 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 410, 20 June 2011 |
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Welcome to this year's 25th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! SliTaz GNU/Linux is one of those little gems in the Linux distro world - it's a small, extensible and highly functional distribution even in its default state. Jesse Smith takes a look at the progress SliTaz developers have been making on the road towards their next stable release, version 4.0. In the news section, Daniel Robbins' Funtoo projects challenges Gentoo with a new source-based distribution for technical users, the Scientific Linux developers explain the differences between Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and their own RHEL clone, and the maintainers of Linux Mint "Debian" editions embark on a large-scale update process now that Mint 11 is out the door. Also in this issue, links to interviews with Debian project leader Stefano Zacchiroli and Bodhi developer Jeff Hoogland, a quick note on firewall applications found in popular Linux distributions, and the last call for suggestions for DistroWatch's annual package database update. Happy reading!
Content:
- Reviews: What's cooking? It's SliTaz
- News: Funtoo improves on Gentoo, Scientific Linux gains mindshare, Mint updates rolling-release editions, Debian and Bodhi interviews
- Questions and answers: Personal firewall applications
- Released last week: Tiny Core Linux 3.7, Parted Magic 6.2, AVLinux 5.0
- Site news: Annual package database update
- New additions: Funtoo Linux
- New distributions: BlueOnyx, BootMed, Jeoss Linux, quantOS, Semplice Linux, unRAID Server
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (21MB) and MP3 (32MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
What's cooking? It's SliTaz
 SliTaz GNU/Linux is a small Linux distribution that tries to pack a usable desktop operating system into a 31 MB ISO image. I took a look at SliTaz just over a year ago and was impressed with the speed the little distro delivers, a feat achieved with the combination of having a small foot print and running entirely in RAM. Since I last looked at the project, their website has been improved. The layout is attractive, the documentation is well laid out and has helpful examples. The site comes in six translations (German, English, French, Indonesian, Portuguese and Chinese) and there's an active community forum and an issue tracker. The distribution offers two releases, Stable and Cooking -- the development branch. Apart from the two CD images, the project also provides image files for floppy disks. The floppy images are broken into groups, allowing us to get just a text-mode minimal distro with five floppy disks, or get a more complete distro using twenty-two floppies. Whether we use a CD or floppy disks, SliTaz provides a 32-bit operating system for i486 (and newer) computers. Recently I grabbed the latest development snapshot at the time, called SliTaz Cooking-20110329.
Booting from the SliTaz CD gives us a brief boot menu where we can provide optional parameters. We have to be quick or the system will automatically begin its boot process. SliTaz loads quickly and pauses just before reaching the desktop to ask us for our preferred language and keyboard layout. We're then passed over to a graphical interface that features a dark wallpaper with wisps of cloud. The application menu is placed at the top-left corner of the screen and a CPU monitor sits at the top-right. At the bottom of the screen is a task switcher and clock. There are three icons on the desktop for accessing the file system, a text editor and one for opening the project's documentation. The included handbook gives us some good tips on getting started and installing the operating system.
SliTaz GNU/Linux - reading the project's documentation
(full image size: 141kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
The live CD logs us in as an unprivileged user in an effort to keep us from harming our own system. Running the SliTaz installer requires a root password, which can be found in the project's documentation. Prior to running the installer we should make sure we have a partition set aside for SliTaz. If we don't have a suitable partition prepared, the distribution comes with GParted to help us divide up the hard disk. The installer itself is a simple collection of text menus and we're given one question on each screen and asked to select or type a response. The first step asks us for the name of the partition where we will install SliTaz in the form of /dev/sd... If we're unsure, the installer will show us a list of available partitions. We're then asked if we'd like to use a separate partition for our /home directory. Next up we provide a hostname and set the root password. The last two steps are to create a regular user account and tell the installer if we want to install GRUB. Being small, it only takes a few minutes for SliTaz to copy its files to the local drive and perform the initial configuration.
Booting into SliTaz from the hard drive for the first time brings us to a simple graphical login screen. Signing in gives us the same simple graphical environment we had on the live disc with a surprisingly diverse collection of software available in the application menu. Included on the default install are the Midori web browser, Twitter and IRC clients and graphical tools for accessing secure shell servers and performing secure copies. There's a local port scanner, an image viewer, a simple image editor and a PDF viewer. We find an audio player, CD ripper and simple audio editor. Additionally we find tools for handling wireless network connections, a package manager, an app for viewing system & hardware information and GParted. There's a disc burning application, a program for managing the contents of ISO files and the usual collection of configuration tools for changing the look & feel of our environment.
There's a program called the Control Box, which we'll look at in a moment, and links to the project's documentation. Some of these documentation links work, letting us access the project's Handbook, but some others are dead links -- a reminder that this is a development release. SliTaz additionally includes a couple of games to help pass the time. Behind the scenes, we find the 2.6.37 Linux kernel. For some reason the distro runs a web server by default and browsing to the local server shows no index page, but there are some document pages available through the server, if one is willing to look for them. I got the impression the web server was left enabled by accident in this release. The little distro does not include popular multimedia codecs, Java, or Flash, though these items can be found in the project's repositories.
SliTaz GNU/Linux - managing packages
(full image size: 144kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
The distribution's Control Box is a small configuration application that let's us tweak the boot loader, set the system clock and manage user accounts. There are also buttons in the Control Box to launch other configuration tools, giving us short-cuts to network utilities, the package manager, active hardware drivers and a graphical mount tool. Each of these small apps offers bare bones functionality, but I found they worked well enough. Actually, the same description applies to most of the applications included in SliTaz, they're all small, fast and offer a simple interface and basic usefulness. Not the sort of programs I'd throw at a novice Linux user, but people who have become familiar with the OS shouldn't have any problem using them.
Despite its small size, the SliTaz distribution includes a graphical package manager. Though the layout isn't the most friendly, it does offer us the basic functions. On the package manager's main screen we're shown a list of all available software bundles with icons indicating whether each item is installed or not. Double-clicking on a package gives us some detailed information on the software and presents us with the option to download/install/remove the item. During installs dependency resolution is optional and enabled by default. At the bottom of the package manager's window there's are buttons for re-syncing the local software list with the remote repositories and installing all available updates. The package manager includes filters (also located near the bottom of the window), letting us narrow down our view to specific packages.
There are filters for viewing packages based on their installed/available status and by category. For instance, we can view all installable packages marked as office software. The package manager further includes a search tab, allowing us to find software by name. For people who like to manage software from the command line, SliTaz's tazpkg tool contains all the required functionality. The program's syntax is intuitive -- installing a package is done using "tazpkg get-install name", removing is done with "tazpkg remove name", upgrading software to the latest available version is done with "tazpkg upgrade". There are several other options, but I think the above examples demonstrate the straight forward nature of the program. I found tazpkg to be quick and ran into no problems with either the command line utility or the graphical front-end.
SliTaz GNU/Linux - editing images and adjusting sound volume
(full image size: 123kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
I ran SliTaz on two machines, a generic desktop box (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, NVIDIA video card) and my HP laptop (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 3 GB of RAM, Intel video card). The distribution handled the desktop's hardware without any trouble. The screen was set to a suitable resolution and audio worked out of the box. On the laptop the audio worked too and my video card was properly configured, but beyond that, I ran into issues. SliTaz wasn't able to work with my Intel wireless card and the touchpad support was limited. I could move the mouse, but taps-as-clicks and scrolling were disabled. Performance on both machines was good. SliTaz booted in under fifteen seconds and, once logged in, the system's responsiveness was excellent. Running in the graphical environment used about 70 MB of memory and the light weight applications that come with the distro provide basic functionality without requiring a lot of additional memory.
The system installer is probably the most obvious weak point in SliTaz. It's brief, which is nice, but it's missing options. It would also be nice if the installer handled partitioning (or offered to launch GParted) and made setting mount points easier. There are just over 2,700 packages in SliTaz's repositories and the amount of available software (or the lack of) may be an issue for some users. The basics are in there, but it's a small selection compared to the big name Linux projects. On the positive side, SliTaz is the smallest distro I've used that's useful as a desktop OS right away. The speed is impressive, especially when running from RAM, and the flexibility shown by the developers, for example providing floppy images, is welcome. This is a good project to look at if you're in possession of older equipment or plan to perform hardware testing, data recovery or other tasks requiring a live disc. I wouldn't recommend SliTaz to newcomers to Linux, but for people who don't mind seeing the command line occasionally and are passingly familiar with device naming, this distribution packs a lot of tools into a small bundle.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Funtoo improves on Gentoo, Scientific Linux gains mindshare, Mint updates rolling-release editions, Debian and Bodhi interviews
 Let's start this week's news section with some interesting information for the fans of Gentoo Linux and other technical Linux users who enjoy optimising their system by compiling applications from source code. As many of you are aware of, Daniel Robbins, who founded the Gentoo project in 1999 (as Enoch Linux) and who resigned from the duties in 2004, is the man behind a Gentoo-like project called Funtoo. In the beginning Robbins insisted that Funtoo was neither a Gentoo fork, nor a new Linux distro. But the thinking must have changed in recent months because the project's recently-revealed website now describes Funtoo as "a Linux distribution developed by Daniel Robbins and a core team of developers, built around a basic vision of improving the core technologies in Gentoo Linux." Funtoo provides "stages" that serve to install the operating system and it maintains its own Portage tree (a collection of scripts that make it easy to download, compile and install hundreds of applications). The developers do not provide a live CD, but they recommend SystemRescueCd as a good system to boot into in order to install Funtoo. In many ways Funtoo is rather similar to Gentoo; it doesn't offer an easy way to install the distribution, yet it provides excellent documentation for those knowledgeable enough to work on the command line or those willing to learn about the Linux internals. If you are the kind of user who enjoys tinkering with your computers while optimising every bit of code to absolute perfection, Funtoo could be the perfect system for you...
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 Scientific Linux is enjoying an unprecedented boom due to its being the first project to release a free clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6. Nevertheless, users should beware that Scientific Linux is not a "pure" RHEL clone as the developers add some extra applications and utilities to the system. Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier investigates the distro in "Send in the clone: Scientific Linux 6.1 approaches": "According to core contributor Troy Dawson, the 6.x series has the fewest changes from upstream. In the default install, only yum-autoupdate is added to upstream's package selection. Users can also choose to install IceWM, the OpenAFS distributed file system, a handful of yum repositories, and Scientific Linux's tools for creating 'sites.' According to Dawson, the reduction in changes and additional packages comes at the request of the community. 'This was due to requests from the HEP community that we quit adding our own packages and start using the other community based repositories, such as EPEL and RPMForge.' In some cases, changes between upstream and Scientific are available as 'tweak RPMs,' which Dawson says 'change something after the regular RPM is installed.' Dawson says most of the tweak RPMs are not installed by default." The Linux Weekly News website has now added Scientific Linux to the list of security updates that they track and report on.
Scientific Linux 6.1 Alpha - the project has attracted community members who design the distro's desktop theme
(full image size: 299kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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 Linux Mint has become a highly popular distribution (even threatening to overtake Ubuntu in our Page Hit Ranking statistics). Although the project's flagship product is an Ubuntu-based solution, it may be worth investigating the "other" product line - the rolling-release editions of Linux Mint that are based on Debian's testing branch. Jamie Watson takes a look at recent changes in this alternative Mint release in "Linux Mint Debian Edition Updates": "Over the past week or so there have been a lot of significant updates made to the Linux Mint Debian and Linux Mint Xfce distributions. These are 'rolling distributions' which are intended to be continuously updated rather than having periodic major releases, but with all of the activity associated with the recent release of Ubuntu 11.04 and then Linux Mint 11, they appeared to have fallen a bit behind, so these updates are very welcome. The most eye-catching of the updates is that Mint Debian now has its own logo with the Debian symbol in place of the 11 in the standard logo, and there is a new default wallpaper which includes it. Of course, most of the updates are a lot more significant than the cosmetics of a new logo. The first one I noticed was that Firefox is updated to 4.0.1, which I felt was a bit overdue. LibreOffice also got an update to version 3.3.2, the latest in the 3.3 development line."
* * * * *
 Two months ago Stefano Zacchiroli got re-elected as the Debian Project Leader (DPL) for another year. So what are the main challenges facing Debian in the coming months? From "Exclusive Interview with Debian Leader Stefano Zacchiroli": "Several challenges are ahead of us. A particularly important one for me is to keep on showing to the Free Software world that an independent, volunteer-based distro can compete with distros which are sponsored by individual companies. Independence is the only guarantee that money interest will not prevail over software freedom interests and Debian has an important role to play there. Debian is, after all, one of the very few independent distros among the 'most popular distros' that cannot be pinned to a company. That does not mean that Debian lives in an ideal world where companies do not have a role to play in free software. Quite the contrary: one of our future challenges is indeed to find ways to encourage companies to contribute work to Debian, without letting that get into the way of existing Debian decision making processes and independence."
* * * * *
 Finally, a link to an interview with Jeff Hoogland the lead developer of the Ubuntu-based Bodhi Linux, a distribution which offers a unique experience thanks to its custom configuration of the Enlightenment 17 window manager: "Bodhi is aimed at users interested in the Enlightenment desktop and those that like their system free from clutter. Our rapid popularity indicates there is a demand for both of these things. We believe users should be smart enough to make their own choices. We don’t lock down your desktop and make it difficult to edit things like some of the newer desktops (such as GNOME 3 and Unity) have done." The latest stable release is based upon Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Do you provide certain repositories for software? What about updates? " Even though we base ourselves on the Ubuntu LTS release that does not mean Bodhi users are also left with software that is a year old (or more). Unlike a good deal of Ubuntu derivatives we maintain our own repository (not just a PPA) in order to provide software updates to our users. Beyond a current Enlightenment desktop we also ship current versions of a good deal of software, including Firefox and Chromium browsers."
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Personal firewall applications
Custom-protection-seeker asks: Linux personal firewall applications (Firedog, etc) -- are they required and/or better than what comes with a distro?
DistroWatch answers: This will depend a bit on which distro you're using and what you need for a firewall. Some distros don't include a graphical firewall configuration program in the default install, and the ones available in the repositories vary a bit. For instance, Fedora has a well-put-together firewall program called system-config-firewall in the default install. On the other hand, Ubuntu does not include a GUI firewall tool by default, but there's an easy-to-use program called gufw in the repositories. So it may not always be obvious what firewall options are available with a given distribution and how they compare to third-party applications.
To answer your question: in general, for most home users and with most distributions, you will be fine with what is provided by the distribution. In fact I usually prefer what is available in the default install as distros tend to ship fairly simple (read "easy-to-use") firewall applications that work well enough for most people. Aside from Fedora and Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mandriva and Mint all come with good pre-installed firewall tools. The Debian project is nice enough to list several for comparison in their Wiki. So I would recommend starting with whatever your distribution ships and only look elsewhere if you have a specific need that can't be met with your distro. It'll make applying security updates to your firewall program easier and other users on your distro's forums will be in a better position to help you troubleshoot any issues if you stick with the default configuration tools.
Do you have a preferred firewall configuration tool? Let us know in the comments.
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| Released Last Week |
IPFire 2.9 Core 49
Arne Fitzenreiter has announced the release of IPFire 2.9 Core 49, a Linux-based firewall distribution: "Today we are going to release Core Update 49. IPFire 2.9 Core 49 is a bug-fix release and brings minor feature updates. List of changes: QoS - replaced sip with rtp for VoIP; Apache - tuning maximum spare servers to 10; add 'charon' to IPSec log section; fix ID information on IPSec configuration; backup.cgi - added content length to show file status bar; add CGI to display the md-state; services.cgi - blacklist mdadm (no good idea to stop it); extrahd -add mmcblk card reader and mdadm support; extrahd - display also non-partitioned disks; add initskript to wait until slower drives are present; changed OpenVPN CGI to create a CN without a blank; change Squid init script to kill remaining ClamAV redir; lm_sensors - update to 3.3.0...." Here is the full release announcement.
AV Linux 5.0
Glen MacArthur has announced the release of AV Linux 5.0, a Debian-based distribution with a collection of audio and video production software and running on the LXDE desktop: "After more than five months of daily development following the release of 4.2, AV Linux 5.0 is here. This release balances the rock-solid reliability of Debian's stable release and fortifies it with some carefully selected packages to make it a state-of-the-art multimedia content creation powerhouse. Features and improvements: 2.6.39.1 Linux kernel with IRQ threading and rtirq-init activated; complete full-featured desktop package selection including LibreOffice 3.4; RTC (Real-Time Clock) permissions set by default on the live DVD; FFADO SVN Firewire drivers with daisy-chaining on the new Juju stack...." Read the rest of the release announcement for full details and screenshots.
AVLinux 5 - a Debian-based distribution for creating and editing multimedia
(full image size: 2,339kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Parted Magic 6.2
Patrick Verner has released a new version of Parted Magic, a Linux-based live CD with a collection of software designed for disk management and data rescue tasks: "It's that time of the month again. The most noticeable change is that Rox now handles the desktop icons and feh displays the desktop wallpaper. These seemed like the best lightweight choices in preparation for the new PCManFM when it's released as stable. Parted was upgraded to 3.0, but GParted is still linked against libparted 2.4 for now. All fonts should look good in Firefox if you use a language other than US English. A few other useful programs were added like ZFS Fuse, LILO Setup, Rox Filer, and FixParts. Updated programs: TestDisk 6.12, Parted 3.0, Linux kernel 2.6.38.8, GParted 0.8.1...." Visit the project's news page to read the release announcement.
Salix OS 13.37 "Fluxbox"
George Vlahavas has announced that the "Fluxbox" edition of Salix OS 13.37, a lightweight Slackware-based distribution, has been released: "Salix Fluxbox 13.37 is here, available in both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Everyone who has used the 13.1 Fluxbox edition, will find this release very familiar. It comes with Linux kernel 2.6.37.6, Fluxbox 1.3.1, Firefox 4.0.1 and Claws-mail 3.7.8. LibreOffice 3.3.2 is included by default in full mode installations, replacing OpenOffice.org and localization packages for more than a hundred languages are available through the package management tools. Exaile 0.3.2 is the default music player and the Whaaw Media Player, version 0.2.14, is used as the default movie player." Read the full release announcement for further details.
Tiny Core Linux 3.7, 3.7.1
Robert Shingledecker has announced the release of Tiny Core Linux 3.7, a minimalist, but extensible desktop distribution in 10 megabytes: "Team Tiny Core is pleased to announce the release of Tiny Core Linux 3.7. Final change log: new multicore.iso both Tiny Core and Micro Core installation and network tools edition; new added kernel module for NTFS to base, allows read access to NTFS partition; new GUI loadpack to load, when required, Starter Pack after boot; updated rebuildfstab now supports NTFS-3G for NTFS-3G extension, allows read-write access; updated cpanel to reflect changes in the base; updated tc-functions to better handle TCVD virtual disk; updated network GUI to record udhcpc PID for services support when DHCP is requested...." Here is the release announcement with a changelog.
DoudouLinux 1.0
DoudouLinux is a Debian-based distribution targeting young children, with a goal to make computer use as simple and pleasant as possible. The project's version 1.0, code name "Gondwana", is now released: "The version 1.0 of the project is finally ready, after a year of happy work! To mark this event, we named this version Gondwana, for the super-continent which included most of the landmasses in today's southern hemisphere, before the breakup into several continents due to plate tectonics. DoudouLinux provides tens of applications that suit children from 2 to 12 years old and gives them an environment as easy to use as a gaming console. Kids can learn, discover and have fun without dad and mum always watching!" Read the release announcement and check out the feature list for more information.
Greenie Linux 9N
Stanislav Hoferek has announced the release of Greenie Linux 9N, a beginner-friendly Ubuntu-based distribution with enhanced support for Slovak and Czech languages and extra software applications: "Greenie Linux 9N is finally here! Based on Ubuntu 11.04, Greenie uses the classic and solid GNOME 2.32.1 instead of GNOME 3 or Unity. Several new applications (FBReader, gToDo, Adobe Reader, Audacity), new versions of Firefox and all other software, and new, much darker artwork, are now in Greenie. Also we made it possible to run popular websites (Facebook, Twitter, Pastebin, YouTube, etc.) using the Run dialog. This version will come in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours, and the 64-bit edition will be announced very soon." Read the release announcement (in Slovak, except for a brief English note at the bottom) for a detailed list of changes and new features.
Greenie Linux 9N - an Ubuntu-based distribution optimised for use by Slovak and Czech speakers
(full image size: 1,457kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Zorin OS 5 "Gaming", "Multimedia"
Artyom Zorin has announced the release of Zorin OS 5 "Gaming" and "Multimedia" editions, two commercial flavours of the Ubuntu-based desktop distribution designed for Windows users: "The Zorin OS team is proud to release Zorin OS 5 Gaming and Multimedia which bring a lot of new and enhanced features to Zorin OS, our operating system designed for Windows users. This release uses the GNOME 2.X classic environment instead of Ubuntu's Unity shell. Zorin OS 5 Gaming includes over 40 of the best Linux games and emulators while Zorin OS 5 Multimedia has the best software for multimedia use. Both of them also include our innovative Zorin Look Changer Premium, Zorin Internet Browser Manager, Zorin Background Plus and other programs from our earlier versions. Both editions are available for a small donation of €7 for a download and €10 for a DVD. The Zorin OS 5 Lite, Educational and Business editions will be released over the next few weeks." Here is the brief release announcement.
Fuduntu 14.10
Andrew Wyatt has announced the release of Fuduntu 14.10, a Fedora-based desktop distribution: "The Fuduntu team is pleased to announce the general availability of Fuduntu 14.10. This release continues our tradition of small incremental improvements bringing new versions of several important packages and bug fixes to the Fuduntu Linux distribution. Included in this release: Linux kernel 2.6.39.1, Adobe Flash 10.3, Chromium 12, Shotwell 0.10.1; ext4 is now our default file system during installation; support for NVIDIA (akmod-nvidia), and ATI (akmod-catalyst) proprietary drivers; a tool to help simplify customizing your installation; a theme refresh, correcting several bugs and streamlining the look and feel; new background choices; new tweaks to improve Flash playback; bug fixes; the quarterly patch roll-up." The release announcement.
Webconverger 8.0
Kai Hendry has announced the release of Webconverger 8.0, a Debian-based live CD for web kiosks, with Firefox 4, designed for deployments in places like offices or Internet cafés where only web applications are used: "Webconverger 8.0 allows you to deploy Firefox 4.0.1 in a kiosk environment. This release uses a lot of up-to-date Debian packages from Progress Linux. Between 7.2 to 8.0 there are several highlights such as: Firefox 4.0.1, updated Adobe Flash to 10.3.181.26, 2.6.39 Linux kernel, a few extra locales like South African English. Security has been tightened up by removing terminals, though there are probably ways of downloading 32-bit terminals for execution that could be blocked. There is a known issue where sometimes Webconverger boots without loading the browser. This is a strange intermittent problem that needs debugging. If it happens to you, please try booting again." Read the rest of the release notes for further 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 |
Annual package database update
Last week we called for suggestions for the annual package database update and this is what we have so far:
- Current list of packages earmarked for inclusion: gnome-shell, mesa3d, midori, nano, octave, openshot, xz
- Current list of packages earmarked for removal: checkinstall, hal, kaffeine, nedit, mod_perl, mod_ssl, mono, netatalk, yaboot
- Current list of packages which will be listed under a different name: OpenOffice.org --> LibreOffice, qt-x11 --> qt, xfce --> xfdesktop
If you have software packages that you would like to see tracked by DistroWatch, this is your last chance to suggest them (either by emailing to distro at distrowatch dot com or by submitting a comment below). The next package update will only take place in June 2012! For more information please see the database of tracked packages page.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
- Funtoo Linux. Funtoo Linux is a Gentoo-based distribution developed by Daniel Robbins (the founder and former project leader of Gentoo Linux) and a core team of developers, built around a basic vision of improving the core technologies in Gentoo Linux. Funtoo Linux features native UTF-8 support enabled by default, a git-based, distributed Portage tree and Funtoo overlay, an enhanced Portage with more compact mini-manifest tree, automated imports of new Gentoo changes every 12 hours, GPT/GUID boot support and streamlined boot configuration, enhanced network configuration, up-to-date stable and current Funtoo stages - all built using Funtoo's Metro build tool.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- BlueOnyx. BlueOnyx is a CentOS-based Linux distribution which aims at delivering a turnkey server appliance for web hosting. It comes with a web-based GUI interface which allows users to manage most aspects of the server, its sites and accounts. It is open-source software, released under a Sun-modified BSD license.
- BootMed. The BootMed Live CD is an Ubuntu remix for those new to Linux. Its main goal is to help the average Windows user to recover a computer that will not boot.
- Jeoss Linux. Jeoss Linux is a compact, install-everywhere, Ubuntu-based, server-oriented distribution. It is directly installable even on legacy, limited-resource, and embedded x86 platforms. The install process can be controlled from start to finish by the target local console, a remote serial console or a remote SSH session.
- quantOS. quantOS, based on Linux Mint, is a hardened Linux distribution for secure daily use as a desktop operating system. quantOS leverages AppArmor application security profiles, Arkose Desktop Application Sandboxing and Vidalia for creating secure Tor connections to enhance online privacy.
- Semplice Linux. Semplice Linux is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian's unstable branch with the goal to provide a simple, fast, lightweight and cool environment.
- unRAID Server. unRAID Server is an embedded Network-Attached Storage server operating system designed to boot from a USB Flash device and specifically designed for digital media storage.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 27 June 2011.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Ussye 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 |
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| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Cucumber Linux aims to provide a Linux distribution that was usable as an every day, general purpose operating system. It aims to this in as minimalistic a way as possible and in a way that follows the Unix Philosophy. Cucumber Linux favors simplicity and modularity of design over simplicity of use. While developed independently, Cucumber's design was heavily influenced by Slackware Linux.
Status: Discontinued
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