 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 175, 30 October 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The long awaited Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 6.10 are finally here! Amid all the usual excitement accompanying any major new release, reports from around the web suggest that Ubuntu's latest version might suffer from upgrade issues as many users find themselves unable to boot into "Edgy" despite following the standard upgrade procedure. After months of media speculation, Oracle's entry into the Linux distribution market was finally announced late last week - with a re-branded Red Hat Enterprise Linux and heavily discounted support costs. Also in this issue: update on Yellow Dog Linux 5.0, a link to an excellent audio interview with Slackware's Patrick Volkerding, and a contributed review of Elive 0.5. Finally, don't miss ArtistX, a new live DVD for audio, video and 2D/3D graphics artists. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (6.0MB) or mp3 (5.9MB) format (courtesy of Matt Taylor).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Miscellaneous News |
Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu upgrade woes, Oracle Linux, Patrick Volkerding, Yellow Dog Linux 5.0
 Fedora Core 6 was finally released last week. Based on a few early reviews and first impressions on mailing lists, the Fedora development team has once again done a fantastic job. Many users have been impressed by the graphical configuration tool for Xen virtualisation, as well as the ability to add third-party repositories during installation. Most RPM repositories were especially quick to update their packages for Fedora Core 6 and provide instructions for configuring the yum package manager. And although yum is reportedly still as slow as ever, it seems like a reliable tool, which is probably the most important characteristic of any package manager.
The only black mark on the Fedora Core 6 experience was the downtime by fedoraproject.org, which saw unprecedented volumes of traffic shortly before and after the release. While download figures are hard to estimate (Fedora has more mirrors than any other distribution, except perhaps for Debian), the Fedora torrent tracker apparently served almost 90 Terabytes of data within the first 48 hours of the release! No wonder we had trouble getting to the project's web site! As for the breakdown of architectures, it's interesting to note that almost 20% of users downloaded the x86_64 editions of Fedora Core 6, while the PowerPC architecture accounted for less than 2% of all downloads.
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 Just two days after the release of Fedora Core 6, the Ubuntu project was the next one to saturate the bandwidth of many download servers around the world. "Edgy Eft", as the latest version is called, continues to impress with new artwork and features, as well as the latest versions of popular desktop applications, including GNOME 2.16, KDE 3.5.5, Firefox 2.0 and OpenOffice.org 2.0.4. Unfortunately, the release was marred by major troubles to upgrade from Ubuntu's previous version (6.06, code name "Dapper Drake") to the one released last week. According to an informal poll by UbuntuForums.org, almost 44% percent of those who attempted the upgrade process encountered "serious problems" or reported that their upgrades went "really bad".
This result actually echoes your DistroWatch maintainer's experience - during the upgrade procedure of two machines last week, one went without any major trouble, while the other required several hours of fiddling with dpkg and performing manual resolution of dependencies before the box was made to boot into Edgy. It is hard to pinpoint the cause of the problems at this stage, but they indicate continuing quality control problems at Ubuntu, despite an earlier promise to set up mechanisms to prevent any future update disasters. Nevertheless, once installed, Edgy appears to be a highly usable release, perhaps not as "edgy" as we were led to believe at the start of its development process, but still fairly up-to-date and certainly beautifully crafted. Just remember to download an installation CD in case your upgrade experience turns sour and you have to re-install.
Xubuntu 6.10 showing the Thunar file manager and Xfce settings manager
(full image size: 158kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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 The news about the Fedora Core and Ubuntu releases were soon overshadowed by the first appearance of what many Linux analysts speculated about for some time - Oracle's own Linux-based operating system. Called Oracle Unbreakable Linux, the distribution turned out to be not so much Oracle's as Red Hat's - it is built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and, once all the sombreros rojos and other registered trademarks are surgically removed from the files, it gets released under a new name. Oracle doesn't sell the distribution; like Red Hat, it intends to generate revenue from a "support programme", undercutting Red Hat's prices in the process. The modest pricing, Oracle hopes, will attract many potential Linux enterprise users who need support for their Linux deployments, but find Red Hat's support contracts a tad too expensive.
If you frequent Linux news sites, you have probably read many expert comments about Oracle's foray into the world of Linux. Unfortunately, as much as your DistroWatch maintainer would love to welcome the big database company in the community of Linux solution providers, the manner in which Oracle entered the market leaves a distinctly sour taste in the mouth. The company, although reasonably open source friendly in the sense that some of its major products are compatible with Linux, has done very little to advance the Linux cause over the years. Its latest move to re-brand Red Hat's distribution and provide support for the "new" product brings zero innovation to the Linux market; in fact, it only serves to generate revenue for Oracle and, as some analysts believe, to potentially destroy Red Hat, Inc.
Contrast that to Red Hat and its contribution to the Linux community. While the North Carolina company is a business which has to answer to its stakeholders and which is strongly motivated by corporate profits, it has succeeded in generating revenue without sacrificing the spirit of open source software development. For over a decade Red Hat has been giving away its Red Hat Linux and Fedora Core distributions (complete with security updates during the lifetime of the products), it has been developing or helping with the development of many essential open source software components (e.g. Autoconf, glibc, LVM, etc.), and it has been employing some of the brightest open source software developers the world has seen. Whatever your experiences with Red Hat as a company, you have to admit that it has contributed an enormous amount of work to the pool of Free Software which we all share, irrespective of whether or not we use one of its end products.
Oracle, on the other hand, has brought very little to the world of Linux so far. Besides much negative sentiment which the database giant generated in the Linux community last week, the technical aspects of Oracle Unbreakable Linux are not particularly attractive either. Promising unspecified bug fixes on its web site is one thing, but showing a changelog with a list of bugs fixed by the company's engineers -- which has yet to materialise anywhere -- is an entirely different matter. Also, despite claims to the contrary, Oracle Unbreakable Linux is not a complete recompile of Red Hat's source packages and some software, notably Thunderbird, are missing from the distribution. Furthermore, what Oracle claims to be "Update 4", does not correspond to Red Hat's "Update 4"; as an example, Oracle's product contains older versions of the Linux kernel, Firefox, LVM, and many other packages. It also provides Ethereal, a package which is no longer maintained and which Red Hat had already replaced with Wireshark. Worse, no updates were reportedly available for any of these packages, despite that fact that some of them have known security issues! Unbreakable? Hardly!
Granted, these are still early days, so let's hope that Oracle will fix their product and find a way to contribute back to the Linux community. But for now, customers who need comprehensive support contracts for their Linux deployments should definitely choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux - even if it's more expensive than Oracle's support programme. As they say, you get what you pay for. Based on a recent survey, the results of which are summarised here, Red Hat ranks as a number one computing technology company with customer satisfaction rated at 84%. In contrast, Oracle is 39th with only 55% of its customers giving Oracle a favourable rating. These numbers speak volumes.
* * * * *
 Slackware Linux is undoubtedly one of the most misunderstood Linux distributions on the market. Just one look at the default kernel version or bootloader seemingly conjures enough negativity on various Linux forums and web logs to warrant critical comments and even outright dismissals of the product. But is that all there is to Slackware?
If you happen to hold a negative view of the oldest surviving Linux distribution on the market, then please set aside some time and listen to this exclusive audio interview (OGG, 34.9MB, MP3, 29.7MB) with Patrick Volkerding. Published by The Linux Links Tech Show team, the elusive founder of Slackware Linux talks about the philosophy behind his distribution, explains the reasons for keeping the 2.4 kernel as the default, gives some hints about the project's future, and even branches out to talk about his pastimes. Will the seemingly old-fashioned distribution ever include AIGLX or other emerging technologies? And how is the business side of things over at Slackware? This 90-minute interview gives many answers that will hopefully clear up some misconceptions about the project that keeps proving its worth year after year.
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 With the decision of Apple to switch its processor architecture from PowerPC to Intel, there was a danger that the specialist PowerPC-only Yellow Dog Linux distribution will soon run out of a market to cater for. Luckily, it seems that the project has re-invented itself. As announced recently, Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 will be released shortly - with a difference. Designed for PlayStation 3 and featuring the Enlightenment desktop, the new product should be of interest to users wishing to run a full operating system on their Sony gaming consoles. While details about Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 are still sketchy, Terra Soft Solutions has updated its product pages with new information about the upcoming release, including a brief FAQ section. Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 is expected to start shipping in the middle of November and should be available for free download about two months later.
* * * * *
 On the eve of the release of OpenBSD 4.0 -- the product will be formally announced on November 1st -- ONLamp published a comprehensive interview with the developers of this popular security-oriented operating system: "On October 18th, OpenBSD celebrated its 11th birthday and ten years of punctual biannual releases. Now it's time for OpenBSD version 4.0, which includes tons of new drivers for wireless, network, and storage chips. Discover what's new and what battles developers must face daily to access documentation and support new hardware." The highly technical interview touches on the subjects of wireless networking support, pf firewall, carp group demotion feature, storage drivers, X.Org issues, status of the SPARC64 port, Xen virtualisation, and other interesting topics. The 3-page interview starts here.
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| First Looks |
First look at Elive 0.5 (by Ryuga Akikawa)
Elive is more than just a Linux distro, it's a work of art.
Elive, or Enlightenment Live, is a Debian-based distribution that runs solely on the Enlightenment system. The system can be installed on your machine with the use of their installer. Enlightenment itself is a very beautiful window manager / desktop shell that allows everything to be customizable, while providing beautiful eye candy that would probably only be seen on Windows Vista systems.
Is this system a work of art like the Elive team boasts? We shall find out.
The Revolution Begins
I first put the Elive 0.5 CD on my disk and was whisked away to the wonderful world of Elive. The CD boots to a live CD, but before it does that, it asks some basic hardware questions, such as what type of screen you use and what theme do you want to start with by default. The choices are Elive and Night. I chose the night theme. Next you are asked what type of screen you are using, and the video card. I made my choices and proceeded onward.
Afterwards you are greeted with a login screen that is quite impressive with all of its animations and such. You are given a dummy account and password to login with, no need to log in as root, which is a good thing. Next you are greeted with a functional E17 environment. Once you are done playing around with the system you can choose to install Elive by clicking on the icon in their taskbar known as ibar.
Installation itself was pretty straightforward. You are greeted then asked to check the integrity of your system. I recommend doing this, once you are cleared you are then given the choice of how you want to create your partition layouts. (Note: if you have an Elive system already installed, it will ask you if you would like to update the system, rather then do a full-blown installation).
I chose the trusty cfdisk to make my partition layout (other option is GParted). If you need to reboot by this point, you can and just come back to the installation. Afterwards you are asked what partition will be the root partition, along with what file system you wish to use. I chose XFS and was told I needed to have a separate boot partition which I already did. I chose the partition to put boot in. Next you are asked if you wish to add more partitions. The choices are /home, /usr, /usr/local, and /var, then you are asked what file system you wish to use for each partition. Afterwards the installation begins. Then, out of nowhere, you are given a little card game program to kill time while then system installs. How cute. Once done you are then asked for the usual stuff; root password, user account, user password, what VGA settings you want to use for boot up and where to install GRUB. After making my choices the installation was complete and I rebooted the system.
Elive installed and ready to go
Once I rebooted I was greeted with the plain GRUB screen, which I didn't mind too much. On the Elive community site a nice little HOWTO shows you how to add your own GRUB splash. The system defaults to E17 but your other choice is E16. Once logged in I was greeted with my fully installed Elive E17 system. The system worked really well and everything was very pretty - from the twinkling background to all the pretty eye candy and colors. This was truly an amazing system. Elpanel also helped configuring a lot of different options, really handy and powerful. Since the system is Debian-based, we have the famous Synaptic package system which is always nice. The Elive community is also very friendly and filled with a lot of creative, intelligent people who are willing to help and contribute to Elive.
Though for all of its positives, there are negatives as well. Most of these bugs however are more problems and setbacks with Enlightenment then anything else since the system is still under heavy development and constantly evolving.
Is it a work of art? Is it the next big thing?
A lot of love and dedication went into this system and it shows. E16 and E17 were painstakingly tweaked and modified to be a very usable and powerful, while still showing off all of its eye candy potential.
Is this distro worth looking at? Is it a work of art like the Elive site boasts?
I most definitely agree.
Enlightenment is one very powerful and innovative desktop environment. I honestly think we are looking at the next big thing as far as desktop environments of the future goes. Elive just touches on the potential of this system and I must say, I like what I see. Keep your eyes opened for not only Elive, but for Enlightenment itself, as we may be witnessing the future in progress.
Elive - a Debian-based distribution featuring the impressive, light-weight Enlightenment 17 desktop
(full image size: 407kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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| Released Last Week |
Fedora Core 6
Fedora Core 6, code name "Zod", has been formally announced and officially released: "Tremble, Earthlings, for Zod is released from the confines of testing. Zod intends to hammer the servers of the world ... starting TODAY!" On a more serious note, Fedora Core 6 includes significant new versions of many key components and technologies, including improved look and feel for various international languages, the Compiz window manager, GNOME 2.16 and KDE 3.5.3 desktop environments, a refreshing new "DNA" theme, Dogtail - a graphical test and automation framework for the desktop, the GnuCash 2.0 accounting application, and many other enhancements. Please read the release announcement and release notes for further details.
Fedora Core 6 "Live-Spin"
The Fedora Unity project has announced the release of Fedora Core 6 "Live-Spins", a set of Fedora live CDs and DVDs for the i386 and x86_64 architectures: "The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the initial release of several Fedora Core 6 Live-Spin CD and DVD ISO images. These Live-Spins are based on the 24 October initial release of Fedora Core 6." The set consists of a GNOME live CD with GNOME 2.16.0 and related applications, a KDE live CD with KDE 3.5.4, a server live CD with Apache, MySQL, PHP and various server administration utilities, and a comprehensive live DVD with GNOME, KDE, Xfce and a number of packages from the "extras" repository. For more details please see the release announcement.
Ubuntu 6.10
Ubuntu 6.10, the latest version of the popular Linux distribution for desktops and servers, has been released: "The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 6.10, codenamed 'Edgy Eft'. This release includes both installable Desktop CDs and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures. Highlights of this release include: Tomboy, an easy-to-use and efficient note-taking tool; F-Spot, a photo management tool that enables tagging, photo editing and automatic uploading to on-line web management sites; GNOME 2.16; substantially faster startup and shutdown with eye-catching high-resolution graphics; the latest Firefox web browser, version 2.0; proactive security features, preventing many common security vulnerabilities even before they are discovered; Evolution 2.8.0...." Read the press release, release announcement and release notes for full details.
Kubuntu 6.10
The Kubuntu project has announced the release of Kubuntu 6.10, code name "Edgy Eft": "Kubuntu 6.10 has been released and is available for download now. Kubuntu 6.10 brings a bit of edginess to this release, including a new and improved desktop, artwork, applications and much more." Some of the more interesting features of Kubuntu 6.10 include: KDE 3.5.5 desktop; Digikam photo management tool; Guidance - a new power management system; a hardware database client; support for many special laptop buttons; accessibility profiles; an improved System Settings dialog; automatic setup of non-Latin writing systems. Read the complete release announcement for further details.
Edubuntu 6.10
Edubuntu 6.10, a distribution specifically designed for classroom use, has been released: "The Edubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Edubuntu 6.10, codenamed 'Edgy Eft'. This release includes both installation CDs and installable live CDs for several architectures. This version introduces a host of new features, an improved interface and a wide variety of new applications and desktop tools making Edubuntu 6.10 flexible and user-friendly. Highlights: the very recent versions of well-known free educational software like the KDEedu suite in version 3.5.5, GCompris 7.4, SchoolTool 0.11 and the Tux4Kids applications; GNOME 2.16; substantially faster startup and shutdown; the latest Firefox web browser; proactive security features; Evolution 2.8.0." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
Oracle Unbreakable Linux R4-U4
The first official release of Oracle Unbreakable Linux is out. According to the project's web site, "Oracle starts with Red Hat Linux, removes Red Hat trademarks, and then adds Linux bug fixes." Although Oracle Unbreakable Linux is touted as a "support programme", rather than a distribution, it is also provided in the form of freely downloadable CD images with optional support packages starting at US$99 per year. Oracle Unbreakable Linux is, and intends to remain, fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. While the distribution itself does not bring anything new or innovative to the table, the support programme does provide an extra choice for companies that require comprehensive support contracts for their Linux deployments. For more information please visit Oracle's Linux pages, read the press release, and consult the Linux Technology Centre.
Scientific Linux 4.4 Live CD/DVD
The Scientific Linux project has released a set of live CDs and live DVDs of the latest version of their Red Hat-based Linux distribution: "Scientific Linux live CD and DVD 4.4 have been released for both i386 and x86_64. Changes: update to Scientific Linux 4.4; update Unionfs to 1.1.5, Squashfs to 3.1-r2, NVIDIA driver to 1.0-8776; add SMP kernel to live CD/DVD (support for Dual-Core and multiprocessor systems); add r1000 and ipw3945 drivers; add more packages to the live DVD; add boot options: nopasswd, serviceon, serviceoff; live CD/DVD now runs with native Scientific Linux 4 kernel (no more special live CD kernel); live CD/DVD can boot from USB CD-ROM or DVD." Here is the full announcement.
Xubuntu 6.10
Jani Monoses has announced the release of Xubuntu 6.10: "The Xubuntu community is happy to announce the release of Xubuntu 6.10, codenamed 'Edgy Eft'. This release includes both installable Desktop CDs and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures. Visible changes since Xubuntu 6.06: newer Xfce desktop environment (4.4 RC1) which brings trashcan support in Thunar and the panel, accessibility settings for the keyboard, and other improvements and fixes; new artwork for the boot splash, login screen and wallpaper; more mature gxine media player replaces Xfmedia; newer versions of Firefox, AbiWord and Gnumeric...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
pfSense 1.0.1
A bug-fix update to the recently released pfSense 1.0, a FreeBSD-based firewall distribution, is out: "1.0.1 is now making its way to the mirrors and here is a rundown of the bugs fixed: set maximum cache size for APC to 7 MB; re-start 'check reload status' if it exits; miscellaneous syslog.conf fixes; Snort now blocks traffic correctly; PF does not know about congestion flags, remove from shaper; miscellaneous OpenNTPD system logging tab fixes; removes states from a user when disconnected by Captive Portal; fix FTP helper when strict LAN or Optional LAN rules are in place; ZoneEdit now works; filter reloads rules correctly after changes; faster, snappier webConfigurator and console." Here is the full release announcement.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Adding DistroWatch RSS feeds to Google
Last week, a reader reported an interesting issue - while trying to add one of the DistroWatch RSS feeds to Google Reader, the application reported that "no feed was available" whenever he linked directly to one of the XML files. The same was also observed when trying to add these feeds to Personalised Home on Google.com. While we haven't been able to work out the reason for this behaviour or a solution (if anybody knows, please let us know), there is a simple workaround: instead of linking directly to the XML file, you can add http://distrowatch.com/index.php to Google Reader or Google.com. The index page has embedded RSS feed links, which seems to be picked up correctly by Google's web site and its news reader.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
- Oracle Unbreakable Linux. Oracle Unbreakable Linux is an enterprise-class Linux distribution supported by Oracle. According to the project's web site, "Oracle starts with Red Hat Linux, removes Red Hat trademarks, and then adds Linux bug fixes." Although Oracle Unbreakable Linux is touted as a "support programme", rather than a distribution, it is also provided in the form of freely downloadable CD images. Oracle Unbreakable Linux is, and intends to remain, fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- ArtistX. ArtistX, or eXtra ordinary art tool, is a Debian GNU/Linux live DVD based on Debian Live. The distribution includes thousands of multimedia software packages for audio, 2D/3D graphics and video artists. The project's web site lists software, hardware and media for free multimedia production and will grow slowly but constantly into a full source for creative enthusiasts mirroring and linking to the best free multimedia technology sources. ArtistX is created by Marco Ghirlanda, one of the former developers of Medialinux.
- Emanon Linux. Emanon Linux is a security-oriented server distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Endian Firewall. Made in Argentina.
- Majilux. Majilux is a KNOPPIX-based live CD that includes a thin client server (LTSP) and Internet filtering with DansGuardian. It is designed mainly for schools and the software is pre-configured to work "out-of-the-box". There are two editions - one based on Debian "sarge" and the other on Debian "etch". The project's web site is in French only, but the CD images support English and other languages as well.
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DistroWatch database summary
And that concludes our latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 6 November 2006. Until then,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
OpenBSD
The OpenBSD project produces a free, multi-platform BSD 4.4-based UNIX-like operating system. Its efforts emphasize portability, standardisation, correctness, proactive security and integrated cryptography. The project also develops the widely-used and popular OpenSSH (OpenBSD Secure Shell) software, which provides encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the SSH protocol.
Status: Active
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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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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