 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 761, 30 April 2018 |
Welcome to this year's 18th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This week we witnessed the release of Ubuntu 18.04 and its many community flavours. The 18.04 launch is a long term support (LTS) release for most of the Ubuntu editions and therefore will be around for several years. The 18.04 release will also form the base for many related projects for years to come. We begin this week's issue with a look at Ubuntu 18.04 and its customized GNOME desktop from Joshua Allen Holm. In our News section we talk about work being done to get UBports (the community continuation of Ubuntu Touch) running on the Librem 5 phone. Plus we discuss Slackware's efforts to make PulseAudio an optional component and link to a series of educational drawings for people who want to learn about how Linux works. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about how to access a ZFS snapshot which was created on another computer. Plus we are pleased to provide a list of last week's releases and share the torrents we are seeding. In our Opinion Poll we ask if our readers preferred Ubuntu running the Unity desktop or the new default GNOME Shell interface. Let us know what you think of the change in the comments. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- News: UBports to run on Librem 5, Slackware makes PulseAudio optional, educational Linux comics
- Questions and answers: Accessing ZFS snapshots
- Released last week: Ubuntu 18.04, Kubuntu 18.04, Xubuntu 18.04
- Torrent corner: Kubuntu, Lubuntu, OpenIndiana, Pisi, SwagArch, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, Voyager, Xubuntu
- Upcoming releases: Fedora 28
- Opinion poll: Ubuntu running GNOME Shell versus Unity
- New distributions: Manjaro WebDad, Alien-OS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (23MB) and MP3 (30MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is the latest long term support release of Ubuntu. While LTS releases are traditionally fairly conservative, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS represents a major change for the distribution, especially for users who only use LTS releases. Starting with Ubuntu 17.10, the Unity desktop has been replaced with a slightly tweaked version of GNOME. With only one non-LTS release to develop the new GNOME experience, there are reasons to be cautious about such a radical change, but Ubuntu's GNOME desktop, while different from Unity and standard GNOME, provides a functional desktop environment with a few good points and, admittedly, a few minor things that could be improved. Below, I take Ubuntu 18.04 LTS for a trial run and share my thoughts about Ubuntu's GNOME desktop and some of the other new features.
Ubuntu 18.04 -- The default GNOME desktop
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Installing Ubuntu
The installation process is largely unchanged from recent Ubuntu releases. Boot from a DVD or flash drive, choose Install, and walk through the various steps. Any user upgrading from either Ubuntu 17.10 or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS by doing a fresh installation of 18.04 LTS should be familiar with the process. However, there are two significant changes worth mentioning - a minimal installation option has been added and the encrypt home folder option has been removed.
Ubuntu 18.04 -- The Ubiquity installer
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I first installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS when it was still in development and the process was already very smooth. Installing using Ubiquity is always a good experience on my testing machine. I had no issues when I installed the pre-release version, and starting over with a fresh install once the final media came out was also incident free. I made selections when prompted, filled in information when requested, and rebooted my laptop when the process was complete. The process, both times, was completely unexciting.
Overall, there is not much to say about the Ubuntu installation experience. Ubiquity works very well, so there is no reason to make major changes to the process. The minimal installation mode is a welcome addition, but the only change to the installation process is the addition a radio button, so it really does not alter the familiar Ubiquity experience. Granted, the home folder encryption option being removed since the previous LTS is a pretty major change for some users, but full disk encryption is still an option.
Desktop environment
Rebooting my system after installation, I logged in and was greeted with a modified GNOME desktop that has an always-visible dock instead of the usual dash. A first-run welcome screen popped up and introduced the new Ubuntu experience. The first screen explained that "Ubuntu 18.04 works differently from older versions." However, the screen only provided a single image highlighting the basics of the new GNOME environment. The image is okay, but it could have provided more details about how things work. The next screen provides an option to enable a new Livepatch feature, which can apply updates that usually require a restart without needing to restart the system, but the feature requires an Ubuntu Single Sign-On account. After that, the user can "help improve Ubuntu" by sending some system information to Canonical. Finally, the welcome screen explains that "Software" can be used to install apps with several applications shown as examples and a button to "Open Software now."
Ubuntu 18.04 -- Welcome to Ubuntu
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Like most modern Linux distributions, the default software selection includes some of the most common applications. Firefox 59 is the web browser. Thunderbird 52 is the e-mail program. LibreOffice 6.0, except for LibreOffice Base, is installed for editing documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. Rhythmbox and Videos serve as the default music and video players respectively. The rest of the default software is mostly the standard GNOME and Ubuntu utilities, plus a few games: AisleRiot Solitaire, Mahjongg, Mines, and Sudoku.
Users of Ubuntu 17.10 should not expect many changes when updating to Ubuntu 18.04 beyond newer versions of applications. Most of the GNOME applications have been updated to their 3.28 releases, but the upgrade to 3.28 bring mostly polish, not major change. However, unlike Ubuntu 17.10, Xorg is the default display software instead of Wayland. Since, Ubuntu 18.04 is an LTS release, it makes sense to be a little more conservative, but a Wayland session is still available for those who prefer it.
At one point there was talk about switching to a new graphical theme, but that did not happen for 18.04 LTS. While this is understandable, even the current, supposedly mature, theme has some problems. The default applications are fine, but there were a few instances of dark text appearing on a dark background and light text appearing on a light background when I installed some other applications. Some apps I had slight problems with were GNOME Boxes and the Enigmail plugin for Thunderbird. Most of these issues were minor, but there were still noticeable. Hopefully, they will get cleaned up before 18.04.1 comes out, if the issues have not already been fixed by the time this review is published.
As someone who typically uses standard GNOME, I found that Ubuntu 18.04's GNOME experience has some nice things and a few annoyances. At first I though I would find the dash annoying because my laptop's screen is only 1366x768, but after using it for some time, I came to like it. It was nice having simple, clear indicators for how many windows I had open for an application, file transfers, and unread messages. It was also nice that the dock was polished enough to always have the "Show applications" button visible. No matter how many applications I had running, I could always click on "Show applications." The other icons scrolled automatically if I moved the cursor over the top or bottom of the dock. I could also scroll though the applications using my touchpad when the cursor was over the dock. However, unlike the Unity dock, there is no trash can. Instead the trash can is on the desktop, which is handled by Files. Because GNOME Files 3.28 removed the code to handle desktop icons, Ubuntu uses GNOME Files 3.26, which means some new features are not available just so Ubuntu can have a trash can on the desktop. While some might dislike the removal of the desktop icon feature from Files 3.28, I found the desktop icons to be so broken that I would rather be required to open Files to handle the trash and mounted media. Every single time I mounted or remove a drive flash drive, I had to right click on the desktop and select "Organize desktop by name" because all the icons would stack on top of each other or not resort themselves to remove blank spaces after a drive was removed. Even worse, if I selected the option to hide the dock in the dock settings panel, the trash can and other icons end up being shifted so they appear half under the dock, which does not count the desktop as a window for hiding purposes.
Installing software
Software installation in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is done using Ubuntu Software. While not as "power user" friendly as Synaptic or using apt on the command line, Software is functional. It does a good job of presenting a well organized selection of applications. However, I really dislike how many proprietary applications appear as "Editor's Picks" and "Recommended Applications." Yes, I am more Stallman-esque than most, but I would very much prefer the promotion of applications that are open source over Slack, Skype, and some of the other "Editor's Picks."
Ubuntu 18.04 -- Ubuntu Software
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The proprietary applications are all snaps, which is fine in itself, but there is no quick and easy way to disable proprietary snaps or stop all snaps from showing up in Ubuntu Software. The Software & Updates application provides a tool for disabling various repositories (in 18.04 LTS it even has a new option for enabling the Livepatch feature), but there is no graphical way to stop snaps from showing up in Software. Removing the gnome-software-plugin-snap package using apt on the command line is an option, but more robust GUI options are really needed. As is, I could disable all package repositories except for "main" and the "security" and "updates" options and end up with a selection of snap applications in Software that would not conform to my desire to not run things that are proprietary or that have legal issues. I am certainly not opposed to the concept of snaps, but it would be nice to have a little more control over what kinds of apps appear as options to install on my computer. The current option is all or none, and none requires using apt to remove a package, which I can do, but is not as new user friendly as a checkbox in Software & Updates.
Using snaps
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS comes with four utilities as snaps: Calculator, Characters, Logs, and System Monitor. These four applications work just fine as snaps, but I found it odd that an LTS release was used as a testing ground for switching that many apps over to snaps. Granted, should a user not want to run these applications as snaps, they are also available as standard packages. I have left the snap versions installed, but I dislike the fact that I have a visible folder named snap in my home directory. Maybe having a visible directory is useful for other applications, but for the four default applications, I have never needed to browse the snap folder.
I also tried a few other snaps and the experience was somewhat mixed. Some applications ran perfectly, but others had some issues. When I tested out the Atom and Visual Studio Code snaps they worked great. The SuperTuxKart snap also worked wonderfully. However, I did have some issues with the ScummVM snap. ScummVM worked for the most part, but I could not set it to use OpenGL graphics. Whenever I tried to set the graphics to OpenGL, ScummVM would crash. The ScummVM snap appears to have the same OpenGL snap permissions as SuperTuxKart, but I could never get it to work right.
One of the other snaps I tried was the communitheme snap, which is a community developed new theme for Ubuntu. While it is still a work in progress, and I fully understand the need to be more conservative with LTS releases, I really like the theme and wish it could have been the default in 18.04 LTS. As I write this, it still has some issues with working with snap applications, but those should be fixed soon enough. The theme provides a very nice look, and it appears as a separate session on the login screen, so be sure to try it out, if you want something a little different.
Minimal installation
Before I finish, I want to touch briefly on the new minimal installation option that provides a way to start with a smaller selection of packages. It removes everything from the default installation except for Firefox and the standard utilities. If you are setting up an computer lab where the everything the users do will be based in a browser, the minimal installation is a great way to easily set that up. It also provides a way for users who want different applications to customize their systems without having to take the time to remove a large number of unwanted packages. I find the minimal installation too minimal for my personal tastes (I find the standard installation's software selection to be just about perfect), but I am glad the option was added in and hope other users find it useful.
Ubuntu 18.04 -- Minimal installation applications
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Final thoughts
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is not perfect, but it is very good. Users who are super conservative about change might want to stick to 16.04 LTS with Unity for now, but 18.04 LTS is a good desktop distribution that provides an excellent selection of default software for doing general tasks like checking e-mail and writing documents, and there is plenty of other software in the repositories for users who want to do more advanced things. There are a few rough edges that may, or may not, get cleaned up by the time 18.04.1 comes out, but none of them are bad enough to make Ubuntu 18.04 LTS unusable. At worst, the issues are minor annoyances. I realize that GNOME may not be for everyone, and may in itself be a reason to look elsewhere, but I do like Ubuntu's implementation of GNOME with the exception of the various issues with handling desktop icons. However, if GNOME is not for you, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS's other flavors provide the same Ubuntu base with other desktop environments, so check out those if GNOME is not to your liking.
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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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Visitor supplied rating
Ubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.7/10 from 298 review(s).
Have you used Ubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
UBports to run on Librem 5, Slackware makes PulseAudio optional, educational Linux comics
Purism is an organization working to develop a smart phone which will run a completely free and open source operating system, specifically PureOS. The Purism team have announced that they are working with the UBports team to get the modern version of Ubuntu Touch running on the phone's hardware: "Purism and UBports are partnering to offer Ubuntu Touch as a supported operating system on Purism’s Librem 5 smartphone. Being able to work with Purism and focus on the Librem 5 hardware platform ensures that the Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system developed by UBports will be well supported, tightly integrated, and that future compatibility will remain. When the Librem 5 is delivered to pre-order customers, it will become one of just a few smartphones that support the free and open source operating system." This means when the Librem 5 phone launches in 2019 it should be able to run PureOS with GNOME or KDE's Plasma Mobile desktop, or run UBports with the Unity 8 interface. The Purism blog has more details.
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Slackware is often conservative in adopting new technologies, waiting until upstream projects have time to mature before packaging them for inclusion in the distribution. One component Slackware was especially slow to adopt was PulseAudio, a sound system that most mainstream Linux distributions have been using for about a decade. Still, while PulseAudio is now available in Slackware, the developers are making it optional. The Slackware ChageLog states: "Don't like PulseAudio? Well... I hear you. Personally, it works for me, and it makes it easier to switch between multiple audio inputs and outputs compared to using plain ALSA. PulseAudio got off to a rocky start in the Linux world, where it found itself adopted before it was ready (it was even billed on its own website at the time as "the software that currently breaks your audio"). It's my opinion that the reputation that PulseAudio acquired due to problems back then isn't deserved any longer. If your hardware supports the sampling rate of the audio data you're trying to play, PulseAudio will not resample it (and if your hardware doesn't support that rate, resampling can hardly be avoided). The increased latency has not been an issue here. Nevertheless, I recognize that there are use cases where PulseAudio is still a detriment. While I don't generally recommend removing PulseAudio, I'm not going to cram it down your throat. So, if you'd like to be rid of PulseAudio, head over to the new extra/pure-alsa-system directory and follow the instructions in the README file there, and you'll have a PulseAudio-free pure ALSA system."
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We are always on the lookout for new resources which will help people get into and explore Linux. This week we would like to share a great series of web comics drawn by Julia Evans. The comics quickly provide overviews to such technical topics as file permissions, virtual memory, BASH scripting, task scheduling and using pipes. The comics provide readers with very quick, practical summaries of Linux-related topics and the illustrations assist in showing how components relate. The entire collection of comics is freely available on a page called Julia's Drawings.
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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) |
Accessing ZFS snapshots
Looking-inside-the-snapshot asks: I'm creating backups by taking a ZFS snapshot, creating a tarball out of it and copying it to a remote server for safe keeping. Can I check, on the server, that my snapshot is intact? I don't have enough hard drive space to create a new partition for a ZFS pool on the server. So I was thinking maybe I could mount the snapshot directly and browse through the files? How would I go about mounting a ZFS snapshot file?
DistroWatch answers: The tricky part of verifying a ZFS snapshot is, as far as I know, a ZFS snapshot is not made up of just raw data like an image (or clone) of an ext4 or UFS file system would be. The ZFS snapshot will include instructions or other meta data which means it cannot (based on my experience) be mounted directly as a loopback device.
The good news is you do not need a separate partition acting as a dedicated ZFS volume in order to access your ZFS snapshot. It is possible to create a new ZFS volume from a file inside your existing file system. This allows you to create a new ZFS volume which essentially acts as a loopback device. Then you can import your snapshot into your temporary ZFS volume. As long as you have enough disk space to hold a copy of the data in your snapshot, you should be fine.
Let's walk through an example. Here we assume you are logged into an account on the backup server. The first thing we need to do is create a file that is big enough to hold all the data in your snapshot. Here we create a 100MB file to hold our ZFS loopback system, adjust the size up to match your snapshot's size:
dd if=/dev/zero of=zfsloopback count=100000 bs=1000
Next, we turn this loopback file, called zfsloopback, into a ZFS volume. The volume will be called backups. This assumes you already have ZFS support installed and enabled on the remote server.
zpool create backups /path/to/zfsloopback
We now have a ZFS volume called backups which exists inside the empty zfsloopback file. At this point we can import the data from your backup archive into the ZFS volume.
cat my-backup-archive | zfs receive /backups/mybackup
In your backups ZFS volume you should now find all the files from your original ZFS snapshot. When you are done verifying the snapshot's contents, you can delete the temporary ZFS storage pool and remove the loopback file.
zfs umount backups
zpool destroy backups
rm zfsloopback
This is not as straight forward as mounting a loopback file directly, but it can be done fairly quickly and does not require the use of a separate partition or disk drive. As long as you have enough space to hold another copy of your archived files (the snapshot) there should not be any trouble in using this approach.
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More answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Ubuntu 18.04
Adam Conrad has announced the availability of Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic Beaver". The new version is a long term support (LTS) release featuring the GNOME Shell desktop and version 4.15 of the Linux kernel. "The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce our seventh long-term support release, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS for Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core. Codenamed "Bionic Beaver", 18.04 LTS continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs. The Ubuntu kernel has been updated to the 4.15 based Linux kernel, with additional support for Linux security module stacking, signing of POWER host and NV kernels, and improved support for IBM and Intel hardware enablement from Linux 4.16. Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 LTS brings a fresh look with the GNOME desktop environment. GNOME Shell on Ubuntu is designed to be easy to use for people upgrading from 16.04 LTS and presents a familiar user interface. New features for users upgrading from 16.04 LTS include assistance with logging in to public Wifi hotspots and the Night Light feature to reduce eye strain in the evenings." Further details can be found in the release announcement and in the release notes.
Ubuntu 18.04 -- Running GNOME Shell
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Ubuntu MATE 18.04
Martin Wimpress has announced the release of Ubuntu MATE 18.04, the latest version of the popular Ubuntu variant featuring the MATE desktop environment. This new version comes with the new MATE 1.20.1: "The MATE Desktop has transitioned from the GTK+ 2.24-based MATE 1.12 to the very latest MATE 1.20.1 based on GTK+ 3.22. This migration has been several years in the making, and most of 2016 and 2017 was spent refining the GTK+ 3 implementation. The move to GTK+ 3 has made it possible to introduce many of the new features you'll read about below. Support for libinput has been added and is now the default input handler for mouse and touchpad, which has resulted in much improved responsiveness and support for multi-finger touch gestures. Thanks to our friends at Hypra.fr, accessibility support (particularly for visually impaired users) has seen continued development and improvement. MATE Desktop is proud to provide visually impaired users the most accessible open-source desktop environment. MATE Desktop 1.20 supports HiDPI displays and if you have one then Ubuntu MATE will automatically enable pixel scaling, presenting you with a super crisp desktop and applications." See the detailed release announcement for further information and screenshots.
Ubuntu Budgie 18.04
David Mohammed has announced the release of Ubuntu Budgie 18.04, a desktop Linux distribution featuring the refreshingly simple Budgie desktop that aims to provide a "familiar, modern and functional experience": "We are pleased to announce the release of a new version of our distribution, the third as an official flavor of the Ubuntu family and our very first LTS. The LTS version is supported for 3 years while the regular releases are supported for 9 months. Based on 17.10 experiences, feedback and suggestions we have received from our users, the new release comes with a lot of new features, fixes and optimizations. Here is what you can expect with the new release: more customisation options via Budgie Welcome; lots more Budgie applets available to be installed; dynamic workspaces, hot-corners and Window shuffler; brand-new GTK+ theme called Pocillo; new applets as standard in the panel or available to be added via Budgie Settings." Here is the short release announcement with links to much more detailed release notes and screenshots.
Kubuntu 18.04
Kubuntu 18.04, an official Ubuntu flavour that features the powerful and customisable KDE Plasma 5 desktop, has been released. The new version introduces a number of notable changes, such as an updated theme, new video and music players, and extensive software upgrades throughout the system: "The Kubuntu Team is happy to announce that Kubuntu 18.04 LTS has been released, featuring the beautiful KDE Plasma 5.12 LTS - simple by default, powerful when needed. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs. Under the hood, there have been updates to many core packages, including a new 4.15-based kernel, KDE Frameworks 5.44, Plasma 5.12 LTS and KDE Applications 17.12.3. We've made some notable changes since 16.04 LTS. VLC is the default media player and Cantata Qt5 the default music player. Muon is now shipped by default for those who prefer a package manager as an alternative to the Plasma Discover software store. See the release announcement and release notes for additional details.
Xubuntu 18.04
Version 18.04 of Xubuntu, an Ubuntu variant that ships with the popular Xfce desktop, is now ready for download: "The Xubuntu team is happy to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 18.04. Xubuntu 18.04 is a long-term support (LTS) release and will be supported for 3 years, until April 2021. Highlights: some GNOME applications are replaced with corresponding MATE applications for improved consistency with almost identical set of features; the Sound Indicator plugin is replaced with the Xfce PulseAudio plugin in the panel, improving the control of volume and multimedia applications from the panel; the new xfce4-notifyd panel plugin is included, allowing users to easily toggle 'do not disturb' mode for notifications as well as view missed notifications; significantly improved menu editing with a new MenuLibre version; better support for HiDPI screens, better consistency and other improvements from the Greybird GTK+ theme." Read the release announcement and release notes for a detailed list of changes and known issues.
Xubuntu 18.04 -- Running the Xfce desktop
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Ubuntu Studio 18.04
The Ubuntu Studio team has published version 18.04 of their distribution. While Ubuntu Studio shares packages with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, this release is not a long term support (LTS) version and offers support for nine months. The distribution's release announcement states: "We are happy to announce the release of our latest version, Ubuntu Studio 18.04 Bionic Beaver! Unlike the other Ubuntu flavors, this release of Ubuntu Studio is not a Long-Term Support (LTS) release. As a regular release, it will be supported for 9 months. Although it is not a Long-Term Support release, it is still based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS which means the components will be supported as usual for a LTS release. Since it's just out, you may experience some issues, so you might want to wait a bit before upgrading. Please see the release notes for a complete list of changes and known issues." Further details can be found in the project's release notes.
Ubuntu Kylin 18.04
Ubuntu Kylin is a community edition of Ubuntu developed for Chinese users. The project has released a new version, Ubuntu Kylin 18.04, which ships with the Kylin Video media player, Kylin Assistant to help configure the operating system and Burner, a customized version of the Brasero disc burning software. "Ubuntu Kylin Software Store includes Ubuntu Kylin Software Centre, Ubuntu Kylin Developer Platform and Ubuntu Kylin Repository. Its interface is simple but with powerful functions and it supports both Ubuntu and Ubuntu Kylin repositories. It is especially convenient for quick installation of Chinese characteristic software developed by Ubuntu Kylin team. Kylin Assistant, a system management and configuration tool we developed for Linux users, could show system information, clean up system garbage and beautify system. It makes your desktop more smooth, more user-friendly, and enriched with personality. In this release, we optimize the framework to reduce the resource usage, add file shredder, UD SSO, Spanish supporting and configuration for Cinnamon, and improve the task manager." The release announcement (Chinese, English) offers more information.
Lubuntu 18.04
Simon Quigley has announced the release of Lubuntu 18.04, a desktop distribution featuring the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE). The release of the "Lubuntu Next" variant, with the Qt-based LXQt desktop instead of LXDE, was once again postponed. "Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 18.04 LTS has been released. With the code name of 'Bionic Beaver', Lubuntu 18.04 LTS is the 14th release of Lubuntu, with support until April 2021. New features: Ubuntu 18.04 ships with a version 4.15-based Linux kernel, enabling the latest hardware and peripherals available from IBM, Intel and others; OpenJDK 10 is the default JRE/JDK, once OpenJDK 11 reaches general availability in September 2018, it will become the default in 18.04; GCC is now set to default to compile applications as position independent executables (PIE) as well as with immediate binding, to make more effective use of Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)." Read the release announcement and release notes for more details.
Lubuntu 18.04 -- Running LXDE
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OpenIndiana 2018.04
Alexander Pyhalov has announced the release of a new version of OpenIndiana, an open source operating system which is a continuation of OpenSolaris. The new version, OpenIndiana 2018.04, features a rebuilt userland using version 6 of the GNU Compiler Collection. The GNOME 2 desktop has been removed in favour of MATE. The release announcement reads: "We have released a new OpenIndiana Hipster snapshot 2018.04. The noticeable changes: Userland software is rebuilt with GCC 6. KPTI was enabled to mitigate recent security issues in Intel CPUs. Support of GNOME 2 desktop was removed. Linked images now support zoneproxy service. MATE desktop applications are delivered as 64-bit-only. Upower support was integrated. IIIM was removed." Further information can be found in the project's release notes. The operating system is available in three editions: Graphical (GUI), Text and Minimal.
Voyager Live 18.04
Voyager Live is an Xubuntu-based distribution and live DVD showcasing the Xfce desktop environment for French users. The project latest release, Voyager Live 18.04, is a long term support release offering three years of support. An English translation of the original French release announcement reads: "I present you with Voyager 18.04 LTS with three years of long-term support (LTS), until April 2021. A variant based on Xubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) with the Xfce desktop and version 4.15 of the Linux kernel. This project is done by a team who I wish to thank for their valuable work. Attention, Voyager is only a pushed variant of Xubuntu. The entire internal structure of Xubuntu 18.04 LTS is left by default to avoid any security issues and packages. All updates come from official Ubuntu. Voyager 18.04 LTS is multi-profile and multitasking in an aesthetic and immersive environment as much as possible and this, since the origins of Voyager, is so that the time spent on your machine is more enjoyable."
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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: 826
- Total data uploaded: 19.2TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Ubuntu running GNOME Shell versus Unity
This week Canonical launched the first long term support (LTS) version of Ubuntu using the GNOME Shell desktop as the default graphical interface. Previously Ubuntu has used the Unity 7 desktop and, before that, GNOME 2. This week we would like to hear what you think of this change. Do you think cooperating with GNOME makes for a better experience, do you miss Unity, or would you like to see Ubuntu using another option?
You can see the results of our previous poll on dual booting versus virtual machines in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Ubuntu running GNOME Shell versus Unity
| I like the change to GNOME Shell: | 427 (25%) |
| I preferred Unity: | 248 (15%) |
| I preferred GNOME 2/MATE: | 495 (30%) |
| I would like them to use another option: | 318 (19%) |
| No preference: | 189 (11%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Distributions added to waiting list
- Manjaro WebDad. Manjaro WebDad is an unofficial re-spin of Manjaro Linux featuring the Just Another Desktop Environment (JADE) made with Web technologies.
- Alien-OS. Alien-OS is a Linux distribution based on Kubuntu for German users.
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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, 7 May 2018. 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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1 • About Ubuntu (and all family flavours: lubuntu, xubuntu, kubuntu, ...) (by Antonio Lopez on 2018-04-30 00:29:10 GMT from Spain)
How many computers (aprox) in the world run ubuntu or other flavours? Counting servers, desktop and laptops.
Thanks for your information.
2 • Ubuntu desktop (by mcellius on 2018-04-30 00:44:05 GMT from Canada)
I've used Ubuntu since 11.04 and so liked Unity a lot (and I tried every other desktop, too). I was skeptical of Gnome and really disliked some of the things they've done, such as getting rid of desktop icons and many window controls: they seem to have an attitude of trying to force people to do things their way, rather than to allow people to work as they wish. For some reason they are more interested in removing functionality in ways that limit users.
So I was skeptical when I loaded Ubuntu 17.10 last October, but I found that Ubuntu did a great job with the desktop. A few Gnome extensions helped, and some settings made the Gnome desktop more usable for me; it took me a couple days to get things as I wanted them, but it really wan't difficult. Anyway, it isn't the vanilla Gnome experience, and it differs from Unity, too, all in good ways. I feel very comfortable with my very usable desktop, which I've been able to retain with Ubuntu 18.04. The mix of Gnome with Ubuntu's customizations makes something very nice.
3 • Naah, Moksha and KDE for me, sorry. :) (by BeGo on 2018-04-30 00:47:42 GMT from Indonesia)
I prefer using Enlightenment or Moksha Desktop, followed by KDE Desktop. :)
4 • Slackware & Alsa & Pulseaudio (by Tux Raider on 2018-04-30 00:57:55 GMT from United States)
Slackware is my favorite distro, a few years ago when pulseaudio first came out it was a buggy mess, it eventually matured in to a decent audio package, i do a lot with audio and SDR radios so i think i will stick with pulseaudio since GQRX requires pulse, as long as Slackware keeps systemD out of the mix i am a happy Slacker :)
5 • Ubuntu 18.04 (by tdockery97 on 2018-04-30 01:02:56 GMT from United States)
I think Ubuntu 18.04 is a great release once the default desktop is replaced with Unity 7, which is now included in the Universe repositories. A simple sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop does the trick. Select lightdm as the default during the install process, and select Unity(default) on the login-in screen and that, as they say, is that.
6 • #4 (by jadecat on 2018-04-30 01:18:39 GMT from United Kingdom)
Yep I am also Slackaware and give PulseAudio the nod over ALSA. But only just as I have never had any problems with either.
7 • Ubuntu 18.04 (by Angel on 2018-04-30 02:16:22 GMT from Philippines)
Tried it. Like it. I'm keeping it, at least until I see if Mint can top it with Cinnamon. Back when OS X was first launched, I bought a Mac. I liked the desktop layout. Still do. I add plank, hide the dash/dock, and done, but for just a few minor tweaks. Never fond of desktop icons, and I've grown to like using keyboard shortcuts.
8 • Ubuntu 18.04, adding this: (by Angel on 2018-04-30 02:28:16 GMT from Philippines)
On the subject of desktop icons, I download many things to the desktop temporarily. I still can do that with the Gnome DE, and they will show. What I dislike are shortcuts on the desktop, which to my taste, make it look cluttered. On Windows, I delete any desktop shortcuts created by app installers.
9 • End of LTS for Ubuntu Studio? (by Studio User on 2018-04-30 02:43:49 GMT from United States)
The release announcement for Ubuntu Studio says the 18.04 release is not an LTS release. Is this the end of LTS for Ubuntu Studio after 16.04 dies? I use it as a daily driver in my business , but will change if LTS is extinct .
10 • Ubuntu needs real gnome (by Scott Eno on 2018-04-30 02:46:51 GMT from United States)
Till Ubuntu uses real gnome not the altered crap I will stick to Fedora.
11 • Still not interested in GNOME (by M.Z. on 2018-04-30 03:18:19 GMT from United States)
After reading the DW review & the one on 4-26 from BitYard posted on the latest review section, I have to say I agree with the BitYard review. It may be good for some, but it certainly has no appeal to me, even if it makes modern GNOME less of a pain for most users. It seems as though most users are like me & want something a bit like the traditional PC desktop so they can just get going. On that count GNOME is still a bad option. Cinnamon, KDE, & XFCE are all far more appealing & can get you going fairly quick & easy without retraining or big annoyances like the mysterious till you figure it out drag to unlock feature BitYard described.
It seems like GNOME has 'refined' their originally terrible GNOME 3 by swapping out one crappy feature for another & constantly pulling more useful features out than they add in. I know the GNOME folks have a vision, but what's the point of major distros picking it as default if only a fraction of users actually like it?
I thought I might want to try the new Ubuntu after hearing a bit about how the team was going to try to smooth over the rough edges that make GNOME so deeply unappealing to regular desktop users like me. After reading a couple of reviews I've become a hard pass. I'll stick with all the other options I've been enjoying like LMDE Cinnamon, Mint XFCE, & Mageia KDE. There are lots of great things about the base OS Ubuntu puts out, but from my POV they are not really putting out an appealing flagship product.
12 • @10 Re: Ubuntu needs real gnome (by Rev_Don on 2018-04-30 03:24:33 GMT from United States)
"Till Ubuntu uses real gnome not the altered crap I will stick to Fedora."
I have to agree with part of what you said. They definitely need to use real gnome and that is now called Mate.
I totally disagree with the Fedora portion though.
13 • Ubuntu 18.04 (by exploder on 2018-04-30 04:25:17 GMT from United States)
I am pretty impressed with Ubuntu 18.04. It is the first release that works out of the box on my new laptop. The Wayland session works great with AMD graphics and Gnome in general. I see a lot of improvements since the last LTS release.
I am glad Ubuntu went back to Gnome Shell and I kind of like the little tweaks they gave it. Even the theme seems nicer in Gnome. I know some really wanted the new theme but I understand why they had to wait.
Ubuntu 18.04 is a nice release and the developers did a great job with it!
14 • MATE (by Roy on 2018-04-30 05:04:24 GMT from United States)
MATE fixed the security and JAVA problem I had with HULU using Chrome. As the disclaimer notes there will be things broken before the final release. So I am still using UbuntuMATE. 18.04 is working for me.
15 • Poll Question (by salygreysoup on 2018-04-30 07:10:12 GMT from Australia)
If, like me, you never got into Unity nor Gnome3 and a combination of both sounds like a nightmare rather than a smart move?? Give it a go..! I was completely surprised by how well I have taken to it.That's all I've got to say, cheers
16 • desktop design or support period (by George on 2018-04-30 08:33:25 GMT from United States)
I prefer MATE to Gnome or Unity, but only if it is supported for 5 years. However, the Ubuntu Gnome people are enthused enough to support their product for 5 years. The Ubuntu MATE people lack the same level of enthusiasm.
The issue with Ubuntu MATE is that the "LTS" is only 3 years. Not 5.
The issue with waiting for the next Mint MATE (5 year support) is that Mint is not Ubuntu. Some stuff that works with one does not work with the other. So, for example, if you want to install the SDL version of Cataclysm DDA, (amazing open source rogue-like) on Mint, it is a pain. In fact the savvy and expertise involved are over my head as I have never got it to work on Mint. A person with my capability can install it on Ubuntu. But Ubuntu MATE users will have to install all their stuff again in 3 years.
Why don't the Ubuntu MATE developers support their product for 5 years? Do most users care? If the developers thought the users really cared, then I wonder if developers would stay with 3 years. Maybe most people here actually look forward to challenging installation processes. Although most here say they'd like 5 year LTS, maybe they really don't care much.
In the end, after much complaining and cussing at the neighbor's dog, I will run both Mint MATE and Ubuntu (Gnome), 5 year support, along with CentOS, on various computers in our home.
17 • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (by cepla on 2018-04-30 09:15:37 GMT from Canada)
Installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on secondary computer. The minimal installation option is nice. MPS-YouTube (a terminal app for browsing YouTube without the garbage) installed correctly. On Mint 18.3 I needed to fight with python versions or virtual environments or something.
Ubuntu makes the GNOME much more usable. But it still lacks the functionality for a main desktop. Nautilus is a complete joke.
Overall, this is a really good distribution release. I expect Mint will be able to make it main-desktop ready.
18 • Ubuntu 18.04 memory hog (by vboxer on 2018-04-30 10:14:52 GMT from Italy)
I tried Ubuntu 18.04 live session in a Virtualbox VM with 2GiB RAM. At first it ran fast and slick, but in five minutes it ran out of memory (Firefox, Software and Terminal open) LOL
BTW, Kubuntu with the same apps hardly reaches 1GiB of used RAM.
19 • Ubuntu 18.04 Mate (by Note on 2018-04-30 10:56:40 GMT from Spain)
I tried Ubuntu Mate un virtual box and it can not boot. The new Xubuntu works fine though.
20 • "LTS" (by Mike W on 2018-04-30 11:18:16 GMT from Austria)
Personally, I'd like to see Distrowatch start referring to any "LTS" version with less than 5 years support as "semi-LTS". I think LTS should be reserved for 5 years or more.
21 • Nautilus / Post # 17 / Gnome Applications (by Winchester on 2018-04-30 12:34:09 GMT from United States)
I am not a big fan of the Gnome 3 desktop environment / user interface as a whole but,some of its software applications are indispensable.
Nautilus,in my experience,is the absolute most reliable file manager for copying files without error. (20 GB or less at a time,anyway).
I once tried copying some valuable pictures off of an old SD card from an old camera and all of the other file managers copied the pictures with parts of the images missing BUT, only Nautilus was able to copy the pictures without corruption.
I always use the File Roller Archive Manager as well. Even when using the MATE desktop,I have had better results using File Roller compared to using the Engrampa archive manager.
Sound Converter is great as well for a GUI program. SOX is also great for that same purpose but,no GUI. G-Parted obviously. GTK-Record-My-Desktop is another good program.
Under OpenSUSE Tumbleweed LXQt , the Gnome ScreenShot Utility works better than the LXQt ScreenShot software program.
That's just to name a few off of the top of my head.
22 • Poll (by Jordan on 2018-04-30 12:56:36 GMT from United States)
The "no preference" choice for some of us is because we'd never use a Canonical product, no matter the wm.
23 • Ubuntu (by Justin on 2018-04-30 13:00:37 GMT from Canada)
Under the hood The Gnome desktop is very functional, just plug something in and it gets configured, however I find the interface to be silly and cumbersome. I hope there is a review of Kubuntu, the KDE team has hit a high point with this release.
24 • @22 - No preference (by brad on 2018-04-30 13:23:13 GMT from United States)
I agree with you, except for one small caveat. I recently tried Hyper-V in Windows 10 Pro, and the only guest linux instances supported were *buntu, Debian, Fedora/RH, and SuSE/OpenSuSE. Out of those four choices, *buntu (Kubuntu) was the least objectionable (I tried Manjaro, but it was a no-go).
Why would I even bother with Win 10 Pro? The disk controller defaults to RAID, and I didn't want to go through the manipulation necessary to change RAID to AHCI, and have to re-install Windows. I just wanted something fast and easy, and this was the easiest way to go.
Still don't like the *buntus, since they moved to Unity. Out of all the *buntus, Kubuntu is the least objectionable.
25 • slackware pulseaudio (by dogma on 2018-04-30 13:43:11 GMT from United States)
That’s a bummer that slackware felt the need to go to pulseaudio.
26 • Ub2.DE (by zykoda on 2018-04-30 13:57:17 GMT from United Kingdom)
Unity & Gnome 3 failed for me without a 3d provision. Thus Gnome2/Mate is preferable. Not a Ub2 user myself. DE low priority: Complexity is self defeating in many ways.
27 • Can't install Ubuntu in my laptop, can you? (by Kazan on 2018-04-30 14:02:45 GMT from United Kingdom)
Can't install Ubuntu in my laptop, can you? It is an UEFI laptop.
28 • Ubuntu (by Pat Huff on 2018-04-30 14:07:45 GMT from United States)
I am trying the new release now in live mode and it is working very well so far. I just could never get used to Gnome after ver.3. I prefer simple menus and less icons. (my 2 cents worth)
29 • Ubuntu 18.04 backgrounds thumbs up (by Mark on 2018-04-30 14:16:44 GMT from United Kingdom)
I very much like how you can have textured single-colour backgrounds, or some with simple graphics, and there's a nice selection of them. Makes the desktop look good to your taste without being distracting. Not everyone wants photos for their background, nice though they may be.
30 • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS... (by Marc Visscher on 2018-04-30 14:36:09 GMT from Netherlands)
I'm a Linux user since 2003, and in the early days I was playing around with Suse, Mandrake, Knoppix, Puppy Linux, PCLinuxOS, and.... yes: Linspire. At that time the latter was the easiest to use Linux distro around. It was a commercial product, but funny enough it was Linspire that brought me to Linux.
In the fall of 2004 I ran into the first Ubuntu (still have the images and the live-CD!), and Ubuntu was my distro of choice within an instant. I've been using it from 2004 - 2011, but Unity spoiled my fun with version 11.04. Not soon after the release of ubuntu 11.04 I switched to Linux Mint and Xubuntu. With Ubuntu 16.04 LTS I decided to try it once more with the Unity desktop, and I got familiar with it. Unity is not the best desktop around (for me, that is!), but I started to like it and it worked for me in a way that I could use it in my workflow.
2018... things have been changed lately. Mint is not so appealing for me anymore, the "latest-and-greatest" Ubuntu just got released, but.... it uses GNOME 3. YUK! I used to be a huge fan of GNOME, but since it became version 3 it really putted me off. Thank God MATE was there soon after GNOME 2.32, and that still is a great desktop. And what about Xfce? In 2003 Xfce looked like a Fisher Price kinda desktop, but it matured to this wonderful desktop what it is today. Xfce is light on resources, it looks great, it works wonderfully, it is stable and... it's highly configurable. And because of all of the earlier mentioned Xubuntu should be the new flagship of the Ubuntu family.
So... Canonical... take a good look at Xubuntu, and see that THAT should be the flagship of the Ubuntu family. The new Ubuntu with GNOME just isn't like that. It's ugly, it's heavy on hardware, it's a pain to configure it, and a lot of settings are too hidden in the system.
The last few weeks I helped friends, family and collegues to renew their laptops, and they all got Xubuntu on their machines, not the regular version. They are all happy with the result, and they really feel like they working on a new machine. Thanks to the sleeque Xubuntu.
If I had a business, I would choose for Xubuntu instead of the regular Ubuntu. And I'm thinking of starting a small office. And yes, Xubuntu is on my mind for working machines.
My favourite distro's at the moment: Xubuntu and Manjaro. Yes, both Xfce! :-)
31 • @ 28 Ubuntu (by OstroL on 2018-04-30 14:51:08 GMT from Poland)
Well, when you install it let us know, if it gets installed in your laptop. Is it a newer UEFI laptop?
32 • manjaro (by hwms on 2018-04-30 15:43:26 GMT from United States)
I see that Manjaro is getting close to being rated #1 on Distrowatch so I decided to try it again. I multiboot with PCLOS KDE as my everyday, distro. So I installed Manjaro kde and told the installer to put grub on the / partition. Rebooted into my main distro and ran grub2 customizer and saved the output. When I rebooted and tried to log into manjaro to install the updates I got the kernel panic error message. After reading and searching about that error in manjaro and other posts about it, I decided to copy the menu entry in the manjaro root partition and use it in a 40_custom menu. The next time I tried to log into Manjaro using the custom menu entry I was able to get in and update. After updating (which took what seemed like a long time), and rebooting I was not able to get back into manjaro. I don't remember the exact problem that time. That was when I decided to abandon the idea of running Manjaro. I like a distro that works without having to jump through multiple hoops to keep it going. I feel like Manjaro might work if I let it control the grub menu and the MBR. Since I didn't want to do that or have Manjaro as my main distro until I was able to use it quite a bit, I just left it and will decide later whether to try and use it or install something else.
33 • Post # 32 / Directing Bootloader Entries to Kernels (by Winchester on 2018-04-30 16:22:45 GMT from United States)
You're on the right track. The reason for that particular problem you describe is probably because of the way that the kernels are named in Manjaro.
Probably Manjaro Update resulted in a new kernel name which made the old custom entry obsolete. From the sound of your description.
This is why (as a multi-boot user) that I like to have symlinks pointing to the most current vmlinuz and initramfs.img (or in some cases initrd.img).
Name the symlinks simply " vmlinuz " and " initramfs.img" (or initrd.img) and point the bootloader entry to those symlinks instead of to one specific kernel version.
The trick is to figure out how to have those symlinks updated upon kernel updates so that they continue to point to the most recent kernel version. Some distributions do this automatically by default ( Solus , OpenSUSE Tumbleweed as examples ) and other distributions do not do it automatically ( Korora etc. ) . Manjaro ..... I can't remember as I haven't used it in almost a year.
34 • ubuntu mate (by Tim Dowd on 2018-04-30 16:50:31 GMT from United States)
@16
This isn't such a big deal. Because Ubuntu MATE uses the Ubuntu repositories, it will still get some updates for 5 years. The only huge issue would be if some major update happens to Ubuntu that then messes up the now unsupported MATE part.
https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/why-can-t-we-get-5-years-support-for-16-04/5098/13
I used to care about LTS, but Ubuntu MATE is so stable and MATE Tweak makes it so easy to keep the layout and such exactly the same that I've been happily using interim releases for the past two years and barely noticing it.
If you keep /home on a separate partition and install software using apt-get install, updating the core system takes almost no effort. Back things up, choose "something else" on the partitioner and select the partition with / for formatting and simply mount /home without reformatting.
Then I have a sudo apt-get install.... command with all of my usual programs listed saved in a text file. I run that, and I'm pretty much done. On a multi user system you have to make sure you re-add your users in the same order so each person gets the right home folder, but the whole process requires very little intervention. You may have to clean the desktop up a little using Mate TWEAK but all your preferences in the apps will all be the same and even the command history in the terminal will be there
@19
I'm not having the same problem on a real computer- could it be your virtualbox settings?
35 • UEFI install @31 and 27 (by Angel on 2018-04-30 18:08:46 GMT from Philippines)
Installed on Asus laptop, UEFI. No problem. I use Rufus on Windows to write ISO to USB.
36 • @ 32 Manjaro (by brad on 2018-04-30 18:26:35 GMT from United States)
I have no problem with letting Manjaro GRUB control my multi-boot environments. I'm not that technically oriented, but I really like the way Manjaro GRUB "remembers" which distro I booted previously, and boots that same environment. Comes in handy when I need to reboot Win10 after a big update - I can just walk away, and do other things while waiting for the monstrosity to update.
: - )
37 • Ubuntu LTS minimal install (by jim on 2018-04-30 18:47:03 GMT from Canada)
The minimal option is overdue & it's a treat - a lean fast system out of the box. Enable direct installation from the GNOME Extensions website & get GNOME Tweak, & customizing my desktop is fast & easy. Never was a fan of GNOME but this respin of it is a pleasant surprise. The things I dislike are fixable without much time or stress - which was the original reason I switched to Linux.
Had all but given up on Ubuntu - when the last LTS came out I didn't even bother to try it - but this one is going where they needed to go. Trying out Kubuntu next!
38 • @35 UEFI install (by OstroL on 2018-04-30 19:06:22 GMT from Poland)
Thanks!. I had some problems of getting it installed in an Asus laptop. Will try again. Thanks again.
39 • @16 Ubuntu Mate LTS (by Rev_Don on 2018-04-30 19:52:24 GMT from United States)
According to Ubuntu Mate Project Leader Martin Wimpress "Only Ubuntu and Kubuntu offer 5 year LTS, all the other flavours are 3 years. Which means we maintain/support the bit that are intrinsically MATE for 3 years, after that only the Ubuntu base system updates and security fixes will continue.
We simply can't commit to 5 years of support and point releases. What are you going to be doing in 5 years time?"
40 • Minimal install (by mikef90000 on 2018-04-30 20:06:56 GMT from United States)
I chuckle about this 'new' feature, since I've always managed to do the same thing with the mini iso. Create a bootable command line based system, then install the core DE of your choice. Ubuntu and Debian metapackages make this easy.
BTW I haven't been able to get the new mini.iso to work - it can't seem to contact the repositories. Anyone else have this issue?
41 • @40 (by Brandon Sniadajewski on 2018-04-30 21:10:49 GMT from United States)
To me, having a "minimal install" feature allows to not deal with extra unnecessary programs (and uninstall all of them) at first boot yet be able to boot to a GUI without the fuss of having to make sure all the necessary packages are there. I've gone through using the mini iso to install Kubuntu but something may be missing as it wouldn't go into Plasma on the first boot (as the metapackages alone mayn't bring enough in to do so.
42 • Gnome (by zzak on 2018-05-01 01:09:41 GMT from Canada)
Question: If you were Microsoft, and didn't want Windows users to switch to Linux,
what would you do?
Answer: Expose them to Gnome.
43 • #42 (by jadecat on 2018-05-01 01:37:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
Show them a command line.
44 • @42 &43 (by Angel on 2018-05-01 02:19:14 GMT from Philippines)
If I were Microsoft, I would refer them to Linux forums, including this comment section, so they can see all the bickering and the put-downs on anything that even slightly diverges from the commenter's fossilized idea of the perfect desktop, or whatever.
45 • Manjaro WebDad (by Kazan on 2018-05-01 09:49:40 GMT from United Kingdom)
What a nice DE!
The guy had used a nice way to show the apps and files on the desktop. Actually, the screen looks like a desktop now.
46 • Ubuntu LTS and Snaps (by denpes on 2018-05-01 10:51:12 GMT from Belgium)
If you use an operating system, you must trust the distributor. So you trust that Canonical has a certain review process for their installer and repositories.
This all changes with Snaps. The reviewing process of snaps is very blurry to me. I know that it gets reviewed with the introduction of an application in snap, but how about updates of that snap app? What if in 2 years a user has many applications from snap installed, and a developer of one of those snaps puts malicious code in the updated version and steals user data for whatever reason.
So instead of just put your trust in one distributor, you now have to review each developer of a certain application from snap. That is quite a big change. It's even worse, because probably most NEW users won't be able to differentiate between "regular repositories and snaps, because it's all in the same interface.
Convenience is attractive, and Snaps is a solution, but imo a dirty one. And although it can be used in certain cases, I think it should not be the new strategy of distributing the software. It looks messy with all those mount-point pollution, and you lose oversight of who to trust when your whole system gets updated by an x amount of well known or obscure devs.
47 • #46 (by jadecat on 2018-05-01 11:42:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
Seriously... You do know that you are talking about Canonical here? And by extension Ubuntu with their history of when it comes to user data.
48 • #47 (by denpes on 2018-05-01 12:09:00 GMT from Belgium)
That was not really my point, but I know what you mean. But I have not a bad opinion about Canonical. I think they did a lot for acceptation of the gnu/linux platform. It's mostly thanks to Ubuntu, that I can now play a lot of good linux games from steam on my Slackware installation. ( requirements are stated mostly in ubuntu versions, that tells you something)
My point was that a single point of trust now changes completely with snaps. I don't like this. It feels chaotic. But maybe I'm getting old.
49 • #48 (by jadecat on 2018-05-01 12:35:18 GMT from United Kingdom)
No you are not getting old unlike me. Been using Linux since 1997 and stayed with Slackware ever since. I have dabbled with others - but enough of my personal problems. Slackware and Wine are the best for my needs.
50 • poll (by dmacleo on 2018-05-01 16:45:00 GMT from United States)
I just do not like gnome as it is now, course disliked unity too.
personal preference of course, just like cinnamon better than other DE.
51 • I preferred GNOME 2/MATE (by Fantomas on 2018-05-01 19:36:40 GMT from France)
I have voted/ I preferred GNOME 2/MATE /
EXPL;
Strictly for Ubuntu I preferred MATE. I never did like GNOME,however..Also I never used UNITY so can not say much about it. I have used GNOME3, just to see what that is about and I am not going to use this Pile of ....Consuming to much screen real estate, and is just ... I am sorry, just my opinion, that is.
I would take Unity over Gnome any day, but am never going to use them anyway. No UNITY no GNOME for me. Thank you.
The new UBUNTU Installer is also worth mentioning in maybe, next Pool Question.
52 • @46 +48 Ubuntu LTS and Snaps (by pengxuin on 2018-05-01 20:28:12 GMT from New Zealand)
I agree completely, and can not understand why new users coming from a Windows environment, to a much more secure Linux environment, would immediately compromise their system and security by using the same "lets search the web and install willy-nilly anything that takes our fancy" policy.
With regards to PPA's, same can be said re trusting a third party developer.
With PPA's, you not only have the developer to consider, but also the security placed on the archive container, as it may have been maliciously hacked, likely without the developers / hosts knowledge, until too late.
If you want a system install with the nearly latest applications, as opposed to applications that are 2 or 3 releases stale, you will have to pick your distro with care.
If you want a single point of trust (distro) for your software, most Ubuntu and derivatives do not support this software model.
53 • Ubuntu (by edcoolio on 2018-05-02 06:37:09 GMT from United States)
UBUNTU:
Snaps = a solution to a non-existent problem
Ubuntu DE to GNOME = a solution that mirrors the problem of Unity... and makes it worse
Canonical with data = a problem in need of a solution
Xorg default instead of Wayland = admitting the future solution is worse than the problem
A good desktop should get out of the way for the user as default, not the other way around.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
54 • @25 Slackware Pulseaudio misunderstanding (by curious on 2018-05-02 09:41:51 GMT from Germany)
Slackware "went Pulseaudio" quite a while ago. The news is that they are now making it optional, so people who dislike Pulseaudio can use Slackware without it.
That is a good example that will hopefully be followed by other distros, and also concerning other controversial software (Systemd, Wayland, ...).
The sad bit is that it took so long that the problems with Pulseaudio have mostly been resolved. It would have made much more sense from a users point of view if Pulseaudio had been optional while it was still buggy and annoying, instead of being shoved down people's throats (so that only super-gurus could avoid it).
55 • ubuntu (by reg on 2018-05-02 15:36:11 GMT from Brazil)
Using ubuntu since 2012 almost exclusively.
And before since 2006 i believe.
But won't use it anymore after this change.
I like the gnome interface but it's window to window resistance
feels like a bug.
I'm already running Mint now.
56 • @ 32 Manjaro (by Bill S on 2018-05-02 16:19:50 GMT from United States)
I too got the kernel panic error message on two attempts to install manjaro on different partitions. Everything seemed to install just fine, but it just would not boot even though grub-update saw it just fine. Too bad as I tried it about a year ago and it was working. Too much trouble now to waste my time.
57 • Manjaro install kernel panics @32,56 (by brad on 2018-05-02 17:47:19 GMT from United States)
UEFI or MBR?
I use UEFI exclusively, use /boot/efi as the home for GRUB. No problems, except when I attempt to install another "flavor" of Linux. When I see the kernel panics, I go into the BIOS, and notice that there are separate entries for Manjaro and the "new" linux flavor. If I boot from the new flavor, I can get to all the linux instances. I then get back to Manjaro, re-run GRUB, make sure that I am booting from the Manjaro instance, and Bob's my uncle once again!
Easy, no?
: - )
58 • windowsization of linux (by anticapitalista on 2018-05-02 22:42:59 GMT from Greece)
@52
IMO - Far too many Linux distros have gone down the slippery slope of 'emulating' windows and you see the result. Users think that they can do the same on (windows looking) linux as they do on their windows box.
59 • #58 (by jadecat on 2018-05-02 23:37:01 GMT from United Kingdom)
Don't make the mistake of blaming the distro's for being Windows-centric. The vast majority of new users are from the Mac/Windows camps. GUI is all they know. Until they learn different. It's what I did back in the nineties. And yes they can do the same on GNU/Linux as they do on Windows if they so wish.
60 • corporate takeover (by tekblossoms on 2018-05-03 01:51:14 GMT from Australia)
MS Windows OS can run Linux apps with WSL
Google's Chrome OS will run Linux apps with Crostini
Google's Fuschia OS will run Android apps - but will it also eventually run Linux apps too?
Anyone else think that the corporates are moving into Linux territory to nullify it as a separate OS?
61 • @58/59/60 (by Fantomas on 2018-05-03 08:58:33 GMT from France)
@58 Great observation and personal opinion. We all I guess see this happening. But we will see, its not over yet. Great Input. Maybe Linux does to much to make everybody Happy this way. If so, I do not see to much problem. Linux always changes. If some corporation screws up and attacks one Distro, the next one moves up on their Place, we suffer for short time, ant then we are fine again.
@59 - #58 is not making any mistake and is not blaming any distros. I see only somebody's Opinion. I came over to Linux, from Win. I was willing to take the time and perhaps readjust-learn the new environment, back then, and to do the basic tasks, was after fresh install, with out knowing much, no problem. I was one happy Person. For those People, that do not like Windows, but do not want to take just a little time to shake hands with Linux, and constantly need somebody to wipe their A.., Well then, they are very welcome to stay with Win. No problem at all. Using Linux today, has become lot easier, compare to some years ago, if somebody still has problem with it, then leave them alone, for now. Yes, as you say, they can do the same on GNU/Linux as they do on Windows if they so wish. But this is not what #58 opinion is about. So do not take it personally, this is no critic, just my Input.
@60 corporate takeover. The Plan is to merge Win and Linux together.
This is no secret, we all see it. (14 year young child did tell me this)
Let them try and do. We will see at the end. It is far from over yet.
Its just the beginning. If they apply the headlock on us, I am sure we will slip away from it and answer back in nice manner. For now Ubuntu has become, the Micros. In the Linux world. That is fine. It is easy for new Users. Everything is alright, no panic. No Panic.
62 • Giving Back? (by super dude on 2018-05-03 09:57:24 GMT from Australia)
I'm genuinely curious as to how many people that criticize distributions that they use, actually give back and help the project that continually gives to them free of charge and improves year after year?
Love Unity more than any other? Instead of whinging in forums, how about doing something about it? Help out, maybe even report some bugs (properly) to one of the few forks out there would be a good start. But I guess 'someone else' will do that for you. If we all think like that, then the only projects that will thrive long term and the ones you don't like or the ones that cost money.
63 • @59 (by OstroL on 2018-05-03 11:03:27 GMT from Poland)
"Don't make the mistake of blaming the distro's for being Windows-centric. The vast majority of new users are from the Mac/Windows camps."
I don't know about the Mac camp, but I am not that sure that Windows users are jumping ship to Linux any more. If everything works, and if every possible app is available for Windows, why should they jump ship? When any question is answered quite politely in Windows' forums, why should anyone jump ship? And, with Rainmeter skins and clocks etc...
64 • Post # 56 : Kernel Panic (by Winchester on 2018-05-03 11:13:21 GMT from United States)
This is extremely easy to figure out.
The GRUB in Manjaro works no differently than the other GRUB's.
The problem is your grub-update generated an invalid / incorrect / non-working entry. This is the reason for the kernel panic.
Therefore,simply create a "custom" entry for Manjaro.
Look on the Manjaro partition ..... /boot/grub/grub.cfg to see what the content of your custom entry should look like.
If Manjaro's GRUB can successfully boot the OS,than other GRUB's can just as well.
Or simply chain-load Manjaro's grub. I have a chain-loader entry for OpenSUSE Tumbleweed's GRUB in a couple of other GRUB's. Here it is :
menuentry "SUSE Linux Chain-Loader" --class opensuse --class suse --class gecko_linux -- class gnu --class linux --class os --group group_/dev/sda19 {
set root='(hd0,19)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 9583b1b4-0274-4864-sb35-d43p7f021g49
chainloader (hd0,19)+1
}
You should be able to chain-load Manjaro's GRUB the same way. Just edit in the correct UUID for Manjaro's partition,and obviously the appropriate title and partition number.
65 • #63 (by jadecat on 2018-05-03 13:16:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
"When any question is answered quite politely in Windows' forums, why should anyone jump ship?" You may well be right. I haven't used Windows in years and have never had to use their forums. Maybe I have been lucky but I have never had a bad experience on Linux or BSD forums.
66 • @65 (by Kazan on 2018-05-03 13:57:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
It is not only polite, but also quite clear reply with the solution. Ubuntu forums ar efull with moderators, who care only for Xubuntu, and if you ask a bad question, you are kicked off. Arch forum users think, if you ask a question, then you must be a fool. Usually, Linux forums are not at all friendly.
67 • low end equipment (by Tim Dowd on 2018-05-03 16:06:21 GMT from United States)
@63
I don't know how many people ever switch from Windows to Linux and if the number has gone up or down. If it has gone down I'd suspect the real reason isn't because of either, but because Chromebooks and mobile devices mean that the desktop as a whole is becoming less important for people.
The basic answer on why people should switch to Linux has remained the same for me for years: with Linux, you can get real work done with low end hardware. A $40 recycled office computer off eBay can be a solid workhorse for 5 or more years. The cheapest laptop at Walmart can be a really useful computer. The performance of these devices with Windows isn't acceptable, but with Linux they work great.
Every convert I've ever made to Linux has been due to this basic point. They had a computer that wasn't that old and they didn't want to junk it but in the Windows environment it was just too slow. I consider this a serious ethical issue, because e-waste is such a catastrophe for the planet. My computers don't get junked until they aren't savable.
@66
I've never had a bad experience on the Ubuntu forums. I'd uphold them and the FreeBSD ones as an example of how forums should be. It's been more than a decade since I've visited a Mac forum but my memory was that the answer was usually "your computer is too old, go buy a new one."
68 • Ubuntu Forums (by vern on 2018-05-03 16:59:19 GMT from United States)
@66
From the top tier distro downward, look at the number of users online. Ubuntu forums far an away is the most popular and used. Most of the time their are at least 20,000 users online. Take a look at Mint, Arch, Debian as an example.
True their mods watch carefully what's posted. But I find their the most fare of any distro forum. Try Arch for some answers to see what I mean. :)
69 • @64: "This is extremely easy to figure out." (by OS2_user on 2018-05-03 17:22:39 GMT from United States)
Sadly, that notion and your answer are all too typical of Linux.
If it's easy, then who caused the problem?
You ramble off into deep arcana of possible fixes for what should never be a problem, simply booting with new kernel after official update.
Problem is with the update, not user insufficient knowledge or motivated.
70 • Linux kernel 4.15 EOL and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (by OstroL on 2018-05-03 18:37:45 GMT from Poland)
Linux kernel 4.15 reached end of Life around the 20th April, but Ubuntu 18.04 LTS was released with that kernel on 26th April. This kernel got EOL due to the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities, so where do the Ubuntu LTS users stand with such a kernel?
71 • @70 (by Brandon Sniadajewski on 2018-05-03 19:35:42 GMT from United States)
I'm guessing Ubuntu may provide an upgrade to 4.16 for the 18.04.1 update.
72 • Silly assertions (by M.Z. on 2018-05-03 22:24:08 GMT from United States)
@63
"...I am not that sure that Windows users are jumping ship to Linux any more.."
That seems to be a rather silly assertion. Did you jump to Linux for a related reason & are too myopic to understand that there are lots of reasons why someone may switch?
The main reason anyone would switch is simply starting with the impulse to ask about alternatives, or just look into operating systems in general. Given how far the smartphone market globally has move toward Android, which as like 70-80% of the mobile OS market, I would say there is plenty of reason for anyone with a technical inclination to look into Linux. After all Android is mostly Linux underneath & it does take much digging to figure out that fact, nor does it take much to learn you can easily install a version of Linux on your desktop.
All anyone has to do is start to wonder about operating systems & they can find huge numbers of valid reasons to at least try Linux on the desktop. Most users may not be interested, but that has always been true. If however you want to start to really think about your OS, then Linux often becomes the best solution. I'd guess if you want something out of an OS that a version of Linux has already been setup to do that. It does take a bit of an impulse understand computers & willingness to experiment to make the move, but after that you could easily find a reason to switch. If you can't come up with a reason better than '...I am not sure that..', then it is a meaningless talking point.
73 • Change to Linux (by lupus on 2018-05-04 00:28:35 GMT from Germany)
When People asked me why I prefer Linux I told them the truth. It´s beacause I´m lazy and cheap and have trust issues.
1. Linux doesn´t cost anything
2. Installation more often than not works out the box and is completed in roughly 10 Minutes. Seldomly one has to chase down hardware vendors for drivers updates or software mongers for their newest stuff. That´s a given with package management which in my view is the biggest advantage over proprietary software
3. You can trust M****soft tries to f*ck you over. This was their policy since day one. They started this way. It is known.
I´ll have to admit that the gaps are closing. Since my Boss ordered me to use a Windows 10 Laptop he payed for, I learned that Windows got better since Vista which was a disgrace. Now at least it works nearly as flawlessly as all my Linux machines. My trust issues on the other hand do not allow me to handle private matters like bank accounts via this platform for obvious reasons. So now I can only use this machine for work related stuff which I find quite funny cause a lot more money and information is handled on this in my view insecure machine.
Now for the tricky part. When nowadays someone with an old machine steps up to me asking for a prolonged life for his old hardware I will keep that machine from Landfills using Linux. When someone has a problem with his Win 10 installation I refuse to put Linux on that but tell them to let M****soft handle the Problem and so another possible change does not happen.
tl;dr
People are lazy and because of that the year of the Linux Desktop will never come, sad but true!
74 • Post # 69 (by Winchester on 2018-05-04 02:00:17 GMT from United States)
There's more to it than that.
It's NOT "simply booting with new kernel after official update. ..... Problem is with the update, not user insufficient knowledge or motivated."
By what is being described,this sounds like a problem EXCLUSIVE to dual-boot or multi-boot systems where one OS's bootloader is trying to boot another OS.
An update in Manjaro can't update Debian (or whatever other distribution is in control of MBR) system files on another operating system on another partition.
If Manjaro and its GRUB were in control of the MBR,then it (Manjaro) would be surely work. But,my point was that there are other options to get Manjaro to boot IF you don't want Manjaro's GRUB in control of the MBR. A correct bootloader entry is required in the other OS's bootloader configuration file. That is what it is.
It sounds to me like an OS-prober issue. But,to be fair,there are way too many different distributions to expect that OS-prober will help to generate the correct entry for all 200 or so distributions.
This is why if you want to dual-boot or multi-boot with some distributions,custom entries will become required .... unless you are lucky.
Also,the symlinks which I referred to in post # 33 make life a whole lot easier for those who multi-boot different systems. (Creating more timeless bootloader menu entries which don't become obsolete after kernel updates.) I never heard anyone say that multi-booting different OS would be completely hands off.
75 • I prefer MATE (by penguinx64 on 2018-05-04 02:37:01 GMT from Bahrain)
I switched to Linux Mint and MATE ever since Ubuntu 12. And yes, I still like icons on my desktop.
76 • @72 (by OstroL on 2018-05-04 07:20:37 GMT from Poland)
Most Windows users don't wonder about other operating systems, if at all, maybe about Android or about buying a Mac. Most of them don't know that Android is based on Linux kernel. Android devs (owners) don't really advertise that it is based on Linux, but only market the brand Android. Still they won't that eagerly jump ship, throwing away the OS that simply works. I use all 3, Android, Linux and Windows, and am not going to pitch one against the other.
On the question of jumping, for example, Ubuntu moving to Gnome shell, so alike Windows 8, won't bring those "jumpers" Windows happy to come aboard. Xubuntu (XFCE) looks so 1995. But, KDE is something they might consider, if at all.
77 • @62 / @66 (by Fantomas on 2018-05-04 09:31:00 GMT from France)
Great Input. I for example. By using my chosen Distro that I work on as of like right now, (sometimes its 4 Distros) by encountering some bug or problem..I give it some time, and do not clog up peoples forums over little things the same very moment. If problem remains and I can not fix it, I log in to the dedicated Forum and report it, what is up and what hardware I am using and what I have done about it, and what is the outcome. I guess, this is what you point out in doing this the right way, if not let us know please, what the right way in your op. Is. But I must admit it is not happening much. I do not know, less popular Distros are becoming far better then the very popular ones. Go figure this one out.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF DISTRO
How may times, do one support certain Project or Distro Financially and then the Project or Distro turns around and does sell you out hidden in the background, and before you know its to late. There goes your Money.
With the Financial it is very tricky.. Certain Distros receive great support Financially, and what is the Outcome? They should be Flying, it is 2018 by now, and the opposite is happening. Large ISO Files over 1GB almost nothing in them. I do not want to name what Distros. (Especially 1 I have in M.)
@66 - I agree on this one. Months ago, on Linux Mint HexChat. I did have one problem, in the Mint Cinnamon Stuff, did describe it, did wait for answer and in that time I watched the
questions coming, and while waiting I helped out 3 Individuals, and because I was direct, not rude, just direct, some Modi, tells me, that I am about to be banned. So I was banned never got my answer back. Why? You may ask. I am speculating, because some Modi did not get laid in the past decade, sitting to much in Hexagonal Geometry Forum-Chats. That is why. Alright it is not
always like this, but it happens often.
78 • @64 - Manjaro grub (by Hoos on 2018-05-04 10:33:34 GMT from Singapore)
"...The GRUB in Manjaro works no differently than the other GRUB's. "
Actually there is a difference. Something to do with when Manjaro inserts the Intel microcode, following Arch Linux's way. It's done by Manjaro's grub at boot, so the initrd line in Manjaro's grub entry doesn't just reference the .img file , it also references the Intel ucode.
Other distros don't do this via grub, so if you use another distro to control the main grub, the grub menu entry that is generated for Manjaro won't refer to the ucode and thus you get a kernel panic.
Read from post 12 of this thread:
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/why-does-manjaro-load-intel-ucode-img-on-amd/25695/11
It is an annoyance because most users of other distros won't know this offhand.
79 • @78 - Manjaro grub (continued) (by Hoos on 2018-05-04 10:43:12 GMT from Singapore)
This may be more helpful. From post 17 of this thread:
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/tried-to-change-kernel-4-13/31176/18
This is a known issue and even Manjaro users wish it wasn't the case, because of how opaque this process is to other Linux users apart from Arch users.
80 • #52 and 53 Ubuntu (by denpes on 2018-05-04 13:41:59 GMT from Belgium)
The way I see it right now is that Ubuntu Linux is not really how GNU/Linux should be presented. What differentiates Gnu/Linux from IOS and Windows? Well I think for most it represents a free (at least an attempt to be free) non-spying, clean alternative to Windows.
At first startup, Ubuntu's introduction with the app store shows commercial, closed source, data stealing software like Skype and twitter. Those are the top recommendations. Now that's a nice introduction to new gnu/linux users! Then there is their privacy policy, which has some really interesting statements. And then there is this new messy way of installing apps. Ubuntu simply favors convenience over everything in an attempt to mimic Windows 10. By doing that it has lost just that what differentiates gnu/linux from Windows.
So, for those who fall in the target audience of Ubuntu Linux, I would say, just install Windows 10. It offers better hardware and software compatibility. And you don't have to toruture yourself by using Gnoooome.
81 • Posts # 78 and # 79 (by Winchester on 2018-05-04 15:46:24 GMT from United States)
The GRUB still works the same. You can just as well put your customized custom entry (inserting the intel microcode) into any other OS's GRUB and still boot Manjaro successfully.
The key phrase from your link is " thus the grub config is different " . GRUB config,not GRUB. So generate grub.cfg with a custom entry for Manjaro.
The location for the custom entry in all GRUB that I have used to control MBR is /etc/grub.d/xx_custom .
If you use GRUB-Customizer the location is /etc/grub.d/proxifiedScripts/custom .
I know this for a fact because,I had an old netbook around one year ago with Manjaro / SUSE Tumbleweed / Puppy Linux Slacko / OpenMamba LXDE / RedHat / and MX-Linux. That's with MX-Linux's GRUB in control of the MBR and with a successfully booting Manjaro.
Manjaro has since been swapped for Arch Linux 32-bit spin because it is 32-bit hardware. But,while it was there Manjaro booted-up just fine from MX-Linux's GRUB using a custom entry.
82 • @81 (by Hoos on 2018-05-04 16:37:16 GMT from Singapore)
Thank you for the clarification.
I don't have a problem with Manjaro myself and make liberal use of custom entries in /boot/grub/custom.cfg to boot various distros, including Manjaro.
However, my main point was how would people used to other distros apart from Arch know about this difference in Manjaro's "proper" grub entry? Most other distros don't have this ucode line in their grub entry.
They'll install Manjaro, issue an update-grub command in their main distro, try to boot into Manjaro, encounter a kernel panic, and conclude there is something wrong with Manjaro.
Like I said - opacity.
And I'm speaking as someone who has used Manjaro for the past 5 years.
83 • Yeah no kidding. (by M.Z. on 2018-05-04 22:24:02 GMT from United States)
@76
"Most Windows users don't wonder about other operating systems, ... Still they won't that eagerly jump ship..."
All of that is true & always has been. The prior statement about not jumping ship _Anymore_ makes a silly assertion that things have somehow shifted significantly in the Linux Vs Windows space. It hasn't from what I can tell. The biggest difference is those who are curious enough have even more incentive to investigate Linux specifically because Android helps raise the profile of Linux among the sort of savvy/curious users that were always at the core of the Windows to Linux convert market. Of course if you have something to say on the subject of Linux converts that doesn't illustrate the point I was already making, feel free.
84 • @ 83 No kidding, either... (by OstroL on 2018-05-05 07:20:40 GMT from Poland)
Android doesn't help to raise "the profile" of Linux. Android doesn't exactly advertise that it is based on Linux. Except for few people playing with rooting their phone, or tablets, none of the users are interested to find out "the base" of the operating system. They are interested in what they see on the screen. You can see that by the millions of the Android users gaping at the smartphone screens all over the world.
Android learned a good lesson from Mac and Windows thinking, that is, people are users, and they need something to make their life easy, not to tinker with the appliance. No, the majority of Mac or Windows users won't jump ship. People are happy to pay for something they can use. They buy the appliance that works, out of the box.
85 • @83: M.Z.: (by dragonmouth on 2018-05-05 12:45:13 GMT from United States)
In spite of what you may be convinced of, the vast majority of Android users does not know AND, more importantly, does not care that Android is Linux-based. To them Android is Android-based. Only the techies like you and others at DW concern themselves about the nuances of various O/Ss.
86 • Curious people do research (by M.Z. on 2018-05-05 16:21:03 GMT from United States)
@83 & 85
Curious people do research. Those were always the sort of people that were likely to land on Linux to begin with, and now they are even more likely to have Linux catch their attention. The fact that Linux scales from smartphones to supercomputers & is used in more smartphones than any other OS is likely to raise both the profile & credibility of Linux as a desktop solution. If you add that additional layer of real world use, Liunx looks like a better bet & more worth trying than it did ever before. Of course you have to look into it a tiny amount, but it's fair easy to figure out the connection between Linux & Android. Feel free to look at the first few lines of the most likely research site if you don't believe me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)
Also, please try to actually read & comprehend, this is people who are interested we are talking about. Pretending that I'm talking about some massive increase in the number of users & amount of people who are interested just shows you lack of attention to what was previously stated. It's about the type of people who were likely to get interested in Linux before having more reasons to try it.
87 • @68 - Ubuntu Forums (by Andy Prough on 2018-05-05 21:36:17 GMT from United States)
People tend to go on forums when they have a problem with their distro. So, if Ubuntu has the most active people on forums, that may just indicate they have a lot higher percentage of users with problems they can't resolve themselves.
88 • #87 (by vern on 2018-05-06 00:23:41 GMT from United States)
Mint, Arch and other Linux help are also discussed.
Don't kid yourself in thinking that the other distros have fewer troubles or problems.
One good reason, they have so many registered users is the friendly non-hostile they receive at their own distro site.
Another good Linux site is , Linux Questions.
89 • #88 (by jadecat on 2018-05-06 03:17:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
Have to agree about Linux Questions being a good site. Been a member for many a year. They hold the official forum for Slackware and other distro's.
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
TFM Linux
TFM Linux was a Linux operating system that can be used for small enterprises, whose administrators are not so experienced in Linux. It all began a long time ago with a Red Hat distribution, whose packages were very low on security, so that less than 5 % of these were kept and the rest was replaced with alternate Red Hat packages which proved to be more stable. That's the way the TFM Linux idea was born. The simplest method at that time was the adaptation of Red Hat distribution to the needs previously specified. So in March 2001 TFM Linux 1.0 was launched. An easy to install operating system, easy to use as server edition or workstation and adapted for the user's needs. All the knowledge gathered during all this time, allowed the observation of the modified Red Hat distribution limits, and, as future plan, it was established that the next version of the distribution will be done starting from zero, for having complete control to what was happening in the distribution and the packages interactions.
Status: Discontinued
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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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