Upgrade Trisquel? Remove Non-Free Software in Linux-Mint?
Goodnight. I'm practically new to this community (Trisquel, I've been using GNU / LINUX for a long time).
I installed Trsiquel a few days ago, and it works great so far, but I have only one problem.
ALL Trisquel repositories are outdated. I'm a video editor and designer, and I work with KDENLIVE, Inkscape, Gimp, and I've started learning Blender. For me is importante to be always updated to the latest version of the software, but the latest versions that I have managed to install from any program (MATE Desktop even) date from 2012-2013 (Very outdated for my needs).
I have also tried compiling the source code of some programs by myself and failed miserably (that is a task that I never knew to execute well, I lack experience in that aspect, and I know it is fundamental if I want to become an advanced user).
On the other hand, I still have a main partition with Linux Mint, and I was also wondering if I can remove all the proprietary software there. In Trisquel I found a repository to install the latest version of the Linux-free 4.11 kernel and it worked, [https://jxself.org/linux-free/], I just wonder if it will work on Linux Mint, or need to do some extra steps to make this system entirely "Free".
If I installed Trisquel its because I believe in the cause of GNU / Linux and I share the philosophy of Free Software, and I have also started to study programming because it is not enough for me simply to be a user, and I really want to contribute to the community with something significant. At the moment what I want to do is show that I can do my work (video editing) without depending on the Private Software.
I hope you can help me. Thank you very much
"I just wonder if it will work on Linux Mint"
GNU/Linux Mint has been based on Debian and Ubuntu at different times. I made sure to put on my web page for Linux-libre that "It's known to be compatible with Trisquel, gNewSense, Debian, Ubuntu, Devuan and their respective derivatives." Those last 4 words are important. :)
If you install Linux-libre on GNU/Linux Mint you'll have a free kernel. That's it. Because my kernel repository only provides the kernel and nothing else. The rest of what you get get from GNU/Linux Mint may or not be free - you'll need to take the time and audit everything to find out what is or not not free and in truth it'll probably be a mix where some things need editing in order to be.
Of course you could take that time but if you'd rather not there are distros that are already free to begin with. If this is not new enough for you maybe Parabola would be but be forewarned it's for advanced users.
It may also be interesting to read this:
https://wiki.parabola.nu/Rolling_vs._LTS
The whole things is good but I'm thinking from where it starts with: "You will often hear people disrespecting LTS distros with words such as: 'out-dated' or even 'ancient'..."
It has some good words to share there. Trisquel is specifically an LTS distro.
Ive never expected the Web admin to reply me. So random i think xd
Thank you for your reply, and your support.
Hi, im already downloading the Trisquel 8.0 image to test it (and maybe install it).
And yes, im interested in testing beta or alfa images (if it have live usb try option), but im not an advanced user and i still have a low programming level, so i dont think i could make a significant contribution beyond a benchmark test, user experience test, or even an english/spanish translation (im native spanish speaker) (Im expecting for that change soon).
Thank you anyway, also Everyone who replies.
I would not recommend using Mint. Its repo jumbles together libre and proprietary software; it's pretty much impossible to know without manual investigation whether a program is libre or not. And much of the proprietary software is included by default.
The latest Alpha Trisquel 8 Flidas based on Mate has more recent softwares
it was very stable for me, why not try it out
http://jenkins.trisquel.info/makeiso/iso/
That's a possibillity, but i have a lot of files and important info in that partition and no external hardware where to support it. My current Belenos partition is a smaller one (Around 80 gb). No Windows anywhere.
OH WAIT, i have a 16gb flash usb too. i could install and test Fildas there.
There was an integrity problem with the ISOs on the Mint website. That was one-time, I think, and it could happen to anyone really. The only place where the Mint team dropped the ball was that they failed to sign the ISOs so that people could verify them. Not that most people would do so anyway, so it probably wouldn't have been much better even if they did sign them. (They definitely should sign their ISOs, though, and you definitely should check the integrity of ISOs you download.)
Of course, the Mint team also recommends sticking to unsupported software if it seems to work with you, which is dangerous since you end up living with a whole bunch of security holes. But that by itself doesn't make Mint insecure. I do know that Mint tends to pull most updates directly from Ubuntu, so a given Mint release ought to be as secure as the associated Ubuntu release as long as the Mint team doesn't add their own security vulnerabilities.
There was nothing wrong with the ISO's that the Mint Team provided. They even had checksums available. What happened was their server was broken into and legitimate download mirrors were pointed to a malicious server in Romania or Bulgaria.
Yeah, that's what I meant.
I don't know if this has changed since then, but the checksums they provided at the time were just MD5sums. These are not safe from deliberate changes, only accidental errors. In any case, checksums don't protect against attacks like this. If you have control of the Web page, you can just replace the original sum with the sum of the malicious download. Only a signature (e.g. GnuPG) can actually protect against it.
You're right about the importance of signed files. You're right about a lot of things usually.
I can't remember for sure but I have the impression they had signatures available but not immediately obvious where. They were somewhere behind a separate link. Now they have moved to all-https and provide detailed information how to check the integrity of downloaded files. I think they are more secure and have learned something now that they took a hit.
Parabola GNU/Linux looks appropriate to you: http://parabola.nu
That is, I am under the impression that you:
- know the basics of GNU/Linux administration (e.g., you are not afraid of executing a few commands in a terminal or to edit a configuration file);
- are OK with learning (reading Arch's documentation) something slightly different;
- are OK with bleeding a little (recently released software sometimes have bugs...) to be on the bleeding edge of technology.
Like other said: "freeing" a default install of Mint is a difficult task. With Parabola (or Trisquel if you eventually choose stability over novelty), you get freedom by default. It is the great advantage of the FSF-recommended distributions: being free is easy.
Thank, and yes, some people recomends Parabola too, but even if i can do the text mode installing proces, im scared to do something wrong and fuck all up.
Also, does it have a Live try Mode? I like to try every OS before jump into a Hard Disk Installation.
Anyway, im already downloading the Parabola Mate Iso image too, i will see wich one is the best for me.
Yes, the MATE ISO is a live image; it boots into the MATE desktop and you can install Parabola from there (you still need to do it manually via the terminal, although there's a text-based helper [which may or may not work well], but you do get the comfort of a whole graphical environment). However, the basic installation doesn't give you the desktop, so you would need to add it and set it up yourself later.
I'm a Parabola user and don't understand the internals of my system too well, but I've been able to set it up the way I want, mostly thanks to the great documentation from the respective wikis of Arch and Parabola. I always install a new system on a clean disk; if that wasn't the case, I'd probably be scared also. But as always, keep backups of all data that matters to you! That way you can recover reasonably fast if anything goes wrong.
After the manual installation, once you have your basic system configured as you want, maintenance should be fairly simple. I installed GNOME, which took care of many things for me, but crashes too often with the latest updates, so I'm using Openbox now, which works well so far.
I am a translator!
How about Debian Stretch? Very stable and quite new \o/
Thanks, i feel very welcome right now :D.
and Of Course, ive installed Trisquel 8.0, the repositories are very much update, and i think i can wait until the official realize. For now i can back to work and continue learnning.
Also i want to try Parabola, but ill better leave it when i get even more experience.
Thanks everyone.
Aguante el Software Libre!
>I have also tried compiling the source code of some programs by myself and failed miserably (that is a task that I never knew to execute well, I lack experience in that aspect, and I know it is fundamental if I want to become an advanced user).
Compiling is important, and pretty easy once you learn it. Although it is a secondary way to install, in my opinion. You better use Synaptic or aptitude. Try compiling only if you really need to compile. Which I doubt, given the work you do.