Forking Debian, Celebrating Ubuntu, and Best Desktops
Debian and Ubuntu dominated the headlines today with various topics. The community is is celebrating Ubuntu's 10 years and Mark Shuttleworth announced the next codename. Debian lost a contributor and released 7.7 over the weekend while the threat of a fork is pushing a freedom choice. In other news we have Gentoo and 4MLinux reviews as well as the chance to vote for the best Linux desktop environment.
Debian has been the topic of discussion quite a bit lately. Last week the project announced a new home for the Debian OS Snapshot Archive. A couple of days later Lucus Nussbaum announced a revival of sorts of the old Debian Package of the Day. He retrieved the database and put up a static version for those wishing to look back.
Over the weekend Debian 7.7 was announced. "This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems." The changelog has a complete list of updated packages. Downloads for a fresh install are at debian.org. Then today the project posted the news that contributor Peter Miller lost his battle with leukemia over the summer.
Oh, but that's not even the biggest news. The systemd issue is still causing problems. Debian's adoption of systemd has many Open Source advocates worried. Despite earlier reports that users could choose to use SysVinit if they wanted, folks were still none too happy. Ian Jackson proposed a resolution to reconsider making systemd default. Nevertheless, too much software now "depends" on systemd, including popular desktops GNOME and Xfce and now "feature-creep" is real issue. So, some folks are calling for a fork of Debian if Jackson's resolution isn't passed saying, "If systemd will be substituting SystemV in Debian, we will fork the project and create a new distro: Pure Debian by Veteran Unix Admins."
Ubuntu had much happier headlines with most related to Ubuntu tenth birthday. Lots of folks looked back with their own thoughts. Among them, NetworkWorld.com posted a short history with a slideshow, OMG!Ubuntu! has a birthday quiz, and Jono Bacon joined in as well. In related news, Unsolicited But Offered says Ubuntu 14.04 didn't work so well on his Lenovo Ideapad. The latest news today is that Ubuntu 15.04 will be codenamed Vivid Vervet Also, Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 388 is out.
.In other news:
* Five Best Linux Desktop Environments
* An Everyday Linux User Review Of 4MLinux