Friday, May 6, 2011

Ubuntu 11.04, Unity Released to Mixed Reactions | Linux Journal

Linux Journal has a collection of reactions to Ubuntu's Unity interface. According to online polls, so far the most common reaction has been indifference.

The main relevance of this debate to lightweight desktop fans is that a widespread rejection of Unity, Gnome 3 and KDE 4 might make Xfce a more popular desktop even for non-lightweight distros.

Ubuntu 11.04, Unity Released to Mixed Reactions | Linux Journal

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Distribution Release: antiX M11 (DistroWatch.com News)

It looks like we have a new distro, based on MEPIS, with IceWM as the GUI. If antiX follows the MEPIS approach of providing a point-and-click way to do just about every task, it could be a godsend to people who have really old computers (with as little as 64 MB of RAM) but aren't into customization through the terminal and text file editing.

Distribution Release: antiX M11 (DistroWatch.com News)

Monday, May 2, 2011

DistroWatch Weekly: Lubuntu Closer to Becoming "Official"

The new issue of DistroWatch Weekly is out. It looks like the only lightweight-distro news that I haven't commented on already is that Lubuntu appears to be closer to becoming an official Ubuntu derivative.

DW Weekly quotes this Lubuntu developer blog post, which quotes the following comment by Mark Shuttleworth:

Thanks for the great work and progress of Lubuntu in the past 2 years. The fact that you are now 100% in the archive, and using PPA's and other tools effectively, makes it possible for us to consider recognising Lubuntu as an official part of the project. ... From my perspective, I see no problem in providing Lubuntu with the means to book sessions at UDS, and for us to call attention to Lubuntu in the project release notes. ... Our goal with Ubuntu is to ensure that the archive contains the full richness of free software. LXDE is definitely part of that, and with the other desktop environments making greater demands on PC resources, LXDE has a continued role to play.


DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 403, 2 May 2011

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Linux on a Fingernail | Linux Journal

This month's Linux Journal takes a look at utilities that make it easy to install various Linux distros on a USB drive.

Linux on a Fingernail | Linux Journal

Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 3.6 (DistroWatch.com News)

I have absolutely no need for a distro that runs entirely in RAM. However, if your resources are so limited that you do need such an OS, here it is:

Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 3.6 (DistroWatch.com News)