Debian, which SteamOS is based on, may already be the world's most widely used GNU/Linux distribution (Red Hat leads only in revenue, not necessarily code or deployments), so now that Red Hat's Systemd 197 is released (full announcement here) there is an important crossroad where init systems fight for domination. Systemd is not for everyone and dependence on Red Hat might not be ideal because of security risks in Linux [1, 2, 3, 4] among other factors. It's up to Debian developers now; they can judge it from a technical point of view.
Having got Debian 7.3.0 installed, I had to install all the application programs that I used on my previous computer. Over the years, I had installed a lot of applications; many of them turned out to be not so useful, or were obsoleted by other applications, or (in the case of anti-virus software) I want to start over with. So I began by making a list of those applications that I really used. Then I started to install them, from scratch, on Debian 7.
I have a new computer with a clean Debian 7 installed. I have an old computer with many years' worth of files in several partitions. How do I copy them over? I could restore my backup media to the new PC, but that's a lot of fiddly manual work, and not all my files are backed up that way (anything I can download again from the Internet gets rarely backed up). Besides, the latest version of everything is the version actually on my desktop.
In our last episode, I had decided that I was going to do a clean install of Debian 7 on the new computer. What I really want is to install the MATE desktop (pronounced Ma-Tay). I've liked MATE a lot since using it with Linux Mint -- but Debian doesn't (yet) make a MATE install disk. For Debian 7, the choices are Gnome 3, KDE 4, LXDE, or XFCE. I did not want to install all the baggage of Gnome or KDE. And I'm already using LXDE, which is clean and fast. So that's what I installed as my starting point.
Partway through the install process, I was informed that I needed to install a "non-free" driver, "rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw". "Non-free" software is software that can't be distributed under the GPL; for various reasons, Debian does not include such software on the install disk. Often these are manufacturer-specific hardware drivers. The installer helpfully offered to accept that file from either a CD or a USB memory stick.
So off to Google, where a search for "rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw" pointed me to...a Debian package, "firmware-realtek". Actually I got links to two packages: one for Debian 6 "Squeeze", and the other for Debian 7 "Wheezy". I chose the latter and downloaded the package (.deb) file.
The Debian GNU/Linux Project's bid to reach agreement on which init system it would have as default for its next release appears to have gone completely off the rails.
A move by Debian technical committee head Bdale Garbee to bring the debate on the default init system to a head by calling for a vote appears to have failed.
Debian technical committee was discussing the default init system for Debian and it bioled down to basically systemd, which is developed by the larger free software community (lead by Lennart Poettering), and Upstart which was developed by Canonical employees.
The Debian init system debate by Debian technical committee members that is largely a fight between systemd and Upstart remains unresolved.
A few days ago there was a call for voting on the init system by the Debian technical committee members but that vote has now ended and it basically comes down to more discussion and clarifying the voting process is also needed.
I propose we take the simplest possible "next step". Let's vote just on the question of what the default init system for Linux architectures should be in jessie. Once we have an answer to this question, it seems to me that we would be "over the hump" and more likely to be able to re-focus our attention on all the secondary questions, like what our transition plan should be, whether we should try to dictate a default for non-Linux architectures, how and to what extent alternate init systems should be supported, and so forth. Most importantly, we could start *collaborating* again... which is something I fervently wish for!
SolydXK started last March as the unofficial Linux Mint Debian Edition with KDE. Though there had been speculation that an official KDE version of the popular desktop distribution would surface, ZDNet wrote recently, SolydXK co-founders Arjen Balfoort and Amadeu Ferreira took it upon themselves, with the support of other Mint community members, to actually build it.
For those curious about performance differences between the current Debian 7.3 "Wheezy" stable release and the upcoming but currently unstable Debian 8.0 "Jessie", here are some performance benchmarks comparing Debian's stable and testing releases on the same hardware. Making things more interesting, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in its current development form was also tossed into the mix.
Current users of gNewSense 3.0 don't have to reinstall. They get all updates automatically.
A perusal through today's newsfeeds netted several interesting topics. Jamie Watson published a Knoppix 7.2.0 review. Bryan Lunduke reported that the Elementary OS team has taken over maintenance of Shotwell. And a ZDNet blogger has listed his five reasons for using Windows 8 instead of Linux, but they are all really just jabs at Linux. All this and more in tonight's How the Linux Turns.
If my memory is correct, the first generally available release of Knoppix (on a Live CD) was made sometime in late 2000. I don't think it is exaggerating to say that Knoppix set the standard for Live Linux distributions when it was released, or that the Linux world as a whole learned a lot about how Live distributions should be done, and how powerful, versatile and useful they could be.
Exploring this Debian GNU/Linux derivative that is tightly focused on security analysis and penetration testing - and it comes with a mind-boggling array of utilities for that purpose.
For a variety of reasons, Valve Software decided to base its SteamOS gaming console operating system on Debian GNU/Linux. While it's likely that Valve's SteamOS will result in code contributions and enhancement that can benefit the upstream Debian project, Valve also want to give back in other ways.
As I'm sure most will be aware, for the last couple of weeks, Valve have offered access to all Valve produced games free of charge to Debian Developers [0].
As of today, they have kindly extended this to all registered Ubuntu Developers [1].
Valve Software recently announced that they would offer free Valve games to all Debian developers, which was considered a way of saying thank you to the base that is used to create Steam OS.