 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1046, 20 November 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 47th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Every year computers become faster, more capable, and more powerful. Tasks which once took days of processing power can now be achieved in minutes. This is wonderful, most of the time, but there are times when we'd like our computers to slow down. There are any number of reasons for this, from wanting to consume less battery power to leaving some CPU resources available to other tasks. In this week's Questions and Answers column we talk about limiting the amount of CPU resources consumed by a process running on Linux. First though we talk about Slackel, a Slackware-based distribution which is partnered with the lightweight Openbox window manager. Read on to hear first impressions of this live distribution. Slackel's default interface, Openbox, is one of several lightweight window managers; there are several available for Linux. In this week's Opinion Poll we'd like to hear whether our readers run full featured desktop environments or minimal window managers. Let us know about your preference in the comments. Also in this issue we talk about Haiku developers adding new improvements and bug fixes to their desktop operating system while Canonical unveils MicroCloud for automated cloud solutions. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Slackel 7.7 "Openbox"
Slackel is a live Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux and Salix. It is binary compatible with both, allowing it to use packages from these other projects. The Slackel distribution has been made available in a number of different editions with various desktop environments over the years. The project's latest release, Slackel 7.7, ships with the Openbox window manager and is available in 64-bit and 32-bit builds for x86 machines.
Special instructions
Slackel can be written to and run from a USB thumb drive as a normal, live distribution. We can also use a special set of instructions and a script (which is included in the distribution's ISO file) to install Slackel to a thumb drive. This allows us to run Slackel from a thumb drive almost as though it were installed on a hard drive with the option of enabling a persistent storage location. The instructions for doing this are provided on the project's website and included in the ISO.
The special instructions for setting up Slackel on a thumb drive basically involve mounting the ISO file and running a script called install_on_usb.sh which requires two bits of information: the location of the ISO file and the name of the thumb drive where we wish to install Slackel. The command looks like this:
sudo sh install_on_usb.sh --usb path_to_iso_image device
I followed the instructions provided and running the above command resulted in an error message which read: 'install_on_usb.sh: 82: Syntax error: "(" unexpected'. After checking the contents of the script I discovered the problem. The install_on_usb.sh file is a Bash script, it specifically requires Bash features in order to run properly. However, the command we're told to use to run the script says to use sh, not bash. The sh command invokes different shells on different distributions. On some distributions the sh command is its own shell, on some distributions it is a link to bash and on others it is a link to dash. In other words, using sh is unpredictable if you're working across multiple platforms. In my case sh was a link to dash when I needed to be using bash to run the script. Rewriting the command as follows worked:
sudo bash install_on_usb.sh --usb path_to_iso_image device
The script asks if we wish to proceed, performs some basic checks to confirm the drive we are planning to use is a thumb drive and not our main hard drive, and we're asked if we wish to make use of persistent storage. We can then choose to set up storage with the ext3 or FAT filesystems. The ext3 option feels a bit dated, but seemed the reasonable choice in my situation. We're then asked how big the persistent storage space should be with a list of numbers displayed, indicating potential sizes in megabytes. We're also given the chance to encrypt the persistent storage, though I skipped this step.
Slackel 7.7 -- The instructions for setting up persistent storage
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Early impressions
Booting from the thumb drive I had just imaged brought up a text menu where I was asked to select my language from a list. Once I had selected English the distribution booted and, fairly soon afterward, presented me with an Openbox-powered desktop. A panel sat across the bottom of the screen, a few icons sat on the desktop, and there was a Conky status panel in the upper-right corner of the screen.
The Openbox environment uses a light theme and most elements are grey. The application menu is arranged in a classic tree style without any search feature. The icons in the system tray all seem to have a faded, grey look which makes them blur together a bit. One thing I found unusual was the Conky status widget had its own entry in the task switcher on the panel, in other words it is treated similarly to other open application windows.
Something I noticed fairly quickly was Slackel uses fonts that are quite small (9pt) and thin. On a laptop screen at full resolution this makes text harder to read compared to most other distributions I've used this year. I figured it would be a simple matter to adjust the fonts, though I was gradually proved wrong on this point.
Slackel ships with at least three graphical tools which will offer to adjust font settings. There is an appearance module which will offer to adjust fonts for us, though this just works for adjusting font styles rather than size. There is an Openbox settings and customization application which will adjust the fonts of menus and title bars, but not the rest of the desktop. There is also a desktop settings module which will change the size of the text which appears under desktop icons, but no other areas of the interface. As far as I can tell there are no tools which will adjust the fonts for applications and the application menu. There also didn't appear to be any zoom or scaling feature included. Some applications, including Firefox and the virtual terminal, will zoom and adjust font sizes independently of the Openbox environment.
Slackel 7.7 -- Three tools for adjusting fonts
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
At any rate, what had started as a low priority exploration into adjusting a minor feature of the desktop experience turned into about ten minutes of searching and experimenting with some minor success and a lot of frustration. Nevertheless, I decided to reboot the laptop and see if my changes did indeed remain persistent across reboots. They did not.
Persistent storage
The Slackel documentation talks about a persistent area of the filesystem, though it doesn't go into details on where it is. There are also some comments about making our home directory persistent, but the English in the documentation is a bit broken and I'm not clear on whether home directory persistence is a default or under which circumstances it is enabled. I was able to work out through the on-ISO documentation that we should be able to enable persistence at boot time, but it needs to be manually selected.
I restarted my laptop again and this time paid more attention to the boot menu. Along with the language selection section there has a text box for typing kernel parameters. There are also hints saying we can press F1 and F2 to get general information and boot parameter tips, respectively. There are a few tips listed, including one for adjusting power settings and one for enabling persistence.
Here I ran into another problem. The informative parts of the boot menu indicate we can use the arrow keys (Up and Down) to select which language we want to use and we can press Enter to boot Slackel, and we are told we can type boot parameters into the text box, but there isn't any indication of how to select the text box. I've been using computers for close to 40 years and Linux for about 25 years, so I thought this part would be the easiest aspect of my experience with the distribution. I'd just tap Tab, or Shift+Tab, or Page Down, or either the Left or Right arrow key, or use the mouse to select the text box. None of these worked and I couldn't find any tip in the documentation for how to select the text box, only that typing options into the box was expected. I knew my keyboard was working since I could select the information screens and pick my desired language, but no key combination I tried switched between screen elements. This ultimately meant I couldn't make use of persistent storage on my laptop.
I later discovered that when booting Slackel in a VirtualBox instance the boot menu screen was divided into two parts. The first screen asks us to select our language and a second screen shows a menu which asks us to pick kernel parameters. Some experimenting in VirtualBox revealed that the distribution shows the unified (every choice on one screen) boot menu when booting in UEFI mode, but shows the two-phase approach in Legacy BIOS mode. This made it easy to select boot options without switching between on-screen widgets.
I also found that in VirtualBox I was able to simply start typing on the unified screen and text would appear in the boot parameters box. This does not happen when booting the distribution on my laptop. The function keys, arrow keys, and Enter work as expected, but the text box doesn't have focus and doesn't accept typed letters on my laptop, only in VirtualBox.
In short, Slackel provided different experiences and capabilities depending on whether I was booting in UEFI mode or BIOS mode, and depending on whether I was booting in a virtual machine or on physical hardware.
Hardware
While I'm discussing different experiences in different test settings, I feel it important to mention that while the distribution would boot and run on my laptop (though without allowing me to type boot parameters), Slackel was unable to boot in VirtualBox. Whether I was in UEFI mode or BIOS mode, the distribution would start background services and then lock up while trying to launch a graphical environment. The error 'INIT: Id "x1" respawining too fast: disabled for 5 minutes' was displayed on the console. If I waited for five minutes the same error would be repeated again and then again while the system remained unresponsive.
When the distribution booted on my laptop I found the base system and the Openbox window manager would consume 540MB of RAM. This is unusually heavy for a minimal window manager, about on par with Xfce or KDE Plasma. It's quite a bit more memory than other instances of Openbox or small window managers I've run lately. The installation on my thumb drive took up about 2.6GB of space.
Most of my laptop's hardware was detected and used properly. Wireless networking functioned out of the box, my touchpad worked smoothly and interpreted taps as clicks. Slackel was unable to produce sound on my laptop and some exploring revealed the distribution was unable to detect my sound card, something other Slackware-based distributions have handled without issue.
Slackel 7.7 -- Unable to play audio
(full image size: 2.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Included software
Slackel's live environment provides a nice collection of open source software. Browsing through the application menu we can find popular items such as Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, and the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The FileZilla file transfer application is included along with SMPlayer, Transmission, and Pidgin. The mtPaint drawing program is included along with a series of utilities for customizing the user interface.
Slackel 7.7 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 2.9MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Slackel provides us with the GNU command line utilities, manual pages, and the GNU Compiler Collection. The distribution runs the SysV init software and version 6.1 of the Linux kernel.
By default, the distribution signs us into an account with the username "one" and the password "one". Administrative tasks can be performed through the sudo utility and using the "one" password.
Package management
Slackel uses the slapt-get command line package manager (there doesn't appear to be a graphical package manager). I experimented with slapt-get and it worked quite well. I was able to refresh the package database, search for new packages, and fetch new applications. The slapt-get utility pulls in software from Slackware's repositories and worked smoothly with no problems.
I was happy with slapt-get, especially after recent experiments with other members of the Slackware family where the package manager tended to run into problems or require manual configuration. Slackel handles package management quite well with slapt-get working quickly.
The distribution also ships with the Flatpak framework and enables the Flathub software repository by default. This gives us access to a large selection of up to date desktop applications, something which is usually not a focus of Slackware-based projects. Flatpak bundles can be managed from the command line.
Conclusions
There are some things the Slackel project handles quite well and which made the distribution fun to explore. The Openbox environment has a nice, classic layout; the distribution ships with a lot of useful desktop applications; and I like that Flatpak is set up for us in case we want to use it. I also appreciated how up front the project was with its documentation and access to scripts which make it easier to transfer the distribution to a thumb drive and enable persistence.
On the other hand, I regularly ran into problems (most of them small, a few of them significant) which hint at the project not getting enough testing or not being used by a wide enough audience. Having three completely different boot experiences whether I was using VirtualBox or my laptop, and whether I was using UEFI or Legacy BIOS modes, was a key example. The script for transferring the distribution to a thumb drive failing because the author assumes sh links to bash is another as this isn't true on the majority of the world's Linux installations.
Having my sound card not detected by Slackel while it works on virtually every other Linux distribution was disappointing. A smaller issue was finding three separate utilities which could be used to adjust fonts on the system, but none of them affected the font used by the application menu or desktop applications. Playing audio and changing font sizes/styles feel like pretty standard features of desktop distributions these days.
In short, Slackel does a few things really well, but it also tripped over simple tasks a lot during my trial. I felt like the overall design was good, the style of the project felt as though it could be quite useful, especially for people who want to take their operating system with them in a portable fashion. However, there were several areas which lacked polish, didn't work for me, or which could benefit from broader testing (across more environments and equipment).
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Slackel has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.7/10 from 3 review(s).
Have you used Slackel? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Haiku improves font handling and performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud
The Haiku team have been hard at work, introducing new features and bug fixes into their lightweight operating system. The project's monthly newsletter highlights some of the changes, locale bug fixes, and driver improvements. "jscipione fixed Deskbar submenus to all use the 'menu' font. Previously, some of them used the 'plain' font and some the 'menu' font, which made things obviously inconsistent when two different fonts were in use for these; now things should be properly consistent.
apl fixed some minor issues and improved the performance of HaikuDepot a bit, and also fixed a corner-case regarding invalid characters being entered into the username field. He also added more logging to allow for easier debugging of performance issues.
waddlesplash fixed colour name handling in Terminal, which was incorrect for non-English locales and broke adjusting colours entirely. Now things should work properly."
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Canonical has announced a new technology for people interested in deploying their own cloud infrastructure. The new software, called MicroCloud, is intended to be set up with a single command, reducing the amount of human interaction involved in setting up new cloud instances. Support for MicroCloud is included in Ubuntu Pro subscriptions. "Canonical announced today the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical's growing cloud infrastructure portfolio. It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical's Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node." Additional information is provided in the company's announcement.
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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) |
Restricting CPU usage
Pick-a-core-any-core asks: Is there a command I can use to determine how many CPU cores a process uses? When I compile or convert something, I want to be able to limit its CPU usage.
DistroWatch answers: There are a few different ways you can limit the amount of CPU resources a process can use at a time. Which approach makes the most sense will vary depending on the situation. Below, I'll cover three options for restricting a process's CPU access.
When what you are doing is specifically related to compiling, you can usually set the maximum number of jobs/cores to use at a time through your build tools. For instance, if you're compiling any software which uses the GNU make build tool then you can specify the number of jobs to run at a time using the "-j" flag. For example, the following would limit your build process to executing one job at a time, presumably requiring just one core:
make -j1
The compile job that is running may move between different cores as the Linux scheduler sees fit, but only one would be in use at a time. To run up to two jobs (using two cores) at a time, you could run the following:
make -j2
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In situations where you want to lock one process to using a specific CPU core (and just that core) you can use a command called taskset. Let's say I want to run the make command again and only allow it to run on one of my eight CPU cores. I can force make to run on CPU #3 by running the following:
taskset -c 3 make
in this instance the make command might use up all of its single core, but it won't spread to others.
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A third option is: we might not care on which or how many CPU cores are being used, just the total amount of CPU resources a process consumes. For these situations we can use a program called cpulimit which will throttle back running jobs to only consume a certain percentage of our available CPU resources. For instance, we can run Firefox and limit it to only using up to 50% of our CPU time by running the following command:
cpulimit -l 50 -- firefox
Using this approach, the launched program can run on any cores, it just can't use more than half (50%) of our processing power. This can be useful when running long jobs which we may want to run more slowly in the background.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
AlmaLinux OS 9.3
AlmaLinux OS is a Linux distribution built using the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project has published version 9.3 which introduces security improvements and updates to the web-based administration tools. "AlmaLinux 9.3 aims to improve flexibility and reliability, as well as to enhance security across hybrid environments. This release continues simplifying automation and system management. Web console enhancements simplify management tasks. Additionally, users can configure health check actions for Podman containers and vsock devices in virtual machines. Application Streams updates provide developers with flexibility and customization options without affecting the platform's stability. The 9.3 offers enhanced security and compliance. Additionally, it provides enhanced flexibility, stability, and reliability needed to support hybrid cloud innovation. You can read more about this release by checking out the Release Notes." Additional details on the new version can be found in the project's release announcement.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3
Red Hat has announced the release of a new update to its 9.x Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product line. The new version, RHEL 9.3, introduces a few changes, including supporting UEFI environments in cloud instances. "Previously, RHEL image builder created EC2 AMD or Intel 64-bit architecture AMIs images with support only for the legacy boot type. As a consequence, it was not possible to take advantage of certain AWS features requiring UEFI boot, such as secure boot. This enhancement extends the AWS EC2 AMD or Intel 64-bit architecture AMI image to support UEFI boot, in addition to the legacy BIOS boot. As a result, it is now possible to take advantage of AWS features which require booting the image with UEFI." The new release also makes it easier to select a specific kernel when installing on ARM processors. Additional information is provided in the company's release notes.
EuroLinux 9.3
The EuroLinux project publishes and supports an enterprise-focused distribution based on source code from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The EuroLinux team have published version 9.3 of their distribution which introduces a number of updates to server software as well as new utilities. "Major changes in EuroLinux 9.3. Security - key security-related highlights: Keylime was rebased to version 7.3.0. OpenSSH was further migrated from the less secure SHA-1 message digest. The pcsc-lite-ccid USB Chip/Smart Card Interface Device(CCID)) and Integrated Circuit Card Device (ICCD) driver was rebased to version 1.5.2. SEtools, the collection of graphical tools, command-line tools, and libraries for SELinux policy analysis, was rebased to version 4.4.3. OpenSCAP was rebased to version 1.3.8. Programming languages, web and database servers - later versions of the following application are now available: Redis 7; Node.js 20. Furthermore, the Apache HTTP Server has been updated to version 2.4.57." The project's relesae announcement and release notes offer additional information.
pfSense 2.7.1
Bill Rathbone has announced the release of pfSense 2.7.1, un updated build of the project's FreeBSD-based specialist operating system for firewalls and routers. This version uses the FreeBSD's 14-CURRENT branch as its base. "Netgate is pleased to announce the release of pfSense Community Edition (CE) software version 2.7.1. Major changes and features: OpenSSL upgraded to 3.0.12 - this change was essential because OpenSSL 1.1.1 has reached end of life (EOL) and will no longer receive security patches for vulnerabilities; the Kea DHCP server is available as an opt-in feature, basic functionality is present in version 2.7.1, but it is not feature-complete; support for SCTP has been improved in PF for firewall rules, NAT and logging, and rules can now act on SCTP packets by port number; IPv6 Router Advertisement configuration has been relocated to Services, Router Advertisement as a part of the ongoing Kea DHCP server integration; PHP upgraded to 8.2.11; the base operating system upgraded to a more recent point of FreeBSD 14-CURRENT...." See the release announcement and the release notes for further information and upgrade instructions.
Oracle Linux 9.3
Simon Coter has announced the release of Oracle Linux 9 Update 3, an updated build of Oracle's distribution built from the just-released Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.3: "Oracle Linux 9 Update 3 for the 64-bit Intel and AMD (x86_64) and 64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms is now generally available. This release continues to be application binary compatible with the corresponding Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Update 3 release, as has been the case since the first release in 2006. Oracle Linux 9 Update 3 ships with the newest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 7 Update 2 (UEK R7U2) and Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) packages. Oracle Linux now supports automatic reboot of systems after patches are installed through DNF. With enhanced DNF, automatic reboot with different options (never, when-changed, when-needed) can speed-up patch management operations. The enhanced DNF utility introduced two new options: dnf leaves - to list the installed packages that aren't required by any other installed packages; dnf show-leaves - to list newly installed leaf packages and packages that have become leaves after a transaction." See the release announcement and the release notes for further details.
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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: 2,928
- Total data uploaded: 43.8TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Window manager or full desktop environment?
In this week's review of Slackel we touched on the Openbox window manager. Some distributions ship with a minimal window manager with just a handful of features. This makes them lighter and often faster than distributions which offer full featured desktop environments such as GNOME and KDE Plasma. This week we'd like to hear how many of our readers have gone the minimal route and run plain window managers rather than full desktop environments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using open source applications exclusively in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Window manager vs full desktop environment
| I run a window manager: | 372 (21%) |
| I run a full desktop environment: | 1423 (79%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- AZOS GNU/Linux. AZOS GNU/Linux is an Arch-based distribution which strives to provide all necessary desktop functionality without relying on a command line. The project aims to be suitable for both office work and gaming, as well as other common desktop activities.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 27 November 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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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Deaktop environment (by Jules on 2023-11-20 02:01:50 GMT from Australia)
hi, I an mostly xfce on my 4 linux boxes.
On my one slackware box, it is plasma.
As long as I can do my computing work, each desktop environmet has it plus and minus points.
2 • D.E, (by DaveW on 2023-11-20 02:09:23 GMT from United States)
My main computer (daily driver) runs Linux Mint Mate. However, I have a secondary computer running Arco Linux with the Awesome window manager, so I can see if I like it enough to switch. So far, not enough.
3 • WM or DE (by zephyr on 2023-11-20 02:34:27 GMT from United States)
Of all fairness, both have attributes and features that separate them and yet define a perfectly needed and wanted distro characteristic choice for the user. Simplicity and minimalism window manager versus a full featured desktop environment. Wm's are usually very light and consume the least resources, while a DE is usually packed with a compliment of needed applications for several different purposes or needs. Many automated features like the menu, add and remove items.
My choice for a DE is XFCE with Devuan, and my all time favorite daily driver, and general tweaking and music listening, etc, I go with Openbox, although enjoy playing around with tiling window managers. Main reason I enjoy a Wm is for having only what I want and no other needed bloat than I can help.
4 • WM and Slackel Fonts (by Frank on 2023-11-20 03:00:07 GMT from Canada)
My main desktop is Debian+Cinnamon but I also have Openbox+Lxpanel installed and spend most of my time there, just for the fun of it, I've spent many a rainy afternoon creating openbox themes.
As far as fonts in Slackel I noticed you where using lxappearance. At the bottom of the widget tab is a control to chose and adjust system fonts, why it isn't under the fonts tab, I don't know.
5 • DE (by Bluecanary3 on 2023-11-20 03:36:23 GMT from United States)
I use Debian KDE Plasma on two systems. I've used full desktop environments for so long, that using a windows manager feels like taking a step backwards.
6 • full desktop thanks (by Rick on 2023-11-20 03:50:30 GMT from New Zealand)
I use Cinnamon mostly as it fits my needs. I have looked at some WMs, but they remind me too much of Unix's "X" in about 1995 or Windows 3.0. It is 2023, even my most basic machine is loaded with RAM to the gills and the CPU with fast clock cycles. Hey, give the thing something to do (even if it is 2% CPU and 1/16th of RAM).
Openbox was fun to look at and I used it on a minimalist project, so WMs have their place.
7 • KDE Plasma (by cor on 2023-11-20 04:20:25 GMT from United States)
Desktop and Laptops are all running Kubuntu 22.04.
8 • why I use Window Manager (by always-curious-about-FOSS on 2023-11-20 04:27:10 GMT from Germany)
What I particularly appreciate about the window managers is the many setting options that can be made in the editable configuration files. I am currently putting together my personal distrubition. Alpine Linux with JWM as window manager. This is really lightweight ! But this is a longer tinkering project. Especially the menu will be customized to my needs.
What I miss in the many hundreds of distrubitions is something like Sackel on wayland. On my every day driver I am using XFCE.
9 • DE of my choice (by Jyrki on 2023-11-20 04:36:59 GMT from Czechia)
Xfce everywhere
10 • another utility related to limiting CPU usage (by J.D. Laub on 2023-11-20 04:42:46 GMT from United States)
The "nice" command isn't what Pick-a-core-any-core is after, but it's worth a brief mention as related.
11 • A modern look and fell of Open Box (by always-curious-about-FOSS on 2023-11-20 05:17:55 GMT from Germany)
@6 you wrote: "but they remind me too much of Unix's "X" in about 1995 or Windows 3.0. It is 2023".
So what about the look and feel of NomadBSD? is it 1995 or 2023 ?
Yes the mostly deault configs of the WM are lookinging very vintage. But its possible changing them to a mordern look and feel.
12 • Cinnamon (by Friar Tux on 2023-11-20 05:20:25 GMT from Canada)
It's Cinnamon (Linux Mint/Cinnamon) for me. When I first started in Linux I always used KDE. Then, a couple of years back, KDE just stopped working so I went hunting for another DE. I found Cinnamon and fell in love with it. Everything about it works exactly like I want it to. And the CSS theme files are easily tweaked in a text editor. I also use the "Applets" and "Desklets" quite extensively.
I have experimented with ICEwm off and on, as it seems to be a pretty good second choice, though I will definitely need to get used to their settings menu (a bit confusing for me). And then there is Window Maker. I've played with that, off and on. It kind of cool to play with, but, as yet it's only a toy.
The most unusual DE/WM I've toyed with - and I actually really like - is Eagle Mode. There is no actual file manager like most Linux distros, but, from the desktop screen, you zoom into any file on your computer. Infinite zooming, right down, through your various directories to that text file you're wanting to read, or the picture you want to see. Interesting concept.
13 • Slackel (by mnrv-ovrf-year-c on 2023-11-20 05:57:19 GMT from Puerto Rico)
Thank you for the review about Slackel! This was very much needed, in part to lift up the conception about 30-year-old Slackware. One thing that one has to keep in mind, while using this distro, is that if you choose to use GSlapt/slapt-get, sometimes you will not be allowed to finish an update, because repository information has to be updated. But please be patient, come back in a few hours or so and try again. :)
It's recommended to choose the "full" installation even if you're a power-user. Because the "basic" installation requires manually including "mpg123" which for some reason is a dependency for ALSA. Freshly installed with "basic" installation choice, the distro comes up with no sound. You have been warned.
The MATE "group" is not complete, it seems; I have tried to replace uncomfortable Openbox/LXQt combination with MATE desktop, but it acts funny. While installing it complains about deprecated XML domain names. :/ Right now I must keep around PCManFM if I want desktop icons and wallpaper. Without it I can only execute "nitrogen" at least to get the wallpaper. Rely then on the panel borrowed from Fluxbox.
The distro no longer has problems with the touchpad like around v7.5, on my 12-year-old HP computer. I have gone into it about 30 times at least. I have 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system now. I like the bridge wallpaper. <3 Many thanks to "djemos" and others for bringing us this distribution.
14 • Found my happy place (by Devlin7 on 2023-11-20 06:21:49 GMT from New Zealand)
Not sure how to answer this weeks survey. I run i3 with xfce components. I like i3 tabbed view and tiling but cannot stand wasting ram or time on configuring my own bars. Memory usage is low at around 280Mb at boot, it is stable and fast. The xfce bar does the job nicely.
15 • WM or DE (by nsp0323 on 2023-11-20 06:24:08 GMT from Sweden)
I haven't used a full DE in 6 years and won't go back to one.
When I was using a DE, I always found things I don't like or, want.
16 • window manager (by Klaus Schilling on 2023-11-20 06:35:20 GMT from Germany)
I boycott desktop environments rigorously at any cost and run Ratpoison, which has no similarities with the perverse abominations of a windows or macos UI, such as window decorations, panels, mouse-driven administration, and icons.
17 • DE doesn't mean excluding WMs (by and large on 2023-11-20 07:27:11 GMT from Italy)
I use XFCE as it's what's closest to my ideal of desktop solution, and that's because I have kept a strong feeling for CDE and tried hard to replicate that in my Debian context (I know, now CDE is available in a way, but it's not a piece of cake).
But I used to experiment with many light WMs in the past, especially Fluxbox, WindowMaker, FVWM, AfterStep or Enlightenment (whose E17 "radio" theme was wonderful), and if they weren't so hard to get updates I might as well stick to one of them. Lucky enough modern computers are fast enough not to need a low-load solution at any cost.
Anyway, I do consider keeping a WM as a contingency solution a good idea for any customer. Nothing can avoid breaking down once in a while.
18 • Window Manager versus Desktop Environment (by eb on 2023-11-20 08:21:53 GMT from France)
Formely -when I was a newbie- I appreciated KDE for it was powerful, comfortable, and Windows-like ; but it was heavy, bloated and slow. Thanks to Slackware, I discovered Fluxbox, afterwards Openbox and Ratpoison, that allow me to run Linux on old machines that remain really fast and nice.
According to me, the goal of Linux is not Desktop Environment !
19 • WM or DE? (by Dr.J on 2023-11-20 08:36:05 GMT from Germany)
If I use something, there must be a good reason for it. And to date, I have found absolutely no reasons for the popular DE.
Openbox gives me everything I need. It's simple (only three configuration files) and above all - reliable. There are no superfluous programs, functions, widgets, dependencies, etc. I don't have to install 26 other programs to get anything running, like with KDE. I am also not tempted to spend days dealing with the visual designs and the 100 possibilities with which I can move windows to a corner of the desktop or wherever I want.
Instead: a black screen, Conky and a right-click menu. That's all I need.
Of course, it is debatable whether the openbox syntax of the menu file still has a place in the 21st century. In my opinion, yes it has. Because these configuration files are still the basis of our computer systems. GUIs are just a kind of facade. Sometimes useful, sometimes superfluous.
20 • Miscellaneous News (by Borgio3 on 2023-11-20 09:35:50 GMT from Italy)
Canonical introducing MicroCloud... It is clear that Microsoft is the new owner of Linux and its users' data. Vomiting.
21 • Question of the week (by César E. M. R. on 2023-11-20 10:58:56 GMT from Chile)
Hellow!
I use Debian 11 with Mate in my desktop and laptop, HP both.
Saludos desde Santiago de Chile.
22 • KDE (by CopyLeft on 2023-11-20 11:41:33 GMT from Croatia)
there is no choice in linux/unix DE.
There is KDE, and that's it. Everything else, not worth of mention
23 • DE (by kc1di on 2023-11-20 12:16:12 GMT from United States)
I prefer KDE then Cinnamon then XFCE4
Don't mess with WM's though have in the past Still can not like Gnome no matter how hard I try. But the one thing that I like most is in Linux, we have choices. Currently run PClinuxOS KDE/plasma.
24 • Desktop (by James on 2023-11-20 12:34:24 GMT from United States)
I run the Mate desktop which is based off the old Gnome2, the most traditional desktop.
I am a also a total GUI guy, and eschew the terminal as much as I can. If I can't, I have some simple command cheat sheets to copy and paste. I am old and never learned to type beyond hunt and peck. Linux works great for me though. The only command I find indispensable is "sudo dpkg --configure -a" to fix broken packages if an upgrade gets interrupted for some reason.
25 • Window Manager (by Tim on 2023-11-20 13:05:38 GMT from United States)
I run a Window Manager with Arch Linux. For years, I used Openbox, but around 2020 I switched to Awesome.
I managed UNIX systems at work since the very early days, so I am very comfortable with commands and command line applications. I don't even have a file manager installed.
26 • WM or DE? (by crayola-eater on 2023-11-20 13:12:18 GMT from United States)
Totally agree @19
I like to, and hardware-wise need to, keep it simple...
My main concessions to the bling world are a tint2 bar to keep me on course, a jgmenu system to map it out, and a feh background image to keep me inspired.
Yep, decadent me.
27 • Full desktop environments, no doubts (by Random on 2023-11-20 13:27:07 GMT from Italy)
I use KDE (which is not as heavy as many people say). For older computers you can use LXDE/LXQt.
28 • Poll (by ned on 2023-11-20 13:29:22 GMT from Austria)
After 20+ years of Linux Devuan+XFCE has turned out to be the most easy and reliable for me.
The concept of tiling WM's looks appealing, and so now I'm also experimenting a bit with i3, but as yet can't say if it's an improvement for me or not.
29 • Poll (by Some Random User on 2023-11-20 13:33:02 GMT from United States)
While you have Window manager vs full desktop environment, you are missing the option of command line only as certain users will not use any GUI.
30 • Window manager or full desktop environment? (by Geo. on 2023-11-20 14:02:56 GMT from Canada)
🌳 Mostly Mint with a DE, but I have one (soon to be two) machines with Bodhi running Moksha (Enlightenment) which is a compositing window manager, but it surely does behave like a full DE. My hat's off to the Bodhi team, they revived two old computers that would have otherwise been scrapped. Thank you Bodhi.
31 • DE (by John Wayne on 2023-11-20 14:37:38 GMT from Spain)
Xfce always and everywhere: "Feo, Fuerte y Formal."
32 • Desktop environment (by David on 2023-11-20 15:48:09 GMT from United Kingdom)
I need to be able to use multiple keyboard drivers and I could never get that to implement well (if at all) with a window manager, so I use Xfce. That runs equally well on my modern desktop computer and my 20-year-old Pentium M laptop.
33 • Gnome is my desktop environment. (by gdtp on 2023-11-20 15:57:26 GMT from Norway)
I like Gnome DE, along with Dash-To-Panel extension, which is similar to macOS. I wish MX linux and LMDE also have Gnome DE.
Note: xcalib for color inversion is not supported on Wayland Gnome.
34 • Slackel - Graphical package manager (by Rayburn on 2023-11-20 18:07:09 GMT from United Kingdom)
Thank you Jesse for the review of Slackel this week, very fair as always. Just one point I would make regarding my Slackel installation, I have the Gslapt package manager listed in the menu under 'System', and so far I have found it to work very well.
I use Fluxbox or Openbox on all my systems, and find them to be both configurable and light. No need for a DE as others have said.
35 • xWindow Manager (by Dan on 2023-11-20 19:00:55 GMT from United States)
As a long time 4MLinux user, JWM has been my Window Manager of choice.
36 • DE features vs WM simplicity (by Novid on 2023-11-20 20:04:13 GMT from Iran)
I think it all depends on hardware capabilities which you're running the distribution. For me, it was the choice of full-featured solutions such as GNOME and KDE and in the case of limited hardware capabilities, I focus on Xfce and LXQt. Although there are situations in which lightweight window managers run better than others.
Unless you're running a server, embedded device or cloud instance, the choice of GUIs is what you're more comfortable with.
37 • Window manager (by WolfA on 2023-11-20 20:37:20 GMT from United States)
I've been running Arch with xmonad for several years now. It's light and doesn't get in my way.
38 • Plasma (by BirAdam on 2023-11-20 20:43:43 GMT from United States)
A while ago, I was having some issues with the Steam flatpak performance on my Slackware 15 box. At first, I thought it was something with the older kernel series, so I compiled the 6.5 kernel and tried that. No change. Then I thought, maybe there is some weird issue with sessioning and XDG and all that. Tried Plasma instead of MWM. No change. Then I thought, maybe it's just X11. So, I fired up the "Full Wayland" session of Plasma, and everything magically "just works." At this point, I suppose I will be using Wayland and Plasma unless/until the KDE folks mess it up.
39 • The quality of the DE (Desktop Environment) seems to vary with the distro (by Andre Gompel on 2023-11-20 21:14:16 GMT from Poland)
I use mostly Fedora (now 39) a stable reliable distro.
On Fedora, the "standard" is GNOME 3.... which I really dislike !
Gnome 2 was simple functional, and so is MATE (DE) on Fedora, fortunately there is a spin with MATE (for ever !).
On Fedora (38, 39) MATE just works, and so does the latest XFCE, so I use MATE.
I admit being impressed by KDE Plasma, but on Fedora, there are still many annoying glitches.
KDE seems to be never finished, maybe upcoming 6.0 will change this perception ?
I have used it (not a lot) with (latest) Manjaro, not bad, not enough to have an enlighten opinion.
---
This is to emphasis that there seems to be a nexus between Distro-Apps (therefore Distro-Desktop)
So please try to specify (some do) both Bistro-DE (with DE version level) as you post about this.
---
LxQt seemed promising, but may just lack support, and even worst that KDE it may never come to maturity: it has been a while !
----
I remember the good old time, of CDE I used daily on both Sun Workstations, and (wonderful!) Silicon Graphic workstation. It was simple to use, and it just worked.
---
I also dig Mark Twain, but other's aphorisms too.
That's all.
40 • DE/WM (by Otis on 2023-11-20 21:49:27 GMT from United States)
MX Linux with XFCE is swift, clean, customizable perfection. 'Nuff said. ;o)
41 • Poll question (by Jacob Alexander Tice on 2023-11-20 22:01:48 GMT from United States)
Right now I'm on Arch with GNOME.
42 • DEs (by Wally on 2023-11-21 02:17:28 GMT from Australia)
Ubuntu GNOME and KDE neon, configured to suit me.
43 • DEs (by Brett on 2023-11-21 03:06:30 GMT from United States)
Fedora - KDE Plasma. As someone who cut his computing teeth on CLIs, I've always had a vague dislike of GUIs. But earlier this year I started using Plasma and I can't say enough good things about it. I still spend a good part of my day in the terminal, though ;)
44 • Restricting CPU usage (by Alexandru on 2023-11-21 07:27:30 GMT from Romania)
Thank you Jesse for sharing the information about limiting a process to certain CPU or limiting CPU resources. The commands 'taskset' and 'cpulimit' are new for me, and they are useful. I would think of 'nice' and 'renice' commands, but they serve slightly different purpose.
45 • XFCE (by Matt on 2023-11-21 08:25:42 GMT from United States)
XFCE for everything. No reason to change.
46 • i3wm (by jazzfelix on 2023-11-21 09:08:02 GMT from Germany)
i3wm with dmenu and i3status - on all my machines.
I started using i3 on my laptop only because I don't like laptop mice. The keybindings of i3 make you nearly never use your mouse. Also i3 does not take up a lot of space (no window borders, full screen possible for every window). Perfect for laptop usage. I am now so used to the fast way of launching apps via dmenu and the shortcuts for handling windows and virtual desktops that I use i3 even on my desktop with a big screen. At my work there is unfortunately no way getting around MS Windows. I tried i3 replacements there, but did not find any satisfying yet. Honestly I have no idea why I could possibly need a DE. They would just slow down my workflow. Although Gnome has very good keybindings which make it easy to handle but in the end it is much slower and less responsive. Also for me there is no feature Gnome offers that I would miss in i3/dmenu/i3status.
47 • Debian+XFCE (by Dino on 2023-11-21 10:22:27 GMT from Denmark)
I used to use Cinnamon for a long time, and it was great. Now, I am using Debian and XFCE on my main computer, and Devuan + XFCE on my laptop. Such a powerful combination of Debian and XFCE. Almost unbreakable.
48 • Desktop Enviro poll (by Mike Grossberg on 2023-11-21 13:31:35 GMT from United States)
The only reason I put up with DE bloat (currently tolerating Plasma) is that I want removable drives to be EASY to find and a REASONABLE (mixer, brightness, network on/off, bluetooth on/off) set of system tray icons.
Really, hardware detection and control should not depend on the choice of desktop enviro, but be handled at a lower level by the kernel and present some standardized API. Instead there is this userland hodge-podge of junk and init systems: hald, dbus, openrc, systemd, etc., and a bunch of high-maintenance GUI frontends for each DE.
Linux was better when there were just window managers; before KDE and Gnome started escalating GUI silliness (and duplicated effort) to a friggin' jihad-like frenzy.
If it weren't a pain to set up reliable net and USB behavior, I would probably just use FVWM and WindowMaker all the time.
49 • KDE (by Derek on 2023-11-21 16:22:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
Running KDE on Debian 12 and Kubuntu 22.04 LTS. Fedora 39 soon.
50 • Desktop type (by Jan on 2023-11-21 16:57:23 GMT from The Netherlands)
In last weks I have tried a large amount of distros in live situation on old hardware (but 8 GB + SSD).
I concluded that on old hardware the common idea that fast ->slow = XFCE->Mate->Cinnamon->Gnome is not that so valid (I did not test LXDE and LQDE).
I used the ability of real smooth scrolling in Firefox as a judgement.
For example: Fedora Workstation (latest Gnome) behaves more smooth than any spin (so what are the spins for, apart from that Fedora Workstation has an uncomfortable user interface?).
MX-XFCE does not run smooth at all.
However Mint Mate runs slightly smoother than Mint Cinnamon, that fits the old idea.
51 • DE OR WM (by Hank on 2023-11-21 17:47:03 GMT from Germany)
ICEWM on all my machines, old and new, liteweight for older hardware,
lightning fast on new machines.
52 • can be changed (by Rick on 2023-11-21 20:20:49 GMT from New Zealand)
@11 yes, :) the 1995 can be changed to look more 2023. Why is it then not supplied like this out of the box? Cinnamon, on Manjaro and especially in its home-base Mint, is 100% out of the box ready to impress. I'm not a basement Linux tinkerer, I install and then expect the machine to be productive for actual work.
Its like why Manjaro? Because its (mostly) stablised Arch without the tinkering to get it even set up. Fine for a coding hobbyist to tinker for 2 weeks under the hood and proudly unveil their Slackware or Arch purist computer, but some of us use these electronic toasters for work. /end-rant-more :)
[insert image of potato or cat here]
53 • @52 (by mandog on 2023-11-21 21:28:43 GMT from Peru)
Its like why Manjaro? Because its (mostly) stablised Arch without the tinkering to get it even set up. Fine for a coding hobbyist to tinker for 2 weeks under the hood and proudly unveil their Slackware or Arch purist computer, but some of us use these electronic toasters for work. /end-rant-more :)
If it takes you 2 weeks to setup Arch linux v Manjaro you need to give up on life.
54 • xfce (by Dan on 2023-11-22 00:40:16 GMT from United States)
I use xfce for any new install. I loved CrunchBang with OpenBox back in the day, but xfce just works.
55 • WM vs DE (by John on 2023-11-22 01:29:26 GMT from United States)
I really do not like Desktop Environments, but recently tried XFCE and that seems to be one I could use if Linux obsoletes X.
I am mostly in fvwm on Slackware, that suites all my needs.
56 • Desktop type (by Ennio on 2023-11-22 09:40:46 GMT from The Netherlands)
Since the latest release a month ago I'm on WindowMaker. Well, no compositing but could be an excuse to feel younger...
57 • Slackel on Qemu (by Ben on 2023-11-22 13:19:00 GMT from Brazil)
Enter on text mode ,login and digit 'sudo lightdm' , simply works well..
58 • Slackel (by Blinded on 2023-11-22 13:38:03 GMT from United States)
Easily the ugliest implementation of OpenBox I ever saw. Like if some retired 75-year-old engineers got nostalgic or couldn't recognize the calendar numbers anymore. We live in 2023, not in 1973. WM, OK, but not if it looks like "MX-design".
Regardless of its appearance, the basic configuration is also completely wrong. Why is the Conky shown on the FBPanel ('taskbar')?
Why does the start menu cover the starters on the FBPanel?
LightDM or GDM?
FBPanel start menu shows LightDM; OpenBox shows GDM.
The distro icon is also a 'masterpiece' on its own. It is not centered, it has no proper padding, and it has a black background. If you cut the black part out, you end up with white instead of a transparent background. It seems like that icon started its life as a JPG.
https://ibb.co/8YNjcT0
If someone gave it just a little bit of love, it would quickly look much better. Quick fix for the icon, add some padding on FBPanel, set some nicer wallpaper, and get rid of that ugly conky, and it already looks much more acceptable.
59 • MATE Desktop (by pepa65 on 2023-11-22 14:21:50 GMT from Thailand)
Ever since Gnome2/3 became unusable, it's been MATE for me, it's the only one that can do all I want. Formerly Ubuntu MATE, now Linux Mint.
60 • @50 desktop type (by Kazlu on 2023-11-22 17:38:03 GMT from France)
"I concluded that on old hardware the common idea that fast ->slow = XFCE->Mate->Cinnamon->Gnome is not that so valid. I used the ability of real smooth scrolling in Firefox as a judgement."
Well that's why! Firefox is not part of any DE and as such not a good benchmark for performance of the DE. At most, it can say how much LEFT power is available to the computer when the DE is taken are of. Generally speaking, Firefox running a website will be sluggish compared to any DE manipulation on old hardware.
A more accurate benchmark would be, for example, to open the default file manager and scroll through it. Or set up a list of tasks like browsing the file system with the file manager, copy/past a file, and then open the web browser.
And like you noticed, when benchmarking Firefox, the OS has more of an impact than the DE you're using.
61 • DE (by Kazlu on 2023-11-22 17:46:01 GMT from France)
Good to see a large variety in user's choice when it comes to the inferface we use for our computers!
I have settled on Xfce and MX Linux (currently trial running Spiral, I mean Debian). Be it on my capable desktop or my aging eeePC, Xfce does the job very well. MX Linux fills the wholes of plain Xfce in functionnality. I need something snappy, KDE and GNOME are too sluggish for me. On the eeePC, anything is sluggish, but Xfce is good enough, I would not gain much my going with something lighter so why bother? I need something simple, what I have works and I don't see any reason to go through a learning curve for a new interface to tweak it just like I want it.
I could easily use MATE, maybe LXQt with a little digging, mayyyyybe Cinnamon, and find my peace as well. But so far, no need to change.
62 • Desktop type @60 Kazlu (by Jan on 2023-11-22 20:34:09 GMT from The Netherlands)
Thanks for your explanation.
However for me using an internet browser, with a pleasant reading behaviour on an opened site, is THE application where it is all about. And not if linux with its DE is fast or slow.
And as mentioned by my original message, its clear that on this there is a difference between the several linuxes and DE's.
63 • No DE, no File Manager ! (by eb on 2023-11-23 07:57:44 GMT from France)
@25 : Hi Tim, you wrote : "I don't even have a file manager installed."
I am very impressed, and I think you hold the truth.
Please what is your terminal emulator ?
Mine is Xterm, and I love Midnight Commander.
Kind regards.
64 • @63 (by Simon on 2023-11-23 09:33:03 GMT from New Zealand)
I'm assuming you can't touch-type. Otherwise there are hardly any situations in which a file manager is easier than a terminal. Why on earth would you e.g. click on a column to sort by extension, and then click on one file, scroll down and shift-click on another, right click the selection and click delete... when you can type rm *mp3 in less than a second? Nearly everything that can be done with a file manager is a lot quicker and easier in BASH.
There are a few exceptions, like handling media where a GUI file manager's thumbnails can make much it easier to identify particular files than reading through lists of filenames. Most of the time though, a file manager is just a layer of unnecessary mouse movement and clicking that slows everything down.
I imagine it's different if you can't touch-type though: I can see how dragging an icon from one window to another would be faster if typing something as simple as mv filename dirname takes you several seconds.
65 • Blinden @58 (by Ennio on 2023-11-23 15:09:08 GMT from The Netherlands)
Dedoimedo on Slackel?
66 • WM vs Full DE poll (by Thomas on 2023-11-23 15:18:33 GMT from France)
Isn't it a bit biased ?
I have several machines. Most of them using DE. However there are some that don't. Either CLI or WM depending on the purpose of the machine and its hardware capabilities.
67 • DWM (by Andy Prough on 2023-11-24 03:25:58 GMT from United States)
The DWM window manager is my preferred graphical environment, due to its ultra lightweight memory and CPU usage and its intuitive dynamic tiling and vim-like keyboard shortcuts.
68 • herbstluftwm (by anticapitalista on 2023-11-24 13:58:20 GMT from Greece)
herbstluftwm is my preferred tiling window manager.
It is not the lightest tiler, but works better for me than dwm.
69 • GNOME (by why-oh-why on 2023-11-24 19:33:28 GMT from The Netherlands)
Pure GNOME 45, no extensions.
70 • Gnome DE (by Pistolero on 2023-11-24 19:44:24 GMT from United States)
I prefer Gnome and Wayland.
https://ibb.co/MPTrnq1
Number of Comments: 70
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| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Full list of all issues |
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MilaX
MilaX was a small-size live-CD distribution which runs completely off a CD or a USB storage device. It was based on OpenSolaris Nevada and includes its basic features. It originally started as an experiment to see how much OpenSolaris software could fit on a mini-CD, but it eventually became a full-fledged OpenSolaris distribution. It was also possible to use MilaX as a rescue CD. It can be installed on storage media with a small capacity, including bootable business cards, USB flash drives, memory cards, and Zip drives. MilaX was free to use, modify and distribute.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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