 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 227, 5 November 2007 |
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Welcome to this year's 45th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! An excellent week for open source software enthusiasts as it finally brought the first public preview of the OpenSolaris-based Indiana, a new operating system trying to take over our desktops. Will it succeed? Although the release was marred by controversies and heated discussions on the project's mailing list, the first reviews indicate that Indiana is on the right track. In other news, a new distribution called gOS gets bundled with a US$199 Linux computer, Mandriva's François Bancilhon writes an angry open letter to Microsoft, Debian introduces a new KDE4 live CD, Fedora prepares for a big release day, and Kubuntu developers ponder the future of the project. Finally, don't miss the featured article which looks at the recently released Ubuntu Studio 7.10. Happy reading!
Content:
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| Reviews |
First Look at Ubuntu Studio 7.10 (by Susan Linton)
Introduction
Hot on the heels of the Ubuntu 7.10 release came Ubuntu Studio. Ubuntu Studio is a more complete version of Ubuntu primarily aimed at audio / video and graphic artists, but is suitable for anyone wanting a highly capable multimedia system. When I first tested Ubuntu Studio last release, I was very impressed. Many of my usual Ubuntu complaints were gone when using Ubuntu Studio. So while much of the world looked forward to Ubuntu's latest release, I personally looked forward to Ubuntu Studio 7.10.
Installation and first impressions
The installer has changed just slightly since last release. It still uses the older Ubuntu ncurses installer, but now it asks for less user input. The user must still partition or choose an install partition, but otherwise the install process is more or less automated. More hardware is auto-configured and one does have choices of where to install the bootloader. My installation picked up on my other installs and added them to the GRUB menu. The silent boot splash is cleaned up this time and that ugly verbose output box is gone.
One of the first things I noticed when I booted Ubuntu Studio was its look and feel. It offers one of the most beautiful implementations of GNOME I've seen. Their theme is characterized by a dark grey color that is surprisingly easy on the eyes. The contrast between the darker background with the aqua or Caribbean blue highlights makes for a unique and hard-to-replicate foundation. There didn't seem to be any change in this scheme this release and perhaps that's best. Sometimes you just can't improve on a good thing.
Ubuntu Studio 7.10 Add/Remove applications
(full image size: 204kB, screen resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
The next thing you might note is the amazing amount of software included in the 803 MB download. Perhaps the Internet and office areas might be a bit thin, but the menu is just chocked full of all sorts of graphic, sound, and video applications. From using to editing to creating, it's probably covered in Ubuntu Studio.
Included Software
Again, like last release, there isn't a lot of selection in the office or Internet areas, consisting only of OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 Writer, Firefox 2.0.0.6, and Pidgin 2.2. Beneath GNOME 2.20 we find Linux 2.6.22-14-rt, X.Org 7.2, and GCC 4.1.3. What's not included by default is likely available from software repositories.
Graphics. In this release we find GIMP 2.4.0rc3, Agave (a color scheme chooser), Blender (3D modeller), Cinepaint (image processing), FontForge and Specimen Font Previewer, F-Spot, gThumb, Hugin (panorama creation), Inkscape (SVG), Stopmotion (animation creation), Scribus, Synfig Studio (create 2D animations), and Xsane.
Sound. The Audio Production menu is jam-packed with applications. It has synthesizers, drum machines, electronic keyboards, scratch and mix apps, electronic DJs, creation and editors, special effects applications, and just plain ole players. Some titles include Rosegarden, terminatorX, Mixxx, Freebirth, SnooperLooper, Hydrogen, Audacity, Ardour GTK2, BEAST, Audacious, Sound Juicer, and bunch of other JACK software. There's something in this mix for just about any skill level or purpose. There's a lot of fun stuff in this menu!
Video. Under Video Production we find Cinepaint, Kino, Pitivi (video editor), and Stopmotion. Ubuntu Studio also includes the Totem movie player, but it doesn't come with essential codecs for playback. A pop-up will appear to search for needed codecs, but not everything required for full playback is found. In the end I could play .avi, .mp3, and .mpg.
Miscellaneous software. As usually found in GNOME is a full menu of Preferences. Ubuntu Studio comes with a few wallpapers, several window themes, and some beautiful screensavers. Under Administration you will find the Synaptics Software Manager and the Restricted Drivers Manager that allows the user to install other software and perhaps some needed drivers. This is also where you'll find the Network Tools and Update Manager. It had only been a few days since its release and already there were 54 updates available.
Ubuntu Studio features a pretty "Quit" menu. It contains options to switch user, reboot, logout, hibernate, and suspend. Each are represented by some great looking icons. One little touch that I noticed in Ubuntu Studio is the Leave Message option when your desktop is locked. That way passers-by can leave you a message that will be displayed upon unlocking the desktop.
One of the most noticeable issues with Ubuntu Studio was the GNOME Settings Daemon's "failed to start" error upon login. It only occurred about half the time and logging out and back in was the immediate fix. I found a few applications that wouldn't open, a few abruptly exited when opening test files, and the Add and Remove Software (Synaptic) crashed on me a time or two. When applying the updates, all installed without issue except for some conflicts with Audacious plugin files.
Hardware support
Most of the hardware on my HP Pavilion dv6105us was auto-configured. The resolution was set to the optimal 1280x800, the sound worked out of the box, and the touchpad and add-on USB mouse worked just great. My wired Ethernet chip worked out of the box using the reverse engineered Forcedeth drivers, but my wireless is almost always the exception with any distro.
Like the last release, a full working NdisWrapper isn't included in repositories for Ubuntu Studio, so I tried to use the Restricted Drivers tool to enable my Broadcom wireless Ethernet chip. The Restricted Drivers utility installed bcm43xx-fwcutter and I was asked where my Windows drivers were located. I navigated to them and the utility reported success. But my chip still wasn't activated and no device entry for it appeared in the Network Manager. I tried modprobing the driver, but it still didn't work. I ended up installing the kernel headers and the build-essentials through the Synaptic Software Manager and building NdisWrapper myself. Then I could extract the drivers from the Windows partition and use them. Now I have my wireless connection with WPA at boot.
The Restricted Drivers tool worked well installing the NVIDIA proprietary graphic drivers for my graphics chip.
However, there were some little problems. The first of note was that Suspend to Disk (hibernate) and Suspend to RAM (suspend) didn't work this release. They both worked really well last release on this same laptop, but this time the machine would not finish going to sleep and, of course, could not wake up. It seemed to just lock-up. I did notice that CPU scaling worked out of the box and the battery monitor applet appeared when the A/C power was unplugged. Another issue was with the sound server. It would become deactivated during periods of inactivity and some application would reactivate it, but some others could not.
Conclusion
Although I thoroughly enjoyed Ubuntu Studio in the past and this release of Ubuntu Studio seems sound for the most part, I couldn't help feel my enthusiasm wane. It's still a fun and useful system, but it just didn't excite me as before. At first it felt like I was reviewing the same Ubuntu Studio that I did six months ago, with the only real improvement found in the installer. There is a new wallpaper, but that image was used in other areas last release. The base code and applications have been updated, but it seems some things regressed, such as video file playback support (or available codecs). It had a few more crashes and inoperative applications than the last release, and the error when starting GNOME was new. With the suspend options also broken, one has to wonder - what happened?
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| Miscellaneous News |
Indiana controversies, Mandriva vs Microsoft, OpenBSD 4.2 interview, Debian KDE4 live CD, Fedora 8 and PulseAudio, Kubuntu future, end of Trustix
 Project Indiana, one of the most eagerly anticipated free operating systems in recent years, has hit a new milestone when it released the first public preview last week. For those who missed the story, Indiana is an attempt to bring Sun Microsystem's Solaris to the desktop, as an alternative to Linux. The project is an initiative of Ian Murdock, a well-known developer who founded Debian GNU/Linux back in 1993, but who has been working at Sun since March 2007. Indiana's first preview is a GNOME live CD with automatic hardware detection and setup, and a graphical installer - quite similar to many Linux live CDs available today. However, it also includes a number of much fancied (though less visible) features, such as the famed ZFS file system and DTrace, a dynamic tracing and troubleshooting framework.
The euphoria over the release was somewhat spoilt by two major mailing list fights - the naming of the release and the /bin/bash issue. Following Ian Murdock's suggestion that this release should really bear the name OpenSolaris Developer Preview as it represents the most complete OpenSolaris release to-date, many members of the OpenSolaris user community expressed strong objections. The second fight was due to the project's decision to use /bin/bash (from GNU) as Indiana's default shell, rather than Sun's traditional Korn shell, KSH-93. As was later explained by Dave Miner, this wasn't a conscious change on the part of the developers, but rather a convenience that helped them to get the Indiana preview out on time. But the explanation only arrived after a large number of heated arguments were posted by some disenchanted members of the OpenSolaris developer community. Overall though, Indiana's first public release is surprisingly good - not quite usable as a desktop system (it lacks too many applications), but certainly an attractive demo showcasing OpenSolaris to a much wider audience that was possible until very recently.
Indiana Developer Preview - OpenSolaris for the desktop
(full image size: 214kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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 Another piece of news widely reported by many Linux news sites was the sudden appearance of a $199 Linux computer at WalMart. This in itself wouldn't have been all that exciting, except that the system runs a Linux distribution called gOS. What? You've never heard of gOS? Well, neither has DistroWatch until last week, but that didn't prevent it from being supplied as an operating system on a low-cost computer, available at a major retailer in the United States! Quite an achievement, given that many well-established Linux distributions struggle to gain presence on the shelves of computer stores. Aside from the surprise appearance, gOS is an Ubuntu-based distribution using a heavily modified Enlightenment window manager. In the media, it was often presented as a "Google OS", but the project's web site states that gOS is not affiliated with Google in any way. Even so, the distro developers are clearly enamoured with Google applications and services, which form an integral part of the gOS experience. The computer and the OS are meant to attract less technical computer users, but its low-end specifications suggest that it might be too sluggish to be really enjoyable. Still, it's hard to beat the price!
gOS 1.0: an Ubuntu-based distribution with a modified Enlightenment desktop
(full image size: 375kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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 Those who follow François Bancilhon's occasional blog posts will probably agree: the Mandriva CEO is not the most diplomatic PR representative a company could dream to have. But you can't fault him for being outspoken and emotional when things don't go his way; previously he demonstrated it with his outrage (post in French) following the French parliament's decision to adopt Ubuntu rather than Mandriva, and last week he presented similar passion when he wrote an open letter to Steve Ballmer. In it, Bancilhon accused the Microsoft CEO of dirty tricks following a large-scale sale of Mandriva-based laptops to the government of Nigeria. From the post: "Wow! I'm impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make them change their mind like this? It's quite clear to me, and it will be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There is various names for it, I'm sure you know them."
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 With so much interesting news hitting the open source wires, the stable release of OpenBSD 4.2 went almost unnoticed. Luckily, ONLamp's excellent tradition of talking to the OpenBSD developers after every release continued last week when they published a 3-page interview with several OpenBSD developers: "This release comes with some amazing performance improvements: basic benchmarks showed PF being twice as fast, a rewrite of the TLB shootdown code for i386 and amd64 cut the time to do a full package build by 20 percent (mostly because all the forks in configure scripts have become much cheaper), and the improved frequency scaling on MP systems can help save nearly 20 percent of battery power. And then the new features: FFS2, support for the Advanced Host Controller Interface, IP balancing in CARP, layer 7 manipulation with hoststated, Xenocara, and more!"
* * * * *
 Also released (and also buried under other, more exciting news) last week was the fourth beta of the upcoming KDE 4.0. Up until recently the easiest way to check out the progress made by the KDE developers was to download and boot the openSUSE-based KDE Four Live, maintained by Stephan Binner. Now there is a second option - a Debian-based solution called KDE4 Beta4 live CD: "Thanks to the efforts of the Debian Live project, it is quite easy to create customizable live CDs. We have created live CDs with current KDE4 beta4 for i386 and amd64 architectures." Interested beta testers can download the ISO images from here: debian-kde4beta4-live-cd-i386.iso (418MB, torrent), debian-kde4beta4-live-cd-amd64.iso (426MB, torrent).
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 Next on the release calendar: Fedora 8, code name "Werewolf". Scheduled for release this week on Thursday, the last-minute bug squashing is still in progress following the quiet announcement of the Fedora 8 RC3 installation DVD and live CD images. Getting them now is actually an excellent way of beating the release rush on Thursday; as pointed out by Max Spevack, these RC3 images are as good as final - at least in terms of configuration of package repositories. That's because until Thursday, users running the RC3 builds will still receive updates from the "rawhide" directory, but as soon as Fedora 8 is out, they will be automatically and seamlessly redirected to the stable tree. Just a little user-friendly touch by the Fedora development team.
Compared to the project's previous release, Fedora 8 feels like a relatively minor upgrade, but it does ship with a few interesting features up its sleeve. One of them is PulseAudio, a new sound server: "PulseAudio is a next generation sound server for Linux, making all sorts of 'ear-candy' possible: from dynamically changing the volume of individual applications to hot-plugging support for many different devices. Fedora 8 is going to be the first distribution to ship and enable PulseAudio by default and with this in mind we talked to Lennart Poettering who is the upstream and Fedora developer of PulseAudio and Avahi about the work he has put into this." Expanding on the subject, Linux.com has also published an article about the new sound server entitled Why you should care about PulseAudio.
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 While Ubuntu has been improving by leaps and bounds with each new release, many of the best features and technologies are only being added to Canonical's flagship distribution, rather than across its full product range, which also includes Kubuntu (as well as Xubuntu and Edubuntu). Can anything be done about this? From the user point of view, the easiest option is, of course, to switch to a distribution that treats KDE on an equal footing with GNOME, such as Mandriva Linux or openSUSE. The alternative is to hope that Canonical will fix the problem in the future. Juan Carlos Torres offers some ideas in Quo Vadis, Kubuntu?: "Kubuntu is not Ubuntu. We have to make this clear, to ourselves, and to our community. A large part of user expectation is largely based on what we have been doing in the past: trying to catch up with Ubuntu. And users have now grown to expect that. But why do we need to define ourselves and our goals based on Ubuntu? Can Kubuntu not stand on its own merits? ... Once we have accepted that fact, we can start to define Kubuntu as it really is. And then we can decide where we are headed, what we really want Kubuntu to be."
* * * * *
 Finally, sad news for the fans of small, fast and secure Linux distributions designed specifically for servers. Comodo has announced that effective December 31, it will discontinue the development of the free Trustix Secure Linux: "Comodo regrets to announce that it will discontinue all distribution, updates and direct support for Trustix Secure Linux effective December 31, 2007. The user support forum will continue to remain online throughout 2008. Comodo will continue to support the Trustix Enterprise Firewall as a going forward product through at least the end of 2008, and will introduce version 4.8 before the end of 2007." The UK-based Comodo acquired Trustix in 2003 and employed all of its Norway-based developers in an attempt to develop an enterprise-class firewall, alongside a free, server distribution. But the project was left in limbo after most of the original developers left the company earlier this year. A sad end of an excellent distribution that has been in development since the year 2000.
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| Released Last Week |
SystemRescueCd 0.4.1
An updated version of SystemRescueCd, a specialist, Gentoo-based mini distribution designed for disk partitioning and data rescue tasks, is out. From the changelog: "Updated ntfs-3g to 1.1004; updated Parted to 1.8.8; new sources for the default kernel (rescuecd and rescue64); fix - option setkmap was broken in sysresccd-custom script; fix: network booting via PXE was broken on 64-bit (rescue64); fix - docache was broken with the hard disk easy installation; updated Oscar (French tool to backup data); added option boothd=xxx (boot an installed Linux from hard disk); added raid monitoring tools (mpt-status and cciss_vol_status)."
Vyatta 3.0
Dave Roberts has announced the release of Vyatta 3.0 Community edition, a specialist, Debian-based distribution for routers and firewalls: "Vyatta today announced the latest release of its open-source networking software. The Vyatta software combines router, firewall, and VPN capabilities into an integrated solution that delivers twice the performance of proprietary network solutions at half the price. As the third major release, Vyatta Community Edition 3 adds a number of changes and enhancements, including: IPSec VPN - Vyatta now supports dedicated site-to-site (branch-to-branch or branch-to-HQ) virtual private networking and supports the most widely used cryptographic algorithms. Multi-link PPP (MLPPP) - MLPPP allows customers to increase WAN bandwidth by using multiple low-speed circuits. BGP scaling and security enhancements - improved BGP scaling provides faster routing convergence with many peers." Read the full press release for more details.
MEPIS antiX 7.0
MEPIS antiX 7.0, a light-weight edition of MEPIS Linux, has been released: "MEPIS has announced the 'Lysistrata' release of antiX, a light-weight derivative of SimplyMEPIS 7.0. This version of antiX is built using the MEPIS Linux 7.0 core including the MEPIS 2.6.22 kernel and utilities, but mostly it has a different set of default user applications: Fluxbox and IceWM window managers, AbiWord, Gnumeric, Scite, Nano, Iceweasel, Sylpheed, Pidgin, XChat.... AntiX is designed to work on computers with as little as 64 MB RAM and Pentium II or equivalent AMD processors, but not K5/K6 processors. After installation, even 32 MB RAM has worked. The new ISO images are available in the 'released/antix' subdirectory at the MEPIS subscriber's site and at the MEPIS public mirrors." Read the rest of the release announcement for further information.
ClarkConnect Server/Gateway 4.2
ClarkConnect Server/Gateway version 4.2 has been released: "Community Edition 4.2 is now available. Highlights include: improved hardware driver support (Linux 2.6.9 to 2.6.18); mail archiving; content filter group support; web browsing anti-virus support; web proxy access control; web site upload via FTP and Windows file sharing; encrypted file systems support; new Flexshare features. Version 4.x supports upgrades from ClarkConnect 3.0 and later. Upgrades from version 2.x (or systems originally installed with 2.x) are not supported. Known issues: some legacy Dell/Megaraid RAID cards are not supported; localization is incomplete." Please read the full release notes for further details.
StartCom MultiMedia Edition 5.0.6
StartCom Ltd. has announced the final release of StartCom MultiMedia Edition 5.0.6: "StartCom MultiMedia Edition is most famous for its audio and video manipulation capabilities, but also for the wide range of the delivered applications. Today an updated version of this superb operating systems has been released. The enhanced usability of the desktop applications, in addition to various audio and video players, makes the StartCom MultiMedia Edition an excellent choice for the home desktop computer. A new design and the advanced 3D OpenGL driven effects offer some real computing fun, while a TV, video and file streaming server and client make sharing of music and video throughout the local network a snap. More outstanding applications like Cinelerra, Rosegarden, Audacity and many, many sound manipulating effect tools, synthesizers, samplers, sequencers round the picture." Here is the full press release.
GoblinX 2.5 "Mini"
The "Mini" edition of GoblinX 2.5, a Slackware-based live CD featuring the Xfce desktop, has been released: "GoblinX Mini 2.5 is released. The GoblinX Mini edition is the son of GoblinX and contains only the Xfce windows manager and GTK+ applications. Main upgrades since release candidate 1: added script to use module on the fly from Thunar and Nautilus; upgraded gtkKeyboard Layout, gtkSource, gtkHDInstall; upgraded Media Manager and added new policies to HAL and Ivman; added a hidden Ivman home folder because other applications need to save settings; added Xbindkeys and configured special keys; corrected sudo/su and shadow errors." Visit the distribution's news page to read the release announcement.
GoblinX 2.5 "Mini" uses the latest Xfce destkop
(full image size: 1,866kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
OpenBSD 4.2
Theo de Raadt has announced the release of OpenBSD 4.2: "We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 4.2. This is our 22nd release on CD-ROM (and 23rd via FTP). We remain proud of OpenBSD's record of more than ten years with only two remote holes in the default install. As in our previous releases, 4.2 provides significant improvements, including new features, in nearly all areas of the system. New and extended platforms: PCIe UltraSPARC IIIi machines like the V215 and V245; AlphaServer 1200 and 4100. Install and upgrade process changes: new install method - for the most popular architectures, the FTP sites have a 200MB install ISO file, which contains the base set, permitting non-network installs; allow the specification of an NTP server during installation. Improved hardware support, including native Serial ATA support...." Read the detailed release announcement and visit the OpenBSD 4.2 page for a full list of new features.
openSUSE 10.3 "Live"
Michael Loeffler has announced the release of openSUSE 10.3 "Live" edition, now with a hard disk installation option: "From today the live edition of openSUSE 10.3 is available as a GNOME or KDE live CD. Both contain the same software as the 1-CD installation editions from the launch time. The live system can be used as a production system or as a rescue system. Or you can just check out how openSUSE 10.3 runs on your computer without touching your hard drive. The live CDs are available as 32-bit in English only and for the first time they contain an installation option on the desktop. Just click the icon and installation to your hard drive will start." Read the short release announcement here.
dyne:bolic 2.5.1
Denis "Jaromil" Rojo has announced the release of an updated version of dyne:bolic, a live CD with a collection of multimedia software: "Dyne.org foundation proudly present dyne:bolic 2.5.1, code name "Dhoruba", a 100% free multimedia GNU/Linux operating system. What's new in 2.5.1? Support for Java (now GNU GPL) out of the live CD is the special entry of this release, along with bug fixes and snappy support for network booting of thin clients with BOOTP/PXE as documented in our manual. Ekiga has been moved out, but the Iaxcomm and Kiax phone applications (Asterisk native protocol) are pre-configured to work with Blasterisk, the experimental ((i))ndymedia telephone service - just press hash. Upgraded software includes X.Org 7.2 and MPlayer." Read the full release announcement for more information.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
October 2007 donation: NimbleX receives €300.00
 We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the October 2007 DistroWatch.com donation is the NimbleX project. It receives €300.00 in cash.
The idea of a donation to NimbleX came up just a few weeks ago. Shortly after the project launched Custom NimbleX, a PHP-powered web applications for generating Linux live CDs, many DistroWatch readers emailed in to tell us about the existence of this unique way of generating a live CD - without having to learn a scripting language. Just select your options from the succession of screens and off you go; a few minutes later, your perfect live CD will be ready for download. But last week I noticed that the project's web site was down. I emailed Bogdan Radulescu, the project founder, who assured me that he was working day and night to bring the site back online after it suffered from a major hardware failure.
Sending some cash to NimbleX seemed like a good way to help. Bogdan was surprised and delighted: "I can't believe my eyes! You sent me €300! I think I haven't got that much in 2 years! I'm supper happy. I will start surfing for a development machine and a new hard disk drive for the server." Following a tough weekend of hard work, I am pleased to report that Custom NimbleX is up and running once again - except that it is powered by better hardware and faster Internet connection. Don't say that DistroWatch doesn't make a difference! :-)
As always, this monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch and two online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - LinuxCD.org and OSDisc.com. These vendors contributed US$50.00 each towards this month's donation to NimbleX.
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NdisWrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a PowerPack competition), digiKam ($408) and SabayonLinux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450)
Since the launch of the Donations Programme in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$15,290 to various open source software projects.
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New distributions added to database
- Indiana. Indiana is a binary distribution of an operating system built out of the OpenSolaris source code. The distribution is a point of integration for several current projects on OpenSolaris.org, including those to make the installation experience easier, to modernise the look and feel of OpenSolaris on the desktop, and to introduce a network-based package management system into Solaris. The resulting distribution is a live CD install image, and is fully permissible to be redistributed by anyone.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Arktur. Arktur is a German, server-oriented Linux distribution based on Slackware. It is primarily designed for use by educational institutions.
- gOS. gOS is an easy-to-use, Ubuntu-based distribution designed for less technical computer users. Its main features are the use of Enlightenment as the default desktop and tight integration of various Google products and services into the product.
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DistroWatch database summary
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 12 November 2007.
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Finnix
Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian. It can be used to mount and manipulate hard drives and partitions, monitor networks, rebuild boot records, install other operating systems, and much more.
Status: Active
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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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