 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1041, 16 October 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This past week Canonical released Ubuntu 23.10, code name "Mantic Minotaur", and it was accompanied by ten official community editions. This week we cover the highlights of these releases (along with others) and ask which of these flavours of Ubuntu is your favourite in our Opinion Poll. We also report on the Ubuntu Budgie and Ubuntu Desktop install media being revoked to address malicious translations inserted in the ISO files. First though we talk about two young projects from our waiting list. The first is FydeOS, a Gentoo-based project which seeks to find a balance between traditional computing and browser-focused functionality. The second project is a live utility distribution which focuses on providing a range of disk manipulation, cloning, and data recovery tools. Read on to hear Jesse Smith's first impressions of both projects. Then, in our News section, we discuss why Debian, a massive project that has been running for over 30 years, works the way it does. We also talk about Fedora partnering with Slimbook to offer the Linux distribution pre-installed on laptops and talk about GNOME phasing out support for X11 sessions in favour of Wayland. Plus, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss user identification numbers (UIDs) - why they can be different across distributions and how to change them. We're also pleased to share the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: FydeOS 17.0 and Dr.Parted 23.09
- News: Why Debian is the way it is, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu removes new ISO images
- Questions and answers: Changing user identification numbers
- Released last week: Raspberry Pi OS 2023-10-10, Ubuntu 23.10, Window Maker Live 0.96.0-0, Slackel 7.7 "Openbox"
- Torrent corner: IPFire, KDE neon, Raspberry Pi OS, SparkyLinux
- Opinion poll: Which is your favourite flavour of Ubuntu?
- New distributions: Orchid Studio, SpoinkOS
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
FydeOS 17.0
FydeOS is an interesting project which was recently added to DistroWatch's waiting list. The distribution appears to be based on Gentoo with an aim to bridge the functionality between a traditional desktop distribution and a ChromeOS-style operating system where most tasks are performed through a web browser.
The project's website shares a few highlights of the distribution:
FydeOS boots up in seconds from cold, even with entry-grade hardware. It's ready whenever you are.
FydeOS is bundled with built-in virus protection and encryption by default, keeping your data safe.
FydeOS is available in four main branches: VMware, PC, an Enterprise edition, and something called "FydeOS for You". The VMware and PC editions are for virtual machines and physical hardware, respectively, while the Enterprise edition is for people who wish to purchase support. The FydeOS for You edition appears to offer a series of customized builds for specific x86_64 and ARM hardware. For instance there are builds for the Pinebook and several for versions of the Microsoft Surface devices.
The PC edition is also broken into more specific builds. There are various builds for different ages of hardware and style of video card. Presumably these editions are intended to offer more efficient support for modern CPUs. However, it means the potential user needs to go through multiple pages and a bit of reading to find the proper edition of the proper branch.
I downloaded the PC branch of FydeOS 17.0, specifically the edition for the oldest hardware as I figured it would offer the best compatibility for a range of CPUs. The download was a compressed file, 1.5GB in size. When it was unpacked, the IMG file was 6.9GB. I wrote this file to a thumb drive and dived into the experience.
Nothing happened for the first minute after I tried to boot from the USB thumb drive. I was beginning to wonder if the operating system had crashed when the project's logo appeared on the screen. Then nothing more happened for another six minutes while I watched the logo. At the seven minute mark a text console appeared with a brief welcome message and a URL for the project's documentation. There was also a banner saying I could use Ctrl+Alt+F1 to see a web browser. A login prompt followed.
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 didn't do anything, my system remained on the login screen. I found I could sign in as the root user and then the system locked up. It no longer responded to keyboard input, I couldn't switch between virtual terminals, and typing resulted in nothing appearing on the screen.
I started over and ran into the same scenario again. After about eight minutes the system just freezes and there is no more disk activity. There is no error message either, leaving us no breadcrumbs to follow.
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Dr.Parted Live 23.09
Since my trial with FydeOS came to an early halt, I decided to look at another distribution I'd encountered recently. This project offers a live distribution with a series of disk and file utilities. The distribution is called Dr.Parted Live and its website describes it as follows:
Dr.Parted Live is a bootable GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian testing. Live CD/USB featuring a lightweight Openbox window manager and useful applications for data backup, restore and recovery."
This sums up the project nicely and the website goes on to list some of the powerful disk and file tools it includes:
It also contains a suite of powerful command line tools: clonezilla, testdisk, partimage, photorec, ddrescue, nwipe, scalpel, safecopy, fsarchiver, memtester, curl, wget, cryptsetup, chntpw, wipe and hdparm.
Dr.Parted 23.09 -- Exploring the available applications and functions
(full image size: 132kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
A complete overview of the included utilities is provided in the project's wiki.
Dr.Parted is available in a single edition for x86_64 machines which is provided as a 724MB ISO file.
Early impressions
The Dr.Parted medium boots to a minimal Openbox environment. The wallpaper shows Dr.Parted branding. A panel is placed across the bottom of the desktop. Right-clicking anywhere on the desktop opens an application and settings menu where we can launch tools.
When I ran Dr.Parted on my laptop a Conky status panel appeared to the left of the interface. This panel did not launch when I ran Dr.Parted in a VirtualBox environment. Also, while using the virtual machine, Openbox would not resize to fit the VirtualBox window. I could use the xrandr command line program to resize the desktop interface as desired.
Also on the topic of things working differently on my laptop, I found Dr.Parted would allow me to use my touchpad to move the mouse and left-click, but not right-click. This poses a serious problem as the application menu is accessed through right-clicking and there doesn't appear to be any keyboard shortcut to open the menu. The closest I could find was using Alt+F2 to open a run dialog box, but it only helps if we know the exact name of the program we wish to launch. I plugged a mouse into the laptop and it was not recognized at first. I rebooted and Dr.Parted then recognized the USB mouse which allowed me to right-click and access the menus.
Another problem I ran into while using Dr.Parted on my laptop is the distribution will automatically connect to local wired networks, but there doesn't appear to be any utility to facilitate connecting to wireless networks. Tools like Network Manager and Wicd are not installed for us. There isn't any documentation on the Dr.Parted website about connecting to wi-fi at the time of writing. Since my laptop doesn't have an Ethernet port, this greatly reduces the functionality of the distribution. There may be tools included for connected to wi-fi, but there isn't any explicit way for the user to know this. It makes it difficult to download a disk image, transfer rescued files to a server, or perform backups - which is most of what this distribution is designed to do.
Included software
Speaking of what Dr.Parted is designed to do, let's look at the software included with the distribution. The live environment ships with the PCManFM file manager, a virtual terminal, the GParted partition manager, and the Mousepad text editor. There are also launchers for launching the terminal as the root user. The Netsurf web browser is included too.
There is a graphical configuration manager for handling Openbox settings along with launchers which will open Openbox configuration files in a text editor. The Catfish file search utility is included along with Grsync for copying files between locations. I also found an archive manager and the Htop system monitor.
Dr.Parted 23.09 -- Exploring the settings panel
(full image size: 107kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Most of the above utilities are fairly standard on lightweight distributions, but where Dr.Parted stands out is its collection of command line file handling tools. These include Testdisk, Photorec, Clonezilla, ddrescue, fsarchiver, and hdparm. Basically all the tools you'd want to have when either wiping a hard drive or rescuing lost files. These all seem to work as expected and I had no problems with the included utilities.
Dr.Parted doesn't include manual pages for its utilities which I find disappointing, especially in light of the lack of connectivity utilities for wireless networks. The distribution includes the standard collection of GNU command line tools and runs the systemd init software. In the background we find version 6.4 of the Linux kernel.
Along with the included software there are launchers for installing additional packages. These launchers will open a terminal window and run APT to fetch new applications from the Debian Testing repositories. There are shortcuts for fetching popular items such as Firefox, Chromium, FileZilla, Samba, Vim, and OpenSSH. I tested these and found they worked. If we want other packages we can run APT from a terminal.
Conclusions
The included tools, and the items I downloaded, all worked well and it's nice to have such a strong collection of file rescue, transfer, and cloning utilities. I also appreciated how fast Dr.Parted works. Virtually every window and every application opens and responds instantly. The Openbox interface is snappy and clean. This feels like a good alternative, with a slightly wider set of utilities, to GParted Live.
On the other side of things, there are some weak points in Dr.Parted. The distribution lacks an easy way to connect to wireless networks and doesn't include local manual pages. This can leave laptop users and people working in home or wireless offices in a difficult position. I also encountered problems using my laptop's touchpad, though plugging in an external USB mouse worked around the limitations.
Dr.Parted is off to a decent start, but is still young and might need another release or two to work out the rough parts.
* * * * *
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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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Why Debian is the way it is, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu removes new ISO images
Debian is one of the world's oldest surviving Linux distributions, having produced new versions for 30 years and counting. Debian is also one of the largest distributions in terms of the number of members, the number of maintained packages, and CPU architectures supported. Why is Debian so large, flexible, and widely used (both in its vanilla form and as a base for child distributions)? In an overview of the project Lars Wirzenius covers some of Debian's highlights and talks about what sets the distribution apart. "Debian is a large, complex operating system, and a huge open source project. It's thirty years old now. To many people, some of its aspects are weird. Most such things have a good reason, but it can be hard to find out what it is. This is an attempt to answer some such questions, without being a detailed history of the project."
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The Fedora project has partnered with Slimbook to produce a new laptop computer which ships with the Fedora distribution pre-installed. Fedora Magazine reports: "The Fedora Slimbook is optimized for Fedora's specific hardware configurations, thereby providing users with a smoother out-of-the-box experience. This hardware compatibility leads to an improved user experience, especially for those unfamiliar with how to install a Linux distribution themselves. The Fedora Slimbook is the first Slimbook laptop that offers pre-installed Fedora software, combining Slimbook's signature functional and stylish aesthetics with Fedora's commitment to open source principles and focus on cutting-edge Linux distributions." Hardware specifications and ordering options can be found on the Slimbook Fedora page.
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The GNOME desktop team is considering a change which would phase out support for running the popular desktop environment on X11 sessions, making GNOME effectively a Wayland-only desktop. The proposed change doesn't remove GNOME's ability to run X11 sessions, but does remove the shortcut to start GNOME sessions on X11, effectively hiding the X11 option from the user. "This is the first step towards deprecating the X11 session, the gnome-xorg.desktop file is removed, but the X11 functionality is still there in so you can restore the X11 session by installing the file in the appropriate place on your own. X11 has been receiving less and less testing. We have been defaulting to the Wayland session since 2016 and it's about time we drop the X11 session completely."
* * * * *
Shortly after the release of Ubuntu 23.10 the ISO files for Ubuntu and Ubuntu Budgie were taken down. The reason was a series of translations which introduced hate speech into the install media. "Shortly after release we identified hate speech from a malicious contributor in a specific set of translations of the Ubuntu Desktop installer UI and have taken immediate action. These translations are being removed and an updated ISO will be available to download once we have replaced the offending material. It is important to note that these translations are not part of the Ubuntu Archive and we believe the incident is contained only to translations provided via a third party translation tool we use for a subset of applications. The affected images that have been removed are Ubuntu Desktop 23.10, Ubuntu Budgie 23.10 and the Ubuntu Desktop daily images." According to the announcement, new install media will be provided in the coming days.
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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) |
Changing user identification numbers
A little while ago I reviewed the PCLinuxOS distribution, an unusually conservative, stable rolling release operating system. Following that review, someone messaged me and asked if I'd noticed whether PCLinuxOS still starts assigning user identification numbers (UIDs) at 500, or if the distribution starts numbering users starting at 1000. Most distributions these days start counting user accounts at 1000 and increment upwards (1001 then 1002 and so on). But in the past some distributions started at 500, then went to 501, and 502...
I hadn't noticed while playing with PCLinuxOS where it started assigning UIDs, it's not something that affects my testing. However, I went back and checked and found PCLinuxOS (like most Linux distributions) identifies the first user as number 1000.
Why is it significant if the user identification numbers a distribution uses behind the scenes start at 500, 1000, or 1001? Most of the time it isn't a problem, but if a person has a computer that boots multiple distributions and shares files between them, then we can run into a file ownership issue.
File permissions are assigned based on UID rather than username. Let's say I use the same home directory across multiple distributions. My user "jesse" with UID 500 on one distribution will not have ownership of files owned by "jesse" with UID 1000 on another distribution, the filesystem will see these two accounts (both called "jesse") as being two different users because the UIDs do not match. However, user "jesse" with UID 1000 on one distribution will be viewed as the same person as "jsmith" with UID 1000 from another distribution.
Put another way, when we run multiple distributions, it is convenient if our UIDs match across every operating system we boot. When a distribution doesn't use the common approach of making the first user number 1000, the account numbers are less likely to match.
Luckily, when UIDs across different distributions do not match, we can change the UID for our account. This is accomplished with the usermod program. We can tell usermod the UID we want an account to have, followed by the username for the account. For example, to change my UID from 500 to 1000 I could run the following command as the administrator:
# usermod --uid 1000 jesse
To confirm the command worked, we can check my user's entry in the /etc/passwd file. Here we examine the third field (the UID field) for the user "jesse" in the /etc/passwd file:
$ grep jesse /etc/passwd | cut -f 3 -d ':'
1000
In the above example we see the UID has been successfully changed to 1000.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Raspberry Pi OS 2023-10-10
Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) is a free operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and optimised for the Raspberry Pi hardware. The project's latest release is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm" and makes a move to switch the graphical interface from X11 to a Wayland session. "For Bookworm, we are using a compositor called Wayfire. This uses a standard Wayland library called wlroots, which is used by several modern Wayland compositors. And because Wayfire works a lot better as a Wayland compositor on Raspberry Pi than Mutter did, Wayland is now the default mode of operation for the desktop. (With one caveat - for now, Wayland is only the default on Raspberry Pi 4 and 5. The performance of Wayfire on earlier platforms is still being optimised, so for now they will continue to run the old X11 display server and the Openbox window manager, but at some point these platforms will also be switched to Wayfire.) If you boot Raspberry Pi OS on a Pi 4 or 5, you will now get a Wayfire desktop." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Ubuntu 23.10
Canonical has released a new version of Ubuntu. The new version, 23.10 (code name Mantic Minotaur) introduces updated hardware support using Linux 6.5, better ZFS support in the installer, and the default install configuration is set to "Minimal". "The default Ubuntu Desktop installation is now minimal. There is still an 'Expanded installation' option for those who prefer to have applications like LibreOffice and Thunderbird installed for the first boot. (The 'Full' option is still the default with the legacy Desktop installer.) We are reintroducing support for ZFS guided installations, enhancing the flexibility and choices available for your storage management needs. This is a new implementation in the Subiquity-based installers, and is without encryption by default. The encrypted ZFS guided option will be developed in a future release. Starting with Ubuntu 23.10, TPM-backed full-disk encryption (FDE) is introduced as an experimental feature, building on years of experience with Ubuntu Core. On supported platforms, you no longer need to enter passphrases at boot manually." Additional information is provided in the release notes.
Ubuntu 23.10 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Ubuntu Studio 23.10
Ubuntu Studio is a multimedia-focused community edition of Ubuntu. The project's 23.10 release places a focus on improving PipeWire support and audio configuration. "PipeWire has gained numerous improvements, including fixes for prosumer and professional audio. The JACK compatibility now performs in real-time, and some FireWire features have now been implemented. We also include a new utility, called the Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration utility, found in the Ubuntu Studio Information menu. This can be used to configure the default PipeWire Quantum value, Enable or Disable the PipeWire-JACK compatibility layer (handy for using JACK by itself), or switch to the classic PulseAudio-JACK setup that was the default prior to 23.04. QPrompt is a Qt-based teleprompter application now available in the repositories. While a snap version does exist and is installable from Discover, the version in the repositories is more up-to-date. Since Discover does not see the version in the repositories, it needs to be installed from the command line by issuing the following command: 'sudo apt install qprompt'" Additional information is offered in the release announcement and in the release notes.
Xubuntu 23.10
The Xubuntu team have released Xubuntu 23.10 which ships with the Xfce 4.18 desktop. The release announcement shares highlights of the new version: "Highlights: Improved hardware support for Bluetooth headphones and touchpads. Color emoji is now included and supported in Firefox, Thunderbird, and newer Gtk-based apps. Significantly improved screensaver integration and stability. Known issues: The shutdown prompt may not be displayed at the end of the installation. Instead you might just see a Xubuntu logo, a black screen with an underscore in the upper left hand corner, or just a black screen. Press Enter and the system will reboot into the installed environment. Xorg crashes and the user is logged out after logging in or switching users on some virtual machines, including GNOME Boxes. You may experience choppy audio or poor system performance while playing audio, but only in some virtual machines (observed in VMware and VirtualBox)." The release notes offer additional details.
Xubuntu 23.10 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 248kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Lubuntu 23.10
Lubuntu is a community edition of Ubuntu which features the LXQt desktop environment. The project's latest release, Lubuntu 23.10, uses the Calamares system installer while other branches of the Ubuntu family typically use Ubiquity. "We are once again utilizing Calamares 3.3 Alpha 2 in Lubuntu 23.10, as it has proven to be highly reliable since its initial use in Lubuntu 22.10. During testing, we did note that if you attempt to create an encrypted installation without a passphrase, Lubuntu will be installed unencrypted. This is unlikely to be a problem for most users as disk encryption requires a passphrase for it to be effective. More information can be found here. We have a new wallpaper (which is also used as at the login screen), created one of our Lubuntu Members; Walter Lapchynski, with a bit of assistance from Ubuntu Studio's Erich Eickmeyer. Thanks to both Walter and Erich. Please also check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors." The release announcement offers additional details.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.10
Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.10 has been released. Ubuntu Cinnamon is a project that integrates the Cinnamon desktop with the Ubuntu distribution. This version, supported for nine months, upgrades Cinnamon to version 5.8.4: "I am happy to announce our 2nd release as an official flavor, Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.10 'Mantic Minotaur'. This update includes the Cinnamon 5.8 desktop environment, along with newer versions of most software. Cinnamon 5.8.4: the themes module in the Cinnamon Settings has an optional view for making simplified themes (this includes being able to configure an easier way to switch between light and dark themes); supports gestures with Touchegg. Cinnamon Screensaver 5.8.1: a user interface issue with the backup screensaver screen has been fixed; no longer uses libaccountsservice (can block startup). Nemo 5.8.4: performance - memory leaks fixed; thumbnails generation now uses multiple threads...." See the release announcement and the release notes for further details.
Ubuntu Kylin 23.10
Version 23.10 of Ubuntu Kylin, an official variant of Ubuntu created primarily for the needs of Chinese-speaking users, has been released: "The Ubuntu Kylin team has announced the release of Ubuntu Kylin open-source operating system, version 23.10. As a short term support release, Ubuntu Kylin 23.10 comes with the Linux 6.5 kernel by default, and has comprehensively upgraded a series of system libraries, subsystems and core software. This version is mainly used to provide developers with a development and testing platform. Features: Intel's 'Topology Aware Register and PM Capsule Interface' (interface that provides better power-management features); arm64 permission-indirection extension (technology to set special memory permissions); RISC-V now supports ACPI; the Loongarch architecture now supports simultaneous multi-threading (SMT); support for unaccepted memory (protocol by which secure guest systems accept memory allocated by the host)...." The release announcement, available in Chinese, English, provides further details and screenshots.
Ubuntu Unity 23.10
Rudra Saraswat has announced the release of Ubuntu Unity 23.10, un updated version of the project's Ubuntu flavour featuring the Unity7 desktop environment: "Ubuntu Unity 23.10 'Mantic Minotaur' has now been released. Ubuntu Unity 23.10 continues to use Unity 7.7, which has undergone maintenance. Our primary focus for this release has been to gradually migrate away from Nux in UnityX, which is progressing well. Nux is holding us back from offering Wayland support without Xwayland. We were also pre-occupied with adding support for CUPS 2.0 in Unity (printing), which has now been pushed back by Ubuntu to 24.04. A Lomiri variant of Ubuntu Unity is also in progress, and was supposed to be released today. Unfortunately, some app launcher-related bugs held us back, and we're unable to make it available for download with the release announcement, but we hope to be able to do so within the next few days." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details and screenshots.
Ubuntu Unity 23.10 -- Running the Unity desktop
(full image size: 590kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Edubuntu 23.10
Edubuntu is an education-focused community edition of Ubuntu. Version 23.10 of the distribution introduces a handful of new default applications to the user experience. "This release is meant to be evolutionary, not revolutionary. We are still working out which applications and features work best in the overall educational ecosystem. As always, feedback is appreciated. New apps: Startup Disk Creator: This will help users and administrators make an easy USB drive from a .iso image of any Ubuntu flavor. GNOME Videos: Video player. GNOME Music: Music player. Backup: Backup utility. Basic256: Teaches students the BASIC programming language (@eeickmeyer, our technical lead, first learned to program in this language when he was 10 years old on a Commodore VIC-20!) Extension Manager: An easy way to add and administer GNOME Shell extensions. OpenBoard: A whiteboard application for teachers. Mnemosyne: A flashcard application. Convertall: A powerful standalone unit converter (Bonus: GNOME Shell can also convert units, just ask it!)" Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Ubuntu MATE 23.10
The Ubuntu MATE team has published a new version, Ubuntu MATE 23.10, which offers nine months of support. The new release includes pdates to MATE, newer hardware support, and AppArmor improvements. "MATE Desktop has been updated to 1.26.2 with a selection of bugs fixes and minor improvements to associated components. caja-rename 23.10.1-1 has been ported from Python to C. libmatemixer 1.26.0-2+deb12u1 resolves heap corruption and application crashes when removing USB audio devices. mate-desktop 1.26.2-1 improves portals support. mate-notification-daemon 1.26.1-1 fixes several memory leaks. mate-system-monitor 1.26.0-5 now picks up libexec files from /usr/libexec. mate-session-manager 1.26.1-2 set LIBEXECDIR to /usr/libexec/ for correct interaction with mate-system-monitor. mate-user-guide 1.26.2-1 is a new upstream release. mate-utils 1.26.1-1 fixes several memory leaks." The release notes offer additional details.
Ubuntu Budgie 23.10
The Ubuntu Budgie team have published version 23.10 of their distribution which offers nine months of support and security updates. The new version includes updated hardware support via Linux 6.5 and imports technologies from GNOME 45. "This is a standard release supported for 9 months packed full of all sorts of new capabilities. If you want a well-tested version with longer-term support then our 22.04 LTS version is supported for 3 years. The new release has many new core updates as well as v10.8 version of budgie itself: The kernel is v6.5. GNOME 45 stack with Budgie's new magpie window manager. v1.7 of our very own budgie-extras giving you a whole host of optional ways to customise your experience. A brand new ISO utilising our very own budgie-desktop-installer. We are really pleased with this fantastic new way of installing budgie, working very closely with brilliant Canonical developers. We also inherit hundreds of stability, bug-fixes and optimizations made to the underlying Ubuntu repositories." Additional information is provided in the release announcement and in the release notes.
Ubuntu Budgie 23.10 -- Running the Budgie desktop
(full image size: 819kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Window Maker Live 0.96.0-0
Paul Seelig has announced the release of Window Maker Live 0.96.0-0, an updated build of the project's Debian-based distribution featuring the Window Maker window manager as the default graphical user interface: "This release is based on stable Debian 12.2 'Bookworm' and contains Linux kernel version 6.4.4 as provided via Debian's backports. Window Maker has been updated to current release version 0.96.0 and includes an additional bug fix. It is Window Maker Live's primary window manager and exclusive desktop session option. Almost the complete range of GNUstep components and programs currently available in Debian 'Bookworm' have been added. The Window Maker root menu has been augmented with a comprehensively arranged listing of related programs in its own top level 'GNUstep Apps' submenu. The primary aim is to raise awareness of the advanced maturity of GNUstep in order to attract more developers for this wonderful project. Current Emacs release 29.1 has been compiled for both GTK+ 2 and GNUstep. The emacs-gnustep variant is provided as a self-contained component and does not rely nor conflict with any other Debian Emacs packages." See the what's new file and the changelog for further details.
Slackel 7.7 "Openbox"
Slackel is a Linux distribution and live CD based on Slackware Linux and Salix OS. The project has published Slackel 7.7 "Openbox" includes a graphical kernel update tool and a utility for creating USB thumb drive installs. "It includes the flatpak so the user has access to dozens of apps to install. Mozilla-firefox-118.0.2 mozilla-thunderbird-115.3.2, exaile-4.1.1, smtube-21.10.0, smplayer-23.6.0, MPlayer-20221009, libreoffice-7.6.2, filezilla-3.65.0, pidgin-2.14.12, transmission-2.94, gimp-2.10.34, openjre-19.0.2.u7, slackel-control-center-3.0, install-upgrade-kernel-gtk-3.0 GUI application to upgrade the kernel for internal disk installs, install-upgrade-kernel-ext-usb- gtk-3.0 GUI application to upgrade the kernel for installations on external ssd disk or USB stick. Instonusb-2.0 for creating live usb stick (frugal install) useful for installing slackel on laptops without DVD device and more and the latest updates from Slackware's 'Current' tree. Slackel can be installed (real installation) using the Slackel Live Installer (SLI) on an external 16GB or 32GB usb stick or ssd disk so you can have a portable, fast system always with you." Additional details are offered in the project's release announcement.
Voyager Live 23.10
Voyager Live is an Ubuntu-based distribution with GNOME and Xfce desktop environments. The project's latest release is Voyager Live 23.10. The distribution's release announcement highlights some of the key features: "With the promise finally fulfilled, to have two unified systems GNOME and Xfce, light, fast, modern, fluid, secure and efficient in a hybrid environment for PC and tablets. The two desktops are very distinct and their respective applications are mostly invisible, for one or the other environment. This version is based on the Linux 6.5 kernel and the Ubuntu 'Mantic Minotaur' distribution with its new features. 23.10 is an intermediate version with a 9-month support cycle which prepares the future 5-year LTS (long-term support) version which will arrive shortly for GNOME and Xfce. With integrated options available out of the box Voyager offers features like the new One Click Backup, Conky Control, GNOME Shell Effects, Repair, Switch Ubuntu, WINE development and Steam gaming and selected GNOME extensions according to PC needs."
Voyager Live 23.10 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 290kB, resolution: 1920x1080 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: 2,915
- Total data uploaded: 43.6TB
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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) |
Which is your favourite flavour of Ubuntu?
This week we saw the release of Ubuntu 23.10 along with nine community editions. The community flavours provide alternative desktops and areas of focus while the flagship edition of Ubuntu offers a more general purpose approach to desktop computing. We'd like to hear from you which flavour of Ubuntu is your favourite. Is there an edition of Ubuntu that has been discontinued that you especially liked? Let us know about it in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on phone with privacy switches in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Favourite flavour of Ubuntu?
| Ubuntu: | 256 (17%) |
| Edubuntu: | 6 (0%) |
| Kubuntu: | 328 (21%) |
| Lubuntu: | 80 (5%) |
| Ubuntu Budgie: | 42 (3%) |
| Ubuntu Cinnamon: | 110 (7%) |
| Ubuntu Kylin: | 4 (0%) |
| Ubuntu MATE: | 196 (13%) |
| Ubuntu Studio: | 46 (3%) |
| Ubuntu Unity: | 35 (2%) |
| Xubuntu: | 334 (22%) |
| I liked a past flavour: | 112 (7%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Orchid Studio. Orchid Studio is a distribution intended for editing audio, video, and image files. It is based on MX Linux.
- SpoinkOS. SpoinkOS is an Ubuntu-based distribution which features the KDE Plasma desktop and Liquorix branch of the Linux kernel.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 23 October 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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If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Ubuntu (by Brad on 2023-10-16 00:40:14 GMT from United States)
NOTA. Too bad there wasn't a way to choose that answer.
I liked Ubuntu until about version 11, when they made the big switch from GNOME to Unity. I moved to Mint from there, until I got bored with it.
2 • ubuntu (by Titus Groan on 2023-10-16 01:00:52 GMT from New Zealand)
first time I tried to install, couldn't get it to boot ( pc magazine cd/dvd)
moved on to something else that did boot and install.
occasionally look at the .deb family, but they "feel wrong".
happy .rpm user
3 • Favorite flavor of Ubuntu (by Andy Prough on 2023-10-16 01:05:06 GMT from United States)
I've never used Ubuntu and was surprised there's no "I don't use Ubuntu and don't have a favorite" option in the Opinion Poll. This was the first Opinion Poll in a few months where I can't really respond.
As far as Gnome dropping x11 - I saw a graph recently showing that Gnome has dropped from about 60% GNU/Linux desktop share about 15 years ago to about 25% today. I wonder if dropping x11 will increase or decrease their desktop share percentage? Seems like a lot of older (but still useful) hardware won't be able to work with Wayland.
4 • magazine media (by Brett on 2023-10-16 01:23:39 GMT from New Zealand)
@2 can relate, I have several magazine CDs and those have never worked properly. I always download an ISO from the distro website and take it from there.
Interesting - this morning I watched some videos. One (finally) explained the thinking behind Gnome in a way that actually resembled sense. It boiled down to a break with the now 30-40 yo desktop menu paradigm. Some shortcuts suddenly made sense - oh, /that/ is why you use it /this/ way. The other video was one of the tech gurus pushing the literally bleeding edge ('cause he can) with pure Arch, Wayland and Hyprland, even systemdboot - so a bit of a preview of where Linux desktops could be like in the future.
5 • Ubuntu (by Doug Kramer on 2023-10-16 01:27:42 GMT from United States)
@3 You are giving an opinion and responding. :)
I now only use Ubuntu. I have zero issues, and it just works.
6 • Favorite flavor of Ubuntu (by Sam Crawford on 2023-10-16 01:44:04 GMT from United States)
My favorite flavor of Ubuntu is Linux Mint.
7 • @7 - favorite flavor (by Andy Prough on 2023-10-16 01:47:27 GMT from United States)
>"My favorite flavor of Ubuntu is Linux Mint."
That's a good point - I do use Trisquel which is derived from Ubuntu. So we just need an expanded poll with all possible derivations.
8 • Changing user identification numbers (by Vinfall on 2023-10-16 02:31:39 GMT from Singapore)
Actually you can check uid and groups simply by `id`, it's included as a part of GNU coreutils. You may have some permission issue with the provided method (`grep jesse /etc/passwd`).
```
$ id
uid=1000(manj) gid=985(users) groups=985(users),998(wheel)
```
9 • Flavors of Ubuntu, & Debian. (by Greg Zeng on 2023-10-16 02:39:57 GMT from Australia)
There are very many such flavors. This week's question is supposedly on the six-monthly "inner family" of flavors, the November versions, which has directly 11 desktop environments, but about 52 derived systems. Every two years, this seasonal issue becomes the next LONG TERM SUPPORT, LTS. The current LTS is 22.04, issued very second April, which has 18 derived systems (https://distrowatch.com/search.php#advanced)
The November versions are beta versions of the April release. These beta versions have limited life support for updates and security patches. So are better avoided, unless you enjoy being on the 'bleeding' edge of painful experiments.
Canonical has its inner family officially released at the same calendar times, every six months. These adhere loosely to the standard Desktop Environments. So the KDE version will use KPART, etc instead of GPARTED, etc.
There are several outer Ubuntu families. These are released less tightly by the calendar. Community versions are not Canonical. Then there are the Ubuntu breakaways, like Mint, Lite, Wubuntu (Wubuntu is not known to Distrowatch). Some Debian based systems also use Ubuntu parts as well; 123 Linux systems. Devuan is also Debian-based, with 6 Linux systems, so Peppermint was previous Ubuntu based, but now exists in both Debian & Devuan bases.
The external Ubuntu family is the Official Mint family, with four desktop interfaces. As well, there are about four other downstream systems based on the inner Mint family.
The very many downstream and derived versions of the inner Ubuntu and inner Debian families are more adventurous, more experimental than the upstream members. Some down streamers remove the upstream mistakes. Most avoid the imperfections of the up-streamers.
Common mistakes are the inclusion of human fonts and human languages which are not wanted: Thai, etc. Most prefer GPARTED instead of staying loyal to tradition. Only PCLinuxOS, an isolated Mandriva-based RPM system, has the best apps, regardless of upstream origin; FREEFILESYNC, SLIMJET, GRUB CUSTOMIZER, KWRITE, VENTOY, TIMESTAMP, GKRELLM and SYNAPTIC PACKAGE MANAGER.
Wordsmiths like myself might prefer this last system, which gives us the best apps available on Linux, regardless of the upstream parent. If I need the extreme latest version of the official Linux kernel, hours after it is released as raw source code by THE LINUX FOUNDATION, then I prefer Linux Lite; but it has some trouble with the best ever File Manager available on Linux, Dolphin.
Some Debian and Devuan based systems can also use the very latest compiled Linux kernels issued by Canonical. This is important if you use the latest hardware, or want to avoid the latest discovered bugs and weaknesses.
10 • About the Poll (by Albert on 2023-10-16 02:53:15 GMT from United States)
I couldn't answer the poll this week as I haven't been using any *buntu for some time now (years ago). Then I used to like Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate and Xubuntu.
11 • Favorite Ubuntu flavor (by Tomas on 2023-10-16 02:59:29 GMT from Portugal)
Xubuntu is fast, clean and contains by default all I need.
Lubuntu is also great as its quite fast even on older computers and it just works too.
On my fastest desktop I have Kubuntu. Latest one, very beautiful.
The one I like the less: Ubuntu with its Gnome- awful as its sluggish but worst than that is the way gnome works, not intuitive. Maybe for a tablet, not for a day to day working one.
12 • Lubuntu (by KleerKut on 2023-10-16 03:08:56 GMT from United States)
My earliest experiences with Linux were with Mint and Raspbian on the original Raspberry Pi. Even though it wasn't fancy, I liked how relatively easy it was to customize LXDE. I then found Lubuntu and respins like PeppermintOS and LXLE. I ran LXLE for years and would love to see something similar for the modern LXQt version of Lubuntu.
That being said, Lubuntu is pretty nice. I wouldn't push it on other people, but it works for me. The LXDE version would have bugs persist release after release that were fixed by the respins, but Lubuntu itself was very stagnant. When they shook things up and got LXQt released for 18.10 it wasn't too bad and had most bugs fixed by 19.04. It was really impressive and works well enough for me. I've tried all of the other flavors and they all have their small issues and different ways of doing things. I'm just habituated to the OpenBox/LXDE/LXQt setup.
13 • Ubuntu? (by Jyrki on 2023-10-16 03:34:55 GMT from Czechia)
No, thanks. Older I am, the more I prefer BSDs over Linux. And if I have to choose Linux, I go for Artix or Obarun
14 • Ubuntu (by Bobbie Sellers on 2023-10-16 06:39:17 GMT from United States)
I have used Ubuntu on other people's machines as I tried to get them working and properly updated for users who were sold on the idea that they would never have to deal with Linux.
So they ignored stuff that should have been done and made no backups. I never found a Ubuntu disk layout that I liked and that was before EFI was known of. I started with Mandriva 2006 and I liked that system because it could be setup very much like the AmigaOS system I had been using. After Mandriva proved it had a non-viable business model I tried other systems but am happy for several years now with PC-Linux OS across multiple laptops and desktop replacements. I might not bother to post about this but there was no choice available to simply vote that some of us do not use Ubuntu.
I think what someone did to the translations for the Ubuntu is very strange.
But have a pleasant time period.
bliss - Dell Precision E7730- PCLinuxOS 64- Linux 6.5.7- KDE Plasma 5.27.8
15 • UID change (by Alexandru on 2023-10-16 06:58:50 GMT from Romania)
Thank you Jesse for information about changing user UID via usermod tool. This is exactly what I searched recently. I only would add one more scenario when the user UID may need altering: When you install another Linux distribution while keeping existing home partition.
16 • buntu (by arda on 2023-10-16 07:05:27 GMT from Turkey)
Lubuntu is dead for me, it's feature to work with old computers and yet not working after lxqt.
I also find mate and cinnamon flavors are pointless as mint exists.
17 • Ubuntu - never again.... (by Torsten on 2023-10-16 07:20:25 GMT from Germany)
I started with Ubuntu about 14-15 years ago. But in the past years, Ubuntu became so silly and the snap garbage is the main reason, why I finally switched to Debian. Debian really is great and has everything I need. Period.
18 • Ubuntu never again (by artytux on 2023-10-16 08:28:36 GMT from Australia)
About 15 years ago myself and one other person were getting advice from their forum, we were locked out (permissions) of a usb full of music ( i had 2000 songs ) both locked out (now know better) the advice was given and done by us two users then our usbs got wiped ! (learn the hard way)
The other person had the same result we both questioned this and we were told you just got screwed for lolz, for lolz HUH, not happy made a complaint to admin we were both told Linux comes with no guarantees and it's our responsibility to check on the advice given, uh what.
Went to Solydk for a few years, not a problem, never ever to return to buntu !
19 • FydeOS behavior (by Martins on 2023-10-16 09:20:11 GMT from Portugal)
I tested a live usb of FydeOS with an older firmware, it didn't start like in your test, however it showed a very bad behavior, more of a virus:
- it tried to change the secure boot menu of a modern computer, that it halted with a red warning window generated by the computer itself
- it changed the grub configuration file in the hard drive of the computer, commenting the line DISABLE_OS_PROBER, thus preveting from Windows to start in the dual-boot computer.
Since when a live usb flash can alter a computer hard drive system? For me, this is the first time that it happened.
20 • Ubuntu (by Hank on 2023-10-16 09:48:04 GMT from Luxembourg)
Ubunti is snapped, broken, will never use it again.
Regarding gloomy gnome moving to wayland only, yet another detrimental change debian will probably quickly adopt. Just like RHEL with another package manager of late.
Very seriously thinking to moving to Void.
Recent dropping of support for alt6ernative init systems by the lead systemd debian packager really annoyed, it broke my running setups network printing capability.
Called the universal Operating system, that tag gets less and less relevant of late.
21 • Ubuntu favorite version (by DachshundMan on 2023-10-16 09:53:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
I am very much with @17. When Unity came to Ubuntu I tried Manjaro but then moved to Mint Mate and have stayed there ever since. Have not gone back after Unity was removed as I consider Snaps to be bloatware.
I do use Ubuntu Mate on my RPi 4b but only because there is no Mint option.
22 • Ubuntu (by pat on 2023-10-16 09:57:11 GMT from United States)
Hi, I still miss the .386 'buntus :(
23 • FydeOS (by Andrew on 2023-10-16 10:18:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
Very unfair review of FydeOS. Why would you us "the edition for the oldest hardware" with an 11th Gen Intel CPU?! If you couldn't go to the trouble of trying a different version or using in a VM then you should not have published anything.
I run it on an 8th Gen Dell Latitude and it is flawless.
24 • Favorite Ubuntu (by james on 2023-10-16 10:42:00 GMT from United States)
I still use Mate, which is my favorite on one laptop, but my main one now has Mint. Snaps are the issue with me also.
25 • Ubuntu has been good in the past, but last years only Sparky Linux Debian Distro (by bert on 2023-10-16 10:50:36 GMT from Netherlands)
I used Ubuntu/Xubuntu and Kubuntu. The best for me was Kubuntu. Now I am using Sparky Linux Stable as best Debian Distro. I use xfce desktop which works on my HP Probook i7 very fast and accurate. This works very reliable and solid. Not every day(in rolling distros!!) several updates, but now a few days in the week very little updates. Very recommended!!
26 • Ubuntu poll (by kc1di on 2023-10-16 10:53:08 GMT from United States)
I have used at one time or other every ubuntu derivative but out of all of them like Kubuntu the best. I just like KDE. But of late have gone to Mint or Debian. Don't like snaps for one thing and try as I might can't like Gnome. So it's Mint or debian for me.
27 • ubuntu flavour (by PenguinCroatia on 2023-10-16 11:04:39 GMT from Croatia)
mine is KDE neon. stable lts ubuntu + latest KDE + flatpaks. awesome combination
28 • Ubuntu Linux (by jazzfelix on 2023-10-16 11:32:04 GMT from Germany)
I tried Ubuntu and Debian about 15 years ago. Probably used Debian for two years and Ubuntu for one month, then gave it up in favour of Slackware/Fedora/Alma. I switched to FreeBSD since 10 months. I used a few distributions on servers, desktops and laptops but never found anything that elegant, clean and stable as FreeBSD (except NetBSD which - as I think - is even better but does not provide as many software I use for daily work). Slackware feels clean within the Linux world but compared to a BSD it is still kind of messy. Ubuntu feels to me what Slackware feels compared to BSD. xD Occasionally I have to deal with modern Ubuntu systems, because I sometimes support friends or colleagues who use it. I feel it improved in a lot of ways over the last 15 years but also got more complex and even more messy than it used to be. Although my impression is that it is more stable and its users generally need less support compared to 15 years ago.
29 • The best Ubuntu.... (by Marc Visscher on 2023-10-16 11:35:26 GMT from Netherlands)
The first thing that came to mind on the question which I think is the best Ubuntu was "Linux Mint". And it is, in my humble opinion. I used to be a fierce Ubuntu user, until they changed their desktop to Unity in 2011. From that point on I switched to Xubuntu. But since Ubuntu became something I couldn't find myself at home at and alienated from, I switched to Linux Mint. And since 2013 Linux Mint became my main system
Until 2019 I had two machines with Xubuntu installed, but I found out that Linux Mint was outshining Xubuntu with ease, so I dropped Xubuntu too. At this moment I have no machine that runs Ubuntu or one of is derivatives. I don't like Ubuntu's vision anymore since they try to push snaps through our noses.
These days the main systems are Linux Mint, Fedora and Manjaro. I'm not sure if I ever going to use Ubuntu again. It depends on how Ubuntu develops itself. But for now, I remove every Ubuntu installation "with a snap" when I see one. To be honest: Ubuntu is not a bad OS, but I just don't like the way Canonical moved their product forward into the future. And I had/have no regrets to switch to Linux Mint along the way, because I think Linux Mint is one of the best distros around (quality wise). Even if you don't like it, you'll have to admit it's a solid as a rock, is issue free and it works like it should. And just as important: it's one of the most user friendly Linux distro's out there.
Once someone said: Linux Mint is Ubuntu done right. And I believe it's true! Even more to this day....
30 • Poll: (by dragonmouth on 2023-10-16 11:39:25 GMT from United States)
NONE.
Ubuntu is Linux's version of Windows. Based on technical and philosophical grounds I will not use Ubuntu or ANY derivative thereof. There are plenty of other distros out there.
31 • FydeOS (by Jan on 2023-10-16 12:13:58 GMT from Netherlands)
This is the first Linux-OS with build in active virus protection (that I am aware off). Very interesting.
I do not believe in an PC-OS which has no active protection against privacy and security breaches.
So I am keeping an eye on the further development of to this Linux.
32 • Favourite flavour of Ubuntu? (by Ayyash on 2023-10-16 12:26:03 GMT from Italy)
Kubuntu. It is fully customisable, light, complete and fast even on a 9-year-old PC.
33 • Poll (by Bof on 2023-10-16 12:33:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
Disappointed that there was no box for ...." NOT BOTHERED ABOUT UBUNTU ! "
Somebody years ago.... 2007'ish gave me an Ubuntu disc he got from Holland ( ? ) as a freebie. Tried it..... not impressed !
Have been using Pclinux since P91 came out..... mid 2005. Suits me and my machines perfectly.
34 • Ubuntu (by luvr on 2023-10-16 12:34:56 GMT from Belgium)
Currently running Xubuntu 20.04 as my daily driver; switched from the main Ubuntu flavor to Xubuntu after Ubuntu went with Unity. I cannot see myself upgrading to a later Ubuntu release. Not sure yet what I'll migrate to; playing with Debian, Devuan, Mint (Debian Edition), Slackware (I've been an on/off Slackware user for years; Slackware was actually the first Linux distro I ever attempted to run way back in 1995).
35 • Mint and Neon, instead of Buntus (by Always-KDE on 2023-10-16 13:08:52 GMT from Brazil)
I have voted for Kubuntu, because it has been my gateway (after the end of Kurumin), back in 2009, and it has been my "main distro" for almost 10 years, until circa 2018. I don't use Kubuntu any more, since 2019, but I wanted to pay homage for it, as "Buntus" have been a great "user friendly" gateway into Linux for many people.
There has been Mandrake (and Kurumin, in Brazil), before the "Buntus", but unhappily I depended on magazine's CDs, and most of them didn't work for me, so I didn't enjoy Mandrake. Finally, downloaded Kurumin (dial-up connection) and it worked, but it was already ending. User friendly "Buntus" and Canonical's free shipping CDs worldwide decided the question. No other distro could face it.
When I said "Kubuntu was my main distro", yes, I was already trying Debian and Linux Mint (always in dualboot), and they quickly became my preferred distros, too, but Mint's team gave up the KDE version and some time later Kubuntu replaced my "chromium.deb" with a "chromium.snapd", and I gave up on it. I still have a KDE Neon installation, but I have not used it so much.
Nowadays I prefer to use Arch Linux, MX Linux, openSUSE Tumbleweed and even Debian testing (always with KDE), for all my needs, while trying do master some other distros when I have some time.
Most of these distros don't force the use of Wayland session. Indeed, some of them don't offer this option by default. I am experimenting Wayland KDE just within Fedora. It seems near to become ok.
36 • Another Mint user. (by Friar Tux on 2023-10-16 13:37:21 GMT from Canada)
Aother Linux Mint/Cinnamon user, here. ("Ubuntu done right.") Mint was the only distro that consistently worked out-of-box, every single time. Most of the 'buntus had issues on my machine (stock HP Pavilion), as did most of the non-'buntu distros - including MX Linux, which was supposed to outshine Mint. It's been 8 years now and I have not had one single "lost-time" issue in all that time. I turn my laptop on at 6:30 every morning and off at 10:30 every night, and it has never given me grief. So, needless to say, unless Mint is considered a Ubuntu distro, I would have voted "None Of The Above".
37 • Checking UID (by Jesse on 2023-10-16 13:44:15 GMT from Canada)
@8: "Actually you can check uid and groups simply by `id`, it's included as a part of GNU coreutils. You may have some permission issue with the provided method (`grep jesse /etc/passwd`)."
This probably isn't the ideal approach, for two reasons.
1. The "id" utility will tell you what your user's UID is _for the current process_. In other words, it'll give you your current UID for the shell session you're running. If you've just changed your UID (and haven't logged out/in) or if you're still running with elevated access (through su or sudo) then you'll get the wrong value.
2. You should never have permission issues with reading /etc/passwd. A lot of services and regular user utilities read /etc/passwd so it's always world-readable. Whether you're on Linux, Solaris, one of the BSDs, or MINIX the /etc/passwd file will be readable by regular users.
38 • Ubuntu favorite (by krell on 2023-10-16 14:07:08 GMT from Canada)
I have been using Ubuntu for a few months now and all I can say is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to use it over Linux Mint.
Here are the issues:
1. No Pulseaudio by default so I had to install it to get sound on a java program.
And this is supposed to be there according to the policy that says if it's in the Gnome version which it is
2.No way to change the the language of the date and time once it is set. Trivial in Linux Mint.
3. Lots and lots of The system has reported a problem messages.
4. A buggy login screen that rejected my password until I pressed the switch user button and then could login as myself! This is a recent bug.
Will be reporting this on my new YouTube channel and switching back to Mint soon.
39 • I left Ubuntu at Happy Hippo...I think... (by tom joad on 2023-10-16 14:57:06 GMT from Austria)
I left Ubuntu at Happy Hippo...I think. What killed ubuntu for me was UNITY! Oh, and the DASH. After that boundless madness I did an extended period of 'hopping.' Used MX for a time and wandered into Mint Cinnamon where I have set up house keeping...I guess.
Maybe the reason there is not a 'none of the above' pick is it would have won the day resoundingly. That would easily have been my choice.
I am equally sure the folks who run this page are beyond lucid enough to have made that decision. Maybe they decided against the 'none' option so as to reveal what 'flavor' would get the most favor.
Only it revealed, again, UNITY was, in fact, divisive.
40 • Kazlu (by Favorite Ubuntu flavor on 2023-10-16 16:53:02 GMT from France)
I voted Ubuntu Studio. Because in my opinion, for every other Ubuntu flavor, either I have no use for it or there is a distro out there that does the job better.
- Linux Mint is better than Ubuntu with every featured DE (exit Ubuntu Cinnamon, Ubuntu MATE, Xubuntu).
- Simple Debian derivatives, especially Q4OS or plain Debian via Spiral Linux, are better lightweight distros than Lubuntu
- Edubuntu : it's better to have a distro that is gentle with old, inexpensive hardware when you target students. Exit.
- I don't like the locked down and slow GNOME based interface of plain Ubuntu. Exit.
- I have no inclination to use KDE, Budgie or Unity, so exit those three.
We are down to 2 distributions featuring specific usages: Ubuntu Kylin and Ubuntu Studio. I have no use for the first one, I do for the second one. I have tried AVLinux MX edition with little satisfaction, and I am not very reassured by the fact that this is a one man effort. Too bad, I love the concept. Ubuntu Studio is far from perfect, especially on the stability point of view (remind me to steer clear of non-LTS Ubuntu releases...) but so far is the best at this job that I could find.
41 • Repelling Snap (by GrumpyFrenchie on 2023-10-16 17:12:52 GMT from France)
Unity was divisive but Snap is repelling.
For years, i have prefered Ubuntu for its ease of use. Except I actually hated Unity which imposed on me more mouse clics to launch programs, and a terrible slowness on old hardware (no graphics acceleration, mind you! - GNOME 3, supposedly encumbered with a JavasScript engine was so much quicker on my oldest laptop). But i could circumvented this Unity crap. At least there were UbuntuMATE (for my old 2001 laptop) and (community born) Ubuntu GNOME Remix (for my 2008 laptop), until Ubuntu came back to reason (i have always kept an "Application" and a "Places" menus under GNOME 3 or 4 - through extensions if need be).
But delivering more and more key components as bloat "snaps" is what is making me preparing to sail another ship, with pure DEB packaging and GNOME (maybe COSMIC). There is no way anymore to update Ubuntu without Snap. As we say in French, it's the drop that makes the vase overflow. This means: it's the last straw. I have begun trying more than one other distro as escape routes.
But donot try to sell me KDE or Cinamon: i didnot quit Windows to find back on Linux what i disliked the most in Windows' ergonomy. Any destop environment that tries to be Windows-quitters-friendly by aping Windows makes my skin crawl... In my experience, being Windows-quitters-friendly means exactly what GNOME has always tried: aiming at being easier to use instead of bindly imitating. In this order of priorities, you unavoidably but positively end up being different.
42 • "Hate" speech (by JM on 2023-10-16 22:18:07 GMT from Panama)
Wow. Now placing a word some NPC DRONE didn't like on a translation IN THE INSTALLER is grounds for dropping the release media and redoing it. Now that's catering to the brainless lefttards.
43 • FydeOS (by Carlos Felipe on 2023-10-16 22:23:06 GMT from Brazil)
Read the docs and use balenaEtcher
44 • Fyde OS (by Moe on 2023-10-16 22:50:22 GMT from United States)
Can't say I agree with your sentiments. I've used FydeOS on two computers with total success. Not once have I encountered a problem. Installation went as smooth as butter. One PC has an N4000 while the other an older generation Processor. The OS is pretty much a ChromeOS copy but with unique features of its own.
45 • I choose DEBIAN! (by I'm a little teapot! on 2023-10-17 02:36:55 GMT from France)
@25:
[...] Now I am using Sparky Linux Stable as best Debian Distro. I use xfce desktop which works on my HP Probook i7 very fast and accurate. This works very reliable and solid. Not every day(in rolling distros!!) several updates, but now a few days in the week very little updates. Very recommended!!
I tried Sparky Linux and I wasn't impressed, just as I really haven't been impressed by others like it. Oh, and it's Debian "based" distro, not "Debian Distro". Please educate yourself prior to spouting off. Thank you.
For me and most sane individuals, I choose DEBIAN.
46 • Re: Checking UID (by Vinfall on 2023-10-17 03:03:06 GMT from Singapore)
@37:
Thanks for the clarification, Jesse! It seems I got /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow mixed up. I think the later is only readable to root due to security reason and somehow have the (wrong) impression that /etc/passwd have similar restriction.
47 • grep _and_ cut? Really? (by Head_on_a_Stick on 2023-10-17 05:37:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
awk -F: '/jesse/{print $3}' /etc/passwd
:-P
48 • snap and ubuntu (by fabio on 2023-10-17 09:20:19 GMT from Italy)
@41
I have also completely removed snapd from ubuntu 22.04 but there is no need
to emphasize this with wrong information. It is not true of course that removing
snapd you lost the "update" feature that is perfectly in place. Eventually you have to install
gnome-software but it is not mandatory if not used. In place of firefox-snap I use
firefox-esr (as in debian). I also use the same setting used in Mint to avoid that snapd is
reinstalled. And it is all ok with Ubuntu running nicely without snap at least in 22.04
version.
49 • Ubuntu (by Romane on 2023-10-17 10:40:13 GMT from Australia)
I do not touch Ubuntu nor any Ubuntu-based distributions or Flavours. Full Stop.
First looked at Ubuntu just after it came out - hated it.
Things haven't changed. Last time ran Ubuntu (or one of its flavours or one of its derivatives, don't remember now) to see if my taste had changed, still did not like it, not one iota.
Don't assk me to try and explain why. I cannot. Another Full Stop
This is purely a personal taste "thing". So many people run Ubuntu or one of its flavours or one of its derivatives. That speaks, alone, bulk about the distribution(s) - were he/she/it unreliable or any other continuous problems, then he/she/it would not have survived till now.
50 • @41, Snap updates, KDE, @45, sanity. (by Mr.Moto on 2023-10-17 12:36:46 GMT from Japan)
@41, I run Ubuntu 23.04 de-snapd (unsnapd?). No problems updating or with anything else. As for KDE, the idea is not to look and act like windows (unless that's what you want), but to look any way you want it to. I have a laptop with KDE Plasma, and I assure you, it doesn't look anything like Windows. I enjoy using Linux because it allows me to fit it to my own preferences, and no other DE allows that as well as KDE.
@45, Perhaps sanity is overrated. A "little teapot"?
51 • Not recently (by AdamB on 2023-10-17 12:41:55 GMT from Australia)
I voted for Ubuntu MATE, which was indeed my favourite Ubuntu variant, but as far as I can remember, 18.04 was the last version that I used; since then, I have been mostly using Devuan and Void.
52 • old is always leaner than new (by grindstone on 2023-10-17 14:58:54 GMT from United States)
Exactly with #34 luvr...running 20.04 and this'll be the end of the 'buntus for me but unsure about precisely where to jump (pure Debian or perhaps Antix). Sincere gratitude to all the *buntu contributors, though!
And what's "progress" to wave after wave of new and energetic devs is the definition causing regressions to those of us old enough to be their grandparents :)
53 • Ubuntu Poll (by Panther on 2023-10-17 15:19:24 GMT from United States)
I agree with the first 3 comments regarding the Ubuntu poll. In addition to not at all there needs to be an option it is all the same. The versions of Ubuntu are all Ubuntu, they all use the same software repositories and they are all governed by Canonical, the only difference between any of the versions is DE and software selection. Many distros offer the same options, but distrowatch only makes such artificial distinctions with Ubuntu. It is all the same distribution and I think it is a bias on this site to tout Ubuntu as if it has options on other distro offers.
I am glad Fedora and Gnome are dropping X11 support. Fedora switched to Wayland by default on Fedora 25 released in 2016 and it is past time when major distros, like Ubuntu, and major DE/Window managers, like XFCE, and developers and end users ignore Wayland. If there is a feature you want that Wayland lacks start contributing code or support developers with monetary donations.
Wake up and smell the flowers, Wayland is coming, X11 is dead, It should be a wake up call that Fedora and Gnome are dropping support for X. Arch will be next, they always follow upstream, and all the other distros will follow. Ignoring Wayland got Ubuntu nowhere when they were pushing MIR, they are years behind the curve. Ignoring Wayland got KDE nowhere, and they are also years behind gnome. Similarly ignoring Wayland will get you nowhere either.
54 • Favorite Ubuntu (by Moat on 2023-10-17 16:30:53 GMT from United States)
I agree with much of the sentiment in previous posts. I chose Xubuntu as my favorite (with Mate a close second), as I've had the best OOTB experience with that version, and Xfce is my preferred DE anyway (soo configurable, in *just* the right ways to my workflow preferences - all why remaining reasonably light & fast/responsive).
Agreed with many here stating that Mint remains what Ubuntu *should* be; it's just all-around better - more polished OOTB, seemingly a bit faster & bug-free than comparable Ubuntus. An excellent choice, for sure.
I also agree that Snaps overall are a significant backwards step for the end-user, in regards to efficiency/useability for typical home desktop usage. Worse than Windows .exe/.MSI's, and inferior to traditional Linux packaging (.debs, rpms, pkg.tar.xz, etc); comparitivly massive (!!) in size, initially slow to open, too often out-of-date, etc. I simply don't like 'em, at all.
And Ubuntu "pushing" Snaps upon its users seems arrogant, presumptuous - and disillusioning (somewhat bringing to mind GNOME's ridiculous, *tremendously* widespread damaging effect in handling of GTK 3/4 development over the past 6-8 years). Ubuntu's shift of focus away from the home desktop and more towards a revenue-building commercial model has, over the years, resulted in a subjective reduction in overall quality in the home-user desktop-based releases, IMHO; buggier, slower/heavier, more "paper cuts", etc...
So I now tend to avoid Ubuntu, and primarily use Manjaro (excellent, actually) and Mint LMDE & Xfce (tho I still have an up-to-date Kubuntu LTS 22.04 on an old dual-boot laptop; it's good, but not great). MX is another excellent choice, in my experience.
Some here have mentioned KDE Neon; I've ran it in the past and thought it was a great version of Ubuntu w/KDE Plasma - very smooth, slim, fast & well polished - although it's not an official Ubuntu version.
Shout out here to the Debian Dogs, too - an amazing, Puppy-like, easy-to-build-your-own custom, layered-filesystem *pure Debian* that runs blisteringly fast in RAM (if you want) from a USB stick (with persistence) and includes a number of fantastic home-grown remastering & other tools. I sure wish more folks would collect around & support this great, (mostly) one-man project!
Apologies for the lengthy post! Just some observations/opinions of a ~15 yr, off-and-on Linux/Windows (7!!) user who is - more than ever - considering dumping Windows altogether, in view of how utterly awful Windows 11 is...
55 • @54 re Windows 11 (by LOL on 2023-10-17 18:42:51 GMT from Canada)
@54 re: "how utterly awful Windows 11 is..."
Aw, it's not TOTALY "awful". My more experienced programming friends tell me that WSL (Windows Sublayer for Linux) not only works well, but ironically, is the most stable part of that operating system!
Apparently, the rest of the OS still does things behind your back, but at least now, if you're stuck in a corporate environment, you have easier access to some of your preferred tools.
Disclaimer: Since I personally use antiquated PC's that still work because of Linux, and are incapable of running Win 11, I cannot confirm the above....
56 • @47 - "grep_and_cut? Really?" (by Andy Prough on 2023-10-17 20:09:19 GMT from United States)
>"grep _and_ cut? Really? (by Head_on_a_Stick on 2023-10-17 05:37:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
awk -F: '/jesse/{print $3}' /etc/passwd"
You and Jesse are both making it way harder than it needs to be. The command to find the UID is simply:
$ id -u jesse
57 • Linux Mint is my favourite Ubuntu flavour (by Simon Plaistowe on 2023-10-17 20:25:15 GMT from New Zealand)
Well yes it's a derivative, not part of the immediate family as such but nevertheless directly related. I've been using Mint on all my daily drivers for many years now (must be since around 2011). It just works - yeah there's been the odd minor issue now and then, but so far I've never had any major problems. Strange poll, without the usual broader type of options such as "I don't use Ubuntu" or "I use a derivative distro".
58 • Thank you Ubuntu (by MK on 2023-10-17 20:31:38 GMT from Israel)
I have a few old PCs, and use Xubuntu Ubuntu-Mate and Kubuntu on them. Ubuntu is, by far, the best distro ever. ...and NO, Mint is not Ubuntu.
59 • Favorite Flavor of Ubuntu poll.. (by Otis on 2023-10-17 21:17:30 GMT from United States)
..seems like a "Favorite Breed of Dog" poll to me, as I'm a cat person, although I did try having a dog quite some time ago and found it to be an annoying dependency freak whereas the cat remained reliably observant of the entire ordeal.
Kidding aside I went down the choices list quickly and then once again to see if I missed the "I don't use Ubuntu in any flavor," but, alas, it is not there.
60 • No Ubuntu Server? (by Jay on 2023-10-17 21:59:18 GMT from Iceland)
In general, I prefer Ubuntu-derivative distros to Canonical's official offerings; I've no great love for Canonical's stumbles and many downstream variants code or configure around those flaws.
My favorite Ubuntu isn't listed; it's Ubuntu LTS Server (which I use if it has some project-specific value or capability that Debian lacks).
TBH, I still have one desktop machine with an Ubuntu *derivative* on it, but it's unlikely to survive year-end because I prefer Arch desktops to Ubuntu and/or Debian ones.
61 • FydeOS (by fydo on 2023-10-18 04:28:04 GMT from Germany)
superslick OS - as expected from a company. User needs to connect to the Internet to try it out or install it, and then sign in / create a Fyde / Google account.The user is then presented with a terms of service doc - explaining how your data will be collected / used (or you can opt out) - that would take about an hour to read. After signing up, the desktop is available. There are very few apps included and no virus scanner. The user probly has to download them from an app store / repository. End of test.. woof !
62 • FydeOS (by Ennio on 2023-10-18 09:00:57 GMT from Netherlands)
The problem with booting the img file is probably due to a snafu in the unpacking to usb. I didn't even try it because Ventoy can perfectly boot them. In my first try I used the release for recent systems, which booted fine but presented me with the obligation to sign up with either a Fyde account or with a Google one. That stinks, in my opinion. Beside that the only option is to "browse as guest" but no signs of an installer. It is possible to open a VT in the canonical way but didn't explore further.
Does it want to be a monetization of something? You can read by yourself and decide by content that actually appears somewhere (sorry, bad memory) in a long scroll and that replicates content found on the Fyde website:
https://fydeos.io/privacy/
https://fydeos.io/terms-of-use/#toc_Terms_of_Service
It seems that this company wants to cater to cross developer, to find a way to use ChromeOS for other devices, to establish a footiing in the corporate market. They have a tablet product whose Indiegogo campaign you can finde here:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fydetab-duo--2#/
It does not look like a "distro for us" but rather a commercial product (and, good luck with that...) offering a "basis" install with most of the goodies withheld. Like, the recent PCs install is with the goodies and requires signing in anyway (read well in the ToS where they talk about who owns what) whereas the "basis" download is for older machines. I'm just downloading the latter and will try again.
63 • BalenaEtcher (by Ennio on 2023-10-18 09:10:35 GMT from Netherlands)
Why committing to hundreds of MB when better options exist either native to Linux or cross platform? UsbImager does the job using much less space. BalenaEtcher, also with the so-called BalenaOS, has a business with IOT devices and the management of their installs, is a fat Elektron code and if I do not uncheck the relevant box it goes phoning home (there is a Chrome browser in it, it seems) with anything it can possibly gather. I would honestly boycott it.
But again, among many things, Vietnam gave us Ventoy. Why bother with anything else?
64 • FydeOS (by Ennio on 2023-10-18 09:22:29 GMT from Netherlands)
No, still sign-in required. The VT has commands like nano, netstat, top, etc and emerge seems to be working - with binary packages. That's it. I discard this distro, good luck and good business for Fyde and farewell.
65 • ..buntu (by Steve Guesshow on 2023-10-18 12:29:42 GMT from Czechia)
I think Ubuntu haters are like vegans. They say it to literally everyone, although no one is interested...
I began with 5.05 Breezy, later I switch to Kubuntu. But change from KDE 3 to 4 was...quite brutal. So I switch to Linux Mint. I experimented with Crunchbang on oldschool laptop and KDE Neon on new computer...and I was impressed by both of them. But finally, I returned to Kubuntu. Because it just works.
66 • Snap & Ubuntu (by GrumpyFrenchie on 2023-10-18 15:54:04 GMT from France)
@41
Fabio, circumventing Firefox snap under Ubuntu is what i have been doing since Ubuntu replaced its default Firefox DEB package with a snap crap, mind you. But Firefox was just a starter.
Ubuntu is actively pursuing promoting Snap by preparing the snapping of key GNOME components. Soon you will have the choice between Snap software repository and migrating to another distro.
I would rather be prepared.
The difficulty lies un finding a distro that is as easy to use as Ubuntu - starting with i just install and it runs for yearss without having you to open a shell to repair something because a package maintainer banged out an upgrade (i prefer to spend my life on more interesting things than repairing systems broken by mere upgrades).
67 • @66 something as easy to use as Ubuntu (by Kazlu on 2023-10-18 16:00:50 GMT from France)
Huh, I get it, Linux Mint is *easier* to use than Ubuntu, not *as easy* to use, so that search is going to be difficult...
68 • FydeOS is just ChromeOS with unknown changes, no? (by GrumpyFrenchie on 2023-10-18 16:42:59 GMT from France)
Jesse,
You wrote "FydeOS [...] appears to be based on Gentoo with an aim to bridge the functionality between a traditional desktop distribution and a ChromeOS-style operating system [...]".
Well, as far i as know, it is just a Chinese derivation from ChromeOS, more specifically from ChromiumOS. So it is somewhat de-Google-ised.
What Gentoo code it has inside is just ChromeOS code, because ChromeOS uses Gentoo code nowadays.
Trouble is how do you know the shipped distro it is all opensource and that the shipped distro hasnot replaced Google's private data pump with some unknown private data pump of a Beijing's single party sort?
69 • something as easy to use as Ubuntu... (by GrumpyFrenchie on 2023-10-19 00:16:17 GMT from France)
Linux Mint, seriously? Just read the distro's official doc: "Upgrades from one major version to the next [...] can require a certain level of knowledge and experience from the user."
For 15 years in a row now, i have experienced Ubuntu updating and upgrading seemlessly. I have just click i accept the new version, carried on doing what i had been doing until offered the choice of rebboting now or later. That is all. No "cerain level of knowledge and experience" required. Now, THIS is easier.
Besides, you havenot read my previous comment regarding Windows-aping desktop environment. At work, i must cope all day long with Windows' ergonomy i dislike. So no Cinnamon, no KDE for me.
70 • Snap issues (by RJA on 2023-10-19 01:22:14 GMT from United States)
@41, I've experienced a problem with the Snap version of Firefox on Jammy in 2022, IIRC. It made Firefox launching *extremely-slow*! But, shortly after I ran into that issue, it seemed to have been fixed. So yes, I'm hesitant on Snaps, as a result.
71 • Windows-aping (by Friar Tux on 2023-10-19 02:51:31 GMT from Canada)
@69 (GrumpyFrenchie) I have tried many Linux distros over the years - all the 'buntus included - and Linux Mint/ Cinnamon was the ONLY one that worked, consistently, every time I re-installed it. (I only had one laptop, then, so it meant reinstalling Mint whenever I was done testing a distro.) And, the very fact that Mint was "Windows-aping" was a bonus as I did NOT have to relearn how to use my computer. Everything was where I needed it to be. Including the fact that I could easily put a second panel at the top of the screen. (I used to have a separate program in Windows, called WinExt, that allowed me to do that.) When I permanently switched from Windows to Linux, I was in my middle 60's, so muscle memory meant that certain buttons and program icon/shortcuts needed to be in the places my memory told my muscles the buttons were at. At my age, I want to get my work done without having to hunt for the buttons I need to work with. So, for me, a Windows-aping distro is PERFECT.
72 • Fried MinTux (by Why-oh-why on 2023-10-19 07:28:53 GMT from Netherlands)
@71: "Linux Mint/ Cinnamon was the ONLY one that worked, consistently, every time I re-installed it."
That might be your personal experience, but it is not necessarily true for all other users. I also never had any issues with Ubuntu, but I had more than one issue with Mint.
@71: "the very fact that Mint was "Windows-aping" was a bonus as I did NOT have to relearn how to use my computer."
That might be so for you and some, probably most here, but it is not necessarily the truth for all.
Your bonus is a penalty for @69, who clearly writes: "At work, i must cope all day long with Windows' ergonomy i dislike. So no Cinnamon, no KDE for me."
@71: "Everything was where I needed it to be."
Everything is where it shouldn't be—from the perspective of Mac users, children, or my mom.
My mom never had a PC. The first thing she used was Android. Then she started using a PC, and only Gnome (or Mac) could offer her 'everything was where she needed it to be.'
The same goes for "the future"—for our children and grandchildren. They start playing with smartphones at the age of 5, and in kindergarten and schools, they start learning Mac. Windows user numbers are slowly but steadily declining over time.
@71: "Including the fact that I could easily put a second panel at the top of the screen. (I used to have a separate program in Windows, called WinExt, that allowed me to do that.)"
I never met a Windows user (among those few thousand I am supporting) requesting a second panel, but I had a few Linux users requesting to remove it (Mate). However, the point here was that my mom doesn't need a second panel at the top of the screen, nor does she know how to add or remove something somewhere. The same goes for my neighbor... and for basically 98% of all users on this planet who do not care for the OS but who just use the PC because of the applications they need for work or entertainment.
@71: "When I permanently switched from Windows to Linux, I was in my middle 60's, so muscle memory meant that certain buttons and program icon/shortcuts needed to be in the places my memory told my muscles the buttons were at. At my age..."
Again 'you', but I hope that you realize how you are slowly heading towards becoming the past and that product development is future-oriented. ;)
@71: "So, for me, a Windows-aping distro is PERFECT."
Yes, FOR YOU, except that @69 didn't ask you for your 'Mintvertising' which you repeat week after week, so why write your comment at all? ;)
As for Ubuntu (Gnome), yes, it is better than Mint. @69 told you why.
* Logic is the study of correct reasoning. Conclusions follow and are based on a set of premises. If the premises are false, the conclusions will also be false.
Writing comments only makes sense if people can read and understand and if they are able to think; otherwise, you risk ending up on @69 (@68): "Trouble is, how do you know the shipped distro is all opensource and that the shipped distro has not replaced Google's private data pump with some unknown private data pump of Beijing's single-party sort?"
Well, you don't, unless you are able to do a code audit on your own, but considering that we all know who is the biggest data collector on this planet, maybe avoiding PC all together would be a better idea. Most OSs originate from that one single land.
73 • @69 Mint and Ubuntu (by Kazlu on 2023-10-19 08:22:44 GMT from France)
Concerning upgrades: Mints warns the user that knowledge and experience CAN be required because that's the case IF something goes wrong. Ubuntu does a good job at automating the process and when I was using it, I enjoyed that. It just worked... Most of the times. I had a problem or two, fortunately I had the knowledge for sorting it out but it took some digging. I don't remember it very well to be honest, so it must not have been major. But someone inexperienced, used to flawless upgrades, could be left stranded if something goes wrong and they did not at least do backups. It could be many things: power failure during update, PPAs not supporting the new version, conflicting packages or bug because packages coming from multiverse repository are not actually supported, etc. Ubuntu does things easy and for probably between 80 and 98% of people things will go flawlessly and, therefore, easier than with Mint. But what if you're on the other side of the fence? Then your system might be unusable and you don't know how to fix it.
Mint was, in my opinion, spot on when they only advertised to do upgrades through fresh installs. Much more fool proof, although a bit more work is required, and actually faster than repository upgrade. When they finally decided to offer GUI based repository upgrade, they did it with an LOT of hand holding to give an inexperienced user plenty of safety nets in case this or that goes wrong. As a result, it is a rather complicated upgrade procedure, I have to admit, because it has many steps. But I think almost anyone could do it, although it must ba annoying :) I am wondering if the replacement of many traditional packages by snaps in Ubuntu makes the upgrade less prone to problems... Possible.
To sum up: Ubuntu upgrade procedure is much simpler, until something goes wrong. Mint is safer, but more complicated.
About the desktop environment: "you havenot read my previous comment regarding Windows-aping desktop environment. At work, i must cope all day long with Windows' ergonomy i dislike. So no Cinnamon, no KDE for me."
I did read it but did not take it into account because, well, that is a subjective matter. Ask other people, and they might agree with you or, in the contrary, say that a Windows-like DE is much easier to use because 99% of people are used to that, 99% of people learned that at school and use that at work and therefore they are more productive with something they are used to. Personally, I do not agree with that. When Unity first appeared on Ubuntu, I was furious at first and I really disliked it. But as I went searching for alternative DEs, with everything I discovered, I ended up questioning my habits and rethinking what I actually needed. I ended up thinking that Unity was actually very well designed! Especially for small screens. But, unfortunately, very sluggish, even in 2D, especially on the low end computers with the small screens :'( I ended up switching to Xfce and customizing the panels a lot to fit what I want. I feel right at home with that and no other DE allows me to do the same with comparable level of performance. MATE and LXQt come close, but nah.
To sum up: The desktop environment and its ease of use are a matter of personal preference, so I stopped saying that a DE or a desktop layout are "easy" or "difficult" to use a long time ago. It just depends on your habits, desires and taste.
But those are only a few elements and not really what I was thinking in "ease of use". Mint shares a lot of what makes Ubuntu easy to use (large repositories, many hardware drivers, installation process, etc.) and THEN adds some elements that make it even easier: multimedia codecs installed by default, very nice and humanly thought welcome screen, stays out of your way... and it does a LOT of hand holding, especially from the welcome screen, to setup VERY useful things that can change everything for an unexperienced user. I am particularly thinking of how to set up automatic updates and system backups, but there are other things. The theming efforts are also absolutely great, Mint has a consistent look across its 3 featured DEs despite applications sometimes wanting really hard to go their own way. GNOME goes their own way, which is not necessarily wrong, but make it difficult or ugly to mix with the rest of the Linux world. Except mixing things from various sources is what makes Linux the success it is today. Mint does a tremendous job a making everything look uniform.
Considering your knowledge and habits of Ubuntu + GNOME, there is probably no benefit for you using Mint. I have to admit my previous comment was a little bit provocative since I found that funny, sorry about that :) I think it's still true for most people, but probably not for you. Now if I am being a little more serious, if you are looking for an alternative to Ubuntu because of snaps but you like the rest and GNOME, how about Fedora, OpenSUSE maybe?
74 • @72 : Macs in schools (by Kazlu on 2023-10-19 08:24:52 GMT from France)
"in kindergarten and schools, they start learning Mac"
Surely you must realize that schools using Macs are an exception, right? I have never seen that. In my experience, schools use Windows PCs, and quite often they are very old!
75 • @74 Macs in schools (by Kazlu from France) (by Why-oh-why on 2023-10-19 09:55:52 GMT from Netherlands)
"Surely you must realize that schools using Macs are an exception, right? I have never seen that. In my experience, schools use Windows PCs, and quite often they are very old!"
No, schools using Macs are NOT an exception, but the whole story is long and complicated, and above, I didn't try to give the market analysis.
In short, in the past, Macs were the most widely used computers in higher education. Then the cheap PCs replaced them (Apple was almost gone and was basically saved by Microsoft), but later they started gaining a foothold in education again.
Now, if one strictly compares the Mac vs. Windows numbers, they are currently probably around half-half, but one shouldn't forget iPads and Chromebooks (with very Mac-like interfaces).
Of course, the results may vary from country to country. BTW, Paul Thurrott is "the Windows guy."
https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/03/07/report-ipad-mac-use-growing-in-k12.aspx
https://www.engadget.com/2010-11-15-the-current-state-of-macintosh-use-in-higher-education.html
https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/chrome-os/chromebook/228534/google-40-million-chromebooks-in-use-in-education
https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/08/4_in_5_chromebooks_sold_to_us_students/
https://www.5paisa.com/news/how-microsoft-saved-apple-from-bankruptcy-25-years-ago
76 • Changing user identification numbers (by migos on 2023-10-19 10:46:08 GMT from Portugal)
Change uid is easy. But the problem is that often one wants to change gid to.
77 • Set minimum UID to 1000 (by Albert on 2023-10-20 10:09:24 GMT from Italy)
After changing the UID as you've shown, Jessie, one can set the minimum UID to allocate it to 1000, so when we add other users, their UID will not be 500, 501,… but 1001, 1002,… so their permissions will check too with the one of the other distros.
In /etc/login.defs, we only need to change the value of UID_MIN (and GID_MIN if necessary) (reboot needed ?)
I see another reason to set the UID in the traditional way : I have some external HDs (formatted in ext4) shared between various PC, so it's important that the UIDs (and GIDs) stay consistent across those PCs (this is a variant of your case "more than one distro in a single PC")
78 • @77 change group id (by Albert on 2023-10-20 10:24:21 GMT from Luxembourg)
To change the main group id of an existing user :
usermod some_name --gid 1000
(more details in man usermod)
To allocate the right number to a new user :
useradd some_name --uid 1001 --gid 1001
# or, for the debian family :
adduser some_name --uid 1001 --gid 1001
(more details in man useradd (and man adduser for debian and Co)
79 • FydeOS and mint<->Ubuntu (by Jan on 2023-10-20 20:05:02 GMT from Netherlands)
Very interesting comments on FydeOS and the difference on upgrading MINTUbuntu.
That is information which I, less informed and competent, can use to prevent mistakes.
Thanks
This is what makes DW interesting to follow.
80 • Kazlu, have you got time to waste? (by GrumpyFrenchie on 2023-10-20 20:11:42 GMT from France)
@73
I do know how to fix a system gone havoc, even if my 2 Ubuntu personal laptop have upgraded themselves flawlessly for 15 year in a row, because i repaired more than once the machine of someonelse who thought better replacing a key distro component with a "better version" found in a PPA. I just donot want to spend my personal life repairing my daily drive when there exists rock-solid stuff out there.
I wrote "donot try to sell me KDE or Cinnamon" and explained why (personal experiences, personal tastes). And you deliver a lengthy lecture questionning my "habits"?
Well the change of GNOME 2 to GNOME 3 challenged them, and i have compared ease of use and my efficiency with many a DE. I am more productive with GNOME than with Windows (despite i have have used Windows at work for twice as long as GNOME at home). So my dislike for Windows-aping DEs has noing to do with "habits". So it is with Unity: it made me lose times in too additional clicks - that is a fact, not a question of "habits" either.
That is my experience. I just share it and my opinion, but donot try to convince anybody by questionng their "habits".
You are lecturing me on your liking Linux Mint and the fact that "99% of people are used to" Windows. Well, they are they, and i am i. If i wanted to do like your "99% of people", i wouldnot use Linux to begin with, but would just stick with Windows.
By the way, they may be a huge majority, but not "99%": you forgot macOS users somewhere, who are much more than 1% around here.
And so it is with Linux: if you consider all GNOME users and all users of less conventional stuff like tiling windows managers, those like you who want a Windows-like experience on Linux arenot "99%" either.
Even worse, i explained i want a pure DEB package management system, and you invite me to consider Fedora and OpenSUSE. Seriously?
Well, i had bad experiences with RPM based distros, mind you.
How is it you spent so much energy to invite me questionning what you call "habits" for the sake of your personal love for Linux Mint? How is it you have come to think the Debian package management system necessarly imply Snap? How is it you wrote it in such a long lecture? Too much coffee, or too much pot, maybe?
81 • re 73 et al (by Someguy on 2023-10-22 08:47:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
"Mints warns the user that knowledge and experience CAN be required because that's the case IF something goes wrong. "
Problem is - things do go wrong and leave one stranded, if without 'the knowledge", like for e.g. Manual fsck required, and accompanying hieroglyphs - far too often with Mints.
True that necessary answers can be found using another machine, but....
MX has an easily accessible couple of utils offering 'fix boot' /reinstall ditto which can used across several distros without searching for a 'Boot Repair' or 'Sysrec' which don't provided anything like enough plain language guidance - if any!
In general, too many distros try to offer too many bells and whistles blinded to the reality of basic needs of the majority. And don't get me started on those pokey bits of plastic that folks carry around in their pockets, destined to cause long term damage to eyesight, broken nails, and damaged minds....
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| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Maryan Linux
Maryan Linux was a desktop oriented distribution featuring the lightweight and visually appealing Enlightenment 17 desktop environment. LXDE, Fluxbox and pekwm are also available as alternative desktops. The project's first release (version 1) was based on Ubuntu, but the developers expect to switch to Arch Linux as the base system for future versions.
Status: Discontinued
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