Technology Tales

Language Log

Much of what you find here once got strewn around the LinkBlog and Data Science Directory pages because I have taken to trying out new computing languages. R, Python and Julia were among those that were new to me, and I am curious about Go too. My way of learning often involves trying out things and finding out possible approaches from the web. This collation comes from those ongoing efforts. More may follow them.

Pondering storage options

The combination of curiosity and a little spare time had me browsing online computing technology stores recently. A spot of CD and DVD burning brought on by a flurry of Linux distribution testing reminded me of the possibility. Because I have built up a sizeable library of digital photos, ensuring that I have backups of them is something that needs doing. A 2 GB Samsung external hard drive is brought to life every now and again for that purpose but the prospect of using Blu-Ray discs has appealed to me. After all capacities of 25 GB for single layer discs and 50 GB for dual layer ones sound not inappropriate for my purposes. However, they aren’t a cheap option at the time of writing with each disc costing in the region of £3-4 at one place where I was looking. The cost of BD writers themselves seems not to be so bad though with a few in the £60-100 bracket; any lower than this and you could end up with a combo drive that reads Blu-Ray discs and writes to DVD’s and CD’s so a modicum of concentration is needed. As attractive as the idea might be, the cost of BD media means that I’ll wait a little while before deciding to take the plunge. The price premium at the moment is a reminder of the way that things used to be when CD and DVD writers first came on the market. It is very telling when discs come packaged in jewel cases, something that you won’t see too often with CD’s or DVD’s.

Another piece of storage excitement that hasn’t escaped me is the advent of SSD hard drives. With no moving parts like in conventional hard drives, they bring a speed boost. Concerns about their lifetimes and the numbers of read/write events per drive would stall me when it comes to storing personal data on them but using them for the likes of operating system files sounds attractive, especially with my partiality to Linux perhaps not hammering drives so much. As with any new technology, there is a price premium though a drive big enough for hosting an operating system can be acquired for less than £100. As with many of my hardware purchase brainwaves, there’s no rush but this is an option that I’ll keep at the back of my mind.

Another appealing notion is the idea of getting a NAS so that files can be shared between a few computers. While I have seen prices starting at just above £70 for single disk enclosures, these generally are a more expensive option than external drives and that’s before you consider the cost of any hard drives. Nevertheless, the advantages of a unit containing more than a single hard drive while operating as a print server for any compatible printer too. When you get to 4 or 5 hard drive trays, then the cost has mounted but that could be when they pay their way too. What reminded me of these was a bookazine on home networking that I recently found at a branch of WHSmith’s and their attractions are subject to the networking side of things being made to work without a drama. Once that’s out of the way, then their usefulness really does appeal.

Mulling over all these brainwaves is one thing but it doesn’t mean that the purse strings will become too loose in this age of economic constraint. In fact, pondering them may serve to staunch any impulse purchases. Sometimes, a spot of virtual shopping serves to control things rather than losing the run of oneself.

Another use for virtualisation

One of the unexpected features of VMware is that you are left to set the virtual machine to use resolutions above and beyond that allowed by your own monitor and graphics card combinations. From a web development or design point of view, this is incredibly useful when you consider the sizes of the screens that come with PC’s these days: some of them make my 17′ Iiyama ProLite E431S take on the appearance of having proportions close to that of a postage stamp. While getting a bigger screen sounds a very nice idea and 24′ models are supposed to allow for excellent productivity, I plan to stick with what I have and VMware facilitates this with a top resolution of 2360 pixels by 1770 pixels when you get VMware tools set up on your guest OS; Windows XP is what I have been using with these higher resolutions. You do have to pan about a bit because you can only see part of the screen when the resolutions climb beyond your own monitor settings and it does exercise your hardware but being able to see how things look in resolutions larger than anything that you can access (1600 by 1200 is as high as it goes for me for a real machine and that belongs to my workplace) is very much worth it. It certainly allowed me to fine tune my online photo gallery, something that makes me relax a little more now that I have done the required optimisation for different screen heights.

Ditching PC Plus?

When I start to lose interest in the features in a magazine that I regularly buy, then it’s a matter of time before I stop buying the magazine altogether. Such a predicament is facing PC Plus, a magazine that I been buying every month over the last ten years. The fate has already befallen titles like Web Designer, Amateur Photographer and Trail, all of which I now buy sporadically. Returning to PC Plus, I get the impression that it feels more of a lightweight these days. What Future Publishing has been doing over the last decade is add titles to its portfolio that take actually from its long established stalwart; Linux Format and .Net are two that come to mind and there are titles covering Windows Vista and computer music as well. Being a sucker for punishment, I did pick up this month’s PC Plus and the issue is as good an example of the malaise as any. Reviews, once a mainstay of the title, are now less prominent than they were. In place of comparison tests, we now find discussions of topics like hardware acceleration with some reviews mixed in. Topics such as robotics and artificial intelligence do rear their heads in feature articles and I cannot say that I have a great deal of time for such futurology. The tutorials section is still there but has been hived off into a separate mini-magazine and I am not so sure that it has escaped the lightweight revolution. All this is leading me to dump PC Plus in favour of PC Pro from Dennis Publishing. This feels reassuringly more heavyweight and, while the basic format has remained unchanged over the years, it still managed to remain fresh. Reviews, of both software and hardware, are very much in evidence and it manages to have those value-adding feature articles; this month, digital photography and rip-off Britain come under the spotlight. Add the Real Word Computing section and it all makes a good read in these times of behemoths like Microsoft, Apple and Adobe delivering new things on the technology front. I don’t know if I have changed but PC Pro does seem better than PC Plus these days.

Debian & Derivatives

Debian is one of the oldest Linux distributions and has spawned many of derivatives, with Ubuntu being the most notable of the lot. It, too, has a range of ports that include one using a BSD kernel (GNU/kFreeBSD) too. Mainly though, it is the x86 and AMD64 architecture Linux variants that get the most attention.

After all, I do have something of a soft spot for Debian, mainly because it was loaded on a backup machine that was pressed into service when my main home system went belly up on me in 2009. It may attract its aficionados (and there is an administrator’s manual so that gives you an idea of who gets attracted to the OS) but that does nothing to detract from its usability based on my experience of using it. Well, Ubuntu did start from a good base when it did.

That was not to be the end of my dalliance with Debian and I still have virtual machines loaded with it today. The fact that new versions of the operating system may not come around very frequently can be an attraction that is lost on those who always want the latest software. When it comes to GNOME Shell, maintaining the same version longer than six months and wondering if favoured extensions will get updated to a new version has something going for it. Long-term support helps too, a growing trend in the world of Linux.

The changes introduced with GNOME 3 have been contentious and the Debian team has toyed with using other default desktop environments yet always returned to it regardless. Still, the range of desktop environments that you can use with Debian has expanded with both Cinnamon and KDE being options that come to mind and there are others.

As you might tell, I do have a soft spot for Debian and its focus on stability is at the heart of that. Maybe that is why so it has so many variants, like Ubuntu and Linux Mint, to name just two. Whenever a new version does appear, it may not have the latest versions of software, but there are times when experimentation needs to be tamed and it is good to know that upheaval hardly is a regular occurrence either.

More Options Based on Debian

So many other distros are based on Debian that there needs to be a list of them on here. Ubuntu and Linux Mint are the most notable of the lot, but there are many others, as you will see below. Others may fall in more specific functional listings that you can find via the sidebar.

Bodhi

An up-and-coming Ubuntu derivative that uses the Enlightenment desktop environment.

Deepin

This is another derivative of Ubuntu that is gaining favour thanks to the elegance of its desktop. That it’s essentially GNOME 3 is saying something about how GNOME Shell can be customised too.

Devuan

When Debian changed from sysvinit to systemd for managing system start-up and services, there were those who disagreed strongly with the decision. Though the Debian team did vote for this under the bonnet change, the detractors set up Devuan as an alternative downstream project that allows them to continue as they were.

Elementary OS

It has Ubuntu at its heart, but a lot of work has happened to make it feel as if that isn’t the case.

ExTix

What you have here is a Swedish respin of Deepin Linux. From the website, it appears that freedom is a concern but there needs to be more made of the reason for doing what they are doing.

Finnix

This is not a full desktop option since it contains many system utilities for maintenance and recovery. What you get on startup is a root command line with everything available to you.

Freespire

If you can forego the support that Linspire offers its customers, then this can come to you free of charge. The basis here is Ubuntu with different choices like the inclusion of Flatpak as well as a different software selection that includes the Brave browser and OnlyOffice.

Grml

This is a remix of Debian that uses the Zsh shell that runs exclusively as a live distro, either on a DC or on a USB flash drive.

Knoppix

If I recall correctly, this was the first-ever distribution to offer a Live CD version of itself and the innovation has taken off to the level that almost all of its competitors now offer the same. Its creator also writes a helpdesk column for Linux Magazine.

Kubuntu

Until the 12.04, release this was sponsored by Canonical, but that has changed with Blue Systems taking over for the 12.10 release. It remains the KDE flavour of Ubuntu despite this and that seems to remain the case for the foreseeable future.

Linux Lite

As the name suggests; thus, Ubuntu variant is suitable for older computer hardware. Also, it is based on LTS releases of Ubuntu, so there is no need to upgrade every six months either.

Linux Mint

The main distro may be based on Ubuntu, but there is a Debian-based version, LMDE, too. The latter only comes with the Cinnamon desktop environment while the former comes with Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. My everyday choice has been the Cinnamon edition based on Ubuntu even if the Debian version has been checked out for a time as well; LMDE felt a little clunkier to me so I am staying mainstream for my purposes. All in all, Linux Mint feels far more community-oriented with less drama, which is why it gets my vote for everyday computing.

Linuxfx

One of the promises here is the running of Windows applications using Wine along with the running of Android apps. Also, the chosen desktop environment is KDE Plasma.

Lubuntu

The first place I ever tried Lubuntu was on a now elderly Asus Eee PC netbook. LXDE is the desktop environment choice here too and it’s very lightweight and so fits the bill for netbooks and PC’s that are getting on in years. The included software is chosen for being lightweight, so Chromium appeared instead of Firefox, but the accessibility of Ubuntu repositories meant that LibreOffice and the aforementioned Firefox never took long to appear on where I installed Lubuntu. Originally, it was an independent project but it impressed Mark Shuttleworth enough to gain official support such that new versions now appear on the same day as the main Ubuntu release itself.

LXLE

The website for this project disappeared for a while but it seems to be back again, so the entry reappears in this list. It is yet another lightweight distro for use on an ageing computer, as if Linux does not provide enough of these already. However, each has their own aesthetics so that may have something to do with the number of available options.

MX

In the first decade of the century, Warren Woodford created a distro called Mepis, but that project was discontinued in 2009. In response, members of the antiX and Mepis teams came together to create MX as a successor to Mepis. Today, the project remains active, and the latest version comes with XFCE, KDE and Fluxbox desktop environment choices. The antiX involvement adds a little extra computing efficiency too.

Netrunner

When Kubuntu existed, the need for this was lost on me, but the continued existence of this project will serve those who were left without an option after the official Ubuntu derivative. The effort is sponsored by Blue Systems.

Nitrux

Here is one of the strap lines for Nitrux: Powered by Debian, KDE Plasma and Frameworks, and AppImages. The last on the list refers to an ongoing trend for packaging applications within containers for desktop usage. All you need to do is drop the AppImage file somewhere, make it executable and run that.

Pardus

There was a time when this Turkish distro made something of a splash, but those days are gone and I even thought the project was moribund only to get corrected. As it happens, both GNOME and XFCE desktop environments are offered for your choosing.

Peppermint OS

Both Debian and Devuan form the basis for spins of this distro. XFCE is the chosen desktop environment so that should be more than usable for most.

Pop!_OS

If you buy a computer from System76, then Pop!_OS is the operating system that you get with it since the project is orchestrated by the same company. You can download installation media for other computers too and the target audience includes those working in science, technology, engineering and mathematical sectors as those who are content producers. There is a bespoke desktop environment called Cosmic in place of more commonplace options.

Q4OS

Prague appears to be the development HQ for this distro these days. For desktop environments, it has KDE but also a unique choice in the less well-known Trinity, and it has dual desktop capability. Another interesting feature is the way it runs alongside Windows. It also runs on ARM as well as x86.

Siduction

This is a packaging of software from Debian’s unstable branch, always called Sid and so the inspiration for the name of this distro. There are quarterly releases and five desktop environments are on offer, GNOME, LXDE, XFCE, KDE SC and Razor-QT. For whatever reason, there is a version with no desktop environment at all, but that might be for the sort of DIY enthusiast who enjoys the likes of Arch.

SparkyLinux

Using the testing branch of Debian, this rolling release distro comes in E17, LXDE, MATE and Razor-qt flavours. There’s also a command-line edition for those wanting to build their desktop environment instead of having it pre-packaged for them.

SpiralLinux

What you have here is a respin of Debian that uses its software repositories directly while adding a dash of added user-friendliness. It probably is for those who want to stay closer to the Debian base than Ubuntu does, yet a recent magazine review commented that Ubuntu does user-friendliness better anyway. Even so, Debian does not offer live DVD/USB images like you get here.

Ubuntu

It was Ubuntu that steered me into the world of full-time Linux usage after a series of Windows XP meltdowns.  In contrast to earlier dalliances with Linux, all of my hardware was supported without any bother and everything seemed to work straight away. Whatever issues I faced in those early months, there seemed to be an answer in an Ubuntu forum or blog for my problem even if some needed a spot of thought when it came to their implementation.

Ubuntu Budgie

Budgie may be an upstart desktop environment, but that has not stopped an official Ubuntu spin from using it. Things look swish so it will be interesting to watch this.

Ubuntu MATE

In a sense, this is going back to how Ubuntu was before the arrival of GNOME Shell or Unity, both of which caused controversy, and it is a community effort and not one sponsored by Canonical. With Linux Mint having the MATE desktop too, you might be tempted to ask what this offers but the decision by the Linux Mint team to go exclusively for a long-term support model answers that. In contrast, the next release of Ubuntu MATE will be 14.10 so you get an intermediate release this way and in situ distro version updates should be a possibility too, another practice that the Linux Mint team reckons is undesirable. It will be interesting to see how many go for this.

Ubuntu Studio

This is a spin of Ubuntu for content creators. Here, the focus is on audio, graphics, video and photography. The main desktop is KDE but you also can add the Ubuntu Studio experience to other favours of Ubuntu, increasing the choices of desktop environment.

Voyager

This is a French project with variants based on Debian and on Ubuntu. The website has sections about gaming and ChatGPT, among other things. For English speakers, text comes up in French before converting to English; patience is needed to avoid confusion.

Xubuntu

This is a variant of Ubuntu using the Xfce desktop environment. As such, that makes it a bit lighter on computer power than the main distro would be. Having tried it a few times on various machines, it remains very usable and has a more conventional user interface too.

Zentyal

From the website, this would appear to be a mail server operating system that has a user-friendly feel to it. However, Linux Magazine has left me with the impression that its talents go beyond this and that activities like serving websites are supported. These are things that I have yet to explore with the VirtualBox instance that I have set up to see what it can do.

Zorin

This distro is mocking up its desktop environments to ape those of Windows and macOS, and is its major selling point. That’s not all, since they are selling laptops with the OS installed on them too. Additionally, enterprise management services are another product line here.

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Setting up GNOME 3 on Arch Linux

It must have been my curiosity that drove me to exploring Arch Linux a few weeks ago. Its coming on a Linux Format DVD and a few kind words about its being a cutting edge distribution were enough to set me installing it into a VirtualBox virtual machine for a spot of investigation. In spite of warnings to the contrary, I took the path of least resistance with the installation even though I did look among the packages to see if I could select a desktop environment to be added as well. Not finding anything like GNOME in there, I left everything as defaulted and ended up with a command line interface as I suspected. The next job was to use the pacman command to add the extras that were needed to set in place a fully functioning desktop.

For this, the Arch Linux wiki is a copious source of information though it didn’t stop me doing things out of sequence. That I didn’t go about perusing it in a linear manner was part of the cause of this but you have to know which place to start first as well. As a result, I have decided to draw everything together here so that it’s all in one place and in a more sensible order even if it wasn’t the one that I followed.

The first thing to do is go adding X.org using the following command:

pacman -Syu xorg-server

The -Syu switch tells pacman to update the package list, upgrade any packages that require it and add the listed package if it isn’t in place already; that’s X.org in this case. For my testing, I added xor-xinit too. This puts that startx command in place. This is the command for adding it:

pacman -S xorg-xinit

With those in place, I’d go adding the VirtualBox Guest Additions next. GNOME Shell requires 3D capability so you need to have this done while the machine is off or when setting it up in the first place. This command will add the required VirtualBox extensions:

pacman -Syu virtualbox-guest-additions

Once that’s done, you need to edit /etc/rc.conf by adding “vboxguest vboxsf vboxvideo” within the brackets on the MODULES line and adding “rc.vboxadd” within the brackets on the DAEMONS line. On restarting everything should be available to you but the modprobe command is there for any troubleshooting.

With the above pre-work done, you can set to installing GNOME and I added the basic desktop from the gnome package and the other GNOME applications from the gnome-extra one. GDM is the login screen manager so that’s needed too and the GNOME Tweak Tool is a very handy thing to have for changing settings that you otherwise couldn’t. Here are the commands that I used to add all of these:

pacman -Syu gnome
pacman -Syu gnome-extra
pacman -Syu gdm
pacman -Syu gnome-tweak-tool

With those in place, some configuration files were edited so that a GUI was on show instead of a black screen with a command prompt, as useful as that can be. The first of these was /etc/rc.conf where “dbus” was added within the brackets on the DAEMONS line and “fuse” was added between those on the MODULES one.

Creating a file named .xinitrc in the root home area with the following line in there makes running a GNOME session from issuing a startx command:

exec ck-launch-session gnome-session

With all those in place, all that was needed to get a GNOME 3 login screen was a reboot. Arch is so pared back that I could login as root, not the safest of things to be doing so I added an account for more regular use. After that, it has been a matter of tweaking the GNOME desktop environment and adding missing applications. The bare bones installation that I allowed to happen meant that there were a surprising number of them but that isn’t hard to fix using pacman.

All of this emphasises that Arch Linux is for those who want to pick what they want from an operating system rather than having that decided for you by someone else, an approach that has something going for it with some of the decisions that make their presence felt in computing environments from time to time. There’s no doubt that this isn’t for everyone but documentation is complete enough for the minimalism not to be a problem for experienced Linux users and I certainly managed to make things work for me once I got them in the right order. Another thing in its favour is that Arch also is a rolling distribution so you don’t need have to go though the whole set up routine every six months unlike some others. So far, it does seem stable enough and even has set me to wondering if I could pop it on a real computer sometime.

Yet another useful Windows shortcut

During the week, I needed to go to a client to upgrade the laptop that they’d given me for doing work for them. The cause was their migration from Windows XP to Windows 7. Office 2010 also came with the now set up and they replace the machines with new ones too. As part of doing this, they carried out upgrade training and this is when I got to learn a thing or two.

While I may have been using Windows 7 since the beta releases first were made available, I am under no illusions that I know all there is to be known about the operating system. Included among the things of which I wasn’t aware was a shortcut key combination for controlling display output from the HP laptop that I’d been given. This is the Windows key + P. This brings up a dialogue screen from which you can select the combination that you need and that includes extending the display across two different screens, such as that of the laptop and an external monitor. Going into the display properties will fine tune things such as what is the main display and the placement of the desktops; there’s no point in having Windows thinking that the external screen is to your left when in fact it is at the right.

Another interesting shortcut is the Windows key + TAB. This affects the Aero application view and repeating the combination cycles through the open applications or you can use a mouse wheel to achieve the same end. With ALT + TAB and the taskbar still about, this might appear more of a curiosity but some may still find it handy so I’ve shared it here too.

All in all, it’s best never to think that you know enough about something because there’s always something new to be learned and it’s always the smallest of things that proves to be the most helpful. With every release of Windows, that always seems to be the case and Windows 8 should not be any different, even if all the talk is about its Metro interface. A beta release is due in the spring of 2012 so we’ll have a chance to find out then. You never can stop learning about this computing business.

A little look at Windows 8

It has been a little while but I have managed to set up a VirtualBox virtual machine in order to take a look at the Developer Preview of the next version of Windows, something that I and others continue to call Windows 8 though Microsoft has yet to confirm the name. When I tried the installation before, it failed on me but that may have been due to having an earlier release of VirtualBox on my machine at that time. 4.1.14 has a preset for Windows 8 and I also happened to notice that it can create virtual hard disks that can be used with competitors like VMWare, Parallels and Virtual PC too. It’s an interesting development but I am left wondering why you’d need to do that when VirtualBox runs on most platforms anyway.

To get back to Windows 8, the installation ran near enough without any intervention apart form stating the language you wanted to use, U.K. English in my case. Starting up the operating system gains you a lock screen that you need to get out of the way so you can log in. It can be dragged out of your way or you can double-click on it or use the carriage return key to get rid of it. Quite why someone thinks it’s a good extra is a little beyond me when a log in screen would suffice. Logging in gets you the new start menu or, as I prefer to think of it, screen. By default, there are a good few Metro apps installed though I decided to rid myself of most of them.

Regarding those apps, one irritation could be that there isn’t that obvious a way to switch away from them to something else. Thankfully, ALT+TAB does seem to work and it has the most instantaneous effect. Otherwise, using the Windows key or hovering over the bottom left corner of the screen to get the menu that brings up the start screen. From the PC user’s point of view, I could see this needing a little more thought because it took a little while for me to figure out what to do. Closing Metro apps isn’t an option either unless you resort to the Task Manager to do so. Microsoft appears to want to leave them open from the point at which you start them until the PC is shut down. It’s a design decision that leaves me unconvinced though, particularly when thoughts of rogue apps running riot on a system come to mind. Then, a stop button could be handy.

There is no start menu as we have come to know it anymore with the start screen replacing it. However, it is possible to limit what’s on there to the software that you use most often an rearrange panels as you’d like them to be. Apart from hosting shortcuts for starting applications, it also acts as a task switcher like the task bar in Windows 7 and there is one of those in Windows 8 too when you jump to the desktop; handily, there’s a panel for that too. Installing Firefox added a panel to the start screen so a little thought has gone into such a common situation and that’s just as well. Still, there’s more work to be done because, currently, there’s no way of changing the background colour of the start screen without resorting to a hex editor or third party tools. Still, you can pick your own picture for the lock screen so things are not all locked down on you.

A preview of IE 10 is included and, apart from the occasional artifact when displaying one of my websites, it seems to work well enough as does Windows Explorer. However, apart from these and a smattering of Metro apps, the Developer Preview does feel barer that previous versions of Windows. However, it does appear that applications like Notepad, PowerShell and the Command Prompt are on there but you need to search for these. That also means that you know about them too so I’d suggest a better way of browsing the applications that are available too. This is one of the weaknesses of Ubuntu’s Unity interface and you need to search in the Dash to find them. Just starting to type in the Metro start screen (and other screens too, it seems) in Windows does trigger the completion of a search box much like what happens in the GNOME Shell Activities screen on systems with GNOME 3. While it’s good to see good ideas being reused from elsewhere, Microsoft might do well to note that you still can browse lists of applications in GNOME 3 too.

Shutting down Windows 8 also seems to be more convoluted than is the case with Windows 7. Logging off and then powering off from the log in screen is one approach and that was my early impression from GNOME 3 too. With the latter, I later was to discover a status menu plugin that added in the option where it was accessible or that using ALT key when clicking the status menu when the plugin wouldn’t work would do what I needed. Without logging off from Windows 8, you can do a shut down using the sidebar that appears on selecting Settings from the menu that pops up on hovering near the bottom left corner of the start screen or the Start button of the task bar of the desktop. Then, look for the power icon and select what you need from the menu that clicking on this icon produces. Of course, you may find that the ALT+F4 key combination when issued while on a clean desktop is the cleanest of all.

All in all, the Developer Preview of the next release of Windows looks fairly usable. That is not to say that there aren’t things that need changing. Apart from this being an early sight of what may be coming to us Windows users, it isn’t unknown for Microsoft to roll back on a radical move to make it more palatable to the user community. After all, it has to watch how it treats the corporate market too. The strong possibility of there being alterations is one thought that needs to be shared with those who are inclined to be losing their tempers at the moment and I have comments with unpleasant language out there on the web (none of that here, please, by the way). As for me, I like to look ahead in order to be forewarned about what’s coming my way in the world of computing. What I have seen so far of the next Windows release is reassuring though there are roughnesses such as PC shutdown and Metro app switching but Microsoft cannot commit commercial suicide either so these have to be fixed. It seems that the world of Microsoft operating systems is in flux with the company’s keeping a firm eye on the world of mobile computing with tablets being a major concern. Others may disagree but I can see Windows 8 working well on conventional PC’s and that’s no bad thing.

Free Software Foundation Approved Distros

Not all software in Linux distributions necessarily is free or libre software. After all, most of us want to play MP3 files and I am as guilty of this as many. Then, some proprietary drivers are included with some of them baked into Linux kernels as well. All of this may make Linux easier to use but it will not please some. Hence, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has a list of distros satisfying their guidelines and some of these are below.

Dragora

Simplicity is the apparent hallmark here.

Dyne:bolic

This is a free-software-compliant multimedia distro that proves that such things can be done without the use of proprietary codecs.

Guix System

It now appears that the GNU project now has its very own Linux distro built around the Guix (pronounced “geeks”) package manager and using the Guile programming language. The website and the screenshots look swish so it might be worth trying this out for real, and there may be a version using the Hurd kernel yet, though Linux-libre is the only option for now.

Hyperbola

This project is working with two bases: Linux-libre and BSD. The first is a derivative or Arch Linux that roots out so many non-free packages that you wonder if they might go too far. It also takes the long-term support approach so they do not have to adjust things every time something changes in Arch.

libreCMC

This results from the combination of two distinct projects that shared one common characteristic: use in embedded devices like routers, not for installing on PC’s. That may seem like a minority interest to me but we all have different needs.

Parabola

Here, Arch also is the basis with freedom as the byword. While the basis is a rolling distro, this is a long-term support offering.

ProteanOS

What we have here is another Linux distro that can be embedded on different devices and is kept lightweight to ensure universality.

PureOS

The social purpose hardware company Purism is involved in this effort, hence the naming. The distro itself is based on Debian and appears to be intended for a range of hardware, from phones to tablets to PC’s. Naturally, ISO installation images can be downloaded as well.

Trisquel

Think of this as Ubuntu with only Free Software included and you have the point of this distro. Given that Richard Stallman of the FSF has been known to like it, meeting that goal seems to be assured now.

Ututo

This was the first distro that the FSF rated for software freedom and hails from Argentina. Unfortunately, there appears to have been a lull in activity since 2107, so it is difficult to know if this remains viable.