 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 267, 25 August 2008 |
|
Welcome to this year's 34th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Not all user-friendly desktop operating systems are based on Linux; as demonstrated by PC-BSD, it is entirely feasible to turn a "geek" project into a piece of software that can be installed and used by even less technical computer users. In this issue, we talk to Kris Moore, PC-BSD lead developer, about his love affair with FreeBSD and the upcoming PC-BSD 7.0. In the news section, Fedora admits that some of its servers have been compromised, Novell signs a new, US$100 million "interoperability" deal with Microsoft, openSUSE ads SELinux support as an alternative security framework, and gNewSense celebrates its second birthday with an updated release of the "freest" Linux distribution. Finally, FreeBSD announces tentative release dates for its upcoming versions 6.4 and 7.1. All this and more in this issue of DistroWatch Weekly - happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (16MB) and mp3 (16MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
|
| Feature Story |
Interview with Kris Moore, PC-BSD lead developer
  The so-called "distribution for the average Joe" market has been expanding at a rapid pace in recent years. While the vast majority of these projects is invariably based on Linux, we have also witnessed a few attempts to create a user-friendly "distribution" based on operating systems that traditionally belonged to the hacker's domain, notably FreeBSD and OpenSolaris. One of them is PC-BSD, a project launched in 2005. Its main goal? To hide the complexity of FreeBSD and to deliver an alternative to Linux on the desktop. Its main claim to fame? The web-based software installation infrastructure called PBI. Its community? Over 8,000 registered forum members and a growing network of world-wide community sites. All this thanks to the original vision and undying conviction of Kris Moore (pictured on the right), the founder and lead developer of PC-BSD.
Kris was kind enough to answer a few questions about his beginnings with FreeBSD and the forthcoming release of PC-BSD 7.0.
* * * * *
DW: Kris, thank you very much for your time. First, could you please introduce yourself? How old are you? Where do you live? What do you do for living?
KM: I am 27 years old, married with 3 young children under the age of 5 (so you can imagine it's pretty hectic around here at times), I live near the beautiful smoky mountains of east Tennessee, in the town of Maryville, and work developing PC-BSD for a living.
DW: Tell us about the beginnings of your love affair with FreeBSD. How did it all start?
KM: Back in the mid-nineties, I started working as a phone technician at a local dial-up ISP, who just happened to run all FreeBSD on its servers. This was my first experience with any sort of *nix based system, and I learned a lot just experimenting with a command prompt for the first time. After I left this job to go to college, I didn't play with FreeBSD for a few years, until afterwards, when I wanted to set up an Apache-based web server.
By this point, I had obtained a few older desktops, and was playing around with various Linux distributions on them, such as Caldera, Red Hat, and SuSE, and enjoyed the nice GUI-based installation systems they offered. However, when I ended up using one of those distros for the web server, I ran into security problems, including a server being hacked into less than 24 hours after finishing a default server install. At that point, I remembered our system administrator back at the ISP, and how he swore up and down about the security and reliability of the FreeBSD system, and I decided to give it another shot. After a few hours of set-up and configuration, I had our FreeBSD Apache server up and running, and that system stayed secure and reliable for its entire lifetime.
DW: What inspired you to create an easy-to-use desktop OS based on a relatively hard-to-use BSD system?
KM: During my time of setting up BSD-based servers, I was still experimenting with various Linux distributions on the desktop. There were several times when I made the jump to run my desktop entirely on Linux, but each time I continued to run into problems. For the most part these weren't hardware issues, rather the problems all dealt with the area of package management. I grew more and more frustrated with the whole concept of a "packaged" distribution, in which all the individual programs are really a part of the OS itself. When trying to upgrade one package, it often triggered updates in other dependencies, which in turn updated other applications, and just often enough something would fail, causing a big mess that I was stuck trying to resolve.
At this point, I began to think, why is it that here we are after the year 2000, and I still have to fix some silly dependency issue, when all I wanted to do was run the latest version of X application. It's not that I couldn't fix the problems, but rather that I had better things to do than wasting time doing it. So I started experimenting with the concept of a self-extracting, self-contained package system, in which programs installed themselves, and lived in their own separate directories, not scattered across the landscape of the OS in a myriad of directories and file systems.
At first I wanted to try the self-contained, package management system on Linux, but found quickly that the differences between the various distros was a huge hurdle to overcome, and aside from a common kernel, pretty much all of them were so different, that a common package management system would be near impossible. This also didn't mesh with my idea of trying to keep the OS and the software completely separate.
Luckily, I was already fairly well-versed in FreeBSD, and decided instead that building our desktop OS on BSD would be far more viable in the long run. I felt, and still feel, that at its core, FreeBSD itself was actually far easier to use than Linux, because of the consistency it provided. All it needed was some of the same attention that Linux has gotten over the years, namely a nice GUI-based installer, and graphical tools to make running the desktop doable for casual computer users.
DW: Do you still get the chance to play with Linux? If so, what do you think are the main differences between the mainstream desktop Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu or Mandriva, and PC-BSD? What do you think are the most compelling reasons for choosing PC-BSD over desktop Linux?
KM: It has been a while since I've sat down and used any of the mainstream desktop Linux distributions, so I've only seen most of the recent versions in passing. However, at first glance to an end user, they would appear to be very similar. We are running on KDE, have a nice working desktop, with 3D support, sound, WiFi and almost all of the same open-source programs, such as Firefox, OpenOffice.org, K3B, etc.
Where the user would immediately begin to notice a difference is in package management. Instead of a large management program, or a repository, users will download a single .pbi file (Firefox3.0.1.pbi, for example). Double-click it, and Firefox will be installed in its own separate directory, such as /Programs/Firefox3.0.1. No mess, no fuss, it just works as it should.
Another area where more experienced users will notice a difference is when they dig down into the command prompt. PC-BSD is 100% FreeBSD under the hood, not a fork. This means experienced users are free to use FreeBSD's ports and package system, re-roll kernels, and tweak the system in any way they see fit.
DW: What about DesktopBSD? Are you in touch with their developers? Do you ever cooperate? How would you compare the two systems, both of which seem to have exactly the same goal - to bring FreeBSD to the desktop of an average computer user?
KM: We communicate with the DesktopBSD developers from time to time. Most of our goals are similar, except in package management. DesktopBSD provides a nice GUI tool which allows users to install software via the FreeBSD ports and packages system. This would appeal to more technical desktop users, while PC-BSD tries to focus on the PBI system, which we feel allows *any* user, either moving from Windows or Mac OS X, to switch to our system and feel immediately productive.
DW: The development of the upcoming PC-BSD 7 is in full swing, with weekly alpha builds getting more and more usable with each release. Can you please introduce the new version? What are the main new features compared to the previous stable PC-BSD release?
KM: PC-BSD 7 is a large step forward in our releases. First of all, we have switched the version scheme to match the base FreeBSD version, which is why we are jumping from PC-BSD 1.5 to PC-BSD 7. This is our first release based on FreeBSD 7, which includes much better driver support, WiFi support, greatly improved SMP support with the ULE scheduler and more. We also have moved to KDE 4.1 and ported our PBI system and GUI toolset to Qt 4.x at the same time. Version 7 will offer several new installation methods as well, including CDs 1 - 3, a DVD, USB image, and boot-only CD/USB image which will allow you to install from a local network or the Internet. This should make getting PC-BSD installed easier than ever, with options for everyone.
PC-BSD 7.0 will be based on FreeBSD 7.0 and will ship with the latest KDE 4.1.
(full image size: 386kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
DW: You have obviously decided that KDE 4.1 will be the default desktop in PC-BSD 7. Was this an easy decision or do you still sometimes have doubts about its usability and bugs? Will there be an option to install KDE 3.5 for those who aren't yet ready to migrate to KDE 4?
KM: This was a tough decision, but one we felt was worth the effort. Since this release is a huge jump up anyway to FreeBSD 7, it will be more worth it in the long run. With all of our tools now KDE4/Qt4-based, we can simply issue patches and online updates to the KDE 4.x desktop quickly, which is not as huge of a jump as it would be releasing with KDE 3.5.x, and then trying to jump to KDE 4 a few months down the road. At this time we don't plan on including KDE 3.5.9 in the default install, but more technical users are welcome to do so via ports after installing the OS. (They can both be installed at the same time.)
DW: A technical one about file systems in PC-BSD: the latest alpha builds offer three file system options: UFS2, UFS2 + Soft Updates, UFS2 + Journaling. Could you please briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each? Why is UFS2 + soft updates the default file system?
KM: Actually we are offering four file system types, including ZFS, which can be enabled during the installation boot-up. ZFS, however, is aimed at server installs and probably won't be seen on the desktop as often due to its larger hardware / RAM requirements. On the desktop side of things, we have expanded to offer some choice this time around. Previously we had defaulted to UFS2 + Soft Updates, which we still default to in this release. This was done primarily because during the testing phase, it has proved to be the most reliable and consistent choice for a desktop. UFS + Journaling is also a good choice for a desktop, since it negates the necessity of having to do an "fsck" after a power-failure, among other things.
DW: Will it be possible to upgrade an older PC-BSD version to PC-BSD 7.0 or do you recommend a clean installation?
KM: I'm still working on the upgrade system and hope to have it allow upgrades from PC-BSD 1.5.x -> 7. However, I would strongly recommend a clean install, since this is a very large jump forward, and most programs installed on PC-BSD 1.x (based on FreeBSD 6) will most likely not be binary compatible with 7.
DW: How long before PC-BSD 7.0 goes gold? What exactly still needs to be implemented or fixed prior to the product being declared good enough for public consumption?
KM: We are hitting code freeze this Monday, the 25th, and will then release a public beta in the following week. After that, as long as no serious bugs are found, we plan on going gold early to mid-September.
DW: Kris, thank you very much for your answers and best of luck with your work!
|
| Miscellaneous News |
Fedora and Red Hat servers compromised - CentOS unaffected, Novell extends "interoperability" deal; openSUSE ads SELinux support, gNewSense celebrates second birthday, user-visible changes in NetBSD 5.0
 Let's start with an item that dominated the coverage on many Linux web sites - the security breach of Fedora and Red Hat servers. This is what happened: "Last week we discovered that some Fedora servers were illegally accessed. The intrusion into the servers was quickly discovered, and the servers were taken offline. One of the compromised Fedora servers was a system used for signing Fedora packages. However, based on our efforts, we have high confidence that the intruder was not able to capture the passphrase used to secure the Fedora package signing key." The fact that it took Fedora more than a week to publish a report on the problem was heavily criticised by some media (see this article by ITWire). However, the simple truth is that as soon as Fedora discovered the breach, they have stopped providing software updates, they mobilised their resources to deal with the situation and, once they analysed the extent of the problem, published a report about it. That's pretty much what I would expect from any distribution - nothing more and nothing less. The incident also confirms another fact: there is no such thing as "100% secure" and similar issues are bound to happen from time to time (one of the Debian servers was also hit by a security compromise in July 2006). While it is regrettable that a server of a major Linux project gets broken into, there is no doubt that Fedora has dealt with the situation in a highly efficient, competent and responsible manner.
* * * * *
 As far as the users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are concerned, the company sent out the following security alert (RHSA-2008-0855) to its customers: "Last week Red Hat detected an intrusion on certain of its computer systems and took immediate action. ... In connection with the incident, the intruder was able to sign a small number of OpenSSH packages relating only to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (i386 and x86_64 architectures only) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (x86_64 architecture only). As a precautionary measure, we are releasing an updated version of these packages, and have published a list of the tampered packages and how to detect them." But those customers who use Red Hat Network to update their products are not affected by the issue: "Our processes and efforts to date indicate that packages obtained by Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscribers via Red Hat Network are not at risk."
* * * * *
 Next, it was the turn of CentOS, a distribution that is effectively a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and which uses RHEL packages for their own security updates. Karanbir Singh in CentOS position on systems intrusion at Red Hat: "We take security issues very seriously, and as soon as we were made aware of the situation I undertook a complete audit of the entire CentOS 4/5 build and signing infrastructure. We can now assure everyone that no compromise has taken place anywhere within the CentOS infrastructure. Our entire set-up is located behind multiple firewalls, and only accessible from a very small number of places, by only a few people. Also included in this audit were all entry points to the build services, signing machines, primary release machines and connectivity between all these hosts. ... Finally, while we feel confident that there is no possibility of this compromise having been passed onto the CentOS user base, we still encourage users to verify their packages independently using whatever resources they might have available."
* * * * *
 The second big newsmaker of the week was Novell as it announced a massive US$100 million expansion of its original "interoperability" agreement with Microsoft. The press release was very clear about the target and benefactors of this agreement - the company's high-volume enterprise customers: "The collaboration between Microsoft and Novell has been built on our desire to meet our customers' real-life IT requirements as well as give our partners greater breadth in their solution offerings." Unfortunately for Novell, the deal is unlikely to go down well with the Linux community, which is generally suspicious of any involvement in Linux by Microsoft, a company with a long-history of threats and anti-Linux FUD campaigns. This is a delicate balancing act on the part of the Utah-based networking giant - on the one hand, its shareholders want the company to deliver solid financial results. On the other hand, however, Novell also needs to be careful not to alienate its openSUSE developer and user community. A difficult task indeed....
* * * * *
 Speaking about openSUSE, a surprise announcement appeared on the project's news site last week: the upcoming openSUSE 11.1 will include support for SELinux, a Linux kernel security framework developed by the US-based National Security Agency (NSA): "Beginning with openSUSE 11.1, SUSE users will have an additional option regarding security frameworks. In addition to AppArmor, we will be adding SELinux capabilities in openSUSE 11.1, which will allow users to enable SELinux in openSUSE if they wish. While our customer experience shows that AppArmor is the best solution for the vast majority of users, applications, and use cases, we want to give all of our users the ability to choose the security framework that's appropriate for their respective environments and needs." Although the announcement insists that SELinux will become nothing more than an alternative security option, others are more sceptical about the future of AppArmor: "In late 2007 Novell laid off almost all the developers of AppArmor with the aim of having the community do all the coding. Crispin Cowan (the founder and leader of the AppArmor project) was later hired by Microsoft. ... In a way it's a pity that AppArmor is going away so quickly. The lack of competition is not good for the market, and homogeneity isn't good for security. But on the other hand, this means more resources will be available for SELinux development which will be a good thing."
* * * * *
 The fans of free software, as defined by Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation (FSF), had a chance to rejoice late last week as the gNewSense project announced an updated release of its Ubuntu-based, 100% free Linux distribution (see the "Released Last Week" section below). Interestingly, the release was announced as the project celebrated its second anniversary since the first beta build had hit the download mirrors in August 2006. Brian Brazil, the project's founder and lead developer: "I've just realised that tomorrow will mark the 2-year anniversary of our first release. Accordingly, it's somewhat appropriate that our 10th live CD is released today. It's strange to think that it's well over 2 years since Paul and I started gNewSense. While I remain the main developer, many other people have contributed code, and many many more time and effort, to ensure that this distribution stays free and usable. We were the first to remove all non-free blobs from the kernel and also the first to remove GLX. Through all this work we have produced what is, to the best of my knowledge, the freest GNU/Linux distribution in existence. I'd like to thank everyone for their help and support thus far, and look forward to the future of gNewSense."
gNewSense 2.1 - the freest Linux distribution of them all
(full image size: 302kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
 Finally, an update on a project that doesn't often get much coverage in the mainstream computing media, but which nevertheless continues to provide a free operating system for a vast range of devices and processors - NetBSD. With the upcoming version 5.0 about to enter final testing, here is a list of some interesting changes since 4.0, as summarised in Hubert Feyrer's NetBSD 5.0 preview: User visible changes in NetBSD-current: "I've found a bit of spare time to upgrade a NetBSD 4.0 system to NetBSD-current (4.99.69), and during the usual update procedure (boot new kernel; build.sh install=/; etcupdate) I found a number of user-visible changes over NetBSD 4.0 that I'd like to spotlight here: 1. audit-packages and download-vulnerability-list are now part of the NetBSD base system, there's no longer a need to install them via pkgsrc. 2. Per-user-tmp: currently, /tmp is shared by all users. In order to avoid name clashes, the /tmp directory can be made to be unique for each user now. 3. httpd: NetBSD now ships with a web server in base. 4. dhcpcd: NetBSD has shipped with ISC's DHCP client so far, which uses quite a bit or memory. As a supplement, Roy Marples' dhcpcd has been added to the base system. 5. /boot.cfg: NetBSD's second stage bootloader can now load a configuration file on the i386 and amd64 platforms."
|
| Released Last Week |
EnGarde Secure Linux 3.0.20
Guardian Digital has announced the release of EnGarde Secure Linux 3.0.20: "Guardian Digital is happy to announce the release of EnGarde Secure Linux Community 3.0.20. This release includes many updated packages and bug fixes and some feature enhancements to the EnGarde Secure Linux installer and the SELinux policy. New features include: several new packages such as CUPS (1.3.7), lockdev (1.0.1), Minicom (2.3); the latest stable versions of MySQL (5.0.51b), Alpine (1.10), Apache (2.2.9), Asterisk (1.4.21.1), BIND (9.4.2-P1), Dovecot (1.1.1), Linux kernel (2.6.26), OpenSSH (5.0p1), PHP (5.2.6), Postfix (2.5.2), PostgreSQL (8.2.9), Samba (3.2.0)...." Read the release announcement and release notes for further information.
antiX MEPIS 7.5
MEPIS has announced a new release of antiX MEPIS, a Debian-based distribution designed to run on computers with older or limited hardware: "Anti and MEPIS announce the release of antiX MEPIS 7.5 'Toussaint Louverture'. Built using the MEPIS Linux 7.0 core, including the MEPIS 2.6.22 kernel and utilities, along with selected additions from Debian 'Lenny', this light-weight operating system is especially appropriate for older hardware and users who like a very fast and highly configurable system. New features based on community contributions are led by the antiX Control Centre, which provides a single place for managing desktop, system, network, and hardware. Also the well-tested smxi script permits the user to maintain a rolling upgrade of kernels and drivers" Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
antiX MEPIS 7.5 - an interesting alternative for older or underpowered boxes
(full image size: 484kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Zenwalk Linux 5.2 "GNOME"
George Vlahavas has announced the final release of Zenwalk Linux 5.2 "GNOME" edition: "Zenwalk GNOME 5.2 is now available. Based on Zenwalk current, it features the latest stable GNOME 2.22.3 Desktop, with a familiar Zenwalk desktop layout and beautiful Zenwalk artwork. Included in this release are Linux kernel 2.6.25.4, the latest X.Org 7.3 suite of X servers and the next generation of the Netpkg package manager. Zenwalk GNOME follows the 'one application per task' philosophy: Iceweasel and Icedove for all your browsing and email needs, wicd for easy connecting to wireless networks, Brasero for burning CD/DVD discs, AbiWord and Gnumeric for your office needs, the GIMP for editing graphics files and photos, gtkam for managing your digital camera and gmusicbrowser for handling huge collections of music. Totem is the multimedia player of choice." Here is the complete release announcement.
A "GNOME" edition of the Slackware-based Zenwalk Linux made its official debut over the weekend.
(full image size: 218kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
gNewSense 2.1
Brian Brazil has announced the release of gNewSense 2.1, an updated version of the Ubuntu-based distribution which contains free software only: "I've just released the live CD for gNewSense 2.1, the second full release of 'DeltaH'. This brings in a number of updates, fixes and improvements. Changes since 2.0 include: Linux-ubuntu-modules cleared of non-free blobs; usplash added; new theme and artwork; re-added fix for module-init-tools for eepro100; builder - live CD no longer asks for password on sudo; builder - added support for extra repositories in python-apt; builder - various tweaks, fixes and improvements. Upgrading from 1.9/2.0: Follow the upgrade notifications in GNOME. There's no need to download the 2.1 CD. To change to the gNewSense theme in GNOME, go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance. Select 'gNewSense' in the 'Themes' tab and press 'Close'." Read the full release announcement for more details.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
FreeBSD 6.4 and 7.1
The FreeBSD project has published a preliminary roadmap that will eventually lead to the stable versions 6.4 and 7.1, both of which are expected in the first half of October 2008. For more information please see the announcement on FreeBSDNews.net. As always, this is a tentative proposal rather than a fixed release schedule and delays can be expected.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
Site news: translation to Urdu, status reclassification
Two quick site updates. Firstly, the native speakers of Urdu, the national language of Pakistan and one of the many official languages of India, can now read parts of DistroWatch in their language - all thanks to excellent work by Muhammad Fahd Waseem. Secondly, Luke Seubert has volunteered to check the status of each distribution (whether it's active, dormant or discontinued) and update the DistroWatch database. This work is ongoing; it should result in greater accuracy and in elimination of those projects that no longer work on their distributions. Many thanks to both Luke and Muhammad for their help.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 1 September 2008.
Ladislav Bodnar
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 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 |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Helix
Helix was a customised distribution based on Ubuntu with excellent hardware detection and many applications dedicated to incident response and forensics.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
