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1 • Firmware and Helping Package (by oldtechaa on 2016-10-17 00:19:34 GMT from United States)
First, as for the firmware matter. I'm just curious why everyone calls firmware a "driver". Firmware is not a driver. It is software that runs directly on the applicable device.
Second, I also might note, having packaged for Debian, that if you build an existing package successfully, you can send the build setup to the maintainer of the applicable package. They will then review it and probably be grateful for your help in updating/fixing/etc. Also look at tracker.debian.org for full dev info on a package you're looking at working on.
2 • @1 Firmware (by linuxista on 2016-10-17 00:55:51 GMT from United States)
What do you call all those .fw files in /usr/lib/firmware?
3 • @1 Firmware (by linuxista on 2016-10-17 01:01:18 GMT from United States)
As opposed to the .ko files in /usr/lib/modules/[kernel name]/kernel/drivers/, which I would refer to as drivers?
4 • poll (by Jordan on 2016-10-17 01:03:09 GMT from United States)
I buy media from osdisc.com. I'm startled that I'm the only one (so far, early in the poll). I know there must be thousands who do.
5 • @1 Firmware (by linuxista on 2016-10-17 01:08:25 GMT from United States)
The lack of a clear distinction b/t driver and firmware might be that when you build the wifi driver/firmware from realtek or atheros or wherever, usually it builds and installs both the .ko drivers and the .fw firmware.
6 • Poll (by John Q. Public on 2016-10-17 01:31:27 GMT from Sweden)
I'd love to download torrents, but my ISP has them locked out some way that I don't understand.
I used to be able to get them, now I can't regardless of software.
7 • Torrent & fast downloads, (by Greg Zeng on 2016-10-17 02:26:09 GMT from Australia)
Torrents used to be the fastest way to download. If the fie had any or enough torrents, close-by, to download from. As @6 post above shows, some ISPs are terrified of torrents.
My preferred method in both Linux and Windows, is Slimjet web browser. It is a very regularly updated Chromium based web-browser. By default, its inbuilt download manager allow five (5) simultaneous streams to download from most sites. I choose the option for the maximum twelve (12) streams. Its download speed almost equals the best torrent downloads, if the torrent ever exists. Slimjet on Linux is always available as a simple down-click installation for most Linux desktop users, who are using Ubuntu-based distributions such as Mint, Peppermint,Lite, Netrunner, etc. This double-click installation automatically inserts the necessary PPA, allowing almost automatic updates, as usual.
The next preferred method is to use a specialized "Internet Download Manager". Windows has such a product named exactly that, version: 6.26-7 atm. It allows 32 simultaneous download threads from nearly every download site. As well, it allows specialized folders for specialized file types. So all my Linux ISO files are automatically pointed at a special partition. From there, I select which folder it needs. Whether this works within WINE, I have not yet tested.
8 • Giving Back Packages + downloads (by Rich'rd on 2016-10-17 02:44:38 GMT from United States)
Years ago when I was an eager beaver learning Linux, I wanted a decent internet newsreader (looong time ago, when I was running Red Hat 6.1 original ca. 2001). Pan was under heavy development but there was no rpm for RedHat. So I compiled Pan for my system and offered the RPM to the Pan community, which redistributed it. Later, needing a simple mail client, a did the same with Sylpheed.
Now that linux software generally fits my needs from Ubuntu repositories, I no longer compile at all.
Re: downloading: My small-town ISP prohibits the use of bittorrent because of the large number of handles it requires, which, the owner says, is more than the number of his subscribers. Correct or not, I download over ftp or http to not displease him (he has a monopoly out here in rural Oregon.
9 • very nice (by sam on 2016-10-17 04:12:41 GMT from United States)
Nice find! the After reading the review I decided to try Refracta and wow it is very nice. Installation was super quick and so far everything is working fine.
10 • drivers & Firmware (by Raj on 2016-10-17 04:18:50 GMT from India)
Drivers are one that handle how data send and received from the hardware (communication) to the system (kernel) which provide abstraction to the hardware. Drivers are loaded as modules (.ko) files which will get loaded when the hardware is detected (dynamic) or can be compiled with kernel and loaded every time kernel loads
Firmware on the other hand is loaded to the hardware itself, the firmware is copied by the driver to the actual hardware it is the software that runs the hardware
11 • Refracta review (by billc on 2016-10-17 04:52:32 GMT from Australia)
Great review of Refracta, thank you! I am downloading it now...
12 • direct download (by jonathon on 2016-10-17 05:12:21 GMT from Australia)
Running Refracta at mo, it has the original, and cool, desktop manager for xfce, allowing brightness and gamma controls over wallpaper.
Direct download, yes, but I tend not to go beyond 2gb, due to my costly prepaid internet, which is putting more and more distros beyond my hopping range.
I don't rely on the browser for the download, only to copy the link for wget in the terminal
Thanks for a great website
13 • Robert's_Refracta_review_proves_DistroWatch_Weekly_a_must_read (by k on 2016-10-17 05:58:58 GMT from Netherlands)
Excellent tutorial too.
Kudos and much thanks to Robert and DistroWatch.
14 • Operating system downloads (by Thomas Mueller on 2016-10-17 06:16:28 GMT from United States)
I commonly download and update source trees of desired operating systems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Linux distros and toolchains, using cvs, svn or git, depending on what the software repository uses. This leaves no chance to use bittorrent.
One reason some ISPs might not allow bittorrent is because bittorrent can be used for illegal sharing of copyrighted files, as I remember reading some years ago..
15 • refracta and extra features (by figosdev on 2016-10-17 06:38:14 GMT from Europe)
Exciting to read that Refracta is someone elses favorite distro all of a sudden, in a DW review no less. Glad it isnt just me.
Refracta is also the first distro to include the fig educational language, inspired by Basic/Python/Logo.
x "Hello world" colortext 14 print #### save as hello.fig
$ fig29.py hello.fig
$ ./hello.fig.py # docs in /usr/share/doc/fig
16 • Refracta (by Gary W on 2016-10-17 07:08:11 GMT from Australia)
Nice to see Refracta getting some love. I like it a lot; it was the first distro I tried that could build an ISO which would then boot in a virtual machine. If it had XFCE 4.12, I might make it my main OS.
17 • Poll Question (by cykodrone on 2016-10-17 08:36:02 GMT from United States)
I use torrents whenever I can and upload to 100%. I find it better and more reliable, I've had smaller distro servers disconnect on me or be very slow. I also like the fact you can start and stop the download at will, and it's auto hashed by the local torrent client. I still check the distro supplied sha or md5 when the download is complete anyway. I can't believe there are still a few distros that don't supply md5 or sha, or you have to really dig for it. Using torrents gives the distro server a break from heavy traffic, especially just after a release.
lol @ "Refracta is actually more Devuan than Devuan", I'm gunna give it a look-see. Xfce in Devuan is changing the desktop icon locations grid size every couple of boots, it's super annoying.
The 386bsd site is interesting.
18 • Refracta (by wepice on 2016-10-17 08:50:40 GMT from Switzerland)
Sincere thanks for this review of Refracta 8, particularly also for the helpful tutorial part. I will download and test it.
I am currently using Manjaro-Xfce-OpenRC which works very well without systemd. Due to time constraints, though, its developers hesitate to declare it an official community edition of Manjaro. This has me worried for how long it might survive.
Good to know another well-working systemd-free distribution with a large, easely installable repository!
19 • Poll (by Marco on 2016-10-17 09:18:28 GMT from United States)
zsync, whenever available.
20 • the poll (by dmacleo on 2016-10-17 11:56:19 GMT from United States)
should have said use torrents if possible.
I always use torrent if possible and fall back to http/ftp if not.
so the poll question always use torrents is not accurate .
21 • torrents vs http/ftp (by tom joad on 2016-10-17 12:15:50 GMT from Sweden)
I have tried both and I honestly don't see much of a difference. And I think that the http/ftp way is a bit more stable while torrents *might* be a bit faster. That said it seems like with torrents I have to fight my firewall to get them to work. That could just be me.
Anywho, I have stuff to do so I take the path of least resistence; why wouldn't you?
22 • Refracta; poll: download method (by solt87 on 2016-10-17 12:26:53 GMT from Canada)
Thanks for the Refracta review, it really whetted my appetite. Will download it right away. =)
As for downloading, I prefer torrents: they are more reliable and are easily controlled (pausing/stopping, speed limit resetting). When I download via http or ftp, I use cURL. Oh, and in those few cases when it's available, I download using metalinks (I've installed libmetalink, and I compile every cURL release with metalink enabled).
As for checksums, please, please forget md5. Really. It's hopelessly broken. Use sha256 or sha1 or or even sha512. (I know, sha512 can be slow.)
23 • Refracta review, downloads, xfdesktop (by a on 2016-10-17 14:57:25 GMT from France)
Thanks for the Refracta review, glad to hear it’s a good systemd-free distro. Often the reviews on Distrowatch don’t mention straight away if a distro is systemd-free or not and that’s annoying, as I don’t care about distros that have systemd but I have to search the web to get the answer (searching the packages list on Distrowatch isn’t enough because the distro may give the users a choice, like Gentoo and Manjaro do).
Torrents are technically the perfect file exchange system but it’s easier to dl directly from the browser. I have found Firefox to be absolutely unreliable for downloads though, as it will often stop the download in the middle without any error message, so I use the DownThemAll addon for all my big downloads. I can use torrents without any issue as well thanks to a dedicated server with high enough bw (unlike my ADSL connection).
@12, "Running Refracta at mo, it has the original, and cool, desktop manager for xfce, allowing brightness and gamma controls over wallpaper."
Glad to see I’m not the only one disappointed by the removal of these features in xfdesktop 4.12. They also removed the "Auto" mode for wallpapers positionning/zooming which was the most useful one. Because of that I blocked the installation of any version >4.10.2 on my Gentoo systems.
24 • Devuan and Refracta (by Linux Apocalypsis on 2016-10-17 15:11:10 GMT from Ireland)
I tried Devuan on an old Lenovo Ideapad netbook and it worked great, but then, suddenly, the Wi-Fi password stopped being recognised. So I ended up installing Mint Mate, which is not so crispy on this old and modest hardware, but it is fair enough. If it was my main computer I would not mind tinkering a little bit to get the problem fixed, but with this travel netbook I cannot take the risk of Wi-Fi stopping working.
25 • Reviews and systemd (by Jesse on 2016-10-17 15:55:06 GMT from Canada)
>> "Often the reviews on Distrowatch don’t mention straight away if a distro is systemd-free or not and that’s annoying, as I don’t care about distros that have systemd but I have to search the web to get the answer "
I can't speak for everyone who has reviews published on DistroWatch, but mine (which are most of the reviews) mention init system used and kernel version at the end of the paragraph covering available software. Also, you can check out the Search page here at DistroWatch to find distros which do not feature systemd.
You mentioned using torrents vs downloading in a browser. Some browsers, like Opera, do support downloading torrents natively. I imagine most other major browsers have extensions to do the same.It's the best of both worlds.
26 • Refracta (by Justin on 2016-10-17 16:09:10 GMT from United States)
Excellent review this week! It told me what Refracta is, what its goals all, successfully demonstrated its unique features, and gave me a heads up (and workaround) to problems I'll probably encounter. These are the types of reviews I look for, and I also like that now I've heard of this distribution and know something about it. Hopefully their site gets a boost (and maybe their wallets) so that they continue putting this together.
27 • Refracta... (by Tim on 2016-10-17 16:18:43 GMT from United States)
... sounds like a worthwhile distro to check out. I heard about it here, first.
28 • Devuan and its distros (by Alex on 2016-10-17 16:56:44 GMT from Germany)
Good that Distrowatch thought of reviewing a Devuan based distro. It would have been even better, if Devuan was reviewed. Also, have a look at the https://devuan.org, Robert. You should have reviewed the first one, Gnuinos http://gnuinos.org. It says, " Here below a list in order of chronological appearance."
All the distros based on Devuan are free and done by enthusiasts. Try them all, and then review one. That way, you'd have a better "view."
29 • torrents - Refracta - Devuan (by argent on 2016-10-17 16:59:04 GMT from United States)
Prefer a torrent over a direct download because of the ease and the reliability issues with my current ISP provider.
Kudos to Robert Storey's review of Refracta, shedding some much deserved focus on a truly great Devuan distribution. Discovered Refracta a couple of years back and have used it since. Personally have steered away from systemd and welcome what Refracta and Devuan has to offer.
Much thanks to fsmithred and the team at Refracta.
30 • Devuan and Refracta (by cykodrone on 2016-10-17 18:55:16 GMT from United States)
Gave Refracta a live spin from a DVD, worked quite well, prettier than Devuan out of the box. The only complaint I have is 2 storage HDDs purposely formatted NTFS (in case they need to be emergency read with an MS machine) were not 'seen', neither were the two SSDs that host bare metal distros. The front bezel USB 3.0 port did work using the USB mount/unmount tool. It's nice but a little schizophrenic, it wants to be a friendlier Devuan, which it is in a lot of ways, but then the drive thing happened. I noticed Refracta switched to Geany (opposed to gedit), so did I in Devuan, as a long time gedit user I have to say it's horrible now. Good thing I know my way around both distros, not really for uber-noobs.
Successfully compiled (locally) and installed glmark2 in Devuan using the instructions from https://fixmynix.com/how-to-install-glmark2-from-source-in-debian/
The final score was 2791. I'm not ready to give up on Devuan yet, customizing it to the hilt was a lot of work.
To the person with the wifi problems, I am currently on 'free' wifi where I am, cheap PCI Express slot card, no wifi problems in Devuan or Refracta.
AMD FX-8350/990FX using the iommu=soft kernel option.
31 • Refracta and Remastering (by Peter086 on 2016-10-17 20:24:19 GMT from Spain)
I haven't tested, yet, Refacta or the remastering tool it comes with, but I've been getting very good results with Systemback, which doubles as a backup program (or vice versa). It's mantained and easy to use. Has anybody else used it....how was your experience?
32 • Torrent restrictions (by mikef90000 on 2016-10-17 22:31:43 GMT from United States)
@8, not sure what you mean by 'handles'. Perhaps your small town ISP uses bargain basement routers with not enough memory. Too bad - memory is cheap but upstream bandwidth, not so much.
Another reason more software distribution doesn't use torrents is Blacklisting. A hosting service runs the risk of a big, lazy ISP *cough*Comcast* blocking your address range which will Really piss off and drive away your customers.
33 • torrents (by Jeff on 2016-10-17 23:38:07 GMT from United States)
I have mostly stopped downloading with torrents.
I distro-hop some and often it is the more obscure ones.
The last one I downloaded by torrent it took three weeks to seed 2x and torrents make me feel guilty if I don't seed.
Top that with my ISP is the big C, they are not quite the only option but there are no better choices available where I live.
34 • Poll Question (by Dan on 2016-10-18 00:50:20 GMT from Israel)
I usually download/upload using BitTorrent - it's just the best protocol for exchanging files over the Internet - it's peer-to-peer, completely distributed, almost decentralized, fast (direct connections to local peers), multi-threaded (downloads multiple parts of the same file in parallel from multiple sources each to maximize efficiency) and it even automatically checks the downloaded files for corruptions...
35 • Black Lab becomes a commercial distribution, again (by :wq on 2016-10-18 05:11:25 GMT from United States)
Wait, didn't they already try something like this, delaying the gratis version by 30 days? Ah, here is a mention (second to last question): http://www.blacklablinux.org/2014/04/a-few-questions-about-black-lab-linux.html
I don't begrudge commercial distributions (e.g. Parted Magic) as long as the source code is attainable, but if this approach didn't work for Black Lab before, I don't see why it would now.
There have been so many mercurial changes out of that camp, I don't even keep up anymore. So many name alterations, logo changes, policy changes, roadmap changes (e.g. a planned switch from Ubuntu to RHEL, then a reverse course), etc.
It looks like they are back to tiptoeing around brand appropriation from other projects. The logo currently displayed on their website looks remarkably similar to the head of the dog from the Yellow Dog Linux logo (http://yellowdog.linuxfreedom.com/images/YellowdogLogo.png), just turned the opposite direction ("Black Lab Linux" the name was acquired by PC/OpenSystems-RJD after Fixstars bought out Terrasoft, which had a Black Lab distribution in addition to Yellow Dog, but there is otherwise no relationship between Yellow Dog Linux and the current Black Lab Linux). I have also seen a Black Lab Linux logo takeoff on the old Lycos logo. For a while RJD tried to appropriate the Amiga name and Boing Ball logo, and then there were numerous Boing Ball-esque logos, I guess as attempts to skirt any trademark issues. Before that, in the OS4 Linux-OS/4 OpenLinux days, I briefly saw an OS4 logo design based on IBM's OS/2 logo (with a '4' instead of a '2').
Then there were the "angry and intimidating emails - not only from the lead developer of Black Lab Linux, but also from the project's legal representatives" sent to DistroWatch, but I guess PC/OpenSystems paid for Black Lab to be readmitted to DistroWatch, or found backers willing to pay.
It would be nice if 'PC/OS-OS4 Linux-Amiga Linux-Ami/Lx-Black Lab Linux-net/OS-any other related names I've left out' would forge its own brand identity rather than trying to leverage the brands (logos, names, etc.) others have created. It may be an okay Ubuntu remix, but its branding is uninspired. Be creative. Be your own distro.
36 • @30 Devuan distros (by Mark on 2016-10-18 10:52:44 GMT from Canada)
Why not try other Devuan based distros, such as Nelum Dev-1 or ZephyrLinux?
37 • @25 (Jesse) (by a on 2016-10-18 13:02:49 GMT from France)
"I can't speak for everyone who has reviews published on DistroWatch, but mine (which are most of the reviews) mention init system used and kernel version at the end of the paragraph covering available software."
Thanks, I’ll try to remember that. I often only read the introduction and conclusion.
38 • @37, Torrents (by Jake on 2016-10-18 13:37:37 GMT from United States)
@37: Jesse is good about that as well as letting us know how much memory the distro is running. Over time I get a sense of what is "normal" and what is really too high. Also, when I get to the end of the software summary, that's usually when I get disappointed when I read "and systemd 231" ;)
I've tried torrents for distros before, mainly because of arguments made here about saving bandwidth. I tried a couple and found that they were remarkably slow for one reason or another (despite it being a new release). I just gave up and downloaded from the project's mirror sites. I don't know if it was my cable company or not, but it didn't seem worth it. I tried seeding for a while as well, but it can take days, and I don't want to leave my PC up just to send a few kb to someone.
39 • @36 (by cykodrone on 2016-10-18 17:19:35 GMT from United States)
I tried Nelum, needs more polish. I had no idea Zephyr even existed, thanks for the heads up. I made a bare metal exception with Devuan because I'm a long time Debian fan/user, but when Debian went systemd, I bailed. Devuan is breathing life back in to my faith in humanity, lol.
40 • Downloading directly vs torrents (by Christopher on 2016-10-18 18:57:58 GMT from Guatemala)
aria2 can download a file from multiple sources/protocols and tries to utilize your maximum download bandwidth. It supports downloading a file from HTTP(S)/FTP and BitTorrent at the same time, while the data downloaded from HTTP(S)/FTP is uploaded to the BitTorrent swarm.
I ran aria2 when I was on AT&T DSL in USA, where torrent downloads were very slow. Here in Guatemala, on Claro Turbonett DSL, torrents are the fastest way to download, so I just run transmission-gtk.
41 • @39 Nelum-Dev1 (by Mark on 2016-10-18 19:44:44 GMT from Canada)
Its there to prove that Devuan is an excellent distro. You are given the opening. You install whatever you need and "polish" it as you want. Its on Openbox, so polish is not the main idea.
42 • Download(s) (by Mitch on 2016-10-18 20:03:01 GMT from United States)
Back during the modem days, pre-DSL, it took awhile to get a major chunk down from a server. And though distros weren't quite as large as today, the thrill of downloading that next testing distro was a hoot! Sometimes that meant an overnight delivery... And when the old modem here went away, and the speeds picked up, several torrents made their way down the pipeline towards home. But now, speeds are so incredibly fast that even items over a gig usually finish in under half an hour. Upgrades are painless compared to as before. From Puppy to Fedora and Foresight, Red Hat and beyond, computing had never been so much fun...but it's time to get some work done! Have since left the playful nature of testing various distros and settled on Ubuntu for many reasons. Thanks for the many years of Distrowatch, look forward to it every Monday, even more than the local news!
Only in Linux can one say, "Stick a fork in it!" and inspire the creativity of the masses.
43 • Black Lab Linux (by Langley on 2016-10-18 23:00:54 GMT from Denmark)
Does anyone know what the deal is with Black Lab Linux? I'm running BLL 7.7 on my desktop and laptop and it seems nice, except my online eCourse website doesn't really work well... But the BLL website is weird, there's no forums, you're supposed to comment on their blog posts intead but there's no replies so it seems dead, and I have an "Xubuntu Website" link in the Applications menu...
Specifically, does anyone know if I should update the Hardware Enablement Stack? Running hwe-support-status says it has ended for Ubuntu 14.04 and I should install new packages..
44 • Devuan - Refracta (by argent on 2016-10-19 07:46:04 GMT from United States)
@39 cykodrone: There are several great distributions using Devuan as a base. Personnally found Star, and Zephyr along with Refracta the main stays of my Devuan desktop and laptop.
Nelum, and Gnuinos are also excellent distributions and have used both of them with various DE's and Wm's.
The Devuan site has links to their Devuan beta distribution as well to the distributions I mentioned above.
https://beta.devuan.org/
Currently running Refracta xfce 64 bit, simply a very complete, rock solid systemd-less distribution.
Greatly appreciate the hard work and dedication from the Refracta team.
45 • @ DistroWatch Weekly (by Andy Mender on 2016-10-20 08:24:47 GMT from Austria)
Thank you for the review of Refracta, Robert. Great to see people taking notice of non-mainstream (systemd) distributions.
Per the automounting bit and other useful automation, I believe it's worth having a look at how Gentoo Linux gets around not relying on systemd components. For instance, automounting can be done via udevil, which nicely integrates with spacefm. Systemd is not so much needed as just dbus and udev/eudev to get things done. The main problem in Debian is that many components are assumed as dependencies not merely as suggested/recommended packages. Devuan is doing good work weeding those out :).
Also, props to all discussion participants for not diving into a systemd/anti-systemd flame war. Well done! :)
46 • Devuan - Refracta (by zcatav on 2016-10-20 10:00:26 GMT from Turkey)
@argent Refracta 7 or 8?
47 • @25, 37 Key words, for true business creativity. (by Greg Zeng on 2016-10-21 02:26:53 GMT from Australia)
37 • @25 (Jesse)
> "I can't speak for everyone who has reviews published on DistroWatch, but mine (which are most of the reviews) mention init system used and kernel version at the end of the paragraph covering available software."
> Thanks, I’ll try to remember that. I often only read the introduction and conclusion.
Yes. Some of us Distrowatch readers are very busy. Executive summaries are not for junior people. We non-juniors rely on podcasts, to inform us, in our low-duty hours: in-transit (waiting areas, spectating, throne-room, air, cars, trains, etc). Distrowatch avoids so far in mentioning some very important Linux reviews, news and expert opinions: "Linux Unplugged", "Linux Voice", etc. Personally I use either/ both "Podkicker Pro", "Pocket Casts". Both apps allow on-line and off-line listening. If used pre-sleep or during sleep, podcasts allow true business creativity to blossom in our enriched off-duty time. (Dw is also a podcast, but exists only on Podkicker, not Pocket Casts).
48 • Writing applications for Linux, etc ... (by Greg Zeng on 2016-10-21 08:47:51 GMT from Australia)
There are at least three such "standards" for software application packages, claiming to be able to run on any version of Linux, and also, sometimes Windows & IOS.
1) One of the oldest, but not used very much now, is to create a Java-based application. Wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuze ubuntugeek.com/azureus-java-bittorrent-client-in-ubuntu.html
2) wikipedia.org/wiki/Snappy_(package_manager)
"snapd is also available or in progress for Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo Linux, OpenWrt, openSUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
linux.com/news/ubuntu-snappy-based-package-format-aims-bridge-linux-divide "Snap works natively on Arch, Debian, and Fedora, in addition to Ubuntu-based distros like Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Unity, and Xubuntu. It is now being validated on CentOS, Elementary, Gentoo, Mint, openSUSE, RHEL, and OpenWrt."
3) docker.com/what-docker "Docker containers wrap up a piece of software in a complete filesystem that contains everything it needs to run"
wikipedia.org/wiki/Docker_(software)
"A May 2016 analysis showed ... The Docker team, Cisco, Google, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, and Red Hat".
zdnet.com/article/what-is-docker-and-why-is-it-so-darn-popular/
"Docker, an open-source technology, isn't just the darling of Linux powers such as Red Hat and Canonical. Proprietary software companies such as Microsoft have also embraced Docker".
Events are happening very rapidly now. Lots of optimistic talk,and "how-to" all over the internet. Ubuntu launched its package for Docker.
49 • Big Swiss One (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2016-10-21 23:33:29 GMT from United States)
@18 wepice: SliTaz rolling might suit you, and it's based in Switzerland.
50 • "Firmware" etc (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2016-10-22 05:48:19 GMT from United States)
Interesting - asking about firmware, then mentioning the definition of a device driver.
Firmware is normally stored fairly permanently on a device, and normally contains just enough driver(s) and startup code for desired software.
Also, sometimes low-level device drivers are referred to as "firmware"; this obfuscative practice may generate some confusion, but should be easy to sort.
…
I would hope that information like that in the Refracta review (thanks!) would promptly find its way into a wiki (The Full Manual?).
…
I once found torrents the fastest way to download large files, but lately find them limited to rather low bandwidth (except perhaps for a short initial surge). Still, I'm grateful for the mention of apps like aria2, since I've noticed some popular download sources deflecting requests to far-away often-slower servers.
…
How long, I wonder, before some distro uses AppImages for all apps not included in setup?
51 • Full_monty_of_Refracta (by k on 2016-10-22 06:39:51 GMT from Romania)
@50 by Kragle von Schnitzelbank:
"I would hope that information like that in the Refracta review (thanks!) would promptly find its way into a wiki (The Full Manual?)."
Same impression from visit of "documentation" pages. Robert's review real "value" quality, as
all DistroWatch's content, reviews and tips and tricks by Jesse, much thanks again.
52 • Downloading (by Mark on 2016-10-22 07:30:57 GMT from Canada)
Most distros can be downloaded directly in 5-6 mins nowadays, so the need to use a torrent goes away. Torrents also might bring in corrupted parts.
53 • Refracta (by Barnabyh on 2016-10-23 21:14:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thanks to Robert for telling us about Refracta and in such detail. Will need to try it. Nice old school feel about it having to mount external disks manually. And more secure. I remember using the mount plugin in Xfce for that. Great review.
Number of Comments: 53
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