Links: New Distributions and Selecting a Distribution
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-19 13:44:32 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-19 13:44:32 UTC
Summary: Coverage of SliTaz GNU/Linux 5.0, Evolve OS, Distro Astro 2.0, NeuroDebian, Netrunner 13.12, m23 rock 14.1, SparkyLinux 3.2.1, Pinguy OS 13.10, Manjaro Linux 0.8.9, Tiny Core 5.2 and several other distributions which are compared and classified
-
After two years of hard work, the development team behind SliTaz, an open source and minimalistic Linux distribution built from scratch, has announced that a new development (cooking) release is now ready for testing.
-
Evolve OS is a new upcoming Linux distribution based on openSUSE and sporting a new desktop environment based on the Gnome 3 stack. You may immediately be thinking, is this yet another 'Ubuntu Killer' promising a lot and ultimately delivering little? But Evolve OS has a different philosophy and some interesting ideas. Read on to find out more.
-
Distro Astro 2.0 is an excellent Linux OS to learn about the basics of a simple desktop environment as well as explore the marvels of the universe. It is also an excellent all-in-one Linux platform for astronomy enthusiasts and professional astronomers alike with some of the best celestial-studying software included. Distro Astro is an impressive and solidly performing Linux distro.
-
In past articles, I have looked at distributions that were built with some scientific discipline in mind. In this article, I take a look at yet another one. In this case, I cover what is provided by NeuroDebian.
-
The Netrunner distribution is a project based upon the Ubuntu operating system. Netrunner strives to be an easy to use desktop operating system that completes most tasks with free software while offering convenient add-ons and web-based solutions to round out the user experience. Netrunner ships with the KDE desktop to provide a mix of flexibility (for power users) and familiarity (for newcomers). The latest release of Netrunner, version 13.12, is based upon Ubuntu 13.10. The distribution comes with several appealing features, including multimedia support, Windows application compatibility via WINE and the Steam gaming portal software. Netrunner is available in just one edition and can be downloaded in 32-bit or 64-bit x86 builds. The project's installation media is approximately 1.6 GB in size.
-
The latest m23 release focuses on two main new features: For one, on support for Apache CloudStack€® and on the other hand on the extended options to clone machines.
-
The SparkyLinux development team has announced earlier today, January 31, the immediate availability for download of a new edition of their popular Linux operating system, this time based on the lightweight Xfce desktop environment.
-
The desktop is mostly the same as before, so I won't dwell on that for too much. The Axe Menu, which essentially brought the Linux Mint Menu to GNOME 3/Shell, is sadly gone, replaced by the slightly less nice GnoMenu. There is a Conky system monitor sitting on the top-right of the desktop background that also displays the date and time. Docky gives a dock on the bottom that has been expanded to full width, but for some reason it shows an opaque background until the desktop background changes (after which point the Docky background becomes fully transparent). On the whole, the desktop works decently well.
-
Arch Linux is highly respected throughout the Linux community as a cutting edge, well designed, rolling-release Linux distro with superb documentation. But at the same time, it is also discarded as a non-option by many Linux users, including experienced ones, for being time consuming to install and configure.
-
Tiny Core 5.2 was released yesterday as the latest version of the ultra light weight Linux distribution. The bare-bone version of this Linux distribution with the flwm window manager comes in at just an 8.9MB ISO while the "Core Plus" version with extra GUI functionality is still a mere 72MB.
-
Change log:
* rebuildfstab: do not replace fstab entries for a device that does not have "Added by TC" on the line (thanks to Gerald Clark)
* init: increase the default inode count
* ondemand: don't list extensions under subdirs in onboot maintenance
* ldd: add wildcard to support both x86 and x86_64
* busybox updated to 1.21.1 plus wget patches and split suid/nosuid for better security
* ldd: Added quotes for binaries with spaces in their names
* /etc/services: modified to suit rpcbind rather than portmap
* tc-functions: Removed the getpasswd stars to allow backspace to work
-
What is a Bleeding Edge Linux Distribution ? Bleeding Edge Distribution is a distribution developed by technologies incorporating those so new that they could have a high risk of being unreliable. No matter how much we want to use these distributions, they will always have stability issues. Well, we are here to prove that wrong. Even if it sound impossible, I will give you 5 distributions that are bleeding edge as well as stable enough for daily use.
-
Q. I want to install Linux on an old PC to get a few more years out of it, but I don’t know which version to use. What is the difference between Ubuntu and Mint for a new user and are there any free guides to using either?
A. Linux, an alternative computer operating system to Windows and Mac OS X, comes in many versions, or so-called distributions. Some Linux distributions are easier to use than others and each one has its ardent followers, but Linux Mint and Ubuntu have emerged as two of the easiest options for those new to the system.
-
Users are confused when they first come to Linux about which distribution they should be using and I have heard people say “I was thinking of Ubuntu or Arch” or “I was thinking about Gentoo and how hard is it to use Linux From Scratch”.
-
This article lists the top 10 distributions according to Distrowatch for 2013 and gives a brief outline of the purpose of those distributions and whether they are the sort of operating systems a new user or average computer user should be using as their first port of call.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- IBM Cannot Even Do Payroll, Now a "Legitimate Target" of Iran
- Missiles or not, it seems like IBM systems will be targeted more by cybercriminals
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 10 Out of 200: Showing Public Tweets is Not a Privacy Violation, But This Isn't About Justice, It's About Censorship
- It's time to put a stop to this abuse of process (which is what the Judge deemed it to be last year)
-
- European Qualifying Examination (EQE) Being Reduced to Pieces of Papers One Can Buy, Patent System Rapidly Losing Its Legitimacy
- Welcome to the "new Europe"
- Priorities in 2026
- 2026 is an interesting year
- Willis Towers Watson (WTW) Producing More Propaganda for EPO "Cocaine Communication Managers"
- The Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) has this new paper about Willis Towers Watson (WTW) and its annual EPO-sponsored propaganda, pretending all is well when things are clearly dire
- Head of Microsoft Office and Microsoft 360 is Leaving Microsoft Amid Problems and Mass Layoffs
- Microsoft is like a "legacy" company
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 12, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, March 12, 2026
- Gemini Links 13/03/2026: "Someone to Take Over Antenna" and Random Seed/RNG
- Links for the day
- By Expanding to Advocacy of Ponzi Schemes and Bill Epsteingate (Sex Trafficking), Linux Foundation Revenue Grew to $220,730,594, But Salary of Linus Torvalds Not Even in Top 10 Anymore!
- true!
- In the Name of Transparency, Today We Show Our Defence and Counterclaim
- already uploaded by the other side
- Links 12/03/2026: Heating Bills to Soar, "Banks in Gulf Evacuate Their Offices"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 12/03/2026: On Phone Anxiety and Bjorn "Looking for Someone to Take Over Antenna"
- Links for the day
- Cultification: best candidates avoiding Debian leader elections
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Richard Stallman (RMS) et al Cited in 'Nature' (Journal/Site) Today, "CODE beyond FAIR"
- Under Open Access
- The Register MS, on Verge of Collapse, Keeps Promoting a Ponzi Scheme for China
- Publishers that participate in this simply don't care about their readers
- Overview of False Narratives and Lies Used to Lower Salaries at the European Patent Office (EPO), Abandoning Patent Quality and the EPC
- Many of the latter slides are the same as Munich's
- Links 12/03/2026: Atlassian Layoffs, GAFAN Covering up Slop-Induced Outages, "Age-verification in Operating Systems and the Internet"
- Links for the day
- The EPO's President, Who Covers Up Cocaine Use, is Trying to Suppress Communication Between EPO Staff Under the Guise of 'Privacy' (and in Defiance of a Court Ruling)
- Why does Europe's second-largest institution: 1) curtail communication among staff (including union) and 2) go out of its way to avoid obeying a court order from ILOAT in Geneva?
- Exactly One Week Before Next EPO Strike, Media Intentionally Not Mentioning EPO Strikes
- One form of propaganda technique/s involves the systematic suppression of certain topics, or of particular "narratives"
- Suicide of disgruntled employee? Bus fire at Kerzers / Chiètres, Switzerland, at least six dead
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 11, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, March 11, 2026
- Gemini Links 12/03/2026: "on Urbit" and the True Cost (or Criticism) of "Social Control Media"
- Links for the day
- Slop About "linux" in Google News
- Once people recognise that those sites are fake it's hard to 'unsee' what they are
- An American War on GNU/Linux, Software Freedom, and British Investigative, Science-Based Reporting - Part V - Attempts to Take Down and Suppress Criticism of Back Doors Controlled by Microsoft and the American Government
- The cost of maintaining illusions
- IBM's Payroll: Cannot Even Pay the People What They're Legally Entitled to
- How financially-stressed is IBM at this point?
- Slides From the European Patent Office (EPO) Explain Why They're Striking, How They're Striking, and What Comes Next
- A week from now the strike will go ahead
- GAFAM Datacentres Are Facilities of War, So Risk of Downtime by Missiles or State-Sponsored Cracking Has Vastly Increased
- How safe is your business in "clown computing" or DCs marked as some "legitimate targets" at wartime?
- Companies That Take Away Blood and Sweat From the Community to Sell a Ponzi Scheme to Everybody
- We need Free software that is run by communities
- 1,234 People Gather Online to Plan Next EPO Strikes and Other Industrial Actions
- yesterday an online gathering orchestrated the next moves by EPO staff
- Links 11/03/2026: Fake Videos Swarm YouTube, "Ukraine Can Now Manufacture ‘China-Free’ Drones"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 11/03/2026: Lagrange for iOS and Android and "Turning a Folder of Git Repos Into Project Launcher"
- Links for the day
- Kafkaesque: Unlawful Activities in the UK to Cover Up Unlawful Activities in the United States of America
- Why is bribery and even extortion seen is OK? Because rich people do those things?
- Former IBM Executive, Ron Hovsepian, Doomed S.u.S.E. (SUSE)
- SUSE is like a child nobody wants to raise
- Quiet Layoffs or Silent Layoffs Alleged at Microsoft
- Will some investigative journalists do their job now and ask Microsoft tough questions?
- After a Long Lull LinuxTeck (linuxteck.com) Came Back Only as a Slopfarm
- Unlike Linuxiac, LinuxTeck wasn't very active in recent years
- Links 11/03/2026: EPO and USPTO Software Patents Thrown Out Again, Copyright Concerns Over Slop (Plagiarism Using Buzzwords)
- Links for the day
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 9 Out of 200: 5RB Barrister Does Not Even Know the Name of His Own Client (That He Was Paid Well Over $200,000 to 'Speak' or 'Cover' for)
- If you assault women in the United States, there's a barrister available for you in the UK
- IBM's Fedora is Now Led by GAFAM Slop
- The official word of Fedora is partly slop
- IBM 'Dinobabies' Speak Out
- "They want newbies out of school at a much cheaper rate"
- Links 11/03/2026: "Drill, Baby, Drill" and Social Control Media Recognised as Threat to Democracy
- Links for the day
- 5 Years Since Freenode Conflict
- IRC isn't going away
- A Week Ahead of Next EPO Strike the Staff Representatives Show the Administrative Council That the Office Lost the Best Staff, It's No Longer Attractive
- the message circulated regarding the open letter to the Administrative Council
- Jeff Bezos as an Individual Said to Have Enough Capital to Buy IBM
- Assuming a market capitalisation of 234.70 billion
- Starting Soon: Another New Series About Richard Stallman
- There are some inside stories we can tell
- Gemini Links 11/03/2026: School, Code Slop, and "Fancy Weapons"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 10, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, March 10, 2026
