 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 935, 20 September 2021 |
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Welcome to this year's 37th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the interesting aspects of the open source community is that people are always trying different approaches to solve the same problem. One of the reasons we have so many toolkits, word processors, and distributions is the creativity people have for trying out various ways to make our computing experiences better. This week we begin with a look at Obarun, an Arch-based Linux distribution which features a rarely-used init and service manager combination. Obarun is intended for more experienced users and we explore its unique features in this week's Feature Story. In our News section we talk about the Solus team branching out and working on their own versions of desktop applications in an attempt to distance the project from GNOME. We also report on the Linux cgroup filesystem being ported to the BSD family to help efforts to port software to the BSD projects. Plus we share news that Ubuntu will start packaging Firefox as a Snap. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we explore ways to keep one application always in front of other application windows. We are also pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Obarun 2021.07.26
Obarun is a derivative of Arch Linux with systemd replaced by the s6 init software. The project's website describes the distribution's design and focus quite clearly as follows:
The goal of Obarun is to provide an alternative for people looking for more simplicity and transparency in maintaining their systems. Obarun is not designed with beginners to Linux in mind, but Obarun's community is dedicated in helping anyone with the will to try it.
Obarun is based on Arch Linux, but incorporates several changes, modifications, additions, in its effort to run reliably, without systemd and its intrusive by-products. Obarun separates the init and service management from the rest of the system that should be chosen freely by the user/sysadmin.
At the moment Obarun is only available for x86-64 architectures, as is Arch, but its own software has no such limitations on architecture.
systemd replacement is made by Skarnet's s6 supervision suite as init and by Obarun's own 66 service management. s6 and 66 is the heart of Obarun, it is what makes it unique and special from all other Linux systems.
The distribution is available in two flavours, Minimal and with JWM as the default window manager. The Minimal edition is an 837MB download while the JWM edition is 1.3GB in size. I chose to download the JWM edition for x86_64 computers.
Booting from the provided ISO brings up a menu offering to start the distribution in Live, Persistent, or Run From RAM modes. This gives us some flexibility in how we wish to use the live media. I chose to take the default, plain live mode. The live session boots to a text console where we are shown login credentials for both the root user and a regular user account. Signing in as the regular user, oblive, automatically launches a graphical environment.
The JWM-powered desktop places a panel along the bottom of the screen. The panel holds an application menu, task switcher, and system tray. On the desktop we find icons for opening a README file and for launching the system installer. The README file is a short text file with login credentials, links to on-line resources, and tips for launching programs from within JWM.
Shortly after signing into the live desktop a network management window opens. This provides us with a utility for getting us on-line with minimal effort. The network manager window makes it straight forward to connect to wired and wireless networks.
Installing
While it is possible to navigate Obarun's system installer by following its menus, the installer does some things differently from other Linux installers and I recommend reading the provided guide before proceeding. Launching the system installer opens a console window and then kicks off a long series of text-based menu screens. I don't want to go into a lot of detail here as the installer has over a dozen screens, even without going into the advanced options and customizations.
In general the installer works well enough. We are generally shown yes/no prompts or asked to pick options from lists - some lists contain keyboard layouts in two-character country codes, some lists offer time zones, others filesystems we can use. The installer worked fairly well for me, though I found the screens with yes/no options had very faint contrast in the selected text so it sometimes took me a while to discern which response was highlighted.
The installer typically shows us a list of hub modules we can access and then walks us through making selections in each one. Some choices we are asked to make include whether to update the installer, whether the system will be run in UEFI or Legacy BIOS mode, our time zone, keyboard layout, and which desktop to install. Desktop options include KDE Plasma, Xfce, JWM, Openbox, and something simply called Minimal. We are asked whether we prefer syslinux or GRUB for our boot loader, whether to check for local fast mirrors, which console partition manager to launch to divide up the disk, and which filesystem to use (Btrfs, ext2/3/4, and XFS are supported).
Once the installer collects all its information it downloads packages over the network. These packages started to install smoothly while showing some basic progress information. However, towards the end, the install started printing errors. Thousands of GPG errors were shown, telling me "no user ID for key". However, the installer completed this step and then asked me to make up a root password, create a new user account, and (when I ran the distribution in VirtualBox) the installer offered to install VirtualBox guest add-ons.
When all of these steps were completed I could return to the live JWM environment and reboot when it was convenient. Launching my new copy of Obarun presented me with a graphical login screen.
At this point I'd like to acknowledge two years ago I tried out Obarun using the same hardware I was using this week. At the time the experience got off to a poor start and I never successfully got Obarun to install and boot properly. In contrast, getting Obarun installed and running this time was a smooth experience and the distribution played well with both my test environments.
Early impressions
When I first signed into my account the Xfce desktop loaded. Immediately a pop-up appeared and asked if I wanted to save my clipboard history. I was warned that saving clipboard history would keep a copy of any passwords or other sensitive information I copied to the clipboard. Once I had selected not to save my history, the Xfce desktop finished loading. A thin panel is placed at the top of the screen and a dock for launching commonly used programs is placed along the bottom. Icons are displayed on the desktop for launching the Thunar file manager.
The desktop mostly uses a dark theme for menus and panels while application windows use a bright theme for their menus, borders, and backgrounds.
Obarun 2021.07.26 -- Changing the default desktop theme
(full image size: 175kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Early on I noticed there is no volume control icon in the system tray. There are audio mixers installed, including one that is run in the system tray, but none of them are enabled by default. We can launch one from the application menu.
Hardware
I began my trial with Obarun running in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The distribution performed well in VirtualBox. The system was stable and the Xfce desktop was responsive. The desktop did not dynamically resize to match the size of the VirtualBox window, but I could adjust the desktop's dimensions through the Xfce settings panel.
When I switched over to running Obarun on my physical workstation the distribution ran well. The distribution can boot in both UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes. The desktop performance was above average and all my hardware was properly detected.
The amount of memory the distribution requires will depend on which desktop we install. I found Obarun's services and implementation of Xfce consumed a relatively small amount of memory, just 275MB. A fresh install of the distribution took up about 4.3GB of disk space, plus a swap partition.
Applications
Obarun does not ship with a lot of desktop software by default. Along with the Xfce 4.16 desktop I found a small collection of applications in the distribution's tree-style menu. The Midori web browser is included, though it had some issues. Midori was unusually slow when running on Obarun and trying to type the "/" character in the address bar always opened a search box and stole focus from the address bar. This meant it was impossible to type any URLs which included a "/" character, which is most of them. Since Midori was effectively slow and crippled I ended up installing an alternative browser.
Obarun 2021.07.26 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 158kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Also in the menu we find the Pidgin messaging software, the Geany text editor, the Parole media player with several audio mixers. The distribution does include media codecs, and I could play audio files. Parole was unable to play any video files and attempting to play one would cause the player's interface to lock up and necessitate terminating the Parole process. I installed the VLC player and it was able to handle both video and audio files.
The ePDF viewer is installed along with the Thunar file manager, a bulk file renaming tool, and the Xfce settings panel. The distribution includes the GNU Compiler Collection and manual pages. The default command line shell is zsh which, personally, I've never warmed to using, but it's functional and alternatives are available.
There is a shortcut for an e-mail client, but none is installed. I also noticed pressing the Print Screen button brings up an error reporting the screenshot utility isn't available. We can install the Xfce screenshot utility from the project's repositories.
Obarun uses the s6 init software, which I will talk about later, and the current kernel is Linux, version 5.13. Since Obarun is a rolling release distribution new versions of packages will become available over time.
Once, when signing into Xfce, the session crashed with an error saying it could not contact the settings server. I was returned to the login screen. After that I was able to immediately sign in again without an error and the issue never occurred again.
Package management
I don't have much to say about Obarun's package management. The distribution does not provide any graphical front-end for software management. We can install, remove, and upgrade software using the pacman command line utility. The pacman tool is fast and efficient. I encountered no problems while using it.
Obarun 2021.07.26 -- Installing a screenshot utility with pacman
(full image size: 190kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Since Obarun performs a network install, all software is up to date on the first day we are running the distribution. Over time new versions of packages will become available as the distribution provides a rolling release approach.
s6 and 66
The main selling points of Obarun are the init software and service manager, named s6 and 66, respectively. From a practical point of view the init software seems to work just fine. The system started and shutdown without any problems and in about the average amount of time.
Obarun 2021.07.26 -- Reading about 66 in the Midori browser
(full image size: 201kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
At first, when I started reading about the 66 service manager the software seemed complicated. The documentation is more geared toward explaining the design of s6 and 66 rather than how the user is expected to interface with it. The developers appear to be aware of this perception as one page of the wiki has the following to say about Obarun's service manager:
As both s6 and 66 documentation may be overwhelming at first and users may think they should consume the entirety of the documentation before they begin using the software, or the system incorporating it and in this case Obarun, this guide is an introduction to how simple and easy it is to use these tools right away. When comparing s6/66 to runit for example, an exercise in minimalism and simplicity, the abilities of s6 and 66 appear enormous, but not everyone and right away needs all those abilities. It is like obtaining a complete set of professional aircraft mechanic's tools, but for your use of servicing a washing machine only a few basic tools would suffice.
The wiki goes on to provide some examples. Some of these are still a bit more complex than most people will need, but we can pick through and find the key elements. One thing I soon found is that 66 commands need to be run as the root user, otherwise they either do not work or show incomplete information. This means checking the status of services might fail as a regular user and work as the root user, which is in contrast to how most other service managers work.
Once I learned this key point, I found there are really just a few 66 commands we need to know to interact with the service manager. The command 66-intree shows which services are available. The 66-inservice command shows the status and details of one specified service. We can see which services are installed by exploring the /usr/lib/66/ directory. Services are declared using simple text files which appear to have a similar layout as systemd unit files.
The commands 66-enable, 66-disable, 66-start, and 66-stop commands manage a specified service. For instance, "66-enable cupsd" enables the CUPS printing service. Running "66-start cupsd" and "66-stop cupsd" start and stop the service.
Obarun 2021.07.26 -- Managing services with 66
(full image size: 117kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
In short, while 66 can be fairly complicated and it can take a while to adjust to some aspects of how services are organized and declared, the day-to-day tools for handling background services are much the same as with systemd or SysV init. The big difference, from the end user's perspective, is that 66 offers a different command for each task (such as enabling or disabling a service) while other service managers usually provide one command which accepts "enable" or "disable" as a parameter. For example, on Obarun I would use "66-start ntpd" while with systemd I'd run "systemctl start ntpd" and with most SysV init implementations I'd run "service ntpd start".
One nice aspect of Obarun's init software is it is quite small. The PID 1 process is just a hair smaller than SysV init's PID 1 process in memory and less than a tenth of the size of systemd's init. This usually isn't an important metric, but in situations where memory is quite limited, every little bit helps.
Conclusions
When I first tried Obarun, a few years ago, the process got off to a rocky start. I suspect, at the time, the project was still relatively young and there were rough edges to sort out. The documentation wasn't as fleshed out yet and it led to a poor experience.
These days Obarun seems quite capable. While the distribution is aimed at more experienced users, those who are comfortable working with Arch Linux and who are interested in working with alternative init software, once the distribution is up and running it performed quite smoothly.
The install process is long and geared to more technically experienced users, the distribution (once installed) still needs a little setting up and customization to really work like a proper workstation. Once the initial set up is completed though, Obarun performs well. It is quick to boot, runs smoothly, worked with my hardware, and desktop performance was great. There were a few minor rough edges - stray error messages, a missing audio control - but for the most part Obarun does a good job and shows off its custom service manager nicely.
I will admit I'd like to see the project adopt another system installer, such as Calamares, for desktop installations. It would certainly speed up and simplify the initial process. Otherwise Obarun is pretty solid. I'd only recommend it to more advanced users, specifically those who are looking for an alternative to mainstream init software like systemd. For people who do fit that description, Obarun (and s6) are certainly interesting and worth a look.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card, Ralink RT5390R PCIe Wireless card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Visitor supplied rating
Obarun has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.7/10 from 15 review(s).
Have you used Obarun? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
The cgroup filesystem ported to the BSDs, Solus works to replace GNOME components, Ubuntu to ship Firefox as a Snap
People who are interested in porting software between open source platforms such as Linux and the members of the BSD family just gained a new tool: a cgroup filesystem for the BSDs. "CGrpFS is a tiny implementation of the GNU/Linux CGroup filesystem for BSD platforms. It takes the form of a FUSE filesystem and implements robust tracking of processes. Resource control, however, is not present; the different BSD platforms each provide different mechanisms for this, none of which are easily adapted to CGroups semantics. The process tracking alone is sufficient for the main user of CGrpFS, InitWare, a service manager derived from systemd." This effort should make it easier to port software from Linux to the members of the BSD family, especially packages which usually rely on systemd.
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The Solus team, which also develops the Budgie desktop environment, is facing a crossroads with regards to the libraries which are used to make the Budgie desktop. Up to this point Budgie has used GTK, the same toolkit used to build GNOME. However, as both technical and political issues have grown over the past few years, the Solus team no longer views GTK as being a viable platform. Joshua Strobl has published a detailed blog post covering the issues the Solus team has with GTK and the GNOME development process. Alternatives and a plan to replace GNOME software in Solus are also outlined. "It would not be in the best interest for Solus to invest in a future version of Budgie that leverages relevant software (GTK as an example) developed by GNOME. In fact, it would not be in the best interest for Solus to invest at all in developing any software leveraging GTK4 and beyond. It would put us in an undesired position of being progressively negatively impacted by conscious decisions by GNOME, not to mention implying to others that we support the direction GNOME is taking their software stack, when that reality couldn't be further from the truth."
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The Ubuntu team is looking at changing the way Firefox is packaged on their distribution. An issue report indicates the minimal desktop flavour of the distribution will include a Firefox Snap package. "Per Canonical's distribution agreement with Mozilla, we're making the Snap the default installation of Firefox on desktop ISOs starting with Ubuntu 21.10. The snap is built and published for amd64, armhf and arm64. It is jointly maintained by Mozilla and the Ubuntu desktop team, and published by Mozilla."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Keeping a specific application window on top
Put-it-on-top asks: Is there something I can install that would allow me to make it so certain program windows are always shown over top of others?
DistroWatch answers: I am not aware of one particular tool which is dedicated to keeping a specific application on top of others which works across all desktops. Most window managers and desktops allow you to right-click on a window's title bar and mark it as being on top or "always on top". However, if you're looking for a way to automate this so that windows for a selected application always get set to being shown above others, then there are a few ways to do this that will work. One approach works on the KDE Plasma desktop specifically while the second option I will talk about works on just about any desktop. At least the latter can be used with most window managers running on an X.Org display server (as opposed to Wayland).
Looking first at the approach, which works on KDE Plasma, we need to explore the Window Management module in the System Settings panel. Under Window Management, select Window Rules. This module makes it possible to select a type of window we want to adjust. Then we can add rules or properties to the new window. Here I set any window that mentions Firefox in its title to be placed above all other windows:
Creating a rule which always places Firefox above other windows
(full image size: 85kB, resolution: 1052x811 pixels)
For people not using KDE Plasma, the generic process that should work on most window managers to make sure an application is automatically set to always be shown in front of (or on top of) other application windows requires you make a small script. A launcher for this script might be placed in your application menu or on your desktop. The script will do three things: launch your application, wait a few seconds for the application to open, and then send the window manager a signal to let it know the new window should always be placed on top of all others.
The tool to send this special signal to the window manager is called xdotool. The xdotool is used to look up information about windows on the desktop or send commands to them. The xdotool utility can resize windows, move them, minimize, and maximize them. It can also send mouse and keyboard signals to windows.
This last feature is especially useful once you know the keyboard shortcut which tells your window manager to set the current window to be on top of the window stack. The keyboard shortcut may vary from desktop to desktop (and distribution to distribution). In Xfce the Window Manager configuration module has a section called Keyboard which lists supported shortcuts. On my system running Xfce the shortcut to force a window to always be on top (visible) is Alt+F12.
Finding the shortcut to place windows on top
(full image size: 69kB, resolution: 655x638 pixels)
This means we can create a small script which launches an application, waits a few seconds for the program to finish loading, and then locks it on top of the window stack using the shortcut. In my case, since the shortcut is Alt+F12, my script would look like this for locking the kwrite application on top:
#!/bin/sh
kwrite &
sleep 3
xdotool key alt+F12
Once the above script is made executable by your user you can run it to launch kwrite or any other program you like to make sure the application window remains above all others.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
ExTiX 21.9
ExTiX is a deepin-based distribution with alternative installer and utilities. The project's latest release, ExTiX 21.9, features the Deepin desktop and a number of changes. "I've released a new version of ExTiX Deepin today (21-09-14). This ExTiX build is based on Deepin 20.2.3 released by Deepin Technology 210816. New functions: 1. You can run ExTiX from RAM. Use boot alternative 2 (load to RAM) or Advanced. A wonderful way to run Linux if you have enough RAM. Everything will be super fast. When ExTiX has booted up you can remove the DVD or USB stick. 2. You will have the opportunity to choose language before you enter the Deepin 20.2.3 Desktop. All main languages are supported. 3. I have replaced Deepin Installer with the Reborn version of Deepin Installer. Works better in every way. 4. I have replaced kernel 5.12.4-exton with kernel 5.14.2-exton. Corresponding the second latest available stable kernel from Kernel.org. 5. Spotify and Skype are pre-installed. 6. You can watch Netflix while running Firefox..." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
ExTiX 21.9 -- Running the Deepin desktop
(full image size: 2.4MB, resolution: 3440x1440 pixels)
Kali Linux 2021.3
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. The project has published a new release, Kali Linux 2021.3, which introduces changes to the OpenSSL software. "OpenSSL - Wide compatibility by default - Keep reading for what that means. New Kali-Tools site - Following the footsteps of Kali-Docs, Kali-Tools has had a complete refresh. Better VM support in the Live image session - Copy & paste and drag & drop from your machine into a Kali VM by default. New tools - From adversary emulation, to subdomain takeover to Wi-Fi attacks. Kali NetHunter smartwatch - first of its kind, for TicHunter Pro. KDE 5.21 - Plasma desktop received a version bump. OpenSSL: wide compatibility by default. Going forwards from Kali Linux 2021.3, OpenSSL has now been configured for wider compatibility to allow Kali to talk to as many services as possible. This means that legacy protocols (such as TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1) and older ciphers are enabled by default." Further information is available in the project's release announcement.
Ubuntu 18.04.6
The Ubuntu team has announced an updated version of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is now available. The new media includes security fixes, including a fix for the BootHole security issues. "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop and Server products. Unlike previous point releases, 18.04.6 is a refresh of the amd64 and arm64 installer media after the key revocation related to the BootHole vulnerability, re-enabling their usage on Secure Boot enabled systems. More detailed information can be found here. Many other security updates for additional high-impact bug fixes are also included, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS." Further information can be found in the release announcement and in the distribution's release notes.
SparkyLinux 2021.09
The SparkyLinux project develops a lightweight distribution based on Debian. The Sparky team has published a new update to the distribution's semi-rolling branch which presents users with software from Debian's development "Bookworm" branch. The project's release announcement lists the following changes: "Sparky 2021.09 of the (semi-)rolling line is out; it is based on Debian Testing 'Bookworm'. Changes: repositories set to Debian 'Bookworm' and Sparky 'Orion Belt; all packages updated as of September 17, 2021; new backgrounds: desktop, login manager, Plymouth & boot screen, etc.; Linux kernel 5.10.46 (5.14.6 & 5.15-rc1 in Sparky unstable repos); GCC 10 still as default, but GCC 11 is also installed; no more Sparky Advanced Installed GUI, the Advanced installer works in text mode only now, the first window lets you choose the standard version of the installer or DEV version with disk encryption and LVM support; 'sparky-upgrade' text based tool is also preinstalled in CLI ISO; packages removed from ISO: mc, gparted; new package installed: lfm; Calamares 3.2.43." People already running the semi-rolling branch of SparkyLinux do not need to re-install.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,598
- Total data uploaded: 40.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
USB disk images or ISO files?
For approximately the past 20 years DistroWatch has been providing direct download links to new open source operating system releases. In the early days Linux distributions almost always provided download images in the form of ISO files (images of optical media) which could be burned to CDs or DVDs. In more recent years projects have been publishing ISO files which can still be transferred to optical media and also written to USB thumb drives.
While most projects provide a single ISO file which can be written to multiple types of media, some projects publish separate media for USB thumb drives and for optical media. Files intended to be written to thumb drives or SD cards are called IMG files. An IMG file is often published if a project either wishes to not provide a single hybrid image (for both thumb drives and optical media) or when persistence is going to be used, allowing people to write files back to the thumb drive containing their distribution.
Up to this point, when there is a choice between IMG and ISO files we have continued to provide direct download links to the ISO file for new releases. Since many people no longer use optical media, do you think it is time we switched to linking to IMG files as the default when there is a choice?
You can see the results of our previous poll on the Calamares system installer in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Link to ISO or IMG files for new releases?
| Stay with ISO files: | 1228 (60%) |
| Switch to IMG files when available: | 459 (23%) |
| No opinion: | 343 (17%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 27 September 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • ISO or IMG images (by Leanne on 2021-09-20 00:32:57 GMT from Ireland)
Even though I've used USB drives to install linux for a good few years at this point, I've never downloaded an IMG image. It's always been iso images I've used to install my distro of choice. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
2 • Poll, Midori, Parole (by Ken on 2021-09-20 00:34:34 GMT from United States)
The poll needs a fourth option: Both. Why not provide a link both to the ISO and the IMG files?
Midori and Parole: Every time I try XFCE, I want Parole to work. I really do. And it never does. Same with Midori. It seems like the perfect low-resources browser, but it's constantly crashing, locking up, or doing something else wonky.
3 • ISO > IMG (by Jay on 2021-09-20 01:03:15 GMT from Thailand)
Barry Kauler's EasyOS recently decided to dump ISO for IMG files. (EasyOS used to offer its users *both* options.)
EasyOS was fun to play with, but I prefer to run it in a VM rather than dedicate a machine to something that's interesting but (for my current usage scenario) doesn't merit one.
Creating a bootable flash drive from an ISO is very little effort. Creating an ISO from an IMG? Not so much.
Goodnight, Barry. If your personal worldview takes precedence over your users' needs, it's time I moved on.
4 • Poll (by Terry R. on 2021-09-20 01:16:01 GMT from United States)
@2. I also agree why not option: Both. Why not provide a link for both to ISO and the IMG files? Have choice.
5 • "Persistence": only available with an IMG file? Or "also", or "automatically"? (by R. Cain on 2021-09-20 01:47:14 GMT from United States)
I KNOW that it is NOT explicitly stated, here, ...
"...An IMG file is often published if a project either wishes to not provide a single hybrid image (for both thumb drives and optical media) or when persistence is going to be used, allowing people to write files back to the thumb drive containing their distribution..."
...that one of THE reasons for using an IMG file is when persistence is one of the advantages offered by a distribution; but it could be misunderstood as saying that an IMG image *is needed* if one wants a distribution with persistence. It COULD be inferred, from the wording that an IMG file is absolutely *needed* if one wants to create a USB thumb drive with persistence.
Some distributions, as most of you no doubt know (and more than just a few have been using them), have been down-loadable as ISO files, write-able to USB thumb drives; and have been offering persistence, as a feature, for years.
6 • ISO vs IMG (by AG on 2021-09-20 01:51:21 GMT from Australia)
I concur those who say why not both? ISO and IMG files are for different use cases IMO.
If I am installing a distribution on a machine, then burning an ISO to USB is fine.
I only prefer IMG files when I'm going to be using persistence.
7 • ISO for me. (by Friar Tux on 2021-09-20 02:53:11 GMT from Canada)
@1 (Leanne) I'm with you on this one. ISO is so easy to work with, I don't see the need to use anything else.
8 • ISO files (by penguinx86 on 2021-09-20 03:17:37 GMT from United States)
I always download ISO files. It's no big deal creating a VM or bootable USB from an ISO file.
9 • ubuntu is becoming more proprietary than ever (by ohsnap on 2021-09-20 03:38:15 GMT from India)
Since the overuse of snap doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon, and since they intend to keep the snap server closed-source, what different is ubuntu to windows, except for claiming to be "some" open source? I've despised them since their search-logging fiasco, I've despised them ever since they wanted signups for SSH-key SSO, and snap is a buggy piece of junk that doesn't even do error messages properly. I'm surprised that all this is so normalized...
10 • Provide link to both where available (by Jyrki on 2021-09-20 03:41:27 GMT from Czechia)
When I try something new, I first do it in VirtualBox and hence ISO is preferred as img has to be converted to their format anyway. When I install system to a completely new machine, IMG would be preferred as typically no optical device is available there.
For upgrades I need neither iso nor img as it's performed from inside of the system (BSD) or I run rolling release distro (Artix).
11 • Isos or IMG (by David on 2021-09-20 04:02:54 GMT from United States)
Some (Crux, Slackware, to name a few) use isos processed with isohybrid. These isos are suitable for burning on a CD and putting on a USB drive.
So no IMG files are needed.
12 • Firefox without Snap (by vern on 2021-09-20 04:47:11 GMT from United States)
As a test, I purged Firefox on my Ubuntu. Then I downloaded firefox-92.0.tar.bz2 unzip it to option folder. Created a .desktop file. Bam, new Firefox. No Snap. No need for a .deb file.
With Chromium one needed to jump through hoops. No so with FF.
PS: Keep the ISO's
13 • ISO vs. IMG (by nsp0323 on 2021-09-20 04:49:34 GMT from Sweden)
Did answer no opinion but, both would be more correct.
These days I mainly use IMG files.
14 • GNOME (by SalParadise on 2021-09-20 06:12:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
Sad to hear about Gnome removing the ability to theme the Desktop. It would be bad enough if they'd chosen a decent them but Adwaita is horrible.
Yet another round of executive, anti-user, anti-freedom decisions from the GNOME Foundation.
Can they not be thrown out of the Community? Or at least threatened with such? That might bring them to their senses.
They are systematically destroying Gnome as a Desktop and bringing "open source" into disrepute in the process.
15 • @12 FF w/o Snap (by Mandatory on 2021-09-20 06:26:16 GMT from Spain)
If you want Chromium without snap, there is this option: an appimage of UngoogledChromium:
https://github.com/macchrome/linchrome/releases/tag/v93.0.4577.82-r902210-portable-ungoogled-Lin64
Works like a charm.
16 • Only ISO images (by Hugo67 on 2021-09-20 07:17:35 GMT from Poland)
ISO files can be copied as files to a USB drive. With grub2 you can choose which ISO image to boot from (https://github.com/Mexit/MultiOS-USB).
You can also burn it as an image to a USB stick. They are very useful in virtual machines for testing software.
17 • Ubuntu ans Snap: (by miguel Herrera on 2021-09-20 08:24:34 GMT from Philippines)
"Per Canonical's distribution agreement with Mozilla, we're making the Snap the default installation of Firefox"
They can do whatever they want to, I stopped using them a long time ago because of stuff like this . . .
Let them make all their packages snap, and their install media -- whether iso or img -- will be in the Terabytes. Ain't going for it.
18 • Well, don't I look silly . . . (by Miguel Herrera on 2021-09-20 08:27:05 GMT from Philippines)
@ 17 "Ubuntu and Snap"
19 • Solus/GNOME (by Operius on 2021-09-20 08:28:10 GMT from Netherlands)
Maybe I do not understand it correctly.
But isn't GNOME to do as they please with their developt software?
Al those people whining about decissions GNOME are making for their own software are just too lazy to come up with their own stuff.
This what you get if you base your desktop on another desktop that you don't have control off.
Same thing for popos, which is based on ubuntu which is based on debian and they also have a modifyed desktop based on GNOME.
I'm not being a GNOME fanboy here either, I use plasma and do not like the workflow of GNOME at all.
I'll stick to independent distro's that use software close to the default, like debian or opensuse.
And I use them without any theming other than the default, because that just works.
And GNOME is absolutely right in saying that third-party themes is breaking stuff.
Because it does. Even on KDE/Plasma most, if not all community (and also zorin and feren) themes make the desktop a lesser experience or is just not 100% working.
20 • Firefox packaged as Snap (by Basilio on 2021-09-20 09:53:21 GMT from Italy)
Snap packages are garbage. If I have to use a deb distribution, then I use Debian. The fascination of Ubuntu desktop is over.
21 • @14 Gnome (by mandog on 2021-09-20 11:12:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
They have not stopped or stopping users changing themes as far as I know.
They use a official extension for that if they stopped the extension a user would step in this is Linux not Windows Mac.
22 • ISO and IMG (by MikeOh Shark on 2021-09-20 11:16:47 GMT from United States)
I nearly always choose the ISO when I have a choice between ISO and IMG. I believe the current version of Ventoy supports both so testing distros that provide either is easy.
23 • Keeping a specific application window on top (by Alexandru on 2021-09-20 11:20:27 GMT from Austria)
Thank you, Jesse, for sharing these tips. It is always enjoying to have one more tool to automate things, especially if it is a simple shell script to do so.
24 • ISO images (by marcos pereira de sousa on 2021-09-20 11:21:07 GMT from Brazil)
ISO for me too!
@16 (Hugo67) I'm with you in this and more:
Your own sda GRUB2 can be used to loopback ISOs on any disk drive...(try search 'loopback' in github)
And is possible to use USB drives with ISOs choosing persistence in the options (AntiX, MX)...
Options? Give them all to be evaluated!
25 • iso or img doesn't matter, but keep up with the news (by releases-not-menitoned on 2021-09-20 11:55:58 GMT from Hungary)
When MakuluLinux Shift was released it wasn't even mentioned nor linked.
When MakuluLinux Droid was released it wasn't mentioned too nor linked.
Like many distros whom are listed here wasn't in the news (like best-loved ones). These unmentioend should be reported posteriorly.
To be more on topic tools (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tools_to_create_Live_USB_systems) handle well both. All are good.
26 • iso or img poll (by vm on 2021-09-20 12:09:44 GMT from Portugal)
IMG images don't work in Gnome Boxes.
While img is no good at all popular VM's the answer is a definitely NO !
27 • ISO or IMG (by Mitchell on 2021-09-20 12:22:59 GMT from United States)
We like painless transition, don't we? A seemingly natural morphing from one phase to the next within a logical scope seen from our own perceptions. But what about when it doesn't follow a perceptible pattern which flows from/through our vantage point?
Open source allows one group to take what they want/like and morph it into what they perceive it should be; and each morphing takes on a more narrower scope as the new old group eats their meat and spits out the other guy's bones.
We may not care for a certain direction we see/perceive they are taking, whomever they are... But is this reason enough to accuse, bash or minimize them over us? That is also illogical...because it violates the unwritten rule of being open source, ur...loving humanity.
Mass appeal is designed to appeal to the masses, something Ubuntu has done for years. Do I really care for "Snap", something which seems a little too proprietary-ish? What a feller does not like is the hidden nature of things presented as open source-ish by anyone using the open source of others. Open source also gives credit where credit is due - pay it forward. There is no doubt certain companies are looking to create income streams more than others; some have done masterful jobs at it...Redhat, or who ever owns them now. An income stream focus always skews the vision of someone.
These days a feller types, pay bills, is entertained, researches and computes in general without as much playing in the Linux fields as he use to - back in that day. There comes a time when he just wants to get the work done without the drama and delusional tweaking. I get it, really, I am just not living there any more.
If one cannot "create", can he not create a space of reason and acceptance for those who do? Can he not appreciate all the hard work which they have put into their vision, even if one cannot see it? Sure one can, try it. You'll like it.
If it's openly accessible and open source someone will change what they do not like about it. They will offer this to the general public; and, the wheels of mass appeal will spin again for another. Fads fade, seasons come and go, but it is open source and our love for humanity which must not be lost in the shuffle. Visions will fade and grow dim, watering holes will grow stagnant and corrupt. Seeking the needs of others brings a deep seated satisfaction of the heart because one has done the right thing, not because anyone had to notice. A simple "Thank You!" or "No, thank you." will suffice.
ISO or IMG? Laser Disk or DVD? VHS or BETA? Cassette or Reel-to Reel? Notice a pattern?
Love is the only tree which grows fruit after it's kind. Take a bite!
28 • Snap and Ubuntu (by cor on 2021-09-20 13:45:52 GMT from United States)
Snap is useless garbage. Ubuntu is getting sloppy, they don't seem to care anymore.
29 • poll (by Tad Strange on 2021-09-20 14:28:03 GMT from Canada)
Since discovering Ventoy, via this forum, I no longer write/burn ISOs, nor need special software to do so, so I prefer to download the ISO and have never used an IMG file save for the raspberry pi, where they appear necessary.
Snap...ugh. I have Opera installed on my Kubuntu system and it thrashes the CPU mercilessly for far too many seconds before it launches (and this is a current generation i5).
I'd hate to experience it on older or lesser hardware.
Restarting it is fast enough, for a saving grace. I'm guessing that Snap is something like the Linux subsystem on my chromebook - something substantial that needs to init before an app can launch?
30 • @15 FF w/o Snap by Mandatory (by vern on 2021-09-20 16:07:15 GMT from United States)
I just tried the Portable Chromium ungoogled for 64-bit Linux link you provided. It failed with "Aw, Snap!" error 159. Then I tried the Appimage version same result.
How did you overcome this error?
31 • ISO vs IMG (by Bob on 2021-09-20 16:40:26 GMT from United States)
This article might be helpful for insight:
What Are the Differences Between ISO and IMG Files?
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/what-are-the-differences-between-iso-and-img-files
"There is no difference in the structure of ISO and IMG formats if the IMG file is uncompressed. It is possible for an IMG format file to be renamed with the ISO file extension and then opened in software that only recognizes the ISO file format. This is an effective way of accessing disc information in programs that do not handle the IMG format."
32 • Forking GTK (by Shep on 2021-09-20 16:48:39 GMT from United States)
Redhat was the money behind GTK/Gnome development and since their sale to IBM changes to the traditional opensource model have occurred. I think these changes can be summarized in two ways; optimizing IBM returns and turning open source users into a Beta testing pipeline.
One solution that I have not seen mentioned would be to fork GTK. The following groups would benefit:
Budgie
Xfce
Cinnomon
Mate
Sugar
The BSD's
True Open Source projects like Arch, Debian, ?OpenSuse, AlmaLinux, Rocky and Deepin.
Perhaps these groups could disccus this and form an OpenGTK collaboration?
33 • Re "whiners" why don't you fix it yourselves (by Ted H in Minnesota on 2021-09-20 16:59:05 GMT from United States)
@19 • Operius
Re: "All those people whining about decissions GNOME are making for their own software are just too lazy to come up with their own stuff."
To you and others like you who say, "if you don't like something, FIX IT YOURSELF!"
- Without your realizing that NOT EVERYONE can PROGRAM!!! But we can mention things for programmers to pay attention to, to fix/improve!]
Ted H
34 • Why not both? Options are good you know... (by tom joad on 2021-09-20 17:30:47 GMT from Panama)
Why not both when both are presented? I for one like options and appreciate them when available but I voted for .img files.
As for persistence... I format my usb drives with several partitions. A large fat32 that will be used for the OS. Then I do a much smaller fat32 partition for 'clear' storage and another ext4 partition with LUKS for secrets. I use Gparted for most that and Disks for the ext4 and LUKS stuff. Lastly I set a flags too for booting and such.
I did one just the other day using Linux Lite. Seems to work fine for me. Nor is that the first time I have done that.
I love TOR. So I put that in the clear text partition. Why? Because most public places will not allow the download of TOR. So I stuff it in there and use it as needed. Just takes a jiffy to setup. And I stuff all the other stuff I sometime use in that partition too. Stuff like tor bridges, vpns and logs in at various places.
My way works pretty well for privacy I think. Boot up, do what you must and be gone leaving a very tiny trail, if any at all.
Sure, there might be other, better ways but that is the way I setup some of my USB drives.
Salud!
35 • Forking GTK (by john on 2021-09-20 17:35:00 GMT from Canada)
@32 - seems a lot of work, but yes, would be great if everyone gets out of the Red Hat/GNOME merry-go-round.
I have heard in the past, GTK/Gimp may be made dependent upon systemd. I do not know if that even has a grain of truth in it, but I can see that happening based upon current actions that seem to occurring on RHEL.
36 • Obarun review (by Pestokiwa (from Europe) on 2021-09-20 17:59:06 GMT from Germany)
After the last, relatively disastrous review due to the use of an out-of-date ISO, the Obarunners put up an explicit warning against that at the bottom of their download page - and DW AGAIN uses an outdated ISO for the current review?!
37 • RE: Forking GTK (by Pestokiwa (from Europe) on 2021-09-20 18:05:18 GMT from Germany)
@Shep Take note that Solus intends to boot out both GTK and qt, and seek their future salvation in an alternative toolkit named EFL ... bless them!
38 • Obarun review (by Jesse on 2021-09-20 18:32:13 GMT from Canada)
@36: "After the last, relatively disastrous review due to the use of an out-of-date ISO, the Obarunners put up an explicit warning against that at the bottom of their download page - and DW AGAIN uses an outdated ISO for the current review?!"
I'm not sure why you'd think the ISO used is out of date, it's only about a month old. Nothing of note has changed in that time. Also, there were no issues during the install process so the date of the ISO is moot.
Finally, Obarun is a rolling release. Once the initial install is completed all the packages are up to date with the latest versions in the repositories. The ISO could be a week, a month, or a year old at that point and it doesn't matter because the user ends up with the latest packages anyway.
39 • Budgie & EFL (by Beastie on 2021-09-20 19:33:06 GMT from Switzerland)
Solus moving away from GNOME is pleasing news.
I always liked the idea behind the Solus project: to build a system which is dedicated to desktop computing and easy to use for newbies, without relying on another upstream distribution. The latter point is important, because derivatives tend to inherit problems and/or limitations from their parent, which isn't developed with the same goals in mind.
However I never liked, nor understood, their choice of using GNOME as a base for their own desktop interface. GNOME since 3.0 (I just realised this was already 10 years ago) has been doing nothing else than deteriorating desktop usability, and GTK, being basically a GNOME project nowadays, just follows its evolution and becomes always more of a touch-device UI toolkit.
I'm glad to see EFL finally getting some love outside of Enlightenment. I've always been wondering why it's not more widely used. I'm looking forward to test a new Budgie desktop built on EFL. All the best to Joshua and Beatrice!
40 • solus/budgie & gnome (by dave on 2021-09-20 20:46:44 GMT from United States)
Not a Solus/Budgie user, but nice to hear that they're waking up from the long Gnome nightmare. Tbh just look at the type of people who are representing Gnome and any of the types who screech "Code of Conduct" like it's a incantation to magically dismiss all criticism.. that alone shows that they are not to be trusted and frankly, the quality of their work is not good. These people are hired and given authority specifically because they care more about image than efficiency, or reality. Gnome developers live in a fantasy world and need to be taken down several notches; to be brought back down to earth.
Years ago, when GTK3 was released, I recommended forking GTK2 and renaming it DTK (Deprecated Tool Kit) .. surpassing GTK with something like that would be the ultimate flex and is totally possible, since Gnome continues on the trend of alienating more and more people.
However, at this point, it might simply be easier to start fresh or switch to different technology. Good luck to the Solus/Budgie people and I hope to hear that they have successfully joined forces with likeminded projects. Pop_OS! is a product that I loathe but mostly because the name is stupid and because they just use Gnome. So it would be great if they got away from Gnome in the future.
41 • Firefox w/o Snap (by Don Birdsall on 2021-09-20 21:14:27 GMT from United States)
On the Raspberry Pi, both the Snap and regular versions are available. I installed the snapd daemon and tried both. Snap version boots slowly with many warnings(?). Regular version runs nicely. Snap is crap. I am removing it from my RPi 4.
Shame on Canonical.
42 • ISO or IMG or both (by AdamB on 2021-09-20 21:43:11 GMT from Australia)
Providing links to both might be unwieldy. I answered IMG, but on reflection, I test more distros in VirtualBox than I install on hardware, and ISOs are preferable for that purpose.
It is about time an alternative to GTK was developed; it will be interesting to keep an eye on Solus/Budgie developments.
43 • Poll (by anon on 2021-09-21 01:15:23 GMT from United States)
I say stick ISO.
Also you don't need to format the disk over and over, as you can use Ventoy.
I point to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K64sT0pQc-0 and to https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
44 • Are CD;s still a thing? (by Boris Bratworst on 2021-09-21 02:46:30 GMT from Canada)
ISO so we can burn it to CD
wait, there are no more CD's ....
Well there ya go, but some people wont ever change
Thumbdrive install for everything, works flawlessly
CD's are not enviromentally stable.
45 • .ISO vs usb images (by uz64 on 2021-09-21 08:16:47 GMT from United States)
Literally almost everything out there is either served as either a hybrid ISO file, or a combination of dedicated .iso and USB image (separate images are much, much more rare--often just the BSDs). On very rare occasions, I come across distros that only have USB images, and they are absolutely useless to me... if I want to just try them out in a virtual machine, I can't; VirtualBox does not recognize them. And I can't just toy around with my system's main disk these days, booting from flash drive and installing to disk, risking my *ONLY* machine--so that's out of the question too. These distros that do not provide proper ISOs can just go to hell (Paldo, I'm looking at you...). ISOs can generally be burned to disc, and in most cases also written to a USB stick with a special tool, several of which are available across platforms. ISO files are still much more useful and universal in general... you can easily select an ISO image to mount as your virtual machine's optical disc drive and boot up with no problem, but good luck attempting to do the same with a USB image. If anyone does know a way, I'd love to know what it is...
46 • Stability? (by Newby on 2021-09-21 10:19:39 GMT from Canada)
@44 "CD's are not environmentally stable."
Not sure just which version of "stable" you mean.
Assuming by prefacing with the word environmentally, you are referring to recycling the plastic. If memory serves me correctly, that material would be polycarbonate, and it is in fact "recyclable".
If you are referring to stability of your data, when stored in the dark (away from UV) at room temperature (25 degrees C), and maintaining low humidity, the data on a good quality CD should be stable for anywhere from 60 to 100 years (manufacturer's estimate).
Compare that to a memory stick or hard drive where anything over 5 years is considered "suspect".
In the case of memory sticks, the data is stored as a capacitive charge between cells that can bleed off resulting in errors. In the case of magnetic media (spinning hard drives), data bits can "flip". Data Archivists apparently recommend "refreshing" such datat periodically by copying to other media, although that can also produce errors which things like CRC checks are supposed to catch.
This loss of data is referred to as "bit rot", and is something that ZFS and BTRFS supposedly can handle.
I am not an expert on data archiving. What information I have has come from "bits" I've read online, and talking to "experts"(?) at computer trade shows. If anyone can refer to an online resource on data archiving, it would probably be valuable to anyone concerned about protecting legal, medical, and other such data, without having to depend on the insecurity of "the cloud".
47 • .iso vs. .img (by Trihexagonal on 2021-09-21 10:20:31 GMT from United States)
When I install FreeBSD I always use a memstick.img file and dd it to a USB stick using one of my FreeBSD boxen:
dd bs=1m if=FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img of=/dev/da0 conv=sync
When I install Kali I dd the .iso to the same USB stick after I'm done using it with FreeBSD for the time being:
dd if=./kali-linux-1.0.9a-i386.iso of=/dev/da0 bs=512k
USB sticks can be used over and over for this purpose and dd will work every time. I copied those commands from a saved text file and have been doing it this way quite a while now.
Both work even though the syntax is a little different. That is the command I used when installing Kali 2021.2 on this box.
48 • ISO vs USB (by Jesse on 2021-09-21 13:35:56 GMT from Canada)
@45: "I come across distros that only have USB images, and they are absolutely useless to me... if I want to just try them out in a virtual machine, I can't; VirtualBox does not recognize them."
You can use IMG files with VirtualBox. I do it on a semi-regular basis when gathering information on new releases from projects which do not provide ISO files. VirtualBox will convert the IMG file to a virtual disk image (VDI) file and mount it.
49 • SysV init updates (by anticapitalista on 2021-09-21 15:45:05 GMT from Greece)
Nice to see the supposedly dead and unmaintained SysV init getting a milestone update.
50 • ISO vs IMG (by Mike on 2021-09-21 21:49:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
Nothing wrong with using an optical drive with re-writable single or double layer DVD media. I've been using the same pack of 12 DVD+RW for the past couple of decades to check out alpha, beta, rc and final ISOs.
How many USB drives have you had to replace in that time because they have failed or you've just lost them?
51 • Solus & RedGnome (by postertom on 2021-09-22 03:06:36 GMT from United States)
It is encouraging to see some of the feedback about Solus and RedGnome. SalParadise, Shep, John, Beastie, & Dave, above, have said it pretty well.
Then there are other opinions. There are those who say to accept abandonment, move along and do it yourself. "Choice" can now be a legitimate reason for developers to toss aside those users who have come to depend upon existing features and functionality. Commitment is not relevant. What we are seeing here is the degradation of one of the most powerful forces in the FOSS movement.
RedGnome, RedSystemd, RedCent. Is there a pattern?
52 • ISO vs USB (by Jyrki on 2021-09-22 04:02:24 GMT from Czechia)
@48
yes, use use VBoxManage but it's additional step and a bit of discomfort. When I know project doesn't have hybrid ISO I rather think of use case and when it's just for use in VirtualBox (most of the time because for use on real hardware I rather upgrade using freebsd-update, sysupgrade or sysinst) , I prefer ISO
53 • IMG files (by penguinarm64 on 2021-09-22 10:09:43 GMT from United States)
I have on problem using ISO files for my laptop and VMs. But it seems like IMG files might be useful in some situations with a Raspberry Pi environment using SD cards. I agree with the others who said "why not both?"
54 • @48: What, exactly, are these projects; these "...new releases..." (by R. Cain on 2021-09-22 18:10:00 GMT from United States)
"...I do it on a semi-regular basis when gathering information on new releases from projects which do not provide ISO files..."
Can you give us a list of mainstream Linux distributions which do not provide ISO files to those who want to download the distribution?
And yes, I realize that the term "mainstream" is somewhat arbitrary; not extremely definitive...but I'm certain you get the idea.
55 • ISO vs IMG (by Angel on 2021-09-23 01:56:33 GMT from Philippines)
I haven't used a CD or DVD in quite a few years. Don't even have a DVD drive. @44, yes, you can write .iso files to thumb drives as easily as .img. As a rule, I will not try or install a distro without trying it first as a VM. Thus, I much prefer .iso. Yes, I can convert .img to .iso, or I can use VBoxManage convertfromraw, but I figure if the distro devs don't want to bother, I don't want to bother either unless I have some pressing need..
I normally write to USB using Rufus running on a Windows VM. It's as simple as they come, and it gives me a choice to write in iso or dd mode. I write in iso mode if possible. I work on some Windows systems, and want to keep portable win32 apps in the same flash drive. (dd will use up the whole drive.) Persistence is available for distros that support it. I haven't used Ventoy yet, but if it works as advertised, it will allow me to keep Kali and MX on the same drive, which certainly is convenient.
56 • ISO or IMG ? (by Roger on 2021-09-23 08:37:11 GMT from Belgium)
ISO or IMG ?
I prefer both, every time Linux Mint comes with a new one like 19 to 20 I burn one DVD of the new one. The in between ones not like now 20.2.
For testing I only use thumb drives or SD cards sometimes RW-DVD's.
So when I have to choose I prefer both, but IMG can be first as long as there is a way to find the ISO files.
57 • thumb drive installs (by Otis on 2021-09-24 14:18:40 GMT from United States)
Well, I have to now. Still looking for the right distro to start with. I've been using iso files burned to CD/DVD since the beginning of my linux journey in the mid 90s.. but now I've upgraded to a machine with amazing specs but no CD/DVD drive. So... here I go on another path on that journey.
58 • GTK2 and also Initware (by B. Stack on 2021-09-24 15:05:17 GMT from United States)
Somebody has started a "successor" to gtk2: https://github.com/thesquash/stlwrt
Let me be the first to comment about the infiltration of systemd/initware to the BSDs. I have only ever dabbled with the BSDs, but why on earth would they want to bring in that whole can of worms or anything related to it? Oh, my goodness. Where shall people go in the future to avoid systemd, if the BSDs are also infected?
59 • FF Snap2 (by frc-kde on 2021-09-24 15:22:15 GMT from Brazil)
I have used Kubuntu from 2009 to 2019, and gave it up when they replaced chromium.deb package with a Snap2 one.
Still running KDE Neon, but ready to use just other distros.
60 • @58 B. Stack: (by dragonmouth on 2021-09-24 20:57:40 GMT from United States)
systemd is The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread! Dontchano.
There's something about lemmings.
Number of Comments: 60
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| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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