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1 • PCLinuxOS (by Jordan on 2019-04-08 00:30:16 GMT from United States)
To its credit, the latest seems just like the last one I tested six years ago!
2 • Web Browser Poll (by EarlyBird on 2019-04-08 00:42:51 GMT from Canada)
Wasn't certain which item to check in your poll as most important. Guess it would be for the browser to stay out of my way and let me proceed with my workflow. On THAT note, Firefox fails miserably. In preferences, have checked flag to allow me to dictate WHERE to save files/downloads to, but the resulting downloads don't follow as I change download directories. If I am archiving massive number of files off a site, they should ALL go to to my present working directory (last saved position). Instead, maybe a jpeg will go there, but then the txt desciption describing the picture will go to where I last saved a txt, maybe a month ago, instead of going where it should, the last working directory where I saved that jpeg. This mean Firefox is fundamentally broken at its most bast functionality. In searching for answers, have seen numerous posts that this was a conscious decision by developers, and instead of allowing modifying this broken behaviour under preferences, you have to edit an obscure and badly documented hidden file. I expect to maybe manually edit a file in something like fluxbox, but at least that would be expected, and it is well documented. In a big, bloated package like Firefox, you would NOT expect this. If this is a conscious decision by developers, it reflects the same poor attitude that resulted in Gnome 3.
The review of Falkon was very helpful. Presently, often use Qupzilla, and it is almost perfect. Was thinking of trying Falkon. Don't understand why they wanted to integrate with KDE. Qupzilla works fine without that integration. No explanation given for that decision.
Also curious why so many other programs try to settle on Qt (KDE), or Gnome libraries. Audacity uses WxWidgets, and it looks and works great. And then you get smaller programs like mhwaveedit, that are fully functional with practically no bloat. OKay, those 2 examples are not web browsers.
Dillo works really well. The lack of javascript does limit functionality, but sometimes it is just the thing to checkout otherwise malware-advertise-laden sites.
All this to say, what's important in a web browser depends on what you are trying to do with the web browser, so can't really pick one choice from the poll
Sorry for the long-winded attempt to answer the poll.
3 • Browsers (by FedorArch on 2019-04-08 01:30:49 GMT from United States)
I feel as though only two factors should matter for average users: functionality and standards compliance. Of course performance is always a concern, but this is typically hindered by cautious decisions of distribution developers and should not be entirely taken on by application developers. Clear Linux, a distro praised on phoronix.com as an example of innovation for the sake of performance, causes browser benchmarks in Firefox to show much better results than of the same benchmarks on other distros. Compatibility necessarily holds back new technologies.
This isn't to say everyone needs to use Vivaldi or Chrome or whatnot. Functionality and standards compliance means different things for different people. Some like UI theming, others prefer the familiar grey tones of Chrome. But ultimately, if sites display as intended and the browser does not make it difficult to perform common tasks, then it is a good browser. Size and performance, unless under certain constraints such as low disk space or web development, are hardly noticeable for users, and spending time on them rather than making a UI intuitive or failing to fix site compatibility issues seems misguided.
And I will comment on EarlyBird's criticism of "bloat" and GNOME's developers. Bloat can be useful for many people. Having extra features that aren't used is never an issue with 200GB hard drives, let alone 1TB in some workstations. Use Linux from Scratch or Gentoo if you don't want bloat. Making a functional distro means sacrificing customizability for general use. As for GNOME 3, it is absolutely annoying that common tasks are unintuitive and optimized for touchscreens. Yet, I exclusively use GNOME 3. Why? Because I actually like it. As it stands, the developers have made a desktop environment that gets better with every release. I think Qt and KDE are bloated and have only had issues getting consistent theming across all of my applications. If you want minimal, go with i3 or openbox or no window manager at all! I think the argument that developers don't respond to users is not sufficient evidence to criticize such a complex project. Just use KDE and let GNOME do what it does best: look awesome and set the standards of the future of the Linux desktop. It's much more ubiquitous than Plasma and KDE, so something must be nice :)
4 • Web Browser Poll (by Roger on 2019-04-08 01:31:15 GMT from Belgium)
Cross-platform, Extensions, Flexibility/Options and User interface.
These four are for me the most important, Firefox is always my first choice and than comes Vivaldi.
Next is Midori or SeaMonkey. Edge is out even they are going to use Chrome engine.
I do not use Googles Chrome, they are invasive enough.
I used Opera but from the moment the switched to use an other engine I dropped them.
It also did not help they where sold to China, second mistake.
5 • PCLINUXOS (by A Reyes on 2019-04-08 01:48:18 GMT from United States)
I installed the Mate version. Download size 1.7 G, I went back to the PCLOS site and the website says the KDE version is 1.8 gigs, not the 1.0 you got.
I installed using the complete drive and it automatically formatted and partioned the drive with 50 gigs for the OS, 4 gigs for swap and the balance of the drive as a home partition for for files. No problems with installation. Upon reboot asks you install a root password and separate user password.
This type of partitioning should allow one to install other distros w/o too much concern about your home files, but I will still back up.
Got Firefox, not Falkon, got Libreoffice installed and a number of packages I did not know existed. Looking to gry out Strawberry and RawTherapee
The SU command asked for the password, it did not give me automatic log in to root, asked me for a password.
Downloaded updates using synaptic, everything updated no problems. Installed Notifier a package that notifies about update that landed next to the Parcellite icon. In a couple of days I will see if this works. This package should be included in the initial installation.
I installed this on a desktop with I5 processor, 4gig memory and a sata SSD drive. From pressing the ON button to desktop 35 seconds, including the couple of seconds to select user and enter password. The SSD drive does make a difference.
6 • Firefox is my favorite browser (by Roy on 2019-04-08 02:36:27 GMT from United States)
I prefer Firefox because standards compliance.
7 • Firefox still is number one (by Torsten on 2019-04-08 02:40:51 GMT from Germany)
I am using Firefox, because Chrome is tracking and spying on you.
Firefox surely isn't perfect, but Firefox cares about your privacy!
So, if you care about your privacy, you shouldn't use Chrome....
8 • Web browser Features (by Andy Figueroa on 2019-04-08 02:46:43 GMT from United States)
I voted "Other."
I want a web browser that just works, gets it done, stays out of the way, while maximizing privacy and minimizing danger. I've been using Firefox since it spun off of Netscape, and before that used Netscape from its first release.
9 • Browsers (by Romane on 2019-04-08 02:53:00 GMT from Australia)
In the poll, I chose performance/speed. Being restricted to one choice, that seems the most important to me.
Other important "things" include reliability, staying out of my way, and acceptable integration with the rest of the system. Likewise, personal taste in appearance and other non-core "things" likewise plays an important role.
There are those who say good things, and those that say not-so-good things about Firefox, but I find personally that Firefox suits my need. I don't bother with add-ons, staying fairly vanilla with whatever the repositories provide (Debian Testing for me). In other distros when I trial them Firefox remains my browser of choice.
As said above, personal taste plays some part in my choice. I have Chromium installed (but quite rarely used), and have used a number of other browsers; yet my taste consistently returns me to Firefox.In various ways, other browsers, regardless however good, just don't tick enough of those boxes.
10 • Web Browser Poll (by Web Browser Poll on 2019-04-08 03:07:14 GMT from United States)
The most important feature of a web browser is security. Firstly automatic deletion of cookies. Blocking trackers and effective ad removal second.
11 • PCLinuxOS64 (by Bobbie Sellers on 2019-04-08 03:29:33 GMT from United States)
i have been using PCLinux for quite some time now.
The 2019.02 iso that were tested have been updated
to 2019.03.
PCLinuxOS64 in both KDE and Mate versions
of 2019.03.
<https://repo.pclosusers.com/pclinuxos/live-cd/64bit/>
These are in the range of 1.7-1.8 GB. One thing that seems
to be missing is lighter colored and transparent backgrounds.
But the situation is correctable using the simple tools to
configure the Desktop from a "hamburger" icon. On
KDE 4.x.x these were called "Plasmoids" or "Cashews" due
to the outline. Then you can get into configuring the KDE
Settings to get the desktop of your dream.
I installed PCLinuxOS64 KDE5 without problems on a new Dell
Inspiron laptop for a friend who does not want to use Windows. I didn't want him
to use Windows either and hate to use it myself.
The standard PCLinux KDE desktop is set up to resemble the Windows
setup as was Mandriva from which it takes a lot. It was a friendly
way for users to move from Windows to using Linux.
The usually unseen versatility of KDE lets it move among the modern
flag like menus and the older style of menu and setup, as well as
the Application Dashboard which is a fullscreen application launcher,
A simple launcher menu and a Tiled Menu based on Windows 10s Start
Menu. With elementary editing you can create fresh task panels where
ever your hands and mouse expect to find them.
And we are at Linux 5.0.7. from the PCLinux repositories
bliss
12 • Most important browser feature (by M. Edward (Ed) Borasky on 2019-04-08 03:46:25 GMT from United States)
The most important browser feature is being Firefox Nightly. ;-)
13 • Performance/Speed=chrome (by Vern on 2019-04-08 04:16:08 GMT from United States)
"Performance/Speed" is what I want Therefore its Chrome. I've tried all the rest. Nothing comes close to Chrome's speed. If your worried about exposure tracking. You might be surprised at how many other ways your being watched. Its just not an issue with me. I don't care id they know what I buy or what I had for lunch. The man on the street also knows.
14 • PCLinuxOS (by Fred on 2019-04-08 04:26:10 GMT from Australia)
PCLinuxOS was my first Linux distro when I started using Linux over 10 years ago. It was the only distro to include drivers for my printer and that wasn't too buggy to use. I still have fond memories of it after all these years.
15 • Flatpak as default in future Fedora Release?? (by MCBuhl on 2019-04-08 04:43:06 GMT from Europe)
Just: why??? 😱
Time to try out other distros... #sosad
16 • Browsers (by Argent on 2019-04-08 05:12:24 GMT from United States)
Simple, and easy to use would be Surf from suckless.org and a little fancier would be Epiphany.
Firefox and all its clones are still FF, keeping it simple can't be and won't be done folks! Free, as in free beer someone has to pay and that is your surfing habits and personal data!
Chrome is like putting a noose around your neck and shooting yourself in the foot, just bad news!
Linux could use a good, stable community-driven browser that isn't into data harvesting and based on webkit and not qt.
17 • PCLinuxOS (by DB on 2019-04-08 05:46:41 GMT from Canada)
Started experimenting with Linux about 2005 and did a lot of Distro Hopping for a while until I hit on Mandriva . I kind of liked that until about the end of 2009. Mandrive just didn't seem to work quite right after that, lots of little things popping up all the time. Then I tried PCLinuxOS!!! Been a happy customer ever since. I've always had to enter a password to use su, don't know why you had that problem. I also run it in virtualbox and run a lot of virtual machines on top of my this system with little to no trouble over the years. And any problem I have run into has been solved through the great people in their forums. In my opinion it's the best distro out there!!! Though the KDE desk top seems to have gone down hill from 4 to 5 so the XFCE spin is looking better and better these days.
18 • Web browser? Opera Beta (by Ostrol on 2019-04-08 06:50:34 GMT from Poland)
I use Opera Beta, created, maintained mainly in Wrocław, Poland.
19 • FALKON (by WH on 2019-04-08 08:19:50 GMT from Germany)
Great thanks Jesse. I am using Falkon, originally Qupzilla, since several years, originally in Mint, then in Manjaro. I planned to switch one of my computers to MX-Linux which itself seems to run fine, but now I hesitate a bit to undertake the work to permanently install it as I want to have MY browser... The latest version of Falkon works really well in Manjaro, after a few hic-ups in the past, kind of amazing for what is now a KDE product.
20 • browser facilities (by zykoda on 2019-04-08 08:25:29 GMT from United Kingdom)
The amount of extraneous advertising on the web (and generally in
other media) which is forced down our throats leads the general
saturation (and beyond). That is why I resort to lynx or dillo.
21 • Most important browser feature (by RTL on 2019-04-08 09:05:34 GMT from Hungary)
I always found the most important feature of a browser is convertion a HTML code received from the server into a human compatible interface.
22 • pclos 2019 (by CJ on 2019-04-08 09:06:51 GMT from United States)
The PCLiinuxOS Live ISO you reviewed is the mini version and comes with very few apps. You get konsole, kwrite and falkon. The full version has many more applications plus LibreOffice and firefox is the default browser. Setting a su root password is required upon installation to the hard disk as well as setting up a user account. The full version also comes with a package update notifier when new packages are available once PCLOS is installed to the hard drive. Removing the xorg.conf file after guest addition installation is the fix for virtualbox. Have a great day.
23 • Browser (by SC on 2019-04-08 09:26:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
Using Firefox Quantum, it just works on Fedora 30, and allows me to have the extensions I want. I have stopped using Falkon as it is quite 'buggy' now. I have mostly used SeaMonkey in the past, and Palemoon before then due to them being lightweight but also fast / reliable. With regards to your poll, there should have been a tick box for all of the above, as that's what we want ;)
24 • PCLinuxOS root (by O-P on 2019-04-08 10:13:41 GMT from United States)
Only during the live session, you autologin to the guest account, and using su to get root privileges doesn't require a password as a matter of convenience. When installed the first order of business is still setting a root password.
25 • PCLinuxOS (by Rick on 2019-04-08 10:48:57 GMT from United States)
The two times I have tested this distro on my Lenovo Thinkpad T420 it blew up. It is buggy and has been buggy for some time. I really don't understand all the '10' reviews in the ratings section. Using MX Linux and am quite happy with it. Very stable and reliable.
26 • PCLinuxOS (by kc1di on 2019-04-08 10:56:25 GMT from United States)
PCLinuxOS 2019.03 Runs well on my equipment and is solid and I've had few problems. Would recommend it for any Newbie. And their Forums is great. I run the xfce community edition and have grown to like it very much. This is on my old Laptop. I have it on a Desktop at a freinds house also and it' is used to do work every day. Solid, conservative and dependable.
27 • PCLinuxOS and root (by Jesse on 2019-04-08 12:11:25 GMT from Canada)
@24: "Only during the live session, you autologin to the guest account, and using su to get root privileges doesn't require a password as a matter of convenience. When installed the first order of business is still setting a root password."
In my review, when I mention it is possible to use "su" to get root access without a password, I am referring specifically to my installed copy of PCLinuxOS, not the live session.
As you can see in the review above, the first thing I did upon installing the OS was to set a root password through the first-run wizard. It's a step that I don't think can be skipped. Yet I ended up with a system where the root password is not required to run "su".
I found out later, through future tests, that what had happened was the root password was not set by the first-run wizard, even though I put one in (and had to repeat it to confirm). So it looks like the bug isn't so much in the "su" command as the first-run wizard. I later manually set the root password and got the password prompt. This is still a serious bug though as it means the password I created at install time was not applied, but there was no warning to indicate that.
@5: " I went back to the PCLOS site and the website says the KDE version is 1.8 gigs, not the 1.0 you got."
There are two KDE editions, a full one (1.8GB) and Darkstar (1.0GB). I was reviewing the latter.
28 • PcLinuxOS (by Dave on 2019-04-08 12:17:43 GMT from United States)
Ah yes, good old pcLinuxOS and the memories that it brings back.
TexStar started providing RPM packages to Mandrake, long before it was known as Mandriva. The name Mandrake was around for a few years before it drew the attention of the copyright holders of “Mandrake the Magician,” who felt it was a violation of the fair use doctrine and an agreement was struck, and Mandriva was thus born.
TexStar provided Mandrake/Mandriva with some of the very first packages compiled specific for the new cutting-edge AMD Athlon 64-bit processor, taking advantage of its 64-bit advantages for its time.
While those don’t seem like big challenges today they were huge steps in the 90s. Many distros have come and gone in that time. PcLinuxOS is still around though, that speaks volumes, doesn’t it?
29 • @25 Rick: (by dragonmouth on 2019-04-08 12:28:32 GMT from United States)
"It is buggy and has been buggy for some time."
Did you ever consider that it might be you and/or your hardware that is causing the bugs and blow ups? Just ask yourself how do most of PCLOS users manage to automagically avoid the bugs you find?
I've been using PCLOS as my main distro since Woody Woodward quit developing Simply MEPIS. I have installed and maintained PCLOS on about half a dozen different machines, including a T21 and a T42. I may not like some features of PCLinuxOS but, over all, it is like a Times watch, it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
30 • One missing choice (by CS on 2019-04-08 12:49:38 GMT from United States)
Equally important to speed and performance is good support from websites. I have one bank that flashes an ominous warning that Firefox is not supported. No similar warnings for Chrome. Practically speaking that limits the choices of what you can run to Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE. Flame on, readers.
@29 Did you ever consider that a distro that can't even handle common hardware might be a bad choice and not worth the trouble? Just ask yourself why you would waste your life away compensating for some developer's bad choices when there are at least 3 Linux distributions that actually sort of work and will save you hours of pointless toil?
31 • PCLinuxOS and Browser Feature (by Geo. Savage on 2019-04-08 13:38:02 GMT from Canada)
PCLinuxOS - glad you're still around. :-)
Browser feature privacy AND security. Period.
32 • Freedom, standards and privacy (by Andrés González Cantú on 2019-04-08 13:57:55 GMT from Mexico)
For me -I've been using some GNU/Linux OS distros since the late 90s - the three most important features of a browser are:
1. That it is free software (https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software).
2. That respects the standards.
3. That it respects my privacy.
The other features are important from a technical point of view but if the first three are not satisfied then I am not interested in the others.
I use Firefox browser variants.Cheers.
33 • Web Browsing (by cflow on 2019-04-08 14:07:44 GMT from United States)
The sad truth is that if you're using anything based on Chromium's web engine, you are letting Google control the web standards it is developed upon:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/the-web-now-belongs-to-google-and-that-should-worry-us-all/
If you care about the future of web development, use Firefox, or some other browser with an engine not based nor derived from Webkit.
34 • @32 (by Ostrol on 2019-04-08 14:08:56 GMT from Poland)
The most important features of a browser,
1. It doesn't have to be free software, but free for me to use,
2. It has to be very easy to use,
3. It should respect my privacy -- by adding ad blocks by default,
4. And, made, maintained by people, who understand what an web browser should be.
So, I choose Opera.
35 • browser (by dogma on 2019-04-08 14:09:04 GMT from United States)
Most important is that it respect its role as a User Agent.
36 • Standard (by Gustavo on 2019-04-08 14:27:16 GMT from Brazil)
Like it or not, Chrome is THE standard. Every other browser or at least web engine will be dead soon or later. This battle is over already.
Install Chromium, fiddle a little with its privacy options, add some extensions and you will be just fine.
37 • @ 33 browser standards... (by Kazan on 2019-04-08 14:39:00 GMT from France)
"The sad truth is that if you're using anything based on Chromium's web engine, you are letting Google control the web standards it is developed upon"
Who cares?
Just imagine this world without Uncle Google!
I don't mind Google knowing what I need...and, giving me hints. Google also helps me to get from one point to another, free gps..., even when walking.
38 • MX Linux and Falkon (by Chris Whelan on 2019-04-08 15:18:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
@19
I installed Falkon on an MX Linux test box by temporarily enabling the 'Sid' repos. It ran well.
If you make the move to MX Linux, ask in the appropriate part of the forum, and if it is possible the Devs will add Falkon to the MX Test Repo section of the Package Installer.
39 • Browsers (by Carney on 2019-04-08 15:29:32 GMT from United States)
@36 you may be right, but let's remember when it looked like Internet Explorer had vanquished Netscape and it seemed as if had taken over forever. Even Apple bowed the knee to IE, and Steve Jobs let the words "I use IE and I like it" come out of his mouth and had IE (and Outlook Express) installed by default in MacOS 8.
And yet IE is now an abandoned laughingstock and even its successor Edge has failed. So the battle is NEVER "over"...
40 • Browsers (by Shawn Faber on 2019-04-08 15:42:50 GMT from United States)
Is there a way to quickly see what the default browsers are for each distribution?
41 • @39 (by Gustavo on 2019-04-08 15:47:20 GMT from Brazil)
That´s a fair reasoning.
42 • How is TexStar? (by TexStar well-wisher on 2019-04-08 16:11:02 GMT from Australia)
Last I heard TexStar seemed to be losing his fight against cancer, so I'm just wondering if he's still alive, as I haven't heard any news in months now.
43 • Browser Features (by Kevin on 2019-04-08 16:15:36 GMT from United States)
Other - several of the above are important, and out of those it's hard to pick a single feature that's most important.
44 • TexStar (by Jesse on 2019-04-08 16:19:58 GMT from Canada)
@42: >> "Last I heard TexStar seemed to be losing his fight against cancer, so I'm just wondering if he's still alive, as I haven't heard any news in months now.
Since his account appears to still be posting on the PCLinuxOS forums daily, I'd say he's still alive and working. Personally, I hope he continues to be with us for a long time to come.
45 • Web Browsing (by Paul Nodine on 2019-04-08 16:24:03 GMT from United States)
@33 Except that Apple Safari web browser is the only mainstream browser that uses webkit. Google Chrome forked webkit to Blink some time ago. Opera and Vivaldi also use the Blink engine.
I understand your argument but for mainstream browsers, there is Gecko/Firefox and Blink/Chromium based browsers. Not much choice if a person does not like Firefox
46 • @36: (by dragonmouth on 2019-04-08 16:24:39 GMT from United States)
When it comes to Google "Resistance Is Futile". Right, Gustavo?
It ain't over 'till it's over.
It ain't over until the fat lady sings and she hasn't even gotten dressed yet.
47 • @46 (by Gustavo on 2019-04-08 16:51:17 GMT from Brazil)
There is no resistance. Do you think that was the users that made Chrome get so big in market share? Only big corporations can do that. They have a massive amount of money spent in development and marketing.
So that google actually has a great product, but also they have the "front page of the internet" (not R*ddit) and cell phones.
I don´t see that changing anytime soon.
Do you remember what happened to Mr. Smith at the end of the book?
48 • 39 • Browsers (by Pierre on 2019-04-08 17:35:27 GMT from France)
>> And yet IE is now an abandoned laughingstock and even its successor Edge has failed. So the battle is NEVER "over"...
None of those browsers are NOT relevant here. They don't work on either Linux or BSD. There's no need to prattle about other OS platforms.
49 • @30 CS: (by dragonmouth on 2019-04-08 17:54:03 GMT from United States)
Considering he's the only one complaining so far, I suspect it is him, rather than the distro. Too many other users are using PCLOS without problems As you say, there are many other distros that Rick can use.
50 • Advanced package formats (by K.U. on 2019-04-08 19:02:24 GMT from Finland)
Snap and Flatpak seem to be gaining ground. I wonder why doesn't nix enjoy similar popularity as it obviously is technically better. Anyway, there is a version of Falkon available in nix format: https://nixos.org/nixos/packages.html#falkon
51 • Browsers (by M.Z. on 2019-04-08 19:50:00 GMT from United States)
As others have mentioned privacy is by far the greatest feature a modern browser can deliver, especially given how the most popular browser demands that you give up on the idea altogether & surrender all info to Google. Ind addition, as the excellent Ars article @33 linked to points out, Google has a history of anti-competitive behaviour on YouTube and across other platforms. In addition to the article, there is a fair amount of wisdom to be gleaned via sorting the Ars comments via highest voted.
As per the Ars Article, problems happened when MS controlled 95% of the browsers market, & Google has a history of engaging in similar behaviour. Monopoly is bad for both innovation & privacy & as an Ars commentator pointed out, Google controls the chromium project & a large majority of its contributors & will steer it to it's own ends regardless of false open source tokenism.
Here & now, just as in the hey day of IE, Firefox stands for a truly open web based on standards & ensuring users their rights to privacy.
52 • Browsers (by Nathan on 2019-04-08 20:26:41 GMT from United States)
Falkon is a great web browser, and I like the ideas behind Brave. When EME was adopted by Firefox and Quantum ate my CPU, I switched to a combination of Falkon and Brave, but have since discovered that Firefox can be compiled eme-free on Gentoo, and the initial CPU issues have been resolved. Now I use Firefox with uBlock Origin as my adblocker of choice. I prefer uBlock Origin over the adblockers built into Falkon and Brave because it is more flexible (optionally doubles as a script blocker) and does a better job, in my opinion.
53 • PCLinuxOS in Virtual (by buster on 2019-04-08 21:22:38 GMT from Canada)
Years ago I used only Pclos. At the moment I need (shudder) Microsoft. For a few years now I've put my Linux distro in virtual and it's wonderful. I can use them both at the same time, side by side because of the guest additions software. No dual boots.
I'm old, and I wont do difficult stuff any more. The absence of the necessary software in Pclos is a huge obstacle for me, and I'm sure other people too. I think Jesse makes a good point in noting its absence.
And I suspect there are many like myself who just moved on to a different distro without giving it a fair trial. (And pretty well every other distro includes the software.) Not sure why it's not in their repositories, but is in everyone elses.
When it's there I'll give Pclos a whirl.
54 • PCLinuxOS in Virtual (by Francesco on 2019-04-08 22:26:42 GMT from United States)
PCLOS installs Virtualbox through an installation program which downloads the official Virtualbox and installs it and includes the guest additions ISO. Removal of the xorg.conf file is required after the guest additions have been installed. This is documented on their website.
55 • Missing Poll Option: Security (by Beolach on 2019-04-08 22:52:05 GMT from United States)
As a few others have already mentioned, Security/Privacy is the missing Browser Poll option that really should have been in there - I was honestly surprised it wasn't there. Just based on the nature of what browsers are, security is both really difficult and really important, and IMO it's the single biggest thing I'd like browsers to improve on. IMO Brave is far & away the best out-of-the-box-default browser for security/privacy, while Chromium+uBlock Origin & other extensions might be better once all the extensions are installed & set up. Brave is compatible w/ most Chromium extensions, but I'm not sure how well Brave Shields would interact w/ uBlock... I've been meaning to look into that, but haven't gotten around to it.
And of course Tor Browser whenever I think too much about how scary the web is.
56 • VirtualBox (by Jesse on 2019-04-08 23:22:51 GMT from Canada)
@54: " Removal of the xorg.conf file is required after the guest additions have been installed. This is documented on their website."
Could you post al ink as to where it is documented? I searched both the main website and the wiki for any mention of installing guest modules for VirtualBox and got no relevant results.
57 • PCLinuxOS in Virtual (by buster on 2019-04-08 23:23:54 GMT from Canada)
Sorry Francesco, but Jesse and I want Pclos in virtual, not a virtual inside Pclos. So my host is Win10, and my guest is Pclos. An easy mistake.
Guest additions are usually in the repositories of distros, but not in the case of Pclos.
58 • So, it looks like Microsoft dumped the Edge engine (by RJA on 2019-04-08 23:35:44 GMT from United States)
@39, Ironically, it looks like the Internet Explorer engine will be the only Microsoft web rendering engine left!
And thus, Internet Explorer outlived the Edge that we knew.
The only other ones that I can think of, with one of them whose name I forgot, can't even do JS...
59 • JS... (by Titus_Groan on 2019-04-09 00:56:00 GMT from New Zealand)
@58
JS = Java Script?
or the other one, Jack S**t?
probably inter-changeable anyway.
60 • Pclinuxos review (by Ljenux on 2019-04-09 01:08:30 GMT from Croatia)
This is extremely sloppy work on reviewing pclinuxos.
First you dont have latest ISO.
Version number is 2019.3. and it was released 15t of March, way before this article.
Secondly, so called "huge security issue" is fake news because su is run freely on live system only.
After instalation, 2 accounts are created, root and normal user.
You write about something while making conclusion based on live system. Pathetic.
And that virtualbox issue. I have no idea what are you talking about. Tried pclinuxos on virtualbox under winblows many times over the years. Never had problems.
There are serious issues with pclinuxos but you dont mention them. Main issue is repository. Some packages are outdated, not maintained anymore, and some dont even work.
And their community is extremely arrogant.
But to realize that, one has to use the distro more than few hours. You just run in virtualbox, maybe install, get some superficial impressions and than you write the article. People than read it and believe it. Pathetic.
61 • Best web browser feature (by Bill Lee on 2019-04-09 01:39:40 GMT from Canada)
Text browser.
I use Lynx for the most part, and can hit Print, and send the text to a mail client.
Full speed ahead, and no Postscript blockades.
Setting the Blynx settings infernally means that all links are noted and numbered in the text. Bang! Blynx go to http://www.leb.net/blinux/blynx/
See https://lynx.browser.org/ or https://lynx.invisible-island.net/release/
for pages and features.
62 • web browser (by jeffrydada on 2019-04-09 02:47:42 GMT from United States)
there should have been an "all the above" option. I've been using Firefox since it was called Firebird, then Phoenix, It was the first to do tabbed broswing, allowing custimization, and still is the only browser that works to make the internet safe and is continously working to provide the best web experience. Are there issues? yes. But as a community driven web brower they are transparent and accept feedback from their users. That is what separates Firefox from other browsers.
63 • Missing Poll Option: Security (by Beolach on 2019-04-09 02:50:05 GMT from United States)
As a few others have already mentioned, Security/Privacy is the missing Browser Poll option that really should have been in there - I was honestly surprised it wasn't there. Just based on the nature of what browsers are, security is both really difficult and really important, and IMO it's the single biggest thing I'd like browsers to improve on. IMO Brave is far & away the best out-of-the-box-default browser for security/privacy, while Chromium+uBlock Origin & other extensions might be better once all the extensions are installed & set up. Brave is compatible w/ most Chromium extensions, but I'm not sure how well Brave Shields would interact w/ uBlock... I've been meaning to look into that, but haven't gotten around to it.
And of course Tor Browser whenever I think too much about how scary the web is.
64 • JS? (by RJA on 2019-04-09 03:14:36 GMT from United States)
@59 JS=JavaScript
65 • @57 Virtualbox (by Antonio on 2019-04-09 04:12:20 GMT from Brazil)
The guest additions are not included in the PCLOS software repo because it comes included in the virtualbox package downloaded and installed through their virtualbox-manager. BTW guest additions do no properly install with 5.0 kernels.
66 • @60, PCLOS, arrogance (by Angel on 2019-04-09 05:19:35 GMT from Philippines)
"so called "huge security issue" is fake news"
Is this you, Donald?
67 • pclinuxos (not judging, not criticizing, just trying to understand) (by Tim on 2019-04-09 06:16:08 GMT from United States)
"pclinuxos live, su without password" I agree that is a remarkable feature but I'm left wondering if that is ONLY a feature during non-persistent live session. (The liveboot menu in some distributions labels this as "factory fresh" mode.) It's been over two years since I last trialed pclinuxos liveboot but, from memory, its permissions or restrictions seemed comparatively strict. In fact, as I recall, I bailed when I encountered difficulty performing some mundane operation (mounting a drive?) because I did not know the default root password. IIRC, later I discovered that detail, the password, was documented in their wiki.
Also, I clearly recall a harshly-worded sticky topic in pclinuxos forum (the one which disparagingly mentions "in the manner of the buntus")... yes, I opened another browser tab and checked just now, it's still there, titled "SUDO - Use and Abuse"
pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,90479.0.html
68 • Browers (by Jim on 2019-04-09 10:33:45 GMT from United States)
I like browsers with a lot of extensions. Trouble is that seems to be changing. I have used Palemoon and Firefox as my main browsers for years, but I see more and more of my favorite extensions disappear or fail to install with each browser upgrade.
69 • PCLOS, browsers (by Angel on 2019-04-09 12:42:19 GMT from Philippines)
@67 and others: If Jesse says he could become root without password AFTER installing. I have no reason to doubt him. I didn't have the same experience, but my last install was for the last 2018 ISO and he was using 2019.02. Could be that's the reason PCLOS released another ISO (2019.03) so soon after. (Pure speculation on my part, of course.)
PCLOS has not included sudo since I've known it, which is around 13 years, but "su" does require a password. You can't bypass entering a password on the installer. What you can do is bypass adding a user. Then you can log in directly as root on the GUI.
I think some people are confusing the Guest Additions ISO with the guest utilities which it installs. IN most distros, the guest-utils are either already installed or available from the repos. Not so with PCLOS. I installed those from the VBox Manager's Extension Pack. Those who mentioned the need to remove xorg.conf prior or after are correct. Works fine after that.
70 • Browser features: UI (by curious on 2019-04-09 12:54:04 GMT from Germany)
Privacy/Security is missing.
Of the other features, to me the UI is the most important. I don't like browsers that have the tabs on top. To me, they belong between the address bar and the browsing area. Unfortunately, that rules out the mainstream browsers, even if not KO'ed by privacy concerns.
Of course, I'm perfectly fine with this being configurable, so that the user can choose where the tab-bar goes.
Am currently quite happy with PaleMoon.
71 • Browsers (by Angel on 2019-04-09 13:13:07 GMT from Philippines)
If what you want is privacy, can't do much better than Firefox with NoScript. Hard to track or fingerprint you with that. More clicking needed, but that's the price. Just disable the extension for those websites where you need and want JS. Add a proxy or VPN if you wish. On security I'm more concerned with the corporate minion at the bank who can't resist opening the titillating pics he got from a friend, or who automatically replies with information to an email purportedly from his boss. The browsers themselves are quite good these days. I simply keep a browser (Firefox) in a VM, which is only used for financial and sensitive transactions Still, if you are concerned about things like DNS hijackings, there are other remedies such as dnscrypt, etc. Anonymity is a bit more difficult short of Tor, but there are browsers which help. Unfortunately, Linux only seems to have Opera with its proxies.
For my public persona, I use Chrome, logged in to everything and screaming "Here I am."
72 • Pclinuxos review (by Ljenux on 2019-04-09 13:14:55 GMT from Croatia)
@69
Jesse can say whatever he/she wants, but it is simply not true. I use pclinuxos since 2006 despite the fact i despise their community. It just works. And yes, su issue does not exist. It did not exist 2 months ago either, on version 2019.2
73 • PClinuxOS (by Jesse on 2019-04-09 13:52:36 GMT from Canada)
@72: The issue with the root password obviously did exist, otherwise I wouldn't have experienced it and written about it. And, despite what some have claimed, the issue exists on a hard disk install, not the live media (I spend almost no time working with live media during reviews).
I find it strange some people will go so far out of their way to disbelieve a report (or claim it false) rather than looking into the cause. I like PCLinuxOS and have no reason to make up false claims about the project.
74 • PCLinuxOS, the one I always go back to. (by Tony on 2019-04-09 14:53:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
Every now and then I will do a re-install and will try lots of other distros, Mint, Ubuntu, etc but I ALWAYS end up back with PCLinusOS. I have been using it for around 9 years now and I cannot recommend any other for someone who just wants to be a user. The only one that was as good as was Sidux a few years ago.
75 • @ 72, 73 etc Root (by Ostrol on 2019-04-09 15:25:25 GMT from Poland)
When you use a live iso, are you the root or a user named root? In any live Linux iso, by just writing su or sudo, you simply become the guy, who can damage any system from that live iso. You can even change/damage the Windows install in the computer with it, except of course, if you have the Windows install on fast start-up.
76 • Browser features (by The Voice of Reason on 2019-04-09 15:54:16 GMT from United States)
First, since no one has mentioned the Onion browser, I would nominate the most important unimplemented browser feature to be an Informed Public. No way are you going to get any privacy or independence from Google unless you make it impossible for them to snoop on you.
Second, there should be a way to feedback to those who ban the Onion browser from their websites to see how much legitimate traffic they are inconveniencing with their Page-Not-Founds and their damned time-wasting Find-The-Fireplug Captchas (thanks again, Google!).
Third, how tough would it be to implement a button to cut off those cursed page updates every thirty seconds? I'd love to read an entire Drudgereport without enduring a phalanx of page redraws.
77 • @72, PCLOS (by Angel on 2019-04-09 16:27:03 GMT from Philippines)
"Jesse can say whatever he/she wants, but it is simply not true. I use pclinuxos since 2006 despite the fact i despise their community."
I'll wager are a happy bunch at PCLOS community, and It's nice to see your effort to ingratiate yourself here.
78 • @73 Jesse: (by dragonmouth on 2019-04-09 16:28:35 GMT from United States)
I have been a PCLOS user for at least 5 years. Since your PCLOS review was published on Monday, I was unfortunate to have to re-install it on my PC from scratch. I specifically was on the lookout for your 'su' problem. It never materialized. Once I entered the admin (root) password during the install and completed the reboot, I WAS NOT able to access the root account from any user account using 'su' without having to provide the root password. I tried it in Konsole and xterm. The results were the same, I had to provide the password.
79 • PCLOS issues (by Friar Tux on 2019-04-09 17:14:49 GMT from Canada)
Hmmm... Jesse, I know what these guys are talking about. You see, I wasn't on the Titanic, so it didn't actually sink. I'm sure that because I, personally, didn't experience the sinking, all those that claim it sank were lying.
80 • PCLinuxOS (by Jesse on 2019-04-09 17:53:05 GMT from Canada)
@78: I'm glad to hear you were spared the bug. Hopefully it is only triggered in a small number of rare cases.
@79: To be fair, I have since tried the 2019.03 media and haven't been able to reproduce the su issue with it. Which means only one in three of my installs have had the problem. I think that points to a glitch at first-run rather than a consistent problem that is only triggered under certain conditions. Which is good news for users, but a troublesome spot for developers to be in as it makes it hard to address.
81 • Root, super user, etc (by Ostrol on 2019-04-09 18:55:48 GMT from Poland)
In Linux, you need to be "root" to install anything, even to install the the live iso to your computer. After that, to install any app, you can either use a shop app, package manager and give the password, or use the terminal, use su or sudo and give the password. Still, you are the owner of the computer, to which you install the app.
In Windows, when you need to install some app, it asks do you want to, and then once you say yes, it installs that app. You are being trusted to install anything you want, in your own computer. Now, someone would argue, that a virus would also could install itself, and harm the computer. It might, and it might also on a Linux box. Interestingly, Windows had looked after not letting any app t be installed without your specific yes. Which, Linux has not!
Puppy for example, uses root. Never heard of any Puppy user complaining being root. They also have one of the most friendly forum. Btw,I don't think there's any nut cases in the world, who'd waste time creating viruses for Linux, they might do that with Android, though.
82 • @79 (by dragonmouth on 2019-04-09 21:03:54 GMT from United States)
"all those that claim it sank were lying."
That is only YOUR interpretation. Besides, the two events are not exactly analogous. As Auric Goldfinger was wont to say "Once is a happenstance, twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy action." Since, by his own admission, Jesse was not able to replicate the problem, it looks like a happenstance, a one-of occurrence.
For a person of the cloth, you are very uncharitable by implying that those that did not experience Jesse's glitch are Doubting Thomases.
83 • @76, Browser page reload fixes (by Angel on 2019-04-09 23:37:20 GMT from Philippines)
There is an extension for Chrome to block page reloads: Auto Refresh Blocker. The extension will also work with Chromium or other browsers allowing Chrome extensions.
For Firefox: Type about: config in the URL bar and click "Enter." Accept the "This may void your warranty" warning. In the search bar, type accessibility.blockautorefresh. Right click on the preference name accessibility.blockautorefresh and choose "toggle" option from the drop-down menu. It should change from "false" to "true".
Please note that I first obtained the above information through Google, which then forced me to purchase a pair of pink-and-green plaid boxer shorts and to promise never to read the Drudge Report.
84 • Browser (by EdCoolio on 2019-04-10 00:29:37 GMT from United States)
1. Opens all web pages I use without issue.
2. FAST
3. Can use UBlock
4. Can block HTML5 and all garbage with an extension
5. Secure
In that order. I can run my own security if you give me a browser that opens everything and is all about SPEED.
Did I mention SPEED??? Fast. Fastest!
How about someone put out a completely stripped down distro that is targeted around Chromium speed, and nothing else, in both 32 (no PAE and PAE) and 64 bit flavors with WiFi out of the box support?
85 • @81 (by Arky on 2019-04-10 07:13:48 GMT from France)
The comparison doesn't hold. In windows, you have your trust engaged each time you get an installer from the web. Has it been tempered with ? Who is this coming from ? Can I trust the installer ? Is something hidden in there ? You MUST verify this by yourself on windows.
On Linux, the fact everything is on repository limit that responsibility, the store can auto check if your package has been tempered with, the who is most likely the one who maintain your OS (on major linux distributions), the fact you install by package is that there's no "installation setup" so either nothing is hidden/ or you have a popup / additional agreement on CLI to ask you if you want that additional package.
Yes in both cases, you type a password, but most likely the steps you used on Linux are less risky at every steps. The only breach on linux is when you must use a script found on the internet to install things, like the one for docker, which you need to review before executing it because the script is clear on the web (Docker teams recommend that).
86 • @85 (by Pierre on 2019-04-10 09:01:11 GMT from France)
"Yes in both cases, you type a password, but most likely the steps you used on Linux are less risky at every steps."
Prove it!
87 • @85 on Linux viruses...and repos... (by Ostrol on 2019-04-10 10:25:47 GMT from Poland)
Well, you could have a look here, https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift/issues/406
88 • @85-87 Linux viruses (by Nathan on 2019-04-10 13:10:25 GMT from United States)
According to Kaspersky (https://securelist.com/ddos-attacks-in-q4-2018/89565/) in q4 2018 Linux accounted for 97.11% of DDoS hosts, meaning that at some point all of these Linux devices had been compromized and incorporated into the botnet. My guess is that most of these are IoT devices rather than desktop Linux, since the proportion of Linux DDoS hosts has been rising as IoT has spread.
It follows from the above that I'd have to agree with @85, that the reason why we don't see as many viruses on desktop Linux relative to Windows isn't because Linux is magically virus-proof, but because our repo structure reduces risk. If you are exposed to the internet, then stay up to date or risk becoming part of the botnet!
89 • Linux viruses (by Kim on 2019-04-10 14:02:13 GMT from Austria)
Linux is safer than Windows simply because of one simple fact: There is generally more to steal on Windows computers than on Linux boxes. If it were the other way round it would be certain that Linux becomes the major victim.
Just imagine a contributor who does not have a real name and can only be contacted at best via a forum. OSS is as bad as proprietary because no one I know is inclined of checking any of the zillions of lines of code in order to operate his box safely.
Wouldn't you rather trust the Redmonders to do whatever they can to protect their business than a moderately talented one-man show presenting the umpteenth Linux distro for some brag rights? It is utterly naive to think that a Linux password can protect you from sociopathic but nevertheless smart criminals.
Most of the time I use Linux. But Linux will never know any of my credit card numbers nor does it have access to some other sensitive stuff. Windows has the exclusive right to do my online banking, but it will never get any fancy external downloads as long as they can be avoided. Linux on the other hand is in charge of 99% of my internet browsing. Haven't had any problems so far in a long time.
90 • Doubting Thomases (by Friar Tux on 2019-04-10 15:13:27 GMT from Canada)
@82 (dragonmouth) Ah... but they were. As for the analogy, yes it was my interpretation, based on what I read. And I agree with your Auric Goldfinger comment. I only wish some of the prior commenters had taken it to heart.
91 • @89 Kim: (by dragonmouth on 2019-04-10 15:38:19 GMT from United States)
"moderately talented one-man show presenting the umpteenth Linux distro for some brag rights"
Could you please tell us which of the Top 100 distros on the DW list is a "moderately talented one-man show"? Can you name ANY distro that is a "moderately talented one-man show"?
92 • @91 (by Jeff from Unites States on 2019-04-10 17:40:15 GMT from United States)
PCLinuxOS
93 • installing Falkon flatpak in MX17 (by Hoos on 2019-04-10 18:24:53 GMT from Singapore)
@Jesse,
I don't actually use Falkon, but I thought I would test to see if the MX Package Installer would be able to install the Falkon flatpak properly from within the GUI without resorting to terminal commands or compiling the program from source.
- opened the Packageinstaller and checked out the Flatpak tab.
- the Flathub repo gets enabled the first time you click on the Flatpak tab
- a search shows that Falkon is not in the Flathub repo
- I click on the https://www.falkon.org/download/ URL you provided in your article and note that Falkon's in the kdeapps flatpak repo
- click on "Advanced" button in the Flatpak tab to get to the "add remote (repo)" option
- I paste the kdeapps repo URL into the appropriate field, and add the said repo
- go back to main Flatpak tab to search the kdeapps repo and Falkon's there so I install it.
It appears to work as a basic browser, although I couldn't get Youtube video to run out of the box (I was able to play music streams/internet radio). I'm sure research will unearth the answer, but I can't be bothered.
Since I'd never used Qupzilla, I didn't have any profile, bookmarks etc to import.
And yes, looks like spellcheck dictionaries are not provided by default but that appears to be a weakness of Falkon in general, not the flatpak version.
Opening Falkon from another application - it took me some time to figure out where the executable was located so I could edit "Preferred Applications" in XFCE settings.
Once I did I was able to get Libreoffice to open a URL link, but only in a new Falkon window like you said, together with all the existing tabs currently opened in my first Falkon window. It opened quickly but of course you don't want another instance of Falkon opened if possible.
That's where my test ended.
To recap, I had no problem installing Falkon flatpak using MX Package Installer. But the limitations you noted are there. Some are possibly due to the flatpak/portable apps format while others are just a limitation of Falkon itself.
94 • Browser: Important (by Larry on 2019-04-10 19:05:15 GMT from United States)
Like others, I will first state that I don't do anything on the internet that I wish to keep secret BUT I also do not like others to profit from my use and feed me advertisements that I don't wish to see!
The internet has become a HUGE marketing tool and money maker ... too bad! My email inbox is bizarre, my browser pitiful, even with Adblocker.
Then to find out that not only Windows is stealing my information and selling it, after I paid a fortune for Windows, but my browser is doing the same thing. So Linux Mint is safe but Firefox is not?
I am looking for a browser that does not collect my use data and has no telemetry provisions. That's what is most important to me!
95 • On viruses... (by Ostrol on 2019-04-10 21:03:42 GMT from Poland)
If a Linux application on one distro can write to a partition of another Linux distro of the same computer, a Linux application on one distro might be able to read data stored in another distro without your knowledge. If that application is a malicious one, it can broadcast your data stored in another root partition out of your computer. All partitions in your computer are root partitions, whether a distro is there or not.
Just because, you are using a Linux distro, doesn't mean you are safe from viruses. Practically, all Linuxes have no way to safeguard you from such an attack.
96 • @92 Jeff: (by dragonmouth on 2019-04-10 21:30:14 GMT from United States)
Not to get into a big discussion but:
1) Texstar may have originally developed PCLOS all by himself but has, for various reasons, stepped away from development a while ago.
2) PCLOS has not been a "one man show" since some time around 2010.
3) PCLOS 2019.3 was released on time. Therefore there seems to be a group/team behind it.
4) PCLOS certainly is not a "moderately talented one-man show presenting the umpteenth Linux distro for some brag rights" as Kim says.
If you consider PCLOS a one man show then so is Budgie. Although, as is the case with PCLOS, others have taken over the development of Budgie from Ickey.
The last, popular distro that I know of that was a work of one man was SimplyMEPIS.
97 • One man created most popular distro... (by Akoy on 2019-04-10 21:36:07 GMT from United Kingdom)
The most popular one man created distro at the moment is Sparky Linux!
98 • @96 Budgie 11 (by Ostrol on 2019-04-10 22:28:35 GMT from Poland)
"Although, as is the case with PCLOS, others have taken over the development of Budgie from Ickey."
Budgie 11 would never happen, with Ikey gone out of the radar. With Ikey gone, his thinking too is gone. There'd be Budgie 10.5, then maybe 10.5.1 and so on, but not the original Budgie 11.
99 • "one man show" distros, etc (by Jordan on 2019-04-11 22:42:57 GMT from United States)
I was naive when I first got into linux way back in '96. I honestly thought they were huge team efforts, perhaps conceived and written by people from all over the world of the same mind as to linux vs Windows.
Some of it is that way now, but when my favorite distro went under, the one I thought had achieved all that a linux work could achive, I began to get it on the small team effort (not really a one man show but you know what I mean). Yoper was BEAUTIFUL, and functioned perfectly on my then ancient machine.
PCLinuxOS seems to owe a lot to Yoper as well as of course Mandrake/Mandriva, in that whole small team effort mentality; what a great project Texstar began. It seems to have an inertia among the long list of distros. Kudos. I don't use it any more, just test it when I see a review. But kudos indeed.
100 • @ 98 Budgie (by mandog on 2019-04-11 23:59:45 GMT from Peru)
Budgie was never going to happen as QT that was just wishful thinking on the part of Ikey, "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence moment,
QT is harder to maintain than GTK it changes on almost a weekly basis so its a constant fight.
This is where LXQT made the same mistake will they ever make it complete.
In the meantime, LXDE has been completely ported to gtk3 in Arch Linux it runs like butter with modern gtk3 themes
101 • LXQT v LXDE (by edcoolio on 2019-04-12 00:40:16 GMT from United States)
@100
I think this is where Lubuntu went wrong. They took a light, useful distro and DE, then attempted to "improve it".
Their idea of improvement was to turn that light 32 and 64 bit capable distro into another Me-Too 64 bit only pig. What a shame.
102 • @101 (by volunteer on 2019-04-12 01:42:46 GMT from Australia)
You could always fork it and then improve it yourself, its foss afterall.
103 • Budgie and the developer (by Kazan on 2019-04-12 06:11:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
I remember the long defunct SolusOS, which started somewhere in 2012, after Ikey left LMDE. SolusOS 2 sort of changed all the time, still staying at alpha level. On the way, Ikey was trying to make a new DE out of Gnome 2 called Consort and getting angry with deb packaging. Today, those forums are not around, so no one can read the arguments and despair Ikey was going through. At that time PiSi (package management) distro had stopped developing for some time, and Ikey was forking it to SolusOS. And, he pulled a plug on that. Later, he moved country and we heard of EvolveOS, at that time trying hard to look like Chrome OS. Then it became Solus (without the OS part) and the Raven panel looking more like Deepin's settings. And, there was a forum.
And, there was always some anger in his posts, at anyone, who criticised something. People left the forum. Budgie had its own website, and slowly new people (developers) came in the Solus (and maybe to Budgie). Most of them were those,, who just found out about Linux. Things went well, maybe up to Budgie 10.3, and after that it became stale. And, all of a sudden, Ikey left and with him the web sites and the forum. End of story for Budgie desktop.
It was good that some of the developers had some or all the packages stored somewhere, so they could piece Budgie and Solus together. Ikey didn't give it to them. If not for those guys, Josh Strobl, Justin etc, no one would have Solus and Budgie today. Later, of course, Ikey said that in a letter that he had to go for personal matters. But, he didn't have the decency to pass the website, forums, packages etc to the developers, his former friends to allow for Budgie and Solus to live on. Instead, he vanished, maybe hoping that Solus and Budgie would vanish too. He always dropped what he was "developing" and ran away, from SoluOS, from Evolve OS, from deb and pisi packaging and from Budgie and Solus, always angry. Most probably he found that it is much easier to use a proprietary OS (I remember that from old SolusOS/EvoloveOS forums).
104 • LXDE (by Tim on 2019-04-12 13:19:35 GMT from United States)
@100 @101
I can't speak for LXQT because I never made the switch to it, but I certainly remember being shocked when LXDE was abandoned. It was the first desktop that made me love Linux.
I'm very happy with MATE, and the few very old machines we still run (not on the internet) with old Linuxes usually have been switched to GNOME 2 (for consistency with MATE) but I recently put Ubuntu 14.04 into a Virtualbox and I threw LXDE on it. It was a nice reminder of just how great it was. It was so light but so full featured. It's a notable absence from today's offerings.
Number of Comments: 104
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| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • 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 | 
ROSLIMS Live CD
ROSLIMS (ROmanian Simple LInux for Medical Students) was Knoppix-based live CD with full Romanian localisation of Knoppix 3.4, and additional software for medical students: (Medical) Reference Manager (Pybliographer) and Medline Query Interface, molecule editors - XDrawChem and ChemTool, true type fonts with Eastern European language support, and a 72-page tutorial in Romanian. The graphical user interface was in Romanian and English.
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.
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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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