 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 702, 6 March 2017 |
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Welcome to this year's 10th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Open source tools and distributions are available in a large variety of sizes and styles, each one tailored to a particular person's needs. This week we explore many smaller projects which are, none the less, very useful in certain circumstances. We begin with a review of Fatdog64 Linux in which Joshua Allen Holm explores this lightweight distribution and reports on how it compares to its close relative, Puppy Linux. In our News section we talk about a new line of lightweight notebook computers which run the elementary OS distribution, plus we talk about advancements in the Haiku project and share a notice detailing the conclusion of support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss whether the size of a project affects the developers' ability to provide timely security fixes. As usual, we provide a list of the distributions released last week and we share the torrents we are currently seeding. Plus we are pleased to welcome the Super Grub2 Disk project to our database. Finally, last week we introduced a new menu bar to help visitors navigate our newer resources and we ask whether you find it useful in our Opinion Poll. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: Fatdog64 Linux review
- News: elementary OS bundled with a new notebook, Haiku announces new features, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 approaching its end of life
- Questions and answers: Security and the size of a distribution's team, update on streaming Netflix on Raspbian
- Released last week: Zorin OS 12.1, BlackArch Linux 2017.03.01, PCLinuxOS 2017.03
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Alpine Linux, BackArch Linux, GeckoLinux, Greenie Linux, PCLinuxOS, Q4OS, Raspbian, Sabayon, SmartOS, SystemRescueCd
- Upcoming releases: Tails 2.11, Univention Corporate Server 4.2-MS2
- Opinion poll: New navigation menu
- DistroWatch.com news: Random distribution on front page
- New additions: Super Grub2 Disk
- New distributions: Archman GNU/Linux
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (25MB) and MP3 (37MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Fatdog64 Linux review
Do not be mislead by the use of "fat" in the name, Fatdog64 is a very lightweight Linux distribution. It is only "fat" compared to Puppy Linux, which Fatdog originally derived from. The first release of Fatdog was as an expansion package for Puppy Linux before becoming a distribution in its own right. As such, Fatdog releases ship with more pre-installed packages than Puppy Linux, so by comparison it is "fatter."
Fatter, of course, is a relative term, so Fatdog64 710, the latest release, is much, much smaller than many other distributions. The ISO is a meagre 377MB. Despite the small download size, it still comes with a decent selection of software packed into the image. It uses Openbox as the default desktop environment with JVM being an alternative option, so no weighty GNOME or KDE, which really helps trim the proverbial fat.
Fatdog64 Linux 710 -- The boot menu
(full image size: 160kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
To test Fatdog64 710, I tried it out in several different ways. I started by just running it in a virtual machine using GNOME Boxes. Right away I was impressed by the many options available in the GRUB boot menu. There is the standard boot option, which loads with no special features; an option to use a USB device for the persistence save file to save things between sessions; an option for using multi-session support when booting from a DVD+RW; an option that enables LVM and mdadm support; an option with no savefile; and an option to boot without a graphical desktop environment. In addition, there are options to deal with problematic ATI and NVIDIA graphic cards. I opted for the standard boot option the first time I tried out Fatdog64 and found that it did take a while to boot, but within a few minutes I had a working desktop environment to explore.
Fatdog64 Linux 710 -- The default desktop
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
As I poked around the applications menu and tried out the various software packages that come pre-installed, I was very impressed with the selection. A lot of software can fit on a sub-400MB image. LibreOffice is installed and so is The GIMP and VLC media player. There are many other lightweight apps for image editing, note taking, and other sundry tasks. The one place where Fatdog64 takes a slightly non-traditional approach is with its choice of SeaMonkey as the default browser and e-mail client. While SeaMonkey is perfectly usable, there are menu entries for Firefox and Chrome, but these entries run wizards asking the user if they want to install those browsers, the browsers are not included by default.
Of all the software included, the only thing that really bugged me was the ROX file manager. While the file manager is perfectly usable, one of the default settings is to automatically resize the window based on the content. If you are looking at a directory with 5 items in it, there will be a window just big enough to display those items. Open a directory with 25 items and the window gets bigger. Every time you open a new directory, the size of the window changes. I am sure this works for some people, but I had to go into ROX's settings and change it to not automatically resize the window.
Despite the small ISO image size, Fatdog64 does come with a few games. Users looking for some entertainment can play Armagetron Advanced, Pipe Panic, Xinvaders 3D, or gtktetris without having to install any additional packages. I found that these games played well and are fun, but I do wonder why these particular games were included instead of certain other choices, e.g., a solitaire card game.
Fatdog64 Linux 710 -- The control panel and Gslapt package manager
(full image size: 702kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Installing additional packages and configuring the system's settings are both easy tasks to perform. Additional packages can be installed using Gslapt for traditional packages, or SFS (SquashFS) packages can be merged into the system using the SFS Manager in the Fatdog64 Control Panel. In addition to various utilities to install software and update packages, the Fatdog64 Control Panel is full of configuration utilities for just about every setting available. Changing localization options, changing the system's look and feel, and many other options are all there and sorted into easy to understand categories.
Having explored enough in a virtual environment, I was ready to try out Fatdog64 using a LiveUSB drive, so I selected the shutdown option for my virtual machine. It was at this point that Fatdog64 popped up a dialog box for its best usability feature; it warned me that I did not have a persistence savefile setup and that my settings would be lost if I did not set one up. I did not really need to set one up, but I selected the option to set one up just to see what would happen next. The wizard that popped up to walk me through the process was very thorough and well designed. I thought it was very nice that the system was designed to make sure I could not lose my changes and files and made it easy to set things up so my session was saved.
I wish I could say my experience booting Fatdog64 from a flash drive was as easy, but I did run into a few problems. My first attempt to boot the flash drive was on a system using EFI with Secure Boot enabled. The first boot attempt actually made it super easy to install the Secure Boot keys for Fatdog64, which made it so subsequent boot attempts loaded a nice rEFInd boot screen without any problems. However, I could never get the boot process to work all the way. After selecting the boot option on the initial screen, the system transitions to a GRUB screen that wants to detect grub.cfg in various locations. Letting it do that loads another GRUB screen, which looks just like the one loaded on non-EFI/legacy BIOS systems, but selecting any of the boot options resulted in an error and a kernel panic. Once I set the system BIOS to "Legacy Boot" mode, Fatdog64 booted up just fine. I was able to reproduce this experience in VirtualBox using the "Enable EFI" setting and, when it was enabled, I could not get Fatdog64 to boot.
Fatdog64 Linux 710 -- The system installer
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
After sorting out the boot problems, I was able to use Fatdog64 just fine from my flash drive. I even ran the installer to see how that worked. Honestly, it was a more pleasant experience than I expected, given the fact that it does not do much more than dump a copy of the Fatdog64 image onto a hard drive partition. The installer is not as polished as, for example, Ubuntu's Ubiquity, but it does allow the user to partition a hard drive, select boot loader options, and select a source file to install from. Pretty basic, but it gets the job done.
One last thing to note before I get into my final thoughts: It should be mentioned that Fatdog64 does take a rather unorthodox approach to user accounts. Normally, best practices are to run everything as a normal user and use the root account as sparingly as possible. Fatdog64 uses root for everything (users are automatically logged in to the root account), except for a few sandboxed Internet applications that run as the spot user. The Fatdog64 help documentation has an interesting and informative explanation for why this is. Their reasoning makes sense to me, at least in the context of Fatdog64, but users should read the Fatdog64 help file for themselves and come to their own conclusions.
Final thoughts
Fatdog64 710 is a good choice for someone looking for a distribution to put on a flash drive to use on multiple computers. The distribution's savefile persistence feature is really easy to set up and use. Even if not using a savefile to keep changes between sessions, Fatdog64 ships with enough software to be able to do most general computing tasks. Document editing, browsing the web, e-mail, even playing a few games can be accomplished using this super small distribution. While I personally would have opted for a few different packages here and there, Fatdog64 has a good collection of software and should prove useful for many users.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo Ideapad 100-15IBD laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-5020U CPU
- Storage: Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 5500
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
elementary OS bundled with a new notebook, Haiku announces new features, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 approaching its end of life
People who are interested in purchasing a notebook computer with a Linux distribution pre-installed just gained a new option: Litebook. The Litebook is a relatively low-end notebook computer (the project's website compares Litebook with an ASUS Chromebook) that ships with the elementary OS distribution. "elementary OS, the operating system used by Litebook, follows a security first philosophy and shares its codebase with the majority of web servers and many other mission critical applications. Litebooks will not attempt to invade your privacy and sell your data like our competitors, nor will they come with annoying and insecure bloatware. The source code for elementary OS is available to the public, and is reviewed by the eyes of thousands of developers around the world who rapidly identify flaws before they can be exploited." The Litebook devices range in cost from $249 to $269 USD. The company claims a portion of their profits will be given to the elementary OS team to further improve their software.
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The Haiku developers have been working on a number of new features and upgrades to the spiritual successor of BeOS. Some of the new changes which were reported in the project's monthly news letter include the ability to use FUSE to connect to Windows network shares, patches to make Haiku compile using version 6 of the GNU compiler and work has started on sub-pixel rendering. "waddlesplash worked on enabling real sub-pixel rendering in Haiku. This used to be protected by Microsoft patents, but they are all expired or will expire really soon. So, it is time to start experimenting with this and getting ready for enabling it. waddlesplash also reworked the JSON API, and fixed several bugs found by the 'JSON Minefield' tests. This makes our parser more compatible with all kinds of JSON data, and also easier to use. humdinger added localization support to the package daemon and solver, allowing for pkgman and HaikuDepot to be fully translated. More patches from mt were merged, in order to make it possible to build Haiku with GCC 6. This is still a work in progress, as GCC 6 finds several new warnings also in 3rd-party code that was imported into Haiku. This code should be at least updated to a newer version, and at best, moved to packages." Additional information can be found in the Haiku blog post.
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The Red Hat team has published a reminder that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and its clones, such as CentOS, will reach the end of their supported life cycles at the end of March 2017. "In accordance with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Errata Support Policy, support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 will be retired on March 31, 2017, at the end of Production Phase 3. Until that date, customers will continue to receive Critical impact security patches and selected Urgent priority bug fixes for RHEL 5.11 (the final RHEL 5 release). On that date, active support included with your RHEL Premium or Standard subscription will conclude. This means that customers will continue to have access to all previously released content." Red Hat customers who wish to continue running version 5 of their operating system have the option of purchasing Extended Life Cycle Support to extend support though to November 30, 2020. The Red Hat errata notes have further details.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Security and the size of a distribution's team, update on streaming Netflix on Raspbian
Counting-the-cooks-in-the-kitchen asks: Are smaller distributions able to provide the same level of security as bigger projects? I'm wondering if one-man projects have the resources to be up to date with security patches?
DistroWatch answers: It can depend a lot on how the small project is set up. In particular, a distribution might have relatively few packages or a lot of packages to maintain. The project might be independent or it might pull in most of its packages (and patches) from an upstream distribution. We might also consider whether the small distribution relies on the original software developer to provide new versions and patches, or if the distribution provides its own fixes. With just these three variables, we have eight potential combinations which are likely to indicate better or worse software security.
Let's look at a few hypothetical examples. In one instance we could have a one-person project which has a lot of packages, is maintained independently and tries to keep up to date with security fixes without help from the original, upstream project. This situation is a recipe for disaster as it is unlikely one developer will be able to keep up with backporting fixes and patching thousands of packages. Moving along the spectrum a little, an independent distribution with lots of software that maintains a rolling release approach and pulls in new upstream versions & fixes automatically will have an easier time of keeping their users' software patched. A third project, which is based on a larger distribution and pulls in security fixes from the upstream distribution, needs to do very little work to keep up with security patches as the parent project does most of the work.
I suspect these variables are a big factor in why a lot of smaller, independent projects tend to either have few packages in their repositories or they tend to provide rolling releases (or both). It means less work for the developers. Small projects which are based off another distribution and can pull in software from the parent's repositories tend to have much larger collections of software in their repositories and they seem to be less likely to be rolling releases. When you have an upstream project like Debian or openSUSE doing the heavy work of packaging and patching software, it frees up a lot of time.
In short, I think the size of the project is less important than where the team gets their packages, how many branches/versions of each package they try to maintain and how many packages they need to track. A tiny project which pulls in software from Ubuntu's repositories is automatically about as secure as Ubuntu because it has access to the same fixes. But a tiny project which tries to maintain all of its own packages and patches has a lot more work to do and will be more likely to lag behind in fixes.
My recommendation is to look at where a project's software is coming from and see how quickly they respond to vulnerabilities. The time it takes to get things fixed and the project's approach to informing their users about potential problems will give a better indicator of how secure the distribution is than the number of people working on it.
If you visit our Security Advisories page you can see reports of when most of the major, upstream Linux distributions (which publish advisories) release bug fixes. They tend to be within a day or two of each other. Any smaller projects which pull in patched packages from these upstream distributions will likely be up to date with security fixes.
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Last week I raised the question as to whether the ARM-powered Raspberry Pi computer could be used to stream video and, in particular, used to watch Netflix videos. After reading many tutorials and trying a few methods of enabling Netflix on a fresh installation of Raspbian, I eventually gave up. However, one of our readers e-mailed me with a link to a discussion on the Raspberry Pi forums which provided a potential solution. Someone called "thatguruguy" had put together a Deb package which would add the necessary libraries to Chromium and add an application launcher to the Pi's desktop menu. The special launcher would enable streaming videos from Netflix through the Chromium web browser. At least that was the idea put forward on the forum. The person who sent me the link, Isaac, said he had tried the Deb package and it had worked on his Raspberry Pi 3 computer.
I downloaded the latest version of Raspbian (2017-02-16), enabled HDMI audio and installed the Deb package, netflix-launcher_1.0-1.deb. I had less luck than Isaac did and Netflix failed to play on my Pi. Each time I tried to access a video an error would appear saying the video player was missing. Perhaps I lacked a dependency or perhaps the issue stemmed from my device being a Raspberry Pi 2 while others were using the newer Pi 3. At any rate, the method provided on the forums did not work for me. If you own a Pi computer, please let us know if the provided Deb file works for you in the comments.
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We have more answered questions in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Zorin OS 12.1
The Zorin OS team has announced a new release of the project's Ubuntu-based desktop distribution. Zorin OS is designed to provide a familiar interface for people transitioning from a Windows environment. The newest version, Zorin OS 12.1, is a minor update to the project's 12 series and includes mostly bug fixes and improved hardware support: "We are pleased to announce the release of Zorin OS 12.1. This new release brings together the latest software updates, bug fixes, new desktop features, performance enhancements and hardware support. Zorin OS 12.1 introduces an updated hardware enablement stack. The newly-included Linux kernel 4.8 as well as an updated X server graphics stack adds compatibility for newer computers and hardware in Zorin OS. One of the new desktop features is an easy way to add app icons to the desktop. Simply open the Zorin menu and right-click on an app to view the option to add it to the Desktop or to Favorites." People who are already running Zorin OS 12 can update to version 12.1 using the distribution's Software Updater application. Further information can be found in the project's release announcement. Zorin OS 12.1 is available in three editions (Core, Business and Ultimate). The Core edition is free to download while the other two are commercial products.
BlackArch Linux 2017.03.01
Gaurov Soni has announced a release of BlackArch Linux 2017.03.01, an updated build of the project's Arch Linux-based live distribution featuring a collection of over 1,700 penetration testing and forensic analysis tools: "Today we released new BlackArch Linux ISO images. Here's the changelog: add more than 50 new tools; update BlackArch installer to 0.3.3 (bug fixes); fix several tools (dependencies, installs); include Linux kernel 4.9.11; updated all system packages; updated all BlackArch tools; updated menu entries for window managers (Awesome, Fluxbox, Openbox). New tools include: backdoorppt - transform your payload.exe into one fake word doc (.ppt); hercules-payload - a special payload generator that can bypass all antivirus software; insanity - generate payloads and control remote machines; snuck - automatic XSS filter bypass...." Visit the distribution's news page to read the release announcement. As usual, BlackArch Linux is available in two variants - a full 6.6GB image for USB devices or double-sided DVDs, or a much smaller network installation (netinst) image.
PCLinuxOS 2017.03
The PCLinuxOS development team has released a new version of the project's rolling-release distribution for the desktop. Featuring a modified Plasma 5 user interface, PCLinuxOS 2017.03 comes with Plasma Desktop 5.8.6 (which is part of the long-term support branch), Linux kernel 4.9.13, updated software packages, and several new applications: "The KDE Plasma 5 ISO image has been updated to version 2017.03. The image includes all of the updates and bug fixes from the past month. The kernel was updated to 4.9.13. KDE components were updated to Plasma 5.8.6 LTS, Frameworks to 5.31.0 and Applications to 16.12.2. Bug fixes include the menu editor, net applet in the system tray, Konsole profile and better defaults for Dolphin and System Tray icons. Applications added to ISO image include GParted, NixNote2 and Dropbox." Here is the brief release announcement. This version is available for 64-bit Intel/AMD architectures only.
Greenie Linux 16.04
Stanislav Hoferek has announced the release of Greenie Linux 16.04, a Lubuntu-based desktop distribution optimised primarily for Slovak and Czech users, but also supporting English, Hungarian and Polish languages: "Greenie Linux 16.04 is here. There are two editions. "Lite" is a useful system for everyday use with only the most important packages included, while "Desktop" has many more useful applications. For example, the newest WINE, LibreOffice, GIMP and many others. Greenie is based on Lubuntu, so it works fast even on older hardware. Specific Greenie applications are included, as well as applications for Windows that might be very useful for dual-boot setups. Greenie 16.04 is provided as an installable live medium, especially made for users in Slovakia and Czech Republic." Read the rest of the release announcement (in Slovak, scroll down for an introduction in English) for further details and MD5 checksums.
Greenie Linux 16.04 -- Running the LXDE desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Maui Linux 17.03
Leszek Lesner has announced the release of Maui Linux 17.03, a new version of the project's desktop Linux distribution featuring the latest KDE Plasma desktop. It is based on KDEneon. This release comes with updated packages, an improved Calamares system installer, and various desktop enhancements: "The Maui team is happy to announce the release of Maui Linux 17.03, code name 'Cuba Libre'. This release comes with plenty new package updates and KDE Plasma 5.9.3. It also ships Frameworks 5.31, Qt 5.7.1 and LTS Linux kernel 4.4. Firefox has been updated to version 51 and Thunderbird to version 45. Calamares has been updated to its latest version 3.1. Instead of the standard volume applet, this release ships the volume applet from 'Zren' found in the KDE Store. This release restores the 'Minimize All' functionality as a hot corner trigger (instead of the default 'Show Desktop'). Touching the lower right corner once with your mouse cursor minimizes all windows, while doing it right again brings them all up in the previous order." Continue to the release announcement for further information and screenshots.
Kwort Linux 4.3.2
Kwort Linux 4.3.2 has been released. Kwort Linux is a minimalist distribution with a desktop built around the Openbox window manager and its own package manager called kpkg. It is based on CRUX and is designed for advanced Linux users. "Kwort 4.3.2 is available for download. Clean system, as always, allows us to remain simple and fast. You'll see that this release is a little bit bigger as we include the linux-firmware package as in the previous release and also LLVM to allow a few X.Org drivers to work properly. Most significant technical aspects are: Linux kernel 4.8.15 and glibc 2.24; new kpkg version provides support for checking available upgrades before fetching and upgrading (diff option); GTK+ 3 is now included as part of the distribution; look & feel has been improved and both, GTK+ 2 and GTK+ 3, are themed to make both toolkits work together in a seamlessly way; Chromium 56.0.2924.28 which supports latest glibc (previous versions of Chromium break with glibc 2.24)." Visit the project's home page to read the full 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: 319
- Total data uploaded: 58.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
New navigation menu
About a week ago we introduced a new navigation menu near the top of each page on DistroWatch. The menu, housed in the green bar just under the old navigation menu, was created in the hopes of making resources on DistroWatch easier to find. We have introduced a lot of new features over the past few years and the new menu makes those easier to find without digging through sub-menus or our sitemap.
This week we would like to find out what you think of the new menu. Is the drop-down menu helpful or is it just taking up space? In an effort to maintain compatibility with text-browsers and browsers running with JavaScript disabled, the old menu will remain in place whether we keep the new menu or not. We don't want to break anyone's browsing habits.
You can see the results of our previous poll on owning hobbyist and single board computers here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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New navigation menu
| Keep the new menu: | 461 (47%) |
| Remove the new menu: | 96 (10%) |
| No preference: | 431 (44%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Random distribution on front page
On of the fun things about exploring Linux is the wide range of available projects. There are hundreds of Linux distributions, presenting us with many approaches to computing. To make it easier to find new and interesting projects we have added a Random Distribution widget to the left sidebar of our front page, near the bottom. Each visit to DistroWatch will display a different project, along with its current status, description and a screen shot.
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New projects added to database
Super Grub2 Disk
Super Grub2 Disk is a live CD that helps the user to boot into almost any operating system even if the system cannot boot into it by normal means. This allows a user to boot into an installed operating system if their GRUB installation has been overwritten, erased or otherwise corrupted. Super Grub2 Disk can detect installed operating systems and provide a boot menu which allows the user to boot into their desired operating system. Super Grub2 Disk is not an operating system itself, but a live boot loader which can be run from a CD or USB thumb drive.
Super Grub2 Disk -- The boot menu
(full image size: 7kB, resolution: 640x480 pixels)
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Distributions added to waiting list
- Archman GNU/Linux. Archman GNU/Linux is a Turkish distribution based on Arch Linux and features the Xfce desktop environment. The project maintains a custom package repository, but pulls most of its software from the Arch Linux software repositories.
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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, 13 March 2017. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
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| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Random distribution (by DaveW on 2017-03-06 01:19:39 GMT from United States)
I am running Linux Mint 18.1, and the random distribution widget is at the bottom of the LEFT sidebar, not the right sidebar as stated in the news item. FWIW I think discontinued distros should not be shown in that widget. The stated purpose is "to find new and interesting projects". To my mind, an obsolete/discontinued project does not fit that purpose.
2 • RE: 1 Random distribution (by ladislav on 2017-03-06 01:34:31 GMT from Taiwan)
I considered including active projects only, but then I thought it would be interesting to show old, discontinued projects as well. As an example, newer Linux users might find it amusing that there was once a distribution called BEERnix. Or that some big software companies like Corel used to make serious effort to get into Linux back in the late nineties. As for our faithful old readers, some of them might be happy to be reminded about favourite projects of the past, e.g. Libranet, which used to get excellent reviews and is fondly remembered by many.
For those who want a random ACTIVE distribution only, there is a button in the main navigation bar - this one is set to always reveal one of the ongoing projects.
3 • FatDog Linux - Built on what version of Puppy? (by d.hinds@gmx.com on 2017-03-06 01:44:52 GMT from Mexico)
If GSlapt comes with it, I assume the core is Slacko.
And that is the case, I've had two problems with 64 bit Slackware derivatives: 1.- Installing Wine; and 2.- They won't let me use my usual password (an inconvenient but lesser problem).
Is Wine installed by default?
Lastly: Since Slackware is systemd free, so is FatDog I assume.
Thanks in advance, J.A. Holm
4 • Old Faithfull (by bigsky on 2017-03-06 02:21:22 GMT from Canada)
Hi ladislav I'm an old faithful from decades ago and glad you brought up Corel, a blast from the past and many memories. Anyhow what i have been wondering for a while now is why the newer Linux users seem to mostly start their comments by starting with I am running Linux as apposed to I am using Linux? Time for a BEER. Thanks
5 • Running vs. using (by DaveW on 2017-03-06 02:47:47 GMT from United States)
@4 (bigsky) I don't know. I'm not exactly new at linux; been using it for 10+ years. Have a Molson.
6 • It ain't hell but you can see if from here (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2017-03-06 03:07:16 GMT from United States)
Upstream libs can be one-man shows anyway. OpenSSL? GnuPG? Count the hackers.
For security you want rolling, not 'backports,' signs of poor release engineering. It wastes manpower on stale code. What's the point of manpower wasted on backports and reviews by people less expert than upstream?
Such distros only pretend QA by holding back upgrades for a mysterious 'review' process. What 'review' can mean is hacking vanilla upstream code: needless re-engineering work.
Even they concede security needs faster turnaroud. It should be obvious to generalize, drop the re-engineering silliness, and go full rolling. Then 'security patches' are like any other kind. Release engineering unifies coherently. A distro should close vulns with normal release engineering, not exceptional special squads.
Ubuntu is awful security, absolutely awful, and distros downstream of it are the absolute bottom of the security barrell. You get the poor behavior of Debian times the poor behavior of Ubuntu times delays in your derivative. I've been there, done that, wept the tears, and left. I recall waiting years for a 'buntu to upgrade tor. It got insane.
Every distro should have LibreSSL by now. I think they're looking at each other waiting for someone else to dive first. Get a backbone already. The ones that have LibreSSL amusingly tweet one OpenSSL hack after another. Even glibc is bad security so at least try a distro offering musl-libc (Void, Alpine, Hardened Gentoo, you know the drill).
I could wax eloquent about System D- vulns. Just think OpenSSL on 'roids. Even Linus can't stand all its bugs. Speaking of whom, he cares squat for security and admits he (a) sucks at MIS and (b) only uses Red Team Black Hat Government Contractware, so if you're into security, compile your kernels by hand with custom flags.
7 • Running vs. using (by Simon on 2017-03-06 03:14:33 GMT from New Zealand)
@4 (&5): Running...using...what's the difference? I've been running/using Linux for nearly 20 years (since Slackware v.3.5) and never noticed any pattern to whether people use one or the other word for what they're doing with their OS. If anything, I'd have guessed that the natural tendency for complete newbies (on any system, including Windows etc.) would be to say "using" (since "running" relates to running a program, and isn't the most natural word for a complete beginner to use)...but have never really noticed any difference one way or the other.
8 • Security (@ 6) (by Simon on 2017-03-06 03:48:52 GMT from New Zealand)
The reasoning that rolling release = more secure than release + backports makes some sense in a tightly integrated project like Windows 10 in which the individual developers are highly motivated not to ignore the impact of their changes upon their colleagues' packages. For a distributed community project like GNU/Linux, with thousands of separately developed packages depending on each other for their functionality, one package's patches and fixes can be precisely what causes another package's bugs and vulnerabilities...and there's very little accountability for this: it can be a case of "OK, so project such-and-such needs to fix its code to accommodate our fixes...we're not responsible for ensuring that the fixes to our package will work with everyone else's". If you read through e.g. Debian patches, they do a lot of work before each release to smooth out the problems that inevitably occur in a rolling release like Sid. The rolling release model may appear more secure if you're focusing on just a small handful of highly visible packages like Tor...but for an OS overall, it is less reliable than the stable release model (i.e. you can't trust it to function in practice the way it claims to function in theory), and so it's less reliable in terms of security, too (which is one of the reasons why organizations that take security really seriously use distros like Red Hat rather than Gentoo).
9 • Navigation menu poll (by eco2geek on 2017-03-06 04:10:08 GMT from United States)
> Is the drop-down menu helpful or is it just taking up space?
Well, it doesn't take up much space, so keep it!
Thanks for bringing it to my attention; I hadn't really noticed it.
And you should probably place some visual clue, such as a down-arrow, next to each one so people know those are drop-down menus. They just look like regular old hyperlinks to me.
10 • @1 (by bigsky on 2017-03-06 04:18:44 GMT from Canada)
Sorry DaveW. It was not intended to be in your direction and was a general statement as an observation from other websites and also this one. Thanks
11 • A thanks to the c4.ommunity (by Atle on 2017-03-06 05:15:59 GMT from Norway)
Like to use this chance to give a thank to the developers of Fatdog64.
When I come across windows users that are always desperate to fight viruses, updates and other stuff to keep the OS running a few apps, they might end up with fatdog.
If a users need is like:
- A decent webbrowser or twoo
- Skype for talk
- VLC for video
- LibreOffice for writing stuff
Fatdog covers thoose needs and more.
As a user of Fatdog for many years, I have learned that I do not need other OS, despite doing all kind of stuff on my computer.
The supportthread for Fatdog64 at Puppy Linux Forum has a nice friendly tone and its highly recommended as a "beginner Linux", due to the fact that you run as root and can hence that do stuff on your own personal computer and not feel that your a threat to it and needs to provide a password for many operations.
Its VERY nice and easy to run as root.
This is one of the reasons I really love Fatdog64.
Easy, but yet as sophisticated as you like.
12 • Nav (by zykoda on 2017-03-06 07:23:39 GMT from United Kingdom)
New menu! Did not notice it! Does not show as obviously green until (mouse) pointer hovers. With advantage, the "hover event" could display submenus. Dillo sees it differently of course!
13 • Super Grub2 Disk finally in Distrowatch (by adrian15 on 2017-03-06 09:24:39 GMT from Spain)
At first I was thinking about writing an article on blog ranting on why Distrowatch took so long on adding Super Grub2 Disk to its database (It exists since 2005). I also had thought that Super Grub2 Disk should have a page of its own here on Distrowatch. You know, Distrowatch the place where distrohoppers go to find information.
And Super Grub2 Disk is the perfect tool for distrohoppers because even if your last distribution installation has masked previous installed distros it can find them and boot into them.
Distrowatch already has a 'Package management' page and probably adding a 'Gaining your boot page' page should end with more people asking for more help pages. And Distrowatch is about distro news and not a help page actually.
So I might add a page to Super Grub2 Disk webpage aimed at distrohoppers and how they can use it (and another one to Rescatux too). Or I might just focus on finishing stable Rescatux.
So, yes, I'm glad that finally Super Grub2 Disk is here. I also found out not too many people knew Super Grub2 Disk at Debconf (Debian conference) last years. So, yes, probably Distrowatch was too much into its own world (as most everyone of us is).
If you have any question about Super Grub2 Disk or a cool history to share I will take a look at this DW comments.
14 • @6 not everyone is a guru (by curious on 2017-03-06 12:57:11 GMT from Germany)
Normal people have work to do. They don't have the time to install and then babysit "Void, Alpine, Hardened Gentoo" or similar. They need something that works "out of the box" and is STABLE. Breakage via rolling updates is not acceptable. The only thing that is worse is short (6-9 month), fixed release cycles.
15 • Windows is more secure than Linux? (by Paul Salmon on 2017-03-06 13:44:32 GMT from United States)
Windows is more secure than Linux? Bullpucky!!! Windows is the most hacked operating system in history. That's why I've been happily running Linux Mint for 10 years, ever since the Vista Fiasco. Sure, I tried Windows 8, but it turned out to be an even Bigger Fiasco! I'll stick with Linux Mint, thank you very much.
16 • Love Super Grub Disk 2 (by Roy on 2017-03-06 15:12:18 GMT from United States)
I hope this stays free. It is like a favorite tool in the toolbox.
17 • @6 Security, backports, and black/white thinking (by Pearson on 2017-03-06 16:12:46 GMT from United States)
> For security you want rolling, not 'backports,' signs of poor release engineering.
Well, as usual the truth is somewhere between the extremes. If the rolling release is "bleeding edge", then updating one package for security might require updating another package that has newer unpatched problems. A hypothetical example would be: updating the kernel might force an update of the web browser to a version with an as-yet-unpatched vulnerability. Likewise, it might force an update of some proprietary package that is incompatible with existing customers/processes/infrastructure.
Of course, if the "backporting" system is extremely conservative, then some security patches cannot be applied -- I see this occasionally in Red Hat, where a CVE remains open because it isn't feasible to backport to the older version of software.
It took me months to finally get what a security guy kept telling me: security isn't black or white, don't think of a system as "secure" or "insecure" but as "secure enough." I liken it to home security -- in some neighborhoods a home is "secure" if it has locks and maybe an alarm, in other neighborhoods it isn't secure unless it has bars on windows, multiple locks, an alarm, and the owner has weapons.
18 • @8, if @6 was referencing Desktop use cases... (by c00ter on 2017-03-06 16:13:40 GMT from United States)
...rather than server-type environments, I have to agree with him/her. And I agree with you that rock-solid stability, especially for server-type usage, is easier to achieve with a *STABLE* distro version, hence things such as Debian Stable. But I think that it's interesting to note that many Arch users such as myself go years without breakage. More than 'safety and security' I think Linux needs 'competency' as a first rule of order.
19 • Booting Fatdog (by bison on 2017-03-06 17:07:56 GMT from United States)
I too get a kernel panic trying to boot Fatdog on an UEFI system, but I could not get past it by changing BIOS settings -- CSM enabled, etc.
I'm curious about the panel -- it looks like the LXQt panel, not LXDE panel.
20 • @ 15 • Windows is more secure than Linux? - Paul Salmon (by demek on 2017-03-06 17:49:07 GMT from United States)
Since more than 10 years, I've been using many Linux distros, and interestingly most had some problem or other, which we usually call "bugs." I have a Linux box for this, that is, only Linux distros are there, no Windows.
But, I have a Windows box too, actually 2 of them, one a 15" touch screen laptop, another is 2 in 1 tablet. They give me the full ability of Windows Ten's touch abilities. I never had a bug or anything like that. No blue screen or whatever. The OS stays out of the way. In both, I have GIMP, LibreOffice, Skype (owned by MS), and of course Sketchup. How about trying out Windows ten, Paul, rather than living in the Vista world?
Also, Windows ten is quite cheap, considering the machines that come with it. If you are patient enough, you can buy the same machine 30% or cheaper. Then, Windows become practically free.
21 • Security & such (by M.Z. on 2017-03-06 19:58:27 GMT from United States)
That 'spot' user security feature in Fatdog is really neat. I wonder why all browsers don't run in a similar mode in Linux? It also sounds similar to the way Firejail works.
@8 & 17
I like a fair amount about the rolling model, but unlike #6 I haven't drunk the kool-aid to the extent that I wouldn't admit that other release models have their place. One possible example you both seem to miss is big gaping new bugs can be introduced via new versions of software like the Heartbleed bug was actually introduced via a new version of OpenSSL with a new feature called Heartbeat. Big gaping new holes in new software may not be a common issue, especially in projects that are bigger & better managed than OpenSSL apparently was prior to Heartbleed; however, big new features introducing such problems are still possible. And of course old well patched software won't introduce those sorts of bugs or other regressions. It seems like IT departments all run things like Debian Stable or RHEL/CentOS, so the experts seem to think the trade offs of point release distros are worth it for big server deployments. From what little I can tell no one runs any large number of mission critical 'must work' servers running Arch.
references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbleed#History
@20
It's that green bar right beneath the top of the DW page.
It give new drop down menu options:
News/Opinions/Reviews | Packages | Find/Submit Distro | Tutorials & Learning | etc.
It seems fairly handy to me & quicker to navigate. That being said I agree with the suggestion of #9 to use arrows to make it a bit more intuitive.
22 • root bash (by Baltazar on 2017-03-06 20:04:06 GMT from Puerto Rico)
... I remember the bashing Lindows got for running as root...
How times have change...
am not to fond of sudo eider...
23 • Securty & such (by Pearson on 2017-03-06 20:50:45 GMT from United States)
@21, I thought about the "newer software sometimes introduces bugs", but wanted to stay focused. Thank you for that addition.
Like most of life, it's all about the balance.
24 • Windows & Linux (by Olga Puig on 2017-03-07 02:14:59 GMT from Spain)
I started using Linux because of Blue Screen of Death on Windows7. I was very angry with Microsoft and installed dual boot with Mint 14.
Four years later my laptop has windows10 dual boot with archlinux. Each OS has pros and cons. (like all in life). And I am competent on both OS. And I learned a lot with arch.
In Barcelona, Catalonia, is very difficult to buy a laptop without windows preinstalled, and then, win es practically free of charge.
BUT, ALL BEGUN WITH THE BSOD ON WINDOWS 7 (If win was running ok never tried Linux)
25 • The Menu (by cykodrone on 2017-03-07 06:31:14 GMT from Canada)
Quick menus are always good, but I didn't even notice it was there until it was mentioned. Maybe make the background colour a lighter green and make the font black? Only suggestions, bottom line, it doesn't really 'pop'. I voted keep.
Fatdog looks interesting, if I didn't know Gslapt = slapt-get = Slackware, I'd still be scratching my head a little. Nice to see it's systemd free.
26 • Menu (by argent on 2017-03-07 07:42:58 GMT from United States)
Let's keep it! Very easy and right in front with a lot of options.
Kudos to the DW team!
27 • Menu (by curious on 2017-03-07 08:58:38 GMT from Germany)
Please consider making the menu size and/or font size and/or the spacing between the menu elements variable. Since the addition of the drop-down arrows, the menu has become a huge two-line monstrosity in the window size I use for browsing.
As a side-note, I refuse to follow the trend of running all applications exclusively in full-screen.
28 • "Linux Sucks... For the Last Time" - 2017, Bryan Lunduke (by Greg Zeng on 2017-03-07 11:35:54 GMT from Australia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMKeWTVYBUo
23min 35 secs:
Bryan has announced the end of this ten years of humorous "lectures". Next year's lecture theme is ... BSD, ... ?
He gave us a new "invention. CANONICALLY. Thank you for this Linux invention, Bryan. No more NIH: "Not Invented Here", which is used by Canonical, AGAINST the Linux Community. No more Linux community. Just "Canonically".
Canonical split the Linux world with unpopular orphans: "MIR" (instead of Wayland, to replace X), UNITY to replace Red Hat's Flatpak and the very many other Linux "package containers" (rpm, deb, app image, java, pet, etc). So Canonical, canonically.
29 • Netflix (by G.B. on 2017-03-07 12:20:34 GMT from Austria)
Why not use Android on the Raspberry Pi? Android is also an open source operating system with the linux kernel. Ok, the apps are not open source but Netflix is it also not. Android works on the Raspberry Pi. To use Raspbian and Chromium take away much resources and is difficult to achieve. Or is there an ideological reason to use only GNU/Linux? But then someone should also not use Netflix.
30 • Manjaro (by Dem on 2017-03-07 13:36:24 GMT from United States)
When you download Manjaro, if you open it with 7z or some other unzip application, you'd get a folder named manjaro. Inside that folder you'd find files named desktofs.sfs, livefs.sfs, mhwdfs.sfs and rootfs.sfs. If you knw how to chroot, you can use unarchived rootfs.sfs (boot, dev, etc, home, mnt, opt, proc, root, run, srv, tmp, usr, var) and few other files to create your own Arch based installation. If you look in mhwdfs.sfs, you'd see the manjaro addi Interestingly, you can use 7-Zip in windows to unarchive the whole iso.
31 • Android on the Pi (by Jesse on 2017-03-07 13:48:32 GMT from Canada)
>> "Why not use Android on the Raspberry Pi?"
Mostly because Android doesn't really run well on the Pi. Some people have managed to get Android to boot on a Pi, but it's very buggy and crashes a lot. And most of the ports are years out of date at this point. Trying to use Android on a Pi is not a practical option.
32 • RE: 1 Random distribution (by gbarbaz on 2017-03-07 14:27:51 GMT from United States)
Actually ...
i would like to see the random distro located at the TOP left rather than BOTTOM left ...
And have an option to ONLY show "inactive" distros
It is nice to see images of the past as a reminder of how good we really have it today.
Also ...I must be very "dense" today ...
i cannot find the options for the random distro
33 • @31 (by G.B. on 2017-03-07 16:00:09 GMT from Austria)
Thank you Jesse for your advice.
I only know this website:
http://raspex.exton.se/?p=517
Its RaspAnd and its the newest Android version Nougat 7.1.1.
If it is stable, i don't know, if Netflix runs, i don't know, but as it is mentioned Spotify runs. It seems not all apps are running, but its normal, the Raspberry Pi is no smartphone, there are not all sensors etc.
But perhaps for Netflix it is better to use a single-board computer with a x86-based CPU and GNU/Linux like this one:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/263025908/jaguarboard-x86-based-single-board-computer
http://www.udoo.org/
34 • @33 (by G.B. on 2017-03-07 16:03:03 GMT from Austria)
Jaguarboard:
http://www.jaguarboard.org/index.php
35 • Android on a Pi (by Jesse on 2017-03-07 16:48:20 GMT from Canada)
@33: According to the website you linked to, that port of Android to the Pi doesn't work with wi-fi which means I wouldn't be able to use it for watching Netflix, even if the Netflix app does run.
36 • Using Running (by Semantic Web on 2017-03-07 18:23:46 GMT from United States)
On this page, excluding comments, I counted about 23 uses (heh) of run, runs, or running, and about 27 uses of use, uses, or using. This is by authors who have enough experience to write articles here. It wasn’t entirely consistent, but I’ll argue there was some pattern. Mostly, when referring to technologies, hardware, versions or settings, “use” was used. For example: “using EFI, using version 6, or using the newer Pi3. When referring to software, “running” was mostly used. For example: Running the LXDE desktop, running Ubuntu on an Android phone, running GNU/Linux on tablets, or running bash on Windows.” There were exceptions.
I also consulted definitions at dictionary dot com and mirriam-webster dot com, and only “run” made reference to computers. It seems “run” implies motion and speed. “Use” may be static, and often implies consuming something. So, we run GNU/Linux on PCs or tablets. We may use the bash command line to run sed, awk or vim. I use vim to edit files, but I run macros to speed things up. Occasionally I use a GUI to run my updates, but I find it faster to run from the command line. Finally, I always bash Windos, and run Debian for the win.
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere. Time to run.
37 • @35 (by B.H. on 2017-03-07 18:32:36 GMT from Austria)
Yes wifi does not work on Pi 2 but wired connection works. On Pi 3 wifi works, so you need a Pi 3 for Netflix:
"NOTE/WARNING – 1 – re. Raspberry Pi 2
Wifi and Bluetooth can’t be used running RaspAnd Nougat on Raspberry Pi 2. You’ll have to have and use a wired connection. Using a Raspberry Pi 3 Wifi works very well in RaspAnd Nougat Build 170127."
But not all apps check if wifi is enabled and works also with a wired connection, perhaps also the Neflix-app. I can use my smartphone with a docking station and a wired connection. So i don't need wifi for streaming videos but it don't works with all apps. So Netflix could also work with the Pi 2 and a wired connection.
38 • Trust (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2017-03-07 18:36:38 GMT from United States)
Would it change perceptions if Intel revealed just how to verify whether their Management-Engine was functional on a particular board?
39 • intel IME management engine, vPro, and such (by tim on 2017-03-07 20:53:21 GMT from United States)
Various motherboard manufactures exist; can't expect Intel to accurately report "on [each and every] particular board". vPro is incorporated within the CPU, and intel does report, on a per-SKU basis, which CPUs contain vPro (and similar, related, features/functionaity). The information is published to a site named "ark.intel.com" ~~ easy to lookup a given CPU by google search, e.g. "ark i7 4770S"
40 • CANONICALLY (by tim on 2017-03-07 21:01:50 GMT from United States)
@28 it would be "Snaps" competing with FlatPak, eh? (you wrote "Unity").
I wonder whether you watched the entire video? During the last few minutes, and it seems to be one of the takeaway points, he suggests (um, "muses"?) that maybe THAT -- do / try your own novel thing -- is the better path, toward achieving a superior solution for whichever longstanding and still unresolved suck-y "pain point".
41 • "Distro CHOICE" questions, giving THE answer !! (by Greg Zeng on 2017-03-08 04:14:53 GMT from Australia)
So many operating systems ... WHICH ONE?
So I created an easy selection menu. Questions are arranged in groups: the most common & important first.
Defaults (common?) are allowed to be changed. If the choices are too complicated, it is ok to stop, and get an ANSWER very quickly, at any stage.
The GROUPS: User's health, Application types, Power wants, Gadget add-ons, Storage needs, Operating system complexes.
Anti-creativity nitpickers love commenting here. Other more creative code hackers can now use this prototype to assist all computer users.
Changed Distro CHOICE
1 Computer systems previously?
2 Just the one language?
3 Only one user?
4 Hands & fingers ok?
5 Eyes ok?
6 Hearing ok?
7 Slow learner?
8 Fast learner?
9 Complex games?
10 Adding applications?
11 Complex applications?
12 Connected to internet?
13 Guest user?
14 Automatic log in?
15 High performance
16 Power saving
17 Extremely stable
18 Extremely secure
19 Very up to date
20 Printer?
21 Connect to old gadgets?
22 Connect to phone, tv, etc
23 Connecting to newest gadgets?
24 Changing equipment planned?
25 Backups needed?
26 Offline backups
27 Online backups
28 Only rotating storage
29 Only electronic storage
30 Rotating & electronic storage
31 Removable storage
32 Linux?
33 Windows?
34 Apple mac ios?
35 Android?
36 Multi-booting
37 Remote management
Any comments, feedback, suggestions?
42 • @41 • "Distro CHOICE" questions (by Greg Zeng on 2017-03-08 04:23:10 GMT from Australia)
The above was made with LibreOffice, on the Calc part. There is an additional column with usual defaults. Changes to these defaults are registed in the next column. Easy "ANSWER" is possible at any time. Doing the complete questionaire is not needed. Unfortunately, it is not possible on Dw to modify "Comments", nor upload files of any type.
Perhaps I might get my web-site, YouTube, etc presence better established, to upload these publishings. Just that "originality" is so hard to find, create, etc. Publishing is another business, left to others than myself.
43 • KANOTIX is alive and Kicking (by Roy Burton on 2017-03-08 18:08:55 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hi All alternative desktop Fans,
I just wish to plug an OS that seams to have been forgotten but is still active and produces nightly builds of it's LXDE and KDE desktops.
Kanotix is based on Debian 8.7 Jessie but has both 64 & 32 bit editions thus great for older machines.
I have been installing various distros on older hardware for well over ten years and I have found the Kanotix LXDE desktop to be very fast and stable and works with Compiz and has excellent hardware detection.
THIS DISTRO IS WORTH LOOKING AT
I hope Distrowatch will be able to take a closer look at this distro, and perhaps review it.
44 • self-guided or assisted distro selection (by tim on 2017-03-09 03:22:36 GMT from United States)
Found these 3 interactive "distro picker helpers" among my collected bookmarks:
http://www.tuxradar.com/content/distro-picker-0 https://distrochooser.de http://www.selectsmart.com/FREE/select.php?client=jalucq
45 • Super Grub2 Disk (by Super Grub2 Disk fan on 2017-03-09 07:12:58 GMT from Sweden)
This is a great little helper, has saved my bacon more than once. Great for when you're tinkering but, oops, your computer won't boot anything...you know, like when you just get a "grub >" prompt, and that's it. Good to use with another good program, "EasyUEFI", if you are dual-booting with Windows. This one backs up efi partitions. With these two, you can at least restore things to where they were. Btw, if you have trouble getting Super Grub2 Disk itself to boot on a usb stick, it works well to use Rufus and use the "DD" option to create it. Glad to see this on DistroWatch.
46 • 44 • self-guided or assisted distro selection (by Greg Zeng on 2017-03-09 07:21:15 GMT from Australia)
Your second url is in German. It seems closer to what I had in mind.
Https://distrochooser.de/?l=2 ... Is the same link, but in English.
Now to have it linked to the current listings in DW!!
Your other links are not designed for noobs.
The first link:
"Linux Distro Selector
4 from 37 votes. 6,309 visitors' top results Created August 2010".
Third link:
Distro Picker
"Posted at 10:51am on Thursday April 25th 2013"
47 • Navigation Menu (by C, Mr Niyas on 2017-03-09 08:37:28 GMT from India)
Newly introduced navigation menu facilitate navigation to various sections in distrowatch portal. I would like to have some usability improvements for it.
- It should be opened when we place mouse over that.
- It should automatically close when we move mouse out of menu.
Or at the least, there should be option to close menu by clicking on the menu link.
48 • No I didn't see it...Yes, I like it... (by tom joad on 2017-03-09 15:29:19 GMT from Norway)
I hit this site at least once a day pretty much every day. But I missed that little doo-dad at the top of the page. I bet I was not alone in not seeing that thingie.
I like it. I vote it stays. I like those little drop down thingies.
49 • Super Grub2 Disk and Boot-Repair-Disk (by Jan on 2017-03-09 15:59:56 GMT from Netherlands)
Does anyone have knowledge about the difference or an advice between:
- Super Grub2 Disk
- Boot Repair Disk https://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/
Thanks
50 • About backing up EFI files (by adrian15 on 2017-03-09 17:03:41 GMT from Spain)
@45 Good to use with another good program, "EasyUEFI", if you are dual-booting with Windows. This one backs up efi partitions.
I'm working on adding some UEFI options to Rescatux so that you can, at least, order the EFI images to boot. It won't be as powerful as backing up EFI partitions (I don't want to let the user to tinker too much their partitioning) but It might become handy in the future.
@45 Btw, if you have trouble getting Super Grub2 Disk itself to boot on a usb stick, it works well to use Rufus and use the "DD" option to create it.
Yeah, one day I will have to update the documentation. Using the 'dd' command or an equivalent option in a tool is the way to go.
51 • Super Grub2 Disk and Boot-Repair-Disk difference (by adrian15 on 2017-03-09 17:08:35 GMT from Spain)
@49 Does anyone have knowledge about the difference or an advice between:
- Super Grub2 Disk
- Boot Repair Disk https://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/
Well, Super Grub2 Disk lets you boot into your operating systems without touching your hard disk. Boot Repair Disk repairs many boot problems.
Check out my other rescue oriented distro named: Rescatux. Boot Repair Disk has common features with Rescatux like recovering GRUB bootloader although our implementation is different. Boot Repair Disk has some features that Rescatux does not have. And viceversa too.
I also include Boot Repair tool inside Rescatux but I don't give support to it.
52 • Nav Menu (by M.Z. on 2017-03-09 19:53:10 GMT from United States)
@47
"- It should be opened when we place mouse over that."
For the sake of all that is decent, let's _Never Do That_! It's just a personal pet peeve of mine, but automatic pop ups on hover are easily among the most annoying things in computing. Why do people like to eliminate free movement over large portions of the screen? I just want to move my mouse to the place I want to click on & then I'll click & open the thing I want. The auto open garbage is extremely frustrating & distracting, & it seems to waste about 1000x more time than it could ever save. It takes a mere fraction of a second to click, but shifting your focus back & forth & getting out of auto opening things takes far longer. And of course you add to that the fact that you are now forced to figure out & follow precise new paths to get everywhere on the screen with out activating the worthless automatic popups. Or you could figure out the minimum needed speed to never trigger the wretched thing by accident & always remember to move at least that fast anytime your near the piece of garbage menu, lest you accidentally trigger it & waste more time with it. I honestly can't fathom how such a terrible design could ever be considered anywhere near as fast, efficient, simple, & elegant as a simple quick click once you take into account the distraction in navigating around the stupid thing.
Sorry to rant, it's just my opinion. But really when you think about it isn't a click simpler, faster, & all around better? If it's designed so your not fighting to navigate around or speed over the menu then it's taking so long you may as well click to save time. It seems like all distraction & no gain to me.
53 • Repair and Utility disks - MX Workbench iso (by Hoos on 2017-03-10 05:47:03 GMT from Singapore)
Created mainly as a showcase of how easy it is to use MX Linux's snapshot utility to create one's own iso image, one of the MX developers put together a Tools and Utilities Community Respin with all sorts of useful tools and applications, called MX Workbench. It contains much more than just repair tools but contains MX/Mepis/antiX's longstanding Grub/Boot Repair tool.
The tools themselves are displayed upon bootup in a separate welcome window and those that require root permissions open automatically in root without password.
This can be written onto live disk or USB stick. On USB stick, you can take advantage of MX/antiX's live persistence functionality (assuming it's not written with the dd command).
Comes in 32 and 64 bit versions. They are fairly new and probably not tested extensively since as stated it was more a proof of concept but I'm sure the developers would welcome more trialing and feedback.
http://mxrepo.com/snapshots/Community_Respins/
54 • Thanks for bringing MX Workbench iso (by adrian15 on 2017-03-10 14:11:17 GMT from Spain)
@53 Created mainly as a showcase of how easy it is to use MX Linux's snapshot utility to create one's own iso image, one of the MX developers put together a Tools and Utilities Community Respin with all sorts of useful tools and applications, called MX Workbench.
I personally do not like iso images that gather together many tools for rescue without adding new value. Don't get me wrong. I don't say that's the case for MX Workbench but it smells like that. We already have ultimate boot cd, grml, system rescue cd or even parted magic for that task.
That's why invented Rescatux (and Rescapp) which features an easy wizard for newbies and makes a difference compared to just putting a bunch of cli tools or gui tools into a live cd and not knowing what to do.
@53 It contains much more than just repair tools but contains MX/Mepis/antiX's longstanding Grub/Boot Repair tool.
However I didn't know about this Mepis Grub/Boot Repair tool and it's nice to have another GUI tool for restoring grub. I've seen that it's written in C++ and I might grab some ideas from its implementation.
MX Bootrepair source code: https://github.com/MX-Linux/mx-bootrepair
So, Thank you for bringing it here!
55 • Run vs Use (by Rev_Don on 2017-03-10 17:03:52 GMT from United States)
To some extent it depends on where you are from as to which term you use, much like Soda vs Pop, as well as your age and how long you've been using computers.. As someone who cut their computer teeth on Mainframes back in the 70's I tend to use Run more than use. That is primarily because we would Run a program or task (like run a print job). Most of the time when I hear (or see) someone refer to it as Using they tend to be differentiating between types of computers (tablets, laptops, etc) not the operating system. You Use a computer and you Run a program or OS.
At least that is how I see it. Other folks mileage may vary.
56 • Re: Boot-Repair, plus thanks to Distrowatch's producers (by eco2geek on 2017-03-10 21:49:16 GMT from United States)
@49 - I haven't had any experience with the "Super Grub2 Disk".
I have had experience using Boot-Repair; I've probably used it three or four times. It has worked very well. Recommended.
You can either download a CD or DVD with the Boot-Repair program pre-installed, or use a *buntu (e.g. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, etc.) live DVD and install the program from its PPA when running in live mode. For more information, see:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
P.S. Thanks to those who produce Distrowatch and its content. It's a very useful site.
57 • Single Board Computers (by D Crunkilton on 2017-03-11 02:49:38 GMT from United States)
I have sitting in unopened boxes: 4ea PiB 3, 4ea Pi A+, 4ea PI zero. From the output of nmap I can identify 10 ea of online Pi devices including early Pi B (after the first 10,000), A+, Pi B2, Pi B3. I have given away about 4 ea of Pi B 2 to college students.
Uses: Caching proxy server (apt-cacher) with HD, rsync backup, musicbox internet radio, PiAware aircraft tracker, LED scrolling array driver, sshd server/gateway, net video camera, raspberry pi Atrix laptop, relay box. I use the sshd gateway, which does not accept passwords, to connect to my network while traveling. From there, ssh-ing into the relay box allows resetting three headless Intel Folding@home servers after a power failure. The relay box can also cycle the power supplies for these servers. At one time I had one that served GPS on my network. I always need a few running but not dedicated to anything for experimentation.
58 • Single Board Computers ??? (by bigsky on 2017-03-11 04:46:24 GMT from Canada)
@57 I love The whole concept of SBC ( they have been around for quit a while )
and this is the future but what I don't understand is why none have USB 3 or USB 3.1 ? The CPU and memory are there and capable and yet even the newest Asus Tinker Board has USB 2 ? I think I know why but am looking for some feedback and other peoples views. Merci
59 • re auto-activation by mouse-position (by Ted H in Minnesota on 2017-03-11 14:41:28 GMT from United States)
re auto-activation by mouse-position:
Nr 52 You weren't "ranting" - you were performing a Public Service! You are Right On about never-make-a-feature-activated-when-the-mouse- moves-over-it!! It should be the USER'S CHOICE not the Programmer's Choice what happens!! I'd like to meet up with those who program in this "feature", at night in a dark alley! I'll be carrying a baseball bat!
Another pet peeve of mine is an OS that has NO ability to turn OFF the Touchpad! Some of us want to ONLY USE A MOUSE, and don't want the line of work we are working on, bumped Somewhere Else by our wrists!!! The only touchpad control choice a number of OS's have is how you want to scroll it and if you want it turned off when keying in data. I want the ability to turn the damn thing OFF all the time! A few OS's are more enlightened on touchpad choices... (And a few computer manufacturers thoughtfully/sensibly have a toggle key for the user to choose if he/she wants the touchpad turned On or Off.) I only use linux OS's that enable me to turn the Touchpad OFF!
Programmers need to get outside of themselves and their own point of view, and consider, and program into/for what We, The Users actually want and what makes common sense overall. And it would be nice if there was an easy way to communicate with them.
There should be a contact a general email address switchboard where one could email in, and a switchboard operator there thinks over, "hmm, this looks like something that should be directed to x", and they route it there! Why should we the user have to "know" where to send it, and jump through their complicated procedural hoops to register a suggestion, bug, or complaint??!
A lot of OS developers do not list any way/means of communicating with them, like they are afraid of being Swamped! That is what the Switchboard Operator is for! And you will get some really valuable input suggestions!
I personally like to critique software and provide feedback to programmers/OS developers to what is good about their OS etc., and what needs improvement, and I find myself CUT OFF from any simple direct means to do that!!
And I am NOT apologizing for this "rant", nor should M.Z., nr 52. You said what needs to be said! The only thing I "apologize" for here is the length of this opus.
60 • Live distros without a keyboard (by Mike M. on 2017-03-11 15:19:37 GMT from Canada)
I recently acquired an Intel-based tablet that came pre-installed with Windows 10. I plugged a Linux Mint 18 USB flash drive into the tablet's USB port and rebooted, only to discover that I could not boot it without pressing the Enter key at the (GRUB?) menu on a keyboard, which I did not have attached.
I shutdown the tablet and plugged a USB keyboard and the Mint 18 flash drive into a USB hub, which I then plugged into the tablet. I was then able to boot into Linux Mint 18 and discover that, unlike some reports I had read about Linux on tablets, everything (touch, WiFi, sound) worked automatically.
The tablet's solid state drive has a recovery partition at the end of the drive, so I'm a bit hesitant to try and shrink the Windows 10 partition to make room for a Linux distro on the solid state drive for fear of removing the capability to recover Windows 10.
While I'm very happy with Linux Mint 18 (MATE) on my desktop, I'm wondering if there might be a better choice for a tablet.
What Linux live distro would Distrowatch readers recommend for (Intel-based) tablets?
Which Linux live distros will boot automatically without requiring a keyboard?
Do any Linux live distros have an on-screen keyboard that is available at boot time?
Thanks,
Mike
61 • rants & such (by M.Z. on 2017-03-11 19:47:08 GMT from United States)
@59
'Nr 52 You weren't "ranting" - you were performing a Public Service!'
Actually I don't think the two are in any way mutually exclusive, it's mostly just tone & length that equals rant in my understanding. I definitely feel you though, but the back ally quip was a little too much. That kind of thing plus length = rant.
On the mouse configuration thing you mentioned I did notice some good options in both KDE & Cinnamon. The checkbox in KDE is especially nice as it can automatically turn off the pad anytime a mouse is connected. That would be nice for me, but I like to use the two finger scroll function on the pad so its not quite worth the trade off. Then again maybe I really just need a new mouse with the big track ball & a scroll wheel, but I'm too cheap to buy one. I need to find someone throwing one out that too nice for the garbage bin. That is a nice way to get a lot of decent computer stuff.
Number of Comments: 61
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| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
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| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
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| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
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ESware LinuX
Esware 365 was a Linux distribution that was easy to use and install. It features high performance for desktop and utility applications, and was suited for Linux newbies. Esware Linux was based on Debian and was not a live CD. It includes all the software necessary for installing and using the system on a single 700MB CD.
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