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1 • BSD in cloud (by BSD on 2023-09-25 00:37:22 GMT from United States)
I selected 'Yes - I run cloud servers', but they run on OpenBSD, not Linux.
2 • User Friendly / Independent Distro (by Al on 2023-09-25 00:45:36 GMT from United States)
I thought MX Linux is a user friendly and independent distribution.
And quite popular. It has been number one in HPD for a long time.
3 • Spiral Linux (by mnrv-ovrf-year-c on 2023-09-25 00:56:43 GMT from Puerto Rico)
Thank you "GeckoLinux" for making Spiral Linux release based on Debian "Bookworm". <3
Near exactly a year ago, soon after its release this distro changed my Linux-using life. Without it I would have remained completely off GNOME and Budgie, because otherwise I hate them. Without it I would have remained quite ignorant about Debian original.
It wasn't hard anyway to take one of the "Bullseye"-based ISO's, install it and raise it to "Bookworm" status. But that isn't needed any longer.
The KDE edition is my daily driver. But I don't like KDE that much LOL.
4 • Re: MX Linux (by BSD in cloud on 2023-09-25 01:02:36 GMT from United States)
@2, MX Linux is not "independent" in the sense that Jesse was using it---it is based on Debian.
But I would recommend Debian to anyone, even beginners with a little guidance. There is very little that requires "advanced" skills once you download the non-free version with media codecs. And since so many people use it, any issue that ever comes up is abundantly addressed all over the internet. Solutions are easy to find.
5 • Independent? (by Andy Prough on 2023-09-25 01:32:42 GMT from Germany)
I don't really consider Arch or Debian as "independent", as they borrow so extensively from RedHat/Fedora for nearly everything they do. I would consider them little more than "core Fedora system tools plus additional packages" at this point. If they were working on alternative init system, audio system, desktop environments, etc it would be easier to see them as independent, but they are entirely dependent on RedHat/Fedora for nearly everything their distros do other than package management. OpenSUSE has the same dependence on RedHat/Fedora for their internals, but at least they have the extensive YaST set of system configuration tools that they develop and maintain themselves. Arch and Debian don't even offer their own system configuration tools.
6 • ReiserFS (by Bear Dogg on 2023-09-25 01:48:37 GMT from United States)
First distro I ever used was Linspire 4.5, and it defaulted to ReiserFS. Now I use my custom Debian-based system which defaults to btrfs. Linux has come a long way since then.
7 • ReiserFS (by UZ64 on 2023-09-25 03:04:12 GMT from United States)
I remember back when I first started using Linux ReiserFS was featured prominently as an option during the partitioning stage of many Linux installers, and some even used it as the default.
And then... Hans Reiser was found to have murdered his wife. I honestly don't even know the last time I saw it even as an option at this point, it's been years.
RIP Nina Reiser... and RIP ReiserFS.
8 • Arch and Debian (by Jay on 2023-09-25 03:15:13 GMT from Canada)
@5: "I don't really consider Arch or Debian as "independent", as they borrow so extensively from RedHat/Fedora for nearly everything they do."
This is false.
' I would consider them little more than "core Fedora system tools plus additional packages" at this point."
This makes no sense. Neither Arch or Debian is in any way based on Fedora.
"If they were working on alternative init system, audio system, desktop environments, etc it would be easier to see them as independent"
None of these projects (Fedora, Arch, or Debian) makes their own init, audio, desktop tools. Virtually no Linux distro does.
"but they are entirely dependent on RedHat/Fedora for nearly everything their distros do other than package management."
This is, again, false. Arch and Debian are not at all based on Fedora.
"openSUSE has the same dependence on RedHat/Fedora for their internals,"
They do not. openSUSE is an independent distro.
"Arch and Debian don't even offer their own system configuration tools."
Arch doesn't because it has a KISS approach, almost everything is done by hand. Debian has a similar simple approach, but does have some configuration tools.
9 • Amazing (by Jacob Alexander Tice on 2023-09-25 03:28:25 GMT from United States)
@5 That screed is one of the most obviously bullshit things I've read in a long while. Nearly every word is incorrect, but I'll only go with one correction because the comment above gave most of the rest. Debian is over a decade older than Fedora, so it literally cannot be based on Fedora unless time travel is involved.
10 • Running Linux sessions in the cloud (by Andy Figueroa on 2023-09-25 04:18:30 GMT from United States)
Given that "the cloud" is just a synonym for somebody elses' or your own remote computer(s), I responded that I do both, but the server and desktop systems that I run are on hardware where I am also the system admin.
11 • Running Linux sessions in the cloud (by Jules AMbrosi on 2023-09-25 04:37:38 GMT from Australia)
Hi, Running anythings in he cloud is a conrumdum.
Do not forget, the cloud is someone else computer and storage and you pay by subscriptions normally (can be free for limited CPU and storage).
The main issue is security of your data and what risk you want to have for having cloud services..
12 • @5 (system configuration tools) (by Head_on_a_Stick on 2023-09-25 05:55:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
I use vim for system configuration in Arch & Debian :-)
13 • child of not child (by thim on 2023-09-25 06:35:36 GMT from Greece)
@5 So MX Linux (or Antix or Devuan etc) with plasma, sysvinit, pipewire is not a derivative of fedora but it is a derivative of debian which is a derivative of fedora. Same case as artix to arch etc etc etc etc
14 • SpiralLinux Releases and Upgrades (by GLR on 2023-09-25 06:50:28 GMT from United States)
Thank you for SpiralLinux! I have been a Debian user from Libranet, Mepis, Linux Mint Debian and more recently MX Linux. I’ve became impatient with every “pure” Debian Linux install attempt with all of the details to make it “friendly” to me. I knew that Debian stable could be “upgraded” without a reinstall after each release. SpiralLinux provided that base in June of 2022 with the Debian 11 Bullseye release. Over the last two weeks (before the SpiralLinux Debian 12 Bookworm releases of today) I upgraded 4 of my notebooks flawlessly to Bookworm retaining my “plus size” collection of applications and configuration settings. It’s quite easy using Synaptic with editing the repositories and a reboot as described in the SpiralLinux documentation.
SpiralLinux IS DEBIAN STABLE, not another distro but a full Debian Stable installation with configurations set to make it more user friendly like most other Debian based distros.
Debian stable is one install then upgrade every couple years when a new stable version is released.
The caveat here is to use caution installing applications or application versions not of the current Debian Stable group. Research and verify they will not cause problems with the present Debian stable OS.
15 • GNU turns 40, ReiserFS (by Alexandru on 2023-09-25 07:24:12 GMT from Romania)
It is really a miracle we have software (OSes and applications), created specifically to protect our freedom. In the world of corporate wars Linux (together with other open source software) plays out of rules and therefore cannot be defeat. We all know, there were attempts to eliminate it or at least to minimize its spread.
Regarding ReiserFS, I really liked it. Its journal kept 32 MB unlike Ext3 whose journal takes 10% (or 5% ?) of partition size. It save space when using very deep hierarchy of many small files, compared to Ext3 (this is the most common use-case for programmers). And it is rock-solid. When the filesystem gets corrupted, ReiserFS takes literally a few seconds to fsck, unlike Ext3. The same is true for filesystem creation and like. The only downside were the file operations with large files, which didn't happen often for me. ReiserFS was the reason I recompiled kernel to include support for Reiser4. For some reason, Reiser4 didn't play as well for me, it may be my fault though. Until now, I don't find a good replacement for ReiserFS. I use BtrFS where previously was ReiserFS and Ext4 instead of Ext3. Unfortunately, a crash in BtrFS never recovers for me, I need to reformat and copy my files from backup. This is sad. I didn't play much with ZFS, XFS (Grub doesn't like it) and JFS. I do not use fancy new features of filesystems, I just want the productive filesystem.
16 • VIM (by meaw229a on 2023-09-25 08:37:10 GMT from New Zealand)
@12 + @16 Vim is bloat. I modify the raw bits on my ssd with a battery and some wires
17 • @17 - ReiserFS, On ReiserFS, FileSystems, etc... (by Jeffersonian-1789 on 2023-09-25 08:37:45 GMT from Poland)
Alexandru: First thanks for a concise substantial input, about ReiserFS. If Reiser is in jail, for murder, his work on ReiserFs seems quite useful, and I was wondering if the ReiserFS was not deprecated a bit too fast. After all if Wagner was a "@#$%&" his music his great: we should separate the person, and his accomplishments, positive and bad. --- Ref : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser I hope Reiser in prison, is allowed to have a computer, to contnue development, and perhaps teach other inmates computer skills, so when they get out, they can be positively useful to society. There the US corporate industrial prison complex needs...much better releases ! --- I have used BRTFS for a long time, with very few issues, if not a bit overly complex or simply poorly supported by the basic Linux tools, like parted/gparted, and gnome-disks. --- The topic of file systems is a great one, and I still deplore the poor support of advanced file systems, like "key Indexed" or "files of records" which were part of languages like COBOL and PASCAL, and made programming simple to write... and programs simple to read. To the point I would welcome some Pascal like support for file I/O in new languages like RUST, GOlang, and more (Crystal)... --- Jeffersonian-1789
18 • Desktop Starters (by Dr.J on 2023-09-25 09:38:05 GMT from Germany)
There is one item missing from your list, Jesse, and that is that it is a bug in DE. I have had recurring problems with desktop launchers in XFCE for years. Sometimes they worked, but often they didn't. It was one reason why I generally banned DE from my computer. Too much unnecessary stuff, too many bugs. Since I use Openbox everything runs smoothly and as it should.
19 • @5 (by kc1di on 2023-09-25 10:32:45 GMT from United States)
I have been reading Distrowatch for a good number of years and never heard such miss information here. Debian has never been connected to fedora in any way! Other than some befits it might receive for Fedora's kernel submissions. Other than that Debian predates Fedora by a long shot.
You should do your research and stop spreading miss information. It really does no good for anyone. I am glad you have found a good distro in fedora but tearing down others work is not need here at all.
As Jessie said I often recommend PClinuxOS to newbies it is a good solid distro and has a very good forum and answers are usually at hand very quickly.
20 • 10 & 11 (by Someguy on 2023-09-25 10:40:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
Well said! Most folks don't know, understand or care. And, they'll be first to bleat when they find their identity, cash, etc. have been stolen, usually for profit, but not yours...
21 • ReiserFS (by Microlinux on 2023-09-25 10:49:10 GMT from France)
Fun fact: a few years back, Wikipedia's filesystem comparison page listed "Murders your wife" as a ReiserFS disadvantage. Unfortunately the entry has been edited away since.
22 • Do you run Linux in the cloud? (by James on 2023-09-25 10:49:30 GMT from United States)
No, the cloud, your data on someone else's server.
23 • Opensuse not beginner friendly? (by Mike on 2023-09-25 12:05:32 GMT from Netherlands)
What made you come to the conclusion that Opensuse is not suitable for people new to linux? Ubuntu of Mint are not better in this aspect (just to give an example).
24 • ReiserFS controversy (by Flaviano Matos on 2023-09-25 12:46:20 GMT from Brazil)
I remember an ironical commentary on the Reiser controversy a long time ago that started like: "Every time someone installs ReiserFS, Hans Reiser kills more people!"
25 • Someone else's files (by Friar Tux on 2023-09-25 14:06:12 GMT from Canada)
Re: cloud services. I have learned my lesson to keep everything on my own computer. When cloud systems/services first came out I was quite enthusiastic about the whole idea. However, I quickly learned it was just a major scam. (Yes, I called it a scam, hear me out.) I won't name names, but the first cloud service I use offered a substantial amount of storage space. Six months into using, it they decided to cut back on that space and I lost quite a bit of stuff - fortunately I had it backed up externally. After a few years of licking my wounded pride, I decided to try again, using a different service and ended up in the same trap again. (Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.) My Enthusiastic-O-Meter is now at zero, and will probably stay there. Re: Hans Reiser - I once read an article about anti-social tendencies where the author discusses why a lot of computer programmers/code writers were not good at social etiquette. He/she cited the Reiser murder, Stallman, and Torvalds controversies, and a few others I can't remember right now. Funnily enough, it IS true for me - I would rather hang out on my laptop than deal with people. BUT, that's just me. (On a side note, it may also explain the "passion" of viewpoints here, at times.)
26 • ReiserFS (by Nobody on 2023-09-25 14:38:30 GMT from Singapore)
I don't use it. If it's good, why not fork it and gives it a new lease of life?
27 • Mageia 9 (by RetiredIT on 2023-09-25 14:51:36 GMT from United States)
Mageia has not improved or evolved as other distros have. This fact is reflected in user comments as well as reviews of this distro. I have had little success with installing it or using it in the past several years. Release 9 was no exception. It did not finish the installation but froze up near the end. Some past releases did the same thing, including really messing up my GRUB configuration to the point that it couldn't even be repaired with the Super GRUB2 Recovery Disk.
The developers should very seriously consider whether to continue with Mageia or permanently cease development, because Mageia is going nowhere but down, like so many other distros, as well as with the present state of the entire software world.
28 • Mageia 9 Et Al... (by Bobbie Sellers on 2023-09-25 15:18:55 GMT from United States)
Mageia 9 is a fine effort but it sticks too close to the Red Hat possibilities i.e. using systemd and it was that way in 3.1 which was the first Mageia iteration to boot on my hardware a few years back. As soon as Texstar acknowledged the utility of GTP and EFI I went right back to PCLinuxOS and have not been tempted away from it since. PCLinuxOS is a well-curated Rolling Release and has updates quite often and not just security updates using an a very easy to learn tool Synaptic with apt-get and rpm. No systemd to confuse things.
Both of these forked from Mandrake, took images from Mandriva and did the very best they could with such an auspicious start. There is also a Russian imitator and with Russia being so treacherous in computer use for quite a while now I will not put it on my machines. Not even a live booting version.
bliss - Dell Precision E7730- PCLinuxOS 64- Linux 6.5.5- KDE Plasma 5.27.8
29 • ReiserFS (by eb on 2023-09-25 15:26:16 GMT from France)
At my office, more than 20 years ago, I switched from Ext2 to ReiserFS, that have been running perfectly till now ; excellent file system.
30 • Za kuraudo (by Cheker on 2023-09-25 17:01:44 GMT from Portugal)
I ran a free Red Hat instance on Amazon's thingy once when I was doing a course with them. I didn't use it that much because I had a local CentOS (before they killed it) virtual machine anyway.
The cloud isn't real, anything that isn't 1's and 0's on HDDs I can touch isn't real.
31 • Arch/Debian/Fedora (by Otis on 2023-09-25 17:13:20 GMT from United States)
@5 Thankfully this paragraph of misinformation has been addressed (@8, @9 etc). As I was reading that by Andy Prough I began to doubt my own (shamefully anemic) Linux knowledge as to Debian predating Fedora by several generations of releases. Thank you Jay and Jacob for setting it straight.
It is a testament to the character of Distrowatch that such nonsense as @5 is allowed to remain as it can become addressed as the day goes on. Thank you Jesse et al.
32 • Which came first? (by Friar Tux on 2023-09-25 17:48:17 GMT from Canada)
For those wishing to actually SEE the history of who came first:- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg/2220px-Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg.png This should answer that question.
33 • @31 Arch/Debian/Fedora (by Andy Prough on 2023-09-25 18:00:03 GMT from United States)
>"misinformation"
You misunderstand - there's no misinformation in my original post - neither Debian nor Arch develop nor use alternative system level packages other than what they borrow from RedHat/Fedora (primarily) along with GNU and KDE and other similar projects. Unless you are in love with their apt or pacman package managers or are in love with their poorly conceived "installers" (my opinion), there's very little to recommend them as systemd-distros over Fedora which is directly overseen by the RedHat developers that are creating systemd and many of those other core system packages.
Additionally, neither Debian nor Arch create or maintain almost any system configuration tools, and certainly not anything remotely approaching the scale of OpenSUSE's YaST suite of tools.
34 • Independent (by Jesse on 2023-09-25 18:02:16 GMT from Canada)
@33: "either Debian nor Arch develop nor use alternative system level packages other than what they borrow from RedHat/Fedora (primarily) "
Debian and Arch don't use Fedora components. They don't borrow software from Fedora or Red Hat.
35 • @12 @16 VIM, wires (by Mike in Oaxaca, MX on 2023-09-25 18:57:22 GMT from United States)
Don't need a battery, or even wires. I just gaze intently at my computer for a while, and all the electrons migrate to their assigned places.
36 • @34 "Independent" (by Andy Prough on 2023-09-25 19:19:45 GMT from United States)
>"Debian and Arch don't use Fedora components. They don't borrow software from Fedora or Red Hat."
You are the maintainer of the primary alternative init system which I use daily, so no arguments, you are the expert.
I'll just say that I'm sure that Debian and Arch fit clearly within the Distrowatch definition of "independent", but I no longer think that they are different enough internally to fit within my definition of "independent". From my perspective they are just different ways of installing and running a similarly constituted systemd distro. When I was younger there were vast differences between major distros, but most of those differences have collapsed.
37 • Independent or not (by Ann O'Nimmus on 2023-09-25 20:17:43 GMT from France)
@34, @31 Andy Prough doesnot define independent distros as you do.
And he isnot that wrong when he states that key components of modern Linux desktop originates from Red Hat: KVM, GNOME, SystemD, PulseAudio are examples of software that originates Red Hat or are mostly maintained by Red Hat developpers. Debian or Arch typically just recompiie, tune and repackage them.
The same goes with largely used cloud stack components such as Ceph Storage, OpenShift or OpenStack.
The sad truth in Linux-world is key software exist only because multibillion-dollars companies develop and maintain them, or massively contribute to them. It begins with the kernel (overwhelmingly contributed by large hardware-making companies - devices drivers, processor architecture optimisations...). And it extends to desktop environment (KDE was initially a nonfree-license product, whence the creation of [GPL'd] GNOME).
Flagship end-user Linux software are even just former proprietary products, that switched to a free license in a desesperate attempt to gain developpers for free when their proprietors couldnot afford to maintain them just by themselves, around a quarter of a century : - LibreOffice was forked from Oracle OpenOffice, which uttimately was StarOffice from a proprietary product that had lost in competition to Microsoft Office's hegemony. - Firefox and Thunderbird are just independent rewrites of Mozilla suite components, and Mozilla was just Netscape made opensource when Internet Explorer had won hegemony. - Eclipse is just an opensource rewrite of IBM VisualAge integrated development environment, once Microsoft Visual Studio won hegemony...
38 • Independent (by Jesse on 2023-09-25 20:39:27 GMT from Canada)
@37: "And he is not that wrong when he states that key components of modern Linux desktop originates from Red Hat: KVM, GNOME, SystemD, PulseAudio are examples of software that originates Red Hat or are mostly maintained by Red Hat developpers."
None of those projects originated from Red Hat. Red Hat is one of many organizations which contributes to those projects. It didn't create any of them and isn't the sole manager of any of them.
The above argument is like saying Linux distributions which package Cinnamon are based on Linux Mint. Or that all Linux distros are based on Windows because Microsoft contributes patches to the Linux kernel. It is not only wrong (based on its own internal reasoning) it also completely redefines the concept of what an independent/dependent distribution is.
39 • Mageia (by Wiz on 2023-09-25 21:27:22 GMT from Greece)
Some remarks dissing Mageia are quite strange. Even the thought of comparing some archaic or half-baked distros with Mageia is weird. Mageia is stable and mature, has a friendly and responsive community and everything works as expected whenever I tried it. It certainly deserves its place among other classic distros like Debian or OpenSuse.
40 • Mageia (by Flaviano Matos on 2023-09-25 22:58:05 GMT from Brazil)
@39 And is the only major distribution with a Greek name :-)
41 • INDEPENDENCE from the upstream parents (Linux) (by Greg Zeng on 2023-09-26 00:58:28 GMT from Australia)
Computer codes are generally being debugged, revised, reverted, 'improved', and often demanding change because of environmental changes. When the upstream parent changes, the downstream dependents must follow, eventually, and hopefully. Otherwise, it is called INDEPENDENT.
Upstream to Linux systems is the raw Linux code, before it is compiled into binary run-time. Everything downstream from this raw code is DEPENDENT.
Previous upstream 'independent' parents: SysVinit, Deb compiled code, RPM compiled code, EXT4, NTFS (Linux), BTRFS (version x), Wayland (version x), exFat, Fat32, GTK (version x), QT (version x), SYSTEMD, etc.
Distrowatch database has their own version of INDEPENDENCE; any of the 33 types of upstream 'INDEPENDENT' Linux parents. Definition of INDEPENDENCE might start from CLI-alone, or Windows-Management and/or Desktop Environment (52 listed), or Application-compilation-type (9 package managers). https://distrowatch.com/search.php#advanced
Upstream application-compilations were originally RPM and DEBIAN (126 listed). https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=DEB&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simpleRed Hat created such trademark disturbance, that the 41 listed RPM compilations became unreliable with each other: OpenSuse, Mandriva, PCLOS, etc. https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=RPM&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simple
CLI-raw code compilation became so slow and complex, that script-languages were created to try to simplify this very skilled process; AUR used by the Arch-dependents, etc. These well understood breakdowns on Linux are why the three independent and competing application containers were created (AppImage, snap & flatpak) in addition to the 9 package managers.
42 • Mageia "halt" and other quirks (by David on 2023-09-26 03:33:49 GMT from United States)
I wonder whether Jesse "halted" or only re-booted after installation. It has been years since I installed Mageia from a live media or the old "classic installation," but my recollection is that a complete shutdown must take place to avoid little issues -- or big ones -- when restarting. As best I can recall from experience of installing various distros, Mageia is unique in requiring a cold start. Surely there are others, but I can't think of one I've installed that requires it.
I agree with Jesse that configuration of repositories is overly complex. It's not just awkward. It's cumbersome and time-consuming. Almost everyone else has automated the process.
Printing is an afterthought, so setting up a printer requires first installing the foundational printing software. Years ago I complained in the forum and was met with the opinion that no one prints anymore. Really? No one uses Konqueror anymore, either, but it's still installed.
All that said, I see ways in which Mageia has progressed. For one, the kernel now is very much up-to-date. In addition, software such as LibreOffice is "fresh" (to use the LO term) or almost so. Apparently, the days are gone when the versions you got at installation remained until the next distribution upgrade.
In my opinion Mageia inherits the tradition of Mandrake Linux, which in its day was a supremely important Linux distribution, a rival of Red Hat, on which it was based.
43 • @5 Really? (by Reyfer on 2023-09-26 04:46:47 GMT from Venezuela)
"In 1993, Bob Young incorporated the ACC Corporation, a catalog business that sold Linux and Unix software accessories. In 1994, Marc Ewing created his own Linux distribution, which he named Red Hat Linux[13] (associated with the time Ewing wore a red Cornell University lacrosse hat, given to him by his grandfather, while attending Carnegie Mellon University[14][15][16]). Ewing released the software in October, and it became known as the Halloween release. Young bought Ewing's business in 1995,[clarification needed] and the two merged to become Red Hat Software, with Young serving as chief executive officer (CEO). "
So Red Hat didn't start as a Linux dustro until 1994/1995.....meanwhile:
"Debian 0.01, released on September 15, 1993, was the first of several internal releases. Version 0.90 was the first public release, providing support through mailing lists hosted at Pixar.The release included the Debian Linux Manifesto, outlining Murdock's view for the new operating system. In it he called for the creation of a distribution to be maintained "openly in the spirit of Linux and GNU."
Tell me again that Debian is based on something that was created AFTER Debian was already published? Please?
44 • @43 (by Andy Prough on 2023-09-26 05:32:22 GMT from United States)
> "Tell me again that Debian is based on something that was created AFTER Debian was already published"
The early versions of Debian had their own initialization scripts and had a firm commitment to only shipping freely licensed software. Today's Debian has undergone substantial changes, no longer honoring those prior commitments, and turning over responsibility for init (and many other activities) to a third party project that has been dominated by contributors from a competing distro. You can talk about 1993/1994 all you like, but this is 2023. I would venture to say that Ian Murdoch would never have made those decisions. I know that his successor Ian Jackson certainly wouldn't have, as he led the internal Debian fight against the sole use of systemd up through 2014.
45 • Dreaming (by Jason on 2023-09-26 06:26:01 GMT from Australia)
My goodness, its fake news and false information day, you got to laugh at some of these people who haven't got a clue and just spread fud.There is a saying from an iconic Aussie movie called "The Castle". It goes like this "Tell Him He is Dreaming" well your providing a good case...lol
46 • Debian, feels more and more like red hat with apt. (by Hank on 2023-09-26 13:05:15 GMT from United States)
Debian and Arch don't use Fedora components. They don't borrow software from Fedora or Red Hat. Really:
SystemD, Pipewire,Gnome are from outer space or where, actually now IBM owned Red Hat
Debian is even allowing sysd packager to actively damage function of init alternatives.
47 • Competing distro? (by Jacob Alexander Tice on 2023-09-26 22:43:56 GMT from United States)
@44 Debian and Fedora serve different parts of the Linux market, Debian also contributes to systemd, and Red Hat doesn't control GNOME anymore than Canonical does. Ian Murdoch's successor was also Bruce Perens, and Ian Jackson replaced him. All of these things can be discovered with a basic Google search.
48 • ReiserFS (by dragonmouth on 2023-09-26 23:30:21 GMT from United States)
What do the personal foibles of a developer have to do with the product he has developed? Is ReiserFS a good filesystem?
Many brilliant people have skeletons in their closets. (Pun not intended though it applies)
49 • @Andy Prough: (by dragonmouth on 2023-09-26 23:38:15 GMT from United States)
Linux is becoming homogenized. Distros are borrowing from each other. With all the distros out there, it is hard for any to be original.
50 • Re: ReiserFS (by Jacob Alexander Tice on 2023-09-26 23:51:49 GMT from United States)
@48 even ignoring the murder aspect of it, ReiserFS is out of date compared to Btrfs and even ext4. Hell, it predates ext3. It also doesn't properly support fsck, is generally inefficient, and has gaping security holes.
51 • Homogenized Linux (by Otis on 2023-09-27 14:47:09 GMT from United States)
@49 Yes, and accurate way to put it. Interesting that the discussion had been focused on "independent" then morphed to that fact of blending. Indeed it in my mind highlights the (mostly) open source aspect of the Linux ecosystem.
52 • ReiserFS (by NoNamesys on 2023-09-27 23:30:01 GMT from France)
Murdering one's wife (or anyone by the way), a foible? How cynical!
The thing is ReiserFS (Reiser3) has serious defects on machine halts before data is synchronized the disk. SuSE and OpenSuSE (the only major distro shipping it as default filesystem) switched to Ext3 as soon as 2006.
i donot know whether Reiser4 has become as reliable as Ext4. But it still has not been merged into the mainline Linux kernel, and consequently is still not supported on many Linux distributions.
It seems that many former ReiserFS users and some of its developers have just switched to BtrFS now (if not to Ext4FS or another FS). So have SUSE and OpenSUSE. ReiserFS has faded into a simple curoisity, only used by an insignificant number of iast adepts.
53 • @50 & 52: (by dragonmouth on 2023-09-28 22:23:34 GMT from United States)
You both guys are trying very hard to say that the murder influenced the quality of ReiserFS. There is absolutely no connection between the two. As both of you so eloquently pointed out, ReiserFS failed because it lacked features, not because the developer was a killer.
54 • ReiserFS, @53 (by Mr. Moto on 2023-09-29 02:11:35 GMT from Japan)
It turned out not to be the killer FS after all.
55 • ReiserFS (by Joe on 2023-09-29 06:48:45 GMT from Netherlands)
ReiserFS has since been marginalized and is now considered obsolete. It did not fit into current interfaces and broke userspace. Overall, while ReiserFS had some advantages, it has been largely replaced by more modern file systems.
56 • Mageia packege manager (by Arelatensis on 2023-09-29 11:37:28 GMT from Russia)
That it is a bit ackward, I think in is matter of preference. I find Mageia packegedrake very coonfortable, comphensible and easy to use. Contrarely my experience with Discover in OpenMandriva was terrible. MCC (Mageia control centre) one of the big adwantages of this distro,which makes it more suitable for new bee, then Ubuntu. Non frecuent updatet also is distibution policy - stability instead modernity. Unlike OpenMadriva, Mageia does not drop down support for urpmi in favor of dnf, and uses both. From three distros arised in 2012-13 former Mandriva out Mageia takes a central stand between more cute-age OpenMandriva and barebone ROSA.
57 • Easiest Independent Distribution (by dl on 2023-09-29 22:35:29 GMT from Czechia)
I think Debian is the easiest independent distribution. There are nice books for beginners: "The Debian beginner’s handbook: A simplified manual for Debian" https://lescahiersdudebutant.arpinux.org/
A more advanced book is: "The Debian Administrator's Handbook" https://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/
After reading these books, most users should have no problems when installing and using Debian.
58 • Re: ReiserFS (by Jacob Alexander Tice on 2023-09-29 23:11:02 GMT from United States)
@53 Hans Reiser's murder conviction is the very reason it doesn't support fsck, has gaping security holes, and its developer going out of business.
Number of Comments: 58
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| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
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| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
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