 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 175, 30 October 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The long awaited Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 6.10 are finally here! Amid all the usual excitement accompanying any major new release, reports from around the web suggest that Ubuntu's latest version might suffer from upgrade issues as many users find themselves unable to boot into "Edgy" despite following the standard upgrade procedure. After months of media speculation, Oracle's entry into the Linux distribution market was finally announced late last week - with a re-branded Red Hat Enterprise Linux and heavily discounted support costs. Also in this issue: update on Yellow Dog Linux 5.0, a link to an excellent audio interview with Slackware's Patrick Volkerding, and a contributed review of Elive 0.5. Finally, don't miss ArtistX, a new live DVD for audio, video and 2D/3D graphics artists. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (6.0MB) or mp3 (5.9MB) format (courtesy of Matt Taylor).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Miscellaneous News |
Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu upgrade woes, Oracle Linux, Patrick Volkerding, Yellow Dog Linux 5.0
 Fedora Core 6 was finally released last week. Based on a few early reviews and first impressions on mailing lists, the Fedora development team has once again done a fantastic job. Many users have been impressed by the graphical configuration tool for Xen virtualisation, as well as the ability to add third-party repositories during installation. Most RPM repositories were especially quick to update their packages for Fedora Core 6 and provide instructions for configuring the yum package manager. And although yum is reportedly still as slow as ever, it seems like a reliable tool, which is probably the most important characteristic of any package manager.
The only black mark on the Fedora Core 6 experience was the downtime by fedoraproject.org, which saw unprecedented volumes of traffic shortly before and after the release. While download figures are hard to estimate (Fedora has more mirrors than any other distribution, except perhaps for Debian), the Fedora torrent tracker apparently served almost 90 Terabytes of data within the first 48 hours of the release! No wonder we had trouble getting to the project's web site! As for the breakdown of architectures, it's interesting to note that almost 20% of users downloaded the x86_64 editions of Fedora Core 6, while the PowerPC architecture accounted for less than 2% of all downloads.
* * * * *
 Just two days after the release of Fedora Core 6, the Ubuntu project was the next one to saturate the bandwidth of many download servers around the world. "Edgy Eft", as the latest version is called, continues to impress with new artwork and features, as well as the latest versions of popular desktop applications, including GNOME 2.16, KDE 3.5.5, Firefox 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 2.0.4. Unfortunately, the release was marred by major troubles to upgrade from Ubuntu's previous version (6.06, code name "Dapper Drake") to the one released last week. According to an informal poll by UbuntuForums.org, almost 44% percent of those who attempted the upgrade process encountered "serious problems" or reported that their upgrades went "really bad".
This result actually echoes your DistroWatch maintainer's experience - during the upgrade procedure of two machines last week, one went without any major trouble, while the other required several hours of fiddling with dpkg and performing manual resolution of dependencies before the box was made to boot into Edgy. It is hard to pinpoint the cause of the problems at this stage, but they indicate continuing quality control problems at Ubuntu, despite an earlier promise to set up mechanisms to prevent any future update disasters. Nevertheless, once installed, Edgy appears to be a highly usable release, perhaps not as "edgy" as we were led to believe at the start of its development process, but still fairly up-to-date and certainly beautifully crafted. Just remember to download an installation CD in case your upgrade experience turns sour and you have to re-install.
Xubuntu 6.10 showing the Thunar file manager and Xfce settings manager
(full image size: 158kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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 The news about the Fedora Core and Ubuntu releases were soon overshadowed by the first appearance of what many Linux analysts speculated about for some time - Oracle's own Linux-based operating system. Called Oracle Unbreakable Linux, the distribution turned out to be not so much Oracle's as Red Hat's - it is built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and, once all the sombreros rojos and other registered trademarks are surgically removed from the files, it gets released under a new name. Oracle doesn't sell the distribution; like Red Hat, it intends to generate revenue from a "support programme", undercutting Red Hat's prices in the process. The modest pricing, Oracle hopes, will attract many potential Linux enterprise users who need support for their Linux deployments, but find Red Hat's support contracts a tad too expensive.
If you frequent Linux news sites, you have probably read many expert comments about Oracle's foray into the world of Linux. Unfortunately, as much as your DistroWatch maintainer would love to welcome the big database company in the community of Linux solution providers, the manner in which Oracle entered the market leaves a distinctly sour taste in the mouth. The company, although reasonably open source friendly in the sense that some of its major products are compatible with Linux, has done very little to advance the Linux cause over the years. Its latest move to re-brand Red Hat's distribution and provide support for the "new" product brings zero innovation to the Linux market; in fact, it only serves to generate revenue for Oracle and, as some analysts believe, to potentially destroy Red Hat, Inc.
Contrast that to Red Hat and its contribution to the Linux community. While the North Carolina company is a business which has to answer to its stakeholders and which is strongly motivated by corporate profits, it has succeeded in generating revenue without sacrificing the spirit of open source software development. For over a decade Red Hat has been giving away its Red Hat Linux and Fedora Core distributions (complete with security updates during the lifetime of the products), it has been developing or helping with the development of many essential open source software components (e.g. Autoconf, glibc, LVM, etc.), and it has been employing some of the brightest open source software developers the world has seen. Whatever your experiences with Red Hat as a company, you have to admit that it has contributed an enormous amount of work to the pool of Free Software which we all share, irrespective of whether or not we use one of its end products.
Oracle, on the other hand, has brought very little to the world of Linux so far. Besides much negative sentiment which the database giant generated in the Linux community last week, the technical aspects of Oracle Unbreakable Linux are not particularly attractive either. Promising unspecified bug fixes on its web site is one thing, but showing a changelog with a list of bugs fixed by the company's engineers -- which has yet to materialise anywhere -- is an entirely different matter. Also, despite claims to the contrary, Oracle Unbreakable Linux is not a complete recompile of Red Hat's source packages and some software, notably Thunderbird, are missing from the distribution. Furthermore, what Oracle claims to be "Update 4", does not correspond to Red Hat's "Update 4"; as an example, Oracle's product contains older versions of the Linux kernel, Firefox, LVM, and many other packages. It also provides Ethereal, a package which is no longer maintained and which Red Hat had already replaced with Wireshark. Worse, no updates were reportedly available for any of these packages, despite that fact that some of them have known security issues! Unbreakable? Hardly!
Granted, these are still early days, so let's hope that Oracle will fix their product and find a way to contribute back to the Linux community. But for now, customers who need comprehensive support contracts for their Linux deployments should definitely choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux - even if it's more expensive than Oracle's support programme. As they say, you get what you pay for. Based on a recent survey, the results of which are summarised here, Red Hat ranks as a number one computing technology company with customer satisfaction rated at 84%. In contrast, Oracle is 39th with only 55% of its customers giving Oracle a favourable rating. These numbers speak volumes.
* * * * *
 Slackware Linux is undoubtedly one of the most misunderstood Linux distributions on the market. Just one look at the default kernel version or bootloader seemingly conjures enough negativity on various Linux forums and web logs to warrant critical comments and even outright dismissals of the product. But is that all there is to Slackware?
If you happen to hold a negative view of the oldest surviving Linux distribution on the market, then please set aside some time and listen to this exclusive audio interview (OGG, 34.9MB, MP3, 29.7MB) with Patrick Volkerding. Published by The Linux Links Tech Show team, the elusive founder of Slackware Linux talks about the philosophy behind his distribution, explains the reasons for keeping the 2.4 kernel as the default, gives some hints about the project's future, and even branches out to talk about his pastimes. Will the seemingly old-fashioned distribution ever include AIGLX or other emerging technologies? And how is the business side of things over at Slackware? This 90-minute interview gives many answers that will hopefully clear up some misconceptions about the project that keeps proving its worth year after year.
* * * * *
 With the decision of Apple to switch its processor architecture from PowerPC to Intel, there was a danger that the specialist PowerPC-only Yellow Dog Linux distribution will soon run out of a market to cater for. Luckily, it seems that the project has re-invented itself. As announced recently, Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 will be released shortly - with a difference. Designed for PlayStation 3 and featuring the Enlightenment desktop, the new product should be of interest to users wishing to run a full operating system on their Sony gaming consoles. While details about Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 are still sketchy, Terra Soft Solutions has updated its product pages with new information about the upcoming release, including a brief FAQ section. Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 is expected to start shipping in the middle of November and should be available for free download about two months later.
* * * * *
 On the eve of the release of OpenBSD 4.0 -- the product will be formally announced on November 1st -- ONLamp published a comprehensive interview with the developers of this popular security-oriented operating system: "On October 18th, OpenBSD celebrated its 11th birthday and ten years of punctual biannual releases. Now it's time for OpenBSD version 4.0, which includes tons of new drivers for wireless, network, and storage chips. Discover what's new and what battles developers must face daily to access documentation and support new hardware." The highly technical interview touches on the subjects of wireless networking support, pf firewall, carp group demotion feature, storage drivers, X.Org issues, status of the SPARC64 port, Xen virtualisation, and other interesting topics. The 3-page interview starts here.
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| First Looks |
First look at Elive 0.5 (by Ryuga Akikawa)
Elive is more than just a Linux distro, it's a work of art.
Elive, or Enlightenment Live, is a Debian-based distribution that runs solely on the Enlightenment system. The system can be installed on your machine with the use of their installer. Enlightenment itself is a very beautiful window manager / desktop shell that allows everything to be customizable, while providing beautiful eye candy that would probably only be seen on Windows Vista systems.
Is this system a work of art like the Elive team boasts? We shall find out.
The Revolution Begins
I first put the Elive 0.5 CD on my disk and was whisked away to the wonderful world of Elive. The CD boots to a live CD, but before it does that, it asks some basic hardware questions, such as what type of screen you use and what theme do you want to start with by default. The choices are Elive and Night. I chose the night theme. Next you are asked what type of screen you are using, and the video card. I made my choices and proceeded onward.
Afterwards you are greeted with a login screen that is quite impressive with all of its animations and such. You are given a dummy account and password to login with, no need to log in as root, which is a good thing. Next you are greeted with a functional E17 environment. Once you are done playing around with the system you can choose to install Elive by clicking on the icon in their taskbar known as ibar.
Installation itself was pretty straightforward. You are greeted then asked to check the integrity of your system. I recommend doing this, once you are cleared you are then given the choice of how you want to create your partition layouts. (Note: if you have an Elive system already installed, it will ask you if you would like to update the system, rather then do a full-blown installation).
I chose the trusty cfdisk to make my partition layout (other option is GParted). If you need to reboot by this point, you can and just come back to the installation. Afterwards you are asked what partition will be the root partition, along with what file system you wish to use. I chose XFS and was told I needed to have a separate boot partition which I already did. I chose the partition to put boot in. Next you are asked if you wish to add more partitions. The choices are /home, /usr, /usr/local, and /var, then you are asked what file system you wish to use for each partition. Afterwards the installation begins. Then, out of nowhere, you are given a little card game program to kill time while then system installs. How cute. Once done you are then asked for the usual stuff; root password, user account, user password, what VGA settings you want to use for boot up and where to install GRUB. After making my choices the installation was complete and I rebooted the system.
Elive installed and ready to go
Once I rebooted I was greeted with the plain GRUB screen, which I didn't mind too much. On the Elive community site a nice little HOWTO shows you how to add your own GRUB splash. The system defaults to E17 but your other choice is E16. Once logged in I was greeted with my fully installed Elive E17 system. The system worked really well and everything was very pretty - from the twinkling background to all the pretty eye candy and colors. This was truly an amazing system. Elpanel also helped configuring a lot of different options, really handy and powerful. Since the system is Debian-based, we have the famous Synaptic package system which is always nice. The Elive community is also very friendly and filled with a lot of creative, intelligent people who are willing to help and contribute to Elive.
Though for all of its positives, there are negatives as well. Most of these bugs however are more problems and setbacks with Enlightenment then anything else since the system is still under heavy development and constantly evolving.
Is it a work of art? Is it the next big thing?
A lot of love and dedication went into this system and it shows. E16 and E17 were painstakingly tweaked and modified to be a very usable and powerful, while still showing off all of its eye candy potential.
Is this distro worth looking at? Is it a work of art like the Elive site boasts?
I most definitely agree.
Enlightenment is one very powerful and innovative desktop environment. I honestly think we are looking at the next big thing as far as desktop environments of the future goes. Elive just touches on the potential of this system and I must say, I like what I see. Keep your eyes opened for not only Elive, but for Enlightenment itself, as we may be witnessing the future in progress.
Elive - a Debian-based distribution featuring the impressive, light-weight Enlightenment 17 desktop
(full image size: 407kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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| Released Last Week |
Fedora Core 6
Fedora Core 6, code name "Zod", has been formally announced and officially released: "Tremble, Earthlings, for Zod is released from the confines of testing. Zod intends to hammer the servers of the world ... starting TODAY!" On a more serious note, Fedora Core 6 includes significant new versions of many key components and technologies, including improved look and feel for various international languages, the Compiz window manager, GNOME 2.16 and KDE 3.5.3 desktop environments, a refreshing new "DNA" theme, Dogtail - a graphical test and automation framework for the desktop, the GnuCash 2.0 accounting application, and many other enhancements. Please read the release announcement and release notes for further details.
Fedora Core 6 "Live-Spin"
The Fedora Unity project has announced the release of Fedora Core 6 "Live-Spins", a set of Fedora live CDs and DVDs for the i386 and x86_64 architectures: "The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the initial release of several Fedora Core 6 Live-Spin CD and DVD ISO images. These Live-Spins are based on the 24 October initial release of Fedora Core 6." The set consists of a GNOME live CD with GNOME 2.16.0 and related applications, a KDE live CD with KDE 3.5.4, a server live CD with Apache, MySQL, PHP and various server administration utilities, and a comprehensive live DVD with GNOME, KDE, Xfce and a number of packages from the "extras" repository. For more details please see the release announcement.
Ubuntu 6.10
Ubuntu 6.10, the latest version of the popular Linux distribution for desktops and servers, has been released: "The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 6.10, codenamed 'Edgy Eft'. This release includes both installable Desktop CDs and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures. Highlights of this release include: Tomboy, an easy-to-use and efficient note-taking tool; F-Spot, a photo management tool that enables tagging, photo editing and automatic uploading to on-line web management sites; GNOME 2.16; substantially faster startup and shutdown with eye-catching high-resolution graphics; the latest Firefox web browser, version 2.0; proactive security features, preventing many common security vulnerabilities even before they are discovered; Evolution 2.8.0...." Read the press release, release announcement and release notes for full details.
Kubuntu 6.10
The Kubuntu project has announced the release of Kubuntu 6.10, code name "Edgy Eft": "Kubuntu 6.10 has been released and is available for download now. Kubuntu 6.10 brings a bit of edginess to this release, including a new and improved desktop, artwork, applications and much more." Some of the more interesting features of Kubuntu 6.10 include: KDE 3.5.5 desktop; Digikam photo management tool; Guidance - a new power management system; a hardware database client; support for many special laptop buttons; accessibility profiles; an improved System Settings dialog; automatic setup of non-Latin writing systems. Read the complete release announcement for further details.
Edubuntu 6.10
Edubuntu 6.10, a distribution specifically designed for classroom use, has been released: "The Edubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Edubuntu 6.10, codenamed 'Edgy Eft'. This release includes both installation CDs and installable live CDs for several architectures. This version introduces a host of new features, an improved interface and a wide variety of new applications and desktop tools making Edubuntu 6.10 flexible and user-friendly. Highlights: the very recent versions of well-known free educational software like the KDEedu suite in version 3.5.5, GCompris 7.4, SchoolTool 0.11 and the Tux4Kids applications; GNOME 2.16; substantially faster startup and shutdown; the latest Firefox web browser; proactive security features; Evolution 2.8.0." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
Oracle Unbreakable Linux R4-U4
The first official release of Oracle Unbreakable Linux is out. According to the project's web site, "Oracle starts with Red Hat Linux, removes Red Hat trademarks, and then adds Linux bug fixes." Although Oracle Unbreakable Linux is touted as a "support programme", rather than a distribution, it is also provided in the form of freely downloadable CD images with optional support packages starting at US$99 per year. Oracle Unbreakable Linux is, and intends to remain, fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. While the distribution itself does not bring anything new or innovative to the table, the support programme does provide an extra choice for companies that require comprehensive support contracts for their Linux deployments. For more information please visit Oracle's Linux pages, read the press release, and consult the Linux Technology Centre.
Scientific Linux 4.4 Live CD/DVD
The Scientific Linux project has released a set of live CDs and live DVDs of the latest version of their Red Hat-based Linux distribution: "Scientific Linux live CD and DVD 4.4 have been released for both i386 and x86_64. Changes: update to Scientific Linux 4.4; update Unionfs to 1.1.5, Squashfs to 3.1-r2, NVIDIA driver to 1.0-8776; add SMP kernel to live CD/DVD (support for Dual-Core and multiprocessor systems); add r1000 and ipw3945 drivers; add more packages to the live DVD; add boot options: nopasswd, serviceon, serviceoff; live CD/DVD now runs with native Scientific Linux 4 kernel (no more special live CD kernel); live CD/DVD can boot from USB CD-ROM or DVD." Here is the full announcement.
Xubuntu 6.10
Jani Monoses has announced the release of Xubuntu 6.10: "The Xubuntu community is happy to announce the release of Xubuntu 6.10, codenamed 'Edgy Eft'. This release includes both installable Desktop CDs and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures. Visible changes since Xubuntu 6.06: newer Xfce desktop environment (4.4 RC1) which brings trashcan support in Thunar and the panel, accessibility settings for the keyboard, and other improvements and fixes; new artwork for the boot splash, login screen and wallpaper; more mature gxine media player replaces Xfmedia; newer versions of Firefox, AbiWord and Gnumeric...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
pfSense 1.0.1
A bug-fix update to the recently released pfSense 1.0, a FreeBSD-based firewall distribution, is out: "1.0.1 is now making its way to the mirrors and here is a rundown of the bugs fixed: set maximum cache size for APC to 7 MB; re-start 'check reload status' if it exits; miscellaneous syslog.conf fixes; Snort now blocks traffic correctly; PF does not know about congestion flags, remove from shaper; miscellaneous OpenNTPD system logging tab fixes; removes states from a user when disconnected by Captive Portal; fix FTP helper when strict LAN or Optional LAN rules are in place; ZoneEdit now works; filter reloads rules correctly after changes; faster, snappier webConfigurator and console." Here is the full release announcement.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Adding DistroWatch RSS feeds to Google
Last week, a reader reported an interesting issue - while trying to add one of the DistroWatch RSS feeds to Google Reader, the application reported that "no feed was available" whenever he linked directly to one of the XML files. The same was also observed when trying to add these feeds to Personalised Home on Google.com. While we haven't been able to work out the reason for this behaviour or a solution (if anybody knows, please let us know), there is a simple workaround: instead of linking directly to the XML file, you can add http://distrowatch.com/index.php to Google Reader or Google.com. The index page has embedded RSS feed links, which seems to be picked up correctly by Google's web site and its news reader.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
- Oracle Unbreakable Linux. Oracle Unbreakable Linux is an enterprise-class Linux distribution supported by Oracle. According to the project's web site, "Oracle starts with Red Hat Linux, removes Red Hat trademarks, and then adds Linux bug fixes." Although Oracle Unbreakable Linux is touted as a "support programme", rather than a distribution, it is also provided in the form of freely downloadable CD images. Oracle Unbreakable Linux is, and intends to remain, fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- ArtistX. ArtistX, or eXtra ordinary art tool, is a Debian GNU/Linux live DVD based on Debian Live. The distribution includes thousands of multimedia software packages for audio, 2D/3D graphics and video artists. The project's web site lists software, hardware and media for free multimedia production and will grow slowly but constantly into a full source for creative enthusiasts mirroring and linking to the best free multimedia technology sources. ArtistX is created by Marco Ghirlanda, one of the former developers of Medialinux.
- Emanon Linux. Emanon Linux is a security-oriented server distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Endian Firewall. Made in Argentina.
- Majilux. Majilux is a KNOPPIX-based live CD that includes a thin client server (LTSP) and Internet filtering with DansGuardian. It is designed mainly for schools and the software is pre-configured to work "out-of-the-box". There are two editions - one based on Debian "sarge" and the other on Debian "etch". The project's web site is in French only, but the CD images support English and other languages as well.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
And that concludes our latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 6 November 2006. Until then,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| • Issue 760 (2018-04-23): Chakra 2017.10, using systemd to hide files, Netrunner's ARM edition, Debian 10 roadmap, Microsoft develops Linux-based OS |
| • Issue 759 (2018-04-16): Neptune 5.0, building containers with Red Hat, antiX introduces Sid edition, fixing filenames on the command line |
| • Issue 758 (2018-04-09): Sortix 1.0, openSUSE's Transactional Updates, Fedora phasing out Python 2, locating portable packages |
| • Issue 757 (2018-04-02): Gatter Linux 0.8, the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, Red Hat turns 25, super long term support kernels |
| • Issue 756 (2018-03-26): NuTyX 10.0, Neptune supplies Debian users with Plasma 5.12, SolydXK on a Raspberry Pi, SysV init development |
| • Issue 755 (2018-03-19): Learning with ArchMerge and Linux Academy, Librem 5 runs Plasma Mobile, Cinnamon gets performance boost |
| • Issue 754 (2018-03-12): Reviewing Sabayon and Antergos, the growing Linux kernel, BSDs getting CPU bug fixes, Manjaro builds for ARM devices |
| • Issue 753 (2018-03-05): Enso OS 0.2, KDE Plasma 5.12 features, MX Linux prepares new features, interview with MidnightBSD's founder |
| • Issue 752 (2018-02-26): OviOS 2.31, performing off-line upgrades, elementary OS's new installer, UBports gets test devices, Redcore team improves security |
| • Issue 751 (2018-02-19): DietPi 6.1, testing KDE's Plasma Mobile, Nitrux packages AppImage in default install, Solus experiments with Wayland |
| • Issue 750 (2018-02-12): Solus 3, getting Deb packages upstream to Debian, NetBSD security update, elementary OS explores AppCentre changes |
| • Issue 749 (2018-02-05): Freespire 3 and Linspire 7.0, misunderstandings about Wayland, Xorg and Mir, Korora slows release schedule, Red Hat purchases CoreOS |
| • Issue 748 (2018-01-29): siduction 2018.1.0, SolydXK 32-bit editions, building an Ubuntu robot, desktop-friendly Debian options |
| • Issue 747 (2018-01-22): Ubuntu MATE 17.10, recovering open files, creating a new distribution, KDE focusing on Wayland features |
| • Issue 746 (2018-01-15): deepin 15.5, openSUSE's YaST improvements, new Ubuntu 17.10 media, details on Spectre and Meltdown bugs |
| • Issue 745 (2018-01-08): GhostBSD 11.1, Linspire and Freespire return, wide-spread CPU bugs patched, adding AppImage launchers to the application menu |
| • Issue 744 (2018-01-01): MX Linux 17, Ubuntu pulls media over BIOS bug, PureOS gets endorsed by the FSF, openSUSE plays with kernel boot splash screens |
| • Issue 743 (2017-12-18): Daphile 17.09, tools for rescuing files, Fedora Modular Server delayed, Sparky adds ARM support, Slax to better support wireless networking |
| • Issue 742 (2017-12-11): heads 0.3.1, improvements coming to Tails, Void tutorials, Ubuntu phasing out Python 2, manipulating images from the command line |
| • Issue 741 (2017-12-04): Pop!_OS 17.10, openSUSE Tumbleweed snapshots, installing Q4OS on a Windows partition, using the at command |
| • Issue 740 (2017-11-27): Artix Linux, Unity spin of Ubuntu, Nitrux swaps Snaps for AppImage, getting better battery life on Linux |
| • Issue 739 (2017-11-20): Fedora 27, cross-distro software ports, Ubuntu on Samsung phones, Red Hat supports ARM, Parabola continues 32-bit support |
| • Issue 738 (2017-11-13): SparkyLinux 5.1, rumours about spyware, Slax considers init software, Arch drops 32-bit packages, overview of LineageOS |
| • Issue 737 (2017-11-06): BeeFree OS 18.1.2, quick tips to fix common problems, Slax returning, Solus plans MATE and software management improvements |
| • Issue 736 (2017-10-30): Ubuntu 17.10, "what if" security questions, Linux Mint to support Flatpak, NetBSD kernel memory protection |
| • Issue 735 (2017-10-23): ArchLabs Minimo, building software with Ravenports, WPA security patch, Parabola creates OpenRC spin |
| • Issue 734 (2017-10-16): Star 1.0.1, running the Linux-libre kernel, Ubuntu MATE experiments with snaps, Debian releases new install media, Purism reaches funding goal |
| • Issue 733 (2017-10-09): KaOS 2017.09, 32-bit prematurely obsoleted, Qubes security features, IPFire updates Apache |
| • Issue 732 (2017-10-02): ClonOS, reducing Snap package size, Ubuntu dropping 32-bit Desktop, partitioning disks for ZFS |
| • Issue 731 (2017-09-25): BackSlash Linux Olaf, W3C adding DRM to web standards, Wayland support arrives in Mir, Debian experimenting with AppArmor |
| • Issue 730 (2017-09-18): Mageia 6, running a completely free OS, HAMMER2 file system in DragonFly BSD's installer, Manjaro to ship pre-installed on laptops |
| • Issue 729 (2017-09-11): Parabola GNU/Linux-libre, running Plex Media Server on a Raspberry Pi, Tails feature roadmap, a cross-platform ports build system |
| • Issue 728 (2017-09-04): Nitrux 1.0.2, SUSE creates new community repository, remote desktop tools for GNOME on Wayland, using Void source packages |
| • Issue 727 (2017-08-28): Cucumber Linux 1.0, using Flatpak vs Snap, GNOME previews Settings panel, SUSE reaffirms commitment to Btrfs |
| • Issue 726 (2017-08-21): Redcore Linux 1706, Solus adds Snap support, KaOS getting hardened kernel, rolling releases and BSD |
| • Issue 725 (2017-08-14): openSUSE 42.3, Debian considers Flatpak for backports, changes coming to Ubuntu 17.10, the state of gaming on Linux |
| • Issue 724 (2017-08-07): SwagArch 2017.06, Myths about Unity, Mir and Ubuntu Touch, Manjaro OpenRC becomes its own distro, Debian debates future of live ISOs |
| • Issue 723 (2017-07-31): UBOS 11, transferring packages between systems, Ubuntu MATE's HUD, GNUstep releases first update in seven years |
| • Issue 722 (2017-07-24): Calculate Linux 17.6, logging sudo usage, Remix OS discontinued, interview with Chris Lamb, Debian 9.1 released |
| • Issue 721 (2017-07-17): Fedora 26, finding source based distributions, installing DragonFly BSD using Orca, Yunit packages ported to Ubuntu 16.04 |
| • Issue 720 (2017-07-10): Peppermint OS 8, gathering system information with osquery, new features coming to openSUSE, Tails fixes networking bug |
| • Issue 719 (2017-07-03): Manjaro 17.0.2, tracking ISO files, Ubuntu MATE unveils new features, Qubes tests Admin API, Fedora's Atomic Host gets new life cycle |
| • Issue 718 (2017-06-26): Debian 9, support for older hardware, Debian updates live media, Ubuntu's new networking tool, openSUSE gains MP3 support |
| • Issue 717 (2017-06-19): SharkLinux, combining commands in the shell, Debian 9 flavours released, OpenBSD improving kernel security, UBports releases first OTA update |
| • Issue 716 (2017-06-12): Slackel 7.0, Ubuntu working with GNOME on HiDPI, openSUSE 42.3 using rolling development model, exploring kernel blobs |
| • Issue 715 (2017-06-05): Devuan 1.0.0, answering questions on systemd, Linux Mint plans 18.2 beta, Yunit/Unity 8 ported to Debian |
| • Issue 714 (2017-05-29): Void, enabling Wake-on-LAN, Solus packages KDE, Debian 9 release date, Ubuntu automated bug reports |
| • Issue 713 (2017-05-22): ROSA Fresh R9, Fedora's new networking features, FreeBSD's Quarterly Report, UBports opens app store, Parsix to shut down, SELinux overview |
| • Issue 712 (2017-05-15): NixOS 17.03, Alpha Litebook running elementary OS, Canonical considers going public, Solus improves Bluetooth support |
| • Issue 711 (2017-05-08): 4MLinux 21.0, checking file system fragmentation, new Mint and Haiku features, pfSense roadmap, OpenBSD offers first syspatch updates |
| • Issue 710 (2017-05-01): TrueOS 2017-02-22, Debian ported to RISC-V, Halium to unify mobile GNU/Linux, Anbox runs Android apps on GNU/Linux, using ZFS on the root file system |
| • Issue 709 (2017-04-24): Ubuntu 17.04, Korora testing new software manager, Ubuntu migrates to Wayland, running Nix package manager on alternative distributions |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Random Distribution | 
AgiliaLinux
AgiliaLinux was a Russian community distribution with roots in Slackware Linux. It features a custom text-mode system installer with installation classes, an advanced package manager called mpkg, and support for several popular desktop environments.
Status: Discontinued
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