubuntu (or another "mainstream" popular distro) by virtue of being "directed to" arabic speakers (or polish or turkish or whatever) I do LIKE seeing lots of initiatives out there... I like seeing the innovative use of different desktop environments and different architectures (a newer ppc maybe? or a distro running the sony ps4?) and appreciate the effort into doing something unique (or nearly so; I would LOVE to see another mitraX running on 50 MB! that's pretty amazing) and some excellent distros (slax or slitax or even TAILS) will never be in the top ten but what would the linux users of the world do without such? vive la difference... *s*
7 • Linux Diversity (CrunchBang) (by jwz on 2015-03-09 02:49:08 GMT from North America)
My two cents worth regarding Crunchbang. In a sense you are right, there really is no sense in using CrunchBang when you can load up a minimal Debian install and make it CrunchBang-like... IF you know how. IF you even realize you could create such a thing. You see, you are speaking from the perspective of working with Linux for years, with a deep knowledge of the system and what options there are. It wasn't that long ago I was as green as green can get. I ran through more distros than I care to count, most of them with DEs pretty much a variation on what I was using with Windows XP. Unity was different, nice but just didn't fit. Same thing with the new Gnome and Enlightenment. CrunchBang shown me something quite different than what I had seen so far; shown me there were more alternatives than I had seen. In its own way, it taught me how to bulid up a Debian install to be what I want. That was the value of Crunchbang. Not that you couldn't do it another way, but to show newbies like me that it can be done.
8 • Yumex and other GUI PMs (by cykodrone on 2015-03-09 04:45:33 GMT from North America)
My biggest pet peeve with almost all GUI package managers is the page, list, whatever, doesn't refresh back to the package you just installed, in other words, you lose your 'spot', so you better remember its name and be prepared to scroll or drag the scroll bar a kajillion miles back to where you just left off. Synaptic and PC-BSD's PM is also guilty of this, not just Yumex.
Yumex does do a ridiculous amount of refreshing, for even the slightest change or query, that being said, enthusiast class CPUs/PCs don't take quite as long to refresh, but not everybody builds/owns enthusiast class PCs, making Yumex a clumsy, poorly written resource hog, or a Franken-manager, if you will.
I have to give credit where credit is due, I've always found Synaptic to be fast, thorough and reliable. It took a little time to fully understand how it works (years ago), but when you do, it's hard to beat. This could be why Bill Reynolds still prefers it in PCLinuxOS.
I've also tried other iterations of PMs (Muon, Software Center, insert name de jour here), where they have the voting system, comments, etc, and it's all very pretty, very dumbed down in the hopes of soothing fears of MS refugees, but in those, the tiny jems get hidden by a handful of big names (including proprietary, which I tend to steer clear of whenever possible).
@Jesse...is there not a list view filter (32 vs 64-bit or native arch) in Yumex? I could swear there is one, but even so, n00bs will be scratching their heads.
9 • FreeBSD Power 8 (Playstation) (by Andrew Mac on 2015-03-09 06:15:00 GMT from Africa)
I think that the porting of FreeBSD to Power8 is probably very good news for Sony. I wonder if the PS5 will be using Power8. Also I note that Nvidia is a member of the openPower foundation, so that could have interesting graphics implications going forward.
10 • Korora #FTW (by Andrew Mac on 2015-03-09 06:17:58 GMT from Africa)
Korora is my go-to for users that would be better suited to Fedora than xbuntu/Mint. Like Mint, for desktop end-users, everything they need pretty much "just works". I'm not knocking either upstream project, I understand why they cannot ship certain codecs, etc.
11 • Re: The number and diversity of Linux distributions (by eco2geek on 2015-03-09 06:23:12 GMT from North America)
The original question included:
> I would say that we evolved a lot in the past ten years, but my
> question is: Wouldn't it be better to focus all this effort, these
> resources into fewer areas?
You can't "make" open source developers focus their efforts on any particular area. You might try to convince them, but most of them seem to already have their minds made up.
Microsoft can and does make their developers focus on their products, because they're a company whose goal is to making money for their shareholders, and they have paid employees who have to do what they're told to do.
With Linux software, on the other hand, there's little monetary incentive, and, by and large, few profit-driven corporations involved. Meaning, it's largely volunteer-driven, by developers who follow their passions. You can't really "fire" a developer when that developer can, by all rights, use your open-source code to do what he or she wants.
It's pretty amazing (to me, anyway) that there's the amount of focus and organization that there is now. That, for example, a distribution like Debian exists, and it's available totally free of charge.
Think: Windows was at version 3.0 in 1990, before the Linux kernel even existed. 25 years later, there are quite a few Linux distributions that rival Windows in terms of both cosmetic appeal and ease of use. Linux has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time.
Linux seems to be doing just fine the way things are.
12 • Diversity IS a human (by Eric Yeoh on 2015-03-09 08:53:39 GMT from Asia)
Working together is a difficult thing since throughout human history we have never been a united race. We have different creeds, political affiliations, languages, cultures etc. Hence those who ask why couldn't people just get along and work for a common good obviously haven't read enough of history. It is just who we are, rejoice in the diversity. It will be dangerous if we allow the big boys to dictate everything.
13 • Korora partition tool (by Justiniano on 2015-03-09 09:13:37 GMT from Asia)
After successfully testing Korora 21 Cinnamon live on a low-powered quad-core desktop, I have some suggestions based on the ease provided by the Universal Puppy Installer of Simplicity. Unless you want to use the entire hard drive of a workstation, a Windows user would prefer to set aside one portion of the disk before loading the installer. Try to make it easier and less worrisome to install Linux.
14 • Void Linux (by Paraquat on 2015-03-09 11:04:11 GMT from Asia)
Really good to see Void Linux has made it to DistroWatch. I admit that I don't use it (yet), but the fact that there is a Void release for the Raspberry Pi and it doesn't use systemd makes this an option to explore. I am definitely go to try it on my Pi2 as soon as I receive it.
For those interested in testing it now:
http://www.voidlinux.eu/download/
15 • Diversity (by mechanic on 2015-03-09 11:36:11 GMT from Europe)
Well, the problems of small independant distros are mainly:
- there are not enough resources to devote to testing and reviewing releases, hence they are usually beta quality or worse;
- one man bands have a habit of disappearing after a while (Fuduntu, Crunchbang,...) no matter how good or worthwhile they may be.
- even respected one-man distros (SolydXK) may change direction on a whim.
- lack of user support (although there are exceptions with large userbase distros - Crunchbang).
People may not like the MSFT product, but it does overcome these issues - I can 'google' an error message from Windows and get useful info in seconds. Big is sometimes better.
16 • (Number and diversity of distros) (by Joe on 2015-03-09 12:49:14 GMT from North America)
"Wouldn't it be better to focus all this effort, these resources into fewer areas?" Maybe just have one Linux distro.
Wouldn't it be great if Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso all
painted the same picture? (Maybe dogs playing cards.) :)
17 • Diversity (by Jim on 2015-03-09 13:52:14 GMT from North America)
LOVE the article about the number of Linux distros and diversity. I also see the arguments on both sides of the coin and acknowledge the validity of each perspective. But I ultimately come to the same conclusion as the author. Diversity is a double-edged sword in that forking someone else's project and taking it in a different direction could blaze a trail that many others want to follow, now that they've seen it in action. Want proof? Mint came from Ubuntu, which came from Debian, and each fork (essentially a respin of the mother distro in a unique way) is more popular than the original. Evolution provides diversity: great features/ideas blossom, while others die on the vine. The same spirit that forked Debian into Ubuntu also forked it into Lindows/Linspire. Both seemed like great ideas (or stupid ideas, depending on perspective), but each turned out differently. I believe this argument applies to the software ecosystem as well as the distro macro-ecosystem.
In that spirit, I have also remixed distros in a custom manner to completely scratch my own itches, and the itches of those who ask for my assistance & support. Inasmuch as I lack the skills to code, package, etc..., it made sense to me to create "standardized" distros that suited some unique criteria that my favorite distros did not address. Pangaea-Lubuntu and XPubuntu allowed me to provide a turnkey drop-in distro for folks who could not or would not be able to follow along with download Debian, install the following packages, make the following changes to wallpapers, icons, etc... I will readily acknowledge this does NOT make me a developer and there is nothing "new" in my remixes that would qualify me as one. In fact, if my remixes somehow navigate the 1-in-a-thousand odds to shoot up the charts, I'll probably have to hand them over to someone with the skills to continue. It is much more likely that, someday, my remixes will die on the vine. And I'm okay with that.
But I LOVE the fact that Linux allows me, nay ENCOURAGES ME to do this! This is what drew me to Linux in the first place, in my attempts to break the shackles of dictatorial control that someone else had over MY system. And when you break it down to the most common denominator, isn't that why MOST of us are Linux users? And if my theory is correct, why do some suggest that our Linux ecosystem should more similarly resemble the monolithic and proprietary system with pre-determined and limited "choices" that we escaped from? And, if that would happen, what would you do if the Linux software/distro that YOU prefer is no longer an option? Would you just accept what others had decided for you? Would you migrate to another OS that accommodates your vision? Or would you stay put, come up with a "better" idea and fork it?!
I personally CHAFE at the notion of "I got mine, now pull up the draw-bridge"!
18 • The number and diversity of Linux distributions (by Fer on 2015-03-09 13:56:47 GMT from South America)
I'm not a linux expert, and I don't know why, always it was easier to install Slackware than Debian. Obviously, I never could config correctly many apps because I didn't know how to do it, so using a derivative of Debian I could have a linux debian-based running without problems.
If we go to a world with less distributions, maybe a lot of people leave linux because they don´t find a friendly and easy distro for them.
On the other hand, I'm in accord with do not have one-man-distros or a teen-weekend-experimental-distros, because if these distros disappear from one day to another, a lot of people will remain walking on air.
19 • Divwersity, thy name is Linux (by Ben Myers on 2015-03-09 14:06:06 GMT from North America)
I have no problem whatsoever with distros tailored to a specific language.
I routinely use specialized distros for specialized tasks.
What still drives me up the wall are the many "lightweight" desktops. Sorry, way too many.
And, as others have said, taking a mainstream distro, making minor tweaks to it, adding artwork to make it look different is really stretch to call it a distro.
It would make sense to have distro installs that offer three choices: minimalist (no added software packages), the max (install them all), and a somewhat laborious but comprehensive set install menus to let one pick and choose.
20 • There is much inherent value in diversity (by Sitwon on 2015-03-09 15:43:05 GMT from North America)
It is one of my core beliefs that diversity is a fantastic thing. And with regards to Linux, it has strongly influenced the community and code we use today. While to outside observers it may look like inefficient and disorganized chaos, at ground level I can tell you that it's actually more like rapid organic growth and evolution.
While experienced admins may scoff at respins which make minimal changes to their parent distro, these are actually important to the ecosystem for at least two reasons. First, because often the developers behind it are learning valuable skills and lessons in the process. Think of it as being like an entry level job for FOSS contributors. Nobody is born with the skills to contribute to the upstream distro they use. Making a spin-off is one way to experiment and learn the skills necessary.
Second, the respins are often inspired by perceived difficulty or omission in the parent distro for accomplishing a certain task. Someone ran up against a barrier and decided to build a bridge to get past it. The thing is, probably 100 people hit that barrier, 60 gave up and turned back, and only one or two built that bridge. But by building that bridge, they ensure that the NEXT 100 people will never have to deal with those same difficulties. In that way, they are helping the people who are currently standing where they one stood themselves. This is noble, but also vital. A lot of newbie Linux users don't yet have the skills or knowledge to solve all of their own problems, and having these alternative distros helps them to ease in using the Linux (and keeps them from turning back) while they're still getting their footing.
Even when someone has the skills to contribute to an upstream project, they may not want to. They may have a different vision for how something should work. They may want to try an approach that is experimental and unproven. Forking the project costs the upstream developers nothing, but allows for the exploration of new ideas and strategies which can always be rolled back into the upstream project if it turns out that they work well. There's a certain element of democracy and technocracy in the FOSS world. At one point there were nearly a half-dozen different init systems, but now the major distros are consolidating on one or two based on their technical merits and the size of their communities. In this way, we keep evolving towards better solutions. Forks and respins are the genetic mutations, and the dying of failed projects or merging of good ideas is the natural selection.
FOSS contributors are driven by their passion to solve the problems that they personally face. Trying to treat them as "resources" and direct their work towards specific projects or areas that they're not personally vested in or affected by is like trying to herd cats. Not only is it near impossible to do, but you'll end up driving many of them away and winning yourself some fresh scratches in the process. Typically FOSS contributors are happy to submit their changes to the upstream project, but if they upstream project doesn't want them, they just fork the project. The think to note, however, is that they were always going to make those changes anyways. They are fixing problems for themselves, and making them available to others who have the same problem. Whether or not that work is accepted by the upstream project is often not their concern. But what's also important about this is that while you might see what looks like a lot of parallel development efforts, very rarely are two projects actually re-doing the same work that the other did. Good developers loath duplication of effort. More often than not, if you see two projects deliver what seem like the same set of changes, they are either implementing them differently (usually for some technical reason to satisfy different constraints or design goals) or one project simply merged the work of the other. Developers typically just care that their problem gets solved, not who wrote the code that solves it. If someone else has already crafted a working solution, why re-invent the wheel?
So really, none of the work that is being done in FOSS community is really being "wasted". Because even if it's not directly or immediately useful to everyone else, it's a side-effect of how our community innovates, and in the process the developer is becoming more skilled and learning important lessons which will inform their future contributions, which you may directly benefit from.
21 • Korora (by Chris W on 2015-03-09 16:28:57 GMT from North America)
I Recently tried the latest Korora..and though i thought it a step up from Fedora....I almost could mirror the issues Jessie raised.. so I didn't carry on ...
Diversity in Linux...? there was a time I guess !!
for me now it seems that apart from slight variations in the base distro/ installer most either follow Gnome, Kde, Xfce, nearly all have identical software and its only in themeing that many change much..
MicroLinux Enterprise Desktop..
am i missing something. like a previos poster I was wondering where to get it.....then found that you need to download and install Slackware as i would if i was installing Slackware.....then istall XFCE desktop...???
Salix has a Slackware based Distro which installs XFCE ..and wifislax.. so why would anyone who is going to install Slackware not already add XFCE from Install..
Maybe i need to read abot it again i may have lost the plot on something..
Gentoo and Calculate seem to have taken a bug hit over the weekend..Gentoo dropped from 34? down to 38 and Calculate 86 down to 95.... I have seen this happen on a lot of distros ..Manjaro being one that was up in the top 15 before, then went into feefall for weeks..and now its back in the top 15 it was always obvious by its popularity and download numbers it was deserved of a higher ranking....
A weird one has always been Mageia....I travel the world very regularly and have met a lot of Linux users using almost every distro specially in the top 20 but I have never met anyone who uses Mageia...during online communications I have never met a Mageia user... ....Odd
22 • 19 • Diversity, thy name is Linux by Ben Myers (by Alex on 2015-03-09 16:40:55 GMT from Europe)
>I routinely use specialized distros for specialized tasks.<
Actually specialized task here is a specialized application, isn't it?
Then again, it looks like people are not creating any distros anymore. Maybe, it doesn't appear to be a necessity. Only 5 distros were announced last week in Distrowatch, where one is a commercial distro, another is a book. Maybe one of them could really be used by an ordinary user.
23 • My Rant (by Ari Torres on 2015-03-09 17:07:23 GMT from North America)
since we cannot negative comment on any distro's forums before being shot at least here it's non in particular forums,here i go:
1-Mint (it just works but it has and ugly ui,shhh don't tell clemen)
2-Ubuntu (unity suxs,add flashback and docky,boy are we talking? BUT is over bloated with apps we do not need,maybe slingcold :) )
3-Suse,Fedora,Mageia,Centos,Arch (why bother)
4-Elementary (looks good,functions out of the box,some icons are ugly[network] but please some body shoot this Snap app they added and worse cheese won't even work,tons of work to be done,maybe next year,right Daniel?)
5-Diversity it's a great thing but maybe cooperation it's even better.
6-Linux Rocks and please don't forget to donate at least for a coffee to that distro that you so much like
7-my 2₵
24 • @21 I was rather surprised with mageia5 : it seems a good surprise- (by dbrion on 2015-03-09 19:22:30 GMT from Europe)
Though today, mageia5 is beta3, I used it for two week ends (it is the first time I feel satisfied with mageia : before, I prefered Fedora). Between beta3 and final, I noticed there were little changes, except for the installer (their portitioner did not work and I managed to pre-partition with Fedora gparted... I hope they will have fixed). The only unpleasant things I noticed were two (one at install, the other for specialised software) :
a) if one tries to install on an external (USB) disk, grub default option is on the internal disk (maybe it does not need a grub...). Fedora has given nice default options since years.
b) once installed, there are very little cross compilers/debuggers. Fedora, with its Electronic Lab respin, offers every cross compiler an hobbyist in electronic may need. Same thing applies to debian (at least Raspbian..) Arduino's - a popular controller, with an IDE and a compiler- is broken on Mageia (I noticed it on mageia4: the same issue is for mageia5 -this could be fixed by downloading and untaring a binary version from Arduino's site, and modifying one's path...)
25 • deversity (by Euler on 2015-03-09 20:16:45 GMT from Europe)
It is strange to discuss about it in a way that suggest somebody can control it. The good think about open source software is that nobody can control it. Everybody is allowed to create his own distro. Most of them I would not recommend to anybody, but some emerge as something fantastic.
26 • Distro Diversity <> Distro Originality (by Joncr on 2015-03-09 22:11:45 GMT from North America)
In a very real sense, musing on the value of all those distributions is pointless since people can do what they bloody please. We might just as easily have triple that number, or more.
But, it doesn't really do any harm, except gobble bandwidth and USB sticks. As users gain experience and more insight into their own preferences, they usually back off obsessive distrohopping and acquire the savvy to look for something that's actually a better fit for them.
But, distro diversity doesn't mean distro originality, just as having 100 indy restaurants in town does not mean you'll find 100 tasty and original menus at each.
Personally, I use the same apps on any distro and would love to see a project that focused on building a modern, stylish, desktop environment I liked that was not tied to QT or GTK or whatever, and did not load up a gig's worth of packages that I never use.
27 • Distro Diversity <> Distro Originality (by Joncr on 2015-03-09 22:31:45 GMT from North America)
In a very real sense, musing on the value of all those distributions is pointless since people can do what they bloody please. We might just as easily have triple that number, or more.
But, it doesn't really do any harm, except gobble bandwidth and USB sticks. As users gain experience and more insight into their own preferences, they usually back off obsessive distrohopping and acquire the savvy to look for something that's actually a better fit for them.
But, distro diversity doesn't mean distro originality, just as having 100 indy restaurants in town does not mean you'll find 100 tasty and original menus at each.
Personally, I use the same apps on any distro and would love to see a project that focused on building a modern, stylish, desktop environment I liked that was not tied to QT or GTK or whatever, and did not load up a gig's worth of packages that I never use.
28 • it's not diversity, but isn't it just someones time? (by Brad on 2015-03-09 23:31:36 GMT from North America)
When it comes to moving Linux to the masses, Diversity is where it's at. While many of the top distros are just "usable" depending on the user, many of them just fill a small niche'.
Mint is to Ubuntu what PCLinuxos is to mandriva.
Sabayon is to Gentoo what Manjaro/Archbang/Chakra/Antergos is to ARCH.
If I know someone personally that isn't "very" computer illiterate that wants to "try" Linux, I'll point them towards Mint/PcLinuxOS. If I know someone that really WANTS to learn, and has the time means etc.. I'll point them towards Arch/Gentoo/Slackware. I've distrohopped ALOT in my short 9 years using Linux..I've settled on Arch , why? because after a lot of cursing, screaming, getting banned from arch forums for asking questions deemed RTFM worthy, I figured out what's going on under the hood and enjoy it, and for the life of me, once I've went Arch, I can't go back to anything else personally.
So all this being said to say, diversity is a GREAT thing when it actually fills niche's, but when it fills someones ego, by changing a wallpaper, or trading this app/package for that app/package, it's no longer diversity as much as it is just annoying..
I have, on the ready, an Arch cd, Evolution (live arch script installer distro), Manjaro, Mint, PcLinuxos, Archbang, and Gparted cds in a pouch ready to show it all off to a new to Linux user.. This is where diversity helps to get the message out there.. that there is choice.
that's my .02 now I'm broke!
29 • @23 • My Rant (by Georgia on 2015-03-10 00:40:32 GMT from North America)
... 5-Diversity it's a great thing but maybe cooperation it's even better...
Thank you for hitting the nail on the head. Without pulling to together, PC Linux may fade away. Where is the version of Distrowatch for phones and tablet OSs? How many alternatives to iOS and Android are there? Half a dozen, maybe? How many are viable/available?
I was disappointed when Barry Kauler backed away from Puppy to concentrate on other things like mobile devices, but I now realize he was right. I never thought I'd see the day when a tablet with a keyboard would be wildly popular, but the Windows Surface pros have also proved me wrong. I also worry you people are disinterested in tinkering the older people did when they were younger.
The bottom line is, I hope the people who turn away from full distro development, don't turn away entirely. Even small efforts in a big tent distro can can have a great impact for everyone.
30 • Diversity, or resources? (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2015-03-10 01:30:43 GMT from North America)
I suggest the original question was not so much about diversity as about scarcity of support/resources.
Extremism in licensing is a major obstruction to sound business models. Giving away all for the sake of marketing leads to failure, especially in a tightening global economy. So, long-term, does mandating monopoly. It may take number theory and socio-economics to come up with viable methods. At least several "pirates" (and a few radical entrepreneurs) are attempting to apply clear critical thinking to the question, which is larger than Freed Open-Source Software alone.
31 • diversity, reality (by Milo on 2015-03-10 02:49:46 GMT from Europe)
The Linux ecosystem is like open mic night. Anyone can pick up an instrument, not everyone can play.
32 • Diversity (by Hoos on 2015-03-10 05:31:56 GMT from Asia)
Diversity relates not only to developers making a new or different distro/respin (extent of "newness" or difference is of course debatable in some cases!), but also to the type of Linux users around.
For instance, not every user wants to install the basic Debian system by himself and then have to set the whole thing up to suit his preferences. They are perfectly happy with Debian derivatives that have already done a lot of the configuration and setup work, including aesthetics, drivers and choice of packages/applications.
Maybe they don't know how to do it properly, or maybe they do but can't be bothered to spend the time.
Or, maybe, they are interested in learning but at a gentler pace and curve. So they start with a distro that is quite feature-packed, then slowly acquire the skills after which they may turn to the parent distro and build up their own system.
I have no issue with the fact that there is a wide diversity of distros. As with many things, you have to discern and pick out the good stuff from among the chaff.
33 • 23 • My Rant by Ari Torres (by Alex on 2015-03-10 10:52:47 GMT from Europe)
Very interesting!
1-Mint (it just works but it has an ugly ui, shhh don't tell Clement)
I told that and something else, like it is not all that user friendly and somewhat soviet and got thrown out of the forums. I also told that he'd not make another LMDE.
2-Ubuntu (unity suxs,add flashback and docky,boy are we talking? BUT is over bloated with apps we do not need,maybe slingcold :) )
Actually, its much better to use Xubuntu with its very user friendly main apps. You can still use Slingshot, instead of something "cold."
3-Suse,Fedora,Mageia,Centos,Arch (why bother)
I agree!
4-Elementary (looks good,functions out of the box,some icons are ugly[network] but please some body shoot this Snap app they added and worse cheese won't even work,tons of work to be done,maybe next year,right Daniel?)
Sure, worthless even trying to remaster it. It better to get rid of the ugly E17 and remaster Bodhi with some Xfce apps.
Well, no one really donates...
34 • Diversity of distributions - the status quo is not good enough (by Greg Zeng on 2015-03-10 11:19:45 GMT from Oceania)
Diversity of distributions because the status quo is not good enough? That's my impression.
Each new distro tells me that the market leaders are doing something wrong. For example, only a few Ubuntu-derived distros have detected that the Ubuntu fail to recognize that it is color-blind, and end-user ignorant (preferring coders to endusers).
All the distro reviewers I've seen, did not test the final end-user perspectives, with different target uses in mind: school kids, teenagers, business owners of different types, or specific parts of the general public. Final end-users will use the operating system with their preferred apps, and preferred settings. In my case, it means Gparted, Unetbootin, qBittorent, Screenlets & Opera 12.16 (+ extensions), amongst other mods.
I feel that the upstream distro producers (Red Hat, Debian, Arch, Ubuntu, etc) are failing to read the comments made wthin their own forums, so many downstream users are forced to try coding. themselves, to explore why the upstream coders are so slow. A very recent example this is "teenage" creator of Makulu -- "Makulu Construction Kit offers an Extremely Easy way to Build Distro’s" ... but in a matter of a few hours, instead of days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwGLlwR_UOU
Upstream coders seem proud of being One-Per-Centers. Until they learn to be more welcoming to the 99%, and to the diversity of the full world, Linux will continue being its low status in the non-server, non-factor worlds.
35 • Mageia (by Carlos on 2015-03-10 15:23:45 GMT from Europe)
@21, Chris W
"A weird one has always been Mageia....I travel the world very regularly and have met a lot of Linux users using almost every distro specially in the top 20 but I have never met anyone who uses Mageia...during online communications I have never met a Mageia user... ....Odd"
When Mageia 3 was released, I installed it on my laptop, with XFCE.
The installer was great and it already had an option to install Grub2 as "experimental", but it has worked well.
BTW, probably the most beautiful XFCE I've seen back then, without the dreadful (IMO) Whisker Menu.
It worked very well but it lacked some emotion.
Very stable, but very few updates.
Soon after, I switched to the Cauldron development repositories.
It has been working nicely since then as a rolling distro, just some very minor problems once and a while, that get corrected after a few days (!!!). Not much to bother and to maintain.
So there you have it, now you know at least one Mageia happy customer. :o)
36 • Diversity of Distributions (by frodopogo on 2015-03-10 17:41:04 GMT from North America)
I appreciate Jesse answering that question in particular, because the question mirrored a lot of my own feelings about Linux. And even those answers, good as they are haven't made the feelings go away entirely- there is this sense that Linux keeps reinventing the wheel (the desktop) and never goes on to the cart (paying attention to the applications). That's a little extreme, there ARE apps, but I do have the feeling that they are neglected. But the point that someone who is coding on a desktop might not have the skills to code on Libre Office makes sense.
Someone was talking about one-man projects, and that's been a concern of mine from the beginning, when I was first poking through the distros here, looking for an alternative to Windows. I didn't want to get all comfy with a distro and have it disappear. MEPIS seemed attractive in many ways, but had too much of that one-man feel. PC-LinuxOS is also appealing, but I find myself holding back for the same reason. Mint started with Clement Lefebvre, but he seems to work hard to include others. But that's where Mint being based on Ubuntu is a good thing- if the Mint project were to fold (and I hope it doesn't!), I COULD adapt to something in the Ubuntu family pretty easily. (Ubuntu MATE seems to be the current likeliest lifeboat)
When it comes to software projects, hedging your bets seems like a wise thing to do.
37 • Distro diversity (by M.Z. on 2015-03-10 18:49:27 GMT from Planet Mars)
I think Jesse puts it very well, freedom to do what you want (in software projects or elsewhere) can be messy, but there is nothing better when you really think about it.
@36
Actually another developer seems to be doing most of the work that texstar once did over at PCLinuxOS. He had some health issues awhile back & had to let others step in, which they did. If you look at the different versions of the Distro you'll see that Mate is done by texstar and all other version were produced by Pinoc. I'm not sure what else is being done behind the scenes, but it isn't a one man show over at PCLOS, & I like what they're giving me. There are a few things Mint does better like make a more attractive package manager, but on the whole I'm very satisfied with what the PCLOS _Team_ have given me for my main desktop OS. I'm still running Mint elsewhere & could switch totally to it if PCLOS went away, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.
See the produced by line here:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/get-pclinuxos/mate/
Vs in these:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/get-pclinuxos/kde/
http://www.pclinuxos.com/get-pclinuxos/lxde/
38 • Distro Diversity (by Ron on 2015-03-10 20:16:51 GMT from North America)
Just imagine if just a few distros prevailed, only ones for 64 bit architecture. Where would we (those with perfectly fine machines, those of us with Raspberry Pi, or Beagles) be, huh? huh?
39 • Diversity (by A_Lurker on 2015-03-11 02:49:07 GMT from North America)
There are good and bad reasons for diversity. The ones revolve around someone filling an unfilled niche. The bad ones revolve around personality and politics. The net effect is generally positive; users have options. Having used several distros I find myself gravitating to certain types of distros and DEs. The freedom to create based on other's work is very critical without which things will stagnate.
40 • Distro Diversity (by LinuxuserNZ on 2015-03-11 03:58:31 GMT from Oceania)
@35 " Not much to bother and to maintain.
So there you have it, now you know at least one Mageia happy customer. :o) "
Exactly, so that makes 2 happy Mageia customers.
41 • Mint - ugly user interface??? (by Cor on 2015-03-11 09:12:25 GMT from North America)
Mint comes in all the popular flavors so how could there be an issue with an "ugly ui"?; you can make your desktop as attractive as you like. If you choose not to customize your ui then that is your choice. Mint also offers some one of the best user forums to get answers to any issues.
Regarding the abundance of distros: it is all good, to a degree. Someone commented on how an end user has customized a top distro to their specs and then released it to the world as their own. Again this is a choice, stick with the big distros and do your own customizing or go with the tweaked sub-versions. This helps to hone Linux into the best experience possible. You have a choice so make the most of it.
42 • Diversity/Mageia (by kc1di on 2015-03-11 11:33:05 GMT from North America)
I find the diversity of Linux very good. If you have a need it can be met by one or more of the distros. So it a good thing not a bad. Stop trying to compete with MS. people will come for two reasons 1. they have a need that is no longer met by M.S. or they find free software that meets the same need. I find just having them try a live DVD usually wins them over.
I would love to use Mageia. but they've had a problem and it goes all the way back to Mandriva -- where their 64 bit versions will not play wine 32 bit programs. which unfortunately I need for work. While Deb distros have worked with wine 32 for a long time.
PCLinuxOS has the same problem as Mageia in this respect so I suspect it's root are a common background.
43 • Microlinux (by Eric Hameleers on 2015-03-11 11:35:54 GMT from Europe)
@1 , @21 - Microlinux's MLED is not a distro. The title of the post is misleading.
MLED (MicroLinux Enterprise Desktop) is a nice customized desktop add-on to Slackware. You do need Slackware before installing MLED on top.
Furthermore, since the developer has moved from Slackware to CentOS, MLED is in fact abandonware.
44 • Win them over?? (by Wolf on 2015-03-11 13:59:31 GMT from Europe)
If one would put a user through a complete Installation cycle of Windows... taking forever then updating then booting updating again and of course don´t forget to boot every once in a while a new Driver was found.
Or not found as in my case on two different cheap Lenovo Units I had the pleasure to configure for friends. Well in the end I told them Windows wouldn´t work on their cheap Equipment so I installed plain and simple Ubuntu on.
Of course I never heard from those guys again, maybe just because Ubuntu didn´t give them a hard time. I´ll have ti check
Bye Wolf
45 • Mageia (by Carlos on 2015-03-11 14:32:13 GMT from Europe)
Just let me add that I've reported a few bugs to Mageia and they were promptly corrected.
One of those bugs has taken more time to correct, but just a few months.
It was not an easy one, and it happened not only in Mageia but in several of the distros that derive from Mandriva (it also happened with Rosa).
PCMCIA was not recognized, in my laptop.
I kept receiving mails from the bug report, so there was a lot of work going on.
Finally the bug was closed, and a few days later, after an update everything was working fine.
Impressive. Kudos to you guys in Mageia.
46 • @43 Microlinux abandonware? (by Pearson on 2015-03-11 15:58:31 GMT from North America)
Eric Hameleers said
> Furthermore, since the developer has moved from Slackware to CentOS, MLED is in fact abandonware.
That must be pretty recent (or maybe outdated?), since I see the following from http://www.microlinux.fr/
> MLED 14.1 Release Notes - Tue Jan 13 14:16:54 CET 2015
NOTE: not throwing stones at anyone. I've not seen MLED before, so did a little looking to learn more. I was *not* expected a full desktop experience in something named "Micro" =)
47 • Re: 46 (my comments on Microlinux) (by Pearson on 2015-03-11 16:44:00 GMT from North America)
I see that Eric Hameleers is of some notoriety (even mentioned on the Microlinux site as a mirror), so I am *definitely* not casting doubt on the information. Now, I'm just plain curious.
48 • Re 43,46,27: Microlinux migrating from Slackware (by Pearson on 2015-03-11 18:19:11 GMT from North America)
I did some more digging and found the announcement from February of this year (so, yes, it was pretty recent). You can see the announcement on linuxquestions.org at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/mled-microlinux-enterprise-desktop-a-full-blown-production-desktop-kde-or-xfce-4175519901/page16.html#post5321362
49 • @29 • Georgia (by YO on 2015-03-12 01:14:05 GMT from North America)
I agree, there are no real distros that can be installed natively on android devices. Maybe partially because of lack of standardization, and rapid release of instantly obsolete hardware. But a lot is laziness lack cooperation, and lack of interest also abound. No one seems willing to work on touch screen, or drivers of any kind. With the binary blobs, USB debugging vulnerabilities, non-modular components non-removable hard-drives, ram that can't be upgraded etc. No straightforward methods exist to install a real desktop, just about all require use of the garbage chroot method, while retaining the archaic inability to remove the android "OS" in favor of a full install. Without this freedom, using these devices comes with insecurity lack of choice, dumbed down systems full of “apps”, with no real programs, and constant tracking. Wheres the diversity here? Eh?
50 • MLED development (by Microlinux on 2015-03-12 14:28:23 GMT from Europe)
I am the manager of Microlinux (a small Linux-based IT company in South France) and maintainer of MLED (Microlinux Enterprise Desktop). MLED has been developed for quite some time now, and if I remember correctly, it was around Slackware 13.37 that I applied for a listing on DW.
Eric Hameleers is right. A few weeks ago, I decided to rebase MLED on CentOS rather than Slackware. There's one single - technical - reason for that. Due to the absence of Linux-PAM in Slackware, I hit a roadblock and couldn't develop some enterprise solutions like centralized LDAP authentication. This - and only this - explains my move to CentOS.
It's an irony that just as I make this move, MLED finally gets added to the waiting list on DW. Unfortunately I haven't found the time yet to update the information on the website.
This being said, I still recommend Slackware, which is a very sane, robust and reliable distribution.
51 • small very important bug in a largely bug free distro (by sam on 2015-03-12 18:44:09 GMT from Africa)
I recently traveled with my slack 14.1, only that, to a place where the only possible access to Internet was through mobile broadband. I had a huawei usb modem and got myself a sim card. The networkmanager could recognize the modem, start connecting but the connectention failed at the point it was being established. Sakis3g did the connection but could not communicate with the system. I could only get help by going online and this is exactly what I could not do. Luckily I had carried with me a Debian 7 DVD. I wiped slackware, replaced it with Debian and got connected with my Huawei USB modem, with not slightest hussle. I love slackware, I have used it without problem where I had wifi or wired connected. But for just that problem I had to leave slack for Debian. Just like Microlinux did @50
52 • @51- Bug (by Smellyman on 2015-03-13 00:05:02 GMT from Asia)
Do you know it was a slack bug? Kernel regression? Were you running the same kernel? Same Network Manager version?
USB modems are often hit and miss.
53 • Why always Debian is mentioned? (by Eric Rspino on 2015-03-13 02:52:23 GMT from North America)
Why always when refering to a distro based on Ubuntu always Debian is mention but if a distro is based on Fedora there is no mention of Red Hat?
My opinion is that should only mention Ubuntu without mention Debian.
54 • On Linux Diversity and Distro Watch Ranking (by Oko on 2015-03-13 03:21:30 GMT from North America)
Let do little bit of reality check. Red Hat Enterprise Linux the greatest contributor to Linux kernel, 800 pound gorilla in the room which can push systemd down the throat of mighty Debian, probably first most used nix like system on the Earth last month distro watch ranking 35. Never heard of Deepin Linux (looks like Ubuntu with a different wallpaper) Distro Watch ranking 25.
FreeNAS 7 million downloads and counting not even in top 100. OpenBSD forcing 64 bit time and arc4random across entire industry, home of OpenSSH and LibreSSL with more than 100 000 individual downloads each a month even though it is part of any OS, distro watch ranking close to 100.
Lets get real here. There might be two dozen or so GNU/Linux derivatives which deserve to be called distros and dozen or so specialized appliance which really bring something useful to the table. Everything else in the Linux eco system is just Ubuntu with another wall paper.
In BSD world situation is simple but diversity is far greater. Four derivatives of BSD 4.4 each one with a niche goal. Arguably one of which (NetBSD on the life support). Two great appliance pfSense and FreeNAS, two other appliance worth watching OPNsense and NAS4Free, two dead appliance m0nowall and AskoziaPBX worth mentioning. Two specialized desktop distros PC-BSD and GhostBSD.
I would really like to see little bit more focus on the special purposes LInux distros (ROCKS for example) or useful appliance (Clonezila for example) as little as possible noise about new wall paper of the month Linux distro.
55 • fedora 22 (by Bob on 2015-03-13 07:29:10 GMT from Europe)
And maybe the more interesting in Fedora release announcement is:
Plasma 5, the successor to KDE Plasma 4, is now the default workspace in the Fedora KDE spin.
56 • @52 (by sam on 2015-03-13 07:30:23 GMT from Africa)
I really do not know what the problem was. After going online with Debian I checked in forums, some suggested it was a bug with the network networkmanager version and others said it was a kernel issue. I understand that slack 14 did not have that problem.
57 • @54 • On Linux Diversity (by All Gore on 2015-03-13 08:04:16 GMT from Europe)
You hit the nail there, Oko. In the Linux world there is plenty of vanity-driven projects but little actual diversity. I would be tempted to define the current state of affairs concerning distributions as a "fashion business" if there only were any business at all ongoing. But, quite obviously, it is not the case.
However, as you rightly pointed out, we hardly speak about the real work. We waste most of our time discussing about the new trends on icons and wallpapers. Only the recent systemd putsch had us discussing a little bit on technical affairs and business politics. But, then, as soon as the new Linux dictatorship consolidate itself, icons and wallpapers will be the only diversity left in the Linux world.
58 • Diversity and choice during installation (by Walt on 2015-03-13 14:08:29 GMT from North America)
Interesting discussion on diversity within the Linux community. I have no problem with the number of Linux distributions out there. I personally would hate for that number to be boiled down to just a handful. I have tried a number of them and find that each one brings something a little different to the table, whether it be emphasis on a specific DE/WM or the specific selection of applications included. Sometimes, I like a lighter weight distro (MX-14 is the last distro I had installed before my laptop died). Other times, I might gravitate toward a heavier distro. (I had SuSE 13.1 installed prior to MX-14 but switched when my laptop started bogging down.)
My first distro was Mandrake 8.0 (Anyone remember it?), and one of things I liked best about it and miss most was that it allowed me to go through various categories of applications and install what I wanted from the install disc(s). While I know there are several distributions that allow for minimal installs, are there any that provide groupings of application types on the iso and allow you to choose during the installation without having to go online to this repository or that website? While I know bandwidth and disc storage are not a huge issue for many people (myself included), I would rather be able to install only what I want and be able to make those choices at the time of installation.
59 • Linux install CDs (by Carlos on 2015-03-13 14:36:43 GMT from Europe)
@58, Walt:
Oh my... that brings back some memories.
In the late 90's (probably, 1998) I've tried Red Hat Linux on an old 486 machine that I had laying around.
Red Hat came in 4 CDs, full of software to install. And big printed product manuals.
I don't remember what was the Red Hat version, but I do remember that the most known (at least to me) Linux distros at that time were Red Hat, Suse, Mandriva, Debian, Slackware. That was basically it.
60 • Wallpaper De Jour Linux (by cykodrone on 2015-03-13 15:50:31 GMT from North America)
@54 Maybe DW needs a more strict criteria for a distro to be listed on this site? For example, Wallpaper De Jour Linux should have at least one in-house coded unique or groundbreaking "appliance" that separates it from its 'parent'? If that criteria already exists, please disregard.
Here's another possible criteria, does Wallpaper De Jour Linux have its own repositories/mirrors or does it leech of its parent.
As the old saying goes, maybe it's time to separate the grownups from the kids.
I left Debian (my donation bucks follow me to the distro I use) because of systemd, I'll boycott it as long as there is an OS on this planet that refuses to use it.
61 • Same criteria as before (by M.Z. on 2015-03-13 22:37:19 GMT from Planet Mars)
@60
It seems obvious to me that DW should use the same criteria as before. I think they only track a tiny portion of all Linux 'Distros', especially if you count all the tiny one person projects on the web. I think I heard RMS or someone else who seemed authoritative say distros numbered in the thousands, plural, so the couple of hundred active Linux distros being tracked could easily be a tenth or less of all distros. Why bother to cut the list down any more when we only see such a tiny portion to begin with? Not every project wants to be on distrowatch anyway, though the wait list is nearly as long as the number of currently tracked distros. There is already a significant amount of gate-keeping here at DW. I Don't see it as an issue that too many of to few distros are tracked, I'd guess its more of an issue of resources needed to track all the projects while keeping fly by night distros that disappear from eating up time better spent updating other distro info. From what I can tell from the outside a decent balance seems to have been struck.
62 • Diversity and resources (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2015-03-13 22:45:48 GMT from North America)
At least there are some crowdfunding and bounty systems available. All-or-None Bounty Systems may become a good community support platform. One bounty system morphed into a "reverse-bounty" system…
(So much sneering and carping. Shame!)
Truth-in-labeling is appreciated - a remix/spin is not an independent distro. That said, if the work to produce one is not trivial, someone will appreciate at least a recipe, if not an iso. If it's offered on a Try-Before-You-Buy+Price-Is-Negotiable basis, why whine?
As I remember it, nobody bullied DebIan into systemd - they felt adequate to resist bug-dumping, didn't want to tackle supporting multiple process-control methods, and knew Linux_Is_Not_UniX, right?
63 • @53 (by Milo on 2015-03-14 02:04:36 GMT from Europe)
Debian GNU/Linux is Ubuntu's upstream, hence why Debian is mentioned as part of the "Based on" information for some distros like Zorin OS which are based on Ubuntu. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is not Fedora's upstream, Fedora is RHEL's upstream, hence why Fedora is mentioned as part of the "Based on" information for some distros like Springdale Linux which are based on RHEL.
I don't see the harm done. Perhaps the "Based on" information for a few distros like Scientific Linux and Oracle Linux could be expanded on to match.
64 • Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS, (by frodopogo on 2015-03-14 07:04:50 GMT from North America)
Ari, Alex,
"There's no accounting for taste", they say. At some point, you have to pick a "look" or style of some kind. That choice will be affected by your cultural background and other things, and it might not work for everyone, especially someone from a culture with a different esthetic sense. I probably won't use it for other reasons (problems with updates and software acquisition), but I enjoyed the fact that Manjaro is such a contrast with Mint, even with the same desktop. Manjaro is more flashy, Mint is more subtle. In different moods, I could like either. But if you like flashy, perhaps "subtle" seems drab and ugly to you.... or if you like subtle, flashy is garish and tasteless.
Also, there's constructive criticism, and criticism that is either mean spirited (trolling) or even if not mean spirited, by being less than helpful, it can easily be MISTAKEN for trolling. Last week, someone said Linux Mint was buggy- buggy HOW??? What kind, where, what version did you try? This week- Linux Mint is ugly? How? What's wrong? What desktop are you talking about? If you like Xubuntu, did you try Mint xfce??? Be sure you are comparing "apples to apples."
Perhaps you mentioned more specifics on the Mint Forums, but if you just said what you said here... well I see how it could be seen as less than helpful. Actually, it's not that helpful here either.... although I do recognize that each distro has it's fanboys, especially the popular ones. Admit it... you just went there to rile up the fanboys, didn't you? ;^D
There is also the phenomenon that some people just hate something that is popular or somewhat successful.
I'm glad to hear that PCLinuxOS is developing into a broader community!
65 • Mint ui (by Jordan on 2015-03-14 22:08:31 GMT from North America)
Commenting about the Mint ui being bland or whatever seems strange. Mint users can make the ui have any appearance wanted. Menus can be tweaked.
But you know that. You had another point to make, forgot what it was, but hopefully the Mint distro won't suffer loss of interest among distro hoppers because of that remark about the ui.
Wish I could post a screeny here. 3d transparent task bar and menus, etc. ;)
66 • @54 Linux Diversity (by Ben Myers on 2015-03-15 05:10:20 GMT from North America)
"Ubuntu with another wall paper." Yes. And let's not forget all the desktops, many of which claim to be lightweight without defining what lightweight is.
67 • @66 If you want lightweight desktop (by Frederic Bezies on 2015-03-15 09:16:15 GMT from Europe)
There are some choices : xfce (4.12 is a great release), lxde, lxqt or any openbox based desktop environment.
Or for old school users : Trinity :)
68 • @60 wallpaper du jour Linux and current flamewar technology (by Frederic Bezies on 2015-03-15 09:20:00 GMT from Europe)
I agree about your idea related to distributions which are only a wallpaper or an icon theme change. Just look at waiting list, you'll find a lot of them !
And for the flamewar technology : there are free BSDs, many gentoo based distributions or Slackware, void as far as I remember.
Number of Comments: 68
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| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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