 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 683, 17 October 2016 |
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Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This past week saw the release of several new versions of open source operating systems, including Ubuntu 16.10 and its many community editions, as well as a new version of the venerable FreeBSD. We have the details on what to expect from these operating systems below, but before that we begin our News section with a look back at 386BSD and where the modern BSDs came from. We also look at Alpine Linux's switch from OpenSSL to LibreSSL and Black Lab Linux becoming a commercial distribution. In our main feature this week Robert Storey takes Refracta, a Devuan-based distribution with re-spin authoring tools built-in, for a test drive and reports on the project's status. Plus, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about creating software packages for a variety of distributions. Then we share the torrents we are seeding and provide a list of last week's releases. In our Opinion Poll we discuss preferred methods for acquiring new releases and, finally, we welcome Linux Kodachi as the newest distribution to be added to our database. We wish you all a superb week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (34MB) and MP3 (48MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Robert Storey) |
Refracta 8.0 - Devuan on a stick
There are probably some people living in the world today who still haven't heard of systemd, though I doubt that any of them read DistroWatch. More digital ink has been spilled debating the topic of init systems than any other in techie history. There is probably nothing I can say about systemd that hasn't already been said, and no argument either for or against it that hasn't been repeated ad nauseum. So I won't waste this review seeking converts for The Cause™. I don't expect the issue to be finally settled until the Sun swells up to become a red giant and evaporates the Earth.
Geeks determined to resist the systemd juggernaut have several options. For me, the most interesting project is Devuan, a fork of Debian. I will say by way of disclosure that I have downloaded Devuan, installed it, used it for months, and like it. However, it does have a few flaws - the installer in particular needs some more work. The first beta forces you to do a network install that - depending on your Internet connection speed - can take an hour or more. This has defeated curious newbies who decide to give up long before the first boot-up prompt appeared.
It was my search for a quick and easy way to get Devuan up and running that led me to Refracta, a unique distro that fills a niche that has long been neglected. Refracta's existence predates the systemd wars - it was originally based on Debian 5.0, otherwise known as "Lenny." But when Debian 8.0 "Jessie" went full systemd, Refracta moved to the Devuan camp.
Refracta's chief selling point is this: it's a live image that can be quickly installed, customized, and re-installed back to live media again. So basically you can roll your own live CD, configured for your hardware and tweaked to suit your personal tastes. It is currently my favorite distro, and I'd recommend it to any Linux geek who has had a little bit of experience. A total Linux newbie might feel more comfortable with a distro that mimics Windows' point-and-click friendliness, but once you've got the basics down, Refracta is easy to get used to.
It's also worth mentioning that even without being installed, a Refracta live CD or USB stick makes an excellent diagnostic and rescue tool. It contains quite a few command line utilities that aren't in a default Devuan or Debian installation, including gddrescue, testdisk, smartmontools, hdparm, lm-sensors, iftop, and iptraf. I have personally used testdisk to recover data from a crashed hard drive.
Refracta on a USB stick
(full image size: 625kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Installation
There are i386 and amd64 versions, both live media sporting an Xfce4 interface. The ISO files are available for download from SourceForge.
ISO size is approximately 700MB, because the developer wants to make it fit on a CD. These days many people prefer to install on a USB flash drive. You can use a dedicated program like UNetbootin to do that, but I'm fine with the Linux dd command. Note that UNetbootin wants your USB drive to be formatted with the FAT32 file system and mounted, but dd demands that it be unmounted (and file system format is a non-issue). The syntax for dd should look something like this:
sudo dd if=refracta8_Xfce_amd64_rc1-20160923_1334.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
sync
Your USB stick might not be /dev/sdb if you've got something else plugged in - be careful of that. You can use the lsscsi command to find the name of your USB device.
Once you've got a bootable CD or USB flash drive, reboot into your exciting new Refracta desktop. You can login as "user" (with password "user") or "root" (password "root").
In the System menu, you can click on Refracta Installer which presents a simple GUI interface. Or, if you prefer, as root you can run refractainstaller which is a command-line tool. Either way, installation is simple and fast. There is no need to connect to the network - everything required is already on the installation disk. This is in sharp contrast to Devuan's current installer, which grabs everything off the network (and thus takes much longer).
Refracta 8 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 3.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Wifi
I discovered a major glitch getting online via wifi, though it's easily solved once you understand the problem. With mainstream Devuan, the installation program detects the required wireless firmware driver and installs it. Refracta's installer currently lacks this ability, so you have to install the driver manually - not difficult, but it's these little things that make me hesitate to recommend Refracta to a complete Linux newbie. On the other hand, experienced geeks will easily rise to the occasion.
To know if you've got the wifi problem, at the command line type /sbin/ifconfig. This will show you all of your network interfaces. Most likely it will show that you've got an interface named eth0 (Ethernet) and lo (loopback interface). If your wireless device has been detected, there will also be a wlan0 interface (note: could be wlan1, 2 or 3). If it's not there, then you need to install the driver. At the command line you will find on your Refracta desktop a directory called wireless-drivers. You need to cd into that directory, and type ls to see the list of drivers available. Currently, there are 18:
firmware-atheros_0.43_all.deb
firmware-b43-installer_1%3a019-2_all.deb
firmware-b43legacy-installer_1%3a019-2_all.deb
firmware-bnx2_0.43_all.deb
firmware-bnx2x_0.43_all.deb
firmware-brcm80211_0.43_all.deb
firmware-intelwimax_0.43_all.deb
firmware-ipw2x00_0.43_all.deb
firmware-iwlwifi_0.43_all.deb
firmware-libertas_0.43_all.deb
firmware-linux-nonfree_0.43_all.deb
firmware-myricom_0.43_all.deb
firmware-netxen_0.43_all.deb
firmware-qlogic_0.43_all.deb
firmware-ralink_0.43_all.deb
firmware-realtek_0.43_all.deb
firmware-ti-connectivity_0.43_all.deb
firmware-zd1211_3.0.0.56-3_all.deb
I've made it a habit to use gdebi rather than dpkg -i to install a Debian package, because the former will try to resolve all dependencies. So to install the first package in the above list, for example, you'd su (or sudo) to root and type gdebi firmware-atheros_0.43_all.deb. That's fine, except that there are 18 possible drivers, and you might not know which one to install. You really wouldn't want to install all 18. The best way to find the correct one(s), is if you already have an existing Debian or Ubuntu installation, and type the following at the command line:
dpkg --get-selections | grep firmware
When I did this, I was informed thus:
firmware-ralink install
firmware-realtek install
After installing those two firmware drivers with gdebi and rebooting, the output of /sbin/ifconfig happily showed that interface wlan0 now existed. To activate this, as root type:
ifconfig wlan0 up
Again, that could be wlan1, 2 or 3. Type the following to check.
lshw | grep wlan
Having done all the above, I still found that my wireless network was disabled, though enabling it was really simple. To do so, fire up Refracta's Wicd Network Manager (found in the Internet menu). In Wicd, to the right of Refresh is a down-arrow - clicking on that will get you to Preferences dialog. In the box next to Wireless interface type "wlan0" then click OK and Refresh. You should be able to see wireless networks then.
In future reboots, you do not have to go through all of the above steps, though you do have to restart Wicd and choose the interface you wish to use. All things considered, I find Wicd very simple and elegant, and prefer it over the more complex NetworkManager used in most distros these days.
Refracta 8 -- Connecting to a wireless network
(full image size: 197kB, resolution: 540x664 pixels)
Update and install packages
With networking enabled, your first priority should be to run (as root):
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
In theory you don't have to reboot after the above, though if a new kernel got installed it would certainly be a good idea. Considering that Refracta reboots very fast, it's effortless to do so.
Now that you at last have an up-to-date working desktop with connectivity, it might not be a bad idea to install a firewall, especially if you're relying on wifi (as opposed to a hardwired router). There are a number of firewall packages available - I personally find ufw to be easy and elegant to set up, so with root privileges do:
apt-get install ufw
and
ufw enable
Once installed and enabled, it will remain functional on subsequent reboots. It can always be turned off with the command
ufw disable
At this point, you should feel free to install whatever additional packages your heart desires. The Devuan archives closely follow Debian, so you've got a huge number of packages at your disposal. Standard Debian commands such as apt-cache search and apt-get install are your friends. Or you can use the Synaptic Package Manager from the System menu.
Tweaks
Refracta comes with openssh-server installed and running by default. That's a good reason to have the firewall and to change the passwords. The benefit of OpenSSH is that it allows you the possibility of booting a headless server with live media and logging in to do repairs.
Unfortunately, OpenSSH can be a honeypot for evildoers, and if you don't need it you may consider disabling or even uninstalling it. First, just to confirm that secure shell is (or isn't) running, type /etc/init.d/ssh status.
If you want to keep OpenSSH running but would like to configure it, you need to edit (as root) file /etc/ssh/sshd_config. There is one line in there that looks rather dangerous:
PermitRootLogin without-password
It's actually not as dangerous as it looks, because root can log in only with authorization keys. It's the new default setting in Debian, and that's why it's the default in Devuan (and Refracta). You can prevent any root logins by commenting out that line and adding another that reads:
PermitRootLogin no
You can allow individual users access with the AllowUsers parameter. This and other OpenSSH tweaks won't take effect until you either reboot or restart OpenSSH with
invoke-rc.d ssh restart
However, many people will want to just disable OpenSSH permanently. Simplest way to do that would be to run update-rc.d -f ssh remove. Another way is to run sysv-rc-conf in a root terminal and un-check openssh-server in all runlevels. A third way is apt-get remove openssh-server if you don't plan on ever using it.
Audio
Unlike Devuan which uses PulseAudio, Refracta employs ALSA (package "alsa-base") as a sound server. In the beginning I had no sound - turned out my sound was muted. To tweak your sound settings, run the command alsamixer (as a user, not root), and press F6 to switch your sound card and mess with volume settings.
Clock
In the great "UTC vs hardware clock" debate, Refracta's default is UTC (but Windows will hate you for it). You can change the setting by editing file /etc/adjtime. Reset the time zone by running dpkg-reconfigure tzdata. You could also try running (as root) the command ntpdate-debian. But if you set Refracta to LOCAL rather than UTC, you may notice a brief error message fly by during boot saying that the superblock has a write time in the future - this triggers an fsck (file system check), costing about two seconds extra during a reboot. I haven't found a way to fix this other than just going with UTC.
Unhide users
Refracta uses the Light Display Manager (LightDM) to supply a graphical login prompt. By default, it will not offer up a choice of user names, so if you're called aardvark you will be forced to type "aardvark" each and every time you wish to login. That's kind of inconvenient, and probably overly paranoid. To make user names visible at login time, uncomment the following line in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf (Note: make sure you do it in the section after [SeatDefaults], not # Seat defaults):
#greeter-hide-users=false
Other fun things you can do at the graphical login: change prompt font with the F1 and F2 keys. F9 gives you the opportunity to choose a different default session (other than Xfce) if you've got one installed. F10 allows you to select a language from any installed locale. F11 and F12 will give you the restart/shutdown menu.
USB automount
If you plug in a USB external storage device, it will not automount. This is due to the absence of gvfs-daemons, which require libsystemd0, which is also missing. And you may notice that you can't install some other things for the same reason.
You can use the green and red USB icons on the left side of the top panel for mounting/unmounting removable media. That should work with USB, SDcard and optical media. Another option would be to install spacefm. Either way, it's done with pmount/pumount. Or, you could allow libsystemd0 (note that I personally do not, but appreciate that others might want to do so).
To install libsystemd0, you need to remove the APT pinning on it. You can find a Debian wiki explanation of APT pinning here. Actually, that wiki is slightly out-of-date - it says that you enable/disable pinning in file /etc/apt/preferences. Rather than file /etc/apt/preferences, pinning files are in a directory: /etc/apt/preferences.d/ which in Refracta contains three files:
00backports
00nosystemd
avoid-systemd
File 00nosystemd prohibits any package with "systemd" in the name, so delete it if you want libsystemd0. Then run apt-get update. You may then wish to install the package gvfs-daemons to get all the pop-up icon stuff that Xfce4 is capable of. You don't need to install libsystemd0 - it will be automatically installed if you install any packages that need it, and it will be marked for autoremoval if you remove those packages. Note that installing libsystemd0 does not install the systemd init package).
Keyboard shortcuts
True geeks make heavy use of the command line, so it's really useful to have a nice keyboard shortcut to bring up a terminal. Typically, the shortcut Ctrl-Alt-T is used for this purpose, but it's not enabled by default in Refracta.
To add it, click Menu->Settings->Settings Manager, then Keyboard and choose the tab Application Shortcuts and the box that says Add. You'll then be presented with a box where you can either type in the command, or choose it by clicking the Open button. You'll probably want to choose xfce4-terminal though other options could include uxterm or just xterm.
One common frustration at this point (it's an Xfce4 thing) is that to finish the final step, you hit the OK button (or Enter key), but when you do this a box called "Command Shortcut" opens. But there is no space for you to type in the command shortcut. So what would most people do then? They would hit the Cancel button (only option offered!) and the box would close and the shortcut setup would be canceled. Actually, when the "Command Shortcut" box/window opens you are suppose to hit the keys on your keyboard that you want to use for your shortcut and then hit Enter - only then will the command shortcut window/box disappear and your new shortcut is in the Application Shortcuts list.
Install "most" as pager
This is just a matter of aesthetics. Among other things, a "pager" controls how your man pages will look when you view them in text mode. To make for colourful man pages:
apt-get install most
update-alternatives --config pager
And then choose "3" to make most the default pager.
Roll your own live image
Having deployed some or all of the above-mentioned tweaks, it's at last time to unleash Refracta's killer feature - its ability to create customized live images. Do note that if you've added a bunch of apps, the resulting ISO file will probably no longer fit on a CD, but in this era of DVDs and USB flash drives, that's hardly a problem.
Point-and-click Menu->System, you'll find two useful utilities, Refracta Snapshot and Refracta2usb. These can also be accessed at the command line by typing in lower case, refractasnapshot and refracta2usb.
Use refractasnapshot to make a bootable live ISO from a running Linux system. It has to be a Debian-based system (and not necessarily even Refracta).
With refracta2usb, you can take a live ISO and put it on a USB stick. It does not image the stick using dd or cat, and it does not require an isohybrid file (a regular live ISO will work).
Conclusion
Refracta was originally created for the purpose of allowing anyone to create customized live CD Debian images, a job it still does well. Starting with version 8.0, Refracta has gone whole-hog at banishing systemd, not to mention PulseAudio. All that plus the fact that Refracta's installer currently works better than the Devuan one, one could say that Refracta is actually more Devuan than Devuan.
In addition, it's fast. The Xfce4 interface - with annoying pop-ups disabled by default - just feels speedier than almost anything else out there. The price one pays though for not having automated everything is that it's sometimes necessary to dip into the command line, though seasoned Linux geeks should hardly mind this.
Despite all the above positives, Refracta's market share is still tiny. Perhaps this is because it simply wasn't well known - indeed, I only learned of its existence a few months ago. And now it is my personal favorite distro. One thing I have learned over the past few years is that the only thing I can reliably predict about the future of Linux is that I can't predict it.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
386BSD re-released, Alpine switches to LibreSSL, Black Lab becomes a commercial distribution
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s some developers took it upon themselves to work on the existing BSD code and port it to modern personal computers. This project took on the name 386BSD (aka Jolix) and gave people running consumer hardware the chance to run an open source UNIX-like operating system. Over time, new projects formed to grow and evolve the 386BSD code base, giving rise to the FreeBSD and NetBSD projects. These descendants of 386BSD continue to be developed and used today. The 386bsd.org website has been set up to provide access to the project's original source code and reference articles.
* * * * *
The Alpine Linux project has announced the distribution's developers are replacing the popular OpenSSL security library with the OpenBSD-backed LibreSSL library. This will result in many software packages being rebuilt and linked against the newer LibreSSL code. "We decided to replace OpenSSL with LibreSSL because we believe it is a better library. While OpenSSL is trying to fix the broken code,
LibreSSL has simply removed it. As a result (almost) everything linked to OpenSSL has been rebuilt." Further discussion on this topic can be found on the Alpine developer mailing list.
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The Black Lab Linux project is making some important changes to the way the distribution is released. Specifically, new versions of Black Lab Linux will be commercial products when they are launched. The new releases will become available, free of cost, after 45 days. "Due to lack of funding for the Black Lab Linux Project we have decided the best way to move forward for Black Lab Linux is to provide it as a commercial only software product. Hardware and systems that come with Black Lab pre-installed will be provided by PC/OpenSystems LLC. So with that there are a few changes being made to the delivery of Black Lab Linux. Effective today net/OS is discontinued. We will honour our support contracts for net/OS and as Service Packs are released we will be rolling out to you Black Lab Enterprise Linux." Additional details and pricing can be found in the project's announcement.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Making packages for distributions
Putting-it-all-together asks: I would like to start giving back to the community and package some software. Any thoughts on where I could get started? What should I package and how? Where do I submit new packages?
DistroWatch answers: Where you start will depend on which operating system you are running and what your interests are. It probably makes sense to package software for your preferred operating system. I also recommend packaging software you either use or that touches on your interests. If you have a music player, game or utility you like that has not been packaged for your distribution yet, consider starting there.
Since different flavours of Linux (and the BSDs) use different package formats and procedures, you will need to locate documentation on how to package software for your operating system. Many of the major distributions feature detailed documentation, explaining how to get started. Fedora has a guide for making .rpm packages for Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS systems; Debian has a guide to making .deb packages for Debian, Ubuntu and related systems; the Arch Linux wiki includes a guide to making packages for Arch-based systems; and FreeBSD has a guide for porting and packaging software for FreeBSD. Other distributions may have their own guides and packaging formats. If you are looking for something that will work across multiple Linux distributions the AppImage wiki has some examples of how to create a portable AppImage package.
Earlier I suggested creating a package for software you use, but which is not included in your distribution's repositories. While that will give you a fresh start and likely be interesting to you personally, another approach would be to take over maintaining an abandoned package. The package maintainers of distributions often move on to other projects or get busy and leave behind stale packages. Debian and Fedora maintain lists of abandoned packages which could use a new maintainer. Starting with one of these might be easiest as someone else has done most of the work and the packages just need to be updated as new releases and patches become available.
As to where to submit packages, that will depend a lot on which project you wish to help. There are guides for getting involved and submitting packages for Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux and FreeBSD. I recommend reading these guides before you get started as each project has its own set of requirements concerning mentorship and submitting packages.
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For more questions and answers, visit our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
Bittorrent is a great way to transfer large files, particularly open source operating system images, from one place to another. Most bittorrent clients recover from dropped connections automatically, check the integrity of files and can re-download corrupted bits of data without starting a download over from scratch. These characteristics make bittorrent well suited for distributing open source operating systems, particularly to regions where Internet connections are slow or unstable.
Many Linux and BSD projects offer bittorrent as a download option, partly for the reasons listed above and partly because bittorrent's peer-to-peer nature takes some of the strain off the project's servers. However, some projects do not offer bittorrent as a download option. There can be several reasons for excluding bittorrent as an option. Some projects do not have enough time or volunteers, some may be restricted by their web host provider's terms of service. Whatever the reason, the lack of a bittorrent option puts more strain on a distribution's bandwidth and may prevent some people from downloading their preferred open source operating system.
With this in mind, DistroWatch plans to give back to the open source community by hosting and seeding bittorrent files. For now, we are hosting a small number of distribution torrents, listed below. The list of torrents offered will be updated each week and we invite readers to e-mail us with suggestions as to which distributions we should be hosting. When you message us, please place the word "Torrent" in the subject line, make sure to include a link to the ISO file you want us to seed. To help us maintain and grow this free service, please consider making a donation.
The table below provides a list of torrents we currently host. If you do not currently have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found here. All torrents we make available here are also listed on the very useful Linux Tracker website. Thanks to Linux Tracker we are able to share the following torrent statistics.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 246
- Total data uploaded: 45.5TB
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| Released Last Week |
FreeBSD 11.0
The FreeBSD project has announced a new stable release of the project's operating system. The new release, FreeBSD 11.0, drops support for the aging OpenSSH Protocol 1, adds wireless support for 802.11n, provides native graphics support for the operating system's bhyve hypervisor and an arm64 architecture port has been added. "Please note, as a result of the timing between the withdrawn FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE images being available before the official announcement and several last-minute issues being discovered, uname(1) will display FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p1, as the images were generated from a patch-level revision of the releng/11.0 branch. Users that have installed FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE from the images originally available on the mirrors or from freebsd-update(8) prior to the rebuild of the final release are urged to upgrade their systems to FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p1 immediately." The release announcement has more information on upgrading older builds of FreeBSD or obtaining fresh installation media. Detailed changes available in 11.0 can be found in the release notes.
ExTiX 16.5
ExTiX is a desktop oriented distribution which is based on Debian and Ubuntu. The latest version of the distribution, ExTix 16.5, features the LXQt 0.10.0 desktop environment and version 4.8 of the Linux kernel. "ExTiX 16.5 LXQt DVD 64-bit is based on Debian 8.6 Jessie/Debian 9 Stretch and upcoming Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak. The original system includes the desktop environment Unity. After removing Unity I have installed LXQt 0.10.0. LXQt is the Qt port and the upcoming version of LXDE, the Lightweight Desktop Environment. It is the product of the merge between the LXDE-Qt and the Razor-qt projects: A lightweight, modular, blazing-fast and user-friendly desktop environment..." Additional information and a list of featured software can be found in the project's release announcement for ExTiX 16.5.
ExTiX 16.5 -- Running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 556kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Ubuntu 16.10
Canonical has announced the release of a new version of its popular Ubuntu operating system. The latest version, Ubuntu 16.10, offers users many updated packages, a preview session of the Unity 8 desktop environment and version 4.8 of the Linux kernel. The distribution also features LibreOffice 5.2 and the update manager application now shows changelogs from enabled personal package archives (PPAs). "Network performance is a primary focus of this release, with updated versions of Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), OpenVSwitch (OVS) and virtualization technologies, all able to handle critical application traffic for lower latency and greater throughput. Ubuntu 16.10 and the corresponding updates to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS further enhance Ubuntu’s position as the leading private cloud infrastructure operating system, with OpenStack Newton, DPDK, enhanced OpenVSwitch and LXD machine containers alongside regular KVM based VM guests. Ubuntu 16.10 previews Canonical’s device convergence vision. Unity 8 developer preview includes apps that scale from phone to desktop, from mouse to touch screen, setting a precedent for the next wave of Linux devices." Further information can be found in the distribution's release announcement and release notes.
Ubuntu MATE 16.10
Martin Wimpress has announced the launch of Ubuntu MATE 16.10. The new version of this official Ubuntu community edition offers a desktop environment and applications which have been ported to the GTK3+ toolkit, replacing GTK2+. "Ubuntu MATE 16.10 is, more or less, a re-working of Ubuntu MATE from scratch, not just to accommodate GTK3+ but to also make most of the packages shipped by default with Ubuntu MATE 'Recommended'. This means most default applications can now be uninstalled without issue. The work to port MATE Desktop to GTK3+ has been ongoing for a couple of years and Ubuntu MATE is the first major distribution to ship a full GTK3+ implementation of the MATE Desktop. And the absolute latest release too, MATE Desktop 1.16! Firefox and LibreOffice are also GTK3+ only in Yakkety. This has been no small undertaking, we've changed toolkits twice this cycle. First from GTK 2.24.x to GTK 3.18, and then again to GTK 3.20. The themes required two significant upgrades during this process. We've also upgraded through three MATE Desktop versions this cycle, starting from 1.12 to 1.14, to 1.15 and finally to 1.16. We originally planned to complete the migration to GTK3+ for the Ubuntu MATE 17.04 release, but thanks to those of you who have generously supported the Ubuntu MATE crowd-funding we've achieved that objective well ahead of schedule!" Additional information and a list of changes can be found in the project's release announcement.
Xubuntu 16.10
The Xubuntu project has released a new version of the project's Xfce-oriented distribution. The new release, Xubuntu 16.10, shares a package base with Ubuntu 16.10 and will be supported for nine months. The new version of Xubuntu features Xfce desktop packages built with the GTK3+ toolkit, which replaces the legacy GTK2+ toolkit. "The Xubuntu team is pleased to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 16.10. Xubuntu 16.10 is a normal release and will be supported for nine months. This release has seen little visible change since April's 16.04, however much has been done towards supplying Xubuntu with Xfce packages built with GTK3, including the porting of many plugins and Xfce Terminal to GTK3. Those GTK3 ports can, if one wishes to test them, be installed from one of the team's development PPAs." Further details about this release, along with a list of known issues, can be found in the project's release announcement and release notes.
Kubuntu 16.10
The Kubuntu development team has announced the release of Kubuntu 16.10, the latest version of the distribution that combines the Ubuntu base system with the KDE Plasma 5 desktop: "We, the Kubuntu team, are very happy to announce that Kubuntu 16.10 is finally here. After 6 months of hard but fun work we have a bright new release for you all. We packaged some great updates from the KDE community such as: Plasma 5.7.5, Applications 16.04.3, Frameworks 5.26.0. We also have updated to version 4.8 of the Linux kernel with improvements across the board such as Microsoft Surface 3 support. Plasma 5, the next generation of KDE's desktop, has been refined to make it smoother to use while retaining the familiar setup. The 7th set of updates to Plasma 5 is the default in this version of Kubuntu. Combined with KDE Frameworks 5.26.0 the Plasma 5.7 desktop brings improved workflows, rewritten and improved task manager and system tray...." See the release announcement and the release notes for further details and screenshots.
Lubuntu 16.10
Lubuntu 16.10 has been released. Lubuntu is a variant of Ubuntu with the lightweight LXDE as the preferred desktop. From the release announcement: "Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 16.10 has been released. With the code name Yakkety Yak, Lubuntu 16.10 is the 11th release of Lubuntu, with support until July 2017. We even have Lenny, the Lubuntu mascot, dressed up for the occasion. Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor based on the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE) specifically targeting older machines with lower resources, but it also runs great on newer hardware. What's improved since 16.04? We now ship with Linux kernel 4.8; general bug fix release as we prepare to switch to LXQt; LXDE components have been updated with bug fixes; the artwork has received an update. Unfortunately, we could not get LXQt ready in time for 16.10, so Lubuntu 16.10 ships with LXDE." See also the release notes for further details.
Ubuntu Kylin 16.10
Ubuntu Kylin, a distribution designed primarily for the Chinese-speaking market, has been updated to version 16.10: "We are glad to announce the release of Ubuntu Kylin 16.10, code name 'Yakkety Yak'. In this release, we have fixed many internationalization and localization bugs in Ubuntu itself and bugs in software written by the Ubuntu Kylin team. Changes since 16.04: this release is based on 4.8 Linux kernel; the core applications have been updated to their latest versions - Firefox 49, Thunderbird 45.3, LibreOffice 5.2, Chromium 53, Nautilus (aka Files) 3.20; we have also released Sogou Pinyin 2.0.0.0082, it is not included in the image by default, but you can install it easily from the Ubuntu Kylin Software Center. Besides a plethora of bugs fixed in this milestone, several Ubuntu Kylin specific packages have also been updated." See the release announcement (in Chinese) and the release notes (in English) for further details, screenshots and known issues.
Ubuntu Kylin 16.10 -- Running the Unity desktop
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Ubuntu Studio 16.10
Ubuntu Studio 16.10, a brand new version from the project developing a Linux distribution targeted at musicians, video producers, graphics artists and publishers, has been released: "We are happy to announce the release of our latest version, Ubuntu Studio 16.10 'Yakkety Yak'. As a regular version, it will be supported for 9 months. Since it's just out, you may experience some issues, so you might want to wait a bit before upgrading. Changes in this release: new default Numix Blue theme; added DGEdit and DrumGizmo; replaced recordMyDesktop with vokoscreen; replaced GNOME Color Manager with dispcalGUI; added Gpick; added Calibre, PDF-Shuffler and Plume Creator; Krita has been temporarily removed from Yakkety Yak 16.10 due to build issues, but should be brought back as an updated version soon, and be installed automatically when upgrading your packages." See the release announcement and release notes for further information and a list of known issues.
Parrot Security OS 3.2
Lorenzo Faletra has announced the release of Parrot Security OS. 3.2, the latest release of the project's specialist distribution, based on Debian's "Testing" branch, featuring tools for penetration testing, computer forensics, reverse engineering, hacking, privacy and cryptography: "We have finished all the work on Parrot 3.2 and we are now proud to announce its official release. This new version comes after a long while due to some buggy packages in the Debian 'Testing' repository that we were forced to fix on our own (it's about the latest GTK+ updates that broke the MATE interface). We wanted this release to be just an improved version of the past release, but we were able to introduce some new interesting features, a new Linux 4.7 kernel, a more accurate set of pre-installed software and a more comfortable but familiar environment. We are also happy to welcome the University of Crete as a new mirror provider." Here is the brief release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Downloading directly vs torrents
Virtually all open source operating systems provide direct downloads over the HTTP or FTP protocols. These direct links are easy to use and compatible with most web browsers and download clients. However, more and more projects are now providing torrents for their ISO files. Torrents take a lot of the strain off the download servers and give satisfied users a chance to contribute back, donating their bandwidth to helping others download open source software.
This week we would like to know, given the choice, do you prefer to download a distribution's ISO over direct HTTP/FTP links or using a torrent?
You can see the results of our previous poll on people working in IT fields here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Downloading directly vs torrents
| I download directly using HTTP/FTP: | 768 (35%) |
| I download using torrents: | 587 (27%) |
| I happily use either: | 807 (37%) |
| I purchase installation media: | 6 (0%) |
| I get install media another way: | 5 (0%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to database
Linux Kodachi
Linux Kodachi is a Debian-based distribution which can be run from a DVD or USB thumb drive. The distribution filters all network traffic through a VPN and the Tor network, obscuring the user's network location. The distribution attempts to clean up after itself, removing traces of its use from the computer.
Linux Kodachi 3.3 -- Running the Xfce desktop environment
(full image size: 144kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 24 October 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)
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If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
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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