 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 100, 16 May 2005 |
Welcome to the 100th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Read our brief roundup of interesting news bits with a quick look at the upcoming Debian Sarge release, new features in Ubuntu's "Breezy Badger", a fantastic resource for SUSE users and administrators, and an unofficial Alpha port of Fedora Core. Also in this issue - choose that perfect distribution with the Linux Distribution Chooser. Our featured distribution of the week is QiLinux, while the Tips and Tricks section investigates GRAMPS, a powerful genealogical application. Enjoy!
Content:
News: Sarge release notes, Breezy features, SUSE administration, Gentoo installer, Slackware and NPTL, Fedora for Alpha
 Much interesting has happened during the past week in the world of Linux distributions. We start this roundup of news with Debian - that's because there are indications that it won't be long before the much-awaited and much-delayed Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 "Sarge" is finally released. The release-critical bug count is at a record low and the release notes for all supported architectures are taking shape as we write this. These are especially important for those of you who are planning to upgrade their Woody servers to Sarge. The most important point of the upgrade section is the fact that the upgrade to Sarge should be performed by using the "aptitude" utility: "The recommended method of upgrading is to use 'aptitude', as described here. The built-in dependency analysis enables smooth upgrades and easy installations." It goes without saying that you should back up any critical data before launching the upgrade process.
 Although only a few weeks have passed since the release of Ubuntu Linux 5.04 "Hoary Hedgehog", the distribution's developers are already forming plans for their next release -- version 5.10 and code name "Breezy Badger" -- due out in October 2005. This will be the project's most ambitious release ever, with no fewer than 147 new features. Among the top priority features are Edubuntu (an Ubuntu edition suitable for classroom use), Laptop Mission (totally RAD laptop support); OEM installer, thin client integration, and Launchpad integration (to make it easier for users to perform actions such as getting involved in translations or reporting bugs). But this is just a tip of the iceberg and there are many others; see the Breezy Goals page for further details.
 If SUSE LINUX is your distribution of choice, then you absolutely must bookmark this newly updated SUSE LINUX Administration Guide (for version 9.3): "The SUSE LINUX Administration Guide provides background information about the way your SUSE LINUX system operates. This manual introduces you to Linux system administration basics, such as file systems, kernels, boot processes, and the configuration of the Apache web server. The SUSE LINUX Administration Guide has five major categories: Installation (system installation and configuration with YaST), System (special features of SUSE LINUX), Services, Administration and Appendix (important sources of information about Linux)." This has to be one of the most comprehensive SUSE guides ever published on the Internet. Highly recommended.
 Our last week's mini-review of Gentoo Linux resulted in a yet-another heated debate about the merits of an easy, graphical installer for this popular source-based distribution. Some users argued that they preferred the existing installation method providing a highly educational experience, while others claimed that using this method to install Gentoo on several systems (with different hardware) can be a pain, not to mention a waste of time. Whatever your view on the subject, the fact is that a graphical installer for Gentoo is currently being developed by the Gentoo Linux Installer Project. There is no release roadmap and no indication on when the new installer might be incorporated into Gentoo, but if you'd like to see the project's progress, have a look at these screenshots.
 Slackware Linux is finally getting NPTL (Native POSIX Thread Library) support: "Here's the (I'm sure) long awaited upgrade to Slackware's glibc to include support for NPTL. NPTL works with newer kernels (meaning 2.6.x, or a 2.4 kernel that is patched to support NPTL, but not an unmodified 'vanilla' 2.4 kernel such as Slackware uses) to provide improved performance for threads. This difference can be quite dramatic in some situations." There is no word on when Slackware will switch its default kernel to version 2.6, but given the stability of the recent kernel releases, this can be expected in the not too distant future. Find more information in the Slackware current changelog.
 Are any of you still using one of the Alpha processors? If so, you might be pleased to learn about Alpha Core, an unofficial port of Fedora Core to the Alpha architecture. The project's first official release, version 1.0 and code name "Svetlana", was made available last week in the form of four ISO images. Besides the distribution, the developers also provide a brief hardware compatibility list and user forums. For more information please visit the project's home page.
* * * * *
Web sites: Linux Distribution Chooser
Are you still looking for that perfect distribution? If you are relatively new to Linux, here is a tool that might help - the Linux Distribution Chooser. All you need to do is to answer a few questions before the web-based application evaluates your answers and provides suggestions. Besides the main recommendation, it will also suggest a few alternatives that might have failed your evaluation in one way or another, but perhaps they could still play a part in your decision-making process. The web site is still in beta, but it is nicely designed and definitely usable. Have fun!
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| Featured distribution of the week: QiLinux |
QiLinux
QiLinux is a relatively new Linux distribution. Created by Silvan Calarco and his company QiNet located in Turin, Italy, QiLinux is not based on any other distribution, but rather built completely from scratch. The author's motivation for embarking on a road to develop a new distribution was to solve some of the "technical and architectural shortcomings" of the existing Linux distributions. The project's first stable release -- version 1.0 -- was announced in March 2004; this was followed by version 1.1 in August 2004 and version 1.2 earlier this month. A live CD edition of QiLinux was released towards the end of 2004. All QiLinux releases were made available for free download from the distribution's download servers and mirrors.
We installed the recently released QiLinux 1.2 on a test machine to check it out. An intuitive and functional graphical installer guided us through the installation process, before we booted into KDE, QiLinux's preferred desktop. Besides Free Software, the distribution also includes the proprietary NVIDIA and ATI drivers, and it even provides special menu entries for installing a handful of useful proprietary applications, such as the Flash plugin, Java Runtime Environment, MS Core fonts and Win32 multimedia codecs. The package management in QiLinux is handled by the apt-get port for RPM packages and its graphical front-end Synaptic. This provides not only convenient security and bug fix updates, but also an easy way to install new packages from pre-configured FTP servers.
QiLinux is certainly a very usable operating system with a few time-savers that will make life easier for new Linux users. There aren't any real ground-breaking features, but if you enjoy trying out different distributions and testing new releases, then QiLinux is worth the download. Check it out at QiLinux.it
QiLinux - a solid RPM-based distribution, but does it offer anything new?
(full image size: 498kB)
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| Released Last Week |
FreeBSD 5.4
FreeBSD 5.4 has been released: "The Release Engineering Team is happy to announce the availability of FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE, the latest release of the FreeBSD Stable development branch. Since FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE in November 2004 we have made many improvements in functionality, stability, performance, and device driver support for some hardware, as well as dealt with known security issues and made many bugfixes. FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE supports the i386, amd64, ia64, pc98, sparc64, and alpha architectures and can be installed directly over the net, using bootable media, or copied to a local NFS/FTP server." Find more information in the release announcement and release notes.
Buffalo Linux 1.7.3
A new version of Buffalo Linux is out: "Buffalo Linux has gone LIVE! The install format for Buffalo has been changed from the traditional CD install approach to a 'Live' format (using Linux-Live scripts). To install on the hard drive simply click on the INSTALL icon and designate the partition. The current state of the Live environment is copied to hard drive. Also available on the System Admin menu is a 'BackUp' option that will create a Live-CD of your current hard drive partition. During Live-CD the kernel used is i586 (should work on all Intel, AMD, and clones). At install time, the best match of 4 kernels (i586, Pentium 3, Pentium 4, Duron/Athlon) is installed on the hard drive. All kernels are 2.6.11.8." Read the rest of the release announcement on the distribution's home page.
YES Linux 2.2.3
A new version of YES Linux has been released: "YES Linux Release Team would like to announce the immediate availability of YES Linux 2.2 Build 3. This is the third build of YES Linux 2.2. This release features more updates to features than to new features such as PHP, and Apache. The primary new feature is the addition of egs. Currently egs is a pre-release version, it is advised to not use for production use." Read the full release announcement more details about the new release.
IPCop Firewall 1.4.6
IPCop Firewall has been updated to version 1.4.6. Besides the usual security updates, the following represent the most important changes: "Upgrade to Snort 2.3.3 and use Oinkmaster 1.2 to update rules; for a static IP (not with PPP), remove default gateway before applying again in case it was changed; remove sitefinder workaround no more necessary and the address is reused; fix 'other countries' selection with eagle-usb interface; allow easydns and zoneedit to update without a HOSTNAME; fix dyndns IP behind router not updated correctly; disable HTTP OPTIONS method; fix wrong firmware selection during upload with Speedtouch; fix start Squid if enabled on blue or green...." Find more details in the release announcement.
Tao Live 4.01
Tao Live is the first Linux live CD based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Version 4.01 is an update to an earlier release: "A new version of the Tao Live CD is available. Version 4.01 features: kernel 2.6.9-5.0.5.SquashFS1; support for USB storage of userspace; GNOME is the default desktop environment (KDE still included); support for French (Canada) and Spanish (Mexico) locales; update to busybox 1.00. Tao Live uses a Squash file system to fit 2 GB of programs into a standard bootable CD. OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Gaim, XMMS, K3B and many other programs are included. A few boot options are currently available." Here is the full release announcement.
KNOPPIX 3.8.2
An updated version of the KNOPPIX live CD has been released. From the changelog: "V3.8.2-2005-05-05 (update): dist-upgrade; kernel 2.6.11 update; the madwifi drivers are back; kwifimanager in KNOPPIX/network menu; OpenOffice 1.1.4 security update; swapping on knoppix.swp on a NTFS partition should now work; replaced Fabian Franz' original knoppix-installer with the version from Jörg Schirottke/Kanotix; fixed SCSI drivers in bootimage."
SimplyMEPIS 3.3.1
SimplyMEPIS 3.3.1 has been released: "MEPIS has begun shipping the SimplyMEPIS 3.3.1 bootable CD. This is a minor update from SimplyMEPIS 3.3. Changes include an update of packages to synchronize with the Debian pool as of April 20, 2005. ALSA mixer preconfiguration is fully automated, ISA sound card support is enhanced, serial_cs and rt2500 drivers are available, the ra0 wireless port is supported in the OS Center. Acrobat Reader has been updated to 7.0 and the mimetypes configuration has been modified to use Acrobat automatically. The MEPIS OS Center now includes a one-click selection of the Synaptic touchpad driver. RealPlayer has been updated. The preconfig for the firewall has been corrected to block access to the local apache web server...." Read the full press release for more information.
cAos 2
The cAos Foundation has announced the final release of cAos 2: "Announcing the formal release of cAos-2 for ia32 and x86_64! The cAos Foundation and the cAos Linux development team are proud to announce the public release of cAos Linux version 2. cAos Linux is a community-managed and openly-maintained distribution of Linux using the LSB standard RPM Package Manager. This release identifies the stabilization and validation of the core operating system as well as stabilization of the extended OS. Members of the community are invited to try, use and love this new Linux distribution! cAos Linux 2 is scheduled to be maintained for the next 3-5 years. During that time, it will maintain a stable core OS ABI as well as receive prompt security updates." Here is the complete release announcement.
BIG LINUX 2.1
A new version of BIG LINUX has been released. Besides being the first Linux distribution with 3D desktop capabilities (in GNOME and KDE), the most important improvement in BIG LINUX 2.1 is the ability to use a web cam with AMSN. The new release includes bug fixes for certain video cards and a handful of package updates. Those who have installed BIG LINUX on their hard disks can upgrade to the latest version by downloading a less than 7MB update file. Find more information and some impressive screenshots in the release announcement (in Portuguese).
Freeduc-cd 1.5
Freeduc-cd is a specialist live CD distribution specifically developed for use in primary schools. It is built around the light-weight XFce desktop environment and includes a large collection of educational software. Freeduc-cd 1.5, developed by the Organization for Free Software in Education and Teaching (OFSET) in cooperation with several other volunteer groups, was released recently: "Freeduc-cd 1.5 is a special version for primary education. Most of the software comes with an introduction note." Visit the project's home page for more complete information about the release.
grml 0.4
The grml distribution is a Knoppix-based live CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for users of text tools and system administrators. Version 0.4 has been released with the following new features: "X.org server including new grml-x system ('grml-x'); Unionfs integration: full write support on CD; now it is possible to run, configure and install software without any workarounds; new init-system: switched from 'colors' to LSB-function style; iptstate running on tty10; vesafb-tng: advanced frame buffer technology; udev integration: just run 'mount /mnt/external1' to mount your USB stick; grml-terminalserver: boot grml via network (either via PXE or floppy disk)." See the release announcement for more details.
grml 0.4 - a KNOPPIX-based live CD featuring the light-weight WMI desktop
(full image size: 496kB)
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Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Web Site News |
New distribution additions
- NST. Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a bootable live CD based on Fedora Core. The toolkit was designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed open source network security applications and should run on most x86 platforms. The main intent of developing this toolkit was to provide the network security administrator with a comprehensive set of open source network security tools. What we find rather fascinating with NST is that we can transform most x86 systems (Pentium II and above) into a system designed for network traffic analysis, intrusion detection, network packet generation, wireless network monitoring, a virtual system service server, or a sophisticated network/host scanner.
- Symphony OS. Symphony OS 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.
* * * * *
New on the waiting list
- DCC/Live. DCC/Live (DCC is short for Debian Cluster Components project) is a Knoppix-based live CD providing a virtual DCC cluster environment, with three work nodes running UserMode Linux.
- Komodo Linux. Komodo Linux is a new desktop Linux distribution and live CD based on PCLinuxOS.
- EduLinux. EduLinux is a Chilean Linux distribution, developed by that country's Ministry of Education, with the goal of deployed it in schools around Chile. It is based on Fedora Core and K12LTSP Linux. (Note: this project does not seem to have any ties with EduLinux, a French Canadian distribution based on Mandrakelinux/Mandriva Linux.)
* * * * *
Discontinued distributions
- SENTINIX. The SENTINIX project has announced that the project is closed and that the SENTINIX distribution is no longer being developed: "As of 2005-05-12 the SENTINIX project is no more. The primary reason is that I no longer have time/funds to continue development and, so far, no one has been interested in taking over the project." Find more information on the distribution's project page.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 406
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 11
- Number of discontinued distributions: 51
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 116
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| Tips, tricks & hints (by Robert Storey) |
Genealogical software - GRAMPS
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
- Euripides, Greek playwrite
I must admit that I felt a sense of trepidation when I permanently erased Windows from my hard disk two years ago. It wasn't that I feared using Linux as my full-time OS - indeed, I relished the thought - but I was worried that I would lose some badly needed Windows application for which there was no open source equivalent. Mind you, I wasn't going to miss Clippy, but there were two classes of software that seemed to be lacking in the Linux collection - a good genealogical program, and software for drawing floor-plans. I may have more to say about drawing floor-plans in a future article, but my fear of missing genealogical software proved to be misplaced thanks to GRAMPS.
GRAMPS - the Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System - found its way into the vast Debian archive at just about the time when I needed it. My brother, along with some long-lost relatives he found on the Internet, had just decided to embark on a major project to construct our family tree. And that tree proved to be far vaster than we could have imagined, spanning four continents and involving over 3700 people (both living and dead). Any thoughts I originally entertained about just using a simple text editor or spreadsheet for the project were quickly jettisoned - we needed a dedicated genealogical program.
GRAMPS - a genealogy program for Linux and FreeBSD that allows you to easily build and keep track of your family tree
It didn't take much research to discover that the gold standard of genealogy programs is Personal Ancestral File (PAF), available from the LDS Church. However, the champ for user-friendliness was (and probably still is) Family Treemaker for Windows. Both PAF and FTW are Windows programs - not acceptable for me, but this suited my brother just fine.
Although I was not doing the research myself, I was very interested in seeing the results. Therefore, I was greatly relieved to discover that there is an industry-standard genealogy database file format called GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunications). A GEDCOM file will usually end with the extension of .ged or .GED (keep in mind that Windows is not case-sensitive, but Linux is). GRAMPS actually creates a database in XML format, but has no problem importing GEDCOM files. FTW does not use GEDCOM as its default file format, but it can export GEDCOM files, so there was absolutely no problem sharing data.
Well, let me take that back. GRAMPS did experience a minor hiccup when I first imported the GEDCOM file my brother sent to me. I received numerous error messages like these:
Warning: line 33705 was not understood, so it was ignored.
2 PHON (718) 692-3716; fax: 951-6968
Warning: line 34103 was not understood, so it was ignored.
2 PHON (021) 236-3828
GRAMPS does have a field for phone numbers, so I remain uncertain as to why the phone numbers were rejected.
Another issue when importing data - FTW has some fields which do not exist in GRAMPS. For example, for people who have an alias, FTW provides a field called Also Known As (AKA), but GRAMPS does not have this field. When I imported a FTW GEDCOM file, the Also Known As data was accepted by GRAMPS, but wound up in the wrong field (the alias was misidentified as the birth name). Also, FTW indexes Also Known As names - not surprisingly, after importing these names didn't appear in the GRAMPS index. From what I have heard from my Windows-using friends, this kind of thing is a common problem in sharing GEDCOM files between different programs, so it's not just a GRAMPS issue. The GRAMPS FAQ even states this quite clearly:
"It is important to understand that the GEDCOM standard is poorly implemented -- virtually every genealogical software has its own "flavor" of GEDCOM.."
Nevertheless, the above-mentioned problems were minor, and won't affect you at all if you're not importing data from other programs.
One little feature in the way GRAMPS has the Family page set up is actually nicer than FTW. In GRAMPS, Relationships displays all spouses (for those who have been married more than once). In FTW only one "preferred" spouse is displayed at a time. In FTW, there is an icon to check a list for other spouses.
There are other differences as well. FTW displays place of birth and death on the family page. GRAMPS produces a Pedigree tree (which is in fact an ancestor tree), but not a descendant tree. FTW makes ancestor trees, descendant trees and can make an hourglass tree. FTW also boasts a lot of options for displaying chart data. Indeed, FTW has an option to create a chart of everyone in the file, but you wouldn't want to use that for a very big file (it could just lock up from insufficient resources, and it can get very confusing in how it places the up and down relationships). GRAMPS is written in Python, which makes it easy for third parties to develop plug-in charting capabilities.
I noticed that GRAMPS seems to take notes and put those into the index of place names, not knowing that these are not place names.
FTW automatically saves the file as it is when you close it. GRAMPS has a better idea - it gives you a choice whether to save the changes.
GRAMPS is well-documented. Click on the Help menu and you'll find a very useful FAQ and user manual.
If you're a Debian user, you'll find GRAMPS in Sarge (but not Woody). There are plenty of RPM files drifting around - try rpmfind.net. Otherwise, grab a source tarball. GRAMPS is dependent on the GTK+ and GNOME libraries (though you don't need to be running GNOME).
Of course, nice as GRAMPS is, it won't do your genealogical research for you. That involves digging through birth, death and immigration records, most of which exist only on printed paper. Just as soon as somebody writes an open source program that will do this, you can rest assured that we will report the story here on DistroWatch.
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That's all for today. We hope that you enjoyed this week's DistroWatch Weekly!
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 926 (2021-07-19): rlxos 2106, running a distro with automatic updates, Haiku boots on RISC-V, Valve previews Arch-based distro for Steam Deck |
| • Issue 925 (2021-07-12): siduction 21.1.1, navigating multiple shells, UBports working toward 20.04 base, Nitrux shows off new installer look |
| • Issue 924 (2021-07-05): Bedrock Linux 0.7.20, porting OpenBSD features to Linux, AlmaLinux supports ARM, Ubuntu runs on RISC-V |
| • Issue 923 (2021-06-28): Ubuntu MATE 21.04, why there are so many command line shells, Canonical to support Bledner, NixOS creates reproducible builds |
| • Issue 922 (2021-06-21): TrueNAS Core 12.0, seeking protection inside WINE, Debian publishes new media and prepares for freeze, Qubes setting up new forum |
| • Issue 921 (2021-06-14): Bodhi Linux 6.0.0, merging multiple storage devices, Slackware updating to a newer kernel, FreeBSD from a NetBSD developer's perspective |
| • Issue 920 (2021-06-07): openSUSE 15.3, writing ISO files directly to thumb drives, Nemo gets new search functions, Rocky Linux seeks volunteers |
| • Issue 919 (2021-05-31): EndeavourOS 2021.04.17, Does physical access grant root access?, PureOS updates interface, Kali unveils new container for tricky packages, Valve working on a new gaming device |
| • Issue 918 (2021-05-24): TeLOS and snakeware 0.0.6, setting up a home chat server, Fedora introduces SDL compatibility layer, OpenBSD's compiler migration |
| • Issue 917 (2021-05-17): Fedora 34, setting up a distro mirror, Vine Linux becomes a rolling release, NetBSD getting polished console audio mixer, Haiku works on RISC-V port |
| • Issue 916 (2021-05-10): JingOS 0.8, Tribblix, installing third-party software, Fedora offers i3 spin, pfSense creates WireGuard package |
| • Issue 915 (2021-05-03): Ubuntu 21.04, the new Arch Linux installer, Alpine considers new service manager, Mint changes Hypnotix provider, Linus torvalds reflects on 30 years of Linux |
| • Issue 914 (2021-04-26): Manjaro 21.0, tracking login times, DragonFly BSD being polished, OPNsense switching to FreeBSD, researches caught trying to compromise Linux |
| • Issue 913 (2021-04-19): heloSystem 0.5.0 and Peux OS 21.01, protecting data files from the user, System76 debuts COSMIC, Debian elects Jonathan Carter for Project Leader |
| • Issue 912 (2021-04-12): Venom Linux 20210312, changing filesystems, dealing with kernel panics, Oracle loses suit against Google over APIs, Debian starts Project Leader election |
| • Issue 911 (2021-04-05): Mageia 8, limiting shell commands for remote users, JingOS releases x86 build, Linux Mint tests new update notification tool |
| • Issue 910 (2021-03-29): Void 20210218, where are all the Fedora-based distributions, GNOME 40 released, Plan 9 released under MIT license, Red Hat cuts funding to FSF |
| • Issue 909 (2021-03-22): Shells remote desktop, strange and fun things to do with Linux, new features planned for Fedora 34, FreeBSD re-implements WireGuard |
| • Issue 908 (2021-03-15): Solus 4.2, Rust coreutils running on Debian, Void warns of kernel slowdown, legacy technology and packet filters |
| • Issue 907 (2021-03-08): Artix Linux 2021, openSUSE merges with SUSE, security distributions, CentOS 7, combining terminal commands |
| • Issue 906 (2021-03-01): LibreELEC 9.2 and Kodi, auditing large open source projects, Red Hat to provide open source projects with free licenses, Void switches back to OpenSSL from LibreSSL |
| • Issue 905 (2021-02-22): Septor 2021, running older kernels on Ubuntu LTS, PinePhone to ship with Manjaro by default, Slackware prepares new release, Mint urges security updates be applied |
| • Issue 904 (2021-02-15): Laxer OS 1.2 and new Linux Mint desktop features, Implementing KDE Connect functionality for PCs, openSUSE announces Step |
| • Issue 903 (2021-02-08): Split Linux, keeping files in RAM, Ubuntu getting new installer, Raspberry Pi OS quietly adds new repository, IPFire phasing out 32-bit builds |
| • Issue 902 (2021-02-01): Kwort 4.3.5, SulinOS, Qt licensing concerns, vulnerability found in sudo, Ubuntu tries Wayland as default display server, FreeBSD demotes i386 |
| • Issue 901 (2021-01-25): Mabox Linux 20.10, deep diving into systemd, Fedora to use GNOMR 40, Ubuntu booting on ARM-powered Apple hardware, Red Hat offers free production subscriptions |
| • Issue 900 (2021-01-18): CRUX 3.6.1, NuTyX 20.12.0, alternatives to running commands as root, Fedora doubles down on zRAM, Debian discuses bundling dependencies |
| • Issue 899 (2021-01-11): PakOS 2020-08-24, testing hardware compatibility quickly, Gentoo debates LibreSSL usefulness, Arch improving reproducible build tools |
| • Issue 898 (2021-01-04): MocaccinoOS, long term support distributions, Fedora using Btrfs to speed up updates, HAMMER2 gets multi-volume support, FreeNAS transitions to TrueNAS Core |
| • Issue 897 (2020-12-21): Archman 2020-11-12, finding alternatives to CentOS Linux, SUSE and CloudLinux seek to fill CentOS void, Tails discusses fundraising and release cycle changes |
| • Issue 896 (2020-12-14): TTOS 1.1.2, restoring the fstab file, CentOS Linux being phased out, openSUSE on the PinePhone, Tails changes ISO verification |
| • Issue 895 (2020-12-07): Pop!_OS 20.10, FuguIta 6.8, running digital assistants on the Raspberry Pi, SUSE buys RancherOS, FreeBSD introduces WireGuard, elementary OS to get multi-touch support |
| • Issue 894 (2020-11-30): Trisquel 9.0, consistent stability in Linux kernel, how NetBSD boots, HardenedBSD gets new contributors, UBports installer supports more operating systems |
| • Issue 893 (2020-11-23): ArchBang 0111, how Secure Boot works, Plasma Mobile coming to PinePhone, Sabayon base changes to Funtoo |
| • Issue 892 (2020-11-16): Enso OS 0.4, finding distro for common tasks, Debian entering freeze, UBports looks to improve Anbox |
| • Issue 891 (2020-11-09): Fedora 33, treating windows like tabs, Arch introduces accessibility options, FreeBSD can run Linux build of Chrome |
| • Issue 890 (2020-11-02): Ubuntu 20.10, considering Microsoft making Linux distro, ReactOS hires kernel developer, Mint builds its own Chromium package |
| • Issue 889 (2020-10-26): Peppermint OS 10, handling disks that act full, openSUSE's MicroOS, Arch warns of broken NVIDIA driver on recent kernels |
| • Issue 888 (2020-10-19): Tails 4.11, detecting and removing rootkits, UBports improves installer, IPFire explains location lookups |
| • Issue 887 (2020-10-12): Nitrux 2020.09.05, compressing memory with zRAM, new features coming to elementary OS, Haiku improving filesystem support, tool for managing FreeBSD jails |
| • Issue 886 (2020-10-05): deepin 20, choosing an init, Mint to package Chromium, NetBSD porting Wayland, SolydXK's changing leadership |
| • Issue 885 (2020-09-28): Linuxfx 10.6, Ubuntu shipping on Lenovo PCs, legal concerns over trademarks, Haiku runs contest for new desktop sounds |
| • Issue 884 (2020-09-21): Garuda Linux 200817, setting up Samba in virtual machine, Gentoo rolls out new kernel packages, Trident provides easier access to removable media |
| • Issue 883 (2020-09-14): GhostBSD 20.08.04, Finnix 121, An overview of Docker,Gentoo updates Portage, Fedora defaults to Wayland for kDE sessions |
| • Issue 882 (2020-09-07): NixOS 20.03, Manjaro running on PinePhone, Fedora bundled with Lenovo laptops, Mint publishes Warpinator as Flatpak |
| • Issue 881 (2020-08-31): BunsenLabs Linux Litium, more information on dynamic vs static linking, Fedora switching to Btrfs for default filesystem, FreeBSD imports OpenZFS code |
| • Issue 880 (2020-08-24): GeckoLinux 152, MX Linux 19.2 "KDE", how community projects survive, verifying contents of Snap package |
| • Issue 879 (2020-08-17): Zenwalk 15.0-200703a, Intel's Management Engine of MINIX, KDE neon upgrades its base, elementary OS plans for version 6 |
| • Issue 878 (2020-08-10): Zentyal Server 6.2, UBports updates list of supported devices, IPFire offers DNS security tips, dynamic versus static linking |
| • Issue 877 (2020-08-03): Haiku R1 beta 2, DragonFly BSD gets new ext2 driver, Red Hat struggles with GRUB security issue |
| • Issue 876 (2020-07-27): Artix Linux 20200125, comparing updates between rolling and fixed releases, testing kernel power consumption |
| • Issue 875 (2020-07-20): Linux Lite 5.0, ReactOS hires developer, UBports fixes wi-fi issue on PinePhone, Debian updates install media |
| • Issue 874 (2020-07-13): openSUSE 15.2, Ubuntu introduces Flutter packages, CentOS offers real-time packages, Mint provides upgrade path |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the StarLite and the StarBook. 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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