Distributions News: GNU/Linux Distros
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-14 08:34:19 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-14 08:34:19 UTC
High End
Old Computers
The Zorin developers have always marketed their products as the perfect Windows alternatives and they’ve had some success with this strategy. Their operating systems are regarded as good replacements, with familiar interfaces that can help people running away from Windows OSes to better adjust to a Linux distribution.
Single-purpose
GParted Live, a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86-based computers that can be used for creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions with the help of tools that allow managing filesystems, is now at version 0.18.0-2.
"The underlying GNU/Linux operating system was upgraded. This release is based on the Debian Sid repository, as of April 7, 2014," reads the official changelog.
The Linux kernel has remained the same, 3.13.6, and this is one of the most recent ones available. It's very likely that the next development version will feature Linux kernel 3.14.
Distrohopping
Various distro spin makers have made two unwritten laws that I very much disagree with:
A) A distro spin of desktop blah should have only programs built with the same widget library that desktop blah uses
B) A distro spin should only ship / pre-install one program for each application category
I mention this because I'm a big KDE fan but KDE-only distro spins do not include my preferred browser (Firefox) nor my preferred office suite (LibreOffice, not that I use an office suite much) because they aren't QT-native applications. While LibreOffice does a better job of integrating with KDE than Firefox does, both drag with them quite a bit of GTK baggage... which is considered "bloat" by many spin makers.
CAELinux
SparkyLinux
I think it started when I installed the same Linux distribution with the same set of applications, configuration and layout as mine, to my wife's and then to my colleague's computers. Then somebody asked me why should I not try to share my point of view with more people.
The SparkyLinux 3.3 “Annagerman” system is built on Debian GNU/Linux “Jessie,” just like the previous versions. The developer usually releases versions with various desktop environments, but this is just the Base, which means that it's only for command-line fans.
AVLinux
The really interesting and important thing about the AVLinux distribution, of course, is the Multimedia capability included in it. The Audio menu is shown to the right, above. Well, at least part of it is; it has so much in this category that it doesn't even fit on one screen! Audio players, mixers, editors, synthesizers, analyzers, and pretty much anything and everything you can think of in this category are included.
Arch Family
Starting with the 32-bit ISO labeled 2014.04i (“i” as in infinite) this is our first version of a Rolling Release and based on the excellent Manjaro/(Arch).
Manjaro 0.8.9, a Linux distribution based on well-tested snapshots of the Arch Linux repositories and 100% compatible with Arch, has just received its third update pack.
Fedora
Another round of features have been approved by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee for this year's Fedora 21 release.
Debian Family
Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, APT (Advanced Package Tool) is the default command-line package manager for Debian, Ubuntu and their derivative systems. Recently, APT has reached version 1.0, after 16 years since it was recently developed. Ubuntu’s Synaptic and Ubuntu Software Center run both apt in the background, for managing deb packages.
-
MakuluLinux 6 MATE, a Linux distribution based on the Debian testing branch, Jessie, that provides stability, speed, and a modern desktop, is the first in the series and it will be available for download on April 14.
Ubuntu and Derivatives
Numix Icon Packs is a small project developed by Numix project team focused to create high quality GTK themes and icons for Linux desktop. Their goal is to make a “difference” in theming and to present you a modern and stylish desktop without damaging its usability while at it, and quite frankly, up until now they seem to have done a pretty great job.
After wiring into the car's communications system, forum user "nlc" was able to find a number of ports and tap into the data flowing to the center console and navigation screens. Others soon joined in the fun and amongst the slightly esoteric bits of information the "hackers" eventually discovered was that the sub-system runs on a version of Ubuntu operating system, which is a Linux variant.
With Ubuntu 14.04 closing in to the release date, which is set for April 17th, I took Lubuntu for a spin from the daily live ISO image. Lubuntu is the most lightweight distribution in the Ubuntu family (the other one being Xubuntu which uses Xfce), using LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), as well as a set of applications intended to be low on resources.
Okay, I have two socket 939 machines with XP collecting dust. Nevertheless they are quite stable and more than meets the requirements to run any version of Linux.
One has four gigs of RAM and the other two and both processors are AMD. I was wondering what you think of Mint and if there is another version of Linux you would recommend for the beginner.
Gentoo Family
PCLinuxOS
I will have to migrate it to a newer version of PCLOS. But I will do that during Easter. The thing is, I am not sure if I want to do it. The current install of PCLOS has everything I need to work and play (it even runs the game Braid on Desura), so... why fixing it if it is not broken?
Slackware Family
“We include Xfce4, the gimp, firefox, cups, exaile, popular multimedia plugins, and many other programs to maximize the desktop experience. Also new is an update to our very own installer, this was written from scratch and is a major improvement from previous installers. This is a RC release so final is soon to follow after initial peer testing,” notes the developer in the official announcement.
Salix MATE 14.1 Beta 1, a GNU/Linux distribution based on Slackware that is simple, fast, easy to use, and based on the MATE desktop environment, is ready for testing and download.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- IBM CEO and CFO Make It Hotter in the Kitchen
- Who's gonna leave the kitchen while they cook the books?
- Jim Zemlin's 'Linux' Foundation is the Real Link Between Linux and Pedophilia
- It's about the deeds, not the words
- Greenland Needs to Disconnect From United States Tech to Protect Its Independence
- The more Greenland protects itself from Social Control Media, the more robust or resilient it'll be to regime change
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) on Slop and Breach of Confidentiality
- They should absolutely not ignore this
- Almost 5,000 Known Gemini Capsules
- It is now just 98 short of 5k
-
- Links 27/02/2026: Block Cuts 40% of Its Workforce While Blaming Ponzi Scheme, Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros.
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 27/02/2026: Unlearning Literacy (Slop) and Firefox as Slop-ware
- Links for the day
- It Looks Like Linux Chief Linus Torvalds Made a Good Call Regarding Kent 'Slop' Overstreet
- Having never met or even chatted to Overstreet, I'm not in a position to judge him
- Links 27/02/2026: Slop Incompatible With Nuclear Codes, Chinese Slop "Chatbots Censor Themselves"
- Links for the day
- Please Report the European Patent Office (EPO) to Europol for Cocaine Abuse and Tampering With Witnesses and Media to Hide This Cocaine Abuse
- there are already police reports connected to the matter
- Like a Mafia: Kris De Neef and Nellie Simon, Who Help Campinos Cover Up Cocainegate at the EPO (Substance Abuse at the Highest Office), Are Bullying EPO Whistleblowers
- They're all in this together [...] At this point, undoubtedly, the EPO is run like an organised crime operation. Nothing more, nothing less.
- pulltheplug.uk Says the Internet Harms Us, Will March in London Tomorrow
- Maybe the site is down due to high access demand
- EPO Management Trying to Hide Cocainegate, Silence/Discredit Whistleblowers, and Probably in a Panic Due to the Strikes
- At the moment, Johannes' mates are receiving over 100,000 euros as a reward for doing illegal drugs
- The GNU Manifesto Turns 41 in March (Next Week)
- And RMS turns 73 next month
- The Sister Site is Still Improving the Static Site Generator (SSG) We Use in Techrights
- We have a common mission and every week we make measurable advancements
- Techrights is 100% Disconnected From Cheeto's America, the Problem is Hired Guns in London Helping Violent Americans Attack Us Domestically
- Not a new problem, not limited to us
- Open Source Endowment (OSE) Looking to Raise Money for Free Software, But It's Hard to Know who Runs the Open Source Endowment Foundation
- Their Web site does not (easily) show who the Board of Directors includes
- Apple Doesn't Want Anybody to Ask What Happened to Vision Pro
- They lost a lot of money
- If You Want More Verifiable (Auditable) Security, Use GNU Linux-Libre
- GNU/Linux will never be 100% secure
- Microsoft XBox Can't Stop Talking About Slop
- Will we see more "prepared" (under embargo) Microsoft propaganda released simultaneously at 9PM tonight?
- Rust Will Not Inherit the Earth, It Barely Deserves a Place on the Planet
- Rust - like Haskell and many other short-lived fetishes - will come and go
- Truth Versus Fiction: IBM's Collapse Due to Money Crunch, Not Slop Disguised as Code
- core issue is financial
- Priceless leaks found in crowdfunding campaign
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 26, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, February 26, 2026
- [Video] "New RMS [Richard Stallman] Positive Media" Reaches Millions of Viewers This Week
- Assuming 5+ million people will watch this on the first week, that's good publicity for the Free software movement
- Another Quiet Slop Day Passes By
- the number of slopfarms we can locate/track is fast decreasing
- Gemini Links 26/02/2026: Sending a Thesis and Lupa/Onion ("Lupa now lists Gemini .onion addresses")
- Links for the day
- Links 26/02/2026: Bcachefs Man Bonkers, "Seven Journalists Convicted for Taking Photos at Courtroom"
- Links for the day
- Links 26/02/2026: "Peak Mental Sharpness" and "The Whole Economy Pays the Amazon Tax"
- Links for the day
- If You Value Privacy, Follow the Likes of Eben Moglen, Phil Zimmermann, and Richard Stallman, Not Back Doors' Boosters Who Mislabel Themselves as Security Experts
- Signal is not really secure
- "Community" Site Deleted by Jeffrey Epstein-Connected 'Linux' Foundation Had Interview Where Eben Moglen Spoke of GPLv3 and of DRM, Back Doors Etc.
- Deleting what happened or what was said two decades ago
- Richard Stallman (Free Software Foundation) and Eben Moglen (Columbia Law School) Explained 25 Years Ago That Proprietary Software (and Proprietary Firmware) Would Lead to Back Doors
- a fortnight after the 9/11 terror attacks in the US
- Writer's Block is Not a Problem to Us, Only a Lack of Time
- Or timewasting by aggressive militants who try to silence us [...] People who experience writer's block very often find it depressing (it feels unproductive) and sometimes come to the conclusion that perhaps writing isn't for them
- Giving to the Community Versus Taking From the Community (or Worse, Attacking the Community)
- some people bring no contributions, only harm
- LLM Slop Will Try to 'Rewrite' History of UNIX and GNU/Linux
- We occasionally see slopfarms spreading misinformation about UNIX, GNU, and Linux
- March Plans for Techrights
- next month we plan to start the series about how the SRA failed
- Where Does the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Stand on Machine-Generated Legal Documents and Copy-pasting One Client's Lawsuit to Start Another (for American Serial Strangler)?
- Now that many law firms cheat (copypasta, paper DOoS, LLM slop, breaches of rules, even defaming the other side) the SRA cannot keep up
- Of Course Android is Not Free Software
- That Android is not about freedom should not be so shocking
- Talking About Blackboxes
- Having just reposted a couple of articles from Alex Oliva
- Microsoft Slop is Already Killing XBox
- Microsoft will fail at alleviating such concerns
- Two Weeks Have Passed and It Looks Like Conde Nast's Ars Sloppica Sacked "Senior" "AI" "Reporter" Benj Edwards But Did Not Remove All His LLM-Produced 'Articles'
- the editorial standards at Conde Nast's Ars Sloppica are a joke
- Alex Oliva (GNU Linux-Libre): Stricter is Less Popular
- Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
- Fraud and Crimes at Microsoft
- A lot of these American companies simply cheat and even bribe
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, February 25, 2026
- FSF's Alex Oliva on Hardware Black Boxes
- Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
- What Microsoft Hides Underneath
- In recent years a lot of this shell game was played via "Open" "AI" [sic]
- A Lot of Slopfarms Died, Google News Feeds the Few Which Survived and Still Target "Linux"
- Many just simply died
- Links 25/02/2026: Fifth Year of War in Ukraine, Dihydroxyacetone Man Looking to Start More Wars
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 25/02/2026: Retired a Year, Illness, Losing a Lung, and "Back to Gemini"
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Published a Ponzi Scheme-Boosting Fake Article This Morning. It Mentions "AI" 30 Times.
- Will credibility be left after the bubble pops entirely?
- They Try to Ruin Linux, Too ("Attestation" in GNU/Linux)
- In the context of Web browsers, this isn't unprecedented and we wrote a lot about it
- Mozzarella Company: All Our Cheese Comes With Mold Now, But You Can Ask the Seller to Remove the Mold
- If you reject and oppose slop, do not download/use Firefox
- Stallman Was Right About Back Doors
- I had some conversations with Dr. Stallman about security and back doors
- Australian Signals Directorate ex-employee sold back doors to Russia
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- IBM Debt-Loading and Liability (Toxic Asset) Offloading
- One can hope that IBM will be subjected to the same attention Kyndryl received, but this boils down to politics
- Links 25/02/2026: 'Hybrid Warfare' and "Boycott the State of the Union"
- Links for the day
- IBM (and Red Hat) Can Disappear in the Coming Years, Along With Kyndryl (Debt Twice as Big as Its 'Worth')
- No wonder Red Hat workers tell us they hate IBM
- Software Freedom is Science, But It Also Sustains Life
- In some sense, Software Freedom can be explained in the context of nourishing people
- “Xbox, like a lot of businesses that aren’t the core AI business, is being sunsetted."
- There has been a lot of narrative control lately, including at 9PM on a Friday
- 3,300 Capsules Known to Lupa and Currently Accessible
- Gemini Protocol turns 7 this summer
- When it Comes to Firmware, the FSF and Its Founder RMS Won the Argument (But Not the Fight, Yet)
- The "whataboutism" tactics are physiological manipulation means of discouraging those who move in the correct direction
- Austria Tackles Digital Weapon Disguised as "Social" and/or "Media"
- Are we seeing the end days of Social Control Media?
- Nothing Over the Horizon for XBox
- XBox is not even being sold in many places anymore
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Contradicting Itself: You Can Use Slop to Cheat Clients, But You Can Also Face Disciplinary Actions Over Slop
- Where does the SRA stand on the matter?
- In Praise of Eben Moglen
- Hopefully Professor Moglen will be with us for many decades to come and become an active speaker on issues such as Software Freedom
- Sunsetting IBM (for the Benefit of Few Corrupt Officials and Wall Street Speculators)
- IBM will not (and cannot) survive for much longer [...] The issue is bad leadership, not any particular nationality/race
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, February 24, 2026
- Gemini Links 25/02/2026: Rise of Solar in 2025 and Smallnet Protocols
- Links for the day