Slack Live 0.7.0, New YaST Features, Best Distros
A new beta of Slackware Live was released today bringing new and exciting features. Elsewhere, Matt Hartley and Bruce Byfield teamed up to bring their "expert" picks for the best Linux distros and the FSF is gauging interest in a new free software workstation. Finally, the SUSE YaST Team posted another update on the progress of the YaST rewrite highlighting some new features.
Eric "AlienBob" Hameleers today posted of his latest Slackware Live beta. Version 0.7.0 brings new boot options such as booting the ISO from hard drive storage either by path, label, or UUID. Another parameter allows folks to disable glamor 2d acceleration when Xorg refuses to start. Documentation on customizing Slack live has been added and, best of all, as of 0.6.0, there is a hard drive installer. The installer got some improvements this release as well and the Readme is now accessible online at the Slackware Documentation project.
SUSE YaST Team posted today of some of their latest installer developments. These include improved interface for encrypted partitioning. Also visible to users are system roles which help narrow the configuration steps to the user's requirements. The installer will also be able to update itself during system install, which will help in case of bugs founds after wide release. They're working on a new partitioning tool, a new bootloader, and lots more.
"Experts" Matt Hartley and Bruce Byfield today shared their picks for Best Linux Distros. Each selected 10 distros to highlight. Hartley chose the best for new users - who can be very confused by the "flood of random choices." Hartley began with Ubuntu, followed with Mint, and ended with Debian. He also selected PCLOS, Puppy, openSUSE, and Fedora. Byfield, who said he judges more on the desktops, selected Debian for his number one spot. He included distros like Knoppix, Tails, and KDE Neon but said he was choosing distributions that were influential or filled a niche nicely.
In other news:
* Interested in a powerful, free software friendly workstation?
* SQL Server move to Linux a 'sad reflection of where Microsoft is', says MariaDB CEO