 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 279, 24 November 2008 |
|
Welcome to this year's 46th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The biggest news of the week was the final decision in the case of SCO vs.
Novell in a Utah court. LXer.com summed it up this way: "Novell Wins, SCO
Loses." In other news, big box retailers across the United States stocked
their shelves with netbooks preloaded with Linux in time for Black Friday,
the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday and traditionally the
busiest shopping day of the year. Target and Best Buy stores displayed
the ASUS Eee PC 900a for US$299 this week. Other netbooks with
prices as low as US$199 are expected on shelves by Friday. In the news
section, Paul Frields challenges the often-made claims
that Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution; openSUSE announces Zypper 1.0 and plans for Zypper 2, Gentoo Linux summarises the Gentoo Council functions and activities, sidux celebrates its second birthday, and Shift Linux announces a major shift in the direction of its Ubuntu-based distribution. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the new editor of DistroWatch Weekly is Chris Smart of the Kororaa and MakeTheMove.net fame. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (15MB) and mp3 (13MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
|
| Feature Story |
Novell wins and SCO loses, Linux netbooks hit store shelves (by Caitlyn Martin)
On Thursday, Judge Dale A. Kimball issued the final judgement in the case of
SCO vs. Novell. LXer summed it up this way: "Novell Wins, SCO Loses."
The judgement repeats previous orders which dismissed SCO's claims of
copyright infringement, slander and breach of contract. The case was
dismissed with prejudice which means that SCO will not be able to amend
their complaint and start again. This final ruling will cost SCO, now in
bankruptcy, over US$4 million: US$2,547,817 for the revenues from the
2003 Sun agreement which have been awarded to Novell, US$918,122 in
interest and US$625,486.90 to a constructive trust.
SCO can still appeal the decision. That means that the decision is final
for Judge Kimball's court but it does not necessarily mean the case is over
and done with. If there is a next round, it will be in appellate court.
According to Groklaw, SCO's lawyer told a September bankruptcy hearing
that an appeal could take anywhere from a year and a half to five years.
* * * * *
A common opinion voiced by many who write about technology (myself included) is
that the key to wider, even mainstream acceptance of Linux is the availability
of preloaded systems at major retail outlets, side by side with Windows
systems. In the United States and Canada we are seeing that happen for
the first time this holiday season. For the most part this is limited to
the very popular netbook systems. Linux-based netbooks
started appearing in US big box retailers over the past couple of weeks.
The ASUS Eee PC 900a, preloaded with
Xandros Desktop,
is now available at Target and Best Buy Stores for US$299. Additional
offerings from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, MSI, and others, all preloaded with Linux, are
promised for store shelves this season with prices reportedly starting at
US$199. The day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, Black Friday,
is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Some stores will
likely offer limited quantities of systems at a loss to lure customers in
early Friday morning.
Many DistroWatch Weekly readers will remember the hype surrounding Wal Mart's short and
ill-fated decision to carry the Everex CloudBook, a similar system
preloaded with gOS, last year. The CloudBook is widely viewed as a
dismal failure with a very high return rate. The difference this year
is that at least some of the systems offered, most notably the
ASUS Eee PC, are well configured and already have a successful track
record in the consumer marketplace. The CloudBook, despite a beefier
processor than last year's Eee PC 701, had relatively sluggish performance.
By comparison, Xandros on the Eee PC, with its simplified desktop and
superior performance, received many positive reviews from writers who
had never used Linux before.
Some tech writers are warning consumers away from Linux systems.
Michael Elgan, writing for Datamation.com on November 12, wrote:
"Watch out for Linux. The cheapest netbooks tend to come with Linux." He
then tempered his warning by saying Linux might actually be preferable but
added that it won't run Windows software. Despite these warnings I do
expect that consumers will buy the Linux-based systems and so long as
they allow them to do the things they are accustomed to, like surfing the
web, reading e-mail, and watching YouTube videos without fuss, they are
unlikely to care very much what operating system they are running. The
key to the success or failure of the Linux netbooks and, perhaps more
importantly, what the public perception of Linux is by this time next
year, will very much depend on how well integrated and configured the
various Linux distributions are on these systems. If this year's crop of
netbooks proves to be both inexpensive and easy to use, they will be a hit.
If not, then they will be returned and Linux acceptance will suffer.
|
| Miscellaneous News |
Fedora claims 9.5 million users, openSUSE plans for Zypper 2, Gentoo outlines Council activities, sidux celebrates second birthday, Shift Linux changes direction
In this article published by InternetNews,
Fedora project leader Paul Frields claimed that the
distribution had counted its user base. Fedora has at least 9.5 million
users, according to Frields, and possibly as many as 10.5 million. Last
month Canonical claimed a user base of 8 million for
Ubuntu.
If both numbers are accurate then Fedora, not Ubuntu, is currently the
most popular Linux distribution. Frields admits there are issues which may call the user count into question: "The total number of users has always been an incredibly
difficult number to measure. If you total up all the unique IPs ... on
Fedora 7, 8 and 9, it adds up to about 9.5 million boxes right now."
Among the DistroWatch readers, however, there is no comparison between the two distributions. According to a web server analysis program that records the number of visitors based on the web browser's user-agent string, Ubuntu users represent 39.0% of all Linux-using visitors on DistroWatch.com (this number rises to 45.5% if one includes other Ubuntu-based systems, such as Linux Mint and Kubuntu). In contrast, Fedora users only represent 3.9% of all Linux-using readers on this web site - that's just one tenths of the Ubuntu numbers. Even users of Debian GNU/Linux outnumber Fedora users by nearly 2:1. For more information please see the DistroWatch.com operating systems statistics.
* * * * *
 With the upcoming release of openSUSE 11.1 there is increased activity in all aspects of the distribution. One of them is Zypper, the all-purpose and powerful package management utility which is nearing its 1.0 release: "We're closing on the release of openSUSE 11.1 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. Since Zypper's releases are tightly tied to those of openSUSE, this is also an important milestone for Zypper. Thus, the next release of Zypper will have version 1.0.0. This marks more than two years of Zypper's development and the outset of implementation of nice new features. So what's next? Several ideas and problems appeared so far. Some need to be implemented in libzypp itself, some are purely Zypper's. Here is a list of the most important things for Zypper 2: configuration file (.zypperrc); nice overall install progress; much improved install summary (options to view versions, vendor, architecture changes, changelog); more options to handle patterns; advanced media error handling with options like eject DVD drive, select DVD drive, edit failed URI, enable and disable medium specific options...."
 Still on the subject of openSUSE, the project's YaST team has chosen a mascot for the high-profile system configuration utility - and its name is Yastie: "The openSUSE Project and YaST team are happy to announce the winner of the YaST mascot contest. After extensive deliberation, the judges have chosen the Aardvark concept, submitted by Klára Cihlářová. The judges have also settled on a name for the mascot, which will be called Yastie. We had a lot of great submissions, and it wasn't easy picking the best idea out of the bunch. We received a number of high-quality submissions, and it's clear that a lot of thought and hard work went into each submission. Thanks to everyone who participated, it shows just how important YaST is to the community. As we mentioned in the contest guidelines, we were looking for an idea for the mascot, and not necessarily the final artwork. We want to make sure that the YaST Mascot fits with other openSUSE artwork and branding. Our own Jakub Steiner is going to work on the final artwork, and we'll be showing that very soon."
* * * * *
 Doug Goldstein, a member of the Gentoo council, has published a brief article on the current status and activities of the management body responsible for the development of the popular source-based distribution: "The Gentoo Council is a group of elected Gentoo developers that are elected on a yearly basis by the developer body as a whole for the purpose of deciding on global issues and policies which affect the Gentoo Linux distribution as a whole or part. The Gentoo Council serves as the technical oversight to the entire project. We are charged with representing the will of the developer body, while maintaining the best interest for Gentoo and its user base. In effect, the Gentoo Council derives its authority from the developer body, this is what differentiates it from the Gentoo Foundation, which handles the financial side of Gentoo. Gentoo Council meetings are bi-monthly for 1-hour sessions. These sessions are always held publicly on IRC on Freenode in #gentoo-council at 2000 UTC on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month (with the exception of major holidays). We welcome all interested parties to come join us."
* * * * *
 The sidux project, which produces a single-CD distribution based on the unstable ("Sid") branch of Debian GNU/Linux, celebrates its second birthday today: "On 24th of November 2006 sidux was formed by a group of people who strived to do the impossible: making Debian 'Sid' (aka 'unstable') stable. Now, two years later, while we celebrate sidux' second birthday, it's time to check if we actually kept our promise to you. I think we did an acceptable job in the end by making Debian 'Sid' more easily installable and usable for everyday use, even for corporate and server use. Of course, we made it easy for us by just supporting the two most common architectures i386 and x86_64, but that was part of the plan. We never intended to just do 'the better Debian', because Debian is wonderful as it is. Instead, we focused on modern hardware, the newest solutions and fresh concepts, while sticking very close to the mother Debian. Without these close ties to the big distribution we rely on, we love and we try to improve, nothing would have been possible. ... The future is bright, we are in the process of preparing our 9th official release, sidux 2008-04, which will likely be the last one focused on KDE 3.5.x. If things go well, we will have exciting news for sidux 2009-01, as it will not just introduce a stable KDE 4, but also many other packages already waiting for us in the experimental pool."
* * * * *
 Shift Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution developed by a group of technically oriented members of the Neowin community. But after a handful of releases, the project is about the re-invent itself with some interesting new goals. This post, published on the project's web site, explains everything in fine detail: "We have several new goals that are being set. First of all, Shift needs to be streamlined. Some things are going to be cut out to make room for others. The biggest changes here - one distribution under one name. Shift Linux will be Shift Linux. There will be no Shift Lite or Shift KDE or Shift GNOME, there will be a Shift Linux. And Shift Linux will run GNOME by default. It is important, however, to make one thing very clear: we will always hold a place for alternatives, and where possible, we will always offer KDE and Fluxbox for one click installation. ... The third and final goal we now have is to not install things that already exist, but to invent the ideas we all want to exist. If there is an open source Linux application that suits our needs, we will use it. But that's not all we will do; we will make the things that don't suit our needs all over again. Linux has so much potential to tap into, and so many programming languages for us to use. The Neowin community has an infinite amount of people who can help us, no matter what their language. We can use Mono, we can use Python, we can use C, we can use Perl."
|
| Released Last Week |
Mandriva One 2009 Xfce
Mandriva has announced the release of Mandriva
One 2009, Xfce edition, an unofficial live CD featuring the Xfce desktop:
"The Mandriva community is proud to offer another Xfce edition to the
users. This edition is not a Mandriva product (so do not expect any kind
of support directly from Mandriva), but has been completed with a great
cooperation between the company and the community. We tried our best to
provide the best experience possible using Xfce Live but so far some
issues still stand. We do not consider those issues blocking, but we'd
rather mention them here so you know what to do in case you encounter
those problems. This edition contains bug fixes as available on the
mirrors on 23 October, which should solve some installations and usage
issues." Read the rest of the release
notes with details about the known issues.
Ubuntu Muslim Edition 8.10
Mehdi Magnon has announced the release of Ubuntu
Muslim Edition 8.10, an Ubuntu-based distribution incorporating a
variety of Islamic software, such as prayer times, a Quran study tool
and a web content filtering utility: "The Ubuntu
Muslim Edition team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu ME 8.10.
This release is only available as an installable DVD. Highlights:
WebStrict (parental control tool) enabled by default; Zekr 0.7.1 (Quran
study tool) installed and configured to play Quran recitations; Minbar
and Firefox 'Pray Times' add-on installed; Monajat (display Islamic
prayers); Thwab (encyclopaedia); Ubuntu ME artwork: usplash, login
screen, Islamic wallpapers and theme. Tons of useful software packages have been
added on the DVD: multimedia libraries for reading DVDs, codecs, Flash
player, VLC; full suite of software for children ; Arabic support."
Read the complete release
announcement for further details.
Ubuntu Muslim Edition 8.10 - the default GNOME desktop
(full image size: 814kB,
screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Yellow Dog Linux 6.1
Fixstars, a company that has recently acquired Terra Soft Solutions, has
announced the release of Yellow Dog
Linux 6.1: "Fixstars today released Yellow Dog Linux
(YDL) 6.1 for Apple G4/G5, Sony PlayStation 3, PowerStation, and IBM
Power Systems. Built upon the CentOS foundation, a derivative of Red
Hat Enterprise Linux, YDL 6.1 offers several end-user and development
tool improvements. For end users, YDL 6.1 offers an updated Firefox and
OpenOffice.org, a vastly improved graphical wireless configuration tool,
and the introduction of ps3vram functionality which enables use of PS3
video RAM for temporary storage or swap. For developers, 6.1 offers the
latest stable kernel, an updated GCC, the open portion of the IBM Cell
SDK v3.1, and through a working relationship with the Barcelona
Supercomputing Center, YDL 6.1 now ships with the new Cell
Superscalar." Read the complete
press
release for more information.
PC/OS 2009
Roberto Dohnert has announced the release of PC/OS
2009, a user-friendly desktop distribution based on Xubuntu:
"Today we are happy to announce the newest release
of PC/OS. The new release follows PC/OS OpenCore 1.0. PC/OS OpenDesktop
2009 and PC/OS OpenWorkstation 2009 have been fully tested and are ready
for broad consumer adoption. This release updates the PC/OS 2008 line of
products. Some of the changes include a newly laid-out user interface
and updated packages, and all important security updates applied. Some
of the updated packages are as follows: Firefox 3.0, AbiWord 2.6.4, GIMP
2.6, Pidgin 2.5, Skype 2.0, VLC 0.9.5, OpenOffice.org 3.0, Eclipse, Qt
Designer, Songbird 0.7, Wammu, Mobile Phone Manager, TrueCrypt."
Here is the brief
release
announcement.
PC/OS 2009 - a Xubuntu-based distribution with a new Xfce layout
(full image size: 413kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
SME Server 7.4
SME Server 7.4, a CentOS-based specialist
distribution for servers, has been released: "The
SME Server development team is pleased to announce the release of SME
Server 7.4. This release is based on CentOS 4.7. Other major changes in
this release are the use of dar for backups and the change to UTF-8,
along with translation to six additional languages. All SME Server users
should upgrade to this release. Changes: fix GRUB label to keep
consistent with the SME Server brand; introduce a web interface to
configure the pseudonym 'visible' property; fix the ugly log messages
(Use of uninitialized value) when spam checking results in 0 hits;
emails sent to a null address without the username part are now
rejected; support for sending mail to ISP via secure SMTP; enable the
auth plugin for local LAN connections; migrate ordb.net from the RBL
lists to prevent mail bouncing...." Read the full
release notes for
further information.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
- SystemRescueCD 1.1.2, the release announcement
- Astaro Security Gateway 7.4-beta, the release announcement
- pfSense 1.2.1-rc2, the release announcement
- OpenSolaris 2008.11-rc2, the release announcement
- Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Mythbuntu, 9.04-alpha1, the release announcement
- Austrumi 1.8.0
- Hiweed 2.0-rc3
- K-DEMar 4.7-beta1
- Damn Small Linux 4.4.10
- GParted 0.3.9-12
- Clonezilla 1.2.1-18
- VectorLinux 6.0-alpha37
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
Feedback to "DistroWatch Weekly - end of an era"
Last week's DistroWatch Weekly - end of an era resulted in an unexpectedly large number of posts and various suggestions on the future of this publication. So first, a big "thank you" to all who commented on the subject - it feels good knowing that all these long Mondays of typing up stories and putting together all the columns had such a large and appreciative audience. Secondly, I think it's important to also stress that I have no plans to abandon DistroWatch; on the contrary, I'll still be in charge of the web site and will continue to report on new distribution releases as before. I just need to pass some of the work to others in order to be able to catch up with work that graces my long to-do list. Rest assured that DistroWatch will continue as normal.
 As for the new DistroWatch Weekly editor, I received about 40 applications (my apologies if I did not reply to your application - there were just too many of them), some of which came from well-known distribution reviewers and maintainers of popular Linux community web sites. The decision wasn't easy, but eventually I decided to offer the position to Chris Smart (pictured on the right). Some of the readers will know Chris - he is the co-founder of Kororaa, a Gentoo-based distribution that came to fame as the first live CD featuring out-of-the-box 3D desktop effects, a characteristic that was later copied by many other live CD projects. (DistroWatch interviewed Chris Smart in March 2006). Chris' other initiative is MakeTheMove.net, a web site offering resources to people considering a switch from Windows to Linux. Chris is a resident of Canberra, Australia, where he works for the National Archives of Australia by developing and maintaining open source software that is designed to ensure future access to digital content. Chris will take over the publishing of DistroWatch Weekly starting with issue 282 on 15 December 2008. I am confident that he will do an excellent job, not only ensuring the continuity of DistroWatch Weekly, but also offering a new perspective on the evolution of the distro world. Please give him your support.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- SecurPC. SecurPC is an Ubuntu-based
distribution created by a group of Italian lawyers. Its main feature is
the inclusion of VirtualBox, together with a variety of resources for
lawyers. The project's web site is in Italian.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next
instalment will be published on Monday, 1 December 2008. Until next week,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
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| Random Distribution | 
Kiro
Kiro is an Arch Linux-based distribution with the goal of being an intuitive and customisable ISO image builder. It provides a simple way to build a custom Arch-based installation medium with a choice of packages, settings and scripts. Kiro uses the Xfce desktops, includes the Calamares system installer, and has a modular structure.
Status: Active
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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