 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 185, 15 January 2007 |
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Welcome to this year's third issue of DistroWatch Weekly! A somewhat slow week was concluded with a long-awaited new release of FreeBSD 6.2; we'll take a quick look at the new version and add a few more interesting bits and pieces from the BSD world. Besides covering the most popular BSD operating system, we also continue reviewing some of the promising new releases of 2006; this week it's the turn of Pardus Linux - an independently developed distribution with a superb package management infrastructure. In the news section, gNewSense starts work on a new release, a developer announces a Debian-based live CD for the Sony PlayStation 3, and Sun Microsystems offers a free DVD with Solaris 10 to all who are interested in checking out the venerable UNIX operating system. Finally, a quick reminder about a DistroWatch editorial policy. Happy reading!
Content:
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| Reviews |
Pardus Linux 2007
Having seen dozens of Linux distributions announcing themselves with great enthusiasm only to disappear at the sight of a first problem a few months later, I am not easily impressed by any new arrival on the Linux distro scene. As such, when the first stable release of Pardus Linux was announced in 2005, I found myself inserting the installation CD with a considerable amount of scepticism. At that time, Pardus was a Gentoo-based operating system, but stripped of what makes the most popular source-based distribution so great - its Portage package management. Without it, Pardus lacked the very basic must-have functionality of a modern distribution: the ability to easily install and uninstall software packages.
But unlike many others, the Pardus developers did not get deterred by the early criticism. By the end of 2006, they released a brand new version which not only included an original package management system, it also came with a number of other unique enhancements, as well as an extremely polished desktop and highly up-to-date software. My first impressions of Pardus Linux 2007 were much more positive and I decided to spend a few days investigating this distribution further. This time my conclusions were different: Pardus Linux is not only a remarkable distribution, it is also one of the most unexpected surprise packages of 2006!
Pardus Linux 2007 is no longer based on Gentoo. It comes in two flavours: as a live CD and as an installation CD, both of which are referred to by their Turkish names of "calisan" (live CD) and "kurulan" (installation CD). The live CD is not installable. The installation CD boots into a full-screen graphical installation program called YALI, which guides the user though the usual disk partitioning and system installation steps. Pardus Linux is a KDE-centric distribution, which means that the default desktop is a customised edition of KDE and all Pardus utilities are written using the Qt toolkit.
The Pardus Linux 2007 desktop
(full image size: 202kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The developers of Pardus Linux have created an operating system which has a number of unique features. Among them, the PiSi package management utility, the Mudur init system, and the ÇOMAR (pronounced chow-mar) configuration manager are touted as the most interesting features of the distribution. This brief review will focus on evaluating these three features and determining how useful they are compared to other, more established tools found in popular Linux distributions.
First, a look at the PiSi package management tools. I wrote the word "tools" in plural, because PiSi consists of several utilities, which together form what surely is one of the best package management systems in any Linux distribution available today. PiSi includes a comprehensive command-line tool for installing, uninstalling and searching applications, it adds an excellent graphical utility with modules to manage software repositories and the download cache, it provides an update manager in the system tray displaying the number of available package updates, and it is able to retrieve new software from a fairly long list of packages (1,577 at the time of writing) available for easy installation on the Pardus Linux mirrors. As a bonus, PiSi updates are accomplished by downloading only those parts of the updated program that have changed since the previous version (rather than the entire new version), saving time and adding to the feeling that PiSi was designed correctly right from the start. These are essential functions of any good package manager and Pardus Linux deserves the highest possible mark for integrating them into the distribution.
Pardus Linux 2007 includes a comprehensive graphical package manager
(full image size: 87kB, screen resolution: 822x626 pixels)
Some readers will argue that creating a new package management system increases incompatibility among the Linux distributions. While they certainly have a valid point, I feel that the developers of Pardus have done a fantastic job and PiSi is an extraordinarily good package management system. As such, I'd be inclined to make an exception and forgive the incompatibility issue in this case.
Another innovation in Pardus Linux is a complete rewrite of its boot process, also known as init in Linux. Compared to other operating systems, such as FreeBSD, Linux generally takes much longer to boot and many distributions, including Ubuntu, have recently started looking into ways of improving the boot process. The developers of Pardus Linux too embarked on implementing a new init framework with the result being a Python-based routine called "Mudur". Those readers who are interested in technical aspects of Mudur can find a detailed explanation in this article, but for the purpose of this review, here is a list of the boot times of several major distributions installed on the same machine (a Pentium 4 1.4 GHz processor with 384 MB or RAM). The boot times represent the number of seconds each distribution took to get from LILO or GRUB boot prompt to the KDE or GNOME login prompt in their default installations.
| Boot Times |
|---|
| Distribution |
Seconds |
| Mandriva Linux 2007 |
40 |
| PCLinuxOS 0.93a |
46 |
| Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 |
47 |
| Pardus Linux 2007 |
48 |
| Ubuntu 6.10 |
49 |
| SimplyMEPIS 6.0-4 (Beta 1) |
51 |
| openSUSE 10.2 |
61 |
| Fedora Core 6 |
72 |
| Xandros Desktop 4.1 |
89 |
As the results of this little test indicate, Pardus Linux boots reasonably fast, but it isn't the fastest kid on the block.
Pardus Linux 2007 ships with a number of custom utilities which intend to simplify the management of the desktop. One of them is Kaptan, an interesting first-time wizard designed to configure the most common desktop settings, such as the mouse, select a desktop style from a number of pre-configured options, choose a wallpaper, and configure networking. This tool is clearly aimed at novice Linux users, since the more experienced ones will likely be able to configure these options without the wizard.
Kaptan is a first-time wizard designed to help with configuring the desktop
(full image size: 35kB, screen resolution: 648x537 pixels)
Next on the list of interesting utilities is Tasma, a Pardus configuration centre. This utility is similar to openSUSE's YaST or Mandriva's DrakConf and offers many of the same features, but Tasma is still in its early days and doesn't provide nearly as many configuration options as its more famous counterparts. In fact, most of the available modules simply link to the ones provided natively by KDE. Nevertheless, the simplified user interface of Tasma will likely appeal to beginning Linux users who might be lost in the more complex screens of the KDE Control Centre.
Tasma is a collection of mostly KDE modules offering easy desktop configuration
(full image size: 68kB, screen resolution: 689x545 pixels)
The rest of the system is the simply KDE with the usual range of open source software applications. There is Firefox for web browsing, Kontact for email and as a personal information manager, Amarok audio player, Kaffeine and MPlayer media players (with out-of-the-box support for viewing encrypted DVDs), GIMP image editor, and OpenOffice.org. Many common utilities are also present.
Overall, the two most impressive features of Pardus Linux 2007 are desktop polish (with excellent choices of icons, fonts and desktop themes) and the PiSi package management system, which has truly raised the bar among the package management utilities to a new level. On the negative side, during my testing both Kaptan and Tasma were somewhat prone to crashing, although luckily these utilities are not essential for desktop computing. As always, with Pardus being a rather niche distribution, there is a danger that the project gets abandoned at some stage, so growth in user numbers is essential for the project's long-term survival.
One final note: Pardus Linux does not provide English language support infrastructure, but a third-party forum for English speakers exists on the Dutch Pardus community web site at pardus-linux.nl.
For more information about Pardus Linux please visit the project's web site at www.pardus.org.tr.
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| Miscellaneous News |
FreeBSD 6.2, BSD licensing, new gNewSense point release, Debian live CD for PS3, Solaris media kit
 The third week of January belongs to the FreeBSD project as it finally launches the long-delayed FreeBSD 6.2. As is normally the case with FreeBSD, the changes are fairly technical and include new features such as freebsd-update - a new, easy-to-use tool for applying binary security updates to FreeBSD, support for kernel-level security event auditing, updates to the FreeBSD boot loader, support for many newly added hardware devices, and various userland software updates. All security patches since the release of FreeBSD 6.1 have also been incorporated into the latest release. For upgrade instructions, please refer to the Rebuilding "world" chapter of the FreeBSD Handbook, while those who want to perform a new installation should read the Installation chapters in the same document.
In the meantime, the FreeBSD development team has been busy working on the project's next major release, FreeBSD 7. This is expected to contain a large number of radical new features, including a port of the ZFS file system and DTrace diagnostic tool from Solaris to FreeBSD, as well as substantial performance enhancements. Those of you who are interested in learning about the changes in the rapidly evolving FreeBSD 7 branch should bookmark the What's cooking for FreeBSD 7? page, which attempts to summarise the recent commits by the project's developers. FreeBSD 7.0 is scheduled for release in late 2007.
While on the subject of FreeBSD, here is an an excellent write-up, published by Groklaw, about the intricacies of the BSD licensing model. Entitled BSD - The Dark Horse of Open Source, the paper attempts to correct some common misunderstandings about the implications of modifying the BSD source code and the subsequent licensing of such modifications: "We observe that there exists a broad misconception that the BSD permits the licensing of BSD code and modifications of BSD code under closed source licenses. In this paper we put forward an argument to the effect that the terms of the BSD require BSD code and modifications to BSD code to be licensed under the terms of the BSD license. We look at some possible consequences and observe that this licensing requirement could have serious impacts on the unwary."
And finally, with the release of FreeBSD 6.2 this week, there are signs of increased activity taking place in some other FreeBSD-based projects; it looks like the final release of the FreeSBIE 2.0 live CD is now available from a number of FreeSBIE mirrors, while rumours have been circulating about the imminent release of DesktopBSD 1.6-RC1 later this week. Both these releases are based on the new FreeBSD 6.2.
* * * * *
 gNewSense, the FSF-sponsored, Ubuntu-based distribution containing strictly Free Software only, has announced plans to produce a new "point release" in the coming weeks: "Upcoming point release: we will be doing two items of note in this release. gNewSense will be releasing a 'KDE' desktop, with a corresponding CD, it is releasing merely a variant, not a distribution. This CD is to be called gNewSense-KDE. We are currently working with someone to develop our version of a fix for the Firefox or Mozilla technology issue." Other points of interest, which emerged after the recent meeting between the two lead developers in Dublin, Ireland, are requests for artwork submissions, product internationalisation features, and updates to the distribution's web site and Wiki pages. For more information please read the Minutes of the meeting between Brian Brazil and Paul O'Malley.
* * * * *
 Takeshi Yaegashi has announced the release of what appears to be the first Linux live CD designed for the Sony PlayStation 3: "I've released Debian live CD for PlayStation 3 which also integrates the Debian-Installer in a single ISO image." The CD boots into a GNOME 2.14 desktop environment complemented by a small selection of other useful software applications, such as the Firefox web browser. The project's web site provides further information about the available boot parameters and instructions for remastering the CD with personalised software. The ISO image is available for download from here: debian-live-ps3pf-20070110.iso (222MB).
* * * * *
 The DistroWatch Weekly forums are a frequent reminder that this site's readership comprises of a fair number of Puppy Linux fans. If you are one of them, you'll be pleased to learn about this exclusive interview with Kenneth Hensley, the author of the Unofficial Puppy Linux Guide: "In the beginning there was the forum, and I do not believe anybody anticipated how big Puppy Linux would grow in such a short time. Many suggested that a Wiki would do a good job for this documentation. This was a positive, but sadly no one showed any leadership. After messing around with StickWiki, I was going to surprise Barry Kauler by transforming his help files into one single-page Wiki. This did not go right for me, because I could not understand much of the documentation available. So I took a look at the Ubuntu guide and saw what they did." Read more at LXer.com.
* * * * *
 Finally, for those of you who don't read Slashdot but are interested in testing the Solaris operating system, here is a great offer from Sun Microsystems: "For a limited time, Sun is offering a free DVD media kit which includes the Solaris 10 operating system for both SPARC and x86 platforms as well as Sun Studio 11 software. Take this opportunity to get familiar with the most advanced operating system on the planet and the tools which enable the highest optimizations and best runtime performance on the Solaris Operating System, bar-none. Sun Studio software provides optimizing C, C++ and Fortran compilers, visual performance tools, and high performance libraries to enhance your Solaris development environment." To get your free Solaris 10 DVD, please visit the Free Solaris 10 and Sun Studio Software Media Kit page and fill in your address details.
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| Released Last Week |
SabayonLinux 3.26
A new version of SabayonLinux, with a number of bug fixes and feature updates, has been released. Some of the main changes include: "Linux kernel 2.6.19 with sata_promise driver now supports PATA connectors too; NdisWrapper updated to 1.34rc2; KVM now is detected and works out of the box on VT-enabled CPUs; KDE Print control panel now works; AbiWord updated to 2.4.6; Democracy Player updated to 0.9.2.1; Amarok now works; ALSA updated to 1.0.14rc1; Flash Player updated to 9.0.21.78; installer: multi-user configuration now works; highly improved boot time by triggering doslowusb only when really needed; OpenGL auto-configuration now takes half of the time to configure video card...." Read the release announcement for further information.
PC-BSD 1.3.01
The PC-BSD project has announced the availability of a bug-fix release of PC-BSD, version 1.3.01: "Version 1.3.01 of PC-BSD has now been made available on the download page. This update addresses several recent issues with partitioning, as well as fixes issues with certain hardware and HAL support. Users already running version 1.3 may download an update to 1.3.01 via the 'Online Update' utility." New in this release: "Updated HAL to latest version in Ports; updated PCInstall code with fixes for extended partitions; updated enable.sh script for HAL in Services tool; added Arabic language to installer; fixed issue with changing the video card on install CD to 'vesa'; fixed issue running PBIs directly from CD...." Read the release announcement, release notes and changelog for more details.
SystemRescueCd 0.3.2
A new bug-fix release of SystemRescueCd is now available: "Version 0.3.2 (stable) of the SystemRescueCd project has been released. Changes for version 0.3.2: updated TestDisk to 6.5; updated ntfs3g beta to 20070102; updated Ntfsresize to 1.13.1.1 (for Windows Vista); added option 'doeject' to eject the disc at boot time; added cryptsetup-luks; added CmosPwd (decrypts CMOS password); added magicrescue (find deleted files); added mbr (install-mbr); added Mrxvt (nice terminal for X.Org); added several administration tools (sysstat, hddtemp, ide-smart); added Oscar (French tool to backup computers); improved support for hardware; improved keymaps support (fr_CH and speakup)." Here is the full changelog.
BLAG Linux And GNU 60000
BLAG Linux And GNU 60000, a single-CD, Fedora-based distribution, has been released: "BLAG 60000 (flout) is a new series with a new base (Fedora Core 6) and many new applications." The new version ships with Linux kernel 2.6.19 and includes the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment, 2.16. Among software applications, BLAG 60000 features a large number of multimedia packages, such as Democracy Player, the Kino video editor, Listen audio player and Audacity sound editor. Kiax Internet telephony software and Gaim instant messaging client are also provided. Other popular software, including Firefox, Thunderbird or GIMP are included on the installation CD, while additional 8,500 packages are available from the project's download repositories or two downloadable DVDs. Please read the complete release announcement for more information.
FreeBSD 6.2
The FreeBSD project has announced the release of FreeBSD 6.2: "The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE. This release continues the development of the 6-STABLE branch providing performance and stability improvements, many bug fixes and new features. Some of the highlights: freebsd-update provides officially supported binary updates for security fixes and errata patches; experimental support for CAPP security event auditing; OpenBSM audit command line tool suite and library; KDE updated to 3.5.4, GNOME updated to 2.16.1; csup integrated cvsup client now included...." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
- VectorLinux 5.8-beta (live), the release announcement
- Damn Small Linux 3.2-rc3, the changelog
- Frugalware Linux 0.6-pre2, the release announcement
- AliXe 0.10-rc1, the release announcement (in French)
- 64Studio 1.1.0, the release announcement
- SimplyMEPIS 6.0-4-beta3, the release announcement
- Lunar Linux 1.6.1-rc2, the release announcement
- Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Edubuntu, 7.04-alpha2, the release announcement
- Kaella 3.1-beta1
- IPCop Firewall 1.4.13-rc1
- Magic Linux 2.0 (live)
- Guadalinex 4.0-beta2
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Mandriva Linux 2007.1
Mandriva has published a preliminary release roadmap towards the upcoming Mandriva Linux 2007.1. Apart from the recently released Cooker snapshot, four more development builds will be released between January and March 2007. According to the Mandriva Linux 2007.1 development page, the final version is scheduled for release on 19 March 2007, although the release page states that it should be completed in April 2007. Mandriva Linux 2007.1 will include kernel 2.6.17, X.Org 7.1 with AIGLX support, KDE 3.5.5, GNOME 2.17, Firefox 2.0, OpenOffice.org 2.0.4, and 3D desktop with Compiz and Beryl. Please visit the Mandriva Linux 2007.1 release page for more information.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
A semi-annual reminder about DistroWatch editorial policy
This is just a quick reminder about an issue that comes up from time to time: a distribution or project release announcement is only published on the main page of DistroWatch after a release announcement is published on the distribution's or project's own web site. A case in point was last week's release of Ubuntu 7.04 Herd CD 2. Normally, the Ubuntu development team sends a formal release announcement to one of the project's mailing lists; however, this had not happened until today (Monday). Similarly, many news sites reported about the release of FreeBSD 6.2 late last week, despite the fact that the FreeBSD web site continued listing version 6.1 as the latest stable release.
Those of you who want to be informed about a new release as soon as it hits the first FTP server, please visit one of the many news sites which do announce the availability of ISO images even before a formal release announcement is made by the distribution or project. One of the sites with such editorial policy is OSNews.com, but there are many others.
Of course, it is possible that we miss a release, in which case you are welcome to submit the news. Just please make sure that you email us a link to an official press release or release announcement and not to an ISO image on a random mirror. We try to be very fast with announcing new releases on DistroWatch, but we will never announce a release that has not been formally announced by the project itself.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
And this concludes our latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 22 January 2007. Until then,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Litrix Linux
Litrix was a desktop Linux distribution and live DVD based on Gentoo Linux.
Status: Discontinued
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| Star Labs |
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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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