[Announcement] Window Maker Live 12.8 with GNUstep

[Paul Seelig]

The Linux distribution project Window Maker Live is now available for
download in version 12.8:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/wmlive
https://sourceforge.net/projects/wmlive/files/wmlive-bookworm-12.8

The former versioning scheme based on Window Maker's version number has
been changed to emphasize the close relationship to the version of
Debian/Bookwom on which the project is ultimately based.

What's new in this release is the much better integration of GNUstep
components in their most current versions and the general expansion of
the scope of the included software:

* Previous [https://sourceforge.net/projects/previous], which implements
the m68k hardware of NeXT computers in software and allows the operation
of the NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP operating systems.

* 86Box [https://github.com/86Box/86Box], an emulator for x86-based PC's
with support for Intel CPU's up to a maximum of Pentium II. Perfectly
runs both NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP for Intel.

* scantailor-advanced
[https://github.com/ScanTailor-Advanced/scantailor-advanced], an
excellent program for post-processing scanned book pages.

* TeX Live [https://www.tug.org/texlive], the internationally leading
document production system for TeX and LaTeX.

* .. and so much more that you can find out better in practice.

Not included are common YouTube-enabled web browsers such as
Chrome/Brave/Vivaldi/Firefox/Opera/etc. or something like LibreOffice or
Thunderbird and other standard programs. Instead, the web browsers
PaleMoon [https://www.palemoon.org], the Otter-Browser
[https://otter-browser.org] and for the command line lynx
[https://lynx.invisible-island.net] and 'links'
[http://links.twibright.com] are included.  For mail there are
claws-mail [https://www.claws-mail.org] and GNUMail
[http://www.nongnu.org/gnustep-nonfsf/gnumail], as well as mutt
[http://www.mutt.org] on the command line.

What is not immediately apparent from the graphical interface and has
therefore been deliberately ignored in all the reviews I have seen so
far is the scope and usefulness of the command line tools included. 
Pretty much everything you need for system administration and repairing
broken systems is there. This includes all possible and impossible tools
for repairing most file system variants, clonezilla, Android tools,
chntpw and ntfs-3g, various partitioning tools, (de)compression
programs, and much more.  And of course tlp [https://linrunner.de/tlp]
is also included.

With this equipment, it should certainly be possible for so inclined
users to be able to do without the graphical interface entirely and,
thanks to screen/tmux, mc, vim/emacs, mutt and so on, still be able to
work relatively comfortably just on the console.

This description at best actually only scratches the surface and I
didn't want to have to break my fingers writing. Instead of trying to
get an idea based on a necessarily incomplete description, it is
advisable to simply examine the downloaded ISO more closely in a VM.

This distribution is almost certainly unsuitable for users who are
rather inexperienced in UNIX matters, as its handling goes beyond the
usage conventions of Windows and MacOS.  For normal users, it is better
to use Mint, MX Linux, Ubuntu, or EndevaourOS instead, where no
historically influenced UNIX rough edges are to be expected.

Unfortunately, the ISO images are only available for i386 and amd64. 
While creating an ARM variant (arm64) is easily possible on a Pinebook
Pro, the result cannot be booted on the very same Pinebook Pro due to
its lack of EFI, and how to create an ISO that can be booted with u-boot
is still a mystery to me. The arm64 ISO apparently works as expected in
QEMU, but whether this also works on a real ARM machine is unknown. 
Since there is no other ARM hardware for minimal testing, an arm64 ISO
of unknown quality was not provided for the time being.

If you want, you can build your own customized ISOs from the build tree
source code
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/wmlive/files/wmlive-bookworm-12.8/wmlive-bookworm-12.8.tar.xz]
which was used to create the ISO.  In any case, a Window Maker Live
system installed to disk already integrates everything necessary to
create its distribution medium.
Obviously, I'm fascinated by this recursion aspect.

Thanks,
Paul