Distro watch
What’sbehindthefreesoftwaresofa?
ROSAR
REACTOS0.4.
ThefirststablereleaseofSway,a “consistent,flexible,
andpowerfuldesktopenvironmentforLinuxand
FreeBSD”ascreatorDrewDeVaultcallsit,hasbeen
released.Ina refreshinglyhonestrelease
announcement(http://bit.ly/LXFSway1), DeVault
explainshow“nearly 300 peopleworkedtogether,
writingover9,000commitsandalmost100,000lines
ofcode”forthisrelease,whichhasbeencompletely
overhauledfora muchbetterexperiencecomparedto
Sway0.15,whichwas,byDeVault’sadmission,a
“buggy,frustratingdesktoptouse.”Downloadit from:
http://bit.ly/LXFSway1Download. Sway1.0isa newdesktopforLinux
andFreeBSD.ReactOS0.4.11isanopensource
re-implementationofWindowsNT.ROSAisa Russiandistrowitha choice
ofdesktops.antiX17.4bringssomeimportantsecurity
updatestothedistro.A newversionoftheopensourceoperatingsystem
thatenablesyoutorunWindowsapplicationshasbeen
released.Asthereleasestatementnotes(http://bit.
ly/LXFReactOS), thisnewversionbringssubstantial
improvementstothekernelthatimproves
performanceandaddressesa numberofissues.
A compatibilityissuewithPCsrunningIntel’sSkylake
(orlater)processorshasbeenaddressed,soit can
nowrunonmoremodernhardware,andWin
improvementshavebeenincludedaswell.SWAY1.
ROSADesktopisa Linuxdistrothatwasoncea forkof
MandrivaLinux,andthelatestversioncomesinfour
desktopflavours:KDE4,KDEPlasma,LXDEandXfce.
Inthislatestrelease,theLinuxkernelhasbeen
updatedto4.15,andthere’saddedsupportfor
installingthedistroondeviceswithfastM.2and
NVMEsolidstatedrives.If yourRussianisanygood,
youcanreaduponthereleaseannouncementat:
http://bit.ly/LXFROSA11.ThisdistrobasedonDebian’scurrent‘Stable’branch
hashadanimportantupdatethatisnowavailableto
download.antiX17.4,‘HelenKeller’,comeswithan
updatedkernelwhichhasbeenpatchedtomitigate
againstMeltdown,SpectreandCVE-2019-
vulnerabilities.Allpackageshavebeenupdatedto
Debian9.8,andthereareimprovementstothe
localisationofapplicationsplusimprovediconsand
themes.Findoutmoreathttp://bit.ly/LXFantiX174.OPINION
SoGNOME3.
cameout,andto
celebrateI finallyswitched
overtoWayland.Ofcourse,
it wasn’tallsmoothsailing.
Asiswelldocumented,I am
fondofGuake, thedrop
downterminal.
UnfortunatelyWaylandhas
notruckwithprogramsthat
wanttograbkeystrokes
withoutfocus,soitshandy
F12hotkeydidn’twork.
SinceI spendmostofmy
timewritinginLibreOffice
(webothknowthat’snot
true– Ed), pressingthis
keyresultedinthecurrent
paragraphbecomingthe
firstitemina list.
Frustrating,butofcourse
thisisexpectedbehaviour;
it’sjustthatunderX,that
F12keystrokecouldbe
interceptedtoprevent
thisunwantedlistifying.
Thefutureoftech
journalismmaywellsadly
belisticles,SEO-friendly
headlinesandsimplification
beyondrecognition.But
suchbilgeandbunkumwill
nevergracethesepages.
Insteadhavea handytwo-
sentenceguidetogetting
GuakeworkinginWayland.
DisabletheF12shortcutin
LibreOffice. GotoGNOME’s
KeyboardSettingsandbind
F12tothecommand
guake-t. Thesecond
argumenttogglesvisibility,
sowilldothedesiredthing
whethertheterminalisup
ordown.Doneandtheflat
Earthdisckeepson
spinning.JonniBidwell
wantsonlythebestforyou.WA-HEY,
WAYL AND
ANTIX17.
http://www.techradar.com/pro/linux May 2019 LXF249 9
NEWSDESK