 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 839, 4 November 2019 |
Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The MX Linux distribution is a middle-weight project based on Debian's Stable branch and technology provided by antiX. The MX project has gained a lot of attention in the past few years due to a combination of strong performance, a mixture of stable core with up to date desktop software, unusual desktop layout, and allowing users to run either SysV init or systemd at boot time. We begin this week with a look at MX Linux 19 and report on its features, updated desktop software, and custom tools. Then, in our News section, we discuss new features and updates coming to Ubuntu 20.04, and link to a detailed talk on how Fedora's Modularity feature benefits users. Plus the Netrunner project is phasing out the distribution's Manjaro-based branch and we share the details below. We also share a reminder that version 29 of Fedora will reach the end of its supported life later this month. In our Questions and Answers column we explore methods of manipulating PDF documents, both using desktop applications and command line tools. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: MX Linux 19
- News: Ubuntu plans features for 20.04, Fedora developer explains benefits of Modularity, Fedora 29 nears its end of life, Netunner drops Manjaro-based edition
- Tips and tricks: Manipulating PDFs
- Released last week: Fedora 31, ALT 9.0, Zentyal 6.1
- Torrent corner: ALT, Android-x86, Arch, ArcoLinux, AUSTRUMI, Clonezilla, Fedora, KaOS, KDE neon, MidnightBSD, Sparky, Zentyal
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 12.1
- Opinion poll: Vertical desktop panels
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
MX Linux 19
Something interesting about software in general, and Linux distributions in particular, is that projects tend to evolve over time. Some of them break away from their parent projects, some merge with other distributions, and some change their direction. The MX Linux distribution is an unusual mixture of ideas and technologies that has grown out of a collection of projects. MX Linux can trace its digital genealogy back through antiX, MEPIS, and Debian. This gives the current generation of MX a combination of Debian's large, stable repository of software, the tendency toward low resource usage of antiX, and the convenient tools of MEPIS. MX is also rare in that it allows us to select which init software (SysV init or systemd) we want to use when the computer starts. But how well do all of these pieces fit together in reality?
MX Linux 19 is based on Debian 10 "Buster" and antiX. The latest release ships with version 4.14 of the Xfce desktop and includes AppArmor support with several profiles enabled by default. The distribution is available in 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x86_64) builds, with the ISO files being about 1.4GB in size. Booting from the distribution's media brings up the Xfce desktop. The desktop panel is displayed vertically down the left side of the screen with the application menu in the bottom-left corner The system tray and task switcher sit above the menu and the logout button is displayed in the upper-left corner. In the upper-right quadrant of the desktop we find the Conky status panel displaying the current time and some resource statistics.
There are three icons on the live desktop, one labelled FAQ, one called Manual, and one for the system installer. The Manual icon launches the PDF viewer and displays a local copy of the distribution's manual. I was impressed with the documentation, which provides about 180 pages of details on using, configuring, and upgrading the operating system. The documentation tends to be both helpful and clearly written. I like seeing detailed information like this, doubly so when it is provided locally so that a working Internet connection is not required to get help. The FAQ icon similarly opens a PDF which covers common queries about init software, portable package support, the project's release cycle, and fixes for CPU vulnerabilities such as Spector and Meltdown.
MX Linux 19 -- The welcome window
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Shortly after the desktop loads, a welcome window appears. The welcome window also provides links to the FAQ document and manual. It further includes links to the MX forums and various tools to help install additional software and codecs. Most of the welcome window's functions are best suited to an installed operating system and I will come back to talk about them later.
Installing
MX Linux uses a custom, graphical installer. The installer begins by offering to let us change our keyboard layout. In my case, the installer defaulted to using a plain US-based layout. Disk partitioning comes next. The disk partitioning screen includes a button for launching the GParted utility to adjust disk partitions. The screen also offers to take over space on the disk and automatically set up partitions, or we can manually assign mount points to existing partitions. I decided to go with the manual option. The MX installer takes an unusual approach in that instead of giving us a free-form way to assign any partition to any mount point, it lists common mount points (root, home, swap, etc) and we can optionally assign a partition to each. This might seem less flexible, but should suit almost all desktop users and, after the operating system is set up, we can customize mount points later if need be.
When the first beta was published for MX 19 I tried it and found the installer could not create Btrfs volumes, despite Btrfs being listed as an optional filesystem type. This bug was reported and I was pleased to find MX was able to create Btrfs volumes in the final release. However, when Btrfs is selected as the root filesystem, the installer is unable to install GRUB and quits before completing the install process. After trying a few times to get MX to install on Btrfs I gave up and switched to ext4.
We are next asked if we would like to install the GRUB boot loader and, if so, where. We are also asked if we would like to enable the Samba service for sharing files over our local network. Then we pick our time zone from a list. Optionally, we can launch a tool which lets us enable/disable services MX can run in the background. These services include items like the cron daemon, Bluetooth, scanning, and the CUPS printing software. The last step asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves, along with a password for the root account.
While the MX installer is a little different in style from other popular installers, such as Anaconda, Ubiquity and Calamares, it works quickly and I found it easy to navigate. I think the MX installer does a good job of balancing ease of use while providing advanced options we can explore if desired.
Early impressions
MX boots to a graphical login screen. Signing into the Xfce session presents us with the same desktop icons (minus the launcher for the installer) and with the same welcome screen. The welcome window offers us quick access to on-line video tutorials, the user manual, the FAQ document, and provides a link to the distribution's wiki. One button in the welcome window launches MX Tools, which I will talk about later. There is also a launcher for the Tweaks Tool, a configuration utility which helps us adjust the desktop panel's placement, Xfce's theme, and we can switch (or disable) the desktop's compositor.
MX Linux 19 -- The FAQ document and application menu
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There are two other tools of immediate interest in the welcome window. One is a simple utility that will locate and download media codecs. I didn't need to use this tool as I already had all the video and audio codecs I needed to play popular file formats. However, if we discover one is missing, the Codecs tool will grab as many as it can to make sure our needs are covered. There is another package management utility we can access from the welcome window through a button called Popular Apps. This launcher opens the MX Packager Installer and I'll talk about it later when I cover the distribution's various software managers.
Applications
MX ships with a fairly standard collection of open source software. The Firefox web browser, the Thunderbird e-mail client, and the Transmission bittorrent software are included. LibreOffice and the Orage calendar are featured. There is a tool called PDF Arranger for merging, splitting and rotating PDF documents. Both the GNOME PPP dial-up client and Network Manager are featured to help us connect to networks.
MX Linux 19 -- The Firefox browser and Thunar file manager
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The GNU Image Manipulation Program is featured along with an image viewer. There is a launcher in the application menu to toggle the Conky status widget on/off, which I appreciated having. We have a number of multimedia options available, including the Clementine music player, the VLC media player, the Asunder CD ripper, and the Xfburn disc burning application. There are a few utilities for connecting our file manager to external devices such as iPods, and phones.
To keep our data safe, MX ships with the flexible luckyBackup archiving software. There are also tools for managing printers and setting up custom Samba shares, which makes transferring files between computers on the local network a pleasant point-n-click experience.
In the background we find Java is installed by default and MX ships with the GNU Compiler Collection. Also by default, MX Linux ships with the SysV init software to get the operating system up and running. However, people who prefer to use systemd can select to use systemd init from the boot menu. I experimented with both init implementations and found that the two experiences were, from the end user's point of view, virtually identical. There were two practical differences: systemd booted about three seconds faster and if the user wants to run Snap packages, systemd must be running in the background. MX ships with version 4.19 of the Linux kernel, though more kernels are available through the distribution's Package Installer.
MX Linux 19 -- Enabling the firewall and browsing settings
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MX Tools
MX Tools is a collection of graphical utilities which will help us configure and manage the operating system. The MX Tools panel includes about two dozen modules for handling the desktop and underlying operating system components. Some of the highlights include a USB Image Writer for copying a downloaded image file to a thumb drive. It supports both read-only or writable modes. There is a Disk Cleanup tool which will hunt down and remove old cached packages, trash folders, image thumbnails and other old files and remove them. When it is done it will tell us how much data was deleted.
There is a Boot Repair tool for re-installing the GRUB boot loader and repairing its configuration. A Snapshot tool can create bootable ISO archives of the operating system. A User Manager, as expected, helps us create and delete accounts and change passwords.
MX Linux 19 -- The MX Tools panel
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There are tools for installing NVIDIA drivers and downloading media codecs. There is a repository manager which connects us with MX, antiX, and Debian package repositories. This tool will also help us pick the fastest available package mirror.
Other tools let us enable/disable sounds when we sign into our account or logout. There is a tool for mounting Apple mobile devices, connecting them to our filesystem. There is also a utility for customizing the GRUB menu and picking the default operating system the computer will boot.
Each of these tools is small, focused, and pretty straight forward to use. They tend to provide a description as to what the tool does inside the application and the buttons are clearly labelled. Some of the tools have several options and may be a little overwhelming to newcomers (I feel the same way about luckyBackup), but I think more experienced users will appreciate the speed and no-frills approach these modules provide.
Software management
When software updates for the distribution become available, MX displays an icon in the system tray which turns green. Clicking this green icon opens the update manager which lists the available updates. We can then install them with a click. The update manager takes an all-or-nothing approach, we cannot choose which new items to download. However, if we do wish to customize updates, or otherwise manage software in a more fine-grained manner, we can turn to Synaptic.
Synaptic is a highly flexible and fast package manager. By default it displays a list of all available packages in a pane to the right of the window while software categories and filters are placed on the left. Synaptic can not only install and remove batches of software we select, it can also perform upgrades on specific packages. Synaptic further has the ability to enable and disable repositories - it is the Swiss Army knife of low-level graphical package managers.
Another available tool for managing software is the MX Package Installer. This desktop utility displays a list of about 30 software categories, such as Kernels, Browser and Games. Clicking on a category expands it to show a handful of popular applications in that category. Each entry is listed with a brief description. We can click as many items as we want to be queued for installation, then click the Install button to download the highlighted items. This is a relatively quick and easy way to gain access to popular applications.
MX Linux 19 -- Exploring available packages
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MX Package Installer has a number of tabs which open up additional options. One provides access to the MX Testing repository and another to packages in the Debian Backports repository. This expands our selection of software, but (as the application warns us) software in these directories is not as well tested and may cause problems.
The Package Installer has another tab, this one for browsing and installing Flatpak packages. The Flatpak tab shows us a list of available Flatpak bundles, the size of the download and the version of the Flatpak. By default items in the https://flathub.org/ Flathub repository are shown, but we can add other Flatpak repositories if we wish with a few clicks. When we install a desktop application using a Flatpak, its launcher is added to the application menu. The Package Installer includes a button which will attempt to upgrade all installed Flatpaks. Flatpaks worked well for me on MX and the only problem I faced when managing Flatpaks was there were no descriptions of the bundles in Package Installer. Usually we can guess what a program does based on its name, but some are less obvious. For instance, I wasn't sure what Remmina or Kigo did before installing them.
We are not done yet, there are two more approaches to handling software on MX Linux, both using the command line. There are the usual APT tools, which are available on any Debian-based distribution. There is also an custom, interactive command line package manager provided by antiX. This tool guides the user through managing software from the console, but otherwise works much the same as Synaptic or APT.
Hardware
When running MX in a VirtualBox environment the distribution performed well. The Xfce desktop is pleasantly responsive, the system boots and opens applications quickly, and the experience was smooth. When running on a physical workstation the experience was similarly pleasant and all my computer's hardware was properly detected.
A fresh copy of MX Linux uses about 5.2GB of disk space and generally consumed about 400MB of RAM when signed into the desktop. This memory footprint could go up or down a little depending on which background services we enabled at start time and whether Conky was running, through it stayed in the 400MB range.
MX Linux 19 -- Installing Flatpaks
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Other observations
Something I kept noticing during my trial with MX is that the distribution appears to have evolved in a lot of little ways since I last reviewed it almost two years ago. For the most part the distribution has remained the same with the same features, desktop, tools, and focus. However, in each corner of the distribution I noticed little improvements. The update manager is a little more streamlined, making it easier to use. The upgraded Xfce desktop feels just a little more polished in its performance and rendering. The Flatpak manager provides a little more information. AppArmor is now enabled by default, providing a little additional security with, as far as I can tell, no negative side-effects. It looks to me as though the documentation has been fleshed out a little too.
All of this is to say that MX Linux 19 is very similar to version 17, but with little improvements, little bits of polish. The project appears to have made the included tools, desktop, and security features a little better without introducing (from what I have observed so far) any drawbacks. I also think the project deserves credit for managing to juggle two init systems, allowing the user to pick which one they want at boot time, without causing any problems with either init implementation. I don't think any other Linux distribution has done this out of the box.
Conclusions
One thing I find appealing about MX is that, while the project may not be the best distribution in any single category, it provides an excellent overall experience. What I mean is: MX is not the world's fastest distribution, but it is fast and responsive. It may not be the most user friendly, but I think most Linux users will find it easy to use and navigate. The MX Tools may not be the best administration tools in the world, but they do provide a great range of functionality and I found them straight forward to use. MX doesn't have the most extensive documentation, but it provides more information than most.
Combined, all of these positive characteristics made MX 19 one of the best desktop experiences I have run this year. The distribution is fast, flexible, fairly easy to use, and did a great job of providing me with conveniences (like the welcome window, manual, and MX Tools) while staying out of my way. I didn't get nagged by pop-ups, I didn't run into any serious errors. The distribution provided a quiet, fast, polished environment in which I could work and I enjoyed it a lot.
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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
MX Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8/10 from 616 review(s).
Have you used MX Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu plans features for 20.04, Fedora developer explains benefits of Modularity, Fedora 29 nears its end of life, Netunner drops Manjaro-based edition
Matthias Klose has announced that the development of Ubuntu 20.04 "Focal Fossa" has begun. The next version of Ubuntu is scheduled to launch in April of 2020 and will feature a number of key package updates. "Focal Fossa is now open for development, with the syncs from Unstable done and built, and autopkg testers trying to catch up. The development version starts with only a few changes: Python 3.8 is now added as a supported Python3 version, with the goal to ship Python 3.8 as the only Python3 version in Focal. Details will follow on the ubuntu-devel ML. Perl was updated to version 5.30. s390x is now built targeting z13 (GCC only for now)." Links to further details can be found in Klose's mailing list post.
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Stephen Gallagher posted a lengthy e-mail to the Fedora mailing lists in which he explored the topic of Modularity, a feature the Fedora team has been promoting for the past few releases which packages alternative versions of software. Gallagher explains the problem Modularity is trying to solve as follows: "This leads us to a classic problem that Linux distributions have faced: the 'Too Fast/Too Slow' problem. Linux distributions are traditionally quite monolithic. The package collections they ship are generally self-consistent, providing generally whatever the latest stable major release of the software at the time of the distribution release. As the release ages, it will receive bug fixes and enhancements, but usually will remain on the same major version.
This is excellent for the maintainers of the distribution, because it allows them to test that everything works together as a cohesive whole. It means that there's one authoritative version to align to.
Users, on the other hand, are most concerned about solving their problem. It matters less to them that the distribution is cohesive and more that the tools they need are available to them.
The 'Too Fast/Too Slow' problem is basically this: users want a solid, stable, reliable, unchanging system. They want it to stay that way for the life of their application. However, they also want their application to run using the set of dependencies it was designed for. If that doesn't happen to be the same version (newer or older) as the one selected for the monolithic distribution, the user will now have to resort to alternative means to get up and running." Gallagher covers an overview of what Modularity is, along with some situations that Modularity is not designed to address.
Meanwhile, Ben Botton posted a reminder this week that Fedora 29 will reach the end of its supported life on November 26th. Users of Fedora 29 are advised to upgrade to either Fedora 30 or 31 to continue receiving security updates. "With the release of Fedora 31 earlier this week, Fedora 29 will reach end-of-life on 26 November 2019. At that time, all open Bugzilla bugs will be closed and no more package updates will be published. If an open bug applies to Fedora 30, 31, or Rawhide, please update the
version field in Bugzilla in order to prevent it from being automatically closed on the EOL date."
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The Netrunner team has announced that the project will be discontinuing their Manjaro-based edition, for a second time. The Netrunner developers originally launched a Manjaro-based branch in 2014. It was soon discontinued and then revived in 2017. The project now plans to no longer created new Manjaro-based media, though existing installations will continue to work. "In times where Linux becomes more and more complex and mature as a real alternative for existing proprietary software, we think bundling efforts is the best way for any participant to increase the chance for long term success, seeking collaboration and synergies instead of infinitely splitting efforts. Since we join supporting Manjaro, this leaves Netrunner Rolling to be in a state besides the theming customizations of becoming redundant. We therefore decided to no longer release any updated installation mediums. We still offer continued support through our forums for current Rolling versions, and since they are based directly on Manjaro, they should be rolling on just fine for the time being." Netrunner's Debian-based branch is unaffected by this change.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
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Manipulating PDFs
For the most part, PDF documents are generally designed to be read, but not altered. They are useful for passing along information in a consistent format, but manipulating the contents of a PDF document can be difficult. Many applications which display PDFs do not provide tools for editing or rearranging the pages of these documents. This week I want to talk about two handy tools for managing the contents of a PDF.
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First, let's look at a desktop application for managing PDFs. In particular, I like PDF Arranger. PDF Arranger can generally be found in the repositories of modern versions of most distributions.
The application features a pleasantly simple interface. At the top of the window is a menu bar where we can choose to import existing documents and perform simple manipulations on documents or pages we have selected. Below this, the bulk of the window displays the document pool. Any PDF we import into PDF Arranger is divided into individual pages. These pages are displayed, in order, in the pool. If we import multiple documents, their pages will all be shown in the pool.
We can then use the mouse to drag and drop a page into a new order in the pool. We can also use the Shift and arrow keys to highlight groups of pages to manipulate. Once a page (or multiple pages) have been highlighted, we can choose an action to perform on them. We can delete pages from the pool, rotate them, or crop their edges. Then we can re-arrange them into the order we like.
Once we have re-arranged and manipulated the pages into the form we want, we can either select a range of pages to export into a new PDF, or we can export the entire pool into one new, big PDF.
PDF Arranger -- Manipulating a single PDF page
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What I like about PDF Arranger is it has a fairly straight forward interface. Pages, once imported into the pool, can be dragged around. We can discard or manage groups of pages at once. There are relatively few controls and menu options, which keeps the interface clean. Most importantly, every option works for me and I've yet to encounter any serious problems with the program.
My only complaint with PDF Arranger is I have yet to find a way to select pages which are not near each other. Using the arrow keys we can select groups of pages near one another in the pool, but I do not think the application has an option for working on non-adjacent pages. To get around this, we can drag pages around so they are next to each other and then highlight a group side-by-side pages to manipulate.
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There are also command line tools for working with PDFs. My favourite is a tool called PDFtk. Now, to be accurate, there is a desktop version of PDFtk, but I prefer PDF Arranger's desktop interface while I like the flexibility and scriptability of the command line version of PDFtk.
The PDFtk program is run with a series of parameters. Typically we start by passing PDFtk a list of documents we want to manipulate. Then we provide it with an action command, indicating what kind of operation we are performing. Then we provide the keyword output followed by the name of the file we are going to create. This output file contains our changes.
In its simplest form, PDFtk does not need to be given any action command. We can, technically, give it an input file to work on, the keyword output, and the name of a new file to create. This effectively makes a new copy of our PDF. This can be useful either for testing purposes or to try to repair any damaged meta-data in the original document. Here is what a PDFtk command looks like when we want to just make a clean copy of the original file:
pdftk original.pdf output new-file.pdf
While PDFtk supports a lot of action commands and options, I want to focus on five. These are called:
- cat - merge together a series of pages from one or more documents
- shuffle - collate multiple pages, usually from multiple files
- burst - expand one PDF document into multiple, one-page documents
- rotate - turn pages on their sides
- unpack_files - extract files embedded in a PDF and save them in a directory.
Let's look at a few examples of these action commands being used. This first example uses the cat action command. This allows us to either insert pages of documents into one big document, or possibly remove a series of pages. Here we append one PDF to another one, making one long document:
pdftk original-one.pdf original-two.pdf cat output new-long-file.pdf
We can also specify a range of pages to collect and place in the output file. For instance, here we take the first 5 pages, and then every page from page 20 until the end of the document. All of these end up in one final PDF with the original pages 6 through 19 removed.
pdftk original-file.pdf cat 1-5 20-end output new-file.pdf
Here is one more example where we simply reverse the order of all the pages in a document, handy for when we fed pages the wrong way around into the scanner:
pdftk backward-file.pdf cat end-1 output proper-order.pdf
The shuffle command works in a similar way to cat, but it takes the first page of each specified file/range in parallel and places them in the output file. This effectively collates the original files. The next example effectively merges two documents, placing their pages together as if they were shuffled together like a deck of cards:
pdftk left-pages.pdf right-pages.pdf shuffle new-book.pdf
The next example takes one PDF file and creates a new PDF for each page included in the original. When it is done we end up with files named pg_0001.pdf, pg_0002.pdf, pg_0003.pdf, etc:
pdftk original-file.pdf burst
The rotate command is fairly straight forward. It turns a PDF's pages around, usually 90 degrees left or right. We can also tell PDFtk to rotate a page to an absolute position using the four compass directions: north, south, east, and west. For example, this command rotates every page 90 degrees to the right:
pdftk original-file.pdf rotate 1-endright output new-file.pdf
While this next example will turn all the pages in the document upside down. This is again helpful if every copy was scanned upside down and we want to correct it:
pdftk upside-down-file.pdf rotate 1-endsouth output fixed-file.pdf
Finally, the unpack_files command extracts the file elements from a PDF and places them in a directory. In this case we dump the contents of the PDF into a new directory called target-directory:
pdftk original-file.pdf unpack_files output target-directory
The PDFtk software can do more operations, including compressing files and working with passwords. However, these are probably the most commonly used operations.
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Additional tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
ALT Linux 9.0
ALT Linux is an independently developed distribution which is available in Workstation, Server and Education editions. The distribution runs on several CPU architectures, making it run on a wide range of hardware. The project's latest release is ALT Linux 9.0. An English translation of the original Russian release announcement reads: "In addition to expanding the range of hardware platforms, a number of other significant improvements have been implemented for Alt 9.0 distribution kits: APT (advanced packaging tool, system for installing, updating and removing software packages) introduced rpmlib support (FileDigests), which will allow installing third-party packages (Yandex Browser, Chrome and others) without repackaging, and many other improvements. LibreOffice office suite is implemented in two versions: Still for corporate customers and Fresh for experimenters and advanced users. A single Samba package is available (for regular workstations and for Active Directory domain controllers). The Application Centre is available (an analogue of Google Play), in which you can search for the desired free program from various categories (educational, office, work with multimedia, etc.) and install on your computer."
Fedora 31
Matthew Miller has announced the release of Fedora 31. The new version includes a special isolated container feature called Fedora Toolbox. "If you haven't used the Fedora Toolbox, this is a great time to try it out. This is a simple tool for launching and managing personal workspace containers, so you can do development or experiment in an isolated experience. It's as simple as running 'toolbox Enter' from the command line. This containerized workflow is vital for users of the ostree-based Fedora variants like CoreOS, IoT, and Silverblue, but is also extremely useful on any workstation or even server system. Look for many more enhancements to this tool and the user experience around it in the next few months - your feedback is very welcome. Fedora Editions are targeted outputs geared toward specific 'showcase' uses. Fedora Workstation focuses on the desktop, and particular software developers who want a 'just works' Linux operating system experience. This release features GNOME 3.34, which brings significant performance enhancements which will be especially noticeable on lower-powered hardware." The release announcement offers further details. The Fedora distribution is available in Workstation and Server editions as well as various other community spins.
Fedora 31 -- Browsing the GNOME application launcher
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Zentyal Server 6.1
Zentyal Server is a commercial unified network server that offers easy and efficient computer network administration for small and medium-size businesses. The project's latest release, Zentyal Server 6.1, is a minor update to the 6.0 release and is based on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS. "Important enhancements to Zentyal Server Development Edition 6.1 include: Based on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS. Integration of SOGo 4.1. Pagination of users (domain and directory) - With a large number of users it was difficult to manage the 'Users and Computers' section and the GUI load increased significantly. We have now added pagination of users to avoid these issues. Search option is also available. Shared roster bug (ejabbered) - You can now see the groups and users in ejabbered. Dynamic DNS bug - Dynamic DNS updates work now. OpenVPN upgrade bug - OpenSSL update broke OpenVPN. This has been fixed now." Additional details can be found in the distribution's release announcement and in the changelog.
KaOS 2019.10
The KaOS team has published a new snapshot of the distribution's rolling desktop operating system. The project is removing Python 2 packages and is publishing cutting edge packages for KDE Plasma 5.17. "Quite a few big changes for this release, probably the biggest news for this release is for the first time the default install is Python2 free. Python2 will be depreciated by the end of this year, so it is time to get this distribution ready for this change. The repositories still contain Python2 packages, but those are in the process of being phased out too. Next change is a new GCC 9.2.0/Glibc 2.30 based Toolchain. Normally KaOS stays about one year behind major new GCC versions, but the changes between 8 and 9 are not as big as usual and all in the repositories have caught up to GCC 9, thus it is now available six months after the initial release. A big part of the core repository was rebuild in this new Toolchain, plus the whole Glib2 and Boost stacks were updated. This meant moving to Glib2 2.62.2, Boost 1.71.0, Gobject-Introspection 1.6.20 among the many moved to their latest version. Systemd is now also available in the most recent release, 243. Libarchive gained ZSTD support, a needed feature for upcoming Pacman changes." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
MidnightBSD 1.2
Lucas Holt has announced the release of MidnightBSD 1.2, the latest stable version of the project's FreeBSD-derived operating system with a goal to create an easy-to-use desktop with graphical ports management and system configuration. This version is mostly a security and bug-fix update: "I'm happy to announce the availability of MidnightBSD 1.2 for the amd64 and i386 architectures. This release focused on updating base system libraries and security. A significant effort has been put into updating various mports. Portsnap is now included in the base system. You can use it to fetch mports. As this is a relatively new feature, please report any issues. Bug fixes: fixed spell(1) by bringing back deroff(1); fixed a bug with the mdnsd startup script (/etc/rc.d/mdnsd) where it wouldn't modify the /etc/nsswitch.conf properly when enabling mDNSresponder. Security fixes: the kernel driver for /dev/midistat implements a handler for read(2) - this handler is not thread-safe, and a multi-threaded program can exploit races in the handler to cause it to copy out kernel memory outside the boundaries of midistat's data buffer...." See the release announcement and release notes for further details.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 1,677
- Total data uploaded: 28.6TB
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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) |
Vertical desktop panels
This week we reviewed MX Linux, a distribution which uses an unusual desktop layout, placing the Xfce desktop panel down the left side of the display. Vertical desktop panels are not all that common, with most distributions placing the panel horizontally across the top or bottom of the screen. MX Linux and KaOS are two exceptions which use the extra space provided by most modern wide screen displays to push the panel to the side.
We would like to know if you have a preference for a vertical or horizontal desktop panel. Let us know your preferred layout in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on ZFS on root in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Vertical desktop panels
| I prefer a horizontal panel: | 1520 (63%) |
| I prefer a vertical panel: | 414 (17%) |
| I prefer not to have a panel: | 88 (4%) |
| I prefer to have both at the same time: | 119 (5%) |
| I have no preference: | 285 (12%) |
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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, 11 November 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 • panels (by Wally on 2019-11-04 01:04:41 GMT from United States)
strong preference for horizontal panel at the top, single row - don't want to give up any width
2 • Panel (by V2 on 2019-11-04 01:36:08 GMT from United States)
Horizontal, bottom. The top is for application title bars and menus. If the bar is up too, it just adds to the clutter.
3 • Re: vertical desktop panels (by eco2geek on 2019-11-04 01:46:32 GMT from United States)
I prefer a horizontal panel at the bottom of the screen. It's probably because that's the way the UIs I've used have been configured by default, ever since I began using PCs (except for Windows 3.x, of course).
Both MX Linux and KaOS make it easy to switch the panel to whatever side of the screen you like. I'm running KaOS off a USB stick as I write this, and have moved the panel to the bottom of the screen.
(KaOS used to put the Dolphin toolbar on the side by default, too, but it's on the top by default in the version that was just released. Finding out how to move the Dolphin toolbar is a bit more difficult than it is with the Plasma toolbar.)
4 • Panel (by SK on 2019-11-04 01:47:39 GMT from United States)
I prefer horizontal panels, top or bottom. Side panels seem off-balance to me. I like things that are symmetrically balanced.
5 • Panels (by Jesse on 2019-11-04 01:50:05 GMT from Canada)
Traditionally I'd mostly used horizontal panels across the bottom of the display, since that is how Windows and KDE tended to do things in the 90s and 00s.
In the past few years I've found I really like a vertical left panel with window buttons on the left. It means my mouse almost never leaves the upper-left quadrant of the screen, which is not only faster to navigate, but also easier on my arm/wrist.
6 • Panel preferences (by aphidity on 2019-11-04 01:53:56 GMT from United States)
I prefer a vertical panel in "hide" mode (it stays out of the way until the pointer is moved fully over that vertical edge, or some other event makes it visible), at least when it comes to laptops displays. This works best for me given the wide screen aspect ratio on most laptop displays. Even with the additional space on an external monitor or multi-monitor setup, I find I still prefer the vertical option, probably due to familiarity. @Wally, for me it's the opposite: I don't want to give up any height (again, primarily as far as laptop displays).
7 • PDF arrange for booklet printing (by Joe on 2019-11-04 02:06:56 GMT from New Zealand)
I will have to look at the PDF tools reviewed in this issue of DW. One thing "power" users will be looking for is to 'impose' (I think that is the correct term) the pages for printing as a booklet. So page 1 and N, with 2 and N-1 on the back, then 3 and N-2 with 4 and N-3, etc.
8 • Panel preference (by DaveW on 2019-11-04 02:14:30 GMT from United States)
My preference is for as much vertical space as possible. I have a horizontal panel because the main panel on my distro doesn't look right if made vertical. I also have a vertical panel for my favorite program launchers.
9 • PDF files (by vern on 2019-11-04 02:39:34 GMT from United States)
I prefer "pfd-shuffler". It works well with my PDF files.
10 • Panel (by Friar Tux on 2019-11-04 03:04:06 GMT from Canada)
My preference is two panels. A 'normal', traditional panel at the bottom, and a panel at the top with launchers of all my most used apps/programmes. I used to use Plank Dock at the top but have discovered I can do the same simply by adding a second system panel with launchers. This appears to work in most DE's. (Not sure when this became a thing but it wasn't always possible, hence the use of Plank originally.)
11 • Panel preference (by R. Cain on 2019-11-04 03:16:33 GMT from United States)
My preference is for as much desktop space as possible, period.
A panel takes screen space ALL the time, and is actually *used* only a very small percentage of the time.
It would be nice if MX (and indeed any distribution) provides an 'auto-hide' feature for its panel, regardless of whether one opts for the vertical or horizontal orientation (not sure it's mentioned in the review).
Having worked with a 'hidden' panel for years, and all the un-cluttered, free desktop space which naturally follows from this arrangement, a panel which is present at all times would now seem almost as an intrusion; a regression.
12 • Panel position, also @11 "auto-hide" (by Hoos on 2019-11-04 03:26:19 GMT from Singapore)
No strict preference, except for Plasma, where I always keep the panel at bottom-horizontal.
XFCE - I keep it at left vertical, top-horizontal or bottom-horizontal respectively, in various different distros and/or hardware.
Budgie - left vertical or top-horizontal
Gnome (more accurately, the dash or "dock" if using dash-to-dock shell extension) - left vertical or bottom-horizontal. I don't touch the gnome shell panel at the top, which I suppose means that for Gnome I prefer 2 "panels".
@11
XFCE panel preferences dialogue window gives you the option to have your panel(s):
1) appear permanently
2) hide itself most of the time unless the cursor mouses over the area where said panel is located.
3) intelligently appear or not.
13 • Panels (by TheTKS on 2019-11-04 03:37:45 GMT from Canada)
Two panels, top showing open programs & status indicators and always present, launcher at the bottom autohide.
I would also like 4:3 back. I don't use 16:9 efficiently, even with panel(s) on the sides.
TKS
14 • panels (by jeffrydada on 2019-11-04 03:41:50 GMT from United States)
I tend to move the panel to the top then add a dock to the bottom. I prefer Cairo-dock, but will use Latte on occassion with KDE. I like full screen menus and with KDE and Cinnamon they have widgets that can be installed that provide this. When the icon for the menu is in the top left corner in seems more intuitive based on the menue layout itself. KDE widgit NavDexie is a good example of this.
15 • Panel placement (by Bobbie Sellers on 2019-11-04 04:17:28 GMT from United States)
I set up KDE's Plasma 5 with a left side vertical panel and a top panel both centered.
This I have used on laptops for some years.
This was because when I wanted to use the .hdmi with the computer i found
that this arrangement kept my controls accessible on the screen.
This may have been a peculiarity of my TV as last year I was trying out
a Intel Stick Computer and it used Ubuntu 14.04. The top and side
panels were both so squished against the side of the display that
it was unusable.
On the vertical panel the principle display is of the Virtual Desktop
Pager with numbers for each displayed, There are other things
there including logout but the Pager is the most important as it
would consume too much space on the Horizontal Panel whether
that was at the top or bottom of the screen.
16 • Panel placement (by Bobbie Sellers on 2019-11-04 04:17:50 GMT from United States)
I set up KDE's Plasma 5 with a left side vertical panel and a top panel both centered.
This I have used on laptops for some years.
This was because when I wanted to use the .hdmi with the computer i found
that this arrangement kept my controls accessible on the screen.
This may have been a peculiarity of my TV as last year I was trying out
a Intel Stick Computer and it used Ubuntu 14.04. The top and side
panels were both so squished against the side of the display that
it was unusable.
On the vertical panel the principle display is of the Virtual Desktop
Pager with numbers for each displayed, There are other things
there including logout but the Pager is the most important as it
would consume too much space on the Horizontal Panel whether
that was at the top or bottom of the screen.
bliss
17 • Proper Presets (by whoKnows on 2019-11-04 05:39:35 GMT from United Kingdom)
Important to understand is the difference between the "personal preferences" and the "propper defaults" (usabillity matter).
It basicaly doesn't matter where you place the taskbar: top, left, bottom ... it's a personal preference, but it matters how do you preconfigure it.
What you don't want as a default is "auto-hide".
What you don't want is a clock that you can't read, green alert ...
MX could be a fine distro if it would get some more love -- a professional look and proper defaults.
https://imgdb.net/7345
https://imgdb.net/7346
18 • panel (by voidpin on 2019-11-04 06:10:44 GMT from Sweden)
No panel or bar, no desktop icons, no taskbar and no titlebar.
Basically, no one other than me can use my laptop. Even if I'd give away my password, they would be looking at my wallpaper ;)
SpectrWM, a bunch of workspaces and custom keybindings for anything I need.
19 • Horizontal Top Left (by Roy on 2019-11-04 06:17:27 GMT from United States)
I like pinning to the top panel of all my favorite and mostly used items with my Cinnamon desktop.
20 • MX rescue tools (by Boruch on 2019-11-04 06:23:22 GMT from United States)
There are two MX tools Jesse didn't mention that I think many of you
would appreciate:
1] From the grub boot menu of the live media, you can scan for all
grub instances on a computer, on all disks, and choose which grub to
use for booting.
2] From within MX linux, there is a chroot rescue gui which scans all
partitions and automagically chroots into the one you choose (ie. it
performs all the necessary mounts and unmounts).
21 • panel (by peer on 2019-11-04 06:43:02 GMT from Netherlands)
I have a single panel on the top and cairo dock at the bottom in kde.
22 • No thanks (by Notify Sally on 2019-11-04 07:51:54 GMT from Norway)
No dekor,
No panels,
No titlebars,
just dunst to notify on events.
23 • Horizontal or Vertical (by Luxie Tuxie on 2019-11-04 08:26:08 GMT from Canada)
Horizontal or Vertical really does not matter much, where as, Internet Kingdom is completely dominated by Oligarchies like Google, IBM, Firefox and so on.
Dominated Internet Kingdom
-----------------------------------------
Many people might have experienced it, but, no one spoke about it.
Here, I am sharing my experience with you.
I am using systemd+wayland based distro.
1) While I was downloading a old version of a linux distro through Transmission
via torrent file systemd (or wayland on which transmission depends) started
kicking-in more services, and after few minutes bandwidth started dropping to almost
1%, as in, we will no let you download old-version(s).
2) While downloading Manuals which are officially released in Public Domain,
Internet Connection was interrupted several times to finish download of manual which was less than 10MB.
As in, we will not let you download Manual either.
Here is my 2 cents for them,
1) If you also wanna try old-version of a distro,
either get it from my hard-drive, or, get it through torrent.
2) You could have spend "the time" more efficiently.
24 • @7 • PDF arrange for booklet printing (by Alexandru on 2019-11-04 08:41:08 GMT from Romania)
I always used LaTeX for PDF manipulation. There is LaTeX package "pdfpages" (https://www.ctan.org/pkg/pdfpages) for any of mentioned operations and much more, and it gives you complete control to what you are trying to do.
25 • Panel preference (by Burt Steensma on 2019-11-04 08:50:27 GMT from United States)
I prefer a vertical panel, especially since most modern monitors are 16:9 instead of the old 4:3. It leaves more room vertically for terminals. I never miss the width, but losing the vertical space with a horizontal panel is annoying.
26 • Panel placement and Fitts's law (by Sven on 2019-11-04 09:26:35 GMT from Estonia)
Following the ergonomics guidelines (Fitts's Law) I'm keeping the panel horizontal and at the top, with window buttons (close:maximize:minimize) on the same panel on the left corner and no title bar when maximized. That way I'm not only able to use the most of available space, but also, having sound indicator in the top right corner, "show desktop" in the bottom left and Onboard in the bottom right active corner, I can control the most basic functions without even a glance, gross motor skills only.
27 • Panels (by Kazlu on 2019-11-04 09:33:10 GMT from France)
I use Xfce with a vertical panel on the left side of the screen, indeed because on widescreens it leaves more space to windows than a horizontal panel. I consider I have enough width, but squeezing the height even more would be an inconvenience. I still have an old computer with a 4:3 screen, on which I left the default horizontal panel of the distro. Exception: I have a netbook with a widescreen, but the resolution is only 1024*768. If I put a vertical panel on this one, web pages cannot be displayed properly and the web browser starts showing a horizontal slider, which is highly unpractical. So, on this one, I have a horizontal auto-hiding panel on the bottom of the screen. Less practical, I like it less, but it does the job. I also added another small panel on the top with monitoring elements (lxpanel actually) which blends with the title bar of windows, so that it does not eat any additional screen space. I just have to make sure the title of a window is aligned to the left and not the centre, so it doesn't get covered up. It's a bit disturbing at first, but handy in the end! See here: https://framapic.org/gallery#PXdHPkj7zvzm/GPzKEzrqyZLL.png
28 • @ 23 (by OstroL on 2019-11-04 09:38:14 GMT from Poland)
" after few minutes bandwidth started dropping to almost 1%,..."
The problem is not with the browsers, but with your internet provider. I remember having same internet problems in Surrey, BC.
29 • @ #28 (by Luxie Tuxie on 2019-11-04 09:48:37 GMT from Canada)
Transmission alternatives work way faster.
Bandwidth pendulum starts with Transmission (systemd+wayland) versions. Plus, if Firefox new version is running at same times, it hogs Transmission. With non-Firefox browser(s) Transmission behaves normal, as well as browser(s).
30 • MX Linux (by Simon on 2019-11-04 10:31:25 GMT from Germany)
My reason for not using this amazing distro is petty: I just cannot deal with the look and feel. It feels to me like it comes from the early 90s. Other than that MX completely deserves the No1 spot on DW.
31 • MX LInux (by heri on 2019-11-04 10:38:41 GMT from United States)
17 • Proper Presets MX could be a fine distro if it would get some more love -- a professional look and proper defaults.
Mx as with almost any linux desktop system lets you have things the way you like.
Along with a number of other users MX is rated 1 or 2 of the best of the best, want it to look different, just change the theme, want panel to show left right top or bottom, hide or not is just a click away.
Professional look and proper defaults are in the preference category, no more no less. You seem to think you have the wisdom to say what is best for everyone. I think you have an attitude problem and are thus unable to understand linux desktop.
MX is along with the system it is based on the AntiX (my personal No 1 Distro) most trouble free experience I have ever had with linux, set it up and get on with working.
Fantastic distro with a plethora of extremely useful tools.
32 • @30 (by Chris Whelan on 2019-11-04 10:39:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have changed the look of every OS I have ever used to suit my taste. The benefit of MX Linux is the ease with with you can do that. You can change the panel orientation and location easily using one of the MX Tools. There is a big range of wallpapers, themes, and icons available by default, with many more available from the simple-to-use Package Installer. You can toggle Conky on/off with a single click, and there are dozens of other Conkys to try if you are a Conky fan.
33 • Bandwidth fluctuation (by Somewhat Reticent on 2019-11-04 10:45:36 GMT from United States)
Not sure if it's ISP prank or DDOS, but I've also noticed torrent bandwidth seems to fluctuate between near-zero and given maximum lately - a slow but steady throb.
@30 - yeah, that's petty, since it's easily adjusted.
34 • Panel location (by spectrbsd on 2019-11-04 11:32:45 GMT from Sweden)
What panel?!? I don't use one, waste of screen state.
35 • Panel / MX (by mandatory on 2019-11-04 12:14:05 GMT from United States)
Xfce desktop with horizontal top panel here.
The best MX utility in the wonderful "MX Tools" box is "Snapshot". You can create a bootable live image of your running system, with or without specific user changes, and with all the additional tools and software installed in your system. Then you can use this new ISO to deploy your own version of the MX distribution on other machines, give away to friends, etc.
36 • MX Linux (by Canfurneiro on 2019-11-04 12:23:50 GMT from Spain)
I have been using Linux from year 2000 and, from my personal point of view, MX Linux is the best distribution I have ever tried.
37 • Panel (by Tim on 2019-11-04 13:01:12 GMT from United States)
I prefer no panel. I run Openbox, and at startup my screen is just a solid background color. No panel, tray, menu, or icons. I use the Openbox key combos or right-click pop-up menus to open application windows.
38 • PDFtk is dead (long live PDFtk) (by David on 2019-11-04 13:01:20 GMT from United States)
The original PDFtk is dead software, but has been revived as a fork:
https://gitlab.com/pdftk-java/pdftk
39 • vertical/horizontal panels (by Carson on 2019-11-04 13:03:28 GMT from Canada)
I prefer vertical when screen height is minimal, and horizontal otherwise.
40 bull; Poll & PDFs (by dragonmouth on 2019-11-04 14:17:47 GMT from United States)
For the past few years I have been using Master PDF Editor to manipulate PDF files. So far it has fulfilled all my needs.
Ever since Win 3.x, I've had the panel horizontal-bottom. I have gotten used to it. With a vertical panel or horizontal-top, I always find myself looking for the appropriate tag. Therefore, I will continue to place the panel bottom-horizontal.
41 • panel (by vortex on 2019-11-04 15:10:20 GMT from Belgium)
the placement of the panel in MX Linux can be changed by 2 clicks, so what is the point making a vote over this ?
Better vote about the heavy kernels lately, older laptops even with ssd and an I7 onboard running quit heavy and hot with the recent distro's , super bloated that is what they are
42 • panels (by nanome on 2019-11-04 14:59:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ideally, I prefer the default Openbox "desktop": totally black screen. However, in the real world I add a Tint2 thin horizontal panel so that I can see/hide X11-based programs.
Those desktops which employ vertical panels tend to use cryptic icons or risk an ugly uneven sawtooth of panel texts.
The screen real-estate crisis is made worse by programs like Firefox that add horitontal clutter, and web sites that insist on grabbing horizontal bands of space for no obvious reason. Often the content is squashed into a thin horizontal strip!
This all happens because of the modern fad for 16:9 letter box screens. I would prefer 4:3 aspect ratio screens, but buying laptops or monitors like that is near impossible.
43 • Panel location (by Roy Davies on 2019-11-04 15:17:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
Whilst most of the Linux distros I use have a horizontal panel, which appears to be the norm, there's nothing wrong with being different. That's one of the things that makes Linux so attractive.
As has been said in the review, side panels are a minority but like @36 MX Linux is my distribution of choice.
@31 has hit the nail on the head when stating that the ability to make any Linux distro how you want it is a key feature of the Linux family.
44 • panels (by Steve on 2019-11-04 15:18:59 GMT from United States)
The Unity layout is the most efficient I have used - so depending on what you call a 'panel' I'd go with that: a live info bar across the top, a dock down the left side... and especially the window buttons in the upper left of each window. Ergonomically direct: all selection movements except system shutdown go to the same direction - upper left - and all checks for machine state information go to the upper right.
45 • panels (by mmphosis on 2019-11-04 17:44:36 GMT from Canada)
Ideally, I would prefer not to have a panel. For people coming from proprietary Windows, when setting up a user login, I usually put a "task bar" panel at the bottom of one of the monitors, but it's Linux so it's really up to them, thanks to Panel.
Coming from proprietary Mac OS X, I usually put a 22 pixel bar at the top of the smaller monitor. My Apple menu is now a "Debian" menu with my most used Applications (desk accessories): About this Linux ..., Check for update | Firefox, File Manager, Mail Reader | Mousepad, Robotron, Calculator, Termnual Emulator | Settings Manager. Then Window buttons, instead of a menu bar as I am getting used to seeing menu bars on every window, then menu bar icons (tray icons): AutoKey, Clipboard Manager, Notification area with only a Network Manager icon, then Power Manager, Clock using custom format "%a %-I:%M %p", and then a "User" menu with a working Switch User ("dm-tool switch-to-greeter"), Logout | Restart, Shutdown.
I am no longer much of a fan of Mac-like "Dock" panels. On a smaller 1024 x 768 monitor / laptop, I turn hiding on but this is not my preference. On a 1280x1024 monitor, I position a non-hiding "Dock" to the right to maximize available vertial space.
Again, thank Linux and Panel for allowing lots of choices.
46 • MX and panels (by Gary on 2019-11-04 18:20:44 GMT from United States)
I have always preferred the panel to be at the bottom of the screen, but I usually hide the panel no matter where it is, so it doesn't really mattre whether it's top or bottom as long as it can be hidden.
MEPIS was one of my favorite distros. I carried a version of MEPIS 11 around on a USB drive for a very long time. I was glad to see antix and MX when they were first introduced. MX is one of the distros I recommend along side Mint and Zorin when refurbishing a Windows computer for a friend or family member wanting to try Linux.
47 • Panels and MX (by Cheker on 2019-11-04 18:52:15 GMT from Portugal)
I grew up with Windows from 95 onward so I like my panels horizontal and on the bottom, usually with auto-hide. Anything else feels a little alien. The space it takes up in a modern monitor is a very valid critique that I honestly hadn't thought of, but it doesn't bother me.
MX is a distro that I honestly didn't think much of when I tried it in a VM a few months ago. In the meantime, having used other distros with Xfce, I've grown to like it and maybe someday I'll give MX a go in one of my other computers.
48 • Wholeheartly agree (by Garon on 2019-11-04 19:01:23 GMT from United States)
As #44 stated, Unity had the best layout for getting work done. After getting use to the Unity Desktop anything else feels awkward. In answer to the question on panels, now I prefer the panel on the bottom using auto hide. MX is a fine distro, (but I had more fun with Mepis).
49 • MX, Xfce panel layouts (by mikef90000 on 2019-11-04 20:10:21 GMT from United States)
@jesse, thanks for giving MX some visibility. It is the only distro directly derived from Debian that installs wireless network support reliably for me. Debian maintainers keep changing which package the specific binary blobs were hiding in and, unfortunately, don't install them by default.
As for panel layout, I'm amazed and appalled at the number of whiners here. Xfce makes it almost trivial to give you whatever you like with a minimal number of clicks in Panel Preferences. I have smaller monitors but my panels only need 28px of width for my aging eyes - is that too wasteful for you? BTW I don't like the default MX panel with microscopic icons - changed that immediately.
Being a speaker of a European language where writing starts at the top and left of the page, that's where I prefer my panels. The left one contains app launchers in three groups (expanding separator rocks!); the top one holds the indicators, window buttons, workspace switcher, clock and menu. NO desktop icon clutter except for temporary situations.
50 • This poll made me realize something (by Ed Ktorp on 2019-11-04 20:34:54 GMT from United States)
First I misread the poll momentarily.. I began to think it was asking about physically rotating the LCD display (panel) to be vertical instead of horizontal widescreen.. this made me realize that one could get a 4k monitor, rotate it to be in the vertical position and still have the 'standard' 1920x1080 footprint available to you. I would get way more use out of this than 4k in a traditional horizontal configuration.
Is anybody doing this?
51 • redundancy (by Ed Ktorp on 2019-11-04 20:36:26 GMT from United States)
Then I realized that I typed "LCD display" and I feel dumb.
52 • Panels and such (by Angel on 2019-11-04 23:21:13 GMT from Philippines)
Since Using OS X years ago, no matter what DE and what configurations I try, I always end up with top panel and bottom dock. It's most comfortable for me. Also prefer a full-screen menu. For smaller screens, the dock on intelli-hide, and the top panel on auto-hide. The MX panel could use quite a bit of improvement, but since I only have it on VM and flash drive for occasional use, I leave it alone.
@45, Proprietary and panel position preference are not mutually exclusive. It has been possible to re-position the taskbar to your liking since Windows XP.
53 • Panels Etc. (by M.Z. on 2019-11-05 00:29:32 GMT from United States)
Panels should default at the bottom as that is what most users are familiar with, and most probably prefer the way KDE, Cinnamon etc. put them at the bottom as I do - even if only because that's likely the first default encountered.
@41
"...so what is the point making a vote over this ?"
As with most web pole, it isn't scientific & is mostly just for fun. That being said, it could also give an indicator of the most user friendly default, which would be good to know.
@50/51
If you're talking a 90 degree monitor turn to do things like view docs in LibreOffice more naturally like an actual document page, I've seen this done in various places and can confirm that Cinnamon has a screen setting for that (& can't imagine that KDE doesn't). Otherwise ???
54 • Horizontal panel at the bottom (by Roger on 2019-11-05 00:43:03 GMT from Belgium)
I prefer horizontal panel at the bottom, that's the reason that I use Mate before that Gnome or Xfce.
Start button on the left, legacy of my years working with Windows 2000 and Linux at the same time.
Both desktops where similar which made it easyer switching OS.
55 • MX (by Mike Sonic on 2019-11-05 02:58:20 GMT from United States)
This is the best .deb distro that I have tried in terms of working with my various Dell desk and laptops. Very easy to install, recognizes all hardware and the best feature is that provides a /home partition for your docs when doing a hard install.
I only wished that Mate was offered as a DE out of the box without having to install it from the repos, I don't like Xfce
56 • If you liked Ubuntu's Unity.... (by eco2geek on 2019-11-05 05:22:01 GMT from United States)
@44 -- ...then try Ubuntu now (i.e. 18.04 LTS and onward; 19.10 is current). It has a vertical dock on the left-hand side and a horizontal bar across the top. Of course, there's no HUD, or "menu bar in the top bar" (since GNOME wants to banish the menu bar in favor of so-called CSD) like there was with Unity. But Ubuntu has tried to emulate Unity in GNOME shell.
(For those who want to keep the mouse on the top left-hand side of the screen, you can use GNOME Tweak Tool to put an application menu there, and move the minimize/maximize/close buttons to the left-hand side.)
The theme they're using, Yaru, is pretty nice, and the default wallpaper is pretty good, too. And that's coming from someone who dislikes GNOME shell. After making modifications with GNOME Tweak Tool and dconf-editor, you can pretty much ignore the "activities overview" window and the "application picker" window.
57 • panels (by livestradamus on 2019-11-05 08:34:17 GMT from Saudi Arabia)
I don't need all these fancy things.
I need only the slim vertical top bar in dwm and dmenu launcher.
58 • unity got it right (by ionel on 2019-11-05 10:49:06 GMT from Moldova, Republic of)
unity panels layout was the best
good vertical panel and application menus on top bar, left all those programs like firefox
and whatever to create their own bottom panels.
unity was most thought.
BUT majority people simply don't care and end up using the 1st thing they ever saw,
which is windows 95 bottom panel :) or mac top panel + dock.
59 • Panel Position & Aspect ratio (by Syam Kumar on 2019-11-05 10:53:54 GMT from India)
I prefer Vertical Panel for 16:9 display & Horizontal Panel for 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio displays.
60 • Panels (by Jim on 2019-11-05 11:20:18 GMT from United States)
Horizontal panel, at the bottom, preferably Mate.
61 • MX19 (by PhantomTramp on 2019-11-05 14:33:45 GMT from United States)
Thanks for taking the time to look at the new MX. I have used this distro and Mepis before it. You brought up some tools that I have not used yet and I am eager to try.
Simon: The 90's were very good for me. I would not take a million dollars for that decade, but I would not give you 5 cents to live through it again, HA!
The Tramp
62 • Panels (by Will on 2019-11-05 15:07:21 GMT from United States)
While I prefer vertical panels, most linux panels are pretty ugly when placed vertically. They should take a page from Mac's dock on this.
63 • Panel placement and unity (by Gary on 2019-11-05 15:38:18 GMT from United States)
As a Linux newbie I had trouble adjusting to a top and bottom panel (Gnome). Over the years I have come to like Cairo/docky type panel at the bottom and a task bar such as the one BlueStar uses. I have never been a fan of the verticle task bar. To me, the Unity task bar was too uncomfortable to use and, at the time on my 17" screen, made the desktop seem too cluttered.
64 • Real Priorities (by Real Priorities on 2019-11-05 16:22:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
@ 41 vortex from Belgium
Why bother with trivial things like heavy kernels & bloated distro's when the smart guys using Linux have serious problems with panels and wallpapers...
PS: wink, wink.
65 • Real Priorities (by Friar Tux on 2019-11-05 17:06:38 GMT from Canada)
@64 The reason we're the "smart guys" is that we don't complain about heavy kernels and bloated distros. We actually DO something about those. That gives us time to quibble over our panel and wallpaper preferences.
66 • MX19 (by Ian Wright 859 on 2019-11-05 18:08:48 GMT from United States)
Just downloaded and am running KDE Plasma on MX19. It's available via Synaptic and when you log in and choose plasma it is lightning fast and improves the look no end.
67 • KDE Plasma on MX19? (by Garon on 2019-11-05 20:00:42 GMT from United States)
I had never really thought about that before. Sounds interesting. There is something new for me to try out. Mepis always used KDE and I loved it. We'll see what happenes and thanks.
68 • Vertical monitor (by Nathan on 2019-11-05 20:41:25 GMT from United States)
@50/51: I do exactly this with my second monitor. It makes it so much easier to code when I can see the entire contents of each file!
Also, my go-to is vertical panel on a horizontal monitor, or a horizontal panel on a vertical monitor if I have one in my setup. That's the most efficient use of screen realestate imho. Can't put up with autohide personally; I like seeing a system monitor on my panels :)
69 • On PDFtk (by logan on 2019-11-05 20:57:13 GMT from Mexico)
What's The Fuzz With TK? Why This Fixation At Old Time Proffesional Linuxers?
70 • MX-19 (by Luxie Tuxie on 2019-11-05 21:34:07 GMT from United States)
Congrats MX / ANTiX Team,
Now MX tops on DW @#1.
Things I liked about new MX, MX Tools, MX Package Installer, and MX Tweak.
71 • Vertical or Hoirizontal Panels (by Simmon Plaistowe on 2019-11-06 07:39:51 GMT from New Zealand)
I use Linux Mint on my main laptop. Cinnamon desktop with horizontal panel at the top, has worked well for me for many years. On my older smaller laptop, I use Mint XFCE and recently moved my panel to be vertical at the left (vertical mode, not deskbar). I'm finding I prefer it, especially the gain in vertical display space. I also gain more vert.space by hiding the frame & title of windows when maximized (Settings | Window Manager Tweaks | Accessibility) - it's easy to use ALT-SPACE to maximize/minimize/close (etc) windows, so who needs that titlebar hogging screen space.
72 • Panel preferences (by Respondent on 2019-11-07 04:36:20 GMT from United States)
(apologies - sometimes using a mobile device to respond is cumbersome)
I liked reading the comment about the blank desktop making it harder for uninitiated to do nefarious things. Valid point, though I also think those with truly nefarious intent will know shortcuts.
I use exclusively linuxmint (0
LMDE, actually) personally for the last 6 years or so. Except at work which is MS. But hopefully they will come around.
As is custom in MS products, which I had used exclusively since msdos (with a brief use of Amiga in late 80s), I got used to a bottom panel/taskbar.
Mac's drrove me crazy with the top panel and
wibdow open/close/etc on left.
I remembered reading somewhere about ergonomics and how usually it is less strainti glance at top than at bottom of screen (depending on particular monitor placement). So once I started with LMDE, i experimented with top panel, autohide, launchers, etc.
I found that I prefer top panel (autohide depending on monitor resolution and whether or not a 'normal' windows user would also.be using same comp. I also prefer the trip right corner of panel to include lock, log off, and shutdown buttons.and in separate windows, I prefer minimize, maximize, and close buttons on right like in ms windows.
Sometimes I use the too.for a m taskbar and the bottom for launchers.
73 • MX Linux with the MATE desktop (by Az4x4 on 2019-11-07 15:37:17 GMT from United States)
I'm with those who'd like to see MATE offered as an out of the box DE option with MX Linux.
Xfce is OK, better than it used to be, but MATE, continuing the long time favorite GNOME 2.x desktop, is much too popular to ignore as an out of the box option.
Installing MATE on the Xfce version of MX Linux works OK, but it remains burdened with things specific to Xfce, plus it's not as finely tuned and complete as it would be if it came out of the box with MATE as it's desktop environment.
Until this happens I'll stick with Linux Mint MATE, far and away the best of the best when it comes to the polished look and feel that MATE is capable of. The ease with which it can be customized to suit that MATE has perfected and continues to improve on should make adding a MATE DE to the MX Linux offering a must do project that huge numbers of users would gladly support.
74 • @73 MX Linux with the MATE desktop (by anticapitalista on 2019-11-07 15:50:29 GMT from Greece)
@73 If you really want this to happen, feel free to make a spin and help the MX devs.
Be the change you want to see.
75 • @73 Xfce > Mate > Gnome 2 (by Ed Ktorp on 2019-11-07 16:34:11 GMT from United States)
Xfce is the OG linux desktop, with regards to actively developed projects, that is. Mate is cool, despite its kinda goofy name, but cmon-- we're talkin about big daddy Xfce here; the xenolithic flexible connectible environment that takes what it needs and does what it wants.
76 • Panel Preference (by GreginNC on 2019-11-07 19:20:53 GMT from United States)
I usually use Enlightenment with three shelves all on auto hide so my desktop is always clear of obstructions but when using any other desktop I want my panel at the bottom only.
77 • mate (by Tim on 2019-11-08 10:59:48 GMT from United States)
Anyone else flying the flag for the Gnome 2 / Mate Traditional panel layout? They're small, they're extremely customizable, and I think incredibly intuitive.
That said, this is totally "what you use is the best, anything else is weird." At least with Linux you have choice.
For those asking for MX Linux with MATE, I have to ask why not Debian?
78 • MX Linux with the MATE desktop (by R.Cain on 2019-11-08 14:53:02 GMT from United States)
A very good example of ignoring the merits of a high-quality product, and concentrating only on the superficial--
"... like to see MATE offered as an out of the box DE option with MX Linux...but MATE, continuing the long time favorite GNOME 2.x desktop, is much too popular to ignore as an out of the box option... Until this happens I'll stick with Linux Mint MATE, far and away the best of the best when it comes to the polished look and feel that MATE is capable of...adding a MATE DE to the MX Linux offering a must do project that huge numbers of users would gladly support."
Two questions, and an observation, immediately arise:
1) So you will 'stick with' a more-inferior product, bested by MX-Linux here on Distrowatch for over a year, sometimes by a THREE-TO-ONE margin, simply because of the Desktop Environment doesn't have the flash and glitz you consider necessary?
2) *IF* MX-Linux were to add MATE as a DE, would you be among that "...huge number of users..." to gladly support MX? How much money would you contribute? Do you send money to Clem Lefebvre at Mint, right now, because you can get the MATE DE? How much, and how often?
3) Seems as though a re-ordering of priorities, in order to get the very best Linux experience, is in order; not only in this case, but in many others as well.
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/mx-18-lenovo.html
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/eeepc-mx-linux.html
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
― Henry Ford
79 • Various DEs (by Luxie Tuxie on 2019-11-08 13:05:36 GMT from United States)
I use,
KDE PCLOS, Mageia, KDE Plasma Gentoo and Arch, Mate Linux Mint and Ubuntu, and XFCE with other linux distros like MX. I have used Enlightenment with Bodhi as well, and Budgie as well.
I do not have any preferential choice for any particular DE as along as they work as intended.
Neither I have any choice for vertical or horizontal DE panel as I have linux installation without-x.
Number of Comments: 79
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