 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 693, 2 January 2017 |
Welcome to this year's 1st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
We are back, after taking time off the last week of December. A lot happened over the past two weeks and our News section covers a wide range of topics, so let's dive right into them. The GNU project released updates to the Hurd and GNU Mach projects which provide a micro-kernel implementation of a Unix-like kernel. The Raspberry Pi organization launched a live distribution which runs on x86 hardware and progress was made porting Wayland to FreeBSD. Also on the topic of FreeBSD, the project has issued several end-of-life notices for older releases. The Ubuntu developers decided to drop 32-bit PowerPC support, following Debian's move to do the same, while improving printer support. The Debian project is looking at automating software updates and we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the plan below, along with OpenMediaVault choosing to focus on 64-bit computers. We were also happy to note the FreeDOS project launched a new version during the holiday season. Before we get into the details of these stories, we want to kick things off this week with a look at five small (under 100MB) Linux distributions and what sets them each apart. In our Questions and Answers column we explore the topic of video drivers and continue the discussion on video cards in our Opinion Poll. Plus we share the many distribution releases of the past two weeks and list the torrents we are seeding in the Torrent Corner. In this issue we talk about some of the improvements we have made to the DistroWatch website and welcome the RaspBSD project to our database. Finally, we are sorry to report DistroWatch contributor Robert Storey passed away recently and we wish him a fond farewell. His final submission, an article about the fig educational programming language, is featured below. We wish you all a pleasant week and happy reading.
Content:
- Reviews: Some of the smallest Linux distributions
- News: New GNU Hurd release, Raspberry Pi organization launches Debian+PIXEL, Ubuntu drops 32-bit PowerPC and improves printer support, Wayland on FreeBSD and FreeBSD EoL announcements, Debian considers automatic updates, OpenMediaVault focuses on 64-bit and FreeDOS 1.2 launched
- Questions and answers: Video drivers and Linux
- Technology review: Robert Storey and the fig programming language
- Released in the past two weeks: Alpine Linux 3.5.0, siduction 16.1.0, Parrot Security OS 3.3
- Torrent corner: Alpine Linux, GuixSD, OpenELEC, siduction
- Opinion poll: Preferred video card brand
- DistroWatch.com news: Improvements to mobile website and search
- New additions: RaspBSD
- New distributions: Parabuntu
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (75MB) and MP3 (56MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Some of the smallest Linux distributions
A lot of time and digital ink is dedicated to talking about features, new capabilities and ease of use. This week I want to go in another direction and talk about minimal Linux distributions, projects with low resource requirements and small (less than 100MB) installation media. Some people have limited Internet connections and/or lower-end equipment and this week I want to explore some of the distributions which are designed to require as few resources as possible.
* * * * *
When talking about minimal Linux distributions, I think it makes sense to begin with Tiny Core Linux. Tiny Core is about as small as a Linux distribution can get. Tiny Core 7.1 is designed to be small and fast, running in memory with either a bare bones command line interface or a very minimal desktop environment, depending on which edition we use. Persistent storage and add-on packages can be set up as needed.
Tiny Core is available in three editions. The Core edition is a 11MB download and offers users just a stripped down text console interface. Some basic UNIX utilities are included, without manual pages. The user is automatically signed into an account called tc and we can perform administrative actions through the sudo utility without a password. The Core edition uses about 9MB of RAM when running live in memory and boots almost instantly. The second edition is called TinyCore. It is a 16MB download and features a minimal desktop with a settings panel and graphical package manager. The TinyCore edition uses around 19MB of RAM and boots to a desktop environment on my computer within three seconds. There is a third version of the distribution, CorePlus, which is larger and provided as an installation image.
When running Tiny Core Linux, we can download and install extra applications and services as needed and I found there is a fairly good selection to be had in the project's repositories. Tiny Core runs in memory and this means the core system gets reset each time we boot it. Add-on packages and our data files can be stored on persistent media for long-term use. Tiny Core is somewhat unusual for a Linux distribution in that it does not feature many command line tools or services, including OpenSSH. The distribution runs on version 4.2 of the Linux kernel.
Tiny Core Linux 7.1 -- Enabling background services
(full image size: 31kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Tiny Core, as the name suggests, is very small and offers minimal features, but the project provides tools for enabling add-ons. The on-line documentation is a bit sparse, but there is an accompanying book which explores ways in which Tiny Core can be useful and utilized in building projects and services.
* * * * *
A close relation to Tiny Core Linux is Nanolinux. The Nanolinux distribution is based on Tiny Core and features more desktop applications. Nanolinux 1.3 is provided as a 18MB download and ships with version 3.16 of the Linux kernel.
When I tried to boot Nanolinux, the system displayed a handful of errors which said "permission denied", though permission to what was not immediately clear. The expected graphical session failed to launch and, instead, I was dropped to a command line interface. From the command line I was able to use the "tc" user account and the same tools that were available in the Tiny Core Linux "Core" edition. Nanolinux, when sitting at the command line, used 44MB of RAM and ran an older version of the Linux kernel. Otherwise, the experience was much the same as running the most minimal Tiny Core edition.
* * * * *
RancherOS is perhaps the most unusual project on today's list of small distributions. RancherOS presents us with an operating system which has just enough components to run Docker containers. Everything on the system, including background services, then runs inside Docker containers. This makes the system highly modular.
I downloaded the 41MB ISO file for RancherOS 0.7.1. The distribution's live disc took about 15 seconds to load to a text console. The system automatically logs us in as a regular user (called rancher) and we can perform administrative tasks with sudo. The live disc uses about 100MB of RAM and automatically connects to the local network. Unlike Tiny Core and Nanolinux, Rancher ships with OpenSSH and the secure shell service runs in the background.
We can run RancherOS as a live distribution, but to explore the power of the system we will want to install the operating system. RancherOS does not have an installer in the traditional sense, but there are a series of commands we can run to install the distribution to our hard disk. The install process downloads a handful of files and takes over the local hard disk. The GRUB boot loader is installed for us too.
The installed version of RancherOS provides us with a minimal command line interface that runs OpenSSH and version 4.4 of the Linux kernel. Additional services and components can be installed in Docker containers. These installations tend to happen quickly and the RancherOS documentation lays out the steps we need to take to set up and run these add-on containers.
RancherOS feels to me to be more like a foundation on which we can build than a traditional operating system. We can build just about anything we want on top of the very minimal operating system, using Docker containers to isolate and manage the services we need.
* * * * *
For people who are looking for a desktop distribution which balances size with features, one attractive option is SliTaz GNU/Linux. The SliTaz Rolling edition is available as a 50MB download and comes equipped with an Openbox-powered desktop featuring LXDE components.
The SliTaz distribution can be run from a live CD, but it can also be installed as a regular stand-alone distribution. In addition, SliTaz can be installed on an existing Windows partition, allowing the two operating systems to co-exist. SliTaz has an unusual installer which looks and acts like web-based documentation that happens to have prompts where we can enter configuration settings. This approach may seem odd, but the steps are well explained at each turn and there are only a few places where we need to provide information.
SliTaz boots to a graphical interface by default and makes it fairly easy to set up additional user accounts. The distribution provides us with a small selection of desktop applications, including the Midori web browser, multimedia players, a document viewer, the Transmission bittorrent client, a text editor, a simple spreadsheet app and a calculator. There are also some system administration tools like the GParted partition manager. In the background, SliTaz runs version 3.2 of the Linux kernel.
SliTaz Rolling -- The default desktop
(full image size: 272kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
All of the software included with SliTaz uses up about 300MB of disk space and, when sitting in an Openbox session, the distribution used about 120MB of RAM. This may seem a bit heavy compared to other distributions covered in this article, but SliTaz provides a lot of conveniences and a more familiar desktop environment with those extra megabytes.
SliTaz does feature a graphical package manager, though it looks as though most packages available to the distribution are already installed. We can manually check for future software updates through the package manager too. All in all, I think SliTaz is the most friendly desktop distribution among the ones covered in this list.
* * * * *
Alpine Linux is a distribution designed with embedded and server scenarios in mind. Alpine can run on Raspberry Pi computers as well as x86 powered desktops, servers and laptops. The download media for the x86 build of Alpine Linux 3.4.6 is 81MB in size.
The live media boots almost instantly to a text console where we can sign into the live disc as the root user without a password. As with Tiny Core Linux, Alpine provides us with the Busybox command line utilities and no manual pages. The live disc uses about 20MB of memory.
The Alpine distribution can be installed in one of three modes: diskless mode, where we run the distribution from read-only media; data mode where we run Alpine from a live disc and write data to a USB thumb drive or hard disk partitions; and "sys" mode which acts like a more traditional operating system where the system and data are written to a hard drive. I opted to experiment with the "sys" mode. The installer, called setup-alpine, uses a text interface, gathering a little data about our keyboard's layout and network settings and we are asked to provide a root password. The installer also asks which background services we would like to run. Most of the time we can simply press Enter at each prompt as the installer provides us with good default options. Something I appreciate about Alpine's installer is it warns us multiple times before it overwrites an existing partition, choosing to err on the side of caution.
While Alpine can be used with a desktop environment, by default the installed operating system boots to a text console. The system runs version 4.4 of the Linux kernel and consumes relatively little in the way of resources, using 300MB of disk space and 20MB of RAM.
Alpine has one of the nicer command line package managers available (of the distributions mentioned in this article). The package manager, called APK, is fairly straight forward in its syntax and makes it easy to set up additional services.
Perhaps my favourite characteristic of Alpine, and what made this distribution stand out during my trial, was the documentation. Alpine has a fairly detailed wiki which covers installation methods, package management, setting up desktop environments and other key tasks. I felt the wiki was well organized and I think this sort of documentation is key in a distribution with a strong focus on the command line. While SliTaz and Tiny Core have graphical environments we can discover with a few minutes of clicking the mouse, Alpine makes itself accessible through clear documentation.
* * * * *
During my whirlwind tour of these small Linux distributions, a few things stood out. One was that there is a lot of variety in the tiny end of the Linux ecosystem. Apart from Nanolinux, which was based on Tiny Core, each distribution listed here has a very distinct style. If I had extended this trial to include slightly larger (but also small) distributions like Puppy Linux and antiX, we would continue to see a surprising amount of diversity, which tends not to be reflected in the larger, more mainstream distributions.
There were some common factors though. When trimming down a distribution, it seems removing local manual (man) pages is one common way to shrink the installation media. I have mixed feelings about this. Most people using tiny distributions probably already know their way around a command line, but when dealing with a minimal interface documentation becomes an important factor. Busybox also seems to be a favourite component of small distributions, replacing the more commonly used GNU userland utilities.
Finally, I think it is worth noting that small distributions have so far avoided adopting systemd as the preferred init software. The systemd suite of utilities offers some enticing features, but at the cost of additional resource requirements. I sometimes get asked which distributions are still free of systemd, and low-resource projects are a good place to look.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
New GNU Hurd release, Raspberry Pi organization launches Debian+PIXEL, Ubuntu drops 32-bit PowerPC and improves printer support, Wayland on FreeBSD and FreeBSD EoL announcements, Debian considers automatic updates, OpenMediaVault focuses on 64-bit and FreeDOS 1.2 launched
Entering the final weeks of 2016, the GNU project announced the release of GNU Mach 1.8 and GNU Hurd 0.9. The GNU Mach project is a distribution of the Mach micro kernel which implements inter-process communication (IPC). GNU Hurd is a collection of services that implement file systems, network access and permissions that run on GNU Mach. Combined, these projects seek to implement a Unix-like kernel, with a very different design but similar purpose to the Linux kernel. The new releases implement virtual network interfaces, insure that running out of space on the file system is handled gracefully and memory management has been improved. "As usual, bugs have been fixed throughout the code, notably in libpager and ext2fs which now gracefully handles running out of space. Further compatibility fixes have been applied (for compliance to standards such as POSIX)." Details can be found in the release notes.
* * * * *
People who have run Raspbian, a build of Debian for Raspberry Pi computers, are probably familiar with the distribution's PIXEL desktop environment. PIXEL grew out of a customization of the LXDE desktop and provides Raspbian users with a snappy desktop environment that can run on the Pi's minimal ARM-based hardware. Fans of the PIXEL desktop will be happy to know the environment is now available to people running desktop and laptop computers with x86 processors. "Back in the summer, we asked ourselves one simple question: if we like PIXEL so much, why ask people to buy Raspberry Pi hardware in order to run it? There is a massive installed base of PC and Mac hardware out there, which can run x86 Debian just fine. Could we do something for the owners of those machines? So, after three months of hard work from Simon and Serge, we have a Christmas treat for you: an experimental version of Debian+PIXEL for x86 platforms. Simply download the image, burn it onto a DVD or flash it onto a USB stick, and boot straight into the familiar PIXEL desktop environment on your PC or Mac." The Debian+PIXEL image runs on 32-bit x86 machines and gives Pi users the option of having a consistent desktop experience across multiple devices. Additional information and screen shots can be found in the announcement.
* * * * *
Following the Debian project's announcement that the PowerPC architecture would be dropped from the upcoming release of Debian 9, Steve Langasek has reported Ubuntu will also drop support for 32-bit PowerPC processors. "Given the recent announcement that the powerpc architecture would be dropped from the upcoming Debian release, there has been a good deal of discussion about the future of this architecture in Ubuntu as well, including a session at last month's Ubuntu Online Summit and several discussions during Technical Board meetings. Unlike the ppc64el architecture, there is no longer upstream support for the 32-bit, big-endian powerpc architecture; so its continuation in Ubuntu would be dependent on identifying a community of contributors willing to invest in keeping this port in working order, to carry it forward without it negatively impacting Ubuntu development as a whole." Existing releases of Ubuntu featuring 32-bit PowerPC builds will continue to be supported for their scheduled lifetimes. Ubuntu-based distributions and community editions, such as Ubuntu MATE, are expected to also drop support for the 32-bit PowerPC architecture. Further information can be found in Langasek's mailing list post.
Ubuntu users will be happy to hear that printer support is being improved for the upcoming release of Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty". The next Ubuntu release will feature the ability to print to network printers which use either IPP Everywhere or Apple's AirPrint technology. "Here is something nice to try out during the holidays or to save some Christmas present which you got from a not so Linux-savvy relative. Are you using Zesty and do you have a (network) printer which you never got working with Linux? It is possible that Zesty is now able to make it work. Zesty supports printing on IPP Everywhere printers and on printers supporting Apple AirPrint (these are the printers where you can print from your iPhone or iPad)." Details on how to enable the new printing support and how to submit feedback to the developers can be found in Till Kamppeter's mailing list post.
* * * * *
To date, the new Wayland display technology, which is expected to eventually replace the X display server, has generally been thought of as Linux-based software. At the moment, Fedora is one of the few operating systems shipping with Wayland as the default software for displaying a desktop environment. However, other projects are working on Wayland support, including FreeBSD. Johannes Lundberg posted a status update on the progress of Wayland running on FreeBSD. There is still some work to be done, but most of the components appear to be working.
Xin Li started 2017 by announcing some older branches of FreeBSD have reached the end of their supported lives. As of January 1, 2017, FreeBSD 9.3, 10.1 and 10.2 will no longer receive support and security updates. "As of January 1, 2017, FreeBSD 9.3, 10.1 and 10.2 have reached end-of-life and will no longer be supported by the FreeBSD Security Officers Team. Users of FreeBSD 9.3, 10.1 and 10.2 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to a newer release as soon as possible." The announcement features a chart showing FreeBSD 10.3 and 11.0 continue to be supported.
* * * * *
Keeping an operating system up to date with security patches is one of the key processes involved in preventing a computer from being compromised by an attacker. With many computers systems being set up and left to run for months or even years unattended, the idea of automated package updates is an attractive option. The Debian project is currently considering whether security updates should be applied automatically by default and, if so, what are the benefits and potential drawbacks? "The Debian project is looking at possibly making automatic minor upgrades to installed packages the default for newly installed systems. While Debian has a reliable and stable package update system that has been an inspiration for multiple operating systems (the venerable APT), upgrades are, usually, a manual process on Debian for most users. The proposal was brought up during the Debian Cloud sprint in November by longtime Debian Developer Steve McIntyre. The rationale was to make sure that users installing Debian in the cloud have a 'secure' experience by default, by installing and configuring the unattended-upgrades package within the images." This blog post talks about some of the benefits and problems which could result from automated updates.
* * * * *
A blog post on the OpenMediaVault website suggests the Debian-based distribution will be focusing exclusively on building installation media for 64-bit x86 computers. The post succinctly states: "Starting today there will be only 64-bit ISO images for OMV3 to download. If you still need a 32-bit installation, then use the Debian 32-bit net-install ISO image and install OMV3 manually."
* * * * *
Though FreeDOS is not a member of the Linux or BSDs families, the operating system is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public license. FreeDOS got its start as a Microsoft DOS clone and replacement back in the mid-1990s when Microsoft announced it was discontinuing development of its DOS platform. Since then the FreeDOS project has been used to run legacy DOS programs, been used as a platform from which to manage firmware and acted as a minimal operating system on low-end computers. The project's founder, Jim Hall, announced the release of FreeDOS 1.2 on December 25th. The new release features many applications and a few games on top of the core operating system and offers users a new system installer. "The FreeDOS 1.2 release is an updated, more modern FreeDOS. You'll see that we changed many of the packages. Some packages were replaced, deprecated by newer and better packages. We also added other packages. And we expanded what we should include in the FreeDOS distribution. Where FreeDOS 1.0 and 1.1 where fairly spartan distributions with only "core" packages and software sets, the FreeDOS 1.2 distribution includes a rich set of additional packages. We even include games. But the biggest change you are likely to notice in FreeDOS 1.2 is the updated installer. Jerome Shidel wrote an entirely new FreeDOS install program, and it looks great! We focused on keeping the new installer simple and easy to use. While many DOS users in 2016 are experienced DOS programmers and DOS power users, we often see many new users to FreeDOS, and I wanted to make the install process pleasant for them. The default mode for the installer is very straightforward, and you only have to answer a few questions to install FreeDOS on your system." Further information and a history of the project can be found in Hall's release announcement.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Video drivers and Linux
Pick-a-card-any-card asks: What is the current state of the big three video card markers with respect to Linux? Has pressure from the community and Linus's rant against NVIDIA resulted in any progress?
DistroWatch answers: The hardware market, and the drivers for existing hardware, are always evolving. However, I do not think there has been a great deal of change in the past few years. I have not observed any great leaps forward or large failures recently. Some people ran into trouble with their legacy AMD/ATI video cards not being supported in some recent distribution releases, but otherwise I have not witnessed much change in recent years.
I think the state of video drivers (and video cards) with regards to Linux varies a bit depending on whether a person runs open source drivers exclusively or if a person is willing to use closed source drivers. In my opinion it seems as though Intel and AMD/ATI have been more willing to put work into their open source drivers. Cards from either company tend to have decent, working, open source drivers and that is great. NVIDIA seems less willing to open their driver code and the Nouveau project has had to do a lot of work to get NVIDIA cards working with their open source code.
On the other hand, when we factor in closed drivers, the NVIDIA card/driver combination tends to be well supported compared to AMD/ATI cards. NVIDIA makes closed drivers which offer good performance (in my opinion) and stability (in my experience), both for Linux and FreeBSD.
Ideally, it would be great if each company fully supported Linux with open source drivers, but that goal still seems to be a long way off. For now, there is still quite a bit of work to be done on the open source drivers for AMD/ATI and NVIDIA cards. Both are fairly well supported, but there are some rough edges and corner cases to smooth out.
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For more questions and answers, visit our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Technology Review (by Figosdev)
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Robert Storey and the fig programming language
While we were away on holiday, the DistroWatch team received very sad news. Our friend, professional writer of travel guidebooks and occasional DistroWatch contributor, Robert Storey passed away in December. Robert was a tireless technology enthusiast and open source advocate. He regularly brought niche projects to our attention and loved discussing up-and-coming projects and community forks, like Devuan. Most recently, Robert contributed a review of the Refracta distribution, which is based on Devuan.
Robert had a wonderful sense of humour and often penned April Fools articles for us. Over the years his digital pen took aim at Windows "Hasta La" Vista and a fictional version of the GNOME 4 desktop. He also had some light fun with technology celebrities.
Robert was a passionate, friendly man who was always learning and always exploring. His energy for open source was infectious and we here at DistroWatch will miss him.
Shortly before he passed, Robert shared with us a source-to-source programming language called fig. The fig language aims to be easy for new programmers to learn and tries to simplify syntax as much as possible. Robert felt such a language would be a useful educational tool. He had the developer behind fig, who goes by the handle Figosdev, write up an article explaining his creation. Robert then forwarded the article on fig to us in the hopes DistroWatch readers might find it useful or, at least, interesting. The summary of fig is included below.
* * * * *
Issue 683 of DistroWatch Weekly featured a review of
Refracta 8, a Devuan-based live distro. After discussing the subject over email with Robert, it was suggested that I write a review of my own programming language, fig, which is included with Refracta.
I will attempt to be impartial.
Fig is a source-to-source compiler (basically a translator) written in
Python, designed around the following ideas:
- Only add features and punctuation (syntax) as necessary
- "Necessary" includes saving substantial tedium and repetition
- Keep it as simple as BASIC or Logo used to be, if possible
- Use any modern feature that would have made BASIC easier
The language is implemented as a single Python script, originally in
Python 2. It should work in various GNU/Linux distros that include
Python, including, but not limited to: Debian, Devuan, Trisquel,
gNewSense, antiX, ConnochaetOS, Arch and PrimTux. I have not tested it in any distros based on Red Hat though I've had success in
Windows XP & 8, ReactOS, Puppy Linux,
OS X -- either Leopard or Snow Leopard. Early versions also ran on SL4A
on Android.
It was developed primarily on Devuan Jessie in the pre-alpha stage, and
for this article was tested successfully in Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS. Fig
should basically run where Python runs, and Python runs on practically
any distro and most hardware-- including SBC's like the Raspberry Pi,
BeagleBoard or ODROID, running GNU/Linux.
If you only have Python 3 rather than Python 2, there is a version of fig (3.1)
that is slightly more experimental -- though used frequently -- which goes
out of its way to encode and decode all the brittle Python 3 strings I
find so antithetical to Python's flexibility and simplicity. Fig was
inspired originally by BASIC, so of course it would lend itself towards
strings that had Unicode as an afterthought.
For this article, I have downloaded the package for APT or Debian-based
distros from Refracta's "extras" repo. And, for Puppy, I've downloaded the .pet package from Puppus Dogfellow's Google drive.
The commands used to install the .deb or .pet version are:
sudo dpkg -i fig29-31_1.0.deb
and
petget fig-2.9.pet
Non-APT and non-Puppy distros can use the following commands, as a .pet
package is basically a zipped tar archive (gz or xz) with an MD5 appended:
tar -xvf fig-2.9.pet ; mv fig-2.9/usr/local/bin/fig29 /usr/bin/fig29.py
The tar command, when used on a .pet package, will generally complain about a corrupt archive; this can be ignored. A typical line of fig can be found in the
/usr/share/doc/fig/examples/nestloops.fig file:
now x hex right 1 prints colortext 7
The only required punctuation in fig is "quotes for strings" and #hashes
for comments. Other punctuation is optional, like this equals sign and
command separator:
now = x ; hex ; right 1 ; prints ; colortext 7
Fig is not case-sensitive and generally ignores indentation. Commands
always have the same number of parameters, except for "function" which
is used to define a command. Introductory documentation is located under
/usr/share/doc/fig/workinprogress and a support forum can be found at http://unofficialdistros.freeforums.org.
As far as suitability for programming or education, fig needs to be
reviewed by more educators or experts. People who advocate drag-and-drop
coding will not like the fact that fig involves actual typing of
commands. People who like GUI programming will not like that fig is
mostly command-line based (a few graphics commands exist.) And above
all, people who are already comfortable with BASH or Python may wonder
why fig was even developed in the first place.
To that I can say: fig started as, and continues as, an experiment. These
days, practical languages that you can learn in their entirety are rare.
But as instruction has returned from the dark days of "application
training" to "let's teach everyone how computers work by learning to
code," I wanted to make a language that was easy enough for everyone to
learn and teach, focusing on the basic concepts of variables, I/O, basic
math, loops, conditions and functions.
I still believe fig could be useful in schools on platforms like the
Raspberry Pi, or on laptops and desktops. I use it to write small
programs, avoid Python syntax and boilerplate, and to teach computing
concepts to friends. I tried that with BASIC first, and Python and
JavaScript next. At least for that single purpose, fig is a minor and
private success -- people glaze over a lot less with fig than when I try
to demonstrate how other languages work, and that was really the idea.
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| Released Last Week |
BlackArch Linux 2016.12.20
BlackArch Linux 2016.12.20 has been released. BlackArch is an Arch Linux-based live distribution (in 6.2 GB!) with a substantial collection of utilities made for penetration testing and forensic analysis. This new version comes with an updated Linux kernel and base system, as well as over 100 new tools: "Today we released new BlackArch Linux ISO images. Here is the changeLog: include linux kernel 4.8.13; fix LXDM shutdown and reboot issue; userland clean-ups; added more than 100 new tools; updated all BlackArch tools; updated all system packages; updated menus for window managers (Awesome, Fluxbox, Openbox). Following newest tools have been added: Dracnmap - tool to exploit the network and gathering information with Nmap help; OpenDoor - OWASP directory access scanner; WAFNinja - tool which contains two functions to attack web application firewalls; Hoper - trace URL jumps across links to obtain the last URL...." Visit the project's news page to read the release announcement and all the recent additions to the distribution's toolkit.
ExTiX 17.0
Arne Exton has announced the release of a new version of the Debian- and Ubuntu-based ExTiX distribution. The new release, version 17.0, ships with the KDE desktop environment and is available in a single, 64-bit x86 build. ExTiX 17.0 KDE DVD 64-bit is based on Debian 8.6 'Jessie'/Debian 9 'Stretch' and Ubuntu 16.10. The original system includes the desktop environment Unity (Ubuntu). After removing Unity I have installed KDE Frameworks 5.26.0 with KDE 4.16. KDE Frameworks are 60 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. The system language is English. My special kernel, 4.9.0-11-exton, corresponding to kernel.org's kernel 4.9 - latest as of 161221. You can download 'my' kernel if you want to use it in another Ubuntu/Debian system." Additional information on ExTiX 17.0 is available in the project's release announcement.
ExTiX 17.0 -- Running the KDE desktop
(full image size: 1.9MB, resolution: 1576x922 pixels)
IPFire 2.19 Core 108
The IPFire project has announced an update to the security-minded Linux distribution. The new release fixes some issues with the project's 2.19 series and carries the name IPFire 2.19 Core Update 108. "Just before Christmas, we are going to release the last Core Update for 2016. IPFire 2.19 - Core Update 108 brings some minor bug fixes and feature enhancements, some security fixes in ntp and various fixes in the squid web proxy. Asynchronous logging is now enabled by default and not configurable any more. This made some programs that wrote an extensive amount of log messages slow down and possible unresponsive over the network which causes various problems. This was seen on systems with very slow flash media and virtual environments." The release announcement includes further details and list of updated packages.
Alpine Linux 3.5.0
The Alpine Linux project, an independent Linux distribution developed with embedded systems and security in mind, has released Alpine Linux 3.5.0. The new release switches the distribution from using the OpenSSL security library to LibreSSL, introduces support for ZFS as the root file system and features many package upgrades. "New features and noteworthy changes: Switch from OpenSSL to LibreSSL; Support for aarch64 (uboot only for now); Support for ZFS as root; PostgreSQL update to 9.6.x - see the PostgreSQL documentation for upgrade instructions; Samba 4.5.3; GTK+3.0 3.22.5; glib 2.50.2; Support for R, JRuby and OCaml; Better Python3 support; The nodejs package was renamed to nodejs-current and moved to the community repository. The nodejs-lts package was renamed to nodejs. This means that you get the LTS version if you do 'apk add nodejs'." Further details can be found in the release announcement.
siduction 16.1.0
Ferdinand Thommes has announced the release of siduction 16.1.0, a set of distributions based on Debian's "unstable" branch. The release arrives in two batches, with the one made available today coming in LXDE, Xfce and KDE Plasma flavours, while a second batch, featuring GNOME, Cinnamon, MATE and LXQt, is scheduled for release in January. "Today we present the first batch of siduction 2016.1 which consists of the noX, Xorg, LXDE, Xfce and Plasma 5 flavours. We attempt to release a second batch with the GNOME, Cinnamon, MATE and LXQt flavours as soon as possible in the new year. The released images are a snapshot of Debian 'unstable' that also goes by the name of 'Sid', from 2016-12-23. They are enhanced with some useful packages and scripts, our own installer and a custom patched version of the Linux kernel 4.9, accompanied by X.Org Server 1.19.0 and systemd 232." Read the full release notes for more details.
siduction 16.1.0 -- Running LXDE
(full image size: 293kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
OpenMandriva Lx 3.01
Kate Lebedeff has announced the release of OpenMandriva Lx 3.01, an updated build of the distribution's 3.0 branch, featuring the KDE Plasma desktop, which was originally released in August: "Not long after Lx 3.0 final release we are proud to announce OpenMandriva Lx 3.01. The 3.01 release brings a number of major fixes - updated software; new drivers and kernel with better support for newer hardware; many bug fixes; stable Plasma running on Wayland. OpenMandriva Lx is a cutting-edge distribution compiled with LVM/Clang. Combined with the high level of optimisation, it gives the desktop an unbelievably crisp response to operations on KDE Plasma 5 which makes it a pleasure to use. The latest release of all the KDE applications is there to support the desktop and help give you a consistent feel. Main features: KDE Plasma 5.8.4, KDE Frameworks 5.29.0, KDE Applications 16.08.3, Qt 5.6.2, Linux kernel 4.9 with BFQ as a default CPU scheduler, systemd 232..." Here is the full release announcement.
Parrot Security OS 3.3
Lorenzo Faletra has announced the release of Parrot Security OS 3.3, a new release of the project's Debian-based, specialist distribution with a collection of utilities designed for penetration testing, computer forensics, reverse engineering, hacking, privacy and cryptography: "Parrot 3.3 released. We are sorry for all the silence behind our development process these days, but we were secretly working on two main projects, the perfect plan to conquer the world and the new Parrot 3.3 release which fixes many minor but unpleasant bugs and introduces many many updates. This release is not a definitive goal; it is just a working snapshot of the bigger work we are doing for parrot 3.4 that will be released very soon. Changelog: include Linux 4.8 kernel; fix touchpad and multitouch support; fix mismatching kernel installer; update anonsurf; fix minor MATE bugs; include GCC 6.2; update Metasploit Framework to 4.13; switch to PHP 7; upgrade most of the tools to their latest versions." See the release announcement and changelog for more details.
Guix System Distribution 0.12.0
The GNU Guix project has announced the release of an update to the Guix System Distribution (GuixSD) operating system. GuixSD is a Linux distribution built around the Guix package manager, which offers transactional upgrades and roll-backs along with reproducible builds. The new release, GuixSD 0.12.0, includes several new services, including log rotation, CUPS and the OpenSMTPD e-mail service. "We are pleased to announce the new release of GNU Guix and GuixSD, version 0.12.0! The release comes with USB installation images to install the standalone GuixSD, and with tarballs to install the package manager on top of your GNU/Linux distro, either from source or from binaries. It’s been a little over 4 months since the previous release, during which 76 people contributed code and packages. The highlights include: New GuixSD system services, including a log rotation service, a CUPS printing service, NFS related services, and an OpenSMTPD service. Guix daemon offloading support now uses Guile-SSH. GuixSD can now be installed to a LUKS-encrypted root." Additional information can be found in the release announcement.
OpenELEC 7.0.0
OpenELEC is a Linux-based distribution designed to act as a media hub and, in particular, to run the Kodi media software. The project has released a new version, OpenELEC 7.0.0, which supports WeTek Core devices, includes updated AMDGPU video drivers and offers users Kodi 16.1. The project has also introduced Bluetooth and OpenVPN support. "The OpenELEC 7.0 (internal version 7.0.0) release has been published. Users running OpenELEC 6.95.1 or later with auto-update enabled will be prompted on-screen to reboot and apply the update once it has been downloaded and enabled in some hours. Users running older OpenELEC releases or with auto-update disabled will need to manually update. If you would like to update from an older OpenELEC release please read update instructions/advice on the Wiki before updating." A list of new features and changes can be found in the project's release announcement.
Porteus 3.2.2
Porteus is a fast, portable Linux distribution based on Slackware. The project has published a new stable release, Porteus 3.2.2. The new release is available in four editions: Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, MATE and Xfce. "Porteus is on cloud nine to announce the final release of Porteus v3.2.2 and Porteus Kiosk 4.2. There have been some major changes in the desktop edition since the 3.1 release including: kernel 4.9, pulseaudio, eudev, consolekit2, more complete 000-kernel firmware. Other Slackware based changes can be found here. Four desktops are available at this point: Xfce4, MATE, Cinnamon and KDE5. The base modules are a little larger than the previous release but contain a more complete set of packages for all round compatibility." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement for Porteus 3.2.2.
Porteus 3.2.2 -- Running the MATE desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Linux Kodachi
Warith Al Maawali has announced the release of Linux Kodachi 3.5, a new version of the project's Debian-based, privacy-oriented distribution. This release includes a new hard disk installer from the Refracta project: "Version 3.5, based on Debian 8.6 Xfce. Added Refracta installer, now you can install Kodachi permanently on your PC; added new tool - Mat Meta data anonymization tool; improved destroy Kodachi script; improved display script with new CPU and network monitor on taskbar; detect screen resolution changes and display accordingly; introduced banned message if someone misuses the bandwidth or hosts illegal torrent files using our VPN network; added Gibru engine to search bookmarks; added new version notification; added own VPN tool so now you can use your own VPN - all you need is to paste your configuration into the correct directory located on the Kodachi desktop; fixed a few bugs; updated system, Firefox, Firefox plugins, Tor, VeraCrypt, Komodo edit, Electrum Bitcoin wallet." Here is the complete changelog.
Calculate Linux 17
Alexander Tratsevskiy has announced the release of Calculate Linux 17, a major update of the project's Gentoo-based set of distributions designed for desktops (with a choice of KDE Plasma, MATE or Xfce) as well as servers: "We are happy to announce the release of Calculate Linux 17. Main changes: Timeless, a new server flavour, designed for those eager to try the development version of Calculate Utilities; GUI manager - updated appearance, including new own icons; command-line manager - one session for cl-console and cl-console-gui, so that you can switch between them freely; live USB - system startup possible without PulseAudio; numerous revisions in templates - new functions added, support provided for 'or' expressions, service launching, package linking, package version downgrade, ldif format; beta versions of the brand new Calculate Linux Desktop Cinnamon and Calculate Linux Desktop LXQt available in 'nightly' stages; up to 5000 binary packages are available in the Calculate repository...." See the release announcement for more information, upgrade instructions and screenshots.
PelicanHPC 4.1
Happy New Year 2017! The first release announcement of the year goes to the PelicanHPC project (formerly known as "ParallelKnoppix") which develops a specialist Debian-based distribution that can be easily set up as a node for a High-Performance Computing cluster network. It is maintained by Aissam Hidoussi at the University Hadj Lakhdar in Batna, Algeria. PelicanHPC 4.1 is a minor bug-fix update and it comes with a choice of two desktops - Xfce 4.10 and GNOME 3.14: "PelicanHPC 4.1 is released with two desktops (Xfce and GNOME). It is based on Debian 8.6 'Jessie' and live-build 4.x. The default login information is user 'user', password 'PelicanHPC'. For security reasons, please change your password after login. Fixes to PelicanHPC 4.0: mounting of PELHOME partition; SSH problem in PelicanHPC with Xfce desktop; Ganglia." Visit the distribution's news page to read the brief release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not 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: 268
- Total data uploaded: 41.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Preferred video card brand
About a year ago we ran a poll asking readers about their preferred video card and driver set up. As this week's Question and Answer column concerns the development of video card drivers over time, we would like to pose the question again. What video card do you have in your computer now and are you using an open source driver or a proprietary driver with the device?
You can see the results of our previous poll on isolating processes here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Preferred video card brand
| AMD/ATI with open driver: | 378 (19%) |
| AMD/ATI with closed driver: | 86 (4%) |
| Intel: | 477 (24%) |
| NVIDIA with open driver: | 221 (11%) |
| NVIDIA with closed driver: | 677 (34%) |
| Unsure: | 166 (8%) |
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|
| DistroWatch.com News |
Improvements to mobile website and search
Toward the end of 2016 we launched a mobile version of DistroWatch. Following the feedback we received in December, we have added a few new pages to provide the same features for mobile visitors as our desktop visitors of the site. The first page is called Latest Releases and provides a quick summary of new distribution and package releases. This is the same information presented on the full website's front page, in the left-hand column. A second page provides a list of the podcasts, newsletters and reviews we track.
These two summary pages, while designed with mobile visitors in mind, are also accessible for desktop users. The desktop versions of our new releases page and the podcasts, newsletters and reviews page can be bookmarked for quick access or located through our sitemap.
Another feature we have added is the ability to use the Search page to find operating systems that use web-based administration panels. Many distributions, particularly NAS systems, use web-based panels instead of desktop environments to make remote administration easier. On our Search page, projects which enable a web-based panel in the default installation can be found by setting the Desktop interface field to WebUI.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
RaspBSD
RaspBSD is a special build of FreeBSD for small, single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi and BeagleBoard Black. The project provides a live image of FreeBSD with Openbox and the LXDE graphical desktop, along with pre-configured FreeBSD package repositories. RaspBSD is based on the -CURRENT branch of FreeBSD.
* * * * *
Distributions added to waiting list
- Parabuntu. Parabuntu is an Ubuntu-based distribution for Parallella mini computers.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 9 January 2017. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. 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 • Thanks (by DaveW on 2017-01-02 00:34:33 GMT from United States)
Seasons Greetings to DW and all the DWW readers. Congratulations on a wonderful 2016, and looking forward to an even better 2017.
2 • Video card poll (by IntelGuy on 2017-01-02 00:43:12 GMT from United States)
If your system uses the Intel integrated graphics processor, do you vote for Intel or not vote? The fact that it is not actually a card is causing me confusion.
3 • Poll Question (by cykodrone on 2017-01-02 01:11:55 GMT from Canada)
I was an Intel guy, until they decided to implement unique IDs in their CPUs for the government. Now I'm strictly AMD but I hate the closed drivers, I find the open drivers are less taxing on the system and work just fine, even better than the closed drivers in some cases. I'm not a gamer, just an average user, I don't have to fiddle with closed drivers.
I do however install proprietary/open CPU and GPU firmware, when it's available. I voted AMD/open drivers.
4 • Virtually nothing is better than SliTaz in the size department! (by RJA on 2017-01-02 02:21:02 GMT from United States)
For a high-functioning system, SliTaz was by far the best distro the last time I checked! In 2010, I had a ball with SliTaz 3.0 and it worked well with Nvidia!
And the version that came out in 2012 looks good as well, just didn't have the time for years to use it, LOL. I regretted that!
5 • Gracias por todo. (by José López on 2017-01-02 02:34:46 GMT from Spain)
Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo 2017. Gracias por vuestra web DISTROWATCH.
6 • graphics (by M.Z. on 2017-01-02 02:56:42 GMT from United States)
@2
I run integrated Intel HD 4000 in my laptop & as it's the best graphics setup I have I voted Intel. It may not be the exact wording of the poll, but to me it's the spirit that counts. Half of my systems run integrated graphics from either Intel or nVidia. Both are decent computers, but the Intel system is far newer & has plenty of power compared to the old nVidia setup on my desktop. I do think there is a bit more to it than that though, because I had some problems with nVidia when PCLinuxOS rolled to some sort of different driver setup due to the way nVidia was supporting their Linux drivers. It was a bit of a headache to restore my system from the command line, so I would recommend anyone trying to stick with rolling distros for the long term try to stick with open drivers. Otherwise the closed drivers seem perfectly acceptable to me, though I would prefer open drivers if all else were equal & I had a choice.
Also I got some free second hand ATI stuff that seems perfectly decent, so I wouldn't knock them either. I just prefer the Intel HD among all the systems I have because it's most powerful.
7 • Nanolinux (by bison on 2017-01-02 04:16:22 GMT from United States)
I managed to get Nanolinux to boot into X, even with my Broadwell graphics. It offered me three resolution options: 1280 x 1024, 1024 x 768, and 800 x 600. The first two resulted in a desktop with scrollbars on my 1920 x 1080 display, which is something I have never seen before. I didn't try 800 x 600.
All the apps open instantaneously, even the web browser (dillo), which is something I could get used to! The whole thing is kind of primitive, but very interesting.
8 • Regarding smallest desktop distributions below 300MB (by Raj on 2017-01-02 04:29:33 GMT from India)
It would be nice if you also add porteus and austrumi Linux to the list, both are minimal and stable OS
9 • Graphics (by Zork on 2017-01-02 04:45:48 GMT from Australia)
Although its been a while since I used a Video Card ( Mostly use the Integrated Graphics nowadays ) have always leant towards NV with Propriety Drivers... Only closed source software I run AFAIK...
Never had a problem with them unlike AMD or Intel Chipset drivers...
Only really an issue if you are looking for Video Editing or Gaming Performance...
10 • whirlwind (by ams on 2017-01-02 05:18:54 GMT from United States)
Thanks, Jesse, for what you described as "whilrwind". Today's article covered a lot of ground & taught me quite a lot.
One of those tiny distros (sliTaz?), had a desktop wallpaper beach scene, bright blue water, palm trees... my jaw dropped when I discovered that it even provided a browser. Led me to wonder if the browser was installed, first run on-demand. Nope, it was somehow pre installed within that teeny iso. Really glad to see that you mentioned the axing of man pages. If those are available as a separate from core package, that's fine. If not available at all, I am sunk.
11 • Happy New Year 2017 (by Woodstock69 on 2017-01-02 06:17:40 GMT from Australia)
Great to hear FreeDOS is not abandoned. I use it quite often for old "lab / workshop" software that just cannot be updated to newer versions anymore. Does the job on the old pc's. For everything else, there's DOSBox.
My condolences to Robert's family. As has been remarked by others, his humour and tech reports will be missed by this distrowatcher.
As for graphics cards, I'd prefer the best card from any manufacturer that actually works with the minimal of fuss and gives the best performance and capabilities, whether that be Intel, NVIDIA or ATI/AMD. At the moment I'm having a battle with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers on my laptop. I had them working, disabled them for one reason or another, upgraded my laptop, decided I wanted the proprietary drivers again and now cannot get them working no matter which driver version I use or how much I purge my system of old configs. Frustrating, but all part of the joys of Linux.
12 • Robert_Storey_and_fig_language_by_Figosdev (by k on 2017-01-02 07:15:34 GMT from United States)
Robert Storey's death really is sad news, his contributions frequently had
powerful tips and truth.
Accordingly, if Robert felt the fig "language would be a useful educational tool",
I am interested in learning more, and read the review above, just that having
never written, compiled nor translated a program, it would be fine to have a
really demonstrative practical example, as Robert always provided.
Perhaps it is not for someone at my tabula rasa level (stage)
13 • :( (by figosdev on 2017-01-02 07:56:47 GMT from United States)
This is terrible news. Robert is one of the last people I had a friendly exchange with last year, he was extremely helpful and encouraging. This is a major loss for DistroWatch and I'm extremely sorry to hear the news.
k: I'm the author of fig. Tell me what you would consider a really demonstrative practical example, and I will do my best.
Regarding the term "translated": technically fig is a "source-to-source" compiler. I use the word "translate" and "compile" interchangeably.
#### arrlen prefixes length to each line of text
#### (i pipe this to sort -n to sort lines of text-- like the output of find-- by length)
#### license: creative commons cc0 1.0 (public domain)
#### http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
# x=$(echo hello | arrlen.fig.py | awk '{print $1}') ; echo $x
# 5
# $ for x in $(echo "hello there how are you?") ; do echo $x ; done | arrlen.fig.py
# 5 hello
# 5 there
# 3 how
# 3 are
# 4 you?
# $
# create a function called delstr that deletes instances of delthis from string fromthis
function delstr fromthis, delthis
f = fromthis ; split f, delthis ; join f, "" ; return f
fig
# loop through whatever is piped (stdin) into arrlen... set each string to variable p
forin p, stdin
## set cr to ascii 13, and set lf to ascii 10
cr = 13 ; chr
lf = 10 ; chr
z = p ; delstr z, cr ; delstr z, lf ## remove newlines from each string
p = z ; len ; prints ; " " ; prints ## copy back to variable p, get length, put on screen
p = z ; print ## copy again, put on screen
next
# stdin contains each line piped to arrlen.
# forin copies each line of stdin to variable p, then runs other code until "next" is encountered.
# then it goes to the next line of stdin and repeats the code in the "forin" loop.
# except for block statements like forin and next, each line starts with a variable and each token can use that variable.
# so this line:
# p = z ; len ; prints ; " " ; prints
# does the following:
# * p = z (set p to contain the contents of variable z)
# * len (change the string value of p to its own numeric length)
# * prints (put the value of p on the screen, then stay on the same line)
# * " " (change the value of p to one space, as a string)
# * prints (put the value of p on the screen, stay on the line)
# the difference between prints and print is that print goes to the next line afterwards
14 • video card (by marame on 2017-01-02 08:04:37 GMT from Finland)
In this computer I am writing now is Intel 82G35 Express video card and LMDE as distro. Works good. I have 20+ computers with different hardware and distros. Mostly onboard Intels and separate Nvidia cards (gf 8000 9000 and newer). Intels work and nouveaus but if I want use Nvidia proprietary drivers I must chose distro for that. That means Ubuntu and Mint and PCLinuxOS.
15 • 8 • small distro(s) (by Somewhat Reticent on 2017-01-02 08:05:57 GMT from United States)
Sta.Li comes to mind … suckless musl, git as package manager …
(statically-linked Linux)
16 • Video card (by argent on 2017-01-02 08:09:13 GMT from United States)
AMD from the beginning with processors, think I owned only one NVIDIA video card before going with ATI, not sure which is superior but the ATI Radeon video card has always done the job I need it to do. Running the ATI Radeon 7770 right now and bought about 3 years ago. Using proprietary drivers with Debian. Just don't have any complaints with AMD/ATI, not a gamer and my PC is just a work horse.
17 • OBRevenge OS (by ZKorvezir on 2017-01-02 08:27:00 GMT from Macedonia)
I think that OBRevenge OS deserve to be added to Distrowatch database,
especially now when Antegros stop with 32 bit support.
So it seems that now OBRevenge is the only light Arch-based distribution
with easy and graphical installer that support 32 bit.
Besides that it is great distribution, light on system resources, making it perfect for lower spec hardware, older machines, or those who simply want to save precious system resources for the work that they are doing.
18 • Slitaz repository (by Dave Postles on 2017-01-02 09:04:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
'SliTaz does feature a graphical package manager, though it looks as though most packages available to the distribution are already installed'
I think that there are more packages, not least LibreOffice (through getLibreOffice). It's just a bit complicated to refresh the list of all available packages, I think, although it is about a year since I was using Slitaz on an old Gateway.
19 • Video cards & Small distros (by Sondar on 2017-01-02 09:37:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
"Unsure" may not be the best alternative to the main options. With my choice of several dozen running machines, with a range of OS/distros/architectures, if one card plays up, a simple swap is often a trivial option. Hence, "Interchangeable" or some such terminology might have been more appropriate? Even boards with embedded video invariably have a card slot option.
Small distros without a more discursive review of the plethora of Puppies and their offspring is an oversight, perhaps meriting an entire review edition? They range from the ancient 50Mb MeanPup .iso through to the slim-s, thin-s, -Slacko -s, X(fce)-s and XSlacko-s, and the Pup-inspired LFS Fatdog-s, many for 32- and/or 64-bit machinery, not to mention newly developing ARM versions by their instigator, Barry Kauler, whose first offering almost a decade and an half ago sized less than 20Mb .iso. All that and a lively, well-informed and congenial Forum.
20 • FreeDOS (by Microlinux on 2017-01-02 10:06:18 GMT from France)
FreeDOS is great if you have to flash a machine's BIOS and you don't have Windows.
http://www.microlinux.fr/microlinux/Linux-HOWTOs/BIOS-Flash-HOWTO.txt
21 • Thin Kodachi sources (by PR on 2017-01-02 11:20:18 GMT from Germany)
Well, Kodachi Linux seems intransparent, as the maintainer does not publish the real source code.
What made me curious is that it shall be based on debian and use debian repositories only, but ships with veracrypt which then would have to be precompiled. But in the (very thin) "sources" found on github there is sign of anything useful information how he did his "enhancements" or how the iso is created.
This projects seems suspicious to me, i would not recommend anyone i know to use it.
22 • Loss of Robert Storey (by Arron on 2017-01-02 12:26:38 GMT from Australia)
So sad, I have been using his gnome4 article to amuse people for years.
Another 2016 loss of a precious talent...
23 • SliTaz (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-02 12:58:09 GMT from United Kingdom)
@4,18: I installed SliTaz on my spare machine, as part of my quest to find systemd-free distros that I could get to like. The package manager is best tackled with the command line interface: there was little that I could not find. The only thing that stopped me was that it was ONLY 32-bit, with the obvious memory limitations. Pity.
24 • Small linux alternatives (by Arthur on 2017-01-02 13:18:46 GMT from Germany)
@23 try voidlinux. rock solid package manager, friendly helpful community. nosystemd, libressl. Even musl libc if desired by you.
25 • small linux: void linux (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-02 14:29:28 GMT from United Kingdom)
@24: I am using Void Linux on the spare machine, and have almost succeeded in making it do what I want: sinit init; openbox as de; lxterminal; etc. The hardest bit was filling in the missing xset, xsetroot and xkbset utilities [from Debian sources]. "Small"? Well, it runs with Firefox in 400mb memory, but still uses 2.8gb disk space!
26 • Video Card (by chazdg on 2017-01-02 15:26:25 GMT from United States)
My system always works fine with the Nvidia Proprietary Drivers. Nouveau Open Source Drivers freeze my Desktop constantly no matter what OS I am using.
27 • a_really_demonstrative_application_of_fig_language (by k on 2017-01-02 15:56:47 GMT from Germany)
@13
How about re-compiling libimobiledevice to enable any Linux distro to mount and access at least photos on an iPhone with iOS 10.
Now that would also be proof of the "fig pudding" worthy of Robert Storey.
@22
Robert Storey's essence, simplicity and truth, are selfless and eternal.
28 • Rancher: Install madness (by Jan Lambert on 2017-01-02 15:59:35 GMT from United States)
"The install process downloads a handful of files and takes over the local hard disk. The GRUB boot loader is installed for us too."
Not to pick on Rancher since many distros do the same things, but It would be really nice
if they did not! install a boot loader without permission. Anyone running linux already has a boot loader installed. If the system is GPT then most likely it is already in the ESP partition and trivial to find, and add entries to. GRUB is particularly problematic since it is tied to the distro that installed it if it has been customized.
29 • ATI - Nvidia (by Bill S. on 2017-01-02 16:16:02 GMT from United States)
Imagine my surprise when I discovered my new laptop with Linux would no longer be supported by ATI, I mean wtf is wrong with this company? I wanted Mint 18, Mate but my ATI card prevented it and open source did not work. So I gave my laptop to my wife and bought a new laptop that was Linux compatible with a new Nvidia graphics card. Now I can run Mint Mate 18 and I am happy, but still not liking ATI.
30 • video cards... (by tom joad. on 2017-01-02 16:59:24 GMT from Netherlands)
Of course, Nvidia or an Nvidia knockoff with their driver. Those seem to work the best for me. Next up would be Intel I think. Intel works but just doesn't seem to have the 'Ooomph' of an Nvidia card. I, for one, am happiest when stuff just works however. The rest of the video flavors are also rans. ATI is the least disirable for use in Linux.
I avoid ATI and Broadcom.
31 • Tiny Core (by David on 2017-01-02 17:30:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
It's worth warning that Tiny Core is only tiny so long as you don't want any applications; to put it another way, it's only tiny on the download, not on the computer. Because it runs in RAM, even loading an application uses memory, let along running it. The last time I tested it, it needed 60MB more than AntiX to run Midori.
32 • pudding? (by figosdev on 2017-01-02 18:39:30 GMT from United States)
@27 i would need to know more about compiling libimobiledevice, and all in all it would just calls to the shell (os.system, not even subprocess) anyway.
for what its worth, mkfigos is a fig program that downloads puppy linux and refracta, mixes them into a single bootable iso, adds petget package capability TO refracta, and updates a lot of puppy (tahr) binaries with ones FROM refracta. then it makes the iso dd'able to usb.
there are definitely better remaster scripts out there, but this one is meant to be fully automated. (once youve got a couple folders made.) start it going and come back 15 minutes later-- when the squash compression is ready. theres a fastcomp option for less/faster compression when youre making changes.
originally it was an experiment to see if puppy tahr could be updated with an automated script. now its the distro i use: fig os. (a version of refracta that still can install pet packages.) mkfigos 2.4-- the latest version-- is available at the unofficialdistros link in the article.
33 • Dark Horse EDE (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-03 01:24:31 GMT from United States)
Ah, small, finally a rundown.
Not enough distros know EDE desktop, based on FLTK instead of Qt or GTK. For small, look into EDE.
http://equinox-project.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0PKPgrw4ow
Up-and-coming Lumina is also worth a peek.
https://lumina-desktop.org
@25 Because cache
ls -1 /var/cache/xbps | wc -l
du -hc /var/cache/xbps
To solve you may either go nuclear,
rm -f /var/cache/xbps/*
or fire standard artillery,
xbps-remove --clean-cache
34 • PS @25 Void Swallows Debian (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-03 01:30:56 GMT from United States)
No need for Debian sources. Here are the Void packages you want.
xbps-query -Rs xset
35 • poll question, open nvidia, oh, and a mini distro (by jonathon on 2017-01-03 06:57:13 GMT from Australia)
Once you've plugged into DVI there's no going back to VGA, all that auto adjusting fuzziness..!
I initially bought a very cheap fanless AMD card, right before I discovered Linux, that combined with connecting only via 3G meant I had to a lot of learning to do about applying non-free drivers and (thankfully) Sakis3g.
Although running non-free anything still bugged me and GNU's (short) list remained a mystery (unless I went back to a VGA connection)
http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
Long story short, I deliberately bought a Nvidia GPU and Atheros chipped WIFI card, so I don't have to tick the non-free box, at least not everytime
And Free and Open Source distros are proper resolution first boot
Oh and Minimal Linux Live, is a good learning opportunity too
http://minimal.linux-bg.org/
36 • void xset[root] (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-03 08:43:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
@34 it must have late when I tried/failed to find xset[root] on void, thanks. Still, the effort will not be lost next time I move to a hostile distro.
@33 void /var/cache is only 168mb, /usr 1.8gb, , ~ 450mb [config junk].
37 • Death of PPC (32bit) (by Sam on 2017-01-03 13:54:50 GMT from United States)
With Debian and derivative distros planning to soon drop support for 32bit PPC architecture, I wonder what this will do for PowerPC Macbook prices on eBay (I'm still amazed at what people are asking for a 10-year-old+ G4, and, apparently, what people are paying for them).
38 • This week's news (by Barnabyh on 2017-01-03 15:34:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
Really sorry to hear about Robert, my condolences to his family. Over the years he wrote some memorable reviews. The Gnome 4 April Fools was probably one of the funniest and most fitting pieces ever, considering the stage Gnome was at then.
39 • Nvidia card (by silent on 2017-01-03 18:06:44 GMT from Hungary)
My experience with an entry level Nvidia GT710 videocard: Works well also with FreeBSD with the nvidia-modeset module. For Linux the nvidia driver provides much better 3D acceleration (three times faster) than nouveau. Indeed, the closed driver "implements kernel mode-setting, but it does not use the built-in kernel implementation and it lacks an fbdev driver for the high-resolution console" (Arch wiki). On the other hand, KMS is enabled automatically with nouveau and it has fbdev support.
40 • Add Subtract Multiply Divide, Decide (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-04 01:01:30 GMT from United States)
@36 If you want minimalism use Alpine instead of Void. They come from different design points. Alpine: starts barebones, add pkgs to get desktop workability. Void: installs desktop workable, subtract packages to get barebones. Alpine is OpenRC and Void is runit. Void is beter at updating packages with more quantity. Alpine has a security-patched kernel, although it's unclear how much longer.
41 • AMD, Intel or NVIDIA? (by Bbig on 2017-01-04 01:30:35 GMT from Germany)
Just to be clear: nVidia has no open source drivers whatsoever.
The nouveau-drivers are reverse engineered with little to no help from nVidia.
So your choices if you want libre is only AMD or Intel.
And honestly, Jesse, when you say "However, I do not think there has been a great deal of change in the past few years.", i think, you did not follow AMDs development at all. As a pointer: look at phoronix.com
Happy & healthy New Year everyone!
42 • Video card (by argent on 2017-01-04 02:29:42 GMT from United States)
@41
Went to Linux about 5 years ago, and found no problem even then with my all AMD computer, on the other hand I introduced a friend to Debian and he was quite displeased with the graphics he was getting with a NVIDIA card, had a spare AMD graphics card and Xorg was the answer.
Now days use the proprietary drivers for AMD, and actually easier to set up now with little difficulty.
Not a gamer so wouldn't know about that aspects, but for my work horse PC and occasional use of GIMP and Inkscape. Won't complain about AMD and their support for Linux, think they appreciate the folks who use their products and providing drivers is just good business, shame NVIDIA can't see that.
43 • VoidLinux disc space (by paoloschi on 2017-01-04 09:56:23 GMT from Italy)
@40 >Void: installs desktop workable, subtract packages to get barebones.
I can believe this is true if using the current Void installer.
I personally have always installed Void through the package 'base-voidstrap'
This involves the download of ~30MB of basic packages + the kernel + grub and I have a bootable base on which subsequently to build the system I need..
Doing so takes more time and may not be affordable for every beginner,
I just want to point out that the statement "Void Installation == lots of gigabytes wasted" it is not a correct information to be given!....
44 • Graphics cards (by Barnabyh on 2017-01-04 11:22:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
All AMD and intel here. I've got several old AMD cards lying around like an All-in-Wonder 128/32MB which are being reused until the day they give up. The radeonhd driver always supported them perfectly. The proprietary driver was quite easy to set up. I've done it many times but no need for it any more. One intel onboard graphics in the workhorse laptop. Not buying Nvidia if for a different reason. Even the 3dfx Voodoo 3000 still plays old games like Rune well with the free driver and that's the most graphically demanding things I do.
45 • voidstrap? (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-04 11:50:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
@43 I was curious about your mention of the voidstrap package: how do you use this to install Void Linux, given that packages are only accessible AFTER installation. I looked at void-installer, but could not see a way to choose a different path from "_syspkg". voidstrap looks like it may be similar to debootstrap in debian/devuan.
46 • base-voidstrap (by paoloschi on 2017-01-04 16:32:12 GMT from Italy)
@45, indicatively:
start your PC from any VoidLinux LiveCD and instead of run the installer, mount the partition already formatted you will be installing the system, for example
target=/mnt/install
mkdir $target
mount /dev/sdXN $target
then prepare and run the chroot:
mkdir -m 0755 ${target}/dev
mkdir -m 0555 ${target}/{proc,sys}
mount --rbind /dev ${target}/dev
mount --rbind /proc ${target}/proc
mount --rbind /sys ${target}/sys
chroot $target /bin/bash
. /etc/profile
you can install a system based on GLIBC or MUSL library! ..x86_64 example:
GLIBC:
export XBPS_ARCH=x86_64 (required if you install from a MUSL live)
mirror=https://repo.voidlinux.eu/current
MUSL:
export XBPS_ARCH=x86_64-musl (required if you install from a GLIBC live)
mirror=https://repo.voidlinux.eu/current/musl
I usually define a variable where in addition to 'basic-voidstrap' I add some other package..
pkgs="base-voidstrap usbutils wget .."
then the command
xbps-install -MiS -R "$mirror" -r "$target" $pkgs
puts all the basic packages, creating on $target all system directories..
for configurations and the rest: https://wiki.voidlinux.eu/Main_Page
47 • Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-01-05 02:50:31 GMT from United States)
@43 It can be done, as with debootstrap for Debian and equivalents for other distros. My underlying point was that Void focuses on desktops but Alpine on minimalism (busybox, docker, embedded). It's not so much about installation as usage scenario.
In Alpine it's actually tricky to maintain a normal desktop and they admit as much. For desktops use Void. If you want a completely barebones OS for some reason, then it's easier with Alpine. In some of these usage scenarios there are ready-made images to download. Docker Inc hired the lead dev because Alpine got so popular in those circles for its minimalism, specifically disk space, which was the OP's interest.
Both are great distros!
48 • voidstrap (by nolinuxguru on 2017-01-05 09:40:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
@46 Thanks for your detailed instructions, which I will try at the weekend. If readers want a simpler approach, it looks like they can edit a copy of the void-installer script, and replace the line starting
xbps-install -r $TARGETDIR -SyU ${_syspkg} ${_grub} 2>&1 | \
with
xbps-install -r $TARGETDIR -SyU "base-voidstrap .." ${_grub} 2>&1 | \
I still can't find the place where I can specify MUSL over GLIBC, but I just try harder!
49 • Robert Storey (by Silentsam on 2017-01-05 16:57:34 GMT from Canada)
Robert Storey will be missed... so sad. Rest In Peace Robert.
50 • good convo here this week! (by jim on 2017-01-06 06:49:58 GMT from United States)
just a quick thanks for the void n alpine pointers. very helpful. removes some of my worry about trying to install
51 • glmark2 and open drivers (by cykodrone on 2017-01-07 08:24:16 GMT from Canada)
Ran glmark2 in Devuan vs PCLinuxOS, both with open drivers and all available firmware installed.
Devuan (stock kernel 3.16.~) scored around 1850, PCLinuxOS (LTS kernel 4.4.40) scored around 2350.
If you're going to run it, run it from a terminal, when the test window is done, the terminal window stays open displaying the final score.
I had to locally compile it for Devuan (search glmark2 in Debian Jessie for instructions) and install it from a Fedora 22 rpm in PCLinuxOS, sounds like a lot of hassle, but it worked and it was fun.
AMD FX-8350/Radeon R7 250
52 • BlankOn and their custom GNOME Shell (by Barnabyh on 2017-01-07 12:16:47 GMT from United Kingdom)
BlankOn's GNOME implementation has always reminded me of early GNOME 3 sketch-ups, with the black sidebar on the left displaying various information. This was what GNOME 3 was originally supposed to look like in mock-ups or early development screenshots, whatever it was. https://goo.gl/bhO1Uf
Seems the BlankOn team were a fan of that design and implemented it when the base turned out slightly different with a dock instead. Perhaps to make it more recognizable for Unity and Xfce users?
53 • nVidia/nouveau, etc (by Jordan on 2017-01-07 14:27:08 GMT from United States)
I admit to steering clear of nVidia, just because of the unreliability I noticed early on and saw expressed here and there about it as time went by. But those devs are at work on it all the time, as to open source drivers for that graphics unit.
Interesting take:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2911459/why-nvidia-graphics-cards-are-the-worst-for-open-source-but-the-best-for-linux-gaming.html
But intel still works best for me.
54 • Graphics Cards (by Robert on 2017-01-08 06:54:46 GMT from United States)
I chose Unsure, though I mean that more as "Other" since nothing else is really accurate.
Currently this machine is using Intel graphics on open drivers, and has an Nvidia card that's being passed through to a VM. I also have 2 laptops in the household, one with Nvidia graphics on closed drivers, and one with AMD graphics and open drivers.
In the past I've used Nvidia and AMD cards, with both open and closed drivers. If you need graphics performance on Linux then Nvidia/closed is IMO the best combination, followed by AMD/open. The other configurations always seem to have some issue or another, whether that's crashing drivers, corrupted displays, or just plain not working.
55 • nVidia/Nouveau (by AliasMarlowe on 2017-01-08 13:48:34 GMT from Finland)
Here's the output from glmark2 on an old Dell Precision M4400 running Xubuntu 16.04.1. It has a WUXGA (1920x1200) display and Core2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz. I was doing other things - but not so much - at the same time.
=======================================================
glmark2 2014.03+git20150611.fa71af2d
=======================================================
OpenGL Information
GL_VENDOR: nouveau
GL_RENDERER: Gallium 0.4 on NV96
GL_VERSION: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 427 FrameTime: 2.342 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 481 FrameTime: 2.079 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 449 FrameTime: 2.227 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 445 FrameTime: 2.247 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 458 FrameTime: 2.183 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 434 FrameTime: 2.304 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 434 FrameTime: 2.304 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 382 FrameTime: 2.618 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 360 FrameTime: 2.778 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 328 FrameTime: 3.049 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 479 FrameTime: 2.088 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 463 FrameTime: 2.160 ms
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 308 FrameTime: 3.247 ms
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 124 FrameTime: 8.065 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 403 FrameTime: 2.481 ms
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 136 FrameTime: 7.353 ms
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 263 FrameTime: 3.802 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 329 FrameTime: 3.040 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 303 FrameTime: 3.300 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 334 FrameTime: 2.994 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 407 FrameTime: 2.457 ms
[jellyfish] : FPS: 296 FrameTime: 3.378 ms
[terrain] : FPS: 31 FrameTime: 32.258 ms
[shadow] : FPS: 340 FrameTime: 2.941 ms
[refract] : FPS: 78 FrameTime: 12.821 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 451 FrameTime: 2.217 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 349 FrameTime: 2.865 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 449 FrameTime: 2.227 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 449 FrameTime: 2.227 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 380 FrameTime: 2.632 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 450 FrameTime: 2.222 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 451 FrameTime: 2.217 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 401 FrameTime: 2.494 ms
=======================================================
glmark2 Score: 359
=======================================================
Number of Comments: 55
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux was a business card size (50MB) live CD Linux distribution, based on Debian and Knoppix. After a 12 year break (from 2012 to 2024), the Damn Small Linux (DSL) project was relaunched. The distribution is now based on Debian and antiX with the goal of fitting on live media 700MB or smaller (in order to be usable in CD-ROM drives). Despite its minuscule size it strives to have a functional and easy to use desktop. Damn Small Linux has a nearly complete desktop suite, including web browsers, office software, an e-mail client, PDF viewer, media players, and FTP/SFTP client.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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