 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 674, 15 August 2016 |
Welcome to this year's 33rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Looking at the relationships between Linux distributions is often like looking at a family tree. At the core we find a group of distributions which initially package software and make a solid base. These are projects like Fedora, Debian and Slackware. We then tend to see other projects grow from these core distributions and add their own special software and utilities. This week we turn our attention to Zenwalk, a distribution which takes vanilla Slackware and adds its own special settings, software and approach to make a more user friendly desktop distribution. In our News section we discuss developments happening in the openSUSE community, Lubuntu migrating to LXQt, Steam running on FreeBSD and PC-BSD's Lumina desktop environment reaching its 1.0.0 milestone. In the Questions and Answers column we respond to the many queries we received following the Ubuntu phone review from two weeks ago. Plus, in our Opinion Poll, we talk about the state of Devuan, a systemd-free fork of Debian. We have updated our Slovak translation and our compatible Hardware page. Plus we have added Pearl Linux OS to our database. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (27MB) and MP3 (39MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Zenwalk Linux 8.0 - A more Zen Slackware
 In July I reviewed the venerable Slackware distribution. Slackware is well known for its conservative nature and dependability, but it requires a few extra steps to get a friendly desktop environment up and running. The Zenwalk Linux distribution is based on Slackware and maintains binary compatibility with its parent. Zenwalk offers two advantages over Slackware, one of them being Zenwalk runs a graphical user interface by default while Slackware boots into a text console following a fresh installation. The second feature Zenwalk offers is a "one-application-per-task" approach to selecting software. Slackware does allow the user to customize installations up front, but fine-grained application selection takes a long time. By default, Slackware will dump large collections of application on the user's hard drive with a full installation taking up over 9GB of disk space. Zenwalk streamlines things a bit, providing a focused set of desktop applications and a full installation of Zenwalk requires approximately 6GB of hard drive space.
The latest release of Zenwalk, version 8.0, ships with LibreOffice 5.1 and version 4.12 of the Xfce desktop. Zenwalk 8.0 is available exclusively for the 64-bit x86 architecture and is available through a 989 MB download.
At first, booting from the Zenwalk media feels a lot like getting started with Slackware. Zenwalk asks us to supply any needed kernel parameters before beginning its boot process. We are then asked to select our keyboard layout or stick with the default "US" layout. Zenwalk then automatically launches the Slackware system installer. Since I talked about setting up Slackware in July I will skip over the details of the installer here. Zenwalk follows the same steps, selecting which partitions to use and which packages to install. I decided to install everything except development tools for my trial. Zenwalk's version of the installer concludes by giving us the chance to set up a user account for ourselves and then asks us to create a password for the root account. Afterwards, we can reboot the computer to start using our new copy of Zenwalk.
The only issue I had with Zenwalk's installer was that I did not have a partition set aside for the distribution before I began the trial. This meant I had to quit the installer, run a command line partition manager (cfdisk in my case) and then re-launch the system installer. Slackware takes a slightly different approach by booting to a command line and getting us to manually run the tools (partition manager or installer) we need.
Zenwalk Linux 8.0 - the application menu
(full image size: 977kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The freshly installed copy of Zenwalk boots to a graphical login screen. Signing into our user account launches the Xfce 4.12 desktop environment. At the top of the screen we find an application menu, task switcher, system tray and sign off menu. On the desktop there are icons for launching a file manager and opening the Chromium web browser to show the Zenwalk support forum. At the bottom of the screen we find a quick-launch bar which also features an application menu. The background shows a hot air balloon flying through the sky.
Zenwalk features a fairly dark theme which contrasts nicely with the colourful wallpaper. I found some applications use transparent backgrounds by default. This can work nicely when paired with flat backgrounds, but I found it difficult to read text that was placed over the colourful Zenwalk wallpaper. Fortunately most applications make it easy to disable transparency. Another characteristic I noticed early on was that Zenwalk uses unusually small fonts. The desktop's fonts can be changed with a quick trip into the desktop's control panel under the Appearance settings module.
Zenwalk Linux 8.0 - exploring the settings panel
(full image size: 756kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Speaking of the control panel, the distribution ships with a central control panel for configuring the Xfce desktop and some of the underlying operating system. We can change the look of the desktop, adjust window behaviour and work with user accounts. The available modules generally worked well and I ran into no bugs. I did find the account manager module, which is menu driven, to be a bit cumbersome to work with compared to other account managers, but it does function properly. I also found it strange there are two configuration modules for changing the keyboard layout. I could not find a settings module for setting up printers, but we can access the CUPS printer manager through either of the desktop's two application menus.
Once I got logged in and adjusted the Xfce desktop to look the way I wanted, my next step was to install software updates. There is a Netpkg entry in the distribution's application menu and I started there. Clicking the program's entry did not produce any results. Next, I turned to the command line and ran netpkg. The netpkg command asks us to select a repository mirror from a list and then goes to work updating or installing software from the selected repository. As it turns out the software available through netpkg is somewhat limited and appears to be intended as a compliment to the official Slackware repositories. We can access Slackware's repositories using the slackpkg command line package manager.
Zenwalk Linux 8.0 - installing package upgrades
(full image size: 736kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
At least, we can access Slackware's repositories after we edit the slackpkg repository list in a text editor and select a repository mirror to use. The problem is, this might not be straight forward. I initially tried to use the vi command line text editor to change slackpkg's configuration only to be told the libperl dependency was missing and I could not launch the text editor. Next I tried a few other editors, like nano, but couldn't find any present. Looking through the application menu I found no graphical text editors. The closest thing I could find was the Geany IDE. While Geany is intended for editing source code, it will work on any text file. Of course I had to launch Geany from the command line as root in order to edit the slackpkg configuration file as Geany does not have root access when launched from the Xfce menu. Once I got slackpkg's configuration sorted out with Geany, I was able to use slackpkg to install the vi editor's dependencies, which included the Perl and Python interpreted languages.
It seems as though my trouble with text editors came about because I installed most of Zenwalk's packages, but skipped development software. Sadly, in this case, the vi text editor relies on development packages and refuses to run without them, making the development packages not so much an option as a necessity. As many popular software packages ultimately need to be compiled from source code or found in third-party repositories on Zenwalk, it turns out the user is best off installing everything (including development libraries) in order to achieve a fully functional system, even if the user does not plan to develop any software of their own.
Let's look at the software which ships with Zenwalk. Looking through the Zenwalk application menu I found it was much less cluttered than Slackware's and therefore I found it easier to find what I wanted. The distribution ships with the Chromium web browser (with Flash support), the gFTP file transfer application, the HexChat IRC client and the Transmission bittorrent software. The menu contains an entry called "Gnome Gmail" which simply launches Chromium and brings up the GMail login page. Unlike its parent, Zenwalk supplies us with the LibreOffice productivity suite. The distribution ships with the Orage Calendar software, MPlayer, the Xfburn disc burning software and a full range of media codecs. Developers will find the Glade interface designer and the Geany IDE. The GNU Image Manipulation Program is present. Zenwalk provides us with quite a few other utilities including an archive manager, calculator, the Thunar file manager and the GParted partition manager. One application helps us rename files in batches and another helps us configure which services will run in the background. Cryptkeeper is included for setting up encrypted folders, but it crashed when I tried to set up a new encrypted space. In the background we find the SysV init software (version 2.88) and version 4.4.14 of the Linux kernel.
Zenwalk Linux 8.0 - using Geany to edit text files
(full image size: 315kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
I experimented with Zenwalk in two test environments, using a physical desktop computer and a VirtualBox virtual machine. Zenwalk, like its parent, worked well on the physical desktop computer. The system was stable and my hardware was properly detected and utilized out of the box. When running the distribution in VirtualBox, I found Zenwalk was not able to integrate into the virtual environment and use my host computer's full screen resolution. As Zenwalk does not include VirtualBox add-on modules in its repositories, fixing my display resolution required installing a couple of packages from source, using the SlackBuilds recipes. I ran into one further problem with the VirtualBox add-on. Specifically, Zenwalk still uses X configuration files to set screen resolution while most other distributions configure X automatically, without the configuration file. Zenwalk's X configuration file set arbitrary limits on my display settings, preventing me from using higher screen resolutions. Removing the X configuration file and restarting X fixed this issue.
When running in either environment Zenwalk used approximately 200MB of memory when logged into the Xfce desktop. Early on I found the desktop was unusually sluggish (Xfce is usually snappy on my hardware) and my CPU was regularly chugging away at 75% usage. A quick investigation revealed the PulseAudio volume control plugin on the bottom panel was consuming large amounts of CPU cycles. Removing the PulseAudio plugin fixed the issue and my desktop became much more responsive. Of course, this meant I had to find and install an alternative audio volume control.
Conclusions
There were a few things I enjoyed about Zenwalk 8.0 and several I did not. Before getting to those, I want to acknowledge that Zenwalk is, in most ways, very much like Slackware. The two distributions are binary compatible and if you like (or dislike) one, you will probably feel the same way about the other. They're quite closely related with similar benefits and drawbacks.
On the positive side of things, I like that Zenwalk trims down the software installed by default. A full installation of Zenwalk requires about two-thirds of the disk space a full installation of Slackware consumes. This is reflected in Zenwalk's focused "one-app-per-task" approach which I feel makes it easier to find things. Zenwalk requires relatively little memory (a feature it shares with Slackware) and, with PulseAudio's plugin removed, consumes very few CPU cycles. One more feature I like about this distribution is the fact Zenwalk includes LibreOffice, a feature I missed when running pure Slackware.
On the other hand, I ran into a number of problems with Zenwalk. The dependency problems which annoyed me while running Slackware were present in Zenwalk too. To even get a working text editor I needed to have development libraries installed. To make matters worse, the user needs a text editor to enable the package manager to install development libraries. It's one of those circular problems that require the user to think outside the box (or re-install with all software packages selected).
Other issues I had were more personal. For example, I don't like window transparency or small fonts. These are easy to fix, but it got me off on the wrong foot with Zenwalk. I do want to acknowledge that while my first two days with Zenwalk were mostly spent fixing things, hunting down dependencies and tweaking the desktop to suit my tastes, things got quickly better. By the end of the week I was enjoying Zenwalk's performance, its light nature and its clean menus. I may have had more issues with Zenwalk than Slackware in the first day or so, but by the end of the week I was enjoying using Zenwalk more for my desktop computing.
For people running older computers, I feel it is worth noting Zenwalk does not offer 32-bit builds. The distribution has become 64-bit only and people who still run 32-bit machines will need to turn elsewhere, perhaps to Slackware.
In the end, I feel as though Zenwalk is a more focused flavour of Slackware. The Slackware distribution is multi-purpose, at least as suited for servers as desktops. Slackware runs on more processor architectures, has a live edition and can dump a lot of software on our hard disk. Zenwalk is more desktop focused, with fewer packages and perhaps a nicer selection of applications. The two are quite similar, but Slackware has a broader focus while Zenwalk is geared to desktop users who value performance.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8 GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500 GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6 GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
openSUSE prepares for Leap release, Lubuntu migrating to LXQt, Steam running on FreeBSD, PC-BSD's Lumina desktop reaches 1.0.0 milestone
 There has been a lot of activity in the openSUSE community in the past week. There were three new snapshots of openSUSE's rolling release edition, called Tumbleweed. These snapshots added a number of application updates and removed the LXDM session manager in favour of LightDM. "Snapshot 20160805 brought more package changes and one major uninstall. LXDM was dropped from openSUSE Tumbleweed and uninstalled in this snapshot. LightDM is being used in the environment instead and is auto-installed with a change configuration for those who are using LXDM. This snapshot provided several repository updates, and NetworkManager-gnome, LibreOffice 5.2.0.4 and WireShark 2.0.5 were a few of the many changes found is 20160805." openSUSE's more conservative edition, Leap, is nearing a feature freeze for the upcoming release of openSUSE 42.2 and last minute packages are being added prior to the distribution's beta at the end of August.
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 LXQt is a lightweight desktop environment which has grown out of a merger of the LXDE and Razor-Qt desktop projects. LXQt is based upon the Qt software libraries. The Lubuntu distribution is planning to switch its default desktop environment from LXDE to LXQt in the coming months. Simon Quigley has posted that the migration is underway: "The Lubuntu team is ready to begin the migration process to LXQt, and one of the first parts of the migration is getting an image to move to. We have prepared the lubuntu-qt-desktop metapackage and we are ready for an image. A few weeks ago, I submitted two merge proposals thanks to advice given by Adam Conrad on #ubuntu-release. On several occasions (on IRC), both myself and Walter Lapchynski have asked for feedback on the merge proposals in an effort to get the images spun up so we can take our next step, but have not received any."
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 The Steam marketplace and gaming portal has been available to Linux users for a few years now, but the BSDs (including FreeBSD) have not been able to run a native version of the Steam software. Workarounds generally use WINE to run the Windows version of Steam on the BSDs. One enterprising developer reports it will be possible to run the Linux version of Steam as a native executable on FreeBSD 11.0. The Steam On FreeBSD GitHub project provides scripts and dependencies for running Steam on the development branch of FreeBSD. The page also includes screen shots of Steam running. At this point it looks as though some more work is needed to polish the installation steps and end-user experience, but FreeBSD users may soon be able to run Steam games on their preferred operating system without WINE.
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 After several years in development, the Lumina desktop environment has reached version 1.0.0. Lumina's lead developer, Ken Moore wrote: "After roughly four years of development, I am pleased to announce the first official release of the Lumina desktop environment! This release is an incredible realization of the initial idea of Lumina - a simple and unobtrusive desktop environment meant for users to configure to match their individual needs. I hope you all enjoy it, and I look forward to working with all of you on the next iterations of this desktop!" Lumina began as a lightweight, portable desktop environment with minimal dependencies for the PC-BSD operating system. Lumina's portability and its general lack of platform-specific dependencies have caused the Qt-based desktop environment to be ported to several operating systems other than PC-BSD. To date, Lumina has been ported to Arch Linux, Debian GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD, DragonFly BSD, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Manjaro Linux, OpenBSD, openSUSE, NetBSD, PCLinuxOS, Slackware, SparkyLinux and Ubuntu.
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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) |
Ubuntu phone follow-up
Following my review of the Meizu Pro 5 phone running the Ubuntu Touch operating system, many people had questions about the device. Some of these questions were posted and answered in the comments section while others came in from social media or e-mail. In an effort to make the answers public and easily accessible, I decided to collect the questions and answer them all in one place. Here they are, in no particular order.
What are the hardware specifications of the Meizu Pro 5?
For those who missed in the link in the article, information on the Pro 5's hardware can be found here. Hardware specifications for all Ubuntu phones can be found on the Ubuntu Phone lineup page.
Will the phone work on my carrier's network?
I have checked three different North American carriers so far (Telus, T-mobile and Koodo) and they were all compatible with the Pro 5. If you want to be certain, compare the frequencies the phone supports against the network frequencies used by your carrier. The phone's supported frequencies are listed on this page. Click the "Expand" button on the right to see a complete list. Your carrier's network frequencies should be available on their website or through a customer service representative.
What about GPS? The article doesn't mention GPS or navigation.
This was an oversight on my part. The short answer is GPS works and Ubuntu has multiple map apps available to help people navigate. The Pro 5 I used bundled an application called HERE Maps which works a lot like Google Maps. The phone's GPS can target the device's position and the map application can provide directions between two addresses. GPS works and, in my area at least, was accurate. I only tried navigating to two locations using HERE Maps, but both times I received accurate information from the navigation software.
The phone runs Ubuntu 15.04, isn't it past its end of life? How do you upgrade?
The Desktop edition of Ubuntu 15.04 has reached its end of life, but the phone runs the Touch edition of Ubuntu 15.04, which is still supported. The operating system is updated about once every six weeks. Updates can be accessed through the settings panel in the Updates module. The Updates module handles updates to both the operating system and individual applications.
Switching between mobile and wi-fi networks.
In the review I mentioned the Ubuntu phone would continue to use a mobile connection even when a wi-fi network was available. I reported this issue to Canonical and, as it turns out, I was mistaken. The phone's settings panel will sometimes continue to show it is using a mobile network even after the phone has switched back to a wi-fi connection. This makes it look like the phone is using mobile data, but further investigation shows the phone has really switched to the wi-fi network. Given more time, or a display refresh, the phone will properly report it is using the wi-fi network.
The phone allows you to run as root, can the operating system be re-installed if the user damages something?
The phone does allow the user to run as root (via the sudo command) which can be a dangerous tool. However, key components of the phone's operating system are protected by being mounted read-only. This gives the user an extra layer of protection they need to by-pass in order to cause lasting harm. Should you need to re-install, supported images can be found on the Ubuntu website. Installations instructions can be found here.
Where can I buy one of these devices?
Earlier this year JoyBuy was selling the Pro 5, but the phone is currently out of stock. Meizu is planning to launch an upgraded Ubuntu phone later this year. I think it will be called the MX6 and should appear on the Ubuntu mobile devices list when the phone becomes available.
What games does Ubuntu Touch have?
Games and other applications in the Ubuntu Store can be found on the uApp Explorer website.
Is there a free developer SDK for the Ubuntu phone?
Indeed there is, it is the Ubuntu SDK. Right now the SDK appears to be packaged for the Ubuntu Desktop operating system (and its many derivatives) exclusively so you may need to install a member of the Ubuntu family of distributions or set up a virtual machine for development.
Since Ubuntu is Linux, can I install other Linux distributions on the phone?
Not without a lot of work. In this case Linux refers to just the kernel, one component in thousands which make up the operating system. Anyone wanting to port a distribution onto the phone would need to make sure they have the right drivers and cross-compile the distribution to the phone's hardware. It would be a long process.
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Additional Questions and Answers articles can be found in our archive.
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
Bittorrent is a great way to transfer large files, particularly open source operating system images, from one place to another. Most bittorrent clients recover from dropped connections automatically, check the integrity of files and can re-download corrupted bits of data without starting a download over from scratch. These characteristics make bittorrent well suited for distributing open source operating systems, particularly to regions where Internet connections are slow or unstable.
Many Linux and BSD projects offer bittorrent as a download option, partly for the reasons listed above and partly because bittorrent's peer-to-peer nature takes some of the strain off the project's servers. However, some projects do not offer bittorrent as a download option. There can be several reasons for excluding bittorrent as an option. Some projects do not have enough time or volunteers, some may be restricted by their web host provider's terms of service. Whatever the reason, the lack of a bittorrent option puts more strain on a distribution's bandwidth and may prevent some people from downloading their preferred open source operating system.
With this in mind, DistroWatch plans to give back to the open source community by hosting and seeding bittorrent files. For now, we are hosting a small number of distribution torrents, listed below. The list of torrents offered will be updated each week and we invite readers to e-mail us with suggestions as to which distributions we should be hosting. When you message us, please place the word "Torrent" in the subject line, make sure to include a link to the ISO file you want us to seed. To help us maintain and grow this free service, please consider making a donation.
The table below provides a list of torrents we currently host. If you do not currently 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 here. All torrents we make available here are also listed on the very useful Linux Tracker website. Thanks to Linux Tracker we are able to share the following torrent statistics.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 223
- Total data uploaded: 41.7TB
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| Released Last Week |
Univention Corporate Server 4.1-3
The Univention Corporate Server (UCS) team has announced the release of a new update to the distribution's 4.1 series. The new release, Univention Corporate Server 4.1-3, features a number of important security fixes for OpenSSL, QEMU and Samba and also offers some new features. "The App Center has been improved in several areas and further possibilities for the migration of apps to "dockerized" apps have been implemented. The replication of directory service objects has been stabilized in numerous corner cases. The domain join of additional Samba based Active Directory domain controllers is now possible with more than 100,000 directory service objects. The app appliances have been extended further and they now allow app providers to define an own branding as well as to activate a fast demonstration mode. Testers can now evaluate the app in the appliance very fast with pre-defined settings. Configuration settings for the database management system MySQL can now be defined via UCR variables. For example apps can easier alter settings of the database system according to their needs." Additional information can be found in the release announcement and in the release notes.
SELKS 3.0
Eric Leblond has announced the availability of SELKS 3.0. The SELKS distribution is a network security operating system based on Debian. The latest stable release offers a number of performance improvements and package upgrades. "The main change in SELKS 3.0 is the switch to the latest generation of the Elastic stack. On user side this means Kibana 3 has been replaced by Kibana 4. And this really means a lot. Kibana 4 is a complete rewrite of Kibana 3 being non backward compatible on data side. So, our team had to redo from scratch all dashboards and visualizations. The result is a new set of 11 ready-to-use dashboards and a lots of visualizations that you can use to build your own dashboards. On the ruleset management side, SELKS 3.0 comes with Scirius Community Edition 1.1.10 that has support for advanced Suricata feature like xbits." Additional information on SELKS 3.0, along with screen shots, can be found in the project's release announcement.
OpenMandriva Lx 3.0
Kate Lebedeff has announced the launch of OpenMandriva Lx 3.0. The new version features the Calamares system installer, improved boot times and has been compiled using the Clang/LLVM compiler. "OpenMandriva Lx is a cutting edge distribution compiled with LLVM/clang. Combined with the high level of optimization used for both code and linking (by enabling LTO) used in its building, this gives the OpenMandriva desktop an unbelievably crisp response to operations on the KDE Plasma 5 desktop which makes it a pleasure to use. The latest release of all the KDE apps is there to support the desktop and help give you a consistent feel." Additional information on the new OpenMandriva Lx 3.0 release can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
OpenMandriva Lx 3.0 - running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 360kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
RancherOS 0.5.0
Josh Curl has announced the release of a new version of RancherOS, a minimal Linux distribution that places most of its functionality in Docker containers. The new release, RancherOS 0.5.0, moves the project out of its alpha status and introduces new features, including an official Raspberry Pi image. "RancherOS, the latest major release since v0.4.0. Since then, we've moved RancherOS out of an alpha state and made many changes to improve both stability and user experience. In addition to various bug fixes and support for Docker 1.11, v0.5.0 includes the following changes: On our releases page you can now find an official Raspberry Pi image which is known to work on both Raspberry Pi 2 and 3. We're especially excited about this since it offers users a cheap method of getting started with Docker and RancherOS. We'd like to thank the Hypriot team for their assistance on this feature..." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Maui Linux 1
The Netrunner project has discontinued its Kubuntu-based edition and replaced it with a new distribution, called Maui Linux, which uses KDE neon as a base. The first release of the new distribution, version 1, is built on a lon-term support (LTS) base, but it is expected to provide cutting edge versions of KDE software in a semi-rolling release model. "Maui will continue as the full desktop version of the previously Kubuntu-based Netrunner line. What basically equals Netrunner+1 is simply released under the new name 'Maui 1'. Being based on KDE neon, Maui also marks the transition to an LTS base, where some parts are receiving regular updates during its life cycle (so called 'partially rolling'). The main parts which will be kept up-to-date are Plasma, Frameworks and KDE Applications, single ones like Firefox and Thunderbird, plus anything that gets updated on Xenial via backporting. This allows us to frequently release updated ISOs shipping the latest KDE software." The release announcement, as well as the project's About page have more information.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
The state of Devuan
The Devuan distribution began its existence as a fork of Debian which would provide alternative init implementations following the Debian team's decision to adopt systemd. Devuan has been maturing and releasing development snapshots slowly with the developers now close to a final, stable release of their Debian fork.
This week we would like to know if our readers have tried Devuan and, if you did, what did you think? Is Devuan a suitable drop-in replacement for Debian or is there still lots more work to do? Please let us know about your experiences in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on the status of gaming on Linux here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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The state of Devuan
| I have tried Devuan and it is ready to use: | 95 (27%) |
| I have tried Devuan and it needs a little more work: | 45 (13%) |
| I have tried Devuan and it needs lots more work: | 19 (5%) |
| I have not yet tried Devuan but plan to later: | 90 (25%) |
| I have not yet tried Devuan and have no plans to try it: | 107 (30%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Updated Slovak translation and updated Hardware page
We would like to thank Dušan Kazik for updating our Slovak translation. Several of our key words were out of date or not yet been translated from English and Kazik was kind enough to send us fresh Slovak translations.
Anyone else who is interested in helping us make DistroWatch better, please visit our Contributing page to get details on translating, submitting stories and auditing our database.
Over the past month we have received notice about additional companies who sell computers which work with (and sometimes ship with) Linux or BSD. The latest company to be added to our Hardware page is a British company called Nimbusoft.
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New distributions added to database
Pearl Linux OS
Pearl Linux OS is a distribution based on Ubuntu. Pearl uses components of the LXDE and Xfce desktop environments to create a desktop experience which looks similar to Apple's OS X desktop environment. The project calls this hybrid desktop PearlDE. Pearl Linux OS is available in several editions, including GNOME, MATE and PearlDE.
Pearl Linux OS 4.0 - running the Pearl desktop environment
(full image size: 1,453kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Maui Linux
Maui Linux is a desktop Linux distribution based on KDE neon and featuring KDE's Plasma desktop. It was created in August 2016 as a continuation of Netrunner's Kubuntu-based "Desktop" edition, but it was re-based on KDE neon which is a more cutting-edge project with frequent updates and a semi-rolling release model. Besides providing a KDE-centric distribution with many popular KDE packages included on the live DVD, the project also focuses on integrating non-KDE software, such as Firefox, Thunderbird or VLC with the underlying infrastructure of the Plasma desktop.
Maui Linux 1 - running the latest KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 504kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Distributions added to waiting list
- Nolubuntu. Nolubuntu is a Fedora-based (previously openSUSE-based) Linux distribution.
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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, 22 August 2016. 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)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Zeroshell
Zeroshell was a small Linux distribution for servers and embedded devices with the aim to provide network services. It was available in the form of live CD or compact Flash image and it can be configured using a web browser. The main features of Zeroshell include: load balancing and failover of multiple Internet connections, UMTS/HSDPA connections by using 3G modems, RADIUS server for providing secure authentication and automatic management of encryption keys to wireless networks, captive portal to support web login, and many others.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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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