 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 659, 2 May 2016 |
|
Welcome to this year's 18th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
For people who run Ubuntu, or one of the many distributions that are based on Ubuntu, April brought about a significant new release. Ubuntu 16.04 is a long term support release and the technology included in the new version of Ubuntu will make its way into dozens of community projects. This week Joshua Allen Holm takes Ubuntu 16.04 for a spin and reports on his experiences. We also discuss compiling custom kernels and reasons for compiling a kernel in both our Questions and Answers column and in our Opinion Poll. In the News section we discuss a new version of the Cinnamon desktop and talk about Debian Wheezy receiving security updates through the project's Long Term Support Team. We also cover the first beta release of Devuan, Sabayon's new Raspberry Pi edition and a new security feature introduced in NetBSD. Plus we share the distribution releases of the past week and provide a list of torrents we are seeding. We have updated our Package Management page and are in the process of reorganizing our Waiting List and we cover these changes below. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (26MB) and MP3 (26MB) formats
|
| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
It is always a big deal when Canonical releases a new long-term support version of Ubuntu. Despite Ubuntu's important place in the Linux distribution ecosystem, I should admit right off the bat that I am not a regular user of Ubuntu. I try out each new release of the desktop version Ubuntu and occasionally use Ubuntu Server, but I tend to use Fedora and CentOS for almost all of my daily desktop and server needs. Still, I've always been fascinated by what Canonical is doing with Ubuntu and their Unity desktop environment. Below, I take a look at Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and share my thoughts on the Unity desktop environment and the distribution as a whole.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Running Unity from the live media
(full image size: 589kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
After downloading the 1.4 GB ISO and copying it to a USB flash drive, I rebooted my computer and started Ubuntu 16.04 from the flash drive. I have to admit, I was extremely impressed by how quickly it started up. Even though I was using a fairly slow USB 2.0 drive, I had a fully working desktop ready to use in slightly less time than it takes for Fedora 23 to boot off the laptop's hard drive. The system was very responsive and used approximately 460MB of RAM with no applications running.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Running virtual terminals
(full image size: 436kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Convinced that the distribution did not have any issues with my hardware, I installed Ubuntu 16.04 on my hard drive. The experience was exactly what I have come to expect from any distribution that uses the Ubiquity installer. The installation process is straight forward and easy to understand. There are a few tweaks to the installer compared to the version used in Ubuntu 15.10, but they are very minor.
What's New in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu 16.04 is the sixth long-term release of the distribution, and like all of the previous LTS releases, tends to be fairly conservative in its changes. Beyond updated versions of applications and a newer Linux kernel (version 4.4), users of Ubuntu 15.10 will find only a few differences. In fact, most of the new features from the official announcement are server-focused technologies, though there are a few interesting new features for desktop users. Users upgrading from the previous LTS release will, of course, notice far more changes.
Many of the small changes are things that some people have been very vocal about on-line. The much reviled on-line search results in the dash feature now defaults to off instead of on. It is now possible to move the launcher from the left side of the screen to the bottom, but there is no setting to do so in the control panel. If you want to move the launcher, you will need to use Unity Tweak Tool or edit the setting directly using dconf. One other minor tweak is a setting to turn make it so that application menus are always visible instead of only being visible on mouse over.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- The Unity dash
(full image size: 482kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Beyond the little tweaks, Ubuntu 16.04 has a few other changes. Brasero (CD burning software) and Empathy (instant messaging software) are no longer installed by default. GNOME Calendar now serves as the default calendar application and is installed by default. One other interesting new addition is the inclusion of log off, restart, and shutdown in the dash's application search results. These entries allow the user to quickly perform that task just by searching for it. Of course, all the software has been updated to newer releases. Recent releases of Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice are included and plenty of other software is available in the repositories. Developers will find recent releases of many programming languages, including Python 3.5 and Go 1.6.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Ubuntu Software
(full image size: 351kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Installing software is probably the most noticeable change in this new release of Ubuntu. The old Ubuntu Software Center has been replaced with Ubuntu Software, which is a re-branded version of GNOME Software. This change might take a little time to get used to for some people, but I found that Ubuntu Software performed much better than Ubuntu Software Center did in Ubuntu 15.10 on the same computer. An even bigger change than the transition to Ubuntu Software is the ability to install software using "snaps" instead of standard .deb packages. Snaps are basically containerize applications. While I found the command line interface for managing snaps easy to use, it is still too early to tell how significant the new feature will become.
The Unity Desktop
My preferred desktop environment is GNOME 3, so Unity is a somewhat familiar experience. With the application launcher on the left and a full screen interface for searching for applications, Unity is like GNOME 3's cousin. (Given the history of Unity's development, that is more than just an analogy.) There were plenty of similarities, but there were enough differences to make the experience interesting.
I tend to use GNOME 3 without any tweaks, unless I am using CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux, where I use GNOME 3's Classic Mode, so I am accustomed to having to go into the Activities overview (or using keyboard shortcuts) to do most tasks. I do not mind this in the least, but having Unity's launcher always displayed was handy. It did take up a little screen real estate, but it was not too intrusive. Of course, there are options to hide and resize the launcher, so it can take up less space or only show when the cursor moves to left side of the screen. Given the massive amount of news coverage that the new, hidden, move the launcher to the bottom feature received in the lead up to the release of Ubuntu 16.04, I tried moving the launcher to the bottom, but I did not really like it. To each their own, but on a wide-screen display, I much prefer losing a little width instead of a little height.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Exploring the Unity control panel
(full image size: 458kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
While Unity does not have the plethora of customization options found in the GNOME 2 desktop Ubuntu used before developing Unity, I found the options available to be useful and a good balance between too many to the point of being overwhelming and too few. Sure there are only two colour themes (not counting high contrast), but Radiance and Ambience are both very nice looking. I slightly prefer Radiance, but either way, the themes help provide a unique Ubuntu experience and look-and-feel. The other options, like the choice to "Enable Workspaces" and "Add show desktop icon to the launcher" provide a nice option for customizing a user's workflow. A single screen might work for some, but others might want to use multiple desktops. Some people do not like Ubuntu's default setting being the simpler, single screen workflow, but I can understand the logic behind the decision.
The one thing I had a hard time adjusting to was having application menus at the top of the screen in the menu bar. I am sure I would get used to it if I used Ubuntu long term, but during my brief testing of Ubuntu 16.04 it was the one thing that really caused me to pause and very briefly think when I wanted to use the menus. Thankfully, there is the option to put the menus in the application's title bar and to make them always visible, so there are ways to change the default behaviour.
One other menu related issue that bothered me a little was the fact that Ubuntu's use of GNOME applications leads to somewhat inconsistent menus. GNOME uses a single application menu for most of its applications, and while Ubuntu has made an effort to change this behaviour back to the old style of File, Edit, etc. menus, this is not always done. Cheese, the webcam application, has a menu that is just labelled "Cheese". It is not a big deal, but it is an inconsistency. Hopefully as Ubuntu moves towards Unity 8 and convergence, new Ubuntu specific applications will emerge making the user experience even more cohesive.
Unity, just like my preferred GNOME 3 desktop environment, tends to be something users either love or hate (or love to hate). It does not feature the multitude of built-in window decoration and theming options that can be found in KDE, Xfce, and many of the other desktop environments. Unity has a limited set of options, but that limited set of options creates a consistent experience. I can understand that might not appeal to everyone, but I like it.
Final Thoughts
Ubuntu 16.04 is a very nice release. It will be supported until 2021, so it is an excellent choice for users looking for a desktop focused distribution with long term support. The constant update cycle on non-LTS Ubuntu releases and other distributions with short support windows can become tedious. Ubuntu 16.04 provides a nice remedy to constant distribution upgrades while still offering a pleasant and fully functional desktop experience.
While I found Ubuntu 16.04 to be very stable, it seems like some others have not had the same experience. Cautious users might want to wait until Ubuntu 16.04.1 is released before upgrading from Ubuntu 15.10. Users of Ubuntu 14.04, the previous long term support release, will not even be prompted to upgrade until 16.04.1 is out, but now is a good time to check out the live media and see if it is worth it for them to make the upgrade.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an Acer TravelMate X483 laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Quad-core 1.5GHz Intel Core i3-2375M CPU
- Storage: Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 3000
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux Mint unveils new version of Cinnamon, Debian Wheezy gets long term support, Devuan releases beta, Sabayon supplies ARM images and NetBSD gains ASLR support
The Linux Mint team has announced the release of Cinnamon 3.0. The Cinnamon desktop environment is based on GTK 3 and offers a combination of modern conveniences with a traditional desktop layout. Some of the new features in Cinnamon 3.0 include "Window management improvements on tiling, mapping and unmapping windows, compositor's window groups and tracking of full screen windows. Improved out of the box touchpad support (edge-scrolling and two-finger-scrolling can now be configured independently and are both enabled by default). New accessibility and sound settings (both rewritten as native cinnamon-settings modules). Battery powered devices can be renamed." The complete list of changes can be found in the project's blog post. Cinnamon 3.0 is likely to debut in the next major version of Linux Mint later this year.
* * * * *
The Debian project has announced that regular security support for Debian 7 "Wheezy" has reached its end. For people who wish to continue running Debian Wheezy, this version of Debian will be maintained by the Debian Long Term Support (LTS) Team. "As of 25 April, one year after the release of Debian 8, alias "Jessie", and nearly three years after the release of Debian 7, alias "Wheezy", regular security support for Wheezy comes to an end. The Debian Long Term Support (LTS) Team will take over security support. Information for users: Wheezy LTS will be supported from 26 April 2016 to 31 May 2018. For Debian 7 Wheezy LTS there will be no requirement to add a separate wheezy-lts suite to your sources.list any more and your current setup will continue to work without further changes." Additional information on Debian Wheezy's transition from regular to LTS support can be found in the announcement.
The Devuan project, a fork of Debian which does not feature the systemd init software, has released its first beta. The new development release strives to supply a safe upgrade path from Debian Wheezy for people who wish to avoid installing systemd packages on their system. "Debian GNU+Linux is a fork of Debian without systemd, on its way to becoming much more than that. This Beta release marks an important milestone towards the sustainability and the continuation of Devuan as a universal base distribution. Today Devuan Jessie provides continuity as a safe upgrade path from Debian Wheezy and a flawless switch from Debian Jessie, avoiding most of the problems introduced by systemd." The release announcement contains additional information and download links.
* * * * *
Ettore Di Giacinto has announced that the Sabayon project has released an ARM-based build of their distribution. The new ARM installation images are designed to run on Raspberry Pi computers, specifically version 2 and 3 of the Raspberry Pi single board computer. "We are glad to announce the immediate availability of Sabayon ARM (hfp) for Raspberry Pi 2 and 3. This is our first step towards ARM support, the package release scheduling will be different from our amd64 variant. Updates will be on a period of 6 months, except for security or special updates. The image comes out of the box with the latest 4.4.y kernel and with the rpi-update tool that can be used to update kernel and firmware. The username/password is sabayon:sabayon, and sudo is already set-up. Just flash the image with dd, and attach it to a network (it will get an IP automatically from your network). The OS is set to automatically boot and start eth0 and sshd (so you can connect to it via ssh)." Download links and additional information can be found on Sabayon's website.
* * * * *
Though it was introduced with little fanfare, the NetBSD operating system now includes support for address space layout randomization (ASLR), a feature which makes it difficult for attackers to guess the locations of data in memory. The feature was added by Christos Zoulas and enables the security feature on 64-bit x86 machines. The added security will make it harder for attackers to compromise applications running on the highly portable operating system.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
|
Compiling a custom kernel for performance gains
Feeling-the-need-for-speed asks: I want to dive in and compile my own kernel. If I rip out unnecessary drivers and other things I don't need, what kind of performance gains can I get? Are there specific compiler settings that will improve my custom kernel's performance over the default one my distribution provides?
DistroWatch answers: Building a custom kernel that does not include driver modules you will not be needing will reduce the size of your kernel, but it is unlikely to give you a performance gain. At least not a noticeable one. Drivers the kernel does not use will not be run and therefore will not impact performance.
If you want to improve the performance of your kernel you might be better off enabling the BFS process scheduler, which has been shown to improve desktop responsiveness when compared against the stock CFS scheduler.
As for changing compiler settings, I recommend against trying to switch compilers or change the default compiler flags. The Linux kernel is a complex piece of software and is pretty closely tied to the GNU C compiler. Changing compiler flags on such a large and complex code base is as likely to cause problems as boost performance.
My suggestion, if you want more speed, is to look at things you can change outside of the kernel. For instance, using a lighter desktop environment (such as LXDE) will free up resources and possibly result in a more responsive desktop. Disabling background services you do not need, such as file indexing, will free up some memory and might make your system faster. Assuming your computer has a lot of memory, you might look at decreasing your system's swappiness level in an effort to avoid accessing slow swap space. Again, assuming your computer has lots of RAM, running a service such as preload can keep more of your applications in memory, reducing load time.
* * * * *
Past Questions and Answers columns can be found in our Q&A Archive.
|
| 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: 190
- Total data uploaded: 35.2TB
|
| Released Last Week |
Lubuntu 16.04
The Lubuntu team has announced the release of Lubuntu 16.04, a lightweight community edition of Ubuntu that features the LXDE desktop. The new version is a long term support release and features mostly bug fixes and new artwork. "Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 16.04 LTS has been released! With the codename Xenial Xerus, Lubuntu 16.04 LTS is the 10th release of Lubuntu, and the second long term support release. Lubuntu 16.04 LTS will be supported until April 2019, with three years of support." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes. The current version is available in 32-bit, 64-bit, PowerPC and Raspberry Pi editions. Future editions, according to the release announcement, will switch to using the LXQt desktop environment.
Slackel 6.0.5 "Openbox"
Dimitris Tzemos has announced the availability of a new version of Slackel, a distribution that is based on Slackware and Salix. The new release, Slackel 6.0.5 "Openbox", is based on Slackware's 14.2 (-current) branch and features support for booting on UEFI systems. The release announcement offers several tips for various installation configurations: "The Slackel Live Installer (SLI) now support installation on different file systems (btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, jfs, reiserfs, xfs). Note that you cannot use the xfs file system and grub because after installation the system will not boot. So for xfs choose (e)Lilo instead. Both /root and /home partitions (if you create a separate partition for /home and choose to format it) will be formatted on the same file system type. A trick can be used, to format /home with GParted on a different file system and choose to not format it. So you can have /root and /home with different file systems type. Installation on EFI GPT partitions is also supported for 64-bit iso. In this case you have to create a GPT partition table with GParted and the first partition, the EFI partition, has to be at least 300MB FAT32."
Black Lab Linux 7.6
The Black Lab Linux team has announced the release of Black Lab Linux 7.6, a new update to the distribution's long term support series which will receive security updates through to the year 2019. The new release features UEFI support (in the 64-bit build) and version 3.19 of the Linux kernel. "Today we are releasing Black Lab Linux 7.6. Black Lab Linux 7.6 is the latest release of our stable 7.x series of OS's. Black Lab Linux 7.6 is supported long term until April 2019. What's new? There are a lot of changes to Black Lab Linux 7.6 some of which include: Linux Kernel 3.19.0-58, LibreOffice 5.1.2, Firefox 45.0.2, Thunderbird 38.6.0, Gmusicbrowser, GNOME Documents, Tracker fast search, HexChat IRC client, Xfce 4.12 enhancements, Skippy XD Expose style task switcher, Spotify, Steam game client..." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Tails 2.3
The developers of Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) have published a security update which fixes a number of bugs and updates the software on the distribution's live disc. The new release, Tails 2.3, includes Tor Browser 5.5.5 and addresses these security issues. "Upgrades and changes: You can now copy and paste your GnuPG passphrases into the pinentry dialog, for example from KeePassX or the clipboard. Upgrade Tor Browser to 5.5.5. Upgrade I2P to 0.9.25. Upgrade Electrum from 2.5.4 to 2.6.3. Fixed problems: Clarify that users migrating from Claws Mail to Icedove should delete all their Claws Mail data to remove the warning when starting Icedove. Make both panes of Onion Circuits scrollable to fix display issues on smaller screens." Further information can be found in the Tails 2.3 release announcement.
Tails 2.3 -- Typing with virtual keyboard
(full image size: 81kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Parted Magic 2016_04_26
The Parted Magic distribution, an independent commercial project that provides partitioning and data recovery tools, has released a new version. The new release, Parted Magic 2016_04_26, includes several updates, including version 4.5.2 of the Linux kernel and TestDisk 7.1. The Chrome web browser has been dropped from this release. "This version of Parted Magic supports Secure Erase of NVMe SSD. These are different than ATA Solid State Drives, so a new GUI had to be written. The new GUI is very similar to the ATA Secure Erase GUI. It's located in the 'Erase Disk' menu right under the ATA Secure Erase button. I'll be working on another Secure Erase page for the new NVMe GUI. On the downside we removed Google Chrome because they quit releasing 32-bit builds. There are 64-bit Chromium modules in the Support Forum if you really need a Chrome like browser." A complete list of changes can be found on the project's News page. The Parted Magic distribution can be purchased through the project's Downloads page.
Ubuntu GNOME 16.04
The Ubuntu GNOME project suffered some website issues last week, delaying their announcement, but the project has officially launched Ubuntu GNOME 16.04, a long term support release that will receive security updates for three years. "Ubuntu GNOME is an official flavor of Ubuntu, featuring the GNOME desktop environment. Ubuntu GNOME is a mostly pure GNOME desktop experience built from the Ubuntu repositories. This version is based on the GNOME 3.18 release - Why not GNOME 3.20? Please visit the See Also section for more details." Apart from GNOME 3.18, the distribution has swapped out the Ubuntu Software Centre for GNOME Software and supports the installation of snap packages. Further details on Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 can be found in the project's release notes.
Proxmox 4.2 "Virtual Environment"
Proxmox is a commercial company that builds Debian-based specialized products. The company has released Proxmox 4.2 "Virtual Environment" with support for running LXC containers alongside KVM virtual machines and out of the box ZFS support. "Vienna, Austria - April 27, 2016 – Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, the company developing the server virtualization platform Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE), today announced the general availability of version 4.2. The open source virtualization platform Proxmox VE is a hyper-converged solution enabling users to create and manage LXC containers and KVM virtual machines on the same host, and makes it easy to set up highly available clusters, as well as to manage network and storage via an integrated web-based management interface." Additional information on Proxmox 4.2 Virtual Environment can be found in the company's release announcement.
SparkyLinux 4.3
Pawel Piganowski has announced the release of Sparky Linux 4.3. The SparkyLinux distribution is based on Debian's Testing branch and provides users with a variety of desktop editions. In the latest release, the Linux kernel has been updated to version 4.5.1, the Iceweasel web browser has been replaced with Firefox and the Turpial microblogging client was replaced with Corebird. "New, updated ISO images of SparkyLinux 4.3 'Tyche' are available now. As before, Sparky 'Home' editions provide fully featured operating system based on the Debian Testing, with desktops of your choice: LXDE, LXQt, KDE, MATE and Xfce." A complete list of changes to the distribution can be found in the project's release announcement.
SparkyLinux 4.3 -- Running the LXQt desktop environment
(full umage size: 1.6MB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
GParted Live 0.26.0-1
The developers of GParted, the GNOME Partition Editor, have released GParted Live 0.26.0-1. The new release is based on Debian's Unstable branch and features read support for LUKS. The new release ships with version 4.5.1 of the Linux kernel and has added progress bars for several file system copy operations. "The GParted team is pleased to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 0.26.0, patches for libparted for FAT file system operations, and other improvements. Items of note include: Based on the Debian Sid repository (as of 2016/Apr/29). Linux kernel updated to 4.5.1-1. Includes GParted 0.26.0 which implements read-only LUKS support, adds progress bars to NTFS, XFS, and EXT2/3/4 file system copy methods, fixes operations sometimes fail with 'No such file or directory'." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
4MLinux 17.0
The 4MLinux project has announced the release of a new version of the miniature Linux distribution. The new version, 4MLinux 17.0, provides mostly package updates, including Firefox 46 and LibreOffice 5.1.3. "The status of the 4MLinux 17.0 series has been changed to stable. Create your documents with LibreOffice 5.1.3.1 and share them using DropBox 3.18.1, surf the Internet with Firefox 46.0 and Chromium 50.0.2661.75, stay in touch with your friends via Skype 4.3.0.37 and Thunderbird 45.0, enjoy your music collection with Audacious 3.7.2 and aTunes 3.1.2, watch your favorite videos with MPlayer SVN-r37590 and VLC 2.2.2, play games with Xorg 1.18.1/Mesa 11.1.1 support enabled. You can also setup the 4MLinux LAMP Server (Linux 4.4.1, Apache 2.4.20, MariaDB 10.1.13, and PHP 5.6.20). Perl 5.22.1 and Python 2.7.11 are also available." A screen shot and complete list of packages cane be found in the project's release announcement.
Voyager Live 16.04
The developers of Voyager Live, a desktop distribution based on Xubuntu, have released a new version. The new release, Voyager Live 16.04, is based on Xubuntu 16.04 and ships with the Xfce 4.12 desktop environment. The new release will receive three years of security updates. The release announcement includes a list of updated packages: "Xfce 4.12 Xfdashboad 0.5.92, 0.0.2 plugin Xfce4 hotcorner, Plank 0.11.1 Dock, Conky, Yad, Smtube 16.3.0, Kodi Media Center 16.1 Mpv Media Player, Word, Caffeine, GIMP 2.8.16, Gthumb, Pitivi 0.95.1, Clementine 1.3.1, 1.7.3 CoverGloobus, RadioTray 0 / 7.3, Kazam, Transmission, Terminator, Ranger Terminal, Moc Audio, Lynis, rkhunter, Clamav Antivirus 5.20.1 clamtk, Repair Boot, OS-Uninstaller PulseAudio Equalizer, Cheese, Impulse, Screenlets 0.1.6, Déjà Dup, GRUB Customizer, BleachBit, Firewall Gfuw, Synaptic, Corebird Twitter 1.1.1, Thunderbird 38.7.2, Firefox 46, Pidgin, LibreOffice 5.1, GNOME Calendar, Kupfer, Mintstick USB 1.2.8, Ubuntu After Install Mod 2.7, GNOME Software, Xscreensaver 5.34..."
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll |
Compiling your own kernel
The kernel is a core component of any operating system. It is the part of the system which communicates with the computer's hardware. The kernel is also responsible for loading programs, scheduling tasks and enforcing low-level security.
There are all sorts of reasons someone might compile their own, custom copy of the kernel. Some people do it for the educational experience, others do it to add features, some try to make their kernel as small and efficient as possible. Of course kernel developers compile their kernel as part of their job.
This week we would like to know if you compile your operating system's kernel and, if so, why? Are you doing it for work, fun, education or another reason?
You can see the results of our previous poll on using HTTPS here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Compiling your own kernel
| I compile my kernel for the educational experience: | 160 (8%) |
| I compile my kernel as part of my job: | 32 (2%) |
| I run a source-based distribution: | 107 (6%) |
| I added/removed features in my custom kernel: | 131 (7%) |
| I enjoy it/it is fun: | 93 (5%) |
| I do not compile my kernel: | 1379 (73%) |
|
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
Reorganizing the waiting list and snap package management
A few weeks ago we broached the subject of improving our waiting list and the process of moving distributions from the waiting into our database. The waiting list is quite long and as each project needs to be evaluated manually, and sometimes reviewed again later for progress, combing the waiting list for viable distributions has become more time consuming.
One way we hope to reduce time distributions spend on the waiting list (and the time we spend evaluating them) is to reorganize the list. Up to this point the list has all been one big group of projects waiting in limbo. From now on the waiting list will be divided into categories. This should help us reduce the amount of time we spend looking at the same projects multiple times, allowing us to focus on interesting projects we can add to our database.
Roughly speaking, the waiting list is now divided into four main categories: projects we plan to evaluate soon and will either be placed in our database or shuffled into another category; projects which either do not work on our test equipment or could use more infrastructure such as forums or documentation; projects that feature some roadblock such as trademark disputes, translations or licensing concerns; and projects we feel are ready, but have not published a release for a while and will be added once we know the project is active.
In other news, with the release of Ubuntu 16.04 we noticed that the Snappy package management guide we published last year was obsolete. The Package Management page has been updated with the new Snap package manager syntax.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 9 May 2016. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Package Management - pkgsrc omission (by LOST on 2016-05-02 01:31:52 GMT from North America)
FreeBSD is not the only BSD OS out there. I realize it's the most famous, but I think you are doing the others injustice by omitting them. pkgsrc for one can be used not only with BSD but Linux as well. Please consider adding pkgsrc to the Package Management page.
2 • Compile a Kernel? Are you mad? (by Tom Joad on 2016-05-02 02:15:17 GMT from North America)
I have learned a lot piddling with Linux. I really started from scratch without any help; just me, a CD of Breezy and a blinding ignorance of Linux. That was it.
So for me compiling a Kernel is years down the road, if ever. My hat's off to those who do. But I suspect my group it way bigger.
The question, though, gave me a good chuckle.
3 • *untu reviews (by ariel on 2016-05-02 02:28:17 GMT from South America)
There should be hundreds of any *untu ending distribution reviews out there why to make one more..., I think there should be a lot of great unkwown distros waiting to be discovered and since distrowatch is by far one of the best site to spread the word about them it would be nice I think to see review of distros that are great but users simply didn't hear about them or are not yet fully convinced to install. That was my humble opinion, thanks for another great DWN.
4 • *buntu reviews (by ArkanabarTverrickIlarsadin on 2016-05-02 03:07:10 GMT from North America)
I personally was happy to have the Ubuntu review here on DWW. Truth be told, I don't bother reading many reviews elsewhere. This is the only site I check for reviews on a regular basis.
5 • This week's poll, "compiling your own kernel" (by Thomas Mueller on 2016-05-02 03:12:08 GMT from North America)
There is a flaw with the design of this week's poll in that it allows only one response where multiple responses might be appropriate and would not conflict with each other. For instance, one might run a source-based distribution and also add or remove features from the generic kernel config. It could also be an educational experience and might also be part of one's job; could even be fun at the same time. I would have liked to choose both source-based distribution and adding and/or removing features from the generic kernel config. Generic kernel config is likely to include lots of PCI and ISA SCSI cards long out of production. Kernel config for NetBSD or FreeBSD is simpler and much easier to edit than a Linux kernel config.
6 • DWW Poll (by Chris on 2016-05-02 03:23:35 GMT from North America)
As I do not do so on any of my production machines, I selected "I do not compile my kernel;" however, to be honest, I have been reviewing Minimal Linux Live (MLL) lately and have learned a great deal about compiling the kernel from source from that distros build scripts.
As a learning experience, I had initially intended to use Linux From Scratch (LFS) but I bumped into MLL on DW's Waiting List and choose to try it first. I am glad I did! Very simple and if one takes the time to analyze and possibly modify the build scripts, a person can learn a lot quickly. Now onto LFS for a similar but broader learning experience.
Referencing last weeks poll and discussion, I would recommend MLL for inclusion to DW's database; it appears to meet all the criteria. Note: Other than trying it, I have absolutely no ties to the MLL project.
7 • RE: Kernel Compiling (by Phoenix591 on 2016-05-02 04:06:41 GMT from North America)
While compiling a kernel itself may not gain much in the way of performance, you do gain boot time if you compile into the kernel itself enough (primarily your hard disk drivers) that you are able to skip using an initial ramdisk.
8 • Ubuntu (by More Gee on 2016-05-02 04:11:26 GMT from North America)
Ok I give up. How do I install this on a hard drive with Debian 8 using MBR without wiping the whole drive out and using GPT/VLM? I wanted to replace ArtistX with Ubuntu Studio 32 bit.
9 • Ubuntu 16.04 - GNOME vs. Unity (by M. Edward (Ed) Borasky on 2016-05-02 04:28:21 GMT from North America)
I wish Ubuntu would make GNOME the default desktop and ditch Unity entirely. I installed 16.04 GNOME and it's working great.
10 • Optimizing_Linux_kernel_vs_"need"_for_speed,_or_ego_greed (by k on 2016-05-02 07:05:07 GMT from Oceania)
@ "Compiling your own kernel" by Jesse Smith, and # 2 "... Are you "mad"?"(by Tom Joad)
First, Jesse, thank you for the really fair and concise overview of undertaking to compile one's own "custom" kernel. It seems a number of customized kernels for certain distros are really optimized and more stable, and that is much appreciated effort and result.
As for Tom's comment, by "mad", did you mean "insane" or "angry" :) . Perhaps most are these days :), but the educational adventure is a most worthwhile experience, yes?. After all, consider that Linus Torvalds's original kernel that started the great Linux revolution and evolution was an academic exercise.
Go for it, innovate and be happy.
11 • Kernels, Ubuntu & DEs (by M.Z. on 2016-05-02 07:11:43 GMT from North America)
As with most other desktop users I have never compiled any kernel. I do install the latest kernel depending on the distro. In PCLOS I'm always on whatever is newest in the repos & Mageia provides upgrades as well. I also update the kernel on my Mint KDE system, but I follow the more conservative approach recommended by the Mint update tools. I don't really see the point in doing anything custom with the kernel & think it's probably a lot more trouble than its worth.
On the Ubuntu front, I'm glad the turned off the the spyware by default. It was long overdue, though I'd like to hear more details. At any rate I may actually try putting this new spyware free version in a VM & toying with it a little.
@9
That's never going to happen, half the point of Unity is to do a better job of being friendly to the average user than Gnome 3. Not that Unity ever seemed to do a great job of user friendliness in my opinion, but it always seemed the better of the two odd ducks to me. If you like Gnome that's fine, but I really don't get why anyone would suggest moving to it as a default. Gnome is very obviously trying to be very different compared to other desktops, which could be a good thing for some, but it's not likely to be in the comfort zone for many users & just isn't a good default for too many distros. I have heard similar suggestions before from Gnome users that distro x should switch to Gnome by default, but I don't get how such fans don't see such a different DE as a niche desktop. What would be gained by putting such an unusual DE front & center in a big project like Ubuntu? Do you really think it would attract more users than it drives away? I recently heard a fellow college student express fear of Linux based software & I think most distros would be far better served by using a more mainstream DE, rather than making users more apprehensive by being out of their comfort zone.
12 • Kernel compilation (by Andy Mender on 2016-05-02 07:58:41 GMT from Europe)
As I run FreeBSD -STABLE, and more rarely -CURRENT branches on most of my machines, compiling a new kernel together with the 'world' is part of the deal. I prefer to not include drivers I will never be able to use, like multiple Ethernet adapters on a laptop. Optional stuff goes as loadable modules. The process is so much simpler compared to GNU/Linux, as Thomas Mueller @5 mentioned.
People are often unnecessarily afraid of kernel compilation on GNU/Linux, because the ncurses menu is complex and unreadable. Honestly, the kernel dev team should drop menu entries for devices that don't even exist anymore, thus making kernel configuration and compilation more of an educational experience than chore.
Regardless, on modern machines the performance gain is minimal, unless one plays around with schedulers and RAM use as was mentioned by Jessie :). The decrease in boot and shutdown times is also minor.
13 • Lubuntu 16.04 did not install. Went to Devuan instead. (by buntublues on 2016-05-02 08:10:56 GMT from Europe)
I was unable to install Lubuntu 16.04 on any of my laptops. Jumped the bandwaggon (been running Lubuntu and elementary OS for a couple of years now) and tried Devuan instead. Worked like a charm. And they are a very friendly lot I must say! :) Check out their newly released beta at devuan.org!
14 • Ubuntu + Atheros wireless = no go (by Carlos on 2016-05-02 09:04:43 GMT from Europe)
I've tested Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on a USB stick, live.
To my amazement, it didn't load the driver (Ath9k) for my relatively old Atheros dualband wireless card, so no wireless, no network.
Wait, what?!
In 2016?!
I've never had one single distro that didn't load the wireless driver on this machine. It simply works, always.
As this is an LTS distro, it will probably remain like this for a long time, because on LTS distros, even the bugs are LTS. LOL
Scrap Ubuntu.
15 • Xbuntu 16.04 based releases (by GoonieGooGoo on 2016-05-02 09:10:31 GMT from North America)
Good to see a new release for Voyager and ChaletOS. Both use Xfce and tweaked out. Yay! Cheers. :)
16 • Ubuntu 16.04 server install + Cinnamon 3.0.1 (by James, NZ on 2016-05-02 09:13:09 GMT from Oceania)
I went ahead and did a ground up install on my laptop with Ubuntu server 16.04 - no major dramas at all. After this installed cinnamon from ubuntu repo (2.8.6), LightDM + restricted codecs - desktop very fast & stable and up and running within an hour. Added PPA for Cinnamon 3.0.1 and installed within desktop.
Only issue found was the switch over from ubuntu server /etc/network/interface file managing network to the GUI NetworkManager (taking the eth0 and wlan0 lines out of interface file solved it)
17 • To the reviewer (by Gday MATE on 2016-05-02 09:31:10 GMT from North America)
Just a note, mate - your processor is a dual-core, not quad core ;)
18 • Ubuntu 16.04 (by Zork on 2016-05-02 09:45:34 GMT from Oceania)
Running 14.04 LTS at the moment...
No intention of moving to 16.04 at LEAST until .1 update ( probably .2 )...
That should get any nasty bugs sorted that slipped through testing and hopefully a more secure snap package management... Snap seems like a perfect vehicle for installing "Malware for Linux" to me...
19 • @11: Unity (by dragonmouth on 2016-05-02 12:47:24 GMT from North America)
There are two main reasons why Unity is the default DE of Ubuntu:
1) Mark Shuttlesworth's fervent desire to make Ubuntu into a Linux version of Windows. Unity is his version of Modern.
2) Unity is a proprietary Canonical product, GNOME is not. Canonical has total control over what goes into Unity, it has very little control over GNOME, if any.
The rest of the Linux community is happy using Wayland. However, Canonical has very little say in its development, so they created proprietary Mir, a fork of Wayland that they can control. All the other Debian-based distros can and do use either apt or Synaptic for package management. Canonical has little input into the development of apt and Synaptic so they create the proprietary Snappy. Do you see a trend here? Shuttlesworth/Canonical are trying very hard to make Ubuntu as proprietary as Windows is. And then there is the latest collaboration between Microsoft and Canonical to allowi Linux (Ubuntu) programs to run under Win 10.
20 • proprietary Ubuntu (by Conan the Barbarian on 2016-05-02 13:00:59 GMT from Europe)
Is the snappy technology really proprietary!?
21 • Ubuntu 16.04- (by vaithy on 2016-05-02 13:53:44 GMT from Asia)
My installation on a 3year HP latop (AMD A8 quad core with radeon GC) exactly went as you described.. But, Suspend didn't worked out.. kernel is the culprit but same laptop 15.10 worked great upgraded to latest kernel 4.5.2..but the issue persist..any solution?
22 • complining kernels (by john on 2016-05-02 14:21:48 GMT from Europe)
The only time I compiled a kernel was with Slackware, but that was back in 2004 and I had little choice if I wanted it to work on my hardware.
Some people might compile kernels for fun, but most of us have a life outside of messing about with code.
I suppose it's the difference between using Linux because one loves computor programming or using Linux because it is the best tool to get other things done. I belong to the latter group.
23 • 16.04 (by Tim Dowd on 2016-05-02 14:23:40 GMT from North America)
I've been running Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 for about a month and a half now- I installed a daily build back in March. I've really liked the system- it's been stable, and when things have been buggy leading up to the release they were fixed quickly.
This was kind of a test to see if I liked GNOME shell. It is obviously a controversial piece of software and I wanted to form my own opinion about it. I liked it, but I didn't like it better than MATE.
The great innovation of GNOME shell is the super key (windows key/home key, etc.) That's an elegant way to manage windows, and I wish every desktop would adopt it.
What made me switch back was simply that the new version of Nautilus ("Files" I guess we're supposed to call it) isn't as useful as the old version, which is MATE's "Caja." I really like having all of the information about free space displayed in every file window. I know there's extensions and tweaks and things I can do, but MATE's pretty much what a desktop should be out of the box. Hence I'm back to it. I think it would be good for GNOME shell to install by default a set of extensions that's good for a traditional desktop and one that's good for a tablet and let one pick between them at the login menu.
Although honestly, that's what I've got now since I didn't bother to reinstall- I'm still running Ubuntu GNOME and I just have MATE installed alongside. I like Ubuntu 16.04 enough it wasn't worth the work or downtime to do anything else.
24 • Devuan (by Napoli Bona on 2016-05-02 14:39:55 GMT from North America)
So I thought I would try out Devuan and noticed that they suggested using the torrent.
I started the torrent and discovered that the file size is 10.55 GB! Is this the largest distro ever? Just saying...
25 • Post #19 . . @111 Unity by dragon . . (by Rainwood on 2016-05-02 14:58:58 GMT from North America)
Is there even one point in your biased rant that's remotely true? Well, I read it again, and no, there's not even a single point that's accurate.
If I'm ever charged with a crime, hope Dragonbreath isn't on the jury . . . . .
26 • Compile (by Bonky on 2016-05-02 15:22:51 GMT from North America)
I used to "play" at compiling kernels to little, no ,or disastrous results....
I haven't done one for quite a while as i haven't had a real need to and it wasn't really what i want to waste my life on
27 • @24 Devuan (by Paraquat on 2016-05-02 15:37:11 GMT from Asia)
>24 • Devuan (by Napoli Bona
> on 2016-05-02 14:39:55 GMT from North America)
> So I thought I would try out Devuan and noticed that they
> suggested using the torrent.
> I started the torrent and discovered that the file size
> is 10.55 GB! Is this the largest distro ever? Just saying...
Hi Napoli. At first I got confused by that too, but on more careful inspection, I saw that the torrent link included all the different versions of Devuan: ie i386, amd64 (both CD and DVD versions), Raspberry Pi, Odroid, various other development boards, etc. So you need to go through your torrent program and unclick the versions you don't want. I think I'll suggest to the mailing list that they separate these downloads to different .torrent files.
28 • Fedora 24 schedule clarification (by Saurav Sengupta on 2016-05-02 15:54:21 GMT from Asia)
Your Fedora 24 schedule information is wrong. The Beta and final have been rescheduled for 10th May 2016 and 14th June 2016 respectively. Pointing it out because the schedule was updated on https://getfedora.org/workstation/prerelease/ before this issue's publication date (2nd May 2016).
29 • Kernel compilation...FreeBSD (by Paraquat on 2016-05-02 15:59:07 GMT from Asia)
I'll add my voice to that of Thomas Mueller @5 and Andy Mender @12. That is to say, kernel compilation is one thing that is considerably easier on FreeBSD than on Linux.
30 • Other reasons for compiling a kernel (by azuvix on 2016-05-02 16:52:36 GMT from North America)
Running a Slackware system, there aren't very many things you need to remove to make it fully free. The hardest part is replacing your kernel with Linux-libre, which (if memory serves) you don't have to compile, but it's not a terribly involved task to do so.
As for why you'd want to do that, performance gains aren't at the top of my list. Maybe I'm just terribly ignorant, but I haven't noticed many dramatic changes in how this machine runs with a custom kernel. However, it's nice to know that a) your kernel contains only what you need, b) there are no proprietary blobs therein, and c) you have complete control over the boot process, whether you use an initrd, and so on. I've learned a lot about how the system works by delving in at this level, and it's always a good thing to increase your level of technical competence with your own computer.
31 • Replacing the Artistix with Ubuntu Studio asked by More Gee (by Bobbie Sellers on 2016-05-02 16:57:17 GMT from North America)
Well MG you have apparently a 32 bit MBR system.
Have you made yourself a boot-able disk of the Unbuntu Studio?
You might want to make a copy of live GParted for your processor.
Using the GParted you can reduce the size of the Debian 8 install after
you back up your data to a safe place i.e. not on the same disk as you
are running from.
Since you apparently are discarding ArtistiX you can format and re-use
the operating system partition aka "/" for your install of Ubuntu Studio.
Maybe you can reuse the "/home" partition as well.
Now if you find these matters confusing then it is time to use web
search tools to find a nearby Linux Users Group in order to get help
with your problem. That is what I did when I started using Linux some
14 years ago TBMR. I live in San Francisco and Googled for Linux User
Group San Francisco. I found the SF-LUG and have attended and helped
with their meetings since then. It has a mailing list as well and questions
can be asked there if they are concerned with Linux matters.
Membership in the LUG or the mailing list is not limited to San Francisco
residents.
sf-lug mailing list
sf-lug@linuxmafia.com
http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug
Information about SF-LUG is at
Hope this information helps you More Gee or anyone who
chances across it.
bliss
32 • @ 19 (by azuvix on 2016-05-02 17:09:31 GMT from North America)
... wut.
All the software that you talked about is under GPLv3 or LGPLv3. Now, I know there are plenty of people out there that don't consider that version to be a truly free license, but calling it flat-out "proprietary" doesn't really ring true. If Canonical were trying to make Ubuntu as proprietary as Windows, the things you talked about wouldn't be sufficient all on their own.
With that said, I'm not an Ubuntu user and haven't been for some time since it became clear to me that Canonical didn't value privacy or software freedom anywhere near as much as I did. I tend to stick to distros which either start fully free or can be made fully free without much fuss. If that's important to you, great. Just don't make accusations that are clearly contradicted by the facts.
33 • Compiling a Kernel (by SilentSam on 2016-05-02 17:22:05 GMT from North America)
I don't know how to answer the question...
I have compiled kernels in the past, but haven't really attempted to do so since udev started modprobing kernel modules for me... Figured the gains of a compiled kernel were lost at that point.
34 • Compiling the kernel (by a on 2016-05-02 18:19:09 GMT from Europe)
I build my kernels since I started using Gentoo, but the configuration part is really tedious and more complicated than it could be. Still, it’s useful to do it in order to reduce significantly the compilation time (and of course add any missing driver). I was surprised the last time I build the kernel that it took less than 5 minutes on my i5.
Many years ago I also needed to build a patched speedstep module because the official kernel had broken speedstep support for my processor/laptop.
35 • @11 • Kernels, Ubuntu & DEs (by mandog on 2016-05-02 18:22:54 GMT from South America)
That is a very biased opinion about gnome and is not called for. As a gnome Openbox jwm or any of a number of WMs user they all have the same in common they are uncluttered and simple to use,
KDE is the worst user experience as it takes hrs a day just to decide which theme, icons, tablet, normal, or customised desktop to use the wallpaper on the cube takes the most time to decide, then the whole shebang plasma crashes?
XFCE 4 build is nothing but a joke take a look at the compositor its never worked correct in 10 years,
Cinnamon another buggy design. full of memory leaks. and crashes
Now I expect this upsets you and others that feel they have the right to slate anything they don't agree with constructive opinion is very welcome.
I don't have anything against any of these DEs mentioned its just a example of week after week the same old crap to the point you don't need to read the sender as this bios stands out a mile
36 • @35 (by a on 2016-05-02 18:32:00 GMT from Europe)
Stop spreading stupid FUD please.
37 • @36 (by mandog on 2016-05-02 18:50:53 GMT from South America)
I'm not spreading FUD just highlighting the fact that some users come here week after week, trying to enforce there biased opinions unto others.
This taints distrowatch for other users and destroys everything distrowatch is trying is trying to achieve that is a unbiased weekly round up of Linux.
38 • @ Own post (by azuvix on 2016-05-02 19:46:52 GMT from North America)
Point of clarification:
I do know that the GPL and LGPL are different licenses that serve different purposes. Apparently I hadn't had enough caffeine when I wrote that last post. :P
39 • Ubuntu, Cinnamon, Mint (by Johannes on 2016-05-02 21:12:47 GMT from Europe)
Thank you for reviewing Ubuntu. I haven't used it for years, but it doesn't seem to have changed very much in the past few years. I completely switched all the PCs I'm in charge of to Linux Mint in the past few years. Absolutely stable and reliable (partly thanks to Ubuntu's great work underneath).
Release of Cinnamon is a good news, even if there are not that many new features. Can't wait to install and use Mint 18 - hope DW will review it!
40 • Unity & Gnome (by M.Z. on 2016-05-02 21:57:26 GMT from North America)
@19 - Unity
As other have stated, that't just factually inaccurate. Don't get me wrong, I like an occasional well reasoned argument, but your statement doesn't meet the test. I personally have greatly disliked Unity & Ubuntu for years now because of the spyware thing, but I that was based on principles, facts & well reasoned opinions I had heard. Even a cursory check of the Wikipedia page on the Unity user interface turns up a link to the developers page clearly stating GPL & LGPL as the license, making the DE open source even if you dislike it as much as I have for the past few years:
https://launchpad.net/unity
@35 - Gnome
Someone gave an opinion I disagreed with & I tried to give a reasonable argument against them, what's the problem? I was trying to be reasonable, but it seems fairly blatantly obvious that, like it or not, Gnome doesn't want to be a typical desktop. Sorry if you don't like my opinion on switching everything under the sun to Gnome, but most of it flows quite logically from this simple fact about how different Gnome is trying to be. Gnome might be great for you, but isn't it reasonable to assume that most users would prefer a more traditional desktop as a default?
As a side note, I haven't seen very many plasma crashes lately. It used to be a bit of a common issue early in the 4.x run, but now it's generally very stable for me. Also users lacking the will to pick a favored setting once & forget it is their fault, now some massive inherent flaw in the desktop design.
41 • OpenElec not in the "Linux Family Tree"? (by Pearson on 2016-05-02 22:04:18 GMT from North America)
Perhaps I overlooked it, but I didn't see openelec listed. AFAIK, it's a fairly popular Slackware derivative for doing media.
42 • 40 • Unity & Gnome (by mandog on 2016-05-02 23:15:49 GMT from South America)
1st let me apologise I shot with both barrels and I should not of done that its my bad.
Sometimes we come across dictatorial we should always start "in my opinion" simply avoids confusion.
I like gnome no bones with that but my real thing is light WMs, JMW being my fav not that I have a low powered machine a 6 core and 8 gigs of ram is not a light machine its the speed programs open is instant, I do need a heavier more stable DE for a lot of things and gnome for me just works if it did not I would ditch it
I really can't remember the last time gnome broke may-be 3.06 just updated to 3.20 changed the theme as i don't like the gnome theme that was it.
XfCE4 openRC is another of my favs I just can't get it to break artoo does a great job. No kde I ditched it when it went to V4.00 and never missed it so I can't comment there.
I never use distro specific themes they tend to break next update and they have no idia about wallpaper and quality.
Any way I hope this clears things up I was out of order
43 • The word "Proprietary" (by dragonmouth on 2016-05-03 00:15:54 GMT from North America)
To all those that called me on the use of the word "proprietary" when referring to some Ubuntu packages, you are right. "Proprietary" was an incorrect word for me to use. Mir, Snappy and Unity, like the vast majority of Linux software, have been released under GPL. However, this does not change the fact that they were developed by Canonical. I used the word "proprietary" in the sense that Canonical has the final say on any permanent changes to those packages. Mark Shuttlesworth, in an interview referred to by DW, IIRC, that Mir was forked from Wayland, so that Canonical can have control over the protocol.
44 • I like Unity (by Jack on 2016-05-03 00:31:47 GMT from Europe)
I find Unity to be a very efficient DE and, although I disliked the earlier versions of it I quite happily use it now and would not want to see it replaced with Gnome Shell. The dash and the launcher (which I have kept on the left) are an efficient way of finding and launching software, I have online searches turned off, HUD is efficient in programs like GIMP and Libre Office where there are lots of options in the menus and you know the name of the command you want.The keyboard shortcuts are... efficient. You get the idea, it's heavy, but efficient to work with.
Gnome shell is pretty and I like the way the multiple workspaces work, but switching windows is long winded.
KDE is great, but I find the sheer volume of options leaves me tinkering when I should be working, and I've found multiple monitors don't work too reliably on both Kubuntu and Opensuse (and the quality of the desktop on both these distributions was miles apart despite being the same version)
Mate is great and I use it on another computer which runs Fedora. Unity would be too heavy for that computer anyway.
XFCE is great but again, I end up wasting time configuring it when I should be working, and it just never felt solid to me even though I can put my finger on no problems with it. Perception is everything.
Anyone else having problems with this page this evening? My firefox just crashed twice while posting this due to some script not behaving properly. Only on this page, never had this problem with distrowatch before though. Or with Firefox for a long time.
45 • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / XFCE (by Wil Barath on 2016-05-03 01:47:42 GMT from North America)
Has anyone determined yet whether Ubuntu 16.04 has finally addressed the ongoing bugs with XFCE to do with GTK and HAL which result in UI lockups, delayed launch of the Alt-F1 and Alt-F2 menu/command popups, failure of many apps to show an icon in the notification area (nm-applet being a prime example) ?
I really miss having a stable XFCE desktop :-(
46 • XFCE (by erinis on 2016-05-03 02:49:53 GMT from North America)
@45 Voyager Live 16.04.
47 • Post #43 - Proprietary . . by Dragonmouth (by PlainOl_Farmer on 2016-05-03 04:09:48 GMT from North America)
Yes, your posts have been ill-researched and off base regarding the status of several major projects . . . not exactly a small error . .
And re Canonical . . . what in the "ell" is wrong with any company that's trying to pay the bills and provide salaries to their employees? Why would you expect anything else? I know my company does the same, and if it didn't, I'd start looking for another company to work for. If Canonical - just like RedHat and Suse can't make a profit, who gains? Not Linux - - even Linus gets a more than decent salary.
Canonical walks the for profit - - sustainable business model and open source model about as well as can be done. It's not easy OR straightforward. That's why all 3 commercial Linux OS providers have made agreements with many other tech companies including MS. It's called "Due Diligence" . . . .
48 • Software Centre (by Mark D on 2016-05-03 12:02:09 GMT from Europe)
I've installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and it mostly works well, but I've not been able to install anything using the Software Centre. It's nice and fast, but doesn't actually work!
Either it displays "pending..." when installing a package and doesn't complete, or it seems to finish installing a package but then the button still displays "Install". I check via the command line and it isn't installed. So I have to use apt-get to install packages instead.
Has anyone else had this issue with the new Software Centre?
49 • Very quickly, easily install ANY Linux kernel. Multi-boot any. (by Greg Zeng on 2016-05-03 12:31:29 GMT from Oceania)
Kernel compiling is last century. As soon as any Linux kernel is developed, into alpha, beta or final release, it is immediately available for double-click entry into ANY Ubuntu-based operating system, including Mint.
Generally I prefer the low-latency kernels. The advantage of the latest kernels is increased hardware compatibilies: SSD optimizations, USB3, USB 3.1, wifi of many types, etc. Any incompatibilities caused by kernels, hardware or applications can easily, quickly tested by switching kernels and/ or operating systems.
If you want to install ANY Linux kernel into most Ubuntu-derived distributions, double-click the appropriate downloads (usually 3 files) from:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/?C=N;O=D
From kernels:
v2.6.24-hardy/ 09-Jun-2015 10:57
To:
2016-05-03-wily/ 03-May-2016 03:15
Some Ubuntu-based distributions include Grub-customizer, by default.
with this GUI app, you can choose any of all kernels you have installed.
Using Grub-customizer, without CLI but using its primitive line-based GUI, you can easily choose the order of the Linux operating systems, and the kernels of your choice. My Grub-customizer menu presents me with any of two Windows operating systems, or any of ten Linux operating systems.
Each Linux operating system has any number of kernels to select, if I need to select any kernel. Windows-10 systems need about 40 GB, and the Linux systems need much less than 10 GB of storage space.
W-10 operating system does not include third-party applications. Each Linux operating system fits all its applications within the 10GB of space. Data and archive files are shared & accessed by all operating systems. These are on W-10 NTFS-compressed partitions. WINE is on all the Linux operating systems.
All my Linux partitions include Libre-Office, RecordMyDesktop, OpenShot, etc. So hopefully I'll show how this works, easily, reliably and repeatedly on my lightweight notebook computer. The Dell XPS-15 is not an ultra-book, with its dual GPUs, internal TB SSD & TB HDD, DVD, 16 GB DDR3, i7, etc. But it moves easily from my nursing-home bed to my common-room armchair.
50 • Installing_Linux_kernels_keyrings_and_verification (by k on 2016-05-03 14:36:37 GMT from North America)
@49 (by Greg Zeng), and Jesse Smith
Thank you Greg for the informative and reassuring comment.
Still, I have frequently wondered:
1. About Liquorix .dmz kernels, what exactly does the .dmz denote?
2. How exactly is the authenticity/security of kernels verified, as at least Liquorix provides a keyring, presumably for signing and verification purposes?
Much thanks in advance for any insight and advice.
51 • @50 (by Jake on 2016-05-03 15:53:02 GMT from North America)
kernel.org provides signatures and signs its source. You verify you have the right source, then when you build yourself, it should be good.
Distributions sign their package releases, so when you download from Debian, Ubuntu, etc., etc., the packages are signed, so if you trust them, you trust that they built the kernel and went through the steps above.
52 • Number of i3 cores and kernel compiling (by cykodrone on 2016-05-03 15:55:27 GMT from North America)
@17 You are technically right but, 2 physical cores plus 2 fake hyper-threading cores = 4 'cores', just sayin'. It will show as 4 cores in a CPU monitoring application.
Kernel compiling, I have in the past but I can't be bothered anymore. If you want a super lightweight, lean and mean kernel, learn how. Compiling your own leaves out tons of unnecessary bloat.
53 • installing_vs_building_kernels_images_and_verification (by k on 2016-05-03 16:25:17 GMT from Europe)
@51 (by Jake)
Thank you for the answer but, actually, my questions (comment 50) refer specifically to Greg Zeng's comment 49 "Very quickly, easily install ANY Linux kernel", "install" not "build". Please "clarify" if I misunderstood the gist of Greg's comment.
Also, "exactly how" to "verify you have the right source". Did you mean as Jesse Smith described at https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20160314#tips for verifying ISO images? And the kernel header file?
54 • @12 Andy Mender Kernel Compiling (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2016-05-04 09:31:48 GMT from North America)
Compilation complexity is not a function of devices. Blame monolithic design courtesy Linus.
Kernel devs should NOT drop devices, because all of them still exist. Embedded devices still use RS-232. Some BIOSes need PS/2 and some gamers want it. An entire third-world industry revamps old computers. We've also reached a point in Moore's Law where an "old" computer is "good enough" for lots of things.
Some third party can just make a nice GUI to bypass Linus's menus. He won't need Linus's blessing. The new GUI tool can preprocess user choices (metaflags?) for translation into proper Linus kernel flags. A tool that's any good will gain traction and devs quickly.
Devices could be assigned age brackets. Age flags could be fuzzy, from "archaeology" to "relevant" to "shiny new"; or precise, say the year of final OEM shipment. In any case a single flag can strip whole classes of devices without walking Linus's ncurses menu tree. I would like to see an ALLCIPHERS metaflag with all crypto baked in except known bad/broken/obsolete ciphers; and NOSYSTEMD and NOPULSEAUDIO too.
55 • @53 (by Jake on 2016-05-04 17:43:27 GMT from North America)
For verifying the source, yes, that's what I had in mind. It looks like they sign the zip file, and you verify that per the DW tips you cited.
For installing, not building, sorry if I wasn't clear. I was merely saying that you get the kernel verification by downloading from your distro's repo. In the case Greg mentioned where you download the file directly, you can still do a gpg verification. The CHECKSUMS file is signed with gpg, so you verify that and then verify the match when you download the ISO. That's how you know the deb you downloaded is what they intended (per the same DW tips). After that, it's just "dpkg -i " and it's installed (you may need to update grub as well; I don't normally do this, but Jesse's instructions look good).
Personally for everyday use, I find that a bit of a hassle. If you really wanted to use that particular link, you can add the PPA yourself to your install, and then the verification stuff happens behind the scenes (the same way your repos work now). You can set particular versions, etc., and configure things just like you handle any other package.
56 • Re: clarification_of_kernel_verification (by k on 2016-05-04 18:17:55 GMT from Europe)
@55 by Jake
Much thanks, I have installed kernels the way you described, from "distro's repo", but did not notice verification happens automatically. That is reassuring. Not sure about "everyday use", usually the customized kernel included with distro is fairly compatible with security and privacy measures such as sandboxing, TOR network, stable and fast. Just occasionally testing distro's customized updated kernel, but curious about Liquorix kernels.
Do you know what the .dmz denotes of Liquorix kernels?
57 • Kernel Play (by nolinuxguru on 2016-05-04 18:50:00 GMT from Europe)
I compile the Linux kernel for some computers and purposes. I have run Devuan [Debian without systemd] for about 1 year [I forget], starting it with my own port of the "sinit" init system, with the Openbox window manager/desktop environment. I run my main machine with the default Devuan kernel for everyday work, and restrict experimentation to a second machine.
The default Devuan kernel is 3.16.0, but I sometimes compile 4.4.1 so that I can use recent features such as Overlays. I also sometimes use a modified version of the CRUX Linux kernel configuration [.config file] which builds all necessary modules into the kernel and avoids the initrd step.
As you can see I am playing [retired, injured], but the Devuan/Debian base provides a reliable environment for this [never crashes except if I am experimenting]. I can only really do this because I wrote a custom GRUB grub.cfg file to allow booting different partitions and kernels. Not for everyone.
58 • In response to the feature story by Joshua Allen Holm (by Sal on 2016-05-04 20:04:44 GMT from North America)
Not to debunk Joshua's review of Ubuntu 16.04, but, he must not have used it the OS for very long. I have found that 16.04 is very unstable. The launcher when set to hide, stops functioning after awhile. It will not slide back out. So access to anything is virtually impossible.
Furthermore, upon install, it will recognize and mount external drives, but will not give read/write access to them until you reboot manually.
At times, after a rebooting, the panel itself is unresponsive and doesn't show any icons or the clock. A hard shutdown is in order to get it responsive again.
I did a fresh install of 16.04, from a freshly downloaded ISO. this morning and indeed, the problems persist. Upon first reboot, you are notified of an update for the core OS itself. After install of said update, the problems are by far worse than without the update.
Maybe Joshua's hardware is more compatible with 16.04 than mine is.
Hardware used for physical install:
AMD Processor FX-8350 Black Edition Vishera 8-Core 4.0GHz
Motherboard: SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0
Storage: SSD 850 EVO 500GB
Memory: 16GB of DDR3
Networking: Realtek® 8111F, 1 x Gigabit LAN
Display: nVidia GTX 960
59 • Canonical's strategy (by dave on 2016-05-05 05:13:35 GMT from North America)
The guy complaining about Canonical is basically right though. Look at what they did to Compiz. They developed the 0.9x branch in to a corner case that only worked properly with Unity. The proper thing to do would be fork the project, but instead they just took it over. That's why so many people go back to the 0.8x branch and why development will probably start over from that point if it ever gets going again.
60 • #56 (by anticapitalista on 2016-05-05 09:30:14 GMT from Europe)
#Do you know what the .dmz denotes of Liquorix kernels?
It is an abbreviation of the the liquriox creater's username - damentz.
61 • @55 (by Jake on 2016-05-05 15:20:16 GMT from North America)
All packages are verified using the pre-installed keyring from your original installation CD. That's how your local "web of trust" starts. Package signing and verification is part of Linux's claims to being more secure and why people always recommend to download from your distro's repository and not use random programs from the Internet (like I always had to do with Windows). It's one of my favorite parts of Linux, and now that I'm used to it, I never download and install debs unless I can find them through an official repository.
@60: I'd never heard of Liquorix, but I figured it had to be something like that. Glad you found it for me--I wasn't having any luck.
62 • value_in_answers_and_perhaps_humour (by k on 2016-05-05 18:49:01 GMT from Europe)
@ 60 (by anticapitalista) and 61 (by Jake)
First, what the .dmz denotes in the names of Liquorix kernels, "damentz", possibly related to the name of a liquor, creme de menthe? By the way, antiX is super value.
Then, Jake, thank you very much for that really valuable and reassuring information, I will follow your example.
63 • @14 lack of wireless support. (by imnotrich on 2016-05-06 05:50:49 GMT from North America)
I've had issues with Debian, Puppy, Ubuntu, Mint and other distros in the past few years that have poor or nonexistent wireless support, You'd think that would be considered basic functionality just as wired networks once were.
Only once in 20 years have I met a distro that lacked wired network drivers, but that was an outlyer,
Wireless support is improving though, and I know eventually even the open source drivers will do a great job at supporting the vast number of different cards out there.
What gets annoying though are how those developers decide which hardware they're no longer going to support. I restore lots of older PC's, and for various reasons I still use serial, parallel, isa cards, ata-133 and sata pci controller cards, rs-232, zips, 3" and 5" floppies plus some other hardware. So many hours wasted trying to install distros on these older machines that don't support the hardware. In some case Windows 98 or XP has better driver support! While I lack sufficient expertise to compile a custom kernel to fit my needs, it WOULD be nice if when downloading stuff we have options to add/remove support for hardware this or that. One person's obscure piece of hardware is another person's business lifeblood. Like the 486 PC I restored for a Doctor whose practice included some hardware that would only run in an ISA slot. I get not everybody needs obsolete hardware support but at the same time I don't need support for some $400 gamers video card.
SO how do we resolve this?
64 • Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial and ATI graphics cards (by mirix on 2016-05-06 08:27:01 GMT from Europe)
I have upgraded 3 computers to Ubuntu 16.04:
- In two of them with Nvidia graphics cards and using proprietary drivers the upgrade completed without major issues. One was previously running Ubuntu 14.04 and the other 15.10.
- However, with the third one, running 15.10 and the fglrx ATI proprietary driver resulted in X not being able to start until I removed the custom xorg.conf file. Given that the fglrx is no longer supported by Ubuntu (or, better, Ubuntu is no longer supported by ATI), those who, like myself, need the proprietary driver should refrain from upgrading. Canonical suggest using the open source driver but that is not an option for many (I use scientific software for work that does not even start without full glx support).
In my case, I preferred to roll back to 14.04 rather than staying with 15.10. 16.04 is just not an option.
I might also try Devuan or antiX.
65 • Mainstream vs other stream reviews (by Andy Mender on 2016-05-06 16:22:56 GMT from Europe)
@64,
Devuan and antiX are good choices, if one wants to avoid systemd and other digital idiocracies.
Per the Ubuntu 16.04 review, I think more emphasis should be put on less mainstream distributions, like Arch Linux, Manjaro, etc. We all know Ubuntu is going to be a hit and that it will have a load of bugs, because that always happens when one tries to please a too broad audience. Lesser GNU/Linux and BSD distributions really have a lot to offer in terms of getting the job done ;).
66 • @63 - lack of wireless support (by Carlos on 2016-05-06 20:15:28 GMT from Europe)
The problem is that I've never had any problem with THIS wireless card, with any distro.
Only Ubuntu 16.04 doesn't load the drivers. It's the Ath9k drivers for Atheros cards.
That is why I'm so surprized.
But I don't seem to be the only one to think that Ubuntu 16.04 is a lemon:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-xerus.html
67 • security (by tux on 2016-05-07 01:32:55 GMT from Europe)
Here's a site I'd like to share.
It's about securing linux by removing unwanted systemd boot, startup services.
It may also enable faster boot times and a slightly faster computing.
http://www.ihackforfun.eu/index.php?title=improve-security-by-removing-services&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
68 • @63 support of older hardware (by Thomas Mueller on 2016-05-07 06:12:41 GMT from North America)
In order to support older hardware, you can't depend on a canned fancy graphical Linux distribution. You need to be able to build a kernel from source using the kernel config. With NetBSD and FreeBSD, you can copy and edit the GENERIC kernel config, check files ALL (NetBSD) and NOTES (FreeBSD) in the source trees for additional parameters and drivers not in the GENERIC. In the case of Linux, you could use a source-based distro such as Gentoo, build on a newer computer and install on the old computer, or search Distrowatch for a Linux distro good on older computers.
69 • @67_security_by_tux (by k on 2016-05-07 17:54:38 GMT from Europe)
MUCH thanks for the empowerment, knowledge is the key starting point
to optimizing security.
Hoping to soon read about your tips:
have more than one mitigation in place against a certain attack
patch and upgrade
try to add defenses when new types of threats arise
Now able to verify "back to udev since eudev version causes long startup delay
on some newer laptops with bluetooth".
70 • Re: removing unwanted systemd boot, startup services (by k on 2016-05-08 06:50:21 GMT from Europe)
@67 security, by tux
So far, it seems the commands you provided for analyzing (blaming) startup processes
and times might be most securely performed with Tails 2.0 and newer, BUT it is certainly
NOT RECOMMENDED to remove any services the developers of Tails have tested
and added to it. VERY RISKY.
71 • gNewSense_4.0_ISO_and_verification_files... (by k on 2016-05-08 06:56:26 GMT from Europe)
bit dispersed, somewhat timely and fussy to sort through for secure download and verification.
72 • gNewSense timing (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2016-05-08 08:16:58 GMT from North America)
Ah yes, just after DebIan 7 Wheezy security went from active to LTS-team.
73 • ghostbsd (by joji on 2016-05-08 13:54:13 GMT from Europe)
GhostBSD 10.3-ALPHA1 is not perfect but a nice occasion to get in touch with FreeBSD. Especially the choice of programs is nearly perfect (in my eyes).
I would like to ask some questions on their forums but am not able to answer their question to be allowed : "What is the current version number of GhostBSD?" Tried all available possibilities. without success.
Any help please?
Thank you.
74 • Ubuntu 16.04 (by Lone Gunman on 2016-05-08 15:21:45 GMT from North America)
Really surprised that the new RTL8192EU wireless chipset isn't supported in 16.04? And it's not that new as I ran 16.04 development versions that didn't support it either. Pretty much all the USB wireless adapters you see on Ebay now have this new chipset.
75 • gNewSense timing (by k on 2016-05-08 18:00:29 GMT from North America)
@72 by Kragle von Schnitzelbank
Thank you for that really important point. If you were referring to my comment 71, I meant finding
the ISO hash sum and signature for gNewSense 4.0 download is relatively time-consuming
not "timely", but it is likely my ego-mind distorting the reality of it.
Nevertheless, your point about poor timing of release of this version based on Debian 7 "Wheezy" 7 just over a week after regular security support for Wheezy comes to an end is very useful information. Now I shall not try to download and test gNewSense 4.0.
76 • to x (by tux on 2016-05-08 19:13:55 GMT from Europe)
70 - Really don't know, x
Hope you sort out bluetooth and happy you, others find some use of the link.
Share was due to didactic quality and consciousness ethics approach.
77 • Debian 7 conspiracy? (by nolinuxguru on 2016-05-08 19:34:13 GMT from Europe)
@72 and @75: I don't understand the connection between Debian 7 LTS and gNewSense 4.0, what am I missing?
78 • gNewSense (by Jesse on 2016-05-08 19:55:46 GMT from North America)
@77: I believe they are making reference to gNewSense being based on Debian 7 packages. If you read through the release announcement mailing list thread, it would appear the latest gNewSense is based on Debian 7 which just transitioned from full support to limited LTS security support. http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-users/2016-05/msg00002.html
79 • gnewsense 4.0 (by nolinuxguru on 2016-05-08 20:57:26 GMT from Europe)
@78 sorry, I was aware of the Debian 7 LTS migration but not the significance of gnewsense being based on it [rather than Debian 8] other than avoiding the imposition of systemd.
80 • LTS security support (by Kragle on 2016-05-08 21:23:38 GMT from North America)
This gives perspective on DebIan LTS security support:
http://assets.amuniversal.com/3de1f300ea4e013355e9005056a9545d
and for ubuntu LTS,
a related discussion is at:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ubuntu-lts-many-vulnerabilities-despite-long-term-support.385386/
so
it might be best to monitor security reporting for every source/repo.
81 • semplice development report (by greenmedinfo on 2016-05-08 21:56:39 GMT from North America)
Presently, and as far as I have tested, only Tails and Semplice (both Debian-based) are the only distributions to not produce excessive fan use, or run like treacle, on my powernow_k8 machine. Compiling a kernel requires skill and, apparently, few persons possess that skill.
I consistently run them from a manual, frugal installation to USB flash drive, using syslinux as bootloader.
Semplice development report:
http://semplice-linux.org/community/viewtopic.php?id=1198
Semplice development image:
http://cdimage.semplice-linux.org/semplice64/723.0/lh/
Number of Comments: 81
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Shabdix GNU/Linux
Shabdix GNU/Linux was a live CD based on the KNOPPIX live CD distribution with modifications for the Iranian user. Shabdix was a joint product of LIGLUG and Chapar Shabdiz Ltd and will be available to the public through download and on a CD. The main goal and idea behind Shabdix GNU/Linux was to promote the GNU/Linux operating system and specially FarsiKDE in Iran. Shabdix GNU/Linux was licensed under the GPL.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
