 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 826, 5 August 2019 |
|
Welcome to this year's 31st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Each distribution offers its own customized style by mixing themes, desktop environments, applications and tools together to create a unique experience. This often leads people to wonder which distribution they should run to get the best possible experience with a given desktop or set of tools. In this week's Questions and Answers column we talk about matching desktop environments to flagship distributions that put effort into providing a polished experience. Let us know what you think of customized desktop environments in our Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about the hardware for the Librem 5 privacy-focused smart phone being finalized, along with driver issues affecting some Project Trident users. We also discuss new features coming to future versions of Manjaro Linux and NetBSD. First though we take quick looks at three Linux distributions on our waiting list. These projects each offer an unusual set of features or experiences and we explore what these projects offer in our Feature Story. This week we are pleased to welcome two new distributions, EndeavourOS and EuroLinux, to our database. Plus we share the new releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Resilient Linux, PrimeOS and BlueLight
- News: Librem 5 hardware finalized, Manjaro introduces new package manager, Trident warns of video driver issue, NetBSD reveals 9.0 features
- Questions and answers: Flagship distributions for desktop environments
- Released last week: Linux Mint 19.2, SparkyLinux 2019.08, Pardus 19.0
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Arch, Container, HardenedBSD, Linux Mint, KDE neon, Pardus, SmartOS, SparkyLinux, Volumio
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 18.04.3
- Opinion poll: Custom desktop versus vanilla desktop
- New additions: EndeavourOS, EuroLinux
- New distributions: AlienPupOS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (18MB) and MP3 (13MB) formats.
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Exploring the waiting list
Most of the time we hold off on reviewing young distributions until they have matured enough, and been active long enough, to migrate from the DistroWatch waiting list to the database of tracked projects. However, putting off talking about projects until they reach a certain age, level of infrastructure, or version number means our readers miss out on hearing about some really interesting concepts.
This week I decided to explore three projects on the waiting list which, while not necessarily ready for mainstream use, present neat ideas which certainly sound promising, or at least unusual.
* * * * *
Resilient Linux 1.0
The first project on my experimental list is Resilient Linux. Resilient is based on Debian 9 "Stretch" and is designed to run with the operating system on a read-only partition. A second partition, referred to as the persistence partition, includes system updates and user data. This arrangement offers a few benefits. One is that we can backup the entire system by taking a snapshot or archive of the persistence partition. Another is that attackers cannot directly corrupt or compromise the main operating system partition since they cannot write to it. Finally, it should be very easy to restore or transfer an existing system by installing Resilient and then copying the persistence partition to the new operating system.
The Resilient website reports that the persistence partition can be encrypted for additional security and the distribution is available in Desktop and Server editions. At the moment, Resilient is available for 64-bit computers (x86_64) only. The distribution's Desktop edition is available as a 3.2GB Zip file, which unpacks to a 4.3GB image file.
I tried booting off the image file and, each time, the system began to boot and then dropped me to an initramfs prompt. After trying a few different boot options, I had to admit defeat. While Resilient is not working for me yet, I think the idea of a read-only operating system partition makes sense. It sounds similar to openSUSE's Transactional Server or Fedora's Silverblue operating system, but with a Debian base. I am hoping the next release runs for me so I can give this concept a try.
* * * * *
PrimeOS 0.4.5
The next distribution on my list is PrimeOS, which provides an implementation of Android that runs on x86 personal computers. This allows users to run Android and its many applications on a desktop or laptop computer.
PrimeOS is presented in three editions: Mainline (for new computers), Standard (for most 64-bit computers), and Classic (for 32-bit computers). I tried downloading the Standard edition which is a 1GB download, and the Classic edition which is 879MB.
The first time I tried to download PrimeOS the download was slow and eventually failed due to a dropped connection. When I went back to the project's website to try another mirror I was told no mirrors (including the one I had just used) were available. I then tried the Classic option which did present me with mirrors. The Classic download started quickly, but stopped downloading at 16%. Returning again, later, to the project's download page failed to provide me with working mirrors.
In short, PrimeOS may be a useful operating system (it sounds a lot like Android-x86), however after several tries I was unable to get my hands on a copy to actually give it a spin.
* * * * *
BlueLight 0.2.2 Alpha
The final experimental distribution on my to-try list this week was BlueLight. The project's website does not tell us much about this unusual Linux distribution, other than it is related to another project called OS.js:
BlueLight, formerly called OS.js Linux, is a lightweight web-based Linux distro powered by OS.js. It uses the power of Electron to run a cloud based operating system, OS.js, to provide the user with a more web-based experience.
The BlueLight ISO file is 825MB in size. Booting from the media brings up a graphical interface with a blue theme. A window soon pops-up and asks us to select our language from a list. We are then asked to pick our time zone from a list that uses white text on a white background, meaning we need to move the mouse over each entry to highlight it in order to see what it says.
We then pick a disk to house BlueLight's installation and the system copies files from its media. The installer finishes and drops us at a live, minimal desktop environment. Here I ran into an odd problem as I could find no way to reboot or shutdown the system. The application menu is mostly empty and the logout option simply re-launches the desktop and starts the installer again.
I eventually forced a hard poweroff and restarted the computer. At this point BlueLight failed to boot, reporting no system disk could be found. I wondered if I might have skipped an installation step and checked the project's website. At the time of writing there is no documentation on installing the distribution and the link to the project's wiki is broken. The project's blog is also off-line at the time of writing, making me wonder if the project may be abandoned.
For the moment at least, as curious as I was to see what a web-focused operating system might offer, it looks like I will have to wait to find out.
* * * * *
Each other these projects has been on our waiting list a short while and still have plenty of time to work out bugs and become more polished. For now, I think they each offer intriguing ideas, the implementations just need time to mature before they are ready to be explored further.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Librem 5 hardware finalized, Manjaro introduces new package manager, Trident warns of video driver issue, NetBSD reveals 9.0 features
The Librem 5 is a smart phone being designed to run GNU/Linux distributions, such as PureOS, and run with 100% free and open source software. The phone's hardware design has been finalized and Purism, the organization behind the phone, hopes to start shipping units to backers later this year. Details on the phone's hardware and hardware switches for protecting privacy can be found in this blog post.
* * * * *
The Manjaro Linux team has announced a few new tools coming to future versions of their rolling release distribution. The first is fpakman, a graphical application for handling Flatpak and Snap packages. "Some might notice that since the Snapcraft Summit a lot of package changes went into Manjaro and our available RCs. Also we didn't yet announce 18.1.0-rc6 officially yet. Xfce, GNOME and KDE editions will come with fpakman, so managing Snaps and Flatpaks is easy. This way everybody can easily access the Snap store by a click and don't have to hassle to get Snaps enabled. This enables us to ship even more proprietary software, which we couldn't before." Also on the topic of proprietary software, Manjaro has partnered with Softmaker to ship the FreeOffice productivity suite by default. FreeOffice claims to have a high degree of compatibility with Microsoft Office and is free to use, though some Manjaro users have expressed concern as FreeOffice is proprietary software. The Manjaro team has responded that they will make installing FreeOffice (or another suite) an option in the distribution's installer.
* * * * *
The developers of Project Trident are reporting that, due to some issues with the upstream FreeBSD vesa video driver, Project Trident may not start properly on computers booting in legacy BIOS mode. "FreeBSD has broken their vesa driver which is required for legacy boot systems in the Trident installer. If you have the option, you will need to enable booting via EFI or UEFI in order to go through the graphical installer. If you already have an installed Trident system with legacy boot and which currently uses an NVIDIA or AMD graphics driver, it is still safe to upgrade your system to this release (only the vesa driver is currently broken, which is used for no-GPU and some Intel-GPU systems). You can run about from a terminal to see which GPU driver your system is currently using." Details on the FreeBSD driver issue can be found in this problem report.
* * * * *
The NetBSD project has published some highlights of the operating system's upcoming 9.0 release. The NetBSD developers are working to get 32-bit ARM applications running on 64-bit ARM hardware, updating ZFS support, and introducing a number of security and memory leak detection tools. The system installer will now work with GPT UEFI hardware configurations. A complete overview of the features people can expect to see in NetBSD 9.0 are listed in the project's blog post.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Flagship distributions for desktop environments
Looking-for-the-best-examples asks: I've tried out KDE neon recently and was wondering if other desktops, besides KDE, have flagship distros that really show off how the desktop is meant to look?
DistroWatch answers: I would say that there are several distributions which focus on, or showcase, upstream desktop environments. Though many of them do not have the same direct (or official) relationship KDE neon has with the KDE Plasma desktop. Three other official distribution/desktop matches are: deepin which runs the Deepin desktop, older versions of Ubuntu running Unity, and Linux Mint which is home to the Cinnamon desktop. Also, I think Project Trident (which is a flavour of BSD, not a Linux distribution) could probably be considered the official platform for the Lumina desktop environment.
While most other desktops do not necessarily have an official distro showcasing them, I think an argument could be made for Fedora being a good platform to show off GNOME. Fedora and GNOME are both sponsored by Red Hat and Fedora tends to ship the latest stable upstream GNOME packages with very little modification. One might also argue that Ubuntu MATE probably offers the latest MATE desktop set up in a way that is ideal for showing off the desktop's features in a friendly way.
Off the top of my head, I don't think Xfce, LXDE, and LXQt have official connections to any Linux distributions, but if you are curious to try them you may want to look at Xubuntu and Lubuntu as both distributions are fairly easy to set up and strive to offer a solid desktop experience. Likewise, I don't think Enlightenment has official ties to any distribution, but Bodhi Linux is well regarded as offering a polished Enlightenment experience. I believe Q4OS is one of the few distributions still shipping with the Trinity desktop and so it becomes a showcase for Trinity by default.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Linux Mint 19.2
The Linux Mint team has published an update to the distribution's 19.x series. The new version, Linux Mint 19.2, is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, offering five years of support. The new update offers several user interface improvements. For instance, it is now possible to configure the width overlay scrollbars, and programs with the same name show up with added descriptions in the application menu so that users can tell X-Apps from GNOME programs and Flatpaks from Deb packages. "The application menu is faster and it now identifies and distinguishes duplicates. If two applications have the same name, the menu will show more information about them. In your application menu, Xed is the 'Text Editor'. If you install Gedit, you no longer end up with two 'Text Editor' entries. Instead, you'll see 'Text Editor (Xed)' and 'Text Editor (Gedit)'. The same goes for Flatpaks, if you install the Flatpak of an application you already have, the menu will distinguish between the two to let you know which one is the one from the repositories and which one is the Flatpak. Scrollbar settings: If you don't like overlay scrollbars or if you find them too thin, you can now configure the way they look in the System Settings." Further details can be found in the project's release announcements for each edition (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce).
SparkyLinux 2019.08
The SparkyLinux team have published the first new release of the project's semi-rolling branch, which is based on Debian Testing, also known as "Bullseye". The new snapshot, SparkyLinux 2019.08, ships with updated kernels, new compiler options and is available in LXQt, Xfce and two minimal editions. "There are new live/install media of SparkyLinux 2019.08 'Po Tolo' available to download. This is the 1st snapshot of the new (semi-)rolling line, which is based on the testing branch of Debian 'Bullseye'. Changes: system updated from Debian Testing 'Bullseye' repos as of August 1, 2019; added GCC 9 (GCC 8 is still the default one); new Sparky6 theme; new Tela icon set; refreshed desktop look; SDDM instead of LightDM (LXQt edition); Linux kernel 4.19.37 (5.1.21 EOL, 5.2.5 and 5.3-rc2 available at Sparky unstable repos). As I mentioned before, Sparky of the rolling line is available to amd64/x86_64 machines only. Sparky rolling 32-bit is fully supported so if you have it, simply keep it up to date." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
SparkyLinux 2019.08 -- Running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 178kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Pardus 19.0
Pardus is a GNU/Linux distribution jointly developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and National Academic Network and Information Centre (ULAKBİM). The distribution is built on Debian, with the latest version, Pardus 19.0, being based on Debian 10. The project's release announcement is available in Turkish and an English translation reads: "The Pardus operating system comes with Linux kernel 4.19 to keep your hardware is running smoothly and with high performance. See the positive impact of power management on laptops on battery life thanks to integration with Pardus, as well as software such as TLP. Pardus-specific improvements and innovations in the Debian-based package management system are more convenient and secure thanks to weekly updates via package repositories. Pardus has made improvements and has been compiled from source code and rebuilt packages." Pardus 19.0 comes in Xfce, GNOME and Server editions.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 1,532
- Total data uploaded: 27.0TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Custom desktop versus vanilla desktop
Some Linux distributions customize their desktop environments, adding tweaks, short-cuts and special layouts to present the user with a special look and feel. Other distributions present a vanilla desktop experience, packaging the desktop with the defaults its developers chose. Do you prefer it when distributions leave desktops in their default, upstream state, or do you like to have a custom desktop experience? Let us know your favourite desktop and distro combination in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on GNU/Linux smart phones in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Custom desktop versus vanilla desktop
| I prefer a custom desktop: | 503 (27%) |
| I prefer a vanilla desktop: | 656 (35%) |
| It depends on the distro/desktop combination: | 590 (31%) |
| No preference: | 127 (7%) |
|
|
| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
New projects added to database
EndeavourOS
EndeavourOS is a rolling release Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. The project aims to be a spiritual successor to Antergos - providing an easy setup and pre-configured desktop environment on an Arch base. EndeavourOS uses the Xfce desktop by default and is installed by the Calamares graphical system installer.
EndeavourOS 2019.07.15 -- Exploring the live desktop
(full image size: 271kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
EuroLinux
EuroLinux is an enterprise-class Linux distribution made and supported by the EuroLinux company, built mostly from code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The origin of the system ensures compatibility with most popular enterprise Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, and CentOS. While primarily geared toward server workloads, EuroLinux can also be used for desktop computing or any environment where long-term stability and support are demanded.
EuroLinux 7.6 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
* * * * *
Distributions added to waiting list
- AlienPupOS. AlienPupOS is a Puppy Linux-based distribution which ships with WINE and BOINC on the live media. The distribution is intended for use running BOINC computations on older hardware.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 12 August 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 2, value: US$21.36) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Ubuntu MATE (by Pumpino on 2019-08-05 00:38:05 GMT from Netherlands)
I disagree that Ubuntu MATE shows off the latest releases of MATE. In fact, the most recent version shipped with an old version (1.20) rather than the latest (1.22) MATE. https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog. Every other distro I've tried, be it Arch, Fedora and Solus, run it without any "stability issues".
2 • Custom desktop (by DaveW on 2019-08-05 00:38:18 GMT from United States)
I really don't care whether or not the distro customizes the desktop. Any time I install a new distro, just about the first thing I do is modify the desktop so it looks like I want it to. My preferred distro is Linux Mint Mate.
3 • Vanilla vs Custom (by Bob on 2019-08-05 00:52:41 GMT from United States)
I usually go with vanilla because there is less stuff to clean out, then set it up with my preferred configuration.
4 • vanilla | custom (by Romane on 2019-08-05 01:20:07 GMT from Australia)
It makes no difference to me whether a custom interface or vanilla interface. What *does* matter to me is if the system allows me to work in the way in which I am most comfortable, that it is stable and predictable, and that has the packages I consider necessary to my use of the computer.
5 • flagship distro for desktop environment (by Laubster on 2019-08-05 01:28:41 GMT from United States)
Budgie on Solus
6 • BlueLight (by Jon Wright on 2019-08-05 01:41:26 GMT from Hong Kong)
> "... BlueLight. The project's website does not tell us much"
404 on the Github url.
7 • Custom desktop (by Jon Wright on 2019-08-05 01:54:19 GMT from Hong Kong)
I hope I understood the question, if it's down to what Debian do versus what Mint do, then I much much prefer what Mint do. (and I find what the xubuntus do kind of lame)
8 • Vanilla (by Sam Crawford on 2019-08-05 01:55:42 GMT from United States)
Debian Buster with Mate desktop. Pretty boring but it just works.
9 • Vanilla vs Custom (by Bill S on 2019-08-05 02:15:19 GMT from United States)
@ #2 ditto! Mint Mate with some Compiz Reloaded added works for me.
10 • Custom vs default (by albinard on 2019-08-05 02:19:39 GMT from United States)
I use Xubuntu, which by default provides the major software (browser, office, image viewer, sound) I need, but gives a rich collection of options to make the desktop look and act the way I like it to, and lets me try new choices with a few clicks.
11 • Vanilla Mate (by MikeOh Shark on 2019-08-05 02:21:55 GMT from Austria)
I prefer to tweak everything to my liking. I don't think most developers think like those of us who just want to get something done.
I think the desktop was just about perfect with KDE 3.5. If they had fixed icon zooming it would have been perfect.
12 • custom desktop (by wally on 2019-08-05 02:38:54 GMT from United States)
I run Mate on various distros and customize them all to what I want.
13 • opinion poll (by voidpin on 2019-08-05 03:13:56 GMT from Sweden)
The opinion pool, should IMHO contain an option to vote for other.
My systems, Void Linux with AwesomeWM and NetBSD with SpectWM. I believe there are quite a few users running wndow managers without a full DE environment.
14 • Custom vs Vanilla? (by Jeff on 2019-08-05 03:19:55 GMT from United States)
I will take the plain as is desktop, then customize it to my liking.
What is funny is how many on here who complain about the defaults that come on some distros such as MX Linux when it uses the defaults from Debian and leaves the changes from there to the user, just like Debian.
15 • Desktop customization,, (by Bobbie Sellers on 2019-08-05 03:45:51 GMT from United States)
I like KDE as seen on PCLinuxOS64 or Mageia 7.1 because it permits me to customize my desktop myself. I get to choose with some investigation so many customizations that I have
problems recreating it from KDE Plasma 4 where it was easy to set up my transparent
task panels so that the icons or widgets that I use appeared to be floating on the screen over
my background chosen from a bunch of the same from digital photos of flowers.
I really spend too much time on this customizing but it is a bit less intensive than
on the Amiga where I found most of the icons crude and did my own,
bliss
16 • So many versions of Linux (customized) (by Greg Zeng on 2019-08-05 04:11:02 GMT from Australia)
This week you ALMOST mentioned why there are so many versions of Linux. However Arch Linux was omitted this time, as a vanilla Linux.
The 43 "living" Pacman-based customized versions are: Alpha, Apricity, Arch, Archbang, Archex, Archlabs, Archman, ArchStrike, Arco, Artix, Blackarch, Bluestart, Bridge, Chakra, Cinnamon Community Edition, Condres, Crunchbang, Endeavour, Frugal, Hyperbola, Justbrowsing, Kahelos, KaOS, Linhes, Lxqt Community Edition, Manjaro, Maui, MorpheusArch, Mystras, Namib, Netrunner, Nosonja, Nurunner, Obarun, Obrevenge, OviOS, Parabola, Reborn, Swag, SystemRescueCd, TalkingArch, Trom-jaro,UBOS.
Searching with Distrowatch shows 21 based on Arch, and 23 based on Pacman. Perhaps the Arch specialists can explain this. The customized versions show possible "improvements" needed by some users. Each improvement might result at the expense of loss of features in the plain version.
17 • Arch Linux is a flagship Linux; core or plain, without a desktop. (by Greg Zeng on 2019-08-05 04:29:07 GMT from Australia)
Thank you Distrowatch for popularizing the terms "vanilla" & "flagship" among Linux distributions. Similar flagships exist amongst others as well: Puppy, IoT, etc. This Flagship term could be used much more widely in the Distrowatch database & descriptions?
Strictly speaking vanilla is a fancy flavour. Without any fancy flavours, we are left with BASIC or PLAIN versions. Using "basic" however has a different meaning in "Plain English", compared to computer English. "Plain" Ubuntu is really the fancy flavour with the GNOME desktop environment. So "vanilla" might be the better compromise term.
All the Ubuntu-flavours & Ubuntu based spins are based on the simple Ubuntu-core. "CORE" generally means no desktop environment is included. Arch Linux might then be described as core or plain.
18 • Desktop (by zykoda on 2019-08-05 06:43:05 GMT from United Kingdom)
My use of any desktop is minimal. Be they vanilla or cuiston, most go far beyond my requirements. I severly prune much undesirable built-in window behaviour. I have a few apps in a single panel with the odd desktop icon.
19 • distros' customization of the DE (by J-dog on 2019-08-05 07:21:07 GMT from Japan)
I agree with #2 and #9 above: it doesn't make any difference since I will customize it anyway. If forced to choose, all else being equal, some distribution customization is welcome as they may get it exactly right someday (altho it seems to get farther from my ideal every time) and doing some customization inspires the distribution makers to come up with their own themes, icon sets, and so on.
20 • Android-based distributions (by flauta on 2019-08-05 07:23:43 GMT from Italy)
I tried PrimeOS a few months ago, found no problems downloading or installing. You could test PhoenixOS instead, I think they are pretty similar.
http://www.phoenixos.com/en/download_x86
21 • Desktop (by klaus on 2019-08-05 08:23:56 GMT from United States)
Give me vanilla XFCE and I am fine and ready to go.
Xubuntu's desktop is also nice. Vanilla KDE Plasma is also very good.
22 • Vanilla or custom desktop (by JohnP on 2019-08-05 09:35:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
I prefer a vanilla implementation of the desktop so that I have a clean and predictable base for my own personalised customisation. Currently I use Xubuntu 18.04 with compiz and docky - works for me!
23 • Android-Prime (by Handy Andy on 2019-08-05 09:55:57 GMT from United States)
Same experience as @20. Tried it back in April. Seems ok, no different from others. Play store is installed. My problem with desktop Android is that once I have it I'm like the dog that catches the car. What do I do with it?
24 • Desktop (by Jim on 2019-08-05 10:36:45 GMT from United States)
I like the vanilla desktop too. I agree with those that say less to clean up to customize to what I want. I hate Docks, so have to remove them if an OS has one, if they have gotten rid of the menu in favor of a dock I won't bother installing the OS. I find Mate the most easily customized to what I want.
25 • PrimeOS (by Gustavo on 2019-08-05 10:40:50 GMT from Argentina)
According to comments on their xda forums entry, that project is already dead.
26 • Trinity Desktop Environment (by Gary W on 2019-08-05 10:52:59 GMT from Australia)
TDE is a "traditional" desktop like MATE and XFCE. Well supported in Q4OS and also available as EXE GNU/Linux on devuan. Posting from that now :-) might be worthwhile for people who like to be different, but not too different!
27 • DEs and WMs, tweaked or “plain” (by TheTKS on 2019-08-05 11:08:45 GMT from Canada)
Pantheon on elementaryOS
Some Ubuntu flavours have done a nice job on tweaking their DEs. I like how Xubuntu has set up Xfce.
But then I also use Xfce minimally modified on OpenBSD.
Kubuntu has one of the best KDE Plasma DEs.
Moving away from DEs, I also like Joe’s Window Manager on the Puppies. I tweak it more than KDE or Xfce
TKS
28 • Strange review today (by akoy on 2019-08-05 11:17:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
Quite a strange distro review today in DWW!
"I couldn't either download or boot the 3 distros." No review, just a failure statement.
29 • Vanilla desktop (by César on 2019-08-05 11:30:49 GMT from Chile)
¡Saludos a todos!
I prefer distros with vanilla desktop like Slackware or Debian, because i customize with my own cursor, icons, wallpapers, window decoration, programs, etc., the clean & lightweight is another reason.
My desktops:
Slackware 14.2: KDE
Debian 10: Mate
Fedora 30: Mate
Saludos desde Santiago de Chile.
30 • Vanilla vs. Custom (by dragonmouth on 2019-08-05 12:11:18 GMT from United States)
I prefer as plain as plain can be. I want to customize the desktop MY way, not be undoing some developers idea of what a desktop should look like.
31 • I prefer a vanilla desktop (by Carlos Felipe Araújo on 2019-08-05 12:23:27 GMT from Brazil)
I prefer a vanilla desktop, but XFCE needs improve the original layout. KDE has the best vanilla desktop. GNOME vanilla isn't ugly but without extensions is useless to me.
32 • Vanilla vs. Custom (by KingNarmer on 2019-08-05 12:30:02 GMT from United States)
I like Xfce and find in Xubuntu the perfect equilibrium: A traditional desktop simple, elegant, and good enough to start to work inmediatily, and at the same time easy to personalize as far as you want.
33 • Poor reviews (by Abbie on 2019-08-05 13:08:04 GMT from United Kingdom)
The "reviews" this week are really poor. If you couldn't download or boot a distro, why would you publish the fact rather than just moving on and reviewing one that was usable?
Normally, you're really thorough and give a good overview of a distro. This week, all we get is "this didn't work".
34 • Xfce4 (by Teresa e Junior on 2019-08-05 14:17:14 GMT from Brazil)
From what I've seen in mailing lists and blog posts, I'm inclined to think that the Xubuntu and Xfce4 teams do work together a lot.
35 • From Gnome2 to MATE (by Lee on 2019-08-05 14:21:15 GMT from United States)
I use a distro with MATE as the desktop, Mint or Ubuntu work well.
I keep looking for a fix for MATE weather app's radar map. It has been
NOOP for over a year.
36 • Vanilla vs Custom (by Fox on 2019-08-05 14:50:07 GMT from Canada)
Like most of the folks who posted here, I personalize whatever distro I'm using; typically by changing the desktop background, icons and sometimes the theme. However, that doesn't mean I prefer a vanilla desktop to start from. I mostly use Ubuntu and Mint and in both cases, I mostly like how they look and I just start personalizing where they left off.
37 • Three reviews (by Jesse on 2019-08-05 14:56:38 GMT from Canada)
>> "If you couldn't download or boot a distro, why would you publish the fact rather than just moving on and reviewing one that was usable?"
Three reasons, basically:
1. Only reviewing stuff that works is not helpful to people wondering what they might want to avoid as much as what to use. Imagine what it would be like if car-related publications only reviewed cars that worked perfectly and didn't publish reviews about cars that had major flaws. Being an informed computer user means knowing what to avoid as well as what to try.
2. Whether they work (for me) or not, these projects are still doing interesting things. That's why I spent time talking about what the project's are _trying_ to accomplish. That's why I'm talking about them, because if these projects work out some bugs, they could be very useful and I think it's important to showcase new or significant ideas. That's how progress is made, by trying out new ideas.
3. Only talking about stuff that works isn't a review, it's PR. I write reviews, covering the good and the bad. I'm not interested in writing fluff pieces that just promote stuff while ignoring things that don't work for me.
38 • Customized desktop.. (by Az4x4 on 2019-08-05 16:15:44 GMT from United States)
The new 19.2 Linux Mint MATE desktop, version 1.22, is far and away my favorite. Easy to customize, simple to work with, and so incredibly powerful.
GNOME 2.x being abandoned by the GNOME project in favor of GNOME 3.x and it's dumbed down desktop turned into a blessing in disguise when Perberos started the MATE project, a fork of GNOME 2.x, seven years ago.
Since then MATE has attracted legions of Linux users, many who began using Linux years after MATE was forked from GNOME 2.x. These use MATE for entirely practical reasons, while others, like myself, use MATE because it provides all the simple goodness that GNOME 2.x offered plus a whole lot more these days.
Like so many others I see MATE as the most stable and truly versatile desktop environment Linux has to offer. Over the years I've tried them all, and GNOME 2.x/MATE is the one I stick with..
39 • Desktop preferences (by Jediknight on 2019-08-05 17:05:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
I seem to be in a minority of one as I'm running Manjaro and Mint with a Cinnamon desktop on both.
I've tried Mate but
(a I don't like it - seemed dated to me
(b I've struggled to get it to play well with my hardware
(c I like Cinnamon, it just works (for me at least)
Back in the day I ran Suse with KDE which I liked but always felt it needed a lot of resource which is probably why I have avoided it since I began using Linux again. Also used Ubuntu but I don't recall what desktop. Dropped it when they introduced Unity which I hated.
But I'm not someone who worries overly about the size of the cursor or window transparency or endless tweaks etc.
I'll probably just change the desktop background and get on with it.
40 • This weeks reviews (by Jediknight on 2019-08-05 17:12:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
I don't think I'd have the gall to criticise the Distrowatch team for a review unless I was a paying subscriber (I'm not, but YMMV).
I look forward to a new edition each Monday and appreciate the effort they put in week after week.
Sometimes the comments section reminds me of the good old days on Usenet.
41 • Thanks for reviews, such as they are. (by Vakkotaur on 2019-08-05 17:16:37 GMT from United States)
1. They DID tell of the approach or intent.
2. They told of how things din't go as hoped.
3. They did NOT say the efforts were pointless or stupid - just "needs work" really.
Overall, three "negative" reviews that aren't *really* negative - in each case I know if I want to keep an eye on things, or direct attention elsewhere. Resilient is a Neat Idea. PrimeOS is something I think I'd like to try, if the connections hold. Not sure about BlueLight, but I look forward to another review (or attempt at such) sometime in the future.
For those complaining: Hey, it's NOT "yet another *buntu respin" or some such. (And I am typing this on Mint, alright?)
42 • Custom DEs (by M.Z. on 2019-08-05 18:21:43 GMT from United States)
I like a vanilla setup for most DEs, but it still depends a bit because the only DE that needs customization to be useful to me is Gnome 3. I'll go with something with a vanilla version of nearly any other DE, but on Gnome there really is no point because I don't want to bother with trying it again unless there is a total revamp of the design. I played a little with Pinguy & their custom Gnome & thought it was fine & had some nice touches, though I've mostly stuck with KDE & Cinnamon on Mageia & Mint. Those both seem friendly & ready for typical PC users out of the box & can be customized to my tastes fairly quick & easy, so vanilla works there.
43 • OpenSUSE's blend of KDE (by Microlinux on 2019-08-05 18:42:35 GMT from France)
In the past, I did quite some heavy tweaking on the desktop side. I'm one of those guys who manually wrote build scripts for GNOME 2.x for Slackware back in the days. Nowadays I've settled with OpenSUSE Leap and KDE, with almost no tweaks to their setup.
https://github.com/kikinovak/opensuse/tree/master/15.1/scripts
44 • Custom DEs (by Garon on 2019-08-05 19:01:47 GMT from United States)
As far as desktop environments goes I really liked Unity. If a person took a little time to learn the desktop it was one of the most efficient ones I ever used. Alas it is no more. What I really like now is Q4OS. Its a great light distro and it has a very good implementation of the Trinity desktop. I find the distro so refreshing with not many apps installed and the way it's setup that I even made a contribution to Q4OS. They also have a plasma version also. There's a lot to be said for simplicity.
45 • Window Managers (by Martin on 2019-08-05 19:11:25 GMT from United Kingdom)
@13 I agree that there should be another option for stand alone WM. I use lightly customised versions of either Fluxbox or Openbox, on Devuan and AntiX.
Efficient , fast and suits the way I work.
46 • Debian Testing + Cinnamon (by James on 2019-08-05 19:30:06 GMT from New Zealand)
Debian Testing + Cinnamon desktop = best of both worlds. I use it for a file server, backup server and media centre. I have no need for Mint tools or being on an older base.
47 • Custom DEs (by Titus_Groan on 2019-08-05 19:59:41 GMT from New Zealand)
prefer the default desktops available from my preferred distro.
tweaks, are, mouse pointer and sometimes wallpaper - no others needed.
48 • desktops (by dogma on 2019-08-05 20:20:55 GMT from United States)
I haven’t found a reason yet to leave ol’ fvwm…
49 • Distro DE's (by Phil on 2019-08-05 20:28:21 GMT from United States)
Whether I'm using Debian, Mint, FreeBSD, or any other *NIX-like setup, and the type of configuration it's being used for, then the desktop environment doesn't really matter to me, just as long as it works. Because, I'm going to configure the desktop how I want it, anyway.
50 • EndeavourOS (by Keith on 2019-08-05 23:32:12 GMT from United States)
I finally found an Arch keeper! I've never ran an Arch distro, but something lead me to download EndeavourOS yesterday and have a look. I'm hooked! It's light, fast and runs well on my old desktop. Minimal apps installed, so not a lot of junk to remove. Also, there is no gui package manager, so everything is command line. No biggie, I'm used to command line on Xubuntu to update, install, and remove apps. However, Arch is a whole new command line environment. Since Arch has been around for so long, and very popular, everything I needed to know was answered with a simple web-search.
As long a you read the current release notes about how to install EndeavourOS, the Calamares installer worked perfectly!
My thanks to the EndeavourOS team for this new experience.
51 • flat-snaps come to manjaro :( (by cyan on 2019-08-05 23:51:21 GMT from New Zealand)
Having been on the Debian/Mint wagon for 11 years or so, I have been exploring wider as the Snap / Flatpak stuff has caused some issues the last 2 years or so. As a direct consequence of that I now run half my machines on Manjaro. And now they are going to add Snaps and Flatpaks. Darn.
The advantage WAS, for example: Mint stuck on GiMP 2.8 unless you Snap and then can get 2.10 - BUT then not all things align again properly for daily operation. Manjaro simply came with 2.10, job done. Darktable - a similar tale - add a PPS versus just the latest by default in Manjaro. If they go ahead it looks like I will just revert to Mint in the long term. At the end of the day I use the machine to get work done, not to fiddle under the hood half the time.
52 • desktops (by ed on 2019-08-06 03:31:46 GMT from United States)
My favorite desktops so far are very customizable, linux mint LMDE3 cinnamon with the dark theme (one with most downloads very nice) & latest KDE neon which I have been using the most lately. Hardf to believe these awesome operating systems are free. I only wish dual booting were easier to setup on UEFI bios, very difficult I gave up.
53 • Waiting List Reviews (by Andre on 2019-08-06 06:57:05 GMT from Canada)
@16 "Searching with Distrowatch shows 21 [distros] based on Arch, and 23 based on Pacman. Perhaps the Arch specialists can explain this."
A package manager need not necessarily be tied to the distribution it originated from. As an example, KaOS--which you listed--uses pacman as its package manager, but it is not in any way based on Arch. A more extreme example of a project that uses pacman would be something like MSYS2, which is a Cygwin-inspired distro for Windows.
@52 "I only wish dual booting were easier to setup on UEFI"
Using separate disks makes this easier. Fast USB drives are your friend.
As for this week's reviews, I'm glad you did them Jesse, even if they did turn out to be less than fruitful. It was interesting to get a glimpse at some of the kind of distros you have to deal with behind the scenes.
54 • GNOME and KDE ? (by Kragle Schnitzelbank on 2019-08-06 07:01:42 GMT from United States)
"GNOME and KDE … sponsor the Linux App Summit in Barcelona" This may be fun to watch - from a distance.
55 • Custom desktop (by Francesco on 2019-08-06 10:25:00 GMT from Italy)
I prefer custom desktop when the default desktop config isn't that good.
For example i greatly prefer ubuntu mate against mate on debian.
That said i still modify something, but starting from a better base is imho a good thing.
I also like for example the tde Debonaire theme offered by q4os, that has made trinity desktop environment really up to date in terms of look (and it was much ahead of its time even when it was called kde3).
56 • desktops (by noar on 2019-08-06 11:27:30 GMT from United States)
Since I've dropped the clutter by going to Openbox, it is somewhat a moot point. Granted, Bunsen Labs Helium does have a great deal of customization, but most of that felt less a reworking of the DE and more like a gateway for your own customization efforts.
Prior to that I have enjoyed the vanilla Trinity of EXE, and the more or less vanilla of MX. Generally I used to always strip most everything away (except tools) and rebuild to my liking. That is why I preferred mostly vanilla (with extra tools) and why I migrated to Openbox.
57 • @ 37 Distros and reviews (by slcha on 2019-08-06 12:01:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
When you put a distro in the waiting list, that distro has to be checked, downloading, running live and installing. I've a feeling that none of these are checked before they are placed in the waiting list. And, also most of them are never been submitted by the person, who created it.
Most of them are usually uploaded to a certain website that hosts them free. We make them, but we don't submit them here, only upload them there for anyone to check, play with. Few of mine are here too on the waiting list. But, none had been downloaded by anyone at Distrowatch, or otherwise there'd be a mention about them. But, there are lot of reviews in the Youtube, with good and bad commenting.
I remember Distrowatch as a place for distro hoppers, but most of the distro hoppers go there (the free hosting site) to find a new arrival. And, they check them out, on VMs, on bare metal etc. And, as a result, I created my own remix/variant/what-you-call-it and uploaded them for others to play with.
It is pretty simple to create another live installable distro off the one you have on your computer. Once, you get the hang of it.
58 • @51 Snap / Flatpak Manjaro (by John Hopkins on 2019-08-06 13:26:09 GMT from United States)
As long as I can still install using the package manager, I'm fine. Because "Snap / Flatpak" is the first package I remove. I have no use for it. Old School.
59 • Manjaro FreeOffice (by Jimbo on 2019-08-06 15:32:42 GMT from United States)
Supremely disappointing to see Manjaro going the Linspire/Mandriva/Xandros route to pre-bundled proprietary software hell. Time to find a new distro I guess. I wish mainline Arch wasn't such a hassle to install.
60 • Manjaro - not for me (by Pobox on 2019-08-06 16:22:16 GMT from Brazil)
I tryed manjaro a couple of times and it never worked as the Project would like it. Problems with printers and authentication.
Good that I never wasted time trying to fix it.
Arch linux works well, debian/mint also. Waiting Slackware 15.0.
61 • Business desktop environments (by ACDBill on 2019-08-06 18:50:35 GMT from United States)
I use Linux Mint Cinnamon at home and am perfectly happy with it (once I installed Windows 10 Dark Master window controls). But if I were to need a business desktop then I would use Mint Mate. It has the most business like appearance of all the DE's in my opinion. From the lock screen to the menu to the window borders and controls it has the most "business professional" desktop look to my eyes. Many desktops just look cartoonish to me or have dialogs that look like they came from the 90's.
I'd be curious what others thought.
62 • @59 and @60 (by Corentin on 2019-08-06 19:02:21 GMT from France)
@59
Exactly the opposite here. I don’t really know FreeOffice but I have SoftMaker Office on a Windows box. It is excellent, one of the best competitors to Microsoft Office Suite. Much better that this piece of sh** of LibreOffice. So, I guess FreeOffice should be not bad.
@60
Here, Manjaro runs perfectly without problem at all. My all-in-one HP Printer works perfectly. :)
63 • choice (by mmphosis on 2019-08-06 19:37:36 GMT from Canada)
Obviously, you want to be able to "spin" the desktop to what works for you.
I like XFCE, it's fairly lightweight and allows a lot of customization. I also change things like swapping the left Control and left Alt keys. Maybe today, I'll turn off compositing. In a world where more and more technological choices are imposed upon us, choice is a great to have.
64 • Android Distribution (by Dion on 2019-08-06 19:39:20 GMT from United States)
I really enjoyed PrimeOS. I have not had any issues with it. I may see if I can run it in a VM.
65 • Default or Custom desktop preference (by Wally Johnn on 2019-08-06 23:58:36 GMT from United States)
KDE basically is left in its vanilla state with a few tweaks by the distro publishers, but it is very complex to customise for the new Linux user. Like Windows, major updates, where older libraries are not only dropped but expunged, may break the system, causing enough frustration to make one question why one went with it in the first place.
Linux Lite Xfce, on the other hand, is heavily customised to appeal to the new, younger crowd, Linux user, but I find that it takes too much work to get it to look the way I want since it is locked down more.
Linux Mint MATE, Cinnamon and Xfce falls somewhere in the middle, providing easy customisation for the new user and enough meat to satisfy the experienced user. It's what I used at work. Appeals to all age groups.
I prefer a distro that does not have systemd. So no GNOME for me. Next I ignore Arch, Gentoo and BSD distros. since they appeal to the most advanced user. Next I look to see which distros have up-to-date kernels. Then I look at the desktops. Whichever one takes the least effort to customise, and proves to be the most stable, I stay with. I went with PCLOS.
66 • @ 37 Jesse - Distros in the waiting list and reviews (by akoy on 2019-08-07 07:24:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
If a distro is placed in the waiting list, it should be checked immediately. Otherwise, if you look into it after few years, the person, who created it had long gone. Most people upload their "creations" to the free hosting site, for they can be uploaded. Some do that, because they'd like to share. Some do it to give back to Linux. You can find lot of new creations in the free distro hosting site (starting with S) than here. Like the guy in #57 says they don't submit them here to Distrowatch.
The thing is, if you put a distro in the waiting list, it should be checked immediately. Otherwise, what's the use?
67 • off topic - vanilla (by former on 2019-08-07 08:08:37 GMT from United States)
Who come up with "vanilla" phrase for default settings?!? That's just not right! Why would one flavor be over another?!? I like chocolate!!!
@45 thumbs up for antiX!
@all - I usually like comments section better than main article. Keep them coming!
68 • Waiting list (by Jesse on 2019-08-07 10:26:53 GMT from Canada)
>> "f a distro is placed in the waiting list, it should be checked immediately. Otherwise, if you look into it after few years, the person, who created it had long gone."
That is a large part of why we don't evaluate distributions immediately. Many projects are abandoned within a few months and don't survive a full year. Which is why we usually wait a year before evaluating a distribution. Otherwise we'd end up covering a lot of distros that never have a second release. There isn't much point in covering a project that the developer walks away from almost as soon as it is started.
The other big reason is time. We receive a couple of new submissions a week, on average. There isn't time to get to them as soon as they come in. Having the delay filters out about half the projects submitted to us so we can focus on those that will last long enough to be useful to our readers.
69 • PrimeOS (by Lee Stewart on 2019-08-07 15:22:29 GMT from United States)
I have recently downloaded PrimeOS and love it. It comes in handy when wanting to use Android Apps etc... I got this on my Garage PC and planning on installing it on a few old laptops laying around. Basically turning them into a Chromebook. If you haven't tried it out yet, DO SO!
70 • @ 69 Prime... (by OstroL on 2019-08-07 16:43:43 GMT from Poland)
You did? Good.
Write a review, when you install it. Planning to, and installing are two different things. Jesse couldn't.
71 • Most mostly must (by Minion on 2019-08-07 17:57:59 GMT from Brazil)
A distro should offer a good out-of-box experience, to work around common problems users have today, and a stable updated system as well, so we can get the latest kernel and packages fixes and improvements. At the moment, the distro that mostly gets near that is Manjaro with GNOME. Of course that an entirely free system is desirable, but in today real world scenario it is almost impracticable, so the Manjaro team along with the Arch community is providing solutions for general users to continue their way with GNU/Linux.
I prefer a vanilla desktop, but I consider customization necessary as it helps the developers to see the user needs and improve their environment. I personally like to use some GNOME extensions as they don´t break the system and are can be easily disabled.
72 • Custom vs. Vanilla Desktop (by Stefan on 2019-08-07 23:33:03 GMT from Germany)
I'm not sure what to answer, since I dislike most Desktops, except (curiously) the windows 10 explorer, I usually install the server-variant of ubuntu, then Xserver and xdm, i3 window-manager, and the rofi application-launcher. i3 comes packeged with dmenu by default in ubuntu, so I change my config to use rofi, put the bar on the buttom of the screen, and make all i3-colors somewhat different from the blue-ish ubuntu-default; more grey. Then i install feh and put my favorite background in.
So I use nearly all defaults, and it's a Desktop, but not the default-Desktop.
73 • 'Customized' DEs vs. 'Plain Vanilla' DEs. (by R. Cain on 2019-08-08 01:52:09 GMT from United States)
From the Opinion Poll:
"Some Linux distributions customize their desktop environments, adding tweaks, short-cuts and special layouts to present the user with a special look and feel. Other distributions present a vanilla desktop experience, packaging the desktop with the defaults its developers chose..."
My problem(s?) in answering the poll is that (1) I have always used the distro, as downloaded, and never had a reason to 'customize' (except, possibly, for getting rid of the obnoxious background ghosting in the 'Terminal' in one of Mint's offerings), or to search out, and make certain that I had, a "custom' DE; and (2) I don't have the benefit of a large variety of comparisons between the 'same' DE in different distros, as I don't do 'distro hopping', so I don't know (as an example) which distro would offer a 'plain vanilla' version of Mate, vs. one which offered a 'custom' version.
Can someone please give some solid examples of *popular* distros, some of which offer a 'vanilla' version of _A SPECIFIC_ desktop environment, and some which offer a 'custom version' of *the exact, same* DE?
*******************************************************************
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them."--Richard P. Feynman
74 • @ 73 'Customized' DEs vs. 'Plain Vanilla' DEs (by pengxuin on 2019-08-08 04:59:18 GMT from New Zealand)
for Mate, have a nosy here: https://mate-desktop.org/gallery/1.22/english/
obviously running Fedora in the screen shots, but if your "Mate" is substantially different, they, your distro, has customized your desktop to how they feel it should be.
other desktops:
Xfce: https://www.xfce.org/about/screenshots,
LXQT: https://lxqt.org/
...etc
75 • Distros in the waiting list (by OstroL on 2019-08-08 07:18:46 GMT from Poland)
I was thinking about this matter yesterday. I can't remember when I last looked in that page. Usually, if there's any distro mentioned in the Distrowatch weekly page at the bottom, I usually checked them out, at least looked in their websites from the link, if there was one. Nowadays, I don't even do that. for I have my own customised installations, I upgrade regularly. It looks like my distro hopping days had come to an end. And, I come here on habit.
I don't know, whether the distros that are in the waiting list should be checked frequently or not, for Jesse might not have enough time. Maybe, some others (those, who come here) volunteer to do that? Sort of giving back to Distrowatch?
76 • just seem to like cinnamon (by dmacleo on 2019-08-08 20:25:05 GMT from United States)
have just had good luck with mint and cinnamon. works well for me.
77 • Desktop 'customization' (by mikef90000 on 2019-08-08 20:30:23 GMT from United States)
I migrated to Linux from WinXP due to the superior and easy DE customization options.
I prefer Xfce and Lxde as they are very easy to change the distro's idea of a default layout.
MATE still has some ugly features and limitations from GNOME2 days which still have not been improved. Cinnamon is puzzling - limited but improviing options, ridiculous large icons and white space. KDE requires a post grad degree I don't yet have time for. GNOME shell is condescending and keeps dumbing down important tools like file management.
My preference: no desktop icons, one left panel for launchers and top panel for everything else. Group launchers by expandable spacers. Done in ten minutes or less, lasts for the two year Mint/Ubuntu LTS upgrade span. Why all the whiners?
BTW why the pointless comparison of DE 'lightness'? Modern browsers require far more memory than the DE and operating system processes. A new low end desktop system unit with 4GB RAM can be built or bought for <$400 US; please recycle your power hungry old box.
78 • Resilient Linux running (by Marco on 2019-08-09 07:53:21 GMT from Italy)
Hi guys, thans for all the reviews.
About Resilient Linux.
I've just downloaded the image, extracted - it's 4,25GB - then written within Windows with Balena Etcher. The resulting partitioning scheme is (and must be):
Disk /dev/sdb: 29,1 GiB, 31260704768 bytes, 61056064 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: A2AAF4F7-52C8-40F3-B135-1FA4E0A79C92
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 2207743 2205696 1,1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb2 2207744 2732031 524288 256M Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb3 2732032 2797567 65536 32M EFI System
/dev/sdb4 2797568 8941567 6144000 3G Linux filesystem
And it's booting on everry hardware a standard Debian boots.
Number of Comments: 78
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| 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.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Linux Kodachi
Linux Kodachi is a Debian-based distribution which can be run from a DVD or USB thumb drive. The distribution filters all network traffic through a VPN and the Tor network, obscuring the user's network location. The distribution attempts to clean up after itself, removing traces of its use from the computer.
Status: Active
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
