 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 438, 9 January 2012 |
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Welcome to this year's second issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The recent release of VectorLinux, a Slackware-based community distribution that has been around for well over a decade, is a curious mix of user-friendly ideas and software, put together by a tight group of highly experienced hard-core developers. As such, the product tends to make good first impression, but under the hood things can get a little rough at times. Jesse Smith has spent a week evaluating VectorLinux 7.0 - read below for his experiences and recommendations. In the news section, Mandriva once again gets into the headlines for all the wrong reasons, Ubuntu rumours (and occasionally even facts) continue on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and CentOS developers remind users to keep using the useful CR repository for timely security updates. Also in this issue, a first-look review of the Razor-Qt desktop, a lightweight environment built with the Qt toolkit. Finally, we are happy to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch.com December 2011 donation is the Transmission project. Happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
First look at VectorLinux 7.0
 I wanted to start the year off by looking at a Linux project which doesn't generally get much of the spotlight. The project I chose is VectorLinux whose team, toward the end of 2011, launched version 7.0 of their distribution. The project advertises their credo as "keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be." It certainly sounds good on virtual paper, especially for people who are interested in resurrecting older hardware. The latest version of VectorLinux comes in two editions, Standard and Live. The latter doubles as both a live CD and as installation media. At the time of writing, both editions are available in 32-bit builds only and both ISOs are about 700 MB in size.
Booting off the CD brings up a boot menu which will allow us to boot into a graphical desktop or command line. Taking the default desktop option shows us some start-up messages and ultimately presents us with the Xfce desktop environment. The background is soft blue and dotted with icons for navigating the file system and bringing up various sections of the VectorLinux website. At the top of the screen we find an application menu, task switcher and system tray. At the bottom we find an OS X style launcher and task switcher. If we poke around in the application menu we'll find the installer, which is labeled "Install VL". At this point I feel it's worth noting that performing administrative actions, such as running the installer, brings up a password prompt. The password is blank.
VectorLinux 7.0 - the system installer
(full image size: 531kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
The installer is probably the weakest part of the distribution. It isn't so much an application as a series of independent dialog boxes. There doesn't appear to be any way to go back to previous screens and closing one dialog just brings up the next one. In other words, don't make any mistakes and you can't abort. Each window that pops up looks like something cobbled together in Motif. That's not to say the installer doesn't work; it does, and on my test runs it did its job without any problems. I bring up the presentation because I found it to be in high contrast to the rest of my experience with the distribution, which was generally both functional and attractive.
The first thing the installer does is give us the option of launching GParted to carve up the hard disk. Once we've closed GParted we're presented with a menu which allows us to create a user account and set the root password. The normal user account creation goes into a fair amount of detail, including picking groups and setting the user's ID number. Then we move on setting the current date and time. Next up we have the option of removing optional hardware support. After that we have the option of selecting which services will be enabled at various run levels. We're then asked to choose which partition will hold the root file system and, optionally, we can provide a separate /home partition. The last step of the installer asks us where to install the LILO boot loader.
When first booting into the newly installed VectorLinux distribution the system automatically logs us in. Interestingly enough, we are logged in as the user "vl", not the user created at install time. This behaviour can easily be changed through the distro's login settings GUI. Exploring the interface I found it to be fairly standard Xfce material, with the addition of the Cairo-Dock at the bottom of the screen. One aspect of the environment I found eye-catching (though perhaps both normal and appealing to some users) is that the top bar, which holds the task switcher, will grow or shrink depending on how many applications are open. Usually this seemed like a good idea as the top bar was only as wide as it had to be and this made sure I only had to move the mouse pointer the minimum amount of distance to access items. On the other hand, I sometimes found myself chasing the application menu if a dialog box appeared. Generally though Xfce performed quickly, the interface is easy to navigate and Xfce is pleasantly flexible and tends to stay out of the way.
The distribution's CD contains a good collection of default software. These applications tend to be GTK+-based and cover a wide range of functionality. We're given the Firefox web browser, Pidgin for instant messaging, XChat, the gFTP client and Zenmap. There's a disc burner, the Exaile media player, the MPlayer multimedia player and Xine. In the Office menu we're given AbiWord and Gnumeric, along with the Orage calendar application and a thesaurus. There's a PDF viewer, the GParted disk manager, the htop process viewer and the Grsync backup tool. There's a diagram editor, the GIMP, Inkscape and Shotwell. For developer tools we're provided with GCC, the Glade IDE, Geany and a graphical front-end for CMake. There's a system configuration tool called vasm, and a wide selection of tools for managing the look & feel of Xfce. As usual, we have a text editor, calculator and archive manager. VectorLinux comes with Java and Flash, popular multimedia codecs and the 3.0 version of the Linux kernel.
VectorLinux 7.0 - running various applications
(full image size: 350kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
I tried running VectorLinux on two physical machines, my HP laptop (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 3 GB of RAM, Intel video card) and a generic desktop box (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM, NVIDIA video card). On both machines VectorLinux booted fairly quickly and, once at the desktop, the system was very responsive. The Xfce environment is pleasantly light and, even with the extra launch bar, I found it to be fast. On both machines all of my hardware was detected and configured out of the box. My Intel wireless card was activated and picked up local networks without any input on my part and VectorLinux set my screen resolution to its highest setting on both computers. I found when sitting idle at the desktop VectorLinux would use about 128 MB of memory, leaving plenty of room for applications.
VectorLinux comes with the gslapt package manager. The gslapt interface is similar, I find, to Synaptic's -- plain, straight forward and suited to performing a batch of actions all at once. At the top of the window we find buttons for refreshing the package list, performing queued actions and marking all available upgrades for installation. In the middle of the window we find a list of available packages in alphabetical order and we're able to search for software by name. All in all, I found gslapt worked smoothly and I like that it provides detailed information on the actions it is performing. It's a fairly good all-in-one package manager, with no extra bells or whistles and I was able to find software I wanted in the repositories, such as games, administration tools and LibreOffice. One thing I did miss when running VectorLinux was any sort of notification when new software upgrades were available. Checking for updates requires the user to open the package manager, refresh the repository information and apply any updates. Maybe the lack of notification is part of the "keep it simple, keep it small" philosophy, but it's a feature I like to have on desktop systems.
While I'm on the subject of things I missed or that bothered me, I have a few others (mostly minor) which caught my attention during my trial with VectorLinux. Perhaps the biggest issue I had was with the Cairo-Dock, the launch bar placed at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes it would pop-up over windows I was working in when I didn't want it, other times it refused to appear when I wanted to use it, Cairo-Dock's behaviour rarely felt consistent and I eventually disabled it. Fortunately this is easy to do, thanks to Xfce's flexible and easy-to-navigate settings. In a similar vein I discovered a few quirks on the command line. For example, VectorLinux comes with (and suggests the use of) Midnight Commander, a file manager. Well and good, but the default terminal's short-cut keys interfere with Midnight Commander's control keys, so it may be best to only use the venerable file manager if you're running from a real text screen. Though not itself a problem, I found it odd that VectorLinux comes with the gFTP client, yet it's one of the few distributions I know of which doesn't include a command line telnet or FTP client out of the box. Lastly, the application menu includes a top-level entry called "Help". The link this entry points to doesn't exist, which is likely to frustrate users looking for assistance.
VectorLinux 7.0 - browsing the web and using Cairo-Dock
(full image size: 454kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
It would be accurate to say there were a lot of little things which bothered me in this release, but it's also fair to say that VectorLinux has a number of points in its favour. It detected and used all of my hardware properly, performance was first-rate, codecs and Flash are available in the default install and it comes with a lot of useful software. Whether these pros and cons balance each other out will be a matter of taste. My overall impression of VectorLinux 7.0 is perhaps best described by comparing two types of applications. You know how some graphical applications are obviously front-ends to command-line programs, Grsync would be an example. It's apparent they're an attractive layer which is just going to take your input fields and run them through a command line program in the background.
Other graphical applications appear to be designed to really be naturally graphical, not just pretty entry fields. Even if they do ultimately pass your data off to a command line program their work flow is smooth enough you don't think about it. Take K3b as an example; it uses behind-the-scenes components, but the design is smooth and abstract enough that we typically don't consider what's going on under the surface. Running this distribution felt like using the former. The installer, the vasm configuration utility, the splash screen shown at boot time and the package manager all feel like a thin layer over a command-prompt driven operating system. For intermediate and advanced users who know the command line and are comfortable with it, but prefer the convenience of point-n-click interfaces, I think VectorLinux is a good option. It's especially well-suited to older hardware. It installs quickly, runs fast and stays out of the way. Less experienced users are likely to be put off by the approach and will want a smoother, more beginner-friendly set of tools than what the distribution provides.
VectorLinux has some odd behaviour and, in my eyes, undesirable defaults, but it also comes with good configuration tools and a responsive, clean environment. It's not something I'd recommend to most desktop users, though it is perhaps a good stepping stone for people interested in Slackware and that family of Linux distributions.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Mandriva in bankruptcy threat, latest on Ubuntu-powered devices, CentOS on CR repository
 Mandriva Linux, once the top distribution in this site's Page Hit Ranking statistics, has had a turbulent history, coming close to a bankruptcy on several occasions. News reports about the latest round of financial troubles started appearing over the weekend after Mandriva CEO Dominique Loucougain had sent a notice to shareholders threatening to cease operations as early as next week. Susan Linton reports for OStatic: "Wolfgang Bornath posted the text from a letter shareholders received from Dominique Loucougain, president of the executive board of Mandriva SA dated December 23, 2011. It provided proof that the news was true. He wrote on the Mageia forums: 'In late December the CEO sent a notice to all shareholders. Mandriva needs a raise in capital, otherwise it will have to cease operations on January 16th. The main investor is OK with the raise and declared that they would give the money all by themselves if necessary. But the former main investor Occam (who is now Linlux) does not agree to the raise.'" The author concludes the story with a plug for Mageia, a community distribution formed in 2010 by former Mandriva developers and contributors: "While the news about Mandriva is sad knowing they are teetering on the edge of oblivion, if the worst should happen, Mageia is there." For more on the situation see also these articles by Computerworld and ITworld, with further discussions on Slashdot, LinuxFr (in French) and Mandriva Brazil (in Portuguese).
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  Continuing with rumour mill, the expected move by Canonical into the mobile device market has given rise to speculation that an Ubuntu-powered tabled PC could be announced as soon as this week, during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 which starts tomorrow (Tuesday) in Las Vegas. ExtremeTech's Ray Walters has even created a mockup of a tablet (pictured on the right) which he named "ShuttlePad", in reference to Canonical's founder Mark Shuttleworth. But the author also remains sceptical about the company's chances to succeed in a market that is already dominated by powerful players. From "Canonical announcing Ubuntu 'concept' device at CES": "As far as market penetration in the US, it's going to be difficult for a non-carrier-supported device to make much of an impact. With the smartphone market already saturated with products from Google, Apple and Microsoft, the device is going to have some killer feature to attract consumers. Being able to run Android apps in some sort of emulation mode isn't going to do the trick. Any kind of Ubuntu-based device is going to be a niche product for Linux geeks and the more technical user at best. There are just too many smartphone options already on the market that are already entrenched in the hearts and minds of the consumer."
Another piece of hardware Ubuntu has reportedly been interested in targeting with its software is the television. Direct from CES, PC Pro's Barry Collins has the latest, together with the first screenshots: "Canonical has demonstrated Ubuntu TV for the first time, as the company moves to broaden the reach of its open-source OS beyond the PC. Plans for versions of the Linux distro for tablets, smartphones and TVs were unveiled last year, and now the television is - perhaps surprisingly - the first of those to arrive. The company is showing off the first Ubuntu TV at CES here in Las Vegas, and Canonical expects the first Ubuntu-powered television to be on the shelves by the end of this year. Silber told us Canonical was in discussions with a number of television manufacturers, but couldn't confirm any signed deals. It will face stiff competition from Google - which only last week added LG to its roster of Google TV manufacturers - and Apple, which is widely tipped to be working on an internet television after making little impact with successive generations of its Apple TV hardware. Silber however remains confident that Ubuntu TV can offer something different to its two formidable rivals."
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 Away from the glamorous universe of high-tech shows, a more mundane world is awaiting many CentOS users who have finally been able to upgrade their installations to version 6.2 and thus catching up with the upstream vendor (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). The CentOS project has been criticised for not providing timely point releases, although its optional "Continuous Release" (CR) repository was designed to meet the security updates while the latest point release was being worked on. And even though users running CentOS 6.2 no longer need it, Johnny Hughes believes it's a good idea to have the CR repository enabled: "We have put a Continuous Release (CR) repository in place for both CentOS 5 and CentOS 6. This repository can be installed via the simple command 'yum install centos-release-cr'. The purpose of the CR repository is to allow the CentOS Project to push some of the security updates if we are having issues with a point release build (like we did with both CentOS 6.0 and CentOS 6.1). If we are not going to meet the 2-4 week goal for our point release, we will push out the packages we have gotten to build properly while continuing to work on the problem packages. This repository is totally optional and was not needed with CentOS 6.2, but we recommend it be installed if you want to get your security updates as fast as possible." The author also reminds users of CentOS 4 that the product will reach end of life in February 2012.
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| Sneak Peeks (by Jesse Smith) |
The Razor-qt desktop environment
One of the big news items in the open source community at the end of 2011 was the arrival of the Razor-qt desktop environment. Razor-qt is a light desktop environment in a similar vein with LXDE and Xfce. However, where Xfce and LXDE are based on the GTK+ framework, making them a lighter sibling to GNOME, Razor-qt is put together using Qt, the same technology upon which the KDE desktop is built. The Razor-qt team recently pushed out version 0.4 of their environment and I decided to take a look at the offering.
Before getting into the technology itself, I will say that a lightweight desktop based on Qt is something which I've been hoping to see for several years. I am a big fan of Qt and, while I also like the KDE desktop, I find KDE is a bit heavy for older machines and its interface is busier than one usually finds in other desktops. Having a low-resource desktop environment using the powerful Qt toolkit strikes me as a great way to enjoy all the benefits of Qt without the overhead involved in running KDE. In short, there is great potential here to entice new users and developers who might be interested in the benefits of Qt, but who aren't comfortable with KDE.
Razor-qt 0.4 - running with multiple applications open
(full image size: 152kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Logging into Razor-qt for the first time brings up a prompt asking which window manager we would like to use with the desktop. Installed window managers are detected and displayed in a list. As I am running KDE on my desktop these days KWin was the only option presented. The Razor-qt desktop is laid out in the classic manner with the application menu, task switcher and system tray at the bottom of the screen. The default background is a soft, deep blue and an analog clock widget sits in the top-right corner of the display. On my system no icons were displayed on the desktop. The application menu appears to have been borrowed from KDE and is displayed in the classic layout.
Something I noticed early on is that Razor-qt doesn't, by default, start many programs. Items such as a network connection manager, volume control and clipboard aren't present. A quick look at Razor-qt's settings shows we can set such utilities to start when we login, but by default we're given a very plain environment in which to work. While this lacks a certain convenience, it does mean we can easily craft our own interface starting with a very simple framework.
Since I just mentioned the environment's settings, this seems like a good point to talk about Razor-qt's two main configuration tools. One is labeled Razor Desktop Configuration and the other is called Razor Session Configuration, both can be found in the application menu. The former deals with options such as which file controls the contents of the menu, the background wallpaper and whether we see icons on the desktop. The Session Configuration tool lets us adjust which programs are launched at login, which window manager to use and default applications for opening files. I found the settings straight forward and, while there aren't many options at this time, both panels worked well.
Razor-qt 0.4 - configuration panels
(full image size: 224kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
For me perhaps the only unusual aspect of using Razor-qt was the desktop's Edit Mode. Right-clicking on the desktop allows us to activate something called Edit Mode where the background dims and we can adjust the environment's widgets. Unlike KDE, which allows the user to directly interact with widgets, Razor-qt requires that we change modes before we can alter the position of these items. We can click on and drag widgets around the screen, remove them and add new ones. At the moment only a few widgets are available, mostly for demonstration purposes, but they worked well enough. Exiting Edit Mode is accomplished by right-clicking on the desktop again and unchecking the proper box.
Razor-qt 0.4 - Edit Mode
(full image size: 229kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Since I have had front row seats to most of the early releases of KDE and GNOME (most infamously KDE 4.0), I went into my trial with Razor-qt assuming there would be the occasional problem. A few rough edges are to be expected in a 0.x release. Surprisingly there really weren't any big issues. During the week I used Razor-qt it functioned smoothly. I didn't see any crashes or poor behaviour. The desktop was responsive and, even with a few applications in the system tray, the environment used less than 50 MB of memory.
My reaction to Razor-qt at the end of the week is that the environment is more capable and more stable than I would expect from a 0.4 release. My system runs KDE smoothly, so I may be in a poor position to judge Razor-qt's performance, especially for low-resource machines, but I found the desktop to be quick to respond. There were no stability issues and I found most of the controls intuitive. I think managing widgets and the switch between using mode and editing mode could be a little more obvious and I would like to see some more options, especially where fonts and colours are concerned. However, those minor issues aside the experience was quite good. Certainly better than I would expect from such a young project.
In short, there are a few rough edges to smooth down, but the foundation is solid, small and useful. Once I had my start-up applications configured to include things like wicd and a volume control, logging into Razor was like logging into KDE's little, less complicated sibling. I'm not ready to make Razor-qt my default desktop at this point, but the work done so far speaks to a very promising future. For those interested in trying Razor, packages for Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, Arch Linux and a few other distributions are available. People comfortable with compiling their software from source can find Razor-qt's source code on the project's website.
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| Released Last Week |
Gentoo Linux 12.0
David Abbott has announced the release of Gentoo Linux 12.0. The live DVD is meant to merely showcase the current cutting-edge state of Gentoo and it does not provide a hard disk installation program. From the release announcement: "Gentoo Linux is proud to announce the availability of a new live DVD to celebrate the continued collaboration between Gentoo users and developers. The live DVD features a superb list of packages, such as Linux kernel 3.1.5, X.Org Server 1.10.4, KDE 4.7.4, GNOME 3.2.1, Xfce 4.8, Fluxbox 1.3.2, Firefox 9.0, LibreOffice 3.4.99.2, GIMP 2.6.11, Blender 2.60, Amarok 2.5, VLC 1.1.13, Chromium 16.0 and much more. Special features: writable file systems using Aufs so you can emerge new packages; persistence for $HOME is available. The live DVD is available in two flavors: a hybrid x86/x86_64 edition, and an x86_64 multi-lib edition."
Gentoo Linux 12.0 - a new live DVD showcasing the latest and greatest in Gentoo development
(full image size: 1,860kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
BackBox Linux 2.01
Raffaele Forte has announced the release of BackBox Linux 2.01, an Ubuntu-based distribution and live DVD tailored to penetration testing and security assessment tasks: "The BackBox team is proud to announce the release 2.01 of BackBox Linux.The new release includes features such as Ubuntu 11.04, Linux Kernel 2.6.38 and Xfce 4.8.0. What's new: system upgrade; performance boost; new look; improved start menu; bug corrections; new sections such as Forensic Analysis, Documentation & Reporting and Reverse Engineering; new hacking tools and updated tools such as Dradis 2.8, ettercap 0.7.4.2, John the Ripper 1.7.8, Metasploit 4.2, Nmap 5.51, SET 2.5.2, Sleuth Kit 3.2.1, w3af 1.0, weevely 0.5, Wireshark 1.6.3." Here is the full release announcement with system requirements.
FreeNAS 8.0.3
James Nixon has announced the release of FreeNAS 8.0.3, the latest update of the project's FreeBSD-based system designed to provide free Network-Attached Storage (NAS) services. What's new? "Use smaller block and frag sizes for /etc and /var; import a build tweak to nuke /var/db/pkg to save 7 MB of space; other build tweaks to remove non-essential features and packages from the image; disable output to /var/log/console.log in non-debug builds to avoid unnecessary duplication in /var/log/messages; upgrade ATAidle to 2.6; upgrade Nut and net-snmp to 2.6.2 and 5.7.1, respectively; import Omnibus build system fixes to fix the fact that the 8.0.3-BETA1 image was broken due to the environment of the build machine where it was produced on; increase the /var size from 74 MB to 160 MB so that Samba will be able to service requests copying large sets of files...." Read the rest of the release notes for a complete changelog.
Incognito Live System 0.10
Version 0.10 of Incognito Live System (also known as TAILS) has been released. New features in this release of the project's Debian-based live CD with strong privacy-preserving features include: "Tor upgrade to 0.2.2.35; install Iceweasel 9.0 from the Debian Mozilla team's APT repository; update Torbutton to 1.4.5.1; support viewing any YouTube video that is available in HTML 5 format; use Scroogle (any language) instead of Scroogle (English only) when booted in English; install the NoScript Firefox extension; disable third-party cookies, they can be used to track users, which is bad; do not transparently proxy outgoing Internet connections through Tor, instead drop all non-Torified Internet traffic; applications have to be explicitly configured to use Tor in order to reach the Internet; upgrade Vidalia to 0.2.15, this version will not warn about new Tor versions...." See the rest of the release announcement for a detailed list of changes.
IPFire 2.11 Core 55
Michael Tremer has announced the release of IPFire 2.11 Core 55, a specialist Linux distribution for firewalls: "Today, we are going to release two new core updates for the IPFire firewall distribution. Core Update 54 - minor feature enhancements and bug fixes. This core update comes with some updates for network hardware that will give more speed and reliability. The web proxy service has been updated as well and consumes less memory in some circumstances, among other improvements. The intrusion detection system rules download is working again for the latest rule set and the hardware status section in the web user interface recognizes more hard drives. Core Update 55 - six security updates in OpenSSL, OpenSSH has been updated to version 5.9p1." Read the full release announcement additional details.
Porteus 1.1
Jay Flood has announced the release of Porteus 1.1, a Slackware-based live CD with a choice of Trinity (a KDE 3 fork), KDE 4 and LXDE desktops: "The Porteus community is pleased to announce the official and final release of Porteus version 1.1. This release is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions and includes several bug fixes and some new features. Chief among them are a new graphical installer and a completely overhauled Porteus package manager, which now allows users to download hundreds of software packages with automatic dependency resolution through a clean GUI interface. There have been vast improvements since our version 1.0 release, here are the main changes: upgraded to Linux kernel 3.1.8 with BFS scheduler and ASPM patch; upgraded NDISwrapper to latest stable version; dropped Broadcom driver as the kernel supports most devices...." Here is the full release announcement.
Porteus 1.1 - the i486 edition comes with the Trinity desktop
(full image size: 637kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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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 |
December 2011 DistroWatch.com donation: Transmission
We are happy to announce that the recipient of the December 2011 DistroWatch.com donation is Transmission, a cross-platform BitTorrent client. The project receives US$250 in cash.
Transmission is a fairly simple BitTorrent client with only limited number of tools found in other popular download utilities, so simplicity is perhaps its greatest strength. That said, Transmission still boasts some powerful features: "Encryption, a web interface, peer exchange, magnet links, DHT, µTP, UPnP and NAT-PMP port forwarding, webseed support, watch directories, tracker editing, global and per-torrent speed limits, and more." It also has the lowest memory footprint of any major BitTorrent client. If you'd like to find out more, the project's about page is a good place to start.
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with cash contributions. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for future donations. Those readers who wish to contribute towards these donations, please use our advertising page to make a payment (PayPal and credit cards are accepted). Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($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), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285)
- 2010: Qimo 4 Kids ($250), Squid ($250), Libre Graphics Meeting ($300), Bacula ($250), FileZilla ($300), GCompris ($352), Xiph.org ($250), Clonezilla ($250), Debian Multimedia ($280), Geany ($300), Mageia ($470), gtkpod ($300)
- 2011: CGSecurity ($300), OpenShot ($300), Imagination ($250), Calibre ($300), RIPLinuX ($300), Midori ($310), vsftpd ($300), OpenShot ($350), Trinity Desktop Environment ($300), LibreCAD ($300), LiVES ($300), Transmission ($250)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$30,190 to various open-source software projects.
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- DRBL Live. DRBL Live is a specialist Debian-based live CD featuring Diskless Remote Boot in Linux (DRBL), a free software solution for managing the deployment of GNU/Linux operating systems across many clients.
- Lena Linux. Lena Linux is a distribution intended to be installed on a 4 GB Flash drive or SD card. It is geared towards the creative do-it-yourself programmer, musician or artist who wants to get straight into developing home-brew cross-platform applications and games with the least hassle.
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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, 16 January 2012.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Troppix
Troppix was a stand-alone Linux live CD based on Debian GNU/Linux, aimed at security professionals, penetration testers and auditors. In particular, Troppix features support for a wide range of wireless cards, and offers several tools for detecting and penetrating wireless networks. Troppix also includes several well known security tools, such as the nmap port scanner and the metasploit framework for vulnerability exploitation.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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