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1 • Security updates (by DaveW on 2018-09-24 00:30:45 GMT from United States)
I want security updates and regularly apply them on my daily system, Mint 18.3. However, I have a copy of Windows XP running in a virtual machine, and dual-boot Mint 16. Those two OS's are not used very often, so there being no security updates for them doesn't worry me.
2 • Elive 3.0 (by John Bee on 2018-09-24 00:42:23 GMT from Australia)
Elive 3.0 is aimed at users who for one reason or another are relying on old hardware. It can be assumed that if a user could afford a new 64 bit PC they would. With the ever changing minimum requirements required by Firefox and Google Chrome the versions included in Elive 3.0 would be the last versions compatable with Elive's system files and kernel. Elive developers are now realising they either start again and build Elive upon Debian 9 or retire Elive. By giving away Elive 3.0 free there's nothing to loss and may create interest in the project again. By asking for a small donation would hopefully allow them to spend their time creating an all new version of Elive. For the moment install Wine in Elive 3.0 and run the current 32 bit Windows version of Seamonkey which I'm currently doing and posting this to you now on a 14 year PC. It can be done.
3 • Security updates (by Bob on 2018-09-24 00:47:19 GMT from United States)
Yes, for my online Linux distros since there is always a new release somewhere in the future. However, I ran my CrunchBang Waldorf right up to the last possible moment...and then some.
4 • Bodhi review (by brad on 2018-09-24 00:52:34 GMT from United States)
"There are a few little glitches here and there, but nothing show stopping[...]"
Perhaps I missed the resolution, but wasn't there a problem with wireless networking? This is definitely a show-stopper for laptop users; some laptops don't even have wired capability, and if there was no resolution to the lack of wireless capability, then this distro could never be taken on the road. I don't know of many coffee shops, libraries, or other "public" locations that offer "wired-fi".
5 • Mr. Torvalds stepping out (by Friar Tux on 2018-09-24 01:11:14 GMT from Canada)
When studying most software developers, one finds Mr. Torvalds' issues are actually quite common. Bill Gates was shy and reserved. Steve Jobs was at times almost violently anti-social. (To name a couple of the big 'uns.) Linus Torvalds is no exception. This is not to 'bad-mouth' these people. They are individuals that simply do not function well around/with other people. (That may be one reason why they do so well in front of a keyboard and monitor.) I know. I'm one of them. People wear me out. I find crowds frightening. Anyway, I wish Linus much success. (Again, I have learned to coup with other people.)
6 • elive (by linuxista on 2018-09-24 01:34:01 GMT from United States)
I'm glad to see that Elive is finally getting critical coverage instead of being announced without warning advisories potentially sucking in naive new users. Elive has always been a scam with hidden gotcha payments at one stage or another in the installation process. Looks like this time they've just invented a new angle to con people with.
7 • Security Updates & Linus (by M.Z. on 2018-09-24 02:19:24 GMT from United States)
If you are connecting the machine to the web you should update it, end of story. I could see some users of less attacked OSs like Linux or BSD trying to plug along anyway, perhaps improving security in other ways like taking steps to make their browser unrecognized & harder to attack. Regardless, it's really dumb to run a networked computer without security updates. That goes double if you know you could easily drop a new Linux Disto on the machine in short order & arrive at a secure OS for no real monetary cost.
-------
On the Linus front I'm hoping to hear about him coming back before too long, & that he does so with a plan to tone things down a bit while wrangling problems effectively.
8 • Elive software versions (by Jesse on 2018-09-24 02:31:58 GMT from Canada)
@2:
"Elive 3.0 is aimed at users who for one reason or another are relying on old hardware. It can be assumed that if a user could afford a new 64 bit PC they would."
This may be the case, but if so then there are lots of distributions targeting older hardware which still receive security updates. We covered on in this issue. Bodhi also runs an Enlightenment-based desktop, supplies security updates and runs on 32-bit machines.
"With the ever changing minimum requirements required by Firefox and Google Chrome the versions included in Elive 3.0 would be the last versions compatable with Elive's system files and kernel."
Not true and also a point against these out of date browsers being used. Not only could you install a newer version of Chrome (or Firefox) on this kernel, but you should also use a lightweight browser if you're targeting older hardware.
If Elive were really targeting older computers which might need an older kernel/userland, then those computers probably need a lighter browser too, like Midori or Falkon. It doesn't make sense to claim to be using out of date software (six year old kernel) to support old hardware, but then ship massive browsers like Firefox which is just two years old. Those two missions contradict each other. A computer than can run a two year old release of Firefox is going to be capable of running a more modern kernel and userland.
9 • But why? (by tom joad on 2018-09-24 02:32:58 GMT from Moldova)
That one got me.
Run an OS with getting any regular or irregular updates and patches!?!?! Yikes!!! Lordie there is plenty enough trouble, grief and heartache out there without getting down on your knees and begging for more. I realize that most do it in a mental mode of an 'informed decision' but still...
Ain't for me, brother...
I keep my stuff current and patched...no exception.
10 • Security (by Cholo on 2018-09-24 02:40:28 GMT from United States)
I check for updates every time I turn on my machines, first thing! Just one of my better habits I think. I do still use XP, for a couple of programs that I like. But I run it in virtualbox on top of PCLOS. And I don't give it access to the internet. I also have XP on another old computer that I can still play some old games on every once in a while, but there again no internet... ;-).
11 • Linus (by facetime on 2018-09-24 03:26:46 GMT from Australia)
It seems that it wasn't the corporates who complained about Linus, but minority groups who thought the code of conduct wasn't being adhered to and people were being excluded from the developer community without any recourse.
It looks like the freewheeling days of Linux kernel development are over, and the only winners of this dispute will likely be the lawyers.
12 • Security (by pengxuin on 2018-09-24 04:37:41 GMT from New Zealand)
My preferred distro does an update check approx 5 minutes after bootup.
this can be manually changed by the user, to check up to 30 minutes after login.
likewise, the next check for updates can be manually set by the user, for, from 1 hour to 24hrs later.
13 • security (by zykoda on 2018-09-24 06:41:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
For WAN and LAN machines the latest patches are applied. For an non networked machine it really does not matter, whether DOS, MS, Linux, Unix or other OS is running. Security is an illusion.
14 • Old HW, Elive, speed & security (by frisbee on 2018-09-24 06:58:46 GMT from Switzerland)
Elive is now free simply because it is outdated and nobody sane would install it anymore.
Who really must recycle some (to) old junkware, has much better distributions to choose from.
Antix is probably the best Linux to date for just about (allmost) anybody - if they are able to install the SW via APT. As is, it uses aprox. 80 MB RAM, which is good for all HW, not only for the old one. It does not matter if you have 2GB, 8GB, 32GB, 128GB ... Why use 1.6 GB RAM just to render the desktop? By using 80 MB RAM it will run well on old HW and if you have a solid HW, you can install 2 more virtual machines or have open a couple of hundreds tabs in your web browser.
- out of the box, it has everything on board, all must haves to just start working
- super light fluxbox, herbstflut, jwm iceWM preinstalled and preconfigured
- apt-get install cinnamon-environment and you have a modern OS too
- everything needed and preconfigured to work straight from USB
- everything needed and preconfigured to remaster "own OS"
- based on latest Debian stable plus its own repository
- 32 and 64 bit flavors and no systemd
- good beginner documentation
- speedy and secure
15 • Security updates (by Brenton Horne on 2018-09-24 07:31:44 GMT from Australia)
I'm quite surprised so many people use distros past their EOL. It seems silly to me, except perhaps on PCs that are not connected to the net, Bluetooth or anything else with a decent potential for allowing malware in. Although that does not sound like a very pleasant experience in itself. Well I hope those using this good luck, even though I think it is silly.
16 • Linus' vacation (by Anthony on 2018-09-24 09:20:23 GMT from Germany)
Can we take Linus' words seriously? After all, he had said "I like to offend people, because people who get offended deserve to be offended" and that he didn't like "professionalism", saying that he was writing that particular mail from home, wearing a bathrobe. If you ask me, he was threatened -- politely, maybe, but in a clear way. (He's a family man, it would be easy to threaten him.)
Also, SJW's betray themselves by their methods: they should create better(?) communities by forking FOSS codebases and then starting their own super-duper-rainboy-all-inclusive communities around them, but they don't, because they fear (know?) that they would fail miserably. (Either technically, or they just wouldn't get enough contributions.) So instead, they get into every well-functioning community, and poison it from thee inside.
Whatever they did to Linus must have been ugly AF.
Well done SJWs! Another huge victory for you, and a sad loss for the decent people.
17 • Enlightenment (by Winchester on 2018-09-24 09:37:39 GMT from United States)
ELive is pointless.
You can install Enlightenment from official repositories of various distributions.
That includes Debian 9 stable , Debian testing , OpenSUSE Tumbleweed , Void Linux, ROSA , PClinuxOS etc. .
There is even an Enlightenment .iso for Kali Linux 64-bit.
Should be able to install Enlightenment on Kali Linux Light 32-bit, Voyager Debian version, SalentOS Debian version, AntiX, Devuan, Refracta, Star Linux etc. ....... just to name some.
18 • elive 3... (by frimical on 2018-09-24 10:24:53 GMT from France)
I welcome and agree with all the comments regarding this 'tricky business' of elive and what is behind.
Trust is a must; otherwise straight to the trash bascket...
Great annoucements; but empty reality... nada; nothing au rendez-vous..
From download to test: great 'bad' surprises! nothing as expected.
very old stuff but doesn't even work on either old; less old or new machine! it's a catatrophy; a loss of time and bandwidth!
elive cannot be used live!
Sorry to upset some; when I hear about light and very flexible; modern and productive distro, I just compare with TinyCoreLinux. Full point.
The time we lose to install a new distro and all the blabla around; we're up and running for less than 10 sec and 30Mb of RAM, X included...
And for the rest... all needs the same RAM; but is faster on TinyCoreLinux..
And the 'cerise sur le gateau' each session is a bright clean new session... if we need so; it s a real live distro!
What about rolling back os version, configurations and balablabla?; no need! it's always clean; or the way we meant it to be; simply etc...
etc... etc...etc....
Final Note: I'm not affiliated in any way to the TinyCoreLinux Team. I try regularly what's in here new or old distros. I'm surprised why this distrois not given the light that deserves!...
regards
19 • RE: 16 (by Roger M on 2018-09-24 10:34:05 GMT from Belgium)
(off-topic)
20 • Political correctness (by Microlinux on 2018-09-24 10:55:13 GMT from Austria)
Linus, come back! Send Lennart to the shrink instead!
21 • Bodhi Linux 5.0 (by Niyas C on 2018-09-24 11:47:14 GMT from India)
Recently, I tried Bodhi Linux 5.0 to try some screenshots. As mentioned in the review, I was not able to connect with a Wireless network inside Bodhi Linux. :(.
22 • Security (by MikeOh Shark on 2018-09-24 12:57:16 GMT from United States)
I understand why some people may run an older non-supported version of Linux. My old version had removed samba and mono and had all internet facing apps in firejails. It had a pretty tight iptables/ip6tables rule set. My feeling, while it may be wrong, was that it was at least as secure as Windows.
I have recently moved to a newer LTS version. When support runs out, it takes awhile to set up a new version and get it the way you want. In my case, the changes (e.g. systemd, Firefox (and it's plugin architecture), default settings, firejail profiles) take awhile to learn and reconfigure.
I mostly use the new LTS version of Mint now but I still have to fight systemd so I can get DNSCrypt and dnsmasq working as in the old version.
23 • @2 John Bee: (by dragonmouth on 2018-09-24 13:48:53 GMT from United States)
"Elive developers are now realising they either start again and build Elive upon Debian 9"
At the pace these people work, by the time they deliver an Elive version based on Debian 9, Debian Stable will be up to version 11 or 12 and Elive will be out of date and obsolete before it even hits the market. The developers either have to speed up their pace of development or admit that they don't have the ability to create a modern/current distro. IMO, they should take a lesson from the other erstwhile developers, forget about Elive and quietly walk off into the sunset.
24 • bodhi (by pin on 2018-09-24 14:44:45 GMT from Sweden)
Bodhi is not for me, but my six year old daughter is running bodhi 5 and connecting through wifi without any issues.
As for tap-to-click just install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics, reboot et voilà!
25 • Elive DOA (by maconulaff on 2018-09-24 14:50:07 GMT from United States)
I was a user of Elive prior to paywall days. It kept falling out of date so badly back then that I abandoned it. I saw their recent announcements, visited the website, looked at packages and just shook my head sadly. Elive truly was a beautiful desktop OS at one point in time. But slow/no updates killed it back then for me. And this new one is already dead on arrival.
I agree that the fact that they release as "new and an ideal solution" a product based on end-of-life'd products is near negligent and is irresponsible IMHO.
For users of older computers, there are much better options that are based on current and secure repositories.
26 • @16 (by Hooten on 2018-09-24 16:33:14 GMT from Norway)
That's their "thing". They jump around every 3 months and destroy communities with their ugly methods.There was metalgate, gamergate...etc Now it's Linuxgate. Wisest thing to do is just to ignore them, but Linus just left and new CoC (it's actually a textbook of "how to be nice" for children) was adopted. Sad times for the Linux communities.
27 • @16, @26, @5 (by kaydn on 2018-09-24 17:23:47 GMT from France)
Sad times for the Linux communities indeed. Let's look at the hard facts: Linus Torvalds The FOUNDER ox Linux is forced to step down by some "things"!!! (most of them don't like to be considered human man or female)
@5 "Bill Gates... Steve Jobs... Linus Torvalds... are individuals that simply do not function well around/with other people... I know. I'm one of THEM."
Really? What fundamental thing have you invented? Huh?
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs & Linus Torvalds are the genius without whom we will use use latter, telegrams and landlines telephones to communicate.
For civilization advancement, these three (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs & Linus Torvalds) are indispensable.
LGBT communities, feminists or other minorities... not so much.
But, looks like Linux Foundation doesn't think so. I wonder way?
28 • @27 (by Hooten on 2018-09-24 17:48:13 GMT from Norway)
Take the example of FreeBSD. They adopted the new CoC and now this happened.
https://vez.mrsk.me/freebsd-defaults.txt
Security felt even behind Windows, while they consume their time about feelings at work.
29 • Bye Bye Linux (by david esktorp on 2018-09-24 18:24:43 GMT from United States)
This is the coup de grace, folks. Steam is fully entrenched, with Wine now fully up its rear-end. Following this 'development' there are now rafts of fresh Lindows refugees declaring that only now have they gallantly decided to stop dual-booting; as if Linux isn't good enough without Windows compatibility.
They have us trapped in perpetual triage-mode, trying to keep their cancerous 'improvements' at bay. Jack development has to tip-toe around Pulseaudio (and Bless the Gentlemen who have continued that effort) and people who are actively trying to resist systemd are practically being kicked out of their home town while foreigners laugh at them from the windows of their own captured homes.
Either Linux has been hijacked or it was always meant to be a bait & switch. I'm leaning toward the latter, because Linus has always fed in to the negative aspects of the greater 'GNU/Linux' sphere. He always seems to be dog whistling about open source, but then high fiving his corporate masters all the while. And now he publicly kowtows to a bunch of emocoms. I knew he was eventually gonna put that Greg shill in charge. Absolutely disgusting. His primary mission is diversity and getting mo' wimmenz to submit patches. What a horrible joke this has become.
RIP Linux
30 • Elive was always scammy (by Knut on 2018-09-24 19:28:27 GMT from Germany)
For those of you who have not had a closer look at Elive in older days (it has been hinted at in @6.
Elive always claimed to be free and the developer could get unfriendly to anyone claiming otherwise, but his version of free was:
A free download of the live image, but once you try to install it, you needed to make a "donation" or give a positive review to get access to the installer.
This is scammy behavior that should not be supported. There are a lot of good lightweight distributions out there that still support 32 bit system, but with current software. Some of them have been mentioned before.
The one single thing that made Elive interesting in the past was that this was the only distro that came with a nicely configured Enlightenment desktop. Now Bodhi and Manjaro (in the community edition with E20) offer nice and usable alternatives.
31 • @29 bye bye linux (by nano-me on 2018-09-24 20:42:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
@29 bye bye linux: do you mean Greg Kroah-Hartman (GKH)? I trust that Linus has only temporarilly "left the building", and that GKH has been left with instructions not to burn the house down while he is away. There ARE non-systemd distros out there: I use Void and Devuan, but there are many others, each with their own qualities [Slackware, Slitaz, Tiny Core Linux, PCLinuxOS, etc]. I personally dislike the way Linux has grown like Topsy, but its success natural attracts the attentions of big business and all that follows. I hope that I live long enough to see operating systems based on RedoxOS, Minix3, seL4 become as useful as Linux [but I doubt it].
32 • Debian Wheezy/Elive 3.0.0 (by cba on 2018-09-24 21:07:08 GMT from Germany)
Although Debian Wheezy is currently out of Debian support there is still Freexian's freely available ELTS-Support which supports a subset of packages of the old Wheezy distribution. These packages are freely downloadable at no cost and provided by Freexian's sponsors who pay for them. You can read about this project here: https://deb.freexian.com/extended-lts/.
What you cannot get anymore in form of deb packages is very important internet software like a current firefox or thunderbird. But provided that you have a SSE2-capable CPU in your computer, you can download the current 60.x-ESR releases of firefox and thunderbird from mozilla.org and use them with Wheezy. And there is still 52.x-ESR-based Seamonkey 2.49.x which will get backported 60.x-ESR fixes.
But this is nothing for newbies. One example: Sometimes Freexian publishes only 64bit packages as an update (maybe because the sponsor did not pay for 32bit packages?) so that you have to rebuild the packages for the 32bit platform. This is easy in Debian, but you have to know how to do it, of course. If you want to learn how to survive with a Debian desktop system on your own (with help from Freexian), then old Wheezy might be worth a try.
I still use Debian Wheezy on a very old machine with an old Matrox G200 card, because Wheezy was the last release to provide XXA acceleration within Xorg. But I build Wheezy packages on a more modern, over 5 years old quadcore system with a AMD 760G chipset on which Wheezy works flawlessly as well as Jessie, Stretch, CentOS 7, OpenSuse 15 or Ubuntu 18.04. So there is hardly a use case for such an old distribution on a 5 to 10 years old desktop computer.
Apparently all this is not known when someone downloads Elive 3.0.0. So Jessie is absolutely right in not recommending this nice Enlightenment distribution in this regard.
33 • security updates (by ricky thomson on 2018-09-24 21:32:02 GMT from Netherlands)
Rule of thumb, is that if you're connecting your machine to a network, you need security updates. I am perfectly fine with running out of date software locally, but only in the case that said machine is never plugged into the network. As soon as you have the potential for other devices to interact with it, you're just asking to be pwned.
Please, if you're connecting something to a network, whether it's your home router, or a public wifi access point, make sure you update your system at least every few days.
34 • Updates (by Steve L on 2018-09-24 18:23:02 GMT from United States)
Answered that I want and get updates... but that isn't entirely true.
My PCLinuxOS desktop and FreeBSD server do get regular updates (manually, so I control what happens when).
I also manually update my ancient laptop, running TinyCore, when ever I turn it on... but then it came with win98 originally.
On the other hand, my win7 desktop hasn't seen an update in a very long time. I used to update it manually but finally tired of ferreting out all the attempts by M$ to secretively insert win10 on my system and all those telemetry tools they also attempted to sneak in with various security and system updates. So I turned off updates before they took control of that away from me. Not that I ever allowed automatic updates, but I didn't even want the notification process anymore, just in case they found a way to subvert that as well. Yah, I'm paranoid much... but let's face it, M$ doesn't exactly leave a thinking user believing they are actually out to help us, just themselves.
But then, like most of us that frequent DistroWatch, I also like to think I'm not your average user and try to be very security conscious about my network activity. For example, I refuse to have that virus called systemd on my systems, so I really do care about security. I setup my own network firewall between the cable modem and my internal network. I won't run my browser (Palemoon) without, at least, ublock and noscript installed and active. Even on sites I trust (somewhat) I only allow content from the minimum number of sources to make the pages work (well enough). And I only click on links I see the actual URL to, no blind or random clicking by this guy. Also, my email arrives at the inbox (FossaMail) as text only, no html is allowed unless I manually opt to allow it. I do update my network facing applications (those that still get updates) on a regular basis and even some of the others once in a while, but only after reviewing the release notes. I don't need or use a "smart" phone and the only things I deliberately put in the "cloud" are the websites I support and I keep my sites simple, no javascript allowed. I POP my email so it (hopefully) doesn't stay in the "cloud". I keep everything local, where I can control access and backups. Ain't I just the Luddite...
Security isn't just fancy software, it absolutely requires self-discipline and due caution. When you get causal or complacent, you get clobbered. AND, sometimes, the updates are the source of the security breach, so be careful what you download and install... I try to be.
I was going to say that's just my two cents worth, but I appear to have gotten carried away, so it's just my twenty-five cents worth. I'm sure some won't agree with my take, but these are my opinions and just because someone else may think them wrong, that doesn't mean they are... they are certainly right for me
35 • Running operating systems that no longer receive security updates (by jaws222 on 2018-09-24 22:35:56 GMT from United States)
I have a version of Windows XP in a Virtualbox (off the network). I use it because I have an old Yepp player that's still kicking and XP is the only way I can load music on it.
36 • Bodhi (by Arghalhuas on 2018-09-25 05:02:18 GMT from Spain)
I haven't have the chance to try Bodhi 5.0 yet. But Bodhi 4.5 is one of the best distros out there. It has replaced Lubuntu in all my notebooks. I find Moksha lean and straightforward. A pretty classic desktop in fact.
37 • elive (by alotov on 2018-09-25 11:00:54 GMT from Russia)
I went through the process of downloading elive - and what a process, I had to wait for 48 hours for the link. Try the torrent and you will be downloading about 6 gig - not that there appears to be seeders anyway. I have it installed, but somehow I doubt I will be using it. Its way to complex in adjusting settings for my liking. I tried going through the normal setup process that is to start by installing squid, privoxy, and tor; but could not get squid to work. I am now thinking of replacing with pclinuxos or even bodhi.
38 • Linus & Bad Attitudes (by M.Z. on 2018-09-25 18:46:30 GMT from United States)
Those bringing up SJW & LGBT stuff seem to be doing more to invent enemies & problems than the ones they pretend are causing issues. Also @27 have you ever heard anything about Alan Turing? Perhaps you should get a better foundation in how many different people moved the world forward before calling large groups of them useless compared to a handful?
------
More directly on Linus, he's always been a bit abrasive & he admits it. According to the link in DW he seems to have some other issues also going on:
"So here we are, me finally on the one hand realizing that it wasn't
actually funny or a good sign that I was hoping to just skip the
yearly kernel summit entirely, and on the other hand realizing that I
really had been ignoring some fairly deep-seated feelings in the
community."
I'm hoping he can figure out how to manage things better, resolve other issues, & get back to doing great stuff.
39 • Lightweight Elive alternatives (by Jason Hsu on 2018-09-25 23:27:35 GMT from United States)
If I were a distro hopper, I'd skip Elive based on the review. For a Debian Stable user, Debian Wheezy (what the "current" version of Elive is based on) is 2 versions ago. For a Debian Testing user, Debian Wheezy is 3 versions ago.
If you want a lightweight Debian-based distro, use SparkyLinux, MX Linux, or antiX Linux. SparkyLinux is my favorite. When Debian Stretch became Debian Stable, SparkyLinux made a new release based on it after just 5 days, compared to several months for MX/antiX Linux. (To be fair, SparkyLinux has the unfair advantage of providing releases based on Debian Testing. By the time a Debian branch is released as Debian Stable, the SparkyLinux team already knows it well.) MX Linux is very popular - #5 on DistroWatch and soon to eclipse Ubuntu for the #4 spot. Given that MX Linux is a premium version of antiX Linux, antiX Linux is even lighter and faster.
Other lightweight distros to try are Puppy Linux, SliTaz Linux (even lighter than Puppy), and TinyCore Linux (even lighter than SliTaz).
In my opinion, all of these distros set the benchmarks against which all other lightweight distros should be judged. For that matter, I like SparkyLinux so much that I regard it as the benchmark against which all other distros should be judged.
40 • @27, @16, @26, @5, @28, @29 (by edcoolio on 2018-09-26 07:11:01 GMT from United States)
I think you all have a lot of spot-on analysis and commentary on what is really happening behind the scenes.
He is likely being railroaded by large corporations that are encouraging and weaponizing special interest groups in order to exert greater control over the valuable commodity that is linux.
Linus is an easy target. He is abrasive, does not refer to himself as "they" or "non-binary", has a family, and is not a member of any current protected class. The situation is most unfortunate for Linux as a whole, and computing freedom in general.
As for others commenting on the issue, I suspect you may be part of the problem in not recognizing what exactly is happening here. Perhaps another reading of his forced statement with a financial ax to his head may jar something loose.
--------------
BODHI:
I am a long time user of Bodhi on older 32bit equipment and I have to say that it is by far the smoothest experience for those older non-PAE processors. Having tested it, the WiFi works perfectly.
Having said this, I'm using Intel WiFi. I remember a while back attempting to use it with a Broadcom card and it was a hassle. I guess you can say that about Broadcom in general, but I'm just throwing that out there.
Realtek typically has good support, so I have to admit that was a bit of a surprise.
Regardless, I really enjoyed the review and appreciate the time it took to complete. Thanks!
41 • @39 and all the others in need for a "Light" distro (by frisbee on 2018-09-26 13:43:05 GMT from Switzerland)
"If you want a lightweight Debian-based distro, use ... MX Linux, or AntiX Linux."
This is something like saying: "If you wanna get a cheap car, get a Model ... Model B (20'000 $) or Model C (120'000 $)". Cheap it is, the second one ... there are some models past 1'000'000 $ (like Gnome 3).
MX 17.1 Linux is a very fine distro. Probably one of two best "Noob" distros at all (the other being LMDE -Mint Debian), but ...
People tend to repeat something they've read somewhere on internet, without personally trying it, on some real, really weak HW. It needs more then trying it in a VM to say: "Model xyz is Light".
Also, people tend to forget that a DE is much more (== background services!) then just DE, meaning: XFCE is not XFCE.
Example: XFCE in MX needs approx. 500 MB RAM, even more in Manjaro and it needs only 250 MB RAM in Salix.
If you take AntiX 17.1 with iceWM, it will use approx. 75 MB RAM right after the start. On MX, it'll take over 200 MB.
And then ... The real problem is usually not even the amount of RAM but the processor itself (Nokia Booklet 3g is a perfect example here). No matter how slow you type, your PC will always make you wait until it shows the next letter. ;)
Less RAM usage doesn't make OS/PC more responsive!
Just compare Salix 14.2 XFCE and MX-17.1 XFCE yourself, on the same weak HW for a proof.
All that said, you are comparing AntiX vs. MX (approx. 75 vs. 500 MB RAM) and call them both "Light" ("heavy" Plasma on kUbuntu or Neon uses approx. 400 MB RAM!)?
As I already said, if you want light, "old school" GUI, there's AntiX.
If you want light, "more modern" GUI, there's Salix.
For light, "modern" GUI, there's Neon.
And no, you don't really have the choice, you can't choose "based on Debian, based on xyz..." when it comes to "Light". Those above are the lightest usable distros in their class.
If you want more choice, then you need a HW for it.
42 • Stop the Death Star! ... or Mega Maid? (by M.Z. on 2018-09-26 16:18:05 GMT from United States)
@42 & 43
Yep. Definitely an evil intergalactic conspiracy. I mean how could a guy who has done awesome things be anything but above reproach, regardless of what he has said in some mailing list? I think we should all remember that some people are above reproach & laws, because nothing ever goes wrong when the right people are unquestionably assumed to be correct, right?
The real question to me is whether the conspiracy to halt Linux development is about the Death Star, or is it about Mega Maid? Quick, someone find a flying Winnebago just in case! We need ludicrous speed now!
43 • Security updates (by Jay on 2018-09-26 20:06:56 GMT from Belgium)
I still use one old Compaq laptop that is running Mint 9 Isadora, I am not worried for any risks because I don't use it for anything private.
It's just an easy laptop to use with Fluxbox desktop.
All other PC's running Mint 18.3 and 19 with Mate are updated at least once a week, mostly more.
44 • Security updates @43 (by pengxuin on 2018-09-27 00:26:09 GMT from New Zealand)
Thats fine, no worries then about your private data.
However, if it is connected to that interweb-net-thingy(TM), how do you feel about being part of a botnet, given that "Isadora" has now been End Of Life since April 2013, and is unlikely to have received any updates, security or otherwise, since then?
45 • updatesschmupdates (by stevethesecuritysieve on 2018-09-27 02:41:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
Running live usb`s no HDD`s on 2006 era creaking hardware. Botnets not a problem here.
46 • Torvalds Just Clarified His Position (by on 2018-09-27 23:10:19 GMT from Canada)
Torvalds just sent a long email to the BBC, explaining his recent decisions. Quote:
"Because I may have my reservations about excessive political correctness, but honestly, I absolutely do not want to be seen as being in the same camp as the low-life scum on the internet that think it's OK to be a white nationalist Nazi, and have some truly nasty misogynistic, homophobic or transphobic behaviour. And those people were complaining about too much political correctness too, and in the process just making my public stance look bad."
"And don't get me wrong, please - I'm not making excuses for some of my own rather strong language. But I do claim that it never ever was any of that kind of nastiness. I got upset with bad code, and people who made excuses for it, and used some pretty strong language in the process. Not good behaviour, but not the racist/etc claptrap some people spout."
I'm kind of wondering if a lot of the people making a fuss on this thread an on other sites are actually kernel contributors or just wandering alt-right people who don't use Linux, because I've been watching kernel development for over a decade, and I've never observed the kind of extreme racism/sexism/homophobia that "kernal developers" are now defending left and right.
47 • Torvalds Just Clarified His Position (by on 2018-09-27 23:10:19 GMT from Canada)
Torvalds just sent a long email to the BBC, explaining his recent decisions. Quote:
"Because I may have my reservations about excessive political correctness, but honestly, I absolutely do not want to be seen as being in the same camp as the low-life scum on the internet that think it's OK to be a white nationalist Nazi, and have some truly nasty misogynistic, homophobic or transphobic behaviour. And those people were complaining about too much political correctness too, and in the process just making my public stance look bad."
"And don't get me wrong, please - I'm not making excuses for some of my own rather strong language. But I do claim that it never ever was any of that kind of nastiness. I got upset with bad code, and people who made excuses for it, and used some pretty strong language in the process. Not good behaviour, but not the racist/etc claptrap some people spout."
I'm kind of wondering if a lot of the people making a fuss on this thread an on other sites are actually kernel contributors or just wandering alt-right people who don't use Linux, because I've been watching kernel development for over a decade, and I've never observed the kind of extreme racism/sexism/homophobia that "kernal developers" are now defending left and right.
48 • Linus growing (by Jaslar on 2018-09-28 00:30:21 GMT from United States)
11 and 38: kudos to a brilliant coder and driver of change who seems to have grown enough self-reflection and emotional intelligence to be willing to learn something about himself and how to be in the world. Code has versions. Why not people?
49 • Fine! (by Name on 2018-09-28 03:32:26 GMT from United States)
Just the way I like to think of Linux. Glad I never gave money!
50 • Anti-White corporate/SJW ethos will be the death of us. (by JimMcv on 2018-09-28 04:36:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
Linus seems to have conveniently forgotten that the global majority non-Whites (who are btw keen nationalists wherever they "happen" to find themselves in the world!) are allowed to have the same traditional views as their forefathers, no questions asked. Disgraceful conduct.
51 • XFCE RAM : Post # 41 (by Winchester on 2018-09-28 13:00:30 GMT from United States)
XFCE uses about 225 to 230 MB of RAM with Alpine Linux upon start up.
XFCE with Void Linux upon start up is at 255 to 265 MB of RAM.
52 • Opinion poll ponderables (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2018-09-29 08:04:45 GMT from United States)
What would you think of a steady stream of unexplained unannounced "security" updates that consistently break things?
What would be a preferred target of malware?
53 • @52 (by Lin on 2018-09-29 09:00:30 GMT from United States)
"What would you think of a steady stream of unexplained unannounced "security" updates that consistently break things?"
Depends on what distro you use.
54 • @51 (by frisbee on 2018-09-29 10:49:36 GMT from Switzerland)
It´s truth but - WTF is Void?
I rely on known working.
The rest - aVoid. ;)
I don´t wan´t to rely on something done by 1 person or something eopkg, xbps ...
If AntiX or Salix developers stop their work tommorow, you continue with vanilla Debian & Slackware since the products are 100% compatible. Not so with Solus, Void and some.
Number of Comments: 54
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| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
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clusterKNOPPIX was a modified KNOPPIX distribution using the openMosix kernel. Features: openMosix terminal server - uses PXE, DHCP and TFTP to boot Linux clients via the network; no CD-ROM drive, hard disk or floppy disk needed for the clients openMosix auto-discovery - new nodes automatically join the cluster (no configuration needed); cluster management tools; every node has root access to every other node via SSH and RSA keys; every node can run full-blown X or console only.
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