 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 807, 25 March 2019 |
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Welcome to this year's 12th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
A big part of what makes open source software attractive to developers is the ability to take an existing solution which is nearly what is required and making small additions or modifications to suit the current need. We tend to see this a lot with popular parent distributions, such as Debian and Arch, which provide a lot of useful tools and packages that can be customized into convenient desktop, embedded, or appliance distributions. This week we begin with a review of one of Debian's many children, called Pardus. Pardus 17.5 was released earlier this year and Joshua Allen Holm takes this distribution for a spin in our Feature Story. In our News section we talk about a new version of the pleasantly polished Budgie desktop which is available now in Solus 4.0 and cover a tool for FreeBSD users who wish to fine-tune their operating system. We also talk about Debian migrating their older releases to the archives. Our Questions and Answers column this week explores methods of tracking down which user modified a file using common tools and logs. Then, in our Opinion Poll, we ask whether our readers typically use the log files their systems generate. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and provide a list of the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Pardus 17.5
- News: New features in the Budgie desktop, a GUI for browsing sysctl values on FreeBSD, Debian archives older releases
- Questions and answers: Tracking down the user who changed a file
- Released last week: Solus 4.0, Tails 3.13
- Torrent corner: BSD Router Project, Clonezilla, GParted, HardenedBSD, LinHES, Parabola, PBXware, Septor, Solus, Tails
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 19.04 Beta
- Opinion poll: Looking through log files
- New distributions: Venom Linux, OS108
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (12MB) and MP3 (9MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Pardus 17.5
Pardus is a Debian-based distribution developed in Turkey. Pardus 17.x releases are based on Debian 9, but they also include software from Debian Backports and Pardus-specific packages. The latest release, Pardus 17.5, will be the final release in the Pardus 17 series, but it will be supported through early 2021.
For this review I will be looking at Pardus 17.5's Xfce desktop version, but there is an alternate download that features the Deepin desktop environment. There is also a server image that installs Pardus without a desktop environment. The Xfce image is 1.3GB, the Deepin image is 1.4GB, and the server image is 530MB.
Pardus live image
I copied the Xfce image to a flash drive and booted my computer from the drive. I was presented with options to use the live desktop in Turkish or English, or to install using a graphical or text-mode installer. I selected the English live desktop and waited just a short time before I had a functional desktop.
Pardus 17.5 -- Xfce desktop environment
(full image size: 52kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
At first glance everything seemed okay. Despite the slightly older version of the Linux kernel (4.9), everything worked okay, including my wireless networking. I explored the customized Xfce desktop environment and found it worked well and was well organized, but as soon as I tried typing anything I found that the keyboard layout was still set to Turkish. I had to adjust this before I could start doing anything in the terminal. This was a minor annoyance, and easy enough to fix, but it might confuse some users if they do not realize what is going on.
Installing Pardus
Once I was sure Pardus worked with my hardware I rebooted and selected the installation option. In my case I opted for the text-mode option because, for some reason, my trackpad does not work in Debian's graphical installer (it works perfectly fine in the live desktop and once Debian, or a Debian-based distribution is installed).
The installation process was also identical to the standard Debian experience, except for the lack of options to select a desktop environment. Debian provides multiple options on its DVD images, but Pardus will just install its pre-selected software packages.
One thing to note is that while Pardus does support disk encryption as part of the installation process, the default boot splash does not provide a password prompt to unlock the encrypted disk. If the user decides to encrypt their disk, they will end up at an animated splash screen with the Pardus logo with a running cat animation, but no visible prompt that they need to enter their pass phrase to decrypt their drive to continue the boot process.
Pardus's default desktop and software
Pardus's default Xfce desktop environment is customized and themed. It features a single bottom panel layout out in a similar manner to the Windows taskbar. The application menu is the left corner and the clock and various functions like wi-fi settings and volume control are on the right. In the centre of panel are the running applications. On the desktop there are shortcuts for the user's home folder and the trash. Overall the experience is very Windows-esque, which is good for a distribution that can be used in corporate environments in place of Windows.
Pardus 17.5 -- Xfce desktop with application menu
(full image size: 87kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The default selection of software is very typical. Firefox ESR is the browser and Thunderbird is the e-mail client. VLC serves as the default media player. LibreOffice 6.1, one of the packages that comes from Backports, is the office suite. GIMP is pre-installed. The rest of the applications are various system utilities and tools, most of which are from Xfce, but GNOME Disks and Evince are also part of the pre-installed software selection.
Pardus 17.5 -- LibreOffice Writer
(full image size: 52kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
I found Pardus's desktop and software selection to be very usable. I could do most basic tasks on my computer without having to install additional software. However, I noticed that the LibreOffice help files are not installed, not in English or Turkish. When I tried to install the US English help files, there was an error message about the libreoffice-help-common package not being available. The LibreOffice help packages depend on this package, but it does not seem to exist in the Pardus repositories.
Installing additional software
Pardus uses its own repositories that combine packages from Debian Stable, Debian Backports, Pardus, and some non-free software, which makes it closer to Ubuntu's style of being based on Debian than other distributions that still use Debian's repositories and add their own repositories on top of that. This method works, except for the issue noted above with the missing LibreOffice package (and possibly similar issues that I did not come across), but there appears to only be one source for packages, instead of a global network of mirrors, so sometimes installing packages and updates can take a while.
Pardus 17.5 -- Synaptic package manager
(full image size: 92kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Pardus comes with three graphical tools to install additional packages plus a Package Updater application for installing updates. There is the Pardus Store which is a custom graphical interface for installing a curated collection of software, including non-free packages like Steam and Skype; Synaptic Package Manager for power-users; and GNOME Packages, which honestly feels redundant given the inclusion of Synaptic package manger.
Pardus 17.5 -- Pardus Store
(full image size: 235kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The Pardus Store looks very nice, but only has a limited selection of software. Like I noted above, the selection is curated, and there is a poll for voting on which package should be added next. However, the text for this poll is the one bit of text I ran across in my English language install of Pardus that was still in Turkish.
Pardus 17.5 -- Skype in Pardus Store
(full image size: 516kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Another nice feature of the Pardus store is how clearly it indicates that software is non-free (free in the Free Software Foundation sense of the term, not software that costs money). There are huge brightly colored indicators that state the software is non-free. The software is still available, so the distribution might not be good enough for purists, but for a desktop designed to possibly replace Windows in an office setting, having Skype, Slack, and other non-free tools is very helpful.
Aside from the oddly missing libreoffice-help-common package, I found everything I needed in the repositories. Granted, it was older versions because most of them come from Debian 9, but that is to be expected. I found Pardus's selective use of Backports to be quite good in bringing in slightly more up-to-date version of certain packages.
Final thoughts
Pardus is a nice distribution. It has a few issues, which I noted above, but the default desktop and software selection are solid, which makes it a good choice for adoption in offices and by users who want a conservative desktop experience. The only drawback is that it is very difficult to report issues with the distribution, unless you can communicate in Turkish. Granted the shoe is often on the other foot in the open source world when we often expect everyone to communicate in English, but there are issues in Pardus that I could not just report, but actually fix, if I had the ability to interact with the project's infrastructure and community.
Even though I cannot get truly involved with the project, I think I going to keep using Pardus because it does have some very nice design decisions. Sure, with a little work I could turn Xfce on Debian 9 into something very close to what Pardus offers, but Pardus does that without me having to do the work. I just hope Pardus fixes the boot splash not providing a prompt to decrypt drives issue and the missing libreoffice-help-common package. Those two issues are not major problems, I can still decrypt my hard drive without a visible prompt and I can access LibreOffice help online, but they are annoying.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo Ideapad 100-15IBD laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-5020U CPU
- Storage: Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 5500
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Visitor supplied rating
Pardus has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.2/10 from 40 review(s).
Have you used Pardus? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
New features in the Budgie desktop, a GUI for browsing sysctl values on FreeBSD, Debian archives older releases
One of the big releases of the past week was the anticipated launch of Solus 4.0. While Solus itself was a big release with a lot of upgrades, some of the improvements to the project's Budgie desktop deserve special attention. Budgie 10.5 has received improvements to the way programs are grouped, the notification centre received more fine-grained responses and the volume control now makes it easier to adjust input and output volumes separately. The Budgie settings panel includes many well-explained features to make life easier, "The Windows section of Budgie Desktop Settings introduces options for: Centre new windows on screen (when possible). Disabling Night Light mode when a window becomes full-screen. This option will automatically re-enable Night Light mode when leaving full-screen. This is great for late night gaming or movie watching. Enabling window focus change on mouse enter and leave instead of based on clicking on a window." A full list of improvements can be found in the project's release announcement. Hopefully these improvements will soon be packaged and included in other distributions.
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As many FreeBSD users know, the operating system includes special controls which allow the operating system to be fine-tuned while it is running. These special controls are called system controls (sysctl). While these controls are very useful, it can be difficult to remember the many options available or what specific functions they perform. To help with this, a new, third-party tool called sysctlview has been launched to provide a way to browse and get descriptions of available sysctl options from the comfort of a desktop environment. The tool has been added to FreeBSD's collection of ports.
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Joerg Jaspert has sent out a notice to let people know older versions of Debian which are no longer receiving security updates are being moved to the archives. This means the older versions can still be downloaded, but will not be available on Debian's large mirror network. "As Wheezy and Jessie have been integrated into the archive.debian.org structure recently, we are now removing all of Wheezy and all non-LTS architectures of Jessie from the mirror network starting today. That is, only Jessie i386, amd64, armel and armhf will continue to be
hosted on the normal mirrors. The data is, of course, not lost - the whole of it is synced to archive.debian.org, so if you still need it you will be able to get
it from there."
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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) |
Tracking down the user who changed a file
Trying-to-locate-the-editor asks: Someone with access to my system edited a configuration file and I would like to know who did it. Is there a way to identify who changed the file?
DistroWatch answers: I am assuming the file is on your system and not in a version control system like git that would track who changed the file. And I'm going to assume there is no special auditing software or logging in place. With this in mind, there are a few things you can do to try to figure out who edited your file.
The first, and easiest, check you can perform is running the ls command on the file to find out when it was last changed. If the user copied a new, altered file into place instead of editing the original, the ls -l command may also tell you who overwrote the original. Here is an example of running ls -l on a file called example.conf to find out when it was modified:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46252 Feb 10 12:31 example.conf
In this case the file is owned by the root user and was altered on February 10th. This tells us when the file changed, but since the file was probably owned by root all along, we still do not know who changed it.
Assuming the file was owned by root, then chances are the person who made the edit had to use a tool like sudo or doas to change the file. Your distribution should record sudo use in a log file such as /var/log/auth.log or /var/log/security. On my system, I can see when someone edits a configuration file by running the grep command on the log, the result is shown below in bold:
grep example.conf /var/log/auth.log
Feb 10 12:31:54 gwen sudo: jesse : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/var/log ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/vi example.conf
Here we can see that user "jesse" ran the sudo program in order to perform the command "/usr/bin/vi example.conf" as the root user. This happened on February 10th, the same day the file was last edited.
If checking the security log does not work, or the file is not owned by root and does not require special permissions to access, another approach we can take is looking through the users' history. Most command line shells record commands we run to a history file (the name of the file varies depending on the shell). We can run a command like the one shown below to see if we can spot who edited example.conf:
sudo grep -l example.conf /home/*/.bash_history /home/*/.history
The above command may not give you the time when a file was changed, but it should give you a list of people who changed the file from the command line.
Finally, if none of the above options work, it might be worthwhile trying a social approach instead of a technical one. Assuming not a lot of people have access to your configuration file (and not many people should), then you can sit your team down and ask (or send a query to them over e-mail): "Who changed the example.conf file?" This tactic might require less effort than combing through log files.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Solus 4.0
Joshua Strobl has announced the release of Solus 4.0, an independently-developed desktop Linux distribution featuring the simple but efficient Budgie desktop (separate editions with GNOME and MATE desktop environments are also available) and a custom package management called eopkg. From the release announcement: "We are proud to announce the immediate availability of Solus 4 'Fortitude', a new major release of the Solus operating system. This release delivers a brand new Budgie experience, updated sets of default applications and theming, and hardware enablement. All our editions feature: Firefox 65.0.1, LibreOffice 6.2.1, Rhythmbox 3.4.3 with the latest release of the Alternate Toolbar extension, Thunderbird 60.5.2. Our Budgie and GNOME editions ship with GNOME MPV 0.16 and our MATE Edition ships with VLC 3.0.6. This release of Solus ships with Linux kernel 4.20.16, enabling us to provide support for AMD Picasso and Raven2 APUs, AMD Vega20 and broader Vega10 enablement, as well as improved support for Intel Coffee Lake and Ice Lake CPUs. Furthermore, Linux kernel 4.20 expands our support for other hardware devices, such as touchpad support for the Lenovo IdeaPad 130-15IKB and 330-15ARR."
Solus 4.0 -- Running the Budgie desktop
(full image size 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Tails 3.13
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. The project's latest release is Tails 3.13 which includes localization fixes, prevents the software centre from downloading packages which are already available on persistent storage, and upgrades several packages. "Fixed problems: Prevent Additional Software from downloading packages that are already saved in the persistent storage. Fix the localization of Tor Launcher, the application to configure a Tor bridge or a local proxy. Fix accessibility when opening Tor Browser from a desktop notification. Fix WhisperBack crashing when additional APT repositories is configured." Further details and a list of known issues can be found in the project's release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 1,317
- Total data uploaded: 24.5TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Looking through log files
In our Questions and Answers column we talked about finding out who performed a specific action on a system, a task which is greatly aided by log files. While logs are incredibly useful on servers for improving performance and auditing security, they are rarely used on desktop machines. This week we would like to hear whether you routinely check the log files on your laptop or desktop computer. If you do, please let us know what you look for in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on Kubuntu versus KDE neon in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Looking through log files
| I do routinely exmaine logs: | 106 (8%) |
| I look through logs to fix specific problems: | 712 (54%) |
| I do not exmaine logs: | 503 (38%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Distributions added to waiting list
- Venom Linux. Venom Linux is source based Linux distribution based on Linux From Scratch (LFS) with a BSD-style init system.
- OS108. OS108 is a desktop-oriented operating system that is based on NetBSD and features the MATE desktop.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 1 April 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 • Why do it routinely? (by Dhoni on 2019-03-25 01:03:10 GMT from Indonesia)
Who examine log routinely??? dont you have another thing to do??? :P
Actualy i did monitor one specific log daily, its a maillog, i did it to prevent spam blast on some compromised email user.
2 • budgie (by Vern on 2019-03-25 01:37:55 GMT from United States)
I've very recently been thinking about using "budgie". I have very little knowledge of Solus, but know that "budgie" is used worldwide.
3 • LOG? LOL! (by WooHyung Jeon on 2019-03-25 03:40:16 GMT from Korea, Republic of)
These days, Linux improved a lot.
No need to look through log routinely, unless you have specific issues, and know where to find the related log.
Of course, this varies from your job or usage of Linux.
4 • who changed a file (by Laubster on 2019-03-25 04:03:15 GMT from United States)
You might also want to troll though the output from the "last" command to see who was logged in when the file was modified.
5 • Pardus (by Jerome on 2019-03-25 06:52:15 GMT from Canada)
Just downloaded it ....
What a wonderful distro
6 • Examining logs (by Betonforce on 2019-03-25 08:32:23 GMT from Poland)
I find bash history useful when I forget a specific command or to check what applications I installed. That's one more reason to use the terminal more. It's especially practical for reinstallation.
7 • Log files (by Roger on 2019-03-25 09:32:17 GMT from Belgium)
I only use log files on Windows PC because they have the problems.
Never any problems on my Linux Mint PC, they run and run, that's it.
And when there is something the solution is there, so easy.
8 • Pardus Linux (by Torsten on 2019-03-25 10:20:06 GMT from Germany)
Jerome from Canada is right! Pardus 17.5 really is great, wonderful, fast and very stable and also has a very nice interface. I really love this distro! ;-)
Greetings from Germany....
9 • log files (by MikeOh Shark on 2019-03-25 11:12:46 GMT from France)
I confess that I don't read log files. A large part of the reason is that I have /var/log (and other frequently written to locations) in /tmp. This is because I installed to a flash drive and do not use an overlay file system. It has worked well for me for years.
10 • @ Joshua Allen Holm (by Ostrol on 2019-03-25 11:56:14 GMT from Poland)
"Pardus's default Xfce desktop environment is customized and themed. It features a single bottom panel layout out in a similar manner to the Windows taskbar."
Why can't we review a Linux distro without mentioning Windows? The Linux desktop was there since 1998, I believe, and the bottom panel.
11 • @10 mentioning Windows in reviews (by Akoy on 2019-03-25 12:08:16 GMT from United Kingdom)
True, when I see a reviewer of a Linux distro mentioning Windows, that's the first signal to stop reading, and when you see Windows mentioned again, I simply throw that review away!
12 • Upcoming Releases and Announcements (by Tim on 2019-03-25 13:38:19 GMT from United States)
The Fedora 30 Beta has been pushed back by one week, to Apr 2. They still expect to make the Final Release by the same expected date.
13 • A little bit of Pardus spam in here, it appears (by Jordan on 2019-03-25 15:20:25 GMT from United States)
Some of you might tell us what the differences between that distro and others, as to your "wonderful" assessment.
14 • On Pardus: Once upon a time... (by Orvan on 2019-03-25 15:37:53 GMT from United States)
I tried it when Mint wasn't working on a laptop and PCLinuxOS was still not 64-bit, so yes my experience is a bit dated. Pardus impressed me by being the ONLY time, EVER, I saw AMD's proprietary stuff work as they claimed. EVERY other install demanded root run amdcccle or such. I bailed on Pardus as (then, anyway) sound simply would not work. Is Pardus bad? I doubt it. ANYONE that could get AMD's video to work is impressive as all get-out. No doubt, had Mint given me issues, I would have given serious consideration to Pardus, sound issues and all.
15 • Why compare? (by Garon on 2019-03-25 18:50:45 GMT from United States)
@ 10, 11
Like it or not these reviews are not written just for the nerd users but also for people who may very well just be interested in Linux. To them MS Windows is a basis for comparison. That's what they know and they may not dive into trying to use a completely different computer environment. Don't be so harsh of a reviewer who may list a similarly to part of the Windows os. It may be just that familiarly that will convince them to give a Linux distro a try.
16 • Log files (by saltygreysoup on 2019-03-25 18:52:41 GMT from Australia)
Windows files have a creation time, Unix not, this was a small thing to get used to when moving to Linux. But then, I didn't miss (sort of) the constant battle against viruses, browser hijacks, malware, etc. Thank you
17 • Log files (by Friar Tux on 2019-03-25 19:45:08 GMT from Canada)
Nope. Never had occasion to use the logs files. Most issues that show up can be dealt with on the run without going into logs files. My curiosity has me wondering how anyone can change a config file without your say so. NO one touches my laptop without me being there, and then only in a 'Guest' account. And if I see them start to type 'su' or 'sudo' they're through the front door whether it's open or not.
18 • Log Files and Windows (by Jessey on 2019-03-25 21:31:01 GMT from United States)
@Log Files: You have to deal with log files if you work in IT. Windows makes alot of them. If it crashes it is in a log file. What it does that day is keept in a log file. I am not suppirsed that even steam just keeps all your data in an unecrypted plain text log file. Now on Linux I have not had much need to out side of Minecraft. If you do minecraft mods you got to get used to that and get over it.
@Windows comparisons: I don't think it is a bad thing as that is what most users come from. I just want to be able to use the distro and things should work. I don't want to have to compile things and set up settins like on arch and FreeBSD. LM just works...out side of Ubuntu not updating there repos and thus forcing users to add ppa's to fix there mess. I grew up during the Windows XP-Vista erra of Windows. I like having my Apps in chategorys like on Windows Vista/ 7. I love the Windows Luma and Royal themes and hate the White look every distro steals from Android 5. Realy Linux Mint White X by default? Why not Minty green from the Cinnamon themes web site that you run. Just look at KDE 5 and its ugly theme. I can't even say what it looks like with out being banned from the distrowatch comment section. Even TDE and EDE look better in my view. Then you have the gnome icons uck. I mean come on Ubuntu you move to that horible Gnome 3 and use the same ugly icons and theme. Just more evidence that Ubuntu is dieing when there themes start looking like they are dead too.
Why do all distros these days have ugly icons with ugly themes. Even the wallpapers now suck. Look at the LM 18.3 defualt wallpaper. Just the LM logo on black with a reflection in 3d. Come on the LM 13 and 14 wallpapers were so much better. Unity 7 might have sucked for most of us, but man at least it looked good. I mean come on red or green made it pop. You know what I mean if you ever tried EasyPeasy or Ubuntu Kylin 16.04. I don't know about you all but I want color on my desktop. I am currently downloading the Moebuntu themes to spice thing up. I am tired of this laptop looking like an Android clone of Windnows 10!
@16: There is no lag in Windows 7 or 10. I have not tried Windows 8 so I could not tell you about that. Now what takes a while is when it has to clean up a USB stick because of NTFS. The same thing littery only takes 5 min with ext 4 using Gparted and for some reason Windows it takes on average 30 min. When it comes to gaming and emulation Windows keeps kicking us down and Linux realy sucks with Emulation compared to Windows. Once you get outside the Nintendo stuff linux sucks. Even our version of Muppen is broken as m64 py does not update or even work on 16.04. You have to run the windows version in wine do to an issue because of bloody python. Same reason renpy has issues getting updates.
Also many linux users are not gamers and the ones who are don't care about emulation and just use steam. This is why things like easyrpg still or not in the repos and it took until 18.04 for the debian package of PokeMMO to get in.
19 • @18 Windows comparisons and so on... (by Ostrol on 2019-03-26 09:16:19 GMT from Poland)
1) Linux desktop is there for more than 2 decades, so its time to review a Linux distro for its worth, rather than comparing with other operating systems. If at all, we can compare Linux distros between each other, which would bring in more plusses to Linux itself.
2) Now to compare between the 2 OS platforms; battery life is bit higher with Windows 10, than with Linux distros. This is an age old problem. Practically all apps starts fast in both OSs, sometimes, the so-called open source apps, such as LibreOffice, Gimp, Vlc responds faster in Windows 10 than in Linuxes. And, their gui looks nicer.
3) There are practically all kinds of apps that work in Linux also for Windows 10. If you won't buy a new laptop immediately as they appear in the shop, but wait for about 3 months, you get it about 10-20% cheaper, so the Windows in it becomes practically free of charge. So, when you dual boot with Linux, you have 2 operating systems try out. You shouldn't throw away things, just for ideological reasons. Btw, Windows 10 doesn't lag as many here try to prove. Lately, there's a problem with Xorg, sometimes most up to date Linuxes with Xorg gets stuck. The best part is some dev would notice this and a solution for that would come. That's the beauty of Linux!
Its too bad that we don't have specialized Linux dedicated laptops/tablets in my country, so the only option is to buy a Windows laptop and try to install Linux in it. Most times, some part of the laptop doesn't work with Linux, which is a pity.
20 • @19 (by blob69 on 2019-03-26 11:32:11 GMT from United States)
"Its too bad that we don't have specialized Linux dedicated laptops/tablets in my country, so the only option is to buy a Windows laptop and try to install Linux in it. Most times, some part of the laptop doesn't work with Linux, which is a pity."
I know the sentiment - I got a second hand dell inspiron laptop, boy have I had some issues with it, mainly due to the high resolution; do you increase the dpi to 400, or set the screen to something like 1280x720 (or whatever it is); then you have some applications that are set to the original high resolution, ignore the new resolution, and cant get past it - what a pain!!
21 • @18 Jessey: (by dragonmouth on 2019-03-26 12:06:58 GMT from United States)
"Why do all distros these days have ugly icons with ugly themes. Even the wallpapers now suck."
Those is a very minor problems. In your Settings there should be a page that allows for changing Icons. On that page, you should see a button "Get Icons" or something similar. Clicking on that button will allow you to can download hundreds of icon sets for any of the popular desktop environments.
Any image file can be used as a background or a wallpaper. You can download literally thousands of wallpaper images from sites like DeviantArt. You can also include any of your own favorite images in your distro's Wallpaper folder. I use PCLinuxOS with LXQT desktop and my wallpapers are stored in /usr/share/lxde/wallpapers. The folder is 280 Mb in size and has couple of hundred different images, all of them either pictures I took or images I downloaded off the Internet. To update the system Wallpaper folder you will need root privileges. You can also create a Wallpaper folder under your own user ID and use those images for backgrounds/wallpapers. However, other users (if any) on your system will not not be able to use those images.
22 • Laptops, @19, @20 (by Angel on 2019-03-26 15:32:21 GMT from Philippines)
I don't have much trouble with laptops. My own three plus the dozen or so I've installed for friends and acquaintances run well. Most run on Ubuntu and derivatives. There's one WiFi driver I had to get from GitHub and a trackpad driver which was available as a .deb. Other than that, all's well. None of these laptops are anything super-fancy, but most are fairly new. Most are generic Intel, no discrete GPUs, but some have Nvidia cards. It's been years since I've had to do much searching and fussing about hardware. For newer hardware better to use newer kernels.
@20
Don't know what GPU you have, but I think you may need to do a bit of search knowledge about setup and drivers if any, or maybe you need a DE like KDE-Plasma that will allow granular scaling, and a distro that will make it easy to find and install drivers. The 400 DPI you mention is out of the ballpark. The Dell XPS13 is about as high resolution as you get, and that's 331. Also, you can buy it with Ubuntu installed and it works fine. I have a 15.6" laptop with 1920x1080 resolution (141 DPI), and I need to scale it to 1.2 on KDE and 1.25 on Windows. Otherwise everything is too small. My 20" monitor has the same resolution, no scaling needed. (96 DPI)
23 • @22 laptops (by Ostrol on 2019-03-26 16:46:12 GMT from Poland)
Laptops with Windows and the so-called no OS laptops are galore here. 1366x768px are quite cheap new and in 2-3 months, they become even cheaper, so installing Linux on them is not a problem. Sometimes, you have to read the manufacturers instructions on Linux, or the 'Net.
The "dedicated" Linux boxes are not available in the market here. One can import them from other countries, but they are terribly expensive, not worth the trouble, that's all.
About scaling, I have a Windows 10 only 1920x1080px 13" laptop, but I don't have to scale, it is nice as it is. The fonts are very sharp, not like in a 1366x768px.
24 • @23 laptop display scaling (by Angel on 2019-03-26 18:19:07 GMT from Philippines)
With a 13" laptop and 1920x1080 resolution with no scaling I'd be doing a lot of squinting, maybe need a magnifying glass. If your laptop is Windows 10 only with the proper driver, the OS should have taken care of scaling. Go to Settings>System>Display. You should have the "recommended" resolution and scaling already set. I agree that 1366x768 is usable, but not very good.
I read lots of complaints in Linux forums, and it's becuse Linux does not do it for you and some Des are not very good at scaling. Gnome, for example, could only go up 100%, which is mostly useless. The tweak tool should remedy some of that, and I read that at least half-scaling is being implemented.
There may still be problems on some apps with UHD (4X) screens, in Windows as well as Linux. Hardware is moving ahead of software in some cases.
25 • Linux vs Windows (by Jessica on 2019-03-26 22:23:44 GMT from United States)
@19: Yah battery life can be ok depending on the hardware. For example I get around 5-8 hours on my HP Steam PC 11 with Linux depending on the use. I think Windows 8 only got 4 hours. How ever on the MBA 2015 M1 you got 1/3 of the battery that OSX does. I now why thanks to Louis Rosman tough. It is because Linux does not support that stupid chip on the ppbus that controls power. The wifi needs to be desoldered if you want wifi to work out of the box. You could use a dongle, but lets be honest unless you want to break it just replace the chip as the MBA slides around like stuff from Pokemon Clover. On top of that it is sharp like a bloody razor. Now apple just sucks eggs and it is not like Linux wants to support there older stuff any more ether with that hole droping PowerPC support thing Ubuntu is doing. Also I can't afford to buy new stuff any way. That has made me diffrent from most Linux users. Most are trust fund babies and don't have to work for a living (looking at you Gnome 3 devs!). Most Windows users do not care about computers. I think that if you don't care about some thing you should not use it. That is some thing my grand father taught his kids. For example if you wanted to eat in there house hold you had to help grow and kill the food. If they wanted to drive they had to know not just how to drive a care, but how to fix it ass whell. Know days the average women can't change there tires let alone how to rebuild and engion. If you are going to use a computer you need to not just understand how it works, but how it functions. This is some thing that most linux users don't do any more. Oh your phone broke there solution is just to buy a new one. I am not like that I will tell you to get off your *** and pick up a bloody soldering gun and a Rosman video. I hate people who just replace parts and call them selfs computer reparimen like that youtube Carry on youtube. I hate those type of people.
I guess you call me a Linux hipster are some thing. I hate this digial crap. How can I use it at home where I have not internet connection. Now DVD's man are bad ***. Just pick one up and put in a player and your good. I don't care about this 2k, 4k, 8k crap that people like Linus get off to with there paid off videos. No give me a HD-DVD or DVHS player any day. I hate Blu-ray and I hate it. I refuse to support that evil. Not only do you have to worry about the aas and the keys, but now you have the evil of HDMI 2 with there intel drm built into the CPU. Not only do you have the recent CPU hacks, and the IME, then you have HDMI 2 4k DRM build into the cpu.....screw that. I will just stick to my G5's thank you even if they do cost as much to run the air condtioning every day. Until I CAN buy a cheap Power9 desktop that they are selling for under a 1000 usd. I am not touching that ARM stuff ether. Uck, locked down cpu, locked down boot loader, no standards for bianrys, only evil Debian. Hell no, not after what happened to the OUYA and the Wii. Screw that jiz. I will not buy a locked down system EVER AGAIN!
@Linux only Hardware: Yah does not matter if we don't get the games. Lets be honest if linux at most only gets 7% that would be a win. WE need games as it is the one major thing holding us back and with the war going on we can't trust Steam any more. I say we need an alternative to Windows Live. A way to install physical games from DVD''s on all distros with out Steam. We have snaps and appimages (flatpacks are a joke). So some of the infrusture is there. We also need better emulators. If you used Mupen recently on 16.04 you would see how much of a joke it is. WE don't even have things like a working Dreamcast or Neo Geo Pocket Emulator. I hate source so that is not an option. We can't rely on Retroarch or Lutris ether as those use Wine. We need a project that all they do is make, maintane and package emulators for linux. Did you know that there is an open source clone of Simcity 2000 for electron...I know that is cool so why does nether Ubuntu or Debian have it in there bloody repos. Nether ubuntu or Debian care about gamers. I care about gaming but I don't want to have to use Wine let alone have to run Windows. Also if LInux is even going to have a chance in the Japanese market we need to get loads of visual novels on linux. Not kidding it is a must as most Japanese who would use linux are the Otaku market as the rest don't care as they just use computers for workstations and digital type writers. Now for korea we need more MMO"S and I man alot more. Considering all the internet cafes in S. korrea and the amount of them who get addicted we need Linux to tap into that market. The only second is China's even if they try to stop it.
26 • @24 scaling (by Ostrol on 2019-03-27 09:27:42 GMT from Poland)
"With a 13" laptop and 1920x1080 resolution with no scaling I'd be doing a lot of squinting, maybe need a magnifying glass. If your laptop is Windows 10 only with the proper driver, the OS should have taken care of scaling. Go to Settings>System>Display. You should have the "recommended" resolution and scaling already set. "
You are right. I never looked in there. It also means that, the OS maker cares about the users and keep the user from unnecessary headaches. Yes, it is a Windows only laptop. I have tried to install Ubuntu in it, but dropped the idea. The laptop and the OS works, and there was no trouble for so long, even with all those upgrades.
I am having a problem of buying a new laptop that would dual boot with Linux. And, now being used to 1920x1080px, it would be pretty hard to go back to 1366x768px. Atm, I am having that with my dual boot laptops. Hope, one day, Linux devs would consider getting scaling right.
@ 25 Jessica
Battery life is a problem of Linux for ages, never really corrected. In the same laptop, Windows 10 gives me few mins more than any Linux. With Gnome 3.32 for example, it dies faster, than with XFCE4. I use Linux, because I simply like it. I can play with it (not play games, but play with Linux). But, I won't throw away Windows, for it is a fully fledged OS. I am not ideological.
Ah, btw, if you are a gamer, and still want Linux, dual boot. If you want to design, Autocad, Archicad etc, dual boot. If you want to create music and such, buy a Mac...and dual boot.
27 • @22 - scaling (by blob69 on 2019-03-27 11:07:15 GMT from Canada)
"Don't know what GPU you have, but I think you may need to do a bit of search knowledge about setup and drivers if any, or maybe you need a DE like KDE-Plasma that will allow granular scaling, and a distro that will make it easy to find and install drivers. The 400 DPI you mention is out of the ballpark. The Dell XPS13 is about as high resolution as you get, and that's 331. Also, you can buy it with Ubuntu installed and it works fine. I have a 15.6" laptop with 1920x1080 resolution (141 DPI), and I need to scale it to 1.2 on KDE and 1.25 on Windows. Otherwise everything is too small. My 20" monitor has the same resolution, no scaling needed. (96 DPI)"
It has two GPU's - a radeon 7000, and an intel (cant remember number). The radeon just does not work, so pretty much every distro goes with the intel. The native resolution, as its a hd monitor, is in the 3300'sXwhatever. This is where the problem lies.
I have tried many distro's on this machine, of them linux mint is quite good, as is slackware, but trying to run something other than xfce say fluxbox causes problems - the aforementioned cannot adapt, therefore everything is really really teeny. Even increasing the dpi to 400 makes little impact in fluxbox. This is the main problem with some programs - they cant adapt.
28 • fluxbox (by Tim on 2019-03-27 12:17:45 GMT from United States)
@27
If you visit the fluxbox website the last post is from 2015, and that's when the last stable release was. It's totally ok to use older software (I actually use twm fairly regularly) but to say that Linux is a pain because a window manager that hasn't been updated in 4 years can't handle a high end modern screen seems a bit unfair.
I've found that the success/failure of most software has more to do with specific hardware than anything else. It seems to me you've got a mismatch- if you've got something high end you need software that's actively developed and being tested and debugged by users with such hardware. Sometimes one has to use window managers/ DEs /distros that aren't our first choice but work with our hardware. I've yet to find a computer that doesn't work well with something.
29 • User laptop problems, @27, @28 (by Angel on 2019-03-27 14:25:54 GMT from Philippines)
Many times the problems reside not in the computer or the OS, but in the user. A laptop has specs, short for specifications,(emphasis on specific). "3300"sXwhatever" and "intel (can't remember number)" are not specs, so it's no wonder the user runs into problems. Also, I am sure there are quite a few distros and several DEs that will work fine with that particular screen. Because the user can't run it with an out-of-date WM does not mean laptops are troublesome with Linux.
30 • Budgie/Solus (by Jordan on 2019-03-27 18:22:11 GMT from United States)
@2 ... I'm using it now, Solus 4 with Budgie. I can tell you straight up that this distro is faster, more robust, and more quickly configurable than many above it in the PHR.
And it is not, I repeat not, based upon Ubuntu/Debian. It is built from scratch as a true independent.
31 • Laptop/Linux troubles (by Friar Tux on 2019-03-27 18:33:53 GMT from Canada)
Angel (@29), I agree. I only ever use laptops as a desktop computer is way too clunky for me (can't drag a desktop to the library, or coffee shop).
Also, I have not yet run into any scaling issues even through I find most default font sizes way too small to read on most laptop screens. Also, I have learned many years ago to not bother with the scaling. I just increase the font size in the font settings dialog (generally it's set at 8 or 9, I increase it to 12 globally and everything looks great. (My present screens are 3 @ 1366 x 768 and 1 @ 1280 x 800.)
32 • NuTyX (by gplcoder on 2019-03-27 19:52:24 GMT from Austria)
I had a NuTyX 32 build rolling build in progress using version 10.0 (from the core ISO) when they implemented version 11.0. Now 32 bit has been dropped. The entire i686 folder has been removed from the download tree. Rolling won't help me here since I cannot update it.
I'm done with NuTyX.
No 32bit, no go.
33 • Solus Live ISO (by Vern on 2019-03-28 02:57:10 GMT from United States)
@30 The problem I found with Solus is I can't boot the live iso with Secure Boot. The only live distro I've encountered that had that issue.
34 • @33 secure boot (by Hoos on 2019-03-28 03:58:12 GMT from Singapore)
Distros will only work with Secure Boot turned on, if the devs had agreed to pay the Microsoft "tax" to get a key for their distro.
Smaller projects or those opposed in principle to such a tax won't spend on it. Those backed by commercial enterprises/corporations do. Ubuntu's Canonical does.
Were you using only Ubuntu-based distros before?
35 • Secure Boot (by Vern on 2019-03-28 04:51:10 GMT from United States)
@34 Yes, Ubuntu-based. Or Debian-based - deepinOS.
Fedora, works ok also with Secure Boot on.
36 • @35 (by Hoos on 2019-03-28 04:57:55 GMT from Singapore)
Well, Fedora => Red Hat => commercial enterprise.
37 • @35 part 2 - Deepin's makers (by Hoos on 2019-03-28 05:01:23 GMT from Singapore)
DeepinOS may be Debian-based but they are made by:
Wuhan Deepin Technology Co, Ltd
https://www.deepin.org/en/contactus/
Looks like a commercial corporation to me.
It would appear they aren't opposed to paying the tax.
38 • @31, resolution, @37 secure boot (by Angel on 2019-03-28 09:56:03 GMT from Philippines)
@31, With the resolutions you mention, scaling is not needed unless the screen is maybe 10" or less. I also increase the size of fonts in most cases. But with something like a 13.3" laptop with 3840x2160, scaling at 2 to 2.5 times is pretty much what I'd want. While you get an overall much sharper screen, the real advantage of UHD is in photos, videos and gaming. Some look quite beautiful.
@37. Debian expects to include secure boot in Buster. It's available for testing. Arch Linux can be made to use it with a little work, which is par for the course for Arch. As of a few months ago, Solus developers were talking about implementing it. Not there yet, AFAIK. There have been workarounds for the non-"corporate" entities for some time now, some courtesy of MS itself. Won't go into details here. Google is your friend. (Nosy as hell, but still friendly.;))
39 • @ 34 secure boot (by Ostrol on 2019-03-28 10:23:23 GMT from Poland)
>> Distros will only work with Secure Boot turned on, if the devs had agreed to pay the Microsoft "tax" to get a key for their distro.
Not true!
You can quite easily install Linuxes with secure boot disabled. I just checked my laps, all have secure boot disabled. They multi boot quite nicely.
40 • @29 (by blob69 on 2019-03-28 11:19:13 GMT from United States)
@29 - I dont think it matters if I was really accurate in the specs I gave, or what I wrote, the deal is that was showing that the resolution was higher than others were talking about, so their configurations and justifications will not work in this case.
I did mention I use xfce - yes?? Which BTW one can adjust the screen size from a drop down menu that is in the monitor section, as well as being able to change the dpi. But I use startx to adjust the dpi. SO I also gave fluxbox as an example of something that cannot adapt, also smplayer, vlc, thunar/pcmanfm cannot adapt, although not strictly true with smplayer as there is a feature that will make it display correctly in high resolution laptops.
Freebsd is a mess on this laptop.
41 • @39 - misreading of my @34 post (by Hoos on 2019-03-28 11:52:32 GMT from Singapore)
@Ostrol, what I meant to say was that if you want a distro to work WITH Secure Boot turned ON, the distro must purchase the key (or maybe using whatever workarounds mentioned in @38 - I myself have no idea).
Of course if you disable SB, distros are going to work!
42 • 2015 (by Tim on 2019-03-28 14:38:10 GMT from United States)
@40
XFCE is kind of the same thing- the last stable update is 2015. Not that it isn't great, and not that development isn't happening, but it isn't going to be ideal for top of the line current hardware.
Ideally this wouldn't be an issue, but developers are giving us their work for free, and it's understandable if not all projects can support all hardware. That doesn't make Linux hard to use... it just means that if you've got non-standard hardware you have to be a little choosier.
43 • @41, secure boot (by Angel on 2019-03-28 15:37:41 GMT from Philippines)
I usually disable secure boot on my installs. Not a need for my uses. Most can be disabled, although not all. But there's no need to create the false impression that it takes corporate money to enable it on Linux. The resistance to secure boot in Linux is mostly philosophical, or just unwillingness to do it for whatever reasons. I'm not judging. The money paid to Microsoft for the certificate is a pittance. ($99 last I saw, paid once, not per copy.) Even I could afford that if I wanted to create my own boutique distro. Also the Linux Foundation has made software available with MS's blessing since 2013 for those who may want to avoid paying MS.
44 • Secure Boot Tax (by vern on 2019-03-28 17:05:26 GMT from United States)
Actually that $99 fee goes to VeriSign:
https://www.wired.com/2012/06/microsoft-windows8-secure-boot/
Also I can turn off SB and boot both Windows and Linux. Just concerned about less security coming from Windows. I use Windows for just a few items. Rarely do I venture out into the wild.
45 • Pardus (by Yankel on 2019-03-29 19:06:05 GMT from United States)
The early Pardus was a superb distro in KDE. It fell off to near nothing when the government withdrew support. It had been slated to be the default OS in the Turkish school system, but Microsoft butted in, spread the "warmth", got the government contracts for schools and otherwise and Pardus was nearly kaput.
Doubtless, the latest issue is likely very good but I have Debian and Devuan I loved the early Pardus since it had the superb KDE in the days prior to systemd. I hated to see it collpase.
46 • Ubuntu 19.04 (by Dweebus on 2019-03-29 20:18:21 GMT from United States)
Yippeeee, Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo beta is here! Gonna miss my Bionic Beaver really bad but figure the beta is probably really good too!
47 • @45, Pardus, PisiLinux (by Angel on 2019-03-30 00:14:04 GMT from Philippines)
The original Pardus was forked into Pisi Linux, still independent and systemd free, and still active although the latest releases don't show on DW. Websites, blogs, forums are in Turkish. The PisiLinux package manager was forked by Solus.
https://translate.google.com.ph/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pisilinux.org%2Fblog%2F65-pisi-linux-2-1-1-felis-catus.html
48 • @42 (by blob69 on 2019-03-30 14:09:57 GMT from United States)
I take your point about the developers etc...
Obviously, really it was my mistake thinking that I could get this laptop without finding out whether there could be any problems.
BTW the touchpad can be a problem.
I have just found the res 3840x2160 default.
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| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Window Maker Live
Window Maker Live is a Debian-based Linux distribution that applies the Window Maker window manager as the default graphical user interface and integrates well-known open-source components in an attractive and usable user interface. The distribution includes integrated GNOME components.
Status: Active
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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