 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1002, 16 January 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 3rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
People often look for ways to make their computing experience more convenient or more secure. This week we open with a look at two young projects - Vanilla OS and Nobara Project - which strive to address these goals. Vanilla OS is an immutable operating system based on Ubuntu which attempts to isolate software and make the base system more resilient against attacks and broken software updates. Meanwhile Nobara Project is built atop Fedora and strives to make the distribution easier to set up. Read on to hear first impressions of these two projects, their features, and drawbacks. Then, in our News section, we report on efforts to get the advanced HAMMER2 filesystem from DragonFly BSD running on NetBSD as well as new improvements to Haiku. In our Questions and Answers column this week we talk about downloading distribution ISO files using torrent clients and the protections torrents provide along with their limitations. Torrents are one of many ways to transfer files between computers and, in our Opinion Poll, this week we ask how you synchronize files between your devices. Below, we're pleased to share the distribution releases of the past week and share the torrents we are seeding. Plus we welcome the Br OS distribution to our database and include details on this project below. We're also happy to report we are making it easier to find immutable operating systems, such as Vanilla OS, through our Search page and we link to this feature below. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Vanilla OS 22.10
There were two young projects which caught my attention at the start of 2023 precisely because they aimed to build on and improve upon the experiences offered by their parent distributions. The first project I'd like to talk about is Vanilla OS. Vanilla is based on Ubuntu and uses the GNOME desktop environment. Vanilla's big selling point is its immutable core upon which we can install containers for running third-party software.
Vanilla OS uses ABRoot to provide its immutable base and provides a tool called VSO to handle system maintenance. Vanilla also includes a custom package manager called Apx for handling software management.
Apx introduces a whole new paradigm in package management. The idea is to use your system only as a box for storing your files, leaving it clean of packages and limiting the risk of breaking due to incompatible, poorly constructed or conflicting packages.
It gets done by installing software inside one or more containers fully managed by Apx having restricted access to your system's resources while still being able to use the same drivers, display server, etc.
Your home directory is mapped inside the container so you can access your configuration files, preferences and other vital data needed by the installed packages, as well as being able to access your files from the installed software, e.g. by opening a file in LibreOffice.
One intriguing feature of Apx is it can reportedly pull in software from other distributions, apart from its Ubuntu base. It can also fetch software from Fedora's repositories and install software from Arch Linux's Arch User Repository. This makes Apx more flexible and allows us to use a solid, immutable base operating system with packages from a range of sources.
I originally downloaded Vanilla's first stable release, version 22.10, at the beginning of January. The 22.10 ISO was available as a 1.7GB download. I grabbed the ISO file and booted from it. The media loads a graphical environment and starts a GNOME desktop session. A window then appears and asks if we'd like to Try the live operating system or Install Vanilla OS. If we take the Try option, the window simply closes, leaving us with a fairly standard GNOME desktop. A panel is placed across the top of the screen with the Activities menu and system tray. A dock holding application launchers sits at the bottom of the display.
Vanilla OS 22.10 -- Running the Vanilla OS installer
(full image size: 29kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Taking the Install option presents us with a series of configuration questions such as our preferred language, our keyboard layout, and our time zone. The first time through the installer. The installer window kept flicking while I was trying to interact with it and, when I reached the third screen, GNOME crashed. I was shown window saying the session had stopped working and a button which would reportedly log me out, but I was unable to click on the button. The rest of the desktop was unresponsive and I had to force a restart.
The second time through I got through the first two screens before the installer window began to flicker and then GNOME appeared to crash (the screen went blank) and then the session resumed.
The third time through I made it through the installer, despite all the screen flickering, and got as far as the fourth screen which asks us to select on which disk we will install Vanilla OS. My disk was listed as an option, but I was unable to select it. The installer seemed to be locked up.
I wondered if perhaps I had to manually set aside a partition for Vanilla ahead of time. Vanilla ships with the GNOME Disks utility which I used to format a partition for the operating system, then re-ran the installer. Once again I made it through to the disk selection screen, but was unable to pick my disk and the installer seemed unresponsive.
I decided to put aside Vanilla OS for the time being and turned my attention to another young distribution.
* * * * *
Nobara Project 36
Nobara Project is a modified version of Fedora with user-friendly fixes added to it. The distribution comes with certain features that do not ship with the regular Fedora editions, such as WINE dependencies, OBS Studio, third-party codec packages for GStreamer, NVIDIA drivers, and some package fixes. Nobara aims to fix most of those issues and offer better gaming, streaming, and content creation experiences out of the box. The project's official release comes with a custom-themed GNOME desktop, but it also offers separate editions with standard GNOME and KDE desktops.
The Official edition of Nobara ships with a GNOME desktop which has a layout and icon set designed to look like KDE Plasma. I decided to try this Official edition first which was released in December 2022 and is available as a 3.5GB download.
Nobara's media boots and displays the GNOME desktop which is presented with icons on the desktop for opening GNOME Files and launching the system installer. A thick panel sits at the bottom of the screen. On the panel we find the application menu, quick-launch buttons, and the system tray.
Nobara Project 36 -- Launching the system installer from the Official edition
(full image size: 963kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The distribution automatically launches its system installer which is Calamares rather than Fedora's Anaconda installer. Calamares walks us through the usual steps of choosing our keyboard layout, making up a username, and picking our time zone. We're given the option of manual partitioning which is pretty easy to navigate. We can also choose various guided options to install Nobara on an existing partition or take over the disk. The installer will set up an ext4 filesystem for a /boot partition and a Btrfs volume for the root filesystem.
Once partitioning has been handled we're shown a confirmation screen which shows actions the installer will take. We can then go back to previous steps or click an Install button to proceed. When I clicked the Install button, Calamares appeared to lock up. I was unable to interact with its window. The desktop still worked, but was very sluggish in its responses. There was a lot of disk activity from the installer, so I left it running.
After a few minutes the Calamares window disappeared as though the application had crashed. Files were still copying in the background (the rsync processes were still running). When they finished and I rebooted the machine was not bootable as the installer had not finished its work. This seemed to confirm my theory Calamares had crashed.
I booted again from the live media and started the install process once more. This time I noticed disk activity was high and the desktop was slow to respond, even before I'd reached the partitioning section of the installer. Using a process monitor I discovered Nobara was running the DNF package manager to check for updates (it eventually found about 290 new packages). While this check for updates was running PackageKit was using up all available CPU and a lot of RAM. Sitting at the desktop with just the installer open and PackageKit operating took over 3GB of RAM and maxed out a CPU. I was starting to wonder if Calamares had been killed by the systemd-oomd (out of memory daemon) service on my previous install attempt. I stopped the package manager and forced PackageKit to terminate (it refused to stop on its own) and started a fresh run through of Calamares.
Once more, Calamares crashed again while rsync was copying files and once again my computer was left in an unbootable state.
Not yet deterred, I downloaded the Nobara Project's KDE edition which is 3.7GB in size. The KDE edition also boots straight into a desktop session and launches the installer. The KDE Plasma desktop was much more responsive than its GNOME counterpart in the Official edition. This may be, in part, because the KDE edition does not appear to check for package updates automatically.
Nobara Project 36 -- Calamares crashing on the KDE edition
(full image size: 536kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The KDE edition also ships with Calamares. I made it a little further this time. After getting through the disk partitioning section, I was shown a summary of actions Calamares would take and, when I clicked the Install button, I was shown a progress summary screen. After a minute Calamares crashed.
This time I knew the installer had crashed because, while Calamares simply disappears when run from the GNOME desktop, KDE will display a crash report on the desktop, letting us know the program closed unexpectedly. I was informed Calamares crashed due to a segmentation fault (the installer trying to access memory it did not own).
As Calamares was crashing on both editions in approximately the same spot without any useful warning or useful error, I gave up on Nobara Project.
* * * * *
Vanilla OS 22.10 (revision)
Originally, I started these two reviews in early January 2023, then put my write-up of both projects aside while I explored other things for a bit. Meanwhile people continued to fill my inbox with requests to talk about Vanilla OS. I returned to the distribution's website to go through the documentation to see if there was something I could be doing better. That was when I discovered a few new revisions of Vanilla OS 22.10 had been published after the initial 22.10 release. There wasn't much in the way of information on these new revisions, other than a statement saying packages had been updated to provide a better experience.
I grabbed the latest revision of 22.10 and booted it. The installer opened automatically, as before, and asked me about my language preference and keyboard layout. The installer crashed when I got to the screen for selecting a time zone.
I launched the installer again (there is an icon conveniently located on the GNOME dock) and started the process once more. This time through I was able to get to the hard drive selection screen and successfully picked my drive. I could then click on a Configure button which opened a screen asking if I wanted to use automatic or manual partitioning. I could only select the automatic option, the manual option was greyed out and not responsive. This limitation of only providing automatic partition is a concern because Vanilla OS wants to wipe and take over the entire hard drive.
I was then asked to make up a username and password for myself. The installer confirmed my information and then began copying its files to my freshly wiped drive. The installer worked for about a minute, then crashed without warning or status message. The GNOME dock also disappeared, hiding the installer's launcher. When I restarted the computer I confirmed Vanilla's installer had wiped my disk, then crashed, leaving my system without a bootable partition.
* * * * *
Nobara Project 37
During the time I was writing up my notes on my experience with the third revision of Vanilla OS 22.10, I received a notice that Nobara Project had published its second major release in five weeks. Nobara Project 37 offered a range of software updates and I decided to give the distribution another try. I downloaded the Official edition again which is about 2.8GB in size.
The first time I tried to boot Nobara 37, the live media failed to boot. I double-checked the ISO file's hash then tried booting again. This time Nobara brought up the GNOME desktop, again themed to look like KDE Plasma. The Calamares system installer automatically launched and offered to walk me through the usual configuration steps.
The install process appears to be unchanged from Nobara 36 and I quickly took the defaults offered and allowed Nobara to take over my entire disk. I was then shown a confirmation screen with my chosen settings and I clicked the Install button.
Nobara Project 37 -- Calamares making more progress
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Calamares installer began copying its files to my hard drive and showing a progress summary, which was a step forward compared to my experience running the Official edition of Nobara 36. However, about halfway through the file copying process the installer disappeared (crashed), leaving my system in an unbootable state. Again. The GNOME desktop was still functional and responsive, but the installer had once again failed to function properly and I gave up on getting Nobara to run.
Conclusions
Both Vanilla OS and Nobara Project have, I believe, similar goals: take a popular, solid distribution and add new tools or improvements to provide a better experience. For Nobara, the distribution is basically performing the initial setup steps most desktop users would be performing on Fedora Workstation - enabling third-party repositories, providing codecs, installing WINE, and setting up video drivers. In short, it feels like Fedora after an hour of installing common packages and performing the usual actions for a new Workstation install.
Vanilla OS is more ambitious, providing an immutable base platform, adding a custom package installer, and offering the ability to install software in containers to better isolate the software the user installs from the base system. All of this on top of an Ubuntu platform.
Both projects are doing something I appreciate. I like the idea of a version of Fedora which has most of the early configuration steps handled for me. I'm intrigued by the idea of a solid Ubuntu base running containers which can hold software from cutting edge projects such as Fedora and Arch Linux. These sound like great features.
The problem, in each case, is I'm unable to get either project to install. Both projects have replaced the system installer provided by the parent distribution and, in both cases, it has resulted in installers which crash early in the experience. I've tried both projects multiple times (I probably booted versions of Vanilla OS at least a dozen times in the span of two weeks) and both were unable to get even halfway through the install process. This is particularly frustrating to me because both Fedora and Ubuntu run on this same laptop and install successfully. It's not a hardware issue, it's not an incompatibility with the (parent) distributions' hardware support, the issues are isolated to these new child distributions.
I plan to come back to future versions of these projects, particularly Vanilla OS as I think its container-focused approach will be interesting to use. However, for now, neither project is ready in my opinion.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Vanilla OS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 6.7/10 from 20 review(s).
Have you used Vanilla OS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
HAMMER2 ported to NetBSD, Haiku shares several improvements
The NetBSD operating system may soon be getting initial support for the advanced HAMMER2 filesystem. HAMMER2 was developed for DragonFly BSD and offers a number of attractive storage features. Efforts to get read-only access for HAMMER2 on NetBSD can be found in this GitHub repository. "Initial target is read-only support, but write support is also planned once read-only support is accomplished. Tags are merely for packaging, nothing directly to do with file system version. -CURRENT aka upstream NetBSD is the only tier 1 support branch at the moment."
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The Haiku project celebrated a rare new release last month and, since then, have continued to improve upon their lightweight operating system. The project's monthly newsletter outlines new changes and updates, including filesystem enhancements, driver fixes, and better keyboard support for shortcuts: "korli fixed Shortcuts to accept 'consumer keys' (i.e. ones outside the keymap) as shortcuts, and then added default shortcuts for the HID media keys. This means that on many systems, you can now use the volume keys to actually control the volume, though at present there will not be any visual indicator for when this happens, and it may require copying some new data files for existing installs. Clearly some polishing is required, but this is a big improvement."
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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) |
Verifying torrent downloads
Checking-it-twice asks: Distros usually offer direct downloads and torrents. Torrents verify downloads as they work, so is there any reason to manually verify an ISO I downloaded using the torrent option or is it a waste of time?
DistroWatch answers: On the download pages of most distributions there are usually three or four key links or pieces of information. These are:
- A direct download option to the ISO install media.
- A torrent file which can be used by a bittorrent client to download the ISO file.
- The checksum information, usually presented as a MD5 or SHA256 hash value.
- A signature file which can be used to verify who signed the ISO file or checksum.
The first two items, the direct download and the torrent file, provide methods for fetching the install media.
The checksum information, the MD5 or SHA256 value, provides a way for you to verify that the file you downloaded was not corrupted in transit. In other words, it verifies the file on the server is the same as the file on our hard drive.
The signature does double duty. It can be used to verify the ISO file was not corrupted as we downloaded it. However, the signature is more commonly used to tell us who created the file. In other words, if we have the public verification key of the developer (usually obtained from a key server or in person) then we can verify the file we downloaded was created and signed by the developer.
As the question above pointed out, a torrent file contains its own checksum value which bittorrent clients can use to confirm the ISO file we end up downloading matches the one used to make the torrent file. In other words, bittorrent clients usually verify the file we download wasn't corrupted as we were fetching it.
This makes it seem like the bittorrent client is doing all the checksum work for us and we can skip checking our ISO's hash value against the one published on the developer's website. However, I recommend manually checking the hash value of the torrent download anyway and verifying it matches the published one on the website.
Why go to the extra effort if the bittorrent client already checked its download for us? I have three main reasons I think it's a good idea to confirm the checksum of our local copy of the ISO file matches the one published on the distribution's website:
- The bittorrent client will verify the ISO we download matches the torrent's internal checksum. This protects against errors during the download of the ISO file. However, it doesn't help us if the torrent file itself is corrupted or replaced. If there was something wrong with the torrent then the ISO we end up fetching could be wrong and the bittorrent software may not catch this.
- People often fetch torrent files from websites different than the distribution's official website. Often times developers will upload their torrents to third-party hosts, such as LinuxTracker or another host, and rely on the third-party to track and share the torrent. In other words, the torrent file is in the custody of a third-party and some torrent tracking websites modify the torrents they host.
These modifications are not typically malicious, they just add information necessary to make the torrent file work with the tracker. However, it means the torrent file the developer uploads is often not identical to the torrent file users download and feed into their bittorrent software. It also means any admin with access to the torrent hosting website can alter the file after the developer is done with it. In short, it's important to note the torrent's internal data could be altered by the time we download it and we should not rely on its own checksum. We should verify the checksum against the developer's official hash.
- Some malicious hackers are lazy. There have been a few hacks in the past where a link on a website has been changed to point to a compromised ISO download, but the attacker didn't go to the effort to change the checksum file too. Or the checksum was changed, but the hacker didn't replace the torrent file too. In either of these scenarios our checksum of the ISO we acquired using the torrent option will not match the one published on the developer's website, indicating something is wrong.
In short, while it is convenient bittorrent software will perform a check to make sure it is downloading an ISO file which matches its internal checksum, this only prevents against one situation in which data could be corrupted or compromised. We should take advantage of official published checksum information and, when available, signature files, in order to confirm the ISO we end up with is both from the legitimate developer and has not been altered.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
LibreELEC 10.0.4
LibreELEC 10.0.4, the latest stable version of the a specialist, multi-platform Linux distribution with the Kodi media centre, is now available. This release ships with an updated Kodi 19.5: "LibreELEC 10.0.4, bringing Kodi (Matrix) 19.5, has been released. Users of LibreELEC 10.x will receive an automatic update (if enabled). LibreELEC 9.2 installs are not automatically updated, and users will need to manually update. Changes since 10.0.3: update Kodi to 19.5; updated RPi firmware; AMD GPU fixes. Raspberry Pi 2 - 3 - the new video pipeline used in LibreELEC 10.x does not support enhanced HEVC software decoding, if HEVC media playback is important to you please remain on LibreELEC 9.2 releases or consider a Raspberry Pi 4 upgrade (RPi4 has native HEVC hardware decoding). Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400 hardware supports: HDMI output up to 4kp60; H264 and H265 HW decoding; HDR output (HDR10 and HLG); HD audio; passthrough (Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD); hardware deinterlacing support (PVR/DVD); 10/12bit video output." See the complete release announcement for more information and known issues.
MX Linux 21.3
The MX Linux team have announced the release of an update to the project's 21.x series. The new version includes Xfce 4.18 and an optional updated kernel with new hardware support. "MX-21.3 is the third refresh of our MX-21 release, consisting of bugfixes, kernels, and application updates since our original release of MX-21. If you are already running MX-21, there is no need to reinstall. Packages are all available thru the regular update channel. Highlights include: Debian 11.6 Bullseye base. New and updated applications. Some highlights include: The Xfce releases now feature Xfce 4.18; Fluxbox gets a new mx-rofi-manager tool to save and manage rofi configuration; the KDE release is now a full AHS enabled release, defaulting to the 6.0 AHS kernel. The Debian Stable kernel (5.10) is still available in mx-packageinstaller." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
MX Linux 21.3 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 222kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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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: 2,816
- Total data uploaded: 42.8TB
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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) |
Sharing files between computers
There are many ways to transfer files between two computers (or devices such as smart phones) on the same network. Some people like low-level synchronization tools like rsync, others like a cloud sync service such as Nextcloud. There are also lots of secure file transfer tools such as sftp and scp. These days there are also graphical tools for sharing files across networked devices such as Warpinator and KDE Connect. What tools do you use to share files between your devices?
You can see the results of our previous poll on whether people run Arch Linux or one of its children in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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I transfer files between computers using...
| Bittorrent: | 37 (2%) |
| Cloud sync (Nextcloud): | 66 (4%) |
| FTP: | 76 (5%) |
| KDE Connect: | 50 (3%) |
| Network shares (Samba/NFS): | 252 (15%) |
| OpenSSH (SFTP): | 106 (6%) |
| OpenSSH (SCP): | 97 (6%) |
| Removable storage: | 516 (31%) |
| rsync: | 158 (10%) |
| Warpinator: | 82 (5%) |
| Other: | 154 (9%) |
| None: | 58 (4%) |
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| Website News |
Searching for immutable distributions
Immutable Linux distributions have been gaining popularity in recent years. Once a tool relegated almost exclusively to mobile operating systems, having an immutable base operating system is becoming increasingly popular with Fedora, openSUSE, Vanilla OS, and others offering read-only, fixed core platforms.
In an effort to make it easier for our readers to find and experience immutable operating systems we have added an immutable distribution category on our search page.
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New distributions added to database
Br OS
Br OS is a Brazilian Linux distribution based on Ubuntu and featuring the KDE Plasma desktop. It is designed as an intuitive, easy-to-use, general-purpose operating system for web navigation and content creation, providing a selection of useful applications for daily use.
Br OS 22.10-- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 5.6MB, resolution: 3840x2400 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- PikaOS. PikaOS is an Ubuntu-based distribution with extra drivers and tweaked kernel for better gaming performance.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 23 January 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. 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)
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| Linux Foundation Training |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Vanilla OS (by Toran on 2023-01-16 02:45:02 GMT from Belgium)
Whgen you install Vanilla OS always start withy your PC turned of. If not turned of, the installer might crash. Once installed this OS works like charm. Unfortunatly, like with all other immutables I used, no hplip, no hp-plugin . Hplip is installable but actually not needed. Hp-plugin is not installable, so one needs Vuescan. Kdeconnect can be ibstalled, but does not work yet. This is reported. I have made 2 tutorals on YT regarding Vanilla OS, btw.
https://youtu.be/EBQqIXIIoKw
On how to install firefox and VdhCoApp 1.6.3
https://youtu.be/dugmFtkbHVE
On how to install VueScan if there is a problem with the filesize.
For the rest, I look forward to the future as this distro is really the greatest distro I ever used. But I really need things like my scanner and kdeconnect, so for the time being...
2 • Sharing files between computers (by Sam Crawford on 2023-01-16 03:00:13 GMT from United States)
I share files three different ways between computers.
1. I use USB drives to install a distro to a new computerr.
2. Then I transfer some larger files, such as VMs and music files, and a few configuration files from a portable hard drive.
3. Finally I use "Insync" to sync my Google drive and OneDrive to the current computer.
I've been doing this for years and it's become habit.
3 • VanillaOS (by Desmundo on 2023-01-16 04:55:04 GMT from Australia)
I have tried VanillaOS in a VM but despite being able to install it I didn't go much further when I found it only used Flatpak and Appimage for package management.
I've never liked the Flatpak format and to me the attraction of a Ubuntu-based immutable OS would be the ability to run it purely with Snaps, which I find run much better on this machine than the alternatives.
However Snaps seem to be a known issue and are not offered at install time yet - when they are I might have another look at it.
Having said all of that to me the immutable distro is a novelty only - I don't like the way Android is locked down in similar fashion and I want to be able to do what I want with my computer, and that includes being able to break it.
4 • Sharing files... (by Krzys on 2023-01-16 05:07:26 GMT from United States)
I've been using Synching for all my file sharing between local and remote devices. Been using it for a few years now and it has been very reliable.
5 • File transfer choices (by AdamB on 2023-01-16 06:16:28 GMT from Australia)
I ticked rsync, which is what I use regularly for syncing files (including between Linux and Mac OS), but I also use scp - often when setting up a new installation.
I preferentially use bittorrent for downloading ISOs.
I also use Samba to share files with computers running Windows. I should also mention FreeFileSync, which I use to sync file structures on Windows to my linux computers.
================================================================
On an unrelated topic, in regard to the recent review of Void Linux, my installation of Void, running the MATE desktop environment, uses the 'lxdm' display manager.
6 • Sharing files (by Bob on 2023-01-16 06:57:27 GMT from United States)
Can the Opinion Poll be multiple choice? I routinely use rsync to update files on my NFS server, and ftp to share files with my smartphone. I occasionally use removable media or Google Drive to transfer files. And BitTorrent for downloading ISOs, when that option is available.
7 • File tranfer (by Commuter on 2023-01-16 07:09:24 GMT from Spain)
USB hard disks with LuckyBackup
8 • File sharing (by Alexandru on 2023-01-16 07:46:48 GMT from Romania)
I also use multiple ways to transfer files across computers and mobile devices: removable media, network attached storage and cloud.
9 • sharing files (by Dr.J on 2023-01-16 07:53:00 GMT from Germany)
"Sharing files" can mean different things. In the sense of really sharing (my wife sends me a file to read) we use NFS, i.e. all other computers or devices are accessible on my PC via NFS (I have integrated corresponding "mount/umount scripts" for all devices in my file manager with a dropdown menu). Smartphone and tablets are also mounted this way (either directly via WLAN or via FTP).
There is also a network drive for everyone, where shared files (pictures, movie, music, etc.) are located.
For backups to external or network drives I use rsync (mostly as cronjobs).
For full backups of hard drives and partitions fsarchiver and dd.
10 • Unison (by SuperOscar on 2023-01-16 09:04:49 GMT from Finland)
One essential choice is missing from this week’s poll: Unison. I use it between NFS shares and local computer, removable storage and local computer, and two computers via SSH. As far as I know, it’s still the only program that does a decent two-way sync; rsync is OK but essentially one-way.
11 • File transfer (by DachshundMan on 2023-01-16 10:31:35 GMT from United Kingdom)
It is interesting to see that the old fashioned sneakernet still rules the roost when it comes to file transfer. Certainly I voted for it although to transfer files to my partners computer I often use Email for small to medium size files but that was not an option in the poll.
When I was working we used OneDrive a lot but now I am retired and have switched to using Linux 95% of the time I no longer use it.
12 • Vanilla distro (by qwerty99 on 2023-01-16 10:58:38 GMT from United Kingdom)
Once installed this OS works like charm.
Sounds like the 'charm' is set to destroy working systems!
You have to sympathize with Jesse, reviewing these half-baked distros must be a bit soul-destroying.
13 • Vanilla OS and Nobara (by Rickg on 2023-01-16 11:04:00 GMT from United States)
It appears that you had really bad luck with installs this month! I often try new releases in a virtual machine and I recently tried both of these.
Vanilla OS is an odd duck and, although it installed, I do not see the point of it.
Nobara always installs for me and it seems to provide a well configured Fedora.
14 • 2-in-1 movable storage (by MInuxLintEbianDedition on 2023-01-16 11:06:53 GMT from United Kingdom)
so, I have two 32 bit systems on large capacity thumb drives. I use these for admin things, rescue things, and also file transfer.
I have two in case I need to transfer from the system booted from the thumb drive system, and in case one fails.
15 • Filre transfer (by dragonmouth on 2023-01-16 13:29:41 GMT from United States)
To transfer files between my Linux desktop and Win 7 laptop I use sneakernet.
My two installs of Linux share the /home partition so there is no tranfer between them.
16 • File movement (by Otis on 2023-01-16 14:28:29 GMT from United States)
I doubt if I'm the only one to have used several of the listed choices, and still do. Trying to think of which method most often, guess that'd be media, but FTP a close second. BitTorrent often, too.
I checked "other."
17 • File Transfers (by Trinidad Cruz on 2023-01-16 14:28:30 GMT from United States)
Any given day I have 10 or more computers including Windows 10/11 and several differing Linux systems, some on hardware, some on emulated hardware, both qemu/kvm and hyper-v, on my private network and several remote connections. I use SSH SFTP conections more than any other method. I'd guess my file sharing method usage as follows:
1) SSH SFTP 80% (Linux to Linux and cross platform to Windows)
2) MS One Drive 5%
3) SSH SCP 5%
4) Samba 2% (Usually only on old Windows 7 boxes in for repair)
5) RDP+Samba 2%
6) SSH VNC+SFTP 2%
7) Spice Clipboard Qemu 2%
8) USB Drives 1%
9) Google Drive 1%
I utilize Remmina natively and x11 forwarded all the time.
TC
18 • Samba Shares (by Mike W on 2023-01-16 14:57:44 GMT from United States)
Samba shares are not for the faint of heart to setup, especially for a relative novice like me, but once set up it works great.
I use Daphile (https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=daphile) as a music server. It has built-in synching/backup capabilities which make moving files between USB drives attached to the server very easy. Daphile also allows access to those attached drives on the home network, and I connect to them from other Linux boxes, tablets, etc, via Samba.
19 • Sharing Files (by Brad on 2023-01-16 15:14:08 GMT from United States)
"Sneaker-Net" (Removable Storage), so that I can copy pictures from our digital camera to a USB key, and give it to my wife, so that she can post the pictures on FB.
20 • Of storage and Vanilla... (by tom joad on 2023-01-16 17:26:35 GMT from Austria)
I voted 'other.' I have used Box, Dropbox and some other online storage. I was never happy with the security. One I did like was the Ubuntu storage, Ubuntuone or something, but they took that away.
Then the Ed Snowden thing blew up. From that I learned about TOR and Spideroak. I have been using both ever since. And I am happy with both too. I recommend both.
Really SECURE online storage is very handy to have.
Other times I just email what I need to share, either to myself or others. I think that is better than the sneakernet.
And I got a good chuckle from reading the review of Vanilla. 'Throw it back in the pond and let it grow up.'
21 • Immutable Distributions (Vanilla OS, Fedora Silverblue, etc.) (by CorpSouth on 2023-01-16 19:08:09 GMT from United States)
Fedora 37 Silverblue had been tight for me so far. I started with Fedora 36 Silverblue back in October of last year, having some adjustment pains after using Debian. The experience smoothed out in about a week, and it just became another desktop distribution for me.
So far ostree has learned to walk, but perhaps not grow all its teeth in. After three months I am going to stick around because I'm taking a break from distro hopping. Containers are fun and a good way to get rolling release software to use while keeping the host machine on a slower release roadmap.
The long-term sustainability is an attractive prospect, I am diligently watching for refinements in this specific model.
22 • Vanilla OS (by Mulya_yiri on 2023-01-16 21:57:28 GMT from Australia)
I managed to install Vanilla OS as a VM after reading a review of it. I was really interested in it after what I read.
I tried to set it up and install favourite apps as I would any other new distro, but it failed to do so. I acknowledge this is probably my fault because I don't understand clearly what it is doing and after many years of installing through .deb files and flatpaks and Appimages I just could work out how to do these things.
I agree that it will be worth looking at again once it matures and the bugs are ironed out.
23 • sharing (by wally on 2023-01-16 22:52:20 GMT from United States)
Not enough options for sharing.
I use rsync, samba, ftp, and wps for various situations, it just depends, and all except ftp have daily processes to accomplish.
24 • A fully functional OSTree OS already exists (by Bin on 2023-01-17 06:01:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
Just take a look at Endless OS if you want an OSTree+Flatpak distribution.
It works.
https://www.endlessos.org/os
25 • Vanilla OS installation (by jsmith on 2023-01-17 07:40:19 GMT from Australia)
I encounter a very similar on my hp spectre laptop. It diddn't seem to allow anything other than entire disk so i didn't continue on. Some time later i happen to try again, and lo and behold it allowed me to use the existing partition - but this time it didnt allow me to install as i didnt select the uefi partition. It wouldn't allow me to select my uefi partition for some reason, i think it is too small. It is 100M. Many other distros allows that. But this doesn't, though i did encounter Pop OS also complained it is too small and not allow installation too. Excuse my ignorance but i dont see why they can't allow it. Shame though as it seemed good from the live version.
26 • UEFI small partition size, installation can’t proceed - workaround (by TheTKS on 2023-01-17 11:56:27 GMT from Canada)
@25 jsmith
“ this time it didnt allow me to install as i didnt select the uefi partition. It wouldn't allow me to select my uefi partition for some reason, i think it is too small. It is 100M. Many other distros allows that. But this doesn't, though i did encounter Pop OS also complained it is too small and not allow installation too.”
I ran into the same installing elementaryOS 6. I had to make a new, second boot partition (I leave spare space on my drive.) I tried a couple of different sizes. It would only install after I grew it to 500 MB.
TKS
27 • Transferring files (by Sitwon on 2023-01-17 16:16:43 GMT from United States)
Sometimes, netcat is all you need to get the job done.
And yet I cringe at people still using FTP.
28 • Filesharing - FreeFileSync (by Peter on 2023-01-17 17:09:07 GMT from United States)
FreeFileSync is my very favorite for synchronizing files (Linux,PC,Mac). FFS was an early program to correctly handle daylight savings time. It gives you a GUI list of all the changed files to review, then allows one to correct an individual file's direction with one click if you wish before initiating the transfer. I use it multiple times a day between laptop and desktop. Hard to live without FFS, but when lacking it I also use rsync -avP ./source ./destination so I picked rsync in the survey.
29 • simple file transfers (by Jay on 2023-01-17 19:57:29 GMT from North Macedonia)
I've no problem with Warpinator or rsync (and I'm a Remmina fan because of its NX support), but I spend 90%+ of my time transferring files via fish:// (the file transfer protocol built into the Midnight Commander).
fish:// with ssh is simple, fast, and secure; it works with bash and zsh (my admin and user shells respectively) and almost every Linux or *BSD distro has mc in it.
30 • Sharing Files (by lincoln on 2023-01-17 22:39:53 GMT from Brazil)
I still haven't found the ideal software to share files via desktop, mobile, tv and server. That's why I use (depending on the amount of files, sizes and sharing direction) one of the following software: http-server, rygel, bluetooth, git and rsync.
31 • Sharing files (by John on 2023-01-18 02:49:50 GMT from Canada)
Same as @6, I use multiple methods pretty much equally. None stand out, it depends upon the situation.
32 • Sharing FIles, VanillaOS, and Nobara (by fenglengshun on 2023-01-18 09:54:58 GMT from Indonesia)
For Sharing Files, I've gotten comfortable with using Resilio.
Works like Syncthing, syncing P2P between your devices, but is proprietary in exchange for better mobile client and more features. Has selective file sync (free on mobile, Pro-only on desktop) which is *essential* for me as I need a way to access my files while outside the office and I don't have enough space to fit all the files I might need — as an extra it allows me to get off Google Photos entirely as well as no longer needing OneDrive paid plan (which is why I sound like a shill whenever I talk about it — I hated paying for OneDrive and using it on Linux).
I'm planning to finally buy Pro this year since it's pretty cheap but Free works well enough — I just have an old laptop being an always-on sync 'server'. It's just so easy to setup, compared to Nextcloud and the like, and doesn't require me to own a domain.
---
Regarding VanillaOS, I've tested it on VMware and it seems to work well enough. It's certainly better than usual immutable OS where you don't have much recourse for modifying root files and settings. It's not great with stuff that requires GUI password prompts and doesn't allow running as root to get-around it (an issue both on host and distrobox side), but for the most part, it's still easier to play around its limitations than other immutable OS I've tried. I've even managed to install and theme KDE with WhiteSur and Unity-like UX on it.
But your review makes me worry because my laptop is a 2022 HP 14. It is AMD CPU with Radeon Graphics, so maybe that's less of an issue, but it does seem that I really should just wait until late 2023 because a lot of things are transitioning or being built and it's better to just wait until it's all done so I can take a look at them all at the same time. Plus, maybe by then they'll have a KDE edition instead of requiring me to abroot shell multiple times to get KDE.
As for Nobara, it's a more convenient Fedora. I'm more interested in risiOS because it's more friendly and can do most of the setup Nobara has for gaming, but Nobara is more ready and has a decent goal for what it's trying to accomplish.
My problem is always with Fedora. It's a PITA getting some of the apps I use there compared to on Ubuntu-based and Arch-based. Arch-based is super simple -- and pamac makes it even more convenient (even if it has its issues). Ubuntu, there's now deb-get and pacstall so I barely have to install .deb manually anymore. Fedora? If it's not in the main repo, rpmfusion, or COPR? It can be a real PITA to install — I had to use alien just to get FDM and the new Surfshark VPN GUI installed, and that was plain annoying. And I still have to use distrobox to get easy access to a pre-built firefox-appmenu from chaotic-aur anyways.
They both are fine projects for what they're trying to accomplish, but the former is just not ready for prime time yet (which is good that people acknowledge it) and the latter is just fundamentally not for me because of what I use and prefer. So I hope 2023 will be a better year for both of them, because I really, really, really want to get off of Manjaro, but nothing has been as convenient with software install than Manjaro with Pamac, Automatic Manjaro Updater, and OOTB grub btrfs-snapshop for easy rollback.
33 • 🅱️ oll (by Cheker on 2023-01-18 23:38:33 GMT from Portugal)
Surprised to see removable media win. Thought I was a minority there. I technically do some, very little, ssh and warpinator as well but 99% of it is ext. HDDs and pen drives.
Vanilla sounds promising, the "run software from any distro" bit reminds me of Bedrock, I like that idea, at least in theory.
34 • Sharing Files (by penguinx86 on 2023-01-19 08:24:38 GMT from United States)
I mostly use removable media to share files. Why? Because my home environment has Linux, PC, Mac, Chromebook, Android and other platforms. I need a way to share my file to Any Platform! For small files, I also send them as email attachments. Most of the files I share are documents, multimedia or sometimes Zip files. Most of these are small files below 20gb. Also, if I email files to non technical users, like my parents, the file format needs to be simple enough for non technical users to open.
Number of Comments: 34
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