 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 311, 13 July 2009 |
|
Welcome to the 28th issue of DistroWatch Weekly for 2009!
In the news this week, Slackware finally adopts ARMedslack as the
official port for the project, while Ubuntu founder Shuttleworth talks
about Karmic Koala, the release scheduled for October this year. We also
link to an interview with Jono Bacon, the project's Community Manager. Our
feature this week takes a nostalgic look back at some great Linux
distributions that failed to survive. Elsewhere in the free software world, Google has announced their own
Linux based operating system for netbooks and the BSD Magazine survives
some tough times to continue printing. Have a great Monday and the rest of the week!
Content:
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
|
| Feature Story (by Caitlyn Martin) |
Gone But Not Forgotten: Five Great Linux Distributions That Did Not Survive
If you looked at DistroWatch for a typical day five or six years ago you'd see a
lot of familiar Linux distributions with announcements. You also would likely
see some names that would be unfamiliar if you are relatively new to Linux.
Currently the DistroWatch database contains 278
discontinued
distributions and 36 more that are listed as
dormant. Of these
314 distributions and countless others that never were listed on DistroWatch at
all there are many which are probably best forgotten. There are others which
were promising but for one reason or another were abandoned. A smaller number
were truly exceptional but still failed to survive. This week I decided to wax
nostalgic and look at five that seemed special to me at one time or
another. Obviously this list is based on my personal experience. If
you've been around Linux for a long time you might have a list of your own.
1. Caldera OpenLinux
Caldera OpenLinux (originally Caldera Network Desktop) was launched in 1994 by
former Novell employees after the company decided to jettison their Corsair
desktop project. Version 1.0 was released the following year. By the late 1990s
Caldera was considered one of the premier Linux distributions. The following is
from an obituary for the distro
Ladislav wrote for LWN.net in 2003: "Four years ago, Caldera
produced one of the best Linux distributions of all times, gained a respectable
market share and established vast international presence. [...] Caldera
OpenLinux 2.3 [released] in August 1999 [...] made a substantial impact on the
Linux market by introducing Lizard. Caldera's Lizard was the first graphical
installer ever deployed by a Linux distribution. The OpenLinux 2.3 and especially
OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 releases were well received by Linux fans."
Caldera OpenLinux also included COAS, one of the first and, at the time,
undoubtedly the best integrated graphical configuration and administration tool.
OpenLinux also had a polished KDE desktop at a time when many popular
distributions still had a lot of rough edges. The WikiPedia article on the distro
makes clear how important Caldera OpenLinux was to the development of the current
Linux desktop: "OpenLinux was not a Microsoft killer, but it
showed the Linux community what would be required to create a mainstream desktop
OS out of the Linux kernel. In many ways the last 10 years of desktop progress has
been to successfully implement what Caldera was attempting to do with the tools
they had available. [...] They had a powerful low bug (by Linux standards)
distribution that worked well on a wide range of hardware."
Caldera OpenLinux was the third distribution I tried after
Red Hat and Slackware. It was as
powerful as the others but remarkably easy to use and easy to teach to Linux
newcomers. When I first started doing Linux based freelance work in 1999 my
distribution of choice was Caldera OpenLinux. It was that good.
While OpenLinux was succeeding in terms of popularity in the Linux community it
was failing miserably as a business. A number of different business models
attempted to bring revenue to Caldera, none of which proved successful. In 2001
Caldera announced it was moving to per-seat licensing for the distribution. While
the basic desktop version of OpenLinux 3.1 remained freely downloadable for
non-commercial use the new license still drew very harsh criticism. Richard
Stallman's take on it was: "Licensing per seat perverts the
GNU/Linux system into something that respects your freedom as much as
Windows."
Caldera OpenLinux 3.1.1, released 30 January 2002
(full image size: 203kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Most of you who have been around Linux for a while probably know what happened
after that. Caldera acquired DR-DOS from Novell and sued Microsoft, eventually
collecting a huge settlement. The proceeds were used, in part, to buy SCO (then
a successful UNIX company) and to hire new management. The lesson learned from
the DR-DOS case was that it was likely to be far more profitable to engage in
litigation than produce a Linux distribution. SCO Linux, the
successor to Caldera, was discontinued in 2003. Ladislav's
announcement at the time
reflected the anger and disgust felt by most of the Linux community.
Considering all that has happened with SCO it would be easy to simply say "good
riddance to bad rubbish". For those of us who remember what Caldera contributed
to Linux desktop development before things went so horribly wrong it isn't quite
that simple. The developers who made Caldera OpenLinux a leading distribution in
the late 1990s had nothing to do with the management who eventually destroyed the
distro and ultimately the company as well.
2. Storm Linux
At the same time Caldera OpenLinux was at the peak of its popularity a Vancouver,
Canada based startup called Stormix Technologies introduced a new distribution
called Storm Linux. In the late 1990s
Debian GNU/Linux was already very well established but it had
a reputation for being difficult to install and use. Nearly five years before
Mark Shuttleworth launched Ubuntu, Storm Linux brought users
the first Debian based distro designed for ease of use on the desktop with
frequent regular releases. It also included a modular graphical system
administration tool, Storm Administration System or SAS.
Storm Linux was very well received by the Linux community. I received a copy of
Storm Linux 2000, based on Debian Potato, with one of the Linux magazines I
subscribed to. It was the first Debian based distribution which I tried and I
found that I liked it. Storm Linux should have succeeded then but, unlike
Ubuntu, it lacked adequate funding. Less that two years after Stormix
Technologies was launched the company was in
"reorganization", meaning
bankruptcy. Less than three months later all the remaining employees were laid
off and the distro was gone for good. The demise of Storm Linux was the very
first news item on DistroWatch.
3. TurboLinux Lite
Japanese distributor TurboLinux is very much alive today
with a commercial distribution designed for enterprise use. TurboLinux Lite, a
free version designed to be lightweight, was sadly rather short-lived. It was
introduced in the spring of 1999 with version 2.0.
By August, 1999 TurboLinux 4.0 sported a GNOME desktop. TurboLinux Lite used a
default desktop environment built on the
AfterStep window manager and offered
lighter applications as well. It was the first distribution I saw designed
specifically to be able to run on older or lower spec hardware. I found it to be
perfect for my older machines and yet it didn't lack features and was easy to use.
I was impressed. The distro may be long gone but the concept of light yet highly
functional has since been copied by a large number of distributions. Unfortunately
TurboLinux Lite didn't add to the company's bottom line and by 2000 it had been
discontinued.
4. Feather Linux
Feather Linux was a British mini live CD distribution based
on Knoppix. It split the difference between the full
featured Knoppix and the really tiny Damn Small Linux.
Feather Linux, as the name implies, was lightweight and ran well on older
hardware.
I became aware of Feather Linux in late 2003. By that time it was already
reasonably well established and had a fairly good following. The iso was still
under 50MB at the time, much like Damn Small Linux, but it quickly grew beyond
that, eventually reaching about 120MB by version 0.7.5. By not limiting the size
of the iso as severely as Damn Small Linux the Feather Linux developers were able
to offer somewhat larger and more powerful applications and a wider variety of
applications. They successfully did so without abandoning the goal of remaining
extremely lightweight. In 2005 I would have described Feather Linux as the most
usable and complete of the mini distros available at the time. The distro was
quite popular and had an active community around it.
Feather Linux 0.5.8, released 5 September 2004
(full image size: 73kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
In the spring of 2005 a change of lead developers was announced on the Feather
Linux forum. One release did follow and there was discussion of an upcoming
0.8.0 release later that year. Unfortunately it never materialized. Feather
Linux is still listed as "dormant" on DistroWatch but after four years without a
release it is probably discontinued.
5. AliXe
As it became clear that development on Feather Linux had all but ground to a halt
I moved on to Slackware-based live CD distros. I found these distros to be
superior performers on my older hardware. I was impressed by the design of
Slax but the KDE desktop was heavier than what I wanted. By
2006 Slax had spawned a number of derivative distributions. The two that
impressed me the most had Xfce and IceWM desktops, respectively, and could squeeze more performance
and more apps onto a small iso. The first was Wolvix Cub.
The second was AliXe.
AliXe 0.09 "ICE", released 20 November 2006
(full image size: 994kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
AliXe was a solo project by Canadian developer Sylvie Migneault (a/k/a Alisou)
with the goal of promoting Linux in the French speaking community in Québec. The
bilingual (English/French) distro went well beyond that goal. While the iso was
still relatively small (just under 330MB for version 0.11b, with an Xfce desktop) it
added the gcc compiler and developer tools not normally found in
lightweight desktop live CD distros. That, combined with the fact that I needed both
languages, made AliXe seem like the ideal live CD for me, as reflected by my
largely favorable
review.
Since version 0.11b was released in November, 2007 the developer has gone on to
work on other projects related to the EeePC, most notably ZenEee. AliXe is still
listed as active on DistroWatch but there have been no updates to the website and
no mention of any new version being developed even in Ms. Migneault's
Tuxee blog. The blog has also gone
silent in recent months. Hopefully Ms. Migneault is well and may decide to pick up AliXe
at some point in the future. As we approach two years without any activity I fear
the distro is dead.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly DistroWatch readers will remember other once impressive Linux
distributions which have been discontinued. As I noted at the outset this list is
rather personal to my experience and is by no means definitive. What is notable
about each of these five distributions is that they managed to break new ground in
some way. In most cases their innovations have been picked up by other distros
and advancements in the areas they championed continue.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Chris Smart) |
Slackware gets official ARM port, Ubuntu interviews with Shuttleworth and Bacon, BSD Magazine lives on, Google announces Chrome OS
 The project has been in the works for a while, but now it's official - Slackware has a port for the ARM processor. Writing on the project's website, Patrick Volkerding writes: "Slackware has a new official port for the ARM architecture, by the name of ARMedslack, which has recently released the port of Slackware version 12.2. ARMedslack began in 2002 by Stuart Winter, with the primary goal of providing a full Slackware port for ARM desktop machines - initially targeting the Acorn StrongARM RiscPC, and later embedded devices." The packages are compiled for armv4, little endian, old/legacy ABI, and will run on most ARM devices. A new port to the EABI (Embedded ABI) is underway, however: "Currently I'm building and upgrading the base packages in armedslack-12.2 to bootstrap the new port. I expect to open a new -current branch with this work in the next few months."
* * * * *
 The next release of Ubuntu is only three months away and according to founder Mark Shuttleworth, it will be a "definitive shift" in reference to the new kernel based mode-setting. He says: "There's some extraordinary work that's been done [on Koala], mostly pioneered by the Intel/Moblin team, the X team, and the kernel team (kernel mode setting), so I think that's going to be a definitive shift for us. I'm really hopeful we get that in." Fedora has moved to the new technology and has their Plymouth layer on top to provide a stunning boot up experience. Shuttleworth says Plymouth is just one option. He also hints at a new colour and graphical theme, but we've heard that before. Shuttleworth also comments on the relationship with Debian, saying: "It's very important to me that not only do we have a good relationship with Debian, but that Debian feels great about what we're doing. In a real sense, Debian is the epitome of free software collaboration and community, and Ubuntu has never been an attempt to detract from that." It looks like one of the world's most popular free operating systems will be getting a decent overhaul with Karmic Koala later in this year. Meanwhile, software company Coverity has been talking with Jono Bacon, Ubuntu's community manager, about the project's development method and open source in general.
* * * * *
 Due to low sales BSD Magazine was set to halt future publications, and put out a cry to the community to help advertise. It appears to have worked for now, and the editor has announced that the Magazine will live on thanks to a sudden increase in sales and visits to the website. She writes: "Thanks to you all, BSD magazine will be published! I don’t know how you did this, but he sales figures from stores, website visits, newsletter subscribers increased immediately – you are the best!! I hope it will stay like this and that BSD magazine will win the fight for staying in operation for a long time! We still need your help and support, so please spread the word about BSD mag :)" If you're a fan of BSD have you considered a subscription or contributing to this project? There are numerous magazines in public circulation for Linux and specific distros, but few are dedicated solely to BSD. It would be a shame to see such a useful resource go to waste, however in this day and age one has to wonder how long paper magazines will last in general.
* * * * *
In other news, it was revealed this past week that Google is moving into the operating system sphere with a new product called "Chrome OS". The operating system will be based around their web browser, Chrome, with a new graphical interface all running atop the Linux kernel: "The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel." It is aimed squarely at the netbook market (including both Intel and ARM processor based systems) and therefore for users "living on the net", however use on the desktop has not been ruled out. The system will be open sourced later this year with commercial products available in 2010. "The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be." While their Android platform is designed for mobile network devices, Chrome OS fills the gap one step up with netbooks. How this might affect the adoption of other Linux distributions in the market remains to be seen, however one this is certain - any improvements that Google makes to the Linux kernel benefits everyone. That's the beauty of free software!
|
| Released Last Week |
PC-BSD 7.1.1
The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of
PC-BSD 7.1.1, a desktop operating system based on FreeBSD 7.2:
"Version 7.1.1 contains a number of bugfixes and
improvements from PC-BSD 7.1, including KDE 4.2.4, improvements to
printing support, Xorg Server 1.6.1, and much more. For a full list of
changes, please refer to the changelog. Users who wish to upgrade from
PC-BSD 7.0.x / 7.1 are able to do so via the upgrade / repair option
during the installation. Software specs: FreeBSD 7.2-Stable, KDE 4.2.4,
Xorg 7.4, Nvidia driver 185.18.14, Nvidia driver 173.14.18, Nvidia
driver 96.43.11, Nvidia driver 71.86.11." Read the
press release,
release notes and
changelog for
more details.
Sabayon Linux 4.2 "KDE"
The "KDE" edition of Sabayon Linux 4.2
"KDE" edition, a Gentoo-based desktop distribution and live DVD, is
ready for download: "On the behalf of the Sabayon
Linux team, we are happy to announce the immediate availability of
Sabayon Linux 4.2 KDE. Distribution features: based on Sabayon 4.1 KDE,
containing hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements; halved
hard disk footprint, less than 2GB ISO image; custom Linux kernel
2.6.29; ext4 as default filesystem; complete KDE 4.2.4 flavour;
OpenOffice 3.1; Compiz and Compiz Fusion 0.8.4; X.Org 7.4 supporting AMD
and NVIDIA latest video cards; multimedia applications (audio, video,
dvd ripping, file sharing)..." Find more
information in the detailed
press
release.
CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01
CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01, an Ubuntu-based
distribution featuring the lightweight Openbox window manager, is now
available: "After a slight delay and a prolonged
testing period, the final builds of CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01 are now
available. As the version number suggests, it is based on Ubuntu Jaunty
Jackalope. As with all previous releases, 9.04.01 has been built from
scratch using the Ubuntu MinimalCD. The builds were completed on the
6th July 2009 and contain all security and package updates available at
that time. For the first time, CrunchBang Linux is available to download
in both 32 and 64-bit builds. Other noticeable changes as a result of
moving to the latest stable Ubuntu release include: much improved boot
performance with faster start-up times; improved support for wireless
cards; ext4 filesystem support." See the
release
announcement for further details.
Kongoni GNU/Linux 1.12.2
A. J. Venter has announced the availability of Kongoni
GNU/Linux 1.12.2, a free African GNU/Linux distribution based on
Slackware with significant inspiration from the BSD architectures:
"It is my pleasure to announce that Kongoni version
1.12.2, code-named Nietzsche, has been officially released. This marks
the first official and stable release of the Kongoni GNU/Linux
distribution after several development releases. The most significant
Kongoni feature is its source-based software installation system (known
as a ports tree), a feature that originated in the BSD UNIX world and
remains a popular power-users tool on present-day BSD UNIXes, Apple's
Mac OS X and source based GNU/Linux distributions. Kongoni, however, is
not a source-based distribution. The distribution itself is shipped as
binaries which work out of the box. The ports tree is used only for
installing additional software." Read the rest of the
release
announcement for more details.
ClarkConnect 5.0
Point Clark Networks announced the availability of the community edition
of ClarkConnect 5.0, a specialist CentOS-based
distribution for routers, gateways and firewalls:
"Highlights include: upgrade to CentOS 5.x; complete
LDAP integration; protocol filtering; improved bandwidth management;
mail quarantine; improved Windows integration (roaming profiles, recycle
bin support, file auditing). Version 5.x supports upgrades from
ClarkConnect 4.x and later. Upgrades from earlier versions are not
supported. When you run the ClarkConnect installer, make sure you select
the upgrade option. The 5.0 release is a major operating system upgrade,
so it is not possible to perform the upgrade on a live system. In
addition, users who have installed third party software packages or used
the command-line apt-get tool to install software should also run the
following command: yum upgrade. Known Issues: blank screens on first
boot with some types of hardware; localization is incomplete."
Read the detailed
release
notes and the changelog
for more information.
Parted Magic 4.3
Patrick Verner announced the release of Parted
Magic 4.3, a bug fix release of the popular live CD designed for
hard disk management tasks: "Not only did some bugs
get fixed, but a few new programs were added too. chntpw, nilfs-utils
2.0.12, gdisk 0.2.2, Adblock Plus 1.0.2 are now part of Parted Magic's
program line-up. These programs have been updated: udev 143, glib
2.20.4, GTK+ 2.16.4, e2fsprogs 1.41.7, Firefox 3.5, FireFTP 1.0.5,
Clonezilla 2.3.3-65, Linux kernel 2.6.30.1, p7zip_9.04, Partclone
0.1.1-15, NDISwrapper 1.55. We also took some time to redo the artwork.
Many thanks to Jason Vasquez for heading up this effort. I think it's
the best-looking version of Parted Magic yet!" Visit the project's
home page o read the full release
announcement.
SystemRescueCd 1.2.2
Fran¸ois Dupoux released an updated version of
SystemRescueCD a Gentoo-based live CD with a
collection of data rescue and hard disk partitioning tools. From the
changelog:
"Updated the standard kernels to Linux-2.6.29.6;
updated the alternative kernels to Linux-2.6.27.25; updated the
sysresccd-cleansys script with the new packages list; updated Aufs to
git-20090622 for Linux kernel 2.6.29 (standard kernels); updated
FSArchiver to 0.5.8 (file systems backup and deployment tool); updated
e2fsprogs to 1.41.7 (ext2, ext3, ext4 file system tools); added
mtd-utils 20080907 (contains the tools related to ubifs); added
macchanger 1.5.0 (change the mac address of an interface); updated
NTFS-3G to version 2009.4.4-AR12 (NTFS-3G advanced release); PXE boot
fix: allow thttpd to send files with the execution permission; added
mdadm support in the initial boot process."
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
- FreeBSD FreeBSD 8.0-BETA1, the release announcement
- Frugalware Linux 1.1 Pre 2, the release announcement
- Tiny Core 2.2-rc1, the release announcement
- Calculate Linux Desktop 9.7 XFCE, the release announcement
- MoLinux 5.0, La Versio´n Educativa, the release announcement
- Pardus Linux 2009 RC2, the release announcement
- Elive 1.9.33, the release announcement
- wattOS 1.0 Beta 3, the release announcement
- GeeXboX 1.2.3, the release announcement
- IP Cop 1.9.6
- Astaro Security Gateway 7.470
- Vine Linux 5.0-beta1
- Momonga Linux 6-beta1
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Element GNU/Linux.
Element GNU/Linux is a specialist distribution based on Ubuntu for
media-center personal computers, designed to be connected to your HDTV
for a digital media and internet experience within the comforts of your
own living room or entertainment area.
- 8ix Zenith CE.
8ix Zenith CE is a specialist distribution based on Asterisk for IP
telephony applications with a rolling release schedule.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 20 July 2009.
Caitlyn Martin and 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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