In today's open source roundup: DistroWatch reviews Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0. Plus: The importance of mentors in open source, and WordPress 4.1 has been released Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 review Debian is the great-granddaddy of many Linux distributions, and Parsix is definitely one of its grandchildren. Parsix uses Debian as its base, but builds on it to provide a very desktop-oriented distribution. Parsix has reached version 7.0 and this release ships with GNOME 3.12 as the default desktop, and Linux kernel 3.14.23. DistroWatch Jesse Smith at DistroWatch reviewed Parsix 7.0 and was somewhat disappointed in this release compared to prior versions: In the past I have generally had good experiences with Parsix. In recent years I’ve tended to think of Parsix as a solid, conservative branch of the Debian family, adding just enough desktop oriented software and configuration tweaks to make Debian more desktop ready. However, Parsix 7.0 was a disappointment for me. While the installer worked well and the configuration panel was functional, I ran into several bugs. The operating system wouldn’t run at all on my physical test machine, the desktop crashed, on average, about once per day and a couple of default applications either crashed or locked up during my trial. The package manager was functional, but tended to provide too many search results to be helpful. Multimedia support was provided, but didn’t work as well as I would have liked. Being based on Debian’s Stable branch some software felt out of date, particularly the LibreOffice productivity suite. OTE Overall, my experiences with the latest version of Parsix GNU/Linux made a poor impression. Some of the issues were certainly hardware related and may not affect other users, but several appeared to be poor design/implementation decisions or a result of bugs missed during testing. I’d also like to see the Parsix distribution offer a wider range of editions to provide a wider variety of desktop environments out of the box. Perhaps a different desktop environment would have offered a more stable and more responsive experience. More at DistroWatch The Parsix site has more information in the official release notes for Parsix 7.0: Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 (code name Nestor) brings the latest stable GNOME desktop environment, a brand new kernel built using or modernized kernel build system, updated installer and support for UEFI based systems. This version has been synchronized with Debian Wheezy repositories as of November 6, 2014. Parsix Nestor ships with GNOME 3.12 and LibreOffice productivity suit by default. Highlights: GNOME Shell 3.12.2, X.Org 7.7, GRUB 2, GNU Iceweasel (Firefox) 33.0, GParted 0.12.1, Empathy 3.12.7, LibreOffice 3.5.4, VirtualBox 4.3.10 and a brand new kernel based on Linux 3.14.23 with TuxOnIce 3.3, BFS and other extra patches. Live DVD has been compressed using SquashFS and XZ. We started to name our releases after characters of the movie Happy Feet since version 0.90 released on June 17, 2007 codename “Barry”. More at Parsix If you want to give Parsix 7.0 a try, you can download it in 32-bit or 64-bit: Parsix 7.0 32-bit Parsix 7.0 64-bit The importance of mentors in open source None of us is born knowing what we know. We learn over the course of our lives, and one of the best ways to learn is from a mentor. Mentors help us take those first stumbling steps and guide us as we grow and become more proficient. Rich Bowen at opensource.com reports on why mentors matter in open source: Direct, intentional mentoring is 100% of the reason that I am where I am today, professionally and personally. I very literally owe everything to the people who have mentored me over the last 20 years. And over the last 5 years, I’ve very intentionally mentored some other people, to pass the karma on. Whether they’re all aware that I’ve been doing it or not isn’t really important. I have specific reasons why I think that this is worth doing. Don’t wait until you’re at the top of your organization, or in a position of power. There’s always someone that will benefit from your mentorship, even if they are older or more experienced than yourself. You know something you can pass on. It’s never too soon (or too late) to start amplifying your impact on the world by investing in a few other people. More at Opensource.com WordPress 4.1 released WordPress 4.1 has just been released and offers a brand new theme called Twenty Fifteen. This version also has an updated distraction free writing mode, as well as the ability to easily log out everywhere on shared computers. Embedding Vine videos has also been added and there’s a new plugin recommendations tab in the plugin installer. Matt Mullenweg at WordPress.org announces WordPress 4.1: Version 4.1 of WordPress, named “Dinah” in honor of jazz singer Dinah Washington, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in WordPress 4.1 help you focus on your writing, and the new default theme lets you show it off in style. Our newest default theme, Twenty Fifteen, is a blog-focused theme designed for clarity. Your content always takes center stage, whether viewed on a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. More at WordPress.org I had some thoughts of my own to share about WordPress 4.1’s distraction free writing mode: WordPress 4.1 is out and one of its best new features is a revised “distraction free writing mode.” I seem to remember that it had something like this before, but it was not as well implemented as it is in WordPress 4.1. Now, when you push the distraction free writing mode button, everything else fades away except what you need to write your post. In the last version there was also a tremendous amount of white space all over the screen when using distraction free writing mode, and I really hate that when I’m writing. The grey is much easier on the eyes. More at Jim Lynch What’s your take on all this? Tell me in the comments below. Open Source