 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 137, 6 February 2006 |
Welcome to this year's sixth issue of DistroWatch Weekly! With all eyes on the final stages of development of Fedora Core 5 and SUSE Linux 10.1, other distributions are not resting either; we bring you interesting information about the upcoming releases of Novell Linux Desktop 10 and Kubuntu 6.04. Interested in network security and penetration testing? The brand new BackTrack live CD provides an amazing collection of tools just for this purpose; we'll take a quick look at the first beta released over the weekend. Also in this issue: try the new smart-urpmi for Mandriva and read how a vice president of a large financial firm fell in love with Gentoo. Finally, our January donation, the largest DistroWatch.com has ever made, goes to Gambas and Krusader. Happy reading!
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (5.93MB) or mp3 (7.15MB) format (courtesy of Shawn Milo).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
Content:
Miscellaneous news: NLD 10 preview, Kubuntu distro sprint, smart-urpmi, Gentoo at E-Trade, FC5 slips
 Novell has launched a media campaign ahead of the upcoming release of its desktop Linux product - Novell Linux Desktop (NLD) 10. Although the release date has not been announced, the company presented a demonstration video of the new product at a Linux conference in Paris last week. Some of the participants have recorded the presentation and released their videos on the Internet - you can find them on Linux Edge. From the videos it looks like the developers of the new NLD have been focusing on the consumer desktop as the product features much eye candy, 3D window manipulation and other effects, which will almost certainly require a powerful processor and heaps of RAM. Nevertheless, the videos provide an interesting preview of what we can expect from Novell (and SUSE) on the desktop Linux front in 2006 and beyond.
 Besides Novell, the developers of Kubuntu have also published a handful of preview screenshots from the upcoming Kubuntu 6.04. Most interesting among them is a new graphical installer that will make it possible to transfer the Kubuntu live CD to one's hard disk. Also included are screenshots of Konqueror showing the /media folder, NetworkManager, and a simplified application installer. These were presented during last week's Ubuntu distro sprint, a developer meeting in a London hotel. See Jonathan Riddell's blog for details and screenshots.
 With no public release expected until the second half of this year, Mandriva hasn't been featured much in the news lately, but that doesn't mean that the popular distribution's user community is inactive. In fact, the German Mandriva user group has just released a useful improvement to the urpmi package management tool. Called smart-urpmi, the main purpose of this web-based application, released under the GPL, is to end headaches associated with updating Mandriva software packages from outdated mirrors. Just visit the smart-urpmi web site and select your version of Mandriva to get a neat list of available mirrors (inclusive of "contrib", Java and PLF mirrors), with the most recently updated mirror on top. The script then generates a list of urpmi.addmedia commands which you can execute in the terminal and which will update your /etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg file. For more information please see this introductory announcement.
 Is Gentoo Linux only for people who have too much time on their hands? Not so. In an interesting article describing a move to Linux at E-Trade, one of the world's largest online securities trading firms, the company's Vice President Lee Thompson reveals his distribution preference: "I did a deep dive on open source at this particular time. I started running lots of different distros. I ended up running Gentoo. Personally, I run the Gentoo distro." That was a few years ago when the "geeky" vice president experimented with Gentoo on the company's servers, but due to several "issues", they are now powered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux: "So, here I am, the guy who's trying to push change. I work on a Gentoo box, while our production system is Red Hat AS 3.4, which is very stable. And so that's kind of a good way of balancing aggressive change and stability, in our mind." It's a long and fascinating story showing how Linux can be deployed in a high-security, high-volume server environment to reduce costs.
 According to this post by Jeremy Katz, the third test release of Fedora Core 5 is set to be delayed by a week: "Although I hate to do it, it looks like we're going to have to slip Fedora Core 5 test3 by a week. There is an ABI change in the gcc/glibc stack that requires a rebuild of the entire distribution. Given that, there is no way that we'll be able to make a freeze date of Monday. So, test3 will now freeze on Monday, 13 February with a release date of Monday, 20 February. We'll adjust the final schedule sometime next week based on the progress of the rebuilding efforts." There is no word about how this delay will affect the release date of Fedora Core 5 final which is set to March 15th.
* * * * *
Commentary: Don't believe the "goomours"
Have you noticed the astonishingly high number of Google rumours (or should we say "goomours") that have been dominating the headlines of various media on the Internet? First it was a Google browser, then a Google office suite, now a Google operating system, all interspersed with further "news" about Google buying Opera, Google acquiring Napster, Google purchasing AOL... The never ending "goomour" mill has now gone as far as saying that Google is planning to launch its own Internet, version 3.0(!) separate from the one we know! What's next? Google buying Microsoft? Or the moon?
So who is fuelling these rumours? There has to be a sophisticated individual, or maybe a small group that has a keen interest in seeing Google in the headlines with most unlikely claims, circulating widely in the media. Perhaps a group with a stake in Google? Somebody who can benefit financially from the increased publicity and a share price that has already grown way out of proportion? Because if not, how else do you explain the reasons behind all these Google claims that are turning more and more outrageous by the week?
Of course, the many tech sites, gullible and always looking for sensationalist headlines to draw traffic, are partly to blame. A "goomour" normally starts on one big web site, but it doesn't take long before it propagates to hundreds of small and regional sites where the original rumour is often presented as a fact. Sure, the professionalism of many of these publications is questionable, but that's easy to understand, since the Internet made it possible for many of us to become "journalists" without any professional training. Still, it is amazing to see how easily they manipulate the public; last week, a reader sent us an email asking, in an angry tone, why DistroWatch hadn't published the news about Goobuntu? After all, isn't DistroWatch here to inform readers about such important developments on the Linux distribution market?
Yes, it is. And we can assure you that as soon as Goobuntu is released and publicly available, we'll be one of the first sites you'll hear it from. But until then, don't hold your breath. Goobuntu, if it exists at all, is probably just a figment of imagination of a few unscrupulous individuals with vested interests in the big Internet company, just as all the other daring "goomours" you are going to hear for the rest of this year. Don't believe any of it.
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| First Look: BackTrack 3.0 |
First Look: BackTrack 3.0
Among the distributions specialising in security and penetration testing, the SLAX-based WHAX (previously Whoppix) has always been one of the most in-demand live CDs. In recent months, however, its developers combined their knowledge and resources with those of Auditor Security Linux to produce a new live CD, called BackTrack. After a brief period of testing, the first beta of the new distribution was released last week. So what is BackTrack like?
Like SLAX, the BackTrack live CD boots into a command line prompt with instructions to log in as root. Although most security tools are accessible from the terminal, the real power of BackTrack comes in after starting the graphical interface. This is done by typing "startx", a command that will launch the KDE desktop (you might want to update the /etx/X11/xorg.conf file to replace the default "vesa" driver with the proper driver for your video card, and change the screen resolution, if necessary). Networking is not enabled by default, but if your network card has been detected correctly and you use DHCP, you can activate it by typing "dhcpcd" in a terminal window. Wireless networking is also supported.
Once on the desktop, you will immediately notice the "BackTrack" submenu on the KDE panel. This is the most exciting part of this distribution, a place were all the specialist utilities can be accessed from. It is pointless to list them all here, but let me assure you that the collection is truly astonishing and includes tools for sniffing remote router traffic, cracking Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), "bluesnarfing" (a method of hacking into Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones), scanning networks for vulnerabilities, uncovering weaknesses in the Point-to-Point Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP), decrypting SSL traffic and recovering passwords. The usual forensic analysis tools, such as Autopsy and Sleuthkit are further complimented by more exotic utilities, such as "fuzzers" (scripts that attempt to find buffer overflows and other program vulnerabilities) or "stripe-snoopers" (to capture data from magnetic stripe cards). A comprehensive database of known exploits in software (both open source and proprietary) is also included.
If you are not familiar with the available utilities, there is no need to panic. The project's web site provides a selection of tutorials, some in Flash videos, together with links to relevant documentation on each tool's home page. Many "readme" files can be found on the CD and accessed from the BackTrack submenu.
As you can see from this brief description, BackTrack is not just an innocent tool designed to uncover vulnerabilities in networks and software, it can just as easily be used by crackers and other unsavoury individuals intending to commit fraud or launch attacks on the Internet. In fact, Remote-Exploit.org, the web site behind Auditor and BackTrack, has recently been suspended from the Google AdSense programme, after the search engine giant determined that the product offered on its web site was a cracking tool! At DistroWatch.com, we periodically receive emails requesting to remove these kinds of distributions from our list.
However, while we certainly don't condone the use of BackTrack for malice, we don't believe that hiding information is a valid solution to the problem either. It is important to realise that these tools are freely available elsewhere - all that BackTrack does is that it combines them into one compact live CD. Besides, although BackTrack may indeed be used by crackers with malicious intentions, it can also aid security professionals to research current cracking tools and provide better security products for the rest of us.
For more information about BackTrack and the included utilities please visit Remote-Exploit.org.
BackTrack - a SLAX-based live CD with a comprehensive collection of security and penetration testing tools.
(full image size: 397kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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| Released Last Week |
SystemRescueCD 0.2.16
Nearly 18 months since the previous release, a new version of SystemRescueCD is now available for download. What's new? "Updated the kernel to Linux-2.6.15.1; updated the system (udev 080, hotplug, coldplug); updated LVM tools (evms, device-mapper); added Reiser4 support (support in the kernel and reiser4progs); updated NTFS support (improved support in the kernel, and ntfsprogs); updated Parted to 1.6.23; updated bootloader support; updated file systems tools; updated bootdisks (memtest+ and 'Offline NT Password and registry editor'); updated ClamAV virus definitions." See the changelog for further details.
Mini-Pentoo 2006.0
Pentoo is a Gentoo-based live CD with a collection of tools designed for penetration testing. A new "mini" edition, fitting on a 256 MB USB storage device and featuring the Enlightenment 17 window manager, has been released: "I'm pleased to announce the immediate availability of Mini-Pentoo 2006.0 final version. This version is only 186 MB fat and fits on mini CD or a 256 MB USB pen drive. It features the bare minimum tools for penetration testing and supports module addition ala SLAX, allowing you to add some more stuff as you see fit. You can also save your /etc, /root, ExploitTree and Nessus on a USB pen drive." Find more information in the release announcement and download page.
Mini-Pentoo - a Gentoo-based live CD with the latest Enlightenment 17
(full image size: 644kB, resolution: 1154x864 pixels)
BLAG Linux and GNU 30002
The Fedora-based BLAG Linux and GNU distribution has been updated to version 30002: "BLAG 30002 (Johannesburg) has been released. BLAG is a single CD distro with everything desktop users 'expect' from a desktop, plus a collection of nice server applications. BLAG 30002 is based on Fedora Core 3 plus updates, adds applications from Dag, Freshrpms, NewRPMS, and includes custom packages. BLAG 30002 is the latest update to the BLAG 30k series, using the last updates from Fedora before moving to the Fedora Legacy project. New CD packages include kiax (VoIP softphone), netcat and xvid4conf." Read the full release announcement for further information.
Underground Desktop 022
A new version of Underground Desktop is out: "I'm seeding a torrent of Underground Desktop 022. The new ISO contains updates to most software, including the just released KDE 3.5.1, and X.Org 7.0. Apart from this, the file system is now ReiserFS v3 instead of Reiser4 - which seems not stable and fast enough - and the bootloader is GRUB instead of LILO. Also included in the ISO are wireless drivers for Ndiswrapper supported and prism2-based cards. This release is still experimental and not much tested, so don't expect everything to work out of the box - use at your own risk." Here is the full release announcement.
Bluewall GNU/Linux 1.2
Bluewall GNU/Linux is a Debian-based Linux distribution with a twist - instead of apt, it uses NetBSD's pkgsrc as its preferred package management software. Version 1.2 was released: "After a long time, a new Bluewall has been released. This is a transient release - after the maintainer change, this version tries to be a testing release, but feel free to report bugs! This new version updates the base debian to Debian unstable and also integrates the current CVS tree and some 541 i386-binary pkgsrc packages like GNOME 2.12.2, GIMP 2.2.10, X.Org 6.8.1...." Find more details on the distribution's home page.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
- Nexenta Alpha2, the download page
- SimplyMEPIS 3.4-3-rc4, the release announcement
- Grafpup Linux 1.0.2-rc1 and 1.0.2-rc2, the release announcement
- Frugalware Linux 0.4-pre2, the release announcement
- SUSE Linux 10.1-beta3, the release announcement
- rPath Linux 0.99.4, the release announcement and 0.99.5, the release announcement
- Pingwinek 1.0-pre3, the release announcement
- RR4 Linux 3.0-beta0, the release announcement
- BackTrack 3.0-beta, the release announcement
- eduKnoppix 2.1.6
- Asterisk@Home 2.5
- Kurumin Linux 6.0-alpha5
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
January 2006 donations: Gambas and Krusader
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is our pleasure to announce that we have just broken our all-time donation record. Thanks to the increasing number of visitors and a growing demand for advertising on this site, we have been able to set aside a total of US$500 for donations in January! Furthermore, we would like to welcome our newest contributing member - BuyLinuxDVD.com, an India-based Linux disc vendor which has joined our donation programme by contributing US$50.00 towards the January donation.
With US$500 at our disposal and the ever-growing list of projects nominated for financial assistance, we have decided to give not one, but two equal donations - to Gambas and Krusader.
Gambas is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) similar to MS Visual Basic: "Gambas is a free development environment based on a Basic interpreter with object extensions like Visual Basic (but it is NOT a clone!). With Gambas, you can quickly design your program GUI, access MySQL or PostgreSQL databases, pilot KDE applications with DCOP, translate your program into many languages, create network applications easily, and so on...." Developed by Benoît Minisini, Gambas is released under the GPL and available for free download from the project's web site. The latest stable version is 1.0.14, but version 2 is currently under intensive development.
The Gambas Integrated Development Environment
(full image size: 132kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Krusader is a fast and light-weight file manager for KDE: "Krusader is an advanced twin panel file manager for KDE and other desktops in the *nix world, similar to Midnight or Total Commander. It provides all the file management features you could possibly want. Plus: extensive archive handling, mounted file system support, FTP, advanced search module, an internal viewer/editor, directory synchronisation, file content comparisons, powerful batch renaming and much much more." The increasingly popular application is developed by the Krusader Krew (led by Shie Erlich and Rafi Yanai) and released under the GNU General Public License.
The Krusader file manager
(full image size: 218kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Our monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch, which contributes 10% of its advertising revenue, and two online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - BuyLinuxDVD.com and LinuxCD.org, each of which contributed US$50 towards this month's donation. Both stores have an excellent selection and latest releases at very reasonable prices. Next time you need to order your favourite Linux or BSD CDs, get them from LinuxCD.org or, if you are in India, from BuyLinuxDVD.com.
These are the PayPal receipt for the donations to Gambas and Krusader:
Dear DistroWatch.com,
This email confirms that you have paid gambas -at- users.sourceforge.net 200.00 EUR using PayPal.
------------------------------
Payment Details:
------------------------------
Transaction ID: 20W44797E74816547
Total: €200.00 EUR
Item/Product Name: Donation by DistroWatch.com
Buyer: DistroWatch.com
Dear DistroWatch.com,
This email confirms that you have paid OSDN / VA Software $250.00 USD using PayPal.
------------------------------
Payment Details:
------------------------------
Transaction ID: 8JP022936E678894C
Total: $250.00 USD
Item/Product Name: Donation to Krusader
Buyer: DistroWatch.com
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
Since the launch of the DistroWatch Donations Programme in March 2004, we have donated a total of US$6,730 to various open source software projects.
* * * * *
New distribution additions
* * * * *
New distributions added to the waiting list
- Slak. Slak is a new Russian live CD based on Slackware Linux and Linux-Live scripts.
- Sork Linux Music Studio. Sork is a live CD based on Debian GNU/Linux and Morphix. It is usefull for recording music either as a complete software studio or as a part in a more complex setup.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 13 February 2006. See you then :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • 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.
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| Random Distribution | 
Linux Kodachi
Linux Kodachi is a Debian-based distribution which can be run from a DVD or USB thumb drive. The distribution filters all network traffic through a VPN and the Tor network, obscuring the user's network location. The distribution attempts to clean up after itself, removing traces of its use from the computer.
Status: Active
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| 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.
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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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