 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 628, 21 September 2015 |
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Welcome to this year's 38th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
It has been said, especially in system administration circles, that when someone is doing their job well, you don't even notice they are doing anything. This reflects the fact that we typically notice what our operating systems are doing wrong rather than all the things they are doing right. A good operating system will usually become part of the background, quietly doing its job and staying out of the way. We begin this week with a look at Neptune, a Debian-based distribution which strives to function well enough that it will go unnoticed. Read our Feature Story this week to find out how the latest version of Neptune performs. In our News section we talk about changes to the way pfSense is developed, cover Pinguy OS's fix for UEFI issues and talk about how Linux Mint is making their MATE and Xfce desktop editions more flexible. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss accessing data stored in hard disk images and share a follow-up to last week's question on creating PDF/A documents. Plus we share the torrents we are seeding and provide details on last week's releases. There are several distribution releases anticipated for next week and we provide a list of new versions to watch for. In our Opinion Poll we ask our readers whether they use disk encryption and, if so, just how much. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Taking a voyage through Neptune 4.4
- News: pfSense changes its development process, Pinguy OS releases fix for ISO images and Linux Mint unveils new features for MATE and Xfce users
- Questions and answers: Accessing hard disk images and creating PDF/A documents
- Torrent corner: Antergos, Parsix GNU/Linux, ROSA
- Released last week: Parsix GNU/Linux 8.0, TurnKey Linux 14.0, Semplice Linux 2015.2
- Upcoming releases: Tails 1.6, Fedora 23 Beta, openSUSE 42.1 Beta, Ubuntu 15.10 Final Beta
- Opinion poll: Disk encryption
- New distributions: BunsenLabs Linux, Nitrux OS, Asril OS, Darkiban
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Taking a voyage through Neptune 4.4
The Neptune distribution is a Debian-based project which offers users a friendly, desktop-oriented experience. Neptune uses KDE 4 as the default desktop environment. The latest release of Neptune, version 4.4, includes mostly minor upgrades with an eye toward improving the graphics stack and desktop performance.
Neptune is available in just one edition for the 64-bit x86 architecture. The ISO file we download is 1.8GB in size. When we boot from Neptune's live media a menu appears and asks if we would like to explore Neptune's live desktop environment using English or German as our preferred language. Neptune then boots to the KDE desktop. The desktop environment is presented in a traditional manner, with the application menu, task switcher and system tray placed at the bottom of the screen. On the desktop we find icons which will grant us access to documentation, the distribution's package manager and Neptune's graphical system installer.
Neptune's installer quickly walks us through a series of screens which ask us to create a user account and set a password on the root account. We are then presented with the GParted partition manager and asked to make sure our disk has the partitions we need. We are then asked to assign a partition to be used as the main (root) partition for the Neptune distribution. When we assign a partition to be mounted as the root file system we have the choice of selecting either Btrfs or ext4 as the file system to use. I was a little surprised to see our options narrowed down to just these two file systems and further surprised to see Btrfs selected as the default. Not many Linux distributions (apart from openSUSE) are pushing Btrfs as a default option these days. The installer gives us a chance to place our home directories on a separate partition and then asks us to select our preferred language from a list. The installer then copies its files to our hard drive and exits, leaving us to continue exploring the live environment. The installer is quite easy to navigate and, in my test environments, worked very quickly.
Booting our new copy of Neptune brings us to a graphical login screen featuring a grey background. When we sign into our account we are presented with the KDE desktop once more. On the desktop are icons for opening a file manager, launching the Software Centre and there is an icon which opens Neptune's support forum in a web browser. The application menu is presented using the Lancelot menu. The Lancelot menu strikes me as being large and dynamic, shifting entries around as we explore categories of programs we can launch. It gets the job done and the Lancelot menu is fairly easy to navigate.
Neptune 4.4 -- Installing software with Apper
(full image size: 488kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Since I had not noticed any icon or message letting me know if software updates were available, one of the first things I did with Neptune was launch the distribution's graphical package manager. Neptune uses Apper as its primary package manager. Apper displays categories of software and invites us to explore these categories. Each category offers a simple list of packages, sorted in alphabetical order, and with an accompanying brief description of each package. We can click a button next to each package to queue the selected software for installation or removal. Once we have marked off all the items we want to install we can click a button that will process all the queued packages in a batch, locking Apper's interface. I found installing and removing packages worked well.
Apper also offers us an Updates module where we can check for newer versions of packages in Neptune's repositories. Accessing the Updates module shows the package manager checking repositories, but then nothing much seems to happen. Sometimes the Updates module would just hang, refusing to let me know if new packages had been found. Other times I might see an error message saying there was a problem with Apper failing to communicate with PackageKit. In any event, I was not able to see or install any software upgrades. However, if I switched to the Muon package manager or the APT command line tools, I could see and install new versions of the packages on my system. Muon focuses more on individual packages than desktop programs. It works well and allows us to search for and install software and upgrades. The Neptune distribution pulls in packages from a few sources, with most items coming from Debian 7 "Wheezy" repositories.
Neptune 4.4 -- Installing software updates with Muon
(full image size: 375kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Looking through Neptune's application menu we find a large and useful collection of software. The distribution includes the Chromium web browser with Flash enabled. The Icedove e-mail client is installed for us along with the KGet download manager, the Konversation IRC software and the Kopete instant messaging software. The KTorrent torrent software and the Wireshark network monitoring tool are also included. To help us get on-line, Neptune ships with Network Manager and the KPPP dial-up networking software. The application menu includes the LibreOffice productivity software, a personal organizer and the Okular document viewer. Neptune ships with the GNU Image Manipulation Program and a simple image editor called KolourPaint. Neptune ships with several multimedia applications, including the Amarok audio player, the Audacity audio editor, a desktop recorder and the VLC multimedia player. We are also given an audio/video converter, the Kdenlive video editor, the K3b optical disc burning software and a program for downloading YouTube videos. Neptune ships with a full set of media codecs, enabling us to play and edit multimedia files. Neptune also ships with a number of administrative utilities, including a partition manager, the KDE System Settings panel and a hardware information browser. We also find the Back In Time backup utility, a LVM storage volume manager and a printer manager. Neptune offers users a simple text editor, an archive manager and a virtual calculator. A copy of the TrueCrypt encryption software is also included. The distribution offers us a few accessibility tools such as a screen magnifier and a virtual keyboard. Neptune ships with Java, the GNU Compiler Collection and the systemd init software. In the background we find version 3.18 of the Linux kernel.
While I was exploring Neptune's bountiful collection of software, I found most applications worked well. The distribution offers a lot of functionality out of the box and I quite like the array of powerful applications that are available right from the start. I particularly like the KDE System Settings module for interfacing with systemd. The systemd module displays lists of services available on our system. Using the module we can browse through these services and start/stop them. We can also enable/disable services so that our configuration will survive a reboot. I like that the module allows us to filter systemd units based on their type and status.
Neptune 4.4 -- Adjusting system settings
(full image size: 490kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
One application I thought would be more useful than turned out to be was the YouTube Downloader application. This program offers to download and, optionally, convert the format of YouTube videos. While the program does do what it says (download and convert videos), the application is unable to browse for or search for videos. This means we need to locate the video we want using a web browser and then switch to the download application. YouTube Downloader does not display progress information and it is often unclear whether the application is working or whether it has stalled while downloading a file. The Downloader did work most of the time, but it could benefit from more progress information and a search feature.
One of the few problems I ran into with Neptune came about while I was connecting a printer to the system. Neptune's printer manager was able to locate my printer and enable it. However, whenever I attempted to access the printer's settings, the printer manager would crash. I was still able to make use of the printer, but I could not set up access controls or otherwise adjust the printer's settings. Another problem I encountered was the Back In Time backup application would not open. There was no error message, the application simply refused to launch from the Lancelot menu.
I tried running Neptune in two test environments. When running in a VirtualBox virtual machine, I found Neptune performed well. The distribution booted quickly, ran smoothly and integrated nicely into the virtual environment. When running on a physical desktop machine the distribution again proved up to the challenge. All of my hardware was properly detected, my audio volume was set to a medium level, networking was enabled automatically and my display was set to my monitor's maximum resolution. In either environment I found Neptune would use about 480MB of memory when logged into the KDE desktop.
Neptune 4.4 -- Browsing the web and playing a game
(full image size: 868kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Conclusions
Neptune is a distribution which does not offer many surprises or exciting new features. What the distribution does offer is a solid, useful and easy to use desktop operating system. Neptune ships with a lot of great software, the distribution is easy to install and most of the software included works as intended. I found Neptune offered good performance, it detected all of my hardware and there was enough software included by default that I rarely had to install anything.
One of the few weak points of Neptune, for me at any rate, was the Apper package manager. Apper worked well when I wanted to install or remove packages, but I kept running into problems when it came time to install updates. Apper tended to either lock-up or crash when I tried to install updates. We can work around this limitation by using Muon or the command line package manager, but Apper was the one notable weakness in an otherwise excellent experience.
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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) |
pfSense changes its development process, Pinguy OS releases fix for ISO images and Linux Mint unveils new features for MATE and Xfce users
The pfSense project, which provides a FreeBSD-based packet filtering solution, is changing part of its build process. In the past, the pfSense developers kept a separate repository of patches which could be applied to FreeBSD and FreeBSD's collection of ports. However, this method of maintaining a separate group of patches was a source of additional work and the pfSense developers have transitioned to a new approach. Now, the pfSense code is maintained as a git branch of FreeBSD. "The former structure, where a set of discrete patches were kept against a given version of the FreeBSD source and ports trees, has now been replaced by a system where those patches are kept on a vendor branch of these trees. This improves both the process of bringing new versions of FreeBSD and ports to pfSense and the process of upstreaming changes we make to these. By upstreaming, we make both FreeBSD and pfSense better." More information on this move can be found on the pfSense blog.
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Just over a week ago, the Pinguy OS project released Pinguy OS 14.04.3. One of the distribution's new features was the ability to boot on computers with UEFI firmware. The project has received some bug reports indicating the project's new installation media would not boot on UEFI enabled computers. "I have had a few reports of people not being able to boot the ISOs on UEFI systems. After some research this was due to there being no EFI/FAT partition on the ISO. People that used 'dd' to write the ISO to USB or were trying to boot from a DVD had issues. If you used Unetbootin you should have been fine. Due to these problems I have updated my ISO building script so it adds a small EFI/FAT partition to the ISO. This will enable the ability to boot the DVD with UEFI systems. I have made no other changes to the OS. I only modified the way the images are created. If you have had no issues installing then you do not need to re-download. The update is only for people that were having issues with UEFI system." Further details can be found on the Pinguy OS website. People affected by the missing partition can download new ISO images from the project's download page.
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Some new features are coming to the MATE and Xfce editions of Linux Mint, including the ability to switch window managers while logged into the desktop. Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint's lead developer, explained the feature in a blog post: "There's something cool in store for MATE and Xfce users. It was implemented this week and it's coming in Linux Mint 17.3. The Desktop Settings tool will now support the following window/compositing managers under MATE and Xfce: Marco, Metacity, Xfwm4, Openbox, Compiz and Compton. A new help section was added to explain various concepts around window managers and compositing. Switching window-managers takes effect immediately so you no longer have to log out." The new feature will allow users to experiment with different window managers to find the style and performance which best suits their needs.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Accessing hard disk images
Accessing-images asks: A friend told me to make a backup of my hard drive in case I needed to restore it someday. I've got the image, but I want to access the files on just one partition inside the image. Is it possible to read files from just one partition without copying the entire image to a disk?
DistroWatch answers: It is possible to access a full disk image and read the files stored on just one partition of the image. That's the good news. That bad news is: accessing a specific partition within an image of an entire hard disk takes a few extra steps.
Let us assume that you have a file containing an image of your entire hard drive and this file is called full-disk.img. We want to access one partition contained in the full-disk.img snapshot of your disk so that you can browse and read the files it contains. To access the files we will need a copy of the parted disk partition manipulator. If it is not already installed on your operating system, chances are your distribution has a parted package in its software repositories.
We begin by running the parted program and handing it the disk image.
parted full-disk.img
Running the above command should display a welcome message and conclude with a prompt which reads (parted). At the prompt, we type "unit".
(parted) unit
The parted program will then ask us for the type of unit we want to use and we will type "B" for bytes. What this does is insure whatever information parted displays for us will be shown using bytes as the unit of measurement rather than kilobytes or megabytes.
Unit? [compact]? B
This will bring us back to the (parted) prompt and we will next ask for a print out of the partitions on our disk image. We need to pay special attention to the Start column.
(parted) print
Model: (file)
Disk full-disk.img
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
| Number | Start | End | Size | Type | File system | Flags |
| 1 | 1048576B | 269484543B | 268435968B | primary | fat16 | boot, lba |
| 2 | 270532608B | 304087551B | 33554944B | primary | ext4 | |
When the (parted) prompt appears again, type "q" to quit the program, we have the information we need. What we now need to do is identify which partition we want to access and mount it. In this example I am going to assume we want to access the contents of the partition formatted with the ext4 file system. That is the second partition in the drive image and its start point is at byte 270,532,608.
We now create a mount point for our files and use the offset information from parted to mount the partition, providing the mount command with the image we want to access and the offset of the partition within the disk image. The final bit of information we pass to the mount command is where to place the files it finds inside the partition, in this case the my-data directory.
mkdir my-data
mount -o loop,ro,offset=270532608 full-disk.img my-data
The files we want to access will be available to us in the my-data directory. We will not be able to change the files in that directory as the image is read-only, but we can make copies of the files and alter those copies if we wish. When we are done accessing the partition we need to unmount it.
umount my-data
rmdir my-data
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Last week we ran a Questions and Answers column in which we talked about various ways to create PDF/A documents. One of our very helpful readers managed to find a convenient method for creating PDF/A documents from any program using a virtual printer. The steps for setting up the virtual PDF/A printer are included below.
I found the solution to this week's reader question about printing directly to PDF/A from any program.
- First, install the cups-pdf virtual printer. (The package is called printer-driver-cups-pdf on Debian/Ubuntu.)
- Open the /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf file in a text editor as root.
- Search for GSCall in the configuration file and add the following line to modify the defaults: "GSCall %s -q -dPDFA -dCompatibilityLevel=%s -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="%s" -dAutoRotatePages=/PageByPage -dAutoFilterColorImages=false -dColorImageFilter=/FlateEncode -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -c .setpdfwrite -f %s"
- Save the edited config file.
- From any program's print dialog, print to the newly created "PDF" or "CUPS-PDF" printer. (If it doesn't exist, you'll have to add a cups-pdf virtual printer using your distro's printer config system.)
- Look in your home directory for a newly created PDF file in the newly created "PDF" directory. If the PDF directory isn't in your home folder, look in the /var/spool/cups-pdf directory. Open that file in your PDF reader and look at the document file properties. You'll see that its format is "PDF/A - 1b".
Hope this helps! The trick is the "-dPDFA" switch. Thanks to this page for the tip.
Thank you, Sam, for sharing this solution with us.
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Past Questions and Answers columns can be found in our Q&A Archive.
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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: 112
- Total data uploaded: 13.8TB
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| Released Last Week |
Parsix GNU/Linux 8.0
Parsix GNU/Linux 8.0 has been released. Parsix is a desktop Linux distribution based on the latest stable Debian release, but shipping with the latest stable GNOME build. From the release announcement: "We are happy to announce the immediate availability of Parsix GNU/Linux 8.0, code name 'Mumble'. This version is our first release using Debian 'Jessie' as the base platform. Parsix GNU/Linux 8.0 ships with the GNOME 3.16 desktop environment, Linux 4.1-based kernel and an improved installer system officially supporting UEFI based systems. All base packages have been synchronized with Debian 'Jessie' repositories as of September 12, 2015 and we are shipping GNOME Shell 3.16.3 and Linux 4.1.6. Updated packages: X.Org Server 1.16.4, GNU Iceweasel 40.0.3, Chromium browser 45.0, LibreOffice 4.3.3, glibc 2.19, GParted 0.19.0, Empathy 3.12.10, GIMP 2.8.14, Grisbi 1.0.0, VirtualBox 4.3.28, VLC 2.2.1." See also the detailed release notes for additional notes and software repository information.
Parsix GNU/Linux 8.0 -- Running the GNOME Shell desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
TurnKey Linux 14.0
Jeremy Davis has announced the release of TurnKey Linux 14.0, a major new version of the project's extensive set of highly specialised virtual appliances made for severs. The new version is for 64-bit systems only, it is based on Debian GNU/Linux 8.0, and it includes a number of interesting new appliances: "Ansible is an IT automation tool, it can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates. EspoCRM is light-weight CRM platform targeted at small to medium business. The Foodsoft appliance has been a long time coming. Laravel is a PHP framework with the tagline of 'The PHP Framework For Web Artisans'. SuiteCRM is a CRM suite forked from SugarCRM provided with additional modules." See the full release announcement for more information.
Semplice Linux 2015.2
The developers of Semplice Linux, a Debian based distribution, have announced the launch of Semplice Linux 2015.2 for Workstations. The new release is based on Debian 8.2 and includes version 4.1.7 of the Linux kernel. "It's our pleasure to announce the first stable release of Semplice for Workstations 2015, codenamed `Jethro Tull'. After a month since the release of the preview version, we now feel confident to release Semplice for Workstations 2015 to everyone. Huge thanks go to everyone who took part in the testing phase and has thus contributed in making this release possible. This release is based on Debian 8.2, plus the updates available at the moment of build (2015-09-18). The ISO images ship with Linux kernel 4.1.7." The new release is available in 32-bit and 64-bit builds for the x86 architecture. Further information on this release, along with known issues and upgrade instructions, can be found in the project's release announcement.
MidnightBSD 0.7
Lucas Holt has announced the availability of MidnightBSD 0.7, a new stable release of the project's FreeBSD-derived operating system with focus on desktop use: "I’m happy to announce the availability of MidnightBSD 0.7 RELEASE. This release is primarily for stabilization, ZFS and mport package tool enhancements. Upgrading from source - when upgrading from 0.6, you will need to install src/kerberos5/lib/libroken before building world. Security: expat - multiple integer overflows have been discovered in the XML_GetBuffer() function in the expat library; kernel - fix a security issue on amd64 where the GS segment CPU register can be changed via userland value in kernel mode by using an IRET with #SS or #NP exceptions; TCP Reassembly resource exhaustion bug - there is a mistake with the introduction of VNET, which converted the global limit on the number of segments that could belong to reassembly queues into a per-VNET limit..." Read the detailed release announcement for a complete list of changes.
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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 |
Disk encryption
Using disk encryption is a good way to protect data on hard drives which may fall into someone else's hands. Encrypting files or partitions is a good way to prevent thieves or the simply curious from plugging your hard drive into another computer and accessing your documents, preferences and e-mails.
This week we would like to know how many of our readers use encryption and, if so, what kind? Some people like to encrypt just the files in their home directories, others might wish to encrypt entire partitions. Others encrypt everything, hiding swap space and even the system configuration from prying eyes. Let us know in the comments below what sort of encryption you are using, if any.
You can see the results of last week's poll on running selecting distributions for various tasks here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Disk encryption
| I encrypt my home folder: | 75 (4%) |
| I encrypt my /home partition: | 97 (5%) |
| I encrypt /home and swap space: | 38 (2%) |
| I encrypt the whole disk: | 345 (19%) |
| I do not use disk encryption: | 1105 (62%) |
| Other: | 126 (7%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Distributions added to waiting list
- BunsenLabs Linux. BunsenLabs Linux is a Debian-based distribution offering a light-weight and easily customizable Openbox desktop. The project is a community continuation of CrunchBang Linux.
- Nitrux OS. Nitrux OS is a desktop distribution that is based on Ubuntu and features the KDE Plasma desktop environment.
- Asril OS. Asril OS is a desktop Linux distribution which has been set up to use the Indonesia locale. Astril OS ships with the Cinnamon desktop environment.
- Darkiban. Darkiban is a Debian-based operating system with many desktop applications installed by default.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 28 September 2015. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Disk encryption (by pcninja on 2015-09-21 00:40:10 GMT from North America)
I don't use disk encryption, but I want to. The only reason why I don't do it, is because I lack back-up medium and I don't know how to set it up. Also, I don't really want to have to do a fresh install if something goes wrong.
2 • Disk Encryption (by KenWeiLL on 2015-09-21 02:04:26 GMT from Asia)
I don't use disk encryption too. Afaik, it degrades disk's read-write (speed) performance?
3 • disk encryption... (by tom joad on 2015-09-21 02:23:53 GMT from Europe)
I just started using encryption on my laptop. I did just the ubuntu mate partition and I used luks or whatever is included when you do a new ubuntu install.
My hard drive is an SSD so I haven't really noticed a performance hit. When I encrypted the partition I put a 18 character password on it. So far that has worked fine.
Personlly I really like the security that if someone grabs my laptop I can be pretty certain they wouldn't get my stuff. If they want it they will have to work at it.
After I did my laptop I attempted to encrypt a traditional 320 gig western digital hard drive in my tower. There I did experience a performance hit, a big one. My tower took forever to start, it was cranky and hung a lot. So I did a clean re-install and it is fine.
Personally, I think encryption of an entire disk is good bet. For business folks, lawyers, government employes, military personnel, etc I think encryption makes good, reasonable and prudent sense.
4 • Disk Encryption (by John on 2015-09-21 04:23:14 GMT from North America)
I prefer to use a truecrypt vault on a usb flash drive to store passwords that are sensitive such as money accounts and the like. Other passwords that are less sensitive such as email, forum passwords etc. I use kee pass. I also use encfs to encrypt certain folders on dropbox. When the distro allows it I like to encrypt at least my home folder in case my laptop is lost or stolen. Might as well make it as hard as possible for the thief to crack it.
5 or 6 character passwords isn't strong enough to keep a kid out. Passwords needs to be 10 characters or more with mixed uppercase, lowercase, digits, symbols. 16 characters is fair, 32 characters desirable, 63 if you're paranoid. Even your WiFi pass phrase needs to be strong. The longer the better.
Encryption isn't un-breakable. The strongest password can be cracked given enough time and resources. Why make it easy, make it as hard as possible.
5 • Ultimate Edition (by Baltazar on 2015-09-21 06:14:00 GMT from North America)
I just tried Ultimate Edition and it looks nice... a bit to dark themed to my like though. It feels snappy and all on my SSD, but the one roadblock I have found is that its Software Center will not work...
And, I missed the option or something and installed it to Mate desktop instead of Xfce...
Anyone feel that UE's page is a bit bland and its requirements to post to its page a bit excessive... feel like they will ask for social security numbers at any moment now. Gives a bad jive...
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
6 • Disk Encryption (by Bob on 2015-09-21 06:57:44 GMT from Europe)
Disk encryption - what for? I am too lazy to do backups. So it is always good to know that NSA can do that easily for me :-)
7 • Accessing hard disk images (by HermanH on 2015-09-21 07:41:59 GMT from Europe)
Use kpartx for accessing parttitions in a hard disk image:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUHXVr3_0SQ
http://www.normation.com/en/blog/2011/04/07/mounting-partitions-stored-in-a-logical-volume-or-a-disk-image/
8 • Rubberhose filesystem (by Paraquat on 2015-09-21 07:44:52 GMT from Asia)
I don't normally bother to encrypt my hard drive. I just make sure that there isn't anything risky on there like credit card numbers and passwords.
Closely related to this topic...Julian Assange. He's famous now for Wikileaks, but most people don't know (or have forgotten) that he was a pretty famous hacker in his youth, and is one of the authors of the rubberhose filesystem on which most modern disk encryption is based:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubberhose_(file_system)
If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth tracking down a copy of the film "Underground: The Julian Assange Story". Even non-geeks I know liked it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357453/
9 • Finally a stable Semplice Linux (by Flynn on 2015-09-21 08:18:46 GMT from Europe)
I'm really glad, that the Team around Semplice has been released a second branch, now based on Debian stable. And "Semplice for Workstations" (Jethro Tull) is a nice name and also a great description. IMHO. Now everone can choose between Semplice based on sid and Semplice based on stable. I'm looking forward to. Great work@Team Semplice
10 • Crypto Needs Help (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2015-09-21 10:19:55 GMT from North America)
The threat model of "someone else's hands" needs clarity. The common cases are (ex-) friends, family, or colleagues -- frenemies. But malice isn't necessary. A workplace computer shuffle can put one user's e-mail in the hands of a new hire. An encrypted disk won't help.
What's needed are security at desktop and app levels. The best comes from keyfiles on external USB dongles for data access, even if you have the computer AND the user login AND the encrypted disk gets automounted. There isn't enough focus on such rigging.
There's little focus on simple sweeping. There are "recent documents" listings all over $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. Autoclean them at shutdown or on demand. Ditto personal search engines and databases. Offer ways to shut them off completely, e.g. Arch AUR package akonadi-fake. Switch avahi off by default at installation.
The CPU may matter more than disk encryption. Search the terms "processor+backdoor" for many interesting reads.
Related/recommended,
http://www.dyne.org/software/tomb/
http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/lavabit-critique/
http://retroshare.org
11 • Disk Encryption (by Stan on 2015-09-21 10:44:35 GMT from Europe)
I'm surprised to see that at the moment of this post, 67% of voters does not use Disk Encryption.
I don't use Disk Encryption because my main computing happen on a Desktop, if someone breaking in physically where is located I would have bigger problems, my Desktop data would be an insignificant damage.
In my smartphone I don't use encryption either, because I follow my own strict personal policy: *No Internet Banking* *No e-shopping* *No sensitive data*
I use Encrypted Containers instead, e.g. TrueCrypt, and offline password manager.
My important data in the "cloud" most likely will be in an encrypted container.
IMHO disk encryption is mainly for highly mobile users who carries all their sensitive data everywhere.
What I do not like of Disk Encryption it mainly protects your data hen the device is powered off.
12 • Disk encryption (by solt87 on 2015-09-21 11:44:19 GMT from Europe)
I encrypt everything but the /boot partition, but I selected "whole disk" as the closest option.
Yes, it affects disk performance, but with standard LUKS parameters, it's subjectively unnoticeable.
13 • Semplice Linux (by Wse on 2015-09-21 12:02:07 GMT from Europe)
A marvelous distro based on Debian Jessie and Openbox! Everyone should try it and once you try it, you'd want to use it.
This Eugenio Paolantonio has a very good feeling on aesthetics.
14 • Disk Encryption (by Sitwon on 2015-09-21 13:40:34 GMT from North America)
Over the past few years I have been transitioning all of my systems to Full-Disk Encryption. On some distributions it is handled automatically by the installer, on others it requires some manual intervention during the install. But at run-time, you only notice it when you boot the machine and need to decrypt the drive. There's no noticeable difference in performance.
As for doing a fresh install when something goes wrong... the only thing that would force you to do a fresh install would be corrupting the partition table (you'd be doing a fresh install anyways) or losing the password/key you use to decrypt the drive. When you boot from a rescue CD, you might have to type one extra command to decrypt the disk, but after that it's just like recovering any other system.
If you use the computer for work, encrypting the hard drive can go a long way to saving your company and saving your job should the computer or drive ever be stolen. From a compliance stand point, the company doesn't need to report it as a breech if the drive was encrypted.
If it's your personal computer or device, it's still a worthwhile exercise. Even if you don't use that device for banking or "sensitive data", you'd probably be surprised at how much damage could be done with data you didn't think was sensitive. Or how much sensitive data could be compromised from just that little bit of access.
Encryption doesn't protect your data from the government. A judge can compel you to decrypt a drive if prosecutors can convince them that there is relevant evidence on the drive. However, it could force prosecutors to notify you earlier in the process if you the subject of an investigation, which would give you additional time to prepare your defense. And even though the judge can compel you to decrypt the drive, it could give you some leverage to bargain (plea bargains or immunity) depending on the charges and evidence in question.
Many people will be thinking at this point, "I'm innocent, I have nothing to hide. Why should I care?" But the reality is that you may be charged for something that you didn't know was a crime, or you may be unknowingly complicit in someone else's crime, or you may just be falsely accused of a crime. Having an encrypted drive is an additional layer of legal defense for law-abiding citizens. The fact that your drives are encrypted cannot be used as evidence of wrongdoing. (Just as locking your car doors is not evidence that you're smuggling drugs.)
There are some out there who get really paranoid about encryption and imagine they live in a world of spy-craft and sophisticated attackers who want to steal their data. Realistically, that's probably not you. The more likely threat vector is that an opportunistic thief will steal your device and try to resell it for a quick buck. They won't be sophisticated enough to do a coldboot attack, or even know what that is. On the off chance that you're targeted for your data, at least you've added one more obstacle to slow them down. It complicates the theft and increases the chance that they will be caught. And again, it's a worthwhile mitigation because it gives you a bit more time to react to the theft and protect yourself.
Security is not about preventing risk, it's about mitigating risk.
The only cost is the one-time investment in learning about LUKS and how to use it. But that could potentially save you from losing everything you have. So this simple mitigation is worth the cost.
15 • Accessing hard disk images (by yetanothergeek on 2015-09-21 14:32:27 GMT from North America)
If you pass the -P or --partscan option to losetup, it will automatically create a separate loopback device for each partition of a disk image.
# losetup --show -f -P full-disk.img
/dev/loop0
# ls /dev/loop0*
/dev/loop0 /dev/loop0p1 /dev/loop0p2 /dev/loop0p3 /dev/loop0p4
# mount /dev/loop0p2 /my-data/
# do-something-with /my-data/
# umount /my-data/
# losetup -d /dev/loop0
BTW, while full disk images certainly have their uses, it seems like a horribly inefficient way to back up a system. For one thing, you are likely to be needlessly backing up several GB of free space. It also makes it difficult to manage incremental backups. In the event of a catastrophic disk failure, you're probably better off partitioning a new disk from scratch anyway rather than trying to restore the entire disk layout from a backup.
16 • a (by a on 2015-09-21 14:44:45 GMT from Europe)
I have LUKS encryption on a data drive, so I voted "other". I used to use that drive with an "old" CPU but it made everything very slow, so I switched to an unencrypted drive later.
People saying "I use an SSD so encryption doesn’t slow things down" don’t make much sense, because it’s the CPU that decrypts and encrypts the data; the amount of data stays the same. If anything, using encryption on an SSD could slow things more than on an HDD if the controller does on the fly compression (encrypted data can’t be compressed, so the SSD will have to read and write more), and because the time needed by the CPU to handle encryption will be more noticeable compared to the time needed by the drive to access the data.
To comment 14 (Sitwon), I doubt the law about encryption is the same in every country on the planet.
17 • Disk Encryption (by Stan on 2015-09-21 15:09:43 GMT from Europe)
@14 (Sitwon):
Interesting comment, I still cannot find a real value of full disk encryption for personal use on desktops. My data will be secure only when the device is powered off and I'm not subject of a legal process, other than that these days most of the threats are online. However I highly recommend encrypted file containers.
To me encrypting my /home folder or entire disk makes no sense if I have to de-crypt the data to be able to run a "dangerous" web browser, I rather prefer to protect only the important parts and unlock it on demand when I need something.
18 • Disk Encryption (by Kekinash on 2015-09-21 16:58:53 GMT from North America)
Here in the US you must have your computer and all mobile items encrypted, no because the government, I don't care about them, they already have the backdoors to access my encrypted data , but because ID thieves. If you are like me, keeping on the computer bank statements, and all kind of sensitive data, you must protect your computer, and encryption is another layer thieves must peel before accessing it. Of course you need to protect your computer or mobile when is on.
Not doing it is just be lazy and irresponsible.
19 • Disk Encryption (by lashley on 2015-09-21 20:31:04 GMT from North America)
I do do not use encryption simply as other has stated not keeping sensitive data on their PC. I run multiple drives for multiple reasons which are not a security concern.
My main concern would be banking and financial institutions selling personal sensitive info to the highest bidder.
My country's complacency in regards to safeguarding personal information of citizens they have collected and allowing hostile nations gaining access to that information. No excuses.
Why encrypt?
20 • Disc Encryption & the "Ring -2" Bug in Intel Chips 1995-2011 (by anamezon on 2015-09-21 21:03:04 GMT from Europe)
Disc encryption is all fine and good (though IMHO a bit of overkill in most users' cases) if sensitive (or not-so-much) data needs to be somewhat protected e.g. during disc transfers or in case of a theft, etc.; however in case of systems with Intel chips (starting with Pentium Pro ca. 1995 and up to Sandy Bridge ca. 2011, take a look here, if you want:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/11/memory_hole_roots_intel_processors/?page=1
) it will be just of a minor nuisance for an skillful person with access to the system - the CPUs themselves are irreparably (!!!) buggy on level "ring -2" a.k.a. SMM, making them succeptible to rootkits underneath everything else - userland, OS & kernel, even the chip hypervisor :( so, encrypt all you like, on such systems whatever passes for decryption through the CPU is already in a readily-obtainable form ... sad but true, and it seems there is no fix for these series of Intel CPUs ...
21 • Disk encription (by Wse on 2015-09-21 21:15:51 GMT from Europe)
Let's say you have your home partition encripted. You boot your computer with a Linux live iso, then make yourself root and quite easily read that encripted partition of the your distro. It is quite easy to get inside the password blocked Windows installation with practically any Linux Live iso. You can even delete the parts or whole of system32 and completely disable that installation. There are some isos boot straight into root, such as Puppy or System Rescue. Try to encript your home partition, or directory and then check it with a live iso.
Should we encript?
22 • Disk encryption (by Stan on 2015-09-21 22:01:41 GMT from Europe)
Disk encryption does not save you from this situation
https://trac.filezilla-project.org/ticket/5530
You better shutdown that pc to be safe.
23 • The New (Mint 17.3) Desktop Settings Tool (by late-to-the-party on 2015-09-22 00:15:10 GMT from North America)
I'm surprised no one is commenting on Mint's (new) Desktop Settings Tool ... for me, changing desktops without logging out is exciting news. I expect to eventually see the feature "cloned" in many distros. Well done, Team Mint!
24 • Disk Encryption (by Ari Torres on 2015-09-22 00:32:54 GMT from North America)
no encryption for this boy,are we safe? i don't care :)
25 • Encryption that really worketh well. (by Ted on 2015-09-22 00:39:11 GMT from North America)
The best and most reliable encryption is "no storage devices" as were available in the early 1960s. Not needed then, not needed now, though when one must, be wise to employ non-conventional means of storage.
Then consider something simple enough that its structure is finite in normal calculations and infinite in transition calculations. This enables a dynamic variable that with cybernetic assistance cannot be possible for humans to hack.
Keep it simply symbiotic.
26 • Linux Mint 17.3 .. Switch Desktops without Logging Out .. (by Graham_J on 2015-09-22 00:46:48 GMT from Oceania)
Why would anybody want to do that??
27 • @26 and disk encryption (by Will B on 2015-09-22 02:06:12 GMT from North America)
[ @26, Graham_J ]
I think that would be a really cool feature because you can sample different desktop environments and window managers on-the-fly (at least, seems that what they said). I would welcome such a feature, although I'm pretty set on Openbox.
[ Encryption ]
I personally don't use it, but I have set up encrypted FreeBSD and Ubuntu systems for customers (see my blog for articles). I think encryption is important, but I'm just either too lazy or change distros/OS's too frequently.
28 • Mint Window managers (by hhh on 2015-09-22 03:13:16 GMT from North America)
>Why would anybody want to do that??
To switch the window manager without logging out?
29 • @ 23, 26 & 28 Window managers (by Wse on 2015-09-22 05:26:20 GMT from Europe)
In Linux, isn't it simply "window-manager --replace?"
30 • Encryption & WMs (by M.Z. on 2015-09-22 06:16:29 GMT from North America)
@18
Why would it possibly be considered lazy if I have no sensitive data on my computer? If fact encryption would be a useless waste of time & effort if you avoid storing sensitive data on your PC or worse a laptop. Indeed the only truly irresponsible thing would be to carry sensitive info around everywhere on an easily stolen laptop, but if you have nothing worth stealing then who cares?
@23
As 28 & 29 hint at this is only the Window Manager we are talking about. It's a bit of a back end thing that will have no effect on what desktop you are using, it'll just enable wobbly windows as soon as you switch to Compiz. Not a bad enhancement but for my part I was far more impressed by this Compton compositor thing. I've noticed a fair amount of tearing while streaming video from certain sites in Linux & I'm glad to hear about this improvement for XFCE. I've really only noticed good tear free rendering in KDE up till now, so it's nice to know there are other options that may be equally good. Thanks to the Linux Mint team for making the option available & easy to use.
31 • changing WINDOW MANAGERS under Linux Mint MATE and Xfce... (by frodopogo on 2015-09-22 09:33:40 GMT from North America)
Go back and read carefully.....
it's not about changing desktops, it's about changing Window Managers.
I'm not familiar with any in the list but Compiz.
These kinds of things have performance quirks. In electric guitar circles, we have the idea of an A/B comparison, where you can switch immediately between two guitar effects so your ear can hear the most vivid contrast between them. If it takes too long to switch, you tend to forget part of what the first sound was, so when you hear the second sound, the contrast isn't that vivid.
In the same way, I can see how with something governing desktop effects, it would be handy to be able to try one, then immediately switch to another so any contrast in performance or appearance is as vivid as possible. Then will you truly be able to make an informed decision about which you prefer, without the memory of the first one fading before you apply the second one.
32 • #! Returns as BunsenLabs 8.2 (Hydrogen) RC1 (by TheGreatControversy on 2015-09-22 12:41:06 GMT from North America)
BunsenLabs 8.2 looks like the legit continuation of CrunchBang. :) Hopefully UEFI support is added to the final release, otherwise it will be for me, only the occasional use in V-Box.
33 • Mounting partitions in image (@8,15) (by PePa on 2015-09-22 17:41:07 GMT from Asia)
Like comment 8, mounting partitions within an image is easy with kpartx. Unfortunately, on my system, losetup doesn't offer a -P option...
This creates the mapper to the partitions:
sudo kpartx -av full-disk.img
This mounts the second partition on mountpoint my-data:
sudo mount /dev/mapper/loop2p2 my-data
34 • Encryption (by Poet Nohit on 2015-09-22 20:43:29 GMT from North America)
Using encryption is a waste of resources. It does not protect against anything except the most casual of snoops (which you shouldn't care about in the first place).
If you need your data protected, your best bet is to steghide it and memorize the passwords involved. Otherwise, you're just kidding yourself.
35 • Mint 17.3 (by lashley on 2015-09-22 23:47:30 GMT from North America)
I have to agree with the vast majority of comments on switching window managers without logging out. There is no need for such tool, no point in it.
Would suggest improving the distro and moving all the desktop environments to LMDE2.
That would be a more logical and sensible switch.
36 • Multiple Subjects (by Chris on 2015-09-23 03:08:04 GMT from North America)
DWW Poll:
IMO, each person & organization needs to identify their own Threat Model, create a corresponding Security Plan, and implement their plan. Such a Security Plan may or may not include some combination of encryption methods (Full Disk, Partition, File, External Storage, Etc.). As an example, the The Linux Foundation-IT recently released their Security Checklist (check it out for ideas):
https://github.com/lfit/itpol/blob/master/linux-workstation-security.md
As for what I selected in the poll, I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you! Just kidding, I selected Other. In addition to other security methods, I:
1. Keep critical files on an encrypted USB drive; and
2. Use FDE on my PCs (mostly laptops) to minimize my losses from potential theft/loss, minimize the value of my purloined property if improperly acquired by someone else, and secure any of my critical file data that may have been loaded onto my swap partition when I access my encrypted USB files.
Linux Mint Fast WM Switching:
I don't see any benefit of this to me and wish the Mint team would allocate their resources to more pressing matters (e.g., drop Ubuntu base) but YMMV.
The only potential benefits I can see to anyone are fast switching to benefit temporary application usage (e.g., @30's video tearing example) and a subjective quick comparison. However, in the unlikely event I would need to change my WM or compare WMs, I would make a permanent change or more objectively (e.g., benchmark) compare WMs using traditional methods not requiring a fast switch.
Bunsen Labs:
Welcome to the party...finally.
#! RIP
37 • Nope - nada. (by KGIII on 2015-09-23 13:20:39 GMT from North America)
I don't really do the whole encryption anything on anything, for the most part. I don't leave anything that would ruin me on a computer - at all. I've been at this for too many years to trust anything - including myself. So, rather than forget my decryption password or the likes, I simply don't do anything (including banking) online.
I do send encrypted files to people and I do encrypt sent emails but I don't think that's what you were asking about. There's only an illusion of security and, quite frankly, I lack secrets enough to withstand the 'pipe wrench decryption method' or anything like that. So, frankly, I don't bother with it much at all.
That and, well, you're just as likely to see me flitting about from distro to distro and only bothering to use a Live USB/DVD/CD while storing my data elsewhere if I bother to make any. I've moved to a position where I'm much more fluid and have also changed to being a much more passive consumer as I've aged.
Then again, I'd kind of like to take a distro, modify it, and then wrap it back up and make my own Live USB disk to just plug-in and go. Frankly, I have too many computers around the house. I'd probably do better just using a remote profile akin to what I have done in the past with Windows but, honestly, I don't really know how to accomplish that with Linux. I imagine it's possible - then I'd probably keep it encrypted because it's easier to maintain in one single location.
If that makes any sense...
Anyhow, I'll try to recall this post and to check back in. I can't say that I've ever posted here so I've no clue if it notifies of replies or the likes. I'll use a real email address but who knows if it displays that or not. The sad part is that I've known about this site for years and years but haven't ever bothered to comment before.
38 • WM switch & LMDE (by M.Z. on 2015-09-23 19:39:28 GMT from North America)
@35 & 36
Linux Mint often works toward a more polished & user friendly experience, & logging out & back in again feels clunky & unnecessary. I rather like this sort of touch & found it very useful to be able to preview new log in screens without a full long out & log in when that feature hit Cinnamon/MDM. This is the same sort of thing & helps make for a truly polished desktop experience that sets Mint apart from distros that require manual editing of config files. I expect more of these sorts of little enhancements in the future, along with other bigger things.
@36
You mean Mint Debian Edition? Version 2 has been out for months & runs quite well on my laptop. It's no longer rolling release & it has Debian stable as a base, but you get the latest version of Cinnamon (or MATE if you chose that version) automatically with your regular updates. They say it has some more rough edges & requires more knowledge compared to the main edition, but I haven't really noticed any difference except for Firefox taking a few extra days to update. That & the installer is a little less nice. From what the Mint folks say the main thing that prevents more work on polishing LMDE is the relative lack of users, so by all means download it & give it a try. I recently updated the Wikipedia article on Mint to reflect some of the changes in Mint 17 & & LMDE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint#Linux_Mint_Debian_Edition
It's much more informative now, but also feels like it could use some more polish.
39 • UEFI-support shouldn't be a dealbreaker (by Spacex on 2015-09-23 23:39:26 GMT from Europe)
@ 32
Uefi-support shouldn't be a dealbreaker for you. It takes 5 minutes to fix post-install. If you really like Bunsen, then surely it's worth a little effort on your part :)
40 • Window Manager Switching (by Dragonopolis on 2015-09-24 01:28:21 GMT from North America)
I believe some people are forgetting that Linux is also about choice as well as open/freedom/value. Organizations or individuals can choose a very focused based Distro/application that serves a specific need/ experience "or" Create a Distro/Application that takes a more Broad approach allowing many options to attract more user base.... Linux Mint has always given it's user base many options. Linux Mint did not have to offer more desktops than one.... Linux Mint did not need a Debian version of Linux Mint. I could go on and on.... However
Nobody is asking or requiring that every one use every option that is offered in any distro; including Linux Mint.
What supporters of Linux Mint should be saying is.... It's great to see Linux Mint continuing to offer more options for its user base and potentially attracting new users/supporters as well
If this is not what a person wants from Linux Mint ...Perhaps you've made a incorrect choice... Lucky for you Linux base distros have plenty of options for you.... Perhaps a more Focused with less options type of Distro based on Ubuntu....... such as Elementary OS..... the choice is yours.....
Peace
41 • @17 (re encryption) (by Simon on 2015-09-24 04:10:42 GMT from Oceania)
Exactly. I encrypt sensitive data (including family photos etc.: if they're not happy about the thought of a thief browsing through photos of them, then it's our responsibility to ensure such data is encrypted), but leave everything else unscrambled for the convenience and small performance gain. It makes no sense to encrypt the many GB of files in /usr and so on when I couldn't care less if a thief were to pick through those.
I don't encrypt my entire home directory (again because there's no point); but I do symlink browser profiles and email data directories and so on to an encrypted drive, so I can be confident that personal communications and other personal information would remain secure if the computers were stolen.
42 • Encryption (by imnotrich on 2015-09-24 04:58:21 GMT from North America)
Although I encrypt everything sent to the cloud (my SpiderOak back up account), I have not yet gone to the trouble of encrypting my hard drives locally.
Why? Well for one, encryption adds an extra level of complexity (translation: makes it next to impossible) if I ever need to recover data from a dead or dying hard drive.
I agree encryption would be important if someone had physical access to or stole my hardware, such as after a burglary but I dispute how useful it would be against external/remote/government threats such as NSA surveillance. Believe it or not, most encryption schemes have back doors and for those that do not. the NSA has sufficient CPU horsepower to crack anyway. If they want to.
43 • Is desktop switching new? Is it useful? (by dbrion0606 on 2015-09-24 05:42:44 GMT from Europe)
Before 2010, it was possible with Mandriva to choose between WM/DE at login ; no need to edit config files (it was a second line in the login menu, IIIRC), the freedom of choice was respected ... This makes more sense than switching while working (often, one is concentrated on what one does/receives). I played once or twice with tis freedom of choice....
44 • Is desktop switching new? (by Wse on 2015-09-24 20:10:30 GMT from Europe)
Have a look;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUbCwmg0N1Q
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=hybryde
45 • Window Manager switching (by M.Z. on 2015-09-24 20:42:13 GMT from North America)
@43
Again, the talk with regard to Mint is actually about the _Window Manager_. I've looked up & run the command so switch out XFWM for Kwin. I also did some light reconfiguration work in XFCE in order to get all the neat Kwin effects in XFCE automatically without running that replace command every time. It's a neat tweak to the XFCE desktop that gives you all the effects of KDE while still using the XFCE desktop. I used the tutorial about doing so here on youtube in order to do it in Mint XFCE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0xTiTUiIng
It's far more manual & less user friendly than what Mint is offering with their new WM tweaks for Compiz/Compton etc., but Kwin is a bit of a different animal compared to the WMs offered in Mint XFCE & MATE.
46 • LUKS (by mw on 2015-09-24 21:39:05 GMT from Europe)
I am using LUKS on my notebooks since 5 years.
47 • Disk Encryption (by Andy Figueroa on 2015-09-24 22:14:44 GMT from North America)
My "Other" response details is that I encrypt selected files only because that meets my needs.
48 • disk encryption (by hotdiggettydog on 2015-09-24 22:53:35 GMT from Europe)
I don't encrypt disks or partitions.
Cryptkeeper folders work well enough for me.
Anything really sensitive is kept as encrypted archives offline.
49 • Window Manager switching (by Muthu on 2015-09-25 14:15:30 GMT from Asia)
@45 I think Voyager-X2-HD Version based on Xubuntu's LTS is also a good tweak to the XFCE desktop that gives me all the effects of KDE while still Iam using the XFCE desktop. Just Check it out guys. It is Cool.
50 • Distrowatch search (by Jessey on 2015-09-26 18:31:32 GMT from North America)
Am I the only one who gets annoyed that you can't search distros by file system's supported. For example Deepin supports BTFS out of the box but Linux Mint does not. I tried to search for distros that use HFS+ by defult but the package was no in there. Another common one is Reiser 4. Yet, distrowatch has no way to sort distros by the file systems they support.
51 • New Bee looking for OOTB experience? (by JustSayItJonah on 2015-09-27 12:52:26 GMT from North America)
@39
"Uefi-support shouldn't be a dealbreaker for you. It takes 5 minutes to fix post-install. If you really like Bunsen, then surely it's worth a little effort on your part :)"
Something to consider, if it is NewBee related, they probably don't want to jump through any extra hoops, especially if they are coming from windows (Just a OOTB=out of the box, experience.). Plus, if you posted "a how to" instructions or a link to "a how to" for UEFI, this may help the person out (instead of out the door. ;)). Just my 2 bits.
52 • @51 (by Wse on 2015-09-27 13:56:14 GMT from Europe)
Or google crunchbang-monara.
53 • multiple DE (by zykoda on 2015-09-30 07:12:45 GMT from Europe)
Simultaneous multiple X sessions, each with a different DE, switchable by Ctrl+Alt+FX are already possible allowing fairly rapid switching......resources permitting!
Number of Comments: 53
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| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Full list of all issues |
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LIIS Linux was a Latvian Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux.
Status: Discontinued
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