News About Debian and Its Derivatives
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-08 09:36:17 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-08 09:36:17 UTC
Package Managers
Synaptic is a graphical package management program for apt. It provides the same features as the apt-get command-line utility with a GUI front-end based on GTK+. Most importantly, users can install, remove, upgrade and downgrade single and multiple packages.
16 years old and still ever changing: Not even the name remains stable. What used to be called "deity" was announced as "Apt", first released as "APT" [1], shipped as "apt-get" and "apt-cache", interpreted as "A Package Tool" and "Advanced Package Tool" and is now also available as "apt" … But the initial wisdom holds: "it's still a good word in its own right". And this word has surely influenced the way we manage our software on phones, servers and space stations.
“We need ensure that we cater to our users, and there's millions of them. From those running the latest software in unstable, to people who simply want a rock solid core release. The size of Debian is increasing, and will reach a point where we're unable to guarantee basic compatibility with other packages, or the length of time it takes to do so becomes exponentially longer, unless something changes,” said Neil McGovern.
Software
Mutter can replace Openbox in LXDE, and bring a modern, elegant look to your desktop. To experiment with it, install the software package and start it...
Comparison
Threehosts.com compares Mint, Ubuntu and Debian to show which is the best Linux Distribution.
All benchmarking for this article was done from the same Intel Core i7 4770K "Haswell" system with HD Graphics 4600, 16GB of RAM, and 120GB Samsung SSD 840. No hardware or settings changed between the clean installs of the different Linux distributions. The operating systems tested from this Intel Core i7 desktop were:
- Debian 7.4 "Wheezy" stable with the Linux 3.2 kernel, GNOME Shell 3.4.2.1, Mesa 8.0.5, and GCC 4.7.
- Debian 8.0 "Jessie" testing with the Linux 3.12 kernel, GNOME Shell 3.8.4, Mesa 9.2.2, and GCC 4.8.2.
- Debian "Sid" unstable with the Linux 3.13 kernel on top of the Jessie changes.
- Ubuntu 14.04 with the Linux 3.13 kernel, Unity 7.1.2 desktop, and Mesa 10.1-rc3.
Init Systems
Branches Debate
So there you have it. There is a simple summary for all of this:
Debian Stable if your first priority is a rock-solid system, and you don't necessarily need to support the very latest hardware. This is often the case if you are setting up a server of some sort, but it may also be true if you are going to use a bit older .system as a desktop workstation,
Debian Testing if you want or need to have the latest hardware support, kernel dvelopments and advanced filesystems
Derivative distributions if you want a lot of additional packages included in the base distribution, thus saving you the time and effort of installing and configuring them.
Installer
The Debian Installer team has just announced that the first Alpha build of the Debian 8 "Jessie" version is now available for download and testing.
Wheezy
The Debian project has just released the Live CD version of the recently launched Debian 7.4 in several separate images with various flavors.
“At the moment it seems likely that an extended security support timespan for squeeze is possible. The plan is to go ahead, sort out the details as as it happens, and see how this works out and whether it is going to be continued with wheezy. The rough draft is that updates will be delivered via a separate suite (e.g. squeeze-lts), where everyone in the Debian keyring can upload in order to minimise bottlenecks and allow contributions by all interested parties," said Moritz Muehlenhoff in the official mailing list.
Derivatives
Parsix GNU/Linux, a live and installation DVD based on Debian, aiming to provide a ready-to-use, easy-to-install desktop and laptop-optimized operating system, is now at version 6.0 Test 3 and is ready for testing.
Tails, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, version 0.23, is out.
Clonezilla Live is a Linux distribution that is designed to do bare metal backup and recovery on a wide variety of file systems and operating systems. It's very similar to other older cloning software, such as True Image or Norton Ghost.
The distribution is based on Debian and, as usual, the developers have upgraded the underlying GNU/Linux operating system and the release is now based on the Debian Sid repository, as of March 31, 2014.
Grml is not a regular Linux distribution for regular users. It’s packed with a sysadmin's favorite tools and allows admins with packages for installation, deployment and system rescue. This latest version has been dubbed Ponywagon and it comes with a couple of interesting features.
LMDE
-
Only the Cinnamon and MATE editions of Linux Mint Debian Edition 201403 were released. If there’s going to be a KDE edition, it probably will be released in about a month. Prominent features of this release are support (in the installer) for computers with UEFI firmware and for GPT partitions. But the installer, as you will read in the next section, is the weakest part of this distribution, a problem it shares with most distributions that are based on Debian. And the cause of that weakness is that it does not use the Debian Installer. Rather, the installer is a custom application that does not belong on a modern desktop operating system.
When I wrote about the Linux Mint Debian Edition Release Candidate last week, I promised to look at it in more detail when the final release was made.
Knoppix
Version 7.3.0 of Knoppix is based on the usual picks from Debian stable (wheezy) and newer Desktop packages from Debian/testing and Debian/unstable (jessie). It uses kernel 3.13.0 and xorg 7.7 (core 1.15.0) for supporting current computer hardware.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- The Latest Rumour Says The Next (as Correctly Predicted Before) Wave of Layoffs at Microsoft is 3 Weeks Away, "Larger Than the First Wave"
- Step 2
- TV Licensing Used to SPAM Your Postbox, Now It Does the Same to E-mail
- First they ask for your E-mail address; then they start nagging you via E-mail
- Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
- Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
- Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
- We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
- Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
- Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
-
- EPO's Gareth Lord Asked About "Quality and Productivity" or, Put Another Way, Why the EPO Keeps Granting So Many Invalid/Illegal Patents
- letter to Lord
- EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) Scrutinises the Man Who Illegally Grants (and Forces Others to Illegally Participate in Granting) Software Patents in Europe
- EPO compels examiners to break the law in the name of obeying illegal "rules" or "orders"
- The Toxic Playbook
- Either you support Prince Mohammed bin Salman or you're a nazi
- It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
- It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
- Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
- Links for the day
- "The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
- 'polite' bullying
- Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
- This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
- Politics Will Impact Software Choices
- Will those systems respect users' freedom?
- EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
- Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025
- Links 11/06/2025: More Vulnerabilities Found in 'Smart' Phones, China Extends Reach in the Pacific
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 11/06/2025: Grain and Steam Next Fest
- Links for the day
- Links 11/06/2025: "Quantum" Hype From IBM, US Closer to Martial Law, and “The Nation” Celebrates Milestone
- Links for the day
- IBM's CEO Roasted, Sizzled and Grilled for Dumb and Inconsistent Vapourware Promises
- It looks like being a chronic liar is what it takes to lead the company once synonymous with computing
- IBM's Goal Is Not (and Never Was) Computer Users' Freedom
- More than 1.5 decades ago I found IBM to be an "ally of convenience" because of OpenDocument Format (ODF)
- Wayland Shows the IBM/Red Hat Way of Doing Things
- IBM is trying to 'kill' X
- Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
- let's revisit the subject
- GitHub is Proprietary, Controlled by Microsoft, and GPL Violation Warehouse
- "IRS tax filing software [will be] released to the people as free software" ... In general this is good news
- Slopfarm Catastrophe
- Seems like BetaNews (or BetaNoise) has just suffered a major data loss and restored the site from a week-old backup
- Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VIII: Illegal Working Conditions
- How many people need to die for these people to get their massive salaries?
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, June 10, 2025
- Links 10/06/2025: Apple Hype and Physical Attacks on Bloggers
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 10/06/2025: Loon Lake, Farming, and Forth
- Links for the day
- Links 10/06/2025: Jaws at 50 and US Democracy Crushed Very Rapidly (Martial Law Seems Imminent)
- Links for the day
- Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VII: Washing Their Hands After Corruption and Abuse
- "Tragedy or comedy?"
- Culling Bad RSS Feeds of Bad Sites
- Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater
- If 'Microsoft v Techrights' is Dealt With by a 'Microsoft Court' (or a Court Outsourced to Microsoft)
- More on that later
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 09, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, June 09, 2025
- Gemini Protocol Turns Six in 10 Days From Now
- If you haven't tried it yet, then give it a go today
- Live as You Preach
- technology is fast becoming dysphoric
