DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 476, 1 October 2012 |
Welcome to this year's 40th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! openSUSE's latest release may have arrived later than originally scheduled, but, based on early reviews, version 12.2 looks like another rock-solid release. With its superb configuration tools, enormous software repository and large user community, openSUSE 12.2 has everything to become one of the top releases of 2012. Jesse Smith takes it for a spin and reports about his findings in this week's feature article. In the news section, Slackware Linux 14.0 finally arrives after 17 months of development, Fedora increases integration of business features in preparation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, ZevenOS developers ready to close shop citing lack of community involvement, and Roberto Dohnert outlines plans for the future of the Ubuntu-based OS4 distribution. Also in this release, a Tips and Tricks section which provides a useful step-by-step tutorial on how to connect to your home computer from a remote location. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the September 2012 DistroWatch.com donation is Zim, an open-source graphical text editor based on wiki technologies. Happy reading!
Content:
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Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Review of openSUSE 12.2
It arrived a little later than originally expected, but the openSUSE project managed to get version 12.2 out the door. This release of the great green distro has an impressive feature list. Some of the highlights in the release notes include improved performance, enhancements to Btrfs and a move to the GRUB2 boot loader as the system's default. Version 12.2 comes with some other interesting features, including improved multi-touch and multi-seat support and a recent Linux kernel, version 3.4. According to openSUSE's release notes, the new kernel is supposed to support capping CPU usage of processes, though at time of writing I haven't found any documentation on this feature on the openSUSE website.
Installation and first impressions
There are four different editions of openSUSE. There is a full 4.7 GB DVD containing a range of software. We find two live CD editions, one featuring KDE and the other featuring GNOME. The forth option is a 180 MB network installation disc for people who just want to download the specific packages they require. Each option is available in 32-bit and 64-bit builds and can be acquired via a direct download or through BitTorrent. I opted to try the KDE disc which is approximately 670 MB in size. Booting off the media we are presented with a boot menu which asks if we would like to load the live desktop environment, perform an installation or check the integrity of the media. I opted to dive into the installer.
When we launch the distribution's graphical installer we are first asked for our preferred language and keyboard layout. We are shown the project's license agreement and then asked to select our time zone from a map of the world. We then get into disk partitioning and we can select from either a guided approach or jump straight into a manual configuration. The guided approach will accept a few pieces of input, so one might say we are guiding the guide. The installer supports ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, Reiserfs and Btrfs file systems. Further, I was pleased to discover openSUSE does a nice job of setting up a default Btrfs system for us with sub volumes and automated snapshots, but we can talk more about Btrfs later. The installer additionally supports LVM and encrypted partitions.
Once we are done dividing up the disk we move on to creating a user account and we have the option of enabling auto-login and we can choose authentication methods and then the installer displays a list of actions it plans to take. From this final screen we can click on any of the actions and that will take us to the appropriate page to change our settings. For instance, I jumped into the boot loader configuration and found openSUSE would allow me to choose between installing GRUB2, GRUB or LILO. Each boot loader can be configured in a good deal of detail and closing the page took me back to the installer's action summary screen. Accepting the list of planned changes kicks off the installation itself and a short time later, once all the required files have been copied to our hard drive, the installer prompts us to reboot the machine.

openSUSE 12.2 - the welcome screen (full image size: 662kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Booting into openSUSE we are shown a green loading screen while pale dots dance across the display. It looks like a group of fireflies hiding behind green stained glass. The first time we load openSUSE a graphical wizard appears and begins running a series of configuration steps. The steps are completely automated and we merely have to wait for a minute or two for the wizard to finish its tasks. Then we are presented with a graphical login screen. Signing into our account we are shown a welcome screen containing links to the openSUSE forms, the project's news blog and KDE documentation. Closing the welcome screen reveals a collection of icons on the desktop. These icons will bring up system information, open a browser to the openSUSE website, bring up Firefox, let us browse the file system or start LibreOffice. The KDE interface is set up with a classic layout. The application menu, task switcher and system tray sit at the bottom of the screen. By default we find desktop effects and search indexing are enabled, however while these features typically cause my desktop to lag when running other distributions, I found my interface continued to be responsive with these items enabled on openSUSE.
Software and package management
Looking at openSUSE's application menu we find a useful collection of popular software. The Firefox and Konqueror web browsers are present. KMail is included for e-mail, the Choqok micro-blogging software is featured as is KTorrent. Most of the LibreOffice suite is included in the menu, though the Calc spreadsheet application is missing. For multimedia we find the Amarok music player, the KsCD audio CD player and Kaffeine is included for playing videos. We also find an image viewer, text editor, archive manager and a virtual calculator. Some accessibility options are included such as a screen magnifier and a virtual keyboard. To help protect our privacy the KGpg encryption tool is featured.
The powerful YaST control centre is available to us, as is the KDE System Settings panel. These help us configure the operating system as a whole and the desktop environment respectively. The KDE Help Centre is installed for us and Network Manager is available to help us get on-line. I didn't find Java, multimedia codecs or Flash installed by default, but these can be found in the repositories. By default, mail and secure shell services are running in the background and, behind the scenes, openSUSE features version 3.4 of the Linux kernel. One aspect of the application menu I appreciated was when new programs were installed they were added to a category at the top of the menu called Recently Installed. This makes finding new applications easier than if we had to hunt through the menu.

openSUSE 12.2 - reading the release announcement and running LibreOffice (full image size: 229kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
As previously mentioned, openSUSE does not come with popular media codecs. When we attempt to play a file for which the system doesn't have a codec the media player (typically either Amarok or Kaffeine) will offer to hunt down the required codec. I found that Amarok was able to locate and install codecs for MP3 files in the standard openSUSE repositories, however video codecs required a bit more work. When attempting to play a video file the system will offer to find the proper codec and fail to locate the required packages. The system then offers to open a website containing information on third-party codecs. Opening the offered website we find an explanation as to why multimedia support is missing from the default install and then we are shown two sets of instructions for adding these missing packages. We can either click a link that automates the entire process (and this option works nicely) or we can copy command line instructions into our console. Whichever way we go openSUSE downloads the proper packages providing multimedia support. While not quite as convenient as Ubuntu's method of letting us click a checkbox during the initial install, openSUSE's approach to multimedia is fairly balanced and it isn't hard for users, even fairly inexperienced users, to find the software they want.
However, it was about this time when I ran into my one major gripe with openSUSE 12.2. When I was trying to add codecs (and at another point when I was trying to download security updates) I ran into an error telling me package transactions were locked by PackageKit. Would I like to ask PackageKit to close? I opted yes, I wanted PackageKit to wrap up and let me perform my tasks. A few seconds later I was told that PackageKit refused to respond and would I like to try again? I tried again five times and finally gave up, opting to wait. An hour later PackageKit was still showing as busy. Assuming something had gone wrong I killed the PackageKit process and continued with my tasks. Later, after a reboot, I ran into the same problem while trying to install software, PackageKit had locked the packaging system and refused to let go, even after letting it run for a few hours. Eventually I removed PackageKit and had no further problems with installing software or downloading updates, though the update notification icon, usually located in the system tray, was no longer present with PackageKit removed.
Also on the topic of software management, openSUSE comes with a unique package manager. This application, which can be found within the YaST system panel, is unusually flexible. The package manager allows us to find, sort and filter software packages by name, by software category, by RPM group, by description and by status. The package manager will show us packages in just about any way we could want and maintains a queue of actions to be performed. This means if we are setting up an update or wish to install multiple packages and we get called away from the computer we can close the package manager and it will restore the queue, remembering what we were doing when we launch the manager again. Despite all of these handy features, much of the complexity is lying under the surface. This means new users can go in, click on the items they want and shouldn't have too much of a learning curve. More advanced users will find the package manager quite accommodating.
Hardware and system configuration
Since I mentioned YaST, let's look at some of the other tasks which can be performed through this control centre. YaST has a nice interface that features categories of system management down the left side of the window. Over on the right we see specific modules currently available in the YaST panel. Besides software management, we can also deal with external hardware such as printers, scanners and mouse pointers. There is a module for adjusting kernel settings such as which process scheduler to use. YaST will also let us configure the boot loader, change the system's date & time, perform system-wide backups, configure network connections and change our hostname. We can set up and configure network shares using a variety of protocols and manage the computer's firewall. There is a module dedicated to security settings and it lets us get down into the gritty details of user account settings and password requirements. Something I appreciate about YaST is that we are not limited to the tools provided in the default install. The openSUSE repositories contain additional modules which, when installed via the package manager, automatically appear on the YaST panel. One module I recommend is the OpenSSH configuration tool, as secure shell comes enabled by default in openSUSE 12.2.
YaST is a very powerful, capable system admin tool and it's a great asset, especially for power users. However, I think new users may find it a bit intimidating. Not the panel itself, but rather many of the individual modules. Some of the configuration modules are quite straight forward and simple (the OpenSSH module, for example, is fairly friendly). Other modules are more complex and may turn off novice users. A new user going into the Backup module hoping to find something like Deja Dup is going to be in for an unpleasant surprise when they see all the configuration options. This varied approach used by YaST seems at odds with, for example, the admin controls which come with PCLinuxOS where everything appears to have the goal of being novice friendly.

openSUSE 12.2 - the KDE System Settings panel and YaST (full image size: 499kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
I ran openSUSE on my laptop (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 4 GB of RAM, Intel video and Intel wireless cards) and I was happy to discover the distribution detected and utilized all of my hardware out of the box. My screen was set to its maximum resolution, sound was set to a medium level and the distro detected wireless networks in my area. Performance was quite good and the system only used approximately 210 MB of memory when sitting idle at the KDE desktop. Boot and shutdown times were about average and the system remained stable for the duration of my trial.
I believe I've stated before that openSUSE is a distribution which does not get the coverage and respect it deserves. While the blogosphere lights up which each new experiment from the Fedora camp and news of every package change in Ubuntu ripples through the open source community, the openSUSE project generally does not attract a lot of attention. Yet the developers have managed, fairly consistently, to put out quality releases over the years. The 12.2 release seems to be another such step in the right direction, with a few possible exceptions...
As mentioned earlier, PackageKit was a complete mess on my installation. The only way I could operate on software packages was to remove the PackageKit daemon. In the past I've complained that PackageKit gets in the way from time to time or slows things down, but I was willing to admit it had a purpose. Perhaps something went wrong during my install, but PackageKit completely blocked any package transactions for me this time around until it was shut down and removed. This was my only serious issue with openSUSE and I suspect it may be one of those one-off errors that won't bother most people, at least that's the impression I've had browsing the forums. A minor concern, and this is a matter of taste, was that YaST is starting to show its age. It is still a very powerful system configuration tool and I'm pleased to have it. Yet, I feel it could do with an overhaul to make it a bit more user friendly. The other week I praised the Control Centre in PCLinuxOS. YaST has similar functionality to that Control Centre, but has a more daunting interface and I'd love to see it touched up and perhaps have the more advanced options put in separate tabs.

openSUSE 12.2 - working with packages and adjusting security settings (full image size: 416kB, screen resolution 1366x768 pixels)
Conclusions
Those things aside, I have a lot of positive points to raise about openSUSE's latest release. One such point being the performance. In the past it was often stated SUSE was on the slow side and even recent releases were fairly average when it came to their responsiveness. The 12.2 release was quite snappy on my hardware. It was a pleasant surprise to find that, even with effects and indexing turned on, the KDE desktop was quick to respond. YaST modules seem to be loading faster these days too. On a related note, I usually do not set up Btrfs during my trials and the last time I did, I reverted back to ext3/4 because of the huge performance hit I took with Btrfs. That was about a year ago. This week I tried Btrfs with openSUSE and was pleasantly surprised, both because the distribution's performance was still great, but also because Btrfs is integrated with the operating system and works automatically.
When updates or configuration changes are made through YaST the admin tool makes a Btrfs snapshot, allowing us to investigate problems and roll back to previous configurations which are known to work. These snapshots are done transparently for the user. The distro comes with a command line utility for dealing with snapshots, called Snapper, and Snapper's manual page is surprisingly easy to read and the program is fairly straight forward to use. I especially like that users can browse old snapshots, find out which files have changed and compare the old version of a file with the current one. There is a graphical module for Snapper which can be added to the YaST admin tool, however it is a bit limited at this stage. The Snapper module allows us to browse snapshots and restore them, but creating snapshots, scheduling them or deleting them isn't available yet through the graphical interface.
In short, openSUSE has a solid installer, the YaST admin panel is great, the performance is excellent and (with PackageKit gone) software handling went smoothly. The Btrfs implementation is the best I've seen to date and the hardware detection on my laptop was flawless. I've been quite impressed with what openSUSE had to offer this time around and I recommend giving it a try.
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Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Slackware 14.0 features, Fedora for business, ZevenOS disappointments, interview with OS4's Roberto Dohnert
All is well with the world as Patrick Volkerding unleashed a brand-new version of Slackware Linux last week. This was the distribution's first stable release in 17 months, which was the longest development period in the project's 19-year old history. Well-known Slackware developer Eric Hameleers blogged about the new Slack: "I think there has not been such a long series of release candidates, ever before. Thanks to the co-operation of our Slackware user base, there has been a tremendous amount of beta testing during the past few months. Pat could probably have gone on releasing updates and allow further testing for months to come, but essentially, we have a solid and stable Slackware release in our hands. What’s new? We have X11R7.7 (X.Org server 1.12.3), KDE 4.8.5, Xfce 4.10, the Linux 3.2.29 kernel as default, but with lots of sample kernel configurations for newer 3.x kernels included as well. NetworkManager has been added for people who like to be mobile and configure their network connections using a GUI. We still include wicd, and we kept full support for the traditional style of network configuration." As always, installation CD and DVD images are available from public mirrors, but buying the official media (US$49.95) will go a long way in supporting the distribution and its future development.

Slackware Linux 14.0 - the default KDE desktop (full image size: 1,472kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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Would you deploy the Fedora distribution on a business desktop? Many would probably reply negatively due to the short shelf life of the Fedora releases, but there are signs that the distro is becoming more business friendly. Christopher Tozzi has spotted a handful of features in the upcoming Fedora 18 which support that view: "While Fedora 18 will introduce a slew of new features, some of the most notable are those that make it a stronger candidate within commercial environments. These include: out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Active Directory; better support for automatic discovery of printers and other devices via Avahi; support for NFSometer, a tool for measuring the performance of networked file shares based on the open source NFS protocol used in many enterprise environments; packages for Eucalyptus, an open source platform for building private clouds; the open-source data syncing platform ownCloud will also be packaged for Fedora 18, allowing users to create their own infrastructures for sharing data across devices; the latest stable release of OpenStack will be available for Fedora 18." It's worth noting that, according to earlier reports, Fedora 18 will also serve as the base for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat's next major update of its enterprise distribution, due for release in 2013.
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Why are there so many Linux distributions, many ask. Perhaps the most obvious answer is that "because they are très facile to create". Or, more precisely, it's trivially easy to remaster one of the big distribution releases to add a personal element or two. But unless you have the business plan of Red Hat, the developer community of Debian or the staying power of Slackware, the odds that your distro will survive for long are rather low. The latest example of a journey that started with great enthusiasm and ended with bitter disappointment is ZevenOS. Leszek Lesner who founded the project in 2008 explains on the distribution's website: The future of ZevenOS looks bad. The community effort to create a free and open-source Linux distribution bringing the BeOS look and feel back has dried out. Currently only I am there as the main developer of ZevenOS. Exactly one week ago I asked for help in the community but there was near-to-nothing feedback on this topic. I know that there are a few people who want to use ZevenOS but none of them are capable or willing to offer time to support ZevenOS in an open and free manner. It should be clear than that even for me working on a project alone is no real fun any more (like it was in the beginning where lots of people got interested and had suggestions and wanted to help) and it is really hard if you are on your own."
On a related note, Dreamlinux, a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution, also closed its doors last week.
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Finally, a link to an interview with Roberto Dohnert, the founder of the Ubuntu-based, semi-commercial OS4 distribution: Q: Where do you want to go with OS4? A: My goals are very simple, to make an easy-to-use desktop and do it based on Linux. Do I see myself as the next Bill Gates? No, if OS4 becomes a niche OS then so be it, but I want to be in as many of those niches as possible. Multimedia creation, air and space, medical, photography, oil and gas, and the automobile market. I'm happy with the pro desktop and I'm happy with the workstation market and I would be very happy to be in the home users desktop. We work from that mindset, we design OS4 to be as user-friendly for the home user and build ourselves up to those pro markets as I described. We are extremely happy with the user friendliness we have achieved and we strive to make our desktop easy to learn, 10 minutes, and so far that has worked out extremely well, our beta testers and users are very happy with what we deliver. Also, we work with all kinds of software, commercial, open source and everything else that people want to use. We are constantly talking to commercial software developers on how we can make their software run on OS4 and get certified to run their software."
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Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Hostnames for home
Sometimes it is convenient to be able to access one's home computer remotely. Maybe you're away on business and want to grab a copy of the presentation you had on your hard disk, perhaps you are on vacation and want to send copies of your digital pictures home in case your camera gets lost or maybe you want to run a web server out of your home. Whatever the reason, it is good to be able to access your machine from another location and that's what I want to cover this week.
To enable remote access to our machine there are four basic steps we need to perform:
- Enable a service on our home machine.
- Register a domain name.
- Set the domain to be automatically updated with the proper IP address.
- Open a port in our firewall.
The first step is usually the easiest. Typically when we install a service on our Linux distro, whether that service is a secure shell or a web server, the distribution will start it for us. For the sake of example let's say I wanted to enable secure shell on my Ubuntu box, to do this I would run:
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
The next step is to set up a dynamic hostname, something which is fairly easy to remember for people and will point to our home computer, regardless of its IP address. To do this we will want to visit DynDNS.org, no-ip.com or FreeDNS.afraid.org and register for a free account. This will allow us to set up a free domain name like "jesse.afraid.org" or "jesse.is-a-geek.net".
The third step is to now tell our home machine to automatically update our new name (I'm sticking with jesse.is-a-geek.net), so that when our IP address changes our name will still point to the correct location. There are a number of programs which will perform the required checks and updates for us, I happen to like an app called inadyn as it takes very little effort to configure and is available through the repositories of several distributions. To install inadyn I ran:
sudo apt-get install inadyn
Now that the inadyn software is installed, we need to provide it with our account information. To do this, create a text file in the editor of your choice and enter the following lines:
--username jesse --password secret-password update_period 60000 alias jesse.is-a-geek.net --iterations 1
Alter the text in italics to match the username, password and domain name you selected when you created an account with DynDNS, No-IP or FreeDNS. We then save the text file as inadyn.conf. Next we copy the file into our /etc directory, the default location for most configuration files, and change its permissions so that only our user can access the file's contents:
sudo cp -p inadyn.conf /etc chmod 600 /etc/inadyn.conf
Next it is time to give the inadyn software a test run. From the command line execute:
inadyn
Assuming everything is set up properly, inadyn should let us know that our IP address has been updated. Otherwise an error will be displayed letting us know what went wrong. Our IP address could be changed several times a day and to counter that I like to have inadyn update my address once an hour. This can be done by running:
crontab -e
to bring up our user's scheduled tasks. We then want to add a task which will run inadyn for us every hour. The line in my crontab file looks like this:
2 * * * * /usr/sbin/inadyn > /home/jesse/inadyn-status.txt
The above command runs inadyn two minutes after the hour and saves any output from the command in a text file. The text file can be useful if we find out later our address information is no longer being updated correctly.
The last step, making sure our firewall will allow connections, is typically comprised of two parts. We need to make sure our computer itself doesn't block connections. How to approach this will vary a good deal depending on which distribution we are using. However, most distributions have a firewall configuration tool and will allow us to open one specific port. In my case, where I'm running secure shell, I opened port 22:
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
The final step is perhaps the hardest to describe. People who are behind a router or have another type of device between their computer and the Internet will have to login to that device and enable port forwarding, allowing incoming connections to be forwarded to their computer. The procedure to forward ports will depend on the type of device used. If your router or ISP modem does not come with instructions, try performing a web search for the device's specific model name and the phrase "port forwarding".
With these configuration steps complete I am able to connect to my home computer from anywhere in the world by using the name jesse-is-a-geek.net, as in:
ssh jesse.is-a-geek.net
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Released Last Week |
Slackware Linux 14.0
After more than two months of testing, Patrick Volkerding has finally announced the release of Slackware Linux 14.0: "The long wait is finally over and a new stable release of Slackware has arrived! Since our last stable release, a lot has changed in the Linux and FOSS world. The kernel has moved on to major version 3 (we're using the long-term supported 3.2.29 kernel for this release), X.Org has released X11R7.7, and Firefox has had a whopping 11 major releases to arrive at version 15.0.1! We've brought together the best of these and other modern components and worked our magic on them. You'll find new compilers (including the LLVM/Clang compiler that's becoming a popular alternative to GCC), development tools, libraries, and applications throughout, all prepared with our careful and rigourous testing. If you've used Slackware before, you'll find the system feels like home." Consult the release announcement and release notes for further details.
Hanthana Linux 17 "LXDE"
Danishka Navin announced the release of Hanthana Linux 17 "LXDE" edition, a lightweight live CD built from Fedora 17 and featuring the LXDE desktop environment: "Hanthana Linux live CD, the newest member of the Hanthana Linux family comes out today. While our regular DVD release is a complete software repository with the latest 3D-accelerated desktop, the live CD will cater the the needs of low-resource requirements, personalized software selection and simplicity. It comes with all the goodness of Hanthana and Fedora version 17, including Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice Writer, Calc and Impress, and loads of more lightweight applications. LXDE is a lightweight and customizable desktop environment, which is designed to work with older hardware, although it also works perfectly well with modern 3D-accelerated graphics hardware." Here is the full release announcement which includes a screenshot of the default desktop.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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DistroWatch.com News |
September 2012 DistroWatch.com donation: Zim
We are happy to announce that the recipient of the September 2012 DistroWatch.com donation is Zim, a desktop wiki application. It receives €250.00 in cash.
Described by Debian as a "graphical text editor based on wiki technologies", the Zim project's about page offers a more detailed explanation about the project's goals: "Zim aims to bring the concept of a wiki to your desktop. Every page is saved as a text file with wiki markup. Pages can contain links to other pages, and are saved automatically. Creating a new page is as easy as linking to a non-existing page. This tool is intended to keep track of to-do lists or to serve as a personal scratch book. But it will also serve you when writing longer and more complicated documents. A 'desktop wiki' means that we try to capture the idea of a wiki, not as a webpage but as a collection of files on your local file system that can be edited with a GUI application. The main focus is a kind of personal wiki that serves for all kind of notes: to-do lists, addresses, brainstorm ideas etc." Zim is a brainchild of Jaap Karssenberg from the Netherlands.
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)
- 2012: GnuPG ($350), ImageMagick ($350), GNU ddrescue ($350), Slackware Linux ($500), MATE ($250), LibreCAD ($250), BleachBit ($350), cherrytree ($260), Zim ($335)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$33,185 to various open-source software projects.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Brasillinux. Brasillinux is a Brazilian desktop distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It features an up-to-date Linux kernel and other applications, the Mint menu, extra WiFi firmware, and an installation program completely localised into Brazilian Portuguese.
- Galsoft Linux. Galsoft Linux is a Lubuntu-based desktop distribution localised into the Galician language.
- OpenNode OS. OpenNode OS is a open-source server virtualisation solution providing easy-to-use bare-metal system installer. It's based on CentOS and supports both OpenVZ container-based virtualisation and emerging KVM full virtualization technology on the same host.
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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, 8 October 2012. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (feedback and suggestions: podcast edition)
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Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
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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.
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Archives |
• 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 |
• Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
• Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
• Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
• Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
• Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
• Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
• Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
• Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
• Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
• Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
• Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
• Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
• 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 | 
DesktopBSD
DesktopBSD was an operating system based on FreeBSD and the FreeSBIE live CD. Its main goal was to provide a desktop operating system that was easy to use, but still has all the functionality and power of BSD. In the long term, DesktopBSD wants to build an operating system that meets most requirements desktop users have, like installing software, configuring power management or sharing an internet connection.
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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