 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 81, 3 January 2005 |
Happy New Year! You are reading the first issue of DistroWatch Weekly in 2005, in which we'll go back in history and reveal how DistroWatch started, then provide a few figures about visitors' interest over the past year, and introduce a handful of new distributions. Happy reading!
Content:
- Reflections: how DistroWatch came into existence
- Statistics: most visited distribution pages in 2004
- Released last week
- Upcoming releases: SUSE LINUX 9.2 FTP, Libranet GNU/Linux 3.0
- November/December donations: Kile, Tsunami Relief Operation
- New distribution additions: APODIO, CentOS, Freeduc-Sup, gNOX, Knopperdisk, Nitix Autonomic Linux
- New on the waiting list: ATmission, Garbure, Euskal Linux, JLiMe, Symphony OS
- Discontinued distribution: Ares Linux, Julex, uOS
Reflections: how DistroWatch came into existence
Before the end-of-year holidays, a reader asked about the beginnings of DistroWatch and how it all started - perhaps a good topic to reflect on at the end of the year. So here is the story...
I used to work for Linpus Technologies, a company producing a Linux distribution, among other products. One day, shortly before launching a major new release, my boss asked me if I could compile a list of features of all the main Linux distributions to see how we compare with the rest. This was done in order to find something exciting to put on the box as selling points.
An easy task, I thought; surely there are plenty such comparisons available on the Internet, right? Wrong. I spent several hours looking for data, but besides a few desperately out-of-date comparison charts, I was unable to find any usable information. In the end, I had to do it all myself - by visiting every main distribution's web site and extracting information about their products, prices, documentation, package versions, etc. I started putting all the data into an Excel spreadsheet (yes, MS Office was the standard document format, despite the fact that we were a Linux company!) until I had all I needed for Caldera, Corel, Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSE, Turbolinux, and of course Linpus. This was around May 2001 and those were generally considered the major distributions at the time.
Once the task was completed, the amount of data reached a fairly reasonable state in terms of interesting information. That was when I decided to share it with the Linux community and moved it from a spreadsheet into an HTML document. I registered for a web space account by one of the free providers and uploaded the page, then submitted the news about its existence to several Linux news sites.
The response was astonishing, to say the least. The site received over 7,000 visitors during the first day and my inbox was quickly filling up with email providing corrections, suggestions for improvements, and even words of praise and encouragement to continue maintaining the page. This was my first attempt at establishing web presence and it was a very simple page with a brief introduction and a table listing features and main packages for the above-mentioned distributions. I intended to keep the page up-to-date by including new data every time one of the distributions made a new release.
Some six months later the site was getting over 2,000 visitors a day. By that time, I had registered the distrowatch.com domain name, learnt a bit more about HTML and CSS, and created a page for every distribution, tracking their past releases and providing extra information and links to other related pages. I also added new distributions as I discovered them or as they were suggested by readers. I found it fascinating to learn about all the different distributions that existed on the market - I had Mandrake installed on my home computer, Debian on a second workstation at work and was administering several servers running various versions of Red Hat Linux. Every time a new distribution came out with a new release, I would install it to see how it differs from the ones I already had experience with. This distribution "testing" quickly became an addictive hobby.
That said, I was still mostly a Windows users, even several months after launching DistroWatch. I didn't have much choice at work and at home I find myself unable to leave the familiar world behind. One day, however, things changed. As a result of an embarrassing post on a mailing list, I finally decided to switch to Linux completely. I challenged myself to reboot into Mandrake Linux and stay in it for one month, doing everything I would normally do on the computer. Then I wrote about these experiences in The Linux Distribution Game (yes, the "friend of mine" that accepted my challenge was, in fact, I). That was a true story - after one continuous month in Linux I found out that I no longer needed Windows! In fact, when my hard disk crashed a few months later, I didn't bother to re-install Windows and my computer has been 100% Windows-free ever since.
Of course, things didn't go particularly smoothly at first. I remember the difficulties I had to go through while finding out how to do common tasks in GIMP (and other applications), e.g creating images with a transparent background. On Windows I had used Corel PHOTOPAINT for all the DistroWatch graphics needs, but I found GIMP to have a completely different implementation of many graphics tasks. Not more difficult, just different. Virtually every action in GIMP required that I first visited Google and found out how to perform that particular action! Sure, it wasn't entire without frustration, but every time I was tempted to reach for the reboot button, I remembered that I had paid some R2,000 (ZAR) for my copy of CorelDRAW, which was a good quarter of my after-tax monthly salary at the time. (This is not to say that CorelDRAW was not worth the money, but when your financial resources are limited, a large expense like that means that your other "wants" have to be postponed. With Free Software, this is no longer the case.)
The Linux Distribution Game article brought a bit of trouble, however. Because the editors at Slashdot found it worth a post on their web site, I was quickly reminded about the realities of the Internet when my free hosting service was abruptly terminated (I used up my monthly bandwidth quota in just a few hours after the article was linked from Slashdot!). Luckily, the power of the Linux community proved too strong and I quickly received an offer from the developers of Linux From Scratch to host DistroWatch on their server. This was a great offer - for the first time I had access to scripting languages, so it was time to turn the site from static HTML into dynamic pages with PHP.
This was around June 2002, which coincided with my decision to leave Linpus Technologies. I spent three months at home, learning PHP and rewriting the site. Then, due to growing financial pressures, I had to make a decision between finding a new job and keeping the web site as a hobby, or turning DistroWatch into a business. The second option sounded considerably more appealing and I decided to give it a go. It was tough at first (relying on readers' donations, generous as some of you were, is NOT a sustainable business model), so I started accepting advertising and devised a "premium" service for interested readers (which did not prove very popular and was later abandoned). Luckily, the number of visitors kept increasing and so did advertising inquiries which eventually reached sustainable levels. I was able continue working on the site full time.
Nowadays, the site is visited by over 60,000 readers a day, which makes DistroWatch one of the top 10 Linux/BSD news sites on the Internet. There are several reasons for the site's increasing popularity. Firstly, I try to be fast with publishing news - unlike many other new sites, I don't wait until a story hits Slashdot or until somebody submits the news; instead I do my best to get the news out to you as soon as it happens. Secondly, the news stories are sufficiently varied; from the biggest and most popular distributions to the smallest and virtually unknown projects developed in remote corners of the world (learning languages is one of my hobbies) - they all receive equal treatment. There are too many news sites that just publish press releases by Red Hat or Novell and wonder why nobody bookmarks their sites. I believe that these two characteristics - the speed of updates and uniqueness of news items - are the prime reasons why visitors keep coming. (OSNews is one of the few other web sites that has a similar attitude and philosophy towards publishing news, which is what makes it such a great site to visit.)
But of course, there is a brand new year ahead of us and you are not going to be disappointed - together with regular contributors, we will continue bringing you up-to-date and interesting news, writing DistroWatch Weekly and updating all distribution pages with new releases. I also hope to find time for creating a proper database of all distributions with easy search capabilities, and improve the internationalisation infrastructure so that information is readily available to all readers, even those who don't understand English! As always, your suggestions for improvements are most welcome!
Have a great 2005!
* * * * *
Statistics: most visited distribution pages in 2004
With the year 2004 behind us, here is a brief statistical info about the popularity of distribution-specific pages on DistroWatch. For the third year in a row, the Mandrakelinux page was the most visited one, with an average of 1,457 visits from unique IP addresses per day. It was followed by Fedora (1,202 visits), KNOPPIX (910 visits), SUSE (858 visits) and Debian (832 visits). MEPIS, PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu were the biggest movers - MEPIS claimed the overall 6th spot in the ranking, while Ubuntu managed to climb to number 13, despite the fact that it was only listed on DistroWatch for less than 4 months of the year. Lycoris was the biggest loser of the year, with Linspire and Yoper also down in the ranking.
The absolute largest number of visitors on any distribution page was recorded by the Fedora page on November 9, 2004 (the day after the release of Fedora Core 3) - 4,201 unique IPs (5,615 page hits), followed by the Fedora page on May 18, 2004 (the day of the Fedora Core 2 release) - 4,138 unique IPs (6,172 page hits) and by the Fedora page again on November 8, 2004 - 4,033 unique IPs (5,703 page hits). The Slackware page recorded 3,551 visits from unique IP addresses on the day of the Slackware 10.0 release (4,860 page hits). No other distribution recorded more than 3,000 visits from unique IP addresses on any single day. As for the main DistroWatch page, the largest number of visitors was recorded on September 27, 2004 - 78,214 visitors loaded the main page on that day.
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| Released During Last 2 Weeks |
Luit Linux 0.4
Luit Linux is a mini live CD with XFce 4, based on Damn Small Linux. A new version has been announced: "Latest release: v 0.4. The main feature of this new distribution is its modularity. Additional CDs can be mounted to get additional packages at any time when needed, from the desktop menu, or through a command prompt. All can be combined to make a mini CD version." Visit the distribution's home page to read the release announcement and feature list.
Damn Small Linux 0.9.1
Damn Small Linux 0.9.1 has been released, with the following changes "Replaced ascd and enjoympeg with xmms; added news feed section for xmms; beaver replaces minimum profit editor; fluxter replaces bbpager for better integration; updated firefox default mime types; removed smbtree, isoinfo, readcd; theme intelligent Fluxter replaced bbpager; for more information read the details in the screenshot." Here is the full changelog.
Freeduc-Sup 1.1
Freeduc-Sup is a French live CD (with a graphical hard disk installer) based on Morphix and designed for use in education (it includes a comprehensive Linux administration book in HTMLformat). Version 1.1 was released yesterday and is available in two editions - "base" and "informatique", the latter of which includes developer tools, including programming languages (C, C++, PHP, Perl, Python, XML) and development environments (Kdevelop, Quanta, Qt Designer). Read the distribution's news page (in French) for more information, or visit the screenshots page to see Freeduc-Sup in action.
K12LTSP Linux 4.2.0
The final release of K12LTSP Linux 4.2.0 is now available: "Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift for the Spouse? K12LTSP 4.2.0 is now available for all of your gift-giving needs! It slices, it dices. And when you are finished, it makes great drink coasters! The ultimate stocking-stuffer! Hurry while supplies last!" From the release notes: "K12LTSP 4.2.0 is based on Fedora Core 3. The installer media check has been turned off by default. This check does not work if the ISO were burned on a 2.6.x kernel without being 'padded'...." Here is the announcement, inclusive of the release notes and download links.
LBA-Linux R2
A new stable release of LBA-Linux (formerly known as SOT Linux and Best Linux) is out: "The Linux Business Alliance, an association of companies dedicated to producing usable, open,and legally safe software has released the second version of its LBA-Linux operating system. The new version, LBA-Linux R2, offers many completely new features, including integrated office software and encrypted directories for each user. The R2 release also incorporates all security updates released since the first LBA-Linux distribution was published in May 2004." Read the press release for further details.
LBA-Linux R2 - a Fedora-based distribution from Finland
(full image size: 770kB)
Vidalinux Desktop OS 1.1
A new release of the Gentoo-based Vidalinux Desktop OS is now available for download: "For all you VLOS fans here is the new version of Vidalinux Desktop OS with lots of changes, fixes, updates, new theme and artwork make this release even better than 1.0." Read the full release notes for detailed information about all the changes since version 1.0.
AUSTRUMI 0.9.2
This is a new release of AUSTRUMI, a Slackware-based business card-size live CD with fvwm'95 as its desktop environment. What's new? "Added Skype - free Internet telephony; added PHP support; added LNF forum (for education); removed beaver, added tea; removed gkdial, added wvdial; updated Ugunsvarti, AbiWord and Opera; removed MinGV developer studio; added same 1GB ethernet card support; fixed bugs." Visit the distribution's home page to read the changelog and other information about AUSTRUMI.
Puppy Linux 0.9.8
A new release of Puppy Linux is here. From the release notes: "Puppy now has PlanMaker Free Edition - Excel compatible spreadsheet editor. Although this is closed-source, it is free, no usage restrictions and no embedded advertisements. There is a new accounting program called Grisbi. This is excellent for personal finance and would suit many organisations. Grisbi is able to import GnuCash files. There is a new presentation design program called Impress, similar in concept to PowerPoint. Note that PowerPoint presentations can be indirectly imported into Impress by exporting them from PowerPoint in Postscript format...."
ASP Linux 10
ASP Linux 10, code name "Karelia", has been released. ASP Linux is a Russian distribution based on Fedora Core. The latest release has been developed with three main characteristics in mind - it should be immediately usable out of the box, most of system configuration should be achieved via a graphical interface, and it should support a wide range of multimedia formats, including DVD, mpeg4 and mp3 playback. It has been built on top of a Linux kernel 2.6.9, and it includes GNOME 2.8.1, KDE 3.3.1, OpenOffice.org 1.1.2, Firefox 1.0, Novell Evolution 2.0.2, and many other applications. More details are available in the press release (in Russian).
ASP Linux 10 - a Fedora-based distribution from Russia
(full image size: 1,273kB)
Buffalo Linux 1.6.0
Buffalo Linux 1.6.0 has been released: "Buffalo Version 1.6.0 contains numerous updates -- including the new kernel 2.6.10. Kernel 2.6.8.1 is still available at install time due to issues with some USB features in 2.6.9/2.6.10. Included are Sylpheed 1.0.0, IceWM 1.2.18, OpenOffice.org 1.1.4 and updates to KDE 3.3.2 on the extras CD2. Also available on the main FTP site are additional packages in directory 'other', for example 'libmng' is needed by KDE and was left off CD2 by mistake. Version 1.6.1 is anticipated shortly as a bug fix to this version. It will be available as an auto-update from 1.6.0. No auto-update is provided to 1.6.0 due to the very large size of the changes." Read the release announcement on the distribution's main page.
Knopperdisk 0.2.0
For all fans of Linux distributions designed for USB pen drives, here is a new toy called Knopperdisk, based on Gentoo Linux. Version 0.2.0 was released yesterday: "Finally, a new release with a lot of improvements. A snapshot of some of them: kernel 2.6.10; expanded the list of supported hardware; syslinux 2.11 for booting; using SquashFS for the root file system image instead of cloop, which actually results in a smaller image while there's more data on it; added CVS software; a lot of upgraded software (udev, hotplugging, coreutils and more); no more nasty errors while shutting down and rebooting! All this made me decide to make this release the final 0.2.0." Read the announcement on the project's news page.
gnuLinEx 2004r1
A revised release of gnuLinEx 2004 is now available. The principal new features include support for serial ATA drives, support for installation on USB hard disks, and correction of bugs reported since the release of version 2004 in July. Most packages have been upgraded to their current stable version; this includes Firefox 1.0 with automatic installations of various plugins, Evolution 2.0, GNOME 2.8, Firestarter and other applications. Newly included is the K3B CD/DVD burning utility. Many hardware drivers have been added to the kernel. The gnuLinEx repository now includes over 10,000 packages from Debian Sarge for trouble-free installation of extra applications. Read the full release announcement (in Spanish) for further details.
GeeXboX 0.98.5
A new release of GeeXboX, a Linux-based media player, is out: "Ho ho ho ... here comes a new GeeXboX release. As a tradition, many free software projects release on Christmas and so do we (with a little bit delay, just to be original :-). So, here's our gift to you to end 2004: GeeXboX 0.98.5. The 0.99 release will come with a completely new interface which is not yet completely finished. But 4 months have past since the last release and much work has been done. You probably won't notice any big differences in terms of functionality by comparison to the old 0.98 release. The reason for it is quite simple: we did a major rewrite of our code, build toolkit and all major packages and there were so many deep changes that we needed to make a new release before adding the new interface." Here is the full announcement.
Feather Linux 0.7.1
The first release of 2005 belongs to the Feather Linux project, which has just announced version 0.7.1. From the changelog: "Included aterm, a terminal supporting transparency and other features; added the Ruby scripting language; added rcrack (a hash cracker), sil (a banner grabber), nbtstat and dsniff; added giFTcurs; added cdparanoia; added elinks, a text-only browser; updated many system-based packages to those from Knoppix 3.7; added option to feather-hdinstall to add custom options on the LILO append line; added a new soundcard configuration tool if the other fails, which can be found in Tools -> Scripts; made some small changes to rm-dpkg; fixed Opera, Java and Flash scripts...."
Debian GNU/Linux 3.0r4
The 4th revision of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 has been released: "This is the fourth update of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (codename 'woody') which mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections to serious problems. Those who frequently update from security.debian.org won't have to update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update. Please note that this update does not produce a new version of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 but only adds a few updated packages to it. There is no need to throw away 3.0 CDs but only to update againstftp.debian.org after an installation, in order to incorporate those late changes. Upgrading to this revision online is usually done by pointing the 'apt' package tool to one of Debian's many FTP or HTTP mirrors. A comprehensive list of mirrors is available here." Read the announcement for further details.
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
SUSE LINUX 9.2 FTP Edition
A new message on the SUSE FTP server claims that SUSE LINUX 9.2 will be made available for network installation on January 10: "Update: Expect 9.2-FTP on January 10 2005." Read here for more information.
Libranet GNU/Linux 3.0
According to the latest issue of Libranet Newsletter, published on December 29, Libranet 3.0 is now in beta testing: "Good news. Libranet 3.0 beta testing is now underway. The beta testers are testing the new installer and after the new year will be testing the full release. So far it's looking good!" The newsletter did not provide any other details about the product or the expected release date.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Web Site News |
November/December donations: Kile, Tsunami Relief Operation
Continuing with our donations programme, the delayed November 2004 donation goes to Kile KDE LaTeX Editor, while the December 2004 donation will go to the victims of the recent Tsunami disaster through UNICEF's Tsunami relief operation. Seeing the tragedy on TV, it was hard not to contribute to those who lost everything due to the nature's extremely cruel joke. Originally, the Kile project was meant to receive US$180, but since it only accepts donations in certain denominations, we had no choice but donate US$100 and move the remaining US$80 to December. Therefore UNICEF's Tsunami relief operation received a total of US$340. As always, the donation programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch and LinuxCD.org, which contributes US$50 every month. LinuxCD.org is an online store selling low-cost Linux/BSD CDs - they have the largest selection, inclusive of all the latest releases, and they offer the lowest prices. Next time you need to order your favourite Linux or BSD CDs, get them from LinuxCD.org.
Here are the PayPal receipts for our donations:
This email confirms that you have paid OSDN / VA Software $100.00 USD using PayPal.
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Payment Details:
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Transaction ID: 87Y45907KK547412L
Total: $100.00 USD
Item Title: Donation
Quantity: 1
Invoice ID: 224332
Message: This is a donation by DistroWatch.com to the Kile project.
OSDN / VA Software
Contact E-Mail: staff at sourceforge.net
This email confirms that you have paid Tsunami Relief $340.00 USD using PayPal.
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Payment Details:
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Transaction ID: 2CS50509YC919753G
Total: $340.00 USD
Item Title: Tsunami Relief Effort
Quantity: 1
Business: Tsunami Relief
Contact E-Mail: tsunamirelief at paypal.com
This is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
New distribution addition
New on the waiting list
- ATmission. ATmission is a live Linux CD. The main advantage of ATmission compared to other live Linux CDs is its flexibility.
- Euskal Linux. Euskal Linux is a commercial Linux distribution developed by Webalianza in the Basque autonomous region of Spain.
- Garbure. Garbure is a collection of dedicated distributions. Each distribution provides you with carefully selected tools for a specific target domain, and is completed with examples and documentation. The set of distributions included in Garbure forms an entity, but each distribution works also on its own. They complement each other like tools in a toolbox or volumes of an encyclopedia. Tools, documentation and examples are chosen, tested and if necessary created by people active in the target domain. These distributions are intended to be used as work station. The installation and distribution media is the LiveCD, making it also useful for demonstration purposes, promotion, occasional usage or rescue system. Meta-package installation is planned.
- JLiMe. JLime (Jornada Linux Mobility Edition) is a project that focuses on running Linux on the HP Jornada 680/690 and 620LX/660LX series handheld PC. The Jornada 680/690 is a Windows CE-based device equipped with a 133MHz Hitachi SH3 processor. It has a laptop-like keyboard, a relatively large screen and excellent battery capacity, which makes it an ideal device for coding on the road and wireless internet access, much more than any traditional PDA. The 620LX/660LX is a similar device, the differences being a 75MHz SH3 processor instead of 133MHz and a softtouch keyboard instead of the laptop-like keyboard on the 680/690. Running Linux as the main operating system on your Jornada 680/690 or 620LX/660LX will give you a powerful system with tons of tools, programming languages and applications.
- Symphony OS. Symphony is a distribution of GNU/Linux based on the Debian GNU/Linux and KNOPPIX operating systems. Symphony will do things a bit differently than other Linux operating systems; making it easier to use and more intuitive than most existing distributions.
Discontinued distributions
- A little clean-up over the holidays meant that distributions whose web pages were not longer accessible were re-classified as "discontinued" and placed on discontinued distributions page. These include Ares Linux (an unsuccessful attempt at some continuity to the abandoned JAMD Linux), Julex, a recently launched Australian live CD, and uOS - The Micro Operating System (a spin-off of the discontinued TelemetryBox project).
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 370
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 9
- Number of discontinued distributions: 48
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 83
That's all for today, see you all next week!
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Happy MacLinux
Happy MacLinux was a Linux distribution with Japanese environment for the m68k and PPC platforms.
Status: Discontinued
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| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Tips and tricks: Using GRUB with XFS |
| Tips and tricks: Find common words in text, find high memory processs, cd short-cuts, pushd & popd, record desktop |
| Tips and tricks: Copying columns of text, organizing files, creating torrents |
| Questions and answers: Source based Linux distributions |
| Tips and tricks: File encryption and cloud backup |
| Tips and tricks: Bash command line short-cuts and tips |
| Tips and tricks: Quick tricks to fix small problems on Linux |
| Myths and misunderstandings: Wayland, Xorg and Mir |
| Tips and tricks: Advanced file systems, network traffic, running a script at login/logout |
| Questions and answers: Placing packages in alternative locations |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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| 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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