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Operating Systems Linux

Gentoo-Based Calculate Linux 20 Now Available For Download (betanews.com) 39

Posted by msmash from the new-Linux-distros dept.
From a report: Calculate Linux 20, a Gentoo-based operating system, is ready to be installed on your computer. Calculate Linux 20 is based on Gentoo 17.1 and comes with several desktop environment choices, such as Cinnamon, KDE, Xfce, MATE, and more. Unfortunately for some users, the operating system is now 64-bit only. Yes, with version 20, the developers have chosen to kill the 32-bit variants. While some people will be upset, it is definitely the correct choice -- 32-bit only processors are very old at this point. You can likely get a better 64-bit machine for a steal at a thrift store these days.
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Gentoo-Based Calculate Linux 20 Now Available For Download More

Gentoo-Based Calculate Linux 20 Now Available For Download

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  • Could they come up with an even more clunkier name?

  • Why? (Score:4)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @04:09PM (#59563098) Journal

    Serious question: what's interesting or compelling enough about Calculate Linux to entice me to switch from Mint?

    What does it offer, what's better or improved about it?

    I see it has several desktops, is that it or is there something else that should be mentioned?

    In other words, what makes this a distro I should consider switching to?

    • Well.... since it is based on Gentoo, you will:

      - Install it using a process that makes Arch Linux look easy
      - Be able to update it exactly one time.... after which your use flags and a package mask dependency nightmare swiftly makes your system un-updatable....
      - Compile everything from source.... it's fine, it only takes a week to install KDE!
      - Find little to no support since the wiki's are outdated or are conflicting
      - Have the option to not use systemd (that's a plus, at least!)

      • Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Killall -9 Bash ( 622952 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @04:51PM (#59563238)
        The only reason to install Gentoo is to prove that you can. Then you get to prove that you can get sound working. Then you get to demonstrate ability to install and configure a desktop environment. Then prove your ultimate worthiness by getting your mouse scroll wheel to work.

        • The only reason to install Gentoo is to prove that you can.

          That won't impress me.
          I've installed Slackware.
          From floppies.

          • Me too, but the only hard part of that was getting X configured, because back then you had to do it by hand, and it was hard. Making fvwm nice was a similar hassle, but it worked fine out of the box.

        • Gentoo's advocates are convinced that compiling from source yourself adds stability. I have not seen any of them manage to remain in the same job more than 12 months out of the several Gentoo developers I've known. They've always insisted they can do better by starting over themselves. Then they disappear and stop publishing anything that I've ever seen again.

          Does any Gentoo developer remain in charge of any package for more than a year or so? I admit that I've become curious.

          • Maybe they got stuck choosing options in make config. Who the fuck needs ISA bus support, so strip that crap out for maximum kernel leanness / meanness.... then your keyboard doesn't work. but after a few days of trial and error & Google-fu-ing, you find out that your usb keyboard is actually emulated as PS/2 in BIOS, which runs through a virtual ISA bus........

            With the complexity of server hardware, they could get stuck optimizing the kernel forever.

      • Be able to update it exactly one time.... after which your use flags and a package mask dependency nightmare swiftly makes your system un-updatable....

        This is my entire complaint about Gentoo and related distros. Portage breaks everything if you miss any single update for a package. If the USE flag changes in the ebuild, you might need to download another package that conflicts with your current system that Portage cannot resolve. Sometimes, it might pull in tens or hundreds of irrelevant packages, which I never figured out why it does that.

        After using Gentoo for years, I got to the point where I installed my system and all packages I knew I wanted or nee

        • I don't know why people recommend Mint or Ubuntu over Slackware.

          Because there's hojillions of packages for Ubuntu, and not for Slackware.

          The install process is easy if you understand the exact processes involved

          By definition that's not "easy"

      • Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Saturday December 28, 2019 @01:42AM (#59564152) Journal

        Thank you.

        After reading your reply (and the ones below as well) I've decided to happily forget I ever heard about Calculate Linux.

        If people want to compile everything from source, more power to them, but I got stuff to do.

    • Re: (Score:2, Redundant)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      A way to get around systemd.

    • Deploy current software old workstation No systemd (Score:4, Informative)

      by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @04:38PM (#59563188) Journal

      I was curious myself, so I looked over their web site.
      I don't see anything that REALLY sticks out making this a speciality distro. They just did a distro that works well for their needs and decided to make it available to others.

      The main points I saw were:
      Designed to be deployed across a corporate network amd managed by the IT department. Windows does this well, some Linux distros not so well.

      Runs up-to-date software on lower-spec (older) systems.

      Uses openrc, a dependency-based init, as opposed to systemd or SysVInit. The actual /sbin/init itself is the traditional one, with "main" scripts designed to fire off services in parallel based on which services depend on which other services.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        >

        Uses openrc, a dependency-based init, as opposed to systemd or SysVInit. The actual /sbin/init itself is the traditional one, with "main" scripts designed to fire off services in parallel based on which services depend on which other services.

        If Debian without systemd ever becomes tedious, I will probably move to Gentoo or this one. At the moment Debian still works fine with sysIVinit, where you actually have control of things and can modify and customize things easily.

  • First major consumer 64-bit computers (Score:5, Informative)

    by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @04:23PM (#59563128)

    Not to knock people still on 32-bit hardware, but I did want to point out that the first 64-bit consumer processors were 2003. The last 32-bit consumer processors were in 2010 in the Intel Atom processors. The last 32-bit consumer desktop computers were in 2006 with the core solo and duo. All that said, if you're on 32-bit, it is becoming increasingly obvious that if you want to continue using the hardware, you're going to have to become comfortable with compiling the binaries yourself.

    Additionally, if the eventual dropping of 32-bit Intel/AMD scares you, remember this. The kernel did not drop support for processors lacking cmpxchg, invlpg and xadd machine instructions (that is all 386SX/DX and some 486SX processors) until 2012. [kernel.org] That is almost 25 years since the introduction of the 386SX. There's still archives to help you out, so booting old hardware is not impossible albeit with an old OS.

    A distro dropping builds for a particular architecture isn't the end, it just requires more one to be more cunning to keep "modern" software going on it. But with everything, there is a point where we all must acknowledge that hardware is just too old for "modern" software. There's no problem if you go into old hardware with old software, but there's nothing reasonable with expecting old hardware to run modern software. The age in which hardware passes from usable to old is debatable, but I think the majority of people would agree somewhere between 15 and 25 years is where that point lays. Even then, it isn't just strictly number of years that determines it, number of active users also plays a role in determining that. Again, the number of active installs is debatable, but I think the majority would agree that once active installs goes below the threshold of 3% to 5% of all installs, it's safe to put it out of active support and into hobbyist domain.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kackle ( 910159 )
      I don't feel knocked, but a reminder: Today, the majority of processors are not used in computers, but rather are embedded in products (just look around the office and around your car). Most of these don't need 64-bit, 8-core screamers; for example, my current, embedded, professional, design project is a 32-bitter (although not using Linux and the OS was chosen for me). But considering that guy just mentioned on Slashdot who put Linux on a "business card", are these distros going to abandon the 32-bit mar
      • I think they only pulled 386 development, but 686 is still being developed. I don't see them dropping 32-bit support because there are a lot of devices out there running on ARM32 or PPC32 and others.
      • The thing is thinking about it from a fundamental standpoint most if these things are computers,(ok no general putpous computers but computers non the less) after all this is dlashdot so deffinitions matter somewhat. But then again I tend to cringe a tine bit when people call sbcs (like rasberry pi by et alk) a mini computer, iirc mini computers where quite a bit larger ( examples are vax etc) or has that deffinition of mini computer been assigned historic status

      • for example, my current, embedded, professional, design project is a 32-bitter

        That in itself is an incredible review of the modern world. 32bit processors for embedded systems? Get off my 8bit lawn!

    • I still tend to gravitate towards 32bit OSes for older systems that have 4GB of memory or less. Also there were 64bit capable Atoms (baytrail for example) that could only run 32 bit OSes in most cases because they used a 32bit only UEFI. There were some workarounds but in general people stuck to 32bit.

      • I still tend to gravitate towards 32bit OSes for older systems that have 4GB of memory or less.

        Are you aware that x86-64 made many other improvements to x86, not just a bigger address space?

        If you are worried about larger 64-bit pointers taking up memory, please read about x32 [wikipedia.org].

  • I thought it said Calculon [fandom.com] Linux 2.0 -- and actually thought, "cool".

  • We see what you did. Meanwhile..... https://distrowatch.com/dwres.... [distrowatch.com]

    A niche distro dropping support for 32 bit isn't news. Neither is the distro. If you need 32-bit, you have had many, many years to adapt. If you, like the vast majority of Linux users, do not need that support from a tiny niche distro you give zero fucks.

    This is msmash lazily posting space filler as usual. It's not even clickbait at this point, it's just stupid.

  • This is Big News! (Score:3)

    by archatheist ( 316491 ) on Friday December 27, 2019 @10:59PM (#59563910)

    I know nothing of Calculate Linux other than the name, but I assume that is enough for me to extrapolate wildly and note that this will finally be the death-knell of those stupid TI calculators they sell at the grocery store. At last we will be free to calculate on the same machine we use to watch parkour videos and play PUBG (that's right, suck it Fortnite!). The future is now! NOW!!!

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