 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 795, 24 December 2018 |
Welcome to this year's 52nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Many common devices, particularly mobile phones and tablets, run on ARM processors. These low-power CPUs are ideal for situations where people want their devices to run at low temperatures or on battery. It is still relatively rare to see ARM-powered desktop or laptop computers where people tend to favour performance over energy efficiency, but that may be changing. The Pinebook is an ARM-powered laptop which ships with the KDE neon distribution pre-installed. This week Ladislav Bodnar takes the Pinebook for a spin and reports on how well it performs while running a variety of operating systems. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss disk partitioning and the pros and cons of certain disk layouts. In our News section we link to a discussion with the founder of Bedrock Linux, a meta distribution which mixes components from many other projects. Plus we share updates on the development of the Librem 5 open source phone, and talk about FreeBSD rebasing their ZFS implementation on the Linux port of ZFS. Plus we link to steps being taken to port Alpine Linux to the RISC-V architecture and report on Lubuntu dropping support for 32-bit machines. We are also pleased to share the releases of the past week and link to the torrents we are seeding. Next Monday we will be on holiday, and DistroWatch Weekly will return on January 7th 2019. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: First impressions of Pinebook, the $99 Linux laptop
- News: Questions and answers with Bedrock developer, Librem 5 development kits shipped, FreeBSD to use ZFS on Linux code base, Alpine being ported to RISC-V, Lubuntu dropping 32-bit support
- Questions and answers: Separate /home partition and dual booting performance
- Released last week: Linux Mint 19.1, MX Linux 18, NethServer 7.6, SparkyLinux 5.6, HardenedBSD 12-120058
- Torrent corner: Alpine, ArchLabs, FreeBSD, Mint, MX, KDE neon, NethServer, NuTyX, Peppermint, SparkyLinux
- Upcoming releases: UBports 16.04 OTA-7
- Opinion poll: Running a Pinebook
- New distributions: Onix OS, NEMS, Tux Linux
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (26MB) and MP3 (20MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
First impressions of Pinebook, the $99 Linux laptop
Introduction
 When I first heard about the Pinebook back in April 2017, I became very excited. I am always on the lookout for a good travel laptop, something that is small (less than 12 inches in screen size), light (not much more than 1 kg), thin and inexpensive. Although there are many nice notebooks that would meet most of the above criteria, they all have one big flaw on the software side of things - they come with Windows pre-installed. The last time I used Windows was in early 2001 and I have no desire to return to that estranged companion with which I'd never had a very good relationship anyway. As such, I don't see a point in paying a hefty license fee for a product I will not use. This disqualifies all computers built by the established manufacturers as they are extremely careful not to irritate the software giant by shipping Linux (quelle horreur!) on their machines.
So what about the specialist Linux laptops assembled by the likes of System76 or Slimbook, you might ask. Well, these have certainly been on my radar for some time, but unfortunately neither of them offers a sub-12" laptop configuration at present. One reasonable compromise would be a Chromebook which is light and cheap and which doesn't come with Windows. However, I've always found Google's implementation of Linux on these machines severely limiting, even in developer's mode (although I hear the more recent Chromebooks with the ability to add Android apps are much more versatile). Installing Linux alongside Google Chrome OS or booting a full-featured Linux distribution from an SD card would be a decent option, but still not ideal. So once the news about Pine64 developing a low-cost, 11.6-inch Linux laptop started circulating on popular tech websites, I became very interested.
Ordering and shipping
Back in April last year, the Pinebook was still just a concept. One could leave an email address on the project's website to show interest and then wait for further news. As months went past with no further news, I almost forgot about the whole thing. Then all of a sudden, on September 6th, 2018, an email from the company announced that the 11.6-inch Pinebook was about to start shipping and if I were still interested, I was welcome to place an order. I did that straight away, expecting to have a shiny new Linux notebook in my possession within a week or so. Unfortunately, that was too optimistic. Further six weeks passed before I heard from Pine64 again - the laptops would start shipping at the end of October, the message said. This once again proved inaccurate as there were further delays, but the Chinese-made product was eventually dispatched to my address from Hong Kong on November 16th via FedEx and, following another delay at the customs, I finally received my much awaited Pinebook on November 24th.
The box contained the laptop packed in a plastic casing, a power adapter, a set of Pine64 stickers and a letter addressed to "Dear Piner", informing me about an interesting change in my Pinebook's hardware configuration - a screen upgrade from the original 1366x768 pixel resolution to an IPS monitor supporting a 1920x1080 pixel resolution. This came at no extra cost to me, but the Pinebook's website already reflected the change with a slight price increase - from US$89 to US$99. Otherwise the laptop came in its default configuration. In any case, the ordering process did not provide any customisation options other than giving a choice between a US or European AC power plug. I imagine it would be possible, for example, to replace the standard 16GB eMMC module with a higher capacity one, but any such request would have to be made via email. As I was eager to lay my hands on the Pinebook as soon as possible, I didn't want to enter into any such communication and potentially delay the shipment.
First boot
I had not read any Pinebook reviews prior to receiving the laptop, so I did not know what to expect from this ultra-cheap computer. All I remembered from the day when I ordered the product was that it would come with a "Linux distro" or Android, but once again, no specific choice was given during the ordering process. So my new Pinebook was a little like a box of chocolates - I had no idea what I'd find inside. After plugging it in and pressing the power button, I found my eyes eagerly glued to the black screen with curiosity and anticipation, wondering what distribution and desktop I was about to see in a moment or two. After all that waiting, the first hint of what was to come finally appeared on the screen and, to my great surprise, it was the logo of KDE Plasma!
This I found rather unexpected. After all, I was booting an extremely low-cost and underpowered computer and yet it came with the heaviest of all Linux desktop environments? On the other hand, I was also pleased. KDE has been my preferred desktop since I started playing with Linux nearly 20 years ago and it has powered all of my workstations over the years. It also gave me hope that this machine was no laggard after all, despite the ultra-low price tag. As it turned out, the distribution that shipped on the Pinebook's eMMC module was KDE neon, in its live format. As many of our readers will know, KDE neon is developed by prominent KDE developer Johnathan Riddell; it is based on Ubuntu's current LTS release, but it is frequently updated to include the very latest Plasma desktop, KDE Applications and associated libraries. In other words, KDE neon has a rock-solid, well-tested base with a cutting-edge desktop.
A surprising choice - KDE neon is the distribution shipping on the Pinebook
(full image size: 1,122kB, screen resolution 1920x1080 pixels)
I didn't even know KDE neon produced a build for the ARM architecture and there is certainly no mention of it on the project's download page. You have to do some digging through the distribution's repository to find a directory called pinebook-remix-nonfree. Although the current build is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and it includes the latest KDE Plasma, it booted into a severely outdated and unsupported Linux kernel, version 3.10.105. This is apparently due to several binary blobs that are needed to support some of the laptop's hardware (hence the reason for the "nonfree" word in the above-mentioned directory name), but the good news is that starting with version 4.19, the mainline Linux kernel should have built-in support for the Pinebook. I proceeded with the installation which went without a hitch, then rebooted the computer. The update utility in the system tray informed me that there were over 400 new updates available and I installed those too.
Hardware
Detailed hardware specifications are listed on the manufacturer's website, so I won't repeat them here, but it's worth mentioning the processor which is a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53. This architecture is often referred to as AArch64 or ARM64. The laptop has 2GB of RAM which is not upgradeable. By contrast, the 16GB internal eMMC module is user replaceable and the company's online store sells 32GB and 64GB modules for US$25 and US$35 respectively. The laptop can boot either from the eMMC module or from the microSD card inserted into the microSD card slot. It goes without saying that the performance of any operating system installed on the eMMC module should be superior to the one booted from the SD card (provided all other variables are equal), but the latter is great for testing operating systems without having to flash the eMMC drive. As far as I know, it is not possible to install more than one distribution on the eMMC and then dual or triple boot them.
I've already mentioned the upgraded IPS screen which was a pleasant surprise, but using a 1920x1080 pixel resolution on a 11.6-inch monitor is bound to give lots of strain to those of us who no longer have young eyes and perfect eyesight. Fortunately, KDE provides an easy way to scale the desktop (in the "Display" dialog) and to increase the size of the bottom panel. The Pinebook comes with a mini-HDMI port, so theoretically it should be possible to connect the laptop to an external monitor. Unfortunately, I can confirm the many user reports on the product's forums - the mini-HDMI port simply does not work in KDE neon (although it worked in some other distributions I tried later). So there it is, a first major bug. The WiFi worked well though and I was able to connect to my router without any issues. To test the video acceleration, I fired up Firefox and went to YouTube - only to be disappointed by the video playback that kept skipping frames. Don't expect much from the built-in speaker either, but the laptop does have an audio port for connecting external speakers or headphones. So the Pinebook is definitely not a multimedia or gaming machine, as one would suspect.
I found the keyboard on the Pinebook disappointing. Some useful characters often used on the command line are accessible via a rather cumbersome key combination; as an example, the "pipe" (|) character is evoked by holding down both the Fn and Shift keys, plus the pipe key. Ditto for the "quotation mark" (") character. There is another key with the pipe character on it, but it is placed on the right of left Shift key, which is an unusual position and worse, it maps by default to the "greater than" (>) character (the fix is to change the keyboard layout to "US, international AltGr Unicode combining, alternative" to make it work as expected). The design of the two Shift keys is bad as well, especially the right one which is a very narrow button at the extreme right of the keyboard. I am not sure I'll ever be able to get used to this. I compared the Pinebook's keyboard with the one on the Acer One 10.1-inch netbook, but despite the latter computer's smaller size, it comes with more keys and also normal wide Shift keys. Of course, the keys on the Acer netbook are smaller and the spacing between them is narrower, but I am quite sure my fingers would be much more productive there than they will ever be on the Pinebook.
The keyboard layout on the 11.6-inch Pinebook
(full image size: 960kB, screen resolution 1024x815 pixels)
If the keyboard was less than ideal, I thought the touchpad was even worse, at least initially. It actually identifies itself as a "USB mouse" so the usual touchpad configuration options are not available. It emulates the mouse depending on the location of the click - you need to click on the relevant side of the touchpad to invoke a left/right click, but if you click somewhere in the middle, the click won't always register. Tapping works fine though and I found that emulating the left mouse click is easier with a single tap, anywhere on the touchpad. Emulating the right mouse click with a two-finger tap is a hit and miss and the same goes for a two-finger click. Scrolling with two fingers on the Pinebook is not always easy either - if you don't hold your two fingers in a perfect horizontal position then you might accidentally invoke the zoom function instead of a scroll. Perhaps this is why the Firefox browser in KDE neon came with the zoom function disabled by default. Reversing the scroll by selecting that option in KDE's mouse configuration dialog did not work (although there is a workaround using xinput set-prop 8 "Evdev Scrolling Distance" -1 1 1). Still, I could probably get used to the trackpad's anomalies easier than to the quirky keyboard layout. I also tried a USB mouse which worked out of the box.
Another major bug on the Pinebook is related to screen locking after which the laptop is (sometimes, but not always) unable to resume, presenting an unresponsive black screen instead. The simplest workaround is to disable the screen lock, both when resuming from sleep and after a pre-set period of time. This is a known issue that will likely be resolved by a software update in the future. On the positive side, the presence of an ARM processor means impressive battery life. To test it, I unplugged the computer and let it idle without allowing it to go to sleep, only doing occasional web browsing, and it took nearly 20 hours to completely drain the battery! Even with heavy continuous work the battery can easily last 8 hours or more. Recharging it back to 100% took around five hours. The laptop is powered with a 5V DC charger.
Software
As I've mentioned already, the Pinebook ships with KDE neon, which means the latest stable version of KDE Plasma as the default desktop (and regular 100+ package updates every time a new version of Plasma is released). The default installation comes with the latest Firefox browser, LibreOffice 6.0.6, VLC media player 3.0.3, Gwenview, Okular, Kamoso (for using the built-in camera) and a handful of other useful utilities. The distribution's APT software management tool points to ports.ubuntu.com (besides KDE neon's own repository) which provides a substantial range of additional software available for installation, including the likes of Chromium or GIMP. Needless to say, non-free and proprietary software (e.g. the Vivaldi browser) won't work on the Pinebook as most companies developing these applications don't usually provide binary packages for the ARM architecture.
KDE neon is not the only distribution that works on the Pinebook, however. A number of other projects have also started building specialist images for this laptop and the choices are bound to increase significantly in the coming months. The easiest way to try another distribution is to install it on a microSD card, then boot it up after inserting it to the microSD port. The laptop's boot order is "microSD, eMMC" and there is no way to change this, so it will only boot from the eMMC module if there is no microSD card present. Probably the simplest way to create a bootable SD card is by using the Pine64 Installer (a fork of Etcher) which is a user-friendly graphical utility available for Linux (AppImage format), macOS and Windows. After launching it, you'll need to select your Pine64 board, then decide which of the presented operating systems you wish to transfer onto the SD card. The tool will then proceed with downloading the image, transferring it to the card and verifying the integrity of the transferred image. You can also work with an image downloaded separately and stored on the hard disk. Of course, you can always use the good old dd command for this purpose as well.
Pine64 Installer - a user-friendly tool for flashing SD cards with bootable images
(full image size: 1,122kB, screen resolution 1158x683 pixels)
If you wish to install a distribution onto the eMMC module, the process is a little more involved. Once again, the Pine64 Installer comes handy, as it offers several special images that can be transferred to a microSD card, booted up and installed to the internal storage (after answering "yes" to a dialog that asks whether you'd like to install the distribution to the eMMC module). At the time of writing the Pine64 Installer provided three images that could be installed to the eMMC module in this way - the one built by the KDE neon team, a stock Android 6.0 image and an image created by the AOSC Linux community (which uses the MATE desktop). Alternatively, it is also possible to dd an image directly to the eMMC. The Pine64 documentation talks about a preferred way of doing this which involves taking out the controller and using an eMMC-to-USB adapter available from the Pine64 Store.
That document was probably written for users of one the Pine64 development boards where removing the eMMC module is a simple process. With the Pinebook, this is much less practical as it requires unscrewing ten tiny screws at the bottom of the laptop, removing the bottom cover, detaching the stencil that covers the eMMC module and taking out the controller itself - I did it once (to replace the 16GB module with a 64GB one) and while it's not as hard as it sounds, it's not something I want to do too often. It seemed to me that an easier way of getting an image onto the eMMC module would be booting up a distribution installed on a microSD card, downloading a Pinebook image, then using the dd command to transfer that image to the eMMC module. After all, eMMC is just another Flash drive, so it should work. I proceeded to try this method by using "dd if=image-for-pinebook.img of=/dev/mmcblk2" to transfer the image to the eMMC module. This worked great and, after rebooting, I found myself in a brand new distribution (which replaced the original KDE neon on the eMMC).
Manjaro Linux with LXQt is one of the distributions built specifically for the Pinebook
(full image size: 638kB, screen resolution 1920x1080 pixels)
In the course of my testing, I tried all of the distributions available through the Pine64 Installer. I started with Arch Linux which provides a standard (if somewhat spartan) Xfce desktop, plus the Firefox browser, then continued with Manjaro's LXQt variant. Both distributions have switched to the 4.19 Linux kernel which, at the time of writing, seemed to work reasonably well, except for one known issue - no sound support on the Pinebook. On the positive side, the Pinebook's mini HDMI port worked with these distributions. I also tried the Debian-based Q4OS which uses the Trinity desktop (a fork of KDE 3) and which should therefore provide a much lighter alternative to Plasma 5 while still retaining KDE's power and ability to customise the user interface. However, Q4OS has decided to stay with the unsupported 3.10 kernel for now. Overall I found Q4OS excellent on the Pinebook; it is noticeably lighter and faster than KDE neon, but it's still very versatile and customisable.
Q4OS 2.6 and its Trinity desktop running on the Pinebook's eMMC module
(full image size: 187kB, screen resolution 1920x1080 pixels)
A somewhat unusual choice among the available operating systems for the Pinebook is Android 6.0. I spent some time investigating this option, but I came to an obvious conclusion - it's very hard to justify running a system designed for handheld devices on a laptop, especially if the laptop in question does not have a touchscreen. That said, there is perhaps one scenario where Android on the Pinebook could be useful - if you need to run an Android application, but don't have any other Android device at hand. As an example, I was able to add Skype to my Android installation and it worked out of the box, including voice and video. So even though Android may not be a particularly suitable operating system for the Pinebook, it might be worth keeping a microSD card with Android on it in case the need arises.
Stock Android 6.0 boots up from the Pinebook's microSD card
(full image size: 400kB, screen resolution 1920x1080 pixels)
For those users who prefer BSD instead of Linux, here is some good news: NetBSD has developed an early image for the Pinebook. As most of you will know, NetBSD is an operating system that specialises in supporting a vast range of processor architectures and computing devices, so it's hardly surprising that they've been quick to provide an image for the Pinebook. The NetBSD image uses the project's current tree and it is highly experimental. After the first boot, the installer will expand the file system on the microSD card before rebooting. The initial system is command-line only, with the BSD kernel at version 8.99.25. Unfortunately, there is no Pinebook-specific manual about configuring the operating system so one would have to rely on NetBSD's generic documentation to get started. Worse, NetBSD did not recognise the wireless network card present in the laptop (the Pinebook does not have a port for wired networking). As such, this early NetBSD Pinebook image is really only suitable for developers and contributors who want to help with filing bug reports.
The last distribution I tested was AOSC OS. AOSC is a community project that develops a surprisingly large number of rolling-release Linux distributions for various architectures and with several different desktop environments. Their Pinebook edition is built around the MATE desktop and it uses the 4.19 Linux kernel (which means no sound). The desktop itself is light and pleasant to use. The menus are sparsely populated, with the only heavy-duty application present by default being Firefox. The APT sources.list file points to the project's own repository which contains additional software, but it is not as extensive as Debian or Ubuntu repositories. Those users who prefer the GNOME way over KDE will likely find this an excellent option. Additionally, the AOSC OS image supports installation to the Pinebook's eMMC module in the Pine64 Installer.
The AOSC OS community provides a Pinebook image which features the MATE desktop
(full image size: 609kB, screen resolution 1920x1080 pixels)
Conclusions
The Pinebook is an exceptional project created by a bunch of enthusiasts whose mission is to build a full-featured laptop while keeping the price tag to an absolute minimum. Clearly, up until this point in time, nobody has ever achieved anything even remotely similar (ignoring the One Laptop Per Child project which builds simple, low-cost laptops for children). At the same time, this is a very young project and, even though the Pinebook is indeed very usable, it is far from perfect. It has several bugs and some will find a few of its design decisions a little odd. The software issues will certainly be eliminated through updates in the future. The hardware bugs will hopefully be gone by the time the next generation ships to eagerly awaiting customers. In any case, if you decide to order a Pinebook after reading this review, chances are you won't receive it for many long months by which time the product will have no doubt undergone various changes.
It is obvious that the Pinebook is a product built "by the geeks, for the geeks". If you are thinking about buying this laptop for your young child or elderly parent, then please don't. It is not designed for them (unless your young son exhibits signs of turning into a Linux hacker or the grandmother in your family spends a great deal of her waking hours on DistroWatch downloading and installing free operating systems). The Pinebook is clearly not a product for people who use computers mostly for entertainment. (On the Pinebook forums you'll already find users trying to sell the thing.) Plus, you'll prevent somebody more suitable from receiving it. But if you are a Linux enthusiast or an open-source software developer and if you feel comfortable on the command line, I'd find it hard to imagine that you won't be totally enamoured with this exceptional product. It's an engineering marvel, even in this early iteration. That it's even possible to build a full-featured laptop costing less than US$100 is nothing short of a miracle.
As far as software is concerned, the laptop ships with KDE neon which some might find a little too heavy, although certainly not unusable. I can see why the company made the decision to choose it as the default distribution - it's developed by a well-known developer who has put a lot of effort into building a system that is functional, if not completely bug-free. (Which is just as well; after all, what self-respecting geek would enjoy a computer system where there is nothing to tinker with because everything "just works"?) However, some users might prefer a lighter and snappier alternative and after trying out several, I had very favourable impressions of both Q4OS (with Trinity) and AOSC (with MATE). The two distributions that use the Pacman package manager, Arch Linux (with Xfce) and Manjaro Linux (with LXQt) were still in the "preview" stages of their respective developments during my testing and they lacked polish. The NetBSD image was not suitable for the end user when I tested it as it failed to detect the wireless network card while Android seemed like an odd choice for a laptop without a touchscreen.
So will the Pinebook be a good travel laptop? I can't answer the question just yet as I haven't hit the road with it, but the truth is that I am not entirely sure. Some of the design choices will, I feel, affect my productivity negatively (especially the keyboard layout) and browsing JavaScript-heavy websites with Firefox can be frustratingly slow. The durability of the product made from low-cost components is also a concern. Then again, I don't need all that much from my travel computer - being able to ssh into a remote server, replying to emails, editing some text files, plus occasionally generating an invoice or doing some light graphics work is all I require. The Pinebook is certainly capable of doing all that, albeit not at the speed of light. But I'll know more after my first trip with the Pinebook when I'll report back. So next time you notice a strange guy sitting in the corner of an airport lounge and using a small white laptop with a Pine64 sticker on it, that will be me. Feel free to come over for a little chat and a demonstration of this remarkable $99 Linux laptop.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
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Questions and answers with Bedrock developer, Librem 5 development kits shipped, FreeBSD to use ZFS on Linux code base, Alpine being ported to RISC-V, Lubuntu dropping 32-bit support
Bedrock Linux is a meta Linux distribution which allows users to utilize features from other, typically mutually exclusive distributions. Essentially, users can mix-and-match components as desired. The meta distribution provides compatibility with CentOS and Ubuntu, and access to Arch Linux's Arch User Repository (AUR). The project's founder has engaged in a question and answer session on Reddit to discuss Bedrock Linux and its merits. When describing the beginnings of Bedrock he writes: "Years and years back I experimented with writing my own sandbox software for Linux, more as a learning exercise than to make something practical. At one point my software was too locked down. I could download a PDF with Firefox, but then Evince couldn't open that PDF, which lead me to work on a way to transparently allow certain interactions while disallowing others. Eventually I had an 'Eureka!' moment that my system would be useful to allow software from different distros to work together without conflicting and changed gears in that direction. I never explicitly set out with this as my goal so much as stumbled upon a working solution having come from a different direction and ran with it."
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Purism has been working towards making and shipping a mobile phone with a GNU/Linux operating system for a while now, and the organization has hit an important milestone. The phone, which is a work in progress, is called the Librem 5 and development kits for people working on the phone's software are shipping. "The Librem 5 dev kit's hardware is done and shipping! We are beyond excited for our backers to receive their dev kits before year-end. Our entire PureOS Librem 5 development team will getting the same dev kits, upgrading the generic i.MX 6 boards (which most of the demos you have seen have been based on) to the Purism i.MX 8M based dev kit. We aim from this point forward to have a community assisted development environment. There is still a lot of work required to make the dev kit truly functional for Librem 5 development, so we need your assistance. The frenetic pace of development continues and it's astonishing how much we've accomplished in the two months since we've put the hardware together." According to the project's update, the Librem 5 is scheduled to ship in approximately four months.
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FreeBSD has been shipping with integrated support for the ZFS advanced file system for several years. The implementation of ZFS the FreeBSD operating system uses is imported from the Illumos project and lightly modified to make it work on FreeBSD. Other ports of ZFS traditionally came from the Illumos implementation too. However, the focus of development has shifted and now the bulk of work being done on ZFS is being done through the ZFS on Linux (ZoL) project. This has led some FreeBSD developers to decide to rebase FreeBSD's ZFS implementation off the Linux port. Matthew Macy explains: "FreeBSD has regularly pulled changes from Illumos and tried to push back any bug fixes and new features done in the context of FreeBSD. In the past few years the vast majority of new development in ZFS has taken place in DelphixOS and ZFS on Linux (ZoL). Earlier this year Delphix announced that they will be moving to ZoL. This shift means that there will be little to no net new development of Illumos. While working through the git history of ZoL I have also discovered that many races and locking bugs have been fixed in ZoL and never made it back to Illumos and thus FreeBSD. This state of affairs has led to a general agreement among the stakeholders that I have spoken to that it makes sense to rebase FreeBSD's ZFS on ZoL. Brian Behlendorf has graciously encouraged me to add FreeBSD support directly to ZoL so that we might all have a single shared code base."
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Alpine Linux is a lightweight distribution featuring the musl C library and a small collection of userland utilities provided by BusyBox. Recently work has been going into porting Alpine Linux to the RISC-V open architecture. Drew DeVault reports: "The first order of business is the cross-compiler. RISC-V support landed in binutils 2.28 and gcc 7.1 several releases ago, so no need to worry about adding a RISC-V target to our compiler. Building both with --target=riscv64-linux-musl is sufficient to complete this step. The other major piece is the C standard library, or libc. Unlike the C compiler, this step required some extra effort on my part - the RISC-V port of musl libc, which Alpine Linux is based on, is a work-in-progress and has not yet been upstreamed." Further details on the steps to get Alpine working on RISC-V is covered in DeVault's blog post.
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The Lubuntu distribution is one of the lighter official flavours of Ubuntu and is often used on older computers. The Lubuntu team has reported that they will no longer support 32-bit computers in future releases of the distribution. "With i386-only machines becoming an artifact of the past, it has become increasingly clear to the Lubuntu Team that we need to evaluate its removal from the architectures we support. After careful consideration, we regret to inform our users that Lubuntu 19.04 and future versions will not see a release for the i386 architecture. Please do note that we will continue to support Lubuntu 18.04 LTS i386 users as first-class citizens until its End of Life date in April of 2021."
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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) |
Separate /home partition and dual booting performance
Two-partitions-or-one asks: I've read that it is a good idea to place the /home folder on a separate partition. Is this always a good idea? What are the pros & cons to putting /home on its own partition?
DistroWatch answers: Putting the /home directory on its own partition, rather than having it share the root partition, is almost always a good plan. Keeping your /home separate means that your user's files and configuration settings are kept separate from the operating system. Having your files and operating system on different partitions is almost always a good idea because it allows you to upgrade or re-install the operating system without affecting your data or settings. Many people also like to keep a separate /home and share it between multiple distributions, which usually works well (though it can introduce some settings conflicts).
There are very few drawbacks to keeping your root partition and /home separate. One potential problem is that you need to set the size of each partition up front, during the install process. If you make one partition too small, it is a hassle to try to resize the partitions later. People who place everything on just one partition have some added flexibility as their data and programs will both fill up the same, large pool of storage space.
Assuming you use separate partitions for your operating system and /home, try to make sure you set aside enough space for both partitions right from the beginning. I recommend putting aside around 20-30GB of space for the root partition, a few gigabytes of space for swap, and give the rest over to your /home partition.
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Planning-to-dual-boot asks: Will dual booting with another distribution slow down my computer?
DistroWatch answers: Your computer will not run slower with a second operating system installed. Your system may take a few extra seconds to start since it should pause at the boot menu to ask you which operating system you want to use. But once the boot process completes either operating system will run at full speed.
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More answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
NethServer 7.6
NethServer is a CentOS-based Linux distribution for servers. The product's main feature is a modular design which makes it simple to assign the server various roles. The project's latest release is NethServer 7.6 which introduces multiple backup storage options, Rspamd is included for blocking unwanted e-mail messages and Fail2Ban can track attacker activity inside jails. "Today, we're happy to announce that NethServer 7.6 has been released and is publicly available. This release marks a big step forward for communication, collaboration and security, introducing: Multiple backups, with new storage backends and encryption. New modern look and feel for NethServer user interface (alpha). E-mail: Rspamd is now the default, with quarantine support. WebTop Groupware: CalDAV/CarDAV server, optimized layout for tablets, favorite folder and video calls. Fail2Ban: track the activity of the attackers with new jails. nDPI: performance and security improved. Accounts: easily delete a list of users, DC container upgraded and password expiration management improved." More information can be found in the project's release announcement.
SparkyLinux 5.6
SparkyLinux is a lightweight distribution based on Debian. The project's latest release is SparkyLinux 5.6 which is based on Debian's Testing 'Buster' branch. The new version includes several package updates and includes PAE support in the 32-bit kernel. Users who need non-PAE kernels are advised to switch to SparkyLinux's Stable branch. "There are new live/install ISO images of SparkyLinux 5.6 'Nibiru' available to download. This it the 4th and the last this year ISO image update of the rolling line, which is based on Debian Testing 'Buster'. Changes: system updated from Debian testing repos as of December 16, 2018; Linux kernel 4.19.9 (4.19.10 & 4.20-rc7 available at Sparky 'Unstable' repos); the Calamares installer 3.2.1; many small fixes. Changes of small window managers configuration (can be installed via Minimal ISO images or APTus): a previous sound applet changed by pnmixer; PCManFM file manager changed by Thunar; added packages: xfce4-notifyd, xfce4-power-manager, sparky-fileopen; Thunar daemon is enabled as default." See the project's release announcement for more details.
HardenedBSD 12-1200058
HardenedBSD is a security-enhanced fork of FreeBSD. the project has released a new stable branch, 12-STABLE, and 12-1200058 is the first version of the new series. The new branch includes the ability to run bhyve inside a jail and introduces Non-Cross-DSO Control-Flow Integrity (CFI). "Non-Cross-DSO CFI is an exploit mitigation technique that helps prevent attackers from modifying the behavior of a program and jumping to undefined or arbitrary memory locations. Microsoft has implemented a variant of CFI, which they term Control Flow Guard, or CFG. The PaX team has spent the last few years perfecting their Reuse Attack Protector, RAP. CFI, CFG, and RAP all attempt to accomplish the same goal, with RAP being the most complete and effective implementation. Clang's CFI is stronger than Microsoft's CFG and PaX Team's RAP is stronger than both CFI and CFG. RAP would be a great addition to HardenedBSD; however, it requires a GPLv3 toolchain and is patented." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
ArchLabs Linux 2018.12.17
Matthew Dobson has announced the release of ArchLabs Linux 2018.12.17. Originally a minimalist, Arch-based live distribution with Openbox, the latest release of ArchLabs Linux is a radical departure from the original concept as the distribution is now designed for users who like to customise their system during installation. Version 2018.12.17 is provided as an installation image only and it introduces a comprehensive selection of options, including a fine-grained choice of desktops/window managers (bspwm, Cinnamon, dwm, i3-gasp, GNOME, KDE Plasma, Openbox and Xfce) and applications: "The Team and I are happy to present the ArchLabs 2018.12 release. It has been almost six months since our latest release and this one brings a different approach. We have decided to do away with the live environment. When you start your USB install you will be thrown straight into the installer. Instructions on how to start the installer are right there. No need for passwords with this live USB either. Most of the changes with ArchLabs this release is under the hood but we do have some other more obvious changes." Read the full release announcement for further details.
ArchLabs 2018.12.17 -- The default ArchLabs graphical interface
(full image size: 99kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Linux Mint 19.1
The Linux Mint team have published an update to the distribution's 19.x series. The new release, Linux Mint 19.1, is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and is available in three flavours: Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. Apart from some visual and performance improvements to Cinnamon, Linux Mint also makes it easier to report bugs and help developers fix problems: "When software crashes tools such as mintreport produce a stack trace our developers can look at to understand the cause of the crash. This is the first step towards fixing such a bug. For the stack trace to be meaningful, users need to have debug symbols installed. In an effort to reduce bandwidth for their mirrors, Debian decided to move debug symbols outside of the main repositories. This decision affected not only Debian and LMDE but also Ubuntu and Linux Mint and made it much more difficult for users to install these symbols. To simplify this process, support for debug symbols was added into the Software Sources tool. Adding debug symbol repositories can now be done with a click of the mouse."
MX Linux 18
The MX Linux team have announced the release of version 18 of their distribution. The new release is based on Debian 9.6 "Stretch" and features both core system updates and new versions of desktop applications. "We are pleased to offer MX-18 Continuum. MX-18 offers the following features: Updated packages - the latest updates from Debian 9.6 (Stretch), antiX and MX repos. GIMP 2.10 (with plugins); MESA 18.2.6; updated firmware; 4.19.5 kernel (with blk-mq file system corruption patch). The new kernels feature meltdown/spectre mitigation, even on the 32-bit kernel. The 32-bit ISO has a PAE kernel for RAM usage above 4GB. Easily change kernels, say to the latest liquorix kernel or downgrade to Debian Stable Kernel (4.9) with MX Package Installer. Browser: Firefox 64.0. Video Player: VLC 3.0.3. Music Manager/Player: Clementine 1.3.1. Email client: Thunderbird 52.9.1. Office suite: LibreOffice 6.0.1. Some Xfce components updated (Xfce-settings, Thunar, etc...)" Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
MX Linux 18 -- The MX Welcome screen
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Peppermint OS 9-20181222
Mark Greaves has announed the release of an version of Peppermint OS 9. Peppermint OS is a lightweight distribution based on Ubuntu and featuring a combination of local and web-based applications. The new version is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and offers a number of improvements: "Swapped VLC for Xplayer (we've had reports that VLC has been getting a little 'flaky' for some users over their last few releases). Removed the Linux Mint 'Levels' from mintupdate (in line with our update policy, not Linux Mints). Fixed the ICE applications 'Where in the menu ?' category names, so they now match the Xfce Whisker Menu categories (i.e. 'Sound & Video' renamed to 'Multimedia', and 'System Tools' renamed to 'System'). Added 'Accessibility Settings' utility to the Peppermint Settings Panel 'System' Category. Added 'Enable/Disable Neofetch' utility to the Peppermint Settings Panel 'Tweaks' Category. Added 'System Information' utility to the Peppermint Settings Panel 'System' Category. Added a 'Transparent' wallpaper (so users can now set solid colour backgrounds via the 'Wallpapers' utility)." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
NuTyX 10.5
NuTyX is a French Linux distribution (with multi-language support) built from Linux From Scratch and Beyond Linux From Scratch, with a custom package manager called "cards". The project has released NuTyX 10.5 which offers a number of software updates in Base (command line) and MATE (desktop) editions. "I'm very please to announce the new NuTyX 10.5 release. NuTyX 10.5 comes with Linux kernel 4.14.89 LTC, glibc 2.28, GCC 8.2.0, Binutils 2.30, Python 3.7.1, X.Org Server 1.20.3, Qt 5.11.3, GTK+ 3.24.1, GIMP 2.10.8, KDE Plasma 5.12.6 LTS, kf5 5.53.0, MATE 1.20.3, Xfce 4.12.3, Firefox 64.0. A second kernel is proposed for people who want to use the very last version of the kernel 4.19.11. NuTyX 10.4 users are invited to upgrade. Four new ISO images are available in 64-bit and 32-bit variants. Sizes are from 315 MB up to 1.29 GB. They are available on the download page. The 64-bit image is available in 'Fixed' and 'Rolling' release models as a Base and a MATE ISO image. The installer has been split in two installation modes - simple and advanced." Further information on NuTyX 10.5 can be found on the distribution's news page.
Elive 3.0.3
Samuel F. Baggen has announced the release of Elive 3.0.3, an updated build of the project's desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Debian 7 "Wheezy" and featuring a highly customised Enlightenment 17 desktop: "The major stable release of Elive 3.0 has been updated. We were so pleased with this stable release of Elive and the result has been so amazing that there's almost nothing that needed to be changed from it. It was a truly a rock solid system and we wanted to update it with a slightly updated and polished build which includes: wallpaper - dynamically changes depending of the hour of the day, looking more magical and nicer for your eyes, and it also includes a hidden surprise for Christmas; pop-ups - you won't be annoyed any more by the Hotkeys Document that appears in the desktop startup, we moved it to the launcher bar of applications; desktop - disabled the screen off timeout and the asking for the presentation mode; Flash - updated the Adobe Flash player for common browsers to the last version, tested on Chrome, Firefox and Opera; multiuser - improved the multiple user desktop switching mode compatibility...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
* * * * *
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: 1,176
- Total data uploaded: 22.9TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Running a Pinebook
Our Feature Story this week talks about the benefits and drawbacks to running a Pinebook, an ARM-powered laptop which ships with a Linux distro pre-installed. We would like to know what you think of the Pinebook. Do you have one, are you planning to get one? Let us know what you think of the device in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on Void's unusual features in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Running a Pinebook
| I have a Pinebook and I like it: | 21 (2%) |
| I have a Pinebook and do not like it: | 12 (1%) |
| I do not have a Pinebook and want one: | 392 (32%) |
| I do not have a Pinebook and do not plan to get one: | 714 (59%) |
| Other: | 74 (6%) |
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|
| DistroWatch.com News |
Distributions added to waiting list
- Onix OS. Onix OS is an Arch Linux based distribution providing an O language development platform.
- NEMS. NEMS is the Nagios Enterprise Monitoring Server for single board computers. NEMS Linux is a modern pre-configured, customized and ready-to-deploy Nagios Core image designed to run on low-cost micro computers. At its core NEMS is a lightweight Debian Stretch deployment optimized for performance, reliability and ease of use.
- Tux Linux. Tux Linux is a lightweight distribution based on Ubuntu and featuring the Xfce desktop.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. We will be on holiday next week and the next instalment will be published on Monday, 7 January 2019. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • About "QA: Will dual booting with another distribution slow down my computer? " (by LiuYan on 2018-12-24 04:02:07 GMT from China)
Keep in mind that if your disk is hard disk drive, it *could* be slower on the secondary OS (or accessing data which located in the inner tracks on disk platters)
2 • Pinebook's OS choices (by dave esktorp on 2018-12-24 04:41:16 GMT from United States)
I knew they were gonna make goofy OS choices. KDE Neon isn't bad but it's pretty far from the top of my list for that sort of hardware. The touchpad is like those on the crappy new logitech wireless keyboards (emulating a mouse, that is).
They should've used Alpine Linux. Obvious decision.
Still looks neat.
3 • @1 : about slow 2nd OS (by Mahmoud Slamah on 2018-12-24 06:28:47 GMT from Saudi Arabia)
Can you elaborate this point { it *could* be slower on the secondary OS } , you meaning if HDD it dependent on physical tracks i.e where data stored , supposed to be same situation for all OS's which uses same and/or different file systems , so need more info .
Thanks
4 • Reply to @3 (by LiuYan on 2018-12-24 08:08:54 GMT from China)
Hi, @Mahmoud Slamah
Yes, I do mean the speed/performance depend on the physical tracks where the data stored.
And it's not necessarily be the second or third OS which usually (but not always) occupy inner tracks that could cause them be slower, but accessing any data located in the inner tracks on disk platters will be a little bit slower than accessing outer tracks.
Sorry for my previous ambiguous expression.
5 • Pinebook Review (by Amar on 2018-12-24 08:24:42 GMT from India)
Thanks for the detailed review for the pinebook, and interesting notes on the results for different distros. While the concerns about hardware are valid, for the price point, it *could* make a good secondary or even tertiary laptop. ...
6 • MX init system (by a on 2018-12-24 10:59:15 GMT from France)
I find it strange and unfortunate that nowhere on the MX Linux web site, or in this announcement, is mentionned the fact that they use sysvinit. This is the only thing that would make me consider using MX Linux as opposed to a better known and better supported distro.
7 • Pinebook-*exactly* what I / we need. (by R. Cain on 2018-12-24 12:02:13 GMT from United States)
The candor and openness of the Pinebook's developers are refreshing in this day and age. From the pages of both (11.6" and 14") Pinebooks--
"We do not wish to discourage anyone... but if you’re looking for a device to replace your current work or school laptop, then perhaps it’s wise to look elsewhere."
There's a place for everything. Mr. Bodnar's in-depth review was also very refreshing, and pointed up the fact that the Pinebook, as it exists right now, is *exactly* what one family member--who needs a machine to ONLY read and send emails--needs. At $99.00, this is a no-brainer.
The only tough decision now--since discovering it after accessing Pinebook's website--is whether or not to get the 14" model (at $99.00 also), for better readabilty.
8 • MX Init System (by Jules on 2018-12-24 12:35:31 GMT from Netherlands)
@6 MX uses Sysvinit. MX works like a dream....https://mxlinux.org/wiki/help-files/mx-faqs
9 • Pinebook (by Jim on 2018-12-24 12:54:04 GMT from United States)
While I have no plans to buy or use a Pinebook, I am happy to see a low cost option for a Linux machine. Still waiting for a low cost Linux full-size Laptop of Desktop that competes with low cost Windows machines (all I can afford). As of now I buy refurbished laptops and install my choice of Linux based OS's.
While I keep my home directory on my root partition I don't think having a separate partition is that big a deal with the large size of hard drives these days.
10 • @10 (by Christian on 2018-12-24 13:01:16 GMT from Brazil)
Yes it shows systemd on the package list, however, above that list, there's a table that includes init software and it shows sysv.
11 • Pinebook (by dragonmouth on 2018-12-24 13:22:00 GMT from United States)
I am taking a wait-and-see approach to Pinebook. I would not be surprised that, in the process of smoothing out the rough edges, a price creep will occur. By the time Pinebooks become usable by average users, it will be cheaper to buy a refurbished laptop and install Linux on it.
12 • Pinebook (by Wine Curmudgeon on 2018-12-24 13:56:12 GMT from United States)
The netbook returns!!! The review brought back fond memories of my Asus eee 901. But the sound did work, and my eyes were a bit younger.
13 • home directory (by stillnoar on 2018-12-24 13:59:41 GMT from United States)
Like @10, I always keep /root and /home together. Reason, because when the time comes that I am ready for a new distro (or even upgrade), the /home is so full of chaff from use that it would need a fine tooth comb to go through it and freshen it up. Easier to just start fresh with the new OS. And as for dual(+) times - usually my dual boots are very different OSs, and change more frequently, so I don't want to cross contaminate anything. As a compromise, I do generally keep a 'data' partition to keep non OS related subjects to be made avaialable to any OS I unstall. Has worked for me.
14 • @7 (by Quan on 2018-12-24 14:04:04 GMT from United States)
Hi R. Cain,
One way to help decide which one to get is to visit a local store like Best Buy, and check oout the 11.6 model and see if it works for you.
I like the small size too, but my eyes are no longer young. Hence the suggestion.
15 • Pinebook sound on mainline kernels (by Pikolo on 2018-12-24 14:51:09 GMT from Poland)
Are there any updates on when sound on Pinebook will work on mainline kernels? Having the miniDP adapter work is nice, but sound is more important. Any links to this bug being tracked would be appreciated.
16 • 11 inch laptop (by Tim on 2018-12-24 16:33:04 GMT from United States)
I'd be interested in a Pinebook- I like the 11 inch laptop form factor.
Another great option in this size is a retired school chromebook like an HP 11 G3. They go for about 50 bucks and are intel based.
The excellent program Crouton lets you install various Linuxes in a chroot, and thereby giving it pretty much the functionality of any other Linux laptop. I've had good luck with Ubuntu 16.04 and the Xfce desktop. Debian Buster also was good.
The only thing that I don't love is that these don't have much internal memory. But they do have SD card slots, so that overcomes the problem well enough for me.
17 • Home/root partition (by Friar Tux on 2018-12-24 16:46:50 GMT from Canada)
I'm with comment 13 (stilnoar) on this one. I keep it all in the root partition and when I upgrade the OS (or switch OS's) I just transfer over my Documents, Pictures, Music, etc. folders. That way, as stillnoar said, you get rid of the 'chaff'. It's a way of housecleaning my laptop from time to time. Now if I could just do that with my actual house...
18 • Pinebook and dual booting (by cykodrone on 2018-12-24 16:53:27 GMT from Canada)
The Pinebook looks cool, and I actually want one, but it's so hard to trust anything from China now. Those who keep up with tech news will know what I am talking about. For those who don't know, KDE Neon is a fork of Kubuntu.
Dual booting is better with two separate drives, it's just so much cleaner and easier, and you can have two separate boot loaders, if one drive crashes, you are still good to go. People that boot a bare metal OS and then boot another in VM, obviously that would tax the system a little more.
19 • home and root partitions (by Christian on 2018-12-24 17:33:59 GMT from Brazil)
I keep the home and root on the same partition. However, I have a "Files" partition where I keep "Documents", "Pictures", "Downloads" etc. I create soft links to these folders on the actual home partition. This way, I keep all my files synced between my distros (I currently triple boot Peppermint, Neon and Fedora) and one install doesn't impact the other. I just have to make sure the partition is mounted during startup.
This way I can comfortably test new distros or move around the ones I already have, keeping all my files easily accessible.
20 • pinebook, neon #18 (by Marcus on 2018-12-24 17:41:54 GMT from France)
If you don't trust China you're not gonna do too well at getting much of anything, at least for a while. Just about every electronic gadget available is made there, including the big brands.
Neon is not a fork of Kubuntu. It's the latest KDE software on Ubuntu LTS.
21 • Pinebook .mp3 player (by Trihexagonal on 2018-12-24 18:00:05 GMT from Canada)
The Pinebook will never replace my Thinkpads but with a 11.6" footprint, a sizable SD card and a decent pair of lightweight headphones at $99 that would make a really nice .mp3 player IMO.
I use a Thinkpad X61 running FreeBSD for mine. It has a a similar footprint and does nothing but sit by my recliner and play music. I have a shot of it at the FreeBSD forums I just took a couple days ago.
22 • Some questions about the Pinebook? (by Dojnow on 2018-12-24 18:06:20 GMT from Bulgaria)
How many RAM is used by KDE Neon and the other tried distributions? Is it a reliable notebook as the warranty is only 30 days?! What is the battery life? Thanks to Ladislav Bodnar for the interesting Feature Story.
23 • MX-Linux DEFINITELY DOES NOT USE 'systemd'; but they make it hard to tell... (by R. Cain on 2018-12-24 18:53:42 GMT from United States)
@ #6
If you choose MX-Linux from DistroWatch's 'Page Hit Rankings (it's now #1 ), you'll find
"Init Software SysV"
in the information section.
*********************************************
It is mentioned on the website; it's just buried. Under “Support” on the MX home page, select “MX/antiX Wiki >
MX/antiX Technical Documentation Wiki > [" > " means "select"]
Technical Documentation AntiX FAQs >
MX Linux FAQS >
[ TOPIC] "What's the deal with MX and systemd? How come there are still systemd packages installed?...
[Answer] "Systemd is included by default but not enabled. For more information see the Users Manual Section 1.7 and the WIki article." [select "Wiki article" (hyperlink)]--
"...MX Linux ships with systemd present but disabled by default. The MX Linux team strongly urges users to remain with this configuration which uses sysvinit instead. This page simply provides information for those interested in the question....
"...Enabling systemd
When the GRUB screen is displayed on MX-17, click on Advanced options... and select to use systemd.
********************************************************************
Someone needs to tell the MX-Linux Organization that this is ridiculous; that they need to MAKE THEIR REJECTION OF 'systemd' A MAJOR POINT IN ADVANCING MX-LINUX.
24 • Two-partitions-or-one asks (by Flavio Roseiro Cavalcanti on 2018-12-24 19:28:14 GMT from Brazil)
I am using a 25 GiB partition for each distro's Root, and also a separate 25 GiB partition for each distro's Home.
I am doing so for 2 years now, and have installed about 20 or 25 distros.
I have noted that:
1) openSUSE would be better with a 50 GiB root partition, as officially recommended, because of its snapshots.
2) Slackware and Arch could have 30+ GiB root partitions, too.
3) Most of my 25 /home partitions are almost empty, because I have separate data partitions.
4) Just Mint /home partition is used for Timeshift backups ─ personal option of mine ─ and in this case, yes, /home could have more than 25 GiB.
25 • Some questions about the Pinebook? (by Dojnow on 2018-12-24 22:20:20 GMT from Bulgaria)
How many RAM is used by KDE Neon and the other tried distributions? Is it a reliable notebook as the warranty is only 30 days?! What is the battery life? Thanks to Ladislav Bodnar for the interesting Feature Story.
26 • Photoprint (by John O on 2018-12-24 23:31:48 GMT from United States)
I used MX linux until photoprint was broken (not able to be installed) . That issue still has not been fixed.
I really loved MX until that problem hit .
27 • Pinebook keyboard (by Glenn on 2018-12-24 23:58:33 GMT from New Zealand)
That keyboard looks like a cross between a UK keyboard layout, where it is normal to have the pipe symbol to the right of the left-shift key, and regular US keyboard where quote and pipe symbols are accessible on the right-hand side using right-shift. Being a regular user of both layouts I would just use the pipe key on the left but that's a horrible choice to require three-keys for quote marks. It's definitely off-putting.
That said I've just realised I'm currently using a UK wireless keyboard on a US based laptop and I haven't bothered switching the key mapping around as I don't really need the GBP pound symbol. It means the "@#|~\ keys are all up the wazoo but I almost never notice. I suppose you just get used to what you're using pretty quickly.
Apart from that, this sort of thing is exactly what I was looking for a few years ago as an additional tool for work. Don't care about performance or gaming - just wanted something LIGHT but with a proper OS, screen and keyboard. Perfect to pick up and take with me to plug into a router or switch in another building nearby. When you're also carrying tools, spare cables, power supplies, various adaptors, printouts, my regular workhorse laptop started feeling really too heavy if I just needed a simple RS232 terminal.
They'd stopped selling Netbooks by the time I wanted one lol.
28 • Pinebook: might consider buying it if I was constantly on the run (by Brenton Horne on 2018-12-25 01:18:17 GMT from Australia)
I have a tendency to favour large, bulky, but powerful PCs over small and lightweight laptops, but if I was on the run more I probably would get a small and lightweight PC, although I would probably favour those using x86-64, as there's more distros that support it. I would only favour it over a tablet or smartphone because I'm hoping the keyboard would be easier for me to use than one on a touchscreen. Of course, given this review and the fact it uses ARM I'd probably avoid the Pinebook like the plague and stick to laptops that may come with Windows pre-installed.
Btw KDE Plasma 5 (KP5) is not the heaviest DE anymore, that title has moved to GNOME/Unity, as KP5 is significantly lighter on RAM than its predecessor KDE Plasma 4 and GNOME. In my experience it tends to use ~ half that of GNOME. Despite this, on such weak hardware I'd probably stick to MATE, or even better i3. I must admit I kind of dislike LXDE and LXQt; LXDE is ugly by default (on vanilla distros like Arch) and difficult to make look anything better than ugly, LXQt is buggy, heavier than LXDE and was fairly non-customizable last time I used it.
29 • @26, MX and Photoprint (by The Grinch on 2018-12-25 01:21:54 GMT from United States)
Doubt your wish will be granted. Photoprint has not been maintained for a few years and has old dependencies. It was removed from Debian repos after Jessie (oldstable). MX is based on Stretch.
30 • Pinebook keyboard is a clinic in bad design (by CS on 2018-12-25 06:30:57 GMT from United States)
A keyboard where you have to do an awkward three-finger salute to type a quotation mark???
And a Linux-oriented system where you need to contort your fingers to type a pipe symbol?
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?????
It would have been simple to look at a picture of the MacBook Air 11" keyboard to realize they didn't need to drop keys from the qwerty or asdf rows to wind up in this absurdly unusable situation. Mind blowing!
31 • Also... (by CS on 2018-12-25 06:40:01 GMT from United States)
"This disqualifies all computers built by the established manufacturers as they are extremely careful not to irritate the software giant by shipping Linux (quelle horreur!) on their machines. "
This is misinformation. As for laptops, The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition ships with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed.
All established manufacturers also offer Linux pre-installed on their server gear and Microsoft doesn't give a toss. The truth is the market for Linux laptops is too small for most vendors to care.
32 • @30 (by Rob on 2018-12-25 06:43:28 GMT from France)
You gets what you pays for.
33 • Not a barrel of fine wine... (by R. Cain on 2018-12-25 09:16:30 GMT from United States)
@ 30
I'm glad somebody finally said this.
I'm surprised there hasn't been more comments. Every time I thought about this, I couldn't help but remember that old question-and-answer: "What do you get when you add a teacup of sewage to a barrel of fine wine? A barrel of sewage, of course."
The Pinebook group had to *WORK at* getting this aspect of the design this wrong and this bad; and that's what makes it so hard to understand. The Pine group had only to duplicate the keyboard design one of the better-selling laptops, or--better yet--after-market keyboards.They're trying to break into an over-crowded market to begin with, and then go and *design*--actually DESIGN, build, and write the firmware for-- a totally non-standard keyboard?! *Incredibly* stupid.
This is, otherwise, a really good piece of hardware (for comparison, one of my Linux notebooks has a *single-core* 1.2 GHz Atom CPU and 2GB of memory, and it works extremely well).
There are probably a *lot* of people who will not put up with the aggravation caused by this ridiculous design decision--even at $99.00.
Why'd you do this, Pinebook? How many have you not sold because of this?
34 • My unbranded ARM netbook from 2012 (by K.U. on 2018-12-25 13:35:46 GMT from Finland)
Linux capable ARM laptops have existed at least since 2012. I found mine at that year - and the one I bought was not the only choice back then. They were all Android devices but searches revealed that it was possible to Install a Linux distribution on them. I have now Q4OS installed on my device, and I am happy to report that it is a very good OS for my unbranded armhf device with Allwinner A10 processor and 1 GB memory.
Here is what I needed for succesful install:
- Q4OS image from Alex Goldcheid's images for Berryboot
- Berryboot A10 for Allwinner devices
- To get sound working I needed to follow the advice from the Linux SunXi website (just copy a config file from there).
35 • @33: (by dragonmouth on 2018-12-25 13:45:33 GMT from United States)
They were getting into a crowded market and did not want to compete on price alone. One way to stand out (maybe) in the market is to be different in some way. Pine group chose the keyboard. It has turned into a "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!" decision.
36 • on a pinebook.... (by tom joad on 2018-12-25 17:42:27 GMT from Israel)
As with many polls there is a category that I feel was left out. In this case...'I am a wait and see.' I like the concept as per the review. I see a lot of potential in the project down the road if. If the project stays together and continues to evolve. If they can hold a very low price point. If the machine proves to be readily usable on the road. If, if, if. We have seen many projects come and go over time. An exception is System 76. However at the price point of $100 I am guessing it will be difficult for Pinebook to stick around and hold that price point. Maybe, and hopefully, they can.
So at this point I am a wait and see while doing some research on the project.
37 • @13,17,19 Seperate home partition, tiny computers (by Ron on 2018-12-25 18:44:32 GMT from United States)
Merry Christmas all.
I totally agree with keeping my /home on the root partition.
Once, a long time ago I tried /home on a separate partition and at first it seemed to work well.
Then, later I realized that different distros and different apps like to muck around in your /home,
especially all those hidden . files. They have their own peculiarities that will make you sorry you ever thought about commingling /home and several distros.
What I do is not worry about overwriting /home. No, I have a portable USB drive I use to rsync my entire internal drive for backup - /home and all. I do not keep this drive in the same room as the computer. If heaven forbid a robber snatches my computer with files, I have the portable drive safely hidden elsewhere.
Tiny computers that cause eye strain and cramped muscles make as much sense as using a flashlight to read a book!
Ron
38 • pinebbok (by piece b2u on 2018-12-25 22:17:15 GMT from Australia)
The pinebook concept is great. But confining it to one board (pine64) is too limiting. It would be even better if it was designed to work with a variety of boards and PC sticks (some of which even have more than 2GB RAM). That way it would be like a lightweight netbook shell that you could carry around with you to plug-and-boot both arm and intel devices.
39 • mucky homes and tiny toys, @37 (by User3 on 2018-12-26 01:32:33 GMT from France)
You can avoid all the mucking around /home by assorted distros if you have a different user name for each.
The problem with the Pinebook is not size (You can have it at 14"), it's the price point. You can only do or get so much with bargain basement expectations. Then your final cost may not be so bargain basement after all. Ladislav didn't mention , but there may be shipping, and maybe customs. I see no miracle of engineering. I can get an off-brand x86 laptop with much better specs, with the Windows up-charge included for less than $200 USD, delivered. Ain't the Chinese wizards!!?? To The Pinebook guys credit, they do tell you it's not suited for all comers. For those interested, there are other Pinebook reviews out there. Google is your friend.
40 • mucky homes and tiny toys, @37 (by User3 on 2018-12-26 01:32:33 GMT from France)
You can avoid all the mucking around /home by assorted distros if you have a different user name for each.i
The problem with the Pinebook is not size (You can have it at 14"), it's the price point. You can only do or get so much with bargain basement expectations. Then your final cost may not be so bargain basement after all. Ladislav didn't mention , but there may be shipping, and maybe customs. I see no miracle of engineering. I can get an off-brand x86 laptop with much better specs, with the Windows up-charge included for less than $200 USD, delivered. Ain't the Chinese wizards!!?? To The Pinebook guys credit, they do tell you it's not suited for all comers. For those interested, there are other Pinebook reviews out there. Google is your friend.
41 • Pinebook (by massysett on 2018-12-26 04:01:49 GMT from United States)
Maybe someone would want this thing but it seems to me that a used Thinkpad is a much better deal: Intel chip so any distro will run on it, and a far superior keyboard. Used Thinkpads are easy to get—probably easier than the Pinebook.
42 • Lubuntu dropping 32-bit support (by Simon on 2018-12-26 05:34:04 GMT from Europe)
Anyone remember when Lubuntu announced they would switch to LXQt from LXDE? While it took them quite a while, they did just that. Then this year(?) they announced they wouldn't focus so much on supporting lower-end hardware.... Now they are dropping 32-bit support completely. Lubuntu just became what it never was meant to be; they stopped catering to the needs of the very audience they wanted to target. "To hell with the reason Lubuntu was created; we're going another way!"
What's next? Lubuntu switches to Gnome or some other unusable bloatware of a desktop? Dropping keyboard support?
Sad times.
43 • @42, Lubuntu (by Marcus on 2018-12-26 08:49:26 GMT from France)
Nostalgia might be nice sometimes. I have an iso of Lubuntu 10.04 somewhere. But I also recall this: "As support for the i386, i486, i586 chipsets (VIA C3, AMD K6, National Semiconductor and AMD Geode) has been dropped from both the kernel and GCC by Ubuntu from the 10.10 series onwards, you can choose this version for older hardware." As Mark Twain supposedly said: History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
44 • Shame about the keyboard (by Null on 2018-12-26 12:59:38 GMT from United States)
I'd really love a no-blobs laptop like the Pinebook (without having to go the Thinkpad X200 route), but the keyboard kills it. I may just send them a $10 tip and hope for a future model.
45 • Elive (by maconulaff on 2018-12-26 16:33:40 GMT from United States)
Shame.....
Elive 3.0.3, an updated build of the project's desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Debian 7 "Wheezy"
Wheezy left LTS in May 2018. Another update to an already out of date distro.
Really Elive - update to a current version of Debian and I would gladly take another look, but building it on an already dead version of Debian is almost negligent.
46 • home directory (by wramby on 2018-12-26 17:29:38 GMT from United States)
After many migrations of my home directory data (doc's, pdf's mp3's etc) to a NAS so I could try a new distro I figured out the process to mount my NAS share to a folder in my home directory and put the commands in a file on my NAS. I save all my data to that folder. Now whenever I install a new distro, I open that file, follow the commands and never have to go through the migration blues.
47 • The Pinebook, antiX v. 17.3, MX-Linux v. 17.1, and 'systemd'. (by R. Cain on 2018-12-27 04:43:21 GMT from United States)
@ #6
"I find it strange and unfortunate that nowhere on the MX Linux web site, or in this announcement, is mentionned the fact that they use sysvinit..."
DistroWatch, under 'Latest News and Updates' (home page) has just listed the release of antiX version 17.3. The development of antiX and MX-Linux are closely intertwined, both having their 'roots' in the original Mepis distribution.
In the antiX 'release announcements' (hyperlink in DW's 'new distro' announcement), antiX *explicitly* mentions "...no systemd..." at least seven times.
antiX (-"base"), at 680 MB download, would be a superb OS for the Pinebook. For that matter, so would 'antiX-full', at 1000 MB; and MX-Linux 17.1, at 1200 MB.
48 • PINEBOOK (by edccoolio on 2018-12-27 05:01:48 GMT from United States)
I voted that I wanted one, but frankly, I would only take it if it was close to free.
Three fingers to hit the "quotation button"?! I don't think so.
Added hassle on a Linux (yes, Linux) laptop to hit the pipe key?! Insult to injury.
On top of all of this is the seemingly unending supply of dirt cheap used laptops on the 'bay with far superior specs, upgradeability, and x86 instruction sets. Even a cheapo Core2Duo with SSD and 4GB RAM would be far superior to the Pinebook and still able to run "any" modern Linux distro or even Windows 10 if needed.
I'm rooting for them, I really am. However, I feel bad for the makers of Pinebook. In the final analysis this seems a complete dead-end.
Personally, I predict that 6 months after purchasing a Pinebook, it will be as if I threw $100 in the back of my closet, never to be seen again. Knowing this, I think I'll just keep the cash.
I hope that maybe the next version will correct some of the more glaring flaws.
49 • @47 - antiX and systemd (difference from MX) (by Hoos on 2018-12-27 05:11:18 GMT from Singapore)
"In the antiX 'release announcements' (hyperlink in DW's 'new distro' announcement), antiX *explicitly* mentions "...no systemd..." at least seven times. "
That's because antiX and MX take different approaches to not using systemd.
MX - sysV is used as the init; systemd is not enabled. However, MX is not systemd-packages-free. Some systemd packages are found in the distro, but they use a systemd-shim package to address programs that have a systemd dependency.
antiX - Uses sysV. Maintains its own nosystemd repo for certain packages, no usage of systemd-shim. Can be said to be systemd-packages-free.
Users therefore have a choice between the MX and antiX approach when it comes to not wanting to rely on systemd as the init manager in their system.
50 • The Trick to Shared Partitions & Multi-Booting (by M.Z. on 2018-12-27 22:55:45 GMT from United States)
@37
"...Then, later I realized that different distros and different apps like to muck around in your /home,
especially all those hidden . files."
Personally, I've take to running a /data partition linked to all my home folders on all the distros i multi-boot. I think #19 above did a similar thing with one named 'files', but my guess is that it is basically the same.
The basic process is laid out here:
https://www.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/08/painless-linux.html
I just re-did it recently on an LMDE 3 install that has a nice new Btrfs partition for it's /root & timeshift to back up the core OS, while it & Mageia both connect to /data so I can get to all my music & other files from either. The biggest issue was making sure to go into the menu & install LMDE 3 via Calamares so I could get Timeshift to work properly with Btrfs. I really like how little space Btrfs takes up compared to rsync & the snapshots are so quick & easy it's not really even noticeable, at least compared to rsync.
Anyway, my multi-booting all works very well & no distro ever sees the hidden .dot files that set configurations from another.
51 • My experiences (by Joe N on 2018-12-28 07:57:27 GMT from Slovenia)
@Ladislav You missed the most polished OS, with spartan but highly effective XFCE, for Pinebook :) Since resources are not a luxury on this HW, this is very important! I could not wait to delete (nice but slow and bulky) KDE Neon and put https://www.armbian.com/pinebook-a64i
Only then it start to become really usable. I used 1st version of this Laptop for a month as a daily driver, with Armbian ofc, even my main laptop is latest Dell XPS 13 (with stock Debian) which represent an extreme comparison. Since most of my work is CLI/Term with light browsing, this doesn't make any problem. If you use this device for serious stuff is more than enough. Battery last. You certainly don't need all the junk and modernity that are implemented in latest mainstream linux distros.
52 • Think Penguin laptop 5 years still going strong (by James on 2018-12-28 10:06:54 GMT from New Zealand)
Just a quick note to say that my Think Penguin laptop (Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1920 res) still going strong after 5 years on a multiboot with Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian. They're based off a chinese company called Clevo but built to ensure that they run common linux distros.
Eventually I'll run this headless and add it into my home server network for file storage or some other purpose.
53 • MX systemd (by James Jamrs Morrison Morrison on 2018-12-28 21:44:23 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have enabled permanent systemd on my MX because when I use Vokoscreen, which always crashes the computer when I use sysvinit.
I really cannot see any advantage to sysvinit nor why everyone is getting in a flap about it!
54 • @53 systemd (by MikeOh Shark on 2018-12-29 00:11:30 GMT from Finland)
@53, it's not so much the boot that causes people to object to systemd. It's the way systemd keeps taking on more of the operating system functions and breaking things that work. For example, systemd-resolve takes over DNS and I don't know what broke the old way of changing the ioscheduler.
55 • A Vocal Minority (by M.Z. on 2018-12-29 01:17:30 GMT from United States)
@53
Don't get that started. It's like with the US NRA only getting 5% of voters as a member of their organization, but they are loud enough to have a veto on many single votes in the US congress.
The moral of the story is that a loud & energized minority that are strongly against something can suck all the energy out of what should be a sensible conversation which would otherwise be able to reach reasonable conclusions.
I can't see why people arn't happy that they have a choice of distros that have whatever init they want, but boy if you say it they bring a whole list of grievances & gripes about how it's not exactly their way & trot out a lot of arguments based on the slippery slope fallacy.
Poking that hornets nest only leads to a lot of meaningless & very angry buzzing.
56 • MX or antiX on a Pinebook? Not at the moment (by Steve Pusser on 2018-12-29 01:40:55 GMT from United States)
MX lead packager here..the trouble is that both distros' custom packages are for 32 and 64-bit x86 systems only. I've tried to set up armhf and arm64 cross compiling environments with pbuilder and QEMU on MX, and while that worked on a Jessie base, it seems to be broken (at least for me and a couple others that have tried) on a Stretch base.
A workaround would be to build those packages on the openSUSE build service for those Debian Stretch architectures, which does work, but I don't know anything about actually creating an arm64 distro without the actual hardware...and we'd need more help, since MX developers are all unpaid hobbyist volunteers.
57 • 'systemd' (by R. Cain on 2018-12-29 03:33:15 GMT from United States)
One of the problems with getting involved in the 'systemd' thingie is that one has to have been, if not involved from the start, then at least have been following along, and be *somewhat* aware of what has transpired.
Fortunately the internet provides a reliable 'paper trail', and it is strongly suggested that people who have strong feelings either way do some searching and reading to back up their opinions.
Some--but by NO means, all--suggested reading:
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemd
2) https://www.networkworld.com/article/2175826/software/linus-torvalds-suspends-key-linux-developer.html
3) http://www.ocsmag.com/2016/10/19/systemd-progress-through-complexity/
4) https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-no-reboot.html
5) https://plus.google.com/+TheodoreTso/posts/4W6rrMMvhWU :
(“...one of the reasons why this happens is because +Kay Sievers and +Lennart Poettering [creators of systemd] often have the same response style to criticisms as the +GNOME developers --- go away, you're clueless, we know better than you, and besides, we have commit privs and you don't, so go away...”)
6) https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/05/torvalds_sievers_dust_up/
58 • /root & /home (by Someguy on 2018-12-29 08:35:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
No.37 has it in a nutshell. Separating these directories into separate partitions is a recipe for future chaos. Too many changes between versions, sometimes even 'point' upgrades. Don't do it - you will regret it. Only caveat: unless you have the consummate skills, dexterity and infinite patience of Jesse!
59 • Not sure why the caveat (by Marcos Pereira de Sousa on 2018-12-29 09:20:10 GMT from Brazil)
Sorry, but to me, the caveat only reinforce the "Don't do it" - Who has those qualities don't do silly things that never work. May be my english?
That advice is precious when the recipient is a noob.
60 • @58, root and home partitions (by Marcus on 2018-12-29 10:16:24 GMT from France)
I'm scratching my head in puzzlement. I've kept separate partitions since many years ago, and I don't see what chaos you are talking about. Any changes between versions will affect your system no matter where your home is. On the contrary, it's easier to recover from a borked system (as I have done quite a few times due to too much tinkering) with separate /home partition. Reformatting root and leaving home partition alone will get you back to the same settings you previously had. I don't know about you, but I spend a bit of time getting my desktops the way I like them. Installing applications after system reinstall usually takes little time, and everything comes back just as I left it. I have done this more times than I remember over the years with no ill effects and little need for patience.
Using the same partition for multiple systems is not a good idea if you repeat the same user name. Your feared .dot files will be all screwed up, to use a technical term.:) However, if you have different user names, each will be in it's own folder, and will not interfere with the others. (/home/alpha, /home/beta and so on. To remove a particular distro from the /home partition one simply deletes that folder after deleting or reinstalling on it's root partition. Other distros are untouched. Easy as pie.
61 • Pinebook(s) and ARM ditchers (by meanpt on 2018-12-29 18:46:43 GMT from Portugal)
More soon than later even all lappies and servers will work only with ARM or any other type of a RISC architecture. Most probably even intel will start shipping some kind of RISC processors as the world of computing is rapidly moving towards the mobility and the parallel processing paradigms but I guess it's too late now and the intel's implosion already started. So, for the sake of linux, its users and developers, all the distros and apps should be ported and/or compiled to these new architectures asap.
62 • Two OSs, one hard drive (by Jordan on 2018-12-29 19:42:16 GMT from United States)
Windows 10 alongside Manjaro 18 as an experiment. No slowdown but I don't like this set up much. I feel like my linux car has an overweight, smelly, selfish hitchhiker.
Probably kick him out at some point soon.
63 • 62 Two OSs (by Rupert on 2018-12-30 02:05:02 GMT from Canada)
Yeah. I know. I don't like Manjaro either.
64 • Question mark (by Gustavo on 2018-12-30 13:54:32 GMT from Brazil)
Doesn´t "RIGHT ALT+W" work as a question mark key? This is what I use on my compact keyboard and with most notebooks.
65 • The Pinebook. (by R. Cain on 2018-12-30 16:33:39 GMT from United States)
"There is a time and a place for everything"--anonymous.
I just purchased a name-brand laptop (on 'after-Christmas' sale) for $124.99: 32 GB eMMC; 4 GB RAM; great battery life; poor display; dual-core 1.6 GHz CPU; rational keyboard; Win10 (I'll return it if I can't remove Win10 and install Linux).
Sales like this are instructive for demonstrating exactly what the real cost of something is--or what you can get it for if you wait long enough.
Having done this, I *also* ordered (entered the 'queue' for) the Pinebook: a device which is much lighter; has an _outstanding_ battery life and ridiculously good display; and is to be used by a person who only uses it as a "smart terminal". Perhaps the keyboard 'problem' will have been resolved by the time I move to the front of the line.
*********************
@56 ("MX or antiX on a Pinebook? Not at the moment"); @49 ("antiX and systemd (difference from MX")--
Many thanks for the expert-class comments expanding on these important points,
66 • @61 Porting/Compiling Linux Distros to ARM (by Rev_Don on 2018-12-30 20:59:18 GMT from United States)
"So, for the sake of linux, its users and developers, all the distros and apps should be ported and/or compiled to these new architectures asap."
If you feel that strongly about that then you need to donate your time into making that happen. And while you are at it, donate some Arm based hardware to distro developers and software maintainers so that they can actually make that happen.
67 • #66 • @61 Porting/Compiling Linux Distros to ARM (by R. Cain on 2018-12-31 16:13:47 GMT from United States)
One can, and probably should, consider a monetary donation.
Most people don't have the skill sets to donate developmental help, although most all distributions are very vocal about needing help with translation into other languages. There are a lot of tangible ways to support Linux ("donating" $99 to Pinebook--and getting something you can/WILL use in return--seems like a "win-win" situation to me, and one that doesn't occur to a lot of people).
And you probably don't have the hardware to donate; if you did, and unless it were new, with all the new documentation and supporting hardware, a donation of hardware would not be of much benefit.
Send money. Linux depends on it.
68 • @67 (by Rev_Don on 2018-12-31 21:16:06 GMT from United States)
True enough. The main point is to donate what you have and are capable of if you believe in something.
69 • Desktop Linux & Donations (by M.Z. on 2018-12-31 22:40:55 GMT from United States)
@67
"Send money. Linux depends on it."
Utterly false, just look at the 2.9 Billion in US $ in revenue that was made by Red Hat in 20017, or as yourself how much money Google is generating off of Android (powered by Linux). The truth is that something of Linux will remain regardless of your donation, but there are huge caveats.
Certain desktop Linux projects are truly in need of donations & projects like Mint & PCLinuxOS that put Linux on your desktop & create a vibrant & competitive marketplace of Linux ideas are certainly in need of your support. We could all hang off the largess/GPL rules of open source companies like Red Hat & hope that incidental improvements in projects they support like Fedora & CentOS will give us a 'good enough' experience on the Linux desktop, or we can try to find ways to support the projects we care about.
Something of Linux will be there regardless of direct personal support, but it would be a far less rich desktop experience if projects like Mint do't get the resources needed to raise the bar & create something better with every release.
70 • SEND MONEY. LINUX DEPENDS ON IT. (by R. Cain on 2019-01-01 00:32:33 GMT from United States)
@69--
You started out by saying that my statement, “Send money. Linux depends on it” is, to quote you, **“Utterly false...”**.
And then, you proceed to reinforce, lend credibility to, and validate my premise with the following extensive verbiage---
”...something of Linux will remain regardless of your donation, **but there are huge caveats**...”
"...Certain desktop Linux projects are truly in need of donations [, and] projects...that put Linux on your desktop & create a vibrant & competitive marketplace of Linux ideas are certainly in need of your support...”
”...we can try to find ways to support the projects we care about...”
”...Something of Linux will be there regardless of direct personal support, but it would be a far less rich desktop experience if projects...do't get the resources needed to raise the bar & create something better with every release.”
I wholeheartedly agree with all the points you raise; they are *very good examples* of why one should “send money” in support of Linux (everyone knows that the inclusion of Red Hat and Google here is simply a ‘red herring’, possibly used only to justify the "Utterly false" statement). What I don’t understand is your opening salvo, followed by nothing but complete assent and agreement with my original premise. Perhaps a course in Aristotelian logic is indicated?
As Mark Twain said,
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
71 • Please send money, please, please!!! (by Ephectic on 2019-01-01 01:21:32 GMT from France)
Judging by the common reaction on Linux users forums to anyone charging for software, and the usual disdain for those who make money selling it, the credo must be "To sell is evil. To beg is honorable." And kindly leave dead philosophers to lie quietly in their graves. Last week Friar Ockham. This week Aristotle. Who's next? Zorba? Friar Tuck?
72 • Linux, pay or not (by Jordan on 2019-01-01 18:28:49 GMT from United States)
Linux has its commercial distros. Has free in more than one definition of tree, as well.
What's the hassle about here? Do what you like, pay what you like. Leave the others be.
73 • Linux is Far Bigger Than its Desktop (by M.Z. on 2019-01-01 18:49:36 GMT from United States)
@70
"What I don’t understand..."
What's so mysterious about Linux being huge in servers & on mobile & tiny on the desktop? Linux will survive & thrive regardless of it's existence on the desktop.
The important part to desktop users is 1) don't kid yourself into thinking your desktop use is everything in the Linux world & 2) you have the opportunity that the GPL creates to leverage all the work done elsewhere into great community based projects that do great on the desktop, if you support them properly.
This means that "Linux could die without your support" is a shallow, alarmist, & poorly thought-out statement. On the other hand "Desktop Linux needs your support to go anywhere" is fairly true at most every level.
74 • Lightweight and midweight distros? (by Ben Myers on 2019-01-01 19:44:55 GMT from Canada)
Developers characterize their distros as lightweight or midweight or whatever. In talking about the "weight" of a distro, are we talking about the diestop management software and little else? Help me understand. What else in the spin of a distro contributes to its weightiness or lack of weight? Add a little helium, perhaps?
75 • #74 Lightweight and midweight distros? (by anticapitalista on 2019-01-01 22:03:29 GMT from Greece)
It's very easy really.
They refer to the CPU and RAM usage of the distro, not the size of the iso download.
Some distros boot to a gui desktop (Xfce) with c300MB RAM, CPU - 0.3%, while others boot to the same desktop using over 600 MB RAM and c10% CPU.
Also, some distros use much less RAM and CPU by using a different desktop environment or windows manger.
76 • @74 • Lightweight and midweight distros? (by Rev_Don on 2019-01-02 02:30:06 GMT from United States)
It also has as much to do with how the DE is configured as it does which DE is used. If the developer enables all of the bells and whistles and poorly optimizes it a distro can easily utilize three or more times as much memory and cpu cycles as one that doesn't. KDE for example can easily be configured to be one of the lightest DEs or one of the heaviest.
77 • Lightweight and midweight distros? (by R. Cain on 2019-01-02 23:24:49 GMT from United States)
@74 :
"What else in the spin of a distro contributes to its weightiness or lack of weight?"
DistroWatch's 'Opinions' talked about 'bloat' a short while ago. Usually, but not always, weightiness is due to the developer's piling on more and more 'features' in order to placate us users who demand a new distribution every six months--and in fear of being viewed as having an inferior product--or being an inferior developer--, compared to other distributions which, of course, are in the process of piling on more and more 'features', because they are afraid of...
Somewhat refreshingly, the Number One distribution in DistroWatch's Page Hit Rankings is one which does not follow the herd: MX-Linux. It is not only #1 on DistroWatch (1/2/2019), but has been chosen as the best overall Linux distribution of 2018, and has had, for a very long time, the best score of any Linux distribution in DW's Distro Review Ratings--9.4 from 510 reviews.
MX-Linux 17.1 (the version chosen as Best of the Year; version 18.0 was just announced in December), is a 1200 MB download, and is completely full-featured, as is MX-Linux 18.0. See--
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/best-distro-2018.html
A truly light-weight distribution is antiX (#5 on DW), a close cousin of MX-Linux. antiX 17.2-full is a 950 MB download; antiX 17.2-base is a 620 MB download.
78 • Lubuntu 32/64 (by mchlbk on 2019-01-04 16:27:20 GMT from Denmark)
@42
Lubuntu 18.04 uses LXDE and runs on 32 bit and will be maintained for many years.
Of you have old 32-bit hardware you don't need a cutting edge OS anyway. Just stay with 18.04.
79 • @ 78 • Lubuntu 32/64 (by Ostro on 2019-01-05 17:06:33 GMT from Poland)
That's the last Lubuntu with LXDE, you'd see, the next Lubuntu being a bloated one.
80 • Pinebook keyboard (by Simon on 2019-01-06 03:06:53 GMT from New Zealand)
What a bizarre decision, to require multiple shift keys to type a symbol as common as the quotation mark! This alone is a deal-breaker for me: it would be a continually annoying distraction, significantly slowing down my work (which involves lots of quotation), so there's no way I'd buy this laptop. Presumably the laptop's designers have little interest in typing, but it's astonishing that they didn't ask touch typists to test it or offer feedback on the design, before committing to manufacture and sales. I'll keep an eye on future models: when they release one with a sane keyboard design I might be interested.
81 • Post # 78 (by Winchester on 2019-01-06 17:18:05 GMT from United States)
That is jumping aboard a sinking ship.
Maintained for less than 3 and a half more years,unless I am off there.
If you have 32-bit hardware,SliTAZ, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, Gentoo, 4M Linux, Slackware,Void Linux or the beginner friendly Mageia are better options.
No announcements to end 32-bit support from the above distributions,as far as i am aware.
Just choose LXDE, MATE, XFCE, or simply a window manager.
Number of Comments: 81
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Matriux
Matriux was a Debian-based security distribution designed for penetration testing and forensic investigations. Although it was primarily designed for security enthusiasts and professionals, it can also be used by any Linux user as a desktop system for day-to-day computing. Besides standard Debian software, Matriux also ships with an optimised GNOME desktop interface, over 300 open-source tools for penetration testing, and a custom-built Linux kernel.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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