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1 • New look. (by Justin Piszcz at 2004-05-10 12:13:31 GMT)
I was suprised when I loaded distrowatch this morning looking for this week's issue of Distrowatch Weekly, the new look is very nice!
2 • Design & layout: great!! (by Penguin on 2004-05-10 12:44:54 GMT)
The new site design and layout looks great. It's better according to web usability guidelines too. Congrats & keep up the good work!!
3 • about the layout (by Peter Damoc at 2004-05-10 12:45:20 GMT)
the new layout is quite nice, a step in the right direction.
I'm looking forward to the day DW will be xhtml 1.1 valid and provide alternative stylesheets for screen and printing :D
4 • Best small desktop distros for old & slow hardware? (by Penguin on 2004-05-10 13:02:36 GMT)
By the way, anyobody know what (desktop) distros would be best for old and slow hardware? Or maybe Ladislav could write something about it sometime?
Linux is often said to be a perfect OS for old slow hardware, but the fact is that the newest default realeases of Mandrake, SUSE, Fedora/Redhat or even Debian and Slackware, don't run very well on really old hardware.
By old hardware I mean something like the first Pentium class machines or maybe even i486. Also, I mean a distro with some basic GUI like Fluxbox, IceWM etc., not just a CLI based distro and user interface. User friendliness would be a nice thing too...
I've read a little about Peanut, Feather & Puppy Linux & a few others but have no experience of them myself. So, I'd like to read suggestions from others.
5 • New look (by Fred at 2004-05-10 13:36:54 GMT)
A really great look. I love the changes :) Keep doing such beautiful work on this site I'll visite at least on a daily basis.
6 • a comment on "Best small desktop distros.." above (by tohdol at 2004-05-10 13:45:46 GMT)
see Vetctor Linux
http://www.vectorlinux.com
7 • re: Best small desktop distros for old & slow hardware? (by P. Pearson on 2004-05-10 13:56:14 GMT)
Vector Linux is a Slackware based system intended for small, older computers. "Damn Small" may be (I hate that name!).
8 • Mandrake Close their doors? (by Lord-Storm on 2004-05-10 14:30:40 GMT)
I cant see any free ISO's ANYWHERE..... Mandrake is a good distro but $120UK Per year IS WAY TO EXPENCIVE I live in Australia... I study and find it hard just paying for hardware upgrades every 4 years. WHere are the ISO's... not ones that will let you network boot etc.
9 • Re: "Best small desktop distros" (by mike on 2004-05-10 14:42:16 GMT)
I run Red Hat 9 on a 266 P-II and a 366 Celeron. Performance is adequate. I think the biggest change I made to improve performance was to run XFCE rather than KDE or Gnome for the desktop. Turn off services you don't need, and don't install applications you don't use.
10 • Re: Best small desktop distros for old & slow hardware? (by Syntaxis at 2004-05-10 14:49:59 GMT)
A minimal Debian Woody install (i.e. without using tasksel or dselect) is ~80 megs. [But it needs a little more than this to store debs, etc, so the installation manual lists 110 megs of disk space as a minimum.] You can then apt-get install XFree86, a minimal WM and whatever else you want on top of that.
Provided the target PC has at least 110 megs of hard drive space (plus enough left over to install whatever else you need) and 12 megs of ram (the installed base system will run on 8 megs or maybe even less, but the Woody installer itself won't) you're golden.
As far as user-friendliness goes, if you find the Woody installer too cumbersome, Rick Moen kindly maintains a comprehensive listing of the many other installation methods available (http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/installers.html).
11 • About Notdows (by KaZe on 2004-05-10 15:02:40 GMT)
There's no need for using Notdows with the killrandom feature. There's Mandrake already ! It behaves like Windows... even if you can do something with this bloated distro.
Really, a great Windows-like distro !
12 • Re:Mandrake Close their doors? (by George on 2004-05-10 16:59:04 GMT)
Uhhh....go to www.mandrakelinux.com, click the "Download" link at the top of the page. Scroll down you will have two options...become a member or become a member later, if you don't want to be a club member, then pick the second one. You will be taken to a website with a list of mirrors. Hope that helps.
13 • Re: Best small desktop distros for old & slow hardware? (by Penguin on 2004-05-10 18:00:12 GMT)
Thanks for all the suggestions.
What I was thinking - at least theoretically... ;-) - was running Linux with small GUI (like Blackbox) on some really old hardware, something like a 100 MHz Pentium or even an i486 machine. A friend of mine has several such old PCs gathering rust in a closet. So we started thinking whether there was a suitable desktop Linux distro for that old machines?
For example, Vector Linux is a good choice for older PCs, but I think that even Vector is meant for a bit newer and faster machines than Pentium 100MHz, not to mention i486.
Thus I was thinking of something very small like Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux etc. but I have no experience of them myself. A comparative review of such small distros would be perfect but I haven't seen one. Some very trimmed down Debian or Slackware version or derivative distro might be a potential choice too.
There also used to be a very small and lightweight Linux distro just for this purpose: Tiny Linux (http://tiny.seul.org/) but that seems not to be maintained anymore (since 2001, the old version's still online, however).
14 • New Layout (by Hal on 2004-05-10 18:08:15 GMT)
Took me a while to figure out why the text in the center column was spilling into the right-hand column instead of wrapping...I run with Javascript disabled. The formatting doesn't work properly unless Javascript is *on*. (This is Mozilla 1.6 on RH Linux 9, in case it matters)
15 • Nice facelift (by Aaron Matteson at 2004-05-10 18:18:52 GMT)
Nice work on the minor facelift, looks a lot cleaner
16 • small distro (by Russ on 2004-05-10 21:04:00 GMT)
I use DSL (I hate the name too BTW) on a Pentium 150 laptop with 32MB and a 2 gig HD and it runs surprisingly well. And it found all the hardware first try out too.
17 • RE: small distro (by Russ) (by Penguin on 2004-05-10 21:26:12 GMT)
Maybe I should give Damn Small Linux a try too. I read lots of nice things about it. I guess, it should work well at least on a 100 MHz Pentium. (But, hey, and just make it clear to the developers, me hates the name too...;-)
Still returning to my original mission: Maybe I should have put the system requirements low enough from the beginning: PCs from the time before Pentiums. So what about i486? I used to run Windows 95 on a i486 PC so running Linux with a low resource GUI on an i486 class machine shouldn't be a problem.
By the way, my friend has an i386 and even an i286 PC in the closet too, but I suppose that it is better to forget those in GUI & desktop usage... However, it is possible to run Tiny Linux on an i386 PC too: http://tiny.seul.org/en/faq.html#31 Any other such distro anymore?
18 • RE: small distro (by Guest on 2004-05-10 23:11:35 GMT)
DamnSmallLinux is a live cd based on Knoppix
about 50 megs
see http://damnsmalllinux.org/486.html
for more about running it on older hardware
Puppy is not based on Knoppix
it runs completely in ram
so it runs quite fast
but it needs more ram than DSL
it also is intended to be Windows-like
and easy to use for Windows users
there are distros that seem to be slight variations
of and based on DSL
Feather, Luit, and Flonix
if you can't boot to a cd
you can make a boot floppy which can boot the cd
you can also copy the files from the cd to the hard drive
(poor man's install)
and boot using grub or lilo
it runs faster than from a cd
and you can use your cd too
or you can install to a dedicated partition
I would start with DSL or Feather
19 • Re: small distro (by andrew at 2004-05-10 23:15:28 GMT)
Have a look at DeLi Linux - I quote from their web page:
DeLi Linux is a Linux Distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium MMX 166 or so. It's focused on desktop usage. It includes email clients, graphical web browser, an office package with word processor and spreadsheet, and so on. A full install, including XFree and development tools, needs not more than 300 MB of harddisk space.
The trick is, that DeLi Linux uses only "lightweight" alternative software. If you are looking for the newest KDE, GNOME or Mozilla, DeLi Linux will not make you happy. The test computer is a 486 laptop with 16 MB RAM, and all apps which comes with DeLi Linux are running smoothly"
20 • @andrew (by Penguin on 2004-05-10 23:25:44 GMT)
DeLi Linux seems like a good choice to give a try indeed. Thanks for the suggestion!
21 • new look (by Kingcwriter on 2004-05-11 00:45:48 GMT)
I love the new look. It feels more clean. GO fedora! I also like the inclusion of FreeBSD i would really like to get to learn that someday. I love the site.
22 • old boxes - new lives (by grover on 2004-05-11 05:04:21 GMT)
ive run a knoppix install, server at home - p133 - 64megs of ram and a 4mg drive,
just dont use kde at all and your golden
ive even installed DSL on a 16mhz 385sx with 16 megs of ram and only a 200 meg drive *had to do a poor mans install*
boy did that suck
with a larger drive
zip slack is fun id have better off im sure... i have an old box i run DSL on all the time and i love it
another vote for vector
it all depends what you want to do...
if you have a 5150/5160 around... google for "ELKS" :)
23 • 4mg? (by grover on 2004-05-11 05:05:37 GMT)
4mg drive is a 4 GIG drive.... rather
24 • Great Layout!! (by Teddy W.L at 2004-05-11 05:07:27 GMT)
Wow... its look simple, clear but its excellent!!!
God work!! and go to make Opensource to be the best OS :)
Teddy
25 • Re: Best small desktop distros for old & slow hardware? (by Benjamin Vander Jagt at 2004-05-11 06:07:27 GMT)
in some instances, the systems are actually pretty valuable melted down for gold. a lot of electronics collectors won't tell you this. they'll offer "free removal services" and leave your imagination to make you think they're gonna be shipped off to some third-world country where kids living in mud houses will play Digger.
there's gold in them thar SIMM's!
(Ladislav, I'm starting a phpBB2. these things are almost as insecure as Windows, but they are pretty nice to have. perhaps that would be nice to have here? or maybe you'd like to link to my forums for tech-help? I don't expect to do business with anyone outside of my area, but it would be very nice to have a converging of minds... I'll even upgrade the tiny 384K DSL if I get some sizeable traffic. q-: just a thought...I'm just looking to be part of the action.)
26 • new layout (by fdavid on 2004-05-11 09:50:14 GMT)
The new layout is great. It's much cleaner, and still contains all the neccessary information. The only thing I miss is the navigation bar from the bottom of the page. It comes very handy, when you are for example at the bottom of a the DWW and want to go back to the main page.
27 • Gold rush (by Penguin on 2004-05-11 11:32:42 GMT)
Benjamin Vander Jagt:
actually pretty valuable melted down for gold
there's gold in them thar SIMM's!
What? Gold?!!? Forget the small desktop distros for old PC hardware... - maybe I'll go digging for gold to my friend's PC junk closet instead... ;-D
28 • New Site Layout (by motub on 2004-05-11 12:10:28 GMT)
WOW!! Fabulous! It looks wonderful (very professional), it's easy to read, and is very easy on the eyes.
Great work, and a great site like this deserves to look this good!
29 • RTFM rant... (by Tobias at 2004-05-11 12:24:02 GMT)
"The version of OpenBSD that I have came with a magazine on a single CD, so it's not complete. It doesn't include Bash, for example, but I found that I could take already downloaded *.tgz files from /usr/ports/distfiles on my FreeBSD partition and use those. Most of the time, it works, and I was able to install Bash. Emacs was not included - the only editor is vi (yuch), but from FreeBSD ports I copied 'zile' which is an Emacs-lite editor and it mostly works OK."
How about reading OpenBSD's excellent FAQ (http://www.openbsd.org/faq/) and understanding its concept of distribution/releasing before posting such mindless rants?
That is one of the reasons why calling the BSDs 'distributions' is a bad idea: They are complete OSes with the capability to install third party software easily through ports and packages.
This nomenclature makes sense in the Linux world (Distribution = Linux + GNU + KDE + Perl + XFree86), but it doesn't in the BSD world, since a BSD OS is *complete* (ie. it includes a specially maintained version of gcc, the kernel, useland). A look at the OpenBSD CVS (http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/) might help some people to understand the internal organization of the BSDs.
30 • Website design (by bob at 2004-05-11 12:49:08 GMT)
Excellent, Much clearer. Good work
Cheers
Bob
31 • Re: Best small desktop distros for old & slow hardware? (by P. Pearson on 2004-05-11 12:56:40 GMT)
If I recall Correctly, one or more of the BSD "flavors/distributions/versions/ports/whatever-they're-supposed-to-be-called" have good support for 386/486 type stuff. I can't remember which comparison I read, but one of them is considered great for embedded computing - which, in my mind, means "works on least common denominator hardware"
When you've found something and worked with it a whle, post a journal of your experience - I'm sure others would be grateful.
32 • RE: RTFM rant... (by ladislav at 2004-05-11 14:21:32 GMT)
I am sorry, but I still don't get it. You say that "a BSD is a complete OS". Yet, a Linux distribution is "a complete OS" as well. The way you present it sounds like only BSD can claim the privilege of being a complete OS.
BSD might come with a "specially maintained" version of gcc, but at the end of the day, is this really important from an end user's point of view? You install Mandrake and you end up with a complete OS, inclusive of a kernel, gcc, perl, xfree86, KDE... You install FreeBSD and you'll have a complete OS with a kernel, gcc, perl, xfree86, KDE... Does the presence of a "specially maintained gcc" turn FreeBSD into a "complete OS"? Does the absence of any specially maintained gcc in Mandrake turn it into something that doesn't qualify as a complete OS? In the BSD world, is Linux considered as something lesser, something to laugh at? Do BSD users think that "distribution" is a dirty word?
The only difference that I am able to accept is that BSD is already an OS, whereas Linux is just a kernel. Still, how useful is this BSD OS without all the extra applications - without ports and binary packages? Even if you didn't like the "sensless rant" about OpenBSD, you can see that the reason for the guy getting stuck was that he couldn't find bash and emacs in OpenBSD, whithout which he had hard time to become productive. What's the point of having a "complete OS", if you can't use it because many good applications are not part of it?
Maybe my views are too narrow, but I have yet to see a solid argument that would convince me that BSDs are more special than Linux distributions.
33 • re: 4mg? (by Russ on 2004-05-11 14:40:40 GMT)
Take 100cc of DRAM and 4mg of hard drive and call me in the morning ;-)
34 • RE: RTFM rant.. (by Tobias on 2004-05-11 15:38:19 GMT)
http://sites.inka.de/mips/unix/bsdlinux.html
Interesting article elaborating further on the differences between the BSDs and GNU/Linux. Read the part "Integration" and you might understand what I've tried to point out.
I'd prefer the term "BSD Flavours" over distributions, but in the end it's your decision and won't keep this site from getting better and better.
35 • 4mg? (by Benjamin Vander Jagt at 2004-05-11 15:52:55 GMT)
"Take 100cc of DRAM and 4mg of hard drive and call me in the morning ;-)"
Technician Bob:Your CPU is hot. Lemme give it some paste.
Customer Tina:Mind your own business, tech! Watch yourself, or I'll hack your hard drive into a 3.5" floppy drive!
Technician Bob:Go ahead and try. I always keep my hard drive zipped up.
And also, I forgot to mention that I like the layout. (-: I'm on a Win2k system again, and it doesn't look too bad. (As in, it doesn't look worse than any other pages when using Win2k.) (I don't know why it is, but it seems like every time I visit here, I'm on a Windows system. Maybe I miss Linux and need to get my quick fix.)
36 • Very small suggestion... (by Mike on 2004-05-11 17:36:34 GMT)
...but it's been bugging me. Instead of "Use Linux, BSD." which doesn't make much sense, how about "Use UNIX". I know GNU, but that was a nice little slogan you had there once upon a time and it's lost all it's puch.
Re: BSD Distros, people badger you like crazy to get the *BSDs in, then when you do, they argue over symantics. Unless Ladislav's bought a new domain name, I think the things he lists here are always going to be thought of as distros.
Much prefer the new colour scheme BTW.
37 • Summary on small desktop distros (by Teobromina at 2004-05-11 20:52:41 GMT)
The problem with some linux distros is not their big size but their big hardware requeriments: i.e. they can have a desktop environement or a program that needs to use lot of ram or a machine with higher speed.
We may divide the linux desktop oriented 'lives' (run on CD) distros acording to their use:
-mini OS>
They can be used as a mobile OS, because you get the same environement anywhere.
*DSL (Damn Small Linux): 50 Mb, Good selection of programs, runs not only from the CD but also 'toram' (=to ram), or by means the poor man´s installation (from hd, copying the files in the disk), it can be installed as 'permanent' in a devoted partition. The CDburner that implements is not good. This distro is good for old pcs (I have tested in a p166 with 64Mb of ram and is OK).
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
*Feather: 65 Mb, Very goog compromise between size and features, it can run from CD, but it is great when installed in a specific partition, is very similar to DSL but has the advantage of some scripts that make easy to download and install applications like Open Office (OOo) and Mozilla Firefox (MFF) , and its CDburner is very good. It works perfectly in old computers like a p166 with 64Mb of ram. To run the OOo in a productive way you need to have at least 128 Mb of ram.
http://featherlinux.berlios.de
*Flonix, *Luit are variations of DSL, in my oppinion not as good as Feather, but improving...
-security specific distros>
*Local Area Security: 210 Mb, aparently a distro derived from DSL, but focussed to manage the security in the net. gcc and perl included, could be used as a developement plattform.
http://www.localareasecurity.com/
*Insert: 50 Mb, Again based in DSL, but good for assess the security in the operating system itself, has a very good antivirus application and tools for checking the partitions in the case of disaster.
http://www.inside-security.de/insert_en.html
-multimedia oriented>
*Byzantine: 50 Mb, runs in ram (Be careful because it does not work with a pc having 64 Mb of ram, you need at least 128), with Mozilla and multimedia programs.
http://byzgl.sourceforge.net/
*/There is something that can be made to enhance the utility of such small distros: I use to burn a CD with the image of one of them, for example Feather, and then put the files of the downloaded Open Office instalation package, already unzipped, and some more stuff in another session; making so, I have in a single CD a lot of applications, that I can use but not daily, without the needo to download them again or to carry some more CDs. Tis is a concept os escalability of use: to have instaled the programs that brings the distro, and something else for use just when necessary if my machine has enough capacity./*
-bigger distros>
*Knoppix, 700 Mb, the best desktop all purpose operative system I know (I recommend anyway for Spanish one of her childs: Livux, though that needs at least 256 Mb of ram because it uses only KDE). Knoppix is able to run in old computers as well, if at boot you choose a light desktop manager (fluxbox or so), but do not hope that applications like OOo run if you do not have the necessary ram.
http://www.knoppix.org/
*Hakin9live, 600 Mb, has a light desktop (I think it is fluxbox) but is plenty of apllications related to the network security.
http://www.haking.pl/es/index.php
I hope to have contributed with my particular experience.
*/Teobromina/*
38 • RE: Source-based Linux distributions from a beginner's perspective (by Vauge at 2004-05-11 22:01:40 GMT)
WOW!
Amazing how his Linux expience is almost exactly like mine. Excellent writeup.
I put together a computer from scratch as well using nVidia MX400. It is now my stable email - web server.
My path: Sorcerer, SourceMage, Lunar, and now using Gentoo.
I had lunar on my secondary PC for about 3 weeks - the folks over there will bend over backwards to help you. Excellent group of users.
I am now using Gentoo - I like the "USE" feature and have learned alot about Linux system. The best part for me is the forums. Lots of good info.
39 • Great new look (by Erik on 2004-05-11 22:49:05 GMT)
It was a surprise loading distrowatch today. Very very nice improvement ! Thanks for the great website !
40 • Layout (by Henrique Maia at 2004-05-12 00:57:08 GMT)
Very good. Like this better. It seems that, after all, the site layout was really needing a facelift.
Thanks for this one.
41 • Next donation (by T. D. Bancroft at 2004-05-12 01:54:49 GMT)
How about Fluxbox (or OpenBox, or BlackBox, etc.)? It's a great windowing system, and it gets so little attention...
And yes, the new layout is excellent. Keep up the great work, Ladislav.
Bravo Zulu.
42 • RE: Source-based Linux distributions from a beginner's perspective (by fdavid on 2004-05-12 11:50:49 GMT)
"...Gentoo uses Grub as a bootloader..."
There's no default bootloader in Gentoo. Even the installation manual handles GRUB and LILO equally. Gentoo, generally, gives you as much freedom of choice as possible. Bootloaders are not exceptions, either.
43 • More about 'small' distros (by Teobromina at 2004-05-12 16:45:38 GMT)
Yesterday I forgot to mention
*Freeduc: 700 Mb, it is a complete OS and applications mainly focused to education (verbs, geography, geometry, chemistry, astronomy, design in 2d and 3d, etc), that uses a small desktop (xfce), but all the usual versions of the known applications, included Open Office.
The interest of this distro is that is very good for 'semi-old' computers as supossed they have at skools, and for newbees. It is virtually impossible to spoil anything in the hard disk because does not mount by deffect its partitions, and when you succeed to mount them they are 'read only'.
You need about 128 Mb of ram for run well all the applications. With 64 Mb it is very slow, but it goes...
It is possible to install it in the hd, but I do not see the advantages to do it.
http://www.ofset.org/freeduc-cd/
Regards.
*/Teobromina/*
44 • One suggestion about the access to the Distrowatch information (by Teobromina at 2004-05-12 17:50:13 GMT)
I would like to have the possibility to list distros by its main use, for instance: 'tiny', 'security', 'live', 'multimedia'...
I think it would be very easy by means of associating to any distro some key words like the ones above.
Most of the time the pattern of my searches are to look at all the distros that have a specific use. And it could be I am not the only one.
*/Teobromina/*
45 • Suggestion: include x.org. (by Vishruth at 2004-05-12 20:00:57 GMT)
Some GNU/Linux distributions have already adopted x.org and they don't plan on switching back to XFree86 again (not in the near future, at least). So it would probably be very helpful to many LUsers (Linux Users :p) if you could include x.org in the package list that appears in each Linux distro's page in your site (ex. http://www.distrowatch.com/gentoo ).
46 • RANT (by a.o. at 2004-05-13 01:13:38 GMT)
Tobias wrote:
>> Distribution = Linux + GNU + KDE + Perl + XFree86
wow, you only got one part right: "Distribution = Linux + " and that's about it...
>> How about reading OpenBSD's excellent FAQ (http://www.openbsd.org/faq/) and understanding its concept of distribution/releasing before posting such mindless rants?
how about taking the time to understand what a linux distro is defined as, before, asx you excellently put it, "and understanding its concept of distribution/releasing before posting such mindless rants?" maybe it would help you in the long run
47 • Distribution = OS + Applications (by Ariszlo at 2004-05-13 07:02:34 GMT)
Does flavor mean something else? If not what's the problem? You need a common term for a common thing, otherwise you are missing a generalization. Why prefer OS-specific terms to OS-neutral terms?
48 • What to call BSDs (by CJ on 2004-05-18 00:00:58 GMT)
I remember a while back that there was debate on how to refer to BSDs (i.e. distrobutions). I've seen them refered to as "projects" on most of thier websites. Maybe thats what you should call them.
BTW, I found one that should be listed on this site.
http://www.ekkobsd.org/
Number of Comments: 48
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| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Full list of all issues |
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openSUSE
The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by SUSE Linux and other companies. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, this program provides free, easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux distribution. The openSUSE project has three main goals: make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors.
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Status: Active
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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