DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 250, 28 April 2008 |
Welcome to this year's 17th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! This was surely one of the most trying weeks for the system administrators of many public FTP and HTTP servers that provide the Ubuntu ISO images - such was the demand for the new release that not even the project's main web site could keep up with the request rate! But that's a testament to Ubuntu's popularity, which has now grown into the world's most wanted alternative operating system. In other news, the Debian project has revived the Debian Weekly News, OpenSolaris has announced a final release candidate for its upcoming first stable release, Software Wydawnictwo has published the inaugural issue of the new BSD Magazine, and openSUSE has unveiled a new resource for beta testers of its distribution. Also not to be missed: our firs look at the new ASUS Eee PC 900 with Xandros Desktop pre-installed. Happy reading!
Content:
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Featured Story |
First look at ASUS Eee PC 900
I remember the time when, shortly after the launch of the new Eee PC, an excited reader emailed me: "This is the best thing that could happen to Linux," he asserted with excitement. Unfortunately for him, I didn't share his enthusiasm. "It's just a very low-specification, low-cost computer," I replied, "which is kind of usable, but otherwise hardly exciting." To the credit of the reader, he didn't get upset over my response and continued arguing in favour of the Eee PC: "I do think that having a Linux installed in a device that is getting picked up by the thousands is great. Specially when I see the amount of positive feedback from people who never used Linux before! The device itself is a bit bare, but as a second ultra-portable PC, it's good enough."
This conversation took place five months ago. Since then, many things have happened: the Eee PC started shipping worldwide, an enthusiastic open-source developer community began to form around the hardware, ASUS released the entire installation ISO image, together with a developer kit, as a free download, and the developer blogs on Debian and Fedora Planets started filling up with praise for the little laptop. I felt ashamed of my initial response to the enthusiastic reader as, all of a sudden, the tiny Eee PC didn't look bad at all. So much so, that when the first units of the second generation Eee PC 900 started shipping here in Taipei early last week, I was the first in line to buy one for myself!
In a word, I was wrong. The Eee PC is not only an excellent way of promoting Linux among the masses, it is a great device to have around the house. At less than 1 kg and with a wireless network card, the laptop can be easily taken anywhere within the reach of your wireless router for some light browsing, a photo display session, and even some work in the form of document editing with OpenOffice.org. One of our recent visitors was happily using it for some late night Skype talking with a relative in a distant land, while another found it an excellent device for catching up with the latest news in her home country by following a streaming radio broadcast. Despite its low cost and small size, the Eee PC is amazingly flexible and full-featured to the point that it can easily serve as a replacement for a more bulky laptop when travelling.
The most noticeable difference between the 700/701 and 900 series is of course the size of the monitor, which, at 8.9 inches, is capable of maximum screen resolutions of 1024x600 pixels. This makes for a vastly improved usability experience, especially in terms of web browsing. The memory has been increased to 1,024 MB (from 512 MB on the 701 series), while the capacity of the solid state disk is now 20 GB (up from 2 - 8 GB in the older models). The size of the touchpad has also increased. In Taiwan, the unit retails for NT$15,900 (US$524, €335), while in Hong Kong (where it has reportedly been sold out within days of its launch) it goes for HK$3,998 (US$513, €328).

Finally it's here - the new Eee PC 900 with a 9-inch monitor and a 1024x600 pixel screen resolution. (image size: 208kB; screen resolution: 1024x600 pixels)
On the software front, the new Eee PC 900 still ships with the same Xandros Desktop OS that graced the earlier 700/701 series. At first glance, very little has changed (I used a borrowed Eee PC 701 for a few days before buying the new 900 model), but comparing the software package lists installed on the two laptops, there are quite a few differences. While most of them seem like minor bug fixes, a few applications have been updated to newer versions; notably Firefox (2.0.0.11) and Skype (2.0.58). Users of traditional Chinese will notice that the SCIM input method editor has been replaced with gcin (the available input methods are Cangjie, Chewing, Pinyin, Tsin, Dayi and Wubi). Other than these, there isn't anything really exciting to report.
I've found the look and feel of the default desktop, with its easy-to-navigate tabbed interface (powered by IceWM), very usable and up until now I haven't felt a very strong urge to hack it into something more Linux-like or to replace it with a different distribution. But I know that it's just a matter of time before I start tinkering (I've already looked through EeeUser.com Wiki pages for some information about tweaking the desktop into something more powerful). Once that happens, I'll duly report about it here, but in the meantime, I am quite happy to stay with whatever the new Eee PC came with.
For the next few weeks I am planning to dig deeper into the Eee PC 900, focusing first on tweaking Xandros Desktop into a more powerful system and later trying out different distributions that are known to work on the laptop. Mandriva Linux 2008.1 is reportedly designed to work on the machine out of the box, while many other projects, such as eeeDora, eeeXubuntu, PuppEee, Debian EeeOS and others exist in order to develop custom solutions for the laptop. Interesting weeks ahead with the new toy ;-)
For more information about Eee PC 900, please visit the product's features and specifications page on ASUS.com.
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Miscellaneous News |
Ubuntu release day, Debian Weekly News, openSUSE beta testing, Fedora feature list, OpenSolaris release candidate, interviews with Mark Shuttleworth and Steve McIntyre, BSD Magazine
The wait is over. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, code name "Hardy Heron", was released as scheduled last week. As has been the case with all of the project's recent releases, the Ubuntu download servers struggled under the demand and even its official web site was hard hit by impatient users looking for the upgrade guide and other relevant pages. DistroWatch.com too received a high number of visits - our main page recorded a total 150,145 hits on Thursday, beating the previous record, which was also noted on an Ubuntu release day, by some 10,000 hits. Besides Ubuntu, all the other members of the Ubuntu family were released at the same time; while Kubuntu and Xubuntu should be familiar to most readers, Ubuntu Studio and Mythbuntu were released as official Ubuntu distributions for the very first time. But those who were looking for the Edubuntu installation CDs might have been disappointed - it no longer comes as a separate distribution, but rather as an add-on CD, which can be installed on top of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is a long-term support release, with 3 - 5 years of free security updates (full image size: 636kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
A few days before the release, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth talked to The Register about the arrival of Hardy Heron. One of the topics covered was the synchronisation of release schedules among the big Linux vendors in order to share bug-hunting and patching work: "We would be quite willing to revisit the elements of our release schedule in order to make that synchronisation possible, if the fact that we happen to do April and October wouldn't work for the majority of the distros. We would be flexible in that regard. Timing your releases drives a whole bunch of things. It means a greater ability to collaborate on bug fixes. If we are on the same versions of the Linux kernel, it is a lot easier for us to say, 'Hey, here is this patch to make this device work. Do you know any reason why we shouldn't put it in?' You could just get so much more done at an engineering level between the teams."
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Speaking of interviews, here is one given by the Debian project leader-elect Steve McIntyre at Computerworld UK. Asking whether Debian could do more to promote itself as a solution for the enterprise, McIntyre replied: "I think that there's always scope for us to do more on that front. There will always be some users who won't believe in Debian as an option for the enterprise just because we're not directly backed by a large corporation, and that will be a difficult attitude to change. However, I know of lots of companies today that will provide paid support for Debian where it's required, and we already have a fine reputation for stability. I think that the next trick is to start making more of a positive impact directly in the 'Enterprise' space with positive press exposure and good reviews."
Still on the subject of Debian GNU/Linux, good news for those who missed Debian Weekly News, the weekly newsletter summarising the events in the Debian development world. The publication, which was discontinued after the controversial Dunc-Tank initiative, has been revived thanks to a group of Debian developers. From the latest issue: "Christian Perrier noticed that in the last batch of people becoming official Debian Developers, 10% are female. He hopes that the Debian Women Project, which tries to encourage women to become more involved with Debian, will keep the pace. Russell Coker blogged several times about the status of Security Enhanced Linux (SE Linux) support in Debian. He concludes that it isn't in bad shape, but has still room for improvements. After it has been often seemed, that the FTP master team as well as the Debian Account Managers (DAM) seem to not be able to handle the workload, Jörg Jaspert, who has already served as FTP assistant and secondary DAM, has been delegated to a full FTP master and DAM by the former Debian Project Leader Sam Hocevar."
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The Project Indiana development team has announced the availability of the release candidate for OpenSolaris 2008.05, a desktop operating system based on OpenSolaris: "As with Developer Preview 2 (DP2), we'd like to offer a release candidate out so that the teams can get some feedback. Unlike DP1 or DP2, we are going to update the packages on pkg.opensolaris.org. This update will take place in the next 24 hours - a specific message announcing that update will follow. (Please focus initially on live CD and installation testing; do not pull new packages from pkg.opensolaris.org until you see that message.) Once the final image for 2008.05 is ready, we'll make it available via HTTP and BitTorrent. More complete instructions and release notes will be published alongside that release." The live CD is available for download via BitTorrent: 0805rc2a.iso (686MB).
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Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier, the openSUSE community leader, has noted a great resource for those openSUSE fans who enjoy beta testing the distribution: "Now that the first beta is out for openSUSE 11.0, it's time to dig in and really start banging on the release to catch bugs before the release candidates and final release. If you're wondering where to start, Holger Sickenberg has put together an excellent resource to help guide testing. Holger has compiled a list of new features in openSUSE 11.0 that it would be a good idea to test to ensure that each and every feature works as planned and is as bug-free as possible. Holger has also included directions for testers, so it's as easy as loading up openSUSE 11.0 and following the steps. If you do find any bugs, be sure to check the Bug reporting FAQ and report the bug in Bugzilla."
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Jonathan Roberts, a member of Fedora Project, has sent an email to DistroWatch highlighting some of the resources available to the wider Fedora user community, specifically mentioning the feature lists and release notes: "Every release a feature listed is created and maintained by our developers to provide information about the features they're working on - both technical implementation details, and also details on the potential impact for end-users can be found here. We hope that this will not only improve our internal co-ordination, but allow members of the press to get an early look at technologies that will be significant over the coming months. It can be found at the following web address:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/#/FeatureList
Where # is the number of the release you're interested in.
One other important piece of documentation that you might like to be aware of, and which might stand to make your life a little easier, is that with every development release (alpha, beta, etc.) we create a single page set of Release Notes that detail how the features on the feature list are coming together at that particular point in time. This can be found at:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/#/$MileStone/ReleaseNotes
Where # is the number of the release you're interested in, and $MileStone is the formal title of the mile stone you're interested in, such as alpha or beta."
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 The inaugural issue of the all-new BSD Magazine is out: "BSD Magazine issue #1 is out. Really good to see that the first BSD Magazine has come out and is being distributed. There are several types of subscriptions for this magazine, i.e. print subscription, electronic subscription and a corporate subscription for companies. More than 60 pages full of news, great articles, tutorials, HOWTOs and extras: what's new (section for news: new releases, upcoming events, latest products); get started (installation and configuration articles); HOWTOs (tutorials, how-tos, guides on various topics); admin (articles about system administration and security); MMS (multimedia section); tips & tricks (useful tips for beginners and advanced); let's talk (section where BSD users and professionals can share their general thoughts about BSD and open source)." More information is available on the publication's web site at BSDMag.org.
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Finally, Marcel J. Zwiebel, the founder and lead developer of Nonux (a Slackware-based distribution designed for business environments) has let us know that his distribution is now also available in English: "Nonux English edition is the English-language variant of the Dutch Linux desktop distribution called Nonux (version 4.4). Nonux is optimized for daily use in Small Office or Home Office environments but could also be an interesting alternative for someone who needs a no-nonsense but complete working environment for daily computer tasks. Nonux consists of two main parts - parts of the Slackware Linux distribution as the base and Dropline GNOME as its graphical interface. The fundamental goal of Nonux is to provide simplicity, speed, reliability, security and minimal configuration. The Linux kernel is optimized for desktop use as are the installed software packages." The English edition of Nonux 4.4 is distributed as an installable live CD and is available for download from here: nonux-4.4-en.iso (693MB, MD5).

Nonux is Slackware-based distribution featuring Dropline GNOME. (full image size: 1,315kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Released Last Week |
Vyatta 4.0
Vyatta has announced the release of Vyatta Community Edition 4, a Debian-based firewall distribution: "Vyatta today announced Vyatta Community Edition 4 (VC4), the latest release of its reliable, commercially supported open-source network operating system." Some of the new features include: "Improved scalability - VC4 now scales from DSL to 10 GB Ethernet environments; new routing technology for improved performance; designed to accommodate an ever-increasing number of applications and functionality extensions; adds remote access VPN, QoS, role-based access control, and the new FusionCLI management interface; provides support for PPPoE and dynamic interface IP addresses, and WAN load balancing." Read the complete press release for more details.
Damn Small Linux 4.3
Robert Shingledecker has announced the final release of Damn Small Linux 4.3. From the changelog: "Updated Firefox browser to version 2; updated murgaLua to 0.6.8; updated nano-tiny to 2.0.7; updated and consolidation of mydslBrowser with new mydslBrowser.lua; new picture puzzle added to Games collection; new calculator.lua replaces Calcoo; optimized minirt24.gz - much smaller; new background and theme for both JWM and Fluxbox; updated 'noicons' boot option to suppress icons in JWM; fixed removal of mydsl extensions on traditional hard drive installations; dropped SCSI modules for needed space - available in the modules section; fixed CD recording scanbus device error by adding scsi/sg.o module; updated editor.lua - menu issue resolved for new murgaLua version...."

Damn Small Linux 4.3 with the JWM window manager (full image size: 571kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
PC-BSD 1.5.1
Kris Moore has announced the release of PC-BSD 1.5.1, a desktop operating system based on FreeBSD 6: "PC-BSD version 1.5.1 is now available for download as both ISO and updates from version 1.5. This version provides updates to the default port set, as well as numerous bug fixes to the system tools and utilities. Also, additional translations have been added to provide a more complete localized experience." From the changelog: "Bug fixes to the PBI removal tool; added detection for NFE / MSK networking cards; added GutenPrint support for additional print drivers; added additional fonts to X.Org; updated the PolicyKit configuration for latest HAL improvements; fixed SMP support in default kernel configuration; bug fixes to the new SystemUpdater tool; updated the installed ports to latest as of 2008-04-16...." The release announcement, changelog, release notes.
Ubuntu 8.04
Welcome to the big Ubuntu release day! As expected, Canonical today announced the release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, a desktop and server Linux distribution with a long-term support characteristic: "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) on desktop and server, continuing Ubuntu's tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The latest Ubuntu release brings the best of open source together on a platform that is here to stay with 3 years of free updates. With hundreds of improvements and the addition of the latest version of Firefox amongst other outstanding applications, more and more users are assessing why Ubuntu wins more and more converts with every release." Read the release announcement, check out the release notes and visit the features page for more information.
Kubuntu 8.04
Jonathan Riddell has announced the release of Kubuntu 8.04, an Ubuntu variant featuring the KDE desktop environment: "Rock solid Kubuntu 8.04 and cutting edge Kubuntu 8.04 KDE 4 remix released. Kubuntu 8.04 consists of two different releases, the commercially supported one featuring the stable KDE 3.5.9 desktop and a remix featuring the latest release of KDE 4.0. New in Kubuntu 8.04: KDE 3/4 with desktop effects, Amarok, and Kaffeine codec installation; Wubi installer for Windows; file system encryption; NTFS support and user mountable hard disks; bulletproof X and display configuration; Guidance Power Manager." Read the full release announcement for further details.
Xubuntu 8.04
Next, it's the turn of Xubuntu to announce their latest release, version 8.04: "The Xubuntu developers are constantly bringing you the absolute latest and most stable software that the open source and free software communities have to offer. This is their latest result: the Xubuntu 8.04 LTS, which brings a host of excellent new features: Xfce 4.4.2, featuring the latest round of bug fixes from the steadily-improving Xfce 4 desktop environment; Linux kernel 2.6.24; PolicyKit with fine-grained control over user permissions, PulseAudio sound server; X.Org 7.3; the settings manager; Thunar file browser, Firefox 3.0 beta 5; Brasero and Transmission..." Read the rest of the release notes for more information.
Mythbuntu 8.04
Mythbuntu 8.04, a new member of the Ubuntu family and a distribution whose goal is to make it easy to set up a home theatre system with MythTV, has been released: "After long hours and endless work the Mythbuntu team is excited about the release of Mythbuntu 8.04. This release is built on the LTS base of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Features: frontend can be run from the live CD; complete installations (backend, frontend, backend/frontend, etc); Xfce window manager; easily upgrade from Ubuntu Hardy to Mythbuntu; custom Mythbuntu MythTV theme; graphical setup of LIRC; set up MythTV optimizations through Mythbuntu Control Center (MCC); diskless server setup through MCC. Major changes: MythTV 0.21; diskless server; new Mythbuntu frontend theme; new web site theme." Read the release announcement and release notes for further information.
MythDora 5.0
MythDora 5.0, a Fedora-based distribution designed to simplify the installation of MythTV on a home theatre PC, has been released: "MythDora 5.0 is finally here. It's based on Fedora 8 along with MythTV 0.21. This version is the cleanest, most feature-rich and best-tested version we've done so far. Installing MythDora 5.0 has pretty much stayed the same as the previous version so there shouldn't be too many surprises. You can still install the same way as before using Custom or Auto with Custom being the preferred method. MythDora 5 features: Fedora 8 with 2.6.24.4 kernel; MythTV 0.21; more remote control support; PVR-350 TV-out GUI installer; MythWeb password protect at install; NFS/Samba GUI installers; MythTV Add/Remove module GUI menu; MythTV Setup access from MythDora Tools; IMDB Bulk updater script; latest NVIDIA, ATI and OpenChrome drivers...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
SystemRescueCd 1.0.2
An updated version of SystemRescueCd, a Gentoo-based distribution for hard disk partitioning and data rescue tasks, is out. From the changelog: "Enabled Unicode by default; updated the default kernel to Linux 2.6.24.5 with Reiser4; updated PartImage to 0.6.7; NTFS-3G to 1.2412; added extra ntfsprogs tools (ntfswipe, ntfstruncate, ntfsmove, ntfsmftalloc); rxvt-unicode; added networking tools: OpenVPN, PPTP Client, Openswan, VPNC; added autossh (automatically restart SSH sessions and tunnels); rewrote the network boot options implementation (make it simpler); improved the DHCP boot options support (PXE boot and dodhcp option); added network boot options for static addresses on single interfaces; fixed boot from and hard disk connected to an HP Smart Array (CCISS); added the server mode in TightVNC...." Read the complete changelog for further details.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- eAR OS. eAR OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring the eAR Media Center, an application designed to simplify watching digital TV and DVDs, rip CDs, listen to Internet radio, view Photos, listen to music, etc.
- ForLex. ForLex is a KNOPPIX-based live CD, which includes a variety of software for forensic analysis. The project's web site is in Italian.
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DistroWatch database summary
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 5 May 2008.
Ladislav Bodnar
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Archives |
• Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
• Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
• Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
• Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
• Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
• Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
• Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
• Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
• Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
• Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
• Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
• Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
• Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
• Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
• Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20 |
• Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
• Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
• Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
• Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
• Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
• Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
• Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
• Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
• Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
• Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
• Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
• Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
• Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
• Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
• Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
• Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
• Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
• Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
• Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
• Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
• Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
• Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
• Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
• Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
• 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 |
• Full list of all issues |
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Random Distribution | 
Insigne Linux
Insigne Linux was a Brazilian desktop Linux distribution and live CD based on Debian's testing branch.
Status: Discontinued
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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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