 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 58, 19 July 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 29th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. Thanks to all who sent well wishes to me (Robert) during my illness. Now on to more interesting topics below.
Content:
GRUB - The Second Coming
In order to boot Linux, you need a boot loader (note that not every OS needs or has one - MS-DOS and Windows 95/98/Me, for example, never had a boot loader). These days, when people tend to install more than one OS on their hard drive(s), one should ideally have a "multiboot" loader (one which can install multiple OSs). In years past, people would actually pay money for such a thing (anybody remember System Commander which sold for US$99?).
Nowadays, we have several good free open source alternatives to choose from. From the earliest days of Linux, there was LILO (LInux LOader), but more recently GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) has gained popularity. As for which one is better, it's sort of like the war between vi and emacs - good luck on trying to get a room full of geeks to agree on this one. Many Linux distros avoid the debate by offering both LILO and GRUB, allowing users to choose which one to install.
GRUB was originally the creation of Erich Stefan Boleyn. Due to some other commitments, Erich couldn't continuing maintaining GRUB. The current maintainer is Gordon Matzigkeit, and GRUB has morphed into a GNU project with many new features added.
Good as GRUB is (and it is really good), it's about to get a major shot of steroids. A new, improved more powerful GRUB dubbed "GRUB 2" is in the works. The original GNU GRUB has been renamed "GRUB Legacy". GRUB 2 offers the following benefits over GRUB Legacy:
- Create a compact core image. This will make Stage 1.5 unnecessary.
- Add support for dynamic loading to the core image, so that it can
extend itself at the run time rather than at the build time.
- Add real memory management, to make GNU GRUB more extensible.
- Add a more object-oriented framework for file systems, files, devices,
drives, terminals, commands, and OS loaders.
- Add support for internationalization. This includes support for
non-ASCII character code, message catalogs like
gettext,
fonts, graphics console, and so on.
- Add an actual localization, based on the above internationalization
support. We will target on Japanese as the first step.
- Segregate code specific to i386-pc from generic code, to make
GNU GRUB portable.
- Add support for cross-platform installation.
- Develop additional software packages which will help our project and
hopefully other projects.
More details can be found on the GNU GRUB home page. Also see the "GRUB To The Rescue" article under the new "Tips, Tricks and Hints" column.
A New BSD Rises
Practically every week we see the birth of a new Linux distro (and often the death of an existing distro as well). Yes, Linux distros come and go with the wind. Many of these distros were the creation of a single starving student, and in some cases never get used by more than one person. True, a few distros are the work of a team of paid professional programmers who intend to take the world by storm with their new product, but that's the exception rather than the rule.
It's a rather different situation in the BSD world. This may, in part, be due to the fact that there are still far fewer BSD users than Linux users in existence, but another factor is no doubt the existence of Linux From Scratch which allows any home hobbyist to slap together a Linux distro relatively quickly. Perhaps in the future we'll be seeing a BSD From Scratch, but for now there isn't one.
In view of the above, it's quite a major (rare) event when a new BSD comes into existence. Last week we witnessed the arrival of DragonFly BSD 1.0 (and this week a 1.0a bug-fixed version). The project is the brainchild of Matt Dillon and some devoted followers. DragonFly is a fork of FreeBSD 4.x - apparently the DragonFly developers were not happy with the direction FreeBSD 5.x was taking. Specifically, they wanted to implement SMP in a different way from FreeBSD 5.x, and they've also taken out a fair bit of the Perl dependent stuff, plus they thought they could do a better job of writing an installer.
Everyone who's tried DragonFly agrees that it's fast, but also far from complete despite the "1.0" (or "1.0a") designation. The DragonFly team will have their work cut for them trying to equal and improve upon FreeBSD, which by all accounts is no slouch of an operating system.
Also this week, the folks over at ekkoBSD decided to throw in the towel. EkkoBSD was a recent fork of OpenBSD, and the developers had some good ideas, one of which was to make the system more user-friendly. However, as they soon discovered, creating a major operating system is not trivial, and all the more so when the developers are basically volunteers doing the work in their spare time.
Which begs the question - does the world really need another BSD? Given that the BSDs don't command a very large share of the world's OS market, wouldn't it be better for developers to pool their resources rather than going off in different directions? The Unix market has been afflicted with this issue for several decades, and some say that Linux (which is relatively young compared to Unix) already suffers from "distroitis". Perhaps less is really more? Then again, competition is generally a good thing - isn't it? An interesting point for debate.
Standardizing Linux
Along similar lines to the above story, some have wondered whether or not Linux should be "standardized" in some way or other to avoid the fragmentation that turned Unix into a synonym for chaos. Some may recall United Linux, announced May 30, 2002. Undoubtedly the most ambitious attempt at getting Linux developers to cooperate, United Linux was an alliance between Conectiva, SuSE, SCO and Turbolinux. As things turned out, SCO had a change of management and became anything but an ally. The remaining three players managed to turn out version 1.0, but there are no plans for 2.0. To look back at articles like this one, it seems almost laughable that UL was taken so seriously.
Less ambitious than UL, but ultimately more influential, has been the Linux Standard Base. In the early days of Linux development, distros were so non-standardized that developers were giving different names to the same files, and putting them into different directories. The LSB (which relies on voluntary compliance) has been fairly influential. However, in a recent article posted at Newsforge, writer Jay Lyman questioned whether or not the LSB could survive.
There are several significant things about the Linux Standards Base that the author didn't mention in the article. The LSB is the offspring of the Free Standards Group, an organization whose membership is dominated by corporations. That in itself is hardly scandalous, but more troubling is that the Free Standards Group has been reluctant to take input from projects outside the member companies influence. In particular, Debian users feel particularly miffed that the LSB specifies that software packages should be delivered in RPM package format. This is despite the fact that Debian's "deb" format is both older and - in the opinion of many - better. Debian developers have basically rejected this "guidance," and ironically the "deb" format has been picking up converts and could very well wind up pushing RPM to the fringe. On the other hand, some have argued that this is a non-issue since the RPM format specified by the LSB is well-supported by the Debian "alien" program. However, not everyone is totally convinced, and the question remains, "Is the LSB going to survive?".
Internet Explorer Living On Borrowed Time?
Just when you thought that Microsoft might finally be getting its act together in terms of security, someone comes along and pours cold water on the whole idea.
It's no secret that many of the security holes in Windows are a direct result of Microsoft's decision to co-mingle Internet Explorer's code base with that of the operating system. This is the very opposite of the traditional modular approach of Unix programming. The deeper you integrate a program into the operating system, the likelier that a programming bug will have far-reaching ramifications that no one foresaw. It also means that fixing one simple bug could trigger a whole new slew of bugs. Thus when a security exploit is discovered in Internet Explorer, Microsoft's programmers (who by all accounts are actually quite good at their job) are forced to spend a huge amount of time testing to make sure that their patch won't create a worse problem than it solves.
In view of the above, one would expect that Microsoft would be expending an effort to make Internet Explorer more modular, but according to this story published at OSNews, the exact opposite seems to be taking place. The author, Roberto J. Dohnert, participated in an online chat with the Internet Explorer development team, and was told that IE would be integrated even more tightly into future versions of Windows. This is, no doubt, great news for developers of anti-virus software and computer security consultants. Indeed, one can almost hear the champagne bottles being uncorked at the corporate headquarters of major anti-virus vendors. As someone once said, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
However, Mr. Dohnert took his arguement one step further and suggested that IE's continuing security problems might lead to it being abandoned totally by users. Personally, I doubt that. I have many Windows-using friends who have suffered repeated virus attacks - their email address books have been hijacked, their machine was made into a spam zombie, and their hard drive became a repository of warez, all without their knowledge. And what did they do about it when they finally discovered the problem? Nothing. As long as they can boot, surf the web and send an email to grandma, everything is fine. Downloading and installing a security patch is just too much trouble.
As for those of us who don't even have Windows installed, this is not the time to become smug. Security exploits have indeed plagued non-Microsoft browsers. Other than keeping your system up-to-date, the best protection is running a good firewall. If you're not running a server, you probably don't need any incoming ports to be open, so lock them down tight. Complacency can be your worst enemy.
|
| Released Last Week |
Yoper V2
Yoper V2 has been released: "The
Yoper team is pleased to announce the public release of Yoper V2.
Combining the elements of raw speed with the renowned stability of
Linux, the V2 is the fastest out-of-the-box Linux system in the world.
Seamless updating and software integration provided by Apt/Synaptic.
Leading edge Technology enhancements using Linux kernel 2.6.7,
bolstered with performance patches, innovative pre-linking, win4lin
support, VMware support, VMware module integration, NVIDIA 3D support,
ReiserFS4, secure shell file system, CDROM supermount, and Ndiswrapper
for Windows binary driver integration." The full announcement. Download: yos-i686-2.0.0-9.iso (644MB).
DragonFly BSD 1.0
DragonFly BSD is out: "One
year after starting the project as a fork off the FreeBSD-4.x tree, the
DragonFly Team is pleased to announce our 1.0 release! We've made
remarkable progress in our first year. We have replaced nearly all of
the core threading, process, interrupt, and network infrastructure with
DragonFly native subsystems. We have our own MP-friendly slab
allocator, a Light Weight Kernel Threading (LWKT) system that is
separate from the dynamic userland scheduler, a fine-grained system
timer abstraction for kernel use...." Find the full announcement on dragonflybsd.org. Download: dfly-1.0REL.iso.gz (78.6MB); also available via BitTorrent. Update: Release updated to 1.0a (78.6MB) to fix a serious fdisk/slice issue with the installer. An xdelta patch is also available for people who have downloaded the original 1.0REL iso.
Puppy Linux 0.9.1
Puppy Linux 0.9.1 has been released. These are some excerpts from the release notes: Mozilla
has been upgraded to version 1.7, with Skipstone as the GUI front end.
Skipstone displays as version 0.8.4 however it is actually a hybrid of
0.8.4 and 0.9.3. The problem with Skipstone crashing when flipping
tab-views is now fixed, however there are still some minor problems
with tabbed-windows view. GTK applications in Puppy can now have
anti-aliased fonts, courtesy of the libgdkxft package, and this is
applied on a per-application basis. Font anti-aliasing is applied to
Skipstone, Dillo (web browser), Amaya (HTML editor) and Ted (word
processor). Download: cd-puppy.iso (49.0MB).
Turbolinux 10 F
The English language edition of Turbolinux 10 F is now available: Based
on Turbolinux 10 Desktop, Turbolinux 10 F... is the latest desktop
operating solution from Turbolinux that brings Multimedia to your
fingertips. 10 F extends functionality to support a variety of
streaming video, audio and multimedia content delivered over broadband.
10F... Fun, Fast, Future, Freedom, Flexible. Please find your 'F'.
Turbolinux 10 F is the first Linux distributions that brings Windows
and Real streaming video, DVD movies and Apple iPod support to Linux,
legally. To find out more, please read the original press release, product information page and data sheet (in PDF format). Turbolinux 10 F is available for purchase online (US$69.00).
Damn Small Linux 0.7.2
Damn Small Linux 0.7.2 has been released. From the changelog: "Added
myDSLgui, a click-and-run system for extensions; added Lua scripting
language and Lua sockets; replaced Scite with Beaver; replaced nvi with
vim; changed user from damnsmall to dsl (also took 'damn' out of the
boot process); upgraded busybox; simplified filetool.lst usage - always
edit at home; updated Firefox Flash plugin in Firefox download script;
actually shrunk the ISO by nearly 1MB from 0.7.1." Download: dsl-0.7.2.iso (46.9MB).
redWall Firewall 0.5.4c
This is a bug fix release of redWall Firewall 0.5.4: "A
'major' bug in MySQL (related to the environment on the CD) has been
fixed in this release (again ;-) ... please upgrade any 0.5.4 release
prior to 0.5.4c if you need MySQL support! Changelog: downgraded MySQL
to Version 4.0.18; modified mkisofs options which should fix reported
problems with booting the CD on certain PCs." Read more on the distribution's news page. Download: redwall-0.5.4c.iso.tar.gz (148MB).
Onebase Linux
Onebase
Linux 2004-r4 has been released. This is not to be confused with the
recent OnebaseGo 2.0 (Live CD) release. Two major new features are the
new Net-Installer and OLM 3. "Being a net-based
installer it provides high level of flexibility in selection of
packages and mode of installation. Also you directly install the latest
available packs from OL-apps." The full scoop on this release is available here.
It should be noted that the Net-Installer is only meant for new users
of Onebase. The new release is available for purchase or as a free download (106 MB).
OnebaseGo 2.0 (Live CD)
OnebaseGo (Live CD) version 2.0 has been released. "This
release comes with numerous package updates, improved EPS and Docking.
EPS - eXtended package store, a new feature which was introduced in 2.0
preview1 allows users to access additional software via this." The announcement for this release can be found here.
The developers encourage users to purchase the product from their store
in order to support the growth of this project, but it also available
as a free download (457 MB).
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Web Site News |
Linux On The Road
Robert Storey fell ill for almost a full week, slowing things down at Distrowatch for several days. Nothing more will be said here about that hiatus, but geeks are advised to get more exercise. Pushing around a mouse while getting your brain fried by a CRT monitor (even though protected by an aluminium foil hat) is not healthiest pastime. If the foregoing describes your condition, now is a good time to wake up and smell the coffee (preferably decaffeinated).
Ladislav lent a (big) helping hand from an Internet cafe in Ferrara, Italy. Not surprisingly, all the machines in the Internet cafe were running Windows, but Ladislav managed to sneak in a Knoppix CD. The interesting thing is the staff didn't even notice the difference - perhaps we Linux enthusiasts can launch a stealth campaign, slipping in Knoppix disks where it's least expected. Anyway, Ladislav's next stop was Geneva, Switzerland, and plans call for hitting Austria next. We should be hearing interesting tidbits about Linux-on-the-road from Ladislav as he winds his way through Europe.
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 315
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 7
- Number of discontinued distributions: 32
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 84
|
| Tips, Tricks and Hints |
GRUB To The Rescue
I received a brief but urgent message from a friend (named Burt) a few days ago. And it was this message that inspired the main topic of this week's Distrowatch Weekly News.
Burt is new to Linux and admits to being bewildered at times, but he's very enthusiastic and eager to learn. He's been downloading and testing various distros, still looking for the "perfect" one. Over the past few months he's probably had more Linux installs than hot meals, and he keeps coming back for more. I admire his perseverance.
One minor hazard of doing so many installs is that your MBR (master boot record) gets repeatedly overwritten by the installation programs. Some distros install LILO, some install GRUB. If you mess with the BSDs, you'll wind up with something else, and Windows will overwrite your MBR without even asking. This is exactly what happened to my friend Burt. He installed Mepis, liked it, then tried something else that rendered GRUB inaccessible. Now he wanted to know if there was a way to get it back.
Fortunately, there is. What you really need (and should prepare in advance) is a GRUB boot disk. Normally, this would be a floppy, and if you search around the Internet you are sure to find a bootable floppy image somewhere. However, it's my opinion that floppies are on their way out, and indeed I have a couple of laptops that don't even have a floppy drive. Obviously, a bootable GRUB cdrom would be more useful. You could make one yourself, but easier would be to download one, and I happen to know that you can find one here.
If you boot this GRUB CD, you should wind up with a plain text mode prompt that looks like this:
grub>
Admittedly, this does not look very informative, but if you've gotten this far then you're already half way towards rescuing your system. All you've got to do now is know what to type at the prompt - the big question is how to find out?
What you should have done in advance was to look into the GRUB configuration file on your hard disk, which is /boot/grub/menu.lst (and note it's "l" not "1" - they really should have named this file "menu.list" rather than "menu.lst", but they didn't ask me). Anyway, look through this file (and perhaps print it out on paper). You'll be looking for a section that resembles this:
title Knoppix 3.3
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 ro hdc=scsi hdd=scsi
initrd /boot/initrd.gz
savedefault
boot
What appears in your GRUB configuration file will no doubt be slightly different, but should be similiar. Now all you've got to do at the GRUB prompt is to manually type the above configuration information. However, you do NOT need to type the line that begins with "title", nor do you need to type "savedefault". You will need to type out the other lines. It is possible you won't have a line beginning with "initrd" (initial ram disk) - not every Linux distro makes use of this feature for booting. Assuming you typed everything correctly, after you type "boot" and hit enter, your machine should boot into Linux as it normally does.
Once you have booted and logged in as root, you can type this to restore your MBR:
grub-install /dev/hda
That should do it. Note that the above will only work if you have "grub-install" already installed, which is usually the case. Otherwise, you'll need to download and install it.
The foregoing was only meant as a brief introduction in repairing your GRUB install. A more thorough treatment of GRUB can be found in this excellent article from Linux Journal.
That's all for this week.
Robert Storey
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| 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.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • 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 | 
PilotLinux
PilotLinux was 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 was supplied booting from a PilotLinux CD will automatically connect you to your terminal server. Otherwise the PilotLinux GUI will be displayed and give you the ability to manually enter the server address.
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
