 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 51, 31 May 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 22th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. As DistroWatch celebrates its third birthday, we'll bring you our take on the best distribution release of the first half of this year. Happy reading!
Content:
- The Big Trio compared
- Slackware switches to X.org
- DistroWatch is 3 years old
- Released last week
- Upcoming releases: SUSE LINUX 9.1 FTP edition, Aurora SPARC Linux 2.0
- New tracked packages - the final list
- New distribution additions: Luit Linux, FAMELIX, Knoppel, Fermi Linux, N-iX Desktop Linux, Navyn OS, KlusTriX, MAX: Madrid_Linux, and Turkix
- New on the waiting list: VS Live GNU/Linux, redWall Firewall, PilotLinux and CERN Linux
- Reader feedback: Mandrakelinux in Hindi, Vienna Greens distributes Linux CD
The Big Trio compared
As has become the custom over the last few years, the big three commercial distributions - Mandrakelinux, Red Hat and SUSE - have all completed their development cycles for this time of the year and released their latest products to the public. Which can only mean one thing: time for some comparisons and "distro wars". Which of the three has done the best job? Which of them is the winner? Like everyone else, the maintainers of DistroWatch have an opinion about this too and we are going to share it with you.
Mandrakesoft was the first of the three to release a distribution based on the new 2.6 kernel. Despite a few obvious bugs in the Community edition, most of which were fixed by the time Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official came out, it turned out to be a surprisingly good release. We didn't have any major problems and several reviewers seemed equally pleasantly surprised with the product. In fact, apart from the fiasco accompanying the changes in the Mandrakelinux mirror structure, we would not hesitate to give Mandrakelinux 10.0 a perfect ten for their effort.
SUSE LINUX was the next one with a new release - a much awaited version 9.1. It too had switched to kernel 2.6 and did, for the most part, a very good job at that; the Linux Format magazine even gave the product a "Top Stuff" award. However, we were somewhat disappointed that GNOME was still treated as a second-class citizen by SUSE, while one of our leading contributors found a major show-stopper bug in SUSE's PPP, which prevented him to connect to the Internet. Still, if you are a KDE fan, SUSE will please you with a great collection of packages and many small cosmetic improvements made to enhance one's enjoyment. Although we don't agree with Linux Format that this is must-have upgrade, SUSE LINUX 9.1 continues in the tradition of fine releases that will satisfy most users.
Finally, it was Red Hat's turn to release Fedora Core 2, complete with kernel 2.6, GNOME 2.6, and even SELinux functionality to test the waters before incorporating these features into the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A fairly large bite, some would say. The result? At the risk of making some enemies among the DistroWatch readers, we have concluded that Fedora Core 2 lags behind the other two. In fact, I wasn't even able to install it on my main system (possibly due to a rare bug incriminating a partition that had nothing to do with Fedora installation whatsoever). Although it installed fine on another machine, it was too late to compensate for the earlier failure. Also, some of our contributors reported various other problems ranging from the inability of Fedora to detect a standard serial modem to problems with sound and network cards. This is not to say that Fedora Core 2 is a bad distribution - it will likely work without any major troubles for the vast majority of users, but unfortunately, it didn't work for us.
So if we were to present a "best distribution" award to one of the Big Trio, it would have to go to Mandrakelinux 10.0 without much hesitation. Mandrakelinux 10.0 is fast, up-to-date, fast, pretty to look at, fast, and a great product overall. And before I forget, Mandrakelinux 10.0 is fast - probably the fastest distribution this machine has ever seen. Best of all, it is the only one of the three that lets you choose between the 2.4 and 2.6 kernels (in case of hardware compatibility problems), instead of dictating that all users move to kernel 2.6 (which clearly isn't ready for prime time). A great product overall; well done, Mandrakesoft!
What's your take? Do you agree with the above assessment? Or did you have vastly different experiences with the three? Please comment below.
Slackware switches to X.org
Regular readers of DistroWatch Weekly will remember our recent discussion about the current trend among the distributions to switch from XFree86 to X.org. Among the major ones, only Slackware moved on to XFree88 4.4.0, despite its news license which many see as incompatible with GPL. However, this changed last weekend when XFree86 was relegated to the Slackware's unsupported branch. Patrick Volkerding explains:
"Switched to X11R6.7.0 from X.Org. Thanks to those who sent comments to x@slackware.com. Seems the community has spoken, because the opinions were more than 4 to 1 in favor of using the X.Org release as the default version of X. I think I've heard just about every side to this issue now, and it was only after careful consideration and testing that this decision was made. It's primarily (as is usual around here) a technical decision. Nearly everyone else is going with X.Org and it seems to me that sticking with XFree86 it spite of this would be asking for compatibility trouble (indeed, we saw some issues between X.Org and XFree86 4.4.0 until a few things in XFree86 were patched). I also noticed that the ATI Radeon binary drivers designed for XFree86 4.3.0 do not work with XFree86 4.4.0, but do work with the X.Org release. Something I'm *not* in favor of is dragging around two nearly identical projects, so XFree86 4.4.0 has been moved to the /pub/slackware/unsupported/ directory on the FTP site."
Certainly an interesting assessment and yet another blow to the XFree86 project.
DistroWatch is 3 years old
If you need a reason for a party, here it is: DistroWatch is exactly three years old today! The site was first announced on 31 May 2001 on LinuxToday as a simple table comparing a dozen major distributions. Although the original site no longer exists, it was mirrored by a kind soul, so you can still see its initial design. DistroWatch has come a long way since those early days - as feedback started filling up my inbox, I kept adding new features, new pages, began writing reviews, even included BSDs... until it has become a highly popular stop for many users researching the multitude of Linux and BSD distributions. As we look forward towards the next three years, I'd like to say a big "thank you" to all who have visited DistroWatch during the past three years and who helped us with ideas, bug reports, corrections, and other valuable feedback.
Happy birthday, DistroWatch!
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| Released Last Week |
CentOS-2 Final
CentOS-2 Final has been released: "At long last CentOS-2 Final is available for download from the CentOS mirrors. CentOS-2 is a freely distributable OS built from the source RPMs [of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 Advanced Server]. It strives to be as close to RHEL2.1AS as possible with the exception of removing trademark and copyright restrictions. CentOS-2 is both free as in beer and free as in speech. There are no trademarks restrictions on CentOS-2 and distribution is not only permitted but encouraged. More information on CentOS-2 can be found here." The full release announcement.
SLAX 4.1.2
SLAX Live-CD version 4.1.2 has been released. From the changelog: "Based on Slackware-'almost'-current (with some exceptions); fixed xconf, modified mouse order to assure that the 1st CoreDevice will work; fixed kplayer icon; fixed dbdiff (configsave) to skip mounted partitions (or samba shares); fixed juk audio player - recompiled; fixed KDE audio ripper - lame is used now to encode to mp3; added tohd, fromhd and hdsubdir boot options; added /etc/slax-version file; added gpart (tool for guessing PC-type hard disk partitions); network services are not started automatically at boot; simple firewall is activated disallowing all incoming connections..."
ROCK Linux 2.0.1
ROCK Linux 2.0.1 has been released: "Maintenance release, security and non-intrusive version updates. This release features improved compilation on other distributions (SUSE, Red Hat), updates to KDE, GNOME, Linux, OpenSSL, OpenSSH, neon, Subversion, CVS, silo, and dietlibc, and some package additions. There were also single user mode improvements, ROCK Net and ROCK Plug updates (and speed optimisations), a re-inclusion of source CD creation, and some PowerPC and SPARC fixes." Read the full announcement as published on the rock-user mailing list. ROCK Linux is a source-based distribution, although a set of pre-compiled binary ISO images for desktop use (formerly known as dROCK) are also available for download; visit the distribution's download page for a list of mirrors.
FAMELIX 1.0
FAMELIX is a new Linux distribution developed by Brazil's Faculdade Metropolitana de Guaramirim (FAMEG) and based on the work of Kurumin Linux. Its peculiarity lies in the adaptation of the KDE user interface so that it resembles Windows XP as much as possible (see screenshot below). FAMELIX 1.0 was released earlier this week and is available for download via BitTorrent (file size 410MB). If you can understand Brazilian Portuguese, visit the distribution's home page for further information and screenshots.
FAMELIX 1.0 - don't be fooled by the looks: underneath it's all Linux
(full image size 552kB)
Knoppel 0.4
Knoppel is a Knoppix variant designed for Greek users. Knoppel version 0.4, based on Knoppix 3.4, has been released; it comes with KDE 3.2.2, OpenOffice.org 1.1.1, Gimp 2.0,5 Mozilla 1.6; a choice of two kernels - 2.4.26 and 2.6.6; improved hardware autodetection; improved support for Greek; support for Bluetooth, ACPI and GPRS; support for writing to NTFS partitions. Many other packages have been upgraded to their latest versions, while newly added applications include Evolution and Kbabel. The Knoppel desktop now sports a brand new look. Read the full release announcement (in Greek) for further details.
FreeBSD 4.10
FreeBSD 4.10 has been released: "I am happy to announce the availability of FreeBSD 4.10-RELEASE, the latest release of the FreeBSD -STABLE development branch. Since FreeBSD 4.9-RELEASE in October 2003 we have made conservative updates to a number of software programs in the base system, dealt with known security issues, and made many bugfixes. ... The current plans are for one more FreeBSD 4.X release which will be FreeBSD 4.11-RELEASE. It is expected the upcoming FreeBSD 5.3 release will have reached the maturity level most users will be able to migrate to 5.X." For more information, please see the release announcement and the release notes.
Kurumin Linux 3.0
After four beta tests, Kurumin Linux 3.0 has now been declared stable and released to public. The most visible change since Kurumin 2.x series is a move to KDE 3.2.2. Despite some clear advantages of the new 2.6 kernel, the Kurumin developers decided to stay with kernel 2.4 which has better support for softmodems and is compatible with certain proprietary drivers for USB ADSL modems and wireless network cards. See the complete changelog (in Portuguese) for full details.
Astaro Security Linux 5.010
The developers of Astaro Security Linux have released a new ISO image - version 5.010: "This ASL V5 ISO image includes all recently released Up2Date packages, bugfixes in the installer and new hardware support for SCSI RAID controllers (COMPAQ DL 360, Dell PowerEdge 1750, AHA-39160). Please check the HCL for a complete list. As an improvement the installer displays know the MAC address of the detected interfaces." The full announcement.
Turkix 1.0
"Turkix is a Turkish live CD Linux distribution based on Mandrakelinux. As it uses Mandrake's configuration tools and KDE, it is extremely easy to use, and it has a fancy look and feel. Turkix aims to introduce Linux to Turkish and Azerbaijani speakers without any prior Linux experience. Although it is currently not an innovative distribution, it intends to bring new ideas into the Linux world in the future." The distribution's web site has more more information (in Turkish), as well as a few screenshots.
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
SUSE LINUX 9.1 FTP Edition
As reported earlier, the FTP edition of SUSE LINUX 9.1 will become available for free download on Friday, 4 June. The FTP edition is essentially equivalent to SUSE LINUX Professional minus any commercial applications shipping with the boxed edition. If you'd like to give SUSE 9.1 a partition on your hard disk, keep an eye on your favourite mirror later this week.
Aurora SPARC Linux 2.0
The Aurora SPARC Linux project has announced the upcoming release of their Fedora Core-based distribution for SPARC processors: "As promised, the first Fedora Core 2 based tree of Aurora SPARC Linux is now available. Like I've previously said, it's not an installable tree (this means, no ISOs). We'll get there eventually, this is just something so that people can get a baseline upgrade. Now, I have yumified the tree, so if you're feeling really brave, you can always point yum at it, and try to upgrade that way. A version of yum for Aurora 1.0 is here. If you're a listed mirror site, please sync the build-1.91 directory, and chime in. The primary directory is currently here." Read the rest of the announcement.
PLD LiveCD 1.0
Also expected within the next few weeks is a 1.0 release of the PLD Live CD - that's according to this post on the distributions home page: "The installer is almost ready. Version 1.0 of LiveCD will be available soon. There are some minor things unfinished by now, but I'm working on them."
|
| Web Site News |
New tracked packages - the final list
Since today is the last day of May, we closed the annual request to submit new packages for tracking by DistroWatch. Based on your requests, this is what the final list looks like:
- Packages for removal: gnome-core, netkit-base, netscape, ogle, wu-ftpd
- Packages for inclusion: audacity,
bochs,
epiphany,
firefox,
module-init-tools,
nessus,
thunderbird,
xorg,
yum,
zero-install.
- Renamed packages: ghostscript --> gnughostscript, lvm --> LVM2, qmail --> netqmail, sane --> sane-backends.
If your suggested package is not on the list, it's because nobody else suggested it (all packages that received at least two votes were included). The tables will be updated within the next two weeks.
New distribution addition
We added 9 new Linux distributions to the DistroWatch database last week; many thanks to Ben Hay who researched and submitted several of the new ones. This brings the total number of BSD and Linux distributions monitored by DistroWatch to 305, of which 273 are considered active. There are 77 more distributions on the waiting list.
New on the waiting list
- VS Live GNU/Linux. VS Live GNU/Linux is a Bulgarian distribution based on Knoppix and SLAX (web site in Bulgarian).
- redWall Firewall. redWall Firewall is a bootable CD-ROM Firewall. Its goal is to provide a feature-rich firewall solution together with a web-based interface for all the generated log files.
- Pilot Linux. PilotLinux is a thin client live CD. This means that when you boot from a PilotLinux CD, your PC has been temporarily transformed into a thin client machine. If a settings file is supplied, booting from a PilotLinux CD will automatically connect you to your Terminal Server. Otherwise the PilotLinux GUI will be displayed to give you the ability to manually enter the server address. Your PC will not be altered in any way. Just remove the PilotLinux and your machine is back to its original state.
- CERN Linux. The CERN certified distribution is a customised version of Red Hat Linux 7.3, including updated RPMs, newer kernel for better hardware support, and other fixes.
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 298
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 7
- Number of discontinued distributions: 32
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 77
|
| Reader Feedback |
Mandrakelinux in Hindi
Dhananjaya Sharma emailed us about a new Mandrakelinux site for Hindi speakers:
"I have made this web-site titled "Linux-in-Hindi, Hindi-in-Linux". The aim of the web-site is to promote the use of Hindi in the computers via Mandrakelinux and other Open-Source Software. This is also a platform to share my personal experience on the use of Hindi in Mandrakelinux. The web-site is bilingual (Hindi & English). Your valuable comments/suggestions will improve this site further."
Vienna Greens distributes free Linux CD
Martin Willner of Server optimized Linux has sent us an interesting press release (in German) about the European Greens Party distributing a free live CD called gXoL (can be downloaded from here) based on SoL's recently released XoL live CD. It also discusses a possible decision of the Council of the City of Vienna to migrate to Linux:
Vienna Greens distributes Free Linux CD
--------------------------------------
Ringler and Lichtenberger demand the use of Linux and Open Source
Software as an alternative solution.
Every office and almost every home has a computer. Mostly, the users use
the operating systems of Microsoft. The European Greens present an
alternative solution: the operating system Linux and other free and
open source software on a CD for easy testing.
The Green Linux CD features a fully functional Linux operating system, which
can be launched from the CD ROM drive without installation on the hard disk of the computer.
The users can simply test Linux without changing their usual computer software.
Marie Ringler, Technology speaker of the Vienna Greens: "The operating
system Linux is a true alternative solution. As it is open source software,
its source code is freely accessible, it can and may be changed, extended and
improved. For the users there are no highly priced license costs. Open source
software guarantees higher data security and is less vulnerable against viruses
and worms. Additionally, there are no obligations to particular manufacturers.
"With this CD we are setting a signal towards the upcoming decision on the Migration
of the Vienna city council towards Linux.", Ringler continues. "Furthermore
we want to take away threshold anxiety from the users with this CD."
The top candidate of the Austrian Greens party for the European elections
Eva Lichtenberger also speaks for Linux: "Open source software stands for
openness and a free competition of ideas versus secrecy, monopolism and
dominance of few."
Furthermore Open Source Software stands for cooperative development of
software. It prevents monocultures, which provides for ecological
structures in information technology: "In such a fast-moving world,
where prosperity is more and more based on knowledge, 'Information
ecology' will be one of the great political challenges of our time.
The Greens demand free accessibility of information for all, the
promotion of media competence and a guarantee for non-commercial
use of the internet." continues Lichtenberger. "Because the internet
should not become a shopping mall for few, but must offer
all users a broad field for manifold discussions and exchanges."
The Linux-CD is based on XoL, a Live-Linux-Distribution developed
by the Austrian company antitachyon and
can be ordered for free (Austria only) or
downloaded as gXoL.
Further information can be obtained:
Marie Ringler
marie.ringler@gruene.at
tel: +43.1.4000.81800
http://wien.gruene.at/linux
That's all for this week, see you all next Monday :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
rPath Linux
rPath Linux was a Linux distribution built with the new Conary distributed software management system. Conary was designed, based on many years of Linux software packaging and distribution development experience, to automate many of the tasks that have made it difficult to build Linux distributions. rPath's mission was to provide system software that was easily tailored to suit unique application needs. rPath Linux, built with the Conary distributed software management system, was not only a distribution in its own right, but also a base technology explicitly designed to enable you to create purpose-built operating system images using the rBuilder Online technology.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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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