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1 • httpd (by Billy Larlad on 2015-03-23 00:12:11 GMT from North America)
OpenBSD's new httpd is very nice. For my purpose it is plenty fast. I feel much more confident in using it than the previous http servers in base (apache and then nginx), if only because the configuration gives me very few ways to shoot myself in the foot.
2 • Linux Mint Debian (by Ari Torres on 2015-03-23 00:35:45 GMT from North America)
Clement please stay away from Debian IT IS NOT newbie friendly and it will have a negative impact on Mint, specially when it comes to PPA's
3 • Please think about XFCE for your donation (by ChiJoan on 2015-03-23 00:46:06 GMT from North America)
I have lately switched from LXDE and Gnome 2, I like its ability to use both Gnome and KDE applications. I think its global font size twinking, it should get an accessibility award of some kind. Speaking of Accessibility, why do so few Distros offer the Onscreen Keyboard, etc. option to log in with? You can see what I'm talking about on Zorin and Makulu, lately added to the later. Sorry if it is on others that I haven't tried or forgot about.
Also, what has caused some Linux Distros to become so picky on installing to older hard drives for testing out an install? It can also make recovery of both Linux \Home directories and Windows installed hard drives difficult, too.
I hope we can see some good comments on these items in the weeks ahead...
Thanks for Distrowatch...
Joan in Reno
4 • 2 • LMDE (by Somewhat Reticent on 2015-03-23 01:55:30 GMT from North America)
LMDE is clearly and appropriately labeled as "targeted at experienced users", "not recommended for novice users", "less mainstream", "not compatible with PPAs", and "harder to use and harder to find help for" - the usual contrast of a rolling release versus LTS.
It's not only appropriate, it's vital that Mint use this for development and testing in conjunction with the LTS model, same as it is for other distros.
Mint's humanizing work is also beneficial upstream.
5 • Linux Mint Debian (by toran on 2015-03-23 02:10:11 GMT from Europe)
LMDE is not Debian. The only trouble I had with Debian was FUSE refusing to regognise my external HD. For the rest, if you know the command line, Debian is great. As is Linux Mint. As is Ubuntu. I think LMDE is just a great addition to the Debian-family.
6 • midori (by toran on 2015-03-23 02:19:18 GMT from Europe)
Midori has no flash? I play all my flash-games on Facebook using Midori on Ubuntu 14.10. However, to my feeling Opera is the best gaming and html5 browser.
7 • 6 • No (proprietary) flash/codec in ISO (by Somewhat Reticent on 2015-03-23 02:33:08 GMT from North America)
("Midori has no flash?" - Not what Jesse wrote)
Distribution of proprietary software from within a police state like the US, Japan or Australia requires government support normally reserved for monopolies.
What you add later - from other sources - is up to you …
8 • LMDE (by M.Z. on 2015-03-23 06:12:02 GMT from Planet Mars)
Mint Debian, aka LMDE, has been around for some time now, so nothing new in terms of Mint using Debian for a base in one version. The difference is, as #4 hints at, LMDE will now be using a stable Debian base & rolling all the components that will be upgraded in future 17.x releases, at least from what I can tell. I used the old version but didn't like the mix of old snapshots of software on a semi rolling, but perpetually outdated, distro. I think the new version show lots of promise & helps maintain the independence of Mint by giving them other options if something goes too wrong with Ubuntu. I think the stable core & fresh desktops & other components should be a winner & should allow good testing of Cinnamon & other Mint software on other platforms before they come to the main edition.
9 • Linux Mint Debian (by Roy Davies on 2015-03-23 06:50:27 GMT from Europe)
I have been using Linux distros on a March 2003 build Acer TravelMate 2420 since the demise of Windows XP. After 18 months, I still consider myself a newbie.
As my Acer will only handle 32 bit architecture, I am disappointed with the number of developers who are insisting only supporting 64 bit. There are still a lot of older computers out there that Linux is keeping alive. Please, do not desert 32 bit.
I started, at the end of 2013, with Mint 15, then 16, and a number of other flavours. Then along came 14.04. Oh dear! For whatever reason, my laptop will not restart/shutdown from the menu with any distro based on 14.04. So far no-one has come up with an answer.
I went back to various 12.04 LTS variants, with and without 'respins' like LXLE, but felt I needed to consider the long term.
Then I tried Linux Mint Debian Edition. What a joy! I had been put off by the statements about 'not for newbies'. Absolute twaddle. LMDE is straightforward to install, stable, easy to update, comfortable to use, an absolute delight. I look forward to the final release of LMDE 2, 'Betsy'. Thank you to Clem and the Mint team. Keep up the good work and bring it on.
10 • Linux Mint Debian (by Ger on 2015-03-23 07:28:10 GMT from Europe)
@ Ari Torres - Not everyone is a newbie and it clearly states that LMDE is not as user friendly as the main edition and has had no negative impact on Mint at all. (It was first made available back in 2011)
11 • #2 LMDE (by zykoda on 2015-03-23 07:57:29 GMT from Europe)
Without being facetious, I would suggest the reverse.
12 • LMDE (by Beeza on 2015-03-23 10:10:22 GMT from Europe)
I am not a newbie but installed LMDE a year or so back without having read any of the "blurb" about it - in other words assuming it to be an equally supported alternative to the Ubuntu-based versions of Mint.
Installation was trouble-free, wi-fi worked out of the box and all the applications I need were in the repositories and worked fine. I'm a bit of a distro-hopper so I eventually moved on to Point Linux (conceptually similar to LMDE and a distro I would highly recommend) but I never had any problems with LMDE.
I think it's important that LMDE development continues as a contingency against a fundamental shift in the direction of Ubuntu.
13 • Bodhi/Enlightment (by Guido on 2015-03-23 11:45:20 GMT from Europe)
I just want to add, that also Manjaro Linux has a good Enlightment edition. It is based on the latest stable software. Manjaro is not so minimal as Bodhi, but offers Pamac or Octopi as software managers by default.
14 • LMDE Xfce Edition (by cinary on 2015-03-23 11:59:14 GMT from Europe)
For a long time I expect to LMDE Xfce Edition, but it will not appear. LMDE developers to think for the end user in mind and I do not understand why LMDE Xfce Edition is not developed ?
15 • LMDE; testing or stable (by zcatav on 2015-03-23 12:33:56 GMT from Europe)
If I remember correctly Mint was decided convert LMDE from testing to stable branch of Debian.
What happened? Why Mint choose stay testing?
16 • #15 LMDE (by Raksi on 2015-03-23 13:11:33 GMT from Europe)
"Why Mint choose stay testing?"
Because the next stable (Jessie) is still testing.
17 • @14 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-23 14:12:06 GMT from North America)
"For a long time I expect to LMDE Xfce Edition, but it will not appear. LMDE developers to think for the end user in mind and I do not understand why LMDE Xfce Edition is not developed ?"
You can always install the XFCE DE from Synaptic. I did it in Linux MInt 13 (Mate) and it runs perfectly. You may have to do a bit of setting up and customization but that's it.
18 • bodhi web based AP center (by Kyle on 2015-03-23 16:20:57 GMT from North America)
You, Jeff, state it should be easy to add new software. I believe you even say it is easy, then, you dock the app center
19 • LMDE (by cykodrone on 2015-03-23 16:45:06 GMT from North America)
Considering it's based on Debian = systemd creep = deal breaker. Lennart is not my master, or ever will be.
20 • @14 - LMDE XFCE (by Uncle Slacky on 2015-03-23 16:49:06 GMT from Europe)
The developers of the XFCE version of LMDE went off and started SolydX instead - http://solydxk.com/downloads/solydx/
21 • Can't reproduce issues with Synaptic on a clean Bodhi 3.0.0 Install (by Jeff Hoogland on 2015-03-23 17:22:27 GMT from North America)
Just wanted to share I am unable to reproduce your issues with Synaptic here on a clean Bodhi 3.0.0 install.
Launching Synaptic from Applications->Preferences->Synaptic brings up an eSudo launcher which opens Synaptic as root.
Screenshot: http://www.enlightenment.org/ss/e-55104af0805992.24005302.png
There is however a second launcher (which you seem to have found) that opens synaptic as a normal user so you can browse packages without entering a password. One improvement we could easily make is better distinguish between these two launchers.
We have no intention of adding a graphical package manager by default. Synaptic is listed on the AppCenter for those who need it and many have no use for it.
22 • continuation of above (by Kyle on 2015-03-23 17:23:18 GMT from North America)
... app center for being slow. Slow is not easy. Slow is a pace. I won't argue that easy access to the whole Ubuntu/Debian catalog is not readily available.
Also you, Jesse, commented on the red flash when hitting tab in the terminal. You realize that is just a simple visual indication that tab autocomplete for what you are typing is unavailable. For instance, if you are in your home directory and type cat fst (tab) to attempt to read the fstab file and you don't have a file in your home directory that starts with fst, the screen will flash red because tab cannot complete your request.
23 • Terminal flash (by Jesse on 2015-03-23 18:21:07 GMT from North America)
@22: I know why the red flash appears in the terminal. My point was it is a horrible design decision. If I'm tab-completing a file name six directories deep I could basically get a red-strobe light effect on my screen. The user's screen should only flash red in the case of a rare emergancy.
24 • Red Flashes of bash completion (by dbrion1 on 2015-03-23 18:36:24 GMT from Europe)
Well, if you try to bash complete and you are warned by some sound (usual default) whenever
a) you made a typo
or
b) there are many alternatives,
you can turn off the loudspeaker (and remain concentrated on your task).
OTOH, I cannot figure out what red flashes would do for people who often use bash completion and make typos....
25 • Development of Bodhi (by LarthKienzle on 2015-03-23 18:38:11 GMT from Planet Mars)
Past versions of Bodhi, I believe, used the E-17 desktop. They provided meta-packages in the web based App-Center which included several/many useful packages which were installed with a single click plus root authorization. I was a past fan of the Bodhi distro, and was glad to see Mr. Hoogland back at the helm of the project. The new Bodhi 3.0.0 uses an E-19 desktop which is beautiful, but there are not nearly as many theme packages available for E-19 yet. Also, the App-Center does not contain the meta-packages yet. I anticipate this situation will improve rapidly. Perhaps, Jeff Hoogland can confirm this. The E desktop does take some getting used to, but with a little practice, users will find it more than capable of providing an enjoyable desktop experience.
26 • Unity on other distributions than Ubuntu (by Carlos Kassab on 2015-03-23 18:48:46 GMT from North America)
Hello,
I think Unity is a good desktop, it is getting more stable every time, it improves the way I use applications but, without all the connection to undesired internet sites and, for me, it is a good idea to include Unity in other distributions.
27 • LMDE Xfce Edition (by cinary on 2015-03-23 19:23:21 GMT from Europe)
17. Comment ;
"You can always install the XFCE DE from Synaptic. I did it in Linux MInt 13 (Mate) and it runs perfectly. You may have to do a bit of setting up and customization but that's it."
My Answer ; It's not right what you are saying. I'm not talking about Xfce installation from Synaptic. I'm talking specifically about LMDE XfceEdition distro that is no longer developed.
As for the SolydX, the distribution is not mature at the time, still needs time to mature.
28 • XFCE availability (by mikef90000 on 2015-03-23 20:36:04 GMT from North America)
@27, I've used SolydX and I've found it to be very stable and attractively themed for a Debian based distro. Apparently due to personal time issues, the author has recently converted SolydXK to a Debian Jessie, 64 bit only base; it will be maintained as 'stable' although you can change the Debian repos if you prefer.
I've also tried the latest Bodhi release and found it very difficult to like. Besides the Enlightment quirks, I find dark themed desktops hard to navigate. At least with KXStudio I could rip out most of the KDE stuff and go with a rethemed XFCE.
29 • @21 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-23 21:59:12 GMT from North America)
"There is however a second launcher (which you seem to have found) that opens synaptic as a normal user so you can browse packages without entering a password. One improvement we could easily make is better distinguish between these two launchers."
I've seen this in other Linux versions too and always wondered why 2 Synaptics? I usually distinguish which one is root and pin it to my panel to avoid confusion. Or you can just sudo apt-get to do your installs.
30 • LMDE (by Chris on 2015-03-23 22:41:55 GMT from North America)
Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) clearly states that it is not intended for new users and that it lacks support for PPAs, so what's your problem? I think the switch from Debian Testing to Debian Stable for LMDE is a smart move as it delivers the best from both worlds: current, up-to-date software but a rock solid Debian Stable base. I used LMDE for several years and had no issues with it. But, I consider myself a bit more experienced having used Linux as my primary OS for the past 12 years. Recently I switched to Mint 17.1 (Ubuntu based) not because there were issues with LMDE but merely because the Ubuntu based version of Mint switched to using LTS version of Ubuntu as its rock solid base. Mint is a great distribution (maybe the greatest) and its community is bar none.
31 • Bohdi and lack of Synaptic Package Manager by Default (by Rev_Don on 2015-03-24 03:22:16 GMT from North America)
Releasing any Debian/Ubuntu based distro without the Synaptic Package Manager is a serious flaw, mistake, and oversight. The developer(s) can try to justify it till they're blue in the face, but they are just plain wrong. I don't care how easy it is to install it via Apt or some brain dead GUI software center, not including it by default is inexcusable. I would never use, nor recommend a distro that was that seriously flawed as it leaves the rest of the design choices in serious question. I would always wonder what other necessary and important features are missing.
32 • Bodhi E19'buntu (by Somewhat Reticent on 2015-03-24 05:06:58 GMT from North America)
Were Jesse's troubles due to development starting with a brand-new release, instead of a subsequent point-release? Ubuntu seems notorious for repeating omissions on new LTS releases, and fixing them (again) on the first or second point-release. You'd think that by now everyone would put work-arounds in their documentation for these, since fixing bugs in an LTS base "requires much testing" (not fun) and is unpopular.
The Enlightenment DE is notoriously efficient, and historically buggy. I don't envy the headaches involved in making it workable, much less the platform-churn. Still, it has retained its reputation for low RAM needs.
(Did Rev_Don (@31) not notice the word "minimalism" in their wiki? If their "AppCenter" suffices, as it may for newcomers, …)
33 • Re 32: Ubuntu LTS bugs (by hobbitland on 2015-03-24 09:50:09 GMT from Europe)
Yes, my experience is also that Ubuntu LTS releases are very buggy at first and gets better over time. Testing a Ubuntu LTS release, fixing or making workarounds for problems takes time. All this needs to be documented and of course I used to remaster Ubuntu 10.04 and 12.04.
Getting Gnome 3 fallback to work properly was a real pain in 12.04 but when that was dropped in 14.04 it was the last straw. The xubuntu spin also contains unity libraries as Canonical has patched a lot of libraries to include unity dependencies. Threat of MIR nightmare coming is another turn off!
I have switched to Debian 7 with XFCE on all my PCs and laptops. The only advantage of Ubuntu is the UEFI secure boot as the Debian 7 EFI does not work. I use the Ubuntu EFI boot files to boot Debian 7 on all my systems.
I include Isolinux, Syslinux & Ubuntu EFI on my remastered debianlive ISO file, and use UNETBOOTIN to make bootable USB sticks. I have never come across a single BIOS or UEFI system that does not boot my Debian 7 USB stick.
Ubuntu is buggy but they have the best UEFI boot. I cannot boot Debian using Fedora EFI boot files.
34 • LMDE stable or testing (by zcatav on 2015-03-24 10:22:15 GMT from Europe)
"Because the next stable (Jessie) is still testing."
Mint says as follow;
-----from Mint web--------
LMDE is less mainstream than Linux Mint, it has a much smaller user base, it is not compatible with PPAs, and it lacks a few features. That makes it a bit harder to use and harder to find help for, so it is not recommended for novice users.
LMDE is however slightly faster than Linux Mint and it runs newer packages. Life on the LMDE side can be exciting. There are no point releases in LMDE 2, except for bug fixes and security fixes base packages stay the same, but Mint and desktop components are updated continuously. When ready, newly developed features get directly into LMDE 2, whereas they are staged for inclusion on the next upcoming Linux Mint 17.x point release. Consequently, Linux Mint users only run new features when a new point release comes out and they opt-in to upgrade to it. LMDE 2 users don’t have that choice, but they also don’t have to wait for new packages to mature and they usually get to run them first. It’s more risky, but more exciting.
------from Mint web------------/
It doesn't mean Mint will be stable.
35 • The trouble with Unity (by vt on 2015-03-24 12:13:35 GMT from North America)
Is that it's very difficult to customize, in the sense that you can't do much of anything with the panel and the launcher is stuck where it's stuck. Whenever I used to visit Ubuntuforums and check out their screenshots (in the pre-Unity days) the creativity was incredible. You might never guess you were looking at the old gnome desktop. Nowadays, every desktop looks like Shuttleworth's Desktop -- yawn. This one is grey. That one is brown. This one has pretty icons, but... yawn. It's Shuttleworth's desktop. Unity is a straitjacket -- less customizable than Windows. My sense is that folks make their own distros because they like to tweak, change and, in their opinion, improve. Unity makes that very hard. Makulu had to put a little Cairo Dock button down at the bottom left. Strikes me as an awkward and ugly solution (despite the happy talk). Unity may be good for mobile apps, but I don't want my desktop to look like Shuttleworth's and my work habits and aesthetic preferences depart from Shuttleworth's. There are other ditros, using far more flexible desktops like KDE & XFCE, that offer what I want. Makulu's Unity is still Shuttleworth's desktop.
36 • Re: 31 (by Jeff Hoogland on 2015-03-24 13:22:40 GMT from North America)
A lot of people have zero use for synaptic and it is extra clutter. Those that want it can easily install it in a few clicks on the AppCenter.
37 • @31 36 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-24 15:39:06 GMT from North America)
"Releasing any Debian/Ubuntu based distro without the Synaptic Package Manager is a serious flaw, mistake, and oversight."
Like Jeff says it's an easy install. If you like distros that come loaded with software you can download Pinguy or if you want to get crazy Ultimate Edition. I like the Bodhi approach where it is minimal and you can go get the software you want, which includes Synaptic if desired.
38 • LMDE will be Debian Jessie / Synaptic (by M.Z. on 2015-03-24 16:22:49 GMT from Planet Mars)
@34
There are more details from the Linux Mint blog:
"...it was decided that LMDE would adopt a frozen release cycle (just like Linux Mint) based on Debian Jessie. This new LMDE was given version “2” and codename “Betsy”. Just like Linux Mint, it will keep the same base for a couple of years until one day we start talking about “LMDE 3″."
See here under the heading "What is Betsy":
http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2015/02/about-betsy/
This means, as I indicted above, LMDE will use the next Debian stable as a base & roll certain components on it like new desktops. This means the new LMDE will also be something of a semi-rolling distro like the old one; however, instead of using snapshots to roll all the software in the distro only select components will be rolling, while the rest will be stable like the rest of Debian Jessie. This has been the plan for awhile now, & I for one look forward to trying LMDE 2 out when it's released.
@31 & 32
I think Synaptic is a fairly light software installing tool, & not installing it by default means you can't get to all packages with the GUI. I'd call that something of an oversight, though it doesn't necessarily mean the whole distro is bad. They did make a bit of a poor choice, but they offered a substitute in their online AppCenter, so it really come down to a matter of preference. I do think lacking a GUI software solution for installing all packages is a bad decision, but everything is still workable so it isn't a horrible decision.
39 • @38 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-24 16:38:43 GMT from North America)
"I think Synaptic is a fairly light software installing tool, & not installing it by default means you can't get to all packages with the GUI. I'd call that something of an oversight, though it doesn't necessarily mean the whole distro is bad."
I guess it depends on who you are targeting. A noob may have issues but opening a terminal and typing sudo apt-get Synaptic takes about 30 seconds and it's done.
40 • 38 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-24 16:42:37 GMT from North America)
"I for one look forward to trying LMDE 2 out when it's released."
I've been playing with Mate RC in Virtualbox and it looks pretty good.
41 • @35 Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-24 19:22:43 GMT from Africa)
@35, We have done a lot more than put a dock button at the bottom. the video distrowatch linked is VERY VERY old, no idea why they did not link the latest video, i did send them a link yesterday already, i see they still have not changed it. I suggest you go check out the latest Alpha 2.2 video. A LOT has changed on the build since the above video ... think it may shock you a little what i was able to do on unity. the latest video is on the makulu website.
42 • Gnome 3.16 notifications (by SilentSam on 2015-03-24 19:23:54 GMT from North America)
It will be interesting to see how the new Gnome handles notifications. This was a huge point of failure for me in previous releases, as the granular control for most notification seemed very broken. I was never able to properly mute Evolution notifications, for instance, and the stacking behaviour in the message bar failed me as well.
If this is fixed in Gnome 3.16, then my Debian workstation will see a very beneficial upgrade hopefully soon.
43 • @41 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-24 19:58:00 GMT from North America)
That looks amazing Jacque!
I'm assuming the Unity panel is locked and cannot be moved, correct?
Also as far as browsers have you had a chance to look at Vivaldi? I know it's still an Alpha but so far it look promising.
44 • @41 (by vt on 2015-03-24 21:05:21 GMT from North America)
Okay, I found the updated link. I think the wallpaper is beautiful. I like it. I like Makulu's design aesthetics & am severely tempted by your other offerings, but as for Unity. My critique solely regards Unity, not Makulu or the good selection of software you're offering. But in terms of the desktop, you've now you've got three different clocks telling you the time (10:16, by the way). Top right in the panel, Conky on the desktop, and then the calendar lower right. Seems to me you ought to just pick one.
And to remedy some of Unity's negatives, we've now got buttons, buttons buttons, top right, the launcher/dock on the left, and bottom right and bottom left. And still there's Unity which, since it's apparently not amenable to the customization you prefer, forces you to pile on all the bric-a-brac. Your XFCE and KDE offerings are comparatively elegant and streamlined, in my opinion. I wish you could make the customizations that would much improve Unity without having to "add" to Unity, if you know what I mean; but that seems to be the trouble with Unity (if one prefers a flexible desktop).
45 • @44 Makulu unity (by jacque on 2015-03-24 21:37:02 GMT from Africa)
Well, let me address you one at time :
1. Clocks : the top panel clock, the wallpaper clock controled by variety ( not conky ) and the bottom panel clock, may all seem like overkill. However, most users will disable variety, leaving only the top and bottom clocks. which means if you looking up or down, you see the time when you want to see it, I really dont see that as overkill... and did you see the AWESOME calendar app i added to left click bottom clock ?
2. Unfortunately, Unity itself is not as customization as most would like it to be, everyone wants the side panel to be moved, removed etc etc... this is undo-able, even in source code, it is not a separate entity anymore but part of the unity desktop, even if mark shuttleworth himself wanted to move or remove the side panel, he would have to rewrite half of the unity source code in order to do it.
3. which brings me to my final point. Instead of seeing the negative aspects of unity, I found myself wondering, how do i take something negative and make it useful ? And this is where the 3 panel system idea came into play, instead of having the usual 3 or 4 favorites icons in bottom panel, I created a new bottom panel that does not interfere with your normal desktop, in fact when not in use it fades into background, blends with wallpaper, and when needed pops up nicely. instead of having the favorites on bottom panel and cluttering the system, i turned the side panel in a favorites panel, you can add MANY icons to it because it is scrollable, and i reduced the size of that panel but less than half of its original size. So now you have a side favorites panel using very little space, allowing you to access all your most used apps by simple moving mouse left, bottom panel controlling a proper menu, window list, update manager notifications, clock and calendar. and top panel for indicators.
the system from afar may interesting but still doubtful ? but when using it i assure you it runs like a dream ... and even if you aren't a unity fan, i urge you to at least try it for the sake of having the benifit of saying you at least gave it a shot, no need to install it, live mode is more than enough.
For the unity fans out there, surely you can see how this will blow their minds ? they have been begging for some of these features and their requests have been ignored ...
46 • @45 Makulu unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-24 21:56:31 GMT from Africa)
Sorry to double Post.
but i have just made a new video of Makulu Unity desktop ( just entered beta 1 ), and i cant post links here, dont want to break the rules. but head to the makulu website and youll find it on front page... see for yourself what i was speaking about above. See how nicely it flows...
47 • Makulu Unity (by Mark on 2015-03-24 23:33:47 GMT from North America)
@45
I just watched the video and it's very impressive! I use Ubuntu with Unity - yes, I really like it and for me it seems very productive - and your video really makes me want to download and try Makulu. And I really appreciate your further development/enhancement of Unity. Good job!
48 • Bodhi for old hardware & @28 SolydX (by Tuna_130 on 2015-03-24 23:47:08 GMT from Europe)
Bodhi runs ok on my Pentium III with 384 MB ram, now that's legacy support..! My options are JWM, IceWM etc but Bodhi has the looks! Also a great convincer distro for recycling former Win-XP machines.
SolydX 32 bit can still be used. Download: http://downloads.solydxk.com/solydx/solydx32_201411.iso
This is the version from Nov 2014, but just update after install, and read the instructions on SolydX forum.
New SolydX 32 bit beta version here: http://forums.solydxk.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=5359
49 • old hardware, 32-bit, MX-14.4 (by Hoos on 2015-03-25 05:37:33 GMT from Asia)
MX-14.4 has just been released:
Debian Wheezy base but with updated packages of key apps, plus the new XFCE 4.12. Their suite of GUI MX tools/utilities is excellent.
Version 14.4 has also improved on the aesthetics - although you're still not going to get desktop effects, fancy themes and wallpaper, or the latest trendy icon sets. Users can always change these themselves.
More importantly, CPU and RAM consumption are excellent compared to other XFCE distros (see the Blogspot review linked to in the antiX/MX distrowatch page for the comparison figures, albeit for an earlier version of MX-14).
MX works well on older machines - I have it on an old 32-bit desktop and netbook. And if you run this on a newer machine, whether 32 or 64-bit, it really flies.
50 • @49 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-25 11:51:55 GMT from North America)
"Version 14.4 has also improved on the aesthetics - although you're still not going to get desktop effects, fancy themes and wallpaper, or the latest trendy icon sets. Users can always change these themselves.
You can always download kde-window-manager and systemsettings from synaptic then run kwin --replace to get desktop effects. I've done this on quite a few xfce desktops and it works beautifully.
51 • LMDE Xfce Edition - cinary (by Alex on 2015-03-25 12:12:20 GMT from Europe)
@ 14
> For a long time I expect to LMDE Xfce Edition, but it will not appear. <
There are enough Debian Xfce distros available. Some are based on Debian Testing repos, so you'd be having sort of a rolling distro. Why not check in Sourceforge? Ask uncle google for an elegant Debian Testing based distro...
52 • @14 @51 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-25 12:54:59 GMT from North America)
"Why not check in Sourceforge? Ask uncle google for an elegant Debian Testing based distro...
"
Or just use the search filtrer here at Distrowatch
http://distrowatch.com/search.php
53 • MakuluLinux Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-25 17:26:34 GMT from Africa)
Ive had quite a bit of backlash about adding a third panel and wasting space ... while people see the appeal of a bottom panel in unity, they seem concerned that space is wasted. This has forced me to dive into the code and come up with some out of the box thinking to force a new feature never done before in any dock ...
well, no way to explain other than show you in a video, check makulu homepage to see what im talking about, another nice little feature ubuntu unity users will appreciate :)
54 • MakuluLinux (by wolf on 2015-03-25 17:54:22 GMT from Europe)
Congrats Jacque your Desktop does look nice I'll look into it myself as soon I got some spare time.
Don't toot your own horn too much the calender is Osmo? right nothing one couldn't get with a few clicks on any Distribution known to man, I admit the integration is very nice.
I have one question as you mentioned variety (instead of conky) I'm intrigued cause in ancient times conky and I parted ways cause it had memory leaks so that I had to automatically shut it down and restart it every hour. Is Variety foolproof. (cause I'm a fool you know)
Thx in advance Wolf
55 • @54 Makulu Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-25 18:04:14 GMT from Africa)
Well, you just said it didn't you, isn't the point of unity all about integration ? that is what makes the whole OS. so everything i have done is based around the concept that if you have your current window open, busy with work, that you can access almost anything on your PC without needing to interrupt your work, and this is due to integration capabilities ... Osmo on its own is just a nice app, but where have you ever seen it so easily accessible ? just click the clock and you have it on your screen ...
To answer your question, Variety is not a conky based application, it is a wallpaper changer, and the best there is by a clear mile, it also allows you to put a clock and quotes on the desktop as bonus added feature. which is what you see on Makulu Editions. the wallpaper changer icon you can see in our video's, its the little square icon with what looks like a wave inside it.
56 • Choice in Unity (by Somewhat Reticent on 2015-03-25 18:51:31 GMT from North America)
What Jacque is doing with Unity is certainly intriguing, and demonstrates clearer thinking than some.
I like to control the auto-hiding or fading of a top or bottom strip(panel/dock) more than a side strip, especially on a wide-screen display, and might flip the criteria from his recent video's behavior.
I haven't had to adapt to a touch-screen (yet), and that would likely expand my perspective.
57 • Makulu Unity by Jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-25 19:49:45 GMT from Europe)
Unity is Unity whatever additions and deletion we do, you just can't make the top panel auto hide. Most of the laptops in the market are 768X1366, so the screen area is very important. If you can find a way to auto hide the top panel, Unity would be very useful. I've been using Unity from its beginning. I liked the Unity 2D, and the earlier Unity 3D, before they scrambled it. See whether you could unscramble Unity.
58 • @57 (by Jacque on 2015-03-25 19:55:46 GMT from Africa)
I don't understand why you want to hide the top panel ? the top panel becomes the titlebar panel, without it how do you control your open app ? and if you are speaking about when app is not in full screen then what does the top panel matter since you obviously don't need the extra space or else you would full screen app ? I find a lot of flaws in unity, but autohide top panel is not one of them.
Any desktop environemt you have, you cannot autohide the titlebar of an app, once app is open on screen the titlebar is always visiable, therefore that top space is always being used when app is full screen.
If your arguement was about being unable to move or remove the side panel, then yes i would fully agree with you, stupid move on their part.
59 • @53 (by vt on 2015-03-25 20:02:01 GMT from North America)
I went to your homepage and checked out the latest video (I think, Beta 1?). I was pleased to note at what time you started the video in three different locations ~ 22:43. But I kid. I *will* download your Unity version and try it out.
That said: It seems to me that if any maker of a distro using Unity really wants to create a unique Unity desktop, the way to do it isn't by adding Cairo dock (another dock) or any other resource-using piece of software. The way to do it, which is perhaps too difficult(?), is to actually modify the code -- the way Unity works. (And maybe, again, this is why Unity doesn't show up much in other distros.) Put that menu button in the Unity launcher, and the calendar too. Modify the launcher -- not drastically, but give it the touches that will differentiate the actual "Unity" experience from Ubuntu's. Add minimize capabilities to the launcher's buttons, for example. The trick to do it is already out there, but make it standard in your distro (for example).
Anyway, Jessie asked readers to speculate on why Unity doesn't appear in more distros. The work to customize it requires more than simply adding or removing software, or tweaking it in the pre-established ways permitted by XFCE or KDE.
60 • @59 Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-25 20:25:40 GMT from Africa)
The problem with the side panel which everyone's main focus as said before, it is not longer a separate entity or separate piece of code you can simply edit. it is part of the main unity desktop code, completely integrated.... to make any changes on side panel you'd have to rewrite half of unity itself, it is referenced and integrated EVERYWHERE, and i use caps to really stress how integrated it is... so that option is not viable at all, because of the high risk that any patch from ubuntu that slips through would undo MANY months of work in just mere seconds ... not to mention the sheer amount of work it will take to make those changes in first place. there was actually an article somewhere where mark shuttleworth spoke about the side panel and he himself said it will take an incredible amount of work to gives users the ability to remove or move side panel because it is now part of the main unity code.
Is unity perfect ? No its not. Is makulu unity perfect ? far from it. But it does build on strengths and does improve on weaknesses of Unity itself and it greatly enhances the user experience with unity.
My goals were simple with this build :
1. Make it faster
2. Make it stable
3. Make it prettier
4. Make it more usable
5. Don't hold back.
one of the testers uses Makulu unity on an old Dv4 laptop, he has repeatedly expressed how smooth it runs on that laptop, original unity is sluggish, so already nailed number 1, 2,3,4 and 5 followed suit.
I am simply trying to offer variety, not compete with ubuntu.
61 • @ 58, 60 jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-25 21:17:11 GMT from Europe)
>Any desktop environment you have, you cannot autohide the titlebar of an app, once app is open on screen the titlebar is always visible, therefore that top space is always being used when app is full screen.<
You can hide the title bar in Firefox. There is an Add-on for that. When you have just 768 pixels, that's really good thing. If you want to read books with Calibre, Unity's top panel wastes at least one line. There's even an extension to make the top panel autohide in Gnome. In KDE, LXDE, Mate or XFCE, autohiding the panels is default.
Unity's side panel can be autohidden. There is absolutely no need of an extra bottom panel for Unity.
62 • @61 (by Jacque on 2015-03-25 22:40:46 GMT from Africa)
Maybe i should have been more clear, I wasn't refering to third party addons :) since those tend to break from time to time leaving you to rely on a separate developer to fix it while users fill your forums frustrated with bug reports waiting 2 days with no working top panel ... This is also why i have stayed away from gnome development for so long, any single major update gnome does breaks half the plugins... Huge flaw in gnome 3.
As a user it is fine to rely on such things, but as a developer it is a risk, because everytime a extension or plugin breaks your project is called unstable, you develop for general public, not yourself... But either way, there is no such plugin or extension for unity, so this debate is pointless.
As for the bottom panel needed remark, i beg to differ, I posted a youtube clip on nothing but the bottom panel and within an hour it has over 300 views ... i dont even have a hundred followers. my website chat channel talks of almost nothing else as do facebook groups, so clearly majority think otherwise.
63 • @61 (by Jacque on 2015-03-25 23:23:17 GMT from Africa)
Sorry for the double post, but i reread your comment, and it is clear to me you have not watched any of my latest videos, you are purely commenting to thinking i added a simple bottom panel, when i have done So much more than that, this panel is not your typical everyday bottom dock. I recommend you check out the youtube videos, maybe you will understand why i chose to add a bottom panel to the system.. i know a comment from a man who hasn't seen my work, and id recognize a general observation anywhere.
64 • Unity (by Eddie on 2015-03-26 04:46:21 GMT from North America)
For people who doesn't think that Unity can be modified they need to check out the Unity Tweak Tool. it has a lot of options.
65 • Unity (by M.Z. on 2015-03-26 07:18:46 GMT from Planet Mars)
I think Unity as a DE has done more harm than good. It does offer a more reasonable alternative to Gnome 3 from a basic design perspective; however, that is the only thing it seems to do well besides adding ever more keyboard commands & keyboard driven features. Such keyboard features could potentially be useful, as could a common design theme across smart phone & desktop platforms. The problem is it takes the things Linux always did really well & turns them on their head. It has damaged user privacy & the Linux reputation for trustworthy computing, & it has removed most basic customization by default. I think the comment about 'even if Shuttle worth wanted to change...' the side bar is very telling. The fact is Unity was not designed to customize easily, & as such it is not the do it your own way FOSS desktop that users had come to expect, but is instead the vision of Canonical designers. Sure you an add a hack or mod on after the fact, but the tweak tool is integrated & reliable in desktops like KDE & Cinnamon.
I think Unity simply breaks to many of the things I like about Linux to ever be useful to me, & I really actively dislike it because of the privacy thing. I don't even understand why anyone would actively seek out Unity given the fact that it has been so bad for the sort of less informed beginner Linux users that Ubuntu generally targets. I use Linux in part because I'm a conscientious consumer who doesn't want to feed the duopoly of Windows & Mac, which are both bad actors in my opinion. Why treat a Canonical product as a viable alternative while it's still as bad for users as the other top alternatives? I know things are supposed to change, but until that happens Canonical & their products are still actively hurting user privacy & as such anything Ubuntu or Unity is toxic to me. If & when Canonical does the right thing I may play with their DE just to try it; however, it still goes to against the grain of what I want & expect from an open source DE, so I can't see ever liking it.
66 • Unity DE #61, 62 (by Alex on 2015-03-26 07:59:30 GMT from Europe)
I didn't say I don't like Unity DE. I've bee using Unity from its first appearance--I wrote that in my first post on Unity in this page. My only grudge with it is that I can't auto hide the top panel. In its vanilla status, Ubuntu had been very good to me.
I have watched you video. You have lot of stuff put in on the vanilla Debian or Ubuntu, which are also Add-ons, that is, you are adding apps, background photos, etc. I did the same thing, when I add or subtract any apps in my Debian or Ubuntu Vanilla distros. Right now I am using 15.04 fully updated and upgraded, of course not anymore vanilla Ubuntu. Well, I'd download and check your distro to check your bottom panel, but still I say, there is no need for a bottom panel in Unity, hmm...maybe, if one could make the side panel move to the bottom.
By the way, try Ubuntu 15.04 daily.
67 • 65 • Unity by M.Z. (by Alex on 2015-03-26 08:10:11 GMT from Europe)
> The fact is Unity was not designed to customize easily, <
> I don't even understand why anyone would actively seek out Unity given the fact that it has been so bad for the sort of less informed beginner Linux users that Ubuntu generally targets. <
Well, the majority of the computer users in this planet usually use very few apps in everyday life, so the operating system must give them that choice, without any headaches. A few of us use a bit more apps, and very little group of us would love to tinker with the OSs, and they are usually the whiners. Tinkering with distros are getting less and less nowadays.
68 • Unity Interface (by hvralpha on 2015-03-26 09:28:14 GMT from Africa)
I am primarily a user of a range of different software systems including Ubuntu, Windows, XFCE and others. It took me some time to get used to Unity in Ubuntu. I now really like the interface on my desktop computer. It is quick, I can find most programs I use instantly and it is out of the way. I use 2 or 3 programs most of the time and Ubuntu allows me to use 2 side by side.
In Windows 8 every program occupies the whole screen when you open them up. You can also move programs side by side but is an effort.
Unity is the best Linux interface there is in my opinion and Ubuntu must continue its development and inclusion in their packages.
I wrote this because I see a lot of Unity bashing on the internet. I am not a Ubuntu contributor or have any links to them.
69 • Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-26 11:09:28 GMT from Africa)
for people that hate unity so much, explain why it still remains the top dog and most widely used distro in the world ? and i am not talking about distrowatch rankings, those mean nothing really, most of those are driven by bots.
If unity is so bad, why is majority of users still using it ?
70 • Unity (by scrumtime on 2015-03-26 11:55:36 GMT from North America)
I guess a lot of people use Unity because it comes on the OS (Ubuntu) which is probably how many people start on Linux...That or Mint...many new users hardly know what a customizable Desktop is... a lot of Older users like myself started only using fluxbox or similar ..I did venture into Gnome2 and KDE early in their inception but still to this day i would rather have a Box type DM..I do have XFCE soley for Marital bliss....
I have never been a Ubuntu user.. though recently a friend let me use Unity and I was a bit lost with it all...didn't seem to be at all logical...and he has since changed over to Mate..
71 • Q69 : is majority relevant in technical matters? (by dbrion on 2015-03-26 13:28:20 GMT from Europe)
If unity is so bad, why is majority of users still using it ?
s:unity:microsoft:
72 • @71 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-26 13:57:13 GMT from North America)
"If unity is so bad, why is majority of users still using it ?"
People use it because Ubuntu is considered the more"popular" Linux OS. One way to look at it is like fast food and McDonalds. When you think fast food you think McDonalds but everyone knows they have the worst hamburgers and there are hundreds of other fast food restaurants to get a better burger. So you have Ubuntu and Unity but then you have hundreds of other Linux operating systems running xfce, lxde, openbox, mate etc. which are far better than Unity IMO.
73 • MakuluLinux Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-26 14:03:24 GMT from Africa)
The above may be true of the default unity, i wont speak ill of it... still, a lot of people use it, therefore there is a market for an improved version. Just because some don't like it, does not mean i should not build a better version of it. Makulu offers Xfce, Cinnamon, KDE and now Unity as well. The Makulu users can decide themselves which Edition suits them best.
Makulu Unity Desktop has no ads, no paid services, improves a lot of the weaknesses the current unity suffers from, not just the visual elements, but a lot of back end as well... And as i said before, most of my testers have been around in the linux world a long, long time, aged 50 - 70+ and most use Xfce as their main default system, and every one of them has praised the build so far when none of them had to, and that is saying a lot.
Quote of the day by one of the Makulu Testers :
"You know this unity is so good ... when it installs that I may give up Xfce after 6 years.." - referring to Makulu unity beta version.
74 • MakuluLinux Unity (by Bill on 2015-03-26 14:24:07 GMT from North America)
@73 Let your work speak for itself.
75 • @74 (by Jacque on 2015-03-26 14:39:14 GMT from Africa)
its all ive been saying the whole time. but you get the guys throwing out general comments bashing it before its even released...
instead of just being descent and saying its not for me, or ill try it and see, you have to get stuff thrown in your face, but i guess in many ways that is why linux remains behind Windows... no unity in the community at large at all, and so set in their ways that they refuse to try anything new or move forward.
76 • @ 73 • Unity (by Alex on 2015-03-26 16:50:59 GMT from Europe)
>The above may be true of the default unity, i wont speak ill of it... still, a lot of people use it, therefore there is a market for an improved version. Just because some don't like it, does not mean i should not build a better version of it.<
Please do, Jacque. You are very welcome to do it. Only, you'd be able to do that, if you can unscramble Unity. I don't think it can be unscrambled.
I had been using Unity, since it first appeared, while you had been with Debian and didn't want to do anything with Ubuntu, stating how bad is Ubuntu. Those days, we had Unity 2D and Unity, which we could break into, delete the left panel, bring the left panel to bottom, just have the Dash only etc. Then, after Ubuntu 12.04, Unity was scrambled.
At the beginning, I was angry too, but later I understood the idea behind scrambling Unity by Ubuntu. Everyone was saying something against Unity. Many, who whine are the users of other OSs. You just couldn't install (or port) Unity on them, not even on Debian. Ubuntu became special, very special.
People, who cloned Ubuntu and "created" their "better" distros, most times living off vanilla Ubuntu also whined. Some went on to create other DEs to stay in the market. Since 14.04, some developers had stopped releasing corresponding distros with 14.10, and would have hard time with up coming 15.04.
The nice part is there is Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu-Gnome, Ubuntu-Mate etc, and you can easily have Ubuntu-Cinnamon, Ubuntu-Pantheon, Ubuntu-Bugie etc, with just apt-get install or using a ppa.
> Quote of the day by one of the Makulu Testers :
"You know this unity is so good ... when it installs that I may give up Xfce after 6 years.." - referring to Makulu unity beta version. <
No, pal, I won't give up Xfce, for it is one of the nicest DEs around. We can do a lot of things with Xubuntu, we can add Kwin and have eye candy.
Install Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu-Gnome, Ubuntu-Mate 15.04 daily and check them. You are just too late with Ubuntu & Unity. There is a very nice Ubuntu 14.04 remix with all the eye-candy. I won't give the link here--as you said not to break rules. This distro has a name, but the developers state that it is a remix. They have been doing this from Ubuntu 11.10, and their 12.04 release was a gem!
77 • More Unity thoughts (by M.Z. on 2015-03-26 18:42:12 GMT from Planet Mars)
@69
Isn't that basically the lemming argument? Haven't you heard the 'if they jump off a bridge...' retort? I for one think the Syfy movie sharknado looks like a flaming piece of garbage of a movie & won't watch it ever, even if I like other things on the Syfy channel & it was their most watched movie ever. I feel no compunction about not going with the heard, & it's one of the reasons I ended up on Linux in the first place. All that being said I also like choice & the variety offered by Linux, so one more DE choice for any distro isn't necessarily a bad thing. One of the main things I'm responding to is the question in DW "Do you think more distributions should make Unity spins available to their users?", to which I clearly say, not until they fix the spyware issue. I'm not interested in the current versions of Unity & think many of the design features in it are bad, but if they ever fix the spyware issues it'll just be another DE to me.
Another problem I find in Unity is that the main menu/dash is a horrendous piece of garbage as a GUI menu that induces another round of excess mouse travel & clicking every time you open it. I even suspect it was designed to be so bad that people would just use the search feature rather than do all that excess clicking & mouse hunting, & given the spyware issues in the current version of Ubuntu that would be profitable for Canonical. Perhaps I'm just cynical in thinking that was all part of a plan, but it's one of the things that makes me really actively dislike Unity. There are other bad menus of course, & while I like KDE in general & think their Kickoff menu is better than the Dash, I think it's fairly bad too. I think Gnome 3 in getting worse for the same reason, things are taking more clicks & mouse travel to do as time goes on & yet they claim it's improving, what a joke. I think a good DE should feature quick & easy GUI options that are competitive with searches in terms of time & hassle to launch a program, & doing that is really as simple as minimizing mouse clicks & travel.
If Canonical ever removes the spyware from the Dash & makes it work better as a GUI I might try Unity in another distro like Makulu just to see how good it is, but until then I don't see anything useful about Unity. I've got nothing against Makulu in particular just Unity, & I could see myself trying both together if the DE changed to my satisfaction. If fact if I ever try Unity again it would probably be on something like Makulu rather than on straight Ubuntu, given how I feel about Canonical's actions on user privacy up to now. I guess the combination of Unity + an Ubuntu alternative could be a good thing in the future, but I don't see myself using anything Unity anytime soon despite the good intentions any distro makers independent of Canonical who offer Unity.
78 • @73 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-26 19:29:49 GMT from North America)
Jacque, I'm talking about Ubuntu's Unity, not yours. I've watched the videos and will download the Beta this weekend. From what I've seen in the videos your Unity looks really good and you are right, I haven't seen anyone else try to improve Unity like you have done.
79 • @36 and (by Rev_Don on 2015-03-26 20:12:31 GMT from North America)
"A lot of people have zero use for synaptic and it is extra clutter. Those that want it can easily install it in a few clicks on the AppCenter."
I don;t doubt that some people have no use for Synaptic, but I'm not one of them nor are any of the other Linux users I know. And as I already stated in my original post I know that it's easy to install. I just can't understand why anyone would think it's a good idea to not include it by default. The AppCenter is no substitute for Synaptic.
"Like Jeff says it's an easy install. If you like distros that come loaded with software you can download Pinguy or if you want to get crazy Ultimate Edition. I like the Bodhi approach where it is minimal and you can go get the software you want, which includes Synaptic if desired."
Where did I say I want, or even like a distro that comes loaded with software? Except for a LiveCD type distro (and I normally use Knoppix for that) I actually prefer somewhat stripped down distros. All I really want and need by default is Xorg and a DE (normally either XFCE or Mate), a full featured GUI package manager like Synaptic, a text editor, file manager, terminal, and web browser and I will take it from there as I normally have to uninstall all of the crap most distros include by default. Most XFCE distros ship with Abiword which I have to replace with LibreOffice. I don't want or use Java so that has to go. I could go on and on but why bother. All I need are the essentials that I listed above.
Linux is about choice. If you create a distro and put it out there for the world you have to accept that some people aren't going to like some of the design choices you have made. I have a right to express what I don't like about a distro which I did. I didn't get mean about it or attack anyone personally. My opinion is logical and does have merit even if you don't agree with it.
80 • @78 Jaws222 (by Alex on 2015-03-26 21:06:49 GMT from Europe)
Try Uncle Google "oz unity sourceforge" and then find Oz Sapphire 64 or just click download.
81 • Makulu Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-26 21:51:33 GMT from Africa)
Uhm, i dont understand why assumptions are being made that because someone else is doing a "remix" as you called it, I should not develop on unity ?I'm to late for what ? Im not competing with anyone. its like saying "the wheel has been invented, whats the point in trying to improve it ?" - its a stupid argument.
And for the record, I don't consider my release a Remix, its an ugly word and its used to describe a os that has basically just been themed different with different wallpapers...
I climb into the code, I make my own themes, make my own interfaces, even with adding cairo dock i get into the dirty code, the makulu constructor you see, i got into that code as well, same with installer and everything else. this is not just simply a default untiy with some nice themes and wallpapers... its hard work and that is why its getting the attention its getting on youtube.
Makulu Unity is what it is, you can love it or hate it, but you can never say that hard work hasn't gone into making it.
I think a lot of people tend to sometimes forget i am one guy who develops on makulu, and i have multiple editions to maintain, I work late into nights every single day, slave labor brings these editions...
82 • Xiph.org (by Johannes on 2015-03-26 21:51:43 GMT from Europe)
This donation to Xiph.org is an EXCELLENT news - they deserve it. Have been using ogg and flac for many, many years and I'm really happy that they are becoming more widely recognized.
I have been reading Distrowatch for years and really, I don't know of any other project that makes donations in this way. It is admirable, long life to DistroWatch :-)
83 • 81 • Makulu Unity by Jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-26 23:24:45 GMT from Europe)
>Uhm, i dont understand why assumptions are being made that because someone else is doing a "remix" as you called it, I should not develop on unity<
Because, you just can't unscramble Unity, that's why. You can add/change some code, but you just can't unscramble Unity, as Ubuntu won't allow you to do that.
>I climb into the code, I make my own themes, make my own interfaces, even with adding cairo dock i get into the dirty code, the makulu constructor you see, i got into that code as well, same with installer and everything else.<
Come on, pal, apt-get install would install Cairo dock, Docky, Plank and whatnot. The so-called makulu constructor and some more stuff come from a Debian distro done by a guy from my country.
Your distro is also a remix, and you cannot break into Unity at all.
84 • @83 (by Jacque on 2015-03-27 00:26:23 GMT from Africa)
o WOW... this is exactly the kind of stuff i was talking about before...
For your information i never ever ever ever ever said i made the constructor tool from scratch, not EVER, But i did re adapt remastersys to work with Makulu unity, and any other distro out there, remastersys has been dead for a long while now it is not even working in its current state... how do you explain that it magically started working with makulu, with 1 click save, configure, compile and attach relevant installer and with full EFI support ?
how do you explain the Debian LMDE installer suddenly working on ubuntu based distro ? no code involved, it just magically started adapting itself ?
Cairo dock suddenly supports multi modes on its own ? it just magically can support two modes at once without the option even being in the menu ?
Sorry, but you walked into that one...
85 • Building on (constantly-shifting) sand (by Somewhat Reticent on 2015-03-27 01:27:51 GMT from North America)
"…any single major update (distro) does breaks half the plugins…" …
"…third party addons … tend to break from time to time leaving you to rely on a separate developer to fix it while users fill your forums frustrated with bug reports waiting 2 days with no working…" That's one reason many distros (including (recent versions of) Microsoft Windows) aren't robust market platforms. It also recalls code obfuscation using the time-(dis)honored "spaghetti" (or "tentacles") method, of course. While code obfuscation of Freed Open Source Software may be technically legal, it is not best-practice.
That said, Jacque's explorations are a refreshing breath of fresh air, simply demonstrating how much better so many things could be.
86 • @85 (by Jacque on 2015-03-27 01:32:53 GMT from Africa)
It is the biggest flaw of gnome3, which could have been a great OS, if it wasnt for the flawed plugin system. they should have designed it in such a way that plugins from version 1 still work in version 14 ... Its my biggest fear with gnome, adding weather into a panel and having it break with an update and having the user run to my forums to spam that its bugged ...
The plugin system is so flawed, that when you write your own plugins you have to specify which version of gnome it must work on, even if the plugin fully supports the next version, unless you specify version number it will automatically stop working.
Some really nice plugins get made, developer hangs around for a few versions and disappears, plugin is left dead in water and something a user got used to over a few months is suddenly no more.
they need to tackle that issue before gnome 3 can really move forward.
87 • @68 - Since you brought up Windows 8! (by Ben Myers on 2015-03-27 02:19:57 GMT from North America)
I have fixed numerous installations of Windows 8 by installing the free ClassicShell, which reintroduces an almost permanent start button and allows you to customize the desktop to operate like {XP, Vista-barf,7}. When done, Windows 8 is almost perfectly fixed, just like people fix their pets. Everyone whose computer I have fixed with ClassicShell is grateful to see the brainless Metro interface only infrequently. Sadly, there are times when the Metro crap rears its ugly head, like when you click the wrong icon, or mistakenly move the cursor to the upper right corner of the screen.
The wretched mess that is Windows 8 (and I haven't mentioned how pathetic the security updates are) is an open invitation for a well-designed Linux distro to step in and take away market share. But to do so needs marketing and tech specs, seemingly dirty words here. I only do Windows systems to make a living. I do not have to love them.
88 • MakuluLinux Unity (by Jacque on 2015-03-27 02:41:42 GMT from Africa)
I don't know what some of these guys think it takes to make not just a distro, but a good distro that can compete against the likes of mint, ubuntu, opensuse, arch etc etc....
Hardly any of the top dogs produce anything new anymore, Just heard someone complain the other day that the last 3 versions of unity nothing new has come out, they move a few panels around, change the look of an interface somewhere slightly and slap on a major update version. and to top it off, the ISO is 1.2-1.5GB in size and doesnt even have an office suite, they ride on name and name only, hell, they dont even update the wallpapers, its the same old plain crap every release, imagine installing that on 50 computers, over and over seeing the same old thing, i would slit my own wrists...
I always promised myself if i ever went public i would never do anything that boring, I will make it as flashy and as attractive as i can,Beautiful desktop is not optional but compulsory, you should not only have a functional desktop, but you should feel good about it as well... I have a separate developers forums with almost 2000 topics on bug reports ( and i moved to new hosts in mid 2014 ), i have 26 dedicated testers, I work from morning to morning, as i type this it is 4:39am and i am still up working on unity, and i do this every day 7 days a week.
Not only that, but you can pop onto makulu website at any time, i have live chat on website where i hang out with testers and users, everyone can see the dev talk, what is being worked on, what bugs need fixing, all is welcome and i connect with my users, i know what they want, what they like and what they dont like ... Just today i fixed Wifi issues in unity, yesterday I had to dig into firmware to get A2DP to work, I just fixed an issue with bottom panel and virtualbox causing issues with nautilus... I spent 2 weeks making that installer script work with unity, and I am already in Beta with these bugs that still need work, you should have seen me last month .... Its never as easy as slap on a theme and a wallpaper and off you go. the distro's that do that don't last a year...
Anyway, my work today is done, going to try get a few hours nap before i start all over again.
89 • @ 81, 84, 86 & 88 Jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-27 08:47:05 GMT from Europe)
>I think a lot of people tend to sometimes forget i am one guy who develops on makulu, and i have multiple editions to maintain, I work late into nights every single day, slave labor brings these editions...<
Even the "ordinary" users, who install/uninstall, just play with any distro, usually labour in the night. If you want to upload your remixed distros, then you'd have to "maintain" those. It maybe better, if you sleep a bit in the nights, so the mind and the body would be relaxed.
>For your information i never ever ever ever ever said i made the constructor tool from scratch, not EVER, But i did re adapt remastersys to work with Makulu unity, and any other distro out there, remastersys has been dead for a long while now it is not even working in its current state... how do you explain that it magically started working with makulu, with 1 click save, configure, compile and attach relevant installer and with full EFI support ?<
I suppose, you tell us, which Debian based distro from Europe gave you the ropes on getting the "remastersys" working to clone Debian based distros, then how it could be dissected to create the "constructor?"
The Remastersys is not dead, pal, but not being "maintained" by the original developer of that very useful app. Lot of us have it. I have the dissected one, so I could break down a Debian or Ubuntu based distro to separate parts, and then add whatever I want, including the EFI support, or not to add that. The installer comes from the person, who creates Bugie DE, and the dissecting of the remastersys create the "constructor" comes from the developer of the Debian based distro from Europe--it is just renaming that app to makulu constructor.
>how do you explain the Debian LMDE installer suddenly working on ubuntu based distro ? no code involved, it just magically started adapting itself ?<
Well, you should ask developer of the distro, from which it can be copied? Traces of that is there is makulu, Debian or Ubuntu. (I don't have to boot the iso to find that
out.)
>I don't know what some of these guys think it takes to make not just a distro, but a good distro that can compete against the likes of mint, ubuntu, opensuse, arch etc etc....<
If you are talking about Ubuntu, you can't make a better Ubuntu distro, but just a remix of it, if you are using Unity DE. You just can't break into the Unity code. It is scrambled.
Clem also moved away, as he also cannot break into Unity code, so the there is something really new; Cinnamon DE.
You are remixing Ubuntu 14.04. Ubuntu 15.04 is already in final Beta, so how about remixing that. I am using 15.04 from the day the daily image is issued. You are too late in using Ubuntu.
90 • @80 Oz (by jaws222 on 2015-03-27 13:57:59 GMT from North America)
I'll have to check that one out too. 17 ratings and all of them 5 stars.
91 • If Unity is so good.... (by frodopogo on 2015-03-27 14:02:08 GMT from North America)
@71
If Unity is so good, why did Linux Mint go to #1 in the DW rankings shortly after it came out?
If Unity is so good, why, now that it's an official release, is Ubuntu MATE (which is essentially what Ubuntu was before Unity) climbing the rankings so fast? The default ranking shows 6 months- change it to one month for the true story. It seems to be bleeding interest from BOTH Mint and Ubuntu. In the long run, it should be interesting to see which one it impacts most. It might also impact the other 'buntu projects negatively too.... since all have been probably been benefiting from users fleeing Unity!
But perhaps enough smartphone-like interface oriented young users are getting onboard with Ubuntu Unity to compensate for all the older users who hate it, bailed on it, and wish it would just go away. I seriously wonder though if a smartphone like interface will be enough to lure them back to COMPUTERS. It's never was about the interface... they just don't want to lug around a laptop!
92 • @19 LMDE (by Kazlu on 2015-03-27 15:25:18 GMT from Europe)
"Considering it's based on Debian = systemd creep = deal breaker. Lennart is not my master, or ever will be."
Lennart has nothing to do with Debian. If that's bothering you, LMDE Betsy will not ship with systemd but will stay with sysV init, even if LMDE 2 is based on Debian Jessie: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?paged=2.
93 • @91 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-27 15:52:28 GMT from North America)
"If Unity is so good, why, now that it's an official release, is Ubuntu MATE (which is essentially what Ubuntu was before Unity) climbing the rankings so fast? "
That's because Ubuntu Mate is the closest to old school Gnome 2 before the Unity fiasco. Ubuntu Mate is going to be ranked top 10 soon.
94 • @93 jaws222 (by Alex on 2015-03-27 16:14:29 GMT from Europe)
Too bad that you are still using the half-brick to phone. Old-school?
Gnome 2 is dead. Mate is a fork.
Ubuntu is so good that you can have Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu-Gnome, Ubuntu-Mate and also Ubuntu-Bugie, Ubuntu-Cinnamon or Ubuntu-Pantheon or Ubuntu+any DE.
I use Ubuntu 15.04, Kubuntu 15.04, Xubuntu 15.04 and my own Debian remix, what do you use?
95 • @94 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-27 16:29:11 GMT from North America)
"Too bad that you are still using the half-brick to phone. Old-school?"
What I meant was before gnome shell and unity. I liked Gnome 2 and do like Mate.
"what do you use?"
More like what don't I use? Mostly Crunchbang and Linux Lite.
I have several others on partitions and download anything and everything into Virtualbox to check it out. having said that, I prefer simple DE's Openbox, XFCE, LXDE and Mate. Enlightenment is pretty good too. Have to admit Mint Cinnamon is pretty good also.
96 • @92 (by John on 2015-03-27 16:30:59 GMT from North America)
I sit here wondering why it took so long to bring MATE to Ubuntu.
I too, wonder how this will affect the other 'buntu spinoffs. I think XFCE will be the most affected. I don't see any performance difference in MATE and Xfce.
97 • Voyager 14.04.4 "X" (by Alex on 2015-03-27 16:48:36 GMT from Europe)
This a distro, people should have real look!
This young French guy RodoFr always full of surprises. And, most important fact is his distro, which is Xubuntu + all his very useful scripts+Kodi comes within 999MB!
Vanilla Xubuntu 14.04.2 is 913 MB, so you can imagine this RodoFr is not using Remastersys to make the live CD. Take heed, Jacque of Makulu Unity.
98 • @89 (by Jacque on 2015-03-27 16:51:12 GMT from Africa)
Yes remastersys is dead, Blacklabs or whatever they call themselves made a fork of the project, but they have hardly changed anything, just fixed a few issues here and there. Both copies of the code from both original remastersys and blacklabs are Seriously flawed and still dont support EFI. You can build and ISO but you cannot clone the same iso for a second or third build, there is serious problems with the squashfs section of the code that causes the ISO to double in size if you make a copy of a copy, also some really serious bugs in remastersys that leads to problems on some kernels, and as i said, it has no efi support at all.
Mine does however, and you can make as many copies as you want the iso stays the same size, it works on any kernel and builds correctly every time. It also works on both Debian and Ubuntu based distro's.
Remastersys uses the Ubuntu Ubiquity installer, which is crap, 15 to 30 minutes+ to install... , mine uses the LMDE installer that both sparky and sloydxk uses, 10 to 15 mins to install, mine is also designed to work on both Debian and Ubuntu and has full EFI support.
Pretty much everything in the linux world is based on something else, that is what open source is all about. Unity is based on gnome, Mate is based on gnome2, cinnamon is based on gnome, the installer i use was made by Mint, solydxk,sparky and possible others, everyone adapts it for their own needs. you look into code of most software youll find it was originally designed by someone else, hell, even the themes get remade and remade and remade over and over by different users... there is no such thing as originality anymore in the linux world.
And there is MUCH you can change in unity if you have the patience and you know what you are doing. but don't take my word for it, wait for my release and see for yourself... And I use Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as a base, not 15.04. I also provide users with choice between the 3.16.x kernel or the 3.19.x kernel. There is no such thing as too late, LTS base has a lifetime till 2019, and if you know what you are doing, you can extend beyond that.
Some latest reviews on my work :
http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/makululinux/makululinux-xfce-7-0/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/hands-on-with-makulu-linux-xfce-7-0-the-most-beautiful-linux-distro-i-have-ever-seen/
http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2014/05/an-everyday-linux-user-review-of-makulu.html
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/80101.html
the list goes on. I am young compared to some of the long time developers and more known brand names, but iv'e been around for a few years now... and I am not going anywhere. Each release is getting better and better and every release pushes me up those rankings bit by bit...
I love linux, i love what i do, i enjoy working on linux, Its something i am good at, its become not just a job but a lifestyle, I learn new things every day, get to interact with a great community of users...
99 • Unity/GNOME3 controversy (by Jason Hsu on 2015-03-27 16:56:33 GMT from North America)
The reason that GNOME 3 is so controversial is that it went in a different direction but was sold as a replacement for the ever-popular GNOME 2. If GNOME 3 had been rolled out under a new name, it wouldn't be so controversial.
Ubuntu with Unity is so controversial because it was sold as a replacement for the old Ubuntu with GNOME 2. It wouldn't have been so controversial if Canonical had launched it under a new name. (I once tried Unity without the 2D fallback in VirtualBox. I had a hard time figuring out how to do anything and didn't last more than a few minutes.)
The Unity/GNOME3 controversy highlights what makes Linux and the open source world so great. When GNOME and Ubuntu made controversial changes that people didn't like, there were plenty of alternatives competing for the crowd of disgruntled users. The Linux Mint team started Cinnamon and revived the MATE project. Many GNOME users switched to Xfce, KDE, LXDE, Cinnamon, or MATE. Many Ubuntu users switched to Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, Mageia, PCLinuxOS, Fedora, etc. You know that Cinnamon and MATE are big hits, because both DEs have spread to other distros.
All is not lost for GNOME and Ubuntu. Without GNOME 2, there would be no Cinnamon or MATE, and GNOME 3 could be a big hit on smartphones. While Ubuntu has lost a substantial percentage of its users, it hasn't faded into oblivion, Linux Mint still has a Ubuntu base, and people keep rolling out new Ubuntu derivatives. (And Ubuntu smartphones could become a big hit.)
100 • @99 (by jaws222 on 2015-03-27 17:11:54 GMT from North America)
Mate = forked from Gnome 2
Cinnamon = forked from Gnome 3
???? = forked from Unity
It seems Mate was forked because Gnome 2 was going away and was liked. Mate is pretty close to Gnome 2.
Cinnamon was forked from Gnome 3, but was not liked like Gnome 2. Cinnamon is much different than Gnome 3 (for the better)
As far as Unity it is locked and cannot be forked, just built on top of like Jacque is doing with Makulu Unity?
101 • @99 replacements? (by Kazlu on 2015-03-27 17:15:05 GMT from Europe)
"The reason that GNOME 3 is so controversial is that it went in a different direction but was sold as a replacement for the ever-popular GNOME 2. If GNOME 3 had been rolled out under a new name, it wouldn't be so controversial.
Ubuntu with Unity is so controversial because it was sold as a replacement for the old Ubuntu with GNOME 2. It wouldn't have been so controversial if Canonical had launched it under a new name. (I once tried Unity without the 2D fallback in VirtualBox. I had a hard time figuring out how to do anything and didn't last more than a few minutes.)"
They *were* replacements. If they were "only" new products, and not replacements, it would imply that they would have coexisted with what was there before them. And I think in that case, very few people would have made the switch. I'm not saying it is either good or bad, but yes, Unity *replaced* GNOME2 as the default desktop environment of Ubuntu, and GNOME3 *replaced* GNOME2 as the default desktop environment offered by the GNOME project.
I agree with what you said after that.
102 • #97 XFCE4-12 (by anticapitalista on 2015-03-27 17:26:48 GMT from Europe)
MX-14.4 comes with XFCE4-12, libreoffice and still fits on a cd. Take note XUbuntu!
103 • @ 98 by Jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-27 17:49:11 GMT from Europe)
> Mine does however, and you can make as many copies as you want the iso stays the same size, it works on any kernel and builds correctly every time. It also works on both Debian and Ubuntu based distro's.<
If it is yours, congratulations, but if it is done by one of the distros you named in your post, then take their names, comments in the code off. You know, whose name I am talking about, don't you?
>Remastersys uses the Ubuntu Ubiquity installer, which is crap, 15 to 30 minutes+ to install... , mine uses the LMDE installer that both sparky and sloydxk uses, 10 to 15 mins to install, mine is also designed to work on both Debian and Ubuntu and has full EFI support.<
The guy, who made that installer now make another distro, which is not Debian based. There are few Ubuntu-based distros with that installer. Some are here in DWW too.
>I am young compared to some of the long time developers and more known brand names, but iv'e been around for a few years now... and I am not going anywhere. Each release is getting better and better and every release pushes me up those rankings bit by bit...<
Good luck to you! Don't be too arrogant like the Mint developer. Mint had good people with it, but all had gone, now Mint can't even make a new release. Give credit where its due. Try get people to join you. One man shows usually falls off after sometime. Don't expect anyone to give you anything for creating a distro. Money would come, if you do it with others. Wish you well!
104 • 102 • #97 XFCE4-12 by anticapitalista (by Alex on 2015-03-27 17:54:01 GMT from Europe)
>MX-14.4 comes with XFCE4-12, libreoffice and still fits on a cd. Take note XUbuntu!<
Oh no!
Antix is terrible!
105 • #104 (by anticapitalista on 2015-03-27 17:58:31 GMT from Europe)
Well, since you say so, it must be true.
106 • @ 105 by anticapitalista (by Alex on 2015-03-27 18:09:52 GMT from Europe)
You and I speak the same language, same as Marek Edelman, and that distro was good. The MX ones are ugly. Sorry, but that's the truth.
107 • @103 (by Jacque on 2015-03-27 18:17:15 GMT from Africa)
the guys who made the LMDE installer is Ubuntu... then adopted by Mint, then a dozen other distro's ... so i dont know what guy you are referring to ? but you are really starting to annoy me because clearly you don't know crap and just starting to speak the first thing that comes to mind and frankly starting to make yourself look really silly ... Ive tried to be nice, tried to put facts behind my words instead of riddles and fiction, but Im done with this convo.
108 • #106 (by anticapitalista on 2015-03-27 18:32:34 GMT from Europe)
So, Alex, an 'ugly' distro makes it terrible? Come on! You know, 'never judge a book by its cover'. There are plenty of beautiful looking distros that truly are terrible!
109 • @107 Jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-27 18:39:27 GMT from Europe)
Have a look in your still-not-released distro's /usr/lib/liveinstaller catlogues's files. If you don't find there, try your /usr/share/live-installer's files, you'd find the name.
>the guys who made the LMDE installer is Ubuntu...<
You must be nuts!
Linux Mint Debian Edition, otherwise named LMDE's installer made by Ubuntu is quite a saying! Better calm down!
110 • debatable (by M.Z. on 2015-03-27 19:03:24 GMT from Planet Mars)
@99
I agree with most of your sentiments; however, I'm not convinced that Ubuntu has lost a substantial percentage of it's users. There have certainly been losses on the margins, and Mint has become far more 'buzz worthy' according to distro watch hit rankings, but Ubuntu may have only lost some of its momentum rather than having a reduction in total users. I think they may just be gaining users at a slower rate, but that is just informed speculation. The distro has certainly lost the confidence of some users after the spyware controversy & other issues with Unity, but they could well be expanding due to sheer momentum & name recognition given the fact that few people recognize either 'Ubuntu' or 'Linux', let alone 'Linux Mint' or 'PCLinuxOS'. I think we would all be better off from a user rights perspective if Ubuntu had paid a bigger price for the spyware issue, but I'm not convinced that they have had any substantial losses.
111 • @107 Jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-27 19:09:12 GMT from Europe)
Ubiquity Installer was first introduced in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Dapper Drake. It is still there Ubuntu 15.04.
Linux Mint still uses Ubiquity Installer.
LMDE was first released in 2010.
Maybe, its better you stick to Debian...
112 • LMDE installer (by M.Z. on 2015-03-27 20:32:18 GMT from Planet Mars)
@111
LMDE does indeed use an independently derived installer that is not based on the Ubiquity installer, but rather was designed to make installing Debian based systems easier. I'm not sure but I'd guess a fair amount of changes would have to go into making the installer work on an Ubuntu based system, though I've installed LMDE & I am sure it has a very different installer from Ubuntu & the main edition of Mint. I actually think the regular installer for Mint / Ubuntu is the better of the two, but that is a matter of taste & preference. I did however chect a couple old reviews of LMDE from the Mint page here on DW & fould a guy who liked the LMDE installer even less than I did, see here:
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2014/03/05/linux-mint-debian-edition-lmde-201403-review/
If you've installed with the Ubiquity installer from Mint/Ubuntu you can tell his screenshots are different.
113 • @112 Jacque (by Alex on 2015-03-27 21:22:53 GMT from Europe)
>the guys who made the LMDE installer is Ubuntu... then adopted by Mint, then a dozen other distro's ... so i dont know what guy you are referring to ?<
This is the guy, who wants to "create" Ubuntu-based with Unity De distro of his own. This guy doesn't even know, who created LMDE's Installer. Ubuntu had been using Ubiquity Installer since Dapper Drake, which was released in August 2006.
LMDE was released in 2010, and had its own installer, which in turn was ported from another Debian based distro.
This guy doesn't even know what was happening in Ubuntu world. This what the guy wrote sometime ago, "And I suppose i was also getting a little bored with Debian and wanted to stretch my legs a little, show the world that I am flexible and can build on Ubuntu as good as on Debian, "
This guy had forgotten that another African had been bored with Debian and created Ubuntu in 20 October 2004; 10 years ago!
I remember WartyWarthog with OpenOffice 1.1.
And, you are yet to release your Ubuntu Unity Remix, but we have done our homework and made our own Ubuntu remixes for last 10 years. You want to jump in the bandwagon? Jump in, you are very welcome, ONLY you are 10 years too late.
Anyway, I'm glad after few years of black-mouthing Ubuntu, you finally moved to Ubuntu...
114 • HPD stats and Ubuntu derivatives (by cykodrone on 2015-03-28 02:19:33 GMT from North America)
From the Ubuntu Derivative Team page ("last edited 2014-10-09")...
"Recognised Flavors...These are releases that are fully integrated in the Ubuntu project and contribute significantly and directly towards the project: Edubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Kubuntu, UbuntuKylin, Lubuntu, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu", and of course the 'flagship' Ubuntu.
So in the HPD (last 6 months home page default) is Ubuntu-1817 + Lubuntu-684 + Xubuntu-451 + Kubuntu-394 + Ubuntu GNOME-316 + Ubuntu Studio-206 + UbuntuKylin-172 + Ubuntu MATE-103 ("starting with version 15.04, it was formally accepted as an official member of the Ubuntu family") + Mythbuntu-69 + Edubuntu-66...let me get out my trusty calculator...clickity clackity clickity clack...and the grand total is 4278 compared to Mint's 'umbrella' page of 2710.
I know, I know, the HPD is just for fun, etc, but it just goes to show as a whole, Ubuntu's usage is far and wide.
Disclaimer, I'm neither a Mint or an Ubuntu 'fanboy', I merely just did the math.
Number of Comments: 114
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Grafpup Linux
Grafpup Linux was a desktop Linux operating system based closely on Puppy Linux. Its goal was to be as useful to graphic designers and other imaging professionals as possible while still remaining extremely small and fast. Grafpup was a live CD of only 75MB with current versions of GIMP, Cinepaint, Inkscape, and Scribus. Grafpup was also very user-friendly, with wizards for doing most system tasks like connecting to the internet and installing to hard disk or USB drive. There was also a powerful package management system, "pupget", with a very extensive and ever increasing list of additional packages available for easy installation.
Status: Discontinued
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| 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.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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