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Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Visual Linux Tree (by 2damncommon on 2016-05-09 01:05:42 GMT from North America)
The chart seems to show Mandriva in 1998. Shouldn't that be Mandrake and then change to Mandriva at a later date?
2 • Prefer rolling.. (by Jordan on 2016-05-09 01:32:33 GMT from North America)
Fresh installs at times on thumb drives etc..
3 • Tough question for me, about Ubuntu updates (by BeGo on 2016-05-09 01:56:33 GMT from Asia)
Because,
I vote for fresh install due to Ubuntu distro update is buggy at best. :(
When this sorted out, then I choose rolling update. :)
Snap Ubuntu should be rolling release by concept. :)
4 • Upgrade (by Gustavo on 2016-05-09 02:56:57 GMT from South America)
Just erase all directories except /home then install from USB without formatting target root partition.
I think this method should be suported automatically by the installer.
Of course you will need to reinstall all the extra software you installed before, but all your configuration will be preserved.
5 • Upgrade vs Fresh Install (by Josep on 2016-05-09 02:59:37 GMT from Europe)
I use Arch rolling on 4 desktop pc: plasma, cinnamon, lxde and i3 since juny 2015. Arch has a reputation on being unstable and hard to use, but in my experience is as rock solid as debian stable. And very easy to install in less than 30 minutes.(i3 DE). In one year only 2 issues: 1. with systemd 22x, shutdown -h not run and 2. setxkbmap changed to us after xorg update. And the receipt is simple: pacman -Syu every two days.
6 • *buntu 16.04 installer glitches (by mikef90000 on 2016-05-09 03:00:54 GMT from North America)
I suspect but can't yet prove it that install difficulties may due to new EFI related support. I could not boot the Xubuntu 16.04 iso live in VBox without setting the guest to EFI BIOS mode. OTOH the cd would boot on 'bare metal' where the BIOS is in legacy mode. Installation of several different 16.04 DEs in VB all worked when starting with the 'mini' iso. Arggh.
It is worth pointing out that the alternate application installer is the "GNOME Software Centre". The Ubuntu version has been deprecated for some time.
Besides Mint I use SolydX, what I would call a 'semi rolling' release system. It seems pretty reliable but occasionally something minor breaks.
I agree that snap packaging isn't ready 'for prime time' yet. Few apps and no GUI found.
7 • Upgrade (by Bonky on 2016-05-09 04:17:17 GMT from North America)
I have been Using Rolling release as main OS for quite a few years, 4 maybe and pretty much the only issue is the sudden theme failure but that is usually expected and planned for I have found it a lot less problematic than re-installing etc every so often
*Linux Map @1 Yes I agree it should be Mandrake which was my first Distro I did try freeBSD as well around that time with rather less than successful results
It was bizzare looking at so many names of Distros I had tried during many years of Distro-hopping that I even forgot existed,
8 • *buntu 16.04 installer glitches (by Cook Alvega on 2016-05-09 05:35:52 GMT from Europe)
"selected Yes for third-party software and No for downloading updates. At this point the installer appeared to freeze" Same with me, with 16.04 Gnome in a no uefi pc. The problem started (maybe) at the first update of previous LTS. I thought it wouldn't pass the freeze. Same happened with the following releases. Couldn't install any. It's only now with 16.04 that I was able to install Ubuntu again. As apparently it was just me, I decided not to report the issue.
9 • Rolling Release and Fresh install (by Bobbie Sellers on 2016-05-09 05:38:10 GMT from North America)
I use both Mageia and PCLinux OS as well as some live distros like Knoppix. So I like to do a clean install for Mageia and nearly every day I see updates to PClinuxOS.
I started with Mandriva thus my fondness for the use of the Drakxtools through the MCC or PCLCC interface.
Struggling with salvaged Dell Latitudes with unknown admin passwords and one has Windows 10 though it came with Windows 7. Learning a lot.
bliss
10 • Visual Family Tree of Linux distributions (by Marc Magi on 2016-05-09 05:45:26 GMT from North America)
"Using the DistroWatch database, one inspired developer has created a series of scripts which assembles a family tree of Linux distributions, showing the life spans and relationships between projects.
We have created a new page which displays the visual family tree of Linux distributions."
This looks exactly like the visual maps that Andreas Lundqvist and others at futurist.se/gldt used to publish.
11 • family tree (by Rainer on 2016-05-09 05:51:05 GMT from Europe)
Doesn't the script generate a SVG file? Might be a bit smaller than 6MB. And serchable.
12 • Linux Family Tree (by Eric Brandon on 2016-05-09 05:54:32 GMT from North America)
Visual Family Tree of Linux distributions (by Marc Magi)
Yes, they do look very similar. But, the names and dates are different. The 1st commenter points out that the new chart shows Mandriva as debuting in 1998 when it really was Mandrake.
I noticed that the new charts shows SUSE as debuting in 1998 but the older charts show it to be older than Red Hat and launching in 1994. And there are other name and date discrepancies.
13 • confirming_understanding_of_online_vs_offline_upgrading_methods (by k on 2016-05-09 06:47:19 GMT from Europe)
@Jesse
Referring to Tails excellent as usual documentation at https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/upgrade/index.en.html ...
...I understand Tails routine "automatic" -- still requires user input/authorization -- updating is "online", vs "manual" upgrading that is "offline".
Does this agree with your definitions?
The choice really depends on the distro, mostly running off flash drives. Tails is exhaustively tested and developed, for most highly protected privacy and security, so I follow the developers' excellent -- often graphically illustrated -- instructions exactly as proscribed. Online routinely, offline when the developers demand it. AntiX is another expertly-crafted distro, with excellent documentation, offering more -- risky -- "flexibility" with really well explained installer that permits more user control, e.g. saving live session selections, and removing bluetooth service. So, if developers specify a critical need for upgrade, I confirm certain documents copy/saved to "storage" drive, totally erase/copy with dd and urandom and install new version from Live off ISO exhaustively verified as per Jesse and Tails instructions.
14 • Rolling vs Upgrade vs Fresh Install (by far2fish on 2016-05-09 07:53:17 GMT from Europe)
My current distro is Antergos, and for me the rolling upgrades has been working fine most of the time. Nothing I couldn't fix myself or by checking the Antergos forums. Not quite sure for how long I have been using Antergos. Perhaps a year or a bit more. Had to reinstall once though after I manually messed up my login manager config, and figured it would be better to spend 1 hour on reinstall than multiple hours to manually fix it.
When using Fedora, I used 'fedup' upgrades. Can't recall I have had issues with it.
When using Ubuntu based distros, I would prefer a fresh install.
15 • Blank screen after install on Ubuntu MATE (by John on 2016-05-09 08:23:48 GMT from Europe)
I had a similar problem (on a Lenovo laptop) with openSUSE. I eventually worked out that the brightness controls worked backwards. As the default was 100% brightness, the screen was blank.
16 • Upgrade method (by Kazly on 2016-05-09 09:30:05 GMT from Europe)
I voted "I perform an off-line upgrade" because that is what I do... when I am given this choice! Like with an Ubuntu or Mageia installation media for example. I stay away from live upgrades as much as possible because of the amount of time involved and the level of risk (although I must admit I never had a single upgrade failure back to the time when I upgraded live).
But actually, the way I upgrade is often guided by two things: - if I have been wanting to switch to a new distro for some time but did not really have the time to do so, I do the switch when upgrade time comes, so fresh install it is; - if not, most distros recommend one upgrade method more than any other and sometimes provide extra tools and help to do so, making it easier, so I usually follow the recommanded upgrade path.
After years of distro-hopping with a rate slowing down to "I distro-hop when I need to upgrade", I may finally settling down with MX Linux. With MX, live upgrade and off-line upgrade are not supported and the recommended upgrade path is fresh install, so I will actually perform more fresh installs than any other upgrade type in the future, which is totally fine by me.
I still have one machine running Ubuntu Studio though, this one will still be upgraded via off-line upgrade.
17 • Ubuntu review and news (by Andy Mender on 2016-05-09 10:23:16 GMT from Europe)
I haven't read Hectic Geek's review yet, though I highly recommend those from dedoimedo.com: > http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-xerus.html > http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/war-on-inconsistency-linux.html He too writes about consistency among Ubuntu flavors.
Finally, are we starting some sort of cycle of Ubuntu flavor reviews?
18 • black screen on boot (by Arkanabar on 2016-05-09 11:24:43 GMT from North America)
Were the virtual terminals also affected?
19 • Upgrade method (by Zork on 2016-05-09 12:13:21 GMT from Oceania)
I have an advantage of using a Desktop/Tower over a Laptop...
Slap a spare HDD into the system and do a fresh install for dual-boot... Once I'm confident that the new OS is doing everything I need and have migrated anything necessary across THEN I can get rid of the old OS...
No matter how careful you are with an upgrade something always seems to not quite work as intended or expected... At least, I have a fall-back that is working... Just in case...
20 • @19: upgrade method (by Kazlu on 2016-05-09 12:35:47 GMT from Europe)
I almost do the same thing when I want to upgrade via fresh install, only I use an additional partition on the same HDD instead of an additional HDD. Of course, I do that only when I have completely backed up both my working system partition and my data, just in case. But the goal is the same: I use the new OS while keeping the old and reliable one for a while. The benefits in security and peace of mind are great for just 20 GB of disk space...
21 • opinion poll(s) (by zykoda on 2016-05-09 14:17:48 GMT from Europe)
There is, maybe, a bug in the opinion poll voting system. "Vote" without a selection adds to at least two categories (1 and 5 this week). The results do not reflect the votes intended therefore.
22 • Linux Family Tree (by Greg Zeng on 2016-05-09 14:39:36 GMT from Oceania)
Outdated (2013) Linux Family Tree exist in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution sourced from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg
"When updating the timeline, please upload a new version of this file, rather than creating a new file. This will allow all wikis get the new version immediately. You are strongly encouraged to rebuild the timeline from the source distribution to avoid the license-encumbered Red Hat logo."
I once did think of updating this ... but was sidetracked by other projects.
"Original file (SVG file, nominally 2,620 × 10,574 pixels, file size: 387 KB)" from the same url in message: http://futurist.se/gldt/ -- @10 • Visual Family Tree of Linux distributions (by Marc Magi).
23 • Voting (by Jesse on 2016-05-09 14:49:26 GMT from North America)
>> "There is, maybe, a bug in the opinion poll voting system. "Vote" without a selection adds to at least two categories (1 and 5 this week). The results do not reflect the votes intended therefore."
Clicking "Vote" without making a selection does not add a vote to any category. What you are probably seeing is other people voting at the same time your browser is reloading the page.
24 • #23 (by zykoda on 2016-05-09 14:59:54 GMT from Europe)
Must just be coincidental that two repeats within 4 seconds just added 1 to the same two categories! Thx for the verification.
25 • Black Screen On Boot (by Thomas Taylor on 2016-05-09 15:12:59 GMT from North America)
Had the same problem in Linux Mint Rosa. Mine was the system defaults to a higher screen resolution than my monitor can handle. I have to leave my monitor off till after the system makes it's first beep. So it sets the system to a lower resolution.
26 • poll (by Arkanabar on 2016-05-09 15:28:16 GMT from North America)
I use two distros right now -- Ubuntu MATE 16.04 and PCLinuxOS. PCLOS is my primary, and a rolling release distro, so that's how I voted. But when I upgrade any distro that does point-release, I nearly always perform a fresh install. I keep enough paritions floating around that I can install up to 4 or 5 distros at a time if I am so inclined.
Glad to see BunsenLabs is now in the database! I have it installed too, but haven't bothered yet to configure it to my taste, so it tends to get neglected a lot.
27 • Upgrade vs fresh install (by tuxedoar on 2016-05-09 15:51:57 GMT from South America)
I perform a live upgrade on most ocassions. Even though I am a Debian stable branch user, sometimes, I migrate to the testing brach for a while, till testing becomes stable. I do this once the testing branch has been frozen.
Live upgrades on Debian has worked well for me, up to now. I am particularly cautious in the process, which means that I don't do a "dist-upgrade" directly without doing a preventive series of steps before.
One disadvantage of doing live upgrades that I think is worth mentioning, is the fact that you miss fixes and/or new features at the filesystem level. I mean, you don't get those unless you format the partitions involved, with the new components versions. However, I know that, for example, you can do a filesystem upgrade from, let' s say, ext3 to ext4 without formatting. Even then, I think you don't catch all the goodies and not all the filesystems support this feature.
Cheers!.
Cheers!.
28 • poll (by The Five Thousand Year Leap on 2016-05-09 17:38:40 GMT from North America)
Rolling release-Manjaro.
29 • mint's xapps & stupid project names (by dave on 2016-05-09 17:56:15 GMT from North America)
To me, one of the best results of mint's xapps will be getting away from mate's rebranding of all those gnome programs. Nothing fundamentally against non-english languages and the gnome names were pretty stupid, to begin with.. I think we've long since passed a point where programmers are trying way too hard (or maybe not hard enough?) to be creative with their little project names. For example, why do so many projects have to be appended with food and animal names? Isn't this practice played out yet? A simple name with version numbers isn't good enough? Look at how ubuntoids are made to have minor stress about voting for these meaningless codenames. Did they not realize that they alphabet ended, or did they just not have confidence in making it that far?
How many mango-tango-cinnamon-minty-yerba-werewolves do we really need out here? The linux arboretum/bestiary is getting a bit crowded and I think it's high time that developers cut the marketing crap.
Sorry, that rant got a bit off the xapps topic.. I just think it's a mistake to have such a confusing assortment of names for such basic, core programs. Clearly, we could always use generic aliases to hide the weird names, but we wouldn't need that feature if they programs had simple, logical names.
Oh and since I'm already in complaining-mode, totem has got to be the worst video player I've ever had the misfortune to encounter. While I do honestly hope the mint/xapp devs are able to carve it in to fighting shape for once in its miserable life, I'm not holding my breath. Time would be better spent trying to figure out how to legally package VLC as a default player for the average distro, or start from scratch.. or fork a better player.
30 • Clarification(s) (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2016-05-09 18:43:20 GMT from North America)
A fine point, to be sure: Linux_Mint's Xapps are GTK3-based, but not GNOME-based; liberating such apps from GNOME so they can be cross-DE is a prime factor … A not-so-fine point - weasel-wording about the GPL isn't helpful. Cost-free source code may not be required for the "General Public", but it IS required to be available for any recipient of binaries - at distribution cost, NOT whatever-the-market-will-bear. Thus EACH recipient has a right to source code - and to re-distribute that source code without ANY further obligation to the coder/packager. All leverage is thus at risk from the start; there's zero guarantee of revenue after the first - fine for a one-off custom project, but not for volume or repeat … It may involve a tiny bit more procedure, but keeping data and configurations separate from software is one hedge against OS-change issues. Separate partitions (or drives) can hold a prospective new OS, or allow multibooting several OS variants. A "fresh" install should not require prior wiping of all.
31 • Linux Family Tree (by Jake on 2016-05-09 18:44:23 GMT from North America)
I think the family tree may be based on entry dates into the Distrowatch database, not actual project start dates. For example, find ReactOS (after RedHat, CentOS, Yellowdog group). It shows a "start" of ~2015. In previous DW comments, there's some discussion about when it started (initially a Win95 clone that is now cloning XP). The first distro entry is November 2014 (so, pretty close).
Same for Mandriva/Mandrake/etc. The oldest DW database entry is 5.1 venice from 1998-07-23 (see https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mandriva).
In any case, it's still a pretty cool picture. You get a real sense of what projects really like to be forked.
32 • *buntu install (by Risto Alanko on 2016-05-09 18:57:40 GMT from Europe)
I tried Kubuntu and Lubuntu on Virtualbox. Lubuntu installer only showed a fuzzy 800x600 screen with a ghost of the giant mouse pointer arrow. Kubuntu installer worked, but in the first installed bootup, the same ghost screen appeared. No luck, I just couldn't get any command through. I have to get a real PC to try them.
33 • Poll (by somedude on 2016-05-09 20:06:06 GMT from North America)
Manjaro - Rolling Release. Got tired of fresh installs every 8 months.
34 • FreeBSD First Available in 93 (by Facts Straight on 2016-05-09 22:53:11 GMT from North America)
The first CD-ROM (and general net-wide) distribution was FreeBSD 1.0, released in December of 1993.
35 • distribution family tree (by Ezra on 2016-05-10 00:57:27 GMT from North America)
Although a nice idea, the family tree produced from Distrowatch database is too flawed for historical purposes. Examples: Opensuse shows no lineage to SuSE, which should show links to LST, SLS, and Slackware. SCO Linux should show lineage to Caldera, which should derive from LST and Redhat before that. Mandriva should show lineage to Mandrake and Redhat before that. ALT and Mageia should show lineage to Mandrake and Mandriva. TurboLinux was derived from Redhat, I think. There are way to many errors in the chart, and hence too many errors in Distrowatch's database to be reliable. Good try.
36 • Family tree (by Jesse on 2016-05-10 01:42:06 GMT from North America)
@35: I don't think it's errors in the database so much as the database being used for a purpose it was not designed to fulfill. For example, we don't have much in the way of data going back before DistroWatch was created, or information on distributions which were inactive by the time this site came along. Our information is accurate, but our data is not designed with historical purposes in mind.
Still, I think it's interesting to see the result of the developer's script. The branches of the family tree are interesting to look at, especialyl Debian's.
37 • Ubuntu boot issue (by Scott Eno on 2016-05-10 02:40:13 GMT from North America)
All you need do to get Ubuntu 16.04 on a uefi system is press f2 add the grun loader to security approved f10 to save and reboot. That or change your window uefi to legacy mode f10 save abd reboot. That's what I did on my acer v3-475t. Just with they get Bluetooth support for my network combo card.
38 • Poll (by BobsYourUncle on 2016-05-10 02:40:17 GMT from Europe)
Poll: Rolling Release, Manjaro I choose rolling release, because I am too flipping lazy to wipe and do a fresh install. ;)
39 • Flush goes the codecs? (by <0rd Europe)
No reason for me to use Linux Mint anymore. No codecs baked in by default. Have a nice day, Mint, but you lost me.
40 • fresh vs live upgrade (by imnotrich on 2016-05-10 04:29:45 GMT from North America)
Depends on why I'm upgrading. If I'm trying to resolve a problem that I probably created, or there's an issue with the OS caused by an update or whatever I don't just do a fresh install. I DBAN. Then I do a fresh install. It's an anger management technique.
But normally, if I'm just upgrading to upgrade I give the distro's live upgrade routine an opportunity. It's not that risky because my OS is on an SSD and my home partition a separate HDD.
I've had mixed results with the live upgrade method though. Mint 17.-1-2-3 has been flawless for me.
Other distros not so much.
41 • poll - upgrade or fresh install (by Hoos on 2016-05-10 08:05:56 GMT from Asia)
I didn't respond to the poll because I'm a multi-booter and my answer is "all of the above".
As a preliminary point, I back up all my distro root partitions once a month. In the very rare event that I have to restore a messed-up partition from backup, it's no big deal if I lose a whole month's package updates since my data and media are in a separate shared Data partition which is backed up more frequently. I don't bother with a separate /home partition for each distro.
Once you have that safety net, the upgrade vs fresh install vs rolling release thing is not a major issue.
For my rolling distros - Manjaro, Semplice, PCLinuxOS - they have all been pretty trouble-free. There have been a few minor problems but those were easily solved by some reading on the forums.
For fixed release ones, it depends.
If the developers provide an upgrade path, I'd use that.
If there is no upgrade path and the distro is one of those I consider my "serious/for-work" distros, then I would install the new version on a fresh partition then copy over the relevant configuration files from the old version. Like @20 above, I won't delete the old version until I'm sure the new version works well.
If there is no upgrade path and the distro is one that I don't mind losing or reconfiguring again, then I would just install over the old partition.
42 • Upgrade vs Fresh Install (by Fernando Santucci on 2016-05-10 10:10:14 GMT from South America)
I really would like to perform an online upgrade, but at least on Ubuntu Unity it never worked for me. The system always caught in the middle of the update and even performing several attempts to rescue, the system became dead.
So I am forced to perform a fresh install and reinstall all packages from repository and PPAs again to restore my working enviroment.
This process sounds to me counterproductive and ineffective, only working to end users that maintains the original factory system without any application, configuration or PPA tampering with its operation, as my father 78 years old.
43 • Ubuntu_upgrade_troubles_and_antiX_and_DW_solutions (by k on 2016-05-10 11:23:52 GMT from North America)
@42 Upgrade vs Fresh Install by Fernando Santucci
I have not used Ubuntu for a fairly long time. You probably already read remarks about alternative online apt commands for upgrading Ubuntu at the link below but, just in case you have not, at:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/194651/why-use-apt-get-upgrade-instead-of-apt-get-dist-upgrade
Otherwise, perhaps try the latest antiX live off a flash drive, e.g. a 4 GB USB DataTraveler 100 G2, with your father, and if -- most probably -- he likes it, you can even make another USB Live installation with persistence, following instructions at http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Howto_articles#antix2usb_.28for_antiX-M11_series.29.
Also see my comment 13 above. It is fairly certain that even if Ubuntu cannot provide you a satisfactory solution, one of DistroWatch's experts (Jesse) and/or readers will, and soon. :) All the best to you and your father.
44 • @41 Hoos (by One Distro on 2016-05-10 14:16:41 GMT from North America)
What is the advantage of maintaining so many distros? What do you use them all for? I see several people have more than one, but I don't quite understand. Even for my live USB, I have a hard time justifying having more than one or two; the rest feel redundant.
I also see a lot of Arch/Manjaro/Antergos (the DW package manager poll brought that out too). I like @16's method of hopping when it's time to upgrade anyway. That's how I came to Linux (XP support ran out). I'm interested in giving them a try, but to be honest, I wish they didn't have systemd. I think that's what's holding me back.
45 • which codecs? (by conky Joe on 2016-05-10 14:17:49 GMT from North America)
wondering which codecs Mint was pre-installing that will now be absent. Is there a list somewhere?
46 • Maintaining_more_than_one_distro (by k on 2016-05-10 16:43:47 GMT from Europe)
@44 (by One Distro)
It really depends on user's need at different times. As explained in comment 13, run live off flash drives with persistence, "for most highly protected privacy and security", Tails is my most reliable choice -- always finds a Tor route and reveals tiniest fingerprint data, but it has used systemd since version 2.0. If fast on/fast off and less private use -- e.g. Skype -- is needed, antiX with Firejail sandbox is really excellent, very fast and secure. Linux Mint's Debian Edition (2, Betsy?) had to be installed on a hard drive, it is is very slow off flash, but really user-friendly and reliable, mostly for storing data from the two Live systems.
By the way, Tails has a really simple, efficient and reliable -- persistence fully intact -- offline upgrade, even though it does require a 2nd flash drive. As for antiX,seems as Kazly explained for MX Linux in comment 16, antiX does not, so very few data files saved on that flash system's persistence.
47 • @45 • which codecs? (by mandog on 2016-05-10 17:57:02 GMT from South America)
Along with Ubuntu I'm led to believe codecs are 1 click when installing to me that makes sense as they now don't need to produce 2 ISOs that costs money and seeing they are actually illegal in the USA/Japan you can thank to the governments for that.
48 • @44 rolling with Arch or downstream (by far2fish on 2016-05-10 18:21:33 GMT from Europe)
If you want to try a rolling release based on Arch I would definitively recommend that you start out with Manjaro. It is very solid and polished distro that "just works", with sane default software and settings. I beleive it also has a edition with openrc if you want an alternative to systemd.
If you want to try something much closer to the Arch experience, but without going hardcore, then Antergos is an excellent distro. Some tweaks needed after some upgrades, but with an active and friendly forum when you need help.
49 • @44 - having more than one distro (by Hoos on 2016-05-10 19:39:22 GMT from Asia)
Obviously if I only saw a distro as a necessary tool to get work done or merely something used for the purposes of browsing, email and enjoying/creating media, I wouldn't bother with so many.
But for me, the idea of the distro itself is interesting, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here in DW.
I like to try new distros, see how the developers put their particular distro together, test different desktop environments, see how different Linux families handle package management, experience the differences between rolling and fixed releases.
Since my usage is pretty standard, the distros are not difficult to maintain. I shut down my computer when I'm done, so I just make sure to boot into a different distro the next time I turn the computer on. Then, while I'm using that distro, I'll take the time to update it. Once in a while I'll update-grub in the main distro.
50 • Tails grows stronger with every version (by Ned Ryerson < on 2016-05-10 20:03:13 GMT from Europe)
Tails now supports playback of encrypted DVDs. They appear to be open to (maybe) adding codecs in a future version. See their development mailing list archives and maybe post a request for this:
- https://tails.boum.org/about/contact/#tails-dev - Public archive of tails-dev: https://mailman.boum.org/pipermail/tails-dev/
51 • @49 distros (by Jordan on 2016-05-10 23:12:52 GMT from North America)
Yes I do similar. Also to add I have found myself over the years settling on and then changing my "default/usual" distro.
PCLinuxOS was my first real "go back to" distro. For years. But then I noticed that Arch based rolling releases were more to my liking. Also I liked the idea of moving to a distro based on much more community input. PCLOS is still on a thumb drive, but Manjaro has taken over my daily use.
Messing with Korora now. Seems okay but a few niggling issues with fonts and a sluggish sort of feel to it (noticed that about Fedora itself, as well).
Booting to and then updating different distros is the way to learn mostly about what the user needs and feels is best, but also about linux in general.
52 • multiple distros to upgrade (by M.Z. on 2016-05-11 02:43:41 GMT from North America)
As with others I do multiple things from the poll depending on the distro. On the Mint systems on my laptop & old computer I do a clean install over the old system, while I roll with PCLOS on my main desktop & I'm planning to upgrade Mageia on my laptop when the next version comes out. If things go wrong with one distro during upgrades or otherwise I have at least one other on all my machines & can easily access the shared /data partition & have other copies elsewhere so I shouldn't loose any files if one OS goes down.
53 • @44 - want to try Arch/Manjaro/Antergos but systemd.... (by Hoos on 2016-05-11 05:36:11 GMT from Asia)
Manjaro has a community release with openRC instead of systemd as the init system.
You could try that, and since it's your trial run, that is a prime reason for having more than one distro on your system - keep your stable go-to distro, while testing another one you're not sure about on another partition.
PCLinuxOS is also a no-systemd distro, and it is a rolling release that issues updates are a more cautious pace, so there shouldn't be the cutting edge problems that sometimes arise with Arch and Arch-based distros.
54 • El miedo constituye la mayor talanquera para el cambio. (by k on 2016-05-11 07:19:10 GMT from Europe)
@44 (One Distro)
As stated by 50 • Tails grows stronger with every version (by Ned Ryerson), and as someone else stated "we are all children of our environment", Tails and Tor (developers) and the EFF have effectively minimized the "threat(s)" current internet users might face and fear, thankfully, so enjoy and protect the freedom.
55 • Linux Family Tree: @22 and @35 (by Hoos on 2016-05-11 09:51:36 GMT from Asia)
I think the Tree linked to in @22 may be more accurate.
Examples (will start with the entries in the @22 Tree in the comparisons below):
Debian:- Kanotix's lineage is traced to Knoppix unlike in the DW-linked Tree.
Arch:- Chakra's initial Arch lineage is shown. In the DW Tree, it is shown as a separate indie distro far away from Arch.
Fedora:- Fuduntu's initial Fedora lineage is shown. In the DW Tree, it is shown as a separate indie distro far away
Mandrake:- Mageia, PCLinuxOS and Rosa's Mandrake/Mandriva roots are reflected. In the DW Tree, they are each shown as separate and unrelated to Mandriva
The DW Tree also inexplicably shows OpenMandriva separate and far away from Mandriva.
56 • Cub Linux, ex-Chromixium (by Ben Myers on 2016-05-12 21:46:29 GMT from North America)
I downloaded Cub Linux 1.0RC and installed it on an elderly but sturdy Lenovo Thinkpad X200. Gee, it works just like a ChromeBook, even with access to the Google store, plus the possibility of installing software from the Ubuntu repositories. This seems to be a good approach to extending Google's branding, making the Chrome metaphor visible on even more computers. Now why did Google play the bad guy and tell these folks not to use the name Chromixium? I guess I'll never understand the collective mindset in and of a large corporation. Didn't understand the groupthink either when I was employed by a large corporation. Volunteered for layoff, left on my own terms, learned a lot about how NOT to run a corporation.
57 • Visual family tree of Linux distributions (by Geo. on 2016-05-13 02:09:49 GMT from North America)
I just want to say thank you for posting the tree. It is a lot of work to prepare and maintain, so your effort is very much appreciated. I like the way the Distrowatch team is always trying to make continuous small improvements.
58 • Family Tree (by pfb on 2016-05-13 19:04:32 GMT from North America)
Wow! I get so disoriented when I shift into a parallel universe. I do not remember the family tree in the way depicted.
I had thought that SuSE was derived from Slackware. I do not even see SuSE.
Redhat and Fedora were created at the same time? I am sure I used Redhat before Fedora was even announced.
Corel was derived from Debian? Really? If you say so.
And where is Mandrake? Mandriva was a merger of Mandrake, Connectiva, and some obscure west coast distro (maybe Lycoris?). Mandrake does not even show in your tree.
Neither does Lindows ( the first computer I got devoted solely to Linux). I tried to replace it with Redhat, but the Lindows machine did not have enough memory.
Still the tree is a good effort, and well appreciated. Thanx.
59 • Family tree (by Jesse on 2016-05-13 19:44:28 GMT from North America)
>> "I just want to say thank you for posting the tree. It is a lot of work to prepare and maintain, so your effort is very much appreciated."
I am glad you enjoy it. Though I'd like to point out DistroWatch did not create the visual family tree and we cannot take credit for it. The image was created by an independent developer who agreed to allow us to post it here. I hope as the tree grows and is refined we will be able to post updated copies.
>> "I like the way the Distrowatch team is always trying to make continuous small improvements."
Thank you, we are trying to grow and improve, a little at a time.
60 • Upgrade or fresh install, Ubuntu. (by aary on 2016-05-14 01:16:36 GMT from Asia)
Fisrt try the upgrade path if it is available, after a while I will do a fresh install. On a rolling distro, I usually keep it rolling. Keep config files and backups, because even a solid distro will break sometimes. Or I can break them by messing things up myself.
Speaking of Ubuntu, has anyone mentioned about this KDE wallet like dialog suddenly popping up and ask you to register your settings ? Is this a new feature? This happens in Unity and LXDE (Lubuntu). Also, Gnome edition seems not yet supporting multilingual settings. FYI. I could not make fcitx (Japanese input) to work. This is a rare case in Ubuntu. Kubuntu, on the other hand, supports multilingual but has this certain habit of handling locale/ language system. If you set a locale to activate a language input system, then the whole system including desktop, file names, terminal would change to that specific language, and is hard to configure them separately. This is for mostly all Plasma/ KDE Dsitros, not only Kubuntu, but I think most people using *nix do not like it this way. Macs (even iPhones/ iPads) handle OS language/ input very smartly and recently Windows too. Sorry about my English.
61 • Multi-booting. Pro & Con ... (by Greg Zeng on 2016-05-14 03:31:26 GMT from Oceania)
... (responding to a few comments earlier, here)
PRO 1. Immunity from bugs, virus, crashing, faults. 2. Instant start into specific tasks (linked to op sys) 3. Instant trial of the New or the Old (kernel, apps, ver). 4. Quick testing, debugging, 3rd party assisting; self & others. 5. Low costs, $$ & time for both user & sys admin. 6. Extremely quick recovery from crashes, bugs.
CONS 1. Slower boot, running, unless tweaked. 2. Longer, harder to setup, maintain, update. 3. Clear-head system administrator required; it's so confusing. 4. High costs: computer skills & know-how
TWEAKS NEEDED 1. SSD, very fast flash drives (USB3, Ultra, Grade 10) 2. Removable hardware drives, with fast ports 3. Firefox, Chrom* based browsers with quick re-install of settings & addons.
4. Realtime & periodic backups, with both online & offline storage. 5. All DATA, ARCHIVES to be accessible by all operating systems. 6. If running Windows-NTFS for DATA, ARCHIVES, then special Windows tweaks needed (anti-virus, NTFS-error removal, defragmenting, etc).
Allow 10 minutes to USB3 flash drive install the new op system. Another 10-60 minutes to customize to user practices.
Backups, etc are done in the background, whilst doing normal functions.
62 • @39 and others.. codecs: Mint (by Jordan on 2016-05-14 17:11:35 GMT from North America)
From the "omg ubuntu" site, installing the codecs in Mint is as easy as:
Checking a box during installation, or; Clicking a button on the Welcome screen, or; Installing them via Menu>Sound and Video>Install Multimedia Codecs
63 • @44 @53 Manjaro OpenRC Status Alert (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2016-05-15 07:27:50 GMT from North America)
Manjaro OpenRC has quasi-official support. Manjaro "officially" supports OpenRC, unlike Arch. There is an "official" OpenRC Team. Manjaro's lead regularly coordinates with his OpenRC Team.
https://github.com/manjaro/packages-openrc
There are several sub-spins of Manjaro OpenRC for different DEs. Right now the Manjaro website is dicey because:
https://manjaro.github.io/Infrastructure-Update/ https://manjaro.github.io/SSL-Certificate-Expired/
Direct URLs for OpenRC spins are currently
XFCE+Openbox https://sourceforge.net/projects/manjaro-openrc/files/16.03/xfce%2Bob/ Fluxbox http://sourceforge.net/projects/manjaro-fluxbox/files/ i3 https://sourceforge.net/projects/manjaro-i3/files/manjaro-i3-15.12/openrc/ KDE or LXQt https://sourceforge.net/projects/manjaro-lxqt-openrc/files/manjaro-15.09/ JWM https://sourceforge.net/projects/holmeslinux/files/Manjaro%20JWM%2016.dev/Code%2015416/
Depending on DE, consider hunting down a more recent test version or release candidate. Until Manjaro's website is relaunched they'll usually live somewhere up the food chain at SourceForge.
Actually some forum stuff said June would be the next shipment target for OpenRC spins, I guess that'll be 16.06 by their scheme. If you can wait a month things may be much nicer for OpenRC tryouts.
64 • @63 ArchBang and OpenRC (by Linux Apocalypsis on 2016-05-15 09:02:44 GMT from Europe)
ArchBang (Arch) also has OpenRC versions:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/archbang/files/ArchBang_OpenRC_Rc/
LinuxBBQ (Debian Sid) has several flavours with sysvinit:
http://linuxbbq.org/
65 • TRIOS Linux (by Linux Apocalypsis on 2016-05-15 09:15:35 GMT from Europe)
I have just discovered TRIOS Linux, which seems to be based in Debian Stable and comes with OpenRC as default init system and out of the box ZFS support (Serbian only):
http://trios.rs/
66 • Rooling or Stable Distro (by BushPilot on 2016-05-15 14:16:04 GMT from North America)
Have been running Debian stable Version 6, 7 and now 8. No issues or complaints, except for for not having a usb utility like imagewriter.
Have been dual booting Debian with Manjaro & Antergos. Experienced too many issues with them to stay with a rolling release. The disappointing thing with them was the fact that they did not offer any additional benefits than a stable version. I particularly liked Antergos xfce for its overall performance and easy install. Hopefully Manjaro and Antergos will spend a little more time on getting things right before upgrading their distro, Stability is important with any rolling release in my view.
67 • @63 • @44 @53 Manjaro OpenRC Status Alert (by mandog on 2016-05-15 15:51:24 GMT from South America)
Please get it right Manjaro oficial spins are XFCE/KDE, OpenRC is community Manjaro members spins not officially supported or maintained. Yes PhillM does help them when they need it but it does not take away the fact they are nothing but community member spins nothing more. It takes minuets to turn Arch into OpenRc if you are foolish nothing wrong with other inits but why turn a silk purse into a sows ear when you can use a distro that is designed sysdemD free in the 1st place
68 • @67 OpenRc Manjaro (by Jordan on 2016-05-15 16:11:14 GMT from North America)
"...nothing wrong with other inits but why turn a silk purse into a sows ear when you can use a distro that is designed sysdemD free in the 1st place."
"...they are nothing but community member spins..."
Why is the Manjaro community spinning the openrc versions if it is such a useless endeavor?
Isn't it about more linux choices. Vive le linux choices. ;)
Number of Comments: 68
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TFM Linux
TFM Linux was a Linux operating system that can be used for small enterprises, whose administrators are not so experienced in Linux. It all began a long time ago with a Red Hat distribution, whose packages were very low on security, so that less than 5 % of these were kept and the rest was replaced with alternate Red Hat packages which proved to be more stable. That's the way the TFM Linux idea was born. The simplest method at that time was the adaptation of Red Hat distribution to the needs previously specified. So in March 2001 TFM Linux 1.0 was launched. An easy to install operating system, easy to use as server edition or workstation and adapted for the user's needs. All the knowledge gathered during all this time, allowed the observation of the modified Red Hat distribution limits, and, as future plan, it was established that the next version of the distribution will be done starting from zero, for having complete control to what was happening in the distribution and the packages interactions.
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