 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 62, 16 August 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 32nd edition of DistroWatch Weekly. Having survived a power blackout generated by an approaching typhoon, your intrepid web site maintainer has yet more exciting stories for you...
Content:
Yellow Dog Bites Back
Apple announced the availability of OS X 10.3.5 on August 10. However, OS X is not the only operating system that can run on the Macintosh, and on August 13 (Friday the 13th) Yellow Dog Linux decided to bite back by releasing version 4.0 RC2. YDL users were no doubt relieved - indeed, they were starting to get rather anxious as approximately 11 months had lapsed since the release of 3.0.1 (the current stable version). According to Yellow Dog developers, the reason for the long delay had much to do with the unsettled state of Red Hat/Fedora, upon which YDL is based. As regular readers of DistroWatch should know, Red Hat has undergone major changes in the past year, moving their product line into the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux while spinning off the freebie download version into the rapidly-developing Fedora project.
Yellow Dog Linux is a commercial product sold by Terra Soft Solutions, and the latest version 4.0 is available for download through YDL.net Enhanced (3.01 can can be obtained from free mirrors). Yellow Dog's drawcard is that it is unique among Linux distros - it is the only one designed exclusively to run on Macs (or more accurately, the PowerPC processor). Yes, there are other Linux distros that have been ported to PowerPC (Debian and Gentoo come to mind), plus NetBSD and OpenBSD, but only Yellow Dog has bet the ranch on the Mac architecture. So far the bet has paid off, as YDL has been around for five years now and appears to have the lead among Linux-on-Mac fans. YDL 4.0 RC2 will probably be the last release candidate - Yellow Dog developers are predicting that they'll have the final stable release ready for downloading in about another week.
This is probably as good a place as any for me to ask a question that has been fermenting in the back of my head for awhile. I don't own a Macintosh, but I am curious to know how the Linux/BSD experience on PowerPC stacks up when compared to the Intel x86 world. For those of you who own both a PowerPC and x86 box, what differences do you find when running Linux and/or BSD on these machines? Any advantages/disadvantages between the two? Inquiring minds want to know. And let it be stated that this is just a question, not a troll - I've actually been admiring some of those nice-looking iBooks and PowerBooks that I see in the shopping malls.
New Steganography Tool
In last week's Tips, Tricks and Hints, we discussed steganography, the art and science and hiding text messages in unexpected places (ie. inside of graphic, audio and video files). Now there is a new steganographic tool for hiding top-secret data inside of executable files. Hydan is the brainchild of Rakan El-Khalil, a computer science student at Columbia University in New York. El-Khalil revealed his new creation at CodeCon, a non-commercial IT conference held at a San Francisco nightclub.
The ability to place hidden messages inside of an executable binary is not a trivial accomplishment. In the case of graphic, audio and video files, the hidden text slightly impairs the visual or audio output, but so slightly that it's seldom noticeable. However, executable code is much less forgiving - normally, changing even one byte of binary code is enough to cause a program to crash. Yet Hydan not only manages to allow the binary to run properly, it even manages to contain the hidden payload without changing the executable file's original size. This seemingly impossible task is viable thanks to redundancies in x86 instruction code. That is to say, there are places where two instructions are the same, so it should be possible to replace one of them. However, such redundancies are far less common in executable binaries than in graphic, audio or video files. As a result, Hydan can only hide one byte of a text message in about 110 bytes of executable code. By comparison, other steganography programs such as Outguess can hide one byte of message in 17 bytes of a .jpeg file.
Hydan encrypts messages using the blowfish algorithm with a user-supplied passphrase. Though steganography is mostly used to hide information that some people would rather not share with the world, Hydan has some other functions: it can be used to embed a watermark or a digital signature in an executable file. Hydan is open source and will run on Linux and *BSD, but there is also a version for Windows.
Debian Installer RC1
The new Debian installation program RC1 (Release Candidate 1) for "Sarge" was released on 07 August. Download links can be found here. There is even a review of the new installer over at Linux.com.
It's seldom that publishing an installation program would make headlines, but in the case of Debian it's a monumental event. It has been a long time coming, as work on the installer began about four years ago. Debian "Woody" was released on 19 July, 2002, and many had anticipated that a new installer would be available then, but they were disappointed. The next release of Debian (code-named "Sarge") is anticipated for September, though that is not engraved in stone. The difficulty of creating an easy-to-use installer for Debian has much to do with the fact that Debian runs on 11 different architectures (alpha, arm, hppa, i386, ia64, m68k, mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390), and the developers have been adamant that the installation experience should be the same everywhere. This, apparently, is easier said than done.
In terms of packaged software, Debian is the largest of all distros, with over 16,000 packages in the "unstable" branch. However, the number of users actually running "pure" Debian may be much smaller than the super-sized package collection indicates. Rather, many people are using Debian-based distros (Knoppix, Xandros, Lindows, etc) which conveniently are compatible with Debian's monumental package collection.
The reason for this state of affairs is that Debian has long been notorious for its difficult-to-use installation program. Indeed, the current installer is so bad that it has given a significant boost to a whole cottage industry of Debian-based distros which tout "easy installation" as a major drawcard. Just how much the new and much-improved installation program will impact these other Debian-based distros remains to be seen. Of course, there is more to a distro than just its installer (easy-to-use system administration tools, for example).
One thing for certain - with the upcoming release of Sarge and the new installer, this is an exciting time for Debian users.
Linux at the Olympics
Friday the 13th marked the official (if inauspicious) start of the Athen's 2004 Olympics. Spectators can expect to see a lot of running, jumping and hitting balls with various objects - all in all, a very non-geeky event, though we'd venture to guess that some of the athletes have an unconfessed weakness for pizza deliveries.
That having been said, Linux will make a small but significant splash at this year's summer Olympics thanks to the BBC. According to this article, the British Broadcasting Corporation will use Linux to improve the speed and accuracy of rendering real time results. Leading the charge are British techies who have installed a bank of Linux computers at the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) in Athens. The machines will receive real-time results in XML format, and then use SQL databases to store the data, which will then be piped to Macs running Linux apps that will render 3D graphics.
The Athens Olympics are likely just the first step. Jon Hanford, senior systems analyst at BBC, says that the system is being battle-tested at the Olympics, and if successful will likely be used at future sporting events. So next time you see a gymnast flexing his or her biceps in stunning 3D, remember the Linux developers who made it all possible. Now if we could only get some of those Olympic stars to wear DistroWatch T-shirts...
Linux Trademark Battle - Blasts from the Past
Though now mostly forgotten (if not forgiven), back in the bubble days of 1996, Linux Torvalds (with the help of his friends) fought a year-long legal battle to gain control of the "Linux" trademark. Linus - not being a trademark kind of guy - had neglected to register the name Linux with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). That proved to be a costly mistake when an individual by the name of William R. Della Croce, Jr. came out of the woodwork and started demanding 10% royalties on sales from businesses marketing Linux products. Della Croce, it seems, had registered the "LINUX" trademark for a computer operating system. This is despite the fact he was not a developer and was in no way associated with Linux. Details of the fiasco are outlined here.
A year later, a legal settlement was reached and Linus regained control of the Linux name. For the young software developer from laid-back Finland, the whole twisted nightmare was a rude introduction to the US legal system. An old article from Linux Journal explains how the case was resolved.
Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same - now somebody else is trying to register the Linux name (this time in Australia). However, it's unlikely that this case will get very far. Basically, what's happening is that a company calling itself Linux Australia Pty Ltd has been trying to register its name as a trademark, so far unsuccessfully. Australia's answer to the USPTO, IP Australia, has apparently heard of Linux and seems pretty sure that it wasn't invented Down Under. Another complicating factor is the existence of Linux Australia, Inc, an Aussie open-source organization that has been using the name as an unregistered trademark. Linux Australia has gotten in touch with Linux Torvalds and asked him to legally reassert possession of the Linux name. More details of this convoluted story can be found here.
What a world we live in. Before you know it, somebody will start trademarking common everyday English words like "windows" and "outlook".
Crippled XP At Discount Prices
Faced with high software prices, customers in at least some parts of the world have lately been deciding that they can do without Windows XP (or at least legally-licensed copies). Full-priced legal CDs containing Windows XP plus Office carry a combined price tag of nearly US$600. In wealthy countries that may be affordable (for most), but in developing countries it represents months of hard-earned wages. Not surprisingly, many of the non-wealthy decide that their best bet is to run pirated software.
The traditional response from the software industry has been to get their governments (usually the US government) to push, pull and issue dire threats of economic sanctions against the offending country for IPR violations. The traditional response from the offending countries has been fake compliance, with high-profile "crackdown cleanup" campaigns. Photos of seized pirate CDs being incinerated in front of approving Western software execs are front-page news in developing country newspapers. Occasionally they throw a few fake Rolex watches and Gucci handbags into the bonfire as well. After the execs head back to their five-star hotels or the airport, the street vendors unpack their newly-pressed Windows/Office CDs and flog them off to locals and tourists alike for US$2 a piece.
Of course, there is another option - the citizens of developing countries could run open source software. And increasingly, this is what they are choosing to do. Aside from costing nothing and being perfectly legal, they gain a few bonuses - freedom from viruses and "product activation", as well as the chance to cultivate a local pool of programming talent.
After bravely holding prices as high as possible for as long as possible, Microsoft finally decided to blink when sales of Linux went through the roof in Thailand. In order to stem the flood of defections, late last year Microsoft threw in the towel and dropped the price of the Thai edition of WinXP+Office to US$37, which is only about 6% of its former cost. Not surprisingly, the new bargain basement prices did not go unnoticed by other developing nations, and they too started demanding a discount.
Caught between a penguin and a hard place, Microsoft announced last week that, starting from October, it would offer a crippled version of Windows officially called "Windows XP Starter Edition." Unofficially, users are calling it "XP-Lite". Among the great new features it offers are lower-resolution graphics, fewer networking capabilities and reduced multitasking. A Microsoft press release called XP-Lite "a low-cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows XP operating system designed for first-time desktop PC users in developing countries." Aside from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia will qualify for the cut-rate deal, and there have been suggestions that Singapore be included too (though it is hardly a "developing country"). Other lucky winners in the software sweepstakes may include China and India, but Microsoft seems as yet undecided about this.
No sooner was the ink dry on the digital announcement than IT research firm Gartner published a report recommending that users "steer away" from the new XP-Lite. The Gartner analysts suggested that users would likely find the disabled features "frustrating", and concluded that the ironic result might actually be to increase piracy of Windows XP and Office.
It remains to be seen whether or not consumers in Asia will prefer XP-Lite or Linux. In Thailand, Linux has already gained an enthusiastic following, and Thai geeks are insisting that they won't be seduced by budget Windows. As others have pointed out, Microsoft's sudden generosity has nothing to do with altruism, but rather competition. If the Linux threat recedes, it's hard to believe that software prices won't rise again. A little competition can be a good thing.
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| Released Last Week |
GeeXboX 0.98
A new version of GeeXboX, a Linux-based multimedia player, has been released: "Here
comes again the GeeXboX. This 0.98 edition is a key point in our
roadmap. Indeed, this latter does not really come with many new
features (but some new useful things whenever) but fixes a huge
number of annoying bugs. Most of all, this release will probably be the
last time you see GeeXboX looks like it. We've plan to work harder than
ever to bring you next time a new OS, like you've never seen, still
keeping it as simple to use as it ever been. So just stay tuned :-)" Read the full announcement on the distribution's home page, in French or in English. Download: geexbox-0.98-fr.iso (6.07MB) or geexbox-0.98-en.iso (5.96MB).
K12LTSP 4.1.0
K12LTSP 4.1.0 has been released: "K12LTSP
4.1.0 is finally available for your downloading pleasure. This release
was a long time in coming, 144 days since the last release. K12LTSP
4.1.0 is the combination of Fedora Core 2 and LTSP 4.1.
The hard work of these two projects shows in this release, this is the
fastest, most refined release of K12LTSP to date. We owe the Fedora and
LTSP projects a big thank-you." Read the full announcement including the changelog. Download: K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc1.iso (623MB), K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc2.iso (649MB) ,K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc3.iso (649MB), and K12LTSP-4.1.0-disc4.iso (621MB).
tinysofa classic server 1.1
tinysofa classic server 1.1 (Rio) is now generally available. "Rio
overhauls the tinysofa classic server product line, adding Native POSIX
Threads Library support to the kernel and glibc, Exec-Shield support to
the kernel, replacing the SWUP updater with APT as the primary advanced
package management tool, designating vsftpd as the only FTP server
shipped, adding dovecot and tftp to the base package set, implementing
'thought process compatibility' with the tinysofa enterprise server
product line and much more." Download: Rio.i586.iso (356MB) and Rio.src.iso (324MB) via BitTorrent. Md5sums can be found on traditional FTP sites.
tinysofa enterprise server 2.0
tinysofa enterprise server 2.0 (Odin) is now generally available. "Odin
is a next generation operating system which showcases the latest in
open source technology in a fast, stable, securely configured and
easily manageable form. Odin features: The Linux 2.6.8 kernel, SELinux
support, APT as an advanced package management tool, a turn key ASP.NET
solution using components from the Mono project, the next generation
PHP 5 environment, high availability features such as DRBD, UCARP and
PostgreSQL replication, the latest development tools and languages" including automake 1.9, bash 3.0 and tcl 8.4.7! Download: Odin.i386.iso (691MB) and Odin.src.iso (703MB) via BitTorrent. Md5sums can be found on traditional FTP sites.
blackPanther OS 4.0
blackPanther OS
(formerly known as blackPanther-Linux) is a Hungarian Linux
distribution based on Mandrakelinux. Version 4.0 of blackPanther has
been released: "First CD there is ISO format, other 4CDs only in FTP, source and RPM format available." If you understand Hungarian you can read the full announcement here. Download: CD1-blackPanther4.0final.iso (527MB).
INSERT 1.2.14
A new version of the Inside Security Rescue Toolkit INSERT has been released. From the changelog: "v1.2.14
(the one-year-anniversary release). Bugfix: libpcap0.8 was missing (for
tcpdump). The following packages/programs were updated: fwlogwatch,
clamav, avscan, smbmount, rkhunter; p0f - a passive OS fingerprinting
tool was added; the ability to create boot floppies (mkfloppy.bat and
mkfloppy.sh was removed (the files didn't fit on a floppy anymore, this
should be re-added ASAP); a bug with the 'toram' boot option was fixed.
Now all files are being copied to the RAM disk...." Download from here: INSERT-1.2.14_de.iso (49.0MB) or INSERT-1.2.14_en.iso (49.0MB).
Development and unannounced releases
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
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| Tips, Tricks and Hints |
Loop-AES
Steganography provides a useful way to secure your bank account or credit card numbers, but it's not really a practical form of encryption if you've got a large quantity of data to conceal. If, for example, you're a politician and you've got hundreds (or thousands) of incriminating emails that you'd like to keep secret, trying to bury them one at a time inside of your family digital photo album would be a painstaking task to say the least (and it would be equally painstaking trying to retrieve the data, or search through it). Aside from that, some of the data you wish to hide may include naughty photos or videos, and steganography wouldn't be of much help since it's designed for hiding text.
The solution to this problem is to place all the scandalous files on an encrypted partition. A clever algorithm and a passphrase are used to encrypt the partition. This is a nearly bulletproof solution, but be forewarned that if you forget the passphrase, you can kiss the data goodbye unless you've backed it up to someplace else in an unencrypted format.
Linux provides two unrelated packages for making encrypted partitions, Cryptoloop and loop-AES (note that these are Linux-only - the BSDs have their own separate encryption schemes). However, it's been claimed that Cryptoloop has certain weaknesses, and it was recently discussed on Kerneltrap that Cryptoloop was being replaced with dm-crypt in the 2.6 kernel. For that reason and others, this article will focus on loop-AES.
Unfortunately, installing loop-AES is not as simple as grabbing an RPM or source tarball - it requires a kernel module and patched util-linux. More devout geeks may rise to the challenge, but it's a complicated mess and I'm not going to cover how to do it in this brief article. The good news is that more and more distros are including loop-AES by default - if your distro doesn't, give the developers some pressure to do so. In my opinion, it's a killer feature, and every desktop distro should have it.
The easiest way to find out if you've got loop-AES installed is to search for the loadable Linux kernel module "loop.o" on 2.4 kernels, or "loop.ko" on 2.6 kernels. An easy way to do this is with the "locate" command. If you're unfamiliar with "locate", note that it depends on a database that you create first create by running "updatedb" (you must be root to do so). You only need to run "updatedb" just once, though you may want to run it periodically (once a week) to rebuild the database as the files on your computer change. Most Linux systems will run "updatedb" as a weekly cron job, but that won't necessarily work if your computer isn't turned on just after midnight. Anyway, run "locate loop.o loop.ko" - here are the results that I obtained:
locate loop.o loop.ko
/initrd/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/block/cloop.o
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/block/cloop.o
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/block/loop.o
/lib/modules/2.4.26/kernel/drivers/isdn/isdnloop/isdnloop.o
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/block/cloop.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/block/cryptoloop.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/block/loop.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.6/kernel/drivers/isdn/isdnloop/isdnloop.ko
As you can see, I have the necessary modules, so I'm in business. I'm running Knoppix 3.4, and I've also found the drivers on recent versions of Xandros, Mepis and Libranet. I have Slackware on one on my hard disk partitions, and it does not have loop-AES enabled by default. I have not checked the other 310 distros that are in the DistroWatch database (this is not a feature we normally monitor, but maybe we should). I'd be very interested in hearing from others to learn whether or not loop-AES is enabled in their favorite distros.
At this point, it's worth pointing out that there are two ways to use loop-AES. One way is take an unused partition on our hard drive (perhaps /dev/hda3) and encrypt it. The other way is just to make an encrypted BIGFILE and place it on a partition that we are already using. With this in mind, let's get down to the actual details.
Encrypted Partition
You need a spare partition if you want to encrypt it because all the data will be destroyed. If you aren't already intimately familiar with your partition table, there are a few tools which will let you peek at it. One is "sfdisk" - you must be root to run it, and it's a dangerous tool if you start monkeying around with all it's capabilities, so just stick to the "-l" option. Read the sfdisk man page if you want to know more, otherwise, as root do the following:
sfdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 4865 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 0+ 13562- 13563- 6835626 a6 OpenBSD
/dev/hda2 13562+ 42632- 29070 14651280 a5 FreeBSD
/dev/hda3 42632+ 43604 973- 489982+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda4 43605 77544 33940 17105760 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 43605+ 55223- 11619- 5855661 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 55223+ 61040- 5818- 2931831 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 61041+ 77544 16504- 8317984+ 83 Linux
As you can see from the above, /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 are occupied by OpenBSD and FreeBSD respectively, so let's forget those. I had originally hoped to use /dev/hda3, but I see that's it's occupied as my swap partition, so that's out too. My /dev/hda4 is an "extended partition" - never mess with that. The only possible candidates are /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and /dev/hda7. But wait, I might be using those too - better check with the "df -h" command:
df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7 7.9G 3.1G 4.4G 42% /
/dev/root.old 17M 7.9M 8.3M 49% /initrd
/dev/hda6 2.8G 546M 2.1G 21% /home
Good thing I checked - /dev/hda7 is my root partition, and /dev/hda6 is /home. So the only spare partition I've got is /dev/hda5. Actually, I've got an old Linux distro installed there, but it's not important so I'm going to nuke it. We will use the losetup command, which is used to set up and control loop devices. So, without further ado:
losetup -e AES128 -T /dev/loop0 /dev/hda5
This command will link /dev/hda5 to the first virtual peripheral /dev/loop0. You will be asked to enter a password - 20 characters or more is recommended. Once you've done that, create an ext2 filesystem on /dev/loop0:
mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop0
Now we must detach the partition from the specified loop device:
losetup -d /dev/loop0
Now, create a new directory which will be used to mount this partition:
mkdir /sleaze
The last step is to edit file /etc/fstab. Before you do this, make a backup copy (a wise move whenever you edit an important system configuration file:
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.original
OK, go ahead and add this line to /etc/fstab:
/dev/hda5 /sleaze ext2 defaults,noauto,loop=/dev/loop0,encryption=AES128 0 0
Now you may mount /dev/hda5 to /sleaze whenever you like (you'll need to be root to do that, or else set up sudo). Anytime you attempt to mount it, you'll be asked for the password (not the root password, but that big long 20-character password which you'd better not forget). Whenever the partition is not mounted, the data will be inaccessible, and thus safe from prying eyes.
Finally, note that my encrypted partition could have been placed on a removable device such as a USB card or keyring (/dev/sda1) or even on a floppy (/dev/fd0), but not a CDR.
Encrypted BIGFILE
As already mentioned, loop-AES can be used to create an encrypted BIGFILE rather than an encrypted partition. The main advantage is that you won't need a spare partition on your hard drive. From what I've read, you should be able to back up the BIGFILE to a CDR, but I have not had much luck with this.
For the purpose of this experiment, I'll create a 100MB BIGFILE. Before I begin, let's see how much empty space I have available on my mounted partitions. This is best done with the "df -h" command:
df -h
/dev/hda7 7.9G 2.5G 5.0G 34% /
/dev/root.old 17M 7.9M 8.3M 49% /initrd
/dev/hda6 2.8G 546M 2.1G 21% /home
I've got more space in my "/" partition than anyplace else, so I could put my BIGFILE in /root, or create a new user in /home and put in there. Since it will require root privileges to access anyway, I'll put it in /root but there is no reason why I must. I need to perform the following steps to create my BIGFILE and set it up as a loop device:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/BIGFILE bs=4k count=2560
losetup -e AES128 -T /dev/loop1 /root/BIGFILE
mkfs -t ext2 /dev/loop1
losetup -d /dev/loop1
mkdir /secret
You can do all of the above without any explanation, but most of you would probably like to know what's going on. The math in the first line: "bs" means "block size" and "count" means "how many blocks". Always use a block size of 4k, but you can vary the count according to the size you want the encrypted file to be: "4k x 256 = 1024k" which is 1MB, but I want 10MB so I multiply 256 times 10 to get 2560.
Also note above that I used "/dev/loop1", not /dev/loop0 - the only reason for this is that I've already populated /dev/loop0 with the encrypted partition I created earlier. Yes, you can indeed have both an encrypted partition and an encrypted BIGFILE at the same time. In fact, you can have up to eight encrypted partitions and/or BIGFILEs (/dev/loop0 to /dev/loop7).
Finally, I add a line to /etc/fstab so that I can mount /root/BIGFILE onto its mount point /secret:
/root/BIGFILE /secret ext2 defaults,noauto,loop=/dev/loop1,encryption=AES128 0 0
It only remains for me to mount the encrypted BIGFILE:
mount /secret
Ideally, it would be nice if I could back up the encrypted data to a CDR (while still keeping it encrypted). Articles I've read indicate that BIGFILE could be burned to a CDR, but my own experiments with this failed. I'd be interested if others have been more successful. However, backing up to my removable USB hard drive worked just fine.
That's all for this week.
Robert Storey
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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