 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.
* * * * *
 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 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Storm Linux
Storm Linux was a Debian-based distribution aimed at server and desktop markets, produced by Stormix Technologies. The company was founded in February 1999 in Vancouver, Canada with the goal of providing tools that Linux needed to compete against Windows NT. It closed in April 2001 after failing to attract capital for continued operation.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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