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1 • MintBox and other small computers (by pc-cobbler on 2018-07-02 01:04:35 GMT from United States)
The MintBox is a great idea, both the hardware and software. The MintBox Mini 2 only has an Intel Celeron, which makes it easy to cool but does not give amazing performance.
I'd like to see a company use the latest ARM architecture -- Cortex-A76 processor accompanied by a Cortex-A55 secondary (two quad-cores working as a team), Mali-G76 GPU, and Mali-V76 display controller -- along with a fast SSD, which would make for a responsive system without Meltdown or vPro/ME/AMT vulnerabilities. If case anyone is interested, I sent Samsung a lengthy suggestion along these lines and posted it on my blog.
2 • Manjaro and popularity (by Brad on 2018-07-02 01:18:08 GMT from United States)
Actually, Manjaro's release cycle has slowed a little lately. They are gearing up for the next major release.
I can't speak for others, but when the release cycle slowed, I tended to visit the site a little more often than normal, wondering if there was a reason for the slowdown, somewhat aking to rubbernecking at a traffic accident.
: - )
When they are in the middle of a cycle, I hardly ever visit the site, even though I check for updates almost daily, using pacman or (occasionally) Octopi or pamac. I'm assuming that these visits don't count against the PHR, do they?
3 • The future of PCLinuxOS (by Guido on 2018-07-02 01:18:19 GMT from Philippines)
Texstar - get well soon!
By the way: this is written on a PC with Linux Mint 19 installed, runs fantastic! Very good review.
4 • MintBox - EXPENSIVE (by sofiasmith on 2018-07-02 01:51:00 GMT from Spain)
MintBox (299 $) is very expensive in comparation to any basic laptop with windows10.
For exemple:
Acer Aspire ES1-132-C61W - 11.6" HD (Intel Celeron N3350, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC, Intel HD Graphics, Windows 10). 209 €.
5 • Page Hit Ranking. Meaning? (by Greg Zeng on 2018-07-02 03:25:20 GMT from Australia)
There are several ways to show these figures. It is unclear which is best, to me. "Trending past 7 days" or "Last 7 days", or "Trending past 12 months" or "Average rating"? Manjaro inconsistently, in he rankings.
Why do the results vary? In the words of Australia's top populist female politician (Pauline Hanson): "Please Explain!"
6 • Timeshift and multiple kernels (by Andy Prough on 2018-07-02 03:35:40 GMT from United States)
Does Mint allow you to keep multiple kernels installed? I've been running openSUSE Tumbleweed in "multiversion" mode for several years now and always keep my last 3-4 good kernels installed and ready to boot in the grub menu in case something goes wrong with the new one.
Btrfs can get you out of a lot of trouble, but usually the best way to get back up and running is to simply boot into the last known good kernel.
7 • FreeBSD 11.2 "Live CD" means (by OS2_user on 2018-07-02 03:47:59 GMT from United States)
text mode login. Took me half hour and five boots to learn that, not counting download and burn time, and a DVD for its over 3 gigabytes.
First attempt I bailed out of Install after noticed the "Live CD" option. Okay, my fault, hastily just pounded . Next boot I clicked mouse and got a text login. -- Without name or password supplied, should have noted those down, right? -- Thinking I'd again missed an option, rebooted but locked up twice, so powered down fully. 5th boot got to the options again. -- YUP. "Live CD" goes only to a text login!
And I actually READ the online install instructions! You see, I decided MUST BE way out of date, that in 2018 they couldn't possibly expect anyone to wade through text screens checking off many options only to get to a command prompt where could manually install a GUI.
But they do. I will never again over-estimate Unix types.
You could at least WARN will need and WRITE the password on the download screen besides during install! What if I don't have internet handy later? Will it KILL you to make it obvious at install time as PCLinux does? Do you think that preset login is a SECRET? Too much convenience? Do you NOT want people to try it? Do you wonder why so few run this?
Serious question, FreeBSD: have you EVER even looked at PCLinux last ten years? -- You get quickly to a LIVE GUI and can surf the internet WHILE install!
8 • FreeBSD 11.2 "Live CD" means (by R. Cain on 2018-07-02 04:24:37 GMT from United States)
@#7--
Quote from last week's 'Readers' Comments':
"...still on track to install FreeBSD 10.4. 10.4 has been downloaded, and am in the process of RTFM (Reading The utterlyFantastic Manual), as I’m not not gifted enough to simply “...slap BSD [without a graphic installer] on a system..."
"There is one slight problem with any UNIX, which tends to weed out the hacks from those who understand, or sincerely WANT to understand, operating systems: you have to actually THINK. Bummer, huh?"
****************************
Let's see, now--you actually READ the installation instructions, right? ... and then decided that those very instructions from the distro maker COULDN'T be correct, because in 2018 no one would expect you to work without a GUI...right?
Beats me as to what the problem might be...
9 • Texstar (by cykodrone on 2018-07-02 05:40:39 GMT from Canada)
REALLY sad news, he's a great guy that kept up a great distro for years, not happy about this news at all. We should crowd fund some treatment for him.
10 • FreeBSD installer (by Tim on 2018-07-02 08:34:52 GMT from United States)
I actually love FreeBSD's installer. I'm always shocked at how quickly it gets you to a working system. Everytime I install I end up being done at least a half hour before I expected to. It's possibly the friendliest community in FOSS software too, so any questions you can't figure out its pretty easy to get help.
11 • Mint (by alotovk on 2018-07-02 09:16:10 GMT from France)
Hi, Having read your review I am less tempted to try it. I make regular backups of my OS using dd. Snapshots look to copying windows which has had that feature for ages. All in all it looks like a distro for the less than knowledgeable user - at least as far as linux goes; a real hand holding distro; not that there is anything wrong with a newbie or slightly better user. Strange really as I run as a backup LMDE on both desktop and laptop. I like that one can deselect updates that have more of a chance of breaking the system when updating.
12 • Question + comment (by Pat Huff on 2018-07-02 10:01:16 GMT from United States)
Does the btrfs file system have any advantages over ext4? The only thing I could find is that it might be faster on SSDs
Also, I like the Mintbox2 but am worried it is built in a country known for its spying and hacking even more so than the NSA.
13 • Mintbox (by Betonforce on 2018-07-02 10:33:08 GMT from Poland)
@4
Well it has certain advantages over laptops since it's based on fitlet. It's airtight (I think) and has no mechanical parts, which makes it resistant to dust and humidity. It has a robust passive cooling system which supposedly works well even at high ambient temperatures. It also requires very little maintenance.
I think it might be a bit over-engineered for an average Mint user, though.
14 • Linux Mint 19 MATE (by Rick on 2018-07-02 11:18:47 GMT from United States)
You said: Mint 19 MATE has "a relatively low memory footprint". Compared to what? On my Lenovo Thinkpad T420 with an i5 processor it takes up about 700 MB at idle. Mint 17.3 MATE on my T400 idles at about 275 MB. Today's crop of distros are simply not efficient at all.
15 • Mint changes (by MikeOh Shark on 2018-07-02 12:02:10 GMT from Moldova, Republic of)
I installed older versions of Mint to a Cruzer Fit flash drive and then tweaked to reduce writes and preserve the life of the flash drive. I ran Mint 13 Mate for almost 6 years with no problems. I use dd to make backups to a hard drive but only needed it once when I did something stupid. Snapshots will increase writes to the flash drive.
I don't think installing all software updates by default is a good idea. I am used to installing the smaller updates and holding Firefox, Thunderbird, and other huge updates a day or so when I have time to install them.
Encrypted home directories are a huge deal to me. I tried multiple times to get full drive encryption to work on the flash drive. It would boot two or three times and then get hosed. Encrypted home directories worked.
16 • Linux Mint 19 MATE (reply on #14's post) (by MArc Visscher on 2018-07-02 12:16:31 GMT from Netherlands)
That's something I've noticed too. But the main suspect in this case is GTK3. Since GTK3 got around the corner, software and system are getting heavier. MATE dropped GTK2 completely, and since then the GNOME influence kicked in. Which I think it's a bad (sad?) thing. System's getting heavier, software uses more RAM, the interface needs more pixels because of ugly big buttons, form fields and lots of space between them.
GTK3 makes every lightweight desktop behave like a midweight (at least). Xfce has the same problem as MATE, but a bit less at this moment. Because GTK3 starting to sneak into the Xfce-base as well (damned, no please!), things are getting heavier on resources. And that means that a freshly started system takes up almost 50 to 100% more RAM when idle, in comparison of an earlier version. That explains it all.
I have Mint 17.3 MATE on an old laptop with mediocre hardware, but it runs fine on that machine. But if I decide to switch to Mint 19 MATE on the same machine, I'm pretty sure Mint 19 is slow, sluggish and practically unusable because the hardware can't put up with so much (GTK3) weight anymore.
17 • Update Manager in Linux Mint 19 Tara (by Pjotr on 2018-07-02 12:21:56 GMT from Netherlands)
Fine review! Note that you can still activate the protective level system in Tara's Update Manager, like this:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/20#TOC-Smart-protection-against-bad-apples
(item 2, left column)
Like you, I prefer cautious settings for people I support. :-)
18 • @13 Betonforce: (by dragonmouth on 2018-07-02 13:02:35 GMT from United States)
Mintbox sounds like the original Mac - a sealed black box. It's a total non-starter for me because I like to fiddle. A hard-wired O/S is another big turn off.
19 • @14 Rick: (by dragonmouth on 2018-07-02 13:13:48 GMT from United States)
It's a vicious circle. Because there is more storage and RAM available on a system, the software developers add more features and do not feel the need for efficiency. As software gets larger, more storage and RAM is needed. Rinse and repeat.
Once upon the time Linux distros fit on diskettes, then on CDs. Now many of them come close to filling up entire DVDs. Pretty soon we will need BDs. Topsy keeps growing and efficiency suffers.
20 • Linux MINT 19 Review (by R. Cain on 2018-07-02 13:14:51 GMT from United States)
Your review was a very good one, and no doubt due in no small part to your tremendous level of experience and expertise. It does not, however, square with the majority of comments on Linux Mint's 'final release' Blog, or with (some of) the comments seen here (when you read the 'Blog', get past the almost-seemingly obligatory "great job" TO the fact that the comment is in regards to a problem with version 19).
Linux Mint is simply not the elegant distribution it once was...
21 • Linux MINT 19 Review (by Wiill on 2018-07-02 13:34:11 GMT from United States)
I've used mint since version 17, it just keeps getting better. I use the XFCE version and it's a pretty flawless experience on my Lenovo Thinkpad T430, Dell Optiplex 755, and Macbook Pro. Installing 19 has been simple and it has worked fine for me (both the beta and release) The comments about inelegance are ridiculous. Everybody's got their own taste, I guess. Timeshift is amazing and I've tested full backups and restores including kernel updates and suchlike - painless. Timeshift is included in the live usb image and booting to the installer gives you a couple-click restore ability that I've been looking for for ages. I have used the rsync version and it's beautiful - access to the backup from a terminal, or from timeshift. Scheduling is straightforward, too. I particularly like the on-boot snapshot option for my server.
22 • @2 Manjaro and popularity (by kelvin on 2018-07-02 14:04:13 GMT from Peru)
Actually, Manjaro's release cycle has slowed a little lately. They are gearing up for the next major release.
I can't speak for others, but when the release cycle slowed, I tended to visit the site a little more often than normal, wondering if there was a reason for the slowdown, somewhat aking to rubbernecking at a traffic accident.
: - )
When they are in the middle of a cycle, I hardly ever visit the site, even though I check for updates almost daily, using pacman or (occasionally) Octopi or pamac. I'm assuming that these visits don't count against the PHR, do they?
If you did not know Manjaro is a rolling release it just releases snapshots no new major releases where did yo get that from, its called marketing I call it deceiving the user, a change of theme wallpaper and icons is not a major release as it all can be updated if the user wishes, Many new users beleave that you reinstall every snapshot, they do not understand rolling rolling is install it once forget it apapart from updates and guess what after 10-15 years you still are on the latest greatest linux operating system.
23 • @7 FreeBSD 11.2 "Live CD" (by MarsPC on 2018-07-02 14:22:52 GMT from United States)
Anyone who is unfamiliar with FreeBSD should first understand that ALL the BSDs are NOT Linux. If you are are wanting to test the FreeBSD waters and are somewhat familiar with Linux, then I would suggest giving TrueOS a try. TrueOS takes the FreeBSD installation to a whole new level, and includes the Lumina desktop as the default user interface when completed. As I mentioned earlier, FreeBSD is NOT a Linux distro, so don't expect it to install like one.
Personally, when I first tried FreeBSD, I was frustrated as well, but that's because I was already familiar with Linux. As soon as I dropped the Linux mindset, and RTFM, I was then able to see how easy it really was to install and work with FreeBSD. My initial tests were all conducted using VirtualBox and the "FreeBSD-x.x-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso" (which allowed me to start with a very minimalist installation that I was able to build and customize to my own personal specifications). I currently have one of our servers at work running FreeBSD 11.1
I'll admit that FreeBSD is NOT everyone's cup-o-tea. But for those who are willing to explore the benefits, then by all means, definitely give it a try. And once again remember...
FreeBSD is NOT Linux!
24 • RE: 4 and 18 (by denPes on 2018-07-02 14:41:52 GMT from Belgium)
What do you mean with hard wired os?
It's just a mini pc with Mint installed. You can remove mint, and install any gnu system or windows if you want
The device itself is very nice. Unlike a similar intel nucs, that have the same specs, this one has a rather nice casing, which also cools the system. The price is not too high at all when you compare them with similar systems (if new, with same specs AND fanless).
also, comparing this with a basic 300 dollar laptop is not a decent comparison. it is not the same form factor at all. Also one can already predict the quality of that NEW 300 dollar laptop.
25 • @22 (by brad on 2018-07-02 15:41:58 GMT from United States)
I was referring to the V18 beta currently being tested - you can find out more about it here:
<https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-xfce-v18-0-3rd-beta-build-testing/50561>
I do realize that it is a rolling release; however, it's the middle of 2018, and V18 has yet to hit stable. Of course, one could always just do a fresh install of V18 when it's ready, or just keep rollin' along...
26 • Texstar (by Antony on 2018-07-02 16:19:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
Absolutely gutted to read this news about Bill (Texstar). Mandrake was my first (and fondest) distro, and I used PCLinuxOS for a long time afterwards.
Thanks ever so much Bill, and I wish you the very best.
Antony.
27 • Mint-19 (by TuxRaider on 2018-07-02 16:54:53 GMT from United States)
i have to agree with those that say Mint is running top heavy, i tried it just a couple of days ago and it had some noticeable lag compared to other distros, i was typing commands in to an x-terminal and the keystrokes had some serious lag to it that was really annoying, i got frustrated enough with it that i booted back in to debian jessie and reinstalled debian's grub to the MBR and fdisked mint off my extra disk partition, and this is a fairly new computer with good specs (less than a year old)
28 • Mintbox (by Betonforce on 2018-07-02 17:55:55 GMT from Poland)
@18
Whoa, I didn't say it was sealed shut. In fact, the website of the producer says fitlet2 is moddable and easy to open. You can also buy one without an OS, so tinker away!
29 • Texstar's health (by Mike on 2018-07-02 18:33:55 GMT from Kenya)
It's saddening to hear about Texstar's health. As Jesse Smith notes, Patrick Volkerding did fall seriously ill several years ago, but he recovered and Slackware is still running strong. I believe that Warren Woodford the creator of Mepis was also having health issues a while back. Little has been heard of him since and work on Mepis seems to have ground to a halt. Perhaps someone out there might have some news on him?
30 • Mint 19 (by DB on 2018-07-02 19:53:24 GMT from United States)
Everything was looking Great, till I wanted to install wine for a couple of programs. Apparently you can't use wine in the bionic installation........Bummer things were looking so promising till then. Oh well, maybe they can fix this one of these days. Till then no bionic installs for me, thanks anyway Mint.
31 • Mint 19 (by pengxiun on 2018-07-02 20:24:25 GMT from New Zealand)
tried to install 2 applications (Stellarium and Vlc) from Mintinstall.
hiccupped and spat them out.
didnt install either.
tried again, but no, only allowed to install one at a time.
I guess Mint users /installers have lots of time to add missing applications to their systems after install.
Me: install and go
32 • @29 Mike (by dragonmouth on 2018-07-02 20:46:30 GMT from United States)
To the best of my knowledge, as of couple of years ago, Mepis has become a discontinued distro. Woody Woodward has ceased working on it and nobody has picked it up. Mepis was my daily driver. Some time before Woody stopped working on Mepis, anticapitalista forked it and first created antiX and then MX.
33 • Re: Mintbox (by M.Z. on 2018-07-02 21:16:42 GMT from United States)
@18
To further on @28 & the point about not being sealed- it says right on the product page that you CAN install another OS & it was designed with that possibility in mind:
https://fit-iot.com/web/whats-new-in-mbm2/
Let's not make up random things or 'alternative facts' about a product, especially one from someone that seems to be trying to foster good relations with the Linux community & donates to the projects they use.
34 • Continuity after founder leaves distro (by Richard on 2018-07-02 21:49:28 GMT from United States)
Many distributions have a single key person, the founder, who is the one who personally owns the intellectual property and personally leads development, no matter how many are on the development team. What happens when that person is no longer there running the show?
What will happen to PCLinuxOS without Texstar, or Mint without Clem, Zorin without Artyom, Knoppix without Klaus, Slax without Tomas?
With a succession plan, the projects can continue, as community-run distros.
Debian has shown the way, after Ian left.
35 • Texstar's Health -- Linux Mint 19's release.. (by Az4x4 on 2018-07-03 01:29:35 GMT from United States)
The news that Texstar is battling cancer is tough to handle. I wish him all the best in this fight, and pray for his recovery. Texstar's PCLinuxOS has been a favorite of mine for many years. Loved it from the early days. It was and is a great example of what "Desktop Linux done Right" is all about. When PCLinuxOS rose to the top of Distrowatch's page hit rankings and stayed there for quite some time showed that what PCLinuxOS offered users was hugely appreciated. PCLinuxOS has consistently provided the sort of operating system goodness that's highly sought after, and that's saying something in today's top tier distro world.
I've run Linux Mint on a wide assortment of machines for more than a decade and found it consistently satisfying. So I have to admit that while all that Jesse said about Mint 19 out of the box I'd basically agree with, the deal breaker for me this go round, having installed a fresh instance of Mint 19 Mate' on my ASUS i7 Zenbook test machine, is the disappointing failure of WINE to successfully install so I can run Photoshop 7 with it. For that reason I'll stay with Mint 18.3 Mate' on my daily driver machines until such time as this aggravating issue is resolved, and look at other top tier distros on my test machine in the meantime.
36 • Texstar (by jonourable on 2018-07-03 03:18:30 GMT from Australia)
@9 "Texstar,.. REALLY sad news, he's a great guy"
Some of us Linux users are also fighting the big C. We understand Texstar's frustration Stay positive bro. It may not be time yet to meet the great coder in the sky.
37 • 5 years (by George on 2018-07-03 04:17:11 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the thorough review of Mint 19 MATE, a leading candidate to be next everyday OS on several of our PCs. In particular, your comments about encryption, Timeshift, Flatpak, and your tip are all pertinent to me. Usually it's good to wait a few weeks before installing a new release, but after your review and a quick read of the Mint forums and blog comments, I'm going forward now.
Mint MATE and Ubuntu MATE have been roughly competitive operationally, IMO. However, Mint MATE has a support period of 5 years, compared to only 3 years for Ubuntu MATE "LTS".
Texstar has been a key part of my Linux experience going back over a decade, when his KDE 3 releases set a high standard. He made an impact. Hard to tip my hat, salute, and bow at the same time, but he deserves it all.
38 • @29, 32 - Mepis (by Hoos on 2018-07-03 05:40:56 GMT from Singapore)
@32 - "...Woody stopped working on Mepis, anticapitalista forked it and first created antiX and then MX..."
Just to clarify that MX was not purely anticapitalista's creation but a collaboration with Mepis forum members.
Around end 2013, the Mepis community in conjunction with anticapitalista and the antiX developers discussed and decided to make an MX-14 distro, built on antiX's base and its excellent live USB tools, but using XFCE instead of window managers. The MX-Tools come mainly from the Mepis/MX community, from what I can see.
It must be noted that anticapitalista first released antiX in 2007 as a window-managers-only version of MEPIS (which was KDE-only). Over the years antiX has evolved and changed to what it is today. However, antiX co-existed with Mepis from 2007 until Mepis' demise after the release of the beta of Mepis 12.
Mepis users have had their own forum, called MepisLovers, for a long time. Quite a few members use both distros and visit both forums, so there's always been a connection between both communities. That is why collaboration was possible.
39 • @38 (continued) - Mepis, antiX (by Hoos on 2018-07-03 05:49:43 GMT from Singapore)
I should clarify that by the phrase " first released antiX in 2007 as a window-managers-only version of MEPIS", I actually mean that antiX was originally based on Mepis' base, not that it was an official version of Mepis.
So it was indeed a fork, and through the years as it developed, it of course depended less and less on the Mepis base.
40 • RHEL and Fedora Wayland Screen Sharing Support (by Calvin Centies on 2018-07-03 06:31:21 GMT from Canada)
RHEL, Fedora, CentOS etc...
Anybody tried firefox-61.0-50 in Fedora 28 or RawHide with Firefox with WebRTC supporting screen sharing on Wayland feature? ATM, screen-sharing support using WebRTC as found within web-browsers like Firefox and Chrome. WebRTC screen-sharing also works on Wayland.
So, If fedora is installed on two machine on local network would able to share screen with another?
41 • @ 39 MEPIS and SimplyMEPIS (by Calvin Centies on 2018-07-03 08:18:55 GMT from Canada)
SimplyMEPIS was the distro I switched from Mandriva. Both were beautifully crafted distros. Till today no distros ever ran like Mandriva. I remained a long time user of SimplyMEPIS and liked it very much because even though it was with KDE by default it picked my hardware nicely and ran nice all the times.
Even anticapitalista and the antiX developers did a good job on antiX. While MX-16.1 it offered almost everything out-of-box. Both remain light weight distros. MX/antiX filled the void created by demise of MEPIS.
PS:
Today's Linux World News Line:
EQT Sweden adds SUSE in it's portfolio of acquisitions for approx. $2.2bn.
42 • PCLinuxOS (by OstroL on 2018-07-03 09:25:28 GMT from Poland)
One of the most interesting thing about PcLinuxOS is its monthly magazine. Even though, I don't use PCLOS for a long time, I still read it every month. PCLOS magazine is a great source of knowledge. Also, PCLOS has a small, but very close community.
I wish Texstar return to good health!
43 • HiDPI... or Not (by lostmoonofsaturn on 2018-07-03 15:47:58 GMT from United States)
On Mint and elsewhere, HiDPI compatibility seems to be achieved by integer doubling, i.e., scaling by 2X. For the relatively common 3840x2160 displays, that can mean everything is "too big". That's the result for me. There's fractional scaling available via Gnome on Wayland, which works OK on my hardware. But it would nice to have viable non-Gnome Xorg solution.
(Note: There is an xrandr solution to this problem. I've found that it works, but it also breaks when my display wakes from sleep.)
44 • HiDPI (by Calvin Centies on 2018-07-03 17:02:49 GMT from Canada)
with xorg you may try
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1920x1080
-or-
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --auto # for max.
45 • alumaOS (by Alan Illingworth on 2018-07-03 17:48:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
So alumaOS has just comes out and uses it's own desktop. I didn't think new distros made those. Tried it, word of warning, it looks a lot like macOS, more so than elementary.
46 • Distro Suggestions (by Calvin Centies on 2018-07-03 18:32:35 GMT from Canada)
@ # 45
Suggesting any new releases of any distro to anyone without knowledge of what is packed in risking or jeopardizing anyone's privacy out of ignorance. I have seen big linux clouds and crowds - developers and users, both, disappearing or moving away. Many distro brewers have gone into absolute silence to refrain from jeopardizing someone's/strangers privacy knowingly.
It's better to let buddy or user know what he is actually getting where back side of so called transparency is way too dark.
47 • continue... # 46 (by Calvin Centies on 2018-07-03 19:06:24 GMT from Canada)
In # 45 I told so, because,
Well known Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal is so deep rooted than any average layman could ever imagine, and total disaster of 87Mn (official) Americans Privacy beyond any controls. ATM, DOJ - Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the FBI, and America's financial watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are now all kicking-in to dig into.
It is worthless effort to join the propaganda unknowingly without making even Centies cent.
48 • @6 and Mint/ PCLinuxOS (by kc1di on 2018-07-04 00:08:40 GMT from United States)
@6 Yes mint will allow as many kernels as your drive will hold. I usually keep one older one I know works with my hardware for a few weeks until I'm sure the new one will work for me.
Mint- Thanks for a nice review of a great distro. Mint 19 has been solid for me.
Sad news about Texstar/PClinuxOS. it's always been my go to distro for some machines I've had. Just a solid workhorse.
49 • PHR and elementary (by Andy Figueroa on 2018-07-05 02:43:43 GMT from United States)
It seems to really beg the question how a non-transparent, pseudo-commercial distro like elementary can get so high in the Page Hit Ratings. The reviews are mediocre at best, looking like just another Ubuntu knock off with its own special problems. What am I missing?
50 • @ # 49 (by Billy Goes on 2018-07-05 05:03:08 GMT from Canada)
@ # 49
What am I missing?
just to knock it off.
51 • Weird Tunes. (by Billy Goes on 2018-07-05 05:11:49 GMT from Canada)
Recently I was trying few more distros and BSDs. BSDs need more serious efforts to catch up with linux in many regards. Linuxmint down on quality and preformance after 16.x, as version number incereases, user's performance experience decreases.
One very weird European distro, weird because nothing is straight in this distro, I came across pays following tunes,
at the time of booting " Billy Goes has to born again and again!"
and at shutdown "Billy Goes rest in peace with broken dreams!"
Any help for boot and shutdown parameters to shut-it-off?
52 • #51 (by jadecat on 2018-07-05 09:15:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
No BSDs are not Linux and so do not need to 'catch up with Linux'. If anything the BSDs are trying to get away from Linuxism's. Their words not mine. All the best.
53 • just google 'supercomputer running BSD' (by Willie Buck Merle on 2018-07-05 17:12:08 GMT from United States)
No mysteries really about its adoption, among these many results Hacker News "Ask HN: Why are supercomputers all running Linux and not BSD?" is a suitably adequate examination of its HW compatibility problems within general computing (IMHO).
-wbm
54 • Linux Mint 19 (by jaws222 on 2018-07-05 17:12:28 GMT from United States)
I installed the XFCE version last week on a laptop with 8GB of RAM and was very impressed. it is faster than ever. Now just need to figure out the Playonlinux/Office issue and it will be perfect
55 • 54 • Linux Mint 19 (by R. Cain on 2018-07-05 23:21:00 GMT from United States)
@54--
Congratulations, and best of luck to you.
Being a 'faithful' solid Mint Linux user since switching from Ubuntu 9.10, it is saddening to see all the problems people are having with Mint's latest.
I tried 18.2 and 18.3, and then switched back to 17.3; never HAD a problem at all with 17.3; still have yet to encounter one now. With comments like "...I reported this problem in 18.x...you never fixed it then...it's still here..."; things are not looking too bright.
Simply read all the 210 (or so) entries (as of 5 July) in the "How to upgrade to Linux Mint 19" Linux Mint Blog since 'Clem' posted it on 4 July.
Except for Cinnamon, it's hard to distinguish between Ubuntu and Mint any more--and don't even mention 'Timeshift', or whatever they call it, as one of the 'benefits'; that seems to be one of the (many) major problems ('Clem' offers a command-line, TERMINAL, solution for the objectors, and all you people who don't want Timeshift forced on you. Read the Blog. This is not progress, folks.
p.s.: the bug you just mentioned is mentioned in the Blog also.
"Originality is no excuse for ignorance".--Fred Brooks
56 • Linux on Super Computer (by Sam SuX on 2018-07-06 09:17:58 GMT from Canada)
open source variants such as FreeBSD failed to gain popularity on supercomputers.
To summarize the list of top 500 supercomputers based on OS this year:
Linux: 498
Unix: 2
Windows: 0
MacOS: 0
Because linux is most flexible to adopt various hardware configurations from single to massive parallel processors with i/o scheduling.
57 • Change in Technology. (by Billy Goes on 2018-07-06 05:40:44 GMT from Canada)
Change in technology where hardware itself, OSes components and Web Browsers are acting as data-sucking-pump at regular intervals for newly tracked files required end-users to change their surfing habits as well.
58 • @54 (by on 2018-07-07 22:16:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
I would Install LMint19 XFCE, on 1GB RAM, and then see how fast it is.
8GB RAM is overkill. But you do what you do. Thank you.
59 • BSD vs. Linux (by R. Cain on 2018-07-08 14:05:41 GMT from United States)
"...BSDs need more serious efforts to catch up with linux..."
"No mysteries really about its adoption...'Why are supercomputers all running Linux and not BSD? 'is a suitably adequate examination of its HW compatibility problems within general computing..."
BSD has no inclination whatever to “...catch up with Linux...”, or any concerns about its adoption. It has been, and is, adopted by people who want to seriously learn Operating Systems and OS administration and development.
Fact: BSD *is* UNIX. Follow closely here: AT&T's UNIX SystemV, Rev4 (ATT UNIX SVR4) was changed, because of licensing reasons--by U.C. Berkeley--to Berkeley Systems Division UNIX, or BSD Unix, or simply BSD Unix (notice the drop of upper-case) when UCB obtained ATT's SVR4.
UNIX was created in the 1970s. It's still going strong, and getting stronger as development increases continually...as is the C programming language, which was created to aid in UNIX’s development.
What perversion of human nature makes it mandatory to not just assume, but to absolutely KNOW that something which is long-lived and successful just has to be worse than the latest and greatest fad? And ‘fad’ is precisely what the answer to what Linux’s over-riding problem is, and why it will never be "...the desktop of the year..."
Ever hear of that NEW addition to Linux, whose adoption is absolutely and completely unrelated to the simultaneous decrease in the quality of all Linuxes which have adopted it, ‘systemd’?
60 • PClinuxOS (by Winchester on 2018-07-08 14:26:35 GMT from United States)
Sorry to hear the news of the PClinuxOS developer.
One of the absolute best distributions out there .... if you ask me.
I prefer PClinuxOS to most others in the top of the popularity lists. Better than Mint , more stable than Manjaro in my experience.
PCLOS is probably the best multimedia distribution even though it's not really advertised as such.
61 • Berkeley Systems Dogma UNIX (by Willie Buck Merle on 2018-07-08 16:17:38 GMT from United States)
"What perversion of human nature makes it mandatory to not just assume, but to absolutely KNOW that something which is long-lived and successful just has to be worse than the latest and greatest fad?"
Certainly the way evolution itself looks like to the many obsolete efforts that a few nonces still hold as sacred. The fanatics bristle over the realization of the computing language C being superseded by Python & Java, systemd supersedes the shortcomings of SysV, etc... fearful to admit any as basic progress taking place in the Linux realm.
-wbm
ps. Many people repeat the past, some of them not voluntarily.
62 • Texstar, if we can help we will (by Tony on 2018-07-08 19:17:07 GMT from United Kingdom)
Fingers crossed for your treatment, you have done a great service for people around the world with all your hard work and we are happy to help repay that debt if we can.
63 • @8 re BSD no GUI (by OS2_user on 2018-07-08 23:40:36 GMT from United States)
You merely repeat me when: "in 2018 no one would expect you to work without a GUI...right? Beats me as to what the problem might be..."
Except that you appear to think it's a user problem rather than obvious lack -- of making it EASY, I admit. You typifiy the notion that persons are there to learn how operating systems work, rather than actually USE it for higher level tasks. -- In short, not making it easy after FORTY YEARS NOW is why Microsoft has over a billion systems running at this very moment (for which many people even PAY!), and FreeBSD probably doesn't get into 5 digits -- because the COST of learning is too high.
Now, I was willing to give FreeBSD a chance, and DID. My "decided" was based on HOPE, as I'd LIKE to have an alternative. I may even go back to it sometime, despite the trouble, as it surely works (if ever past the deliberate obstacles). But gosh, it IS 2018, and there ARE many good Linux distros that don't torture you to become a guru. I expected more -- after FORTY years, remember.
64 • One always has a choice... (by R. Cain on 2018-07-09 01:55:23 GMT from United States)
"...The fanatics bristle over the realization of the computing language C being superseded by Python & Java, systemd supersedes the shortcomings of SysV, etc... fearful to admit any as basic progress taking place in the Linux realm..."
"...You typifiy the notion that persons are there to learn how operating systems work, rather than actually USE it for higher level tasks. -- In short, not making it easy after FORTY YEARS NOW is why Microsoft has over a billion systems running at this very moment (for which many people even PAY!), and FreeBSD probably doesn't get into 5 digits -- because the COST of learning is too high..."
There's always the Chromebook.
*******************************************************************************************
"..."There is one slight problem with any UNIX, which tends to weed out the hacks from those who understand, or sincerely WANT to understand, operating systems: you have to actually THINK. Bummer, huh?"
Number of Comments: 64
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| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
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| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
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| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
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| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
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