 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 833, 23 September 2019 |
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Welcome to this year's 38th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Getting the best outcome out of almost any situation involves a balancing act between available options. Do we want more convenience or security, performance or features, lots of options or a tidy interface? This week we discuss some difficult decisions which are being made in the free and open source software communities. For instance, Ubuntu is trying to reduce the amount of work required to maintain packages for multiple architectures while also maintaining a wide range of software and hardware support. We cover more on this balancing act in our News section. Meanwhile elementary developers are planning a major update while Debian faces ongoing conflicts between package maintainers as the distribution tries to offer multiple init implementations and we share more on this situation below. We also discuss Richard M Stallman, pioneer of the free software movement, stepping down from his position as President of the Free Software Foundation amid controversy. First though, we explore a Gentoo-based, desktop distribution called Redcore Linux. Redcore strives to be easy to set up and use while maintaining Gentoo's famous flexibility and we share more details in our Feature Story. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about beginner friendly distributions and why Linux distributions are usually free to download and use. Plus we share the torrents we are seeding and the releases of the past week. In our Opinion Poll we talk about DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and ask our readers what you think about it. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Redcore Linux 1908 LXQt
- News: Ubuntu deciding which 32-bit packages should be kept, Debian's Project Leader addresses tensions over init software, elementary plans big update, Richard M Stallman steps down from FSF leadership role
- Questions and answers: Recommending a friendly distro for newcomers and why Linux distributions are free
- Released last week: CentOS 7-1908, PCLinuxOS 2019.09, Porteus Kiosk 4.9.0
- Torrent corner: CentOS, Clonezilla, ClonOS, EasyOS, Emmabuntus, EndeavourOS, GeeXboX, GhostBSD, KDE neon, Lakka, Parrot, PCLinuxOS, Porteus Kiosk, ReactOS
- Upcoming releases: CentOS 8, Ubuntu 19.10 Beta, FreeBSD 12.1-BETA2
- Opinion poll: DNS over HTTPS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (20MB) and MP3 (15MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Redcore Linux 1908 LXQt
Redcore is a Gentoo-based project which strives to make it easy to install the distribution and immediately have access to a pre-configured desktop environment. Redcore is available in two editions, KDE Plasma and LXQt, and offers builds for 64-bit (x86_64) machines exclusively. The latest version of Redcore Linux has shifted from using Gentoo's Stable branch as its upstream source to Gentoo Testing. Software now flows from Gentoo Testing, into Redcore's Testing repository, and then into Redcore Stable where most Redcore users will access it.
The Redcore ISO files are relatively large with both editions being 3.4GB downloads. Given the similarities in size, I decided to try the LXQt edition. Booting from the Redcore media brings up a graphical login screen with a mostly-white background. We can sign into the live desktop using the username and password "redcore". The default wallpaper is mostly white with abstract lines. The combination makes for a bright screen populated with harsh lines that I personally found unpleasant and I soon switch to another background.
There are two icons on the LXQt desktop. One opens the Calamares installer and the other is labelled "Ask for help". Clicking the latter icon causes LXQt to pop-up an error saying the selected icon is an invalid desktop entry file. Clicking the installer icon brings up a prompt asking if we would like to open or execute the installer's desktop file. Along the bottom of the screen we find a panel containing the application menu, task switcher and system tray.
Installing
Redcore Linux uses the Calamares graphical installer. The first time I launched the installer it complained that there was less than 20GB of free disk space available and refused to proceed. I had to exit the installer, free up some space and then start over. The first page of the installer presents us with buttons that purport to display release notes and known issues. Clicking on either of these buttons has no effect. The following pages of the installer get us to select our time zone from a map of the world and confirm our keyboard's layout. Calamares gives us the option of guided or manual partitioning. I like the manual options which are fairly well streamlined and easy to navigate. Taking the guided option will use available disk space to set up a single ext4 filesystem for the root partition and a small swap partition. We can also pick where to install the GRUB boot loader.
The final screen of the installer asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves. Then the installer copies its packages to the hard drive and offers to reboot the computer. The install process is a little longer than average, but not overly so. I found out later than Redcore places a lot of data on the root partition so the slightly longer process makes sense.
Early impressions
My new copy of Redcore booted to a graphical login screen where I could sign into an Openbox or LXQt session. The Openbox option brings up an entirely empty interface with a black background, which makes it look like the session has failed to load. We can right-click on the desktop to open an application menu. The menu, oddly enough, is full of launchers for programs which are not installed, meaning most of the menu entries do not work. I can see using the Openbox session for recovery in an emergency, but for the most part I suspect users will want to stick with the LXQt session.
Redcore Linux 1908 -- The LXQt desktop and application menu
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Redcore 1908 presents us with the LXQt 0.14.1 desktop. This time there is just one icon on the desktop for getting help. As with the live session, the help icon does not work. However, there is a "Get Live Help" icon in the application menu which does work. It opens the Firefox browser and connects us with the Redcore IRC channel.
On the subject of poor icon behaviour, about every third time I would login, an icon would appear on the desktop called user-home.desktop with a random extension. This was not the icon for the home folder which opens the file manager, but a separate entity. This icon could not be launched and trying to delete it would produce an error saying the file did not exist. The icon would remain on the desktop for the entire session, but would disappear if I logged out and logged back into my account.
Redcore Linux 1908 -- Trying to use the help icon
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Hardware
I started playing with Redcore in a VirtualBox environment. Running the distribution in a virtual machine proved to be a mixed experience. For instance, Redcore could use my host computer's full screen resolution, but would not resize its desktop dynamically. I had to use the monitor configuration tool to manually set my screen dimensions. To make matters more complicated, this tool only worked once Redcore had been installed and did not work when running from the live disc. While things mostly worked in the virtual machine, performance was terrible. It took the distribution over five minutes to boot, the LXQt desktop tended to lag, and applications were slow to load. The process monitor showed very little CPU or disk activity during moments of slow performance, making the situation a bit of a puzzle.
Redcore worked better when run on my workstation. The distribution could boot in under a minute and all my hardware was detected. Applications loaded noticeably faster on physical hardware. LXQt's performance was a lot better when run on the workstation, but was still less responsive than I have come to expect from LXQt on other distributions.
Redcore is pleasantly light in memory, requiring 260MB of RAM to login to the desktop. However, the distribution is unusually large on the disk, with a fresh install taking up 11GB of space for the root partition. This large disk footprint is all the more surprising when we consider that not a lot of software is installed, compared to other distributions.
Redcore Linux 1908 -- LXQt with a dark theme
(full image size: 158kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Applications
Looking through the application menu we find a familiar collection of programs. The Firefox web browser and Thunderbird e-mail client are included. LibreOffice is installed for us too. The GNU Image Manipulation Program and Steam are available. Copies of the VLC media player, the mpv media player, and the K3b disc burning software are installed. There are some less common programs too, such as the qpdfview document viewer, qBittorrent for downloading torrents, and the PCManFM-Qt file manager.
Redcore Linux 1908 -- Running LibreOffice and Firefox
(full image size: 172kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
There is also an assortment of smaller applications such as a text editor, an archive manager, and some links to on-line Redcore website resources. The LXQt settings panel is available and includes modules for adjusting the look of the desktop, some behaviour, and layout settings. There is a tool for managing the firewall too, with the default configuration blocking all incoming connections.
I found Network Manager is installed and available to connect us to the Internet. In the background we find the GNU Compiler Collection, the SysV init software with OpenRC managing services, and version 5.1 of the Linux kernel.
Redcore Linux 1908 -- Running VLC and adjusting the firewall
(full image size: 435kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Software management
Managing the software on Redcore is primarily handled by a graphical tool called Sisyphus. The Sisyphus window presents us with a simple list of available software. Each entry in the list includes the package's category, name, the version installed, and the latest available version. There is a very short description field displayed on the far right. Near the top of the window is a search box for narrowing down the list of software. At the bottom of the Sisyphus window we find buttons for installing and removing selected packages, along with a button to download all available package upgrades.
The Sisyphus style and layout are quite simple and not geared toward new users, who may not be familiar with the technical category names or know the specific name of a package they want to install.
Redcore Linux 1908 -- The Sisyphus software manager
(full image size: 415kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
My experience with Sisyphus was not good. During the week I was running Redcore Sisyphus reported no new package upgrades were available, even though the distribution had come out over a week before I installed it. This seems odd given Redcore's quick, rolling release base.
When I tried to install new software, I had mixed results. For instance when I tried to install nmap, Falkon, and Kwrite Sisyphus indicated these items downloaded successfully, but they were not added to the application menu and were not available in my path. However, when I installed the SoX media software and xkill, these programs were added to my user's path and worked properly. I am not sure why some downloads worked and some did not and Sisyphus did not give me any clues.
Sisyphus uses the emerge command line utility in the background to perform its work. I switched over to using emerge directly and found it was able to install packages without any problems, including items such as Kwrite and nmap which Sisyphus had failed, even when given multiple tries, to successfully install. Unfortunately running emerge takes a long time as it needs to build some packages from source code (even when binary package are indicated as preferred). This means instead of taking a minute or two to install a browser, it can take an hour, which is not practical for most people.
Other observations
I made a few other observations while using Redcore. One was that the software included with the distribution seemed to be up to date, as one would expect from a rolling release distribution. I did not notice any strong positive or negative side effect from having such cutting-edge applications. Firefox, LibreOffice, the kernel and so on performed as I'd expected.
Another thing I noticed was that window borders were unusually thin. This made it nearly impossible to resize application windows by dragging their edges. Thee are other methods for resizing a window, like right-clicking on the title bar, but none so straight forward can dragging a window's corner and this aspect of the default desktop settings bothered me.
Finally, Redcore does not use sudo by default. It is not installed on the operating system. To perform administrative functions we can either install and configure sudo or use su to switch to the root account.
Redcore Linux 1908 -- The LXQt settings panel
(full image size: 583kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Conclusions
My trial got off to a rough beginning with an unusually long boot time on the live disc and the Help icon on the desktop which did not work. Over the past year I have run a handful of distributions which did not have functioning links to their chat room, forum or trouble-shooting documentation and it always leaves a poor first impression. If a new user is lost, one of the worst things they can encounter is a support service which does not function.
The bright theme, white wallpaper, and thin window borders also did not endear the distribution to me. Admittedly the visual aspect of a desktop is easy to change and perhaps it is petty to complain about it, but Redcore makes some unusual design choices and this adds to the strained early impression I had of the distribution.
There were certainly aspects of Redcore Linux I appreciated. For instance, the distribution detected all my hardware, worked in both my test environments, offered both lightweight and full featured desktop options. I also like that Redcore offers a Gentoo-based, desktop solution for home users. There are other Gentoo-based projects out there, but they tend to be more focused on commercial or enterprise users and it is nice to see someone bringing Gentoo to the home desktop crowd. I also like most of the default software the distribution provides. It is a pleasant mixture of popular open source applications and lesser used programs, all which worked well.
The first of the two big issues I ran into were the poor performance (especially in the virtual machine). I am used to LXQt being one of the faster, more responsive desktops in the open source community and I was sorry to see it running slowly this week. Running into randomly appearing desktop icons that I couldn't delete also put a sour taste in my mouth. The second major issue was Sisyphus. The package manager seemed to work, or not work, at random and without giving any clue as to why it did not work successfully. Running emerge from the command line worked every time I used it, so the issue appears to be with the package management front-end rather than the underlying packaging tool.
Redcore is a distribution which brings some intriguing technology to the table. It is based on Gentoo, has a powerful ports system, uses hardened build options, and has multiple desktop flavours. The installer is also pleasantly easy to use. However, the performance problems, the graphical package manager, desktop glitches and slow (often source-based) package management gave me the impression this distribution will not be practical for most users. There are good aspects to this distribution, but also a lot of rough edges to be smoothed out.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card, Ralink RT5390R PCIe Wireless card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Visitor supplied rating
Redcore Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 32 review(s).
Have you used Redcore Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu deciding which 32-bit packages should be kept, Debian's Project Leader addresses tensions over init software, elementary plans big update, Richard M Stallman steps down from FSF leadership role
The Ubuntu developers are hoping to gradually phase out support for 32-bit packages in the coming years to reduce the amount of work required to maintain up to date repositories. However, the team is aware many users still use 32-bit software for third-party packages and for compatibility with older software. With that in mind, Steve Langasek has started a discussion on which 32-bit libraries are still required and which ones can be removed from future releases of Ubuntu. "Based on our commitment to continue to support i386 userspace in Ubuntu, we have assembled a list of packages for which we have been able to determine there is user demand based on the feedback up to this point. The packages listed below are the ones we are committing to carry forward to 20.04 on parity with amd64. (We will also, necessarily, carry forward the various other packages that those in this list depend on or build-depend on.) Are there other packages not on this list that you need for 32-bit compatibility? Please let us know!"
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In a mailing list post, Debian's Project Leader (DPL) Sam Hartman, described a tricky situation which has arisen between the developers of various packages. In particular, Hartman talks about friction which has occurred between maintainers of init systems and their various related components. "This is a DPL problem because we can't get the right people together to make progress. It's not an easy problem. Developers don't have to do any work: if the systemd maintainers are emotionally exhausted and don't want to deal with this, they don't have to. (Although if the project is committed to init diversity, they cannot stand in the way.) And yet the systemd maintainers and to a lesser extent release team face conduct that is frankly unacceptable. And in some cases that conduct is the frustrated reaction to years of interactions complex enough that we'll never untangle them. No matter how unfortunate the conduct is, the frustrations, anger and hurt are real." While Hartman indicates there is no definite path forward on this issue, he does consider some possibilities in his mailing list post.
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The elementary OS team is planning a large update with a number of new features and an improved first-run experience. "First, we've been working on significant reworking of the entire installation and first-run experience (which is where we've been hitting some snags). Because the entire installation and first-run experience is different - and greatly improved - compared to the 5.0 release, we'll be giving this release its own identity and name. Importantly, all users of elementary OS 5 Juno will be able to upgrade to 5.1 via their normal updates in AppCenter. Think of 5.1 as a mid-cycle major update that everyone gets; it's somewhere between a usual point-release an an entirely new version of the OS." The new point release will include a new kernel with hardware enablement (HWE) packages, allowing the distribution to work with more hardware. The project's blog post offers further details on what to expect from elementary OS 5.1.
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John Sulivan, the executive director of the Free software Foundation (FSF), has announced that Richard M. Stallman has resigned his position as president of the FSF. Stallman is best known for his work in creating the free software movement and starting the GNU project, which develops free software that is used by nearly all Linux distributions. Stallman's hard stance on software licensing, along with his controversial views on some social issues and brash communication style, have often made him a divisive figure in the free and open source software communities. This has occasionally led to people petitioning the FSF over the years, asking Stallman to step down.
The most recent controversy around Stallman gained more media attention than usual and resulted in several FSF members threatening to cancel their memberships. Members of the GNOME team announced their intention to cut ties with the FSF and GNU if Stallman did not leave his position. The Free Software Conservancy also placed a similar call for Stallman to step down, stating: "When considered with other reprehensible comments he has published over the years, these incidents form a pattern of behavior that is incompatible with the goals of the free software movement. We call for Stallman to step down from positions of leadership in our movement.". Stallman has also resigned his position at MIT, citing "a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations" as the reason for his departure.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Recommending a friendly distro for newcomers and why Linux distributions are free
Just-starting-out asks: I'm a giant newbie when it comes to Linux. Which distro do you recommend people use and why?
DistroWatch answers: Welcome to Linux! The distribution I find myself recommending the most, at least to newcomers, is Linux Mint. Specifically I suggest the MATE edition of Mint. There are a few reasons for this. Mint uses a fairly classic style of desktop, making it familiar to former Windows users. The distribution offers five years of support for each release, meaning people will not need to re-install often or deal with lots of updates. Mint makes it fairly easy to set up filesystem snapshots (through Timeshift and Btrfs) meaning files can be restored if something goes wrong.
Mint also has the benefit of being binary compatible with Ubuntu, meaning just about any third-party applications, drivers or services which are made with popular Linux distributions in mind (or Ubuntu in particular) should run on Mint. The reason I suggest Mint's MATE edition specifically, instead of Mint's Cinnamon edition or Ubuntu itself, is both Cinnamon and Ubuntu's GNOME desktop require 3-D video driver support. This often means users will experience poor desktop performance unless they install a third-party driver. MATE does not require any special video card or driver and will be responsive on just about any computer made in the past 15 years.
There are situations where I recommend other distributions, depending on the role of the computer, how old the equipment is, or specific application needs. But I find most people get along well with Mint and stick with it. I have also had good luck with introducing people to Linux Lite for similar reasons. Lite tends to have a lower memory footprint while still being friendly in a way Linux novices seem to expect.
I would like to mention that a variation of this question I get a lot is: "Which distro would you suggest for someone who plans to use Linux for graphic design/web development/programming?" Personally, I don't think any one of the mainstream distributions has a strong benefit over the others in these categories. Most of them ship with the same tools and handle these tasks the same way.
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Wondering-why asks: Why is Linux free? Other operating systems cost money, why are Linux distros made for free?
While most Linux distributions are available free of charge, not all Linux distributions are free to use. Companies like Red Hat and SUSE make their money from selling Linux licenses. They make money from providing support for their operating systems.
I'd like to mention, before I get to the reasons Linux distributions are usually free, that we could turn the question around and ask why other software companies, like Microsoft and Apple, charge money for their operating systems. Apple makes almost all of its money from selling hardware and doesn't need to charge for their operating system. Likewise, Microsoft's big money makers tend to be their office suite, business tools, and cloud infrastructure. They could give Windows away for free and still be highly profitable. But these companies can sell their products, and so they do, because the market supports it and people expect it.
Getting back to the original question: why are most Linux distributions and the software that comes with them free of cost? There are a handful of reasons. For some it is a matter of philosophy. Many developers believe software code is human knowledge and should be freely shared, like mathematical formulas or most scientific discoveries. These people see problems they can solve using computer code and want to share their creations for the benefit of society.
Some people work on software projects for fun or in their spare time. It is a hobby or something they do to educate themselves. They freely give away what they make because it costs them very little to create and they enjoy it.
Others give away their software while still making money in various ways. Some developers collect donations, others join affiliate programs to make money off of things like search queries, some sell support contracts. The software itself may be free, but the developers can still make an income.
Some developers create software to solve problems they have and just give away their solutions because they don't have a reason not to. They don't see a benefit in trying to charge money for their program or it might be more hassle than it is worth to collect fees and answer support questions, so they just publish the code.
Other developers publish code to act as a portfolio. Often times interviewers will ask what projects a developer has worked on and it is handy to be able to point to an archive of projects as evidence of the coder's skill. This shows off what the developer can do and gives the interviewer an easy way to evaluate the candidate's abilities.
Bringing us almost full circle, some developers get paid to work on projects which are then given away for free because their company or sponsor makes money indirectly from the project. For instance, Intel and Microsoft contribute to the Linux kernel. The kernel is freely available to anyone, but Intel and Microsoft put resources toward making sure Linux works with their hardware and cloud services (respectively) so their customers have a better experience. The companies then sell services or hardware which work with Linux, making money from their (hopefully) happy customers.
Do you work on open source software? If you do and we missed the reason you give away your code for free, let us know in the comments.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Porteus Kiosk 4.9.0
Tomasz Jokiel has announced the release of Porteus Kiosk 4.9.0, the latest stable build of the project's Gentoo-based, specialist distribution designed for web kiosks: "I am pleased to announce that Porteus Kiosk 4.9.0 is now available for download. Major software upgrades in this release include: Linux kernel 4.19.68, Google Chrome 76.0.3809.100 and Mozilla Firefox 68.1.0 ESR. Packages from the userland are upgraded to portage snapshot tagged on 2019-09-08. We have finally migrated to Firefox 68 ESR release and that means the NPAPI plugins (except of Flash) and legacy add-ons do not work any more with this browser. Java module has been removed from additional components selection while Citrix Receiver works as an associated application. Silent printing is still not fixed so if you need this function in your kiosk then please use the Chrome browser instead of Firefox. Short changelog for 4.9.0 release: added support for setting default zoom level in the Firefox and Chrome browsers; session idle function can lock the session instead of restarting it...." See the release announcement and changelog for more information.
GhostBSD 19.09
GhostBSD is a desktop-oriented, rolling release operating system based on TrueOS. The project's latest release, 19.09, shifts its base from TrueOS's cutting edge development branch to the slower moving, but still rolling, Stable branch. "GhostBSD 19.09 has some considerable changes happened, like moving the system to STABLE instead of CURRENT for ABI stability with the integration of the latest system update developed by TrueOS. This also means that current users will need to reinstall GhostBSD unless they were running on the development version of GhostBSD 19.09. GhostBSD 19.09 marks the last major changes the breaks updates for software and system upgrade. What has changed since 19.04: GhostBSD 19.09 is built from TrueOS/FreeBSD 12.0-STABLE. OpenRC is updated to 0.41.2. GhostBSD now use TrueOS packages base from ports. NetworkMgr CPU usage got improved. A lot of unnecessary software got removed. Exaile got replaced with Rhythmbox. GNOME MPV got replaced by VLC. XFburn got replaced by Brasero. Vim got replaced by Tiny Vim." Further details and screenshots can be found in the project's release announcement.
Emmabuntus DE3-1.00
The Emmabuntüs team has announced the release of a new version of their Debian-based distribution, featuring the Xfce desktop. The new version, Debian Edition 3-1.00, uses Debian 10 "Buster" as a base and features version 4.12 of the Xfce desktop. "On September 16th 2019, the Emmabuntüs Collective is happy to announce the release of the new Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 3 1.00 (32- and 64-bits), based on the ebian 10.1.0 Buster distribution and featuring the Xfce desktop environment.... This new version of our distribution is based on the Emmabuntüs DE2 under Debian 10 Buster, with some noticeable improvements which were implemented during the development of the Alpha and RC versions: ISO file size significantly reduced, streamlining and consistency of the embedded software, better handling of the light/dark theme, localization support in live mode, etc. This final version additionally supports the installation in UEFI Secure boot mode, the simplified installation via Calamares in live mode, allows to run under VMware Workstation, and brings some improvements in terms of security and ergonomics." Further details and a screenshot can be found in the project's release announcement.
Emmabuntus DE3-1.00 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 590kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Clonezilla Live 2.6.3-7
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 2.6.3-7, an updated stable build of the useful live CD based on Debian "Unstable" and shipping with the Clonezilla disk imaging and cloning application as the principal utility: "Stable Clonezilla Live 2.6.3-7 released. This release of Clonezilla live includes major enhancements and bug fixes. Enhancements and changes from 2.6.2-15: the underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded - this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2019-09-03; Linux kernel has been updated to 5.2.9-2; Partclone has been updated to 0.3.13+git; removed zfs-fuse since it's too old - the support for zfs mounting using openzfs can be found in Ubuntu-based Clonezilla Live 20190903 (and above) releases; partclone-utils package has been updated with new upstream on 2019-08-29: modified parameters about BT in drbl-ocs.conf - use gen-torrent-from-ptcl (ezio-ptcl) to create torrent file from torrent.info; remove '-t 3 -k 60' from ezio_seeder_opt, i.e., keep ezio seeder in the server all the time until it's killed by ocs-live-feed-img stop; aded a new sample program custom-ocs-3." Here is the complete release announcement.
CentOS 7-1908
Johnny Hughes has announced the release of CentOS 7-1908, the latest update to the project's 7.x series. The new version provides Python 3 packages as well as updates to chrony and the bind software. The release announcement states: "Release for CentOS Linux 7 (1908) on the x86_64 architecture. We are pleased to announce the general availability of CentOS Linux 7 (1908) for the x86_64 architecture. Effectively immediately, this is the current release for CentOS Linux 7 and is tagged as 1908, derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 source code. As always, read through the release notes - these notes contain important information about the release and details about some of the content inside the release from the CentOS QA team. These notes are updated constantly to include issues and incorporate feedback from the users." Additional information can be found in the upstream distribution's release notes.
PCLinuxOS 2019.09
The PCLinuxOS project has published new install media. The rolling release distribution's latest snapshot carries version number 2019.09 and is available in editions featuring the KDE Plasma, MATE, and Xfce desktop environments. "The KDE versions both full and the minimalistic Darkstar contain kernel 5.2.15 plus a fully updated KDE Plasma desktop. Plasma desktop 5.16.5, Plasma Applications 19.08.1 and Plasma Frameworks 5.62. The MATE Desktop was refreshed with kernel 5.2.15 and the applications and libraries were updated to their most recent stable versions from the previous release. The Xfce desktop was tweaked and now uses the Whisker menu by default. A login sound was added and the applications were updated along with some minor bug fixes. In addition all ISOs now include the NVIDIA 430.50 driver and will be used instead of the nouveau driver if your video card supports it. Hardware detection scripts were updated to provide better support for video cards that can use the NVIDIA 430.50 driver. PulseAudio has been updated to the stable 13.0 release." Further details can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
EndeavourOS 2019.09.15
EndeavourOS is an Arch Linux-based distribution featuring a pre-configured Xfce desktop and the Calamares graphical installer. The project's latest snapshot, 2019.09.15, features many package updates, a more complete Arch-x icon set and the NVIDIA driver installer is included by default. "The September release has arrived. As of today you can download our latest ISO with an updated offline installer. The ISO contains: Linux kernel 5.2.14; mesa 19.1.6; systemd 243.0; Firefox 69 (Quantum); Arc-x-icons, a more complete and updated version than the Arc icon set used previously. The new EndeavourOS welcome launcher on both the live environment as on the installed system. It's a one-click menu to the wiki for the basic system commands and setting up your hardware. Our NVIDIA-installer is now installed by default which now also installs the dkms drivers. Gtop system monitor, a nice terminal-based system load monitor that launches from the panel." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
EndeavourOS 2019.09.15 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 275kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Parrot 4.7
Lorenzo Faletra has announced the release of Parrot 4.7, the new stable version of the project's Debian-based distribution set designed for penetration testing, digital forensics and privacy protection: "We are proud to announce the release of Parrot 4.7, which represents an important step forward for our project. The pen-testing menu structure was re-factored and re-designed to make tools easier to access in a more logical hierarchical structure. New tools were also added to the project and we plan to add even more in the future. Not all of them are going to be pre-installed, but a good set of tools in our repository enables pen-testers to build up the perfect pen-test system for their specific needs, regardless the default package selection picked by our team. In Parrot 4.7 the sandbox is disabled by default and users can decide wether to start an application sandboxed or not. You can easily start the sandboxed variant of an installed program from the /sandbox/ folder or from a dedicated menu that we plan to improve in the future." Read the full release notes for a detailed list of changes and improvements.
Lakka 2.3.1
Lakka is a lightweight Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full blown game console. The distribution is based on LibreELEC and runs the RetroArch console emulator. The project has published a new version, Lakka 2.3, which supports running on the Raspberry Pi 4 computer as well as the ROCKPro64 board. Perhaps the most impressive new feature is real-time translation of text: "One of the flagship features of RetroArch 1.7.8 is the AI Project. This unique and never-seen before feature allows you to translate your games on the fly, in real-time as you play. Once setup on your Lakka box, you will be able to press the AI hotkey to have the system scan the screen for any foreign language text. Once recognized, the text is translated and restitued back to you depending on the current mode: Speech mode: the translated text is read back to you using text to speech. As the game isn't interrupted in this mode, that allows you to have the game dialogues read to you in your language as if someone was sitting next to you, translating the game in real time. Image mode (on the picture): the original text is replaced by the translated text onscreen, while the game is paused to give you time to read." Further details on the new version can be found in the release announcement.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 1,624
- Total data uploaded: 28.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
DNS over HTTPS
Recently Mozilla and Google have been testing a new method of resolving hostnames into IP addresses. The new approach sends DNS queries over encrypted HTTPS connections rather than through the typically plain-text DNS protocol. While this hides hostname lookups from casual observers on the network, it also overrides operating system DNS rules and relies on a single, third-party provider to handle the DNS over HTTPS (DoH) queries. This has some people worried about privacy and side-effects from ignoring the operating system's DNS configuration. OpenBSD is disabling DoH in the Firefox web browser and many people are waiting to see how Linux distributions will handle the new DoH feature.
What are your thoughts on traditional DNS lookups versus DoH encrypted lookups? Do you have a preference as to which approach your web browser uses?
You can see the results of our previous poll on detecting Wayland sessions and applications in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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DNS over HTTPS
| I prefer traditional DNS queries: | 354 (30%) |
| I prefer DNS over HTTPS queries: | 185 (16%) |
| Either is fine as long as I can change it: | 435 (37%) |
| I have no preference: | 215 (18%) |
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| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 30 September 2019. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Linux Mint MATE (by Steve Kahle on 2019-09-23 01:01:54 GMT from United States)
After installing, testing and using dozens of Linux distros over the past 15 years or so, my favorite distro, the one that I use regularly on my main Linux computers, and the one I recommend and install on computers for others is, guess what?, Linux Mint MATE!
2 • Sisyphus — really? (by Rufovillosum on 2019-09-23 01:09:20 GMT from United States)
Why would anyone name a program after the Greek myth of a never-ending uphill struggle? Possibly truth in advertising, as this was precisely Jesse’s experience.
3 • Linux distro for newbies (by Jason Hsu on 2019-09-23 01:31:14 GMT from United States)
While one cannot go wrong with Linux Mint, another great option is MX Linux, which is now #1 on DistroWatch. Like Linux Mint, MX Linux is very user-friendly and has a substantial community, which means that help is easy to find.
MX Linux has the advantage of being lighter, faster, and lower maintenance than Linux Mint. Because of the speed advantage, MX Linux extends the useful life of your PC. The reason for this is what's under the hood. MX Linux is based on Debian Stable, while Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu LTS. Debian Stable has a much lower overhead, and the updates required are much more modest.
4 • Distro recommended to use for newbies (by Terry on 2019-09-23 01:36:07 GMT from United States)
I too recommend Linux Mint. I grew up with Linux Mint and watched this distro grow thru the years. They have never failed to make better and better distros. As a beginner you get use the linux OS over the years and then you can venture off to other Linux OS's according to your specific needs.
5 • Linux distro for newbies (by Terry on 2019-09-23 01:40:17 GMT from United States)
@3
You are right. As of lately, MX Linux is awesome and it is my current Linux system. Very fast and has pretty much everything you need!
6 • Yikes, Jesse, regarding disk space requirement with Redcore (by RJA on 2019-09-23 02:41:52 GMT from United States)
With the installer requiring a Windows-NT6x-like 20 GB, it can be surprising that it only used a more-XP-x64-Edition-like 260 MB of RAM. After seeing the disk space requirement, I was imagining it possibly requiring 700 MB+ of RAM just being at the desktop. I was thinking at that point, they would also likely let the RAM usage balloon out. Kudos for the low RAM requirement to Redcore.
7 • @5, Kudos to MX (by RJA on 2019-09-23 02:52:20 GMT from United States)
MX is looking very good, similar to how I was thinking about Q4 weeks ago. Seems like Debian and Devuan-based distros are the most predictable.
8 • @7 predictable (by Dr. E.S. Ktorp on 2019-09-23 03:29:05 GMT from United States)
Speaking of Debian/Devuan and predictability, who else predicted Debian would quickly back down on their claim of supporting sysvinit. I used to love Debian, but today, it is a disgrace. Either this new project leader is in over his head, or he is the most disingenuous hatchetman in the bunch, but either way, I'm tired of reading his meandering thoughts about everybody's emotions. Maybe they voted him in because he talks like softspoken corporate pushover. What made this guy an expert on everybody's emotions anyway and why are claims of fraid emotions being utilized in this manner in the 1st place; to continue the push for systemd?
First they performed the universal systemd ramrod, then they CoC'd up every major distribution, then Debian began their diversity hires at the very highest echelon. I do not trust Hartman. He complains about people acting unprofessionally and yet his behavior in the position of LEADER reeks of unprofessionalism. So long as sysvinit is still on life support somewhere downstream, Debian will continue to elect Judas Goats to lead the project in a downward spiral toward merging with Fedora or whatever grim future awaits the Linux landscape.
I'm tired of Debian jerking people around. I hate systemd and I wish they would just get it over with. Everyone knows they're gonna do it. I'm tired of reading lies from slick con men pushing this agenda. Pull the plug, you monsters.
9 • Opinion on your topic (by Chris on 2019-09-23 03:45:17 GMT from New Zealand)
Hi
In your topic "Wondering Why asks" "They could give Windows away for free and still be highly profitable "
No they cannot give Windows away for free because they insist on a form of EULA ( End User Licence agreement ) which legally binds each named user to their conditions. The basis for enforcing a EULA is payment to them. Software with restrictive EULA's in this case dwell in some form of obtuse submission, and they absolutely need the identity of the user to enforce their licence conditions. As absurd as that sounds history shows a lot of humanity has taken that path.
10 • DNS over HTTPS (by x on 2019-09-23 04:57:23 GMT from United States)
I like the basic concept, however, the implementation may proove to be worse than what currently exists. I agree with OpenBSD's decision. Best stated at https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20190911113856.
This is something that should not become a standard.
11 • Richard Stallman (by Douglas Hinds on 2019-09-23 06:13:33 GMT from Mexico)
Without Richard there would be no Linux (and GNU/Linux is a more accurate term).
How divisive is that?
12 • Richard Stallman (by Douglas Hinds on 2019-09-23 06:14:57 GMT from Mexico)
Copyleft Forever!
13 • DoH poll missing option (by Arve on 2019-09-23 07:34:01 GMT from Norway)
The poll is missing an option:
* I like the idea of DoH, but the browser should not be deciding what to use, the OS should.
14 • The Matter of RMS (by Eric Yeoh on 2019-09-23 07:34:31 GMT from Malaysia)
I have sat through a couple of Stallman's talks and I can say this - he is a very smart, eloquent and knowledgeable in his field. He is also a very opinionated person who - I suspect gain a lot of amusement and joy from making others feel uneasy and upset - especially with hid demands and quirks - heck I have dealt with Royals who made far fewer demands. No doubt that he is a genius and without him there would be no FOSS and the Linux-based OS I use and make a living off supporting and working with - but that doesn't excuse him from the many idiosyncrasies and mean-spirited comments he has made. He knows those comments/acts can be or were/are hurtful - he just couldn't be bothered because HE knows he could get a way it. Not a matter being PC - and being smart and honest doesn't excuse one from being polite and decent.
15 • DNS over HTTPS (by Az on 2019-09-23 07:49:20 GMT from France)
@13
Couldn't have said it better :)
16 • DNS (by Simon Plaistowe on 2019-09-23 08:29:05 GMT from New Zealand)
My ISP supports DNSSEC, as does my firewall (IPFire). For my purposes I reckon that's sufficient for now.
17 • Debian Issues (by Herol on 2019-09-23 10:07:23 GMT from Netherlands)
When lunatics lead,
System D has done more to damage the linux ecosystem than any other change in the last years. I want an init system to start my OS, not a wool, milk giving, egg laying flying universal giant pig demanding that everything else follows the meandering ideas of person of apt name.
In a class we were slimming down a debian system with the Sys V Init, remove Bluetooth because it is not needed, no problem. Just worked.
Do the same with system D, it would have removed the entire desktop system due to the lunatic dependency chain.
Explain that to 33 Intelligent schoolkids, the words they used for the perpetrators of this idiocy would get me banned.
We have now moved to systems which work in a sane and understandable manner.
Those systems also use ALSA because another genius solution from the great creator called pulse audio degrades sound quality. Even I can hear that.
18 • EULA (by Jesse on 2019-09-23 11:22:26 GMT from Canada)
@9: "No they cannot give Windows away for free because they insist on a form of EULA ( End User Licence agreement ) which legally binds each named user to their conditions. The basis for enforcing a EULA is payment to them."
This is not true. First, Windows usually is not purchased directly. It's licensed out to OEMs. The user is still bound by the license, even if they don't purchase it directly and get Windows bundled on their computer.
Second, thousands of applications have EULAs that are free to download and use. Ever installed iTunes? It has seemingly endless pages of an EULA yet the program is free to download and install. Apple will still enforce its terms.
Third, lots of Linux distributions have EULAs and are available free of charge. Do you think Red Hat's free Developer Edition's license is any less enforceable just because the company gives it away for free? A EULA has nothing to do with the cost of the product, only that you read the license and then used the software.
19 • DNS over HTTPS (by AntEAter on 2019-09-23 11:36:47 GMT from United States)
The real issue with the actions of Mozilla and Google regarding DoH isn't whether I prefer my text encyrpted or not. I'm 100% for encrypting all traffic over the internet whenever possible. However, the problem with this move is that it is more than just a little bit presumptuous on several fronts. First off, many organizations have a local DNS which provides name resolution for non-public network services. Many have chosen to filter DNS with products like Pi-hole for the home user or other management tools at the business level. These are often managed using the DHCP settings on the local network or with other system policies. Now we're going to have Chrome and Firefox bypassing these settings because someone decided that they knew better than the people who own and manage these systems. In addition, defaulting to one commercial provider has its own set of ethical questions. Personally, I see very little advantage to this from a privacy perspective since all the addresses that will be queried via DNS can also be seen openly in the network traffic that will be requested as a result. Maybe I'm missing something in their implementation, but it appears to be very short sighted.
20 • #17 Debian issues (by TuxRaider on 2019-09-23 14:29:54 GMT from United States)
I agree 110% Linux was a much better OS (all distros) before systemD became such a quagmire. i am sticking with non systemd distros, theres a few around https://nosystemd.org/
21 • On rms (by Miranda Hoffe on 2019-09-23 14:42:35 GMT from Romania)
His ideas, code, and laser-focus on user rights are all great reasons to hail the man’s work (and I always have), but his gross personal behavior/habits/utterances are a detriment to the cause, so I say good riddance and let’s find a replacement who will bring his best contributions into the inclusive 21st century. Whoever gets the job, I know she will know how to lead the FSF righteously.
22 • Linux distro for newbies (by ACDBill on 2019-09-23 15:03:36 GMT from United States)
In the past I would have agreed with you in recommending Linux Mint and Mate in particular. However, in the last couple of years, I would point newbs to Elementary OS. EOS is stable and restrictive enough that the user would have to work really, really hard to break it. Yes, eventually, the user will get tired of being restricted and will either learn how to modify EOS or move on to another distro. But until then, the user has a desktop they can use that works well and limits what they can do to break it until they learn their way around Linux Land.
23 • RE: #21 On rms (by TuxRaider on 2019-09-23 15:04:10 GMT from United States)
I vote for this guy to be the King of the GNU, BDFL for life, he would make a good replacement
Eben Moglen - Freedom of Thought Requires Free Media
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOk4Y4inVY
Eben Moglen: Why Freedom of Thought Requires Attention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SKpRbvnx6g
24 • Debian - moving forward? (by curious on 2019-09-23 15:31:21 GMT from Germany)
I found these "questions" in Hartman's post enlightening:
"So perhaps sysvinit and init scripts have had their chance and it is
time to move on. We could move away from init scripts as the default
representation. We could stop caring about sysvinit (which isn't quite
the same thing but is related). That would leave non-linux ports in an
unfortunate position. But right now there are no non-linux ports in the
main archive. So perhaps we don't even care about that."
It seems that "We don't care about XYZ." might become Debian's new slogan ...
25 • Distros for Newbies/Beginners (by dragonmouth on 2019-09-23 15:47:58 GMT from United States)
I would recommend PCLinuxOS.
26 • Newbie distros, etc. (by Friar Tux on 2019-09-23 17:23:17 GMT from Canada)
I have tested all the suggested 'newbie distros' that have been mentioned so far and the ONLY one that has worked consistently out-of-box - the only one - is Linux Mint (Cinnamon and Mate). All the rest either could not find the wifi or required some major fiddling after installation. My newbie vote is Linux Mint.
Re Stallman (and for that matter Torvalds), it appears Linux attracts anti-social 'introverts'. Especially those that are rude and don't give an 'ats rass' about others. Just go to a Linux forum with a question. While everyone is entitled to their opinions, being polite is still quite socially acceptable. Yes, I hold Stallman, and Torvalds, to be geniuses, but I would not care to work with/for them. And we wonder why people aren't attracted to Linux. (Henry Ford, and Tesla, were also anti-social, by the way. Tesla's best friend was Mark Twain, who was, himself, quite anti-social, though at least he was rather polite about it.)
27 • DNS over HTTPS (by Hendrik on 2019-09-23 18:27:41 GMT from Germany)
There is also DNS over TLS for encrypted DNS. I'm using an implementation named stubby, where I can choose from a list of upstream servers and configure the ones i want, to be used. Among them are the usual suspects like Google, Quad9, Cloudflare, but also quite a number of others.
28 • Linux devs and their attitude (by Mark B on 2019-09-23 18:40:08 GMT from United Kingdom)
@26
I couldn't agree more with what you said about Linux people. It has been very much my experience too. What many of the ruder ones don't seem to realise, or perhaps care about, is that by alienating people with less knowledge they are biting the hand that feeds them. I'm sick to death of the open-source elitists who think you are a lesser mortal if you don't want to mess about with command lines and bash scripts. A great many happy Linux users are just that, users not coders. I just want to get stuff done. And, I've been a programmer and an IT tech, so I'm not clueless.
I agree with those people that recommend Mint MATE too. I've been using it for a number of years and I can find almost nothing to moan about.
29 • Who wants Mozilla and Google controlling DNS? (by Devil Oper on 2019-09-23 19:27:41 GMT from Switzerland)
That'll be Firefox watching the henhouse. Plus Google and its over 900,000 servers that track everyone. It's just another excuse by the biggest to spy more. And of course every corporation that can spies so much as it can, that's what needs stopped.
30 • funny that nobody mentioned manjaro in comments. (by ionel on 2019-09-23 20:28:38 GMT from Moldova, Republic of)
I think that manjaro is a very nice beginners distro,
it is a install once on granny laptop, configure it and forget about till laptop gets broken.
31 • linux distro for newbies (by george barbaz on 2019-09-23 20:32:41 GMT from United States)
I am just surprised that Elementary 5.0 Juno was not mentioned ... it has it's strangeness in that it looks like Mac OS ... but to me that is a plus ... I have been using linux for at least 15 years and unix/aix before that ... so I am not a newbie ... but I have suggested Elementary to a number of people and most have liked it ...
32 • Testing Distros (by Friar Tux on 2019-09-23 20:38:54 GMT from Canada)
#28 (Mark B) One of the tests I do on the various distros IS to see if they'll work out of box or not. If I can install it and go right to work, it's a hit. If there is even the slightest bit of fiddling involved, it's a miss. Yeah, it's harsh, but we're in the 21st century here, it SHOULD work. Mint has never yet missed, and I've installed various versions on various machines over the years without once having to tweak or adjust something. I can't say the same for any other distro (except Q4OS). Also, I never recommend forums to anyone with Linux issues. I usually try to steer them to a local Linux User Group. Those folks are usually quite friendly and nice to work with.
33 • Newbie distros (by hotdiggettydog on 2019-09-23 20:46:25 GMT from Asia/Pacific Region)
Peppermint OS is a sweetheart. Based on Mint without bloat. Lightweight enough to run on old hardware and lightning fast on new.
Peppermint includes many customizations which will make life easier for newbies starting off with the file manager and many other under the hood improvements.
34 • @26 Friar Tux: (by dragonmouth on 2019-09-23 20:50:33 GMT from United States)
Anti-social behavior is not limed to any particular area, such as Linux. If you examine the personalities of geniuses we've had throughout history, you'll find that many of them were anti-social and irascible. They did not "suffer fools gladly"; fools being normal humans of intellect lesser than the geniuses. In fact, anti-social behavior is nit limited to geniuses. In general, like talks to like. Experts look down on laymen. Upper management looks down on workers. The rich and the "aristocracy" do not associate with the hoi poloi. Even in this forum there are posters who believe that their "pronouncements" are enough to end all discussions.
35 • SystemDebian (by cykodrone on 2019-09-23 22:17:45 GMT from Canada)
This was so predictable, a corporation directing the path of a crucial system component, with 'phone home' capabilities, no less. When Debian drank the systemd Kool-Aid, I bailed, and haven't looked back. If I come in to some money, throwing some Devuan's way, they are gods in my eyes!
36 • Good riddance to RMS (by CS on 2019-09-23 23:24:55 GMT from United States)
It took until he defended a convicted and quite dead pedophile before RMS was finally ousted and permanently blackballed from any sort of meaningful position. Amazing it took that long given his behavior and the things he's said. Don't lump him in with Torvalds - Torvalds may be a jerk but RMS is something else entirely. And don't give him a free pass just because you love open source, the man is reprehensible and the only reason he stuck around this long is all the free passes he's been given until now.
37 • Ragging on Richard Stalman (by Bruce Fowler on 2019-09-24 00:13:44 GMT from United States)
@2
I'm sorry there is no "like" button on Distrowatch !!
@14
The PC (Politically Correct) police strike again! But perhaps he was getting ready to step down, he has been at this for many years.
@21
"I say good riddance" - Here we go! See previous.
38 • @27 (by Eric Yeoh on 2019-09-24 00:57:06 GMT from Malaysia)
Being polite and decent in words and deeds are sorely lacking attributes in the tech world. You can be brutally honest at the same time show that you are not mean spirited or have a vocabulary limited to using expletives to describe people or situations. Cheers from hazy Malaysia.
39 • Systemd (by sananab on 2019-09-24 03:15:52 GMT from Canada)
The advantage of systemd was supposed to be speed. So far, that's failed to materialize on any system I've tested it on. Now, all we have gained from systemd was replacing something that was pretty easy to approach with Poettering's over-engineered, poorly-documented, insane nightmare tentacle monster, which has infected the open source world worse than any piece of malware ever has.
When I first started using Linux, people thought that the big threat to Open Source would be Gates or Balmer, but it turns out that the biggest danger was, in fact, Lennart Poettering's poor engineering skills and ridiculous ego.
40 • Aren't you tired of init system war? (by Frederic Bezies on 2019-09-24 05:44:04 GMT from France)
Hello.
I've read all the comments, and I think peoples are still in 2015. SysVinit, Systemd, Runit, OpenRC... Come on! Why are you still focusing on this?
Don't you think that in 2019 there are more important fights to do? Like end-user applications?
I've been in linux world since 1996, booting linux only since 2006. And I saw progress in desktop ease of use until 2015. Since then, it is the holy sysinit war that is wasting energy.
I will be clear: I don't care at all which init system is running on my linux distribution. I just want it to work. It is a simple as that.
I wonder how many "good thinking" people are going to lecture me and tell me that I'm writing nonsense.
41 • @40 (by kernelKurtz on 2019-09-24 06:25:35 GMT from Switzerland)
Heya Frederic,
I enjoy the work you do on the tubes and elsewhere.
Your assertion that other things are more important works just fine.
Though in my opinion any good argument can be wrecked by slapping the "I just want it to work" fallacy on it.
You buy a car. It just works. But at some point it will stop just working, if you don't put gas in it. Change the oil. Get new tires. Et cetera.
Stop making the payments and they will come take it away. It may still just work, but not for you.
If you drive it into a tree or a lake, it will probably stop just working. So your use case matters.
Anyway, systemd.
I buy a GNU/Mazda and I like it. When I go to trade it in, I find that the new GNU/Mazdas are all automatics now--can't get a new one with a stick. Also, there is a microphone hidden onboard "for emergencies" and I can't turn it off, or know when it's on. Does it still work? Yes. Will I be buying a new GNU/Mazda? No.
I don't need to feel militant about my choices, but I do have to make them--I am condemned to be free as another bright Frenchman once said.
"Just works" is a standard, but not a very fine-grained one.
kK
42 • @41 cars and computers :) (by Frederic Bezies on 2019-09-24 06:38:20 GMT from France)
Hello.
So, it is a fallacy to say "I just want it to work"? Just ask normal people if they do care about such technical things. They will look at you and tell you to go to a shrink and to get a life :D
Cars? I don't currently own a driving license, so... :D
For 99% (or so) of computer users, this is a big black (or grey) box with a screen, a keyboard and a mouse plugged in it. And it is perfectly fine! It is a tool and not a toy.
Init freedom? Well.. I don't think it is the main point in 2019.
What about a true photoshop-like picture managing tool with CYMK support embedded? The same for DTP?
I can continue for long. There are great free software tools, but a lot of them are lacking a professional UI or features. We do not need another init software systems. We need end users tools. Well, I'm speaking with an end-user point of view. Something missing in free software world nowadays.
And Sartre. I just don't like him. Did you read "L'écume des jours" from Boris Vian? There is a caracter called Jean-Saul Partre. I liked what happened to it.
Anyway, have a good day.
43 • init wars are just so passé (by greenpossum on 2019-09-24 07:16:30 GMT from Slovakia)
>The advantage of systemd was supposed to be speed.
No, it's for better process management and unifying dissipate mechanisms such as init, cron, triggers, and so forth. Also journaled logs. It matters for enterprise deployment which is why RHEL and SUSE have adopted it. Home users will see less benefit. But on the other hand if you don't fall for the glib characterisation that it's overcomplicated, you won't notice any difference in everyday use. I maintain systems of both types and don't have issues. What was that about just works? Systemd systems just do.
44 • Right said Fred (by Mark B on 2019-09-24 08:11:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
@42
Frederic,
I think you are right about end-user software in the Linux world. Many do lack the polish that commercial applications have. I find it annoying when distros state that there are 30,000 packages or something. They conveniently forget that many of them are libraries needed by other programs not complete applications themselves.
I think it is no accident that some of the best programs on Linux are cross-platform. Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC, LibreOffice, GIMP, Filezilla, Skype, Audacity etc etc...all look the same across different operating systems. And the other benefit is that if you use Windows and Linux you don't need to learn two different programs.
You say you don't like Sartre so here is a joke featuring him that you might like instead.
"To be or not to be" - Shakespeare
"To be is to do" - Sartre
"Do be do be do" - Sinatra.
:-)
45 • Change is needed (by human on 2019-09-24 08:33:30 GMT from Australia)
I'd like to see the Linux license changed from GPL to something else that isn't connected to the immoral stances of Stallman.
Get rid of GNU, Busybox might be a good start.
I'm tired of Stallman, GPL and GNU. GNU/Linux rolls off your tongue like a neckbeard ranting about religion. Time to grow up and move on.
People that defend his disgraceful opinions should not be involved in anything this far reaching.
Disgusting.
46 • @44 : packages and misc subjects :) (by Frederic Bezies on 2019-09-24 08:36:09 GMT from France)
Thanks for your comment. I think free software world forget something: on the desktop, it is nearly nothing, besides big names like LibreOffice, Inkscape, VLC or Mozilla Firefox.
A lot of free software users, technical ones, are acting like "we are master of the world because we are making software". Really? I thought it was money that rules the world!
Package numbers: it is easy to get X or Y thousands packages. Just split every single software between binaries and docs for example.
And this joke? Oh! It reminds me good old years on usenet newsgroups.
47 • @45 - You want to get rid of GPL? (by Hoos on 2019-09-24 09:36:19 GMT from Japan)
That's either deliberate baiting or @47 is correct.
48 • @ 48 And, lot of RMS bashing... (by kaczor on 2019-09-24 10:12:19 GMT from Greece)
And, there's lot of RMS bashing, GNU/Linux bashing today.
I suspect the ousting of RMS was well planned, by anti open source moghuls.
49 • @45 While you're at it ... (by curious on 2019-09-24 10:53:55 GMT from Germany)
... Why don't we get rid of all other guarantees of freedom, too?
Surely, one can find some obscure way to connect the (various) declarations of Human Rights, as well as the constitutions of democratic countries, with people who have (at least in your eyes) an "immoral stance". So let's get rid of all these freedoms!
50 • @45 human: (by dragonmouth on 2019-09-24 13:11:12 GMT from United States)
"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire
"A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side"
Joseph Addison
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion,
Mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person,
Than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
John Stuart Mill
IOW, everyone, including RMS, has a right to their opinion(s), no matter how stupid you may think they are.
51 • opinions (by Otis on 2019-09-24 16:25:08 GMT from United States)
"...everyone, including RMS, has a right to their opinion(s), no matter how stupid you may think they are."
Until that post, I've seen not a single word challenging a person's right to their stated opinion.
This discussion seems to be about the differences of opinions, not at all whether any of us should have them.
52 • RE: #51 opinions by Otis (by TuxRaider on 2019-09-24 18:01:06 GMT from United States)
true everyone is entitled to their opinions, but also it is inevitable that people are going to judge others and be judged by their opinions...
if people dont want to be ridiculed for their opinions then they have a choice, either get better opinions or keep em to yourself.
53 • @45: new era? (by nanome on 2019-09-24 18:45:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
@45: new era? In the early days, GNU was a way of getting the new Linux kernel up and running. Busybox [or Rob Landleys' Toybox] is not a pleasant replacement for the GNU tools [I know this from when I was playing with a Busybox init-scheme and forgot to add /usr/bin into the search path].
However, certain elements of the Linux toolchain are due for upgrades. Now that the Linux kernel can [we are told] be built using LLVM/Clang, here is my alternative "wish list":
LLVM/Clang instead of GCC
MUSL-lib instead of libg
The MUSL version of Void Linux would allow this to be tested.
54 • Opinions (by Friar Tux on 2019-09-24 19:20:22 GMT from Canada)
#52 (Tuxraider) Well said. My Grandfather had an opinion about opinions. He used to say, "Opinions are like your privates. There for your personal pleasure - not to be flaunted publicly." He also used to tell me that people usually have two opinions on a subject (I'm guessing RMS did not). One opinion is for public display, the other is private. Make sure you know the difference.
55 • @42 Frederic Bezies: (by dragonmouth on 2019-09-24 21:24:46 GMT from United States)
"We do not need another init software systems."
If you are referring to systemd, they you are quite right.
"There are great free software tools, but a lot of them are lacking a professional UI or features."
There is no glory and/or recognition is application maintenance even if you do a great job. Programmers/maintainers toil in obscurity. So instead of developing new applications or fixing old one, every Ton, Dick and Harry that knows how to compile would rather cobble together their own distro. More exposure.
56 • What the heck? Why suddenly insults against Stallman? (by RJA on 2019-09-24 21:25:42 GMT from United States)
@48, "I suspect the ousting of RMS was well planned, by anti open source moghuls"-> I feel the same.
@11, QFT. Without him, there could be an OS monopoly that dwarfs the current chaos.
Perhaps needless to say, I'm starting to get fed up with the anti-Stallman stuff.
57 • Enterprise Borg Rolls On in DebIan (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2019-09-25 02:43:09 GMT from United States)
Freed Open-Source Software marketing may miss RMS. Or not. What's just one more in the count of collateral damage?
At least Stallman won't be conflating Freed with Free. Truth-in-Advertising counts. Clarity is better, especially when so much is twisted.
{rant}
The GNU(!?) McCarthyism Hogs of War are loosed, and nobody is safe, especially opponents of the takeover of the GNU/Linux ecosystem as Big simply flexes its Mu$©£€. The Linux Foundation is pwned, DebIan is pwned.
(RedHat and SUSE have always been Enterprise, eh?)
Tread lightly.
…
The XML-based automated-system-management paradigm is simply too attractive to admins of armies of VMs, bots, etc (or at least to their execs, investors, …). If you are addicted to Big$ benefits, you will be assimilated … and "leveraged".
(By advertisers, at the very least.)
{/rant}
58 • Redcore (by Gary on 2019-09-25 03:51:40 GMT from United States)
Used a couple versions of Redcore before, mainly because I wanted a Gentoo based system that didn't take forever to install. Used the KDE version and had slightly better luck than with the LXQT version. I did however go back to Sabayon. Much better experience for a Gentoo-based distro.
59 • Why suddenly insults against Stallman? (by hunter on 2019-09-25 07:53:02 GMT from France)
In a forest, when a mighty tree folds down, there are a bunch of rodents and slimy, disgusting bugs happy to get a free meal...
@26 (Friar Tux from Canada) "Yes, I hold Stallman, and Torvalds, to be geniuses, but I would not care to work with/for them."
- Did either of them made you an real offer and you turn it down?
Just for my curiosity...
60 • @55 Ah, Pavlovian reflexes! (by Frederic Bezies on 2019-09-25 08:06:43 GMT from France)
On the first part of your comment, I feel I was going back in 2015 some the latest technical - so really useless - war in linux world. Nothing to add here. I'm fed up with this useless war.
But for the other part, you're awfully right. Some developers are so cut off from reality that they think that offering a linux distribution will look good on their résumé for a job.
How can they be so fool?
Glory? Recognition? Well, as well known french politician one said: "The cemeteries are full of irreplaceable people, all of whom have been replaced." (Georges Clemenceau, known as "Le Tigre" during World War I).
61 • RMS (by Gary W on 2019-09-25 08:19:15 GMT from Australia)
Everyone knows that RMS is his own worst enemy, and has been for a long time. So the only surprise is that the corps took this long to arrange a coup. I doubt this will effect his fervour or his commitment though. I'm grateful to be in his debt for major works such as the GPL and GNU userspace.
62 • DNS over TLS (by MCBuhl on 2019-09-25 10:00:51 GMT from Germany)
I would have voted for option "DNS over TLS" if it had existed. So I went for "either one as long as I can change it"
Else, I second @13 : the browser shouldn't decide, the OS should.
63 • RMS (by Nathan on 2019-09-25 16:30:28 GMT from United States)
First Linus, now Richard. My opinion is that both of them are slightly autistic, perhaps aspergers? As a nerd, I understand their mindsets, priorities, and rationale, even for voicing distasteful opinions. And I also understand the backlash. It's just depressing that people are attacking them, labeling them as "disgusting", when their behavior is explainable by a handicap. "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence" somewhat applies here.
Not that I mean this in any way to disrespect them! Many of the greatest scientists and inventors of the last century were on the autism spectrum. There was even some debate as to whether or not Einstein was autistic. Being a genius and having eccentric quirks just seems to be a package deal, is all.
64 • RMS (by Lupus on 2019-09-25 20:27:30 GMT from Germany)
I´m quite happy with RMS stepping down. I have the feeling that he in fact became a hinderance for the Advocates for free software.
Sometimes there are people who are on the right side of things and through quirks in their personality just make it absolutely intolerable to be on their, the right side. He became so annoying that he became bad for his good cause.
65 • Ubuntu 32 bit (by dude on 2019-09-25 22:44:03 GMT from United States)
Are there any 2019 Linux distros that support 32 bit non-PAE processors?
66 • @65 non-PAE (by Angel on 2019-09-25 23:00:02 GMT from Philippines)
Bodhi Legacy, AntiX, Slackware
67 • @ 64 RMS (by OstroL on 2019-09-26 05:39:59 GMT from Poland)
"I´m quite happy with RMS stepping down. I have the feeling that he in fact became a hinderance for the Advocates for free software."
He WAS the Advocate, and before him none was there!
68 • RMS (by Lupus on 2019-09-26 17:05:58 GMT from Germany)
See the positive. With the new free time on his hands the genius will have his GNU Herd System up and running in 3 to 6 months tops. I'm actually looking forward to Jesse's Review of that matter.
Number of Comments: 68
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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