 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 779, 3 September 2018 |
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Welcome to this year's 36th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Ideally, our desktop operating systems perform quickly, provide up to date features and are secure. It is a difficult combination of demands for distribution maintainers to deliver on, but we often see some amazing technological solutions as a result. This week we begin with a review of Redcore Linux, a Gentoo-based distribution which ships with the lightweight LXQt desktop environment and several security enhancements. Read on to find out how Redcore performs. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss how to keep ISO downloads safe from tampering in order to make sure we do not try to install a corrupted operating system. Our Opinion Poll continues this topic, asking our readers how you verify the ISO file you are installing has not been corrupted. Plus we discuss Lubuntu adding flexibility to its system installer, Linux Mint Debian Edition's upgrade options and Ubuntu aiding GNOME with performance improvements in our News section. Plus we share the releases of the past week and provide a list of torrents we are seeding. This past week we were pleased to welcome Clu Linux Live, a disk management and data rescue distribution, to our database. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Redcore Linux 1806
- News: Lubuntu makes Calamares more flexible, Ubuntu contributes performance improvement to GNOME, upgrade options for Linux Mint Debian Edition
- Questions and answers: Keeping ISO downloads safe from tampering
- Released last week: Linux Mint 3 "LMDE", 4MLinux 26.0, Linux From Scratch 8.3
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Archman, AUSTRUMI, BackBox, Kali, KaOS, KDE neon, Linux Mint Debian Edition, Manjaro, Neptune, NetBSD, Nitrux, SmartOS, SwagArch
- Upcoming releases: Tails 3.9
- Opinion poll: Verifying ISO downloads
- New additions: Clu Linux Live
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (19MB) and MP3 (15MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Redcore Linux 1806
Redcore Linux is a Gentoo-based distribution which ships with a live desktop environment, the Calamares system installer, and a pre-configured LXQt desktop. This makes it very straight forward to test drive and install a Gentoo-like desktop distribution which will then provide the software management tools and flexibility Gentoo is famous for having.
I last reviewed Redcore Linux about a year ago and since then the project has made a few changes. Perhaps the most notable one is adopting security practises from the Gentoo Hardened project. This gives the operating system some added protections against common attacks.
Redcore runs exclusively on 64-bit computers and the ISO I downloaded was 2.2GB in size. If booting from the install media goes well then the system displays a graphical login screen where we can sign into the LXQt desktop using the username and password "redcore". (I will cover what happens when booting does not go according to plan a bit later.) Signing in brings up a fairly standard looking desktop environment. A panel with the application menu and system tray sits at the bottom of the screen. Two icons on the desktop offer to launch the system installer and "Ask for help". The latter icon launches the Falkon web browser and connects us to an IRC chat room where we can try to get support. Clicking the installer icon brings up a window asking if we would like to launch the selected script or run it in a terminal. Either option opens the Calamares system installer.
Installing
The Calamares installer is designed to work across multiple distributions and provide an easy, graphical interface for the user. While typically used by Arch-based projects, the Calamares installer functions well on Redcore - with just a few rough points. The installer does a nice job of collecting such information from us as our preferred language, our time zone and our keyboard's layout. The installer gives us a chance to partition the hard drive or wipe the disk and install Redcore on the freed space. The final screen gets us to provide a username and password for ourselves.
There were two minor issues I ran into while going through the Calamares screens. The first was the installer refuses to install Redcore if there is less than 20GB of free space for the root partition. This is not a bug, but it did mean I had to re-think my partition layout as I typically use less space. A full install of Redcore uses up about 8GB of disk space. The second concern I had came during the final stage of the installer when files were being copied from the install media to my disk. The installer's progress bar grew to 32% and then stopped. The installer appeared to freeze at 32% completion for about half an hour. When I checked the task manager I could see work was still being done in the background, but the interface did not reflect this and I suspect many people would give up after half an hour with no apparent progress. The installer did eventually complete its work successfully and then offered to reboot the computer.
Early impressions
The installed copy of Redcore boots to the same login screen the live disc displayed. Signing in brings up the LXQt 0.12.0 desktop. The installer icon is gone from the desktop, but the IRC help icon is still available.
Applications on Redcore use a dark theme. A year ago Redcore mostly used a combination of black menus and borders with a light theme for applications. This high contrast has been replaced with a dark grey that is used almost everywhere. I found this generally pleasant to look at, though it did make it harder to read hyperlinks, which were displayed in dark blue on the dark background.
Redcore Linux 1806 -- Application windows blending together
(full image size: 350kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Visually, I had two other complaints. The first was that application window edges were very thin, making it difficult to grab and quickly resize windows. I often struggled getting the mouse to line up with the border with the default look. My other concern was that everything looked too small or compressed. Fonts are on the small side and menu items tend to be close together and I sometimes clicked the wrong application launcher or menu entry. These characteristics can be changed through the settings panel.
Hardware
I tried running Redcore on a desktop computer and in a VirtualBox environment. Redcore would boot and run smoothly in VirtualBox, but failed to integrate with the host environment, limiting the system's screen resolution. I could not find VirtualBox guest modules in the project's software repositories and installed generic drivers. The generic modules installed, but failed to work properly. This is a regression for Redcore as previous versions automatically integrated with VirtualBox.
When attempting to run Redcore on my desktop computer, the distribution was unable to boot at all in Legacy BIOS mode. When started in UEFI mode Redcore would display a boot menu and begin the boot process, but failed to completely start up. Instead the system eventually dropped to a rescue console. After double-checking the install media's checksum I tried to boot Redcore on a laptop computer as well with the same disappointing results. This matches my experience last year and it seems hardware support has not improved.
With my trial limited to running in VirtualBox one issue which stood out was Redcore runs the Compton compositor software for a smoother desktop experience. Having Compton running consumed a lot of CPU resources and slowed down the desktop noticeably. I disabled Compton from the LXQt Session Settings module, which made LXQt much more responsive.
The distribution used about 8GB of disk space when freshly installed and consumed 220MB of RAM when signed into LXQt with no additional applications running. This had the unusual effect of making Redcore one of the larger (on disk) distributions I have used in recent months while also requiring less memory than most.
Redcore Linux 1806 -- Running LibreOffice and QTerminal
(full image size: 83kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Applications
The distribution ships with a small collection of useful software, most (though not all) of it from the KDE/Qt family of applications. Redcore ships with the Falkon (formerly QupZilla) web browser, the Konversation IRC client, qBittorrent, the qpdfview document viewer and LibreOffice. The KGet download manager is present along with the K3b disc burning software, the mpv and VLC media players, and VidCutter to copy clips from videos. Audio and video codecs are included and we can play a range of audio and video files. There is an application called sandbox which opens a terminal and claims to have set up a protected environment. This sandbox is not explained and does not hide processes, or prevent us from affecting the file system so its usefulness is unclear. The GNU Image Manipulation Program is included along with Inkscape and a simple image viewer. A launcher for the Steam gaming portal is included too.
The distribution also features a number of system utilities such as the KDE Partition Manager, AQEMU for managing virtual machines, a printer manager and simple firewall manager. Redcore ships with the GNU Compiler Collection for building software. The distribution uses SysV init with OpenRC providing service management. In the background we find version 4.16 of the Linux kernel.
LXQt settings panel
The desktop environment includes a settings panel which features modules for adjusting the look and feel of the interface. We can adjust the theme, change fonts, set up keyboard short-cuts and adjust visual effects. There are also tools for managing user accounts, tweaking the firewall and setting up printers. The configuration modules all worked as expected and I encountered no problems with any of them.
Redcore Linux 1806 -- The LXQt settings panel
(full image size: 535kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Sisyphus package manager
Redcore uses a graphical package manager called Sisyphus. It is a simple package manager which simply lists available packages in one long list. We can enter search terms to filter down the list of packages, but otherwise browsing for items is limited. Buttons at the bottom of the window give us the ability to install or remove selected items. Another button will download all available software upgrades.
Redcore Linux 1806 -- The Sisyphus package manager
(full image size: 208kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
At first, clicking the upgrade button appeared to do nothing, it just showed an unmoving progress bar at the bottom of the window. However, the system was using a lot of CPU cycles so I checked and confirmed the lower level emerge package utility was working hard in the background. Eventually Sisyphus reported it had found 215 updates and, over the next hour, it downloaded and installed them all.
Sisyphus is not a particularly attractive or feature rich package manager. It does not have a lot of filters or long descriptions of packages or screen shots, but it did work in performing basic package management.
Conclusions
For the most part, my time with Redcore was disappointing and occasionally frustrating. Disappointing in that, apart from security enhancements, it does not seem as though Redcore has made any significant progress over the past year. Hardware support has not improved (if anything it has become worse for VirtualBox users) and I did not find any significant new features which would suggest the project is bringing new ideas to the community.
Another thing which bothered me was the appearance of the distribution. While I liked the darker theme, the grey background without clear window borders meant that all application windows blended together. If I had three windows all open and overlapping on the desktop there wasn't any way to tell where one ended and the next began. When combined with the smaller 9pt font that is used everywhere, it meant I had to tweak most visual aspects of the interface to make it suitable for my preferences and ageing eyes.
There were some other minor problems. For example, sometimes the application menu would open at the bottom of the screen (next to its button) and other times the application menu would appear at the top of the display, far away from the mouse pointer. This unusual menu placement would continue until I logged out and signed back into LXQt.
Redcore Linux 1806 -- The misplaced application menu
(full image size: 726kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Personally I do like the idea of what Redcore is doing. Despite the various little problems I ran into, I like the overall concept. I like the idea of a lightweight distro featuring the LXQt desktop and a small collection of desktop applications. The desktop, with Compton disabled, was very responsive and I like how quick the user interface was. I also like combining a binary package initial set up with the option of accessing Gentoo's highly flexible source-based ports system. This means we can install the operating system quickly and then highly customize it over time. The focus recent snapshots of Redcore have placed on security is also welcome.
For me, Redcore was not practical, mostly because it did not work with my hardware. And there are a number of little issues (more style preferences rather than real bugs) which meant I had to spend more time than I would like tweaking the operating system. However, the focus on security, flexibility and performance could make Redcore an attractive option. Especially for people who like Gentoo, but want to get up and running without compiling anything.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Visitor supplied rating
Redcore Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 36 review(s).
Have you used Redcore Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Lubuntu makes Calamares more flexible, Ubuntu contributes performance improvement to GNOME, upgrade options for Linux Mint Debian Edition
The Lubuntu developers are making a number of small, yet important, changes to their distribution's system installer to provide additional flexibility. Lubuntu's Calamares installer will soon support XFS as a file system option and users will be able to set a weak password on their user account, overriding the installer's warning against simple passwords. A post on the project's blog states: "Before the last newsletter, we enabled password checking. After some vocal feedback, we asked the community on our development mailing list what they thought about it, and an overwhelming majority had the same opinion; it should warn, but you should still be able to set a weak password. While the Lubuntu team very strongly recommends choosing a strong password when installing Lubuntu, we have disabled password checking." The Lubuntu blog post also answers questions about the distribution's planned migration to a Wayland display server.
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Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu distribution, made the choice a few versions ago to switch from developing its own Unity desktop environment to running a customized version of GNOME Shell. While this move sparked debates in the Ubuntu community, it has allowed GNOME and Canonical to cooperate and share development resources. Ubuntu developer Daniel van Vugt recently shared some improvements with GNOME which should improve performance for GNOME users. The supplied code includes an explanation which concludes: "So this commit selects just a few areas where caching has been verified to be beneficial, and many use cases now see their CPU usage halved."
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This past week the Linux Mint team published a major update to the project's Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) branch. The newly released version 3 is only available in one edition (Cinnamon) and this means the upgrade procedure for LMDE 2 users will be different depending on which edition they are using. The project's newsletter explains: "The upgrade path for the Cinnamon edition was also opened. Timeshift, Slick Greeter and mintupgrade were backported towards LMDE 2 to facilitate the upgrade and the switch from MDM with sysvinit to LightDM with systemd. If you are running LMDE 2 Cinnamon, please upgrade before the end of the year. We'll continue to support LMDE 2 until the 1st of January 2019. The LMDE 2 MATE edition cannot be upgraded (Debian's version of MATE is only 1.16 and this edition is no longer present in LMDE 3), we recommend users perform data and software backups and upgrade their OS via fresh installations. MATE packages in LMDE 2 will also be supported until the 1st of the January 2019."
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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) |
Keeping ISO downloads safe from tampering
Trying-to-download-securely asks:
This is a paranoid question, but hopefully one that is not quite "goofy".
For years, I have been downloading Linux (and BSD Unixen) ISOs via either the "anonymous FTP" command line utility or the fancier GUI equivalent, gFTP. As I understand it, in either case, the on-line traffic between a server holding the ISO files and my client is not encrypted and could be monitored and altered by a hacker with malign intentions. Making the assumption that I am concerned, how could I maintain better security while downloading an ISO?
Either on a pay-as-go subscription or "pro bono" basis, does anyone maintain an ISO server which I could connect to via OpenSSH or an equivalent encryption protocol such as TLS?
DistroWatch answers: This is a pretty common question and not at all goofy. Downloads that are not encrypted can be monitored and even changed in transit. The good news (for you) is it doesn't matter if your ISO is tampered with during transfer so long as you verify it once the download is complete. There are typically two main steps to verifying an ISO file:
- Checking the ISO's hash (with MD5 or SHA256 typically)
- Verify the ISO's signature with GnuPG.
We published a tutorial on how to perform these steps a few years ago.
Most ISO mirrors do not have an encrypted option, but torrents almost always do. If you want to hide the data you are transferring, I recommend downloading distros through bittorrent. Recent torrents for distribution releases can be found in our Torrent Archive.
As for downloading from a server that does offer encryption, that may not help. Since just about anyone can set up a download mirror and change the ISO files they host, downloading from a third-party mirror still puts you at risk. An encrypted transfer won't help you if the mirror itself is compromised, so you would still need to verify the ISO once it has been downloaded.
In short, it doesn't matter how you get your ISO file (from a USB drive, download mirror or torrent), what does matter is you can verify the ISO file you have is the same one the original developer published. Otherwise there is always the risk that someone (the torrent creator, a person monitoring your Internet connection, or the download mirror's administrator) is sending you a compromised file.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Linux Mint 3 "LMDE"
The Linux Mint team has published a new version of the distribution's Debian-based branch. The new version, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 3, is based on Debian 9 "Stretch" and features the Cinnamon desktop environment. "LMDE is a Linux Mint project and it stands for Linux Mint Debian Edition. Its main goal is for the Linux Mint team to see how viable our distribution would be and how much work would be necessary if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. LMDE aims to be as similar as possible to Linux Mint, but without using Ubuntu. The package base is provided by Debian instead. There are no point releases in LMDE. Other than bug fixes and security fixes Debian base packages stay the same, but Mint and desktop components are updated continuously. When ready, newly developed features get directly into LMDE, whereas they are staged for inclusion on the next upcoming Linux Mint point release." Further information, such as system requirements and known issues, can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Linux Mint 3 "Debian Edition" -- The welcome window and application menu
(full image size: 471kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
4MLinux 26.0
Version 26.0 of 4MLinux, a minimalist distribution for desktops (with JWM) and servers (with the complete LAMP stack), has been released. The project's latest stable build comes with upgraded packages as well as support for modern image and video encoding: "The status of the 4MLinux 26.0 series has been changed to stable. Edit your documents with LibreOffice 6.1.0 and GNOME Office (AbiWord 3.0.2, GIMP 2.10.6, Gnumeric 1.12.43), share your files using DropBox 55.4.171, surf the Internet with Firefox 61.0.2 and Chromium 68.0.3440.75, stay in touch with your friends via Thunderbird 52.9.1 and Skype for Web, enjoy your music collection with Audacious 3.10, watch your favorite videos with VLC 3.0.3 and mpv 0.28.2, play games powered by Mesa 17.3.7 and Wine 3.14. You can also setup the 4MLinux LAMP Server (Linux 4.14.64, Apache 2.4.34, MariaDB 10.3.9, PHP 5.6.37 and PHP 7.2.9). Perl 5.26.1, Python 2.7.14 and Python 3.6.4 are also available. 4MLinux 26.0 comes with some new features: Tcl/Tk (with a collection of small games) has been integrated into 4MLinux, Engrampa (archive manager) is finally able to open Debian packages, Git in 4MLinux has now both GUI and cgit web interface...." Continue to the release announcement for more details.
Linux From Scratch 8.3
Bruce Dubbs has announced the release of version 8.3 of Linux From Scratch (LFS) and Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS). LFS is a book that provides step-by-step instructions on how to build a base Linux system from scratch. BLFS expands on the LFS book by giving further lessons on compiling X Window System, window managers and desktop environments, as well as many popular desktop and server packages and their dependencies, thus enabling the user to custom-build a range of diverse Linux systems. From the release announcement: "The Linux From Scratch community is pleased to announce the release of LFS version 8.3, LFS version 8.3 (systemd), BLFS version 8.3, and BLFS version 8.3 (systemd). This release is a major update to both LFS and BLFS. The LFS release includes updates to glibc 2.28, Binutils 2.31.1 and GCC 8.2.0. Changes to text have been made throughout the book. The Linux kernel has also been updated to version 4.18.5. The BLFS edition includes approximately 1,000 packages beyond the base Linux From Scratch version 8.3 book. This release has about 700 updates from the previous version, in addition to numerous text and formatting changes."
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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: 1,005
- Total data uploaded: 21.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Verifying ISO downloads
In our Questions and Answers column this week we discuss verifying an ISO file has not been corrupted (or tampered with) during the download process. There are a number of ways to try to insure the file we have is the same one published by a distribution's team, or at least that the file has not been changed during transit. These approaches include manually confirming file hashes, checking signing keys or having a torrent client verify a file's contents. We would like to know what, if any, methods our readers use to confirm the file they have downloaded has not been altered.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using sudo or su to perform administration tasks in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Verifying ISO downloads
| I use checksums/hashes: | 606 (37%) |
| I check the signing key: | 38 (2%) |
| My torrent client verifies the download: | 141 (9%) |
| A combination of the above options: | 275 (17%) |
| I use another method to verify downloads: | 21 (1%) |
| I do not verify my ISO downloads: | 549 (34%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New projects added to database
Clu Linux Live
Clu Linux Live is a Debian-based live distribution which features a command line interface. The live disc can be used to rescue files, clone partitions, and share files over Samba and OpenSSH connections.
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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, 10 September 2018. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Redcore and window borders (by Alex Dumas on 2018-09-03 00:51:41 GMT from Australia)
Thanks for the review of Redcore, Jesse. In it you say "... application window edges were very thin, making it difficult to grab and quickly resize windows." In most open source graphical environments (including LXQT) you can hold down ALT and use the left and right mouse buttons to move and re-size windows from anywhere in the window, you do not need to find the edge of the window with the mouse.
Also, another "Gentoo made easy" distro is Calculate Linux, which is certainly desktop-ready, I have used it as a daily driver for over two years.
2 • ISO poll (by TuxRaider on 2018-09-03 01:09:24 GMT from United States)
i download an iso when i have no option to use rsync to make a local mirror of the package directory tree on my harddrive and use a minimal installer ISO that will use my local mirror, more distros should offer that option, i can -exclude entire subdirectories that i dont install like kde or gnome and just install a barebones system that includes Xorg and build or install a minimal window manager like openbox
3 • RedCore Linux : BIOS (by Winchester on 2018-09-03 02:00:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
I successfully installed RedCore Linux on my BIOS machine by burning the .iso to a blank DVD.
It worked in live mode and then I decided to install to the hard drive.
That was about a year ago but,last year's review (I am fairly certain) said the same thing about not working for BIOS. The USB didn't work for BIOS so,like I said,I burned it to a blank DVD and everything worked as it should.
I also had to disable Compton by deleting the compton.desktop file in /home/"my_user_name"/.config/autostart/ . That's where I recall the file being located upon installation.
4 • Donation buttons on desktop applications are not welcome (by Max on 2018-09-03 02:53:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
A growing number of desktop applications have been conspicuously placing "donation" buttons in very prominent areas of the application GUI.
No, we are not talking about the sub-window of the "About" selection, or as a selectable menu item, but right in the middle of the main menu bar or the like! Very much "in your face" !
What's next? We are going to have dancing icons to attract extra attention to cause subliminal annoyance with the hope that the user will throw a few cents in the can?
Case in point; I've just uninstalled Tony George's Timeshift from our family computer because my wife and I find his intrusive way of asking for money quite unacceptable!
How is that? you might ask.
Let me explain: When you try to teach your 10 year old kids about the value of running backups, your efforts should not be diverted into unrelated discussions about donation, value of software and such.
Timeshift is now history (it was an average software anyway), and Linux Mint's Clement Lefebvre has a black eye!
Yes Clem; you should have never let that happen in Linux Mint! My desktop is not your billboard, nor your playground!
I hope that DistroWatch's reader base will echo a similar sentiment.
Just to be very clear, I have no problem with software developers trying to channel some revenue. But that should be done through their respective websites and online web applications, not through my desktop computer's real estate.
I also hope that DistroWatch will take a position or at least express its opinion on this issue.
Max
5 • ISO verification (by Trihexagonal on 2018-09-03 03:41:37 GMT from United States)
I download Base System memstick images by HTTPS from the official FreeBSD and OpenBSD links and don't bother verifying the checksum.
6 • Donations, ISO's (by edcoolio on 2018-09-03 07:00:10 GMT from United States)
@4
You are 100%, no debate, no BS, on the money correct. No matter what excuse someone comes up with for the situation... there is NO excuse.
ISO's:
I only verify Tails. As for the rest, I've never had a problem. I know, I'm taking a risk, but it is so tiny, I just don't care. I also use Windows, so I'm a security risk-taker.
Lubuntu:
Awesome news. Unfortunately, even Lubuntu is becoming a bit bloated and controlling. This incident was just one such example. Another was taking away functionality by not allowing by default on PCManFM to open as root. Sure, you can get around it, but I like my simple GUI working out of the box without messing with it.
I don't care about anyone's moronic security lecture, we are adults, we were warned. Reminds me of sudo vs su vs no access. Everyone likes to play "we know what's best for you and your safety" these days and you can probably guess where you should stick that type of attitude. Kind of like Government as Parent: just give me your paycheck and I'll do what's best for you. Sure you will.... now can I have root access back?
BODHI:
Huge fan here, becoming even a bigger fan after the latest release. They still support legacy systems w/o PAE (are you listening Lubunu?), 32 bit PAE, and modern 64 bit. Great light but good looking distro. Good job guys.
Redcore:
Great overview and review. I noticed many of the same things. Note to Redcore - making the install a hassle then deciding LXQt needs Compton enabled by default while making windows impossible to quickly resize with a mouse are not good moves. Pass.
General:
I choose light distros not only on RAM usage, but with emphasis on background CPU and GPU use. This means minimal processes running in the background hogging up CPU cycles. It means the GPU being minimally taxed by the DE so I can maximize performance for applications.
I'm getting sick of stripping down even the "stripped down" 'buntus.
7 • ISO verification (by denk_mal on 2018-09-03 07:15:18 GMT from Germany)
I use checksums/hashes. I check all checksums (md5, sha1, sha256, ...) that were given for a iso image if possible to find changes made by bad subjects.
8 • .iso verification (by pengxuin on 2018-09-03 07:38:00 GMT from New Zealand)
1/ check my torrent source and let torrent client verify .iso
2a/ if burning to disc, K3b advises iso md5 value (at least) which should match published md5.
2b/ if writing to usb, USB "burner" confirms a good (or advises) md5 check.
3/ sometimes use an rsync script to download .iso file set. this includes an md5 and sha1+ checksum
9 • imposition of developers beliefs (by Romane on 2018-09-03 08:37:52 GMT from Australia)
@6 - your comments regarding the overbearing attitude that the user is childish and thus needs to be cared for is also the reason I have absolutely rejected KDE. The developer(s) took away the ability to run Dolphin and a cuppla other applications as root. Despite a chorus of objections, the developer who stole this access from Dolphin basically said 'tuff. live with it. i am not going to change it back because i say that this root access is bad.' Hello !! *My* computer, not yours. *My* choices, not yours.
Pity, because despite the bloat and etc, KDE was my go-to desktop environment. Note: *was*
10 • Donations and free software (by linguini on 2018-09-03 09:55:31 GMT from Sweden)
@4
How easy it is to criticize free software developers on asking for donations.
I'm not really sure how many hours of your week you contributed to a free software project recently, but I can risk a guess.
The beauty of free software is that the code is right there. If you don't like the "in your face" button, just fork it and get rid of it. But I guess you're not even willing to do that.
You could also, of course, "vote with your wallet" and just simply not use the software, which is what you did. But don't criticize so harshly decisions that people make on their own software on which they spent so many hours of their life on it.
And if they get no donations, wouldn't it be right to assume that their software is their playground? What about the free enterprise?
11 • LMDE 3 (by penguinx64 on 2018-09-03 10:42:31 GMT from United States)
I installed LMDE 3 this weekend. Works great! Another great job by Clem and the Linux Mint team.
12 • @9, Imposition of beliefs (by Angel on 2018-09-03 10:42:32 GMT from Philippines)
Funny thing: After using mostly Cinnamon and Mate for years, I tried KDE a few months ago, and I liked. It seems agile and simpler, with less of that "Gee-whiz look at me" stuff, and still quite configurable.Memory at idle is not much more than MX17 running XFCE. Not as buggy, although plasma shell needs to be restarted once in a while to regain my wallpaper and desktop context menu. I did run into the "no root" thing, but rather than damn the developers and whine, I looked for a solution. I installed Nemo. Nautilus or others will work as well. I also prefer to use Kate or equivalents as a sudo edito, but can't do sudo or kdesu, but SUDO_EDITOR=kate sudoedit "filename" works just as well. I suppose if my fingers were arthritic, of my attention span too fleeting, a few more characters to enter would be a killer, but as it is (knock on wood) it's just fine and dandy. Or of course I can install Gedit, or Pluma, or whatever. It's my computer, after all. That's what makes it my computer, my ability to install what I want, not my ability to tell developers to do their desktop my way. Now that would be imposing my beliefs on them.
On imposition: Say there's a car I drive and like and want to get a new one. But I drive a manual shifter, and the maker will only offer an automatic now. Is he imposing his beliefs on me? Well, I can adapt. I can get the car, drop the transmission and change it. Or I can get a different car. But is there a need to badmouth the manufacturer? Unless he made me a bespoke car and didn't follow my directions, it is his to design. Same with software. Sure, I would prefer it if it were different, but while it is my computer, it is not my DE. If I choose to put it on my computer, then I can live with the limitations, change them, or use something else. No need to whine and accuse.
ON the same subject:
https://iwf1.com/linux-users-bypass-executing-dolphin-as-root-is-not-possible-and-regain-your-kde-dolphin-root-privileges
13 • Mint changes suck (by Scott W. Eno on 2018-09-03 10:49:42 GMT from United States)
To who ever screwed up mint please stop forcing backup software or devise easy removal of it by user before installation. Gets in the way when using Mint as thumb drive OS and want no saves or tracks left behind defeats purpose of Linux OS. I hate forced software its the reason I left windows and will not return to you until this is stopped.
14 • Mint Changes Suck (by laofzu on 2018-09-03 11:18:44 GMT from United States)
You can turn off the prompt for backup and mirror change by going to preferences in the Update Manager.
15 • Donation and free software... (by Markie Mark on 2018-09-03 11:23:41 GMT from Netherlands)
Reaction on #10:
I understand your point, but you are missing it a little, imho. Every developer is free in asking a contribution to their software. Nothing against it, just what #4 said in his post. But the thing is: if you develop FREE (gratis) software, and the software is almost BEGGING to donate, that's not the right way to do it. If you want people to pull their wallets for paying for the software, why doesn't the developer consider to make his software payed instead of free? In that case you're sure you get an income of your efforts. To let your software beg for a donation is very annoying. And as far as I'm concirned I'd rather pay a fee for the software without "screaming" to me that I should concider donating instead of free (gratis) software that behaves like a pushy commercial.
16 • @13, Mint changes suck (by Angel on 2018-09-03 11:50:14 GMT from Philippines)
You are not forced to do backups. If you are using a live USB stick, what tracks are you talking about? If you installed to USB you just not use Timeshift, disable warnings, or uninstall it:
sudo apt remove timeshift
or:
sudo timeshift-uninstall
I doubt if "who ever screwed up mint" is hanging around here hoping to hear from you, but they do have a forum:
https://forums.linuxmint.com
17 • iso (by Tim on 2018-09-03 11:51:39 GMT from United States)
I think those folks who don't verify .iso files with a hash are setting themselves up for frustration. Obviously the idea of a hacker is the scary thing, but a corrupted download is also an issue. This hasn't happened to me much, but it has happened. If 35% of people visiting distrowatch aren't verifying downloads I think we might be seeing why for some people they can't get a particular distro to "work" on their computer when most people have no problems.
'
18 • Kaos ISO in torrents (by Reinaldo on 2018-09-03 12:17:36 GMT from Venezuela)
Funny that people talk about checking ISO hashes, and the Kaos image in the Torrent Downloads section this week is wrong, the hash presented here doesn't match the hash on Kaos page, and the size of the ISO is 974 MB, when should be 1.9 GB
19 • Donations and free software (by linguini on 2018-09-03 12:17:52 GMT from Sweden)
@15
The economics of this is more complex than this either/or scenario you point at. It is not so simple to take a software from gratis to commercial like that.
Should the developers close source the app? Well, then the developers would have to erase all dependencies on other open source software, and deal with the almost certain possibility of a fork of their previous open source code.
Or should they keep it open source and sell services around it? Well, this takes a professionally assembled team to do, which is probably not the point here.
Also, I'm pretty sure that had the software been a commercial one, it would not have ended up at Mint and therefore would have limited its audience in a very significant way. So again, the economics are more complex than what it might appear.
But the point I'm trying to make is broader. For instance, I would probably not use a software that annoys me with a request for donations every time I use it, as I value my attention too much these days.
But I will certainly defend their right to do so.
Finally, everyone has the right to complain too, but @4 comments bear tones of "so and so is unacceptable" or "so and so is history, bad software" and even "so and so has a black eye". And I think that is a very tall position to take from someone who is, sort of, demanding (or could I even say, begging?) that someone give the fruit of their labour for free while also relinquishing their agency to include, well, whatever they want with it.
20 • resizing windows (by twodogs on 2018-09-03 12:48:02 GMT from United States)
Hold alt and right click to resize.
21 • @9 Regarding using Dolphin in Root (by KDE User on 2018-09-03 12:52:45 GMT from United States)
@9
From what I understand, the decision to remove the ability to use GUI KDE applications was reversed a few months ago from arguments for its use by other KDE devs. Newer versions now allow you to do so, which I approve of.
22 • Verification Poll (by cykodrone on 2018-09-03 13:11:00 GMT from Canada)
I just run checksums, who wants a corrupt OS ISO? I'm not too concerned about tampering, but I have seen some people download software from spoofs and scammers. Like RL, the internet is rife with charlatans. Always verify the download source FIRST.
23 • Verifying iso files (by fatmac on 2018-09-03 13:22:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
I voted no to checking, but need to qualify that by saying that I always use ftp to download, seems to be almost foolproof, but, if I have any kind of problem with a downloaded distro, then I'll either check the signature or download again, which usually works out fine. :)
24 • timeshift (by MikeOh Shark on 2018-09-03 13:39:00 GMT from Germany)
@4, I didn't think the donation button in Timeshift was objectionable. I made several backups while configuring Linux Mint 19 to my tastes and installing many programs.
I would have clicked on the donation button but after 5 snapshots (most manually done), I tried to restore from my most recent backup. It hung. I tried older backups, they refused to install too.
The thing about backup software is that it is always worthless until you have successfully restored from a backup. If it works for you, it becomes valuable and that donation button becomes an important thank you message. ;)
25 • @9: (by dragonmouth on 2018-09-03 14:18:25 GMT from United States)
I have used KDE for years on various distros. Never had a problem using Dolphin as root. What I found is that it is the distro developers, not KDE devs, who try to save the users from themselves by blocking direct root access
26 • @10 linguini: (by dragonmouth on 2018-09-03 14:32:56 GMT from United States)
Considering your viewpoint, I suppose you it would be acceptable to you if whenever you started a program, it would display a full screen pop up, placed there by the software developer, asking for a donation. The pop up could only be dismissed by providing a credit card number. Only after providing your credit card number, would you be able to use the program.
27 • verification (by dogma on 2018-09-03 14:46:13 GMT from United States)
It has amazed me in general how resistant software developers have been to providing checksums and/or signatures. Been a very gradual process.
Also, it’s great when someone puts the sums in the release announcement mail that gets archived in various places and not just in a file in the same directory on the same server.
28 • Kaos ISO in torrents (by Reinaldo on 2018-09-03 14:46:48 GMT from Venezuela)
Regarding my comment @18 , seems like the iso image has been corrected and now the torrent points to the right one, thanks
29 • @25 (by Angel on 2018-09-03 14:48:12 GMT from Philippines)
https://cgit.kde.org/dolphin.git/commit/?id=0bdd8e0b0516555c6233fdc7901e9b417cf89
30 • donation button etc @4 (by Mark on 2018-09-03 15:09:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
Yes, agreed. I like Mint though and I donate to the project regularly, as I've been using it as my home OS for a few years.
If I had to donate to many components that makes up a Linux distro though, it could get very expensive. I don't know what the solution is; I accept that developers want to be paid for their hard work, but I want an affordable computer.
I suppose I'll just remove the timeshift package if it's no use to me.
31 • @19 "give the fruit of their labour for free" (by OS2_user on 2018-09-03 15:12:13 GMT from United States)
The initial decision to give away free almost guarantees no income ever.
Cold hard fact. Not a likely plan no matter how idealistic or good your product. That's fairly well established since 80s shareware. Yes, a FEW people got rich from voluntary contributions, for reasons that appear to be random luck, regardless how widely used. I'd bet that over 90% never get a cent.
@ "while also relinquishing their agency to include, well, whatever they want with it."
Obviously not if expect it to even be used, let alone effective for gaining money. You can't say "FREE!" and then expect people to pay. As a tactic, that's just annoying and counter-productive. And does your "whatever" include spyware? I'll guess that'd enrage even you.
Now, that does leave us all in a pickle.
1) Outright commercial software must include some form of DRM or it'll be used without anyone paying.
2) That cost (and the usually better or at least standard products) makes piracy attractive to users and provides undeserved income streams to pirate sites, causing obvious increase.
3) Those trying to give away "free" find that people take them at their word.
4) While expecting commercial-level, easy-to-use, reliable products.
5) But everyone hates advertising, especially the invasive and compromising corporate spying now becoming universal. (Much of Linux is now paid for by corporations.)
6) That leads to a "race for the bottom" as MUST give away free to gain any users, but if ask for money, then as above, people are advised to just move to another FREE product!
(Since Labor Day and we've all nothing better to do, I'm going to go on...)
32 • Problems for Linux idealism: (by OS2_user on 2018-09-03 15:16:14 GMT from United States)
A) I have NO idea why geeks (and I'm an original geek since TRS-80 days, have put out a little freeware for OS/2) work on these projects, what they live off, nor how they ever expect to get money from it -- when their own attitude is to never pay for "free" software, either!
B) Since true Linux (not counting Google Android) is a small market, programmers are not likely to cross the magic line where enough users do pay to make WORK seem worthwhile.
C) So they tend to focus on FUN: trying out new "features". But people want reliable APPLIANCES, not struggle getting to basics.
D) I don't care how often the rebuttal here is that Linux CAN be the way I want if only I'm willing to put in the time: getting there is NOT FUN. -- And as mentioned above: programmers now put deliberate and needless obstacles in the way of running as root! JUST STOP DOING WHAT ANNOYS.
E) It's clear that annoying by either adding "features", removing "features", or nagware cannot work for income. -- Not to mention accumulating bugs and bad design. -- Refusing to learn from Windows is just stupid.
F) No matter how many freeloaders use your web-site / software, does you no good. Recall that "economics" caused the fairly large (IBM) OS/2 system to be abandoned (even by IBM!) in favor of technically backward DOS / Windows 3.1, even though OS/2 ran nearly all of it better as a mere task!
So, in short, INSOLUBLE. Linux is DOOMED.
And PERSONALLY, when prevent me from having a PERSONAL computer as commenters above complain at restrictions on being "root", then I say GOOD RIDDANCE. Linux begins only barely tolerable to me. When requires WORK, enduring "features" that I don't want, reliability is low (ext4 fell apart on me), and now nannying restrictions, then it's not an alternative.
33 • Donations and free software (by linguini on 2018-09-03 15:35:15 GMT from Sweden)
I'm not arguing in favour (or against) donate buttons, ads or whatever form of monetization a developer chooses for his project.
I'm arguing in favour of the power that a developer working on their own individual (i.e. not community) project has to do whatever they want with the project and *live with the consequences*.
But I'm most importantly arguing for *politeness* and consideration when discussing the work and choices of someone who is giving a lot of work for free.
Don't give him a "black eye", come on! :(
34 • @32 The Voice of Doom (by Angel on 2018-09-03 15:36:25 GMT from Philippines)
"INSOLUBLE. Linux is DOOMED."
Damn right. It will be overtaken by such successful profit-oriented systems like OS/2, which I hear is gaining market share an astounding pace. :-)
35 • Supporting 'free as in speech' with $ (by M.Z. on 2018-09-03 18:11:37 GMT from United States)
I've got to say I strongly support most of what @10 & @12 said. Users are complaining about supporting open source projects via a simple button in the window? Community projects have every right to remind users that they need support, & if they are reasonable about it why attack them?
@26
"Considering your viewpoint, I suppose you it would be acceptable to you..."
That's called the straw man argument & it's never a good sign for you side of the argument. You can create elaborate scenarios involving ransom ware if you want, but does that really have jack to do with a simple donate button?
@33
Every project needs to survive financially somehow & they deserve their right to try to bring in money in a reasonable manner. The GPL says nothing about having to give away everything for no $, it's about the rights of both the users & the creators of software. I agree that it's odd that so many people would rather see a project die than make an unobtrusive pitch for support.
We need the components of our desktop to be created & supported in a financially sustainable way, why not respect developers attempting to bring in money in a reasonable way?
@34
Of course it's doomed. Look at Red Hat & their revenue. That just can't be sustained. Also, they made money, so they must be evil right? All open source projects should move all their dev teams into hermit tech caves so they can give away everything they make with out bothering us real people with their need to exist in reality where money exists. That will also facilitate & speed the inevitable collapse of all open projects & bring about the open source rapture. /s
36 • KaOS torrent (by Jesse on 2018-09-03 18:45:01 GMT from Canada)
@18: Thanks for pointing out the torrent was truncated. I have fixed it, the KaOS torrent should be working fine again.
37 • Donations...etc... (by The Ref on 2018-09-03 19:17:34 GMT from United States)
@35 Winner!
38 • Donations (by DaveW on 2018-09-03 21:17:25 GMT from United States)
A normal sized donation button in the tool bar doesn't bother me. As a matter of fact, I had to go look at the Timeshift GUI to be sure the button was there. Now if the donation request is a popup that I have to close each time the program starts, then that program is gone.
39 • Redcore 1806 installation (by Redcoreuser on 2018-09-04 00:13:58 GMT from Canada)
I installed Redcore release version 1806 on my desktop with UEFI
Deactivated a couple years for my OpenBSD system. Redcore installation step without any worries. Several updates since then and I don't encountered any problems. It's not my main system, but I use it regularly. I like the Gentoo base, the office environment is responsive and fast. International language support is excellent. The graphical package manager is simple but fast and functional.
I love this pure Gentoo base. I also installed it on my Laptop Lenovo 430 without any worries.
Desktop Config
asus amd 970 bios uefi motherboard
fx 8120 processor
amd 6870 graphics card
4 hard disk
8go of ram.
Really good work Redcore team
40 • Weak passwords... so what? (by Jeff on 2018-09-04 02:14:11 GMT from United States)
Why shouldn't it be my choice to use a weak password or no password at all on a computer sitting on my desk in my home?
If you say that someone could break into my home and access my computer there are a couple of things you are overlooking:
1. Physical access is root access as the old hackers would tell you.
2. They have broken into my home, that is a problem in and of itself.
41 • Window handles (by Simon on 2018-09-04 05:22:33 GMT from New Zealand)
@1: I do what you do...I use another hand to press a key to compensate for the fact that the easier way of doing it is so badly coded...but it still annoys me that it's so badly coded, and I'm glad to see this issue pointed out to the developers. Even if they're so precious about the aesthetics of the windows (or those few extra pixels of screen space) that they can't bear to make the borders big enough to grab, there's no reason why they can't simply increase the distance on either side of the border at which the mouse cursor changes to a resize cursor. To enable a function and build it into the code, so that it's possible to grab window edges and resize them, but then to implement it so badly that it's annoyingly difficult to do, is incompetent. If they feel it ought to take two hands to resize a window, fine...delete the pointless code implementing the edge-grabbing method...but if they agree that simply grabbing the edge of a window to resize it is a good idea, they should code it so it actually works (without our needing to take a ten second break in whatever we were doing to attempt to position the mouse on the one pixel responds to it)!
42 • Window handles (PS) (by Simon on 2018-09-04 05:26:45 GMT from New Zealand)
@41: Yes, I do know that I should make the changes myself instead of bitching about the incompetence of the people who have taken the time to develop the software I'm using for free :)
43 • Weak passwords (by Simon on 2018-09-04 05:33:56 GMT from New Zealand)
@40: As long as the computer sitting on your desk in your home isn't connected to others via the Internet, and as long as there's nothing on your computer you wouldn't want burglars to access, then that's true, no problem. Re (1), not if you encrypt your drives. They can take them out and plug them into their own computers and they still won't get a thing.
44 • Root in Dolphin is back in 18.08 (by lillo on 2018-09-04 06:11:04 GMT from Sweden)
https://phabricator.kde.org/D12732
45 • How to love Linux (by OstroL on 2018-09-04 06:25:13 GMT from Poland)
By creating your own distro. Install the base, intall the basic DE you like, if not a WM like Openbox, add the apps you like, add the eye candy you prefer, and you have your own Linux distro. You'd be thrilled and you'd be happy. If any problem occurs, you'd find answers in many friendly forums. You'd love Linux!
46 • User choices for running as root (by Romane on 2018-09-04 07:59:35 GMT from Australia)
@21. Thank you for this information. I am now in the process of downloading Neon which should show the reversal of what was earlier imposed. If all fine, then I may return to the KDE environment, though Debian (my usual distro) is having "problems" with KDE in Buster at the moment (well, I would run a development version - my own fault then) which I know will be all fixed by the time it goes stable :)
47 • Redcore (by Toran on 2018-09-04 08:37:48 GMT from Belgium)
Nowadays try updating a Gentoo-system and one will meet an error one-shot update. This is not mentioned, so I guess updating the system has not been done. I say there is a prob with the repos.
48 • Dolphin cannot be run as root (by Romane on 2018-09-04 08:48:37 GMT from Australia)
@21. Fail. Dolphin cannot be run as root.
49 • @32 • Problems for Linux idealism & 31 • @19 "give the fruit of their labour..." (by frisbee on 2018-09-04 16:16:21 GMT from Switzerland)
"So, in short, INSOLUBLE. Linux is DOOMED."
I'm afraid, you missed the point (once more), as usual...
It might be that Linux ON THE DESKTOP is doomed but, as of right now, allmost whole planet is depending on Linux and if you make it dissapear in a glance, by some kind magic, this planet would be doomed.
No matter what comes to your mind, which device or service, your router, your TV, ... movie industry, banks, shops ... electricity, water, traffic signals ... amazon, apple, facebook, google, microsoft ... sattelites above us ... everybody and everything runs on linux ... well maybe not all 100% but, at least over 90%.
Linux is VERY alive and kicking.
And ... I´m afraid that you didn´t understand one more thing.
Linux might have been born out of idealism (or desire to finaly make one OS that works? Because OS/2 and Windows didn't...), but Linux is not developed by "some geeks".
That might be true in some cases like your favourite applications or such but, all the indispenssable things in the Linux world, bee it Kernel or LibreOffice or Mozilla or ... it's all developed by professionals being paid by big and reputable companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft ...
It's made by professionals for the professionals, because they need their servers reliably up and running.
50 • Linux Community (by M.Z. on 2018-09-04 17:54:39 GMT from United States)
@49
All joking aside, I think you are mostly right, but with some caveats. There are a number of huge companies involved in Linux that won't let it fail, like IBM, Red Hat, Intel & Google; however, there is also a larger community. The Linux community includes both Red hat making $2.9 Billion in 2017 revenue & that guy who created the donate button seen in Linux Mint's Timeshift software, as well as some projects that are worse off than either & lots of things in between.
The thing is Linux is a massive community, & not a zero sum game. The big companies do a lot of trading of code & bug fixes via the community that affect their customers & peers, but they also make things work well enough to give life to the smaller projects that make room for the creation of new & innovative solutions. Linux is vital to both the community projects giving it away, the billion dollar mega corps packaging it for customers, & the start ups creating the net big waves in all corners of the community. All of theses projects get something special out of the process, be it an existing platform for innovations, access to hot new startup innovations, or a method of working within this system to give away your ideal desktop OS.
Anyway, Linux has the potential to be all of these things because it's part of a massive & thriving community of open source projects that exist in all of those different ways. Parts of it will always die like so many lost distros, but others will move in & some will inevitable be successful. That's how Linux survives & thrives, not in spite of containing hobby projects & massive corporate contributors, but because of it.
51 • LMDE 2 to 3 (by jaws222 on 2018-09-04 18:38:00 GMT from United States)
I actually did an in-place upgrade from LMDE 2 to 3 and it was very smooth. Just followed the directions below and it was flawless
https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2419
52 • LXQt menu position (by a on 2018-09-04 19:49:49 GMT from France)
"This unusual menu placement would continue until I logged out and signed back into LXQt"
I had this issue when I was using LXQt 0.11 often enough that I wrote a small script to kill and restart lxqt-panel, which solves the issue:
#!/bin/bash
cd
pkill lxqt-panel && sleep 2 && lxqt-panel &>/dev/null & disown
(The lone "cd" is useful to avoid changing the starting directory when opening a terminal or another application from the panel.)
It looks like they fixed it in LXQt 0.13.
53 • @4 about Timeshift (by RJA on 2018-09-04 23:30:05 GMT from United States)
"Timeshift is now history (it was an average software anyway)"
Why was it a fail? Was it no better than Microsoft's System Restore?
54 • @32 Ext4 FS (by RJA on 2018-09-05 00:17:20 GMT from United States)
I'm surprised that the Ext4 FS failed on you. (That's something I would expect in 2009, for gosh sakes!)
55 • @49, Doomsday and trolls (by Angel on 2018-09-05 01:13:20 GMT from Philippines)
OS2_user (32) is a known and frequent troll, and not worth the effort of argument. The irony is that IBM was petitioned to release OS/2 as open source, but they were unable to do so due to legal constraints. Had they done so, OS/2 might still be thriving at least as well as Gnu/Linux on the desktop and elsewhere. I tried OS/2 back in the day. It was a good OS.
The reports of the death of Desktop Linux (as well as it's final triumph) has been greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase a misquote of Mark Twain. The weakness of open source is that it's difficult to get rich from, but that is also its strength: Success is not measured by profitability or market share.
Take a project like ReactOS. It's been going on since 1996. I look at it and shake my head. Why? I downloaded it, and still shake my head. What purpose? Probably because enough people enjoy working on it, and enough enjoy using it. Not many, but enough. Are developers and users happy? Then that's success. I wish them well.
I'm an old Windows man, literally. I still use and like Windows and work on it sometimes. But Linux resides in each of my PCs, and will remain there as long as it is useful and enjoyable to me. Nothing lasts forever, but desktop Linux is in no imminent danger, as long as desktop/laptop PCs are viable. It could benefit from fewer over-entitled users and fewer zealots, but nothing is perfect.
56 • Donations (by Jim on 2018-09-05 11:33:02 GMT from United States)
I will only donate to an OS after I have used it and found it usable and to my liking. I have downloaded to many OS's not worth my time or trouble. This is not only a Linux problem, think of all the poor saps that paid for Win8.
57 • The window-resize work-around reported by Simon of NZ (by Ted H in Minnesota on 2018-09-05 14:42:34 GMT from United States)
@41 • Window handles illuminated by Simon of NZ
Thank you for illuminating the frustration of trying repeatedly to grab that ultra-thin/ nearly non-existant edge of the window to resize it, your beautiful description of that oversight of implementing it, and the work-around cure for it!!!
I cuss every time I try to do that, and thank you, Commenter Simon, for mentioning the work-around for that omission: ALT + RightClick, which I didn't know about. You have definitely performed a public service here!
Thank you very much!!! I'll now need to cuss less, darn it!
58 • Sucky Timeshift and Mint 19 (by imnotrich on 2018-09-06 04:09:48 GMT from Mexico)
During my Mint 19 install, Timeshift pops up and insists that I enable it. No option to opt out. Then it takes root control over my entire 2TB hard drive WITHOUT MY CONSENT. Kinda like malware. There was no way to disable it after the fact, but I eventually was able to uninstall it by using the brute force method: Gparted, followed by Synaptic.
I've donated to Mint, Thunderbird and other open source projects in the past but Timeshift being forced on users who had no ability to opt out is just plain wrong and very Windows 10 Microsoftish .
Never got offended by the ads because the program itself SUCKS! My point to developers is: don't have the audacity to ask for a donation by taking your users computer hostage by a program that doesn't work properly anyway. At least do some troubleshooting eh?
59 • timeshift (by mes on 2018-09-06 06:03:46 GMT from Netherlands)
I have installed Mint LMD3 in virtualbox and had the same experience with timeshift. The first thing I did was uninstalling timeshift with synaptic.
60 • @58 and 59 (by Angel on 2018-09-06 09:17:48 GMT from Philippines)
I don't know just what goes on here, but I have several spare partitions on which I install systems for testing. I also test on Virtualbox. I've installed Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon and Mate as VMS and on bare metal with no such experiences as you claim to have had. The welcome screen does suggest setting up snapshots and takes you through the steps if you want, but it does not "insist" or force itself on you. You may close it at any time, and remove the check-mark at right bottom so it doesn't pop up again at login. The update manager shows a warning about backing up with snapshots, but that can be easily disabled in "Preferences" by unchecking a box.
Whether Timeshift "SUCKS!" or not I can't say. I don't do snapshots. I have borked enough systems over the years to have learned to keep data in different partitions or drives, and I don't run a schedule that requires me to be back up and running in a very short time.
61 • @58 (by kc1di on 2018-09-06 10:54:03 GMT from United States)
I have installed and run Mint 19 on several machines and have never had timeshift forced on me. I'm offered a chance to set it up but never use it. You have the choice. It's your machine.
if you do not want to be reminded during updates to set up timeshift the go the the update manager and then edit preferences and uncheck the box that says "show warning if system snapshots are not set up" and the warning will go away. No one is forcing you to use the program
62 • Enough already (by Willie Buck Merle on 2018-09-06 12:40:28 GMT from United States)
Really, if anything demonstrates that linux is for SERVERS, rather than desktop usage, it is all this Timeshift whining fever. Rsync anyone? Learn the command line and STFU about DEs... 'nuff said about teeny-tiny-thin window edges nobody needs anyway for work.
BTW in the last issue it was Garon who posted the most honest thing i've read for several weeks here. Kudos for efforting that post about ubuntu and its derivatives (ripoffs).
-wbm
ps. OS/2 can keep on posting in this asylum imho, it merely bothers only its most disturbed inmates... that also get to post their rambles!
63 • Timeshift (by Jesse on 2018-09-06 13:52:28 GMT from Canada)
@58:
I have installed both Linux Mint 19 and LMDE 3. In neither does Timeshift pop-up and insist on anything. The welcome screen and update manager will offer you the chance to run Timeshift, but not using it is as simple as not clicking the Launch Timeshift button. Also, Timeshift does not "take over" the hard drive. It runs in the background and only takes snapshots when you've told it to. Finally, if you decide to stop using Timeshift, just disable the scheduled jobs and/or uninstall the application. Nothing forces you to open Timeshift, use it, or continue to let it run once you've activated it.
64 • ISO Checking (by Marco on 2018-09-06 15:42:27 GMT from United States)
I prefer zsync, which checks the hash automagically, but if I have to download an ISO, I always check the hash in Dolphin or the Konsole.
65 • @58 @59 @60 @61 @63 (by imnotrich on 2018-09-07 05:43:52 GMT from Mexico)
Sorry, I should have specified that I installed Mint 19 Cinnamon Beta a few days after it was released and yes, Timeshift was forced on me. There was no way to prevent it from installing/running, so I decided to go with the flow. Big Mistake. There was nothing to alert me that it would take root control of the entire 2TB hard drive. I assumed it would create a file and/or directory and be done.
I'm not sure I understand the need for Timeshift anyway, since I keep multiple backups of everything important to me, and if I bork something with my system it's usually easier (and gets better results) to wipe and reinstall the OS.
Perhaps these issues were resolved prior to your experience with Timeshift, but my account was 100% accurate. At the time anyway.
66 • @65 (by Angel on 2018-09-07 06:25:12 GMT from Philippines)
I ran Linux Mint Beta right after release and still had no such problems. I don't use Timeshift. I also don't use Libre Office, Thunderbird, Gimp and a bunch of other programs, but I'm sure other people do and find them useful.
67 • @65, Timeshift takes over drive (by Angel on 2018-09-07 06:34:02 GMT from Philippines)
Just to be sure I looked for problems with Timeshift. Some users posted to the Mint forum about it wanting excessive drive space, but this happened only after they enabled it, not after being forced to do so. Maybe that's what you experienced.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=271844
68 • Timeshift, Noobs & Think, Learn, Do (by frisbee on 2018-09-07 10:46:31 GMT from Switzerland)
Just a couple of facts to note about the Timeshift / Linux Mint:
Timeshift is GREATLY WELCOME feature and addition in Linux Mint.
Everybody should know by now, that backups are essential thing to do / have - no matter which OS you use.
Everybody knows, that most people are pretty ignorant about making backups, reading manuals...
Since Linux Mint is supposed to be a "Noob Linux", it is perfectly O.K. reminding a "Noob User" about necessity of backups.
Right on the first update, it urges you (for your own good!) to set up the backup function.
You just follow the screens until you come to the "schedule" screen. There you have the opportunity to choose one recommended setup or change it after your needs AND you can also choose to UNCHECK ALL. If that is really necessary to explain: unchecked schedule == no schedule == no backups being made == no enforcing anything on you.
In updater settings, once / if installed, you have the possibility to check/uncheck the reminder any time you wish, so it doesn't "bug" you anymore.
If installed and set up, once started Timeshift will do its job - with
or without reminder being shown - which is exactly what and how one backup tool is supposed to work.
If you do not want Timeshift to do any automatic Backups anymore, you'll have to open the Timeshift interface, go to the settings and uncheck the checked configuration again.
As confirmed by @60, @61, 63, @66 ...
--
@58, @59 & @63: If Timeshift was "forced" to you, then just because of you beeing uncapable of using your OS. Did you read the Manual first?
https://linuxmint.com/documentation.php
https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20180903
Timeshift and the Settings
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=272993
It does not "take the root control over my entire 2TB hard drive WITHOUT MY CONSENT" but, you allow it to do so, if and only if YOU WISH SO. It's some kind of obvious that, if one backup tool should copy the files from A to B, it is essential that it can read and write them and that needs certain permissions.
Uninstalling by Gparted shows only that you don't know what are you exactly doing but, you simply click around "on a good luck" basis.
Timeshift backups are stored in one folder, which is wherever you have placed it during the initial setup. If you want to remove it, you have 2 possibilities:
STOP Timeshift service (over the GUI)
(1.) Simply delete all existing backups (over the GUI)
What's left is an empty folder, or, after Timeshift has been stoped, you open the Terminal and write:
(2.) sudo rm -rf /path/to/your/timeshift/FOLDER
and it's gone forever WITHOUT ASKING.
Probably the only thing that SUCKS about Timeshift are lazy noobs. Less they understand, louder they cry.
69 • Linux Mint (by TheRealist on 2018-09-07 12:15:07 GMT from Serbia)
Speaking of Mint, anyone has the idea why are there 2 different isos present at download mirrors? I only noticed while checking shasum. What's with the -v2.iso?
70 • Updated Linux_Mint ISOs, RedCore Linux reviews (by Somewhat Reticent on 2018-09-07 14:11:35 GMT from United States)
@69 See Clem's monthly blog; if in doubt, use version 2.
...
DW has several user reviews of RedCore - perhaps much depends on luck with hardware? With Gentoo-base, is customization-to-fit possible?
71 • Mint v2 (by Michel on 2018-09-07 15:15:26 GMT from United Kingdom)
@69, v2 is bug fix release. Original ISO had problem installing connected to internet.
72 • Mint 19 & Timeshift (by M.Z. on 2018-09-07 22:58:52 GMT from United States)
No problems with Timeshift for me either. Seems like a useful feature to me & I had no issues setting it up or running it on my desktop. It does come up as one of the options when the Mint greeter appears, but that's about as intrusive as I remember it being. Not sure why some insist on inventing reasons to complain about things, but that's life.
73 • Timeshift (by Bill S on 2018-09-08 14:30:21 GMT from United States)
I turned off Timeshift right after the install of Mint 19 Mate. I had forgotten that it was even on my HD until reading these posts. I have been using Terabyte image for linux since Ubuntu 8, and I have two huge external Hard Drives with many backups on them. I haven't even seen a donate button for Timeshift, so can't say it has bothered me at all. I just use the software (Aps) I like and let the rest go or turn them off. No big deal. Thanks to all the developers that have provided a complete Linux solution for my computer needs and thanks to Clem for actually listening to my individual request and putting it in the DE. Thus he has my support and donations. Have fun!
74 • @68 you lie (by imnotrich on 2018-09-08 22:29:21 GMT from Mexico)
Timeshift did indeed take root control over my entire 2TB hard drive without advising me it would do so. So "Without Consent" is accurate, in English anyway. Happy International Literacy day!
Obviously it's going to have read/write permissions for the folder or file it creates, duh. Not root permissions for the entire drive! I couldn't even log in as root and fix it!
So I uninstalled via synaptic but remnants left behind still controlled the hard drive. Hence, gparted!
Using gparted (or dban) to remove viruses like Timeshift might be overkill, but oh so satisfying! And you don't have to worry about bits and pieces left on your system to reinfest or cause problems later.
And you should just STFU with your RTFM suggestion. How many hundreds of pages am I supposed to peruse while installing an operating system that forces useless programs on me that I don't want or need? Are we talking Microsoft, or Linux c'mon!
75 • Timeshift (by Moose on 2018-09-08 22:39:49 GMT from Canada)
@74:
Timeshift doesn't take over hard drives. You're making things up. All it does is offer to snapshot the drive if (and only if) you run it. If you never run Timeshift it never does anything.
Your ability to log in as root or not has nothing to do with Timeshift.
Timeshift, once again, does not "control the hard drive". It may leave behind a storage folder after you remove it (as all programs do), but you could just delete its storage folder with the "rm" command. No need for dban or GParted.
You don't have to read any documentation to avoid Timeshift. Just don't run it if you don't want its features.
You're making a lot of wild and obviously false statements about Timeshift. It's pretty pointless since anyone who has used it knows what you are describing has nothing to do with Timeshift or its behaviour.
76 • @ imnotrich, #68 (by Pietr on 2018-09-09 01:22:06 GMT from Canada)
ID-10T/1D-10T error
77 • @76 re: ID-10T Errors (by Rev_Don on 2018-09-09 03:42:27 GMT from United States)
With a large assortment of PEBCAK/PEBKAC errors to boot.
78 • @74 (by frisbee on 2018-09-09 07:08:16 GMT from Switzerland)
Just like @75 concluded, it's pretty pointless since obviously you do not understand much (if something at all) about Linux, Ubuntu, rights management (chown, chmod), partition management (Gparted), backup (Timeshift), English language ...
"Without (your) consent" can not apply in case where you have the choice to enable / disable backup during initial setup.
Login as root can not work in Ubuntu since it's disabled per default (could be activated).
Gparted can not uninstall anything - it can manage the partitions.
Nothing and nobody is taking any rights over without your permission and even if, you can change those permissions as you want, whenever you want.
Linux is not different from BSD, MacOS or Windows - you need to learn it first.
Nobody was born smart, so reading the documentation could help. You should start with learning English.
79 • @76 & @77 (by frisbee on 2018-09-09 07:16:44 GMT from Switzerland)
So, you also already worked at Helpdesk? :) :) :)
80 • Timeshift, Mint19,... (by step-hen }{ on 2018-09-09 22:43:33 GMT from New Zealand)
Until reading here I was not aware of the Donate Button in Timeshift. I simply set it up when installing Mint 19, never noticed any in-your-face button. So it is a good thing to have snapshots, backups. A lot of people are not rsync boffins or have the inclination to go read the man page for rsync, sit and figure it out and get it working on their system (even if that is just 20 minutes of their life). Timeshift wraps a GUI around that, so it merely extends and old and existing *nix technology. I don't see a dollar value as it is (thankfully) not a proprietary backup tool, but riding on top of rsync - doing for rsync what Manjaro does for Arch (making it human friendly). My 2c, YMMV.
Number of Comments: 80
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