 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 620, 27 July 2015 |
Welcome to this year's 30th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
We spend a lot of time here, at DistroWatch, talking about the GNU/Linux family of operating systems. These Linux distributions combine the Linux kernel with GNU utilities (along with various other bits of software) to create working operating systems. This week we want to change gears and talk about a more pure GNU solution, specifically Debian's GNU/Hurd platform, which combines GNU userland utilities with GNU's kernel. In our Feature Story this week we cover what it is like to run Debian's GNU/Hurd port. In our News section we talk about user friendliness and performance, beginning with a report on Ubuntu MATE's new Welcome software. We also talk about achieving easy and secure communication on the Fedora distribution and a new operating system for mobile devices that uses Plasma. Then we turn to the land of supercomputers where Linux is dominating the market. Also in this issue we share a valuable educational resource, a book called Linux Bible that walks the reader through what it takes to go from a Linux beginner to a system administrator. In our Torrent Corner we share the torrents we are seeding and then we provide a list of the new distributions released last week. In our Opinion Poll, we want to find out what backup solution works best for you. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Following Debian's GNU/Hurd in 2015
The Debian project is best known for its stable GNU/Linux operating system, a platform which is used as a base by over one hundred distributions. However, the Debian project is home to other operating systems, including a port of GNU's Hurd. The GNU/Hurd port combines Debian packages and package management with GNU userland software running on GNU's microkernel. The project offers this description: "The Hurd is a set of servers running on top of the GNU Mach microkernel. Together they build the base for the GNU operating system. Currently, Debian is only available for Linux and kFreeBSD, but with Debian GNU/Hurd we have started to offer GNU/Hurd as a development, server and desktop platform, too. We hope to be able to release Debian GNU/Hurd for Wheezy."
While the release date for Wheezy (Debian 7) has come and gone, the Hurd port continues to put out snapshots based on Debian's Unstable development branch. "The Hurd is under active development, but does not provide the performance and stability you would expect from a production system. Also, only about every second Debian package has been ported to the GNU/Hurd." In other words, we can install and run Debian's GNU/Hurd port, but we may run into limitations when it comes to the software we can run.
The latest snapshot of Debian GNU/Hurd, labelled "2015", offers the following release announcement: "It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2015. This is a snapshot of Debian `sid' at the time of the stable Debian "jessie" release (April 2015), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." The Hurd port has some limitations when it comes to hardware. According to the project's FAQ page, Debian GNU/Hurd is available for the 32-bit x86 architecture only.
The installation ISO I downloaded was 620MB in size. Booting from the Debian GNU/Hurd (hereafter referred to as simply "Hurd") media brings up a menu asking if we would like to launch a text installer, run a pseudo graphical installer, run a graphical installer, launch an expert install session or enter rescue mode. Running the pseudo graphical installer is the default option and the one I decided to use. Hurd launched a text installer which walked me through several configuration screens. I was asked to select my preferred language, provide my country or region, select my keyboard layout and set a hostname for my computer. Then I was asked to create a password for the root account, create a regular user account and select a time zone from a list. Partitioning comes next with guided and manual options available. The guided partitioning utility suggests creating a small swap partition and using ext2 for our root file system. The Hurd installer then installed its base system packages and asked if I would like to install additional software from a remote repository or from the local media. At first I tried to download packages from the on-line repository, but taking this option resulted in network errors and I had to fall back on using the packages on my local disc. We are then asked if we would like to participate in Debian's Popularity Contest. The installer next asks if we would like to install extra software with the LXDE desktop and standard system utilities being our two options. I decided to install everything. We are then asked if Hurd should install the GRUB boot loader. With these steps completed we can reboot our computer and experiment with our new copy of Hurd.
Hurd boots to a text console where we can log into the root account or the account we created during the installation procedure. Hurd, I found, uses about 130MB of memory when running the command line interface. Hurd offers us a fairly minimal command line experience. The usual GNU utilities are present along with manual pages. I did not find a compiler on the system, but otherwise the command line interface provided all the usual UNIX-like functionality.
Debian GNU/Hurd 2015 -- Running the LXDE desktop
(full image size: 29kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Early on I wanted to see if Hurd would run the LXDE desktop I had chosen to install. I found that, as the root user, I could launch a graphical environment and explore the desktop environment, but I could not access the desktop interface as a regular user. This turned out to be a known issue with Hurd and the project's documentation provides a solution. Following Hurd's documentation I was able to gain desktop access from my regular user accounts. Running a desktop environment on top of Hurd did not require much additional memory. While running LXDE on Hurd I found my system used approximately 180MB of RAM.
Hurd's LXDE desktop offers us a classic layout with task switcher, application menu and system tray placed at the bottom of the display. The background is plain black, without design or logo. The desktop loads quickly and is pleasantly responsive. Looking through the LXDE application menu we find a small collection of software. The Iceweasel web browser is available along with the GNU Image Manipulation Program, an image scanner, calculator, archive manager and text editor. There is also a file manager and some configuration apps that will assist us in changing the look and feel of the desktop.
I was pleased to find most of the applications that shipped with Hurd were completely functional and worked well. There were two exceptions, unfortunately. Both Iceweasel and the GNU Image Manipulation Program were very slow to start and Iceweasel took a long time to perform tasks. The web browser would often take 30-60 seconds to render a simple web page, which means the program works, technically, but is slow enough that running it isn't practical. Other programs, such as the text editor and virtual terminal, were responsive and worked just as they would on a Linux distribution. Another problem I encountered was, whenever I tried to logout of LXDE, the system would lock-up, necessitating a reboot.
Debian GNU/Hurd 2015 -- Customizing LXDE
(full image size: 63kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Hurd does not ship with a graphical package manager, but we do have access to the apt-get command line utility. Using the APT tools we can search for new software, acquire updates and install additional packages. During my time with Hurd there was only one package update made available and it was less than 1MB in size. The update installed without any problems. According to the Hurd website, most packages available to Debian GNU/Linux users are also available to people who run Debian's GNU/Hurd port: "As of March 2014, 79% of all Debian packages are available for Debian GNU/Hurd." I'm not sure if this information is up to date though, or perhaps my configuration was missing some repositories. In any event, while Debian's GNU/Linux branch contains over 70,000 packages, I found only 885 packages were available to me with Hurd's default configuration. This meant that I was unable to install pre-built versions of most desktop applications or services such as the Apache web server, a mail server or FTP server. I was not able to find the OpenSSH secure shell server either, though the OpenSSH client software is available.
While I did not find a lot of software available in Hurd's repositories, what was there worked well for me. I was happy to find basic desktop software and command line tools were available to me. I did have some trouble getting the GNU compiler to install as the package manager insisted the compiler was already installed. However, I was unable to find the compiler on my system.
I generally find there are three reasons people consider running Hurd on their computers. Some people are curious, others want the theoretical stability or security gains one can get from a microkernel architecture and some people like the idea of software freedom and the license Hurd offers. I was experimenting mostly out of curiosity, though I found Debian's GNU/Hurd port held up well in providing a stable operating system. The only time I ran into any stability problems was when I was trying to logout of LXDE and Hurd would, as LXDE terminated, consistently freeze. I'm not sure if my issues were strictly software related or perhaps caused by a hardware/driver issue.
On the subject of hardware, Hurd lags a bit behind Linux in hardware support. Though the developers are trying to expand Hurd's support, the operating system has some limitations. As I've mentioned above, the Debian port is compiled exclusively for 32-bit x86 processors and compatible architectures. During my trial I was unable to get Hurd running on my desktop machine and had to resort to running Hurd in a VirtualBox virtual machine.
Conclusions
Some people may look over my review here and note that Debian's GNU/Hurd port lacks some functionality, some hardware support and some software packages and feel inclined to dismiss this niche operating system. Having experimented with Hurd this week, I can say I would agree Hurd is not ready for most people in most scenarios. Hurd, in its current form, does not appear to offer any benefits over Linux distributions or the BSD family of operating systems, at least not when running on desktop computers. With that being said, I do appreciate the progress the Hurd port has made so far. A few years ago I could not get Debian GNU/Hurd to boot at all, on any physical or virtual hardware. This past week I not only got Hurd to install, but it also ran a graphical desktop and I could use it to browse websites. The experience may still lag behind when compared against Debian GNU/Linux, but Hurd's developers appear to have made a great deal of progress in recent years.
Hurd may not be ready for widespread use yet, but it feels so close in virtually every test I ran. Package management is there, the installer is there and working, a minimal desktop environment is in place, some modern (and complex) applications run on Hurd. I do not think we can be far away from a time when Debian GNU/Hurd is offered as an official branch of the Debian project, capable of running on desktop and server systems alike. I look forward to such a time because I feel friendly competition and choices are of great benefit to our community.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu MATE tests new Welcome program, using Telegram on Fedora, Plasma for phones and Linux running on supercomputers
The Ubuntu MATE team is working to make their community edition of Ubuntu more welcoming to new users. With that in mind, the project has introduced a new PPA featuring a Welcome application. Martin Wimpress posted on Google Plus, writing: "I've published a new version of Ubuntu MATE Welcome in the PPAs for 14.04, 15.04 and 15.10. Please come and test, particularly the Software Install feature. Ubuntu MATE Welcome won't pop up by default when installed outside of Ubiquity, so you'll find it in Applications -> System -> Ubuntu MATE Welcome. This version adds a few more applications to the Software section and now reflects the installation status immediately after performing an install or remove operation. I've also added setup for complex input methods for Chinese, Japanese and Korean." If you would like to help the team test their new greeter, there are installation instructions included in the announcement.
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Telegram is an enticing new messaging platform which features an open protocol, large file transfers and encryption. The Telegram platform is also free of charge and open to automated programs (called bots). The Fedora Magazine talks about Telegram and how to use the communication software on Fedora. "The desktop client has all the bells and whistles of Telegram. It includes group chats, emoticons, stickers, and sending/receiving files. However, it lacks one important feature: secret chats which provide end-to-end encryption and were ranked by EFF at 7/7 points." The article includes installation instructions for people who wish to try out Telegram on the Fedora distribution.
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Over the past few years we have heard a lot about Ubuntu Touch, a branch of the Ubuntu operating system designed to run on mobile devices. More recently, a project called Plasma Mobile has presented itself as a way to run Kubuntu on mobile phones. The young project uses the KWin window manager, Plasma Mobile for the user interface and the Wayland display server. The operating system is designed to be entirely open, essentially giving users the ability to run Kubuntu on a mobile ARM-powered device. The operating system, which reportedly works on Nexus 5 handhelds, is said to support a wide variety of applications, including: "Plasma apps, Ubuntu Touch (.click) apps, GNOME apps (e.g. GnomeChess), X11 (e.g. xmame) and possibly other Qt-based apps like Sailfish OS or Nemo. Packages can be installed by `apt-get install packagename'."
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People who are interested in supercomputers will not be surprised to know the world's fastest computers typically run Linux. In fact, a recent article on Tech Drive-in claims 486 of the fastest 500 computers in the world run one Linux distribution or another. So which distribution does the world's fastest computer run? As it turns out, the answer is Ubuntu Kylin, a Chinese language variant of the popular Ubuntu distribution. "Linux's absolute domination of the world's most sophisticated supercomputers doesn't come as a surprise. In fact, the enterprise sector had long embraced the Linux ecosystem with open arms. So much so that, the world's fastest supercomputer runs a Chinese derivative of Ubuntu called Ubuntu Kylin, as revealed by Mark Shuttleworth himself during his keynote speech at OpenStack Summit. Ubuntu Kylin is now an official Ubuntu flavour." Further information on the operating systems run on supercomputers and the hardware vendors who provide the world's quickest computers can be found in the article.
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| Book Review (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux Bible (Ninth Edition)
The nice people over at Wiley were kind enough to send me a copy of one of their new educational textbooks, Linux Bible (Ninth Edition). The lengthy tome bills itself as "The comprehensive, tutorial resource," and its author, Christopher Negus, covers a massive amount of material relating to GNU/Linux distributions, how they work and how to use them. No stone is left unturned and the book's 27 chapters deal with everything from installing a Linux distribution to managing packages, exploring the Linux command line, working with services, setting up a web server, securing the operating system, adding services to systemd, managing disks, working with SELinux and writing shell scripts. The list goes on and the amount of material in Linux Bible is quite impressive and it is easy to see why the text needs to be 912 pages in length.
It would probably take another book to summarize all of the subjects covered in this book so I'm going to focus on general impressions and patterns I observed while reading through Linux Bible. One of the first things I noticed was each chapter has a summary and a list of exercises at its conclusion. I really like it when educational books do this as these questions and exercises at the end of each chapter are a good way to test one's knowledge of the subject matter just taught. Learning from a book does not need to be a passive experience where the reader soaks up information and hopes it sticks. I like it when books engage the reader and enable us to put our new skills to the test and Linux Bible does this well.
Another thing I eventually noticed about Linux Bible is the book takes a different approach to organizing material than most other Linux textbooks I have read. Typically I find authors will start with some simple concepts and slowly build on top of them. For instance, an author might introduce running programs from the command line, add in some basic directory navigation, add running two commands together and then work up to creating a shell script. Negus has a different style where each chapter acts as a sort of container for one topic. Generally speaking, I found Linux Bible would cover one specific topic in depth, quickly diving into deeper and more complex examples. Then the author moves on to the next topic, starting simply and then quickly exploring more complex aspects of the second topic. As an example, one of the early chapters deals with installing Linux from the comfort of a graphical interface. A lot of the material is pretty point-n-click at first. Toward the end of the chapter on installing Linux the author explores such sub-topics as file system layouts and LVM volumes, though we have not talked about file systems yet. By the end of the chapter we are configuring GRUB by hand. Then the section on installing Linux is done and the next page begins the chapter on package management where we start with an explanation of what a package file is. A few chapters later we circle back around to file systems, how to create a partition and what sets Btrfs, ext4 and LVM apart. So, if a reader is confused by the reference to LVM in regards to installing Linux in Chapter 9, the subject of LVM is covered in detail in Chapter 12.
Newcomers to Linux might find this modular approach to learning Linux a little intimidating, but I think this style of organization makes Linux Bible a good resource for more experienced users. It means each subject is compartmentalized and it is easier to use Linux Bible as a quick reference as whatever we want to know on a given subject is contained in one location.
Which brings me to another point, this book is not for the faint of heart. A lot of topics are covered in depth quickly. This book seems to assume we have some past computing experience, either from working with Linux as a desktop user or perhaps from being a Windows system administrator. In fact, the book sometimes uses Windows as a reference point when introducing new topics.
Something else which stands out is that Negus is a Red Hat employee, a Red Hat Certified Instructor, a Red Hat Certified Examiner and a Red Hat Certified Architect. As one might imagine, Linux Bible focuses primarily on Red Hat technology and Red Hat's defaults. This means the book generally assumes we are using GNOME, SELinux, RPM packages and systemd. A lot of Linux software is distribution agnostic and shell commands and shell scripts will often work across multiple distributions. However, I feel it is worth pointing out that Negus does tend to assume we are using a copy of Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to learn and perform the examples in his book. Sometimes Negus will place asides in the book with tips for using other distributions, particularly Ubuntu. As an example, the book might tell us to run "yum install john" and then add an aside saying the same task can be completed on Ubuntu using "sudo apt-get install john". However, we do not always have these asides to guide us. People following along on other distributions will soon notice some configuration files are in different locations, some programs have different names and some security technology works differently. Experienced Linux users will be able to adjust to these little differences, but people learning Linux for the first time should probably acquire a copy of Fedora or CentOS to get the most out of Linux Bible.
As I mentioned before, this is the ninth edition of Linux Bible and the book has been around for quite some time, in one form or another. The text has been updated over the years to keep it relevant. Still, with the rapid pace of software development, some material will be dated just months after the book is sent to the publisher. As an example, the text refers to using the "YUM" command on Fedora to manage packages. However, by the time I got my copy of Linux Bible, "YUM" was being phased out in favour of the "DNF" package manager. Sometimes references to similar concepts on Windows make references to Windows XP or earlier versions of the Microsoft operating system. The concepts are still valid, but the specific commands or implementations have changed. I do not think this will be an issue for new readers, but I do think it is worth noting just how fast operating systems evolve and how much can change in just a short time.
Perhaps what I enjoyed most about this book was the amazing level of detail the author sometimes explores. There are command parameters and obscure configuration options presented in Linux Bible I have never encountered before in my 15+ years of working with Linux systems. The attention to detail, especially, when it comes to shell scripting, working with systemd and setting up network services (such as the Apache web server) is truly impressive. As an example, in the section on setting up the vsftpd service the author explores enabling user accounts and then adds the observation that system accounts may be blocked from logging in due to a setting in SELinux. This sort of restriction could cause an administrator to waste hours trying to find out why vsftpd was not working as expected. Thank to Negus, the potential problem is addressed up front with an added reference to exploring SELinux's configuration in Chapter 24 if we need more information on enabling vsftpd logins. The book is full of little gems, pearls of experience, that are invaluable.
Someone asked me a few weeks ago what textbooks were available to a self-starter who wanted to become a Linux system administrator. Since Red Hat technology is used in a lot of organizations, especially in North America, I would definitely recommend RHEL as a starting point and there are not many books that will explore, share and test RHEL knowledge the way Linux Bible does.
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- Title: Linux Bible (Ninth Edition)
- Author: Christopher Negus
- Published by: Wiley
- Pages: 912
- ISBN-10: 1118999878
- ISBN-13: 978-1-118-99987-5
- Available from: Wiley and Amazon
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
Bittorrent is a great way to transfer large files, particularly open source operating system images, from one place to another. Most bittorrent clients recover from dropped connections automatically, check the integrity of files and can re-download corrupted bits of data without starting a download over from scratch. These characteristics make bittorrent well suited for distributing open source operating systems, particularly to regions where Internet connections are slow or unstable.
Many Linux and BSD projects offer bittorrent as a download option, partly for the reasons listed above and partly because bittorrent's peer-to-peer nature takes some of the strain off the project's servers. However, some projects do not offer bittorrent as a download option. There can be several reasons for excluding bittorrent as an option. Some projects do not have enough time or volunteers, some may be restricted by their web host provider's terms of service. Whatever the reason, the lack of a bittorrent option puts more strain on a distribution's bandwidth and may prevent some people from downloading their preferred open source operating system.
With this in mind, DistroWatch plans to give back to the open source community by hosting and seeding bittorrent files. For now, we are hosting a small number of distribution torrents, listed below. The list of torrents offered will be updated each week and we invite readers to e-mail us with suggestions as to which distributions we should be hosting. When you message us, please place the word "Torrent" in the subject line, make sure to include a link to the ISO file you want us to seed. To help us maintain and grow this free service, please consider making a donation.
The table below provides a list of torrents we currently host. If you do not currently have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found here. All torrents we make available here are also listed on the very useful Linux Tracker website. Thanks to Linux Tracker we are able to share the following torrent statistics.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 88
- Total downloads completed: 46,252
- Total data uploaded: 9.2TB
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| Released Last Week |
Neptine 4.4
The developers of Neptune, a desktop oriented distribution based on Debian, have announced the launch of Neptune 4.4. The new release updates several key components, including parts of the graphics stack, offering better video card support and better performance. Improvements have also been introduced to the partition manager, enabling users to manipulate btrfs volumes. "This version features a new LTS kernel 3.18.16 which delivers better and more modern hardware support. We also did the biggest update in the graphics stack since Neptune 4.0 by upgrading to X.Org Server 1.17 and Mesa 10.5.8. This brings in support for modern graphic cards and better 3D performance. Old chips like voodoo or sis however aren't supported any more. We updated the HPlip driver to support newer HP printers. We improved the user interface by introducing a new modern looking font as well as bigger scrollbars." Additional information and screen shots are available in the project's release announcement.
Neptune 4.4 -- Running the KDE desktop
(full image size: 624kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Calculate Linux 14.16.2 "MATE"
The developers of Calculate Linux have announced the release of a new edition of the Gentoo-based distribution. The new desktop branch of Calculate features the MATE desktop environment. "We are very happy that such a wonderful project as GNOME 2 is not dead and continues its development under a new name. We have long been eyeing the project, and finally decided to release a new distribution with it. Meet Calculate Linux Desktop MATE (CLDM), the third in our family of desktop Calculate Linux provides full-time jobs in the office and at home. Desktop customization: traditionally made in the style of Calculate Linux. It's integrated to work with the server Calculate Directory Server. The software includes an office suite LibreOffice 4.4.3.2, web browser Chromium 43.0.2357.130, email client Claws-Mail 3.11.1, the message manager Pidgin 2.10.11, the editor GIMP 2.8.14, video player SMplayer 14.9.0, audio player Clementine 1.2.3 and other software, including the standard applications of MATE 1.8. Distribution uses common repository of binary packages, which today has more than 1,800 pieces, as well as Portage, being backward compatible with Gentoo." The new edition is available in 32-bit and 64-bit builds. Further information and screen shots can be found in the release announcement.
BackBox Linux 4.3
Raffaele Forte has announced the release of BackBox Linux 4.3, the latest stable build of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution containing a collection of utilities designed to perform penetration testing and forensic analysis tasks: "The BackBox Team is pleased to announce the updated release of BackBox Linux, version 4.3. This release includes features such as Linux kernel 3.16 and Ruby 2.1. What's new? Preinstalled Linux kernel 3.16; new Ubuntu 14.04.2 base; Ruby 2.1; installer with LVM and full disk encryption options; handy Thunar custom actions; RAM wipe at shutdown/reboot; system improvements; upstream components; bug corrections; performance boost; improved anonymous mode; predisposition to ARM architecture (armhf Debian packages); predisposition to BackBox Cloud platform; new and updated hacking tools: beef-project, btscanner, dirs3arch, metasploit-framework, ophcrack, setoolkit, tor, weevely, wpscan." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information, system requirements and upgrade instructions.
Robolinux 8.1
John Martinson has announced the release of Robolinux 8.1, a major new release of the distribution that features an optional (and commercial) virtual machine pack for running Windows alongside Robolinux. This is the first version based on Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie", with the only available desktop environment being Cinnamon. From the release announcement: "Robolinux is pleased and excited to announce its brand new Robolinux 'Cinnamon Raptor' version 8.1 LTS 2020 OS which is based on the rock-solid Debian 8 stable source code sporting the 3.16 Linux kernel. It has far better graphics and audio quality, boots up and runs much faster than Debian 7 and is also compatible with newer hardware, drivers and most notably the Intel Haswell chipset. Robolinux Cinnamon Raptor user interface is extremely fast, beautiful and very easy to use. An enormous amount of time and effort went into optimizing and tweaking Robolinux so that Linux beginners and advanced users will be very pleased. For example we fixed the Debian 8.1 update notifier issue. As usual, both the 32-bit and 64-bit variants come with dozens of one-click WiFi, video and printer driver installers. A completely new Stealth VM was written capable of running Windows 10 virus-free inside Robolinux."
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7
Red Hat has announced the availability of an updated version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. The latest version, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7, provides both updated installation media for Red Hat's customers and a few new features. The release announcement lists some of the new improvements to Red Hat's main product line: "One example is clufter, a tool for analyzing and transforming cluster configuration formats. Available as a technology preview, clufter enables system administrators to update existing high-availability configurations to run on the latest high-availability tools from Red Hat. LVM Cache is now a fully supported feature, allowing users to maximize the performance benefits of SSD-based storage for their business needs while limiting associated costs." The product's release notes include many more details and a list of known issues. The company has also provided a series of more detailed technical notes for people who would like to see changes broken down by package and security advisory.
ROSA R6 "Desktop Fresh"
Ekaterina Lopukhova has announced the release of ROSA R6 "Desktop Fresh" edition, a desktop Linux distribution featuring a customised KDE 4.14.8 desktop: "The ROSA company gladly presents ROSA Desktop Fresh R6, the number 6 in the 'R' lineup of the free ROSA distributions with the KDE desktop as the main graphical environment. As always, the distro presents a vast collection of games and emulators and the Steam platform package along with a standard suite of audio and video communications software including the newest version of Skype. All modern video formats are supported. The distribution includes the fresh LibreOffice version, the full TeX suite for true nerds as well, along with best Linux desktop publishing, text editing and WYSISYG software. The LAMP/C++/ environment packages are waiting to be installed by true hackers. The distribution is based on the ROSA 2014.1 platform which includes two years support (till Q3 of 2016). A few more releases based on this platform are expected to be presented for the users in the future." See the release notes for more information and a list of package updates.
ROSA R6 "Desktop Fresh" -- The default desktop environment
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Backup solutions
Anyone who has deleted a file in error or experienced a hard drive failure knows the importance of regular backups. Modern computers can store a lot of data and making timely and complete backups can be tedious if the right tool is not used. This week we would like to know what technology, if any, you are using to create backups of your files. Are you a fan of optical discs, remote servers, tape drives, perhaps one of each? Please share your preferred archiving method in the comments section.
You can see the results of last week's poll on codes of conduct here.
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Backup solutions
| Optical discs: | 88 (5%) |
| Floppies: | 18 (1%) |
| Tape: | 16 (1%) |
| Cloud storage: | 106 (6%) |
| External hard drive: | 770 (47%) |
| Home server/NAS: | 211 (13%) |
| None: | 66 (4%) |
| A combination of the above: | 321 (19%) |
| Other: | 55 (3%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
June 2015 DistroWatch.com donation: hdparm
We are pleased to announce the recipient of the June 2015 DistroWatch.com donation is hdparm. The project receives US$350.00 in cash.
The hdparm software is used to get and set drive parameters for ATA and SATA hard drives. The project's Wikipedia page explains: hdparm is a command line program for Linux to set and view ATA hard disk drive hardware parameters. It can set parameters such as drive caches, sleep mode, power management, acoustic management, and DMA settings. GParted and Parted Magic both include hdparm. Changing hardware parameters from sub-optimal conservative defaults to their optimal settings can improve performance greatly. For example, turning on DMA can, in some instances, double or triple data throughput." Further information and usage examples are available on this page.
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with cash contributions. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for future donations. Those readers who wish to contribute towards these donations, please use our advertising page to make a payment (PayPal, credit cards, Yandex Money and crypto currencies are accepted). Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285)
- 2010: Qimo 4 Kids ($250), Squid ($250), Libre Graphics Meeting ($300), Bacula ($250), FileZilla ($300), GCompris ($352), Xiph.org ($250), Clonezilla ($250), Debian Multimedia ($280), Geany ($300), Mageia ($470), gtkpod ($300)
- 2011: CGSecurity ($300), OpenShot ($300), Imagination ($250), Calibre ($300), RIPLinuX ($300), Midori ($310), vsftpd ($300), OpenShot ($350), Trinity Desktop Environment ($300), LibreCAD ($300), LiVES ($300), Transmission ($250)
- 2012: GnuPG ($350), ImageMagick ($350), GNU ddrescue ($350), Slackware Linux ($500), MATE ($250), LibreCAD ($250), BleachBit ($350), cherrytree ($260), Zim ($335), nginx ($250), LFTP ($250), Remastersys ($300)
- 2013: MariaDB ($300), Linux From Scratch ($350), GhostBSD ($340), DHCP ($300), DOSBox ($250), awesome ($300), DVDStyler ($280), Tor ($350), Tiny Tiny RSS ($350), FreeType ($300), GNU Octave ($300), Linux Voice ($510)
- 2014: QupZilla ($250), Pitivi ($370), MediaGoblin ($350), TrueCrypt ($300), Krita ($340), SME Server ($350), OpenStreetMap ($350), iTALC ($350), KDE ($400), The Document Foundation ($400), Tails ($350)
- 2015: AWStats ($300), Haiku ($300), Xiph.Org ($300), GIMP ($350), Kodi ($300), Devuan ($300), hdparm ($350)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$44,175 to various open-source software projects.
* * * * *
Distributions added to waiting list
- HardenedBSD. HardenedBSD is a security-enhanced fork of FreeBSD. The HardenedBSD Project is implementing many exploit mitigation and security technologies on top of FreeBSD. The project started with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) as an initial focal point and is now implementing further exploit mitigation techniques.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 3 August 2015. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Hacao Linux
Hacao Linux was a Vietnamese desktop distribution based on Puppy Linux. The project's main purpose was to provide a complete, yet light-weight operating system that can run on low-specification computers. The entire user interface of Hacao Linux has been translated into Vietnamese.
Status: Discontinued
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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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