 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
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
| 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
|
| 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
|
| 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
|
|
| 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 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
JBLinux
JBLinux was a Linux distribution designed primarily for security and performance, as well as aiming to provide the end-user with up-to-date high quality software. All packages are optimized for Pentium-class CPUs.
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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
