 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 123, 24 October 2005 |
Welcome to this year's 43rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly. Several interesting new distribution releases appeared during the past week. LG3D LiveCD deserves a more detailed look due to its unusual desktop and amazing 3D visual effects, while the newly renamed RR4 Linux live DVD is probably the easiest way yet to install Gentoo Linux on a hard disk. Also in this issue: a brief history of Red Hat prompted by the resignation of the company's co-founder Bob Young, a comment about the unusual Internet security guidelines published by a local government in the state of New York, and a few signs that our readers do love and appreciate DistroWatch. Happy reading!
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (9.19MB) or mp3 (7.71MB) format (courtesy of Shawn Milo).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
Content:
Red Hat's founder resigns from Board of Directors
"Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source to the enterprise, announced today that Bob Young, co-founder and former executive of Red Hat, has decided to resign from the Red Hat Board of Directors. Young, who founded the company in 1993, served as an executive at Red Hat until 1999. Since then he has been a member of Red Hat's Board of Directors. Young plans to focus on the growth of Lulu.com, an online independent publishing marketplace started in 2002."
The above was announced by Red Hat early last week.
Those who are new to Linux might be interested in a little bit of history. The origins of Red Hat date back to 1994 when Marc Ewing created a Linux distribution which he called Red Hat Linux. This was to be a revolutionary product, a distribution that meant to take on the then-dominant Slackware by introducing a proper package management system, known as RPM. Although hardly a panacea for the increasingly complex operating system integrating the kernel and hundreds of applications interdependent on hundreds of shared libraries, the new package format found much support among Linux developers. Thus, a more powerful way of managing software on a modern Linux distribution was born.
In 1995, Marc Ewing's company was bought by Bob Young's ACC Corporation (founded in 1993), a New York-based catalogue business selling Linux/UNIX software and accessories. Based on the above facts, it is generally accepted that Marc Ewing and Bob Young are the two original co-founders of Red Hat Software, a company that has since become the most recognisable brand name in the world of Linux distributions and the most successful business ever built on open source software.
The long history of Red Hat Linux releases started one fine Mother's Day (8 May) in 1995 with the release of version 1.0, code name "Mother's Day". Three more versions followed in quick succession and it wasn't until several years later that the company settled into a more predictable, semi-annual release cycle which continued largely unchanged until about March 2003. Red Hat Linux was a completely free product that quickly gained many supporters and users. By the turn of the century it was a market leader and the most popular Linux distribution not only in the USA, but also in many other countries around the world.
Despite its rapidly growing popularity, it took Red Hat several more years before the company succeeded in turning their enormous user base into a sustainable business model - by selling support, services and custom solutions based around a product called Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This happened in 2003 when the original free Red Hat Linux was discontinued and replaced with a (more or less) community-built and community-supported free distribution named Fedora Core. Four releases later, Fedora continues to fuel the development of Red Hat's enterprise products, with many innovative ideas that are often tested in Fedora before they are included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
So what exactly is Red Hat today? A multi-million dollar corporation with over 700 employees in over 20 offices world-wide and an annual revenue of some US$200 million. Despite some unpopular decisions, Red Hat remains a true open source business, with several well-known Linux developers on its payroll and dozens of vital utilities and applications all released under the GPL. It is hard to deny that Red Hat has made a huge contribution towards the success of Linux and open source software we are witnessing today. A truly amazing success story made possible by a young visionary and entrepreneur - Bob Young.
We hope Bob will enjoy as much success with Lulu.com as he did while building Red Hat, Inc!
* * * * *
 The Tompkins County (New York) Expert Guide to Internet Security
This is something that has left us so bewildered, we were not sure whether to laugh or to cry.
The picture on the right is a screenshot taken from the Information Technology Services page of the Tompkins County Government, state of New York, USA (we reproduce it here just in case this "gem" is removed in the future, but you can visit the said page here).
We don't believe there is any need to comment on the quality of this "expert" advice given by the county's authorities.
However, we do sympathise with all residents of Tompkins County. If your local government demonstrates the same level of competence in other areas of governance as it does in the information technology field, then... well, let's just say that we sincerely hope no natural or other disaster ever befalls on your part of the world!
Update: It seems that the Tompkins County IT services page has undergone some modifications since our story was published (have you guys been emailing them???). While Internet Explorer is still the only "supported" browser, the page no longer advises users to remove Firefox from their computers in order to "prevent virus infections".
|
| Featured Distribution of the Week: LG3D LiveCD |
LG3D LiveCD 2.3
A 3D desktop on a 2D computer screen? Besides Big Linux, which was one of the first Linux distributions to offer this visually attractive method of manipulating application windows, the LG3D LiveCD is another contender offering some amazing eye candy on a dazzling desktop. Innovative, attractive and desperately buggy, the Java-based LG3D project uses Sun Microsystems' Looking Glass desktop to provide a highly entertaining working environment that showcases some of the new ideas and technologies that could potentially change the way we work on our computer desktops.
Your first reaction after booting into LG3D is likely to be that of awe. The panoramic background, 3D visualisation effects of the taskbar and windows, specialist 3D applications such as the background selector on the screenshot below - all these are likely to lead to several hours of exciting desktop entertainment. Granted, it takes some time to get used to the new way of interfacing with your workspace and applications, but once you find your rhythm, you can be almost as productive in Looking Glass as in KDE or GNOME.
Unfortunately, you will soon realise that all that eye candy and visual effects come at a price - in the form of heavy processor usage. Unless you have a modern 3D-enabled graphics card and a huge amount of memory, don't expect to work efficiently in Looking Glass; in our tests, even with the entire live CD loaded into memory of a powerful AMD64 3500+ system with 2 GB of RAM, the desktop was still sluggish, seemingly always on the verge of freezing. And indeed, it did freeze a few times, requiring a hard reboot. Despite that, using LG3D was a lot fun and we certainly enjoyed it while it lasted.
But what next? Looking through some of the public forums discussing LG3D, the most common trait of thought was along the lines, saying: "Yes, it's pretty and interesting, but what's it for? How can LG3D help me to complete my computing tasks or make me more efficient?"
Well, it can't, or not yet, anyway. At this stage of the development it is more like a proof of concept, a hobby project of a few developers at Sun Microsystems showing off the capabilities of Java. But if you let your imagination run wild, you might come up with some crazy ideas where the 3D desktop can be used efficiently - perhaps in education or in better visualisation of computer-controlled production systems. Throughout the history people have often come up with what looked like a silly idea at first, but some of these have turned out to be major inventions. Only time will tell whether the LG3D project will amount to anything more than just a live CD that you boot into once or twice, then throw into a drawer, never to be used again.
For more information about Looking Glass and the LG3D live CD, please visit the project's development pages at lg3d.dev.java.net.
LG3D LiveCD 2.3 - a SLAX-based live CD featuring the Looking Glass desktop 3D virtualisation technology
(full image size: 1,054kB; more screenshots at Tuxmachines.org)
|
| Released Last Week |
MCNLive "Jordaan"
MCNLive is a light-weight desktop-oriented live CD featuring the XFce desktop. The new MCNLive "Jordaan" is based on the very latest Mandriva Linux 2006. From the changelog: "security updates; updated to X.Org 6.9cvs20051011; updated AbiWord to 2.4 stable, added AbiWord import / export filters; urpmi sources: Mandriva 2006.0 official tree, PLF free / non-free 2006; ipw2200 firmware updated; added grip; final look & feel. Enjoy this XFce edition of MCNLive!" Find more information on the distribution's home page.
Pingo Linux 4.1
Pingo Linux is a Slovenian distribution based on Fedora Core, but enhanced with multimedia applications and codecs, and fully translated into Slovenian. Pingo Linux 4.1 was released a couple of days ago; this is mostly a bug fix release with several package upgrades (including Firefox 1.0.7, Mozilla 1.7.12 and OpenSSH 4.2p1), translation updates, and other minor enhancements. See the release announcement on the distribution's news page (in Slovenian) for additional details.
ROCK Linux Live CD rev6454
The developers of the source-based ROCK Linux distribution have released a new live CD - a desktop edition with KDE 3.4.3, built from the current development branch of ROCK Linux: "The ROCK Linux Live CD is a full-featured, desktop-oriented target designed to operate directly from CD. The current default package selection uses the 'minimal desktop' template, which incorporates a full KDE desktop and some other applications, like MPlayer, xine, etc. Of course this package selection can be altered to fit your needs. In the background, SquashFS is used, and generic write support is provided by the LD_PRELOAD libc wrapper 'shadowfs'." More details are available on the project's live CD page.
Coyote Linux Personal Firewall 3.00.19
Coyote Linux, a well-known floppy-based firewall distribution, has entered the world of hard disk firewalls with the first public release of Coyote Linux Personal Firewall: "Coyote Linux Personal Firewall 3.00 build 17 is available for download. This release is the first release of the new Coyote Linux 3.00 firewall product. This product has been split from the Wolverine Firewall and VPN code base but is licensed for Personal and Educational use ONLY. CLPF does not include support for VPN (PPTP/IPSEC) or 802.1q VLans. If you need support for these options, you can purchase a personal use license for Wolverine." See the release announcement for more information.
Troppix 1.0
Troppix is a stand-alone Linux live CD based on Debian GNU/Linux, aimed at security professionals, penetration testers and auditors. In particular, Troppix features support for a wide range of wireless cards, and offers several tools for detecting and penetrating wireless networks. Troppix also includes several well known security tools, such as the nmap port scanner and the metasploit framework for vulnerability exploitation. The first stable release of Troppix, version 1.0, features kernel 2.6.13.4, together with a comprehensive collection of wireless, security, desktop, Internet, multimedia and office applications. Read the release announcement and visit the project's home page to learn more.
Ubuntu Linux 5.10 Server
The Ubuntu project has announced the release of a specialist server edition of Ubuntu Linux 5.10: "The Ubuntu team is proud to announce Ubuntu 5.10 Server, the first release of Ubuntu designed especially for server environments. Like the standard desktop Ubuntu, it occupies a single CD. However, it is distinguished by the following features: includes server-oriented kernels with out-of-the-box automatic support for multiprocessor systems; includes a wide variety of popular server applications; a slim default installation, occupying just 400 megabytes." The full release announcement.
LG3D LiveCD 2.3
LG3D LiveCD is an interesting project incorporating Sun Microsystems' Project Looking Glass - a Java-based technology that attempts to bring a richer user experience to the desktop and applications via 3D windowing and visualisation capabilities. The newly released version 2.3 is considered to be the project's first stable release. Based on SLAX "Popcorn", but enhanced with Firefox, Gaim, working NVIDIA graphics driver, and copy2ram support, the live CD boots directly into a great-looking 3D desktop with many interesting capabilities (see this document for hints to navigate the 3D workspace). The release announcement and other information can be found on the project's home page.
Rocks Cluster Distribution 4.1
Rocks Cluster Distribution 4.1 has been released: "Rocks v4.1 is released for i386, x86_64 and ia64 CPU architectures. New Features: the Avalanche Installer uses a BitTorrent tracker to support highly-scalable concurrent compute node installation; creation of the 'Rocks Foundation Class'; new blog-based front-end homepage. Enhancements: OS Roll based on CentOS release 4/update 2 and all updates as of October 18 2005; Updated SGE roll to SGE 6 update 6; 'rocks-mirror' modified to build Roll CD sets for any RPM repository; updated MyPhpAdmin to address security issues...." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
PC-BSD 0.8.3
An updated version of PC-BSD has been released: "PC-BSD 0.8.3 was released today. This version offers some new visuals, new languages, as well as important bugfixes with systems that have had trouble booting after the install." From the changelog: "Added auto-run daemon for CDs; PC-BSD installer is now 1 CD, with optional 2nd CD for language packs; fixed major FDISK issue; added option to run GUI installation in 1024x768 mode; improved visuals with new default cursor / wallpaper scheme; fixed bug with 'cancel' not working when prompting for format during install; added a beta version of the PC-BSD command-line registry program; updated user-manager; added several new languages including Japanese, Ukrainian, and Chinese Traditional." The release announcement, release notes, changelog.
grml 0.5
The grml live CD is a Debian-based distribution designed especially for users of text tools and system administrators, with a good collection of rescue and system analysis utilities. Version 0.5 was released on Sunday. The release notes provide a comprehensive listing of all changes; these include kernel 2.6.13.4, updated configuration files, new grml scripts and boot parameters, as well as several new features: "full automatic installation to hard disk; framework 'grml autoconfig': configure hardware detection; 'configuration framework': new boot parameters and scripts; integration of 'hotplug-light'; got rid of all Knoppix packages: this means you get a clean Debian unstable system with some additional packages available through the grml repository."
RR4 Linux 2.60.3
RR4 Linux (formerly known as Gentoo RR4) is a Gentoo-based live DVD with a large collection of applications, complemented by a graphical hard disk installation program from the Gentoo Installer project. An updated version 2.60.3 was released over the weekend: "Here we are, with this release, Gentoo RR4 becomes RR4 Linux or RR4 LiveDVD, but it's always the same - bleeding edge, most powerful Gentoo-based system on the globe. In this new release, I've made radical changes to the DVD boot loader, switching from the ever-problematic GRUB to the always-working ISOLINUX." Other updates include KDE 3.4.3, GNOME 2.12.1, OpenOffice.org 2.0rc2, localisations for KDE and OpenOffice.org, and a new Portage snapshot. Find more information in the release announcement and release notes (in PDF format).
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
NetBSD 3.0
The NetBSD project has revised its estimated released dates of the development and final versions of NetBSD 3.0: "On behalf of NetBSD's release engineering team I would like to provide you with an update on our current estimated timelines for the NetBSD 3.0 release. The release had to be postponed because of necessary security fixes and the following problem reports which are potential showstoppers...." Read the full announcement here. The first release candidate of NetBSD 3.0 is now expected on 12 November, with two more release candidate following in weekly intervals. The estimated date of the final release has not been announced.
Turbolinux 11
Turbolinux, the oldest and one of the most successful Asian Linux company, has announced the upcoming release of Turbolinux 11: "Turbolinux, Inc. today announced the highly-anticipated release of Turbolinux FUJI Version 11. FUJI is the successor to Turbolinux 10 Desktop (10D), a core Turbolinux desktop product released in October 2003. Designed primarily for the Japanese Linux market, the new FUJI system augments the Windows compatibility features first introduced in 10D, and offers a desktop computing environment with optimized applications, as well as outstanding safety and stability." The Japanese edition of the product is scheduled to start shipping in late November, while an international edition is expected in Q1 2006. See the full press release for further information. Here is a screenshot of the new product.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Web Site News |
New distribution additions
* * * * *
New on the waiting list
- Kirux Kuadra Enterprise Server. Kirux Kuadra Enterprise Server is a powerful and dynamic, all-in-one server platform for small to medium size businesses. The system features an easy-to-use web based Server Administration Panel and requires little or no IT expertise to administer the server.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
|
| DistroWatch in the News |
Linux Journal readers, PC Magazine editors hail DistroWatch
 It is always a pleasure to learn that the work we put into DistroWatch is appreciated by our readers.
The November 2005 issue of Linux Journal published the results of the magazine's annual Reader's Choice Award. We are very pleased to report that in the category "Favourite Linux Web Site" DistroWatch.com was ranked second - right behind Slashdot.com and ahead of LinuxJournal.com and LWN.net. This is a particularly exciting result, especially because we never encouraged our readers to vote in the poll; in fact, we have never even mentioned the poll's existence on these pages. Many thanks to all who voted for us!
* * * * *
 Knowing that the readers of a specialist Linux publication appreciate this site gave us a warm, fuzzy feeling, but imagine our surprise when we learnt that even a more general computing magazine has kind words to say about DistroWatch:
"If you love Linux, you'll love this site. You'll find a wealth of information about Linux distributions, features, reviews, and packages. Don't miss the DistroWatch Weekly, an update of what happened that week in the Linux world."
The above comes from none other than the venerable PC Magazine, or more precisely from its Fall 2005 Top 101 Web Sites feature. Did the endorsement succeed in getting a few more computer users to try Linux? We certainly hope so....
* * * * *
And while on the subject of self-praise, a quote from an email sent to us recently by a reader from Germany:
"I've come a long way from starting a career as a (useless) Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Looking back, I can't understand how I could endure such slavery for so long. The existence of Open Source software and DistroWatch.com have helped me tremendously in making the right decisions and break free.
My life has changed completely - I *did* rediscover fun in work, and I've won a new future for myself and my family, new friends, new ways of thinking, new solutions, an open culture, the whole paradigm. I'd like to say much more, but I don't want to waste your time. Let me just say a big 'Thank you', Mr. Bodnar, and please keep up this excellent work. It is so essential for so many people in this critical phase of computing history."
Thank you, Konstantin, we couldn't have said it better ourselves!
And with this we'll say good-bye until next Monday. We hope you've enjoyed this issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Ladislav Bodnar
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
RIPLinuX
Recovery Is Possible (RIP) was a Slackware-based CD or floppy boot/rescue/backup/maintenance system. It has support for a lot of filesystem types (Reiserfs, Reiser4, ext2/3, iso9660, UDF, XFS, JFS, UFS, HPFS, HFS, MINIX, MS DOS, NTFS, and VFAT) and contains a bunch of utilities for system recovery. It also has IDE/SCSI/SATA, PCMCIA, RAID, LVM2, and Ethernet/DSL/cable/PPP/PPPOE network support.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
