 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 862, 20 April 2020 |
|
Welcome to this year's 16th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Generally speaking, Linux distributions and members of the BSD family are regarded as being flexible, highly customizable operating systems which can take on a variety of roles and tasks. However, there are distributions which are geared exclusively towards a specific environment or role. For instance, Recalbox is a minimal distribution that can be used as a video game console and media centre platform. We begin this week with a review of what it is like to set up and run Recalbox. We would like to hear whether you have any dedicated Linux appliances, such as a gaming console, around the home in our Opinion Poll. In our News section we also talk about UBports, a mobile operating system which is being ported to (and bundled with) new phones. The pfSense project makes a dedicated security and firewall platform and we share a call to pfSense users to adjust their update settings to avoid overwhelming upstream servers. Plus we share progress coming out of the FreeBSD project and report on the Debian Project Leader election results. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about trademarks and link to rules on how the trademarks of popular distributions can be used in derivative works. 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: Recalbox 6.1.1
- News: FreeBSD publishes status report, UBports coming to more phones, pfSense users asked to update Snort rules, Debian elects new leader
- Questions and answers: Trademarks and open source projects
- Released last week: Archman GNU/Linux 2020-04, Guix System 1.1.0, EndeavourOS 2020.04.11
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Anarchy, Archman, ArcoLinux, AUSTRUMI, EndeavourOS, Guix System, KDE neon, Robolinux, SystemRescueCd
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 20.04
- Opinion poll: Linux-based appliances
- New distributions: XCP-ng, Optimised Gaming Operating System
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Recalbox 6.1.1
One of the most recent additions to the DistroWatch database is Recalbox. What is Recalbox? The project's website describes this Linux distribution as follows:
Recalbox allows you to re-play a variety of video game consoles and platforms in your living room, with ease! Recalbox OS is free, open source and designed to let you create your very own Recalbox in no time! Use Raspberry Pi, ODROID or even PC (x86)!
Put another way, Recalbox is a minimal Linux distribution which has essentially two purposes: to launch a simple, game console-like interface that allows users to play classic video games, typically ones that would normally be found on gaming consoles. The other key feature is the ability to run the Kodi media centre. Recalbox is designed to be copied onto a USB thumb drive or an SD card, plugged into a PC or single-board ARM device, and then used as a livingroom appliance. One which acts like a console that can play both classic video games and multimedia files. The project's website lists supported consoles and hardware platforms.
I downloaded the compressed image file for 64-bit (x86_64) personal computers. The 521MB download expands to about 3.3GB when it is unpacked. This large image file can be transferred to a thumb drive or SD card and then plugged into the computer we want to turn into a gaming appliance.
I began my trial with Recalbox by running it in VirtualBox. Booting from the supplied media brought up a graphical interface with a black background. A window popped up and indicated that no gamepad had been detected and I could press F4 to exit or press a button to signal the input device I was using. Pressing F4 drops the user to a blank text terminal with no information and no login prompt. We can switch to other virtual terminals and, optionally, sign in as the root user. I had some trouble finding the default login credentials, but they are supplied in the project's documentation. (The password is "recalboxroot".)
I booted a second time to get back to the graphical window with the message to press a key to indicate the input device. I tapped a key on my keyboard and the word "keyboard" appeared for a second in the window. Pressing a key and holding it caused the word "keyboard" to get darker. Left long enough the keypress would cause my keyboard to be accepted as the input device and I was brought to a new window, this one used to match actions to keypresses. For instance, I could map any key to actions such as "up", "down", "A", "X", "Top Left", and "Top Right" buttons - essentially mapping part of the keyboard to controller button equivalents.
Recalbox 6.1.1 -- Binding keyboard keys to controller buttons
(full image size: 101kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Here I ran into two problems. The first was I couldn't find any way to revert an existing mapping. If I went back up the list and tried to change a mapping, it wouldn't work. The second problem was, after all my actions were mapped to keys, I couldn't find any way to have my selections accepted. I highlighted the "OK" button at the bottom of the window, but no matter what I pressed (Enter, "A", "X", Spacebar, etc) the menu remained on the screen and I could not proceed.
During this time I also noticed my CPU was constantly pegged at 100% usage. This was causing my host machine to heat up. At this point I decided to switch to physical hardware and fetched my laptop.
Things went much more smoothly when I booted Recalbox on my laptop. I was quickly brought to a graphical screen which presented me with a list of game consoles the system could emulate. Along the bottom of the display are hints on how to navigate the interface with a game controller. No keyboard short-cuts are provided. Unlike when I ran Recalbox in a virtual machine, I was not asked to map game controller buttons to my keyboard. My CPU ran closer to idle, avoiding the heating problem I had when running the distribution in VirtualBox.
Using the arrow keys, the Enter key and "A", I was able to browse through available emulated consoles Recalbox can support. Selecting a console brings up a list of free games the distribution has pre-loaded. We can select a game to play it. I tried a handful and most loaded and worked, though a few just presented me with a blank, grey screen when I tried to run them.
A problem I then ran into was I could not always back up out of a console and its collection of games to get back to the main menu. Usually Enter would back up a level through the menus, but in this case it did not. I eventually found that "A" would select a highlighted item and "S" would cancel an action or go back up a level. The Enter key would select items, but not confirm selections. Since there is no mouse pointer in the distribution's interface, it seems the only way to efficiently make use of the environment is to have a gaming controller. I do have a few in the house, and I tried to use them, but none of them turned out to be compatible.
One highlight of the Recalbox experience is the Kodi media centre. It can be launched from a menu on the main Recalbox screen. Kodi presents us with a way to play audio and video files, along with several other options. Getting around the interface with a keyboard instead of a mouse was cumbersome and I would not want to do it with a game controller, but it was functional.
The lack of mouse and proper keyboard support could be a problem in other situations. There are settings menus in the main Recalbox menu, including ones for connecting to wireless networks and performing upgrades. The steps to connect to a wireless network bring up text input boxes and on-screen keyboards. Unfortunately the on-screen keyboards only work by moving the selector over the desired keys and pressing a button to pick the highlighted key. Typing on the physical keyboard does not produce text in the input boxes. I also found that my laptop's touchscreen could not be used to interact with the menus or on-screen keyboards.
Recalbox uses about 2.2GB of disk space for its operating system. About another 275MB is set aside for shared data, presumably pre-loaded games, and background music that plays on the main menu. Very little memory is used, generally in the range of 100MB to 200MB of RAM. This allows Recalbox to run on lower-end hardware, including single-board ARM computers, such as the Raspberry Pi. In the background, the distribution uses SysV init and runs on version 4.15 of the Linux kernel.
Conclusions
Recalbox is one of those projects which I suspect is quite good at what it sets out to do, its functions are just outside the realm of my usual experiences. I don't have compatible game controllers in my home to use with it, I am a keyboard and mouse user rather than game controller user. I don't need a game console or media centre as I have access to emulators and media applications on my workstation which adequately fill my needs. I'm not likely to fire up retro games and sit around with a group of people, passing controllers around the room.
However, if I were, I believe Recalbox would fill the role nicely. Apart from its unwillingness to use keyboard and mouse input for some functions, the system appears to offer a handful of good approaches. The interface is simple and geared towards the controllers its users are likely to have on hand. It ships with some free games out of the box. Recalbox also provides a lot of emulated platforms and some neat features such as the ability to rewind some (maybe all?) games to undo mistakes. The distribution appears to provide a simple, user-friendly appliance, at least while running on physical hardware. I wouldn't recommend running it in a virtual machine.
I also like that the distribution does not need to be installed. We only need to copy the image file to a removable device and plug it in. Also, when not being used as a gaming platform, Recalbox can launch Kodi and access media files. This, combined with the platform's ability to connect to local networks, make it an appealing option for people who want a Linux-based classic gaming platform in their home.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Recalbox has a visitor supplied average rating of: N/A from 0 review(s).
Have you used Recalbox? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
FreeBSD publishes status report, UBports coming to more phones, pfSense users asked to update their Snort rules, Debian elects a new leader
The FreeBSD project has published its Quarterly Status Report for the months of January through March of 2020. The report includes updates to the project's infrastructure, X.Org support, and improvements to the operating system's Linux compatibility layer. The report also notes the GNU compiler has been dropped from future releases of FreeBSD: "In 2007 the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) migrated to GPLv3, which prompted discussions about the future of the FreeBSD tool chain. We held a Tool Chain Summit at BSDCan 2010. Roman Divacky gave an update on the ClangBSD project, building FreeBSD using the new and rapidly improving Clang compiler. Since that time Clang was imported into the FreeBSD base system and was used more and more widely - first being installed but not the default cc, then used by default on i386 and amd64, and later used on more and more targets. In the years since Dimitry Andric has been keeping our copy of Clang up-to-date. GCC 4.2.1 was kept in the tree for a few FreeBSD targets that hadn't migrated to Clang, such as MIPS and Sparc64. By early this year all remaining targets had migrated to external toolchain (contemporary GCC from ports or packages), or had been deprecated. With no in-tree consumers remaining, GCC 4.2.1 was removed from FreeBSD in r358454 on February 29, 2020."
* * * * *
The UBports team has published an update in which they cover progress in porting their mobile operating system to new platforms along with options to get UBports running on the PinePhone and the upcoming Volla phone. Work is also progressing on the Hallium layer which should allow multiple Linux-based mobile operating systems to run on Android devices. "Alfred spoke about the current status of Halium 9, which is a project to enable Ubuntu Touch and other operating systems to run on Android phones based on version 9. Pretty much all of the base system is running now, including sensors using sensorfw. Bluebinder is installed so Bluetooth works. Calls connect but there is no audio with them yet. Google Pixel 3a is a port which Alfred is working on. Erfan has released a new GSI [generic system image] with roofts and packaged Halium. The compatibility intended by Project Treble does actually seem to be having some valuable consequences. Those who are porting devices using this new version of Halium will only need to supply kernel modifications, so the process should become much simpler and many more devices should come on stream." Further information can be found in the project's blog post.
* * * * *
Snort is a network intrusion detection program. The software, which can be run on most members of the Linux and BSD families, is one component of pfSense. The Snort team has asked that pfSense users install the latest Snort package update or adjust their Snort update settings as, currently, pfSense machines are all checking the Snort servers for rule updates at the same time. "We recently were in touch with the package maintainer for Snort on pfSense, to which he was so kind to update the 'Rules Update Start Time' to be random on install in version v3.2.9.10_3. For more information about this update, please check out Bill's forum post here. This update randomizes the start time of the Rules Update for every installation so that we don't have every installation of pfSense in the world simultaneously hitting Snort.org to check for updates all in the same second. As you can imagine, this causes quite a bit of a traffic spike on the site." Further information on the update can be found in the Snort project's blog post.
* * * * *
The Debian project, which includes over 1,000 contributors, has just elected a new Project Leader. The Debian team holds annual elections and have concluded voting this weekend. The Debian developers have chosen Jonathan Carter as their new leader. Carter ran on a platform of making it easier and more rewarding to contribute to Debian with an eye toward removing bottlenecks to work and progress. Details on the election and its results were posted Sunday, April 19th. Congratulations, Carter, and good luck!
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Trademarks and open source projects
Looking-to-share asks: I have a question about using Linux OS trademarks in advertising on-line. I would like to provide a on-line service that ships the Linux OS free of charge. Do I require an approval or several licenses to advertise all Linux OS trademarks on-line and on merchandise?
DistroWatch answers: Before we talk about trademarks, we should first address one potential misconception. There is no one single Linux OS. The Linux distributions we talk about here, and which are discussed on other technical forums, are a family of operating systems, collectively called "Linux" or sometimes "GNU/Linux". These operating systems all share some common components, including the Linux kernel, but typically ship with different libraries, package managers, desktop environments, and end-user tools.
All of that is to say there is no "Linux OS" trademark, but there are trademarks for each specific distribution and often for the individual components included in a distribution. The Linux kernel itself famously has the Tux penguin mascot.
While each Linux distribution has its own set of licenses and trademark agreements, most projects will allow you to use their name and logo to share unmodified copies of their operating system. As long as the copy of Debian, Ubuntu, or Fedora you are sharing is exactly the same as the one being provided by the project, then trademark usually is not an issue. However, if you start modifying copies of distributions or slapping their trademarks on merchandise, then you are entering an entirely different realm. One where you are creating a new product and identifying it as (or associating it with) something else. At that point you are probably running counter to the project's trademark agreement.
I am not a lawyer and cannot provide you with legal advice about the specifics of what you may be planning. I can only give you links to some popular projects' license agreements and you can explore options from there. Some projects are entirely up front with their trademark agreements while others may not have a published trademark policy at all. These are the trademark policies for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, and Red Hat.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
EndeavourOS 2020.04.11
EndeavourOS is an Arch Linux-based distribution which features graphical install options and pre-configured desktop environments. The project's latest release, version 2020.04.11, introduces a number of custom utilities to improve package management and error reporting. "We’re proud to present you our latest release and it is chucked with new features and improvements. New in-house developed apps - Manuel has created some new apps and tools to make the EndeavourOS experience a bit smoother: Pahis - a tool that shows the package history in the terminal; Eos-log-tool - a GUI app to create a log file needed when reporting a bug on the forum or the bug report area; Eos-rankmirrors - ranks (only) Endeavour mirrors. The existing EndeavourOS apps have received some bug fixes and they all transitioned to ZSTD. Other features and updates: Linux kernel 5.6.3, Firefox 75.0 , Mesa 20.0.4, Calamares 3.2.20; automatic update to the NVIDIA database for the NVIDIA installer; fixes and enhancements for the EOS package build tools." Additional details and screenshots may be found in the project's release announcement.
EndeavourOS 2020.04.11 -- Running the live Xfce desktop
(full image size: 260kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Guix System 1.1.0
Guix System is a Linux-based, stateless operating system that is built around the GNU Guix package manager. The operating system provides advanced package management features such as transactional upgrades and roll-backs, reproducible build environments, unprivileged package management, and per-user profiles. The project's latest release is Guix System 1.1.0 which introduces a number of new features and improvements, including the ability to do large scale deployments using the package manager. "The new guix deploy tool allows you to deploy several machines at once, be it remote machines over SSH or machines at a virtual private server (VPS). Channel authors can now write news entries for their users, which are readily readable using guix pull --news. As a result, if you were already using Guix, you've probably already read these news! The new guix system describe command tells you which commits of which channels were used to deploy your system, and also contains a link to your operating system configuration file. Precise provenance tracking that gives users and admins the ability to know exactly what changed between two different system instances! This feature builds upon the new provenance service." Further details can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Archman GNU/Linux
Archman GNU/Linux is an Arch Linux-based distribution which features the Calamares system installer and a pre-configured desktop environment. The project's latest snapshot, version 2020-04, introduces a number of changes to the look of the Xfce desktop and its default icons. "In this release you will see a 70% centered panel at the bottom of the screen. With this panel's smart hiding feature, the entire screen will be in your use. We also grouped window tasks as icons only in the panel. In this release we have made many cosmetic changes. We set the Papirus icon set aside and decided to use the Surfn Arc icon set. In Archman Sample Files, we put information and visual files about Balıkesir- Manyas which we introduced in this release. We've fixed many bugs you've detected in earlier release. We have also considered your recommendations. We tried to include your suggestions in this release." Further details and a list of updated key packages can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 1,933
- Total data uploaded: 31.4TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux-based appliances
In our Feature Story this week we talked about Recalbox, a Linux-based operating system used for playing video games and playing multimedia. This makes Recalbox a good distribution for Linux-based gaming consoles and media appliances. This week we would like to hear whether you have any Linux-based appliances at home, whether they are used for playing media files, streaming video, gaming, or acting as a network-based storage solution. Let us know which tasks dedicated Linux appliances are handling in your home in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on monitoring network traffic in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Linux-based appliances
| I have a Linux-based appliance: | 221 (21%) |
| I have multiple Linux-based appliances: | 301 (29%) |
| I do not have any Linux-based appliances: | 391 (37%) |
| I do not know if my appliances run Linux: | 134 (13%) |
|
|
| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
Distributions added to waiting list
- XCP-ng. XCP-ng is a server distribution aimed at virtualization using the Xen hypervisor and CentOS for administration. It is an independently developed, free, open-source build of Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer) that uses the Xen API toolstack.
- Optimised Gaming Operating System. Optimised Gaming Operating System (OGOS) is based on Debian's Unstable (Sid) branch. It ships with a kernel that has DRM-next enabled and includes the Steam gaming portal and the development branch of WINE to support a wider range of games.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 27 April 2020. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 7, value: US$270.09) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Linux Based Appliances (by Roy on 2020-04-20 02:14:50 GMT from United States)
I have 2 Roku s and one VIZIO Co Star. Or at-least they open source. And then there is the VIZIO DVD player with Blu-ray capability.
2 • Batocera (by ksm on 2020-04-20 03:18:11 GMT from France)
You can try Batocera too, a good fork of Recalbox.
It includes a number of new features compared to its parent.
A beta version for Raspberry Pi 4 is also available.
3 • There is many unknow appliance (by GruntZ on 2020-04-20 03:50:57 GMT from France)
I have two ARM based NAS, the Internet access provider box (fiber modem) and the associated Android mediacenter (an the one included in the SmartTV).
And I do not count all the family smartphone, event if they are also "Linux based".
Sure, ther is many "shadow" Linux appliance in every home :)
4 • Linux Appliances (by speedytux on 2020-04-20 06:20:10 GMT from Italy)
I have a Synology NAS. His DiskStation software is running on a Debian system. Of course, their software is not open-source. But it is possible to work on it with a Debian chroot.
5 • ODROID-C1 (by Luca on 2020-04-20 06:26:51 GMT from Italy)
I don't know if it can be considered an appliance, but I use an ODROID-C1 as a home server, in charge of backup (of my home PC's and remote VPS), NAS, print server.
6 • Hidden Linux Appliances (by NoName on 2020-04-20 06:28:12 GMT from Germany)
I am not sure how many Linux Appliances I have or use daily since some Linux Appliances are hidden very well for example your Car. My Toyota Hybrid, uses a custom linux os for radio/media center.
Greeting from Germany
7 • Linux appliances (by OstroL on 2020-04-20 07:50:21 GMT from Poland)
I am sure I have a Linux based appliance in the TVs, in some kitchen appliances and in the car. Linux seems to be very good at doing a dedicated job. But, Linux distros doesn't appear to be catching up with the ever growing amount of laptops and their special abilities.
8 • Linux appliances (by c0d3 on 2020-04-20 09:21:29 GMT from Serbia)
I have 3 RPi, used as smart TV, Video Survelliance and DNS sinkhole.
Netgate router with pFSense, and small server turned into NAS with FreeNAS and Linux servers VMs.
All my laptops running Linux. Other smart TV and some of the kitchen appliances are Linux based.
9 • Linux Appliances (by Adrian Stone on 2020-04-20 13:30:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have a Raspberry Pi (original Model B) which runs CUPS Print Server, DuckDNS Dynamic DNS updates and PiHole ad blocker. I also have a Raspberry Pi Zero which runs an away-on webcam.
10 • Linux Appliances (by Semiarticulae on 2020-04-20 13:33:50 GMT from United States)
Single board computers are great for many purpose-built appliances. I have an RPi3 running something similar to Recalbox. I have another managing my 3D prints. I also have a NAS solution, a couple of wifi-to-ethernet bridges, a surveillance camera, a Steam box, etc... Linux has forever changed the face of home networking, and SBC's have pushed that even further along.
11 • Linux appliances (by F on 2020-04-20 13:37:06 GMT from Canada)
I voted "I have a Linux based appliance", though not officially. I have an old HP laptop, and some really good speakers from an even older HP desktop PC, that I turned into a stereo system to play music. It runs the Audacious player on Mint/Cinnamon. I've had a few stereo systems over the years but this thrown-together hack is the best, ever. I have all my music stored on the laptop (many hours worth) and can run The Thing (that's it's name) all day on 'Random Select' without any repeats. Plus, with the CD/DVD drive, I can play those, too.
Not sure if, and how many, 'hidden' appliances I have that run Linux.
12 • Linux-based appliances (by Tim on 2020-04-20 13:53:02 GMT from United States)
Based on the paragraph accompanying the poll, I voted that I do not have any Linux-based appliances.
However, I would consider my Netgear 802.11ac router that has been flashed to dd-wrt to be a Linux-based appliance.
13 • Trademarks (by Christian on 2020-04-20 13:53:18 GMT from Canada)
Congratulations on covering this topic. It's importance is often taken for granted.
A trademark (in a very general concept) is anything that can be used to identify a business, a product or a service. It can be only the text (a word or a combination of letters and words), only an abstract image (a combination of shapes and colors - ex. the Debian spiral) or both (the most usual, a "logo" with some text - the Debian logo "Debian").
The right to use a trademark exclusively depends on several factors (such as field of use, reach, conflicts with other trademarks, if it's too common (for example, you can't register the word Pizza but you may try to register "MySuperIncredibleMadeWithFOSSAndLove Pizza").
If you are going to use anything that identifies another project (and I am not talking about the code here) you should ask for express permission first. You can look for banners provided by the project itself (as using trademarks like this helps to keep consistency) or make sure the logo is publicly available (ex.: https://github.com/nashamri/spacemacs-logo).
In addition, you should plan ahead and make it clear how others can reference and use your trademark with they are going to use your project too (besides how you are going to license your code).
14 • @13 Trademarks (by OstroL on 2020-04-20 14:13:24 GMT from Poland)
A trademark has a value, if it is used to bring profit to a business, I believe. If someone else create/remix something, such as distro, but gives it away free leaving the original trademark, I suppose, that person is not doing anything wrong, doesn't break someone's trademark rights, especially in the case of a remixed distro, still with the trademarked names/logos. By leaving those trademarks/logos/names, the person is actually giving additional advertisement for that trademarked distro.
Usually, Linux distros are given out free, so a remixed one also given out free, even with the "original" names/logos intact doesn't break any law. Actually, more more gain for the original distro. What do you think?
15 • linux appliances? (by bobtron on 2020-04-20 14:30:35 GMT from United States)
I answered "i don't know" because nothing i use is very "smart"...to run a "microcumputer" such as a RaspPI i think it would take a few seconds to boot even headless {to establish network link if that used}...on the other hand a "microcontroller" {think Arduino or other such micro with PGA/FPGA custom and proprietary stuff} would do the job.
16 • @14 Trademarks (by Christian on 2020-04-20 17:08:32 GMT from Canada)
You can't use any trademark without consent. Even if it's for a free project and if it comes from a free project. Unless the trademark rights are waived (such as the case of the spacemacs logo), you can't use the trademark.
Check the Ubuntu page referenced in the article. See how every other trademark that aren't owned by Canonical have a mention to their owners.
The problem is that any use may lead someone to believe that the projects are somehow officially connected.
You don't see Firefox based browses using the firefox logo. Neither any other chrome based browser.
17 • "LINUX" Trademark (by Kairuku on 2020-04-20 18:03:24 GMT from United States)
Of course you are correct that the question asked by "Looking-to-share" appeared to assume that there is a single Linux OS trademark that covers the universe of Linux distros, while in fact each distro can, and almost always does, have its own trademarks (name, logo, logo with name, etc. etc.)
I'd like to clarify, however, that a trademark for the word "LINUX" for "computer operating system software to facilitate computer use and operation" was registered by someone named Linus Torvalds. According to the USPTO trademark database, it was registered on September 5, 1995, and the registration is still in effect.
18 • Poll (by Ted on 2020-04-20 18:59:08 GMT from United States)
Unsure of the exact number but I have at least one Linux-based appliance. My Linux-based appliance is my NAT router running third party firmware (DD-WRT, Open-WRT, Tomato, ETC..).
19 • BSD for a long time (by Bob Eager on 2020-04-20 19:53:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
I've been using BSD since 1977.
Currently have 8 permanently running FreeBSD machines in the house. Plus some Raspberry Pis I am working on.
Linux based TV, Linux based chip programmer, oscilloscope etc.
But I like BSD!
20 • Poll of voting on linux appliances (by Clarence Perry on 2020-04-21 01:53:38 GMT from United States)
I voted no. Then started reading the comments here and decided I was thinking wrong. An appliance doesn't have to be a mixer or toaster.
2 android phones
2 printers
2 raspberry pi
1 NAS
unknown quantities in den running entertainment.
all well hidden and like the old saying "Out of sight, out of mind."
21 • Linux Appliances (by TuxRaider on 2020-04-21 03:53:57 GMT from United States)
i have two Linksys Routers that use Linux firmware, a wrt54GL and a wrt1900ACS
22 • Linux appliances (by cykodrone on 2020-04-21 04:30:28 GMT from Romania)
I swear my TV's internal flashed OS (menu system and media playing) is Linux based, the way it acts, the icons, its capabilities, etc. I can't prove it but, a Linux nerd knows. ;D
23 • Linux Appliances (by tuxie on 2020-04-21 07:04:22 GMT from Canada)
Linux (considering Android as a Linux baby as well) is only the OS which blends well with appliances of any sort.
24 • Linux appliances (by Jim on 2020-04-21 10:57:54 GMT from United States)
I didn't consider the my cell phone or computer. As far as I know I have no Linux appliances. My vehicles are older. I know I have no smart appliances, and as long as they sell stupid appliances, it will remain that way.
25 • Linux Appliances (by coffee lover on 2020-04-21 14:58:28 GMT from Canada)
There are so many Linux based appliances all around us and you don't even notice them.... The other day I saw the coffee machine at the office booting Linux... a coffee machine! hahaha!
26 • @ #24 Linux Appliances (by tuxie on 2020-04-21 23:08:27 GMT from Canada)
@ #24
"I know I have no smart appliances, and as long as they sell stupid appliances, it will remain that way. "
By the way I liked your choice to refrain from smart-devices.
Ideally only ONE Linux appliance is just more than ever enough where in latest GNU/Linux kernel is getting patched from variety of sources, tons of networking drivers and bunch of protocols are stuffed-in. More devices may cause excessive inter-communication, noise and nuisance. At lease at home one would definitely prefer calm-n-peace.
27 • Linux appliances (by Simon Plaistowe on 2020-04-22 09:35:23 GMT from New Zealand)
I have 3 machines running LibreELEC and one running IPFire (my internet gateway). I guess the ONT and WLAN AP also run Linux but have no way to know for sure. My multimedia is served from an old netbook with a deceased keyboard and no battery, which sits in the corner of my office with it's lid closed and runs 24/7. It has 1GB RAM and runs Linux Mint XFCE on it's 16GB SSD. The data is on the 2 connected USB-HDDs and is served via NFS to my laptops and the LibreELEC appliances. There are a couple of old boxes in my workshop which at times run various server appliances for development & testing purposes.
28 • @22 TVs running Linux (by Elcaset on 2020-04-22 15:01:10 GMT from Canada)
Your TV probably is running Linux. LG TVs made since 2014 run Linux (webOS). It sounds like some other TV brands also run Linux. I installed OpenWrt & Tomato on my Linksys & Netgear Linux routers. Roku streaming devices run Linux & I use one of those. Soon I will be running Recalbox on my Raspberry Pi 1.
29 • Windows 10, Ubuntu MATE 20.04 and Viacom (by Linux Based Appliances on 2020-04-22 16:29:28 GMT from United States)
So I was getting flustered over dealing with my Software Defined Radios and installed Windows 10 on a separate drive. Since my Internet connection is through satellite Viacom also known as Exede I thought I would try their browser which I learned works on Linux and Windows. Viacom uses Chromium who knew? Viacom said that I am like a beta tester so cool working off Windows 10. Of course who knows when the updater on Windows will ever be done. I am glad I did the upgrade to the Grub2 because putting the two operating systems on separate drives with EFI brought up my choices in Linux. Thank you Linux. Some day when Windows finishes updating I may work with my software drivers.
30 • Linux appliances (by openwrt on 2020-04-23 11:11:28 GMT from Finland)
My Huawei 4G usb stick, OpenWrt router and Android phone run Linux. I have also an Android tvbox that can boot from sdcard to a Linux distribution.
31 • @19 @20 (by RoestVrijStaal on 2020-04-23 13:14:26 GMT from Netherlands)
I suspect the poll was narrowed down to Linux on purpose, because including other FOSS OSes like the BSD-family would effect the results: MacOS, iOS, PS3 and PS4 are based on FreeBSD.
32 • Lots of Linux 'Smart TVs' - Wish They Were Better (by M.Z. on 2020-04-23 23:22:12 GMT from United States)
I have a Linux based Roku 'Smart TV' in the house, though I personally don't use it the intended way because of the creepy privacy policy I heard about coming from Roku. I'll pipe my stuff through a standard Linux Distro to run Hulu/Netflix on Firefox & cut out as many creepy middle men as possible, thank you. It's one HDMI connection away after all. I think a heck of a lot of so called 'Smart TVs' run some flavor of Linux based OS like Roku, which I would like a lot more if I thought they had decent privacy policies & were smart to use from a privacy perspective. Of course with higher tech appliances with Linux or any other OS inside there becomes questions of vendor support cycle & updates if the thing is web facing, at which point I generally start preferring a simpler solution that lasts longer & has no security or privacy issues.
I love Linux & would just assume use it everywhere if I trusted the vendors to make their appliances shipping with it as robust, privacy respecting, & long lasting as any other appliance. Too bad I don't feel like any of them are there on doing it right, though if anyone knows of I good deep dive on the topic I'm happy to reconsider.
33 • Recalbox (by difficalt prublem on 2020-04-24 22:22:59 GMT from Germany)
when it comes to multimedia i can say linux has more codecs support than windows - for instance, i can't play an hevc video on windows default player (let alone window media player) but why if i visit streaming sites on a linux box they say my os isnt supported?
but gaming is a different beast. the only reason i still boot to windows is to play games. tried once to install rome total war in wine but it was a train wreck and tremenjisly terribal experience :(
Number of Comments: 33
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Nature's Linux
Nature's Linux was a Linux-based operating system developed by Japan's Nature's Linux Alliance. Its main focus was security.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
