 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1052, 8 January 2024 |
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Welcome to this year's 2nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Over 20 years ago, when Linux was still a relatively young platform, there were not many distributions which catered to desktop users. Mandrake Linux was one of the first distributions to try to make Linux a point-and-click experience, with a friendly system installer and easy to navigate graphical configuration tools. While the original Mandrake Linux has since faded into the shadows of history, its descendants continue its work. This week we take a look at OpenMandriva, one of Mandrake's surviving heirs, and report on how this community distribution performs. One of the key elements to keeping a distribution alive is money and different projects take different approaches to collecting funds to keep the lights on and the servers running. In our Opinion Poll we ask if our readers are paying for their distro, either through direct purchases, donations, or affiliate purchases. We also share updates coming to the Linux Mint and Vanilla OS projects in this week's News section. Meanwhile Canonical is working to make Snap packages more cross-platform. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss how to keep applications launched from a terminal running when the terminal window closes. Plus we are pleased to share details of last week's releases and 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:
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| Feature Story (By Jeff Siegel) |
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, in both the Plasma and LXQt editions, installs in about a minute and half.
Unfortunately, that's the highlight of running two of the distro's desktops for about a week. The LXQt edition, thanks to a D-bus error, was mostly unusable, and the Plasma variant, though as slick and as cool as Plasma is supposed to be, had its own share of irritating -- and sometimes more than irritating -- bugs that also make it a poor choice for a daily driver.
Perhaps the most disappointing part about my week with the new release of OpenMandriva 5.0 (which is the latest release of the stable "Rock" branch and carries the code name "Iodine"), was I really wanted to like the LXQt version; I prefer lighter, less complicated desktops, and have never seen the need for features like KWallet and all those windows that pop-up. But I had to switch to the Plasma 5 version for this review when my attempts to run LXQt failed over and over.
The other irony here? That OpenMandriva is one of the oldest and most venerable Linux distributions. Its roots date to 1998 and Mandrake Linux, which was perhaps the most user-friendly distro of that era. That OpenMandriva has released a desktop that doesn't work and another that doesn't work well enough is especially disappointing, given its history.
System requirements
OpenMandriva Lx is developed by the French, community-supported OpenMandriva Association, which also publishes a rolling release, called ROME. I worked with the 64-bit Rock, which came in a 1.7GB ISO for LXQt and 2.8GB ISO for Plasma 5. (There's also a Plasma ISO for modern AMD processors (Ryzen, ThreadRipper, EPYC) as well as one for the GNOME desktop.) The OpenMandriva repositories also include "alternative desktops", including MATE, Xfce, and Cinnamon, and these are available as community spins.
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 -- Gathering system information
(full image size: 173kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Rock version 5.0 replaces version 4.3, which was released about one and a half years ago. There doesn't seem to be any indication how long 5.0 will be supported. The minimum system requirements are at least 2048MB of memory and at least 10GB of hard drive space, with 20GB recommended for a full Plasma desktop installation. In addition, the Plasma desktop requires a 3D graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.0 or above, so the distro recommends using AMD, Intel, Adreno or VC4 graphics chips.
The new release, which will be the final OpenMandriva to feature Plasma 5, is based on the 6.6 LTS kernel, and there are a variety of other KDE and Plasma upgrades under the hood. Version 5 also merges the / and /usr filesystems and patches all recent security vulnerabilities, including those with glibc and curl.
What hasn't been fixed or updated is the LXQt D-bus error, which showed up when I was installing the desktop in VirtualBox. Technically, it's a warning that says "The DBus Activation Environment wasn't updated. Some apps might not work properly." I ignored it, figuring it was probably some sort of VirtualBox glitch, but, sure enough, some apps didn't work properly. For instance, Latte, the Plasma dock, would install but not run, not even throwing an error message when I ran it from the command line. Updating the system didn't help, either.
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 -- A persistent D-bus error
(full image size: 17kB, resolution: 748x543 pixels)
The error was also there when I installed LXQt on my Dell test machine, and no amount of updating made a difference. Even more frustrating: There is no mention of the D-bus problem in the release notes or the errata accompanying the release notes, and the only apparent reference to it in the OpenMandriva forum is a report of a D-bus error from June for the rolling release, but which was marked as a low priority.
There also wasn't any apparent way to get printing; there is no printer section in the System Settings panel. CUPS is installed, but trying to access it via the command line and the CUPS local website didn't do much. There are instructions in the otherwise excellent OpenMandriva wiki, but they're vague and seem to be written for another desktop.
Trying another desktop
So I switched to the Plasma edition, and all seemed much better. It installed quickly, and was easily the best experience I've had with the Calamares installer. There was no D-bus message, Latte worked as it should, and my networked Canon printer was recognized immediately. It even printed and scanned.
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 208kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
As noted, I prefer desktops without bells and whistles, but that's a preference and not something to judge a release by. In this, most of what I needed to run my freelance writing business was in OpenMandriva 5.0, and the welcome screen offered to install accounting software such as Homebank and the much underrated Zim, a note-taking application that I use extensively. And the desktop was quick and responsive about three-quarters of the time.
In addition, the Plasma 5 edition comes with LibreOffice 7.6.3.2, the Konsole text editor, QMPlay2 for videos and music, KDE Connect, the Okular document viewer, and a host of other KDE-specific applications.
But much else was frustrating, not unlike a car that runs well enough, but where the windows don't always close all the way, the dashboard lights flicker for no apparent reason, and the rear view mirror never stays in the same place.
Here are some examples:
- The on-line accounts installer in System Settings failed to install Nextcloud -- said it didn't recognize the URL. But when I installed Nextcloud using the desktop method, all went well. The on-line accounts installer also failed in Fedora 39.
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 -- The Discover software centre
(full image size: 198kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
- The Plasma version offers at least five ways to install or update software, which is confusing, not especially intuitive, and most of which don't seem to work all the time. There is DnfDrake for installation; dnfdragora, the Fedora equivalent to the Debian family's Synaptic; the KDE Discover store; System Update in the control center; and the command line. Meanwhile, the official instructions advise using the command line for system updates, and it seems to be the best approach to installing software as well.
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 -- The Control Centre
(full image size: 184kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
- Zoom, which comes installed as a Flatpak, crashed when I tried to use it. The icon would appear briefly on the panel and then vanish. It never did work. The RPM file I downloaded from the Zoom website wouldn't install -- a "conflicting requests" message was shown, which seems to be part of a known Zoom bug involving ibus.
- Random screen lags and freezes. This was especially annoying when I used the control center's system update. (I tried that because using the command line returned several 404 errors for extra OpenMandriva repositories.) I'd click the control center icon to update the system and nothing would happen. I would click again, and then two instances would try to load.
Finally, I'm not quite sure why the KDE Falkon browser is installed as default. It's adequate, I suppose, but still has some problems handling multimedia, like screen tearing on YouTube. And its extensions inventory isn't anywhere as complete as Firefox, which is also open source.
OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 -- Exploring the KDE Plasma System Settings panel
(full image size: 184kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Yes, it's easy enough to install another browser, and Discover lists at least a couple of dozen. But using Falkon as the default speaks to the choices the OpenMandriva developers have made -- that philosophy takes precedence over usability. That approach likely won't bother long-time users, who know how to tweak this and adjust that to get the operating system to do what they want it to do. But for those of us who want a distro where the windows always close, the dashboard lights don't flicker, and the rear view mirror stays put, it's probably not enough.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Dell Latitude E7440 laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel i7-4600U
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 4400
When he is not testing out new versions of Linux distributions, Jeff Siegel can be found writing about all things related to wine at ** https://winecurmudgeon.com/ Wine Curmudgeon.
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Visitor supplied rating
OpenMandriva has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.4/10 from 82 review(s).
Have you used OpenMandriva? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux Mint upgrades Edge edition kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes for the distribution's second version, Canonical working to make Snap packages cross platform
The Linux Mint team have published their newsletter covering developments and updates from the month of December. The project has identified some issues via its Edge testing media which has resulted in upgrading the development media: "During beta testing we identified compatibility issues between Linux Mint and new hardware devices (recent AMD graphics but also wireless chipsets and SSD controllers used in Acer laptops). These are solved by upgrading the kernel series from 5.15 to 6.2. We'll therefore prepare a new EDGE ISO for Linux Mint 21.3 shipping with a kernel 6.2."
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The Vanilla OS project develops an immutable distribution in the Debian/Ubuntu family. The project is gearing up for its second major release (codename Orchid) with a long list of changes. One of the more user-facing changes is removing reliance on the sudo utility: "This extensive work also includes system configuration, systemd units, containers (which play a crucial role in Orchid), and Polkit rules. Speaking of Polkit, we removed sudo, a task that took a considerable amount of time to implement. We had to create Polkit policies to let users use tools requiring administrative privileges without using sudo; we have written a paragraph on this." The project's news post offers additional details.
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There are a few portable package bundle formats in the Linux community. One of them is Snap and another is Flatpak. While Snap packages have been declared a universal, cross-distribution package format for both desktop and server software, the implementation has been limiting. Snap packages are tied to one repository (owned by Canonical), require systemd to run, and rely on AppArmor for sandboxing permissions. As Flatpak does not have these limitations, it has been more widely adopted in the Linux community. Canonical is hoping to improve Snap adoption by making their technology work better across a wider range of distributions. In a Fosstodon post, a former Canonical employee says he will be returning to the company to work on making Snap more portable: "I will be returning as a snap developer later this month. My main focus will be cross-distribution support. Unlike in the past this will be my full time job. I'm very excited for what is ahead for snaps."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Keeping shell commands running when the terminal closes
When-one-terminal-closes-another-opens asks: When a shell session ends does it kill all processes run from that shell? What if I want to keep something running after closing my terminal window?
DistroWatch answers: When a shell session ends, whether it's running locally in a virtual terminal or on a remote machine over a secure shell session, programs which were launched from the shell will receive a hangup signal. This hangup signal (also known as HUP or SIGHUP, for "signal hangup") usually results in the program launched by the shell terminating. The idea being that if there isn't a shell running anymore then there is no way for the running program to interact with the user and it isn't needed any longer. In other words, it's often a convenient way for processes to be cleaned up when we are no longer logged in.
There are times though when we want programs to keep running, even when our shell session is finished. In these instances we will want to tell the shell not to terminate programs that we have launched from within the shell session. There are a few ways to do this.
When we are about to launch a program we know we do not want to be terminated when the shell session ends, we can prefix the command with the word nohup, which is short for "no hangup". This makes the running program immune from the shell session ending. In the following example we run the Firefox web browser and use nohup to make sure it continues to run after our shell exits:
$ nohup firefox &
The above approach of using nohup is useful when we know ahead of time we want a process to keep running after our shell closes. However, what if we run a program and then decide, after the fact, we want to close our shell session while leaving a program running? In these scenarios we can use the disown command. In bash and compatible shells, the disown command tells the shell to not send a specific process the hangup signal when the shell terminates.
To use the disown command we need to know the process identification number (PID) of a program. In the following example I run the Firefox application, then use the ps command to find Firefox's PID. Then prevent Firefox from receiving the hangup signal by using disown:
$ firefox &
[1] 22250
$ ps
| PID | TTY | TIME | CMD
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| 21194 | pts/1 | 00:00:00 | bash |
| 22250 | pts/1 | 00:00:00 | firefox |
| 22271 | pts/1 | 00:00:00 | ps |
$ disown 22250
In this above example, we launch Firefox which is assigned the PID 22250. This process identification can be seen in the first column of the ps command's output. We then run disown to make sure our shell doesn't send Firefox the hangup signal. Now, when the shell session ends, Firefox can continue running 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 |
Emmabuntüs DE5-1.01
Emmabuntüs, a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution originally designed to facilitate the reconditioning of computers donated to humanitarian associations, has been updated to version DE5-1.01. The new release is based on Debian 12.4: "On January 2nd 2024, the Emmabuntüs Collective is happy to announce the release of the new Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 5 1.01 (32-bit and 64-bit variants), based on the Debian 12.4 'Bookworm' distribution and supporting both XFCE and LXQt desktop environments. This new release of our distribution mainly concerns updates to its embedded software, except for the replacement of VeraCrypt by ZuluCrypt, made necessary by the fact that VeraCrypt no longer supports the creation of TrueCrypt volumes, and the update of the English installation tutorial for Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 5. Concerning the activity around our refurbishing USB stick, we have written a small computer reconditioning manual for people who spend a fair amount of time refurbishing computers." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
Relianoid 7.1
Relianoid is a Debian-based Linux distribution for load balancing. The distribution offers a load balancing oriented operating system for testing, development, and quality assurance environments. The project's latest release is based on Debian 12.4 and introduces a number of small improvements, documentation updates, and offers a streamlined ISO for a lighter install experience. "Under the hood, the v7.1 release brings core improvements, including an upgraded static code analysis that fortifies the system against potential vulnerabilities. Addressing user feedback, RELIANOID has diligently fixed Perl documentation syntax, enhancing readability and code consistency. This commitment to core excellence is a testament to Relianoid's dedication to providing a robust and secure platform for developers and users alike. Version 7.1 introduces API 4.0.3, accompanied by an updated API documentation available here. The release signifies a move towards deprecation by removing the outdated API 3.1, encouraging users to leverage the latest capabilities." Additional details are provided in the distribution's release announcement.
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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: 2,947
- Total data uploaded: 43.9TB
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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) |
Do you pay money for your Linux distribution?
While most Linux distributions are offered to the public free of charge, it costs money to develop, host, and maintain a distribution. This means a lot of projects ask for donations and some charge money, either for downloads or for support. We'd like to hear whether your main distribution is one you paid for, donated to, or use cost-free.
You can see the results of our previous poll on distro-hopping in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Did you pay for your distro?
| Yes - it is a commercial product: | 29 (2%) |
| Yes - I sent a donation: | 369 (19%) |
| Yes - indirectly purchased items which support them: | 49 (3%) |
| No - I am using my distro free of charge: | 1473 (77%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Oreon Linux. The Oreon Linux project is based on Fedora, with additional software repositories enabled. Oreon strives to offer three years of support by backporting package fixes from newer versions of Fedora.
- ExelentOS. ExelentOS is an Arch-based distribution featuring the KDE Plasma desktop.
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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, 15 January 2024. 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 • Paying for distros (by name on 2024-01-08 01:45:14 GMT from France)
I have voted for “using my distro free of charge”, but in reality I have invested a lot of time in the community development of the distro through pushing code to their repo. There is no financial transaction but arguably bug fixes and code exploration are normally invaluable for any distribution.
2 • Paying for distros (by Vinfall on 2024-01-08 02:05:02 GMT from Hong Kong)
I'd only pay if the distro offers a transparent financial report and is running low on their balance. For example, when I switched from Debian to Devuan I wished to donate and went to https://www.devuan.org/os/donate.html, only to find that they have more than enough funding than I imagined XD. In the end I donated that money to another free software.
If the distro is not open enough (in the sense of their funding source & usage), I probably wouldn't do that since I can't make sure whether it's sustainable. Naturally I don't want to use a distro that would stop developement as soon as I just started using a few months ago...
3 • Donation (by mnrv-ovrf-years on 2024-01-08 02:14:27 GMT from Puerto Rico)
I wish I could pay. Get in line after Slackware...
I do not believe in "patronage", sorry, I would go for once if I could. I don't believe in "supporting programmers for a living", whatever that means. Right now I'm looking for employment, so I have to go with totally free software without strings attached. Bad enough there are many developers out there which don't really know what "free" means. Free as in download link without caring who downloads it, and not even asking e-mail address, and whoever gives his/her address gets daily letters that aren't wanted. Don't tell me there are "opt outs" because the worst of the insecure ones use that as trigger for their "alternate, alternate" accounts because they already know my e-mail address and it's all they need to know, and the only solutions, neither of which is practical is either to sign up somewhere else or avoid online access completely.
The price of bread and milk is becoming too high for "patronage" which is what I'm trying to get at. While I struggle to make ends meet per month, I don't wish to see somebody else "getting it easy" or giving the appearance of it. I'm not being facetious, I pointed out items I have to buy almost everyday.
At one time I was able to contribute financially, but I was totally unable to get through PayPal. I attempted to explain it at my end to somebody who ran his/her own site but their ignorance about it permanently turned me off about greedy developers and their lackeys running their own sites. How could I show them that "you do not need an account with PayPal to donate" did not work in my area? Because that site in decade-2000 recognized only one city in my area and I needed to have a postal code only for that city? Because trying to get a postal code address for my area required me to get into a line and it would have been at least a year before my request were answered?
One more thing. I reeeeeealy hate "begging" on some sites, how they almost push people into contributing. At least two distros based on Debian/Ubuntu having caretakers who distinguished themselves brilliantly such that I don't care how popular or reliable those operating systems are. Also a particular site which is a lot like Arch Linux official site but is more impressive about their excuses...
There are a few exemplary developers which I believe their creations should have been sold if only each developer had better luck about business. I would have donated to those people.
4 • Paying for Main Distro (by Otis on 2024-01-08 02:42:48 GMT from United States)
I've gone all routes on that poll, even purchased more than one commercial distro. Also used one for months without donating. Also have visited distro websites and clicked their "donate" button and sent payments. Done the whole lot. My policy now is to support my main distro with annual donations, and to contribute money here and there with distros I fool around with.
5 • Do you pay? (by zephyr on 2024-01-08 03:16:20 GMT from United States)
Leaving Windows was a troubled road, first with Xandrox and I bought it. Later attached myself to Crunchbang as my long term distro, and VSIDO. Later on with Star and later on started my own distro called Zephyr, then Crowz. I have bought a few distro's to try them out. I like to see what others are doing. Furthermore, I don't have any notions or negative thoughts about anyone charging for their work. If they can make a few bucks, I'm happy for them, but it's a tough market out there with so many Linux and Unix like free distributions to be in competition with.
Many users I have noticed behave and express themselves that it's an entitlement for a free distro and customized to their taste and likening.
6 • Mandrake (by denflen on 2024-01-08 03:42:36 GMT from United States)
It was very interesting (and sad) to read the review of what became of Mandrake Linux. It was the very first Linux distro that I ever got to work on my desktop computer many years ago. I came from Windows ME and decided to try out Linux just for fun. And Mandrake was fun. I have tried and moved on to many other distros since then, but it is a shame to hear about how it has devolved since then.
7 • Money for distros (by Andy Prough on 2024-01-08 03:56:45 GMT from United States)
I've been using GNU/Linux distros for about 26 years now, and I've pretty much always paid into it. I've purchased support, purchased boxed sets of installation media, made supportive payments to help get certain features added, purchased CDs and DVDs and Live USBs, purchased branded merchandise, etc.
I've spent more on GNU/Linux over that time than I would have if I had been using a proprietary OS and paying for an updated license once every 3-4 years.
8 • Paid for it (by Friar Tux on 2024-01-08 04:54:59 GMT from Canada)
I originally bought Mandrake 3.1 from a company in California (I live in Regina, Canada). I installed it and it worked for a couple of days, then it went belly up and scared me back to Windows 95. I gave the Mandrake CD to one of my nephews. Used Windows as my main driver till Windows 10 - though I played with various Linux distros over the years on a separate laptop. Most distros never lasted more than a couple of days, some bombed at install.
Finally, I was working with Windows XP and loved it, until one day, Windows 10 just loaded itself onto my laptop - no questions asked - it took about an hour and it was full screen with no way to exit out. I shut off my laptop, pulled the battery and left it for the day. I grabbed The Wife's laptop and downloaded Linux Mint/Cinnamon onto a USB stick. Finally, I rebooted my laptop and installed Mint and haven't looked back since. The very next day, The Wife's laptop started installing Windows 10 right while she was in the middle of some work. Again, full screen with no way to exit. I installed Mint on her laptop and she, too, hasn't looked back. We've been on Mint/Cinnamon for the last 8 years with no regrets. I haven't ever paid any moneys out to any distro, yet, but I've been thinking about it lately. So THAT may happen soon.
9 • Paying for distros (by Harald on 2024-01-08 05:21:11 GMT from Norway)
My comment is same as #1,
I give back by contributing as much as possible.
10 • Mandrake (by Roger Brown on 2024-01-08 07:07:29 GMT from Australia)
@6 OpenMandriva is not the only Mandrake derivative.
The best is Mageia which released a new version last year. It's always been solid if somewhat conservative. If you want a Mandriva style distro, that's the one to try.
I've always found OpenMandriva somewhat buggy (when tested in a VM) - the present review is not especially surprising.
There's also Rosa, from which OpenMandriva was forked, but that distro hasn't released a new version for some years
11 • Mandrake offshoots and Donations (by Bobbie Sellers on 2024-01-08 07:27:16 GMT from United States)
I started with Mandriva, the result of the union of Connectiva and Mandrake.
Right off the man behind the innovative distribution, Gael Duval and so we
should not mourn the collapse of Mandriva too much. I paid about $50 a year
for originally 2 DVDs with a explanatory manual. PCLinuxOS was a fork
from Mandrake originally with later images from Mandriva. Mageia was organized
to move forward with the Mandriva Code and aside from adding systemd they
do pretty well. I have never seen a good image from OpenMandriva and they
did the same thing adding systemd. I used Mageia and it was a good continuation
of Mandriva and the cost of the download was a lot less. Mandriva charged me
$50 for the 2011 release, a single DVD-sized iso, and it was somehow unable
to run on my machine of the time. I was not able to get useful help online
and then the company was out of business. I used PCLinuxOS in 2013 but
the machine I was running it on developed some problems as though the
connections of the SATA chip had developed solder problems. The new
machine had UEFI and Mageia had adopted that. I see the related changes
to the disk formatting useful. Now when I first used the PCLinuxOS I did
not donate but after I came back to it when it managed to integrate UEFI.
I got into the PCLinusOS Forum and that source of good advice is worth
every penny of the small donation I make. Plus I get to use one of the
best descendants of Mandrake. I paid for Mandrake because it
incorporated licensed software to deal with various image formats.
PCLOS is not standing still though and has changed some install tools
as the diskdrak was needing a whole rewrite and GPartEd is a standard.
bliss - Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2024.01- Linux 6.5.13- KDE Plasma 5.27.10
12 • Did you pay for your distro? (by Dawid on 2024-01-08 08:02:02 GMT from Germany)
No, only donations to KDE
13 • Donations (by Someguy on 2024-01-08 09:02:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
Tried at least three times to donate to Mint but their payment options don't coincide with any of the secure systems I use to protect my financial dealings. That includes refusing to use any mobile phone or systems demanding one (not necessarily involving Mint).
14 • Falkon (by Lioh on 2024-01-08 09:35:21 GMT from Switzerland)
imho Falkon can be a good choice. Maybe not for a general purpose distro, but, e.g. when you primarily target low spec machines, like I do with SpaceFun e.g. it really makes sense.
15 • Donations (by Dino on 2024-01-08 12:18:37 GMT from Denmark)
I have given donations to several distros: Devuan, Linux Mint, Ubuntu MATE, and Debian.
16 • Mandriva/paying (by Dave Postles on 2024-01-08 12:28:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
Like others, Mandriva was one of the first distros to which I committed. I also bought the usb stick with Mandriva from them (an innovation at the time, I think). I'm sad that OpenMandriva seems lacking. In fact, I recently used it for a little time. Contributing to distros: I have done so in the past (in particular the late lamented Uberstudent). I donated to Mageia - a one-off. I am a regular direct debit to Trisquel (I'm not using it currently, but continue to support).
17 • Alphabetical listing of DW database. (by 2³bit on 2024-01-08 13:12:01 GMT from United States)
"Number of all distributions in the database: 959" Is there a way to get this list in alphabetical order? Thanks for your time.
18 • All distributions (by Jesse on 2024-01-08 13:16:47 GMT from Canada)
@17:
Alphabetically? Not directly. But you can get a complete listing from our search page: https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=All&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=All#simple
Once you have the list you can drop it into a text file or spreadsheet and sort it in whatever order you like.
19 • Mandrake and Paying for Distros (by John on 2024-01-08 13:22:11 GMT from Canada)
I started off way back with Slackware, but Mandrake Linux was the first distro I actually purchased. Full retail package - and it worked great!
Unfortunately, I find that most distros these days are not worth purchasing. Buggy, unstable and unreliable for a daily driver. If you want me to pay, then make it worth it. Of the most polished distros like Ubuntu or Mint, so far I haven't paid, but now that I've centralized on LMDE, perhaps I will send something their way to let them know their work is appreciated.
20 • donations (by Mark E on 2024-01-08 14:49:45 GMT from United Kingdom)
I donate to Mint. They make a nice distro and I'm happy to pay for it. I don't have the inclination to contribute to the development of the distro so it's good that I can contribute financially and just use it. I also like how they are upfront about the fact they want donations, with a prominent button on their main page. You know what's expected of you.
21 • Paying for distros (by Pal N on 2024-01-08 17:03:08 GMT from Sweden)
I use my distro for free. I translate free software and occasionally distro specific files to my native language. I imagine one could say I pay by donating time.
22 • Donations (by Sam Crawford on 2024-01-08 19:33:06 GMT from United States)
I donate to LinuxMint and Distrowatch monthly.
LinuxMint because I use it and it has value to me and this website because I enjoy it and want to see it continue.
23 • Donations (by 0323pin on 2024-01-08 20:27:27 GMT from Sweden)
I've donated several times in the past but, since a few years back, I contribute by packaging software.
24 • Did you pay for your distro? (by Geo. on 2024-01-08 20:39:04 GMT from Canada)
Yes, if it's a permanent install, I always pay/donate. I have paid/donated for Slackware, Mepis, Puppy, Antix, and Mint. People work hard for these distros. I'm not going to freeload. Next will be Bohdi.
25 • Donations (by Rodrigo on 2024-01-08 20:48:01 GMT from Spain)
Like some other users, I donate monthly (using patreon) a small amount of money to support Linux Mint. I really ike the distro (actually, I use it everyday), and I know that if users did not support the developers (specially in cases like this -Linux MInt is not supported by a company-), the distro would disappear. I feel that if you use a product developed by a small team, and this product makes your life much easier, the least you can do is support that small team, either financially or by helping them (with translations, package development...)
26 • Mandriva and successors (by John C on 2024-01-08 21:17:11 GMT from United States)
Strange that OpenMandriva is adding new versions if they have unresolved bugs in what they already put out. But there are at least five extant distros from the Mandrake/Mandriva family that still operate. ALT, PCLinuxOS, ROSA, Mageia and OpenMandriva are all either direct or indirect successors of Mandrake/Mandriva.
The one most like the original is PCLOS, which Distrowatch bashed them for a few months ago because they do a lot of stuff the old way. If you want a take on Mandriva with "updated" tools from people who helped make the original, Mageia is the best way to go.
27 • Mandriva and successors (by Roger Brown on 2024-01-09 00:09:18 GMT from Australia)
Unfortunately, the reason why Mandriva type distros are fading into obscurity is that their "killer" feature - those wonderful configuration utilities - are largely unnecessary now that Linux has become largely self configuring.
28 • Donations (by HipsterSix on 2024-01-09 00:36:22 GMT from United States)
Back in the day I willingly and happily purchased LibraNet.
Nowadays the wife and I run Mint (for her) and Slackware (for me). I give monthly to Slackware via Patreon and donate to Mint with every production release.
You’re not obligated to give anything, of course, but I see a lot of rationalization on here. Infrastructure to host and in some cases to fund a full time employee or two cost money; if your favorite distro goes down flames and you could have given a couple of dollars/Euros, don’t snivel.
29 • One man team distros (by One man team distros on 2024-01-09 01:15:23 GMT from Singapore)
It would be nice to show the size of the development team of the various distros.
I am wary when choosing a distro which has only one man in the "team".
30 • on sending donations (by Ted H in Minnesota on 2024-01-09 05:52:15 GMT from United States)
Monday 11-8-24
I'm not equipped to send a donation electronically, but if an OS I use has a postal address drop in the US posted on their website, I will send them a U.S. Postal Service money order.
Ted in Minnesota
31 • Paying for a Distro (by James on 2024-01-09 10:58:40 GMT from United States)
I am using my distro free of charge. I have tried to pay for a Distro, but refuse to use Pay Pal or cyrpto currencies. I asked if they would take a check and the answer was no. No distro I tried took credit cards either.
I also will not pay for a download. I have tried to many distros that did not fit my need, and never used them after trying them. Why would I pay for them?
32 • @27 Roger Brown: (by dragonmouyj on 2024-01-09 12:24:16 GMT from United States)
"Linux has become largely self configuring. "
Unfortunately Linux is getting to be more Windows-like every day. I, for one, want to set up My distro the way I want, not the way some developer thinks is the "best". My daily driver is PCLOS and it will be so until something more suitable comes along and by that I do not mean some Windows wannabe distro.
33 • 29 • One man team distros (by Jan on 2024-01-09 12:48:13 GMT from The Netherlands)
I agree with the disadvantage of one man or small team distros.
They are almost certain to disappear, which I regrettably have experienced several times.
There are a few remarkable exceptions, among others AntiX and PCLinuxOS (after circa 2010).
However I would like to know how their continuity is guaranteed if the main developer/team stops (because of new other priorities or a team explosion).
34 • @33 • 29 • One man team distros (by Geo on 2024-01-09 14:05:02 GMT from Canada)
I'm so glad Mepis came back as MX Linux. Mepis was my first successful daily driver. I learned more on it than any other distro. I'm always happy when a previous distro comes back. All these small teams are to be lauded. So much work for so little recognition. 🏆
35 • Paying for free software (by zetamacs on 2024-01-09 15:38:57 GMT from United States)
You know, I'm a firm advocate for financially supporting free software projects. The authors have already done something deserving of a reward in making software that you can freely run, modify, and pass on to others, and so much the more if it's good software.
The fact that whole operating systems are crafted and given to others with little or no restriction is still just phenomenal to me, after years of using such systems. A bit of gratitude and some money to keep the lights on is a fitting response.
36 • one man team (by John on 2024-01-09 18:05:41 GMT from United States)
@29 @33 -
Depends upon the distro and the person, officially Slackware is a "one man team", but the BDFL has had many volunteers helping out over the years. Right now there is an official Volunteer Team. And it is the oldest still being developed distro.
And there were periods early on that people were paid to work on Slackware for the BDFL. IIRC a couple ended up at Red Hat.
FWIW, I believe Slackware is most stable. I do not remember the last time I had a panic type issue using Slackware. On RHEL Workstation I have at work, the last panic I had was about 2 years ago.
So in some cases, "one man" depends upon the development infrastructure.
37 • OpenMandriva, Mandrake (by frc on 2024-01-10 05:26:16 GMT from Brazil)
I have tried about 25 or 30 distros, last 10 years, and keep using permanently Mageia since 2017 and PCLinuxOS since 2018, from the Mandrake / Mandriva "branch", formerly in a 2 x Core2 Duo with 4 GB RAM, and now in a 6 x i5-9th with 16 GB RAM.
Back in 2017, I was still "ubuntunized", and did not understand Mageia (6) completely. Then I (re)installed Mageia (7) and finally learned better. Now, instead of reinstall or upgrade Mageia (8 to 9), I just upgraded it to Cauldron, and it keeps working fine.
Mageia offers many upgrade tools, too: - 2 Mageia's GUI tools, 1 icon in the Panel, 1 Plasma Discover, and 2 CLI tools ("urpmi" and "dnf", at least; but it is not recommendable to use both). Well, since 2018 I use only "urpmi", and I have had none problems. I have never used its MCC (Control Center) to update it.
I have faced some problems to install PCLinuxOS in my old hardware, back in December 2017, but once I learned how to round them, it works fine to me, since 2018. I have never used its PCC (Control Center) to any update, nor its "apt" (APT-RPM). I have always used Synaptic, which is a GUI for APT-RPM, created by old Conectiva.
I have installed ROSA, too, some years ago, but I gave up, due to low download speed from its mirrors (no mirror in my country). Also, Mageia and PCLinuxOS were enough to me, in order to know Mandrake's heritage.
I have tried to install OpenMandriva 2 or 3 times, but its ISOs / installer have never worked to me, so I gave up and stoped trying.
38 • Support through opt-in ads (by far2fish on 2024-01-10 11:26:36 GMT from Denmark)
I'd be happy to support a Linux distro finansially through ads as long as the following requirements are there:
- No ads by default. Must be opt-in.
- Easy to opt-out (for instance a toggle in a control panel)
- Ads runs sandboxed, so any "flaw" in the ad system doesn't spread to the system in general.
- No tracking of any kind; I'd be fine with generic ads.
39 • @32 Linux self configuring (by Roger Brown on 2024-01-11 08:24:52 GMT from Australia)
I wasn't thinking about pre-configured desktop settings. I use Archlinux and very much value the ability to set up things exactly as I wish.
But you should remember the bad old days when you often had to configure Xorg by hand - especially if you changed hardware after the initial install. Mandrake's utiliries, which ran from the command line as well as under the graphic interface, were an absolute life saver when (for example) you hooked up a new monitor only to be confronted with an "out of range" error.
But that's now a thing of the past.
40 • Ads (by Clem Fandango on 2024-01-11 18:04:45 GMT from Denmark)
@38
No.
Ads everywhere is what's wrong with this world. Distros serving ads belong in the bin.
41 • Keeping shell commands running when the terminal closes (by fenglengshun on 2024-01-12 09:16:20 GMT from Indonesia)
If I want to have command continue own detached from the terminal, I usually just use Ctrl+Z, then do `bg && disown`.
42 • Why not... (by Helvetia on 2024-01-12 12:40:09 GMT from Switzerland)
gimp &
exit
... and simply close the Terminal?
Number of Comments: 42
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
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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 |
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| • 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 |
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| • 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 |
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