 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 149, 1 May 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 18th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. This issue focuses on Linspire, or more precisely Freespire, a new distribution built with the same user-friendly aspects as its commercial partner, but without the price tag; besides revisiting the Freespire press release, we also bring you an interview with Kevin Carmony, the company's CEO. The news section then informs about all the recent BSD releases, brings news from the Slackware current changelog, and provides updates on the development of Kubuntu. Robert Storey is back with his "tips and tricks" column, advising on how to use GRUB with the XFS file system. Finally, it's our pleasure to announce that the April 2006 donation of US$260 goes to the Doxygen project. Happy reading!
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (8.84MB) or mp3 (11.7MB) format (courtesy of Shawn Milo).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
Content:
Miscellaneous news: Freespire announcement, BSD releases, Slackware kernel hints, Kubuntu updates
 After several quiet months, Linspire stole the media spotlight last week with an announcement about Freespire, a new and free (as in beer) edition of Linspire built by a volunteer developer community. Additionally, the company also confirmed that the new distribution will optionally include support for many proprietary file formats and closed-source applications. Although this has resulted in some harsh criticism by Free Software advocates, the company insists that this is a legitimate way of increasing levels of Linux adoption among the less technical computer users. The first beta release of Freespire is scheduled for around August 2006.
While on the subject of Freespire, some DistroWatch readers might remember that a distribution of the same name was added to this site's database in August last year. This was a personal project by Andrew Betts, a Linspire user, who rebuilt the commercial distribution using free components only and released it as "proof of concept". It was subsequently renamed to Squiggle OS and later abandoned. The new Freespire is a different project, fully sponsored by Linspire; however, it is interesting to note that Betts now serves on the Freespire leadership board. As always, we will keep an eye on this interesting development and will add Freespire to the DistroWatch database as soon as the first development build is released for testing.
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 It seems that many BSD projects find this time of the year highly productive and a number of new releases have been made available in the last few days. A brand new version of OpenBSD is out today, while the first stable release of PC-BSD, an interesting, user-friendly BSD variant based on FreeBSD 6.x was released on Saturday. In the meanwhile, two FreeBSD-based live CDs have also been hard at work in recent weeks - the FreeSBIE project has released several development builds of their live CD for both i386 and AMD64 architectures, while the developers of Frenzy, an excellent FreeBSD-based live CD with a collection of networking, rescue and penetration testing tools, have finally released the first beta of Frenzy 1.0 (see the Upcoming Releases section for more details about this interesting live CD developed in Ukraine).
The first beta of the FreeBSD-based Frenzy live CD was made available on Sunday
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 A large number of updates, comments and hints in Slackware's "current" changelog during the past week has turned the file into an interesting read. Besides package upgrades to Thunderbird, ALSA, Mozilla, udev and others, Patrick Volkerding has hinted that the upcoming Slackware Linux 11.0 will finally default to kernel 2.6: "I think 2.6.16.x, being the first kernel series in the 2.6 series that has been promised some long-lived support, will be the 2.6 kernel you'll see in the next Slackware release. If/when 2.6.17 (or 18, etc.) come out, don't expect to see me chasing after it immediately. I'm looking for a kernel that can be counted on for stability -- not the bleeding edge. Of course, once 2.6.16.x is considered tested enough to leave /testing (and it does seem close), perhaps a newer kernel might take its place here just for fun." For more information please see the latest entries in the Slackware "current" changelog.
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 Following a recent protest by some of the of Kubuntu development team members, Mark Shuttleworth has published an open invitation to KDE and Kubuntu teams to join him at LinuxTag exhibition in Wiesbaden later this week: "This is an invitation for the Kubuntu and KDE community to join us at LinuxTag on 6 May in Wiesbaden near Frankfurt to chart the future course of Kubuntu. We will hold a series of meetings and presentations on the structure of Kubuntu and Ubuntu, the goals of the project, and an open discussion on how Kubuntu can come to represent the very best example of KDE in action." Sounds like a good idea to ensure that Kubuntu 6.06 gets the same attention as its older brother. For more details pleas see the full message as published on the ubuntu-announce mailing list.
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| Interviews: Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire |
Interview with Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire
DW: Kevin, thank you very much for your time. The Freespire announcement came as a surprise to many in the Linux community. Can you tell us what prompted the launch of a free edition of Linspire and why do you think this is the right time to announce it?
KC: I just hit my one-year anniversary as CEO for Linspire, but I have been with the company since the beginning, employee number one, and we're just hitting our 5th year. Wow! It's hard to believe I've been doing this for that long! We've had a fun and interesting history, starting back in the "Lindows" days, but we've had a lot of success and accomplished much. Today over 350 OEMs sell computers pre-installed with Linspire Linux and retailers such as Wal-Mart, Fry's, Micro Center, Target, and Sears are selling these computers.
We've learned a lot during the last five years, and two of the most important lessons were: 1) the open source and Linux community needs Linspire, and 2) Linspire needs the open source and Linux community. We've known the latter for a long time, and we started the Freespire project internally about two years ago. However, I think the timing is now right for us to do what we're trying to do with Freespire. Had we tried this a few years ago, I think a larger part of the open source community would have not understood why we were offering proprietary software as an option in the core distribution. Today, the vast majority not only understand this need, they welcome it. When I announced this at Desktop Linux Summit to hundreds of people, I didn't hear a single "Boo!" or "Hissss!" from anyone, but I saw a lot of heads nodding in agreement and heard a lot of applause.
DW: I guess you had discussed the idea with Michael Robertson (the founder of Lindows and Linspire). What was his reaction? Does he still take an active interest in Linspire or has he moved on to other projects?
KC: This has been a project of mine since before becoming CEO. Michael is certainly aware of what we're doing, and is very supportive. I meet with Michael each week and update him on what's going on, and of course, he always has ideas to share, but for the most part, Michael is very hands off when it comes to Linspire. This is for two reasons: 1) He completely trusts the team here at Linspire, as he knows we have some incredibly bright people here, and 2) he's just way too busy with all the other things he's working on. Michael is a visionary. He sees things years before they have economic viability. If he just did one thing, he'd go crazy, because his head is going a million miles per hour, and usually 5 years ahead of adoption curves. So, it suits Michael to have many different companies, each in a different stage of adoption.
Today he is involved with Linspire, SIPphone, AJAX13, MP3tunes, CompareSoft, and a couple of others. Because Linspire is the largest and oldest of all these companies, it requires less of his time and attention. Michael loves inventing and creating, but lets others deal with the execution and implementation over the years these things take to find adoption. He doesn't have the patience to watch paint dry, he'd rather leave that to others so he can keep painting. He's like Johnny Appleseed, running around planting the seeds for his vision, which hopefully years later sprout and bear fruit.
DW: How would you describe the relationship between Freespire and Linspire? Would you say it's similar to the relationship between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in that Fedora is a freely available distribution that serves as a base for RHEL, or do you see it differently?
KC: I actually just made a post about this on the Freespire forums here. It's a rather lengthy answer, but others can take a look if they want the "long version." The short version is, yes, Freespire is not unlike Fedora in that it's free and designed to be a community project to help make Linspire better. Freespire is more for developers and Linux devotees, where as Linspire is more for consumers, but they will certainly share a great deal of code and make each other better. However, Freespire is very different from every other community Linux because of the option for legally licensed codecs, drivers and software, and the option of using CNR (Click And Run).
DW: One potential problem with Freespire is that the project could find it difficult to attract skilled developers. Firstly, software developers tend to code for more advanced computer users rather than the Linspire target market. Secondly, Linspire itself does not have the best reputation -- rightly or wrongly -- in the "geek" community. Any comments on this? What kinds of incentives, if any, do you intend to offer in order to attract skilled coders to work on Freespire?
KC: Just like Linspire didn't go after the traditional Linux users, Freespire isn't going after the traditional Linux developers. Linspire tries to draw away Windows users, and Freespire is trying to draw away Windows developers. For every Linux developer today, there are a hundred, if not a thousand, for Windows. I have a lot of friends who are Windows developers. When I ask them why they don't program for desktop Linux, they just look at me funny and say, "Why would I? No one runs Linux on the desktop, and there is no marketplace for my work even if I did." Freespire aims to change that. The Linux community sometimes gets so excited about what they're working on, they just assume everyone thinks it's great. That may be true for servers, where you have technical IT people using it, but it's far from true on the desktop.
It's simple math and market share. For every person running Linux on their desktop, there are 95 people running Windows. We had over 1,000 developers sign up for the Freespire developers list in the first 24 hours of our announcement at DLS. So no, I don't think it will be hard to find skilled developers, I'm going to be drawing from a pool of programmers that is 100 times greater than what Fedora and SUSE are pulling from. I've already had meetings with Windows developers who are very excited about CNR and the CNR Warehouse model, and now want to start coding for Linux. Of course, all developers are welcome, and I'm sure we'll get plenty from the current Linux community who just believe in the Freespire vision. They want to see desktop Linux succeed too, and many believe our approach is just what is needed.
DW: The Freespire FAQs talk about "frequent, on-going updates and release cycles". How frequently will new Freespire versions come out? How long do you expect a beta cycle to last? Will Freespire have a fixed release cycle?
KC: This will be similar to Linspire. Development work will always be going on, and new and interesting things will always be happening via the CNR Warehouse (using CNR or apt), but we will not have fixed released cycles because: 1) fixed cycles often force you to compromise on stability and quality, and 2) desktop users don't want to have to upgrade their system too often. Linspire has always believed in longer release cycles, but keeping everything current and fresh via CNR and/or apt-get. I like to think of an OS like a house. Who wants to bother with moving every year? It's a lot of work and hassle. Sure, it's fun and sometimes necessary as your family grows, etc., to move into a new home, but usually you just want to enjoy your house, buy some new furniture now and then, have friends over, have some parties, etc.
An OS should be used and enjoyed, NOT become a burden. CNR lets the OS stay current and interesting, without it needing to be completely changed every few months. The community will help decide some of this, but I think a stable build once a year is about as aggressive as it should get, with lots of activity going on in the CNR Warehouse. Of course, in the early days as we roll the first few releases out, they'll come more often than yearly, but in time, it's good to have things settle down some.
DW: Talking about "on-going updates" sounds great in theory, but we know from other project's experiences that it doesn't work well in practice - new updates sometimes introduce new bugs or worse, they can even break a system. Does Linspire have a panacea for this issue?
KC: Linspire has done it this way for years. We have a system down that works incredibly well. You see, the CNR Warehouse system can provide not only for different warehouses (pools) between releases, but multiple warehouses within a release. We have a few different CNR Warehouses for our developers, a couple for our QA testers, one for our employees here, one for our Insiders, and then one for the rest of the world. For example, let's say there is a new version of Firefox and you're running Freespire 1.0. In short order, we can put the new Firefox in the developers' pool for them to work on. It them moves to our QA testers, then we share it with our Insiders (Linspire has about 15,000 Insiders who help with testing), and then if all goes well, we roll it to the rest of the world. Freespire won't have Insiders like Linspire does, because anyone in the community can choose to point to the testing pools or the stable pools. The key is that by the time it hits the mainstream pool, it has been tested by thousands. Again, we've been doing this for years with Linspire, and we've never completely blown anyone's system up yet with some major bug.
DW: Do (will) Freespire have a freely accessible package repository where interested parties can monitor the development process?
KC: Absolutely.
DW: What version control system and bug reporting facility will Freespire deploy?
KC: That is being decided. There are two phases to the Freespire project launch: Phase 1, the Community Organization Phase and then Phase 2, the Technology Organization Phase. We are currently in the Community Organization Phase and will be until August. In this phase, it's not really about the technology, it's about the 1) the vision and mission for the project, 2) the organization, structure and leadership, 3) the community education and building, and 4) building community tools, such as the wiki, website, FAQ, mailing lists, etc.
The Technology phase starts in August. This was done very intentionally. I didn't want to open up the Freespire project and have a bunch of developers think this was just about code. It's not. I want the community, users and developers alike, to understand what the Vision for Freespire is. It makes no sense for a developer to get involved and contribute code, if they don't buy into the vision for this project. They will just become frustrated. It would be like being a world-class chef, volunteering at a new restaurant that just opened, only to later find out it serves Italian food, when you're a Thai chef!
I want the community to understand WHAT the house is going to look like before they start sawing and hammering. I know this could be a less interesting time for coders, but you can't build a good house on a shaky foundation. I want Freespire to endure and last, so I want a strong foundation of leadership, organization, community tools, all which takes some time, and THEN we can talk about the code in the OS.
DW: Your Freespire press release talks about the CNR (Click-N-Run) client to become an open source application. Under what license will it be released?
KC: This hasn't yet been decided. We know the code will be released and open, but will it be GPL, LGPL, or something else, we just haven't had time to decide that. For me personally, I really don't care. eBay isn't eBay because they have some top secret, proprietary way of doing things. It's an auction site. Anyone can look at what they do and copy it. Same can be said for Amazon. eBay and Amazon are successful because they simply do it better than the rest. I have never cared about the CNR being kept closed, but I do care that we always have the best Warehousing service anywhere for our intended audience.
DW: You mentioned in the latest Linspire Letter that you had converted to Linux shortly after becoming the CEO of Linspire. I assume you normally use Linspire, but have you tried a recent release of another distribution? If so, what do you think of Fedora 5, Ubuntu 6.06, SUSE 10.1? Have you tried any of the more user-friendly distributions, such as SimplyMEPIS or PCLinuxOS?
KC: I have tried them all. I have installed pretty much every Linux distro and I install every new release from any that look interesting. Every time I do this, I get some good ideas of how others are doing things, and I also see how they are now doing things like we have been doing them. I'm a very competitive person, not because I want to make money (I've done that already in other businesses), but because I take great pride in anything I do. I don't want to have the "best" desktop Linux, because that is a subjective term. Best at what? Best for whom? The one area I do want to always be the best in, however, is ease of use for desktop Linux. We say Linspire is the world's easiest to use desktop Linux, and I truly believe it is. For example, if you visit the file types page, every link you see there works, right out of the box, with Linspire and will with Freespire. With Ubuntu, you get to do this. Fedora has its strengths, SUSE has its pluses, Ubuntu has things it's great at, but when it comes to ease of use for the desktop, that's our focus. Even with Freespire, which is geared for developers, it will still be the easiest to use, it just doesn't need to be as easy to use as Linspire, which is for consumers.
DW: Micorosoft's Steve Ballmer was recently quoted as saying that he did not allow his children to listen to music on an iPod or search on Google. Are members of your family allowed to use a competing product? Or have they all converted to Linspire?
KC: I love my iPod (and this is why Linspire has contributed a lot of good code to make iPods work with Linux), and I even have an X-box. (I have no problem with Microsoft competing with Sony in the game area, I think competition is good, besides, they lose money every time someone buys one. =) My oldest son sometimes uses Ubuntu and SUSE, because he's a developer, but I'm confident he'll move to Freespire soon. =) Most of his development is done under Windows. If there were more people using desktop Linux, and a obvious marketplace for his programming, he'd do more Linux work, as would many Windows developers.
DW: Can you tell us something about yourself? What jobs did you do before joining Linspire? Do you ever have time to relax or go away for a weekend? Do you have any hobbies?
KC: I have been involved in a lot of different businesses, mostly software, but also the clothing industry, the music business (that's actually how I met Michael), and I am still involved in a chain of children's photography stores throughout the U.S. I have been blessed with financial success, which is good, because you don't make much money with Desktop Linux yet. =) Linspire is a passion and labor of love these days. If I wanted to make money, I'd be doing something else. If anyone wants, they can visit my web page and learn way more than they would care to.
DW: Anything else you wish to say to the DistroWatch readers?
KC: Sorry we didn't do Freespire sooner. We wanted to make sure we had a viable business model that could sustain our company before inflicting yet another community project on the world. We now know we have that sustainable model. We're not going anywhere. We will be around for a good long time. We have invested over US$35 million into open source software, with all of it having gone back to the community. Because Linspire didn't go after the traditional Linux user, we have often been misunderstood. We've also made our share of mistakes, but what new company doesn't? We've gotten wiser and better with age. Not everyone will agree with the approach we're taking by offering proprietary software as an option in the Freespire core, but we believe it will get more people to look at open source.
Think of hybrid cars. They take half of the good (clean, non-oil burning electricity) and combine it with some bad (oil), but it has been received in a big way by car buyers, which brings them one stop closer to being open minded about other alternative fuels. Well, Freespire is the "hybrid" of open source Linux operating systems. If it can become cool and popular, not just for the tech crowd, but for the masses, it will bring millions one step closer to an open source world. I think that's pretty great.
Thanks for having me, and I look forward to seeing Freespire shoot up the charts there at DistroWatch come August. ;-)
DW: Kevin, thank you and good luck!
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| Released Last Week |
MCNLive "Leuven"
MCNLive is a Mandriva-based live CD developed by MandrivaClub in the Netherlands. A new version, name "Leuven", has been released: "I am glad to announce a new version of MCNLive, code name Leuven. Some highlights: 2.6.14 kernel with updated Unionfs and SquashFS. Desktop environment: KDE 3.5.2. Office suite: KOffice 1.5, Open Document Format, Firefox 1.5.0.2, music, video and image applications with all common codecs, Internet and networking applications for all your needs. All this on less than 350 MB." Visit the project's home page to read the full release announcement.
MCNLive "Leuven" - a nicely designed live CD based on Mandriva Linux
(full image size: 1,007kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Wolvix 1.0.4 Media Edition
The Media edition of Wolvix 1.0.4 has been released: "The final release of Wolvix Media Edition 1.0.4 is ready. There are not many changes since RC1, mostly application updates and I've added a few games. This release marks the end of the 1.0.4 series and I want to thank everyone who has given me feedback, suggestions and bug reports. Updated: gmusicbrowser, XChat, Firefox, Thunderbird, AbiWord, GIMP, Comix. Added: Thunar (file manager), MP3Creator (console CD ripper), networkconfig (configuration tool from Zenwalk), Kye (puzzle game), Freeciv (strategy game), Bygfoot (football manager game)." Read the full release announcement for full details.
Foresight Linux 0.9.4 MR5
The fifth maintenance release of Foresight Linux 0.9.4 is now available: "This is the fifth in a series of maintenance releases for Foresight Linux 0.9.4. These maintenance releases help you stay current and also ensure that new downloads include the latest stuff. To update to MR5, 'sudo conary updateall', it’s that simple. There are new ISOs (both DVD and CD) and virtual machine images as well. Updates: Conary 1.0.13, Firefox 1.5.0.2, Beagle 0.2.5, Galago 0.5.0, AbiWord 2.4.4, Linux kernel 2.6.16.11. Added: Alacarte 0.9 (menu editor), GIMP 2.3.8, Inkscape 0.42, XaraLX 0.4r828. Tweaks: VTE patched to support 256 colors." Read the full release announcement for more details.
Litrix Linux 6.4
The Litrix project, which develops a Linux live CD based on Gentoo Linux, has released Litrix Linux 6.4. This is a start of a new series based on Gentoo 2006 and developed during the past seven months. The new release includes support for MMX and 3DNow!, offering a major performance boost to multimedia applications. This is further enhanced by the addition of new KDE-based multimedia applications, such as amaroK with its excellent archive organising abilities and intuitive playlist features, and Kaffeine, which offers playback of both audio and video files. For more information please see the full release announcement (in Portuguese).
Litrix Linux is a Brazilian live CD based on Gentoo Linux
(full image size: 1,347kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
PC-BSD 1.0
The first stable version of PC-BSD, a user-friendly operating system based on FreeBSD, has been released: "PC-BSD software is pleased to announce the immediate availability of PC-BSD 1.0 for x86 based processors. This first 'non-beta' release of PC-BSD ushers in a new era of stability and simplicity for desktop operating systems based on UNIX. Powered by the latest FreeBSD 6.0 and integrated with KDE 3.5.2, PC-BSD provides a solid server base, while being user-friendly enough to run as a primary desktop system. Due to the nature of the UNIX operating system, PC-BSD provides a high degree of protection from the every growing threat of malware, spyware and viruses that plague other popular operating systems today." See the complete press release and changelog for more information.
GParted LiveCD 0.2.4-3
Patrick Verner has announced the release of a new minor update to GParted LiveCD. From the changelog: "Updated to Linux kernel 2.6.16.11; updated to busybox 1.1.2, udev 091, gtkmm 2.8.5, glib 2.10.2, glibmm 2.10.1, pango 1.12.2, mdadm 1.12.0; added Xvesa 4.5.0, added xres2, depth2, and X server scripts to /bin for Xvesa; added better X config scripts in /etc/rc.d; added gvidm 0.8 to the Fluxbox menu; removed /etc/dialogrc to fall back to default colors; cleaned up boot dialog scripts to be more consistent; eject should now eject the proper CD-ROM drive."
OpenBSD 3.9
We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 3.9. This is our 19th release on CD-ROM (and 18th via FTP). We remain proud of OpenBSD's record of eight years with only a single remote hole in the default install. As in our previous releases, 3.9 provides significant improvements, including new features, in nearly all areas of the system. Improved hardware support, including: some G5-based Apple Macintosh machines, including W^X support (currently restricted to 32-bit mode); many more audio drivers in the macppc port; support for many system sensors (temperature, voltage, fan speed)...." Read the full release announcement and visit the OpenBSD 3.9 page to learn more.
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Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Frenzy 1.0
Sergei Mozhaisky has announced a release schedule (in Russian) for the upcoming Frenzy 1.0, a FreeBSD-based live CD with a collection of security and networking tools. Beta testing is expected to start on 1 May and, if everything goes according to the plan, the final release should be available exactly a month later. Please visit the project's home page for more information.
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Tips and Tricks: Using GRUB with XFS |
Using GRUB with XFS (by Robert Storey)
Perhaps some of you will recall the following little excerpt from last week's DWW:
"Do you also hesitate every time you need to choose a journalled file system while installing a Linux distribution? If so, you might find it interesting to read the File system comparison on Debian 'etch', as published by Debian-Administration.org. In it, Hans Ivers provides a number of benchmarks to evaluate the performance on ext3, JFS, ReiserFS and XFS file systems. And the winner? Perhaps surprisingly, it's the less well-known and relatively rarely used XFS."
After reading this and following the link to the main story, I became convinced that XFS was the best thing since sliced pickles. As it turned out, the very next day I needed to install Ubuntu Breezy on a friend's machine, and it was a no-brainer to go with XFS.
I've installed Breezy quite a few times already, and I know that by default it chooses GRUB as its boot manager. So I was really surprised when I found that LILO, rather than GRUB, wound up on my friend's hard disk. Was I hallucinating? Had I been kidnapped by aliens, and they were now controlling my brain with radio waves? Perhaps, but even after I put on my tinfoil hat, LILO was still there.
So be it. Even if it is a hallucination, LILO isn't that bad. I could live with it, and my friend (who wouldn't know GRUB from an earthworm) was oblivious.
However, my tinfoil hat really took a beating the next day when I decided to install the all-new Ubuntu Dapper Beta on my laptop. The installation process was identical to Breezy, and there were no surprises... until the very end when this message popped up:
"No boot loader has been installed, either because you chose not to or because your specific architecture doesn't support a boot loader yet. You will need to boot manually with the /vmlinuz kernel on partition /dev/hda5 and root=/dev/hda5 passed as a kernel argument."
The thing is, I absolutely swear that I did not choose to not install the boot loader. I was never even asked that question during the installation. Even worse, since no boot loader was installed, I could not boot into Dapper even though it was installed.
I decided it was my duty as a beta-tester to file a bug report. This I duly did, and in short order received a response from one of the Ubuntu developers:
"Well, you won't be able to easily get the installer to install GRUB, because your /boot is on an XFS file system; we've had a very large number of reliability problems getting grub installed on XFS (see other bug reports), so it's disabled. The interesting question is why the installer didn't automatically fall back to LILO, as it's supposed to."
Aha! So that explains why Breezy installed LILO after I chose to use XFS as the file system. And as for the problem with Dapper, that was indeed a bug and I trust that the good folks on the Ubuntu development team will squash it before the final release hits the servers.
So let it be stated for the record: if you want to use XFS, you should install GRUB to a separate /boot partition formatted with a different file system (ext3 will work fine). How large should a /boot partition be? Surprisingly, bigger than I expected. I checked how much space is being used in my /boot directory and have discovered it's hefty 18MB. Your mileage may vary. On my Dapper installation there are two kernels and two bloated initrd files (probably because I updated the kernel once and didn't delete the old files). Anyway, I would guess that 30MB would be a safe size for a /boot partition. If you keep installing kernels, be sure you clean out the cruft, otherwise your /boot partition will fill to the bursting point. As it is, too many sedentary geeks are plagued with bulging waistlines - last thing we need are bulging /boot partitions as well.
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| DistroWatch.com News |
April 2006 donation: Doxygen receives US$260
We are pleased to announce that, based on readers' requests, the DistroWatch April 2006 donation of US$260.00 goes to Doxygen. What is Doxygen? "Doxygen is a documentation system for C++, C, Java, Objective-C, Python, IDL (Corba and Microsoft flavours) and to some extent PHP, C#, and D." Written by Dimitri van Heesch, Doxygen is widely used by many open source software developers for generating documentation for their software.
As always, our monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch, which allocates 10% of its advertising revenue, and two online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - LinuxISO.co.uk and LinuxCD.org, each of which contributed US$50 towards this month's donation. Both stores have an excellent selection and latest releases at very reasonable prices. Next time you need to order your favourite Linux or BSD CDs, get them from LinuxCD.org or, if you are in the United Kingdom, from LinuxISO.co.uk.
This is the PayPal receipt for the donations to Doxygen:
Dear DistroWatch.com,
This email confirms that you have paid dimitri at stack.nl $260.00 USD using PayPal.
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Payment Details:
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Transaction ID: 9UD16010FE2883734
Total: $260.00 USD
Item/Product Name: Doxygen
Buyer: DistroWatch.com
Message: This is a donation by DistroWatch.com as part of our programme to support open source software projects. Keep up the good work!
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
Since the launch of the DistroWatch Donations Programme in March 2004, we have donated a total of US$7,800 to various open source software projects.
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DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 8 May 2006. See you then :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| MALIBAL |
MALIBAL: Linux Laptops Custom Built for YouMALIBAL is an innovative computer manufacturer that produces high-performance, custom laptops for Linux. If your MALIBAL laptop is not the best Linux laptop you have ever used, you can return it for a full 100% refund. We will even pay the return shipping fees! For more info, visit: https://www.malibal.com
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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!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Issue 984 (2022-09-05): deepin 23 Preview, watching for changing to directories, Mint team tests Steam Deck, Devuan posts fix for repository key expiry |
| • Issue 983 (2022-08-29): Qubes OS 4.1.1, Alchg Linux, immutable operating systems, Debian considers stance on non-free firmware, Arch-based projects suffer boot issue |
| • Issue 982 (2022-08-22): Peropesis 1.6.2, KaOS strips out Python 2 and PulseAudio, deepin becomes independent, getting security update notifications |
| • Issue 981 (2022-08-15): Linux Lite 6.0, defining desktop environments and window managers, Mint releases upgrade tool, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 980 (2022-08-08): Linux Mint 21, Pledge on Linux, SparkyLinux updates classic desktop packages, Peppermint OS experiments with Devuan base |
| • Issue 979 (2022-08-01): KaOS 2022.06 and KDE Plasma 5.25, terminating processes after a set time, GNOME plans Secure Boot check |
| • Issue 978 (2022-07-25): EndeavourOS 22.6, Slax explores a return to Slackware, Ubuntu certified with Dell's XPS 13, Linux running on Apple's M2 |
| • Issue 977 (2022-07-18): EasyOS 4.2, transferring desktop themes between distros, Tails publishes list of updates, Zevenet automates Let's Encrypt renewals |
| • Issue 976 (2022-07-11): NixOS 22.05, making a fake webcam, exploring the Linux scheduler, Debian publishes updated media |
| • Issue 975 (2022-07-04): Murena One running /e/OS, where are all the openSUSE distributions, Fedora to offer unfiltered Flathub access |
| • Issue 974 (2022-06-27): AlmaLinux 9.0, the changing data of DistroWatch's database, UBports on the Pixel 3a, Tails and GhostBSD publish hot fixes |
| • Issue 973 (2022-06-20): openSUSE 15.4, collecting distro media, FreeBSD status report, Ubuntu Core with optional real-time kernel |
| • Issue 972 (2022-06-13): Rolling Rhino Remix, SambaBox 4.1, SUSE team considers future of SUSE and openSUSE Leap, Tails improves Tor Connection Assistant |
| • Issue 971 (2022-06-06): ChimeraOS 2022.01.03, Lilidog 22.04, NixOS gains graphical installer, Mint replaces Bluetooth stack and adopts Timeshift, how to change a MAC address |
| • Issue 970 (2022-05-30): Tails 5.0, taking apart a Linux distro, Ubuntu users seeing processes terminated, Budgie team plans future of their desktop |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Free Tech Guides |
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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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| Shells.com |
Your own personal Linux computer in the cloud, available on any device. Supported operating systems include Android, Debian, Fedora, KDE neon, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro and Ubuntu, ready in minutes.
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| Random Distribution | 
Pisi Linux
Pisi Linux is a GNU/Linux distribution based on the old Pardus Linux with its famous PiSi package management system. It's an operating system for desktop computer with software for listening to music, browsing the Internet and creating documents. Pisi Linux is built from scratch on a stable base, but many core user applications, such as the Firefox web browser or the VLC media player, are kept constantly up to date. To increase the distribution's user friendliness, Flash player and many multimedia codecs are installed and pre-configured for immediate use.
Status: Active
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| MALIBAL |
MALIBAL: Linux Laptops Custom Built for YouMALIBAL is an innovative computer manufacturer that produces high-performance, custom laptops for Linux. If your MALIBAL laptop is not the best Linux laptop you have ever used, you can return it for a full 100% refund. We will even pay the return shipping fees! For more info, visit: https://www.malibal.com
|
| 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!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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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