 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 880, 24 August 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 34th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the aspects of open source that appeals to developers is the ability to take an existing piece of software and modify it to make an improved and customized version. This reusing of base technology or packages allows for rapid development and the evolution of lots of specially focused applications and distributions. This week we begin with a look at two projects which customize a popular base: GeckoLinux which is based on openSUSE and MX Linux's new "KDE" edition. Read on to find out how these projects compare to their parent distributions. Both GeckoLinux and MX Linux are small community projects and, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about the competition community and commercial projects face in the open source community. Is your main distribution commercially or community-backed? Let us know in our Opinion Poll. In our News section we discuss new features being tested by the UBports team and link to some tips for configuring a firewall provided by IPFire. We also talk about how to verify the contents of an open source Snap package. Then we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we are pleased to welcome the Garuda Linux distribution as the newest addition to our database. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: GeckoLinux 152 "KDE Plasma", MX Linux 19.2 "KDE"
- News: IPFire provides firewall tips, UBports plans to test Wayland and systemd packages, verifying the contents of a Snap package
- Questions and answers: The survival of small, community projects
- Released last week: Parrot 4.10, Kali Linux 2020.3, Linuxfx 10.5
- Torrent corner: Kali Linux, Linuxfx, MakuluLinux, KDE neon, Parrot, RebornOS, Redo Rescue, Swift, Voyager Live
- Upcoming releases: Tails 4.10
- Opinion poll: Do you run commercial or community distributions?
- New additions: Garuda Linux
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
GeckoLinux 152 "KDE Plasma"
This week instead of spending several days with one distribution I decided to try two alternative spins or approaches to projects I have explored in the recent past. In particular I wanted to compare the latest release of GeckoLinux against its parent, openSUSE, and try out the new KDE Plasma edition of MX Linux. Let's start with Gecko.
The GeckoLinux project presents itself as a more desktop-oriented version of openSUSE, which I reviewed in July. The project ships in multiple live desktop editions for 64-bit (x86_64) computers. Available editions include Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE and Xfce. I decided to try the KDE Plasma edition to keep my trial as close to my experience with openSUSE 15.2 as possible.
Booting from the Gecko media brings up the KDE Plasma desktop. Icons for opening a language installer and the Calamares system installer are located on the desktop. There is a panel placed at the bottom of the display.
GeckoLinux 152 -- The live Plasma desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Unlike openSUSE, which uses its own custom installer, GeckoLinux uses the distro-neutral Calamares system installer. Calamares streamlines the process, doing away with many of the niche options and configuration tweaks openSUSE offers. This makes the graphical installer faster to get through, but the trade off is a lack of control and flexibility we can enjoy with openSUSE. I also noticed that Calamares defaults to using the ext4 filesystem rather than the more feature-rich Btrfs that openSUSE suggests. We can, should we choose, still use Btrfs with GeckoLinux, though it means we need to use manual rather than guided partitioning.
Once Gecko is installed it offers us two session options: Openbox and Plasma. The Openbox session works, but only presents us with an empty screen and a right-click menu. There aren't any bells and whistles available in the Openbox session and I spent almost all of my time in the Plasma session as a result. I feel it worth noting Gecko streamlines things here once again. openSUSE offers five sessions when KDE Plasma is set as the default desktop while Gecko provides just two, though it ends up effectively providing just as much functionality in a practical sense as we're unlikely to use the extra session options.
GeckoLinux 152 -- The settings panel, Dolphin and application menu
(full image size: 306kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Once I got signed into Plasma, most aspects of Gecko and openSUSE seemed to be the same. Gecko has done away with the Discover software manager and instead places the YaST Software package manager in the Favourites section of the application menu. This seemed out of character for the distribution. Up to this point everything Gecko had done differently from its parent had been to streamline or simplify the system. However, YaST Software is a complex, low-level package manager that is far from ideal for less experienced users. It seemed to me to be an odd choice for the default software manager.
On the other hand, Gecko does us a favour by installing media codecs by default, something I struggled with a lot on openSUSE. On the parent distribution we need to track down codecs and then I found the media player would crash once the codecs were installed. On Gecko, media playing just worked out of the box.
Also on the subject of included software I found it odd that Gecko does not ship with manual pages installed. This is a standard feature on most distributions, including openSUSE, and I was surprised they were stripped from Gecko.
When I reviewed openSUSE I mentioned I had trouble getting the Plasma desktop to resize in VirtualBox. This problem did not exist on Gecko and the desktop naturally resized to match the VirtualBox window.
Resource usage on Gecko was better than on openSUSE, which I found intriguing. Running the same desktop session, Gecko used 360MB of RAM, compared to openSUSE's 400MB. A fresh install of Gecko took up 4.5GB of disk space next to openSUSE's 6.2GB. On modern systems these are not significant numbers, but they are a small bonus for potential Gecko users.
Earlier I mentioned that, left to its defaults, Gecko will be installed on the ext4 filesystem which does not offer some of the attractive snapshotting and volume management options Btrfs provides. I set up Gecko on Btrfs using manual partitioning and discovered that the distribution does not take automated snapshots when we install updated packages or make configuration changes. This was disappointing as it is one of openSUSE's best features, in my opinion, and something that makes openSUSE stand out in the sea of Linux distributions. I'm not sure why Gecko chose to not enable the Snapper snapshot tool by default. However, I found it was possible to enable Snapper and automated snapshots by running "sudo snapper create-config /" from the command line. After that, YaST would create a filesystem snapshot whenever I made a change to the system through the control panel.
On the whole Gecko looks and acts almost exactly like its parent, though with a few changes. Most of these differences show themselves clearly in the first few minutes of exploring the distribution. Gecko offers a faster and simplified installer, includes media codecs by default and uses fewer resources. However, it also forsakes manual pages, does not enable Btrfs or automatic snapshots and throws away the friendly software manager in favour of the low-level YaST Software. In most ways it looks like Gecko is targeting people who like openSUSE, but want an easier setup and have no plans to use the command line or advanced features. There is some value added, certainly, though also some useful features have been removed from the parent project.
* * * * *
MX Linux 19.2 "KDE"
After playing with Gecko for a while and determining that it feels, apart from some initial setup choices, to be very close to its parent, I decided to look at MX Linux's KDE edition. I reviewed MX Linux late last year and found it to be a solid, capable operating system. MX Linux uses Xfce as its default desktop and I was curious to see how the new KDE Plasma edition would compare to the original.
The KDE edition of MX Linux is available for 64-bit (x86_64) computers exclusively at the moment and the download is about 2.1GB. The distribution is based on Debian 10 "Buster" and though we should expect most packages to come from Debian 10's repositories, some items such as the kernel and Firefox, are kept more up to date with upstream projects.
Booting from the live media brings up the KDE Plasma desktop. It is arranged a lot like MX's Xfce edition with a Conky status panel in the upper-right corner and a welcome window in the middle of the desktop. However, the Plasma desktop panel is placed horizontally across the bottom of the screen rather than vertically down the left side the way it is in the Xfce edition. On the desktop we find icons for opening the manual, the FAQ document and launching the system installer. So far, apart from the placement of the panel, the two MX editions seemed very similar.
MX 19.2 "KDE" -- The KDE Plasma menu
(full image size: 315kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
When I launched the system installer I found it uses the exact same installer used in the Xfce edition. This made navigating through the setup process and configuring the operating system quite straight forward. The first significant difference I noticed was that the KDE edition uses the KDE Partition Manager to set up partitions while the main edition uses the GParted utility.
The KDE edition installed successfully and my fresh copy booted to a graphical login screen. When I signed into the Plasma session the desktop loaded slowly, however once it finished loading the desktop worked quickly and was responsive.
Memory and disk usage were a little higher on the KDE edition than on MX's original edition. The KDE Plasma session uses 450MB of RAM, up from 400MB for the Xfce edition. Disk usage increased from 5.2GB for Xfce to 6.6GB for KDE. As with my comparison between Gecko and openSUSE, these are not big gaps and to be expected given KDE's extra configuration options and features.
The application menu contains an interesting mix of software. Much of it appears to match MX's Xfce edition. The Firefox browser, LibreOffice and MX Tools are the same. I also found both editions include the Clementine and VLC media players. However, lower level tools like the text editor, virtual terminal and file manager are different across editions. Predictably the KDE edition ships with KDE/Qt applications in place of the Xfce/GTK equivalents. I noticed a few other swaps too, such as Xfburn being replaced by K3b and Transmission being removed in favour of KTorrent.
MX 19.2 "KDE" -- The MX Tools panel and KDE System Settings
(full image size: 218kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Apart from these little differences in default the applications the two editions seem to ship with the same tools, the same configuration, the same add-on repositories and with the same codecs. As I mentioned before, the KDE session loads more slowly than the Xfce desktop. However, once it is up and running KDE Plasma kept pace with Xfce in the same test environment and I really liked the wealth of configuration options Plasma offers.
While Gecko makes setting up the distribution more streamlined and with fewer options compared to openSUSE, but then offers approximately the same experience as its parent, MX takes the opposite approach. Setting up MX's KDE edition is almost identical to setting up MX's Xfce edition, however we end up with different desktop software in the end which provides a different end-user experience. Most of the administration tools are the same and the initial configuration is the same, MX just provides different desktop environments with different desktop accessories once the system is installed.
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
GeckoLinux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.5/10 from 44 review(s).
Have you used GeckoLinux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
IPFire provides firewall tips, UBports plans to test Wayland and systemd packages, verifying the contents of a Snap package
The IPFire project is continuing their series of tips to improve computer and network security. This week the team posted tips on setting up a firewall. "By default, IPFire permits all outgoing connections initiated by internal networks or the system itself. While this is certainly not optimal in terms of security, it is necessary for some use cases such as fixed changeover dates and makes using IPFire less troublesome for beginners and drop-in replacement scenarios, as its firewall engine behaves like an ordinary ISP router. To make things as secure as possible, however, it is necessary to drop any connection by default." As the tutorial points out, locking down the firewall will prevent network services, including remote logins, from functioning making it important to proceed with caution.
* * * * *
The UBports team has published an update on progress the project is making with its mobile operating system. The update includes answers to some common questions, including what the developers plan to work on in the near future. "What will happen after OTA-13? systemd, Wayland, etc figure in our aims. What is the news on those? After OTA-13, we will be getting them onto other platforms such as Debian and Arch. That will inevitably expose our older software to issues which we have not spotted when running on UT alone. The process of resolving those issues will of course help to build greater stability into UT and head off problems before they occur. That doesn't amount to full 20.04 implementation but each step lays the basis for that. For example, the progress on building debs. The upgrade of Qt 5.9 to 5.12 will bring us level with the Qt version used in 20.04. As with all uncharted development, some things will surprise us by moving much more easily than we expect. Other things will disappoint by being much more problematic. Hence no firm timetables."
The UBports team also published updates on work being done to get UBports functioning smoothly on the PinePhone and PineTab mobile devices: "Dalton has completed the initial factory image for the PineTab. It boots, it has a UI and it operates in tablet mode. Some touch stuff still does not work. The backlit keyboard is around $35. Around $90 for the tablet itself. At those prices, Dalton considered it a very nice device. PinePhone has a working camera now It is still very limited. The frame rate is about one per three seconds. Portrait is right side up but landscape is upside down At the moment is shoots only in 2.1 megapixel mode."
* * * * *
The portable Snap package format is increasingly being used in the Ubuntu community to distribute software packages. Snap packages are relatively portable, compared to classic Deb packages and their lower degree of maintenance makes them attractive to developers. However, it can be more difficult to verify the contents of a Snap package compared to Deb packages, which are usually paired with a corresponding source package. Merlijn Sebrechts shares tips on how to examine and verify the contents of open source Snap bundles. "Many Snap packages contain two files which allow users to verify what sources were used to build the package. snap/snapcraft.yaml is the 'source' of the package. This file was used by snapcraft to build the package. snap/manifest.yaml is a 'recording' of the build of that package. It is similar to the first file, but it includes a lot more information to pinpoint what exact sources were being used. It records the exact package versions of dependencies, the git commit of all source repositories, checksums of any downloaded binary and more...."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
The survival of small, community projects
Looking out for the little guys asks: Nowadays, free and independent community Linux distributions tend to be crowded out by big companies that have adopted or bought open source projects opportunistically. Some media allow themselves to say that DistroWatch is losing interest. If you think it's interesting for DistroWatch, I suggest you to write an article about a Linux distribution that exists since 2004 and is still maintained by a single developer.
DistroWatch answers: I spent a lot of time thinking about this message, in large part because my initial reaction was to question whether the premise is true. Are open source projects and small Linux distributions forced out or severely hampered by big companies? I am not sure this is the case. Often times when large companies try to force a change in direction or push their weight around in the Linux community, the community either pushes back or changes direction around them.
When Oracle bought OpenOffice and looked to be taking things in a direction the open source community didn't like, almost everyone abandoned using OpenOffice and we ended up with LibreOffice. When Debian decided to adopt systemd, Canonical was practically forced to abandon their own init software (Upstart) and follow Debian's lead. When Ubuntu created their own desktop environment (Unity) virtually every other distribution ignored it until Canonical ran out of resources/motivation to dedicate to the desktop and switched back to GNOME. When Red Hat ditched Red Hat Linux to focus on their commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux, several forks of their product (such as CentOS) rose up to provide a free alternative.
There are lots of examples like these where a commercial entity tried to shape or influence the open source community and those entities tend to discover that the open source community is either indifferent or hostile to their vision. When companies shipped locked-down Android phones, we ended up with UBports and /e/ OS. When Oracle bought Solaris we ended up with OpenIndiana. When Red Hat bought Container Linux, the Flatcar developers vowed to keep a fork of the original project going.
From the other side of things, I find it difficult to come up with examples of small open source projects being bought out or forced out of existence by larger companies. Many small projects shut down due to a developer's lack of time or resources, but rarely from outside pressures. Slackware Linux is still going strong, Puppy Linux (in various forms) is still popular, Tiny Core Linux is still actively maintained, Void and Arch Linux appear to be more popular than ever and Alpine Linux is showing up in new containers all the time.
I was glancing through the page hit raking table while writing this response and couldn't help but notice that the top three projects listed are all small community projects and based on community projects (or have a branch based on a community edition). Five of the top ten are community projects rather than commercial distributions. Of the top fifteen, seven are community distributions and not based on a commercial distribution. Of those seven community projects, one of the youngest is at least a decade old while the oldest ones are about twenty-five years old.
All of this is to say that I find it tricky to find examples of corporate interests pushing out or taking over open source projects successfully. However, I can find many examples of open source projects providing alternatives to or replacing commercial products in the Linux ecosystem. Some people, particularly those who oppose systemd, claim it is an example of a company-based technology that was forced onto small, open source projects. Yet I do not see much evidence to support this idea. Arch Linux (a community distribution) was one of the early adopters of systemd while Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu (both company backed distributions) were among the last. The Debian community was somewhere in the middle and many smaller projects, among them Slackware, Gentoo and Void have all avoided adopting systemd.
One of the nice things about open source software is that is can live on as long as there is a person (or people) willing to maintain it. Open source doesn't usually require much money or marketing. It doesn't even need to be stronger in a "survival of the fittest" sense. Open source projects just need a person to keep working on it for it to continue. Companies, with their need to make money, employ teams and provide an attractive product, do not have such a luxury. It gives them a disadvantage in this ecosystem.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Linuxfx 10.5
Rafael Rachid has announced the release of Linuxfx 10.5, the latest stable version of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution with a look and feel that emulates Windows 10 and with useful tools designed to help users migrate from Windows to Linux. This version is based on Ubuntu 20.04 and it features a highly customised Cinnamon desktop called "WX Desktop". Some of the improvements in Linuxfx 10.5 include: support for older computers; a re-worked Wine compatibility layer with better support for Windows games as well as *.exe and *.msi files which can now be launched by double-clicking them in the file manager; inclusion of OnlyOffice 5.6.0 "Desktop" edition at the expense of LibreOffice; updated desktop theme and control panel; re-designed login and logout screens; improvements to file sharing. The Linux kernel has been updated to version 5.7.15. Here is the brief release announcement (in Portuguese). This new version of Linuxfx, which supports English, Portuguese and Spanish languages, is available from SourceForge.
Linuxfx 10.5 -- Running the WX Desktop interface
(full image size: 412kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Parrot 4.10
Lorenzo Faletra has announced the release of Parrot 4.10, an updated build of the project's distribution set based on Debian's "Testing" branch. The new version comes with AnonSurf 3.0 and it also updates the Linux kernel to version 5.7.10: "We are proud to announce the release of Parrot OS 4.10. This new version includes many important updates to make the distribution more reliable and more secure. AnonSurf 3.0 is ready, and it has many important features. It is now subdivided into three modules - GUI, Daemon and Utilities. The GUI is written in NIM, a blazing-fast programming language, very easy to write and read, that compiles in native C code. It uses Gintro GTK for the interface and it has several features to let the user control the AnonSurf behavior. You can start, stop and reload AnonSurf, and you can easily configure AnonSurf to automatically start at boot. It is easy to monitor the status of Tor and see the traffic, the logs and some usage statistics thanks to its integration with NYX." Read the complete release notes for more information and screenshots.
Kali Linux 2020.3
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution that supplies a collection of security and forensics tools. The project's latest release swaps out the bash shell for zsh, introduces new icons for installed tools and adds improved HiDPI support. "Its that time of year again, time for another Kali Linux release! Quarter #3 - Kali Linux 20202.3. This release has various impressive updates, all of which are ready for immediate download or updating. A quick overview of what's new since the last release in May 2020: New Shell - Starting the process to switch from 'Bash' to 'ZSH'. The release of 'Win-Kex' - Get ready WSL2. Automating HiDPI support - Easy switching mode. Tool Icons - Every default tool now has its own unique icon. Bluetooth Arsenal - New set of tools for Kali NetHunter. Nokia Support - New devices for Kali NetHunter. Setup Process - No more missing network repositories and quicker installs." Further details on these changes and some details on the switch to zsh 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: 2,109
- Total data uploaded: 33.3TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you run commercial or community distributions?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about how commercial and community projects co-exist in the open source ecosystem and how these projects can compete or provide alternatives to each other. We would like to know if your main distribution is provided by a commercial entity (like SUSE) or a community project (like Debian). Some commercial distributions are based on community projects (the way Ubuntu is based on Debian) and some community projects are based on commercial projects (the way GeckoLinux is based on openSUSE. We'd like to hear which category your main distribution falls under.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running the MINIX operating system in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Commercial or community project
| I run a commercial distro: | 120 (6%) |
| I run a community distro: | 1299 (68%) |
| I run a community-based commercial distro: | 234 (12%) |
| I run a commercial-based community distro: | 182 (10%) |
| Unknown/Other: | 70 (4%) |
|
|
| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Garuda Linux
Garuda Linux is a rolling distribution based on the Arch Linux operating system. Unlike Arch Linux, Garuda Linux comes with a graphical installer (Calamares) for easy installation, and other advanced graphical tools for managing your system. Garuda is a performance-oriented distro with many performance enhancing tweaks. Some of the many tweaks include using zram, a performance CPU governor, along with custom memory management software. Garuda Linux has striven to provide system stability by including the Timeshift backup utility.
Garuda Linux 200817 -- Displaying the welcome screen
(full image size: 2.8MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 31 August 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: 1, value: US$10) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Mint? (by DaveW on 2020-08-24 00:30:01 GMT from United States)
Is Linux Mint a commercial distro or a community dirstro?
It's based on a commercial distro (Ubuntu) which is based on a community distro (Debian). So which poll category does it fit in?
2 • Distro (by Arthur on 2020-08-24 00:48:53 GMT from Australia)
I assume openSUSE is considered commercial even though its not SLE.
Either way I use openSUSE Tumbleweed.
3 • Ubuntiy? debian ? (by vern on 2020-08-24 01:29:13 GMT from United States)
Yes, I think the poll is confusing a bit. Mint is community to my way of thinking. Ubuntu, which is commercial, is based on community, yet is considered commercial. Ubuntu itself is commercial, I agree.
4 • Open or closed source, Commercial? (by Greg Zeng on 2020-08-24 01:38:11 GMT from Australia)
"Commercial" is a loaded, misunderstood term. All unique productions are covered by the legal copyright laws. Some Linux kernels (including the Ubuntu kernels), & some operating systems have commercial binary bits that are commercial, closed source, with un-examined source code. Some versions of some operating systems may be closed source, but do not offer commercial support, nor demand commercial purchase before release.
Often the strict commercial products have community open source families. The Red Hat & SUSE brands offer commercial support, for commercial quality. Each RPM brand has many downstream brands, based on these upstream products.
A few operating systems avoid commercialism and closed source binary bits very clearly. Many suspect "systemd" to be so complex that it might hide these unwanted parts as well.
"Clear Linux OS" is Intel's commercial product designed to showcase the superiority of the Intel CPU, in comparative benchmark tests. This "seems" to be the case, if the examiners ignore the fact that Ubuntu has for several years, versions of the Linux kernel optimized for benchtest results. The other paradox of Intel's product is that it works just as effectively on the other brands of CPU, especially on AMD. Finally, like the VW benchtest ready cars, there really is more to an operating system than bench test results.
5 • MX GNU/Linux KDE Plasma (by Elcaset on 2020-08-24 01:39:11 GMT from United States)
I use the KDE Plasma version of MX GNU/Linux. It's a community distro, & it's based on Debian. So, a thoroughly community distro.
6 • Commercial, non-commercial (by TheTKS on 2020-08-24 02:16:38 GMT from Canada)
Voted Community, but no specific poll category fits.
In order of time I spend on each: Slackware, Xubuntu, OpenBSD, elementaryOS, Puppy (Slackware and Ubuntu compatible main versions roughly equally), TinyCore.
So "Other" probably is the best description, but Unknown doesn't apply.
Xubuntu, a "flavour" (not a "derivative", not a fork) of Ubuntu, I would consider commercial-based community, but maybe commercial is a more accurate category.
I agree with @4 Greg Zeng that "commercial" is a loaded and misunderstood term (although the poll does give a pretty clear description with examples to help distinguish for its purposes.) Slackware, OpenBSD and elementaryOS are community per the poll description, but are commercial in the sense that at least one person is employed and compensated mainly or exclusively in the production of those distros/OSs. (Excuse that awkward wording. It was the best way I could think of to capture all three in one line.)
TKS
7 • Non Commercial (by What_if on 2020-08-24 02:22:28 GMT from Australia)
I run 4 distros on 5 pc.
To the best of my knowledge only one is commercial "Ubuntu" with exception of windows, on my touch screen 2in1laptop. I might add having tried multiple OS, none of the Linux's seem ideal with touch screens. Gnome virtual keyboard is simplistic resulting limited functionality. I have dual booted with windows which rarely ever is booted, occasionally for I Tunes.
My go to Os, is Redcorelinux.org a derivative of Gentoo, from wiki " Robbins set up the non-profit Gentoo Foundation", community based distro. I have this running on 3 desktops i5 3rd & 4thGen as well as an older bios i5-2nd gen Sony laptop.
My main desktop has Win10/Redcore/Void/Artix linux. Note apart from the 2in1, no other Linux is running SystemD. Void & Artix (runit), Redcore (openRc).
8 • I run a community-based commercial distro...I think. (by tom joad on 2020-08-24 02:26:33 GMT from France)
I am using Mint Cinnamon pretty much exclusively now. I stopped hopping when I left MX Linux.
But owing to the question there is a lot of cross breeding, inbreeding in Linux. That makes it really difficult to decide, define exactly what one is using.
True there are only a few main branches with Debian being one of the larger ones. And there a lot of shoots off the main branches. And those shoots come and go at will too. While the code is mostly the same I guess as I am not a programmer, the 'front ends' and degrees of customization really makes for the various 'flavors.'
And a myriad of different 'flavors' make for happiness for all concerned. And isn't happiness what it is all about anyway?
9 • MX-Linux. (by R. Cain on 2020-08-24 02:28:40 GMT from United States)
Compared to Distroatch's review of MX-Linux last year (Xfce) to this year's MX-KDE review, this one comes off as a version of "...for a fat girl, you sure don't sweat much."
In place of the closest thing to a "Conclusion" (which there isn't, but there was one last year) are some neutered comments--
"... the KDE session loads more slowly than the Xfce desktop. However, once it is up and running KDE Plasma *KEPT PACE* [my emphasis] with Xfce in the same test environment...MX just provides different desktop environments with different desktop accessories once the system is installed."
And *THIS* is worth going from a 1600 MB download size (Xfce) to 2.1 GB for the KDE version? Why?
**************
After the discussion last week regarding OS 'Bloat-Creep' it is also very instructive and informative to look at how MX's download size has increased, going from versions 17.1 to 18.3 to 19.2 to 19.2KDE:
1250, 1400, 1600, and 2100 (all numbers represent MB).
If you remember, 17.1 and 18.3 were declared to be the best Linux distros of 2018 and 2019. 2020 should be extremely interesting.
10 • Ya gotta love Linux (by Friar Tux on 2020-08-24 02:42:16 GMT from Canada)
I voted that I use a community distro, but after reading the comment, especially the first four, I'm not so sure anymore. Still, I have to agree with Jesse in the article. One of the things that attracted me to Linux WAS the fact that if you don't like something, fork it, or modify it, and return it for others to enjoy. Even if two people disagree on what changes to make, each makes his own fork, and now you make twice as many folks happy/. Like I said, ya gotta love Linux!!
11 • KDE and use in MX (by Bobbie Sellers on 2020-08-24 02:55:38 GMT from United States)
Some one worries about a small increase in the size to accommodate
KDE Plasma 5 but that is minutes of downloading even on DSL.
You should be more concerned that many of the formerly low memory
requirement Desktop Management programs like XFCE, Gnome and others
use much more memory in action than KDE's Plasma 5 does.
Of course being a long time KDE Desktop Manager user I readily admit
that KDE Plasma takes some interest in desktop appearance modification
and study of the various options including gathering the sort of themes
and wallpapers that you find interesting, Most Desktop Managers are
much more limited in this regard.
Take the matter of menu appearance.
In KDE the Menu icon can be changed.
But more importantly perhaps the Menu
presentation can be changed by right
clicking on the icon to see the menu and
left clicking on the item (Show Alternatives.
You have a full screen application launcher Application Dashboard,
an Application Launcher, an Application Menu ,a Simple Menu
or a Tiled Menu.
Which do you prefer? The Application Menu is my favorite and
I used it almost exclusively. People coming from other
systems like the ever-colorful Microsoft program launcher
may prefer the Tiled Menu or the Simple Menu.
I could rattle on in praise of KDE but I think I have better
thing to do but before I leave let me say that I run
PCLinuxOS 64 and in VirtualBox I am running MXLinux with
KDE 5 to play Angband. I found the XFCE a bit problematic
but it kept corrupting my Angband save files,
bliss - running a Dell E6540 CPU: Quad Core Intel Core i7-4800MQ (-MT MCP-) speed/min/max: 1254/800/3700 MHz Kernel: 5.7.10-pclos1 x86_64 Up: 2d 8h 02m
Mem: 6432.2/15927.8 MiB (40.4%) Storage: 4.09 TiB (28.1% used) Procs: 318 Shell: inxi: 3.1.04 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06) and VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Mars XTX [Radeon HD 8790M]
12 • Poll (by jonothing on 2020-08-24 03:03:54 GMT from Australia)
Community distros, currently running MX 19.2 Xfce on sda6 but also have installed, on the same drive, Trisquel 9 Mini, Artix LXDE (Runit) and a Devuan Ceres based distro, that I am free to make my own.
13 • distro features (by rolladistro on 2020-08-24 05:31:43 GMT from Australia)
Garuda Linux & RebornOS sound interesting, with rollback and other features. Good to see new features becoming a norm in some distros.
14 • From commercial to community (by Andy Prough on 2020-08-24 05:36:09 GMT from United States)
Started commercial 20-some years ago with SuSE, even though my friend urged me to go community with Slackware. Stayed with SuSE through the hybrid commercial/community transition to openSUSE. In recent years went full community distros with Debian and Artix and Trisquel and ended up with MX. Still don't understand Slackware.
15 • @#9 (by Chris Whelan on 2020-08-24 09:12:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
In testing, the first boot after install takes a bit longer with the KDE version. After that first boot, the difference is in the order of 4 seconds. That's not an MX Linux thing, by the way.
The reason why is two-fold. Firstly, the developers of MX Linux originally created it for themselves, following the demise of Mepis. It then seemed too good not to release. Some of these developers use MX with KDE, so they decided to make it official.
The second reason is that the developers are very keen on responding to user's requests, and from both the forum and the Facebook group page, it was clear KDE was wanted by some.
Of course, if performance is the priority MX Linux also provides a heavily modified Fluxbox environment that comes as an overlay in the Xfce versions.
16 • Love affairs (by Igor on 2020-08-24 09:20:26 GMT from Croatia)
@11, Hey pal, it's not fair! Guy didn't argue against KDE, he just complains that the girl who was slim when he fell in love with her tends to grow bigger and bigger.
There are various approaches to the problem like this. One can go for another girl, or stay with the same one nagging about her silhouette. That is, if the appearance is the crucial attraction. Otherwise you can just tease her about moving slower and slower and keep on loving her. Or, if you have your own idea of the ideal girl, and the complete item is not available, you can ask her to adapt: change her menu, fonts, themes, colours...
Or you can take and love her just the way she is, for her own sake. I myself am prone to bigger girls, and yet in love with a slim one. So besides openSUSE with KDE on my desktop, I use Bodhi on my laptop. Frankly, I use less than 20% of all those customisations KDE offers, but there is one that is the game winner, the Activities (KDE, not the Gnome ones). KDE is OK with me, because it is the proper face of the openSUSE which is the distro of my choice, because it brings about so many accesories that work excellently each one on its own, and together, interwoven into smooth system. I also prefer being able to do everything in more than one way. It is muuuuuch more intuitive that way.
On the other hand, with Moksha, I have to make everything work myself, but then, I choose the tools to my own liking and have a fast and beautiful (the KDE is outright ugly) system with the clear UI, making my very old laptop fit as if she were, what, six or seven? That's because I would never leave the laptop I love just because there were younger ones around. Or indeed for any other reason.
17 • Do you run commercial or community distributions? (by James on 2020-08-24 10:04:57 GMT from United States)
I run Ubuntu Mate, a community version of a commercial distro.
18 • @ Jesse (by OstroL on 2020-08-24 12:02:52 GMT from Poland)
"When companies shipped locked-down Android phones, we ended up with UBports and /e/ OS."
You are talking about two different things, hardware and software, phones and OSs.
The Android comes preinstalled on phones, and there are open source Android OSs that can be installed on older and newer phones.
UBPorts doesn't come on phones. It can only be installed very old phones. Half an year makes the phone old, 6 years makes them ancient. The only phone that everything UBPorts work is Nexus 5, but the battery life is awful. There are some 3-4 year older phone brands that can be useful with UT/UBPorts, but most important apps breaks in them, such as wifi. There's only one web browser, which cannot run google maps correctly. Most navigation apps doesn't pinpoint your location. Some even drops calls, which is the most important app in a mobile phone.
Well, we didn't end up with UBPorts or /e/OS, for only very few people use them. And, by enthusiasts, who can afford to buy an older phone and play with it. I have Nexus 5 with a quite good battery, only bought to test/play with UT/UBPorts. From full charge to it falls to 65% in 12 hours idling, and in the next 12 hours, it goes down to 30%. But, using the open-source Android from XDA, it only drops 10% in 12 hours idling. So, it looks like UT/UBPorts eats up battery by doing something offline, whereas AOSP doesn't do much. Once the battery goes off completely, I keep the N5 off until I feel like testing UT/UBPorts, just to save the (irremovable) battery.
No, we didn't end up with UBPorts or /e/OS. They are not a replacement for Android or iphoneOS. Maybe, one day PinePhone would be a replacement -- as hardware for all/any kind of open-source OSs. Right now, it comes with Postmarket OS.
19 • @Jesse - GeckoLinux (by Sam on 2020-08-24 13:50:49 GMT from Canada)
Hi Jesse, GeckoLinux creator here. Thanks a lot for the fair and open-minded review! Just a few comments in response:
Just a small detail, but the name of the project is "GeckoLinux", all one word in CamelCase. I do try to stay on top of comments by people that test or use GeckoLinux all over the internet, but it's impossible to search for it when they just put "Gecko".
Also, the first screensheet is the Cinnamon edition, not Plasma. ;-)
It should also be noted that all of the different desktop spins are offered in two main branches, GeckoLinux STATIC, which is based on the latest openSUSE Leap release, and GeckoLinux ROLLING, based on openSUSE Tumbleweed.
> I also noticed that Calamares defaults to using the ext4 filesystem rather than the more feature-rich Btrfs that openSUSE suggests.
Yes, Calamares allows for setting any filesystem to be used for the default guided installation. I chose EXT4 because I'm still not completely sold on the reliability of BtrFS, especially for inexperienced users and certain usage edge cases. I'm willing to change if there is a strong preference by the majority for BtrFS, but I don't think that's likely right now.
> Gecko has done away with the Discover software manager and instead places the YaST Software package manager in the Favourites section of the application menu. This seemed out of character for the distribution.
That was a very deliberate decision that will not be reversed until Discover uses a different backend mechanism. It uses PackageKit, which is an absolute abomination in my opinion, and most others feel the same way:
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/539390-Using-Discover-in-OpenSUSE-Tumbleweed
It might work well enough for a quick test, but you will quickly start to see the issues that the PackageKit abstraction layer causes, including causing the RPM database to be locked, preventing the YaST and `zypper` tools from working. PackageKit is not likely to improve either, as it's long been in maintenance mode:
https://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/2019/02/14/packagekit-is-dead-long-live-well-something-else/
The YaST Software manager is perfectly easy to use, 100% reliable, has a great search function, and it allows for graphical management of the repositories too.
> Also on the subject of included software I found it odd that Gecko does not ship with manual pages installed.
Yep, I figure that anybody who even knows what a man page is will be fully capable of installing them if desired. Even as an extremely conservative luddite of a long-time Linux user myself, I've never found any use for the man pages, and can find much more helpful information online when needed. I'd prefer to save a bit of space on the ISO.
> I'm not sure why Gecko chose to not enable the Snapper snapshot tool by default.
The reason why it's not enabled by default is because the Calamares installer would have to deal with setting that up during installation only on systems that are installed with BtrFS, and it's not very good at dealing with those nuances. I wish that openSUSE still had their yast2-live-installer, which used to offer BtrFS with Snapper and GRUB integration, but they unfortunately jettisoned the live installer in favor of their normal YaST installer, which only installs RPM packages onto the target system, which isn't suitable for a live installable system like GeckoLinux.
> On the whole Gecko looks and acts almost exactly like its parent, though with a few changes. Most of these differences show themselves clearly in the first few minutes of exploring the distribution.
Here I would beg to differ. On the website I list a lot of other very significant changes related to low-level package management tweaks and font rendering, which make a huge difference during real-life long-term usage of the system.
> In most ways it looks like Gecko is targeting people who like openSUSE, but want an easier setup and have no plans to use the command line or advanced features.
That's a pretty fair assessment. It's also what I personally install for a large number of friends that I've switched to Linux, with very good results. But as you noted, it's especially made for users like myself that appreciate the many virtues of openSUSE and its incredible development community and reliable infrastructure, but aren't willing to deal with all its papercuts.
Thanks again!
20 • Mobile platforms (by Jesse on 2020-08-24 14:39:03 GMT from Canada)
@18:
"You are talking about two different things, hardware and software, phones and OSs. "
I suppose you could see it that way. I was mostly talking about the software which ships on Android phones, but the hardware is customized too.
"UBPorts doesn't come on phones. It can only be installed very old phones."
Neither of these statements is true. Several phones have shipped with UBports installed. In fact, our News section this week talked about two new devices that can be bundled with UBports. Over the past year we've occasionally posted updates about new phones shipping with UBports.
"There's only one web browser, which cannot run google maps correctly. Most navigation apps doesn't pinpoint your location."
Again, neither of these statements is true. UBports can run multiple browsers and the navigation app can pinpoint location. It just takes a while the first time you fire up the navigation app.
"Well, we didn't end up with UBPorts or /e/OS, for only very few people use them. And, by enthusiasts, who can afford to buy an older phone and play with it. "
I'm not sure of your logic here. I'm not saying everyone went out and used UBports, just that everyone has the option to do so because developers in the community created an alternative. Also, as I pointed out above, you don't need to buy an alternative phone to use UBports or /e/ OS. You can buy them pre-installed or just download the OS to your existing phone. I've done is a couple of times.
"So, it looks like UT/UBPorts eats up battery by doing something offline, "
I also owned a Nexus 5 running UBports. It did not drain the battery the way you describe. Your battery is probably failing.
"No, we didn't end up with UBPorts or /e/OS. They are not a replacement for Android or iphoneOS."
Maybe it isn't a replacement for you. They are for me. I've been running UBports and/or /e/ OS for four years now. Haven't had to use Android (or iOS) that entire time and I've been happy with the open source platforms.
21 • Poll (by David on 2020-08-24 15:33:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
The question is even more complicated than the options provided. OpenSUSE and Fedora may be controlled by commercial organisations, but the work is done by volunteers. In fact, there is no independent distro produced entirely by company staff as there was (I believe) in the early days; unless you count Slackware — or does Pat have a day job or a private income? Then we have the back-and-forth exemplified by Debian > Ubuntu > Mint. For the record, my main distro is PCLinuxOS — pure community effort.
22 • @ Jesse /e/ OS (by OstroL on 2020-08-24 15:35:00 GMT from Poland)
Checked on /e/ OS, thinking maybe, I'll install it on Nexus 5, but this /e/ OS is based on Android 7 (Lineage OS 15.1), so this /e/ OS is old. Right now, Android 10 (LineageOS 17.1) can be installed on Nexus 5, disregarding "unGoogling."
So, /e/ OS is not a replacement for Android (AOSP).
23 • haters gonna hate? (by foo2foo on 2020-08-24 17:01:39 GMT from United States)
Very nice reviews Jesse, thank you for spending the time to do them.
@9
Not sure why you are trying to rip on Jesse's review or MX Linux.
Maybe its because you created a website and do reviews that get a lot more visibility then ones by Jesse or the Distrowatch team?
Maybe its because you created or are a contributor a distro that has more users than MX Linux?
You obviously wouldn't be able to really do either of the above since you think that the ISO size has something to do with the minimally increased boot time in MX-KDE. You're just talking smack for the heck of it.
What's next? Some init discrimination nonsense about how MX defaults to sysVinit?
24 • Poll (by Otis on 2020-08-24 17:46:40 GMT from United States)
One of the most meaningful Q&A subjects, and subsequent related poll, I've seen here at DW.
5% of Linux users, as of this writing, run commercial distros.
Love that.
25 • @19 GeckoLinux (by Robert on 2020-08-24 17:53:58 GMT from United States)
Great response to Jesse's review.
I agree with your stance on btrfs an PackagKit. Btrfs seems to be improving steadily but I'm not ready to trust it just yet. PackageKit was a great idea, but always seemed to cause more problems than it solved in my experience.
I haven't used opensuse in some years now. Too many papercuts as you call them. Feels like they're using their impressive automated testing in lieu of any hands-on, causing many things to slip through the cracks.
Never tried GeckoLinux before, but if I feel the desire to go back to opensuse I will definitely check it out.
26 • Re: community projects (by Jim on 2020-08-24 18:49:35 GMT from United States)
While community projects do still abound, corporate influence in the Linux ecosystem is unavoidable. Avoiding systemd, for example, requires a fair amount of work and necessitates the use of a literal handful of very small distributions (one of which, Void, has lost its lead dev and is most likely on its way to shutting down). Soon Gnome will not even function without systemd installed, and other DEs based on Gnome will follow suit. Let's not forget that Linux is big business. From smart phones to the servers that make up most of our modern internet, Linux is ubiquitous.
27 • Poll needs a "yes" response (by CS on 2020-08-24 19:37:01 GMT from United States)
RHEL on production containers/VMs
Centos on development containers/VMs
Linux Mint on old laptops
So I choose "yes".
28 • MX review (by Otis on 2020-08-24 20:04:30 GMT from United States)
Nice to see comparative distro reviews now and again. For me the MX and openSuse glances provided a needed contrast (and lack thereof) 'tween two with the self-same environment: KDE (not exactly the same, of course).
Slower boots compared to XFCE are predictable, but nice smooth operation as the operator moves forward is also predictable given the ongoing very professional development of KDE over the years.
As to this R.Cain fellow (@9), I guffawed a bit at the bloat/growing iso thing and then read his or her:
"1250, 1400, 1600, and 2100 (all numbers represent MB)," which is rather pompous, bloated way to just say:
1250mb, 1400mb, 1600mb, and 2100mb.
29 • Nature of the Beast (by M.Z. on 2020-08-24 23:31:04 GMT from United States)
@11 & @16
Let's be honest, complaining about a KDE version being hundreds of MB more than the XFCE version of the same distro is just a way to find a complaint. It's like complaining that Florida is muggy & has too many more clouds than Arizona. So what? Some of us enjoy growing back yard pineapples & watching rocket launches & landings, or feature rich desktop environments. If you want a more feature rich desktop doing a bigger download is just the nature of the beast.
From what little I can tell KDE just as popular as XFCE & both are at the top of the DE options list. Having both as an option is probably a smart move for most distros, & far from being worthy of complaint so long as your preferred option is still available. If anything, when your preferred distro gets a slightly expanded portfolio of DEs, the project should see expand interest & could gain users if all the options are well executed & reasonably popular. That being the case attacking a new option is a rather silly move in as much as you're advocating against the expansion & growth of the project.
30 • Gecko Linux (by UptheduffJohnson on 2020-08-25 00:33:02 GMT from Mexico)
A distro that is bone jarringly ugly. It's 2020, not 2013. Time for a new theme? Using Faenza is almost criminal at this point.
I tried Gecko a few times as a live distro, the only redeeming feature is that it has persistant storage. Everything else, horrendous.
I suppose everything has its place in this fragmented Linux world.
I wonder when some people will yell in protest about the fact that Debian broke the AppImage format?
31 • Sweeping statements (by Arctic Troll on 2020-08-25 11:31:59 GMT from Germany)
Oh really? I happen to like Faenza and still have it in all installations, in its various theme forms for Cinnamon, Xfce and KDE. Even the newly released Bunsen still includes the gray Faenza #! theme.
So I guess as always beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me it's a timelesse design and I can't stand all the new flat themes.
As to "Everything else, horrendous" is far too vague a statement. Care to elaborate and give reasons?
32 • thought it was going to be a double disaster (by fonz on 2020-08-25 12:41:28 GMT from Indonesia)
as it was a double review. IIRC the last 1 ended with the 1st distro test as not successful, then moved on to the next. was actually surprised to see both tested ok. my current go to distro was puppy, but it was changed to mx recently as things were just easier to manage in a more familiar environment.
the last time i tried KDE was when both them and numb3 were taking ~1GB idling, surprisingly its just a bit heavier than XFCE as of this article. ill probably switch over as GTK is pretty disappointing cutting out a bunch of stuff while KDE adds more. my preferred DE is actually LXQT (huge upgrade from LXDE) then installing dolphin, probably the best file manager ATM.
went with other for the poll as there werent combos. wandows just for gaming, community for the rest with debian, mx, and puppy...
33 • Opinion Poll (by Diego Azeta on 2020-08-25 14:45:13 GMT from Puerto Rico)
I run Mint 19.3, so I answered Unkown/Other. Confused was more like it.
34 • Gecko Linux (by Carlos Felipe Araujo on 2020-08-25 15:32:46 GMT from Brazil)
The original theme from OpenSuse is better than Gecko's themes and visual tweaks. Why change the vainilla theme if the new theme is worst?
35 • MX Linux (by Carlos Felipe Araujo on 2020-08-25 15:37:57 GMT from Brazil)
By default MX Linux (XFCE) places a panel along the left-border of the screen, which personally I wasn’t a fan of. But using their KDE version is "normal". Non sense choices
36 • @ 20 - Not replacements (by OstroL on 2020-08-25 16:44:50 GMT from Poland)
>> I also owned a Nexus 5 running UBports. It did not drain the battery the way you describe. Your battery is probably failing. <<
I still own one. The battery is quite good, with its battery health at 91.7%. I said that in my other post (#18). With UBPorts, the battery dies very fast, while with Android, it doesn't. This N5 was bought for only one purpose, to play/test UBPorts.
>> "There's only one web browser, which cannot run google maps correctly. Most navigation apps doesn't pinpoint your location."
Again, neither of these statements is true. <<
Well, you are not using it, so how do you know? :)
Regarding /e/ OS, its OS implementation is based on Android 7 (Lineage OS 15.1) for N5, which is more than 2 years old, whereas there's an Android 10 (Lineage OS 17.1) for N5, so /e/ OS is too old. And, cannot be a replacement. Ungoogling is just a headache than a virtue.
37 • @30 Gecko Linux: (by dragonmouth on 2020-08-25 16:56:08 GMT from United States)
Functionality is way more important than looks. Themes can be changed and/or customized, functionality can't. It's like a woman who looks great but is dumb as a post.
38 • @35 Carlos Felipe Araujo: (by dragonmouth on 2020-08-25 17:01:13 GMT from United States)
The placement of the panel in MX XFCE can be changed in Panel Preferences.
39 • MX KDE (by John on 2020-08-25 18:43:30 GMT from Canada)
Been using the new KDE version of MX since it was released and LOVE IT! Smooth, fast, looks great and perfectly stable. Also handles my nvidia optimus dual graphics flawlessly. Will be sticking with this one for the long term :-)
40 • @20 Alternative OS (by OstroL on 2020-08-25 19:11:49 GMT from Poland)
>> Also, as I pointed out above, you don't need to buy an alternative phone to use UBports or /e/ OS. You can buy them pre-installed or just download the OS to your existing phone. I've done is a couple of times.<<
OK, I have good phone lying around at home, Asus Zenfone Go X007D running Android 6.0.1. I'd like to run UBPorts on it, or even /e/ OS. I'd delighted, if you (or anyone else) can show me how to do that.
41 • I run the holiest of holy distros (by Dr. Dave on 2020-08-25 21:47:07 GMT from United States)
I use TempleOS; directly supported by God. All these other operating systems think they have to continually reinvent the wheel, to keep the audience entertained, while TempleOS was actually finished and will still function in 40 years. Keep chasing closed-source gpu drivers and the bloat of ever-increasing display resolutions while I will be comfy with the divine 640x480.
42 • Android and pomp (by Angel on 2020-08-26 00:01:01 GMT from Philippines)
@20, 40, I'd also be interested in finding out just how one downloads an alternative OS to any Android phone.
@28, Otis, aside from the pomposity, "mb" would be millibits. Now that would be a tiny distro.
43 • @ 42, et. al.--Pomp And Circumstance. (Misguided circumstanceS, to be sure) (by R. Cain on 2020-08-26 02:03:08 GMT from United States)
Some are so LITERALLY consumed by the Dunning-Kruger effect that it is pathologically necessary to justify their erudition as expediently as possible, even at the expense of egregious, ridiculous mistakes (such as, for example, NOT KNOWING *ANYTHING* about the consequences of "OS Bloat")...which are, of course, explained by the Dunning-Kruger effect.
"I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me."-Winston Churchill
"An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head."--Eric Hoffer
44 • follow the money (by Raving Lunatic on 2020-08-26 11:28:17 GMT from Sweden)
"I find it tricky to find examples of corporate interests pushing out or taking over open source projects successfully" - here is a case of corporate interests pushing out - LibreOffice Personal Edition - https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/254802/what-about-personal-edition-in-v-70/
45 • Bloat Vs Context (by M.Z. on 2020-08-26 22:27:00 GMT from United States)
From DW Weekly:
"The KDE edition of MX Linux is available for 64-bit (x86_64) computers exclusively at the moment ...
... The KDE Plasma session uses 450MB of RAM, up from 400MB for the Xfce edition."
So given the full weight of 50MB in the context of most 64-bit systems where RAM is measured in GB, I don't think it should be too hard to judge the effects of 'OS Bloat', not to mention various other effects, on both users & DW comment makers.
46 • MX's KDE bloat (by barnabyh on 2020-08-27 00:03:33 GMT from Germany)
My reading stays around 560 MB, in line with other reviews and video reviews just watched. Those may be the figures for running in Virtualbox though. Still, not a lot. I think we can all live with that. If not you should be running Fluxbox or JWM or something similarly small.
47 • Bloat?? (by Friar Tux on 2020-08-27 01:10:33 GMT from Canada)
@45 (MZ) I totally agree, but let me go one step farther. In today's storage capacity on most laptops, there is no such thing as bloat. I have stuff on my laptop that I only use, maybe, once a year. It takes up a few hundred MB's of real estate. Heck, my music takes up GB's and most is only listened to once in a long while. AND, I once installed a 4GB iso distro that was loaded with apps and programs for every conceivable thing. (Can't remember which distro.) It worked just as well as my present 2GB, middle-of-road distro. It just had more stuff to play with.
For me, the main concern is that it WORKS. That's it.
48 • Bloat definition (by Hoos on 2020-08-27 06:13:25 GMT from Singapore)
There seems to be 2 definitions:
1) how big the iso is and how many apps are included by default
2) the installed system's resource consumption (eg CPU and RAM), how many processes are running, whether those processes are necessary for the user, etc
For me, no. 2 is more important, but I can see why some people just want a lean and mean iso and want control over what else they choose to install. I suspect the latter group consists mostly of more technical and experienced users.
However, I can never understand why such users complain about this in the context of a distro that is meant to be a newcomer-friendly, install-and-use, operating system that comes with a reasonable default set of user applications to do things people might need to do at home or for work.
The experienced users can always uninstall the applications they don't need, but the uninitiated may not always know what apps are available to do what they want.
49 • compat layers (by u r free 2 b free on 2020-08-27 06:24:00 GMT from Australia)
That's at least two distros now - rebornOS and Extix - that are set up to use anbox for running android apps on linux. There's also a snap package of anbox. Could this be the next big thing after wine for running apps from other operating systems on linux?
50 • snap naming (by Jay on 2020-08-28 02:03:44 GMT from United States)
Whats with calling snapcraft.yaml and manifest.yaml? Why the secretive byzantine naming,, neo-witchcraft? What cant call it sourcelist.yaml and recording.yaml or similar that says whats inside.
51 • Gecko Linux (by UptheduffJohnson on 2020-08-28 16:59:19 GMT from Mexico)
Me: can't we all just get along and agree to disagree about which distro is better?
Linux Community Members: sure, as long as you agree that [Debian, Fedora, Arch, Suse, LFS, etc] is best .......
Me: FFS! walks away
52 • Passion (by Friar Tux on 2020-08-28 21:16:32 GMT from Canada)
@51 (UptheduffJohnson) I believe it's called 'passion'. That's why I come here. I haven't seen this much passion since the British Armada came home to shore and Madam Rosa's House Of Romance worked a couple of weeks of overtime.
So don't walk away. Jump into the fray... with whatever distro YOU'RE passionate about.
Number of Comments: 52
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 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 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • 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 | 
BackSlash Linux
BackSlash Linux was an Ubuntu-based desktop distribution featuring a custom shell running on top of the KDE Plasma desktop. BackSlash features a user interface inspired by macOS.
Status: Discontinued
|
| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Tips and tricks: What being free, stable and light-weight mean |
| Tips and tricks: How to check the licenses of kernel modules |
| Tips and tricks: Check free disk space, wait for a process, command line spell-check, shutdown PC when CPU gets hot |
| Tips and tricks: Changing init software after a distribution has been installed |
| Questions and answers: Get a list of installed applications |
| Tips and tricks: Dealing with low-memory performance |
| Questions and answers: Distributions patching packages |
| Tips and tricks: Verifying ISO images |
| Tips and tricks: Building software with Ravenports |
| Tips and tricks: Find common words in text, find high memory processs, cd short-cuts, pushd & popd, record desktop |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
