 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 745, 8 January 2018 |
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Welcome to this year's 2nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Most distributions follow a predictable life cycle. They present a new approach or idea, they grow and, eventually, are discontinued. A handful will reach critical mass and become sustainable in the long-term. A few rare cases disappear and return from the dead with a new, fresh start. This week, in our News section, we talk about two returning distributions: Freespire and its commercial sibling, Linspire. These two distributions are also the subject of our Opinion Poll and we would like to hear from you if you have used either of these systems. We also say a fond farewell to the Debian-based Parsix GNU/Linux distribution. Plus we talk about multiple processor bugs which affect most modern operating systems, including all Linux distributions. First though, we explore a desktop-friendly flavour of BSD: GhostBSD. The GhostBSD project is available in Xfce and MATE editions and makes setting up a desktop, BSD-based operating system a simple point-and-click experience. Plus we discuss how to add an AppImage or other third-party program to the desktop's application menu in our Tips and Tricks guide. As usual, we are happy to share the releases of the past week and provide a list of the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we are pleased to welcome the Archman GNU/Linux distribution to our database. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: GhostBSD 11.1 - FreeBSD for the desktop
- News: Linspire and Freespire return, Parsix shuts down, wide-spread CPU bugs, Ubuntu 17.04 reaching its end of life
- Tips and tricks: Adding an AppImage to the application menu
- Released last week: Freespire 3, Linspire 7.0, Robolinux 8.10
- Torrent corner: Antergos, feren OS, IPFire, Gecko, KDE neon, Makulu, Robolinux, SwagArch, Zeroshell
- Opinion poll: Thoughts on Linspire and Freespire
- DistroWatch.com news: Improved package search
- New additions: Archman GNU/Linux
- New distributions: VeltOS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (27MB) and MP3 (33MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
GhostBSD 11.1 - FreeBSD for the desktop
GhostBSD is a desktop oriented operating system which is based on FreeBSD. The project takes the FreeBSD operating system and adds a desktop environment, some popular applications, a graphical package manager and Linux binary compatibility. GhostBSD is available in two flavours, MATE and Xfce, and is currently available for 64-bit x86 computers exclusively. I downloaded the MATE edition which is available as a 2.3GB ISO file.
Booting from the installation media brings up a graphical login screen where we can sign into the live desktop environment using "ghostbsd" as the account name with no password. The live MATE desktop is presented with a two panel layout. At the top of the screen we find the Applications, Places and System menus. The top panel also plays host to the system tray. The bottom panel features a task switcher and a widget for switching between virtual desktops. On the desktop we find icons for launching the Caja file manager and the GhostBSD system installer. There is also an icon which launches the HexChat IRC client and automatically connects us with the project's chat room.
Installing
GhostBSD's system installer is a graphical application which begins by asking us for our preferred language, which we can select from a list. We can then select our keyboard's layout and our time zone. When it comes to partitioning we have three main options: let GhostBSD take over the entire disk using UFS as the file system, create a custom UFS layout or take over the entire disk using ZFS as the file system. UFS is a classic file system and quite popular, it is more or less FreeBSD's equivalent to Linux's ext4. ZFS is a more advanced file system with snapshots, multi-disk volumes and optional deduplication of data. I decided to try the ZFS option.
Once I selected ZFS I didn't have many more options to go through. I was given the chance to set the size of my swap space and choose whether to set up ZFS as a plain volume, with a mirrored disk for backup or in a RAID arrangement with multiple disks. I stayed with the plain, single disk arrangement. We are then asked to create a password for the root account and create a username and password for a regular user account. The installer lets us pick our account's shell with the default being fish, which seemed unusual. Other shells, including bash, csh, tcsh, ksh and zsh are available. The installer goes to work copying files and offers to reboot our computer when it is done.
Early impressions
The newly installed copy of GhostBSD boots to a graphical login screen where we can sign into the account we created during the install process. Signing into our account loads the MATE 1.18 desktop environment. I found MATE to be responsive and applications were quick to open. Early on I noticed odd window behaviour where windows would continue to slide around after I moved them with the mouse, as if the windows were skidding on ice. Turning off compositing in the MATE settings panel corrected this behaviour. I also found the desktop's default font (Montserrat Alternates) to be hard on my eyes as the font is thin and, for lack of a better term, bubbly. Fonts can be easily adjusted in the settings panel.
GhostBSD 11.1 -- The application menu showing off the default font
(full image size: 804kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
On the subject of the settings panel, I like how GhostBSD's is arranged. The settings modules are well organized and it was easy for me to find the desktop options I wanted to adjust. Each module tends to have a simple layout with just a few options apiece, making adjustments straight forward.
GhostBSD 11.1 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 718kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
A few minutes after I signed into my account, a notification appeared in the system tray letting me know software updates were available. Clicking the update icon brings up a small window showing us a list of package updates and, if any are available, updates to the base operating system. FreeBSD, and therefore GhostBSD, both separate the core operating system from the applications (packages) which run on the operating system. This means we can update the core of the system separately from the applications. GhostBSD's core remains relatively static and minimal while applications are updated using a semi-rolling schedule.
When we are updating the core operating system, the update manager will give us the option of rebooting the system to finish the process. We can dismiss this prompt to continue working, but the wording of the prompt may be confusing. When asked if we want to reboot to continue the update process, the options presented to us are "Continue" or "Restart". The Continue option closes the update manager and returns us to the MATE desktop.
The update manager worked well for me and the only issue I ran into was when I dismissed the update manager and then wanted to install updates later. There are two launchers for the update manager, one in MATE's System menu and one in the settings panel. Clicking either of these launchers didn't accomplish anything. Running the update manager from the command line simply caused the process to lock up until killed. I found if I had dismissed the update manager once, I'd have to wait until I logged in again to use it. Alternatively, I could use a command line tool or use the OctoPkg package manager to install package updates.
Package management
OctoPkg is a simple package manager with two main views. One view shows packages currently installed on our system. The second view allows us to search for available packages in the on-line repository. We can toggle between the two views with the click of a button. We can then click on packages in either view to mark them for installation or removal. The remote package view, by default, does not show anything. There doesn't appear to be a way to show all available packages and browse through them. Instead we search for packages based on their name. Searches can be tricky because if we give too much information, we will not get any results back. For example, searching for "music" will show audio players, but searching for "music player" shows nothing. Likewise, searching for "word" will show word processors or dictionaries, but "word processor" returns no results.
GhostBSD 11.1 -- The OctoPkg package manager
(full image size: 632kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
While finding packages can be tricky, OctoPkg works quickly and can optionally upgrade all installed packages on our system. While I did not run into any errors while using OctoPkg, I think it is worth mentioning the package manager does not deal with the core FreeBSD operating system; we cannot use OctoPkg to upgrade the core operating system, just its third-party packages.
Hardware
I tried using GhostBSD in two environments, starting with a VirtualBox virtual machine. In the virtual environment, GhostBSD worked very well. The operating system booted and performed quickly, the desktop was responsive and the system was stable. The MATE desktop responded quickly and automatically integrated with my host environment, using my screen's full resolution. The operating system used about 6.5GB of disk space for a fresh installation. When logged into MATE, GhostBSD used about 280MB of active memory and 350MB of wired memory, most of the latter appears to be utilized by ZFS.
When I then tried working with GhostBSD on my physical desktop computer, I was disappointed. I could not get GhostBSD's installation media to boot. GhostBSD's boot media supports several boot options (normal, safe graphics settings and booting without ACPI support). Taking any of the options caused GhostBSD to lock up about two seconds into the boot process and refuse to proceed. This limited my experiment with GhostBSD to the virtual machine.
Applications
GhostBSD ships with a fairly standard set of open source applications. Firefox is available, along the with the Thunderbird e-mail client, the Pidgin messaging software and the HexChat IRC client. LibreOffice is installed for us along with a dictionary and the Atril document viewer. The Cheese webcam utility is included along with the Xfburn disc burning software.
GhostBSD 11.1 -- Browsing available applications
(full image size: 656kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
GhostBSD ships with MPlayer for watching videos and Exaile for playing audio files. I was able to play video files out of the box, but unable to listen to MP3 files with the default codecs. We can use the OctoPkg package manager to grab additional codecs. GhostBSD's codec packages are clearly named, making it easier to find what we need. For example, we can install gstreamer-plugins-mp3 to play MP3 files and gstreamer-plugins-ogg to play OGG files.
The operating system provides us with the Caja file manager, a desktop application for setting up printers and the Shotwell photo manager. We can also find an archive manager, text editor and image viewer in the application menu. There is a launcher called GhostBSD Bugs which opens Firefox and displays the project's issue tracker. In the background we find the Clang compiler, the FreeBSD command line tools and the FreeBSD 11.1 kernel. There was another program called GSmartControl, but it failed to open when I tried to launch it.
Other features
GhostBSD ships with FreeBSD's Linux compatibility software enabled. This means, in theory, GhostBSD will be able to run Linux executable files, assuming all library dependencies are met. I tested the Linux compatibility functionality using a Linux package for the Sublime editor available in the FreeBSD package repository. The package installed and was added to my application menu, but failed to start. I also tried a game called Nero and, while it loaded, the game quickly crashed. It seems the Linux compatibility layer can work in some cases, but it is probably best not to rely on it, especially for more modern applications such as Chrome or Steam.
Before GhostBSD starts, the FreeBSD boot menu is displayed and it includes an option to select a boot environment. A boot environment is a snapshot of the operating system, usually taken prior to a software upgrade or configuration change which might damage the system. GhostBSD does not appear to ship with any tools for managing boot environments, but the boot environment administration (beadm) package is available in the software repository. beadm is a command line tool which makes it easy to create, destroy and mount snapshots.
I tested beadm and found I could successfully create snapshots and activate them to be used at the next system restart. I also found the boot menu would recognize the snapshots I created and allow me to select which one I wanted to boot. This means, so long as I run beadm create prior to a configuration change or system update, if anything goes wrong a broken system can be fixed by rebooting and selecting the most recent snapshot from the boot menu. Short of hardware failure, GhostBSD running on ZFS is nearly bullet proof.
By default, GhostBSD makes both sudo and a root account available for people who wish to perform administrative tasks. The first user we create, at install time, is automatically set up to be able to use sudo to perform admin actions.
Conclusions
Most of my time with GhostBSD, I was impressed and happy with the operating system. GhostBSD builds on a solid, stable FreeBSD core. We benefit from FreeBSD's performance and its large collection of open source software packages. The MATE desktop was very responsive in my trial and the system is relatively light on memory, even when run on ZFS which has a reputation for taking up more memory than other file systems.
GhostBSD 11.1 -- Running Firefox and LibreOffice
(full image size: 495kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
There were a couple of weak links in GhostBSD's chain, the big one being hardware compatibility. While the operating system worked very well in VirtualBox, I could not get it to boot on my desktop hardware, a problem I typically have with FreeBSD-based projects. I can often work around little issues when trying a new operating system, but only if it will boot. The second concern I had was with the package manager. OctoPkg works, but it is very minimal and it doesn't make it particularly easy for new users to find the software they want. I'm hoping to see a more modern looking software centre in future versions of GhostBSD.
One final concern I had was GhostBSD does not have quite the range of software a Linux distribution can access. Most of the same programs are there and people who use open source software exclusively will probably find everything they need. However, people who want to run Chrome, Steam or other modern, closed source applications which do run on Linux will not find them on GhostBSD.
The killer feature, from my point of view, was GhostBSD's great ZFS and boot environment support. Full disk ZFS is supported right in the installer and GhostBSD makes it very easy to set up. Most users will be able to just click through the partitioning screen without adjusting anything. Then, once we have the beadm package installed, we can make use of boot environments, snapshotting our operating system before making any major changes. Then a restart will fix almost any issue which comes up.
I think GhostBSD has matured a lot in the past few years and it is close to being on par with Linux equivalents such as Ubuntu MATE. I definitely recommend giving it a try, if you have hardware that is compatible with GhostBSD, I think the operating system will provide a pleasant experience.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Visitor supplied rating
GhostBSD has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.2/10 from 51 review(s).
Have you used GhostBSD? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Linspire and Freespire return, Parsix shuts down, wide-spread CPU bugs, Ubuntu 17.04 reaching its end of life
The Linspire distribution has had a long and mixed history. Linspire (originally named Lindows) is a commercial distribution which has changed hands a few times. Linspire started as a Debian-based project designed to offer a familiar desktop environment for Windows users. Linspire was later re-based on Ubuntu and continued its beginner-friendly mission. However, the Linspire distribution was eventually purchased by Xandros and discontinued back around 2008. At the end of 2017, PC/OpenSystems LLC announced they had purchased Linspire and its community edition, Freespire, and would resume development of these two Ubuntu-based distributions. Linspire is being sold as a commercial product which can be bundled with PC/OpenSystems computers while Freespire can be downloaded free of charge. More information can be found on the PC/OpenSystems Linspire information page.
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Parsix GNU/Linux, a Debian-based desktop distribution, is being shut down. The project's home page has announced the Parsix repositories have been shut down and users of the distribution are encouraged to use Debian's package repositories. "Please point your apt repositories to Debian Jessie. Security repository is still active, however the plan is to shut it down on December 15, 2017."
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Many technology websites are abuzz this week with news of multiple bugs in Intel processors which can leak critical kernel information to programs running on the operating system. This could potentially leak user credentials or security keys to any malicious program or user on the system. CNXSoft reports, "Many security bugs can be fixed without performance penalty, but according to reports Intel processors have a hardware bug - whose details have not been disclosed yet (embargo) - that seems to affect all operating systems including Windows, Linux, macOS, etc, and the fix may lead to significant performance hits for some tasks." Working around the bug seem to slow down systems by 5% to 30%, depending on the task being monitored. It has been reported that, apart from Intel x86 processors, ARM64 CPUs are also affected. Tom Lendacky, a Linux developer working for AMD, has stated that AMD x86 processors are not affected by one of the bugs, but another, related bug appears to affect all x86 processors. Patches for all major operating systems are expected in be released during the month of January 2018. The openSUSE News page has more details on the multiple processor issues. A great overview of both CPU issues can be found in a mailing list post by DragonFly BSD's Matthew Dillon.
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Steve Langasek has announced the supported life of Ubuntu 17.04 is drawing to a close. "Ubuntu announced its 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) release almost 9 months ago, on April 13, 2017. As a non-LTS release, 17.04 has a 9-month support cycle and, as such, will reach end of life on Saturday, January 13th. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 17.04. The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 17.04 is via Ubuntu 17.10." Ubuntu 17.04 users are advised to upgrade to version 17.10. Instructions for performing the upgrade can be found in the Ubuntu Community Help Wiki.
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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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Adding an AppImage to the application menu
These days the concept of portable applications which can be downloaded and run on any Linux distribution is increasingly popular. A lot of distributions are moving to support portable technologies like Flatpak and Snap packages. However, while Flatpak and Snap both require a supporting framework to be available for applications to run, there are other portable package formats which are entirely self-contained and do not need distribution-level support.
We have talked about these portable package formats before and one of the most easy to use, portable packages is AppImage. An application which has been built as an AppImage is downloaded as a single file. This file can be made executable and then run on virtually any Linux distribution as the one file contains all of the application's dependencies.
One drawback to working with AppImages is most applications distributed as an AppImage will not integrate themselves into our desktop environment. This makes it less convenient to run an AppImage than an application which is installed via our operating system's software manager. In this Tips and Tricks column we are going to explore how to set up a short-cut in our desktop's application menu which can be used to run an AppImage bundle, or any other program.
The first thing we need to do is make sure the AppImage file, or other program we want to run, is executable. From the command line we can do this with the chmod program. In this example we will make the AppImage for AwesomeGame executable and then create a short-cut for it. The following commands make the AwesomeGame.AppImage bundle executable so we can run it. In this example I assume the AwesomeGame.AppImage bundle is in my Downloads directory.
cd /home/jesse/Downloads
chmod a+x AwesomeGame.AppImage
We can test to make sure the AppImage bundle works by running it directly on the command line using
./AwesomeGame.AppImage
Once we have confirmed the bundle runs and works as expected we can then create a short-cut to the game. To make a short-cut in our application menu we need to create a special file, called a .desktop file. This file must be saved in our .local/share/applications directory. We can use any text editor to create this .desktop file, I'm going to use the KWrite text editor:
kwrite ~/.local/share/applications/AwesomeGame.desktop
In this new text file we need to place a series of lines which describe what the short-cut points to. In my case the new text file will look like this:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=AwesomeGame
Categories=Game
Comment=This is a short-cut to the AwesomeGame AppImage
Exec=/home/jesse/Downloads/AwesomeGame.AppImage
Type=Application
The "[Desktop Entry]" line at the top will be the same for every short-cut and should always be the first line. The Name field is what we want to be shown in the application menu and is usually something short so it fits in the menu. The Categories field can be blank, but should match the name of a sub-menu, like "Office" or "Game" or "Internet". The Comment field can be anything at all and I like to briefly describe what I am going to access. The Type field should always be set to "Application" for programs we plan to run.
The Exec field is the full path where our program can be found. In my case, I want to run the bundle called AwesomeGame.AppImage in my Downloads directory. Once this file has been saved, a new entry called AwesomeGame should appear in our application menu.
The above example assumes we are the only user who wants to be able to run the AwesomeGame program and so we only added a launcher to our own application menu. Our personal launchers are all kept in the ~/.local/share/applications directory. If we want to make this launcher available to everyone using our computer, we can move the launcher into everyone's application menu by placing our AwesomeGame.desktop file in the global menu location, /usr/share/applications. We can do this by moving our launcher:
sudo mv ~/.local/share/applications/AwesomeGame.desktop /usr/share/applications/
While this approach works for AppImage programs, it will also work for any application we have downloaded which does not get added to our application menu automatically.
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More tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
feren OS 2018.01
feren OS is a desktop Linux distribution based on Linux Mint's main edition. The feren OS distribution ships with the Cinnamon desktop environment and includes the WINE compatibility layer for running Windows applications. The project's latest snapshot features many new wallpapers, a new software manager and an updated theme manager: "Software has been replaced, by Software Manager. Before you say anything, I made sure this was the Software Manager I wanted, but ever since I saw the first ever screenshot of the newly revamped Mint Software Manager, I knew that was what I wanted a Software Center to be like in feren OS, until it gets its own one, so, when Mint 18.3 was released, alongside upgrading feren OS users to the base of 18.3, I also made a quick job at replacing GNOME Software with Mint's one, in the most user-friendly way possible, without getting in the way of users, and yeah, this is the new Software Center feren OS uses, and already, it does package and app searching from PPAs way better than GNOME Software did. Also, Flatpak is also now installed too." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Linspire 7.0, Freespire 3
PC/OpenSystems has announced the organisation has purchased the rights to the commercial Linspire distribution and its community branch, Freespire. PC/OpenSystems is re-launching these two, long-dormant Linux distributions with refreshed packages and features. The new releases, Linspire 7.0 and Freespire 3.0, are based on Ubuntu. "Today the development team at PC/OpenSystems LLC is pleased to announce the release of Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0. While both contain common kernel and common utilities, they are targeted towards two different user bases. Freespire is a FOSS distribution geared for the general Linux community, making use of only open source components, containing no proprietary applications. This is not necessarily a limitation: through our software center and extensive repositories, Freespire users can install any application that they wish. Linspire is a commercial release which builds on the elegant Freespire foundation. It does include a proprietary software set optimized for business users, students, researchers and developers." A list of features and further details can be found in the company's release announcement.
Linspire 7.0 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 909kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Robolinux 8.10
Robolinux is a Debian-based desktop distribution which offers pre-configured virtual machines to help users run Windows software from their Linux desktop. The project's latest version, Robolinux 8.10, is based on Debian 8. "This major Robolinux upgrade involved several months of hard work finding every way possible to improve the speed and functionality of our Raptor version 8.10 Operating Systems. We also fixed the fusion-icon dependency issue in our 3D MATE and Xfce versions and upgraded Firefox to Quantum version 57.01 and Thunderbird to version 52.5.2 Robolinux 8.10 also has over 200 important upstream security and application updates. All of the upgraded 32- and 64-bit Robolinux Raptor Version 8.10 operating systems come with over 120 custom built wifi, video and printer drivers and can run Windows XP, 7 and 10 virus-free inside. Every version is loaded with many popular one-click installer applications such as the Tor browser, I2P, several very popular multimedia apps, Google Chrome, Google Earth, Skype and VirtualBox, plus 12 incredibly powerful security and privacy apps to keep our users safe!" Along with the new version, many of Robolinux's commercial add-ons are now being offered free of charge from the project's store. Details can be found in the project's release notes.
IPFire 2.19 Core 117
IPFire is a Linux distribution that is focused on easy setup, good handling and high level of security. It is operated via an intuitive web-based interface which offers many configuration options for beginning and experienced system administrators. The project has released a new update, IPFire 2.19 Core Update 117, which features several security fixes and improvements. "One moderate and one low security vulnerability have been patched in OpenSSL 1.0.2n. The official security advisory can be found here. It is now possible to define the inactivity timeout time when an idle IPsec VPN tunnel is being closed. Support for MODP groups with subgroups has been dropped. Compression is now disabled by default because it is not very effective at all. strongswan has been updated to 5.6.1. It is now easier to route OpenVPN Roadwarrior Clients to IPsec VPN networks by choosing routes in each client’s configuration. This makes hub-and-spoke designs easier to configure." Further details can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
GeckoLinux 423
GeckoLinux is an openSUSE-based spin which features non-free packages not found in openSUSE's default repositories. The distribution's latest release, GeckLinux 423, uses a new build system, called Kiwi, which offers improvements. "Thanks to Kiwi, GeckoLinux now boasts the following improvements: Much smoother and more reliable startup. Splash screen during live system startup. Better hardware detection, especially Xorg startup with certain troublesome graphics cards. No more entering passwords for the live session user account. Live USB persistence - GeckoLinux can now be used as an excellent portable OS, not just as an installation medium. Cleaner ISO build process and structure that is more in line with openSUSE." The new version also includes a repository containing NVIDIA drivers, enabled by default. Further information can be found in the project's release notes.
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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. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 698
- Total data uploaded: 17.2TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Thoughts on Linspire and Freespire
In our News section we talked about the Linspire and Freespire distributions being brought back into development by PC/OpenSystems. In this week's poll we would like to find out your thoughts on these two long-dormant distributions. Have you used them before, are you planning to use them in the future?
You can see the results of our previous poll on number of distributions installed recently in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Thoughts on Linspire and Freespire
| I have used them before and plan to again: | 110 (8%) |
| I have used them before and do not plan to again: | 263 (18%) |
| I have not used them before but plan to in the future: | 66 (5%) |
| I have not used them before and do not plan to in the future: | 851 (59%) |
| Unsure: | 144 (10%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Improved package search
One feature we have been tweaking and improving this week is searching for packages. This feature helps visitors find distributions which include a specific version of a package, or which omit a package. For example, we can find distributions which include the latest kernel or which do not feature systemd.
In the past, the search function could get confused when comparing package versions which contained double-digit decimal numbers. For example, it was not always clear whether "4.10" should be greater than or less than "4.9". Mathematically, the answer would be less, but practically, the way most projects label their versions, "4.10" is greater than "4.9". The search function now does a better job of taking these situations into account and should accurately compare version numbers.
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New projects added to database
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 Octopi package manager to make installing new software easier.
Archman GNU/Linux 2018.01 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 1.7MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Distributions added to waiting list
- VeltOS. VeltOS is an Arch-based Linux distribution which allows its community of users to vote on all aspects of the operating system's design and default applications.
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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, 15 January 2018. 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 • Linspire / Freespire (by Terry on 2018-01-08 01:05:13 GMT from United States)
I have heard from the past that these either cost to use them or if free then when you want packages or applications then you got to get them from their online store. I don't think it right to charge for something if it is suppose to be free. That is why I stay away from those linux OS distress that want money or charge for something. If we want donate then that is our choice. Free open source and not charge like the stores. Just my 2 cents worth.
2 • Is Linspire/freespire even necessary? (by brad on 2018-01-08 01:39:12 GMT from United States)
With all the great "hand holding" distros.. ie: Mint, Manjaro, Sabayon, PcLinuxos that make it less worrisome to use ubuntu/debian, arch, gentoo, mandriva variants etc.. why is Linspire/freespire even needed any more.. just wondering..
3 • Freespire (by Tony on 2018-01-08 01:39:25 GMT from Bulgaria)
I newer used Freepire in the past I checked the system because I was curious. For me that's just pure Ubuntu/Xubuntu, nothing on top of that. Tried the distro on Virtualbox and bare metal and it works just fine, but nothing special really. Also I don't like the idea of reviving distros - if it's dead then it's dead, creating something new is a better choice in my opinion. Can't say the same for Linspire, but I don't plan to pay for something that just showed up. Maybe that's some kind of a experiment from PC/OpenSystems...
4 • Linspire Second Reincarnation : No, thanks. (by Tran Older on 2018-01-08 01:48:07 GMT from Vietnam)
Linspire 5.0 was a Debian distro based on KDE 3.5.x (Second Reincarnation: the Trinity Project) plus the Wine layer. Linspire 7.0 is based on Xubuntu LTS.
If we want a true continuation of Linspire 5.0 then download Q4OS, add the Wine layer and some retro icons, themes and some wallpapers.
Selling FOSS apps at online store did not work in the past (Lindows/Linspire), at the present (Endless OS) or in the foreseeable future.
5 • Open Vs 'Free' (by M.Z. on 2018-01-08 01:55:33 GMT from United States)
@1
"...I don't think it right to charge for something if it is suppose to be free. "
That's the funny thing about GPL software, it is 'Free as In Speech', not 'Free as in Beer' at a party. Companies were always meant to be able to generate a fair profit; however, there have also always been community projects giving away the same basic product for free. That of course hurts potential desktop Linux companies, because if you can get the same basic thing for free you won't be likely to gravitate to the paid version. At any rate Red Hat has proven that there are certain markets that are happy to get a paid version of Linux so long as it comes with good technical support.
There seem to be some decent reasons for business customers to consider looking into Linspire on their website given the warranty, available support, & apparent deployment in many areas of government. That being said, I don't see many people that have an easy to use desktop Distro like Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS paying $79.99 US when their currently preferred solution is free. I know I sure won't.
6 • Repository System and FreeSpire / Linspire (by Earth Hawk on 2018-01-08 02:50:37 GMT from United States)
Lindows Click n' Run system started it all. I remember how revolutionary this concept was. All corresponding libraries and dependencies were installed. Ubuntu picked it up and ran with it. Now it is a standard. Debian, Arch, Fedora, and all the other distributions out there that uses a software repository system, owes this concept that Lindows started.
7 • "windows would continue to slide around..." (by OS2_user on 2018-01-08 03:15:01 GMT from United States)
"... after I moved them with the mouse, as if the windows were skidding on ice."
Heh, heh. THAT is why I'm now here only for humor.
NO ONE has ever wanted windows to drift on, that's just a bit of "cool" that occurred to a programmer, like a thousand other nuisances that users must then remove, if can.
But: "I could not get GhostBSD's installation media to boot."
You are killing products with "ideas", people. Just make dull clunky stuff that's simple and works: the IBM philosophy.
... Well, then I read the "AppImage" section. -- It's certainly clunky to manually make a ".desktop" file! Surely there's a happy medium... Look, seriously, get a virtual image of Windows 3.1, and STUDY it. Then imitate both its minimal convenience and LACK of fancy "features".
8 • AppImage (by tim on 2018-01-08 03:35:42 GMT from United States)
Jesse, thanks for covering AppImage. (I'm not affiliated with the project, just an interested user.)
@7 i've seen that an "appimaged" daemon exists, but would need to be packaged by (or for) individual O/S. Although a single appimaged.deb might suit across all of Debian+Ubuntu land, I don't know for sure. Do we know, can we take for granted that each O/S using .deb packaging follows XDG and that their menumaker reads .desktop from an identical path? (/usr/share/applications) The way I understand it, appimaged uses something like "watch" + "inotify", watches for new *.Appimage files to appear in ~/Downloads directory and pops up a dialog asking whether to create a .desktop file -- for all users, for current user only (/~share/applications) or none. Personally, I would not want that scenario. Instead I would prefer the flexibility to choose download destination and the permanent path location of the (presumably large) downloaded file and, besides, am not using an XDG-compliant menu builder. I would manually create a menu entry and altogether skip the creation of a .desktop file.
9 • Lindows...I reviewed it long ago (by Matt on 2018-01-08 03:59:03 GMT from United States)
I wrote and published a review of Lindows about 10 or 15 years ago. At the time, I was an inexperienced Linux user frustrated by WIndows. I was not impressed by the approach Lindows had taken. The problem I had with it was that Lindows was trying to be WIndows, including adding a bunch of proprietary stuff. You were driven from the start to register a credit card number and pay for software that was essentially re-branded open source programs. The people running the Lindows operation did not understand how the open source community worked. The value proposition (in terms of cost, utility, and freedom) was minimal compared to WIndows. I was not surprised when the operation failed. I honestly didn't follow it after the name change to Linspire and Freespire.
The developers of Linspire really need to make a case for what makes it better for users. If they are trying to sell hardware with Linux pre-installed, there are a lot of distributions to choose from. What would make someone choose a proprietary version of Linux?
In 2018, there are many easy to use distributions that work on all kinds of hardware. My opinion is that the best way to make money from Linux is with services, support, or training. You can do all that with Mint, Ubuntu, or Debian. Of course, I have never earned a penny in the software industry, so what do I know?
10 • PC/OpenSystems (Linspire) (by Calin Brabandt on 2018-01-08 04:05:58 GMT from United States)
I just visited the PC/OpenSystems webpages. Linspire, Freespire, and Black Dog Linux iso files appear to all be available for free download. Buying their hardware, technical support services, or even just supporting their efforts with the purchase a live USB or memory card is entirely optional.
I've used the old Freespire in the past and I appreciate what the new company is still trying to commercially achieve (reliable, turn-key, GNU/Linux hardware and software right out of the box), though this certainly not a unique effort or market niche.
Furthermore, I appreciate that PC/OpenSystems' embraces Commander Adama's (Battlestar Galactica) computer security model. ;) From the PC/OpenSystems "Why" page:
In the world now privacy is a major concern : records are made public and sensitive data leaked. How does PC/OpenSystems LLC protect customer data?
This data is kept on an unreachable server. Unreachable how? It's not hooked up to the internet or any network whatsoever, its hard drive is encrypted and it is kept locked and chained to a rack. All removable drives and external drives are kept in a fireproof safe. All possible measures are taken to secure customer data and can only be accessed in person. In any case of legally tested and court ordered subpoena by law enforcement officials, a chain of custody form is filled out and we pick it up from the appropriate agency. Look for us on Thumbtack.com In terms of experience.
Love it!
11 • Freespire/Linspire (by rooster12 on 2018-01-08 04:12:03 GMT from United States)
Gather these pay to play distros have already been kicked around the block a few times and not worth the effort or money.
Haven't used either or will in the future, prefer the open source project and donate regularly to two applications I use a lot and two distributions.
Think those who can make a dime should if they have something to offer but from what I've read is just a zombie distribution. Support the people who deliver for free and take pride in what they do.
12 • @1,2,3,4,5,7 LindowsOS aka: "Linspire". (by Greg Zeng on 2018-01-08 04:20:35 GMT from Australia)
Old timers here will remember: "In 2002, Microsoft sued Lindows, Inc.... " (Wikipedia entry: "Linspire"). @6: Ubuntu perhaps did not copy Lindows (2001), but greatly improved on Debians' "apitute" utilities.
This feature of Debian is the reason why RPM and most (all?) other package managers fail to be successful on the Linux desktop: poor handling of dependencies of applications, specially installations, removals, updates & regressions. Ubuntu's package handling is so admired, that more Linux distribution creators used it, than any other Linux package manager.
The "failed" package managers are still trying to equal he quality & reliablity of Ubuntu's "success". The Linux "failures", imho are all those that do not use the Ubuntu method: RPM, Arch, Manjaro, Java, appimage, Pacman, Flatpak, etc. Nine of the twelve package managers are listed on the Distrowatch "search" web pages. Some of these twelve are still trying to recruit application writers to their own unique compilation packages. Without much success, but much blind faith & hope.
The Linspire "licencees" (owners?) on their website seem to not fully claim open ownership of Linspire, which is a competing comercial Linux distribution to their main commercial Linux products: commercial sales of hardware, services, & their family of commercial "Black Lab" Linux operating systems.
Personally, I think that "Black Lab" Ubuntu-based operating systems have the easy safety, stability, and easy package management that only the Ubuntu-based operating systems can offer. Like all Ubuntu-based systems, they can very easily & quickly upgrade to the latest, safest & most hardware-optimal Linux kernel, every week, or more often, as each is released by "The Linux Foundation". As soon as the "Meltdown antidote" to the Intel-based operating systems was available (3rd January, 2018), the Ubuntu-based systems could install it in seconds, reboot, and be first in the world to "safe".
13 • Goodbye, Parsix. Hello again, Linspire/Freespire. (by eco2geek on 2018-01-08 05:46:23 GMT from United States)
Parsix was always a class act. I'm sorry to see them go. They will be missed.
I read the "new" Freespire/Linspire FAQs and downloaded Freespire. I'm running Freespire live right now. Its repositories are all from Ubuntu 16.04, except for one from Skype. Unless the installer adds a Freespire repository that isn't there when running from the live media, Freespire is completely based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. It does have some proprietary software for download in its "software store" (aka "gnome-software").
As for Linspire, PC/OpenSystem's FAQ clearly states that there's no "CNR" or "Click 'n' Run" store from which you have to purchase software. You do have to pay for a license in order to get Linspire. In order to upgrade from one version to the next, you have to pay for a new license. You can't download Linspire for free (although you could on Christmas day; those links are now dead).
It's curious that a company would want to resurrect a brand that was so controversial in the day.
14 • GeckoLinux 4.23 with KDE's Plasma 5 (by Bobbie Sellers on 2018-01-08 05:46:48 GMT from United States)
My hardware is a salvaged Dell E6420 and it usually is running PCLinux64 and now
at version 2018.01 at least that was in the last updates with KDE's Plasma 5.
I downloaded the cited version of Gecko last night and wrote it to disk at a LUG
meeting today. Then I tried to boot it up on my hardware which has Intel graphics.
My first standard test of the KDE Plasma 5 GUI is to move the default task bar
to the top of the screen(you would have to be a former AmigaOS user to understand
why.) I tried that on Gecko this AM and it would not work. The keyboard and the
mouse locked up, the three finger salute would not work and the machine had to be
rebooted via power button.
I wish it were not so. I will be downloading another version with Mate shortly.
Gecko sounds very hand for portability.
bliss
15 • Free versus Paid OSes (by Bobbie Sellers on 2018-01-08 06:10:53 GMT from United States)
I essentially started out with Mandriva 2006 on the advice of a dear online friend.
I paid $50/for each version that included all the proprietary stuff for entertainment.
I paid happily. But we started out with a dual 32/64 bit versions on separate
disks and ended up with a single version that you had to download.
I paid for and tried to run 2011 but my laptop of the time could not deal
with it.
I searched for similar distros settling on PCLinux which answered my needs
until that old computer stopped working. Then I went to Mageia 4.1 for
a couple of years then back to PCLinux when it began to support UEFI
I started making donations to PCLinux when it showed up with UEFI.
Software can be free and open source but the software worker who helps
put it together does not get free food, free machines to work with, free
ISP service or even electricity so if you find a distribution that answers
your needs then it is best to donate to that publisher lest it go away
or start to charge a fixed fee for its releases.
The correct genealogy for the Mandriva forks by the way
goes: Mandrake sued over the name, early images taken
by PCLinuxOS. The Connectiva merged with Mandrake
to produce Mandriva!
Images were taken from Mandriva a couple of times by
PCLinuxOS,
Mandriva failed about 2012. Poor business model.
Mageia took images and started in Europe.
OpenMandriva took images and started in Russia, I believe.
PCLinuxOS continued its development in the USA.
Mageia cannot take US dollars in its donations.
PCLinuxOS is happy to settle for my $5 US though
it may be foreign currency in some states.
If I ran a business and needed non-MS operating
systems I would go with Red Hat Enterprise Edition.
Free is nice but we all have to eat,
bliss
16 • Ubuntu and so on... (by OstroL on 2018-01-08 07:47:40 GMT from Poland)
"Steve Langasek has announced the supported life of Ubuntu 17.04 is drawing to a close. "Ubuntu announced its 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) release almost 9 months ago, on April 13, 2017. As a non-LTS release, 17.04 has a 9-month support cycle and, as such,.."
Th problem is that Ubuntu uses Debian Unstable packages, and those unstable (sid) don't stay too long in the unstable repos and move to Testing (buster) and finally land on the Debian Stable (Stretch) repos. So, to hold on to the Debian Unstable packages for 9 months is too hard. There is also a problem of maintaining such packages, and whether Ubuntu (Cannonical) has enough paid developers.
17 • @ 12 Greg Zeng (by OstroL on 2018-01-08 08:02:40 GMT from Poland)
"Ubuntu-based operating systems have the easy safety, stability, and easy package management that only the Ubuntu-based operating systems can offer."
The package management is Debian's not Ubuntu's.
18 • Package managers & kernels (by M.Z. on 2018-01-08 08:34:40 GMT from United States)
@17
Yeah, I don't really see the big difference there myself. Nor do I really notice the other complaints #12 makes against other package managers.
Perhaps I don't dig enough to notice the difference, but they all seem to work reasonably well to me. I'm not sure how many problems were package related, but I've had issues, generally minor, with both deb based systems & rpm based distros. Not every thing is perfect all the time & there are no silver bullets, but if things generally go well most users will be happy. The only big advantage package related I see deb based distros having that most users would notice is the size of the repos in Debian & its relatives.
@12
"...easily & quickly upgrade to the latest, safest & most hardware-optimal Linux kernel..."
Funny, I've always found Fedora to have some of the best kernel upgrading around, at least if you like the latest & greatest. The updates to the latest kernels are automatic, & there are always a couple of backup kernels just in case. They seem quite cutting edge to me, though on the whole I've come to prefer the way PCLinuxOS gets me to newer kernels. It's a bit more manual, but I like that level of control.
19 • Parsix's demise (by Hoos on 2018-01-08 08:37:37 GMT from Singapore)
Sad news.
I enjoyed using Parsix when it was running Gnome 2 and Debian Testing. It was light, quick, and I didn't have much problems updating with Synaptic.
That was some time ago though, and of course Gnome 2 was deprecated. I stopped using Parsix when it moved to Gnome 3 and Debian Stable.
20 • Linspire/freespire (by OstroL on 2018-01-08 09:01:52 GMT from Poland)
Both these "distros" are based on Ubuntu and use Debian and Ubuntu repos. Everything in Debian and Ubuntu repos are free, so why pay any money to Linspire/Freespire and to use "their" packages? The so-called Linspire/Freespire packages are freely available in Debian and Ubuntu repos.
21 • @ 20 (by Per on 2018-01-08 09:08:07 GMT from France)
It'd be a waste of time, even downloading those distros. Xubuntu is there, Voyager is there. If you want live installable Debian Xfce distro, you can get it here freely. https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/9.3.0-live+nonfree/amd64/iso-hybrid/
22 • GhostBSD (by RoboNuggie on 2018-01-08 09:42:11 GMT from United Kingdom)
It's great that someone is attempting to do this, BUT, the best way to experience FreeBSD is from scratch..., install the base system, install Xorg, then your WM/DE of choice..followed by the programs you want to use.
This way, it makes fixing anything that goes wrong easier because you know what went in and where.
Besides, TrueOS is making a bold inroad in their own way, so why replicate...? (I know, different wm, but still)...
23 • Keep your mouse on the ice? (by Somewhat Reticent on 2018-01-08 12:51:23 GMT from United States)
window keeps moving after letting up on mouse - one of several effects popular with touch-screen UI, such as moving through long list or flinging window to other display. Shutting off compositing seems overkill - should have required tweaking a few effects at most. (Didn't Google Maps have an issue with this at first?)
…
UFS, Custom UFS, or ZFS - any of these allow just using one partition?
24 • @21 about Debian (by debianxfce on 2018-01-08 13:01:47 GMT from Finland)
Debian stable has years old buggy software and it will break when using packages from other distributions. Debian testing Xfce is a stable, light, fast, compatible (f.ex with Oibaf ppa Mesa latest ubuntu version) and freely configurable rolling release OS.
https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
Use the fimware tarball if needed, more information at the end of the page.
25 • Freespire, ETC. (by kc1di on 2018-01-08 13:25:50 GMT from United States)
I can't see where freespire or linspire bring anything new and improved to the table. so will pass on them.
26 • Intel bugs (by Paul W on 2018-01-08 13:32:15 GMT from Moldova, Republic of)
Does anyone know if we only use apps from our distro and it's repositories, and we only run our internet facing apps (Thunderbird, Firefox) in a firejail, are we relatively safe from the Spectre and Meltdown bugs?
27 • @14 GeckoLinux (by Sam on 2018-01-08 14:04:30 GMT from United Kingdom)
@14: Hi there, GeckoLinux creator here. Sorry it froze on you. That sounds like a graphics driver bug, which can indeed still happen under Plasma. Try opening the compositor settings and changing the compositor method or disabling the effects.
28 • Post # 14 : Gecko Linux (by Winchester on 2018-01-08 14:40:48 GMT from United States)
I recommend the LXQT Rolling Gecko Linux with a couple of minor adjustments.
I installed "File Roller Archive Manager" instead of "Engrampa Archive Manager". PCmanFM-QT broke so,I have the regular PCmanFM file manager, Nautilus, and SpaceFM installed. Last,and perhaps most important,the "Packman" repository was causing conflicts so,I transitioned to the official OpenSUSE repositories exclusively .... following the Tumbleweed upgrade instructions on the OpenSUSE web-site.
That's about it. No problems since making those moves,and the Gecko Linux fonts,splash screen etc. are retained.
29 • @26 Intel Bugs (by dragonmouth on 2018-01-08 14:46:53 GMT from United States)
Spectre and Meltdown are hardware-level exploits so no O/S and/or software is safe.
30 • @12 Greg Zeng: (by dragonmouth on 2018-01-08 15:00:16 GMT from United States)
I will take Synaptic Package Manager any day over package manager from Canonical (*buntu). I'll grant you that Software Manager looks prettier than Synaptic and it lists user rankings of various packages, which Synaptic does not but it has limited functionality in comparison to Synaptic. Synaptic will update existing software, install new software, uninstall old/unwanted software and fix broken packages, all in one execution. Ubuntu Software Manager,, OTOH, requires a separate execution for each of those activities. AFAIAC, functionality trumps eye candy and glitz any time.
31 • TrueOS vs GhostBSD (by Jesse on 2018-01-08 16:26:57 GMT from Canada)
@22: "Besides, TrueOS is making a bold inroad in their own way, so why replicate"
GhostBSD and TrueOS have very different approaches and different target audiences. TrueOS is a workstation and server OS that is always on the cutting edge (running FreeBSD's -CURRENT branch). TrueOS goes through massive changes about once per quarter and you can expect themes, desktop and major version changes in packages. Stuff is likely to break. The tools are more geared toward sysadmins rather than end users. Their focus is on sysadmins and developers who want to be on the cutting edge.
GhostBSD is designed to be stable, beginner friendly and static. Where TrueOS uses a custom, new desktop (Lumina), GhostBSD uses a tried and true desktop (Xfce or MATE). GhostBSD remains static during its five years of support. GhostBSD has config tools geared toward home users and assumes people want their system to run the same day-to-day.
There is almost no replication going on here because the developers are working on entirely different tools for different audiences.
32 • Bad Bugs (by M.Z. on 2018-01-08 16:56:59 GMT from United States)
@26
FYI, it's not just Intel, AMD & ARM are also affected. It's worth noting though that what are likely to be the worst affected systems you encounter are anything you log into via the Internet. From the experts at Ars Technica:
"In the immediate term, it looks like most systems will shortly have patches for Meltdown. At least for Linux and Windows, these patches allow end-users to opt out if they would prefer. The most vulnerable users are probably cloud service providers; Meltdown and Spectre can both in principle be used to further attacks against hypervisors, making it easier for malicious users to break out of their virtual machines.
For typical desktop users, the risk is arguably less significant. While both Meltdown and Spectre can have value in expanding the scope of an existing flaw, neither one is sufficient on its own to, for example, break out of a Web browser."
From here:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/01/meltdown-and-spectre-every-modern-processor-has-unfixable-security-flaws/
33 • GhostBSD vs FreeBSD (by DaveT on 2018-01-08 17:10:11 GMT from United Kingdom)
@22 I have a basic CLI install of FreeBSD up and running on a laptop but the pain of trying to set it up the way I want it means that some months later it is still a basic CLI setup. Hence the need for GhostBSD and TrueOS.
34 • Just the trademarks, ma'am (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2018-01-08 20:08:33 GMT from United States)
FreeSpire and LinSpire - distros are not being resurrected (and nobody outright made any such claim, did they?) after so many years dead - it's trademarks - it's about marketing - if it attracts attention long enough to pick up a few more, it serves the purpose.
Not great, not evil, just is what it is.
35 • Freespire/Linspire (by Steve L on 2018-01-08 22:35:13 GMT from United States)
When ever I consider a possible distro to try I do a quick check for the systemd virus. Both of these use that, so called, init system that wants so desperately to be the whole operating system... so it's an easy choice... NO.
36 • CPU bugs (by Paul W on 2018-01-08 23:18:25 GMT from United States)
@29 Thanks, I understand that these are hardware level bugs. But if all of your software is from the repositories and pre-dates wide disclosure of the bugs, isn't it unlikely that you will run code that takes advantage of the hardware bugs?
@32 Thanks for the link. I was hoping that with firejail, it will be less likely that a browser or mail client would be able to access the resources necessary.
I got a new processor when the original Pentium 60 flaw came out. Back then it was in a ZIF socket and took a few minutes. Now it's a laptop and not replaceable.
37 • @7 @8 AppImage (by StephenC. on 2018-01-09 00:27:12 GMT from United States)
@7 - The tip on manually creating a .desktop file will work for any distro, but most XDG compliant desktops also have a way to use it via gui - boring just like you wanted. For example, in XFCE just right-click on a panel, click add a new item, choose "launcher" and fill out the fields.
@8 - you asked, "can we take for granted that each O/S using .deb packaging follows XDG and that their menumaker reads .desktop from an identical path?" The documentation at https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit lists the locations where it will register the AppImage. Personally I don't use appimaged; downloading and creating an XFCE shortcut is fine for me. I prefer it to Flatpak and Snap.
38 • Posts # 12 and # 18 : Kernel Management (by Winchester on 2018-01-09 14:35:00 GMT from United States)
In my view,the kernel management approach in Solus is the best way of doing it.
You get the latest "LTS" kernel and the latest "Current" kernel. 2 versions of each are kept.
The "vmlinuz" and "initrd.img" symlinks point to the latest "LTS" kernel by default.
The Ubuntu kernel management once physically destroyed an old hard drive of mine. I was using SalentOS 14.04 LTS a couple of years back when it was based on Ubuntu. It went fine with the default 3.13.x kernels but,Synaptic listed a 4.1.x LTS kernel as an option. Official Ubuntu kernel packages. Once I booted into the newer kernel,the splash screen was changed and then the computer would not power-off without cutting the power. I tried the log-out GUI , the command line, Control-Alt-Delete , Control-Alt-Backspace, etc.. Nothing would work to poweroff the computer under the new kernel so,I had to cut the power which ended the life of that hard drive. Maybe this is why Mint developed its policy on kernel upgrades?? This never happened to me before or since using upwards of 40 different distributions with 12 of them physically installed.
The method used by Solus is much more smooth and practical as far as I am concerned. As mentioned above,the PClinuxOS approach is great for manually selecting kernels.
39 • requiem for zesty (by Tim Dowd on 2018-01-09 17:10:19 GMT from United States)
After years of using Debian family OSs, I've come to like the Ubuntu approach of interim and LTS updates as what's for me the best balance of stability and freshness.
I think the debates about which closely related distro is "the best" miss a key point- each release of Debian, or Mint, or Ubuntu, or anything else is a choice to freeze a collection of software at a certain place in development, and that this inherently means that some releases will be awesome for any given user and their hardware and preferences, and some less so.
For me, Ubuntu MATE 17.04 was the perfect operating system. I didn't encounter a single bug on any of my 3 computers during its life cycle. The packages were up to date, and everything just worked. 17.10 has been good for me, but not as perfect. I'd use 17.04 for many years if that were an option.
But it's not, and I understand why. Like I said, I think the frozen release with frequent updates is the best compromise. I just keep my /home on a different partition and do a fresh install every 6 months. Sometimes I'm happier to do that then others.
40 • Totally Lost in Tech Jargons Jungle (by Totally Lost on 2018-01-09 21:53:42 GMT from Canada)
H J Lu (Intel), Jeff Law (RedHat) and Florian Weimer (RedHat) are patching GCC 8 for mitigation variant #2 of the speculative execution vulnerabilities on x86 processors identified by CVE-2017-5715, aka Spectre. May be in next release or May be who knows?
With BuGGY CPUs,
With BuGGY Compilers,
With BuGGY boot-loaders, and OS kernels,
With injected Web Browsers...
ARE WE THERE YET? I AM TOTALLY LOST, IN TECH-JARGONS.
JUST, TELL ME, WHERE ARE WE? AND WHAT SHOULD I TRY?
I MEAN DEBIAN, UBUNTU, LinSpire or FreeSpire?
Jessie please feel free to delete this one as well,
As to me, these BuGs are nothing but just expected as a chain of sequential executable commands. These BuGs are having none to absolute-zero effects.
41 • meltdown / spectre (by pengxuin on 2018-01-09 23:38:02 GMT from New Zealand)
I read today that Mageia are granting limited support for their just EOL Mageia-5 (new kernel and microcode). Obviously know that not every user upgrades by the EOL and are supporting their users.
42 • some good stuff (by mandatory on 2018-01-10 04:50:06 GMT from Australia)
It's not all bad news on the security front. Coming this year is the improved WPA3 wifi protocol, that promises to keep hackers staring into space :)
* Protection from brute force password attacks - even with poor passwords.
* Protection from deauthentication network attacks.
* individualized data encryption for safer connections.
43 • @13 (and any interested in recent history) (by Daniel on 2018-01-10 06:05:33 GMT from United States)
"It's curious that a company would want to resurrect a brand that was so controversial in the day."
Yes to the point about controversy (perhaps any attention is considered better than no attention?), but purchasing or attempting to co-opt brands and logos is not new to PC/OpenSystems. The "Black Lab Linux" name was purchased from Fixstars; the original Black Lab Linux was a Yellow Dog Linux derivative. The Black Lab Linux logo as currently shown on the Black Lab Linux homepage and its Facebook and Twitter pages (#1) is clearly adapted (cropped to the head and flipped horizontally) from Yellow Dog Linux's logo (#2), which I assume Fixstars still owns as it appears at #3. I have also seen a Black Lab Linux logo (#4) that looks very much like it took design elements from a couple of Lycos's logos over the years (a head similar to #5 put on a body similar to #6).
PC/OpenSystems flirted with branding "Amiga OpenLinux", even temporarily using the Amiga Boing Ball logo (original posts deleted, but the blog at #7 has a few of the banner images), then a version of the Boing Ball flipped horizontally and colored blue (#8), but I don't believe PC/OpenSystems ever acquired rights for Amiga branding. Later PC/OpenSystems announced "Ami/LX" but that died a crib death.
Before these rebrandings there was "OS4" (later stylized "OS/4" and "OS/4 OpenLinux"), #9, but of course PC/OpenSystems couldn't help but toy with a logo (#10, which was created prior to the settlement with IBM, although I don't think it was ever officially used) based on one of the IBM OS/2 logos (#11).
I don't contest PC/OpenSystems buying these dustbin brands ("Black Lab Linux", "Linspire, "Freespire"), but the new distros are not real continuations of their predecessors. Of all the names PC/OpenSystems has used over the years as well as the ones that never quite came to fruition (e.g. "Ami/LX" and "eXDE"), I wish they would have stuck with their "PC/OS" Linux branding of years gone by. But even more so, I wish PC/OpenSystems would forge its own path rather than what seems to be trying to trade on the memories of past operating systems. At least they haven't purchased Mandriva/Conectiva branding (in so far as I know; give it a few months :p).
References:
1) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNzN9WbXUAAlsmg.jpg
2) http://yellowdog.linuxfreedom.com/images/YellowdogLogo.png
3) http://www.fixstars.com/en/technologies/linux/
4) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jR3H2QtEXOI/U9ybvm-SB9I/AAAAAAAAEe8/ODpDqiUyLfM/s1600/blogger_pcos.png
5) https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/554933778636742656/bjlyCu4d.jpeg
6) https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/1/1d/Lycos%2C_meet_you_there.png
7) http://gustavo.pimentel.eu/2013/06/os4-su-linea-de-productos-se-convierte-en-amiga-2/
8) http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sWb59ltuqEs/U9ycAD_Ka5I/AAAAAAAAEfE/-dhbFqetl24/s1600/munu1st.png
9) http://www.pc-opensystems.com/2014/04/os4-trademark.html
10) https://www.facebook.com/os4online/photos/a.271746089604440.55120.220932544685795/416409295138118/?type=3&theater
11) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Os2logo.svg
44 • @ Jessie Linspire, freespire and stuff like that... (by OstroL on 2018-01-10 13:22:48 GMT from Poland)
I suppose DWW should do a survey as done by #43, before announcing "supposed to be distros" from PC / Opensystems. When "OS4" was "released," it just copied PinguyOS, or tried hard to copy PinguyOS.
Anyway, why should anyone want to pay for packages that are available free in Ubuntu and Debian repos?
45 • Linspire Freespire (by bigsky on 2018-01-10 14:21:40 GMT from Canada)
@44 I have both installed and it's a fine OS and runs like a top. Both where free as Linspire was offered for free over the holiday's. It would be my decision to purchase it if I chose to. Similar to sending in a donation to DWW or any other OS for the cause ?
46 • @45 (by trujilo on 2018-01-10 16:23:41 GMT from France)
"I have both installed..." joke?
"It would be my decision to purchase it if I chose to..." Really? It is your money, so throw it away! Good luck!
47 • Re: Bad Bugs (by M.Z. on 2018-01-10 18:00:18 GMT from United States)
@36 & @41
Yes, the Mageia weekly post linked to a more comprehensive Ars Technica article on the subject from a few days ago. There was also some important & highly relevant stuff from Mint recently. They encouraged the following upgrades among other things:
"Firefox 57.0.4
...
NVIDIA 384.111
...
Linux Kernel
Please use the Update Manager to upgrade your Linux kernel.
The following versions were patched:
3.13 series (Linux Mint 17 LTS): patched in 3.13.0-139
3.16 series (LMDE): patched in 3.16.51-3+deb8u1
4.4 series (Linux Mint 17 HWE and Linux Mint 18 LTS): patched in 4.4.0-108
4.13 series (Linux Mint 18 HWE): patched in 4.13.0-25"
So the latest versions of Firefox, NVIDIA video drivers, & the Linux kernel all have patches designed to mitigate issues with Meltdown & Spectre. From what I understand other added layers of protection like Firejail, SELinux/AppArmor, & MSEC (Mageia & PCLinuxOS) should all help as well & certainly can't hurt, though I don't know to what degree each would help.
From the following on the Mint Site on the 9th:
https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3496
48 • Spectre and Meltdown (by edcoolio on 2018-01-10 23:10:31 GMT from United States)
So, it would seem that many are in "emergency mode" over these possible exploits.
Here is my issue: As primarily a desktop user, I don't know if I care enough about the CURRENT astronomical possibility that one or both of these will be dangerously exploited and attacking common end-users on a regular basis. I just do not see it happening anytime soon for number of technical reasons.
Frankly, I'm more worried about even another chunk of my precious processing power being burnt away, in particular with what I consider a non-issue.
I guess I would like to see the updates as clearly marked and not packaged with all of the "normal" updates and security patches. I don't want to hunt for it, I want it obvious, and I want it easy. This way, I could easily install the patch, test, and rollback if I felt the performance hit was too high compared to what I consider a very low risk (again, currently). Easy.
I would love to see someone do a bunch of basic end-user performance benchmarks on random system processors, going back to a Pentium M and up. Maybe one test per architecture. Benchmarks on Chromium, Firefox, LibreOffice, and a synthetic or 2 would do the trick.
Anyways, I'm not trying to convince anyone to delay their updates, but rather communicate what I'm thinking and maybe get some constructive feedback. I know the issue inside and out, as much as anyone can, but without before and after benchmarks on daily use scenarios I'm leaning towards playing the waiting game before my decision.
Thanks everyone.
49 • TX (by Fantomas on 2018-01-10 23:34:17 GMT from France)
Thank you DistroWatch for the work you do. We enjoy the Website, the simple way it is. Always have the joy, surfing your WebS. Reading the Comments is another pleasure. Thank you all. Happy new 2018. I know its late to say this. But I am hibernating under a rock and waking up from time to time.
Thank your FanT.
50 • dreamlinux (by camducka on 2018-01-11 02:27:52 GMT from Australia)
@43 Impressive research on brands & logos (& flippy floppy images). And it seems that PC/OpenSystems was also responsible for dreamlinux - another blast from the past.
51 • BUG FIXED WITH PERFORMANCE HIT (by Sloppy Slow on 2018-01-11 07:41:41 GMT from Canada)
@ 48
already said that...
"Frankly, I'm more worried about even another chunk of my precious processing power being burnt away, in particular with what I consider a non-issue.
I guess I would like to see the updates as clearly marked and not packaged with all of the "normal" updates and security patches. I don't want to hunt for it, I want it obvious, and I want it easy. This way, I could easily install the patch, test, and rollback if I felt the performance hit was too high compared to what I consider a very low risk (again, currently). Easy."
BUG FIXED WITH PERFORMANCE HIT, NOT CONVINCING AT ALL.
52 • tried patched kernel (by Sloppy Slow on 2018-01-11 07:48:52 GMT from Canada)
already tried patched updated kernel but there is significant performance hit and rolled-back.
What they are pushing to linux users are new hardware(s), Firefox 57.0.4, NVIDIA 384.111, and patched Linux Kernel.
53 • RE: 43 & @50 (by Daniel on 2018-01-11 09:22:47 GMT from United States)
RE: 43
Substitute 'PC-UX' for 'eXDE' in my post above. eXDE was a "special variant of the XFCE desktop" PC/OpenSystems announced, while PC-UX was an OS that PC/OpenSystems announced in 2016. As per Wikipedia, "PC-UX is a discontinued NEC port of UNIX System III for their APC III and PC-9801 personal computer", so that brand isn't original to PC/OpenSystems either. I also forgot to include netOS (also stylized as "net/OS") in recounting PC/OpenSystems' various distributions.
Given the number of discontinued projects over the years (Progeny Componentized Linux, Yoper Linux, Foresight Linux, etc.), PC/OpenSystems has a ready selection of carrion options from which to choose, and I wouldn't be surprised if it acquires more necrobrands in the future.
@50
Dreamlinux originated out of Brazil and was discontinued in 2012, but PC/OpenSystems must have acquired the name after Dreamlinux was discontinued, as "DreamLinux" is included in PC/OpenSystems' list of "legally enforceable" trademarks and copyrights on the About Us page of the PC/OpenSystems website. When Dreamlinux was discontinued, PC/OpenSystems offered to sell 12 month support contracts to existing Dreamlinux users and migrate them to PC/OpenSystems' own OS4 OpenDesktop (the blog post is available on the Black Lab Linux blog, dated 2 October 2012). My guess is that the number of Dreamlinux users who purchased these contracts from PC/OpenSystems can be counted on one hand of a fingerless man.
54 • PC/Open-necrobrands-Systems (by trujilo on 2018-01-11 13:58:28 GMT from France)
A change of name, PC/Open-necrobrands-Systems...
55 • FreeBSD (by silent on 2018-01-11 16:38:51 GMT from Hungary)
I agree that it is fairly easy to set up a desktop environment on vanilla FreeBSD. It is going to be more robust, more transparent and lighter than TrueOS (PCBSD). As for GhostBSD, it is indeed like Mint or Ubuntu LTS for *BSD.
56 • Patching that kernel (by edcoolio on 2018-01-11 18:19:51 GMT from United States)
@51,@51
Thanks for the news. That is exactly what I was afraid of.
I'm with you:
"bug fixed with performance hit, not convincing at all"
I also suspect, like you, that they are just pushing new hardware. Of course, this isn't even touching the Microsoft and Intel collusion that many believe has been going on for years.
I had to laugh and shake my head when I started reading reports of machines with AMD processors taking the update and not being able to boot into Win10.
Then I cried with the knowledge that some kind of scam was going on (that would never be brought out in the open) when Microsoft blamed AMD!
So, let me get this straight. A technology company worth hundreds of billions of dollars (Microsoft) didn't bother testing a patch to the processor brand that has, by far, the least exposure to these two bugs?
Sure. Right. What a coincidence.
There is also this bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you...
57 • conspiracy (by tinfoil hats on 2018-01-11 18:57:49 GMT from Portugal)
I have a tinfoil hat that will protect you from this kind of thing.
58 • Fix quick, fix often & disclose why & give other options (by M.Z. on 2018-01-11 20:06:49 GMT from United States)
I think the performance his is very much a case of 'Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good'. The exploit needed some sort of fix immediately & many would consider a performance hit to be an acceptable trade off for security, though obviously not everyone. Hopefully a way to patch & keep or improve performance can be discovered down the line; however, if a reasonable solution existed & they didn't make it available that would be a big problem with many.
I think the way the upstream Linux team is handling the problem is a good solution. They told everyone about the performance hit upfront & let people know they could go back to an older & less secure solution if the needed. The Apple way of fixing your iPhone problem by hurting performance & never telling anyone till you get caught is the wrong way to implement any patch that hurts performance.
Of course the Ubuntu team seems to have messed up their 4.4.0-108 kernel patch & had to go back & fix it again with 4.4.0-109. I guess they needed a little more time to test things more thoroughly. Getting things right quickly can be a tough balancing act.
59 • technological patches and upgrades (by Sloppy Slow on 2018-01-11 20:35:23 GMT from Canada)
@ #56
Let me make you laugh in these Tech Jargon Jungle.
Technology now a day is no better than Charlie Chaplin - Eating Machine - A clip from Modern Times on youtube /watch?v=n_1apYo6-Ow
URL : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_1apYo6-Ow
But, it is way more worse than that where every tech-users is victim and condition is worse than Charlie.
@ #57
If you have tested your tinfoil hat perfectly, think about going Global.
60 • Linspire, and why so many Linux distros ? (by Jeffersonian on 2018-01-12 06:03:24 GMT from United States)
@ 12: Greg Zeng
Linux, is a kernel, not an operating system.
When the kernel is "packaged" with a set of useful programs, it becomes an operating system, which allows human (or automated) interactions with the kernel.
The beauty of open source, is among other things, the freedom to enhance a set of software, an O/S etc..
There are many Linux distros because lots of creatives programmers, decided to experiment, create their own distro, better, or simply better suited to a given use.
Because Linux (or FreeBSD) Unixes have, thanks to open source, reached an amazing level of stability, perfection that the corporate world could never provide (Apple O/S was build on open source), then today it may be less need for so many "me too" distros, but who knows for sure?
For example with lots of memory, and powerful CPU's OpenGL could be used to develop a "super-sexy" and features rich "Desktop" interface, with 3D graphics.
And I bet that could happen with superb Qt, based framework.
Now for the package managers, Debian (not Ubuntu !) is not bad, (I have used it a lot!), but frankly the RPM packages, used with DNF provide much better flexibility, performances, and reliability, features too, than good old AR based Debian used by Ubuntu.
I have recently installed Ubuntu 17.x on a recently acquired high end Notebook.
After seven months, I decided to remove Ubuntu, now 17.10, and install instead KORORA 26 MATE , an excellent "enhanced version of Fedora, and boy, what a difference a better bistro does !
An an old Unix timer, I have used several Linux distros.
Now many are quite incredibly good, but why so many distros?
Why do people climb to the top of a mountain... to finally go down ?
Same thing: to enhance it, for the challenge, to try to do it better, faster, etc..
Or simply for the learning experience.
So please, welcome new "distros" of Linux, because each could bring something good.
Even if "in fine" we will only use a few.
Happy new "Linux distro" year.
Jeff.
61 • Freespire/Linspire (by David Knight on 2018-01-12 06:23:53 GMT from Canada)
Freespire was my first introduction to the world. Im glad to see they rebooted the OS as it brings back wonderful memories for me. Thank you.
62 • @58 "& give other options" (by curious on 2018-01-12 09:11:43 GMT from Germany)
You hit the nail on the head with that last part.
From the arstechnica article you quoted further above, it appears that both Meltdown and Spectre are probably not a significant risk for the average desktop user. ("While both Meltdown and Spectre can have value in expanding the scope of an existing flaw, neither one is sufficient on its own to, for example, break out of a Web browser.")
Therefore, if your personal computer is yours only (NO untrusted users), the drawback of a 5-30% performance hit very much outweighs the slight gain in security.
Therefore, any distro or OS targeting desktop users should provide means for avoiding these slowed down kernels.
Of course, if there are untrusted users, the situation is totally different. It all depends on the actual situation of the computer operator - that is why CHOICE is important.
63 • Patch your systems (by CS on 2018-01-12 22:22:29 GMT from United States)
Patch your systems! Don't do the math. Don't blame cosmic conspiracy theories. Don't think it can't happen to you. It won't be long before malicious javascript is stealing logins. Remember CoinHive and how it leaked its way onto dozens of government and corporate sites? Yes we get it. You use Linux so you're the smartest guy in the room: smarter than the hackers, smarter than the A/V companies, smarter than Intel and AMD. Even so, taking the risk is just not worth it.
64 • Adding an AppImage to the application menu - updates? (by TheTKS on 2018-01-13 17:13:54 GMT from Canada)
I'm trying out AppImages in elementary. There was no icon in the app finder, so I created a krita desktop icon that launches krita.
Success! Thanks for the tips, Jesse.
Now there's a newer krita appimage.
Question: if I will always keep only one version of an appimage, is there a way to create a krita.desktop so that it will always launch the version that I have, without having to update it with the current version number? I think this should be trivial, but after poking around I must be missing something.
I know, the proper place for this kind of question is not here, but it might make a good followup Tips & Tricks post: updating appimages and the appimage desktop icons that you had to create yourself.
65 • AppImage updates (by Jesse on 2018-01-13 17:29:55 GMT from Canada)
@64: If you want to keep using the same krita.desktop file for future versions of the AppImage, you can just save the AppImage under the same name you used before.
When you download Krita-5.0.appimage or Krita-5.1.appimage, just change the name of the downloaded file to Krita.appimage. Then make sure your .desktop file points to Krita.appimage. I do this with new versions of the QupZilla AppImage. I always save the new download as qupzilla-latest.appimage and the .desktop launcher always works.
66 • Patches and patches (by Patchy Patcher on 2018-01-13 17:59:11 GMT from Canada)
I also wanna do some patch works. I am thinking what and where should I patch?
How long do these patches gonna hold? Do I need a wine bottle cork?
If it is working in first shot, it is well and good. but chances are very less due to tech-idiots.
If it not working, keep patching.
67 • AppImage Updates (by TheTKS on 2018-01-14 00:38:00 GMT from Canada)
@65 Jesse, thanks, that's a good, simple idea. In any case, you're manually downloading or updating at least one thing. Works for now.
Looking around, I see work is happening on AppImage updater and desktop integration tools, as well as self-updating AppImages.
I still have questions around security & trust, so not convinced AppImages are for me. *If* that can be satisfactorily answered, *and* AppImages displaced packages, then *if* developers used the time saved for things like improving code quality and security, and then making more apps or features (or just more free time for living a full life) - that's a positive outcome.
68 • Smart Updates & Security Issues (by M.Z. on 2018-01-14 08:11:20 GMT from United States)
@62 & @63
There is certainly one instance where you need never consider patching security issues, which is of course when you aren't connected to an outside network. Other than that it is always far safer to update any security issues; however, if you are willing to take the risk that is at least in part your business. You can still cause issues for others though if you are compromised (eg. being in a botnet), so it's still better to avoid running something vulnerable if there is any serious risk at all. I certainly think reasonably timely upgrading is key to better security for everyone, but users deserve a fair amount of control even though they should be strongly encouraged to upgrade.
"...Yes we get it. You use Linux so you're the smartest guy in the room..."
I for one hope that attitude isn't too pervasive in our community. It sounds like a problem waiting to happen & unfortunately I've heard a few statements here & there that indicate a lax attitude. I for one always do all security updates for every program on my system & I'm thankful that Linux makes it so easy & puts me a step ahead of other OSs with less robust upgrade systems. It is part of the reason Linux is a small step ahead of other options, but it's well worth upgrading in order to maintain the small security lead we have over other OSs. Of course part of the reason it so important to take is because honestly I think that lead has shrunk a fair amount. If we weren't so small on the desktop & more likely to be patched &/or using a wide mix of other security measures we likely would be hit just as hard as other desktop systems. Of course if we actually are the smartest users in the room we will make it hard for the bad guys to get ahead of us by staying fairly well updated & exploring other security tools like SELinux, Firejail, & MSEC. I also hope the devs use every incident like Meltdown and Spectre as an excuse to find ways to deploy more of those sorts of security tools on their distros by default.
69 • Linspire - Freespire (by gabbman on 2018-01-14 13:07:37 GMT from Canada)
Welcome back, I for one missed you while you were gone.
Number of Comments: 69
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| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Endless OS
Endless OS is a Linux-based operating system which provides a simplified and streamlined user experience using a customized desktop environment forked from GNOME 3. Rather than using a traditional Linux package management system, Endless OS uses a read-only root filesystem managed by OSTree with application bundles overlaid on top.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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