 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 292, 2 March 2009 |
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Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Last week saw the release of SimplyMEPIS 8.0, a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution designed for both personal and business purposes. We take the live CD for a spin to see what it has to offer. In the news this past week, openSUSE develops Debian-like distribution upgrade functionality to their package manager, Red Hat looks set for a comeback to the desktop arena as it announces virtualisation plans that will centre on KVM technology, and Novell signs a virtualisation agreement with VMware over support for their products. Also in the news, the Linux Starter Kit from Linux Format magazine has been released for free and we link to interviews with lead developers of Linux Mint and Kongoni. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the DistroWatch.com February 2009 donation goes to Wolvix GNU/Linux, a Slackware-based desktop distribution and live CD. Happy reading!
Content:
- First look: SimplyMEPIS 8.0
- News: openSUSE gets system upgrade ability, Red Hat returns to the desktop, Novell signs with VMware, Arch drops ATI's Catalyst driver, interviews with Linux Mint and Kongoni developers, Linux Starter Kit
- Released last week: Linux Mint 6 "Xfce", Dreamlinux 3.5
- Upcoming releases: Mandriva Linux 2009.1 RC1
- Donations: Wolvix GNU/Linux receives US$200
- New additions: Estrella Roja, Maryan Linux
- New distributions: dvd::rip Cluster live CD, Elementary OS, GUARA Linux OS, Hag GNU/Linux, Qimo 4 Kids
- Reader comments
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (22MB) and MP3 (19MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
First look at SimplyMEPIS 8.0
 I have been intrigued by MEPIS Linux ever since I first heard about it, but never actually got around to trying it. The distro was founded by Warren Woodford in late 2002 after he had tried several distributions of Linux, but found that they all fell short of his vision for how a Linux desktop should work. Inspired by his experience as a NeXT developer, Warren decided to try his hand at creating a Linux distribution that 'just worked'. The first version of MEPIS Linux was released to the public in May 2003. MEPIS is derived from Debian, one of the oldest and most stable distributions, with this latest version being based on the recent Lenny release. According to the website, "SimplyMEPIS just works! It is pre-configured for simplicity and ease of use, even for beginners." So, this distro is aimed at beginners and claims to be easy to use. What does it have to offer?
Live CD and environment
Although MEPIS is effectively a commercial Linux distribution, it does also release a freely available community edition in the form of the SimplyMEPIS live CD. This is what I downloaded and booted on my Dell Latitude X1 laptop computer (Intel Pentium M 1.10GHz CPU, Intel 915 video, Intel 2200BG wireless, Broadcom BCM5751 network, 1.25 GB memory). The first thing I noticed was the very nice GRUB menu and boot screen. There were plenty of options in the menu, but I think some should be moved out into a sub menu instead. If you are aiming your distribution towards beginners, then in my opinion there should be only two entries; the default which automatically detects the video settings and a basic option designed to work on everything. To illustrate what I mean, the default entry on this live CD is Default, but then there are also options for Alternate (try if Default fails), VESA (alternate display driver or for virtual machine), Failsafe (minimum options, small display), 60Hz (for digital monitors), and 75Hz which warns: "CAREFUL! May damage digital monitors." Why make it complicated? The inclusion of Memtest is always a good idea, but it's a pity there is no option to verify the contents of the CD.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 - live CD GRUB menu
(full image size: 157kB, screen resolution: 800x600 pixels)
The live CD booted straight to a nice looking KDE desktop manager and presented two users to log in as, either demo or root. Unfortunately the system does not automatically log the user in and the password is not made clear. I guessed that the password is the same as user name, but why not just keep it simple and auto log in as the unprivileged user? If you're aiming this at beginners, especially those coming from Windows, they will not be used to putting in passwords. I'm not advocating this for the installed system, but for a live CD where they didn't ever set the password anywhere, how are they going to know what to enter?
On my system, all the hardware was correctly detected. This included the video card and resolution with 3D support, sound, network, wireless, CPU speed stepping, power management, touchpad with scrolling and Bluetooth (although I couldn't find any user space applications for this). Unfortunately the multimedia keys did not work. When I closed the lid, my laptop successfully suspended to RAM and resumed, which was nice. Unfortunately suspend to disk did not work. On the desktop sits an icon for the user manual, which is quite well written and comprehensive. The usual KDE applications are all there, including Amarok and K3b, but of surprise to me was OpenOffice.org version 3.0. Nice work! Debian and even Ubuntu's latest release ship the older 2.4 release. OpenOffice.org was also themed to use KDE style icons, which also makes for cleaner system integration.
A found a few annoying interface issues, which should perhaps be addressed. When my network cable was plugged in I could see the icon in the system tray showing the connection. Great. When I unplugged it however, the icon disappears completely. Getting it to stay was a simple matter of changing the configuration, but would be nice if this remained by default. Also, you can't configure the network from this icon, that's fair enough because it's just a monitoring program, but these days most other distributions let you configure the network this way via NetworkManager. By default, MEPIS uses their static configuration system over the automated NetworkManager, although the system can be configured to use it. While a few years ago it would have been brilliant, the MEPIS network management tool is a bit clunky for 2009.
I configured my wireless using it and then received a message saying: "The configuration has been updated. It should take effect if you restart the active Interface, but with some cards it maybe be necessary to reboot." This is not very helpful for a beginner. I can hear them say: "How do I restart an active interface? I've no idea. I do know how to reboot my computer though, I guess Linux is just like Windows after all." At the very least the system could offer to restart the network for the user. Nevertheless, I restarted the network myself and saw the system trying to get an address on my wireless network. Unfortunately, this never worked because it was still associated to some another random network. In my opinion, this is just not up to scratch when compared to other modern distributions.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 - network configuration tool
(full image size: 53kB, screen resolution: 700x564 pixels)
So how did NetworkManager go then? Using the MEPIS network assistant I set the network to 'Automatic'. Once again I received a message telling me that I should reboot and that after doing so I may need to start the NetworkManager program from the Kmenu. Instead of rebooting, I just kicked up the NetworkManager program which loaded and sat in the system tray. I unplugged my wired connection and NetworkManager disabled the network. I right-clicked on the icon, saw my wireless network, selected it, typed in my passphrase and I was connected. Now this is more like it! Once switching to NetworkManager, the system works really well and it really should be the default. Now that I was online I loaded Firefox which, like OpenOffice.org, was using a KDE icon theme, albeit one different to the rest of the KDE system. The browser defaulted to the Mozilla development information page and I'd like to see it go somewhere useful like Google, or some kind of local page about MEPIS. Perhaps the brilliant user manual?
I noticed that by default there was no pager in the task bar - the applet which lets you switch between virtual desktops. I initially thought this was quite good, they want to keep it simple for beginners and most people aren't used to such a concept. However clicking on a program title bar I noticed they still had four virtual desktops enabled, so when I sent Firefox to desktop number two I had no way of getting it back! Either disable the other virtual desktops, or include the pager in the taskbar.
The system comes with KDE 3.5.10 by default so I kicked up the file manager, Konqueror, and tried to browse my local Samba network. It didn't work, saying that it could not find any workgroups on the local network and suggested a firewall might be blocking this. Connecting directly to a server with smb://[ip-address] did work however. I kicked up a terminal and as root ran the command iptables -L. OK, so they've enabled a firewall by default which is good to see, but not if it's going to block important local traffic! It took me quite a while to find the firewall management tool, which I found sitting under Kmenu, Applications, Browse All, Applications, System, Security, Guarddog Firewall. Looks like the Applications category has doubled up somehow. The tool appears quite powerful and the interface will probably suit those coming from a Windows background (of course there's always the iptables command if you prefer). Speaking of which, MEPIS does not include Wine by default which means beginners will not be able to install their basic Windows software out of the box. Whether this is a good thing I'm not sure, but I can see beginners getting frustrated either way.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 - firewall configuration tool
(full image size: 53kB, screen resolution: 700x564 pixels)
This brings me to another point, in MEPIS the everyday user is not in the Sudoers file and all system changes require the root password. Personally (and I'm sure many will disagree) I prefer handling this by disabling the root account and allowing appropriate users to administer the system with their own password via sudo. On a system which might have multiple users, it is nice to not have to give out the root password, but still let users run certain administrative tasks. You also get the additional security benefit of having the root account explicitly disabled.
As for the feel of the desktop, it is very clean, uncluttered and works very well. Actually, it's probably one of the nicest KDE 3.5 desktops I have encountered. I have not extensively tested MEPIS over time, but I did perform most of the tasks that I consider a new user would want to do. On my laptop, I connected my Canon IXUS digital camera but nothing happened. The camera did not switch over to 'PC mode' unlike when I plug it into my desktop. I was however, able to add the camera and successfully download the images using Digikam, KDE's photo manager. Likewise, plugging my SD card into the internal reader prompted no response from the computer and I was unable to see how to mount this using KDE. The kernel did see it however and I was able to manually mount the device on the command line. The same problem occurred for my USB memory stick and my iRiver media player. The kernel sees them just fine, but KDE doesn't know about them at all. Hmm... Obviously this is not very user friendly and can't be right. I booted MEPIS on another desktop computer, which worked as I expected with full KDE feedback. So this must have been a strange glitch on my laptop. The good news is, MP3 music files play out of the box, as did Flash content on sites such as YouTube, and Windows movie video files. My iPod also worked correctly with the Amarok media player. MEPIS appears to have a pretty good media support out of the box.
If you're using some hardware that requires a proprietary driver (such as ATI or NVIDIA video cards or NDISwrapper for wireless), MEPIS has some tools that can automatically configure these for you. One such tool is their X-Windows Assistant, which is available under the System, MEPIS category in Kmenu. This tool lets you configure things such as font DPI, type of mouse or touchpad, monitor specifications and then install and enable either the NVIDIA or ATI drivers. On an AMD64 box with an ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT card, I used this tool to automatically download, install and configure the proprietary driver, which worked a treat. While it's not quite as simple as Ubuntu's Jockey program, which automatically detects that your hardware requires such a driver and prompts the end user, it's certainly a step in the right direction as far as ease of use is concerned.
Being based on Debian, MEPIS inherits their powerful package management which makes the installation and removal of packages a snap. Unlike Ubuntu, which builds all their own packages from source using Debian tools, MEPIS uses the official Debian Lenny tree alongside their own. Essentially, you are getting a customised, specialised and 'more-up-to-date' Debian system. The system comes with a graphical package manager to perform these tasks, or you can use the standard commands on the console.
Installation
To begin the installation of MEPIS onto your hard drive, simply click on the 'MEPIS Install' icon on the desktop. This will kick up the installer and the first thing you are faced with is a rather disconcerting Terms of Use, License and EULA. In a time where other distributions such as Fedora and openSUSE are replacing complicated legal agreements with a simple notification (not even a EULA), the fact that MEPIS still includes this sort of agreement doesn't sit particularly well. The license grants non-commercial only redistribution of the MEPIS live CD (this means unlike other distributions you cannot sell MEPIS CDs, even though they contain open source software). "MEPIS Linux contains open source components but MEPIS Linux is not 'freeware'. Unauthorized commercial distribution of MEPIS products is 'Theft of Goods' under US Law". This also makes me wonder what components of the live CD are not open source - presumably some of the MEPIS tools. It continues: "By using and/or installing a MEPIS collective work, you accept and agree to comply with these terms and conditions." Sound familiar? If it wasn't for the need to test this to write this review, I would not proceed any further.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 - installer EULA license agreement
(full image size: 91kB, screen resolution: 806x527 pixels)
The installer itself is quite simple and easy to follow. There is a help section on the left explaining each step, which should make it easier for beginners to complete the process successfully, although I saw no explanation of what 'hda' is. It does not use a built-in partitioner, but calls the GParted application to load externally which works very well. There are only options to use a root partition (/), swap and /home (but that's all most users need). Once you select these partitions, the installer formats and begins the installation. Next, it prompts to select the boot method, for which I chose to install GRUB to the master boot record. Interestingly, there was an option to disable the use of an initial RAM disk. If you take this off, the kernel must have drivers built in so that it can read your drive(s) to boot. I didn't test this, but I wonder why they give the option.
After this you get the chance to disable unwanted boot services, including Bluetooth, CUPS printing, dial up with PPP and the firewall. After this, the installer asks for a computer name and network to belong to, keyboard and language details, whether set the clock to use GMT or not, create a local user account and set the root password. As a side note, there was no option to set the time or zone of the computer, which meant the clock was wrong pre and post install. Setting the time zone to Sydney, Australia under KDE however fixed this, but it would be good to be able to set this in the installer. Finally, the computer is ready to reboot into your new MEPIS install. Overall, the installer is quite simple and effective.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 - installer
(full image size: 42kB, screen resolution: 806x527 pixels)
Conclusion
Perhaps it was just some glitch on my test machine that stopped external devices from working under KDE (perhaps D-Bus or HAL didn't start properly). If not, then some fundamental things seem to be broken in this MEPIS 8.0 release, but I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt. Either way, I'm not convinced that the built-in network configurator is the way to go. It would be much better to switch that over to NetworkManager by default, which actually works very well and is more user-centric. Aside from these things I've raised, overall the system works quite nicely and is pretty quick and responsive. It's also very pleasing to the eye, although there are no 3D desktop effects installed by default.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 comes with a good selection of applications, including KDE-themed Firefox and OpenOffice.org. It inherits all the greatness of Debian (which means experienced users can get in and configure things the way they like) and then adds some extra tools to assist not-so-experienced users configure important things like the network and 3rd party drivers. The package management system will be rock solid and I was able to update the system without any fuss. The multimedia support is very good as everything seems to just work out of the box. This distribution has the potential to be a very easy-to-use desktop for first time users, but I think some more work needs to be done before they get there. Nevertheless the distro is very solid and I highly recommend giving it a shot.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 - default KDE desktop
(full image size: 258kB, screen resolution: 1280x768 pixels)
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| Miscellaneous News |
openSUSE gets system upgrade ability, Red Hat returns to the desktop, Novell signs with VMware, Arch drops ATI's Catalyst driver, interviews with Linux Mint and Kongoni developers, Linux Starter Kit
 Package management is one of the most fundamental components of a Linux distribution (although some still do not include one). The openSUSE distribution uses RPM packages with their own manager called Zypper, which is very powerful and a huge improvement over many others. While it does a great job at managing packages for a particular release, one feature lacking is the ability to upgrade between releases. This has been a feature of Debian's package management system for many years and finally it will make its debut in the upcoming 11.2 release of openSUSE. Described as a "Debian-like dist-upgrade live system full version upgrade," the entry on the feature tracking system says: "With the 11.2 cycle, we want to offer users the ability to perform a live system upgrade in the manner of Debian's dist-upgrade. For the purpose of this cycle, we want to support dist-upgrade from the previous version (11.1) only, as this is a sufficiently complicated problem as is. From the user's view, the difference is between being able to update the system incrementally within the given version or service pack running, to being able to migrate with a system command ("zypper dup" or similar) to a higher version altogether." The ability to forever upgrade between releases should be a welcome addition to the popular distribution.
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 Is Red Hat making a comeback to the desktop? Early in 2008 they released a statement saying that "we have no plans to create a traditional desktop product for the consumer market in the foreseeable future." However later in the year they acquired Qumranet, which gave them control of the KVM virtualisation technology. Last week they announced an interoperability deal with Microsoft, while this week they have confirmed that KVM will form the base of their virtualisation strategy. Part of the new line-up will include a virtualisation manager for desktops, explained as "a new management system for virtual desktops that will deliver industry-leading VDI cost-performance for both Linux and Windows desktops, based on Qumranet's SolidICE and using SPICE remote rendering technology." While existing Red Hat Enterprise products can be used as a desktop, most of the new features are found only in Fedora, the community distribution which they sponsor and which has recently hit one million users. If Red Hat is moving back into the desktop arena, then we should see many more of these features make it into the official products. Interestingly, Fedora already has over 50 new features approved for the upcoming 11 release, which in some cases is double the number from previous versions.
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 It seems everyone is jumping on the virtualisation bandwagon, with deals being done left, front and centre. In 2008 Novell announced support for their products under the VMware Ready Program and last week announced further collaboration to "help independent software vendors (ISVs) build fully supported SUSE Linux Enterprise-based virtual appliances." Novell also announced a "broad collaboration agreement with VMware to deliver SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) as a fully-supported and optimised guest operating system running on VMware ESX, the industry-leading hypervisor. The two companies have signed a cooperative support agreement that enables Novell to provide enhanced support for customers running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as a guest on VMware ESX." The first ISV to bring such an appliance to market is Zmanda, who will produce an out-of-the-box product using their backup software, Amanda. With Red Hat backing KVM, Citrix going all Xen, Microsoft providing Hyper-V and Novell working with VMware, virtualisation is going to be one hot arena in the coming years!
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 - a "sneak preview" released publicly last week
(full image size: 593kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
In related news, openSUSE community manager Joe Brockmeier has posted an address regarding the recent layoffs at Novell, and what it means for the openSUSE community: "Novell has recently laid off less than 100 employees. Some of the reports have greatly exaggerated the numbers, but again -- the number of people laid off is less than 100. So, how does this impact the openSUSE Project? Obviously, there will be an impact, but Novell remains committed to openSUSE. We will work on opening the project further and improving the infrastructure to allow all contributors to participate as fully as possible in openSUSE. We will continue to open our planning and decision making processes. We are going to concentrate on our strengths and focus on the areas most important to our community."
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 Since being bought by AMD in 2006, we were promised improved Linux drivers for ATI video cards. Recently AMD released a second batch of information on their hardware to the open source community, which helps to feed into the radeonhd driver, but their closed source proprietary driver still remains, well, closed. The driver has always been second rate, but now it has gotten to the point that Arch Linux developers have decided to dump it all together. Developer Eduardo Romero writes: "The ATI Catalyst drivers are in a pitiful state and AMD is doing close to nothing to improve the situation, they just take Linux as a joke. At least, that is the impression one gets when NVIDIA releases great drivers for Linux." He and Andreas Radke have decided to drop the driver out of the supported package trees and have pushed it back onto the community to maintain. They are instead going to concentrate on the free and open source radeonhd driver: "The radeonhd driver, which is in extra, shows some promise." After many years, the battle for open source graphics drivers is still ongoing.
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 Linux Mint is one of the most popular distributions which, like many others, is based on Ubuntu. Currently sitting at the number three spot on the DistroWatch main page it is bested only by its parent and openSUSE. From the About page: "Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories." Linux Magazine Italia has conducted an interview with maintainer Clement Lefebvre, of which a translation has appeared on his blog. If the idea of Linux Mint interests you then take a look, where Clement discusses how he got into free software, what Linux Mint is, why it is based on Ubuntu, and much more!
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 In last week's issue we introduced Kongoni, a new Slackware-based desktop Linux distribution and live CD out of Africa. The distribution comes with KDE 4 and uses a BSD-style architecture with a ports tree package management system. From their website: "Kongoni is the Shona word for a Gnu (also known as a Wildebeest) the animal which inspired the name of the GNU operating system. The name represents the spirit and history of Kongoni, a GNU/Linux operating system of African origin. Kongoni is a desktop oriented operating system with a strong belief in being truly free software. This means that Kongoni will neither include nor ship any software not under a license approved by the free software foundation." As a part of their '5 Questions Interview Series', free software site OpenSource Release Feed has conducted an interview with Kongoni's lead developer, A.J. Venter. In the interview he explains his background and how Kongoni came about, what sets it apart, how users can get involved, his thoughts on developing free software and more.
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  For those new to Linux and free software, it can be a daunting experience learning how to install and use it. While there are lots of good resources available online and commercial books to buy, the Linux Format Magazine guys over at TuxRadar have released their 130-page Linux Starter Pack on making the move to Linux, centred on Ubuntu, as a free PDF download: "New to the wonderful world of Linux? Looking for an easy way to get started? Download our complete 130-page guide and get to grips with the OS in hours rather than weeks or months. We show you how to install Linux onto your PC, navigate around the desktop, master the most popular Linux programs and fix any problems that may arise." Previously the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference was released as a free download. It is great to see such high quality content freely available, and hopefully we will see the emergence of similar products for other distributions.
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 Finally, something for those readers who like the idea of using FreeBSD on their desktops and are proud to display their operating system preference: - an excellent collection of FreeBSD wallpapers for every taste.
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| Released Last Week |
Linux Mint 6 "Xfce"
Clement Lefebvre has announced the release of Linux Mint 6 "Xfce" edition: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 6 Xfce Community edition. Based on Xubuntu 8.10 'Intrepid Ibex', Linux kernel 2.6.27, Xfce 4.4.2 and X.Org 7.4, Linux Mint 6 'Xfce' comes with a brand new software manager, FTP support in mintUpload, proxy support and history of updates in mintUpdate, mint4win (a Linux Mint installer for Microsoft Windows), and many other improvements. The Linux Mint 'Xfce' Community edition comes with the Xfce desktop and provides most of the functionality found in the main edition while taking fewer resources. This edition is ideally suited to laptop users with 512 MB of RAM or less as it represents a very nice compromise between a full-featured desktop and a fast and light operating system." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details.
Parted Magic 3.7
Patrick Verner has released another bug-fix update to Parted Magic 3.x series, a live CD with a collection of hard disk management utilities: "This is a bug-fix release for the 3.x series of Parted Magic. The package installer had a scripting error that wouldn't allow more than one package to be installed. Added /mnt/local so G4L works. Jason added some fixes and features to the wipe and mount scripts. The code for booting ISOs directly using GRUB4DOS was merged back in after the last round of major changes. The code for forcing devices at boot with uuid= and label= was also merged back in. The "unnamed window" problem fixed in Conky. Web links in GTK+ applications about dialogs launch now. Added Xfce files so help in Screenshooter works. List of updated packages: Linux kernel 2.6.28.7, Coreutils 7.1, Firefox 3.0.6, FireFTP 1.0.4." Here is the complete release announcement.
Caos Linux 1.0.8
Greg Kurtzer has announced the release of Caos Linux 1.0.8, a high-performance distribution designed primarily for high performance computation (HPC), servers, and custom appliances: "The Caos team of developers and contributors from Infiscale are proud to announce the public release of Caos Linux NSA 1.0.8, an updated release to the NSA-1.0 tree. The NSA 1.0 release identifies the stabilization and validation of the core operating system, fully tested on some of the world's fastest public and private systems and architectures. And now with NSA 1.0.8, you get bleeding-edge security updates, the new 2.6.28 kernel, updated packages such as OFED 1.4 and GCC 4.3.3, a streamlined Sidekick system configuration toolkit, the latest Perceus 1.5 cluster management software, and Abstractual, Infiscale's cloud virtualization solution." Here is the brief release announcement.
Astaro Security Gateway 7.4
Astaro has announced the release of Astaro Security Gateway 7.4, a commercial firewall and gateway distribution featuring a web-based system administration utility: "After a hugely successful BETA program spanning several months and including thousands of comments and feedback, Astaro is proud to today release our version 7.400, making it generally available for all Astaro Security, Mail, and Web Gateway products. This release brings new features which will enhance the functionality and capabilities of your AxG installation. Most notable are the introduction of full WAN link balancing, HTTPS filtering, site-to-site SSL VPN, and Cisco IPSec client support, along with dozens of other exciting new features." Read the remainder of the press release for a more detailed list of new features and improvements.
PC/OS 2009v2
Roberto J. Dohnert has announced the release of PC/OS 2009v2, a Xubuntu-based distribution providing an easy-to-use, simplified user interface and out-of-the-box support for popular media codecs: "Today we are happy to announce the general availability of PC/OS 2009v2. The new release also introduces the new PC/OS WebStation 1.0. PC/OS OpenDesktop 2009v2 and PC/OS OpenWorkstation 2009v2 have been fully tested and are ready for broad consumer adoption. Changes include a slightly tweaked user interface and updated packages, and all important security updates. Some of the updated packages are Opera 9.63, Skype 2.0 and VLC 0.9.8." Read the brief release announcement for more details.
ZevenOS 1.1
Leszek Lesner has announced the release of ZevenOS 1.1, an Ubuntu-based GNU/Linux distribution with focus on providing an easy-to-use system with BeOS-like user interface and support for older hardware: "We are proud to announce the brand new ZevenOS 1.1. It includes many new and updated features. We switched the base system to Ubuntu 8.10, including Linux kernel 2.6.27 and X.Org 7.4. That results in many new drivers and better netbook support. We updated our applications, MAGI 2 and Deskbar, to get a better user experience. Deskbar now includes a task switcher and MAGI 2 has MeCoI integrated. All in all, the system is much more reliable and still offers the best BeOS experience in the Linux world." Here is the brief release announcement.
ZevenOS 1.1 - now based on Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex"
(full image size: 1,173kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Dreamlinux 3.5
A new version of Dreamlinux, a modular desktop distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux 5.0, has been released: "The Dreamlinux team is pleased to announce the release of Dreamlinux 3.5. The default edition is Xfce with a GNOME edition also available. This release concentrates on portability, with special attention paid to out-of-the-box wireless drivers, netbook and laptop installs, and USB pen drive installs. Dreamlinux builds on the now stable Debian 'Lenny' base, with a host of custom scripts and applications to make everything from installation to getting on the Internet a breeze. Dreamlinux's famous remaster tools are included, as is an OEM installer and the ability to install directly from an ISO and/or Flexiboost directory structure. Main features: Linux kernel 2.6.28.5, new init script in initrd written in Lua, new icons, redesigned stock icons, new default GTK+ theme." Read the complete release announcement for further details.
Dreamlinux 3.5 - a Debian-based distribution with a Mac OS X-like desktop
(full image size: 2,088kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
SystemRescueCd 1.1.6
François Dupoux has announced the availability of an updated release of SystemRescueCd, a live CD containing a variety of hard disk management and utilities. From the changelog: "Updated the standard kernels to Linux 2.6.27.19 with Reiser4fs and ext4; updated the alternative kernels to Linux 2.6.27.19 with Reiser4fs and ext4; updated NTFS-3G to version 2009.2.1; updated FSArchiver to 0.4.3 (file system backup and deployment tool); updated the speakup driver to version 3.0.3; fixed problems with the function keys in Midnight Commander in terminal; added crossdev to make it easier to compile 64-bit programs or kernels; added LXDE Terminal and Xarchiver (graphical file archiver); added Xfburn 0.4.0 (simple CD/DVD burning software, still in development); Updated GParted to 0.4.3.
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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 |
February 2009 donation: Wolvix GNU/Linux receives US$200.00
 We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the February 2009 DistroWatch.com donation is Wolvix GNU/Linux, a Slackware-based desktop distribution and live CD.
According to the project's web site, Wolvix features "the Xfce desktop environment and a comprehensive selection of development, graphics, multimedia, network and office applications. It's mainly targeted at home users and strives to provide a balance between everyday computing tasks, creativity, work and enjoyment. By default, Wolvix only includes GTK+ applications. Though it is fast and has a low memory footprint, it's not specifically developed for old computers, as it features modern software, but it should perform well on systems which are not the latest and greatest." To learn more about Wolvix GNU/Linux, check out the project's About Wolvix page. The current stable release is the somewhat dated Wolvix 1.1.0, but the project is actively working on the upcoming version 2.0, with development builds available for public testing.
As always, this monthly donations program 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 Wolvix GNU/Linux.
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the program (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), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200).
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$20,233 to various open source software projects.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 9 March 2009.
Chris Smart
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Full list of all issues |
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