 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 13, 1 September 2003 |
Cool Linux - not just a cool name
Cool Linux is an excellent live CD. If you are getting tired of the endless stream of "new", modified Knoppix-based bootable CDs , then you might be pleasantly surprised by the latest release candidate of Cool Linux, version 2.3. It is based on Red Hat Linux, but it excludes KDE and GNOME, while providing the light-weight IceWM as its only graphical environment. As a result, the CD includes many applications that tend to be left out from other live CDs due to space limitations, such as Blender and VMware (trial edition). Cool Linux also includes the NVIDIA drivers, it has superior hardware auto-detection and it comes with a choice of two Linux kernels to boot from. Cool Linux is an expertly designed distribution for general purpose workstations.
And it comes from Russia. Created by Andrei Velikoredchanin, Cool Linux originally started as an after-hour Linux experiment on the computers that belonged to the author's employer. According to an older interview, Andrei couldn't afford to buy his own computer, so he stayed at work late to create what he called "Emergency CD", a command-line-only, bootable rescue tool kit based on Red Hat Linux. This he later expanded into a general purpose live CD with a cool name. You can find the project's descriptions, screenshots and download locations on this page.
Konnichiwa, LindowsOS
Those of you who find the Lindows.com marketing strategies and the company's constant barrage of press releases a little too omnipresent at times might not know that Lindows.com has recently turned its attention to the Japanese consumer. Yes, Lindows.com is expanding and Japan has been deemed fit for a mass migration to LindowsOS. These days, hardly a day goes by without a Lindows.com announcement in the Japanese Linux media with last week's launch of the Japanese edition of LindowsOS 4.0 dominating many headlines. As always, a picture is worth a thousand words so check out this photo essay to get the feel of the launch atmosphere and to see what the excitement is about.
Will Lindows.com succeed in generating a decent income from its Japanese operation? Japan is not the easiest market to conquer during the best of times, which these are clearly not, and many domestic Linux companies are struggling to attract paying consumers. Sure, Japan is a technologically advanced nation, so it is hardly surprising that Linux is so big over there; the country's publishing houses produce no fewer than six different monthly magazines with exclusive Linux content and accompanying CDs and DVDs. The bookstores are well stocked with books on Linux. But like most people in many other parts of the world, the Japanese are also more likely to download a free distribution from the Internet than to subscribe to Click-N-Run. Still, you have to give Lindows.com credit for boldly going where so many others have failed. We will keep an eye on the company's progress in the land of the rising sun and revisit the subject in a future issue of DistroWatch Weekly.
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| Released Last Week |
Damn Small Linux 0.4.5
Damn Small Linux 0.4.5 was released. Changes: "For 0.4.5, there is now generic printer support. Fluxbox and most X applications are running under user 'damnsmall' instead of root. For convenience, I added sudo. I also added Microcom (a very small serial terminal emulator). And for the kids, I added Oneko. 0.4.5 has a bug fix; now the swap partition should be properly recognized which makes DSL more compatible with low ram systems. There is another browser added in 0.4.5, a tabs and frames enabled, patched version of Dillo (still only 335k and very fast!). Finally, there are a few small desktop enhancements...I remapped the icons so that they fit in the smallest resolution setting. I made the enhance feature smarter, so that it will not launch duplicate applications, but will bring bbpager into theme compliance. There is a new theme: FoggyNight..."" Find out more from the release notes and package list.
Kurumin Linux 2.02
A new bug fix release of Kurumin Linux came out last week. New in version 2.02 is the inclusion of ALSA 0.9.4 drivers, libraries and modules, updates to glibc 2.3.2, cdrtools 2.0a16, k3b 0.9 and xine 1-rc0a and a downgrade of samba to version 2.2.3a, among other changes. See the Kurumin 2.02 page (in Portuguese) for further information about what else is new in this version.
MoviX 0.8.0
MoviX 0.8.0 was released: "After exactly 8 months of tests and prereleases, the stable 0.8.0 version of MoviX is finally available! Hope it won't take 9 months for 0.9.0 ;-) There are a few important changes from 0.8.0rc2: better remotes support; reduced system size; Italian translations (thanks to Walter Sammarchi). Till now only Hauppauge and Logitech remotes are supported. Everyone is invited to send to me or post on the forums configuration files for more remotes. This should be trivial for (Win)Lirc users, and I'll post soon a tutorial for all others. A new pre-release series should be out by the weekend, less stable but with new nice features, so stay tuned!" Find out more on the distribution's project page.
Development Releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Aurox Linux 9.1
Aurox Linux has been expanding its web site, creating multi-lingual user forums and translating parts of it into other languages, including English. A new version is currently under development: "Aurox Linux is a European Linux distribution, published in 5 languages and available in 11 countries. Aurox Linux 9.1 will be available in September."
Red Hat Linux Beta
Red Hat has announced that new information concerning the Red Hat Linux project will be made available before 15 September 2003. This came as a reaction to a lengthy thread on the beta mailing list where some testers expressed dissatisfaction with Red Hat's failure to adhere to the original beta release schedule and lack of openness about the delay, despite the initial intent. According to some comments on the list, one of the reasons delaying the second beta version, originally scheduled to be released on 18 August, was a planned inclusion of the new GNOME desktop environment, version 2.4.
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| Web Site News |
RE: Page Hit Ranking changes
Thank you all for comments regarding the Page Hit Ranking changes. The idea of only ranking those distributions which have been around for at least one year has met with plenty of resistance and has been discarded. Everything is back to the original format. But the experiment did serve a useful purpose - if in the future there are still people who complain that the ranking is unfair, at least I have a page where I can direct them to read your opinions.
Discontinued distributions
- Beehive Linux is no more: "If you got redirected here trying to get to beehive.nu, well it's gone. For good. Really. Probably. My primary reason for starting a Linux distribution at the time (late 2000) was simply that RedHat, SuSE, and yes Debian were full of crap in the base install that we didn't need or want when building servers in a server farm. That and darn little was optimized for hardware built in this millennium. So fine, I'll make my own. It was a huge amount of work for one guy (you have no idea how much), but it was mostly fun - except for compiling Gnome, which is a tangled nightmare. And it was rewarding to steadily climb up the world rankings at distrowatch.com to a high of #9 in the world. My reasons for stopping Beehive are 1) Mac OSX simply kicks ass as a desktop. Been using it as my only desktop since 10.0 came out. No more futzing with configs, things just work. 2) Gentoo works well enough, and it's reasonably easy to mod the build configs for a given package (Apache, MySQL, Postgres, etc) to put the install where I want it. Overall it's 'good enough' and the Portage tool is really nice. So there you have it. It was fun, but I have better things to do with my life."
- Dynasoft Linux, a Chinese distribution has also been moved to the "Discontinued Distributions" section. It's web site has been inaccessible for several weeks.
New additions
- Freepia is small GNU/Linux distribution designed to run on VIA EPIA-M mainboards. It currently only runs on the M-9000 and M-10000 (ezra and nehemia CPU) but with some modifications like kernel and X11 modules it should run on others too. The main goal of this project is to build a full-featured, low-noise media box to play movies, MP3s, images, etc. It uses freevo as its media viewer, but in the future there may be support for others, like mythtv or vdr.
New on the waiting list
- DebToo is Debian, Gentoo-style or Debian recompiled for your system. Why?
You get Debian's benefits, like their stellar package management, with *completely* optional optimization.
- Gentoox is Gentoo for the Xbox.
- Navaho Linux is a Linux distribution, loosely based around Red Hat Linux, that has been tuned to provide a platform with the highest performance, stability and security to support the Navaho Server Suite.
- Overclockix is a new Knoppix-based live CD.
- Plan B is a bootable Linux environment based on a basic, stripped installation of Red Hat Linux and the fundamental workings of the SuperRescue CD.
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of distributions in the database: 169
- Number of discontinued distributions: 24
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 63
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| Reader Feedback |
Reader's comments will return next week.
That's all for this week, keep well and see you next Monday :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Robolinux
Robolinux was a user-friendly and intuitive operating system based on the latest long term support release of Ubuntu. One of the project's more interesting features was the availability of a pre-configured virtual machine support pack with Windows XP or Windows 7 - a VirtualBox setup which allows the user to install and run the Windows operating system seamlessly alongside Robolinux. This was an optional add-on that must be downloaded from the project's online store.
Status: Discontinued
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