Distro News: Makulu, Zorin OS, Pisi, Black Lab, OpenMandriva, Mageia
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-29 08:15:31 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-29 08:15:31 UTC
Makulu
MakuluLinux was already a solidly performing distro, but the latest version, released last month, takes Makulu to the next level of usability and maturity.
So here's the summary. Makulu Linux is the distribution a lot of us think we would like to create, if we had the time, energy and especially the talent to do it. I don't know anyone in the development team, so this is all speculation on my part, but I would say that it is a group of people who just don't know when to stop — and I mean that as a compliment, and a very good thing.
Today's news search turned up quite a bit of data. Red Hat released their quarterly earnings this afternoon and while observers expected good news, some are now reporting not so much. ZDNet.com has two stories of interest today, the first is from Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reporting on the Linux Collaboration Summit and the other is Jamie Watson's hands-on review of Makulu Linux 5 Xfce. He said it was the most fun as one could have with Linux!
Zorin OS
Zorin OS 8 installs smartly and runs without glitches. It is a solid choice for hassle-free computing, even if you ignore the education bundle. However, educators with access to computer stations in the classroom can benefit from using Zorin's Education Edition rather than the Core release. Because it offers all the power of Ubuntu without the Unity interface, you can not go wrong with Zorin OS 8.
If you choose the free version, you will then be offered a choice between the latest release (currently Zorin OS 8.1), which is based on Ubuntu 13.10, or the current Long Term Support (LTS) release (Zorin OS 6.4), which is based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Furthermore, both the current and LTS releases have three versions: Core, Educational and Gaming. That's quite a variety of versions to choose from — and there might even be a "Lite" version coming with LXDE!
Pisi
When it became apparent early in 2012 that for political/financial reasons, Pardus was to be abandoned, a small group of Turkish volunteers came together to preserve the unique features of Pardus. The name of this project is Anka (Turkish for Phoenix). Initially the Anka-Team believed the fork could be named Pardus-Anka. Ultimately this was not possible - hence re-branding to Pisi Linux as a reference to Pardus and its package system PiSi (Pisi is Turkish for kitty).
“Pisi GNU/Linux is built from scratch but it is a stable base. On top of that, we keep core user applications, such as Firefox, VLC, etc, up to date as much as we can. To ease the use of Pisi GNU/Linux many codecs are preinstalled allowing MP3 & DVD playback, Flash Player support,” reads the official website.
Black Lab
“Today we are pleased to announce the beta 2 release of Black Lab Linux 5. This will be the last Beta for Black Lab Linux 5 until the final release. While it contains all the functionality that will be released in the gold release in May, right now we are working on stability. With that, lets go over what has changed with Black Lab Linux 5,” reads the official announcement.
So what changes have been made? There have been quite a few changes to these distributions in terms of updates and functionality. First, we have focused more on the desktop computing spectrum. While we will continue to offer Black Lab Linux + Server Extensions Pak on our server hardware and the Server Extensions Pak as an additional download, we have decided to stick with what we do the best. Which is the desktop systems. We have heard from customers and users that those are the best releases we do, and while we arent totally lost on the server, we feel we have alot of contributions on the desktop.
OpenMandriva
The first Beta version of OpenMandriva Lx 2014, a fully-featured Linux desktop and server sponsored by the OpenMandriva Association, has been released and can now be tested by users.
The 2014.0 beta is a fantastic sneak-peek at what will become the final release of OpenMandriva Lx 2014.0. That being said, it is a beta, and as such you may encounter issues that prevent you from using the system normally.
Mageia
When I bought the ZaReason Strata Laptop, I asked them to pre-load Mageia 4 to it. However, I knew that I was going to add more distros to the hard drive as soon as I can, to make it feel like the pentaboot HP Pavilion that died on me.
To begin, I wiped the original install and re-installed Mageia. Then, I tried to put PCLinuxOS into the hard drive, but the distro had problems with the display. As I could not achieve a decent display, I decided to do some research and try with PCLinuxOS later.
Misc.
Simplicity Linux, a Linux distribution based on Puppy that uses the LXDE desktop, is now at version 14.4 Beta and brings a buckload of changes and improvements.
Robert Shingledecker has announced the immediate availability for download and testing of the Tiny Core 5.3 RC1 Linux operating system, one of the smallest full operating systems in the world.
“‘Symbiosis’ is a special version of antiX developed in full collaboration with the Mepis Community and using the best tools and talents from each distro. It is a mid-weight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance and medium-sized footprint.”
With last weekend marking an update to the most commonly used Wayland Live CD, I decided to try it out and the different desktop environments that it ships using all the latest code, including the latest development code of Wayland/Weston and the various tool-kits.
The new installer had to be fixed, due to some, small changes between system base of Sparky and LMDE. The network connection did not work after installation the live system on a hard drive (Base Edition 3.3 only).
BBQLinux is an user-friendly Linux distribution made for Android Developers and for enthusiasts who want to test a bit of Arch Linux. It has everything on board to build AOSP or AOSP-based Distributions like OmniROM or CyanogenMod. It’s based on Arch Linux and uses Rolling Release system. BBQLinux uses Arch repositories so its a direct Arch derivative, for example Manjaro is based on Arch but uses their own repositories.
Absolutely everything in it works with Linux, with the caveat that at least for the moment, you have to create a one-line file to get the wireless networking. All of the auxiliary functions work as well, such as Suspend/Resume and the Fn-keys for Sleep, Display Brightness up/down/off, and Volume up/down/off (mute).
While perusing the news this evening I saw a review on NixOS 13.10 by Jesse Smith. Sandra Henry-Stocker wrote a tutorial on "networking basics for the beginner." LinuxInsider's blog safari targeted buzz on "Linux for the senior set" and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports OpenStack's top operating system is Ubuntu. Finally, a new Debian Project News was posted.
Linux Lite was created to dispel myths that a linux based operating system is hard to use.
We're passionate about informing people that there are alternatives to proprietary operating systems.
The free software and open source world is a place from which you can take, but you must give back. This is a chance for people on our team to give something back.
Tor-ramdisk, a tor server distro, was recently updated. Linux kernel, tor binary was updated and haveged was used as entropy generator.
FatDogArm, a relatively new distro was released recently for ARM based computers. It is a small operating system targeted for desktop-style operations. FatDogArm achieved a new milestone with its first beta release. The distribution is quite small in size (less than 300MB). The logic behind the FatDog name is explained on the FatDog64ââ¬Â²s site
-
The distribution is published by Linpus Technologies, Inc., a Linux/Android software solutions outfit based in Taiwan. This is about the only Linux provider that does not have a defined release schedule. Whether that’s a good or bad practice is not something I’m going to address here.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- "How Many Friends Do You Have?"
- "Do bots count?" "Friends in Facebook?" "Does a girlfriend chatbot count as a friend?"
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Responds to Crises Only After It's Way Too Late
- The SRA does not do its job. The new chief's job is face-saving PR in the media.
- The Techrights Team Makes the Platform Faster
- The infrastructure is already fast
- France Does Not Need Digital Weapons Disguised as Social and as Media
- French people lost interest in Social Control 'Media' (or Networks)
-
- Links 18/02/2026: DMCA Weakened, Anna’s Archive Still Thriving
- Links for the day
- Links 18/02/2026: Gig 'Economy' Condemned, Microsoft Insulting/Stressing People With False Slop Predictions
- Links for the day
- Twitter Falling to 1% in Africa's Largest Nation (Algeria)
- About 15 years ago the regime in Egypt got toppled (and others had been too) partly because of social control media such as Twitter
- Mozilla Firefox Died in Afghanistan
- Mozilla has been a complete disaster
- Gemini Links 18/02/2026: Astronomy and Texinfo
- Links for the day
- Are IBM CEO and IBM CFO Ready for Financial Audit That Topples the Shares by 50% in One Day?
- The same "chefs" that cooked up Kyndryl Holdings Inc are still in charge of the IBM kitchen
- "Senior AI Reporter" at Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica Has Written Nothing in Nearly a Week, Did Conde Nast Suspend Him for Fake Articles With Fake Quotes?
- Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica is having a serious credibility issue right now
- Linux Foundation Puts Slop Images, Not Just Slop Text, in Linux.com
- More of the same then
- The Register MS Paid-for 'Articles' (Ads) Seem to be LLM Slop Again
- If it's true that The Register MS is resorting to these marketing tactics, will they later delete the evidence (as they did months ago)?
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 17, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, February 17, 2026
- Microsoft Had Mass Layoffs Every Month Last Year, This Year It's Delaying a Lot to "Prove" Rumours That Crashed Its Stock... 'Wrong'
- Building a bigger snowball for later
- Red Hat Is Not a Company Anymore, Amid Bluewashing and Mass Layoffs It's Merely IBM "Division" or "Brand" or "Product"
- systemd at this point is sort of like IBM/Microsoft thing
- IBM suffers "worst weekly drop in six years", Microsoft's MSN calls it "buying opportunity"
- Ask Cramer what to do
- Still Some Slopfarms in View, Sometimes Targetting "Linux"
- That's a total of at least 4 in Google News today, coming from 3 sources
- Gemini Links 17/02/2026: 3D-Printed Stainless Steel Smartwatch and Gopher Bay Offline
- Links for the day
- Links 17/02/2026: Machine Rage and Microsoft Kills XBox Social Clubs
- Links for the day
- EPO "Productivity" Will Fall Off a Cliff If Examiners Stick to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and Follow the Real Rules
- The EPO's "Cocaine Communication Manager" would hate to see the next "productivity" metrics
- The Problem is Not Technology, the Problem is Really Bad Things Sold or Imposed as "Tech" (Like a Religion Built Around Technology)
- Don't hate technology, hate the corporations that abuse it to promote coercion, exploitation etc.
- Resisting IBM and EPO Corruption
- Rise up against EPO dictatorship next week
- Where Slop Meets Ghostwriting: It's a False Analogy
- It's a false analogy
- Links 17/02/2026: Why OpenClaw is Very Sleazy and Ars Technica Exposed as Hub of LLM Slop (Credibility Destroyed Overnight)
- Links for the day
- Benj Edwards (Ars Technica) Used Fake Articles to Promote Ponzi Scheme for Conde Nast and Its Client (Marketing)
- What Ars Technica and Conde Nast do here helps defraud the general public
- Slop Technica: Ars Technica Seems Like Repeat Offender, a Part-Time Slopfarm
- The culprits are repeat offenders, but the publisher will never admit this in public
- Only One in 50 Saudis Would Use Microsoft for Search, Almost Same as Would Use Russia's Yandex
- If statCounter is to be trusted
- Microsoft's "AI" Concerns Are All Indian (or Low-Paid Workers Who Work Extra Hours Unpaid)
- portraying charlatans and frauds like they're some kind of visionaries and luminaries
- Microsoft Turned Bing Into Censorship Machine of China, But Bing Is Pegged at a Mere 2% in Asia, Yandex is Bigger
- Expect many Bing layoffs some time soon (like in past years)
- Just Like The Register MS, Conde Nast's Ars Technica Has Just Publicly Admitted That It Published Fake Articles (Slop) Made by LLMs About Serious Subjects
- Conde Nast might shut Ars Technica down to escape the bad publicity/association
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Way Too Slow to Respond to Financial Fraud at Law Firms, in Effect Helping Those Law Firms Defraud Many More People (Fleecing Clients)
- Who will hold the SRA accountable for this?
- Techrights Became a Hub for News That IBM/Red Hat Doesn't Want You to See (and Pays Mainstream Media to Distract From)
- the more viciously the notorious organisation attacks the reporter, the greater the interest in what the reporter has to say
- EPO's Central Staff Committee on Fourth Technical Meeting, Two Days Before First of (At Least) 4 Winter Strikes at the Second-Largest European Institution
- “future orientations on the salary adjustment procedure”
- IBM's Collapse Continues, Half of EU Countries to Have Mass Layoffs, "IBM Clearly Disinvests From Europe" Says IBM European Works Council
- Recent publication
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 16, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, February 16, 2026
- Gemini Links 17/02/2026: Alpenglow Industries' Closure and Gemini Server Issues
- Links for the day
- The Southern California Linux Expo (“SCALE”) or SCALE 23x Becomes Microsoft
- It's not supporting the event, it is buying it.
- Where Microsoft's Bing Cannot Even Reach 1% "Market Share"
- Looking at "I" countries
- Microsoft to Focus on Name-Dropping Buzzwords to Distract From Declining Business, IBM RAs (Layoffs) With Staff Stack-Ranked
- Calling everything cloud or reclassifying as "AI"
- Another EPO Strike One Week From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich to Discuss It This Week
- Campinos MIA while Office staff goes on strike at least 4 times
- Links 16/02/2026: Barack Obama Responds to Racist Cheeto and Benjamin Mako Hill Studies Online Communities
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 16/02/2026: Task Completed by Avoidance and "Playing Again With Akkoma"
- Links for the day
- Happy Birthday (or Anniversary) to SoylentNews
- "Happy Birthday SoylentNews"
- Techrights' Architecture
- Stability is the main goal
- IBM Reduces the Thresholds for Acceptance (and the Salaries)
- Are chatbots good enough as IBM staff?
- When It Comes to Rust, Keep All the Eyes on the Ball (Technical and Legal Perils, Sustainability Questions)
- It's not about security or politics
- Linux Foundation Continues Falling Off a Cliff in Geminispace
- Gemini Protocol will turn 7 this summer
- Links 16/02/2026: cURL’s Daniel Stenberg Asserts That Slop is DDoSing Free Software, But Still Uses a Plagiarism and GPL-Violating Blender (Microsoft GitHub)
- Links for the day
- The Techrights Community Never Needed Money, Only Goodwill
- We accomplish things by a track record of suppressed facts
- "AboutCode" is a Microsoft Proxy and Microsoft's Acquisition of the OSI Advances Via OSI Moles
- presenting direct evidence anybody can verify
- Social Control Media is Just a Digital Weapon
- Social control media is not social and not media
- They Will Call Smart People "Luddites"
- Is society "seeing the light"?
- Microsoft Amutable Already Reveals That Its Focus Is Not Linux, It'll Promote "Remote Attestation"
- This is basically an attack on Software Freedom, even if they toss around the brand "Linux"
- More People in Chad Move to GNU/Linux
- Last year we began to see GNU/Linux rising there - a trend which continues this year
- Dr. Andy Farnell on How Universities and Culture of Education Got Crushed by "Technofascist Nightmare"
- Farnell says he "already soft-quit in [his] mind"
- Debt of Broadcom Grew by More Than 50%, Broadcom is Deeper in Debt Than Google
- Expect many more cuts
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 15, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, February 15, 2026