Release of gNewSense 4 (beta) codenamed Ucclia
Sam Geeraerts
annouced earlier this week:
I hereby announce the release of gNewSense 4, codenamed Ucclia. It's
based on a solid Debian, modified to respect the Free Software
Foundation's and is available for 3 architectures: i386, amd64 and
mipsel (Lemote Yeeloong).
Torrents ([1], [2]) for the live DVD images are available, as well
as direct downloads ([3], [4]) and netboot images ([5], [6], [7]).
[1]
http://cdimage.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-live-4.0-amd64-gnome.iso.torrent
[2]
http://cdimage.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-live-4.0-i386-gnome.iso.torrent
[3] http://cdimage.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-live-4.0-amd64-gnome.iso [4]
http://cdimage.gnewsense.org/gnewsense-live-4.0-i386-gnome.iso [5]
http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense/dists/ucclia/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso
[6]
http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense/dists/ucclia/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/mini.iso
[7]
http://archive.gnewsense.org/gnewsense/dists/ucclia/main/installer-mipsel/current/images/loongson-2f/netboot/
Kind regards,
Sam Geeraerts
Based on Debian 7 (wheezy), LTS until 2018
Beta?
I see, it's based on Wheezy.
Indeed. Fortunately, Debian now has an LTS team. Wheezy (oldstable) was handed over to it to take over security support until May 2018: https://www.debian.org/News/2016/20160425
That said, the versions of the programs remain old. Even in comparison with Trisquel 7. And the release of Trisquel 8 hopefully is within a couple of months.
This distro is irrelevant due to how old the packages are. It's best to wait for Trisquel 8 which hopefully releases this month.
I think this old package argument is just silly. If the operating system can do everything you need it to do, and if it is being kept secure, then there really isn't a problem. And since GNU/Linux is awesome, a lot of times you can just update the stuff you need updated manually.
Even if it's old, it's better for them to release it. Lacking help and resources, this must have been the best strategy, better than being left without a somewhat less outdated release than the version before. There should be a use case for this distro even if it's on last legs. There might be some renewed interest. Let's hope they will find the means and energy to keep it relevant.
I tried Ucclia on a live session from a USB. Quite responsive and nice looking. Default Gnome 3 can be changed to Classic. I didn't see any GnewSense related artwork. Iceweasel the browser defaulted to Google search.
The wallpaper does have a logo, it's just covered by the bottom panel by default. Plus, the graphical installer has one.
Been waiting for the release for a long time. When it comes to software age, some might prefer older software that just works or their hardware isn't powerful enough to handle newer releases. Also, for some people security updates might not be necessary as they use their machines while being completely disconnected; for reasons that don't require Internet connection at all.
I see. My screen is 16:9 and the wallpaper is not scaled properly. The logo is out of sight. Is there a way to change scaling, zoom or fit?
*EDIT*
Nevermind. I found it.
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options "stretched"
Oh, instead of messing with these settings, a wide wallpaper could have been used - the one I attached is located in /usr/share/images/desktop-base/ and is called gns-inside-wide.png (the default one which gave so much trouble is called gns-inside.png)
You can get to the graphical background-"configurator" and choose another wallpaper manually, can't you ?
Desktop background selector window has no fill option (no options at all) if I go there through settings or right mouse click on the desktop. Only when I select a wallpaper in a folder and set it as a wallpaper will it ask how to fill it.
*EDIT*
I think I get it now. I have to add (+) a picture, go to a folder and then I can fill or zoom. The default seems to be 'zoom'. The preselected wallpapers are fill-it-all, it doesn't matter how they are scaled and so there is no option for them. So, yes, I can do it manually (gns-inside-wide.png).
GnewSense 5 out in a speedier manner, maybe. It's good they seem to be determined to push ahead.
http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-dev/2016-05/msg00000.html
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=gNewSense-5-Planning