 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 291, 23 February 2009 |
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Welcome to this year's 8th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! This week we re-visit the minimal distribution install, this time with openSUSE 11.1. In the news this past week, Mark Shuttleworth announces details of the 9.10 Ubuntu release, openSUSE board members post a joint statement about the project's future in light of Novell layoffs, Red Hat signs an interoperability agreement with Microsoft, Debian project announces the appointment of a new Secretary, and NetBSD launches a desktop initiative that should bring more users to the popular cross-platform operating system. Also in the news, we introduce VirtualBSD, a FreeBSD-based desktop environment for VMware and provide a link to an animated video interview about FreeNAS, a BSD system for building network-attached storage devices. Finally, if you are an accomplished distro tester, but worry that you'll run out of new distributions to try, fear not - last week no fewer than eight new Linux distributions were submitted to DistroWatch. These include some really exotic fares, such as moonOS from Cambodia or Kongoni from South Africa. Happy distro hopping!
Content:
- Tutorial: Minimal openSUSE 11.1 install
- News: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", openSUSE Board statement, Red Hat and Microsoft, new Debian secretary, desktop NetBSD and virtual FreeBSD, Linux companies in recession
- Released last week: SimplyMEPIS 8.0, Arch Linux 2009.02, VectorLinux 6.0
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 5
- New additions: Nova
- New distributions: Bio-Linux, Firefly Linux, flexxxpup, Kongoni, Linux4One, moonOS, pupitup, Ubuntu extras remix
- Reader comments
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (7.9MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
Minimal openSUSE 11.1 install
Introduction
 Every distribution has its goals and purpose. Some are designed to include everything, others like to take a small selection of what's available. But all distributions start from a small base and install more and more packages until they have a complete environment. For some that's GNOME or the latest snapshot of KDE 4, while for others it is a tiny footprint with the most lightweight window manager. As many readers will be aware, I like minimalist systems and wrote an article for DistroWatch Weekly on how to get a more lean Ubuntu system. Some readers however, thought I was stupid to choose Ubuntu if I wanted a light-weight system and claimed other distros were faster and better. Undoubtedly so, but I didn't choose it because it was lightweight, quite the contrary. I chose it because, by default, it's pretty hefty and like it or not, it is the most popular desktop distribution at the present time. The article intended to show that you don't have to be stuck with the Ubuntu way of doing things and that you could take control. You can do this with almost any distribution out there and today I'll show you how to do so with openSUSE.
openSUSE is a great distribution with a great community. It has a rich heritage and a powerful configuration system in YaST. By default, openSUSE comes with three different environments, GNOME, KDE and Xfce. The installer is one of the most well-respected in the business, which also gives you the option to install a base system. For this article I used the openSUSE 11.1 x86_64 DVD on a computer with an Intel Core2 E8400 3 GHz CPU, 8 GB of memory, 750 GB SATA hard drive and a NVIDIA 8800GT video card.
Installation
Boot to the DVD and choose to install from the menu. You can press F2 and select an alternate language if required. The system will boot straight into the installer, where you should begin your 'New Installation'. I chose to use the automatic configuration option and proceeded to set my time zone. At the 'Desktop Selection' screen hit the 'Other' button and choose either 'Minimal X Window', or 'Minimal Server Selection (Text Mode)'. The first option will install the base system, plus the X Window server and the basic desktop environment, Tab Window Manager (TWM). If you want less control then take this one, but if you want more, then take the second text-mode option.
openSUSE 11.1 installer - choosing a desktop
(full image size: 261kB, screen resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Partition your hard drives however you desire - I like to turn off access time and so select 'No access time' on a per-partition basis. Create a user (I turn off automatic login), complete the rest of the setup procedure and begin the install. If you took the second option, then at the summary screen ensure you change the default run level from 3 to 5 (full multi-user with network and display manager). This entire install process took only 6 minutes to complete and a further 2 minutes to configure the system on first boot. If you took the first option, then by default it will boot straight to the X Window desktop manager and the basic TWM desktop. You can log into this environment as root or switch to a terminal if you prefer. Unlike Ubuntu, the base openSUSE system includes a fully functional splash screen and includes many services, such as D-Bus, HAL, Firewall, CPUFreq, NFS, CUPS, OpenSSH and Postfix out of the box. It also includes YaST and all the modules for configuring your system. Next we can begin to tweak the system.
Base system
Now that you have a basic X Window system installed (if you don't yet, you will shortly), we can use the Internet to download the latest packages. Any packages that have been updated since the initial release will be installed from the Internet, while anything else will be installed from the local DVD. By default the openSUSE installer will have configured your repositories for you; however, you can use a custom mirror if you like. To accomplish this, I use Zypper, openSUSE's powerful RPM package management tool.
List the repositories.
# zypper repos
Delete the default Internet repositories, but leave the DVD. Repeat until only the DVD source remains.
# zypper removerepo 2
Add the mirrors you want to use (this takes the form; [command] [option] [path] [name]).
# zypper addrepo ftp://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/opensuse/distribution/11.1/repo/oss OSS
# zypper addrepo ftp://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/opensuse/distribution/11.1/repo/non-oss non-OSS
# zypper addrepo ftp://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/opensuse/update/11.1 updates
Whether you changed the mirrors or not, let's now update the system.
# zypper refresh && zypper dist-upgrade
This should provide you with an up-to-date base system. Before moving on, there are some other tasks that you may wish to perform. For me, I don't like to use the search tool Beagle as I find it can slow down the system. You will still require the libraries as many applications are built against them; however, you can lock it easily with Zypper so that it's never installed.
# zypper addlock beagle*
If you are installing on a notebook, openSUSE uses traditional network configuration methods by default, so if you want to use NetworkManager it's easy! First, install it.
# zypper install networkmanager
Next, tell YaST to configure it as the default network manager.
# yast2 sysconfig set NETWORKMANAGER=yes
Environment
Next, let's get a basic desktop environment. There are groups you can install under openSUSE, called 'patterns', which pull in packages as specified by the package maintainer. For example, if you want a basic GNOME or KDE desktop, you can install 'gnome_basis' or 'kde4_basis' respectively. KDE3 is also available with 'kde3_basis'. The problem with using these is that you forfeit some control and minimalism for your system as many packages are pulled in for you. The upside is that you don't need to know each and every little package to make everything work, which can be frustrating if you want something but don't know how to get it! Feel free to experiment, but for the purposes of this exercise, here is how to use the available patterns.
# zypper install -t pattern gnome_basis
This will pull in all required packages to get you a default openSUSE configured desktop.
If you took the text mode option during install time and do want a more minimal desktop, perform the following instead.
# zypper install gdm gnome-terminal xorg xorg-x11-driver-input xorg-x11-driver-video xorg-x11-fonts yast2-gtk
# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.install /etc/X11/xorg.conf
By default, openSUSE will continue to boot the original lightweight window manager and so we need to tell it to switch to GNOME. This is done either by editing the respective configuration file under /etc/sysconfig/ or via YaST. We'll use YaST.
First, set the login manager (if you want to).
# yast2 sysconfig set DISPLAYMANAGER=gdm
Next, change the default desktop environment.
# yast2 sysconfig set DEFAULT_WM=gnome
Reboot your computer and you should be greeted with the openSUSE GNOME Desktop Manager. Log in as the user you set up during installation and it should load the GNOME desktop.
Now that you have a fully functioning GNOME environment, you can continue to install any other applications you require and tweak your system further. The pattern we used has pulled in many of the basic packages we need, including a web browser, email and calendar program, chat client, CD burner and an image viewer. If you didn't use the pattern, then you'll need to install the packages you want manually. There are many other ways to tweak your system further of course, now that it is installed. Try disabling unused services, removing programs you don't need and introducing some package locks.
This new custom openSUSE system boots from GRUB to login screen in around 28 seconds, taking a further 6 seconds to load the GNOME desktop. It is using up 175 MB of memory once fully logged in and just over 1.7 GB of hard drive space. Compare this to the default install, which takes 39 seconds to boot and over 10 seconds to load the desktop, while using up 3.6 GB of hard drive space and over 315 MB of memory.
Conclusion
If you want a really light weight environment then openSUSE might not be the way to go, but if it's your favourite operating system, you don't have to give it up just yet! You can tweak the system to make it quite small, especially with the help of Zypper and its ability to lock packages. At the very least, you will learn some more about how your openSUSE system works and, if at the end you decide to just install everything, well, you can do that too!
openSUSE 11.1 - custom GNOME desktop
(full image size: 454kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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| Miscellaneous News |
Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", openSUSE Board statement, Red Hat and Microsoft, new Debian secretary, desktop NetBSD and virtual FreeBSD, Linux companies in recession
 Mark Shuttleworth has released information on the 9.10 release of Ubuntu, which will be called Karmic Koala. This version will build on the improvements made in the upcoming 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope release, but will also explore some new regions. The biggest new area Ubuntu will tackle is in the clouds. Shuttleworth explains, "Ubuntu aims to keep free software at the forefront of cloud computing by embracing the API's of Amazon EC2, and making it easy for anybody to setup their own cloud using entirely open tools." Karmic will also include Eucalyptus which "enables you to create an EC2-style cloud in your own data center, on your own hardware." On the desktop, users can finally expect to see newer and fancier artwork, with the team contemplating switching Usplash over to a kernel mode setting based system, such as Fedora's Plymouth. Netbooks will also get a boost, with Shuttleworth saying Karmic will include the latest enhancements from Moblin.
* * * * *
 openSUSE Board Members Pascal Bleser and Bryen Yunashko have released a joint statement on the future of openSUSE in the wake of Novell's recent layoffs. They write, "Some people have approached us publicly and privately and asked us what this means for the future of openSUSE. In fact, openSUSE is a community project driven both by Novell and the community at large. Within this project, we make no distinction between Novell and non-Novell employees. As such, those laid off are still important and vital members of our project, and we look forward to the opportunity to continue working with them as fellow members for the good of our community, our distribution and for free and open source software at large." They state that despite the layoffs, Novell remains committed to the openSUSE project and that the community at large is still active, vibrant and motivated. The two also convey their disappointment at those outside their community who have "decided to exploit the hardship of our fellow community members in these trying economic times for their own personal gain in their misguided rants against the project and misinterpreted portrayals to the general public."
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 When Novell signed their deals with Microsoft in 2006, Red Hat had much to say on the matter. Now it appears it's their turn to sign an agreement with Microsoft, but unlike the Novell deal it has nothing to do with patents or licensing. The agreement centres on the need to have better virtualisation support for each company's products, due to consumer demand. From the announcement: "Each company will join the other's virtualization validation and certification program and will provide coordinated technical support for their mutual server virtualization customers." Windows products will be supported under various open source technologies from Red Hat, while their own products will be supported under Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualisation technology. Red Hat also confirmed that "the agreements do not include any patent or open source licensing rights, and additionally contain no financial clauses, other than industry-standard certification and validation testing fees."
* * * * *
 Hot off the heels of the Lenny release, Debian Project Leader Steve McIntyre has announced the appointment of a new Project Secretary: "As required in the constitution, Bdale (as acting Secretary) and I have worked together and decided on which of the volunteers we feel would be best for the position," he writes. "I’m happy to announce that Kurt Roeckx will be the new Secretary." McIntyre also announces that they will once again be including the role of assistant secretary and have re-appointed Neil McGovern to the position. He continues: "We have spoken about the job and agreed that adding an Assistant Secretary would again be a good idea, especially given that we expect several votes to come up soon." The previous Debian Project Secretary, Manoj Srivastava, resigned due to dissent over the options in the Lenny firmware ballot.
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 Mentioning the words 'desktop' and 'BSD' in the same sentence has always been more in the wishful thinking category, but there are signs that this is changing. Last week, the NetBSD project has announced its intention to develop a desktop-oriented NetBSD, complete with a graphical installer and a set of basic applications for common desktop tasks: "For those new to NetBSD, the early user experience can be poor. This is especially true when coming from a Windows, Mac or Linux backgrounds. While basically sound, the installer asks many detailed questions and is unintuitive. If new users persevere and install the system, they are left with a 1980s-style text prompt, a lot of useful but unfamiliar tools, and no way to browse the web in order to learn more. The learning curve is steep. For more experienced users, installing a desktop to perform basic tasks like web browsing or word processing is cumbersome. It generally involves hours spent installing packages and editing configuration files. That can be fun if you have nothing better to do, but most of us have busy lives." For more information please see the newly created Desktop Project pages on the NetBSD Wiki.
* * * * *
 Reece Tarbert has emailed DistroWatch to let our readers know about VirtualBSD, a desktop-oriented FreeBSD 7.1 in a VMware appliance: "VirtualBSD is a desktop-ready FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE, in the form of a VMware appliance, based on the Xfce 4 desktop environment. Many of the most common and useful applications are ready to run, and the desktop has been styled to look a bit like Mac OS X. VirtualBSD is squarely aimed at people with VMware Player (or better) who: have never tried FreeBSD so far; wanted to, but didn't have the right hardware; used FreeBSD in the past, but have since moved to a different OS and are struck by nostalgia from time to time. Installed applications: Firefox 3.0.5 (and plugins), Thunderbird 2.0.19, Pidgin 2.5.4, XChat 2.8.6, OpenOffice.org 3.0, GIMP 2.6.4, VLC 0.9.8a, Transmission 1.42, Samba 3.0.34, CUPS 1.3.9." Interested readers can download the VirtualBSD VMware image via BitTorrent: VirtualBSD.zip (1,445MB).
* * * * *
  Still on the subject of BSDs, but switching to FreeNAS, a minimalist, FreeBSD-based operating system for building network-attached storage devices. All that is nice to know, but this definition sounds rather technical, so what does it mean in terms of practical use? Can it help with our everyday computing tasks? If so, how? Gary Sims, author of the book called Learning FreeNAS, has created an entertaining video animation that should make the purpose of FreeNAS more clear: "I have put together an interview on Xtranormal. In the interview, set in a TV studio, the guest talks about FreeNAS, what it can do and where you can find out more information." Xtranormal is an interesting site which enables users to create video using text: "Our revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill - typing. You type something; we turn it into a movie. On the web and on the desktop." If you're interested in building your own storage network then take a look!
* * * * *
It is interesting to watch how the current economic and financial crisis is affecting Linux companies. We have already reported about the recent layoffs at Mandriva, but last week brought more bad news for some developers of openSUSE and SUSE Linux. Stephan Binner, a well-known KDE hacker and the maintainer of the bleeding-edge KDE Four Live CD writes in a blog post entitled Not a Good Start Into a Problematic Year: "Like some other [open]SUSE developers, I was cast and am now forced to look for a new day job. It could have happened in better economic times for sure. Pointers to new interesting job positions are gladly accepted. Bonus points the more they have to do with open source, Linux, Qt and KDE." Stephan is reportedly not the only openSUSE developer who lost his job: "At least a quarter of Novell's recently laid-off employees are from the company's SUSE Linux development teams in Germany and North America, according to an anonymous source close to the company."
Luckily, it isn't all bad news. The two laid-off Mandriva developers (Adam Williamson and Vincent Danen) are now happily continuing their professional careers at Red Hat, while Ken Van Dine, the founder of Foresight Linux and an former employee of rPath has been hired by Canonical (the developer of the Ubuntu family of Linux distributions): "I have spent a wonderful three years working at rPath, which ended in January. Tomorrow I start the next leg of my journey, with Canonical. I will be a desktop integration engineer, working on the desktop team to integrate the fine work being done by the desktop experience team into Ubuntu. This is a very exciting opportunity for me, I have really been doing this for the past 4 years working on Foresight Linux. Taking cool stuff people have been working on and integrating it into a distro for broader consumption." Interesting news, to say the least. Are Red Hat and Canonical the only two Linux companies that will come out from the economic recession with flying colours?
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| Released Last Week |
Arch Linux 2009.02
Aaron Griffin has announced the release of Arch Linux 2009.02, an independently developed community distribution, based on a rolling-release package model and targeted at competent GNU/Linux users: "We proudly announce the release of the new Arch Linux installation images, version 2009.02. It took us quite a while, but we think the result is worth it - we added some cool new things and ironed out some long-lasting imperfections. 2009.02 comes with the following features: Linux kernel 2.6.28; ext4 support, installation can be done on a ext4 root partition; rescue and maintenance capabilities for ext4 root partitions; fallback ISOs with the ISOLINUX bootloader, for those that have trouble booting GRUB-based images; several bug fixes in the installer; brought the included documentation up to date; inclusion of AIF (Arch Linux Installation Framework), the next generation installer, currently under development." Here is the full release announcement.
DragonFly BSD 2.2
Matthew Dillon has announced the release of DragonFly BSD 2.2, a BSD operating system originally forked from FreeBSD 4.8: "The DragonFly 2.2 release is here! The HAMMER file system is considered production-ready in this release; it was first released in July 2008. The 2.2 release represents major stability improvements across the board, new drivers, much better pkgsrc support and integration, and a brand new release infrastructure with multiple target options. Three release options are now available - our bare-bones CD ISO, a DVD ISO which includes a fully operational X environment, and a bare-bones bootable USB disk-key image (less than 512M). We offer over 7,300 pre-built pkgsrc packages for this release. The pkg_radd(1) utility may be used to download pre-built binary packages. By default, this script will query the main package site for a random redirect to one of our mirrors." Read the detailed release notes for further information.
DragonFly BSD 2.2 - now also available as a live CD with the Fluxbox window manager
(full image size: 1,051kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
ALT Linux 4.1.0 "School Server"
Alexey Rusakov has announced the release of ALT Linux 4.1.0 "School Server" edition: "Armada group and ALT Linux company are happy to release School Server distribution, based on ALT Linux OfficeServer technological base and targeted at schools and other educational institutions. This release of School Server is an extended version of a server suite for educational institutions that was developed for the government contract in the end of 2008. School Server includes: Linux kernel 2.6.25, base system glibc 2.5.1; LAN services: DHCP server, DNS server BIND 9.3.5, proxy server Squid 2.6.STABLE18 (with statistics viewer), a firewall, network interfaces management console, time server OpenNTPd 3.9p1; file servers - Samba 3.0.30 and FTP server ProFTPd 1.3.0, repository mirrors setup service (using NFS), print server CUPS...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
Kubuntu 8.04.2
Jonathan Riddell has announced the availability of an updated release of Kubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron", a distribution featuring the older KDE 3.5.10 desktop: "The Kubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Kubuntu 8.04.2, the second and final maintenance update to Kubuntu's 8.04 release. This release includes updated desktop, and alternate installation CDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures. This update is provided in recognition that the current Kubuntu release (8.10) with its cutting edge KDE 4 desktop is not yet appropriate for all users. In all, over 200 updates have been integrated, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates, and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Kubuntu 8.04." See the complete release announcement for a detailed list of the most important changes.
VectorLinux 6.0
Robert Lange has announced the release of VectorLinux 6.0: "The final release of VectorLinux 6.0 (code name 'Voyager') is now available. This release is a major milestone in the 10-year history of VectorLinux. With the unbridled enthusiasm of a community gone wild, we have forged our very own stable GUI installer and our repository now hosts over a thousand packages. VectorLinux is the fastest Linux desktop in its class. The main desktop is based on Xfce 4.4.3 with a custom theme and artwork unique to VectorLinux. LXDE is installed as a secondary desktop option. Much work has been done on localization and we know users from all over the globe will find VectorLinux a stellar experience." Read the complete release announcement for further details.
VectorLinux 6.0 - a major update for the Slackware-based desktop distro
(full image size: 694kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Foresight Linux 2.1.0
Ken VanDine has announced the release of Foresight Linux 2.1.0, an rPath-based desktop distribution featuring the latest GNOME technologies: "I am pleased to announce the release of Foresight Linux 2.1.0. Foresight 2.1.0 features the latest stable GNOME desktop, and a number of updates including the Linux kernel, Python and improved printer configuration. What's new? Foresight will now recognize your printer when plugged in and automatically configure it; it includes Python 2.6, generally this is an update you shouldn't really notice, but under the covers there are quite a few performance improvements; Linux kernel 2.6.27.15; it includes some tuning of default Conary configurations - downloadFirst (downloads updates before applying them) and excludeTroves (excludes development components of packages)." Read the complete release notes for a detailed list of all changes.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0
Warren Woodford has announced the release of SimplyMEPIS 8.0, a beginner-friendly desktop Linux distribution based on the recently released Debian GNU/Linux 5.0: "MEPIS LLC has released SimplyMEPIS 8.0, the community edition of MEPIS 8.0. SimplyMEPIS 8.0 uses a Debian 'Lenny stable' foundation enhanced with a long-term support kernel, key package upgrades, and the MEPIS Assistant applications to create an up-to-date, ready-to-use desktop computer system. In addition to Linux kernel 2.6.27.18, MEPIS 8.0 includes many desktop applications, for example KDE 3.5.10, OpenOffice.org 3.0, and Firefox 3.0.6. To support US Government deployment of DNSsec and IPv6, MEPIS 8.0 includes BIND 0.9.6 and IPv6 is enabled out of the box. Virtualization is easily supported by downloading KVM 84 and libvirt 0.6.0 from the MEPIS 8.0 package pool." Read the rest of the release announcement for further information.
SimplyMEPIS 8.0 - a new release based on Debian "Lenny" and featuring KDE 3.5.10
(full image size: 354kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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New distributions added to database
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- Bio-Linux. Bio-Linux is a full-featured, powerful, configurable and easy-to-maintain bioinformatics workstation. Bio-Linux provides more than 500 bioinformatics programs on an Ubuntu Linux base. There is a graphical menu for bioinformatics programs, as well as easy access to the Bio-Linux bioinformatics documentation system and sample data useful for testing programs.
- Firefly Linux. Firefly Linux is a brand new Linux distribution designed especially for netbooks and older PCs. Based on Arch Linux, Firefly is inherently small, fast, and customisable. It runs on all types of x86 hardware, with built-in WiFi support for netbooks, laptops, and PCs with Atheros WiFi chipsets.
- flexxxpup. The flexxxpup project develops a modular operating system based on Puppy Linux.
- Kongoni. Kongoni is a new Slackware-based desktop Linux distribution and live CD. Its main features include: a graphical installer, a Kongoni Integrated Setup System (KISS) - an easy-to-use tool for doing common system configuration tasks and Ports Installation GUI (PIG) - an easy-to-use tool for installing and managing programs.
Kongoni 1.12.2 - a new Slackware-based desktop distribution featuring KDE 4 with an African theme
(full image size: 1,810kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
- Linux4One. Linux4One is a beginner-friendly distribution designed for the Acer Aspire One netbook. It is based on Ubuntu.
- moonOS. moonOS is a complete and fully functional operating system based on Ubuntu and featuring LXDE and Enlightenment 17. The distribution is designed and developed by a Cambodian artist, Chanrithy Thim.
moonOS 2 - Ubuntu with Enlightenment 17
(full image size: 1,026kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
- pupitup. The pupitup distribution is a music studio based on Puppy Linux and tuned for the Acer Aspire One netbook.
- Ubuntu extras remix. Ubuntu extras remix is the latest Ubuntu with restricted extras (Flash player, Java, multimedia codecs, additional fonts, unrar) and official updates.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 2 March 2009.
Chris Smart
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Issue 984 (2022-09-05): deepin 23 Preview, watching for changing to directories, Mint team tests Steam Deck, Devuan posts fix for repository key expiry |
| • Issue 983 (2022-08-29): Qubes OS 4.1.1, Alchg Linux, immutable operating systems, Debian considers stance on non-free firmware, Arch-based projects suffer boot issue |
| • Issue 982 (2022-08-22): Peropesis 1.6.2, KaOS strips out Python 2 and PulseAudio, deepin becomes independent, getting security update notifications |
| • Issue 981 (2022-08-15): Linux Lite 6.0, defining desktop environments and window managers, Mint releases upgrade tool, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 980 (2022-08-08): Linux Mint 21, Pledge on Linux, SparkyLinux updates classic desktop packages, Peppermint OS experiments with Devuan base |
| • Issue 979 (2022-08-01): KaOS 2022.06 and KDE Plasma 5.25, terminating processes after a set time, GNOME plans Secure Boot check |
| • Issue 978 (2022-07-25): EndeavourOS 22.6, Slax explores a return to Slackware, Ubuntu certified with Dell's XPS 13, Linux running on Apple's M2 |
| • Issue 977 (2022-07-18): EasyOS 4.2, transferring desktop themes between distros, Tails publishes list of updates, Zevenet automates Let's Encrypt renewals |
| • Issue 976 (2022-07-11): NixOS 22.05, making a fake webcam, exploring the Linux scheduler, Debian publishes updated media |
| • Issue 975 (2022-07-04): Murena One running /e/OS, where are all the openSUSE distributions, Fedora to offer unfiltered Flathub access |
| • Issue 974 (2022-06-27): AlmaLinux 9.0, the changing data of DistroWatch's database, UBports on the Pixel 3a, Tails and GhostBSD publish hot fixes |
| • Issue 973 (2022-06-20): openSUSE 15.4, collecting distro media, FreeBSD status report, Ubuntu Core with optional real-time kernel |
| • Issue 972 (2022-06-13): Rolling Rhino Remix, SambaBox 4.1, SUSE team considers future of SUSE and openSUSE Leap, Tails improves Tor Connection Assistant |
| • Issue 971 (2022-06-06): ChimeraOS 2022.01.03, Lilidog 22.04, NixOS gains graphical installer, Mint replaces Bluetooth stack and adopts Timeshift, how to change a MAC address |
| • Issue 970 (2022-05-30): Tails 5.0, taking apart a Linux distro, Ubuntu users seeing processes terminated, Budgie team plans future of their desktop |
| • Issue 969 (2022-05-23): Fedora 36, a return to Unity, Canonical seeks to improve gaming on Ubuntu, HP plans to ship laptops with Pop!_OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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ReactOS is a free and open-source operating system based on the best design principles found in the Windows NT architecture. Written completely from scratch, ReactOS is not a Linux-based system and it shares none of the UNIX architecture. The main goal of the ReactOS project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows. This will allow Windows applications and drivers to run as they would on a Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows would find using ReactOS straightforward. The ultimate goal of ReactOS is to allow people to use it as an alternative to Windows without the need to change software they are used to.
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