Zenwalk and Chakra Reviews, Another 32-Bit Voice

Today in Linux news, Jack Germain has a review of Zenwalk and Dedoimedo.com tries to review Chakra. With the pro-32 bit architecture folks seemingly winning the argument, Bruce Byfield weights in saying what's surprising is that it's taken so long to deprecate. Elsewhere, Softpedia.com is reporting that Linus Torvalds patched the kernel to fix a Witcher 2 issue.

Zenwalk Linux got a new review today from Jack Germain. He explains, "Zenwalk is an alternative to other fully functional lightweight Linux OSes that do not require full installation. It shares a family history with the likes of Puppy Linux, VectorLinux, Knoppix and Porteus, only it is much better and easier to use." Germain gives it the once over and discusses the pros and cons before concluding, "Zenwalk Linux could serve a useful purpose for users looking for an out-of-the-box portable live Linux solution, but power users and those with more demanding needs no doubt will find this distro lacking."

Dedoimedo.com tested and installed Chakra 2014.11 LIve today but ends the review abruptly when the installed system garbled and froze. He said, " I do not really know what went wrong, but for me, Chakra is getting progressively worse and less friendly. It started as a very cool, very unique distro, and then hardware problems and compatibility issues started piling up until it's become completely unbootable. Such a shame."

There was a bit of a row the other day whether 32-bit architecture is getting too obsolete to support. For now it seems the challenges are still well worth it to many. However, Bruce Byfield today posted a piece saying, "The change is only a matter of time in all distributions. The only surprising thing is that the transition from 32 to 64 bit computing has taken so long." He said 64-bit became the standard in 2003 yet most distributions are still supporting 32-bit. After pondering the delay in transitioning, he decided the reason is probably because 32-bit was "good enough" for most users for so long. In the end Byfield concluded, "At some point in the near future, proposals like Smoogen's are going to be accepted in most distros. Anything that reduces the work load is going to receive serious consideration."

In other news:

* Weekend Viewing: Catch up on LCA 2015

* Torvalds to Patch the Kernel for a Witcher 2 Problem

* Lens: An alernative to desktop agnostic UIs