DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 164, 14 August 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 33rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The openSUSE project celebrated its first year in existence last week and it has a lot to be proud of: two great releases, many new users and a solid base for Novell's enterprise products. In the meanwhile, the founder of Gentoo Linux Daniel Robbins is once again working on his old project, while the creator of Mandrake Linux Gaël Duval keeps on hacking on the mysterious Ulteo distribution. But not all is good news this week - we are sad to say good-bye to Shawn Milo and the podcast edition of DistroWatch Weekly. Finally, if you live in Central America, don't miss the statistical table summarising visits to DistroWatch from your region. Happy reading!
Content:
- News: openSUSE birthday, Robbins returns to Gentoo, Ulteo update, Debian vs Ubuntu, new BSD live systems
- Statistics: DistroWatch in Central America
- Released last week: Ubuntu 6.06.1, Freespire 1.0
- Upcoming releases: Foresight Linux 1.0
- Site updates: End of podcast, discontinued distributions
- New distributions: AegaenLinux, epiOS, MidnightBSD, Quetzal, RoFreeSBIE
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG format (5.0MB)
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in MP3 format (6.1MB)
(The Podcast edition is provided by Shawn Milo.)
Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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Miscellaneous News |
openSUSE birthday, Robbins returns to Gentoo, Ulteo update, Debian vs Ubuntu, new BSD live systems
Last week the openSUSE Project, established in early August 2005, celebrated its first year in existence. For the first time since the early days of SuSE Linux, the general public was invited to contribute code, create sub-projects and beta test the popular Linux distribution. The result was spectacular: the project has since produced two stable releases (versions 10.0 and 10.1) and is now alpha testing openSUSE 10.2. The fruit of this labour is also used by Novell's other major Linux products - SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Server SLED/SLES, which some believe to be breakthrough releases likely to be adopted by a substantial number of enterprises. Many of the utilities that Novell has built during this time were also released under the General Public License. In short, the first year of the openSUSE Project was a resounding success. Congratulations to all involved and many happy returns!
* * * * *
Guess who is back working on Gentoo Linux again? Yes, it's Daniel Robbins, the founder and former project leader of the world's most popular source-based distribution. In a recent web log entry he had this to say about his current involvement in Gentoo: "Working on Gentoo again? Eek! Solar has requested that I look into adding 'pre-defined grub.conf' support to the grub ebuilds. I hope to look into adding this to the grub ebuilds, probably modeled after the USE="savedconfig" in the busybox ebuild. That should be fun. I'm going to look into this over the next couple of days." Also don't miss Robbins's earlier post where he talks about his former job at Microsoft's Linux Lab - an interesting read.
* * * * *
Speaking about well-known distribution developers, mystery continues to cloud Ulteo, a new project developed by the founder of Mandrake Linux Gaël Duval. With the promised first beta release, originally due in May, nowhere in sight, some might be wondering whether this supposedly revolutionary distribution is, in fact, vapourware. Not so, says Duval in an Ulteo forum post: "It's a bit frustrating because I wished we would have been able to publish something before summer. But in the end, this extra wait is certainly a very good thing." While he is still reluctant to disclose any details about the project, he has confirmed his earlier assertion about the goals of Ulteo: "Don's expect Ulteo to be different on the installation side, or on the desktop side (at least at the beginning). What we bring is more 'network oriented'." Read the brief interview on this page (scroll down for the English translation).
* * * * *
What's the difference between, Ubuntu and Debian GNU/Linux? One way of looking at the two projects is comparing them in terms of "newest software". Lucas Nussbaum has done just that - he counted the number of packages in Ubuntu "Dapper Drake", Debian "sid" and Debian "etch", and compared their versions. Interestingly, Debian's testing branch seems to be more up-to-date than Ubuntu's latest stable release and was more up-to-date even at the time of the release of Ubuntu 6.06. While not particularly meaningful, these figures are certainly interesting as they give an indication of the current status of Debian's much awaited "etch" release. But will Debian still win the "battle" after "etch" gets frozen and stops receiving package updates? It will be interesting to revisit the comparison once Ubuntu's next stable version hits the mirrors....
* * * * *
The world of open source software has had a fair share of fights over the years (Emacs vs Vim, KDE vs GNOME, LILO vs GRUB), but what about the different Linux file systems? Those readers with interest in the subject might find it interesting to note that no fewer than four well-known Debian developers came out against using XFS during the past week. Martin Krafft: "I am through with XFS, once and for all. I still think it's a good filesystem when you can ensure that the power never goes, and your hardware is reliable, but it's just not adequate for laptops or even desktops." Julien Danjou: "I regularly spite on XFS, and I am quite amused that more than 2 years later, XFS is still totally crap!" Gunnar Wolf: "About to say goodbye to XFS as well." Erich Schubert: "I'm going to join madduck, Gunnar Wolf and Julien with their negative experiences with XFS." Coincidence? Or is XFS starting to get a really bad reputation among hard-core Linux developers?
* * * * *
Plenty of interesting activity on the BSD front. Two new BSD-based live CDs were built in recent weeks: a Mexican project called Quetzal has developed a new OpenBSD-based live CD booting into WindowMaker or XFce, while the Romanian RoFreeSBIE is the first FreeBSD-based live DVD and one of the easiest ways to install a fully-configured FreeBSD desktop system on your computer. In the meantime, another new, desktop-oriented FreeBSD project has been launched; it's called MidnightBSD and its goal is to create an easy-to-use FreeBSD system with graphical configuration tools and an intuitive window manager. Finally, a new web site containing details about OpenBSD ports was unveiled last week at ports.OpenBSD.nu. On this site you can browse ports, search for ports, get RSS feeds and add them to your ports tracker to receive email notifications about port updates.

RoFreeSBIE 1.2 - the first FreeBSD-based live DVD. (full image size: 1,009kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
A new version of grml was released late last weekend. If you've never heard of the distribution, don't be put off by the unattractive name - some believe that this is one of the hidden gems of the Linux distribution world. From a recent review by NewsForge: "You won't find this gem in the top 100 at DistroWatch, but if you ask me, it works better than all the usual names. The project says it's for 'users of texttools and system administrators,' but grml actually offers more. It's Linux that 'just works.' My users are not geeks, but grml makes all our lives easy." What makes this project particularly exciting is the abundance of excellent scripts to accomplish many common tasks with minimum of fuss. Besides the software available on the (installable) live CD, grml also maintains its own repository of useful Debian packages, including proprietary graphics drivers and other popular tools. Lightweight, fast, with several unusual window managers, grml is certainly worth a closer look, even if you are not a real "sysadmin."

The new grml 0.8 with the Pek window manager. (full image size: 1,085kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
Finally, a quick reminder about why news about certain distribution releases don't appear on the front page of DistroWatch. Last week, this site was accused of ignoring release announcements by Aurox Linux, a Fedora-based distribution created by a Polish publishing house, due to the commercial nature of the project. This is not the case. Although the Aurox team has emailed us the release announcement, they have failed to publish the same on their own web site. As has been our policy for several years, we will only publish release announcements that have already appeared on the distribution's own web site, stating clearly that a certain version has been released and marked with a release date. If you are interested in Aurox Linux 12.0, you can download a release candidate from this FTP server.
On a related note, the publishers of Aurox have launched a new site that attempts to rank Linux distributions based on readers' votes on a scale from 1 to 10. It is called DistroRankings.com and it allows you to submit votes for various distributions to influence their ranking.
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Statistics |
DistroWatch in Central America
Our commentary summarising the state of Linux in the South Pacific last week has attracted some interesting feedback and many readers emailed us to ask for further DistroWatch access statistics from other regions of the world. As a result, we will publish similar figures in the future, starting today with Central America. The table below lists all countries and territories in the region, with the "Index" column representing the number of visits per month per 1 million inhabitants during the period from January to July 2006.
Although in absolute terms it was Mexico that provided DistroWatch with most visitors (a total of 92,430 visitors came from Mexican IP addresses during the first 7 months of this year), in terms of "per capita" visits, the Dutch territory of Aruba came at number one, with Antigua and Barbuda following closely behind. The only country whose residents never visited DistroWatch during this period was Turks and Caicos. For reference, USA has an index of 3,002, Canada 3,800 and Finland, the world's highest ranked country in terms of "per capita visits", 6,388.
Rank |
Country |
Visits |
Index |
1 |
Aruba (AW) |
1,106 |
2,243 |
2 |
Antigua and Barbuda (AG) |
1,050 |
2,224 |
3 |
Barbados (BB) |
2,687 |
1,390 |
4 |
Bermuda (BM) |
478 |
1,066 |
5 |
Belize (BZ) |
1,841 |
1,011 |
6 |
Puerto Rico (PR) |
24,043 |
889 |
7 |
Bahamas (BS) |
1,716 |
831 |
8 |
Netherlands Antilles (AN) |
1,188 |
792 |
9 |
Trinidad and Tobago (TT) |
4,564 |
587 |
10 |
Costa Rica (CR) |
15,343 |
572 |
11 |
Saint Lucia (LC) |
495 |
442 |
12 |
Cayman Islands (KY) |
96 |
336 |
13 |
Grenada (GD) |
209 |
335 |
14 |
Saint Kitts and Nevis (KN) |
87 |
321 |
15 |
Panama (PA) |
5,376 |
263 |
16 |
Dominican Republic (DO) |
10,732 |
178 |
17 |
US Virgin Islands (VI) |
153 |
177 |
18 |
El Salvador (SV) |
7,412 |
167 |
19 |
Anguilla (AI) |
14 |
161 |
20 |
Mexico (MX) |
92,430 |
128 |
21 |
Jamaica (JM) |
2,363 |
126 |
22 |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (VC) |
87 |
107 |
23 |
Dominica (DM) |
42 |
86 |
24 |
Guatemala (GT) |
7,881 |
83 |
25 |
Montserrat (MS) |
4 |
68 |
26 |
Cuba (CU) |
2,623 |
33 |
27 |
Nicaragua (NI) |
862 |
25 |
28 |
Honduras (HN) |
875 |
19 |
29 |
British Virgin Islands (VG) |
2 |
13 |
30 |
Martinique (MQ) |
33 |
11 |
31 |
Guadeloupe (GP) |
8 |
3 |
32 |
Haiti (HT) |
68 |
1 |
33 |
Turks and Caicos (TC) |
0 |
0 |
|
As always, please don't take these figures too seriously. They are simply provided as an indicator of interest in DistroWatch (and, by extension, in Linux and other open source software) in various countries, but they certainly don't represent physical installations or distribution downloads.
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Released Last Week |
K12LTSP Linux 5.0.0
Eric Harrison has announced immediate availability of K12LTSP Linux 5.0.0, a Fedora-based distribution designed for terminal servers and diskless clients: "K12LTSP version 5.0 is now available for your downloading pleasure. K12LTSP 5.0 is based on Fedora Core 5, which includes all sorts of new stuff. Of primary interest to K12LTSP users: this release of Fedora includes Mono support for the first time, and Mono applications such as Beagle, F-Spot and Tomboy; there is dramatically improved internationalization support with SCIM." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
Freespire 1.0
Kendall Dawson has announced the release of Freespire 1.0 final, some three weeks ahead of schedule: "Freespire version 1.0 (build 13) is now available for download. A few minor release notes: enabled selection of file system type in installer; bug fixes for ISP connection tools; Freespire KDE theme fixes; numerous fixes to Lmail and Lbrowser. To report a bug please see this page in the wiki. Enjoy!" Here is the complete release announcement.
Knoppel 0.7
A new stable version of Knoppel, which is essentially a Greek variant of the popular KNOPPIX live CD, has been released. Version 0.7 is based on KNOPPIX 5.0.1 with kernel 2.6.17.7, X.Org 7.0 and KDE 3.5.3 and OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 (with an updated spell-checking tool). It also includes support for RAID controllers, udev for automatic recognition of external storage devices, NTFS read/write support (experimental), and new drivers for wireless cards and internal modems. For more information please see the full release announcement (in Greek).
PCLinuxOS 0.93 "Junior"
The developers of PCLinuxOS have announced the availability of a new edition of the popular beginner-friendly Linux distribution: "PCLinuxOS 0.93a Junior is a self booting Live CD with advanced hardware detection. In addition to running Junior in Live CD mode, you can also install it to your computer. Easy to follow instructions are included on the Live CD as well as a chat channel for instant help. Junior comes with a set of pre-selected programs for web browsing, email, instant messaging, blogging, IRC chat, music, graphics, video, digital camera, games, FTP, BitTorrent transfer, CD/DVD burning and more." More details in the release announcement.
Nonux 3.2
An updated release of Nonux is now available for download. The new version of the Slackware-based distribution and live CD (with Dropline GNOME) designed for office use in Dutch-speaking business environments comes with an updated Linux kernel 2.6.17.7, Dropline GNOME 2.14.3, Evolution 2.6.3 and Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.6. Other upgraded packages include Cairo, Liferea, OpenLDAP, Samba and xine. Visit the project's news page (in Dutch) to learn more about the changes in this release.
Ubuntu 6.06.1
Colin Watson has announced the release of Ubuntu 6.06.1, an updated version of Ubuntu with more than 300 bug and security fixes over the original "Dapper Drake": "The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS, the first maintenance release of 'Dapper Drake'. This release includes both installable Desktop CDs and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures, for Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu. Xubuntu is also included, although commercial support for it is not available from Canonical Ltd." Full details about the fixes can be found in the release announcement.
Rocks Cluster Distribution 4.2
Rocks Cluster Distribution 4.2, code name "Hallasan", has been released: "Rocks v4.2 is released for i386 and x86_64 CPU architectures. This release supports latest multi-core CPUs from AMD and Intel (a.k.a., Woodcrest)." Among the many new features and enhancements are: several new tools for Bioinformatics computation; graphical installer; restore roll for saving and restoring user account and cluster node information; based on CentOS 4.3 and all updates as of August 6; updated SGE roll to SGE 6 update 8; many bug fixes. Read the full release announcement for further information.
Linux From Scratch 6.2
Linux From Scratch 6.2 has been released: "The Linux From Scratch community is pleased to announce the release of LFS Version 6.2. This release includes a large number of package upgrades (including Linux 2.6.16.26, GCC 4.0.3, glibc 2.3.6) and security fixes. It also includes a large amount of editorial work on the explanatory material throughout the book, improving both the clarity and accuracy of the text. You can read the book online, or download to read locally." Read the full announcement on the project's news page. Besides the book that teaches the basics of Linux, the developers of LFS have also released a new live CD.
GParted Live CD 0.2.5-5
An updated version of GParted LiveCD is now available: "Minor update to fix some problems in the new video card detection. Some cards were given the wrong driver and starting X was not possible without manually editing the xorg.conf file. If X fails to start use the 'manual video card' option in the boot menu. This reverts the system back to the behavior of 0.2.5-3 for video card selecting. I added a screen shot program for reporting bugs. The 'Boot failure: Unknown keyword in config file' is fixed." Here are the complete release notes.
grml 0.8
Michael Prokop has announced the release of grml 0.8, a Debian-based live CD for users of text tools and system administrators: "grml 0.8, codename 'Funkenzutzler', is available." The long list of new features include: "install-packages-useful: a script which installs useful software on your grml system; grml-resolution: change X resolution via a simple menu frontend; updated to X.org 7.0; switched from Kaffe to Jikes and JamVM; added window managers fvwm-crystal and dwm; setup of files in /boot/grub/ to be able to install grub...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a complete list of changes and updates.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Foresight Linux 1.0
Ken VanDine has published a development roadmap leading towards the release of Foresight Linux 1.0 on the 9th September, just three days after the final release of GNOME 2.16: "We have started really working toward the 1.0 release scheduled for September 6th. So what does the road look like? Couple big things, GNOME 2.16, Xorg 7, Conary 1.1, and a more structured release management process. Anyone that watches the commits mailing list can see that I was a busy bee this weekend. All of GNOME 2.16 Beta 1 is committed and cooked on our new development label. I also created all the troves (and cooked them) on the new devel label. And the big thing, X.Org 7, all the sources are committed." See the project leader's web log for more information.
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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DistroWatch.com News |
End of DistroWatch Podcast
Sad news for all our visitors who enjoyed to the podcast edition of DistroWatch Weekly. Shawn Milo has informed us that he is resigning from the task of narrating the podcast, effective September 2006. The reason he cited was lack of time, while his attempts to raise funds for continuing his work came to nothing. Even worse, Shawn was recently laid off from his programming work of 6.5 years, so all his present efforts are focused on getting his freelance copywriting business off the ground. If anyone is interested in continuing the podcast or can offer any form of help to Shawn, please contact him on this address: shawn at milochik.com. We'd like to thank Shawn for endless hours of volunteer work on the podcast and wish him best of luck in his new endeavours!
* * * * *
Discontinued distributions?
One of the DistroWatch readers has gone into trouble of trying to identify unmaintained distributions. Here is the result of his work:
I know that some of these alerts are probably automated for you, but I just want to notify you on this in case you don't know. I realize that some distros (Debian and Phaeronix, for examples) can have very long release cycles, even up to a year, but those which are active often have signs of life which are less than a few months recent. Whereas no matter how long the release cycle, if a web site and mailing list has been essentially dead for 10 or so months, I think the distribution may be, with all good intentions, be considered discontinued.
The following distros are marked as active, but appear to have been abandoned by their developer(s):
- 10-12 months old:
- ATmission: The last sign of any activity on their web site was the end of September, 2005 (10 months old).
- Ging: Single-page web site file last modified November 2005. FTP index of ISO reveals that the only ISO was released in early November 2005 (10 months ago).
- Julex: The last update on the web site was on November 9th, 2005 (10 months old).
- LinnexOS: Judging from their package list, they haven't done anything since late August 2005. (12 months old)
- Mayix: Last web site update was November 11th, 2005 (10 months old.)
- Salvare: The latest version of the distro was released November 2005 (10 months old). The last actual post to their devel mailing list was in November 2004.
- Snappix: The last change to their web site was in late September 2005 and the link to download their distro is defunct (10 months old).
- 13-15 months old:
- ANTESIS: Last web site update early July, 2005 (13 months ago).
- Hubworx Network Manager: Latest web site update was on June 28th, 2005 (14 months old).
- Snøfrixx: Their website is a bit of a maze to navigate, but if you jump directly to the download page, you'll see that the latest release was in June 2005 (14 months old).
- 16-21 months old:
- iBox Linux: Their web page, although in Chinese, appears not to have changed since 2004. Considering that they started in 2004, and their website is still touting version 0.1, I don't think they've done anything with it for a while (at least 20 months old).
- P!TUX: Web page file last modified March 4th, 2005, still features the only release of the distro, 1.01 (17 months ago).
- WOMP: Web site and distro last updated April 2005 (16 months old). Its mailing list is a bit active (it has had 20 posts in all of 2005 - 2006 [an avg. of 1 post per month] from a few users), but there's no sign of a developer anywhere around.
- 22+ months old:
It's very depressing to go through these (so many broken dreams, eh...) but cleanout must be done for the living and constantly improving distros to shine and be used.
In case any of our readers know something we don't, please speak up now. Failing that, the above-mentioned distributions will be flagged as either "dormant" or "discontinued" later this week.
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- AegeanLinux. AegeanLinux is a free open source operating system for your computer. With over 650 packages (precompiled executables, ready for download and run), and using KDE as it's desktop, Aegean provides an easy-to-use, fast, non-bloated operating system, suitable for everyday use. AegeanLinux's main goals are those of security, stability, and ease of installation. AegeanLinux is built for the i686 processor.
- epiOS. epiOS is a Gentoo-based GNU/Linux distribution designed and optimized for VIA Epia systems. It's developed to detect and support all integrated hardware components, like the onboard MPEG-2 decoder or the PadLock (cryptography) engine out of the box. Otherwise its main purpose is to provide a system which is easy to install, maintain and of course very easy to use even for inexperienced users but keeping all the advanced features Gentoo provides.
- MidnightBSD. MidnightBSD is a newly-launched operating system based on FreeBSD. Its main goal is to create an easy-to-use BSD desktop system with a graphical installer and system administration tools, and an intuitive window manager.
- Quetzal. Quetzal is an OpenBSD-based live CD that boots into a full graphical environment. Both WindowMaker and XFce editions are available.
- RoFreeSBIE. RoFreeSBIE is a FreeBSD-based live CD/DVD with KDE and WindowMaker, and optional hard disk installer using BSDInstaller. It supports a number of languages, including English, Romanian, Italian, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and German.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
And that concludes our latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next issue will be published on Monday, 21 August 2006. Until then,
Ladislav Bodnar
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Archives |
• Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
• Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
• Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
• Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
• Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
• Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
• Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
• Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
• Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
• Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
• Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
• Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
• Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
• Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
• Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
• Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
• Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
• Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
• Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
• Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
• Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
• Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
• Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
• Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
• Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
• Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
• Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
• Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
• Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
• Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
• Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
• Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
• Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
• Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
• Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
• Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
• Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
• Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
• Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
• Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
• Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
• Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
• Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
• Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
• Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
• Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
• Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
• Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
• Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
• Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
• Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
• Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
• Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
• Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
• Full list of all issues |
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Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre
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