 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 700, 20 February 2017 |
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Welcome to the 700th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Sometimes it feels good to put aside the bright lights and smooth buttons of a graphical desktop environment and dig into the lower levels of an operating system. Much of the power of modern Linux and BSD systems comes from the underlying tools, the command line and its utilities. This week we explore some lower level features and some more technical environments, beginning with a look at RaspBSD, a special build of FreeBSD for the Raspberry Pi computer. We also talk about various command line tricks to make life easier in our Tips and Tricks column. The subject of command line use and how much time our readers spend typing commands is the subject of this week's opinion poll. Plus, in our News section, we discuss Debian replacing the Icedove e-mail application with Thunderbird, GParted working with LUKS encrypted volumes and Fedora's software licensing guidelines. We also discuss new features in Linux Mint, FreeBSD's Quarterly Status Report and challenges DragonFlyBSD is facing while upgrading their ports tree. We are also happy to share last week's releases and we provide a list of the torrents we are seeding. And we are pleased to welcome the OSGeo-Live distribution to our database. We wish you all a superb week and happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: RaspBSD
- News: Debian swaps out Icedove for Thunderbird, GParted Live to support LUKS, Fedora's licensing guidelines, Mint's new features, FreeBSD's Status Report, DragonFlyBSD works to update video card support
- Tips and tricks: Shell switching, battery charge, getting the system's IP address and dealing with stubborn processes
- Released last week: Ubuntu 16.04.2, RancherOS 0.8.0, ReactOS 0.4.4
- Torrent corner: CRUX, DEFT Linux, LinHES, Parsix GNU/Linux, ReactOS
- Opinion poll: Time spent on the command line
- New additions: OSGeo-Live
- New distributions: Emmi Linux, ToaruOS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (52MB) and MP3 (33MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
RaspBSD
RaspBSD is a FreeBSD-based project which strives to create a custom build of FreeBSD for single board and hobbyist computers. RaspBSD takes a recent snapshot of FreeBSD and adds on additional components, such as the LXDE desktop and a few graphical applications. The RaspBSD project currently has live images for Raspberry Pi devices, the Banana Pi, Pine64 and BeagleBone Black & Green computers.
I decided to give the RaspBSD operating system a try on my Raspberry Pi 2 computer. The download images vary a good deal in size, for example the Raspberry Pi B download is 267MB while my compressed Raspberry Pi 2 image was a 746MB download. Once the compressed file was downloaded, I unpacked it and the result was a 2384MB (2.3GB) image file I could write to my SD card.
Inserting the card into my Pi booted the RaspBSD operating system which, for all practical purposes, is FreeBSD 12.0-CURRENT. When the operating system finishes booting, we can sign into the Pi over secure shell using the account name raspberry and the password raspberry. There is a root account on the system which is, by default, not protected by a password. However, the root account cannot be accessed remotely. Signing into the Pi gives us a command line interface and the login message provides links to FreeBSD's documentation and helpful resources.
Running RaspBSD on an 8GB SD card provided me with a fairly standard FreeBSD installation on a 7GB root partition. Of that 7GB, 1.9GB of space is used by the base operating system, utilities and the LXDE desktop. This leaves us with 4.5GB of free space, once reserved space is taken into account. RaspBSD does not set up swap space for us.
The default RaspBSD system is quite minimal, running a mere 16 processes when I was logged in. In the background the operating system runs cron, OpenSSH, syslog and the powerd power management service. Other than the user's shell and terminals, nothing else is running. This means RaspBSD uses little memory, requiring just 16MB of active memory and 31MB of wired or kernel memory.
One of the first things I did with RaspBSD was to see if I could attach a ZFS volume I had stored on an external drive. RaspBSD ships with ZFS modules enabled by default and this allowed me to import my external drive's ZFS pool as RaspBSD's root user. From there, I was able to check the ZFS pool's status, look at snapshots and copy files to and from the external drive. With my 2TB storage pool attached to the system, RaspBSD used about an extra 25MB of memory (16MB active, 56MB wired).
About a year and a half ago I experimented with FreeBSD on my Raspberry Pi and had to compile my own ZFS kernel modules. I also ran into a series of stability issues when transferring files between the root UFS partition and external ZFS partition. I was pleased to find ZFS is now included by default and the stability issues I encountered previously have been resolved.
Should we wish to add extra software to our copy of RaspBSD, we can use the pkg command line package manager. RaspBSD connects to the FreeBSD's software repositories and this gives us access to several thousand pre-compiled packages. We can then upgrade existing packages or install new software. I found unpacking and installing new software happened slowly and any effort to access files on the SD card while pkg was working took a long time. The week I was running RaspBSD, I downloaded 51 upgraded packages, totalling 114MB in size.
On the subject of software updates, I checked to see if I could update the core operating system using FreeBSD's freebsd-update utility. The freebsd-update program was unable to find a server with the files it needed, which means binary software updates are probably not available for RaspBSD's core operating system. The RaspBSD does not included FreeBSD's source code in the root file system, probably in an effort to save space on small SD cards. We could download the code and build or patch our operating system from source, but this is likely to be a long and tedious process. Disk access on RaspBSD was quite slow and accessing the disk tended to be a severe bottleneck when performing tasks.
Earlier I mentioned RaspBSD ships with the LXDE graphical environment and a small collection of desktop applications. The operating system does provide these tools, though during my trial I was focused entirely on using the RaspBSD operating system remotely over secure shell. I did try running a handful of desktop applications remotely via OpenSSH's X11 forwarding capability. This worked and I was able to remotely run desktop applications on RaspBSD, though performance was somewhat sluggish.
I made note of a few practical differences between running RaspBSD on the Pi verses my usual Raspbian operating system. One minor difference is RaspBSD turns off the Pi's external power light after booting. Raspbian leaves the light on. This means it looks like the Pi is off when it is running RaspBSD, but it also saves a little electricity.
When running the shutdown -r command on RaspBSD to restart the computer, the Pi would power off and not come back on-line. If I ran reboot though the Pi would restart as expected. On the subject of rebooting, I noticed that RaspBSD would not automatically re-mount my external ZFS volume when the system booted. I could add a start-up command to handle this, but it is something FreeBSD (on x86 servers) and Raspbian both do automatically.
Conclusions
Apart from these little differences, running RaspBSD on the Pi was a very similar experience to running Raspbian and my time with the operating system was pleasantly trouble-free. Long-term, I think applying source updates to the base system might be tedious and SD disk operations were slow. However, the Pi usually is not utilized for its speed, but rather its low cost and low-energy usage. For people who are looking for a small home server or very minimal desktop box, RaspBSD running on the Pi should be suitable.
I am definitely pleased to see ZFS support improved in recent builds of FreeBSD/RaspBSD and I like that RaspBSD users have access to FreeBSD's massive collection of pre-built binary packages. This should make setting up a Pi with a FreeBSD-powered web server or NAS much more appealing than it was a year ago.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian swaps out Icedove for Thunderbird, GParted Live to support LUKS, Fedora's licensing guidelines, Mint's new features, FreeBSD's Status Report, DragonFlyBSD works to update video card support
For some time now the Debian distribution has shipped a re-branded version of the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail application, called Icedove. The Icedove package contained no trademarks of the Mozilla organization and could be patched or modified as Debian's developers wished. However, times change and Debian is planning to return to packaging the Thunderbird application and will be phasing out Icedove. Christoph Goehre writes: "Hi Debian Developers and followers. Thunderbird is back in Debian! We also renamed other related packages to use official names, e.g. iceowl-extension -> lightning. For now, we need testers to catch existing issues and things we haven't seen
until now. What happens the first time you start Thunderbird? With the change to the official Mozilla branding the user's profile will also be changing from '$HOME/.icedove' to '$HOME/.thunderbird' so we need to migrate the profile folder." Details on the transition and things which still need to be tested can be found in this mailing list post.
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Fans of LUKS encrypted file systems received some good news this week. The GParted partitioning management software (commonly used through GParted Live) now supports working with LUKS encrypted volumes as of version 0.28.0. "This release adds partial read-write support for LUKS encrypted file systems. GParted can't create, open or close LUKS encryption volumes; however it can copy, resize and manipulate file systems inside open LUKS volumes and move closed LUKS volumes. (Resizing requires Linux kernel >= 3.6 and libparted >= 3.2 for online partition resizing)." The GParted project included a reminder that people who use these features should first create backups of any important files as manipulating partitions and volumes can result in data loss.
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The Fedora distribution has one of the more strict licensing requirements in the Linux community. The project attempts to ship only free software on its installation media and provides only free software in its software repositories, with a few rare exceptions such as binary firmware. There are good reasons for this and Tom Callaway has laid them all out in a talk, covered by LWN. Callaway presented the history of Red Hat Linux and Fedora, some of the legal concerns Red Hat has faced and efforts to simplify the licensing guidelines for the distribution. "Licensing was the next problem. Red Hat Linux used to have a "contrib" repository, where people put all sorts of stuff that had been built against Red Hat Linux so that it could be more widely used. When Fedora opened up, busy volunteers took nearly everything in contrib and threw it into Fedora. Unfortunately, much of this effort happened with no particular concern for licenses. There was a "license" field in the database of packages, but instead of "GPLv3" or "MIT", it often said things like "distributable", or in one memorable case, simply "ok". Callaway went through Fedora and found over 350 different licenses, including 16 BSD variants and 34 MIT variants (there were still more of those, but he stopped counting at 34)." The LWN article is an interesting read and covers some of the legal and practical concerns surrounding distributing open source software.
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The Linux Mint team has been hard at work recently, preparing updated media for both the project's main editions (which are based on Ubuntu) and Linux Mint Debian Edition. Some of the features Mint users can expect to see include better Bluetooth support and Bluetooth file transfers through the Blueberry utility. "OBEX file transfers are now supported out of the box, so you can send files very easily over Bluetooth to your computer from any remote device. An option was added also so you can change the Bluetooth name of your computer. That name usually defaults to your hostname or to mint-0 and many people don't know how to change it via the command line. Last but not least, in addition to its cross-desktop system tray, Blueberry now provides a Cinnamon applet which uses symbolic icons and looks similar to other status applets, such as the power, sound or network applets. When this applet is present, the tray icon is hidden." Mint's Xed text editor is gaining the ability to sort lines of text as well as quickly change the size of text in the editor. Mint's Xplayer video player is also getting some new features, including a more compact interface and short-cut keys for handing subtitles and language support. Further details can be found in this Mint Monthly News post.
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The FreeBSD project has posted a new Quarterly Status Report which summarizes the progress and on-going tasks of the various FreeBSD teams. The latest Quarterly Report offers insight into the project's progress on ARM boards, updates to the WINE ports, efforts to make the LLVM linker (LLD) the default linker on FreeBSD and updates to the GNU Compiler Collection. The report also talks about efforts to make builds of FreeBSD reproducible: "Reproducible builds are a set of software development practices which create a verifiable path from human readable source code to the binary code used by computers. A build is reproducible if given the same source code, build environment and build instructions, any party can recreate bit-for-bit identical copies of all specified artifacts. Baptiste Daroussin and Ed Maste attended the second Reproducible Builds Summit last December, in Berin. We discussed issues of common interest to operating system providers, including other BSDs and Linux distributions. Following the summit, changes were committed to the FreeBSD base system to address outstanding sources of non-reproducibility. It is now possible to build the FreeBSD base system (kernel and userland) completely reproducibly, although it currently requires a few non-default settings. Approximately 80% of the ports tree builds reproducibly, with a few work-in-progress patches. Now that the base system can be built reproducibly, focus will move on to the ports tree." The Quarterly Status Report has further details.
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Following some of the changes being worked on by the FreeBSD team to improve video driver support, including importing video drivers from Linux, the DragonFlyBSD team is now playing catch-up with the many changes happening in the FreeBSD ports tree. Rimvydas Jasinskas explains: As some of you are aware there were some recent developments regarding the DragonFly ports collection and FreeBSD-ports in general. Huge graphics stack update (including but not limited to dri, gbm, libdrm, libEGL, libGL, clang39, xorg-server and its drivers) was just pushed without giving us a any heads up to prepare for it or perform an early testing. This came as a surprise since last time we were notified about upcoming developments that allowed us could construct, patch and test the new stack. This is how RadeonSI card support was added to Xorg for the Radeon owners to enjoy running their desktop machines with accelerated graphics. We pushed ours and later FreeBSD pushed theirs since we have a different level of GPU support in kernel DRM drivers yet we share the same ports tree. However, this time it was not the case and we are trying to understand what has happened. We are aware that there is huge ongoing effort to finally import the DRM 4.9 GPU drivers from Linux using linux-kpi emulator layer allowing to copy/paste Linux drivers almost without modifications including the OFED. We understand this is quite an achievement that FreeBSD users will finally be able to run their desktop machines without a need to buy expensive NVIDIA cards and use binary blobs." The post goes on to explore some of the challenges the DragonFlyBSD ports team is facing as they try to test the new changes before releasing DragonFlyBSD 4.8.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
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Shell switching, battery charge, getting the system's IP address and dealing with stubborn processes
Part of what makes Linux a flexible and powerful system is the wide range of command line tools. This week I would like to cover some useful tips and address questions I have received concerning the Linux command line.
First, I want to address a question I received that asked how a person can go about changing which command line shell they are using. The shell is the process which interprets your commands and runs programs. Most Linux distributions default to using the bash shell, but there are several others. Different shells use different syntax and some have handy features to make navigating the file system or running commands easier.
To get a list of available shells on your system, look in the /etc/shells file. This will list the available shells with their complete path names. We can see the list of shells by running
cat /etc/shells
Additional shells may be available in your distribution's software repositories. Performing a search for the term "shell" in your package manager should provide you with a list of alternative command line shells.
If we want to experiment with a shell, just for now, we can launch a shell from within our existing shell. For example, if I want to run the tcsh shell, I can run
tcsh
When I am finished exploring tcsh I can type exit to return to my default shell. Once we have found a shell we want to continue using we can switch our default shell by running the chsh command. For example, if I want to switch to using the tcsh shell, I can run
chsh -s /usr/bin/tcsh
Please note that I provided the full directory path to the new shell. When we change our shell we should always provide its full path, as specified in the /etc/shells file.
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Have you ever wanted to check the status of your laptop's battery from the command line? If you have the ACPI package installed, this is an easy task. From the command line, simply run the command
acpi
The acpi command will show you whether your battery is charging or discharging, the percentage of the charge remaining and an estimate of how long your battery will continue to run your laptop. The acpi command can be made to show additional information.
acpi -V
The above command will not only display battery charge information, but also the temperature of the CPU and other information acpi can gather from your computer's sensors.
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In case you are wondering what your address is on the local network or Internet, there are a few ways to get this information. You can get your local network IP address by running either the ifconfig or ip commands, depending on your distribution. The grep command can be used to filter out the extra networking information we do not need. Here we see an example with ifconfig:
ifconfig | grep inet
And here we get the same information from the ip command:
ip address show | grep inet
You may notice multiple addresses being displayed. Usually, you will see one address which is listed as 127.0.0.1 or as ::1. These addresses are special values which your computer can use as a quick way to reference itself. A connection to the address 127.0.0.1 simply accesses services on your own computer. The other address you see is how other computers and devices on the same network can identify you.
The above commands are useful for getting your IP address on the local network, but if you are wondering what your address is from the point of view of other people on the Internet, you need to ask another computer how they identify you. This can typically be done with the curl command and any number of public services which will send you back your address when contacted. As an example, the ifconfig.me server will send us back our Internet address when we contact it:
curl ifconfig.me
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Sooner or later we all run into misbehaving desktop applications which lock-up or refuse to close. Some desktop environments will handle situations like this for us, offering to terminate applications which are no longer responding. Other desktop environments are less proactive and leave us to deal with the problem program ourselves. There are a few ways to handle a desktop application which is not responding. On most desktop Linux systems we can run the xkill program. The xkill program, when run, turns the mouse cursor into an X and the next window we click on gets immediately terminated.
Another approach we can take, which should work for any application whether it is an application running on the X display server or not, is to run the pkill command and provide it with the name of the program we want to stop. The pkill command finds applications with matching names and terminates them. As an example, let us assume the gedit text editor has stopped responding to input. We can terminate it using the following command:
pkill gedit
The only problem with this approach is pkill could find multiple programs with the name and shut them all down. To avoid this interrupting your work, I recommend saving anything you have open in similarly named programs before running the pkill command.
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These tips, along with other tutorials, can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
DEFT Linux 2017.1 "Zero"
After more than two years of apparent hiatus, the Ubuntu-based DEFT Linux distribution (featuring specialist tools for forensic analysis) has sprung to life with a new release. Dubbed as "DEFT Zero" and labelled as version 2017.1, the new build is much more compact and lightweight, but it brings some useful new features: "DEFT Zero 2017.1 ready for download. We can finally announce that a stable version of DEFT Zero is available. DEFT Zero is a light edition of DEFT specifically designed to perform forensic acquisition of digital evidence. Among the biggest features is the support to NVMExpress memory (MacBook 2015), eMMC memories and UEFI. DEFT Zero requires considerably lower space in RAM and on a CDROM or USB drive. It needs about 400 MB, which can even boot in the RAM pre-loaded mode on a obsolete and low-resource hardware. DEFT Zero is based on Lubuntu 14.04.02 LTS and its future releases will be developed in parallel with DEFT full edition." Here is the brief release announcement,
RancherOS 0.8.0
Sven Dowideit has announced the release of RancherOS 0.8.0, an updated build of the project's minimalist Linux distribution designed for running Docker containers: "RancherOS release - version 0.8.0. Linux 4.9.9 (amd64), Linux 4.4.43 hypriot-v7+ (Raspberry Pi), Docker 1.12.6 default, Docker 1.13.0 available for testing. Note: due to the change from Ubuntu kernels to mainline stable Linux kernels, the Xfce console is currently not supported, and upgrading systems that use that console will probably break. New features: RancherOS now uses an unmodified current mainline Linux kernel 4.9; cloud-init now runs before most system services, allowing it to be used to customize or replace services; image name validation for service, console and engine commands; completely new installation code - replaces GRUB with Syslinux (including upgrade; you can now boot from the ISO image without a net connection and the install will run using the installer image...." Here is the full release announcement with a list of new features and bug fixes.
ReactOS 0.4.4
ReactOS is an open source operating system which seeks to be binary compatible with Microsoft Windows, capable of running Windows applications. The project's latest release, ReactOS 0.4.4, introduces printing support and offers several visual improvements and graphical fixes. "Today marks the fifth release of the ReactOS 0.4.x series, as well as the fifth following the 4 month release cycle started by 0.4.0 itself. Progress has continued steadily, with a great deal of work going on in the background to improve ReactOS' general usability and stability. Many of these improvements were on display at the FOSDEM convention in Brussels that took place on the 4th and 5th of this month. Certainly one of the more notable albeit less visible additions was the incorporation of basic printing support by Colin Finck. At present ReactOS is only capable of sending print commands to a parallel port printer, but this is the first step towards universal support and Colin should be applauded for his effort." Further details and screen shots can be found in the project's release announcement. ReactOS is available in two editions, the first provides an installation disc while the second offers a live desktop environment.
Ubuntu 16.04.2
The second maintenance update of the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (long-term support) release is now ready for download: "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS for its Desktop, Server and Cloud products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support. Like previous LTS series, 16.04.2 includes hardware enablement stacks for use on newer hardware." The above comes from the release announcement published by Adam Conrad. The change summary page offers a detailed description of all the bug fixes since Ubuntu 16.04.1. As usual, updated images for Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu Studio are also provided.
Ubuntu 16.04 -- Running the Unity desktop
(full image size: 589kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
GParted Live 0.28.1-1
Curtis Gedak has announced the availability of a new version of the GParted Live Linux distribution. GParted Live provides users with a Debian-based live CD with which to manipulate, rescue and rescue disk partitions from within a graphical user interface. The latest version, GParted Live 0.28.1-1, features version 4.9.6 of the Linux kernel and offers the ability to work with LUKS encrypted file systems. "The GParted team is pleased to announce another stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 0.28.1, patches for libparted for FAT file system operations, and other improvements. This release includes partial read-write support for LUKS encrypted file systems. GParted can't create, open or close LUKS encryption volumes; however it can copy, resize and manipulate file systems inside open LUKS volumes and move closed LUKS volumes. (Resizing requires Linux kernel >= 3.6 and libparted >= 3.2 for online partition resizing)." Further details can be found in the project's 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 in our Torrent Archive. Thanks to Linux Tracker we are able to share the following torrent statistics.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 300
- Total data uploaded: 57.2TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Time spent on the command line
Many of us, who have either been using Linux for a long time or used command line driven systems (such as DOS) previously, tend to grow comfortable with typing commands. Some of us keep a virtual terminal open at all times because quickly switching to it to fire off a command can be faster than opening a new window to deal with a situation in a graphical interface.
This week we would like to find out approximately how much of your time do you spend using a virtual terminal. Are you typing commands all day, perhaps a few times a day, or do you prefer to use graphical applications exclusively?
You can see the results of our previous poll on archive formats here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Time spent on the command line
| I use the command line almost exclusively: | 220 (10%) |
| I use the command line multiple times per day: | 1125 (51%) |
| I use the command line about once per day: | 278 (12%) |
| I use the command line weekly: | 249 (11%) |
| I rarely use the command line: | 319 (14%) |
| I never use the command line: | 36 (2%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to database
OSGeo-Live
OSGeo-Live is a bootable DVD, USB thumb drive or Virtual Machine based on Lubuntu, that allows the user to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything. It is composed entirely of free software, allowing it to be freely distributed, duplicated and passed around. OSGeo-Live provides pre-configured applications for a range of geospatial use cases, including storage, publishing, viewing, analysis and manipulation of data. It also contains sample datasets and documentation.
OSGeo-Live 10.0 -- Running the LXDE desktop
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Distributions added to waiting list
- Emmi Linux. Emmi Linux is a Brazilian Linux distribution based on openSUSE Leap. The distribution is available in Xfce, LXQt and MATE editions.
- ToaruOS. ToaruOS is a hobby kernel and supporting userspace, built mostly from scratch. While not a Linux distribution, the project does provide a UNIX-like environment. It features a small collection of applications and a graphical desktop environment.
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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, 27 February 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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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Command Line (by Jordan on 2017-02-20 00:20:26 GMT from United States)
Once or twice as per Korora (Fedora) updates. Frequent for any distro I've been on in the past.
2 • I rarely use the command line (by Roy on 2017-02-20 00:23:03 GMT from United States)
But when I do it is for a good reason. It is good to use because it is fast. One can compare it to Morse code in a way it can operate when nothing else is operating.
3 • DOS From Scratch (by Roy on 2017-02-20 00:42:07 GMT from United States)
My old maintenance supervisor made me a Windows 95 boot up disk just for my CDROM entirely from DOS commands that constructed with the bare minimum RAM usage like some make Linux operating system like Core. You might say that is all command line.
4 • I run my own programs (by DaveW on 2017-02-20 00:45:44 GMT from United States)
I have a number of programs/scripts that I wrote and run from the command line. Also I do system maintenance and backup that way. Pretty much use the command line daily. Although, total system time on the terminal is certainly less than 5%.
5 • ReactOS 0.4.4 (by Paul M on 2017-02-20 02:33:10 GMT from Canada)
So.... The ReactOS team comes up with another computer-era milestone: print connectivity via parallel ports... displayed at the 2017 FOSDEM convention. Riiiighttttt...
Did you guys bring along a Xerox 630 Daisy-Wheel and an Epson MX-80 Dot-Matrix to show off your state-of-the-art printer dialog?!?
I swear, every time I read about another "achievement" by the ReactOS devs, I almost piss in my pants.... laughing... out loud....
Hilarious! Keep it coming, ReactOS guys!
6 • reactos (by jonathon on 2017-02-20 02:45:47 GMT from Australia)
https://www.reactos.org/joining/faqs
How can ReactOS help me?
If you want to learn about coding and Windows internals, you won't find a better real field case. You'll find in ReactOS the possibility to move from the book theory to the practical cases. This is the main reason why top-most sotware companies offer ReactOS Devs jobs opportunities. Also, from time to time (and when donations let us), we offer scholarships to our contributors for specific tasks to be done.
7 • @5 (by Thom on 2017-02-20 03:08:38 GMT from Sweden)
Dude, it's OK to not understand. The cure for that is to educate yourself, not ridicule others.
8 • CLI survey (by Rich'rd on 2017-02-20 04:02:58 GMT from United States)
Not to troll, but this week's survey is a bit absurd; I and probably most others, do not use CLI on a schedule, as implied. I use the commandline when I need to or when appropriate. For example, right now I use it quite a lot to fix broken program updates through apt-get -- specifically GiMP et al. from a PPA. Synaptic is useless to fix broken packages, as it will not force an installation with duplicated file dependencies. Were this not the case, I might use the CLI a lot less.
I am a regular user of this site, and find it very valuable; please take this comment as constructive criticism and not mindless complaining.
9 • ReactOS 0.4.4 @6 @7 (by Paul M on 2017-02-20 04:29:31 GMT from Canada)
@6
"How can ReactOS help me?"
Ok, I'll bite...
The Job Interview - HP Headquarters, Palo Alto
HP Project Manager: So, (ReactOS dev), I understand that you have some coding experience with printer drivers. Why don't you show me some examples of your work?
ReactOS dev: Ok, well... Give me juuuust a minute to set up here. (Drags in circa 1996 19" CRT monitor, microwave oven-size "desktop" computer, and an Epson dot-matrix printer and stack of continuous form-feed paper).
HP PM: What exactly is all this, uh, equipment for... I don't underst (gets cut off by ReactOS dev)
ReactOS dev: Alright, so, let me just boot into the OS, and I'll show you what I've been working on.... (Computer lights come on, CPU & PS fans whirring like a jet engine, floppy drive boots with usual grinding sound, printer boots up, beeping, blooping & buzzing....)
HP PM: (blank stare)
ReactOS dev: (OS boots to blue screen of death & locks up)... Oh, that's our cold room-reverse-engineered 'BSOD'... Hehe... I worked on that too, before I started on the printer API. Anyhow... let's re-boot & then I'll show you where we're at on the print spooler... (reboots)
HP PM: What kind of OS is this thing running? I haven't seen anything like this for 20 years! Love the retro hardware, though... I guess that's a 'hipster/millennial' thing, huh? (chuckling loudly)
ReactOS dev: Ok, well, we're re-booted anddd... here's the desktop. Never mind that the WM isn't displaying the desktop properly - that's been a work in progress since '96. So, let's get down to brass tacks... As you can see, I wrote a large portion of the code in Turbo Pascal - great language, btw... And check out the printer! Look at it run.... man, 80 characters/second... Ain't that something?
(About this point, a group of half a dozen HP engineers are gazing through the window into the interview room, with loud snorting and laughter coming from the hallway....)
HP PM: Uhh... Who put you up to this? Did Larry over at HP Enterprise set me up? Come on, I gotta know... I mean, this has got to be the best gag he's.... (gets cut off by ReactOS dev)
ReactOS dev: Look, this isn't a joke... The ReactOS team takes this very seriously... We've been working on this since 1996....
(Interrupted by howls of laughter from the hallway.... and a growing crowd of HP staff)
ReactOS dev: I'm not kidding... When I signed up with the ReactOS team, I was told, unequivocally, that "top-most sotware companies offer ReactOS Devs jobs opportunities"... See, it even says that VERBATIM right on our FAQ page... So, with that in mind, I'm thinking that I would entertain an offer slightly north of $120K/yr. + full benefits.... When can I start and where do I park?
HP PM: (Bursting out into laughter) Son, this has been THE BEST gag interview I've ever had ANYBODY pull on me... You tell Larry that he got me good... Oh, God, this made my day!!! (Leaves the room, laughing like a Hyena)...
@7
So, let me get this straight.... I am the one who needs to educate myself, you say?
10 • ReactOS (by Erich Friesen on 2017-02-20 04:50:34 GMT from United States)
Congratulations!
Not easy to write a binary compatible OS from the ground up, esp without much help from the original authors.
Congratulations, again!
11 • ReactOS project is cool, but why still bothering with Dot Matrix ?? (by Nemrut Guzelaydin on 2017-02-20 07:03:15 GMT from Canada)
@6 @7 @9 @10
i agree with the above-stated commentators in regard to ReactOS project ..., as ReactOS team, indeed, deserves nothing but encouragement, praise, respect and donations for such a unique and promising project. .....
But at the same time, i think the commentator @5 has a valid argument ...... Accordingly, i wonder what's really the point to waste your precious resources to code for an absolute hardware ??
12 • ReactOS (by Raj on 2017-02-20 07:03:16 GMT from India)
A nice effort, windows based OS just under 100MB
13 • GUI vs CLI (by zykoda on 2017-02-20 07:51:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
CLI is king. GUI usually slower and can lack required control. Graphics is expensive on resources (memory, CPU, GPU, disk, bandwidth) and browsing/email opens the door for advertising and malware....even with blockers.
14 • Command Line (by Platypus on 2017-02-20 08:53:06 GMT from Australia)
So it confirms that Linux is for geeks. I must say the results so far are a surprise to me. I would have expect way more people using GUI alternatives.
15 • RaspBSD, & No.8 (by Someguy on 2017-02-20 09:31:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
Have to agree with No.8. Can go for weeks/months without needing CLI, then use it for several sessions, e.g file transfer & mods.
Nice review of RaspBSD. Haven't tried it yet. How to activate LXDE. Yes, some of the RPi distros can be slow. Only odd-one-out is Quirky Xerus 8.1.4 for Raspberry Pi2 and 3, based on Puppy. Runs like lightning - recommend trying.
16 • @14 "Linux is for geeks" (by Microlinux on 2017-02-20 11:06:32 GMT from France)
There is a difference between Linux ADMINISTRATION and Linux USE. My company installs Linux desktops and servers for small businesses, pro users and even the odd casual user. I'm using my own Slackware-based distribution, so I guess I am what you should call a geek. On the other hand, my users (students, teachers, employees, library staff etc.) merely use the Linux desktop by clicking on icons, moving applications windows around, etc. For them, Linux is very easy, and I think some of them don't even know that this thing running on their computer is called "Linux".
17 • Command Line (by jymm on 2017-02-20 11:45:40 GMT from United States)
I rarely use the command line, and when I do I need a tutorial from a specific site. I do have an apt-get cheat sheet (built from the DistroWatch package management page). Mostly just update and upgrade. I am a pretty casual computer user and have no desire to learn and remember tons of Linux commands.
18 • CLI (by sydneyj on 2017-02-20 12:23:46 GMT from United States)
As @13 points out, the command line is king. It's your best friend, and it's where all the power and all the fun resides. I'm a bit surprised at the number of people who rarely, or never use it.
19 • ReactOS job guarantee (by Debianrocks on 2017-02-20 12:54:09 GMT from India)
@9, your comment really had me LAUGHING OUT LOUD!
20 • cmd line (by wally on 2017-02-20 13:31:34 GMT from United States)
40 browser tabs, Thunderbird for email, 4 LOffice windows, choose to use MySQL workbench rather than cl for convenience, other than that I'm working in 22 terminal windows
21 • @9 What's with the long winded trolls? (by chowyunpat on 2017-02-20 13:35:23 GMT from United States)
@9 You remind of a poster on OSnews that used to ridicule alternative and hobby OSes, and you really put a lot of effort into it, why not use that for something positive, instead of ragging on someone else for experimentingvand trying some different things?
22 • command line (by a on 2017-02-20 13:39:45 GMT from France)
It’s often faster and simpler for me to use a terminal when I want to open a file, rather than use a GUI. I also use "find" rather than a GUI search program when I’m looking for something for the same reason. You need a terminal to use Wine. And then there’s the fact Gentoo has no graphical package manager… Plenty of reasons to use a terminal every day. Restricting oneself to GUI tools makes no sense.
23 • Tips and Tricks - and the command line (by far2fish on 2017-02-20 13:48:01 GMT from Europe)
I really liked the Tips and Tricks section this week, and got some comments:
I was not aware of the chsh command. Have always used 'usermod -s {full-path-to-shell} {username}' the few times I had to configure a user (or myself) to use a new default shell. So learned something new today.
About the "ip address show | grep inet" command, I only use "ip addr | grep inet" to get the same output.
pkill, never used that, and not killall either due to the possibility of killing the wrong processes. One alternative is to pipe ps -ef over to grep, then pipe it over to sed to remove mutilple white spaces before piping it over to cut to find array of PIDs you want to kill.
ps -ef | grep chromium-browser | grep -v grep | sed -e 's/ */ /g' | cut -d " " -f2 | while read file; do kill $file; done
Not very pretty, but you could wrap in in a script.
Command Line:
I prefer to use the command line as much as possible, and in particular after many distros have started using systemd it has also become a bit easier with the systemctl admin commands, so you don't need to remember distro specific ways of doing things any longer.
24 • command line (by Hoos on 2017-02-20 14:33:47 GMT from Singapore)
I find that updating rolling distros seem to go best/cleanest in command line. So it's apt-get (Sid), pacman (Manjaro) and equo (Sabayon).
For Fedora (Korora) and OpenSUSE, I use CLI when I have to upgrade to the next release version.
Otherwise it's GUI all the way for me.
25 • CLI vs GUI (by Igor Šuljić on 2017-02-20 15:18:03 GMT from Croatia)
The fact that one in four of the people who visit this place and cared to answer the poll seldom use CLI points to unnoticed conclusion: how good and useful Linux DEs became.
So, here is one fact about CLI vs GUI. These days I have to rewrite some musical compositions out of old dusty, ugly written, much corrected and faded manuscripts to printable files, so that this music can be preformed. There is nice CL program to handle the task, LilyPond. To use it I have to learn another musical notation, akin to tabulatura, quite primitive musical script, because command line accepts only alphanumerics. I have to learn it just to render standard musical notation I am proficient at into this same notation, the only one both the composer and his future performers use. My time is limited, and this is not the only task I have to accomplish for the project. Did I mention that I am doing it in my spare time? What about mistakes? Well, they are apparent once the script is compiled, so, basically, the user debugs her script. There is another, GUI program, MuseScore that handles the same task by pointing and clicking, and this just happens to be the way one writes musical notes by pen down to the paper: placing various signs around. Results are immediately visible on screen, it is standard musical notation and easy to correct. Now, why inventing another musical script, just to typeset the advanced and standard one? Because it is way simpler and cleaner to program, and the programmer did it in his spare time too. Besides, programming typesetting engine is macho (it really is), while decorating fancy windows is... well, not macho.
Oh, I am late, and the project poses other tasks to accomplish. There is bunch of old photos taken by enthusiasts, as dusty and as faded, poorly scanned, that need facelift so they can be printed and exhibited. Now, there is quite a piece of CL program, ImageMagick, that can do just about anything any of Adobe stuff can do, and more. There are no objections to it. It was written as an engine, has got its API, and is accessible programmatically to its huuuge advantage. But imagine blind retouching an image. Or, even when the result is ready to observe quickly, translating all you intend to do with some visible surface to mathematical transformations. On the other hand, that expensive and detested Adobe stuff is mapping all those transformations into what a painter of carver actually does: touching the surface with the brush, or some other similar tool. Most important: the result is immediately visible, true interactivity.
Don't get me wrong. CLI is still great for many tasks, after more than half a century, particularly the tasks in IT system engineering. No one invented anything GUI to beat regular expressions, nor is it likely to ever happen. And don't forget to take a user into account. There are very different people around. The fellow who taught me UNIX programming admitted he personally knew only one programmer able to debug in command line, but to that guy IDE window is probably just bewildering clutter. Not persons, brains are different. Yet, with due respect, GUI won. It won Linux too, and for good reason. Computers, programs, IT are serving some purposes, many purposes, and some people, various people. The expertise of these people mostly lays out of IT, and when they find some spare time to educate themselves, they will pick this field of their proper expertise, rather than IT. I don't blame them.
26 • on the command line question... (by tom joad on 2017-02-20 15:34:56 GMT from France)
Back in the dark ages when I began using linux I was told the command line was where the action was.
Being a fleeing windows user I laughed. Give me a GUI and I am happy and on I went. That was dapper Drake.
And well this is now and this week's question rang a bell in my head.
Nowadays I use the command line a lot every day. Over the intervening years I have discovered, backed into the realization really, a user is shown clear, accurate info about exactly what the computer is doing. Sometimes that info is critical while other time the output is just informational, a landmark on the way somewhere. At times, I have been able to recover use of a system long after the password been forgotten. Invaluable.
With command line, help is this close even without the internet, --help.
Another unspoken part of the question is; how many linux commands do you know? Every so often I give my self a bit of a test. I will take a sheet of paper to note all the commands I can recall in five minutes. The list is getting longer but not nearly long enough.
To new users; the command IS where the action is.
27 • CLI vs GUI (by Alexandru on 2017-02-20 16:12:35 GMT from Romania)
These two human-machine interaction paradigms have different use-cases. In modern Linux almost all operations can be done in GUI. However sometimes it is really more convenient to use CLI. Consider you have a collection of many images of different size, quality, format, etc and you want to make their thumb sized versions to publish on your site. You can do it in GIMP working several months or with ImageMagick CLI in several seconds.
When arguing about GUI vs CLI I always make the following illustration: Using GUI is like a sign language - intuitive, no previous knowledge is necessary and you can express most ideas with try-catch approach. Using CLI is like human language - you definitely need to learn it, but you can express much more sophisticated ideas more concise this way. When you travel first time in some country and you don't speak local language first thing is to use some sort of sign language to communicate with people, but if you plan to live in this country you will need to learn local language.
That being said, I do not consider ALL interaction has to be done in CLI or that GUI is useless. In many cases GUI interaction is preferred. However, when some application GUI gets over-complicated and bloated it is really easier to learn 2 CLI commands with 5 switches and combine them in 1000000 different ways than to search these 1000000 GUI elements in the application menu.
28 • ReactOS usefulness (by DaveW on 2017-02-20 18:03:26 GMT from United States)
ReactOS will become significant for me when I can run my WinXP programs, along with current browsers, email, firewall, and anti-virus. Until then, it's just a toy. My personal opinion is that they are at least 12 years too late for what the OS will do.
29 • ReactOS (by eM on 2017-02-20 18:56:11 GMT from Poland)
When I first discovered ReactOS I was amazed that such a project exists. Years gone by and it's still in early alpha. Even worse, back then it did work on my PC, right now I tested it on many laptops and PCs and I didn't manage to boot it on any of them. I think it's one of these projects that has more hype than real work underneath. Linux didn't need so many years to get things going. I know it's harder because they want to be binary compatible with Windows but I think it's better to have something that works so user can at least run a browser and media player and than later try to make it more compatible. I wish them all the best in the future but as things stand I think Q4OS is a better way if you want something that feels like Windows.
30 • CLI (by scrumtime on 2017-02-20 20:09:35 GMT from Nicaragua)
I use the CLI quite a lot though i don't really need to , I guess it is more out of habit
I use Open / fluxbox on most of my Comps and have always found it as easy to open programs / documents from terminal .I generally use the same apps daily so i just run back through my last inputs...
ReactOS Its great that people are still working at it, hopefully the day will come when it becomes something everyone needs and will justify the hours and work people have put it...I'm certain it has been a great learning tool for people and obviously have got a lot of enjoyment out of it or they would have given up
31 • ReactOS (by Jordan on 2017-02-20 20:40:09 GMT from United States)
It is not offensive to note how far behind the rest of the Linux world the ReactOS is. It's a bit of an achievement, I suppose, to tackle the Windows functionality from a Unix standpoint, but isn't that a bit of a novelty project?
I respect the "right" to do that, I just have misgivings about taking it seriously as a needed OS.
32 • Command line... (by Vukota on 2017-02-20 20:52:35 GMT from Montenegro)
I agree with @9, there should have been another option: "Using CLI when needed". I often have Terminal Window open to do various tasks at hand. Same thing I do under Windows for the similar reasons, but CLI under Linux/BSD is much more powerful and useful. I prefer GUI when tasks can be done easily using GUI applications, but when doing programming and server administration command line is still necessary (in both Linux and Windows).
33 • ReactOS & Garmin Express (by Lawrence on 2017-02-20 20:58:00 GMT from United States)
If ReactOS allows full functionality of the Garmin Express program I will download it and install it to one of my spare computers.
Does Garmin Express fully work on it just as it does on a Windows 10 computer? Does ReactOS allow updating Garmin Express to the latest version?
Thanks to anyone who knows the answers.
34 • Command line, sometimes no choice. (by PhPh on 2017-02-20 21:01:45 GMT from United States)
I need to bridge the Wifi of a Raspberry Pi to its ethernet connector. While in Windows or MacOS only a few clics would be necessary, I haven't found an easy solution for Raspbian that doesn't require non trivial networking command line skills. Definitely daunting for this new Linux user.
35 • CLI (by Dave Postles on 2017-02-20 21:07:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
1 Actually, I'm surprised that more people don't use the CLI, at least for one specific purpose: dd; since lots of laptops now don't come with a DVD drive to burn an iso image (so to use dd, you also need to cd, ls, cd .. etc). 2 What I tend to do is initially to reload the package list in the software centre, then use the cli to install packages thereafter (apt-get, pacman, tazpkg, urpmi etc etc) of I know precisely what I want and that it's in the repository (I now know which have clamtk and which only have clamav, which helps).
Interestingly, I caught up again with OSgeo at the end of last week. I hadn't realized that it was now available in 64-bit. I don't really like the Lubuntu desktop, so I've downloaded XFCE4 which is much nicer (with XFCE-dusk - sucker for a dark theme) and transparency on both panels. Then install LibreOffice (which doesn't come pre-installed), clamtk, vlc, GIMP, and I need to add tor and torsocks, (I double-installed rkward for R by mistake-it was already pre-installed with R). All that transforms it from a basically GIS system to a full system with a full set og GIS software. The download for the basic GIS system is, however, very large: 4.2 Gb (I think with no torrent). I couldn't, however, spend all the time myself identifying and downloading the GIS apps, even if they were all in the repos.
36 • Command Line (by Steve on 2017-02-21 01:29:58 GMT from United States)
When I build a server I deliberately leave the GUI interface behind, it is a gross waste of resources on a server. Anyone that thinks a GUI is appropriate for a server needs to have their training wheels removed so that they can really learn how systems actually works. Any system that insists on a GUI interface (ie. Windows) should never be used for a server, it just doesn't make any sense.
Now... on a desktop I'm inclined to include a GUI interface (my current preference being MATE) but I still do a lot of work from the command line on my desktop machine. It's faster and more powerful that most GUI interfaces to the same tools. But, since a desktop is usually used for applications that are graphical in nature, it makes sense to have the graphical desktop.
My views may seem a bit off the norm, but I also worked on main frames and mini computers before (and since) the "modern" PC became common. The GUI has always been wasteful of system resources, even when it's needed for desktop applications.
37 • CLI, GUI, we all ... (by Somewhat Reticent on 2017-02-21 03:17:30 GMT from United States)
One user's 'waste of resources' is another user's critical tool.
A badly-designed GUI may be 'worse' than CLI, but that doesn't mean a GUI is never appropriate or 'better'; after all, its purpose is to abstract irrelevancies away so the user can focus on some particular task. Designing a good GUI is valid work, and requires understanding perception and feedback involved in performing that task - not everyone has the talent needed. Point-and-click gets new users up to speed quicker, but shifty-keystrokes give the rich vocabulary required by highly-productive sophisticates.
CLI usage benefits from enhancements like multiple (virtual) terminal tabs or screens, partial completion suggestions, and display of command options or structures involved. And then there's language translation.
It's all part of connecting humans and computers. Not everyone is good at this; a variety of skills and abilities is not always bad.
38 • CLI (by kennedy on 2017-02-21 06:34:29 GMT from South Africa)
I use slackware on desktop, installation of packages and updates is all CLI but once that's done the rest of life is GUI only. Startx is the last command on CLI when I boot.
39 • command line (by argent on 2017-02-21 10:30:52 GMT from United States)
Started with Linux Debian about 4 years ago and other than apt-get little other CLI uses. Over the last year or so use it almost exclusively, from builds to playing music, only way to go really.
40 • RaspBSD Review (by Andy Mender on 2017-02-21 10:34:02 GMT from Austria)
Jesse, you are aware that neither the -CURRENT nor the -STABLE branches of FreeBSD can be upgraded via freebsd-update? The utility is available to all branches, but the servers are only for -RELEASE and -RC branches.
This highlights an important point, though. RaspBSD would be a bit better off to use -RELEASE, because then one can easily do binary updates to the kernel + system toolchain. However, the reason for using 12-CURRENT is probably hardware compatibility, which is in a BETA state at the moment. My guess, that is.
Per my experience, FreeBSD was always a lot more reproducible and solid when considering the base system :).
41 • Speed of the command line vs GUI (by jymm56 on 2017-02-21 11:40:15 GMT from United States)
With my typing ability, the command line is much slower than a GUI. Hunt and Peck! LOL!
42 • about ReactOS... (by tom joad on 2017-02-21 14:40:55 GMT from Romania)
So, if I understand the project correctly, the end result is a functioning Linux / Unix version of Windows?
And? That it?
Ok.
Why?
43 • @31 @42 ReactOS (by curious on 2017-02-21 14:58:42 GMT from Germany)
It helps to actually read about something first. To be very clear: ReactOS IS NOT LINUX and IS NOT UNIX. While the Project collaborates with other open source projects (e.g. Wine), it is somthing fundamentally different - their goal is an independently developed, free Windows-compatible OS. That means binary-compatible, not just able to emulate Windows inside another OS such as Linux.
So they aren't "behind the REST of the Linux world" because they aren't part of it. And they aren't trying to tackle Windows functionality "from a Unix standpoint" or to create a Linux/Unix version of Windows.
ReactOS is (like Haiku, KolibriOS, RISC OS Open) one of the very few non-Unix OSes covered by DistroWatch. That alone makes it interesting, although they still have very far to go from a practical standpoint.
44 • ReactOS (by Paul M on 2017-02-21 15:39:54 GMT from Canada)
@43
Well.... they're implementing ext & btrfs file system support (both developed for LINUX) and using GNU tools... so, ReactOS IS UNIX-like in many ways...
So, even if it isn't technically Linux or UNIX based, the point that myself, @31, @42, et al are making is still valid - and that you only hint at - is that, from a PRACTICAL standpoint, this project makes no sense. The ReactOS people started this project in 1996... let me repeat... 1996.... and they are STILL in ALPHA... after 21 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And for what? To cold-room, reverse engineer Windows 95/NT? When do you suppose they'll get to Beta releases? Release-candidates? Full release?
So, hypothetically, let's say that they go Beta within 2 years, and get to a full release in another 2 years after that. And what will we have? AFTER 25 YEARS, WE WOULD NOW HAVE A WINDOWS 95 UNIX-LIKE CLONE.... Riigghttt....
Like @28 says, "they are at least 12 years too late for what the OS will do."
And that is why I am ragging on the project... it's a waste of time & effort - in REAL-WORLD, PRACTICAL terms...
45 • ReactOS (by Hans M on 2017-02-21 17:43:21 GMT from Germany)
@44
I wouldn't subscribe to the idea that ReactOS is Unix-like only because it has ext & btrfs file system support. Sounds a bit like saying Linux is Windows-like because it has NTFS support.
And to insinuate that they are working on a Windows 95 clone is only evidence of a bad way of discussing things. I am sure you know they are targeting Windows Server 2003. So let's call it that.
46 • Command Line (by DaveT on 2017-02-21 20:34:24 GMT from United Kingdom)
More than half my working day is spent on the command line. I have multiple terminals in multiple workspaces to ssh into our debian wheezy servers where I get to use vim or grep through logs or drag data out of our postgres database using sql. The rest of my day is spent on debian wheezy using xfce. For writing code I am lazy and use sshfs and then gvim in one of the other workspaces. It pays the mortgage and there are worse jobs.
And ReactOS? What ever floats your boat and why should any of us get in a strop about it? Yes you @44. The so-called Real World? I gave up on that more than 40 years ago! Practical has its' place and I can do Practical, I've designed Practical hardware and the Practical software to go with it. But mainly I do Fun and ignore the sad sad people that say it is impractical.
47 • ReactOS @10 (by G Savage on 2017-02-21 20:37:39 GMT from Canada)
Agreed. Building any OS from scratch deserves adulation, not derision.
Congrats to the ReactOS team.
And to the haters I like Haiku too. So there.
48 • ReactOS (by Paul M on 2017-02-22 04:03:49 GMT from Canada)
@45
Love that dry German humor....
49 • CLI use (by kay on 2017-02-22 09:20:14 GMT from Canada)
Linux adept now for 10 years every time I use more CLI as before. It's fast self explaining and shows whats happening. What to do when GUI is not working. Only CLI helps you to make your system work again.
Everybody a bit more interested whats happening behind should use CLI. Learn by using it. Play around and discover the power of it!
50 • ffmpeg (by Tim Dowd on 2017-02-22 13:35:11 GMT from United States)
One place I'm surprised I haven't seen more people saying they're using the command line is with ffmpeg. Video editing is often one of the most resource-intensive things people do with their computers, but ffmpeg gives you so much control and is so well documented that you can do it on comparatively modest hardware. I think its efficiency and adaptability are tied in with the flexibility of its CLI interface
51 • reactos (by OStrich on 2017-02-23 05:14:12 GMT from Australia)
reactos would be useful if it could run utilities like bios flash tools, and drivers and firmware upgrades for hardware gadgets. these programs often only come as windows executables.
So reactos would be best suited as a utilities/diagnostic live cd imho. And surely making lots of small utility programs work would make it progress faster than trying to make large programs work on it. And if it got full USB support that would be a boost.
Meanwhile, the 0.5 release is expected to have a Vista-like desktop appearance - wooot!
52 • 51 • ReactOS (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2017-02-23 09:49:14 GMT from United States)
FreeDOS is commonly used for BIOS (firmware) updates; it's small, simple, and fairly well-established.
…
ReactOS _could_ extend the useful life of a rather large accumulation of freeware, shareware, and other software (on suitable hardware, of course) developed during Windows' golden years. Possibly better than emulation or virtual machine.
Of course, this could, in theory, compete, however marginally, with Microsoft's current product line, and that could justify financial contributions with non-disclosable conditions (like keeping a project purely academic), or legal attacks. In theory.
53 • RE: ffmpeg and GUIs (by AndyMender on 2017-02-23 11:28:40 GMT from Austria)
@50,
I use ffmpeg (among most other things) in CLI. Partially as an add-on to youtube-dl and sometimes to recode audio/video for colleagues who get media files with "strange extensions" and only use Windows as end-users :).
I believe both CLI and GUI has its place. Some actions are vastly easier to perform with a graphical user interface. Some, on the other hand, are obfuscated by badly written and uninformative GUIs (of which there are many). Especially, when it comes to error handling and debugging.
It's a lot different when an application is written with the GUI in mind and when the GUI was added on top of a legacy CLI.
54 • @9 Now seriuos talk (by Vytas on 2017-02-23 14:03:43 GMT from Lithuania)
We made billion investment into print speed now outperform us with hobby project and you will be hired.
55 • Thunderbird returning to Debian. (by Ronald Clifford Buckman on 2017-02-25 00:33:05 GMT from United States)
It's good that Debian is going back to an unmodified Thunderbird, much like Debian returned to using Firefox ESR after years of shipping Iceweasel. As a person who has Devuan Jessie on two computers and Debian Wheezy on a USB hard drive, I expect Devuan which has been getting most of their packages from Debian, to also switch from Icedove to Thunderbird. I am currently using Icedove 45.6.0 which is the last stable version released under the Icedove name.
56 • ReactOS and Naysayers (by Froggy on 2017-02-25 01:59:09 GMT from United States)
First off: Congratulations to the ReactOS team. Great job my old friends.
Some of you might remember me, but most will not. I dropped off the face of the earth, exactly because of this junk. Now, I lurk. I haven't posted anywhere until now. So, I will say my peace, unless the powers that be decide to censor me.
People fighting with each other over this and that and the other. The community has fallen apart over the years. Fanbois and girls screaming that their way is best. Or people screaming about a new distro. Getting upset that their favorite distro has decided to go in a different direction than they want.
So stop the screaming and bullying. Now, time for me to disappear again..
57 • #56 (by Stephone on 2017-02-25 09:34:35 GMT from United Kingdom)
Fine sentiments wasted here I'm afraid.
58 • @56 (by Jordan on 2017-02-25 19:35:36 GMT from United States)
Baloney. You've missed a lot of spirited discussion over the years in the early days of DW. You also may be forgetting that some of us have been here from the beginning and remember it all fondly and note that nothing has changed at all except for the eb and flow of the subject matter. It comes and goes, just like any other good forum.
The sensitive ones who like to pretend like all the others are bad for taking part in spirited discussion are few here, fortunately. But welcome back.
59 • ifconfig.me not working? (by Ricardo on 2017-02-26 03:36:18 GMT from Argentina)
Lately iconfig.me is not working for me, I found an alternative that works pretty well:
$ curl ifconfig.co
There's also IPv4 and IPv6 specific versions:
$ curl v4.ifconfig.co
$ curl v6.ifconfig.co
Cheers.
Number of Comments: 59
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| • Issue 840 (2019-11-11): Fedora 31, monitoring user activity, Fedora working to improve Python performance, FreeBSD gets faster networking |
| • Issue 839 (2019-11-04): MX 19, manipulating PDFs, Ubuntu plans features for 20.04, Fedora 29 nears EOL, Netrunner drops Manjaro-based edition |
| • Issue 838 (2019-10-28): Xubuntu 19.10, how init and service managers work together, DragonFly BSD provides emergency mode for HAMMER, Xfce team plans 4.16 |
| • Issue 837 (2019-10-21): CentOS 8.0-1905, Trident finds a new base, Debian plans firewall changes, 15 years of Fedora, how to merge directories |
| • Issue 836 (2019-10-14): Archman 2019.09, Haiku improves ARM support, Project Trident shifting base OS, Unix turns 50 |
| • Issue 835 (2019-10-07): Isotop, Mazon OS and, KduxOS, examples of using the find command, Mint's System Reports becomes proactive, Solus updates its desktops |
| • Issue 834 (2019-09-30): FreedomBox "Buster", CentOS gains a rolling release, Librem 5 phones shipping, Redcore updates its package manager |
| • Issue 833 (2019-09-23): Redcore Linux 1908, why Linux distros are free, Ubuntu making list of 32-bit software to keep, Richard M Stallman steps down from FSF leadership |
| • Issue 832 (2019-09-16): BlackWeb 1.2, checking for Wayland session and applications, Fedora to use nftables in firewalld, OpenBSD disables DoH in Firefox |
| • Issue 831 (2019-09-09): Adélie Linux 1.0 beta, using ffmpeg, awk and renice, Mint and elementary improvements, PureOS and Manjaro updates |
| • Issue 930 (2019-09-02): deepin 15.11, working with AppArmor profiles, elementary OS gets new greeter, exFAT support coming to Linux kernel |
| • Issue 829 (2019-08-26): EndeavourOS 2019.07.15, Drauger OS 7.4.1, finding the licenses of kernel modules, NetBSD gets Wayland application, GhostBSD changes base repo |
| • Issue 828 (2019-08-19): AcademiX 2.2, concerns with non-free firmware, UBports working on Unity8, Fedora unveils new EPEL channel, FreeBSD phasing out GCC |
| • Issue 827 (2019-08-12): Q4OS, finding files on the disk, Ubuntu works on ZFS, Haiku improves performance, OSDisc shutting down |
| • Issue 826 (2019-08-05): Quick looks at Resilient, PrimeOS, and BlueLight, flagship distros for desktops,Manjaro introduces new package manager |
| • Issue 825 (2019-07-29): Endless OS 3.6, UBports 16.04, gNewSense maintainer stepping down, Fedora developrs discuss optimizations, Project Trident launches stable branch |
| • Issue 824 (2019-07-22): Hexagon OS 1.0, Mageia publishes updated media, Fedora unveils Fedora CoreOS, managing disk usage with quotas |
| • Issue 823 (2019-07-15): Debian 10, finding 32-bit packages on a 64-bit system, Will Cooke discusses Ubuntu's desktop, IBM finalizes purchase of Red Hat |
| • Issue 822 (2019-07-08): Mageia 7, running development branches of distros, Mint team considers Snap, UBports to address Google account access |
| • Issue 821 (2019-07-01): OpenMandriva 4.0, Ubuntu's plan for 32-bit packages, Fedora Workstation improvements, DragonFly BSD's smaller kernel memory |
| • Issue 820 (2019-06-24): Clear Linux and Guix System 1.0.1, running Android applications using Anbox, Zorin partners with Star Labs, Red Hat explains networking bug, Ubuntu considers no longer updating 32-bit packages |
| • Issue 819 (2019-06-17): OS108 and Venom, renaming multiple files, checking live USB integrity, working with Fedora's Modularity, Ubuntu replacing Chromium package with snap |
| • Issue 818 (2019-06-10): openSUSE 15.1, improving boot times, FreeBSD's status report, DragonFly BSD reduces install media size |
| • Issue 817 (2019-06-03): Manjaro 18.0.4, Ubuntu Security Podcast, new Linux laptops from Dell and System76, Entroware Apollo |
| • Issue 816 (2019-05-27): Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0, creating firewall rules, Antergos shuts down, Matthew Miller answers questions about Fedora |
| • Issue 815 (2019-05-20): Sabayon 19.03, Clear Linux's developer features, Red Hat explains MDS flaws, an overview of mobile distro options |
| • Issue 814 (2019-05-13): Fedora 30, distributions publish Firefox fixes, CentOS publishes roadmap to 8.0, Debian plans to use Wayland by default |
| • Issue 813 (2019-05-06): ROSA R11, MX seeks help with systemd-shim, FreeBSD tests unified package management, interview with Gael Duval |
| • Issue 812 (2019-04-29): Ubuntu MATE 19.04, setting up a SOCKS web proxy, Scientific Linux discontinued, Red Hat takes over Java LTS support |
| • Issue 811 (2019-04-22): Alpine 3.9.2, rsync examples, Ubuntu working on ZFS support, Debian elects new Project Leader, Obarun releases S6 tools |
| • Issue 810 (2019-04-15): SolydXK 201902, Bedrock Linux 0.7.2, Fedora phasing out Python 2, NetBSD gets virtual machine monitor |
| • Issue 809 (2019-04-08): PCLinuxOS 2019.02, installing Falkon and problems with portable packages, Mint offers daily build previews, Ubuntu speeds up Snap packages |
| • Issue 808 (2019-04-01): Solus 4.0, security benefits and drawbacks to using a live distro, Gentoo gets GNOME ports working without systemd, Redox OS update |
| • Issue 807 (2019-03-25): Pardus 17.5, finding out which user changed a file, new Budgie features, a tool for browsing FreeBSD's sysctl values |
| • Issue 806 (2019-03-18): Kubuntu vs KDE neon, Nitrux's znx, notes on Debian's election, SUSE becomes an independent entity |
| • Issue 805 (2019-03-11): EasyOS 1.0, managing background services, Devuan team debates machine ID file, Ubuntu Studio works to remain an Ubuntu Community Edition |
| • Issue 804 (2019-03-04): Condres OS 19.02, securely erasing hard drives, new UBports devices coming in 2019, Devuan to host first conference |
| • Issue 803 (2019-02-25): Septor 2019, preventing windows from stealing focus, NetBSD and Nitrux experiment with virtual machines, pfSense upgrading to FreeBSD 12 base |
| • Issue 802 (2019-02-18): Slontoo 18.07.1, NetBSD tests newer compiler, Fedora packaging Deepin desktop, changes in Ubuntu Studio |
| • Issue 801 (2019-02-11): Project Trident 18.12, the meaning of status symbols in top, FreeBSD Foundation lists ongoing projects, Plasma Mobile team answers questions |
| • Issue 800 (2019-02-04): FreeNAS 11.2, using Ubuntu Studio software as an add-on, Nitrux developing znx, matching operating systems to file systems |
| • Issue 799 (2019-01-28): KaOS 2018.12, Linux Basics For Hackers, Debian 10 enters freeze, Ubuntu publishes new version for IoT devices |
| • Issue 798 (2019-01-21): Sculpt OS 18.09, picking a location for swap space, Solus team plans ahead, Fedora trying to get a better user count |
| • Issue 797 (2019-01-14): Reborn OS 2018.11.28, TinyPaw-Linux 1.3, dealing with processes which make the desktop unresponsive, Debian testing Secure Boot support |
| • Issue 796 (2019-01-07): FreeBSD 12.0, Peppermint releases ISO update, picking the best distro of 2018, roundtable interview with Debian, Fedora and elementary developers |
| • Issue 795 (2018-12-24): Running a Pinebook, interview with Bedrock founder, Alpine being ported to RISC-V, Librem 5 dev-kits shipped |
| • Issue 794 (2018-12-17): Void 20181111, avoiding software bloat, improvements to HAMMER2, getting application overview in GNOME Shell |
| • Issue 793 (2018-12-10): openSUSE Tumbleweed, finding non-free packages, Debian migrates to usrmerge, Hyperbola gets FSF approval |
| • Issue 792 (2018-1203): GhostBSD 18.10, when to use swap space, DragonFly BSD's wireless support, Fedora planning to pause development schedule |
| • Issue 791 (2018-11-26): Haiku R1 Beta1, default passwords on live media, Slax and Kodachi update their media, dual booting DragonFly BSD on EFI |
| • Issue 790 (2018-11-19): NetBSD 8.0, Bash tips and short-cuts, Fedora's networking benchmarked with FreeBSD, Ubuntu 18.04 to get ten years of support |
| • Issue 789 (2018-11-12): Fedora 29 Workstation and Silverblue, Haiku recovering from server outage, Fedora turns 15, Debian publishes updated media |
| • Issue 788 (2018-11-05): Clu Linux Live 6.0, examining RAM consumpion, finding support for older CPUs, more Steam support for running Windows games on Linux, update from Solus team |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the Star Lite, Star LabTop and more. Available with a choice of Ubuntu, Linux Mint or Zorin OS pre-installed with many more distributions supported. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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Archman GNU/Linux
Archman GNU/Linux is an Arch Linux-based distribution which features the Calamares system installer and a pre-configured desktop environment. Archman also features the Pamac package manager for easy installation of new software packages.
Status: Active
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